Seal

More than 250 years after it was first settled, New Hope finally has a seal. Borough council Monday night announced the winner in its recent competition for a seal reflecting the borough's heritage. The winning design, created by Hopewell, N.J., painter Joseph Crilley, depicts an artist's palette, the Parry Mansion, which is headquarters of the New Hope Historical Society, and a boat on the Delaware Canal, which runs through New Hope. The crest bears the words, "Borough of New Hope.

Residents gathered on steps and watched as city workers went into the blighted houses to toss heaps of rusted metal and fetid trash into large yellow trucks and then seal the houses shut. "We can breathe again and look out our windows without seeing all that trash," said Kandi Tabb, of Silver Street near 25th. Several other women - almost afraid to hope for more - pointed discreetly at a drug house they said also needed to be sealed up. In front of them, a workman from the Department of Licenses and Inspections, part of a five-man crew that had been cleaning and sealing the houses on the block since Saturday, held forth on the virtues of his work.

SUPERMODEL Heidi Klum wed singer Seal Tuesday on a beach in Mexico. There were no additional details as of yesterday. We'll assume they're still married. In January, Klum said on her Web site that she and Seal were engaged. Two months later, the couple announced Heidi was pregnant. Klum, 31, and Seal, 42, began dating last year, shortly after her breakup with Renault Formula One team boss Flavio Briatore, who is the father of her daughter, Leni, born last May. Tattbits "American Beauty/Pie's" Mena Suvari, 26, has filed for divorce from Robert Brinkmann, 43, her husband of five years.

To call the South Philadelphia rowhouse a "wreck" would have been too kind. It was stripped of all plumbing and lighting fixtures. Piles of debris were strewn across the rotting first floor. The size of the holes in the ceiling and walls almost matched the pane-less windows. So why did Ken Skinner call the abandoned dwelling on Carpenter Street near 21st "a good house"? As chief of Department of Licenses and Inspections' nine "clean and seal" crews, he has seen a lot worse.

Upper Uwchlan is on its way to getting a township seal, after supervisors gave the nod Monday to the idea and its design. Local artist Jane Boggs, who was commissioned by the township's Historic Commission, presented her design to the township Monday. During her presentation, Boggs told the supervisors that she was inspired by the history of the township when deciding on a motif. Her design is a circle bordered in gold rope with the words Upper Uwchlan on a background of a green hill, or upland, with a blue sky and one gold star.

The Goode administration is developing plans to seal houses that are being used as drug distribution centers, sources said. Although a Police Department spokesman said plans are not complete, other sources said the city intends to begin physically sealing about eight so- called "crack" houses a week in the near future. The sources said the Police Department will be responsible for drawing up a list of drug houses and, where warranted, to conduct raids on them. Subsequent to the raids, and after the properties are vacant, the Department of Licenses and Inspections will seal the first-floor doors and windows with cinder blocks and cement, the sources said.

Next stop: Indianapolis. Federal officials said yesterday they had found a home in that Midwestern city for a female gray seal that has spent the last six months in a Brigantine facility recuperating from a broken back. The Indianapolis Zoo will welcome the 7-month-old female pup next month. It will join four California sea lions, three harbor seals, and one gray seal in the zoo's collection. "This is the best news we've had in days," said Bob Schoelkopf, director of the Marine Mammal Stranding Center in Brigantine.

Thanks to Police Officer William Miles, Willistown Township now has an official identity. Founded in 1704, the township has spent the last few hundred years with a state seal rather than one depicting the township's individuality. A Willistown police officer for more than 20 years, Miles will go down in history for designing the first township seal. The seal illustrates some of the most important aspects of the township's past, present and future - fox hunts, Indians and the modest beginnings of municipal government.

Redesigned seals for the space shuttle rocket boosters will have "full redundancy" to ensure that failure of a single seal will not trigger the disastrous sequence that doomed the Challenger, an engineer for the contractor that builds the rockets said yesterday. Allan J. McDonald, an engineer with Morton Thiokol Inc., said the design team he heads may scrap the trouble-plagued O-rings whose failure sparked the Jan. 28 shuttle explosion that killed seven astronauts. McDonald, who argued against the Challenger launch the night before the accident, told the House Science and Technology Committee that Thiokol's new design will "make sure we have full redundancy . . . for the full duration of the flight.

As a modern British soul singer with nary a nod to R&B's raw-powered past, Seal has often been a slippery live performer; a sweatless crooner whose cool, powerful voice lingered on his free-floating mix of jazz and folk chords, and icy instrumentation, rather than on the intensity of his lyrics. But to an older adult audience at Electric Factory on Friday, Seal warmed up. Tentative at first, Seal displayed a vocal chill that matched the gurgling sequencers and preprogrammed drum clicks of "Crazy" and "Killer," songs whose lyrics displayed a paranoia and solitariness at one with their iceberg-funk.

It was definitely not your typical rundown. But then again, scoring the winning run in a quarterfinal playoff game on your 15th birthday isn't the usual way to celebrate turning another year older, either. For Lansdale Catholic freshman Ashley Seal, both were parts of her special day Thursday, as the Crusaders defeated Archbishop Ryan, 5-0, to advance in the Catholic League softball playoffs. Seal walked in the third inning and advanced to second on a sacrifice by Jenna Gibbons.

Fashion retailer Wet Seal Inc. said it would pay $7.5 million and take corrective measures to settle a July class-action racial-discrimination lawsuit filed by three African American women from Delaware County who worked at malls in the region. The women, who had lost jobs at Wet Seal stores, said in the suit that the chain set out to fire African American employees because they did not fit the retailer's "brand image. " Wet Seal, based in Foothill Ranch, Calif., had denied the allegations.

Radnor coach John Begier handed his boys' lacrosse team a few long-term goals in the first weeks of preseason practice. Win the Central League. Get to the district tournament. Qualify for the state tournament. Be the last team standing. The Red Raiders checked off the first goal on the list Tuesday with a 14-2 win at Marple Newtown. Mike Cherry scored four times and Peter Donato had three assists as Radnor won its first league title since 2003. The title will be shared with Conestoga.

BOSTON - Businessman and former Navy SEAL Gabriel Gomez and veteran U.S. Rep. Edward Markey will face each other in a special election for the U.S. Senate seat previously held by John Kerry. In primaries on Tuesday, Markey won the Democratic nomination and Gomez won the Republican nod, according to unofficial returns. Markey defeated fellow U.S. Rep. Stephen Lynch. Gomez won a three-way primary against former U.S. Attorney Michael Sullivan and State Rep. Daniel Winslow. Markey has served in the U.S. House since 1976 and is the dean of the state's congressional delegation.

It's every young baseball player's sandlot dream. With two outs in the seventh inning, trailing visiting Washington Township by a run, Cherry Hill West senior AJ Sohacki stepped to the plate with the bases loaded. Three pitches later, Sohacki deposited a change-up into right field, scoring two and sending the Lions to a 2-1 Olympic Conference inter-divisional victory on Monday. Starter Brad Machinski kept Washington Township, The Inquirer's fourth-ranked team in South Jersey, at bay, fanning eight and allowing just one run in six innings, before trotting home from third on Sohacki's hit. AJ Wright followed from second with the winning run, clinching the Lions' fourth straight win and putting an end to the Minutemen's own five-game streak.

BOSTON — A court official says the surviving suspect in the Boston Marathon bombings is facing federal charges and has made an initial court appearance in his hospital room. The charges against 19-year-old Dzhokhar Tsarnaev remain sealed. He is listed in serious but stable condition. Gary Wente is circuit executive of the 1st U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. He says the suspect made his first appearance before a magistrate judge Monday afternoon in Beth Israel hospital. Officials say Tsarnaev and his older brother set off the twin explosions at Monday's marathon, killing three people and injuring more than 180 others.

For six innings Monday afternoon, the Eastern bats did nothing. That was about to change in a big way. Catcher Ally Schmus hit a go-ahead grand slam to cap a six-run seventh inning and lift Eastern to a 6-2 win at Shawnee in a Olympic Conference American softball. Shawnee's Jackie Pezzato took a perfect game into the seventh. She struck out 10. Eastern had five straight hits to tie the game at 2 before Schmus' big blow Jess Heaton allowed three hits and struck out five to earn the win.   Girls' Lacrosse Alex Hlesciak scored her 200th career goal in Rancocas Valley's 19-6 defeat of visiting New Egypt in Burlington County Liberty play.

Most teams start rallies with base hits or stolen bases. Eastern seized the momentum on Monday with its glove work. "When you turn a double play, you get so pumped up," Eastern senior second baseman Nick Tierno said. "It's like, 'OK, let's go bat.' You have all the momentum. " Eastern ended four consecutive innings with double plays in a 7-5 victory over Washington Township in a battle of top-10 teams and Olympic American rivals Tierno, a La Salle recruit, was in the middle of three double plays and also delivered two hits and scored two runs for Eastern (5-0, 1-0)

With the bases loaded, a full count, and a one-run lead in the top of the seventh inning, GAMP pitcher Frances DiStefano struck out a Masterman batter. The Pioneers won at home, 6-5, Friday in a Public League interdivision softball matchup. Tivonna Lorn broke a 5-5 stalemate in the fifth inning with an RBI single. Camry Gray was 2 for 3 with two RBIs for GAMP. Friends Schools. After three scoreless innings and facing a 6-2 deficit, Friends' Central bats heated up in the fifth inning.

Junior Molly Greenberg hit a pair of foul shots on Thursday afternoon to seal St. Basil's 48-45 win over visiting Merion Mercy as the Panthers locked up a Catholic Academies playoff spot. Kalee Fuegel led Basil with 21 points and six steals. Kate Skalski added 10 points and was a key player in the second half. Also in the Catholic Academies, Meg Geatens scored 12 of her game-high 16 points to help Mount St. Joseph inch closer to an undefeated league season as the Magic rolled at Villa Joseph Marie, 64-21.