Good Morning. Here are some of the top stories from around the region.
WEATHER
Chilly again to start, but the sun will warm us up to a pretty nice day. Expect the high to push 80 degrees.
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NEWS
Protest at Rep. Pat Meehan’s office calls for federal action on guns
Fifty-nine dead. Five hundred twenty-seven injured. An unfathomable degree of carnage in Las Vegas Sunday night amidst a country music festival is now the deadliest mass shooting in modern U.S. history. All day Monday it was the number of lives lost, the shooter, his motives, his habits, his history as a gambler, his aloof nature, the surprise of his friends and family, the affected individuals and the first responders that dominated the airwaves.
Acts of heroism saved countless lives at Las Vegas shooting
Rob Ledbetter’s battlefield instincts kicked in quickly as bullets rained overhead. The 42-year-old U.S. Army veteran who served as a sniper in Iraq immediately began tending to the wounded, one of several heroes to emerge from the deadliest mass shooting in modern U.S. history. Amid the massacre in Las Vegas, which left 59 people dead and more than 500 injured, there were acts of compassion and countless heroics that officials say saved scores of lives.
Independence Blue Cross members to be ‘out of network’ at 5 area hospitals
Just days after the completion of the sale of five area hospitals to Reading Health System, comes word that the five hospitals are no longer considered “in network” for Independence Blue Cross. The news affects 120,000 Independence Blue Cross members that use the five hospitals and the physicians who work there.
West Pottsgrove teen admits role in gunpoint robbery
A West Pottsgrove teenager said he “just wanted to try to be cool” when he participated with another man in the gunpoint robbery of several people inside a township residence in order to obtain marijuana. “It was ignorance on my part. It’s what people talk about. It’s in the music. I just wanted to try to be cool,” Carlton Lamont Gillis III told prosecutors on Monday when he pleaded guilty to felony charges of robbery and conspiracy to commit robbery in connection with the 9:30 p.m. Oct. 5, 2016, incident at a home along Dogwood Lane in the township.
Prosecutor: Norristown man sold deadly fentanyl to Spring City overdose victim
A Philadelphia man allegedly sold 12 bags of pure fentanyl to a Spring City man during a drug deal in Norristown, a drug delivery that turned fatal, according to prosecutors. Davi “Sheed” Wilson, 25, of the 2400 block of West Glenwood Avenue, was arraigned recently before District Court Judge Francis J. Lawrence on charges of drug delivery resulting in death, possession with intent to deliver a controlled substance, possession of a controlled substance, recklessly endangering another person and criminal use of communication facilities in connection with the March 29, 2017, overdose death of Tom Treys, 25, of Spring City, Chester County.
Parking addition at Schweiker Park moves ahead
More parking near Schweiker Park on the border of Hatfield and Lansdale is now another step closer. Hatfield’s township commissioners took another step toward acquiring a parcel adjacent to the park, a move township officials said should help fix parking problems there. “Everyone in the area, that lives around Schweiker Park, knows that there’s a problem with a lack of parking, especially on weekends when there’s tournaments being played,” said Township Manager Aaron Bibro.
SPORTS
No matter how it’s said, Eagles have to keep pounding the ball
Doug Pederson brought his sense of humor to his day-after news conference Monday when asked for the Eagles’ offensive identity in their 3-1 start. “Pound and ground,” Pederson said. “That’s what you want, right? That’s my answer.” It’s ground and pound. Other than thinking Isaac Seumalo was the answer at guard, that’s the only major mistake you can hang on Pederson at the quarter-mark of the season.
Matt Read the last to go as Flyers pick their 23-man roster
By NHL rule, the Flyers needed to reduce their roster to 23 names by 5 p.m. Tuesday. By Monday, the haze over that decision had cleared. A day after being scratched from the final preseason game, seventh-year forward Matt Read was placed on waivers. With his production declining since his 22-goal peak in 2014, Read is expected to clear waivers and join the AHL Lehigh Valley Phantoms.
Phillies’ president MacPhail all set to meet the press
Never one to make a fuss around the club he oversees as president, and not really one to mix it up in public more than once a season or so, Andy MacPhail will go against the grain Tuesday and hold a press conference at Citizens Bank Park. Probably nothing more than the Phillies’ prez taking the opportunity to publicly speak nice about his ousted field boss Pete Mackanin, who was fired as manager Thursday but finished out the last weekend of the season because he’s been given a longer-term assignment as “special advisor to the general manager.”
ENTERTAINMENT
Ancient China’s ‘Terracotta Warriors’ invade the Franklin Institute
Under a farm (and underneath the surrounding 38 square miles) was an army of soldiers, carriages, horses and anything else you might think of “protecting” the tomb of China’s first emperor Qin Shi Huang, who ruled in the late third century B.C. Ten of the 8,000 warriors are now on display at the Franklin Institute in the new “Terracotta Warriors of the First Emperor.”
DINING: Bargains at Carrabba’s wine dinners easily digested
Restaurant critics can be a pretty snobbish lot. Most usually have little or nothing to say that’s positive about downscale and midscale chains, for example, although those chains could obviously not exist if millions of consumers did not think they were providing good value for the money. I cannot remember the last time I saw a review of one of these restaurants in a local or national publication.
