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  • Flyers draft: Jack Hextall brings way more than a famous last name — and could be a fit with the Orange and Black

    Flyers draft: Jack Hextall brings way more than a famous last name — and could be a fit with the Orange and Black

    BUFFALO, N.Y. — Before we delve into his story, let’s set the record straight right away.

    Yes, Jack Hextall is a distant cousin of former Flyers general manager and goalie Ron Hextall. No, according to Jack, they have never met. So while some may either embrace or bristle at the thought of another Hextall donning orange and black, their only connection is a shared last name.

    For now. Because at the 2026 NHL draft, the center Jack Hextall may join the goalie Ron Hextall as a player drafted by the Flyers.

    Beginnings

    Jack Hextall grew up in the small northwest Chicago suburb of Rolling Meadows, Illinois, when his dad Cory — a native of Saskatchewan and Ron’s cousin — settled there after playing hockey at the University of Illinois-Chicago.

    The father and son would shoot pucks together at a net in the garage. “We got to put some plywood up behind the net, because, actually, my dad shot a puck through the garage,” Jack said with a laugh, adding that the pair thought it was funny. His mom, Jennifer, however, did not agree.

    But now that her son is about to be drafted into the NHL, and has a chance of eclipsing his uncle, Donevan Hextall, who was drafted 33rd overall in the second round of the 1991 NHL draft by the New Jersey Devils, maybe she’ll be OK with it. After all, it was all those pucks that have led to this point.

    Jack is days away from hearing his name called.

    “This opportunity is so exciting, and it’s a really cool opportunity,” Hextall told The Inquirer. “It only happens once, so just trying to do the best I can and enjoy it.”

    When asked what animal he would be on the ice, a question usually posed by the Montreal Canadiens at the scouting combine, Jack Hextall said he would have responded: “A wolf. I feel like it kind of resembles me, smart, plays with a bite.”

    Hextall interviewed with 25 teams at the NHL scouting combine, including the Flyers, before finishing in the top-25 of five fitness tests — including the right and left-handed grip tests, which have become a staple for Flyers draft picks of late. It’s a hefty number of teams for Hextall, but it makes sense as the 6-foot-½ inch, 195-pound right-shot centerman has built his game into that of a late first or early second-round pick.

    And while they do have centers in the prospect pool, the Flyers do not shy away from drafting them. Flyers general manager Danny Brière has said: “I don’t feel like you can have too many centers, because it’s much easier to move a center to the wing.” But unlike some other centers in this draft class, and while he has played center and wing, Hextall’s ceiling is as a middle-six center at the NHL level.

    “Just reliable in that 200-foot game,” he said, when asked what he brings down the middle. “Not every center is 200-foot, and takes pride in the defensive side of the puck, and it’s something I’ve always done. I think high hockey IQ as well, not a lot of people have that high hockey IQ, and I think I bring that, and I think that’s special.”

    Hextall thinks he reads the game well and pays attention to the little details, which has caught others’ eye.

    When the Flyers were hopeless, Travis Konecny promised boss Dan Hilferty they’d make the playoffs

    “I think he’s one of the guys that you look at and you think that’s a center in terms of the details,” The Athletic’s NHL draft and prospects reporter Scott Wheeler told The Inquirer. “His bread and butter is how well-rounded he is. The details off the puck, up-and-under sticks, retrievals, board battles, he’s got pro habits.

    “If you talk to the guys in Youngstown [where Hextall played for the Phantoms of the United States Hockey League], the first thing they say about him is that he’s a pro; this isn’t a junior hockey player, like a lot of these kids are. [He] does everything the right way, no selfishness to his game and he doesn’t cheat for offense.”

    Although he said it would be funny to go from the Youngstown Phantoms of the USHL to the Lehigh Valley Phantoms of the American Hockey League — as a pit stop to the NHL, of course — he is off to Michigan State this fall. Yes, it’s the same school Porter Martone attended, and the one Brière has continually, and perhaps notably, praised. Hextall’s pro days will have to wait.

    But it is what he did this past year that has eyes on him right now.

    Feelin’ Stronger Every Day

    Ryan Ward has known Hextall since he was 13 years old. The two met when the now Youngstown coach was on the bench for the Windy City Storm, a program that has developed several NHLers, including fellow Illinois native and Flyers assistant coach Todd Reirden.

    Skating for the Storm’s 13U AAA team, a Tier I program, Hextall notched 39 goals and 103 points in 58 games.

    “I could have told you back then, and I think I’ve told him and his family this, but I could see right away when he played for me, I was like, this kid’s special,” Ward told The Inquirer.

    “He was very serious; he wanted to know why we do things, he wanted to learn, he wanted to understand systems, he wanted to watch video, and a lot of 13-year-olds, they’re not interested in that, they play the game or whatever, and then they go home and eat McDonald’s,” Ward added.

    “But Jack, he was always interested in watching his shifts with me, or watching film. You couldn’t give him enough, and he’s the same way now, like after every game we sit down and we watch clips, and that’s just who he is.”

    Jack Hextall poses with the puck that gave him 100 points for the Windy City Storm in the 2021-22 season.

    It was a no-brainer for Ward when the option came to snag Hextall for the USHL. In his first season as a 16-year-old in a league that has an age range of 16-20, Hextall dropped eight goals and 34 points in 53 games. This past season, across 59 games, he more than doubled his goals (20) with 38 assists.

    That came after he finished with seven points in five games, including three in the championship game against Sweden, for the gold-medal-winning U.S. side at the 2025 Hlinka Gretzky Cup. It was the first time the U.S. won the tournament since 2003.

    “He’s a super smart player. He’s obviously a 200-foot center [which is] pretty hard to find nowadays,” said his linemate, Blake Zielinski, a Berlin, N.J., native who is expected to be drafted on Saturday.

    “He just played the game so smart and so dynamically, and I think we just worked well together, being that I can shoot the puck, he can pass the puck. He sees the ice very well, and I think I see the guys pretty well, and so we connected a lot.”

    Although some believe Hextall’s pace and speed need work — Martone did improve this at Michigan State — to drive plays and forecheck, he is considered a good skater. A self-proclaimed “railroad skater” when he was younger, he has worked on bringing his legs more underneath him, spending time each week in Youngstown with a power skating coach. It is that growth and development that pops for Ward, who sees a player who not only wants to get better and better but is getting better and better.

    The Athletic’s senior NHL prospects writer Corey Pronman told The Inquirer that Hextall was one of the best players in the USHL this season and was arguably USA Hockey’s best forward at the Hlinka. He likes his competitiveness, his attention to detail, and his ability to win battles and make plays. Ward calls him a blue-collar player and likes that his “brain is off the charts.”

    Guess who else likes these attributes in a player? The Flyers.

    “Every time, if his team would lose a small area game, like, he’d be screaming at me that I was cheating for the other team,” said Ward. “He’s just so competitive, he hates to lose. … He’s a leader the moment he steps in the room. He’s going to do his thing, and he’s going to work hard, and he’s going to push people to get better, and that’s ultimately like you’re talking about the Philadelphia Flyers. That’s the type of person you want in the locker room.”

  • CHOP names Joseph Mitchell to succeed Madeline Bell as CEO

    CHOP names Joseph Mitchell to succeed Madeline Bell as CEO

    The Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia announced Tuesday that Joseph Mitchell will succeed Madeline Bell as CEO, when Bell retires Oct. 1 after a nearly 40-year career at the University City nonprofit.

    Bell, 65, became CHOP’s CEO in July 2015 following eight years as chief operating officer. During Bell’s tenure as CEO, CHOP more than doubled its annual revenue to more than $5 billion, added a hospital in King of Prussia, and started building a $2.6 billion patient tower on its main campus.

    Mitchell, 51, joined CHOP as president in April 2025 following a national search by CHOP’s board for Bell’s successor. In 2024, Bell had notified the board of her intention to retire, CHOP said.

    Before coming to Philadelphia, Mitchell was an executive vice president at Boston Children’s Hospital and president of Franciscan Children’s, a specialty hospital that Boston Children’s acquired in 2023.

    “The opportunity to lead an institution that is so iconic, impactful, and relevant, and has the opportunity to impact pediatrics and have an indelible imprint on kids and families was just irresistible,” Mitchell said in an interview this week. “It was an easy decision to move my family from Boston to Philadelphia.”

    CHOP is financially strong as Mitchell assumes the top job, but like other health systems it will face financial pressure from Medicaid cuts starting next year. The nonprofit has also been under fire from the Trump administration for its program that serves transgender youth.

    Mitchell trained as a urologist and worked at McKinsey & Co. as a consultant for 14 years before becoming CEO of Franciscan Children’s in 2021. He led a financial turnaround effort there and planned for a dramatic expansion of its campus in Boston’s Brighton neighborhood.

    “Joe brings a fresh perspective, a patient-first approach, and a strong strategic mindset,” Greg Davis, CHOP’s board chair, said in a news release. “We are confident he will guide CHOP into its next chapter with continued excellence and impact.”

    Bell’s tenure as CEO

    Bell, who started at CHOP as a nurse, oversaw substantial growth of CHOP’s footprint in West Philadelphia and on the eastern side of the Schuylkill with two research towers on Schuylkill Avenue near the South Street Bridge. CHOP also expanded its specialty-care network in the suburbs.

    CHOP became the pediatric partner for Main Line Health, Lehigh Valley Health Network, and ChristianaCare under Bell’s leadership. Such relationships with systems focused on adults help steer patients needing advanced specialties to CHOP. CHOP has long been Penn Medicine’s pediatric partner.

    Madeline Bell sat next to Philadelphia Eagles owner Jeffrey Lurie last year during a ceremonial signing of documents for the Lurie family’s $50 million donation to create the Lurie Autism Institute at the University of Pennsylvania and CHOP.

    In a prerecorded statement for staff and others viewed by The Inquirer in advance of the transitional announcement, Bell highlighted medical breakthroughs in cell and gene therapy during the past decade, as well as an expansion of behavioral health services. The Lurie Autism Institute, a partnership between the University of Pennsylvania and CHOP, launched last year thanks to a $50 million gift from Philadelphia Eagles owner Jeffrey Lurie and his family.

    Also last year, CHOP received its largest gift ever, $125 million from Comcast CEO Brian Roberts and his wife, Aileen. The new patient tower expected to open in 2028 will bear their name. In 2024, real estate investor Mitchell L. Morgan and his family donated $50 million toward the cost of one of the two research towers near the South Street Bridge.

    After retiring, Bell plans to continue as honorary consul of Spain for the Philadelphia region, a position she started last July, and hopes to remain on the board of Comcast-NBCUniversal, she said. Also, she will continue to support CHOP philanthropically and will remain a resource for Mitchell.

    CHOP is among the nation’s largest pediatric systems. It has 774 licensed hospital beds and employs 31,000 people. In the nine months that ended March 31, CHOP had 27,643 inpatient admissions and 1.3 million outpatient visits.

    Joe Mitchell’s priorities

    Since arriving in Philadelphia, Mitchell has immersed himself in getting to know CHOP, visiting primary care and specialty sites, as well as the hospitals, he said. The next step was broadening his responsibilities to the point where most of CHOP’s senior executives are now reporting to him.

    He said it’s too soon for him to address specific strategic moves, but emphasized that his priority is expanding access to care for children and families.

    Joseph Mitchell will succeed Madeline Bell as CHOP’s CEO this fall.

    That could get harder with Medicaid cuts looming next year. Nearly 50% of CHOP’s patients have the insurance for low-income families.

    “We’re doing everything we can to preserve access for families, to advocate for funding and resources at the state and federal level,” said Mitchell, who grew up in St. Louis in a family “that was deep into healthcare.”

    He moved to Boston for a residency at Brigham and Women’s Hospital. That’s where he met his wife, Vivian. They have two children, 17 and 14, and the entire family has fallen in love with Philadelphia, he said.

    “CHOP has embraced me, but Philadelphia as a community has really embraced us,” he said.

  • 6abc is warning viewers about the FCC taking away its TV license. Here’s what’s going on.

    6abc is warning viewers about the FCC taking away its TV license. Here’s what’s going on.

    On Monday, 6abc issued a warning for viewers to take action to prevent Action News from disappearing from TV screens across the Delaware Valley.

    “The FCC is questioning our commitment to viewers by threatening to take us off the air,” a message from the station read.

    A 6abc message warning viewers about the FCC reviewing its broadcast license.

    So what’s going on?

    Most local news stations are owned by separate companies, but 6abc is one of eight owned and operated by ABC, whose parent company is Disney.

    In April, the Federal Communications Commission launched an early review of the broadcast licenses for those eight stations. The review came shortly after President Donald Trump called for ABC late-night host Jimmy Kimmel to be fired over a joke he made involving first lady Melania Trump.

    FCC commissioner Anna M. Gomez, the only remaining Democrat on the three-member panel, wrote in a May letter to Disney that the company had “been made a target” by Trump’s FCC, and that targeting local stations “is an extraordinary and dangerous misapplication” of the agency’s authority.

    “What Disney and ABC are facing is not a series of coincidental regulatory actions but a sustained, coordinated campaign of censorship and control,” Gomez wrote, “carried out through the weaponization of the FCC’s authority as a federal regulator and aimed at pressuring a free and independent press and all media into submission.”

    Despite that, the FCC said the review stemmed from an earlier investigation into diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives at Disney, citing “the agency’s prohibition on unlawful discrimination.” The agency is conducting a similar investigation of Comcast, which owns NBC.

    “If the evidence does in fact play out and shows that they were engaged in race- and gender-based discrimination, that’s a very serious issue at the FCC, that could fundamentally go to their character qualifications to even hold a license,” FCC chairman Brendan Carr said on Fox News in March.

    6abc viewers being asked to comment

    In an attempt to fight back, 6abc, which did not immediately respond to request for comment, is asking viewers to weigh in on the early review of its broadcast license and support the station.

    The FCC doesn’t make it easy. Viewers need to visit the agency’s website and submit a “express comment” using the FCC’s docket number: 26-131

    The public comment period is open until June 29.

    6abc renewed its broadcast license in 2023 for eight years, but the FCC could move to revoke it if it determines the station hasn’t “served the public interest” or has violated federal broadcast rules and regulations.

    A Disney spokesperson said in a statement the company has “a long record of operating in full compliance with FCC rules” and was “prepared to show that through the appropriate legal channels.”

    It’s been more than 40 years since the FCC has revoked a broadcast license from a TV station. The last time it happened was 1987, when the FCC stripped RKO General Inc. of its licenses in Boston, New York, and Los Angeles because of business misconduct.

    Even if the FCC revokes ABC’s local broadcast licenses, the case would ultimately be decided by an administrative law judge, according to the FCC’s website.

    The process could take years, and no changes are expected for 6abc during that time.

    ‘The View’ is also fighting back

    It’s not just ABC’s local stations the Trump administration is targeting. The FCC is also targeting the daytime interview show The View and its ability to interview politicians.

    The investigation of The View stems from an February interview featuring U.S. Senate candidate James Talarico, a Texas Democrat who at the time was facing off in a primary against U.S. Rep. Jasmine Crockett.

    The FCC claimed the interview was a violation of the equal time rule, a federal requirement put into law in 1934 requiring broadcast stations to provide comparable airtime to political opponents during an election.

    Disney has asked the FCC to declare The View qualifies as a “bona fide news” interview program and is exempt from the federal rules, like news programs on broadcast TV like Meet the Press and Face the Nation.

    In a May filing, ABC said The View received a news exemption from the FCC in 2002, and in 24 years it hadn’t been challenged. It called the FCC’s move to go after The View “unprecedented” and an attempt to “chill critical protected speech.”

    It’s a blurry line for late-night shows, which feature politicians as guests. While not technically news programs, the FCC hasn’t enforced the equal time rule on late-night shows since 2006, when it ruled then-California gubernatorial candidate Arnold Schwarzenegger’s appearance on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno qualified as a “bona fide news interview.”

    But that’s changing under the Trump administration. The FCC issued a notice to broadcasters in January stating late-night and daytime TV talk shows may no longer be exempt, claiming some were “motivated by partisan purposes.”

    Carr also pressured ABC affiliates to take Kimmel off the air in September. ABC ultimately suspended his show after two companies — Nexstar and Sinclair — said they would preempt it on their ABC-affiliated stations. Ultimately, ABC backed Kimmel and his show was back on TV a week later.

  • New ‘Love Island’ contestant is a Drexel grad and ‘Jalen Hurts doppelganger’

    New ‘Love Island’ contestant is a Drexel grad and ‘Jalen Hurts doppelganger’

    A new bombshell has entered the villa, and it’s not Jalen Hurts — but, uh, close enough!

    Ronnie Gunter, a lacrosse player and recent Drexel graduate best known for his viral resemblance to the Eagles quarterback, made his TV debut Monday night.

    Sporting orange swim trunks and not much else, Gunter was one of 12 new men who entered the show on episode 18 of Love Island USA.

    It’s all part of Casa Amor, the mid-season twist where OG contestants split off into two villas and are forced to explore new connections. Gunter, 25, was one of a dozen men and six women who’ve been introduced to the show in the last two nights.

    He was also one of the men chosen to stay: Those 12 men were quickly cut to six in the same episode.

    Proving Philly is the center of the universe — even on a remote Fijian island and even at Casa Amor, Gunter was quick to tell North Philly native Melanie Moreno that he went to Drexel.

    In a prior episode, Moreno, 24, told her most consistent connection, Sincere Rhea — who’s from Cape May — that her dream first date for them would be to walk through Penn’s Landing.

    But with Rhea away at the other villa with new arm candy and the OG women forced to explore connections with their own new crop of islanders, Gunter stood out.

    He chose to kiss both Moreno and Jen Terry as part of a challenge and later won the women over by talking about family life and his cooking chops.

    “I want my wife sipping red wine on the countertop while I’m cooking,” he said. “I love to chef. Y’all will never go hungry with me around.”

    While attending college in Philly, where he majored in sports studies, Gunter achieved virality for his likeness to Hurts.

    Two years ago, in a TikTok reshared by accounts including ESPN, Gunter’s then-girlfriend (now-former Division I golfer and prominent sports broadcaster and social media personality Emma Carpenter) said he’d get mistaken for Hurts “everywhere we go.”

    @emmacarpenter

    No cuz it’s everywhere we go 😭

    ♬ MILLION DOLLAR BABY (VHS) – Tommy Richman

    Gunter told The Inquirer at the time that the comparisons started coming around his sophomore year — along with stares and photo requests — but he welcomed the attention for the most part.

    “I think it’s funny. And I mean, he’s not a bad guy to be compared to,” he said. “It’s an awesome comparison to be mistaken for that guy.”

    Even Drexel’s Lacrosse program got in on the fun, posting on Instagram in 2023: “All we’re saying is that we’ve never seen @_ronniegunter and @jalenhurts together.”

    Notably, Gunter’s comparisons to Hurts — and his graduation from Drexel — predated the popular look-alike contests that popped up nationwide months later. A different ringer won Philly’s grassroots quest for a Hurts double.

    Born and raised in Minnesota before heading Northeast for school, Gunter lives in New York these days, where he works as a program director for the nonprofit Harlem Lacrosse.

    So far, no one on Love Island has made any comments about Gunter’s resemblance to Hurts. But there’s a lot more island time to play out.

  • A South Philly woman shot and killed her sister and granddaughter in murder-suicide, authorities say

    A South Philly woman shot and killed her sister and granddaughter in murder-suicide, authorities say

    A South Philadelphia woman shot and killed her sister and granddaughter before turning the gun on herself Monday in what police described as a double murder and suicide.

    The women, identified Tuesday as Janice Picano, 67, Denise Grottini, 55, and Angelina Picano, 18, were found dead inside a home on the 2800 block of South 10th Street, according to police.

    Police responded to the residence around 5:30 p.m. and found the women with single gunshot wounds to their heads.

    They were pronounced dead at the scene by medics at 5:38 p.m., police said.

    Janice Picano, who investigators say fired the fatal shots, was Grottini’s sister and Angelina Picano’s grandmother, according to a law enforcement source.

    A gun was found at the home and was taken into evidence.

    The homicide unit continues to investigate.

  • A police-involved shooting in North Coventry Township is under investigation

    A police-involved shooting in North Coventry Township is under investigation

    The Chester County District Attorney’s Office is investigating an officer-involved shooting that occurred on Monday evening in North Coventry Township.

    The office said it was assisting the North Coventry Township Police Department with investigating this case.

    Authorities did not provide any details on the circumstances of the shooting, how many officers or others were involved, or whether anyone was injured.

    “This remains an active and ongoing investigation, and additional information will be released as it becomes available,” a spokesperson for the office said in a statement on social media. The prosecutor’s office could not be reached for additional details on the investigation.

    Local news was on the scene at Lindberg and Kline Avenue in South Pottstown to find police activity on the street Monday night.

  • PSERS outsources $20 billion in investments

    PSERS outsources $20 billion in investments

    In one of the biggest outsourcing moves in Pennsylvania investment history, the board of the $84 billion-asset state teachers’ pension plan, PSERS, voted last week to outsource investments worth $20 billion to BNY Investments Mellon, replacing work now done by members of PSERS investment staff.

    “We are trying to be more efficient,” Benjamin Cotton, PSERS’s chief investment officer, said in an interview Thursday. PSERS staff “have done a good job” managing that money, he said, but commercial index fund fees have fallen so much, and Wall Street managers’ ability to match benchmark indexes has improved to where it’s best to hire outsiders.

    At Wednesday’s meeting, Cotton told trustees that BNY, which is based in New York and has investment offices in Pittsburgh, is already a PSERS contractor and “wants to be an index fund manager for PSERS as well.”

    He declined to estimate how much PSERS would pay the bank, adding that a final contract is under negotiation.

    The resolution passed by the PSERS board calls on BNY to invest $16 billion in a “passive” (index-fund) portfolio of stocks “benchmarked to the S&P 1500.” BNY Mellon does not currently manage an S&P 1500 index fund, though the measure is used as a benchmark for BNY funds combining other indexes.

    BNY documents show the bank charges institutional investors between 0.2% to 0.7% of assets per year for other index funds, which could result in PSERS payments to the bank of at least $32 million a year. But fund managers sometimes negotiate significantly lower rates with multibillion-dollar clients like PSERS.

    PSERS also agreed to invest $4 billion with BNY in a foreign stocks fund, its performance to be measured against the Morgan Stanley Capital International (MSCI) World Ex-U.S. benchmark.

    Cotton said no PSERS staffers would be laid off as a result of the outsourcing moves, with investors responsible for buying and selling stocks for the current portfolio reassigned to other work. He declined to estimate how many PSERS staffers managed the funds BNY will take over.

    The board voted to approve the transfer, with only State Sen. Katie Muth (D., Chester) dissenting.

    Muth has opposed or abstained from supporting scores of PSERS investments, citing the lack of fee information and other details she says are provided to the trustees.

    The agency’s investment contracts often include fee formulas managers say are available to trustees like Muth on request but redacted from public viewing, though the annual sums paid to contractors have been published in separate reports without explanation of how the payments were calculated.

    Manufactured housing profits

    Also at Wednesday’s meeting, Cotton said PSERS would collect nearly $700 million from selling a major investment. People familiar with that investment confirmed it is a stake in Yes Communities, which has owned and developed hundreds of U.S. trailer parks with amenities such as swimming pools and clubhouses.

    Cotton says PSERS invested a total of $230 million, starting in 2008, and including the new payout has received around $1 billion back, with another $500 million still invested in the same asset, currently through the Brookfield private investment group. Cotton said that return has been higher than if PSERS invested that money in the S&P 500.

    That’s better than the results PSERS realized on some of its other “direct” real estate investments from that period, including a handful of Southern hotels and shopping malls, and vacant Harrisburg industrial properties.

    The board also approved investments in TPG Peppertree Fund XI-A, an infrastructure fund, and PAI Mid-Market Fund II, a European private-equity fund.

    The board did not consider two other investments recommended by staff, in a pair of private-credit funds.

    Given poor results and variations in asset valuations reported by private-credit managers, Cotton said, PSERS needs to review its existing private-credit investments, and what’s happening to the high-risk loans that private-credit funds finance before buying more.

  • South Philly Barbacoa is moving in to Triple Bottom Brewing

    South Philly Barbacoa is moving in to Triple Bottom Brewing

    On a recent Saturday inside Triple Bottom Brewing, award-winning chef Cristina Martinez stood behind a wooden taco cart next to the bar making barbacoa tacos for an eager crowd.

    At the June 14 event, Triple Bottom owners Tess Hart and her husband, Bill Popwell, announced South Philly Barbacoa as their new permanent food vendor for the Spring Garden brewery.

    The brewery was ready to have a permanent food vendor after two years of hosting chef residencies, including La Llamita Vegana and Angie’s Vietnam. In early spring, the CEO of Triple Bottom decided to email the restaurant she felt would be the best fit: South Philly Barbacoa.

    “Their team has been in our space a lot, and I’ve been down there,” Hart said. “We introduced the conversation at a moment where they were also thinking about their next steps and what growth could look like for them. It felt very natural, because I think — even though we do such different things in the food and beverage space — both of us are really led by values,” including caring about the supply chain for their respective businesses and supporting the immigrant community of Philadelphia.

    The South Philly Barbacoa menu, attached to Triple Bottom drinks menu, features most of the same items found at its South Philly location inside Casa Mexico, where South Philly Barbacoa still operates.

    Find South Philly Barbacoa at Triple Bottom Brewing, 915 Spring Garden St.

    “The only thing that is not here is the consommé, which hopefully we’ll have in the wintertime,” Hart said. “But for now,” there are tacos — slow-cooked lamb barbacoa, shredded chicken covered in smoky tomato chipotle sauce, slow-braised pork, spicy lamb offal sausage pancita, and a vegan option with seasonal vegetables — $7 for one or $21 for three, chips and guacamole with crispy corn tortillas for $10, esquites for $10, and handmade sweet tamales made with corn masa for $7.

    “Having a very amazing food program that’s reliable is a way to make sure that you can come here even if you don’t want a beer or any kind of drink — this is still a place for you,” Hart said.

    “Triple Bottom Brewing is this little oasis on Spring Garden Street with these bright, airy windows,” Hart continued. “And now, barbacoa tacos.”

  • They went to Mount Airy ‘on a whim’ and found love to last decades

    They went to Mount Airy ‘on a whim’ and found love to last decades

    Over more than 25 years, Jean Miller and Craig Heim have transformed their East Mount Airy home, a 1907 Dutch Colonial, through countless renovation projects.

    “But no matter what state the house was in, whatever was torn apart or upended as we did a project, it’s always been an amazing house to come home to,” Heim said. “We are always happy to come in the front door.”

    The facade surrounding that front door was the most recent project. They painted it a bold purple and updated the porch, shutters, and shingles.

    Miller said she had always wanted a purple house. “It makes the house pop.”

    The exterior of Miller and Heim’s home and their front garden are bursting with color.
    The porch railing and soffit are painted purple and yellow.
    The home was covered in asbestos shingles when Miller and Heim bought it, and they uncovered the original cedar shakes.

    The couple bought the seven-bedroom, 2½-bath home in March 2000, and moved in that spring after some initial work. At the time, they were renting near the Italian Market in South Philly and planned to buy there.

    “On a whim, we looked in Mount Airy after friends mentioned a huge house for sale nearby. Once we saw the neighborhood and how much space we could afford — including a yard — we shifted our search to Mount Airy,” recalled Miller, a physician at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania. Heim works for human services nonprofit Face to Face in Germantown.

    Over the past two decades, they updated nearly every part of the 3,200-square-foot house and its garden, as they raised their two children. Sara, 22, is a Penn graduate who now lives in South Philly, and Pete, 20, is a sophomore at Michigan State.

    Miller said the living room and dining room are favorites. The spaces are made cozy by a wood-burning fireplace, also a backdrop for entertaining.

    Art and instruments line the walls of the living room, as Maddie the dog enjoys the couch.
    The dining room has red walls and crown molding.

    When they moved in, Miller recounted, the home’s living and dining rooms had already been altered, losing their original woodwork. A wall with pocket doors had likely been removed and replaced with folding screen doors. The rooms were painted red with white trim.

    “We designed a wooden arch, installed larger crown molding, and removed a non-original built-in cabinet in the dining room,” said Miller. “Fortunately, the contractor removed it in sections and discovered it had been supporting the house’s main beam after studs had been taken out.”

    They decided to keep the red walls and, after testing many samples, chose a trim color in greenish gold that gave the rooms a completely different look.

    The home boasts an eclectic mix of furniture that they acquired from family, vintage shops, and what Miller described as “trash picking.”

    Paintings and photographs by local artists line the walls along the staircase.
    Art fills nearly every inch of this wall in the living room.

    An abundance of art hangs on the walls, loosely grouped into collections. Miller has dedicated one whole wall to “works from family and local artists.”

    “We use every space to display art and objects.”

    Back when Miller and Heim bought the house, the kitchen appeared to have been last renovated in the 1960s. The sheet-vinyl floor was torn and the subfloor so soft, it crumbled to dust when they pulled it up, recalled Miller.

    As a temporary fix, they installed veneered plywood, adding lines and nail marks to mimic wide-plank hardwood, and sealed it with polyurethane. They also painted the cabinets and walls. Those quick fixes held them over until a full kitchen renovation. A neighbor who is an architect designed the new kitchen, transforming it to include a bright breakfast room filled with natural light.

    Tiles and wall sculptures line an arch into the kitchen’s breakfast nook.
    A portrait of Jean Miller and Craig Heim’s dogs, Maddie and Mabel, is on display in the sun-filled breakfast area.

    “The kitchen was definitely a game changer, and it still feels new to me after 17 years. I love walking into it and feeling the brightness and natural light,” said Heim. “It’s the hub for so much of what happens every day and for special occasions, a very natural gathering place.”

    Outdoors, the garden is a treasure trove of found objects combined with topiary and plantings to create an eye-catching mix. The large porch leads to the front garden.

    “It connects us to our neighborhood and neighbors,” Miller said. “Our garden is a destination for many on their walks and allows us to connect with people. It feels like an outdoor room.”

    A path of stones runs through the garden.
    A planter the family trash-picked is filled with and surrounded by potted flowers.

    The creativity inspiring the garden also shines through in the house’s bold facade.

    “When the house recently needed to be repainted, we wanted to do something with a bit more pop,” Heim said. “So, we added the golds and pink to give things a little more zip.”

    For holidays, they decorate the yard with inflatables, lights, and ornaments.

    A hedge painted and shaped into a “happy bull” grows in front of the home. Heim often spray paints and cuts the hedges into shapes or characters.
    Decorative oversized ants are arranged as though climbing up a tree in the front garden.

    Mount Airy now holds a special place in both of their hearts. They enjoy an easy walk to the train, Germantown Avenue’s commercial strip, the Wissahickon, and Chestnut Hill.

    “We have a tight-knit group of neighbors, many long-term residents from our era and even earlier, and a whole new generation of younger people with kids,” said Miller. “It’s a wonderful community.”

    Is your house a Haven? Nominate your home by email (and send some digital photographs) at properties@inquirer.com.

  • Federal citizenship data tool cannot be used to screen voters, judge rules

    Federal citizenship data tool cannot be used to screen voters, judge rules

    WASHINGTON — A federal judge on Monday barred the Trump administration from letting states query a centralized national database of citizens built for checking immigration status to screen their voter rolls, finding that the repurposing of the federal data to monitor voting violated at least three laws.

    In a sharply worded ruling, Judge Sparkle L. Sooknanan ordered the Department of Homeland Security to stop permitting states to search the data, which also incorporates Social Security records.

    President Donald Trump had ordered several agencies last year to pool data that states could use to verify citizenship. The combined data set allows state and local election officials to search immigration records stored by Homeland Security about migrants, as well as a much larger database of information maintained by the Social Security Administration.

    Sooknanan, who was appointed by former President Joe Biden, wrote that the executive order had resulted in a rush by agencies to “haphazardly” adopt a system that they knew was flawed and that would flag eligible voters along with those who might have registered illegally. She warned that states were already “actively” using it to potentially purge eligible voters before an election.

    “All in all, the federal government has knowingly trampled on the privacy rights of American citizens in a manner that threatens the sacred right to vote,” she wrote. “This court cannot stand idly by while that happens.”

    Repurposing the immigration database — known as the Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlements, or SAVE, system — into a tool to check voter eligibility unlawfully abused sensitive data stored by the government for other purposes, Sooknanan wrote. She added that federal agencies were joining to together over the last year to “create a centralized federal database that contains the private information of United States citizens, including Social Security numbers, citizenship status and other sensitive data” that violated protections Congress had intended to guard personal data.

    Sooknanan wrote that evidence presented in the case showed Homeland Security officials acknowledged in internal communications that the infrastructure it had built violated federal privacy law and could incorrectly flag eligible voters as noncitizens. She wrote, for instance, that the database included outdated information that could result in naturalized citizens who had been assigned Social Security numbers long ago incorrectly appearing as ineligible to vote.

    James Percival, the department’s general counsel, responded to the ruling on social media, calling it the “latest example” of “how hard the Left will fight to stop us from solving problems they insist do not exist.”

    At Trump’s direction, the federal government has intensified efforts this year to intervene in state administration of elections, as he pushes discredited theories about voter fraud and claims that immigrants in the U.S. illegally and others who are ineligible to vote can be found on state rolls.

    The Justice Department has also contributed to efforts to build a national voter database, suing a number of Democratic-led states that resisted the push to obtain their records.

    Earlier on Monday, a federal judge in Maryland dismissed a lawsuit by the department seeking the state’s voter records, the latest of more than half a dozen decisions that have gone against the Trump administration.

    The lawsuit before Sooknanan dates to an executive order Trump signed in March 2025 requiring more aggressive federal oversight of elections, inserting the federal government into roles historically reserved for states. Among other things, the order required Homeland Security and Social Security to collaborate to verify the immigration status of registered voters or new voters signing up.

    The lawsuit was brought by the League of Women Voters, the Electronic Privacy Information Center and several members of those organizations who argued the Trump administration had unlawfully pooled their sensitive personal data into a tool that could be abused for voter suppression.

    “As the Trump-Vance administration continues its attack on the right to vote, this is an important victory for the American people and our democracy,” said Skye Perryman, president of Democracy Forward, which helped represent the coalition.

    In November, Sooknanan initially denied a request by the groups to halt the overhaul of the SAVE system, writing that while she “doubts the lawfulness of the government’s actions,” it was unclear that the Trump administration had actually misused the data. But on Monday, she wrote that states, including Texas and Louisiana, had now started using the system to check voter registrations and had flagged eligible voters for removal.

    Separately, at Trump’s direction, the U.S. Postal Service submitted a plan this month under which it could refuse to deliver mail ballots in states that decline to share their voter rolls with the federal government. The Postal Service is also facing pressure to assist with the creation of state-by-state voter lists that it could consult and use to justify refusing mail-in ballots of people left off the lists.

    In May, Judge Carl J. Nichols declined to immediately block Homeland Security from compiling and distributing those lists to state election workers.

    This article originally appeared in The New York Times.