Delaware

Pam Chandler decided to accompany her husband, Bob, to the extraordinary auction of an Ocean City, N.J., mansion Saturday to keep him from "going overboard. " But an hour after she toured the 7,000-square-foot Victorian-style house on the Great Bay, she was the one prodding him to stay in the frenzied bidding on the breezy bayside veranda. The Chandlers, who live in Rumson, Monmouth County, with their three children, won the auction, ultimately paying $3.9 million for a property that was listed at about $6.5 million two years ago. It is assessed at $5 million.

A dream had carried the boys so far from home, some 5,000 miles across the ocean to a cramped and dingy apartment in Philadelphia: a hope that ice hockey could change their lives. Ivan Pravilov could fulfill that dream, they were told. He could take them from the daily grind of post-communist Ukraine to the gleaming ice of the NHL. He'd done it before. He'd done if for Andrei Zyuzin, who went on to play for six NHL teams. He'd done it for Konstantin Kalmikov, a third-round draft pick of the Toronto Maple Leafs in 1996.

So many parents and alumni of St. Denis Catholic School in Havertown supported merging with friendly CYO rival Annunciation B.V.M., the marriage should have gone off without a hitch. Instead, parishioners hoping to embrace the past and future in a name were told the regional school would honor the late Cardinal John Foley. The decision was, in their pastor's words, "nonnegotiable. " Children voted on a mascot, only to have their choices (Cardinals, Falcons, or Phoenixes)

Just downstream from an industrial recycling operation and a stone's throw from a sewage treatment plant, a fisherman casts his line toward the passing barge traffic and watches it drop into the Delaware River. A couple eating lunch watch curiously. "No way would I ever eat anything from there," the woman says. The fishers who frequent the pier in Camden's Waterfront South neighborhood have heard it all before. That they're crazy, that they're going to grow an extra head or get sick from eating what they catch.

DOVER, Del. - A Delaware Park casino employee has been charged with scamming casino patrons, state police said Thursday. Ashok Kaushal, 60, of Wilmington, was arrested Wednesday and charged with four counts of felony theft involving amounts under $1,500 and victims who are at least 62 years old, authorities said. Kaushal was released on $4,000 bail. Investigators allege that Kaushal, a cage cashier employee, failed to pay on some cash vouchers presented for redemption and kept the vouchers, later cashing them himself.

Delaware at Villanova When: Saturday at 3:30 p.m., PPL Park. TV/Radio: Comcast Network/ESPN-AM (950) Records: Delaware, 6-4 overall, 4-3 Colonial Athletic Association; Villanova, 2-8, 1-6. Coaches: Delaware, K.C. Keeler (10th season, 80-46); Villanova, Andy Talley (27th season, 190-115-1). Series: The Wildcats lead, 23-20-1. Last season, Villanova needed overtime to win, 28-21. Delaware hasn't defeated the Wildcats since 2005.

BETHANY BEACH, Del. - Perched on a counter stool, Lisa Cunningham was flipping through dozens of vacation food photos on her iPhone while she waited for lunch at Matt's Fish Camp restaurant. Dressed for the beach, the Virginia resident recalled each dish with such zeal, one would assume she had just returned from a gastronomic tour of Provence. But this digestible anthology was compiled in - wait for it - Delaware. Delaware? It turns out that a respectable number of good restaurants have sprouted in the towns that line Delaware's coast in recent years.

Delaware had 12 recruits, 10 from high school and two transfers. Bowling Green transfer Trent Hurley, who has three years of eligibility, is expected to challenge for the quarterback job, while highly regarded wide receiver Andrew Peterson is the lone recruit from Delaware. The other transfer is offensive lineman Sam Collura, who didn't play as a true freshman last season at Pitt. Name                  Ht. Wt. Pos. High School Connor Bozick          6-5 300 OL    DeMatha (Md.)

FRISCO, Texas - Pat Devlin transferred to Delaware from Penn State in 2009 for two reasons: to get playing time and win a national title. The fifth-year senior quarterback from Downingtown East has to settle for playing time. Eastern Washington defeated Delaware, 20-19, Friday night at Pizza Hut Park for the NCAA Football Championship Subdivision title. The victory, in front of a crowd of 13,027, gave the Eagles (13-2) their first national title. Junior quarterback Bo Levi Mitchell, a Southern Methodist transfer, produced three second-half touchdown passes.

KANSAS CITY - Evans Frimpong's dream of becoming a professional soccer player began on another continent. His determination to achieve that dream has sent him all across the United States; sleeping in different beds, waking up in different time zones, and spending entirely too much time away from family - even for a 22-year-old. Ask Frimpong's coaches and friends, and they'll tell you his dedication holds no boundaries. A student earning a sociology degree from the University of Delaware, he is passionate about soccer, and his skill and work ethic convey it. A native of Ghana, Frimpong spent a year at the University of Texas at Brownsville before landing at Delaware after being spotted by Blue Hens head coach Ian Hennessy.

In a game-changing move for both the Port of Wilmington and the state of Delaware, officials are pursuing a partnership with a private company or investment group to operate the publicly owned terminal and to expand the port by constructing ship berths on the Delaware River that could cost as much as $500 million. The state-owned Wilmington port touts itself as the largest handler of imported perishable cargo, fruits and vegetables in the United States and as the largest banana port in North America, second only to Antwerp, Belgium, in volume of bananas in the world.

After nearly two years of litigation, the families of the two Hungarian tourists killed in the July 2010 accident between a barge and a duck boat on the Delaware River will receive $15 million from the companies that owned the vessels. "For the families, no amount can replace their priceless only children," their lawyer, Robert Mongeluzzi, said moments after announcing the settlement in the federal case. Szabolcs Prem, 20, and Dora Schwendtner, 16, who were visiting Philadelphia from Hungary, died in the accident.

POST TIME: 1:15PM 1st RACE - Purse $14,000, Starters allowance $6,250, 4 yo's & up, 6F 01 Graysonia (D Centeno) 118 2/1 01a Dazzlin Dr Cologne (D Centeno) 123 2/1 02 Tripplite (Y Ortiz) 108 12/1 03 Cayman Condo (J Santiago) 120 6/1 04 Hammering Buckeye (C Esquilin) 116 15/1 05 Dryden (A Cintron) 123 8/5 06 Northpoint Costas (R Mejias) 118 8/1 07 St John's Gospel (J Rose) 118 5/1 2nd RACE - Purse $12,000, Maiden Claiming $10,000-$7,500, 3 yo's & up, 6F 01 Sombreado (B Pedroza)

This story is the first in a series celebrating the 75th anniversary of the Delaware Handicap. After the famous stretch-long duel between rivals Blind Luck and Havre de Grace in last year's Delaware Handicap, expectations for the 2012 filly and mare summer classic, slated for July 21, have never been higher. The dramatic victory proved to be the final and greatest in the brilliant career of Blind Luck. The gallant defeat did nothing but improve Havre de Grace's stature as one of the best in training and proved to be a pivotal stepping stone in a campaign that culminated with Horse of the Year honors for the locally owned and trained filly.

Three solo and three group shows hold sway currently at the Delaware Center for Contemporary Arts, in a roundup featuring many Philadelphia artists. A degree of spontaneity stamps the double shows "Under Construction, Parts I and II," which display work by 10 regional artists currently involved in combining various aspects of construction, architecture, design and sculpture. Some use ordinary building materials, others construction-site discards. Especially compelling are robust sculptural works Acanthus Model and The Movement of Objects by Wilmington's Joe Netta, both subtle essays in texture, structure, and composition - energetic, evocative pieces that establish definite mood and atmosphere.

Unemployment fell to 8.4 percent in March in the Philadelphia region that includes parts of Maryland, Delaware and New Jersey, the U.S. Labor Department reported Wednesday. That's down from 8.8 percent in February and 8.6 percent a year ago. The national unemployment rate in March was 8.2 percent. Gloucester, Burlington and Camden counties, which together form the Camden metropolitan division, had a 9.7 percent unemployment rate, while Philadelphia, Chester, Montgomery, Bucks and Delaware counties, averaged together, had an unemployment rate of 8.1 percent in March.

Bryn Mawr Bank Corp. said it agreed to buy most assets of the First Bank of Delaware, which has two branches and is winding down operations. Bryn Mawr is buying one of those branches and about $100 million in loans and $100 million in deposits, Bryn Mawr said. The price was not disclosed. The First Bank of Delaware was spun off from Philadelphia's Republic First Bancorp Inc. in 2005. Harry D. Madonna, Republic First's chairman and chief executive and executive chairman of First Bank of Delaware said the Delaware bank "will eventually close.

Delaware gets it, says KR Sridhar, space-engineering professor-turned-Silicon Valley energy missionary, and boss of Bloom Energy (formerly Ion America), which plans to build what he says are efficient electricity-generating fuel cells — a Holy Grail of energy engineering — in Newark, Del., on the rubble of an old Chrysler plant. With state support, of course: $16 million in grants, a new state law that allows Delmarva Power to use fuel cells instead of solar or wind power for green-energy credits, and a consumer surcharge that will boost the cost of electricity to Delaware homeowners by more than $1 a month, for up to 21 years, with the money going to Bloom.

The U.S. House Subcommittee on Energy and Water has approved nearly all of President Obama's request to finance the disputed project to deepen the Delaware River's main shipping channel to 45 feet. The subcommittee's report, released Tuesday, includes $29.45 million for the project. Obama had requested $31 million. Digging the river channel five feet deeper has been debated for nearly three decades and is supported by a bipartisan effort of members of Congress in Pennsylvania and Delaware, governors of the two states, and business and labor leaders.

Aronimink Golf Club in Newtown Square hosts thousands of golfers who hit thousands of balls into water hazards each year. This week, four people from Michigan decided to retrieve some of those strays - by diving into the ponds. According to Willistown police, the four were arrested at the club early Wednesday. In their white van and trailer, police found scuba equipment and about 8,000 golf balls, some marked "White Manor Country Club. " Police said the four claimed they had permission from White Manor to retrieve the balls from the murky water hazards and resell them.