Philadelphia local news, sports, jobs, cars, homes

Tag: Atlantic City

  • Atlantic City is ending the year in crisis. Its mayor is on trial, New York casinos are coming, Peanut World caught fire. There are more worries.

    Atlantic City is ending the year in crisis. Its mayor is on trial, New York casinos are coming, Peanut World caught fire. There are more worries.

    ATLANTIC CITY — The journey through Atlantic City is bumpy these days, and not only because Atlantic Avenue is desperately in need of paving.

    Ducktown Tavern owner John “Johnny X” Exadaktilos has one wish for Atlantic City that has nothing to do with the gut-jarring avenue that runs in front of his bar.

    “Just normal,” says Exadaktilos. “I just want things to be normal.”

    Atlantic City, a place of historic mayoral misdeeds, multimillionaire overreach, and chronic unwanted attention, has managed in this waning year, even as its workers string up holiday decorations, to come up with a new plot twist: Its newly reelected Democratic Mayor Marty Small Sr. is on trial for alleged physical abuse of his teenage daughter.

    The trial has left Small untethered from his cell phone as new casinos have been green lit in New York City, and the state moves to tighten its authority over the town. Another trial, of Small’s wife, La’Quetta Small, who is the superintendent of schools, is set for Jan. 12.

    With Small reporting to an Atlantic County courthouse each day to face his daughter, who spent seven hours testifying against him on Tuesday, a bit of a hush has fallen on the city as it awaits the outcome, which could come this week.

    The sentiment in City Hall, where many employees owe their jobs to Small, leaned toward the assumption that Small would beat this charge like he’s beaten two previous indictments on voter fraud charges.

    But will the city emerge unscathed?

    “Every day, people who live in Atlantic City want to know what those of us are elected are doing to make their lives better and respond to their issues and concerns,” said council member Kaleem Shabazz, who was going from a planning board meeting to a mayor-less City Hall last week. “Whatever will happen will happen. The city still has to function. People have to be responsible.”

    On Dec. 1, as Small readied for jury selection in Mays Landing, New York City approved three casinos, two for Queens and one for the Bronx, a development long feared in Atlantic City.

    On Dec. 5, with the jury picked, the iconic Peanut World on the Boardwalk erupted in flames. On Dec. 9, with the mayor listening to his daughter, legislators in Trenton were proposing more state oversight of A.C. including a surprise provision that would give the state the power to pick developers for major projects.

    The biggest threat may come from the New York casinos, which some in the industry estimate could threaten as much as 30% of A.C.’s business and lead to the shuttering of one casino, if not more.

    Small, meanwhile, took the stand took the stand in his own defense on Friday, testifying that his daughter was his “best friend,” until becoming involved with a boy the family disapproved of, and denied he had abused her. The same day, community group El Pueblo Unido Of Atlantic City posted photos of ICE agents making car stops in city neighborhoods.

    Small could face jail time and be forced to step down as mayor under New Jersey law, if convicted. He and his wife, who has been attending her husband’s trial, taking notes in the back, have resisted calls to relinquish their powerful roles as mayor and superintendent.

    “It’s not ideal obviously,” said Shabazz. “If you had to pick a multiple choice question what would you want to be happening in your public schools, that wouldn’t be something you would pick, if you’re a parent or a taxpayer.”

    Atlantic City Mayor Marty Small and his wife, Superintendent of Schools La’Quetta Small, chat before the start of arraignment on Oct. 10, 2024. Mayor Small stood trial last week in Mays Landing. Cameras were barred from the courtroom during the trial.

    ‘A wake-up call’

    Early one morning last week, having just come from a planning board meeting, Shabazz said the city was going about its business. “I’m not at the trial, I’m on my way to City Hall,” he said. “The work of government has to go on.”

    Shabazz, who’s been focused for years, even decades, on some of the same intractable problems of the resort, remains optimistic. It’s a city where it can be hard to read the scorecard: progress seems to be there, but not there, at the same time.

    The city’s only full-size supermarket, the beleaguered Save A Lot is under new management, and the adjacent nuisance liquor store is expected to close. High-profile developers like Jared Kushner and K. Hovnanian appear to be going forward with residential projects in the city’s Inlet section. There are new restaurants, like the Byrdcage in Chelsea and Simpson’s, relocating next month to Atlantic Avenue.

    Shabazz is hoping the state will return zoning authority back to the city after years of the Casino Reinvestment Control Authority overseeing planning and zoning in the city’s tourism district.

    Kaleem Shabazz, president of the local chapter of the NAACP in Atlantic City, and Maryam Sarhan, a community organizer, stand in front of mural honoring civil rights leaders. “The city still has to function,” he said, while its mayor is on trial for alleged child abuse. “People have to be responsible.”

    But last week, as the mayor listened to his daughter testifying that he struck her in the head with a broom, after she threw detergent at him and refused to go to a community march, the state went in the opposite direction: a bill to renew the state’s takeover of Atlantic City for another six years that would allow the state to pick a “master developer” to oversee big projects, the Press of Atlantic City reported.

    “We have to be competitive,” Shabazz said. “We have to let people know that we’re open for business and we’re safe and secure. Crime is down significantly.”

    Like others interviewed, he believes Atlantic City can sell itself as a safe and affordable seaside destination. “We still have a free beach,” he said. “We have to let people know what we have.”

    Atlantic City Mayor Marty Small arriving for his arraignment before Judge Bernard DeLury at the Atlantic County Criminal Courthouse in Mays Landing on Oct. 10, 2024. Small testified in his own defense Friday during his trial. Cameras were barred from the courtroom.

    What the city has, chronically, is mayors under indictment. Small is the fifth mayor since 1981 to face indictment, following in the dubious footsteps of Michael Matthews (taking bribes), James Usry (accepting bribes, a charge later dropped), Bob Levy (defrauding the Veterans Administration), and Frank Gilliam (wire fraud).

    Small has defended himself by describing this latest situation as a private family problem, not related to his job performance. He has called the prosecution politically motivated and an overreaction. A jury will now weigh in.

    John Boyd Jr., a principal in the Boyd Co., which advises companies on where to locate, said many developers (and homeowners) continue to balk at Atlantic City, despite the upward pressure on Jersey Shore real estate that has left the city as arguably the last affordable seashore town in the entire Northeast.

    He called the three New York City casino licenses “a wake-up call” for New Jersey, and advocates a plan where the state allows casinos at the Meadowlands and/or Monmouth Park but shares the revenue with Atlantic City.

    “If you ask national developers their opinion of Atlantic City, it wouldn’t be a very positive one for a myriad of reasons,” he said.

    “Good governance is fundamental to economic development success. Companies want to minimize risk. It’s more than the mayor being on trial. It’s the uncertainty.”

    Meanwhile at the slots

    Inside Hard Rock casino during a blustery stretch last week, people were three deep at the holiday-branded Mistletoe Bar in the lobby, and nine guitars had become a menorah in the atrium.

    Gamblers were locked in as names were called for a random spin-the-wheel drawing every half hour. A convention of real estate agents brought lines to the check-in desk. The trial was off in the distance, invisible to most.

    “I do love coming to Atlantic City,” said Adam Druck, 33, a Realtor from York, Pa. “I hope the trial doesn’t make too much difference to what’s going on here.”

    Asked about New York casinos, Joe Pendle, 71, a retired police officer from North Jersey, said he was comfortable with his routines at Hard Rock, where free rooms and meals anchored his pleasant stays. (Hard Rock itself has one of the three licenses in New York City, an $8.1 billion project near Citi Field in Queens, which it projects will result in $1 billion a year in tax revenue.)

    “I have a three-room suite upstairs,” noted Pendle. “I like the beach.”

    Arthur Austin, 70, of Old Bridge, said he had worked for decades on Wall Street and had no desire to travel to New York for a casino weekend.

    “I worked in the city for 20 years,” he said. “I only go into the city if I have to.”

    Adam Druck, 33, of York, Pa., and Eric Moeller, 36, of Reading, inside Hard Rock casino on Dec. 9, where they were staying as part of Triple Play Realtor Convention and Trade Expo in Atlantic City.

    Out-of-towners like Austin hadn’t heard about Small’s trial, but the local gamblers at Hard Rock sure had.

    “Atlantic City is a crooked place, and it’s always gonna be crooked because of what everybody’s into,” said a 57-year-old woman who lives locally and was playing the slots. She did not want her name used so that she could speak her mind in a small town.

    “People want their guy to stay in there,” said the woman. “He gives everybody a job. You could flourish, but only if you are with the right people.”

    “I don’t think that it hurts Atlantic City,” said Seng Bethia, 40, of Atlantic City, who was at the slots. “His daughter is such a sweet girl. It was bad, just the whole thing.”

    ‘Are you kidding me right now?’

    Exadaktilos, the Ducktown Tavern owner who is Small’s loudest detractor, said he had taken things down a notch of late, putting aside his popular weekly Facebook live rants that he said had started consuming him.

    Still, last week, as the prosecution wound up its case, the city sent out a contractor to do some temporary filling in of cracks on Atlantic Avenue in advance of the city’s holiday parade, and Exadaktilos found himself back on Facebook live.

    “Are you kidding me right now?” he said over footage of the roadway. “What happened to Atlantic Avenue is going to be paved? Horrible.”

    Boyd, the location consultant, points to bright spots. The national developers are a vote of confidence, as is the September opening of the SeaHaus boutique hotel on the Boardwalk, a Marriott property. Showboat and the Sheraton near the Convention Center are converting rooms to residences.

    Boyd sees potential for Atlantic City to follow the likes of Coney Island, which has seen a renaissance, to attract film business, to market itself as a live-work-play destination.

    Outgoing council member George Tibbitt looks at the Kushner plan, a 180-unit apartment complex, as another missed opportunity. “No vision there,” he said. “That’s desperate development.”

    The property is on the inlet near Gardner’s Basin and at one point was viewed as a potential spot for an ambitious mixed-use development similar to the Inner Harbor in Baltimore.

    “New York City definitely makes me afraid,” said Tibbitt. “There’s only so many gambling dollars to go around. Adding more casinos is going to be devastating. We have to clean the city up. We have to get the neighborhoods filled back up.”

    One industry the city bet heavily on was cannabis: Its midtown quickly filled with 16 dispensaries. But after complaints from the cannabis entrepreneurs themselves, city council capped the number at 16, leaving many that have been approved but have yet to open (including one that necessitated the demolishing of a historic church) in limbo.

    Atlantic City is a place where things can seem to be finally coming together, while simultaneously unraveling. Big plans vaporize, like the highly touted gym and nightclub outside Showboat, where last summer, the owner set up couches, DJ booths, and exercise machines, got stalled by permitting issues, and quietly dismantled them.

    Miguel Lugo, general manager at AC Leef, which held out for a strategic spot on Albany Avenue, said his cannabis business has been good. He looks forward to the dispensary running financial literacy classes for the community, and getting its cultivation license.

    “On this side of the town, everything’s been phenomenal,” Lugo said. “I’m super focused on AC Leef. I don’t know what’s going on with the mayor.”

  • Once opposed, A.C. wind farm has become a landmark 20 years later

    Once opposed, A.C. wind farm has become a landmark 20 years later

    Blustery winds propelled the giant blades of five turbines at the Jersey-Atlantic Wind Farm on a recent day. Set on a back bay island, they were once contested over fears of noise, aesthetics, and worries of threats to Shore birds.

    But two decades later, they have emerged as a spinning landmark to Atlantic City.

    The 380-foot turbines silently rotate in clear view of motorists streaming to casinos. Some visitors have even requested hotel rooms facing the structures, which are taller than the Statue of Liberty.

    The embrace of the land-based wind farm contrasts sharply with the more recently divisive battle over offshore wind projects, an effort stalled by economics and the Trump administration.

    Together, the Jersey-Atlantic Wind Farm turbines produce 63% of the energy for the Atlantic County Utilities Authority’s wastewater treatment plant, which serves 14 municipalities. Officials calculate the farm has saved ratepayers $8.8 million since its grand opening on Dec. 12, 2005.

    It is one of only two wind farms operating in New Jersey. The other is a much smaller farm in Bayonne.

    “This was a total home run for everybody involved,” said Richard Dovey, president of the ACUA at the time it was built. “It’s been nothing but successful, environmentally and economically … [an] inspiration for many other entities, whether they’re public or private.”

    How the wind farm came to be

    The idea for a wind farm near Atlantic City came from a worker in the energy industry who passed the idea onto Dovey in the early 2000s. With Dovey’s help, it picked up support in former Gov. Jim McGreevey’s administration.

    Dovey believed in renewable energy and thought it could power the ACUA’s regional wastewater treatment plant on City Island in Absecon Bay, about two miles from the Atlantic Ocean. He thought Atlantic City’s ample breezes from land and sea would make it an ideal location.

    Atlantic City’s ample breezes from land and sea made an ideal location for a wind farm.

    Community Energy Inc., a developer of wind power based in the Philadelphia suburbs, played a significant role in the project’s development and received a $1.7 million grant from the New Jersey Board of Public Utilities.

    The New Jersey Sierra Club backed the project.

    Construction began in mid-2005. The project cost $12 million and included driving pilings into an island of upland surrounded by wetlands and installing intricate concrete bases to support the turbines made by GE.

    Currently, the wind farm is owned by Texas-based Leeward Energy. Leeward rents the land for the wind farm from ACUA.

    In return, ACUA has a 20-year agreement to purchase the power produced by the turbines from Leeward for 7.9 cents a kilowatt-hour, which was cheap even then. Now, the rate is about half the market rate for energy.

    It has helped ACUA keep some of the lowest sewer rates in the state.

    However, that agreement is expiring, and the two sides are in negotiations to renew a contract, which could change the rate the ACUA pays for its wind power.

    window.addEventListener(“message”,function(a){if(void 0!==a.data[“datawrapper-height”]){var e=document.querySelectorAll(“iframe”);for(var t in a.data[“datawrapper-height”])for(var r,i=0;r=e[i];i++)if(r.contentWindow===a.source){var d=a.data[“datawrapper-height”][t]+”px”;r.style.height=d}}});

    Community concerns

    Initially, the wind farm faced resistance. Residents in the neighboring Venice Park section of Atlantic City were concerned primarily about potential noise from the turbines.

    To allay their fears, Dovey organized a bus trip that took residents to visit a wind farm in Somerset County in Pennsylvania.

    “Their major concern was noise,” Dovey, now 73, recalls. “We drove literally underneath the turbine. One neighborhood leader took one step out and said my air conditioner is louder than this; let’s go home. They thought the turbines were beautiful, even inspiring.”

    In addition, there were apprehensions regarding how the turbines would affect birds and marine life. The wind farm is just below the Edwin B. Forsythe National Wildlife Refuge, a 48,000-acre area of coastal habitat. New Jersey Audubon agreed to monitor the impact on the bird population as part of its support for the project.

    According to the ACUA, a three-year study by NJ Audubon found “a small number of bird deaths which could be attributed to collisions with turbines.” It found more fatalities were caused by raccoons, feral cats, and collisions with wires and trucks.

    People were also concerned about the visual impact, fearing they might spoil scenic views, affect property taxes, and hurt tourism. However, the wind farm has since become an iconic part of the landscape.

    The concerns were part of a broader debate at the time regarding the emerging push among some New Jersey leaders for offshore wind farms, which had faced a moratorium by the state.

    Even though the moratorium was lifted, and Gov. Phil Murphy backed a large offshore wind program that would have powered millions of homes, the debate continued. This year, President Donald Trump issued an executive order to stop offshore wind, making any project in the near future unlikely.

    However, a federal judge recently ruled that Trump exceeded his authority with the order, a ruling the administration is likely to challenge. It is unclear whether renewable energy companies still have the political will for a renewed push to build an offshore wind farm off the coast of New Jersey.

    Taking advantage of wind

    The Jersey-Atlantic Wind Farm is an example of how wind power can work, even if on a smaller scale. The farm is ideally located because of consistent land and ocean breezes. If winds exceed 45 mph, the turbines, each equipped with a weather station, switch off to protect the machinery. That happens only a few times a year.

    Matt DeNafo, current president of the ACUA, says the wind farm has been a “huge project” for his organization. The ACUA is operating a pilot project that would store energy captured by the turbines in a battery. A solar array on site also provides about 3% of the facility’s power.

    DeNafo said the arrangement with Leeward brought significant economic stability through the 20-year fixed rate. He said it allows the agency to offer the lowest wastewater rates in the region.

    At the same time, the ACUA does not have to pay for maintenance of the turbines, while still collecting rent from Leeward.

    If winds exceed 45 mph, the turbines, each equipped with a weather station, switch off to protect the machinery.

    “It’s really been a great partnership for us. It’s been a beacon for our organization,” DeNafo said. One casino was “getting a lot of requests for windmill-view rooms because it’s got a calming effect.”

    Harrah’s, MGM, and Borgata casino hotels all are in view of the windmills.

    Amy Menzel, a spokesperson for the ACUA, said summer tours of the wind farm and treatment plant are popular.

    “We give open house tours in the summer on Wednesdays,” Menzel said. “People can just drop in. We have a lot of curious people who are visiting the Shore. The tours are really a mix of locals and out-of-town visitors, people who just want to get a little closer and learn more.”

    Editor’s note: This article has been corrected to note that the wind farm is on an upland, not a wetland.

  • ‘I didn’t want to get hit’: A.C. mayor’s teen daughter testifies against him in child abuse trial

    ‘I didn’t want to get hit’: A.C. mayor’s teen daughter testifies against him in child abuse trial

    MAYS LANDING, N.J. — The daughter of Atlantic City Mayor Marty Small Sr. took the stand in an Atlantic County courtroom Tuesday morning to testify against him at trial as he stands accused of physically abusing her.

    As a Superior Court judge looked on, the teen told jurors her father had beaten and punched her and struck her with a broom.

    “He put his hands on me,” she said.

    Small, a Democrat, faces charges of child endangerment, aggravated assault, and witness tampering in connection with a series of incidents in which prosecutors say he punched, beat, and threatened his then-15-year-old daughter, largely over his disapproval of her relationship with her boyfriend. He has denied any wrongdoing, and his lawyers have challenged his daughter’s credibility.

    The girl, now 17, recounted the abuse in a soft voice, calmly answering prosecutors’ questions — and rejecting suggestions by an attorney for her father that she had lied about key details.

    “My dad came home and he was like, upset,” the girl said as prosecutors asked her about crimes they allege took place in the Small family home in January 2024.

    She said her mother had recently gone through her phone and learned that she had sneaked her boyfriend into the house. Her father, she testified, was “mad and disappointed.” As she sat in a chair that she recalled as having a Philadelphia Flyers theme, she told the jury, he hit her with a belt and punched her in the legs.

    Louis Barbone, an attorney for Small, maintained that there were inconsistencies in statements the girl gave to investigators, and he disputed her account of the incident with the broom.

    Earlier in the day, prosecutors played video footage they say the teen recorded at home.

    Though the camera did not show images of Small or others, it captured the sound of the girl and her parents screaming amid what prosecutors described as the chaos that descended on the home after the teen started a relationship they did not approve of.

    Prosecutors also showed Instagram messages the girl exchanged with her boyfriend about the alleged abuse, including one in which she told him, ”I’m scared to get in the shower because my bruise is gonna burn.”

    Small’s daughter told jurors that as her father was rousing his family one January morning to attend the Atlantic City Peace Walk, she did not have her hair done and didn’t want to go. She said she and her father argued and he pushed her, so she splashed him with laundry detergent.

    Small, she said, then got a broom and struck her multiple times in the forehead. She testified that she passed out, and the next thing she remembered was her father telling her brother to get her some water.

    On cross examination, Barbone returned to a theme he struck in his opening statement to the jury on Monday — that Small was a caring father who, watching his daughter’s life veer off course because of a relationship he believed to be manipulative and inappropriate, had legally disciplined a disobedient child.

    He told jurors prosecutors did not have a recording of the incident involving a broom, and he said the girl had been wielding a butter knife and the injuries she sustained that day happened when she fell as the two wrestled for the broom.

    Barbone said the teen had exaggerated her injuries, and he noted that when initially questioned by investigators, she told them she felt safe at home.

    “I didn’t want to get taken away,” the girl said, “so I said, ‘yes.’”

    The trial is expected to continue through the end of the week.

  • The Trump regime murders that aren’t on video | Will Bunch Newsletter

    There’s this idea in the sports world that when your team wins a championship like the Super Bowl, fans can’t really complain about whatever happens in the next season or two. The author of that maxim has obviously never been to Philadelphia, which is experiencing a 1776-level revolt over the Eagles’ three-game losing streak and the increasingly erratic play of the Super Bowl MVP, quarterback Jalen Hurts. So much for brotherly love, pal.

    If someone forwarded you this email, sign up for free here.

    Trump’s body count is a lot higher than two men on a wrecked ship

    A malnourished child receives treatment at Banadir Hospital in Mogadishu, Somalia, in May.

    You might have thought it would have happened when hundreds of men — in apparent conflict with a judge’s order, and often based on nothing more than a misreading of their tattoos — were shackled and flown to a notorious El Salvador torture prison.

    Or maybe it would have been making billions of dollars on crypto investments or real-estate deals with foreign dictators while running the government. Or pretending that climate change doesn’t exist. Or pardoning hundreds of bad guys, including those who launched an insurrection against the United States on Jan. 6, 2021. Even the president’s friendship with the world’s most notorious sex trafficker wasn’t exactly it.

    No, the thing that finally caused the mainstream media to go all Watergate all the time on Donald Trump and his Pentagon chief was a lot more simple, if harder to stomach: the early September murder by drone strike of two men — their identities still unknown to the world, or most of it — clinging to a piece of ship-wreckage in the Caribbean Sea near Venezuela.

    Flip on the favorite show of the Beltway set — MS Now’s Morning Joe — and there practically is no other story than the second attack on the seemingly helpless victims of an initial drone strike that killed their nine comrades. The media is demanding to learn what did self-proclaimed “Secretary of War” Pete Hegseth know about the strike, and when did he know it. Commentators are calling the killing a war crime at best, a murder at worst. An unnamed lawmaker who saw a video of the second strike told reporters that the film is nauseating.

    Pressure on the Trump regime to release this 45 or so minutes of footage of the boat attack is intensifying, and it’s not hard to understand why. It’s a bit like 2020’s video of the excruciating cop murder of George Floyd in Minneapolis, which made a problem that activists had been talking about for decades — police brutality — so real for everyday folk that millions took to the streets.

    Likewise, people have been calling Trump names — including the “f-word,” fascist — ever since the Manhattan real-estate mogul descended the escalator at Trump Tower to run for president in 2015. But somehow the mental image of men reportedly begging to be saved seconds before an admiral gives the order to obliterate them has captured the angry imagination in a way that past Trump outrages did not. No wonder Trump has flip-flopped on releasing the video.

    Look, I’m glad the media and Congress, including some Republicans, are finally taking seriously the idea that major felonies are being committed in Trump World. Still, the two men killed in what’s called the double-tap strike came after nine other people had already been blown up, in an attack against civilians of a nation America is not at war with, who were accused of committing a crime — drug trafficking — that is not a capital offense.

    There is no legal, let alone moral, justification for this attack — and it was the first of a series of drone strikes that have killed at least 86 people. There’s a strong case that every one of these is a war crime. It’s just that the killing of the two men clinging to debris appears even more egregious.

    This highlights an even weightier issue. From Day One of Trump’s second term, there has been a callous indifference to human life — a hallmark that the current U.S. government unfortunately shares with many other authoritarian regimes throughout history. But the media, and the watchdogs, have struggled to convey this reality with so many of the deaths taking place off camera.

    So far, the worst crime has been the rash move back in the first weeks of the new administration by Trump’s billionaire then-ally Elon Musk and his so-called Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE, to dismantle the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) — a once-thriving $34-billion-a-year agency that funded food, medicine, classrooms and other aid in developing nations.

    The Musk team labelled USAID as inefficient and out of whack with Trump’s new priorities like curbing immigration. This despite the fact that experts saw the American agency as the best projector of “soft power” around the globe as it saved literally millions of lives, especially for children under age 5.

    “We are now witnessing what the historian Richard Rhodes termed ‘public man-made death,’ which, he observed, has been perhaps the most overlooked cause of mortality in the last century,” Atul Gawande, a surgeon who worked with USAID in the Joe Biden years, wrote last month in the New Yorker. Gawande estimated that the wanton destruction of USAID programs that offered vaccines and fought AIDS and infectious disease outbreaks caused 600,000 needless deaths in the first 10 months of the Trump regime, with millions more to come.

    This week, the philanthropic Gates Foundation reported that for the first time in the 21st century, mostly preventable deaths of children under age 5 are rising instead of falling, and the main culprit is cuts in development aid, led by the United States. “We could be the generation who had access to the most advanced science and innovation in human history,” the billionaire philanthropist Bill Gates said, “but couldn’t get the funding together to ensure it saved lives.”

    The MAGA comebacks to cries that Trump is a fascist dictator often claim that innocent people aren’t getting slaughtered as happened under Adolf Hitler or Mao Zedong or other historic despots. The truth is that the regime’s cruelty-is-the-point demagoguery is inevitably becoming a death cult, epitomized by Musk’s chainsaw DOGE shtick. The murder happens in small batches, on boats off South America, and it also happens in big lots in places like famine-plagued South Sudan, as children die from aid cuts to badly needed health centers.

    And increasingly, Trump’s death cult is taking root here at home, from the 25 humans, and counting, who’ve died in ICE’s overcrowded detention centers this year, to individuals like Roberto Carlos Montoya Valdez, who was struck by cars while running away from immigration agents who raided a Home Depot parking lot in Southern California. This is before we know the full and likely lethal impact of alarming health policy changes from Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s Health and Human Services Department, and the toxic anti-vaccine culture he promotes.

    We should be just as outraged by the deaths that take place out of sight, in dusty and remote places on the other side of the world, as by two premeditated murders captured in a MAGA snuff film. Understanding the nature of Trump’s cult of death is critical for folks to find the courage to rise up and stop this before it gets much, much worse.

    Yo, do this!

    • The one thing that truly sets MS Now’s Rachel Maddow apart from her peers as an opinionated late-night cable-news host is her love for history, and her ability to put today’s crisis in the context of what came before. In her second life as a top podcaster, Maddow’s sweet spot has become America before, during, and immediately after World War II, and what memory-holed stories from that era tell us about today. Her new audio series, Burn Order, is about immigration, paranoia and demagoguery — not now, but in the unconscionable internment of Japanese-Americans in the 1940s. Two episodes in, it’s her best podcast yet.
    • I’ve never really kept my promise to include great restaurants and bars in this space, but here goes. During last week’s fairly frantic journalistic sojourn to New Orleans, I took one night off and grabbed a beer in what might be the greatest American dive bar, Jake and Snake’s Christmas Club Bar. This shotgun shack of a watering hole in the middle of an otherwise residential street has to be seen to be believed, both on the ramshackle outside and in the dark interior pumping 1950s rockabilly and lit only by — what else? — Christmas lights. There is no better way to kick off your holiday season.

    Ask me anything

    Question: All things considered, the U.S. has weathered this first year of the second Trump regime OK. But three more years of this? Any guesses as to what happens between now and then? — Shawn “Smith” Peirce (@silversmith1.bsky.social) via Bluesky

    Answer: Weathered? Just barely. But I do exit 2025 slightly more optimistic than I began the year, thanks to the size of the No Kings protests and the growing resolve of citizen resistance to immigration raids. What happens in the next three years? I think 2026 will be pivotal. Trump will surely look at his sagging polls and double down on dictatorship, which could include misguided foreign wars, more aggressive use of troops at home, and efforts to somehow nullify next November’s midterms. I also think these will fail, which means a Democratic Congress in 2027 and 2028 that will certainly impeach Trump and restrain his worst impulses. If not, I may be writing this newsletter from my prison cell.

    What you’re saying about…

    The question I posed here two weeks ago about the John F. Kennedy assassination was a good, evergreen topic ahead of a long break. Maybe it was my boomer-heavy readership, but all but one respondent didn’t believe that Lee Harvey Oswald acted alone. “I also saw Jack Ruby shoot Oswald on live television, another searing memory,” wrote Laura Hardy, who was 8 in 1963. “Nothing ever added up in my mind. Still doesn’t. Was it the Russians? The CIA? The mob?” The one naysayer was Armen Pandola, who argues that “JFK was a fairly conservative Democrat at the time…Where is the motive?”

    📮 This week’s question: This has been asked before, but it’s still the most important thing going. Trump is appearing in public with a bruised, bandaged hand, prone to weird digressions or outbursts. So what is the deal with his health? Please email me your answer and put the exact phrase “Trump’s health” in the subject line.

    Backstory on an all-too fitting venue for Trump’s Pa. speech

    The Mount Airy Casino Resort in Mount Pocono, Pa.

    Donald Trump may be constitutionally ineligible to run again for president — no seriously, he can’t — but that factoid apparently isn’t stopping the 47th POTUS from campaigning in the critical swing states. Why else did Trump choose Pennsylvania — a state he visited a gazillion times as a candidate — as the location for a major speech on the economy, to convince citizens that what they are seeing in supermarket aisles is not what’s happening? I can’t even imagine what Trump will say Tuesday night, but I was stunned to learn the regime’s choice of venue: The Mount Airy Casino Resort, the former honeymoon haven in Mount Pocono.

    It’s not just that Trump is touting economic security in a casino, which seems way too fitting in an America where so many folks have decided that the only way they’ll ever get rich is through gambling, whether that’s a get-rich-quick investment in crypto or meme stocks, or by an addiction to the betting sites like DraftKings that are devouring the sports world. Or that the backdrop might remind people that Trump was the rare entrepreneur who drove his own Atlantic City casinos — supposedly a license to print money — into bankruptcy.

    The real problem is that the Mount Airy Lodge is the epitome of the real Trump economy: Public corruption. Like Trump’s real-estate empire, the original Mount Airy Lodge fell on hard times in the 1990s, and its longtime owner died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound in 1999. The supposed savior was the state’s headlong rush into casino gambling and northeastern Pennsylvania’s landfill magnate Louis DeNaples, long dogged by allegations of ties to Scranton’s organized crime family. In 2008, DeNaples was indicted on four counts of perjury tied to his casino permit application; ultimately the politically connected businessman turned over the casino to a trust chaired by his daughter and saw the charges dropped. But the Mount Airy Resort Casino remains dogged by controversy, including a recently proposed $2.3 million settlement with its table-games dealers who accused the owners of years of wage theft.

    But Trump considers DeNaples “a close friend,” and the Mount Airy casino nabbed a $50 million federal bailout loan during the COVID-19 pandemic in the final year of Trump’s first term. Five years later, is there a positive story about the Trump economy that can be told from this stage of dropped felony charges, alleged wage theft, and government largesse for the well-connected? Don’t bet your nest egg on it.

    What I wrote on this date in 2015

    Ten years ago, I was fascinated by the decades-long political rise of Vermont senator and then-White House hopeful Bernie Sanders. This left-wing curmudgeon and relic of the 1960s didn’t capture the White House but changed America, for good. On Dec. 9, 2015, I touted my Amazon Kindle Single e-book about Sanders (The Bern Identity…it’s still available!) and offered highlights. I wrote: “Politics mattered then, before Chicago and Kent State and Watergate and all the cynicism, and the unvarnished, authentic voice of Bernie Sanders is bringing that feeling back for many.” Read the rest: “5 things I learned writing an e-book about Bernie Sanders.”

    Recommended Inquirer reading

    • Did I mention that I went to New Orleans? I wrote two columns from the scene of Homeland Security’s immigration raid that the Trump regime has branded “Catahoula Crunch” in a gross homage to the Louisiana state dog. The first piece looked at Day One of the operation — the Big Lie behind the raids that claim to target criminals but instead go after day laborers, usually without criminal records — and the fear that pervaded the Latino community. The second column was a much more hopeful look inside the growing citizen resistance, as I profiled the everyday folks who are taking risks to blow whistles, chase cars, and generally impede Trump’s mass deportation agenda.
    • Last week — if you could somehow make it through the sickening bromance between Donald Trump and FIFA, the world governing body of soccer — we finally learned the key groupings and early-stage matches of the 2026 men’s World Cup finals across the United States as well as our now frenemies Canada and Mexico. You won’t be surprised to know that The Inquirer’s soccer writer extraordinaire Jonathan Tannenwald was all over the key developments. We learned who the U.S. team will play: Paraguay, a to-be-determined European qualifier, and Australia, in a June 19 Seattle match I still want to attend if I can start a GoFundMe (kidding…maybe) for the astronomical ticket prices. The Philadelphia matches include perennial contenders France and Brazil as well as a Curaçao-Ivory Coast showdown that I’m excited for because I might be able to afford it. The World Cup is going to be one of the biggest stories of 2026, and you know the Inquirer will cover this like an Italian center back. This alone will be worth the price of a subscription, so what are you waiting for?

    By submitting your written, visual, and/or audio contributions, you agree to The Inquirer‘s Terms of Use, including the grant of rights in Section 10.

  • Two New Yorkers found dead in Atlantic City Borgata hotel room

    Two New Yorkers found dead in Atlantic City Borgata hotel room

    Atlantic City Police are investigating the deaths of two New Yorkers who were found dead in a casino hotel room Sunday afternoon.

    Police were called to the Borgata Hotel Casino and Spa around 5 p.m., where they found the bodies of Baoyi Bowie Zheng, a 36-year-old woman from Staten Island, and Wei Guo Liang, a 68-year-old man from Brooklyn.

    An autopsy determined Bowie Zheng died of a broken neck. Guo Liang was found to have died from self-inflicted stab wounds.

    Many details regarding the individuals, including their connection, if any, and how long they’d been at the Borgata, had not been made public as of Wednesday, when the Atlantic County Prosecutor’s Office encouraged people with information about the incident to call in.

    A spokesperson for the hotel could not be reached for comment.

  • Philly radio shuffle: Paul Kelly takes over Matt Cord’s WMGK slot

    Philly radio shuffle: Paul Kelly takes over Matt Cord’s WMGK slot

    The sudden death of Pierre Robert has forced a Philly radio shuffle, with veteran host and Sixers PA announcer Matt Cord returning to 93.3 WMMR to take over the midday show, which Robert hosted for 44 years.

    Taking over Cord’s morning show at 102.9 WMGK will be another radio veteran — the versatile Paul Kelly, who’s been a utility infielder at the station since 2019, hosting just about every shift.

    Now Kelly will take over WMGK’s morning show, the former home of famed Philly radio host John DeBella, who retired in 2023.

    Both Cord and Kelly will begin their new hosting gigs Monday.

    “This has been a dream come true — rocking in the same building I visited on my bike as a kid,” Kelly said in a statement. “It’s been amazing working alongside the personalities I grew up listening to — Matt Cord, Tony Harris, John DeBella, Debbi Calton, and Andre Gardner!”

    Kelly, a Philadelphia native, has been working on the air since 1989, hosting shows in Atlantic City, Wilkes-Barre, Scranton, and Poughkeepsie, N.Y. He also runs his own radio consultancy firm and is a founding member of Kelly Music For Life, a nonprofit that turned an old retail store in Havertown into the Kelly Center, a home for concerts, festivals, and shows.

    “Paul’s deep Philadelphia roots, his lifelong love of classic rock, and the genuine connection he’s built with our listeners over the years make him the ideal choice for mornings on WMGK,” said program director Chuck Damico. “He understands this city, he understands this music, and he brings an energy and authenticity that resonate with our audience every time he cracks the mic.”

    Pierre Robert, seen here broadcasting on WMMR in 2017.

    Robert, 70, was found dead in his Gladwyne home on Oct. 29 after failing to show up for his midday show. The cause of Robert’s death was not disclosed and officials don’t plan to release additional information. Caroline Beasley, the CEO of WMMR’s parent company, Beasley Media Group, said foul play was not suspected.

    “Everything seemed to be natural,” Preston Elliot said on air following Robert’s death. “It just appears he passed overnight.”

    Robert was beloved by musicians, who are hosting a memorial concert in his honor at the Fillmore on Dec. 17, with a portion of the proceeds going to MANNA, the Metropolitan Area Neighborhood Nutrition Alliance.

    The show will feature bands and musicians near and dear to the former WMMR host’s heart, including the Hooters, Brent Smith and Zach Meyers of Shinedown, Lizzy Hale and Joe Hottinger of Halestorm, and Ed Roland of Collective Soul.

    “Nobody replaces Pierre — let’s make that clear,” Cord said in a statement. “I promise to carry his amazing spirit into the studio bearing his name and do my best to make him proud.”

  • Head of Delco nonprofit traded cash for sexual favors from women in addiction, DA says

    Head of Delco nonprofit traded cash for sexual favors from women in addiction, DA says

    After losing his son to a heroin overdose in 2017, Lawrence Arata devoted his life to helping people in addiction, founded an Upper Darby nonprofit to further that mission, and even ran a failed congressional campaign in which the opioid crisis was his tent-pole cause.

    But behind the scenes, prosecutors in Delaware County said Wednesday, Arata twisted that mission, trading cash, gift cards, and other services from his nonprofit, the Opioid Crisis Action Network, for sexual favors from women who were desperate for help.

    One woman told investigators that she saw the relationship as transactional: “He had what I needed, and I had what he needed,” she said, according to court filings.

    Arata, 65, has been charged with trafficking in individuals and patronizing prostitutes, as well as witness intimidation for trying to coerce some of the women he victimized to recant their statements to police, court records show.

    Arata, of Villas, Cape May County, was freed after posting 10% of $500,000 bail.

    His attorney, Ronald Greenblatt, said Arata had done nothing wrong.

    “The evidence that will come out in court will show his innocence,” he said. “Mr. Arata is a pillar of the community who turned the personal tragedy of losing his son to a drug overdose into a career of helping people.”

    Delaware County District Attorney Jack Stollsteimer, in announcing the charges, said Arata “cynically and cruelly” misused opioid settlement funds to “satisfy his sexual desires.”

    “I want to thank the courageous women in recovery who fell victim to Mr. Arata, as well as those working to help others find their way into recovery, for having the courage to come forward and trust law enforcement to stop this predator,” Stollsteimer said. “We heard you and we support you.”

    Stollsteimer said he believes other people may have been victimized by Arata and urged them to contact his office.

    Investigators learned of Arata’s alleged crimes in August, when a former program director at his nonprofit gave a statement to Upper Darby police, according to the affidavit of probable cause for his arrest.

    The woman said Arata behaved inappropriately with his clients, kissed, them, touched them, and asked them to stay in hotel rooms with him. Some of the clients left the program because his behavior made them uncomfortable, she said, and she resigned from her position because of similar concerns.

    Detectives later interviewed one of the women Arata had initiated a relationship with. She said that during one encounter in 2024, Arata approached her after a group meeting and said she “looked like she could keep a secret.”

    At the time, the woman said, the weather had started to turn cold and, in need of a coat, she agreed to perform oral sex on Arata inside his car in exchange for gift cards. The woman told police she could not refuse, because she needed the benefits offered by OCAN to survive.

    The woman said she saw Arata again in March, when he was doing outreach on 69th Street in Upper Darby. Hungry and in need of resources, she told police, she approached Arata and again performed oral sex on him inside his car.

    Another woman, who lives in Atlantic City, said she and Arata had a yearslong sexual relationship. Arata met the woman while she was living in a recovery house in Chester, and she told him about her years of addiction and the time she spent as a sex worker in order to survive.

    Arata began trading gift cards and cash for sex with the woman, she told police. Later, when she returned to Atlantic City, she said, Arata continued their relationship.

    The woman said she needed the cash and gift cards to survive, and saw the arrangement as mutually beneficial. Earlier this month, Arata texted her from an unfamiliar phone number, saying police had confiscated his cell phone and urging her not to speak with investigators.

    But Arata didn’t just assault women in recovery, police said. A therapist who worked for his organization said Arata repeatedly told her she was beautiful, asked her to visit his hotel room in Chester, and once kissed her against her will.

    Later, after police had begun to investigate Arata, he pulled the woman aside, accused her of making “false allegations” against him, and demanded she retract her statement, authorities said.

    Other employees of OCAN said they had raised concerns to Arata about his methods, saying the repeated use of gift cards as an incentive to clients felt tantamount to a bribe, the affidavit said. He ignored or dismissed those concerns.

    Arata told The Inquirer in 2017 that the death of his son, Brendan, inspired him to raise awareness on the lack of resources for people in active addiction.

    “Getting very busy on this issue was a way for me to deal with my grief,” Arata said. “This is not a partisan issue. This disease has killed Republicans and Democrats.”

    Arata ran unsuccessfully for Pennsylvania’s Fifth Congressional District seat in 2018 as a Democrat, receiving just 925 votes.

  • Philly Music this week with Grammy nominees Leon Thomas and Dijon, plus ‘The Boy Is Mine’ tour in Atlantic City

    Philly Music this week with Grammy nominees Leon Thomas and Dijon, plus ‘The Boy Is Mine’ tour in Atlantic City

    This week in Philly music kicks off in Fishtown with six-time Grammy nominee Leon Thomas, continues in Atlantic City with a Brandy and Monica throwback pop double bill, and continues in North Philly with rising R&B singer and Justin Bieber producer Dijon.

    Austin, Texas, hard rock band Die Spitz play the First Unitarian Church on Wednesday.

    Wednesday, Nov. 19

    Die Spitz

    The music gets started on Wednesday with the four women of Austin, Texas. hard rock foursome Die Spitz, who recorded their unrelenting new album Something to Consume at Studio 4 in Conshohocken with producer Will Yip. Boone, N.C., queer punk duo Babe Haven opens. (8 p.m., First Unitarian Church, 2125 Chestnut St., r5productions.com)

    Leon Thomas

    There weren’t a lot of surprises among the big names with the most nominations when the Grammys were announced this month. Kendrick Lamar and Lady Gaga topped the list, but Leon Thomas, who got six nods along with Bad Bunny and Sabrina Carpenter, was the surprise underdog.

    The crooner and producer, who got his start as a Broadway child actor and star of Nickelodeon’s Victorious, is up for album of the year for Mutt, as well as best new artist and R&B performance for his viral NPR Tiny Desk version of the album’s title song — in which he compares himself unfavorably to a dog. His “Mutts Don’t Heel” tour comes to the Fillmore on Wednesday. (8 p.m., the Fillmore, 29 E. Allen St., livenation.com)

    Library Mixtape

    The free Library Mixtape: A Vinyl Record Listening Club meetup in the music department of the Parkway Central Library on Wednesday is hosted by Alexa Colas, the Clubfriends Radio & Records founder who moved her living room sound system to the Design Philadelphia Center last month. Bring your own vinyl. (5:30-7:30 p.m., 1901 Vine St.)

    Also: There’s live music at Old City vinyl listening room 48 Record Bar. James Everhart of Cosmic Guilt teams with New York songwriter Keenan O’Meara on Wednesday; Hannah Taylor sings and Jake Zubkoff plays keys on Sunday.

    Hannah Cohen plays Johnny Brenda’s on Thursday. Her new album is “Earthstar Mountain.”

    Thursday, Nov. 20

    Hannah Cohen

    Hannah Cohen’s Earthstar Mountain is a dreamy, pastoral album that also delivers a sweet kick. She recorded it with producer partner Sam Evian at their studio in a barn in upstate New York. With Sufjan Stevens and Clairo guesting, it’s a 2025 standout releaser. (Salami Rose Joe Louis opens. 8 p.m., Johnny Brenda’s, 1201 Frankford Ave., johnnybrendas.com)

    The New Mastersounds

    British funkateers the New Mastersounds are saying goodbye — at least for a while. The band whose tight Hammond organ-heavy soul-jazz sound bears the influences of Philly keyboard greats Jimmy Smith and Jimmy McGriff, plays its “Ta-Ta for Now” tour on Thursday. (8 p.m., Ardmore Music Hall, 23 E. Lancaster Ave., Ardmore, tixr.com)

    Friday, Nov. 21

    Ron Gallo

    Ron Gallo made headlines this year by posting protest songs on an almost daily basis in the early days of the second Trump administration. He called it 7AM Songs of Resistance for the Internet.

    Now, Gallo has a new album that takes him in a more personal direction, called Checkmate, his second on the Kill Rock Stars label. It’s filled with subtly evocative folk-flavored, even jazzy, music that detours from the bruising garage rock he’s become known for. Gallo plays Free at Noon at Ardmore Music Hall. (Noon, Ardmore Music Hall, eventbrite.com)

    He comes back for a second Philly gig at the First Unitarian Church next Friday.

    Brandy and Monica performing in Indianapolis in October on “The Boy Is Mine Tour,” which comes to Atlantic City’s Boardwalk Hall on Saturday.

    Bar Italia

    This month’s edition of David Pianka’s Making Time dance party has an intriguing live band headliner in Bar Italia, the London-based trio named after an iconic Soho coffee bar. The band’s new album, Some Like It Hot, wears the influence of Brit-pop band Pulp on its sleeve. New York rock band Voyeur also plays, along with sets by Dave P., Mario Cotto, Shai FM, and K Wata. (9 p.m., Warehouse on Watts, 923 N. Watts St., wowphilly.com)

    Stinking Lizaveta

    Longstanding West Philly doom metal trio Stinking Lizaveta‘s name was inspired by a character in Fyodor Dostoevsky’s The Brothers Karamazov. The band released its 1996 album Hopelessness and Shame — recorded by the late Steve Albini — on vinyl for the first time this March. On Friday, they headline Johnny Brenda’s with Deathbird Earth and Channls. (8 p.m., Johnny Brenda’s, 1201 Frankford Ave., johnnybrendas.com)

    Tom Morello

    Rage Against the Machine guitarist Tom Morello plays the Music Box at the Borgata in Atlantic City. It will be an agit-pop act of resistance in a hotel casino within earshot of chiming slot machines. Morello’s repertoire is made up of roiling Rage songs, Woody Guthrie, MC5, and John Lennon and Yoko Ono covers, plus originals in his rabble-rousing folk singer mode as the Nightwatchman. He’ll have a full band behind him, plus the help of San Diego hip-hop group the Neighborhood Kids as his special guests. (9 p.m., Music Box at the Borgata, 1 Borgata Way, Atlantic City, ticketmaster.com)

    Saturday, Nov. 22

    Mo Lowda & the Humble

    Philly quarter Mo Lowda & the Humble closes out a five-month North American tour for its new album, Tailing the Ghost, with a hometown show. (8 p.m., Union Transfer, 1026 Spring Garden St., utphilly.com)

    Brandy and Monica

    Back in 1988, Brandy and Monica played out a feud over a dude in the worldwide hit “The Boy Is Mine,” which was cowritten and coproduced by South Jersey’s Rodney “Darkchild” Jerkins. Twenty-seven years later, the pop-R&B singers are on a concert tour together that also features Destiny’s Child’s Kelly Rowland, Muni Long, and 2025 American Idol winner Jamal Roberts. The tour is presented by the Black Promoters Collective. (8 p.m., Jim Whelan Boardwalk Hall, 2301 Boardwalk, Atlantic City, boardwalkhall.com)

    Grammy-nominated singer and producer Dijon plays the Met Philly on Sunday.

    Sunday, Nov. 23

    Dijon

    Dijon released his debut Absolutely in 2021 and has quickly made his mark. He regularly works with Mk.gee, the guitarist and songwriter with whom he shares a twitchy, low-fi sensibility. He’s also teamed with Bon Iver and Justin Bieber and is up for producer of the year and album of the year at the Grammys. Sometimes, he sounds like Prince.

    His new album Baby! is a joyous, shape-shifting adventure. Two measures of how hip he is at the moment: He’s among the musicians with roles in Paul Thomas Anderson’s One Battle After Another, and on Dec. 6 will be musical guest on Saturday Night Live. He plays the Met Philly on Sunday. (8 p.m., Met Philly, 858 N. Broad St., ticketmaster.com)

    Amy LaVere and Will Sexton

    Memphis wife-and-husband duo Amy LaVere and Will Sexton are Americana artists who specialize in a brand of smoky Southern noir, perhaps best exemplified by LaVere’s “Killing Him,” about trying to rid oneself of a bad boyfriend only to find that he comes back to haunt you. (8 p.m., 118 North, 118 N. Wayne Ave., Wayne, tixr.com)

  • How Philly-area outlets survive and sometimes thrive in an era of dying malls

    How Philly-area outlets survive and sometimes thrive in an era of dying malls

    For the Nowell family, the outlets are an annual tradition.

    Every Veterans Day, a dozen relatives venture to Limerick Township in Montgomery County, where they kick off their holiday shopping at the Philadelphia Premium Outlets.

    Even this year, as bitter winds whipped through the outdoor plaza, the family was undeterred.

    After a morning of shopping, the multigenerational group, which included two veterans, warmed up with their yearly food-court lunch, courtesy of matriarch Geri Nowell, 77, of Telford. Then, the men returned to the cars and dropped off dozens of shopping bags, which they’d been carting around in a wagon. The women walked on, hunting for their next find among the more than 130 shops.

    The Nowell family poses in front of a holiday backdrop during their annual outing to the Philadelphia Premium Outlets.

    “It’s super fun,” said Ann Blaney, 47, of Drexel Hill.

    “We get great deals,” added Kim Woodman, 55, of Hatboro.

    The tradition is an experience they say can’t be replicated online. The fact that the complex is open-air and contained in a 550,000-square-foot plaza somehow adds to the fun, they said.

    As Kathy Nelson, 48, of Broomall, browsed the outlets with her friends, she said she also shops at the nearly 3 million-square-foot King of Prussia Mall, less than 20 miles away. But otherwise, she said, “there aren’t many indoor malls left” with the variety of stores she prefers.

    Fashion District owner is ‘cautiously optimistic’ on future of its Center City mall

    As some indoor malls have struggled and died, leaving fewer than 1,000 left nationwide, the outlets remain alive.

    Outlets have always accounted for a fraction of the in-person retail market, which is partly why there have been few headlines about dying outlet malls. But some of the country’s roughly 200 outlet malls seem to be downright thriving, with full parking lots on weekends, few vacant stores, and relatively strong revenue.

    Shoppers walk by the tree at the Philadelphia Premium Outlets on Nov. 11.

    The Philadelphia region’s two major outlet malls — the Philadelphia Premium Outlets in Limerick Township and the Gloucester Premium Outlets, both owned by Simon Property Group — are more than 92% occupied, according to a count by The Inquirer during visits to each location this month. Both outlets have found success despite being less than 20 miles from thriving indoor malls in King of Prussia and Cherry Hill.

    Tanger Outlets, which has locations in Atlantic City and Lancaster, recently reported more than 97% occupancy across its 39 open-air centers and an increase in average tenant sales per square foot.

    “Outlets do good in good times and great in bad times,” said Lisa Wagner, a longtime consultant for outlets, repeating a common refrain in the industry.

    Why Philly-area shoppers are mourning Neshaminy Mall’s glory days on TikTok

    The centers have evolved amid the broader push toward more experiential retail and most now have a mix of discount stores and full-price retailers. But they have done so while embracing their reputation as the go-to destination for snagging deals, said Wagner, a principal at the Outlet Resource Group.

    “Honestly no one knew what was going to happen after COVID, but [the outlets] came out incredibly strong,” she said. More recently, the retail industry has been rattled by tariffs and economic uncertainty. The outlets have not been immune to those challenges, but they have held strong despite them.

    “People want value right now,” Wagner said. “They need it.”

    The Philadelphia Premium Outlets has more than 130 stores in its 500,000-square-foot complex.

    Outlet malls become one-stop shops

    On a rainy, early November Sunday, hundreds of people descended on the Gloucester Premium Outlets.

    Shoppers pulled up hoods and huddled under umbrellas as they made their way from store to store. Many balanced several large bags bearing brand names like Columbia and Kate Spade, Rally House and Hey Dude shoes. Some munched on Auntie Anne’s pretzels or sipped Starbucks from holiday cups. An acoustic version of Jingle Bells played over the speakers.

    For some, the dreary, drizzly weather was even more reason to spend their afternoon at the 86-store complex in Blackwood, Camden County, about 15 miles outside Philadelphia.

    A ‘dead’ South Jersey mall is set to get townhomes, retail, and more in long-awaited redevelopment

    With two young children in tow, Jessica Bonsu, 30, of Sicklerville, was on a mission.

    “We came out to go to the indoor playground,” called Stay & Play, Bonsu said, pointing to her rambunctious kids. “Just to get some energy out.”

    “And then we can also get some shopping done,” added her cousin, Taneisha Laume, 30, who was visiting from D.C. She needed a gift for her uncle. “Kill two birds with one stone.”

    Shoppers peruse the stores at the Gloucester Premium Outlets in this 2019 file photo.

    These kind of multipurpose visits are buoying outlet malls, which are increasingly becoming mixed-use destinations for dining, drinking, entertainment, and shopping.

    “You’re coming for a little bit of everything,” said Gerilyn Davis, director of marketing and business development at Philadelphia Premium Outlets.

    The Limerick Township complex recently welcomed a slate of new tenants, including Marc Jacobs’ first Pennsylvania outlet store, a BOSS outlet, an Ulta Beauty, and an outpost of central Pennsylvania’s Nissley Vineyards, which has an outdoor seating area.

    Shoppers walk by the Nissley Vineyards store at the Philadelphia Premium Outlets.

    New Balance, whose shoes are trendy again, is also opening stores in both the Philadelphia and Gloucester outlets.

    Justin Stein, Tanger’s executive vice president of leasing, said the North-Carolina-based company is focused on adding more food, beverage, and entertainment options.

    While overall occupancy at its Atlantic City center is lower than others, the complex has a Dave & Buster’s and a Ruth’s Chris steakhouse. The Simpson, a Caribbean restaurant and bar, is also set to open there in early 2026.

    In Lancaster, Tanger is looking to add food and beverage options, Stein said. But that center is still performing well, with a 97% occupancy rate, according to an online map, and only two vacancies.

    When there are places to eat and drink at the outlets, “people stay longer,” Stein said, “and when they stay longer, they spend more.”

    Philadelphia Premium Outlets had a steady crowd on a bitter cold Veterans Day.

    From ‘no frills’ to outlets of the future

    Today’s outlet malls look vastly different from what Wagner calls the “no frills” complexes of the 1990s.

    At the time, an outlet mall served as “a release valve for excess goods,” Wagner said. “There were some stores that had really broken merchandise.”

    To comply with branding rules and avoid competition with department stores, outlet malls were often located along highways between two major metro areas, she said.

    “What became clear is that customers loved it,” Wagner said. Soon, brands started overproducing to supply these outlet stores with products in an array of a sizes and colors.

    This effort to bulk up outlet offerings was “a roaring success,” she said, with companies finding that more than a third of outlet customers went on to buy their products at full price at other locations.

    Philadelphia Premium Outlets, which opened in 2007, has very few vacant storefronts.

    As their popularity rose, more outlet malls were built across the country.

    The Atlantic City outlets, originally called The Walk, opened in 2003, followed by the Philadelphia Premium Outlets four years later. In 2015, the Gloucester Premium Outlets opened, with local officials calling the approximately 400,000-square-foot center the largest economic development project in township history.

    As the centers look to the future, their executives are continuing to hone their identity as “not just a discount-and-clearance center,” said Deanna Pascucci, director of marketing and business development at Gloucester Premium Outlets.

    Center leaders are bringing in food trucks, leaning into rewards programs, and promoting community events, such as Gloucester’s holiday tree lighting, which took place Saturday. Starting Black Friday, the Philadelphia Premium Outlets will offer Santa photos after a successful pilot program last year.

    What should a dead mall become? In Exton, the debate continues.

    And the complexes are finding new ways to attract and retain shoppers, online and in real life.

    Tanger recently announced an advertising partnership with Unrivaled Sports, which operates youth sports complexes, including the Ripken Baseball Experience in Aberdeen, Md., an hour drive from its Lancaster outlets. Stein said the company hopes to attract families looking to pass the time between tournament games.

    Tanger is also using AI and data analytics to email specific deals to customers based on where they’ve previously shopped, Stein said.

    “We want you to start your experience online and end it in the store,” Stein said.

    Shoppers walk by a new Ulta store at the Philadelphia Premium Outlets.

    At Simon outlets, customers can search a store’s inventory online before they make the trip, Davis said.

    “Online shopping at this point, it’s a complement,” Davis said. “It’s not viewed as competition.”

    Wagner, the outlet consultant, said she thinks even more centers will be built in the coming years, with a focus on urban and close-in suburban locations that are accessible by public transit.

    As for existing centers, she sees them thriving for the foreseeable future.

    “As long as outlets continue to emphasize a value message and use their loyalty programs to reward customers,” Wagner said, “I think they will hold their own.”

  • Going green: Why frogs are appearing at ICE protests

    Going green: Why frogs are appearing at ICE protests

    The frogs are all over social media, playing and prancing in front of the ICE building in Portland, Ore. The demonstrators in big, green inflatable costumes have grown from local oddity to symbol of the resistance, undermining President Donald Trump’s claim that “war ravaged” Portland is under siege by “domestic terrorists.”

    Protests that started with a single amphibian have in recent weeks expanded into full ponds, particularly after a viral video showed officers pepper-spraying a demonstrator through the air-intake of his costume. The frog corps there has been joined by a shark, giraffe, chicken, and raccoon, and during the recent nationwide “No Kings” marches expanded its web-toed footprint to places including Philadelphia.

    Demonstrators gather for a ’No Kings’ rally in Philadelphia on Saturday, Oct. 18, 2025.

    Why has the frog become so popular?

    People following the news on the internet and TV see the paramilitary might of helmeted ICE agents arrayed against … frogs. And unicorns. And other dancing creatures.

    For demonstrators, it’s a way to make the other side look ridiculous by embracing ridiculousness ― a staple of effective political street theater, said Temple University professor Ralph Young, an expert on protest and dissent.

    “Trump saying Portland is occupied by terrorists, it’s so over the top,” Young said. “How do you respond? I guess you put on a frog outfit.”

    What has made Portland a center of immigration protest?

    Demonstrators oppose Trump’s effort to deport millions of people. And Portland has long been a target of the president, who last week again falsely claimed that the city was “burning down.”

    He wants to deploy National Guard troops in response to the protests outside the city’s Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility. An appeals court last week reversed an earlier ruling and said that deployment could proceed.

    Wearing animal costumes “dismantles their narrative a little bit,” chicken-suited protester Jack Dickinson told Willamette Week. “[Homeland Security Secretary] Kristi Noem is up on the balcony staring over the ‘Antifa Army’ and it’s, like, eight journalists and five protesters and one of them is in a chicken suit.”

    Laura Murphy, 74, wears a handmade tiara inspired by a Portland, Oregon, protester’s frog costume, on her way to the No Kings protest on Oct. 18 in Philadelphia.

    Where did the idea for the frogs come from?

    The frogs, Temple’s Young said, come out of a court jester tradition. In ancient times, jesters could speak to the king in ways that might get someone else beheaded. They offered what others might be unwilling to say ― the truth, cloaked in humor.

    Since that time there have been many other instances of truth-in-comedy protests.

    At the 1968 Democratic National Convention, the Youth International Party, the Yippies, nominated a 145-pound pig for president. Pigasus, sarcastically named for the winged horse Pegasus, served to protest the political establishment and the sorry choice many voters felt they faced in choosing between Richard Nixon and Hubert Humphrey. The pig’s campaign slogan: “If we can’t have him in the White House, we can have him for breakfast.”

    Here on trial as part of the Chicago Seven, Abbie Hoffman (left) and Jerry Rubin (right), with beard and headband, helped nominate a pig for president. In center in striped shirt is defendant Rennie Davis. They’re picture here on Oct. 23, 1969, at the Federal Building in Chicago.

    The same year, the New York Radical Women attracted huge news coverage at the Miss America pageant when they dumped bras, makeup, and girdles into a “Freedom Trash Can” set up on the Atlantic City Boardwalk. The demonstrators were labeled “bra-burners,” though organizers insisted no bras were actually burned.

    Have frogs been spotted in Philadelphia?

    Yes, including at the recent “No Kings” protest that drew thousands onto city streets. One person carried a sign endorsing “Amphifa,” or “Amphibians Against Fascism.”

    Thousands turn out in Philly for the ‘No Kings’ protest

    Frogs are appearing on posters and T-shirts in a variety of poses: Raising the U.S. flag at Iwo Jima, with the help of a chicken and a unicorn. And as the subject of the famous Barack Obama campaign portrait, this one captioned not “HOPE” but “HOP.”

    So far the ICE field office in Philadelphia has not been the target of sustained protests, though the exterior of the building is now guarded by heavy concrete blocks. The group No ICE Philly plans to hold an all-day, Halloween Eve demonstration on Thursday, complete with costumes, live music, art, and free food.

    A demonstrator wearing a frog costume stands outside a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility on Tuesday, Oct. 7, 2025, in Portland, Ore. (AP Photo/Ethan Swope)

    Is it true the frogs are meant as a biblical reference?

    Let’s not get carried away. But, yes, some people have posted social media photos of the Portland frogs captioned with a verse from Exodus 8:2-6: “If you refuse to let them go, I will bring a plague of frogs on your whole country. … The frogs will jump on you, on your people, and on all your officials.”

    Staff writer Michelle Myers contributed to this article.