Yardley

A model Passover seder was held on Wednesday for the kindergarten students at Abrams Hebrew Academy in Yardley. The reading from the Torah and the eating of symbolic foods like bitter herbs were an introduction to the kindergartners to the traditions of the Jewish holiday. The seder, one of three held for students at the school, was put together by Gali Ben Shacher and teachers Sonia Arusy, Freda Hanover and Jackie Katz.

Commonwealth State Bank of Newtown opened a branch office in Yardley on Tuesday. Located at 10 N. Main St., it is the first expansion of the bank, which was established in 1987. Bank president H. Paul Lewis said, "We think it has great potential and will put us in a different kind of market. We will be able to bring community banking back to Yardley. " Lewis said that CSB, with its emphasis on a "personal banking philosophy," would target customers looking for individual attention.

Yardley Council President Susan H. Taylor was arrested about 12:10 a.m. Wednesday on charges of possession of two controlled substances and driving under the influence of alcohol or drugs, Yardley police said. Police said they stopped Taylor, 39, of Lookover Lane, for speeding and crossing the center line while she was turning from West Afton Avenue onto her street. After she failed a field sobriety test, police said, her car was searched and a small vial containing a white powder, suspected to be methamphetamine or cocaine, was found.

Yardley software-maker Prophet 21 Inc. said yesterday it was being acquired by Activant Solutions Inc., an Austin, Texas-based business-to-business software firm, for $215 million. Prophet 21 makes e-commerce software for distributors in industries including ones dealing in fasteners, electrical, medical and plumbing. It employs about 530, two-thirds of them in Yardley. The firm is on pace to do $85 million in sales this year, Prophet 21 chief executive officer Chuck Boyle said.

Yardley Country Club prevailed by a half point over Atlantic City Country Club in a four-club playoff for the team championship of the Golf Association of Philadelphia yesterday at the Heidelberg Country Club. The four teams gained the playoff in a qualifying tournament May 9. THE RESULTS Yardley: 22 1/2 (Wayne Bartolacci, Rich Stanford, Tom Bartolacci, Paul Rogowicz, Mark McCormick, Glen Smraglio, Jeff Muhlbauer, Pat Sawyer). Atlantic City: 22 (Meredith Henry, Spike Smith, Paul Koelling, Jim Fraser, Duke Delcher, Doug Fraser, Terry Sawyer, Mike Goff, Charles Meyers)

Glenn Smeraglio is having the kind of year most golfers only dream about. The Yardley Country Club player won his club's championship by defeating Jon Rusk, 1-up, in a 36-hole final. It was Smeraglio's fifth title. Smeraglio, 40, a financial planner, also won the Silver Cross medal of the Golf Association of Philadelphia (GAP). It is given to the player with the lowest score in two rounds of the Patterson Cup and two rounds in Philadelphia Amateur qualifying. Smeraglio was a medalist in the amateur qualifying, shooting 144. His 72-hole score was 291, one better than the showing of Chris Bartolacci of Jericho National Golf Club.

Two of the portraits on display were smuggled out of Romania in 1964 by a cousin; the other paintings reflect the more recent work of Alphonse Sattinger, who immigrated to this country in 1965. His 19 paintings, primarily watercolor landscapes of Bucks and Montgomery Counties, can be seen at the Silver Lake Gallery in Yardley through Jan. 9. "My style is spontaneous, visual poetry," Sattinger said. "I like to show the beauty of nature and get the viewer into the actual scene I painted.

Dr. John Brick of Yardley has been appointed chief forensic examiner for the American Federation of Railroad Police. Dr. Brick, a biological psychologist and toxicologist for the state Attorney General's Office, is also an expert on the effects of alcohol and drug use. His responsibilities will include ensuring that evidence from accidents or crimes is collected and interpreted correctly, and he will assist in the training of the federation's police...

A multi-vehicle crash that forced closure of I-95 northbound this morning near the New Hope/Yardley exit, causing a rush hour backup, has been cleared. All lanes were blocked in that direction and impacted traffic from exits 49 through 51. The crash occurred shortly before 7 a.m. It was cleared about 8 a.m.

For years, golfers from Yardley Country Club have won just about every team event they've entered, including three of the last four Golf Association of Philadelphia's annual team championships. But after winning the first four Bucks County Cups - a competition among that county's private clubs - something different happened. They didn't win this year. A team from Jericho National Golf Club won the fifth annual Cup, besting Yardley's team by one stroke. Jericho, whose team included some former Yardley members, fired a 206 total to Yardley's 207. Spring Mill Country Club finished with 223, and Lookaway Golf Club came in fourth with 224. Doylestown Country Club was unable to compete because of scheduling conflicts.

Paul Lightfoot, marathon runner and local food zealot, is determined to change the way highly perishable, expensive-to-ship produce is grown and distributed to supermarkets in the Northeast and other parts of the nation. Starting in Yardley. As CEO of BrightFarms Inc., a big-picture company with a hyper-local focus, Lightfoot wants to "create beautiful local produce, near grocery retailers, that's thousands of miles fresher, and do it with the same food safety and year-round commercial volume as a large, centralized supplier might have been doing from a huge facility in California.

Nelson Runger, 81, of Yardley, a celebrated audiobook narrator, died Sunday, April 7, at home of complications from prostate cancer. Born in Pittsburgh to Nelson and Charlotte Runger, he graduated from Mount Lebanon High School in Pittsburgh in 1949 and cum laude from Princeton University in 1953, majoring in English. He spent 30 years in public relations for New Jersey Bell Telephone Co. before taking early retirement in 1986 to embark on a second career as an audiobook narrator.

The FBI is searching for a man suspected of robbing at least four banks in Bucks and Montgomery Counties during the last 10 months. Most recently, he hit a PNC Bank on Bethlehem Pike in Ambler, officials said. He is also believed to be responsible for robberies Jan. 18 at a Wells Fargo in Yardley, Sept. 28 at a First Federal in Wrightstown, and June 8 at a Colonial American in Horsham. The suspect usually carries a handgun and wears a suit and tie. He covers his face with a ski mask or a sack or pillowcase with eyeholes cut out, and has also worn green disposable gloves and a straw hat. The FBI described him as white, about 6 feet tall, with a stocky build.

The FBI is searching for a man suspected of robbing at least four banks in Bucks and Montgomery Counties over the last 10 months. Most recently, he hit a PNC Bank on Bethlehem Pike in Ambler, officials said. He is also believed to be responsible for robberies Jan. 18 at a Wells Fargo in Yardley, Sept. 28 at a First Federal in Wrightstown, and June 8 at a Colonial American in Horsham. The man usually carries a handgun and wears a suit and tie. He covers his face with a ski mask or a sack or pillowcase with eyeholes cut out, and has also worn green disposable gloves and a straw hat. The FBI described him as white, about 6 feet tall, with a stocky build.

Francis Wallace Hastings, 89, of Perkasie, a longtime executive recruiter and a skilled woodworker, died Wednesday, Jan. 23, of congestive heart failure and pneumonia at his home. Mr. Hastings worked as an executive headhunter at Butterick & McGary in Philadelphia from 1952 to 1960 and went on to form his own recruitment firm, Frank W. Hastings Associates. He ran the company from 1960 to 1990 out of an office in New York City, and also worked with others out of his home, which was then in Yardley, his family said.

Mitt Romney urged supporters at a massive outdoor rally in Bucks County Sunday night to help him capture the White House, providing dramatic punctuation to the Republican's last-minute push to carry Pennsylvania. A crowd estimated by the Secret Service at 25,000 people filled a field at Shady Brook Farm in Lower Makefield Township on a brisk night with temperatures in the low 40s. Several thousand additional people couldn't get past security barriers to see the event up close. The flag-waving throng roared when Romney and his wife Ann took the stage to the theme from Rocky a little after 6:30 p.m. Amid chants of "Send him home!"

A multi-vehicle crash that forced closure of I-95 northbound this morning near the New Hope/Yardley exit, causing a rush hour backup, has been cleared. All lanes were blocked in that direction and impacted traffic from exits 49 through 51. The crash occurred shortly before 7 a.m. It was cleared about 8 a.m.

Tattoo artist Walter Meyerle got a 15-year-old Yardley girl pregnant, and sexually assaulted a 13-year-old girl and her 8-year-old brother during sleepovers at his Bristol Borough home, according to accounts presented Wednesday in Bucks County Court. Meyerle, 35, of Falls Township, had sex with the Yardley girl over a five-month period in 2002 and raped her after she ended the relationship, according to her account. After the alleged rape, he told her "she'd have a surprise in nine months," according to the account read by Assistant District Attorney Jennifer Schorn on the third day of Meyerle's child-sex-assault trial.

John A. Tumolo, 52, a founder of Rita's Water Ice, died of cancer Thursday, July 5, at his home in Yardley. Shortly after his brother, Bob, and mother, Elizabeth, opened Rita's Water Ice on Bristol Pike in Bensalem in 1984, Mr. Tumolo joined the business. Over the course of 20 years, the family water-ice stand grew into a well-known business with franchises in 11 states. After the Tumolo brothers sold Rita's in 2005, Mr. Tumolo opened several Saladworks in the area and two Wit or Witout Cheesesteaks, in Philadelphia and Brookhaven.

Abington Art Center's Solo Series 2012 exhibition, featuring four area artists, leads off with Heather Ujiie's spectacular envronmental piece Resurrection , a mural-esque textile installation that evokes the survival of untamed nature as an irreducible, lyrical presence. This Langhorne designer's patterned narrative combines painting by hand, drawing, stitching, and large-format digital painting. The loose richness of her elaborate inkjet images - animals, birds, and a kneeling figure in the light of dawn - shows keen interest in interpreting light with embroidered clusters of highly reflective glassy beads.