Briefly...

Bank offers reward for arrests

The Third Federal Bank is offering a $5,000 reward for the arrest and conviction of the two men who held up the bank's branch at 905 N. 2nd St., Northern Liberties, on Jan 17. One of the pair pointed a black semi-automatic pistol at a teller and demanded money. After receiving cash, they fled on foot on 2nd Street towards Brown.

The subject who threatened the teller is described as a black man of medium height and build wearing a dark sweater or sweatshirt and a dark cap. The second subject is described as a bearded black man with a husky build, a grey hooded sweatshirt and a white and black checkered scarf. Anyone with information is asked to call the FBI at 215-418-4000 or the police.

Charges reduced in stabbing

Montgomery County prosecutors are reducing the charges filed against a 75-year-old woman with apparent dementia in the stabbing of a sleeping housemate.

Assistant District Attorney Tracey Potere said that Christine Peters, of Audubon, was in a county emergency facility after an involuntary commitment. Prosecutors say that she stabbed the 81-year-old housemate in the torso and knee on Jan. 3. He has been released from a hospital. Peters is charged with aggravated assault and a weapons charge.

Students wanted

The Lehigh Valley Charter High School for the Performing Arts in Bethlehem has its own ice rink and skating coaches. What it lacks are skaters. Students in the classroom-on-ice spend two hours a day working on their turns, jumps and spins. But only 17 of the school's 420 students are enrolled in the figure skating program five years after its inception. Their home districts pay about $135,000 combined for their education, which Wendy Cole, a founding member of the school, called "a total waste of taxpayer money."

Bills to boost vets' benefits

The state Assembly was scheduled to consider two bills today that would boost benefits to veterans and their families.

The Military and Veterans' Affairs Committee will consider a measure that will create a "Troops to College" program within the Commission on Higher Education. The goal is to help veterans make the transition from the military to the college classroom.

12 years for rest-home strangler

Sharon Maslanka, 40, who strangled a fellow resident of a Gloucester County boarding home, has been sentenced to 12 years in state prison by Superior Court Judge M. Christine Allen-Jackson.

She pleaded guilty in November to aggravated manslaughter in the killing of Jack Trachtenberg, 49, in an argument at the Shady Oaks Rest Home, in National Park, on Dec. 27, 2006. *

- Staff and wire reports