The Philadelphia Inquirer
Bondi, Democrats clash in furious back- and- forth over Epstein saga
WASHINGTON — Attorney General Pam Bondi launched into a wide- ranging, passionate defense of President Donald Trump, repeatedly shouting at Democrats during a combative hearing in which she postured herself as the Republican’s chief protector and tried...
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ICE chief defends mass deportation campaign
Acting Immigration and Customs Enforcement director Todd M. Lyons sparred with Democratic lawmakers who accused his agency of functioning like a violent secret police force at a House Homeland Security Committee hearing Tuesday. He vowed to press...
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Slow to melt, quick to anger: Philly’s winter parking woes
By the time Taylor Schuler finally freed their car, they were exhausted. It had taken five hours across two days, hacking at the wall of ice encasing their Prius’ bumper, shoveling piles of frozen snow off the tires, to complete the job. As the sun set...
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Golden moment
Breezy Johnson flashes a smile with the gold medal she won in the women’s downhill in Cortina d’ampezzo, Italy, on Sunday. Teammate Lindsey Vonn broke her leg in her race and was airlifted off the mountain.
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Accordion player learned value of focus as kicker for Temple, NFL
Don Bitterlich’s Chevy Caprice was loaded with everything he needed for his gig that night at an Italian restaurant in Northeast Philly: an accordion, a speaker, and a pair of black slacks. He learned to play the accordion as a 7-year-old in Olney...
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From Milan to mountains, the far- flung Games begin
MILAN, Italy — Featuring tributes to da Vinci and Dante, Puccini and Pausini, Armani and Fellini, pasta and vino, and other iconic tastes of Italian culture — plus Mariah Carey hitting all the high notes in “Nel Blu Dipinto Di Blu” aka “Volare” — an...
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A city law unmasking ICE agents would face legal hurdles, experts say
One of the lasting images of President Donald Trump’s mass deportation campaign will be the masks worn by federal immigration agents. The widespread use of facial coverings by U. S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers is among the suite of...
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How snowstorm response could play out for Parker
Mayor Cherelle L. Parker often says she isn’t a fan of “Monday- morning quarterbacks” and “expert AOPS” — her shorthand for so- called articulators of problems who don’t offer solutions. Now she has a city full of them. After a heavy snowfall followed...
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Shapiro stresses affordability as he outlines $ 53.2B state budget plan
HARRISBURG — Gov. Josh Shapiro on Tuesday unveiled a $ 53.2 billion state budget that focuses on making Pennsylvania a more affordable place to live — while proposing a 6.2% spending increase over last year and renewing his pitches to create new...
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A judicial inspection
Judge Cynthia Rufe ( center) visits the President’s House in Independence National Historical Park on Monday while hearing the Parker administration’s suit to have President Trump’s administration restore the slavery panels the National Park Service...
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Former DA’S jail ministry
He walked toward the cellblock in Riverside Correctional Facility, pulling a cart of books behind him. For a moment, it was quiet. The only sounds that echoed off the jail’s cinder block walls were the squeaks of his cart’s wheels. But as a heavy...
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Signs of resistance: Protest art springs up at President’s House
The resistance was born on a Friday morning at the Gen. George A. McCall School photocopy machine. The copier spat the message out on yellow, purple, and orange paper — page after page amplifying the same sentiment scrawled on each in big black...
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DOJ opens civil rights probe into Pretti death
WASHINGTON — The Justice Department has opened a federal civil rights investigation into the shooting of Alex Pretti, the Minneapolis resident killed Saturday by Border Patrol officers, Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche said Friday. “We’re looking...
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As Philly temps approach zero hour, coastal ‘bomb’ could sock the Shore
It remains uncertain whether a fresh layer of frosting will coat the hardening and tenacious snowpack, but evidently that street-congesting frozen mass isn’t exiting in the near future. As of Thursday afternoon, it appeared that a potent coastal storm...
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Residents’ frustrations mount as Philly’s snow clearing is slow going
More than three days after the last bit of snow descended upon Philadelphia, the widespread complaints about the conditions of secondary and tertiary streets have reached a fever pitch. The Philadelphia Streets Department has tried to quell the...
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ICE tactics in Minn. spark political firestorm
In Philadelphia, lawmakers on Tuesday unveiled legislation that would institute some of the nation’s toughest limits on federal immigration-enforcement operations. In Harrisburg, a top Democrat floated making Pennsylvania a so-called sanctuary state...
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Philly enters a deep freeze
For the Philly region Monday it wasn’t so much a matter of digging out from the heftiest snowfall in a decade, it was more like a chipping, shaving, scraping, expletive-inducing, and ice-chunk hurling operation. Public transportation appeared to be...
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Man killed in clash with officers in Minneapolis
MINNEAPOLIS — Federal immigration officers shot and killed a man Saturday in Minneapolis, drawing hundreds of protesters onto the frigidly cold streets in a city already shaken by another fatal shooting weeks earlier. Minneapolis Police Chief Brian...
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Philly, U.S. brace for weekend storm, even as FEMA backtracks on cuts
Philadelphia could experience more snow this weekend than it did during the entire winter of 2024-25, but the forecast updates Friday suggested that may not be the worst of the storm’s offerings. In issuing a profoundly predictable winter storm...
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Philly sues after slavery exhibits taken down at President’s House
The National Park Service dismantled exhibits about slavery at the President’s House Site in Independence National Historical Park, provoking a lawsuit from Philadelphia Mayor Cherelle L. Parker’s administration. The President’s House, which serves...
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Philly Art Museum’s new director looking to move past the turmoil
If the question of who gets to call the shots at the Philadelphia Art Museum was a major source of friction between its former chief and board and staff, the museum’s new director and CEO arrives as something of a salve. Eight weeks on the job, Daniel...
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Sworn in as N.J. governor, Sherrill moves on utility rates, slams Trump
NEWARK, N.J. — Mikie Sherrill was sworn in as New Jersey governor Tuesday, becoming the second woman to govern the state and the first from the Democratic Party. Sherrill, who is also the first female veteran from either party to be elected to the...
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At a farm in N. Philly on MLK Day, planting seeds for the future
Chris Meyers, 67, was planting onion seeds Monday in the warmth of a large greenhouse near North 24th and Berks Streets for Sanctuary Farm Phila’s first ever Martin Luther King Jr. Day of Service. The onions will be transplanted when the time is...
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A resolve to protect cemetery after thefts
Past a marble monument for a Civil War hero, down a grass path where toppled headstones disappear into ivy and weeds and faded miniature American flags droop, lies the underground vault of James Campbell, who died in 1913 and whose remains may have...
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Big lights, big Ben
The Franklin Institute will debut a new “immersive multimedia show” Saturday called Franklin’s Spark that is projected onto the 82-foot-high domed ceiling of the museum’s Franklin National Memorial.
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Avenue of the Arts breaks ground on ambitious $150M streetscape
Lush landscaping and public art will soon line Broad Street, impromptu performances may pop up, and vehicular traffic will be calmed with a new Avenue of the Arts south streetscape about to take shape. The project — estimated to take $150 million and...
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A mother’s grief from two shootings: One son killed, another son arrested
Two mass shootings, just years apart, forever altered Nyshyia Thomas’ life. In July 2023, her 15-year-old son, Dajuan Brown, was shot and killed when a mentally ill man dressed in body armor gunned down five people at random on the streets of...
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Trump’s DOJ terminated funding for violence prevention groups
In Kensington, a program to mitigate street violence was hitting its stride. After joining the New Kensington Community Development Corporation in 2023, outreach coordinators with Cure Violence began responding to shootings in the neighborhood,...
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Woman, 72, released from prison after half a century behind bars
For the first time in more than half a century, Marie Scott is free. Scott, 72, who served more than 52 years in prison for felony murder, was released from custody on Wednesday after Gov. Josh Shapiro commuted her life sentence in June. Despite...
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Divisions define United States on 5th anniversary of Jan. 6 riot
WASHINGTON — Five years ago outside the White House, outgoing President Donald Trump told a crowd of supporters to head to the Capitol — “and I’ll be there with you” — in protest as Congress was affirming the 2020 election victory for Democrat Joe...
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Maduro says ‘I was captured’ as he pleads not guilty to drug trafficking
NEW YORK — A defiant Nicolás Maduro declared himself “the president of my country” as he protested his capture and pleaded not guilty Monday to federal drug trafficking charges that the Trump administration used to justify removing him from power in...
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In Venezuela, Rubio will find a different challenge
Marco Rubio has held many titles during Donald Trump’s presidency. He may have just acquired his most challenging one yet: Viceroy of Venezuela. The secretary of state, national security adviser, acting archivist, and administrator of the now-defunct...
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TRUMP SEIZES MADURO, VOWS TO RUN VENEZUELA
President Donald Trump on Saturday demonstrated how expansively he is willing to exert U.S. power abroad, removing a foreign leader who had not threatened military force against America and declaring that Washington could assume long-term control in...
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2026 Mummers Parade: High winds, high spirits
With sequins and glitter, music and pageantry, the nation’s oldest folk parade strutted through downtown Philadelphia on Thursday, delighting thousands who lined Broad Street despite fierce, damaging, and bitter winds. Over 125 years, there have been...
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A bridge to 2026
Spectators gather to watch the fireworks show over the Delaware River on New Year’s Eve at Penn’s Landing, looking toward the Ben Franklin Bridge. Across the globe, the world greeted 2026, often in a subdued or defiant mood.
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As Russia’s bloody war with Ukraine grinds on, its social fabric is fraying
OLKHOVATKA, Russia — The bus from the front lines ground to a halt outside the roadside kitchen, and the soldiers on board limped out into the winter mud. Most were missing feet or a leg. A water bottle filled with blood swung precariously from a...
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A little Fancy footwork
At the Mummers Museum in South Philadelphia, Joe Rita (right) with the Clevemore Fancy Brigade borrows a mannequin decked out in prizewinning regalia. The outfit, sported by 2025 first-prize captain Thomas Dougherty with the Saturnalian Fancy Brigade,...
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Grappling with grief after delayed inquiry
Police found the body of the woman with the crystal pendant necklace stuffed beneath a wooden pallet in an overgrown lot in Frankford one night in June of last year. She had been shot once between the eyes, and wore only a sports bra, with her pants...
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How brokers cash in on addiction recovery
Christina Gallo and Daniel Zehnder came to McPherson Square in the Kensington neighborhood looking for a fix, as they did almost every day. But on this day in late April, an SUV pulled up. A woman bounded out with an offer that sounded like a miracle:...
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One family’s survival tale
Around 2:15 p.m. Tuesday, Samuel “Bull” Thomas pushed his older brother in a wheelchair down the first floor of the Bristol Health & Rehab Center. As they rolled down the hallway, the 49-year-old Levittown resident smelled gas. “People were still in...
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Nurse killed in blast tried ‘to make a difference’
As first responders arrived at the Bristol Health & Rehab Center on Tuesday afternoon, they were faced with a nightmarish scene: A nursing facility that housed 120 people had exploded, and dozens were trapped. Shards of wood, glass, and paneling...
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Blast at Bucks nursing home kills 2, prompts daring rescues
At least two people were killed and multiple people injured after a possible gas explosion rocked a Bucks County nursing home Tuesday, triggering a widespread emergency response and dramatic rescues and causing destruction that Gov. Josh Shapiro...
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Big plans for New Year’s Eve
The Quaker City String Band performs before Monday’s news conference with Mayor Cherelle L. Parker at City Hall to share details on how Philadelphians and visitors can ring in the new year with a free concert and fireworks on the Parkway.
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An icebreaker
Peter Slavin of Ice Sculpture Philly draws a crowd while crafting a work at Decemberfest in Mount Airy. The holiday festivities along Germantown Avenue on Saturday included live music and vendors as well as an ice sculpture demonstration.
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Mayor touts strong ‘State of the City,’ with caveats
Mayor Cherelle L. Parker marked the halfway point of her term as mayor Friday by portraying the city as safer and more stable than when she took office two years ago, pointing to metrics like the plummeting homicide rate and cleaner streets. During...
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Light in the darkness
On a chilly Thursday evening, a crowd gathered in Manayunk’s Canal View Park for the lighting of a Hanukkah menorah hosted by Chabad-lubavitch of Northwest Philadelphia. Thursday was the fifth night of Hanukkah, the eight-day Jewish Festival of Lights.
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Kingsessing gunman sentenced in shooting that ‘traumatized’ city
The man who walked through the streets of Kingsessing and shot people at random in 2023, killing five and wounding five others in one of Philadelphia’s deadliest mass shootings, pleaded guilty Wednesday to multiple counts of murder and was sentenced to...
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‘Highway!’ was his greeting. But he had a higher calling, his wife said
Philadelphia Police Commissioner Kevin Bethel stood at a podium behind a cherry wood coffin inside the Cathedral Basilica of SS. Peter and Paul on Tuesday and told mourners how Highway Patrol Officer Andy Chan had arrived in the afterlife: on his...
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Police release new videos as hunt for Brown University shooter resumes
PROVIDENCE, R.I. — Authorities knocked on doors Monday searching for any video there might be of the Brown University gunman, who could be seen in grainy footage walking away from the weekend attack that killed two students and wounded nine...
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For Riverview residents, a ‘whole new life’ away from Kensington
Kevin Bean was a frail 125 pounds last February when he entered a brand-new recovery house, a facility where he landed after spending four years in the throes of addiction — at times on the streets of Kensington, the epicenter of the city’s drug...
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Lincoln faces pressure to better control its events
After Lincoln University’s homecoming in October ended with seven people shot, including one killed, the rural Chester County township where the school is located plans to pass new regulations on large events. Several officials in Lower Oxford...
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Holiday delivery
Marane Knapper, a training tech with the U.S. Postal Service, dances to the music of the postal choir Thursday at the USPS processing and distribution center on Lindbergh Boulevard in Southwest Philadelphia.
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Philly to ring in 250th celebrations with 20 neighborhood Liberty Bells
Philly is getting ready to dress itself up — with Liberty Bells. Lots of Liberty Bells. Organizers of Philadelphia’s yearlong celebrations for America’s 250th anniversary in 2026 gathered in a frigid Philadelphia School District warehouse in Logan on...
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At Pa. rally, Trump talks economy, a third term, and Saquon Barkley
MOUNT POCONO, Pa. — President Donald Trump’s raucous rally Tuesday night in Pennsylvania was billed as the launch of a national tour focused easing voters’ economic anxieties that threaten Republicans’ hold in Washington with the 2026 midterms...
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SEPTA, workers reach tentative agreement on a 2-year contract
Transport Workers Union Local 234 and SEPTA reached a tentative agreement on a new two-year contract on Monday after Gov. Josh Shapiro helped break an impasse in talks. Members of the local’s executive board approved the deals, but it is subject to...
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The danger next door
Emily Phillips and her family never slam doors or walk too heavily inside their North Philadelphia rowhouse. They’re afraid of what too much movement could do to the vacant house next door. In early August, a back window and part of a wall came...
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The ‘tranq’ wounds that run deep
Kelly Wyatt winced as a nurse unwrapped layers of gauze from her left leg, exposing the massive wound beneath. Yellow and red and gray, weeping plasma and agonizingly painful at the slightest touch, it covered almost the entirety of the end of her leg...
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Kicking off Philly’s soccer spotlight
Soccer fans Wilson Velez, 36, (left), and Edwin Martinez, 25, both of Philadelphia, were among many at Stateside Live! on Friday watching the FIFA World Cup 26 Final Draw from Washington, D.C. Lincoln Financial Field is set to host six of the matches...
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City lights
Even the Grinches in the crowd were all eyes at Philadelphia’s holiday tree lighting Thursday night at City Hall. The 50-foot-tall, 75-year-old concolor fir, sourced from Stutzman Farms in New York, will be displayed on the north side of City Hall...
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Number of migrants in detention under Trump surpasses 65,000
The number of immigrants confined in federal detention facilities has surged past 65,000, perhaps the highest figure ever and a two-thirds increase since President Donald Trump took office in January. The 65,135 in custody across the nation represents...
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In Philly, a wintry washout
Conditions were more wet than white as an early winter storm hit the region Tuesday. This was a view of the Schuylkill, I-76, and Walnut Street from Cira Green, the elevated park at Cira Centre South in University City. Snow did fall elsewhere; story,
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Marra’s, Philadelphia’s oldest pizzeria, bids arrivederci after nearly a century
Antoinette and Chris Caserio walked out of Marra’s on Sunday afternoon with their children, a menu, a pizza box, and a bag of leftovers they called “their last supper.” “It’s super sad,” Antoinette Caserio said. “My dad’s 80 and this was his...
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Brendan Boyle takes center stage in Washington’s healthcare fight
WASHINGTON — Ahead of a morning Budget Committee meeting, U.S. Rep. Brendan Boyle gathered his senior advisers in a brightly lit conference room just off the Capitol to settle on a simple strategy. “Let’s keep the main thing the main thing,” he said....
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How authorities built a case against a drug gang plaguing Kensington
Ramon Roman-Montanez knew the police were watching. One day last April, as Roman-Montanez prepared to hand out free drug samples to users on Weymouth Street — a common tactic that dealers use to attract customers — he stood in the middle of the...
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Parade attendees tell of gratitude, and Thanksgiving Day plans
At the last minute on Thanksgiving morning, Chontai Diggs and her daughter decided to leave their Mount Airy home. Diggs, 35, had always watched Philadelphia’s Thanksgiving Day parade on TV, despite being born and raised in the city. But this year,...
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A Montco amputee hopes to power her mobility journey with 1-mile walk
Stephanie Dunn, who at first introduction has the warm disposition and positivity of someone who has never had a bad day, will tell you that a life-threatening, flesh-eating infection in her foot and the subsequent amputation of her left leg are not...
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Trump’s ‘fine-tuned’ plan to end war in Ukraine gathers ‘momentum’
KYIV, Ukraine — President Donald Trump said Tuesday his plan to end the war in Ukraine has been “finetuned” and he’s sending envoy Steve Witkoff to meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin and Army Secretary Dan Driscoll to meet with Ukrainian...
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Two found guilty in shooting death of Police Officer Richard Mendez
Two Camden men were convicted of murder and related crimes Monday in the shooting death of Philadelphia Police Officer Richard Mendez at the airport in 2023. Yobranny Martinez-fernandez, 20, who fired the fatal shots, was found guilty of first-degree...
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A test of endurance
The first of roughly 17,000 runners head out on the Parkway at the start of the Philadelphia Marathon on Sunday. Beautiful weather was a stroke of luck for runners and spectators alike. Story and photos, B1. Melikhaya Frans of South Africa won the...
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Remembering their service
Ray Nahrgang hugs friend and Vietnam veteran Harry Metzler on Tuesday as Metzler touches the names of friends he lost during the Vietnam war, at the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington.
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Happy 250th to the few, the proud
Diners in a neighboring bar watch the festivities below on Chestnut Street as the Tun Tavern in Old City opens its doors to celebrate the U.S. Marines’ 250th birthday on Monday. The Marines, as history buffs attest, were established at the Tun in 1775.
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THE RAPID RISE OF MEDETOMIDINE
Dominic Cipriano couldn’t stop shaking. A drug dealer on the streets of Kensington had sold him a bag of what he thought was fentanyl. But whatever Cipriano had taken didn’t produce the familiar rush of the opioids he’d been using on and off since he...
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Choosing death over Alzheimer’s
Michael West struggled to remember the five words the neurologist asked him to repeat. The 64-yearold Philadelphia businessman — credited with helping to build one of the nation’s largest orthopedic practices — used to do complicated math in his head....
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Comcast promises ‘turbocharging’ East Market revival for 250th fest
Mayor Cherelle L. Parker promised at a news conference Friday that her administration’s plans to revitalize East Market Street will unfold quickly and in partnership with large private-sector supporters — most notably Comcast and the Philadelphia...
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