Philadelphia

They gathered in the shadow of the Cathedral Basilica of SS. Peter and Paul, Philadelphia's main Catholic church, in an amen chorus of support for nuns. "For Sister Marie Timothy, who assured me I didn't have an attitude problem and that I was a strong woman in the making," said a school nurse. "For Sister Evelyn, who put my feet on the path of demonstrating in Washington in 1972," said a baby boomer. "To Sister Mary Paul, for teaching us the mysteries of sex in middle school!"

A dream had carried the boys so far from home, some 5,000 miles across the ocean to a cramped and dingy apartment in Philadelphia: a hope that ice hockey could change their lives. Ivan Pravilov could fulfill that dream, they were told. He could take them from the daily grind of post-communist Ukraine to the gleaming ice of the NHL. He'd done it before. He'd done if for Andrei Zyuzin, who went on to play for six NHL teams. He'd done it for Konstantin Kalmikov, a third-round draft pick of the Toronto Maple Leafs in 1996.

ATLANTIC CITY — The stabbing deaths of two Canadian tourists outside a casino hotel left tourism officials stunned and dismayed Monday, casting a shadow over the formal opening on Memorial Day weekend of the newest gambling palace and tripping up a $30 million-a-year campaign to rebrand and revive the sagging resort town. The two victims, women ages 80 and 47, were stabbed and killed during a robbery Monday morning outside Bally's Atlantic City casino hotel, just steps from where a police officer was sitting in a patrol car. Police declined to provide the names of the victims, or precisely where they were from, pending notification of family.

The housing market's continuing struggles have upset the retirement plans of millions of Americans, keeping more of them in their current homes, waiting for diminished equity to reappear. Others plan to move, but they appear to be demanding something much different from what they wanted before the real estate boom turned to bust: smaller, less expensive retirement houses they can afford with their reduced means. At the start of the financial crisis in the fall of 2008, economists weren't anticipating that the long-term trend toward retirement living would be derailed.

OCEAN CITY, N.J. - Luxury appointments abound in the 7,000-square-foot, 12-year-old Victorian-style mansion overlooking Great Bay, such as a marble fireplace that once graced a Biddle estate mansion, a crystal chandelier that at the touch of a button lowers from the 30-foot foyer ceiling for cleaning, and boat slips big enough to berth a pair of yachts. A "smart house" system controls window treatments, lighting, heating, air-conditioning, and music. Slate-covered turrets, little secret gardens, and gingerbread-laden porches make the exterior look more like Cape May than Ocean City.

A 14-YEAR veteran of the Philadelphia Police Department was arrested Monday for allegedly engaging in an ongoing conspiracy to steal from a local toy store, police said. Bridgette Paris, 48, was charged with retail theft, theft by unlawful taking, receiving stolen property, forgery and related offenses, police said. The charges followed an investigation by the department's Internal Affairs Bureau and the Philadelphia District Attorney's Office. Police have not identified the store that Paris allegedly targeted.

This summer, hair weaves are taking a turn for the kinky, the curly and the wavy. Why is this news? When black women first started sewing hair onto their scalps during the 1990s en masse, the resulting shoulder-length bobs were as much about achieving a smooth texture as it was about having length. Fabulous hair was defined as long and straight. However, as more black women have come to terms with their natural curl pattern, store-bought tresses are trending toward the fuzzy rather than the flat-ironed.

Philadelphia will be the US Airways hub for nonstop flights to Asia if the airline launches service to China, Japan or Turkey, airline officials said. Currently, the only nonstop flight to Asia from Philadelphia International Airport is a US Airways flight to Tel Aviv, Israel. Philadelphia is the largest metro area in the country without nonstop service to other cities in Asia. Service to Beijing, Istanbul or Narita, Japan, will await the delivery of new long-distance planes in the next several years and would also depend on fuel costs and government approvals, officials said.

A West Chester high school swim coach, who allegedly posed as a swimmer's father, plied her with beer and had sex with her multiple times, was arrested Wednesday and charged on felony sex assault counts and corruption of a minor. Kenneth William Fuller, 47, was head coach of the Rustin High School swim team. A member of the team, a teenage girl, told police that she had had several assignations with Fuller at parks and coffee shops outside of school before he took her on April 27 to a Kennett Square hotel.

UPDATE, 4 p.m. Monday, May 14, 2012: On Monday, NBC entertainment chairman Robert Greenblatt announced that next season would, after all, be the last for "30 Rock," apparently contradicting what he'd told reporters only the day before.   SO MAYBE NEXT season won't be the last for NBC's "30 Rock," after all? Following days of online reports that the network had given the sitcom created by and starring Upper Darby's Tina Fey 13 episodes to wrap things up, NBC entertainment chairman Robert Greenblatt said Sunday that "we haven't definitively said that" to the people at "30 Rock" or to those at "The Office" or "Community," both of which will also return.

Wearing a pair of dark-rimmed glasses and a backward snapback hat, Teon Kennedy strolled into Joe Hand's Gym on Tuesday afternoon wheeling his equipment bag at his side. Just 25 years old and 5 feet, 5 inches tall, Kennedy's youthful appearance might fool you. But in the ring, the North Philly boxer stakes his claim with an aggressive style that often turns fights into brawls. By the final rounds of a fight last year in Atlantic City, his eyes were swollen shut but he still battled.

Philadelphia International Airport has awarded a $20.4 million, seven-year contract for airport advertising to Clear Channel Airports, of Allentown, the company said Wednesday. The company will install 76 large digital screens to display advertising, including thirteen 70-inch screens in baggage-claim areas and 50-square-foot digital walls on the overhead arches of concourses B and C, said president Toby Sturek. The city-owned airport will receive a minimum of $20.4 million over the seven years of the contract, or 60 to 65 percent of gross ad sales, if that amount is greater, under terms of a contract signed this month by Mayor Nutter.

REPUBLICAN insurgents have called for an election Wednesday night to select a new Philadelphia party chairman -- whether the old chairman likes it or not. The vote at St. Michael the Archangel Church, near 4th Street and Fairmount Avenue, comes after years of fighting between the old-guard GOP and a gang of dissidents known as "the loyal opposition" that would like the party to be more competitive. At issue is whether current Republican City Committee Chairman Vito Canuso holds his position legitimately.

You read the H Street saga, and you wonder: How can the city better prevent debacles like this — the kind that destroy neighborhoods and put people's lives at risk — from happening in the future? It's a loaded question, sure, but let's start by looking at one glaring problem with the Kensington warehouse that was consumed by a seven-alarm fire on June 20, 2007: The Department of Licenses & Inspections issued several meaningless fire-code violation notices to the owner of the lot, the Philadelphia Authority for Industrial Development, in the months and years leading up to the blaze.

Msgr. William J. Lynn began testifying in his own defense Wednesday, trying to counter prosecutors' contention that he was the Archdiocese of Philadelphia official most responsible for letting priests stay in parishes despite evidence they might sexually abuse children. Within minutes of settling in the witness chair, Lynn and his lawyer zeroed in on a critical pillar of their defense. Lynn said that during his 12 years as secretary for clergy under Cardinal Anthony J. Bevilacqua, he never had the power to assign, transfer or restrict priests in the archdiocese.

Two years after it was created by City Council, the Philadelphia Energy Authority hits the public stage on Wednesday looking for a few good ideas about saving energy. The five-member authority is holding a public hearing to gather suggestions on ways to fulfill its mission of reducing city government's energy consumption and to facilitate the development of renewable energy projects. "We're looking for great ideas," said Christopher A. Lewis, a Blank Rome law partner who is the authority's chairman.

A 24-year-old man, one of four people hit by gunfire in South Philadelphia Tuesday night, died of his wounds early today, police said. The three other victims, including a 29-year-old woman who police said is seven months pregnant, are expected to recover. The name of the man who died has not been released yet. Shots were fired on Etting Street between Reed and Dickinson in the Grays Ferry neighborhood about 9:14 p.m., police said. The 24-year-old man was hit in the torso and died at a hospital at 1:08 a.m., police said.

BEBE NEUWIRTH doesn't do the fluffy stuff. Neuwirth's stance makes sense to anyone who only knows her as Lilith, the icy, monotone psychiatrist and eventual wife of Kelsey Grammer's Frasier Crane — the iconic role that made Neuwirth famous on the beloved sitcom "Cheers. " But it means something different when it comes to compiling songs for her cabaret-style shows, like the one which Neuwirth will perform tonight at the Prince Music Theater, "Stories with Piano #3. " For those shows, the fluffy stuff means the songs that Neuwirth doesn't deem emotionally hefty enough.

For the first time, the city's vast inventory of 9,000 vacant properties for sale will be just a mouse click away. The Philadelphia Redevelopment Authority (PRA) is rolling out a new online site for viewing all of its vacant land and buildings, as well as the holdings of the Public Property Department and the city-run Philadelphia Housing Development Corp. The official launch will be in June. Technicians are working out the bugs, but the site will be accessible through the main PRA page (www.phila.gov/pra)

"WALKING ON Sunshine," the newest SEPTA Art in Transit piece on the platforms of the rehabbed Spring Garden station, is unexpectedly cheery and colorful. With its snappy, patent-leather shine, it gives the underground station "soul," as one appreciative rider put it. This creation of Philadelphia artist Margery Amdur is one of 21 art projects SEPTA has created systemwide since 1998, when Art in Transit began at the behest of then-new SEPTA general director Jack Leary. Leary came from Boston, which had an art program in its MTA; he wanted art for Philadelphia, too. Everybody up and down the SEPTA line embraced the idea, according to Elizabeth Mintz, who came on board at the same time as Leary and is the authority's director of communications and manager of the Art in Transit program.