Police in the Special Victims Unit have identified an attempted luring pattern in Frankford and Wissinoming over a 10-day period this month.

All the complainants are children between the ages of 11 and 13, and were walking home from Harding Middle School at the time of the alleged lurings. continue reading »

The Pennsylvania Department of Education has released its annual list of Persistently Dangerous Schools.

While the School District of Philadelphia cut its number of dangerous schools by almost half in the last year, 10 high schools remain on the list. And four of them are in the Northeast.

Fels, Frankford, Lincoln and Northeast high schools all meet the state qualifications for the list, based on the variety and number of violent incidents among students during the school year. These four were on the 2011-2012 list, and all made the list in 2009-2010. Harding Middle School also made the 2009-10 list, but has since dropped off.

Credit: All About Jazz

George “Butch” Ballard accomplished many things in his 92 years, for which he was honored last fall in the Northeast Philadelphia Hall of Fame.

Ballard died Saturday after a life spent in Frankford and devoted to music.

The jazz legend is survived by his wife of 67 years, the sounds of the Butch Ballard Trio and memories in Frankford — grew up in Plum Street, went to Harding and Northeast and was a Democratic ward leader. continue reading »

A girl's wheelchair was stolen from in front of her house in Wissinoming.

Update: Golembiewski has a new wheelchair thanks to generous donations.

Olivia Golembiewski wants her wheelchair back. The 12-year-old Harding Middle School student has cerebral palsy and epilepsy, and yesterday, someone took her wheelchair from out front of her house.

The purple and black chair has Golembiewski’s name on it, and her schoolbag was hanging from the back of it when someone took the chair from in front of their home on the 4800-block of Van Kirk Street in Wissinoming. continue reading »

UPDATE — Fleet is being held on $500,000 bail at Curran-Fromhold Correctional Facility in Holmesburg.

A Frankford man was arrested Friday after his children told their school counselor their father had set their puppy on fire.

John William Fleet, 33, was taken from his home on the 1100-block of Sanger Street, where SPCA officers found a 5-month-old pitbull mix with severe burns. continue reading »

Police are still investigating a young girl’s claims of an attempted abduction in Frankford yesterday.

The 12-year-old girl told authorities a man approached her outside of Harding Middle School Monday. The man is described as a black male in his 30s with a full beard, wearing a dark hoodie and dark pants.

The Special Victims Unit is looking into further details.

Pennsylvania recently released its list of Persistently Dangerous Schools for the 2009-2010 school year, and the top 25 are all in Philadelphia. Of those 25, five are in the Northeast.

A school is defined as persistently dangerous if it meets any of the following criteria for this year and one of the two previous years: at least five dangerous incidents in a school with enrollment of 250 or less; dangerous incidents representing 2 percent of a school’s enrollment for schools with 251 to 1,000 students; 20 or more dangerous incidents in schools with enrollments exceeding 1,000. continue reading »