Transport Workers Union Local 234, SEPTA’s largest union, may soon strike, according to president Will Vera.
At a Friday afternoon news conference at TWU headquarters in Spring Garden, Vera said his “patience has run out,” and he said the union’s executive committee was meeting to decide when to call a strike.
“I’m tired of talking, and we’re going to start walking,” said Vera, who was elected president in October.
Local 234’s latest contract expired Nov. 7, and the 5,000-member local voted unanimously on Nov. 16 to authorize leaders to call a strike if needed during contract negotiations.
The union represents bus, subway, and trolley operators, mechanics, cashiers, maintenance people, and custodians, primarily in the city.
John Samuelsen, president of TWU International and former president of NYC’s local, joined Vera at the news conference.
“A strike is imminent,” Samuelsen said. “SEPTA is the most incompetent transit agency in the country … SEPTA is triggering a strike.”
In an email sent Friday evening, Samuelsen called on leaders and staff members of TWU locals to travel to Philadelphia to help Local 234 in the event of a strike.
Andrew Busch, spokesperson for SEPTA, said negotiations were “at an impasse,” noting that the negotiating committees met only twice this week. He said SEPTA’s leaders hoped TWU would “take us up on the offer to continue to talk so we can avoid a strike and the massive service disruption it would cause.” No meetings are scheduled for the weekend as of Friday evening.
Vera agreed there was room for the two groups to keep talking, if SEPTA provided “a fair and reasonable” contract proposal.
The union says it is looking for a two-year deal with raises and changes to what it views as onerous work rules, including the transit agency’s use of a third party that Vera said makes it hard for members to use their allotted sick time.
SEPTA officials have signaled they are open to a two-year deal as a step toward labor stability.
In recent weeks, TWU and SEPTA have been negotiating contributions to the union’s healthcare fund. Pensions have arisen as a sticking point.
Union sources told The Inquirer that TWU leaders are increasingly frustrated with the pace of negotiations.
Vera said the executive board meeting began at 4:30 p.m. on Friday. He hoped the board would reach a decision on when members would walk off the job.
TWU last went on strike in 2016. It lasted for six days and ended the day before the general election. Democrat Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign was worried about voter turnout, and the city sought an injunction to end the strike. It proved unnecessary.
SEPTA’s financials
TWU’s contract negotiations are happening as SEPTA is emerging from what it has called the worst period of financial turmoil in its history.
Like many transit agencies, SEPTA was facing a recurring deficit due to inflation, fewer federal dollars, and flat state subsidies. It reported a $213 million recurring hole in its operating budget.
Following a prolonged and contentious debate over mass transit funding in the state budget, Gov. Josh Shapiro in September directed PennDot to allow SEPTA to tap $394 million in state money allocated for future capital projects to pay for two years of operating expenses.
And last month, he allocated $220 million to SEPTA, the second time in two years he’s flexed state dollars to support the financially beleaguered transit agency. While the $220 million is expected to go primarily toward capital expenses related to Regional Rail, the move helps SEPTA’s overall balance sheet.
What riders should know
SEPTA riders are no strangers to service disruptions.
A former top Philadelphia labor official claims in a lawsuit that she was passed over for a promotion because she’s a woman, and was later fired afterraising concerns about gender-based discrimination spanning two mayoral administrations.
Monica Marchetti-Brock, the former first deputy director of the Department of Labor, said in a federal lawsuit filed Wednesday that Mayor Cherelle L. Parker fired her last year, days after Marchetti-Brock had reiterated complaints about gender bias at the top rungs of the city government that had occurred before Parker took office.
Marchetti-Brock had worked for the city since 2013. Under former Mayor Jim Kenney, she rose to the city’s No. 2 labor role.
The man hired for the position was Basil Merenda, a former top state labor official whom Marchetti-Brock claims “had a problem with women.”
What started as a change in boss under then-Mayor Jim Kenney culminated in spring 2024 with Parker firing Marchetti-Brock after she complainedof sex-based discrimination, according to the suit. The lawsuit says an outside investigator probed Merenda’s behavior and in 2023 recommended he undergo implicit bias training.
The lawsuit accuses the city of minimizing the results of that investigation and of terminating Marchetti-Brock and a second woman who was mistreated by Merenda.
“When [Marchetti-Brock] asked if her termination had anything to do with her sex discrimination complaints, [the city] refused to answer the question,” the complaint says.
Merenda is currently one of two commissioners of the Department of Licenses and Inspections. Parker announced his appointment in February 2024, a few weeks before Marchetti-Brock says she was fired. It is common for there to be significant turnover in personnel at the beginning of a new mayoral administration.
A city spokesperson declined to comment, citing the pending litigation.
Attempts to reach Kenney were unsuccessful. The former mayor appointed many women to his top staff through his more than two decades in City Hall. When he took office as mayor in 2016, the majority of his cabinet were women.
Marchetti-Brock began reporting to Merenda in January 2023. He ignored his deputy, excluded her from meetings and communications, yelled, and “unjustly” criticized her, the suit says.
Marchetti-Brock says she complained of sex discrimination in the labor department to a long list of officials, some of whom still work for the city, including City Solicitor Renee Garcia and Chief Administrative Officer Camille Duchaussee. Marchetti-Brock “described how she was treated compared to how male employees were treated, including that Merenda ignored what female employees said and focused on what male employees said,” according to the lawsuit.
The city opened an investigation in the spring of 2023, the suit says.
After Parker was elected in November 2023, Marchetti-Brock again expressed her interest in the top labor role. However, the incoming mayor ultimately tapped Perritti DiVirgilio, who was previously the city’s director of labor standards. Marchetti-Brock described DiVirgilio in the suit as a “noncomplaining, male employee.”
In February 2024, Marchetti-Brock received a letter summarizing the findings of the investigation into Merenda. The letter said that the probe concluded that “no violation” of the city’s sexual harassment prevention policy occurred. According to the complaint, Marchetti-Brock was told that Merenda had received a warning and the investigator recommended he undergo implicit bias training.
The policy says city employees are protected from sexual harassment regardless if it’s “unlawful,” and it prohibits retaliation against employees who raise concerns or complain. Marchetti-Brock had a role crafting the policy following a critical 2018 City Controller report that said the city’s sexual harassment reporting protocols were inadequate.
According to the suit, Marchetti-Brock pushed back on the summary letter in an email to Andrew Richman, a city attorney, saying that even though no unlawful behavior was found, “there were findings of bias toward me and other women.”
“As you are aware, our policy holds our leaders to a higher standard than the law,” Marchetti-Brock wrote, according to the complaint. “It is misleading to say there are no findings under our policy.”
Three days later, in early March 2024, top officials from Parker’s administration informed Marchetti-Brock that her employment would be terminated, according to the complaint. The suit states that another female employee who had complained about Merenda was terminated as well.
The lawsuit asks the federal court to find that the city violated antidiscrimination laws and award Marchetti-Brock an unspecified amount of damages.
A Philadelphia journalist was sentenced Friday to 20 years in federal prison for possessing thousands of images and videos of child pornography.
Michael Hochman, whose work was published over the years by outlets including Visit Philadelphia, the sports website Crossing Broad, and The Inquirer — where he once contributed a freelance column — came to the attention of investigators in 2022 after they learned that he exchanged explicit messages with a teenage girl. Authorities later found that he had downloaded more than 2,000 photos and videos of children being sexually abused onto his computers and other devices, prosecutors said.
Hochman, 52, of Huntingdon Valley, compiled that collection over the course of more than a decade, prosecutors said, and did so even after he’d served prison time for sexually assaulting a teenager in Kansas in 2002.
In sentencing Hochman on Friday, U.S. District Judge Kelley B. Hodge cited that conviction as she imposed a prison term five years longer than prosecutors sought.
Calling Hochman’s actions “shameful” and “vile,” the judge said, “The level of depravity … is without words.“
Hochman was convicted of child sex crimes two decades ago after prosecutors say he had sex with a 13-year-old girl he met online. He was convicted of aggravated indecent liberties with a child and sentenced to 55 months in prison, court documents said.
In 2022, prosecutors said, a Missouri woman discovered that her 15-year-old daughter, who had developmental disabilities, had been exchanging explicit messages with an older man online. The mother alerted law enforcement, and authorities traced the messages back to Hochman.
After investigators seized six devices from Hochman’s home, the documents said, four were found to contain sexually explicit images and videos of children being abused.
In all, prosecutors said, Hochman possessed about 1,900 photos and 130 videos of child pornography, many of which depicted rapes, and some of which had been downloaded more than a decade ago.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Michelle Rotella said it was “very troubling” that Hochman began downloading materials of children being abused not long after he’d been punished for similar crimes.
“The seriousness of his crimes can in no way be argued with,” Rotella said.
Hochman’s attorney, Michael Diamondstein, said no one should be defined by their best or worst actions, but acknowledged the gravity of Hochman’s misdeeds.
“This is a bad case,” he said.
The judge noted that some of the images on Hochman’s computer depicted children as young as three.
Moreover, she said, Hochman’s exchanges with the 15-year-old girl in Missouri were “beyond offensive.”
And Hochman, she said, had a solid upbringing and was a working professional with a college degree, who had opportunities to avoid acting on criminal impulses.
“You knew better,” she said. “You know how to access help.”
Hochman apologized for his actions, saying he recognizes the harm he’s caused and will work the rest of his life to avoid doing so again in the future.
“I made these choices, and I must accept the consequences,” he said.
Wilmington received its first measurable snow of the season — a mighty 0.4 inches — and snow coated roads in parts of southern Chester County Friday.
But Philly once again had to settle for a “trace,” as the flakes that appeared at Philadelphia International Airport failed to meet the minimum requirements for a snowfall — a tenth of an inch.
Yes, PennDot was aware of the potential flake invasion, and crews and trucks were on standby, said spokesperson Krys Johnson. But evidently they can save that salt for another day.
It is possible that the city may see a few flurries this evening, or perhaps freezing rain, said Eric Hoeflich, meteorologist at the National Weather Service in Mount Holly.
But you aren’t going to pull a back muscle shoveling. Philadelphia stayed to the north of the snow line as the dry, cold air refused to give it up.
Snow in early December does happen around here, but lack of it is the norm. The “normal” value for snowfall through a Dec. 5 is 0.4 inches at PHL.
Philly’s snow season typically peaks in late January into February as the prime moisture source — the Atlantic Ocean — has a chance to chill, and the cold air in the upper atmosphere ripens.
It’s certainly cold enough for snow. Lows overnight fell into the 20s, officially 25 degrees at PHL. Mount Pocono set a Dec. 5 record with a reading of 4 below zero. That’s Fahrenheit.
Temperatures may not get above freezing Friday, and no higher than the low 40s Saturday and Sunday, which would be several degrees below the long-term daily averages. Another cold front is due Sunday, and readings likely won’t get out of the 30s on Monday and Tuesday.
Think you know your news? There’s only one way to find out. Welcome back to our weekly News Quiz — a quick way to see if your reading habits are sinking in and to put your local news knowledge to the test.
Question 1 of 10
This nearly 100-year-old pizzeria, considered Philadelphia’s oldest, closed on Sunday:
CorrectIncorrect. XX% of other readers got this question right.
The Marra family says they’re exploring a new location for Marra’s — one with better parking. The building, which the Marras bought in 1927, has been sold after being on the market for several years.
Question 2 of 10
There’s already a plan for what will replace Marra’s in its original Passyunk Ave. location. What kind of cuisine is it expected to be?
CorrectIncorrect. XX% of other readers got this question right.
EMei, arguably Philly’s most acclaimed Sichuan restaurant, is taking over the building occupied by Marra’s for the last 98 years. The East Passyunk EMei would roll out in phases, with takeout and delivery launching in February during renovations and full dine-in service targeted for summer 2026.
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This musician with Pennsylvania roots slammed the Trump administration this week for using their song without permission in a video promoting ICE.
CorrectIncorrect. XX% of other readers got this question right.
On Tuesday, Sabrina Carpenter condemned the White House for posting a video featuring ICE arresting protesters and undocumented immigrants to one of her songs. The Bucks County native replied to the post, “this video is evil and disgusting. Do not ever involve me or my music to benefit your inhumane agenda.”
Question 4 of 10
Quinta Brunson of Abbott Elementary has started a new fund in partnership with the Philadelphia School District to provide free ____ for students.
CorrectIncorrect. XX% of other readers got this question right.
Through the Quinta Brunson Field Trip Fund, district teachers and administrators will be able to apply for money for field trips by completing a short application subject to evaluation by an independent, internal group of educators. Field trip grants will be made twice a year. Brunson said she recalls her class selling hoagies to pay for field trips and that the trips played a seminal part in her Philly education.
Question 5 of 10
The Rittenhouse estate sale of the late lawyer Bill Roberts opened to the public this week. The house is said to be filled with 100,000 of this object:
CorrectIncorrect. XX% of other readers got this question right.
Roberts, a longtime lawyer at Blank Rome LLP, was a bibliophile whose interests — and library — spanned genres and eras, touching on microeconomic theory, beekeeping, botany, classical music, poetry, and much else.
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Question 6 of 10
Eagles offensive coordinator Kevin Patullo's Moorestown house was pelted with what after the Eagles' Black Friday loss to the Bears?
CorrectIncorrect. XX% of other readers got this question right.
According to the Moorestown Police Department, Patullo’s home was vandalized with multiple eggs at about 2:50 a.m. Saturday, hours after the Eagles lost. Patullo, the first-year Eagles offensive coordinator, has shouldered the brunt of the blame for the Eagles’ struggles on offense. A website calling for his firing surfaced. Fans chanted for him to be fired during the game Friday. Police are still investigating.
Question 7 of 10
Philadelphia scientists won an Ig Nobel prize for studying this flavor of breast milk:
CorrectIncorrect. XX% of other readers got this question right.
Julie Mennella was one of two scientists at Monell Chemical Senses Center to win a 2025 Ig Nobel Prize, the satirical counterpart to the Nobel Prize for her work illuminating how babies respond to garlic-flavored breast milk.
Question 8 of 10
What did N.J. Senator Cory Booker notably do over the Thanksgiving holiday weekend?
CorrectIncorrect. XX% of other readers got this question right.
After a brief engagement, New Jersey U.S. Sen. Cory Booker and real estate executive Alexis Lewis celebrated their nuptials Saturday in Washington, after a courthouse wedding last Monday.
Question 9 of 10
Punk icon Patti Smith recently told The Inquirer that she was formed by her time in Philadelphia and rural South Jersey. Where did she grow up in Philly?
CorrectIncorrect. XX% of other readers got this question right.
Smith calls Philadelphia a formative force in her life. “Culturally, it was the city that helped form me,” she said. “It was where I discovered rock and roll.” Smith grew up in Germantown with stops in Upper Darby and South Philly peppered in.
Question 10 of 10
Sixers’ Joel Embiid’s latest signature shoe has dropped. What brand is making the new sneaker?
CorrectIncorrect. XX% of other readers got this question right.
The SKX JE1 marks Skechers’ first foray into signature basketball shoes. For years, Embiid was signed to and developed signature kicks with Under Armour. Embiid entered a partnership with Skechers in 2024. “I’m excited to share it with the world,” Embiid said. The shoes will retail for $130.
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Right now, any Philadelphian 21 or older can go online or walk into a regional smoke shop and buy a THC-infused drink as potent as products in legal dispensaries.
But soon, that might all change.
The billion-dollar intoxicating beverage industry exploded in recent years, with THC-infused seltzers, lemonades, and teas that resemble popular products like Surfsides or White Claws. Sold in local gas stations, smoke shops, and liquor stores outside of Pennsylvania, these weed drinks deliver a cannabis high that is infused into bubbly, sweet canned beverages.
While marijuana is still federally illegal, the hemp industry had found a way to manufacture and sell hemp-derived THC drinks across the country through a legal loophole that is soon closing.
Last month, Congress banned all intoxicating hemp products, a slew of THC-infused smokeable, vape-able, and edible products that are derived from hemp plants but could be mistaken for actual marijuana. In many cases, the drinks are just as potent as conventional weed.
Starting in 2027, almost all of them will be illegal, spurring a nationwide movement within the industry to save the burgeoning market.
Arthur Massolo, the vice president of national THC beverage brand Cycling Frog, which sells its wares locally, saidthese restrictions will have devastating effects on the producers of thousands of hemp-derived products, like THC, but also CBD, the non-intoxicating cannabinoid popular for treating anxiety, sleep, and pain.
Will Angelos, whose Ardmore smoke shop and wellness store, Free Will Collective, relies on THC drinks for nearly 40% of its business, is hoping for some saving grace. “We’re either looking to pivot or we’re disappearing,” he said.
Adults share Cycling Frog canned THC drinks in this marketing photo provided by Cycling Frog.
What are THC-infused drinks?
Seltzers, sodas, teas, mocktails, and lemonades all infused with THC — and sometimes non-intoxicating CBD — exploded onto the scene a few years ago and grew into a billion-dollar business, said hemp market analyst Beau Whitney.
“These drinks have transformed the hemp industry into this low-dose intoxicating health and wellness, alcohol-adjacent product,” said Massolo, who is also the president of U.S. Hemp Roundtable, a hemp business advocacy organization.
The THC-infused drinks sold in gas stations, smoke shops, and liquor stores are supposedly formulated using legally grown hemp, which is allowed to be grown under the 2018 Farm Bill that opened the door to hemp farming in the U.S.
Lawmakers carved out an exemption from federal drug laws for cannabis plants containing 0.3% or less of THC. These low-THC plants are considered “hemp” and are legal to grow. Cannabis plants over that THC threshold are considered marijuana and can carry felony charges if the plant is not being grown by state-licensed growers in places where adult use or medicinal marijuana is legal, like New Jersey and Pennsylvania.
While intoxicating hemp products have enjoyed consistent growth in the past years, these THC-infused drinks have increasingly appeared in aisles of liquor stores and supermarkets in some states, allowing adults who normally don’t visit dispensaries to pick up a bottle of infused wine in the same place they grab groceries, said New Jersey cannabis lawyer Steve Schain.
Hemp products photographed at the Philadelphia Inquirer, November 21, 2025.
The ease of access to THC drinks allowed the national market to grow to $1.3 billion in annual sales, and if access continues, Whitney said, that figure could reach $15 billion in the coming years.
This is all thanks to what Whitney calls the “FPS,” or “Female Power Shopper.” These women, ages 29 to 45, are the ones who are likely shopping for a household in grocery and liquor stores, and may jump at the chance to try cannabis products without diving headfirst into dispensaries, Whitney said.
Mary Ellen, 55, of Bucks County, who asked to not to be identified by her last name over concerns for her cannabis use and employment, said these THC drinks are the perfect way to unwind after a long day, especially for adults like her who choose not to drink alcohol. As a medical marijuana patient, she uses regulated cannabis for a variety of ailments, but also enjoys THC drinks like Nowadays’ infused mocktails that she buys at Angelos’ Ardmore store.
“I’d rather come home and have a glass of Nowadays. That’s a lot better than having a glass of vodka or a benzodiazepine,” she said. “I’m not going to forget what I did the night before, and I’m not going to wake up feeling crappy the next morning.”
City smoke shop exterior in the 1000 block of Chestnut Street Monday, July 21, 2025.
What are the concerns over THC drinks?
As the money started to roll in for THC drinks, fear among local communities and law enforcement began to grow. In the Philadelphia suburbs, the Bucks, Chester, and Montgomery County district attorneys’ offices finished a 10-month investigation into intoxicating hemp products and the local stores that sell them.
The 107-page grand jury report speaks of a public health crisis unfolding in “plain sight” across Pennsylvania, where retailers have little to no oversight, in some cases selling actual marijuana.
Montgomery County District Attorney Kevin Steele said the industry created a “Wild West situation” and urged state lawmakers to regulate the industry similarly to alcohol and tobacco, including age requirements, licensing, and mandatory lab testing.
Stakeholders in the industry support regulation of some kind. While hemp-derived THC companies fear the economic collapse of their industry, Massolo and Angelos say there is concern that these products will leave overt brick-and-mortar operations known by local officials for more covert, illicit operations, similar to how these products were purchased before the 2018 Farm Bill.
“We’ve basically traveled back to 10 seconds before the Farm Bill of 2018 was signed,” Schain said.
Mary Ellen says the lack of regulation is a major sticking point for consumers who flock to these products, but would like some reassurance on the drinks they are ingesting.
But, even if the ban goes into effect, she said, “people will just figure out another way for us to get it. It’ll be like a prohibition that we’ve seen in this country with alcohol and marijuana.”
THC and CBD-infused beverages on the shelves of Free Will Collective, an Ardmore smoke shop and wellness store owned by Will Angelos. As Congress moves to ban most intoxicating hemp products, business owners like Angelos aren’t sure they will be able to keep the doors open long past 2027 if current regulations go into effect.
Will THC-infused drinks be banned or saved by 2027?
Now, as the industry’s yearlong grace period begins before the ban takes effect, companies are scrambling.
The intoxicating hemp manufacturers and retailers who spoke to The Inquirer said the game plan is to offload all of the intoxicating hemp products in stock, including THC-infused drinks, flower, vapes, and even CBD products.
Some companies will see almost their entire product catalog become illegal, in some cases dwindling from 45 products on offer down to two, Whitney said of the firms he works with. The far-reaching impact will also hurt industrial hemp products, cannabis tourism, alcohol distributors, and even the legal cannabis industry, as some of their products, including CBD, will now have to contend with these new regulations, Schain and Whitney said.
At the U.S. Hemp Roundtable, Massolo is having daily board meetings, including on weekends, to coordinate a response to federal lawmakers. It’s now a race against the clock to remedy or claw back some of the new regulations before damage is done to the industry’s distribution pipelines, Massolo said. The group hopes to rally other industries, like traditional beverages, wellness products, and supplements, to bolster its case.
Among the U.S. Hemp Roundtable’s recommendations to lawmakers are an extension of the hemp ban grace period to two years, raising the limit on hemp-derived THC products, and allowing states to regulate these products as they see fit, to name a few.
Stakeholders say they want regulations to help legitimize this billion-dollar endeavor and save it from annihilation, but smaller operators like Angelos hope it’s not at the expense of small independent businesses.
While precautions like rigorous age verification systems and lab testing are necessary, Angelos said, if regulators “overtax, or over gate-keep,” many of the smaller retailers — who he said enjoy the benefit of knowing their local government officials and community — won’t be able to compete in the market.
“There obviously has to be standards, but I’m scared of an overcorrection,” Angelos said of the hemp ban. “It’s not just a singular choice. If you want your kids to be safe, have a mechanism where you can keep your eyes on the product.”
The holiday season at City Hall was kicked off Thursday night with a lighting ceremony for what is officially called the “Philly Holiday Tree,” followed by live musical performances by Grammy-winning artists Ashanti and Lalah Hathaway.
The 50-foot-tall, 75-year-old Concolor Fir, sourced from Stutzman Farms in New York, will be displayed on the north side of City Hall through Jan. 1. The tree is bigger and brighter this year, with a reimagined base that serves as a centerpiece and more than 6,000 lights.
Mayor Cherelle Parker smiles alongside Santa during the annual City of Philadelphia Holiday Tree Lighting ceremony at City Hall on Thursday, Dec. 4, 2025.Attendees wait in line for drinks during the annual City of Philadelphia Holiday Tree Lighting ceremony at City Hall on Thursday, Dec. 4, 2025.Attendees with Grinch hats gather for the annual City of Philadelphia Holiday Tree Lighting ceremony at City Hall on Thursday, Dec. 4, 2025.Ashanti performs at the annual City of Philadelphia Holiday Tree Lighting ceremony at City Hall on Thursday, Dec. 4, 2025.Ashanti performs a medley during the BET Awards on Monday, June 9, 2025, at the Peacock Theater in Los Angeles.
Mayor Cherelle L. Parker struck a replica Liberty Bell with a large hammer at 7:05 p.m. to signal the lighting of the tree.
Cassie Donegan, the current Miss America, sang “White Christmas” and “Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree.” The show was broadcast live on 6abc.
The annual city-run event is part of a wider event schedule to ring in the holiday season in Philadelphia, organized by Welcome America LLC, which also organizes the Wawa Welcome America festival on July 4.
Immigration activists carried a worn wooden lectern to the Criminal Justice Center on Thursday, demanding that Sheriff Rochelle Bilal step up and explain why she allows ICE agents in the courthouse.
She didn’t appear, and after a few minutes lead protest speaker Aniqa Raihan stepped away from the microphone, highlighting the sheriff’s absence by leaving the podium empty, save for the recorded chirps of crickets.
The quiet didn’t last.
As Raihan resumed speaking, she was quickly interrupted by counterdemonstrators, supporters of the sheriff who said No ICE Philly had unfairly maligned her. Her supporters said the sheriff could bar ICE from the courthouse only upon a judge’s order ― initiating a testy debate.
“It’s the judges that have to actually give the order,” said Andy Pierre, CEO of Fox & Lion Communication, who said he helped run the sheriff’s campaign for office. ”Her coming down here, and taking time away from managing her office, to come down here for this show …”
Other Bilal backers, at least one wearing a campaign shirt, also accused the immigration advocates of targeting the wrong person, holding up signs that said, “Hands off Sheriff Bilal!”
Aniqa Raihan, an organizers with No ICE Philly, speaks at a protest Thursday at the Criminal Justice Center.
The No ICE Philly demonstrators responded that the sheriff is in charge of courthouse security. And that she does not report to Philadelphia judges.
No ICE Philly has castigated Bilal, saying that by not barring U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement from the property — as judges and lawmakers in some other jurisdictions have done — she has helped enable the arrest of at least 90 immigrants who were trailed from the courthouse and arrested on the sidewalk outside.
Three more people were arrested this week, activists said.
“Sheriff Bilal, we are watching,” Raihan said.
Conflicting views at Philly courthouse
In response to a request for comment ahead of the protest, the sheriff’s office said in a statement that Bilal had already made her position clear:
“The Sheriff’s Office does not cooperate with ICE, does not assist in ICE operations, and does not share information with ICE. That policy has not changed and will not change.”
The statement reiterated that deputies are prohibited from assisting ICE in courthouse arrests. The department’s priority is the safety of immigrants, residents, observers, and everyone entering the court system, it said.
Meanwhile, the statement said, the office would continue to protect the public, enforce its policies, and ensure that “no one is targeted or harmed because of their immigration status.”
Protesters say that is exactly what has been happening, that the sheriff has allowed ICE to turn the Criminal Justice Center into “a hunting ground.”
The issue has spurred contention between activists and lawyers who say the courthouse must be a place to seek and render justice ― not to target immigrants ― and federal authorities who insist that making arrests there is legal, safe, and logical.
No ICE Philly says agents have been allowed to essentially hang out at the Center City courthouse, waiting in the lobby or scouring the hallways, then making arrests outside, a pattern they say has been repeated dozens of times since President Donald Trump took office in January.
Asked for comment, an ICE spokesperson in Philadelphia said: “ICE respects the rights of individuals to peacefully protest.”
Contention over courthouses
Activists noted that many people who go to the courthouse are not criminal defendants ― they are witnesses, crime victims, family members, and others who are already in diversionary programs.
Other jurisdictions have acted to bar or restrict ICE activity at their courthouses.
In Connecticut last month, state lawmakers passed a bill to bar most civil immigration arrests at courthouses. In Chicago, the top Cook County judge barred ICE from arresting people at courthouses. And in New York, a federal judge dismissed a Trump administration challenge to a law that barred the immigration arrests of people going into and out of courthouses.
Nearly 11 months into Trump‘s second presidency, courthouses have become disputed territory as his administration pursues ever-more-aggressive arrest and deportation policies.
Under President Joe Biden, ICE agents were allowed to take action at or near a courthouse only if the situation involved a threat to national security, an imminent risk of death or violence, the pursuit of someone who threatened the public safety, or a risk of destruction of evidence.
The only conditions were that agents must have credible information that their target would be present and that the local jurisdiction had not passed laws barring such enforcement.
‘We want to keep our city’
On Thursday, about 60 demonstrators gathered outside the Center City courthouse, where they said Bilal must do more to protect immigrants.
The demand comes as ICE has dramatically expanded its presence and visibility in the Philadelphia region and across the United States. More than 65,000 immigrants are now being held in federal detention, up dramatically since Trump took office.
“We want to keep our city, not a city of fear, but a city of love,” said Elena Emelchin Brunner, immigrant rights organizer with Asian Americans United.
Imam Salaam Muhsin, a community leader, stepped up to speak as No ICE Philly opened the lectern to all. He said the climate around ICE had become “terrorizing” and must be addressed.
“What we’re doing right here, we’re doing it in a kind of ugly way,” he said. “And I say ugly because we haven’t come together. We still are stigmatizing one person, and that’s the sheriff. That’s unfair to her.”
Authorities have charged two men in connection with a double fatal shooting outside a Bordentown convenience store, prosecutors said Thursday.
Justford Doe, 23, and Giovanni Varanese, 21, are charged with first-degree murder, first-degree robbery, and other offenses stemming from the Nov. 5 killing outside a 7-Eleven and Valero gas station at the intersection of Route 130 North and Farnsworth Avenue.
The shooting left Daniel Patterson, 22, and Mason Knott, 21, dead.
Bordentown Township police were called at about 11:30 p.m. to the convenience store after Patterson, a Philadelphia resident, came into the store suffering from gunshot wounds and asked for help. He was pronounced dead at the scene, according to the Burlington County Prosecutor’s Office. Knott, of Wrightstown, was transported to a hospital in Trenton, where he died.
Police said the men shot Knott in the back of the head, then stole marijuana that was in his vehicle. They shot Patterson three times and stole his Jeep, police said.
The assailants fled but crashed in Florence Township, the prosecutor’s office said.
Authorities did not say Thursday how they connected Doe and Varanese to the killings.
The men are being held in the Philadelphia Department of Prisons, but will be extradited to New Jersey to face the charges, according to the prosecutor’s office.
The transit agency says it will miss Friday’s federal deadline to finish outfitting all 223 Silverliner IV Regional Rail cars with a new heat-detection system. The reason: It needs to wait for 7,000 additional feet of thermal wire.
About 30 of the 50-year-old cars have not yet had the safety feature installed, officials said. The wire required to finish the job is on back order.
“I don’t think the suppliers expected one agency to raid their entire stockpile,” spokesperson Andrew Busch said.
SEPTA needed about 39,000 feet of the thermal wire to outfit the entire fleet of Silverliner IV cars, he said. “It was an unusual demand on the supply chain,” Busch said. SEPTA has worked with two manufacturers and four distributors.
The missing link is expected to arrive next week, and the installations should be finished the following week, Busch said.
SEPTA worked with two manufacturers and distributors to get the large rolls of wire.
The thermal wire is made of spring steel, separated by a polymer that melts at high temperature, allowing the steel conductor to touch and connect the electric circuit. That allows it to provide earlier warning of a potential problem so cars can be pulled from service.
Delays, cancellations, station skips, and overcrowded trains running with fewer than the normal number of cars have been regular challenges for riders during the work, which started in October.
Meanwhile, SEPTA is leasing 10 passenger coaches from Maryland’s commuter rail system, MARC, which Amtrak is scheduled to deliver late Friday night at 30th Street Station. They will be towed to SEPTA’s nearby Powelton yard.
