The grandson of the inventor of Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups has lashed out at the Hershey Co., accusing the candy company of hurting the Reese’s brand by shifting to cheaper ingredients in many products.
Hershey acknowledges some recipe changes but said Wednesday that it was trying to meet consumer demand for innovation. High cocoa prices also have led Hershey and other manufacturers to experiment with using less chocolate in recent years.
Brad Reese, 70, said in a Feb. 14 letter to Hershey’s corporate brand manager that for multiple Reese’s products, the company replaced milk chocolate with compound coatings and peanut butter with peanut butter creme.
“How does The Hershey Co. continue to position Reese’s as its flagship brand, a symbol of trust, quality and leadership, while quietly replacing the very ingredients (Milk Chocolate + Peanut Butter) that built Reese’s trust in the first place?” Reese wrote in the letter, which he posted on his LinkedIn profile.
He is the grandson of H.B. Reese, who spent two years at Hershey before forming his own candy company in 1919. H.B. Reese invented Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups in 1928; his six sons eventually sold his company to Hershey in 1963.
Hershey said Wednesday that Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups are made the same way they always have been, with milk chocolate and peanut butter that the company makes itself from roasted peanuts and a few other ingredients, including sugar and salt. But some Reese’s ingredients vary, Hershey said.
“As we’ve grown and expanded the Reese’s product line, we make product recipe adjustments that allow us to make new shapes, sizes and innovations that Reese’s fans have come to love and ask for, while always protecting the essence of what makes Reese’s unique and special: the perfect combination of chocolate and peanut butter,” the company said.
Brad Reese said he thinks Hershey went too far. He said he recently threw out a bag of Reese’s Mini Hearts, which were a new product released for Valentine’s Day. The packaging notes that the heart-shaped candies are made from “chocolate candy and peanut butter creme,” not milk chocolate and peanut butter.
“It was not edible,” Reese told the Associated Press in an interview. “You have to understand. I used to eat a Reese’s product every day. This is very devastating for me.”
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has strict ingredient and labeling requirements for chocolate. To be considered milk chocolate, products must contain at least 10% chocolate liquor, which is a paste made from ground cocoa beans and contains no alcohol. Products also must contain at least 12% milk solids and 3.39% milk fat.
Companies can get around those rules by using other wording on their packaging. The wrapper for Hershey’s Mr. Goodbar, for example, contains the words “chocolate candy” instead of “milk chocolate.”
Reese said Hershey changed the recipes for multiple Reese’s products in recent years. Reese’s Take5 and Fast Break bars used to be coated with milk chocolate, he said, but now they aren’t. In the early 2000’s, when Hershey released White Reese’s, they were made with white chocolate. Now they’re made with a white creme, he said.
Reese said Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups sold in Europe, the United Kingdom, and Ireland are also different than U.S. versions. On Wednesday, a package advertised on the website of British online supermarket Ocado described the candy as “milk chocolate-flavored coating and peanut butter crème.”
In a conference call with investors last year, Hershey chief financial officer Steven Voskuil said the company made some changes in its formulas. Voskuil did not say for which products but said Hershey was very careful to maintain the “taste profile and the specialness of our iconic brands.”
“I would say in all the changes that we’ve made thus far, there has been no consumer impact whatsoever. As you can imagine, even on the smallest brand in the portfolio, if we were to make a change, there’s extensive consumer testing,” he said.
But Brad Reese said he often has people tell him that Reese’s products don’t taste as good as they used to. He said Pennsylvania-based Hershey should keep in mind a famous quote from its founder, Milton Hershey: “Give them quality, that’s the best advertising.”
“I absolutely believe in innovation, but my preference is innovation with quality,” Reese said.
Every morning, Julie Parlade, a 34-year-old stylist from Springfield, wakes up and does what most millennials do. She reaches for her phone and checks her apps. Instagram, Gmail, maybe the news. Then she checks one more: Craigslist. Yes, that Craigslist. The classified advertisement website that was popular in the early aughts and 2010s. She checks it later in the day, too, pretty much whenever she has downtime. “It’s so automatic for me,” she said. “I have an obsession.”
Parlade mostly sticks to the free section, where she has scored everything from a pair of Frye boots in perfect condition to an entire set of Le Creuset cookware. Half of her house is furnished from the Craigslist free section: the clawfoot tub in the bathroom, the subway tile in the kitchen, the mid-century modern furniture in the living room.
She started using Craigslist around 2010, first for jobs and apartments, and never really stopped. Today, it’s still her go-to source for secondhand items, despite the rise of other online marketplaces like Depop and Facebook Marketplace. “Everyone uses Craigslist,” Parlade said, “so I feel like I’m able to get better things. It’s a much broader net.”
Does everyone still use Craigslist? Maybe not everyone, but more people than you might think. Despite its reputation as a digital relic, Craigslist draws more than 105 million monthly users, making it the 38th most popular website in the United States, according to internet data analytics company SimilarWeb.
And in Philadelphia , the site remains a daily resource for people seeking work, housing, materials, and other necessities. University of Pennsylvania professor Jessa Lingel, 42, who interviewed hundreds of Craigslist users in Philadelphia for her book An Internet for the People: The Politics and Promise of Craigslist, says the platform functions as a kind of parallel infrastructure to more polished platforms, particularly for people with fewer financial resources. “Craigslist still has a role to play for a lot of Philadelphians who are just trying to live their everyday lives,” Lingel said.
Access to affordability
That role shows up most clearly in the kinds of jobs and housing that still circulate through Craigslist. Lingel, who lives in North Philadelphia, said many of the users she interviewed relied on the site to find warehousing shifts, construction work, and short-term gigs paying around $20 an hour — work that rarely surfaces on platforms like LinkedIn or Indeed because “those other platforms haven’t called those folks in,” she said.
The same pattern holds for housing. Affordable apartments and private rooms for rent still appear regularly on Craigslist, posted by college students seeking temporary roommates or by landlords unwilling to pay higher listing fees. As one of Lingel’s interviewees put it, the cheap housing is on Craigslist, not Redfin. He called Craigslist the “poor people’s internet,” Lingel said.
Craigslist does not release detailed user data, so there’s no way to know how many Philadelphians still rely on the site. But, said Lingel, given that Philadelphia is the second-poorest big city in the country, it would not be surprising if “the poor people’s internet” remained especially relevant here. “Craigslist is gritty,” Lingel said, “and so is Philly.”
Privacy protection and net nostalgia
For some Philadelphians, the appeal of Craigslist isn’t affordability so much as how little of themselves it asks for in return. Unlike newer marketplaces that tether buying and selling to social profiles, Craigslist allows users to remain largely invisible — no profile photos, no friend networks, no algorithm stitching transactions back to a personal identity.
It harkens back to a simpler time on the internet, and, according to Lingel, holds special appeal for young tech skeptics who “are more ideologically attached to Craigslist.” .
“The comparison that I think of is children of the ’80s going to ’50s- themed diners and getting really into Lindy Hop. It’s like, ‘Oh, this is a vision of the internet that I want to have experienced but have not.”
That simplicity is precisely what draws people like Raquel Glassman, a cofounder of a local kombucha company from Port Richmond, who mostly uses Craigslist to give things away. When she’s decluttering, she’ll box up items, leave them on the sidewalk with a handwritten “free” sign, snap a photo, and post it online. “It’s always gone within the day,” she said.
If Glassman, 31, is going to sell an item, she likes that she can do it anonymously on Craigslist. Facebook Marketplace is more efficient, she says, but it’s not a great place to go if you don’t want your aunt to know that you’re getting rid of the “ugly lamp” she gave you. “She’ll see it on my Facebook because we’re friends,” said Glassman. “You put that on Craigslist if you want to sell that.”
IRL effects
But the funny thing about Craigslist is that while it lets you be a stranger online, it forces you to be your full self in real life, and some people prefer that. According to Lingel, hobbyists such as musicians and car enthusiasts are among the most active Craigslist users.
Indeed, two of the most popular “For Sale” subcategories on Philly Craigslist are auto parts and instruments — both of which benefit from face-to-face transactions. They allow sellers to avoid shipping costs and allow buyers to inspect their purchases. As Michael Lesco, a 33-year-old musician and marijuana dispensary manager said, “If I’m going to put $300 into something, I want to meet you in person and put the money in your hand.”
Like Parlade, Lesco also makes good use of Craigslist’s free section. Last summer, he used it to get mulch and brick for the garden he was building in the abandoned lot next to his house in West Philly. The project could’ve easily cost $5,000. Instead, he and his wife did it for less than the cost of their West Philly Tool Library membership. “We could not have done it without Craigslist,” Lesco said.
Parlade’s most recent Craigslist score was also construction-related: free drywall from a contractor. “We’re going to use it to fix my dad’s house,” she said. Craigslist, she added, is “almost like a service.”
When the Media-area NAACP was selecting a few Black figures to spotlight throughout Black History Month, adding Marie Whitaker to the list was a no-brainer, said Cynthia Jetter, president of Media’s NAACP chapter.
Within the community, “I think most people know the story,” Jetter said.
The story, that is, of when Whitaker sat down for a meal at the Tower Restaurant at the corner of State and Olive Streets with her baby in her arms and her sister by her side in 1943.
No one waited on them.
This bothered Dorothy James, a white Quaker woman who was dining at the restaurant. So she approached a worker there who explained that the waitresses did not serve Black people,James recounted in a letter she wrote a few days after the incident.
Whitaker soon left the restaurant with her baby and sister and went elsewhere. Soon, James joined them, she wrote.
Whitaker and James became fast friends and cofounded Media Fellowship House the following year. The goal was to bring together Media residents of all races and religions for events and meals. It grew over the course of its first decade, and in 1953, they raised enough money from community members to buy a property on South Jackson Street, where the organization flourished.
Whitaker died in 2002, but the fellowship house lived on. In its 82 years, it has gone from hosting sewing circles and childcare events to helping Black people buy homes in restricted neighborhoods to now offering assistance to first-time homebuyers and helping those facing foreclosure.
For Amy Komarnicki, who now runs the Media Fellowship House, the values Whitaker championed — inclusion, resilience, and courage — are always guiding her.
“I think you have to move toward the injustice that you see and not ignore it,” Komarnickisaid.
That is especially difficult to do when you’re on the receiving end of the injustice, she added.
“Being willing to accept an invitation to talk about it takes enormous bravery and trust,” Komarnickisaid. “It’s good to be uncomfortable. It’s good to make people uncomfortable for the greater good. It opens up space for dialogue.”
Living in Media and going to Fellowship House growing up exposed him to people from all kinds of demographics and religions, Bill Whitakersaid. And that was no accident; it was something his mother and Fellowship House helped lay the groundwork for.
“She was resolute and knew what she wanted, not just for her family, but for her community and for her world,” Whitaker said. “She had a vision of what Fellowship House stands for, bringing people together and having people speak across what seems now to be a chasm of our differences — she wanted people to speak across that, to reach across that and come together.”
As long as Fellowship House stands, that work, just as important now as then, will continue, Bill Whitaker said.
CLEARWATER, Fla. — The fastest man in the National League in 2015 still wears the crown, which seems impossible until Trea Turner shares his secret.
“I pay attention to a lot of little things,” the Phillies‘ star shortstop said Wednesday, “that maybe other guys don’t.”
OK, such as?
“Things that happen to all of us all the time,” Turner said. “I walk down my stairs and I’m like, ‘Oh, my knee’s kind of feeling weird today,’ or I wake up and sleep wrong. Then, I’ll get to the field and ask questions in the training room.
“Sometimes it might be annoying, where I just keep asking questions. But when something bothers me, I try to find out why so that, if it does happen again, I get rid of it real quick.
“Like I said, I pay attention more than probably other guys.”
And that, Turner said, explains how he hasn’t lost a step 10 years into his major league career. If anything, he may be a tick faster. As a 23-year-old rookie with the Nationals in 2016, he averaged 30 feet per second, according to Statcast. Last season, at age 32, he averaged 30.3.
Turner also led the majors last year with 117 bolts, defined by Statcast as any run above 30 feet per second. The only other player with more than 100 bolts: Royals 25-year-old star shortstop Bobby Witt Jr.
It’s as uncommon as it sounds. Of the 28 fastest players in baseball last season based on sprint speed, only three — Turner, Twins center fielder Byron Buxton, and Braves utility man Eli White — were in their 30s.
“I still feel young,” said Turner, who will turn 33 on June 30. “I don’t feel as old as I am, which, I don’t think I’m old. But I don’t feel as old as I am. Hopefully I can continue that for a while.”
As always, it will hinge on health. Turner did miss time in each of the last two seasons with hamstring strains. Ever curious, he sought the root of each injury. He believes last year’s injury, a mild strain of his right hamstring while running to first base Sept. 7 in Miami, was caused by dehydration.
Through the years, Turner has changed his nutritional habits. He cut out soda several years ago. He eats more carefully now, taking cues from Bryce Harper, Aaron Nola, and other teammates.
“Genetics, I’d say, is a big part of it,” said Brett Austin, Turner’s college teammate and close friend. “But I think his offseason program really allows him to optimize and maintain his speed.”
Indeed, the biggest reason Turner has remained in the fast lane is a training routine that he has followed since he was a teenager.
In high school, he met Ed Smith, a physical therapist and strength coach who worked with major leaguers at a facility in Wellington, Fla., near Turner’s hometown. Back then, Turner was 5-foot-4 and bony. He was taller but still skinny when he arrived on campus at North Carolina State, where coach Elliot Avent nicknamed him “Seabiscuit” after the famously undersized champion racehorse.
A training routine he has followed since he was a teenager has allowed Trea Turner to remain one of the game’s fastest players at age 32.
As a freshman, Turner led the nation with 57 stolen bases. But when he went home after the season, he asked Smith to help improve his running form.
“He hated the weight room. Hated it,” Austin said. “I’d go, ‘Dude, you need to get big. You need to get strong.’ He was like, ‘I don’t want to lose my speed.’ And he would go see Ed and do his explosion drills, his speed and agility, his laterals.
“They still work together every offseason. If I had to guess, that’s just allowed him to have the longevity and maintain his speed.”
Turner works out with Smith multiple times per week in the winter. During the season, he speaks by phone with Smith at least monthly and texts him more often with questions. He takes feedback from Smith and shares it with the Phillies’ staff, notably athletic trainer Paul Buchheit and strength coaches Morgan Gregory and Furey Leva.
Because as much pride as Turner takes in still being faster than most players, he focuses more on maintaining that speed. Since making his major-league debut, his average sprint speed has ranged from 30.6 feet per second in 2015 and 2021 to 29.6 in 2024. Only once has he not finished among the six fastest players in baseball.
“Some guys are fast for a year or two years, and then an injury pops up and they might not be the same again,” Turner said. “I don’t want that to happen. I’ve tried to become a complete player, so if I ever lose my speed, I want to be able to contribute. But it also would change who I am.
“If I lose a step, I lose a step. That’s OK. But if I’m running at 29 feet per second instead of 30, I can still impact the game. That’s still moving. But you’ve got to run correctly to do that.”
Shortstop Trea Turner, who will be 33 in June, enters his fourth season with the Phillies.
Turner will be challenged to remain in the pole position for the Phillies. Rookie center fielder Justin Crawford, 22, is a burner, with a top recorded speed of 31.1 feet per second in triple A last season. Johan Rojas, a candidate to make the team as a reserve outfielder, averaged 30.1 feet per second over the last two seasons.
But the fastest man in the league in 2015 was still at the top of the leader board in 2025, with no sign of slowing down.
“I’ve seen the numbers, and I’m proud of them,” Turner said. “Because when you look at those charts, you don’t see many 30-year-olds. And even if you do, it’s really low volume. I think it’s pretty cool. I take pride in it, and I think it’s cool for the people around me that help me do it. It’s something they should be proud of, too.”
Price: $38,809 as tested. Black dual exhaust added $1,700; Performance Package, $1,500; fancy paint, $475; floor mats, $299.
What others are saying: “Highs: Genuinely rewarding to drive, one of the last manuals available, remarkably affordable. Lows: Noisy cabin on the interstate, we dare you to sit in the back, unexciting exhaust note,” says Car and Driver.
What Toyota is saying: “Level up your drive.”
Reality: Even funner, ‘til you get on the highway.
What’s new: The GR86 gets a new Yuzu Edition for 2026, with yellow paint and black seats. Otherwise it’s pretty much as before, since its redesign in 2022.
Up to speed: The 2.4-liter four-cylinder engine makes 228 horsepower and gets the little sports car to 60 mph in 5.4 seconds, says Car and Driver, and I believe it. I’d think it’s a little faster, but we’ll stick with the facts.
It’s truly a sporty car to drive. It’s fine for passing on Interstate highways and such but it’s really at home on the back roads, racing up hills and back down again.
Shifty: You can get a GR86 with a stick, but Mr. Driver’s Seat didn’t. The six-speed automatic transmission is a nice facsimile, with Park up in the right corner so it looks like it COULD be a stick. I actually spent a couple seconds looking for a clutch until I realized there wasn’t one.
The shifter then snakes through Reverse and Neutral to get to Drive, another bit of stick-shift cosplay.
The manual setting works nicely, and really makes the little car even that much more fun. Use the lever to augment the engine’s power for any country road antics and you’ll feel nicely rewarded.
On the road: Did someone say fun? The rear-drive GR86 has plenty of it, snaking through turns and sliding around corners even at fairly low speeds, so you can feel like it’s a blast even when not going much beyond 40 or 45 mph — although faster is funner.
Less fun is the time spent on the highway; I found myself getting a bit of a headache during half-hour trips on Route 202 between King of Prussia and West Chester.
Off the road, the GR86 is great companion for tight parking lots, thanks to a turning radius of 35 feet and change.
The interior of the Toyota GR86 is snug and retro fun, unless you’re sat in the back. Then it’s snug, retro, and not at all fun.
Driver’s seat: The cloth seats offer great support and are comfortable enough. They feel firm and a little crowded, so some people might not appreciate the big wings. The Lovely Mrs. Passenger Seat found them as nice as I did.
The manual controls adjust height, fore-aft, and backrest simply.
The gauges and steering wheel controls are old-fashioned, looking like last-gen Lexus dials, but I call old-fashioned a good thing these days.
Friends and stuff: There’s a rear seat but it’s pretty cruel. Guests would have been harmed in the making of this review.
I finally build up the nerve to try it out on Day 6. The ceiling is so low that I had to cant my head to the side. Foot room and legroom look impossible, but I could actually get my legs in there by setting the front seat a few notches up from normal. But when I did that and tried out the front, my legs were more cramped than on a Frontier flight.
I would say only put kids in the back. Or maybe kid, singular.
Cargo space is 6.26 cubic feet. (I didn’t round it because you’ll need every .01 cube.) The seat folds (all in one complicated-to-open piece) to create more luggage space.
In and out: In and ouch. It’s way down there and requires a bit of undignified squatting, twisting, ducking, and scooching.
Play some tunes: Sad. Tinny. Sound gets a C grade, probably one of the lowest I’ve ever assigned.
Last-gen controls. You definitely won’t be distracted playing around with the touchscreen, though there is one, because it’s 2026 and I think it’s law now or something.
Keeping warm and cool: The heater controls feature dials for temperature and fan speed and buttons inside the dials for blower choice. It’s such a small car that it runs hot; the seat heaters offer nice support when it’s not too cold out, but the switches are awkwardly built into the armrest.
Fuel economy: I averaged about 26 mpg in spirited drives around Chester County’s old country roads every chance I could get. I would actually park and wait for certain roads to clear and then go make the most of the exhaust note. I guess the dual exhausts are worth $1,700.
Where it’s built: Ota, Gunma, Japan
How it’s built: Consumer Reports predicts the GR86 reliability is a 4 out of 5.
In the end: Definitely lots of joy to be had here, and I could get behind buying a GR86. But with the Mini Cooper and Volkswagen GTI, you get fun and some practicality as well, plus the delight doesn’t diminish at highway speeds.
At least 1,100 dead or sick birds, mostly Canada geese, have been reported across New Jersey in an outbreak that started on Valentine’s Day, according to state officials.
At least 50 geese have died at Alcyon Lake in Pitman, Gloucester County. Officials have closed the lake and the adjoining Betty Park out of precaution.
The fish and wildlife division within the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) and the U.S. Department of Agriculture are tracking them as suspected cases of highly pathogenic avian influenza (H5N1), or bird flu.
Bird flu is not new. But it began to spread in the U.S. in January 2022 and has infected wild and domestic birds in every state.
While bird flu can infect humans, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has said it is primarily a threat to animals and poses little risk to the public.
State officials say large numbers of dead geesemay be concentrated in areas where birds gather to look for open water as ice melts. They said that the 1,100 dead or sick wild birds were reported between Saturday and Monday.
Where have dead geese been found?
The DEP says it has received reports of dead Canada geese in South Jersey, including in Hainesport, Burlington County; Sicklerville, Camden County; and Pitman.
Annmarie Ruiz, Gloucester County’s health officer, said the dead geese were noticed in Pitman on Tuesday. She said that there were probably more than 50 at Alcyon Lake, but that there were reportsof dead geese elsewhere in the municipality.
“Right now, we have to presume that it is bird flu based on the signs the birds were exhibiting,” Ruiz said.
The New Jersey Department of Agriculture took some of the birds for testing. The results could take weeks, she said.
“Right now, we’re just erring on the side of caution,” Ruiz said.
Ruiz said workers use face shields and gloves when handling the birds, which are triple-bagged before being disposed.
She said people can report sick or dead wild birds to Gloucester County animal control at 856-881-2828 or the DEP at 877-927-6337.
A lifeless bird lays on the ice at Alcyon Lake in Pitman, N.J. on Wednesday, Feb. 18, 2026. Two adjacent parks, Betty Park (in background) and Alcyon Park (not in photo) are closed as a result of the mysterious birds deaths.
Caryelle Lasher, Camden County’s health officer, said there have been only a small number of reports of dead birds in the county.
Those were concentrated in the lake off Mullen Drive in the Sicklerville section of Gloucester Township, she said.
Overall, however, the county has not seen a spike in reports, she said.
Ruizand Lasher — as well as state officials — stress that people should not touch sick or dead wildlife of any kind. And they should keep pets away.
Even though the risk is low, the potential for human infection exists.
H5N1 is a respiratory bird disease caused by influenza A viruses. Wild birds, such as ducks, gulls, and shorebirds, can carry and spread these viruses but may show no signs of illness, according to the DEP.
The disease can kill domestic poultry such as chickens. Typical symptoms include diarrhea, nasal discharge, coughing, sneezing, and incoordination.
It continues to infect not only birds, but also mammals.
Tips to prevent infection:
Do not touch sick or dying animals, or bring them into your home.
Keep pets away from them, as well as away from droppings.
Wash hands frequently if you are near wildlife.
Do not eat undercooked eggs, poultry, or beef.
Prevent cross-contamination between cooked and raw food.
Philadelphia is a happening place. No, I’m not referring to the winning sports teams or the great restaurants. I’m talking about the economy. For the first time in generations, Philadelphia’s economy is among the nation’s strongest.
Among the 25 largest metropolitan areas in the country with populations of more than 3 million, Philly enjoyed the strongest job growth last year. Soak that in for a second. Our hometown’s economy grew faster than those of high-flying cities such as Atlanta, Dallas, Denver, and Phoenix.
To be transparent, Philadelphia’s economy looks good, in part, because the nation’s economy is struggling to create jobs. Since so-called Liberation Day in April, when President Donald Trump announced massive tariffs on all our trading partners, many nervous businesses stopped hiring, and job growth has come to a standstill.
Some industries are actually suffering serious job losses, especially those on the front lines of the global trade war, including manufacturing, agriculture, transportation, and distribution. These are big industries in many parts of the South and Midwest, but not in Philadelphia.
Federal government jobs have also been hit hard by the Trump administration’s workforce cuts, which began soon after he took office a year ago. Of course, the broader Washington, D.C., area has struggled with these job losses. These positions were also important to many communities across the country, but less so in Philadelphia.
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Eds and meds
In fact, Philadelphia’s economy is fortunate to be powered by education and healthcare — eds and meds — the only industries consistently adding to payrolls nationwide. The largest employers in the region are world-class institutions of higher education and healthcare providers, including the University of Pennsylvania, Thomas Jefferson University, the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, and Temple University.
Employers in eds and meds are especially attractive, as demand for the services they provide is fueled by the insatiable need for highly educated workers in the age of artificial intelligence, and the inexorable aging of the population. Baby boomers have aged into their 60s and 70s and will require high-quality healthcare for years to come. And since healthcare is largely delivered in person, it is less vulnerable to losing jobs to AI.
These large institutions employ workers of all skill levels. There are highly trained physicians, nurses, and researchers, as well as middle-skilled technicians and administrators, and lesser-skilled maintenance workers. An entire economy can be built on eds and meds, and that’s Philadelphia.
The Philadelphia region also has the good fortune of being home to successful companies across a diverse range of industries. Examples include the media giant Comcast, the financial services powerhouse Vanguard, the global software company SAP, and the technology giant Siemens.
Cost of living
It isn’t cheap to live and work in Philadelphia, but it is highly affordable when compared to neighboring New York and D.C. For example, the typical-priced home in Philadelphia costs about $400,000, which is almost four times the typical household income. In D.C., houses typically cost close to $600,000, or 5.5 times income, and New York house prices exceed $1 million, or 10 times income.
I could go on, but I’m beginning to sound like a Chamber of Commerce, and Philadelphia certainly has big challenges. The nation’s universities and research centers are facing large budget cuts and heightened federal scrutiny. This is a huge shift from the financial largess from D.C. they’ve come to rely on.
Challenges and what’s ahead
Poverty and all the attendant social ills, like crime and drug use, are also long-standing problems in the city. Although the poverty rate has dipped a bit recently, close to one-fifth of the city’s residents live below the poverty line, a disturbing stat. Of the nation’s big cities, only Houston has a higher rate.
The high poverty rate is the result of a complicated brew of factors, but the severe shortage of rental housing for lower- and middle-income residents is one of them. Putting up more homes is a priority for the city’s mayor, and with good reason.
The city’s high wage tax remains a barrier to even stronger growth. It is encouraging that it has declined since peaking more than 40 years ago, but it remains prohibitively high, hindering the city’s efforts to attract workers back into its office towers. The lower-taxed suburban Pennsylvania counties are the key beneficiaries.
It won’t be easy for Philadelphia to consistently remain among the nation’s best-performing economies. We need to support our institutions of higher education and healthcare, work to address poverty, and make it more affordable to live and work here. If we do, we have a good chance of always being in the mix. Kind of like our Eagles.
As we’re past the “what-if” stage of the 2025-26 NFL season, we move into the questions phase, specifically with the NFL scouting combine starting on Monday.
These questions circle less around the top prospects (though they’re in there), but more so around decisions that were made or are yet to be made this offseason by the Eagles.
What was it about Sean Mannion that made him the top choice to lead the Eagles’ offense?
Will A.J. Brown be back in midnight green (or the occasional Kelly green)?
These are a few questions that kick off your Thursday edition of Sports Daily, as Inquirer writer Jeff Neiburg delves into that and more in his latest story.
Speaking of Thursday, expect a carbon copy of yesterday across the region, with cloudy skies and temperatures in the mid-40s.
Shortstop Trea Turner is entering his fourth season with the Phillies.
Trea Turner hasn’t lost a step 10 years into his major league career. If anything, he may be a tick faster. As a 23-year-old rookie with the Nationals in 2016, he averaged 30 feet per second, according to Statcast. Last season, at age 32, he averaged 30.3.
Through the years, Turner has changed his nutritional habits. He cut out soda several years ago. He eats more carefully now, taking cues from Bryce Harper, Aaron Nola, and other teammates.
“Genetics, I’d say, is a big part of it,” said Brett Austin, Turner’s college teammate and close friend. “But I think his offseason program really allows him to optimize and maintain his speed.”
Indeed, the biggest reason Turner has remained in the fast lane is a training routine that he has followed since he was a teenager.
Softball masks, paddles, and tennis balls are all part of early spring workouts for Bobby Dickerson, whose drills are designed to get infielders to work on one of the game’s most basic skills.
Recently, J.T. Realmuto sat down with Inquirer Phillies writer Scott Lauber to discuss the offseason, all of the rumblings, and now that he’s secured a deal to remain in Philly, his aspirations for the season. Watch here.
What we’re …
🏟️ Sharing: The Ivory Coast has chosen the WSFS Sportsplex in Chester as its home base ahead of the 2026 FIFA World Cup.
🤔 Pondering: How long will it take to stop calling the Eagles’ training facility the NovaCare Complex after it was renamed the Jefferson Health Complex earlier this week?
🏀 Wondering: The lessons learned from a prep basketball skirmish that saw Carver Engineering & Sciences High School lose its opportunity to compete in the upcoming Public League playoffs.
⚽ Introducing: Union newcomer Agústin Anello and how choosing Philly coincided with a chance to be back on American soil.
Oliver Bonk was one of several players brought up to the Flyers’ first team for practice sessions during the Olympic break.
The Olympic break has always been a great reset for NHL teams. The Flyers are no different. Consider it a second training camp, if you will.
This week, the Flyers called up defensemen Oliver Bonk and Hunter McDonald, and goaltender Carson Bjarnason from Lehigh Valley to fill in for the players in Milan for the Winter Olympics. The coaches say having new, hungry players in practice has given the group a “new energy.”
“The guys, their spirits have been really high,” said Flyers assistant coach Todd Reirden. “Today’s practice was pretty spirited, with some competitions that we had. That, in conjunction with bringing in new players that are excited about getting an opportunity, I think, is a really great experience for everybody involved.”
So what does that mean for when the team is back at full strength? Well, that remains to be seen, but it’s definitely promising for a team looking for a spark in a push for the playoffs.
Cam Payne, who recently signed with the Sixers, said “When your focus is in the right place, things like this happen.
Cameron Payne was in the middle of a game with KK Partizan when his agent, Jason Glushon, alerted him that a return to the 76ers was in play. Payne had spent the summer waiting for the phone to ring and decided to take a deal overseas when an opportunity with the Phoenix Suns didn’t stick. But this was the moment he had waited for at that time. “You might want to pack,” Glushon told him.
Payne practiced with the Sixers on Wednesday and received praise from head coach Nick Nurse and star guard Tyrese Maxey. And while he wasn’t looking for an NBA opportunity, Payne was grateful. “I don’t know how I keep finding a way to get back,” Payne said. “But I guess the NBA’s still watching. And if you still take your game seriously and do the right things, play the right way, they’re still looking.”
Union’s Stas Korzeniowski (top center) jumps to celebrate with teammate Olwethu Makhanya after Makhanya scored a goal during the Union’s Concacaf Champions Cup game against Defence Force FC on Wednesday.
The Union opened their 2026 season with a win on Wednesday night, defeating Defence Force FC, 5-0, in the first of a two-game Concacaf Champions Cup first round series at Hasely Crawford Stadium in Port of Spain, Trinidad.
Milan Iloski, Ezekiel Alladoh, Olwethu Makhanya, and Bruno Damiani (twice) all scored in the win. Next up for the Union is the MLS season-opener at D.C. United on Saturday.
On this date
Flyers head coach Rick Tocchet was part of one of the biggest trades in Flyers history on this date, 34 years ago.
Feb. 19, 1992: The Flyers bid farewell to current head coach Rick Tocchet as a player in a monster trade with Pittsburgh that sent Mark Recchi, Kjell Samuelsson, and Ken Wregget to Philly.
Phillies slugger Bryce Harper underwent a team workout during spring training in Clearwater, Florida, earlier this week.
The best way to understand Bryce Harper is to think about all the things he can’t say. He can’t say that Alec Bohm is a seven-hole hitter at best. He can’t say that Adolis García is much closer to Nick Castellanos than he is a legitimate four- or five-hole hitter. He can’t say that J.T. Realmuto isn’t the guy he was three years ago. He can’t say that he’d swing at fewer pitches out of the zone if he had more confidence that the guys behind him would get the job done. Murphy’s latest tries to dive inside the mind of Harper in the aftermath of comments made about him by team president David Dombrowski.
What you’re saying about collectibles
We asked: Do you have a sports card or any memorabilia that is meaningful to you, and why?
In 1965, I was 6 years old and living in Hedgerow Woods, a community in Morrisville, Pa. The tough card to find that summer was the 1965 Phillies team card. It actually showed the 1964 team, the season the Phillies blew the pennant. My buddy Mark Becker and I were always looking for that card, spending our quarters at Irv’s Pharmacy in the Makefield Shopping Center on packs of cards and enjoying the sweet bubblegum that came with them. We could not find that Phillies team card though. While wandering our neighborhood, Mark and I happened to look down, and there in the gutter was the card! Actually, half the card. Someone had torn the team card in half and tossed this portion the gutter. — Rich G.
I used to live in Havertown, but that was 48 years ago. I once corresponded with him to ask him questions about something I had, but that is a distant memory. I have some autographs, and used to collect tickets, and believe I still have one from Pittsburgh, the day Mike Schmidt hit is 500th homer. “It’s outta here.” I have not looked at anything I have for a long time. Will have to do that. — Everett S.
We compiled today’s newsletter using reporting from Jeff Neiburg, Scott Lauber, Jonathan Tannenwald, David Murphy, Gabriela Carroll, Lochlahn March, Mike Sielski, and Gina Mizell.
By submitting your written, visual, and/or audio contributions, you agree to The Inquirer’s Terms of Use, including the grant of rights in Section 10.
That’s my time. As always, thanks for reading. We’ll be in your inbox for the final time this week on Friday, to get you ready for the weekend. Take care. — Kerith
The most important printing job in American history took place in Philadelphia, on the corner of Second and High Streets, on the night of July 4, 1776.
There, in the shop of John Dunlap, the Declaration of Independence was first printed and sent around the new United States. Yet today, no Pennsylvania Historical Marker commemorates the spot on Market Street where the declaration first emerged to tell the world about the birth of a new country.
On the 250th anniversary of American independence, a marker should be erected as soon as possible by the city or state.
Dunlap’s job was of the first importance. Congress, led by the Boston merchant John Hancock, knew that getting word of independence out to the rest of the colonies was critical to gaining support at home for a war that was not going well. Since the war started in Lexington and Concord up in Massachusetts in April 1775, the Americans had forced the British out of Boston, but lost ground in New York. Independence was just as crucial for trying to get arms and money from Great Britain’s adversary, France, for George Washington’s poorly equipped Continental Army.
John Dunlap’s name — along with that of John Hancock, president of the Continental Congress — appears on the oversized declarations Dunlap printed on parchment or vellum.
Sometime in the afternoon of July 4, Thomas Jefferson walked from the State House on Chestnut Street to the shop of Dunlap, a 29-year-old Irish immigrant and publisher of the Pennsylvania Packet. Jefferson handed Dunlap the original handwritten copy of the Declaration of Independence, adopted just hours earlier by the Continental Congress, and ordered several hundred copies to be printed as soon as possible.
Working through the night, Dunlap and his assistants printed up at least two batches of “broadsides,” some on paper bearing the watermark of King George III. Dunlap had to rush, and some copies were printed slightly askew, while many were folded while still wet, leaving offset imprints.
They were rushed back to Congress and given to dispatch riders to distribute to colonial assemblies and the army. Washington received his on July 9 and had it read that day at his headquarters in Manhattan.
In their library on June 16, 2021, American Philosophical Society reference and digital services specialist Joe DiLullo holds its copy of a rare oversized Declaration of Independence printed by congressional printer John Dunlap on parchment or vellum in July 1776.
It took weeks for the other Dunlap broadsides to reach their destinations, the last arriving in Savannah, Ga., on Aug. 10.
One Dunlap broadside was used for the first public reading of the declaration, on July 8, in front of the State House, by Col. John Nixon. The scene was immortalized nearly a century later by Frederick Peter Rothermel, in a painting now hanging in the Union League Club.
To this day, no one knows how many were printed, but only 26 original Dunlap broadsides are known to exist, making them among the rarest of American artifacts.
The last one to come up for auction, in 2000, was bought for $8 million ($15 million in 2025 dollars) by the television producer and liberal activist Norman Lear. Most are held by museums or universities, but whenever they are displayed, the Dunlap broadsides draw crowds who are just as fascinated to see the words that declared a sovereign state as were those a quarter millennium ago.
The only known copy of the Declaration of Independence printed on vellum by John Dunlap is on display at the Museum of the American Revolution.
Yet, few passersby, if any, stop to look at a tarnished, old plaque affixed to a rundown building at Market and Second. Put there 50 years ago by the Society of Professional Journalists, it is the only acknowledgment of one of the most important sites of the American Revolution.
Next to a shuttered diner, the plaque is likely all but ignored by any but the most dedicated history buff.
There is not enough time to go through the formal Pennsylvania State Historic Preservation Office process, but given the historic importance of the site, an ad hoc or special exemption by the city or state should be made, and a proper blue historical marker should be put up before July 4.
It is the least that can be done to commemorate a site where actions that still reverberate around the world took place.
Raymond and Anna Wakeman had returned from dinner early on a Saturday night and were relaxing on the couch with their two rescue dogs in their Northeast Philadelphia home. Cricket, a pit bull, rested his head on Raymond’s shoulder. Jax, a miniature pinscher, was curled up next to Anna.
In an instant, a 2014 Dodge Dart exploded through the front of the Wakemans’ home and into their living room.
Firefighters arrived to find Anna in another room, pinned under the silver Dodge and gravely injured. Rescuers worked feverishly to free her from the wreckage and rush her to the hospital. Jax was dead. Cricket underwent emergency surgery, but died soon after.
Anna Wakeman assembled a memorial to the family’s two rescue dogs, Jax and Cricket, who were killed by a Gregory Campbell, a Philadelphia police officer who crashed his car into her home in 2021. Campbell spent hours consuming alcohol at a bar operated by the Fraternal Order of Police Lodge 5.
The driver, off-duty Philadelphia Police Officer Gregory Campbell, had been drinking since midafternoon on Feb. 6, 2021, and a lawsuit would later allege he had consumed as many as 20 alcoholic beverages. He had most of them where he ended his evening, at the 7C Lounge, a members-only club for active and retired cops operated by the Fraternal Order of Police Lodge 5, inside the union’s headquarters.
Campbell was arrested and fired from the police force after the crash. In June 2022, a Common Pleas Court judge sentenced him to 11½ to 23 months in prison.
“I am so sorry,” Campbell told the Wakemans in court, “for everything I’ve put you and your family through.”
Campbell’s accident and subsequent trial were widely covered at the time. But an Inquirer investigation has found troubling new details about that crash and the aftermath that were never made public, and identified two additional auto accidents tied to the 7C Lounge. The findings raise questions about how drunken-driving cases are investigated when they involve a powerful police union operating its own bar.
Records show that after crashing into the Wakeman house — and while it was still unclear whether Anna Wakeman had survived — Campbell was allowed to confer with FOP representatives and delay a blood-alcohol test for nearly six hours.
Gregory Campbell’s Dodge Dart sped from the parking lot outside the FOP’s 7C Lounge into the Wakemans’ home, killing the family’s two dogs and almost killing Anna Wakeman.
The delay was an apparent violation of Pennsylvania law, which requires suspected drunk drivers to undergo testing within two hours of being behind the wheel unless good cause is given. The records include no explanation for the delay.
An officer in the police department’s Crash Investigation District later testified in a deposition that he had never before encountered a person accused of driving under the influence who was allowed to seek guidance from his labor union before undergoing blood testing.
When Campbell’s blood was finally tested, his alcohol level registered at 0.23%, almost three times the 0.08 legal threshold for drunken driving. A toxicologist later estimated Campbell’s blood-alcohol content at the time of the accident was as high as 0.351%, more than four times the legal limit.
The Wakemans filed a lawsuit in Philadelphia Common Pleas Court against Campbell, the 7C Lounge, and Lodge 5. The couple’s attorney hired a liquor liability expert — a former police officer who had been an investigator for the New Jersey Division of Alcoholic Beverage Control for 11 years — who concluded that there was “overwhelming evidence” that the 7C Lounge had overserved Campbell and failed to monitor him or intervene.
The “actions and inactions were negligent and reckless” and “contributed directly to the accident, damages and injuries sustained by the Wakeman family,” the expert, Donald J. Simonini, wrote in his 23-page report.
On the night of the crash, a Philadelphia police accident investigator attempted to interview employees working at the 7C Lounge but was unable to do so because the bar had closed hours earlier than scheduled. The investigator said subsequent attempts to obtain information from the employees were also unsuccessful.
A manager later testified that he was “following orders” when he shut down the bar early.
An aerial view of Lodge 5’s headquarters, the 7C Lounge, and Anna and Raymond Wakeman’s home.
At that time, Lodge 5 was led by its longtime president, John McNesby. His chief of staff, Roosevelt Poplar, was vice president of the union’s Home Association, a nonprofit that operates the 7C Lounge.
Neither McNesby nor Poplar responded to requests for comment.
State law grants regulators broad authority to crack down on bars found to have overserved customers, with sanctions ranging from fines to suspension or revocation of a liquor license. Yet the FOP’s bar has faced no regulatory repercussions during the 16 years it has operated at its Northeast Philadelphia headquarters.
Paul Herron, a Philadelphia lawyer who specializes in liquor licenses and enforcement, said that the Pennsylvania State Police Bureau of Liquor Control Enforcement (BLCE) has “very stringent requirements” and that most establishments tend to have at least minor violations, such as improper recordkeeping. He said it is “very unusual” that the 7C Lounge has a clean slate given the severity of the Campbell case.
Campbell “had consumed monumental amounts of liquor, and for that to just not show up anywhere is awfully strange,” Herron said. “I would expect that if this happened to another place, that this would come to light, to the knowledge of the bureau, and they would ultimately issue a citation.”
In another incident tied to the 7C Lounge, regulators did not open an investigation because the union did not report what had happened.
The Inquirer viewed two minutes and 40 seconds of surveillance footage of the 7C Lounge parking lot from the evening of Nov. 22, 2021. The recordings come from three separate cameras and show a patron walking out of the 7C Lounge and getting into the driver’s seat of a compact SUV. At 11:21 p.m., the driver backs up, then accelerates forward into a parked truck, hitting it hard enough to slam the truck into the front bumper of an SUV parked behind it.
The motorist pauses a few seconds, reverses, then accelerates past the damaged vehicles and runs over two orange cones. The driver then plows through the FOP’s fence on Caroline Road, destroying a section of it, before disappearing from the camera’s view.
A source with firsthand knowledge of the incident said Poplar reviewed the footage of the parking lot crashes and took notes, including “4 cars hit” and “fence,” with the time each object was hit.
Roosevelt Poplar won a heated reelection battle for the FOP’s presidency in 2025. He previously served as the vice president of the union’s Home Association, a nonprofit that operates the 7C Lounge.
A police spokesperson said there is no record that the crashes in the 7C Lounge parking lot had ever been reported to authorities.
Herron said a typical bar would have almost certainly reported that type of incident.
“It’s just not something that would have happened maybe if it didn’t involve the police or the FOP,” he said.
‘I was dizzy’
There are potential conflicts of interest if law enforcement officers with arresting powers own establishments that serve alcohol. In fact, state law prohibits police officers from holding liquor licenses because they are responsible for enforcing liquor laws.
But that restriction does not extend to the FOP’s Home Association because it is considered part of a fraternal, nonprofit organization. State law defines such entities as “catering clubs” — much like a VFW post or an Elks Lodge — and permits them liquor licenses.
It’s a loophole in the law that Anna Wakeman, who barely survived the accident with Campbell’s Dodge, doesn’t understand.
“The cops can drink as much as they want there,” Wakeman, now 58, said. “The bartenders serve them till they’re blackout drunk and let them leave.”
When Campbell crashed into the Wakemans’ home, it was the second time the family’s property had been damaged by a patron who left the FOP’s bar impaired. Less than two years earlier, a former Philly cop had left the 7C Lounge, got into his car, and smashed into Anna Wakeman’s SUV, which was parked in her driveway.
Anna Wakeman and her husband couldn’t stomach the idea of returning to their Northeast Philadelphia home after the 2021 car crash, fearing it could happen again. They moved instead to West Virginia.
On a Sunday night in April 2019, an ex-Philly cop named Damien Walto worked as a DJ at the 7C Lounge, which has an expansive bar with gleaming dark wood and big-screen TVs. Walto was no longer an active member of Lodge 5: He had been fired from the police force in 2010 for allegedly assaulting a woman while off duty, and was later sentenced to three to six months in prison.
Walto left the bar just after 10 p.m. in his GMC Envoy. Rain was falling, the roads were slick, and Walto told a reporter that he lost control of his SUV when he tried to steer past a tractor-trailer on Caroline Road. He careered through the intersection at Comly Road and smashed into Anna Wakeman’s Chevrolet Equinox, which was sitting in her driveway.
The force of the impact crumpled the rear of the Equinox like an accordion and propelled it into Raymond Wakeman’s parked Chevrolet Silverado.
The Wakemans watched Walto stumble out of his Envoy, dazed and disoriented, then stagger along the sidewalk while clutching an Easter basket.
In a recent interview with The Inquirer, Walto said he does not remember if he drank any alcohol at the party, perhaps because he struck his head hard against the steering wheel.
“I was dizzy and messed up,” he said. “I didn’t know what was going on.”
Walto returned to his GMC and fumbled with a screwdriver in an attempt to remove an FOP-marked license plate from his SUV, the Wakemans said. He toppled over and the license plate remained in place, they said.
Walto said he was not trying to hide his link to the police union. “My tag fell off and I was trying to put it back on,” he said.
Police officers arrived at the scene and noted that Walto appeared to be under the influence of drugs or alcohol. They arrested him, and medics transported him to the hospital for chest pain, according to a police report. There is no mention in the report of Walto having suffered a head injury.
At the time of crash, Walto was also facing DUI charges in Montgomery County, court records show. In August 2019, he pleaded guilty there to driving under the influence and was sentenced to up to six months in prison; he spent 72 hours behind bars, he says.
His Philadelphia case was later dismissed.
The fact that the 7C Lounge has been connected to multiple drunken-driving incidents is troubling, experts say.
The 7C Lounge closed for business early the night Campbell crashed into the Wakemans’ house.
“The more accidents that result from serving alcohol at any bar, owned by the police union or anyone else, the more the public would be ordinarily concerned about the continuing operations of that establishment,” said Mark Carter, a longtime employer-side labor attorney and a member of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce’s Labor Relations Committee.
“Here, you’ve articulated a pattern of behavior that would create a legitimate interest by the city or the prosecutor’s office about the continuing operations of that establishment.”
The state BLCE, which has the authority to issue sanctions, would not confirm or deny the existence of any investigation.
‘Watch our boy’
Hours before the Wakemans were nearly killed in their home in 2021, off-duty Philly cops had gathered for what was supposed to have been a somber affair: paying tribute to James O’Connor IV, a police corporal who had been shot and killed in the line of duty in March 2020.
The Crispin Tavern, a small bar on Holme Avenue in Northeast Philadelphia, staged a beef-and-beer fundraiser for O’Connor’s family that afternoon. Among the bar’s patrons was Campbell, who recalled drinking about six beers there before he climbed into his car and drove to the 7C Lounge, court records would later show.
He arrived at the FOP’s bar just after 5:20 p.m. His next three hours inside the establishment are detailed in a report written by Simonini, the liquor liability expert, who watched video footage from the bar’s security feed.
Campbell, who had been on the police force since March 2018, joined a table of five. Nearby, a man in a white shirt had trouble standing and nearly fell several times as he struggled to get his jacket on. He took a swing at another customer who tried to steady him.
Simonini noted that a server walked by the stumbling man four times but did not once ask if he was OK.
During a deposition, an attorney representing the Wakemans asked the 7C Lounge’s bar manager, Ernie Gallagher, about the stumbling man’s apparent intoxication.
Gallagher theorized that instead of being drunk, the man might have suffered from a neurological disorder.
“A lot of times we have a lot of people come in who don’t even drink, and, you know, they have [multiple sclerosis],” Gallagher said. “They fall and they go, ‘He wasn’t even drinking.’”
When reached for comment recently, Gallagher said: “I have no recollection. I have no comment. I have nothing.”
Simonini wrote that Campbell was drinking what appeared to be bottled beer, Twisted Tea, and mixed drinks out of plastic cups. In one 36-minute period, Campbell downed both his own drinks and others served to people at the table.
This consumption went unnoticed by 7C staff, Simonini wrote.
Gallagher said in his deposition that he considers “two drinks an hour” a safe amount to serve a patron.
“Clearly, Campbell and his party were served far more than ‘two drinks an hour,’” Simonini wrote.
At 7:40 p.m., Campbell returned to the bar, where it appeared Gallagher waved him off. Gallagher said in his deposition that he told Campbell, “Yo, you’ve had enough,” and he thought he told a bartender, “Watch our boy, Greg.” That bartender said in a deposition that he had no recollection of Gallagher’s comment.
Simonini wrote in his report that the 7C bartenders “served Campbell and his party 6-7 drinks at a time, and never watched where the drinks were going and to whom.”
Around 8:10 p.m., Campbell finished a bottle of beer and drank from a plastic cup at the bar. He headed to a bathroom but appeared unsteady, Simonini wrote.
Campbell then went outside. Surveillance video appears to show him losing his balance while walking around a snow bank toward his Dodge Dart.
Lawyers showed Campbell footage from the nearly three hours he spent at the 7C Lounge. Asked in his deposition whether he should have been refused alcohol, he answered, “Yes, based on my blood level of intoxication, yes.”
“Could you safely operate a motor vehicle when you left that bar?” the Wakemans’ lawyer asked.
“No,” he replied.
‘Gurgling on blood’
Campbell got behind the wheel at 8:17 p.m. He pulled onto Caroline Road and drove north toward Comly Road.
The posted speed limit in the area is 30 mph.
Campbell’s Dodge rocketed to 82 mph.
He zoomed past a stop sign, then crossed four lanes of traffic before striking a curb at 70 mph. The Dart thundered over the Wakemans’ snow-covered front yard.
As smoke and dust filled his home, Raymond Wakeman stood up, in shock at the devastation that surrounded him. Shards of crushed glass cut his bare feet.
“The car went right by my face and took my dog,” Raymond recalled. “It took Anna and Jax.”
Campbell climbed out of his car, but didn’t seem to “know where he was or what happened,” Raymond said.
Raymond couldn’t find his wife. But he heard faint sounds coming from the undercarriage of the car, which had come to rest in their son’s bedroom.
“She was gurgling, breathing, but gurgling on blood or something,” he said.
Raymond ripped vinyl siding off his house and used it to shovel rubble and debris from the front of Campbell’s car.
Finally, he saw her battered face.
“There was blood coming out of her ears, nose, and mouth,” he said. “Her leg was hanging off. She was barely breathing.”
Medics transported the Wakemans to Jefferson Torresdale Hospital. When the couple’s 17-year-old son, Patrick, arrived at the hospital, a doctor told him his mother was unlikely to survive the night.
“Honestly, I thought that was going to be the last time I’d ever see my mom,” he said.
Police arrested Campbell outside the splintered remains of the Wakemans’ house and transported him to Jefferson Torresdale, where he was handcuffed to a bed and treated for a cut to his forehead. He was dazed and there was a stench of alcohol on his breath, the police report said.
Then he received special visitors at his bedside, according to court records: unnamed FOP representatives.
Poplar, in his deposition for the Wakemans’ lawsuit against the FOP, was asked how the union is notified after an officer is arrested.
FOP President Roosevelt Poplar (right) said in a deposition that the union was contacted shortly after Gregory Campbell crashed into the Wakemans’ home.
“So, this is just like an extra benefit that if you’re a cop that gets locked up, they call your union rep, 911 actually does?” the Wakemans’ lawyer asked.
“Yeah, that’s the only way we could get notified,” Poplar replied.
“I mean, look. There’s a lot of unions out there. Is there a 911 call going to the Teamsters if they get locked up to their union rep?” the lawyer asked.
“I don’t know,” Poplar replied. “I doubt it.”
Shortly after Campbell’s car bulldozed into the Wakemans’ home, a union representative called the 7C Lounge and told the staff to close for the night — even though closing time was not until 3 a.m. — because an officer had been involved in an accident after drinking there.
“I was following orders,” 7C Lounge bartender Andrew Reardon said in a deposition.
A.J. Thomson, the Wakemans’ attorney, alleged in court documents that the bar was closed to “prevent an investigation by Philadelphia Police and for any witnesses to be allowed to disperse prior to interviews. This was a possible homicide investigation that the FOP actively worked to torpedo.”
The FOP denied those allegations in a response to the Wakemans’ lawsuit, and its attorneys argued that bartenders did not serve Campbell while he was visibly intoxicated and did not cause the crash. The union vehemently denied allegations of negligence, recklessness, or carelessness.
At Jefferson Torresdale, Campbell conferred with Lodge 5 representatives and refused to take a blood-alcohol concentration (BAC) test.
Accident investigators obtained a warrant to draw Campbell’s blood, a process that took four hours. His blood was finally drawn and tested at 2:34 a.m., nearly six hours after his arrest.
Even with that delay, Campbell’s blood-alcohol level was almost three times the 0.08 legal threshold.
Those with a level between 0.25% and 0.40% are considered in a “stupor,” meaning they may be unable to stand or walk, and could be in an impaired state of consciousness and possibly die, according to Michael J. McCabe Jr., a toxicologist and expert on the effects of alcohol, who filed a report in the Wakeman lawsuit.
Herron, the liquor license lawyer, said in a case like this, he would expect the State Police Bureau of Liquor Control Enforcement to investigate and issue a citation. An administrative law judge would subsequently hear the case and decide what sanctions to impose.
The minimum fine for serving a visibly intoxicated person is $1,000.
“For more serious cases, if someone is injured, the administrative law judge has the discretion to impose larger fines or suspensions,” Herron said. “The problem with this case is that any investigation was sort of thwarted. It never really got to the point where there was an investigation.”
‘I should have died’
Anna Wakeman spent more than two months in a coma.
She had suffered a collapsed lung, a brain bleed, and a badly bruised heart muscle. Her spleen and her kidney were lacerated. Her sternum, thoracic vertebrae, collarbone, and 13 ribs were broken, along with her left leg.
She remained hospitalized for several weeks, then needed physical therapy.
Anna Wakeman spent more than two months in a coma after she was struck and dragged by Campbell’s car.
“I should have died,” she said. “The only reason I’m here is God was breathing for me.”
The Wakemans’ insurance company paid off the mortgage on their severely damaged home. The couple couldn’t stomach the idea of ever setting foot again inside, so they sold the property to a developer and moved to West Virginia.
They each spoke at Campbell’s sentencing hearing in June 2022.
“I was normal before this,” Anna said through tears, telling the judge she still suffers from a traumatic brain injury and lives in constant pain.
Campbell spent about a year in prison, and then was placed on house arrest.
“The man who did this to me walks free,” Anna Wakeman said in a recent interview “But I don’t have peace. We lost everything. I’m in pain all the time every single day. I’m in prison in my own body.”
The Wakemans sued the FOP under Pennsylvania’s Dram Shop Law, which holds bars liable if they serve alcohol to a drunk patron and that decision leads to injuries or damages.
In 2024, the case was settled for an undisclosed amount.
Records the Home Association filed as a 501(c) nonprofit do not require the kind of specificity that would show how the organization paid the Campbell settlement, or whether any payments were made related to the 2019 Walto crash or the unreported 2021 parking lot incident. An August investigation by The Inquirer found that while the union controls an array of nonprofits — including the Survivors’ Fund, Lodge 5, and the Home Association — its finances are opaque and difficult to track, in part because large amounts of cash move through the organizations.
Nearly five years after the accident that upended her life, Anna Wakeman still questions why 7C Lounge bartenders didn’t stop serving Campbell, or at least call him a cab, that evening.
“They let him leave knowing he was going to get behind the wheel,” she said. “These are officers of the law. They should hold the law sacred. There shouldn’t be different rules for them.”
