Philadelphia

Up to half of sexually active young people will get a sexually transmitted disease by the time they are 25, yet many don't seek testing because it may be difficult, costly or embarrassing. Public health officials nationally and in particularly affected cities like Baltimore, however, say they've found a method that seems to address the major hurdles — a website that supplies free in-home testing kits for three of the most commonly reported STDs. "The highest prevalence is in young adults, and we knew we had to reach these kids," said Charlotte A. Gaydos, a professor of infectious diseases at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore.

To those who support "choice" at all costs: Read the grand jury report on Kermit Gosnell. He is the Philadelphia abortion doctor awaiting a verdict in his trial, where he is accused of murdering four babies allegedly born alive and killing 41-year-old refugee Karnamaya Mongar. The charges represent only a fraction of the horrors that went on at the Women's Medical Society clinic, according to the report, where hundreds of children died by "snipping" - his term for sticking scissors into the back of a baby's neck and cutting its spinal cord - and where women were routinely butchered in late-term abortions by untrained medical staff and doped up according to how much they could pay. Here are some lowlights from the report: •"A nineteen-year-old girl was held for several hours after Gosnell punctured her uterus.

Gardeners are forever looking for something to wrap a flower bed around. There has to be a bed along the front of the porch, and others might be carved out around a garden shed, a birdbath or the trunks of shade trees. For many people, there's another opportunity right out by the curb: the mailbox. A garden bed around a mailbox gives gardeners a chance to put their horticultural stamp where it's sure to show. In the midst of handsome shrubs, interesting ornamental grasses or hard-working annual and perennial flowers, a standard-issue mailbox on a post becomes a piece of functional art. When there's a flower bed to visit, the trip out to the mailbox is much more interesting, even if the postman brings nothing but bills.

The Philadelphia Orchestra has had its share of troubles over the years, including an embarrassing brush with bankruptcy, but things sure sound like they are looking up, way up, these days. Financial matters now seem more stable, and the hiring of a young dynamo from Montreal, Yannick Nezet-Seguin, as music director (this is his inaugural season) has sent a decidedly positive jolt into the organization. That electricity could be easily felt Wednesday night when the Philadelphians visited the Kennedy Center for a concert presented by the Washington Performing Arts Society . I'm still feeling a little tingly from the exposure.

PHILADELPHIA -- It was 1951 when the father of Retin-A first came to Holmesburg Prison.The 1,200 inmates of Philadelphia's gloomiest jail were plagued by an outbreak of athlete's foot, and the prison pharamacist had asked Dr. Albert M. Kligman, a University of Pennsylvania dermatologist, to take a look.Imagine the researcher's thrill as he stepped into the aging prison, hundreds of men milling around."All I saw before me were acres of skin," Kligman told a newspaper reporter in 1966. "It was like a farmer seeing a field for the first time."

One afternoon in 1959, I came home from high school to find my mother in tears. "I have bad news," she said. "Mario Lanza died today." I, too, burst into tears, mourning the end of the golden voice that had made Mario Lanza's movies so popular and that had crowned him as the Enrico Caruso of the 1950s. When he died in Rome, he was 38 years old. Flash forward to several months ago. I made my first visit to Philadelphia. There, I discovered not only the Mario Lanza Museum, but also the Mario Lanza Institute, Mario Lanza Park, Mario Lanza mural and Mario Lanza's birthplace.

PHILADELPHIA -- You can tell by the high-tops that this crowd is serious. As they stride onto the smooth, swept pavement, the trademarks flash like dog tags: Nike, Reebok, Adidas, Converse, Fila. As more and more players arrive, rap spills from a living-room speaker set next to an '80 Riviera parked courtside, announcing that the evening's action is about to commence. Sides are chosen, and soon the basketball is in play.The Moylan Recreation Center at 25th and Diamond is a proving ground, one of several playgrounds where Philadelphia's best players have always come to learn the game, to test themselves, to put their skills on display.

Philadelphia has just joined an exclusive club in having its municipal bonds downgraded to junk-bond status. The city suffers from many problems, some of which plague all big cities: Hemorrhage of jobs and citizens to the suburbs, increasing numbers of people below the poverty line and cuts in federal aid. Add huge new expenditures for public-health problems such as drugs and AIDS.Spokesmen at investment rating services say Philadelphia's economy is generally strong. And they say good things about the city's overall management.

For years, David W. Hornbeck has been angling for the toughest job in American education -- the superintendency of a large urban school system. Now he'll get his chance. If all goes well, the former Maryland state schools superintendent will be hired June 27 as head of Philadelphia's public schools.It's a job Mr. Hornbeck almost had in Baltimore three years ago, when Mayor Kurt L. Schmoke asked him to become a candidate, then abandoned him at the altar in favor of a nonsensical troika arrangement that has since fallen apart.

Philadelphia's Benjamin Franklin Bridge has become the "world's only musical bridge." A computerized lighting system,keyed to live choral music, will be inaugurated on New Year's Eve in a free 45-minute celebration on the Great Plaza at Penn's Landing.The program,beginning at 11:30 p.m., will launches "Neighbors in the New Year," the city's yearlong program to commemoration of the Columbus Quincentenary. Seasonal music will be performed by a formed of community choirs, and at there will be a fireworks display over Delaware River and a pyrotechnic "waterfall" from jets along the bottom of the bridge.

The murder trial of Kermit Gosnell, a Philadelphia abortion provider, entered its fifth week today riding a peculiar media firestorm. The focus of much attention in recent days was not on Dr. Gosnell, who is charged in the death of seven babies and an adult patient who died of an overdose, but on a claim that the trial is getting modest coverage in the national media - allegedly because of a liberal bias. Whether sufficient coverage has been given to the trial we would leave for others to judge.

A Baltimore man whom police say appeared to be under the influence of alcohol was hit by a car and killed as he walked along Philadelphia Road in Joppa late Tuesday evening. The accident happened around 8 p.m. on Philadelphia Road (Route 7) between Mountain Road (Route 152) and Clayton Road, according to a Maryland State Police press release. Troopers said Jack Franklin Watson, 61, of the 2000 block of Frames Road in Baltimore, was walking in the westbound traffic lane of Philadelphia Road east of Mountain Road, wearing dark, non-reflective clothing, according to the release.

Mutter Museum may leave you shocked and horrified or amazed and fascinated. Either way, its collections of bones, bodies, body parts, plus tumors and other terrors, are unforgettable. The nation's finest and oldest medical museum - celebrating its 150th anniversary this month - bills itself as "disturbingly informative," and that is absolutely true. Specimens lining its wood-and-glass display cases reveal the effects of epidemics and diseases on the body, as well as an amazing array of human curiosities and anomalies.

They may have strutted on a stage instead of a runway, but members of the Supremes were well known for their fashionable style. Over two decades of climbing the charts, the singing group performed in a variety of venues - including a performance in England where they met the Queen Mother - all while decked out in the most fabulous costumes. "Come See About Me: The Mary Wilson Supremes Collection," an exhibit featuring more than 30 of the group's glamorous and glittering gowns, is on display at the African American Museum in Philadelphia.

One of two Pennsylvania men involved in an early Monday morning crash on the Harford County side of Conowingo Dam has died, Maryland State Police confirmed Monday afternoon. Anila Vadala, 28, of the 4000 block of Locust Street in Philadelphia, died following the two-vehicle accident, which occurred around 5:45 a.m. Monday on Route 1 near the dam, according to State Police. The accident involved a pickup truck and Honda, according to Sgt. Comer, duty officer at the Maryland State Police Barrack, which is investigating the crash.

The last pope to take the name Benedict, before the one who made history this month announcing plans to retire, assumed his duties a few weeks after the outbreak of World War I. As Christmas 1914 approached, Benedict XV, who described the war as “the suicide of Europe,” pleaded for a Christmas truce. The military leaders refused, but somehow, at several points along the trenches, a surreal cease-fire broke out anyway. That short, peaceful spell inspired the 2005 film “Joyeux Noel,” which focused on the experiences of some Scottish, French and German troops on a battlefield in Belgium.

There will be jazz around the clock in Philadelphia next weekend during the fourth annual Spectacor Presidential Jazz Weekend Friday through Sunday.Regional and international artists will perform in a variety of rhythms and styles, from the sophisticated sounds of Mercer Ellington and the Duke Ellington Band to the Afro-Latin beat of Papo Vazquez Bomba Jazz.As a tribute to jazz musicians Miles Davis and Lee Morgan, 14 regional jazz ensembles will take part in "Jazz 'til Sunrise," an all-night review beginning at 10 p.m. Friday and continuing until 6:30 a.m. Saturday at the Afro-American Historical and Cultural Museum.

PHILADELPHIA -- Giant Food boss Israel Cohen didn't say "read my lips," but his message two years ago was clear: The company wasn't going to open any supermarkets in the Philadelphia area.He was wrong.A few weeks ago Giant agreed to buy a 10-acre plot in the Philadelphia suburb of Cherry Hill, N.J. A spacious, shiny "Super G" grocery store will open there next year.And Giant officials are intently scouring the Main Line, Chester and Bucks counties and other Philadelphia suburbs for more sites.

Quarterback Dennis Dixon , who spent this past season on the Ravens' practice squad, has signed a two-year deal with the Philadelphia Eagles, the team and his agent announced this afternoon. The much-anticipated move reunites Dixon with Eagles coach Chip Kelly , who Dixon played under at the University of Oregon. Dixon, 28, will join a quarterback competition that also includes Michael Vick and  Nick Foles . Vick agreed to a restructured three-year deal with the Eagles earlier this week, but he he has not been guaranteed the starting job. The Ravens initially tried out Dixon last spring, but opted to sign Curtis Painter over both Dixon and Kyle Boller . However, Painter was released in the Ravens' final roster cutdown before the start of the season, and the Ravens ultimately signed Dixon to their practice squad.

One person was killed in a Baltimore County car crash and another was taken to the hospital in serious condition Wednesday evening, fire department officials said. The driver killed in the crash is believed to have been driving the wrong way into oncoming traffic in the eastbound lanes of the 8100 block of Philadelphia Road in Rosedale about 6 p.m. The car struck another car head-on, and the driver of the other car was injured. Two other cars were involved in the crash, but the drivers were not injured.