Time Bomb

A former convict described as a "walking time bomb" was arrested Tuesday and charged with spraying bullets in a West Chester neighborhood last week, killing a 23-year-old Philadelphia man. James J.E. Potts Jr., 28, should have been in a Philadelphia halfway house when the gunfire erupted at 2 a.m. Friday, officials said. He has been charged with fatally shooting Towayne Uqdah at the corner of Chestnut and North Matlack Streets, Chester County District Attorney Tom Hogan said in a statement.

The most astonishing thing about the Cuban prisoners' rioting and taking of hostages in Atlanta and Oakdale, La., is that something of this magnitude did not happen sooner. There are 7,600 veterans of the 1980 Mariel boatlift in federal detention camps and prisons, half of whom already have completed sentences for the crimes that got them locked up in the first place. They are "excludable aliens," people who never should have come to this country and who are marking time behind bars until the government figures a way to ship them back.

A 10-year-old boy wearing a Bart Simpson T-shirt has been arrested on suspicion of planting a homemade time bomb - which he said he learned to make while watching television - in a restroom at his school. The bomb - constructed from two model rocket engines, two batteries and a digital timer - was safely detonated six minutes before it was set to go off at 11:30 a.m. yesterday, said sheriff's Sgt. Bobby Denham. The 800 students and teachers at Del Sur School near Lancaster, a high desert city north of Los Angeles, were evacuated for 75 minutes while a bomb squad exploded the device.

The police chief of Norristown wanted to fire Claude Lacombe, an officer with a reputation for arrogance and aggression. "A ticking time bomb," former Chief Thomas Stone says now. "There was a whole list of things that said to anyone with any grain of sense, 'You've got to get rid of this person.' " The town finally did fire Lacombe - after he forced a woman he stopped while on patrol to have oral sex. He ended up going to prison, and the borough was forced to pay $372,000 to his alleged victims.

An ex-convict described as a "walking time bomb" was arrested this morning and charged with spraying bullets in a West Chester neighborhood last week, killing a 23-year-old Philadelphia man, authorities said this afternoon. James J.E. Potts Jr., 28, should have been in a Philadelphia halfway house when the gunfire erupted at 2 a.m. Friday, officials said. He is now charged with fatally shooting Towayne Uqdah at the corner of Chestnut Street and North Matlack Street, Chester County District Attorney Tom Hogan said in a statement.

I hope that if he reads this, Ronald Kaufman's feelings aren't hurt. But the fact is, his name hasn't crossed my mind in almost 15 years. It was that long ago when Kaufman sent me a letter announcing in a self- important tone that he had planted time bombs in safe deposit boxes of banks. He wasn't kidding. He had indeed planted bombs in banks all over America and one of them had exploded, although it injured no one. The letter also gave Kaufman's reasons for planting the bombs.

The prosecutor called the 17-year-old North Philadelphia boy "a walking, ticking time bomb. " Richard Mitchell, who turns 18 in April, has "an explosive temper," said Assistant District Attorney Mark Gilson yesterday. Common Pleas Judge Gary S. Glazer studied Mitchell's violent background, then sentenced him to eight to 40 years in prison on a conspiracy to murder charge. Mitchell handed a gun to Steven McCrea, 20, who then shot and killed Kendrick Haskell, 21, of Marvine Street near Erie Avenue, and John Ford, 18, also of Marvine Street, on Aug. 12, 1998, Gilson said.

For little Ryan Burton, it was another sleepy day after a long night on the run. It was a beautiful August afternoon - the kind of day that a 3-year-old would rather spend playing in the park - not speeding down a winding road on a long drive from Cinnaminson, N.J., to Upper Bucks County. But here he was, about noon, sleeping on the front seat, his head resting on his mother's lap, as she made her daily road trip to New Britain to pick up his father from work. Ryan was killed somewhere between Bristol Road and Pickertown Road on Aug. 7. When the crash occurred, it was so loud construction workers could hear the screeching, twisting metal blocks away.

For Kenneth Winston Starr, it was a moment to savor. An Arkansas jury had convicted President Clinton's former business partners in the first Whitewater trial, demonstrating that the much-ridiculed scandal involved real crimes, and might affect Clinton's reelection campaign. Starr, the Whitewater independent counsel whose Republican activism has generated charges of partisanship, was careful not to gloat or claim personal vindication. A bright, gracious lawyer and former judge with a reputation for thoroughness and integrity, Starr rose so rapidly through the Republican firmament that he figured to realize his ultimate goal - the U.S. Supreme Court - before he was 50. But something happened on his way to becoming Mr. Justice Starr.

A generation of Philadelphia's children are carrying a ticking time bomb with them into their adult lives. They are growing up in a city where lead is a commonplace in the dust of the streets - and in the crumbling paint of the homes, health officials say. The toxic metal - which a new study says can permanently damage the lives of young people exposed in childhood - is a pervasive urban problem. It's worse in neighborhoods with deteriorating housing, where fully half the children may face health risks from exposure to lead - parts of North Philadelphia, West Philadelphia and Germantown.

First things first: Congress should extend the current 3.4 percent interest rate on student loans now. If it doesn't act by July 1, the rate will double to 6.8 percent and the average student borrower will owe $1,000 more each year. Senate Republicans say they support the rate reduction signed into law by President George W. Bush in 2007, but they blocked full consideration of a Democratic-sponsored bill earlier this month. The legislation proposed to offset the $6 billion cost by closing a tax loophole that allows rich individuals to reduce their taxes by filing as corporations.

A former convict described as a "walking time bomb" was arrested Tuesday and charged with spraying bullets in a West Chester neighborhood last week, killing a 23-year-old Philadelphia man. James J.E. Potts Jr., 28, should have been in a Philadelphia halfway house when the gunfire erupted at 2 a.m. Friday, officials said. He has been charged with fatally shooting Towayne Uqdah at the corner of Chestnut and North Matlack Streets, Chester County District Attorney Tom Hogan said in a statement.

An ex-convict described as a "walking time bomb" was arrested this morning and charged with spraying bullets in a West Chester neighborhood last week, killing a 23-year-old Philadelphia man, authorities said this afternoon. James J.E. Potts Jr., 28, should have been in a Philadelphia halfway house when the gunfire erupted at 2 a.m. Friday, officials said. He is now charged with fatally shooting Towayne Uqdah at the corner of Chestnut Street and North Matlack Street, Chester County District Attorney Tom Hogan said in a statement.

Ex-State heads back foreign aid WASHINGTON - Five former secretaries of State - Republicans and a Democrat - are warning Congress against deep cuts in foreign aid. In a letter circulated Monday by the U.S. Global Leadership Coalition, the former secretaries said that international spending advances U.S. interests overseas, tackles the causes of conflict and extremism, and shows America's global leadership. The letter comes as the Senate this week considers a $53.3 billion spending bill for the State Department and foreign operations for the fiscal year that began Oct. 1. Citing the growing U.S. deficit, lawmakers are expected to offer amendments to cut foreign aid. Signing the letter were Henry Kissinger, George Shultz, Colin Powell and Condoleezza Rice, who worked for Republican presidents, and Madeleine Albright, who served in the Clinton administration.

The scratch-and-sniff "Aroma-Scope" gimmick of Spy Kids: All the Time in the World in 4D didn't work. Maybe I got a defective card, but the scents you're supposed to sample when the number flashes on the screen and you scratch the corresponding number on your card all smelled like burned artificial blueberry syrup. So take away one "D" from this "4D" movie, one gimmick from a gimmick-laden kiddie comedy from the Robert Rodriguez Spy Kids factory. Gadgets, cheese puffs, and diapers fly off the screen in the cheesiest kid-friendly 3-D tradition.

Chris Pronger, trying to bounce back from a three-surgery season, said he hopes to play all 82 regular-season games in 2011-12 and laughed off a suggestion that age was catching up with him. In a conference call with reporters on Monday, the almost-37-year-old Flyers defenseman said he has been exercising regularly - walking a treadmill, riding a stationary bike and doing workouts to strengthen his back, legs and shoulders - but has not been...

Just in time for the first Halloween of the second decade of the 21st century, Radical has released "Abattoir", a chilling supernatural tale set in the cold beauty of Middle America in the late 1980s. However, this creation by "Saw" director Darren Lynn Bousman would be scary as hell in any decade. The excellent writing of Rob Levin and Troy Peteri and amazing art of Bing Cansino have crafted a chilling tale in which blood seems to spatter off most pages. "Abattoir" is the tale of the aftermath of a brutal massacre perpetrated by a seemingly perfect family man during a kid's birthday party at a beautiful house.

LUTHER. 10 p.m. Sunday, BBC America. FANS OF "The Wire" know him as cerebral gangster Stringer Bell, but starting Sunday, actor Idris Elba can be seen working the other side of the street - and the ocean - as the driven detective at the heart of BBC America's "Luther. " For the native Londoner, who's had recurring roles on NBC's "The Office" and Showtime's "The Big C," it's also another opportunity to work in something approaching his own accent. Not that there aren't distinctions.

TORONTO - Zach Galifianakis has a confession to make: "I'm never one to do research about anything in my life - I don't think I've ever even studied for a test. " But when it came time to make It's Kind of a Funny Story , the sometimes-funny/sometimes-not tale of a teenager ( Keir Gilchrist ) who checks himself into a mental ward, Galifianakis felt he had to do his homework. His character, Barry, is a long-term resident of the psych wing of a Brooklyn hospital - a guy with a wife and kid, but who finds it hard to cope in the outside world.

WE'RE A LITTLE surprised at ourselves for this because we disagree with him about a lot of things. But we have to admit: We're developing a bit of a nerd-crush on New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie. How many elected officials have spent the last two years kicking the can down the road, trying to avoid discussing - much less fixing - the big, structural fiscal problems their states are facing? Not Christie. Last week, he proposed a serious reduction of the pension benefits for New Jersey state workers: He wants to eliminate a 9 percent pension increase and require current workers to pay more into the system.