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  • 19 people connected to YBC gang feuds to be charged in sprawling indictment

    19 people connected to YBC gang feuds to be charged in sprawling indictment

    Nineteen people are expected to be charged in the coming days in connection with a yearslong West Philadelphia gang war that investigators say fueled nearly two dozen shootings — including at least five homicides — across the city, law enforcement officials announced Wednesday.

    The defendants include members of the Young Bag Chasers, or YBC, as well as people affiliated with the rival crews caught in a multiyear cycle of retaliation.

    Five people were taken into custody Wednesday morning as part of a sweeping investigation by Philadelphia police and prosecutors into the back-and-forth shootings that occurred between 2022 and 2024. Several of those expected to be charged are already behind bars — either awaiting trial or serving sentences for separate crimes.

    Nearly two dozen shootings were linked to the feud between YBC and CCK.

    Officials said investigators linked nearly two dozen shootings to the groups — with a total of 35 victims between the ages of 5 and 42.

    The indictment follows a multiyear probe by Philadelphia police and the District Attorney’s Office’s Gun Violence Task Force into YBC and its affiliated groups — including the Young Face Arrangers and Northwest Philadelphia-based crew PNB — as well as rival members from the Parkside Killers and CCK, a trio of allied crews from West and South Philadelphia.

    The rise and fall of the Young Bag Chasers

    Which cases were solved?

    One of the five homicides solved is that of Zyir Stafford, better known as “Booga,” who was shot and killed by YBC members while leaving work at a North Philadelphia McDonald’s in December 2023.

    Police said he was not involved with the feud, but his brother was affiliated with CCK — and so YBC targeted him.

    Zyir Stafford, a 22-year-old father of two, was shot and killed in December 2023.

    YBC members mocked Stafford’s death online and in songs. They planned to sell weed out of McDonald’s Happy Meal boxes, named albums after him, and filmed music videos inside the fast food restaurants — all attempts to profit off the carnage.

    On Wednesday, police said they linked two YBC members to Stafford’s killing: Stephen Weddington, aka Baby Yopp, and Jymir Burbage, aka Lil Mir.

    Police also solved the killings of two well-known YBC members.

    Tahjae Brooks, 21, a rapper and founding member of YBC known as “Jae100,” was shot and killed in December 2022.

    Police said they charged three CCK members with his death: Anthony Lacey-Woodson, or “Pistol P” — who is serving 45 to 90 years in prison for killing three other people — as well as Ronnie Vincent-Quan and Herman “Cherm” Stigall.

    In this music video filmed by Marlissa Monay, Tahjae Brooks sings his 2020 song “Hear Me Out.” Brooks, or “Jae100,” was a founder of YBC and the original face and talent of the group.

    Six months later, Brooks’ best friend Kameir Scott, or “T.O.,” was shot and killed on the 600 block of North Preston Street. Markees Muhammad, of the Parkside Killers, has been charged with that crime, prosecutors said.

    YBC members were charged in two other homicides.

    Weddington and Burbage — as well as Hasin Muse and Tatiana Edwards — have been charged with killing Qaadir Cheeks, a CCK affiliate known as “55Qua” who was killed in May 2024 near 55th and Baltimore.

    Weddington was also charged with the murder of Sharif King in Parkside in July 2023, as well as several nonfatal shootings.

    Who else was charged?

    YBC and CCK have been in a violent, public feud for years that became fueled by retaliatory violence and social media.

    Most members of YBC and CCK are aspiring drill rappers who write songs about the ongoing shootings and conflicts, trolling homicide victims and their families, and encouraging more violence — and building a social media and music following in the process.

    Bill Fritze, supervisor for Gun Violence Task Force, speaks during a news conference on the arrest of 19 people Wednesday.

    “The same group of people repeatedly were doing shootings, using the same guns … and bragging about it,” said Assistant District Attorney Anna Walters.

    Investigators with the Gun Violence Task Force and police department had been investigating YBC, CCK, and allied groups for at least two years, monitoring their social media pages and music videos, and slowly connecting them to a host of crimes, Walters said.

    They used ballistic evidence, phone records, and social media to solve the cases, she said.

    One of CCK’s most prominent members — Hasaan Stafford, or Saany Goon — was charged Wednesday with committing four shootings in which no one was injured, officials said.

    And prominent YBC member Kasim Brown, aka FSdaBender or “Fat Seem,” was charged with three nonfatal shootings. Brown is currently in federal custody, charged with gun crimes.

    "Bumblebee Gang," filmed by "DJBey215," Abdul Vicks, YBC
    In the music video “Bumblebee Gang,” filmed by “DJBey215,” Abdul Vicks, left, smokes a joint as his friends flash a gun to the camera.

    The indictment comes even as the number of people affiliated with YBC has dwindled in recent years, and the groups’ feuds have quieted. The face of YBC, Abdul Vicks, aka YBC Dul, was shot and killed in August 2024. Many other members are serving decades in prison for murder.

    Still, there were dozens of shootings connected to their feuds that remained unsolved — including the killings of many of YBC’s members.

    Capt. James Kearney, head of the police department’s nonfatal shooting unit, said officers are always working to solve shootings even as years have passed.

    “They might have thought they got away with it,” he said. “But they didn’t.”

  • Philadelphia opens new LGBTQ+ visitor center, one of few in country

    Philadelphia opens new LGBTQ+ visitor center, one of few in country

    It is a simple, sleek storefront in the Gayborhood. And it is now a welcoming spot.

    On Wednesday, Gov. Josh Shapiro, city tourism and marketing leaders, and LGBTQ+ advocates officially opened the Philadelphia Pride Visitor Center, one of the country’s first LGBTQ+ visitor centers.

    “We need happy things in the world,” Shapiro said, during a ribbon cutting at the center. “And we need places like this that bring people together. That is the Pennsylvania way.”

    Gov. Josh Shapiro opens the Philly Pride Visitor Center Wednesday, Feb. 25, 2026, in the heart of the city’s Gayborhood at 12th & Locust. With him, from left, are Mark Segal, Philadelphia Gay News founder; City Councilmembers Rue Landau and Mark Squilla; and Anne Ryan, Pennsylvania Deputy Secretary of Tourism.

    The Philly Pride Center is now just one of a handful of LGBTQ+-dedicated visitor centers in America, including ones in New York and Miami. Opening ahead of Philadelphia’s big summer celebrations for the 250th anniversary of America in 2026, also known as the Semiquincentennial, officials described the center as a symbol that Philadelphia, the city of the nation’s birth, welcomes all.

    “At a time when other states are walking away from their LGBTQ+ community, we are walking toward it,” Shapiro said. “At a time when other states are saying ‘no’ to pride-based tourism, we are embracing it.”

    Located near 12th and Locust Streets, in a storefront connected to Knock Restaurant and Bar, the center offers visitor services, including itinerary planning, attraction ticketing, and travel information, with a focus on LGBTQ+-affirming destinations, businesses, and cultural institutions. Souvenirs made by LGBTQ+-owned businesses and artists are on sale.

    Neil Frauenglass (second from right), chief marketing officer with Visit Philadelphia, is recognized for his work during grand opening of the Philly Pride Visitor Center Wednesday, Feb. 25, 2026, in the heart of the city’s Gayborhood at 12th & Locust. With him, from left, are Donna Jackson Stephans, Philadelphia’s chief diversity, equity and inclusion officer; Philadelphia Visitor Center President and CEO Kathryn Ott Lovell; and Gov. Josh Shapiro.

    “The Philly Pride Center reflects something we believe with all of our hearts,” said Kathryn Ott Lovell, president and CEO of Philadelphia Visitor Center Corp., which will run the new center. “That every visitor should feel like they are welcome and that they belong. We want the Philly pride visitor center to be both a very practical resource and a very visible statement about who we are as a city.”

    More than a year in the making — and now open Thursday through Monday, noon to 6 p.m., at 1130 Locust Street — the site will represent Philly’s fifth visitor center, including ones at Independence Mall, City Hall, Love Park, and the Parkway Visitor Center & Rocky Shop.

    “Philadelphia’s LGBTQ+ history helped shape this country’s story, and the Philly Pride Center brings that legacy forward in a powerful and visible way,” said Angel Val, president and CEO of Visit Philadelphia, which helped found the center, along with Mark Segal, founder and publisher of Philadelphia Gay News. Segal, an activist and author, who was part of the seminal riots at the Stonewall Inn in Greenwich Village in 1969, curated the historical information exhibited at the center, telling of Philly’s long and powerful LGBTQ+ legacy.

    Mark Segal, Philadelphia Gay News founder and publisher is interviewed during the grand opening of the Philly Pride Visitor Center Wednesday, Feb. 25, 2026. At left is a photo (circled) of him demonstrating for Gay rights in 1969, part of his newspaper’s 50th Anniversary.

    It is a point of pride, Segal said, that the Philly Pride Visitor Center comes at a time when many scholars and activists believe the Trump administration is attempting to sanitize American history.

    “At this time in history, there are many people who are trying to erase us and erase our history,” Segal said. “But today, by opening a new Pride Center, which yells and screams ‘visibility and take pride in who you are,’ we’re saying, ‘No, we’re not going to allow anyone to put us back in the closet ever again.’”

  • Larry Summers will resign from teaching at Harvard during review of Epstein ties, university says

    Larry Summers will resign from teaching at Harvard during review of Epstein ties, university says

    Former U.S. Treasury Secretary Larry Summers will resign from teaching at Harvard University amid a campus review of his ties to the late convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, the university announced Wednesday.

    Summers, who has been on leave since November and whose name appeared hundreds of times in newly released Epstein files, will step down at the end of the school year, according to a statement from Harvard spokesperson Jason Newton.

    “Professor Summers has announced that he will retire from his academic and faculty appointments at Harvard at the end of this academic year and will remain on leave until that time,” Newton said.

    In a statement, Summers said it was a difficult decision and expressed gratitude to the students and colleagues he worked with over 50 years.

    “Free of formal responsibility, as President Emeritus and a retired professor, I look forward in time to engaging in research, analysis, and commentary on a range of global economic issues,” Summers said.

    The Justice Department’s latest release has rippled through academia, uncovering Epstein’s ties to numerous researchers who sought his funding and his friendship even after he became a convicted sex offender. Summers’ resignation follows that of Richard Axel, a Nobel laureate, who on Tuesday announced he would step down as co-director of Columbia University’s Zuckerman Mind Brain Behavior Institute.

    Summers served as treasury secretary under former President Bill Clinton and went on to lead Harvard as president for five years starting in 2001. Summers also has Philly-area roots. He grew up in Penn Valley and attended Lower Merion schools, graduating from Harriton High School in the early 1970s.

    A trove of files released by the government cast new light on Summers’ relationship with Epstein, which spanned years and included visits to one another at their homes in Massachusetts and New York. The two traded emails on topics ranging from politics and the economy to women and romance.

    Summers, who has been married for 20 years, consulted Epstein on a separate relationship with a woman he was tutoring in economics, according to emails from 2018 and 2019. Epstein described himself as Summers’ “wing man” and encouraged persistence. In a 2018 email, Summers said the woman was never his student but he had “known her father for 20 plus years as Chinese economic official.”

    “I have a very good life w Lisa kids etc.,” Summers said in a 2018 email, referencing his wife. “Easy to put at risk for something that might not materialize at all or if it does might prove transient.”

    In a 2016 email, Summers appeared to use a slur for Asian people while discussing an upcoming meeting between Epstein and an official from a Chinese university.

    Responding to previous revelations, Summers last year said he had “great regrets in my life” and that his association with Epstein was a “major error in judgment.”

    Harvard officials have publicly said little about Summers’ relationship. When Summers went on leave last year, the university said it was reviewing “individuals at Harvard” who were in the Epstein documents “to evaluate what actions may be warranted.”

    Epstein’s ties to Harvard were the focus of a 2020 campus report finding that the financier gave more than $9 million to the Ivy League school, mostly for a center founded by math and biology professor Martin Nowak. The report did not mention Summers’ relationship with Epstein. Nowak was later disciplined by Harvard.

    In December, Summers was dealt a lifetime ban from the American Economic Association, a nonprofit scholarly association dedicated to economic research, over his Epstein ties.

    At Columbia, Axel said in a statement Tuesday that he regretted his association with Epstein, calling it a “serious error in judgment.” He said he is also giving up his position as an investigator at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute but will continue to research and teach in his laboratory at the Zuckerman Institute in Manhattan.

    Axel was one of the 2004 winners of the Nobel Prize in physiology or medicine for discoveries related to the human olfactory system. His name appears more than 600 times in Justice Department files reviewed by the Associated Press, including in emails he exchanged with Epstein and on schedules noting their meetings, dinners and lunches.

    In a news article published in 2007, while Epstein was initially under investigation in Florida, the scientist praised Epstein’s intellect, telling New York magazine: “He has the ability to make connections that other minds can’t make. He is extremely smart and probing.”

    The resignations are the latest fallout from the Justice Department’s recent release of millions of pages of records pertaining to Epstein and his longtime confidant and former girlfriend Ghislaine Maxwell. Resignations have rippled across the academic, legal and business communities.

    In Britain, former Prince Andrew and ex-diplomat Peter Mandelson were arrested because of their connections to Epstein and Maxwell.

  • The NFL might have given up trying to ban the Tush Push (for now). Here’s why, and what it means for the Eagles.

    The NFL might have given up trying to ban the Tush Push (for now). Here’s why, and what it means for the Eagles.

    INDIANAPOLIS — After a five-year hiatus, Denver Broncos coach Sean Payton rejoined the competition committee this offseason. He said he likes “our league” and having a say in the rules that govern it.

    But every once in a while, his self-described “B.S. meter” spikes.

    Last year’s discussions surrounding the Tush Push struck a sour note with Payton. He claimed the competition committee spent hours highlighting the health and safety risks of the push sneak, all the while introducing the dynamic kickoff in 2024 that would lead to an uptick in returns, and in turn, concussions.

    Thus, Payton suggested that furthering the health-and-safety argument to effectively ban the Tush Push would be hypocritical.

    “Look, I think if that ever goes away, it’s not a health and safety thing, right?” Payton said on Tuesday at the NFL Scouting Combine. “We discussed that last year for two hours, and we just adopted 1,000 more kick returns. Which play do you think is more of a health risk? One thousand more kick returns. So I think if we choose to ever move on from that, it won’t be because of health and safety. It will just be like, we don’t like it, which is OK.”

    Broncos head coach Sean Payton said his “B.S. meter” went off with the way a Tush Push ban was being sold last to the league last offseason.

    Despite previous leaguewide critiques of player safety and aesthetics, the Tush Push could be poised to live another season. Competition committee cochairman Rich McKay told reporters on Monday that he doesn’t anticipate a team submission of a rules proposal seeking to eradicate the push sneak recently popularized by the Eagles.

    While the play had been scrutinized since its inception in 2022, the Green Bay Packers were the first team to take a formal shot at a ban when they submitted a rule change proposal in March. The proposal did not garner the requisite support from the league’s owners to be adopted last season.

    The past could stay in the past. Packers general manager Brian Gutekunst said Tuesday that his team has no plans to revive its proposal, which fell short by two votes last year.

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    The waning ire directed at the play correlates with the Eagles’ declining efficiency in 2025. According to tushpush.fyi, the Eagles attempted a league-high 33 push sneaks while converting 21, a 64% success rate (the league average is 73.8%). By the end of the regular season, the Eagles decided against running their signature sneak in short-yardage situations.

    Even in the red zone, the Eagles opted for variations of the sneak instead of calling upon quarterback Jalen Hurts to drive his legs through defenders and across the line to gain. Tight end Dallas Goedert’s success in the red zone (10 touchdowns inside the opponent’s 20-yard line) in 2025 occurred in part due to the Eagles’ struggles at executing the push play.

    The Packers were nominally behind the effort to ban a Tush Push play that was also disliked by the league office.

    The competition committee and the teams could still submit proposals ahead of the annual league meeting in late March. But John Lynch, the San Francisco 49ers general manager and another member of the competition committee, suggested that the crusade against the Tush Push has lost steam after defenses caught up to its dominance.

    “That’s all we talked about last year,” Lynch said. “And I will tell you, it felt like there was momentum going into league meetings that it would be overturned. And then it kind of flipped, and those things happen. I think now, we went through a year, maybe people have gotten a little bit better at defending it. Maybe they’re doing it less. People aren’t wanting to put their quarterbacks in those types of situations. You’re seeing more variety. They line up in the Tush Push, they run outside.

    “So maybe, just maybe, it’s kind of solving itself, but we’ll see. I think you’ve got to monitor those things over time to see the trends, and that’s something we’ll continue to do.”

    The Sean Mannion offense was a major focus of the Eagles’ pre-combine news conference. Here are 10 things we learned about the new scheme.

    The Tush Push isn’t in the clear just yet, so Nick Sirianni said he doesn’t “have to cross that bridge” until its legality in 2026 is official. Still, the Eagles coach said he is looking forward to reimagining its fit in a new-look scheme under offensive coordinator Sean Mannion.

    “I think there’s some things that teams did this year that they did a good job of being able to stop it and we either have to get back to being able to be as dominant as we were at it, or we find new avenues to be able to convert on third down or in the red zone,” Sirianni said. “And so that’s the fun part about [the] offseason, is to be able to go through those processes. You go through them during the season as well. I think you saw us do some cool things off of it, and you still want to be able to do that.

    “We know it took a little bit of [a] step back, and we’ve got to coach it better and we’ve got to execute it better. And looking forward to seeing where that goes in the future.”

    Eagles offensive coordinator Sean Mannion played with the Seahawks in his last NFL stop.

    Mannion draws praise

    As quarterbacks coach with the Seattle Seahawks in 2022, Dave Canales would refer to his cadre of quarterbacks as his “bullpen.” But while the starting quarterback garnered the bulk of the reps, Mannion, the third-stringer, still prepared as if he was the go-to guy, according to Canales.

    “Sean wanted to make sure he got all the throws, and then he wanted to make sure he put himself in the most impossible physical positions to try to get the throw done,” said Canales, now the Carolina Panthers’ head coach. “I learned so much in our times [together]. Different progressions, different types of drills he forced himself into were things that I took with me as I continued to coach quarterbacks over the last couple of years. But [he’s] brilliant, asks the right questions, catches the loopholes in protections and different things like that.”

    Those interactions over the course of their year together gave Canales the confidence that Mannion had the offensive aptitude to take on a coaching role following his NFL playing career. But his football intelligence wouldn’t be the only determining factor.

    “It was just a matter of if he was dumb enough to get into the profession,” Canales said with a smile. “But I guess he is, so here he is.”

    Here he is, just three years into his coaching career. After Mannion’s two seasons with the Packers — one as an offensive assistant and another as quarterbacks coach — the Eagles hired him to succeed Kevin Patullo as offensive coordinator in late January.

    The precise ins and outs of his prospective scheme remain unknown, although Sirianni has acknowledged it is influenced by the Kyle Shanahan/Sean McVay scheme, an ode to Mannion’s roots as a player and as a Packers assistant.

    New Atlanta Falcons head coach Kevin Stefanski (left, with fellow Philadelphia-area native and Falcons president of football Matt Ryan) had high praise for Sean Mannion.

    Despite Mannion’s lack of play-calling experience, his coaching acumen is highly regarded by his peers, including new Atlanta Falcons coach Kevin Stefanski. The Wayne native and St. Joseph’s Prep/Penn product was Mannion’s offensive coordinator with the Minnesota Vikings in 2019. They kept in touch over the years and discussed coaching opportunities, Stefanski said, but Mannion elected to keep playing.

    “You could tell right away he was wired to do this,” Stefanski said. “His dad’s a coach. When you’re [in] the backup [quarterback] role, I think great coaches come from that role, because you have to prepare yourself to play, even when you’re not getting the reps. So I think he’s been really developed into it, developed by the different stops that he’s had with the different people that he’s had. But it’s always been in him to coach, and I think that just goes back to how he was brought up.”

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    Gutekunst said he wasn’t surprised by Mannion’s quick rise up the coaching ranks, either. However, Mannion’s departure was “unfortunate,” Gutekunst said, seeing as he hoped to keep “a young, really talented coach” on staff for more than a couple of years.

    “He’s going to do a great job,” Gutekunst said. “The ability to see the game through a quarterback’s eyes because of his playing career, coming from a coaching family, there’s just a lot to like there.”

  • Flyers’ Travis Sanheim ‘grateful for the opportunity and the experience’ despite coming up just short of Olympic gold

    Flyers’ Travis Sanheim ‘grateful for the opportunity and the experience’ despite coming up just short of Olympic gold

    WASHINGTON ― Once again, Travis Sanheim was on the outside looking in.

    And as in the 4 Nations Face-Off tournament a year ago, the Flyers defenseman was inserted into Canada’s lineup in Game 2 at the Milan Cortina Olympics and never left.

    Maybe the doubters need to stop doubting.

    Across his five games, the silver-medal-winning Sanheim averaged 13 minutes, 14 seconds, as he crept up coach Jon Cooper’s depth chart as the tournament progressed. Although it was fewer minutes than he’s used to in Philly — he plays more than 24 a night — the blueliner made the most of his ice time.

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    Sanheim finished the tournament tied for the fourth-best plus-minus (plus-6) among all players, despite averaging fewer minutes than 10 of the 12 players who were either tied with him or above him; only forwards Jack Hughes and Joel Armia played fewer minutes among that group.

    He was not on the ice for any of the 10 goals Canada allowed in his five games and his plus-minus was up there with some of the game’s best defensemen — Brock Faber and Cale Makar (plus-6), Zach Werenski (plus-8), and Niko Mikkola, Devon Toews, and his Flyers teammate and, based on Wednesday’s morning skate, his current defensive partner, Rasmus Ristolainen (plus-9).

    “I think that’s kind of why I was brought over, was the ability to kind of be a utility guy and be able to play in different situations,” he said Wednesday at Capital One Arena. “Didn’t get in the first game, and have the ability to step right in and play and give them good minutes.

    “And I just thought as the tournament went along, just gained more confidence with playing each game and gained the trust of the coaching staff to earn more minutes, and was happy with how I performed.”

    Sanheim also had one assist, and it was an important one. He set up Shea Theodore for the game-tying goal with under 10 minutes to go in the semifinals against Finland after receiving a pass from Tom Wilson, whom the Flyers will see with the Capitals on Wednesday (7 p.m., NBCSP). Nathan MacKinnon scored the game-winner with 36 seconds left in regulation.

    He was robbed of a goal by Czech goalie Lukáš Dostál in the quarterfinals, but Sanheim’s name was mentioned over and over again during the gold-medal game by NBC play-by-play man Kenny Albert. A versatile defenseman who can play on the right or the left, he skated more than 15 minutes and had three shots on goal in the finale.

    Defenseman Travis Sanheim believes being around some of the league’s best players and playing such high-level hockey can help him as he returns to the Flyers.

    But while he won a medal, it was obviously not the one he wanted.

    “I’m sure I’ll appreciate the silver years down the road and looking back on it, but obviously right now, disappointment. Thought we did a good job of playing in that tournament and thought that we deserved better,” said Sanheim, who told Unfiltered With Ricky Bo & Bill Colarulo on Tuesday that the medal is currently in his safe.

    “So, it’s hard to enjoy the silver when you think that you had a chance to take gold and you come up short. So, like I said, grateful for the opportunity and the experience and what it all entailed, and yet disappointment that comes with it.”

    The experience was special nonetheless for Sanheim. He took in speedskating with his Canadian teammates, and traded pins, including swapping with Japan and Italy; however, he didn’t realize how big the pin swapping was at the Olympics and was unable to get a few he had his eye on.

    And he was able to spend time with his family. As his mother, Shelly, told The Inquirer on New Year’s Eve, the whole family was headed to Italy to watch Sanheim don the maple leaf.

    “Just appreciative of the support that I get. Everyone that came over has been with me from when I was a kid, and happy to be able to share that experience with them,” he said, also mentioning that it meant the world to him that his hometown, Elkhorn, Manitoba, showed its support too.

    “ … And, at the end of it, showing them the medal, and them putting it on and getting pictures, you get to see the joy and what it meant for them to experience what I was going through and fortunate to have those guys.”

    But while the Olympics are over and he is back with the Flyers as they begin their final 26-game sprint to the end of the season, that doesn’t mean he won’t take what he learned and experienced to the Orange and Black.

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    “I think how hard you have to play each and every night, the style of play that you need to play, the willingness to do anything to win a hockey game, and different roles that come up throughout the tournament, that guys have to sacrifice for the better good of the team,” he said.

    “And then just the skill level that these guys all play with, and how they play, how hard they work, their off-ice training, and what they do, their preparation. There’s a reason they’re the best in their sport and lucky to share the ice with them.

    “If I can bring any of that back and share that with our team and try and help the guys … and obviously, we want to continue to grow and take the next step, and being able to see that firsthand is going to benefit me.”

    Breakaways

    Dan Vladař (17-8-6, .905 save percentage) was the first goalie off at morning skate and is expected to be the starter against Washington. … The Flyers officially loaned defenseman Adam Ginning back to Lehigh Valley of the American Hockey League on Wednesday.

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  • Lower Merion police shot and killed a former child abuse investigator wanted for child rape, authorities said

    Lower Merion police shot and killed a former child abuse investigator wanted for child rape, authorities said

    A former Morton Borough police officer is dead after Lower Merion police shot and killed him when he exchanged gunfire with officers in Bala Cynwyd Wednesday morning, authorities said.

    Francis Connell Collier, 38, who previously served as a part-time officer in the Delaware County borough, was wanted on charges of rape and other sex crimes involving children at the time of the shooting.

    Authorities said Lower Merion police spotted Collier’s vehicle on Old Lancaster Road in the Bala Cynwyd section of the township around 3:48 a.m. When they saw him return to his car, police said, officers confronted him, and he shot at the officers, who returned fire, fatally wounding him.

    The officers had not been serving a warrant for Collier’s arrest at the time of the shooting, but the department was aware of the charges against him, said Lower Merion Police Capt. John Tucci.

    Charges in the rape case had been filed Tuesday in Upper Darby, according to a spokesperson for the Attorney General’s Office, which brought the case against him.

    In addition to serving in Morton, Collier was previously a member of the Delaware County District Attorney’s Office’s Child Abuse and Exploitation Task Force, a spokesperson for District Attorney Tanner Rouse said.

    Collier’s appointment in 2022 was not made during Rouse’s tenure, and he was removed from the task force the following year during a leadership change within the unit, the spokesperson said.

    When the sex abuse allegations against Collier were reported to authorities late last year, Rouse’s office initially investigated, but later referred the case to state prosecutors because of a conflict of interest.

    In a statement on Collier’s shooting death Wednesday, the Delaware County DA’s Office said he ”reportedly engaged in actions that led to what has been described as ‘suicide by cop.’”

    Police have not released the names of the officers involved in the shooting, which is under investigation by the Montgomery County District Attorney’s Office. It was unclear whether the officers had been placed on leave, as is customary, as the inquiry continues.

    Morton Borough police learned of the criminal investigation in December, department officials said, and Collier was placed on unpaid administrative leave.

    He resigned from the department on Dec. 19, they said.

    The criminal case against Collier began late last year, authorities said, when Delaware County investigators learned that he may have sexually abused children.

    Two women told investigators Collier had touched them inappropriately in the early 2000s, when they were five and six years old and Collier was a teenager, according to the affidavit of probable cause for his arrest. The women said the abuse began in 2001 and 2003, the affidavit said.

    Collier was 15 when he assaulted the first victim the document said.

    The second woman said Collier had assaulted her as well, framing the abuse as a “game” that involved sex toys and sex acts. She said she told her mother at the time that Collier was touching her inappropriately but when confronted, she said, he denied the abuse.

    Years later, the women said, they learned that Collier worked with Delaware County’s child abuse task force, which investigates sex crimes against children. They said they grew worried when they saw social media posts showing Collier posing with children, the document said.

    When investigators interviewed Collier about the allegations in early December, the affidavit said, he failed a polygraph test, but told detectives he “never intentionally touched the girls inappropriately.”

    Investigators referred the case to the Pennsylvania Attorney General’s Office that month because of a possible conflict or interest, the affidavit said. State investigators later interviewed people who said the women had told them of the abuse years ago when they were children, and prosecutors filed the criminal charges against Collier on Tuesday, just hours before his death.

    Lower Merion police said the shooting took place in the area of Old Lancaster Road and City Avenue, a block from St. Joe’s University and not far from Edgehill Court, the apartment complex where Collier lived.

    A neighbor, Liam Riley, said he heard at least seven shots ring out when police confronted Collier.

    “I saw a officer run up, grab something out of his trunk, and then run back up to [Collier’s] car,” Riley, a St. Joe’s University senior, said. “Then I heard them yelling to the guy, ‘Put your hands out of the window, put your hands out of the window.”

    Juliette Palasol, a student at Drexel University who lives a block away with her family, said they didn’t hear the early morning gunfire, but her father left for work at 5 a.m. to find that many of the neighborhood roads closed.

    “I couldn’t believe it — my brother, my cousins — none of us heard it,” Palasol said, outside the Edgehill Court. “I was just surprised to see police bring out firetrucks, drones, and robotic dogs to the scene.”

    Around noon on Wednesday, police officers, assisted by Union Fire Association, raised a ladder to Collier’s third-story apartment, where officers broke through the window and piloted a drone inside to conduct an initial search of his residence. Officers also used a robotic dog to search the apartment “out of an abundance of caution,” police said.

  • Daniela Petroff, AP’s longtime fashion and Vatican reporter, has died at 80

    Daniela Petroff, AP’s longtime fashion and Vatican reporter, has died at 80

    ROME — Daniela Petroff, who helped shape the Associated Press’ fashion and Vatican coverage for nearly four decades with style, authority and wit, has died in Rome. She was 80.

    Ms. Petroff died Tuesday at home, where she was recovering from a fall, said her husband, Victor Simpson, the retired AP Rome bureau chief.

    Ms. Petroff worked for the Chicago Tribune and Time magazine in Rome before moving onto the AP as a Vatican reporter and Milan fashion correspondent. She launched what became a mainstay of the AP’s culture report, covering the four weeks of menswear and womenswear each year.

    In 1985, the Simpsons endured an unfathomable tragedy: Their 11-year-old daughter, Natasha, was killed during the Dec. 27, 1985, terrorist attack at Rome’s airport that also wounded their son, Michael. When their youngest daughter, Debbie, was born two years later, Pope John Paul II called to congratulate Ms. Petroff.

    In announcing Ms. Petroff’s death, Simpson wrote that she had gone to sleep after lunch and decided not to wake up, “to finally embrace again her beloved Natasha.”

    Led AP’s Milan fashion coverage

    Fluent in Italian, German, French and English, Ms. Petroff spearheaded AP’s Milan fashion coverage just as Giorgio Armani was becoming an international figure, setting the pace for other reporters with informative, succinct, fact-based dispatches that stayed away from opinion and reviews.

    “She had a gift for putting the facts into kind of a very artful context,” said Lisa Anderson, who covered Milan fashion for the Chicago Tribune for nearly a decade starting in the mid-1980s. “She looked at that industry, which often takes itself too seriously, with a lot of amusement as well as respect, which is probably the right combination of qualities to approach fashion reporting.”

    Ms. Petroff’s last AP byline appeared in September, when her authoritative profile of Armani was published following the designer’s death.

    “Starting with an unlined jacket, a simple pair of pants and an urban palette, Armani put Italian ready-to-wear style on the international fashion map in the late 1970s, creating an instantly recognizable relaxed silhouette that has propelled the fashion house for half a century,” Ms. Petroff wrote.

    She covered the rise of Gianni Versace, Gucci in the Tom Ford era, Karl Lagerfeld at Fendi, and the Missoni fashion dynasty, and often put her fashion knowledge and smart wordsmithing to work on the Vatican beat.

    In one 2014 story about Pope Francis’ new batch of cardinals, she mused: “But with the ‘slum pope’ now calling the sartorial shots, fashionistas and Vaticanistas are wondering how his new cardinals — who hail from some of the poorest places on Earth, including Haiti, Burkina Faso and Ivory Coast — will dress themselves for their new role.”

    In between those assignments, Ms. Petroff covered some of the biggest cultural events in Italy, including the 2003 reopening of Venice’s La Fenice opera house after a devastating fire. “True to its namesake the phoenix, La Fenice has risen up from the ashes,” she wrote at the reopening.

    Early life in Paris, New York

    Born in 1945 in Mecklenburg, Germany, Ms. Petroff grew up first in Paris and then New York, where she attended the all-girl Convent of the Sacred Heart Catholic school. An only child, her parents and she moved to Rome for Ms. Petroff’s final two years of high school, which she completed at Marymount International School.

    After attending Manhattanville College in New York, Ms. Petroff returned to Rome and graduated from La Sapienza University with a degree in modern languages. In Rome, she soon met the new AP news editor, Victor Simpson. They were married in 1973.

    A childhood friend from New York, Gail Willett Bejarano, recalled ice-skating in Central Park, afterschool ice cream at Schraftt’s, and pushing the rules with the nuns at Sacred Heart. While Ms. Petroff was a top student, she was also part of the posse of girls who would go to ogle the boys at nearby Loyola, “hike your uniform up and put lipstick on, all forbidden,” Bejarano recalled.

    After retiring from AP in 2017, Ms. Petroff dedicated herself to her alma mater, Marymount, where she served as chair of the board.

    A private funeral is scheduled Thursday. A memorial service is planned for Monday at Marymount.

    In addition to Simpson, Ms. Petroff is survived by her son, Michael, and daughter, Debbie.

  • City will pay $2,000 toward Philly homicide victims’ funerals in new program

    City will pay $2,000 toward Philly homicide victims’ funerals in new program

    Families of people killed in Philadelphia will be eligible to receive up to $2,000 to help cover funeral costs under a new city program announced Wednesday.

    The initiative, called the Homicide Victim Funeral Assistance (HVFA) Program, will be available to families whose loved ones are killed on or after March 1, city officials said. The money will be paid directly to funeral service providers, with applications reviewed within 48 hours, they said.

    “Grief is not a bill you should have to carry alone,” said Adam Geer, the city’s chief public safety director, during a news conference unveiling the program.

    The program will be administered by the city’s Office of the Victim Advocate, a division of its Office of Public Safety created last year and led by Adara Combs.

    Combs said the initiative grew out of conversations with families who found themselves planning funerals while still in shock, and struggling financially.

    “This program is born out of listening,” she said.

    The average funeral costs $9,100 in Philadelphia, according to data collected by the Senior Rate Registry. When a loved one is murdered, that expense can arrive suddenly and without warning, Geer said.

    To qualify for aid, families must show their loved one was killed in the city and that their death was ruled a homicide, Combs said.

    The city’s program is meant to be a supplement to existing state aid. Families may also apply for up to $6,500 reimbursement through the state’s Victims Compensation Assistance Program, she said.

    The announcement comes as homicides in Philadelphia have fallen sharply in recent years. After peaking at 562 killings in 2021, the city recorded 255 murders last year — its lowest number in 60 years, according to police data. As of Tuesday, 15 people had been killed so far this year.

    Mayor Cherelle L. Parker said the program is a way for the city to move beyond platitudes.

    “I get so tired of telling people that … our thoughts and prayers are with you,” she said. “We’re sending thoughts and prayers, but they’re literally looking at funeral bills, and they’re trying to figure out, in the midst of this loss, how will we pay?”

    “I am proud that we have been able to come together and use government as a tool to help families in need,” she said.

    To receive additional information or apply after March 1, call 215-686-2115 or email OVAfuneralfund@phila.gov.

  • Trump floats new retirement benefit for 54 million workers

    Trump floats new retirement benefit for 54 million workers

    President Donald Trump, in his State of the Union address Tuesday night, suggested a major new retirement benefit for tens of millions of American workers, embracing an economic policy that proponents say could bolster the federal retirement safety net.

    Speaking to congressional lawmakers, Trump pledged to extend to private-sector workers the same type of retirement plan already available to federal employees. He also said the government would kick in up to $1,000 per year to their accounts, presumably in matching benefits. Roughly 54 million workers in the private sector have no workplace retirement benefits and do not benefit from stock market gains, according to research cited by the Economic Innovation Group, a Washington-based think tank, as part of what some experts have termed a “retirement crisis” in America.

    “Half of all of working Americans still do not have access to a retirement plan with matching contributions from an employer,” Trump said. “To remedy this gross disparity, I’m announcing that next year, my administration will give these often forgotten American workers — great people, the people that built our country — access to the same type of retirement plan offered to every federal worker. We will match your contribution with up to $1,000 each year.”

    The announcement was celebrated by Trump supporters as a major new economic policy heading into the 2026 midterm elections, but critics pointed out some problems with Trump’s pledges, and are skeptical it will substantially boost savings for working-class Americans.

    The most obvious challenge is that it’s not clear how much Trump can do on his own. Under existing authorities, the administration can create portable retirement accounts — modeled on the Thrift Savings Plan used by federal employees — and make them available to workers who currently lack a workplace plan. But the government cannot compel employers or workers to automatically enroll, nor can it unilaterally appropriate funds to provide a universal $1,000 match to all eligible workers.

    Instead, the administration can facilitate take-up of a benefit that already exists. The bipartisan Secure 2.0 bill, signed by President Joe Biden in 2022, created a “Saver’s Match” — a federal contribution of up to $1,000 annually for qualifying workers who put $2,000 in an eligible retirement account. One problem has been that many eligible workers have had nowhere to put their contributions. Trump’s executive action could create additional account infrastructure, but eligibility would still be constrained. Only workers who make less than $25,000 per year, or roughly $41,000 for couples, are eligible.

    More impactful would be if Trump’s comments spur congressional action. A White House official suggested that the administration will support bipartisan legislation to automatically enroll eligible workers in federal accounts, provide the $1,000 federal match for low- and moderate-income workers, and make those accounts portable across jobs. One bill is backed by a coalition that spans Charles Schwab, AARP, DoorDash, and Uber.

    White House economist Kevin Hassett has backed a similar kind of approach. Of the more than $200 billion in annual income tax expenditures related to retirement savings, less than 1% flows to workers in the bottom income quintile, according to the Economic Innovation Group. This would move some of those benefits down the income distribution.

    “Since we’ve had the 401(k) system this has always been the problem: A huge share of the workforce has not been participating and doesn’t have access to these benefits. Closing that gap is a big first step,” said John Lettieri, cofounder of the Economic Innovation Group. “It’s a long-run exercise to get people into the market, engaged in long-term savings and investment behavior with matching benefits. That’s a proven way of building wealth over time, including for low-income savers.”

    That said, there are reasons to doubt that even the legislation being debated in Congress would do much to increase retirement security for low-income workers. Low-income Americans often do not have enough to live on already, much less an extra $2,000 per year to put into retirement accounts, said Matt Bruenig, founder of the People’s Policy Project, a left-leaning think tank.

    The Survey of Consumer Finances suggests that fewer than 12% of people who earn below $43,000 save for retirement.

    “Almost no low-income people have retirement accounts. This is not because they are disallowed from having them,” Bruenig said. “It’s because they can barely pay their bills. Nothing in the president’s plan changes that.”

  • unCovering the Birds: Howie Roseman, Nick Sirianni speak!

    unCovering the Birds: Howie Roseman, Nick Sirianni speak!

    AJ Brown’s future…Sean Mannion’s hiring as offensive coordinator…Jeff Stoutland’s awkward exit…the Eagles’ strategy for free agency and the draft. These have been the dominant storylines of the Eagles’ offseason. More than a month after the team’s unceremonious exit from the playoffs, its top two decision makers finally weighed in publicly on these topics. Ahead of this week’s NFL combine, The Philadelphia Inquirer’s Jeff McLane and Olivia Reiner participated in beat reporters-only interview sessions with general manager Howie Roseman and head coach Nick Sirianni. With the embargo lifted, Jeff and Olivia discuss their main takeaways.

    00:00 Roseman and Sirianni speak!

    01:13 Roseman and Sirianni address the AJ Brown situation

    10:26 Sirianni indicates that offense will be different under new coordinator Sean Mannion

    20:15 Sirianni gives his side of the Jeff Stoutland story

    26:34 How will coaching changes affect Howie Roseman’s offseason personnel strategy

    unCovering the Birds is a production of The Philadelphia Inquirer and KYW Newsradio Original Podcasts. Look for new episodes throughout the season, including day-after-game reactions.