Philadelphia Daily News
POLLUTION YOU CAN’T SEE
Fleece fragments in a washer flow into a wastewater treatment plant. A plastic bag blows into a stream. A water bottle washes down a storm drain. All can end up in the region’s waterways as microplastics smaller than a grain of rice and find their way...
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YA GOTTA RELIEVE
ATLANTA — The circle of trust in the Phillies’ bullpen couldn’t be smaller. That’s why closer Jhoan Duran was even in the game in the eighth inning, when Braves third baseman Austin Riley drove a three-run homer over the right field wall to lift...
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THE KING SPEAKS
LeBron James grabbed the name tag perched on a table in front of him, glanced at it, then quipped, “You guys know who I am, right?” Those assembled inside the 76ers’ practice facility did, of course. James, one of the NBA’s all-time greats and a...
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FOR POSTERITY
Rene Garner cried even before the doors swung open Sunday to admit visitors to the last-ever day of operation for the Academy of Natural Sciences of Drexel University. “I feel so sad,” said Garner, a retired educator who brought classes to the museum...
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CIRCLE THE WAGONS
Let’s play a game of Name That Hitter, using statistical hints of batting average/on-base percentage/ slugging and other relevant numbers through Thursday. Ready? Here goes. Hitter A: .259/.310/.386, 24 doubles, 17 homers, 76 RBIs, 47 walks, 124...
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MOM’S WORST NIGHTMARE
It was early on a Friday evening, a week after her ninth birthday. Ashley Rivera, already in her pajamas, walked from her home to the 7-Eleven across the street to grab a snack. She was within eyesight of her stepdad, who sat on the front porch of...
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QUITE A LEAP
Flood warnings are up for the Jersey Shore into early Saturday as that very early-season nor’easter matures off the Southeast coast. But, perhaps ironically, in the early going what has been happening at the Shore has had more to do with an...
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U.N.DEFENSIBLE
The scariest thing about President Donald Trump’s address to the United Nations General Assembly on Tuesday was not the wild exaggerations, false claims or disgusting slurs against (truthful) critics. That all has become par for the course and was to...
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CLOSING THOUGHTS
The Phillies returned from their final road trip of the season with work to do. Their magic number to clinch a postseason berth is three. Any combination of wins and Diamondbacks losses that totals three will ensure the Phillies’ season continues...
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NASHTHRILL!
The talent prevails. The poise prevails. The unflinching self-belief prevails. You can say a lot of things about Jalen Hurts. The list starts with those three truths. He has shown it time and again at every level of football, from Alabama to Oklahoma...
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FUN & GAMES
Reasonable humans will enter Week 2 careful not to get carried away with the talent disparity between the Eagles and the Titans. They will remind themselves of the relatively thin margins that separate teams in the modern NFL. They will note the...
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PLAIN TO SEE
LANCASTER, Pa. — Amish families peer into Roberta Devers’ Honda Passport as she drives between prenatal checkups along the rolling hills of Lancaster County. They ask her increasingly frequent questions about the vaccine: Do you have some measles in...
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GRIM UPDATE
Police have recovered images they believe show two additional women dead inside the residence of the late Raymond “R.C.” Horsch, officials said Wednesday — bringing the total number of dead or missing women linked to the violent pornographer’s Olney...
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COOL FOR SCHOOL
Jalen Hurts was watching morning TV three years ago when he saw something that stopped him in his tracks. “I was very blown away by school not being canceled for snow, not for a hurricane or tropical storm, but for lack of AC,” the Eagles star...
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DATA CENTER DUMP
The battle over data centers and the artificial intelligence they power has officially reached Philadelphia City Hall. A coalition of activist groups and environmental advocates gathered at City Hall Monday to call on local lawmakers to pass a...
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BINGE WATCHING
On the outer rim of a Home Depot parking lot in West Berlin, N.J., a group of more than 20 people — many of them senior citizens — did their part to fight Big Brother in the searing August sun. “It got your license plate number!” shouted one man,...
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WE’RE ALL EARS
Former New Jersey Gov. Christine Todd Whitman will be 80 years old in a few weeks, with much to celebrate as she marks the moment. She was twice elected governor and brought a Republican legislature with her both times. She cut income taxes by 30%....
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‘EMBEDDED IN US’
Retired Philadelphia Police Captain Mark Fisher gets winded and lightheaded while emptying the dishwasher or pushing his gas-powered lawnmower, his lungs forever scarred by the ankle-deep ash that he trudged through at Ground Zero. When Fisher arrived...
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FULL SPECTRUM
A new home for the 76ers and Flyers is scheduled to open in 2030, and now we have our first glimpse of what the new arena might look like. The teams released the first renderings of the privately funded arena Tuesday that will be built at the former...
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CALL ANSWERED
Within weeks of the Sept. 11 terror attacks, the U.S. government launched airstrikes and sent American troops to Afghanistan. In March 2003, spurred by claims that Iraq possessed weapons of mass destruction, the U.S. bombed and invaded the country. In...
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PIT STOP
In what Joey Termini of Termini Brothers Bakery is calling the “most South Philadelphia thing ever,” a Route 47 bus drove through wet concrete after two people reportedly hopped off to move street barricades so the bus could pass Thursday. The sinking...
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LEADER OF THE PACK
PHOENIX — The last time the Phillies saw the Braves, their season was going in a very different direction. Their last meeting on April 26 also happened to be Rob Thomson’s final game as the club’s manager. The 6-2 loss dropped the Phillies’ record to...
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DOUBLE VISION
Eleven years ago, Carlton Williams was, to some, a symbol of government dysfunction. He was leading the troubled Philadelphia Department of Licenses and Inspections, an agency engulfed in controversy over safety lapses and staffing issues following...
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BARE BONES
Philadelphia’s Academy of Natural Sciences of Drexel University is closing its museum after nearly two centuries in existence, Drexel and Academy leaders said in an announcement sent to staff and others Tuesday morning. The museum, opened to the...
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SNAP DECISION
Thinking our way through the least climactic day on the NFL schedule. . . The Eagles backup QB discourse has been a thrill ride over the last couple of years. We’ve gone from nothing-less-than-asecond-round-pick-for-TannerMcKee to the Eagles trading...
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HOW THEY ROLL
A decade-long void was filled: the whooshing winds of the peloton, the whooping and cheery sounds of cowbells, the whiffs of greasy food, and sips of cold beer. All of it returned to the city’s vistas Sunday as the Philadelphia Cycling Classic, one of...
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CRINGE WORTHY
Two years ago, every child in the kindergarten class at Eleanor Emlen Elementary in Mount Airy had vaccine protection against measles. A year later, the school’s kindergarten immunization rate had dropped to just 80%, putting students and the...
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SHERIFF SUPERVISION
A Philadelphia judge on Wednesday took the rare step of imposing six months of outside supervision of sheriff sales after years of dysfunction in processing deeds and distributing money from the auctions. The decision came after a hearing in City Hall...
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DEAR DOLLY
Dolly Parton, the rhinestones-to-riches daughter of Appalachia who for six decades ruled country music with an outsize personality and country wit that enshrined her as one of the 20th century’s most cherished American originals, died Tuesday in...
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HAPPY NEW YEAR!
Eighth graders tossed a football across the concrete schoolyard. A fourth grader broke into a dead run, intent on catching up with friends she hadn’t seen all summer. A teacher hugged a first grader with a shy smile and a giant pink backpack crammed...
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HEALTH IS WEALTH
Maleka Evans waited outside Octapharma Plasma in South Jersey at 8:30 a.m. on a recent sweltering morning, sweat beading on her face. A dozen other prospective donors had arrived before her, and the line was still growing a half hour before doors...
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WAR & PEACE
No matter where he is on the infield, Bryson Stott is only thinking about one thing. It could be second base, where he started the season, or third, where he’s been playing since the trade deadline. But even back in college and the minor leagues, when...
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SET IN STONE
A White House official said of the ballroom construction: “Given the current progress, the superstructure is beyond the point of return.” Lawyers for the National Trust for Historic Preservation in the United States said the administration had...
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NEW DATA
HARRISBURG — Gov. Josh Shapiro signed a sweeping executive order on Tuesday dramatically restricting data center development in Pennsylvania, marking a major shift from his initial embrace of the increasingly unpopular projects. Shapiro, a first-term...
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WHAT’S THE POINT?
Sixty days ago, seated beside French President Emmanuel Macron at a lavish dinner at the Palace of Versailles, President Donald Trump signed a memorandum of understanding with Iran and declared the beginning of the end of the U.S. conflict with...
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PHILLY REP
To witness the reaction to LeBron James’ decision to play in Philadelphia the next two seasons, you might have thought we’d beaten the Russians to the moon or ended the next world war. Folks drove down Broad Street honking their horns, heads hanging...
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‘A GOOD GUY’
Abdoulaye Cherif was asleep when his phone rang that morning, and he answered only because the display showed the call was coming from a prison. He was shocked to hear the voice of his father, who was supposed to be at work, driving for Uber. Mamadou...
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‘THE WORK WILL SHOW’
The Eagles held their first practice of training camp on Wednesday at the Jefferson Health Training Complex. Here were my observations from Day 1: Healthy Birds The Eagles announced that outside linebacker Jonathan Greenard was placed on the...
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THE STUFF OF LEGEND
The first thing people noticed about Jadin Aviles was his smile. It was bright and big, and became part of his identity. Not just because of his youthful spirit, but the work that shaped each glistening tooth. When Aviles was 9, his mother, Emelissa...
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PHILLY HOSTS THE ‘OLYMPICS OF MATH’
There’s math games and math art. Math theater and math music. Math for the family. Math for the kids. Mathdramatics. Math on stage. Math movies. Math podcasts. Math murals. Math rock stars. Math awards. Math in sports. Math in culture. Philly...
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SHORT END OF THE SPAN
The state of the University Avenue Bridge, long neglected and subject to vandalism, is attracting a wave of public scrutiny. An online petition that has collected hundreds of signatures calls for the historically significant span to be secured before...
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KEY TO THE CITY
LeBron James met Donovan McNabb, ordered a cheesesteak in South Philly, and stayed at a hotel just a few blocks from City Hall when he visited Philadelphia for the first time. But James — then a high school senior — had no interest in trekking to the...
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TOUGH AS NAILS
Kyle Kendrick used to walk into the batting cage he built in his Clearwater, Fla., backyard and just stand in it. He dreamed of having something like this when he was a kid and the former Phillies pitcher was in awe of what he had. “I would just look...
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DON’T BET ON IT
The tension between the rise of legalized sports betting and the specter of gamblers developing ruinous addictions came into sharp focus last week, between the stark recommendations of a nonpartisan Pennsylvania commission and a baseball star’s social...
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MANSPLAINING
WASHINGTON — Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said Tuesday the U.S. war against Iran has cost $37.5 billion, so far, as he faced questions and protests at a Senate hearing ahead of a $95 billion GOP budget package to fund the military, along with aid to...
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PUMP IT UP
Even the Freedom Fuel Network promoted by President Donald Trump isn’t immune to rising gas prices. Yet, the Philadelphia-area network of gas stations is expanding anyway, according to the company’s website. The enterprise, currently made up of 25...
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‘ANGEL BIKE’
Dozens of sunflowers bloomed near 18th and Spruce Streets on Sunday morning in memory of Barbara Friedes, as family, friends, and others gathered to remember the CHOP pediatric chief resident. They were marking the second anniversary of when she was...
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A LITTLE KICK
Philadelphia has been flush with tourists flocking here for the World Cup and the nation’s 250th, patronizing local restaurants, bars, and stadiums. And in the aftermath, bar owners are weighing the exact size of any World Cup sales boom, how it...
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SMOKE SCREEN
Philadelphia’s jinxed July, which had already featured a record-setting dome of heat and microburst storms that razed hundred of trees, now includes a smothering, suffocating smoke. The polluted campfire-like vaporfrom Canadian wildfires plummeted air...
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CANDID CAMERAS
President Donald Trump’s administration has installed its own version of history at the President’s House Site, swapping panels on the brutality of slaveryat the site for displays that experts say sanitize George Washington’s role as an enslaver. The...
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HALT
BIDDEFORD, Maine — Trump administration officials told Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers to suspend most vehicle stops after two deadly shootings within a week, people familiar with the decision said Tuesday. The order came after an ICE...
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PRIDE OF DELCO
While baseball’s biggest stars prepare to take the field at Citizens Bank Park for the MLB All-Star game Tuesday, the next generation of baseball talent delivered its own unforgettable moment Monday. The Texas Rangers Youth Academy came back from a...
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FAST & FURIOUS
Philadelphia Mayor Cherelle L. Parker has declared a disaster emergency one day after at least four storms known as microbursts ripped through parts of Philadelphia and Montgomery County, downing trees and power lines and causing electrical outages and...
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BUDDY BALL
DETROIT — The major league home run leader is taking his talents to the Home Run Derby. Phillies designated hitter Kyle Schwarber announced Friday that he will participate in Monday’s competition at Citizens Bank Park as part of the All-Star...
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LARGER THAN LIFE
Philadelphia is gearing up for a star-studded week with the arrival of MLB’s midsummer classic. As Citizens Bank Park becomes a temporary home for some of the league’s top players, the Pennsylvania Convention Center will welcome fans to MLB’s All-Star...
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NO OTHER FIREWORKS
The first week of July has typically been one of Philadelphia’s most violent, with recent Independence Day weekends marked by mass shootings, police officers shot, and bursts of violence that left a dozen dead. But this year, amid a dramatic decline...
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TAXING ISSUES
The biggest spike in Philadelphia’s property assessments this year occurred in Kensington, a measure that means many homeowners in the long-struggling neighborhood are likely to see higher taxes amid a concerted effort by the city to clean up the...
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FRESH IDEAS
Cynthia Martini of Mantua Township visits Mood’s Farm Market every year to pick blueberries. During a typical summer, she collects 40 pounds of them. She used to bring her kids, but now that they’re older, she goes solo. Her routine on June 30 didn’t...
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NIFTY 250
An unscheduled and dramatic light and sound show — this one produced by nature — interrupted Philadelphia’s July Fourth extravaganza Saturday night, forcing crowds to evacuate the Parkway three hours before the man-made fireworks show was scheduled to...
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A BIG BIRTHDAY
As the mercury climbed above 100 degrees in the Philadelphia region two days before the nation’s 250th birthday, it was, it seemed, too hot for liberty as originally planned. Thursday marked the start of the Red White & Blue To-Do — Philadelphia’s...
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LET’S CROSS THAT BRIDGE
I’ve driven across the Ben Franklin Bridge countless times but until last week I’d never walked across it, and I walked across the Brooklyn Bridge once, so I’ve quietly carried that shame with me for years. When I received a news release about the...
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RULING FOR THE AGES
The Supreme Court upheld the principle of birthright citizenship in a ruling for the ages on Tuesday, affirming amid rancorous national debate that people born in this country are American citizens. The decision handed a key loss to President Donald...
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