Measures

In one of the biggest middle-income developments planned for Philadelphia in recent memory, Korman Residential, of Trevose, is "proposing to build 722 apartment units" near Philadelphia International Airport, boss John Korman tells me. Rents to start at $1,150/month for one bedroom, $1,400/month for two. There's no formal proposal at the city planning office yet. But you could say this project has been in the works since the 1950s, when the...

How much would you pay for a book? Not for a rare book, a Shakespeare folio or a Gutenberg Bible to keep under glass, but for a volume simply to grace your bookshelves or your coffee table. Would $199 be too much? Sports artist Dick Perez hopes that 5,000 people are willing to put out that amount for The Immortals , a collection of his portraits of Baseball Hall of Famers. What about $461.62? That's what online bookseller Amazon is asking for Microsoft executive-turned-chef Nathan Myhrvold 's new, six-volume culinary compendium Modernist Cuisine: The Art and Science of Cooking . How about $15,000, the publisher's list price for the "Champ's Edition" of GOAT: A Tribute to Muhammad Ali (Greatest of All Time )

Given the number of flatbeds, pickup trucks, and fuel tankers rumbling around Merion Golf Club these days, you'd be forgiven for thinking a skyscraper was being constructed nearby. The commotion, however, is the result of another tall task: transforming the venerable Main Line institution - one so steeped in tradition that it doesn't allow members to use electronic devices at the club - into a site ready to host the 2013 U.S. Open and the 25,000 spectators expected to attend each day. The weeklong championship celebration doesn't begin until June 10, and the players don't start competing until June 13. But construction has been underway for months, club neighbors and township officials say, and activity has picked up as festivities draw closer.

  New Jersey is looking to open up logging on state lands, most of which were largely acquired through Green Acres bond issues and other public funds. In an issue that once again is splintering the environmental community, a bill (A. 2837) allowing the Department of Environmental Protection to develop a harvest program on state-owned lands won bipartisan approval Monday from a legislative committee. To proponents, the bill would produce healthier forests and a better habitat for the plants and animals that live there.

U.S. Sen. Rick Santorum (R., Pa.) yesterday called for federal funding of research that would involve creating an altered human embryo - one that could yield precious stem cells but not implant in a uterus. Santorum, who has steadfastly opposed embryonic stem-cell research in the past, joined Sen. Arlen Specter (R., Pa.), a vocal proponent of the research, in introducing a compromise bill on the politically popular issue. The bill would require the National Institutes of Health to find and fund new methods for obtaining human embryonic stem cells in the hope of developing therapies.

Visitors to New Jersey chain restaurants may soon have more information when deciding whether to add fries and a shake to their order. A bill in the Legislature would require chains to post calorie counts for all items on menus inside the restaurant and at drive-up windows. Aimed at curbing obesity by helping eaters make the healthiest choices, the bill would affect any chain that has 20 or more locations nationwide. The Senate is scheduled to vote on it today. Consumers aren't very good at guessing the calories of a cheeseburger or a bowl of fettuccini Alfredo, according to a study published in the American Journal of Public Health and cited by authors of the bill.

The Eagles intend to enact a provision in the collective bargaining agreement and deduct $3.25 million from Jason Peters' 2012 base salary because the tackle ruptured his Achilles tendon in March at an off-site location, according to an ESPN report. The clause in the CBA states that a player who is placed on a non-football injury or illness list "is not entitled to any compensation under his contract while on such a list. " The Eagles said Peters' injury occurred while he was participating in a football-related workout in Texas, but it is still considered a "non-football injury" - because it happened off team premises.

How many tourists would travel to Atlantic City to view the nation's first offshore wind farm? Fishermen's Energy, which has proposed building five giant turbines about 2.8 miles off the resort city's beaches, estimates 4.5 million people a year would visit the site, according to a consultant's report that recommends the state should turn down the project because it is too costly. Fishermen's Atlantic City Windfarm anticipates more visitors each year than the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, N.Y., the Washington Monument, or the Museum of Modern Art in New York, according to a derisive analysis by Acadian Consulting Group that was commissioned by the New Jersey Division of Rate Counsel, the state's ratepayer advocate.

Quintessence Theatre Group has big ambitions: "adaptation of epic works of drama and classic literature," and restoring Mount Airy's Sedgwick Theater to its rightful place "as a jewel in Philadelphia's cultural landscape. " The fledgling company embarks on its grand effort with co-founder Alexander Burns directing Measure for Measure, Shakespeare's darkest comedy, and a particularly problematic problem play. At its heart, however, this is still a comedy, complete with all the identity-switching one can expect from such Elizabethan follies.

In 1973, when the Philadelphia Orchestra made history in China, Inquirer music critic Daniel Webster was there. Now David Patrick Stearns reports on the 2013 visit, building on this long relationship. TIANJIN, China - "Wasn't that a mud field last year?" It was an idle observation made as the Philadelphia Orchestra's buses cruised along the scenic route to the Tianjin Performing Arts Center for a Wednesday evening concert, passing meticulously landscaped parks filled with beds of plump crimson tulips.