State Buildings

Residents in two of the township's oldest neighborhoods now have one less excuse for putting off those home improvements, because the township has money available to help. The Neighborhood Preservation Program (NPP), under the direction of coordinator Lenore Rosner, has $85,000 to hand out to residents of the Kenilworth and South Woodland neighborhoods. The state-funded program offers property owners financial assistance to help pay for the cosmetic and structural repairs that can make the difference between dingy and dazzling, or even "for sale" and "sold!"

Officials met yesterday to discuss a proposed $16 million plant that could produce 10 million gallons of ethanol a year and expressed support for building it in South Jersey, preferably in Burlington County. Ethanol, a chemical made from corn, is added to gasoline to clean the air. Unlike methyl tertiary butyl ether (MTBE), another gasoline additive widely used in the state, it does not endanger water supplies. Local legislators support a state-financed plant in Burlington County.

Tull Gearreald's business plan is as simple as it is risky: Build a private medical facility, surround it with razor wire, monitor its halls with cameras, and treat ailing prisoners from throughout the Southeast. After all, tougher crime legislation is putting more criminals behind bars for longer periods. As they get older, those inmates are more likely to become chronically ill. To cope, some states are building special-care units or sending those prisoners to long-term care centers, where they are housed with civilians.

It's a midwinter morning in the high Sonoran Desert, but it might as well be spring. The sun is poking through the haze produced by the ever-growing number of automobiles choking the roads of metropolitan Phoenix. In response to the sun, the temperature has climbed rapidly past 60 degrees. Jane Edmunds pauses as a visitor from the East Coast surveys the landscape, watching roofers as they balance loads of tiles on the roof of one of the scores of unfinished houses sprouting like sagebrush in the foothills of the McDowell Mountain range.

The Borough Council has made official its request for a comprehensive land- use plan for Norristown State Hospital, urging state officials to establish long-term goals for the property before any development begins. The action, which came in a unanimous vote at Tuesday night's meeting, is an attempt by borough officials to stymie the refurbishing of the hospital's Building 17, located off Stanbridge Street. Pennrose Properties Inc. of Philadelphia plans to lease the abandoned building from the state and renovate it into 50 apartments for low- to moderate-income senior citizens.

Salvation Army officials are still searching for space to create a transitional-housing program for homeless people, with no alternative yet to a rejected location on the Norristown State Hospital grounds. Tom McCaney, the Salvation Army's emergency-housing director here, said yesterday that the organization was having no luck finding a space large enough in the area for the program. Its plan to set up transitional housing and an expanded shelter in the vacant Building 8 on the state hospital grounds was characterized as "untenable" in a Sept.

Under the glow of a contemporary neon sculpture, freshman Jennifer Smith takes a break at Rowan College. The 23-foot-tall sculpture, unveiled Sept. 15, stands outside the student center. The sculpture was underwritten by state funding for artwork at state buildings.

HARRISBURG - Buildings and facilities in the state Capitol complex are about to get a $55 million face-lift. Gov. Corbett's administration intends to spend the money over the next few years on such needs as roofs, lighting, security, and parking. "Unfortunately, the buildings were let go quite a bit in the last administration," said General Services Secretary Sheri Phillips, whose agency coordinates maintenance and improvements of state buildings. Steve Crawford, who served as chief of staff to Republican Corbett's Democratic predecessor, Ed Rendell, disputed that the complex was ignored, pointing to the new Judicial Center and work on the Capitol grounds.

State Rep. David P. Richardson Jr. - a relentless advocate for African Americans, the impoverished and the disenfranchised - died suddenly yesterday of a heart attack. He was 47 and had a history of heart disease and diabetes. From the time he was a teenager - when he fought to make African American history part of the public school curriculum - through more than 20 years in the House of Representatives, Richardson threw his heft and his voice into causes he saw as just. In his own neighborhood of Germantown, he had a reputation as the community's moral compass, said U.S. Rep. Chaka Fattah.

More than 250 black students at Penn State University held their fifth protest in as many days yesterday, singing the black national anthem at a basketball game and then walking out on the event. The protests have been held since Tuesday in a demonstration of racial unity in the face of recent violence against black students at or near the campus. The students, who occupied an entire section at the Penn State-St. Bonaventure's basketball game, held raised hands, sang the anthem "Lift Ev'ry Voice and Sing," and chanted, "Racism has no place at Penn State" before leaving the game.