Long-awaited Pa. grant for Gallery could mean progress for major revamp

Progress on remaking the Gallery at Market East into an outlet-shopping mecca could be about to hit its stride.

Gov. Wolf's office is expected to award a $10 million redevelopment grant for the project Thursday, according to a state official who asked not to be identified ahead of the formal announcement.

Pennsylvania Real Estate Investment Trust of Philadelphia, which owns the property in a venture with Santa Monica-based mall operator Macerich, had been awaiting word on its request for up to $30 million in state aid for the $325 million-plus project.

Convicted contractor Campbell is relaxed, laughing, in video deposition

Former North Philadelphia demolition contractor Griffin Campbell spent Thursday as he has spent every day since Jan. 8 - serving a 15- to 30-year prison term for his role in the deadly 2013 collapse that crushed a Salvation Army store in Center City.

But he also appeared in a Philadelphia courtroom, telling his version of what happened that June 5 in a video of his sworn deposition recorded in January, two days after he was sentenced.

Campbell's deposition, whittled down to about nine hours, will continue Friday in the Common Pleas Court civil trial of consolidated lawsuits filed on behalf of the six people killed and 13 injured that day. One of the injured died 23 days later.

Election set for SEPTA union boss

This Friday, Transport Workers Union Local 234 will vote on whether to re-elect current president Willie Brown to another term over the 5,000-member group that represents bus drivers and subway and trolley operators.

Brown is favored to win, despite his notoriety in 2009 as “The Most Hated Man in Philadelphia” — as one local publication dubbed him — after he led a strike against SEPTA on Election Day that year.

Brown has two challengers for his post.

One is Andre Jones Sr., an executive vice president at SEPTA, who began his career with the agency in 1990as a bus operator. He worked out of SEPTA’s Luzerne and Southern districts, where he served as section chairman, before being elected to his current position.

Bucks County township to get $18M municipal services building