Briefly... CITY/REGION

Jury deciding Wiggins' fate

A Philadelphia jury yesterday began deliberating the fate of Tyrone Wiggins, 51, a former city cop on trial on charges of raping and beating a girl over an eight-year period.

Wiggins, a 23-year department veteran, was arrested a day after retiring in November 2009. His alleged victim - now a 25-year-old city cop - testified that she met him when, at age 10, she enrolled in a karate class he taught at the Olney Recreation Center. By the time she was 12, she said, Wiggins had begun raping her and eventually beating her.

Wiggins told the jury that the woman made up the rape story after her desire to become a cop was jeopardized when he told police officials that she once sold drugs as a teenager.

OSHA cites paper company

The U.S. Department of Labor's Occupational Safety and Health Administration has cited Newman and Co. for exposing workers to numerous workplace-safety and health hazards after a worker was killed at the paper manufacturer's plant in Wissinoming.

OSHA began an investigation June 12 after being notified that a worker was crushed by a paper hopper during loading operations, and citations were issued for 43 violations, 39 of which were deemed serious.

Cops looking into 9-1-1 glitch

The Police Department said yesterday that an unknown technical glitch has recently prevented 9-1-1 dispatchers from hearing some callers who use cell phones. The problem has been sporadic, police said, and was discovered in the last week. Verizon, the department's phone-service provider, is trying to solve the problem. Police said dispatchers will immediately call back anyone who dials 9-1-1 and experiences communication problems.

He'll sign $650M bond issue

State Treasurer Rob McCord said yesterday that he would sign off on a $650 million bond issue, forcing Gov. Rendell to accept a smaller amount of borrowing to keep money flowing to construction projects like hospitals and bridges after the state's auditor general refused to go along.

Money for the projects will run out sooner than a $1 billion bond issue championed by Rendell, who had sought approval for it over the last several weeks from fellow Democrats McCord and Auditor General Jack Wagner.

But they disagreed with Rendell's assertion that interest rates are favorable now, and McCord said the compromise he forced will save taxpayer money.

Guilty of bias, harassment

David Pomianek, 32, a Gloucester Township public-works employee, was convicted by a jury yesterday of two counts of harassment, two counts of bias intimidation and a count of official misconduct. Pomianek was accused of luring an African-American co-worker into a caged storage area 17 feet off the ground in the township Public Works building in 2007 and keeping him padlocked while they shouted racial epithets at him. A co-defendant, Michael Dorazo Jr., 30, is awaiting trial.

Adult trial for teen

Quawi Twiggs, 17, will be tried as an adult on charges of fatally shooting his father, Kevin Archie, 50, during a May 31 argument in his father's Camden home. Superior Court Judge Thomas Brown set bail at $500,000 at a hearing Wednesday.

- Staff and wire reports