State News-Saturday, Dec. 9th

PHILADELPHIA (AP) - Hundreds gathered at a fundraiser yesterday to remember city police officer Daniel Faulkner. The luncheon at the exclusive Union League club was held a day
before the 25th anniversary of Faulkner's fatal shooting by Mumia Abu-Jamal, who is on death row. Supporters of 52-year-old Abu-Jamal plan a march today beginning at City Hall. Abu-Jamal was convicted of shooting 25-year-old Faulkner after the white police officer pulled over Abu-Jamal's brother in 1981. Abu-Jamal was sentenced to death in 1982 but has gained international fame and support during his time in prison. In 2001, a judge overturned the death sentence but not the conviction. Both sides are appealing, with arguments expected early next year.

OCALA, Fla. (AP) - Wesley Snipes was released on a one million dollar-bond yesterday after pleading not guilty to federal charges that he failed to file tax returns and falsely claimed millions of dollars in refunds. Forty-four-year-old Snipes was charged in October with fraudulently claiming refunds totaling nearly 12 million dollars in 1996 and 1997. He was also charged with failure to file returns from 1999 through 2004. If convicted, he faces up to 16 years in prison. According to the indictment, Snipes had his taxes prepared by accountants with a history of filing false returns to reap payments for clients. An I-R-S agent says the tax-fraud investigation that led to the indictment began with a raid four years ago at a Bucks County
man's home.

PHILADELPHIA (AP) - A Pennsylvania man who became ill with an E. coli infection after eating food from a Taco Bell restaurant is suing Taco Bell's owner and a California grower. Stephen Minnis of Montgomery County in suburban Philadelphia says he got sick and had to be hospitalized after eating food his wife bought on November 25th from a Taco Bell in Gilbertsville. He is suing Taco Bell's parent company, Yum Brands in Louisville, Kentucky, and Boskovich Farms of Oxnard, California. Boskovich Farms also was implicated in a 2003 hepatitis-A outbreak that sickened hundreds at a Chi Chi's restaurant in western Pennsylvania.
Green onions are believed to be the cause of the current E. coli outbreak, which has sickened dozens of people, mostly in the New York, New Jersey and Philadelphia areas.

PHILADELPHIA (AP) - The state will unveil a historical marker today commemorating the lynching of a black steelworker in Coatesville 95 years ago. Zachariah Walker was burned alive while thousands of Coatesville residents watched on August 13th, 1911. Some consider it the worst crime in Chester County history. Walker had fired a few gunshots on his way home from a night of drinking. He shot Edgar Rice, a Worth Steel company policeman, who came to investigate. Walker said it was in self-defense, but vigilantes dragged him from his hospital bed the next day, strung him up outside the city limits and set fire to the dry field around him. The historical marker will stand along Route 82 in East Fallowfield Township.

PHILADELPHIA (AP) - The University of Pennsylvania is planning to acquire a good portion of the culinary library of Chef Fritz Blank, from the acclaimed restaurant Deux Cheminees in Philadelphia. His collection includes thousands of cookbooks, periodicals, menus and memorabilia. Titles include "An Illustrated Guide to Shrimp of the World," "The All-American Cookie" and "Country Scrapple: An American Tradition" -- for which Blank wrote the introduction. Penn could acquire about ten-thousand items, including cookbooks dating to 1678. Blank is planning to retreat to his vacation home in Thailand to take a stab at retirement and write cookbooks. But he says his restaurant isn't closing and he'll eventually return to Philadelphia.