Boot Camp

A "boot camp" for convicted teen drug offenders in Delaware was proposed yesterday by Terry R. Spence, speaker of the state House. Flanked by top law enforcement officials, the Stratford Republican said he would introduce a bill when the General Assembly convened in January to set up the alternative to conventional incarceration for youths ages 15 to 17. "What I'm trying to do with this legislation is get them early, while they're still young...

The military boot-camp experience was a staple of post-World War II entertainment that had faded long before Biloxi Blues premiered in 1984, but few made it as humorous and engaging as Neil Simon in his Tony Award-winning comedy. In the revival at the Walnut Street Theatre, it remains a funny, involving piece. The second in the trilogy of Simon's autobiographically based plays that the Walnut is presenting over three seasons, Biloxi Blues is the least dramatic, most consciously comic of the trio.

An Illinois judge recommended a sentence of six months in a boot camp for the teenager who rushed the field with his father and attacked a Kansas City base coach during a game between the Royals and White Sox last September. Markham Juvenile Court Judge Michael Stuttley considered a parole violation by the 16-year-old boy and a juvenile delinquency petition before recommending the sentence yesterday, said a spokesman for the Cook County state's attorney's office. The Illinois Department of Corrections Juvenile Division will decide whether to accept the recommendation.

There is something odd and even scary about sitting around a hotel swimming pool wearing a gas mask while Filipino workers hose down the concrete and women in tea dresses wave gaily. But for reporters covering the military buildup in Saudi Arabia, the odd and the scary are becoming commonplace. After months of chronicling the steady military buildup, they suddenly find, almost overnight, that war seems imminent. For Ron Arias of People magazine, the feeling began to creep up yesterday as he sat poolside watching Sgt. Nash Howell hold up a syringe with a menacing one-inch needle that dripped traces of a potent antidote used to counter the effect of chemical weapons.

It's about as remote as you can get from the street-corner drug scene. Deep within the forests of central Pennsylvania, corrections officials are setting up the state's first military-style prison boot camp. Plans call for 16-hour days with inmates arising about 5:30 a.m. They'll undergo brisk drilling before breakfast, hours of hard labor repairing woodland trails and cleaning culverts. After dinner, there'll be more marching, and nights filled with drug or alcohol counseling, high-school-equivalency studies or classes in "life skills," such as handling a checkbook or a job interview.

CLEARWATER, Fla. - Shortly before 10:30 a.m. Wednesday, Ryan Howard hobbled to the warning track of Ashburn Field at the Carpenter Complex. Wearing a large walking boot that comes halfway up his left knee, Howard threw a baseball to Phillies head athletic trainer Scott Sheridan. He was back on the field. For 18 days, Howard was a mystery. "I guess it was like a 'Where's Waldo?' type deal," he said. He watched Grapefruit League games on TV in Florida. He popped into the clubhouse occasionally to say hello.

The Marine Corps begins to train its enlistees almost as soon as they sign up, gathering the recruits, many still in high school, together once or twice a month. To help the recruits - called "poolies" - assimilate into the Marines, instructors drill and challenge them. During one session last month at Fort Dix, about 100 poolies ran an obstacle and confidence course.

CBS and the producers of Survivor are suing Fox Broadcasting Co. over the new Fox reality series Boot Camp, which CBS claims is a blatant rip-off of its non-scripted megahit. The complaint, filed late Monday in federal court in Los Angeles, alleges that Boot Camp violates federal copyright law and California state law by copying significant elements of Survivor to capitalize on the CBS series' success. The lawsuit alleges Boot Camp producer LMNO Prods. initially pitched the show to CBS Television chief Leslie Moonves on June 15, 2000.

A mother and son from Upper Darby who are accused of running a bogus Marine Corps boot camp for wayward youths waived their preliminary hearing yesterday. The defendants, Elizabeth Harris, 54, and Royal Harris, 23, are charged with kidnapping and other offenses for allegedly keeping Justin Holland, 8, at their home under false pretenses. Holland's mother, who lives in Oklahoma, thought she was sending him to the Marine Corps Mad Dog Boot Camp to straighten him out last September.

This is a commercial about how to get there from here. Some guy is sitting at home and decides "it's time to get paid," or so he tells police. So he goes out, robs a woman and beats her to death. Three goons rob the home of an 81-year-old woman, who also happens to be an invalid. The sounds of their thievery awaken her, and when she protests having all her worldly possessions carted away, one decides to "hit her a little bit. " She falls on the floor, dies from a heart attack, and the robbers don't even call for an ambulance on their way out. Then there are the more generic hurts.

NILES, Mich. - It was 1953, and then-Pvt. Bob Rodgers had just arrived at Fort Campbell, Ky., for basic training when he sat down to write a letter to his wife after the post's power went out. Sixty years later, that letter finally turned up, when the U.S. Postal Service gave it back to Rodgers, who's now living in southwestern Michigan. In the June 13, 1953, letter, the 20-year-old told his wife, Jean, about the routines of life in boot camp. "All you do is march, KP, shine boots, shine boots and shine more boots and brass and more brass," he wrote.

There's a moment in the musical Les Misérables when Jean Valjean, who had spent the last 19 years imprisoned for stealing a loaf of bread, narrowly escapes being sent back after snatching silver from a kindly bishop. It's a turning point for the protagonist, who uses the reprieve to launch into a song - "What Have I Done?" - and a new way of life. It's kind of like what happened to Trinity Wheeler a few years back. The production manager for the touring company of Les Misérables (currently at Philadelphia's Academy of Music)

The Eagles on Wednesday re-signed defensive tackle Antonio Dixon and placed quarterback Nick Foles on injured reserve. Dixon, 27, spent the last three seasons with the Eagles. He was released Aug. 31 and played two games with the Indianapolis Colts. The move was needed because the Eagles were down to three healthy defensive tackles after Fletcher Cox suffered a concussion. Dixon understands the Eagles defense. "He'll know most of the terminology, and we'll just see," coach Andy Reid said.

TEMPLE COACH Steve Addazio wants it known that offseason boot camp is officially open for business. And he's playing the role of bad cop. That's what happens when you don't make it to a bowl game, even in a year when logic suggested you probably weren't supposed to. The Owls, after being picked to finish last in their first season back in the Big East since 2004, went 4-7. They lost five of their last six. The end came Friday, at home against Syracuse....

Students at Cristo Rey Philadelphia High School - a new private, Catholic school for low-income students - got a jump start on the academic year Monday. While their friends slept late, 125 ninth graders reported at 8 a.m. to the social hall of Our Lady of Hope parish on North Broad Street in Logan, to begin a three-week boot camp of classes and discussions that is to prepare them for Cristo Rey's unusual blend of college-prep classes and work-study jobs. Dressed in crisp plaids, gray slacks, white shirts, and dark ties, the students signed in, received their schedules, collected their supplies, and then settled into folding chairs for an assembly.

Now you can make a reservation to get your workout on while traveling. Name: GoRecess.com What it does: The website allows you to book exercise classes, including yoga, cardio, boot camp, prenatal and postnatal, martial arts, and more. Cost: Free, but prices for classes vary. What's hot: Dear concierge, you need to know about this website for your hotel clients. For the rest of you: Forget about hunting through online studio schedules to find a fitness class to fit your schedule while on a business trip or vacation - now you can book exercise classes on GoRecess.

WASHINGTON - They came to the Capitol on crutches, with canes and walkers, and in wheelchairs. But most of these black men in their 80s and 90s, with a few over age 100, walked in Wednesday, despite the ravages of age, to be recognized with the nation's highest civilian honor for their courage and determination. About 400 of the first black Marines - 20 or so from the Philadelphia area - received a giant salute from Congress and the entire country as they were presented with the Congressional Gold Medal at Emancipation Hall for their service during World War II. They were greeted with a fanfare they could not have imagined when they were training at Montford Point, a segregated and substandard boot camp about five miles from all-white Camp Lejeune, N.C., from 1942 to 1949.

WASHINGTON - They came to the Capitol on crutches, with canes and walkers, and in wheelchairs. But most of these black men in their 80s and 90s, with a few over age 100, walked in Wednesday, despite the ravages of age, to be recognized with the nation's highest civilian honor for their courage and determination. About 400 of the first black Marines - 20 or so from the Philadelphia area - received a giant salute from Congress and the entire country as they were presented with the Congressional Gold Medal at Emancipation Hall for their service during World War II. They were greeted with a fanfare they could not have imagined when they were training at Montford Point, a segregated and substandard boot camp about five miles from all-white Camp Lejeune, N.C., from 1942 to 1949.

At Woodstown High School in Salem County, Derek Kerns wasn't sure what he wanted to do with his life. He seemed a "little directionless," principal Scott Hoopes said. Kerns "had his ups and downs," said Christopher Snyder, the assistant principal. "He was a skinny kid with long, shaggy, red hair and relaxed, slouchy gait. " All of that changed in 2008 after Kerns graduated and entered the Marine Corps. The young man who returned to the school after boot camp at Parris Island, S.C., bore little resemblance to the one who left.