Panic Button

It works the same way as the device promoted by the commercial, in which an injured elderly woman cries: "I've fallen and I can't get up. " Soon, some battered women in Camden County will be able to use the same technology to summon help whenever they find themselves or their children threatened by an abusive mate. ADT Security Systems plans to donate a limited number of emergency necklace pendants to domestic-violence victims and place electronic equipment inside their homes, company and county officials said yesterday in Lindenwold.

The stock market recorded a broad loss yesterday, extending its sharp decline from late last week amid continuing worries over the slumping dollar. The Dow Jones average of 30 industrials, down 50.79 points on Friday, fell 25.93 points yesterday to a 4 1/2-month low of 3,228.17. However, some analysts said the moderating losses and lower volume suggested that investors had not yet hit the panic button. Volume on the New York Stock Exchange came to an estimated 165.13 million shares as of 4 p.m., down from 202.67 million on Friday.

Hitched to his first two-game losing streak of the season, Rich Kotite made sure to pass along three important pieces of information yesterday at his brief but illuminating weekly news conference: The Eagles' coach is not planning to make a single lineup change for Sunday's now-critical game against Atlanta, even along his porous and penalty- plagued offensive line. The Eagles' offense just needs more patience, patience, patience, patience to bust out of its mysterious slump.

The day after his worst game of the Stanley Cup playoffs, Devils goaltender Martin Brodeur was smiling, trying to make sure every hair on his head was in place, shrugging off his rough outing in Thursday night's 4-2 loss to the Flyers. "Some nights you have it, and some nights you don't," Brodeur said with a shrug. Defenseman Scott Stevens was casually talking about what the Devils had learned in yesterday's long video session from the loss that left New Jersey down, two games to one, in the best-of-seven Eastern Conference finals.

Kareem Bahiy, the gunman who said that he saw fear in the eyes of CVS night manager John DiOstilio before he pulled the trigger in a fatal robbery, was convicted last night of second-degree murder. The jury, which deliberated about three hours, had heard the medical director at the Delaware County prison recount Bahiy's statements about the last seconds of DiOstilio's life at the 24-hour CVS store in Springfield, Delaware County. Bahiy, 23, told her that he looked in DiOstilio's eyes as he held a gun on him in the early-morning hours of June 5, 2001.

Philadelphia police said last night that they were continuing to focus on robbery as the primary motive in the slaying of a Northeast Philadelphia jeweler in his home on Tuesday morning. Police have focused on robbery after discovering that several pieces of high-priced jewelry were missing from the home of Jerome Slobotkin, 57. However, detectives are also pursuing a theory that the slaying may have a mob connection, since Slobotkin was a witness in the 1988 racketeering trial of Philadelphia mob boss Nicodemo Scarfo.

Shawnee High put an end to Moorestown's 56-game unbeaten streak in girls' lacrosse yesterday and won the state championship game, 7-4, at Trenton State College. The win ended a two-year hold by Moorestown (16-1-1) on the state title. The Quakers have won four state titles since 1976 and have been runners-up five times. "I can't imagine any group of girls deserving this more," said Shawnee coach Susan Rudderow. "We watched the videotape of our previous game with Moorestown at least one million times.

The famed Sports Illustrated jinx did not affect Jimmy Rollins, but it may have struck the Phillies. Rollins, who is on the cover of this week's magazine, was one of the few catalysts yesterday in the Phillies' 10-5 loss to the rampaging Colorado Rockies, who took a vise-grip hold of the National League division series with a second straight win. The diminutive shortstop became the first Phillie in postseason history to hit a leadoff first-inning...

Montgomery County school officials will have student safety at their fingertips thanks to a new wireless alert system developed after the Nickel Mines shooting. The silent panic button was demonstrated yesterday at Stewart Middle School in Norristown. Wearing a wireless transmitter around her neck, Stewart principal Rachel Holler summoned police by pressing the button, which is designed to alert a 911 dispatcher within two seconds. Fifty-nine schools in Montgomery County have the system, and the county hopes to have it in most schools by the end of this year.

The bandits knew exactly what they wanted. And it was in a bulletproof showcase at the front of the store. In that case, more than $90,000 worth of "bling" glittered on display: Breitling watches with 25-carat diamond bezels, heavy "Miami Cuban" gold chains, dogtags encrusted with hundreds of glittering stones. The time: just after 11 Sunday morning, when the Diamond Depot jewelry store at Franklin Mills mall had just opened. Ron Alia, the store's owner, was showing a customer a ring.

WITH THE second of three matches in a week span starting on Wednesday for the Union, there is very little time to go back to the drawing board, as they say. Although it wouldn't hurt. The club comes off its second loss in a row with Saturday's 1-0 result against Seattle. Against a 22-year-old goalkeeper making his first MLS start in Seattle's Brian Meredith, the Union registered just one shot on goal. It also marked the 12th league game dating back to October of last season in which the Union (2-5-1, seven points)

RAY ARMSTRONG, a model whose chiseled body once graced a Target billboard in Times Square, ran out of the Grays Ferry house of his friend, Anthony Williams, on Sept. 27, 2008, stark naked and soaking wet, according to witnesses. He lay face down in the middle of the street, said, "I am God," and told neighbors not to go into the house because Williams was dead, witnesses said. No weapon was found inside the home - just Williams' beaten, strangled body, police said. Almost two years later, Armstrong, now 33, may be pursuing an unusual - and controversial - defense, according to statements made at a pretrial hearing in his case yesterday.

The bandits knew exactly what they wanted. And it was in a bulletproof showcase at the front of the store. In that case, more than $90,000 worth of "bling" glittered on display: Breitling watches with 25-carat diamond bezels, heavy "Miami Cuban" gold chains, dogtags encrusted with hundreds of glittering stones. The time: just after 11 Sunday morning, when the Diamond Depot jewelry store at Franklin Mills mall had just opened. Ron Alia, the store's owner, was showing a customer a ring.

Thaddeus Young didn't sleep particularly well Tuesday night. An embarrassing 105-74 loss to the Boston Celtics hours earlier had the 76ers forward tossing and turning. "Any time you lose like that, it's definitely hard to sleep," Young said after yesterday's practice at the Philadelphia College of Osteopathic Medicine. "You know that you are not 15, 20, or 30 points less than a team. "We feel that we are one of the best teams in the league. We feel that we can [compete]

WHEN MIKE RICHARDS was named captain of the Flyers last September, I questioned the decision. Not because I don't like Richards and not because I don't think he's a leader. I just thought the Flyers were dropping too much too soon on the then-23-year-old face of the franchise, too much on someone who had just signed that huge, long contract, too much on an unmarried guy still getting used to the glare that comes with being an athletic superstar in a hockey-intense city. One summer later, Paul Holmgren's trade for 34-year-old Chris Pronger bears this out. Jay Bouwmeester was younger, faster, a seemingly perfect mesh for the Flyers' young core, at least at first glance.

Montgomery County school officials will have student safety at their fingertips thanks to a new wireless alert system developed after the Nickel Mines shooting. The silent panic button was demonstrated yesterday at Stewart Middle School in Norristown. Wearing a wireless transmitter around her neck, Stewart principal Rachel Holler summoned police by pressing the button, which is designed to alert a 911 dispatcher within two seconds. Fifty-nine schools in Montgomery County have the system, and the county hopes to have it in most schools by the end of this year.

The famed Sports Illustrated jinx did not affect Jimmy Rollins, but it may have struck the Phillies. Rollins, who is on the cover of this week's magazine, was one of the few catalysts yesterday in the Phillies' 10-5 loss to the rampaging Colorado Rockies, who took a vise-grip hold of the National League division series with a second straight win. The diminutive shortstop became the first Phillie in postseason history to hit a leadoff first-inning...

The owner of the Lucky Star Chinese takeout in Southwest Philadelphia was about to close about 1 a.m. yesterday when one last customer came in to order fried chicken wings. Two other men followed him into the takeout on Elmwood Avenue near 67th Street. As the owner, a 40-year-old immigrant from China's Fujian province, turned to start cooking, he heard two gunshots. The customer was lying on the floor with at least one gunshot wound in his back, said the owner, who refused to give his name.

Recent school shootings around the country prompted Montgomery County commissioners to wonder how they could help protect youngsters at school. Their answer: panic buttons. Yesterday, the commissioners announced an initiative to put silent panic alarms tied into the 911 dispatch center in the more than 650 schools - public, private, parochial and nursery - throughout the county. "The key advantage to this is that it will take no more than a button press," said Sean Petty, the county's deputy director of public safety for technology and the developer of the new system.

WITH THE outbreak of avian or H5N1 virus in Asia and its spread to 13 new countries in the last month alone, scientists and medical researchers would have us believe that a bird flu pandemic is imminent. History appears to reinforce their prediction. Such pandemics can be traced to biblical times and occur in the human population when a new flu virus appears, causes serious illness, then spreads easily worldwide. But as a historian, I'm not so quick to agree with such dire predictions.