The Philadelphia Inquirer from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania • Page 17

fie JpfnlaMpfnailnquircr Section News in Brief B2 Obituaries, B4. Weather, B5. Monday, December 18, 1995 Philadelphia Online: http:www.philtynews.com The case of 'Mudman' Simon has made the Pa. parole board cautious about who shall be released. Parole slowdown in Pennsylvania helps pack prisons glOB wanted to know what the parole board had decided.

Were they going to be released soon? Still others had been granted parole effective this past summer or fall, but had seen it rescinded because of "the 'Mudman' situation," as they put it. Inmates wanted Vaughn to know they thought this was unfair. "I ain't I'm Theodore," declared Theodore Barringer, 35, who is 31 months into a 33-to-85- month sentence for assault and hasn't seen the parole board yet. "I doubt I'll make it, but they don't tell us anything." "Mudman," of course, is the infamous Robert Simon, 43, the Pennsylvania parolee whose arrest after the fatal shooting of a New Jersey police officer in May set off a firestorm of criticism about the parole process in Pennsylvania and New Jersey. Simon, who received a 10-to-20-year sentence for third-degree murder, had been paroled from Graterford in February after serving 12V2 years.

Since Simon's arrest, the granting of parole in Pennsylvania has slowed to a trickle. According to the state Department of Corrections, about 500 to 600 inmates a month were being paroled from state prisons prior to Simon's arrest. Since then, the numbers By Julia Cass INQUIRER STAFF WRITER Warden Donald Vaughn, besieged by inmates as he walked down a cell block at Graterford Prison one day recently, pulled an envelope from his coat pocket to write down their questions and concerns. The envelope read: Parole. Parole.

Parole. Parole. Parole. Parole. Parole.

Parole. Parole. Some, who were close to completing their minimum sentences, hadn't yet heard from the parole board and wanted Vaughn to find out when they'd have a hearing. Others, who'd had a hearing months ago, of 1994. Martin Horn, the state prisons commissioner, announced last week that to accommodate the increase, he was going to rent space for state inmates in four county prisons.

He also said he'd have to start putting beds in dayrooms and recreation areas in some state prisons. The slowdown also has produced confusion, frustration and anger among inmates. At Graterford, one after another told a reporter recently that the system had broken what they considered a promise. People who work with inmates expressed concern, See PAROLE on B3 have dropped to the 200s per month. While the slowdown is partially the result of a backlog that predates Simon's release, state officials say public outrage over that high-profile case has caused the parole board to tighten procedures and become more cautious.

While it is unclear whether the parole slowdown has led to a reduction in street crime, its effect on life behind bars has been dramatic. With more prisoners staying in longer, the prison population in Pennsylvania grew by 2,258 in the last five months, a greater increase than the system experienced in all At Vet, a halftime drill I gives amateurs fill of thrill. Rushing I the field with cheer N. J. set to vote on charter schools Forty feet up, Stuart D.

Fiel (center) wields a torch to ignite a candle on the massive menorah. Rabbi Zalman Lipsker assists. By Reid Kanaley INQUIRER STAFF WRITER It was a highly pumped Cecile Williams of Olney who came sprinting off the field at Veterans Stadium yesterday afternoon. "It was great. I loved it.

I loved it. I loved it," puffed the 40-something X-ray technician. "It's a great feeling. Oh, my God. It's a great feeling.

It's just a feeling of being in the middle of Vet Stadium." This was a winning Eagles game, but football was not the topic of Williams' comments. She had been among 195 nervous, but eager local women and girls who lived out a dream by performing before 62,000 fans at halftime with the svelte Eagles cheerleaders. For the opportunity, each had raised at least $200 in pledges the total came to $43,000 for the Leukemia Society of America. The reward was to dance for the often-bellicose crowd, dressed for the windy cold in white sneakers, black tights and sweat shirts. The youngest was 13; the eldest declined to be specific.

All had been recruited from dancing schools and aerobics classes across the region. During the first half of the game, while the Eagles trailed Buddy Ryan's Phoenix Cardinals, the women formed sideline huddles of their own. Many expressed anxiety and excitement. "I'm out of my mind," Janice Gavin, 41, of Oxford, said in a near-scream over the din. Gavin, an aerobics instructor, said she wanted to participate in the event because her 11-year-old daughter, Jenny, is in remission from leukemia.

"It's really a rush, because it's also my first Eagles game," said Shaney Cleighton, 13, an eighth grader See HALFTIME on B5 Backers say they will make public schools shape up. Detractors worry they will widen the rich-poor education gap. By James M. O'Neill INQUIRER TRENTON BUREAU When the Northfield, school superintendent, Charles Kyte, created an option for middle school students by starting a school-within-a-school, he did so by emulating a charter school running out of a rural Minnesota storefront. In Boston, public school officials worked out a contract with the teachers' union that allows for experimental "pilot schools" a direct response, they acknowledge, to new charter schools in Massachusetts.

Some educators, politicians and parents who want to shake up America's public schools say the best way is to give parents more options for educating their children options that pose a competitive challenge to the public system, forcing it to improve or lose students and money. Charter schools, some advocates say, are the most politically palatable way to generate that competition. Gov. Whitman and some New Jersey legislators agree. Today, the state Senate is set to vote on a bill that would allow charter schools in New Jersey an idea that a dozen other states have already employed in efforts to improve public education.

(In Pennsylvania last week, Gov. Ridge shelved his education reform package, which includes vouchers and charter schools, for a lack of support in the state legislature.) "It's an innovative way to give See SCHOOLS on B2 ii jwfo s-M Hanukah arrives in a blaze of glory Hanukah, the eight-day Jewish holiday, began at sundown yesterday. The holiday is known as the Festival of Lights, with families placing lighted menorahs in their windows for all outside to see. Yesterday, across from Independence Hall, that expansive spirit was kindled in a ceremony sponsored by the Philadelphia Lubavitch Center. The centerpiece was a 40-foot menorah that the center calls the world's largest.

Hanukah celebrates the ancient rededication of the temple in Jerusalem after its defilement by Greek and Syrian troops. jf 1 It Eyeing the action, eating a holiday treat, jelly doughnuts, are (from right) Sarah, Eliezer and Michael Rosenberg. Inquirer photographs by Eric Mencher Melissa Dribben has the day off today. I The paranormal as normal. Court ruling means Twingle may topple The city erred in allowing the hybrid house.

91 For fortune-tellers, a boom is in the cards fr zullis and Senbertrands lived at the end of an unpaved, dead-end street that sloped down to the Pennypack. Their windows offered vistas of fruit trees, maples, oaks, and the occasional deer. When a developer started buying up land behind them, Doris and Bill Reagan and the CIA have consulted psychics, the metaphysical has gone mainstream. "It's become a bit of a fad," said Richard Broughton, director of the Institute for Parapsychology, a Durham, N.C., facility devoted to the research of the paranormal. "Interest in psychics and psychic powers has 4 i UlVlUUbU Ul JfUUiMl bUltUlb.

For evidence, one only needs to look at the Psychic Friends Network, a 1-900 line for devotees of the supernatural. Since its inception in 1991, Psychic Friends Network has seen an annual increase in sales of 25 percent, said Robert Hoffman, senior vice president for the network. The network fields 10,000 phone calls per day from people seeking clairvoyant advice at $3.99 per minute, he said. In 1994, sales topped $100 million, Hoffman said. "I would say this has grown to astronomical astrological proportions in the last two years," Hoffman said.

"It's as mainstream as a See PSYCHICS on B5 By Daniel Rubin INQUIRER STAFF WRITER It's a pfcture-postcard sort of place: a green-shuttered white colonial, decked with wreaths and Christmas lights, perched at the snowy edge of the Pennypack Creek. T. 1 1. -1. 4 11 Vi LG a AiAUAUW LU 1.1 UUVVU.

But that is what's on the mind of several neighbors of this pastoral property in Northeast Philadelphia. For four years, the house at the end of Walker Street has been the focus of a donnybrook that last month went all the way to the Pennsylvania Supreme Court. Those knowledgeable about zoning matters call it the Case of the Twingle. It has caused people to be threatened, arrested and sued, chewed up by bureaucracy and strung along until their marriages and pocket-books were nearly broke. It began with a screwup by the city.

Five years ago, the Carmans, Mar- By Moniuue EI-Faizy INQUIRER STAFF WRITER A year and a half ago, Janet Klim decided as a lark to go to a tarot-card reader. When the psychic predicted she soon would change jobs, Klim thought: "No way." But sure enough, an unexpected offer came iiiiuuu a wuic uf iiivjuiuS iulCi, and Klim accepted it. Some might have seen a coincidence. Klim wasn't so sure. Since then, the 28-year-old travel agent from Blackwood, N.J., has made regular visits to a local seer.

"I tend to go when I'm having some kind of conflict, when it would be nice to have some idea what to do and how to approach things," Klim said. "It makes me consider things I might not have considered before." Klim is among a growing number of Americans for whom the belief in the paranormal has become, well, normal. From the proliferation of 1-900 dial-a-psychic numbers to reports that former first lady Nancy 1 yy surance against anyone's spoiling their view: They had purchased a strip of land between their ranch house and the woods. No room for anything else, they were told. Which is why they were surprised in the summer of 1991 when the bulldozers starting coming awfully close.

Larry Wind and Phil Harvey had plans to put up 19 twin homes on a stretch of land facing the creek. And they had plans for a 20th property one that would stand alone like a single home, but sit right against the Carmans' property line, as if it were a twin. The Carmans and their neighbors See HOUSE on B2 For The Inquirer DAVID J. JACKSON Amy DiFilippo, a psychic from Exton, says a large number of businessmen are among those who consult her for readings..