“I think we really thought that he was a much better player off the bench,” coach Nick Nurse said. “That he liked to see the game a little bit and come in and play. And I think we’re having some discussions lately, that maybe that’s not the case, and maybe we’ll start sticking him back into the starting lineup a little bit to see if that helps.”
The 6-foot-4, 210-pound shooting guard may have broken out of a recent slump in Tuesday’s 116-110 setback to the Phoenix Suns at Xfinity Mobile Arena.
In nine games entering Tuesday, Sixers guard Quentin Grimes averaged 10.4 points on 42.9% shooting – including making just 31.0% on three-pointers.
Grimes scored 12 points on 3-for-7 shooting, adding five assists and three steals. However, with the Sixers down six points with 17.1 seconds remaining, he blew a layup, ending the comeback attempt. He also surrendered three turnovers.
Entering Tuesday’s games, Grimes averaged 10.4 points on 42.9% shooting — including making just 31.0% on three-pointers in his last nine contests.
“I really need him to attack the rim more,” Nurse said. “He’s good at it in the open floor and just a little bit more decisive when he’s coming up the floor to make a play in the paint, and then also to pull the three balls. Make sure he has the confidence to continue to take those. I think the light is green and getting greener, not the other way around, and just play with great confidence.”
Edgecombe embracing rigors of NBA season
With 38 NBA games under his belt, VJ Edgecombe already has played in five more games than he did during his lone season at Baylor. Yet the Sixers (23-19) still have 40 games remaining, meaning the rookie could play in 78 contests — more than double his total in college.
How is the 6-5 shooting guard handling the NBA grind?
“I’ll be honest, I’m embracing it,” he said. “I’m one of the few rookies who can say I’m playing 30 minutes. You know, that’s the blessing. Just once I’m on the floor, I’ve just got to be productive. I’ve got to not try to win every possession.”
Heading into Thursday’s games, Edgecombe is sixth in the league in minutes at 35.8 per game, trailing teammate Tyrese Maxey (39.5), Houston Rockets stars Amen Thompson (37.2) and Kevin Durant (36.6), Los Angeles Laker guard Luka Doncic (36.3), and Utah Jazz forward Lauri Markkanen (36.0).
Sixers rookie VJ Edgecombe is 11th in the league in steals (1.5) while averaging 15.8 points and 4.2 assists.
He is 11th in the league in steals (1.5) while also averaging 15.8 points and 4.2 assists.
Edgecombe posted a team-high 25 points while logging 36 minutes, 45 seconds in Tuesday’s loss to the Suns. The 20-year-old scored 11 points in 35:18 in Monday’s victory over the Indiana Pacers.
“I’m good with the back-to-backs now,” Edgecombe said with a laugh. “My first back-to-back, I wasn’t. I’m being completely honest, I wasn’t. But now I’m fine with it now. It’s still a lot. It’s still NBA games in two days.
“It’s a toll on your body, but I’m young, and I’m grateful that I’ve got a healthy body where I can go up and down the floor. So yeah, I’m just taking it game by game, regardless if it’s back-to-back or not, just try to be the same person.”
Sixers forward Dominick Barlow and Indiana’s Pascal Siakam battle for the ball on Monday. The Sixers have only two games left in which Jabari Walker and Barlow can both be active without the team making a roster move.
Dwindling days
The Sixers have only two games left in which Jabari Walker and Dominick Barlow can both be active without the team making a roster move. That’s because the squad has only four total games available to players on two-way contracts, since it has fewer than 15 players on standard NBA contracts.
The Sixers could sign Barlow, the starting power forward, or Walker, his backup, to a standard deal to avoid this restriction. They could also opt to sign a player to a 10-day contract. That would temporarily halt the under-15 penalty. And the Sixers could sit the two-way players, but they both have vital roles with the team.
If nothing is done, the Sixers’ two-way players will be unable to play in NBA games following Saturday’s home game against the New York Knicks.
Injury report
Joel Embiid (right ankle injury recovery) is listed as probable to play Thursday against the Rockets (26-15) at Xfinity Mobile Arena. Meanwhile, Paul George (left knee injury management) is questionable.
Houston will be without Steven Adams (sprained left ankle) and Fred VanVleet (right knee ACL repair), while Aaron Holiday (back spasms) is questionable.
Ryan Coogler’s blues-steeped vampire epic Sinnersled all films with 16 nominations to the 98th Academy Awards on Thursday, setting a record for the most in Oscar history.
Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences voters showered Sinners with more nominations than they had ever bestowed before, breaking the 14-nomination mark set by All About Eve, Titanic, and La La Land. Along with best picture, Coogler was nominated for best director and best screenplay, and double-duty star Michael B. Jordan was rewarded with his first Oscar nomination, for best actor.
Paul Thomas Anderson’s father-daughter revolutionary saga One Battle After Another, the favorite coming into nominations, trailed in second with 13 of its own. Four of its actors — Leonardo DiCaprio, Teyana Taylor, Benicio del Toro, and Sean Penn — were nominated, though newcomer Chase Infiniti was left out in best actress.
Double-duty “Sinners” star Michael B. Jordan was rewarded with his first Oscar nomination for best actor.
In those two top nominees, the film academy put its full force behind a pair of visceral and bracingly original American epics that each connected with a fraught national moment. Coogler’s Jim Crow-era film — the rare horror movie to win the academy’s favor — conjures a mythical allegory of Black life. In One Battle After Another, a dormant spirit of rebellion is revived in an out-of-control police state.
Both are also Warner Bros. titles. In the midst of a contentious sale to Netflix, the 102-year-old studio had one of its best Oscar nominations mornings ever, with 30 nods. As the fate of Warner Bros., which Netflix is buying for $72 billion, hangs in the balance amid a challenge from Paramount Skydance, Hollywood is bracing for potentially the largest realignment in the film industry’s history.
A coronation for Coogler
For Coogler, the 39-year-old filmmaker of Fruitvale Station and Black Panther, it was a crowning moment. One of Hollywood’s most esteemed yet humble filmmakers, Coogler has called Sinners — a film that he will own outright 25 years after its release — his most personal movie.
“I wrote this script for my uncle who passed away 11 years ago,” Coogler said in an interview Thursday morning. “I got to imagine that he’s listening to some blues music right now to celebrate.”
Reached by phone an hour after the nominations were read, Coogler — speaking alongside his wife and producer Zinzi Evans and producer Sev Ohanian — was still trying to process the movie’s record-breaking haul.
“I love making movies. I’m honored to wake up every day and do it. I was writing last night. That’s why I didn’t get too much sleep,” said Coogler, chuckling. ”Honestly, bro, I still feel a little bit asleep right now.”
The other top nominees
The 10 films nominated for best picture are Bugonia, F1,Frankenstein, Hamnet, Marty Supreme, One Battle After Another, The Secret Agent, Sentimental Value, Sinners, and Train Dreams.
Guillermo del Toro’s lush Mary Shelley adaptation Frankenstein, Josh Safdie’s period Ping-Pong odyssey Marty Supreme, and Joachim Trier’s family drama Sentimental Value all scored nine nominations. Chloé Zhao’s speculative Shakespeare drama Hamnet collected eight nods. With the notable exception of del Toro, those filmmakers filled up a best director category of Anderson, Coogler, Safdie, Trier, and Zhao, who in 2021 became the first woman of color to ever win the award.
The nine nods for Marty Supreme included a third best actor nod for 30-year-old Timothée Chalamet, the favorite in the category he narrowly missed winning last year for A Complete Unknown. With Jordan and Chalamet, the nominees are Leonardo DiCaprio for One Battle After Another, Ethan Hawke for Blue Moon and Wagner Moura for The Secret Agent.
Nominated for best actress was the category favorite, Jessie Buckley (Hamnet), along with Rose Byrne (If I HadLegs I’d Kick You), Kate Hudson (Song Sung Blue), Renate Reinsve (Sentimental Value) and two-time winner Emma Stone, who landed her sixth nomination, for Bugonia.
‘KPop’ leads a field light on big hits
The year’s most-watched movie, with more than half a billion views on Netflix, KPop Demon Hunters, scored nominations for both best song (“Golden”) and best animated feature. Sony Pictures developed and produced the film, but, after selling it to Netflix, watched it become a worldwide sensation.
Blockbusters otherwise had a difficult morning. Universal Pictures’ Wicked: For Good was shut out entirely. While Avatar: Fire and Ash notched nominations for costume design and visual effects, it became the first Avatar film not nominated for best picture. The biggest box-office hit nominated for Hollywood’s top award instead was F1, an Apple production that landed four nominations. The streamer partnered with Warner Bros. to distribute the racing drama.
This year, the Oscars are introducing a new category for casting. That new honor helped Sinners and One BattleAfter Another pad their already impressive stats. Along with those two films, the nominees are Hamnet, Marty Supreme, and The Secret Agent.
An international shift continues
The academy, which has expanded its overseas membership in recent years, also continued its tilt toward international films. Every category included one international nominee. For the eighth year in the row, a non-English-language film was nominated for best picture. More non-English performances were nominated than ever before.
The top nominee of them all was Trier’s Norwegian drama Sentimental Value. It cleaned up in the supporting actor categories, with nods for Stellan Skarsgård, Inga Ibsdotter LilIeaas, and Elle Fanning. Also nominated for best supporting actress, in addition to Taylor: Amy Madigan for Weapons and Wunmi Mosaku for Sinners. In supporting actor, the nominees included Jacob Elordi for Frankenstein and, in a surprise that likely dislodged Paul Mescal of Hamnet, Delroy Lindo for Sinners.
A competitive best international feature category mirrored the turbulent state of the world. That included the Iranian revenge drama and Palme d’Or winner It Was Just an Accident, by the often-imprisoned filmmaker Jafar Panahi. He’s spoken passionately against the ongoing crackdown of demonstrators in his home country. France nominated the film.
Also nominated: the Tunisian entry The Voice of Hind Rajab, about volunteers at the Palestine Red Crescent Society; the timely Brazilian political thriller The Secret Agent; the apocalyptic Spanish road movie Sirât; and SentimentalValue. Four of those nominees came from one independent distributor: Neon. The company, which has had an enviable streak of Palme d’Or wins, was second only to Warner Bros. with a collective 16 nominations.
The 98th Academy Awards will take place on March 15 at the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles and will be televised live on ABC and Hulu. YouTube’s new deal to exclusively air won’t take effect until 2029. This year, Conan O’Brien will return as host.
Mike Tollin received an ovation for his documentary film about the life of George Raveling after a Wednesday night showing on Villanova’s campus. But the best part of the Havertown native’s night may have been meeting and snapping a photo with former guard Fran O’Hanlon, one of his “Villanova heroes.”
Tollin’s love for Villanova hoops is one of the main reasons he chose to direct Unraveling George, a 90-minute documentary that profiles Raveling. He was a player and assistant coach at Villanova before he rose to prominence as a head coach at Washington State, Iowa, and Southern California. After his coaching career, Raveling joined Nike as a marketing executive.
Nike and Villanova staged a screening of Tollin’s film before Wednesday night’s game between the Wildcats and Georgetown at the Finneran Pavilion.
The screening was preceded by a panel conversation with Tollin, a longtime television and film executive who served as the executive producer on the 10-part Michael Jordan docuseries The Last Dance. Former Villanova coach Jay Wright and Larry Miller, president of Jordan Brand at Nike, joined Tollin onstage.
Fans honored the life and legacy of coach George Raveling during Villanova’s game against Georgetown on Wednesday.
Villanova also honored Raveling during its game against the Hoyas, which the Wildcats won, 66-51. Raveling graduated from Villanova in 1960 and served as an assistant coach under Jack Kraft from 1963 to 1969. He died at age 88 on Sept. 1, 2025. Fans held up newspaper fliers distributed by Nike that read “Thank You, Coach” during the game’s first timeout.
“This team, I’m sure [Villanova coach Kevin Willard] has talked to them about coach Rav, but they would not have gotten to know him,” Wright said during the discussion. “All the other teams, coach Rav would come here, spend time with us, talk to the team. It’s great for them, because these guys are smart guys on this team. They’ll Google him, they’ll read about him and they’ll get to know how important coach Raveling was to Villanova and to the world.”
The idea for Tollin to work on a documentary about Raveling came after the release of Ben Affleck’s AIR in 2023. That film is a fictionalized account of Nike’s pursuit of an endorsement deal with Jordan before his rookie season with the Chicago Bulls in 1984.
Marlon Wayans plays George Raveling in AIR, but the film’s plot suggests that Sonny Vaccaro, played by Matt Damon, was the primary reason Jordan signed with the company. Jordan disputes this in Unraveling George, saying that Raveling, who coached Jordan at the 1984 Olympics, was the first person to pitch Nike to him.
Tollin said a conversation about AIR with William Wesley, executive vice president of the New York Knicks, gave him the inspiration to work on the project.
“He said, ‘Did you see AIR?’” Tollin said. “And I said, ‘Yeah, I enjoyed it.’ He said, ‘Yeah, but we’ve got to tell the real story, and we’ve got to honor George.’”
Wesley introduced Tollin to Raveling at a Los Angeles Clippers game, where Tollin’s childhood admiration for Villanova basketball showed. Tollin, who graduated from Haverford High School in 1973, grew up watching the players Raveling recruited for the Wildcats.
“I sat there and I just gushed,” Tollin said. “I said, ‘You recruited all my first basketball heroes.’ I started naming names like Johnny Jones, like Howard Porter.”
Raveling agreed to be the subject of the documentary, and Tollin got to work on raising funds for the project. The film was completed before Raveling died, and the coach got a chance to see it. Tollin said Wednesday night’s screening at Villanova was “bittersweet.”
“I wish he was here,” Tollin said. “But obviously, I feel his presence. I know how he felt about the film. He loved it. He was grateful. He was just so generous with me.”
The late George Raveling played a role in Michael Jordan’s signing a landmark endorsement deal with Nike.
The film follows Raveling’s life, from his youth in segregated Washington to his playing career at Villanova, where he was the school’s second Black basketball player, and his coaching career. It details the events that led to Raveling obtaining the original typewritten copy of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s “I Have a Dream” speech during the March on Washington in August 1963.
The film also shares Raveling’s time as an assistant coach on Bob Knight’s staff for the 1984 Olympic basketball team, when Raveling formed a relationship with Jordan. It also follows Raveling’s recovery from a 1994 car accident that kept him in intensive care for two weeks and led to his retirement from coaching.
The documentary goes into Raveling’s second career as an executive for Nike. In addition to being responsible for Jordan’s decision to sign with Nike in 1984, Raveling was also instrumental in helping to bring international players like Dirk Nowitzki and Yao Ming to the NBA.
Former Villanova coach Jay Wright (left) and filmmaker Mike Tollin during the panel conversation and screening of “Unraveling George” on Wednesday.
The film features interviews with many significant figures in basketball, including Jordan, Nowitzki, longtime coach Lefty Driesell, Wright, and Nike founder Phil Knight, among others. Wayans provides voice-over narration and sits down for a conversation with Raveling during the film’s credits.
“It was incredible to keep turning over rocks and find more and more layers, and more and more people who love George and wanted to be a part of the storytelling,” Tollin said.
Nike made promotional materials for Wednesday night’s screening at Villanova. Those included embroidered canvas tote bags that read “RAV,” and the fliers, inspired by Raveling’s love for reading the newspaper.
Tollin said when Nike’s team approached him about supporting the film, he wanted the company to help bring it back to Villanova.
“I just knew this would feel like family,” Tollin said. “And it did. This is sort of like the womb, you know? This is like a really warm bath of support and love. … It was critical that we bring the film here, partly because I’m from here and partly because this is [Raveling]’s origin story.”
Unraveling George is not available to stream, although Tollin expects to have more details on where to watch it soon.
🏈Ravens: Jesse Minter 🏈Giants: John Harbaugh 🏈Falcons: Kevin Stefanski 🏈Dolphins: Jeff Hafley 🏈Titans: Robert Saleh 🏈Bills: 🏈Steelers 🏈Browns 🏈Cardinals 🏈Raiders
In his second season with the Eagles, DeJean earned an Associated Press first-team All-Pro nod alongside his teammate, rookie Quinyon Mitchell.
Eagles reporter Jeff McLane wrote it was “only a matter of time” before the Eagles lost Parker, noting players “hold him in high regard.”
In landing the job, Parker beat out another former Eagles coach who interviewed for the Cowboys’ defensive coordinator position – Jonathan Gannon, who is on the job market after being fired as the head coach of the Arizona Cardinals.
Cowboys hire Eagles defensive coach Christian Parker: reports
Christian Parker has served as the Eagles’ defensive backs coach under defensive coordinator Vic Fangio the past two years.
The Eagles are reportedly set to be on the market for a new defensive backs coach.
Christian Parker, who has served in the role under Vic Fangio for the last two seasons, is expected to become the next Dallas Cowboys defensive coordinator, according to multiple reports.
Parker, 34, had become a hot commodity this offseason, as he was also reportedly set to interview for the Green Bay Packers’ defensive coordinator vacancy.
In a short span, Parker has helped develop a pair of young, standout cornerbacks in Quinyon Mitchell and Cooper DeJean. Both players earned their first All-Pro and Pro Bowl nods under Parker this season in just their second years.
Parker will reportedly replace Matt Eberflus, whom the Cowboys fired in January after one season at the helm of one of the worst defenses in the organization’s history.
Brandon Graham thinks Birds need an ‘experienced’ offensive coordinator
Eagles defensive end Brandon Graham.
Eagles players past and present are among those weighing in on the team’s coaching vacancy.
On The Rich Eisen Show, former Eagles defensive end and Super Bowl 52 champion Chris Long urged his former squad to hire a “cheat code” at offensive coordinator.
“You need to hire a cheat code offensive coordinator. We talk about this thing a lot – bring somebody out of retirement, or find somebody who’s aged out,” said Long. “Find yourself a [former Saints and Raiders coach] Dennis Allen, because you have one on defense, and his name’s Vic Fangio. He’s not getting a head coaching job. He doesn’t want one.”
Long later explained that the Eagles should hire a coordinator who will not leave for a head coaching vacancy to assist Hurts’ further development. Famously, Hurts has had nine offensive coordinators in ten years, a trend spanning back to his time at Alabama.
Meanwhile Eagles legend Brandon Graham, who came out of retirement to play for the team last season, seems to agree.
“I feel like you got to have someone that’s experienced,” Graham said on his podcast. “I like what someone said about a Vic Fangio [on offense] … You really do have to have that command. Because if A.J. [Brown] and all the guys that [were], you know, disgruntled last year, we got to get everybody believing it. …
“I think a veteran person, or someone that got respect in the league will just have everybody kind of [have a] change in belief and get a re-energized feeling.”
— Conor Smith
// Timestamp 01/22/26 12:49pm
Resetting the Eagles’ options at offensive coordinator
Colts offensive coordinator Jim Bob Cooter was a consultant when Nick Sirianni first got the Eagles job in 2021.
One by one, offensive coordinator candidates that have been tied to the Eagles have been taken off the big board.
The latest is Zac Robinson, who is finalizing a deal, according to multiple reports, to be the next coordinator in Tampa. Robinson, who interviewed with the Eagles, joins Mike McDaniel, who talked to the Eagles, as candidates who are no longer in the pool. McDaniel will head west to the Los Angeles Chargers.
Another name to potentially cross off is Brian Daboll, who, according to The Athletic, wants to be the next head coach of the Buffalo Bills and otherwise plans to head to Tennessee to be the offensive coordinator under new defensive-minded head coach Robert Saleh.
The Eagles are the only team that didn’t make a head coaching change to still have an offensive coordinator opening. Eight teams that fired their head coach still have an opening at offensive coordinator.
Who’s left among the candidates the Eagles either interviewed or planned to? Another name popped up on the list Thursday morning. Let’s start there …
Eagles will reportedly interview Bears offensive coordinator Declan Doyle
Bears offensive coordinator Declan Doyle.
Add the NFL’s youngest offensive coordinator to the list of coaching candidates the Eagles are considering.
The Birds, according to ESPN, requested to interview the 29-year-old Chicago Bears’ offensive coordinator. Doyle was hired by Ben Johnson last offseason after serving as the tight ends coach in Denver for the previous two seasons. The Iowa native and 2018 Iowa grad worked as a student assistant with the Hawkeyes from 2016 to 2018 and then was an offensive assistant with the New Orleans Saints from 2019 to 2022. Talk about a fast riser.
Johnson, of course, has a big hand in the offense and calls plays for the Bears. But Doyle had a hand in the Bears’ sixth-ranked offense by yards per game. Chicago was 32nd a year ago. Johnson gets a lot of credit for that, but Doyle’s role can’t be
Doyle has never been a play-caller, which makes him an outlier among the other candidates the Eagles have been in contact with. The Eagles seem to be targeting coaches with more experience than Doyle, but there is value in meeting and talking to a young coach like him. Even if it’s not for this job at this juncture.
Eagles owner Jeffrey Lurie (left) and general manager Howie Roseman, seen here during the 2024 season.
The Eagles are the only team with an existing head coach that is still searching for an offensive after the Buccaneers reportedly hired Zac Robinson (whom the Eagles also interviewed).
The other four teams that made an offensive coordinator change this offseason: Lions (Drew Petzing), Chargers (Mike McDaniel), Chiefs (Eric Bienemy), Commanders (David Blough).
There remain eight teams that have fired their head coach that still have offensive coordinator openings. Five – the Cardinals, Bills, Browns, Steelers, Ravens, and Raiders – have yet to hire head coaches, while the Dolphins and Titans have hired head coaches Jeff Hafley and Robert Saleh, who have yet to fill their offensive coordinator spots.
The Giants, with new head coach John Harbaugh, will reportedly have Todd Monken as offensive coordinator. The Falcons, with Kevin Stefanski, will have Tommy Rees.
Another candidate passes on the Eagles as Zac Robinson lands with the Bucs
Staying in the NFC South: Buccaneers are finalizing a deal to hire Falcons offensive coordinator Zac Robinson as their offensive coordinator, per sources. pic.twitter.com/Hljnyl9vGE
Latest on Eagles’ search for a new offensive coordinator
The Eagles interviewed former Chiefs offensive coordinator Matt Nagy Wednesday.
It’s been about a week since the Eagles moved on from offensive coordinator Kevin Patullo, and the Birds have been busy interviewing potential replacements.
They just don’t seem to be having much luck landing their top candidates.
Here are the offensive coordinator candidates the Eagles have already reportedly interviewed or are scheduled to meet with:
Brian Daboll: The former Giants head coach, reportedly at the top of the Eagles’ wish list, interviewed with team Tuesday, according to Jeff McLane. But Daboll is expected to land in either Buffalo or Tennessee.
Zac Robinson: The former Falcons offensive coordinator was the first candidate interviewed by the Eagles, according to ESPN’s Adam Schefter. But he reportedly will fill the vacant offensive coordinator job with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
Josh Grizzard: The former Buccaneers offensive coordinator interviewed with the Birds Monday, according to Jordan Schultz.
Mike Kafka: The former interim head coach and offensive coordinator of the Giants interviewed with the Birds Saturday, according to ESPN’s Jeremy Fowler.
Jim Bob Cooter: The Colts offensive coordinator and one-time Birds assistant also interviewed with the Eagles Saturday, according to multiple reports. Colts head coach and former Birds offensive coordinator Shane Steichen is open to letting Cooter pursue an opportunity to call plays, according to Sports Illustrated’s Albert Breer.
Bobby Slowik: The Eagles planned to interview the former Dolphins pass game coordinator, according to ESPN’s Adam Schefter. It’s unclear if he’s met yet with the Birds.
Carla Washington Hines, 72, of Philadelphia, longtime dancer, pioneering choreographer, celebrated teacher, former artistic director, collaborator extraordinaire, and mentor, died Sunday, Nov. 2, of sepsis at Temple University Hospital-Jeanes Campus.
Mrs. Hines came to Philadelphia from Virginia in 1974 after college and spent the next four decades dancing, teaching, lecturing, traveling, and generally advocating for arts in education from kindergarten through college. She danced with the Sun Ra Arkestra, the John Hines Dance Co., and other troupes at all sorts of venues in Philadelphia, New York, Chicago, elsewhere in the United States, and throughout Europe.
She choreographed original performances such as “Montage in Black,” “Reflections,” and “Life Cycle,” and collaborated with notable jazz musicians Herbie Hancock and Alice Coltrane, and other musical stars. She was a guest on TV and radio shows, read poetry at public events, and earned awards from the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts and the Philadelphia-based Bartol Foundation for education.
She was an expert in jazz dance, modern dance, ballet, and posture, and she lectured, organized workshops, and taught the elements of dance and choreographic principles at schools, colleges, art centers, drama guilds, libraries, and elsewhere around the country. Her mother, Thelma, was a dancer and teacher, too, and Mrs. Hines championed the connection between an interest in the arts and academic success.
“In dance, I can be anything I want to be,” she said in an online interview. “That’s the magic of the arts.”
She created an afterschool residency at a Universal charter school and taught dance at E.M. Stanton Elementary School, Strawberry Mansion High School, and other schools. She said in the online interview that her curriculum “is based on the appreciation of dance and movement,” and that it helps students “make sense of their lives using dance as a tool for learning.”
She said: “I want them to be able to understand through movement exploration how dance can change one’s life.”
She was artistic director for the Philadelphia chapter of the Institute for the Arts in Education and at thePoint Breeze Performing Arts Center. “Her creative guidance helped students tell powerful cultural stories through movement,” her family said.
Mrs. Hines performed with the Jones-Haywood Dance School in Washington before moving to Philadelphia.
As longtime community engagement manager for the Philadelphia Clef Club of Jazz and Performing Arts, Mrs. Hines wrote grants and choreographed performances. She was executive director of the John Coltrane Cultural Society and active at the old University of the Arts.
Her family said: “She devoted her life to creativity and to nurturing talent in others.”
Carla Yvette Washington was born Nov. 3, 1952, in Charleston, W.Va. Her family moved to Grambling, La., when she was young, and she graduated from high school in 1970.
She was named Miss Freshman at what is now Grambling State University, joined the Alpha Kappa Alpha Inc. sorority, and earned a bachelor’s degree in recreation in 1973. In 1981, she earned a master’s degree in fine arts and dance at the old Philadelphia College of the Performing Arts.
Mrs. Hines (left) smiles with her husband, Lovett, and their daughter, Zara.
She worked as a dance teacher for the Fairfax County Department of Recreation in Virginia after college and performed with the Jones-Haywood Dance School in Washington before moving to Philadelphia.
She met jazz musician Lovett Hines Jr. when they were students at Grambling and they married in 1984 and lived in West Oak Lane. They had a daughter, Zara, and Mrs. Hines welcomed her husband’s son, Lovett III, and his family into her family.
“She introduced many creatives to dance and culture, and sparked their creative careers,” her stepson said. “That is the essence of her legacy.”
Mrs. Hines and her husband, their daughter said, were “a partnership of two geniuses.” He played the saxophone and was artistic director at the Clef Club. She loved the drums, and they collaborated seamlessly on many notable projects.
Friends called her “a sweetheart” and “a beautiful soul” in online tributes. One said she “made an impact on Philadelphia and beyond in countless ways.” Her sister, Alicia Williams, said: “Everyone had a special relationship with her.”
Mrs. Hines graduated from Grambling High School in Louisiana in 1970.
Mrs. Hines was diagnosed with a lung disease in 2024 and Stage 4 cancer in 2025. “She was stern but soft,” her daughter said, “loving but able to tell you like it is.”
Her husband said: “She had special relationships with so many musicians, so many people. It was through insight, understanding, and patience. In them, we see her everyplace, feel her everyplace.”
In addition to her husband, daughter, mother, and stepson, Mrs. Hines is survived by three sisters, two step-grandsons, and other relatives. A brother died earlier.
Services were held Wednesday, Dec. 17.
Mrs. Hines (center) said she adapted her teaching techniques to suit the needs and ages of the students.
One of the characteristics associated with prestige wines is known in the trade as “complexity.” While the term can sound pretentious to the average drinker, it captures a fundamental truth about what people find desirable in an alcoholic beverage. In much the same way that a plot with no twists makes for a boring film, a one-dimensional wine with no complexity makes for a boring drink. One-dimensional wines are those that have one main sensory thrust with no balancing component, as with wines that are sticky sweet with no balancing acidity or red wines that are bitter and tannic without balancing fruitiness.
This sweet-tart wine from Oregon has enough layers of complexity to outperform many of its peers flavor-wise. It also acquires that complexity in an interesting way.
There are two main paths a winemaker can take in creating a wine that has complexity. One is to grow your grapes in a truly special vineyard where the precise combination of terrain, microclimate, and soil composition known as terroir produces fruit whose flavors contain some internal contradictions once fermented into wine. This is a laborious and expensive proposition where the goal is to produce wines that are not simply light or heavy, sweet or dry, fruity or oaky, but instead manage to contain multitudes.
The other way to achieve multidimensional results is through skillful fruit selection and blending, which is the secret behind this affordable wine’s harmonious complexity. It may be made with 100% riesling, but its vintners aimed for as much diversity in that fruit as possible. The wine’s vineyard sources span the full stretch of Oregon’s coastal valleys, from the Willamette Valley in the north to the Rogue Valley in the south, including a mix of both younger and older vines. Within those vineyards, fruit is picked in different batches at different times to capture both the electric zing of underripe grapes and the liqueur-like opulence of late-harvest fruit to flesh out and complexify those of standard ripeness. Once blended, the wine offers both richness and refreshment in equal measure. Succulent dessertlike flavors of lemon curd and muskmelon sorbet are balanced with drier components — bracing hints of fresh lime, mint tea, and just a thread of stony minerality.
A to Z Riesling
A to Z Riesling
Oregon, 12% ABV
PLCB Item #87013 — on sale for $16.99 through Feb. 1 (regularly $19.99)
The details are likely to remain elusive well into the weekend, but on Wednesday evidence was accumulating that the Philadelphia region could become a winter wonderland for the remainder of January.
“We’re definitely going to get some snow,” said Alex Staarmann, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Mount Holly, which probably won’t make a first accumulation guess until Thursday afternoon. Snow could begin as early as Saturday night and continue into Monday.
The weather service Thursday posted a winter-storm watch for the entire region — for all of Delaware and most of Pennsylvania and New Jersey — in effect from 7 p.m. Saturday until 1 p.m. Monday.
At the weather office, “It’s all hands on deck,” said agency hydrologist Ray Kruzdlo Thursday. The “outside chance” that the region would be spared a major storm “is leaving us.”
AccuWeather Inc. is calling for 6 to 10 inches for Philly, very much subject to change, said senior meteorologist Bob Larsen.
Several inches of snow would be all but certain, the weather service said. Philadelphia could have a 75% chance of a foot or more, based on analysis of a blend of computer models, and a 50-50 shot of 18 inches or more. However, the individual models are having their usual squabbles, with the American being the snowiest.
Risk of a big winter storm continues to grow, tho uncertainty remains on how much snow falls, & any poss. mixing with ice &/or rain. Consider your plan of action regarding a large snow storm. Travel may be very difficult Sunday, even Monday. Further clarity as we get it. pic.twitter.com/6FWtwqzoDu
In any event, Staarmann said: “It could be a significant storm for most of the region.”
And that applies to the rest of the Mid-Atlantic and Northeast. AccuWeather Inc. estimated that snow and ice during the weekend could affect half the nation’s population.
Said Stephen Morgan, a meteorologist with Fox Weather: “It’s one of the most sprawling systems we’ve seen in several years.”
Predictably, computer models have been using the map as a Ouija board, moving around the zones of the expected heaviest snows.
Earlier in the week, it appeared that the region would be near the northern edge of the snowfall; on Wednesday, however, the models bumped the snow north, increasing the chances that snow could mix with sleet and freezing rain in Delaware and South Jersey.
The snow could mix with sleet at the height of the storm even in the Philly region, the weather service said. That would hold down accumulations: Sleet is slow to accumulate. Conversely, since it is pure ice, it is slower to melt.
Should any rain get mixed in, it would freeze on contact: The upper air may be warmer, but temperatures at the surface are forecast to be mostly in the teens Sunday.
The amounts of snow and mixing would depend on the track of a storm that is forecast to develop off the Texas Gulf Coast and track through the Tennessee Valley and off the Mid-Atlantic coast on Sunday. That track ultimately will be determined by other moving parts in the atmosphere.
As the storm intensifies, its onshore winds would import warmer air into the upper atmosphere, changing the snow to sleet and/or freezing rain, but the surface layers would remain quite cold, Larsen said.
Despite the potential mixing, it is at least possible that Philly will get its first double-digit snowfall since Jan. 22, 2018, said Paul Dorian, a meteorologist with Arcfield Weather, based in Valley Forge.
In the short term, Thursday may be a day to savor. It’s heading into the mid-40s, with nothing falling from the skies. The cold begins to filter in Friday, and highs will be in the teens Saturday.
After the precipitation shuts off Sunday night or Monday, whatever has fallen won’t be in a hurry to disappear, Staarmann said.
Temperatures might not get above freezing for several days after the snow stops, he said. Wind chills are expected to be in the single digits Monday morning, and below zero Tuesday.
“This overall very cold weather pattern is likely to continue into next weekend, potentially beyond,” the weather service said.
A video of a former WHYY intern yelling expletives and pepper-spraying a local influencer on a SEPTA bus is going viral on conservative media.
During the encounter on Monday afternoon, 22-year-old Paulina Reyes called 22-year-old Francis Scales a “fascist” and “racist.” Reposts of the video capturing the incident have since garnered millions of views on social media.
The video depicts Reyes accusing Scales of insulting Muslim people, Black people, and Latino people in posts on his website. Reyes then proceeds to pepper-spray him in the face while Scales’ friend and colleague films.
Scales runs a website called Surge Philly on which he posts videos of himself interviewing people at protests. He became known for provoking District Attorney Larry Krasner at a town hall and organizing a protest against him.
Social media accounts, including I Meme Therefore I Am, which has more than 842,000 followers on X, and Libs of TikTok, which has 4.5 million X followers, launched the video and its two subjects into the national spotlight in the days following the encounter. Both social media accounts are known for posting and reposting content geared toward conservative audiences.
“BREAKING: Antifa agitator attacked two conservative independent journalists on a Philly bus, pepper spraying them, punching them, and trying to grab their phone. She needs to be identified and arrested!” I Meme Therefore I Am posted on X alongside the video on Monday night.
By Wednesday afternoon the post had 2.3 million views and 8,600 reposts.
Billionaire Elon Musk got involved, commenting “She has violence issues” on Surge Philly’s X post containing the video of the incident. His comment attracted 222,000 views.
Soon, the social media posts were linking Reyes to WHYY. Reyes interned there over the summer but neglected to update her LinkedIn profile to reflect that her internship had ended months ago. The lapse led people on social media to post about her as if she were still employed there and led to criticism of the public radio station.
“Hi @WHYYNews, why are your reporters pepper spraying independent journalists on the bus??” Libs of TikTok posted Tuesday morning.
Scales has capitalized on the attention, reposting several tweets from popular social media accounts containing the video and messages supporting him and condemning Reyes.
Meanwhile, Reyes said she has received “nonstop” phone calls from strangers around the country and has gotten private messages from people threatening to rape or kill her.
Reyes and Scales were peers at Community College of Philadelphia, where Reyes is still a full-time student studying communications and media. Scales was studying biology and got partway through his degree before leaving school and transitioning to full-time content creation, he said. He plans to go back and finish his degree eventually.
The two had crossed paths a few times at school and were familiar with each other at the time of the encounteron the Route 7 bus, they both said.
Reyes said she had an overall positive impression of Scales on their first few meetings, and felt he was trying to do right by the students in his capacity as student government president.
But her attitude changed during his tenure as president. She said she observed him condescend tostudents and staff of color and carried that behavior over to the content on his Surge Philly website once he left school.
When she saw him on the bus in South Philly, her initial intention was to have a civil conversation, she said. She planned on asking him why his videos do not offer multiple viewpoints on the issues discussed.
“I did not want to pepper-spray someone on a public bus,” she said. “This is not something I wanted to do.”
Scales soon started filming the confrontation “for my own safety,” he said, because “she was attacking me.”
Reyes said she asked him to stop filming and felt the anger building as he kept the camera rolling. Especially as it started to dawn on her that he would likely post this video online.
“I got mad and I wanted to defend myself because he wasn’t listening,” Reyes said. “I did what I thought was the safest thing to protect myself. I pepper-sprayed him in the face.”
Scales said he managed to dodge the first spray. Reyes then got off the bus.
Knowing this video was likely to reach Scales’ followers, Reyes returned to the bus and came at Scales again with insults about his videos.
“I wanted to make a message that the content he was making was harmful and it was hurting people,” Reyes said. “It was hurting communities that are trying to feel safe right now.”
She concluded her tirade by pepper-spraying him again, this time getting him in the eyes.
SEPTA is investigating the incident, which took place at 23rd Street and Washington Avenue, according to agency spokesperson Andrew Busch.
Philadelphia police did not respond to a request for comment. Nor did Community College of Philadelphia.
Scales said he posted the video online partly because it was such a shocking incident, but also, in part, because it felt aligned with the rest of the content on his website.
“I thought it was relevant,” Scales said. “She was calling me a racist and a fascist and then she committed violence because of what she thought I was.”
This was not Scales’ first time getting attacked for his interviews and posts, he said. He attributes the attacks to the lines of questioning he often pursues when interviewing people at protests. The protesters seem to sense he’s not “in their circle,” he said.
Some of Scales’ recent videos consist of him interviewing people at protests and on the street. He typically homes in on one question, such as “Do you think people have a right to disrupt ICE operations?” or “Do you believe in the concept of having a border?”
“They react aggressively and violently to anybody who they feel may not have their same worldview,” he said. “I think it’s a sign that what I’m doing is good and that I need to stay on this path.”
As for Reyes’ journalistic aspirations, she said she is nervous.
“My entire life has been feeling like it’s falling down now,” she said. “I’m just worried about how this would affect my future as a journalist.”
WHYY spokesperson Gary Bramnick responded to the incident with a statement clarifying Reyes “has no current affiliation, employment, or contractual relationship with our organization.”
Reyes said she has undergone years of treatment for borderline personality disorder and depression. She has been working on managing her emotions better, she said, but, in this moment, they got the best of her.
“I’m not a perfect person and I’m learning how to self-regulate better,” she said.
For Scales’ part, he said he does not feel safe returning to campus until the college makes a public statement in an effort to “denounce political violence.”
NEW YORK — The active New York Mets acquired ace pitcher Freddy Peralta and right-hander Tobias Myers from Milwaukee on Wednesday night in a trade that sent two prized young players to the Brewers.
Milwaukee received pitcher Brandon Sproat and minor league infielder/outfielder Jett Williams. Both were rated among the game’s top 100 prospects by Baseball America.
“Acquiring Freddy adds another established starter to help lead our rotation,” Mets president of baseball operations David Stearns said in a statement. “Throughout the offseason, we sought to complement our rotation with another front-end pitcher, and we’re thrilled we are able to bring Freddy to the Mets.”
Peralta went 17-6 with a 2.70 ERA in 33 starts last season, when he led the National League in wins and finished fifth in Cy Young Award voting. He struck out 204 batters in 176⅔ innings and earned his second All-Star selection.
The 29-year-old Peralta hasn’t been on the injured list since 2022, when the right-hander was sidelined by a strained lat and later elbow inflammation. He is set to make $8 million this season and can become a free agent following the World Series. He is the latest former Brewers player acquired by Stearns, who ran Milwaukee’s front office from 2015-23.
“He obviously knows the players well. Look, he and I have worked very well together for many, many years. I obviously care about him a lot,” Brewers president of baseball operations Matt Arnold said. ”Today’s his anniversary and I was at his wedding. We go back a long way. I think I might have ruined his anniversary dinner. Look, he’s a dear friend. Hopefully, again, these are the types of trades that work out for both guys.”
Myers, 27, was 9-6 with a 3.00 ERA in 25 starts and two relief appearances as a rookie in 2024 before going 1-2 with a 3.55 ERA in six starts and 16 relief outings last year as Milwaukee won its third consecutive division title and advanced to the NL Championship Series.
“Over the past two seasons, Tobias has become an extremely valuable major league pitcher,” Stearns said. “His ability to pitch out of both the rotation and bullpen allows him to help our team in multiple ways.”
Peralta’s departure marks the third straight offseason in which the cost-conscious Brewers have traded a star pitcher entering the final year of his contract.
Two years ago, they dealt 2021 NL Cy Young Award winner Corbin Burnes to Baltimore for infielder Joey Ortiz and left-hander DL Hall. Last winter, the Brewers sent two-time All-Star reliever Devin Williams to the New York Yankees for left-hander Nestor Cortes and third baseman Caleb Durbin.
“These decisions are always tough,” Arnold said. ”We loved having Freddy Peralta here and everything he meant to this franchise. I just had an emotional call with him.”
Although the Brewers won’t have Peralta to anchor their rotation, they do bring back two-time All-Star Brandon Woodruff, who accepted the team’s $22,025,000 qualifying offer. Woodruff went 7-2 with a 3.20 ERA last year after missing the 2024 season with a shoulder injury.
Hard-throwing right-hander Jacob Misiorowski got called up last June and was quickly picked for the All-Star team as a rookie. He finished 5-3 with a 4.36 ERA and 87 strikeouts in 66 innings.
“We feel we have a really good core of starters to deal from,” Arnold said. “I still feel like we’ll have a very strong rotation.”
Arnold said Sproat and Williams will compete for spots on the opening-day roster.
The 25-year-old Sproat made his major league debut in September and went 0-2 with a 4.79 ERA in four starts for the Mets, who selected him in the second round of the 2023 amateur draft from the University of Florida. He was rated the fifth-best prospect in New York’s system by MLB.com.
“He’s a guy we’ve liked going back to the draft. He’s major league ready. He’s going to compete for a spot in our rotation,” Arnold said. “This guy has incredible stuff. Very high octane, really good movement on his four-seamer and two-seamer. Really good secondary weapons and a really good changeup.”
The 5-foot-7 Williams, 22, batted .261 with 17 homers, 34 doubles and 52 RBIs in 130 games combined at Double-A Binghamton and Triple-A Syracuse last year. He was drafted No. 14 overall by the Mets in 2022 out of high school in Texas and was their third-rated prospect, according to MLB.com.
“This kid’s a gamer. He’s not that big, but I can tell you he plays with a ton of heart and he’s got incredible tools,” Arnold said. “He’s one of the fastest players in the minor leagues. I think his versatility is something that’s going to fit very, very well for this team.”
Peralta is 70-42 with a 3.59 ERA and 1,153 strikeouts in 931 innings over eight major league seasons, all with Milwaukee. He joins a Mets rotation that also includes Nolan McLean, Clay Holmes, David Peterson, Sean Manaea and Kodai Senga.
Peralta ranks second in the majors with 40 wins since 2023. He and Dylan Cease are the only two pitchers with at least 200 strikeouts in each of the past three years.
To open space on their 40-man roster, the Mets designated right-hander Cooper Criswell for assignment.
Last week, I visited two subsidized apartment communities in North Philly. One was newly built and still leasing, and the other was built years ago.
But they had something in common that set them both apart from other subsidized housing complexes: They are also sites of playful learning.
Basically, that’s the concept of engaging children and their caregivers in skill-building lessons through play. Think matching games that help kids recognize patterns and the classic I Spy game that teaches kids to describe their surroundings.
An organization founded in Philly has brought educational play spaces to laundromats, grocery stores, and parks. But this is the first time it’s taken playful learning to subsidized housing. Supporters hope Philly can be a national model.
Keep scrolling for that story and more in this week’s edition:
Timing is everything: Read why an economist says this spring may be the time for hopeful homebuyers to make moves.
In Sharswood, a yellow street painted on a sidewalk teaches children rules of the road. A few minutes away, what was once just a bike rack has become a place children can picture themselves as superheroes and act out stories they create on a stage.
Bringing playful learning to subsidized housing communities is a matter of educational equity, said architect Heidi Segall Levy.
She’s the project manager for the Live and Learn pilot that brought playful learning to North Philly.
Kids do a lot of their learning outside the classroom, and this initiative is meant to help vulnerable children catch up to peers who have access to more educational opportunities.
The goal is to incorporate playful learning into subsidized housing developments across the country. And Philly is the test case.
Everyone from your coworker to your Lyft driver has an opinion (in my personal experience).
But if you’re looking to hear from someone who’s a bit more of an expert, we’ve got some advice from Mark Zandi, chief economist at Moody’s Analytics.
He reinforces some of what you’ve seen and felt. Homes have gotten a lot more expensive. There aren’t that many properties to choose from. Renting can be the more affordable option.
But Zandi says that if you’ve been thinking about buying a home, this spring could be the time to make the leap.
I feel like it’s never good when someone in the home design industry calls your house “an interesting design dilemma.”
But the home that Diane and Keith Reynolds bought a few years ago in Rydal, Montgomery County was all over the place.
It was originally built in the Cape Cod style, but the previous owner had added on to the home in the Craftsman style.
The designer had to make sense of elements that didn’t go together and kitchen features such as the loft, beams, and floor plan that made for an “unusual design problem.”
“The reclaimed wood loft installed by the previous architect is something I’ve never seen before, and I’m sure will never see again,” he said.
