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  • Eagles’ Clint Hurtt discusses coaching the Senior Bowl and his interview for the Dolphins DC job

    Eagles’ Clint Hurtt discusses coaching the Senior Bowl and his interview for the Dolphins DC job

    MOBILE, Ala. — Standing in the north end zone of Hancock Whitney Stadium on the University of South Alabama’s campus, Clint Hurtt, the Eagles defensive line coach, had the sun shining on him while decked out in a black Eagles T-shirt and black pants. Hurtt was the head coach of the National team at the 2026 Senior Bowl, and was responsible for planning, delegating, and monitoring the two-hour practice session.

    For Hurtt, who has more than a decade of NFL coaching experience that included two seasons as the Seattle Seahawks’ defensive coordinator, the opportunity to run the show along with the hands-on experience leading a group of players are “things you can’t take for granted.”

    “If you have aspirations to be a head coach one day, it’s a different circumstance in terms of getting practice schedules together for the players, for the coaches, the installation, all those things that happen throughout the day,” Hurtt said Thursday. “There’s things that you know that happen when you’re following the lead of the respective head coach that you work for, but to do it yourself, it’s a great experience to be a part of. And obviously you’re not doing it alone. The [other] coaches are obviously a big part of that, and they help out with that stuff.”

    Eagles hire Packers QB coach Sean Mannion as offensive coordinator

    The focus is on helping build up and coach the next generation of NFL players this week, but Hurtt’s name has also circulated in coaching searches. He interviewed with the Miami Dolphins last weekend for their vacant defensive coordinator job under new head coach Jeff Hafley.

    Hurtt, 47, didn’t delve into much detail but confirmed the interview “went well and the feedback I got was that it went really well.”

    The preparation for his Senior Bowl assignment started well before Hurtt got boots on the ground in Mobile earlier this week. Hurtt, who played collegiately at Miami and began his coaching career shortly after, said his staff assembled from other NFL teams had meetings on Zoom to organize the daily practice and game day plans for the Senior Bowl. He leaned on Eagles running backs coach Jemal Singleton, the offensive coordinator for the National team this week, to help orchestrate the offensive plan.

    From planning for two-minute drills to red-zone work throughout the week, Hurtt is shouldering more on-field scheduling responsibilities than he typically would with the Eagles.

    Before coming to the Eagles, Clint Hurtt spent seven seasons with the Seahawks, including two as defensive coordinator.

    “When you’re the head, you have to have answers for everybody, for all position groups,” Hurtt said. “[Having been] a coordinator, before being used to that, coaching linebackers and the secondary and things of that nature. So it’s been really good and enjoyable with these kids. And they’re all hungry for knowledge.”

    One player benefiting from Hurtt’s coaching is Western Michigan edge rusher Nadame Tucker, one of the standouts of the week for the National team. Tucker, who spent his first three seasons at Houston before having a breakout season in 2025 with 21 tackles for losses and 14½ sacks for Western Michigan, said he “gravitated toward [Hurtt]” and appreciated his similar approach to football.

    “I feel like coaching D-line, to get guys to listen to you, that’s how you should be, man,” Tucker said after practice Tuesday. “So he’s my great idea of a D-line coach. He’s a stern guy, a guy that’s going to pull the best out of the players and want the best out of his players. … I just keep working with him and learning from him and learning from all the [coaches].”

    The Eagles might be a few steps from a Super Bowl return. Here’s how they can get them right.

    Hurtt is using this week to gain more exposure to coaching and the detailed nature of running practices, things he never experienced.

    “When you want to go into a job interview to try to escalate, improve your career and move up the ladder, there’s things that you have to learn along the way. But it’s hard to do that if you don’t get exposure,” Hurtt said. “I always constantly self critique, every evening, try to sit back and say, ‘OK, what went well today? What I’ll continue to do, what things can we improve on?’ Always looking for critical feedback. And because I like the criticism, I’m always self-talking on what are the things that we can do to get better, where can I be better, to be better for the players and be better for the staff.”

    Hurtt’s head coaching experience will come to an end on Saturday with the Senior Bowl game (2:30 p.m., NFL Network). But for now, he’s relishing this opportunity with the future NFL players who are soaking up knowledge from Hurtt and his coaching staff.

    “Being passionate, you want the kids to feel your energy and where you’re coming from, because then they understand how you want things to be,” Hurtt said. “The coaches [are] obviously doing that, too. It’s a great energy from our defensive coaching staff and offense as well. But I want every coach to be authentically themselves, too. Don’t try to replicate anybody else that’s around you. Got to be you, because that’s what the players are going to respond to the best.”

  • Democrats, White House strike spending deal that would avert government shutdown

    Democrats, White House strike spending deal that would avert government shutdown

    WASHINGTON — Democrats and the White House struck a deal to avert a partial government shutdown and temporarily fund the Department of Homeland Security as they consider new restrictions for President Donald Trump’s surge of immigration enforcement. But passage was delayed late Thursday as leaders scrambled to win enough support for the agreement before the midnight Friday deadline.

    As the country reels from the deaths of two protesters at the hands of federal agents in Minneapolis, the White House agreed to separate homeland security funding from a larger spending bill and fund the department for two weeks while they debate Democratic demands for curbs on the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency.

    “Republicans and Democrats have come together to get the vast majority of the government funded until September” while extending current funding for Homeland Security, Trump said in a social media post Thursday evening. He encouraged members of both parties to cast a “much needed Bipartisan ‘YES’ vote.”

    Still, all senators weren’t yet on board. Leaving the Capitol just before midnight Thursday after hours of negotiations, Senate Majority Leader John Thune said there were “snags on both sides” as he and Democratic leader Chuck Schumer tried to rally support.

    “Hopefully people will be of the spirit to try and get this done tomorrow,” Thune said.

    Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., said late Thursday that he was one of the senators objecting. He said Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents were being treated unfairly. He has also opposed House language that would repeal a new law that gives senators the ability to sue the government for millions of dollars if their personal or office data is accessed without their knowledge.

    Democrats had requested the two-week extension and say they are prepared to block the wide-ranging spending bill if their demands aren’t met, denying Republicans the votes they need to pass it and potentially triggering a shutdown.

    Rare bipartisan talks

    The rare bipartisan talks between Trump and his frequent adversary, Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer, came after the fatal shooting of 37-year-old Alex Pretti in Minnesota over the weekend and calls by senators in both parties for a full investigation. Schumer called it “a moment of truth.”

    “The American people support law enforcement. They support border security. They do not support ICE terrorizing our streets and killing American citizens,” Schumer said.

    The standoff has threatened to plunge the country into another shutdown, just two months after Democrats blocked a spending bill over expiring federal health care subsidies. That dispute closed the government for 43 days as Republicans refused to negotiate.

    That shutdown ended when a small group of moderate Democrats broke away to strike a deal with Republicans, but Democrats are more unified this time after the fatal shootings of Pretti and Renee Good by federal agents.

    Democrats lay out demands

    Democrats have laid out several demands, asking the White House to “end roving patrols” in cities and coordinate with local law enforcement on immigration arrests, including requiring tighter rules for warrants.

    They also want an enforceable code of conduct so agents are held accountable when they violate rules. Schumer said agents should be required to have “masks off, body cameras on” and carry proper identification, as is common practice in most law enforcement agencies.

    The Democratic caucus is united in those “common sense reforms,” and the burden is on Republicans to accept them, Schumer said.

    “Boil it all down, what we are talking about is that these lawless ICE agents should be following the same rules that your local police department does,” said Democratic Sen. Tina Smith of Minnesota. “There has to be accountability.”

    Earlier on Thursday, Tom Homan, the president’s border czar, stated during a press conference in Minneapolis that federal immigration officials are developing a plan to reduce the number of agents in Minnesota, but this would depend on cooperation from state authorities.

    Still far apart on policy

    Negotiations down the road on a final agreement on the Homeland Security bill are likely to be difficult.

    Democrats want Trump’s aggressive immigration crackdown to end. “If the Trump administration resists reforms, we shut down the agency,” said Connecticut Sen. Richard Blumenthal.

    “We need to take a stand,” he said.

    But Republicans are unlikely to agree to all of the Democrats’ demands.

    North Carolina Sen. Thom Tillis said he is opposed to requiring immigration enforcement officers to show their faces, even as he blamed Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem for decisions that he said are “tarnishing” the agency’s reputation.

    “You know, there’s a lot of vicious people out there, and they’ll take a picture of your face, and the next thing you know, your children or your wife or your husband are being threatened at home,” Tillis said.

    South Carolina Sen. Graham said some of the Democratic proposals “make sense,” such as better training and body cameras. Still, he said he was putting his Senate colleagues “on notice” that if Democrats try to make changes to the funding bill, he would insist on new language preventing local governments from resisting the Trump administration’s immigration policies.

    “I think the best legislative solution for our country would be to adopt some of these reforms to ICE and Border Patrol,” Graham posted on X. But he said that the bill should also end so-called “sanctuary city” policies.

    Uncertainty in the House

    Across the Capitol, Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., told The Associated Press on Thursday that he had been “vehemently opposed” to breaking up the funding package, but “if it is broken up, we will have to move it as quickly as possible. We can’t have the government shut down.”

    On Thursday evening, at a premiere of a movie about first lady Melania Trump at the Kennedy Center, Johnson said he might have some “tough decisions” to make about when to bring the House back to Washington to approve the bills separated by the Senate, if they pass.

    “We’ll see what they do,” Johnson said.

    House Republicans have said they do not want any changes to the bill they passed last week. In a letter to Trump on Tuesday, the conservative House Freedom Caucus wrote that its members stand with the Republican president and ICE.

    “The package will not come back through the House without funding for the Department of Homeland Security,” they wrote.

  • Five things to know about new Eagles OC Sean Mannion, from his playing career to his Andy Reid connection

    Five things to know about new Eagles OC Sean Mannion, from his playing career to his Andy Reid connection

    After weeks of searching, the Eagles have hired Packers quarterbacks coach Sean Mannion as their new offensive coordinator.

    Here are five things to know about the man who will be calling plays for the Birds next year:

    He was a quarterback at Oregon State

    Mannion played for the Beavers from 2011 to 2014, and still holds 18 Oregon State records, including most passing yards, passing touchdowns, and most completions in school history. He held the record for career passing yards in the Pac-12 with 13,600, until Washington State quarterback Luke Falk passed him in 2017.

    After graduating, Mannion was drafted by the Rams in the third round of the 2015 NFL draft.

    Sean Mannion played against the Packers before he was a member of their staff.

    He’s played in the NFL

    Mannion spent nine seasons with three NFL organizations: the Rams, Vikings and Seahawks.

    He was a career backup, appearing in 14 NFL games, starting three of them, and throwing for 573 yards with one career touchdown pass (to K.J. Osborn) and three interceptions.

    He’s risen quickly through the ranks

    Following the 2023 season, Mannion retired from playing and secured an interview to join the Bears’ coaching staff. He reached out to Matt LaFleur, who had coached him while he was a player, to ask him for advice on his interview.

    “I jumped on a Zoom call with him in the second half and he showed me what he was going to present, and I told him, ‘Wow, that’s pretty good. I think you should come up to Green Bay right when you’re done with that interview,’” LaFleur told ESPN. “And I’m surprised that they let him out of the building. They tried to get him, but I guess we had more to offer. But we’re lucky to have him. I really do think this guy’s going to have a bright future for us and certainly in the coaching profession.”

    Mannion was promoted to quarterbacks coach in 2025. Now, in 2026, he’ll be a first-time play-caller at age 33.

    Sean Mannion was part of a staff that made consecutive playoff appearances in Green Bay.

    His dad also coaches

    Mannion’s father, John Mannion, is a longtime high school football coach. He has coached at Mountainside High School in Beaverton, Ore., since 2017, and in 2023 he was honored by the American Football Coaches Association with the Power of Influence Award.

    John told ESPN that a 7-year-old Sean came along on a scouting trip to another school, and spent the entire game taking his own notes on a yellow notepad. When he was hired by the Packers, John, who’d kept the notepad ever since, gave it back to him as a gift.

    He’s following Andy Reid’s path

    The last time the Eagles hired the quarterbacks coach from Green Bay, that man was Andy Reid, who was head coach of the Eagles from 1999-2012. If it worked once…

  • ‘Violence will not be tolerated’: Woman who pepper-sprayed conservative influencer on SEPTA bus charged with assault

    ‘Violence will not be tolerated’: Woman who pepper-sprayed conservative influencer on SEPTA bus charged with assault

    A former WHYY intern who pepper-sprayed a conservative influencer on a SEPTA bus was charged with simple assault and other crimes by prosecutors in the Pennsylvania Attorney General’s Office on Thursday, officials said.

    Video of the Jan. 19 incident between 22-year-old Paulina Reyes and 22-year-old Francis Scales quickly went viral on social media, garnering millions of views and spurring reactions from right-leaning influencers and Elon Musk.

    During the confrontation, Reyes — whose internship with WHYY had ended before the incident — accused Scales of being a “fascist” and a “racist” for posting content online she viewed as insulting to Muslims and people of color.

    Attorney General Dave Sunday, in announcing Thursday that his office’s mass transit prosecutor would oversee the case, said “violence will not be tolerated as a means to conduct political debate, protest, or exhibit differences.

    “This type of violence is senseless, as we have an individual facing criminal charges over political disagreement,” the attorney general said in a statement.

    In addition to simple assault, Reyes is charged with possessing an instrument of a crime, a misdemeanor. She also faces charges of harassment and disorderly conduct, which are summary offenses.

    Reyes was arraigned Thursday morning and released without having to to post bail.

    The mass transit prosecutor for Philadelphia, Michael Untermeyer, worked with SEPTA police to bring the charges, according to Sunday.

    The special prosecutor position, created in 2023 to pursue crimes committed on SEPTA, had been slow to take cases up until last year.

    It has drawn criticism from District Attorney Larry Krasner, who last year challenged the law that created the post, saying it was unconstitutional, unfairly singled out Philadelphia, and stripped his office of authority.

    A spokesperson for Krasner did not immediately return a request for comment on the special prosecutor’s decision.

    Footage of the South Philadelphia incident ricocheted across conservative media, and some influencers had accused Reyes of being an “Antifa agitator” and called for her arrest. Musk’s comments on X, suggesting Reyes had “violence issues,” generated hundreds of thousands of views alone.

    Reyes told The Inquirer in an earlier interview that she had been defending herself against Scales, who was filming her, and that resorting to pepper spray was “not something I wanted to do.”

    She said she has since received death and rape threats for her role in the confrontation. She did not return a request for comment Thursday.

    Reyes and Scales knew each other from attending the Community College of Philadelphia, where Reyes is still a student.

    Videos on Scales’ social media page, Surge Philly, show the commentator interviewing attendees at protests, asking them questions about charged topics such as immigration enforcement. He has also been a vocal critic of Krasner.

    Scales said Reyes’ pepper spray got in his face and eyes, and Sunday, the attorney general, said Reyes also punched the man. A friend who was with Scales filmed the incident. Scales, too, filmed Reyes, saying he did so for his own safety.

    Scales said in a statement that he was grateful for the attorney general’s decision to bring charges, and that he hoped that would deter others from similar actions.

    “No one has the right to physically attack another person because of different opinions,” Scales said.

  • Handling of Pretti probe prompts prosecutors to consider resignations

    Handling of Pretti probe prompts prosecutors to consider resignations

    Federal prosecutors in Minneapolis have told U.S. Attorney Daniel Rosen, the Trump administration appointee leading the office, that they feel deeply frustrated by the Justice Department’s response to the shootings of Renée Good and Alex Pretti by immigration officers and suggested that they could resign en masse, leaving the office unable to handle its current caseload, according to two officials familiar with the office.

    At least one prosecutor in the office’s criminal division has resigned since a meeting this week with Rosen at which the prosecutors aired their concerns, according to the people, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss a personnel matter that has not been made public.

    The threat of further resignations is the latest sign of how the federal judicial system in Minnesota has begun to crack under the strain imposed by the administration’s immigration enforcement surge in the state. On Wednesday, the chief federal district judge in the state wrote that Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials had violated 96 court orders since launching the crackdown in Minnesota, dubbed Operation Metro Surge.

    “ICE has likely violated more court orders in January 2026 than some federal agencies have violated in their entire existence,” Chief U.S. District Judge Patrick Schiltz wrote.

    When asked for comment about the Minnesota prosecutors, a Justice Department spokesperson responded with Attorney General Pam Bondi’s February 2025 “zealous advocacy” memo that said attorneys would face discipline or termination if they are not “vigorously defending presidential policies.”

    The U.S. attorney’s office in Minnesota has been in turmoil since the administration sidelined the office in the investigations around the shootings of Good and Pretti, who were shot two and a half weeks apart during confrontations with immigration officers in Minneapolis.

    At least a half-dozen prosecutors in the office — including the second-in-command — resigned earlier this month after top Justice Department officials told prosecutors not to investigate the shooting of Good but instead try to build a case against her partner.

    In the aftermath of those resignations, the Justice Department sent prosecutors from other Midwestern states to help deal with the swelling caseload in Minnesota. The severe staffing shortage in the office is expected to worsen in the coming weeks as more prosecutors from the office’s criminal and civil divisions resign.

    The Minnesota U.S. attorney’s office is down to about half of its full staffing level of approximately 70 lawyers. At least some of the resignations occurred in the final months of the Biden administration before President Donald Trump took office.

    When Pretti was shot by immigration officials on Jan. 24, Trump administration officials said the Department of Homeland Security would be leading the probe, prompting confusion and frustration among Minneapolis prosecutors who felt they should be involved.

    The shootings of Good and Pretti were captured on cellphone cameras and have prompted outrage from Democrats and Republicans over Trump’s immigration crackdown.

    Typically, a federal investigation into an officer-involved shooting would involve FBI agents and criminal and civil rights prosecutors. Any federal use-of-force investigation into an officer’s conduct is considered a civil rights investigation because the provision under which officers can be charged is a civil rights statute that covers deprivation of a person’s rights “under color of law.”

    The Washington Post reported that the FBI briefly opened a civil rights investigation into the Good shooting before changing course.

    Law enforcement officers are rarely charged for using lethal force, in part because the law provides significant leeway for officers to decide when use of force is needed. Law enforcement experts said that an accurate conclusion can only be reached, however, if officials examine all relevant state and federal laws and their application to the facts in the case.

    The immigration crackdown has strained U.S. attorney’s offices across the country. On the criminal side, prosecutors are handling a surge in cases involving allegations of residents impeding immigration officers. And on the civil side, attorneys are being inundated with an influx of petitions from immigrants contesting their detainments.

    The Justice Department is also facing staffing shortages at its Washington headquarters and in U.S. attorney’s offices across the country. In 2024, roughly 10,000 attorneys worked across the Justice Department and its components, including the FBI. In 2025, Justice Connection, an advocacy group that has been tracking departures, estimates that at least 5,500 people — not all of them attorneys — had quit the department, been fired or taken a buyout offered by the Trump administration.

    The department has struggled to find qualified candidates to fill these vacancies.

  • Eagles hire Packers QB coach Sean Mannion as offensive coordinator

    Eagles hire Packers QB coach Sean Mannion as offensive coordinator

    The Eagles are hiring former Green Bay Packers quarterbacks coach Sean Mannion as their new offensive coordinator, the team announced on Thursday night.

    Mannion, 33, played for nine NFL seasons as a quarterback, including three on practice squads, from 2015-23. He began his coaching career in 2024 as an offensive assistant with the Packers under head coach Matt LaFleur. Mannion quickly worked his way up the ranks, taking over as quarterbacks coach last season following the retirement of Tom Clements.

    Mannion, who replaces Kevin Patullo, joins the Eagles as the fifth offensive coordinator of the Nick Sirianni era. While Mannion does not have any play-calling experience in his brief coaching career, he will take on that responsibility with the Eagles.

    In a statement to the Eagles website, Sirianni said he was “thrilled” to add Mannion to the staff.

    “My goal throughout this process was to operate with an open mind regarding the future of our offense to find the best fit for the Eagles,” Sirianni said. “Over the last few weeks, I had an opportunity to meet with a number of talented candidates and great offensive minds. I am appreciative of the time I was able to spend with each of them. Some came with years of experience running an offense and calling plays. Others were young, sharp, and dynamic coaches on the rise. I felt it was important to be patient and thorough to allow the right fit to reveal himself to us. Sean did just that.

    “It was quickly apparent in meeting with Sean that he is a bright young coach with a tremendous future ahead of him in this league. I was impressed by his systematic views on offensive football and his strategic approach. Sean’s 11 years in the NFL have provided him a great opportunity to learn from and grow alongside some of the best coaches in the game. As a result, he has a wealth of knowledge and experience that will be invaluable to our team moving forward. I can’t wait to see Sean with our team, and I want to welcome him and his wife, Megan, to the Eagles family.”

    The hiring of Mannion comes after a two-week interview process to fill the vacancy left by Patullo, whose one-year stint as the offensive coordinator ended on Jan. 13. The Eagles reportedly interviewed more than a dozen candidates, with at least four of them landing second interviews, including Mannion, Jim Bob Cooter, Josh Grizzard, and Jerrod Johnson.

    Sean Mannion (14) counted the Vikings among his playing stops.

    Mannion began his NFL playing career when he was drafted by the St. Louis Rams as the No. 89 overall pick in the third round of the 2015 draft out of Oregon State. He also had playing stints with the Minnesota Vikings (2019-21 and 2023) and the Seattle Seahawks (2021-23).

    In addition to working with LaFleur, Mannion has been coached by members of the Kyle Shanahan tree, including current NFL head coaches Sean McVay of the Rams, Kevin O’Connell of the Vikings, and Zac Taylor of the Bengals, among others.

    Over the last two seasons in Green Bay, Mannion has worked with quarterbacks Jordan Love and Malik Willis. His development of Willis is particularly notable, as the 26-year-old quarterback went from being a disappointment with the Tennessee Titans to a more-than-capable backup and spot starter with the Packers. Willis went 30-for-35 for 422 yards (85.7%) and three touchdowns (no interceptions) in four games (one start) with the Packers in 2025.

    Mannion will be tasked with refreshing an Eagles offense that floundered just one season removed from their Super Bowl win. With Patullo at the helm, the Eagles ranked 19th in the league in scoring, 24th in total yards, and 13th in expected points added per play, which measures the average points added by the offense on each play.

    The addition of Mannion could particularly stand to benefit Jalen Hurts given the new offensive coordinator’s history playing the position. While Mannion started just three games in his NFL career (14 total appearances), he played in 47 games over four seasons at Oregon State and set nearly every school passing record. His 13,600 career passing yards rank in the top 20 in FBS history.

    This isn’t the first time the Eagles have hired a former Packers quarterbacks coach to a prominent role on staff. In 1999, the Eagles tapped 40-year-old Packers quarterbacks coach Andy Reid as their head coach, a post he held for 14 years. Like Mannion, Reid did not have play-calling reps, although he had much more coaching experience.

  • Basketball star Paige Bueckers is not afraid to use the platform her fame has given her

    Basketball star Paige Bueckers is not afraid to use the platform her fame has given her

    Paige Bueckers has lived in a big spotlight since her senior year of high school. It, understandably, hasn’t always been easy, but she is pretty comfortable with it these days.

    She also is comfortable using her fame as a platform, and she has done so again.

    The 24-year-old grew up in Hopkins, Minn., about 10 miles southwest of downtown Minneapolis. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s recent swarming of the Twin Cities, from raiding homes and business to the killings by ICE officers of Renee Nicole Good and Alex Pretti, hit especially close to home for her.

    On Friday night, Bueckers will be in another big spotlight, in a city that has paid much attention to ICE’s actions. The Unrivaled basketball showcase will have a sellout crowd at Xfinity Mobile Arena and another national TV audience watching from home.

    “Innocent lives are being taken; innocent families are being broken apart,” Bueckers said Thursday amid the four touring teams’ practices at the Alan Horwitz Sixth Man Center. “People are afraid to send their children to school, people are afraid to go to work and provide for their family, people are afraid to go to the grocery store. What’s going on is not OK, and at some point — we feel like, and we hope and we pray, that there’s a change in direction in where this is heading.”

    All of Unrivaled’s games this season except Friday’s are played in Medley, Fla., just outside Miami, with the season running from early January to early March. That has kept Bueckers away from participating in protests at home, which she said she would do if she could.

    What is Unrivaled, which kicks off its tour in Philly Friday night, and how is it different from the WNBA?

    “I’m very proud to be from Minnesota, and to see the community come together and show strength and unity and try to do everything possible to stay together through this really tough time,” she said. “That’s kind of what Minnesota is all about. So it’s tough, just being from there and not being able to go there and help and [have] feet on land, but you try to do everything from afar to support.”

    In the meantime, Bueckers has put her money where her mouth is.

    Paige Bueckers getting some shots up:

    [image or embed]

    — Jonathan Tannenwald (@jtannenwald.bsky.social) January 29, 2026 at 11:37 AM

    At the start of the week, she won Unrivaled’s $50,000 prize for having the best free-throw shooting percentage through the three-on-three league’s first five games of this season. Soon after that, she put the same sum on the table as a donation match to the Hopkins Strong Relief Fund.

    The fund describes itself as “an ongoing drive to help feed Hopkins children and meet other urgent needs during this time of heightened stress and uncertainty in our community.”

    Here’s why Unrivaled picked Philadelphia to be the first stop on its nationwide tour

    ‘We have this platform to say things’

    Bueckers, who also plays for the WNBA’s Dallas Wings, spoke resolutely about the importance of leveraging her fame.

    “I feel like I’ve been very blessed and fortunate,” she said, “and God has given me this platform to speak out on things that are important to me and use my platform for good. And whether that be donations or just speaking out or standing up for what I think is right, I think that’s very important.”

    Paige Bueckers (5) in action with the Dallas Wings last year.

    She also was ready for a response she has seen often across society.

    “As athletes, it can be so easy for people to say, ‘Just play your sport. Don’t worry about politics; don’t worry about all of life’s issues,’” Bueckers said. “But I think as somebody who’s in the entertainment business, and we get this platform, and we have this platform to say things, I think it’s important for us to use our voice and stand up for what we believe in.”

    Philly has long been a special place for tennis legend Billie Jean King. And she wants to see the WNBA succeed here.

    Fellow superstar Breanna Stewart of Mist BC and the New York Liberty made a major statement Sunday when she held up a handwritten “ABOLISH ICE” sign during that day’s player introductions.

    “All day yesterday, I was just disgusted from everything that you see on Instagram and in the news,” Stewart said afterward. “Everyone here [at Unrivaled] is feeling that way, one way or another. … We’re so fueled by hate right now instead of love, so I wanted to have a simple message of ‘ABOLISH ICE,’ which means having policies to uplift families and communities instead of fueling fear and violence.”

    Another Minnesota native playing in Unrivaled, the Lunar Owls’ Rachel Banham, added her voice on Thursday.

    “There’s a lot of things that need to, on a deeper level, be fixed, right?” said Banham, who also plays for the Chicago Sky. “I think the biggest thing that we can control — I mean, obviously, use your voice, continue to pray, continue to be there for people who need it. Lend a helping hand, if you can, because a lot of us have that privilege to be able to do that.”

    She also acknowledged the scale of the current task.

    “It’s going to be something that’s going to be [from] higher up, right?” Banham said of finding a solution. “It’s come from the top, government-wise.”

    Bueckers did not say whether she’ll do something specific at Friday’s games. But she praised the WNBA’s tradition of player activism for “having always inspired me in that way.” She also spoke of her own history having “grown up, and I’ve seen, and I’ve been a part of, peaceful marches and protests and the community coming together just because of tragic events.”

    She added that the Unrivaled player group has “talked about” doing something collectively, and “we want to do something to stand up for [it].”

  • The FBI raid in Georgia highlights Trump’s obsession with the 2020 election and hints at possible future actions

    The FBI raid in Georgia highlights Trump’s obsession with the 2020 election and hints at possible future actions

    DENVER — Donald Trump lost his bid for reelection in 2020. But for more than five years, he’s been trying to convince Americans the opposite is true by falsely saying the election was marred by widespread fraud.

    Now that he’s president again, Trump is pushing the federal government to back up those bogus claims.

    On Wednesday, the FBI served a search warrant at the election headquarters of Fulton County, Ga., which includes most of Atlanta, seeking ballots from the 2020 election. That follows Trump’s comments earlier this month when he suggested during a speech at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, that charges related to the election were imminent.

    “The man has obsessions, as do a fair number of people, but he’s the only one who has the full power of the United States behind him,” said Rick Hasen, a UCLA law professor.

    Search warrant FBI served at elections office near Atlanta seeks records tied to the 2020 elections

    Hasen and many others noted that Trump’s use of the FBI to pursue his obsession with the 2020 election is part of a pattern of the president transforming the federal government into his personal tool of vengeance.

    Sen. Jon Ossoff, a Georgia Democrat, compared the search to the Minnesota immigration crackdown that has killed two U.S. citizen protesters, launched by Trump as his latest blow against the state’s governor, who ran against him as Vice President Kamala Harris’ running mate in 2024.

    “From Minnesota to Georgia, on display to the whole world, is a President spiraling out of control, wielding federal law enforcement as an unaccountable instrument of personal power and revenge,” Ossoff said in a statement.

    It also comes as election officials across the country are starting to rev up for the 2026 midterms, where Trump is struggling to help his party maintain its control of Congress. Noting that, in 2020, Trump contemplated using the military to seize voting machines after his loss, some worry he’s laying the groundwork for a similar maneuver in the fall.

    “Georgia’s a blueprint,” said Kristin Nabers of the left-leaning group All Voting Is Local. “If they can get away with taking election materials here, what’s to stop them from taking election materials or machines from some other state after they lose?”

    Georgia has been at the heart of Trump’s 2020 obsession. He infamously called Republican Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger on Jan. 2, 2021, asking that Raffensperger “find” 11,780 more votes for Trump so he could be declared the winner of the state. Raffensperger refused, noting that repeated reviews confirmed Democrat Joe Biden had narrowly won Georgia.

    Those were part of a series of reviews in battleground states, often led by Republicans, that affirmed Biden’s win, including in Michigan, Wisconsin and Nevada. Trump also lost dozens of court cases challenging the election results and his own attorney general at the time said there was no evidence of widespread fraud.

    His allies who repeated his lies have been successfully sued for defamation. That includes former New York Mayor Rudolph Giuliani, who settled with two Georgia election workers after a court ruled he owed them $148 million for defaming them after the 2020 election.

    Voting machine companies also have brought defamation cases against some conservative-leaning news sites that aired unsubstantiated claims about their equipment being linked to fraud in 2020. Fox News settled one such case by agreeing to pay $787 million after the judge ruled it was “CRYSTAL clear” that none of the allegations were true.

    Trump’s campaign to move Georgia into his column also sparked an ill-fated attempt to prosecute him and some of his allies by Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis, a Democrat. The case collapsed after Willis was removed over conflict-of-interest concerns, and Trump has since sought damages from the office.

    On his first day in office, Trump rewarded some of those who helped him try to overturn the 2020 election results by pardoning, commuting or vowing to dismiss the cases of about 1,500 people charged in the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol. He later signed an executive order trying to set new rules for state election systems and voting procedures, although that has been repeatedly blocked by judges who have ruled that the Constitution gives states, and in some instances Congress, control of elections rather than the president.

    As part of his campaign of retribution, Trump also has spoken about wanting to criminally charge lawmakers who sat on the House committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack, suggesting protective pardons of them from Biden are legally invalid. He’s targeted a former cybersecurity appointee who assured the public in 2020 that the election was secure.

    During a year of presidential duties, from dealing with wars in Gaza and Ukraine to shepherding sweeping tax and spending legislation through Congress, Trump has reliably found time to turn the subject to 2020. He has falsely called the election rigged, said Democrats cheated and even installed a White House plaque claiming Biden took office after “the most corrupt election ever.”

    David Becker, a former Department of Justice voting rights attorney and executive director of The Center for Election Innovation & Research, said he was skeptical the FBI search in Georgia would lead to any successful prosecutions. Trump has demanded charges against several enemies such as former FBI Director James Comey and New York’s Democratic Attorney General, Letitia James, that have stalled in court.

    “So much this administration has done is to make claims in social media rather than go to court,” Becker said. “I suspect this is more about poisoning the well for 2026.”

  • Di Bruno Bros. to close three of its five gourmet markets

    Di Bruno Bros. to close three of its five gourmet markets

    Three of the five Di Bruno Bros. locations will close in the coming weeks, the specialty grocery chain’s owner confirmed to The Inquirer.

    Maureen Gillespie, a spokesperson for Wakefern Food Corp., the New Jersey-based supermarket cooperative that acquired the Di Bruno’s brand in 2024, said closing dates were not available.

    Employees at the Ardmore Farmer’s Market location, which opened in 2011 at Suburban Square, said they were told that its last day would be Feb. 4. Staff at the locations in Wayne, which opened in 2021 in Strafford Shopping Center, and at the Franklin Residences on Ninth Street in Center City, which opened in 2013, said they were notified Wednesday that those stores would shut down Feb. 11.

    Di Bruno’s original location on Ninth Street in South Philadelphia and the two-level store at 18th and Chestnut Streets will remain.

    In a statement, Gillespie said the company was “refocusing” Di Bruno’s market strategy on “the heart of the brand”: its Italian Market and Rittenhouse locations and “growing online business.” Concentrating on the two flagship stores and online business will be “a positive reset that allows us to preserve and elevate the in‑store tradition while growing the brand’s reach in meaningful new ways,” Gillespie said.

    Jobs will be offered to every retail employee, said a Sandy Brown, executive vice president of Di Bruno’s parent company, Brown’s Super Stores, the regional grocery chain founded by her husband. The news follows this week’s announcement that Amazon Fresh stores would close, putting about 1,000 people out of work at the six Philadelphia-area stores.

    The three affected stores share the same core Di Bruno’s DNA: cheese, charcuterie, and specialty groceries. The Ardmore Farmer’s Market location is the most “grab-and-go”: a compact counter where bagels and schmear, coffee, and quick bites sit alongside the cheese-and-cured-meat staples. Wayne is more of a full-on neighborhood market with the familiar cheese and charcuterie counters plus a cafe, Roman-style pizza, and an on-site bar for wines and small plates. The outpost at the Franklin, 834 Chestnut St., is the most Center City-practical and office-friendly. It has a coffee bar, sandwich shop, and petite bottle shop — suitable for lunch runs, last-minute gifts, and commuter provisions.

    The five Di Bruno’s stores were acquired in April 2024 by corporate entities controlled by Brown’s Super Stores. Six months later, Wakefern acquired the Di Bruno’s trademark and branded products.

    At the time, Wakefern said it expected to grow the Di Bruno brand and take it “to the next level.” In December 2024, Brown’s Super Stores said it planned to open an additional 12 to 15 Di Bruno stores in the coming decade.

    Wine and cheese at Di Bruno Bros. in South Philadelphia.

    Di Bruno’s is a unit of Wakefern, whose 45 member companies own and operate more than 380 retail supermarkets. The company generated $20.7 billion in retail sales during the 2025 fiscal year, a 3.1% increase over the prior year.

    The 2024 acquisition of Di Bruno Bros. turned heads in the grocery world, as the Brown family supermarkets like ShopRite and the Fresh Grocer operate in a considerably different fashion than Di Bruno’s specialty model.

    Italian immigrant brothers Danny and Joe Di Bruno opened the first Di Bruno’s store in Philadelphia’s Italian Market in 1939. The grandsons and nephews of the founders took over in 1990 and grew the brand. In 2005, the cousins opened the first store outside South Philadelphia at 18th and Chestnut Streets.

    Clarification: A comment from Sandy Brown, executive vice president of Brown’s Super Stores, was added to this article after publication to explain that affected Di Bruno’s employees would be offered other jobs.

  • Montgomery County family awarded $7.8M verdict in Bloomsburg U hazing death

    Montgomery County family awarded $7.8M verdict in Bloomsburg U hazing death

    A Luzerne County jury on Wednesday awarded a $7.8 million verdict to the family of Justin King, a Montgomery County resident and Bloomsburg University student who died in a 2019 fall after a night of drinking at a fraternity rush party.

    The fraternity, Kappa Sigma, and dozens of individual defendants previously reached confidential settlements with King’s mother, Carol King, who brought the complaint in 2021, said the family’s lawyers Helen Lawless, Benjamin Present, and Mark Fuchs of the Kline & Specter law firm.

    But the sorority, Alpha Sigma Tau, whose members’ house was used for the event, chose to go to court, and now it faces paying $3.5 million, including delay damages, the lawyers said.

    Bloomsburg U. fraternity, sorority sued in 2019 death of student from Montgomery County

    “I’m pretty happy about the verdict from the standpoint of its holding the national organization responsible for the actions of what happened,” said Carol King, of Gilbertsville in Montgomery County. “There is no bringing him back, and I will always have a hole in my heart for him. But this gets me closer to doing what I wanted to do, which is find some sort of justice for Justin.”

    The sorority in a statement said it was disappointed that it was held partially liable for King’s death.

    “We fundamentally disagree with this outcome and believe it both wrongly holds innocent parties responsible for circumstances beyond their control and establishes a deeply concerning precedent that violates settled Pennsylvania law,” Jordan Feldhaus, CEO of the sorority, said in a statement.

    The sorority is considering its legal options, Feldhaus said.

    King filed the lawsuit against the fraternity, sorority, and 36 of their members, alleging that they plied her son, then an 18-year-old freshman at Bloomsburg — now part of Commonwealth University — with liquor as part of an initiation process.

    Police investigating death of Bloomsburg student who died in September

    He was given liquor, including a mixture with vodka known as “jungle juice” or “blackout water,” participated in a “crate race” — a game involving large amounts of alcohol consumption over little time — and later fell down a 75-foot embankment, where he was found the next morning, according to the wrongful-death lawsuit. King had a .22 blood alcohol content, which is nearly three times the legal limit, his lawyers said.

    Bloomsburg was not sued.

    “They took action in this case, unlike the national sorority office,” said Lawless, one of King’s lawyers.

    Bloomsburg permanently revoked the fraternity’s recognition, and the chapter was later expelled from the campus. The sorority was suspended for four years.

    Police had not filed charges in the case, and Columbia County Coroner Jeremy Reese had ruled King’s death accidental.

    The verdict assigned 35% of the fault for the death to the sorority, 35% to the fraternity, 24% to King, and 1% each to six fraternity members, King’s lawyers said.

    That means the sorority would be responsible for $2.73 million, but the delayed damages raise that to more than $3.5 million, King’s lawyers said.

    “The jury’s award makes clear that national Greek organizations cannot turn a blind eye to rampant drinking and policy violations on college campuses,” King’s lawyers said. “It speaks volumes that the six individual fraternity members each received only 1% of the causal fault. The jury understood where the culture at Bloomsburg came from, and they understood this case was about corporate responsibility.”

    Carol King said she understood the jury’s decision to assign some of the fault to her son.

    “He was drinking,” she said.

    King had been at Bloomsburg only three weeks before attending the Sept. 13, 2019, party. He had been recruited to join the fraternity through a flier distributed in freshman dorms.

    The lawsuit contended that the defendants violated the anti-hazing law enacted after the 2017 death of Tim Piazza, a Pennsylvania State University student who died after attending a booze-fueled fraternity party where he fell down stairs.

    The sorority, according to King’s lawyers, was found liable for negligence as well as for violating the Anti-Hazing Statute.

    Since her son’s death, Carol King, a retired corporate human resources director, said she has been speaking out about hazing to raise awareness and pursuing the legal action in her son’s case.

    “It was never about the money,” she said. “It was about them taking responsibility,”