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The children of John and Chara Cooper Haas are donating the family's massive Stoneleigh Estate in Villanova to a conservation group, which will manage it as a garden open to the public. The 42 acres and Tudor Revival mansion on North Spring Mill Road are to be transferred to the Natural Lands Trust today. Emotionally, "it is a passage, for sure," said David Haas, who was 9 when his parents, who used their wealth to support many charitable causes, acquired the estate from his grandparents in 1964. "But it is inspiring to think that this place will really be open, used, and appreciated by many different people." The estate will be renamed "Stoneleigh: A Natural Garden" when it reopens in about 18 months. "We'll build on what's here and augment it with new materials and new science on the benefits of natives in terms of the bugs, butterflies, birds, and pollinators they attract," said Natural Lands Trust president Molly Morrison. Read more |
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One man was killed and another wounded in separate police-involved shootings in Philadelphia overnight. A man who allegedly attempted to run over officers when they tried to pull his vehicle over was fatally shot near 63rd Street and Overbrook Avenue. Another man was in stable condition after he was shot in the leg by police in Southwest Philadelphia. Officials said police responding to a report of gunshots ordered that man to drop his firearm, but he refused and fired at the officers. No officers were injured in either shooting. Read more |
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More than a year after a man died at a South Jersey hospital after getting into a scuffle with Vineland police, his family is still waiting for answers. Pamela White says authorities have provided few details about what happened on March 31, 2015, the night her 32-year-old son, Phillip White, died. Officers told her that her son had a heart attack; a medical examiner suggested he had been on PCP. But the family hasn't received autopsy or toxicology reports, leaving his official cause of death unknown, and the Cumberland County Prosecutor's Office hasn't ruled whether the officers' use of force was justified. White called the wait "torture." The lack of answers is "ridiculous," said Stuart Alterman, an attorney who is representing one of the officers and seeking the same information as the young man's family. "A year is an extraordinarily long time to wait for such a case," said Michael Baden, a forensic pathologist working with Pamela White's attorney. "There's no reason for it." Read more |
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The Sisters of the Blessed Sacrament, the religious order founded by Philadelphia's St. Katharine Drexel, is doing what was once unthinkable: Selling the Bensalem estate that hosts its mother house and shrine with the saint's tomb. Also being sold are more than 2,200 acres the congregation owns in Virginia, where two schools once stood. "The properties are too large for our current and future needs, and for our financial resources," said Sister Donna Breslin, the order's president. The decision to sell was reached, she said, "after prayer, study, and reflection." The shrine at 1663 Bristol Pike will remain open to visitors through the end of 2017. At some point, St. Katharine's remains will be transferred to the Cathedral Basilica of SS. Peter and Paul in Philadelphia. Read more |
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The sharp rhetoric over Atlantic City's future continues to escalate. On Tuesday, Steve Fulop, Jersey City's mayor and a potential candidate for governor, questioned why South Jersey Democratic power broker George Norcross was involved in the discussions. "Why is an insurance broker, a nonelected official, who has made tens of millions of dollars on the backs of public taxpayers, actively involved in drafting Atlantic City's takeover bill and then lobbying for it all over New Jersey?" Fulop said in a statement. Norcross, meanwhile, said the mayor was "making a fool" of himself and he had "never hid" his interest in "ensuring that South Jersey is strong and united." Read more |
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