Yo, Philly in the News

• Relief may be on the way for those of you who are constantly annoyed by passengers on regional rail lines who incessantly squawk on their cell phones. SEPTA will offer a "quiet car" on the R5-Lansdale/Doylestown line starting next week, with plans to follow suit on other rail lines in March, if passengers like the pilot program. Starting Monday, cell phone use will be prohibited on the first car of the morning and evening rush-hour express trains on the R5 line.
• Charles Tyson will not serve a third term as mayor of South Harrison Township. He is vacating office because he and his family have endured death threats and racist vandalism since he became the town's first black mayor two years ago. At a township reorganization meeting on Monday, the 66-year-old Tyson declined a nomination to continue serving as mayor but agreed to be deputy mayor.
• Police were called to the 2900 block of Kip Street in the city's Kensington section at 11:30 p.m. after a report of a person with a knife, said Lt. Frank Vanore, a police spokesman. The officers found a man inside lying on a sofa, his hands hidden under a cushion. After several requests, Secundino Rivera, 59, stood up with a knife in each of his hands and held them to his chest, threatening to stab himself. The officers order him to drop the knives and "during the confrontation, he lunged at one of the officers," Vanore said. The officer's partner drew his weapon and fired once, striking Rivera in the chest. He was pronounced dead at Temple University Hospital at 11:45 a.m.
• The Philadelphia Housing Authority said yesterday that it plans to begin and complete this year the first phase of Mantua Square, a 101-home development where an 18-story high-rise was demolished last year in West Philadelphia. The agency said it will also complete the beginning phases of a 95-apartment complex with commercial space and a senior center in North Philadelphia called Warnock Street. Both projects, a spokesman said, will be funded through a combination of public-housing dollars and a private investment through the Low Income Housing Tax Credit program. PHA also said it is working on plans for a major transformation in Southwest Philadelphia's Paschall neighborhood, bounded by Woodland Avenue, Cobbs Creek Parkway and 72nd Street.
• Drexel University announced yesterday that it had received the largest individual private gift in its history - $25 million from a member of its board of trustees. The gift will be used to buy and renovate two buildings for a new center for the College of Arts and Design that will allow the university to consolidate its design programs and extend its University City campus westward across 35th Street. The donation was from Richard A. Hayne, founder and chairman of Urban Outfitters Inc., according to a source who asked not to be named because the donor had requested anonymity.

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