Olney

A 64-year-old man died on a southbound SEPTA 47 bus at 8th and Chestnut streets yesterday afternoon. When someone noticed that the man appeared to be unresponsive, medics were called. They pronounced him dead at 3:40 p.m. A SEPTA spokesman said that there was no indication of foul play and that the man appeared to have died of natural causes. Police identified him only as a 64-year-old Hispanic. The 47 bus originates at 5th and Godfrey in Olney and ends at Whitman Plaza in South Philly.

Vincent J. Ferraro, 21, of Shelmire Avenue near Lawndale, was killed early today when the car he was driving struck a utility pole on Rising Sun Avenue near Adams Avenue in Olney. Police said the impact of the crash sheared the left side of the frame and the top off the car. Police said Ferraro was driving north on Rising Sun when the accident occurred. He was dead on arrival at Albert Einstein Medical Center, Northern Division.

A blaze engulfed a house and damaged several neighboring properties Monday night on Roosevelt Boulevard in the city's Olney section, fire officials said. The fire was reported shortly after 8 p.m. in the 400 block of West Roosevelt Boulevard. By the time firefighters had arrived, the fire spread to the porches of neighboring homes. At 8:44 p.m., the fire was declared under control. No injuries were reported. The cause is under investigation.    -Robert Moran

Olney lost to Ben Franklin, 65-56, in a first-round Public League playoff game yesterday afternoon on its home court for a simple reason. Olney couldn't handle the press. The Electrons, from the outset, used a stifling full-court press on the Olney guards, causing turnovers and building a lead that Franklin never lost. The Trojans also couldn't overcome foul trouble. Their center, 6-foot-8 sophomore Jason Lawson, picked up three quick fouls in the first five minutes and sat out the rest of the first half.

In an effort to resolve a controversy over the posting of Korean-language street signs on N. 5th Street in Olney, a member of the Philadelphia Commission on Human Relations is trying to convene a meeting next week for the neighborhood's business, civic and Korean leaders. Ida Chan, a human-relations commissioner, said yesterday that she hoped the meeting would allow both sides to discuss the matter harmoniously. The leaders were unable to do that at a meeting Tuesday night, when about 150 Olney residents - some shouting ethnic slurs - demanded that the Koreans remove the signs or they would.

A FEW YEARS ago, we'd get off of the R8 train at Olney to find that our car windows were busted. We were told by a business across the street that schoolkids vandalized the cars. Now it's the station being vandalized, glass-block windows were broken, along with the frames. Someone had to be there for quite a while to break that glass. Every morning, there is more damage, even graffiti on the trash can. I don't understand what goes through a person's mind to do something like this.

A suspected robber and a Philadelphia police officer exchanged gunfire in an alley in the Olney section yesterday, seconds after a woman was held up at gunpoint nearby, police said. Neither the suspect nor the policeman was hit by the bullets, and the suspect was arrested a short time later, police said. Detective Lt. Richard Strohm of the Northwest Detective Division gave this account: At 8:10 a.m., Anna Marie Ponterelli, 29, a student technician at the Albert Einstein Medical Center's Northern Division in Olney, parked her car in the 5300 block of North Marvine Street and got out to walk to the hospital.

William Russell said his son, Barry Williams, 22, was sitting alone on the steps of the family's Olney rowhouse when five or six white youths holding pipes and knives walked up and said, "It's nigger night. " Within moments Saturday night, Barry's brother, Tyrone Williams, 20, who came out of the house to help, was stabbed once in the back, according to Russell and police. Within minutes, Russell said, as he and his wife came to their sons' aid, a crowd of white youths and adults milled about on 7th Street near Chew Avenue, yelling racial slurs.

The Olney boys' coaches probably never thought their sense of direction would help them in a track meet. That is until Saturday morning, when the team embarked on its trip to the Pennsylvania State Track Classic, one of the biggest meets of the outdoor season. Instead of traveling to Council Rock High School, the site of this year's classic, however, Olney's bus was moving to another destination, North Penn High School. The reason, Olney coach Herm Baker said, was some miscommunication among the staff at his school.

People are getting excited about the far-reaching structural changes planned this fall for Olney and Audenried high schools. And no wonder: The two schools are implementing sweeping strategies to build smaller learning communities, address the problems of disruptive students, and increase class length for freshmen. Daily News education writer Kevin Haney reported last week that Olney will break its 2,900-student school into seven mini-schools. Audenried is instituting an "empowerment community" to provide students who have behavioral or academic problems with intensive instruction.

THE PRESIDENT of La Salle University said yesterday that he will step down in May 2014 after 15 years, to allow the school to transition into a new era of leadership. Michael McGinniss, 65, known as "Brother Mike," grew up in Olney and graduated from La Salle in 1970. He has a Ph.D. from Notre Dame and has headed La Salle since 1999. Under his three terms, the Logan-based Catholic institution nearly doubled its endowment, increased its enrollment and expanded its footprint in the northern part of the city.

Philadelphia and Cheltenham Township police raided an Olney residence with a search warrant Wednesday night and "seized an astonishing 95,340 grams of hydroponic marijuana, [with] a street value of $1,906,800," Philadelphia police spokesman Lt. John Stanford said in a Thursday news release. Eugene Horsch, 31, of the 400 block of West Chew Avenue, has been charged by the Montgomery County District Attorney's Office with possession with intent to deliver, controlled-substance possession, and other offenses, Stanford said.

Jon Welsh was kicked out of elementary school for a bunch of behavioral issues. He was bullying other students and misbehaving toward teachers and even the principal. "Throwing books," he said. "Spitting on people. " Welsh is now an Olney Charter sophomore and a wrestling team captain. Wilfredo Cruz used to go to school to have fun. For him, fun meant skipping class, getting into fights, and scrawling graffiti. "My mentality was doing whatever I wanted," he said. Cruz, too, is a sophomore at Olney Charter and a wrestling team captain.

LIKE TRYING to get blood from a brick. Sorry for altering a time-honored cliché, but the circumstances are screaming for it. Bricks were flying at the baskets nonstop Tuesday as Olney Charter hosted Central for a Public C game and then, with 34.5 seconds remaining in the third quarter, referee Caliel Blocker noticed splotches of red on a basketball that was otherwise orange. Ah, the ever-popular blood delay. "He was telling everybody to check their hands," said Olney's Shakeem Stevens, a 6-foot, 175-pound guard.

Boys' Basketball BOARDWALK CLASSIC SHOWCASE Math, Civics & Sciences 74, Dobbins 55 BOARDWALK CLASSIC (MCALARNEN) Central Bucks East 44, Mainland 24 BOARDWALK CLASSIC (JAY CRAVEN) Vineland 52, Bristol 47 (3 OT) CONSTITUTION TOURNAMENT Olney 70, Mastery Charter South 47 STOP DWI HOLIDAY CLASSIC Paul Laurence Dunbar 71, Phila. Electrical 52 NONLEAGUE Paul VI 67, Archbishop Ryan 38 Pope John Paul II 63, Bishop McDevitt 56 Girls' Basketball DIAMOND STATE CLASSIC Neumann-Goretti 49, Bullis (Md.)

James S. Williams, 85, of Hatboro, a retired dentist and orthodontist known to his patients in Olney as "Dr. Jim," died Saturday, Dec. 1, of a heart ailment at Chestnut Hill Hospital. Born at Germantown Hospital, Dr. Williams attended Olney High School, but contracted scarlet fever and transferred to Mercersburg (Pa.) Academy, from which he graduated in 1945. He joined the Navy and trained at the Pennsylvania Maritime Academy. He earned a bachelor's degree in zoology from the University of Pennsylvania in 1951 and graduated with a degree in dentistry from the Dental School of the University of Pennsylvania in 1954.

Soowan Bag Age: 25 Where he's from: He spent his early years in Olney after immigrating there with his family from South Korea when he was 1. They later moved to the suburbs. He now has an apartment in Chinatown. Bag graduated from Drexel University in 2009 with a marketing degree. What he likes about Philly: Its potential. "Philly still has a lot more to grow economically and culturally, so I think I'm lucky to be here while that's all happening. " Trait that makes him a Philadelphian: Whether he moves or not, he said, Philadelphia will always be his home: "I love this city.

A BABY who came into the world Tuesday afternoon wasn't born on either the right or the wrong side of the tracks - he was born on the tracks of SEPTA's Broad Street line. SEPTA Police Officer Loyd Rodgers, a 12-year veteran, was in his second day of a new post at the Olney Transportation Center around 2:15 p.m. when he and another officer spotted a young woman coming up the escalator with a baby who he assumed was either very sick or a newborn. "It was only as we approached, that we could see milky substances on it, and that was a dead giveaway that it was a newborn," Rodgers said.

Olney Charter was deemed to be "the aggressor" in the brawl that broke out during last Friday's Public League Silver Division football game against visiting Southern. For their roles in the fight, four Olney players and two volunteer assistant coaches have been removed from the team, District 12 chairman Robert Coleman said. The Trojans also have forfeited Friday's scheduled game vs. Lincoln. Coleman said that he and the two principals - Olney's Dr. Jose Lebron and Southern's Otis Hackney - "collaborated on this.

THE FALLOUT is complete, and it isn't pretty. Olney Charter, as determined by the principals and Robert Coleman, the czar of Public League sports, was solely responsible for a brawl that cut short Friday's Class AAAA Silver game with visiting Southern, and will incur all penalties. Most prominent among them: The Trojans have forfeited this Friday's game with Abraham Lincoln and four players have been permanently removed from the squad. Coleman said that he read statements provided by both schools, and that a video shot by an Olney spectator provided crystal-clear help in determining blame.