The jingle bells are ringing, the Hanukkah party guest list is filling up, and you still don’t have a present for the coolest, artsiest person on your shopping list.
Looking for a kooky snow globe? Bespoke Eagles memorabilia? An art print unlike any other? Don’t worry! If you’re living on (or traveling to) the Main Line, here’s where you should be shopping for crafty presents.
Sweet Mabel Gallery
Narberth’s Sweet Mabel Gallery is an iconic local business, run by husband-and-wife duo David Stehman and Tracy Tumolo. Sweet Mabel got its start in 2005 when Tumolo took over her grandfather’s former barbershop in Narberth. She and Stehman, who were graphic designers, decided to turn the barbershop into a local gallery and store stocked with colorful American and Canadian folk art.
To celebrate the shop’s 20th anniversary, Sweet Mabel is displaying and selling works from local artists, all under $100. An anniversary ceremony will be held on Dec. 5 from 6-9 p.m. at the storefront on Haverford Avenue. Plus, if you find the perfect gift, Sweet Mabel will wrap it for free.
ArtStar, a Philadelphia gallery and boutique, is bringing a collection of bespoke craft vendors to Ardmore for two weekends this month. The Ardmore Holiday Market, organized in partnership with the Ardmore Initiative, will take place Dec. 6 and 13 from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. at Schauffele Plaza.
Looking for a funky snow globe? A one-of-a-kind charm necklace? Day of the Dead inspired earrings? Ardmore’s Past Present Future is a portal into the world of eclectic antiques and crafts, from embroidered cat-themed pillows to hand-painted ceramic dishes. Sherry Tillman started Past Present Future in Philadelphia in 1976, drawing on her “long-held ties to the local arts and crafts community” to procure unique goods.
Past Present Future is open Mondays through Saturdays from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. and Sundays from noon to 4 p.m. (or later — “If we are still standing, we are still open,” the shop’s Facebook page reads).
Something Different by Eric
Eric Wells‘ store, Something Different by Eric, isn’t just a gift shop, it’s a hub for people with disabilities on the Main Line.
Wells and his mom, Bernadette Wheeler, started the Bryn Mawr store in 2015. The nonprofit shop is staffed entirely by volunteers, including Haverford College students and special education advocates. Wheeler has said Something Different by Eric is part of a larger effort to “educate the community” and help people “see disabled individuals in action.”
In addition to selling unique housewares, Philly- and Main Line-themed trinkets, sports memorabilia, baby gifts, and greeting cards, Something Different by Eric is stocked with books about mental and physical disabilities.
The shop is open from noon to 8 p.m. on Fridays and Saturdays and from 1 to 5 p.m. on Sundays.
This suburban content is produced with support from the Leslie Miller and Richard Worley Foundation and The Lenfest Institute for Journalism. Editorial content is created independently of the project donors. Gifts to support The Inquirer’s high-impact journalism can be made at inquirer.com/donate. A list of Lenfest Institute donors can be found at lenfestinstitute.org/supporters.
WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump praised the leaders of the Democratic Republic of Congo and Rwanda for their courage as they signed onto a deal on Thursday aimed at ending the conflict in eastern Congo and opening the region’s critical mineral reserves to the U.S. government and American companies.
The moment offered Trump — who has repeatedly and with a measure of exaggeration boasted of brokering peace in some of the world’s most entrenched conflicts — another chance to tout himself as a dealmaker extraordinaire on the global stage and make the case that he’s deserving of the Nobel Peace Prize. The U.S. leader hasn’t been shy about his desire to receive the honor.
“It’s a great day for Africa, a great day for the world,” Trump said shortly before the leaders signed the pact. He added, “Today, we’re succeeding where so many others have failed.”
Trump welcomed Presidents Felix Tshisekedi of Congo and Paul Kagame of Rwanda, as well as several officials from other African nations who traveled to Washington to witness the signing, in the same week he contemptuously derided the war-torn country of Somalia and said he did he did not want immigrants from the East African nation in the U.S.
Lauded by the White House as a “historic” agreement brokered by Trump, the pact between Tshisekedi and Kagame follows monthslong peace efforts by the U.S. and partners, including the African Union and Qatar, and finalizes an earlier deal signed in June.
Fighting, meanwhile, continued this week in the conflict-battered region with pockets of clashes reported between the rebels and Congolese soldiers, together with their allied forces. Trump, a Republican, has often said that his mediation has ended the conflict, which some people in Congo say isn’t true.
Still, Kagame and Tshisekedi offered a hopeful tone as they signed onto to the agreement.
“No one was asking President Trump to take up this task. Our region is far from the headlines,” Kagame said. “But when the president saw the opportunity to contribute to peace, he immediately took it.”
“I do believe this day is the beginning of a new path, a demanding path, yes. Indeed, quite difficult,” Tshisekedi said. ”But this is a path where peace will not just be a wish, an aspiration, but a turning point.”
Indeed, analysts say Thursday’s deal also isn’t expected to quickly result in peace. A separate peace deal has been signed between Congo and the M23.
“We are still at war,” said Amani Chibalonza Edith, a 32-year-old resident of Goma, eastern Congo’s key city seized by rebels early this year. “There can be no peace as long as the front lines remain active.”
Rare earth minerals
Thursday’s pact will also build on a Regional Economic Integration Framework previously agreed upon that officials have said will define the terms of economic partnerships involving the three countries.
Trump also announced the United States was signing bilateral agreements with the Congo and Rwanda that will unlock new opportunities for the United States to access critical minerals–deals that will benefit all three nations’ economies.
“And we’ll be involved with sending some of our biggest and greatest U.S. companies over to the two countries,” Trump said. He added, “Everybody’s going to make a lot of money.”
The region, rich in critical minerals, has been of interest to Trump as Washington looks for ways to circumvent China to acquire rare earths, essential to manufacturing fighter jets, cell phones and more. China accounts for nearly 70% of the world’s rare earth mining and controls roughly 90% of global rare earths processing.
Trump hosted the leaders on Thursday morning for one-on-one meetings at the White House as well as a three-way conversation before the signing ceremony at the Institute of Peace in Washington, which the State Department announced on Wednesday has been rebranded “the Donald J. Trump Institute of Peace.”
Later Thursday, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce will host an event that will bring together American business leaders and the Congolese and Rwandan delegations to discuss potential investment opportunities in critical minerals, energy and tourism.
Ongoing clashes
In eastern Congo, meanwhile, residents reported pockets of clashes and rebel advances in various localities. Both the M23 and Congolese forces have accused each other of violating the terms of the ceasefire agreed earlier this year. Fighting has also continued in the central plateaus across South Kivu province.
The hardship in the aftermath of the conflict has worsened following U.S. funding cuts that were crucial for aid support in the conflict.
In rebel-held Goma, which was a regional hub for security and humanitarian efforts before this year’s escalation of fighting, the international airport is closed. Government services such as bank operations have yet to resume and residents have reported a surge in crimes and in the prices of goods.
“We are waiting to see what will happen because so far, both sides continue to clash and attack each other,” said Moise Bauma, a 27-year-old student in rebel-held Bukavu city.
Both Congo and Rwanda, meanwhile, have touted American involvement as a key step towards peace in the region.
“We need that attention from the administration to continue to get to where we need to get to,” Makolo said. “We are under no illusion that this is going to be easy. This is not the end but it’s a good step.”
Conflict’s cause
The conflict can be traced to the aftermath of the 1994 genocide in Rwanda, where Hutu militias killed between 500,000 and 1 million ethnic Tutsi, as well as moderate Hutus and Twa, Indigenous people. When Tutsi-led forces fought back, nearly 2 million Hutus crossed into Congo, fearing reprisals.
Rwandan authorities have accused the Hutus who fled of participating in the genocide and alleged that elements of the Congolese army protected them. They have argued that the militias formed by a small fraction of the Hutus are a threat to Rwanda’s Tutsi population.
Congo’s government has said there can’t be permanent peace if Rwanda doesn’t withdraw its support troops and other support for the M23 in the region. Rwanda, on the other hand, has conditioned a permanent ceasefire on Congo dissolving a local militia that it said is made up of the Hutus and is fighting with the Congolese military.
U.N. experts have said that between 3,000 and 4,000 Rwandan government forces are deployed in eastern Congo, operating alongside the M23. Rwanda denies such support, but says any action taken in the conflict is to protect its territory.
ROGERS, Ark. — She was already separated from her husband, the family breadwinner and father of her two youngest children, and had lost the home they shared in Arkansas.
Then Cristina Osornio was ensnared by the nation’s rapidly expanding immigration enforcement crackdown just months after her husband was deported to Mexico. Following a traffic stop in Benton County, in the state’s northwest corner, she was jailed for several days on an Immigration and Customs Enforcement hold, records show, even though she is a legal permanent U.S. resident and the mother of six children.
Best known as home to Walmart headquarters, the county and the wider region have emerged as a little-known hot spot in the Trump administration’s crackdown, according to an Associated Press review of ICE arrest data, jail records, police reports and interviews with residents, immigration lawyers and watchdogs.
The county offers a window into what the future may hold in places where local and state law enforcement authorities cooperate broadly with ICE, as the Department of Homeland Security offers financial incentives in exchange for help making arrests.
The partnership in Arkansas has led to the detention and deportation of some violent criminals but also repeatedly turned misdemeanor arrests into the first steps toward deportations, records show. The arrests have split apart families, sparked protests and spread fear through the immigrant community, including people born in Mexico, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras and the Marshall Islands.
“Nobody is safe at this point because they are targeting you because of your skin color,” said Osornio, 35, who was born in Mexico but has lived in the U.S. since she was 3 months old.
Her odyssey began in September, when an officer in the city of Rogers cited her for driving without insurance and with a suspended license, body cam video shows. She was arrested on a warrant for missing a court appearance in a misdemeanor case and taken to the Benton County Jail, where an ICE hold was placed on her.
After four days behind bars, she said she was released without explanation. She called it a “very scary” experience that exacerbated her health conditions.
Cristina Osornio and her 3-year-old daughter, Valentina, decorate a Christmas tree in their apartment in Rogers, Ark.
Benton County offers the kind of help ICE wants nationwide
More than 450 people were arrested by ICE at the Benton County Jail from Jan. 1 through Oct. 15, according to ICE arrest data from the University of California Berkeley Deportation Data Project analyzed by AP. That’s more than 1.5 arrests per day in the county of roughly 300,000 people.
Most of the arrests were made through the county’s so-called 287(g) agreement, named for a section of immigration law, that allows deputies to question people who are booked into the jail about their immigration status. In fact, the county’s program accounted for more than 4% of roughly 7,000 arrests nationwide that were attributed to similar programs during the first 9 1/2 months of this year, according to the data.
Under the program, deputies alert ICE to inmates suspected of being in the country illegally, who are usually held without bond and eventually transferred into ICE custody. After a couple of days, they are often moved to the neighboring Washington County Detention Center in Fayetteville, which has long held detainees for ICE, before they are taken to detention centers in Louisiana and potentially deported.
ICE now has more than 1,180 cooperation agreements with state and local law enforcement agencies, up from 135 at the start of the new administration, and it has offered federal payments to cover the costs of training, equipment and salaries in some circumstances. Arrests under the programs have surged in recent months as more agencies get started, ICE data shows.
The growth has been particularly pronounced in Republican-led states such as Florida, where new laws encourage or require such cooperation. Earlier this year, Arkansas Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders signed a law requiring all county sheriffs to cooperate with ICE through either a 287(g) program at the jail or a program in which they serve ICE warrants to expedite detentions and removals.
ICE arrests have surged in Benton County this year
Benton County’s partnership with ICE has been controversial off and on since its inception nearly 20 years ago.
ICE data shows arrests have shot up this year in the county, a Trump stronghold in a heavily Republican state that has a large foreign-born population compared with other parts of Arkansas.
About half of those arrested by ICE through the program have been convicted of crimes, while the other half have charges pending, according to the data. But the severity of the charges ranges widely.
Jail records show those on recent ICE holds include people charged with forgery, sexual assault, drug trafficking, theft, and public intoxication. Offenses related to domestic violence and unsafe driving are among the most common.
Local observers say they have tracked an uptick in people facing ICE detention after traffic stops involving violations such as driving without a license.
“It just feels more aggressive. We’re seeing people detained more frequently on extremely minor charges,” said Nathan Bogart, an immigration attorney. “They’ve kind of just been let off the leash now.”
County officials were unwilling to talk about their partnership with ICE. County Judge Barry Moehring, the county’s chief executive who oversees public safety, referred questions to the sheriff’s office.
Sheriff Shawn Holloway, who has championed the program since his election in 2015, did not respond to several interview requests. The sheriff’s office spokesperson referred questions to ICE.
A routine traffic stop turns into an ICE hold
Body cam video shows that police officer Myles Tucker pulled Osornio over on Sept. 15 in a quiet neighborhood of Rogers as she drove to a bank to get change for her job at the retail chain Five Below.
Tucker said he stopped Osornio because a check of her license plate number indicated that her auto insurance was unconfirmed, and he thought she made a suspicious turn after seeing police.
In addition to issuing tickets for lacking insurance and driving with a suspended license, the officer learned she had a warrant for failing to appear for a misdemeanor domestic violence case. That case stemmed from a 2023 incident in which she argued and fought with her husband.
Osornio disputed that she missed a court hearing. She told the officer that her husband had been deported and that she needed to arrange child care for her children.
During the drive to the jail, Tucker played upbeat Christian-themed music in his patrol vehicle.
He turned down the music to ask Osornio where she was born, saying the information would be required at the jail. “I ask the question because I have to put it on the form, not because I’m trying to get you in trouble,” he said.
Osornio said she was baffled about why she was placed on an ICE hold. She offered to show her residency and Social Security cards, but jail staff told her she would have to meet with an immigration agent in a few days. She said that never happened and instead she was told the hold was “lifted.”
Neither a jail spokesperson nor ICE responded to questions about the matter.
Cpl. Don Lisi, spokesperson for the Rogers Police Department, said his agency has “nothing to do with” the county’s ICE partnership.
But jail records show dozens of the department’s recent arrests have turned into ICE detentions once suspects are booked. Advocates for immigrants allege the department and others nearby engage in racial profiling in traffic stops.
Afraid of racial profiling, local residents take precautions
In interviews, nonwhite residents said they were afraid to drive in northwest Arkansas regardless of whether they had legal status. Some said they leave home only to go to work, have groceries and food delivered rather than eating out, and avoid other activities.
“This is a kind of jail, one would say,” said Ernesto, 73, a school custodian born in Venezuela, from his apartment filled with Christmas decorations. He spoke on the condition that only his first name be used to avoid retaliation.
One of Ernesto’s adult daughters was recently stripped of her asylum status, and his temporary legal status also recently expired. He recently witnessed authorities “taking away people” from a traffic stop.
“Don’t just pull over people because they’re Latino or a foreigner,” he said. “I hope that all this is over soon, that the state of Arkansas sees who are the immigrants that are doing good here.”
Immigration attorney Lilia Pacheco in her vehicle, which has a surveillance camera she installed on the windshield in order to record interactions with police should she be pulled over.
Rogers-based attorney Lilia Pacheco said she started practicing law in the area during the first Trump administration, and “it’s day and night between the first administration as far as enforcement.” She said Benton County authorities have taken their cooperation with ICE to new heights, stepping up traffic stops, assisting with arrests and welcoming undercover agents.
“We’re seeing that shift here, and I think that’s given a rise to the arrests and operations in the area,” she said. “It looks like their relationship is a lot closer than what we anticipated that it would be.”
Pacheco said her husband was recently pulled over in Rogers while taking their daughter to school when he was driving the speed limit and could not understand why. The officer asked for his driver’s license, and he was let go without a ticket, she said.
The family has since installed a dashboard camera in their car so that they can record any future interactions with police after the Supreme Court decision that allowed ICE to racially profile, she said.
Pacheco said many who live in the area are from the state of Guanajuato in Mexico, and fear deportation because of a rise in violence linked to drug cartels. Those from El Salvador fear prolonged detention in their country, which has swept up innocent people in its crackdown on gangs, she said.
After husband’s deportation, family has struggled
Osornio said she has been with her husband, Edwin Sanchez-Mendoza, for eight years. They got together a couple of years after he illegally crossed the border from Mexico when he was in his late teens.
They have two children together, a 5-year-old boy and 3-year-old girl. She said her husband worked in construction, and his salary paid the rent and bills in the home they shared in Bentonville.
Court records show Sanchez-Mendoza was arrested on misdemeanor charges in September 2024 after he was accused of striking one of his teenage stepsons.
Sanchez-Mendoza told police he was restraining the stepson in self-defense and believed the teen called police to scare him since he was not in the country legally. A Bentonville officer wrote in a report that the sheriff’s office should check “the legality of Edwin’s nationality status.”
Sanchez-Mendoza was placed on a hold for ICE at the Benton County Jail. The charges were dropped after ICE transferred him elsewhere in January 2025.
Ultimately, Osornio said her husband ended up at an ICE detention facility in Louisiana, where he found the conditions unbearable. He agreed to be deported and was flown last spring to Mexico, where he has since moved back to his rural hometown and helps on the family farm.
His absence has been devastating financially and emotionally, Osornio said. When they drive past construction sites, their young daughter says, “Look, Mom, Daddy’s working there,” she said.
The family could no longer afford their house. Osornio got the retail job but has struggled to pay for the apartment where they moved and their bills. She’s getting help from a local advocacy organization and asking for help on GoFundMe.
She suffers from high blood pressure and said she suffered a stroke days after her release from jail.
Osornio said Sanchez-Mendoza wants her to move to Mexico, and she and the kids visited him in May. But she’s agonizing over the decision, saying she fears it would put her children in danger of cartel violence and that she knows the U.S. as home.
She’s anxiously waiting for her new permanent residency card to arrive after receiving a temporary extension earlier this year.
“Obviously over there it’s the cartels. But here now the scare is with immigration. Now we don’t know even if we are safe here anymore,” she said. “Ever since that happened to me, I don’t go anywhere. I don’t go out of my house.”
Russian President Vladimir Putin says some proposals in a U.S. plan to end the war in Ukraine are unacceptable to the Kremlin, indicating in comments published Thursday that any deal is still some ways off.
President Donald Trump has set in motion the most intense diplomatic push to stop the fighting since Russia launched the full-scale invasion of its neighbor nearly four years ago. But the effort has once again run into demands that are hard to reconcile, especially over whether Ukraine must give up land to Russia and how it can be kept safe from any future aggression by Moscow.
Trump’s special envoy, Steve Witkoff, and son-in-law Jared Kushner, are set to meet with Ukraine’s lead negotiator, Rustem Umerov, later Thursday in Miami for further talks, according to a senior Trump administration official who wasn’t authorized to comment publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity.
Putin said his five-hour talks Tuesday in the Kremlin with Witkoff and Kushner were “necessary” and “useful,” but also “difficult work,” and some proposals were unacceptable.
Putin spoke to the India Today TV channel before he landed Thursday in New Delhi for a state visit. Ahead of the broadcast of the full interview, Russian state news agencies Tass and RIA Novosti quoted some of his remarks in it.
Tass quoted Putin as saying that in Tuesday’s talks, the sides “had to go through each point” of the U.S. peace proposal, “which is why it took so long.”
“This was a necessary conversation, a very concrete one,” he said, with provisions that Moscow was ready to discuss, while others “we can’t agree to.”
Trump said Wednesday that Witkoff and Kushner came away from their marathon session confident that he wants to find an end to the war. “Their impression was very strongly that he’d like to make a deal,” he added.
Putin refused to elaborate on what Russia could accept or reject, and none of the other officials involved offered details of the talks.
“I think it is premature. Because it could simply disrupt the working regime” of the peace effort, Tass quoted Putin as saying.
European leaders, left on the sidelines by Washington as U.S. officials engage directly with Moscow and Kyiv, have accused Putin of feigning interest in Trump’s peace drive.
French President Emmanuel Macron met in Beijing with China’s leader Xi Jinping, seeking to involve him in pressuring Russia toward a ceasefire. Xi, whose country has provided strong diplomatic support for Putin, did not say respond to France’s call, but said that “China supports all efforts that work towards peace.”
Russian barrages of civilian areas of Ukraine continued overnight into Thursday. A missile struck Kryvyi Rih on Wednesday night, wounding six people, including a 3-year-old girl, according to city administration head Oleksandr Vilkul.
The attack on Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky’s hometown damaged more than 40 residential buildings, a school and domestic gas pipes, Vilkul said.
A 6-year-old girl died in the southern city of Kherson after Russian artillery shelling wounded her the previous day, regional military administration chief Oleksandr Prokudin wrote on Telegram.
The Kherson Thermal Power Plant, which provides heat for over 40,000 residents, shut down Thursday after Russia pounded it with drones and artillery for several days, he said.
Authorities planned emergency meetings to find alternate sources of heating, he said. Until then, tents were erected across the city where residents could warm up and charge electronic devices.
Russia also struck Odesa with drones, wounding six people, while civilian and energy infrastructure was damaged, said Oleh Kiper, head of the regional military administration.
Overall, Russia fired two ballistic missiles and 138 drones at Ukraine overnight, officials said.
Meanwhile, in the Russia-occupied part of the Kherson region, two men were killed by a Ukrainian drone strike on their vehicle Thursday, Moscow-installed regional leader Vladimir Saldo said. A 68-year-old woman was also wounded in the attack, he said.
The family of a Lower Pottsgrove Township man who was accused of beating his wife to death over the mounting cost of their cat’s veterinary care is suing Montgomery County and two medical companies, saying they denied him crucial healthcare while in the county jail, leading to his untimely death.
Barton Seltmann, 84, died in April 2024 from urosepsis from “an undiagnosed and untreated urinary tract infection,” according to the wrongful-death lawsuit, which was filed last week in federal court in Philadelphia.
A neck fracture that Seltmann sustained after falling in his jail cell also contributed to his death, the filing said.
The suit names the county, as well as PrimeCare Medical and Creative Health Services, two companies contracted to provide medical care to inmates at the jail.
Neither company responded to requests for comment. A spokesperson for the Montgomery County Board of Commissioners said the county does not comment on pending litigation.
In interviews after the incident, Seltmann, an Army veteran and former West Pottsgrove Township police officer, seemed to believe his wife was still alive, according to court filings. He did not grasp the reality of the incident and showed early signs of dementia.
A month before his death, a Montgomery County judge dismissed the case against Seltmann, ruling that he was not fit to stand trial because his mental-health faculties and physical condition had deteriorated so significantly.
But Patrick Duffy, the lawyer representing Seltmann’s children, wrote in the lawsuit that Seltmann’s marked decline in health came only while he was incarcerated.
“Despite the obvious signs and symptoms indicating worsening progression of his condition, Mr. Seltmann was denied adequate medical care and intervention which allowed his condition … to develop into a state where it was irreversible and no further care could prevent his death,” Duffy said.
The lawsuit asserts that jail staff did not allow Seltmann’s children to visit him due to the seriousness of the charges he faced at the time, which prevented his deteriorating health from being addressed sooner.
Staff at the prison, including medical providers from PrimeCare and Creative Health Services, made a “calculated decision” to delay providing Seltmann with more intensive treatment in hopes he would soon be transferred to Norristown State Hospital, the suit contends.
During intake at the jail, Seltmann appeared healthy, but by the end of his six weeks there, the lawsuit said, he was struggling to communicate, with “rambling and incoherent speech” and issues focusing.
Seltmann developed a fungal rash on his groin and injuries to his feet and legs that later made it difficult for him to walk, causing him to fall and injure his head.
In the suit, Duffy alleges that these issues were visible to, and known by, staff at the jail, but they refused to make a referral for him for outside care until his body temperature dropped to 86.5 degrees and he was retaining urine.
When Seltmann was taken to Einstein Montgomery Hospital on Jan. 11, 2024, doctors found he had an acute neck fracture from his previous falls at the jail.
He was later transferred to Jefferson Einstein Hospital in Olney, where he died months later.
U.S. Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick plans to introduce a bipartisan bill as early as this week to extend Affordable Care Act subsidies after the prolonged, bitter shutdown battle this fall left the issue unresolved.
Fitzpatrick, a Bucks County Republican, said on Wednesday the bill’s language is “pretty much buttoned up” and has the support of some moderate Republicans and some Democrats.
He said the members of the bill’s working group have been in touch with the White House as they try to get a compromise deal through Congress before healthcare premiums spike when the subsidies expire at the end of the year.
“We’re trying to get to 218 and to 60,” Fitzpatrick said in an interview Wednesday, referencing the minimum vote thresholds to pass the House and Senate. “Anything that’s not designed with that end goal in mind is a futile legislative exercise.”
But Fitzpatrick was candid about the uphill climb to get the needed votes in both chambers weeks after the issue was at the center of the longest government shutdown in history.
Some Republicans don’t want to extend the credits at all, while others want abortion restrictions included.Democrats, meanwhile, have argued for a clean extension of the existing program and opposed an income cap for the enhanced credit.
“We’re trying our best to navigate all this, to figure out how we can do something. You know, nobody’s going to love it, but hopefully enough people are OK with it,” he said.
So far, leadership has not engaged with Fitzpatrick on discussions over an ACA extension compromise, Fitzpatrick said. Republicans have not offered up a proposal, though Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R., S.D.) has promised a vote in the coming weeks. House Democrats have offered a three-year clean extension of the existing tax credits, and are just four votes away from a discharge petition to force a vote, but no Republicans, including Fitzpatrick, have joined them.
But neither Democratic plan looks poised to get the votes needed, making it more of a messaging exercise for the party. And House Speaker Mike Johnson (R., La.) is expected to release his own plan next week, Politico reported Thursday, but it’s unclear whether it will appeal to Democrats, whose support would be needed to pass in the Senate.
“On the right, they think the majority of the GOP conference does not like the premium tax credit structure, and I think the leadership on the left wants to use it as a political issue,” Fitzpatrick said.
That would mean the compromise bill’s only chance for a vote would be via a discharge petition,the tactic recently used to pass legislation to release the Jeffrey Epstein files after House leadership slow-walked the issue.
Fitzpatrick said he would back a discharge petition on the ACA bill but would not be the one to put it forward.
“I’ll support it,” Fitzpatrick said of an ACA discharge. “The question really is: Are 217 of my colleagues? Are they going to allow the perfect to be the enemy of the good? Are they willing to take 80% of something, or they’re going to get 100% of nothing? That’s really going to be the key, because, you know, so many people have so many ‘red lines.’”
Fitzpatrick said he is already committed to using a discharge petition to force legislation on sanctions against Russia amid the war in Ukraine.
What’s in the proposal?
Under the ACA, people who earn less than 400% of the federal poverty level — about $60,000 — are eligible for tax credits on a sliding scale, based on their income, to help offset the monthly cost of an insurance premium.
That tax credit is part of the law, and therefore not expiring. But what will expire is an expansion passed in 2021 when Congress increased financial assistance so that those buying coverage through an Obamacare marketplace do not pay more than 8.5% of their income.
Fitzpatrick’s proposal, awaiting legislative counsel review, would provide a two-year extension of the expiring ACA subsidies, with a cap on those enhanced credits for earners who make 700% of the federal poverty level, about $225,000 for a family of four. Currently there is no income cap on the enhanced credit.
The bill would also expand health savings accounts and crack down on pharmacy benefit managers.
And to appease Republicans concerned about fraud in the program,Fitzpatrick’s bill would implement a $5 monthly fee for low-income enrollees, intended to prompt them to actively confirm their eligibility. There’s an option, requested by Democrats who oppose such a fee, to pay it in a one-time $60 sum to avoid losing coverage.
“This is all like, give one to the left, give one to the right,” Fitzpatrick said.
Not included in the bill are restrictions on abortion, something Fitzpatrick’s Republican colleagues had pushed for.
“We kept that out. I don’t think it has any place in this bill,” Fitzpatrick said. “It would be a death knell to a lot of my colleagues on the left … and I don’t think abortion should be an issue here. This is about lowering healthcare costs for people who really need the assistance.”
Staff writer Sarah Gantz contributed to this article.
The FBI on Thursday arrested a man accused of placing two pipe bombs outside the headquarters of the Republican and Democratic national parties in Washington on the eve of the U.S. Capitol attack, an abrupt breakthrough in an investigation that for years flummoxed law enforcement and spawned conspiracy theories about Jan. 6, 2021.
The arrest marks the first time investigators have publicly identified a suspect in an act that has been an enduring mystery for nearly five years in the shadow of the violent Capitol insurrection.
The suspect was identified as Brian J. Cole Jr., 30, of Woodbridge, Va., but key questions remain unanswered after his arrest on explosives charges, including a possible motive and what connection if any the act had to the assault on the Capitol the following day by supporters of President Donald Trump.
Law enforcement officials used credit purchases of bomb-making materials, cellphone tower data and a license plate reader to zero in on Cole, according to an FBI affidavit filed in the case. The FBI and Justice Department declined to elaborate on what led them to the suspect, but characterized his arrest as the result of a reinvigorated investigation and a fresh analysis of already collected evidence and data.
“Let me be clear: There was no new tip. There was no new witness. Just good, diligent police work and prosecutorial work,” Attorney General Pam Bondi said at a news conference.
Calls to relatives of Cole listed in public records were not immediately returned Thursday. Hours after Cole was taken into custody, unmarked law enforcement vehicles lined the cul-de-sac where Cole’s home is while FBI agents helped shoo away onlookers. Authorities were seen entering the house and examining the trunk of a car nearby.
FBI says the bombs could have killed people
The pipe bombs were placed on the evening of Jan. 5, 2021, near the offices of the Democratic and Republican national committees. Nobody was hurt before the bombs were rendered safe, but the FBI has said both devices could have been lethal.
In the years since, investigators have sought the public’s help in identifying a shadowy subject seen on surveillance camera even as they struggled to determine answers to basic questions, including the person’s gender and motive and whether the act had a clear connection to the riot at the Capitol a day later, when supporters of Trump stormed the building in a bid to halt the certification of the Republican’s 2020 election loss to Democrat Joe Biden.
Seeking a breakthrough, the FBI last January publicized additional information about the investigation, including an estimate that the suspect was about 5 feet, 7 inches tall, as well as previously unreleased video of the suspect placing one of the bombs.
The bureau had for years struggled to pinpoint a suspect despite hundreds of tips, a review of tens of thousands of video files and a significant number of interviews.
Investigative clues
An FBI affidavit filed in connection with Cole’s arrest lays out a series of circumstantial clues that investigators pieced together.
Using information from his bank account and credit cards, authorities discovered he purchased materials in 2019 and 2020 consistent with those used to make the pipe bombs, according to court papers. That included galvanized pipes and white kitchen-style timers, according to the affidavit. The purchases continued even after the devices were placed.
Cole owns a 2017 Nissan Sentra with a Virginia license plate, the affidavit says. About 7:10 p.m. on Jan. 5, 2021, Cole’s vehicle drove past a license plate reader less than a half mile from where the person who placed the devices was first spotted on foot at 7:34 p.m. that night, the document says.
Lack of evidence spawns conspiracy theories
In the absence of harder evidence, Republican lawmakers and right-wing media outlets promoted conspiracy theories about the pipe bombs. House Republicans also criticized security lapses, questioning how law enforcement failed to detect the bombs for 17 hours. Dan Bongino, the current FBI deputy director, floated the possibility last year — before being tapped for his job — that the act was an “inside job” and involved a “massive cover-up.”
The FBI’s top two leaders, Bongino and Director Kash Patel, sought to breathe new life into the investigation despite having openly disparaged the bureau’s broader approach to the Jan. 6 siege and despite Trump’s pardons on his first day back in office of the rioters who stormed the Capitol, including those who violently attacked police with poles and other makeshift weapons.
In a long Nov. 13 post on X, Bongino wrote that the FBI had brought in new personnel to examine the case and “dramatically increased investigative resources” along with the public reward for information “to utilize crowd-sourcing leads.” He said in the same post, addressed to Rep. Thomas Massie, R-Ky., that “a week of near 24-hour work on RECENT open source leads in the case has yet to produce a break through.”
Investigators hunt for clues
Public attention over the years had centered in part on surveillance video, taken the night before the riot, showing the suspect spending close to an hour moving through the surrounding blocks, pausing on a park bench, cutting through an alley and stopping again as a dog walker passed.
The person wore a light sweatshirt, dark pants and sneakers, with a dark backpack slung over one shoulder. Investigators have long said the gait suggested the person was a man, but a surgical mask and hood rendered the face all but impossible to see.
Agents paired their video review with a broad sweep of digital records. They gathered cell tower data showing which phones were active in the neighborhood at the time and issued subpoenas to several tech companies, including Google, for location information.
Investigators also analyzed credit card transactions from hobby shops and major retailers to identify customers who had purchased components resembling those used in the two explosive devices — each roughly 1 foot long and packed with gunpowder and metal, according to two law enforcement officials familiar with the investigation.
Another avenue of the investigation centered on the suspect’s shoes, believed to be Nike Air Max Speed Turfs. After learning from Nike that thousands of pairs had been distributed through more than two dozen retailers, agents filed subpoenas for credit card records from Foot Locker and other chains as they worked to narrow down potential buyers. Still, for years, they had no solid breakthroughs.
For years, Alex Karp, Palantir’s CEO, had declared the data-management company to be “involved in supporting progressive values,” saying he has repeatedly “walked away” from contracts that targeted minorities or that he found otherwise unethical. Even as Palantir took on extensive data-management contracts for the federal government, the company said it was not willing to allow its powerful tools to broadly track immigrants across America.
That commitment no longer holds. Palantir’s software is helping U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement track undocumented immigrants and deport them faster, according to federal procurement filings and interviews with people who have knowledge of the project and who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive details. The software, Immigration OS, plays a key role in supporting the Trump administration’s mass deportation agenda.
Karp, formerly an outspoken Democrat who a decade ago said that he respected “nothing” about Donald Trump and that a deportation drive made “no sense,” has staunchly defended the president’s immigration policies. Declaring Palantir to be “completely anti-woke,” he has repeatedly praised Trump’s ongoing crackdown on immigrants, thrusting the company into one of the country’s most contentious issues.
That shift in political alliances in no way signals a change in his core beliefs, Karp said in a statement to The Washington Post, portraying his commitment to controlling immigration as of a piece with his long-standing devotion to social justice.
“For over two decades, I have implored our political elite to take seriously the truly progressive position on immigration: one of extreme skepticism. To no avail,” Karp said. “Unfettered immigration in Europe, where I lived for well over a decade, has been a disaster — depressing wages for the working class and resulting in mass social dislocation. I remain an economic progressive, isolated among self-proclaimed progressives that are anything but.”
The changes at Palantir have been driven by multiple factors, according to five of the people familiar with the company’s project. Palantir executives saw Trump’s election to a second term as a mandate from voters for stricter border control, the people said, and, like many other companies, Palantir has changed some policies in response to executive orders targeting diversity in hiring and other issues. They added that Karp’s support of Israel after the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas attack has drawn him closer to Republican national security hawks.
Palantir’s federal contracting business has bloomed during the Trump administration. Its September tally of new federal contracts was $128 million, its largest monthly sum on record, according to USASpending.gov. The company’s stock price is up more than 120 percent this year, as it rides its contracting wave and the boom in companies that, like Palantir, are centered on the development and use of AI.
Palantir has long defied simple political characterization. For years, it has worked with administrations of both parties on projects other Silicon Valley firms shunned, such as the Pentagon’s Project Maven AI target identification system. But its support for ICE on a deportation crackdown punctuated by violent clashes and stiff court challenges has sparked debate among current and former employees over whether it runs afoul of the company’s values and endangers its bipartisan profile.
Seven months into the project, which was renewed in late September, some Palantir employees still harbor concerns about Immigration OS, according to two of the people familiar with the matter. They say some Palantir staff members have been discussing whether the contract should be discontinued if ICE’s use of the technology veers into extrajudicial actions or violate the company’s civil liberties principles. It couldn’t be determined whether the company’s senior executives are involved in those discussions. A Palantir spokeswoman declined to comment.
ICE and its parent department, the Department of Homeland Security, declined to answer questions about Immigration OS. DHS said in a statement that Palantir has been a contractor for 14 years, providing “solutions for investigative case management and enforcement operations” to ICE. “DHS looks holistically at technology and data solutions that can meet operational and mission demands,” it said.
ICE awarded Palantir a $30 million contract on April 11 to build an “Immigration Lifecycle Operating System,” or Immigration OS for short. Its aim, according to procurement filings by the agency, is to facilitate the “selection and apprehension operations of illegal aliens” based on ICE priorities, minimize “time and resource expenditure” in deportations, and track in “near real-time” which individuals leave the country voluntarily. Palantir won the contract without a competitive bidding process, with ICE citing an “urgent and compelling need” and stating that “Palantir is the only source that can provide the required capabilities … without causing unacceptable delays.” ICE renewed the contract on Sept. 25, bringing its total value to about $60 million — a relatively small amount in the context of Palantir’s$2.87 billion revenue in 2024.
In an internal communication to employees in the spring, Palantir presented the project as a “prototype” and said “longer-term engagements” were “TBD,” according to a copy obtained by 404 Media. The company said it was “pursuing this effort because we believe it is critical to national security and that our software can make a meaningful difference in the safety of all involved in enforcement actions.”
ICE and Palantir have declined to disclose how many people the system tracks, which agencies it pulls data from, and whether there are safeguards against mistaken identity or overcollection of surveillance data. Shyam Sankar, Palantir’s chief technology officer, told the New York Times in a recent interview that Immigration OS tracked encounters at the border, asylum applications and applications for benefits. Immigration OS does not track information of U.S. citizens who are relatives of undocumented immigrants, Palantir said in a statement.
ICE adopted Immigration OS this year as it rolled out a campaign to identify and detain what it calls the “Worst of the Worst.” The agency has cited cases of undocumented immigrants committing serious crimes as justification for broad deportation sweeps through Chicago, Charlotte and Portland, Oregon, and other cities. ICE and Palantir declined to say whether Immigration OS played a role in helping compile ICE’s “Worst of the Worst” lists.
Trump said on Thanksgiving Day that he would “permanently pause” migration from “Third World Countries,” broadly deport undocumented immigrants, and end all federal benefits and subsidies to noncitizens. That would mark an escalation of a campaign that federal judges have repeatedly ruled exceeds the administration’s legal authority, with one Chicago judge saying last month that the use of force involved “shocks the conscience.” The Department of Homeland Security has decried the rulings as coming from “activist judges” and said its actions have been lawful.
In an interview with Wired published in November, Karp said he had previously “pulled things” that he believed were being deployed in violation ofthe company’s code of conduct, while rejecting contentions that its immigration software is. Asked whether he needed to take a closer look at how Palantir’s products were being used in the United States, he called it “exactly the right question,” adding: “I’m telling you that I have done this, and I will continue to do it.”
Wendy R. Anderson, who was Palantir’s senior vice president for national security until May, said Karp has never wavered in his conviction that tech companies working in defense have a duty to the country, not to politics.
“Alex starts from a single, nonnegotiable premise: America has to win,” she said, speaking generally and not in reference to Immigration OS. “Not in a partisan sense, but in the enduring one — the survival of the United States and the Western institutions that make free societies possible.”
Palantir, founded by Karp and PayPal co-founder Peter Thiel in 2003 in the wake of 9/11, has long drawn criticism from civil rights activists over the powerful data-management tools it sold to the likes of the Pentagon, CIA and ICE.
Karp is the son of a Jewish father and African American mother, who brought him along to civil rights protests as a child. He grew up in Philadelphia, graduated from Central High School in 1985 and earned a bachelor’s degree in philosophy from Haverford College. Karp has long been outspoken in his self-identification as a Democrat and his beliefs in privacy protections. “We as a company, and I as an individual, always have been deeply involved in supporting progressive values and causes,” Karp said in 2011.
In summer 2015, shortly after Trump announced his first major presidential run, Karp told his staff that he had turned down an opportunity to meet Trump, as “it would be hard to make up someone I find less appealing,” according to a leaked video published by BuzzFeed. Karp said he opposed Trump’s broad deportation platform, saying it made “no sense” to throw out hardworking people. He said blaming immigrants for the nation’s ills would bring up “the worst that a society can bring up.”
During Trump’s first presidency, Palantir said it would not work directly with ICE’s Enforcement and Removal Operations arm on deportations, citing the risk of human rights violations. The company limited its contracts to the agency’s Homeland Security Investigations division, which worked on issues such as terrorism, sex trafficking and drug smuggling, though in practice there was at least some crossover with raids on undocumented immigrants.
Palantir had made that distinction, Courtney Bowman, the company’s director of privacy and civil liberties, wrote in a 2020 letter to Amnesty International, “because we share your organization’s concern with the potential serious human rights violations against migrants, refugees, and asylum seekers at the U.S.-Mexico border and risks of disproportionate immigration enforcement inside the U.S.”
Critics say Immigration OS represents a breach of those principles. The project has drawn public backlash, including from Y Combinator co-founder Paul Graham, who wrote on X that Palantir was “building the infrastructure of the police state.” In a public letter, 13 of the company’s former employees accused Palantir’s leadership of being “complicit” in “normalizing authoritarianism” in America.
Within Palantir, executives defended the project by citing changing voter sentiment on the border issue and changes to ICE’s structure. In one of his first executive orders in January, Trump had ordered ICE’s Homeland Security Investigations to prioritize immigration enforcement instead of national security.
“The national conversation around immigration enforcement, both at the border and in the interior of the United States has shifted,” the company wrote in an internal communication to employees, according to a copy obtained by 404 Media. Palantir said it had realized that “to really support the agency’s immigration enforcement mission, we must expand our aperture … this means supporting workflows that are substantially distinct from our historical scope and into Enforcement and Removal Operations (ERO).”
The policy reversal prompted some employee resignations. Brianna Katherine Martin, who had been a U.S. government strategist for the company for almost three years, left in May, citing the recent expansion of the company’s work with ICE.
“For most of my time here, I found the way that Palantir grappled with the weight of our capabilities to be refreshing, transparent, and conscionable,” Martin wrote on LinkedIn. “This has changed for me over the past few months.” She did not respond to requests for comment.
The deepened partnership with ICE has come amid other changes at the company.
Palantir revised its employee code of conduct in March, removing pledges to avoid biased decision-making and eschew unfair action based on race or national origin. The “Protect the Vulnerable” section of the code previously said: “We will not create or perpetuate the unfair treatment and/or stigmatization of individuals or groups, particularly when such unfair action is based on race, color, national origin, religion, sex, gender identity, disability, age, ancestry, marital status, citizenship, or sexual orientation.” The new version pledges more generally to avoid unfair action “based on any characteristic protected by federal, state, or local laws.”
Palantir also deleted a section that said employees should strive to overcome conscious and unconscious biases in their decision-making. The section now says employees should engage with one another with respect.
The code-of-conduct changes were made in response to Trump executive orders unrelated to the company’s ICE business, according to a person familiar with the matter, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss the shift. Trump had forbidden federal contractors from “illegal” diversity practices in January.
Karp biographer Michael Steinberger, whose book “The Philosopher in the Valley” was published last month, said his interviews revealed Karp’s increasing exasperation with what he saw as the Democratic Party’s unwillingness to control the border and preoccupation with identity politics.
“He has definitely moved to the right,” Steinberger said. “Though I suspect he would be more inclined to say that he thinks the left left him.”
An important factor in Karp’s rightward shift has been the Oct. 7 attack on Israel two years ago, Steinberger wrote in his book. “I’m now very willing to overlook my disagreements with Republicans on other issues because of the position they have taken on this one,” he quotes Karp there as saying.
In a letter in July to Amnesty International, responding to questions about its ICE contracts, Palantir said that while it took the human rights risks of its work with governments seriously, its role was to serve as a responsible federal contractor and uphold the law, not to set U.S. government policy.
“Palantir is not an oversight authority entrusted with scrutinizing or questioning executive branch actors,” the company wrote.
Steve Peikin and Amy Spicer spent four months remodeling their Bryn Mawr home to suit both their tastes. They moved in this spring, once worked was completed.
After a couple purchased a “1980-esque” Bryn Mawr home over two years ago that he loved but she thought felt dated, they landed on a compromise: remodeling it to suit both their tastes.
That meant out with the yellow exterior and in with a brownish gray one, and swapping a more formal interior for a “natural, laid-back feel.”
The result, which took four months to create, is a cozy, updated English Country style home with custom bookshelves, extended ceiling beams, and a new look for the fireplace mantel.
Outside is equally cozy, thanks to a pool, hot tub, and fire pit.
Montgomery County’s former chief information officer has made several accusations against his former employer. In a lawsuit, Anthony Olivieri says he was fired earlier this year because he requested accommodations for his mental health, but also went on to say that officials had engaged in instances of “fraud, waste, [and] wrongdoing” since 2017, including by the county’s CFO.
The community is mourning the loss of two former residents, each that led distinguished careers in the medical field. Last month, world-renowned scientist and Lower Merion native Mark Hallett died of glioblastoma. A Harriton High alum, Hallett was a pioneering expert in movement, brain physiology, and human motor control. And writer, pioneering medical journal editor, award-winning historian, and Bryn Mawr resident Kathleen A. Case died in mid-November from heart failure. She spent 24 years as a top editor for the Annals of Internal Medicine and as vice president for publishing at the American College of Physicians.
In 1989, a Bala Cynwyd woman and Flyers fan earned her way into a club she never sought out. During a playoff game at the Spectrum, Nancy Fineberg was hit in the chin with an errant puck, but she refused to leave until after the game. Soon after, she received a package welcoming her to the “Loyal Order of the Unducked Puck.” The Inquirer’s Matt Breen recently revisited the club’s roots, which date back to the 1970s and were an effort by the team to turn a negative into a positive.
Artist and Gladwyne native Jake Weinstein’s first solo exhibit is on display at Works on Paper Gallery in Center City. “Clankers,” which runs through the end of the month, showcases Weinstein’s longtime interest in robots, designed on paper and in sculpture. Weinstein’s passion for robots was driven in part by his and his father’s love of sci-fi, and his dad’s pioneering work in robotic surgery.
Philadelphia Jewish Exponent recently interviewed Rabbi Matthew Abelson, a Lower Merion resident who joined Jack M. Barrack Hebrew Academy in Bryn Mawr at the start of the school year as a Jewish studies teacher. The New York transplant, who is a member of Sha’arei Orah Congregation in Bala Cynwyd, shared what inspired him to get into the field.
🏫 Schools Briefing
Today is the end of the first trimester for all elementary schools. There are winter chorus and orchestra concerts tonight and throughout next week, and tomorrow night is the talent show at Penn Wynne Elementary. See the district’s full calendar here.
Lower Merion customers are helping drive Chinatown eatery EMei’s expansion. When owner and township resident Dan Tsao analyzed sales data from his flagship restaurant — known for its Sichuan specialties — he saw many coming from Lower Merion, so he decided to open a spot in Ardmore. He’s targeting a summer debut at the former John Henry’s Pub on Cricket Avenue. Sales data also helped Tsao choose South Philadelphia for further expansion, where he will have a phased opening at the former Marra’s Restaurant & Pizzeria on East Passyunk Avenue.
🦌 Rankin/Bass Holiday Specials: Catch screenings of favorite animated holiday classics The Year Without a Santa Claus, Frosty’s Winter Wonderland, and ’Twas the Night Before Christmas during a matinee showing. ⏰ Saturday, Dec. 6, 11 a.m. 💵 $6.75-$7.75 📍Bryn Mawr Film Institute
🎄 Ardmore Holiday Market: Over 20 vendors will be selling handcrafted goods at this inaugural event. ⏰ Saturdays, Dec. 6, and 13, 11 a.m.-3 p.m. 💵 Pay as you go 📍Schauffele Plaza
🇬🇧 Narberth Dickens Festival: Wander around Narberth as it’s transformed into an 1840s, Charles Dickens-themed London, complete with characters from A Christmas Carol. Period vendors, carolers, crafts, food, drinks, and a scavenger hunt round out the event. ⏰ Sunday, Dec. 7, noon-4 p.m. 💵 Pay as you go 📍 Downtown Narberth
This 1945 Bala Cynwyd home has been fully renovated, giving it a modern interior while retaining the charm of its mid-20th century roots. The first floor now has an open-concept layout with a family room, an eat-in kitchen with two-toned cabinetry topped with Edison quartz, and a dining room with a butler’s pantry. There are three bedrooms upstairs, with a fourth in the finished basement. The home also has a new Belgard paver patio. There are open houses today from 4 to 6 p.m., and Saturday and Sunday from 1 to 3 p.m.
By submitting your written, visual, and/or audio contributions, you agree to The Inquirer’s Terms of Use, including the grant of rights in Section 10.
This suburban content is produced with support from the Leslie Miller and Richard Worley Foundation and The Lenfest Institute for Journalism. Editorial content is created independently of the project donors. Gifts to support The Inquirer’s high-impact journalism can be made at inquirer.com/donate. A list of Lenfest Institute donors can be found at lenfestinstitute.org/supporters.
This year’s Festival of Lights kicks off at Rose Tree County Park on Dec. 4.
The Festival of Lights returns to Rose Tree County Park tonight, when some 300,000 lights adorning over 125 trees will be lit for the first time this season.
The beloved annual tradition is marking its 50th anniversary this year and will include longtime favorite displays, plus live performances, food, drinks, and vendors on select Delco’s Fare & Flair nights.
New this year: a “Delco Bell” celebrating the nation’s upcoming 250th anniversary.
A rendering shows the proposed Cunningham Park athletic complex at Swarthmore College.
Swarthmore College is looking to redevelop its athletic complex as its existing infrastructure ages, with plans to update its facilities off College Avenue and North Chester Road, known as Cunningham Fields. They are currently home to four grass fields, six tennis courts, locker rooms, and restrooms.
Under its proposal, the school would install new tennis courts, spectator seating, and a pavilion with restrooms and team meeting areas, as well as updated grass and turf fields.
The college has made significant changes to its initial plans after hearing community members’ concerns. Approval from the county and borough could still take months or longer.
Heads up for drivers: Swarthmore Avenue is closed for the next eight weeks at the railroad tracks, but pedestrians are still able to access the area. And throughout December, PennDot is working to improve portions of I-476 in both directions between its interchanges with I-76 and and I-95. Overnight roadwork and closures will take place Sundays through Thursdays from 8 p.m. to 5 a.m.
The Foundation for Delaware County has rebranded its support programs like those that provide at-home prenatal visits, housing assistance, legal aid, doulas, mental health resources for new mothers, and a fathers’ support group, under a new name: Family Village. The nonprofit hopes the update will raise greater awareness for its services, particularly in the wake of Crozer-Chester Medical Center’s closure earlier this year.
Swarthmore Public Library has hired Cyreena Bowman as its new teen librarian. (The Swarthmorean)
🏫 Schools Briefing
Wallingford-Swarthmore School District is hosting two community meetings about its finances after the district said it was facing the possibility of a $2.6 million budget deficit come the 2027-28 school year. The meetings will both take place Monday, with one at 9:30 a.m. and another at 6 p.m., at Strath Haven Middle School.
WSSD this week also voted on new school board of directors leadership. Vice President Michelle Williams will become president, Mary Jo Witkowski-Smith will become vice president, Robert Miller will be treasurer, and Nannette Whitsett will serve as assistant board secretary.
Nether Providence Elementary has picture retakes tomorrow. There are also fine and applied arts nights tonight and Tuesday. See WSSD’s full calendar here.
Rose Tree Media School District has a number of winter concerts tonight and next week. See RTMSD’s full calendar here.
🍽️ On our Plate
Now in its seventh year, roving holiday pop-up bar Jingle on State has returned, this time to Tap 24 in Media. It’s open Tuesdays through Sundays starting at noon, with happy hour taking place Tuesdays through Fridays from 4 to 6 p.m. Jingle on State is serving up festive sips like a Red-Nosed Mule made with vodka, ginger beer, lime, and cranberry juice, and Santa’s Pick-Me-Up, made with vanilla vodka, espresso, peppermint simple syrup, peppermint rum, and Kahlua.
🎳 Things to Do
🎄 Home for the Holidays: The all-day celebration includes a Reindeer Dash one-mile walk and run, a Winter Village, a Kwanzaa celebration, trolley rides, and caroling, capped by a fire truck parade with Santa that ends with the town’s tree lighting. ⏰ Saturday, Dec. 6, 9 a.m.-9 p.m. 💵 Prices vary 📍 Swarthmore town center
🛍️ Holiday Artisans Market: Shop from local artisans selling things like candles, ceramics, wine, soap, and art in Tyler Arboretum’s historic barn. ⏰ Saturday, Dec. 6, 11 a.m.-3 p.m. 💵 $10-$18 admission required for non-members, free for members📍 Tyler Arboretum, Media
🧚 Peter Pan Jr.: The Media Theatre will put its spin on the Disney classic. ⏰ Saturday, Dec. 6-Sunday, Dec. 21, select days and times 💵 $21-$27 📍 The Media Theatre
Built in 1956, this four-bedroom stone colonial has undergone a number of recent updates. Those include a new kitchen with stainless steel appliances and soapstone and walnut countertops, a new roof and HVAC system, and a new concrete patio out back. Other features include a first-floor bedroom, a dining room with a fireplace, and a finished basement.
By submitting your written, visual, and/or audio contributions, you agree to The Inquirer’s Terms of Use, including the grant of rights in Section 10.
This suburban content is produced with support from the Leslie Miller and Richard Worley Foundation and The Lenfest Institute for Journalism. Editorial content is created independently of the project donors. Gifts to support The Inquirer’s high-impact journalism can be made at inquirer.com/donate. A list of Lenfest Institute donors can be found at lenfestinstitute.org/supporters.
