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  • Campbell’s exec loses job after alleged racist comments and claims of 3D-printed chicken, company says

    Campbell’s exec loses job after alleged racist comments and claims of 3D-printed chicken, company says

    Campbell’s Co. said on Wednesday that a vice president reportedly caught on an audio recording disparaging the Camden-based soup giant’s products — claiming the company uses bioengineered meat, which Campbell’s denies — and allegedly making racist comments is no longer an employee.

    The allegations emerged after Robert Garza, another former employee, filed a lawsuit last week claiming that he was fired for reporting in January to his manager that Martin Bally, who had a position at Campbell’s as chief information security officer, had made problematic comments to him during a meeting in November 2024.

    According to the five-page lawsuit, Bally “made several racist comments about Indian workers at the company.”

    Bally also told Garza that Campbell’s products were highly processed food for “poor people,” according to the lawsuit, which was filed in Michigan, where both Garza and Bally live and worked for the company.

    Garza, who worked as a cybersecurity analyst for Campbell’s, did an interview last week with WDIV-TV, an NBC affiliate in Detroit, and provided at least some portions of secretly recorded audio of the meeting to the station for broadcast.

    The audio recording is not mentioned in the lawsuit. However, it is legal in Michigan for one party in a conversation to make a recording without the consent of the other party.

    The person in the recording, alleged to be Bally, says: “We have s— for f— poor people.” The speaker then acknowledges rarely buying Campbell’s products, saying they are unhealthy.

    The voice says that Campbell’s uses “bioengineered meat. I don’t wanna eat a piece of chicken that came from a 3D printer.” The speaker then goes on to make racist comments about coworkers.

    “After a review, we believe the voice on the recording is in fact Martin Bally,” Campbell’s Co. said in a statement on Wednesday.

    “The comments were vulgar, offensive and false, and we apologize for the hurt they have caused. This behavior does not reflect our values and the culture of our company, and we will not tolerate that kind of language under any circumstances,” the company said.

    “As of November 25, Mr. Bally is no longer employed by the company,” Campbell’s said.

    Bally could not be reached for comment on Wednesday.

    Campbell’s said in its statement that the company makes food from high-quality ingredients, including real chicken meat.

    “We’re thankful for the millions of people who buy and enjoy our products and we’re honored by the trust they put in us,” the company said.

    Campbell’s has a new page on its website to answer questions about its food that were raised by the former vice president’s alleged comments.

    One section responds to the question: “Is Campbell’s chicken 3D printed?”

    “No. We do not use 3D-printed chicken, lab-grown chicken, or any form of artificial or bioengineered meat in our soups,” the website said.

    On Monday morning, James Uthmeier, the attorney general of Florida, responded to a post on X from an account apparently based in Ohio raising concerns about “FAKE MEAT that comes from a 3-D printer.”

    Uthmeier said: “Florida law bans lab-grown meat. Our Consumer Protection division is launching an investigation and will demand answers from Campbell’s.”

  • Two New Yorkers found dead in Atlantic City Borgata hotel room

    Two New Yorkers found dead in Atlantic City Borgata hotel room

    Atlantic City Police are investigating the deaths of two New Yorkers who were found dead in a casino hotel room Sunday afternoon.

    Police were called to the Borgata Hotel Casino and Spa around 5 p.m., where they found the bodies of Baoyi Bowie Zheng, a 36-year-old woman from Staten Island, and Wei Guo Liang, a 68-year-old man from Brooklyn.

    An autopsy determined Bowie Zheng died of a broken neck. Guo Liang was found to have died from self-inflicted stab wounds.

    Many details regarding the individuals, including their connection, if any, and how long they’d been at the Borgata, had not been made public as of Wednesday, when the Atlantic County Prosecutor’s Office encouraged people with information about the incident to call in.

    A spokesperson for the hotel could not be reached for comment.

  • After 30 years, this Long Beach Island pizzeria needs a new home

    After 30 years, this Long Beach Island pizzeria needs a new home

    In the early ’90s, Colleen Mazzella walked into a newly opened pizzeria and met the man who would become not only her boss, but her husband.

    She was visiting a friend who had been hired at Italian Affair in Stafford, and owner Dominick Mazzella, then a recent Staten Island transplant, offered her a job, too.

    They soon became a couple, and a year later, in May 1995, opened A Slice of Heaven across from Fantasty Island Amusement Park on Long Beach Island. The building at 7th Street and Bay Avenue in Beach Haven had housed a car wash, candy store and photo shop through the years, and when the two met with owner Peter Buterick, “he said ‘I’m going to take a chance on you. I’ve got a good feeling about this,’” Mazzella said.

    They made a name for themslves, thanks to a menu of dishes like stuffed cheesesteak pizza, scratch-made meatballs and cheesesteaks.

    Thirty years later, the building is full of memories that became precious to Mazzella after Dominick died just days before his 50th birthday in 2024. She recalls the Stanley Cup being brought to the restaurant (“My husband was a gigantic hockey fan,” she said), staying open to serve pizza until 4 a.m. and borrowing ingredients from other restaurant owners to get through busy days.

    Dominick Mazzella is pictured behind the counter of A Slice of Heaven, the Long Beach Island pizzeria he opened with his wife, Colleen, in 1995.

    She remembers when a family who lost their father stopped in for his favorite pizza before spreading his ashes on the beach, rebuilding after Superstorm Sandy sent four feet of water into the dining room and making pizza by flashlight during a power outage.

    The restaurant is also where Dominick taught his son to make pizza, a legacy the 18-year-old — also named Dominick — has dreamed of continuing.

    But it will have to happen somewhere else, as A Slice of Heaven closed earlier this month. The Mazzellas leased their restaurant space and the building has been sold.

    “The plan was to take this place over,” Mazzella said of her and her husband’s plans for their son, a third-generation pizza maker whose grandfather emigrated from Naples, Italy, and owned restaurants in New York before opening the Stafford pizzeria with Dom.

    A Slice of Heaven’s last day in business was Nov. 17, and Mazzella must vacate the building by the end of the month. She has been searching for a new location since learning of the impending sale several years ago, and while she wants to keep the restaurant on Long Beach Island, rentals that will work for her business are hard to come by, she said.

    “My intention is to be on the island,” said Mazzella, who grew up in Brant Beach and now lives in Cedar Run on the mainland. “I love the people here. I grew up here. I love everything about it.”

    “It’s just a fact of finding a place to land,” she said. “It’s been tough. I just have to keep believing that the places that I found that didn’t work out didn’t work out for a reason, and that it’s because we’re waiting for the right place.”

    “We’ll find something,” she said. “I gotta believe that.”

    Since announcing the closing date in early November, Mazzella has seen an outpouring of support online and in person, with customers sharing memories and well wishes.

    One spoke of how the elder Dominick fulfilled her request to spell “It’s a boy!” in pepperoni on a pizza for her gender reveal. Another customer wrote of how the restaurant’s delivery driver checked on her elderly father when she couldn’t reach him. Dozens more said A Slice of Heaven’s pizza is part of their vacation tradition.

    For Mazzella, it is stories like these that make giving up not an option.

    “Absolutely not,” she said. “We’re not done.”

  • Two Camden Housing Authority employees win $1.7 million in lawsuit after wrongful termination: ‘I feel vindicated.’

    Two Camden Housing Authority employees win $1.7 million in lawsuit after wrongful termination: ‘I feel vindicated.’

    A slip of paper slid under Gary Evangelista’s office door at the Camden Housing Authority — a document that showed a tenant owed the agency $10,000 in unpaid rent. Evangelista, a retired police officer who oversaw security, was puzzled. Instead of being evicted, as policy required, the woman had been moved into another unit. So, Evangelista flagged the discrepancy to the top.

    That episode was one of several times over the course of a year that Evangelista and a colleague, Kaberia Fussell, brought reports of possible wrongdoing inside the agency — including allegations of theft, fraud, and favoritism — to its highest officials, according to a lawsuit they later filed.

    But rather than investigating, the lawsuit said, the housing authority fired Evangelista and Fussell in 2018.

    The two challenged their terminations in federal court, arguing that the housing authority had violated their First Amendment right to free speech without retaliation.

    And last week, after a five-year legal battle in federal court in Camden, a jury agreed, awarding Evangelista and Fussell a combined $1.7 million.

    It was unclear Wednesday whether the Camden Housing Authority and three officials named as defendants in the lawsuit — Victor Figueroa, its former executive director; Katheryn Blackshear, its former deputy executive director; and Debbie Person-Polk, chair of its board of commissioners — would appeal the jury’s verdict. Attorneys for the agency did not respond to calls and emails.

    Evangelista and Fussell’s lawyer, Joseph Guzzardo, said his clients are “good people” who were wrongfully terminated for “doing the right thing.”

    Fired Camden Housing Authority manager pleads guilty in $150,000 fraud case

    In all, Evangelista and Fussell, who worked as a housing specialist, brought at least five allegations of illicit activity to officials between 2017 and 2018, according to the lawsuit, including an employee scheme to steal scrap metal from housing villages and reports of sexual harassment against a tenant.

    They were fired on Dec. 19, 2018.

    “My reputation was ruined,” Evangelista said in an interview this week.

    Fussell, a union employee, successfully appealed her termination and returned to the agency. But Evangelista, a nonunion employee, could not appeal. He said he struggled to find steady employment.

    The verdict, he said, “gave me my life back after six years.”

    Fussell still works at the housing authority. Even so, before the verdict, “I still felt like a loser, even though I did nothing wrong. Because when you’re fired, people look at you like, ‘What did you do?’” Fussell said.

    But now, she said, “I feel vindicated.”

  • 17 holiday events happening near you | Inquirer Cherry Hill

    17 holiday events happening near you | Inquirer Cherry Hill

    Hello, Cherry Hill! 👋

    Happy Thanksgiving! While you’ve probably got your sights set on Turkey Day, the winter holidays aren’t far behind. We’ve rounded up over a dozen events you’ll want to add to your calendar. Also this week, we pay a visit to a recently opened interactive gaming spot, the mall has added a new luxury shop, plus why a Say Yes to the Dress Star was in town last weekend.

    If someone forwarded you this email, sign up for free here.

    Over a dozen holiday events in Cherry Hill you won’t want to miss

    Santa Claus will again make his way through town alongside the fire department starting next month.

    The holiday season is officially upon us and with it, a slew of festive events. Whether you’re looking to snag a picture with Santa Claus, go ice skating on an outdoor rink, see a menorah parade, or tour a historic house decked-out for the season, there’s no shortage of events in Cherry Hill.

    We’ve rounded up more than a dozen holiday festivities this season, including shopping pop-ups, ornament workshops, and seasonal concerts.

    See the full list of holiday events here.

    Childhood games get a modern twist at this new gaming spot

    Activate’s “Mega Grid” game is similar to the popular childhood game, “The Floor is Lava,” but instead of cushions, players follow LED lights.

    Activate, a new immersive gaming spot, opened on Friday at 1509 Route 38, taking over a former Rite Aid. The 14,000-square-foot chain lets users bring to life old-school games like hide-and-seek and “The Floor is Lava,” and more modern ones, like a Mission Impossible-esque laser gauntlet, all in giant LED-filled spaces. In total, there are 13 stalls with different games that last one to three minutes each.

    Reporter Henry Savage took a look inside Activate’s first South Jersey location.

    💡 Community News

    • Reminder: Trash and recycling pickups will operate on an altered schedule this week for the holiday. See how your pickup is impacted here.
    • A 36-year-old man was hospitalized last week after he was found with a gunshot wound inside a Cherry Hill recording studio. He was listed in stable condition.
    • Bridal wear royalty was in town last weekend for the opening of a wedding dress shop’s second storefront. TV star and designer Randy Fenoli, who is known for his years-long tenure on TLC shows Say Yes to the Dress and Randy to the Rescue, helped brides at the new Cherry Hill location of Dress 2 Impress find the perfect gown for their big day as part of his cross-country tour promoting his Keepsake Kollection. He also imparted some wisdom about finding the right fit.
    • In other shopping news, handbag and accessories store Coach is now open at the Cherry Hill Mall. If you’re planning to shop this week, the mall is closed tomorrow and reopens at 7 a.m. on Friday.
    • Big Blue Swim School is set to open its doors on Monday at 2100 Route 38, near the mall. The swimming lesson chain will offer programs for kids as young as 3 months old and will be open every day but Friday.
    • Need a little help tackling your gift list? We’ve put together a guide to over 70 very Philadelphia ideas, complete with a quiz to find the perfect one for yourself or your hard-to-shop for friends and family.

    🏫 Schools Briefing

    • Reminder for families: There’s an early dismissal today, and schools are closed tomorrow and Friday.
    • Last year, 62.2% of township residents’ taxes went toward the school district. Cherry Hill’s average property taxes were $9,383, just shy of the $10,000 average property tax bill statewide, according to a new NJ Advance Media analysis. (NJ.com)

    🍽️ On our Plate

    • A new Korean restaurant specializing in hot lava pots is taking over the former Ten Hot Pot and Crabby Crab on Route 70. A timeline for the new eatery hasn’t been announced yet. (A View From Evesham)

    🎳 Things to Do

    🛼 Wicked Skate Party: Whether you’ve already seen Wicked: For Good or are planning to catch it in theaters soon, share your love of the movies at this themed skate party, which includes trivia, a soda bar, and a glam station where you can add tinsel to your hair. ⏰ Friday, Nov. 28, 10 a.m.-4 p.m. and 6:30-9:30 p.m. 💵 $12 admission, $6 skate rental 📍 Hot Wheelz

    🖤 18th Annual All Black Holiday Affair: Celebrate the holiday season at this annual 21-and-over event featuring DJs and dancing. There will also be a holiday toy drive collection. All black attire is encouraged at this Black Friday event. ⏰ Friday, Nov. 28, 7 p.m.-12 a.m. 💵 $87.30-$201.06 📍 DoubleTree by Hilton

    🎴 Cherry Hill Card Expo: Card collectors can browse everything from sports art and memorabilia to trading, playing, and collectible cards, including for Pokémon, during this two-day event. There will also be on-site authentications available. ⏰ Saturday, Nov. 29, 10 a.m.-5 p.m., and Sunday, Nov. 30, 10 a.m.-4 p.m. 💵 $10-$25 📍 DoubleTree by Hilton

    🎧 Cherry Hill Record Riot: Shop from an array of vinyl albums and CDs from dealers. ⏰ Sunday, Nov. 30, 10 a.m.-5 p.m. 💵 $4.26-$26.66 📍 Holiday Inn Philadelphia-Cherry Hill

    🏡 On the Market

    An updated Olde Springs home

    A walkway leads to the home’s entryway.

    This renovated Olde Springs home has an elegant rounded front entryway that sets the tone for the interior, where some of its highlights include a crystal chandelier, marble-inspired tiles, and a stone wall fireplace. It has five bedrooms, including a first floor suite, an updated kitchen, and a new deck.

    See more photos of the home here.

    Price: $719,000 | Size: 3,441 SF

    🗞️ 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.

  • Cherry Hill brides ‘Say Yes to the Dress’ with bridal fashion superstar Randy Fenoli

    Cherry Hill brides ‘Say Yes to the Dress’ with bridal fashion superstar Randy Fenoli

    On a gray November morning last Saturday, in a converted Cherry Hill Dunkin’ Donuts, bridal magic was in the air.

    At around 9:30 a.m., members of the staff at Dress 2 Impress, a new bridal boutique on Route 38, were furiously preparing for the arrival of one of bridal fashion’s biggest celebrities: designer and Say Yes to the Dress star Randy Fenoli.

    Floors were swept, lipstick was applied, and dainty chocolate pastries were laid out on a towering display.

    Fenoli, 61, is a marquee name in the bridal world. He served as the fashion director for New York City’s Kleinfeld Bridal from 2007 to 2012 and starred in the TLC reality show Say Yes to the Dress, set at Kleinfeld, and later his own, shorter-lived show, Randy to the Rescue.

    Fenoli is currently on a cross-country tour promoting his Keepsake Kollection, a new line of bridal gowns set to hit stores in early 2026. Dress 2 Impress, an authorized dealer of Fenoli’s dresses, was part of a select group of stores debuting the line early, an honor that came with a guest appearance from Fenoli himself.

    He’s “a real celebrity,” especially in South Jersey, said Beni Deliivanova, managing partner of Dress 2 Impress.

    Randy Fenoli is looking for dresses for a bride to try on at the new Dress 2 Impress location.

    Saturday marked the grand opening of Dress 2 Impress’ second store. Their first boutique, located in Linwood, has been open for 13 years.

    It’s a bit of “an American dream story,” said Ivaylo Deliivanov, Beni Deliivanova‘s husband, who managed the front desk and topped off mimosas as Fenoli and the bridal staff tended to customers on Saturday morning.

    Deliivanov‘s mother, Violeta Deliivanova, ran a dressmaking factory back in Bulgaria. When she immigrated to the U.S. around two decades ago, she got into the alteration and dry cleaning business. She opened Dress 2 Impress in Linwood in 2013. In 2022, Beni, Violeta’s daughter-in-law, left the corporate world to become a Dress 2 Impress managing partner.

    Though Dress 2 Impress’ Linwood location has long been a destination for Jersey Shore brides, Deliivanov said they were losing out to boutiques in Cherry Hill, where there are more bridal shops, and a giant mall, to meet brides’ needs. The grand opening of their second location marks an entrance into Cherry Hill’s formidable retail economy.

    The boutique is curated with keepsakes and designed for photo-ops. Sequin-covered purses and statement earrings sit in triptych glass cases. White champagne flutes and feathered fans embroidered with “BRIDE” rest next to a large bell that’s rung when a bride meets her perfect dress. A walk-in closet opens into changing rooms and a sitting area where brides perform mini fashion shows for adoring groups of female family members and bridesmaids.

    Maria Leonetti, of San Carlos, Calif., is trying on dresses with the help from Randy Fenoli.

    Before the marathon of brides arrived, Fenoli and Dress 2 Impress’ staff huddled in a back room, as the celebrity stylist imparted his time-tested wisdom onto the group. How do you match a bride to the right silhouette for her body type? How do you manage an overbearing family member with too many opinions?

    Chewy, Fenoli’s Shih Tzu, meandered around the boutique, at times chasing a stuffed macaroni noodle (Chewy has been on at least 80 flights with Fenoli this year).

    The morning’s first bride was Olivia Hafner, a 23-year-old Cherry Hill teacher engaged to her middle school sweetheart. The couple has been together for 10 years. Maria Hafner, Olivia’s mom, called it “a fairytale.”

    Both Hafner women are Say Yes to the Dress fans. They booked an appointment at Dress 2 Impress after seeing an ad online.

    “I’m open to trying different things, but I want a ball gown,” Olivia Hafner said, waiting in the foyer for Fenoli and Susanna Kavee, her enthusiastic bridal stylist.

    Over the next hour, Hafner emerged from the dressing room in dress after dress, first in a strapless gown with a structured corset top, then another with sequins, one with lace, and another with elegant detachable sleeves.

    Olivia Hafner, 23, of Cherry Hill, N.J., is trying on some dresses with the help from bridal stylist Susanna Kavee.

    The curated selection and hands-on assistance makes for a “boutique” experience, Fenoli said, one that sets the store apart from a trip to Macy’s or the mall.

    What do brides want these days? Fenoli says “everything”: glitter, ball gowns, princess-style skirts, traditional silhouettes. “Clean and simple” is having a moment, Fenoli added (perhaps linked to the omnipresence of the laid-back-but-still-stylish “clean girl aesthetic,” which has dominated TikTok in recent months, with ample criticism).

    Fenoli said the world of bridal fashion has changed “completely” from his mid-2000s Say Yes to the Dress days.

    Brides show up to appointments with screenshots from Instagram and TikTok videos, asking to try on dresses from unknown designers, located oceans away. Others come with AI-generated images that are impossible to match. More and more, original designs are being ripped off and sold for cheap on the internet.

    “I think technology and the internet has really hurt us,” he said.

    He quickly added: “Don’t ever, ever, ever, ever order a wedding dress online.”

    Dress 2 Impress’ Cherry Hill boutique is open from 10:30 a.m. to 6:30 p.m., Mondays through Fridays; 10:30 a.m. to 6 p.m. on Saturdays; and 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Sundays.

    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 Philly area’s most flood-prone waterways, mapped

    The Philly area’s most flood-prone waterways, mapped

    Late on a stormy September night, Katie and Anthony Young were watching a horror show. In this instance, it was also a reality show.

    A surveillance camera showed 8-foot floodwaters drowning the generator in the rear of their restaurant, Hank’s Place. The water crashed into the dining and kitchen areas, tossing around furniture and emptying the contents of refrigerators.

    The remnants of Hurricane Ida in 2021 had overwhelmed the Brandywine Creek at Chadds Ford, one of the region’s most picturesque locales, made famous by a frequent Hank’s customer, artist Andrew Wyeth.

    “I don’t think either one of us was anticipating it being that catastrophic,” Katie Young said.

    In a region where flooding is a perennial threat, an Inquirer analysis of the area’s most flood-prone waterways found the Brandywine ranks among the elite, based on available U.S. Geological Survey data.

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    A total of 61 major and moderate floods have occurred since 2005 at Chadds Ford and three other gages on the main stem of the Brandywine and its branches. The Brandywine East Branch near Downingtown has registered more major and moderate floods, with 33 combined, than any gage point in the region.

    No. 2 on the list was the Delaware River at Burlington, with seven major and 19 moderate floods, although that is not quite the same as stream flooding. Technically, flooding measured on the five Delaware River gages south of Trenton, including the one at Washington Avenue in South Philly, is “tidal,” since it is influenced by the behavior of the Atlantic Ocean and the Delaware Bay.

    The chaotic behavior of the atmosphere may forever be elusive; however, more flooding along the Brandywine, the Delaware, and the rest of the region’s waterways is an absolute certainty.

    Various studies have documented increases in extreme precipitation events with the warming of the planet. But humans are affecting the flood calculus immeasurably by hard-topping rain-absorbent vegetation.

    Schuylkill River floods onto Kelly Drive at Midvale in the East Falls section of Philadelphia on Wednesday, Jan. 10, 2024.

    A comprehensive analysis of the Brandywine watershed published in April reported that impervious surfaces increased by 15% along the Great Valley’s Route 30 corridor from 2001 to 2020.

    Those increases are “significant,” said Gerald Kauffman, director of the University of Delaware’s Water Resources Center, which coauthored the study along with the Brandywine Conservancy and the Chester County Water Resources Authority.

    Municipalities welcome tax-generating development. Conversely, Kauffman said: “You get more value if you build next to a greenway. It’s the eternal debate.”

    From 2001 to 2020, the population in the Brandywine watershed grew nearly 25%, to 265,000 people, with 150,000 more expected by the end of the century. That’s a lot of rooftops and driveways feeding water into the stream, which empties into the Delaware River.

    Along the Delaware, the rising water levels of the Atlantic Ocean and the Delaware Bay are forecast to generate more flooding. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration estimates that sea levels have been rising about an inch every five years.

    New Jersey coasts, lined with toxic facilities, don’t fare well in two new studies

    While the oceanic salt line — the boundary between ocean and freshwater — usually stays well south of Philly, the tidal pulses contribute to flooding in the city and areas to the north, where the channel narrows, said Amy Shallcross, water resources operations manager at the Delaware River Basin Commission.

    The five tidal gages along the Delaware from Newbold Island to Marcus Hook have registered more than 90 significant floods since 2005, according to the Inquirer analysis.

    The study was limited to the 33 USGS gages that had a period of record of at least 20 years and list designated flood stages.

    Along with the Delaware River sites, other stream gages that appeared in the top 10 list for major and moderate flooding were those on the Perkiomen, Chester, Neshaminy, and Frankford Creeks.

    Motorists brave the heavy rain and deep puddles along Creek Road in Chadds Ford during a nasty flood event in January 2024.

    The gage network cannot capture all the episodic flooding from the likes of thunderstorm downpours.

    Flood frequency is not the only consideration for siting a gage, said Tyler Madsen, a hydrologist with NOAA’s Middle Atlantic River Forecast Center, in State College. For example, the gages have to be located in areas free of unnatural barriers, such as bridge abutments.

    Plus, a major consideration is funding. They are costly to monitor and operate, serving multiple purposes such as measuring water quality and streamflow.

    They rely on a variety of funding sources, including state and local governments, that are not available everywhere.

    The Brandywine study’s suggested remedies included adding flood-control structures and beefing up warning systems all along the watershed, but warned: “Even with unlimited financial and technological resources, it would be impossible to eliminate all flood risks.”

    Hank’s Place, on Routes 1 and 100 in Chadds Ford, was swamped by water from the rains of Tropical Storm Agnes in June 1972. The area has a long history of flooding, and the restaurant was reconstructed after it was flooded and damaged by Ida in 2021.

    The Youngs are prepared to live with those risks, come storms or high water.

    Said Katie Young: “Hank’s belongs here.”

  • Five Cherry Hill elementary schools will be overcrowded by 2028. The district is considering how to redistribute students.

    Five Cherry Hill elementary schools will be overcrowded by 2028. The district is considering how to redistribute students.

    Faced with a forthcoming increase in elementary school enrollment, the Cherry Hill School District may redraw boundaries for its 12 neighborhood schools.

    The South Jersey school district has been studying expected demographics for the coming years and came up short; there are not enough available seats to accommodate an anticipated burst in elementary student population.

    To meet the demand, the district has undertaken an “Elementary Enrollment Balancing,” which means possibly adjusting where students go to school. Cherry Hill is the 12th-largest district in the state, with nearly 11,000 students.

    “We want to make sure there is not a negative impact on children and families,” Superintendent Kwame Morton told parents at a recent community meeting.

    Why is Cherry Hill rebalancing its elementary schools?

    The demographic study conducted in 2024 showed that five of Cherry Hill’s 12 elementary schools are expected to have a shortage of seats in the 2028-29 school year, said George Guy, director of elementary education.

    Based on census data and housing construction projections, the district will be short about 337 seats, according to Guy. The demographic survey examined possible growth over a five-year period, from 2024-25 through 2028-29.

    “Those kids are coming. We have to do something,” Guy said in a recent interview. “We can’t wait to do it.”

    The five schools in question and the expected growth in their enrollment are: Clara Barton, 126 students; Joyce Kilmer, 81 students; Horace Mann, 50 students; Richard Stockton, 56 students; and Woodcrest Elementary, 50 students, Guy said.

    What will the process involve?

    It is not yet clear how many students could be affected by the rebalancing, district officials said. Some elementary schools are nearing capacity, and a few have surplus seats.

    At a school board presentation this month about the enrollment balancing project, several parents expressed concerns about their children possibly being moved. Parents like the convenience and proximity of a neighborhood school.

    “What’s the game plan here?” asked Nicole Marley, who has three sons. “I don’t want my kids to leave their school. It’s stressful.”

    Guy said possible options include grouping schools by proximity, with nearby schools to share students and programs, and reassigning students to less-crowded schools. Also under consideration is converting the Arthur Lewis administration building to an elementary school, which could accommodate about 200 students, he said.

    District officials currently are not considering a bond referendum to raise funds to build a new school, Guy said. In October 2022, Cherry Hill voters overwhelmingly approved a $363 million school bond referendum, one of the largest in New Jersey history.

    “We want to be open to anything,” Guy said. “We don’t want to take anything off the table.”

    Cherry Hill voters approved a $363 million school bond referendum, N.J.’s largest in at least a decade

    How will they make a plan?

    A board committee has been charged with developing a plan to address the overcrowding. Parents peppered the committee with questions at an information session held at Cherry Hill East.

    “We’re still very early in the process,” said board president Gina Winters.

    Currently, the sprawling 24.5-mile community of nearly 75,000 is divided into elementary school zones. Most students are assigned to a neighborhood school within two miles of where they live.

    Morton said the board has set parameters for the rebalancing committee. Besides minimizing potential disruptions, transportation must be taken into consideration, he said.

    The district doesn’t want students riding a bus for long periods of time, especially special needs students, Guy said. Two of the affected schools — Barton and Kilmer — are located on the west side of Cherry Hill, while the other three — Mann, Stockton, and Woodcrest — are on the east side.

    Kwame Morton, superintendent of Cherry Hill schools.

    What is the timeline for the plan?

    The committee plans to present a preliminary rebalancing plan to the school board in January or February. A final plan is expected by June or July.

    The district held three community meetings in November to get feedback from residents and answer questions. More community meetings are planned for March.

    Parent Dan Levin, an urban planner, questioned how the committee gathered its data. He suggested the committee consider more long-term planning for 15 years down the road.

    “You’re shooting in the dark,” said Levin, whose son attends James Johnson Elementary. “You’re throwing good money after bad.”

    Morton said the district wants to implement the rebalancing plan for the 2027-28 school year, before enrollment is expected to swell in the 2028-29 school year.

    Will middle schools and high schools be impacted?

    Guy said the district’s most pressing need for more seats is at the elementary schools. He said officials are not yet examining future enrollment needs at the middle and high schools.

    Cherry Hill is in the third year of a four-year middle school redistricting plan. The district is expanding its preschool program, with 240 new spots set to open in January.

  • Lawsuit alleges Campbell’s soup VP made racist comments and said its food is made for ‘poor people’

    Lawsuit alleges Campbell’s soup VP made racist comments and said its food is made for ‘poor people’

    A former employee of the Campbell’s Co. has sued the Camden-based food giant, alleging he was fired for reporting that a company vice president had made racist comments about coworkers and disparaged Campbell’s products.

    Robert Garza, who worked as a cybersecurity analyst for the company, alleged in the lawsuit filed last week in Michigan that Martin Bally, a vice president and chief information security officer, made the comments during a November 2024 meeting that the complaint said was intended for a discussion of Garza’s salary.

    Bally “made several racist comments about Indian workers at the company,” the complaint said.

    Bally also told Garza that Campbell’s products were highly processed food for “poor people,” according to the lawsuit.

    In an interview Garza did last week with WDIV, an NBC affiliate in Detroit, he said that he secretly recorded audio of the meeting, which occurred at a restaurant. The TV broadcast played some portions of the recording.

    The audio recording is not mentioned in the lawsuit. It is legal in Michigan for one party in a conversation to make a recording without the consent of the other party.

    In a statement, the Campbell’s Co. said: “If the comments were in fact made, they are unacceptable. They do not reflect our values and the culture of our company. Mr. Bally is temporarily on leave while we conduct an investigation.”

    The company, which changed its name from the Campbell Soup Co. last year, added: “We are proud of the food we make, the people who make it and the high-quality ingredients we use. The comments heard on the recording about our food are not only inaccurate — they are patently absurd.”

    The company said it uses “100% real chicken” in our soups, and the meat comes from “long-trusted, USDA approved U.S. suppliers” and does not contain antibiotics.

    “[We] also want to emphasize that the person alleged to be speaking on the recording works in IT and has nothing to do with how we make our food,” the company said.

    James F. Regan, a spokesperson for the company, said Garza never told the company that he made a recording and the company learned about the recording after the TV report was aired last week.

    Bally, the vice president, could not be reached for comment.

    Zachary Runyon, Garza’s attorney, was unavailable for comment.

    In recorded excerpts included in the TV report, the person in the recording, alleged to be Bally, says: “We have s— for f— poor people.” The speaker then acknowledges rarely buying Campbell’s products, saying they are unhealthy.

    The voice says that Campbell’s uses “bioengineered meat. I don’t wanna eat a piece of chicken that came from a 3D printer.” The speaker then goes on to make racist comments about coworkers.

    Garza, who started with the company in September 2024, told the TV station he decided to record the conversation, which reportedly lasted more than an hour, because he had an “instinct that something wasn’t right with Martin.”

    The lawsuit says that “Bally also disclosed to Plaintiff that he often appeared at work high from marijuana edibles.”

    The lawsuit says that Garza reported to his manager on Jan. 10, 2025, what Bally allegedly said during the November meeting. The complaint said the manager did not encourage Garza to report the incident to human resources and did not provide any direction on how to proceed.

    On Jan. 30, according to the complaint, Garza was “abruptly terminated from employment.”

    The complaint alleges that Garza was terminated “in retaliation for complaining about Defendant Bally’s racist behavior.”

    Garza is seeking unspecified compensation for damages and related costs.

  • The green bean casserole, an iconic Thanksgiving side dish with a N.J. connection, turns 70 this year

    The green bean casserole, an iconic Thanksgiving side dish with a N.J. connection, turns 70 this year

    In 1955, Dorcas Bates Reilly of Haddonfield was tinkering with her team in the home economics department at the Campbell Soup Co., trying to recreate a casserole recipe that a manager had tasted somewhere. The team had been tasked with using ingredients most American families would already have on hand.

    After a series of experiments, documented on a typed recipe card that is now part of the National Inventors Hall of Fame, Reilly, who was 29 at the time, hit upon the six-ingredient winner.

    Now known as green bean casserole, the dish that has become a Thanksgiving icon turns 70 this year.

    The original green bean casserole recipe card in the National Inventors Hall of Fame.

    The “Green Bean Bake,” as it was called at the time, mainly relied on green beans and Campbell’s condensed cream of mushroom soup, along with a splash of milk, soy sauce, and black pepper. Crispy fried onions topped it off.

    “It was such a rewarding feeling when your recipe was published,” Reilly told Drexel University’s alumni spotlight when she visited the campus years later. She had graduated from Drexel’s Home Economics program in 1947.

    She never knew her careful experimentation (“onions too salty, beans lack freshness, too many onions,” she wrote in an early version of the recipe) would become a national star.

    “How would she know of the thousands of recipes she worked on over all those years that there was one that stood out?” Reilly’s daughter, Dorcas R. Tarbell, 64, asked.

    Before settling on the final ingredients, Reilly had played around with adding Worcestershire and slices of ham. Campbell’s began printing Reilly’s recipe on the back of its cream of mushroom soup can labels in 1960.

    Dorcas Reilly, on the set of live TV commercials that were filmed in the late 1940s atop the original Campbell’s plant in Camden. Reilly was a Campbell’s Soup kitchen supervisor in 1955 when she combined green beans and cream of mushroom soup, topped with crunchy fried onions. It is the most popular recipe ever to come out of the corporate kitchen at Campbell’s.

    Tarbell said her mother had not known how popular the dish was until 1995, 40 years after its creation.

    That was when Campbell’s marketing team studied sales data and found that cream of mushroom soup sales spiked in October and November, and dropped in January. They told Reilly that her recipe was the company’s most-requested ever.

    After that, Reilly became “the ambassador of the green bean casserole,” Tarbell said. Each year, she talked to radio stations and newspapers, and traveled to stockholder meetings to talk about the dish.

    Reilly died in 2018 and was celebrated in obituaries across the country as the “grandmother of the green bean casserole.”

    Thomas H. Reilly, 99 years old, is reflected in his foyer mirror as he looks out the front door of his home in Haddonfield at the giant inflatable green bean casserole his daughter ordered to celebrate the 70th anniversary of the famous dish.

    This year, to celebrate the anniversary of her mother’s famous dish, Tarbell ordered an enormous, custom-made, inflatable green bean casserole to bedeck the lawn of her 99-year-old father and Reilly’s widower, Thomas H. Reilly.

    “I thought, what better gift can I give than to honor the love of his life through the green bean casserole?” Tarbell, who lives down the street, said. “At this point, you have to have humor in life.”

    In a town full of yards featuring inflatable Thanksgiving turkeys and pilgrims (and a few early Santas and snowmen), the six-foot side dish stands out.

    Also in honor of the 70th anniversary, Reilly’s niece, Evelynne Bates Stoklosa, who is 80, established a research grant in honor of her aunt through Phi Upsilon Omicron, a national honor society for the Family and Consumer Sciences, the modern name for home economics. The research focus for the next two years will be “areas representing culinary arts, food science, nutrition, and dietetics.”

    As for her mother’s dish — which is especially popular in the Midwest — it will likely appear on more than half of Thanksgiving tables nationwide this week, Campbell said.

    Growing up, Tarbell said the family never ate green bean casserole. But after they realized Reilly had created a star dish, the family embraced it.

    “Of course, we have green bean casserole at Thanksgiving,” Tarbell said, adding, “We have it at Christmas. We have it at Easter.”

    Dorcas Reilly and a small unnamed admirer, with the iconic green bean casserole Mrs. Reilly invented.