Ed

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.

ATLANTA - Almost all U.S. teens have had formal sex education, but only about two-thirds have been taught about birth-control methods, says a government report released yesterday. Many teens apparently are not absorbing those lessons - other recent data shows that after years of steady decline, the birth rate for teenagers rose from 2005 to 2007. It dipped again in 2008, to about 10 percent of all births. -Associated Press

So just how much Ed is there to go around? As Mayor Rendell sorts out which Philadelphia commitments he'll keep as he takes over as general chairman of the Democratic National Committee, he's decided to step down as chairman of the National Constitution Center. "I was concerned because we're getting money from Congress," Rendell said, "and I wanted to make sure the Congressional Republicans didn't in any way punish the Constitution Center for me being its chairperson. " The $130 million-dollar interactive museum set for Independence Mall has already received $20 million in federal funding, and hopes for $45 million more.

Heather Moriarty, a sophomore at Archbishop Wood High School for Girls, was sitting in the back of the school's auditorium when she raised her hand to ask a question. "What are the guys going to wear as uniforms?" asked Moriarty, 15, crisp in her Kelly-green sweater and anklets and green-and-white plaid skirt. The crowd of about 750 freshmen, sophomores, juniors and seniors erupted in applause. "If we have to wear uniforms, then the guys have to wear uniforms," Moriarty said after the assembly.

THIS LETTER is to let you know that I have the back of all the Sixers fans (and all Philly fans for that matter) who were unjustifiably taken to task by Brad Geiger in his recent op-ed. How dare he call out Sixers fans because they didn't "rise to the moment" and fill the house for Game 4 of the recent playoff series. Sixers fans are so loyal, so passionate and so knowledgeable that I won't even dignify Mr. Geiger's incredible statements with any type of lengthy argument. None is necessary.

I AM APPALLED at the op-ed you featured on the Special Olympics. Without even getting into my opinion on such segregated activities, ones in which people with disabilities are seen as pitiful and less than worthy of participation in society with the rest of the human race, you need to know that your language is offensive and demeaning. "Mentally handicapped"? "Emotionally retarded"? "Retarded"? These terms are as offensive as any racial or ethnic slur. And how comforting to know that the Special Olympics segregates individuals according to their IQ and so-called "ability levels.

According to recently published statistics, one of every 10 teenage girls becomes pregnant, and almost half of these pregnancies result in births to girls under the age of 15. The realities of adolescent motherhood - being on welfare, having no husband, no job, little secondary education, bills to be paid and being a child raising a child - do not hit the girls until it is too late. The more teenagers think they have to lose with a pregnancy, the more likely it is they will try to avoid premature parenthood.

Some families just keep on growing. The Rendell administration has given birth to its 10th deputy mayor, and an 11th may be on the way. Linda S. Berkowitz, a deputy managing director for the past two years, was named deputy mayor for special projects by Mayor Rendell on Tuesday. She will work closely with the administration's Office of Management and Productivity, implementing the city's five-year plan and measures recommended by loaned executives working in the mayor's private-sector task force.

PHIL Goldsmith's Jan. 12 op-ed calling for the mayor to tear up the police contract awarded by an arbitrator, is laughable. He blames the city's financial problems on the people who support it most instead of a political party that has been in control for over 50 years. Goldsmith says the city can't afford to lose any more of the middle class to surrounding counties but fails to address the issues causing the flight, like Section 8 housing. Does the present administration know that casino gambling is now legal in Pennsylvania?

Three and a half weeks after he took office, Mayor Rendell has named Philadelphia radio reporter Karen Turner as his press secretary. Turner, a reporter and anchor for WPEN-AM since 1989, has a law degree from Northwestern University and a master's from the Columbia University school of journalism. "This is a chance to see things from a different perspective," Turner said in an interview yesterday. "It's a critical time in the city's history, and if he can get us out, the sky's the limit.

  The Philadelphia School District wants to revamp career and technical education - eliminating outdated programs, beefing up existing ones, and adding offerings in high-growth, 21st century job areas. Officials said Wednesday that to help modernize what were formerly referred to as vocational programs, they have named career and technical education expert Clyde Hornberger to a new job and started a strategic planning process specifically for that area. Hornberger, who has consulted with the district in the past, was formerly head of the well-regarded Lehigh Career and Technical Institute.

A BRITISH PRINCE will pay a royal visit to Philadelphia at the end of the month. Nope, not William or Harry. Prince Edward, the youngest son of Queen Elizabeth II, is coming to the city on April 26 and 27 for a series of events to mark his mother's 60 years on the throne, the city announced Tuesday. And Mayor Nutter is delighted. "This is a high honor for us here in Philadelphia," Nutter said. "I'm looking forward to meeting Prince Edward, strengthening our ties.

POLITICIANS cashing in as soon as they leave office may be the world's second-oldest profession - and, arguably, it's a job that nobody does better than Pennsylvanians. Consider ex-governor and ex-Homeland Security chief Tom Ridge, who became a paid director of Home Depot a few years after his Department of Homeland Security urged Americans to stock up on duct tape. Or Rick Santorum, ousted senator-turned-presidential candidate - a career politician who recently has earned as much as $1 million a year, some of it consulting for companies whose agendas he fought for in Congress.

WHEN THE preliminary box-office numbers are announced each Sunday, Hollywood likes to put a positive spin on them, even if the week's top movie is an oven-roasted turkey. This week, however, the discussion really was about which movie was the bigger bomb? The contestants were "John Carter" and "A Thousand Words. " "John Carter" cost an astronomical $250 million - remember when Disney said that it was no longer going to make big-budget movies? - and there were hopes that it would jump-start the box office for the summer tentpole releases and kick off a franchise.

ALTHOUGH it is a for-profit private school, Delaware Valley High School is licensed by the Pennsylvania Department of Education as an alternative-education private provider, funded by tax dollars and equipped for students with motivational or behavioral problems who have been discharged from traditional schools. DVHS was founded in 1969 as a private school for troubled kids. Its president, Philadelphia attorney David T. Shulick, took over in 1999, when state law was changed to allow school districts to contract with private companies to take in students with disciplinary problems.

IN THE 1997 Jack Nicholson/Helen Hunt Oscar-nominated film "As Good as It Gets," Nicholson's character - in a group therapy session - asks, fittingly, "What if this is as good as it gets?" When it comes to leadership in Harrisburg, where everyone is or should be in therapy, the same question ia appropriate. And, if this is as good as it gets, Pennsylvania needs a political lobotomy. Anyone looking at anything connected to the Capitol these days would condone radical response: if not surgery, certainly torches and pitchforks.

HERE WE go again. Last year, Governor Tom Corbett proposed a budget that would have slashed state support for Penn State and other state-related universities by 50 percent. There was much wailing and gnashing of teeth, and much criticism of the new governor - and by the time the final budget was passed, the cuts to higher ed had been whittled down to a merely severe 19 percent. This year, Corbett is back again with the same ax, asking for a 30 percent cut in state support to three of the four state-related universities - Penn State, Temple, and the University of Pittsburgh.

As Delaware County's financially troubled Chester Upland School District struggles to stay afloat, officials there say they are paying millions more than they should on special-education students who attend charter schools. School districts pay charters to teach their children, using a complicated formula set by state law. About 45 percent of Chester Upland's students attend charters. Chester Upland's payments are based on the previous year's expense of educating students in its own schools, minus some costs charters do not incur.

I REACHED my seat Saturday night at the Palestra right at 7:30 to watch the St. Joe-Penn game. My son Jesse, and Steve Bilsky, Penn's terrific athletic director, wanted to talk to me. I figured Bilsky might want to tell me some recruiting news, but instead he told me that Joe Paterno was gravely ill - that he might pass away during the basketball game. He wanted to know if that happened, whether the game should be interrupted for an announcement and a moment of silence. I told him yes, and I thought it would be a very classy thing for Penn to do. Steve told me that some others he had asked disagreed.

LAS VEGAS - As a guitar-maker for the stars, musician Ed Roman found a platform for fierce opinions about his commercially manufactured competition, exhorting musicians to drop what he called "misdirected ignorant brand loyalty. " His own guitars found their way into the hands of everyone from Ted Nugent to British rockers Eric Burdon of The Animals and John Entwistle of The Who. Roman, sometimes likened to a Viking for his red hair, was unafraid to unleash self-described politically incorrect opinions about foreign-made products, chain stores and corporate guitar manufacturers.