New Center

Mayor Rendell applauds for Flyers owner Ed Snider during the ribbon-cutting for CoreStates Center last night. Snider was the driving force behind the new arena, situated next to what is now called the CoreStates Spectrum and on the site of the long-gone JFK Stadium in South Philadelphia.

With emotional speeches and supportive hugs, the Delaware Valley Vietnam Veterans opened their new Outreach Center Saturday in the Levittown Shopping Center. The new center will provide services for veterans of all eras, from help with medical and insurance claims to job training. Several years ago, veterans Al Newsham of Levittown and Jesse Hill of Bristol thought of opening a place in Bucks County where veterans could get help with problems. Their inspiration was Ed Lowry, the head of the Philadelphia Veterans Multi-Service Center, which has helped 40,000 veterans since it opened in February 1981.

What better excuse for a party than the new $523 million, 1.3-million- square-foot Pennsylvania Convention Center? Next weekend's opening is part of an 11-day wingding called Welcome America! that includes festivities related to the center's debut (ribbon- cutting by Vice President Gore) as well as the Freedom Festival, the city's Fourth of July celebration, highlighted by the presentation of the Philadelphia Liberty Medal (by President Clinton to Nelson Mandela and F.W. de Klerk)

The trickle-down effect of Chester County's development has reached the driver's license photo center in West Chester, which last week moved to a new site and beginning in July will have expanded hours. For eight years the photo center had been in the Borough Hall, until its closing Dec. 31. It had been open Thursday and Friday and last year served about 200 people each day, according to Stephen Fister, state manager for the Pennsylvania Industries for the Blind and Handicapped, a nonprofit company that contracts with the state to run the 114 photo license centers in Pennsylvania.

Delaware County officials say they are "moving ahead on schedule" on the proposed $10 million emergency communications center. The County Council on Tuesday approved a contract for a new roof for the Watkins Building in the Fair Acres complex near Media. The work will set the stage for the $1.2 million renovation of the Watkins structure to house the new center, which will become a central communications network for most of the county's municipalities. The price tag for equipment alone is projected at $7 million to $9 million, to be financed by a bond issue and funds from the proposed 911 emergency telephone system, county officials said.

James Bryson is a charmer. He has a laugh that is warm and fluffy like popcorn. You hear it once and you want to hear it again. He is disarmingly honest. "I concentrated too much on my social life last year," he will say. He walks out of a basketball locker room wearing a goofy hat and a wide smile and little kids who barely reach his kneecaps stick to him as if he's wearing Velcro. If you know James Bryson, you will like him. Unless, maybe, you were his coach for the last two years.

Chester County yesterday cleared a legal hurdle in its plans to build a $48 million county services center in West Goshen Township when a judge refused to stop the county Board of Commissioners from awarding the first contract for the project. John L. Philips, an electrical contractor, had asked Chester County Court to stop the county from making an award Tuesday for landscaping and other "site work. " Philips contended the county had violated state law by improperly lumping together, into the same bid package, the landscaping, paving, and electrical work needed to be completed before the erection of the building begins.

Acting to fill what officials called a longstanding need, the federal government yesterday dedicated an information and assistance center for retired government workers in the Philadelphia area, the first such office east of the Mississippi. Until yesterday, said Robert S. Ohl, a Social Security Administration official who coordinated work on the new center, the more than 70,000 retired federal workers in the Philadelphia area and South Jersey had no central source of benefits information.

Abington Township may soon be a home base for one of five county centers that will process suspected drunken drivers in eastern Montgomery County. In the next two weeks, the county hopes to lease a site at 1822 Old York Rd. that formerly housed Ciliberto Tailoring. The centers were proposed two years ago, and are a joint effort of the Montgomery County Board of Commissioners, the county District Attorney's and Sheriff's Offices, and the county Police Department. If the centers are approved by the county solicitor's office, each will be staffed by two county sheriff's deputies.

It was a half hour after 76ers' practice had formally ended yesterday, but Mike Gminski was still on the court at St. Joseph's, listening intently to assistant coach Fred Carter and working on his pivot moves. Most of the other Sixers had wandered off one by one to shower, change and head out into the foggy, gray day of rest, all except Charles Barkley. Barkley sat on the sideline, feet propped up and a half-smile on his face as he watched Gminski stop, turn, shoot; stop, turn shoot.

NEW YORK - The World Trade Center's rebirth has long revolved around creating a centerpiece of unsparing symbolism: a skyscraper 1,776 feet tall, its height an homage and a bold statement about looking forward. The new 1 World Trade Center reached that height with the lowering of a silvery spire from a crane on Friday, officially taking its place as a signature of the city's skyline and, with some argument, the nation's tallest tower. After years of waiting for and watching the building's rise, the moment resonated for many, from workers who looked on from the building's roof to visitors on the ground.

Children's Hospital of Philadelphia said Wednesday it will break ground this summer on a new specialty care center in King of Prussia, replacing one that opened in 1997. The new center, in the Village at Valley Forge, will have 115,000 square feet, up from 70,000 square feet in two buildings at the existing site, CHOP said. Completion of the new center, which can be expanded to 195,000 square feet, is expected in early 2015. CHOP currently offers 20 medical and surgical specialties in King of Prussia, including a sports medicine program, pediatric imaging center, and a day hospital for oncology patients.

THE NUMBER of Philadelphians who need free or low-cost health care has increased, and nowhere is that more evident than in the Northeast, home to a severely underserved, uninsured, high-risk population, according to health-care advocates. At Health Center 10, on Cottman Avenue near Bustleton, the average wait for first-time adult patients is 251 days, city Health Commissioner Donald Schwarz told City Council during a budget hearing Wednesday. That's 15 fewer days than last year, but still much higher than the average at all eight city-run health centers, 83 days, he said.

FAMILY Maps at Winterthur A few years back, Miss Teen South Carolina famously said, "Some people out there in our nation don't have maps. " Not so at this Wilmington-area museum, where more than 100 rare objects form a new exhibition, "Common Destinations: Maps in the American Experience. " 5105 Kennett Pike (Route 52), Winterthur, Del., through Jan. 5, $5-$18, 302-888-4600, winterthur.org. Jimmy and Johari Rollins You knew they were passionate about physical fitness, baseball, politics and Camryn, their 11-month-old daughter.

Alfred M. Brown was not a dancer or a singer or an actor. But "Mr. Al" brought the arts to thousands of children and teens through the Point Breeze Performing Arts Center, a cultural haven in a section of South Philadelphia that has struggled with crime and violence. "We had some of the best and most talented teachers who worked with young people and turned them into professionals," said his wife, Donna. Mr. Brown, 68, died Wednesday, Feb. 27, of a heart attack. A graduate of Bok High School in South Philadelphia, Mr. Brown was trained as a draftsman.

Alfred M. Brown was not a dancer or a singer or an actor. But "Mr. Al" brought the arts to thousands of children and teens through the Point Breeze Performing Arts Center, a cultural haven in a section of South Philadelphia that has struggled with crime and violence. "We had some of the best and most talented teachers who worked with young people and turned them into professionals," said his wife, Donna. Mr. Brown, 68, died Wednesday, Feb. 27, of a heart attack. A graduate of Bok High School in South Philadelphia, Mr. Brown was trained as a draftsman.

Billionaire investor Ronald O. Perelman has donated $25 million to the University of Pennsylvania to create a new center to house both its political science and economic departments, the university announced today. The new center will bear his name and be based at the West Philadelphia Trust Building at 36th and Walnut streets in the heart of Penn's campus. "Ron Perelman's extraordinary generosity will enable us to create an outstanding center for political science and economics, two of Penn's most popular undergraduate majors," Penn President Amy Gutmann said in a prepared statement.

Rutgers University is announcing a new center named after a student who killed himself after his roommate used a webcam and saw him kissing another man. The university says the Tyler Clementi Center will build programs to help people transition from home to college. It also will offer lectures and training on social media, youth suicide, bullying, and other topics. The center is a collaboration with the Tyler Clementi Foundation, started by the student's parents. The 18-year-old killed himself in September 2010, just weeks into his first year at Rutgers.

They have accumulated again, like old traffic tickets stuffed in the glove compartment. Despite the best intentions and resolutions of each new year, a large number of corrections and clarifications that should have been published throughout 2012 did not appear because of the diligent efforts of the author. The Ninth Annual Corrections Column is not something we're proud of, but it is time to come clean, ask forgiveness, and make a new start. Once more - promise - this won't have to happen again.