Tarp

DENVER - The Phillies stormed the field like a MASH unit this afternoon at Coors Field. They had people to save. The Phillies, who haven't been able to protect themselves from injuries this season, helped members of the grounds crew trapped underneath the tarp during a rain delay in an 8-4 victory over the Colorado Rockies. Not only did the Phillies help them, they helped themselves. They entered the all-star break with a victory after a rough three weeks and returned to .500 at 44-44, 41/2 games behind the New York Mets in the National League East.

The federal bailout program known as TARP was a huge success, right? Or was TARP a colossal failure? The truth is a matter of perspective. Unfortunately, for families who either lost their homes or are still facing foreclosure in the aftermath of the recession, the truth hurts. Dreams of being rescued by the Troubled Asset Relief Program, which officially ended in October, never came true. What TARP did do is inject beaucoup money into the nation's largest financial institutions.

Some weeks - when the bargain I've discovered is extra special - preparing this column is pure joy. This is one of those occasions. TARP (Temple Association of Retired Professionals) is a gem of an adult education program tucked away at Temple University's Center City (TUCC) campus at 1616 Walnut St. It works like this: any retired person interested in learning pays TARP an annual fee of $85 and becomes eligible to sit in on ("audit") one undergraduate course per semester at TUCC.

What goes up must come down, though it may take a while. Such was the plight of the Tacony-Palmyra Bridge, which got stuck in the open position for three hours yesterday. The bridge malfunctioned during a test about 10 a.m. It was eventually fixed, then was shut last night for five days. Workers were to install a new beam, which is beneath the tarp.

My Aunt Florence was always a puzzlement to me. Back, decades ago, when I was laboring to get through high school and college, she would be traipsing off in the evenings to take night courses at Albany High School in languages and history and arts. And I would wonder, Why in the world is she taking all those courses when she doesn't have to? She did so when she was in her 50s and 60s and 70s and 80s. Last week at Temple University's Center City Campus, at 1616 Walnut Street, I saw a room full of Aunt Florences, eager to hear about the 60 courses offered by the Temple Association of Retired Professionals (TARP)

The Phillies stormed the field like an emergency team yesterday afternoon at Coors Field. They had people to save. The Phillies, who haven't been able to protect themselves from injuries this season, helped members of the grounds crew trapped underneath the tarp during a rain delay in an 8-4 victory over the Colorado Rockies. Not only did the Phillies help them, they helped themselves. They entered the all-star break with a victory after a rough three weeks and returned to .500 at 44-44, 4 1/2 games behind the New York Mets in the National League East.

A 30-year-old Bensalem man will stand trial in the slayings of two women whose nude, battered and bundled bodies were found on Bucks County roadsides within the last two years, a district judge ruled yesterday. William David Montgomery will be arraigned on Sept. 2 on two charges of first-degree murder, District Justice Leonard Brown ruled at the conclusion of a six-hour preliminary hearing in Bensalem Township. Montgomery is charged with the killings of Toshiko Ciaccio, 41, and Amy Moore, 25, and with related counts of defacing a corpse, robbery and theft.

New Years Resolutions: I resolve to be better. I resolve to learn how to appreciate South Philly. I resolve to step forward. I resolve to spread love. I resolve to be a complete daddy. I resolve to overcome whatever I may fear. . I resolve to stay sharp. I resolve to watch the Phillies, even if there's tarp. I resolve to be there when the Flyers get to May. I resolve to see the shore. I resolve to let God show me the way. I resolve to say Happy New Year to all of you. Charlie Gagliardi, Philadelphia

A man was struck and killed by a vehicle last night near 7th Street and Packer Avenue in South Philadelphia. The body of the victim, identified by a friend as Sam Yee, remained covered with a blue tarp about 11 p.m., more than two hours after he was hit by a car about 8:52 p.m. "He was a number-one guy," said Vu Vo, who said he worked with the victim at nearby Procacci Bros. Sales Corp. at Front Street and Packer Avenue. "He just did his job and went home. He's just a good guy. " Vo said he and Yee worked the 10 a.m.-to-7 p.m. shift at Procacci Bros.

Wicked winds, swirling rain, dangerous lightning and damaging hail ripped through Citizens Bank Park with two outs in the eighth inning Thursday, making life miserable for Mike Boekholder and his grounds crew. After umpire crew chief Gerry Davis signaled for play between the Cleveland Indians and Phillies to stop, Boekholder and the rest of the Phillies' grounds crew rushed onto the field as fans scrambled for the safety of the ballpark corridors. Boekholder said he had prepared for the worst by calling in extra help.

Ron "Boots" Nissenbaum 's industrial canvas-maker, Humphrys-CoverSports , at 5000 Paschall Ave. in Southwest Philly, counts Major League Baseball 's Reds , Twins , and Orioles as clients. But this winter the 65-employee company has won its biggest big-league order yet - to cover the Phillies field at Citizens Bank Park. The Phils have ordered a full-size infield tarp, with grommets and handles, made of web-reinforced white polyethylene, 175 feet on each side and big enough to cover a block of rowhouses.

WASHINGTON - A government watchdog says that U.S. taxpayers are still owed $132.9 billion that companies haven't repaid from the financial bailout, and that some of it will never be recovered. The bailout begun at the height of the financial crisis in September 2008 will continue for years, according to a report issued Thursday by Christy Romero, acting special inspector general for the $700 billion bailout. Some bailout programs, such as the effort to help homeowners avoid foreclosure by reducing mortgage payments, will last up to 2017, costing the government an additional $51 billion or so. The gyrating stock market has slowed the Treasury Department's efforts to sell off its stakes in 458 bailed-out companies, the report said.

On this first Tuesday after Thanksgiving, the nonprofit Green America wants holiday shoppers to devote their retail consumption to products that are planet friendly. The new "Green Tuesday" initiative has big aspirations - to be as trend-inspiring as Black Friday and its online-shopping cousin, Cyber Monday. Steven Costello would be content if it just meant a few orders for his Leaf Lugger. The Abington Township resident is a lawyer by trade, specializing in medical-malpractice defense for the firm Post & Schell P.C. But when he is not trying to persuade juries to see things his way, the 54-year-old father of two is answering another calling: to invent.

National Penn Bancshares Inc., Boyertown, said today that it is raising its dividend to 3 cents a share from a penny. The increase, payable Aug. 17 to shareholders on Aug. 6, comes nearly two years after the bank slashed the payout to 1 cent in the midst of the nation's financial meltdown and its receipt of federal bailout funds - known as TARP - to help it through the crisis. The bank repaid the TARP money on March 16, enabling it to raise the dividend. Before November 2009, the bank's dividend was 5 cents a share.

WASHINGTON - Seven months after legislation creating a $30 billion fund was enacted to encourage community banks to lend to small businesses, no money has gone out, and only about 20 percent of eligible institutions have applied for funding, according to a top lawmaker. "When can some of these banks receive the green light from you?" Senate Small Business Committee Chairwoman Mary Landrieu, a Louisiana Democrat, asked the Treasury Department at a hearing last week. "Several banks in Louisiana are excited about this opportunity.

The federal bailout program known as TARP was a huge success, right? Or was TARP a colossal failure? The truth is a matter of perspective. Unfortunately, for families who either lost their homes or are still facing foreclosure in the aftermath of the recession, the truth hurts. Dreams of being rescued by the Troubled Asset Relief Program, which officially ended in October, never came true. What TARP did do is inject beaucoup money into the nation's largest financial institutions.

It's great that the federal bank bailout program known as the Troubled Asset Relief Program will cost taxpayers much less than the $356 billion originally projected. At $25 billion, the cost is still large. But as the Congressional Oversight Panel said in its final report on the Treasury Department's implementation of TARP, what's unknown is how much the success of TARP in stabilizing the financial system may cost us in the future. Because the federal government showed its willingness in a crisis to rescue anything deemed "too big to fail.

Banks nationwide have repaid $168 billion of the $205 billion the federal government poured into them in 2008 and 2009 as part of the huge economic bailout effort. In the Philadelphia region, 19 banks took $1.5 billion. Four banks have repaid $811 million, but chief executives at a number of small banks said this week they were in no rush to redeem the investment that had allowed them to keep growing during the downturn at a relatively low cost. "Stock prices are still depressed, so why go out and dilute your stock when you don't have to?"

WASHINGTON - The wildly unpopular government rescue program credited by economists with preventing another Great Depression will go out of business Sunday, two years to the day after it was created. That's when the Troubled Asset Relief Program, known as the bank-bailout bill, loses authorization to make new expenditures. From that point forward, TARP will be in wind-down mode, although much of the money lent out already has been repaid - at a profit for taxpayers. Originally envisioned as a blank check for the government to spend as much as $700 billion to rescue the financial system when it was dangerously close to collapsing in 2008, the actual cost to taxpayers is estimated now to be much less than that.

Read the latest regulatory filing from Lincoln National Corp. too quickly and you might think the senior management is getting a pay cut. The compensation committee of the board of Lincoln National met Aug. 11 to "restructure" the compensation of Dennis R. Glass , its chief executive officer, and three other executives. Indeed, the committee reduced cash salaries for the four men by a total of $446,187 as of Saturday, according to a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission . Glass' base salary was trimmed to $1,025,000 from $1,150,000.