NEWS
February 11, 2013 | By David Fahrenthold and Rachel Weiner, Washington Post
The Secret Service is investigating a hacker's apparent theft of a trove of personal e-mails and photos belonging to the Bush family after they were posted late Thursday by the Smoking Gun website. A report by the Smoking Gun said the e-mails covered the period from 2009 to 2012, and that a total of six accounts appeared to have been compromised. Among those hacked were Dorothy Bush Koch, daughter of President George H.W. Bush and sister of President George W. Bush; as well as sportscaster Jim Nantz, a Bush family friend.
NEWS
February 3, 2013 | By Walter F. Naedele, Inquirer Staff Writer
"Nobody ever said criminals were smart," Chester County District Attorney Thomas P. Hogan said Friday, summing up an unusual case his office had won the day before. A West Chester couple were convicted by a Chester County Court jury on misdemeanor charges of forging a letter opposing a district judge during a 2011 primary that the judge then won. The jury found Donald Skomsky, 59, and his wife, Valerie Palfy, 48, guilty of writing a letter smearing Judge Rita A. Arnold. Investigators found that an employee of a stationery firm not only remembered copying the letters for the couple, but also recognized Arnold's name on them because a relative worked for the judge.
NEWS
January 31, 2013 | By Andrew Maykuth, INQUIRER STAFF WRITER
The Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission is stepping up promotion of natural-gas shopping for residential customers, a once-moribund market that is showing signs of life. The PUC this week formally launched PAGasSwitch.com, modeled on the agency's successful electricity-shopping website. While nearly 2 million electricity customers have signed up with competitive power suppliers, the market for natural gas is more subdued. About 350,000 gas customers, or 12 percent, have switched.
NEWS
January 27, 2013 | By David O'Reilly, Inquirer Staff Writer
Students enrolled at the Marlton campus of CDM Institute reported Friday that the New Jersey-based chain of technical and vocational schools appeared to have gone out of business with no warning or explanation. A sign posted Friday on the door of the Marlton location read "CDM Institute is closed," with no additional information. CDM's website offered no indication that the for-profit, nine-location chain had closed its doors, and did not say how many students were enrolled. Calls to numerous phone numbers posted on the website also went unanswered.
NEWS
January 26, 2013 | By David OReilly, INQUIRER STAFF WRITER
Students enrolled at one of the 10 campuses of CDM Institute are reporting that the New Jersey-based chain of technical and vocational schools appears to have gone out of business with no warning or explanation. CDM's website gives no indication that the for-profit chain has closed its doors, but a sign posted Friday on the door of the Marlton campus read "CDM Institute is closed," with no additional information. Calls to numerous phone numbers posted on the website also went unanswered.
NEWS
January 25, 2013 | By Bob Warner, Inquirer Staff Writer
Brett Mandel, one of the candidates trying to unseat City Controller Alan Butkovitz, is providing voters with their own opportunity to become city fiscal watchdogs. With help from technically savvy friend Ben Garvey, Mandel has created a website where Philadelphians and anyone else can look up the city's spending in the fiscal year ended last June. The site is budget.brettmandel.com. It features blocks for each department in city government, sized according to how much of the $3.5 billion budget they control.
NEWS
January 23, 2013 | By John P. Martin, INQUIRER STAFF WRITER
A watchdog group that runs an online clearinghouse of clergy-sex abuse allegations on Tuesday began publishing the first of 5,700 pages of documents about past claims against Archdiocese of Philadelphia priests. The group, BishopAccountability.org, culled the documents from evidence introduced at last year's landmark child-endangerment trial of Msgr. William J. Lynn. The records include confidential church memos, emails, psychological evaluations and correspondence among archdiocese officials, accusers and more than 20 priests who served in area parishes over the past half-century.
NEWS
January 17, 2013
By Melinda Henneberger Oprah says she found Lance Armstrong's doping confession just mesmerizing: "We were mesmerized and riveted by some of his answers," Winfrey told CBS News. Liars can have that effect, of course, and she has a show to promote. But some of us who have lost years, friends, and body parts to cancer are not quite so fascinated. Even after he started cheating in the mid-'90s, Mr. Livestrong had a chance to strike an important blow against cancer, which has been linked to steroids and human growth hormone.