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  • The story behind a colonial-era Woodcrest cemetery | Inquirer Cherry Hill

    The story behind a colonial-era Woodcrest cemetery | Inquirer Cherry Hill

    Hello, Cherry Hill! 👋

    Did you know one of South Jersey’s first colonial families is laid to rest in Woodcrest? Learn more about the cemetery tucked into a residential part of town. Also this week, a new Inquirer analysis shows how Cherry Hill voters shifted toward Democrats in the last election, plus work is still underway to update H Mart.

    We want your feedback! Tell us what you think about the newsletter by taking our survey or emailing us at cherryhill@inquirer.com.

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    The story behind a colonial-era gravesite in Woodcrest

    The Matlack Family Cemetery is located at 535 Balsam Rd.

    The residential street of Balsam Road in Woodcrest is an unlikely spot for a gravesite, but tucked among the houses and sassafras trees, there’s a small cemetery that dates back nearly 300 years.

    The site is the final resting place for the Matlacks, one of South Jersey’s first colonial families, as well as an unknown number of servants and enslaved people.

    A township resident, curious about how the gravesite came to be, posed his question to Curious Cherry Hill. The Inquirer’s Denali Sagner set out to learn more about the family and its patriarch, who moved to New Jersey in 1677 from England as an indentured servant and ultimately began one of the largest colonial-era families in the region.

    Here’s what she uncovered.

    Have a question about town you want answered? Submit it to Curious Cherry Hill here.

    💡 Community News

    • There was a 3.9% shift among Cherry Hill voters to Democrats in 2024-25, with about 68% voting for Gov.-elect Mikie Sherrill in November’s election. The Inquirer recently analyzed Sherrill’s path to victory, finding that the largest shift within Cherry Hill took place in District 10, encompassing Brookfield, where there was a 10.3% shift, followed by District 8 (9.4%), which includes Kenilworth, and District 2 (8.2%), which spans Cooper Park Village, Kingsway Village, and Waterford Park. See a map of how districts shifted.
    • Cherry Hill Township Council held its reorganization meeting on Monday night, where William Carter was reelected council president and Michele Golkow was elected vice president.
    • The new season of King of Collectibles began streaming late last month on Netflix, where Cherry Hill native Ken Goldin takes viewers inside his South Jersey auction house. One of the highlights of Season 3 is a jersey used by soccer legend Lionel Messi when he was a child. In a video by The Inquirer, Goldin gives viewers a glimpse. He also shows off some of the Philly sports gems in his possession.
    • The Eagles are heading into the NFC Wild Card playoffs as the No. 3 seed, taking on the 49ers at 4:30 p.m. on Sunday. As the team gears up for the postseason, the Road to Victory Bus Tour is stopping in town Thursday, where you can shop for gear and enter for a chance to score playoff game tickets. It’ll be at the P.J. Whelihan’s on Marlton Pike from 5:30 to 6:30 p.m.
    • Work is still underway to overhaul the H Mart on Route 70. The popular chain Asian grocery store closed in July for renovations, including an expansion of the second floor and the addition of an open-concept food court. The Cherry Hill location, which was expected to reopen in October, remains closed as work on the entire complex continues. (42 Freeway)
    • Some retail shakeups are happening around town. The New Balance at Tuscany Marketplace closed its doors indefinitely on Dec. 27. At the mall, plus-size women’s apparel brand Torrid is closing on Jan. 19, athleisure brand Lululemon Athletica is relocating to a larger space, and jeweler Pandora is expanding next door. And on Route 70, Appliances Outlet will be taking over the space occupied by Whole Hog Cafe and part of Wine Legend. (A View From Evesham)
    • Fox29’s Bob Kelly recently dropped by D&Q Skate, Snow, and Surf shop in Cherry Hill to chat about trending gear for those heading to the slopes. Catch the segment here starting around the 5-minute mark.

    🏫 Schools Briefing

    • There’s a board of education meeting Tuesday at 6:30 p.m.
    • Teachers in Cherry Hill Public Schools made a median salary of $102,148 last school year, according to an NJ.com analysis. It is one of 30 districts statewide with a median salary greater than $100,000. The district’s median salary last year marked a 4.1% increase over the previous year and was nearly $20,000 higher than the statewide median.

    🍽️ On our Plate

    🎳 Things to Do

    😂 All Laughs, No Hate: Latin comedy and culture take center stage during this comedy night. ⏰ Friday, Jan. 9, 6:30-8:30 p.m. 💵 $36.09 📍Vera

    🌱 Winter Sowing: This workshop will teach you how to get a jump on your spring gardening. ⏰ Saturday, Jan. 10, 10 a.m.-noon 💵 $15 📍Camden County Environmental Center

    💡 Panoply: Test your knowledge of pop culture, sports, music, history, and more in this out-of-the-box game night. The event is 21 and older. ⏰ Saturday, Jan. 10, 7-9:45 p.m. 💵 $36 📍Katz JCC

    🍷 January Wine Down Wednesday: Sip five, two-ounce pours and enjoy appetizers at this event. ⏰ Wednesday, Jan. 14, reservations available from 6 to 8 p.m. 💵 $25 📍Randall’s Restaurant

    🏡 On the Market

    An updated five-bedroom Woodcrest ranch

    The home has an open-concept living and dining room.

    This Woodcrest ranch was recently remodeled to give its interior and exterior a modern makeover. It features an open-concept dining and living room, a sunroom, and an eat-in kitchen with quartz countertops and a gray-and-white herringbone backsplash. It has five bedrooms and three bathrooms, including a primary suite with a walk-in closet and its own bathroom. There’s also a finished basement.

    See more photos of the property here.

    Price: $759,900 | Size: 2,592 SF | Acreage: 0.29

    🗞️ What other Cherry Hill residents are reading this week:

    By submitting your written, visual, and/or audio contributions, you agree to The Inquirer’s Terms of Use, including the grant of rights in Section 10.

    This suburban content is produced with support from the Leslie Miller and Richard Worley Foundation and The Lenfest Institute for Journalism. Editorial content is created independently of the project donors. Gifts to support The Inquirer’s high-impact journalism can be made at inquirer.com/donate. A list of Lenfest Institute donors can be found at lenfestinstitute.org/supporters.

  • The story behind a colonial-era grave site hidden in residential Cherry Hill

    The story behind a colonial-era grave site hidden in residential Cherry Hill

    Giancarlo Brugnolo moved to Cherry Hill’s Woodcrest neighborhood in 2014, but it wasn’t until last year that he heard about the centuries-old cemetery just a stone’s throw away from his house. When friends first mentioned it, he assumed they were joking.

    “I was like, ‘What are you talking about? What graveyard?’” he remembers saying. “We live in a residential neighborhood, there’s no way there’s a graveyard.”

    Yet tucked away under sassafras trees and in the shade of neighboring houses, members of one of South Jersey’s first colonial families are laid to rest.

    The Matlack Family Cemetery is located on the 500 block of Cherry Hill’s Balsam Road. At the small grave site lie the remains of William and Mary Matlack, some of their descendants, and an unspecified number of servants and enslaved people. William Matlack is believed to have died in 1738, at around age 90, and Mary Matlack in 1728, at around age 62.

    Wanting to know more about the cemetery, Brugnolo took his question to Curious Cherry Hill, The Inquirer’s forum for answering local questions. Who was the Matlack family, and how did their grave site end up in a residential neighborhood?

    » ASK US: Have something you’re wondering about in Cherry Hill? Submit your Curious Cherry Hill question here.

    William Matlack, a carpenter, came to New Jersey in 1677 from Cropwell Bishop in Nottinghamshire, England. He traveled to the Americas on a ship named the Kent as an indentured servant to Thomas Ollive and Daniel Wills. Wills was appointed as the commissioner of West Jersey and sent to make deals with the Lenni-Lenape people who had long lived on the land. Many of the Kent’s travelers, including Matlack, were Quakers. The ship traversed the Atlantic Ocean from England, ultimately heading up the Delaware River to present-day Burlington County. Matlack is said to have been the first European settler to put his foot on the shore of what is now the city of Burlington (however some historians believe Swedes settled there a half-century earlier).

    At the time Matlack and Wills arrived in South Jersey, the spot was “a bleak haven” from their English homes, covered in dense forest and impenetrable at night, according to a 1970 article in the Courier-Post. Yet South Jersey stood out as a “long-sought destination thousands of miles from the brutality of bigots” in England who persecuted them for their Quaker practices.

    Matlack owed Wills four years of servitude and, in 1681, was granted 100 acres of land in return. While working for Wills, Matlack helped build two of the first houses and the first corn mill in the area.

    The headstone in the Matlack Family Cemetery on the 500 block of Balsam Road in Cherry Hill.

    Matlack would become the patriarch to one of the largest families in colonial South Jersey. In the early 1680s he married Mary Hancock, who had recently come to New Jersey from England with her brother, Timothy. At the time of their marriage, William Matlack was 34 and Mary Matlack was 16. The Matlacks lived between two branches of Pennsauken Creek in present-day Maple Shade. William Matlack would come to own around 1,500 acres of land across South Jersey. The couple had six sons, three daughters, and an estimated 40 grandchildren.

    Though Quakers became one of the first religious movements to reject slavery, many Quakers in early America, including the Matlacks, enslaved people. Research turned up little information about the enslaved people buried at the Matlack grave site. Birth and death records for enslaved people were often poorly kept in the age of chattel slavery, making it difficult to conduct genealogical research and historical inquiries into the lives of people held in slavery.

    We do know, however, that slavery was pervasive in Philadelphia’s suburbs during and after the colonial era. Despite abolitionist activism, much of which was driven by Quakers in the Philadelphia region, thousands of people remained enslaved in New Jersey through the turn of the nineteenth century. New Jersey was the last Northern state to officially abolish slavery in 1866, when Gov. Marcus Ward signed a state constitutional amendment outlawing the institution. The amendment followed the 1865 ratification of the 13th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, which New Jersey had initially rejected.

    The Matlack Family Cemetery is a small graveyard in a residential neighborhood.

    One well-known descendant of the Matlacks was Timothy Matlack, a politician and delegate to the Second Continental Congress who inscribed the Declaration of Independence. In Facebook groups and blog posts, dozens of residents of the Mid-Atlantic region say they are descendants of the first New Jersey Matlacks — likely claims given the expansive Matlack family tree, but difficult to prove.

    William and Mary Matlack were not originally buried at the Balsam Road site, according to archival materials from the Rancocas Valley Chapter of the National Society of The Colonial Dames of America. They were initially buried on their son Richard’s farm near Springdale and Evesham Roads and were moved to the Balsam Road grave site in the late 1800s.

    The grave was discovered by a Girl Scout troop on a camping trip in what was then an apple orchard, according to a Courier-Post article from 1990. The housing development surrounding the grave site went up in 1972, but the graveyard was left in tact due to its historical value. Today, it’s owned and maintained by the township.

    This suburban content is produced with support from the Leslie Miller and Richard Worley Foundation and The Lenfest Institute for Journalism. Editorial content is created independently of the project donors. Gifts to support The Inquirer’s high-impact journalism can be made at inquirer.com/donate. A list of Lenfest Institute donors can be found at lenfestinstitute.org/supporters.

  • Camden reaches its lowest homicide total in 40 years

    Camden reaches its lowest homicide total in 40 years

    The city of Camden last year reached its lowest homicide total since 1985, police said.

    In 2025, Camden recorded 12 homicides, the same number as in 1985. Homicides dropped down from 17 in 2024, and the declining year-end total comes after Camden experienced its first homicide-free summer in 50 years.

    Camden had zero homicides this summer. City and county leaders credit the 2013 disbandment of its police department.

    Camden saw an overall 6% drop in violent crime in 2025 compared to the prior year, including a 32% decrease in sexual assaults and 12% decrease in robberies, according to police.

    “The consistent engagement with residents and community policing efforts have helped to build trust within our community,” said Camden Mayor Victor Carstarphen in a statement. “There is still plenty of work yet to be done, but through this collaborative effort we are building a safer and healthier Camden.”

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    Leaders have attributed the shift largely to the disbandment of the city of Camden’s police department in 2013. Since then, the replacement Camden County Police Department and the city have embraced more community policing strategies, paired social workers with officers, and supported programming that provides better opportunities and care for at-risk youth.

    Homicides have dropped by 82% since 2012, the last full year of the former police structure. But leaders have also credited the city’s investments in third spaces and infrastructure in recent years, like $100 million in parks over the past five years and repaving streets.

    Thirteen years ago, “a homicide-free summer would have been a pipe dream for us,” Louis Cappelli Jr., director of the Camden County Board of Commissioners, said in a statement.

    Center for Family Services lead counselor Lyzza Tyson (left) works with Camden County Metro Police Capt. Vivian Coley (center) and Lt. Luis Gonzalez (right) talking with an unhoused person living in the park at Waterfront South Raingardens in July. Some of the department’s new social workers are stationed inside the downtown police headquarters for walk-ins while others are deployed in the field alongside officers doing door knocks, engaging transients at encampments, and making referrals for social services.

    Camden’s homicide and violent crime rates match national trends of decline after having surged during the pandemic. Philadelphia experienced its lowest homicide total in nearly 60 years in 2025, and other cities historically marked by higher rates of violence like Baltimore and Chicago have also seen major homicide declines.

    Crime researchers have been unable to identify any singular cause behind the nation’s drop in violence, but they theorize that cities, like in Camden, have broadly shifted toward greater investments in violence prevention programs and infrastructure, as opposed to traditional policing.

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    For Derrick Gallashaw, life in Camden today feels much different than it did when he was growing up there in the 1980s and ’90s. It was more dangerous back then, and the community’s relationship with police was more strained.

    “It feels like the city is safe now,” he said.

    Gallashaw is the regional director of Mighty Writers, a nonprofit offering afterschool writing programs for youth and food distribution. The Camden County police credited its partnership with Mighty Writers and other groups for helping to reduce violence.

    Gallashaw is a believer in the strategy, too. He said the community policing initiative, paired with support for programs like his, have made a major impact on reducing violence. They are able to reach more people in need and address the conditions that often lead to crime.

    “You give them options and you’re providing a need. If someone is hungry, you’re not giving them a reason to have to go out and steal something to eat. We’re finding a resource for you right now,” he said.

    As Camden resets its violence statistics at the new year, Gallashaw said sustaining the city’s success would require leaders to continue listening to community members about their needs and not impose solutions from the top down.

    It’s not just the city and police who are responsible for keeping the numbers low — he wants groups and community members to continue filling people’s needs as well.

    “We all have to get together because it expands that reach,” he said.

  • Adventure Aquarium unveils new baby African penguin, asks public to pick name

    Adventure Aquarium unveils new baby African penguin, asks public to pick name

    A new baby African penguin at the Adventure Aquarium in Camden was unveiled Monday and a contest was announced to name him.

    The unnamed chick was hatched Nov. 21 and was the third African penguin to be hatched at the Adventure Aquarium in 2025. The announcements of new chicks are held off until biologists determine the new bird is healthy and expected to survive.

    The other two baby African penguins, Duffy and Oscar, hatched earlier in November.

    “Although he’s a little bit younger than the other two, he does make up for it in size. He is quite a big baby penguin chick,” Maddie Olszewski-Pohle, a biologist, says in the aquarium’s introduction video posted on social media.

    Starting Monday, aquarium visitors can vote on one of four names offered for the new penguin: “Scrappy,” “Zero,” “Flounder,” or “Toothless.”

    The unnamed chick is being parented by Mushu and Hubert, who also parented a 2024 chick, Shubert. Mushu was named for a dragon sidekick from the Disney movie “Mulan,” so the aquarium’s birds and mammals team chose possible names using a dragons and sidekicks theme.

    The naming contest will close Jan. 19, and the winner will be announced Jan. 20, Penguin Awareness Day, the aquarium staff said.

    African penguins, which originate from the waters around southern Africa, are classified critically endangered, so the hatches are important to the survival of the species.

    The naming contest will benefit the Association of Zoos and Aquariums SAFE African Penguin program and the nonprofit Southern African Foundation for the Conservation of Coastal Birds.

    “As an ambassador for his species, this chick is helping raise awareness and funds to protect African penguins in South Africa,” Olszewski-Pohle said in a statement.

    The three baby penguins will remain behind the scenes until they develop waterproof feathers and the weather warms up, aquarium staff said.

  • Moody’s boosts Atlantic City to investment grade a decade after its near bankruptcy

    Moody’s boosts Atlantic City to investment grade a decade after its near bankruptcy

    ATLANTIC CITY — A decade after teetering on the edge of bankruptcy and being taken over by the State of New Jersey, Atlantic City has been given an investment-grade rating by Moody’s Ratings.

    “Today is a tremendous day to start the new year,” Atlantic City Mayor Marty Small Sr. said Monday at a livestreamed news briefing. “The city of Atlantic City is officially investment grade.”

    The credit rating of Baa3 puts the city in the lowest long-term investment-grade category, several steps from the top A ratings. But it marks a dramatic rise from 10 years ago, Small noted, when he was sworn in as the City Council president.

    “We had the junkiest junk bonds imaginable,” he recalled. “The city’s finances were not in a good state. Employees were getting paid once a month. People were running to the bank to cash their checks. The outlook was bleak. We even entertained that we were bankrupt. It was a long, drawn-out fight. However, that was then; this is now.”

    Small himself ended 2025 in dramatic fashion: a two-week trial that ended in an acquittal on charges that he physically abused his teenage daughter.

    Small and business administrator Anthony Swan said at the Dec. 31 meetings that Moody’s expressed interest in seeing a stable government and experienced department directors.

    Small was sworn in to a new four-year term on New Year’s Day with his daughter in attendance and said then that the family has begun the healing process. A decision is expected soon by the Atlantic County prosecutor on whether to pursue similar charges against his wife, La’Quetta Small, the city’s schools superintendent.

    The state’s takeover of Atlantic City expired Dec. 1. But another bill is moving through the legislature that will leave the state in charge of Atlantic City finances for another six years. It calls for a “master developer” to oversee major projects, even as the city is trying to regain control over planning and zoning.

    There are other challenges ahead for Atlantic City: New York City approved three casino licenses that could cut a substantial hole in Atlantic City’s gambling revenue and prompt state lawmakers to approve casinos in North Jersey. Casino owners also oppose an effort to ban smoking in the city’s casinos that is now before an appellate court.

    Though the state takeover began a decade ago in hostile fashion, it evolved to a cooperative partnership. Small praised the decision by incoming Gov. Mikie Sherrill to keep Jacquelyn Suárez as head of the state’s Department of Community Affairs, which would oversee the next takeover.

    Atlantic City Mayor Marty Small Sr. speaks to the media after being found not guilty on all counts of abusing his teenage daughter, on Dec. 18.

    But Monday was a day of triumph for the city.

    Small noted that the city had substantially reduced its debt to $228 million, down from a peak of $550 million, and cut taxes six years in a row. Of that, only $71 million is debt directly incurred by the city; the rest are legacy debts from money owed to casinos from tax appeals. He anticipated announcing a seventh tax cut in the coming weeks.

    “This government gets criticized all the time,” he said. “People say, ‘Oh they’re spinning like drunken sailors, spinning spinning spinning like it’s out of control.’ Ladies and gentlemen, that’s just not true.”

    Business administrator Swan said Moody’s was interested in more than just numbers. “It’s about the stability of the city,” he said. “It’s about how the city is run.”

    Finance director Toro Aboderin called the announcement “an extraordinary milestone.” She said Moody’s asked about “bulkheads, roads, infrastructure.”

    “Restoring Atlantic City to sound financial footing has been our top priority every single day,” she said. “A lot of people talk about Atlantic City and how we’re terrible, how the finances are the worst, and the roads are messy. They say all kinds of things, but we have attained something quite remarkable.”

    Officials hope the vote of confidence from Moody’s will signal to investors and developers to look again at their city, which has some of the most affordable beachfront real estate on the East Coast.

    An investment-grade credit rating signals to financial markets that Atlantic City is a lower-risk borrower, although the mayor emphasized that the city currently has no need to borrow.

  • South Jersey man fatally shot woman, wounded minor, then called 911, police say

    South Jersey man fatally shot woman, wounded minor, then called 911, police say

    A 40-year-old man has been charged by the Gloucester County Prosecutor’s Office with the shooting death of a woman Saturday morning in Paulsboro.

    Authorities say Ramon Luis Acevedo of Paulsboro shot the woman in the head while she was at a home on Elizabeth Avenue. They say he also shot a minor who fled.

    Acevedo was charged with first-degree murder and second-degree aggravated assault after the prosecutor’s office said he called 911 on Saturday. During the call, authorities allege, Acevedo identified himself and said he shot both people.

    Police found an adult female dead in a bedroom at the home. The minor received medical treatment for a gunshot wound.

    Acevedo said in a statement to police that he intentionally shot the woman, according to the prosecutor’s office. He then accidentally shot the second person after being startled while holding a handgun, according to the statement.

    Neither victim has been identified by the authorities.

    Acevedo faces a sentence of 30 years to life for the charge of first-degree murder, 5 to 10 years for second-degree aggravated assault, and 5 to 10 years for possession of a weapon for an unlawful purpose.

  • Capturing the ghosts of 2025 and the future memories of 2026

    Capturing the ghosts of 2025 and the future memories of 2026

    Just a week ago, in my last column of 2025 I said I was looking forward. So where do I go in the very first column of 2026?

    When you drive for decades all over the city on assignment certain streets, buildings or neighborhoods tilt you toward the past.

    Memories don’t just live in one place but are scattered across the map, waiting around a corner, or sitting on a stoop like an old friend. Every recurring event or anniversary replays images in my head.

    An empty Convention Center hours before Fancy Brigade members arrive for a night of finishing the construction of their stage sets.

    I went to the Convention Center two days before the Mummers Parade, looking as I have many times, to make a photo ahead of the event.

    But this year, there were no Fancy Brigade members in the cavernous room. Nobody working on their elaborate stage sets or rehearsing their Broadway-quality choreographed performances.

    As a cost-cutting measure this year, the clubs only booked the hall (and union workers) for an eight-hour shift in the evening. No early overtime.

    So there I was, “seeing” feathered and sequined Mummer ghosts of my memory dancing through the hall. Then, like in the 2006 movie Night at the Museum. I almost wondered if a Greek god, 15 foot high Tiki figure or jester would suddenly come alive.

    On New Year’s Eve, I photographed a 93 year-old Welsh grandmother visiting the Mummers Museum.

    Mummers Museum president Brian Donnelly crawls inside to demonstrat marching in a large Fancy Division frame suit while giving Avril Davidge a tour.

    The next day she was to live her dream of going to the parade. I wondered what she was thinking the next day, even as I photographed it for my umpteenth time, collecting more memories and learning, as always, how to see things in new ways.

    Since 1998 a black-and-white photo has appeared every Monday in staff photographer Tom Gralish’s “Scene Through the Lens” photo column in the print editions of The Inquirer’s local news section. Here are the most recent, in color:

    Dec. 29, 2025: Canada geese at sunrise in Evans Pond in Haddonfield, during the week of the Winter Solstice for the Northern Hemisphere.
    December 22, 2025: SEPTA trolley operator Victoria Daniels approaches the end of the Center City Tunnel, heading toward the 40th Street trolley portal after a tour to update the news media on overhead wire repairs in the closed tunnel due to unexpected issues from new slider parts.
    December 15, 2025: A historical interpreter waits at the parking garage elevators headed not to a December crossing of the Delaware River, but an event at the National Constitution Center. General George Washington was on his way to an unveiling of the U.S. Mint’s new 2026 coins for the Semiquincentennial,
    December 8, 2025: The Benjamin Franklin Bridge and pedestrians on the Delaware River Trail are reflected in mirrored spheres of the “Weaver’s Knot: Sheet Bend” public artwork on Columbus Boulevard. The site-specific stainless steel piece located between the Cherry Street and Race Street Piers was commissioned by the City’s Public Art Office and the Delaware River Waterfront Corporation and created and installed in 2022 by the design and fabrication group Ball-Nogues Studio. The name recalls a history that dominated the region for hundreds of years. “Weaver’s knot” derives from use in textile mills and the “Sheet bend” or “sheet knot” was used on sailing vessels for bending ropes to sails.
    November 29, 2025: t’s ginkgo time in our region again when the distinctive fan-shaped leaves turn yellow and then, on one day, lose all their leaves at the same time laying a carpet on city streets and sidewalks. A squirrel leaps over leaves in the 18th Century Garden in Independence National Historical Park Nov. 25, 2025. The ginkgo (Ginkgo biloba) is considered a living fossil as it’s the only surviving species of a group of trees that existed before dinosaurs. Genetically, it has remained unchanged over the past 200 million years. William Hamilton, owner the Woodlands in SW Phila (no relation to Alexander Hamilton) brought the first ginkgo trees to North America in 1785.
    November 24, 2025: The old waiting room at 30th Street Station that most people only pass through on their way to the restrooms has been spiffed up with benches – and a Christmas tree. It was placed there this year in front of the 30-foot frieze, “The Spirit of Transportation” while the lobby of Amtrak’s $550 million station restoration is underway. The 1895 relief sculpture by Karl Bitter was originally hung in the Broad Street Station by City Hall, but was moved in 1933. It depicts travel from ancient to modern and even futuristic times.
    November 17, 2025: Students on a field trip from the Christian Academy in Brookhaven, Delaware County, pose for a group photo in front of the Liberty Bell in Independence National Historical Park on Thursday. The trip was planned weeks earlier, before they knew it would be on the day park buildings were reopening after the government shutdown ended. “We got so lucky,” a teacher said. Then corrected herself. “It’s because we prayed for it.”
    November 8, 2025: Multitasking during the Festival de Día de Muertos – Day of the Dead – in South Philadelphia.
    November 1, 2025: Marcy Boroff is at City Hall dressed as a Coke can, along with preschoolers and their caregivers, in support of former Mayor Jim Kenney’s 2017 tax on sweetened beverages. City Council is considering repealing the tax, which funds the city’s pre-K programs.
    October 25, 2025: Austin Gabauer, paint and production assistant at the Johnson Atelier, in Hamilton Twp, N.J. as the finished “O” letter awaits the return to Philadelphia. The “Y” part of the OY/YO sculpture is inside the painting booth. The well-known sculpture outside the Weitzman National Museum of American Jewish History was removed in May while construction continues on Market Street and has been undergoing refurbishment at the Atelier at the Grounds for Sculpture outside of Trenton.
    October 20, 2025:The yellow shipping container next to City Hall attracted a line of over 300 people that stretched around a corner of Dilworth Park. Bystanders wondered as they watched devotees reaching the front take their selfies inside a retro Philly diner-esque booth tableau. Followers on social media had been invited to “Climb on to immerse yourself in the worlds of Pleasing Fragrance, Big Lip, and exclusive treasures,” including a spin of the “Freebie Wheel,” for products of the unisex lifestyle brand Pleasing, created by former One Direction singer Harry Styles.
    October 11, 2025: Can you find the Phillie Phanatic, as he leaves a “Rally for Red October Bus Tour” stop in downtown Westmont, N.J. just before the start of the NLDS? There’s always next year and he’ll be back. The 2026 Spring Training schedule has yet to be announced by Major League Baseball, but Phillies pitchers and catchers generally first report to Clearwater, Florida in mid-February.
    October 6. 2025: Fluorescent orange safety cone, 28 in, Poly Ethylene. Right: Paint Torch (detail) Claes Oldenburg, 2011, Steel, Fiberglass Reinforced Plastic, Gelcoat and Polyurethane. (Gob of paint, 6 ft. Main sculpture, 51 ft.). Lenfest Plaza at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts on North Broad Street, across from the Convention Center.
    September 29, 2025: A concerned resident who follows Bucks County politics, Kevin Puls records the scene before a campaign rally for State Treasurer Stacy Garrity, the GOP candidate for governor. His T-shirt is “personal clickbait” with a url to direct people to the website for The Travis Manion Foundation created to empower veterans and families of fallen heroes. The image on the shirts is of Greg Stocker, one of the hosts of Kayal and Company, “A fun and entertaining conservative spin on Politics, News, and Sports,” mornings on Talk Radio 1210 WPHT.

    » SEE MORE: Archived columns and Twenty years of a photo column.

  • Man arrested in hit-and-run death of e-bike rider in South Jersey

    Man arrested in hit-and-run death of e-bike rider in South Jersey

    Police in Burlington County have arrested a California man in the hit-and-run death of a man who was riding an e-bike on Route 73 in Mount Laurel earlier this week.

    Thair Maroki, 40, of El Cajon, Calif., has been charged with second-degree vehicular homicide and leaving the scene of a fatal accident, the Burlington County Prosecutor’s Office said.

    Maroki’s arrest comes days after the death of Anthony Caprio III, who was killed Monday. Mount Laurel Township police were dispatched to the 1100 block of Route 73 southbound just after 12:15 a.m. Monday to respond to a crash involving an e-bike and an unknown vehicle, and pronounced Caprio, 49, of Magnolia, dead at the scene.

    Michele Caprio, 71, Anthony’s mother, told The Inquirer that her son had taken his e-bike to a Wawa on Sunday night from her house in Mount Laurel. Around 3 a.m. Monday, police arrived at her home to inform her of the crash and Caprio’s death, she said.

    Sgt. Kyle Gardner said the e-bike was equipped with lights, which were on at the time of the crash. The vehicle driver dragged Caprio at least a quarter-mile and then continued south on Route 73 into Evesham Township, Gardner said.

    Investigators used surveillance footage from businesses in the area, as well as the New Jersey Turnpike Authority, to identify the vehicle that allegedly struck Caprio as a white 2022 Jeep Cherokee with California plates. Following a law enforcement alert for the vehicle, officers in the Lyndhurst Police Department in Bergen County located it Thursday and took Maroki into custody, authorities said.

    Maroki was slated to appear in court Friday in Mount Holly. No attorney information for him was immediately available.

  • Police seek hit-and-run driver who killed e-bike rider in South Jersey

    Police seek hit-and-run driver who killed e-bike rider in South Jersey

    Police were seeking the public’s help in locating the driver of a white SUV that fatally struck a 49-year-old man riding an e-bike early Monday in Burlington County and then fled the scene.

    Just before 12:15 a.m. Monday, Mount Laurel Township police were dispatched to the 1100 block of Route 73 southbound to respond to a crash involving an e-bike and an unknown vehicle.

    Police said they located Anthony Caprio III, who was pronounced dead.

    The striking vehicle fled the scene.

    Sgt. Kyle Gardner on Tuesday said the e-bike was equipped with lights, which were on at the time of the crash. The vehicle dragged Caprio at least a quarter-mile and then continued south on Route 73 into Evesham Township, Gardner said.

    Michele Caprio, 71, Anthony’s mother, said he had taken his e-bike to a Wawa on Sunday night from his mother’s house in Mount Laurel. At some point, he called his mother to say he had trouble with the bike, but had fixed the problem, she said.

    Then around 3 a.m. Monday, two police officers came to her house to inform her of the crash and his death, she said.

    Anthony Caprio III and his mother, Michele Caprio, in photo from the mid-1990s.

    His mother said he was very skilled at fixing anything mechanical. He briefly was employed at SEPTA, which he highlighted in several photos on his Facebook account. “He loved trains and worked for SEPTA fixing trains,” she said.

    He had a love for aircraft that developed when he was a kid because his father had a plane and took him flying, his mother said.

    His 50th birthday was coming on Jan. 4, she said.

    She also said he had struggled for many years with mental illness and alcohol abuse. He recently found himself homeless and moved back in with his mother, she said.

    The Mount Laurel Police Department released images from surveillance video of the white SUV and asked anyone with information to call the department at 856-234-8300 or the confidential tip line at 856-234-1414 ext. 1599.

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  • Atlantic City Expressway is going cashless. Drivers without E-ZPass will be paying double.

    Atlantic City Expressway is going cashless. Drivers without E-ZPass will be paying double.

    The Atlantic City Expressway is set to become the first of New Jersey’s major toll roads to go cashless.

    Starting Sunday, drivers on the highway must pay via E-ZPass or be billed by plate, according to the South Jersey Transportation Authority (SJTA).

    Drivers who don’t have E-ZPass will be mailed a bill for the toll, plus a 100% surcharge and a $1 administrative fee. Driving the length of the expressway without E-ZPass would cost about $14. The SJTA says the extra charges will help “offset the administrative costs associated with the new billing process.”

    If drivers fail to pay the first bill, they will receive another with an extra $5 late fee. If they still don’t pay, it will be considered a toll violation, which can result in fines and a suspension of vehicle registration.

    The cashless system’s rollout coincides with a 3% toll rate increase for all drivers.

    The start of all-electronic tolling on the A.C. Expressway comes after a $77 million multiyear project that replaced the Egg Harbor and Pleasantville barrier toll plazas with overhead gantries that digitally read E-ZPass transponders and license plates. All ramp toll machines were also replaced with gantries.

    A cash lane at the Berlin-Cross Keys toll booth on the Atlantic City Expressway as shown in 2022.

    With the new system, drivers don’t stop to go through a toll booth; they keep moving, which state officials have said will be safer and more environmentally friendly. It may also result in quicker drives on the 44-mile highway that connects Camden County to the Shore.

    The Garden State Parkway and the New Jersey Turnpike are also set to go cashless sometime in the future.

    The New Jersey Turnpike Authority’s 2020 long-range capital plan estimated that endeavor would cost $900 million — $500 million for the parkway and $400 million for the turnpike.

    The Pennsylvania Turnpike went cashless in 2020, laying off hundreds of toll workers.

    A driver pays a toll in cash at the Egg Harbor Toll Plaza on the Atlantic City Expressway in 2022.

    Spokespeople for the South Jersey Transportation Authority could not immediately be reached for comment Tuesday regarding whether Atlantic City Expressway toll workers were losing their jobs.

    The authority, which runs the expressway, has been using its social media accounts to encourage drivers to get E-ZPass. They can do so online at ezpassnj.com, by phone at 1-888-288-6865, or by stopping at the Customer Service Center at milepost 21.3 on the expressway.

    The in-person center is open from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. Monday, 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Tuesday through Thursday, and 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. Friday. It is closed on weekends and holidays, including New Year’s Day.