Spar

Losing is frustrating the Pittsburgh Penguins. Now, they're picking fights. Star center Mario Lemieux was among the Penguins fighting at the final buzzer of the Ottawa Senators' 3-2 victory last night in Kanata, Ontario. Alexei Yashin and Alexandre Daigle scored in the third period as the Senators overcame a 2-0 deficit. The Penguins fell to 0-3. Pittsburgh's Dave Roche slammed Senators forward Daniel Alfredsson to the ice with a blindside punch to the back of the head after the final buzzer sounded, and an enraged Lemieux hit Ottawa's Radek Bonk.

They sparred, preached, gibed and leveled accusations. But no one landed a knockout blow in the second televised appearance - airing today - of the three candidates running for city controller. Republican M. Joseph Rocks said his Democratic opponent, Jonathan A. Saidel, couldn't do the job of controller because he would be part of the party in power - one of the "in's watching the in's. " Saidel accused Rocks and Consumer Party candidate Max Weiner of not taking "the time to find out what the job of city controller is all about.

Rep. John Adler (D., N.J.) and his Republican challenger Jon Runyan sparred over immigration, the war in Afghanistan, term limits and the proper role of the federal government today in the first general-election debate in one of the most competitive House races in the nation. The debate on WPHT 1210 The Big Talker was hosted by Michael Smerconish, who alternated questions between the two candidates. The two agreed on several issues but also sharply accused each other of political expediency.

A border skirmish has broken out between Yeadon Borough and Upper Darby Township, and Philadelphia Electric Co. is caught in the middle. The problem is that Upper Darby recently approved a subdivision for a 10- acre property owned by PECO, but the only access to the development is through the Yeadon Industrial Park. Yeadon officials say they are angry because they were never notified by PECO or Upper Darby about the eight-lot subdivision. "We were a little annoyed at the lack of communications," Yeadon borough manager Daniel Fox said Monday, "since this parcel borders Yeadon and it's going to impact upon Yeadon.

Lawyers for the city and Toll Bros., the owner of the U.S. Naval Home, blamed each other yesterday in a Philadelphia court for delays in repairing the fire-ravaged historic facility at 24th Street and Grays Ferry Avenue. Andrew Ross, senior attorney for the city Law Department, said Toll had failed to provide various engineering reports to the city, as promised, and had not secured all three buildings on the 20-acre site. John McDonald, a Toll Bros. attorney, accused the city of "gamesmanship" and said city officials did not believe that "there is a serious commitment and a serious will at Toll Bros.

U.S. Rep. John Adler (D., N.J.) and his Republican challenger, Jon Runyan, sparred over immigration, the war in Afghanistan, term limits, and the proper role of the federal government Wednesday during the first general-election debate in one of the nation's marquee House races. Adler, a longtime state senator from Cherry Hill, was swept into office in 2008 - the first Democrat in generations to represent the Third District of New Jersey. Runyan, a former Eagles offensive lineman making his first run for political office, hopes to return the district to the GOP amid what polls say is anxiety over the country's direction.

In the Third Congressional District's bitter Republican primary, Burlington County's Chris Myers yesterday called Ocean County's Jack Kelly "self-serving" and "unethical" for taking paychecks and benefits from his dual jobs as a freeholder and an Atlantic City airport employee. Myers alleged that the airport job "clearly was made for him, and there's not a lot of evidence he did anything in the job. " But Kelly said he had worked for his money and his benefits - sometimes 18 hours a day when the airport was snowed in. He added that Myers made a lot more money off taxpayers as an executive at Lockheed Martin, a government defense contractor.

Mean-spirited attack by Sestak It offended me to hear Joe Sestak attack Pat Toomey's decision to educate his children in parochial schools ("Toomey, Sestak spar on issues," Oct. 21). To his credit, Toomey prefaced his remarks concerning public education by saying his children attended a parochial school. Sestak's rebuttal opened with a salvo against such a choice as an example of Toomey's "privilege. " Sestak himself enjoyed the benefits of such privilege, a fact he is more than eager to throw out there when it suits, and just as eager to discard when he is presented with the opportunity to attack an opponent.

As one of the top amateur boxers in the United States, Nicetown's Ivan "Mighty Mouse" Robinson has fought all over the world. The favorite to represent the United States in the Barcelona Olympics in the 125-pound division, Robinson can talk at length about all the exotic places he's fought, but he admits to being a little weak on American geography. "This is an Olympic year," Robinson said after scoring a 5-0 quarterfinal victory over Kenneth Friday last night at the Centrum. "You're going to have guys come out of little towns you never heard of. I never heard of Worcester, Mass.

Charles V. Stoelker Jr., 65, a former counsel to the Delaware River Port Authority and a nimble-witted man who loved to spar over social issues, died Thursday at his home in Gladwyne. Mr. Stoelker joined with Philadelphia Republican leader William A. Meehan to found a law firm in 1951. Mr. Stoelker specialized in corporate eminent- domain matters, primarily representing people whose properties had been condemned. But as counsel to the port authority from 1967 to 1970, he played a key role in acquiring properties needed for the Commodore Barry and Betsy Ross Bridges, and helping to relocate the homeowners.

Four of the five men seeking the Republican nomination to challenge U.S. Sen. Bob Casey (D., Pa.) in the November general election clashed last night about their conservative credentials. It was a fight egged on by the state Democratic Party, which issued a news release before the debate at the Union League noting that candidates Steve Welch and Tom Smith are former Democrats. That matters in a Republican primary because both men are fighting for the role of front-runner.

UNITED NATIONS - The United States and Russia clashed over Syria at the United Nations on Monday after Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon urged the divided Security Council to speak with one voice and help the Mideast nation "pull back from the brink of a deeper catastrophe. " Washington and Moscow both called for an end to the bloody yearlong conflict - but on different terms, leaving in doubt prospects of breaking a deadlock in the council over a new resolution. U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton rejected any equivalence between the "premeditated murders" carried out by President Bashar al-Assad's "military machine" and the civilians under siege driven to self-defense.

GRAND JUNCTION, Colo. - Sensing a possible threat, Mitt Romney criticized Rick Santorum's time in the Senate as "not effective" because of his past support for spending on pork-barrel projects, as the former Massachusetts governor worked to fend off an unexpected challenge in the next states to vote. Santorum countered that Romney, the front-runner in the GOP presidential race, "should not be our nominee" because he was "dead wrong on the most important issue of the day" when, as governor of Massachusetts, he signed a health-care overhaul into law. The two sparred from afar a day ahead of Tuesday's Republican nominating caucuses in Colorado and Minnesota, the latest contests in what has become almost a plodding race for the GOP nomination compared with last month's rapid-fire campaign.

MANCHESTER, N.H. - Trading accusations of greed, Mitt Romney and Newt Gingrich challenged each other Monday to return millions made in private business as the race for the GOP presidential nomination turned increasingly acerbic and personal at the start of a three-week sprint to the Iowa caucuses. Far from Iowa, the two men campaigned miles apart in next-up New Hampshire, where Romney has long dominated in polls but where Gingrich is aggressively working to make inroads. Romney called on Gingrich to return the estimated $1.6 million he received for providing strategic advice to Freddie Mac, the quasigovernment agency that guarantees home mortgages.

SEVENTEEN DAYS after the arrest of former Penn State defensive coordinator Jerry Sandusky on multiple counts of child sexual-abuse and related charges cast a dark shadow over the university, its football program and the Nittany Lions' revered and now-former coach, another storm cloud arose with yesterday's publication of a Wall Street Journal article alleging a double standard that favored football players regarding on- and off-campus discipline....

Mayor Nutter and his Republican opponent, former schoolteacher Karen Brown, sparred heatedly for an hour Tuesday over crime, the public schools, and the city's economy, in the first and likely last debate of the mayoral campaign. "Crime has taken over our city. We need to take it back," Brown said in her opening salvo, criticizing the mayor for not hiring more police officers and focusing police attention on Center City, not neighborhoods. "Flash mobs were nonexistent before you came along," Brown told the mayor at one point, typical of the tough, take-no-prisoners tone she maintained throughout the exchange, taped at Fox29 for broadcast at 10:30 p.m. Friday.

He called her "confused" and wrong on the facts. She called him a "true politician" using smooth talk to cover mistakes. Mayor Nutter and Karen Brown, the Republican nominee for mayor, traded those shots and many more yesterday in the only debate scheduled so far before the Nov. 8 general election. Thomas Drayton, a Fox29 news anchor, struggled at times to keep order as the two candidates clashed, interrupted answers and spoke over each other. Brown claimed that crime in the city is on the rise because Nutter approved just one Police Academy class during his first term.

WASHINGTON - Senate Republicans contended Tuesday that the new Consumer Financial Protection bureau had too much unfettered power and that President Obama's choice to head the agency should not be approved. Democrats at the same Senate Banking Committee confirmation hearing on Richard Cordray's nomination said the GOP was playing political games aimed at scuttling the bureau's ability to protect consumers who borrow money or make other financial transactions. "The misleading claim of no CFPB accountability - drummed up by special interests and put forth by a vocal minority - should be exposed for what it is: An attempt to destroy the bureau's ability to do its job of protecting American consumers," said Sen. Tim Johnson (D., S.D.)