Inspector at Philly building collapse commits suicide

The inspector, who is unidentified at the time of this writing, reportedly shot himself in a pickup truck near his home Wednesday.<br /><br /><br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><img alt=" Philadelphia building collapse: Rescue workers search through rubble following a building collapse in Philadelphia. " class="image" src="http://newsbcpcol.stb.s-msn.com/amnews/i/80/59c674c099aa5e83e35cb97a5f5f8/_h353_w628_m6_otrue_lfalse.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" title=" Philadelphia building collapse: Rescue workers search through rubble following a building collapse in Philadelphia. (Reuters Photo)" /></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Reuters Photo. Rescue workers search through rubble following a building collapse in Philadelphia. </td></tr></tbody></table>An official says an inspector who surveyed a Philadelphia building before it collapsed last week, killing six people, has committed suicide.<br /><br />Deputy Mayor Everett Gillison says the inspector was found fatally shot in a pickup truck Wednesday night. The man was a Department of Licenses and Inspections employee who had inspected the building May 14.<br /><br />Officials were informing department staff Thursday morning and the man's name wasn't immediately being released.<br /><br />City officials are planning a news conference.<br /><br />The building was being demolished when it collapsed onto a neighboring Salvation Army Thrift Store on June 5, killing two employees and four customers. Police allege a heavy equipment operator was high on marijuana when it happened.<br /><br />The 42-year-old demolition equipment operator, Sean Benschop, faces six counts of involuntary manslaughter, six counts of risking catastrophe and other charges, said Deputy Mayor Everett Gillison.<br /><br />Authorities have said Benschop had been using an excavator when what was left of the four-story building gave way and fell on top the neighboring store.<br /><br />The city's top prosecutor is convening a grand jury to look into the collapse.<br /><br />"We will not accept the status quo in the face of this tragedy," Mayor Michael Nutter said last week.<br /><div><div>Councilman James Kenney, among others, called for a review of the demolition application and inspection process and demanded a stricter process for demolition companies.</div><div><br /></div><div>"This is happening all over the city," he said. "I need to know who the workers are who are there, what they know, what they don't know, how they've been trained."</div><div><br /></div><div>The city does check the condition of buildings to be torn down before demolition can begin — and inspects them again after the tear-down is finished — but does not require an inspection during demolition. A pre-demolition inspection at the site on May 14 turned up no issues, said Carlton Williams, head of the city's Department of Licenses and Inspections.<img alt="MSN" class="image" src="http://newsbcpcol.stb.s-msn.com/amnews/i/3d/eb89cf308282989e5656a59e877ed/_h17_w0_m6_otrue_lfalse.jpg" title="MSN" /></div></div><div><br /></div>

Inspector at Philly building collapse commits suicide

The inspector, who is unidentified at the time of this writing, reportedly shot himself in a pickup truck near his home Wednesday. Reuters P...

Philadelphia Police Department:27 Shots Fired, 4 People Struck

<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjTfXYbURWpAqTEAHkCu7LBLB1XZz4Jfx_smZcxrBUleiQ8g6omoTUakrRBl5t64c7t0fieAtDS1cXtbI6ESQq0xVcBpg6pZnDGf_hlRyuX3RcuCBPmJCbfwzJP5X9CpmcFDRGnNUJvRyXC/s1600/9g.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjTfXYbURWpAqTEAHkCu7LBLB1XZz4Jfx_smZcxrBUleiQ8g6omoTUakrRBl5t64c7t0fieAtDS1cXtbI6ESQq0xVcBpg6pZnDGf_hlRyuX3RcuCBPmJCbfwzJP5X9CpmcFDRGnNUJvRyXC/s1600/9g.jpg" /></a><br /><h4>A woman and three men were hospitalized after a shooting in Southwest Philadelphia Wednesday night. </h4><div><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div><br /></div><br /><h3>No arrests have been made. If you have any information on this incident, please call Southwest Detectives at 215-686-3183. </h3><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiM86tD-We3SBDDz66Ho2JCyylnR0-8st28J9BaQUqbcJei1FUbqbDPrxoCeL26kCfZB-Rb0RwXqg6xkEFUc0nU7FX-M1NR2vUqYqxBbQ3Y8-pEcVqQ4xaIalSEJ-xhpHWHtcmIWM1XTfC5/s1600/Southwest-Philly-Shooting.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="360" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiM86tD-We3SBDDz66Ho2JCyylnR0-8st28J9BaQUqbcJei1FUbqbDPrxoCeL26kCfZB-Rb0RwXqg6xkEFUc0nU7FX-M1NR2vUqYqxBbQ3Y8-pEcVqQ4xaIalSEJ-xhpHWHtcmIWM1XTfC5/s1600/Southwest-Philly-Shooting.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><h4>Police say a group of people were hanging out on the 2600 block of Dagget Street around 9:20 p.m. Suddenly, police say, someone took out a gun and fired 27 shots. </h4><br />A 20-year-old man was struck in the head while another man in his early 20s was shot in the shoulder. Police also say a bullet entered the home of a 21-year-old woman on 65th and Buist.<br /><br />The woman, who police say was an innocent bystander, was struck in the head as she stood in the front bedroom on the second floor of the house.<br /><br />Police say the woman was getting ready to go to bed before she was shot.<br /><br />Police say the 20-year-old man is in critical condition, the man in his early 20's stable, and the woman critical.<br /><br />Police also say another man was found with a gunshot wound to his side lying on top of a gun a few blocks away on 61st and Elmwood.<br /><br />He was listed in critical condition.<br /><br />All of the victims were taken to the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania.<br /><br /><h4>"It's a nice community, I grew up in this community," said Lieutenant John Walker of the Philadelphia Police Department. "It's really a bunch of good people out here. For these idiots to be firing 27 shots on a beautiful night with people out and kids playing should not be tolerated." </h4><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjTfXYbURWpAqTEAHkCu7LBLB1XZz4Jfx_smZcxrBUleiQ8g6omoTUakrRBl5t64c7t0fieAtDS1cXtbI6ESQq0xVcBpg6pZnDGf_hlRyuX3RcuCBPmJCbfwzJP5X9CpmcFDRGnNUJvRyXC/s1600/9g.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjTfXYbURWpAqTEAHkCu7LBLB1XZz4Jfx_smZcxrBUleiQ8g6omoTUakrRBl5t64c7t0fieAtDS1cXtbI6ESQq0xVcBpg6pZnDGf_hlRyuX3RcuCBPmJCbfwzJP5X9CpmcFDRGnNUJvRyXC/s1600/9g.jpg" /></a></div><br /><h3>No arrests have been made. If you have any information on this incident, please call Southwest Detectives at 215-686-3183. </h3><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhDZOoROBlVQxIT2l0wYYzqD07otQf2kI-L652WQKrkfundmolnjIgWglNykmvMnVmC6YeY3_jJxYQhP133VkHstmwtwRL7EBpY8RMW5UeW1U_YKp2zXyIvkbAUSq1kkTvRhsxQyoG6Lr-v/s1600/%2540publimetro.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="40" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhDZOoROBlVQxIT2l0wYYzqD07otQf2kI-L652WQKrkfundmolnjIgWglNykmvMnVmC6YeY3_jJxYQhP133VkHstmwtwRL7EBpY8RMW5UeW1U_YKp2zXyIvkbAUSq1kkTvRhsxQyoG6Lr-v/s1600/%2540publimetro.png" width="320" /></a></div><div><br /></div>

Philadelphia Police Department:27 Shots Fired, 4 People Struck

A woman and three men were hospitalized after a shooting in Southwest Philadelphia Wednesday night.  No arrests have been made. If you have ...

Philadelphia :Mom, Child Killed; Father Holds Hostages for Hours: Police

<h4>Police, SWAT officers and the FBI are working to put an end to a hostage situation in Trenton, N.J. that began earlier this afternoon. </h4><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgqRaE4SKHwo0iwJcKfZD6aByoXeyV6QBXJQK_BmvsFkY09jZwM47QgDV4eNn2Ndfh1AM_WMO-ftnN_OmdkGTV0uhMtTpv8vA4oRGR9D1PmG-wuAdwSAj9XPTB2T6R24YxwW6H-f92KdJhA/s1600/%2540publimetro.us.gif" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="269" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgqRaE4SKHwo0iwJcKfZD6aByoXeyV6QBXJQK_BmvsFkY09jZwM47QgDV4eNn2Ndfh1AM_WMO-ftnN_OmdkGTV0uhMtTpv8vA4oRGR9D1PmG-wuAdwSAj9XPTB2T6R24YxwW6H-f92KdJhA/s1600/%2540publimetro.us.gif" width="320" /></a></div><br /> Police sources tell NBC10 Philadelphia that a mother and child are dead inside the home on the 200 block of Grand Street. <br /><br /> Prosecutors say there are still multiple hostages. <br /><br />NBC10 has learned at least two children are being held inside the home.<br /><br /> The armed gunman is the father of those children, sources tell NBC10. <br /><br /> Police say they arrived in the neighborhood around 3:30 this afternoon after getting a call from a concerned neighbor. <br /><br /> Sources tell NBC10 that officers went into the home and found a partially decomposed body of a woman, but the man inside pulled out a gun and threatened to harm his children. <br /> He's been barricaded inside the home for hours. The FBI is helping Trenton police with negotiations. <br /><br /> Nearby homes have been evacuated.

Philadelphia :Mom, Child Killed; Father Holds Hostages for Hours: Police

Police, SWAT officers and the FBI are working to put an end to a hostage situation in Trenton, N.J. that began earlier this afternoon. P...

Castro's daughter denied visit to Philadelphia

<br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj8U6A0RwtRz2s2nBbmEL1WMZ_bfK4rylurJz-7224y459js0XWfDurqfKYZrRMuqjrfgQrDmkMbRVJ0bA71o6bl5joOZ1Q-dUcvn6Qdqg6rhz1sEFFu0NubbPdQEWceQ7l9Q3Qn7jQ1TvJ/s1600/dca.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="225" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj8U6A0RwtRz2s2nBbmEL1WMZ_bfK4rylurJz-7224y459js0XWfDurqfKYZrRMuqjrfgQrDmkMbRVJ0bA71o6bl5joOZ1Q-dUcvn6Qdqg6rhz1sEFFu0NubbPdQEWceQ7l9Q3Qn7jQ1TvJ/s1600/dca.jpg" width="400" /></a>Mariela Castro, daughter of Cuban President Raul Castro and Cuba's most prominent gay rights activist, had been expected to attend a conference next week on civil rights for the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender communities sponsored by the Equality Forum.<br /><br /><br /><br />PHILADELPHIA — The daughter of Cuban President Raul Castro cannot visit Philadelphia to receive an award for her gay rights activism because the State Department has denied her permission to travel there, officials said Thursday.<br /><br />Mariela Castro had been expected to attend a conference next week on civil rights for the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender communities sponsored by the Equality Forum, according to Malcolm Lazin, the advocacy group's executive director.<br /><br />"We find it shocking that our State Department would deny freedom of speech, particularly at an international civil rights summit, to anyone, let alone the Cuban president's daughter," Lazin said.<br /><br />State Department spokesman Noel Clay said he could not comment on the case because visa records are confidential.<br /><br />Mariela Castro, the niece of retired leader Fidel Castro, is director of Cuba's National Center for Sex Education. As that country's most prominent gay rights activist, she has instituted awareness campaigns, trained police on relations with the LGBT community and has lobbied lawmakers to legalize same-sex unions.<br /><br />Guillermo Suarez, spokesman for Cuba's United Nations Mission, confirmed that Mariela Castro was in New York on Thursday attending meetings related to the U.N. population conference in Cairo in 1994. She is one of the experts designated by Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon to work on the 20-year follow-up to the action plan adopted in Egypt, Suarez said.<br /><br />"That's why she asked for the visa, and it's the reason for her presence in New York," he said.<br /><br />Suarez said Castro "doesn't have any personal reaction" to the State Department's denial of her request to travel to Philadelphia.<br /><br /><h4>The State Department bars Cuban diplomats from traveling more than 25 miles from central Manhattan.</h4><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjyfxMFn9hgB3v4b678bi3J7lwa7f9ivvv_HS-3BaFPL0mhu3z9wgetosOCvlBpSED1aH9-zzKtKYH4X1_ccaZ2Vj_MJw2rxdRD8lnJSbajaFdK7leFDpzTH2tPlMU6GcKwKlCJo3cQX1rN/s1600/john-f-kennedy.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjyfxMFn9hgB3v4b678bi3J7lwa7f9ivvv_HS-3BaFPL0mhu3z9wgetosOCvlBpSED1aH9-zzKtKYH4X1_ccaZ2Vj_MJw2rxdRD8lnJSbajaFdK7leFDpzTH2tPlMU6GcKwKlCJo3cQX1rN/s1600/john-f-kennedy.jpg" width="240" /></a></div><br />The Philadelphia-based Equality Forum sponsors an annual, dayslong international summit on LGBT civil rights. Each year, the event spotlights issues being faced by the LGBT community in a particular nation; this year, the featured nation is Cuba.<br /><br />Lazin said Castro had agreed to speak on a panel about Cuba on May 4 and was to accept an award for her activism at a dinner that night. He did not expect any visa problems because she had been granted permission to attend an academic conference in San Francisco last year.<br /><br />However, a number of Cuban-American politicians criticized the State Department for issuing Castro an entry visa for that event. They noted that U.S. rules prohibit Communist Party members and other high-ranking Cuban government officials from entry without special dispensation.<br /><br />Castro has no official link to the government aside from kinship, although the sex education center is part of Cuba's public health ministry.<br /><div><br /></div>

Castro's daughter denied visit to Philadelphia

Mariela Castro, daughter of Cuban President Raul Castro and Cuba's most prominent gay rights activist, had been expected to attend a con...

Researchers track evolution of Philly's odd accent

<br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjBw9yqiYYOOphUtjvfTqY7cM_ErpLkSoM7Rl30iRhDOp-RrUqN-VA4hvzr2zMaTuByYuM7vWo8oemfqVyoujcfbTIixgbOai-NXjgMgTI8UXjhHopzoLdXzvdBSb2dtO5TRj6z2hnIE2M5/s1600/seopublimetro.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="106" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjBw9yqiYYOOphUtjvfTqY7cM_ErpLkSoM7Rl30iRhDOp-RrUqN-VA4hvzr2zMaTuByYuM7vWo8oemfqVyoujcfbTIixgbOai-NXjgMgTI8UXjhHopzoLdXzvdBSb2dtO5TRj6z2hnIE2M5/s1600/seopublimetro.jpg" width="200" /></a>PHILADELPHIA — Will Philly no longer be a place where residents drink wooder and root for the Iggles? <br /><br />Gid eowt!<br /><br />A University of Pennsylvania linguistics professor says the Southern-inflected sound of the Philadelphia dialect is moving toward a more Northern accent. Some of Philly's trademark twangy, elongated vowel sounds are becoming less so, though others are getting stronger.<br /><br />"Certain changes have continued in the same direction over 100 years and everybody's doing it," said Bill Labov, who has studied the Philadelphia accent since 1971 and recorded hundreds of native speakers born between 1888 and 1992 and living in dozens of neighborhoods. "It doesn't make a difference if you come from Port Richmond or Kensington or South Philadelphia."<br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjOiYujUkzKZgPBsaLw2Xu9CnoETKhwviD-oPBEfF0dISiMtmLmGiW_YkWQRSpBjp1QVxw-3cVTJdRlU3QbFjJ3BQcyD2nDMb6VCcbf84Nn230s5tcm869UAcpm-1PJmB2tZQbcArEeBjeN/s1600/us.gif" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjOiYujUkzKZgPBsaLw2Xu9CnoETKhwviD-oPBEfF0dISiMtmLmGiW_YkWQRSpBjp1QVxw-3cVTJdRlU3QbFjJ3BQcyD2nDMb6VCcbf84Nn230s5tcm869UAcpm-1PJmB2tZQbcArEeBjeN/s1600/us.gif" /></a>With apologies to comedian Jeff Foxworthy, you might be a Philadelphian if: you say beggle (bagel), wooder (water), tal (towel), beyoodeeful (beautiful), dennis (dentist) or Fit Shtreet (Fifth Street). Your pronunciation of your own hometown might come out more like Philuffya, you call your football team the Iggles, you say "ferry" and "furry" the same way, and "radiator" rhymes with "gladiator."<br /><br />Technological advances have allowed Labov and his colleagues to turn their decades of field recordings into voice spectrographs — computer-generated visualizations of the human voice like an EKG — to track speech variations over time. Regional dialects are cemented by adolescence, so a recording of a 75-year-old Philadelphian made in 1982, for example, should provide a snapshot of what people sounded like around 1925.<br /><br />The researchers' recent paper in the journal Language, titled "One Hundred Years of Sound Change in Philadelphia," concludes that the city's linguistic character is not disappearing altogether — but it is changing, with the most dramatic shifts occurring in the mid-20th century. The reasons aren't entirely clear but higher education appears to be a factor, as does simply being aware that certain local inflections are disparaged by outsiders.<br /><br />"When we came to one of the most important Philadelphia features, of saying 'gow' for 'go,' it got stronger and stronger," Labov said, "until people born around 1950, 1960, when it turned around and it went the other way."<br /><br />The Philly accent is getting thicker in other ways, however. Younger speakers use sharper "i'' sounds than their parents and grandparents, pronouncing "fight" and "bike" more like "foit" and "boik," and their "a'' sounds are closer to "e'' so words like "eight" and "snake" are closer to "eat" and "sneak."<br /><br />"Children speak like their peer groups, not their parents," said Penn linguistics doctoral student Josef Fruehwald, so changes tend to occur by generation.<br /><br />The familiar Philly-ism "wooder" also might be drying up.<br /><br />"That sound is moving toward 'ah' so instead of 'cawfee' more Philadelphians are saying 'coffee,' 'wooder' becomes 'water,'" Labov said. "As people become aware ... they tend to reverse them. They say, 'Oh we shouldn't talk that way.'"<br /><br />Not sure if you've heard the Philly patois? Listen to TV commentators Chris Matthews or Jim Cramer and you'll hear it leeowd (loud) and clear. "Jackass" star Bam Margera, who is from nearby West Chester, has it. So does Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, his Philly-flecked American English a vestige of his childhood years in suburban Cheltenham.<br /><br />Philadelphia characters often sound like New Yorkers — think Rocky Balboa — perhaps because Philly's nasal twang is tougher for non-natives to mimic. In last year's "Silver Linings Playbook," Robert DeNiro hung out with an uncle of co-star (and suburban Philadelphia native) Bradley Cooper to get the dialect down, though his wife played by Australian actress Jacki Weaver comes closest to nailing it.<br /><br />The generational shift in the dialect was evident during a recent school event at The Franklin Institute, a science museum. Labov and several graduate assistants conducted hands-on demonstrations including one that asked, "Does Mad Rhyme With Sad?" Most of the youngsters answered yes, as in "mahd" and "sahd," while many adults said no, pronouncing "mad" with what linguists call a "tense a" — sort of like "meeyad."<br /><br />"I don't know how they can rhyme," said Betty McGonagle, who was on a field trip with students from the Harbor Baptist Christian Academy in Hainesport, N.J. "You're mad (meeyad), and you're sad (sahd)." For her teenage students, the words rhyme.<br /><br />Mia Weathers, a freshman at the city's Science Leadership Academy, tried with some difficulty to pronounce "mad" as McGonagle does naturally.<br /><br />"That is just, wow. That's strange," she said with a laugh.<br /><br />Now the researchers' goal is answering what Labov calls "the most important and most mysterious" question about language change.<br /><br />"How is it possible that people in every neighborhood in Philadelphia are moving in the same direction?" he said. "We don't have the answer yet."<br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhDZOoROBlVQxIT2l0wYYzqD07otQf2kI-L652WQKrkfundmolnjIgWglNykmvMnVmC6YeY3_jJxYQhP133VkHstmwtwRL7EBpY8RMW5UeW1U_YKp2zXyIvkbAUSq1kkTvRhsxQyoG6Lr-v/s1600/%2540publimetro.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="40" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhDZOoROBlVQxIT2l0wYYzqD07otQf2kI-L652WQKrkfundmolnjIgWglNykmvMnVmC6YeY3_jJxYQhP133VkHstmwtwRL7EBpY8RMW5UeW1U_YKp2zXyIvkbAUSq1kkTvRhsxQyoG6Lr-v/s1600/%2540publimetro.png" width="320" /></a></div><div><br /></div>

Researchers track evolution of Philly's odd accent

PHILADELPHIA — Will Philly no longer be a place where residents drink wooder and root for the Iggles? Gid eowt! A University of Pennsylvania...

Polio vaccine developer Hilary Koprowski dies

<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhE9U5z70DmZzsb0NQRUxgtpOJrZm3EW6pConPEEh1SEq5xZkWJOxoyAA-gRnFEI0UkSmwfpDgyOdkQ4st0TMMG2PxQEfc4gVP1j6FIzUxK4VtZARzlwG9ALda0Su-w2za14u8QHu7KA2CI/s1600/icon.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhE9U5z70DmZzsb0NQRUxgtpOJrZm3EW6pConPEEh1SEq5xZkWJOxoyAA-gRnFEI0UkSmwfpDgyOdkQ4st0TMMG2PxQEfc4gVP1j6FIzUxK4VtZARzlwG9ALda0Su-w2za14u8QHu7KA2CI/s1600/icon.png" /></a>Hilary Koprowski, a pioneering virologist and immunologist, who developed the first successful vaccination for polio, has died this week at his home in Philadelphia, AP reports. <br /><br />The Polish-born scientist was 96. Koprowski developed an oral vaccine against poliomyelitis using the live polio virus that was first used on humans in 1950 – two years before Jonas Salk’s injectable version. <br /><br />From 1957 to 1991 Koprowski headed The Wistar Institute in Philadelphia. Under his leadership, the research institution developed a rubella vaccine that helped eradicate the disease in much of the world as well as invented a more effective rabies vaccine.

Polio vaccine developer Hilary Koprowski dies

Hilary Koprowski, a pioneering virologist and immunologist, who developed the first successful vaccination for polio, has died this week at ...

Abortion doc's capital murder trial starting

Dr. Kermit Gosnell is charged with running an abortion clinic in West Philadelphia that performed illegal, late-term abortions.<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiADCJur7L9vpTEkbrxjE-NX84GzJJhOK4125R9bUgKmGUb9bxTg_tOYuE2pmRTLE6JG4o7855gSQjnx8rU05hC_1lwjKqacxIjZGElUvjiafj2n4aLxgJCvB3pWXQ0PIfQjAAnvC5moeVg/s1600/kermit.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiADCJur7L9vpTEkbrxjE-NX84GzJJhOK4125R9bUgKmGUb9bxTg_tOYuE2pmRTLE6JG4o7855gSQjnx8rU05hC_1lwjKqacxIjZGElUvjiafj2n4aLxgJCvB3pWXQ0PIfQjAAnvC5moeVg/s1600/kermit.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br />PHILADELPHIA — A Philadelphia abortion provider is set to go on trial on Monday for murder in a case that could send the 72-year-old to death row.<br />Dr. Kermit Gosnell is charged with running a rogue abortion clinic in West Philadelphia that allegedly performed illegal, late-term abortions and injured countless women through lax medical procedures.<br />Gosnell, 72, has pleaded not guilty in the deaths of a female patient and seven babies allegedly born alive. Eight clinic workers charged with him have pleaded guilty, including his wife, a beautician accused of helping him perform stealth third-term abortions on Sundays.<br />A devastating 2011 grand jury report describes nearly unfathomable conditions: fetal body parts stored in glass jars and staff refrigerators; filthy, blood-stained operating areas; women and teens maimed after Gosnell perforated a uterus or colon.<br /><br />"Anybody walking into that clinic should have known immediately that it should have been shut down," said Bernard Smalley, a lawyer for the family of Karnamaya Mongar, the 41-year-old refugee who died after being given too much anesthesia and pain medication during a 2009 abortion.<br />Philadelphia prosecutors accuse state and local authorities of turning a blind eye to laws requiring regular inspections. And they say the occasional complaints that trickled in, one after an earlier patient death, went nowhere.<br />"We think the reason no one acted is because the women in question were poor and of color, because the victims were infants without identities, and because the subject was the political football of abortion," said the 2011 grand jury report, released by Philadelphia District Attorney Seth Williams.<br />The case prompted state lawmakers to tighten clinic regulations. Pennsylvania abortion clinics now have to meet the same standards of care required by ambulatory surgical facilities, a rule other states are also adopting.<br />Planned Parenthood and other providers complain that the cost of updating facilities to meet ambulatory clinic rules can be prohibitive and further restricts women's access to abortions. Pennsylvania already required parental or judicial consent for minors, a 24-hour waiting period and a ban on abortions after 24 weeks gestation.<br />The Guttmacher Institute, which supports abortion rights and tracks women's health laws, believes abortion foes are capitalizing on the Gosnell case.<br />"They're using the Gosnell example in the argument to promote clinic regulations," policy analyst Elizabeth Nash said. "But in the past couple of years, the heat has been turned up under abortion restrictions in general."<br />Despite the new rules, which took effect in June, nearly all of the state's abortion centers have remained open, state health officials said. The most recent state data shows that 36,280 abortions were performed in 2011, down somewhat from 37,284 in 2009. The highest annual total on record is 65,777 in 1980; the lowest is 34,494 in 1999.<br />Gosnell's one remaining co-defendant, medical school graduate Eileen O'Neill of Phoenixville, allegedly practiced medicine without a license at the clinic. She is charged with theft by deception, conspiracy and other charges.

Abortion doc's capital murder trial starting

Dr. Kermit Gosnell is charged with running an abortion clinic in West Philadelphia that performed illegal, late-term abortions. PHILADELPHIA...

Rocky's house in South Philly on sale for $139,000

<div class="abs">In "Rocky II," Sylvester Stallone's title character buys a South Philadelphia house after losing a bout. This home is now on the real estate market.</div><div class="abs"> </div><section><div class="first" data-class="float1"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><img height="466" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhIF8qCGP6GJuqkfsSeCibkhczDo_twgHci5AhTMkoWDUB84D-MeqCQ21ZWtAGI4NQNrZykoWUbrw-IVkC6T4hDP5cQ1Wzs7ojkifHZJVqw99JCeEwaa9lyWV_h_AFyy_JfnrAdidG3UfBS/s1600/rocky.jpg" width="640" /></div><br /></div>PHILADELPHIA— Want to live like Rocky Balboa? The Italian Stallion's house is on the market.<br />The home in South Philadelphia was featured in the 1979 movie "Rocky II." In the sequel to the Oscar-winning smash, the fictional boxer played by Sylvester Stallone buys the house after he loses a bout to Apollo Creed but gains fame.<br />The 1,036-square-foot row house has three bedrooms and 1 1/2 bathrooms. Asking price: $139,000.<br /><br />Real estate agent Joe Bianco says the home is for sale because the woman who lived there since the time of filming recently died.<br />He says the house was picked for "Rocky II" because the filmmakers "happened to like the front of the home and knocked on the door."<br /> </section>

Rocky's house in South Philly on sale for $139,000

In "Rocky II," Sylvester Stallone's title character buys a South Philadelphia house after losing a bout. This home is now on t...