Featured Articles from Philly.com

A 13-year-old died Saturday morning when he was thrown from his all-terrain vehicle, police said, after losing control of it as he drove on a street in Southwest Philadelphia. The boy, whose identity was not released Saturday, was driving a 2002 Yamaha four-wheel ATV eastbound on the 5900 block of Elmwood Avenue. He was seen weaving in and out of traffic, police said. Around 9:30 a.m., a preliminary police report said, the boy "lost control of his ATV, was ejected, and struck a pole and a tree.

How much did a Passaic, N.J., man really win when he hit Saturday's Powerball jackpot? A lot less than the $338 million on the ceremonial check presented to him Tuesday at state lottery headquarters. Dominican immigrant Pedro Quezada, a bodega owner, wasn't the only one to hit the jackpot. So did Uncle Sam and the State of New Jersey. So much so that Quezada is likely to be shocked to find out that despite vast sums already withheld from his winnings, he'll still face an enormous tax bill, as pointed out by a recent analysis by Forbes . OK, nobody's going to sorry for the guy, but watch how the money disappears.

For the first time, the city's vast inventory of 9,000 vacant properties for sale will be just a mouse click away. The Philadelphia Redevelopment Authority (PRA) is rolling out a new online site for viewing all of its vacant land and buildings, as well as the holdings of the Public Property Department and the city-run Philadelphia Housing Development Corp. The official launch will be in June. Technicians are working out the bugs, but the site will be accessible through the main PRA page (www.phila.gov/pra)

THE CITY OF PHILADELPHIA weeps. John Bolaris is moving back to New York City. The former TV weatherman announced Monday in his Metro column that he will be leaving Philly for New York. Bolaris told me he has a couple of irons in the fire. "Both have to do weather," Bolaris said, "but not totally. " Although he couldn't give me all the details, he teased that we might eventually see the fruits of his labor in Philadelphia as well. He'll make the official move in June, so we have a couple more months of Bolaris-y goodness.

St. Joseph's Prep retired the No. 32 jersey worn by basketball standout Steve Vasturia in a Thursday afternoon assembly at the school's Kelly Fieldhouse. In his career at the Prep, Vasturia, a 6-foot-5 senior guard ticketed for Notre Dame, totaled a school-record 1,764 points. Twice selected as the Catholic League's most valuable player, he shot 89.2 percent (378 for 424) from the free-throw line in his career. This past season, while leading the Hawks to a 24-6 record and the PIAA Class AAAA state semifinals, Vasturia averaged 20.5 points, 7.1 rebounds, 2.4 assists, and 2.1 steals.

Frank Nofer, 71, of Spring Mill, a celebrated graphic artist and watercolorist who designed a Philadelphia logo for the American Bicentennial, died Thursday at Keystone House in Wyndmoor. His representational watercolors are included in prominent private and corporate collections. In 1995, the Philip and Muriel Berman Museum of Art at Ursinus College honored him with a one-man retrospective exhibition. For 25 years, Mr. Nofer operated a graphic-design studio in the Old City section of Philadelphia, where he did advertising for pharmaceutical companies and amassed many awards.

THE GUY tossed restlessly in his bed, night after night, for the better part of a year. He couldn't sleep. He had nightmares whenever he did - bizarre, Kafkaesque snippets of dialogue involving the Russian mob, a pair of mysterious, dark-haired women, a goofy-looking painting and an incomprehensible credit-card bill. The shadowy characters and confusing plots from the bad dreams haunted John Bolaris in real life, too. Yeah, that John Bolaris. Few people know that the affable local weatherman's life was turned upside down during a visit to Miami Beach last spring that started out pleasantly and ended with his getting drugged - twice - while his credit card was used by Eastern European scam artists to rack up $43,000 worth of expenses in just two days, while he staggered around in a stupor.

Building 661 at the Navy Yard was never a thing of beauty. Built in 1942, during the first months of U.S. involvement in World War II, the brick-and-concrete structure's purpose was to house an indoor swimming pool, basketball courts, and offices, a function it pragmatically performed until the Philadelphia Naval Shipyard closed in 1995. On Wednesday, the building, which has been unoccupied for nearly two decades, will begin a new life as headquarters of the Energy Efficient Buildings Hub, the two-year-old federally funded innovation center operated by Pennsylvania State University.

NOT ALL THE players on the Eagles' roster are surprised by Chip Kelly's fast-paced practices. For five players, in fact, it's business as usual. That's because they played for Kelly at Oregon, where the 49-year-old coach perfected the practice routines he's initiated with the Eagles. Kelly, who took over for Andy Reid in January, was Oregon's head coach for the past 4 years. And he was the Ducks' offensive coordinator for 2 years before that. Eagles linebacker Casey Matthews is a former Duck who played under Kelly.

More than Paul Pratt's love of rowing, Episcopal Academy coach Molly Konopka said, was the junior's love of life on the water. And it was that love, she said, that helped erase his teammates' doubts when they struggled over whether to row Friday in the Stotesbury Cup Regatta a day after Pratt's death. Pratt, 18, crashed his Chevy Suburban on the 1300 block of Eagle Road in Radnor just before 8 p.m. Thursday, said Radnor Police Superintendent Bill Colarulo. "He apparently lost control.

A Pottstown pastor was convicted Tuesday in a complicated mortgage scam in which he recruited members of the congregation to obtain $6 million in fraudulent loans from JP Morgan Chase Bank. Michael Wilkerson, pastor of New Millennium Life Restoration Fellowship; his wife, Joyce; and two others were charged in the scheme, which took place between 2006 and 2008. Michael Wilkerson, who had set up a business that "purported to be a real estate development company," would approach members who had good credit about acting as "straw purchasers" for several homes in Schwenksville, Montgomery County, and Glenmoore, Chester County, federal prosecutors said.

If ever our town could pull together enough ambition to stage a string-quartet festival, it would be like striking a vein of artistic gold. Were any presenter visionary enough to host visits from the world's most charismatic pianists, aficionados would rush in. And if you blended these prospects - along with a singer or two - into a single series, what you would have is the Philadelphia Chamber Music Society, which, clocking an impressive one score...

Calling a typical American engineering school a boys' club would be an understatement - on average, women make up 18.2 percent of engineering undergraduates nationwide. It's a statistic that hasn't gone unnoticed, with colleges and universities across the country scrambling to draw more women and minorities into engineering majors. Villanova University is no exception - and on Sunday, 31.4 percent of the engineering students who crossed the stage at graduation in Radnor were female.

THIS YEAR'S CONCERT SEASON, called the "Essence of Entertainment," will run from July 7 to Aug. 25. The 2011 Dell summer concert series is as follows: July 7: Angie Stone and Joe July 14: Stephanie Mills and Keith Washington July 21: The Delfonics, Jerry Butler, Jean Carne, the Jones Girls, Russell Thompkins and the Stylistics July 28: Ginuwine, Tank and Avant Aug. 4: Fred Hammond and Martha Munizzi Aug.11: Jeffrey...