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  • CBS, Washington Post blind themselves when America needs eyes on the ground

    CBS, Washington Post blind themselves when America needs eyes on the ground

    She said all the right things.

    The embattled new boss of CBS News, the until-now opinion journalist Bari Weiss, on Tuesday led a town hall-style meeting for editors and reporters at the storied TV network and appeared to understand both the crisis of American media and the values needed to fix it.

    “Our strategy until now has been: Cling to the audience that remains on broadcast television,” Weiss told her newsroom. “I’m here to tell you that if we stick to that strategy, we’re toast.” She called for more investigative reporting and pledged to merge the values of a high-tech start-up with “journalistic principles that will never change — seeking the truth, serving the public, and ferociously guarding our independence …”

    Meanwhile, the overpowering stench of burning toast filled the room.

    That’s because Weiss and her billionaire pro-Trump overlords, the Ellison family, seem to be doing all the wrong things, undercutting those pretty words. Her first concrete move announced in tandem with the town hall was the hiring of 18 thumb-sucking opinion journalists — a ragtag, right-leaning group that includes a medical huckster and an ex-Trump official — even as the newsroom braced for buyouts and feared layoffs that would slash honest shoe-leather reporting.

    The move toward more commentators telling you what to think about an America spiraling into chaos and fewer boots-on-the-ground journalists digging up what’s needed to fix that crisis — objective truth — could not happen at a worse time, and unfortunately, this is not unique to CBS News.

    The Washington Post — which has lost hundreds of thousands of digital subscribers since a self-coup by its billionaire owner, Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, shifted its opinion section to the political right — is also bracing for deep staff cuts that would cripple its international reporting, as well as its sports staff.

    The extent of the widely rumored staff reductions isn’t yet known, but a preview came last week when the paper briefly told the newsroom it was axing its long-standing plan to send 12 journalists to next month’s Winter Olympics in Italy, before slightly backtracking and saying four reporters would still go.

    Still, that move, and the louder rumors about pending layoffs, has led to deep concern over the future of its metro Washington and international desks. “We urge you to consider how the proposed layoffs will certainly lead us first to irrelevance — not the shared success that remains attainable,” stated a letter from 60 journalists on the foreign desk sent this week to Bezos.

    “It’s all very confusing, and no one knows anything,” an anonymous Post staffer told the Guardian. “The anxiety is so sad.”

    America has been losing news reporters for years. Nationally, newsroom staff have plummeted a whopping 26% since 2008, and the pace of job cuts has only accelerated in recent years as vast news deserts with no sources of local journalism expand across rural America. It’s been a perfect storm prompted heavily by internet-driven changes in reader or viewer habits, as well as declining public trust in traditional media.

    The day that CBS News became literally ‘fake news’ for America | Will Bunch

    But the looming cuts at the Post and CBS are especially painful both in a symbolic sense and also as self-inflicted own goals that will only heighten public mistrust instead of attacking the problem.

    In 1972, with then-President Richard Nixon driving toward a landslide reelection, the Post, under its legendary editor Ben Bradlee, and CBS, with its popular, avuncular anchor Walter Cronkite, were the only two major outlets that took seriously the links between the Watergate break-in and the Nixon White House. Both newsrooms threw major resources into keeping alive the story that eventually caused Nixon to resign, including a 22-minute special report that Cronkite anchored on the CBS Evening News.

    In this undated photo released by Paramount, one of the Free Press’s cofounders, Bari Weiss, poses for a portrait. Weiss is the editor-in-chief of CBS News.

    That kind of accountability journalism created a bond with the audience that should have left CBS and the Post better positioned to weather the economic storms that have battered journalism in the 21st century. The current crises were self-inflicted, albeit for slightly different reasons.

    In Washington, the Post zigzagged from acknowledging what its readers wanted during Donald Trump’s first term — both in its “Democracy Dies in Darkness” slogan to some solid journalism that backed that up — to billionaire Bezos’ embrace of authoritarianism ahead of Trump’s second coming. The Bezos-ordered spiking of a Kamala Harris endorsement and a rightward editorial shift accelerated a steep decline in subscriptions, including about 300,000 lost readers after the nonendorsement.

    One could argue that staff cuts in such an environment are inevitable, but one might also question the priorities of the Post’s owner, the world’s second-richest person. Amazon — where Bezos remains executive chairman — has just spent $75 million on a White House-fluffing Melania documentary expected to bring back just $1 million at the box office.

    The priorities at Weiss-run CBS News seem similarly warped. The money the newsroom is spending on those 18 or so opinion journalists — a motley crew that includes Mark Hyman, who health experts have accused of “quackery,” calling him a “germ theory denialist,” and retired Gen. H.R. McMaster, a key policy adviser in Trump’s first term — could have been spent on new investigative reporters.

    Indeed, a major CBS rival — MS Now, which is also in a state of flux after spinning off from its longtime relationship with NBC News — did exactly that when it hired Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and author Carol Leonnig away from the Post, of all places. Since late last year, Leonning has been scooping CBS and everybody else on corruption in Trump’s Justice Department, and the curious case of immigration czar Tom Homan and his $50,000 Cava bag.

    But then Weiss’ overlords in the Ellison family, whose recent role in the TikTok takeover and current fight to acquire Warner Bros. Discovery both depend on the blessing of the Trump White House, probably don’t want the stories Leonnig is uncovering.

    This is not a diatribe against all opinion journalism. I am an opinion journalist, and I started moving in that direction in the 2000s when I thought someone needed to be screaming from the rooftops about the lying and the war crimes of the George W. Bush regime. I think commentary and debate are especially needed in the local communities where such jobs have vanished the most, but I also think powerful opinion journalism exists mainly to augment on-the-ground reporting, not replace it.

    The greatest irony of the pullbacks at CBS and the Post is that the national crisis over immigration raids in Minnesota and the conduct of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers who’ve killed two citizens has shown that what American democracy needs most is seekers of the truth — much more than people telling you what to think.

    The over-the-top lies from the highest levels of the U.S. government about how and why Renee Good and Alex Pretti were gunned down on the streets of Minneapolis have fallen apart because multiple videos have allowed citizens to see the truth of what actually happened.

    Most of those videos were shot by citizen observers, but with 3,000 federal agents fanning out across Minnesota and hundreds more conducting immigration raids from Maine to Los Angeles, a web of local and independent journalists has also proved critical in documenting the raids and their many human rights abuses.

    Dozens of journalists have been tear-gassed multiple times or struck with rubber bullets or pepper balls, and yet continue to cover protests and ICE activities, often in the most miserable conditions, and keep going out there to create a public record.

    This week, a federal judge called out ICE for violating nearly 100 court orders just since the start of this year. The reason we know about many of these is because of an army of journalists — some independents, some with small community weeklies, and some with metro newspapers like the Chicago Tribune or the Minnesota Star Tribune — who refused to accept the regime’s lies and refused to be scared off by the projectiles fired at them.

    They are showing people the truth. And the truth is rapidly turning public opinion against Trump’s immigration raids and the rush to authoritarianism. Public opinion is changing policy, including the regime’s abrupt retreat from Maine on Thursday, and possible legislative action on Capitol Hill (we’ll believe it when we see it).

    CBS News and the Washington Post could have been at the vanguard of this movement, which would have been a fitting tribute to the legacies of Cronkite and Edward R. Murrow, Bradlee and Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein, and their many intrepid colleagues. Instead, the supposed keepers of those flames have made a horrible, doomed bet on autocracy.

    What I’ve watched in recent weeks coming out of Minneapolis and elsewhere on the front lines of the war for America’s soul has given me more hope for the future of journalism than any time since the ball dropped to launch this cursed millennium. That CBS and the Post chose this exact moment to willingly blind themselves is beyond pathetic.

  • Slavery was central to the presidency. The President’s House should say so.

    Slavery was central to the presidency. The President’s House should say so.

    Last Thursday, the National Park Service removed a series of informational signs about slavery from the President’s House Site at Sixth and Market Streets in Old City Philadelphia.

    Installed when the site opened in 2010, the signs documented the lives of the enslaved people who lived and labored in the home of Presidents George Washington and John Adams. Their removal occurred without consultation with the city, despite a 2006 agreement requiring the parties to meet and confer before any changes were made to the exhibit.

    The City of Philadelphia responded by filing a federal lawsuit seeking to have the signs restored. According to the suit, the National Park Service and the U.S. Department of the Interior made unilateral changes in violation of those long-standing agreements. At stake is not simply a set of panels, but whether the public will continue to confront an essential historical truth: Slavery was central to the American presidency.

    Philadelphia is the wrong place for historical amnesia.

    Dignitaries gather for the opening of a memorial to enslaved people at President’s House in 2010. From left: Municipal Judge Charles Hayden, attorney Michael Coard, Independence National Historical Park’s Cynthia MacLeod, and Mayor Michael Nutter.

    The President’s House stands on ground where the ideals of liberty were articulated alongside the daily practice of human bondage. During Washington’s presidency, the executive mansion functioned simultaneously as a seat of republican government and a site of enslavement, even as Philadelphia emerged as a center of abolitionist thought and Black civic life. The exhibit that opened in 2010 was the result of years of advocacy by historians, community members, and activists who insisted that the enslaved people in Washington’s household not be erased from public memory.

    Slavery was not incidental to Washington’s presidency. It was essential to it.

    Washington enslaved people from childhood, inheriting human property at the age of 11 and expanding his holdings through purchase and marriage. By the time he became president in 1789, he was a Virginia planter whose wealth, household, and public standing depended on enslaved labor. That dependence followed him north.

    When Washington relocated to Philadelphia, he encountered Pennsylvania’s Gradual Abolition Act of 1780, which allowed enslaved people to claim freedom after residing in the state for six months. Rather than comply with the law’s intent, Washington devised a deliberate strategy to evade it.

    Enslaved people in his household were sent out of Pennsylvania just before the deadline and then returned, resetting the clock. He was careful to keep this arrangement private, instructing aides that it should not become public.

    Among the enslaved people living in the President’s House was Ona Judge, who belonged to Martha Washington and served as her personal attendant. As historian Erica Armstrong Dunbar has shown through meticulous research, Judge understood the possibilities and dangers of freedom in a city like Philadelphia. In May 1796, after learning she was to be given away as a wedding gift, Judge fled the President’s House and escaped north.

    Committed to slavery

    Washington’s response reveals the depth of his commitment to slavery.

    Within days, an advertisement appeared on the front page of the Philadelphia Gazette and Universal Daily Advertiser. It announced that Judge had “absconded from the household of the President of the United States.” Placed by the steward of the President’s House, the notice described her appearance in detail, warned ship captains not to assist her escape, and offered a reward for her capture and return.

    The language matters. It explicitly tied the presidency itself to the pursuit of an enslaved woman who claimed her freedom.

    Washington pursued Judge for years, dispatching friends, relatives, and officials to recapture her. He never succeeded, but his actions make clear that slavery was not a peripheral contradiction in his life. It was a system he actively defended while serving as president.

    A visitor views a panel about the Fugitive Slave Act at the President’s House in Independence National Historical Park in 2025.

    At the same time, Black Philadelphians were building institutions that challenged slavery not in theory, but in practice.

    Only a few blocks from the President’s House, Richard Allen and Absalom Jones organized mutual aid through the Free African Society, laying the groundwork for what would become Mother Bethel African Methodist Episcopal Church. Born from the violence of segregation in white churches, Mother Bethel became a cornerstone of Black autonomy in the early republic — a place where abolition was preached, freedom was practiced, and Black civic life flourished.

    The ironies of Philadelphia’s founding moment are unavoidable. The same Washington who pursued Judge and signed the Fugitive Slave Act also contributed financially to Allen’s efforts to build an African church. These contradictions were not hidden from contemporaries. They were preserved.

    More than a century after the American Revolution and Washington’s presidency, the association between presidential authority and enslaved labor had not faded from public memory.

    In 1883, a widely circulated illustrated history depicted Washington walking along a cobblestone street with a Black “servant” following several steps behind him in livery, carrying his coat. For Americans who could not read — or who absorbed history visually — such images conveyed meaning powerfully. Even generations later, Washington was still remembered in proximity to enslaved labor.

    That illustration is not an abstraction. It survives today in the holdings of the Library Company of Philadelphia, where I direct the Program in African American History. Despite contemporary efforts to erase or soften this past, the evidence remains materially present. The Library Company holds the largest collection documenting the Black presence in Philadelphia — more than 13,000 items spanning the 18th through 20th centuries.

    These materials document slavery, but they also trace the Black community’s sustained fight to advance abolition, and the enduring ways Black Philadelphians confronted the afterlives of slavery across the 19th and 20th centuries.

    Preserving memory

    The archive does what removed signage cannot. It insists on memory.

    It shows how Black political thought, religious life, and institutions developed alongside — and in opposition to — slavery. Mother Bethel AME Church, which continues to stand today, hosted abolitionists, organized resistance to colonization schemes, supported the Underground Railroad, and later aided Black migrants during emancipation, Reconstruction, and the Great Migration. This is not peripheral history. It is Philadelphia’s history.

    Removing slavery interpretation from the President’s House is therefore not a neutral curatorial decision. It contradicts the historical record, violates agreements requiring consultation with the city, and risks teaching the public that the presidency can be understood without reckoning with slavery.

    It cannot.

    This moment is especially fraught as the nation approaches the 250th anniversary of 1776. That commemoration will invite renewed storytelling about founding ideals and national origins. If we enter that moment by stripping slavery from public history sites, we will be manufacturing historical amnesia precisely when historical clarity matters most.

    Philadelphia has another choice. In February, the Library Company of Philadelphia, in partnership with the American Philosophical Association, will host a conference titled “Black Declarations of Independence: Before and After 1776.” The premise is straightforward: Black claims to freedom, dignity, and self-determination were not marginal to the founding era. They were central to it — and they continue to shape the nation’s unfinished project.

    Restoring the President’s House signs would be a modest but meaningful step in that direction. It would affirm that Philadelphia will confront its history honestly as it prepares to commemorate 1776 — and that it will not celebrate independence by forgetting those whose bondage, resistance, and perseverance make the meaning of independence intelligible in the first place.

    Jim Downs is a historian and Guggenheim Fellow, a professor of history at Gettysburg College, and director of the Program in African American History at the Library Company of Philadelphia.

  • The Philadelphia Orchestra next season premieres a ‘new’ piece by Leonard Bernstein. Plus, Simon Rattle is coming back.

    The Philadelphia Orchestra next season premieres a ‘new’ piece by Leonard Bernstein. Plus, Simon Rattle is coming back.

    Simon Rattle is returning to the Philadelphia Orchestra after a decade. New works are being unveiled by Spirited Away composer Joe Hisaishi. And a major orchestral piece by Leonard Bernstein is receiving its world premiere — sort of.

    The Philadelphia Orchestra’s 127th season will be a mix of standard repertoire, newly minted scores, film music, family concerts, and guest artists new and familiar.

    Emanuel Ax has been dubbed “artist of distinction” for the season, the orchestra said in its announcement of 2026-27 artists and repertoire unveiled Thursday. The much-loved pianist makes both recital and concerto appearances to celebrate his half-century-plus history with the orchestra.

    Several big, ambitious pieces anchor the season in Marian Anderson Hall.

    The Philadelphians will perform their first-ever complete Bach Christmas Oratorio. Following on the heels of last season’s Tristan und Isolde, the orchestra takes on Wagner’s Lohengrin for the first time. Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9 is on the roster, as are four Mahler symphonies — Nos. 1, 3, 5, and 7.

    Soprano Elza van den Heever.

    Lohengrin, like the Tristan, will be led by music and artistic director Yannick Nézet-Séguin.

    “He’s always able to attract the people that are known for these roles,” Jeremy Rothman, chief programming officer for the Philadelphia Orchestra and Ensemble Arts, said of the cast of singers. Tenor Stanislas de Barbeyrac takes the role of Lohengrin, with soprano Elza van den Heever as Elsa.

    “It’s the kind of thing that really only the Philadelphia Orchestra can do — attracting this talent with Yannick conducting with this level orchestra,” said Rothman.

    Conductor Anthony Parnther leading the Philly Pops in a live orchestra-to-screen performance of “Star Wars: Return of the Jedi” at the Mann Center on Aug. 11, 2022.

    Nézet-Séguin will lead 12 weeks of programs in 2026-27 (plus special concerts), with podium appearances by Esa-Pekka Salonen, Anthony Parnther, Dima Slobodeniouk (his debut here), Jane Glover, Fabio Luisi and others.

    Marin Alsop, the orchestra’s principal guest conductor, leads three weeks of programs plus special concerts.

    Violinist Arabella Steinbacher.

    Guest soloists include pianists Yunchan Lim and Seong-Jin Cho in Rachmaninoff, Nikolaj Szeps-Znaider as both violinist and conductor, violinist Arabella Steinbacher in Beethoven, Yefim Bronfman in Schnitke and Liszt, Daniil Trifonov performing Prokofiev, and Yuja Wang in Beethoven.

    The Spotlight recital series continues with artists like Yo-Yo Ma, Yuja Wang, and Itzhak Perlman.

    Composer Gabriela Ortiz.

    Among the premieres, or first performances by the Philadelphia Orchestra, are works by Reena Esmail, Julia Wolfe, Unsuk Chin, Anna Meredith, Erkki-Sven Tüür, Gabriela Ortiz, and Caroline Shaw.

    Film music once again threads throughout the season, with live orchestra-to-screen presentations of Star Wars: A New Hope and Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban. Film concerts are often a sell-out for the orchestra, but they are also a lure for new audiences who later buy tickets to regular orchestra concerts, said Ryan Fleur, president and CEO of the Philadelphia Orchestra and Ensemble Arts.

    Howard Shore’s score for “Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring” was performed live by the Philadelphia Orchestra and guest conductor Ludwig Wicki to a packed house at Marian Anderson Hall, Dec. 5, 2025.

    If past statistics are a reliable guide, the orchestra will sell 6,000 tickets to next season’s Star Wars program. About 4,000 of those listeners will be people who had not bought an orchestra ticket previously. Of those, 20% will come back for a straight orchestra concert in the following year and a half.

    “It’s pretty consistent data now that we’ve seen over the last few years,” said Fleur.

    “Gateway” is the word the orchestra uses to describe concerts like those with film, or the shorter, informal Orchestra After 5 concerts, which also continue next season.

    “It’s programs that are accessible as a first date,” said Fleur.

    The season-wide average ticket price next season is increasing about 2.5% due to a higher share of premium, or special, programs, a spokesperson said.

    Composer and conductor Joe Hisaishi performing with the Philadelphia Orchestra at Marian Anderson Hall, June 26, 2025.

    Another film-adjacent presence next year is Joe Hisaishi, the orchestra’s composer in residence best known for his work on the animated films of Hayao Miyazaki (My Neighbor Totoro, Castle in the Sky). Hisaishi’s Orbis is the very first work heard next season, prefacing Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9 on opening night, Sept. 24. In the spring, Hisaishi leads the world premiere of his own Piano Concerto with Alice Sara Ott as soloist on a program with his Concerto for Orchestra.

    Rattle’s concerts, in January 2027, feature familiar territory: John Adams’ propulsive and emotional landmark work from 1985, Harmonielehre; Debussy’s La Mer; and the Ravel Daphnis et Chloé Suite No. 2.

    Why these particular pieces?

    “We didn’t have an in-depth discussion about it,” said Rothman. “When Simon wants to bring a program here, we trust him with what he knows [is] going to work really well with this ensemble.”

    Marin Alsop conducting the Philadelphia Orchestra at its Pride Concert at the Kimmel Center in June 2023.

    More novel for both performers and audience is a Marin Alsop program that includes the world premiere of The Party, a collaboration between composer Austin Fisher and conceptual artist Alex Da Corte. The artistic forces include the orchestra, a cast of singers, and life-size sculptures inspired by 1960s artist Marisol Escobar in a stop-motion film.

    Rothman calls the work, which was commissioned by the orchestra, “a really novel way to present opera, where you have the singers and the orchestra live on stage, but all the action is taking place up on the screen.”

    The Party is on a program with Pacific 231, Arthur Honegger’s classic 1923 depiction of a train accelerating, then grinding to a halt; and Haydn’s Symphony No. 101, “the Clock.”

    “It’s a way of exploring the depiction of time,” said Rothman of the three pieces.

    A scene from the Philadelphia Orchestra’s performance in April 2015 – in what was then named Verizon Hall – of Bernstein’s “Mass.”

    Rothman was responsible for the creation of one of the season’s most intriguing creations: a “new” work by Leonard Bernstein.

    “I was thinking about how Mass has some of his most beautiful music in it,” said Rothman, “but just the scope of that work means that music is rarely ever heard live because of the forces that are required to mount it.”

    He conceived of a symphonic suite made of material from Mass, the musical-theatrical piece commissioned by Jacqueline Kennedy that premiered in 1971 at the opening of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts.

    Leonard Bernstein conducts the Curtis Symphony Orchestra with soloist Susan Starr in a 1984 performance at the Academy of Music.

    “So I reached out to the kids,” said Rothman, referring to Bernstein’s three children, “and I said, ‘What do you think of this idea?’ And I got back like an immediate, ‘Oh my God, we love it. Let’s do it.’”

    Garth Edwin Sunderland, a composer and vice president of creative projects at the Leonard Bernstein Office, was engaged to create Symphonic Rituals from Mass, which contains about 40 minutes of music — a “new” work drawn from Bernstein’s original colorful, groovy score.

    “It’s still paying homage to the sacred nature and the ritual of the piece, but bringing all that fantastic musical material into the orchestra, so no vocalists, no choirs,” said Rothman. “There will be a little bit of a rock band because that’s so essential to the core essence of the piece.”

    Actor and director Bradley Cooper (left) and Yannick Nézet-Séguin speak during an interview, Feb. 14, 2024, in New York.

    Nézet-Séguin was, of course, the perfect choice to conduct. He’s been an enthusiastic champion of Bernstein’s music and was involved in the Bradley Cooper movie about Bernstein, Maestro.

    “I texted Yannick,” said Rothman, “and I said, ‘Yannick, how would you like to give the world premiere of a piece by Leonard Bernstein?’ And he goes, ‘What? What are you talking about?’”

    Philadelphia Orchestra 2026-26 subscriptions go on sale at noon Thursday, with single tickets available July 30. ensembleartsphilly.org, 215-893-1955.

  • Five reasons the Sixers should be cautious at the NBA trade deadline

    Five reasons the Sixers should be cautious at the NBA trade deadline

    The 76ers have made at least one move at five consecutive NBA trade deadlines since Daryl Morey took over as president of basketball operations in 2020.

    Many of those moves slashed salaries, enabling the Sixers to avoid paying the luxury tax. However, the new acquisitions didn’t make the team’s playoff chances any better.

    What is the Sixers’ biggest need at the NBA trade deadline? Patience.

    The Sixers are expected to continue their trend of making moves ahead of this season’s 3 p.m. deadline on Feb. 5. Here are five reasons the Sixers should be cautious at the deadline:

    The Sixers could avoid the luxury tax by trading Kelly Oubre Jr. ahead of the Feb.5 NBA trade deadline. However, he’s their best perimeter defender.

    A bad look for the franchise

    The Sixers are $7 million above the allowable threshold to avoid being taxed. They’re also around $1 million away from being a first-apron team and facing penalties.

    Quentin Grimes ($8.7 million), Kelly Oubre Jr. ($8.3 million), and Andre Drummond ($5 million) have expiring contracts that could help avoid paying the threshold tax.

    But trading a key contributor for the sake of avoiding being taxed would be a bad look for the franchise. It would give the impression that saving money for Sixers managing partner Josh Harris is more important than contending for a title. The team would come off looking cheap, especially considering that the Joel Embiid championship window is closing quickly.

    Aside from Tyrese Maxey and VJ Edgecombe (77), the Sixers don’t have the assets to bring in the type of player who could drastically improve the team.

    Not enough assets

    The Sixers don’t have much to give up to upgrade talent via a trade. Aside from Tyrese Maxey and VJ Edgecombe, the Sixers don’t have the assets to acquire the type of player who could drastically improve the team. And they’re not trading either of those guys. Nor should they forfeit their future by surrendering future draft picks to help facilitate a trade. The Sixers will need those picks to acquire young talent and continue building around Maxey and Edgecombe after Embiid and Paul George leave.

    Joel Embiid (21) and Paul George (8) are once again healthy. As a result, the Sixers can beat anyone in the Eastern Conference when the team plays well.

    A dangerous team

    The Sixers are dangerous as currently constructed. When they play well, they can beat anyone in the East. They’ve won two of their three meetings against the conference’s second-place New York Knicks. The Sixers have done the same against the third-place Boston Celtics, and split the four-game series against the fourth-place Toronto Raptors. They’re 0-2 against the first-place Detroit Pistons. However, the Sixers were without Embiid and George in both games. And they still had opportunities to win before blowing fourth-quarter leads both times. So if they remain healthy, the Sixers are a team no one wants to face in the postseason.

    Forward Trendon Watford is one of many role players who have learned to mesh well with the Sixers’ Big Three of Joel Embiid, Tyrese Maxey, and Paul George.

    Losing chemistry

    If you bring in someone new, he’ll have to learn to play with Embiid. The current players spent half the season learning how to play with Embiid, Maxey, and George. And based on the Sixers’ early struggles with their Big Three intact, there’s clearly a learning curve to playing alongside Embiid, Maxey, and George.

    Players like Oubre, Grimes, Drummond, Dominick Barlow, Jabari Walker, Adem Bona, Jared McCain, and Trendon Watford have established roles. Tinkering with that could negatively impact the team, especially if the Sixers are not acquiring a major upgrade in talent.

    League sources say the Sixers are open to trading Andre Drummond.

    Insurance for Embiid

    With Drummond and Bona backing up Embiid, who is back to playing at a high level, the center position is set. However, league sources say the Sixers are open to trading Drummond, even though he and Bona have been equally valuable assets, playing behind and often in place of Embiid, who misses games because of knee injury management.

    Bona plays against the teams that have fast and athletic centers, while Drummond usually plays against towering centers who flourish in the post.

    Sixers mailbag: Will Joel Embiid make the All-Star Game? Will Jared McCain be here after the trade deadline?

    The 6-foot-11 Drummond averages a team-leading 8.9 rebounds while playing just 20 minutes per game. Drummond is second in the NBA in rebounds per 36 minutes at 16.0, trailing the Knicks’ Mitchell Robinson (16.9). And he has started 17 of the games Embiid has missed, averaging 8.6 points, 10.9 rebounds, and 1.1 assists in those contests.

  • Gameday Central: Phillies extra with Whit Merrifield

    Gameday Central: Phillies extra with Whit Merrifield

    In 2024, Whit Merrifield was the newcomer to a Phillies’ roster that was virtually unchanged from the previous season. Now, the retired former infielder joined Phillies Extra to discuss the team’s decision to keep the core of the roster intact, as well as his close friend Brad Keller’s path to the Phillies’ bullpen and why Rob Thomson was his favorite manager. Watch here.

  • Man steals bike from SEPTA bus before shooting a man dead in Southwest Philadelphia, police say

    Man steals bike from SEPTA bus before shooting a man dead in Southwest Philadelphia, police say

    A 19-year-old man was arrested and will be charged with homicide in the fatal shooting of another man in Southwest Philadelphia on Wednesday night, according to police.

    The shooting occurred at 66th Street and Dicks Avenue just after 10 p.m.

    The suspect, whom police did not immediately identify, had just stolen a bicycle from a SEPTA bus at a nearby intersection, police said, when he encountered the man he later shot, also a 19-year-old whom police did not identify.

    Police responded to the scene to find the victim unresponsive with a gunshot wound to the throat. He was taken to Penn Presbyterian Medical Center and pronounced dead around 10:20 p.m.

    The shooter fled after robbing a second person of an electric bicycle, police said.

    Investigators tracked the shooter to 84th Street and Bartram Avenue, where they took him into custody and recovered a firearm, police said.

  • Penn lost significant talent to NCAA transfer portal, including this offensive trio

    Penn lost significant talent to NCAA transfer portal, including this offensive trio

    After Penn’s disappointing 6-4 finish in football, which resulted in the departure of longtime coach Ray Priore, the program saw several upperclassmen enter the transfer portal as they ran out of Ivy League eligibility.

    Some of those players moved on to bigger programs. As of now, seven former Quakers are committed to other schools.

    Headlining those transfers is a trio on offense: quarterback Liam O’Brien and wide receivers Jared Richardson and Bisi Owens.

    New coach Rick Santos looks to restore Penn football’s ‘championship standard’

    O’Brien is heading to Cincinnati, Richardson looks to make an impact at Duke, and Owens will join Purdue.

    “Having an opportunity at Penn to showcase what I could do and that translating into an opportunity like this,” O’Brien said, “I mean, the way college football is nowadays — it’s pretty much like the minor leagues to the pros. It’s almost like a childhood dream.”

    Meet the family

    The trio grew close in the summer after their freshman season at Penn but had to wait much longer before taking the field together.

    Richardson and Owens excelled during their sophomore year, while O’Brien battled injuries and served as a backup to Aidan Sayin. O’Brien didn’t get his opportunity on the field until his junior year, when Sayin suffered a season-ending elbow injury against Yale in 2024.

    “Penn is not a football-first school,” O’Brien said. “But you can make it one. The one thing Penn does is it provides you [with] opportunities to succeed in whatever you do, and both on and off the field. All of us have really taken advantage of that for good.”

    In 2024, Liam O’Brien broke Penn’s record for passing touchdowns and total touchdowns in a game.

    In his second start, O’Brien broke Penn’s record for passing touchdowns (six) and total touchdowns in a game (seven).

    After a full offseason, O’Brien, Richardson, and Owens powered the Quakers offense in 2025, finishing third in the Ivy League in passing yards per game and second in offensive efficiency.

    Wide receiver Jared Richardson is a second-team FCS All-American

    Richardson and Owens combined for the most yards (1,729) and touchdowns (17) among Ivy League wide receiver duos. Richardson ranked 13th in receiving yards (1,033), first in receptions per game (eight), and fourth in total receiving touchdowns (12) across all of the Football Championship Subdivision.

    “We came in together,” Richardson said. “We worked our tails off. All of us being successful, it’s nothing short of special. It’s a blessing for each and all of us.”

    New opportunity

    O’Brien is already on Cincinnati’s campus, preparing for spring ball. He’ll be competing for the starting job as the Bearcats also brought in quarterback JC French from Georgia Southern.

    “The quarterback room is seeing a big change-up,” O’Brien said. “They lost their starter last year, lost their backup from last year. So they brought me in and brought in the quarterback from Georgia Southern. Right now, it’s an open job, and may the best man win.”

    For Richardson, a quick exploration of Duke’s campus made him eager to cancel his other planned visits. He hopes to carve out a role for himself on a star-studded team that won an ACC championship this past season.

    He also still has dreams of playing in the NFL.

    Next season, Jared Richardson will play for Duke, which won the ACC Championship in 2025.

    “It’s not going to be easy,” Richardson said. “I’m embracing that. I don’t want it to be easy. I want to leave a legacy. That’s my goal behind playing football. I want to provide my family with a life that they never got to have. So that’s what drives me. I’m not afraid of working hard, sweating a little bit. I just embrace the grind.”

    For Owens, the chance to lead a young Purdue receiving corps was too good an opportunity to pass up. Plus, he wanted to make the leap to the Big 10.

    “Getting to play in front of at least 60,000 people every week,” Owens said, “it’s a lot different than playing at Franklin Field, which gets 7,000 on a good day. It’s been a complete whirlwind the past couple of weeks, but all trending in the right direction, and definitely more excited than worried or nervous, because this is another challenge for me to take on.”

    Goodbye, Penn

    The three will be leaving Penn with Ivy League degrees, but according to them, the most valuable part of their experience in West Philadelphia was the relationships they formed.

    “These Penn brothers are ones I will have for a lifetime,” Owens said. “I’m never going to forget that. So at the end of the day, Penn will always be my home.”

    O’Brien and Richardson echoed that statement and emphasized how special their bond is.

    “Building a relationship with these guys, it was awesome these past four years,” Richardson said. “It was a pleasure playing with Bisi and Liam, and these guys are my best friends. So I can’t wait to see what they do. I’ll be in their corner rooting for them.”

    “It’s going to be fun to keep in touch with everyone after and throughout this year,” O’Brien added. “After this year, and after the fall season, and just compare experiences. See what it was like. See who does what at the next level. Because I think some of the guys are going to do big things.”

  • The hottest hot chocolate in Philadelphia right now

    The hottest hot chocolate in Philadelphia right now

    When it’s cold outside, there’s no better way to warm up than sipping on hot chocolate. But a cup that showcases chocolate’s incredible depth of flavor really levels up the experience. Why settle for a mug of Swiss Miss when you could sip on velvety cioccolata calda, piquant cinnamon and chili dark chocolate, or creamy chocolat chaud in cozy cafes across the city? Take your pick and grab a treat.

    A hot chocolate at Rim Cafe made by Chara Bell Rowland, co-owner, in Philadelphia on Wednesday, Jan. 21, 2026.

    Rim Cafe

    The maximalist, eclectic cafe, known for its gelato, at the corner of 9th and Federal peddles an impressive variety of over-the-top hot chocolates. You’ll spend a good 10 minutes deciding between drizzles of Nutella or white chocolate shavings. Once you’ve selected a cocoa, an attendant will validate your choice with a show, pouring creamy, bubbly liquid chocolate over a dollop of whipped cream in a tall glass mug that spins atop a bird’s nest-shaped turntable made of solid chocolate. Once the glass is filled to the brim, they’ll grate a large cone-shaped chocolate over top for the final touch. The result: A sweet, thick, silky drink that feels like a hug.

    1172 S. 9th St., instagram.com/rimcafe

    Hot chocolate at La Maison Jaune in Philadelphia on Tuesday, Jan. 20, 2026.

    La Maison Jaune

    You’re guaranteed to find real French chocolat chaud at Fitler Square’s newest cafe. Velvety hot chocolate served in a delicate mug is made the French way at La Maison Jaune: chocolate melted directly into hot milk. With foamy cream on top, the chocolat chaud here is reminiscent of the luscious, creamy drink you can find at a Parisian cafe. Order some freshly made macarons de Nancy (chewy almond cookies from Nancy, France) to dunk as you people-watch through the windows.

    2204 Rittenhouse Square, lamaisonjaune.net

    Hot chocolate at Mocha Melt

    Mocha Melt

    Equal parts milk and chocolate, the hot chocolate at Old City’s relatively new cafe is a great grab-and-go option. The balanced hot cocoa is pre-made and poured out quickly at Mocha Melt. But what sets it apart is the halal marshmallow topping. The thick, frosting-like marshmallow is piped in a swirl on the lip of the to-go cup and torched after the hot chocolate is added. The result is a s’mores take on hot chocolate.

    124 Market St., 267-892-2931, mochameltcafe.com

    The Signature drinking chocolate with marshmallow at the Shane Confectionary in Philadelphia, Pa., on Wednesday, Jan. 21, 2026.

    Shane Confectionery

    Entering this Old City confectionary store is like venturing into Willy Wonka’s chocolate factory. Elaborate, visually stunning chocolates in glass cases lead through the store to a backroom cafe. On a recent visit, owner Eric Douglass Berley, dressed in a top hat and waistcoat, awaited to take my hot chocolate order. He walked me through the four drinking chocolates: sweet and bold signature milk chocolate, rich and fruity house dark, piquant cinnamon and chili dark chocolate made with guajillo chiles and chile de arbol peppers, and mocha made with Herman’s Coffee. While you wait for your drink of choice, take a peek behind the counter to see massive chocolate melanger machines churning fresh cacao nibs into the liquid chocolate you’ll savor with each sip. And remember, there’s whipped cream and house-made marshmallows to add to your cup, if you ask nicely.

    110 Market St., shanecandies.com/shop

    Hot chocolate at Cafe y Chocolate

    Cafe y Chocolate

    Chocolate is in the name of this South Philly cafe and restaurant, which means they know a thing or two about a good cup of hot cocoa. Take a sip of Cafe y Chocolate’s chocolate Oaxaca and it’s as if you’ve taken a bite into the creamiest milk chocolate bar — the sweet cocoa flavor is subtle until it melts on the tongue and fills your mouth with that smooth, milky taste. The chocolate hails from Mexico and is similar in flavor to the popular Nestlé Abuelita brand but less sweet, one server told me on my latest visit. Panela, an unrefined whole cane sugar, and cinnamon are added to the thick chocolate base that’s mixed with milk. And if you’re looking for a caffeinated version, the cafe con chocolate comes with two shots of espresso.

    1532 Snyder Ave., 267-639-4506, cafeychocolate.com

    Hot chocolate at Gran Caffè L’Aquila

    Gran Caffè L’Aquila

    Sipping on smooth, silky Italian hot chocolate is possible any hour of the day at Center City’s Gran Caffè L’Aquila. To make the restaurant’s velvety cioccolata calda, a chocolate blend is whisked in milk on low heat until creamy. Served in a mug, the piping hot liquid chocolate is so thick, dark, and incredibly rich that you’ll need to pace yourself. Each sip coats your mouth in chocolate, and the whipped cream topping cuts through the bittersweet finish. It’s the perfect cup for those looking to experience just how rich chocolate can be.

    1716 Chestnut St., 215-568-5600, grancaffelaquila.com

    Hot chocolate at El Merkury

    El Merkury

    On Chestnut Street, a few clicks on the self-order screens at this popular Central American restaurant will get you a cup of Guatemalan hot chocolate. The hot cocoa here leans heavier on the chocolate side, bringing forth the rich sweet notes of bitter Guatemalan dark chocolate bars melted into the milk with each sip. There’s no wrong order here: Enjoy the drink as is or add dulce de leche syrup for a nutty, caramel-like boost.

    2104 Chestnut St., 267-457-5952, elmerkury.com

  • Mikie Sherrill supports enshrining N.J.’s existing sanctuary policy into law as immigrant rights groups push for an expanded version

    Mikie Sherrill supports enshrining N.J.’s existing sanctuary policy into law as immigrant rights groups push for an expanded version

    New Jersey Gov. Mikie Sherrill supports cementing the state’s sanctuary state policy into law — as it’s already written.

    The Immigrant Trust Directive, commonly called a sanctuary policy, restricts state law enforcement from cooperating with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). Enshrining the policy into law would ensure future governors of either party could not unilaterally take it away. As of now, the directive could be undone with a flick of a pen.

    Immigrant rights groups in New Jersey have pushed for several years to make the policy permanent with a new law, a move they say is increasingly urgent amid President Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown in Minneapolis, which has reverberated across the country. But those activists want to expand protections, which could clash with Sherrill’s approach.

    “Gov. Sherrill supports a bill to codify the directive,” her spokesperson Sean Higgins said. “What she does not support is anything that undermines the ability to defend our protections in court, which puts people at risk.”

    Sherrill has said making changes to the directive while making it law could invite lawsuits and risk the whole policy, which was enacted during Trump’s first presidency and has survived federal judges appointed by both Trump and former President George W. Bush.

    “New Jersey’s directive has already withstood judicial review — and that additional action, if not precise, could undo important protections which we cannot risk under the Trump administration,” Sherrill said during her primary campaign.

    Higgins said those concerns “have not changed.”

    Immigrant rights groups nearly reached the finish line late last year after the state legislature passed a bill that included some of the changes they wanted to make.

    But former Gov. Phil Murphy rejected the bill in his final hours in office. Like Sherrill, he said the policy could be in jeopardy if it changed and could invite lawsuits.

    New Jersey’s sanctuary state status explained, and how it was at risk in the governor’s race

    Amol Sinha, the executive director of ACLU New Jersey, disagrees.

    The bill Murphy vetoed — which Democratic lawmakers have already signaled they will reintroduce in the new session — would remove an exception for law enforcement to work with federal immigration authorities on final orders of removal and prohibit law enforcement from providing money to federal immigration authorities.

    Sinha and others who support the bill say those changes would be on solid legal ground. Since the courts previously found federal law does not preempt the state’s immigration policy, and the state has the right to determine where its resources go, he said, he believes Murphy’s veto was overly cautious.

    “We cannot be in a situation where we’re constantly afraid of lawsuits and therefore we don’t pass any laws,” Sinha said. “There is legal risk to every law that passes in New Jersey. You’re going to get sued, and if you don’t want to get sued, then you shouldn’t be in government.”

    Sherrill’s stance on the matter has, at times, been ambiguous.

    After a general election debate in late September, she said she was “going to focus on following the law and the Constitution” when pressed by reporters on whether she would keep the directive in place. In October, she said she supported aspects of the policy but also suggested she wanted to revisit it.

    During the primary contest, her spokesperson said Trump “is changing the rules rapidly” and Sherrill would “address the circumstances as they exist,” but she had also signaled support for keeping the policy.

    Since taking office last week, Sherrill has taken other steps to try to shield the state from ICE. She announced Thursday that her administration plans to launch a state database for New Jerseyans to upload videos of ICE operations in the state after two fatal shootings in Minnesota.

    Gov. Mikie Sherrill says N.J. will create a database for uploading videos of ICE: ‘Get your phone out’

    But the pressure to work with legislators on making the sanctuary directive law remains.

    Assemblymember Balvir Singh, a Burlington County Democrat and cosponsor of the bill Murphy rejected, said part of the urgency is concern over Trump’s threats to withhold federal funding from Democratic-led states over policy disagreements.

    Even though Sherrill has kept the policy in place, a directive carries less weight than a statute backed by two branches of government.

    “Our executive can be put under a tremendous amount of pressure where they have to figure out how they’re going to fund our social services systems that rely on federal funding,” Singh said.

    Just last week, Trump directed federal government agencies to review funding for several Democratic states, including New Jersey, almost all of which were on a list of sanctuary jurisdictions produced by his administration.

    The one exception was Virginia, where new Democratic Gov. Abigail Spanberger rescinded a directive that instructed law enforcement to work with ICE. The previous week, Trump said he planned to cut off federal funding for states with sanctuary cities.

    Singh, whose district includes communities with large immigrant populations, said preserving the seven-year-old policy through law is “the very minimum.”

    ‘I take Gov. Sherrill at her word’

    Sherrill declined to comment on the specifics of the bill that reached Murphy’s desk, and the question will be whether lawmakers are able to enact changes to the current directive or if she will only sign a carbon copy of what already exists.

    The sanctuary bill was one of three pieces of legislation aimed at protecting immigrants that Murphy weighed in his final days in office. He signed one about creating model policies for safe spaces in the state and vetoed another aimed at limiting data collected by government agencies and health centers, citing a “drafting oversight.”

    As she waited anxiously for Murphy’s decisions on the bills earlier this month, Nedia Morsy, the executive director of immigrant advocacy group Make the Road New Jersey, said that New Jersey should not “make policy based on fear” and that immigrants in the state were experiencing a “collective feeling of suffocation.”

    She criticized Murphy’s vetoes, saying legal experts had already vetted the bills.

    Sherrill has repeatedly promised to fight Trump and recently said that ICE agents are “occupying cities, inciting violence, and violating the Constitution” and need to be held accountable “for their lawless actions.”

    Mikie Sherrill takes oath as New Jersey governor, becoming the second woman to lead the state

    Her comments have given some activists hope that she will be willing to work with them.

    And while a single bill cannot stop ICE from sweeping New Jersey communities, Sinha said, the state can “put up safeguards and guardrails” through policies like the ones Murphy rejected.

    “I take Gov. Sherrill at her word that she wants to push back against authoritarianism,” he added, “and to me, that means doing whatever we can to protect immigrants in our state.”

  • ESPN to air documentary on the Philly Special, featuring Doug Pederson, Nick Foles, and more

    ESPN to air documentary on the Philly Special, featuring Doug Pederson, Nick Foles, and more

    It’s finally happening, Eagles fans. It took eight years, but ESPN’s 30 for 30 documentary series is set to relive one of the most memorable moments in Eagles history: the Philly Special.

    ESPN released the official trailer for the documentary, which is appropriately set to Boyz II Men’s “Motownphilly.” The film, titled The Philly Special, was produced by NFL Films and directed by Angela Zender and Shannon Furman. It will debut on Feb. 6 at 9 p.m. on ESPN and the ESPN app.

    “Everybody loves the Rocky movies, but they were fiction,” Zender said in a release. “The amazing thing about The Philly Special is that it’s a real-life Rocky story. A group of five underdogs went up against the greatest dynasty in NFL history and pulled off an upset worthy of Hollywood. That underdog mentality is something that will resonate with people all over the country.”

    The film features several familiar faces to Philly fans, including former head coach Doug Pederson and the four Eagles players who touched the ball on that play in Super Bowl LII: Jason Kelce, Corey Clement, Trey Burton, and Nick Foles.

    But there are many others: owner Jeffrey Lurie, former safety Malcolm Jenkins, former coach Chip Kelly, and former offensive coordinator Frank Reich. Several local and national media members also appear, including Angelo Cataldi, Ray Didinger, Sal Paolantonio, and Kyle Brandt.

    With all that Philly flavor, it’s no surprise one of the directors is a Birds supporter.

    “I grew up an Eagles fan, so The Philly Special has been a dream project,” Furman said in a release. “It was surreal to stand in front of the statue of Doug Pederson and Nick Foles at the Linc with the five men who made one of the most iconic plays in NFL history happen. There’s no doubt fans will enjoy reliving the Eagles’ first Super Bowl as much as I did.”

    Jason Kelce and Michael Strahan share their Super Bowl predictions, recap Championship Sunday, and more from ‘New Heights’

    While it’s been the better part of a decade since the play helped lead the 2017 Eagles past Tom Brady and the New England Patriots dynasty — capping an improbable run for Foles, who took over as the starter less than two months earlier — it’s not hard to find reminders around the Philadelphia area, from the statue outside Lincoln Financial Field to a multistory mural to the name of a holiday band featuring Kelce and a pair of current Eagles players.

    “It’s been everywhere and on everything, transcending football to become part of Philadelphia’s cultural identity,” ESPN said in its release describing the film. “It’s not just a play; it’s a rallying cry for a city used to being overlooked. While Philadelphia might be the birthplace of America, the sixth-most populous city in the country lives and dies with an underdog mentality — one epitomized by the Founding Fathers, Rocky Balboa … and the Philly Special.”

    Two days before Super Bowl LX, there will likely be a few more reminders, as fans across the area tune in to relive the play — and learn the story behind it — one more time.