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  • Fred Mann, former assistant managing editor at The Inquirer and retired vice president of communications at the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, has died at 75

    Fred Mann, former assistant managing editor at The Inquirer and retired vice president of communications at the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, has died at 75

    Fred Mann, 75, formerly of Wayne, retired vice president of communications at the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, former vice president of national programming at Knight Ridder Digital and assistant managing editor at The Inquirer, freelance reporter, mentor to many, onetime baker, and longtime pickup baseball player, died Friday, Feb. 13, of complications from Alzheimer’s disease at Woodridge Rehabilitation & Nursing Center in Berlin, Vt.

    Mr. Mann was many things to many people all the time. He advocated for hundreds of healthcare-related philanthropic projects for the Princeton-based Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and, as vice president of communications, served as its liaison with the media and public from 2006 to his retirement in 2019. “Health is more than just going to the doctor or staying out of the hospital,” he told The Inquirer in 2016. “Health is reflected in everything we do.”

    At The Inquirer from 1983 to 2006, Mr. Mann was features editor, editor of the Sunday magazine, assistant managing editor, and the first general manager of Philly.com, now Inquirer.com. He championed women’s ascension in the newsroom and established online standards and practices in the 1990s that remain relevant in today’s digital landscape.

    “Fred was the best boss I ever had,” said Avery Rome, who succeeded him as editor of the Sunday magazine. “Working for him was a team effort and a pleasure. He readily gave credit to other people and appreciated their input.”

    Mr. Mann (right) and Inquirer colleague Art Carey both wore bow ties on this day.

    Other former colleagues called Mr. Mann a “talent magnet” and “one of a kind” on Facebook. His son Ted said: “He was good at taking leaps. He was bold, always looking for something different.”

    In a 2006 letter of recommendation for a former colleague, Mr. Mann said: “I have learned that hiring the right people is probably the single most important accomplishment an executive can make. Find great talent, nurture it, let it bloom, and then try to keep it. That was my strategy. And I must say, it was a recipe that worked and brought a great deal of reflected glory and success to me personally.”

    As editor of The Inquirer’s Sunday magazine from 1986 to 1992, Mr. Mann penned a weekly message to readers on Page 2. In November 1986, he wrote about the differences in celebrating Thanksgiving in California as a boy and in Philadelphia as an adult. “Thanksgiving was made for crispness,” he said, “for changing seasons, for wood stoves. … It’s the day that makes the hassles of life back East all worthwhile.”

    He wrote his farewell Sunday magazine column on Jan. 19, 1992, and praised his staff for “offering important, in-depth stories that teach and inform our readers, and mixing in others that entertain and delight. … I think we’ve taught. I hope we’ve delighted a few times.”

    Mr. Mann spent a lot of time on baseball fields.

    He worked on several Pulitzer Prize-winning projects at The Inquirer and edited its annual fall fashion supplement as features editor. In 1995, he started managing what was then Philly.com and Knight Ridder’s national innovations in online publishing.

    Former Inquirer colleagues noted his “smile and easy manner,” “integrity and good judgment,” and “easy grace, puckish humor, and boundless devotion to family and friends” in Facebook tributes. Longtime friend and colleague Dick Polman said: “He had great story instincts and could sell the stories to reporters. He was good at managing up and down.”

    Former Inquirer writer Joe Logan called him “a prime example of everything that was right and good and rewarding about working at The Inquirer during those years.”

    Before The Inquirer, Mr. Mann spent three years as national editor and opinion editor at the Hartford Courant. In the mid-1970s, he worked for the Day in New London, Conn., cofounded the California News Bureau, and sold stories from Los Angeles, San Diego, and elsewhere to The Inquirer, the Courant, and other newspapers around the country.

    Mr. Mann and his daughter, Cassie, watched the Phillies in World Series games together.

    He also wrote freelance articles for Time magazine and was press secretary for Connecticut Sen. Lowell P. Weicker Jr. for three years. Later, he was a founding board member of the Online News Association, onetime president of the Sunday Magazine Editors Association, and on boards of the Communications Network, the Internet Business Alliance, and other groups.

    He bounced around the world for a few years after graduating from Stanford University in 1972 and even opened a bakery with friends in Connecticut. He played third base in dozens of Sunday morning slow-pitch baseball games over the years and won a league championship with the Pen and Pencil Club softball team in the early 1980s.

    “I don’t know why he loved baseball so much,” said his son Jason. “But I know I love it because of him.”

    Frederick Gillespie Mann was born Nov. 28, 1950, in Yonkers, N.Y. His father was Delbert Mann, an Oscar-winning TV and film director, and the family moved to Los Angeles when Mr. Mann was young.

    Mr. Mann (rear, second from left) won a softball championship with the Pen and Pencil Club team in the early 1980s.

    He delivered newspapers, graduated from Beverly Hills High School, and earned a bachelor’s degree at Stanford. He married Robin Layton, and they had sons Ted, Jason, and Lindsay and a daughter, Cassie.

    After a divorce, he married Nicole O’Neill in 1994, and welcomed her children, Andy, Hilary, and Brette, and their children into his family. He and his wife lived in Wayne before moving to Greensboro, Vt., in 2019.

    Mr. Mann enjoyed hikes in the woods with his dogs, card games and board games with family and friends, reading about history, and touch football games on Thanksgiving. He listened to the Beatles and knew every word to the soundtrack of My Fair Lady.

    He reveled in his “long days of glorious raking” in Rosemont and Wayne, and said in a 1989 column: “When all you’ve known is palm trees, piling up tons of autumn foliage is more blessing than burden.”

    He coached Little League baseball players, followed the Boston Red Sox closely, and attended memorable Phillies games with his children. On many Monday afternoons, he impressed teammates and opponents alike with his corner jump shots in basketball games at the Philadelphia Athletic Club.

    Mr. Mann and his son Lindsay enjoyed time in the countryside.

    “He was fun and funny,” his daughter said, “loved and loving.”

    Former Inquirer managing editor Butch Ward said on Facebook: “Fred Mann brightened every room he entered.” Former Inquirer columnist Steve Lopez said: “The very thought of Fred puts a smile on my face.”

    In addition to his wife, children, and former wife, Mr. Mann is survived by grandchildren, two brothers, and other relatives. A sister died earlier.

    Survivors give advice about mourning their loved ones, as told to The Inquirer’s obit writer

    A celebration of his life is to be held later.

    Donations in his name may be made to the Lenfest Institute for Journalism, 100 S. Independence Mall West, Suite 600, Philadelphia, Pa. 19106.

    Even in sad times, said longtime friend Dick Polman, Mr. Mann shared his “irrepressible wit.”
  • This Southwest Philly school had resources poured into it thanks to the soda tax. Now it’s facing closure.

    This Southwest Philly school had resources poured into it thanks to the soda tax. Now it’s facing closure.

    Students streamed out the front doors of William T. Tilden Middle School on a recent Friday afternoon, past the “Welcome to Tiger Country” sign at the corner. As they shouted to friends and threw snowballs to celebrate the weekend, they were dwarfed by the massive brick school building behind them.

    That building, which spans half a city block in Southwest Philadelphia, is a primary reason the Philadelphia School District has proposed closing Tilden alongside 19 other schools.

    Capable of holding roughly 1,400 students, Tilden had only 266 enrolled last year, the district said. That means it is at just 18.5% capacity — the second-lowest of all the schools tapped to close, according to an Inquirer analysis. While enrollment in the school district overall has increased in the last four years, it has declined at Tilden, with just 24 students in this year’s fifth-grade class, district data shows.

    The district has rated Tilden’s building as “poor” when it comes to being safe and accessible, meeting environmental standards, and having modern technology. Tilden is also one of six middle schools that Superintendent Tony B. Watlington Sr. has proposed closing in an effort to shift the district’s focus to the K-8 model.

    Unlike some of the other schools on the chopping block, the Tilden community so far has not mounted an organized fight against its closure as the school board prepares to vote this winter on Watlington’s recommendations. Just a dozen employees and residents showed up to an in-person meeting on a frigid Saturday morning earlier this month to discuss the school’s possible closure, according to Chalkbeat Philadelphia, and about 30 attended a virtual meeting about Tilden a few days later. There is no online petition to keep it open, as there are for many other schools slated for closure.

    Students who were set to graduate before the proposed changes would take effect said in interviews outside the school that they did not care much about the possible closure, though some adults expressed more concern.

    “This school has had, and still does have, excellent community programs,” said Tilden teacher Cheryl Padgett through tears at the virtual meeting.

    The district’s draft facilities plan recommends that in the fall of 2027, Tilden stop accepting new fifth graders, and then gradually phase out its remaining classes, closing for good in 2030.

    All of Tilden’s current students would be able to graduate from the school under the proposal; new students who would have attended Tilden for middle school will instead stay at Patterson, Catherine, and Morton — the elementary schools that currently feed into Tilden. The district said all three of those schools would receive increased investment as they add grades and become K-8 schools.

    Tilden is in a neighborhood deemed especially vulnerable by the district, which ranked it as “high risk” to account for its experience with previous school closures, as well as its high poverty rate, lack of public transportation, and language barriers. (The district’s top vulnerability ranking is “very high risk.”)

    Tilden’s building would eventually be repurposed as a sports facility for Bartram High and the broader neighborhood under the plan.

    At the virtual meeting, community members worried that the buildings slated to become K-8 schools are not equipped for older children, and that younger students would be exposed to problematic behavior from older kids.

    Some community members said they feared that changes resulting from the district’s plan, which spans a 10-year period, would not come soon enough.

    “Do something now,” said Mama Gail Clouden, a longtime community activist. “While you’re talking about ‘in two years,’ and what you’re planning to do — right now, children and parents and staff are suffering in these schools.”

    Tilden also has received additional support and funding from the city’s tax on sweetened beverages through the community schools program pioneered by former Mayor Jim Kenney.

    “Our kids can succeed,” Kenney said at a 2017 news conference at Tilden announcing funding for the first group of schools. “They can meet their potential if we give them the resources.”

    As a community school, Tilden’s building serves as a center for such resources: The school hosts a food pantry every Friday, and families can access case management and utility and housing assistance and other supports through a partnership with Methodist Services.

    “These kids, they have a way of growing on your heart,” said Wanellie Cummings, an attendance case manager with Methodist Services assigned to Tilden.

    Cummings works with kids who have three or more absences to try to address any barriers at home that might prevent them from getting to school. She said she has not heard much from her clients about the potential school closure, though she did worry about Tilden’s food pantry closing.

    “When you take that away from a community, what’s left? If those grandmoms and grandpops have to go somewhere else to get food …,” she said.

    The district has said it would spend the 2026-27 year planning for how to maintain the resources now offered at Tilden.

  • Teen charged with murder of another teen in East Germantown shooting

    Teen charged with murder of another teen in East Germantown shooting

    A 19-year-old man has been charged with murder in the death of another teen last summer in the East Germantown section of Philadelphia, police said Tuesday.

    Tayvone Bibbs was taken into custody on Tuesday by a fugitive task force in connection with the shooting death of 19-year-old Michael Allen on July 3, 2025, police said.

    Just after 5:30 a.m. that day, police responded to a report of a person with a gun on the 200 block of East Rittenhouse Street and found Allen lying in the street with a gunshot wound to his face. Medics pronounced him dead at the scene.

    Police did not offer a possible motive for the killing or mention any other arrests.

    Two weeks after Allen’s death, police released surveillance video of the minivan used in the shooting. Police noted in the video that the vehicle had at least three occupants.

  • Trump administration appeals judge’s ruling over President’s House slavery exhibits

    Trump administration appeals judge’s ruling over President’s House slavery exhibits

    The Trump administration has appealed a federal judge’s order requiring that the National Park Service restore all the slavery-related exhibits it abruptly removed last month from the President’s House Site in Center City.

    The U.S. attorneys representing the federal government argued previously that the White House has full discretion over the exhibits in national parks, an argument U.S. District Judge Cynthia M. Rufe called “dangerous” and “horrifying” during last month’s hearing.

    The notice of appeal to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit at this stage does not require a brief arguing what the government says the judge got wrong when she issued the injunction. But the Department of the Interior and the National Park Service said in a statement Tuesday that the agencies “disagree” with the injunction.

    “The National Park Service routinely updates exhibits across the park system to ensure historical accuracy and completeness,” the statement said. “If not for this unnecessary judicial intervention, updated interpretive materials providing a fuller account of the history of slavery at Independence Hall would have been installed in the coming days.”

    Neither agency responded to a request for more information on the plan for alternative panels. The White House did not respond to a request for comment.

    Rufe on Monday granted Philadelphia’s request for an injunction requiring the full restoration of exhibits removed from the President’s House on Jan. 22. She further enjoined the federal government from making any changes to the site without the agreement of the city.

    Federal judge orders Trump administration to restore slavery exhibits to the President’s House

    The panels that tell the stories of the nine enslaved African people who lived in President George Washington’s house must be displayed again swiftly, the judge said in her 40-page opinion.

    The order directs the agencies to comply “immediately” and “forthwith” but does not include a specific deadline.

    “Each person who visits the President’s House and does not learn of the realities of founding-era slavery receives a false account of this country’s history,” wrote Rufe, who was appointed by former President George W. Bush.

    In addition to the appeal, the federal government will need to ask for a stay on the order or risk not complying with Rufe’s injunction.

    But though the panels have not been restored, the ruling marked a victory for Mayor Cherelle L. Parker’s administration and the advocates who pushed to create the exhibit.

    Parker addressed the injunction in a video Tuesday celebrating the ruling as a “huge win for the people of this city and our country.”

    “This summer Philadelphia will lead a litany of Semiquincentennial celebrations in honor of America’s 250th birthday, and please know that we will do so with a great deal of pride,” Parker said. “A pride that comes from acknowledging all of our history, and all of our truth, no matter how painful it may be.”

    Philadelphia’s lawsuit was the first in the nation challenging the removal of exhibits from national parks in accordance with President Donald Trump’s March 2025 executive order, which instructed the Interior Department to remove any content or displays that “inappropriately disparage Americans past or living.”

    The federal government violated a 2006 cooperative agreement between the National Park Service and the city when it dismantled the exhibits without notice in what amounted to an unlawful “arbitrary and capricious” act, Philadelphia’s lawsuit said. Rufe found that the agreement is still binding.

    As the city’s litigation proceeds following the injunction, it is not the only effort to address changes to historic exhibits on federal parks.

    A lawsuit filed Tuesday by park conservation advocacy groups in Massachusetts federal court says that removals of the type that took place in Philadelphia violate “Congress’s clear instructions.”

    The National Parks Conservation Association’s lawsuit notes that in addition to the slavery signs removed from the President’s House, the Trump administration removed signs about climate change from Maine’s Acadia National Park and a creative exhibit about the women’s role in the history of Muir Woods National Park, among other examples.

    The suit asks a federal judge to order the Interior Department and National Park Service to “cease all unlawful efforts to remove up-to-date and accurate historical or scientific information from the national parks, and order that interpretive materials that have been removed pursuant to the unlawful Order be restored.”

  • ‘He loved Philadelphia, and Philadelphia loved him’: Jesse Jackson in Philadelphia through the years

    ‘He loved Philadelphia, and Philadelphia loved him’: Jesse Jackson in Philadelphia through the years

    The Rev. Jesse L. Jackson, a civil rights icon and a regular presence in Philadelphia who energized Black voters both locally and nationally for more than five decades, died Tuesday at his home in Chicago following a prolonged battle with a rare neurological disorder. He was 84.

    “Jesse Jackson will be remembered in Philadelphia as a civil rights hero, and a leader in terms of independent Black politics nationwide,” said former Councilmember W. Wilson Goode Jr., the son of Philly’s first Black mayor, W. Wilson Goode Sr. “He loved Philadelphia, and Philadelphia loved him.”

    A native of Greenville, S.C., Rev. Jackson initially rose to prominence in the mid-1960s, when he joined the 1965 voting rights march that the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. led from Selma to Montgomery, Ala. In the years following King’s assassination in 1968, Rev. Jackson largely came to be considered his successor.

    Rev. Jackson would go on to become a prominent Black political and cultural leader in his own right, with his lengthy time in the public eye including presidential runs in 1984 and 1988. His visits to Philadelphia date back to the 1970s, and run the gamut from time in town supporting his own presidential campaigns — though neither of which were successful in the ‘80s — to appearances at the Democratic National Convention in 2016.

    The Rev. Jesse Jackson, founder and president of the Rainbow/PUSH Coalition, acknowledges the cheers of delegates as he walks to the podium to deliver remarks on the third night of the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia on July 27, 2016.
    Hillary Clinton supporters and the Rev. Jesse Jackson (right) on the fourth day of the Democratic National Convention at the Wells Fargo Center on July 28, 2016.
    The Rev. Jesse Jackson visits Baltimore’s turbulent intersection of West North Avenue and Pennsylvania Avenue on April 28, 2015.

    Across that time, Rev. Jackson served as a sort of rallying figure for Black Philadelphians at large, who largely supported his candidacy during his presidential runs, despite him failing to secure the Democratic nomination statewide. Still, his impact for Black voters both in Philadelphia and nationally remains everlasting.

    “That was the Rosetta stone to everything Jackson was trying to achieve,” said former Daily News scribe Gene Seymour, nephew of legendary People Paper columnist Chuck Stone. “We aren’t to be ignored or dismissed or cast aside — we matter.”

    In that sense, Goode Jr. said, Rev. Jackson will remain a political icon who inspired the nationalization of Black political empowerment.

    “Jesse Jackson is also a cultural icon in terms of telling people to be proud of being Black, and telling themselves, ‘I am somebody,’” Goode Jr. said, referencing Rev. Jackson’s famed refrain. “That is something that was indelible in the soul of Black people across the nation and world, and in Philadelphia here as well.”

    The Rev. Jesse Jackson visits the turbulent intersection of West North Avenue and Pennsylvania Avenue in Baltimore on April 28, 2015.
    The Rev. Jesse Jackson visited Occupy Philadelphia protesters on Nov. 13, 2011. He told them to “never surrender.”
    The Rev Jesse Jackson at Joe Frazier’s funeral at Enon Tabernacle Baptist Church on Cheltenham Avenue in Philadelphia on Nov. 14, 2011.
    The Rev. Jesse Jackson (center) visits the Interfaith tent, donated by Quakers, to talk to the Rev. Peter Friedrich (left) and (from right) Phillip Hall, Hollister Knowlton, and Joyce Moore in 2011.

    Though Philadelphia’s Black community generally was supportive of and receptive to Rev. Jackson’s messaging historically, Seymour said, he maintained something of a complicated relationship with the city’s prominent politicians. Wilson Goode Sr., for example, officially supported Walter Mondale and Michael Dukakis for president in the 1980s. At least in 1988, Seymour said, Rev. Jackson likely had “the people’s hearts,” despite lacking the official nomination.

    Wilson Goode Sr. was not immediately available for comment.

    “His presidential campaigns in 1984 and 1988 reshaped American politics,” said the Rev. Gregory Edwards, of the Philly-based POWER Interfaith, in a statement. “Those campaigns widened the political imagination of this country and helped cultivate a generation of Black elected leaders.”

    Rev. Jackson’s relationship with Goode Sr. was somewhat complicated following the 1985 MOVE bombing, which brought the civil rights leader to tour the ruins of the 6200 block of Osage Avenue in its aftermath. Rev. Jackson urged a congressional investigation into the incident, which he called “excessive force,” but avoided criticizing Goode directly in subsequent meetings. Goode, meanwhile, said that the city would cooperate with any groups investigating the incident, The Inquirer reported at the time.

    “He was not happy with what happened in ‘85 with MOVE,” Seymour said.

    The Rev. Jesse L. Jackson speaks during during funeral services for civil rights activist C. Delores Tucker at Deliverance Evangelistic Church on Oct. 21, 2005. Seated in front row behind him, left to right are Eleanor Smeal, president of the Feminist Majority Foundation; Marion Barry, former mayor of Washington, and Philadelphia Mayor John Street.
    Rev. Jackson is projected live on a large screen monitor (camera operator in foreground) as he participates in a panel discussion laying out a legal and political strategy for fulfilling Brown v. the Board of Education, at the annual NAACP meeting on July. 14, 2004 at the Convention Center.
    Her family stands by as husband (partially hidden) William T. Tucker covers the body of civil rights activist C. Delores Tucker in her casket at the beginning of funeral service at Deliverance Evangelistic Church on Oct. 21, 2005. At right is the Rev. Jesse L. Jackson, founder and president of the Rainbow Coalition/PUSH, who later delivered the eulogy. Seated in rear at right is former Vice President Al Gore.
    AIDS quilt panels flank the podium as the Rev. Jesse Jackson speaks at an African American AIDS conference at the Wyndham Franklin Plaza Hotel on Feb. 28, 2005.

    Still, Rev. Jackson often served as a defender of Philadelphia’s famed Black figures. In 2011, for example, Rev. Jackson spoke at the funeral of legendary world heavyweight boxing champion Joe Frazier, who had long competed with the fictional Rocky Balboa for recognition. As Jackson put it at the time, Frazier was the “real champion,” not the “Italian Stallion.”

    The Rev. Jesse Jackson, who has a sleeping bag draped around his shoulders, is talking and praying with Occupy Philadelphia demonstrators: Brad Wilson (from left); the Rev. Bill Golderer, pastor of Broad Street Ministry; and Donna Jones, pastor of the Cookman Baptist Initiative.

    “If you were of importance as a Black person in America during the time [Jackson] was in the public eye,” Seymour said, “he was there to speak on your behalf.”

    Goode Jr.’s most prominent memory of Rev. Jackson, meanwhile, dates back to the mid-1980s, when he was a student at the University of Pennsylvania. At the time, he said, Rev. Jackson attended a National Black Student Union conference following an invitation from its organizers, Goode Jr. included. It was, Goode Jr. said, an inspiration.

    “It meant a lot to us,” Goode Jr. said. “Not just Black leaders at Penn, but across the nation, who were gathered there.”

    Striking Red Cross worker Lenny Lerro takes a picture of himself with the Rev. Jesse Jackson as they walk the picket line in 2011 on Spring Garden Street in Philadelphia.
    Rev. Jesse Jackson visits with folks at Occupy Philadelphia, just outside City Hall on Nov. 20, 2011.
    The Rev. Jesse Jackson visits with folks at Occupy Philadelphia, just outside City Hall on Nov. 20, 2011.
    U.S. Rep. John Lewis (second from left) is presented with the Civil Rights Champion Award in 2013 by (from left) the Rev. Al Sharpton, the Rev. Jesse Jackson, and Marc Morial, president of the Urban League.
  • Philly bars open past 2 a.m.? A new push for late-night bars amid FIFA World Cup

    Philly bars open past 2 a.m.? A new push for late-night bars amid FIFA World Cup

    A new push to let Philadelphia bars stay open past 2 a.m. is being mounted by local trade groups and bars as the largest global sporting event arrives in the city in June.

    The Pennsylvania Restaurant and Lodging Association, which represents restaurants, bars, and other hospitality businesses, wants state lawmakers to create a temporary permit that allows Philadelphia bars to serve alcohol until 4 a.m. during the 2026 FIFA World Cup, which will come to Philadelphia and 15 other cities in North America from June 11 to July 19.

    “When we’re trying to attract tourists from all over the world to a destination in the United States to enjoy the World Cup, we want to make sure that Philadelphia is offering at least the same amenities as the other host cities,” said Ben Fileccia, senior vice president for strategy for the restaurant and lodging association.

    Many of the most popular U.S. host cities allow bars to serve alcohol past 2 a.m., including New York, Miami, and Kansas City. Other popular international destinations, such as Mexico City and Toronto, also allow it.

    Philadelphia officials did not immediately return a request for comment.

    Any changes to bar closing times would have to come from new legislation, as the Pennsylvania Liquor Control Board does not have the authority to change the liquor code to allow bars to sell alcohol after 2 a.m., said PLCB spokesperson Shawn Kelly.

    The crowd cheers and celebrates USA’s first goal against the Netherlands in the World Cup at Brauhaus Schmitz bar in Philadelphia, Pa., on Saturday Dec. 3, 2022.

    Philly’s chance to prove 4 a.m. closing times work

    Fileccia said this permit would allow bars to take advantage of the estimated 500,000 soccer fans expected to stay in Philadelphia for the six matches being played at Lincoln Financial Field.

    Zek Leeper, co-owner of Founding Fathers sports bar in Southwest Center City, does not see this just as a way to earn more revenue with a surge of tourists coming to Philadelphia.

    “This is our chance to prove that 4 a.m. nightlife can work in Philadelphia. Setting up a temporary license also allows the city and state to pull it back, depending on how it goes,” Leeper said. “With the amount of tourists this year, when is this opportunity going to come up again to justify giving this a try?”

    It doesn’t hurt that an estimated 1.5 million people, including the half million soccer fans, are expected to stay overnight in Philadelphia this summer as the city also hosts America’s 250th celebration and the MLB All-Star Game.

    Leeper and other local bar owners feel confident that the crowds will show up for late-night matches. “We host soccer games from leagues around the world, and those fans are committed. They have consistently shown up whenever the game is on,” Leeper said.

    Steve Maehl (left) of Oconomowoc, Wisconsin laughs as Philly Seagulls President John Fitzpatrick and Dan Peck of Brighton, England (right) look on during the supporter meetup, to kickoff the summer series weekend, at Fadó Irish Pub in Phila., Pa. on Thursday, July 20, 2023.

    Philadelphia soccer fans are already known to work deals with local bars to open as early as 7 a.m. Leeper said upward of 50 people will pack into the bar at sunrise to watch games. While there are no games being played in Philadelphia past 9 p.m. during the World Cup, at least eight of the group stage matches in June will be broadcast on the East Coast starting at midnight or 11 p.m.

    With a 90-minute match, plus halftime and added time, there could be a handful of cases where bartenders have to face down a packed crowd of fans and ask them to leave before the final whistle, Leeper said.

    There’s also the element of international tourists coming from cities that do not have a 2 a.m. cutoff, such as London and Tokyo, leading some visitors to find ways to late-night party outside of licensed establishments, Fileccia said.

    Philly bars were allowed to close later during the 2016 DNC

    Lawmakers allowed bars to stay open until 4 a.m. during the 2016 Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia. Bars and restaurants with contracts or association with the convention could apply for $5,000 special-event permits to serve alcohol past 2 a.m.

    Fileccia said the details for a similar permit in 2026 are not available yet, as the effort is just underway. But he and others at PRLA want to bring the Philadelphia Police Department, the Philadelphia Department of Commerce, and other stakeholders to the table to find out the best resolution, he said.

    Fans react to the Eagles play the Chiefs in the NFL Super Bowl LIX, in a bar near Frankford and Cottman Aves., Saturday, Feb. 8, 2025, in Philadelphia.

    Will there be enough interest in late-night partying?

    With millions of tourists in Philadelphia this year for the international and national events, there will be increased foot traffic throughout the city, but will there be a late-night crowd to meet the moment?

    That is the question Chuck Moran, executive director of the Pennsylvania Licensed Beverages and Taverns Association, is asking despite his support for temporarily keeping bars open later.

    “The one thing that I’ve been hearing across the state is that ever since COVID, the late-night crowds have left,” Moran said. “There could also be issues with finding staff who want to work till 4 a.m. in a bar.”

    Moran said he would rally behind the cause but would look to other measures to maximize revenue for local restaurants and bars, such as allowing liquor-license holders to operate a “satellite location,” letting them serve liquor at a second establishment under their original license. That would open the door to partnerships with restaurants without liquor licenses, Moran said. State Rep. Pat Gallagher, a Philadelphia Democrat, introduced a bill to do just that last June.

    No legislation on keeping Philly bars open later has been introduced yet, but Fileccia hopes to get the ball rolling with lawmakers in the coming months before the first match in Philly on June 14. Even with the window closing on getting new rules passed, Kelly said the PLCB turned around special-event permits in less than two weeks before the start of the 2016 DNC.

  • Ann B. Levine, expert recruiter and longtime dean of admissions at Franklin Learning Center, has died at 75

    Ann B. Levine, expert recruiter and longtime dean of admissions at Franklin Learning Center, has died at 75

    Ann B. Levine, 75, of Philadelphia, expert recruiter, longtime dean of admissions at Franklin Learning Center, business teacher, popular radio host, and community activist, died Saturday, Jan. 31, of age-associated decline at Thomas Jefferson University Hospital.

    Bubbly, charismatic, and skillful at engaging with young people about their interests and goals, Ms. Levine worked as dean of admissions at Franklin Learning Center in Philadelphia from 1980 to her retirement in 2010. For 30 years, she recruited thousands of high-performing junior high school students to admission-only Franklin Learning Center, pored over more than 1,000 yearly applications, and helped choose the final 250 for admission.

    Every year, she toured the city’s junior high schools, cutting-edge slideshow in tow, and spoke to students and families about the curriculum, activities, staff, and student body at Franklin Learning Center. She interviewed the teenage applicants personally, routinely showed interest in their lives as well as their grades, and made countless lifelong friends.

    “You could tell she had their attention when she talked because they asked questions,” said her husband, Bob Bosco. “She was enthusiastic and thorough. She could connect. She found her niche.”

    Ms. Levine (center) “was always a friendly, smiling face,” a friend said in a tribute.

    Friends described Ms. Levine in online tributes as “happy and joyful,” a “sweet girl,” and “so fun to be with.” One friend said she “shared her views openly and freely.” Another said: “She was always a friendly, smiling face.”

    She also founded and was the first director of Franklin Learning Center’s celebrated mock trial team. She persuaded several prominent attorneys and lawyers to mentor her students after school and on weekends, and several of her pupils went on to their own impressive legal careers.

    In 2005, her eight-member mock trial team was one of 12, out of 270 overall, to advance to the Pennsylvania Bar Association statewide mock trial championships at the Dauphin County Courthouse in Harrisburg. Before becoming dean of admissions, she taught business and business law at Franklin Learning Center.

    After she retired, Ms. Levine joined her husband as a fill-in radio host for a decade. They played oldies on WVLT-FM in Vineland, WRDV-FM in Hatboro, and other stations. Her natural charm, love of music, and ability to entertain made her a hit with listeners.

    Ms. Levine married Bob Bosco in 1981.

    “First it was the Bob and Ann Show,” Bosco said. ”Then it was the Ann and Bob Show. Then it was Ann and what’s his name.”

    Ann Barbara Levine was born April 12, 1950, in Trenton. She worked on the yearbook, graduated from Trenton High School, and earned a bachelor’s degree in business at Drexel University and a master’s degree at the old Marywood business school.

    She was taking tennis lessons at the Young Men’s Hebrew Association center in Philadelphia in 1975 when she met Bob Bosco. He was playing basketball.

    They married in 1981, lived in Center City, and traveled together on memorable cruises and visits to Europe, Cuba, and Florida. Ms. Levine was an avid reader. She followed current events and enjoyed The Real Housewives TV shows.

    Ms. Levine “really influenced the lives of a lot of young women,” her husband said.

    For years, she was active with neighborhood groups in Southwest Center City. “She knew everybody,” her husband said. “She really influenced the lives of a lot of young women. She worked with the best of the best.”

    In a tribute, a friend since childhood said: “Though we lived far apart, she was always special to me.”

    In addition to her husband, Ms. Levine is survived by other relatives. A brother died earlier.

    Services were held earlier.

    Donations in her name may be made to the Philadelphia Museum of Art, 2600 Benjamin Franklin Parkway, Philadelphia, Pa. 19130; and the Weitzman National Museum of American Jewish History, 101 S. Independence Mall East, Philadelphia, Pa. 19106.

  • City Council members grill school district officials on plan to close 20 schools — and superintendent says he could have closed 40

    City Council members grill school district officials on plan to close 20 schools — and superintendent says he could have closed 40

    Philadelphia City Council may not have a vote on Superintendent Tony B. Watlington Sr.’s sweeping facilities plan, but it indicated Tuesday that it will have a say in school closings.

    As a packed hearing began in Council’s chambers Tuesday morning, both Council President Kenyatta Johnson and Isaiah Thomas, chair of the Education Committee, said Council refused to be a “rubber stamp” to Watlington’s proposal to close 20 schools, colocate six, and modernize 159.

    Though only the school board gets to vote directly on the plan, Johnson has indicated he is willing to hold up city funding to the district over the school closure plan. And his colleagues echoed that sentiment Tuesday.

    “I’m infuriated that we don’t get a say,” Councilmember Jimmy Harrity said, warning the district officials who appeared before him. “But, Council president, you and I both know we do get a say, because budget’s coming. And we will be looking. Mindful is the word I would use for today — be mindful.”

    Concerned citizens stand with signs in support of Harding Middle School before the start of a Philadelphia City Council hearing Tuesday at City Hall on the school district’s plan to close 20 schools.

    About 40% of the district’s nearly $5 billion budget comes from local revenue and city funding, which City Council and Mayor Cherelle L. Parker must approve in the annual city budget by the end of June.

    Harrity, an at-large Council member, said he was “tired that every time cuts come, they come from a certain neighborhood. You know, I live in Kensington, in the 7th District. I talk to these kids. They’re good kids. They deserve everything that other kids in other neighborhoods are getting. … You can see that this isn’t what our people want.” Watlington has proposed closing four schools in the 7th District.

    More than 100 community members holding babies and waving signs opposing the facilities plan filled Council chambers on the fourth floor of City Hall on Tuesday as Council members spent hours grilling Watlington and other district officials.

    Watlington, meanwhile, stood by his plan in testimony to Council on Tuesday, saying that 20 closings was a much smaller number than he could have settled on.

    “We could have come here and presented a plan that closed twice as many schools and been able to defend it,” Watlington said.

    A once-in-a-lifetime opportunity?

    District officials have said the facilities process is not about saving money, but about optimizing education and equity for the city’s 115,000 students.

    But it was clear Tuesday that finances played a part: The district has lost 15,000 students in the last 10 years, and over 80,000 since 1997, when charter schools were first authorized in Pennsylvania. It has 300 buildings, many of them 75 years and older and in poor repair, and some schools with more than 1,000 empty seats, while others are overcrowded.

    Tony B. Watlington Sr., superintendent of School District of Philadelphia, speaks at a City Council hearing Tuesday on his proposal to close 20 schools.

    “We’ve got to be very careful with our limited resources in a historically underfunded district,” Watlington told Council.

    Watlington and board president Reginald Streater, who also testified, pitched the plan as a way to add things the district cannot now offer — Advanced Placement courses in every high school, the opportunity for all eighth graders to take algebra, more prekindergarten, and career and technical education programs.

    “I do not believe we’ll get this opportunity again in our lifetime,” Watlington said.

    The superintendent dropped a few previously undisclosed facts about the facilities road map, indicating that his recommendations could shift slightly before he presents the plan to the school board on Feb. 26. No date has been set for the board’s final vote, which is expected later this winter.

    “It’s premature to say how the final recommendations will land,” Watlington said.

    But, the superintendent said, “if there are schools that Council wants me to take off the list, and add others on that list, we are open to you telling me what those are, but we cannot get to a place where we address our 35% non-utilization rate in buildings if no changes are made.”

    Philadelphia City Council President Kenyatta Johnson (left) greets Dr. Tony Watlington, Superintendent of School District of Philadelphia Philadelphia City Council holds hearing with board members of School District of Philadelphia, Tuesday, Feb. 17, 2026. Reginald L. Streater, Esq., President Board of Education. (center)

    Debora Carrera, the city’s chief education officer, who spent three decades as a district teacher and administrator, told Council that Parker believes “the current district footprint is unsustainable.”

    Carrera said her own experience as principal of Kensington High School for Creative and Performing Arts shows that it is right for the district to focus resources on neighborhood high schools.

    “My high school was a small high school,” Carrera said. “I could only offer my children two AP courses, when other schools like Central — where my son went — could offer them over 20-plus AP courses.“

    ‘Breaking down of public education’

    The hearing got tense at times.

    “I feel like this is the breaking down of public education in Philadelphia,” said Councilmember Cindy Bass, who said some of the district’s own decisions had led to closures.

    Several members of Council raised questions about the plan’s price tag. Prior district and city estimates put the cost just under $8 billion, but members of Watlington’s team said they could they could actually do the work for $2.8 billion — $1 billion from district capital funds, and $1.8 from yet-unpromised state and philanthropic sources.

    In the past, the district had made public detailed facilities condition assessments for every school in the district, Councilmember Rue Landau noted.

    Residents could look up their school and see exactly what the condition of every system in the building was, and how much money would be required to fix those that needed repair.

    “We don’t have any of those details,” said Landau, who went so far as to say she believed the district should be spending more than $2.8 billion on the plan. “What is the increased investment, and why don’t we have any of those details? They are not out there in the public for us, so none of us have any understanding as to why this is happening, This should all be public so all of the public can see.”

    Jerry Roseman, the Philadelphia Federation of Teachers’ longtime environmental director, who has had a first-row seat to district facilities conditions for decades, said he believed the $2.8 billion figure was not realistic.

    “You need much more money than that,” Roseman told Council. “We need more money than this plan comes close to.”

    Some Council members pushed the district and the board on the plan’s timing.

    The city has been asking for a long-range facilities plan for years, Councilmember Quetcy Lozada pointed out.

    “It’s taken us all this time,” Lozada said. “Now, you guys have come up with a plan, and now we want to rush through it. Now all of a sudden there’s this urgency to get through this plan, which I don’t understand.”

    Streater said the board is moving forward with hearing Watlington’s plan on Feb. 26, but won’t vote until it hears more feedback.

    But ultimately, he said, the board will vote on “a plan that is dynamic, that can evolve over time. … I think that we all understand that things change, facts change, funding changes, enrollment trends change.”

    And, Streater said, there will also likely be policy changes based on redrawing some catchment areas, or boundaries that determine which neighborhood schools children attend.

    Streater, who introduced himself at the beginning of the hearing as “Reggie from Germantown,” underscoring his history as a graduate of two district schools that closed — Germantown High and Leeds Middle School — said that changes must be made.

    “I think if we continue doing the same thing, expecting a different result — which I would argue is chronic underachievement — we are doomed.”

  • History and conservation groups are suing the Trump administration over censorship at national parks

    History and conservation groups are suing the Trump administration over censorship at national parks

    A new lawsuit filed by a group of conservation and history organizations is challenging President Donald Trump’s executive order to remove historic information from national parks.

    It comes a day after a federal judge ordered restoration of the slavery exhibits at the President’s House in Philadelphia and marks the latest chapter in a showdown between historical transparency versus censorship.

    On Tuesday, the National Parks Conservation Association filed a lawsuit in Massachusetts federal court against the Department of Interior, challenging Trump’s 2025 executive order that forced national parks to change or strip displays tied to topics ranging from slavery and racism to LGBTQ+ rights and climate change.

    “Plaintiffs are organizations committed to protecting the national parks, preserving history, promoting access to high quality scientific information, and providing high quality interpretive materials — including exhibits, signs, brochures, and other educational materials — that bridge the gap between physical objects and human understanding for park visitors,” the lawsuit says.

    “They and their members — including avid users of national parks and historians whose research is being erased — have been injured by these actions and seek to ensure that the administration does not wash away history and science from what the National Park Service has recognized is ‘America’s largest classroom.’ ”

    The coalition, which includes the American Association for State and Local History, the Association of National Park Rangers, the Coalition to Protect America’s National Parks, the Society for Experiential Graphic Design, and the Union of Concerned Scientists, is asking the court to declare Trump’s executive order unlawful and to order removed materials to be restored.

    “In filing this litigation together, we are taking a stand for the soul of our national parks,” Alan Spears, senior director of cultural resources at the National Parks Conservation Association, said. “Censoring science and erasing America’s history at national parks are direct threats to everything these amazing places, and our country, stand for.”

    In Philadelphia, U.S. District Judge Cynthia M. Rufe issued a ruling Monday requiring the federal government to restore the President’s House site to its original state. The removed exhibits paid tribute to the enslaved people who lived in George Washington’s home during his presidency.

    In her 40-page opinion, Rufe — who is a George W. Bush appointee — does not mince words. She compared the federal government’s argument that it can unilaterally control the exhibits in national parks to the dystopian totalitarian regime in George Orwell’s 1984.

    Federal judge orders Trump administration to restore slavery exhibits to the President’s House

    The plaintiff’s group for the Massachusetts suit is being represented by Democracy Forward, a progressive nonprofit that challenges government actions it views as harmful.

    “You cannot tell the story of America without recognizing both the beauty and the tragedy of our history,” Skye Perryman, Democracy Forward’s president and CEO said in a statement. “The president’s effort to erase history and science in our national parks violates federal law, and is a disgrace that neither honors our country’s legacy nor its future.”

    Beyond Philadelphia, the lawsuit also mentions other examples of Trump’s executive order in action, including the removal of an interactive display mentioning climate change at Fort Sumter in South Carolina, short films on labor history being scrapped at Lowell’s National Historical Park in Massachusetts, and the removal of displays discussing negative impacts tourists, settlers, and cattle ranchers have on the Grand Canyon National Park.

    The lawsuit goes on to point out the irony of Trump’s executive order aiming to avoid “disparaging Americans,” despite the president’s own new signage at the White House, which takes jabs at former President Joe Biden and others along his West Wing “Walk of Fame.”

    The parties are asking a judge to order that national parks must be allowed to present the full historical and scientific picture without censorship and for their court costs to be paid for.

  • NJ Transit riders from Philadelphia should expect service disruptions for the next four weeks

    NJ Transit riders from Philadelphia should expect service disruptions for the next four weeks

    Philadelphia-area commuters must prepare for a monthlong disruption on NJ Transit while an upgrade to a century-old bridge is completed.

    All NJ Transit lines, except the Atlantic City Rail Line, are operating on modified schedules with fewer trains running, starting Tuesday through March 15, to allow for crews to transfer, or “cut over,” rail service from the 116-year-old Portal Bridge onto the new Portal North Bridge over the Hackensack River.

    Tuesday morning’s “Portal Cutover” schedule led to major disruptions on NJ Transit, the New York Times reported, with crowded trains and buses, many running behind schedule.

    Commuting on NJ Transit

    NJ Transit advises all commuters to work from home if possible and to check the weekday and weekend Portal Cutover schedules at njtransit.com/portalcutover. The agency warns against relying solely on third-party apps, such as Google Maps, because it has received reports of incorrect schedules being shown.

    These modified schedules include some train consolidations or cancellations, and others with changed departure times or stopping patterns.

    Commuters should travel before 7 a.m. or after 9 a.m. on weekday mornings to avoid major disruptions, or before 4 p.m. or after 7 p.m. on weekday evenings, according to NJ Transit.

    Rail service is expected to return to normal on Sunday, March 15, pending a safety inspection.

    “We understand that this work will disrupt the way our customers travel during the cutover period, which is why every element of our service plan was designed to keep people moving as safely and efficiently as possible,” said NJ Transit president and CEO Kris Kolluri. “While the disruption is temporary, the benefits, including a far more reliable and resilient commute along the Northeast Corridor, will last for generations.”

    Why is NJ Transit upgrading the Portal Bridge?

    The 116-year-old steel Portal Bridge has been a source of unreliability for decades as the aging infrastructure requires constant maintenance, an NJ Transit spokesperson said.

    The new Portal North Bridge is also higher and will not have to open for marine traffic, providing more reliable service.

    Amtrak commuters are also encouraged to check times and possible service disruptions, since the bridge is also used by Amtrak.

    “The cutover of the Portal North Bridge represents more than just work to connect railroad infrastructure; it signifies a whole new level of reliability on the Northeast Corridor and New Jersey that has never previously existed,” said Amtrak president Roger Harris.