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  • Pa. employers can’t reject job applicants who disclose their criminal history, court rules

    Pa. employers can’t reject job applicants who disclose their criminal history, court rules

    A Pennsylvania law prohibiting employment discrimination against people with criminal convictions has gotten a boost from a federal appeals court.

    A three-judge panel of the Third Circuit Court of Appeals held that regardless of how a prospective employer learned about an applicant’s criminal background, Pennsylvania law prohibits rejecting the application as long as the crime was not related to the job for which they are applying.

    The Jan. 28 ruling resolves a dispute in federal cases over the wording of a 1980 law that some employers argued applied only when the criminal information came from official files of state agencies.

    The Third Circuit opinion came in the case of Rodney Phath, a Philadelphia resident who in 2023 applied to work as a truck driver at Central Transport’s Montgomery County facility. Phath had experience as a truck driver and held the needed license and credential.

    He also had a 2008 criminal conviction for armed robbery, and had served six years in prison.

    Phath told the Michigan-based trucking company during an interview about the conviction and was immediately rejected from the job.

    In a 2024 federal lawsuit, Phath accused Central Trucking of violating Pennsylvania’s Criminal History Record Information Act.

    The company didn’t deny that it rejected Phath because of his criminal background. The law prohibits employers using “information collected by criminal justice agencies,” Central Trucking argued, and did not apply because Phath disclosed his conviction himself.

    District Judge John R. Padova agreed, and tossed out the complaint in December 2024.

    Because the law bans employers from obtaining formal criminal records and using the information in them for hiring decisions, it did not apply when Phath self-disclosed his criminal background, the judge concluded.

    Padova wasn’t the first judge to interpret the law literally, as applying only when an official file from a government agency sits on an employer’s desk — or at least in a computer desktop.

    A Georgetown Law professor, Brian Wolfman, offered to assist in Phath’s appeal with his students.

    The literal interpretation renders the law “meaningless,” the appeal argued, and creates a Catch 22. If an applicant with a criminal record discloses it, they are no longer protected. But if they don’t mention it when asked, they can be rejected for lying in the application process.

    “If that’s true the act would have no force at all, and that can’t be right,” Wolfman said in an interview.

    Phath won his appeal last week, with Third Circuit Judges Stephanos Bibas, Anthony Joseph Scirica, and D. Brooks Smith finding that the law prohibits prospective employers from using information that is included in a criminal history file regardless of how it came about.

    “The employer just has to receive the information,” Bibas, who was appointed by President Donald Trump, wrote in the opinion.

    The judge’s opinion could be appealed to an expanded panel of the court, which has the discretion to pick its cases. But if it stands it would be binding precedent in Pennsylvania’s federal court. The case now returns to the Eastern District of Pennsylvania, where it will head toward trial.

    The attorney who represented Central Trucking in the appeal did not respond to a request for comment.

    Phath’s lawsuit was filed in federal court because Central Trucking is based out of state. But Pennsylvania employees suing in-state employers won’t have the benefit of the binding ruling, although it can be cited in an effort to convince local judges.

    The one in four Philadelphians who have a criminal record also are protected by the city’s Fair Chance Hiring Ordinance, which was updated in the fall.

    The ordinance prohibits employers from considering a misdemeanor after four years from an arrest or release from incarceration, and seven years for a felony. Before that time period, it allows rejecting applicants based on the criminal history only if the employer can show a specific record leads to a specific risk related to that specific job.

    Jamie Gullen, managing attorney of Community Legal Services’ employment unit, said the Philadelphia ordinance is one of the strongest in the country.

    Her unit represents 2,000 people a year who face employment barriers because of a criminal record. The most effective way to prevent this type of discrimination is to seal criminal records, Gullen says.

    The Clean Slate Act, which allows people with certain convictions to have their criminal records sealed by filing court petitions, has long waiting periods and doesn’t cover every offense. So Gullen was glad to see an appeals court acknowledge the barriers people with a criminal history face in the job market.

    “Fair hiring laws are a really important piece of the puzzle,” the attorney said.

  • A family is suing Philadelphia over the death of a man in jail custody

    A family is suing Philadelphia over the death of a man in jail custody

    The family of a man who died in a Philadelphia jail last year contends in a lawsuit filed this week that jail staff did not offer him treatment for opioid withdrawal before his death.

    Andrew Drury died in an intake cell at the Curran-Fromhold Correctional Facility in Holmesburg on March 9, 2025. The lawsuit says he was in the cell for 36 hours, despite suffering from opioid withdrawal symptoms.

    During that time, the suit says, Drury received no medical care, and jail staff did not alert medical personnel that he was going through withdrawal. Drury had a known opioid addiction and had suffered withdrawal symptoms at the jail in the past, according to the lawsuit. His cause of death was listed as “pending,” the lawsuit said.

    Prison officials declined to comment Wednesday. A lawyer for Drury’s family did not return a request for comment. The lawsuit seeks general monetary damages from the city, the jail system, and the state attorney.

    Several other families in recent years have sued Philadelphia jails, saying their relatives did not receive adequate medical care for drug-related issues.

    In 2024, the family of Carmelo Gabriel Ocasio, 22, accused jail staff of ignoring his cellmate’s pleas for help when Ocasio fell unconscious, overdosed, and died after obtaining fentanyl and benzodiazepines at the jail in 2022.

    The family settled with the city for $65,000; further details of the settlement were not made public.

    In 2025, the family of Amanda Cahill sued the city, saying she overdosed on fentanyl illicitly obtained while in the jail after she was arrested in a Kensington sweep in 2024. The suit said she cried and begged for help, and fellow inmates tried to get the attention of correctional officers before she was found unresponsive in her cell.

    A judge dismissed portions of the lawsuit in late December, but attorneys for Cahill’s family later refiled a complaint. Responding to the suit, lawyers for the city acknowledged staffing issues at the jails, but said the city could not have foreseen and did not cause Cahill’s death.

    Between 2018 and July 2024, at least 25 people died in Philadelphia jails of accidents related to drug intoxication, a 2024 Inquirer analysis found. The city noted that summer that the overdose death rate in Philadelphia jails was the same as the citywide rate, despite higher rates of addiction among incarcerated people.

    Philadelphia’s jail system has been hailed as a national leader in offering medications for opioid addiction and provides buprenorphine, an opioid medication that curbs cravings, to inmates soon after arriving.

    But staffing issues created backlogs that kept inmates from receiving longer-term care on time, and advocates said illicit drugs were readily available in the facilities, The Inquirer reported in 2024.

    Staff writer Abraham Gutman contributed to this article.

  • Other Pa. transit systems are dealing with the fiscal crunch that hit SEPTA last year

    Other Pa. transit systems are dealing with the fiscal crunch that hit SEPTA last year

    The bus system serving 11,000 daily riders in Lehigh and Northampton Counties cut its service 5% last week, a result of the continuing uncertainty around state funding for mass transit.

    LANTA did not eliminate any routes but has reduced the number of trips on 13 bus lines.

    “If there’s no solution coming, we’ll have to make deeper cuts,” Owen O’Neil, executive director of LANTA, said in an interview.

    Gov. Josh Shapiro last fall used executive authority to flex long-term funding for capital projects to cover daily operations at SEPTA and Pittsburgh Regional Transit (PRT) for two years, following an impasse with lawmakers.

    Most of the state’s 33 smaller public transit systems did not get that big an assist and now are facing unpleasant belt-tightening choices amid rising costs and years of underfunding from Harrisburg.

    LANTA is planning to raise fares in March.

    But the agency was able to make smaller cuts than the 20% it had budgeted because the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation granted it $13 million to stabilize service over two years, O’Neil said.

    With federal COVID-19 relief funds, LANTA was able to expand service to 11 popular new worksites in the fast-growing Lehigh Valley. It’s the third-largest system in Pennsylvania.

    Not just SEPTA: Public transit is in trouble all across Pennsylvania, including in GOP districts.

    In the state budget unveiled Tuesday, Shapiro proposed increasing the share of sales tax revenue reserved for SEPTA and its fellow mass transit agencies, raising a projected $319 million a year.

    If the idea is enacted, however, new money would not begin flowing until July 1, 2027 — the start of the 2028 fiscal year. The tax rate itself would stay the same but transit would get 6.1% of the revenue, up from 4.4%.

    O’Neil said LANTA likely could wait that long if needed. But “we don’t have the stable source of funding,” he added. It would be difficult to continue to operate the expanded routes without one, O’Neil said.

    “Our governor is not meeting the moment,” said Connor Descheemaker, statewide campaign manager of Transit for All PA!, a nonprofit advocacy group.

    “Adjusting the sales tax allocation does not meet the structural deficit facing a single one of Pennsylvania’s public transportation systems,” they said.

    Postponing a change for 18 months gives lawmakers and the governor a longer runway to reach agreement on a stable, recurring source of money for transit — either via Shapiro’s proposal or through a new revenue stream.

    State funding for transit operations has declined steeply since the 2013 passage of Act 89, which used toll revenue from the Pennsylvania Turnpike to raise $450 million a year through 2022.

    SEPTA, which got $394 million from the state-sanctioned flex of capital dollars last year, has said it is not considering major service cuts or fare increases this year.

    Explaining the Public Transportation Trust Fund

    Executives figure that SEPTA can provide current levels of service until summer 2027.

    The transit agency estimates that it would get $183 million in the first year if the governor’s Tuesday proposal is enacted, said Erik Johanson, SEPTA’s chief financial officer.

    With a local match of $27 million, “the difference between what the governor is proposing and how much we need is getting closer and closer to being sufficient,” Johanson said.

    Yet there has been no proposal to replace the capital money that the transit agency and PRT essentially borrowed against.

    “Those dollars are gone, and they have to be replenished,” he said.

    Descheemaker’s group estimates that seven smaller transit systems, including in the State College area, will have to cut service or raise fares if no solution is in the offing.

    “It’s disappointing that we continue to hear about transit as if it is something that only affects Philadelphia and a little bit of Pittsburgh,” Descheemaker said.

  • Philadelphians are frustrated with the city’s snowstorm cleanup. What does that mean for Mayor Cherelle Parker?

    Philadelphians are frustrated with the city’s snowstorm cleanup. What does that mean for Mayor Cherelle Parker?

    Mayor Cherelle L. Parker often says she isn’t a fan of “Monday-morning quarterbacks” and “expert AOPs” — her shorthand for so-called articulators of problems who don’t offer solutions.

    Now she has a city full of them.

    After a heavy snowfall followed by a week of below-freezing temperatures, Philadelphia’s streets are still laden with snow, slush, and ice; SEPTA buses are packed; and numerous cars are still stuck in the spots residents left them in 11 days ago.

    The mayor acknowledged residents’ exasperation at a news conference at the Pelbano Recreation Center in Northeast Philadelphia on Wednesday, her first appearance dedicated to the city’s snow response since Jan. 26, the day after the storm walloped the region.

    “For anyone who is frustrated right now about the ice, about the ability for all of the streets to be fully cleared, I want you to know that I understand,” she said. “Everybody can Monday-morning quarterback. … That’s cool. We can’t stop people from feeling the way they feel. But let me tell you something: We were prepared.”

    Parker said the city deployed 1,000 workers and 800 pieces of snow-removal equipment to deal with the emergency.

    “We don’t promise to be perfect, Philadelphia,” she said. “We promise to go to war with the status quo and to fix things, to be doers. … We’re going to continue doing everything that we can to make sure all of this work is done.”

    Philly’s unplowed snow has slowed SEPTA and frustrated residents and businesses
    A pedestrian walks past a large pile of snow and ice along the Benjamin Franklin Parkway days after a fierce winter storm dropped up to 9 inches of snow and sleet, with freezing temperatures leaving large banks of ice and snow on streets and sidewalks in Philadelphia, Monday, Feb. 2, 2026.

    Snowstorms are infamous for their ability to undermine constituents’ faith in their mayors. Over the years, they have been credited with ending political careers in Denver, New York, Chicago, and Seattle.

    The risk of political fallout could be heightened for Parker, who campaigned on a promise to upgrade city services. When Parker ceremonially dropped the puck at Tuesday night’s Flyers game, she was greeted with boos from many fans at Xfinity Mobile Arena.

    “Parker has pitched herself as the can-do mayor. ‘I’m not gonna deal with ideology. I’ve got principles, but I’m here to get the job done,’” said Randall M. Miller, a political historian and professor emeritus at St. Joseph’s University. “There’s that expectation you’re going to get this thing done.”

    Parker also faced questions about her administration’s commitment to delivering core services during the eight-day city workers strike last July, when “Parker piles” of trash mounted around Philadelphia in the hot summer sun. She escaped that ordeal relatively unscathed after winning what she called a “fiscally responsible” contract largely in line with her goals.

    ‘They are my people’: Mayor Cherelle Parker on why she stood firm in the DC 33 city worker strike

    But Miller said the mobility issues associated with snow removal have unique psychological effects for constituents.

    “You’re cold, you’re miserable, and you’re trapped. You’re looking around like, ‘Who is confining me?’” Miller said. “You get angry at the mayor because the mayor said, ‘I’m here to provide public services,’ and public service isn’t being provided.”

    Fred Scheuren shovels snow at 12th Street, near Waverly Street, in Center City, Philadelphia, Monday, Jan. 26, 2026.

    The circumstances of this year’s winter weather emergency could also give Parker some breathing room. Municipal leaders in Pittsburgh, New York, Washington, D.C., and Providence, R.I., are all feeling the heat amid the polar temperatures, thanks to an unusually persistent cold snap that has hampered snow-removal operations.

    It’s ‘Groundhog Day’ in Philly this week as snow and ice persist

    A slight reprieve in the weather this week, with highs peaking above freezing Tuesday and Wednesday, could help the city’s cleanup efforts. But officials warned Wednesday that temperatures are forecast to fall again by the end of the week.

    “It’s not hyperbole to consider that we’re still under emergency conditions,” Dominick Mireles, who leads the Philadelphia Office of Emergency Management, said Wednesday.

    Lessons from past Philly storms

    By some measures, the city threw more resources at the latest storm than in the past, but got fewer returns.

    After the legendary blizzard of Jan. 7, 1996, then-Mayor Ed Rendell deployed more than 540 snowplows, dump trucks, and other vehicles to clear away the record 30.7 inches of snow that fell over two days, according to an Inquirer report from that year. Officials bragged at the time that the fleet eclipsed the 300 vehicles marshaled by former Mayor W. Wilson Goode Sr. for the last major blizzard, in 1987.

    Four days after the 1996 storm, the city said it hauled away 50,000 tons of snow, including truckloads famously dumped directly into the Delaware River and the Schuylkill. Officials also said that day that about 71% of roadways were passable, including around half of all side streets.

    In February 2003, the city got walloped with 19 inches of snow, followed by days of subfreezing temperatures. Four days after that storm, the city said it had cleared 75% to 80% of city streets.

    In 2016, Mayor Jim Kenney used 10,000 tons of salt and 1,600 city workers to clear away 22.5 inches of snow, clearing 92% of residential streets by day four — with a major assist from warmer temperatures a few days after the storm.

    The 800 pieces of snow-removal equipment Parker cited that were used in the most recent storm are far more than even in the blizzard of 1996. She also said the city brought in a snow-melting machine from Chicago, saying workers had melted about 4.7 million pounds of snow, while scattering 30,000 tons of salt.

    The result: More than a week after the end of the snowfall, about 85% of city streets had been “treated,” which includes salting, plowing, or both, according to the city.

    Heavy equipment clearing snow along S. Broad Street at Dickinson Street, Philadelphia, Tuesday, Feb. 3, 2026.

    But mobility nonetheless remains limited in much of the city, and officials pointed to the lingering icy conditions.

    The prolonged freeze is “not unheard of, but it is unusual, and that stresses and makes the potential for a lot of not-great things to happen,” Mireles said. “It’s affecting the snow-fighting operation.”

    An analysis of city plowing data shows that after the conclusion of the storm on Jan. 25, vehicles reached about 70% of city streets by the end of Monday. As the snow hardened, activity slowed by about a third on Jan. 27. Some parts of the city — including neighborhood-size chunks of South Philly — saw little plowing until five days after the storm or longer.

    The psychology of snow

    One reason voters punish mayors more harshly for failing to remove snow than for other problems is because of its omnipresence, from getting around the city to small talk about the weather, Miller said.

    Even trash-collection problems tend not to get under residents’ skin to the same degree because they don’t shut the city down, he said.

    “You are furious, and it’s day in, day out,” Miller said. “You’re constantly reminded.”

    Trisha Swed walks with her dog Alberta Einstein at North 30th Street and Girard Avenue in Brewerytown on Monday, Jan. 26, 2026 in Philadelphia. In Philadelphia, 9.3 inches of snow fell, the most in a decade.

    Parker has turned to private contractors to help with the snow-removal operation. And at Wednesday’s news conference, she touted the city’s efforts to deploy 300 “same-day pay and work” laborers earning $25 per hour to help manually clear streets and sidewalks.

    300 ‘ambassadors’ to chip away at ice on Philly’s crosswalks

    Those moves drew criticism Wednesday from the city’s largest union for municipal workers, District Council 33 of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Workers, which went on strike for higher wages last summer.

    “District Council 33 is deeply concerned by the City’s decision to bring in outside laborers for snow‐removal operations without any consultation or collaboration with our union,” DC 33 president Greg Boulware said in a statement. “Our members deserve better, and the residents of Philadelphia deserve a snow‐removal strategy rooted in safety, foresight, and respect for the workforce that keeps this city running.”

    Miller said those efforts show the city is doing everything it can to clear the city’s streets and sidewalks.

    “There’s been a great effort to try to deal with it, but Philadelphia is a very difficult place to manage in terms of snow because it’s got so many older streets,” he said.

    Man with shovel clearing snow from small park on Main Street in Manayunk on Monday, Jan. 26, 2026.

    But, he said, hearing about the city’s efforts is cold comfort to residents struggling to navigate their neighborhoods.

    “The major thoroughfares, they’ve done a pretty good job. But folks are concerned with their neighborhoods. They’re not concerned with if they go down to Fourth and Market,” he said. “Once you start to hear those kinds of complaints, it’s hard to contain it.”

    Parker said complaints will not deter her team. “Whenever we’ve been dealing with something challenging in government … there are some people who are expert articulators for problems,” she said.

    Her staff, she said, “is not a team of expert AOPs.”

    “This is a team of subject-matter experts who are doers and they are fixers, and we don’t cry,” she said. “Our job won’t be done until every street in the city of Philadelphia is walkable.”

    Staff writers Ximena Conde and Anna Orso contributed to this article.

  • Fire Marshal rules that a fatal house fire in Kingsessing was intentionally set

    Fire Marshal rules that a fatal house fire in Kingsessing was intentionally set

    A 25-year-old man was pronounced dead after he was pulled from a burning house in a fire that was intentionally set early Wednesday in the city’s Kingsessing, authorities said.

    The Philadelphia Fire Department responded just before 1:45 a.m. to a report of a fire in a two-story rowhouse on the 5400 block of Regent Street, authorities said

    Firefighters battled the fire on the second floor and attempted to rescue a man from the back bedroom. He was transported by medics to Penn Presbyterian Medical Center, where he was pronounced dead at 2:29 a.m.

    The fire was placed under control at 2:01 a.m. and no other injuries were reported.

    “The Fire Marshal’s Office did determine this fire was incendiary, meaning it was set intentionally,” said Rachel Cunningham, spokesperson for the fire department.

    The case is now being investigated by police.

  • Ann Harnwell Ashmead, renowned classical archaeology researcher and writer, has died at 96

    Ann Harnwell Ashmead, renowned classical archaeology researcher and writer, has died at 96

    Ann Harnwell Ashmead, 96, of Haverford, renowned classical archaeology researcher, writer, museum curator, volunteer, and world traveler, died Saturday, Jan. 17, of chronic congestive heart failure at her home.

    Dr. Ashmead was an archaeological specialist in Greek vase painting, the depiction of cats on classical and Near Eastern artifacts, and the history of other ancient ceramics. She traveled to Greece, Italy, Turkey, France, and elsewhere around the world to examine, analyze, and research all kinds of ceramics collections.

    She consulted with hundreds of other archaeologists and curators, and wrote extensively about the ongoing international research project to document ancient ceramics and the extensive collections at Haverford and Bryn Mawr Colleges, the Penn Museum, the Rhode Island School of Design, the Louvre Museum in Paris, and other places. She did archaeological field work in Greece during her college years at Bryn Mawr and served as a classical archaeology graduate teaching assistant.

    She was onetime curator of Bryn Mawr’s 6,000-piece Ella Riegel Memorial Museum and a research associate at the Penn Museum. She partnered for years with Bryn Mawr professor Kyle Meredith Phillips Jr. to research and write articles and books about ancient vases, cups, jars, pots, Etruscan images of cats, and other classical antiquities.

    Dr. Ashmead visited many archaeological sites in Greece and elsewhere.

    Some of her colleagues lovingly called her “the cat lady.”

    Dr. Ashmead often reassembled broken ancient objects for curators and created visual and oral presentations to augment her printed catalogs, articles, and books. “She was indefatigable,“ her family said in a tribute.

    She shared her research at conferences, meetings, and exhibitions around the globe, and most recently collaborated with Ingrid M. Edlund-Berry, professor emerita at the University of Texas at Austin, on a project that scrutinized cats as shield devices on Greek vases.

    “Ann was very modest, humble, and self-deprecating about her publications and academic achievements,” her family said. Her son Graham said: “She was a role model who inspired me with her curiosity on all subjects and issues, and a love of world travel, reading, and lifelong learning.”

    Dr. Ashmead spoke English, Japanese, Greek, Chinese, French, Danish, and Italian.

    Dr. Ashmead was active with the Archaeological Institute of America, and her research was published by the American Journal of Archaeology, the journal of the American School of Classical Studies at Athens, and other groups.

    She married Haverford College English professor John Ashmead Jr. in 1949, and they spent the next two decades traveling the world while he completed Fulbright Scholar teaching assignments. They lived in Japan, Taiwan, and India, and later in Paris, Athens, and Florida.

    She spoke English, Japanese, Greek, Chinese, French, Danish, and Italian. “Her learning never stopped,” her family said.

    Ann Wheeler Harnwell was born Oct. 7, 1929, in Princeton, N.J. Her family moved to Wynnewood in 1938 after her father, Gaylord P. Harnwell, became chair of the physics department at the University of Pennsylvania. He became president of Penn in 1953.

    Dr. Ashmead had many articles, catalogs, and books published over her long career.

    She graduated from Lower Merion High School in 1947 after spending the previous three years with her family in California. She earned bachelor’s and master’s degrees and a doctorate in classical archaeology at Bryn Mawr, and her 1959 doctoral thesis was titled: “A Study of the Style of the Cup Painter Onesimos.”

    On page 2, she wrote: “Such attributions of vases to an artist are a delicate business, the outcome of a long and intricate process of observation and analysis, often of tentative nature.”

    She and her husband had sons John III, Graham, and Gaylord, and daughters Louisa and Theodora. They divorced in 1976 but remained close friends until he died in 1992.

    Having grown up during the stock market crisis in the 1930s, Dr. Ashmead followed the market closely as an adult, and was thrifty and frugal, her family said.

    Dr. Ashmead married English professor John Ashmead Jr. in 1949.

    She was an avid letter writer and reader, and her personal library featured more than 5,000 books. She volunteered for years at Bryn Mawr’s old Owl Bookstore and especially enjoyed reading to her children and grandchildren.

    She was on the board of the Haverford College Arboretum and a member of the Hardy Plant Society, the Henry Foundation for Botanical Research, and the Philadelphia Skating Club. She enjoyed dancing, organizing Easter egg hunts, and hosting birthday parties and family events.

    A fashionista in the 1960s and ’70s, she was adept at needle crafting, quilting, and sewing. She bred cats, painted, collected antiques, and researched her genealogy.

    She always made time for family no matter where in the world they were, and they said: “She was concerned if she was ever separated from a child and distraught if they were distraught.”

    Dr. Ashmead (front left) always made time for her family.

    She lived in Denmark for a few years and finally settled for good in Haverford in 1983. “She was interesting, smart, capable, strong, articulate, and fun to be around,” her daughter Theodora said. “She was solution-oriented. She sparkled.”

    In addition to her children, Dr. Ashmead is survived by six grandchildren, a sister, and other relatives. A brother died earlier.

    She requested that no services be held and donated her body to the Humanity Gifts Registry through Penn’s Perelman School of Medicine.

    Donations in her name may be made to the Haverford College Arboretum, 370 Lancaster Ave., Haverford, Pa. 19041.

    Dr. Ashmead (left) met many dignitaries during her worldwide travels.
  • The Schuylkill is frozen, but that doesn’t mean you can ice fish on it

    The Schuylkill is frozen, but that doesn’t mean you can ice fish on it

    Have you been looking longingly at your fishing gear during the Philadelphia winter? Are Deadliest Catch reruns not hitting the same?

    With the surface of the Schuylkill River still frozen solid and frigid temperatures returning this weekend, a reader asked through Curious Philly, The Inquirer’s outlet for answering questions, whether they were allowed to ice fish on it.

    Ice fishing, after all, is a practice that began with subarctic Indigenous peoples thousands of years ago, well before the advent of the modern fishing rod in the late 1700s. Fishing along the Schuylkill is accepted and celebrated in warmer temperatures, so what about its frozen cousin?

    Unfortunately for those Philadelphians dreaming about an Arctic lifestyle, the answer is no.

    “Ice fishing is illegal in Philly,” Philadelphia Police Department spokesperson Sgt. Eric Gripp said by email. The practice is not explicitly outlawed, but walking out onto the ice in order to carve a hole and cast a line underneath violates city rules.

    A pedestrian walks past a large pile of snow and ice along the Benjamin Franklin Parkway on Monday.

    “You can’t walk, swim, or be in/on the waterway — unless in a vessel — regardless as to whether or not it’s frozen,” Gripp said.

    Philadelphia police began spreading the message to not venture out onto the frozen Schuylkill this week, after local CBS News video captured several adults and children walking across it Sunday. The Police Department’s directive on code violation notices lists ice skating, skiing, and sledding in some areas of Fairmount Park as potential offenses.

    Ice fishing could put you in violation of a few city ordinances, too. While you would likely be subject only to a summary offense and a $25 fine for each violation, police say you would be breaking rules about using areas managed by Parks and Recreation outside of their approved use, and risk violating the ban on “swimming” or wading out onto any Philadelphia creek, lake, river, or stream.

    » ASK US: Have something you’re wondering about the Philly region? Submit your Curious Philly question here.

    Even though the Schuylkill’s frozen surface may be several inches thick in certain locations, ice’s integrity can’t be judged based upon only how it looks, how fresh it is, or the temperature outdoors, according to the Pennsylvania Fish and Boat Commission. Ice’s strength is also informed by several other factors, including the depth of the water underneath the ice, and nearby fish activity.

    “Anyone that walks onto the Schuylkill River, … they’re taking their life into their own hands. It’s not a smart thing to do,” said commission spokesperson Mike Parker. Parker said the commission highly advises against walking on top of or fishing on the frozen surface of any moving body of water, like a river.

    “There’s no such thing as safe ice,” in those cases, he said.

    A fisherman sits in the sun outside a pop up shelter while ice fishing on frozen Lake Wentworth in Wolfeboro, N.H.

    But ice fishing can be relatively safe on still bodies of water, like lakes and ponds. As general guidelines, the fish and boat commission advises that anglers fish only on those bodies of water when ice is at least five inches thick, and never to go out onto ice alone.

    If you are still interested in ice fishing during the region’s cold spell, the Fish and Boat Commission offers a map of approved ice fishing destinations across the state.

    The closest ones to Philadelphia include Deep Creek Dam in Montgomery County; Marsh Creek Lake, in Chester County; and Lake Galena in Bucks County.

  • Police ‘buried’ footage that showed a teen didn’t kill his friend at a SEPTA station, lawsuit says

    Police ‘buried’ footage that showed a teen didn’t kill his friend at a SEPTA station, lawsuit says

    A teenager who faced charges that were later dropped in the killing of his friend, and spent 49 days in jail before video evidence established his innocence, has sued Philadelphia and SEPTA police officers who were involved in his prosecution.

    Zaire Wilson, 18, is accusing law enforcement officers of hiding and ignoring evidence showing he did not shoot and kill Tyshaun Welles on a platform at the City Hall station on Jan. 11, 2024.

    Welles, 16, was hit in the head and his family decided to take him off life support less than a week later. The Frankford High School sophomore was not the target of the shooting, detectives said.

    Tyshaun Welles, 16, was struck in the head by a stray bullet on the subway platform at SEPTA’s City Hall station.

    Wilson and Quadir Humphrey, 20, were arrested the night of the shooting. Police said Wilson pulled out a gun and Humphrey used it to open fire at the group of teens. After Welles died, Wilson was charged with murder and held without bail at the Juvenile Justice Services Center.

    The Philadelphia District Attorney’s Office dropped the charges against Wilson in late February 2024 after prosecutors received surveillance footage from SEPTA.

    “The SEPTA surveillance video of the incident, which was not available to the DA’s Office at the time of Wilson’s arrest, shows that he was clearly not involved in the shooting and murder of Welles‚” the office said in a statement.

    Law enforcement did not share the footage with prosecutors until Feb. 26, 2024, and the district attorney’s office charged Wilson based on a criminal complaint that was riddled with errors and omissions, according to the lawsuit, which was filed last month in the Eastern District of Pennsylvania.

    It is “shocking” that “critical video evidence” was not available to prosecutors at the time of Wilson’s arrest, said Jon Cioschi, a Wiseman, Schwartz, Cioschi & Trama attorney who filed the complaint.

    “It is our view that the video footage conclusively establishes Zaire’s innocence, and that no reasonable officer, taking the evidence seriously, would or could have concluded otherwise,” Cioschi said.

    The city’s law department declined to comment on active litigation. SEPTA did not respond to a request for comment.

    Humphrey pleaded guilty to third-degree murder, aggravated assault, and related crimes, and was sentenced to 17 to 45 years in prison in July.

    What the surveillance footage shows

    Wilson and Welles spent the evening of Jan. 11 with a group of friends at LevelUp, a neighborhood organization in West Philadelphia, the complaint says.

    Surveillance footage reviewed by The Inquirer shows the group, which included the two teens and Wilson’s teenage brother, arriving at the westbound Market-Frankford Line platform at the City Hall SEPTA station around 9:15 p.m.

    As the group waited for the train, the teens chatted and played on the platform as at least four SEPTA officers stood near them.

    Wilson playfully chased a girl in an orange shirt to the east end of the platform. He saw Humphrey, who arrived to the platform separately from the teens, and the two chatted and paced together for a few seconds. As Wilson began to walk back toward the group, a train approached, and Humphrey pulled out a gun and opened fire. Wilson ran to the staircase and got off the platform while Humphrey continued to shoot.

    The teens dispersed during the pandemonium, but one dropped to the ground. After the shooting ended and Humphrey ran away, officers picked up Welles and took him off the platform.

    A SEPTA law enforcement officer walks up stairs from a platform where earlier a SEPTA transit police officer reported a shooting and a victim down on the westbound platform at 15th Street Station near City Hall in Philadelphia on Thursday, Jan. 11, 2024.

    Moments after the shooting, Wilson returned to the platform. He raised his hands as officers with guns drawn rushed to him, pinned him to the ground, frisked him, and let him go. Wilson then walked down the platform where he met his brother and another teen. The three abruptly ran upstairs.

    The footage contradicts police statements that Wilson brandished a gun. That Wilson returned to the scene, where he knew a group of officers were standing, while Humphrey ran away, should have indicated his “consciousness of innocence,” the suit says.

    Humphrey himself told staff at the Juvenile Justice Services Center that Wilson had nothing to do with the shooting, according to the lawsuit, and wrote a letter to a judge on Jan. 16, 2024, days after the shooting, that said “the person I was arrested and detained with has no connection whatsoever.”

    “Rather than follow the facts,” the suit says, “defendants buried them.”

  • Police searching for ‘armed and dangerous’ suspect in killings of two men in city’s towing industry

    Police searching for ‘armed and dangerous’ suspect in killings of two men in city’s towing industry

    Philadelphia police are searching for a suspect in connection with the shooting deaths of two tow truck drivers, department officials said Wednesday.

    Najee Williams, 27, is considered armed and dangerous, police said. Homicide investigators say Williams is connected to the fatal shootings of 20-year-old David Garcia-Morales in December and 25-year-old Aaron Whitfield in January.

    Williams faces charges of murder, conspiracy, and related crimes. There is a $20,000 reward for information that leads to his arrest and conviction.

    The killings of Garcia-Morales and Whitfield, who police say worked for the Jenkintown-based towing company 448 Towing and Recovery, rattled the city and put a focus on the competitive business of towing.

    Williams is the owner and operator of N.K.W Towing and Recovery, of North Philadelphia, according to a police source who asked not to be identified to discuss an ongoing investigation.

    A Facebook page for N.K.W features photos of car accidents and messages urging potential customers to call the company.

    “INVOLVED IN A ACCIDENT OR SEE ONE CALL ME” one message says.

    Another post from 2024 says: “Left the streets in a patty wagon, came back home and got right to it! Been home for 2 years now & as I sit here and think how bless I’m to have my freedom back.”

    It was not immediately clear who made the post.

    Staff Inspector Ernest Ransom, commanding officer of the homicide unit, said forensic evidence collected from a stolen Honda used in the shooting of Whitfield led investigators to Williams.

    The department’s fugitive task force and U.S. Marshals are assisting in the search for Williams, whose last known whereabouts were in Montgomery County, authorities say.

    On Dec. 22, police were called to 4200 Torresdale Avenue to find Garcia-Morales shot and injured inside a Ford F-450 towing vehicle. He was struck in the neck and thigh, and died four days later at Temple University Hospital.

    The second shooting, which took place on Jan. 11 on the 2100 block of Knorr Street, left Whitfield dead at the scene after he was struck by gunfire in the head and body.

    Whitfield had also been sitting in a tow truck, according to police. His 21-year-old girlfriend was shot in the leg and survived her injuries.

    Philadelphia’s towing industry is competitive and drivers often traverse the city in search of car accidents, hoping to be the first to arrive at the scene.

    That practice persists despite a city policy that requires police and dispatchers to cycle through a list of approved towing companies to contact when responding to accidents.

  • Housing ban on former Hahnemann campus is on hold in City Council as concerns mount

    Housing ban on former Hahnemann campus is on hold in City Council as concerns mount

    Councilmember Jeffery Young pushed pause Tuesday on his highly controversial housing ban for the former Hahnemann hospital campus.

    Young has proposed a “Vine Street Expressway” zoning overlay that would cover the shuttered medical center and its surroundings and block residential development from its largely empty buildings and lots.

    Although developers have struggled to find new office or healthcare tenants for the area, Young initially described his legislation as a means to preserve the former campus as a jobs hub.

    However, an apartment development is proposed in the former Hahnemann patient towers by New York-based developer Dwight City Group — which is why most observers were stunned when Young introduced his last-minute bill banning all housing development from the area.

    Then in a sudden reversal at a City Council hearing Tuesday, Young said he was not advancing the bill.

    “We’re holding it so we can further [communicate] with all the community stakeholders that are involved,” Young said in an interview after the hearing. “We want to make sure that this project represents the best interest of the city of Philadelphia, and by continuing dialogue, we’ll achieve that goal.”

    The art-deco style South Tower of the former for Hahnemann hospital complex, which is almost 100 years old.

    No interest groups have officially come out in favor of the legislation. Pro-housing groups, the Logan Square Neighborhood Association, and the building trades unions have all expressed concerns about it.

    Property owners who would be affected include influential local institutions including Brandywine Realty Trust and Drexel University. Mayor Cherelle L. Parker’s administration was also concerned, especially as the administration pushes to get 30,000 units of housing built or repaired during her term through the Housing Opportunities Made Easy (H.O.M.E.) plan.

    “This bill conflicts with the goals of the comprehensive plan and the goals of the H.O.M.E. plan to support residential development,” said testimony prepared for Paula Brumbelow Burns of the City Planning Commission.

    Ironically, as a result of Young’s anti-housing legislation, permits have been secured for 824 units of housing on the former hospital site, as property owners rushed to secure the right to develop apartments before the feared ban would be enacted.

    With the exception of Dwight City Group’s proposal, it is not clear that many of those permits will quickly result in housing.

    The application for 300 units at Martinelli Park and 163 units at the Brandywine-owned Bellet building do not appear to signify new projects in the immediate future, but instead an effort to preserve value and flexibility of use.

    Young argued that the legislation has been successful in that it compelled property owners to talk with his office about their plans.

    “People need to understand what’s happening when you have large properties where potentially thousands of units will be developed there,” Young said. “We have properties that as a former hospital that’s filled with asbestos and other types of issues, no one knows what’s going on.”