I set out deliberately this week to make an astronomical event photo for this space. I’ve done Santa and a menorah already this winter so I wanted to give props to the solstice.
The same pond on Dec. 14, just after the first significant snowfall of the season.
With the days getting shorter leading up Dec. 21, I first thought of sunset occurring earlier. But I worked nights for many years and photographed many of those.
Then I thought of all the time I’ve spent in our city’s historic district. (I love history, as the following paragraphs will attest, and I expect I’ll be there even more in 2026 as we celebrate the Semiquincentennial.)
I recalled a Chippendale armchair in the Assembly Room of Independence Hall made by Philadelphia cabinetmaker John Folwell in the years after our country was born. George Washington sat in the mahogany chair with a gilded sun carved into it for three months in 1787 as he presided over the Constitutional Convention.
A replica of George Washington’s chair in the Independence Visitor Center.
Benjamin Franklin is credited with immortalizing the chair at the close of the convention, expressing his optimism for the future of the new nation while looking at the design.
”Often and often … I have looked at that {sun} … without being able to tell whether it was rising or setting, but now at length, I have the happiness to know that it is a rising and not a setting sun.”
That’s why I decided to get out early this week to find a photo at sunrise, as I look ahead to the future.
However, speaking of history, there is also an established tradition of news organizations looking back at the end of the year.
So here is the Inquirer photo staff’s “Year in Review.” A visual record of the challenges, achievements, and the everyday moments of a year lived in full.
Since 1998 a black-and-white photo has appeared every Monday in staff photographer Tom Gralish’s “Scene Through the Lens” photo column in the print editions of The Inquirer’s local news section. Here are the most recent, in color:
December 22, 2025: SEPTA trolley operator Victoria Daniels approaches the end of the Center City Tunnel, heading toward the 40th Street trolley portal after a tour to update the news media on overhead wire repairs in the closed tunnel due to unexpected issues from new slider parts.December 15, 2025: A historical interpreter waits at the parking garage elevators headed not to a December crossing of the Delaware River, but an event at the National Constitution Center. General George Washington was on his way to an unveiling of the U.S. Mint’s new 2026 coins for the Semiquincentennial, December 8, 2025: The Benjamin Franklin Bridge and pedestrians on the Delaware River Trail are reflected in mirrored spheres of the “Weaver’s Knot: Sheet Bend” public artwork on Columbus Boulevard. The site-specific stainless steel piece located between the Cherry Street and Race Street Piers was commissioned by the City’s Public Art Office and the Delaware River Waterfront Corporation and created and installed in 2022 by the design and fabrication group Ball-Nogues Studio. The name recalls a history that dominated the region for hundreds of years. “Weaver’s knot” derives from use in textile mills and the “Sheet bend” or “sheet knot” was used on sailing vessels for bending ropes to sails. November 29, 2025: t’s ginkgo time in our region again when the distinctive fan-shaped leaves turn yellow and then, on one day, lose all their leaves at the same time laying a carpet on city streets and sidewalks. A squirrel leaps over leaves in the 18th Century Garden in Independence National Historical Park Nov. 25, 2025. The ginkgo (Ginkgo biloba) is considered a living fossil as it’s the only surviving species of a group of trees that existed before dinosaurs. Genetically, it has remained unchanged over the past 200 million years. William Hamilton, owner the Woodlands in SW Phila (no relation to Alexander Hamilton) brought the first ginkgo trees to North America in 1785.November 24, 2025: The old waiting room at 30th Street Station that most people only pass through on their way to the restrooms has been spiffed up with benches – and a Christmas tree. It was placed there this year in front of the 30-foot frieze, “The Spirit of Transportation” while the lobby of Amtrak’s $550 million station restoration is underway. The 1895 relief sculpture by Karl Bitter was originally hung in the Broad Street Station by City Hall, but was moved in 1933. It depicts travel from ancient to modern and even futuristic times. November 17, 2025: Students on a field trip from the Christian Academy in Brookhaven, Delaware County, pose for a group photo in front of the Liberty Bell in Independence National Historical Park on Thursday. The trip was planned weeks earlier, before they knew it would be on the day park buildings were reopening after the government shutdown ended. “We got so lucky,” a teacher said. Then corrected herself. “It’s because we prayed for it.” November 8, 2025: Multitasking during the Festival de Día de Muertos – Day of the Dead – in South Philadelphia.November 1, 2025: Marcy Boroff is at City Hall dressed as a Coke can, along with preschoolers and their caregivers, in support of former Mayor Jim Kenney’s 2017 tax on sweetened beverages. City Council is considering repealing the tax, which funds the city’s pre-K programs. October 25, 2025: Austin Gabauer, paint and production assistant at the Johnson Atelier, in Hamilton Twp, N.J. as the finished “O” letter awaits the return to Philadelphia. The “Y” part of the OY/YO sculpture is inside the painting booth. The well-known sculpture outside the Weitzman National Museum of American Jewish History was removed in May while construction continues on Market Street and has been undergoing refurbishment at the Atelier at the Grounds for Sculpture outside of Trenton.October 20, 2025:The yellow shipping container next to City Hall attracted a line of over 300 people that stretched around a corner of Dilworth Park. Bystanders wondered as they watched devotees reaching the front take their selfies inside a retro Philly diner-esque booth tableau. Followers on social media had been invited to “Climb on to immerse yourself in the worlds of Pleasing Fragrance, Big Lip, and exclusive treasures,” including a spin of the “Freebie Wheel,” for products of the unisex lifestyle brand Pleasing, created by former One Direction singer Harry Styles.October 11, 2025: Can you find the Phillie Phanatic, as he leaves a “Rally for Red October Bus Tour” stop in downtown Westmont, N.J. just before the start of the NLDS? There’s always next year and he’ll be back. The 2026 Spring Training schedule has yet to be announced by Major League Baseball, but Phillies pitchers and catchers generally first report to Clearwater, Florida in mid-February.October 6. 2025: Fluorescent orange safety cone, 28 in, Poly Ethylene. Right: Paint Torch (detail) Claes Oldenburg, 2011, Steel, Fiberglass Reinforced Plastic, Gelcoat and Polyurethane. (Gob of paint, 6 ft. Main sculpture, 51 ft.). Lenfest Plaza at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts on North Broad Street, across from the Convention Center.September 29, 2025: A concerned resident who follows Bucks County politics, Kevin Puls records the scene before a campaign rally for State Treasurer Stacy Garrity, the GOP candidate for governor. His T-shirt is “personal clickbait” with a url to direct people to the website for The Travis Manion Foundation created to empower veterans and families of fallen heroes. The image on the shirts is of Greg Stocker, one of the hosts of Kayal and Company, “A fun and entertaining conservative spin on Politics, News, and Sports,” mornings on Talk Radio 1210 WPHT.September 22, 2025: A shadow is cast by “The Cock’s Comb,” created by Alexander “Sandy” Calder in 1960, is the first work seen by visitors arriving at Calder Gardens, the new sanctuary on the Ben Franklin Parkway. The indoor and outdoor spaces feature the mobiles, stabiles, and paintings of Calder, who was born in Philadelphia in 1898, the third generation of the family’s artistic legacy in the city.September 15, 2025: Department of Streets Director of Operations Thomas Buck leaves City Hall following a news conference marking the activation of Automated Speed Enforcement (ASE) cameras on the Broad Street corridor – one the city’s busiest and most dangerous roads. The speed limit on the street, also named PA Route 611, is 25 mph.
We’ll show you a photo taken in the Philly-area, you drop a pin where you think it was taken. Closer to the location results in a better score. This week’s theme is all about the Mummers Parade. Good luck!
Round #13
Question 1
Where were these people?
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ClickTap on map to guess the location in the photo
ClickTap again to change your guess and hit submit when you're happy
You will be scored at the end. The closer to the location the better the score
Elizabeth Robertson / Staff Photographer
Pretty good/Not bad/Way off! Your guess was from the location.Spot on! Your guess was exactly at the location. Here's also where a random selection of Inquirer readers guessed.
People danced in front of the Engine 1 Ladder 5 firehouse on South Broad Street to celebrate the new year during the Mummers Parade on Jan. 1, 2025.
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Question 2
Where is this museum?
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Jose F. Moreno / Staff Photographer
Pretty good/Not bad/Way off! Your guess was from the location.Spot on! Your guess was exactly at the location. Here's also where a random selection of Inquirer readers guessed.
This is the Mummers Museum on South Second Street, which chronicles the history of the annual New Year’s Day parade since 1976.
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Question 3
Where was this band?
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David Maialetti / Staff Photographer
Pretty good/Not bad/Way off! Your guess was from the location.Spot on! Your guess was exactly at the location. Here's also where a random selection of Inquirer readers guessed.
The Duffy String Band was practicing at TipTop Playground in Northern Liberties in December 2021.
Your Score
ARank
Amazing work. Your score is full of glitter and shines brightly!
BRank
Good stuff. You’ve marched impressively down Broad Street.
CRank
C is a passing grade, because we judges are giving you a generous score. Turn up your real performance!
DRank
D isn’t great. Your performance was like sneaking into the parade without a costume!
FRank
We don’t want to say you failed, but you didn’t not fail.
You beat % of other Inquirer readers.
We’ll be back next Saturday for another round of Citywide Quest.
The Wall Street Journal crowns Philly the best place to visit in 2026: A
Congratulations to Philadelphia, which has officially been named the world’s best place to visit in 2026 — a sentence that still feels fake even after you say it out loud.
The Wall Street Journal says it’s because of America’s 250th birthday, the World Cup, March Madness, the MLB All-Star Game, and a stretch of months where Philly will be hosting basically every major event short of the Olympics.
But let’s be clear: Big events don’t make a city great. They just expose whether it already is.
Philly works as a destination because it can handle the chaos. This is a city that treats historic milestones and sports meltdowns with the same emotional intensity. Where strangers will give you directions, opinions, and a life story within 30 seconds. Where the best part of your trip will almost certainly be something you didn’t plan: a bar you ducked into, a neighborhood you wandered through, a crowd you got absorbed into without realizing it.
So why not an A+? Because Philly being crowned “best place to visit” comes with consequences we know all too well. Inflated hotel prices, SEPTA stress tests, streets that were never designed for this many people, and locals being asked, again, to carry the weight of a global party while still getting to work on time.
And because, frankly, Philly doesn’t need outside validation. This city didn’t suddenly get interesting because the Wall Street Journal noticed. We’ve been loud about this for years, from barstools, stoops, and comment sections, and now the rest of the world is finally catching up (and booking flights).
Still, credit where it’s due. This is a huge moment, and a deserved one. Philly is about to have the kind of year cities dream about, even if we’ll spend most of it grumbling, redirecting tourists, and muttering “we told you so.”
We’ll host the world. We’ll complain the entire time. And somehow, we’ll still prove them right.
Primo’s founder Rich Neigre and Audrey Neigre, his daughter, hold a whole Italian hoagie in 2011.
Primo Hoagies covering big-dog adoption fees: A+
This is what “using your powers for good” looks like.
As PhillyVoice reported, Primo Hoagies quietly covering adoption fees for large dogs at a South Jersey shelter is the kind of move that cuts straight through the holiday noise. No brand stunt. No overexplaining. Just: These dogs keep getting passed over, that’s not right, let’s fix one part of it.
Big dogs are the last ones out the door. Everyone wants the tiny, apartment-friendly, Instagram-ready pup. Meanwhile, the 70-pound sweethearts sit there, year after year, wondering what they did wrong (answer: nothing). Removing the fee doesn’t solve everything, but it removes one very real excuse, and sometimes that’s all it takes.
Also, this is extremely on-brand Philly energy. Feed people. Love dogs. Don’t make a big deal about it. Just do the thing.
City skyline with people present for the unveiling of the new logo for Xfinity Mobile Arena the former Wells Fargo Center on Tuesday, September 2, 2025.
Philly making Zillow’s hottest housing markets list: B (with side-eye)
Zillow’s takeaway is that Philly is “affordable,” centrally located, and culturally desirable. Which is true. It’s also the most polite way possible to say: People are moving here because they’ve been priced out of everywhere else. Welcome! Please enjoy our rowhouses, strong opinions, and streets that were absolutely not designed for this many buyers.
The median home value sitting around $230,000 looks great on a national list. On the ground, it translates to open houses packed like an Eagles tailgate and starter homes disappearing in 48 hours with cash offers that make lifelong renters quietly spiral. Philly didn’t suddenly become hot. It became relatively attainable, which in 2025 is the real flex.
But let’s acknowledge that there is tension baked into this moment. Being desirable is good. Being affordable is better. Staying both at the same time? That’s the hard part.
Jason Kelce with the Hank Suace cofounders (from left): Matt Pittaluga, Brian “Hank” Ruxton, and Josh Jaspan. Hank Sauce was founded in 2011 and is based in Sea Isle City. Kelce announced a partnership with the local brand and his family’s Winnie Capital.
Jason Kelce investing in Hank Sauce: A+ (this was inevitable)
There are celebrity investments, and then there are ones so perfectly aligned they feel less like a business move and more like destiny. Jason Kelce backing Hank Sauce, a Sea Isle City staple sold in surf shops, Shore houses, and Philly-area grocery stores, is very much the latter.
Sea Isle is so Jason Kelce. He’s there constantly. He bartends there. He fundraises there. He rips his shirt off there. He eats there. At this point, investing in a Sea Isle brand feels less like branching out and more like protecting his natural habitat.
And Hank Sauce? Also a perfect match. It’s not about pain tolerance or macho heat levels. It’s a hot sauce for people who want flavor without suffering, which somehow mirrors Kelce’s whole deal: loud, intense energy paired with surprising warmth and accessibility.
This doesn’t feel like a celebrity slapping his name on a product he just met. Kelce was already a customer. Already a fan. Already drinking beers with the founders in the back room years ago. Philly and the Shore can smell authenticity a mile away, and this one passes immediately.
Will this help Hank Sauce grow further nationally? Almost certainly. But more importantly, it feels earned. It’s a local guy with local roots putting money behind something that already belonged to the place — and to him.
SEPTA buses travel along Market Street on Dec. 8, 2025, in Philadelphia.
Philly’s ever-lengthening commute: C-
Nothing bonds Philadelphians quite like the shared understanding that getting to work will take longer than it should, feel more chaotic than advertised, and somehow still be your fault for not “leaving earlier.”
A new report confirms what everyone stuck on the Schuylkill, the El, or a delayed Regional Rail train already knows: Philly’s average commute is longer than most big cities — and it got worse last year. Thirty-three minutes doesn’t sound brutal until you remember that’s a one-way trip, on a good day, assuming nothing’s on fire (which, this year, was not a safe assumption).
Yes, return-to-office mandates are part of it. Yes, traffic is bad everywhere. But Philly commuters have been playing on hard mode: SEPTA funding drama, service cuts that almost happened, service cuts that did happen, train inspections, near-strikes, and the ever-present question of whether your bus is late or just gone.
The most Philly part is that it’s still technically better than 2019. Which feels less like a victory and more like saying, “Hey, at least it’s not the worst version of this misery.”
New York’s commute is longer. Congrats to them. But Philly’s special talent is making 33 minutes feel like an emotional journey. You leave your house hopeful. You arrive at work already needing a break.
An Eagles fan holds up a sign supporting the Tush Push as the Eagles faced the Green Bay Packers at Lambeau Field last month.
The Tush Push is officially losing its magic: C
Let us be honest with each other, because denial is unbecoming. The Tush Push is no longer a cheat code. It’s a memory. A beautiful, violent, once-automatic memory.
Three tries. Three failures. False starts, no gain, another flag, and then Nick Sirianni punting like a man quietly admitting something he didn’t want to say out loud. When the Eagles chose not to run it on fourth-and-1, that was the tell. Not the stats. Not the penalties. The vibes. Coaches don’t abandon unstoppable plays. They abandon plays that might get them booed.
For a while, the Tush Push was everything Philly loves: blunt, physical, a little rude, and wildly effective. It turned short-yardage into theater. It broke opponents’ spirits. It sent NFL discourse into absolute hysterics. It won games. It won a Super Bowl. It made grown men scream about “nonfootball plays” like the Eagles had discovered witchcraft.
And now? Teams figured it out. Officials started staring at it like it personally offended them. Hurts clearly got tired of being a human battering ram. What was once inevitable is now… work. And unreliable work at that.
This grade isn’t a condemnation. It’s grief. The Tush Push didn’t die because it failed once. It died because it stopped being feared. It went from “automatic” to “ugh, here we go,” and that’s not good enough in January.
The Eagles will be fine. They have Saquon Barkley, creativity, and other ways to move the ball. But the era of lining up and daring the defense to stop you, knowing they couldn’t, is over.
Raise a glass. Pour one out. Say something nice. Then move on.
In a global survey that asked residents of 65 large cities how satisfied they were with where they lived, Philadelphia came in almost dead last, according to the Gensler Research Institute. Only about 59% of Philly respondents said they were “satisfied” or “very satisfied” about living here.
And among U.S. cities, Philly ranked 26th out of 27, with peers like New York City at nearly 70% satisfaction andDetroit and Columbus, Ohio, at 66%.
But satisfaction is subjective, and surveys are not gospel. As a tumultuous year comes to a close, here is what a handful of neighborhood leaders across the city had to say about living in Philly today, the issues that matter most to their communities, and what still makes them excited to be Philadelphians.
Life feels harder and more expensive
“Things just feel a lot harder and a little bit more expensive,” said Jamila Harris-Morrison, the executive director of ACHIEVEability, a West Philly anti-poverty nonprofit focusing on single-parent and homeless families.
This year, ACHIEVEability has received more requests for assistance than ever before, she said. Inflation has created financial pressure. “We’re talking about people who are working full-time jobs or maybe two jobs and feeling like they can’t make ends meet,” she said.
That pressure has led West Philly’s young people to pick up any side hustle they can, like photography and sneaker cleaning. Some dismiss the idea of going to college or trade school, Harris-Morrison said, because they need money and resources now, not years down the line.
Latisha White gathers at a balloon Release in memory of her nephew Maurice White, 19, at Level Up, in Philadelphia, July 10, 2024. White was killed in a drive-by shooting that injured eight others at a July 4th gathering in Southwest Philadelphia.
Harris-Morrison hears them talk about aspirations to get out of their neighborhoods one day, but not necessarily out of Philly. And their adult counterparts still hold some optimism, despite recent struggles.
She said that Mayor Cherelle L. Parker’s H.O.M.E. initiative especially has people energized and looking forward to how it might ease their housing burdens.
“There’s still a level of hope,” she said.
Community problem-solving
Affordability is a major issue in West Mount Airy, too, according to Josephine Gasiewski Winter, executive director of the West Mount Airy Neighbors nonprofit. She said it has become more difficult for people who have lived in the area to stay, and for younger families to buy homes.
But in general, people are pretty happy to be living in the neighborhood and the city, she said. Her organization was founded in 1959 to make the area one of the first intentionally integrated neighborhoods, and she said people today still value its diversity, plus its access to green spaces and the rest of the city.
“It is a very magical little corner of Philadelphia,” she said.
A strong sense of community is a key component of making people feel more satisfied, according to Winter. Recently, neighbors have come together for anti-immigration-raid trainings, and for mutual aid activations when SNAP benefits were paused.
Local resident Carol Bates (far left) aims a speed gun at passing motorists as members of the West Mt. Airy Neighbors (WMAN), East Mt. Airy Neighbors (EMAN) and other community members hold a Protest Traffic Violence rally at Emlen Circle on Lincoln Drive Lincoln Drive in Phila., Pa. on Sept. 11, 2022.
“So when it feels like there’s not much you can do, there are people around that are doing things, and they’re united toward that common goal. That is a reason I think why people love living here,” Winter said.
In South Philly, trash and litter are always top of mind for residents, according to Jimmy Gastner, board vice president of the Passyunk Square Civic Association.
The problem persists even going into year two of the Parker administration’s twice-weekly trash pickup program in South Philly, so Gastner’s block has a contract with Glitter, a popular sidewalk and street-cleaning business. Gastner said litter in the area is a multifaceted problem that requires improvements to infrastructure but also personal responsibility.
Attendees pass vendors at the 2025 Flavors of the Avenue Festival, hosted by the East Passyunk Business Corporation, on East Passyunk Avenue.
He said residents have also shared concerns about maintaining safe, accessible options for transit.
Gastner still sees people positive and optimistic about their slice of South Philly, boosted particularly by neighborhood schools, parks, and resident groups. People value the restaurants and small businesses, and together it makes residents feel connected to where they live.
“Particularly coming out of COVID, I think we’re all looking to get that sense of community,” he said
Uncertainty moving forward
While Kensington may have a certain reputation to those living outside the neighborhood, lately residents have shared mostly mixed feelings about living there, said New Kensington Community Development Corp. executive director Bill McKinney.
Their ambivalence is driven strongly by uncertainty. McKinney said people feel unsure about what is coming next from the federal government.
Theo Caraway of Philadelphia walking his dog Cooper, 6 months, Shitzu/Poodle wearing his Eagles jersey along Kensington at Ontario Street on Philadelphia, Friday, September 5, 2025.
What the city’s latest plan is for the neighborhood’s unhoused population, its open-air drug market, and those suffering from substance abuse is also unclear to residents.
“There’s constant movement but not a lot of clarity,” McKinney said. “You’re kind of just waiting for the other shoe to drop because you know the larger thing wasn’t solved.”
Yet McKinney said there is plenty of positivity around, and it often goes overlooked. Whether or not that adds up to people being satisfied with living there, McKinney said he clearly sees the ways community members are invested in their neighborhood, like reclaiming open spaces to create Kensington’s thriving community gardens.
His agency hosted a workshop series on housing over the last few months, with hundreds of people coming to learn about housing policies work and how coming plans may affect them.
At a packedyouth town hall cohostedwith the nonprofit FAB Youth Philly, many questioned whether Philly was a place where they could see a future for themselves, McKinney said. He hopes that changes — for young people to envision a home here, a family, a job, and a community that they love. It will take major changes and investment, but McKinney thinks it’s possible.
“I’m here because I love Kensington. I can live anywhere … I believe in it. I believe in the people here,” he said.
A Powerball ticket purchased in Northeast Pennsylvania netted a $1 million prize in the lottery’s Christmas Eve drawing.
The ticket — which matched all five of the white ball numbers, 04, 25, 31, 52, and 59, but not the Powerball number, 19 — was sold at Pittston Candy & Cigar Co. in Luzerne County, the Pennsylvania Lottery announced Friday in a news release.
Pittston Candy & Cigar Co. could not immediately be reached by phone Friday evening.
The lottery game’s three-month stretch ended Wednesday, after a ticket matching all six numbers was sold outside Little Rock, Ark. The $1.817 billion, or $834.9 million cash, jackpot was the second-largest in U.S. history and the largest Powerball prize of 2025, according towww.powerball.com.
Two other big-winnings tickets, worth $100,000 each, were sold in Jefferson County, Pennsylvania, and Morris County, New Jersey.
Nearly 335,000 Powerball tickets purchased in the commonwealth won varying dollar amounts, and 10 New Jersey players won $50,000 prizes, according to the respective lottery commissions.
The prize followed 46 consecutive drawings in which no one matched all six numbers. Powerball’s odds of 1 in 292.2 million are designed to generate big jackpots, with prizes growing as they roll over when no one wins.
Another $20 million, or $9.2 million cash, will be up for grabs at Powerball’s Saturday drawing.
LOUISVILLE, Ky. — A Cuban immigrant who had built a new life working at a Kentucky scrapyard died on Christmas Day from severe burns suffered in last month’s UPS cargo plane crash, raising the death toll to 15, officials said.
Alain Rodriguez Colina was on the ground when the plane, fully loaded with fuel for a flight to Hawaii, plowed into businesses after departing Louisville’s airport, exploding in a massive fireball. Gov. Andy Beshear and Louisville Mayor Craig Greenberg confirmed his death via social media.
“May Alain’s memory be a blessing,” the mayor said late Thursday.
Three pilots and multiple people died after the plane’s left engine detached during takeoff on Nov. 4, and cracks were later found where the engine connected to the wing, the National Transportation Safety Board said. Louisville’s Muhammad Ali International Airport is home to the largest UPS package delivery hub.
Colina had worked since 2023 at the nearby Grade A Auto Parts & Recycling, moving up rapidly to the position of metal buyer, said owner and CEO Sean Garber in a phone interview Friday. Colina embraced the company’s culture and life in Louisville, even becoming a University of Kentucky fan. His mother and siblings lived in the area and he had a daughter in Cuba, he said.
Workers at the scrapyard have described the scramble to help survivors after the crash. Colina had been with a customer and a coworker who died, Garber said. Colina got out but was burned over 50% of his body, and doctors didn’t have much hope for a recovery.
He was in an induced coma, never regaining consciousness. His family visited often. It seemed like he was starting to heal, Garber said, but on Thursday he took a turn for the worse.
Colina was a good man, Garber said, with a big heart who cared about the business, customers, and his family.
“He believed in the opportunity he got in the United States and really made the most of it,” Garber said. “He should still be with us.”
Earlier this month, a lawyer filed two wrongful death lawsuits that allege that the company kept flying older aircrafts without increasing maintenance beyond what’s regularly scheduled. The lawsuit also names General Electric, which made the plane’s engine. Both UPS and GE have said they don’t comment on pending lawsuits but safety remains their top priority as they assist the federal investigation. That litigation does not include Colina.
Local businesses and more than 90 people affected by the crash, including Colina, plan to file another lawsuit in the coming weeks, said attorney Masten Childers III, whose firm is one of two representing those plaintiffs.
“Alain fought hard,” Childers said. “Alain’s passing must be honored by holding those responsible for his death accountable.”
The Federal Aviation Administration has grounded all MD-11s, the type of plane involved in the crash, which have been used only for hauling cargo for more than a decade.
The Trump administration is widening efforts to screen visa applicants for online speech considered dangerous and “anti-American” as the government moves to restrict legal migration and remove people from places the president has called “garbage.”
The State Department earlier this month expanded new regulations requiring foreign students and people on academic and cultural exchange programs to disclose five years of their social media histories and make all of their posts public. All applicants for H-1B employment visas and their dependents will now also be subject to the more rigorous online review.
“A U.S. visa is a privilege, not a right,” officials said in announcing the expansion.
The administration is also considering a similar rule for visitors from countries whose citizens are allowed to enter the United States for up to 90 days without a visa, including France, Germany, the United Kingdom and Japan.
The increased online screening began with the administration’s crackdown on antisemitism on college campuses and has accelerated in a way that immigrant rights advocates say is chilling public discourse. In September, authorities announced plans to review more than 55 million U.S. visa holders for potential violations that could lead to deportations, raising concerns that the government is leveraging speech for visa approval or denial.
“You never think you would have this here” in the United States, said Suresh Naidu, an economics professor at Columbia University. He said he reduced his own public profile while applying to become a naturalized citizen this year. “The idea that this country would start to think of its visa systems as a privilege that could be revoked arbitrarily — this is supposed to be a democracy.”
Despite a federal judge’s ruling in September that immigrants in the country lawfully are protected by the First Amendment, federal authorities have continued to revoke visas from foreign visitors over statements the administration has called dangerous and un-American. They included six foreigners who the administration said “celebrated” the fatal shooting in September of conservative activist Charlie Kirk and a British news commentator critical of Israel’s war in Gaza whose visa was revoked in late October.
In October, several major labor unions — the United Auto Workers (UAW), the American Federation of Teachers (AFT), and the Communications Workers of America — filed a lawsuit alleging the government is deploying a “vast surveillance apparatus” powered by artificial intelligence and other emerging technology that has stifled participation in public life among noncitizens.
Union members who fear adverse immigration actions have chosen to refrain from expressing “views remotely related to the topics the government disfavors,” according to the lawsuit, which said unions are experiencing a reduction in online organizing activity. The unions cited internal surveys that found many noncitizens have taken steps to reduce their online speech, including erasing posts, hiding their identities and eliminating social media accounts.
“We’re trying to make sure that people still have the right to speak and to engage and to do what America’s known for, which is freedom,” AFT President Randi Weingarten said in an interview.
Trump administration officials said they are acting to protect public safety against terrorist sympathizers and those who wish harm upon Americans. In a statement, Department of Homeland Security assistant secretary Tricia McLaughlin disputed the suggestion that the administration is stifling free speech.
“DHS takes its role in addressing threats to the public and our communities seriously, and the idea that enforcing federal law in that regard constitutes some kind of prior restraint on speech is laughable,” she said.
A federal judge disagreed. In September, U.S. District Judge William G. Young of Massachusetts ruled that the Trump administration had misused its sweeping powers in a manner “that continues unconstitutionally to chill freedom of speech to this day.”
That case centers on claims by the American Association of University Professors that the targeting of pro-Palestinian campus organizers in the spring left noncitizen students and faculty fearful of attending protests, posting on social media and voicing opinions in class. Young has set a hearing for January to determine remedial measures.
The plaintiffs are asking Young to enjoin the administration from revoking more visas or making “coercive threats” based on pro-Palestinian advocacy; set aside the administration’s policy of arresting and detaining noncitizens “based on pro-Palestinian or anti-Israel speech or association”; and require the State Department to notify individuals if visa revocations are based in part on speech- or protest-related activity.
“Since the start of this litigation, the government has vigorously maintained a willful ability to deport noncitizens over their political expression, and they have doubled down on their legal claims since the court ruling,” said Ramya Krishnan, a lawyer for the plaintiffs who serves as a senior staff attorney at the Knight First Amendment Institute at Columbia University.
British political commentator Sami Hamdi on Nov. 13, upon his return to the United Kingdom after he was arrested by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement on Oct. 26 while on a speaking tour.
She pointed to the 18-day detention of British commentator Sami Hamdi, a target of far-right Trump supporters for his criticism of Israel. His nonimmigrant visa was revoked by the State Department on Oct. 26 while he was on a U.S. speaking tour.
In a phone interview from his home in London, Hamdi said he entered the country on a 10-year business and tourism visa that he had obtained in 2018. After speaking at a Council on American-Islamic Relations gala in Sacramento, he said, he was detained by federal immigration officers at San Francisco International Airport. They told him he had overstayed his visa, which had been canceled two days earlier, unbeknownst to him.
On their social media accounts, the State Department and DHS accused Hamdi — who maintains that Israel committed genocide in Gaza — of supporting terrorism and “undermining the safety of Americans.” But he was not charged with any crime, such as abetting terrorism, before striking an agreement with the State Department to return home, Hamdi’s lawyers said.
Hamdi believes he was arrested because of pressure from far-right activists, including prominent Trump supporters Dinesh D’Souza, who called him a “Muslim Brotherhood jihadi,” and Laura Loomer and Amy Mek, who posted on social media demanding his removal and celebrating his arrest.
“I did nothing illegal in the U.S.,” said Hamdi, who was released by Immigration and Customs Enforcement on Nov. 13 after he voluntarily agreed to return to London. “My visa was revoked because of my advocacy for Palestine. It was revoked because an extremist group went to the State Department and leveraged whatever influence it had to specifically target me.”
The State Department declined to comment.
McLaughlin called Hamdi an “illegal alien and terrorist sympathizer” who requested voluntary departure. She said that Homeland Security Secretary Kristi L. Noem “has made it clear that anyone who thinks they can come to America and hide behind the First Amendment to advocate for anti-American and anti-Semitic violence and terrorism — think again.”
Trump signed an executive action in January aimed at combating antisemitism on college campuses, but free speech advocates say the campaign is rapidly expanding into broader surveillance.
In August, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services said immigrants seeking to become naturalized U.S. citizens would be subject to a “good moral character” review that includes an assessment of their “behavior, adherence to societal norms, and positive contributions.” Also that month, that agency said it would begin considering “anti-American” views in determining whether to provide immigrants benefits.
“People are free to make whatever statements they want on social media or anywhere else, and anyone who does not support the same candidate that I support, that’s not what we’re talking about here,” the agency’s director, Joseph Edlow, told CBS News in October. “We’re talking about beyond the pale. We’re talking about people actively supporting the violent overthrow of this country or otherwise providing material support to terrorist organizations across the world.”
Edlow spoke a day after the State Department revoked the visas of a half-dozen foreign nationals — from Argentina, Brazil, Germany, Mexico, Paraguay, and South Africa — who purportedly “celebrated” Kirk’s death. The department said that “the United States has no obligation to host foreigners who wish death on Americans.”
Nhlamulo Baloyi, a South African music executive, was among them. He wrote on X that “Charlie Kirk won’t be remembered as a hero” and said Kirk led a “movement of white nationalist trailer trash.”
Baloyi, 35, who once worked for a Sony Music subsidiary based in New York, has been outspoken online about anti-Black racism and his country’s history of racial apartheid. In a phone interview, he said right-wing Afrikaners have flagged and reported his posts in an effort to get him banned from X and other social media platforms.
Baloyi suggested that noncitizens in the United States must seriously “consider holding their tongues” or risk being expelled and losing their right to live and work in this country. But he also pointed to virulent online criticism from U.S. citizens aimed at former vice president Dick Cheney after his death this month and suggested foreigners are being held to a double standard.
“I don’t think anything I might have said about Charlie Kirk is remotely equated to the attacks Dick Cheney has faced,” Baloyi said.
Naidu, the Columbia professor, is from Canada and is married to an American. He had been active on X, sharing his thoughts on a range of economic and political topics with more than 16,000 followers. He deleted his account after Trump was elected last year over concerns that discussing political issues could adversely affect his citizenship application. It was approved in July, but he has not rejoined X.
“I’m less nervous about it. But just overall being at Columbia and Columbia being in the crosshairs — my content would not be the most offensive to the administration, but why risk it?” Naidu said.
Nicole M. Bennett, a researcher at Indiana University who studies the federal government’s approach to data governance and digital technologies, called social media the “new front line” in immigration enforcement — one that is expanding into around-the-clock monitoring. Powered by artificial intelligence, new search tools have the potential to vastly expand investigations beyond an immediate target and surveil people around them who had not been suspected of wrongdoing, including family members, friends or co-workers, she said.
“If you’re in a video, you could be pulled into that dragnet, and maybe they find something because they are looking,” Bennett said. “The biggest change is that instead of an investigation being based on evidence, the investigation is based on correlated data.”
Hamdi said his agreement with the State Department to leave the country voluntarily does not prohibit him from applying for reentry to the United States, and he is determined to give it a try. But he acknowledged that other foreigners might think twice. Pointing to soccer’s World Cup in U.S. cities next summer, Hamdi expressed concern for fans who come to root for their teams.
“What happens if a fan waves a Palestinian flag at a stadium — does that mean they will have their visa revoked?” he said. “And if their visa is revoked without notifying the individual, does that mean they could wind up in detention, too?”
Since returning to the White House in January, President Donald Trump has overturned decades of U.S. trade policy — building a wall of tariffs around what used to be a wide open economy.
His double-digit taxes on imports from almost every country have disrupted global commerce and strained the budgets of consumers and businesses worldwide. They have also raised tens of billions of dollars for the U.S. Treasury.
Trump has argued that his steep new import taxes are necessary to bring back wealth that was “stolen” from the U.S. He says they will narrow America’s decades-old trade deficit and bring manufacturing back to the country. But upending the global supply chain has proven costly for households facing rising prices. The taxes are paid by importers who typically attempt to pass along the higher costs to their customers. That includes businesses and ultimately, U.S. households.
And the erratic way the president rolled out his tariffs — announcing them, then suspending or altering them before conjuring up new ones — made 2025 one of the most turbulent economic years in recent memory.
Here’s a look at the impact of Trump’s tariffs over the last year, in four charts.
Effective U.S. tariff rate
A key number for the overall impact of tariffs on U.S. consumers and businesses is the “effective” tariff rate — which, unlike headline figures imposed by Trump for specific trade actions, provides an average based on the actual imports coming into the country.
In 2025, per data from the Yale Budget Lab, the effective U.S. tariff rate peaked in April. But it’s still far higher than the average seen at the start of the year. Before finalizing shifts in consumption, November’s effective tariff rate was nearly 17% — seven times greater than January’s average and the highest seen since 1935.
Tariff revenue vs America’s trade deficit
Among selling points to justify his tariffs, Trump has repeatedly said they would reduce America’s longstanding trade deficit and bring revenue into the Treasury.
Trump’s higher tariffs are certainly raising money. They’ve raked in more than $236 billion this year through November — much more than in years past. But they still account for just a fraction of the federal government’s total revenue. And they haven’t raised nearly enough to justify the president’s claim that tariff revenue could replace federal income taxes — or allow for windfall dividend checks for Americans.
The U.S. trade deficit, meanwhile, has fallen significantly since the start of the year. The trade gap peaked to a monthly record of $136.4 billion in March, as consumers and businesses hurried to import foreign products before Trump could impose his tariffs on them. The trade gap narrowed to $52.8 billion in September, the latest month for which data is available. But the year-to-date deficit was still running 17% ahead of January-September 2024.
Import shifts with America’s biggest trading partners
Trump’s 2025 tariffs hit nearly every country in the world — including America’s biggest trading partners. But his policies have had the biggest impact on U.S. trade with China, once the biggest source of American imports and now No. 3 behind Canada and Mexico. U.S. tariffs on Chinese imports now come to 47.5%, according to calculations by Chad Bown of the Peterson Institute for International Economics.
The value of goods coming into the U.S. from China fell nearly 25% during the first three-quarters of the year. Imports from Canada also dropped. But the value of products from Mexico, Vietnam, and Taiwan grew year-to-date.
Market swings
For investors, the most volatile moments on the stock market this year arrived amid some of the most volatile moments for Trump’s tariffs.
The S&P 500, an index for the biggest public companies in the U.S., saw its biggest daily and weekly swings in April — and largest monthly losses and gains in March and June, respectively.
The search is on for a new restaurateur to take over the shuttered Iron Hill Brewery in West Chester, after the building’s owner bought the assets from the former CEO of Famous Dave’s BBQ.
John Barry, a Massachusetts-based real estate investor who owns the building, and Jeff Crivello, the ex-CEO of Famous Dave’s, said Friday that Barry purchased the liquor license and all assets inside the former West Chester Iron Hill, one of 16 locations that closed abruptly this fall when the regional chain filed for bankruptcy.
In November, Crivello had said he intended to revive the West Chester Iron Hill, under the same name or as a new concept, after a bankruptcy judge approved his offer to buy the assets of the location and nine others in Pennsylvania, Delaware, and South Carolina.
A view from the outside looking in of the closed Iron Hill Brewery in West Chester in October.
Both Barry and Crivello declined to disclose financial details of the West Chester deal, which was finalized on Christmas Eve. It was first reported Wednesday by Hello, West Chester, a local news website.
“As a landlord, I was hoping to have a chance to purchase the assets,” Barry said Friday in an interview. “I wanted to buy and keep the liquor license with the building. It allows me to get a better tenant in there that is probably going to pay a little bit more in rent.”
Situated at West Chester’s central corner of High and Gay Streets, Iron Hill had a 30-year lease, with a 15-year extension, Barry said.
Barry, a West Chester native who now lives outside Boston, purchased the nearly 30,000-square-foot building for $8.25 million in 2022, according to Chester County property records.
Barry said the next anchor tenant would take over a new lease for the now-vacant 10,000-square-foot space that can seat 300 people. He declined to specify what the lease terms might be.
“It will not be reopening as Iron Hill Brewery,” said Barry, who didn’t buy the rights to the name. “My goal would be to find something similar,” though not necessarily a brewery.
In buying the assets, Barry said the restaurant is essentially turnkey, with all the furniture and kitchen and brewing equipment still inside. A new tenant, however, may want to redesign, he said, or the space could even be subdivided for a restaurant and a retail space.
A view from the outside looking in the now closed Iron Hill Brewery in West Chester in October.
“It’s really important to me that we find the right tenant for the West Chester community,” Barry said. “It’ll take a little bit of time.”
But, he added, “my hope is we get somebody in there and operating by the summer.”
Elsewhere, Crivello said there is still hope that the Iron Hill brand could get another life.
“We’re working with a couple buyers that want to reopen [closed breweries] as Iron Hill,” Crivello said. He declined to say which locations could be resurrected.
In November, Crivello got the OK to acquire the assets of former Iron Hill brewpubs in Center City, Huntingdon Valley, Newtown, Wilmington, Lancaster, Hershey, and Rehoboth Beach, as well as West Chester and the two locations in South Carolina.
Crivello said Friday that he has since sold the assets of the former Iron Hills in Columbia and Greenville, S.C., to Virginia-based Three Notch’d Brewing Co. He said plans for the other locations were still in the works.
Top officials in President Donald Trump’s administration posted messages from their government accounts hailing Christmas in explicitly sectarian terms, such as a day to celebrate the birth of “our Savior Jesus Christ.”
The Department of Homeland Security posted three messages on social media Thursday and Friday, twice declaring, “Christ is Born!” and once stating, “We are blessed to share a nation and a Savior.” One DHS video posted on X displayed religious images, including Jesus, a manger and crosses.
The messages sharply diverged from the more secular, Santa Claus-and-reindeer style of Christmas messages that have been the norm for government agencies for years. The posts provided the latest example of the administration’s efforts to promote the cultural views and language of Trump’s evangelical Christian base.
That drew criticism from advocates of a strict separation of church and state.
Those social media posts are “one more example of the Christian Nationalist rhetoric the Trump administration has disseminated since Day One in office,” Rachel Laser, president and CEO of Americans United for Separation of Church and State, said in a statement. “Our Constitution’s promise of church-state separation has allowed religious diversity — including different denominations of Christianity — to flourish in America.
“People of all religions and none should not have to sift through proselytizing messages to access government information,” she added. “It’s divisive and un-American.”
Administration officials aggressively defended their approach. Asked about the Christmas morning post on Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s official X account declaring, “Today we celebrate the birth of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ,” Pentagon press secretary Kingsley Wilson provided a one-sentence reply: “Merry Christmas to all, even the fake news Washington Post!”
Conservative Christians make up an important part of Trump’s political support, even as the country has become less Christian in recent decades.
The Pew Research Center’s most recent Religious Landscape Study, released earlier this year, found that 62% of Americans identify as Christian, a 16-point drop since 2007. The share of Americans who said they have no religion — including atheists, agnostics and those who say “nothing in particular” — was 29%, up from 16% in 2007. The share of the population following other religious traditions — Jews, Muslims, Hindus, Buddhists and others — has remained fairly constant, at around 6%.
Just under 1 in 4 Americans identify as evangelical Christians. But those evangelical voters play a central role in Trump’s electoral coalition. He won 81% of white evangelical voters in the 2024 election, according to a separate Pew study of voters. Those voters made up about 3 in 10 of his supporters in the election.
In 2015, as Trump campaigned for president, he told voters, “We’re going to be saying Merry Christmas again.” A decade later, officials in his second term have gone further in overtly seeking to align the administration with Christian advocacy in both language and action.
Most recently, on Thursday, Trump justified airstrikes against alleged Islamic State camps in northwestern Nigeria by saying he was aiming to “stop the slaughtering of Christians.” Nigerian officials said they approved of the strikes but said Trump was wrongly injecting religion into a situation that was primarily about terrorism.
How to celebrate Christmas while respecting the Constitution’s ban on “establishment of religion” has been an issue for federal officials at least since 1870 when President Ulysses S. Grant, seeking to unite the country after a brutal Civil War, designated Christmas — along with Thanksgiving and New Year’s Day — as federal holidays.
Government officials sought to balance the celebration of a federal holiday rooted in a religious tradition with the country’s tradition of pluralism and secular public spaces. The result was often a Christmas message that avoided specific references to Christianity. For decades, it was common for government officials on both sides of the aisle to share celebratory yet secular messages about Christmas with images that did not carry overt religious meanings, like snowflakes and Christmas trees.
Many still do. The State Department, for example, posted a secular Christmas message this year, directed at “all Americans.”
Many of the Trump administration’s officials who are most active on social media, however, took a different approach.
Just before 9 a.m. on Christmas Day, for example, Harmeet K. Dhillon, head of the Justice Department’s civil rights division, posted a message on X wishing “Christians nationwide” a happy holiday “celebrating the birth of Jesus!”
In the post was a video more than a minute long in which Dhillon said the department uses the principle of “religious liberty” and the First Amendment on “a daily basis to protect Christians.” She did not mention protecting other religions.
About two hours later, DHS’s official account posted on X that “we are blessed to share a nation and a Savior.” A video in the post began with text that said, “Remember the miracle of Christ’s birth,” followed by 90 seconds of religious images, including Jesus, Mary, and a manger, as well as several of Trump.
Just before 3 p.m. the department posted another message on X, stating, “Christ is Born!”
Hegseth posted his message around 8:30 a.m. Less than an hour later, Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins posted a video on X in which she stood in front of a Christmas tree and said “the very best of the American spirit … flows from the very first Christmas, when God gave us the greatest gift possible: the gift of his son and our savior, Jesus Christ.”
Just after 10 a.m., Education Secretary Linda McMahon posted on X about how “we celebrate the birth of our Savior.” And just after 1 p.m., the Department of Labor wrote on X, “Let Earth Receive Her King.”
Representatives for the departments of Justice, Agriculture, Education, Labor and Homeland Security did not respond to questions about their posts.
