Shaft

A boy about three was found dead inside a 20-feet deep shaft in an abandoned North Philadelphia high-rise building last night by police. Although positive identification has not been made, police believe the child is the son of Valerie Phillips, 28, who reported her boy missing Thursday morning, police said. The bruised body of the boy, who police said fit the description of the missing child, Raphael Barnes, 3, was recovered by fire officials at 2308 W. Diamond St. "We don't have a positive identification yet, but based on descriptions of the missing boy, we have reasonable certainty to believe the recovered body is that of Raphael Barnes," said Lt. Joseph Witte of the Homicide Division.

Golfers like nothing better than a big leap forward in technology. Perimeter-weighted irons, metal woods, titanium drivers. We're like lemmings in search of the latest thing. It's too soon to say for sure, but already there is talk in serious golf circles that True Temper, the giant in the shaft industry, might have taken a big leap with its new part-graphite, part-steel shaft it's calling BiMatrx. Never heard of it? It's the shaft that Mark Calcavecchia, in the midst of something of a slump, stuck in his driver just before he won the Phoenix Open on Jan. 28, shooting a second-round 60 and breaking a 46-year-old PGA Tour scoring record in the process.

Isaac Hayes' soundtrack from the 1971 "Shaft" movie is as important a musical work as Marvin Gaye's seminal album, "What's Going On," or Michael Jackson's record-breaking classic, "Thriller. " Keep that in mind as the hype kicks in for the new "Shaft" flick, starring Samuel L. Jackson. Some might scoff at placing a musical score in such high company, but "Shaft" was no ordinary soundtrack. Created while America wrestled with the issues of race, Vietnam and a insidious "do your thing" mentality, the "Shaft" soundtrack took the familiar orchestral sound that accompanied movies and gave it life, gave it soul.

Too black for the uniform, too blue for the brothers and too cool for school, Samuel L. Jackson positively slams as police detective Shaft, John Singleton's crackling update of the definitive '70s urban drama. Sporting a shaved head, scythe-cut goatee and a coat of black leather so supple that it doesn't hang, it flies, Jackson resembles an ultra-fashionable bald eagle whose keen eyes see what others miss. While it's a kick just to watch Jackson soar, shoulders slicing the sky, Shaft does more than elevate him from the screen's most versatile utility guy into a franchise player.

A woman plunged through a displaced SEPTA sidewalk grate on Market Street near 2nd this morning and fell 20 feet to the subway level, police said. Police identified the woman as Johanna M. Rice, 62, of Webster Street near 51st. She was in good condition at Thomas Jefferson University Hospital, where a spokeswoman said she'd suffered only bruises. SEPTA spokesman Jim Whitaker said the 3-by-5-foot, 150-pound grate was one of a series of three set in the sidewalk on the south side of Market Street near 2nd. They cover a shaft providing ventilation for the Market-Frankford El, whose tracks lie under the site.

In the short but intense era of blaxploitation movies - roughly 1971 to 1974 - scores of flicks were released. But a few stand out: SWEET SWEETBACK'S BAADASSSSS SONG (1971). Produced, written, directed and scored by star Melvin Van Peebles, this was the first real blaxploitation movie, and a surprise box-office smash. A visceral black-man-on-the-run-from- the-cops flick, it became a template for the genre: superstud hero, racist white establishment, violent action sequences, plenty of dirty language.

A veteran Bucks County police chief and a young officer were seriously injured when they fell down an open elevator shaft late Thursday at a rural winery along the Delaware River. Tinicum Township Chief James Sabath, 48, and Officer Mark Compas, 26, suffered numerous broken bones in the 30- to 40-foot plunge at Sand Castle Winery, Tinicum Officer William Mooney said. Sabath and Compas were in stable condition yesterday morning before surgery at St. Luke's Hospital in Bethlehem, Mooney said.

Two food-concession employees at Citizens Bank Park were injured yesterday after one drove a small cart into a freight-elevator shaft and landed on top of an elevator car more than 30 feet below. The second employee was inside the elevator car; both were taken to the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania. The man driving the cart was in critical condition with head and chest injuries, while the second was in stable condition with injuries to his head and an arm, Police Officer Yolanda Dawkins said.

FIREFIGHTERS FEED HOSES down a Philadelphia Electric Co. shaft at 17th and Pine Streets after an underground explosion and fire. After the blast in a transformer yesterday, flames spewed two stories high from the shaft; PE worker John Elm was treated for burns. The hour-long fire was under control at 4:20 p.m. Power was restored to 400 customers an hour later.

Ron Raver remembers well his trip toward the center of the Earth. "A crane operator free-falls you down into the cavern, and you fall about 250 feet before he starts braking," he said. "You look up, and this 60-inch hole is getting smaller and smaller, and eventually it disappears. " It was 1975 and Raver, then an operating technical specialist at Sun Co., was descending into the last of five huge gas-storage caverns to be excavated hundreds of feet beneath the Marcus Hook refinery.

Whoa! Someone got quite a scare this morning at the Convention Center Parking garage on North Broad Street, between Race and Cherry Streets, in Center City. A black Infiniti, with a driver inside, partially fell down a ground-level car lift before 10 a.m. Andrew Afandor, an employee with the 1st Choice Response Unit tow-truck company, who was there afterward waiting to tow the car away, said he heard this account from garage employees: A garage worker had gotten into the Infiniti G375, which was in front of a closed elevator door.

With Temple carrying the local banner and Drexel's omission getting plenty of Selection Sunday debate, here are 20 questions and answers about this year's NCAA tournament.   1. Drexel didn't make it. But how did this Selection Committee treat the Dragons? Like gum on their feet. Officially, 27-6 Drexel was one of four teams left outside the field with Oral Roberts, Miami and Nevada. We wrote all along that the committee was going to have to make a philosophical decision - the team or the profile.

A man who allegedly broke into an Atlantic City Electric facility in Pleasantville fell down an elevator shaft and had to be rescued overnight. He and three other men with him were captured and arrested by police, according to Bridget Shelton, a spokeswoman for Atlantic City Electric. Initial police reports for a rescue and trauma call for help came in about 1 a.m. to Egg Harbor Police. Crews discovered the man, who said he believed both his ankles were broken. However, medical reports were not available as of early this morning.

BACK ABOUT the time of the first Detroit automotive bailout, in 1980, folksinger Tom Paxton penned the lyrics of a popular song, sung by Arlo Guthrie, called "I'm Changing My Name to Chrysler. " The first chorus was as follows: I am changing my name to Chrysler I am going down to Washing- ton, D.C. I will tell some power broker What they did for Iacocca Will be perfectly acceptable to me I am changing my name to Chrysler I am headed for that great receiving line So when they hand a million grand out I'll be standing with my hand out Yessiree, I'll get mine . Fast-forward 30 years, and we're doing it again.

LISA BUSTER was surprised to get a letter from the Philadelphia Parking Authority socking her with a $20 penalty for not paying a $76 parking fine. Buster says she never got a ticket in the first place. Neither did Steve Ulrich, who admits idling in a handicapped spot while a friend bought a cup of coffee. He says a PPA enforcement agent gave him "a look," so Ulrich apologized and moved his car, pronto. Two weeks later, via mail, he learned he'd gotten a $300 violation, plus a late charge.

SALT LAKE CITY - Three college students were hospitalized in serious condition yesterday after they were burned while dropping homemade gasoline bombs into one of Utah's thousands of abandoned mine shafts. A fourth Brigham Young University student also was hospitalized with less serious injuries, and two others were treated and released, said Phil Sahm, a spokesman for the University of Utah Health Care Burn Center. Several others were transported to nearby hospitals. Their conditions weren't immediately available.

A 25-year-old man fell to his death down an elevator shaft in a Center City apartment building on Friday night. The man, whose name was not released pending notification of family, entered the elevator shaft on the fifth floor of a building in the 700 block of Chestnut Street before midnight. Police said the man did not realize that the elevator car was not at his floor; they added that the light was out. Police said the man was a resident of the building, although some neighbors thought he might have been a guest.

A 25-year-old man fell to his death down an elevator shaft in a Center City apartment building on Friday night. The man, whose name was not released pending family notification, entered the elevator shaft on the fifth floor of a building in the 700 block of Chestnut Street before midnight. Police said the man did not realize that the elevator car was not at his floor; they added that the light was out. Police said that he was a resident of the building, although some neighbors thought he might have been a guest.

Save steps by blending soups right in the pot. The Cuisinart Smart Stick immersion blender has a 200-watt motor and a 3-year warranty. Dishwasher-safe shaft; comes in snappy colors, too: Pomegranate, Parsley, Crush, Tangerine, and Buttercup. Kosher, gluten-free gelato Sometimes it seems as if everyone at the table has a different dietary restriction. But here's one dessert that can satisfy two. Talenti gelato is now kosher-certified and, with the exception of Caramel Cookie Crunch flavor, the gelato is gluten-free as well.

WAYNESBURG, Pa. - The state Supreme Court has refused to hear the appeal of a man who wanted to withdraw his guilty plea to the charge that he pushed his girlfriend down a mine shaft in southwestern Pennsylvania. Franklin Virgili Jr., 41, is serving a life sentence after pleading guilty to criminal homicide for pushing 20-year-old Joelene Bowers down the shaft of an abandoned Greene County mine on Jan. 19, 1996. Investigators were able to find only an arm and hand of the victim, but they also produced testimony from a friend who said Virgili claimed he had "taken care of" Bowers.