Port Richmond

Even before the Philadelphia jury returned to the courtroom, Sheila Tepper seemed to know the news would be bad. "Oh, please, oh, please, oh, please," she said in a mantra punctuated by hyperventilated breaths while her husband, former Police Officer Frank Tepper, sat at the defense table a few feet away waiting for the verdict. Sheila Tepper's premonition was not wrong, and the courtroom erupted Thursday as she learned that her 45-year-old husband would spend the rest of his life in prison - the mandatory sentence after the jury found him guilty of first-degree murder for shooting a young Port Richmond neighbor after a 2009 melee outside the Teppers' house.

Two Port Richmond residents told a jury Tuesday about how a volatile mix of family and neighborhood dynamics, alcohol - and a gun - exploded and ended a street melee Nov. 21, 2009, leaving a 21-year-old dead and a veteran police officer charged with murder. In the middle of Elkhart Street stood Frank Tepper, a 16-year police officer pointing his own Smith & Wesson .357 semiautomatic pistol at a group of young men fighting some of his guests outside his rowhouse during his daughter's baby shower.

BACK IN 1978, Cub Scout Pack 266, of St. Dominic's Church, in the Northeast had a dream of going to Disney World to celebrate its 25th anniversary. The problem, as might be expected, was lack of money. But with the leadership of Walter Harry Lisowski and other Scout leaders, the pack spent a year collecting paper and cans and running various fundraising activities. The effort paid off. The Scouts managed to charter a plane and all of them went for free to the fabled entertainment park in Orlando, Fla. Walter Lisowski, whose favorite time of year was Christmas when he played Santa for children's parties, and a mechancial engineer whose jobs took him throughout Asia, the Middle East and the jungles of Africa, died Dec. 13 of complications of Alzheimer's disease.

WHAT HAPPENED to the homeless people who were evicted from under Interstate 95 in Port Richmond last week? The Daily News touched base with four of them yesterday. Three were staying in shelters last night, and a fourth has been living temporarily in Kensington. After going to Washington last Tuesday with Occupy Philly and Fight for Philly folks to rally for the extension of unemployment insurance, these four and others returned to Philadelphia on Friday. Paul Klemmer, 53, an educated man who said he had dropped out of college, said he's still working toward creating a commune with like-minded people.

What happened to the homeless people who were evicted from under Interstate 95 in Port Richmond last week? The Daily News touched base with four of them Monday. Three were staying in shelters Monday night, and a fourth has been living temporarily in Kensington. After going to Washington last Tuesday with Occupy Philly and Fight for Philly folks to rally for the extension of unemployment insurance, these four and others returned to Philadelphia Friday. Paul Klemmer, 53, an educated man who said he had dropped out of college, said he's still working toward creating a commune with like-minded people.

A charter school bus carrying 25 children was rear-ended by a car Monday afternoon in the city's Port Richmond section, but no students were hurt, officials said. The bus was transporting students from Maritime Academy Charter School when it was hit by a car about 4 p.m. in the 4100 block of Richmond Street, said School District spokeswoman Deirdre Darragh. The occupants of the car were initially reported with minor injuries but refused to be treated. Another bus took the children home.

AT LEAST ONE of three defendants will face trial in an attack on a Port Richmond coach who testified yesterday that he was chased into his home two months ago by a group of blacks and Hispanics after he sheltered two white teens in his house. The Sept. 9 attack on Mark LaVelle, who runs a youth soccer league, gained widespread attention after it was reported in the Daily News that the mob chasing LaVelle had called him a "white mother - - - - - - !" LaVelle, 37, didn't mention that racial insult in court yesterday at the preliminary hearing of Bergson Morin, 21, who was held for trial on aggravated assault, firearms charges and related offenses by Municipal Judge Jacquelyn Frazier-Lyde.