Briefly... CITY/REGION

Plan unveiled for greener city

Mayor Nutter yesterday unveiled the city's plan to turn 500 acres of unused space into parkland by 2015.

Called "Green 2015," the plan aims to partner private institutions and schools to develop more small parks around the city. Paved recreation centers, school yards and vacant lots are examples of sites that could go green.

By using largely publicly owned land and partnering with private groups, the city expects to do much of this project without significant use of city dollars.

Ethics board noms get first OK

A City Council committee yesterday approved two new nominees and one reappointment to the city's Board of Ethics.

Attorneys William H. Brown III, from Schnader, Harrison, Segal and Lewis LLP, and Sanjuanita Gonzalez, of Cohen, Fluhr and Gonzalez, were approved to fill two vacancies on the board. Sister Mary Scullion, of Project HOME, was approved for another five-year term. The confirmations need final Council approval.

Memorial service for hero K-9

A memorial service will be held tomorrow for Schultz, the Gloucester Township police dog killed in the line of duty Nov. 30 by a robbery suspect who threw the animal into oncoming traffic during a struggle to escape capture.

The memorial will begin at 2 p.m. at the Gloucester Township Community Park, in Sicklerville. Schultz and his handler, Cpl. Mark Pickard, responded to a robbery at a restaurant in Blackwood. The 3 1/2-year-old German shepherd was struck by a car on Route 42. Suspect Skyler Robinson, also injured by the car, was arrested after a brief manhunt.

Ex-chief gets jail term

Booker T. Wilson, who resigned as police chief of Chester Township in October, was sentenced yesterday to nine to 23 months in prison after admitting that he had used someone else's benefit check as a down payment for a Cadillac Escalade.

Wilson, 49, was working part time at a halfway house in 2007 when he took a check for more than $6,600 that was intended for a former resident. His attorney yesterday asked for probation or home monitoring, citing Wilson's more than two decades of police work.

Man charged in Medicaid fraud

Ronald Bailey, 60, a Chester Springs behavioral consultant, was charged by the U.S. attorney yesterday with health-care fraud.

Authorities said Bailey provided behavioral-health services to Medicaid-eligible students in Chester County schools with emotional, developmental and educational disabilities, and their families. He is alleged to have forged signatures of parents on forms and prepared and submitted inflated invoices to two Medicaid behavioral-health providers over four years beginning in January 2006.

Man hit by cop's car dies

A 44-year-old man was killed Monday night when he was struck by a car operated by a Bensalem Township police officer on Street Road near Hulmeville Road, in Bensalem.

Police said the officer was driving back to his station house about 8:30 p.m. when the unidentified man darted across the street into oncoming traffic. He was pronounced dead shortly after.

Turnpike tolls a cash mystery

Drivers who pay Pennsylvania Turnpike tolls in cash soon won't be able to find out how much they owe by looking at their ticket. The Turnpike Commission will no longer print the costs of tolls on tickets when rates go up on the 545-mile road next month. Cash tolls go up 10 percent; E-ZPass, 3 percent.

-Staff and wire reports