Courts

The Supreme Court needs to decide whether an inherited individual retirement account is protected from the claims of creditors in bankruptcy because U.S. circuit courts of appeal are now divided on the issue. Chief Judge Frank Easterbrook, on the Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit in Chicago, disagreed last month with an opinion last year from the Fifth Circuit appeals court in New Orleans. Easterbrook concluded that inherited IRAs are not exempt in bankruptcy. An IRA funded by someone's own contributions is immune from creditors' claims in bankruptcy.

In the five or so years that Larry MacCluen has taught tennis on the courts of the Wedgewood Swim Club, there have been smells so bad it was enough to make his students gag. He'd move them to a more distant court. "This [the bad smell] has probably happened three or four times a year" for the last four years, MacCluen said. But on March 10, the smell, he said, was "ungodly. " He went to investigate - something he had not done before. In a wooded area not far from the tennis courts, with vegetation bare due to the time of year, he viewed a round cement structure that was spewing smelly, nasty stuff out of a manhole.

HARRISBURG — After a protracted legal battle, the state Supreme Court upheld Pennsylvania's latest legislative redistricting plan, saying the new maps comply with the state constitution. The court ordered the revised maps to take effect for the next statewide round of legislative elections in 2014. The redrawn maps had been the subject of more than a dozen legal challenges, from state Senate Democrats as well as residents in Bucks, Montgomery, and Philadelphia Counties. Those groups argued that the new blueprint still unnecessarily split too many counties, municipalities, and other political subdivisions, often for political reasons.

The contest for the Democratic nomination to the state's busiest appellate court is between two lower-court judges who preside at opposite ends of Pennsylvania, and whose resumés differ almost as much as the state's east and west. The winner of the May 21 primary election will run in the fall against Harrisburg corporate attorney Victor P. Stabile, who is unopposed for the Republican nomination. At stake is a seat on the 15-member Superior Court, which handles all state criminal and civil appeals not involving governance issues.

The remaining children of the Northeast Philadelphia faith-healing couple who chose prayer over medicine in two child deaths are receiving court-ordered medical care, defense attorneys said Monday. Herbert and Catherine Schaible's seven children were placed in temporary foster care after the couple told police they did not bring their 8-month-old, Brandon, to a doctor when he showed serious signs of illness last month. The Schaibles - members of a church that shuns medical care - are on probation for the 2009 death of their 2-year-old son, Kent.

From Family Court to elegant hotel? With 15 stories' worth of steel beams in place for a new Family Court building at 15th and Arch Streets, city development officials can shift more attention to another major project - turning the old Family Court at 18th and Vine Streets into something more than another vacant building when the court moves into new quarters next year. Former Gov. Ed Rendell had no doubt what would happen to the old court building when he committed $200 million in state funds for the new courthouse in 2010.

FORTY candidates are running for Traffic Court judgeships in the May 21 primary. They are living proof that there is not always strength in numbers. Among the contenders: One candidate was convicted on a morals charge. Another's experience with Traffic Court is as a scofflaw. A number could be running because of the $91,000 annual salary, given that they have back taxes due, owe money to PGW or face foreclosure on their homes. Most of the candidates, mercifully, will lose. But because there are three vacancies on the court, some will win. That is bad enough.

HARRISBURG - A dispute involving a decades-old law that allows boys to play on girls' high school sports teams appears to be headed to court. Lawyers representing the Pennsylvania Interscholastic Athletic Association - which says it would like the law changed to make sure girls do not lose athletic opportunities and for safety reasons - and Attorney General Kathleen Kane's office met Friday afternoon in Commonwealth Court. "It looks like we are headed toward an evidentiary hearing of some sort," Pittsburgh lawyer Mary Grenen said after the status conference between the two sides.

When it works well, the music business can be Darwinian: The best music will find its audience, somehow. Parquet Courts' Light Up Gold is a case in point. Released last summer on the band's own label, the album followed the Brooklyn band's noisy, lo-fi debut, which was first released only on cassette and generated little notice. But Light Up Gold , recorded in three days in the band's rehearsal space, is a bold, bracing blast of punk rock, full of sharp, rousing riffs behind wordy, witty rants, and it found enough acclaim for a larger indie label, What's My Rupture?

PENNSYLVANIA Supreme Court Chief Justice Ronald D. Castille lost his right leg in battle in Vietnam, but it was the scars he's received as an advocate for the new Family Court building that were highlighted at a ceremony at the construction site yesterday. "This is a reality because of you, sir," Family Court Administrative Judge Kevin Dougherty said to Castille. "The hard work and scars our chief justice bears [occurred] so everyone can seek justice in this building. " Castille, Dougherty and other area officials were on hand for a "topping out" ceremony of the building on Arch Street near 15th.