Jam

ENFORCEMENT of a bill passed by City Council last fall to regulate placement of TV satellite dishes has been stalled due to a petition filed with the Federal Communications Commission by the satellite-dish industry. The Satellite Broadcasting and Communications Association is fighting the bill, approved in October and sponsored by current Council President Darrell Clarke, prohibiting satellite-dish companies and installers from placing dishes at the front of homes unless putting them elsewhere would cause signal reduction or significant extra cost.

The dreamy, laid-back sound of Jonathan Wilson's excellent solo album Gentle Spirit, and the harmony-heavy records he's produced for Dawes owe much to the roots that the North Carolina native put down in Los Angeles, first in the mythical musical neighborhood of Laurel Canyon, and now, while in Echo Park. But it's not as if the 37-year-old has been trying to summon lingering vibes from the days when Neil Young, Joni Mitchell, and the Byrds were canyon dwellers. There's simply no such mojo in the ether, according to Wilson.

Hanukkah celebrates the miracle of the oil, and for most American Jews, that means latkes - potato pancakes fried in oil. But there are many other ways to commemorate the miracle during the eight-day Festival of Lights, which begins at sundown Dec. 20. Indeed, there are as many ways to celebrate the holiday as there are communities of Jews. In Italy, small pieces of lemony-garlic chicken are coated with flour and egg and fried for Hanukkah festivities. Jews of German and Austrian descent eat deep-fried breaded veal called schnitzel.

Owen Schmitt played tuba as a boy in small-town Wisconsin and loved it. But he also happened to be a football star. He couldn't score touchdowns and march with the band at halftime. So he chose touchdowns over tuba. He went to the West Virginia University, where he became a football superstar. In his last year, he didn't have many classes and began to skip the ones he had because he discovered Guitar Hero. He loved Guitar Hero. He thought to himself it would be really, really cool if he could actually play guitar.

CAIRO - The United States increased pressure Friday on Egypt's military rulers to hand over power to civilian leaders, and the generals turned to a Mubarak-era politician to head a new government in a move that failed to satisfy the more than 100,000 protesters who jammed Tahrir Square in the biggest rally yet this week. The demonstrators rejected the appointment of Kamal el-Ganzouri as prime minister, breaking into chants of "Illegitimate! Illegitimate!" and setting up a showdown between the two sides only three days before key parliamentary elections.

ST. THOMAS, U.S. Virgin Islands - Drexel salvaged its final game in the Paradise Jam yesterday. The Dragons knocked off Winthrop, 68-45, in the seventh-place game. Frantz Massenat scored 23 points and Samme Givens added 12 points and seven rebounds for the 2-2 Dragons. Drexel had lost to Norfolk State and Virginia in the first two games of the tourney. "We did a better job of handling the ball and we made some shots," Drexel coach Bruiser Flint said. "We'd been getting those types of shots throughout the tournament.

A tractor-trailer rear-ended a passenger car Friday morning, killing the car's driver, in a crash that gridlocked traffic when police closed the westbound Schuylkill Expressway at Gulph Mills for more than four hours. State Trooper Danea Durham said three cars and the truck were involved in the accident at 12:15 p.m., near where officials had just opened a new off-ramp from the westbound Schuylkill to South Gulph and South Henderson Roads in Upper Merion Township. State Department of Transportation officials said there was no apparent connection between the 11 a.m. opening and the accident, although the off-ramp was closed so emergency vehicles could get to and from the scene.

Shawnee football coach Tim Gushue won't be sending his scouts Friday night to check out possible first-round playoff opponents. There are too many of them - potential opponents, that is. "We would have to cover too many games," Gushue said. Everybody in South Jersey Group 4 is in the same boat. With the playoff field set to be determined this weekend, 14 teams still are alive, creating countless potential permutations. "I don't ever remember that much parity," Cherokee coach P.J. Mehigan said.

As of about 7:30 a.m., an accident on the Girard Point Bridge in South Philadelphia was still backing up traffic on I-95 South as far as the Walt Whitman Bridge. The right lane of I-95 was blocked, according to traffic.com. Only a few cars at a time were squeezing by, as seen on a PennDOT traffic camera. One alternate route was to take the Schuylkill Expressway (I-76) to Pennrose Avenue back to I-95 south of the bridge. For area traffic updates at any time, go to http://go.philly.com/traffic . Contact staff writer Peter Mucha at 215-854-4342 or pmucha@phillynews.com .  

"This is what democracy looks like. " That was the thunderous chant of about 1,000 protesters who packed the Arch Street United Methodist Church Tuesday night as they voted to begin Occupy Philadelphia at City Hall at 9 a.m. Thursday. Supporters young and old turned out for the meeting to plan the next steps for Philadelphia's extension of New York City's Occupy Wall Street protests. Some said they foresee the movement catching on across the nation. "This is the first time in my adult life I feel there's some hope," said Carol Finkle, 69, of Philadelphia.