The NFL announced Tuesday that the 49ers, who are constructing a new stadium in Santa Clara, Calif., will host the 2016 Super Bowl, while Houston was awarded the 2017 game. Both cities edged Miami for host honors.

The 2014 and 2015 title games are scheduled to be played in New Jersey and Arizona, respectively.

Two months ago, Eagles owner Jeffrey Lurie openly lobbied to get the Super Bowl in Philadelphia. Lurie said he would wait to see how this year’s Bowl — the first one being played in cold weather — turns out.

“I will, yes. I will, if it’s a success,” Lurie said. “New York will help us.”

The Eagles also got backing from the NFL to renovate Lincoln Financial Field. The team plans to add high-definition to video boards, expand luxury boxes and possibly add seats. The stadium currently fits 69,000 at full capacity.

“We are excited to have received league support today for our stadium revitalization project at Lincoln Financial Field,” team president Don Smolenski said. “We will share the details of this project with our fans in the coming weeks.”

Bring us a Super Bowl, Jeff!

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Growing up in the Andretti household, the first family of IndyCar racing, could have taken its toll on a less mature driver. The pressure to win at Indy was unavoidable, like seeing an impromptu mud-wrestling match in the famed Snake Pit.

For Marco Andretti, the youngest driver in the legendary Andretti clan, it was a motivator. He remembers seeing the flash of the cameras when he was only 9-years-old cruising around go-kart tracks.

“It’s added pressure, but it’s something I’ve had since I’ve driven these things,” said Andretti, pointing to go-karts during a recent media day event at the Lehigh Valley Grand Prix indoor karting venue in Allentown. “At 9-years-old you’re not mature enough to wrap your head around how that can be a positive for you. It’s all, ‘What are all these cameras doing? I just want to go race.’ At the same time, you grow up and you mature, and you’re blessed with good sponsors and you realize you wouldn’t be able to do what you love to do without the pressure, and without the sponsors, and without the media.”

It wasn’t that long ago that a 19-year-old Andretti was preparing for his first Indianapolis 500, a race that saw him take second in the second-closest Indy 500 in history.

“It’s crazy,” he said. “I’m going into my eighth Indianapolis 500 already.”

Now, a seasoned vet at just 26, he enters this weekend’s Indianapolis 500 brimming with confidence. He posted the third-fastest qualifying time last weekend and ranks second in the points standings (123).

“I’ve always said I wanted the championship and I wanted Indy, and I always knew since my rookie year [2006] that Indy was a reality,” Andretti said. “This is the first time in my career where I truly believe that I can win the championship. It would be huge [to win it]. I would look at last year as a horrible season, having said that, I was the car to beat last year at Indianapolis.”

He’s right. Andretti led for 59 laps there in 2012 before wrecking with 12 laps to go. The biggest thing he’s learned this past offseason is patience.

“You can be on top of the world one day and nowhere the next, and I think you need to be mentally prepared for that,” he said. “And just take it in strides and learn to fight until the end — even if I’m in 16th with two stints to go, you know, I’ll be watching our cars for sure.”

The Andretti Curse
There’s been some heartbreak at Indy for the entire Andretti family. In fact, it has its own Wikipedia entry titled, “The Andretti Curse.”

Family patriarch Mario Andretti won the Indy 500 in 1969 — and no one in his lineage has won the race since. Marco Andretti (Mario’s grandson) has had many close calls, including a second-place finish in 2006. In 2007, he led most of the way before crashing out on the backstretch. Marco finished in third twice (2008, 2010); and probably should have won last year after leading for 59 laps. Again, he crashed with 12 laps to go and was disqualified.

“I’ve been close three times,” Marco said. “Patience is something I’ve learned.”

As much as Marco wants to win at Indianapolis — and he wants to win the “Super Bowl” badly — he also wants to win the overall IndyCar points championship. While he is still searching for his first win of the season, he enters the weekend off to the best start of his career, with two top-5 finishes in four starts.

“I’m hungry for a win, I mean, having my teammates win three of the first four races its kind of frustrating,” Marco said. “I worked hard on consistency in the offseason and we’re right on target with that. I’m quite pleased. This used to be the toughest part of the schedule for me, and it’s nice to see results on the part of the schedule where I’ve been lacking.”

Racing Marco Andretti
Marco Andretti invited the media to join him on the kart track May 8 for a very friendly racing competition. It was part of media day festivities promoting the upcoming Pocono IndyCar 400 at Pocono Speedway (July 6-7 in Long Pond, Pa.) There will more on the event very soon.

» Anyway, Metro sports editor Mike Greger gladly accepted the challenge — and promptly got dusted on the track.
» Andretti beat a field of eight media members, recording a best-lap time of 30.947 seconds.
» Greger was lapped quite a few times by Andretti before turning in a best-lap time of 40.257, good enough for dead last.

Marco Andretti, left, made Metro sports editor Mike Greger, right, eat his dust.
Paige Ozaroski/Metro

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Theodore Simon, the Philadelphia attorney who was instrumental in securing Amanda Knox’s freedom, is happy to report his client is doing “remarkably well.”
“I spent several hours … with Amanda in DC,” he said. “Amanda is thoughtful and articulate. She is studying creative writing at the University of Washington and plans on pursuing a career in publishing.”

Knox was convicted in 2009 of murdering Meredith Kercher in Italy and served four years in prison. In March, her acquittal was overturned and the case sent back for reconsideration.
The favorable report produced by Simon’s DNA expert contributed to the reopening of Knox’s conviction, Simon said.
“Fortunately, I secured the world’s greatest DNA expert, the scientist who formed the DNA lab for the FBI, as our expert,” said Simon, who worked in conjunction with Knox’s Italian lawyers. “He found that the knife, which was a key piece of trial evidence, did not contain blood. Therefore, it could not have been the murder weapon.”

One cannot preferentially remove blood and leave DNA, Simon explained.
While the Italian courts have reopened the case again, the legendary attorney stressed under Italian law, Knox is not required to attend the next hearing nor do the issues being discussed implicate her.

Simon is not worried that his client will be found guilty in the upcoming proceedings.

“There is no evidence, was no evidence, nor will there ever be any evidence linking her to the murder,” said Simon.

Other famous clients

Amanda Knox is not Simon’s first famous or infamous client. He has previously represented French Spiderman Alain Robert, murderer Ira Einhorn while he was fighting his extradition from France to Philadelphia, boxing promoter Don King, former Atlanta Braves third baseman Chipper Jones, and Minnesota Timberwolves forward Dante Cunningham.

Quoted

Simon, who has successfully argued before the US Supreme Court, describes his practice as “white collar, blue collar, and no collar.”
“It is a gift to be a lawyer providing care and assistance to people at the worst time in their lives when they are facing the loss of liberty or seeking compensation as a redress for a wrong,” he said.

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The title of Woodmere Art Museum’s 72^nd annual juried exhibition, “In Front of Strangers I Sing,” is the final line from Romanian poet Paul Celan’s “Night Ray.” This year’s jurors, Philadelphia artists Dona Nelson and Rubens Ghenov, thought the line applied to the show as a whole, which is mounted in the museum’s eccentric gallery space, in particular its grand rotunda.

“We were thinking of the museum as a strange piece of architecture,” Ghenov says. “It looks like a boat, or to me it looks like an asymmetrical opera house. We were thinking about the pieces in the show being these choir-like voices singing in front of strangers, so that line in the poem resonated with the feeling or the sentiment of the show.”

Unusually for the Woodmere, this year’s exhibition focuses strongly on conceptual work from young Philadelphia artists like Anthony Campuzano, Ryan Foley and Virginia Fleming. There is very little of the traditional landscape or abstract work the museum is usually associated with. That tendency emerged from a combination of the jurors’ tastes and the evolution of the selection process, according to Ghenov: “The pieces and artists we chose began to concoct a type of story. We began to see thematic elements appearing, which fortified our selections a little more.”

The themes that emerged, Ghenov says, deal with a particular Philly regionalism, and with a blending of artistic styles and approaches. “There’s a lot of work where disciplines began to cross over into each other. Photographs that were acting like paintings, sculptures that live as photographs, rugs and sculptures that are painted on — there was this interdisciplinary conversation going on.”

To illustrate, Ghenov points to a work by Frank Bramblett made up of countless scraps of notepaper. “From far away they look like a beautiful painting, but when you come up close they’re just pieces of paper with notes,” Ghenov says. “I think the piece hits at the heart of this show. Yes, they’re notes on sheets of paper that you can buy at Staples with a Sharpie marker, but when they’re all brought together they speak a painting language. There’s a slight abstraction to them, but simultaneously you know what those things are.”

In Front of Strangers, I Sing: The 72nd Annual Juried Exhibition

May 25-Sept. 1

Woodmere Art Museum

9201 Germantown Ave.

$7-$10, 215-247-0476

www.woodmereartmuseum.org

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Though voter turnout at Tuesday’s primary elections was low – Committee of Seventy’s Ellen Kaplan called it “the sleepiest election” during her eight year tenure with the organization – drama still ran high, particularly in the race for Democratic City Controller nominee.

Incumbent Alan Butkovitz’s campaign obtained an injunction from an Election Court judge barring challenger Brett Mandel from electioneering inside polling places after Mandel allegedly handed a campaign sticker to a 2nd Ward committeeman.

According to Mandel, the “sticker” was actually a temporary tattoo.

“I was on my way out of a polling place a committeeperson brought me into to meet the Board of Elections,” he said.

“On my way out, I saw a guy with tattoos and said, ‘You have tattoos – here’s a tattoo,’ and I handed him one.”

Mandel claimed he wasn’t electioneering.

“Certainly we know the rules,” he said. “I thought I was just being neighborly.”

When Butkovitz – who said his campaign only found “two or three Mandel supporters around the city” – was asked about the incident, he deadpanned, “In some quarters that would be called assault.”

Butkovitz added that Mandel didn’t try to affix a tattoo to him.

“I think he’s had enough contact with me,” he said.

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After serving for 15 years, La Salle University President Michael J. McGinniss announced he still step down after his current term ends May 2014, officials with the school announced today.

“It has been an honor to serve as President of La Salle University and I am proud of the initiatives completed during my tenure which have benefited our students, faculty, alumni and surrounding community,” McGinniss said in a statement. “After 15 years and three terms as La Salle’s president, and after much discernment, it seems like this is the right time for me to transition this work to a new President.”

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Former history teacher Stan Ellsworth tours the country on a Harley Davidson for unconventional documentary television show “American Ride.”

“When you watch most history shows, you’ll notice that their spokesman – the talking head of history, if you will – is normally a scholarly gentleman that’s in a sweater vest and bow tie and is going to discuss with you in academic terms what happened,” Ellsworth said on Tuesday.

The 6-foot-2 onetime stunt man and TV show host obviously doesn’t fit that mold.

“We’re giving everybody – kids, young people – a chance to listen,” he said.

“This character breaks down the stereotype just long enough for them to pay attention, then they’re hooked.”

Ellsworth was in town to tour the Delaware River-docked USS Olympia for Season 5 of ByuTV’s weekly show, which will cover the Gilded Age through the Roaring 20s.

“The Olympia is one of the first American steel battleships,” he said.

“She’s actually the first ship to fire on a foreign enemy, in the American steel navy. This is the last vestige of a bygone era. All the other ships have been sold for scrap or sunk to make a reef.”

No stranger to the City of Brotherly Love, the pilot episode of “American Ride” was shot at Valley Forge and has in the past also visited Independence Hall.

“We’re pretty much unscripted so we don’t use any notes, we don’t have a board or a teleprompter – we don’t use that,” Ellsworth said.

“Really what I’m doing is teaching the history of America from the notes I had as a teacher,” he said.

“It’s just that finally I’m in a classroom that’s big enough for me.”

Still, Ellsworth said he’s careful not to emulate what he calls the “Ferris Bueller”-like classes he endured as a child.

“Education isn’t something you can give somebody,” he said.

“It’s something that people have to take for themselves. So if we get people interested, they say, ‘Now I want to know more,’ we did our jobs. We got their minds engaged in the subject matter.”

And there’s plenty of matter to engage minds of all ages, as in Ellsworth’s view, history is not a stale and static relic, but a breathing text with plenty of wisdom to confer on those who study it.

“I think that the number one lesson from all this is being actively involved in our political system – at the local level, at the state level, at the national level – is part of who we are,” he said.

“Too many times people say, ‘Well, my vote doesn’t count,’ and it does. Not just because of the counting of the votes and who goes into office, but it’s that we kept the covenant. We’ve kept our commitment to the people that sacrificed and gave so much that we could have our freedoms.

“We said, ‘We took advantage of the rights that you protected for us’ – and that reaches all the way back to 1776 and it will reach forward as long as there’s an American Republic – ‘We did our part. We took advantage of this freedom that we had and we tried to make a better world for those who came after.’ That’s the lesson we want people to learn.”

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The Cannes Film Festival ends this Sunday. So how is it looking at the halfway mark? That is, apart from the non-film stuff: the guy who fired a starter pistol, and not one but two jewelry robberies. (You might — might! — recall Brian De Palma’s “Femme Fatale” opened with a Cannes Film Festival jewel heist.) But let’s talk movies.

“The Bling Ring” is apparently very Sofia Coppola-y. No one makes movies like Sofia Coppola, which to some is a good thing because that means the world has less like them. Her latest again wallows among the pampered, wealthy and shallow, only this time the leads (led by Emma Watson) are those who steal from them. Reviews have been the usual for this polarizing filmmaker, with some finding the film as dumb as its heroes and others finding it an embodiment of materialism in the age of Twitter. Although Paris Hilton, who plays herself, loved it.

Everyone loves “Inside Llewyn Davis.” The Coen Brothers’ latest — about an unpleasant 1960s folk singer (Oscar Isaac), whose name we’ll one day not accidentally spell as “Llewellyn” — is being received as one of their scruffy triumphs. Comparisons to “The Big Lebowski” abound, and the up-and-comer Isaac — in a cast with Carey Mulligan, Justin Timberlake and John Goodman — is supposed to be made a star. And that’s great, as it won’t be released in America for another half a year.

But everyone REALLY loves ‘The Past.’ Asghar Farhadi scored an Oscar and a bona fide art-house hit with “A Separation” in 2011. His second film — also about a divorce, this one with an international cast that includes “The Artist”’s Berenice Bejo — is being heralded as about as absurdly strong, which should make Farhadi the biggest Iranian filmmaker since Abbas Kiarostami. Again, you’re probably going to have to wait till winter to see this.

Alejandro Jodorowsky is actually back. The Chilean-born crazy was once one of the original midnight movie kings, thanks to his 1970 gonzo acid western “El Topo.” His career since has been bumpy. But this year the 84-year-old rules Cannes. A documentary about his aborted film of “Dune” — which was to feature Orson Welles and Salvador Dali and a score by Pink Floyd — is there. Ditto an actual, new Jodorowsky film, his first since 1991’s (pretty terrible) “The Rainbow Thief.” “The Dance of Reality” is being called overlong, but also warm and, best of all, teeming with ideas and wild images.

Keanu Reeves and James Franco direct! Franco has been a rather prolific auteur of late, but his eighth film (!!) is for some reason an adaptation of William Faulkner’s unadaptable “As I Lay Dying.” Some are even being nice to it. Meanwhile, Keanu Reeves made a kung fu movie. It’s called “Man of Tai Chi” — insert “Matrix” joke here.

Still to debut (or at least to get reviews): Nicolas Winding Refn’s “Only God Forgives,” with The Gosling; Jim Jarmusch’s vampire film “Only Lovers Left Alive;” and James Gray’s “The Immigrant,” with Joaquin Phoenix and Marion Cotillard.

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Police here arrested a Northeast Philadelphia man for allegedly robbing a woman at knifepoint at an ATM in Harrowgate.

Stephen Monte, 26, of Willets Road, is charged with robbery and related offenses.

Police said that around 5:30 a.m. on May 5, a 47-year-old female was using the ATM at Wells Fargo Bank at 3400 Aramingo Ave. She was making a withdrawal of $80 when the suspect allegedly approached her and placed a knife to her stomach, demanding her money. With the money, the suspect fled south on Aramingo Avenue.

On May 14, surveillance video was distributed and an anonymous tip was given to police the next day, identifying Monte as the suspect.

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Venerable 6 ABC news Anchor Rob Jennings will retire at the end of July after 36 years behind the desk, the station announced Tuesday.

“He’s been an extraordinary example of consistency, a great communicator and a wonderful colleague all these years,” said co-anchor Jim Gardner in a statement. “We will miss him.”

In a statement Jennings, who joined the channel in July 1977, said he was grateful to have lived his dream and will now live another.

“My wife and I have been planning to retire for some time now,” he said, “and now is the time to start our new adventure together.”

Jennings was inducted into the Philadelphia Broadcast Pioneers Hall of Fame in 2003.

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Larry Holmes, the former heavyweight boxing champion, won a legal fight regarding a towing company and his Easton, Pa. restaurant.

Holmes, 63, who owns Champ’s Corner on a stretch of road through the eastern Pennsylvania town named in his honor, sued a neighboring business in January that he said would regularly and wrongfully tow vehicles from a parking lot the two businesses shared.

According to The Express-Times of Easton, a Northampton County judge ruled that Riverstar Properties must stop towing vehicles until the lawsuit concludes.

Holmes said he and the restaurant have an agreement, and the towing is hurting business.

Holmes, an Easton native and current resident, reigned as world heavyweight champion for seven years from 1978 to 1985.

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It’s been four years since the first Hidden City Festival gave audiences a peek into some of the city’s abandoned and neglected gems. The festival situated art and performance pieces inside little known or rarely seen sites like the dilapidated Metropolitan Opera House and the dust-covered infirmary of the Disston Saw Works. Since then, Hidden City has continued that mission with tours, events, workshops and stories revealing these secret spaces on its website.

“Beyond the festival,” says founder Thaddeus Squire, “Hidden City has refined its focus on informing and engaging the people of Philadelphia and the surrounding area in a deeper exploration and a deeper love affair with the city — and hopefully also inspiring them to a bit of local action.”

The second Hidden City Festival opens Thursday, with 10 ambitious contemporary art projects at nine sites across the city. The Dufala Brothers will sculpt a “defunct infrastructure” out of industrial components in the boiler room of Globe Dye Works, while Ben Neiditz and Zach Webber are creating improvised structures from salvaged materials at the Revolutionary War-era Fort Mifflin. Ars Nova Workshop will host a Radical Jewish Music concert series at Shivtei Yeshuron-Ezras Israel, a storefront synagogue in South Philly.

“We asked for ideas that were informed by the past history of the sites,” says Hidden City creative director Lee Tusman. “We hoped that the artists’ projects would refer to that history in either in a practical or in a fantastical way, but that imagined a new use for the site based on knowing its history.”

In addition, each of the projects was designed to encourage participation, beginning with a crowdfunding platform that helped kick-start the projects, and Hidden City hopes will also ease future fundraising efforts for projects and preservation of the sites. The artworks themselves also each feature interactive components. Germantown residents will be encouraged to schedule meetings or events in Germantown City Hall, Jacob Wick’s re-envisioning of Germantown Town Hall. Visitors to Hawthorne Hall will be inducted into the Society of the Knights of Pythagoras, a secret society established by the Rabid Hands Art Collective.

“Philadelphia does a great job with its colonial and constitutional narrative,” Squire says, “but we’ve left the 19^th and early 20^th centuries pretty much in the closet. The festival expands that narrative to give people access to stories and histories that can change their view of what the city is about.”

If you go

Hidden City Festival 2013
May 23-June 30
$20-$70
267-428-0575
www.festival.hiddencityphila.org

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Long putters beware.

The United States Golf Association (USGA) announced Tuesday that it was amending the official Rules of Golf. Starting on Jan. 1, 2016, it will be illegal to anchor the club to make a stroke.

The new rule, 14-1b, says that a player using a long putter cannot hold the end of the club against his body while putting. The long putters are still legal clubs, as long as the rule is adhered to.

“Rule 14-1b protects one of the important challenges in the game, the free swing of the entire club,” said USGA president Glen Nager. “The traditional stroke involves swinging the club with both the club and gripping hands held away from the body, requiring the player to direct and control the movement of the entire club.”

You might be thinking to yourself, ‘Nice story on a slow news day.’ However, four of the last six major winners used an anchored stroke, including Adam Scott as last month’s Masters tournament.

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Philadelphia received $1.2 million in grants from ArtPlace America to create four public space “creative placemaking” projects, the city announced on Monday.

“We are committed to beautifying and increasing the quality of life in our neighborhoods,” Mayor Michael Nutter said in a statement.

“Thanks to the generosity of ArtPlace America, we will be able to do so by leveraging the strength of our arts and culture community.”

Philly garnered the most grant dollars of any city chosen by ArtPlace, a collaboration of foundations, banks and federal agencies that funds art with the goal of revitalizing communities.

ArtPlace gave $310,000 to the Delaware River Waterfront Corporation for them to transform Penn’s Landing’s Boat Basin into a “river stage” in the hopes of launching a cultural and economic redevelopment of the waterfront area. That project is scheduled for completion in July 2014.

The Philadelphia City Planning Commission received $335,150 for arts-focused marketing campaign Destination Frankford, which will publicize the neighborhood’s growing arts scene and burgeoning commercial corridor.

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Emergency workers pulled more than 100 survivors from the rubble of homes, schools and a hospital in an Oklahoma town hit by a powerful tornado, and officials on Tuesday sharply lowered the number of deaths caused by the storm.

The 2-mile (3-km) wide tornado tore through Moore outside Oklahoma City on Monday afternoon, trapping victims beneath the rubble.

Seven children died at Plaza Towers Elementary School, which took a direct hit, but many more survived unhurt.

“They literally were lifting walls up and kids were coming out,” Oklahoma State Police Sergeant Jeremy Lewis said. “They pulled kids out from under cinder blocks without a scratch on them.”

The Oklahoma state medical examiner’s office said 24 bodies had been recovered from the wreckage, down from the 51 they had reported earlier. The earlier number likely reflected some double-counted deaths, said Amy Elliott, chief administrative officer for the medical examiner.

“There was a lot of chaos,” she said.

Thunderstorms and lightning slowed the rescue effort on Tuesday, but 101 people had been pulled from the debris alive, Oklahoma Highway Patrol spokeswoman Betsy Randolph said.

Firefighters from more than a dozen fire departments and rescuers from other states worked all night under bright spotlights trying to find survivors.

President Barack Obama declared a major disaster area in Oklahoma, ordering federal aid to supplement state and local efforts in Moore after the deadliest U.S. tornado since 161 people were killed in Joplin, Missouri, two years ago.

“The people of Moore should know that their country will remain on the ground, there for them, beside them, as long as it takes,” Obama said at the White House.

Glenn Lewis, the mayor of Moore, said the whole town looked like a debris field and there was a danger of electrocution and fire from downed power lines and broken natural gas lines.

“It looks like we have lost our hospital. I drove by there a while ago and it’s pretty much destroyed,” Lewis told NBC.

The National Weather Service assigned the twister a preliminary ranking of EF4 on the Enhanced Fujita Scale, meaning the second most powerful category of tornado with winds up to 200 mph.

The National Weather Service Storm Prediction Center warned the town 16 minutes before the tornado touched down at 3:01 p.m. (2001 GMT), which is more than the average eight to 10 minutes of warning, said Keli Pirtle, a spokeswoman for the center in Norman, Oklahoma.

SCHOOL TRAGEDY

U.S. Representative Tom Cole, who lives in Moore, said the Plaza Towers school was the most secure and structurally strong building in the area.

“And so people did the right thing, but if you’re in front of an F4 or an F5 there is no good thing to do if you’re above ground. It’s just tragic,” he said on MSNBC TV.

At least 60 of the 240 people injured were children, hospital officials said.

Witnesses said Monday’s tornado appeared more fierce than the giant twister that was among the dozens that tore up the area on May 3, 1999, killing more than 40 people and destroying thousands of homes. That tornado ranked as an EF5 tornado with wind speeds of more than 200 mph.

The 1999 tornado ranks as the third-costliest tornado in U.S. history, having caused more than $1 billion in damage at the time, or more than $1.3 billion in today’s dollars. Only the devastating Joplin and Tuscaloosa tornadoes in 2011 were more costly.

Monday’s tornado in Moore ranks among the most severe in the United States http://link.reuters.com/gec38t

Jeff Alger, 34, who works in the Kansas oil fields on a fracking crew, said his wife Sophia took their children out of school when she heard a tornado was coming and then fled Moore and watched it flatten the town from a few miles away.

“They didn’t even have time to grab their shoes,” said Alger, who has five children aged 4 to 11. The storm tore part of the roof off of his home. He was with his wife at Norman Regional Hospital to have glass and other debris removed from his wife’s bare feet.

Moore was devastated with debris everywhere, street signs gone, lights out, houses destroyed and vehicles tossed about as if they were toys.

The dangerous storm system threatened several southern Plains states with more twisters.

SAVED BY CELLPHONE

Speaking outside Norman Regional Hospital Ninia Lay, 48, said she huddled in a closet through two storm alerts and the tornado hit on the third.

“I was hiding in the closet and I heard something like a train coming,” she said under skies still flashing with lightning. The house was flattened and Lay was buried in the rubble for two hours until her husband Kevin, 50, and rescuers dug her out.

“I thank God for my cell phone, I called me husband for help.”

Her 7-year-old daughter Catherine, a first-grader at Plaza Towers Elementary School, took shelter with classmates and teachers in a bathroom when the tornado hit and destroyed the school. She escaped with scrapes and cuts.

Briarwood Elementary School, which also stood in the storm’s path, was all but destroyed. On the first floor, sections of walls had been peeled away, giving clear views into the building; while in other areas, cars hurled by the storm winds were lodged in the walls.

At Southmoore High School in Moore, about 15 students were in a field house when the tornado hit. Coaches sent them to an interior locker room and made them put on football helmets, and all survived, the Oklahoman newspaper said.

(Additional reporting by Alice Mannette, Lindsay Morris, Nick Carey, Brendan O’Brien and Greg McCune; Writing by Nick Carey and Jane Sutton; Editing by W Simon and Grant McCool)

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After the game, things got interesting. Cole Hamels brushed off the local scribes and stormed out of the clubhouse. Apparently, he was mad about the continuing lack of run support his teammates are providing him — that, or losing to the 13-32 Marlins has to irritate anyone, even Cool Hand Cole.

The Phils moved to 1-9 this season in games started by Hamels (1-7).

“I think it’s a lot of tight ballgames, his contract,” pitching coach Rich Dubee said of Hamels’ being frustrated. “He’s an accountable guy just like Doc [Roy Halladay]. He’s probably one of the bigger faces of the Phillies, and he wants to be accountable for that, and not winning probably weighs on him, and I think losing Doc weighs on him. We’re down one of our aces and I think that’s weighed on him, too. Again, this is an accountable guy who wants to win.”

There was more controversy, too. TV cameras caught Marlins pitcher Alex Sanabia working on what looked like an illegal spitball. Right after Dom Brown launched a home run, Sanabia appeared to spit on the baseball and  — after Brown slowly trotted around the bases — he finally threw the pitch.

According to the rule (rule 8.02), the pitcher shall not “expectorate on the ball, either hand or his glove.” Expectorate means spit, and Sanabia clearly did that. Still, he didn’t throw the ball until minutes later and only had two more strikeouts the rest of the game.

Anyway, you be the judge … photo courtesy of Big League Stew sports blog.

Sanabia appeared to launch a loogie onto the baseball Monday night.
Photo courtesy of Big League Stew, a Yahoo! Sports blog by David Brown

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Gov. Tom Corbett will visit the National Constitution Center Wednesday for what the museum bills as a “historic announcement.”

Corbett, who will be joined by state and local officials, will announce details of a “landmark agreement” between the state and the New York Public Library.

The announcement  will “Make public one of America’s most important and elusive historic artifacts for the benefit of ‘We the People,’” according to a news release.

The announcement will occur at the center, at 525 Arch Street in Independence Mall, around 10 a.m.

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Philadelphia’s race for Democratic City Controller nominee is probably the most contentious ticket in today’s primary elections – challenger Brett Mandel and incumbent Alan Butkovitz, in particular, have engaged in verbal sparring on numerous occasions.

According to an email from Local 98 spokesman Frank Keel, the tension between the two candidates has already reached a boiling point this Election Day – and it’s not even lunchtime.

“In the 2nd Ward earlier this AM, Brett Mandel entered the polling place and handed a ‘Mandel for City Controller’ sticker to a poll watcher, not knowing the watcher was a Committeeman in the 2nd Ward AND a Local 98 member,” Keel wrote.

“The poll watcher notified the Butkovitz camp. Election law attorney Kevin Greenberg is going into court on the matter soon.”

Pennsylvania polls are open today from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m.

Anyone who experiences problems at the polls is encouraged to call nonpartisan voter hotline 1-866-OUR-VOTE (1-866-687-8683).

To look up your polling place, click here, and to check your voter registration status, check out this link.

UPDATE (2 p.m.): In a telephone interview, Mandel said the “campaign sticker” was actually a temporary tattoo.

“I was on my way out of a polling place a committeeperson brought me into to meet the Board of Elections,” he said.

“On my way out, I saw a guy with tattoos and said, ‘You have tattoos – here’s a tattoo,’ and I handed him one.”

Mandel said he doesn’t expect the Election Court complaint to amount to anything.

“Certainly we know the rules,” he said.

“I thought I was just being neighborly. We’re certainly not electioneering in any polling places.”

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A Delaware gym teacher and coach is suspended from his job following his arrest on the charge of indecent exposure over the weekend.

The principal at Appoquinimink High School sent an email to students’ parents Monday informing them Charles Word, 31, won’t be able to come on school grounds or attend activities involving students following his arrest in Newark on Sunday, NBC10 reports.

Word, of Ogletown, Del., allegedly exposed his genitals to a woman he had called over to ask for directions Sunday morning. He reportedly followed the woman in his car, but ran from the area when the woman threatened to call police.

Word was arrested later at his home on the charges of indecent exposure and harassment.

Word coaches the New Castle County school’s baseball team, according to NBC10.

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The FBI and Philadelphia police are seeking a man in connection with the robbery of a Citizens Bank branch office in Philadelphia’s Bridesburg section Saturday.

The bank robbery occurred about 10:25 a.m. at the Citizens Bank at 2702 Kirkbridge St. The suspect slipped a threatening note to a teller, who handed over an undisclosed amount of cash to the robber.

The FBI/Philadelphia Police Violent Crimes Task Force released a surveillance image of the suspect on Monday.

The suspect is described as a white male, about 20 years old, 6 feet tall and thin. He was wearing a dark Nike hoodie, a blue T-shirt and a green skull cap with “Irish” written across the front.

The robber also has a tattoo on the left side of his neck.

Police ask anyone with any information about this crime to call 215-686-TIPS (8477) or text a tip to PPD TIP (773847). You can also submit information by electronic form by clicking here.

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The Miami Marlins’ record might not be so bad if they played the Phillies more often.

The Marlins have now beaten Philadelphia four times so far in 2013. They have a major-league low 13 wins on the season, meaning wins over the Phillies account for nearly a third of their victories.

Starting pitcher Cole Hamels was once again a victim of the Phillies’ lackluster offense in Miami on Monday. Hamels only allowed two runs in six innings, but left the game trailing 2-1.

The Marlins (13-32) tacked on three more runs in the bottom of the eighth against Phillies relievers.

Domonic Brown provided the only scoring on the night for the Phillies (21-24), smacking a solo home run in the second inning. It was Brown’s team-leading eighth home run of the year.

Hamels struck out 10 Marlins batters in his six innings of work. He did not walk anyone and allowed seven hits in falling to 1-7 on the season.

Former Phillie Placido Polanco was 2 for 4 on the night, scoring two runs.

The Phillies are now 1-9 in games started by Hamels.

Alex Sanabia picked up the win for the Marlins. He pitched 6 1/3 innings of one-run ball, allowing seven hits while walking one.

The post Phillies flat, fall to floundering Marlins appeared first on Metro.us.

A teen is in critical condition after he was shot several times near an alley in Philadelphia’s Feltonville section overnight.

The shooting occurred just after 1 a.m. Tuesday on the 4700 block of Rorer Street, according to police.

Police took the 18-year-old victim to Temple University Hospital, where he remained in critical condition around 8:45 a.m. Tuesday. He was being treated for a gunshot wound to his neck and two gunshot wounds to both his right thigh and his left foot.

No arrests have been made.

The post Teen in critical condition after Feltonville shooting appeared first on Metro.us.

Police have identified a man shot and killed while sitting in a car in North Philadelphia on Monday night as Mark Thomas, 25.

Thomas was shot several times on the 1800 block of North 20th Street. Police rushed him to Temple University Hospital with multiple gunshot wounds after finding him injured about 10:43 p.m.

Thomas, who lived on the street where he was attacked, was pronounced dead at 11:30 p.m.

Police did not release any suspect information.

Metro’s original article is below.

A man was shot and killed while sitting in a car in North Philadelphia Monday night.

The fatal shooting occurred about 10:40 p.m. near the 1800 block of Uber street, 6ABC Action News reports.

The 25-year-old victim was shot several times. He was pronounced dead at an area hospital.

The post [UPDATE] Man shot to death in car identified appeared first on Metro.us.

At least 91 people, including 20 children, were feared killed when a 2 mile wide tornado tore through an Oklahoma City suburb, trapping victims beneath the rubble as one elementary school took a direct hit and another was destroyed.

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  PHOTOS: Devastation caused by Oklahoma tornado

President Barack Obama declared a major disaster area in Oklahoma, ordering federal aid to supplement state and local efforts in Moore after the deadliest U.S. tornado since one killed 161 people in Joplin, Missouri, two years ago.

Emergency crews were desperately searching the wreckage of Plaza Towers Elementary School that took a direct hit from the tornado on Monday afternoon, Oklahoma Lieutenant Governor Todd Lamb told CNN.

There was an outpouring of grief on the school’s Facebook page, with messages from around the country including one pleading simply: “Please find those little children.”

Another elementary school, homes and a hospital were among the buildings leveled, leaving residents of the town of about 50,000 people stunned at the devastation and loss of life.

The Oklahoma medical examiner said 20 of the 91 expected to have been killed were children. The office had already confirmed 51 dead and had been told by emergency services to expect 40 more bodies found in the debris, but had not yet received them.

At least 60 of the 240 people injured were children, area hospitals said.

“We thought we died because we were inside the cellar door … It ripped open the door and just glass and debris started slamming on us and we thought we were dead to be honest,” Ricky Stover said while surveying the devastated remains of his home.

Moore was devastated with debris everywhere, street signs gone, lights out, houses destroyed and vehicles tossed about as if they were toys.

Rescuers were searching for survivors throughout the swath of devastation into the early hours of Tuesday, while the dangerous storm system threatened several southern Plains states with more twisters. Severe weather was expected through the night from the Great Lakes south to Texas.

STORM ALERTS

Speaking outside Norman Regional Hospital Ninia Lay, 48, said she huddled in a closet through two storm alerts and the tornado hit on the third.

“I was hiding in the closet and I heard something like a train coming,” she said under skies still flashing with lightning. The house was flattened and Lay was buried in the rubble for two hours until her husband Kevin, 50, and rescuers dug her out.

“I thank God for my cell phone, I called me husband for help.”

Her daughter Catherine, seven, a first-grader at Plaza Towers Elementary School, took shelter with classmates and teachers in a bathroom when the tornado hit and destroyed the school. She escaped with scrapes and cuts.

The National Weather Service assigned the twister a preliminary ranking of EF4 on the Enhanced Fujita Scale, meaning the second most powerful category of tornado with winds up to 200 mph.

Witnesses said Monday’s tornado appeared more fierce than the giant twister that was among the dozens that tore up the area on May 3, 1999, killing more than 40 people and destroying thousands of homes. That tornado ranked as an EF5, meaning it had winds over 200 mph.

The 1999 event in Oklahoma ranks as the third-costliest tornado in U.S. history, having caused more than $1 billion in damage at the time, or more than $1.3 billion in today’s dollars. Only the devastating Joplin and Tuscaloosa tornadoes in 2011 were more costly.

SCHOOL DESTROYED

The National Weather Service Storm Prediction Center provided the town with a warning 16 minutes before the tornado touched down at 3:01 p.m. (4.01 p.m. EDT), which is greater than the average eight to 10 minutes of warning, said Keli Pirtle, a spokeswoman for the center in Norman, Oklahoma.

The notice was upgraded to emergency warning with “heightened language” at 2:56 p.m., or five minutes before the tornado touched down, Pirtle said.

Television media measured the tornado at more than 2 miles wide, with images showing entire neighborhoods flattened.

The U.S. Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) imposed a temporary flight restriction that allowed only relief aircraft in the area, saying it was at the request of police who needed quiet to search for buried survivors.

Oklahoma activated the National Guard, and the U.S. Federal Emergency Management Agency activated teams to support recovery operations and coordinate responses for multiple agencies.

Briarwood Elementary School, which also stood in the storm’s path, was all but destroyed. On the first floor, sections of walls had been peeled away, giving clear views into the building; while in other areas, cars hurled by the storm winds were lodged in the walls.

Across the street, people picked through the remains of their homes.

The number of injured as reported by several hospitals rose rapidly throughout the afternoon.

Oklahoma University Medical Center alone was treating 65 patients, 45 of them children, though it was no longer expecting a further mass influx of casualties, spokesman Scott Coppenbarger said.

Moore Medical Center itself sustained significant damage.

“The whole city looks like a debris field,” Glenn Lewis, the mayor of Moore, told NBC.

“It looks like we have lost our hospital. I drove by there a while ago and it’s pretty much destroyed,” Lewis said.

The massive twister struck at the height of tornado season, and more were forecast. On Sunday, tornadoes killed two people and injured 39 in Oklahoma.

The post At least 20 children feared dead as Oklahoma tornado kills 91 appeared first on Metro.us.

This event is 21 and over

Join the Peek- A-Boo Revue Neo Burlesque Show for tales of titillation, tease, and terrifyingly hilarious feats! Joey Martini’s magic lamp leads the way, spewing out a new twisted treat with each and every rub.

Peek-A-Boo’s ladies-of-burlesque will striptease to please as they dance and romance your hearts and souls. The carn-evil genius, Count Scotchula, will wield his sword, only to stab you right through your funny bone! Not to worry, though. The Boo’s very special guest, Maria Bella – Baltimore’s Sicillian Queen, will come to your rescue and deliver you to burly-q paradise. The Striptease Orchestra will be there to welcome you with horns, sticks, strings, and melodies so sweet you’ll have to wipe the molasses from your earlobes.

For tickets click here

For further information click here

The post Peek A Boo Review at World Cafe Live Philadelphia appeared first on Metro.us.

Also performing will be Will Dailey

Singer-songwriter Melissa Ferrick caught her first big break when Morrissey was pressed for an opener at a concert and asked her fill in at the last minute. The former Smith’s frontman liked her so much that he took her on as an opening act for the rest of the tour. She became an underground success before the tour had even concluded. Two decades and 16 albums later, Ferrick shows no signs of letting up anytime soon.

Dining is available at World Cafe Live. Reservations are accepted for Upstairs Live, the full service restaurant; Its recommended scheduling a reservation 1½ to 2 hours before show time. Downstairs Live offers a full service bar, and a limited food menu is available for most shows.

WHEELCHAIR ACCESSIBLE SEATS are located on all seated levels of this theatre.

For tickets click here

For further information click here

The post Melissa Ferrick at World Cafe Live Philadelphia appeared first on Metro.us.

Also performing will be DJ Bongohead.

La Exelencia, Grupo Fantasma, Jose Conde y la Fresca, Alex Wilson, Sergent Garcia, and Ricardo Lemvo have all produced excellent samples of contemporary salsa, but surely one of the best original and longest running must be Bio Ritmo. Since their founding in 1991, this Richmond, Virginia-based orchestra has fearlessly carried on the spirit of tradition/innovation that once was so prevalent in the 1970s but is rarer today. These self-produced, veteran indie-label warriors are all accomplished musicians in their own right, coming originally from disparate musical backgrounds outside the realm of salsa-reggae, punk, classical, and modern jazz.

For tickets click here

For further information click here

The post Bio Ritmo at World Cafe Live Philadelphia Upstairs appeared first on Metro.us.

This event is all ages

For tickets click here

For further information click here

The post Doreen Taylor LIVE at World Cafe Live Philadelphia appeared first on Metro.us.

I just had the craziest dream. First, it was 1999, and I was with 30 drunks booing Donovan McNabb. Then it was 2005, and McNabb was throwing up at the Super Bowl. Finally, I was debating the merits of McNabb’s career with former NFL quarterback Kordell Stewart and fending off accusations of racism by Temple icon John Chaney. That was some nightmare.

What’s that? All of that stuff actually happened? Ugh.

The strangest week of my 23-year career in radio began with a stupid remark I made on WIP last Tuesday morning. I suggested, with tongue in cheek, that we re-gather the members of the Dirty Thirty who had booed McNabb at the 1999 draft and blast him one last time at his retirement ceremony. I am no fan of old No. 5, but that would be a dumb move, even by my warped standards.

In the course of my rant, I also made the mistake of dredging up the issue of whether McNabb vomited in the latter stages of his one Super Bowl appearance, leading to a three-day e-mail war with reporters who still believe he did not. Did McNabb barf? Yes, he most certainly did, but what’s the point of arguing it again now?

All of the press I got for my McNabb comments earned me an invitation on an Atlanta radio show hosted by Kordell Stewart, who informed me that I’m nuts not to appreciate a quarterback who got the Eagles to five NFC championship games. I then suggested — nicely, mind you — McNabb is a hero only when compared to lesser quarterbacks like, say, Kordell Stewart.

Could I dig the hole any deeper for myself? Apparently, I could. As the week progressed, I offered some serious analysis of McNabb that did not sit well with his many admirers. I said he negated his many good accomplishments with passive-aggressive behavior that will permanently damage his legacy. I was logical with my criticism, accurately recalling his many failures at key moments and the absurd remarks that inevitably followed.

Unfortunately, timing is everything — and it is obviously considered bad form to tell the brutal truth about a player on the week when he announces his retirement. Among those offended by my commentary was former Temple coach John Chaney, who suggested that the negative 1999 draft reaction was like “a lynch mob.” In other words, we went to New York that day to protest the drafting of a black quarterback.

Chaney has no idea what he’s talking about. We actually made the trip — at the urging of then-Mayor Ed Rendell — to welcome Ricky Williams to the Eagles. The black running back, Ricky Williams. John Chaney owes me and those fans an apology.

Of course, it could be argued that I deserved all of the heat I got last week for stirring up arguments that were best left undisturbed. On that charge, I plead guilty. McNabb was a good quarterback, OK? There, I said it.

Now, please leave me alone while I take a long, dreamless nap.

Tough decisions: Chase Utley’s future

At a time when his popularity is at an all-time low, Phillies GM Ruben Amaro, Jr. faces his toughest decision: Is it time to trade Chase Utley?

On a team of beloved sports heroes, there is one true leader, Utley — the feisty, quiet Phillies second baseman who personifies the gritty fan base. Even his profane “World bleepin’ champions!” exhortation at the 2008 championship rally has somehow become a term of endearment for that legendary team.

But that was five long years ago — five years of punishment on already brittle knees, five years of falling short and falling hard. That Utley has returned to a semblance of his previous greatness this season is something of a medical miracle. He actually looks like Utley again, playing well and smart, squeezing a few desperate wins out of a declining team.

Utley is a free agent at the end of the season, and he will never again be worth the $15 million he is earning right now — especially to a rebuilding team like the Phillies. And that leads to Amaro’s decision about what to do with a player loved by all but worth more now to a contender.

Baseball sage Peter Gammons, of the MLB Network, said recently on my radio show that no Phillie will bring more in return than Utley, who would take both his talent and his aura to a contender. Doesn’t it make sense to use Utley as part of a rebuilding process that is inevitable now?

The best guess here is that Amaro will trade Utley because it will be the right thing to do for the franchise. And then Ruben Amaro will find out what being hated in Philadelphia is really like.

Sixers GM needs communication skills

Sam Hinkie is known as a meticulous number-cruncher with a tireless work ethic, so why did the new Sixer GM do so little homework on the Philadelphia sports fan before his tone-deaf introductory news conference last week?

It is a challenge to recall any executive, coach or player who seemed more out of touch with his surroundings than Hinkie appeared in his embarrassing debut. At 32, he is not expected to be a master of public speaking, but his stilted reading of boring clichés belonged at a college graduation, not at the dais of an NBA team.

Now maybe he’s one of those geniuses who is just a lot more comfortable making moves than talking about them. Maybe in the long run he will know what to do with a team that has two good players and a rapidly shrinking fan base. Maybe he will even be figure out how to overcome a clueless owner and a clownish CEO.

But what the Sixers really need, this minute, is someone who can represent the franchise with purpose and confidence — someone who has not lost his mind like Doug Collins, or someone who cannot communicate at all, like his predecessor, Tony DiLeo. They do not need yet another empty suit yammering about nothing.

What Sam Hinkie needed to do last week was declare, in a powerful voice, that Andrew Bynum is not welcome back here, under any circumstances. He needed to do what new Eagles coach Chip Kelly has done, to connect with the fans. He needed to provide some reason for hope. He failed miserably.

Idle thoughts from Cataldi

» Eagles coach Chip Kelly choreographed his practices last week with loud, pulsating music, a first in the NFL. Two days later, Andy Reid did the exact same thing in Kansas City. Hold on a second. Which one of these guys is a rookie? And which one has been doing the job for 14 years?

» Ilya Bryzgalov simply cannot shut his mouth. Last week, after blowing another game at the world championships, the goalie called Philadelphia dirty, depicted the people here as lazy welfare bums and praised Joseph Stalin. Just one question: Why is Bryzgalov still a Flyer?

» Danny Watkins explained the other day that his struggles with the Eagles were directly connected to unorthodox offensive-line coach Howard Mudd. Now that Mudd is gone, he implied that we can expect a much better return on the first-round pick. Wanna bet?

» If you were watching the miraculous comeback by the Phils Sunday, then you already know that Freddy Galvis absolutely must play every day, starting right now. Forget his game-winning home run. Galvis is potentially the best infield defender since Ozzie Smith. He is that good.

» Welcome to the Phillies, Carlos Zambrano. The former ace pitcher with serious anger-management problems — he has been known to physically attack teammates and Gatorade coolers without provocation — is working himself back into shape and should be on the major-league roster soon. Meanwhile, somewhere a village is missing its idiot.

The post Cataldi: A house divided (about McNabb) cannot stand appeared first on Metro.us.

The Phillies earned a comeback victory Sunday, thanks to the heroics of Freddy Galvis and Erik Kratz. On Monday, the focus was more grim as the team awaited the MRI results of Ryan Howard and Carlos Ruiz.

Ruiz was diagnosed with a Grade 2 hamstring strain. He’s expected to miss three to four weeks after being placed on the 15-day disabled list. Howard received a cortisone shot and remains listed day-to-day. Michael Young filled in for Howard yesterday for a second straight game. After Sunday’s game, Howard admitted that he has been dealing with a sore left knee since spring training.

“If he doesn’t respond to the treatment we’ve provided so far, you’ve got to re-evaluate what you’re doing,” trainer Scott Sheridan told reporters. “At no point are we going to put Ryan out there to risk it.”
Adams recovering from back spasms

Phillies setup man Mike Adams has been placed on the 15-day DL.

The move is retroactive and the Phils could bring him back Sunday, if he’s feeling better. Adams hasn’t pitched since May 10 while battling back spasms. Adams plans to throw off a mound Thursday. He is targeting a Monday return.

Adams is 1-3 with a 3.00 ERA this season in 17 appearances.

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