Swarthmore Borough is tabling a proposal to implement an earned income tax after Swarthmore College stepped up to cover a funding gap left by the closure of Crozer-Chester Medical Center.
Under a memorandum of understanding passed by Swarthmore Borough Tuesday, Swarthmore College will contribute $638,000 to the borough to help cover rising emergency service costs.
The contribution allows the borough to drop a proposal to implement an earned income tax, which faced pushback from residents and some members of borough council.
In a message to the community, Rob Goldberg, Swarthmore College’s vice president for finance and administration, said, “We’re happy we were able to work with the borough to avoid a new tax being imposed on College employees. We also value our long-standing partnership with the borough and remain committed to supporting the community we share. We’re grateful for the constructive dialogue that led to this outcome and for the continued collaboration that benefits both the borough and the College.”
In a presentation given last month, the borough projected a 1% earned income tax would bring in at least $3.13 million in the second year of collection (some collection lags would occur in the first year). This would include $760,000 to $1.5 million in taxes collected from nonresidents who work in Swarthmore.
An earned income tax is a local tax on salary, wages, and tips, but not on passive income like interest, dividends, capital gains, pensions, and Social Security benefits. These taxes are generally capped at 1%.
If a taxpayer lives in a community with an earned income tax, they pay into their home community’s income tax base. If their home community does not have an earned income tax and the community where they work does, they pay into their work community’s income tax base. One major exception is Philadelphia’s wage tax, which overrides local earned income taxes. This means if a person works in Philadelphia and lives in a suburban municipality with an earned income tax, they would pay Philadelphia’s wage tax rather than their home community’s earned income tax.
Cindy MacLeod, chair of the borough council’s finance committee, said the borough’s financial outlook is starkly different this year after the loss of Crozer’s ambulance services both increased the borough’s costs and brought down its revenue.
In April, the borough adopted a declaration of disaster emergency following the closures of Crozer-Chester Medical Center in Chester and Taylor Hospital in Ridley Park. The closures resulted in “significant impacts” to emergency services in the region, the declaration said, including burdening remaining medical centers and increasing wait times for patients.
According to preliminary estimates, the borough’s public safety costs are set to increase by 41% next year — from $3.1 million to $4.3 million. In addition to the loss of Crozer’s ambulance services, the borough is staring down steep fire equipment repair costs and a drop in the number of volunteer firefighters.
“The cost assumptions around all these emergency services is a real and meaningful change,” said councilmember Scarlett McCahill at a Sept. 8 meeting. “It’s not that all of a sudden, surprise, we weren’t minding the shop and now we’re really behind and need to do a catchup. The actual costs to the community have changed significantly.”
In addition to emergency service needs, Swarthmore officials say the borough has not been immune to more general inflationary pressures. Costs are rising for community services that the borough doesn’t want to cut, MacLeod said.
Though the earned income tax is off the table for now, the borough is considering implementing an emergency services tax, a specific type of property tax that would be earmarked just for emergency services.
“We hope we don’t have to do an emergency services tax, but we haven’t ruled that out,” MacLeod said.
Budget discussions will continue at the borough’s Oct. 27 finance committee meeting.
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.
When cookbook author Pamela Anderson and her husband, David, were looking for a bucolic escape in Bucks County, they found a forested stretch of land sandwiched between a high ridge and a stream to put down roots.
The couple, who previously lived in New Hope, toured the 11-acre parcel in Riegelsville with an architect back in 2003, learning how their new home could flow with the land. Today, the focal point of Copper House might be the living room, with 180-degree views from floor-to-ceiling windows. It’s like forest bathing, from a comfortable couch.
“We wanted a place to get away,” Anderson said on a recent October afternoon.
Outside, they’ve woven gravel trails into countless grottos, fire pits, and other quiet gathering places for the numerous visitors who’ve descended upon their home for sound baths, yoga, and meditations. On this Friday afternoon, about a dozen architects and interior designers gathered at their home for a corporate retreat to learn about sustainable flooring.
“Some people just want to come here to have a meeting in a lovely place,” Anderson said.
Pamela and David Anderson sit on their couch in their home, Copper House, where they host events and retreats.
The Andersons didn’t just want to live at Copper House, so they went beyond having friends over for dinner. They started hosting corporate events and retreats at their home during the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic, stopped for a bit, and got things back up again afterward.
“We’ve done most of the work ourselves. We built all the walls ourselves from rocks we had here. It’s expensive to maintain this place, and these events help with that,” Anderson said. “It made sense for us.”
“This was just a natural transition for me from that career to this one,” she said.
David Anderson, a longtime Episcopal priest, said the landscape was wild when they first toured it, filled with brambles and invasive species. The couple has methodically rid the invasive species from various patches of their property, but that work never ends.
Copper House in Upper Bucks County.
Their latest retreat was hosted by Interface, an indoor flooring company that specializes in sustainable projects. Monica Blair-Smith, an account executive with Interface, said they’ve had meetings by a bonfire and in the labyrinth, so far, at Copper House. The team also took a sound bath.
“We toured several places from here to southern New Jersey, but we really loved how much this space was integrated with nature. Hosting in such a beautiful space is important to us,” Blair-Smith said. “Once we toured it, we didn’t go anywhere else. It was a no-brainer.”
Retreat packages at Copper House begin at $1,500.
While events and retreats have become a lucrative business, the Andersons said Copper House is still a home they cherish.
“You’re always seeing something new and different, and our senses are so heightened living here,” Pamela Anderson said. “In winter, it’s like living in a snow globe.”
Bucks County Sheriff Fred Harran acted legally in signing up to have his deputies help ICE enforce federal immigration laws, a judge ruled Wednesday in a case that has riled residents on both sides of a contentious issue.
Bucks County Court Judge Jeffrey Trauger said Harran’s cooperation with the agency was “clearly lawful under Pennsylvania jurisprudence,” and both “reasonable and necessary” in fulfilling his lawful duty to keep the citizens of Bucks County safe.
What the judge called “intergovernmental cooperation of law enforcement” is no different under the law at the county, state, or federal level, he wrote.
Reached by phone Wednesday, Harran said he was pleased with the decision and expected his partnership with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement to be fully operational by the end of next week.
“I knew from the time I started this that I was in the right, that the county commissioners do not control the office of the sheriff,” Harran said.
A spokesperson for Bucks County said the county intended to appeal.
Those who sought to block Harran’s efforts said they would continue to battle.
“This decision doesn’t mean that we’ll stop fighting to hold Sheriff Harran accountable,” said Diana Robinson, co-executive director of Make the Road Pennsylvania, an advocacy group that was one of the plaintiffs. ”Indeed, we will redouble our efforts in this case and continue to fight for what is right.”
She said an alliance between Harran’s department and ICE was aimed at “turning our neighborhoods into surveillance zones” and “weaponizing local law enforcement to carry out ICE’s harmful agenda.”
Community members rally in Bucks County before civil rights groups asked a judge to block Sheriff Fred Harran’s controversial partnership with ICE.
In his opinion, the judge said it did not appear that Make the Road, NAACP Bucks County, or Buxmont Unitarian Universalist Fellowship as organizations had clear standing to sue under Pennsylvania law.
While individual members might have standing if they were caused harm by the sheriff’s office, he said, the injuries they alleged were “not immediate or substantial,” and their complaint was based in part on speculation about what might happen.
ACLU of Pennsylvania attorney Stephen Loney, who helped lead the court fight, said Wednesday that he disagreed with the decision.
“In the most respectful way I could possibly say it, I think the judge got it totally wrong,” he said. “It’s unfortunate.”
He said the ACLU would appeal the decision.
ICE officials did not immediately offer comment.
Melanie Goldstein holds a sign as demonstrators rally outside the Bucks County Administration building before a hearing last month during which the ACLU and other organizations sought an injunction to stop the Bucks County sheriff from going through with his plan to help ICE enforce immigration laws.
Laura Rose, an organizer with Indivisible Bucks County, said the group was “deeply disappointed in Judge Trauger’s decision” to let Harran proceed “without guardrails.”
She called the ruling “a profound failure to protect both the immigrants and taxpayers of Bucks County.”
Rose called on voters to end the local alliance with ICE by voting Harran out of office on Nov. 4.
Harran’s lawyer, Wally Zimolong, called the decision “a victory for the rule of law and for the safety of Bucks County residents,” and accused the ACLU of maligning the sheriff with false claims.
“Frankly,” he said, “it is mind-boggling that anyone would oppose this. It is also a vindication for Sheriff Harran, a good and honorable man and dedicated public servant. … It is a proud day when people of good character, like Sheriff Harran, prevail over those that lack it.”
In the spring, Harran and ICE officials signed what is called a 287(g) agreement, a controversial program named for a section of a 1996 immigration law. It enables local police to undergo ICE training, then assist the agency in identifying, arresting, and deporting immigrants.
Shortly before the government shutdown, ICE was poised to begin backing its recruitment efforts with money, announcing that it would reimburse cooperating police agencies for costs that previously had been borne by local departments and taxpayers.
Harran, who is seeking reelection in November, has pledged “zero cost” to local taxpayers.
He insists the alliance with ICE will prevent crime and keep people safe. Civil rights groups say the sheriff is inviting racial profiling, taxpayer liability, and a loss of trust between police and citizens.
Bucks County’s sheriff Fred Harran, outside the courthouse in Doylestown, PA, June 9, 2025.
Contentious legal hearings have come against a backdrop of name-calling and rancor outside the courtroom.
The Democratic-led Bucks County Board of Commissioners has disavowed Harran’s actions, voting 2-1, with the lone Republican opposed, to approve a resolution that declared the agreement with ICE “is not an appropriate use of Bucks County taxpayer resources.”
The ICE issue has become central to Democrats’ effort to oust Harran, a Republican, while the sheriff says his intentions have been misconstrued by political opponents and the news media.
“A judge ruling that he has the authority to enter into this deportation agreement does not make this any less dangerous,” Harran’s Democratic opponent, Danny Ceisler, said in a statement Wednesday.
The last opportunity to end the partnership, Ceisler said, is by winning the election next month.
A key issue has been the difference between what Harran says he intends to do and the much broader powers conferred within the agreement with ICE.
Harran signed up for the “Task Force Model,” the most far-reaching of the three types of 287(g) agreements. It allows local police to challenge people on the streets about their immigration status and arrest them for violations.
Harran said his officers won’t do that.
Wednesday’s ruling, Harran said, recognized the limited scope of his plans, and he suggested that every county should partner with ICE.
“I’m only interested in making the county safer, and I’m only interested in dealing with those folks that are in this country illegally that have committed crimes,” Harran said. “I am not the immigration police. I am not Immigration and Customs Enforcement.”
Harran has said staff will electronically check the immigration status of people who have contact with the sheriff’s office because of alleged criminal offenses. Those found to be in the country illegally will be turned over or transported to ICE, if the federal agency desires, he said.
Harran testified in court last month that he planned to create a sheriff’s office policy to specify the limits of his deputies’ powers but had not yet done so.
He insisted that his office would take only the actions he has described.
“We will not be stopping people to ask them on immigration status,” he said under cross-examination. “I know what I am doing, and that’s all I intend to do.”
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.
Three Pennsylvania Supreme Court justices are on the ballot this November, when voters will decide whether to extend each of their tenures for another 10-year term.
There are currently five justices who were elected as Democrats and two who were elected as Republicans on the bench.
This year’s retention race has drawn heightened attention, as Republicans have launched a campaign to sink the retention bids of Justices Kevin Dougherty, Christine Donohue, and David Wecht — all elected as Democrats in 2015 — in hopes of flipping the court’s balance.
Still, advocacy groups on both sides of the aisle are trying to make the case that control of the judicial seats is critical, if not existential, to their causes.
The Inquirer reviewed the cases that have come before the Pennsylvania Supreme Court over the last decade, and how Dougherty, Donohue, and Wecht voted.
Here are some of the most significant cases of their tenure.
The ruling came in a case challenging a state law limiting Medicaid funding for abortions except in cases involving rape, incest, or danger to the life of the mother.
The 219-page majority opinion included language that strongly endorsed access to abortion as a right derived from the Pennsylvania Constitution, but the judges could not agree on whether they were ready to make the call in this case.
The majority sent questions about a specific funding limit and broader constitutional protection for abortion access back to a lower court — setting up another round of legal battles that will likely, again, make it before the state Supreme Court.
How the three justices ruled: Donohue wrote and Wecht joined the majority opinion. The two justices said they believed Pennsylvania’s 1971 Equal Rights Amendment clearly established a right to abortion access. Dougherty wrote a separate opinion saying this case did not call on the court to opine on the right to an abortion. “At least, not yet,” he wrote.
Voting rights and elections
The Pennsylvania Supreme Court has ruled on a litany of challenges to Pennsylvania’s election rules, many of them focused on the state’s mail voting law.
In 2020, the court issued a major ruling ahead of the presidential election allowing for ballot drop boxes and allowing local election offices to accept ballots for up to three days after the election as long as those ballots were postmarked by 8 p.m. on Election Day.
How the three justices ruled: Donohue, Dougherty,and Wecht each joined the majority opinion in the redistricting case. On the 2020 election ruling, Dougherty and Wecht joined the majority opinion. Donohue joined the majority opinion but dissented from the decision to extend the ballot deadline.
A Delaware County secured drop box for the return of mail ballots in 2022 in Newtown Square.
Education
A Delaware County school district had the right to challenge Pennsylvania’s school-funding system, the Supreme Court ruled in 2017.
The decision affirmed the role of courts in ensuring that state funding leads to equitable education and sent the case back to Commonwealth Court to proceed with litigation.
In 2023, Commonwealth Court ruled, as part of the same case, that the state’s funding system for school districts led to disparities that prohibit quality education for all students, rendering it unconstitutional.
How the three justices ruled:Wecht wrote the majority opinion, which Dougherty and Donohue joined.
Environment
Pennsylvania, which partly sits on the natural gas-rich Marcellus Shale, found itself in the midst of the fracking boom of the early 2000s.
The state sold leases to oil and gas companies to drill wells. The practice raised questions, and legal challenges, as to how the state should use the revenues in the context of the Pennsylvania Constitution’s Environmental Rights Amendment.
The court ruled in 2017 that it is unconstitutional for the state to userevenuefrom the royalties of oil and gas leases on public land to pay for anything but conservation and maintenance of the environment.
How the three justices ruled: Donohue wrote the majority opinion, which Dougherty and Wecht joined.
Justices David Wecht, Christine Donohue and Kevin Dougherty sit onstage during a fireside chat at Central High School in September. The conversation was moderated by Cherri Gregg, co-host of Studio 2 on WHYY, and presented by the Committee of Seventy, Pennsylvanians for Modern Courts, and the League of Women Voters of Pennsylvania.
Criminal justice
Pennsylvania has had the nation’s largest population of juvenile lifers: people sentenced as minors to life in prison without the possibility of parole.
In 2017, the Supreme Court made it harder to sentence a juvenile to life. The majority opinion says there is a “presumption” against life without parole for juveniles who are found guilty of murder, and prosecutors must show that the offender is “unable to be rehabilitated” when seeking the sentence.
How the three justices ruled: Donohue wrote the majority opinion, which Dougherty and Wecht joined.
Second Amendment
In 2024, for the first time, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court issued an opinion that interpreted the wording in the U.S. Constitution that gives Pennsylvanians the right to bear arms.
In Stroud Township, a zoning ordinance that prohibited the discharge of a firearm within the township’s borders limited the possible locations for shooting ranges. The ordinance barred a resident from having a personal outdoor shooting range on his property, and he sued the township for violating his Second Amendment rights.
The court ruled that the ordinance was constitutional.
How the three justices ruled: Dougherty wrote the majority opinion, which Wecht joined. Donohuewrote her own opinion, reaching the same conclusion as the majority but disagreeing with the analysis.
Philadelphia District Attorney Larry Krasner talks about Republican-led efforts to investigate his record addressing crime and gun violence at the Pennsylvania Capitol in 2022.
The decision said that the articles of impeachment approved by the state House in late 2022 were “null and void” because they were sent to the Pennsylvania Senate on the last day of that year’s legislative session, and the upper chamber did not complete its work on the matter before the next session began. The attempt to carry the process from one two-year session to the next was unlawful, the court said.
The majority also agreed with a lower court that none of the articles of impeachment met the required legal standard of “misbehavior in office.”
How the three justices ruled: Donohue and Wecht joined the majority opinion. Dougherty did not participate in the deliberations.
How the three justices ruled: Wecht wrote the majority opinion, which Donohue joined. Dougherty wrote a separate opinion, saying he would allow for Cosby to be retried, but would order his testimony from the civil case to be suppressed.
Lower Merion Township’s effort to limit where guns are sold violates state law, Commonwealth Court ruled Thursday.
In a case that holds major implications for the power of local governments across Pennsylvania, the court threw out the township’s zoning ordinance that sought to block holders of federal firearms licenses from operating in walkable downtown areas and residential neighborhoods.
The question at the heart of the case was whether the ordinance regulated land-use decisions, the bread and butter of local government, or the sale of firearms, which only the state can do.
A majority opinion, signed by five judges, said the township’s ordinance violated state law that prohibits local governments from regulating guns because its requirements went beyond geographic limits.
“The Township’s ordinance here is clearly intended to regulate the sale of firearms, rather than to regulate zoning,” wrote Judge Matthew Wolf in the opinion. “It is a gun regulation, not a zoning regulation.”
In a statement, Todd Sinai, the Democratic president of the Lower Merion Board of Commissioners, said the township was considering its legal and legislative options.
“We, of course, are disappointed in the Commonwealth Court’s decision today. It is a fundamental and important right of municipalities to be able to zone the location of uses to best serve their residents and property owners,” Sinai said.
Frustrated with the lack of gun-control measures out of Harrisburg, advocates and officials have sought to use local ordinances to limit gun sales and where guns can be carried, and to ban certain firearms. Philadelphia has fought for years for the ability to enact gun laws. But ordinances passed by Philly and other cities, including Pittsburgh, have largely been struck down by courts.
One strategy that has had limited success is the use of zoning ordinances to limit the locations of firearms-related activities, such as shooting ranges or gun stores. The Lower Merion case was seen by some as a test on how far zoning can go to bypass state preemption.
“The Commonwealth Court has reaffirmed once again that local forms of government cannot regulate firearms and ammunition in any manner,” said Joshua Prince, an attorney with Civil Rights Defense Firm who filed the lawsuit.
Lower Merion can appeal the decision to the Pennsylvania Supreme Court, which would have to agree to hear the case, but the ruling delivered a blow to gun-control advocates who had hoped Lower Merion’s ordinance could be replicated elsewhere in the state.
“The decision to treat firearm operations as different within zoning than any other business is unusual and concerning,” said Adam Garber, the executive director of CeaseFire PA.
The ruling, he said, creates a road map for how municipalities can zone firearm stores but also puts the impetus on the state to address gun regulations, something lawmakers in Harrisburg have refused to do.
The township approved the zoning rules for firearms dealers in 2023 after the opening of Shot Tec, a gun training facility and seller in Bala Cynwyd, sparked community outrage. The zoning rules established a set of criteria for sellers to operate under and said they could open only in strip malls and industrial-use areas.
The township argued that, while local governments are not allowed to regulate firearms, they have broad power over zoning and land use.
Grant Schmidt, the owner of the Bala Cynwyd shop, sued after the zoning ordinance impeded his ability to open a second location in his home.
He responded to the news of the ruling Thursday with a gif of Ric Flair cheering. His business, which offers training and education on firearms in addition to buying, selling, and storing them, has had four locations in five years. He said he hoped he could now focus on expanding his business rather than fighting local policies.
“Now I’m looking to just grow and be normal and invest in my staff more,” Schmidt said.
The litigation focuses on the requirements Schmidt had to adhere to for his most recent Rock Hill Road location, which is within one of the four districts that were zoned for businesses that require a federal gun license. The ordinance went beyond restricting place and imposed 12 additional requirements, such as installing smash-resistant windows, an alarm system, and internal video surveillance.
Montgomery County Court found that all but three requirements were preempted by state law. Following Schmidt’s appeal, Commonwealth Court struck down the remaining requirements and the place restrictions.
Lower Merion argued that other businesses, such as medical marijuana dispensaries, animal hospitals, and funeral homes, are subject to compatible conditions to operate. These types of requirements are “traditional local land use control not specific to firearms,” the township argued, according to the majority opinion.
To make its case, Lower Merion cited a previous, non-precedential decision by Commonwealth Court that allowed Philadelphia to limit gun shops to specific zoning districts.
The difference between the cases, Wolf wrote, is that Philadelphia limited the location of the gun shops but said nothing about how they need to operate. Lower Merion went a step further to restrict how gun shop owners “conduct their business.”
Two judges, Renee Cohen Jubelirer and Lori Dumas, disagreed with the majority’s analysis, saying the decision “strips the Township of its traditional power over land use and zoning.”
“Contrary to the Majority’s conclusion, none of the provisions of the ordinance at issue here regulate the ownership, transportation, or transfer of firearms, ammunition, or ammunition components,” Jubelirer wrote in the dissent.
Correction: An original version of this story incorrectly identified the gif sent by Schmidt. It featured Ric Flair.
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.
Gloria Del Piano, 72, of Philadelphia, celebrated designer of silk clothing, fashion accessories, and jewelry, former Italian TV producer and public relations director, energy therapist, Italian translator, voice-over actor, and community volunteer, died Wednesday, Oct. 1, of complications from cancer at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania.
Energetic, artistic, and indomitable, Ms. Del Piano was 31 when she arrived in Philadelphia from Rome in 1984. She had little money and knew little English. But she discovered her skill for silk painting in a do-it-yourself class, and the colorful hand-painted silk scarves, evening wraps, handkerchiefs, handbags, and original jewelry she went on to create turned Gloria Del Piano Accessories LLC into a fashion powerhouse.
In just a few years, she opened a store on Bainbridge Street and contracted with Bergdorf Goodman, Neiman Marcus, Nan Duskin, Nordstrom, and hundreds of other fashion outlets to carry her designs in Philadelphia, New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Detroit, Minneapolis, and elsewhere around the country. Locally, her signature scarves and earrings were featured at gallery exhibits, charity benefits, private homes, and fashion shows at Penn’s Landing, Fairmount Park, the Wayne Art Center, and elsewhere.
Many of Ms. Del Piano’s designs were colorful.
Her line of accessories won awards for excellence and creativity at the Philadelphia Dresses the World fashion expos in 1986 and ’87, and she was inducted into the Philadelphia Get to Know Us Fashion Hall of Fame in 1988. The Inquirer, Daily News, Los Angeles Times, and other outlets publicized her exhibits, and a fashion writer for Newsday called her scarves, with flower and bird patterns, “exquisite” in a 1986 story.
Some of her scarves were priced between $220 and $300 in 1986, and a black cape listed in 1988 at $495. In 1993, a gold lace-trimmed handkerchief was $45. A fellow artist exhibited with Ms. Del Piano at a Philadelphia festival and said in a fashion blog: “We watched her tie a scarf so many ways so fast it was like a magic act.”
Earlier, from 1976 to 1984, Ms. Del Piano worked as a program producer and public relations director at GBR-TV in Rome during the station’s glory years. She also did Italian voice-overs, interpretations, and translations for clients of all kinds.
Ms. Del Piano (right) smiles at a model wearing her designs at an event at Memorial Hall in Fairmount Park.
She served on the board of the nonprofit Enabling Minds, volunteered in Philadelphia as aCourt Appointed Special Advocate for Children, and raised funds for other organizations she championed. In a Facebook tribute, a friend said she was “bigger than life itself” with “a flare of the Italian opera star and the warmth of the Mother Earth itself.”
Her partner, Wainwright Ballard, said: “She was generous and empathetic. She took care of everyone, including those abandoned or forgotten by others.”
Gloria Del Piano was born Jan. 20, 1953, in Rome. She was artistic as a girl and always interested in spiritual growth and personal transformation. She studied sociology and business administration after high school in Italy, was certified by the Florida-based Barbara Brennan School of Healing in 2000, and led seminars in healing therapy for years.
Ms. Del Piano and her partner, Wainwright Ballard, met in Chestnut Hill.
She married Roberto Borea in 1985, and they divorced in 1992. She met Ballard at the Mermaid Inn in Chestnut Hill, and they spent the last eight years dancing, traveling, and enjoying life together.
Ms. Del Piano doted on her family and friends in the United States and Italy, and returned often to Rome for reunions. She lived in Mount Airy and then a 20-room house in Germantown, and visitors marveled at her eclectic collection of art and antiques.
She enjoyed music, gardening, thrift shopping, and chatting with friends. Friends called her “a philosopher,” “a noble soul,” and “a magician in the kitchen.” She delighted in cooking and entertaining, Ballard said, and always sent guests home with armloads of leftovers.
Ms. Del Piano receives an award from then-Mayor Wilson Goode at a fashion expo in Philadelphia.
Her “fabulous parties” were “fun and adventurous,” a friend said. Ms. Del Piano said on Facebook: “You never know how wonderful what you have is when you have it. It is when you miss it that we realize how lucky we were.”
A friend said her “optimism, tenacity, enthusiasm, kindness, beauty, and elegance will always be with us.” Another friend said: “My life has been made richer having known Gloria Del Piano.”
In addition to Ballard, Ms. Del Piano is survived by a brother, two sisters, and other relatives. Her former husband died earlier.
A funeral mass is to be held at 9:30 a.m. on Tuesday, Nov. 4, at St. Vincent de Paul Church, 109 E. Price St., Philadelphia, Pa. 19144.
Donations in her name may be made to Unite for Her, 22 E. King St., Malvern, Pa. 19355.
Many of Ms. Del Piano’s designs featured flowers and birds.
HARRISBURG — Pennsylvania Treasurer Stacy Garrity stepped in on Wednesday to offer counties and early education programs $500 million in low-interest loans to hold them over until a final state budget deal is complete, sidestepping the General Assembly and Gov. Josh Shapiro as they near the start of a third month at an impasse.
Garrity, a Republican who last month announced her bid to challenge Shapiro in next year’s gubernatorial election, announced the unprecedented move to allow the state Treasury to offer the loans to county human service departmentsfor the many social services they provide, as well as for early education Head Start programs, at a 4.5% interest rate.
Counties, schools, and social service providers have pleaded for months with the legislature to finalize a budget so they can begin receiving their expected state payments, which have been on hold since the beginning of the fiscal year on July 1. Some counties have had to secure private loans to hold them over until state payments begin, while others — including those around the Philadelphia region — have relied on their reserves. Other counties have frozen hiring and spending as they await a resolution to the budget stalemate.
The move would allow counties to access millions of dollars for early education programs serving 35,000 children across the state, as well as for county social services — all of which have been operating for months without their state appropriation, with no end to the budget impasse in sight.
Garrity’s decision to act unilaterally without the action of the General Assembly allows her to capitalize politically on the ongoing budget crisis over Shapiro, challenging his image as a moderate Democratic governor of a politically “purple” state willing to work across the aisle in a divided legislature. That brand, which he has built nationally as he is rumored to have interest in running for president in 2028, has been tested as he has so far been unable to secure a budget deal or a recurring funding stream for the state’s beleaguered mass transit agencies, including SEPTA.
Shapiro, for his part, has described his role in budget negotiations as being a go-between for Senate Republicans and House Democrats, who control their respective chambers, and has said that the two caucuses remain “diametrically opposed” on some issues.
A spokesperson for Shapiro said in a statement Wednesday that the real solution to the budget impasse is for Senate Republicans, whose leaders endorsed Garrity last week, to return to work in Harrisburg to finalize a budget deal with House Democrats. A spokesperson for House Majority Leader Matt Bradford (D., Montgomery) echoed the sentiment, arguing that Senate Republicans “refuse to negotiate on a realistic budget agreement.”
Gov. Josh Shapiro visits SEPTA headquarters Sunday, Aug. 10, 2025 to discuss funding for the transit agency and to pressure Senate Republicans as planned service cuts are pending because of a budget shortfall. To his right, from left, are state Democratic legislators Sen. Anthony H. Williams; Sen. Nikil Saval; Rep. Ed Neilson; and Rep. Jordan Harris.
Senate Majority Leader Joe Pittman (R., Indiana), the Senate’s top negotiator, who has met for months in closed-door budget talks with Bradford and Shapiro, said in a statement that it was Democrats who caused the prolonged impasse while demanding they include mass transit funding in the state budget. After mounting pressure as SEPTA enacted major service cuts, Shapiro ultimately sought to fund the agency on his own, and the issue will need to be revisited in two years.
Garrity, who kicked off her “Help Is on the Way” introductory campaign tour around the state earlier this week, said Wednesday her decision to intervene in the state budget stalemate was not political, despite her burgeoning run against Shapiro. Rather, she said that she had been thinking about a way to do so for months, including ahead of her announcement of her run for governor, and that most Pennsylvanians don’t even realize the state budget is late. She argued that if she wanted to be political, she would not intervene and would “keep the pressure” on Shapiro over the late state budget.
“I’m standing up here as Pennsylvania’s state treasurer, not as a candidate for governor,” Garrity said from a podium in the Harrisburg building that houses the state Treasury. “I think I have a responsibility to serve Pennsylvanians, that if I have something that I can do to provide some relief, then I should do it.”
However, that didn’t stop Garrity from inviting Montgomery County Commissioner Tom DiBello — the lone Republican on the board where Shapiro once served — to the podium at the news conference to deliver some direct criticisms of Shapiro and to praise Garrity’s intervention as a “lifeline” for counties, alongside two other GOP county commissioners from south-central Pennsylvania. While Montgomery County remains one of the wealthiest counties in the state, the late budget has required Pennsylvania’s third-most-populous county to spend down its reserves, money that it usually relies upon to continue earning interest as part of its annual revenue, DiBello said.
Pennsylvania Treasurer Stacy L. Garrity gives her acceptance speech after receiving the PA GOP’s endorsement for her campaign for governor during the Republican Party of Pennsylvania’s 2025 Fall Meeting at the Penn Stater Hotel & Conference Center in State College on Sept. 20.
“It starts at the top. The governor is responsible,” DiBello said. “He’s got to pull it together. It’s his signature at the end of the day.”
In response to Garrity’s announcement Wednesday, Montgomery County Commissioners Neil Makhija and Jamila Winder, both Democrats, said in a statement that the county needs a final state budget instead of a short-term loan program, urging Senate Republicans to “do their job.”
“A short-term loan at 4.5% interest is the state profiting from a problem of their own making, at the expense of the taxpayers,” the two commissioners added.
DiBello said he did not believe his invitation to Wednesday’s event had political motivations, adding: “I didn’t even think of that.” He also noted that he has come to Harrisburg to advocate on behalf of counties multiple times before.
Senate President Pro Tempore Kim Ward (R., Westmoreland), who has been one of Shapiro’s biggest critics since his first budget in 2023 and was quick to support Garrity’s candidacy, prodded at Shapiro’s pledge to “get stuff done” while praising Garrity’s leadership.
“Today, Treasurer Stacy Garrity made a bold move that shows what ‘get stuff done’ actually looks like,” Ward said in a statement. “Treasurer Garrity’s leadership is on display as her solution-driven option is exactly what we need, but has been glaringly missing from the present administration.”
Garrity said at the news conference Wednesday that she offered the loan program specifically to Head Start programs and county governments’ human service departments because both had asked her to help them get through the budget impasse. The state budget was due by July 1, and Pennsylvania is the only state besides Michigan that has not yet passed its budget. She said she is willing to offer similar loans to schools or other state-subsidized or funded programs as requested.
The Pennsylvania General Assembly can forgive the interest accrued by counties taking out loans during the budget impasse, Garrity said, adding that shewould support legislation that does so.
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.
Crozer Health’s shutteredTaylor Hospital in Ridley Park will be soldto a group of local healthcare executives for $1 million, according to an agreement filed Friday in bankruptcy court proceedings for its owner, California-based Prospect Medical Holdings.
The buyer is a partnership led by Delaware County business owner Todd Strine. The group’s goal is to refill the empty property with medical services, Strine said.
“The ideal thing that could happen is we reopen an emergency room, because that’s what Delaware County needs,” said Strine, who is the majority owner of medical transport company Keystone Quality Transport.
Prospect closed Taylor in late April after the failure ofa state-led effort to find a new operator that would return the Crozer health system to nonprofit ownership. Shortly thereafter, Crozer-Chester Medical Center also closed.
Crozer was Delaware County’s largest healthcare system and a provider of critical safety-net services.For-profitProspect had previouslyclosed Springfield Hospital and Delaware County Memorial Hospital in 2022.
“It’s a fact that Delaware County is less safe today than it was when these hospitals were operating,” Strine said.
He said it seems unlikely that a full-blown hospital would return to Taylor.
Ridley Park Council president Dane Collins said he’s hopeful that an emergency department and doctors services will return to the site. “It’s no secret. The area’s in desperate need of it,” he said.
As part of the agreement, Delaware County, Ridley Park Borough, and the Ridley School District agreed to reduce the taxable value of the property from its assessed value of $60 million to a fair market value of $1 million for the next two years.
The reduced value slashes the amount of property taxes that can be earned on the property for the next two years. However, beginning in 2027, the taxing authorities would be permitted to appeal the value of the building.
The decision to reduce the building’s value so dramatically in tax rolls was opposed by some members of Ridley School District’s board of education, which only narrowly approved the measure on a 5 to 4 vote last week.
Prospect hasn’t paid property taxes on the property since 2022, according to public records.
Delaware County councilmember Christine Reuther called the new value a “tough pill to swallow” in an interview. The property was worth more than the “fire sale price” it had gone for, she said.
The building would be worth less than many homes on the county’s tax rolls, Reuther noted, at a time when property values and home costs are increasing.
She called the resolution yet another example of the negative fallout from Prospect’s abandonment of healthcare resources in the community.
“There’s literally nothing we can do that isn’t going to resolve in a worse result, and that’s wrong,” Reuther said.
Strine acknowledged that the price seems cheap, but noted the building is empty, and it’s a special-use building, making it harder to find tenants. “There’s a ton of carrying costs and a lot of uncertainty about how long it’s going to take to fill up,” he said.
The investment needed to bring the building back to life is going to be many times the price, Stine said.
“It’s positive movement to have an experienced local businessperson purchase the property instead of allowing the property to become abandoned,” said Frances Sheehan, president of the Foundation for Delaware County, whose mission is promoting health and welfare in the county.
Taylor is the second shuttered Crozer hospital to be sold in less than a month. Upper Darby School District bought the former Delaware County Memorial Hospital for $600,000 on Aug. 14. It plans to use the property for expansion of its neighboring high school.
In both cases, U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Stacey Jernigan said Prospect could abandon the properties, which means that local authorities would have had to put the real estate up for a tax sale.
Prospect had told the judge that the top offers it had received were $1.25 million for Delaware County Memorial, which closed in 2022, and $575,000 for Taylor.
Given the risk of abandonment by Prospect, county and local authorities riskeda totalloss to tax rolls ifProspect abandoned the property entirely.
Robert Strauss, an economics professor at Carnegie Mellon University who studies property tax, noted that the buyers may have backed out of a deal if they couldn’t obtain the reductions in property taxes.
“It’s hard to envision anything easy happening in the short run that would bring it back onto the tax rolls and be profitable,” he said. “The reduction in revenues seems to me to be inevitable in the next couple of years, regardless.”
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.
Pennsylvania spent a whopping $2.53 billion at Fine Wine & Good Spirits stores from July 2023 to June of last year. From pints of whiskey and boxes of wine to cans of vodka seltzers — 156 million units were sold across the state.
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Zipcode falls mostly in County, but also spans .
Raise a glass to Pa. – here’s what alcohol people loved in the state
Sales at state-run liquor stores show that was purchased more than .
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There store in your zipcode. This data is based off of those sales.
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You’re a neighborhood of brand loyalists
In , more units of were purchased here than any other brand.
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Folks in have a unique taste for
spent more money on this than the rest of the state on average.
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A bottle of white? A bottle of red?
When it comes to wine, your area prefers the based on units sold.
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Wine lovers of agree, is the best varietal
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These are the most popular liquors by units sold.
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Bottoms up to
When it comes to stiffer drinks, these are the most popular liquors sold.
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For the more refined palate, is flying off the shelves in
A sweeter option flavored with herbs or fruit, these liqueurs are most often purchased.
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That’s a wrap for , but the party doesn’t have to stop
Check out these other zip codes to see how the alcohol flows elsewhere …
Lansdale is most loyal to one Philly brand — makers of Stateside Vodka and Surfside cocktails.
Bryn Mawr, on the Main Line, loves its white wine.
See just how much State College drinks
Doylestown, staying true to its Irish roots, consumes a lot of Baileys.
Methodology
The Philadelphia Inquirer acquired a dataset from the state Liquor Control Board comprising one year of daily sales data of each product sold at each of the state-owned Fine Wine and Good Spirits. The data only include Pennsylvania, donot include beer sales, and do not include any wine or mixers sales made outside of state stores (grocery stores, etc.).
For this story, we analyzed sales data by zip code. For zip codes with no state-run liquor stores, we assigned the zip code of the nearest store. The Inquirer also categorized alcohol into four main types — wine, liquor, liqueur, and cocktails (mixed drinks) — along with subcategories of each. Our analysis includes “most unique brand”’ which was calculated as the most money spent compared to the statewide average with a minimum of 0.1% of sales in that zipcode. Across all zip-code level analysis, we only analyzed bottles over 200 ml and excluded mini-liquor bottles.
Struggling with alcohol? There are ways out. For free, anonymous help, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week:
Pennsylvania: Call 1-800-662-HELP or visit PA.gov for a live chat.
New Jersey: 1-844-732-2465
Staff Contributors
Design and Development: Garland Fordice
Data: Chris A. Williams and Lizzie Mulvey
Editing: Sam Morris and Stephen Stirling
Copy Editing: Brian Leighton
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Picture it: The Birds game is on, you’re snacking on the couch, and suddenly, you hear it: “This holiday season, my good friend gave to me: seven Powerball tickets — .” With the start of Pennsylvania’s annual showing of its prized lottery Christmas commercial, the holiday season is truly here.
Dating to 1992, the ad, which is titled “Snowfall,” features a group of carolers singing an abridged and heavily modified version of “The Twelve Days of Christmas,” swapping the usual swans a-swimming and geese a-laying for an array of lottery games.
On social media, the return of the ad — which typically begins airing in early November — is celebrated. “It’s practically a holiday tradition,” one Reddit user wrote 13 years ago about the ad (from a Reddit thread in 2011 discussing its return that holiday season). A new Reddit thread posted this week also embraced the holiday ad.
“The moment they hear the carolers sing, many Pennsylvanians reflexively smile, sing along, and mentally count the weeks until they can put up the tree,” Drew Svitko, the Pennsylvania Lottery’s executive director, said in 2016 ahead of the ad’s 25th anniversary. “We are proud that our popular commercial brings back so many warm memories for viewers and has become a Keystone State holiday tradition.”
But the ad we see today is not the exact ad that was shown over three decades ago.
The original version was filmed in Pittsburgh ahead of its 1992 debut. It features an older man, Joe, leaving his place on a snowy night to dole out lottery ticket gifts throughout his neighborhood, including tocoffee- and newsstand owners. Carolers sing. That version was shown from 1992 through 2011.
In 2011, the Pennsylvania Lottery reproduced the holiday commercial in high-definition video and to accommodate modern TV specs. This time, the shoot took place in Philadelphia. But the shot-for-shot remake was so carefully executed, many viewers didn’t notice the difference when it was shown in 2012 until it was pointed out.
“The lottery took great care in recreating the beloved ad,” Pennsylvania Lottery spokesperson Ewa Swope said Tuesday. “By retaining the original audio track and voice-over, along with the shot-for-shot remake, we stayed true to the look and feel of the original spot.”
Local Philly blog Crossing Broad posted a side-by-side comparison of the 1992 and 2012 ads to highlight the matching.
Of course, the 2012 ad has been tweaked slightly over the years to account for changes to the lottery’s game offerings. Swope said a visual card within the ad is also updated annually to spotlight a featured holiday scratch-off game — this year’s is the Jingle Jangle Jackpot.
“Because the original spot is so beloved, we didn’t want to upset anyone by going in a vastly different creative direction,” Connie Bloss, a marketing pro who worked on both the 1992 and 2012 “Snowfall” ads, told the Associated Press at the time of the new spot’s debut. “We meticulously examined each frame to match the outfits, props, location, and other small details. We really wanted to get it right.”
Swope said the ad’s aim has always been the same: to remind consumers that lottery products can be given as gifts. Becoming a holiday classic was just a bonus.
“We could not have imagined in 1992 that this spot would become such a holiday classic,” Swope said. “We routinely hear from players that when they see the commercial, they know the holiday season is starting. We are happy that so many players enjoy and look forward to this spot as a part of their holiday tradition.”
You can watch the latest version of “Snowfall” below:
