Low Cost

The Cherry Hill Township Council has tabled plans to set up a nonprofit organization that would provide low-cost housing. Only four of the seven council members attended the last meeting, held Thursday, and Councilwoman Mary Anne D. Tamm asked that a decision be postponed until the council's next meeting scheduled for Aug. 25. Community development director Marc Shuster said that the plan calls for a five-member board of trustees that would...

The Robin Hood Dell East is unsafe for concerts this summer, and a dilapidated camp for the city's poorest children should be shut down for good, administration officials told City Council yesterday. In a briefing, a city-hired engineer said cracked, uneven and sagging concrete at the Dell East puts concert-goers at risk of injury, and recommended closing the amphitheater for the 2008 season. At the same meeting, the recreation department said Camp William Penn, the 677-acre facility in the Poconos, should be closed because "the kids that go there don't want to go back" to it. Clay Armbrister, Mayor Nutter's chief of staff, recommended a complete overhaul of the concrete, draining, wiring and seating for the Dell East, at Ridge Avenue and 33d Street, for at least the 2008 season.

The National Alliance for the Mentally Ill of New Jersey has selected Burlington County as its site for a pilot project, the Extended Family Support Program, which will offer free help for the loved ones of people affected by mental illness. The program is designed to implement new support programs for all families and loved ones of people affected by mental illness; to help under-served, culturally diverse groups such as African Americans and Latinos; to reach siblings and other extended family members through community groups such as hospitals, treatment facilities and social service agencies; and to increase public awareness of support programs already in place.

Congratulations. You've blown some insulation into the attic, screwed in some compact fluorescent lightbulbs. Perhaps you replaced those old, drafty windows. Energy-saving moves, all of them. But that's nothing compared to what is coming at the Navy Yard. Pennsylvania State University and a slew of partners plan to implement and develop the very latest in eco-friendly technologies at the South Philadelphia site, with the help of $159 million in federal and state grants announced last week.

Sun Co. officials said yesterday they expect it will continue to be difficult to make a profit on selling and refining oil for the rest of the year. In a meeting with reporters, the Sun executives attributed the anticipated squeeze to the low cost of gasoline and other refined products relative to the cost of crude oil. "Times are going to be tough," said Joseph D. Mazzei, manager of Sun's refinery at Marcus Hook. Gasoline prices have stayed relatively low because supplies are high, Sun officials indicated.

Armed with a shovel and broom, the two women attacked the cluttered attic in Mount Holly yesterday as though they were cutting a path through the thick of a tropical jungle. First Phyllis Harter and Margaret Barnes hacked their way through a foot- deep layer of rubbish - wrinkled clothes, decades-old National Geographic magazines, a pile of old mail with postmarks from the 1970s - and lugged the assorted debris down three flights of stairs. Then the two Habitat for Humanity volunteers went at the floor itself, ripping up rugs and mismatched linoleum until they reached hardwood.

Fall from grace, Part I Scott Kazmir was the jewel of the New York Mets organization when he was traded to Tampa Bay, for Victor Zambrano , right before the trade deadline in 2004. He put up a 3.51 ERA pitching in the ferocious AL East the next four seasons and made two all-star teams. Since then, he's been traded to the Los Angeles Angels and his ERA is 5.54. Now there's a chance he'll be dropped from the Angels rotation. Kazmir will start on Saturday against Toronto, but he needs to improve on his dreadful start on Sunday: 12/3 innings, five hits, two walks, two hit batters, and five earned runs.

For many in the health-care industry, 1992 will be recalled as a year of bloodletting and turmoil. Uncertainty over pending health reforms left numerous firms in a financial funk. Increased competition and restructuring added to bottom-line pressures. Then there was U.S. Healthcare, the Blue Bell operator of health- maintenance organizations. It rolled through 1992 like a steamroller, recording record revenues, profits and earnings per share. Enrollment in the company's prepaid health plans swelled to more than 1.4 million subscribers - a 13 percent gain.

In recent months, the question of supermarket item pricing has taken center stage in City Council, and as a result, the real issues in the matter have been obscured in favor of the more emotional ones. The main argument advanced by those in favor of making item pricing the law hinges on the contention that supermarket shoppers are inconvenienced by not having each item individually marked. As a result, they say, consumers sometimes have trouble finding the prices of particular items, and thus stand to lose millions of dollars each year.

Peco Energy Co. says it will make a multimillion-dollar investment to launch a power plant company that could eventually employ 1,300 skilled workers at the former Philadelphia Naval Shipyard. The concept, a new one for electric plants, is to build giant gas turbine-generators in kit form, package them and ship them off to Asia, where demand for power is expected to increase sharply in the coming decades. Peco and the consulting firm that proposed the idea said highly skilled workers and managers in this country, plus lower financing costs in America, make it feasible to produce the plants here and sell them overseas.

Three years before a Wyoming billionaire decided that the city of Chester could use a dental clinic, the first-floor room in the Frederick Douglass Christian School was merely a concrete shell. It had been used as a pantry, office, and storage space. But on May 4, the renovated room will open as the Grace Dental Clinic, with state-of-the-art equipment and a volunteer staff that will charge just $10 per visit. "We need this in this city," said Kim Strand, a stay-at-home mother from Chester.

Fulfilling a pledge to the federal government when it acquired NBC Universal Inc., Comcast Corp. is launching a program to offer $9.95-a-month Internet service for low-income families with schoolchildren. Just in Philadelphia, about 150,000 children could be eligible for the service, priced at an 80 percent discount on Comcast's regular rate of $49 a month for broadband service. The new program, marketed as Internet Essentials, will be announced Tuesday on the first day of school by Mayor Nutter and Comcast chief executive Brian L. Roberts.

NEW YORK - Facing a decline in a key sales measure and by intensifying competition, Wal-Mart Stores Inc. on Monday began an ad campaign aimed a winning back customers who no longer trust it to save them money. The campaign promises "Low Prices. Every Day. On Everything" and features five 30-second commercials that range from an Easter egg hunt to a customer asking for a price match. "We have lost our customer confidence . . . in having the lowest price," said Duncan MacNaughton, chief merchandising officer at Wal-Mart.

Fall from grace, Part I Scott Kazmir was the jewel of the New York Mets organization when he was traded to Tampa Bay, for Victor Zambrano , right before the trade deadline in 2004. He put up a 3.51 ERA pitching in the ferocious AL East the next four seasons and made two all-star teams. Since then, he's been traded to the Los Angeles Angels and his ERA is 5.54. Now there's a chance he'll be dropped from the Angels rotation. Kazmir will start on Saturday against Toronto, but he needs to improve on his dreadful start on Sunday: 12/3 innings, five hits, two walks, two hit batters, and five earned runs.

It's vast. It's groundbreaking. And it's here. PIFA, the Philadelphia International Festival of the Arts 2011, a three-week extravaganza of entertainment, begins this weekend and runs through May 1 with a smorgasbord of 145 entertainment and cultural events featuring 1,500 artists. It's also family-friendly and, in many instances, absolutely free. So those struggling to enrich the cultural lives of kids, but dreading the tariff, can be assured that this first-of-its-kind festival won't break the bank.

Congratulations. You've blown some insulation into the attic, screwed in some compact fluorescent lightbulbs. Perhaps you replaced those old, drafty windows. Energy-saving moves, all of them. But that's nothing compared to what is coming at the Navy Yard. Pennsylvania State University and a slew of partners plan to implement and develop the very latest in eco-friendly technologies at the South Philadelphia site, with the help of $159 million in federal and state grants announced last week.

Philadelphia's prison population has been plunging for more than a year, as leaders from the Mayor's Office on down have sought alternatives to locking up people in overcrowded jails. That success may have had its first unintended consequence this month, when the city ran out of the ankle bracelets necessary to send prisoners home with electronic monitoring. City judges were warned that house arrest was no longer an option, as a waiting list of prisoners has grown during the last three weeks, court officials said.

On the last full day of the winter meetings, Phillies general manager Ruben Amaro Jr. continued his aggressive pursuit of modestly priced pitching. "Haven't got to the finish line yet, but we're making some headway," Amaro said of his talks to land affordable upgrades for his bullpen and starting rotation. The Phils met yesterday with Keith Grunewald, the agent for veteran righthander John Smoltz. The two sides have maintained contact throughout the off-season, but the team has not made an offer.

All the pressure should land on the chef at Thanksgiving, because when it comes to bringing the wine, there are no "wrong" answers. After all, this holiday meal is typically such a riot of divergent flavors, from tart cranberries to sweet potatoes to the meaty bird and its lusty dressing, that it's impossible for a single wine to match the feast's many moods. Even better news: this is a meal where value wines are the preferable choice. The sheer diversity and intensity of the table's flavors will inevitably drown the grandest of grand cru bottles.

All the pressure should land on the chef at Thanksgiving, because when it comes to bringing the wine, there are no "wrong" answers. After all, this holiday meal is typically such a riot of divergent flavors, from tart cranberries to sweet potatoes to the meaty bird and its lusty dressing, that it's impossible for a single wine to match the feast's many moods. Even better news: this is a meal where value wines are the preferable choice. The sheer diversity and intensity of the table's flavors will inevitably drown the grandest of grand cru bottles.