Closings

A tiny church that has served Spanish-speaking Philadelphians for a century will be closed in June, leaving behind a history that stretches from Spain to Spring Garden Street and is marked by the benevolence of a future saint with a keen sense of inflation. Katharine Drexel, the daughter of a Philadelphia investment banker who was canonized as a Catholic saint in 2000, contributed $1,080 toward the $12,250 purchase in 1912 of a Spring Garden property that became a cherished chapel, called La Milagrosa, where generations of Hispanics have worshiped.

After five weeks of testimony by 34 witnesses and 546 exhibits, Philadelphia prosecutors closed their case Thursday in the murder trial of West Philadelphia abortion doctor Kermit Gosnell. On Monday, lawyers for Gosnell, 72, and Eileen O'Neill, 56, an unlicensed doctor who worked in Gosnell's family practice, will begin presenting their cases to the Common Pleas Court jury of seven women and five men. It's not known if Gosnell or O'Neill will testify. The jury has been told that the Constitution does not require the defense to present a case and that it may not consider whether it does in reaching a verdict.

The Philadelphia School Reform Commission on Thursday night ordered another city school to shut in June. Once a national model for helping low-income students succeed, and the subject of an Oscar-winning documentary, M. Hall Stanton on North 16th Street became another building on the Philadelphia School District's closing list - 24 in all. The vote was 3-1, with Sylvia Simms voting against. Commissioner Joseph Dworetzky was absent. Simms declined to explain her vote. The decision crushed Stanton supporters, who had made emotional pleas to keep their school open.

A decade ago, M.H. Stanton Elementary School was the toast of national education circles - celebrated for its success in helping low-income students reach their full potential, the subject of an Oscar-winning documentary. Four months ago, Stanton was tapped to house students from a nearby Philadelphia public school slated to shut in June. But on Thursday night, the School Reform Commission will vote on a recommendation to close Stanton, at 16th and Cumberland Streets. Why?

Two Chester Upland School District buildings would be closed, students would be transferred, and the Chester High School building would be renamed and redefined under a consolidation plan unveiled Thursday. The plan is intended to go into effect in September, district officials said. At a hearing, court-appointed receiver Joseph Watkins unveiled a plan that would close the Smedley school building, home to the Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) High School, and relocate its students to the Showalter building, which houses an intermediate school program.

A Montgomery County Court jury deliberated for more than six hours Tuesday on murder charges against Luckenson Desrivieres, who stabbed two friends at a Norristown boardinghouse in June 2012. As of 9:30 p.m., the jurors had not decided and deliberations were suspended for the night. Desrivieres, 25, argued that he stabbed Marc Winchell Estiverne, 23, and Shamara Hill, 26, in self-defense after they attacked him for "snitching" on members of a Haitian Bloods gang in Newark, N.J. Attorneys offered closing statements Tuesday, the prosecution depicting Desrivieres as a cold-blooded street thug and the defense portraying a reformed man whose life was in danger.

Two days before the School Reform Commission was scheduled to vote on closing Beeber Middle School, parent Katherine Stokes' phone rang. Beeber had been spared. Bowing to concerns about safety and a lack of choice for families, Superintendent William R. Hite Jr. rescinded the recommendation Tuesday. Officials will instead work with the community to explore developing an arts academy to attract more students to the school. "We're just utilizing the recommendations that the community put forward," Hite said.

CINCINNATI - The images of terror were shown on four TVs inside the visiting clubhouse at Great American Ballpark. A shirtless Jonathan Papelbon sat stunned. He stood up, pointed to a corner of one screen, and told Cliff Lee, "That's where I lived. " Papelbon played seven seasons for the Boston Red Sox. He called the corner of Boylston and Fairfield Streets home for a majority of that time. The second explosion Monday that rocked Boston happened yards away from his old building, which was above a steakhouse called Abe & Louie's.

Two days before the School Reform Commission was scheduled to vote on closing Beeber Middle School, parent Katherine Stokes' phone rang. Beeber was spared, Stokes and others in the community said. It's been a roller-coaster ride for the school, which was not on the Philadelphia School District's initial closing list, but got put on a revised list, along with M.H. Stanton Elementary School in North Philadelphia. Officials informed the Beeber community Tuesday that it was being taken off the closing list.