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  • More than half the U.S. threatened with ice, snow, and cold in massive winter storm

    More than half the U.S. threatened with ice, snow, and cold in massive winter storm

    DALLAS — Freezing rain was falling in West Texas on Friday as a huge, dayslong winter storm began a trek that threatened to bring snow, sleet, ice, and bone-chilling temperatures as well as extensive power outages to about half the U.S. population.

    Forecasters warned that catastrophic damage, especially in areas pounded by ice, could rival a hurricane. Schools in Chicago and other Midwestern cities called off classes Friday, airlines canceled thousands of weekend flights, churches moved Sunday services online, and the Grand Ole Opry in Nashville decided to hold its Saturday night radio performance without fans. Carnival parades in Louisiana were canceled or rescheduled.

    At least 182 million people were under watches or warnings for ice and snow and more than 210 million were under cold weather advisories or warnings. In many places, those overlapped. Utility companies braced for power outages because ice-coated trees and power lines can keep falling long after a storm has passed.

    “It’s going to be a big storm,” Maricela Resendiz said as she picked up chicken, eggs, and pizzas at a Dallas store to get her, her 5-year-old son and her boyfriend through the weekend. Her plans: “Staying in, just being out of the way.”

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    Freezing rain was already slickening roads in Lubbock, Texas, on Friday afternoon as temperatures dropped. After sliding into the South with ice and sleet, the storm was expected to move into the Northeast, dumping about a foot of snow from Washington, D.C., through New York and Boston, the National Weather Service predicted.

    Arctic air was the first piece to fall in place

    Arctic air that spilled down from Canada prompted schools throughout the Midwest to cancel classes Friday. With windchills as low as minus 40 degrees Fahrenheit, frostbite could set in within 10 minutes, making it too dangerous to walk to school or wait for the bus.

    In Bismarck, N.D., where the windchill was minus 41 Fahrenheit, Colin Cross cleaned out an empty unit for the apartment complex where he works.

    “I’ve been here awhile and my brain stopped working,” said Cross, bundled up in long johns, two long-sleeved shirts, a jacket, hat, hood, gloves and boots.

    Despite bitter cold, a protest over an immigration crackdown went on as planned in Minnesota, with thousands demonstrating in downtown Minneapolis.

    Nationwide, more than 1,000 flights were delayed or canceled Friday, with well over half of them in Dallas, according to the flight tracking website FlightAware. About 2,300 Saturday flights were canceled.

    In Oklahoma, Department of Transportation workers treated roads with salt brine, the Highway Patrol canceled troopers’ days off, and National Guard units were activated to help stranded drivers.

    The federal government put nearly 30 search and rescue teams on standby. Officials had more than 7 million meals, 600,000 blankets, and 300 generators placed throughout the area the storm was expected to cross, according to the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

    President Donald Trump said via social media that his administration was coordinating with state and local officials and “FEMA is fully prepared to respond.”

    Northeast prepares for heavy snow

    The Northeast could see its heaviest snow in years.

    Boston declared a cold emergency through the weekend, and Connecticut was working with neighboring New York and Massachusetts in case travel restrictions are needed on major highways.

    Connecticut Gov. Ned Lamont urged people to go grocery shopping now and “stay home on Sunday.”

    Philadelphia announced schools would be closed Monday. Superintendent Tony B. Watlington Sr. told students, “It’s also appropriate to have one or two very safe snowball fights.”

    Ice could take down power lines and pipes could freeze

    Once ice and snow end, the frigid air from the north will head south and east. It will take a while to thaw out, an especially dangerous prospect because ice can add hundreds of pounds to power lines and branches and make them more susceptible to snapping, especially if it’s windy.

    In at least 11 Southern states from Texas to Virginia, a majority of homes are heated by electricity, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.

    A severe cold snap five years ago took down much of the power grid in Texas, leaving millions without power for days and resulting in hundreds of deaths. Gov. Greg Abbott said Thursday that won’t happen again, and utility companies were bringing in thousands of employees to help keep the power on.

    Pipes are also at risk.

    In Atlanta, where temperatures could dip to 10 degrees and stay below freezing for 36 hours, M. Cary & Daughters Plumbing co-owner Melissa Cary ordered all the pipe and repair supplies she could get. She said her daily calls could go from about 40 to several hundred.

    “We’re out there; we can’t feel our fingers, our toes; we’re soaking wet,” Cary said. “I keep the hot chocolate and soup coming.”

    People are hunkering down

    Stephen McDonald, who hasn’t had a home in three years, was hoping to get out of the cold in Jackson, Miss. But the Shower Power homeless shelter was adding spray foam insulation and ceiling heaters, keeping it closed until Saturday.

    Friday night’s forecast called for lows near freezing. “Your hands get frozen solid, and they hurt real bad,” said McDonald. “It’s not good.”

    At the University of Georgia in Athens, sophomore Eden England was staying on campus to ride out the weather with her friends, even as the school encouraged students to leave dorms and go home because of concerns about losing power.

    “I was texting my parents and we kind of just realized that whether I’m here or at home, it’s going to suck either way,” England said. “So I’d rather be with my friends, kind of struggling together if anything happens.”

  • Philly parents are worried and shocked over the proposed school closings across the city. And they’re not holding back: ‘That can’t happen.’

    Philly parents are worried and shocked over the proposed school closings across the city. And they’re not holding back: ‘That can’t happen.’

    Letitia Grant was gobsmacked when she learned her daughter’s school was slated for closure.

    “That can’t happen,” she said.

    Penn Treaty High School, where Grant’s daughter is in the eighth grade, is one of 20 schools proposed for closure as part of a massive reshaping of the Philadelphia School District announced Thursday.

    Philly could close 20 schools, colocate 6, and modernize 159: Superintendent Watlington shares his facilities plan

    The plan — which Superintendent Tony B. Watlington Sr. said he would present in full to the school board on Feb. 26 — would affect every neighborhood in the city. In addition to closing 20 schools, it proposes colocating six others, and making changes, including renovations and grade restructuring, at an unspecified number of schools.

    But Grant is focused on what it means for her daughter, who loves her teachers, her counselor, and the friends she has made at the Fishtown school.

    Grant was looking forward to seeing her daughter cross a stage to collect her diploma at Penn Treaty’s 2030 high school graduation, she said. She is not sure what will come next.

    School officials stand by outside for afternoon dismissal at Penn Treaty Middle School, 600 East Thompson Street, in Philadelphia on Thursday, Jan. 22, 2026.

    Penn Treaty, which now has just 345 students in grades six through 12 in a building that can accommodate 1,200, would cease to exist under the plan, and Bodine High, a district magnet in Northern Liberties, would move to the Penn Treaty building and add a middle school.

    After dismissal Thursday, the day families learned of the closure, Grant’s daughter and her friend stopped their biology teacher to chat. The teacher is her daughter’s favorite, Grant said.

    Grant fears the changes will mean the district will be “piling too many kids per classroom.”

    The facilities plan will touch every neighborhood in the city for years to come, with ripples for students, teachers, and families. Here are some of their stories.

    At Waring, parents worry — and prepare to sound off

    As parents dropped their children off Friday morning at the Laura Wheeler Waring School in Spring Garden, faces were grim.

    “We’re pissed off because it’s a great school,” said Isheen Bernard, whose son attended Waring and whose daughter is a third grader there now. Waring was identified for closure; under the plan, Masterman middle school students would eventually take over the building, with Waring students sent to Bache-Martin.

    Isheen Bernard, 48, poses for a portrait after dropping his child off at Laura Wheeler Waring Public School in the Spring Garden section of Philadelphia on the morning of Friday, Jan. 23, 2026. Under a new school district plan, Laura Wheeler Waring Public School would be closing in the 2027-2028 school year.

    Nysheera Roberts graduated from Waring herself, and so did her mother. Now, she has children there, and her nieces and nephews also attend.

    Shutting the school down would be hurtful and heartbreaking, Roberts said. Waring has just under 200 students in a building that can house 437.

    “It’s a piece of our history,” she said.

    Taking her daughter to Bache-Martin would be a major inconvenience for her, her children, and other neighborhood families, Roberts said. Now, she can easily drop her baby off at a nearby daycare before popping over to Waring with her children, then heading off to work. But Bache-Martin is too far for younger children to walk to from the family’s home — a problem because Roberts does not always have access to a car.

    “They shouldn’t be taking our school away from these children,” she said.

    Nysheera Roberts, 35, poses for a portrait after dropping her children off at Laura Wheeler Waring Public School in the Spring Garden section of Philadelphia on the morning of Friday, Jan. 23, 2026. Under a new school district plan, Laura Wheeler Waring Public School would be closing in the 2027-2028 school year.

    Every Waring parent she has spoken to is upset, Roberts said. She knows the district plans to allow public comment on its plan, and thinks affected families won’t hold back.

    “They’re gonna have a lot of parents speaking,” Roberts said. “And I’m gonna be one of them.”

    A Robert Morris parent says teachers need support

    Robert Mack has six children who attend Robert Morris, a K-8 school in North Philadelphia.

    Many schools Mack attended as a child have been closed, so he was not completely surprised that Morris was identified for closure. But he worries about the effect the closing will have on the younger children at the school, who are just settling into the rhythms and routines of Morris.

    “You’re telling kids who are already not used to school to go to a new environment and just kind of pick up where they might have left off,” he said. “That’s not conducive to a positive learning environment.”

    Exterior of Robert Morris Elementary School on Thursday, Aug. 7, 2025, in Philadelphia.

    His older children, who are in fourth through eighth grade, have not always had an easy time — often, the teacher they had in the fall left before the spring, and they had to cope with many new teachers or substitutes.

    “The kids know they’ll be here longer than their teacher in many cases,” Mack said. “Teachers just pass through, and a lot of kids think that way.”

    When Mack was growing up, teachers knew his parents, and they often grew up in the same community as he did, attended the same church. He understands those connections may not still be possible, but said the generational relationships schools used to build produce results.

    “Schools have a lot of behavioral issues that I feel as though permanent teachers who have that longevity, of knowing your mom and having been friends with your auntie, add credibility and respect to a teacher’s voice,” Mack said.

    Moving more students into existing schools will tax those schools, he said. Will they be overcrowded? Can they guarantee equal or better learning outcomes?

    “I think it falls on the school district to pour more resources into teaching staff, because teachers are going to have to wrangle 30 kids in a classroom,” Mack said. “One effort I’d like to see is for the district to identify and vet teachers who want to teach in Philadelphia, in the same schools, for their career.”

    Not on the closing list, but big changes are still coming to Moffet

    Moffet Elementary shows up nowhere on the school closing list.

    But parents at Moffet, in Kensington, learned that massive changes are planned for their school, too. Moffet families were told that children in grades K-4 will be shifted to Hackett Elementary. Moffet, now a K-5, will become a 5-8 school. Hackett is now a K-5; it will become a K-4 with a larger catchment.

    “Parents are very upset,” said Katy Hoffman-Williamson, mother of a first grader and president of Moffet’s Family School Organization. “Our WhatsApp thread is blowing up.”

    Moffet, she said, is “this really special gem of a school in our neighborhood. There’s only two classes per grade, the Family School Organization is super involved, and all the teachers go above and beyond what they’re supposed to do. It’s an incredibly diverse school, a really special place.”

    Technically, Hoffman-Williamson’s catchment school is Ludlow, which was tagged for closure. She chose Moffet carefully and doesn’t love the idea of sending her son to a larger school, or having him transition to a new school in third grade, when he will have to start taking state tests.

    “If I didn’t find a school like this, I would have moved, and there’s so many families that are like mine,” Hoffman-Williamson said. “Some families might find the transition to middle school easier, but for the most part, we’re really upset.”

    Some academics are alarmed

    Julie McWilliams, an anthropologist of education and codirector of the University of Pennsylvania’s urban studies program, studied past city school closings for her forthcoming book Schools for Sale: Disinvestment, Dispossession, and School Building Reuse in Philadelphia.

    McWilliams, who is also a Philadelphia School District parent — her children attend Fanny Jackson Coppin in South Philadelphia — said she was not shocked by the number of school closures, based on history and the district’s messaging this time around.

    But she was “horrified” by some of the choices the district made, including closing William T. Tilden Middle School in Southwest Philadelphia. The 5-8 school previously took in students from two schools in Southwest Philly that the district previously closed. And she hopes that the school board listens to the people these decisions will galvanize.

    “I’m hoping that this is just a starting point to really tease out which choices here are big mistakes and actually were just thoughtless choices,” McWilliams said. “North Philadelphia got crushed in closings last time. Southwest got crushed. I know that’s where the empty seats are, but they’re going to be creating deserts in neighborhoods that have already suffered.”

    Akira Drake Rodriguez, a Penn assistant professor who, with McWilliams, is part of the Stand Up for Philly Schools coalition organizing against closures, was also alarmed by the Tilden closing in particular.

    “That whole neighborhood of Southwest Philly is charter schools,” Rodriguez said. “Do you really think they’re going to stay in traditional public schools when you close Tilden?”

    She predicted enrollments at some schools marked for closure would plummet as parents face uncertainty around their future.

    “The district hasn’t really given people a ton of confidence around managing large-scale modernization efforts,” Rodriguez said.

    Edwin Mayorga, a SUPS member, an Academy at Palumbo parent, and an associate professor of educational studies at Swarthmore College, said any school closure is troubling.

    “It’s about asking ourselves, ‘What are the conditions that have produced a school that has declining enrollments, or toxic conditions in the facility?’ and trying to start from there,” he said.

  • Thousands rally against immigration enforcement in subzero Minnesota temperatures

    Thousands rally against immigration enforcement in subzero Minnesota temperatures

    MINNEAPOLIS — Police arrested about 100 clergy demonstrating against immigration enforcement at Minnesota’s largest airport Friday, and thousands gathered in downtown Minneapolis despite Arctic temperatures to protest the Trump administration’s crackdown.

    The protests are part of a broader movement against President Donald Trump’s increased immigration enforcement across the state, with labor unions, progressive organizations, and clergy urging Minnesotans to stay away from work, school, and even shops. The faith leaders gathered at the airport to protest deportation flights and urge airlines to call for an end to to what the Department of Homeland Security has called its largest-ever immigration enforcement operation.

    The clergy were issued misdemeanor citations of trespassing and failure to comply with a peace officer and were then released, said Jeff Lea, a Metropolitan Airports Commission spokesman. They were arrested outside the main terminal at the Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport because they went beyond the reach of their permit for demonstrating and disrupted airline operations, he said.

    The Rev. Mariah Furness Tollgaard of Hamline Church in St. Paul said police ordered them to leave but she and others decided to stay and be arrested to show support for migrants, including members of her congregation who are afraid to leave their homes. She planned to go back to her church after her brief detention to hold a prayer vigil.

    “We cannot abide living under this federal occupation of Minnesota,” Tollgaard said.

    Protesters demand ICE leave Minnesota

    The Rev. Elizabeth Barish Browne traveled from Cheyenne, Wyo., to participate in the rally in downtown Minneapolis, where the high temperature was minus 9 degrees Fahrenheit despite a bright sun.

    “What’s happening here is clearly immoral,” the Unitarian Universalist minister said. “It’s definitely chilly, but the kind of ice that’s dangerous to us is not the weather.”

    Protesters have gathered daily in the Twin Cities since Jan. 7, when 37-year-old mother of three Renee Good was fatally shot by an Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer. Federal law enforcement officers have repeatedly squared off with community members and activists who track their movements.

    Sam Nelson said he skipped work so he could join the march. He said he’s a former student of the Minneapolis high school where federal agents detained someone after class earlier this month. That arrest led to altercations between federal officers and bystanders.

    “It’s my community,” Nelson said. “Like everyone else, I don’t want ICE on our streets.”

    Organizers said Friday morning that more than 700 businesses statewide have closed in solidarity with the movement, from a bookstore in tiny Grand Marais near the Canadian border to the landmark Guthrie Theater in downtown Minneapolis.

    “We’re achieving something historic,” said Kate Havelin of Indivisible Twin Cities, one of the more than 100 participating groups.

    Detention of a 2-year-old and a 5-year-old

    A 2-year-old was reunited with her mother Friday, a day after she was detained with her father outside of their home in South Minneapolis, lawyer Irina Vaynerman told the Associated Press.

    Vaynerman said they had quickly challenged the family’s detention in federal court. The petition states that the child, a citizen of Ecuador, was brought to the U.S. as a newborn. The child and her father, Elvis Tipan Echeverria, both have a pending asylum application and neither are subject to final orders of removal.

    A U.S. district judge on Thursday had barred the government from transferring the toddler out of state, but she and her father were on a commercial flight to Texas about 20 minutes later, according to court filings. They were flown back Friday.

    Agents arrested Tipan Echeverria during a targeted operation, according to a DHS statement said. DHS said the child’s mother was in the area but refused to take the child.

    Vaynerman rejected that explanation, saying Tipan Echeverria was “not allowed” to bring his 2-year-old to her mother inside their home.

    DHS repeated its allegation Friday that the father of 5-year-old Liam Ramos abandoned him during his arrest by immigration officers in Columbia Heights on Tuesday, leading to the child being detained, too.

    Department spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin said Liam was detained because his father, Adrian Alexander Conejo Arias, “fled from the scene.” The two are detained together at the Dilley Detention Center in Texas, which is intended to hold families. McLaughlin said officers tried to get Liam’s mother to take him, but she refused to accept custody.

    The family’s attorney Marc Prokosch said he thinks the mother refused to open the door to the ICE officers because she was afraid she would be detained. Columbia Heights district superintendent Zena Stenvik said Liam was “used as bait.”

    Prokosch found nothing in state records to suggest Liam’s father has a criminal history.

    On Friday, Border Patrol commander Gregory Bovino sought to shift the narrative away from Liam’s detention by attacking the news media for, in his view, insufficient coverage of children who have lost parents to violence by people in the country illegally. After briefly mentioning the 5-year-old during a news conference, he talked about a mother of five who was killed in August 2023.

    Details from Good’s autopsy

    The Hennepin County Medical Examiner posted an initial autopsy report online for Good that classified her death as a homicide and determined she died from “multiple gunshots wounds.”

    A more detailed independent autopsy commissioned by Good’s family said one bullet pierced the left side her head and exited on the right side. This autopsy, released Wednesday through the Romanucci & Blandin law firm, said bullets also struck her in the arm and breast, although those injuries weren’t immediately life-threatening.

    Antonio Romanucci, an attorney for the family, said in a statement that the family is still awaiting the full report from the medical examiner and “hope that they communicate with Renee’s family and share their report before releasing any further information to the public.”

    A spokesperson for the firm said there were no funeral plans to share yet.

  • U.S. carries out first known strike on alleged drug boat since Maduro’s capture

    U.S. carries out first known strike on alleged drug boat since Maduro’s capture

    WASHINGTON — The U.S. military said Friday that it has carried out a deadly strike on a vessel accused of trafficking drugs in the eastern Pacific Ocean, the first known attack since the raid that captured Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro earlier this month.

    U.S. Southern Command said on social media that the boat was “engaged in narco-trafficking operations” and that the strike killed two people and left one survivor. It said it notified the Coast Guard to launch search and rescue operations for that person.

    A video accompanying the post announcing the latest strike shows a boat moving through the water before exploding in flames. The U.S. military has focused lately on seizing sanctioned oil tankers with connections to Venezuela since the Trump administration launched an audacious raid to capture Maduro and bring him to New York to face drug trafficking charges.

    With the latest military action, there have been 36 known strikes against alleged drug smuggling boats in South American waters since early September that killed at least 117 people, according to announcements from the U.S. military and Trump. The majority of those of strikes have occurred in the Caribbean Sea.

    The last reported boat strikes occurred in late December, when the military said it struck five alleged drug-smuggling boats over two days, killing a total of eight people while others jumped overboard. Days later, the Coast Guard suspended its search.

    The U.S. conducted a large-scale operation in Caracas, the capital of Venezuela, on Jan. 3 that led to the capture of Maduro and his wife, who were then flown to New York to face federal drug trafficking charges.

    Maduro, before his capture, said the U.S. military operations were a thinly veiled effort to oust him from power.

    President Donald Trump has repeatedly said that the U.S. strikes targeting alleged smugglers are having an enormous impact on slowing drug trafficking routes in the Caribbean and eastern Pacific.

    “We’ve stopped — virtually stopped almost 100% of all drugs coming in by water,” Trump said in remarks on Thursday at the World Economic Forum at Davos.

  • Getting ready for the snow and cold? Here are tips to prepare yourself, your house, and your car.

    Getting ready for the snow and cold? Here are tips to prepare yourself, your house, and your car.

    Brace yourself for the cold, Philadelphians, because the first double-digit snowfall in 10 years is potentially heading our way, followed by sub-freezing temperatures that could last the rest of the month.

    Since nowhere is safe from the cold, here are some tips on how to keep yourself from freezing and your property from damage (no burst pipes in sight):

    How to prevent frostbite or hypothermia

    Staying indoors is the best way to keep frostbite and hypothermia at bay, but some must brave the temperature for work, other needs, or emergencies, as even waiting for the bus can take longer if SEPTA experiences storm-related service delays.

    With temperatures forecast in the teens and lower 20s, it is important to keep an eye on your core temperature.

    When you rapidly lose heat or stay wet for too long, it can cause hypothermia, even indoors. This can affect your brain and body, causing slurred speech, confusion, clumsiness, and extreme tiredness.

    Continued exposure to the cold can cause frostbite, as blood stops reaching your fingers, nose, ears, and extremities properly. You can get frostbite even under winter clothing, and it can lead to losing the affected body parts. If you start feeling tingling, numbness, or your skin looks gray or pale, head indoors.

    Frostbite can happen without hypothermia symptoms, and vice versa. Children, older adults, and people with circulation issues are especially at risk

    To prevent both afflictions, stay dry, covered, and layered up, keeping your skin from being exposed.

    Read more for additional tips on staying warm.

    Where to stay warm if you have no heat or are experiencing homelessness

    Four out of five warming centers reached capacity on Thursday, but the city plans to open more and add beds as needed.

    The warming centers remain open at select libraries from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. And shelter beds have been added under the Code Blue declaration.

    Some recreation centers will also serve as warming centers from 9 p.m. to 9 a.m. Find the selected libraries and recreation centers closest to you on the city’s interactive map of warming centers.

    Folks in need of a warm place can go to their local police precinct to be transported to the nearest warming center.

    Read more about the warming centers.

    Avoid slips and falls

    Broken bones and head trauma are no fun. Stay grounded by wearing footwear with enough traction (no sneakers or dress shoes), or traction cleats.

    You can’t control the city roads, but salting your sidewalk properly can help avoid starting your day on the ground, or worse, in the emergency room. As you walk, make sure to lean slightly forward and take shorter steps. You may look like a penguin, but it’s worth it to avoid the pain and medical bills.

    Doing some balance exercise can also help.

    Tips to prevent frozen pipes and safely heat your home

    Much like your body, your home also loses heat in the cold, putting pipes at risk for freezing and bursting. Disconnecting garden hoses and shutting off the valve that feeds them, and keeping faucets slightly open and running can prevent expensive repairs.

    Pipes will begin to freeze when a thermostat is at 39 degrees and lower. Maintaining the thermostat at 50 degrees or above is ideal.

    Read more for tips on how to spot a freezing pipe or what to do if it bursts.

    How to prep your car for freezing weather

    Though they won’t burst, cars get cold too, reducing battery power and creating a risk of being left stranded, especially if the battery is older than two or three years.

    Be ready to jump-start your car. Jumper cables and a portable jumper pack can be helpful. Remember, red clamps to the positive post of the dead battery; black clamps to the negative post of the working battery and to the unpainted metal surface on the engine of the dead car.

    Here is a step-by-step guide on how to jumpstart a car.

  • Why was the slavery exhibit removed from the President’s House? A historian gives context.

    Why was the slavery exhibit removed from the President’s House? A historian gives context.

    For some, the removal of exhibits about slavery at the President’s House Site at Independence National Historical Park on Thursday came as a shock.

    For John Garrison Marks, a historian and author who writes and researches about America’s early years, it looked like history repeating itself.

    In April, Marks will publish his book Thy Will Be Done: George Washington’s Legacy of Slavery and the Fight for American Memory. The book delves into George Washington’s life, his relationship with slavery, and how that relationship has been manipulated by politicians and activists over the last 2½ centuries to serve various narratives.

    Marks talked to The Inquirer about how the removal of the slavery exhibits at the President’s House will become another chapter in the nation’s struggle to reconcile how a man renowned for fighting for freedom forced so many into bondage.

    The following interview has been edited for clarity and brevity.

    Can you tell me a little about the specific history of this site?

    While [Washington] was there, he enslaved at least nine people. He had enslaved people for the entirety of his adult life. He had grown accustomed to being served by enslaved people at his home in Virginia.

    So he brought these people from Mount Vernon to the President’s House in Philadelphia while he was serving as president there, and the major complication that came up with this, and this is one of the things that the historic site did a great job of explaining, is that the state of Pennsylvania passed a law to gradually abolish the institution of slavery in 1780.

    As part of that law, any enslaved person who remained in residence in Pennsylvania for more than six months would be entitled to their freedom. George Washington discovered this soon after assuming the presidency and relocating to Philadelphia, and he also learned, as many future presidents would learn, that the law also would apply to him. He wanted to keep the labor of these people that he enslaved, and so he devised a scheme he very much wanted to be kept secret to rotate enslaved people in and out of Pennsylvania before they had arrived at that six-month mark and would be entitled to their freedom.

    Sometimes he would send people back to Virginia. Sometimes he would just take them across the river to New Jersey for a little while, but he was very aware of this gradual abolition law and worked very hard to make sure that it wouldn’t apply to the people he personally enslaved.

    The tragic irony in that is, at the very same time, George Washington was expressing in letters to people, in private correspondence, how much he supported these Northern gradual abolition laws.

    Was there some sort of moral struggle that we have evidence of that he was experiencing? How was he reconciling these things?

    He writes to people in private, talking about how he recognizes the hypocrisy inherent in him leading a revolution to found a nation dedicated to liberty and equality and his own involvement with slavery.

    There were these statements that he made limiting the nature of his involvement, of trying to establish some limits for himself of how he would and would not engage with the institution of slavery, but he also proved flexible on that point.

    Hercules Posey, the chef that he enslaved in Philadelphia, escapes from slavery and escapes from the Washingtons.

    After that happens, Washington writes in a letter that he’s disappointed because he vowed never to gain another enslaved person by purchase but then says, “Now this is a vow I must break.” So it seems he never even considered the possibility of hiring and paying a free chef.

    How has Washington’s experience with slaves, in general but particularly there, been sort of warped over time?

    In the months after Washington’s death, almost every American would have known that he freed the people he enslaved in his last will and testament, and yet almost no one talked about it.

    There are dozens of biographies of Washington that get published in the decade after his death, and almost none of them acknowledge slavery in any way.

    But there have always been people in America who are dedicated to lifting up that history, to resurfacing Washington’s involvement in slavery. So during the 1932 bicentennial [of Washington’s birth] you have Black educators and activists, Black newspapers who say, if this is going to be about getting back to the real George Washington, now is the time that we have to reckon with his involvement in slavery.

    It happens again, to varying extents, during the Civil Rights Movement as there’s a greater scholarly attention to the histories of slavery and African Americans. You’ve seen it over the course of the last couple decades about what kinds of things can and can’t be taught in American schools.

    Always, the conversation is about Washington, but it’s never just about Washington. It is always about America and what America stands for, and depending on people’s assessment of what the nation is and what it means, that often dictates how they think the story of George Washington and slavery should be treated.

    Why do you think it’s important we have the President’s House as a memorial with the plaques that have been removed? What do you make of the removal of them?

    Trying to hide the nation’s history of slavery has never worked. We’ve been trying it over and over again throughout American history, but there have always been other people who insist that we reckon with this past, that we face it head on, that we include the full story so we can learn from it.

    As we approach the nation’s 250th anniversary, I can’t help but think how many people are going to be visiting Independence Hall, are going to be visiting Independence National Historical Park, who would have had the opportunity to encounter this history of slavery that is so closely tied to our history of the founding and maybe learned it for the first time.

    Eliminating the ability for people to learn from that history, to have conversations about that history, to reckon with what that history should mean for us today is only going to set us farther back. It is going to make much more challenging any effort to move the United States to becoming a more just society.

  • Vance touts the Trump administration’s record against abortion at a Washington rally

    Vance touts the Trump administration’s record against abortion at a Washington rally

    Vice President JD Vance on Friday encouraged anti-abortion activists to “take heart in how far we’ve come” on the quest to limit the practice, listing the Trump administration’s accomplishments including an expansion of a ban on U.S. foreign aid for groups supporting abortion services.

    “There is still much road ahead to travel together,” Vance told attendees at the annual March for Life demonstration, which draws tens of thousands of people annually to Washington. Attendees rallied on the National Mall before heading to the Supreme Court.

    Vance, a Republican, has spent years passionately advocating for Americans to have more children. He repeatedly expressed alarm about declining birth rates as he launched his political career in 2021 with a successful bid for the U.S. Senate in Ohio, and as vice president he has continued on that mission.

    “I want more babies in the United States of America,” Vance said in addressing last year’s March for Life.

    Earlier this week, Vance and his wife, second lady Usha Vance, announced in a social media post they are expecting a son, their fourth child, in late July.

    “Let the record show, you have a vice president who practices what he preaches,” Vance said Friday.

    Vance cited the Supreme Court’s 2022 Dobbs decision, which overturned Roe v. Wade, calling it “the most important Supreme Court decision of my lifetime.” He said President Donald Trump’s leadership and appointment of conservative jurists “put a definitive end to the tyranny of judicial rule on the question of human life.”

    He also lauded the “historic expansion of the Mexico City policy,” the broadening of a ban on U.S. foreign aid for groups supporting abortion services, to include assistance going to international and domestic organizations and agencies that promote gender identity as well as diversity, equity and inclusion programs.

    “We believe that every country in the world has the duty to protect life,” Vance said, to a sea of supporters waving signs reading “Choose Life,” “Make More Babies,” and “I am the Pro-Life Generation.”

    “It’s not our job as the United States of America to promote radical gender ideology,” he said. “It’s our job to promote families and human flourishing.”

    From the Vatican, Pope Leo XIV — the first U.S.-born pope — sent a message of support to participants in the march.

    “I would encourage you, especially the young people, to continue striving to ensure that life is respected in all of its stages,” Leo wrote in a letter shown on a video at the march. “May Jesus, who promised to be with us always, accompany you today as you courageously and peacefully march on behalf of unborn children.”

    On Thursday, an official said the Trump administration was implementing new rules, halting foreign assistance from going not only to groups that provide abortion as a method of family planning but also to those that advocate “gender ideology” and DEI. The official spoke on the condition of anonymity ahead of the rules’ publication in the Federal Register on Friday.

    First established under President Ronald Reagan, a Republican, the policy was rescinded by subsequent Democratic administrations and was reinstated in Trump’s first term.

    With its origins in the 1973 Roe v. Wade decision that nationally enshrined federal protection for abortion rights, the March for Life developed an entrenched presence among conservatives arguing against abortion. In 2017, Trump addressed the march by video, becoming the first sitting U.S. president to make live remarks. Three years later, he attended the event in person, further cementing its role in conservative politics.

    In a video address to this year’s crowd, Trump recounted his administration’s “unprecedented strides to protect innocent life and support the institution of the family like never before,” enumerating his appointment of “judges and justices who believed in interpreting the Constitution as written” and “reflecting on the Dobbs decision that overturned Roe v. Wade.

    Since the June 2022 Supreme Court ruling that overturned Roe, the march has become more celebratory, with organizers relishing a state-by-state fight in legislatures around the country and urging a continued fight until abortion is eliminated.

  • ‘The favorite Auntie’: Woman who died after a car struck her wheelchair remembered at sentencing for the vehicle’s driver

    ‘The favorite Auntie’: Woman who died after a car struck her wheelchair remembered at sentencing for the vehicle’s driver

    She was more than just an unhoused person.

    That’s the way Sharon Cary-Irvine would like the world to remember her sister, Tracey.

    In 2024, Tracey Cary was struck and killed by a 39-year-old driver in Lower Merion as she crossed City Avenue in a wheelchair.

    The driver, Jamal McCullough, assessed his vehicle for damage before fleeing the scene without helping her or calling police, prosecutors said. He turned himself in to authorities after reports of the collision — and his photograph — aired across local news outlets.

    On Friday, McCullough was sentenced in Montgomery County Common Pleas court to serve three to six years in a state prison, the mandatory minimum for such a crime. While prosecutors said he was not at fault in the fatal collision because Cary was crossing outside of a posted crosswalk, they said his actions after the crash were criminal.

    For Cary-Irvine, the hearing was a chance to offer the public a more complete image of her late sister.

    Cary, 61, was an avid reader who loved children, traveling, and the outdoors, according to Cary-Irvine. She was a fan of spelling bee competitions, and she had a sense of humor: she was known for calling up her nieces and nephews and speaking to them as Cookie Monster, her sister said.

    “She had a love of people — babies were her specialty,” Cary-Irvine said. “She was the favorite Auntie. To know Tracey was to love Tracey.”

    Cary was also a mother to a son who is in his 20s, her sister said, and she held a variety of jobs throughout her life, working for the Philadelphia School District, St. Joseph’s University, and later UPS.

    She was a singer of gospel songs, and grew up attending Union Tabernacle Baptist Church in West Philadelphia.

    Before Cary’s death, the siblings’ father died from COVID-19, leading Cary to struggle with mental illness, her sister said. Soon she was living on the street.

    It was on the street where McCullough struck Cary shortly after 2 a.m. on Nov. 11, 2024.

    Surveillance footage showed that McCullough, of East Germantown, struck Cary with enough force to eject her from her wheelchair. After checking on his vehicle, he walked within feet of Cary’s body but did not stop to help her, prosecutors said.

    The father of two was en route to a shift as a sanitation worker with Waste Management.

    During his sentencing, McCullough apologized for the incident, which he said was an accident.

    “I want to apologize for my ignorance, apologize for maybe how I went about things,” McCullough said.

    “If I could take it back, I definitely would.”

    Minutes earlier, Cary-Irvine read a victim impact statement aloud, telling the court that, in her view, McCullough acted “entitled and without remorse” that morning.

    “This sentence is not about revenge — it’s an opportunity, perhaps your last, to reflect honestly on your life,” Cary-Irvine told McCullough.

    “If you do not learn from your mistakes,” she continued, “you will repeat them.”

  • Philly judge was correctly ejected from the bench for political Facebook posts, Pa. Supreme Court says

    Philly judge was correctly ejected from the bench for political Facebook posts, Pa. Supreme Court says

    The Pennsylvania Supreme Court upheld the suspension of former Philadelphia Common Pleas Judge Mark B. Cohen, who was ejected from the bench in 2024 after refusing to stop posting political statements on Facebook.

    Justice Kevin Dougherty, writing for a unanimous court, said that “protecting the efficiency of justice” including the “independence, integrity, and impartiality of the judiciary” is more important than “Cohen’s interest in posting partisan political content on Facebook where the volume and tone of his posts cast him as little more than a spokesperson for the Democratic Party.”

    The former judge was suspended without pay for the remainder of his term in October 2024 by the Pennsylvania Court of Judicial Discipline. The court said Cohen violated the Code of Judicial Conduct when he posted Facebook comments that skewered Republicans and praised Democratic politicians or left-leaning causes.

    The Court of Judicial Discipline’s opinion called Cohen’s behavior unprecedented, especially his refusal to stop posting after having been warned by his superiors.

    “No other case in the history of the Court of Judicial Discipline has involved such defiance post decision,” the opinion reads. “Judges are not allowed to broadcast their political leanings. People appearing before judges deserve fair, unprejudiced jurists.”

    Cohen, 76, is a former member of the statehouse who represented lower Northeast Philadelphia for 42 years. He was elected to the bench in 2017 and was suspended months before the end of his term. Regardless of his suspension, Cohen was ineligible to run for a second term because of Pennsylvania’s judicial mandatory retirement age, which is 75.

    The Inquirer was unable to reach Cohen based on publicly available contact information.

    Cohen appealed his suspension to the Pennsylvania Supreme Court, telling The Inquirer at the time, “this is a pathbreaking case seeking to severely limit freedom of speech.”

    The exact limit on the First Amendment rights of sitting judges is an open question of law that neither the Pennsylvania Supreme Court nor the U.S. Supreme Court has ruled on previously.

    Judges have the right to free speech, including some degree of political speech during their own elections, wrote Dougherty, who campaigned vigorously for his own retention on the state’s highest bench this fall.

    The task of the Supreme Court was to balance the right of a sitting judge freedom of speech with the integrity of the courts in Pennsylvania.

    Cohen “advocated for legislation,“ ”cheered on Democratic politicians,” and “criticized the policies of predominately Republican legislatures,” Dougherty wrote. The former judge made more than 60 posts that were of concern, all from a Facebook page identifying himself as a judge.

    “An ordinary citizen comparing Judge Cohen’s posts with the posts of our state politicians would likely see little distinction,” Dougherty wrote.

    The ruling does not intend to muzzle judges or dissuade all social media use, the opinion said. But judges should, like everyone else, make sure that their social media use “comports with the rules of the position they have voluntarily attained or the organization they have voluntarily chosen to join.”

    Justice David Wecht also wrote a concurring opinion in which he said it was important to distinguish whether political speech from a judge was made during a retention campaign, in which avoiding politics completely is impossible.

    “If the people of this Commonwealth wish to imagine their judiciary to be as pure as the driven snow, and if the people are under some impression that elimination of judicial elections would advance such purity, they are free to alter their Constitution,” Wecht wrote.

  • New grocery stores are coming to Chester County. Here’s what and where.

    New grocery stores are coming to Chester County. Here’s what and where.

    From national chains to homegrown operations, as Chester County continues to grow, so too do the grocery store offerings.

    Here’s a look at some of the stores opening around the county.

    Kimberton Whole Foods expanding

    This spring, locally owned Kimberton Whole Foods will open its largest location in the county in Eagleview Town Center. Construction began in 2024, roughly 20 years after the location in Kimberton Village opened at a former hardware store.

    “We look forward to serving Eagleview and the surrounding communities with healthy, locally sourced grocery options in a customer-focused environment,” Ezra Brett, chief operations officer for Kimberton Whole Foods, said in a statement.

    The new 14,000-square-foot facility will continue the store’s offerings of organic produce, grass-fed meats, specialty cheese, grab-and-go meals, and more.

    The store will join the growing Eagleview Town Center, which offers restaurants, salons and spas, professional offices, daycares, and more.

    West Chester Cooperative slated for opening

    West Chester is slated to get a brick-and-mortar member-owned grocery this year, with West Chester Cooperative at 204 W. Market St.

    Permits were submitted to the borough in December, according to the grocery’s website.

    The cooperative kicked off more than a decade ago, formed by a group of borough residents who wanted sustainable, local alternatives to chain grocery stores.

    Over the next 10 years, the group launched outreach efforts, opened a pop-up market, and did curbside pickup and limited in-store shopping hours. In 2022, it reached 500 member-owners.

    The grocery will be open to all shoppers, but member-owners will receive select benefits.

    Kennett Square is also getting its own cooperative grocery store

    West Chester isn’t the only municipality in Chesco getting a different model of grocery store. Also nearly a decade in the works, Kennett Square’s Kennett Community Grocer is expected to open this spring at 625 E. Cypress St.

    Renovations began in 2025, and the store will offer locally grown produce; dairy, eggs, and meat from county farms; local baked goods and prepared foods; pantry staples from local producers; and a cafe for community members. It will also hold educational and other events led by healthcare professionals and farmers.

    “It felt like doing this was to highlight for everyone that we have this precious land that’s quite beautiful, that is very bountiful with products, not just mushrooms, but meat, dairy, produce, fruit, vegetables,” said Edie Burkey, president of the nonprofit board leading the grocer. “We felt that bringing people together for the common cause of supporting the land that we’re very, very proud to be part of was a good thing.”

    Farmers will get a free cup of coffee at the cafe, which will sell locally roasted coffee, and local teas and honey. The store hopes to partner with the high school’s culinary students for an internship program. Products that don’t sell will be donated to organizations like Philabundance’s Mighty Writers, Children’s Advocacy Centers of Pennsylvania, and others, Burkey said.

    “We all eat, and to create a community around eating — things that are grown around here — and protecting the land so that maybe farmers don’t sell their land to developers, you’re just creating a sense of community in and around an activity that is so vital to every part of your day, every day of the year,” Burkey said.

    Other national chains coming to the county

    Meanwhile, bigger chains are also looking to call the county home. Phoenixville could see two national stores coming in the coming months.

    Construction for an Aldi, an international discount supermarket, began over the summer at 297 Schuylkill Road.

    Meanwhile, Sprouts Farmers Market, the Arizona-based organic and natural grocery store, is also eyeing a location in Phoenixville. Most of the grocer’s local footprint is within Philadelphia, but a Phoenixville location would broaden the store’s reach further west.

    The Phoenixville location is proposed at 808 Valley Forge Road, where the former Royal Bank used to sit. It would operate 7 a.m. to 10 p.m. daily, next to an indoor self-storage facility.