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  • Trump sends border czar to Minneapolis as Alex Pretti’s sister speaks out

    Trump sends border czar to Minneapolis as Alex Pretti’s sister speaks out

    The Trump administration deployed border czar Tom Homan to Minneapolis on Tuesday, the day after a lengthy meeting at the White House in which the president expressed frustration with the situation in Minnesota since Alex Pretti was fatally shot by Border Patrol.

    President Donald Trump said Monday he would send Homan to replace Border Patrol Commander Gregory Bovino, who has been the face of the operation in Minneapolis and previous ones in Los Angeles and Chicago.

    Pretti’s sister issued a statement memorializing her brother and condemning “disgusting lies” she said had been told about him since his death on Saturday. Video footage of Pretti’s killing has raised questions about Department of Homeland Security officials’ immediate account of the incident.

    U.S. Border Patrol Cmdr. Gregory Bovino shouts at protesters, Sunday, Jan. 11, 2026, in Minneapolis. (AP Photo/Jen Golbeck)

    The day Pretti was shot, Bovino suggested he had wanted to “massacre” officers. A Washington Post analysis of the incident’s footage found that agents secured a handgun from Pretti before he was shot multiple times. Local authorities said he was carrying the weapon lawfully.

    The White House in the last 24 hours has adopted a more measured tone in its response to the shooting. Trump showed his dissatisfaction with the situation in Minnesota during an extended meeting with Homeland Security Secretary Kristi L. Noem late on Monday, according to a personal familiar with the meeting who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss a private conversation.

    Homan is set to meet with local officials in Minneapolis when he arrives there Tuesday.

    Pretti’s sister, Micayla Pretti, in the statement shared by an Associated Press reporter late Monday, described her grief as “a pain no words can fully capture” and expressed a sense of exasperation. “When does this end? How many more innocent lives must be lost before we say enough?” she wrote. It was not immediately clear what falsehoods she was referring to.

    Alex Pretti, a 37-year-old ICU nurse, was the third person to be shot by federal immigration authorities in Minneapolis this month, and the second to be killed.

    In a remarkable filing late Monday, Minnesota’s chief federal judge demanded that Todd M. Lyons, the acting head of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, personally appear in court on Friday to explain what he said were repeated failures to comply with court orders amid ICE’s enforcement efforts in the state.

    The order threatened possible contempt proceedings against Lyons and sets up another potential showdown between federal judges and Trump officials.

    It was not clear Tuesday how Lyons would respond or whether Justice Department attorneys would seek to block the order in court.

    Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey (D) said late Monday, after speaking to Trump, that some federal troops would begin leaving the area on Tuesday. Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz (D) said separately that Trump had agreed in a phone call Monday “to look into reducing the number of federal agents” in the state. DHS did not immediately respond to an early Tuesday request for comment. Both Frey and Trump said Homan would speak with the mayor Tuesday.

    First lady Melania Trump called for unity in Minneapolis in a Fox & Friends interview Tuesday morning, saying: “I know that my husband, the president, had a great call yesterday with the governor and the mayor. And they are working together to make it peaceful and without riots. I’m against the violence. So please, if you protest, protest in peace. We need to unify in these times.”

    “Nobody in the White House, including President Trump, wants to see people getting hurt or killed in America’s streets,” White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said Monday. “It is President Trump’s hope and wish and demand for the resistance and chaos to end today.”

  • ‘Bone-chilling’ cold is sticking around Philly, and so is the snow

    ‘Bone-chilling’ cold is sticking around Philly, and so is the snow

    Out of the snow globe, and into the freezer.

    After having experienced its heaviest snowfall in about a decade, the Philadelphia region now faces frigid temperatures that are expected to barely squeak out of the teens until next week. And all while dealing with cleanup from the 9.3 inches of snow that blanketed the city, a task made more complicated by minimal natural melting due to the cold — plus monitoring another potential winter storm for this coming weekend.

    But don’t panic just yet. Forecasters at the National Weather Service office in Mount Holly say it’s too early to tell whether mean old Jack Frost will set his sights on us once again in the coming days, and what level of snowfall we could see if he does.

    “There will likely be a system somewhere off the Eastern Seaboard over the weekend,” said weather service meteorologist Joe DeSilva. “But it’s very uncertain at this point.”

    Besides, we’ve got enough to worry about already.

    It won’t just be cold in the Philadelphia area this week — it will be dangerously so. On Tuesday, temperatures generally stretched only into the low or mid 20s, a good five to 10 degrees lower than what we saw Monday, the weather service said. Lows, meanwhile, stuck stubbornly in the single digits, with wind chills making it feel like zero or below.

    That cold, it seems, will refuse to budge until next week. As we move through the final week of January, temps are expected to continue to nosedive, the weather service said.

    Daytime highs throughout the week are expected to top out in the mid- or upper teens in the Philadelphia region, with some spots seeing the off chance of making it into the 20s. Lows are likely to stick in the single digits through Friday. As the weather service put it in a Tuesday afternoon update, this is “bone-chilling” cold that has the potential not only to stress the energy grid — as New Jersey and Philadelphia officials alluded to Monday — but also to cause frostbite and hypothermia.

    Philadelphia, in fact, has the grim potential of hitting zero degrees for the first time in 32 years sometime in the coming days. We haven’t seen zero at the Philadelphia International Airport since Jan. 19, 1994, but that mercifully long streak could be broken Thursday or Friday, when temperatures are expected to go as low as 2 or 3 degrees, DeSilva said.

    “We still have three nights before we get there, so lots could change between now and then,” he added.

    A pedestrian walks through a snow-covered parking lot at Ninth and Arch Streets in Center City Philadelphia, Tuesday, Jan. 27, 2026.

    These lows arrive as Philadelphia continues to dig out from last weekend’s winter storm, which resulted in a days-long snow emergency in the city that was only lifted Tuesday amid closures for city offices, courts, and schools. Despite a full-court press by the Philadelphia Streets Department, many smaller streets remained unplowed, and the cold weather threatened to institute a deep freeze that could complicate the cleanup, officials have said.

    Many Philly side streets remain full of snow and ice days after Sunday’s storm

    Unfortunately, no break is imminent. Temperatures are not expected to get above freezing until the early or middle part of next week, and even then perhaps barely so. In its Tuesday afternoon forecast, the weather service called the length and magnitude of the arctic air mass descending upon the area “exceedingly rare” and urged caution. Normal low temperatures for Monday’s date, for example, stand at about 25 degrees.

    “We are running 15 to 20 degrees below average,” DeSilva said.

    And then there is the possibility of even more snow amid our extended bout of cold — though as of Tuesday afternoon, it remained just that. The weather service noted that it remained unclear where precipitation could fall, and in what amounts, though early models indicated that the storm could spare much of the area away from the coast. Still, DeSilva said, it remained too early Tuesday to tell what to expect.

    “If lows track further off the coast, we could see less impact here, but if they’re closer, we may have some moderate impacts,” DeSilva said.

  • Temple won back-to-back games on the road, but tougher tests are coming

    Temple won back-to-back games on the road, but tougher tests are coming

    After consecutive losses, Temple needed to get back in the win column, and it took a road trip to Texas against two teams sitting at the bottom of the American Conference to do so.

    Temple battled with Rice last Wednesday, before winning, 69-65. The University of Texas at San Antonio gave the Owls a similar test on Saturday, but Temple prevailed, 70-64.

    The Owls (13-7) now are 5-2 in conference play and are tied with Tulsa, South Florida, and Charlotte for second place in the American. Florida Atlantic is currently in first place.

    Temple’s two-game homestand against Charlotte on Wednesday and South Florida Saturday will mark a true test for the Owls.

    Let’s evaluate where Temple stands after its road trip.

    Offensive lapses

    Temple’s offense has lacked balance.

    Against UTSA, the Owls made 37% of their first-half shots and didn’t score from the floor until more than three minutes into the game.

    Adam Fisher is fulfilling a dream as Temple’s coach. He hopes to be ‘here for a long time.’

    The second half was the opposite. Temple shot 51.9% from the field to take a 12-point lead, but another field-goal drought allowed the Roadrunners chip away at the Owls’ lead.

    Temple’s core played cohesively during its scoring burst, though. Guards Derrian Ford, Aiden Tobiason, and Jordan Mason recorded double figures in each game. Guard Gavin Griffiths had 12 points against Rice.

    Holding onto the ball

    Before their game against Memphis on Jan. 14, the Owls were among the least turnover-prone teams in the country. However, they had 14 against the Tigers and 15 against FAU, a season high.

    The Owls addressed their turnover issue and recorded six against Rice and nine against UTSA.

    Guard Jordan Mason has been leading the Owls’ offense this season

    A big factor was Mason returning to form. He had four turnovers combined in the past two games, after having as many turnovers (10) as points against Memphis and FAU. The San Antonio, Texas, native also scored 18 points against his hometown Roadrunners and added 15 points and six assists vs. Rice.

    The bench

    Temple’s offense takes a noticeable dip when its bench players hit the floor. The team is averaging 16.7 bench points and had just 19 during their road trip.

    Forward Babatunde Durodola and guard Masiah Gilyard have been the best options off the bench, but aren’t the biggest scoring punch, averaging 4.5 and 4.4 points, respectively.

    Temple’s Masiah Gilyard is averaging 4.4 points off the bench this season.

    With guard AJ Smith out for the remainder of the season because of shoulder surgery, the Owls lack scoring depth on the bench. Guard CJ Hines could have been an option, but he never played a game and was dismissed from the team on Jan. 16 amid a national gambling investigation.

    Wins against Charlotte and South Florida would go a long way if Temple wants a chance at securing the American tournament’s No. 2 seed, which grants a bye to the semifinals in the conference’s new format.

  • A Bucks County bust that ‘dismantled’ a drug ring yielded 8 guns and $4 million in drugs, officials say

    A Bucks County bust that ‘dismantled’ a drug ring yielded 8 guns and $4 million in drugs, officials say

    Bucks County prosecutors charged a man who fired a gun at police during a narcotics operation this month with attempted murder and related crimes, authorities said Tuesday. It was the latest development in a multistate investigation that led to the recovery of eight firearms and $4 million in drugs.

    Police arrested the man, Nicholas Sperando, 26, of Philadelphia, on Jan. 15 after the shooting at his rowhouse on Fairdale Road in Northeast Philadelphia, according to Bucks County District Attorney Joe Khan’s office.

    Sperando’s home was one of several locations involved in an extensive drug-trafficking organization, officials said.

    After announcing their intent to serve a warrant at Sperando’s home that day, agents with the Pennsylvania Attorney General’s Office and Pennsylvania state troopers prepared to breach Sperando’s door with a battering ram.

    Instead, they were met with gunfire from inside the home.

    After firing a round, Sperando fired a second shot through the front door, “directly targeting the position where the officers had been standing,” officials said.

    No officers fired their weapons or were injured in the operation.

    “This cowardly act against our officers was an attack on the rule of law, and our office will always protect those who risk their lives to protect us, even when that happens across county lines,” Khan said when announcing the charges.

    Sperando surrendered during the incident and is being held without bail on two counts of attempted murder and attempted murder of a law enforcement officer, as well as three counts of aggravated assault and related drug crimes.

    The arrest, Khan’s office said, was the culmination of a monthslong investigation that “dismantled” a multimillion-dollar trafficking organization.

    For months, authorities said, undercover officers had purchased drugs from Sperando in Levittown and Northeast Philadelphia. Bucks County officials asserted control of the Philadelphia jurisdiction for the sake of their investigation, according to officials.

    Investigators searched Sperando’s residence and recovered a FN Herstal 5.7 pistol that they said was used in the shooting — including a live round jammed in the gun, which, in prosecutors’ view, likely prevented fatalities among law enforcement officers.

    Meanwhile, authorities said, investigators found a variety of controlled substances and other weapons located across Sperando’s residence, his place of work on James Street, and a stash house on Day Street.

    At the Day Street house, officers arrested another man, David Tierney, who they say was also involved in the operation.

    Investigators said they seized an AR-style rifle, a Glock handgun with extended magazine, and bulk quantities of marijuana and proceeds from drug sales from Sperando’s home, while the alleged stash house yielded a firearm found under a pillow and a trailer containing “enormous quantities” of marijuana and THC vaporizers.

    At Sperando’s workplace, which officials did not name, officers recovered a Mossberg pump shotgun, a Ruger .380 pistol, and a “significant supply” of psilocybin mushrooms and edibles, authorities said.

    In all, officials said, the operation yielded 300 pounds of marijuana and 17,000 vaporizers, as well as 80 pounds of THC concentrate, 600 bags of THC edibles, 15 pounds of mushrooms, 75 mushroom edibles, 300 Adderall pills, and two ounces of cocaine.

    Sperando is being held in custody without bail. Tierney is being held on $250,000 bail. A third suspect in the operation, Nicholas Keenoy, surrendered to authorities on Tuesday.

  • Helen Cherry, prolific illustrator and artist, has died at 101

    Helen Cherry, prolific illustrator and artist, has died at 101

    Helen Cherry, 101, formerly of Philadelphia, prolific illustrator, artist, and show tunes devotee, died Thursday, Jan. 15, of age-associated decline at her home in the Woodland Pond retirement community in New Paltz, N.Y.

    “It was her decision entirely,” said her daughter, Lynne. “She knew her own mind and made the decision that it was time for her to take flight to the Great Beyond.”

    A lifelong artist, Mrs. Cherry grew up drawing and painting in West Philadelphia. She earned a scholarship to the old Philadelphia College of Art, sold illustrations to the Jack and Jill children’s magazine, and took a 20-year hiatus in the 1950s and ’60s to rear her three children.

    She resumed her career at 50 in 1974 and went on to illustrate 30 books and dozens of magazine stories for Highlights, Cricket, and other publications. Using a combination of her maiden name, Cogan, and her married name, Cherry, she was published under the pseudonym of Helen Cogancherry.

    Mrs. Cherry at work illustrating 1991’s “Fourth of July Bear.”

    “She was always an artist,” said her daughter, also an illustrator and writer. “Art was her hobby, her passion, her work. She said it was something that she can’t not do.”

    Mrs. Cherry was a keen and imaginative observer of life, adept at creating visuals that reflected the concepts of the writers with whom she worked. She illustrated many children’s books, such as All I Am, Warm as Wool, and The Floating House.

    She told The Inquirer in 1986 that a book she illustrated helped a girl she knew address a difficult childhood situation. “That made a profound impression on me,” she said. “I saw how my little books could help children.”

    Her career was featured in several publications, and she told The Inquirer that breaking back into the business in the 1970s was “discouraging at first.” She said: “I remember coming home sometimes and telling my husband that it was hopeless. He kept encouraging me to keep at it.”

    Mrs. Cherry (left) and her daughter, Lynne, work on a project.

    Helen Cogan was born July 9, 1924, in a West Philadelphia rowhouse beneath the elevated railroad tracks. The middle of three children, she looked up to her sister, Molly, and cared for her younger brother, Robert, while her parents ran the small grocery store they lived above.

    She contributed illustrations to the yearbook and graduated from West Philadelphia High School. She met Herbert Cherry in French class and sent him beautifully illustrated letters while he served overseas during World War II.

    They married in 1950 and had a daughter, Lynne, and sons Steven and Michael. She helped her husband operate Cherry’s Pharmacy in Ridley Park for years, and they lived in Milmont Park and Wallingford in Delaware County, and Carlisle, Pa. She moved to New Paltz after her husband died in 2000.

    Mrs. Cherry often sang show tunes with family and friends, and while she worked. She whipped up memorable meals, especially on holidays, and enjoyed idyllic summers on family vacations at the Jersey Shore in Ventnor.

    Mrs. Cherry grew up in West Philadelphia.

    She tutored her children and their friends, and later her grandchildren, in drawing and painting. She showed everybody, her daughter said, “how to be a good human being in this world.”

    On Facebook, friends called her “warm,” “beautiful,” and “a talented giver.” One said: “The joy she radiated her whole life long was magical.”

    Her daughter said: “She was quiet and understated but strong.”

    Her favorite song was “Life is Just a Bowl of Cherries.” It opens with: “Life is just a bowl of cherries. Don’t take it serious. Life’s so mysterious.”

    Mrs. Cherry enjoyed time with her children.

    In addition to her children, Mrs. Cherry is survived by five grandchildren, a great-granddaughter, her brother, and other relatives. Her sister died earlier.

    A memorial service was held Sunday, Jan. 18. A celebration of her life is to be held later.

    Donations in her name may be made to the Children’s Environmental Literacy Foundation, Suite 130, 500 Summit Lake Dr., Valhalla, N.Y. 10595.

    Mrs. Cherry and her husband, Herbert, married in 1950.
  • Bucks County man charged with killing his father, mother, and sister

    Bucks County man charged with killing his father, mother, and sister

    A Bucks County man was charged with homicide and related crimes late Tuesday after prosecutors said he killed his father, mother, and sister inside their parents’ Northampton Township home.

    The charges came a day after authorities arrested Kevin Castiglia following an hourslong standoff at the home where his relatives were found dead.

    Castiglia, 55, was taken into custody after he barricaded himself inside the two-story brick house at 26 Heather Road, where police later discovered the bodies of his 53-year-old sister, Deborah, in the kitchen and his parents, Frederick, 90, and Judith, 84, in the basement.

    Authorities have not said how they died.

    Castiglia is charged with three counts each of criminal homicide and abuse of a corpse, as well as making terroristic threats, and related crimes.

    Police were dispatched to the house about 2:15 p.m. Monday after Deborah Castiglia’s boyfriend called 911 to report that Kevin Castiglia had threatened him with a large chef’s knife when he arrived at the home looking for his girlfriend, authorities said. The boyfriend told police Deborah Castiglia had been missing for several days, according to the affidavit of probable cause for her brother’s arrest.

    After officers arrived, the affidavit said, Kevin Castiglia came to the front door armed with two knives, one of which an officer believed had blood on it.

    According to the affidavit, Castiglia spoke incoherently and did not respond when officers asked about his family. He pointed the knives at the officers, who deployed Tasers to try to subdue him — without success, the document said.

    Castiglia pulled the probes from his body before slamming the door shut and locking it, the affidavit said.

    Officers called for a tactical team to break into the house. As police secured the area, neighbors were ordered to shelter in place.

    Three found dead in Northampton

    David Deleo, 41, was shoveling snow from his driveway when Northampton Township police arrived, he said in a phone interview Tuesday. Within minutes, he said, officers blocked off Heather Road. Police vehicles and emergency crews from neighboring towns and counties soon lined the street, surrounding the house and establishing a perimeter, he said.

    From inside her home next door, Erica Titlow, 35, said she looked out a window and saw the man standing at the front door of the house, which has French doors with large glass panes. He was in his underwear, she said, with blood on his chest and stomach. Deleo said that he also saw the man and that he was holding a knife with blood on the blade.

    “I had no idea what was happening,” Titlow said. “I thought maybe he was having some kind of mental breakdown and had hurt himself.”

    After the man retreated from the doorway, police used a bullhorn to call out to him, Titlow said, urging him to come outside. He did not, and the standoff continued for several hours.

    Officers surrounded the house but were unable to enter, Titlow said. Shortly before a SWAT team forced its way through the front door Monday evening, officers went door to door, asking Deleo and Titlow if snipers could use their second-floor windows to provide cover to officers on the ground. They agreed, they said.

    Titlow said she spent more than an hour hiding in her basement with her 2-year-old daughter while snipers were positioned inside her home. “I didn’t want her to see any of it,” she said.

    Even after officers entered the house, the man was not immediately removed, Deleo said. He watched as police deployed gas canisters inside the home and heard them detonate. Firefighters later connected a hose to a nearby hydrant and sprayed water into the house, according to Deleo and Titlow.

    A Bucks County detective truck outside the home where three people died in Southampton on Monday.

    Sometime after nightfall — the exact moment was difficult to recall, Titlow said — officers pulled the man from the house. He was restrained on a stretcher as authorities wheeled him away, she said.

    By Tuesday morning, police were still at the scene, Titlow said, though the activity had slowed. “It’s a lot quieter now,” she said.

    Staff writer Robert Moran contributed to this article.

  • Families of 2 men killed in boat strike sue Trump administration over attack they call ‘unlawful’

    Families of 2 men killed in boat strike sue Trump administration over attack they call ‘unlawful’

    WASHINGTON — Families of two Trinidadian nationals killed in a Trump administration boat strike last October sued the federal government on Tuesday, calling the attack a war crime and part of an “unprecedented and manifestly unlawful U.S. military campaign.”

    The lawsuit is thought to be the first wrongful death case arising from the three dozen strikes that the administration has launched since September on boats in the Caribbean Sea and eastern Pacific Ocean. The complaint will test the legal justification of the Trump administration attacks; government officials have defended them as necessary to stem the flow of drugs into the United States, but many legal experts say they amount to a brazen violation of the laws of armed conflict.

    The complaint echoes many of the frequently articulated concerns about the boat strikes, noting for instance that they have been carried out without congressional authorization and at a time when there is no military conflict between the United States and drug cartels that under the laws of war could justify the lethal attacks.

    “These premeditated and intentional killings lack any plausible legal justification. Thus, they were simply murders, ordered by individuals at the highest levels of government and obeyed by military officers in the chain of command,” the lawsuit says.

    White House Deputy Press Secretary Anna Kelly said in a statement that the Oct. 14 strike “was conducted against designated narcoterrorists bringing deadly poison to our shores.”

    “President Trump used his lawful authority to take decisive action against the scourge of illicit narcotics that has resulted in the needless deaths of innocent Americans,” Kelly stated.

    The lawsuit was filed by the mother of Chad Joseph and the sister of Rishi Samaroo, two Trinidadian nationals who were among six people killed in the Oct. 14 missile strike on a boat traveling from Venezuela to Trinidad. The men were not members of any drug cartel, the lawsuit says, but had instead been fishing in the waters off the Venezuelan coast and were returning to their homes in Trinidad and Tobago.

    The two had caught a ride home to Las Cuervas, a fishing community where they were from, on a small boat targeted in a strike announced on Truth Social by President Donald Trump. All six people aboard the boat were killed.

    “These killings were wrongful because they took place outside of armed conflict and in circumstances in which Mr. Joseph and Mr. Samaroo were not engaged in activities that presented a concrete, specific, and imminent threat of death or serious physical injury, and where there were means other than lethal force that could have reasonably been employed to neutralize any such threat,” the lawsuit says.

    The lawsuit is the first to challenge the legality of the boat strikes in court, according to Jen Nessel, a spokesperson for the Center for Constitutional Rights, which filed the lawsuit in federal court in Massachusetts on behalf of the families, along with the ACLU and others.

    Nessel said in an email that the center also has a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit seeking the release of the legal justification for the strikes.

    Jeffrey Stein, an American Civil Liberties Union attorney, told reporters over Zoom that the lawsuit seeks compensatory and punitive damages that can be determined after a trial.

    “We don’t think that it’s something that we could put a precise dollar amount on,” Stein said. “But we’re seeking damages that can go some way toward bringing justice for these really heinous abuses of power.”

    The lawsuit also aims to prevent more boat strikes, Stein said, with the hope that a U.S. court rejects the Trump administration’s “frankly absurd claims about its authority to engage in these illegal strikes.”

    The lawsuit was filed in federal court in Massachusetts. It cites the Death on the High Seas Act, which the lawyers say permits wrongful death cases in situations like this, as well as the Alien Tort Statute, which permits foreign nationals to sue in federal court for alleged human rights violations.

    The death toll from the boat strikes is now up to at least 126 people, with the inclusion of those presumed dead after being lost at sea, the U.S. military confirmed Monday. The figure includes 116 people who were killed immediately in at least 36 attacks carried out since early September, with 10 others believed dead because searchers did not locate them following a strike.

  • Philadelphia health officials warn of an uptick in chickenpox cases

    Philadelphia health officials warn of an uptick in chickenpox cases

    Philadelphia health officials are warning medical providers to be on the alert for chickenpox, after outbreaks at two city schools in recent months indicate a “small but notable” increase in cases of the highly contagious disease.

    Fewer than 10 cases were reported at each school, and the outbreaks were not connected, nor part of a broader community outbreak. In a health advisory to doctors earlier this month, the city said it had fielded reports of varicella in unvaccinated children, who can suffer more serious effects than vaccinated kids.

    It’s unclear what drove the recent uptick in cases in Philadelphia, said Gayle Mendoza, a spokesperson for the city Department of Public Health. She did not have information on how many cases were reported in vaccinated versus unvaccinated children.

    Chickenpox causes fever, fatigue, and a rash that can develop into hundreds of itchy blisters. People over 18 are at risk for more serious complications than children.

    About 94% of schoolchildren in Philadelphia have immunity against chickenpox, also known as varicella, with the vast majority protected through vaccination. Of those with immunity today, only about 1% acquired protection through an infection.

    Varicella outbreaks used to be much more common before widespread vaccination.

    Cases have dropped by 97% in the United States since health authorities recommended routine childhood vaccination in 1995, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

    Case counts for several communicable diseases, including whooping cough and walking pneumonia, declined during the COVID-19 pandemic while schools closed, but have since risen closer to pre-pandemic levels. That could be happening with varicella, Mendoza said.

    In Philadelphia, varicella vaccination rates briefly ticked downward after the 2020-21 school year, but by the 2024-25 school year had returned close to pre-pandemic rates, according to state data.

    Earlier this month, Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy announced sweeping changes to the CDC’s list of routinely recommended childhood vaccinations, removing several from the list and sparking outrage from health experts who said that cases of serious, preventable diseases like hepatitis B would rise.

    Chickenpox vaccination is still on the list of vaccines recommended for all children, although health experts have raised warnings about nationally declining vaccination rates in recent years.

    Before 1995, nearly 4 million people a year were infected with chickenpox, up to 13,500 were hospitalized, and between 100 and 150 died, city health officials said.

    “It’s a very small chance you get the illness if you’re vaccinated, but it’s always going to be milder,” Mendoza said.

    Unvaccinated patients can develop 250 to 500 lesions from chickenpox; vaccinated patients, if they contract the disease, will see less than 50 and have less likelihood of spreading the disease.

    With the recent school outbreaks, Philadelphia health officials are encouraging health providers to test patients for chickenpox and report suspected, probable, and confirmed cases to local authorities.

    People who have been exposed to the virus can get immunized within five days or receive antiviral medications to prevent them from contracting the disease.

    Mendoza said the health department is coordinating a response with schools where varicella outbreaks were identified.

  • Man wounded after exchanging gunfire with Border Patrol agents near US-Mexico border

    Man wounded after exchanging gunfire with Border Patrol agents near US-Mexico border

    ARIVACA, Ariz. — A man who authorities say was involved in a smuggling operation was shot Tuesday in an exchange of gunfire with the U.S. Border Patrol and after firing at a federal helicopter near the U.S.-Mexico border, authorities said.

    Federal agents were attempting to apprehend the 34-year-old Arizona man near Arivaca, Ariz., when he shot at a Border Patrol helicopter and at agents, the FBI said. Agents returned fire, striking the man and wounding him, the FBI said.

    The man was transported to a hospital and was recovering from surgery Tuesday evening, authorities said.

    The Pima County Sheriff’s Department said the FBI asked it to lead a use-of-force investigation of the Border Patrol. It noted that such investigations are standard when a federal agency is involved in a shooting in the county.

    FBI special agent Heith Janke said suspect Patrick Gary Schlegel has a criminal history that includes a 2025 warrant for escape stemming from a smuggling conviction.

    Hagle was in federal custody and is expected to be charged with a criminal complaint, Janke said.

    Arivaca is a community about 10 miles from the border. The area is a common path for drug smugglers and migrants who illegally cross the border, so agents regularly patrol there.

    The Santa Rita Fire District said it responded to the shooting and the person who was wounded was in custody.

    “Patient care was transferred to a local medical helicopter for rapid transport to a regional trauma center,” the fire district said.

    One level-one trauma center hospital in Tucson declined to release information, and the AP was waiting on a response from another.

    The shooting comes in a month that has seen three shootings — two fatal — by immigration officers involved in the massive Department of Homeland Security enforcement operation in Minnesota.

    While there were numerous videos of those shootings taken by residents monitoring the enforcement operations in the Minneapolis area, the latest shooting in Arizona happened in a community of about 500 people apparently without any bystander video of the incident.

    The sheriff department said its involvement in the investigation was the result of “long standing relationships” built over time in the border area to promote transparency.

    Sheriff Chris Nanos, a Democrat, has previously said his agency will not enforce federal immigration law amid President Donald Trump’s crackdown and that he will use his limited resources to focus on local crime and other public safety issues.

    U.S. Customs and Border Protection did not immediately respond to emails and telephone calls seeking more information.

    Border Patrol agents fired weapons in eight incidents during the 12-month period through September 2025, 14 times during the year before that and 13 times the year before that.

  • Texas sues Delaware nurse practitioner accused of mailing abortion pills

    Texas sues Delaware nurse practitioner accused of mailing abortion pills

    Texas’s attorney general sued an out-of-state nurse practitioner Monday for allegedly mailing abortion pills to women in Texas, where the drugs are illegal — the latest in a string of similar lawsuits by conservative officials seeking to limit access to the pills.

    Attorney General Ken Paxton (R) filed a lawsuit against Debra Lynch, who runs Her Safe Harbor, a Delaware-based service that remotely prescribes and mails abortion pills to women across the country. Paxton’s court filing suggests that he learned about Lynch’s operations from news interviews she’d done over the last year, including with the Austin American-Statesman and the New York Times.

    In those interviews, Lynch “boasted” about mailing abortion drugs to Texas, the court filing says.

    “The day of reckoning for this radical out-of-state abortion drug trafficker is here,” Paxton said in a statement Tuesday. “No one, regardless of where they live, will be freely allowed to aid in the murder of unborn children in Texas.”

    Lynch and Her Safe Harbor did not immediately respond to requests for comment Tuesday afternoon.

    She and her group join a growing list of out-of-state abortion providers and groups that Texas has sought to punish. All so far have worked out of states with “shield laws” enacted after the Supreme Court threw out the constitutional right to an abortion, to protect abortion providers from out-of-state prosecution.

    That legal strategy has come under fire from officials in states with abortion bans, with Texas leading the way. Paxton, his allies at the Texas Capitol, and antiabortion advocates and attorneys have for months worked to thwart access to the abortion pills that are still flowing into their state.

    Last year, Paxton sued a doctor in New York for sending abortion pills to Texas. This year, he sent cease-and-desist letters to a California doctor, along with Her Safe Harbor — Lynch’s group, which prescribes and mails pills — and another organization that provides information on where to access pills. Louisiana has indicted the same New York and California doctors, also accusing them of illegally sending mailing abortion pills.

    New York and California have declined to cooperate with the actions by the red states.

    When she spoke with the American-Statesman and the Times this year, Lynch let reporters and photographers shadow her work, allowing them to chronicle her process of taking patient phone calls and packaging the pills alongside her husband.

    Across the country, there are eight states that explicitly protect abortion providers that mail pills to patients in states with abortion bans, but that group does not include Delaware, where Her Safe Harbor began providing services in June 2024. Delaware is one of more than a dozen states that offer varying levels of protection for telehealth providers of abortion and gender transition care.

    The New York Times reported in June that Lynch had decided to move to one of the eight states with the strongest shield laws. It is not clear whether she did so.