Independence Day

Will Smith, the Artist Formerly Known as Fresh Prince, is all over the place. Folks are cheering his on-screen appearance in the blockbuster "Independence Day. " He's People magazine's coverboy this week. You'll find a two-page pullout poster of him in today's Daily News (on Pages 36-37). And he was spied in his hometown last week eating large (see Stu Bykofsky's column). Not bad for a guy whose major claim to fame to this point has been to inspire an entire generation of kids to wear their jeans baggy and their caps backwards.

They see their adopted country in ways that Americans never could. They marvel at the houses here, the supermarkets, the weather, the freedom. They lament the loss of closeness with friends and family, their culture and their country. But the choice between the United States and home was theirs. "Americans just don't appreciate that they can vote, stand up and say what they feel and know that someone might boo and hiss but they won't lock them up," said Irwin Charles Gafen, of Lafayette Hill.

Erik Kornet came four hours early on opening day, and still couldn't get a ticket at the multiplex on Delaware Avenue. At the Regal Cinemas in Huntingdon Valley, 144 of 195 shows since last Tuesday were sold out - even though the movie was on three of the theater's 14 screens. In Washington, D.C., and Los Angeles, tickets were being resold by scalpers, so much did moviegoers want to see the world-beater movie. Perhaps only a real alien invasion could stop Independence Day. There was no sign of a letup.

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Maple Shade's red-white-and-blue Independence Day celebration is running short on that essential green stuff. Organizers say public donations are at their lowest point since the brass bands and fireworks were revived in 1976. The Independence Day festivities, scheduled this year for June 30 in Maple Shade, will cost $10,515. But celebration committee chairman Howard "Tex" Gwynne said that with five weeks to go, the committee is about $3,000 short of its goal. "We have to book all the bands and the fireworks so far in advance," Gwynne said.

The summer's biggest holiday is nearly upon us. And there has never been a better time in recent history to celebrate Independence Day. The commemoration of our country's bid for democratic freedom has greater meaning this year, given the events in Eastern Europe and South Africa since the last July Fourth - events that have brought liberty behind the Iron Curtain and the release of Nelson Mandela, prompting hopes for the end of apartheid in...

"What would you do if tomorrow morning you woke up, left your house, looked up in the sky, and found an enormous spaceship completely covering your town?" asks writer-producer Dean Devlin, explaining the premise of his movie Independence Day. "What would you do?" If you're any studio but 20th Century Fox, which releases Independence Day on July 3, you run for the hills. Devlin and director Roland Emmerich's alien-invasion disaster flick is considered such a surefire blockbuster that it has the all-important five-day Fourth of July holiday pretty much to itself.

For most of the last year, Maurice Patterson was on the run. The 16-year-old was hiding. Police believed he had witnessed a West Philadelphia robbery. He stopped attending Bartram High School because he was harassed by students who thought he might talk. He stayed clear of his mother's place, where a subpoena awaited him. He started packing a gun. On Tuesday, he died in what police call the bloodiest Fourth of July in Philadelphia this decade. Seven people were killed - more than on the previous five Independence Days put together.

Hey, Will Smith, you jaunty, jug-eared thing, you. Thus far in your young but eventful career, you've found rap's sweet spot with G-rated songs like "Parents Just Don't Understand," and boosted NBC's lagging ratings as the impish star of The Fresh Prince of Bel Air. So why did a nice guy like you have to give up his July Fourth weekend to tangle with aliens in the new film Independence Day? "I'm the first black guy to save the world, the Jackie Robinson of world saviors," jokes Smith, the loose-limbed charisma whirligig.

All U.S. financial markets were closed Monday in observance of Independence Day. There is no Business section in Tuesday's Inquirer. It will return Wednesday inside the A section.

Israelis mark independence JERUSALEM - Israelis celebrated 65 years of independence Tuesday, with more than a million people pouring into national parks despite unusually blustery weather. As flags fluttered from windows, streetlamps, and buildings across most of the country, families braved whipping winds and rain to indulge in the holiday's traditional pastime - the park barbecue. The festivities began Monday night, just a day after the country mourned its war dead during its annual Remembrance Day commemorations.

Have Peter Nero and the Philly Pops rung in their last "Liberty Bell March" together? Probably not. At Tuesday night's free concert in front of Independence Hall, there was only harmony, nothing to suggest the conflict between Nero and the board president and acolytes trying to oust him. Judge and mediator have been tapped in the dispute, with resolution possible as early as this month. Actually, the conductor on the podium for the Sousa march ending the 11th iteration of this Independence Day holiday tradition was Mayor Nutter.

Real history buffs didn't mingle with the thousands of visitors and tourists who flocked to Independence Hall, the Liberty Bell and the National Constitution Center in Old City on Independence Day. Instead, they could be found along a 2-mile strip of Germantown Avenue that runs through Germantown and Mount Airy, enjoying the rich historic sites — including Cliveden, Stenton, Concord School, Johnson House and Colonial burial grounds — while...

By Daniel Deagler   On the occasion of our nation's founding, John Adams, who was as responsible for it as any man, wrote that "The 2nd day of July 1776 will be the most memorable epocha in the history of America. I am apt to believe that it will be celebrated by succeeding generations as the great anniversary festival. ... It ought to be solemnized with pomp and parade, with shews, games, sports, guns, bells, bonfires, and illuminations, from one end of this continent to the other, from this time forward forevermore.

A dose of history can't hurt around Independence Day, and application makers have stepped up with mildly successful attempts to remind Americans why they'll be celebrating the Fourth of July. U.S. Pocket Reference , $1.99 from Double Dog Studios, is a package of historical documents and narratives on the branches of the federal government and their various agencies. Once it is open on iPhone, tap the screen to show navigation tools. Document texts include the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, excerpts from the Federalist Papers, and key Supreme Court decisions such as Marbury v. Madison, which in 1803 helped establish the high court's authority, and the landmark 1954 civil-rights case, Brown v. Board of Education.

TASHA KAI must like to see her name in lights. After the Independence's leading scorer's curling kick gave her team a 1-0 lead of what would end up a 2-0 victory over magicJack Saturday at PPL Park in a WPS semifinal game, she channeled the hit soccer movie "Bend It Like Beckham. " "I bent it like Tasha," she said about her 46th-minute score. Amy Rodriguez added an insurance goal in the game's 82nd minute, and the Independence is off to its second straight league championship game, this time against the Western New York Flash, Saturday afternoon in Rochester, N.Y. "Our whole team put an effort in," Kai said.

All U.S. financial markets were closed Monday in observance of Independence Day. There is no Business section in Tuesday's Inquirer. It will return Wednesday inside the A section.

Looks like Mother Nature took a chill pill. Today's high will be the coolest in months - by a sizeable margin. And on-and- off rain will make the next few days feel even clammier. Sunday's high of 66 was the lowest since May 19. Today's expected high: 55. That's just a few degrees above the overnight lows this weekend - and just one degree over the low for all of September. Lows tonight and tomorrow could be in the upper 40s for the first time in Philadelphia since May 14. Just three months ago, on Independence Day, the high hit 96 - on its way to the year's high of 103 on July 7. But no records are in jeopardy.

I LIKE LABOR DAY, and that's fitting, because I've labored in nearly every kind of job. I worked in an animal research lab and as a police dispatcher, in a drug store and as a supermarket cashier, in a picture frame factory and as a UPS truck loader. I even spent a week fueling airplanes back in the day . . . until I accidentally drove the fuel truck into the wing of a DC-10. To tell you the truth, though, my affinity for Labor Day has nothing to do with my long and storied history as a laborer.

The heat and humidity were stifling, and yet the oldest player never stopped running or, for that matter, scoring, ruining Independence Day for the Independence. Boston midfielder Kristine Lilly broke a tie in the 84th minute, converting a feed from Kelly Smith as the Breakers defeated the Independence, 2-1, in Sunday's Women's Professional Soccer game at West Chester University. The Independence are now 6-4-3, while Boston is 2-5-4 after breaking a nine-game winless streak.