The Philadelphia Inquirer
Suffocating dome of wildfire smoke making Philly region’s air unhealthy
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 vapor from Canadian wildfires plummeted...
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Trump administration quietly swaps slavery panels at President’s House
President Donald Trump’s administration has installed its own version of history at the President’s House Site, swapping panels on the brutality of slavery at the site for displays that experts say sanitize George Washington’s role as an enslaver. The...
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ICE halts vehicle stops after 2 deadly shootings
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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Traveling fans relish return of Delco’s All- Star
In March, Patty Martin and Liz Warren sat in an office at Monsignor Bonner and Archbishop Prendergast High School, poring over the Detroit Tigers’ 162- game schedule. It wasn’t how the administrative assistant and math teacher typically spent their...
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Disaster declared
Philadelphia declared a disaster emergency on Sunday as much of the region cleaned up from a storm on Saturday that damaged buildings, uprooted trees, and caused power outages and flash flooding. Fallen trees crushed multiple cars on the 4500 block of...
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Electric bikes, scooters pose safety risk in Philly
It was the first weekend of summer break. Abigail Gillon, an honor student, had just finished sixth grade. She was free. “My last text to her was at 2:14” on June 14 last year, said Abby’s mom, Lori Kralle. An hour later, Kralle received a call from an...
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Leading off
HBCU National League manager Jimmy Rollins ( right) with coach Milt Thompson during Friday’s batting practice before the HBCU Swingman Classic, which featured baseball players from historically Black colleges and universities. The event kicked off MLB...
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A signature moment
A supersized baseball signed by Hall of Fame ballplayers was an imposing presence at the Convention Center during preparations Thursday for the 2026 MLB All- Star Village. The four- day event, featuring ballpark snacks, special appearances, and more,...
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Trump shifts his tone with Ukraine
ANKARA, Turkey — President Donald Trump heaped praise on Ukraine’s president and war effort Wednesday, speaking in unusually positive terms about Kyiv’s deep strikes inside Russia and appearing to grant one of Ukraine’s longheld requests: the ability...
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Amid cleanup, Kensington sees steep rise in property values
The biggest jump 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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A lot of rain
Dave Balog of Mullica Hill sloshes to his truck at the Ferry Avenue PATCO station in Camden on Monday. Balog said there were no warnings when he parked; fortunately, the vehicle did start. Today’s weather is expected to be humid with a shower and a...
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Cleaning up the late- night party
Adiv Premsun, 9, of Newtown, Pa., kicks a soccer ball along the Ben Franklin Parkway as the clean- up from the July 4th concert and fireworks continue in Philadelphia on Sunday.
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Fervor on the Fourth
Declaring a measure of independence from steaminess that made the atmosphere feel like sweat itself, on Saturday hundreds of thousands in the region celebrated the day 250 years ago when rebellious colonists gathering in Philadelphia announced to the...
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PARADE CANCELED AS HEAT GRIPS CITY
No question, it’s hot, hot, hot. But record hot? Not on Friday. It was not likely that Philadelphia would see a record- breaking high temperature. The record high for a July 3 stands at 104 degrees, set in 1966. As of about 4 p. m., the temperature...
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‘Pomp and parade’ mark historic event, as Adams may have liked
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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Boston vs. Philly: A tale of two cities claiming Revolutionary history
BOSTON — Not long ago, the folks over at the Boston Globe turned their spotlight on, of all places, Philadelphia. With the nation’s 250th birthday fast approaching, the newspaper dispatched a reporter to our fair city to determine how it stacks up,...
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Supreme Court upholds right to citizenship for most born here
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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Still Smokin’
Mayor Cherelle L. Parker, Frazier family members, boxers, and others unveil the new home for the statue of heavyweight boxing champion Joe Frazier on Monday at the base of the steps of the Philadelphia Museum of Art where a statue of fictional boxer...
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How Philly’s historical reenactors trained for nation’s 250th festivities
The players amble into the auditorium on a cloudy May morning to run through their schemes and formations and make last- minute adjustments to the roster. Some are already in uniform — waistcoats and breeches — fueling up on Wawa coffee and bagels....
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DRAFTING A DECLARATION
Philadelphia. June 1776. America stands on the brink. The ultimate question of independence hangs over Philadelphia. And Thomas Jefferson has a declaration to draft. His heart is in Virginia. His “country,” as he calls it. But here he is at Seventh...
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Olney house raid may be tied to missing women
During a weeklong search of a crumbling Olney twin, federal agents and Philadelphia police found guns and drugs, tubs of chemicals, a curious unsigned letter, and fake law enforcement badges as they were investigating the homeowner’s connection to at...
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Venezuelans search for survivors after two devastating earthquakes
LA GUAIRA, Venezuela — Venezuelans searched for survivors beneath collapsed buildings Thursday and rescue teams raced to northern areas rocked by a pair of powerful earthquakes that officials say killed at least 188 people and left more than 200...
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Amid parents’ immigration fight, a son battles to stay in the U. S.
The son of the Jersey Kebab restaurant owners whose ICE arrests sparked wide condemnation last year now confronts his own battle to stay in the United States. Muhammed Emanet, 26, said he is trying to be upbeat as he faces the prospect of being...
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In Pa., Trump mentions Shapiro, but not Garrity
MACUNGIE, Pa. — President Donald Trump’s speech on manufacturing in a key Pennsylvania swing district repeatedly veered into other topics and musings about elections in other states, like Maine and California. It took the president nearly an hour to...
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A weather delay
World Cup fans at the France- Iraq match in South Philadelphia on Monday flee their seats for cover when the sky opened up and rain drenched them during the first half. Because of lightning in the area during halftime, the stands were cleared, and the...
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Vance meets top Iranian officials as U. S. tries to get negotiations on track
OBBUERGEN, Switzerland — Highlevel U. S.- Iran talks on their interim deal to end the war had a tense start Sunday in Switzerland as Tehran took offense at comments by President Donald Trump, who threatened to attack and told Iran’s president to watch...
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From VIP suites to fraud allegations: An AI-fueled start-up’s rise and fall
Nothing about T. J. Colaiezzi screamed “tech CEO.” He was a former gym manager from Delaware County who had dropped out of college and could not write code. But with $27 million in venture capital in the bank, his AI-powered start-up took a risky...
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Juneteenth in Philly: New exhibit and an old- school block party
The line to enter Philadelphia’s African American Museum stretched a full block up Arch Street on Juneteenth Friday morning and never let up all day — not through performances by the West Powelton Steppers and not even when Doug E. Fresh and Slick Rick...
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N. J. Turnpike work seen as threat to an Underground Railroad stop
LAWNSIDE — For nearly 200 years, the historic Peter Mott House — believed to have once served as a stop on the Underground Railroad — has managed to withstand the encroachment of the outside world. In the 1950s, construction of the New Jersey Turnpike...
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Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif said the agreement would take “immediate effect.” A formal signing ceremony is set for Friday.
WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump said he signed an agreement with Iran Wednesday that U. S. officials say calls for Tehran to dilute its stockpile of highly enriched uranium and waives sanctions on the country, immediately allowing Iran to sell its...
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Progressives fault Sherrill’s handling of Delaney Hall protests
Josue Barreiro stood in front of a crowd of 200 people seated inside a church last week in Haddonfield. He was there to speak about his experience as one of 61 protesters arrested in one night outside Delaney Hall after Gov. Mikie Sherrill had sent...
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Renovated Highmark Mann reopens with polish and substantial changes
Greener and roomier with a chic naturalistic look, the Highmark Mann Center officially reopened Monday after the final phase of a yearslong renovation. Construction at Philadelphia’s outdoor arts center in Fairmount Park went not just down to the...
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Hitting the pitch
Ecuador and Ivory Coast kicked off the action as what appears to be a packed Lincoln Financial Field hosted its first ever match of the FIFA World Cup on Sunday night. At right, an Ivory Coast fan cheers in a sea of Ecuadorian fans during team warm-...
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A graduation day he never got to see
Unable to sleep, Nyshyia Thomas stepped into the shower at 4 a.m. She stood beneath the water longer than usual, feeling its warmth against her face and running down her skin, hoping it would carry her tears with it. It was graduation day. A day she’d...
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Five hours at Philly’s FIFA Fan Festival: The good and the sweltering
When organizers announced two years ago that Philly’s FIFA Fan Festival site for the World Cup would be at Lemon Hill, many Philadelphians responded with a collective: Huh? Located between the Philadelphia Museum of Art and Girard Avenue, the grassy...
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Philly gets the ball rolling
Mayor Cherelle L. Parker joins fans in a Mexican chant before entering the FIFA Fan Festival at Lemon Hill in Philadelphia on Thursday, the opening day of the 2026 World Cup. Fans gathered to watch Mexico face South Africa in the tournament’s opening...
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A river of possibilities
Floatlab, a public art feature, arrived Wednesday at Bartram’s Garden in Southwest Philadelphia. When the tide- responsive structure opens in September, visitors will be able to examine the Schuylkill at eye level.
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Urban Outfitters is expanding, hiring
Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro held a news conference in the newest building at the Urban Outfitters campus in the Navy Yard on Monday, as the company announced its plans to hire over 1,000 in the region in the coming years. He was joined by Urban...
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Pride on the Parkway
Participants hold a giant Pride flag during Philadelphia’s annual Pride Parade on Sunday. The move of event festivities to the Ben Franklin Parkway — and a $ 10 admission fee — did not go over well with everyone. Story and more photos, B1
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Catholicism is growing in Philly and New Jersey. Who’s filling the pews?
Church bells rang out from one of Philadelphia’s oldest cathedrals, echoing off downtown parking garages and office buildings, while one of the city’s newer Catholics tried to explain his conversion. Daniel Yesilonis, 32, grew up evangelical in the...
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Philly’s path to the World Cup was paved on the cinder field at Newt’s
The city was digging up the playground down the street when Joe Beck dug into his refrigerator and grabbed a jar of salsa. They were overhauling Shissler Recreation Center, meaning Fishtown’s famed cinder soccer field would become grass. And that’s why...
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Council advances $ 7.1B budget, rejects key Parker tax proposals
Philadelphia Mayor Cherelle L. Parker picked a fight with big tech companies. In the end, the tech companies won. City Council gave preliminary approval Thursday to a more than $ 7.1 billion budget for the fiscal year that begins July 1. The plan...
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They love their parade
Students at Blankenburg Elementary School in West Philadelphia march in their annual parade Wednesday to celebrate themselves and causes they care about through giant puppets, original chants, drumming, and other artwork. Blankenburg is among 17...
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Trump taps housing finance chief Pulte for DNI
WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump has tapped Bill Pulte, head of the Federal Housing Finance Agency, to serve as acting director of national intelligence — elevating a real estate scion with no clear national security credentials to a key post as the...
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In some Philly neighborhoods, rising incomes come at a cost
Incomes have increased nearly everywhere across Philadelphia over the last decade. But in some pockets of the city, they have skyrocketed. In the South Philadelphia cluster of Graduate Hospital, Grays Ferry, and Point Breeze neighborhoods, the median...
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A former SEPTA trolley driver is now tasked with saving the transit system
SEPTA was teetering when Scott Sauer became the permanent general manager last June. He seemed made for the moment: a homegrown Philly guy, started as a trolley operator in 1990 and worked his way up. A lifer who followed his father into public...
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Penn’s president on shepherding the school in a turbulent Trump era
University of Pennsylvania president J. Larry Jameson did not complain or cry foul — as some college presidents have — when asked about leading Penn during President Donald Trump’s administration. That’s even though the government has threatened Penn’s...
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Judge says Kennedy Center board broke law
WASHINGTON — A federal judge ruled Friday that President Donald Trump’s name was illegally added to the Kennedy Center and blocked the administration from closing the cultural and arts venue for major renovations — the latest legal setback for Trump’s...
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Shapiro announces $ 30M for sports complex road improvements
Gov. Josh Shapiro promised to “fix traffic congestion” around the South Philadelphia sports complex, with an almost $ 30 million infrastructure investment from the state. Major changes include a new westbound entrance ramp to I- 76, artificial...
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Jewish museum aims to raise $ 100 million to reimagine exhibits
In 2021, Philadelphia’s National Museum of American Jewish History was focused on survival. Fresh out of bankruptcy and no longer the owner of its building, the museum got a lifeline: an eight- figure gift from shoe entrepreneur Stuart Weitzman. Now...
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Fight House lawn
Equipment being placed on the South Lawn of the White House is seen Tuesday from the Washington Monument. An octagonal cage is being built for a fight scheduled on President Donald Trump’s 80th birthday. The UFC is holding a mixed martial arts event on...
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Local vets learn about the making of Philly’s Vietnam Veterans Memorial
Frank Dougherty, a 84- year- old Army veteran in an oversized navy jacket, khaki pants, and a baseball hat, understood the magnitude of the honor he was carrying out on an overcast Memorial Day afternoon. In front of him sat and stood dozens of...
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As military evolves, more women in uniform make the ultimate sacrifice
Greg Pruitt had a surprise for his wife, Ashley. It was 2023 and the young family was about to transfer from Oklahoma’s Altus Air Force Base to her next posting. Altus was special to them. It’s where Ashley’s military career had bloomed and so had...
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ADVOCATE TO ADVERSARY
Milique Wagner always insisted that his 2013 murder conviction was built on an informant’s lie. But Wagner said he couldn’t persuade his trial lawyer to investigate that, even after the informant confessed to the murder and testified that Philadelphia...
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Memorial Day detail
Groundskeeper Michael Chellew sprays cleaner on headstones Friday at Philadelphia National Cemetery in West Oak Lane in preparation for Memorial Day.
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Ebola responders say aid cuts left them ill- equipped for outbreak
NAIROBI, Kenya — Medical personnel in the Democratic Republic of Congo know what it takes to get an Ebola outbreak under control. They have confronted 17 episodes of the disease in the past 50 years. But this time, they say, they just don’t have the...
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Rabb’s election a rebuke of establishment Dems
State Rep. Chris Rabb’s capture of the Democratic nomination to represent Pennsylvania’s 3rd Congressional District on Tuesday marked a striking triumph for the progressive left, which has over the last decade installed democratic socialists into...
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After high temps and low turnout, Pa. candidates looking to November
Gov. Josh Shapiro and his Republican challenger, State Treasurer Stacy Garrity, have a lot to prove over the next six months. And come November, more than the governor’s race will be on the line for them both. Shapiro, a rumored 2028 presidential...
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Hydrate early and often
Dajé Jones, 3, cools off in the water jets at Dilworth Park outside City Hall on a day when the temperature reached 96 degrees. Tuesday could be even hotter.
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Major breakthrough
Aaron Rai, the 44th- ranked player in the world, holds the Wanamaker Trophy at Aronimink Golf Club after winning the 108th PGA Championship on Sunday. He’s the first golfer born in England to win the event since Jim Barnes in 1919. Coverage in Sports,...
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THE GROUNDWORK FOR REVOLUTION
Philadelphia, May 1776 Finally, the tide has turned. Independence is alive in Philadelphia. And John Adams is ready to pounce. He writes by flickering candlelight in the rented rooms of a Second Street lodging house kept by a Mrs. Sarah Yard. Like...
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Green scene
Rory Mcilroy putts on the par- 4 fourth green during the second round of the PGA Championship at Aronimink Golf Club. Aronimink’s pin positions — and whipping winds — were wreaking havoc Friday. Coverage in Sports, Section B.
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Trump was flattering, Xi was firm, and the difference tells a story
BEIJING — For President Donald Trump, the first day of his visit to Beijing was all about the personal relationship between him and Xi Jinping, the Chinese leader. “You’re a great leader,” he told his host, whom he has often said he admires for his...
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With Street, Rabb, 3rd Dist. primary features a clash of legislative styles
Nearly a decade ago, Chris Rabb and Sharif Street walked into the Pennsylvania Capitol for the first time as elected officials and quickly staked their ground in different ways. Street, a lawyer and scion of a powerful political family, went to work...
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He helped police after a tragedy. Then ICE arrived
In October, Erasmo Zavala Almanza traversed the streets of Reading during a silent march for victims of domestic violence, court records say, walking to represent his 20- year- old daughter, Selena. Eight months earlier she had been shot to death by...
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Will this Salem County town love its last dairy farm to death?
The future of a family farm in rural Salem County was at stake, and after multiple meetings and hours of presentations, questions, pleas, and complaints, a local planning board was set to vote. Before the vote, one longtime resident of Mannington...
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Bus program connecting families with loved ones in prison is in peril
The bus rattled as it climbed north, a constant metallic shake that vibrated through its frame and into the seats beneath passengers. Renee Martin dragged her finger across her phone, trying to complete a digital puzzle of the Mona Lisa. The vinyl...
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Schools vulnerable to measles outbreak
Days into the new year, a traveler with measles landed at Philadelphia International Airport, passed through bustling 30th Street Station, and boarded an Amtrak train to Baltimore. Thousands of passersby may have encountered a virus so contagious, it...
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Spring’s bizarre weather cost farmers up to $ 200M in lost crops
The peach, apple, and other pickings may be slimmer this summer — and the prices heftier — as the result of what by any measure was a heat- freeze ambush of rare intensity in April that likely has resulted in hundreds of millions of dollars in crop...
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Dancing Philly sheriff ad was part of $ 8M in new ‘slush fund’ spending
College football fans probably weren’t expecting to see Philadelphia Sheriff Rochelle Bilal on TV in November when they sat down to watch the Penn State Nittany Lions take on the Michigan State Spartans. But there she was, with sheriff’soffice branded...
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After 44 years as a Temple employee, 75- year- old is now a graduate
At age 75, Peggy E. Moore officially became “Temple Made” on Wednesday. That’s what the university calls its graduates, and Moore collected her bachelor’s degree in general studies during this week’s commencement. But Moore’s history with the North...
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Smiles among the statesmen
Pennsylvania Senate president pro tempore Kim Ward photographs colleagues as they walk among statues of the nations’s founders in Signers’ Hall at the National Constitution Center after the legislative body hosted a ceremonial meeting there Tuesday in...
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UAE says Iran has resumed attacks as the U. S. moves to reopen strait
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — The U. S. military said it fired on Iranian forces and sank six small boats targeting civilian ships as it moved to reopen the Strait of Hormuz on Monday. The United Arab Emirates, a key American ally, said it had come...
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‘The perfect morning for a run’
As 40,000 runners made their way down Broad Street for the 47th edition of the Independence Blue Cross Broad Street Run on Sunday, Josh Izewski led the pack for the second year in a row. Izewski was the top overall finisher in the nation’s largest 10-...
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Where others have doubts, this Philly developer sees dollar signs
Longtime real estate investor Dean Adler sees unparalleled opportunity in the uncertainty of 2026. Post-2022, the real estate industry has been scarred by vacant offices, canceled projects, rising debt, and heightened interest rates and construction...
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