Subway

In Southern California, where he spent the last eight years, nobody suspected a thing about the pleasant, mustachioed sandwich shop owner named Michael Stainton. Or if they did, they aren't saying. He was simply the SUBMAN - as he called himself on the license plate of his car: He owned eight Subway sandwich shop franchises throughout the years, was married with two children, lived in a half-million-dollar house in a gated community in the town of Saugus. And so on Jan. 3, when federal marshals - acting on an anonymous phone call - spoiled the opening day of yet another Subway sandwich shop by busting Michael Stainton right there in front of the store on Old Road in Newhall, it came as a bit of a shock to his family and friends.

"Subway. " A New Wave fantasy starring Christopher Lambert and Isabelle Adjani. Directed by Luc Besson from a screenplay by Pierre Jolivet, Alain Le Henry, Sophie Schmit, Marc Perrier and Besson. Production design by Alexandre Trauner. Photographed by Carlo Varini. Edited by Schmit. Music by Eric Serra. Running time: 104 minutes. In French with English subtitles. An Island release. At the Ritz Five, 214 Walnut St. Luc Besson, France's reigning Golden Boy filmmaker, brings a moony, messy, love-struck quality to his movies.

James E. Oubre, 50, was killed yesterday when he jumped in front of an eastbound Market-Frankford subway train that was pulling into the 8th and Market streets station at 3:32 p.m., according to police. The line was shut down for 85 minutes, reopening at 4:57 p.m. SEPTA ferried Market-Frankford riders past the scene on shuttle buses.

This time, it turns out, the victim was SEPTA's subway system. At 1:45 p.m. yesterday, a 20-year-old woman told police that on Tuesday night she had been grabbed from behind while on the SEPTA subway platform under City Hall, dragged behind a pillar, and raped. By 6 p.m., she had recanted the whole thing. But in the intervening hours, a subway system that has been the site of three serious attacks since March 26 - including the death of a Starbucks manager who was beaten and kicked on the concourse at 13th and Market Streets - was under another cloud.

You know the spaghetti sauce commercial where the guy keeps saying, "It's in there"? That's the way I felt about "Subway to the Stars," a Brazilian film that opens today at the Roxy Screening Rooms. The movie starts off as a piece of conventional realism. We're introduced to Vinicius (Guilherme Fontes), a struggling musician who plays along with Charlie Parker records, and his girlfriend Eunice (Ana Beatriz Wiltgen), who works in a shop. But no sooner can you say "love story" than Eunice myseriously disappears and the cinematic equivalent of all heck breaks loose.

Police have arrested a 14-year old boy and charged him with groping assaults on four women on the Broad Street subway since May. The youth, not indentified because of his age, was taken into custody Friday, but police announced his arrest yesterday. The teenager has been charged with aggravated assault, unlawful restraint, false imprisonment, and four counts each of reckless endangerment, indecent assault, and simple assault. The attacks began on May 25 and all took place on subway platforms or stairwells.

Special Victims detectives are looking for a heavyset man who has groped four women in South Philadelphia subway corridors and who pushed his latest victim to the ground. Three of the assaults happened in the Tasker-Morris station on SEPTA's Broad Street Line, and one happened in the Ellsworth-Federal station. The attacks began in April and the latest was Wednesday. The victims, all lone women, ranged in age from 20 to 50, police said. In each case, the man grabbed the women over their clothes or tried to put his hand into their pants before fleeing up the stairs to the street level.

If you're going to the Phillies game on Sunday, take the subway if you want to avoid a potentially elephant-sized traffic jam. Starting at 9 a.m. Sunday, the north and southbound exit ramps to Broad Street from I-95 will be closed to all vehicles except Republican National Convention buses. The convention doesn't officially start until Monday, but there will be plenty of activity over the weekend at the First Union Center, the official RNC site, adjacent to Veteran's Stadium.

As the SEPTA subway train rocked forward, a thirty-something guy leaned over near the doorway and gently planted a kiss on the little boy at his side. When the train neared the Fairmount Avenue stop shortly after midnight on Thursday, the man reached out like an adoring parent and directed the 3- or 4-year-old tyke to an open seat. Then he flew into a monstrous rage. Without uttering a word, police said, the unidentified man whipped out a double-claw hammer and began bludgeoning a 20-year-old man who was dozing off in his seat.

Thousands of rush-hour commuters were forced to hoof it or board shuttle buses twice this morning when signal problems shut down almost three quarters of SEPTA's 10-mile-long Broad Street subway. According to SEPTA spokesman Jim Whitaker, the first time service was interrupted was at 6:10 a.m. when "dozen of signals up and down the line" went on the blink. Whitaker estimated that 70 percent of the line - in both directions - between Erie Avenue in North Philadelphia and Snyder Avenue in South Philadelphia was affected.

What: The 34th annual Independence Blue Cross Broad Street 10-mile run. Where: Starts at North Broad Street and West Fisher Avenue and finishes a quarter mile inside the gate at the Philadelphia Navy Yard at the end of South Broad Street. When: Starts at 8:30 a.m. Last year's winner, Henry Rutto of Kenya, crossed the finish line in 47 minutes, 5 seconds. But other runners will still be on the course for hours afterward. Weather forecast: AccuWeather. com predicts mostly sunny and pleasant, high of 71 degrees and low of 49. No chance of rain.

Higher labor and benefits costs are the biggest increases in SEPTA's proposed $1.32 billion operating budget. The budget released this week for fiscal 2014 assumes a $25 million increase in revenue from higher fares scheduled to take effect July 1, at the start of the new fiscal year. But the new income would be more than offset by a $38 million increase in costs, including $34 million more for labor and benefits, driven primarily by scheduled wage increases and higher health costs.

A man was struck and killed by a train Wednesday evening on the Broad Street Line in South Philadelphia, authorities said. The death occurred shortly before 7 p.m. at the Tasker-Morris Station, said a SEPTA spokeswoman. Video surveillance showed the man was stumbling on the northbound platform before and during the train's arrival. An initial police report described it as an apparent suicide. - Robert Moran  

A 64-YEAR-OLD man was struck and killed Wednesday night by a SEPTA subway train in South Philadelphia, police said. The incident occurred shortly before 7 p.m. at the Tasker-Morris station on the northbound side, police said. The man was pronounced dead at the scene. Police did not identify him. Surveillance video shows the man stumble on the platform before and as the train arrives at the station, but the video did not show how he was struck because a column blocked the camera.

Elevators for two PATCO train stations have been delayed by construction problems and the discovery of the remnants of an abandoned, century-old subway station during excavation work. The elevators were supposed to be ready for use by the end of 2012 at PATCO's Ninth-10th and Locust Street subway station in Center City and the elevated Ferry Avenue station in Camden. But the $5 million project has been slowed by permitting delays, supplier problems, utility conflicts, and, most important, the discovery of the old station under the Ninth and Locust site.

It's sorry for not puttin' a foot in your mouth Subway is apologizing that its "Footlong" sandwiches fell short of expectations. The world's largest fast-food chain faced widespread criticism last week after a man posted a photo online showing a "Footlong" next to a tape measure that showed the sandwich to be just 11 inches. Subway said Friday that it's redoubling efforts to "ensure consistency and correct length" in all its sandwiches. In a statement Friday, Subway expressed "regret" for "any instance where we did not fully deliver on our promise to our customers.

SUBWAY IS SUBPAR. That's at least according to a lawsuit filed Thursday by two New Jersey residents who say that the company's footlong sandwiches fail to measure up - literally. The New York Post reported Wednesday that the duo's attorney, Marlton-based Stephen DeNittis, tested 17 of the company's heralded hoagies and found that each one was less than a foot long. An earlier test conducted by Post reporters found that sandwiches purchased at Subway locations throughout New York City measured between 11 and 11 1/2inches.

Size matters. Two New Jersey men from Burlington and Ocean Counties sued Subway on Tuesday after they said the fast-food company shorted them on their "footlong" sandwiches. The company issued a statement of regret from its corporate headquarters in Milford, Conn., but would not comment directly about the lawsuit. "For 47 years, customer satisfaction has been our top priority. We regret any instance where we did not fully deliver on our promise to our customers," the company said.

The Arden Theatre's production of Endgame marks the first time this company - usually squarely in the province of narrative-driven plays and musicals - has taken on absurdist Samuel Beckett. So it's perhaps not all that surprising that director Edward Sobel attempts to impose a sort of contemporary narrative on Beckett's timeless apocalyptic vision; not surprising, but disappointing. In 1984, American Repertory Theater was famously made to add an insert to its Endgame program registering the playwright's disgust at director JoAnne Akalaitis' subway setting, incidental music, and interracial casting.

Size matters says two New Jersey men who sued Subway, the sandwich franchise that advertises "footlong" sandwiches. The two men - from Burlington and Ocean Counties - measured their footlongs after seeing allegations from others that the sandwiches are falling short. They sued on Tuesday following a national debate in the social media about the size of the footlongs. Subway issued a statement on Wednesday saying officials had not received a copy of the lawsuit and it does not comment on pending litigation.