Immediately following the Eagles’ loss to the San Francisco 49ers, a somber feeling started to take over the Golf Place. Those gathered at the Bucks County golf simulator facility to watch the Eagles while working on their swings began to pack up and go home, and co-owners Justin Hepler and Killian Lennon began to close up shop.
But in a brief moment, an idea was developed to help Birds fans release their anger after a disappointing loss: letting them hit golf balls at offensive coordinator Kevin Patullo’s face — or at least an image of it.
Earlier in the season, some fans broke the law by egging Patullo’s Moorestown home after the Eagles’ Black Friday loss to the Bears. The Golf Place’s idea keeps the flying objects far from the real Patullo, and within legal bounds.
“It was a fun way to let off some steam, but also make it fun for everybody involved,” Hepler, 24, said. “And obviously Killian in the video is a diehard Eagles fan, so he was pretty upset. But, everybody in here has gotten a kick out it.”
The Golf Place, located in Langhorne, has been open for a brief two-and-a-half months but is now getting more attention after the video of Lennon, 29, went viral overnight, accumulating over 200,000 views on social media and over 10,000 likes.
“We knew it had some potential because this was eight minutes after the game ended,” Hepler said. “So we thought it was pretty hilarious.”
So why the face of the first-year coordinator? To them, the answer is simple.
“No one’s happy with the offense this year, obviously,” Hepler said. “I’m sure you can see all the Eagles fans that related to it. You can see all the comments saying, ‘This could have been recorded any month of the year.’ We could have had this for not just a today type of deal.”
The Eagles offense took a major step back under first-year coordinator Kevin Patullo.
As of Monday afternoon, one person had already entered the store asking to take them up on their offer of hitting golf balls at Patullo. They said all fans are welcomed to request the same thing.
And although Hepler isn’t an Eagles fan, he knows there’s a glaring change that needs to be made by the team this offseason.
“Fire Patullo,” Hepler said. “That’s the answer for them. I mean, that’s what everyone says. That’s what Killian’s first response was, and I think that’s the overall message.”
KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia — Malaysia and Indonesia have become the first countries to block Grok, the artificial intelligence chatbot developed by Elon Musk’s company xAI, as concerns grow among global authorities that it is being misused to generate sexually explicit and nonconsensual images.
There is growing scrutiny of generative AI tools that can produce realistic images, sound, and text, and concern that existing safeguards are failing to prevent their abuse. The Grok chatbot, accessed through Musk’s social media platform X, has been criticized for generating manipulated images, including depictions of women in bikinis or sexually explicit poses, as well as images involving children.
“The government sees nonconsensual sexual deepfakes as a serious violation of human rights, dignity and the safety of citizens in the digital space,” Indonesian Communication and Digital Affairs Minister Meutya Hafid said in a statement.
Scrutiny of Grok is growing, including in the European Union, India, France, and the United Kingdom, which said Monday it was moving to criminalize “nudification apps.” Britain’s media regulator also launched an investigation into whether Grok broke the law by allowing users to share sexualized images of children.
An emailed request for comment by the Associated Press to xAI resulted in an automated reply from the media support address which stated, “Legacy Media Lies.” This was the same message received from a different address when asked for comment regarding the global backlash.
Asian action aimed at Grok
Regulators in the two Southeast Asian nations said existing controls weren’t preventing the creation and spread of fake pornographic content, particularly involving women and minors. Indonesia’s government temporarily blocked access to Grok on Saturday, followed by Malaysia on Sunday.
Initial findings showed Grok lacks effective safeguards to stop users from creating and distributing pornographic content based on real photos of Indonesian residents, Alexander Sabar, director-general of digital space supervision, said in a statement. He said such practices risk violating privacy and image rights when photos are manipulated or shared without consent.
The Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission noted “repeated misuse” of the tool to generate obscene, sexually explicit, and nonconsensual manipulated images, including content involving women and minors.
The regulator said notices were issued this month to X Corp. and xAI demanding stronger safeguards.
“The restriction is imposed as a preventive and proportionate measure while legal and regulatory processes are ongoing,” it said, adding that access will remain blocked until effective safeguards are put in place.
Investigation launched in U.K.
Launched in 2023, Grok is free to use on X. An image generator feature, Grok Imagine, was added last year and included a so-called spicy mode that can generate adult content.
The U.K.’s media regulator said it launched an investigation into whether Grok violated its duty to protect people from illegal content. The regulator, Ofcom, said Grok-generated images of children being sexualized or people being undressed may amount to pornography or child sexual abuse material.
Technology Secretary Liz Kendall called the AI-generated images “weapons of abuse” and said the center-left Labour government would target the source of the problem by making it a crime for companies to supply tools to create nude images without consent.
Kendall said X could face a possible Ofcom fine of up to 10% of its qualifying global revenue depending on the investigation’s outcome and a possible court order blocking access to the site.
“They can choose to act sooner to ensure this abhorrent and illegal material cannot be shared on their platform,” Kendall said in Parliament.
Musk over the weekend called the British government “fascist” and said it is trying stifle free speech.
One of the family leaders of the Santucci’s Original Square Pizza empire was sentenced Monday to one day in jail and 18 months of supervised release for significantly understating the business’ earnings over the course of several years, causing him and other company officials to underpay taxes by nearly $1.4 million.
Frank Santucci Sr., 67, who had taken over the family business from his parents nearly 50 years ago, said he was “embarrassed” and “deeply sorry” for his actions, which federal prosecutors described as a long-running cash skimming operation. He pleaded guilty last year to charges of tax evasion and filing false tax returns.
“I spent my life trying to be an honest man,” Santucci said Monday during his sentencing hearing in federal court, “and knowing I fell short of those values is something I deeply regret.”
Prosecutors said in court documents that Santucci was a company patriarch who had “informal bookkeeping responsibilities” at the family’s pizza shops in South Philadelphia, Roxborough, and on North Broad Street. The restaurants are well-known for offering square, thick-crust pies with layers of sauce and toppings piled on top of cheese.
Although the business had for years employed a cash-only policy, prosecutors said, Santucci began keeping two sets of books as the company began using an electronic point-of-sale system in 2017. One of the sets of records included details for issues like payroll and expenses, which Santucci showed to his tax accountants, prosecutors said, and the other — which Santucci concealed from his accountants — is where he deposited some of the restaurants’ cash earnings.
As a result, prosecutors said, Santucci understated the shops’ earnings by about $5 million between 2015 and 2018. And that caused him to underpay his personal taxes by nearly $400,000, they said, while his co-owners underpaid theirs by about $700,000, and the business underpaid employment taxes by about $300,000.
Santucci — who was the only person charged in the case — has already repaid his personal tax bill, said his attorney, Richard J. Fuschino Jr. And Fuschino said Santucci was a man whose life had otherwise been defined by his hard work at his namesake shops, and an unerring dedication to his family and community.
“Mr Santucci is, on the whole of it, as good as [people] get,” Fuschino said.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Patrick Murray did not disagree that Santucci supported his family, and said it was notable that he had accepted responsibility for his crimes. But he said Santucci nonetheless engaged in a long-running scheme that deprived the IRS of revenue and, by extension, allowed Santucci’s business and relatives to keep more money than they were entitled to.
U.S. District Judge Karen S. Marston did not discount the seriousness of the crimes, but said Santucci’s age, health concerns — he suffered two strokes in recent years — and his role as a grandfather who is actively involved in caring for his young grandchildren all factored into her sentencing decision. She said his day in custody would be Monday and also ordered him to perform 300 hours of community service.
“I do believe that Mr. Santucci has shown the remorse that’s necessary in this particular case,” she said.
The Santucci’s pizzerias and their many franchise locations remain in operation and were not impacted by the case, Fuschino said.
WASHINGTON — Americans are increasingly rejecting the two major political parties, according to new polling.
Just under half, 45%, of U.S. adults now identify as independents, a new Gallup survey found. That’s a substantial shift from 20 years ago, when closer to one-third of Americans said they didn’t identify with the Democrats or Republicans.
This group appears, increasingly, to be driven by their unhappiness with the party in power, according to Gallup’s analysis. That’s a dynamic that could be good for Democrats in this year’s midterm elections, but doesn’t promise lasting loyalty. Independents have gravitated toward the Democrats over the past year when asked which party they lean toward, Gallup found, but attitudes toward the party haven’t gotten warmer. That suggests that the Democrats’ gains are probably more related to independents’ increasingly sour views of President Donald Trump.
Younger people, in particular, are rejecting the parties at much higher rates than older generations. More than half of Generation Z and Millennials identify as political independents, while a majority of older generations side with a party. That’s different from the past, when more young adults identified with the Democrats or the Republicans. And it’s part of the reason why frequent, dramatic swings in political power may become increasingly normal.
Democrats regain the edge with independents
Independents have long been the largest political group in the U.S., and their numbers have increased over the last 15 years. But often, they’re more inclined to side with one of the parties over the other.
This year, the Democratic Party gained the partisanship edge when independents were asked whether they lean more toward the Democratic or Republican Party. Nearly half, 47%, of U.S. adults now identify as Democrats or lean toward the Democratic Party, while 42% are Republicans or lean Republican. This is an indication of how Americans are feeling about their political affiliations, and it may not be reflected in voters’ actual registration.
This shifted the 3-year party affiliation advantage that the Republican Party held while President Joe Biden was in office, reverting to where the Democrats stood during Trump’s first term.
While that’s certainly not bad news for Democrats as they look to regain one or both houses of Congress in November, it’s likelier that they’re benefiting from independents’ unhappiness with Trump, rather than building lasting goodwill for themselves. Trump’s approval among independents has fallen steadily over the year, while Democrats’ favorability remains historically low.
Young people drive independents’ strength
Younger Americans are driving the recent rise in U.S. adults identifying as independents.
The Gallup polling found majorities of Gen Z and Millennial adults — who were born between 1981 and 2007 — now identify as independents. Independent identity is softer in older generations, where only about 4 in 10 in Gen X currently call themselves independents and roughly 3 in 10 older adults do.
Young adults today are more likely than previous generations to identify outside of the Democratic and Republican Party. While 56% of Gen Z adults call themselves independents, that’s higher than in 2012, when 47% of Millennials said they were independents, and 1992, when 40% of Gen X adults identified that way, according to the Gallup analysis.
That means that this trend isn’t likely to shift, unless the parties are able to change the way younger people see them.
Independent Americans are increasingly the moderates
Americans who identify as moderates increasingly don’t see themselves in either party, Gallup’s polling shows.
More independents have described their political views as “moderate” over the last decade, while Democrats and Republicans have grown less likely to identity as moderates.
About half of independents, 47%, called themselves moderates in 2025, compared to about 3 in 10 Democrats and about 2 in 10 Republicans.
At the same time, Democrats and Republicans have become increasingly polarized in their ideology. About 6 in 10 Democrats now call themselves liberal, while the share that consider themselves moderate is among the lowest it’s ever been. Among Republicans, 77% consider themselves conservative, and moderate identity is also at a low point.
That creates another challenge for the parties to contend with, since appeals to the center to win the growing pool of independents could risk alienating the most committed people in their base.
HAVANA — Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel said Monday that his administration is not in talks with the U.S. government, a day after President Donald Trump threatened the Caribbean island in the wake of the U.S. attack on Venezuela.
Díaz-Canel posted a flurry of brief statements on X after Trump suggested that Cuba “make a deal, BEFORE IT IS TOO LATE.” He did not say what kind of deal.
Díaz-Canel wrote that for “relations between the U.S. and Cuba to progress, they must be based on international law rather than hostility, threats, and economic coercion.”
He added: “We have always been willing to hold a serious and responsible dialogue with the various US governments, including the current one, on the basis of sovereign equality, mutual respect, principles of International Law, and mutual benefit without interference in internal affairs and with full respect for our independence.”
His statements were reposted by Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodríguez on X.
A key lifeline severed
On Sunday, Trump wrote that Cuba would no longer live off oil and money from Venezuela, which the U.S. attacked on Jan. 3 in a stunning operation that killed 32 Cuban officers and led to the arrest of President Nicolás Maduro.
Cuba was receiving an estimated 35,000 barrels a day from Venezuela before the U.S. attacked, along with some 5,500 barrels daily from Mexico and roughly 7,500 from Russia, according to Jorge Piñón of the Energy Institute at the University of Texas at Austin, who tracks the shipments.
On Monday, Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum once again declined to provide data on current oil shipments or say whether such shipments would increase when Venezuelan supplies end. She insisted that the aid “has been ongoing for a long time; it’s not new.”
Sheinbaum said Mexico’s fuel supply to Cuba is not a concern for her country because “there is enough oil” — even though production of state-owned oil company Petróleos Mexicanos is steadily declining. She reiterated that her government is willing to facilitate dialogue between the U.S. and Cuba if both agree.
Even with oil shipments from Venezuela, widespread blackouts have persisted across Cuba given fuel shortages and a crumbling electric grid. Experts worry a lack of petroleum would only deepen the island’s multiple crises that stem from an economic paralysis during the COVID-19 pandemic and a radical increase in U.S. sanctions following the first Trump administration, which aim to force a change in Cuba’s political model.
The communist government has said U.S. sanctions cost the country more than $7.5 billion between March 2024 and February 2025, a staggering sum for an island whose tourism revenue reached some $3 billion annually at its peak in the previous decade.
The crisis also has triggered a large wave of migration primarily to the United States, where Cubans enjoyed immigration privileges as exiles. Those privileges were curtailed before Trump closed U.S. borders.
‘They didn’t even bring Cuban coffee’
The situation between the U.S. and Cuba is “very sad and concerning,” said Andy S. Gómez, retired dean of the School of International Studies and senior fellow in Cuban Studies at the University of Miami.
He said he sees Díaz-Canel’s latest comments “as a way to try and buy a little bit of time for the inner circle to decide what steps it’s going to take.”
Gómez said he doesn’t visualize Cuba reaching out to U.S. officials right now.
“They had every opportunity when President (Barack) Obama opened up U.S. diplomatic relations, and yet they didn’t even bring Cuban coffee to the table,” Gómez said. “Of course, these are desperate times for Cuba.”
Michael Galant, senior research and outreach associate at the Center for Economic and Policy Research in Washington, D.C., said he believes Cuba might be willing to negotiate.
“Cuba has been interested in finding ways to ease sanctions,” he said. “It’s not that Cuba is uncooperative.”
Galant said topics for discussion could include migration and security, adding that he believes Trump is not in a hurry.
“Trump is hoping to deepen the economic crisis on the island, and there are few costs to Trump to try and wait that out,” he said. “I don’t think it’s likely that there will be any dramatic action in the coming days because there is no rush to come to the table.”
Cuba’s president stressed on X that “there are no talks with the U.S. government, except for technical contacts in the area of migration.”
As tensions remained heightened, life went on as usual for many Cubans, although some were more concerned than others.
Oreidy Guzmán, a 32- year-old food delivery person, said he doesn’t want anything bad to happen to Cubans, “but if something has to happen, the people deserve change.”
Meanwhile, 37-year-old homemaker Meilyn Gómez said that while she doesn’t believe the U.S. would invade Cuba, she was preparing for any possible outcome under Trump: “He’ll find entertainment anywhere.”
The current situation is dominating chatter among Cubans on the island and beyond.
“Cuban people talk and talk,” said 57-year-old bartender Rubén Benítez, “but to be honest, eleven, eight or nine million will take to the streets to defend what little we have left.”
WASHINGTON — The Trump administration secretly reimposed a policy limiting Congress members’ access to immigration detention facilities a day after a federal immigration officer fatally shot a woman in Minneapolis, attorneys for several congressional Democrats said Monday in asking a federal judge to intervene.
Three Democratic members of Congress from Minnesota were blocked from visiting an Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility near Minneapolis on Saturday, three days after an ICE officer shot and killed U.S. citizen Renee Good in the city.
Last month, U.S. District Judge Jia Cobb in Washington, D.C., temporarily blocked ICE from enforcing policies limiting Congress members’ access to immigration detention facilities. In a court filing on Monday, plaintiffs’ lawyers asked Cobb to hold an emergency hearing and decide if the duplicate notice policy violates her order.
Cobb ruled on Dec. 17 that it is likely illegal for ICE to demand a week’s notice from members of Congress seeking to visit and observe conditions in ICE facilities. The judge said the seven-day notice requirement likely exceeds the Department of Homeland Security’s statutory authority.
The attorneys asking Cobb for an emergency hearing say the matter is urgent because members of Congress are negotiating funding for DHS and ICE for the next fiscal year with DHS’ annual appropriations due to expire on Jan. 30.
“This is a critical moment for oversight, and members of Congress must be able to conduct oversight at ICE detention facilities, without notice, to obtain urgent and essential information for ongoing funding negotiations,” the lawyers wrote.
Cobb didn’t immediately rule on the plaintiffs’ hearing request. Government attorneys also didn’t immediately respond in writing to it.
On Saturday, U.S. Reps. Ilhan Omar, Kelly Morrison, and Angie Craig attempted to tour the ICE facility in the Minneapolis federal building. They initially were allowed to enter but then told they had to leave about 10 minutes later.
Officials who turned them away cited a newly imposed seven-day-notice policy for congressional oversight visits. Last Thursday, a day after Good’s death, U.S. Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem secretly signed a new memorandum reinstating the same seven-day notice requirement, according to the plaintiffs’ lawyers.
Cobb, who was nominated to the bench by Democratic President Joe Biden, ruled last month in favor of 12 other members of Congress who sued to challenge ICE’s amended visitor policies after they were denied entry to detention facilities. Their lawsuit accused Republican President Donald Trump’s administration of obstructing congressional oversight of the centers during its nationwide surge in immigration enforcement operations.
Government attorneys had argued that the plaintiffs didn’t have legal standing to bring their claims. They also said it’s merely speculative for the legislators to be concerned that conditions in ICE facilities change over the course of a week. But the judge rejected those arguments.
“The changing conditions within ICE facilities means that it is likely impossible for a Member of Congress to reconstruct the conditions at a facility on the day that they initially sought to enter,” Cobb wrote.
A law bars DHS from using appropriated general funds to prevent members of Congress from entering DHS facilities for oversight purposes. Plaintiffs’ attorneys from the Democracy Forward Foundation said the administration hasn’t shown that none of those funds are being used to implement the latest notice policy.
NEW YORK — Thousands of nurses in three hospital systems in New York City went on strike Monday after negotiations through the weekend failed to yield breakthroughs in their contract disputes.
“Nurses on strike! … Fair contract now!” they shouted on a picket line outside NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital’s campus in Upper Manhattan. Others picketed at hospitals in the Mount Sinai and Montefiore systems, where a 2023 nursing strike fed off pandemic-era frustrations and led to a deal to boost staffing and pay.
“And now, it’s how they’re treating us: They don’t want to give us a fair contract, and they don’t want to give us safe staffing, and now they’re trying to roll back on our benefits,” emergency department nurse Tristan Castillo said as she picketed Monday outside Mount Sinai West.
About 15,000 nurses are involved in the strike, according to their union, the New York State Nurses Association. The hospitals remained open, hiring droves of temporary nurses to try to fill the labor gap.
The strike involves private, nonprofit hospitals, not city-run ones. But the strike, which the union casts as lifesaving essential workers fighting hospital executives who make millions of dollars a year, could be a significant early test of Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s new administration.
The democratic socialist campaigned on a pro-worker platform and struck a similar note while visiting nurses on the NewYork-Presbyterian picket line Monday.
“These executives are not having difficulty making ends meet,” said Mamdani, who extolled nurses’ work and said they were seeking “dignity, respect, and the fair pay and treatment that they deserve. They should settle for nothing less.”
Some other Democratic city and state politicians also visited striking nurses, while Gov. Kathy Hochul sent state health officials to the hospitals to keep watch over patient care. She called in a statement for the sides to negotiate a deal that “recognizes the essential work nurses do.”
The strike, which comes during a severe flu season, could potentially force the hospitals to transfer patients, cancel procedures, or divert ambulances. It could also put a strain on city hospitals not involved in the contract dispute, as patients avoid the medical centers hit by the strike.
The nurses’ demands vary by hospital, but the major issues include staffing levels and workplace safety. The union says hospitals have given nurses unmanageable workloads.
Nurses also want better security measures in the workplace, citing incidents such as an episode last week when a man with a sharp object barricaded himself in a Brooklyn hospital room and was then killed by police.
The union also wants limitations on hospitals’ use of artificial intelligence.
The hospitals say that they’ve been working to improve staffing levels but say that the union’s demands overall are too costly.
After the nurses gave notice Jan. 2 of the looming strike, the hospitals hired temporary nurses, vowed to “do whatever is necessary to minimize disruptions,” and said they were prepared to deliver care no matter how long the strike lasts. Mount Sinai said in a statement Monday it had lined up 1,400 temporary nurses.
Mount Sinai said the union was making “extreme economic demands.” Montefiore spokesperson Joe Solmonese said the union was pressing “$3.6 billion in reckless demands,” including exorbitant raises. The union hasn’t publicly disclosed its salary proposal.
NewYork-Presbyterian accused the union of staging a strike to “create disruption.”
“We’re ready to keep negotiating a fair and reasonable contract that reflects our respect for our nurses and the critical role they play, and also recognizes the challenging realities of today’s healthcare environment,” the hospital said.
Each medical center is negotiating with the union independently. Several other private hospitals in and near New York City reached deals in recent days to avert a possible strike.
The three-day strike in 2023 resulted in a deal raising pay 19% over three years at Mount Sinai and Montefiore. The pact also included staffing improvements, though the union and hospitals now disagree about how much progress has been made, or whether the hospitals are retreating from staffing guarantees.
The sides also dispute whether the hospitals are trying to reduce health benefits. Mount Sinai, for instance, says its proposals would cut costs without changing coverage.
The Eagles’ road to repeating as Super Bowl champions ended abruptly Sunday with a 23-19 loss to the San Francisco 49ers at Lincoln Financial Field. Following their early exit in the playoffs, most of the national discussion centered around who’s to blame and potential offseason changes surrounding the Eagles coaching staff — and A.J. Brown, after his sideline spat with Nick Sirianni and several key drops.
Here’s what they’re saying about the Birds following their wild-card loss to the Niners …
‘That was a total embarrassment’
The Eagles offense came up short — again — continuing the theme of this year’s inconsistent unit. Despite a strong first-half performance, Kevin Patullo’s group was more conservative in the second half and mustered just a pair of Jake Elliott field goals.
The regression of the Birds offense has been a main topic of discussion throughout the season. So, for ESPN’s Dan Orlovsky, it wasn’t surprising to see the team’s downfall on Sunday night.
“That was a total embarrassment from Philly, offensively,” Orlovsky said Monday on Get Up. “And we all saw it coming. We talked about it all season long. The fact that they didn’t see it coming is concerning. Yes, there’s going to be changes. But, Howie Roseman, their general manager, has got to be sitting back going, ‘Wait, wait, wait, wait, this is a roster that I put together that should no question have contended for another Super Bowl.’ …
“We all saw this embarrassing performance coming and it still happened. And it was allowed to happen.”
On X, Orlovsky, a former NFL quarterback, also broke down the Eagles’ final drive Sunday night, posting the video with a one-word caption: “Ugly.”
To former NFL quarterback Cam Newton, Sunday’s performance revealed all the flaws the Birds “tried to mask” throughout the season.
“The Philadelphia Eagles were who we thought they were,” said Newton on First Take. “And yesterday’s performance was a microcosm of that. We’ve seen insufficient play. We’ve seen ups and downs and the downs and the ups. … What we’ve seen is nothing new. They tried to mask it. They tried to put lip balm. They tried to put eyeliner. They tried to put mascara on it and they tried to challenge the status quo of you’ve been doing this all year.”
Eagles wide receiver A.J. Brown can’t pull in a deep pass from Jalen Hurts during the second quarter. He dropped several passes in the loss.
Will the Eagles trade A.J. Brown?
The most action Brown saw all night was when the broadcast caught Nick Sirianni yelling at him on the sideline. The receiver recorded three receptions for 25 yards; he missed a potentially big first-half reception and had a costly third-down drop later in the game. After the loss, Brown didn’t speak to media.
Former tight end Shannon Sharpe believes it’s time for the Eagles to move on.
“Me, personally, I think it’s the best if the Eagles just go their separate ways,” Sharpe told Chad “Ochocinco” Johnson on the Nightcap podcast. “He needs to go somewhere where he feels like he’s going to get — he’s looking at it, Ocho, like I need to be getting the Puka Nacua type targets.”
Former NFL safety Ryan Clark also believes Brown won’t be in Philly next season.
“A.J. Brown is getting traded,” Clark said on ESPN’s First Take. “He wants out and they need to want him out. That relationship is over. That relationship is done and part of it is the Philadelphia Eagles, but a lot of it is on A.J. Brown. … A.J. Brown this year was more problems than he was worth.”
If the Eagles do move on from Brown, however, it might not happen until later in the year. According to Spotrac, trading him before June 1 would cost the Birds a fortune.
“If the Eagles were to bite the bullet and trade Brown early this offseason,” Michael Ginnitti writes, “they’d be taking on the 4th largest single season dead cap hit in NFL history (and making a heck of a lot more financial trouble for themselves as well).”
Jalen Hurts and the Eagles scored a pair of touchdowns in the first half, but settled for just two field goals in the second.
‘Jalen Hurts is holding them back’
Although most of the finger pointing has been directed at Patullo, former Eagles running back LeSean McCoy said a lot of the Eagles offensive struggles could be because of the team’s starting quarterback, Jalen Hurts.
“Jalen Hurts, I need you to be special, make plays,” McCoy said on The Speakeasy show. “I did a lot of digging, man, and I won’t throw them under the bus here. But I know some people, right. And the problem is, we can’t do different exotic looks, different formations, different motions because I’m hearing that [Hurts] can’t really do it. So, we get to a game like this, we got to have it. We’re playing against the Niners. They’re with their second unit. …
“I look at the quarterback, like, if we have all these special players, Hall of Fame-type running back, Hall of Fame-type wide receiver, top three dual wide receivers with A.J. [Brown] and [DeVonta Smith] and a really solid tight end with Dallas [Goedert] and we can’t move the ball? … We got to make some big decisions next year.”
"Jalen Hurts, I need you to be special…If Brock Purdy had [the Eagles] weapons, we win this game by at least ten points…"
– @CutonDime25 CLEARLY upset about his Eagles losing to the 49ers
“They certainly could be more creative on the offensive side and we know that. But, Jalen Hurts is holding them back in that department,” Chris Simms, a longtime Hurts detractor, said on Pro Football Talk Live. “I know these things. He doesn’t want the offense expanded, to a degree. So, that kind of handcuffs them a little bit.
“And then, when you’re an offense, you can’t go to do advanced geometry when you brought up a minute ago that you can watch the film and go here’s a basic play and the guy’s open and he doesn’t throw it. That doesn’t give the coaches the confidence to go, ‘Let’s go deeper into the playbook.’”
Nick Sirianni lost a home playoff game for the first time Sunday.
‘There’s enough blame for everybody’
Former Eagles linebacker Seth Joyner believes Sunday’s loss was a team effort.
“There’s enough blame for everybody,” he said on The Seth Joyner Show. “Wide receivers dropping balls, not catching balls, not giving maximum effort. Players on the defensive side standing around not necessarily ready. … They got out-coached, out-played, and they got out-willed today.”
The Eagles got out-coached, out-played, and out-willed today…
However, another former Eagles linebacker, Emmanuel Acho, narrowed it down to three individuals he would like to blame for the loss — and perhaps there’s no surprise that it’s Brown, Patullo, and Hurts.
“A.J. Brown given how talented you are and how much dust you kicked up throughout the course of the season, you have to show up in the biggest moments,” Acho on The Speakeasy talk show. “So, A.J, first person I’m looking at is you because you’re capable. Second person I’m looking at is Kevin Patullo.
“And then lastly, Jalen Hurts. I just need you to be more special. … So, really if I’m going to look at three people: A.J. Brown, got to look at you in the eye. Kevin Patullo, got to look at you in the eye. Jalen Hurts, got to look at you in the eye. Those are the three people that start with the blame.”
"The Eagles offense was INCOMPETENT!"
– @EmmanuelAcho DESTROYS the Philadelphia Eagles following their loss to the San Francisco 49ers
Birch Street will get a new restaurant and cocktail lounge this summer as its makeover in Kennett Square continues.
Opus, a New American upscale restaurant with a second-floor cocktail lounge, will open at 201 Birch St., adjoined to Artelo, a 14-room boutique hotel. Opus is a new initiative for Square Roots Collective, an organization that builds businesses and uses the profits to support nonprofits in southern Chester County.
Opus will boast 125 seats in its 6,000 square-foot building, with outdoor dining and a two-story terrace. During the day, the cocktail bar will serve breakfast to the public and guests of Artelo.
The restaurant, which will be adorned by curated art pieces and a hand-painted ceiling mural, is an extension of Artelo, which Square Roots Collective opened in 2024. The hotel, which replaced the former Birch Inn, offers an immersive art experience, with each room painted by a local or regional artist, creating a living piece of art.
That same principle will follow in Opus, said Luke Zubrod, chief of staff for Square Roots Collective.
“It’s kind of the anchor to Birch Street,” he said. “It’s really kind of setting the tone for the street as a whole — and the tone it’ll set is really an artistic tone. This is a street kind of filled with beauty, and I think that that theme will be more evident over time.”
It’s part of a larger effort to revitalize Birch Street, which has in recent years seen more development, including Square Roots Collective’s beer garden The Creamery, and streetscaping.In the coming years,the street will be resurfaced, and the borough plans to add a trail on one side and sidewalk on the other, along with new streetlights and crosswalks. Square Roots Collective worked with the borough to secure funds for that investment, leaning on grant dollars from the state and county, Zubrod said.
“In addition to the Opus itself, there’s a lot to look forward to,” Zubrod said. “This street is really receiving some public investment that will make it a really vibrant and beautiful place.”
Along with Artelo and The Creamery, 100% of Opus’ funds will go to the organization’s nonprofit, focused on community improvement, he said.
“I think in addition to just being a really exciting restaurant concept, it’s also one people can feel really good about in terms of helping to make the community better,” he said.
Another boutique hotel coming
The Francis, a boutique hotel in central Kennett Square, is slated to open this year. The eight-room hotel will reimagine an 18th century home, and pay homage to the region’s history.
Meanwhile, also coming this year, the collective will open another boutique hotel, at 205 S. Union St. The Francis, an ode to Francis Smith who named Kennett Square for his home back in England, will have eight rooms, each dedicated to the history of the town.
The hotel will reimagine an 18th-century home, and offer single rooms and loft suites with kitchenettes, plus balcony or courtyard access.
One room — “The Watchmaker” — will honor a former resident and watchmaker, Thomas Milhous. Another room, “The Gardener,” will pay homage to the region’s first big harvest: flowers. Others nod to battlegrounds, four generations of a local family, education, plus the region’s history with the Underground Railroad, the Lenni-Lenape tribe and its “rich immigrant history.”
The collective plans on luscious landscaping, with a courtyard serving as “a little bit of an oasis,” said Zubrod.
“There is an appetite to have kind of quaint boutique hotels in the area to meet the needs of people who are coming for Longwood [Gardens] especially,” he said.
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Officials believe there’s no threat to the general public, Philadelphia Health Commissioner Palak Raval-Nelson said in a statement on Monday.
People who were in the following locations at the following times last Wednesdayshould check their vaccination status and watch for measles symptoms, officials said:
Philadelphia International Airport, Terminal A East, from 7:50 p.m. to 11 p.m.
30th Street Station from 8:15 p.m. to 11:25 p.m.
Amtrak Northeast Regional Train Southbound #175, which traveled from Boston to Washington, D.C., and stopped in Philadelphia at 9:23 p.m. People on the train between 9:23 and 11:30 p.m. may have been exposed to the virus.
After traveling through Philadelphia, the person with measles also may have exposed people on parking shuttles at Baltimore’s airport and Amtrak station, according to Maryland’s state health department.
Measles, which spreads through the air when infected people cough, sneeze, or talk, can linger in the air for up to two hours after an infected person leaves an area.
People are considered immune to measles if they are born before 1957, have already had measles, or received two doses of the measles, mumps, and rubella vaccine.
People with immunity don’t have to do anything if they were exposed in Philadelphia last week, health officials said.
People who are not considered immune and were potentially exposed to the virus last week should talk to their doctor about getting an MMR vaccine as soon as possible.
Among them, children under a year old, pregnant people who are not immune, and people with a weakened immune system should call their doctor as soon as possible.
Health officials said that early measles symptoms include a runny nose, a cough, and puffy, red eyes, followed by a rash. The disease is contagious for about four days before a rash develops, and four days after that.
That means that people without immunity who were exposed to the virus could infect others without knowing it. In such cases, they should wear masks in indoor public spaces and around anyone unvaccinated until three weeks pass from the exposure, health officials said.
Anyone who is not immune and believes they were exposed to the virus should contact a doctor immediately if they develop measles symptoms through Jan. 28.
They should also notify the Philadelphia Department of Public Health at 215-685-6740. Pennsylvania residents outside Philadelphia should call the state health department at 877-724-3258.
Health officials noted that measles can lead to pneumonia, brain infection, and death in serious cases.
Area health officials have identified a handful of measles cases in the city in the last year, and warned travelers of another possible measles exposure in the airport in November.
Raval-Nelson noted that many countries, including popular international travel destinations, are seeing measles outbreaks.
Measles has also been spreading in the United States. The CDC reported 49 outbreaks — a cluster of three or more measles cases — in 2025, with 88% of the 2,144 cases nationwide linked to those outbreaks.
In 2024, the U.S. saw 16 outbreaks and 285 cases of measles, with 69% of those cases linked to outbreaks.
Raval-Nelson urged parents to vaccinate young children. While children under a year old are not routinely vaccinated with MMR, she noted, people who are planning to travel outside the country should get the vaccine for infants as young as 6 months to protect them from the virus.
Editor’s note: This story has been updated to correct the age at which a person is considered immune to measles.
