Nationally, around 800,000 fewer people have selected plans compared to a similar time last year, marking a 3.5% drop in total enrollment so far. That includes a decrease in both new consumers signing up for ACA plans and existing enrollees re-upping them.
The new data released Monday evening by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services is only a snapshot of a continuously changing pool of enrollees. It includes sign-ups through Jan. 3 in states that use Healthcare.gov for ACA plans and through Dec. 27 for states that have their own ACA marketplaces. In most states, the period for shopping for plans continues through Jan. 15 for plans that start in February.
But even though it’s early, the data builds on fears that expiring enhanced tax credits could cause a dip in enrollment and force many Americans to make tough decisions to delay buying health insurance, look for alternatives or forgo it entirely.
Experts warn that the number of people who have signed up for plans may still drop even further, as enrollees get their first bill in January and some choose to cancel.
Healthcare costs at the center of a fight in Congress
The declining enrollment comes as Congress has been locked in a partisan battle over what to do about the subsidies that expired at the start of the new year. For months, Democrats have fought for a straight extension of the tax credits, while Republicans have insisted larger reforms are a better way to root out fraud and abuse and keep costs down overall. Last week, in a remarkable rebuke of Republican leadership, the House passed legislation to extend the subsidies for three years. The bill now sits in the Senate, where pressure is building for a bipartisan compromise.
Up until this year, President Barack Obama’s landmark health insurance program had been an increasingly popular option for Americans who don’t get health coverage through their jobs, including small business owners, gig workers, farmers, ranchers and others.
For the 2021 plan year, about 12 million people selected an Affordable Care Act plan. Enhanced tax credits were introduced the following year and four years later enrollment had doubled to over 24 million.
This year’s sinking sign-ups — sitting at about 22.8 million so far — mark the first time in the past four years that enrollment has been down from the previous year at this point in the shopping window.
The loss of enhanced subsidies means annual premium costs will more than double for the average ACA enrollee who had them, according to the healthcare research nonprofit KFF. But extending the subsidies would also be expensive for the country. Ahead of last week’s House vote, the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office estimated that extending the subsidies for three years would increase the nation’s deficit by about $80.6 billion over the decade.
Americans begin looking for other options
Robert Kaestner, a health economist at the University of Chicago, said some of those who abandon ACA plans may have other options, such as going on a partner’s employer health plan or changing their income to qualify for Medicaid. Others will go without insurance at least temporarily while they look for alternatives.
“My prediction is 2 million more people will lack health insurance for a while,” Kaestner said. ”That’s a serious issue, but Republicans would argue we’re using government money more efficiently, we’re targeting people who really need it and we’re saving $35 billion a year.”
Several Americans interviewed by The Associated Press have said they’re dropping coverage altogether for 2026 and will pay out of pocket for needed appointments. Many said they are crossing their fingers that they aren’t affected by a costly injury or diagnosis.
“I’m pretty much going to be going without health insurance unless they do something,” said 52-year-old Felicia Persaud, a Florida entrepreneur who dropped coverage when she saw her monthly ACA costs were set to increase by about $200 per month. “It’s sort of like playing poker and hoping the chips fall and try the best that you can.”
The Flyers are the fourth-youngest team in the NHL, with an average age of just under 27. Just 11 of the Flyers’ 23 roster players have played in the NHL playoffs. Of those 11, only six have played more than six postseason games.
The Eastern Conference and Metropolitan Division standings are extremely tight. The Flyers currently sit third in the division with 52 points in 44 games. The last-place Columbus Blue Jackets are just seven points back, with 45 points, which is why it’s key for the Flyers not to let their three-game losing streak snowball further on their upcoming road trip.
The back-to-back against Buffalo and Pittsburgh pits them against two teams that are right on their heels in the fight for a playoff spot. Coach Rick Tocchet said Tuesday after an optional practice that he thinks guys are “squeezing their sticks a little bit,” and it’s contributing to their lack of success on the power play and over the last three games.
“Early on, [Tampa Bay’s] first goal [in the Lightning’s 5-1 win on Monday] … there’s four or five mistakes,” he said. “You can’t have four or five mistakes on a shift, and it’s in the net, then you’re behind the eight ball, then guys squeeze the stick, and then they get frustrated.”
Tocchet pointed to the success of players like Tampa Bay superstar Nikita Kucherov, who cuts to the middle of the ice on the power play instead of sticking along the boards, as someone he wants players like Matvei Michkov and Trevor Zegras to emulate.
But right now, the Flyers are not making the right reads, and it’s preventing them from loosening up and being aggressive. Tocchet mentioned Brandon Hagel’s power-play goal in Monday’s loss as an example of something he wants to see more from the Flyers, instead of deferring to find the perfect one-timer opportunity with the man advantage.
“He tried to cross ice pass, doesn’t connect, the puck comes right back up, he sees an opening to shoot it, scores a goal,” Tocchet said. “We get it, we see an opening, but for some reason, we have a tough time pulling that trigger.”
Travis Sanheim credited the Flyers’ lack of power play success to poor communication, leading to players being out of sync on their reads away from the puck.
The Flyers’ power play is tied for second worst in the NHL this season, converting on just 15.3% of opportunities.
Rick Tocchet mentioned Nikita Kucherov as someone Matvei Michkov and Trevor Zegras should emulate when it comes to getting to the middle of the ice.
“The stuff that I get frustrated with is how [do] you not retain it,” Tocchet said. “We have to think of a way for players to retain some of the information we give them, because we’re not giving them a lot. Maybe early in the season we did, which wasn’t bad, but now we’re going to have to really dummy it down a little bit.”
As one of the more experienced players in the locker room, Sanheim is trying to lead by example as the Flyers enter this pivotal stretch, to keep everyone on the same page and moving in the right direction.
“Games are going to continue to get harder as we go along here,” Sanheim said. “It doesn’t get any easier. The race gets tighter, it already is tight, and just understanding that every play matters, and every battle matters, and it’s just a lot harder to win hockey games. You have to do the hard things to be successful in this league, and you have to do it on a consistent basis.”
Rasmus Ristolainen, Bobby Brink, Adam Ginning, Nic Deslauriers, and Sam Ersson took the ice for the optional skate on Tuesday. … Brink and Jamie Drysdale are both a “possibility” to play on the road trip, Tocchet said. After practice, the Flyers loaned Ginning back to Lehigh Valley in a move that might hint that Drysdale is good to go on Wednesday. … The Colorado Avalanche’s ECHL affiliate will move from Utah to Trenton, and be renamed the Trenton Ironhawks, starting in the 2026-27 season.
PITTSBURGH — The Mike Tomlin era in Pittsburgh is over.
The longest-tenured head coach in major American professional sports stepped down from his job leading the Steelers on Tuesday after yet another quick playoff exit.
The announcement came a day after the end of his 19th season in Pittsburgh, where he was a relative unknown when he was hired to replace Bill Cowher in early 2007.
“Obviously, I am extremely grateful to Mike for all the hard work, dedication and success we have shared over the last 19 years. It is hard for me to put into words the level of respect and appreciation I have for Coach Tomlin,” Steelers president Art Rooney II said in a statement. “He guided the franchise to our sixth Super Bowl championship and made the playoffs 13 times during his tenure, including winning the AFC North eight times in his career. His track record of never having a losing season in 19 years will likely never be duplicated.”
Tomlin won one Super Bowl and went to another during his first four seasons in Pittsburgh before the club settled into a pattern of solid if not always spectacular play followed by a playoff cameo that ended with the Steelers on the wrong side of a blowout.
Eagles coach Nick Sirianni (left) and Steelers coach Mike Tomlin meet on the field after an Eagles win on Oct. 30, 2022.
The 53-year-old Tomlin won 193 regular-season games in Pittsburgh, tied with Hall of Famer Chuck Noll for the most victories in franchise history. But their resumés diverged when it comes to the playoffs. While Noll won four Super Bowls in the 1970s, Tomlin went just 8-12 in the postseason, losing each of his last seven playoff games, all by double-digit margins.
The last came on Monday night, when the AFC North champions squandered some early momentum before getting blown out, 30-6, by Houston, the most lopsided home playoff loss in team history.
There were chants of “Fire Tomlin!” as the clock kicked toward zero, though they weren’t nearly as impassioned as they were in late November while the Steelers were getting pushed around by Buffalo in a loss that dropped their record to 6-6.
Tomlin, as is his way, did his best to tune out the noise and his team responded, the way it seemingly always did during his tenure. Pittsburgh won four of its final five games, including a sweep of Baltimore that gave the club its first AFC North title since 2020.
The optimism, however, dimmed once the Texans asserted themselves. The NFL’s top-ranked defense suffocated Aaron Rodgers and Pittsburgh’s offense while the league’s highest-paid defense wilted late.
It was a familiar and frustrating pattern for a place where, as Tomlin noted not long after his introduction, “the standard is the standard.”
And while that remains the case for a team whose members walk by six Lombardi Trophies every day on their way to work, the results had plateaued. The Steelers finished with nine or 10 wins in each of Tomlin’s final five seasons, often doing just enough to squeak into the playoffs before being exposed by a more talented opponent.
Tomlin had two years left on the contract extension he signed in 2024, with the club holding the option for 2027.
His departure leaves the Steelers looking for a head coach for just the third time since they hired Noll in 1969.
Senate Democrats are asking the nonprofit group that is managing donations to the White House ballroom to explain how much money has been raised and whether donors have been promised any special access or influence in exchange for supporting the estimated $400 million project, a top priority of President Donald Trump.
“You owe Congress and the public answers about your role in managing funds for President Trump’s ballroom,” Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D., Mass.) and colleagues wrote in a letter Tuesday to the Trust for the National Mall that was shared with the Washington Post. The lawmakers gave the group two weeks to respond.
Democrats say limited public disclosure has made it impossible to assess whether safeguards are in place to prevent donors from gaining access or influence through the project. The concerns are heightened, they argue, by Trump’s personal involvement in both the project’s design and fundraising.
The White House has said private donors will entirely cover the ballroom addition’s cost but has declined to share basic details about the value of those gifts, or whether donors were offered meetings, access or other consideration in return. Publicly identified donors, such as Amazon, Google and Lockheed Martin, collectively have billions of dollars in contracts before the administration. (Amazon founder Jeff Bezos owns the Washington Post.)
The Trust for the National Mall, which has managed past fundraising campaigns to restore the Washington Monument and other projects, has largely referred questions to the White House and the National Park Service since its role in the ballroom project was announced last year. The group also is expected to retain a small percentage — about 2.5% — of donations to the ballroom project for its own use, Democrats wrote. The Trust did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Administration officials have said the Trust could receive hundreds of millions of dollars in donations tied to the ballroom project, placing the group at the center of a fundraising effort unlike any it has previously managed.
Trump administration officials have shared few details about the project, the most significant change to the White House grounds in decades, including the building’s final design. The lack of disclosure has also drawn legal scrutiny.Historic preservationists last month sued the Trump administration, arguing that the ballroom construction is illegal because the project did not undergo required review by two federal panels and Congress did not appropriate funding. The White House has denied the allegations. A hearing in the case is tentatively scheduled for Jan. 29 in U.S. District Court in Washington.
Trump administration officials made their first public presentation on the ballroom Thursday, justifying their rapid teardown of the White House’s East Wing annex last fall as a financial decision.
“The cost analysis proved that demolition and reconstruction provided the lowest total cost ownership and most effective long-term strategy,” Joshua Fisher, a senior White House official who is helping manage the project, said at a meeting ofthe National Capital Planning Commission, a review board set to weigh in on the ballroom’s design.
Trump has also steadily increased the project’s planned seating capacityand estimated cost since announcing the ballroom in July. Officials now say the ballroom will seat about 1,000 people.
“I started off with a building half of the seats … and then it just kept growing and growing, and the money kept pouring in and pouring in,” the president told the New York Times last week, adding that he would make the ballroom “bigger” if he could.
Shalom Baranes, the architect Trump tapped to lead the project, told the National Capital Planning Commission last week that the ballroom would not grow further.
In their letter to the Trust for the National Mall, Warren and her colleagues asked the group to explain whether it has internal controls or has undertaken other steps to ensure that donors are not given preferential treatment by the Trump administration.
“This leaves open the question of whether the Trust is being misused to facilitate special-interest access and influence,” the senators wrote. They also asked whether Meredith O’Rourke, a longtime Trump fundraiser who has been coordinating donations, is employed by the Trust or otherwise affiliated with the group. O’Rourke referred questions about her role with the Trust to the White House, which did not immediately respond.
Warren’s office also shared letters the senator received from companies that have donated to the project, which offeredvaried explanations for how they expected their gift to be used. Comcast, for instance, said its donation “included no specific limitations or conditions,” while Microsoft said its gift would go toward construction. Trump has also said several companies have pledged to cover specific aspects of the project, such as Carrier offering to cover an estimated $17 million in air-conditioning and heating costs.
Some are calling Penn State the Nittany Cyclones. Take one look at the Nittany Lions’ transfer portal additions and it is easy to see why.
Since the portal opened on Jan. 2, Penn State reportedly has added 35 players, and 22 of them are from Iowa State, following their former head coach Matt Campbell to Happy Valley.
That list includes Iowa State’s top passer (Rocco Becht), top rusher (Carson Hansen), three of its top receiving targets (Chase Sowell, Benjamin Brahmer, and Brett Eskildsen), two of the three top tacklers (Marcus Neal and Caleb Bacon), and two of the three top interception leaders (Neal and Jamison Patton).
In addition, Penn State brought in Becht’s backup, Alex Manske, to be the potential future quarterback after 2026. Brahmer’s backups at tight end, Greg Burkle and Cooper Alexander, are also joining the Nittany Lions.
However, 50 players from Penn State’s roster in 2025 had entered the portal as of Monday night, meaning Campbell and his staff have their work cut out for them to continue to build up the roster for next season and beyond. Among those key departures include Chaz Coleman, Zuriah Fisher, Ethan Grunkemeyer, Amare Campbell, Dejuan Lane, King Mack, A.J. Harris, and Luke Reynolds.
But the staff has also retained 33 players from last season’s roster, including starters Anthony Donkoh, Tony Rojas, Audavion Collins, Ryan Barker, and Zion Tracy, along with several other key contributors like Max Granville, Andrew Rappleyea, Cooper Cousins, and prized freshmen Koby Howard and Daryus Dixson.
Outside of Becht and some key starters who transferred in from Iowa State, Penn State added potential key contributors in UCLA defensive tackles Keanu Williams and Siale Taupaki, both of whom worked closely with new defensive line coach Ikaika Malloe, and Ohio State running back James Peoples, who scored three touchdowns this season.
Ohio State’s James Peoples hurdles UCLA Bruins defensive back Cole Martin on his way to scoring a touchdown on Nov. 15.
The Nittany Lions also made additions along the offensive line, which is losing four of its five starters from last year. Brock Riker, a redshirt freshman who started at center for Texas State last season, is transferring to Penn State, and allowed just six pressures over 800 snaps in 2025, according to Pro Football Focus. Along with Riker, Iowa State transfer offensive lineman Trevor Buhr brings in starting experience at left guard, while several offensive linemen from the Cyclones’ roster, including Will Tompkins, Vaea Ikakoula, and Kuol Kuol II, figure to be part of the future.
After pulling in the largest high school recruiting class in school history in December, Temple isn’t done adding to its roster for next season and beyond, utilizing the transfer portal to pick up some key players.
The school had added 20 players through the portal as of Monday, with 11 of them coming from Power Four schools. Two of the additions were quarterbacks who could compete for the starting quarterback position next season.
Among the transfers is running back Samuel Brown V, who played at La Salle College High School and spent four seasons at Rutgers. Brown burst on the scene as freshman for the Scarlet Knights, posting a 101-yard rushing game before suffering a season-ending injury seven games into the campaign. He was buried on the depth chart behind Kyle Monangai and Antwon Raymond the next three seasons and totaled 828 yards and eight touchdowns in 28 games.
Samuel Brown scores a receiving touchdown against Howard on Aug 29, 2024.
A few other players from the area or New Jersey are also transferring to Temple. Illinois safety Saboor Karriem (West Orange, N.J.), Albany defensive lineman Deshon Dodson (Neumann Goretti), and Central Florida defensive back Jaeden Gould (Somerset, N.J.) join Brown as players with ties to the region.
Temple also is bringing in former Penn State quarterback Jaxon Smolik and Washington State signal caller Ajani Sheppard, neither of whom has starting experience.
Sheppard began his career at Rutgers, where he intersected with Evan Simon, and played 37 snaps, attempted two passes, and had four rushes for 34 yards in two seasons. He did not see the field at Washington State in 2025.
Smolik was buried on Penn State’s depth chart behind Drew Allar and Beau Pribula in 2023, was out for the season with an injury in 2024, and appeared in just three games in 2025 after losing the backup role to Grunkemeyer in the preseason. He has never attempted a pass in a college game and rushed four times in a loss to Iowa earlier this season before leaving that game with a wrist injury.
Jaxon Smolik scrambles during the first quarter against Iowa on Oct 18.
The duo joins a quarterback corps full of young, inexperienced players, including rising sophomore Camren Boykin along with incoming recruits Lamar Best, Brody Norman, and Brady Palmer. Boykin did not appear in a game in 2025, and the program lost Simon, Gevani McCoy, and Anthony Chiccitt to graduation while Tyler Douglas and Patrick Keller entered the portal. Smolik and Sheppard will likely have the chance to compete for the starting role during the spring and potentially summer camp, as McCoy and Simon did last year.
K.C. Keeler and the Owls pulled in four players from Penn State (Smolik, Kaleb Artis, Kolin Dinkins, and Joey Schlaffer) and three from Rutgers (Brown, John Stone, and Zach Aamland).
Of the positions the Owls restocked the most, the line, secondary, and wide receiver seem to be a heavy focus. All three offensive linemen (Stone, Aamland, Louisville’s Ransom McDermott) and safeties (Karriem, Gould, Dinkins) came from Power Four schools, while just one of the four defensive linemen and wide receiver transfers was a Power Four addition.
The portal additions included players from the Football Championship Subdivision (Lafayette DL Jaylon Joseph, Stony Brook WR Jayce Freeman, Albany’s Dodson) and Division II (Midwestern State WR Demonte Greene, Tiffin DL Kevin Hornbeak).
During her visit, Davidge posed with the string band captains from her wheelchair, collected an assortment of beads, made a TV appearance, had lunch at Marathon Grill, and drove by the Philadelphia Art Museum to see the Rocky statue.
“I fell in love with Philadelphia and would love to go back,” she said from her Swansea flat, marveling at how total strangers stopped her during the parade asking if she was “the grandma from Wales.”
“I will never ever forget it and I would love to go back tomorrow,” she said.
Still, Davidge’s granddaughter, Fiona Smillie-Hedges, reports not all is well back home. Davidge’s Instagram account, “grandmas.adventures,” was suspended for allegedly failing to follow the platform’s “community standards on account integrity.”
The family has inadvertently found itself among thousands of people who claim to have been erroneously banned thanks to faulty and overzealous artificial intelligence models. Like so many before her, Smillie-Hedges has not been able to get hold of a human.
At stake for the grandmother, who jokes about never leaving her flat and the possibility of death with the slightest illness, is her window to the world, specifically Philadelphia. She had amassed about 400 followers who shared her passion for the Mummers.
Meta, the company that owns Facebook and Instagram, did not respond to requests for comment.
The whole ordeal has been a blow to the family. Instagram was how the family was able to connect with Mummers in the first place and touch base with other Philadelphians who offered parade advice.
“She wouldn’t have been in the paper, or gone to the Mummers Museum, or met [Quaker City String Band captain] Jimmy Good, or had any of the other captains,” Smillie-Hedges said. “It would have been a completely different trip.”
The family doesn’t know how to broach the subject with Davidge, though they feel they can’t keep her in the dark much longer. While Davidge doesn’t know how to navigate the platform, she likes to hear what people are saying and have her niece respond to comments. For now, she’s still responding to her TikTok followers.
Smillie-Hedges doesn’t want to tarnish the Philadelphia experience and she doesn’t know how to relay Instagram’s reason for the ban. She’s not quite sure she understands herself.
“We don’t allow people on Instagram to pretend to be someone well known or speak for them without permission,” read a standard explanation from Instagram, which also said no one would be able to see the account and Davidge’s information would be permanently deleted.
The only peccadillo Smillie-Hedges can think of is calling Davidge “Queen Mumm” on some posts, a nickname given to her by Jim Donio, host of the String Band Sessions podcast. To the British, Queen Mum can be a reference to Queen Elizabeth, who was also known as the Queen Mother, and is long dead.
While the stakes are somewhat low for Davidge and her granddaughter, they have found themselves in what Reddit forums claim is becoming a growing problem. Meta artificial intelligence models are inaccurately flagging and disabling accounts with little recourse for users.
Smillie-Hedges can’t get past the automated responses to request another review of the decision.
According to the BBC, paying for Meta Verified is one way to speak to a human, but even that is not a surefire way to address account issues.
Reports of the bans extend to Meta’s other platforms Facebook and WhatsApp. A Change.org petition with more than 54,000 signatures demands the tech company address the AI banning issues across its platforms.
For now, Smillie-Hedges made a quick post on TikTok telling people about the suspension and letting fans know the family was trying to get it back. She also began uploading some of Davidge’s videos on Facebook as an additional way to connect with people.
“I was worried people were going to think something bad had happened,” Smillie-Hedges said. “Some people are really invested in her.”
Donio, who first connected with Smillie-Hedges and Davidge on Instagram and made much of the VIP visit to Philly possible, said he has tried to spread the word of the account mishap. He can now communicate with Smillie-Hedges and Davidge through email and video calls but he understands their frustration.
“I think the frustration that a lot of people feel is if you do something wrong or if you’ve miscommunicated something and then you want to resolve it, it’s virtually impossible to try to resolve it and explain your situation to a live person,” he said.
Smillie-Hedges is still hopeful that something can be done to change Meta’s mind about the account. In the meantime, she and her grandmother continue to reminisce and upload snippets of video from the visit.
Of the highlights there are many. There was the moment she met Good, who leads the Quaker City String Band. He surprised her while she visited the Mummers Museum.
Davidge woke up in her Center City hotel overlooking Broad Street just in time to greet 2026. Down below she saw two children play-fighting with Mummers umbrellas.
Then there was the parade itself, where Davidge was treated like a VIP. Though the string band competition was postponed because of heavy winds that led to performer injuries, she still got to see bands show off their costumes and perform. The string bands were the main draw when Davidge discovered the Mummers weeks after her longtime husband’s death. She felt it was something they would have enjoyed together.
And who could forget the freezing cold, joked Davidge, adding people could hardly see her face because she was bundled deep in layers of blankets at certain points.
“I wouldn’t have missed it for the world,” she mused. “What a wonderful opportunity to be able to go there and see it myself.”
New Jersey lawmakers on Monday approved a bill that would make it easier for development projects in Camden to qualify for hundreds of millions of dollars in tax credits.
Under current law, most commercial real estate developers must show their projects would generate more dollars in economic activity than they would receive in subsidies in order to qualify for tax credits under New Jersey’s gap-financing program, known as Aspire.
The new legislation — which was introduced late last month and approved by the Democratic-led Legislature days before Democratic Gov. Phil Murphy is to leave office — would exempt certain projects from the program’s so-called net benefit test.
Lawmakers on Monday also passed a bill increasing the cap on the size of the Aspire tax-credit program from $11.5 billion to $14 billion and authorized $300 million in tax breaks to renovate the Prudential Center in Newark, home of the New Jersey Devils hockey franchise. The team is owned by Harris Blitzer Sports & Entertainment, which also owns the Philadelphia 76ers.
‘Competitive market’
Supporters of the Camden bill, A6298/S5025, said it would make South Jersey more competitive in the Philadelphia market, while critics contended it would weaken a provision of a 2020 economic development law signed by Murphy that was intended to ensure fiscal prudence.
The test has impeded big projects in South Jersey, said Assembly Majority Leader Louis Greenwald (D., Camden), a sponsor of the bill. Since the law was signed, the region hasn’t attracted a single “transformative project” — a designation in the Aspire program for developments that have a total cost of $150 million and are eligible for up to $400 million in incentives over 10 years, Greenwald said.
“We started to ask people, what’s the barrier?” he said. “And when you look at the competitive market of what [developers] can get in Philadelphia or Pennsylvania compared to other areas in the state that don’t have to compete with that, that net operating loss test, that net benefits test, is a barrier.”
The legislation was not drafted with a specific project in mind, Greenwald said, but he acknowledged that one that might benefit is Beacon, which would feature 500,000 square feet of office space.
Developer Gilbane is leading the project with the Camden County Improvement Authority at a vacant site on the northwest corner of Broadway and Martin Luther King Boulevard across the street from the Walter Rand Transportation Center and Cooper University Hospital.
Map of the planned Beacon Building in Camden.
“The goal is to attract projects, maybe like Beacon Tower, to capitalize off of the growth that we’ve seen in Camden city,” Greenwald said.
Any project seeking Aspire subsidies must apply to the Economic Development Authority.
Camden County officials have said they expect tenants to include Cooper University Health Care, which has said it needs additional office space to accommodate its $3 billion expansion. They also hope to entice civil courts to relocate there.
County Commissioner Jeff Nash said last year that tenants had yet to commit, in part because the development team was still working on an application for Aspire tax credits.
The incentives will help determine rent, he told the Cherry Hill Sun. The land is owned by the Camden Parking Authority, and Nash has said officials are still trying to determine who will own the site and the building going forward, according to Real Estate NJ.
County spokesperson Dan Keashen said that those talks remain ongoing and that the improvement authority may issue a request for proposals for a new developer. Gilbane, the current master developer, didn’t respond to a request for comment.
Wendy Marano, a spokesperson for Cooper University Health Care, said she didn’t have an immediate answer to a question about whether the hospital network planned to obtain an equity stake in the development.
In 2014 the state awarded $40 million in tax credits to incentivize Cooper Health’s relocation of suburban office jobs to Camden, and Cooper later bought a stake in the development.
The possible new state investment in Camden comes after Murphy’s administration separately allocated $250 million to renovate the state-owned Rand center — which serves two dozen NJ Transit bus lines and the River Line, and includes PATCO’s Broadway station.
Construction on the transit center is expected to begin soon, according to county officials. While that renovation is underway, the Beacon site will serve as a temporary bus shelter, Keashen said, adding that possible construction on an office tower is still years away.
Fast track
Critics of the bill said that it was rushed through the Legislature with minimal public input and outside the normal budget process, and that it appeared to be designed to benefit specific projects. The bill passed the Assembly, 48-25, and the Senate, 24-14. It now heads to Murphy’s desk. The governor’s second term ends on Jan. 20, when he is to be succeeded by fellow Democrat Mikie Sherrill.
The legislation applies to redevelopment projects located in a “government-restricted municipality” — language included in the Aspire program’s statute — “which municipality is also designated as the county seat of a county of the second class.” The project must also be located in “close proximity” to a “multimodal transportation hub,” an institution of higher education, and a licensed healthcare facility that “serves underrepresented populations.”
“I say to you that there’s going to be one project that fits all those criteria,” Assemblyman Jay Webber (R., Morris) said on the floor of the chamber during debate Monday.
“The net benefits test was put in as an accountability measure to make sure these projects were at least by some measure benefiting the taxpayer,” Webber added in an interview.
“And now apparently one or more projects can’t meet that test,” he said. “And so rather than stick to the rules that they agreed to and pull the credits, they’re going to change the rules, lower the bar so that somebody can step over it. It’s wrong.”
Greenwald said the legislation has “nothing to do with [Beacon] in particular,” adding that he hopes it is one of many projects that could benefit. Possible developments in Trenton and New Brunswick could also qualify for incentives under the bill, he said.
Assembly Majority Leader Louis Greenwald in 2019.
The net benefit test
The test relies on economic modeling based on data such as projected jobs and wages. Under current law, most commercial projects seeking Aspire credits must demonstrate a minimum net benefit to New Jersey of 185% of the tax credit award — meaning, for instance, an applicant that receives $100 million in credits must generate $185 million in economic activity.
Projects located in “government-restricted municipalities” — a half-dozen cities, including Camden, selected by the Legislature — already face a lower threshold of 150%, according to the state Economic Development Authority.
Some projects, including residential and certain healthcare centers, are exempt from the net benefit test.
The test was strengthened in the Economic Recovery Act of 2020, signed by Murphy, because “we saw in previous iterations of the tax credit program that if the guardrails weren’t strong enough … then companies could simply not meet the test, or, you know, not follow through on their promises, and nonetheless collect the funds,” said Peter Chen, senior policy analyst at New Jersey Policy Perspective, a liberal-leaning think tank.
The 2020 law changed that, he said. “It’s one of the most important guardrails of the entire corporate tax credit program,” Chen said in an interview last week. “So exempting any project from the net benefit test requires a pretty large, pretty strong reason for doing so, and in this case, no reason was given.”
Criminal case
The renewed push for tax credits in South Jersey comes as a criminal case involving an earlier round of corporate subsidies continues to play out in court.
Democratic power broker George E. Norcross III — founder of a Camden-based insurance brokerage and chairman of Cooper Health — and five codefendants were indicted in 2024 on racketeering charges related to development projects on the city’s waterfront.
A judge dismissed the charges last year, and the state Attorney General’s Office is appealing the decision. Norcross has denied wrongdoing. He and his allies say state incentives have helped revitalize the city.
During his floor speech on Monday, Webber alluded to “incredible allegations of corruption” in the earlier economic development program and noted that Murphy had previously championed reform of the system.
The governor’s spokesperson, Tyler Jones, declined to comment on pending legislation.
PHOENIX — The Arizona Diamondbacks acquired eight-time All-Star third baseman Nolan Arenado from St. Louis for minor league pitcher Jack Martinez in a trade Tuesday in which the Cardinals also are including $31 million.
A 10-time Gold Glove winner, Arenado has played for the Cardinals the last five seasons and was shopped extensively after the 2024 season by the rebuilding team. The 34-year-old isn’t the offensive force he used to be but will still provide a veteran presence at the position after the D-backs traded slugger Eugenio Suárez at last season’s trade deadline.
Arenado batted. .237 with 12 homers and 52 RBIs last season. He has two years remaining on his contract worth $42 million, with salaries of $27 million this year and $15 million in 2027. The Cardinals will be sending Arizona $22 million to offset this year’s salary and $9 million to offset next year’s pay.
Arenado waived a no-trade clause to accept the deal.
“We are grateful for Nolan’s five years as a Cardinal, on and off the field — for his drive, his competitiveness, and for all of the memories he gave us,” Cardinals president of baseball operations Chaim Bloom said in a statement.
“As we continue to move forward, we are pleased to add another intriguing pitching prospect to our organization, and excited for the opportunity this move creates for a number of our players to step up and further establish themselves at the big league level,” Bloom added.
Martinez was an eighth-round pick by the D-backs out of Arizona State in 2025.
Arenado is a career .282 hitter and has 353 homers over 13 seasons with the Cardinals and Rockies.
Well, after two straight sobering losses to perennial powerhouse Tampa Bay, in which the Flyers were outscored by 12-3 at Xfinity Mobile Arena, they surely learned a few tough ones.
Here are three lessons from Monday’s 5-1 loss to the Lightning that the Flyers learned and need to carry with them as they move through a gauntlet before February’s Olympic break.
As the old saying goes, “you take it one shift at a time.” But, when you read between the lines, it’s really saying that yes, while you take it one shift at a time, you also do it by playing consistently.
Does that mean they have to be perfect every single second? No. And the Flyers have their lapses. But, unlike Stanley Cup contenders who can get bailed out by their defense or offense, the Flyers aren’t there yet. They have great stretches, but as seen in even some of their wins, when they allow teams to creep back in, they need to be on their toes for a full 60 minutes.
“These are the games that are important to us to see consistency-wise, hey, we need to play the right way,” defenseman Nick Seeler said. “We need to reload when it’s there. We have to help our D out. We have to block shots when it’s there.
“We have to do the little things to be successful in this league. It’s important. I think we’ve done a good job this year and grown a lot, but it’s that consistency piece that we can continue to do better at.
“We still believe in ourselves. These two games don’t change that. But we’ve just got to learn from a couple of games like that and be better from it, mature a bit as a group, and we’ll get on the other side of this.”
2. Cut down on turnovers
The record books will say the Flyers had 19 giveaways on Monday night. This comes after 14 on Saturday. In that game, at least four goals can be credited to giveaways. On Monday, Matvei Michkov turned the puck over twice in the offensive zone on one shift — although the official stats say he had just one giveaway in the game — and Trevor Zegras had the puck taken away before Jake Guentzel scored.
It’s costing them games.
“We’ve got some guys giving too many turnovers, especially some of our high-end guys, too many turnovers,” Tocchet said. “Because if you’re going to turn them over, if you have a chance, you’ve got to score if I want to play that type of hockey.
Flyers right wing Travis Konecny was one of the players who was too loose with the puck on Monday night.
“We’re giving up turnovers, but we’re not scoring. … I’m a big believer in that, that if you’re going to play risky, you better score, and our guys aren’t scoring, so you’ve got to tighten it up.”
Across the whole season, the Flyers are one of the NHL’s best teams when it comes to limiting giveaways with the fifth fewest (639). However, across the last two games against the Lightning, they have 33 giveaways. Those 33 are the sixth-highest total in the NHL during that two-game span, with 24 teams playing twice.
It’s a trend that needs to be quashed.
3. Special teams need to step up
Maybe it’s something in the water? Because no matter what — new personnel, new coaches — the Flyers’ power play is bad, and it may have come to a head Monday when they had two power plays and didn’t put a single shot on goal. In fact, they iced the puck once.
Although the power play has been an ongoing issue since before the John Tortorella era — and it is now at 15.3%, tied with the New York Islanders for 30th in the NHL — the problem is that the once steady penalty kill is matching in futility. After going 2-for-2 with kills on Saturday, it went 2-for-4 on Monday and is just 9-for-16 (56.3%) since New Year’s Eve, which ranks 31st. Overall, it is at 79.9% and ranked 14th in the NHL.
“I don’t know. It’s tough to say right after a game like this,” Sean Couturier said when asked where he sees the penalty kill now. “Obviously, it’s not good enough.”
Special teams can make or break teams, and if the Flyers, who are precariously hanging on to third in the Metropolitan Division, want to stay there, the penalty kill and the power play need to step up.
“Yeah, that’s something we have to improve on, no doubt about it. We had some looks on the power play, so it wasn’t all that bad, but we’ve got to bear down, and they’ve got a lethal power play themselves,” Christian Dvorak said. “And you know, it was a big part of the game for them. And, you know, made a huge difference. So we’ll have to do better.”
The Eagles season ended sooner than expected, and that means there are plenty of questions surrounding the team as eight others continue to battle in the playoffs. Here’s what they’re saying about the Birds after their early exit …
‘Mediocre across the board’
Former Eagles center Jason Kelce believes the offensive coordinator isn’t the only person who should be blamed for Sunday’s loss.
“I know that everybody is out on Kevin Patullo. I happen to know the guy, I love Kevin Patullo,” Kelce said on ESPN’s Monday Night Countdown. “I know he’s a great coach. I know it wasn’t the best performance this year, offensively. They had the No. 1 highest-paid offense in the league and were mediocre across the board. That’s unacceptable. They had their chances to win that game [Sunday]. The players didn’t make the plays.”
"[The Eagles] had their chances to win that game yesterday, and the players didn't make the plays!"@JasonKelce acknowledges the coaching issues throughout the year, but holds the players accountable for losing against the 49ers 😳 pic.twitter.com/EiBdITdGXs
The 49ers defense held the Eagles to 19 points in Sunday’s loss at Lincoln Financial Field. Kelce praised the San Francisco defense for its efforts in the win over the defending champs.
“What Robert Saleh did to that defense, it’s commendable what they’ve done to get to here,” Kelce said. “It’s absolutely a testament to that organization and how well they’re built and how they function across the board. Kyle Shanahan with the trickeration, finding a way to get things open. You tip your cap to them. But Philly had their opportunities.”
Although Kelce may not be among those calling for Patullo to get fired, his coworker Marcus Spears certainly is.
“I’m not going to teeter around it, Kevin Patullo’s [butt] needs to be gone,” Spears said on Monday Night Countdown. “This was a horrible year of calling the offensive plays. And I don’t think the Philadelphia Eagles offense is as bad as we watched it based on the talent. That’s what kept us on the string all year long.”
"Kevin Patullo's ass needs to be gone." @MSpears96 feels strongly about the Eagles offensive play-calling this year 😬 pic.twitter.com/5nAFUxLunA
Patullo has been a member of the Birds coaching staff since Nick Sirianni arrived five seasons ago, but this was his first year as the offensive coordinator after he replaced Kellen Moore, who took the head coaching position with the New Orleans Saints. After the Birds’ short postseason run, ESPN’s Get Up show posed the question: Was Kevin Patullo the Eagles’ weakest link this season?
“The frustrating part about watching that offense, and it’s happened all year and it’s very on display in this game, is that it appears as if they’re not trying unless they’re trailing,” Domonique Foxworth said on Tuesday. “What I’m watching in the second half, it’s second-and-8, it’s second-and-10, it’s third-and-10, it’s third-and-11. And they’re running the ball and throwing swing passes. I’m not a fan of the Eagles, I’m just a fan of football. Like, come on. I imagine Eagles fans are watching this like, ‘Try something. We won a Super Bowl last year. We’ve been together all year and our answer on third-and-10 is a swing pass to Saquon Barkley?’”
A lot was made about the Eagles going conservative in the second half Sunday, but it’s been an issue throughout the season.
“This is the point that we made about this team all year. And maybe they just weren’t as good as we wanted them to pretend that they were,” Foxworth continued. “But the point that we made was, the reason we wanted them to be more aggressive offensively is that there will come a game where the breaks won’t come your way and you wish that you would have extended the lead. And I’m watching this game and they’re like, ‘We’re up by one, let’s go ahead and punt.’”
Foxworth also noted the difference between how the Eagles and Niners attacked those situations, with San Francisco being proactive while the Eagles seemed content to sit back and wait for something to happen.
“You watch this [49ers] team, which knows they’re not that good — or knows that they don’t have that much of a margin of error — they’re like, ‘Look, we’ve got to take shots.’ And we’re watching the Eagles like, ‘Come on. Do something, do something, do something.’”
Eagles wide receiver A.J. Brown had multiple costly drops in the team’s wild-card loss.
‘Our offense becomes dull and stale’
Although most of the blame is being directed toward Patullo, there are some critics, including former Eagles running back LeSean McCoy, who have questioned Jalen Hurts’ role in this year’s predictable offense.
McCoy went on The Speakeasy podcast after the game and said the quarterback was holding back the offense. “We can’t do different exotic looks, different formations, different motions because I’m hearing that [Hurts] can’t really do it,” he said.
But Hurts didn’t appear to hold back the offense a year ago, and former Eagles quarterback Donovan McNabb defended the Super Bowl LIX MVP on 94 WIP.
“Let me break it down for this, and I know there’s a lot of rumblings about what Jalen wants to run and what he doesn’t like,” McNabb said. “He’s deserving of that decision as the quarterback of the franchise. He’s the face of the franchise. He’s won you a Super Bowl. He’s been Super Bowl MVP. You know he’s been in this league long enough where he decides what he likes and what he doesn’t like.
“It’s our choice as the quarterback to be able to be comfortable with what we’re calling. So we can eliminate that whole mindset that everybody on the outside is trying to create. That whole narrative.”
Instead, to McNabb, there was one critical moment that changed the Eagles offense for the rest of the season.
“To me, with this offense, everything shifted ever since A.J. [Brown] started talking he wasn’t getting the ball,” said McNabb, who played alongside another outspoken wide receiver in Terrell Owens. “The offense shifted and everything was kind of going to A.J., and DeVonta [Smith] being the third option. And so, that’s kind of to me where it took us away from what we were very successful with last season to what’s going on with this season. And we didn’t make that change.
“And so we’re trying to please people now. So, our offense becomes dull and stale because we don’t move guys around.”
