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Category: Pennsylvania Politics

  • SNAP cuts are taking a toll on the thousands of Pennsylvanians losing benefits: ‘I fell into a downward spiral’

    SNAP cuts are taking a toll on the thousands of Pennsylvanians losing benefits: ‘I fell into a downward spiral’

    Enrique Fuentes counted on the $250 he received monthly in federal nutrition assistance to cover the cost of groceries. That changed last month.

    Fuentes works three days a week as a technician assisting therapists who help autistic children and adults, ages 3 to 22. He is one of an estimated 3 million able-bodied Americans who do not work enough hours to qualify for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) under a law signed by President Donald Trump.

    “They cut me off because you need to work more than 20 hours a week to get benefits, and I didn’t have those hours,” said Fuentes, 27, who lives in Philadelphia. “I wasn’t even aware of that stipulation.”

    Roughly 4 million Americans are expected to lose SNAP benefits in 2026 under the One Big Beautiful Bill Act. Many of them do not meet work requirements added to the anti-hunger program under the legislation, which paid for Trump’s tax cuts with cuts to SNAP and Medicaid.

    In Pennsylvania, around 144,000 SNAP recipients could see benefits cut this year — an estimated 45,000 in Philadelphia and 12,000 in its collar counties, according to Pennsylvania Department of Human Services estimates.

    Without enough food, Fuentes, who has an associate’s degree in psychology, felt overwhelmed, he said. He is consulting Community Legal Services, which serves people in poverty, for help.

    “I fell into a downward spiral. It’s been upsetting,” he said.

    “Lots of people didn’t know the rules, thinking the winds of Washington don’t affect them. But they do.”

    Since January, advocates say, they have begun to hear from increasing numbers of people suddenly being removed from the program.

    “The White House is rifling through our pockets for lunch money,” said George Matysik, executive director of the Share Food Program, a major provider of food to hundreds of pantries in the region. The cuts constitute “a rounding error for the federal government but [the money is] a lifeline for working-class families,” he added.

    Asked for comment on criticism of the SNAP cuts, a White House spokesperson did not address the program. Instead, the spokesperson praised Trump for helping U.S. families by “fixing” former President Joe Biden’s “broken economy.”

    The spokesperson said that benefits meant for American citizens are “no longer supporting illegal aliens.” But undocumented immigrants have never been eligible to receive SNAP benefits, according to the American Immigration Council, a group that provides legal services to immigrants.

    Policy changes under Trump’s law

    Because the new law revises categories of SNAP recipients — many of which will go into effect at different times — people are uncertain about what they may lose and when. Others who have already seen reductions say they are growing apprehensive because they don’t know whether the law is the reason, or whether bureaucratic adjustments or errors are the cause.

    “Will all this change result in mass panic?” wondered Cailey Tebow, an education outreach coordinator for AmeriCorps VISTA, a national service program designed to alleviate poverty. Tebow works with low-income individuals in Northeast Philadelphia. “It’s scary to think what will happen when people realize what’s being taken from them.”

    Hoa Pham, deputy secretary of the Office of Income Maintenance in the Pennsylvania Department of Human Services, which administers SNAP in the state, is more hopeful. She said she believes the efforts her department has been making will help Pennsylvanians understand SNAP revisions and will “avoid chaos.”

    One category of potential confusion is the change in work requirements.

    Until Trump’s spending plan rewrote the rules, groups of low-income people in Pennsylvania and other states were exempt from a long-standing requirement that childless adults without disabilities and under the age of 54 work, volunteer, or go to school 20 hours per week in order to be eligible for SNAP benefits.

    The work stipulation had been waived for decades because of high levels of poverty and hunger, as well as diminished job opportunities in Philadelphia and elsewhere in the state.

    Under the new policy, childless, able-bodied adults — whose age limit has now been increased to 64 — can be exempt from the work requirements only in areas with at least 10% unemployment — a rate of joblessness considered catastrophic, experts say. In November, Philadelphia’s unemployment rate was 4.8% and other areas in the region saw similar or lower rates.

    “Work requirements in SNAP will put forward a substantial amount of bureaucracy that Pennsylvanians have to contend with,” Pham said. “It could kick many people off SNAP. The impact to people could be severe.”

    She added that reducing SNAP rolls should not be construed as a savings for taxpayers, as Trump and other Republicans have long argued. That is because food insecurity exacerbates health problems, which will add other costs in the long term, Pham said.

    “That will just drive up healthcare and insurance costs,” she said.

    ‘Life is already crumbling’

    At the Jenkintown Food Cupboard last week, “anxiety about what will happen is growing,” said Nicolino Ellis, the executive director. “But bellies are already aching from hunger. Life is already crumbling today.”

    Nicolino Ellis, executive director of the Jenkintown Food Cupboard, in the warehouse.

    Outside the cupboard at the Jenkintown United Methodist Church, food was distributed in a driveway to clients who drove up in cars. A phalanx of volunteers slid bags of perishables and shelf-stable foods into trunks and back seats.

    As SNAP benefits dry up while food prices soar, cupboards like this one become overburdened. But they are a less efficient means of feeding Americans in need, according to Stuart Haniff, CEO of the nonprofit Hunger-Free Pennsylvania.

    “For every single meal distributed at a food pantry,” he said, “SNAP provides nine. And need in Philadelphia increased 140% over the last two years.”

    A Jenkintown Food Cupboard volunteer works to set up food distribution.

    Shelley Gaither is one of the hundreds of people receiving groceries from the pantry.

    Gaither, 51, is a former data analyst with an MBA who suffered a disability that caused her to stop working at a Malvern finance company 13 years ago. She now collects Social Security Disability Insurance and lives with her three sons, ages 6, 9, and 18, in Cheltenham.

    Gaither said that in January, her SNAP payment dropped from $400 to $200. “I don’t know if it was a new formula from the government cutting me back, or some other reason,” she said in a phone interview. “No one told me why. It’s not supposed to happen when you have a disability. It’s crazy.”

    Whatever caused the cut, Gaither said, she is in trouble, and worried the benefit will shrink even further.

    “Now, the money I used to pay for electricity and water has to go for food,” she said. “This makes surviving more difficult.”

  • ‘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.

  • Radnor and Council Rock students made AI deepfakes of classmates. Parents say the schools failed to protect their daughters.

    Radnor and Council Rock students made AI deepfakes of classmates. Parents say the schools failed to protect their daughters.

    One night in early December, the phones of Radnor High School students started buzzing. Some freshmen girls were getting disturbing messages: A male classmate, they were told, had made pornographic videos of them.

    When one of the girls walked into school the next morning, “she said everyone was staring at her,” said her mother, who requested anonymity to protect her daughter’s identity. “All the kids knew. It spread like wildfire.”

    So-called AI deepfakes — pictures of a real person manipulated with artificial intelligence, sometimes with “nudify” features that can convert clothed photos into naked ones — have become the talk of school hallways and Snapchat conversations in some area schools.

    As Pennsylvania lawmakers have pushed new restrictions cracking down on deepfakes — defining explicit images as child sexual abuse material, and advancing another measure that would require schools to immediately alert law enforcement about AI incidents — schools say they have no role in criminal investigations, and are limited in their ability to police students off campus.

    But some parents say schools should be taking a more proactive stance to prepare for AI abuse — and are failing to protect victims when it happens, further harming students who have been violated by their peers.

    In the Council Rock School District, where AI-generated deepfakes were reported last March, parents of targeted girls said administrators waited five days to contact the police about the allegations and never notified the community, even after two boys were charged with crimes.

    “They denied everything and kind of shoved it under the rug and failed to acknowledge it,” said a mother in Council Rock, who also requested anonymity to protect her daughter’s identity. “Everybody thought it was a rumor,” rather than real damage done to girls, the mother said.

    Council Rock spokesperson Andrea Mangold said that the district “recognizes and understands the deep frustration and concern expressed by parents,” and that a police investigation “began promptly upon the district’s notification.”

    Mangold said that current laws were “insufficient to fully prevent or deter these incidents,” and that the district was “limited in what we know and what we can legally share publicly” due to student privacy laws.

    In Radnor, parents also said the district minimized the December incident. A district message last month said a student had created images of classmates that “move and dance,” and reported that police had not found evidence of “anything inappropriate” — even though police later said they had charged a student with harassment after an investigation into alleged sexualized images of multiple girls.

    A Radnor spokesperson said the alleged images were never discovered and the district’s message was cowritten by Radnor police, who declined to comment.

    The district “approaches all student-related matters with care and sensitivity for those involved,” said the spokesperson, Theji Brennan. She said the district was limited in what it could share about minors.

    In both Radnor and Council Rock, parents said their daughters were offered little support — and were told that if they were uncomfortable, they could go to quiet rooms or leave classes early to avoid crossing paths with boys involved in the incidents.

    “She just felt like no one believed her,” the Radnor mother said of her daughter.

    How an investigation unfolded in Radnor

    In Radnor, five freshman girls first heard they were victims of deepfakes on Dec. 2, according to parents of two of the victims who requested anonymity to protect their daughters’ identities. They said boys told their daughters that a male classmate had made videos depicting them sexually.

    In a Snapchat conversation that night, one boy said, “‘Nobody tell their parents,’” a mother of one of the victims recalled. Reading her daughter’s texts, “it quickly went from high school drama to ‘Wow, this is serious.’”

    The girls and their parents never saw the videos. In an email to school officials the next morning, parents asked for an investigation, discipline for the students involved, and efforts to stop any sharing of videos. They also asked for support for their daughters.

    School administrators began interviewing students. The mother of one of the victims said her daughter was interviewed alone by the male assistant principal — an uncomfortable dynamic, given the subject matter, she said.

    One mother said the principal told her daughter that it was the boys’ word against hers, and that he was “so glad nothing was shared” on social media — even though no one knew at that point where videos had been shared, the mother said.

    The principal said the school had no authority over kids’ phones, so the girl and her family would need to call the police if they wanted phones searched, the mother said.

    Brennan, the Radnor spokesperson, said that administrators contacted Radnor police and child welfare authorities the same day they spoke with families. “The district’s and the police department’s investigations have found no evidence that the images remain or were shared, posted, or otherwise circulated,” she said.

    The male classmate acknowledged making videos of the girls dancing in thong bikinis, the parents said police told them. But the app he used was deleted from his phone, and the videos were not on it, the police told them.

    The parents didn’t believe the admission.

    “I don’t think a 14-year-boy would report a TikTok video of girls in bikinis,” said one of the mothers, who said her daughter was told she was naked and touching herself in videos.

    The police told parents they did not subpoena the app or any social media companies, making it impossible to know what was created.

    Radnor Police Chief Chris Flanagan declined to comment, as did the Delaware County District Attorney’s Office.

    In a message sent to the district community Jan. 16 announcing the end of the police investigation, officials said a student, outside of school hours, had taken “publicly available” photos of other students and “used an app that animates images, making them appear to move and dance.”

    “No evidence shared with law enforcement depicted anything inappropriate or any other related crime,” the message said.

    A week later, the police released a statement saying a juvenile was charged with harassment after an investigation into “the possible use of AI to generate non-consensual sexualized imagery of numerous juveniles.”

    Asked why the district’s statement had omitted the criminal charge or mention of sexualized imagery, Brennan said the statement was also signed by Flanagan, who declined to comment on the discrepancy.

    Brennan said the district had provided ongoing support to students, including access to a counselor and social worker.

    Parents said the district had erred in failing to initiate a Title IX sexual harassment investigation, instead telling parents they needed to file their own complaints.

    “They kept saying, ‘This is off campus,’” the mother said. But “my daughter could not walk around without crying and feeling ashamed.”

    Parents say girls were ‘not supported’ in Council Rock

    In Council Rock, a girl came home from Newtown Middle School on March 17 and told her mother a classmate had created naked images of her.

    “I’m like, ‘Excuse me? Nobody contacted me,’” said the mother, who requested anonymity to protect her daughter’s identity. She called the school’s principal, who she said told her: “‘Oh, my God, I meant to reach out to you. I have a list of parents, I just have not gotten to it’ — you know, really downplaying it.”

    The mother and other victims’ parents later learned that administrators were alerted to the images on March 14, when boys reported them to the principal. But instead of calling the police, the principal met with the accused boy and his father, according to parents. Police told parents they were contacted by the school five days later. The Newtown police did not respond to a request for comment.

    Mangold, the Council Rock spokesperson, declined to comment on the specific timing of the school’s contact with police.

    Police ultimately obtained images after issuing a subpoena to Snapchat; in total, there were 11 victims, the parents said.

    Through the Snapchat data, police learned that a second boy was involved, the parents said, which made them question what was created and how far it spread.

    Parents said they believe there are more pictures and videos than police saw, based on what their daughters were told — and because the delayed reporting to police could have given boys an opportunity to delete evidence.

    “That’s kind of what the fear of our daughters is — like, what was actually out there?” said one mother, who also requested anonymity to protect her child’s identity.

    Manuel Gamiz, a spokesperson for the Bucks County district attorney, said Newtown Township police had charged two juveniles with unlawful dissemination of sexually explicit material by a minor. Gamiz said the office could not provide further information because the case involved juveniles.

    Juvenile cases are not public, but victims’ parents said both boys were adjudicated delinquent. While the boys had been attending Council Rock North High School with their daughters, the district agreed to transfer both after their cases were resolved, according to a lawyer representing four of the parents, Matthew Faranda-Diedrich.

    “How can you let this person be roaming the halls?” said Faranda-Diedrich, who said it took formal demand letters in order for the district to transfer the boys.

    He accused the district of mishandling the incident and “protecting the institution” rather than the victimized girls.

    “They’re putting themselves above these students,” Faranda-Diedrich said.

    Parents said school leaders warned their daughters against spreading rumors, and never sent a districtwide message about the incident.

    “These girls were victims,” one of the mothers said, “and they were not supported.”

    She and the other mothers who spoke to The Inquirer said the incident has deeply affected their daughters, from anxiety around what images may have been created — and how many people saw them — to a loss of trust in school leaders.

    Some of the girls are considering switching schools, one mother said.

    State law changes and a debate around education about deepfakes

    In Pennsylvania, AI-generated sexual images of minors are now classified as child sexual abuse material and people can also be charged with digital forgery for creating them.

    Those changes came in 2024 and 2025, after a scandal over deepfakes of nearly 50 girls at a Lancaster private school.

    Another bill that passed the state Senate unanimously in November would require school staff and other mandated reporters to report AI-generated explicit images of minors as child abuse — closing what prosecutors had cited as a loophole when they declined to bring charges against Lancaster Country Day School for failing to report AI images to the police. That legislation is now pending in the House.

    Schools can also do more, said Faranda-Diedrich, who also represented parents of victims in the Lancaster Country Day School incident. He has pressed schools to conduct mandated reporter training for staff. “By and large they refuse,” he said.

    In Radnor, parents urged the school board at last week’s committee meeting to make changes.

    Parent Luciana Librandi walks back to her seat after speaking during a Radnor school board committee meeting last week.

    Luciana Librandi, a parent of a freshman who said she had been “directly impacted by the misuse of generative AI,” called for timelines for contacting police following an AI incident, safeguards during student questioning, and annual education for students and parents on AI.

    Others called for the district to communicate the criminal charge to families, to enforce existing policies against harassment, and to independently review its response to the recent incident.

    Radnor officials said they are planning educational programming on the dangers of making AI images without a person’s consent.

    There is some debate on whether to teach children about “nudify” apps and their dangers, said Riana Pfefferkorn, policy fellow at the Stanford Institute for Human-Centered AI, who has researched the prevalence of AI-generated child sexual abuse material. Alerting kids to the apps’ existence could cause them “to make a beeline for it,” Pfefferkorn said.

    But widely publicized controversy over Elon Musk’s Grok AI chatbot producing sexualized images of women and children may have tipped the scale in favor of more proactive education, she said.

    While “this isn’t something that is epidemic levels in schools just yet,” Pfefferkorn said, “is this a secret we can keep from children?”

    One of the victims’ parents in Radnor said education on the topic is overdue.

    “It’s clearly in school,” the mother said. “The fact there’s no video being shown on the big screen in your cafeteria — we don’t live in that world anymore.”

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

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

    A federal judge ordered President Donald Trump’s administration to restore the slavery exhibits that the National Park Service removed from the President’s House last month.

    U.S. District Judge Cynthia M. Rufe issued a ruling Monday requiring the federal government to “restore the President’s House Site to its physical status as of January 21, 2026,” which is the day before the exhibits were removed.

    The order does not give the government a deadline for the restoration of the site. It does require that the National Park Service take steps to maintain the site and ensure the safety of the exhibits, which memorialize the enslaved people who lived in George Washington’s Philadelphia home during his presidency. The exhibits were abruptly removed in January following months of scrutiny by the Trump administration.

    Rufe, a George W. Bush appointee, compares the federal government’s argument that it can unilaterally control the exhibits in national parks to the Ministry of Truth in George Orwell’s 1984, a novel about a dystopian totalitarian regime.

    “As if the Ministry of Truth in George Orwell’s 1984 now existed … this Court is now asked to determine whether the federal government has the power it claims — to dissemble and disassemble historical truths when it has some domain over historical facts,” Rufe wrote. “It does not.”

    Mayor Cherelle L. Parker’s administration filed a federal lawsuit against Interior Secretary Doug Burgum and acting National Park Service Director Jessica Bowron, and their respective agencies, the day the exhibits were dismantled. The complaint argued dismantling the exhibits was an “arbitrary and capricious” act that violated a 2006 cooperative agreement between the city and the federal government.

    The federal government has the option to appeal the judge’s order. The Interior Department and National Park Service did not immediately comment on the ruling, which fell on Presidents’ Day, a federal holiday. The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania declined to comment.

    During a hearing last month, Rufe called the federal government’s argument that a president could unilaterally change the exhibits displayed in national parks “horrifying” and “dangerous.” She ordered the federal government to ensure the panels’ safekeeping after an inspection and a visit to the President’s House earlier this month.

    Monday’s ruling follows an updated injunction request from the city that asked for the full restoration of the site — not merely that the exhibits be maintained safely — and a brief from the federal government arguing the National Park Service has discretion over the exhibits and that the city’s lawsuit should be dismissed on procedural grounds.

    The federal government’s brief also argued there could be no irreparable harm from the removal of the exhibits because they are documented online and replacement panels would cost $20,000.

    But the judge found the city is likely to prove its case that the removal was unlawful, and the panels should be restored while the litigation continues.

    “If the President’s House is left dismembered throughout this dispute, so too is the history it recounts, and the City’s relationship to that history,” Rufe wrote.

    The judge also found that the cooperative agreement between Philadelphia and the National Park Service remains in “full force,” even though the contract is technically expired.

    Rufe’s memo named the nine enslaved Africans owned by Washington, and noted that two — Oney Judge and Hercules Posey — escaped. The removed displays recognize their struggles and the nation’s “progress away from the horrors of slavery,” the judge wrote.

    “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,” the judge wrote.

    The injunction does not resolve the underlying lawsuit, and is in effect for the duration of the litigation. In a January hearing, Rufe said she wouldn’t let the case drag into the summer, recognizing the 250th anniversary celebration being planned for Independence Mall.

    Attorney Michael Coard, leader of the Avenging the Ancestors Coalition, speaks with the news media Monday after a federal judge ordered the Trump administration to restore the slavery exhibits that the National Park Service removed from the President’s House last month. The group was on the site for an annual gathering for a Presidents’ Day observance when they learned of the order.

    The timing of the ruling underscored its significance to the Philadelphians pushing for the exhibits’ return.

    Avenging the Ancestors Coalition, the main advocacy organization leading the fight to protect the President’s House, was less than an hour into its Presidents’ Day event at the site when leaders got wind of their victory.

    The group’s leaders, excited and completely in shock, congregated behind the site’s Memorial Wall to soak in the news before announcing it.

    Moments later, Michael Coard, an attorney and the coalition’s leader, emerged before the crowd of about 100 people and told them: “Thanks to you all, your presence and your activism, I have great news: We just won in federal court.”

    The crowd erupted in cheers and chants of “When we fight, we win!” and “We have won!”

    Coard told reporters there was “no other blessing that we could have gotten today.”

    The coalition has led dozens of rallies and town halls meant to energize the public in opposing the Trump administration’s ongoing scrutiny of the President’s House. The Black-led advocacy group helped develop the site in the early 2000s before it opened in 2010.

    Dana Carter, the group’s head organizer, said she was in disbelief when she heard about the ruling.

    “After we figured out that it really was the truth, I am just moved. My heart is overflowing with love for the judge who made the ruling, as well as the people who have been with us since the beginning … and also the people who have joined us in this fight to restore the President’s House,” Carter said.

    But the fight is not over, advocates said, with Coard expecting the Trump administration to appeal or ignore rulings.

    “This is a lawless administration. The people are going to have to take over to force them to do the right thing,” Coard said.

    The Trump administration’s attempt to alter the President’s House was part of a wider initiative to remove content from national parks that “inappropriately disparage Americans past or living,” following an executive order from Trump. For instance, Park Service employees removed signage about the mistreatment of Native Americans from the Grand Canyon.

    The fate of the President’s House exhibits was in limbo for months until they were removed by Park Service employees with wrenches and crowbars on Jan. 22. Meanwhile, advocacy groups and creatives behind the President’s House cultivated support for their cause to protect the site. Philadelphia City Council issued a resolution condemning the censorship of the exhibit.

    “Judge Cynthia Rufe made it clear that historical truth cannot be dismantled or rewritten, and that the federal government does not have the authority to erase or alter facts simply because it has control over a national site. … We can not let President Donald Trump whitewash African-American history. Black history is American history,” City Council President Kenyatta Johnson said in a statement Monday.

    Mijuel Johnson (left), a tour guide with The Black Journey: African-American Walking Tour of Philadelphia, leads Judge Cynthia Rufe (right) as she visits the President’s House in Independence National Historical Park on Feb. 2.

    Attendees at Monday’s event were invigorated by the ruling.

    Mijuel Johnson, a tour guide leader with the Black Journey who led Rufe through the site earlier this month, said he was “enjoying the moment for now” but then he would be back to work.

    “This is a great win for this movement,” Johnson said.

  • Students protest U.S. Customs and Border Protection participation at campus career fairs

    Students protest U.S. Customs and Border Protection participation at campus career fairs

    Amid President Donald Trump’s crackdown on immigration and deployment of federal officers to cities across the country, students at Philadelphia-area colleges are protesting against the appearance of U.S. Customs and Border Protection at campus career fairs.

    At least four local universities — Thomas Jefferson, Villanova, Temple, and Rowan — have faced opposition to allowing recruitment in recent months.

    A petition circulated at Jefferson last week sought to keep CBP from appearing at a campus career event. CBP and ICE — both agencies that enforce immigration laws under the Department of Homeland Security — have been at the center of a national debate after two Minneapolis residents were killed by federal immigration enforcement agents in shootings now under investigation.

    “Due to the harm CBP has caused to communities across the nation, it is abhorrent for TJU to accept CBP at their institution,” said an occupational therapy student who signed the petition and asked that her name be withheld, fearing retribution. “I don’t think any institution should be encouraging students to get involved in these kinds of agencies, given the current climate.”

    But the petition has since come down, the student said, and CBP is not on the list of employers due to appear at the event, called the 2026 Career Day and Design Expo, on Thursday at the East Falls campus. Jefferson has not acknowledged that CBP was on the list initially or responded to questions on whether it was removed.

    Thomas Jefferson University gets its first alma mater song 200 years later. Meet the composer.

    CBP, which has offices in Philadelphia, has appeared at campus career events in the area in the past.

    An email seeking comment from CBP’s media office was not returned.

    At Rowan University in New Jersey earlier this month, the participation of CBP’s Trade Regulatory Audit Philadelphia Field Office in a career fair drew some student protest. Members of a student activist group distributed fliers speaking out against CBP during the fair, according to Rowan’s student newspaper, the Whit, and campus police and administration officials came to the scene.

    The agency also reserved a table and came to a fall event at Rowan to share information about accounting-related auditing internships, said Rowan spokesperson Joe Cardona, and has done so at the public university for the last decade.

    Rowan’s Rohrer College of Business Center for Professional Development hosts more than 200 employers each year, including local, state, and federal agencies as well as private-sector groups, he said.

    Rowan University launches $240 million fundraising campaign

    “The presence of any employer on campus does not constitute institutional endorsement of that organization’s policies or actions,” Cardona said. “Rather, it reflects our commitment to supporting student career exploration while upholding principles of open access and free expression.”

    At Villanova, CBP pulled out of a career fair it had planned to attend earlier this month, according to the Villanovan, the student newspaper. The withdrawal followed criticism on social media about the organization’s planned appearance.

    The organizer of an Instagram account that opposed the agency’s participation said they wished that Villanova had made the decision to disallow the group rather than the group withdrawing, according to the student newspaper.

    “I think a lot of students will feel a lot safer and more comfortable attending this Career Fair,” the organizer said. “But it doesn’t take away the anger that this was ever something that was gonna happen.”

    Villanova said in a statement that CBP‘s Office of Trade had participated in prior career events and that employers with prior participation were contacted “through standard outreach” about this year’s event.

    Temple’s law school last semester had planned to host a “Coffee and Careers” networking event with a DHS and Immigration and Customs Enforcement lawyer but later canceled it, according to the Temple News, the student newspaper. The event was replaced with a talk on public interest law by Philadelphia City Councilmember Rue Landau.

    DHS “chose to engage directly with students interested in DHS opportunities rather than participate in a scheduled career event,” Temple spokesperson Steve Orbanek said.

    He also noted that “career fairs are university-sponsored events, and actions that disrupt these events may violate university policy and established on-campus demonstration guidelines.”

  • Josh Shapiro tells Kristi Noem he’ll ‘aggressively pursue every option’ to block new ICE detention centers in Pa., in letter to DHS

    Josh Shapiro tells Kristi Noem he’ll ‘aggressively pursue every option’ to block new ICE detention centers in Pa., in letter to DHS

    Gov. Josh Shapiro implored Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem this week to reconsider converting warehouses in Berks and Schuylkill counties into mass immigration detention centers, citing “real harms” to the communities.

    In a Thursday letter to Noem obtained by The Inquirer, Shapiro questioned the legality of the facilities, which the governor said could hold up to 9,000 people in total.

    Hinting at a possible lawsuit, Shapiro said if DHS goes through with converting the sites, his administration will “aggressively pursue every option to prevent these facilities from opening and needlessly harming the good people of Pennsylvania.”

    As part of President Donald Trump’s expanding deportation agenda, the federal government has started purchasing warehouses across the country to flip into U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention centers. ICE is planning to spend $38.3 billion turning warehouses into detention centers, The Washington Post reported.

    So far, two have been bought in Pennsylvania — a nearly 520,000-square-foot facility in Upper Bern Township and another in Tremont Township, where the purchase has drawn the ire of concerned residents.

    Shapiro slammed the department’s escalating immigration enforcement strategy, saying that ICE and other federal immigration agents “resort to unnecessary and excessive force, leading to innocent people being injured or tragically killed.”

    “Your Department’s record is reason enough to oppose your plan to use warehouses in Schuylkill and Berks Counties as detention centers,” Shapiro wrote, adding that the warehouses would also negatively impact residents’ health and safety, deplete tax revenue, and put extra stress on local communities and emergency response.

    Tricia McLaughlin, DHS assistant secretary for public affairs, confirmed ICE’s purchase of these two warehouses and the department’s plans to use them as detention facilities in a statement to The Inquirer Friday.

    She said that the sites will “undergo community impact studies and a rigorous due diligence process to make sure there is no hardship on local utilities or infrastructure prior to purchase” and that the facilities would create economic benefits, including bringing more than 11,000 jobs to the two Pennsylvania communities in total.

    “Thanks to the One Big Beautiful Bill, ICE has new funding to expand detention space to keep these criminals off American streets before they are removed for good from our communities,” McLaughlin said.

    At an unrelated event last week, the Democratic governor blasted the agency’s “secretive” purchase of the Berks County warehouse, saying he was not alerted of the decision ahead of time.

    At the time, Shapiro said the state was exploring “what legal options we may have to stop” the ICE purchase but said those options were slim.

    Shapiro has become more forceful in his opposition to federal immigration enforcement activities in recent weeks, especially since federal agents fatally shot Alex Pretti in Minneapolis last month.

    He’s said the Trump administration’s strategies in American cities make communities less safe, violate constitutional rights, and erode trust in law enforcement.

    Shapiro, who is seen as a likely contender for the White House in 2028, is up for reelection this year. His likely November opponent is Treasurer Stacy Garrity, a Trump-endorsed Republican who has urged cooperation with ICE.

    In his letter to Noem, Shapiro said that DHS has not engaged local leaders to discuss the warehouse purchases and that both Democratic and Republican state and local officials have objected to the department’s “plans to interfere with our communities because of the chaos and harm your actions will bring.”

    Some of Shapiro’s cabinet secretaries also penned an additional letter to Noem where they stressed that the facilities would be detrimental to the communities’ environment and public health and safety.

    “The stress each facility will place on local infrastructure will, among other things, jeopardize Pennsylvanians’ access to safe water, deplete resources and infrastructure needed for emergencies, and overextend already strained emergency response personnel,” wrote Pennsylvania Health Secretary Debra L. Bogen, Fire Commissioner Thomas Cook, Emergency Management Director Randy Padfield, Environmental Protection Secretary Jessica Shirley, and Labor Secretary Nancy A. Walker.

    In addition to the warehouses, DHS is also leasing new office space throughout the country, including in the Philadelphia area. The department said back-office staff, including lawyers and analysts, will be moving into a building in Berwyn, and the department will also share space with the Department of Motor Vehicles at Eighth and Arch Streets in Center City, WIRED reported.

    Despite the governor’s vocal opposition to Trump’s enforcement strategies, Pennsylvania still cooperates with ICE. Shapiro’s administration honors some ICE detainers in state prisons and provides ICE with access to state databases that include personal identifying information for immigrants.

    Immigrant rights groups have for months called on Shapiro to take more decisive action against federal immigration enforcement in Pennsylvania and end all cooperation with the agency.

    Staff writer Gillian McGoldrick contributed reporting.

  • Josh Shapiro’s clergy abuse investigation boosted his reputation. Years later, some survivors feel he abandoned them.

    Josh Shapiro’s clergy abuse investigation boosted his reputation. Years later, some survivors feel he abandoned them.

    Sitting onstage in an echoey historic synagogue, next to a U.S. senator and a cardboard cutout of his newly released memoir, Gov. Josh Shapiro reflected on the Pennsylvanians who give him hope.

    As he had in other stops on his book tour up and down the East Coast, Shapiro often referred to his book’s title, Where We Keep The Light, and the ways he finds hope in the “extraordinary impact” of Pennsylvanians. Among them, he said, were those who were sexually abused by Catholic priests in crimes covered up by the church until they were illuminated by the victims’ unrelenting quest for justice.

    In his book, Shapiro details his work as Pennsylvania attorney general to compile and release a bombshell grand jury report that in 2018 revealed thousands of cases of abuse by priests across the state.

    “I find hope in the people I met who were abused over years and years and years,” Shapiro told U.S. Sen. Raphael Warnock (D., Ga.) last month at an event at Sixth and I, a synagogue in Washington, “who still had the courage to show up in a grand jury room to testify and to challenge me to do something to make sure we righted a wrong and brought justice to them.”

    The nearly 900-page report was lauded as the most comprehensive review of clergy abuse across a single state and prompted new laws clarifying penalties for failure to report abuse and allowing survivors more time to pursue criminal or civil cases against their abusers.

    But a key step in delivering justice to those survivors — establishing a two-year window for the filing of lawsuits over decades-old abuse that falls outside the statute of limitations under existing law — remains unfinished.

    The proposal has become one of the most fraught issues in Harrisburg. After a devastating clerical error by Gov. Tom Wolf’s administration killed a proposed constitutional amendment in 2021, lawmakers have been unable to come together on a new path forward. Republicans who control the state Senate have tied the proposal to policies Democrats will not support. All the while, the Catholic Church and the insurance industry have lobbied hard against it.

    Nearly a dozen interviews with survivors, their family members, and advocates reveal a deep frustration with the inaction in Harrisburg. Even as Shapiro renews calls for the Senate to act, survivors are divided over whether he has done enough to use his power as governor to advocate for them.

    A key pledge in Shapiro’s bid for reelection — and his pitch to a national audience — is that he can “get stuff done” by working across the aisle. But some abuse survivors in Pennsylvania say the unfinished business in getting justice for them brings that record into question.

    “He got to where he’s at on the back of victims and survivors, and now he’s forgotten,” said Mike McIlmail, the father of a clergy abuse victim, Sean McIlmail, who died of an overdose shortly before he was supposed to testify in a criminal case against his alleged abuser.

    Shapiro, his spokesperson Will Simons said, has fought for survivors “publicly and in legislative negotiations” since 2018. He has promised to sign any bill that reaches his desk establishing the window.

    With a reelection campaign underway and his eyes on flipping the state Senate, the governor renewed that fight earlier this month. He used his budget address to blame Senate Republicans for the inaction thus far.

    “Stop cowering to the special interests, like insurance companies and lobbyists for the Catholic Church,” he said, his voice thundering in the House chamber. “Stop tying justice for abused kids to your pet political projects. And start listening to victims.”

    Mike and Debbie McIlmail, parents of Sean McIlmail, in the office of (left) Marci Hamilton, in Philadelphia on March 29, 2022.

    Years of delay

    Pennsylvania’s extensive investigation, which Shapiro inherited when he became attorney general in 2017, chronicled more than 1,000 cases of abuse by more than 300 priests across the state dating back to the 1940s.

    For most of the cases in the report, the statute of limitations had passed, leaving no legal recourse for survivors.

    The report proposed that lawmakers create a two-year window to allow the filing of civil suits over cases that happened years, if not decades, ago. Despite Shapiro’s advocacy since releasing the grand jury report, the proposal has been trapped in a stalemate for years.

    Pennsylvania trails more than 30 other states that have approved similar legislation.

    Then-Attorney General Josh Shapiro speaks at a news conference in the state Capitol in 2018 about legislation to respond to a landmark grand jury report accusing hundreds of priests of sexually abusing children over decades stalled in the legislature.

    “It’s maddening to have people say, ‘We’re committed to this, this is going to happen, we’re committed to it,’ from both sides of the political spectrum and nothing ever gets done,” said Jay Sefton, who says he was abused by a priest in Havertown as a middle schooler in the 1980s. “It does start to feel like these are lives being used as its own sort of theater.”

    Gov. Josh Shapiro makes his annual budget proposal in the state House chamber Tuesday, Feb. 3, 2026.

    Speaking to journalists in Washington days before he targeted Republicans in his budget address, Shapiro tied the window’s prospects to Democrats’ ability to win the state Senate for the first time in more than three decades.

    “I’m confident with a Democratic Senate that will be one of the first bills they put on my desk,” Shapiro said.

    Senate President Pro Tempore Kim Ward, a Republican, leaves the House chamber following Democratic Gov. Josh Shapiro’s annual budget proposal speech in Harrisburg on Feb. 3.

    In an interview, Senate President Pro Tempore Kim Ward (R., Westmoreland) noted that the GOP-controlled Senate had approved a constitutional amendment to establish the window several times before, although it ultimately failed to ever reach the voters.

    She declined to say whether the state Senate would take up the amendment up this year but said creating the window through legislation, as Shapiro requested, would be unconstitutional.

    She accused the governor of using survivors to score political points as he tries to raise his profile for his reelection this year and rumored 2028 presidential ambitions.

    “He has decided that he’s going to be moral instead of follow the law. Look at his record in his own office,” Ward said, arguing Shapiro has a track record of fighting for some survivors but not others. She pointed to his office’s handling of sexual harassment allegations brought against a former top staffer and close ally. Documents showed that complaints about the staffer were made months before his abrupt resignation.

    For some clergy abuse survivors, the blame lands squarely on Ward and her Republican allies as they insist on a constitutional amendment, which requires two votes by both the House and Senate along with a ballot measure.

    “It’s the Republicans that are blocking it, and I think they’re blocking it because of the church,” said Julianne Bortz, a survivor who testified before the grand jury and whose experience was featured in the report.

    A portrait of former Pa. House Speaker Mark Rozzi hangs alongside painting of other former speakers in hallway at the state Capitol.

    Debate among survivors

    Despite Shapiro’s recent statements, there is a sense among some survivors that lawmakers, and Shapiro, have forgotten about them.

    Former state House Speaker Mark Rozzi, a Berks County Democrat and clergy abuse survivor, said Shapiro “betrayed” survivors and should be playing “hardball” with the Senate to ensure that the bill makes it to his desk.

    “Talk is cheap. Unless you come to the table and cut a deal, nothing else gets done,” Rozzi said.

    Then-Pennsylvania House Speaker Mark Rozzi, center right, embraces Arthur Baselice, the father of Arthur Baselice III, after he testified at a hearing in Philadelphia on Jan. 27, 2023.

    Advocates have spent years pushing lawmakers in Harrisburg and have grown increasingly frustrated with the lack of movement.

    “We, being the victims, have always held our end of the bargain. Always. We’ve always shown up when we’ve asked to, we’ve testified when we were asked to, we interviewed, we discussed the worst moments of our lives when asked,” said Shaun Dougherty, who said he was abused by an Altoona-Johnstown priest.

    Now, he said, it’s the governor’s turn to get the work done.

    Former State Rep. Bill Wachob, a Democrat who worked in politics after leaving elected office in the 1980s, is convinced the governor could make it happen through negotiations if he wanted.

    “He and his team have made a calculated political decision that they have gotten as much mileage out of this issue as they’re going to get and they’re not doing anything more,” Wachob said.

    In Shapiro’s memoir, however, he wrote he expected that going up against the Catholic Church in pursuing the 2018 report “was likely the end of the road for me politically.”

    “I’d made my peace with being a one term Attorney General, if it meant that I could put my head on the pillow at night knowing I did my job and made good for these victims,” he wrote.

    Since Shapiro became governor in 2023, his efforts to fight for survivors have been waylaid by an increasingly tense relationship with the GOP-controlled Senate, as evidenced by last year’s nearly five-month bitter budget impasse.

    “I have no doubt that the governor has been doing what he can,” said Marci Hamilton, the founder of Child USA, which advocates for child sex abuse victims. She blamed the challenges in reaching a deal on Harrisburg’s partisan dynamics.

    Recent criticism of Shapiro has driven division within the survivor community in recent weeks, said Mary McHale, a survivor who was featured in a 2022 Shapiro campaign ad.

    “He cares. But he also has a state to run. This can’t be the No. 1 issue,” she said.

    Diana Vojtasek, who said she was abused by the same Allentown priest as McHale, said she worries frustration is being misdirected at Shapiro instead of Republicans.

    “I just don’t see the value in attacking the one who has vowed publicly that he will sign this legislation for us as soon as it’s across his desk,” she said.

    Abuse survivor Shaun Dougherty (left) greets then-Gov. Tom Wolf in the State Capitol on Sept. 24, 2018.

    Could progress come this year?

    Advocates are hopeful that the national bipartisan effort to force President Donald Trump’s administration to release FBI files related to serial abuser and trafficker Jeffrey Epstein may spur new motivation to protect abuse victims in the state.

    “What the Epstein transparency act showed us is we are finally at a point where the protection of sexual abuse victims is nonpartisan,” Hamilton said. “I fully expect to see that that understanding for victims will happen in Harrisburg.”

    Rep. Nathan Davidson, a Dauphin County Democrat who introduced the House legislation to create the window, has scheduled hearings in April to bring renewed attention to the issue.

    Sefton, who said he was abused as a middle schooler in Havertown in the 1980s, will perform a one-man show about his experience in a theater just steps from the state Capitol the week of the hearings.

    He is done hoping lawmakers will establish the window but said it would make the state safer if they did.

    “Nobody is going to give anyone their childhood back. It can’t happen,” Sefton said.

    “There’s always going to be a part of me that’s filled with some rage about people blocking the energy here. If that were to go through, it’s a piece of energy that gets finally freed up.”

  • Howard Lutnick’s name is on the library at Haverford College. Will that change after his appearance in the Epstein files?

    Howard Lutnick’s name is on the library at Haverford College. Will that change after his appearance in the Epstein files?

    As U.S. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick’s relationship with Jeffrey Epstein gains new scrutiny, questions have emerged on Haverford College’s campus about how to address their mega-donor’s involvement.

    Lutnick, a 1983 Haverford graduate who has donated $65 million to the college and whose name is on the school’s library, had contact with the late financier as recently as 2018, long after Epstein pleaded guilty to obtaining a minor for prostitution and soliciting a prostitute, according to documents released by the Justice Department. And during congressional testimony this week, he said he visited the sex offender’s private island with his family in 2012. That’s even though Lutnick previously said he had not been in a room with Epstein, whom he found “disgusting,” since 2005.

    At Haverford, where the library at the heart of campus is named after Lutnick, two students have floated a proposal to remove Lutnick’s name from the building and wrote a resolution that could be discussed at a forthcoming student-led meeting, according to the Bi-College News, the student newspaper for Haverford and Bryn Mawr Colleges. Fliers that say “Howard Lutnick is in the Epstein Files — What Now?” have been posted around campus, according to the publication.

    And in an email to campus Thursday, Wendy Raymond, president of the highly selective liberal arts college on the Main Line, said she and the board of managers are monitoring the situation.

    “We recognize that association with Epstein raises ethical questions,” she wrote. “While Secretary Lutnick’s association with Epstein has no direct bearing on the College, as an institution, we are committed to our core values and cognizant of broader ethical implications raised by these disclosures.”

    Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick listens during an event with President Donald Trump in the Oval Office of the White House earlier this month.

    A Commerce Department spokesperson told the Associated Press last month that Lutnick had had “limited interactions” with Epstein, with his wife in attendance, and had not been accused of “wrongdoing.” Lutnick told lawmakers this week: “I did not have any relationship with him. I barely had anything to do with him.”

    Lutnick, formerly chairman of Cantor Fitzgerald L.P., a New York City financial firm that lost hundreds of employees in the 9/11 World Trade Center attacks, served on Haverford’s board for 21 years and once chaired it. In addition to the library, the indoor tennis and track center bears the name of his brother Gary Lutnick, a Cantor Fitzgerald employee who was killed on 9/11, and the fine arts building carries the name of his mother, Jane Lutnick, a painter. He also funded the college’s Cantor Fitzgerald Art Gallery.

    In making a $25 million gift to the college in 2014 — which remains tied for the largest donation Haverford has received — Lutnick told The Inquirer the college had helped him during a particularly difficult period. He lost his mother to cancer when he was a high school junior, and one week into his freshman year at Haverford, where he was an economics major, his father died as the result of a tragic medical mistake.

    Haverford gets record gift from an alum the college helped save

    The then-president of Haverford called Lutnick and told him his four years at Haverford would be free.

    “Haverford was there for me,” Lutnick said, “and taught me what it meant to be a human being.”

    Lutnick’s gift was used to make the most significant upgrades to the library in 50 years. Lutnick left Haverford’s board in 2015.

    He was confirmed as commerce secretary a year ago, after President Donald Trump took office for the second time. Since the Epstein documents were released, Lutnick has faced bipartisan calls to resign.

    Some in the Haverford community have spoken out online about Lutnick’s ties to Epstein.

    “How soon can we petition to make Magill Magill again,” one alum, who said they were at Haverford when Lutnick attended, wrote anonymously on a Reddit thread, referring to the library’s prior name. “More urgently, does Haverford plan to express compassion and support for the survivors and publicly condemn Lutnick for his involvement?”

    The Haverford Survivor Collective’s executive board, a group founded in 2023 and led by Haverford students and survivors of sexual assault, also called on the college to “re-examine” its ties to Lutnick.

    “At what point will the College confront its relationship with this individual?” the group asked. “At what point will it say, unequivocally, ‘enough is enough’? At what point does a reluctance to do so extend beyond mere negligence into a moral failing?”

    The outside of the Lutnick Library at Haverford College

    Push to rename the library

    Earlier this month during a Plenary Resolution Writing Workshop — part of Haverford’s student self-governance process — students Ian Trask and Jay Huennekens put forth a resolution that would change the name of the library, the student newspaper reported.

    At plenary sessions, which take place twice a year in the fall and spring, the student body discusses and votes on important campus issues. On March 23, a packet of plenary resolutions will be released to the student body, with the plenary session scheduled for March 29.

    “We feel that it is important that the college reflect the values of the student body, and that those values do not align with the Trump administration or the associates of Jeffrey Epstein,” the students told the Bi-Co News.

    Attempts to reach Trask and Huennekens were unsuccessful.

    If the student resolution passes, it would go to Raymond for signing.

    But even then, it’s no easy feat to remove a name from a college building. There would be a review process involving the board of managers that could take a while.

    Under Haverford’s gift policy, the school can rename a building if “the continued use of the name may be deemed detrimental to the College, or if circumstances change regarding the reason for the naming.”

    Raymond would have to convene a committee, consider that committee’s recommendations, and make her recommendation to the external affairs committee of the board of managers and its chair and vice chair. The external affairs committee then would make its recommendation to the full board of managers.

    Bryn Mawr College to remove former president’s name from library after legacy of antisemitism and white supremacy

    At nearby Bryn Mawr College, it took years before M. Carey Thomas’ name was removed from the library. Thomas, who was Bryn Mawr’s second president, serving from 1894 to 1922, was a leading suffragist, but also was reluctant to admit Black students and refused to hire Jewish faculty.

    In 2017, then-Bryn Mawr president Kim Cassidy issued a moratorium on using Carey’s name while the college studied how to handle the matter. A committee in 2018 decided students, faculty, students, and staff should no longer refer to the library using Thomas’ name, but decided to leave the inscription and add a plaque explaining the complicated history.

    The college faced continued pressure from students to take further action and removed Thomas’ name in 2023.

    Other colleges have taken similar actions. Princeton University in 2020 stripped former President Woodrow Wilson’s name from its public affairs school and presidential college.

  • What’s in Gov. Josh Shapiro’s new housing plan: Protections for Pa. renters, $1 billion for infrastructure, homebuyer support, and more

    What’s in Gov. Josh Shapiro’s new housing plan: Protections for Pa. renters, $1 billion for infrastructure, homebuyer support, and more

    Gov. Josh Shapiro unveiled a broad plan Thursday meant to grow and preserve Pennsylvania’s housing supply as the state faces a shortage of homes residents can afford.

    The plan aims to expand residents’ access to homes, connect Pennsylvanians to resources to keep them housed, make homebuilding faster and less costly, and improve coordination of housing efforts across agencies and levels of government.

    Recommendations and reforms in the state’s Housing Action Plan, which is meant to guide Pennsylvania into 2035, are embedded in the governor’s proposed budget, Shapiro said.

    “And now, the ball is in the court of the legislature to carry this forward and to get it done,” he said at a news conference in Philadelphia.

    The plan is the culmination of a process that started in September 2024, when Shapiro signed an executive order directing state officials to create it.

    In the plan, Shapiro highlights that more than a million Pennsylvania households are spending more than 30% of their income on housing. These households are “cost burdened,” according to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s definition. Building more can lower housing costs.

    Shapiro called the plan a long-term housing strategy that “brings together all different groups who are doing this work, builds on their expertise, and tackles housing access and affordability from every single angle.”

    Here are key takeaways from Shapiro’s proposed housing action plan, the first of its kind in Pennsylvania.

    Enacting the plan

    Much of the plan relies on action from lawmakers in the state’s split legislature and other stakeholders rather than Shapiro’s administration exclusively. It does not assign dollar amounts to proposals, but calls on local governments to allow more housing and housing types, on builders to build more, and on both to work together to remove barriers to housing construction.

    Democrats (left) stand to applaud a tax cut proposal while Republicans (right) remain seated as Gov. Josh Shapiro delivers his third budget address to a joint session in the House chambers at the State Capitol Tuesday, Feb. 4, 2025.

    When Shapiro was asked how he intends to make sure the housing plan is implemented, he said he can take some actions through executive orders but “a lot does require the legislature to act and to work in concert with local government.”

    “I hear in rural, urban, suburban communities, districts led by Democrats and Republicans, the need for more housing,” Shapiro said. “… And I would say to any lawmaker that doesn’t like my idea, ‘What’s yours?’ Because we can no longer wait. We have got to get this done. We’ve got to build more housing.”

    $1 billion fund

    In his budget address last week, Shapiro previewed his housing priorities, calling for a $1 billion fund, supported by the issuing of bonds, to pay for infrastructure projects that include housing.

    Shapiro’s budget proposal includes no requirements on the proportion of funding that goes to each infrastructure need, leaving the possibility that the majority of funds could be spent on projects other than housing.

    While Shapiro said Thursday that divvying up the $1 billion will be subject to negotiation with lawmakers, he said he hoped “the lion’s share of it would go to housing.”

    Pennsylvania needs more housing

    If Pennsylvania takes no action to build and preserve more housing, it will be short about 185,000 homes by 2035, according to the plan. To keep up with anticipated demand, the state needs to add 450,000 homes to its supply by then.

    The housing plan has a stated goal of turning Pennsylvania into a leader in home construction.

    Construction work on a home at Bancroft and Reed Streets in South Philadelphia, Pa. on Friday, May 1, 2020.

    As it stands now, Pennsylvania is one of the states that have allowed the least new housing. It ranked 44th for the share of homes approved to be built from 2017 to 2023, the Pew Charitable Trusts said in a report released last year. Pew said Pennsylvania’s lack of housing supply is hiking prices for homeowners and renters.

    Shapiro’s housing plan recommends that Pennsylvania:

    • Expand programs to repair and preserve existing homes.
    • Create a tax credit to incentivize home building in underinvested areas.
    • Invest in small residential developers who can help boost housing production.
    • Eliminate outdated or unnecessary state development regulations.
    • Direct funding to help homebuilders pay land development costs, developers convert former commercial buildings into homes, and property owners create mixed-use developments that include housing.
    • Appoint a deputy secretary of housing and create a “housing one-stop shop” to help residents and builders access the state’s existing housing resources.

    Protection for renters

    The housing plan calls for Pennsylvania to bolster protections for households that either rent their homes or rent the land their homes sit on, including protections Shapiro called for in his budget address.

    Suggestions include:

    • More eviction protections.
    • Restrictions on how much landlords can collect as a security deposit.
    • A statewide cap on rental application fees. (Philadelphia City Council members passed their own cap on application fees last year.)
    • Explicitly banning landlords from denying housing to people because they use public assistance or any other lawful source of income. (New Jersey enacted a law last month that does this.)

    Security for manufactured-home owners

    Manufactured homes are single-family dwellings often built off-site and placed on a lot. These households own their homes, but many of them rent the land.

    Manufactured homes represent one of the most affordable forms of homeownership. But homeowners are often left vulnerable because they have no other option than to pay increased rent costs if they want to keep the homes they own. Manufactured-home communities are increasingly being bought by private equity companies and other institutional investors, and rent hikes tend to follow.

    The housing plan says Pennsylvania should:

    • Limit the rent increases that landowners can charge.
    • Make financing easier for buyers of manufactured homes.
    • Give residents of manufactured-home communities the right of first refusal when a landowner decides to sell.

    Recent laws in New Jersey limit annual rent increases for manufactured-home lots and make it easier for residents to buy their communities.

    Across Pennsylvania, 56,000 households live in manufactured-home communities, Shapiro said in his budget address last week.

    Homebuyer help

    The plan calls for Pennsylvania to pursue new ways to help residents become homeowners, including creating programs to reduce home-buying costs and allowing local governments to exempt first-time homebuyers from local realty transfer taxes.

    It also calls for the state to impose a transfer tax when corporate investors buy single-family and certain other types of homes to help households compete for properties.

    Untangling titles

    To protect Pennsylvanians’ generational wealth, the plan calls for the state to allow transfer-on-death deeds to provide a streamlined process for passing down homes. This would help prevent cases of tangled title — or unclear legal ownership of property. This mostly occurs when a homeowner dies and the deed is not transferred to a new owner.

    Tangled titles keep people from qualifying for help to repair their homes and can prevent them from being able to sell properties.

    In Philadelphia alone, tangled titles threaten more than $1 billion in generational wealth, according to a 2021 report from the Pew Charitable Trusts.

    The plan also calls for funding for legal services to help low-income Pennsylvanians resolve tangled titles. In 2022, Philadelphia officials pledged to give $7.6 million over four years to legal-aid groups that are tackling this problem.

    Rachel Gallegos, a divisional supervising attorney for the homeownership and consumer rights unit at Community Legal Services of Philadelphia, called Shapiro’s plan “ambitious.”

    “And I like that,” she said. “I think it has to be in order to keep progress moving forward.”

    The legal-aid nonprofit routinely helps low-income clients with tangled titles, and Gallegos said she was glad to see the plan call for additional support for the work.

    “We want to preserve homeownership for our clients,” she said.