Partners

WASHINGTON - The Defense Department is not extending some housing benefits to same-sex partners of service members even though it legally could because the complex issue requires more review and has triggered concerns among military leaders, senior Pentagon officials said Monday. A department memo detailed a number of other benefits that will be extended to same-sex partners, including identification cards that will provide access to commissaries and other services. But Pentagon officials said that while some housing payments and health benefits can't be included because of federal law, some access to base housing is not specifically prohibited and could be offered in the future.

Market East Associates L.P., one of six applicants for Philadelphia's second casino license, said Wednesday that Mohegan Sun will be a partner in and would operate its proposed Eighth and Market Streets gambling hall. The $500 million project, formerly known as Casino Philadelphia on its application to the state gaming board, is now Market8, said developer Ken Goldenberg, who assembled Market East Associates. "It will be a really exciting urban entertainment complex with a casino in its middle, its heart," he said Wednesday.

Bucks County-based BioClinica, Inc., which handles imaging and data collection from clinical trials for pharmaceutical companies, said Wednesday it agreed to be acquired by a New York-based private equity firm for $123 million. JLL Partners said in a statement that it will pay $7.25 per share, which is a 28.7 percent premium over the average price for the 52-week period that ended Tuesday. The 52-week price range over the same period was $4.60 to $6.59. BioClinica's all-time high was $9.82 on Nov. 15, 2007.

A childhood friend and business partner of Democratic State Rep. William F. Keller whose Philadelphia sporting goods shop sold campaign T-shirts, hats, and other products to local and national politicians was indicted Tuesday on federal charges that he underreported his business receipts and personal income by nearly $500,000 over four years. The U.S. Attorney's Office in Philadelphia also charged Mark C. Olkowski of North Wildwood with 15 counts of wire fraud, saying he allegedly collected $25,000 in improper unemployment benefits while receiving income from K & O Sporting Goods in South Philadelphia.

Question: For the last two years, I have been seeing a man I care about very much. We've had a tumultuous, on/off relationship due to some mistakes I made early on that he couldn't or wouldn't forgive. Now he says he is ready to give the relationship another shot, with this caveat: I cannot ever spend time with my best friend. He has met her only once, but never liked her due to a bad first impression and because I told him she participated in some illegal activities. While I don't agree with some of her choices, she has been a wonderful friend for my entire life and has cleaned up her act for the most part.

Imagine a particle 1/10,000 of a cross-section of a human hair. That's the size of a protein, way smaller than a cell. Bernardo Cordovez, 29, and his partners have come up with something they call a NanoTweezer that allows them to pick up and move that kind of teeny-tiny particle using a laser beam of light. There's been a lot of talk about trying to bring high-tech, high-potential businesses to Philadelphia, and the story behind how Cordovez's very small company, Optofluidics Inc., landed here provides an object lesson.

Question: A few months ago I purchased tickets to Lilongwe, Malawi, for church missionary work through a full-service travel agency. I had two sets of round-trip tickets: One from San Francisco to Cairo by way of Paris on Delta Air Lines and Air France/KLM and one from Cairo to Lilongwe by way of Nairobi on Kenya Airways. Kenya Airways, Delta, and Air France/KLM are all alliance partners. On my return trip, my Kenya Airways flight from Lilongwe arrived late in Nairobi and, even though my connecting flight to Cairo was still at the gate, I was not allowed to board.

TIANJIN, China - This port city of 13 million on the coast of northern China could really give an American mayor a serious case of investment envy. For Mayor Nutter, that feeling may have started the moment he boarded a bullet train in Beijing's Jetsons -style rail station for the 69-mile, 33-minute journey to Tianjin. Or maybe it was when his police escort here took him past some of the factories of 185 of the world's Fortune 500 companies, including GlaxoSmithKline. Or when he viewed a model of a master plan for an economic development zone rising from salt flats and equal in size to Center City and South Philadelphia combined.

City Councilman James Kenney is to introduce legislation Thursday that would give a tax credit to employers who provide health-care benefits to same-sex partners, saying his bill would make Philadelphia, already a popular city for gays and lesbians to live, even more so. "A lot of changes we are making will make Philadelphia more attractive to LGBT people and make them want to settle here," Kenney said. "They are good job creators, good taxpayers, and good employees. " His legislation also would guarantee partners of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people the right to visit their loved ones in hospitals and make medical decisions for them.

Virtua Health doctors will serve as medical directors at five MinuteClinic walk-in medical clinics in Burlington Camden, and Gloucester Counties, MinuteClinic, a division of CVS Caremark Corp. said. The move will expand Virtua's coverage of the three-county South Jersey region, where it already has a 32 percent market share, a Virtua official said this month on a conference call with investors. There will be signs in the MinuteClinics in Marlton, Mount Holly, Mount Laurel, Runnemede, and Sewell noting the clinical affiliation with Virtua.