Philadelphia local news, sports, jobs, cars, homes

Blog

  • Snow, up to 5 inches, is a near certainty in Philly this weekend, and it won’t melt quickly

    Snow, up to 5 inches, is a near certainty in Philly this weekend, and it won’t melt quickly

    The first measurable snowfall of the winter of 2025-26 evidently is all but a done deal for Philly this weekend, and it has a chance to be the biggest in five winters — not that the bar is ultra-high in a period when snow has been mightily lacking.

    The National Weather Service Saturday has issued a winter storm warning for 3 to 5 inches throughout the region, listing a 98% likelihood of at least an inch.

    The AccuWeather Inc. forecast was similar.

    The weather service foresaw a 76% chance of 4 inches in the immediate Philly area, and a 43% chance of 6 or more.

    With the caveat that timing and duration of precipitation aren’t in the wheelhouse of atmospheric science, the weather service is expecting snow or snow mixed with rain to start late Saturday night.

    If it’s a mix at the outset it would quickly become all snow as temperatures fall below freezing, and end around daybreak. As the weather service pointed out, the timing couldn’t be much better for minimizing disruption.

    However, snow showers and wind chills in the teens are expected when the Eagles host the Oakland Raiders in South Philly.

    The accumulating snow would be generated primarily by an upper-air disturbance, said Matt Benz, senior meteorologist with AccuWeather. It’s possible that the storm may regroup off the coast; however, that “probably will form too late to have any impact,” Benz said.

    The weather service said inch-an-hour snowfall rates are possible in the early morning hours of Sunday.

    And the snow is likely to stick around until at least midweek, with high temperatures Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday expected to be around freezing or lower and the sun angles about as low as they get.

    After a 3.1-inch snowfall in February, the temperature climbed to near 50 a day later, and the strengthening sun made quick work of the snow cover.

    That February snow turned out to be the biggest of a season in which the 8.1-inch total at Philadelphia International Airport barely bested the 8 inches of New Orleans. That winter, the I-95 corridor found itself in a snow hole, and Philly a snow hole within a snow hole. The highest total in the winter of 2023-24 was 4.6 inches during a snowy January week.

    Last season, snow fell to the north, west, and south, and that trend has continued in the early going. With 6 inches so far this winter, Richmond, Va., now has measured 22.8 inches since last December, nearly triple the Philly total.

    Official totals at Philadelphia International Airport have been significantly below normal for four consecutive winters. The normal for a season is 23.1 inches.

    The meteorological winter, which began Dec. 1, certainly is off to a wintry start, with temperatures averaging more than 6 degrees below normal.

    It is not off to a particularly wet start, however, and whatever falls this weekend isn’t expected to exceed a half inch of liquid.

    In its long-term outlooks through Dec. 26, NOAA’s Climate Prediction Center is on the fence regarding whether precipitation will be above or below normal.

    With high confidence it is calling for a national warm-up.

    In any given year, the odds are greatly against Christmas snow in Philly or elsewhere along the I-95 corridor.

    But it does look like the region is about to get a white Sunday.

  • South Jersey man accused of posing as Homeland Security police

    South Jersey man accused of posing as Homeland Security police

    A South Jersey man was charged with impersonating law enforcement after he showed up at a police investigation claiming to work for the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, police in Gloucester County said Friday.

    Nicholas M. Cabral, 32, of Sewell, drove in his wife’s marked Homeland Security police vehicle Wednesday afternoon to the scene of a Washington Township police call on the 200 block of Strand Avenue and said he was a Homeland Security police officer, the Washington Township Police Department said.

    The police call was for a report that a home under construction had a front door open. The caller was later identified as Cabral, the police department said.

    Cabral allegedly attempted to assist officers in clearing the property while holding a handgun. Cabral had a permit to carry the firearm, but the follow-up investigation determined he did not work for any law enforcement agency, the police department said.

    The investigation found that the marked Homeland Security vehicle was used by Cabral’s wife, who did work for the agency as a police officer and was out of state on assignment, the township police department said.

    The Department of Homeland Security was notified and took possession of the vehicle.

    The investigation, using data from automated license plate readers, found that Cabral allegedly had driven the vehicle with its emergency lights activated and also went to a Wendy’s restaurant.

    Cabral was charged with impersonating a police officer and possession of a weapon for an unlawful purpose.

    The Washington Township Police Department said Cabral was transferred to the Salem County jail and his gun was taken as evidence. Online court records indicated that Cabral was released from custody Friday.

    A woman answering the phone at his residence, which is a block from the scene of the police call on Strand Avenue, said Cabral was unavailable and hung up.

    Cabral’s attorney could not be reached for comment.

    A spokesperson for the Department of Homeland Security also could not be reached for comment.

  • With Lane Johnson out, Eagles tackle Fred Johnson has a big challenge with Raiders’ Maxx Crosby

    With Lane Johnson out, Eagles tackle Fred Johnson has a big challenge with Raiders’ Maxx Crosby

    What stands out about Raiders edge rusher Maxx Crosby?

    “That [expletive] is a freak,” Fred Johnson said Friday.

    “Effort is one thing. Everyone should have effort at this level. But the talent matched with effort takes the person from a great player to a rare player. He’s a rare player.”

    Crosby is a rare talent indeed. He’s one of the best edge defenders in the NFL. He also plays more than all of his counterparts, which means he puts extra stress on an offensive game plan that worries a lot about how to stop him.

    Crosby plays 93% of the Raiders’ defensive snaps, and that’s actually down from his previous three seasons. For context, Jaelan Phillips is considered the Eagles’ workhorse edge rusher, and he played 80% of the snaps Monday against the Chargers.

    Eagles vs. Raiders predictions: Our writers pick a winner for Week 15

    Crosby, who has nine sacks and 43 pressures on the season, has played every defensive snap in six games this season. No other defensive lineman has one such game, according to Next Gen Stats. And because Crosby spends most of his time on the left side of the formation, Johnson is going to see a lot of him Sunday.

    Johnson, the backup right tackle, is in line for his fourth consecutive start filling in for Lane Johnson, who remains sidelined with a Lisfranc injury in his left foot. The Eagles declined to put Lane Johnson on injured reserve after his injury, but he will still miss his fourth game Sunday vs. 2-11 Las Vegas.

    The Eagles may have briefly had to consider Plan C. Fred Johnson was nicked up near the start of Wednesday’s practice and was limited Thursday with an ankle injury he said has been bothering him for a couple of weeks.

    The Eagles listed him as a full participant Friday, and he will play Sunday. If he were to miss action, it’s likely Matt Pryor would see time at right tackle, which didn’t go well for the Eagles in Week 3 vs. the Rams.

    Las Vegas Raiders defensive end Maxx Crosby is a versatile pass rusher, but he also leads all defensive linemen in run stops, according to Next Gen.

    There are few players capable of filling in for Lane Johnsonwithout the offense missing a beat, and the Eagles’ three-game losing streak without him has dropped their record to 13-26 in games he doesn’t start since the beginning of 2016.

    Fred Johnson, however, has performed well in relief. He struggled a bit against Dallas but rebounded with solid performances against Chicago and the Los Angeles Chargers.

    “I feel like I’ve executed my job,” he said. “There’s a lot of things I want to do better. But I feel like I did what I came out here to do — execute, be ready for this team, be ready for my teammates, be accountable, and everything else like that.”

    Sunday will present a bigger challenge than he’s faced in recent weeks. Though the Raiders have just two wins, Crosby has the ability to wreck both the passing and running games, which right now hasn’t been very difficult for Eagles opponents during the team’s offensive slump.

    The Eagles like to leave their tackles on islands, but they may have to give Fred Johnson some extra help on Sunday. Crosby is a versatile pass rusher, but he also leads all defensive linemen in run stops, according to Next Gen.

    Brandon Graham unretired to help the Eagles. Now he’s featuring at a new position at age 37.

    Fred said he talked to Lane this week about Crosby, and Lane said he would watch some extra film and report back with what he’s seeing. Fred said the the results of Lane’s studying were “classified.”

    After Lane went down, Fred, who left in free agency to try to become a starter in Jacksonville, only to return via trade after training camp, said he was viewing this stretch of games as a chance to show what he can do in an effort to “to make a name for himself.”

    No bigger chance than Sunday?

    “Every chance is a big chance,” he said. “I just feel like it’s the next week and it’s the next opponent. He’s a great player in his own right, but I got to control what I can control and make sure I’m doing what I got to do, check my boxes, and go about it like that.”

    Injury report

    In addition to Lane Johnson, the Eagles also ruled out Jalen Carter, who is recovering from shoulder procedures. Rookie tackle Cameron Williams is listed as questionable, but he will likely be ruled out and remains on injured reserve during his 21-day practice window.

    Landon Dickerson (calf/rest) returned to the field Friday after missing practice Thursday. He is good to go for Sunday.

    The Eagles on Friday also activated long snapper Charley Hughlett from injured reserve. Their 53-man roster is now at the maximum after waiving snapper Cal Adomitis earlier in the week.

  • Read Sasha Suda’s brief against the Philadelphia Art Museum’s petition last month

    Read Sasha Suda’s brief against the Philadelphia Art Museum’s petition last month

    Former Philadelphia Art Museum director and CEO Sasha Suda filed a brief Thursday opposing the museum’s petition last month arguing that their dispute be settled through arbitration.

    Her contract, the brief states, contained “an explicit exception” to the arbitration called for.

    Much of the brief repeats the narrative laid out in the initial lawsuit filing, like her struggle to modernize the museum and her friction with former board chair Leslie Anne Miller and current board chair Ellen T. Caplan.

    Read the full brief here:

  • Ousted Art Museum chief Sasha Suda argues for a trial — not arbitration — in new court filing

    Ousted Art Museum chief Sasha Suda argues for a trial — not arbitration — in new court filing

    In another broadside against the board of the Philadelphia Art Museum, ousted director and CEO Sasha Suda has once again portrayed her difficulties at the museum as a struggle for modernizing an institution in the face of the status quo. A new court filing from Suda, filed on Thursday night, argues for a trial with jury rather than settling the dispute with the museum through arbitration.

    The opposition brief, a response to the museum’s petition last month stating that the matter should be resolved in arbitration, says that Suda’s employment contract contained “an explicit exception” to the arbitration called for by the museum.

    Read Sasha Suda’s brief against the Philadelphia Art Museum’s petition last month

    “The Court should therefore deny the museum’s motion and retain jurisdiction over this case — as the parties’ agreement and Pennsylvania law require,” states Thursday’s filing in Philadelphia Court of Common Pleas.

    Suda, 45, was fired Nov. 4 for what the museum said was cause. Less than a week later, she filed a lawsuit against the museum claiming she was dismissed without a “valid basis.”

    Suda’s lawyer, Luke Nikas, did not immediately comment on the matter Friday. The Art Museum had no comment on the new filing, an Art Museum spokesperson said.

    Suda was dismissed after an investigation determined that she “misappropriated funds from the museum and lied to cover up her theft,” the museum alleged in a November court filing in response to her lawsuit.

    Nikas, of Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan, at the time called the accusations false. The money in question, $39,000, came in the form of increases to Suda’s compensation, and these increases were “authorized” and “budgeted” cost-of-living increases that were “fully approved” and “disclosed,” a source close to Suda previously stated.

    Much of the new filing repeats the narrative laid out in the initial lawsuit filing, detailing Suda’s unhappiness with former board chair Leslie Anne Miller and current board chair Ellen T. Caplan, as well as a recounting of Suda’s accomplishments at the museum.

    Suda and Miller experienced ongoing friction, and Miller “told third parties that Suda was untrustworthy, incompetent, a snake, immature, would not last, and that others were ‘drinking the Kool-Aid’ by supporting her,’” the new filing states.

    “Those comments from an officer and agent of the Museum violated the Employment Agreement’s Non-Disparagement Clause,” and that violation entitles Suda to “immediate injunctive relief and a temporary order restraining any threatened or further breach, in addition to or in place of the arbitration provisions,” the filing states.

    Miller declined to comment on Friday.

    Sasha Suda, former director of Philadelphia Art Museum, Jan. 30, 2024.

    Suda’s contract stipulates that any changes in her compensation would be determined at the “sole and absolute discretion” of the compensation committee. In its November petition, the museum said that Suda requested, and was denied, a salary increase from the compensation committee on Feb. 8, 2024. She then “awarded herself the salary increase” effective March 1, 2024, followed by a second “unauthorized” increase in July of that year, the petition claims.

    In July 2025, according to the museum’s petition, Suda “awarded herself a third unauthorized pay increase, which she once again failed to disclose to the board.”

    The new filing includes text messages of praise and encouragement from board member John Alchin. It says that in September 2023, Alchin — identified in the filing as chair of the finance committee — examined a draft report for a compensation subcommittee meeting and requested “schedules of salaries along with proposed/recent salary increases.”

    “Suda’s compensation was also reviewed,” the filing states.

    “As the board member with the most oversight of Suda’s financials, Alchin expressed no concerns about Suda’s approach to salary schedules or financial governance, which were discussed openly in committee meetings,” the filing states.

    It provides a copy of an August 2025 letter from the museum to Suda outlining her annual salary increase, from $749,087 to $771,560. The letter is not signed by a specific person — only the museum’s human resources department — and was cc-ed to “finance.”

    The new filing also includes 2023 correspondence from the museum’s CFO, Katherine Harper, to its HR director, Meredith Clayton, “trying to figure out what increase Sasha might be entitled to,” adding that “prior to finalizing, I will check with John Alchin or Leslie to make sure they are comfortable.”

    Suda was in the third year of a five-year contract when she was dismissed in the beginning of November.

    On Dec. 1, she was succeeded by veteran nonprofit administrator Daniel H. Weiss, former chief of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, who had already been engaged by the museum as a consultant prior to being named director and CEO.

  • Christine Choy, indie filmmaker who led seminal documentary on the killing of Vincent Chin, has died

    Christine Choy, indie filmmaker who led seminal documentary on the killing of Vincent Chin, has died

    Christine Choy, a trailblazer for Asian Americans in independent film and whose documentary on the fatal beating of Vincent Chin was nominated for an Academy Award, has died. She was 73.

    Ms. Choy died Sunday, according to a statement from JT Takagi, executive director of Third World Newsreel, a filmmaking collective Choy helped establish in the 1970s. No cause of death was given.

    “She was a prolific filmmaker who made significant films that helped form our Asian American and American film history,” Takagi said on the organization’s website.

    Chin, a Chinese American who grew up in Detroit, was celebrating his bachelor party in 1982 when two white autoworkers attacked him. At that time, Japanese auto companies were being blamed for job losses in the U.S. auto manufacturing industry. The attackers were motivated by their assumption Chin was Japanese. His death and the lack of prison time for the two assailants is considered a galvanizing moment for Asian Americans fighting anti-Asian hate.

    Renee Tajima-Peña, co-director of Who Killed Vincent Chin?, met Ms. Choy around 1980 through Third World Newsreel. They decided to collaborate on a documentary a year after Chin’s death after seeing how little coverage it received.

    Tajima-Peña recalls bonding with Ms. Choy and other crew during freezing Detroit winter nights while waiting for witnesses in Chin’s death and evenings spent with Chin’s mother’s over home-cooked meals.

    “We were in constant motion during the production with Chris always the picture of cool — sunglasses, stylishly slim, cigarette in hand. And yes she was brash and outspoken — her cigarettes may have had filters but her language didn’t,” Tajima-Peña said in an email to the Associated Press on Friday. “But, her audaciousness was all a part of the package.”

    Their production was lauded for bringing more attention to Chin’s slaying and went on to earn an Oscar nomination for best documentary feature in 1989. In 2021, it was chosen for preservation in the National Film Registry by the Library of Congress.

    Ms. Choy was a full-time professor at New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts up until her death. She was praised as someone who enjoyed mentoring young auteurs and students at NYU and Third World Newsreel.

    In a statement, Dean Rubén Polendo called her “a triumphant force in documentary filmmaking whose works penetrated America’s social conscience.”

    “Christine’s loss is felt deeply across the Tisch community, where her unparalleled legacy survives through her pioneering work as an artist and educator,” Polendo said.

    Born in China, Ms. Choy grew up with a Korean father and a Chinese mother. She immigrated to New York City as a teen. Being there in the 1960s, Ms. Choy learned about the Civil Rights Movement up-close. That would shape her passion for social justice, according to her NYU faculty biography.

    She moved to Los Angeles and earned a directing certificate from the American Film Institute. But she eventually moved back to New York and, in 1972, helped create Third World Newsreel. The group’s mission was to advance films about social justice and marginalized communities, particularly people of color. Ms. Choy’s early documentaries included subjects such as New York City’s Chinatown and race relations in the Mississippi Delta.

    Ms. Choy received several awards and fellowships over the years including Guggenheim and Rockefeller fellowships. She also taught at other universities including Yale, Cornell and City University in Hong Kong.

    Plans for funeral services were not immediately known.

  • unCovering the Birds: Bad Bunny

    unCovering the Birds: Bad Bunny

    While cute and novel, the Positivity Bunny proved nothing short of an unceremonious bust. As soon as they could following a brutal overtime loss to the Chargers, the Eagles gave the preposterous 10-foot locker room inflatable the boot. It was not the good-luck charm they hoped for, and served as a reminder that, instead of wishing its woes away, this team will actually have to put in real work to turn the season around. With a potential soft spot in the schedule emerging this Sunday vs. the Raiders, there might not be any better time than the present for the Eagles to breathe some life back into themselves. The Philadelphia Inquirer’s Jeff McLane touches base with a few trusted veterans, who share their perspective on the state of the club and the direction they think it’s headed.

    00:00 The swift arrival and demise of the Eagles’ “Positivity Bunny”

    03:48 What’s with the “awful” sideline vibes?

    07:20 Different strokes for different folks

    10:18 Jordan Davis and the importance of an optimistic mindset

    unCovering the Birds is a production of The Philadelphia Inquirer and KYW Newsradio Original Podcasts. Look for new episodes throughout the season, including day-after-game reactions.

  • Harriett’s Bookshop among bookstores receiving a $500 Christmas bonus from James Patterson

    Harriett’s Bookshop among bookstores receiving a $500 Christmas bonus from James Patterson

    Three local bookstores are among eight in Pennsylvania to win a $500 grant from award-winning author James Patterson’s annual Holiday Bookstore Bonus Program.

    Harriett’s Bookshop in Fishtown, Main Point Books in Wayne, and the Doylestown Bookshop in Doylestown were the local winners.

    Harriett’s owner Jeannine A. Cook thanked Patterson on her Instagram.

    “Thank you [James Patterson] for supporting Harriett’s in this way and spreading love to our bookshop cousins all across the country when many of us need it most,” Cook wrote, adding that she will use the money to support her Bookshop Without Borders project that brings books and companionship to people who are lonely.

    Patterson, who released Return of the Spider, the latest installment in the popular Alex Cross series in November, pledged $300,000 this year, distributing $500 to 600 booksellers and members of the American Bookstore Association. Bookstores are nominated by authors, customers, employees, fellow bookstore owners, and managers.

    This year’s winners were announced Wednesday. This is Main Point Books second consecutive bonus and it was Harriett’s first. In New Jersey, Inkwood Books in Haddonfield and Words Matter Bookstore in Pitman also received grants.

    Patterson has been doling out cash to bookstores in this holiday bonus program since 2015. The gifts, he said to the New York Times in 2014, are to financially support and recognize the vital work of independent bookstore employees and librarians.

    Patterson alludes to the need to fund independent bookstores in his 2024 book The Secret Lives of Booksellers and Librarians, True Stories of the Magic of Reading.

    “Our bookstores in America are at risk,” he said in 2014 at the advent of the program. “Publishing and publishers as we’ve known them are at stake. To some extent the future of American literature is at stake.”

  • A flier showing the KKK was posted in Southwest Philly. A ward leader wants to calm fears.

    A flier showing the KKK was posted in Southwest Philly. A ward leader wants to calm fears.

    When a Southwest Philly resident reported a KKK flier had been taped to a pole outside their home this week, people got angry.

    The Pennsylvania Human Relations Commission looked into the incident and put out a statement denouncing hate. Angry commenters on the 51st Ward’s Facebook page about the flier dared white supremacists to show their faces.

    But 51st Ward Democratic leader Gregory Benjamin said while he understands the alarm and does not intend to dismiss people’s concerns, he believes this all may be some kind of misunderstanding.

    “We want to calm that,” he said.

    On Tuesday, a neighbor called Benjamin to let him know that they’d discovered a flier depicting members of the KKK on an electrical pole outside their home on the 5100 block of Chester Avenue.

    A flier posted earlier this week in Southwest Philly is a copy of the cover from a book titled “Women of the Klan: Racism and Gender in the 1920s”.

    The flier is black-and-white copy of the cover of a book written by University of Pittsburgh sociologist Kathleen M. Blee, Women of the Klan: Racism and Gender in the 1920s. The cover features a photograph of three generations of klans-people — an older woman, a younger adult woman, and a baby — all wearing white pointed robes, with a cross and American flag behind them.

    It’s unclear what message whoever put up the flier intended to send. Blee’s book, originally published in 1991, is a study of the role that women played in the Jim Crow-era KKK and the covert ways they carried out the Klan’s mission, not an endorsement of the group’s ideology. The first page of the book describes the Klan as “one of U.S. history’s most vicious campaigns of prejudice and hatred.”

    The flier still raised concerns. Residents contacted the Human Relations Commission, and its Philadelphia advisory council was notified, as well as police. It’s possible another identical flier was posted nearby around the same time, Benjamin said, but all fliers have since been removed.

    No person or group has taken responsibility for the flier so far. While there is no indication the flier was put up by a white supremacist group, the manner in which it was posted can still be harmful, said Chad Dion Lassiter, executive director of the Pennsylvania Human Relations Commission.

    “These things, they take an emotional toll on individuals,” he said.

    Even if the flier was a piece of trolling or a message targeted at white people, Lassiter said it was crucial not to ignore it.

    “We take all of these things [seriously]… we’re in a moment where people want to continue to deny the surge of white nationalism and white supremacy,” he said.

    Representatives of the Pennsylvania Human Relations Commission will attend the 51st Ward’s monthly community meeting on Saturday at noon at the Kingsessing Library, located at 1201 S. 51st St.

    Benjamin said the meeting would be an opportunity for community members to share more information about the incident and ease any remaining tension. He said he hopes this experience will encourage neighbors to connect more and communicate better.

    “Maybe we can bring something constructive out of this. Demonstrate that the community is more interested in [doing] something positive than anything else,” he said.

    Correction: An earlier version of this article misstated the publication date of Blee’s book. It was originally published in 1991.

  • King Charles III says his cancer treatment is being reduced as he promotes benefits of screening

    King Charles III says his cancer treatment is being reduced as he promotes benefits of screening

    LONDON — King Charles III said Friday that early diagnosis and treatment will allow doctors to reduce his cancer treatment in the new year as he encouraged others to take advantage of screening programs that can detect the disease early when it is easiest to treat.

    Charles, 77, revealed the positive outlook in a recorded message broadcast on British television as part of a campaign to promote such screening, which increases the likelihood of successful treatment.

    “Early diagnosis quite simply saves lives,” the king said.

    “I know, too, what a difference it has made in my own case, enabling me to continue leading a full and active life even while undergoing treatment,” he added.

    Buckingham Palace said his treatment is moving to a “precautionary phase” and his condition will be monitored to ensure his continued recovery.

    Friday’s message is the latest example of how Charles has used his own story to promote cancer awareness and treatment since he announced his diagnosis in February 2024. That seems to have paid off, with British cancer charities saying the number of people seeking information about cancer jumped after the king revealed he was undergoing treatment.

    But the king has never revealed what type of cancer he has or the kind of treatment he is receiving. The palace said this was an intentional decision designed to ensure his message reaches the widest possible audience.

    “The advice from cancer experts is that, in his determination to support the whole cancer community, it is preferable that His Majesty does not address his own specific condition but rather speaks to those affected by all forms of the disease,” the palace said in a statement.

    The king’s cancer was discovered after treatment for an enlarged prostate. While doctors ruled out prostate cancer, tests revealed “a separate issue of concern,” palace officials said last year.

    Charles suspended his public appearances for about two months after his diagnosis so he could focus on his treatment and recovery. But he continued with state business and retained his constitutional role as head of state.

    The king returned to the public eye in April of last year with a visit to a cancer-treatment center at University College Hospital in central London, where he met with staff and shared stories with fellow cancer patients.

    “It’s always a bit of a shock, isn’t it, when they tell you,” he said, sympathizing with one patient as chemotherapy drugs dripped into her arm.

    Charles’ decision to disclose his diagnosis was a departure for Britain’s royals, who have traditionally considered their health to be a personal matter and shared few details with the public.

    “As I have observed before, the darkest moments of illness can be illuminated by the greatest compassion,’’ he said. “But compassion must be paired with action. This December, as we gather to reflect on the year past, I pray that we can each pledge, as part of our resolutions for the year ahead, to play our part in helping to catch cancer early.

    “Your life — or the life of someone you love — may depend upon it,” he said.