Tears

DONTA CRADDOCK and Ivan Rodriguez were brought to tears Wednesday afternoon upon hearing that they had been found guilty of four counts of second-degree murder and would spend the rest of their lives in state prison. "Sorry, Mom, for letting you down and everything. Even though I'm going to be in for the rest of my life, I'm sorry," Craddock, 21, softly said from the wheelchair he has been confined to since the fatal car crash he caused while fleeing a robbery scene on June 10, 2009.

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.

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.

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.

IN CASE I haven't done so yet, I want to thank all the letter-writers who wrote such wonderful heart-warming things about my op-ed ("A meditation on life and death," Sept. 27). I didn't expect such an overpowering feeling of love from people I do not even know personally - it made me cry. But they were tears of gladness. Thank all of you for caring, you made my day. Ed Galing Hatboro

Enough grieving. Our hearts go out to the victims of 9/11, but after today, let?s put away our sorrow. We?ve had a year of it. We?ve had our fill. Tears and looking back won?t help us look forward, can?t help us remain vigilant. Since 9/11/01, our war on terrorism has accomplished much. There is one less terrorist-coddling totalitarian regime in the world. We have proven to ourselves and to the rest of the world how resilient we are. We may not be the Greatest Generation ? but over the last year, we?ve been great enough.

WHY CAN'T the United States be more like Rwanda? Or Turkey? Or Bangladesh? Those are just three of the many, many countries that have broken through the women-as-president/prime-minister ceiling. Somehow, it's hard to imagine those countries, which also include England, Ireland, Germany, among others, torturing themselves with the kind of ponderous thumb-sucking and plain old heebie-jeebies this country exhibits over the idea of a woman being elected president. And even harder to imagine those countries exhibiting the same kind of gleefully infantile reaction to a woman candidate showing - gasp - a pure human emotion than the pile-on following a Hillary Clinton meeting in New Hampshire.

IDON'T KNOW who is responsible for that Sept. 11 editorial ("A Farewell to Tears"), but may I make a suggestion for that person - send it to one of the families of the victims of the World Trade Center, or the Pentagon or Flight 93. Because I think that they will agree that we should just stop crying over losing lives that were innocent. And you know what, America has moved on and we have become stronger and we have moved on and these cold calculating killers have not stopped us from moving on but . . . we can never stop crying, the sadness is too overwhelming.

The real shock for the accused killer of a pregnant woman came at the end of his preliminary hearing yesterday. "I'm sorry to have to tell you this, but your brother was shot to death the other day," lawyer Joel S. Moldovsky told his client, Shawn Sharp, 19, of Chew Avenue near Chelten. "Somebody has to tell you," said the attorney at the bar of Municipal Judge Lydia Y. Kirkland's courtroom. Sharp broke down in tears and began shaking. He had to be helped from the courtroom by sheriff's deputies.

As word of Barbaro's death spread yesterday, many in the region fell to tears or silence. In the end, their prayers had not been enough. Nor were the lighted candles, the countless get-well cards, the bags of feed, the carrots sent by children enamored of a powerful racehorse who fought first to win, then to survive. At the New Bolton Center for Large Animals in Kennett Square, tears streamed down the face of Patty Morgera, who was diagnosed with breast cancer days before Barbaro won the Kentucky Derby last May. "He's been my inspiration," the Downingtown woman said.

With a trumpet fanfare that seemed to erase an eternity of angst and anticipation, the Barnes Foundation's new campus in Philadelphia was officially dedicated Friday morning in honor of its founder, Albert C. Barnes, with executive director Derek Gillman promising to "dedicate ourselves anew to his passions. " "Philadelphia, our cultural star is rising," Mayor Nutter told the hundreds of dignitaries, officials, donors and the consuls general of Italy, Germany, France and Mexico, assembled in the inner courtyard just outside the galleries.

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.

NEW YORK Yankees manager Joe Girardi said closer Mariano Rivera has a torn right knee ligament, an injury that could potentially end his career. The 42-year-old righthander was carted off the field after twisting his right knee shagging fly balls during batting practice Thursday night before the Yankees' 4-3 loss to the host Kansas City Royals, who were led by Mike Moustakas' three RBI. Girardi revealed the severity of the injury after the game. Royals team doctor Vincent Key diagnosed a torn ACL after looking at the MRI. "This is bad, there's no question about it," Girardi.

GREENSBORO, N.C. - A former adviser to John Edwards recounted Wednesday how the former presidential candidate's now-deceased wife indignantly confronted her husband, baring her chest in front of staff members the day after a tabloid reported that he was cheating on her. During a session that saw Edwards' 30-year-old daughter flee the courtroom in tears, Christina Reynolds described how a very upset Elizabeth Edwards stormed away from her husband,...

READING - Truth be told, the conversion of Jiwan James began in the spring of 2008. Drafted in the 22nd-round as a pitcher the previous June, the lanky righthander was attempting to battle through a forearm injury that had relegated him to the sidelines during extended spring training. Dusty Wathan, who at the time was a first-year minor league coach, felt bad for the kid and offered to throw him some pitches in the cage. "You could tell he had a good swing," Wathan said.

OSLO, Norway - Anders Behring Breivik shed tears as he went on trial Monday for killing 77 people - but not for his victims. The emotional display came when prosecutors showed his anti-Muslim video. Dressed in a dark suit and sporting a thin beard, the right-wing fanatic defended the July 22 massacre as an act of "self-defense" in his professed civil war, and sat stone-faced as prosecutors described how he killed each of his victims. But he was gripped by emotion when they showed a video warning of a Muslim takeover of Europe and laden with crusader imagery that he posted on YouTube before the attacks.

Penn State defensive end Pete Massaro is experiencing a sense of deja vu, using his experience of returning from a torn anterior cruciate ligament to help him deal with the same situation during the Nittany Lions' spring practice. No one is suggesting it's easy to come back twice from a torn ACL but Massaro, a former Marple Newtown High School star who received his undergraduate degree in finance last December, has the knowledge, the intelligence, and the motivation to know what it takes.

OJ. Mayo passed up one three-pointer with the Memphis Grizzlies' lead dwindling in the final minute. He wasn't going to do it again. Mayo scored 22 points, including a key three-pointer with 17 seconds left, and the Grizzlies prevented Oklahoma City from tying for the NBA's best record by beating the Thunder, 94-88, on Monday night. "It was a good look. I had my feet set," Mayo said. "I just wanted to knock it down. " One possession earlier, Mayo was in about the same spot and passed the ball to Zach Randolph, who had to force a three-point attempt that hit the backboard and didn't touch the rim for a shot-clock violation.

CLEARWATER, Fla. - Shortly before 10:30 a.m. Wednesday, Ryan Howard hobbled to the warning track of Ashburn Field at the Carpenter Complex. Wearing a large walking boot that comes halfway up his left knee, Howard threw a baseball to Phillies head athletic trainer Scott Sheridan. He was back on the field. For 18 days, Howard was a mystery. "I guess it was like a 'Where's Waldo?' type deal," he said. He watched Grapefruit League games on TV in Florida. He popped into the clubhouse occasionally to say hello.

DARRYL CHANEY was dedicated to helping his fellow vets at the Veterans Administration Medical Center in Coatesville. He was the kind of guy who would do anything for you, and he made himself so useful to his fellow patients that when he was taken to Brandywine Hospital in his final illness, many of them showed up there to give their support. "He cared about people," said his father, Hall of Fame retired Temple basketball coach John Chaney. "He was always involved in situations where he could help people.