Summer

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.

Pam Chandler decided to accompany her husband, Bob, to the extraordinary auction of an Ocean City, N.J., mansion Saturday to keep him from "going overboard. " But an hour after she toured the 7,000-square-foot Victorian-style house on the Great Bay, she was the one prodding him to stay in the frenzied bidding on the breezy bayside veranda. The Chandlers, who live in Rumson, Monmouth County, with their three children, won the auction, ultimately paying $3.9 million for a property that was listed at about $6.5 million two years ago. It is assessed at $5 million.

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.

Donna Summer's family says the singer died of lung cancer even though she wasn't a smoker. TMZ says the diva believed she contracted the disease by breathing in toxic air after the Sept. 11 attacks in New York. Summer, who died Thursday at 63 in Naples, Fla., lived near ground zero. Summer's family rep, Brian Edwards, also said on Friday that the singer's funeral would be private and declined to disclose a time or place for the event. J-Lo: I'm undecided Jennifer Lopez denies she's already quit American Idol.

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.

Just downstream from an industrial recycling operation and a stone's throw from a sewage treatment plant, a fisherman casts his line toward the passing barge traffic and watches it drop into the Delaware River. A couple eating lunch watch curiously. "No way would I ever eat anything from there," the woman says. The fishers who frequent the pier in Camden's Waterfront South neighborhood have heard it all before. That they're crazy, that they're going to grow an extra head or get sick from eating what they catch.

Too bad, Summer. Despite the ever-so-public declaration about missing the puffy-faced murderer that she'll make on TV tomorrow, the object of her remarks won't be able to see her. That's because "American Journal" doesn't air in Houtzdale, Pa., where the medium-security prison in which Craig Rabinowitz is serving his life sentence is located. But he does have a TV in his cell, said his attorney, Jeff Miller. At any rate, Miller said no one should believe a word Summer - the dancer also known as Shannon Reinert - says.

What's the first thing convicted Main Line murderer Craig Rabinowitz would do if he was released from prison? Run back to Summer. That's what Rabinowitz, who confessed in October to killing his attorney wife to collect $1.8 million in insurance, says in a jailhouse interview appearing this week in Philadelphia Weekly. Rabinowitz, of course, won't be fulfilling this fantasy. The 34-year-old former latex-glove salesman is serving a life sentence without parole for the bathtub strangulation of Stefanie Rabinowitz, 29. Summer, of course, is Shannon Reinert, the stripper in the middle of the murder.

THIS YEAR'S CONCERT SEASON, called the "Essence of Entertainment," will run from July 7 to Aug. 25. The 2011 Dell summer concert series is as follows: July 7: Angie Stone and Joe July 14: Stephanie Mills and Keith Washington July 21: The Delfonics, Jerry Butler, Jean Carne, the Jones Girls, Russell Thompkins and the Stylistics July 28: Ginuwine, Tank and Avant Aug. 4: Fred Hammond and Martha Munizzi Aug.11: Jeffrey...

HEY, KIDS! Want to swim, dance, kayak or blow stuff up in test tubes this summer? Whatever your interest, the city says it can find something fun for kids of all ages in its wide array of classes and camps, as well as by offering safe hangout spots at city recreation centers and pools. "There's no excuse to say, quote-unquote, there's nothing to do this summer," Mayor Nutter said Wednesday at the kickoff for the Fun Safe Philly Summer campaign. There are camp slots — in programs as varied as sports, arts and science — for up to 15,000 kids, as well as activities at recreation centers, libraries and pools.

This weekend will feel more like the Fourth of July than Memorial Day, as May is about to become the seventh consecutive month with above-normal temperatures in Philadelphia. This follows back-to-back summers that sizzled their way into the record books. But for those bracing for another siege of swelter and eye-popping electric bills, some fearless long-range forecasters have a reassuring message: Don't sweat it. Their consensus is that nature is about to end one of the most impressive hot streaks in the period of record.

WASHINGTON - Ignoring a White House veto threat, the Republican-controlled House approved a $642 billion defense budget Friday that breaks a deficit-cutting deal with President Obama and restricts his authority in an election-year challenge to the Democratic commander in chief. The House voted 299-120 for the fiscal 2013 spending blueprint that authorizes money for weapons, aircraft, ships and the war in Afghanistan - $8 billion more than Obama and congressional Republicans agreed to last summer in the clamor for fiscal austerity.

NEW YORK - Michael Jackson was the King of Pop. Aretha Franklin was the Queen of Soul. Like them, Donna Summer, who died Thursday of lung cancer at 63, was given a title befitting musical royalty: Queen of Disco. Yet unlike Jackson or Franklin, she wasn't comfortable with that title. "I grew up on rock-and-roll," Ms. Summer once explained. As disco boomed and then crashed in a single decade - the 1970s - Ms. Summer, the beautiful voice and face of the genre, with pulsating hits such as "I Feel Love," "Love to Love You Baby," and "Last Dance," made hits incorporating the rock roots she so loved.

Donna Summer's family says the singer died of lung cancer even though she wasn't a smoker. TMZ says the diva believed she contracted the disease by breathing in toxic air after the Sept. 11 attacks in New York. Summer, who died Thursday at 63 in Naples, Fla., lived near ground zero. Summer's family rep, Brian Edwards, also said on Friday that the singer's funeral would be private and declined to disclose a time or place for the event. J-Lo: I'm undecided Jennifer Lopez denies she's already quit American Idol.

The news of Donna Summer's passing Thursday at age 63 shook me to my dancing shoes. Of all the so-called disco divas, I thought Summer would be the one to live forever. Ah, disco. The pulsating beat exploded onto the music scene in the mid-'70s like the inferno the Trammps sang about. A mirrored, rotating cherry bomb that just as quickly flamed out. Those one-hit wonders it produced, so relevant then, forgotten now. (Alicia Bridges? Dorothy Moore? Somebody? Anybody?) But not Summer.

Snow had fallen by Halloween; in effect, spring arrived by Christmas, and the blossoms were popping by Easter. And despite the atmosphere's recent flirtations with quasi-normality, the seasonal fast-forwarding trend has continued briskly in the Philadelphia region's farms and fields, where veteran observers report that the annual bounty of summer fruits and vegetables is a full week to two weeks ahead of schedule. Even better, one weather service says the summer could pass without a heat wave.

School is out in one month, which means many parents and students are making plans for the summer. Unfortunately, if recent trends continue, fewer agendas will include trying to land a job, partly because of efforts more directed at resumé enhancement. Lost in that process will be the lessons that come from entry-level experiences. Last week, Erika Christakis, a Harvard College administrator, addressed this subject for Time's website, where she wrote that in July 2010, fewer than half of American young people between the ages of 16 and 24 were employed.

US Airways is adding flights to Europe from Philadelphia for the busy summer travel season, the airline said Wednesday. Seasonal flights will operate to Barcelona, Frankfurt, Venice, Lisbon, Athens, Glasgow and, for two weeks in July, to Dublin. Additional seasonal flights are also being added from Charlotte, the airline said. — Paul Nussbaum

Fewer students will be eating free breakfast and lunch in summer school this year because budget troubles are forcing the School District of Philadelphia to reduce the number of academic and enrichment programs it offers. This year, about 10,000 students will be enrolled in summer programs, nearly half of the 19,000 who attended in 2011, a district representative said. Summer school will be available only to high school seniors who need credits to graduate, special-education students, and students who qualify for education programs funded by federal grants.