A 16-year-old boy died Monday evening after he was found with a gunshot wound inside a Chipotle restaurant bathroom in an off-campus residential building used by Temple University students.
Around 5:15 p.m., police responded to a report of a shooting victim inside the Chipotle on the ground floor of the The View at Montgomery apartments on Montgomery Avenue at 12th Street.
The victim, who was shot in the chest, was found in the bathroom by an employee, police said. The teen was pronounced dead at the scene at 5:24 p.m.
Police on Tuesday identified the teen as Khyon Smith-Tate, of the city’s Hartranft section.
Chief Inspector Scott Small said the teen was in the bathroom with at least one other juvenile when he was shot. Police found one spent shell casing inside the bathroom, Small said.
“The place was very crowded with customers as well as employees,” but music was being played loudly so it was unclear if anyone heard the gunshot, Small said.
A possible suspect wearing all dark clothing and a backpack was seen on surveillance video fleeing the restaurant, Small said.
A person of interest was detained a few blocks away, Small said. No arrests were reported.
Temple University officials issued a statement notifying the university community about the shooting.
“The loss of life to gun violence is a profound tragedy and there are no words that can make sense of it. Our thoughts are with the victim’s family and loved ones,” John Fry, the university’s president, and Jennifer Griffin, vice president for public safety and chief of police, said in a joint statement.
You just finished watching Back to the Future with your parents and cousins at the multiplex, and now it’s time to pile into the Chevy Caprice wagon with faux wood-paneled sides. You beg your dad to put in the Wham! cassette, one more time.
You’re going to Pizza Hut, of course, and the parking lot is packed. Inside, there are stained-glass lamps hanging over the checkerboard tables, a salad bar, and those red plastic cups.
The server brings out your deep-dish pies. They smell almost buttery. You grab your fork and knife because, well, that’s how you eat at Pizza Hut.
Can you smell it? Taste it? Ah, nostalgia.
A Pizza Hut location in Wyoming County, Pennsylvania, was remodeled into a “classic” location, featuring the salad bar, red, plastic cups and other vintage touches.
If you’re hankering for Pizza Huts of bygone days or places like the “birthday room” at McDonald’s, you often have to travel back into your memory. Not anymore.
Pizza Hut has tapped into the power of nostalgia across the United States by resurrecting some “classic” restaurants. There’s one in Tunkhannock, a small town in the Endless Mountains of Wyoming County, about 140 miles northeast of Philadelphia.
The Pizza Hut, which has been in a shopping center parking lot for decades but was totally revamped — restored? — into a classic location, complete with the red, angled roof.
A Pizza Hut location in Wyoming County, Pennsylvania, was remodeled into a “classic” location, featuring the salad bar, red, plastic cups and other vintage touches.
“No touchscreen kiosks, no sleek redesign, just the classic dine-in Hut experience you thought was gone forever. It’s more than pizza. It’s a full-blown childhood flashback served with breadsticks and a plastic red cup!” the Just Pennsylvania Facebook page wrote in May in a post that received 7,500 shares.
It’s not clear how many Pizza Hut Classic locations exist in the United States, and, oddly, the company did not return multiple requests for comment. According to the Retrologist website, the Tunkhannock location is the only one in Pennsylvania. There appears to be about two dozen in the United States, according to the site, though none in New Jersey or Delaware. The only New York location is in Potsdam, which is closer to Canada than to Pennsylvania.
A plaque on the wall of the Tunkhannock location, written by Pizza Hut founder Dan Carney, explains the concept.
“It reminds us of the Pizza Hut where generations of Americans first fell in love with pizza,” Carney wrote.
When The Inquirer visited early on a recent Monday, a lunch crowd was beginning to file in.
“It was probably 10 years ago that they turned it into a classic, and our business has really exploded in the last year,” said Paul Bender, a shift leader at the Tunkhannock location. “I don’t know how it happened, but people really began to notice. I’ve had customers come in from Wisconsin, Oregon, Michigan, and, obviously, Pennsylvania and New Jersey. We get a lot of people in the parking lot making videos.
Bender said the Tunkhannock location is still hoping for a jukebox and old-style video games, like the tabletop Ms. PAC-MAN.
“That would seal the deal,” Bender said.
Bender has wondered why more iconic chains haven’t created throwback locations, like Pizza Hut. He’s seen the power of nostalgia firsthand.
“Instead, it seems like more and more are getting rid of dine-in altogether, ” Bender said. “But I’ve seen grown men, in tears here, saying they came here with their father and mother.”
Last year, it was reported that a Pittsburgh-area Pizza Hut was bringing back dine-in service, though videos show that it’s only gone half-classic so far.
A Pizza Hut location in Wyoming County, Pennsylvania, was remodeled into a “classic” location, featuring the salad bar, red, plastic cups and other vintage touches.
A Montgomery County office — which one county commissioner described as a far less controversial version of Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency — has helped the county find $14 million in savings within the past year and reduce the deficit by half.
Montgomery County’s Office of Innovation, Strategy, and Performance (OISP), announced in February 2025, spent the last year meeting with department heads to identify areas for cost cutting and streamlining services, such as eliminating almost a dozen vacant positions worth hundreds of thousands of dollars, saving $1.5 million on a prescription benefits provider, and conserving half a million dollars by bringing some county legal services in house.
In 2026, the office could consider integrating artificial intelligence into county services, with the support of all three commissioners, aimed at cutting red tape for residents and county employees.
“It’s kind of like DOGE,” said Commissioner Vice Chair Neil Makhija, a Democrat, noting that the office has “outlived” DOGE’s period of high activity when Musk was in charge before he stepped away last spring.
“We didn’t just take the richest person in the county and tell them to cut, you know, benefits for poor people, which is what the federal DOGE was,” Makhija said.
The office’s work comes on the heels of the county’s $632.7 million operating budget and a roughly $25.5 million deficit, resulting in a 4% property tax increase for residents.
Republicans have made looking for inefficiencies in government part of their brand. But Democratic leaders in Pennsylvania have also started taking on streamlining government.Gov. Josh Shapiro has touted how he’s cut processing time for licensesand accelerated the permitting process for building projects.
And in blue Montgomery County, a bipartisan group of leaders says that responsible government efficiency should be a pillar of good government, regardless of political party.
“What happened with DOGE at the federal level was hard to watch and certainly not the approach that we’re going to take in Montgomery County, but, any leader … has to go through this exercise of are we optimizing our resources? Are we leaving money on the table? Are there opportunities to improve the performance of our people?” said County Commissioner Chair Jamila Winder, a Democrat.
“Like all of those are just disciplines that are industry agnostic, and so I don’t think it’s a Republican or a Democrat thing,” Winder added.
Commissioner Tom DiBello, the only Republican on the board, agrees, saying that he has high expectations for the office and its ability to oversee the adequate spending of taxpayer dollars.
“I mean, that’s our job. It has nothing to do with Republican or Democrat. My feeling, it has to do with taxpayer money,” DiBello said. “We’re supposed to be stewards of taxpayer money.”
Jamila H. Winder (from left), Neil Makhija, and Thomas DiBello are seated together on stage at the Montgomery County Community College gymnasium Wednesday, Jan. 3, 2024, during ceremonies before they were sworn in as Montgomery County’s new Board of Commissioners.
Is artificial intelligence the next step?
The OISP was launched in February 2025 after the office previously served as the county COVID-19 pandemic “Recovery Office,” ensuring approximately $161 million in funds from the American Rescue Plan Act were being used appropriately.
When Stephanie Tipton, deputy chief operating officer, was hired in Montgomery County in September 2024 after more than 16 years in leadership in Philadelphia, county officials started discussing how to translate that oversight practice at the “Recovery Office” to every facet of county spending and performance.
That mentality helped the OISP cut the county deficit in half and focus on ways to reduce it in the long term, such as eliminating longstanding vacant positions around the county, including on the board of assessment, which does real estate evaluations. The office also helped develop performance management standards for departments.
“What we were really interested in is finding things that we could make repeatable year after year, and that would move forward, whether that was restructuring positions and eliminating vacancies that we don’t carry forward” to doing a trend analysis on spending, said Eli Gilman, project director of the 11-person office.He noted that the team was “kind of building a plane while we were flying.”
County governments are always trying to be efficient with taxpayer dollars, said Kyle Kopko, executive director of the County Commissioners Association of Pennsylvania, especially in the aftermath of last year’s state budget impasse. But Montgomery County’s decision to have a dedicated office for efficiency is fairly unique, he said.
“This is something that has become more and more of a focus of counties everywhere just because we’re not sure if we’re going to have the consistency of on-time state funds,” Kopko said.
The next phase for the office? Cutting red tape for residents. And part of that may be through enlisting artificial intelligence, something the county has been examining through the commissioners’ “Advisory Council on Artificial Intelligence for Public Good” established in April 2025.
“The goal here is like, how can we leverage this new and emerging technology to help us make it easier for residents to access services,” Tipton said. “Make it easier, reduce the burden on our frontline staff, so they can spend more time in sort of customer-facing, client-facing activities.”
AI will be something that many counties across Pennsylvania will be grappling with moving forward, Kopko said. Though some counties are wary of using it for sensitive information.
Everyone has a different idea as to what they would want to see AI used for in Montgomery County.
Makhija wants to make court documents accessible by chatbot. Winder says she wants to see AI help county employees be more efficient in their roles. And DiBello, who worked in tech software, said as long as accuracy is prioritized, AI could one day be used in situations where residents don’t have to speak directly to someone.
But first, Tipton said, the county wants to internally test AI tools to “make sure that we have the right sort of governance and guardrails” before launching it to the public.
When Tipton joined Montgomery County she said she had a “clear mandate from the commissioners” to look at department spending. She also wants it to be a transparent process for residents and the office plans to launch an open data site to the public in the second half of 2026.
“We want to make sure that moving forward, when we are making investments in the budget we can really understand more clearly how that is impacting service delivery, so we can tie that more directly to work that we’re doing,” Tipton said.
From left to right: Daquan Brown, Nyshyia Thomas, Tyejuan Brown, and Nesiyah Thomas-Brown, at the funeral for 15-year-old DaJuan Brown in July 2023.
This week, she will return, but to sit on the other side of the room — to see her eldest son in shackles, seated behind plexiglass, charged with three counts of murder, nine counts of attempted murder, and causing a catastrophe and riot.
She said her 21-year-old son feared for his life when he fired his legally owned gun twice down Etting Street the night of July 7, and that prosecutors have charged him with killings he didn’t commit.
But she also feels for the families of the victims — one of them her son’s close friend — and imagines that, if she were in their shoes, she would want everyone who fired a gun to face consequences.
“From being on both sides of this, it’s overwhelming, it’s unfair,” she said. “But I understand.”
Nyshyia Thomas (right) with Tyejuan Brown and Nesiyah Thomas-Brown inside their South Philadelphia home.
The July 7 party on Etting Street was one of two on the block that weekend celebrating the July Fourth holiday and the lives of some young men from the neighborhood who had been killed in recent years. Daquan Brown grew up about a block away and went to see childhood friends, his mother said.
Shortly after 1 a.m., police said, gunfire erupted. Officers responded to find that more than 120 bullets had been fired down the street in nearly all directions, striking neighbors’ homes and cars — and 13 partygoers.
Initially, police thought someone had shot up the party in a targeted attack. But after reviewing video footage, interviewing witnesses, and analyzing ballistics, detectives now believe the partygoers may have unintentionally shot each other.
Police investigate a mass shooting on the 1500 block of South Etting Street on July 7, 2025.
After people heard what they thought was the sound of gunfire — someone at the gathering may have shot once into the air or a car passing by may have backfired — at least 15 people pulled out their weapons and sprayed dozens of shots down the block, police said.
Brown, police said, was among them. As gunfire erupted, he took cover between cars and fired two shots down the block, according to two law enforcement sources who asked not to be named to discuss an ongoing investigation.
Investigators don’t know whether any of the shots Brown fired struck or killed anyone, the sources said. A full ballistics report is still pending, though it may never be able to determine whose bullets struck each victim.
Thomas has tried to come to terms with the police narrative. She is adamant that her son, having fired only two shots, shouldn’t be charged with three counts of murder and 10 counts of attempted murder. He feared for his life and acted in self-defense, she said.
At the same time, she said, had it been her son who was shot and killed that night, she would not want to hear from anyone trying to make sense of it.
Tyejuan Brown and a family member hold Nyshyia Thomas at the funeral of their son, DaJuan Brown, on July 15, 2023. DaJuan’s brother, Daquan, stands to right of Tyejuan.
Still, she finds herself doing that. Brown, who worked as a security guard and has no criminal record, only started carrying the 9mm handgun because of what happened to his brother, she said.
She remembered talking to him before he bought the weapon last year.
“Mom, I lost my brother,” Thomas said he told her. “Y’all not burying me.”
“I kissed him,” she said. “I told him I respect it.”
Brown’s father, Tyejuan, is also jailed with him.
On the night of July 7, she and Tyejuan, the father of her three children, were talking on the porch of her home when they heard dozens of gunshots coming from Etting Street. Tyejuan Brown, she said, took off running toward the party where his son was gathered.
When Thomas reached the block, she said, she found Tyejuan and Daquan covered in blood from carrying bodies to police cruisers.
But police said that when they reviewed surveillance footage from that night, they saw Tyejuan Brown rushing down the street holding a gun, which he is barred from owning because of drug, gun, and assault convictions.
He was arrested in early August and charged with illegal gun possession.
Nyshyia Thomas holds Tyejuan Brown during an interview in 2023 about the loss of their youngest son, DaJuan.
Four days later, they came for his son.
Until recently, Daquan Brown and his father were housed in the same block at Curran-Fromhold Correctional Facility and would speak to each other through a shared cell wall.
Brown is held without bail. Thomas said her family has gathered the $25,000 necessary for the father’s bail, but he has told them not to post it.
“I’m not coming out without my son,” Thomas said he told her.
On the outside, Thomas and her 15-year-old daughter, Nesiyah, are left to grapple with the absence of the three men in their lives they love most.
“I lost one son to gun violence,” Thomas said. “I’ll be damned if I let the system take my other one from me.”
Nyshyia Thomas hugs a photo of her son, DaJuan Brown, on what would have been his 18th birthday in September. Brown was shot and killed in a random mass shooting in July 2023.
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — U.S. President Donald Trump said Iran wants to negotiate with Washington after his threat to strike the Islamic Republic over its crackdown on protesters in nationwide demonstrations that activists said Monday had left at least 646 people dead.
Iran had no direct reaction to Trump’s comments, which came after the foreign minister of Oman — long an interlocutor between Washington and Tehran — traveled to Iran this weekend. It also remains unclear just what Iran could promise, particularly as Trump has set strict demands over its nuclear program and its ballistic missile arsenal, which Tehran insists is crucial for its national defense.
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi, speaking to foreign diplomats in Tehran, insisted “the situation has come under total control” in remarks that blamed Israel and the U.S. for the violence, without offering evidence.
“That’s why the demonstrations turned violent and bloody, to give an excuse to the American president to intervene,” Araghchi said, in comments carried by Al Jazeera. The Qatar-funded network has been allowed to report live from inside Iran, despite the internet being shut off.
However, Araghchi said Iran was “open to diplomacy.” Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Esmail Baghaei said that a channel to the U.S. remained open, but talks needed to be “based on the acceptance of mutual interests and concerns, not a negotiation that is one-sided, unilateral, and based on dictation.”
Meanwhile, pro-government demonstrators flooded the streets on Monday in support of the theocracy, a show of force after days of protests directly challenging the rule of 86-year-old Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. Iranian state television aired chants from the crowd, which appeared to number in the tens of thousands, who shouted “Death to America!” and “Death to Israel!”
Others cried out: “Death to the enemies of God!” Iran’s attorney general has warned that anyone taking part in protests will be considered an “enemy of God,” a death-penalty charge.
On Monday, the U.S. State Department and the U.S. Virtual Embassy Iran issued an urgent warning to U.S. citizens in Iran to “leave now,” citing the surge in violence and communications blackout.
Trump acknowledges proposal for talks
Trump and his national security team have been weighing a range of potential responses against Iran, including cyberattacks and direct strikes by the U.S. or Israel, according to two people familiar with internal White House discussions who weren’t authorized to comment publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity.
“The military is looking at it, and we’re looking at some very strong options,” Trump told reporters on Air Force One on Sunday night. Asked about Iran’s threats of retaliation, he said: “If they do that, we will hit them at levels that they’ve never been hit before.”
Meanwhile, Trump announced Monday that countries doing business with Iran will face 25% tariffs from the United States. Trump announced the tariffs in a social media posting, saying they would be “effective immediately.”
It was the first direct action from the president, who believes exacting tariffs can be a useful tool in prodding friends and foes on the global stage to bend to his will.
Brazil, China, Turkey, the United Arab Emirates, and Russia are among economies that do business with Tehran.
The White House did not immediately offer any further details on the new tariffs.
Trump said that his administration was in talks to set up a meeting with Tehran, but cautioned that he may have to act first as reports of the death toll in Iran mount and the government continues to arrest protesters.
“I think they’re tired of being beat up by the United States,” Trump said. “Iran wants to negotiate.”
Iran, through the country’s parliamentary speaker, warned Sunday that the U.S. military and Israel would be “legitimate targets” if Washington uses force to protect demonstrators.
More than 10,700 people also have been detained over the two weeks of protests, said the U.S.-based Human Rights Activists News Agency, which has been accurate in previous unrest in recent years and gave the latest death toll early Tuesday. It relies on supporters in Iran crosschecking information. It said 512 of the dead were protesters and 134 were security force members.
With the internet down in Iran and phone lines cut off, gauging the demonstrations from abroad has grown more difficult. The Associated Press has been unable to independently assess the toll. Iran’s government hasn’t offered overall casualty figures.
Those abroad fear the information blackout is emboldening hard-liners within Iran’s security services to launch a violent crackdown. Protesters flooded Tehran’s streets on Saturday night into Sunday morning. Online videos purported to show more demonstrations Sunday night into Monday, with a Tehran official acknowledging them in state media.
At 2 p.m. Monday, Iranian state television showed images of demonstrators thronging Tehran toward Enghelab Square, or “Islamic Revolution” Square, in the capital. It had been airing statements all morning from Iranian government, security, and religious leaders to attend the demonstration.
It called the rally an “Iranian uprising against American-Zionist terrorism,” without addressing the underlying anger in the country over the nation’s ailing economy. State television aired images of such demonstrations around the country, trying to signal it had overcome the protests.
Fear pervades Iran’s capital
In Tehran, a witness told the AP that the streets were empty at the sunset call to prayers each night. By the Isha, or nighttime prayer, the streets are deserted.
Part of that stems from the fear of getting caught in the crackdown. Police sent the public a text message that warned: “Given the presence of terrorist groups and armed individuals in some gatherings last night and their plans to cause death, and the firm decision to not tolerate any appeasement and to deal decisively with the rioters, families are strongly advised to take care of their youth and teenagers.”
Another text, which claimed to come from the intelligence arm of the paramilitary Revolutionary Guard, also directly warned people not to take part in demonstrations.
The witness spoke on condition of anonymity due to the ongoing crackdown.
The demonstrations began Dec. 28 over the collapse of the Iranian rial currency, which trades at more than 1.4 million to $1, as iran’s economy is squeezed by international sanctions in part levied over its nuclear program. The protests intensified and grew into calls directly challenging Iran’s theocracy.
Video shows corpses outside capital
Meanwhile, video circulating online purports to show dozens of bodies in a morgue on the outskirts of Iran’s capital.
People with knowledge of the facility and the U.S.-based Human Rights Activists News Agency said Monday that the video shows the Kahrizak Forensic Medicine Center.
In the footage, people are seen walking by dozens of bodies in bags laid out in a large room, attempting to identify those there. In some cases, bodies can be seen lying outside on blue tarps. A large truck can be seen in part of the footage.
Jeffrey Rosen has stepped down as president and CEO of the National Constitution Center after 12 years of leading the private, nonprofit institution.
The center made the announcement Friday on the social media platform LinkedIn.
Rosen will remain as CEO emeritus. Vincent Stango, who has been serving as executive vice president and chief operating officer, has assumed the role as interim president and CEO. The center will conduct a national search for the top leadership position, a spokesperson said Monday.
“It has been an honor to serve the National Constitution Center and to work alongside such an extraordinary board and staff in advancing this mission,” Rosen said in a statement.
“As we approach America’s 250th anniversary, I am proud to pass the baton to Vince and our exceptional leadership team who are fully ready to guide the Center’s next chapter,” Rosen said.
“As CEO Emeritus, I’m looking forward to devoting more time to scholarship, writing, and public engagement around the enduring ideas of the Constitution and the American experiment. This seems like the right time to do that given the exciting programs we have in place for America 250,” Rosen added.
The National Constitution Center is known for awarding the annual Liberty Medal, which has been given to such notable figures in recent years as Volodymyr Zelensky, the president of Ukraine; legendary boxer Muhammad Ali; and then-Supreme Court Justices Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Anthony M. Kennedy.
The center, located at the north end of Independence Mall, was the stage for the only 2024 presidential debate between Kamala Harris and Donald Trump, and has held talks with Supreme Court justices, including in September with Amy Coney Barrett.
Jeffrey Rosen (left), then-president and CEO of the National Constitution Center, speaking during ceremonies as Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky was awarded the 2022 Liberty Medal.
Stango has been with the National Constitution Center for 26 years.
“I’m grateful for the trust our Board of Trustees has placed in me, privileged to work with colleagues whose dedication and talents I admire tremendously, and enormously thankful to Jeffrey Rosen for his 12 years of extraordinary service and the legacy he leaves behind,” Stango said in a statement.
In a 2014 Inquirer interview, Doug DeVos, a board member and president of Amway, said Rosen was picked for the job because of his background as a constitutional scholar and his network of friends at the highest legal levels, including Ginsburg.
“He had the skills to engage people in conversation, and really that was the piece that set him apart. He doesn’t do it in a way that says: ‘Hey, I am really smart. Let me tell you everything I know. It’s more like, ‘Let’s talk,’” DeVos said.
Rosen graduated from Harvard University and earned a Juris Doctor degree from Yale Law School. He served as a law clerk for Chief Judge Abner Mikva of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit.
He was legal affairs editor at the New Republic and found himself interviewing members of the Supreme Court. Rosen was an early advocate for Ginsberg, and she credited him with helping her get the 1993 nomination from President Bill Clinton to the high court.
He is the author of several books, most recently “The Pursuit of Liberty: How Hamilton vs. Jefferson Ignited the Lasting Battle Over Power in America.“
New Jersey officials have filed suit against the large scrap metal recycler EMR over a string of hazardous and “especially dangerous” fires at its facilities, especially in Camden.
One four-alarm fire at an EMR scrapyardon Camden’s Front Street nearly a year ago resulted in black, billowing smoke that could be seen for 15 miles and led to the voluntary evacuation of 100 families.
As a result of that Feb. 21, 2025, fire, the U.K.-based metal recycler agreed in August to pay $6.7 million toward improvements to Camden’s Waterfront South neighborhood. The fire occurred when a lithium ion battery embedded in an item ignited while being recycled.
That fire was one of a dozen at the Camden facilities in the last five years, says the suit filed by the state Attorney General Matthew Platkin and the Department of Environmental Protection (DEP). EMR has several facilities in Camden.
“It is outrageous that EMR has failed to correct the dangerous conditions at its facilities in Camden — conditions that have resulted in over a dozen hazardous fires in recent years that threaten the lives and health of Camden residents,“ Platkin said in a statement. ”We’re taking action today to hold EMR accountable for its reprehensible conduct and to protect Camden residents.”
He accused EMR of turning “a quick buck at the expense of their communities.”
Joseph Balzano, CEO of EMR USA, on Monday pointed to the $6.7 million agreement from August. “It appears the current Attorney General is not aware of … EMR’s fire suppression investments,” he said. “We look forward to working with the State of New Jersey to addressing the scourge of lithium ion battery fires plaguing recycling facilities throughout the country.”
‘Severe harm’
The civil suit, filed Monday in New Jersey Superior Court in Camden, alleges that fires at EMR facilities have created an “ongoing public nuisance.”
It alleges that the company’s facilities are unsafe, and that the company has failed to take steps to remedy those conditions.
As a result, EMR has caused “severe harm” to the “health and well-being” of nearby communities.
EMR’s global headquarters is in England. But the company has various subsidiaries in the U.S. EMR USA Holdings Inc. is a Delaware company with its headquarters on North Front Street in Camden. Both EMR Eastern, LLC and Camden Iron & Metal Inc are subsidiaries with Camden addresses.
The lawsuit alleges that fires related to EMR’s scrap metal operations have occurred in multiple locations. The company also has facilities in Bayonne and Newark. The suit notes a fire that broke out in May 2022 on a barge in the Delaware Bay carrying scrap metal between the company’s Newark and Camden locations.
But the suit singles out the Camden location as the worst with some fires occurring within days of each other.
“Over the last five years, at least 12 major fires have occurred in scrap metal piles at Defendants’ facilities in the Camden Waterfront South neighborhood,” the lawsuit states.
The suit states that the fires filled streets with smoke and air pollution, “causing chemical and burning smells to permeate through homes and causing residents to suffer from asthma and other acute respiratory illnesses.”
It alleges the fires have “caused severe harm to the health and well-being of individuals and communities in the vicinity.”
The Feb. 21, 2025, fire occurred at EMR’s waterfront shredder facility. It started in a large pile of scrap metal material waiting to be shredded. It burned for eight hours before Camden firefighters brought it under control, but took 12 hours to fully extinguish.
The burning pile measured 300 feet by 250 feet, according to the suit, and was roughly two stories high. It was destined for a conveyor belt leading to a four-story building.
The pile, conveyor belt, and building all became fully engulfed in the city’s Waterfront South area, which is home to 2,300 people. The suit states that the community already “experiences disproportionate environmental harm and risks due to exposures or cumulative impacts from environmental hazards.”
The scene at EMR Metal Recycling in Camden on Feb. 22, 2025, the morning after a four-alarm fire.
The fires
Among the fires in Camden since 2020, according to allegations in the suit:
Feb. 18, 2020: “Automobile fluff” caught fire at the shredder facilityon Front Street.
Nov. 29, 2020: EMR failed to notify the DEP of this fire at the Kaighns Avenue facility.
Jan. 29, 2021: EMR failed to notify the DEP in a timely manner when a pile of material three stories high and 300 feet by 150 feet ignited at the shredder facility, causing the nearby Sacred Heart School and 30 families to evacuate. Five firefighters were treated for smoke inhalation and one was hospitalized. Two residents were hospitalized for smoke inhalation.
Feb. 27, 2021: Residue caught fire at the shredder facility and could be seen burning from Philadelphia and the Benjamin Franklin Bridge.
Feb. 28, 2022: A pile of shredded material caught fire at the South Sixth Street facility.
July 21, 2022: A fire occurred at the shredder facility.
July 22, 2022: A fire broke out at the South Sixth Street facility, possibly from a lithium ion battery.
Oct. 18, 2022: During a fire at the shredder facility, residents were offered hotel accommodations by EMR if they needed to evacuate.
July 29, 2024: A pile of material caught fire at the South Sixth Street facility.
“Neighbors of EMR should not have to live in fear of the industrial business next door to them, wondering whether the air is safe to breathe and the company values its role in the community as much as its profits,” DEP commissioner Shawn LaTourette said in a statement.
The suit seeks to make EMR take measures that include adding continual surveillance and monitoring, reducing the height of scrap piles, hiring an engineer to evaluate its facilities and issue a report to the DEP, installing a system that can generate real time reports, and immediately notifying the DEP of any issues.
It seeks a maximum allowable penalty of $1,000 under a nuisances law, and any other money a court might award.
For Brian Lovenduski and J. Bazzel, the week after Christmas turned into horror when a pit bull in Center City attacked their beloved dogs. Now that the canine is in custody, they can’t help but feel a bittersweet sense of solace.
“I feel relieved that the dog is not a danger to other people on the streets, but I have mixed feelings that the authorities didn’t work faster,” Lovenduski said.
Between Dec. 26 and 31, three dogs and two owners were attacked by a pit bull in Center City, leaving behind thousands in veterinary bills and GoFundMe pages asking for help.
Lovenduski’s miniature pinscher, Ziggy, lost a leg after a pit bull lunged at him at 12th and Chestnut Streets. And, Stella, Bazzel’s sheltie pup, required surgery, a plate, and a skin graft to piece her crushed foreleg together, after being attacked at Juniper and Chestnut Streets.
It that intersection where police located the pit bull and her owner, whom they believed to be a homeless woman, on Jan. 6.
Stella, an 11-month-old sheltie, seen here recovering from surgery after she was attacked by a pitbull Dec. 26 in Center City. Police believe the pitbull is responsible for three recent attacks.
Miguel Torres, a spokesperson for the Philadelphia Police Department, said the woman was arrested for an unrelated matter he would not disclose. So far, no charges have been filed in connection with the dog attacks, Torres said.
The pit bull was transported to ACCT for evaluation. She has not been euthanized, but is not a candidate for adoption, said Sarah Barnett, ACCT Philly executive director.
All incidents remain under investigation, police said.
Both Lovenduski and Bazzel were told the pit bull responsible for their dogs’ attacks was in custody at ACCT.
“It’s bittersweet. We have a dog that is not in a great situation, which creates situations for other dogs and other people. I’m relieved, but I’m not happy it had to come to that,” Bazzel said.
Stella, an 11-month-old sheltie, seen here recovering from surgery after she was attacked by a pit bull Dec. 26 in Center City. Police believe the pit bull is responsible for three recent attacks.
Regardless, his full focus is on his 11-month-old puppy, Stella, who is working on her recovery and getting ready for her first birthday on Jan. 23.
Looking at Ziggy, Lovenduski feels like he may be heartbroken forever, but he is pulling strength from seeing his little guy trying to keep going.
“He is this innocent little creature that relies on me for his safety, and this horrible thing happened that changed his life forever,” Lovenduski said. “I never expected to be in this situation, but the kindness of people has really reminded me that even when it feels like the world is rotten, kindness wins among the lost.”
Ziggy, a miniature pinscher, was attacked by a pit bull while being walked by owner, Brian Lovenduski on Dec. 29, 2025. It was one of three known attacks by the pit bull.
MINNEAPOLIS — Minnesota and its two largest cities sued the Trump administration Monday to try to stop an immigration enforcement surge that led to the fatal shooting of a Minneapolis woman by a federal officer and evoked outrage and protests across the country.
The state, joined by Minneapolis and St. Paul, said the Department of Homeland Security is violating the First Amendment and other constitutional protections. The lawsuit seeks a temporary restraining order to halt the enforcement action or limit the operation.
“This is, in essence, a federal invasion of the Twin Cities in Minnesota, and it must stop,” state Attorney General Keith Ellison said at a news conference. “These poorly trained, aggressive, and armed agents of the federal state have terrorized Minnesota with widespread unlawful conduct.”
Homeland Security is pledging to put more than 2,000 immigration officers into Minnesota and says it has made more than 2,000 arrests since December. Immigration and Customs Enforcement has called the surge its largest enforcement operation ever.
The lawsuit accuses the Republican Trump administration of violating free speech rights by targeting a progressive state that favors Democrats and welcomes immigrants.
“They’re targeting us based on what we look and sound like. Our residents are scared. And as local officials, we have a responsibility to act,” said St. Paul Mayor Kaohly Her, who was born in Laos.
Feds say they’re protecting the public
In response, Homeland Security spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin accused Minnesota officials of ignoring public safety.
“President Trump’s job is to protect the American people and enforce the law — no matter who your mayor, governor, or state attorney general is,” McLaughlin said. “That’s what the Trump administration is doing; we have the Constitution on our side on this, and we look forward to proving that in court.”
The government also faces a new lawsuit over over a similar crackdown in Illinois. More than 4,300 people were arrested last year in Operation Midway Blitz as patrols of masked agents swept the Chicago area. The lawsuit by the city and state says the campaign had a chilling effect, making residents afraid to leave home or use public services.
Since the deployment in the Twin Cities, whistle-burst warnings by grassroots activists are commonly heard when agents flood streets. Witnesses have regularly posted video of federal officers using tear gas to discourage the public from following them.
Earlier Monday, agents fired tear gas to break up a crowd of people who showed up to see the aftermath of a car crash in Minneapolis, just a few blocks from where Renee Good was fatally shot.
A crowd emerged to witness a man being questioned by agents who had rear-ended his car. Agents used tear gas to try to discourage the group, then drove off as people screamed, “cowards!”
“I’m glad they didn’t shoot me or something,” Christian Molina told reporters.
Standing near his mangled fender, he wondered aloud: “Who’s going to pay for my car?”
Trump administration officials have repeatedly defended the immigration agent who shot her, saying Good and her vehicle presented a threat. But that explanation has been widely panned by Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz and others based on videos of the confrontation.
Students walk out of school
Hundreds of students walked out of Roosevelt High School in Minneapolis, where federal agents had deployed tear gas on students and staff last week. Adults wearing safety vests cleared traffic, and many parents who are Roosevelt alumni showed up in old school wear.
Marchers held signs that said, “ICE out” and “Welcome to Panem,” a reference to the dystopian society from the Hunger Games book series.
Meanwhile, in Portland, Ore., federal authorities filed charges against a Venezuelan national who was one of two people shot there by U.S. Border Patrol on Thursday. The U.S. Justice Department said the man used his pickup truck to strike a Border Patrol vehicle and escape the scene with a woman.
They were shot and eventually arrested. Their wounds were not life-threatening. The FBI said there was no video of the incident, unlike the Good shooting.
WASHINGTON — The Justice Department has threatened the Federal Reserve with a criminal indictment over the testimony of Fed Chair Jerome Powell this summer regarding its building renovations, Powell said over the weekend.
It is a major escalation by the administration after repeated attempts by President Donald Trump to exert greater control over the independent institution.
Trump has repeatedly attacked Powell for not cutting its short-term interest rate, and even threatened to fire him. Powell’s caution has infuriated Trump, who has demanded the Fed cut borrowing costs to spur the economy and reduce the interest rates the federal government pays on its debt. That anger has not subsided even after the Fed cut interest rates in three of the final four months of 2025.
Trump has also accused Powell of mismanaging the U.S. central bank’s $2.5 billion building renovation project. In a sharp departure from his previous responses to attacks by Trump, Powell described the threat of criminal charges as simple “pretexts” to undermine the Fed’s independence when it comes to setting interest rates.
Trump is already seeking to fire Federal Reserve Governor Lisa Cook over unproven allegations that she committed mortgage fraud. The allegation was made over the summer by Bill Pulte, a Trump appointee to the Federal Housing Administration.
Here are some reasons why the independence of the U.S. Federal Reserve is guarded so closely.
Why the Fed’s independence matters
The Fed wields extensive power over the U.S. economy. By cutting the short-term interest rate it controls — which it typically does when the economy falters — the Fed can make borrowing cheaper and encourage more spending, accelerating growth and hiring. When it raises the rate — which it does to cool the economy and combat inflation — it can weaken the economy and cause job losses.
Economists have long preferred independent central banks because they can more easily take unpopular steps to fight inflation, such as raise interest rates, which makes borrowing to buy a home, car, or appliances more expensive.
The importance of an independent Fed was cemented for most economists after the extended inflation spike of the 1970s and early 1980s. Former Fed Chair Arthur Burns has been widely blamed for allowing the painful inflation of that era to accelerate by succumbing to pressure from President Richard Nixon to keep rates low heading into the 1972 election. Nixon feared higher rates would cost him the election, which he won in a landslide.
Paul Volcker was eventually appointed chair of the Fed in 1979 by President Jimmy Carter, and he pushed the Fed’s short-term rate to the stunningly high level of nearly 20%. (It is currently 3.6%, the lowest it has been in nearly three years.) The eye-popping rates triggered a sharp recession, pushed unemployment to nearly 11%, and spurred widespread protests.
Yet Volcker didn’t flinch. By the mid-1980s, inflation had fallen back into the low single digits. Volcker’s willingness to inflict pain on the economy to throttle inflation is seen by most economists as a key example of the value of an independent Fed.
Investors are watching closely
An effort to fire Powell would almost certainly cause stock prices to fall and bond yields to spike higher, pushing up interest rates on government debt and raising borrowing costs for mortgages, auto loans, and credit card debt. The interest rate on the 10-year Treasury is a benchmark for mortgage rates.
All major U.S. markets slid Monday at the opening bell, bond yields edged higher, and the value of the U.S dollar declined.
Most investors prefer an independent Fed, partly because it typically manages inflation better without being influenced by politics, but also because its decisions are more predictable. Fed officials often publicly discuss how they would alter interest rate policies if economic conditions changed.
If the Fed was more swayed by politics, it would be harder for financial markets to anticipate — or understand — its decisions.
While the Fed controls a short-term rate, financial markets determine longer-term borrowing costs for mortgages and other loans. And if investors worry that inflation will stay high, they will demand higher yields on government bonds, pushing up borrowing costs across the economy.
In Turkey, for example, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan forced the central bank to keep interest rates low in the early 2020s, even as inflation spiked to 85%. In 2023, Erdogan allowed the central bank more independence, which has helped bring down inflation, but short-term interest rates rose to 50% to fight inflation, and remain high.
Fed’s independence doesn’t mean it’s unaccountable
Fed chairs like Powell are appointed by the president to serve four-year terms and have to be confirmed by the Senate. The president also appoints the six other members of the Fed’s governing board, who can serve staggered terms of up to 14 years.
Those appointments can allow a president over time to significantly alter the Fed’s policies. Former President Joe Biden appointed four of the current seven members: Powell, Cook, Philip Jefferson, and Michael Barr. A fifth Biden appointee, Adriana Kugler, stepped down unexpectedly on Aug. 1, about five months before the end of her term. Trump has already nominated his top economist, Stephen Miran, as a potential replacement, though he will require Senate approval. Cook’s term ends in 2038, so forcing her out would allow Trump to appoint a loyalist sooner.
Trump will be able to replace Powell as Fed chair in May, when Powell’s term expires. Yet 12 members of the Fed’s interest-rate setting committee have a vote on whether to raise or lower interest rates, so even replacing the chair doesn’t guarantee that Fed policy will shift the way Trump wants.
Congress, meanwhile, can set the Fed’s goals through legislation. In 1977, for example, Congress gave the Fed a “dual mandate” to keep prices stable and seek maximum employment. The Fed defines stable prices as inflation at 2%.
The 1977 law also requires the Fed chair to testify before the House and Senate twice every year about the economy and interest rate policy.
Could Trump fire Powell before his term ends?
The Supreme Court last year suggested in a ruling on other independent agencies that a president can’t fire the chair of the Fed just because he doesn’t like the chair’s policy choices. But he may be able to remove him “for cause,” typically interpreted to mean some kind of wrongdoing or negligence.
It’s a likely reason the Trump administration has zeroed in on the building renovation, in hopes it could provide a “for cause” pretext. Still, Powell would likely fight any attempt to remove him, and the case could wind up at the Supreme Court.
