Wawa’s corporate headquarters is located in Delaware County.
Wawa’s stores and menu offerings look quite different than they did a couple of decades ago, but despite the many changes the Delco-rooted company has made over the years, leadership says it’s still taking cues from its hometown base.
“For a lot of people, it’s their daily routine,” CEO Chris Gheysens told The Inquirer’s Erin McCarthy recently.
While some bemoan the loss of freshly sliced meats (more on that below), other changes to Wawa have been consumer-driven, like introducing coffee, adding gas, and delivering protein-packed menu items.
Wawa has expanded to nearly 1,200 stores across 13 states and Washington, D.C., and some wonder if it’s lost a little bit of its luster all these years later.
Three Inquirer staffers recently shared what they still love about the convenience chain and what they miss (including the freshly sliced deli meat and the spicy cherry relish).
The region saw widely ranging snowfall totals from the storm earlier this week thanks to heavy banding, but Nether Providence and Swarthmore topped the lists locally, according to figures reported to the National Weather Service. Both recorded a foot of snow, while Media clocked in at 7.8 inches. See a map of how much snow fell near you.
Middletown Township is not moving forward with plans for the proposed “loop road” that was intended to be built behind the Chick-fil-A and CVS to ease congestionnear the busy intersection of Route 1 and Pennell Road. With PennDot planning to widen the road and add turn lanes, the project would be unnecessary. (Daily Times)
Delaware County Council voted last week to end a disaster emergency related to Prospect Medical’s closure of Crozer Health last year, including Crozer-Chester Medical Center. Council enacted the resolution last summer, allowing it to allocate funds that ensured residents had continued access to emergency medical services, such as ambulances. It also gave local municipalities time to establish their own EMS contracts, which, according to council, all have since done.
Swarthmore College President Valerie Smith announced this week that she will step down from her role in June 2027, when her contract ends. Smith has served as president since 2015, leading the liberal arts school through the pandemic, student protests, and funding threats from the federal government.
Eight Swarthmore College students face possible expulsion after distributing a “zine” criticizing seven members of the college’s board of managers for their ties to companies invested in Israel. The school says the students used imagery and language that “threatened, intimidated, and/or promoted potential violence on campus.” (WHYY)
Heads up for trolley riders: Trips on the D1 line, which starts at Orange Street in Media, could be up to 15 minutes longer after SEPTA launched a new safety system this week. The new system includes upgraded signals that require more gradual accelerations and decelerations, which are aimed at improving safety.
Media Mayor Joi Washington said she knows that her office carries weight beyond policy-making. The first woman and person of color to be mayor of Media, she said in a recent interview with CBS News Philadelphia, “What I want young Black girls to see, what I want Black residents to see, is that we’re still here. There are a lot of things that are stacked against us, but we can’t succumb to negativity.”
Swarthmore Borough residents can purchase a tree to go along or near their curb through March 9. Trees are $250 and include mulching and planting.
📸 Local residents embrace the snow
Josh Jordan and his 3 year-old daughter, Louise, took advantage of the snow earlier this week to build a snowman near their home in Media.
🏫 Schools Briefing
On Tuesday, Wallingford-Swarthmore School District’s board approved a reorganization plan that would eliminate nearly 20 jobs as it looks to trim spending. The plan, which goes into effect in July, is expected to save the district about $2 million byeliminating five administrative positions, some instructional assistants, and other roles. The measure comes as the district faced a budget deficit for the 2027-28 school year.
WSSD is hosting a pair of community conversations today at Strath Haven Middle School at 9 a.m. and 6 p.m. to discuss the budget development for next school year.
Also in Wallingford-Swarthmore, tomorrow is Strath Haven Middle School’s sixth and seventh grade dance, and Monday is the start of pre-season for spring athletics. There’s a policy committee meeting Tuesday night. See the district’s full calendar here.
In Rose Tree Media School District, there’s a school board meeting tonight at 6:30 p.m. at Penncrest High School, and Springton Lake Middle School’s musical kicks off tonight and runs through Saturday. Tomorrow, there’s a pep rally and science fair atIndian Lane. There are early dismissals for elementary school students on Wednesday for parent-teacher conferences. See the district’s full calendar here.
🍽️ On our Plate
Media Restaurant Week is just a few weeks away, and eateries are offering special pricing for the occasion. See the restaurants that have signed up so far here.
🎳 Things to Do
🎷 Tino Serrano and His Latin Jazz Quintet: Hear the band play Latin jazz tunes as part of the Friday Night Live Concert series. ⏰ Friday, Feb. 27, 7-9:30 p.m. 💵 $10-$15 📍Community Arts Center, Wallingford
😂 Delco Improv Night: ComedySportz Philadelphia returns for another unscripted night of comedy. ⏰ Saturday, Feb. 28, 7:30-9 p.m. 💵 $20.50 📍Park Avenue Community Center, Swarthmore
🎵 Rust: Hear tunes from the Neil Young tribute band. ⏰ Saturday, Feb. 28, 8:30 p.m. 💵 Free 📍Shere-e-Punjab
Built in 1950, this four-bedroom Media ranch hasmid-century elements but has also been updated and expanded. Brick walls and original oak flooring give nods to the past, along with a brick fireplace that has space for wood storage, while stainless steel appliances, granite countertops, and a peninsula with seating give the kitchen a 21st-century feel. The home has a living room, family room with vaulted ceilings, a dining room with a dry bar area, and an office. There’s also a three-season room, a back patio, and a fenced yard.
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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.
Readers were asked to draw a line where they believed South Jersey starts. Here is every individual submission we received. As you can see, the lines are scattered across the state, but there is a focus on the center of the state.
In the end, the average divider marking South Jersey sat near Burlington, Trenton, and just south of Toms River.
There were many factors that influenced where people drew their line, from using towns and counties to highways and area codes as boundaries.
I-195 was a popular point of division. “The dividing line in my mind is I-195, which goes from around Trenton east to the shore,” Will Dean from South Jersey wrote.
story continues after advertisement
Cultural factors also played a role. Eagles or Giants? Phillies or Mets? Flyers or Devils? Taylor ham or pork roll?
According to an analysis of Twitter accounts and what teams they follow, the county divide between Eagles fans and Giants fans tracks very closely with where readers drew the line.
After readers answered where South Jersey starts, we asked the more controversial question: Does Central Jersey exist? An overwhelming 74% of readers said that it did.
If a reader said yes, we challenged them again to draw the line between North and Central Jersey. Every line represents a submission.
Rebecca Overholt, a reader who has lived in all regions of the state, said of Central Jersey: "You get NYC and Philly stations in both TV and radio. You can find Eagles fans, Giants fans, and Jets fans all on the same block, and the only reason they get along is the jerk who flies a Dallas flag.”
Julie Lawson, another reader from South Jersey, weighed in, saying: “South and North Jersey are distinctly different. Central Jersey is amorphous and sort of exists where the two mix, sort of like the brackish water between fresh and saltwater.”
The average line was south of Hillsborough and New Brunswick.
“Happy to see a majority think Central Jersey exists because it does. I'd argue that New Brunswick is the dividing line; its county name, MIDDLEsex, screams Central Jersey,” said Tim Quinn, a Central Jersey reader.
As you can see, we are far from reaching a consensus here.
Maybe the one point New Jerseyans can agree on is best said by reader Ryan Wall: “Regardless of whether or not people believe Central Jersey exists, one thing everyone in the Garden State can agree on is that it's the greatest place in the world to call home. Lest we forget: ‘We're from Jersey, baby, and you're not.’”
What should we settle next?
Staff Contributors
Design, development, data, and reporting: Garland Fordice
Lyric Jenkins is a strong student, with a report card full of As and Bs.
She approached her high school selection process seriously, finally zeroing in on a school that checked all her boxes. Jenkins chose Parkway Northwest High School for Peace and Social Justice, she said, because it was an academically rigorous magnet school, safe — and not huge.
“I wanted a small community where I could be seen,” said Jenkins, now a 10th grader at Parkway Northwest in East Germantown.
Last month, Jenkins was “shocked” to find her school was being targeted for closure, in part because of the very size that drew her to choose it.
Philadelphia School District officials have proposed closing Parkway Northwest and 19 other schools, colocating six more and modernizing 159 under a sweeping facilities plan. The proposal calls for closing Parkway Northwest in 2027 and making it an honors program inside Martin Luther King, a large comprehensive high school about half a mile away.
Student Alasia Payne speaks during a rally for peace and social justice on Wednesday outside Parkway Northwest in protest of its potential closure.
That plan has drawn fire from many, including more than 100 Parkway Northwest students, who walked out of school en masse Wednesday to protest — waving signs, singing, and banging drums.
Those fighting to save the school argue that its small size is an asset, and enrollment has been growing, and they have expressed safety concerns about sending children to Martin Luther King.
More students choosing Parkway NW
District leaders have said their plan is not motivated by finances, though there is clearly a desire to shrink the school system’s footprint, with 70,000 empty seats citywide. Some schools are less than a quarter full, and others, mostly in the Northeast, don’t have enough room to accommodate all the students enrolled.
Superintendent Tony B. Watlington Sr. said the plan will provide a stronger and more equitable education for students citywide.
Closing Parkway Northwest is part of a strategy to shut a handful of small district magnet or citywide schools, moving them into reinvigorate neighborhood high schools.
That strategy has been uniformly denounced by staff, students, and parents at Parkway Northwest and the other schools that would be forced to surrender their independence — Parkway West, Motivation, Lankenau, and Robeson. All have been affected by changes to the district’s special admission process, which shifted the district to a strict centralized lottery, stripping away from schools the ability to have any discretion over their incoming classes.
Student Dane McFarland speaks during a rally outside Parkway Northwest High School on Wednesday.
The school has worked diligently to build enrollment back up, said Beth Ziegenfus, Parkway Northwest’s school-based teacher leader and the coordinator of its robust dual enrollment program.
“More students have been choosing Parkway,” Ziegenfus said. “If you think about what our projected enrollment is for next year, we’re looking at an extra 150 kids that we could have here.”
The closure recommendation discounts that growth, Ziegenfus said, and it also threatens students like Jenkins.
“These small schools offer something to students who don’t thrive in large environments,” said Ziegenfus. “There is something to be said about kids knowing every single adult in the school — it contributes to the safety. When every child knows you and you know every child, you’re able to offer support, or redirect behaviors, or offer assistance.”
Ziegenfus spent years teaching at Frankford, another large neighborhood school. She said shecares about comprehensive high schools, sees their value, and believes they need more resources. But those resources shouldn’t come at the expense of Parkway and other small schools.
“We should invest in King, but two things can be true at the same time. We need Parkway,” said Ziegenfus. “They’re really disrupting the children here, and the children at King, and the incoming kids who are going through the school selection process.”
‘They’re going to flee somewhere else’
At recentdistrict meetings about the proposed Parkway Northwest closure, anger bubbled over.
Students, teachers, and community members disputed the district’s statistics around the school in a meeting with district officials, saying its 60% building capacity score was off.
But mostly, they raised alarms about safety.
“My question is, how will I be able to grow my education at a bigger school if I don’t even feel safe there?” said Sanai Williams, a Parkway Northwest 10th grader. “I don’t feel like I’m going to be able to grow my education if I’m watching my back, thinking I’m going to get attacked every which way at King.”
Parkway Northwest High School in Philadelphia.
Rodrigo Fernández, the Parkway Northwest Spanish teacher, said he was frustrated by a perceived lack of real opportunity to shape the plan.
“You are not listening to us,” Fernández said. “You haven’t heard one single person saying, ‘I am excited about this plan.’ If you want to retain our students, you won’t retain them by doing this. They’re going to flee somewhere else. They didn’t choose that setting.”
Over 1,500 community members have signed a Change.org petition calling for the district to reverse the closure recommendation.
A peace and social justice mission
Parkway Northwest, said Elliott Seif — a retired educator and author who’s volunteered at Parkway Northwest for 15 years — is being offered up as “sacrificial lamb to do something at Martin Luther King, which it may not be able to do.”
And Paula Paul, another longtime Parkway Northwest volunteer, said the very nature of the school makes it essential in the city.
Students walked out of Parkway Northwest on Wednesday to protest its closure.
“Does not our city need a school devoted to peace, social justice, and violence prevention, and one where people have formed a community that is functional, a school that works, a school where kids want to be?” Paul asked district officials. “We’ve been struggling to get schools that are functioning, not to lose students, for students to feel safe, to feel connected. Why would we close this school?”
Watlington is expected to present his plan to the school board Thursday, but the board will not vote then. A date for the final decision on closures and other changes has not yet been set.
WASHINGTON — The Justice Department said Wednesday that it was looking into whether it improperly withheld documents from the Jeffrey Epstein files after several news organizations reported that some records involving uncorroborated accusations made by a woman against President Donald Trump were not among those released to the public.
The announcement followed news reports saying that a massive tranche of records released by the Justice Department did not include several summaries of interviews that the FBI conducted with an unidentified woman who came forward after Epstein’s 2019 arrest and claimed to have been sexually assaulted by both Trump and Epstein when she was a minor in the 1980s.
“Several individuals and news outlets have recently flagged files related to documents produced to Ghislaine Maxwell in discovery of her criminal case that they claim appear to be missing,” the Justice Department said in a post on X. “As with all documents that have been flagged by the public, the Department is currently reviewing files within that category of the production.” Maxwell, Epstein’s longtime confidant, is serving a 20-year prison sentence on a sex trafficking conviction.
It said that if any document is found to have been improperly withheld and is responsive to the federally enacted law mandating the files’ release, “the Department will of course publish it, consistent with the law.”
At issue is a series of interviews said to have been conducted in 2019 with a woman who made an allegation against Trump, who has consistently denied any wrongdoing in connection with Epstein. News reports from recent days say the accuser was interviewed four times but a summary of only one of those interviews was included in the publicly released files.
The missing records were earlier reported by the journalist Roger Sollenberger on Substack and NPR, and have since been documented by other news organizations, including the New York Times, MS Now, and CNN.
Rep. Robert Garcia, the top Democrat on the House Oversight Committee, said in a statement that his panel would investigate the withheld records. He said he had reviewed unredacted evidence logs and “can confirm that the DOJ appears to have illegally withheld FBI interviews” with the accuser.
The Justice Department last month said it was releasing more than 3 million pages of records related to Epstein, who took his own life in a New York jail cell in 2019 while awaiting trial on sex trafficking charges. The department said at the time that, though it was attempting to be transparent, it was also entitled to withhold records that exposed potential abuse victims, were duplicates or protected by legal privileges, or related to an ongoing criminal investigation.
“Some of the documents contain untrue and sensationalist claims against President Trump that were submitted to the FBI right before the 2020 election. To be clear, the claims are unfounded and false, and if they have a shred of credibility, they certainly would have been weaponized against President Trump already,” the department said in a statement last month as it released the records.
The redaction process was quickly revealed to have been flawed, with the department withdrawing some materials identified by victims or their lawyers, along with a “substantial number” of documents identified independently by the government.
Lawyers for Epstein accusers told a New York judge last month that the lives of nearly 100 victims had been “turned upside down” by sloppy redactions in the government’s latest release of records. The exposed materials include nude photos showing the faces of potential victims as well as names, email addresses, and other identifying information that was either unredacted or not fully obscured.
Other uncorroborated claims against Trump and other public figures were included in the publicly available files. The department did not say in its social media post Wednesday why records related to this specific accusation might have been withheld.
WASHINGTON — Vice President JD Vance announced Wednesday that the Trump administration would “temporarily halt” some Medicaid funding to the state of Minnesota over fraud concerns, as part of what he described as an aggressive crackdown on misuse of public funds.
Vance, who made the announcement with Mehmet Oz, the administrator for the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, said the administration was taking the action “in order to ensure that the state of Minnesota takes its obligations seriously to be good stewards of the American people’s tax money.”
Oz, who referred to people committing fraud as “self-serving scoundrels,” said the federal government would hold off on paying $259.5 million to Minnesota in funding for Medicaid, the healthcare safety net for low-income Americans.
“This is not a problem with the people of Minnesota, it’s a problem with the leadership of Minnesota and other states who do not take Medicaid preservation seriously,” Oz said.
Wednesday’s move is part of a larger Trump administration effort to spotlight fraud around the country. That effort comes after allegations of fraud involving daycare centers run by Somali residents in Minneapolis prompted a massive immigration crackdown in the Midwestern city, resulting in widespread protests. President Donald Trump, in his State of the Union address on Tuesday, announced Vance would spearhead a national “war on fraud.”
Trump also recently nominated Colin McDonald to serve as the first assistant attorney general in charge of a Justice Department division dedicated to rooting out fraud.
Oz said the administration was simultaneously notifying Minnesota’s Democratic Gov. Tim Walz as he was making the announcement publicly. Messages sent to spokespeople for Walz, former Vice President Kamala Harris’ 2024 running mate, were not immediately returned.
“We will give them the money, but we’re going to hold it and only release it after they propose and act on a comprehensive corrective action plan to solve the problem,” Oz said.
He said Walz would have 60 days to respond and advised healthcare providers and Medicaid beneficiaries who were concerned to contact Walz’s office.
A spokesperson for Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison, whose office investigates Medicaid fraud, referred questions to the state Department of Human Services, which administers Medicaid in the state, A department spokesperson said the agency was preparing a statement.
Earlier Wednesday, Ellison held a news conference to promote legislation that would give his office more staff and new legal tools to combat Medicaid fraud.
Oz said the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services were also taking action to crack down on fraud in Medicare, the healthcare system relied upon by millions of older adults.
He said CMS for six months would block any new Medicare enrollments for suppliers of durable medical equipment, prosthetics, orthotics or other supplies used to treat chronic conditions or assist in injury recovery.
The Office of the Inspector General for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services found last year that Medicare improperly paid suppliers nearly $23 million for durable medical equipment from 2018 through 2024. But it found that most of that was before January 2020, when changes to the system were implemented.
Oz also announced a new crowdsourcing effort he said would help “crush fraud” by soliciting Americans’ tips and suggestions.
“All of us are smarter than any one of us,” he said.
In a news release accompanying the announcement, CMS said the funding being paused in Minnesota included some $244 million in unsupported or potentially fraudulent Medicaid claims and about $15 million in claims involving “individuals lacking a satisfactory immigration status.”
Immigrants who are not living in the U.S. legally, as well as some lawfully present immigrants, are not allowed to enroll in the Medicaid program that provides nearly-free coverage for health services.
CMS said in the release that if Minnesota fails to satisfy its requirements, it may defer up to $1 billion in federal funds to the state over the next year.
A CMS spokesperson didn’t immediately respond to an inquiry about what the agency will require from Minnesota in order to restart the deferred funding.
The administration has threatened to cut off funding for various programs for some Democratic-run states over fraud concerns over the last few months.
One judge blocked those actions and required that payments flowing to Minnesota and four other states — California, Colorado, Illinois and New York — for a variety of social service programs. The government had said that there was “reason to believe” that those states were granting benefits to people in the country illegally. It did not initially explain where that information came from, but a government lawyer told the judge it was largely in reaction to news reports about possible fraud.
Another judge said she would not let it cut off funding for administrative costs for 22 states that have refused to hand over information about applicants and recipients of food aid through the Supplemental Nutritional Assistance Program.
The latest action was prompted in part by a series of fraud cases, including a nonprofit called Feeding Our Future accused of stealing pandemic aid meant for school meals. Prosecutors have put the losses from that case at $300 million.
Since then, Trump has targeted the Somali diaspora in Minnesota with immigration enforcement actions and has made a series of disparaging comments about the community. During his State of the Union address on Tuesday, Trump said “pirates” have “ransacked Minnesota.”
Federal agencies have also been enlisted to assist in targeting fraud in Minnesota.
Last December, the U.S. Treasury Department issued an order requiring money wire services that people use to send money to Somalia to submit additional verification to the Treasury.
The Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services told Minnesota in January that it intended to freeze parts of payments for some Medicaid programs that were deemed high-risk. The state said that those cuts would add up to more than $2 billion annually if they lasted and made an administrative appeal.
Just before 7:30 a.m., the utility truck and passenger vehicle collided along I-295 northbound and overturned into the Hessian Run Tributary near West Deptford High School, officials said.
The occupants were transported to a hospital to be treated for injuries that were not life-threatening, officials said.
The wreckage caused a “significant leak” of fuel into the tributary, and that prompted a response from county hazmat crews to assist firefighters at the scene, officials said. The U.S. Coast Guard and the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection were also notified of the incident.
All road lanes closed for the emergency response were reopened by 1 p.m., officials said.
The Franklin Mall, which many locals still call Franklin Mills, is temporarily closed due to required city inspections after a small fire over the weekend at the once-popular Northeast Philadelphia retail destination that is now listed for sale, the property management said Wednesday.
No injuries were reported after the fire occurred on Feb. 21 within a single tenant space, the management said in a Facebook post.
The Philadelphia Department of Licenses and Inspections “issued a temporary closure notice while required inspections are completed to ensure building safety and building structural integrity,” the post said.
The management said it “immediately engaged licensed professionals and qualified vendors to evaluate the affected area and confirm that all life-safety systems are fully operational.”
City officials could not be reached for comment Wednesday.
The management of Franklin Mall said it was “working closely with city officials to complete all necessary inspections and secure the approvals required to safely reopen the property as quickly as possible. The safety of our tenants, employees, and visitors remains our top priority.”
In the meantime, Walmart, Marshalls and HomeGoods, and Dave & Buster’s remain open for business, according to the mall’s website.
The Inquirer reported in early December that the mall was listed for sale and the 36-year-old, 1.8-million-square-foot facility at Knights and Woodhaven Roads could be repurposed or demolished for non-retail uses.
The mall opened in 1989 to great fanfare as the largest outlet mall ever, with a zigzag-shaped, one-story-tall concourse that stretched for 1.2 miles.
Franklin Mills once attracted 20 million visitors annually, but now has less than a third of that traffic.
Under new ownership, it was renamed Philadelphia Mills, and most recently it has been called Franklin Mall, though a main entrance sign still says Philadelphia Mills.
Nineteen people are expected to be charged in the coming days in connection with a yearslong West Philadelphia gang war that investigators say fueled nearly two dozen shootings — including at least five homicides — across the city, law enforcement officials announced Wednesday.
The defendants include members of the Young Bag Chasers, or YBC, as well as people affiliated with the rival crews caught in a multiyear cycle of retaliation.
Five people were taken into custody Wednesday morning as part of a sweeping investigation by Philadelphia police and prosecutors into the back-and-forth shootings that occurred between 2022 and 2024. Several of those expected to be charged are already behind bars — either awaiting trial or serving sentences for separate crimes.
Nearly two dozen shootings were linked to the feud between YBC and CCK.
Officials said investigators linked nearly two dozen shootings to the groups — with a total of 35 victims between the ages of 5 and 42.
The indictment follows a multiyear probe by Philadelphia police and the District Attorney’s Office’s Gun Violence Task Force into YBC and its affiliated groups — including the Young Face Arrangers and Northwest Philadelphia-based crew PNB — as well as rival members from the Parkside Killers and CCK, a trio of allied crews from West and South Philadelphia.
One of the five homicides solved is that of Zyir Stafford, better known as “Booga,” who was shot and killed by YBC members while leaving work at a North Philadelphia McDonald’s in December 2023.
Police said he was not involved with the feud, but his brother was affiliated with CCK — and so YBC targeted him.
Zyir Stafford, a 22-year-old father of two, was shot and killed in December 2023.
YBC members mocked Stafford’s death online and in songs. They planned to sell weed out of McDonald’s Happy Meal boxes, named albums after him, and filmed music videos inside the fast food restaurants — all attempts to profit off the carnage.
On Wednesday, police said they linked two YBC members to Stafford’s killing: Stephen Weddington, aka Baby Yopp, and Jymir Burbage, aka Lil Mir.
Police also solved the killings of two well-known YBC members.
Tahjae Brooks, 21, a rapper and founding member of YBC known as “Jae100,” was shot and killed in December 2022.
Police said they charged three CCK members with his death: Anthony Lacey-Woodson, or “Pistol P” — who is serving 45 to 90 years in prison for killing three other people — as well as Ronnie Vincent-Quan and Herman “Cherm” Stigall.
In this music video filmed by Marlissa Monay, Tahjae Brooks sings his 2020 song “Hear Me Out.” Brooks, or “Jae100,” was a founder of YBC and the original face and talent of the group.
Six months later, Brooks’ best friend Kameir Scott, or “T.O.,” was shot and killed on the 600 block of North Preston Street. Markees Muhammad, of the Parkside Killers, has been charged with that crime, prosecutors said.
YBC members were charged in two other homicides.
Weddington and Burbage — as well as Hasin Muse and Tatiana Edwards — have been charged with killing Qaadir Cheeks, a CCK affiliate known as “55Qua” who was killed in May 2024 near 55th and Baltimore.
YBC and CCK have been in a violent, public feud for years that became fueled by retaliatory violence and social media.
Most members of YBC and CCK are aspiring drill rappers who write songs about the ongoing shootings and conflicts, trolling homicide victims and their families, and encouraging more violence — and building a social media and music following in the process.
Bill Fritze, supervisor for Gun Violence Task Force, speaks during a news conference on the arrest of 19 people Wednesday.
“The same group of people repeatedly were doing shootings, using the same guns … and bragging about it,” said Assistant District Attorney Anna Walters.
Investigators with the Gun Violence Task Force and police department had been investigating YBC, CCK, and allied groups for at least two years, monitoring their social media pages and music videos, and slowly connecting them to a host of crimes, Walters said.
They used ballistic evidence, phone records, and social media to solve the cases, she said.
One of CCK’s most prominent members — Hasaan Stafford, or Saany Goon — was charged Wednesday with committing four shootings in which no one was injured, officials said.
And prominent YBC member Kasim Brown, aka FSdaBender or “Fat Seem,” was charged with three nonfatal shootings. Brown is currently in federal custody, charged with gun crimes.
In the music video “Bumblebee Gang,” filmed by “DJBey215,” Abdul Vicks, left, smokes a joint as his friends flash a gun to the camera.
The indictment comes even as the number of people affiliated with YBC has dwindled in recent years, and the groups’ feuds have quieted. The face of YBC, Abdul Vicks, aka YBC Dul, was shot and killed in August 2024. Many other members are serving decades in prison for murder.
Still, there were dozens of shootings connected to their feuds that remained unsolved — including the killings of many of YBC’s members.
Capt. James Kearney, head of the police department’s nonfatal shooting unit, said officers are always working to solve shootings even as years have passed.
“They might have thought they got away with it,” he said. “But they didn’t.”
It is a simple, sleek storefront in the Gayborhood. And it is now a welcoming spot.
On Wednesday, Gov. Josh Shapiro, city tourism and marketing leaders, and LGBTQ+ advocates officially opened the Philadelphia Pride Visitor Center, one of the country’s first LGBTQ+ visitor centers.
“We need happy things in the world,” Shapiro said, during a ribbon cutting at the center. “And we need places like this that bring people together. That is the Pennsylvania way.”
Gov. Josh Shapiro opens the Philly Pride Visitor Center Wednesday, Feb. 25, 2026, in the heart of the city’s Gayborhood at 12th & Locust. With him, from left, are Mark Segal, Philadelphia Gay News founder; City Councilmembers Rue Landau and Mark Squilla; and Anne Ryan, Pennsylvania Deputy Secretary of Tourism.
The Philly Pride Center is now just one of a handful of LGBTQ+-dedicated visitor centers in America, including ones in New York and Miami. Opening ahead of Philadelphia’s big summer celebrations for the 250th anniversary of America in 2026, also known as the Semiquincentennial, officials described the center as a symbol that Philadelphia, the city of the nation’s birth, welcomes all.
“At a time when other states are walking away from their LGBTQ+ community, we are walking toward it,” Shapiro said. “At a time when other states are saying ‘no’ to pride-based tourism, we are embracing it.”
Located near 12th and Locust Streets, in a storefront connected to Knock Restaurant and Bar, the center offers visitor services, including itinerary planning, attraction ticketing, and travel information, with a focus on LGBTQ+-affirming destinations, businesses, and cultural institutions. Souvenirs made by LGBTQ+-owned businesses and artists are on sale.
Neil Frauenglass (second from right), chief marketing officer with Visit Philadelphia, is recognized for his work during grand opening of the Philly Pride Visitor Center Wednesday, Feb. 25, 2026, in the heart of the city’s Gayborhood at 12th & Locust. With him, from left, are Donna Jackson Stephans, Philadelphia’s chief diversity, equity and inclusion officer; Philadelphia Visitor Center President and CEO Kathryn Ott Lovell; and Gov. Josh Shapiro.
“The Philly Pride Center reflects something we believe with all of our hearts,” said Kathryn Ott Lovell, president and CEO of Philadelphia Visitor Center Corp., which will run the new center. “That every visitor should feel like they are welcome and that they belong. We want the Philly pride visitor center to be both a very practical resource and a very visible statement about who we are as a city.”
More than a year in the making — and now open Thursday through Monday, noon to 6 p.m., at 1130 Locust Street — the site will represent Philly’s fifth visitor center, including ones at Independence Mall, City Hall, Love Park, and the Parkway Visitor Center & Rocky Shop.
“Philadelphia’s LGBTQ+ history helped shape this country’s story, and the Philly Pride Center brings that legacy forward in a powerful and visible way,” said Angel Val, president and CEO of Visit Philadelphia, which helped found the center, along with Mark Segal, founder and publisher of Philadelphia Gay News. Segal, an activist and author, who was part of the seminal riots at the Stonewall Inn in Greenwich Village in 1969, curated the historical information exhibited at the center, telling of Philly’s long and powerful LGBTQ+ legacy.
Mark Segal, Philadelphia Gay News founder and publisher is interviewed during the grand opening of the Philly Pride Visitor Center Wednesday, Feb. 25, 2026. At left is a photo (circled) of him demonstrating for Gay rights in 1969, part of his newspaper’s 50th Anniversary.
It is a point of pride, Segal said, that the Philly Pride Visitor Center comes at a time when many scholars and activists believe the Trump administration is attempting to sanitize American history.
“At this time in history, there are many people who are trying to erase us and erase our history,” Segal said. “But today, by opening a new Pride Center, which yells and screams ‘visibility and take pride in who you are,’ we’re saying, ‘No, we’re not going to allow anyone to put us back in the closet ever again.’”
Former U.S. Treasury Secretary Larry Summers will resign from teaching at Harvard University amid a campus review of his ties to the late convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, the university announced Wednesday.
Summers, who has been on leave since November and whose name appeared hundreds of times in newly released Epstein files, will step down at the end of the school year, according to a statement from Harvard spokesperson Jason Newton.
“Professor Summers has announced that he will retire from his academic and faculty appointments at Harvard at the end of this academic year and will remain on leave until that time,” Newton said.
In a statement, Summers said it was a difficult decision and expressed gratitude to the students and colleagues he worked with over 50 years.
“Free of formal responsibility, as President Emeritus and a retired professor, I look forward in time to engaging in research, analysis, and commentary on a range of global economic issues,” Summers said.
The Justice Department’s latest release has rippled through academia, uncovering Epstein’s ties to numerous researchers who sought his funding and his friendship even after he became a convicted sex offender. Summers’ resignation follows that of Richard Axel, a Nobel laureate, who on Tuesday announced he would step down as co-director of Columbia University’s Zuckerman Mind Brain Behavior Institute.
Summers served as treasury secretary under former President Bill Clinton and went on to lead Harvard as president for five years starting in 2001. Summers also has Philly-area roots. He grew up in Penn Valley and attended Lower Merion schools, graduating from Harriton High School in the early 1970s.
A trove of files released by the government cast new light on Summers’ relationship with Epstein, which spanned years and included visits to one another at their homes in Massachusetts and New York. The two traded emails on topics ranging from politics and the economy to women and romance.
Summers, who has been married for 20 years, consulted Epstein on a separate relationship with a woman he was tutoring in economics, according to emails from 2018 and 2019. Epstein described himself as Summers’ “wing man” and encouraged persistence. In a 2018 email, Summers said the woman was never his student but he had “known her father for 20 plus years as Chinese economic official.”
“I have a very good life w Lisa kids etc.,” Summers said in a 2018 email, referencing his wife. “Easy to put at risk for something that might not materialize at all or if it does might prove transient.”
In a 2016 email, Summers appeared to use a slur for Asian people while discussing an upcoming meeting between Epstein and an official from a Chinese university.
Responding to previous revelations, Summers last year said he had “great regrets in my life” and that his association with Epstein was a “major error in judgment.”
Harvard officials have publicly said little about Summers’ relationship. When Summers went on leave last year, the university said it was reviewing “individuals at Harvard” who were in the Epstein documents “to evaluate what actions may be warranted.”
Epstein’s ties to Harvard were the focus of a 2020 campus report finding that the financier gave more than $9 million to the Ivy League school, mostly for a center founded by math and biology professor Martin Nowak. The report did not mention Summers’ relationship with Epstein. Nowak was later disciplined by Harvard.
In December, Summers was dealt a lifetime ban from the American Economic Association, a nonprofit scholarly association dedicated to economic research, over his Epstein ties.
At Columbia, Axel said in a statement Tuesday that he regretted his association with Epstein, calling it a “serious error in judgment.” He said he is also giving up his position as an investigator at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute but will continue to research and teach in his laboratory at the Zuckerman Institute in Manhattan.
Axel was one of the 2004 winners of the Nobel Prize in physiology or medicine for discoveries related to the human olfactory system. His name appears more than 600 times in Justice Department files reviewed by the Associated Press, including in emails he exchanged with Epstein and on schedules noting their meetings, dinners and lunches.
In a news article published in 2007, while Epstein was initially under investigation in Florida, the scientist praised Epstein’s intellect, telling New York magazine: “He has the ability to make connections that other minds can’t make. He is extremely smart and probing.”
The resignations are the latest fallout from the Justice Department’s recent release of millions of pages of records pertaining to Epstein and his longtime confidant and former girlfriend Ghislaine Maxwell. Resignations have rippled across the academic, legal and business communities.
In Britain, former Prince Andrew and ex-diplomat Peter Mandelson were arrested because of their connections to Epstein and Maxwell.
