Father to face charges in child-neglect case

Father to face charges

Authorities have issued a warrant for the father of Danieal Kelly, the disabled Philadelphia girl who starved in her mother's care in 2006.

Daniel Kelly, 39, missed a court appearance yesterday on child-endangerment charges. Danieal was 14 and weighed just 42 pounds when she died, suffering from maggot-infested bed sores.

Danieal's mother, Andrea, was sentenced to 20 to 40 years in state prison after pleading guilty to third-degree murder. Seven employees of Multi-Ethnic Behavorial Health Services, which was hired by the city to monitor at-risk children, including Danieal, were sentenced to long prison terms on federal fraud charges.

Nutter names literacy boss

Mayor Nutter yesterday appointed Judith Renyi, a dean at Rosemont College, to serve as executive director of the Mayor's Commission on Literacy.

Renyi will be in charge of increasing literacy and promoting awareness of the issue in a city where 550,000 children and adults have impaired reading skills, Nutter said.

Renyi and the commission will make recommendations to the Free Library of Philadelphia. Her $130,000 salary will be paid by the Free Library Foundation.

No bail in shooting threat

Federal authorities say that Anthony Elonis, 27, angry after being fired from his job at Dorney Park and Wildwater Kingdom, posted on the Internet a threat to carry out what he called "the most heinous school shooting ever imagined."

Elonis, of Bethlehem, was denied bail yesterday after federal prosecutors said that he could not be trusted if he was released.

N.J. Senate: Rewrite pot regs

The New Jersey Senate passed a resolution yesterday to require Gov. Chris Christie's administration to rewrite its proposed medical-marijuana regulations.

Both the Senate and the Assembly have now voted that the proposed regulations don't meet the Legislature's intent to create a system by which patients with certain conditions can have legal access to a drug that's illegal for everyone else.

Vote on sports betting set

New Jersey voters will be able to decide next year whether they want to legally bet on sports games as a result of action taken yesterday by the state Legislature.

Votes in the state Senate and Assembly guaranteed that a referendum will appear on the November ballot asking voters whether they want to amend New Jersey's constitution by legalizing sports betting in the state.

- Staff and wire reports