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  • Is it rude to bring a store-bought Thanksgiving dish when everyone else is cooking from scratch?

    Is it rude to bring a store-bought Thanksgiving dish when everyone else is cooking from scratch?

    It’s almost Thanksgiving and maybe you’re not the cooking type. Or maybe you just have too much on your … plate. I invited two Inquirer journalists to answer the age-old holiday conundrum. We do get to the bottom of it.

    Evan Weiss, deputy features editor: OK, the question is …

    Is it rude to bring a store-bought Thanksgiving dish when everyone else is cooking from scratch?

    Margaret Eby, food editor: I feel very strongly about this! The answer is no, of course not! Unless you said you were bringing a homemade casserole and show up with a bag of half-eaten Doritos or something, it’s not rude.

    Sam Ruland, features planning and coverage editor: I think it comes down to how much you like these people.

    Margaret Eby: Oooh OK so homemade is only for people you like? Or vice versa?

    Sam Ruland: If they’re the relatives you adore, put in the effort. Make something, even if it’s simple.

    If they’re the relatives who fight over politics and ask why you’re still single? Pay $12.99 for a pie, pop it on a plate, and walk in confidently.

    Margaret Eby: Hahahah that’s a spicy take. To me, I appreciate someone bringing something. I love cooking! But I don’t always have the energy.

    I also have a weird problem, which is that people don’t like cooking for food editors and writers. I think they assume I’ll judge them in the same way we review restaurants, and that’s not true at all. I find it to be a huge compliment whenever anyone cooks me anything, down to a grilled cheese.

    But maybe that’s part of why I feel like it’s fine to let yourself and other people off the hook. Plus, restaurants and bakers and other professionals are great at cooking! It’s fine to let them cook for you!

    Sam Ruland: I totally get that — cooking for food people does feel like a high-stakes audition.

    Margaret Eby: That’s just because you can’t see us behind the screen eating string cheese for lunch.

    Sam Ruland: And this is where my chaotic Thanksgiving philosophy kicks in: I’m a huge fan of buying something and quietly placing it in your own dish like you spent hours on it. If it saves your sanity, do it.

    Margaret Eby: I support that entirely.

    It is not anyone’s business who made those potatoes.

    Evan Weiss: OK, what’s the best thing to buy and pass off as your own?

    Margaret Eby: A whole pizza.

    No, just kidding. But bringing a whole pizza to a party — it’s kind of a baller move.

    Bring a Johnny’s Pizza from Bryn Mawr?

    Sam Ruland: Honestly, I’m more offended not by someone buying it from the store, but by not even trying to hide it. At least commit to the bit! Put it in a real dish!

    Margaret Eby: I think if you’re attempting to pass it off as your own, you do have to be a little realistic. Like that beautifully crafted hand-latticed pie is a great thing to bring. But if you don’t bake pie, your cover is going to be blown pretty quickly.

    The homemade thing people are always impressed by no matter how “rustic” it looks is bread, I’ve found. I’ll bring over a really complicated dish and bread as an appetizer, and people are always more impressed by the bread

    Sam Ruland: Right, the pie lie has limits. This is why I fully endorse buying something like lobster mac and cheese, putting it in your casserole dish, and sighing deeply like it took you hours. Play to your strengths: commitment and presentation.

    Margaret Eby: Feigning struggle is an important part of Thanksgiving!

    Sam Ruland: The sigh, the smudge of flour on your shirt that you did not earn — it’s all part of the illusion.

    Evan Weiss: Also, so many great restaurants around here do great Thanksgiving takeout. You might get some cred if you say where you got it. (Also, bonus because then you don’t have to lie.)

    Sam Ruland: That’s true, restaurant flexing is its own kind of prestige. But I maintain: the quiet dignity of transferring it to your own dish and pretending you suffered for it? Iconic.

    Margaret Eby: I think if you put the thought into picking up a fabulous pie from The Bread Room or a whole bundle of goodies from Zig Zag, for example, people will be just as impressed by that effort as if you made it your own.

    Or I would be, anyway.

    The Bread Room by High Street Hospitality’s line up of Thanksgiving treats, clockwise from right to left: miso caramel apple pie, dirty chai chocolate pie, and basque pumpkin cheesecake.

    Sam Ruland: True! Like my family loves the cannolis from Isgros, so that’s something that would be a crowd pleaser no matter what and wouldn’t get grumbles.

    Margaret Eby: Picking up cheese from DiBruno’s is also a great move. And you don’t have to pretend that you have a secret cheese cave in your basement.

    However, I believe that the holidays are all about long-running bits with your friends and family. And passing off a dish as your own instead of purchased is a classic bit.

    So maybe DO pretend you made the cheese, why not.

    Evan Weiss: “Yes, I made this wine in Sonoma in 2013!”

    Margaret Eby: “It was a great year, thanks!”

    Evan Weiss: So the answer is: No, it’s not rude to bring prepared food. But either commit to the bit or get it from somewhere good.

    Margaret Eby: Yep, we solved it.

    And don’t be like my friend in college who would bring a ziplock bag of whiskey to parties.

    No one appreciates that.

    Have a question you’d like us to answer? Email us!

  • Albert C. Barnes loved Henri Rousseau’s ‘honesty of approach.’ So he built one of the world’s largest Rousseau collections.

    Albert C. Barnes loved Henri Rousseau’s ‘honesty of approach.’ So he built one of the world’s largest Rousseau collections.

    Lions, and tigers, and bare women.

    These are some of the figures in the iconic jungle pictures by Henri Rousseau (1844-1910), a self-taught French artist who strove to realize financial and critical success as a professional painter.

    He also had a criminal record of embezzlement and bank fraud.

    Despite a lack of formal art training, Rousseau was confident he was a significant artist who deserved official recognition. Nicknamed “Le Douanier” (the customs officer) by Alfred Jarry, a playwright who was also a family friend, Rousseau did collect tariffs on goods coming into Paris.

    In 1893 at age 49, he retired early with a modest pension to devote himself to full-time painting.

    Henri Rousseau. Unpleasant Surprise, 1899–1901. Oil on canvas.

    Whether portraits, landscapes, or the uniquely imagined jungle scenes, Rousseau’s pictures reveal features common to an artist with no academic art instruction: anatomical inaccuracies, flatness, scale distortion, outlined forms, and repetitive patterning. Some of his canvases defy logic, mixing fact and fantasy like Tropical Landscape — An American Indian Struggling with a Gorilla (1910).

    At the Barnes’ ongoing “Henri Rousseau: A Painter’s Secrets,” Rosseau’s art is arranged in seven thematic sections.

    The curators — Nancy Ireson, the deputy director of collections and chief curator at the Barnes, and Christopher Green, professor emeritus at the Courtauld Institute of Art in London — have assembled 56 works including major loans from museums around Paris, to showcase an artist with “entrepreneurial energy in marketing,” as Green put it in a recent press preview.

    The compact exhibition offers a glimpse at Rousseau’s journey from an outsider artist to a modern master, revealing, as the exhibition notes say, “the thoughts and intentionality behind some of his most famous works.”

    Henri Rousseau. Fight between a Tiger and a Buffalo, 1908. Oil on canvas.

    Interestingly, an ongoing show at the Philadelphia Art Museum is titled “Dreamworld: Surrealism at 100.” Rousseau’s visionary work was admired by Andre Breton, who wrote the Manifesto of Surrealism in 1924. Although Rousseau deals with such similar matters as childlike imagination, eroticism, and dreamy scenarios, no recognition of his role as an inspirational precursor is presented in this survey of about 180 artworks up the Parkway.

    Yet, Le Douanier was certainly on that road to surrealism.

    Between 1923 and 1929, Albert C. Barnes, the voracious collector of modern art, acquired 18 paintings to form the world’s largest group of Rousseau canvases under one roof. (Eleven are displayed in this show, nine of which will travel overseas for the first time in 40 years when the show goes to the Musée de l’Orangerie in Paris next year.) Barnes admired Rousseau’s “honesty” of approach, saying, in 1925, “his pictures have the charm of a child’s fairy-tale.”

    “But there is nothing childish or untutored in the skill with which they are executed,” he maintained.

    Henri Rousseau. Tropical Forest with Monkeys, 1910. Oil on canvas.

    Rousseau did not begin painting until he was in his 40s. He submitted work to the recently established Salon des Indépendents, the nonjuried annuals that required only a modest fee and provided a venue to anybody to have work on public display.

    The 1894 painting The War, an allegorical image, raised his profile and elicited enthusiastic as well as derisive responses. The central figure is strangely positioned not on but in front of the galloping horse as it leaps across a battlefield strewn with bodies and scavenging black crows.

    Henri Rousseau. Scouts Attacked by a Tiger (Éclaireurs attaqués par un tigre), 1904, Oil on canvas.

    A decade later, Scouts Attacked by a Tiger (1904), a large jungle picture of impending danger, attracted considerable notice. Rousseau’s rather novel tropical scenes like this one began to gain some notoriety among a circle of talented bohemian personalities that included Pablo Picasso.

    Louis Vauxcelles, the young art critic who coined the terms fauvism and cubism, acknowledged that Rousseau was becoming “a celebrity in his own way.”

    The artist, however, never left France.

    His jungle paintings are pure fantastic compositions of faraway places created in his Parisian studio. For visual reference, he used sundry postcards and photographs and made repeated visits to the Jardins des Plantes with its botanical gardens and zoo. Rousseau found his niche painting such “imaginative voyages” during the late years of his career.

    When the artist was on trial for participation in a bank fraud scheme in late 1907, his lawyer brought to court a tropical painting depicting monkeys (the exact canvas is not known). Based on the visual evidence of the picture, the defense maintained that Rousseau was too naive to know that he was committing a crime.

    It worked. The artist only received a suspended sentence.

    Henri Rousseau. The Sleeping Gypsy, 1897. Oil on canvas.

    The piece de resistance of the Barnes exhibition is the last gallery where three key works by Rousseau have been brought together for the first time: The Sleeping Gypsy (1897), from the Museum of Modern Art in New York; Unpleasant Surprise (1899-1901), in the Barnes collection; and The Snake Charmer (1907), from the Musée d’Orsay, which entered the Louvre in 1936, giving Rousseau the official state recognition he had hoped to realize in life.

    With striking light effects and subtle tonalities, these fantasy scenes remain poetic, mysterious, and beguiling. They certainly raise more questions than answers. It is understandable why Green described Rousseau as a “story giver not a storyteller.”

    Henri Rousseau. The Snake Charmer, 1907. Oil on canvas.

    In 1908, Picasso shined a spotlight on Rousseau when he bought The Portrait of a Woman (1895) for a few francs. The formidable portrait depicts a woman (believed to be a Polish lover of Rousseau), who stands in front of a balcony and curiously holds an upside-down branch like a cane. Though it came from a secondhand dealer who was selling the canvas for reuse, Picasso always spoke “movingly about this picture, keeping it with him all his life,” said Green.

    That large Rousseau picture is here on loan from the Musée National Picasso-Paris.

    To celebrate his newly acquired Rousseau, Picasso organized a dinner party with the painting as the centerpiece in his Montmartre studio. In front of an illustrious circle of Picasso’s avant-garde artist friends as well as Gertrude and Leo Stein, Rousseau toasted with unabashed chutzpah his host: “We are the great painters of our time, you in the Egyptian style, I, in the modern style.”

    Guillaume Apollinaire, an influential figure of the Parisian avant-garde who was also invited to that Picasso party, prophetically saluted the guest of honor: “Vive, Vive, Rousseau!”

    “Henri Rousseau: A Painter’s Secrets” through Feb. 22, Barnes Foundation, 2025 Benjamin Franklin Parkway, barnesfoundation.org

    “Dreamworld: Surrealism at 100″ through Feb. 16, Philadelphia Art Museum, 2600 Benjamin Franklin Parkway, visitpham.org

  • Congress should renew Affordable Care Act subsidies — regardless of whether Trump cares | Editorial

    Congress should renew Affordable Care Act subsidies — regardless of whether Trump cares | Editorial

    The longest shutdown of the federal government in this nation’s history ended after Republicans finally agreed to consider Democrats’ appeal for an extension of expiring Affordable Care Act subsidies that help families buy health insurance.

    What action Republicans will ultimately take is anyone’s guess before the subsidies expire in January. As for President Donald Trump, he treats healthcare like every other issue: mostly making nebulous, politically calculated statements that are counterproductive when leadership from the White House is needed.

    For years, Trump has derisively called “Obamacare” bad legislation that never should have been passed, but he has never offered a better alternative.

    “My first day in office, I am going to ask Congress to put a bill on my desk getting rid of this disastrous law and replacing it with reforms that expand choice, freedom, affordability,” Trump said on the campaign trail in 2016. Several proposed replacements to the ACA were subsequently introduced after his election, but each was defeated in the Senate, with even some Republicans voting against the inadequate alternatives.

    Trump never produced anything better than Obamacare during his first administration, but that didn’t stop him from again making the healthcare law a major talking point during his reelection campaign. “We’re signing a healthcare plan within two weeks, a full and complete healthcare plan,” Trump said in July 2020. “We’re going to be doing a very inclusive healthcare plan. I’ll be signing it sometime very soon.”

    But the plan never came, and Trump lost the election.

    A vote to release the Epstein files should only be Congress’ first step toward ensuring justice for victims | Editorial

    He stewed during Joe Biden’s four years as president, but promised voters during his 2024 campaign that he was ready to replace Obamacare. Pressed by reporters to reveal his alternative, Trump had to admit he had only “concepts of a plan.” Nearly a year has passed since his second inauguration, but Trump’s concepts of a better plan to make sure health insurance is affordable are still a mystery.

    Unless that changes before the increased ACA subsidies expire, Congress should vote to extend them.

    The subsidies help Americans who earn up to 400% of the federal poverty level — $15,650 annually for an individual and $32,150 for a family of four — pay for insurance. Without those subsidies, a person now paying $325 a year for health insurance might have to pay as much as $1,562 annually.

    Many whose insurance costs will go up may decide to rejoin the ranks of the uninsured. That would be a travesty. The medically uninsured rate in America almost halved from 17.8% when the ACA became law in 2010 to 9.5% in 2023. Studies show uninsured adults have less access to medical care, receive poorer quality of care, and experience worse health outcomes than insured adults.

    President Barack Obama is applauded after signing the Affordable Care Act into law in the East Room of the White House in 2010.

    Ending the subsidies will turn back the clock. That doesn’t mean Obamacare shouldn’t be touched. Adjustments should be made based on how much healthcare in America has changed since the law was signed in 2010 and fully implemented in 2014.

    The ACA was this country’s alternative to installing a “single-payer” healthcare system, such as Canada’s, where most funding and payments for medical treatment come directly from the government via taxes paid by the public. The ACA system in America instead retains the third-party role of private medical insurance companies such as Blue Cross, Aetna, and Cigna, whose revenue has increased greatly under Obamacare.

    Most Canadians also have private insurance to pay costs not included in their government coverage, so even they don’t consider a taxpayer-funded, single-payer system the best way to provide healthcare. In fact, a survey of 11 healthcare systems provided by the world’s highest-income nations ranked Canada 10th and the United States last.

    Despite spending far more of our gross domestic product on healthcare, America is at the bottom in terms of access to patient care, administrative efficiency, equity, and healthcare outcomes. In other words, we’re spending a lot of money and getting sicker in return.

    Trump makes a mockery of pardon power by blithely granting clemency to his allies | Editorial

    The study by the Commonwealth Fund said the highest-ranked nations, including Norway and the Netherlands, which topped the list, shared four distinguishing features:

    1. They provide universal coverage and remove cost barriers.
    2. They invest in primary care systems that provide high-value services to all people in all communities.
    3. They reduce administrative burdens that divert time and spending from health improvement efforts.
    4. They invest in social services, especially for children and working-age adults.

    That last point brings up another issue regarding healthcare and Trump. The omnibus legislation passed in July, which he dubbed the “One Big Beautiful Bill,” made drastic cuts to Medicaid to help pay for tax cuts expected to reduce federal revenue by $4 trillion between 2025 and 2034. Why should Medicaid, which helps cover medical costs for low-income families, older adults, and people with disabilities, be sacrificed so that Trump can boast he cut taxes?

    Trump’s minions falsely said the cuts were needed to combat fraud and abuse, including a bogus claim that undocumented immigrants were receiving Medicaid benefits.

    Why is this president always finding some perceived wrong among the most vulnerable Americans while lavishing praise and largess on the wealthy? Certainly, he’s more familiar with the latter, having grown up rich and being more comfortable among his people. But so many less fortunate Americans voted for him, including more than a few who depend on Medicaid.

    Shouldn’t he at least occasionally seem to care for their health?

  • Dear Abby | Parents seem to put other family members ahead of single son

    DEAR ABBY: I am 40 and single, with no children and no girlfriend. For many years, it has become increasingly difficult to get my parents to come to my home for dinner. They live only 45 minutes away. Both are retired and healthy. As anyone who knows me can attest, my home is always clean, smells great and I love to cook.

    Abby, it’s a miracle and an act of God when they finally agree to a date and time to visit. I invite them for dinner at least three times a week (because they decline the first or second time), and it’s months before they actually accept. It appears they just don’t have the desire and it’s hurtful. I have spoken to them about this, but it has gone nowhere.

    Two weeks ago, they finally agreed to come after a month or two. I was happy and excited, only to have them cancel midday. They seem to have no issue picking up one or both of my nieces once or twice a week, going to yoga, attending concerts or festivities, coming into the city twice a week, taking trips, etc. It feels like it’s expected of me to go to their place and, if I refuse, it’s always, “Oh, why?”

    I have been the black sheep for 25 years, and I wonder if I were married and had kids, would Mom and Dad come over as they do with my brother and sister-in-law? What is your advice?

    — HOME ALONE IN NEW YORK

    DEAR HOME ALONE: If your parents are keeping up the travel schedule you have described, they are living full, busy lives. It may make more sense (in their view) for you to come to them. I detect a smidge of sibling rivalry in your letter. Because you can’t force other adults to change their behavior, it might make sense for you to change your attitude about the family dynamic if that’s possible.

    ** ** **

    DEAR ABBY: I’m 19. My father’s mother has never been a grandmother figure in my life. No healthy relationship was ever formed. My dad says it was her fault, but she has implied that the fault lies with my mother. Dad’s mother accepts close to zero responsibility for the situation.

    I recently, by accident, referred to her by her first name, and my aunt (Dad’s sister) thought it was disrespectful. How can I politely make her understand that I wasn’t being disrespectful because there is NO RELATIONSHIP? I don’t think anyone sees this from my point of view. There’s an overwhelming consensus that I need to forgive and forget because she is technically my grandmother. I don’t share this feeling. Any thoughts?

    — TECHNICALLY THE GRANDDAUGHTER

    DEAR GRANDDAUGHTER: You do not have to forgive and forget a grandmother who never tried to have a relationship with you. However, in order to keep peace in the family, you DO have to treat the woman with respect. A way to do that would be to use her honorific and refer to her as “Grandma.”

  • Horoscopes: Saturday, Nov. 22, 2025

    ARIES (March 21-April 19). Life accelerates because you remove what’s unnecessary. Narrow down your options, shorten your lists, lose a few rules. Also, whatever time constraints you can lift will eliminate stress. What if, like the gods, you had all the time in the world?

    TAURUS (April 20-May 20). There’s lots that you could chase, but what’s worth the energy? Maybe you have a bit to burn off today, but it’s still better to invest that energy in something that will pay you back instead of squander it on something shiny and ultimately fruitless.

    GEMINI (May 21-June 21). When you let others assist, you get to observe how they communicate, collaborate and show care. That tells you something about who they are and what kind of relationship you might want with them going forward.

    CANCER (June 22-July 22). Trust discernment over guilt. Sometimes the most loving move is to hire the help instead of rescuing another. Competence is compassion in action. Surround yourself with people who lighten the load, not those who need you to carry theirs.

    LEO (July 23-Aug. 22). Even when you’re deeply connected to someone, you still need your personal space. Today, that balance happens effortlessly. You and the other person will intuitively know when to lean in and when to pull back, without having to talk about it.

    VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sept. 22). You don’t need to know where things are going to trust that the road continues. It applies to relationships of all kinds today — professional, personal and existential. Go forward in faith because the world often materializes around your confidence.

    LIBRA (Sept. 23-Oct. 23). You treat all relationships as though you know they are going to be lasting ones. Because even the briefest interactions should feature your integrity. And stay aware of how others interact because the small signals will foreshadow.

    SCORPIO (Oct. 24-Nov. 21). Today, choose happiness over hustle. While you normally give your best focus to work and practical responsibilities, it will nourish your spirit and relationships to prioritize emotional fulfillment and connection before anything professional or financial.

    SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 22-Dec. 21). You’ve had many tests: the test of a small but persistent irritation, the test of a formidable opponent, the test of everything happening at once. You deserve today’s test — the test of what happens when you get the chance to relax.

    CAPRICORN (Dec. 22-Jan. 19). Protecting your energy is wise. You pour so much into others that you sometimes forget to refill. Stop mid-giving; breathe, receive. Reciprocity is holy; it keeps the current alive. When you’re nourished, your kindness glows.

    AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb. 18). Opportunity comes around. Make it easy by being in a high-traffic location. Find out the events, places and people opportunity likes to visit and go there. “If opportunity doesn’t knock, build a door.” — Milton Berle

    PISCES (Feb. 19-March 20). When things are too easy or open-ended, your mind wanders. But when you’re faced with limits like tight deadlines, limited resources, tough rules or challenging people, you’re forced to focus, invent and discover, which will be a thrill.

    TODAY’S BIRTHDAY (Nov. 22). Welcome to your Year of Brilliant Balance. You’ll perfect the art of work-play harmony. Wellness becomes effortless when you treat your body as an ally, not a project. Your relationships get the tone and amount of focus they need to thrive. More highlights: A creative breakthrough that leads to money, a spiritual practice that restores faith and travel that expands your point of view. Pisces and Capricorn adore you. Your lucky numbers are: 10, 12, 20, 16 and 7.

  • Rose Lavelle’s goal leads Gotham FC to its second NWSL title in three years

    Rose Lavelle’s goal leads Gotham FC to its second NWSL title in three years

    SAN JOSE, Calif. — Rose Lavelle scored in the 80th minute and the eighth-seeded Gotham FC beat the Washington Spirit 1-0 on Saturday night to win their second National Women’s Soccer League championship.

    Second-half substitute Bruninha drove into the box on the left wing and sent the ball across to Lavelle, whose left-footed shot sailed past Spirit goalkeeper Aubrey Kingsbury into the bottom corner of the net.

    “It was maybe the one moment I had in the game to step up,” Lavelle said. ”I keep saying Bruninha did the heavy lifting on that.”

    It is the first NWSL championship title for Lavelle, who had scored in the 2023 final when she was playing for the Seattle Reign against Gotham in a 2-1 loss.

    “This was such a roller coaster of a season for us. We had injuries. We had a really daunting schedule with the amount of games that we were playing, the travel. I think just like the way that every single individual stepped up in the moments, did what they were asked to, was so huge,” Lavelle said. “I think you learn the most about yourself in the toughest moments. And so, I think what we faced throughout the season really helped set us up.”

    After a strong opening 10 minutes of the match for Gotham, with three shots from Jaedyn Shaw, the final began to mature into a tense affair.

    Voorhees native Riley Tiernan’s latest run with the USWNT under-23s also was a Philly homecoming

    There were few chances and the best of the first half came when Spirit midfielder Hal Hershfelt perfectly timed a slide tackle and cleaned out Midge Purce with the follow through.

    Not long after the half, Trinity Rodman was brought off the Spirit bench for Sofia Cantore, bringing the crowd to its feet. The U.S. women’s national team star was on limited minutes after suffering a knee sprain in October.

    Saturday’s game might have been Trinity Rodman’s last for the Spirit.

    Even with the introduction of Rodman, the Spirit continued to struggle to create chances. They had marginally more control of the ball, 53%, but were outshot by Gotham 12-6 and finished the game without a single shot on target. Rodman had zero shots and zero chances created.

    “As much as I don’t want to admit it, I still don’t feel like I was my full self tonight, which sucks, because I feel like it’s the second year I’ve gone into a final not feeling like myself,” Rodman said.

    Why the USWNT might not have its new starting goalkeeper settled yet

    The second-seeded Spirit (14-6-8) suffered a second consecutive defeat in the NWSL final, having lost last year to the Orlando Pride in Kansas City, Missouri.

    The Spirit reached this year’s final by overcoming Racing Louisville 3-1 in a penalty shootout in the quarterfinals and then beating the Portland Thorns 2-0 in the semifinals.

    Gotham’s trophy celebration.

    Gotham (11-8-9) had defied the odds to make the final, going on the road twice to defeat the top-seeded Kansas City Current 2-1 in the quarterfinal and the defending champions the Pride, 1-0.

    Gotham is the first eighth-seed to win the NWSL Championship. In 2023, when there were only six playoff spots, Gotham became the first sixth seed to lift the trophy.

    Coach Juan Carlos Amoros has seven NWSL playoff wins in his career and two championships.

  • Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia, former Trump loyalist, says she is resigning from Congress

    Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia, former Trump loyalist, says she is resigning from Congress

    WASHINGTON — Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia, a loyal supporter-turned-critic of President Donald Trump who faced his political retribution if she sought reelection, said Friday she is resigning from Congress in January.

    Greene, in a more than 10-minute video posted online, explained her decision and said she didn’t want her congressional district “to have to endure a hurtful and hateful primary against me by the president we all fought for,” she said.

    Greene’s resignation followed a public fallout with Trump in recent months, as the congresswoman criticized him for his stance on files related to Jeffrey Epstein, along with foreign policy and health care.

    Trump branded her a “traitor” and “wacky” and said he would endorse a challenger against her when she ran for reelection next year.

    She said her last day would be Jan. 5, 2026.

    The White House did not immediately respond to a message seeking comment Friday night.

    Greene was one of the most vocal and visible supporters of Trump’s Make America Great Again politics, and she embraced some of his unapologetic political style.

    Her break with him was a notable fissure in his grip over conservatives, particularly his most ardent base. But her decision to step down in the face of his opposition put her on the same track as many of the more moderate establishment Republicans before her who went crosswise with Trump.

    The congresswoman, who recorded the video announcing her resignation while sitting in her living room wearing a cross necklace and with a Christmas tree and a peace lily plant behind her, said, “My life is filled with happiness, and my true convictions remain unchanged, because my self-worth is not defined by a man, but instead by God.”

    A crack in the MAGA movement

    Greene had been closely tied to the Republican president since she launched her political career five years ago.

    In her video Friday, she underscored her longtime loyalty to Trump except on a few issues, and said it was “unfair and wrong” that he attacked her for disagreeing.

    “Loyalty should be a two-way street and we should be able to vote our conscience and represent our district’s interest, because our job title is literally ‘representative,’” she said.

    Greene swept to office at the forefront of Trump’s MAGA movement and quickly became a lightning rod on Capitol Hill for her often beyond-mainstream views. In her video Friday, Greene said she had “always been despised in Washington, D.C., and just never fit in.”

    As she embraced the QAnon conspiracy theory and appeared with white supremacists, Greene was initially opposed by party leaders but welcomed by Trump. He called her “a real WINNER!”

    Yet over time she proved a deft legislator, having aligned herself with then-GOP leader Kevin McCarthy, who would go on to become House speaker. She was a trusted voice on the right flank, until McCarthy was ousted in 2023.

    While there has been an onslaught of lawmakers from both parties heading for the exits ahead of next fall’s midterm elections, as the House struggles through an often chaotic session, Greene’s announced retirement will ripple throughout the ranks — and raise questions about her next moves.

    Greene was first elected to the House in 2020. She initially planned to run in a competitive district in northern Atlanta’s suburbs, but relocated to the much more conservative 14th District in Georgia’s northwest corner.

    The opening in her district means Republican Gov. Brian Kemp will have to set a special election date within 10 days of Greene’s resignation. Such a special election would fill out the remainder of Greene’s term through January 2027. Those elections could take place before the party primaries in May for the next two-year term.

    Conspiracy-minded

    Even before her election, Greene showed a penchant for harsh rhetoric and conspiracy theories, suggesting a 2017 mass shooting in Las Vegas was a coordinated attack to spur support for new gun restrictions. In 2018, she endorsed the idea that the U.S. government perpetrated the attacks on Sept. 11, 2001, and mused that a “so-called” plane had hit the Pentagon.

    Greene argued in 2019 that Reps. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., and Rashida Tlaib, D-Mich., both Muslim women, weren’t “official” members of Congress because they used Qurans rather than Bibles in their swearing-in ceremonies.

    She was once a sympathizer with QAnon, an online network that believes a global cabal of Satan-worshipping cannibals, including U.S. government leaders, operates a child sex trafficking ring. She eventually distanced herself, saying she got “sucked into some of the things I had seen on the internet.”

    During the pandemic, she drew backlash and apologized for comparing the wearing of safety masks to the horrors of the Holocaust.

    She also drew ridicule and condemnation after a conspiracy she speculated about on Facebook in 2018, in which she suggested a California wildfire may have been caused by “lasers or blue beams of light” controlled by a left-wing cabal tied to a prominent Jewish family.

    When Trump was out of power between his first and second terms, Greene was often a surrogate for his views and brash style in Washington.

    While then-President Joe Biden delivered his State of the Union address in 2022, Greene stood up and began chanting “Build the wall,” referring to the U.S.-Mexico border wall that Trump began in his first term.

    Last year, when Biden gave his last State of the Union address, Greene again drew attention as she confronted him over border security and the killing of a nursing student from Georgia, Laken Riley, by an immigrant in the country illegally.

    Greene, wearing a red MAGA hat and a T-shirt about Riley, handed the president a button that said “Say Her Name.” The congresswoman then shouted that at the president midway through his speech.

    Frustration with the GOP

    But this year, her first serving with Trump in the White House, cracks began to appear slowly in her steadfast support — before it broke wide open.

    Greene’s discontent dates back at least to May, when she announced she wouldn’t run for the Senate against Democratic incumbent Jon Ossoff, while attacking GOP donors and consultants who feared she couldn’t win.

    Greene’s restlessness only intensified in July, when she announced she wouldn’t run for Georgia governor, either.

    She was also frustrated with the Republican leadership on Capitol Hill, which worked in lockstep with the president.

    Greene said in her video that “the legislature has been mostly sidelined” since Republicans took unified control of Washington in January and her bills “just sit collecting dust.”

    “That’s how it is for most members of Congress’ bills,” she said. “The speaker never brings them to the floor for a vote.”

    Messages left with House Speaker Mike Johnson’s office were not immediately returned.

    Republicans will likely lose the midterms elections next year, Greene said, and then she’d “be expected to defend the president against impeachment after he hatefully dumped tens of millions of dollars against me and tried to destroy me.”

    “It’s all so absurd and completely unserious,” she said. “I refuse to be a battered wife hoping it all goes away and gets better.”

  • Former church business manager in Montgomery County charged with $1.1 million theft

    Former church business manager in Montgomery County charged with $1.1 million theft

    The former business manager of St. Matthias Catholic Church in Bala Cynwyd has been charged with theft of more than $1.1 million from the church, Montgomery County District Attorney Kevin R. Steele announced Friday.

    Sean Sweeney, 60, of Mount Pleasant, S.C., served as the church’s business manager from 2017 until his firing in 2024, Steele said.

    Investigators found that from 2018 through 2024, Sweeney was responsible for providing the church’s payroll records processing company, PrimePay, with records for who should be paid and how much. PrimePay paid $1,134,906.35 by direct deposit into bank accounts owned and controlled by Sweeney, Steele said.

    Bank records show that the money Sweeney received was used for his personal expenses, including educational tuition, vehicle-related payments, and vacation costs, Steele said.

    Sweeney surrendered to Montgomery County detectives on Thursday and was arraigned by District Judge Todd N. Barnes, who set bail at $100,000 unsecured, Steele said.

    Sweeney was required to surrender his passport, was ordered not to have contact with employees connected to the case, and is not allowed at or near St. Matthias Church, Steele said.

    Sweeney could not be reached for comment Friday night.

    In December 2024, the Archdiocese of Philadelphia Office of Investigations referred the case to the Montgomery County District Attorney’s Office, Steele said.

    Kenneth A. Gavin, a spokesperson for the archdiocese, said in a statement Friday night: “These charges are serious and disturbing to all of us. The Archdiocese and the parish will continue to cooperate with law enforcement as the criminal matter enters its next phase. The Archdiocese is committed to seeking full restitution to the parish.”

    According to the affidavit of probable cause, a member of the church’s finance council who had been a school classmate of Sweeney’s warned a church official in May 2024 “that Sweeney had personal finance issues and was borrowing money from family members and not paying them back.”

  • Federal judge hands CHOP victory in its fight to protect medical records of transgender children

    Federal judge hands CHOP victory in its fight to protect medical records of transgender children

    A federal judge in Philadelphia has blocked President Donald Trump’s administration from obtaining the private medical records of youth who sought gender-affirming care at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia.

    The decision, issued Friday by U.S. District Court Judge Mark A. Kearney, was a victory for patients’ privacy rights and for CHOP, which had waged a legal battle to limit the scope of a sweeping federal subpoena that sought the names, dates of birth, Social Security numbers, addresses, and parent/guardian information of patients who had been prescribed puberty blockers or hormone therapy.

    In a 54-page opinion, Kearney found that the medical records sought by the U.S. Department of Justice were “beyond the authority granted by Congress” under the Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act, and that “the heightened privacy interests of children and their families substantially outweighs the Department’s need to know” such confidential and sensitive information.

    Neither CHOP nor the DOJ responded to a request for comment late Friday.

    In addition to protecting the identities of patients, Kearney also denied the part of the DOJ subpoena seeking documents related to how doctors make decisions in prescribing medications that help patients to have a body that matches their gender identity, including details such as “clinical indications, diagnoses, or assessments.” Kearney also blocked federal investigators from obtaining documents related to “informed consent, patient intake, and parent or guardian authorization for minor patients.”

    CHOP runs one of the nation’s largest clinics providing medical care and mental health support for transgender and gender-nonbinary children and teens and their families. Each year, hundreds of new families seek care at CHOP’s Gender and Sexuality Development Program, created in 2014.

    Along with CHOP, five parents of transgender children also filed a motion asking the federal court to intervene on their behalf. Kearney’s ruling rendered that motion moot since it sought similar legal relief as CHOP. The motion was filed by the Public Interest Law Center, a Philadelphia-based nonprofit that advocates for the civil, social, and economic rights of marginalized communities.

    Mimi McKenzie, the center’s legal director, said the judge’s ruling was “a complete rebuke” to the DOJ and an affirmation that the federal government has “no authority to root through” private medical records.

    “The court recognized that the Department of Justice is using its subpoena power not as a tool for legitimate inquiry, but as a tool for intrusion, and it’s not allowing that,“ McKenzie said late Friday. ”This is an important victory. Under this court’s ruling their privacy is protected, their medical records are not going to be turned over, and this court is just not going to condone this type of government overreach.”

    The CHOP case against the DOJ has become part of a broader legal battle playing out across the country. As part of an investigation into possible healthcare fraud or potential misconduct, the DOJ had issued subpoenas to CHOP and at least 19 other hospitals nationally that treat transgender youth. In September, a federal judge in Boston blocked the Trump administration’s attempt to subpoena medical records of patients who received gender-affirming care at Boston Children’s Hospital, ruling it was “motivated only by bad faith.” The DOJ has appealed the Boston ruling.

    The Trump administration has said doctors who prescribe to children and teens medications commonly used for gender-affirming care, such as puberty blockers and hormones, are engaging in chemical mutilation, likening it to child abuse. Teenagers are not mature enough to make such major decisions, the administration has argued.

    The American Academy of Pediatrics and other major medical associations, citing research, widely accept such use of these medications as safe, effective, and medically necessary for the patients’ mental health.

    In his ruling, Kearney said the DOJ subpoena was part of the Trump administration’s strategy to end gender-affirming care for minors. Kearney noted a “charged political environment” in which the federal government views “their medical treatment to [be] a radicalized warped ideology.” He concluded that the state and not the federal government has the authority to regulate medical care, and gender-affirming care for minors is legal in Pennsylvania.

  • Chrissy Houlahan and another Pa. Democrat report bomb threats at their district offices

    Chrissy Houlahan and another Pa. Democrat report bomb threats at their district offices

    Spokespersons for U.S. Rep. Chrissy Houlahan, a Chester County Democrat, and Rep. Chris Deluzio, a Western Pennsylvania Democrat, reported that the legislators’ district offices had been targeted with bomb threats on Friday.

    The threats came a day after President Donald Trump accused Houlahan, Deluzio, and four other Democratic lawmakers of sedition “punishable by DEATH” after they were featured in a video urging members of the military and intelligence community to “refuse illegal orders.”

    All six are military veterans or members of the intelligence community.

    Early Friday evening, a spokesperson for Houlahan posted on the representative’s X account that her district office in West Chester was the target of a bomb threat.

    “Thankfully, the staff there as well as the office in Washington, D.C. are safe. We are grateful for our local law enforcement agencies who reacted quickly and are investigating,” the post said.

    A spokesperson for Deluzio posted on X late Friday afternoon that the representative’s district offices were targeted with bomb threats.

    In response to the video, Trump went after the six congressional Democrats in a string of posts on Truth Social Thursday.

    Houlahan lamented at a Friday news conference in Washington that “not a single” Republican in Congress “has reached out to me, either publicly or privately” since Trump’s posts.