Briefly... CITY/REGION

Boy hit by cop car

A 14-year-old boy suffered scrapes and bruises after he was struck by a police cruiser in West Philadelphia about 9:30 p.m. yesterday.

Police said a female officer was responding to a 9-1-1 call about a man with a gun when the cruiser nearly collided with a car near 60th Street and Washington Avenue. The cop swerved to avoid hitting the car, and ending up sideswiping the teen, who was taken to Children's Hospital of Philadelphia for treatment, police said. The officer complained of minor pains.

S. Phila. man shot dead

An auto-body-shop owner from South Philadelphia - described as "a good guy and family man" - was shot to death early yesterday outside his home on Wolf Street near 16th.

Rocco Maniscalco, 38, had been watching the Flyers' game at the Wolf Street Cafe. Police said that shortly after 1 a.m., cops answered a call of a "person with a gun," and found Maniscalco who had been shot multiple times. He was pronounced dead at the scene.

Judge rebuffs Alycia Lane

Common Pleas Judge Idee C. Fox yesterday denied a request from Alycia Lane to seal records in the former CBS3 anchor's lawsuit against her former station.

The decision came a few days after e-mails Lane had sent from her CBS3 computer - including flirty exchanges between her and the NFL Network's Rich Eisen - were included in court documents by CBS3 seeking to compel Lane to release documents related to her wrongful-termination suit against the station.

Trial set in Piazza killings

Seven defendants suspected of murdering two drug dealers in the Piazza at Schmidts apartment complex in Northern Liberties last June will be tried on Nov. 7. Common Pleas Judge Jeffrey P. Minehart and prosecution and defense attorneys yesterday agreed on the date.

Party promoter and drug dealer Rial Thal, 34, and her drug associate, Timothy Gilmore, 41, were gunned down in the hallway near her apartment in what police believe was an attempted robbery.

Teacher accused in sex case

A South Jersey high school teacher was arrested Wednesday, after police say he arranged a meeting with a teenager he had been chatting with online.

Police say Michael Furey, 46, a science teacher at Paulsboro High School, created a MySpace profile pretending to be a teenage boy. After a six-month dialogue with a 17-year-old female that became increasingly sexual in nature, Furey arranged a meeting with the girl in Paulsboro on June 3, police said.

When the girl realized the so-called teen was really a science teacher at her school, she left and reported the incident to her mother.

Film-studios project begins

Officials broke ground yesterday on the long-awaited Sun Center Studios in Chester Township, which they say could become the "premier location for filmmaking in the mid-Atlantic region."

- Staff report