Bidding

I'm not sure what, if anything, today's deal proves. I know I never would have bid one spade as West. When I overcall with nothing, bad things seem to happen. My partner is misled and bids too much, or the opponents use my busy bidding to judge the auction or play. I do better by bidding only when I see a prospect of gain: a chance to reach game, compete successfully for a partscore, or preempt the opponents. The deal arose in a team match, and one West did not act. North-South bid one club-one diamond, two diamonds-3NT.

OffandAway.com is a new auction website for travelers who want to gamble on winning a luxe hotel experience for about the price of a standard room. What's hot: It's dangerously addictive. You fork over money for the opportunity to bid on suites at luxe properties in such spots as New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Napa, Miami, and Las Vegas. The winner must book the room within 24 hours. Losers can still use the money to book a hotel room from a long list of properties, but they have only seven days to do so. Recent auctions included two nights in a junior suite at the Kitano in New York City for $71 and two nights in the Author's Suite at the Alexis Hotel in Seattle for $127.

If you're looking for pointers on operating your computer, bidding a slam in bridge or a multitude of other adult-school subjects, don't look at the Main Line Unitarian Church. The township supervisors on Monday denied the church's application for a conditional-use permit to rent space to the Main Line School Night Association for day classes. The 3-1 vote followed a two-hour hearing that filled the meeting room with opponents and supporters of the application. Supervisor William B. Lytton, introducing a motion to deny the use "very reluctantly," said he was opposed in part because he thought the plan was a commercial arrangement that would generate traffic.

For the second straight month, a Haverford commissioner has urged his fellow board members to put the township's emergency towing services out for competitive bid. Commissioner Kenneth Clouse said Tuesday night that the township should welcome other bids for towing and impounding vehicles, which could save residents money. "Both the towing and the impoundment should be the subject of competitive bidding," Clouse said. According to township manager Thomas Bannar, the commissioners have designated Havertown Auto Body Inc. on Lawrence Road as the impound lot for vehicles "in perpetuity.

Chicago Bulls, take note. A real challenge for next season's NBA title might be taking form. If what Gary Payton and Charles Barkley are saying is true, both could be playing for the Houston Rockets next season. Payton, a free agent, said yesterday the Rockets are bidding for his services, and Barkley has been mentioned in a rumored three-way trade that would send him to Houston. "They made their bid. They done came in with a bid and they're trying to do something," Payton said.

Great news, real estate fans. You now have a chance to become the proud owner of 2.8 acres of exclusive Caln Township property, situated along the north side of Lincoln Highway. More exciting, the land contains a building that's a do-it-yourselfer's dream: a burned-out bowling alley. Yes, you guessed it. It's Ingleside Lanes, the bowlers' haven you saw on television and in the newspaper when most of it burned to the ground. The Chester County Sheriff's Office is holding this special, one-time-only sale on Dec. 18 at the courthouse.

The bidding for the negotiating rights to the top hitter in Japan came to a close yesterday, but it could take days to find out who is the winner in the bid for Japanese All-Star outfielder Ichiro Suzuki. The Major League Baseball commissioner's office planned to notify the Japanese commissioner of the amount of the winning sealed bid but not the team. The Orix BlueWave, Suzuki's team in Japan, has until Tuesday to accept the offer. Then the winning team has 30 days to negotiate a contract with Suzuki and the team pays the fee to Orix only if it signs Suzuki.

The million-dollar bidding and maneuvering is over. The Fiesta Bowl and NBC have Penn State and Miami playing for the national championship on Jan. 2. Each school will add a tidy $2.3 million to its bank account and NBC expects to see big ratings numbers for the Friday night game in Tempe, Ariz. The developments that led to Penn State and Miami trotting down the lush green road to cactus land were distasteful to many observers. For a while, it appeared the Fiesta Bowl and the Citrus Bowl, in Orlando, Fla., were playing a big-time poker game in competing for the nation's top two teams.

The owners of the Daily News and Inquirer are appealing a Bankruptcy Court decision allowing the newspapers' secured creditors to use their IOUs in bidding to take over the newspaper company. But the appeal is unlikely to lead to any major delays in a proposed auction to bring the newspapers out of a Chapter 11 bankruptcy reorganization. The company and its major creditors have agreed on a new schedule that calls for potential buyers to submit initial bids on Nov. 16, followed on Nov. 18 by a private auction where the interested buyers would have a chance to outbid each other.

Hercules Inc. has dropped out of the bidding for AccuRay Corp. of Columbus, Ohio, one week after agreeing to play white knight for the manufacturer of process-control equipment. Hercules will not proceed with its offer to buy all of the stock of AccuRay for $40 a share in light of a higher offer from Combustion Engineering Inc., a spokesman for Hercules said yesterday. Combustion Engineering, of Stamford, Conn., made an unsolicited offer on Dec. 15 to acquire AccuRay for $35 a share.

An investment group led by George E. Norcross III and Ira Lubert announced Saturday it would bid on the bankrupt Woodcrest Country Club, adding a new player to the mix of potential owners of the Cherry Hill golf course. An auction for the club, which filed for bankruptcy last May and did not open this year, is set for Monday. Three other bidders - Camden County, the Union League of Philadelphia, and a Marlton real estate group - are expected to attend, said club trustee Bonnie Glantz Fatell.

Camden County will bid on the Woodcrest Country Club in an effort to preserve the bankrupt Cherry Hill golf course as open space when the property is sold at auction Monday. But county officials have not disclosed how much they might spend on the 155-acre property, which will cost potential buyers a minimum bid of at least $6.5 million. Revealing a dollar value would violate collusion laws and undercut the county's bidding position, a county spokesman said. A Marlton real estate group has already entered into an agreement with a bankruptcy trustee to buy the club for $6.25 million, with a minimum bid increment and fees raising the bar for a higher bid by more than $300,000.

This season marked the first time since 2008 that Haverford School didn't win at least a share of the Inter-Ac League boys' lacrosse title, but the Fords were happy to play spoiler against a top rival hoping to earn its first title in 15 years. Behind a seven-goal fourth quarter, Haverford won, 11-6, Friday at Episcopal Academy in the teams' Inter-Ac regular-season finales. Episcopal could have clinched a share of its first league title since 1998. But the loss gave Malvern Prep sole possession of the Inter-Ac title for the first time since 2008.

Memo to Mom: Don't sell my stuff, and by the way, it's not yours to sell. That, in essence, is the message in court papers filed Wednesday by Los Angeles Lakers star Kobe Bryant in response to a federal lawsuit by a Camden County auction house that is seeking to sell basketball memorabilia mainly from Bryant's youth. The items are being sold on behalf of his mother, Pamela. "I never told my mother that she could have my personal property, let alone consign it for public auction," wrote Bryant, who was drafted into the NBA directly out of Lower Merion High School.

HARRISBURG - Public health nurses are the link between government and underserved communities: They spot disease and injury trends, dispense advice to new mothers, and act as first responders in health crises. The union representing public health nurses is suing the Corbett administration over a plan to close almost half of the state's 60 community health centers and lay off as many as 73 people - one-third of them nurses - steps the union claims will sever that link and further erode the health safety net. Commonwealth Court Senior Judge Keith Quigley on Thursday rejected the union's bid for a preliminary injunction to stop the closure of 26 clinics - virtually all in rural areas - even as its suit to halt the plan remains under consideration by the court.

The city has retained the banking giant JPMorgan Chase & Co. as lead broker to sell Philadelphia Gas Works, the latest move in the Nutter administration's effort to privatize the utility. The mayor on Wednesday will announce that it has chosen JPMorgan and Loop Capital Markets, a minority-owned investment bank, to seek bidders for the 176-year-old gas utility. The bankers could earn more than $12 million in fees if they are able to fetch the $1.85 billion that the city's financial advisers last year estimated to be the high end of the utility's value.

A Philadelphia-based cyber charter school that the Pennsylvania Department of Education wants to shut down as allegedly not providing cyber education is fighting to survive. The Solomon Charter School filed a complaint in Commonwealth Court on Tuesday challenging the constitutionality of the state's 2002 cyber charter law and the way it was applied. The charter school contends that the department is using a more restrictive definition of a cyber charter than state law. Solomon has asked the court to halt the charter-revocation proceedings.

Will Olympians scull on the Schuylkill, spike beach volleyballs in Wildwood, pole vault in Fairmount Park? Mayor Nutter would like to think so. On Monday, he told the U.S. Olympic Committee in a letter that the Philadelphia region is "enthusiastically" embracing the prospect of bidding on and hosting the Olympics and Paralympics in 2024. "I am honored to confirm our wholehearted commitment and interest in working with the USOC to bid on the 2024 Games," Nutter wrote to Scott Blackmun, chief executive of the committee in Colorado Springs.

COULD Philadelphia host the 2024 Olympics? Mayor Nutter sent a letter to the United States Olympic Committee (USOC) Monday confirming the city has an interest in bidding on the Olympic games. "The city of Philadelphia shares the USOC's dedication to building a spectacular experience for Olympic athletes, the Olympic family and the watching world," Nutter said in a statement. "We have had great success partnering with other organizations to host world-class events, and we are committed to working cooperatively and effectively under the direction of the USOC in the months - and hopefully - years ahead.

I'm not sure what, if anything, today's deal proves. I know I never would have bid one spade as West. When I overcall with nothing, bad things seem to happen. My partner is misled and bids too much, or the opponents use my busy bidding to judge the auction or play. I do better by bidding only when I see a prospect of gain: a chance to reach game, compete successfully for a partscore, or preempt the opponents. The deal arose in a team match, and one West did not act. North-South bid one club-one diamond, two diamonds-3NT.