I remember this case. I thought at the time he didn’t sound like a good candidate, but it’s hard to deny someone’s second chance, especially when it’s a kid:

In 2013, then-15-year-old Anthony Stokes was dying and desperately needed a heart transplant that he couldn’t get because, according to doctors, he had “a history of noncompliance.”

Stokes’s family suspected that his low grades and a history of trouble with the law gave doctors reason to believe that he would not be willing to take his medicine or show up at subsequent doctor’s visits. The Georgia teen’s story story sparked outrage, and the hospital quickly reversed its decision, giving him priority on the transplant list.

But two years later, after he received a transplant, Stokes’s “second chance” has come to an abrupt end.

Tuesday afternoon, Stokes died after a stolen vehicle he was driving jumped a curb, hit a pedestrian and collided with a pole in a car chase with police, according to WSBTV.

The pedestrian was hospitalized for her injuries, and Stokes’s car was nearly split in half by the sign, according to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

Police said he had to be cut out of the Honda by first responders and rushed to a hospital, where he died around 9:00 p.m.  on Tuesday night.

Remember when I lived in Bucks County, and referred to the town in which I lived as “the Hellmouth”? Now, along with the Arctic cold, the weirdness has moved south and my quiet little neighborhood has turned into something from Twin Peaks.

The other night, there was a violent rape at gunpoint by two teenage boys, about a quarter-mile from my house.

That same night, a young man who stabbed his mother to death in their home.

And Saturday, they found a dead body, floating in the Delaware River behind the local rec center.

Maybe it’s me?

When an old building goes down, I feel it viscerally. I love the imagined history of every old place, and before you know it, we won’t have many left:

We’ve had six building collapse in Philly in the past month, some with gas explosions, some without. They say it’s from the freeze-thaw-freeze cycle we have with the imaginary global warming. Why be afraid of terrorists when our failing infrastructure is a more immediate danger? Here’s hoping no one was killed:

As many as 30 people were hurt when an explosion caused a partial building collapse and ignited a massive fire in the East Village on Thursday afternoon, law-enforcement sources told The Post.

Flames were engulfing two buildings at the scene and firefighters were spraying water on the blaze, as thick smoke billowed over the neighborhood.

The destruction near the corner of Second Avenue and East Seventh Street was reported shortly before 3:30 p.m.

Cops in the Ninth Precinct stationhouse, about a quarter-mile away, heard a loud bang and raced over, sources said.

A diner who was eating at the Sushi Park restaurant at 121 Second Avenue told cops he heard an explosion inside the kitchen there, a source said.

Day laborers also told cops they had been working on a gas line inside the kitchen, and there were 911 reports of possible gas leak just before the blast, a source said.

In addition to 121 Second Ave., the building next door at 123, which houses the Pommes Frites restaurant, was also on fire.