Philadelphia might have mild weather this holiday week, with light rain showers and likely no snow on Christmas. However, more people will be on the roads and in the sky, traveling to holiday destinations, than in recent years.
Holiday weather should be much milder this week, despite earlier forecasts calling for snow Monday evening, said Ray Martin, a meteorologist at the National Weather Service in Mount Holly. Monday and Tuesday have a chance for light rain showers, and if temperatures drop, maybe snow, but there should be little to no snow accumulation.
Christmas Eve and Christmas Day in the Northeast will be warmer, drier days for travel, according to AccuWeather. Millions across the South and Midwest will experience the warmest holiday on record, though.
Whether it’s the expected good weather or people getting their post-COVID travel confidence back, roads and airports are expected to be packed this week, according to data from Philadelphia International Airport and INRIX, a national travel analytics firm.
Winter coats are out on a cold morning at a bus stop at 15th and Market Streets on Dec. 15.
Holiday weather this week in Philadelphia
While no snow will likely fall on Christmas Eve or Christmas Day in the Philadelphia region, Tuesday and Friday have chances for precipitation that could bring rain and ice to Philadelphia, and possibly snow north of the city, said AccuWeather senior meteorologist Tyler Roys.
Monday: The best weather this week. Warmer, drier, and less windy.
Tuesday: Rain showers in Philadelphia during the morning commute, but no snow. Possible rain, sleet, or snow in Montgomery and Bucks Counties. Lehigh Valley could receive an inch or more of snow.
Wednesday: No precipitation, but expect wind gusts up to 30 mph. The evening is expected to bring lots of cloud coverage. “Rudolph will definitely need his red nose out and about,” Roys said.
Thursday: Misty weather or light rain scattered across the region throughout the day.
Friday: Stormy weather with precipitation. Philadelphia has a chance for rain and possible ice, but Upper Bucks County and the Lehigh Valley could get snow.
The weekend: On Saturday and Sunday temperatures are forecast to range from the mid-30s to 50 degrees, with a slight wind. Rain is possible Sunday.
The scene at the TSA checkpoint line in Terminal B at Philadelphia International Airport on Nov. 9.
Holiday travel in the Philadelphia region
Expect longer travel times this year as more people hit the road and sky to get to their holiday destinations.
Airports and flying
Philadelphia International Airport will see a 5% increase in the number of travelers this week compared to the same period last year, with more than 1 million people expected to come through the airport from Wednesday to Sunday, Jan. 4.
PHL’s heaviest traveling days:
Friday, Dec. 26: 94,028 expected passengers
Monday, Dec. 29: 93,096 expected passengers
Saturday, Dec. 27: 92,954 expected passengers
Travelers should arrive two hours before their flight to ensure they get to their gate on time, said Heather Redfern, an airport spokesperson. PHL also has an online travel tips guide for more guidance on easier travel.
The Inquirer operates a year-end PHL tracker for up-to-date information on airport delays and airline performance.
Traffic on the Schuylkill Expressway on Oct. 26.
Driving and peak travel times
A large portion of the holiday travel already occurred this past weekend, but the increased holiday traffic continues.
Christmas Day, Christmas Eve, and New Year’s Eve historically see lower vehicle traffic as people have reached their holiday destinations, according to INRIX. However, Friday is expected to be busy as travelers make their post-Christmas Day moves. “But, remember, crashes or severe weather could create unexpected delays,“ their year-end report warns.
Best travel times for driving in Philadelphia
Most of the traffic congestion this week will come after Christmas Day, with Friday being the busiest, INRIX reports.
To avoid peak traffic, drivers should steer clear of the roads on Monday and Tuesday, from 1 p.m. to 7 p.m. The best time to travel on those days is before 10 a.m.
Wednesday, Christmas Eve, and Christmas Day will have minimal traffic impact, according to INRIX.
The following days will have some of the busiest roads all year: From Friday to Sunday, the worst travel times will be from 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. To avoid congestion, drivers should leave for their destinations before 11 a.m.
With First Day hikes surging in popularity, Pennsylvania and New Jersey are rolling out a full slate of outings to welcome 2026 — from daybreak rambles to sunset treks, and nearly every hour in between for those easing into the new year.
Many of the guided hikes require advance registration and fill quickly.
The Jan. 1 hikes are offered through the Pennsylvania Department of Conservation and Natural Resources (DCNR) and the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection (DEP). Some are guided by rangers, others by volunteers.
Another option: Join the Friends of Ridley Creek State Park in Media, Delaware County, for a 3.5-mile loop featuring creek views and a stop at historic hilltop Russell Cemetery.
Or, for a spectacular bird’s-eye view of the Pinelands at daybreak, you can tackle a 2.5-mile round trip, starting at 6 a.m., to Apple Pie Hill in Wharton State Forest, where hikers climb the 79 steps of the fire tower at sunrise. The only drawback: The hike has become so popular that the DEP holds a lottery at 1 p.m. on Dec. 31 to select participants.
Apple Pie Hill Tower offers a dramatic view of the Pinelands.
First Day Hikes began in Massachusetts in 1992, and went nationwide in 2012 under an effort by the National Association of State Park Directors.
Ian Kindle, environmental education regional program coordinator for DCNR’s Bureau of State Parks, said the hikes in Pennsylvania started not long after that. But, he said, they have become increasingly popular since the pandemic, when many people took to the outdoors.
“I think people have really taken to the idea of making getting outdoors on the first day of the year a tradition.” Kindle said. “I know that some of the first ones I led at Delaware Canal State Park, we could have 100, 150, and upward of 200 people, which is a challenge to lead.”
Last New Year’s Day, 2,488 people — and 224 dogs — participatedin Pennsylvania. They gathered for 74 hikes at 47 state parks and one state forest, accumulating 6,478 miles.
Cheryl and Gary Moore, of Bucks County, ride their horses over the Schofield Ford covered bridge in Tyler State Park in Newtown, Bucks County in this 2021 file photo.
The two most attended hikes were at Beltzville State Park in Carbon County in the Poconos (175 people) and Tyler State Park in Bucks County (170 people).
This year, DCNR has organized 60 free guided hikes in 49 state parks and three forest districts, choosing to make the walks more focused.
Kindle said an “almost full moon” hike is set for Delaware Canal State Park in Yardley, Bucks County, at 4 p.m. He noted a two-mile hike around Militia Hill at Fort Washington State Park in Montgomery County.
The hikes include: walks at 10 a.m., noon, and 2 p.m. through historic Revolutionary-era Batsto Village in Wharton State Forest; a more rigorous six-mile hike at Brendan T. Byrne State Forest on the Cranberry Trail that includes Pinelands cedar swamps and Pakim Pond; and a two-mile hike at Washington Crossing State Park in Mercer County where you can learn about the famed feat by the Continental Army that routed the Hessians at Trenton.
Back in September 1873, the New York Herald announced that the Hudson River School painter Jasper Francis Cropsey had a new painting. Autumn in the Ramapo Valley, Erie Railway, which would be open to public viewing for “only a day or two longer” at the Wall Street office of Charles Day, the article said.
The painting was commissioned by investor James McHenry, who, with Day, was director of Erie Railway. McHenry, who had been a director of the Atlantic and Great Western Railway before that, had his eye set on the Erie Railway, which was founded in 1832.
In 1872, in what is best described as a corporate coup, McHenry ousted the railroad magnate Jay Gould and took full control over Erie Railway. In celebration, he commissioned the Cropsey painting, which, after those few days on Wall Street, made its way to McHenry’s home in London and remained in private collections, away from the public eye since.
Until now.
In 2024, philanthropists J. Jeffrey and Ann Marie Fox, who live in Bucks County, bought the painting and brought it back to the United States. It is on view at the Brandywine Museum of Art, some 150 miles away from the original setting of the painting, where flatlands west of the Hudson River meet steep hills near the town of Sloatsburg, N.Y.
Here, it can be seen by an American audience for the first time in 152 years.
The Foxes and American art
J. Jeffrey Fox has built a successful career in finance and education and his wife, Ann Marie, has worked with several nonprofits, often focusing on children with special needs. Together, in 2024, they made a $20 million gift to endow the J. Jeffrey and Ann Marie Fox Graduate School at Pennsylvania State University.
The couple, said Jeffrey Fox, have always been interested in American history.
“We used to collect art as souvenirs. We would go to estate sales and garage sales and sometimes buy a piece of art,” he said. “It wasn’t a collection that was of any significance. So once we got a little bit more money, we wanted to buy one painting that’ll be the centerpiece for the rest of our collection.”
They bought Frederick Childe Hassam’s The Cove, Isles of Shoals (1901) at an auction in 2015.
The discerning eye in the couple has always been Ann Marie’s. She spent 15 years volunteering at the Walters Art Museum in Baltimore, and when the couple lived in Annapolis, Md., she took classes under Matt Herban, a retired professor of art from Ohio State University.
After that first Hassam, the couple wanted a Cropsey. But not just any Cropsey.
“We went to the National Gallery and they had a fabulous Cropsey [Autumn — On the Hudson River (1860)]. It just took our breath away. And we were like, ‘Wow, how could we ever get something that good.’ That’s why it took us this long,” said Ann Marie.
“We were very picky. Every artist has great days, and every artist has OK days. We wanted Cropsey on a great day,” her husband said.
Finding Cropsey on a great day
Last year, the Foxes’ art adviser came to know from a friend in Europe that Autumn in the Ramapo Valley was coming up for auction in London in September. Believing that the painting was best sold to an American buyer, this friend approached the adviser before the painting went under the hammer.
The Foxes had 48 hours to make a decision to buy, never having seen the painting, aided only by a high-quality photograph and a condition report.
Cropsey’s catalog raisonné, put together by the Newington Cropsey Foundation in Hastings-on-Hudson, N.Y., says the painting left the country in September 1873. Documents said the painting has been in an undisclosed buyer’s family since the 1950s.
James McHenry’s carte-de-visite,
1861.
McHenry died in 1891 and “we don’t really know what happened from 1891 to the mid-’50s, but we do know that it never left England,” Jeffrey said. “And we don’t think it was ever shown in England. There are no records that we were able to find.”
Ann Marie said yes, and the couple wrote up a letter of intent.
“We were a bit concerned,” said Jeffrey. Another Cropsey — Richmond Hill in summer of 1862, also owned by McHenry — that came up in an auction in 2013 was deemed a “national treasure” by the U.K. and was not allowed to leave the country.
The clearance for Autumn in Ramapo to leave England took a little over three months.
“The English let that out of England because it was an American artist, and an American scene,” Jeffrey said.
The couple bought the painting in January 2025. Once the artwork arrived in the United States, a restorer found it to be in exceptional condition, exactly as advertised. In March, the conservator finished assessing the painting, and the Foxes traveled to New York to see it in real life.
“It just displayed so much grandeur. I thought it was wonderful,” Anne Marie said. “The autumn colors … just stunning. And the size of it is amazing. The first thing I said when I saw it was, ‘It can’t come to my house. It’s going to tear down my wall.”
Including the frame, the artwork measures 4.75 feet by 7.16 feet.
“Our house isn’t that big, we probably couldn’t get through the door,” Jeffrey said.
The couple couldn’t ship it to their foundation office, either. “We needed a museum that would be willing to show it and buy into the story, because it’s a phenomenal story,” Jeffrey said.
The “Cropsey, Wyeth, and the American Landscape Tradition” exhibition runs through May 31 at the Brandywine Museum of Art.
The painting and the painter
It’s easy to miss the “Erie Railway” part in Autumn in the Ramapo Valley, Erie Railway. Cropsey paints an idyllic fall scene with the Ramapo Valley bathed in yellow, red, and, orange foliage. Bits of green peep out, the sky is clear and a light blue, a waterfall flows gently on the left, the Ramapo River sits still.
The smoke-billowing train chugs through the valley in the distance, but in the center of the painting. Black rails of the railway bridge run parallel to the river and disappear into the leaves.
The setting of the painting falls between what is New York’s Orange and Rockland County, on the western side of the Hudson River, and north of Suffern.
“This painting … really helps in telling a fuller story of the history of American art, and particularly, this brief moment, in the third quarter of the 19th century, when huge sums were being spent on huge paintings,” said William L. Coleman, curator at the Wyeth Foundation and director of the Andrew & Betsy Wyeth Study Center.
“This is part of a larger story with artists like Frederic Church, Albert Bierstadt, and Thomas Moran.”
Jasper Francis Cropsey by Napoleon Sarony, circa 1870.
Cropsey, an architect who had designed several railway stations himself, was part of a line of artists who “engaged with the new fortunes being made from the transportation industry, making images of new railroads traveling through the landscapes,” Coleman said.
The artists enjoyed generous patronage and lived well. Cropsey lived in a mansion he built, called Aladdin, less than 10 miles away from the site of the painting. Here he built himself a studio that doubled as a gallery and art marketplace.
The Philadelphia story
Cropsey’s patron James McHenry was born in Ireland in 1817 and was raised in Philadelphia. He moved back to England, living primarily in London, where he made a fortune raising money and investing it in developing railways in America.
His sister remained in Philadelphia until her death.
Jeffrey Fox calls McHenry “notorious,” adding that he often worked against other equally infamous “robber barons” like Cornelius Vanderbilt and Gould.
“He paid $25,000 on a Bierstadt painting in 1865, so he was quite an art collector himself,” Jeffrey said. McHenry, who already owned Richmond Hill in Summerof 1862, perhaps had gotten acquainted with Cropsey when the artist visited England in 1856.
Cropsey had already made a name for himself painting Starrucca Viaduct, Pennsylvania (1865) —where, too, a distant train almost merges into the green slopes of the mountain behind it — when McHenry wanted an artist to commemorate his pushing Gould out of the Erie Railroad directorship in 1873.
“He had already gotten a national reputation for painting part of this exact railroad, and so James McHenry went to the railroad guy,” said Coleman, “and commissioned Autumn in Ramapo.”
Artists like Bierstadt and Sanford Robinson Gifford were also working on similar railroad commissions at the time.
“Most of their stock and trade are images that make use of the aesthetic value of the sublime, the power of the natural world against the small scale of human existence. So they give us that feeling of awe, of wonder,” Coleman said.
Landscape paintings, he said, “tell stories about belonging, about ownership, about your place in a wider society. … And they often risk being underestimated. These are pleasant, old pictures that we see on calendars and postage stamps, but they have a lot to tell us about how we became the nation we are today.”
The model train at Brandywine Museum’s holiday showcase in 2018.
An irrelevant cost
At Brandywine, Cropsey’s train speaks to the museum’s beloved holiday train display, posing questions of tradition and modernity as the nation enters its 250th year.
It will stay at the museum through May and then travel to the Dixon Museum in Memphis, Tenn. Then it heads to the Seed Art Museum in Louisville, Ky.;, Rockwell Museum in Corning, N.Y,; University of Georgia Museum of Art in Athens, Ga.; and the Newington Cropsey Foundation.
The Foxes wanted this piece of American history to be witnessed by Americans.
What they paid for it, Jeffrey Fox said, is irrelevant.
“If you put a value to it, that’s what you’re going to talk about, as opposed to the painting,” he said. “We’re a foundation and at the end of the day, we’re not going to sell it. So it doesn’t matter what we paid.”
“Cropsey, Wyeth, and the American Landscape Tradition,” continues through May 31 at the Brandywine Museum of Art, U.S. Route 1 at Hoffmans Mill Road in Chadds Ford, Chester County. Information: brandywine.org or 610-388-2700.
This article has been updated with the correct year of James McHenry gaining control of the Erie Railway. It was 1872.
Four moderate Republicans — including three who are in the hot seat for reelection in swing districts in Pennsylvania — joined Democrats to sign a discharge petition Wednesday to force a vote on a proposal to extend pandemic-era expanded Obamacare subsidies.
While the move may not save the subsidies from expiring, given that Republican-controlled Senate has indicated resistance to the plan, the votes mark the sharpest rebuke of party leadership from within the GOP since President Donald Trump started his second term.
U.S. Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick, who has represented Bucks County since 2017, and two GOP freshmen from elsewhere in the state, U.S. Reps. Rob Bresnahan and Ryan Mackenzie, joined New York moderate Mike Lawler to give Democrats the votes they needed to push a vote on a clean extension of the subsidies to the floor.
The move comes on the heels of other high-profile examples of rank-and-file Republicans bucking Trump and House Speaker Mike Johnson, including last month’s bipartisan vote to release the Jeffrey Epstein files, following a discharge petition after Johnson had slow-walked the legislation.
The “dam is breaking,” U.S. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R., Ga.) told CNN on Tuesday in reference to the string of incidents in which members of the party had defied the president and speaker ahead of next year’s midterms.
The Republicans who defected on the healthcare bill had favored a compromise that they hoped might have a chance of passing Congress, but that was rejected by Johnson (R., La.), who sided with conservatives against expanding the subsidies, on Tuesday night.
That left them supporting a vote on a bill that extends the program as is, with far fewer restrictions and concessions than the compromise bills included.
“Despite our months-long call for action, leadership on both sides of the aisle failed to work together to advance any bipartisan compromise, leaving this as the only way to protect the 28,000 people in my district from higher costs,” Bresnahan said in a statement posted on X.
“Families in NEPA cannot afford to have the rug pulled out from under them. Doing nothing was not an option, and although this is not a bill I ever intended to support, it is the only option remaining. I urge my colleagues to set politics aside, put people first, and come together around a bipartisan deal.”
Later Wednesday, House Republican leaders pushed to passage a healthcare bill that does not address the soaring monthly premiums that millions of people will soon endure. The bill passed on a mostly party-line vote of 216-211. U.S. Rep. Thomas Massie (R., Ky.) joined with Democrats in voting against the measure.
Fitzpatrick and Lawler tried to add a temporary extension of the subsidies to the bill, but were denied.
“Our only request was a floor vote on this compromise, so that the American People’s voice could be heard on this issue. That request was rejected. Then, at the request of House leadership I, along with my colleagues, filed multiple amendments, and testified at length to those amendments,” Fitzpatrick said in a statement. “House leadership then decided to reject every single one of these amendments.
“As I’ve stated many times before, the only policy that is worse than a clean three-year extension without any reforms, is a policy of complete expiration without any bridge,” Fitzpatrick said.
Bresnahan’s vote for the discharge petition came a little more than a week after he welcomed Trump to his Northeast Pennsylvania district for a rally, which was meant to address voter concerns about affordability ahead of next year’s midterms.
Bresnahan won his election last year by about 1 percentage point. He was also one of just 20 House Republicans to sign a successful discharge petition earlier this month to force a vote for collective bargaining to be restored for federal workers.
“At the end of the day that might have been going against party leadership, but it was what’s right for northeastern Pennsylvania,” he told The Inquirer of the vote at the Pennsylvania Society last weekend.
Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick (R-Pennsylvania) speaks at a hearing on Capitol Hill on Dec. 3.
Mackenzie, in an interview with The Inquirer, blamed Democrats for not signing on to one of the compromise proposals, leaving him and the other three Republicans with no alternative but to sign onto a discharge for a plan he doubts will pass.
“But if you send the Senate anything at this point, I’m of the opinion it will continue the conversation and they’ll consider what their options are,” Mackenzie said. “If they would like to do additional reforms, I welcome those.”
While Republicans who have opposed the extension argue the subsidies were meant to be temporary and affect only about 7% of Americans, Mackenzie said he has been hearing from constituents constantly.
“Healthcare and the current system is unaffordable for many people,” he said. “We recognize the current system is broken for millions of Americans, so to actually get to some kind of better position, you need both short-term and long-term solutions.”
He called the Affordable Care Act subsidy extension a needed short-term solution “to do something for people struggling right now.”
Like Bresnahan, Mackenzie won his Lehigh Valley seat by 1 percentage point last year. And the district will be a top priority for both parties in next year’s election — as shown by Vice President JD Vance’s visit there Tuesday.
U.S. Rep. Scott Perry, a staunch Trump ally, represents a swing district in Central Pennsylvania but voted against the discharge petition. Janelle Stelson, a Democrat seeking Perry’s seat, called him “extreme” for voting against the measure.
“While other Republicans are working across party lines to lower costs, Perry is yet again refusing to do anything to make life more affordable,” said Stelson, who narrowly lost to Perry last year.
Some Republicans do not want to extend the credits at all, while others want abortion restrictions included.
Democrats hoping to unseat Fitzpatrick argue he has a record of pushing back on Trump and GOP leaders only in ways that do not actually damage the party or its priorities. In this case, though, the three Pennsylvanians were critical in getting the petition through, even if the future of ACA tax credits remains uncertain.
“The only thing Brian Fitzpatrick has perfected in his 9 years in Congress is the art of completely meaningless gesture, designed to protect his political future not the people he serves,” his Democratic challenger, Bucks County Commissioner Bob Harvie, wrote on X.
Harvie had previously called on Fitzpatrick to sign the Democrats’ discharge petition.
Not all ACA tax credits are under threat. Under the ACA, people who earn less than 400% of the federal poverty level — about $60,000 — are eligible for tax credits on a sliding scale, based on their income, to help offset the monthly cost of an insurance premium.
That tax credit is part of the law, and therefore not expiring. But what will expire is an expansion passed in 2021 when Congress increased financial assistance so that those buying coverage through an Obamacare marketplace do not pay more than 8.5% of their income.
This article includes information from the Associated Press.
County staff had requested a 7.2% tax increase to fill the budget hole, but Democratic Commissioners Bob Harvie and Diane Ellis-Marseglia voted to increase that hike to 8%, citing inflation and uncertainty in state and federal dollars.
“It’s leaving us with a very, very small surplus in a very uncertain time,” Harvie, a candidate for Congress, said of the original request.
Republican Commissioner Gene DiGirolamo voted against the tax increase but did not say why.
The tax boost will translate to an increase of around $72 annually for the owner of a home assessed at the Bucks County average, county officials said.
Chester County’s commissioners voted Wednesday to approve a budget without a tax increase. Bucks County was the only one of Philly’s collar counties not to raise property taxes in 2025.
In this year’s budget, Bucks County committed additional funds to the local community college and library systems, officials said. And, Ellis-Marseglia said, the cost of providing services to county residents had only increased.
“It’s reasonable to think that it costs more to take care of the people in our nursing home, the people in our jail,” she said.
As a result, Ellis-Marseglia and Harvie argued for a slightly larger tax increase this year to provide a cushion for the county to lean on.
“I see things as getting really dark in the future in terms of money,” Ellis-Marseglia said.
William Ingram, 51, entered a plea to third-degree murder and related crimes for killing his 82-year-old mother, Dolores, as well as drug crimes for running a sizable marijuana and psilocybin mushroom-distribution business out of the condo they shared.
In a deal negotiated with Bucks County prosecutors, Ingram avoided a trial on charges of first-degree murder, and the potential it carries for life in prison.
Chief Deputy District Attorney Marc Furber said that negotiation included an agreed-upon sentence of 26 to 54 years in state prison for murder, abuse of corpse, and related crimes. But Ingram’s sentencing for the drug crimes will be up to the discretion of Common Pleas Judge Stephen Corr at a hearing in February.
Ingram’s attorney, Riley Downs, said Ingram suffers from a schizoaffective disorder, which is being treated and managed through medication while he’s incarcerated.
During his plea before Corr, Ingram admitted to the murder but initially seemed confused about some of the details.
Investigators said that after beating his mother in the head on June 16, 2024, Ingram left behind a chaotic and gruesome crime scene, with blood spattered throughout the home’s living room.
Ingram buried her body under a mountain of detritus, including a shattered aquarium that once housed his two pet lizards, which police found dead nearby.
Police found $53,000 among the items piled on top of the victim, as well as six pounds of marijuana and packaged psylocibin mushrooms. More drugs and paraphernalia, including cases of marijuana vapes, hash, and edibles, were found in Ingram’s bedroom.
A handwritten note advertised the prices for each item, according to Furber, the prosecutor.
Ingram stole his mother’s Honda Civic and fled Bucks County, driving four hours south to Washington, D.C.
Just before 1 a.m. the next day, police said, Ingram, wearing no clothes, approached a police officer sitting in a patrol car and used a skateboard to smash the car’s front passenger window. When the officer confronted him, he grabbed the officer, according to police. The officer pushed Ingram away, and he ran off.
Other officers caught up to Ingram about a half-mile away and took him into custody. He was charged with assaulting a police officer and destruction of property and was taken into custody.
While being questioned by police, Ingram admitted to killing his mother hours earlier after he said she hit him in the face, Furber said Monday.
He told the officers he left her body in their home.
“There’s tons of stuff thrown all over the place, I don’t know what the [expletive] I threw. … there’s blood, just a big mess,” Ingram said, according to court filings.
According to the new survey, 38% of all Pennsylvanians support data centers being built in the Commonwealth, while 35% oppose, and 27% are neutral or have no opinion. But when asked about data centers being built in their area, residents’ opposition grows: 34% support, 42% oppose, and 24% are neutral or have no opinion about centers being built in or near their communities.
And opposition to close-to-home data center construction is among the strongest in the southeast part of Pennsylvania, second only to opposition in the northeast, a hot spot for data center construction. In Southeast Pennsylvania, 45% of respondents strongly or somewhat oppose data centers, while 54% strongly or somewhat oppose them in the northeast.
Among Pennsylvanians’ worries about data centers, 70% are concerned about the amount of water data centers use, and 71% are concerned about the amount of electricity data centers use.
Edmund J. Campbell, attorney for developer Brian O’Neill, spoke to the Plymouth Township zoning board in November before abruptly withdrawing the application for a Conshohocken-area data center over legal issues. Residents, some of whom had rallied against the proposal, packed the room.
Seventy percent of Pennsylvanians strongly or somewhat support requiring data centers to provide their own energy generation, rather than get electricity from the grid.
When it comes to AI more broadly, just over half of Pennsylvanians told pollsters they believe AI will decrease the number of available jobs in their industry, while 16% said they think it will increase the number of jobs (29% said they thought it would have no impact).
Nearly twice as many residents think AI will have a net negative impact on the economy compared to how many think it will have a positive impact (48% said negative, 25% said positive). When respondents were asked about the environment, the results were similar (46% vs. 21%).
The survey of 2,000 Pennsylvania adults was conducted online and via text between Nov. 19 and 23.
A Warminster man who fled to his native El Salvador last year after he was charged with sex crimes against children was extradited to Bucks County on Thursday to face trial for sexually assaulting three girls, including a 5-year-old authorities say he raped multiple times.
Noel Yanes, 45, is charged with rape, statutory sexual assault of a child, involuntary deviate sexual intercourse, and related crimes.
Bucks County District Attorney Jen Schorn said Yanes’ arrest was a testament to the pursuit of justice for those who harm children.
“To those who commit crimes against the most vulnerable and believe they can evade accountability by fleeing across borders, this should serve as a clear message: You will be found, apprehended, and brought back to face the consequences of your actions,” she said.
After months of investigation into the case and Yanes’ whereabouts by local and federal authorities, he was arraigned in district court in Warminster early Thursday and remained in custody on 10% of $500,000 bail. There was no indication he had hired an attorney.
Investigators in Bucks County learned of the assaults in February 2024, when one of the girls told police Yanes had raped her multiple times at a home on Tollhouse Road in Warminster where he was living at the time, according to the affidavit of probable cause for his arrest. She said the assaults began when she was 5 years old and continued for six years.
A second girl told police Yanes groped her in Wildwood, at a park in Doylestown, and at the same Warminster home where the other girl said she was raped. She said the assaults began when she was 4 and continued for two years.
The third girl said Yanes sexually assaulted her when she was 8 years old as they swam together in a pool at a home in Warminster Township, the affidavit said. Yanes groped her while he was spinning her around, holding her by her ankles, she said, and he groped her twice more later in the day.
Yanes fled the country shortly after the charges against him were filed in February 2024. He was on the run there for 11 months before U.S. marshals received a tip about his whereabouts, and his capture was a collaboration between local prosecutors and the Department of Justice, officials said Thursday.
This week in Philly music features hometown shows by two reunited Philadelphia pop-punk bands in the Starting Line and Algernon Cadwallader, plus South Philly arena dates with the artist formerly known as Machine Gun Kelly and the all-star Jingle Ball tour. Also on tap: Club shows with the Dream Syndicate, Rhett Miller, and Greg Mendez.
Pittstown, N.J.-born and Philly-based pop-rock quartet the Happy Fits headline the Fillmore on Thursday. The band, fronted by singer and electric cellist Calvin Longman, is on tour for Lovesick, their snappy fourth album, and first since founding member Ross Monteith left the band and new members Nico Rose and Raina Mullen (who sings lead on the title track) joined up.
The ‘60s and early ‘70s live in the music of the Heavy Heavy, the Brighton, England, duo of Will Turner and Georgie Fuller, whose songs stand on their own while being unashamed for their affections for counterculture-era rock sounds.
Will Turner and Georgie Fuller of England’s the Heavy Heavy play Brooklyn Bowl on Thursday.
JD McPherson’s most recent album of rockabilly and old school R&B-influenced originals was last year’s Nite Owls. Hopefully, the Oklahoma singer-guitarist will dip into his entire discography, but his show Thursday night at Arden Gild Hall in Wilmington is a “A Rock ’N’ Roll Christmas Tour” stop centered on the songs on his 2017 album Socks.
Algernon Cadwallader play Union Transfer on Dec. 13.
King Mala is Los Angeles alt-pop artist Areli Lopez, the El Paso native who’s touring behind her Billie Eiish-ish moody full-length debut And You Who Drowned in the Grief of a Golden Thing. She’s at Nikki Lopez on South Street with Dezi opening.
If Steve Wynn isn’t touring doing solo shows, or playing with indie supergroups Gutterball and the Baseball Project (the latter with whom he was in Philly in September), he’s on the road with the Dream Syndicate, the band that emerged from the 1980s Los Angeles psychedelic rock scene known as the Paisley Underground.
The band’s 1984 album Medicine Show mixed neo-noir mystery and Southern literary flair on epic guitar tracks like “John Coltrane Stereo Blues.” They’ll open with a set that surveys their career before playing Medicine Show in its entirety at Johnny Brenda’s on Friday.
Rhett Miller divides his time between the Old ‘97s and his solo career. His ninth Rhett Miller album is the new A lifetime of riding by night, which is a stripped-down affair that was recorded before (successful) vocal surgery and captures him in a reflective, philosophical mood. He plays Free at Noon at Ardmore Music Hall on Friday, then heads down the road to play 118 North in Wayne that night.
Rhett Miller plays Free at Noon at Ardmore Music Hall on Friday and 118 North in Wayne later that night. The Old ’97s singer’s new solo album is “A lifetime of riding by night.”
Philly “apocolectric” folk-rock quartet Bums in the Attic celebrate the release of their The Denouement EP at Dawson Street Pub on Friday, with Ms. J & the Cresson Street Band and Anthony Baldini.
Philly pop-punkers the Starting Line — originally from Churchville in Bucks County — have released only three albums in an initial burst of activity that began with 2002’s release, Say It Like You Mean It.
Philly pop-punk band the Starting Line’s new album “Eternal Youth” is their first in 18 years. They play two nights at the Fillmore Philly on Friday and Saturday.
The band went on hiatus in 2008, but has regrouped for several tours throughout the years and got a boost in the pop cultural consciousness in 2024 when Taylor Swift name-checked them in “The Black Dog” fromThe Tortured Poets Department. Now they’re back in earnest with Eternal Youth, their first album in 18 years, and shows at the Fillmore on Friday and Saturday.
Jon Langford & Sally Timms of the Mekons return to the charming confines of Harmonie Hall in Manayunk on Saturday. Expect a survey from the 40-plus year career of the Leeds, England-born country-punk pioneers featuring the divine-voiced Timms and offhand brilliance of the prolific Langford, who will be coming back to Philly together with the full-sized Mekons at the Latvian Society in June.
Detroit rapper Danny Brown plays the Theatre of Living Arts on Saturday. His new album is “Starburst.”
Inspired and eccentric Detroit rapper Danny Brown plays the Theatre of Living Arts on South Street on Saturday. He’s touring behind his new album Stardust, which vividly chronicles his journey to sobriety.
Algernon Cadwallader hail from Yardley in Bucks County. But in a world of inscrutable micro-genres, they’re often labeled a “Midwest emo” band. After going their separate ways after their 2011 album Parrot Flies, the band that includes singer Peter Helmis and guitarist and Headroom Studio owner Joe Reinhart (also a member of Hop Along) got back together in 2022. Trying Not to Have a Thought, their first album in 14 years, came out in September, and they’re playing a hometown show at Union Transfer on Saturday, with Gladie and Snoozer opening.
Machine Gun Kelly gets slimed after performing “Cliche” during the Nickelodeon Kids’ Choice Awards on Saturday, June 21, 2025, at The Barker Hangar in Santa Monica, Calif. The artist, now known as mgk, plays Xfinity Mobile Arena on Sunday. (AP Photo/Chris Pizzello)
Mgk isn’t just shorthand for Philly classic rock radio station WMGK-FM (102.9). It’s now the stage name of the artist formerly known as Machine Gun Kelly, who ditched his previous moniker in 2024 to disassociate himself from gun violence.
The rapper and singer is touring behind his new album, Lost Americana, which was released in June accompanied by a trailer narrated by none other than Bob Dylan, who is apparently his biggest fan. “From the glow of neon diners to the rumble of the motorcycles,” Dylan said. “This is music that celebrates the beauty found in the in-between spaces. Where the past is reimagined, and the future is forged on your own terms.” The “Lost Americana” tour comes to Xfinity Mobile Arena on Sunday.
Philly indie songwriter Greg Mendez is playing one more show in the super-intimate side chapel of the First Unitarian Church on Monday. This Mendez and Friends show features guest Amelia Cry Till I Die, Mary St. Mary and Shannen Moser singing traditional folk ballads. Most likely they will be making beautiful music together.
BigXthaPlug performs during the Bonnaroo Music and Arts Festival in Manchester, Tenn., on June 13, 2024. The Texas country rapper plays the Jingle Ball at Xfinity Mobil;e Arenea on Monday. (Photo by Amy Harris/Invision/AP)
On Monday, it’s the Jingle Ball. This year’s iHeart Radio package tour of hitmakers at Xfinity Mobile Arena runs alphabetically from AJR to Zara Larsson. The show presented by Q102 — Philly station WIOQ-FM (102.1) — serves up a crash course in contemporary pop with Alex Warren, BigXthaPlug, Laufey, Monsta X, Miles Smith and Raven Lenae, plus a KPop Demon Hunters sing-along.
A New York woman who worked as a “house mom” supervising troubled teens at a group home in Feasterville gave a 16-year-old boy money, posed in pictures with him holding a gun, and forced him into a sexual relationship, prosecutors in Bucks County said Tuesday.
Cristal Betancourt, 30, told the teen in text messages in December 2024 that she was pregnant and asked him to buy her an emergency contraceptive, according to the affidavit of probable cause for her arrest.
But the boy, in an electronic diary he kept on his iPhone’s Notes app, said he was afraid of Betancourt, writing that she was “crazy” and once demanded sex from him at gunpoint, the affidavit said.
Betancourt has been charged with institutional sexual assault, corruption of minors, and related crimes. She had not been arraigned as of Tuesday afternoon. Efforts to reach her were unsuccessful.
Investigators were first notified of the alleged abuse in January, six months after the teen was court-ordered to move into the home at 700 Ross Dr. in Feasterville.
The property, operated by Community Service Foundation, provides housing and behavioral therapy for troubled teens, usually after they are taken into custody for criminal offenses. It operates similar to a foster home, with a full-time “house parent” who lives on the premises and supervises the teens.
That supervisor also makes recommendations to CSF as to whether the teens are worthy of being granted “home passes” to visit family and friends.
CSF did not return a request for comment on Betancourt or the charges she faces.
Lower Southampton police were notified by investigators in Lancaster County, where the boy lived before being assigned to the group home, that they had a photo of the teen holding a Walther PPQ handgun and standing next to Betancourt, the affidavit said. Records show that she had purchased a gun similar to the one in the photo, the document said.
In an interview with investigators, the affidavit said, Betancourt told them she owned two handguns, including the Walther, which she said had been recently stolen from her car. She said she had not reported the gun stolen and asked detectives to do that for her, according to the document.
Detectives later examined the 16-year-old’s phone and found other photos of him holding both of Betancourt’s guns, the affidavit said. He told police she had taken him to a gun shop to look at firearms and then purchased a second gun, a Palmetto Arms 5.7-caliber pistol. Text messages found on the boy’s phone showed that he had bragged to his friends that he was carrying a handgun of that caliber, the document said.
The teen’s cell phone showed that he had taken detailed notes of his sexual encounters with Betancourt inside the group home in November 2024, according to the affidavit. He wrote that he no longer wanted to have sex with her but was afraid she would “get him in trouble” or harm him if he refused, the affidavit said.
Cell phone records revealed that Betancourt had taken the teen on unauthorized trips to Lancaster in violation of his probation, while lying and saying they were at a Costco store in Warminster, the document said, and detectives found she had sent him $600 via CashApp the week before Christmas 2024.
