Port Richmond

A cabdriver has been arrested and charged in a hit-and-run accident that left man critically injured in Port Richmond on March 24. Arwinder Bagga, 39, of Collingdale, was released early today after posting 10 percent of $50,000 bail. He has been charged with an accident involving death or injury. The pedestrian reportedly is still recovering from injuries suffered when he was hit on the 3300 block of Aramingo Avenue, near the Aramingo Diner in the early morning hours. Police said investigators examined three City Cab cars with front-end damage consistent with that reported in the hit-and-run and narrowed their search down to Bagga with the help of GPS records.

A 28-year-old woman with a gunshot wound to the head was among three people shot Wednesday afternoon in the city's Port Richmond section, police said. Police were called at 3:52 p.m. to the area of Weikel and Ann Streets where gunfire was reported. Police found the woman and transported her to Temple University Hospital. She was initially reported in critical condition, but later was upgraded to stable condition. A 19-year-old man with a gunshot wound to his left calf was dropped off by a private automobile to Episcopal Hospital and was reported in stable condition.

NO BULLETS were flying yesterday afternoon to spark a raucous community meeting like the one held two weeks ago at a Port Richmond tavern, but about 40 neighbors stuck to their guns and met again last night over neighborhood crime. At the Cornerstone Community Church, at Frankford and Allegheny avenues, the group, unofficially named the Port Richmond West Community Action Network, held its first official meeting, including speakers from Philly3-1-1, CeaseFirePA, Town Watch Integrated Services, and the Police and Fire departments.

As workers boarded up the Port Richmond home that was scorched in a fire Tuesday, neighbors mourned the loss of a 3-year-old boy who died yesterday of injuries he suffered in the blaze. Nicholas Budzilo died at St. Christopher's Hospital for Children, the same hospital where his brothers Christopher, 5, and Jake, 1, were still listed in critical condition last night, a hospital spokeswoman said. "It's horrible, I can't even imagine it," said neighbor James Sampson. The fire started in a second-floor bedroom just after 2 p.m. Tuesday and ripped through the house, fire officials said.

REGINA M. Donnelly, a kindhearted and caring woman who delighted in lavishing gifts upon her scores of nieces and nephews, died Sunday of natural causes. The Port Richmond native was 88. "She was everybody's Aunt Jeannie, even if you weren't related by blood or marriage," said a niece, Mary Lee Dougherty. "Aunt Jeannie made everybody she liked a niece or nephew. " And she liked most everybody she met. "A nice guy was called an 'Ace.' A nice gal was called a 'Doll.' She liked her Aces to be sharp dressers, and her Dolls smartly attired," said Dougherty.

Beth Kephart is the author of 14 books, and "Handling the Truth," a book about the making of memoir, is due out in August I take the Blue Route south and I-95 north. The day is gray and bitter, the lanes too aggressively pocked. Beyond me the Delaware River crawls, heavy with the exhaust of bedlam truckers and implacable with its reminisce of pirates, oil tanks, and whale bones. At the Allegheny/Castor Avenues exit I veer right, then left toward the heart of Port Richmond. This was collier country once - home to coal traders, but also shipbuilders, cargo holders, and dockhands.

About 30 residents of the city's Port Richmond section were evacuated from their homes early today, a day after a small amount of a foul-smelling chemical accidentally spilled at a chemical-plastics company. A 3,000-gallon holding tank was being cleaned yesterday when one to three gallons of the chemical, ethyl acrylate, spilled from the bottom of the tank and onto the floor at the Walsh Chemical Corp., according to a company executive. Although the spill occurred yesterday, the odor intensified this morning, prompting the evacuation.

A 19-year-old man was in stable condition after he was hit by an NJ Transit train Wednesday evening in Port Richmond, police said. The man was hit about 6:30 p.m. on a railroad trestle above Aramingo Avenue near Wheatsheaf Lane, police said. He suffered cuts and a possible broken leg, and was taken to Hahnemann University Hospital in stable condition, police said. It was unclear why the man was near the train tracks. - Staff report

A 55-year-old woman was robbed of $20,000 while she tried to make a night deposit at a Port Richmond bank Friday, police said. The robbery occurred about 9:10 p.m. at the Beneficial Bank branch at 2514 Aramingo Ave., Officer Tanya Little said. An unidentified man came up from behind the woman and grabbed her deposit bag, Little said. He was last seen getting into a dark-colored Chevrolet Suburban. - Robert Moran