Closings

On Thursday, Superintendent William R. Hite Jr. will announce the proposed closures of 37 school buildings, plus multiple other changes coming to the cash-poor Philadelphia School District. Hite is proposing that the buildings listed for closure - around 20 elementary schools, a handful of middle schools, and about 10 high schools - shut their doors for good in June, according to sources and documents obtained by The Inquirer. The schools are in nearly every part of the city and include well-known ones with long histories, such as Bok, Germantown, Strawberry Mansion, and University City High Schools.

Fourteen of the Philadelphia School District's most dangerous schools are among the 44 set to close or be relocated, according to an Inquirer analysis. That includes four neighborhood high schools - Strawberry Mansion, Germantown, Douglas and Lamberton - all of which recorded at least five violent incidents per 100 students in 2011-12. Of the 14, Strawberry Mansion topped the list, with more than 10 violent incidents per 100 students in each of the past five years. Last school year, it was the second most violent school in the district.

THE CITY PLAN to close five fire companies to save $3 million is as outrageous as it is dangerous. Overall fires are up and fire deaths are through the roof. There is a surplus of more than $160 million and this plan is being pushed to save a paltry $3 million. The mayor is gambling with the safety of every resident and their families. Let your councilperson know that you won't stand for being used as a pawn in the mayor's game of political Russian roulette. Joseph Lee Philadelphia

PHILADELPHIA government and city schools will again be closed Tuesday as the region recovers from Hurricane Sandy. Schools Superintendent William Hite said Monday that district staff will check buildings after the storm passes to decide when they're ready to reopen. CITY GOVERNMENT: All city employees, except for emergency personnel will have another day off. Trash pickup scheduled for Tuesday won't be picked up until next Tuesday. COURTS: State and federal courts will be closed.

A shouting and chanting crowd of hundreds told officials Thursday night exactly what they thought of a Philadelphia School District plan to close 37 schools and change grades and shut programs at dozens more. "SOS! Save our schools!" hundreds yelled as they marched up North Broad Street toward district headquarters. "Whose city? Our city! Whose schools? Our schools!" It was a dramatic stand against the planned closings of one in six city schools, announced last week. Closings were not on the agenda of the School Reform Commission's voting meeting, but they quickly became the hot potato of the evening, with students, teachers, parents, and community members demanding answers.

RE "THE disappearing maternity wards" by Dr. Jennifer Simmons (April 18): Dear Doctor, Repeatedly, all I hear are the complaints from doctors and politicians about jury awards. Why is it you never hear a doctor criticize another doctor about his lack of skills? Maybe medical-school standards need to be higher. I wouldn't want a surgeon - or any doctor - who just squeaked by in school to practice on me. Nor would I want a doctor who is not fit to practice caring for my family or me. Doctors know which colleagues shouldn't be practicing, but you never hear that - publicly.

President Bush has ordered federal agencies to close Tuesday, the day of former President Gerald R. Ford's funeral at the National Cathedral in Washington. The Postal Service announced that mail deliveries would be suspended, with normal service resuming Wednesday. U.S. stock markets will close Tuesday, as will energy and agricultural exchanges. Also, bond and currency trading will be conducted in abbreviated sessions. philly.com Read and view much more about Gerald Ford?s life and presidency and share your thoughts about him via http://go.

Here are the list of Archdiocese of Philadelphia's school closings/mergers, announced Jan. 6: BUCKS COUNTY St. Michael the Archangel , Levittown, merges with Our Lady of Grace , Penndel at the Penndel site. St. Mark , Bristol, merges with St. Ephrem , Bensalem, at the Bensalem site. Assumption BVM , Feasterville, merges with St. Bede the Venerable , Holland, at the Holland site. Holy Trinity , Morrisville, merges with St. John the Evangelist , Lower Makefield, at the Lower Makefield site.

Calling all Catholics. Our church is in trouble and we need to act now if we hope to save it. By the end of this month, more than a dozen Catholic churches and schools will be suppressed and the Eucharist removed from their communities. Alarmingly, recent history indicates that this is just the beginning. In Detroit, more than 30 neighborhoods lost their churches in a year. In Chicago, more than 70 worshipping communities were wiped out over two years. If we don't act now, Philadelphia will be similarly affected.

These emergency storm measures were announced Friday by area transit, bridge, and parking agencies. Conditions may warrant changes. SEPTA: All operations will cease at 12:30 a.m. Sunday.* Selected Regional Rail routes will end service at 5 p.m. Saturday.* Operations will resume at midday Sunday or later. NJ TRANSIT: Rail service will be suspended at 12 p.m. Saturday.* Bus service and light-rail transit ends at 6 p.m. Saturday.* Access Link Service will be suspended at 6 p.m. Saturday.

CHICAGO - The Chicago Board of Education voted yesterday to close 50 schools and programs, an ambitious plan that has sparked protests and lawsuits and could help define - for better or worse - Mayor Rahm Emanuel's term in office. City officials say the closings are necessary because of falling school enrollment and as part of their efforts to improve the city's struggling education system. "The only consideration for us today is to do exactly what is right for the children," schools chief executive Barbara Byrd-Bennett said before the board's vote.

When a U.S. military commander suggests medical facilities at the prison at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, may have to be upgraded to care for aging terrorism detainees, it's a clear sign that President Obama needs to redouble efforts to deliver on his 2008 campaign pledge to close the embarrassing facility. Even more compelling, before beefing up health-care services for the retirement set, prison authorities may need to expand their morgue. A hunger strike by many of the 166 men being held at the island naval base without trial has entered its fourth month.

The Guarneri Quartet is no more, and yet there it was (plus one), closing the Philadelphia Chamber Music Society season Friday night. You couldn't fool the audience at the American Philosophical Society, which greeted the four former members of the quartet with love obviously rooted in the years between 1964 and 2009, when the Guarneri was a real force. They met at Marlboro Music, the Vermont school and festival that is PCMS' sister organization, and the clubbiness surrounding both groups cuts both ways.

NEW YORK - Encouraging news about the U.S. economy extended the stock market's rally Friday. A gauge of future economic activity rose more than analysts had expected, as did a measure of consumer confidence, adding to evidence that the economy is steadily recovering. Stocks closed higher for a fourth straight week. Indexes are at record levels after surging this year on optimism about the economy and record corporate earnings. The market is also being supported by ongoing stimulus from the Federal Reserve, which is keeping long-term borrowing costs at historically low levels.

Five grew up on the hard streets of North Philadelphia, one in the killing fields of Cambodia. Two are social workers, one is a nurse, another a soldier who served two tours in Iraq. They are black, Latino, and Asian, all about the same age, all but two of them mothers, all bound to one another today through the happenstance of having long ago shared a particular middle-school teacher. Their intergenerational, multiracial friendship might be unusual in parts of the Philadelphia region, recently named among the nation's most segregated, but it thrives at Caryl Levin's house in Melrose Park.

New Jersey's public defenders are going to court to stop Gloucester County from closing its county jail and splitting its 250 to 350 inmates among four other county jails, including one in Newark. Not only will the move make it difficult for public defenders to help their clients, but the Gloucester County Board of Chosen Freeholders' decision to close the facility is a violation of state regulations, the lawsuit says. "We do not, as a matter of policy, comment on matters involving litigation," Gloucester County spokeswoman Debra Sellitto responded Monday.

NEW YORK - The Dow Jones industrial average rose, closing above 15,000 for a second day after passing the landmark level for the first time Tuesday. On Wednesday, a day without any major economic releases, investors focused on company earnings as reporting for the first quarter draws to a close. Although earnings growth has slowed from last quarter, profits are at record levels and projected to rise throughout the year. The Dow closed up 48.92 points, or 0.3 percent, at 15,105.12.

NEW YORK - Two months after recovering the last of its losses from the financial crisis, the Dow Jones industrial average charged higher Tuesday, closing above 15,000 for the first time. It was another milestone in the market's epic ascent of 2013. Good economic reports, strong corporate earnings, and fresh support from central banks have eased investors' concerns about another economic slowdown. Many had been on the lookout for signs that a spring swoon would derail the rally, as in each of the last three years.

Sometimes the absurdities of an official policy or action are so clear that they need not be elucidated. Such is the case with the Obama administration's maintenance of the U.S. detention facility at Guantanamo Bay. Last week, President Obama told reporters that he intends to once again press Congress to close the facility, as he had promised to do in his first campaign. But there is no indication that the president intends to devote any of his remaining political capital to the task - any more than he did during his first term.

FORT MEADE, Md. - Government secrecy reaches a new level this week in the court-martial of Army Pfc. Bradley Manning, an intelligence analyst who sent 700,000 classified U.S. documents to the WikiLeaks website. A military judge, Col. Denise Lind, has ordered what prosecutors say is an unprecedented closed hearing Wednesday at Fort Meade to help her decide how much of Manning's coming trial should be closed to protect national security. An unidentified prosecution witness will testify during that closed hearing in a "dry run. " Defense attorneys say that could allow the judge to find ways to avoid closing the courtroom to the public during the presentation of classified evidence.