Briefly... CITY/REGION

A Funeral Mass will be celebrated at 2 p.m. Friday at the Cathedral Basilica of Ss. Peter and Paul for Cardinal John Patrick Foley, the Delaware County native who served for many years as the American voice of the Vatican. He died Sunday at Villa Saint Joseph in Darby. He was 76.

The Archdiocese of Philadelphia said Foley's body will lie in state at St. Charles Borromeo Seminary in the Chapel of St. Martin of Tours starting Thursday morning.

The viewing is open to the public and will end with a 7 p.m. Mass celebrated by Auxiliary Bishop Daniel E. Thomas.

Foley's body will be moved to the cathedral on Friday, expected to arrive at 10 a.m.

Following midmorning prayers, the body will lie in state for public viewing until 1:30 p.m.

The Funeral Mass, also open to the public, will follow at 2 p.m. Foley's body will be entombed in the cathedral's crypt.

Although City Council passed a bill last week that would give no more than a $200 annual tax credit to condo and co-op owners who do not receive regular trash pick-up, it will not become law.

The measure, sponsored by Councilman Jim Kenney, was described by Mayor Nutter yesterday as "inappropriate."

Nutter will not send a veto message to Council on Thursday - the last session of the year - and so the bill will die. Such a move is also known as a pocket veto.

Kenney decided to move the bill forward last week, and City Council passed it, 12-5.

Voting against it were Bill Green, Curtis Jones Jr., Jack Kelly, Maria Quinones-Sanchez and Marian Tasco.

U.S. Rep. Allyson Schwartz, D-Pa., has announced a $10 million grant to upgrade more than 100 traffic signals along three city streets covering nearly 16 miles - mostly along Castor, Oxford and Bustleton avenues in the Northeast.

In October, Schwartz wrote to Secretary of Transportation Ray LaHood in support of the project.

The grant, through the Department of Transportation, will be awarded to the city in partnership with SEPTA and PennDOT.

A three-year contract agreement has been reached between Hyundai Rotem Co., a South Korean company that is assembling SEPTA railcars, and Transport Workers Union Local 234.

The pact, to take effect Jan. 1, calls for wage increases of 13 to 16 percent, a signing bonus of 3 percent, reduced worker costs for health insurance, creation of a 401(k) retirement account with an employer contribution, increases in paid sick and personal days, and changes in work rules.

The contract also specifies that the workers will not be dismissed after completion of the current assembly of 117 SEPTA railcars.

The plant is expected to remain open to build railcars for transportation agencies in Boston and Denver.

Local 234 is based on 2nd Street below Spring Garden.

Gov. Chris Christie is ordering more state troopers in Camden to fight rising crime as the city's shrunken police force struggles to keep a lid on violence.

Christie said the extra troopers will focus on crime hot spots.

For the past nine years the State Police force has kept a contingent of troopers in Camden. They help investigate about 70 percent of the shootings in the city.

- Staff and wire reports