Featured Articles from Philly.com

Shelly Fisher's world is dominated by the unfashionable. Not people, but the illnesses and other medical conditions that plague them. Diabetes, heart disease, peanut allergies. There's nothing stylish about any of it. Except, perhaps, for the contributions the Villanova mother of three has made over the last nine years on her way to building an internationally known company. Hope Paige Designs L.L.C., operating out of cluttered third-floor space in a West Conshohocken office building, creates medical-identification bracelets with a twofold purpose: to save lives and be chic (or cool, depending on the targeted age group)

A man who bought guns legally in Colorado - but was arrested and slapped with a seven-year prison sentence for not having a permit to carry them in New Jersey - had two of the three charges filed against him overturned by the state Supreme Court on Friday. Brian Aitken was arrested on Jan. 2, 2009 after he angrily left his mother's house in Mount Laurel, N.J., and she called police, fearing that her son was suicidal after his ex-wife canceled his visitation session with their son, according to court documents.

If Mike Kafka is indeed the Eagles' backup quarterback, odds are he'll start a few games this season. The message boards have been up in arms over this possibility. Despite a small sample of throws, the third-year quarterback continues to fight the perception that he doesn't have an NFL arm. "It depends on who's saying it. You know what I mean?" Kafka said Friday at the NovaCare Complex. "I don't really look that far into it because there's been plenty of great quarterbacks that couldn't throw the ball through a wall if they wanted to. "There's actually a great quote by Joe Montana.

CLEARLY, CIRQUE du Soleil's "Michael Jackson: The Immortal World Tour" is a major undertaking - a loud and lavish, multimedia celebration of the "King of Pop" boasting a budget in excess of $50 million, a cast and crew numbering 220. As an arena rock concert spectacle - how creators view it - the production dwarfs Madonna and Lady Gaga's wildest touring fantasies. Planned to circle the globe for more than three years, the thing's loaded to the gills with lavishly costumed dancers and daredevil acrobatic acts, a 12-piece band, high-tech video screens, fanciful props and in-your-face pyrotechnic explosions.

The car, a Dodge Challenger SRT8 392, comes to rest on an empty stretch of two-lane blacktop. I place the five-speed automatic in first gear with the paddle shifter, put my foot on the brake, and give it some throttle. The big coupé sits there, held at bay by Brembo performance brakes the diameter of trash-can lids, feeling like a well-rested racehorse pawing at the earth behind the gate. The barely legal exhaust note is stirring. Big V-8s, like the 6.4-liter beast under this hood, don't so much purr as throb.

One look at thfose big teeth and that eel-like body, and Gary Stolz knew: A northern snakehead had just been caught in a tidal area of the John Heinz National Wildlife Refuge at Tinicum. The three-pound, 24-inch fish was caught Thursday, on the west side of Route 420. It meant that this odd and ugly invasive species, a fish so bizarre it's been dubbed the "frankenfish," was continuing its slow but sure colonization of the region's waterways. Whether it fits seamlessly into the food chain of the region's waterways, or its voracious appetite for fish, frogs and even small mammals allows it to take over the aquatic ecosystem, is still a matter of conjecture.

A stone's throw from where George Washington and his troops camped for the winter, Valley Forge Casino Resort opened early Saturday and became the Philadelphia region's fourth gambling hall. The $165 million casino in Upper Merion Township becomes Pennsylvania's 11th; its smallest, with a 33,222-square-foot gaming floor; and the only one so far with special restrictions on who can gamble. Security guards stationed at the edge of the casino floor watched as Ingrid Walker, 69, of Linwood, Delaware County, slid her access card into an electronic gateway.

When it comes to the real estate tax, opinion is deeply divided: Half of property owners hate it, and the other half really, really hate it. Dissatisfaction appears to be off the charts in North Dakota. In June, in what is believed to be a first, voters will decide whether to scrap the unpopular levy. "We consider North Dakota to be Lexington and Concord," said Charlene Nelson, a home-schooling mother who is a referendum organizer. Although nothing of that magnitude is unfolding in Pennsylvania, the legislature once again is considering bills to eliminate the property tax, oft-criticized for being unfair, antiquated, and baffling.

I grew up in a rural town where there were only two Jewish families and, although one of the boys was a close friend in high school, I never thought to ask him what he was eating instead of the tuna noodle casserole and other standbys we Catholics were consuming. With age came diverse neighbors and brazen mooching at their tables, especially on holidays. I've now been to a multitude of Passover seders and have heard for two types of food-related conversations there: ones about heirloom Jewish family recipes that commemorate the ancient Israelites' hasty flight from slavery in Egypt; and spirited debates about what is acceptable to eat on the holiday, which this year begins at sunset on Friday with the ritual seder dinner and continues for seven days.

TEN DAYS AGO, they were in Palm Beach, Fla., at the NFL owners' meetings - Jeffrey Lurie, Andy Reid, Howie Roseman, all of them. Amid the old money and the pounding Atlantic surf and the $22 room-service omelets, the Eagles had no idea they were about to be confronted with a roster crisis: the ruptured Achilles' tendon of All-Pro left tackle Jason Peters. Roseman, the Eagles' general manager, was in Palm Beach with his family. He said he arrived back from the meetings last Tuesday.

PITTSBURGH - If the NHL playoff format were more rational, two of the top five teams would not be meeting in the first round. "That's the way the schedule in the NHL is," Flyers winger and Penguins legend Jaromir Jagr said after Saturday's dress rehearsal game. "You look at the points and it probably shouldn't be these two teams playing against each other in the first round. But we can't do anything about it. One team's going to go home. " In this instance, we should probably be grateful for the lack of reason.

NEW YORK - Just when it looked like electric cars were running out of juice, the return of $4-a-gallon gasoline is generating new life for battery-powered vehicles. Electric-drive vehicles, including hybrids, plug-in models and pure battery-powered cars, were the fastest-growing segment in the U.S. auto market in the first quarter, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. Sales of those models rose 49 percent to 117,182 vehicles in the first quarter, from 78,527 a year earlier before Japan's earthquake and tsunami pinched output.

FOR A second day, the lawyer for an Archdiocese of Philadelphia priest battled Thursday with a man who claimed that the priest molested him when he was 14, once suggesting that the accuser concocted the allegation because his mother had been spending so much time with the cleric. "What better way to get the subject of her attention out of your life than to come up with a story?" said the attorney, William Brennan. The question came amid a tense cross-examination as the lawyer sought to expose cracks not just in the allegation, but also in the landmark abuse-and-endangerment case against his client, the Rev. James J. Brennan, and a former Archdiocese official, Monsignor William J. Lynn.

The old Thomas W. Buck Hosiery building, dominating nearly a full block in Kensington, was supposed to be converted into 81 apartments several years ago, but instead it sat vacant. Neighbors lamented its deteriorating and dangerous conditions, fearing the building would burn some day, while its New York owners racked up unpaid tax bills and ignored code violations. The city moved in February to put the property up for sheriff's sale, which can take months. In the end, it was all too late to prevent a tragedy that took the lives of two firefighters.