ChristianaCare and Virtua Health have ended merger negotiations that would have created a healthcare system with more than $6 billion in annual revenue and business in four states, the two nonprofits announced Thursday.
The nonprofits, the largest in South Jersey and the largest in Delaware, had disclosed a preliminary agreement to join forces in July. ChristianaCare and Virtua did not share specific reasons for dropping the idea.
They issued identical statements: “After thoughtful evaluation, both organizations have determined that they can best fulfill their missions to serve their communities by continuing to operate independently.”
It wasn’t obvious to industry insiders what advantages combining the two systems would have brought other than more revenue and the potential for some relatively small savings from greater scale.
Both systems are financially solid. Virtua has a AA- credit rating from Standard & Poor’s. The S&P rating for ChristianaCare is two notches higher, at AA+.
ChristianaCare explored an acquisition of Crozer Health in 2022, but decided not to go through with the deal. It won a May bankruptcy auction with a $50.3 million bid to assume Crozer leases at five outpatient locations in Delaware County. It has since opened 15 medical practices at those locations.
ChristianaCare previously acquired the shuttered Jennersville Hospital in Chester County and turned it into a micro-hospital. It plans two more micro-hospitals for Delaware County.
The five-hospital Virtua system had $3.24 billion in revenue last year. ChristianaCare, with three full-scale hospitals, had $3.3 billion in revenue in the year that ended June 30, 2025.
Nearly 30 employees have left Chester County’s election office since 2021.
Several former Chester County election office workers have raised concerns over what they say is a hostile workplace, with one filing a grievance against its director. Another former employee believes she’s suffered from PTSD after working in the office.
As of November, 29 employees had left the office since Karen Barsoum took over as voter services director in 2021, reports The Inquirer’s Katie Bernard. Barsoum said employees left for a number of reasons, and while she noted the departures were a challenge for the office, she helped to train staff on various positions.
It’s unclear if the culture or turnover impacted last month’s general election, in which independent voters were omitted from county poll books.
Turnover in election offices has gone up in recent years due to election denialism and threats, but Chesco’s departure rate is nearly twice that of Delaware and Montgomery Counties.
Chester County saw plenty of snow during last weekend’s storm. Exton and Malvern reported 8.2 inches each — the largest recorded totals in the county. They were followed by Berwyn (8 inches), Atglen (7.8) and Glenmoore (7.5). Check out this map of snowfall totals to see how much your town got.
Chester County Hospital is among the quietest hospitals in the region at night, according to newly released federal data. Patients from October 2023 to September 2024 reported the hospital as being “always quiet” overnight 62% of the time, “usually quiet” 30% of the time, and “sometimes or never quiet” 8% of the time. See how it compares to other regional hospitals.
Phoenixville Hospital will close its 14-bed post-acute rehabilitation center on Jan. 6 as its parent company, Tower Health, faces financial pressures. The unit helps patients with neurological disorders, orthopedic issues, or who have suffered a stroke. Its closure is expected to displace 55 employees. (Philadelphia Business Journal)
Two individuals died in separate incidents last week. A 48-year-old pedestrian died after being struck by a driver last Tuesday night while attempting to cross Route 202 near the Shoppes at Dilworthtown Crossing in Birmingham Township. And on Saturday, a man was found dead in an Easttown Township basement after a fire broke out in the home. Neither victim has been publicly identified. (Daily Local News)
Two Chester County crop farms — the 21-acre Primitive Hall Foundation in West Marlborough Township and the 59-acre Samuel and Barbara E. Townsend in West Nantmeal Township — will be preserved forever thanks to easements approved by the State Agricultural Land Preservation Board.
Two Coatesville organizations scored grants recently. The Coatesville Bureau of Fire is getting a $58,700 state grant that will go toward buying CPR and other equipment, and The Creative Club of Chester County plans to implement its Future Innovators project with the $47,500 it was awarded in T-Mobile’s latest Hometown Grants.
The owner and brewer behind popular Phoenixville kombucha brand Baba’s Brew has launched a new skincare line. A Culture Factory’s toners, masks, scrubs, and serums are made with surplus scoby, the mother culture used to start kombucha, which Olga Sorzano says are full of enzymes.
Heads up for drivers: Pottstown Pike will continue to have a lane closure at the Park Road intersection in Upper Uwchlan Township through Friday as PennDot repairs the inlet. The closures are from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m.
Refuse fees are set to rise next year in Downingtown from $240 to $360. The increase is due to higher costs from the borough’s contracted hauler.
Santa will join the Phoenixville Fire Department on Saturday as he ventures around the borough starting at 8 a.m. And Liberty Fire Company has pushed its ride with Santa, Mrs. Claus, and Rudolph around Spring City and East Vincent Township to this weekend. They’ll now visit on Sunday at 11 a.m.
The Devon Senior Living at 445 N. Valley Forge Rd. has been renamed Juniper Village at Devon after a recent acquisition. The nearly 91,000-square-foot facility has 65 personal care apartments and 13 secured memory care apartments.
🏫 Schools Briefing
Last week, Coatesville Area School District’s school board approved a new map that it says redraws its geographic regions to better keep communities together and maintain ethnic and socio-economic balance. The approval of the four new regions comes ahead of the closure of Caln and East Fallowfield Elementary Schools at the end of this school year and the opening of the new Doe Run Elementary School.
🍽️ On our Plate
In search of Christmas Eve dining options? Several Chester County restaurants will be open, including Cedar Hollow Inn Restaurant & Bar in Malvern, Duling-Kurtz House Restaurant in Exton, Roots Cafe in West Chester, Sedona Taphouse, which has locations in Phoenixville and West Chester, and Ron’s Original Bar & Grille, in Exton. Prefer to dine in? Carlino’s Market in West Chester has everything from appetizers to a seven fishes feast available, while White Dog Café in Chester Springs is offering a “Christmas at Home” package with options for beef tenderloin, glazed ham, and beef lasagna. (Main Line Today)
🎳 Things to Do
🎅 Tinsel on the Town: The family-friendly event includes train rides, street vendors, hot chocolate, mulled wine, and visits with Santa. ⏰ Thursday, Dec. 18, 5-8 p.m. 💵 Pay as you go 📍 State Street, Kennett Square
🩰 The Nutcracker: Catch one of five performances of the holiday favorite, performed by the Brandywine Ballet. ⏰ Friday, Dec. 19-Sunday, Dec. 21, times vary 💵 $30-$50 📍 Brandywine Ballet, West Chester
🎄 Christmas Village: Fitzwater Station is hosting the final weekend of its first Christmas Village, which includes local vendors, food, drinks, and bonfires. Santa will make an appearance both days and be joined by Mrs. Claus on Sunday. ⏰ Saturday, Dec. 20 and Sunday, Dec. 21, 3-7 p.m. 💵 Pay as you go 📍 Fitzwater Station, Phoenixville
⛄ Wits and Pieces Workshop: Paint a festive ornament while sipping wines. Registration is required. ⏰ Sunday, Dec. 21, 1 p.m. 💵 $40 📍 Harvest Ridge Winery, Toughkenamon
The inside of the farmhouse is a mix of modern and historic elements.
Built in 1770 and since expanded, this Colonial farmhouse blends modern and historic elements like stainless steel appliances with stone walls and exposed beams. The four-bedroom home has a finished walkout basement with a full bathroom, an above-ground saltwater pool, a deck, and a two-story treehouse. The 7.6-acre property is split into two parcels, which can accommodate another house. The property has a chicken coop, paddocks, and a five-stall barn.
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This suburban content is produced with support from the Leslie Miller and Richard Worley Foundation and The Lenfest Institute for Journalism. Editorial content is created independently of the project donors. Gifts to support The Inquirer’s high-impact journalism can be made at inquirer.com/donate. A list of Lenfest Institute donors can be found at lenfestinstitute.org/supporters.
The county will run 16 propane Chesco Connect buses by February, with seven already on the roads. The majority of the 74-bus Chesco Connect fleet, a door-to-door shared ride transportation system that covers the county, is gasoline-fueled, but the county plans on adding more propane buses in 2027, said Gene Suski, director of transportation for the Chester County Department of Community Transit.
Propane is a cleaner fuel source than gasoline or diesel, and costs$1 to $1.50 less than gasoline per gallon.
“On any given day, our buses go anywhere between 150 and 250 miles a day, so when you can save that kind of money per gallon, it’s a significant factor,” Suski said.
A propane bus costs roughly $33,000 more than a gas bus, but with $20,000 saved in fuel costs annually, “it pays for itself” in 18 months, a county spokesperson said. The buses being replaced were “well past their useful life.”
Chester County’s new propane buses follow similar moves made by neighboring Montgomery and Lancaster Counties, which in recent years have embraced propane for part of their fleets. School districts across the state have also used the model, with more than a thousand propane school buses on the streets through the state, said Tony Bandiero, executive director of Eastern Pennsylvania Alliance for Clean Transportation, an organization that works with 34 counties to encourage alternate fuels.
It’s a relatively easy–and cheap–change for municipalities to make, Bandiero said.
“There’s a little bit of upfront cost, but usually that could be recuperated within a year just by fuel saving, cost savings, and maintenance on the vehicles,” he said.
Propane buses “hit a niche” about seven years ago, Bandiero said. Under President Joe Biden’s administration, his organization saw a ton of interest in electric projects. But that shifted with President Donald Trump’s return to office and the president slashing electric goals. Bandiero expects to see more projects focused on propane and natural gas in response.
In Chester County, the buses are part of the county’s climate action plan, approved by the commissioners in 2021. The county worked with ROUSH CleanTech, which has developed propane buses, vans, and pick up trucks since 2010.
The county was drawn to propane buses for the environmental benefits, and operating more efficiently, said David Byerman, the county’s chief executive officer.
“We believe that we have a duty as a county to be good environmental stewards, and this initiative is a way for us to demonstrate that leadership, and we’re very much looking forward to continuing to realize the goals we laid out in our climate action plan, and continuing to provide a model for sustainability for southeastern Pennsylvania,” he said.
Despite a recent state of emergency over propane woes in neighboring New Jersey, Suski said the county hasn’t had issue with fueling the current supply of buses. A tanker arrives each morning to fuel the buses. But in the next three to six months, the county plans to build its own propane fueling station in Coatesville to directly fuel its fleet.
This suburban content is produced with support from the Leslie Miller and Richard Worley Foundation and The Lenfest Institute for Journalism. Editorial content is created independently of the project donors. Gifts to support The Inquirer’s high-impact journalism can be made at inquirer.com/donate. A list of Lenfest Institute donors can be found at lenfestinstitute.org/supporters.
Once considered the loudest hospital in the Philadelphia area, Riddle Hospital in Media has significantly reduced its nighttime noise levels, newly released federal data shows.
At the Main Line Health Riddle hospital, only 12% of patients from the most recent survey rated the area around their room at night as “sometimes” or “never” quiet — down from 26% of patients surveyed between July 2022 and June 2023.
Across the Philadelphia region, 52% of patients said their hospital room was “always” quiet at night. That’s slightly worse than nationally, where patients said hospitals were quiet throughout their stay 57% of the time.
Virtua Mount Holly Hospital in New Jersey is now rated the loudest by patients.
Nazareth Hospital in Northeast Philadelphia, owned by Trinity Health, was ranked the second loudest in the region.
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Quieter hospitals have benefits for both patients and staff, helping to lower anxiety levels, improve sleep quality, and ease the flow of communication.
Riddle Hospital’s improvement follows construction of a new 230,000-square-foot patient pavilion that had temporarily increased noise at its Delaware County campus.
“With the pavilion’s 2023 completion, as well as the resulting addition of more private rooms, noise is significantly reduced,” spokesperson Larry Hanover said.
Reducing noise is also priority for Penn Medicine, whose Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania (HUP) was rated the quietest hospital among the 25,000 patients surveyed in the Philly-area.
Chester County Hospital, also owned by Penn Medicine, was ranked the second quietest.
The health system has made big investments in recent years to address noise levels at its hospitals, according to the university’s website. The Pavilion, which opened at HUP in Center City in 2021, was designed to reduce noise levels and nightly disruptions by separating nonclinical work from patient care areas.
Each floor of the $1.6 billion building centers around an “offstage” area for staff to hold conversations and calls away from patient rooms that line the perimeter. The design of the rooms also allows care teams to check vitals and refill medications from the hallway, reducing nighttime disruptions.
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More than two years ago, a Chester County Voter Services employee made a dire prediction.
In an eight-page grievance against Voter Services Director Karen Barsoum, the employee described a hostile work environment in which election workers were subjected to “bullying” from the department’s director.
At the time of the complaint, the employee wrote, 15 people had left the 25-person department since Barsoum was hiredin 2021.
“I have very legitimate fears that there will be a mass exodus from voter services in the coming months,” the employee, who asked not to be named for fear of retaliation, wrote in the grievance document he provided to The Inquirer. “My concern is how this will impact the 370k voters of Chester County.”
Two years later, it appears that his prediction had come true. The number of staff departures since Barsoum took over grew to 29 by November of this year, according to a Chester County spokesperson.
Election offices across the nation have experienced a high level of turnover and staff burnout in recent years in the face of election denialism and threats, but Chester County’s churn-rate is nearly double the number of departures in Montgomery and Delaware Counties’ elections departments that have lost 16 and 15 people respectively in the same time period. Both departments are larger than Chester County’s election office.
Accounts and records from three former staffers at Chester County Voters Services Department, two of whomasked not to be named, paint a picture of a hostile work environment where employees were often made to feel as though management had placed a target on their back.
These concerns have been raised to elected and non-elected county leaders for more than two years.
Barsoum saidin an interview that she couldn’t respond to allegations from employees but described her management style as collaborative.
Employees, she said, had left for a variety of reasons including jobs in other Southeast Pennsylvania election offices that pay better than Chester County. Others, she said, left to pursue other opportunities or for family reasons.
Some, she said, left because of the increased pressures of election work as state law changes and the intensity increases.
“I encourage everyone to do what is the best for them,” Barsoum saidThursday.
Though Barsoum acknowledged it was challenging for the office when people left, she said she and other managers were very hands-on in training staff and ensuring that staff members knew the ins and outs of various positions.
Karen Barsoum, Chester County’s director of voter services, at the Chester County Government Services Building in 2022.
The employee who filed the grievance said he feared that the attrition would leadto mistakes during the 2024 presidential election, when the eyes of the nation were on Pennsylvania.
Ultimately, everyone who wanted to vote was able to, county officials said. But the error created a chaotic scene as the county kept polls open two additional hours and more than 12,000 voters were asked to cast provisional ballots — which require more steps from election workers and voters to be counted.
The county hired a WestChester law firm to investigate how and why the poll book error occurred.
Chester County’s CEO David Byerman, the county’s top unelected official, said that turnover across all departments can be attributed to a variety of factors in the county including pay and managers.
He described working in elections today as a “pressure cooker” as a result of the political climate.
The investigation, he said, would look closely at management in the department and whether factors existed that would have hindered staff from identifying or reporting concerns.
“The very fact that we’re doing an investigation into what happened last month … indicates that we want to learn more about what happened in this particular election,” Byerman said. “Part of that investigation is looking at the performance of our management team in voter services.”
It’s unclear at this stage whether the error can be attributed to the turnover and environment in voter services, but Paul Manson, a professor at Portland State University who researches challenges faced by election workers, said the turnover seen in Chester County is unusual and alarming.
Often, Manson said, staff tends to be relatively stable in election offices because they care deeply about the work. Stressors of reduced staffing and the toxic environment described by threeformeremployees, he said, could create a dynamic that makes mistakes more likely.
“When we have these periods of turnover local election officials really sort of grit their teeth because they worry about these small errors turning into big errors,” he said.
Election workers process mail ballots for the 2024 general election at the Chester County, administrative offices in West Chester. (AP Photo/Matt Slocum)
Allegations of ‘hostility’ toward staff
Barsoum, who came to Chester County from Berks County in 2021, has earned respect in the election field nationally and within Pennsylvania. Barsoum had been the assistant director in the Berks election office.
“Karen Barsoum has an extraordinary knowledge that is a resource both statewide here in Pennsylvania and has been a resource nationally. I don’t think anyone doubts her knowledge of election processes,” said Byerman, the Chester County CEO.
“At the end of the day I think any manager needs to combine two abilities. An ability to manage an office effectively and an ability to be knowledgeable and an expert.”
Byerman said each manager in the county is evaluated on these criteria regularly, but when asked whether Barsoum possessed both qualities, Byerman did not respond.
Former county employees said Barsoum’s high reputation outside Chester County did not align with what they experienced in their jobs.
The employee who filed the grievance against Barsoum said he got along with her well when she started and he received high marks on performance reviews, according to documents provided to The Inquirer.
But after a reorganization in the department in 2022, he said, he noticed that more and more staff members were leaving. The employee was promoted to a new role and during the 2022 election did that job while maintaining responsibilities from his prior role.
He said he expressed concern about being overworked and received little support in the new role. After the employee said he dropped the ball on a minor item and reported it to Barsoum, she began treating him differently.
“In Karen’s eyes you’re either 100% right or 100% wrong,” he said in an interview.
The employee filed his grievance in August of 2023 after a meeting where, he said, Barsoum listed accomplishments of staff members and refused to acknowledge any of his work.
Barsoum’s “hostility” toward him in the meeting was so noticeable, he wrote in the complaint, that eight colleagues approached him afterward to say they noticed it.
“After so many months of mistreatment and disrespect in such a hostile work environment, it eventually gets to the point that something needs to be said. If the Presidential Election were to not run smoothly next year and ChesCo voters were disenfranchised due to the Voter Services, I would forever regret not sending this grievance,” the employee wrote in his grievance.
That employee left the department the next year. He was placed on a performance-improvement plan weeks after submitting his grievance, and, after completing that plan, he was placed on another as a result of a low performance review and quit before he could be terminated.
Elizabeth Sieb, who worked at the election office for eight years before leaving in 2022, said she had similar experiences with Barsoum to those detailed in the grievance. For the past year and a half she has been telling county officials about her concerns.
In 2022, Barsoum reorganized the office to respond to the new stressors of elections and new responsibilities that come with mail voting. Since then, she said, she and staff work to evaluate after each election what worked and what didn’t so adjustments can be made.
But Sieb said Barsoum didn’t take constructive criticism well when changes were made and stifled discussion among staff members.
Sieb was fired from the department in 2022. She said she was placed on a personal-improvement plan that demanded that she seek mental health treatment and subsequently placed on a three-day unpaid suspension.
Following the suspension, Sieb said, she was directed not to speak to her colleagues if it was not directly related to her work. She said she was fired for violating that rule when she reported to a lower-level manager concerns about another manager speaking disparagingly about a job applicant in earshot of other employees.
Sieb, who at times questioned Barsoum’s decisions, said she felt that the director was threatened by long-term staff and was prone to outbursts when employees would correct her.
“She was slowly but surely wearing down and getting rid of all the people that had been there a long time,” Sieb said.
Jennifer Morrell, the CEO of the Elections Group, a company that assists local election officials, said turnover in election offices happens for a variety of reasons — including the long hours and relatively low pay civil servants receive.
She noted that training programs from state agencies and associations are designed to help prevent errors as a result of turnover and that a larger department, like Chester County, may be able to fill rolls with election workers from other counties.
“Karen is highly respected in the election community, super professional,” Morrell said. “Our hearts just ached with what happened because it could have happened to anybody.”
Commissioners respond to concerns
After leaving the department, Sieb said, she believed she suffered from PTSD related to her experience.
Beginning in 2024 she began reaching out to Republican Commissioner Eric Roe with her concerns. Roe, Sieb said, investigated the complaints and brought them to the other commissioners, Democrats Josh Maxwell and Marian D. Moskowitz. The commissioners also serve as the county’s election board.
“I have had a lot of people come to me with various concerns throughout county government, and voter services is certainly one of them,” Roe told The Inquirer, explaining that his role as minority party commissioner makes him a frequent recipient of workforce complaints.
Chester County Commissioners (from left) Eric M. Roe, Josh Maxwell, and Marian D. Moskowitz at a board meeting in September.
But a year and a half later, Barsoum remained in her role and Sieb continued to hear from her former colleagues with concerns. Twice this year, Sieb went before the Chester County Election Board to raise public concerns about turnover under Barsoum.
Maxwell, who chairs the Chester County Election Board, said the county reviews reports from departments when they receive them. He said he was unable to comment on specific departments or personnel matters but said the county needed to do everything it could to support its election workers.
“We need to do a better job, I think, making sure that people feel valued. Including the folks that unfortunately we’ve lost,” he said.
Election work in Pennsylvania and elsewhere has gotten increasingly fraught. The work itself is more intense than it once was with more mail voting, and workers now deal with threats, longer hours, and a camera on them when they’re working with ballots.
“We were seen as clerical people, maybe, in the past; now we are wearing many different hats,” Barsoum said.
Moskowitz attributed much of the turnover in the county to burnout and noted the threats that election employees have faced in her years on the job.
Barsoum became emotional as she said she had worked to ensure that her staff had the resources they needed to feel safe, including mental health resources through the Human Resources department, team building outside election cycles, and a space for workers to step off camera.
“We can count on each other; we lean on each other. It’s a strong bond, a camaraderie,” she said.
When hiring new staffers, Barsoum said she warns them of what’s to come — that they’re not walking into a normal 9-to-5 job, that they won’t be able to plan vacations through about half of the year, and that they’ll be asked to take phone calls from irate people.
It’s a lifestyle, she said, that isn’t right for everyone — including some parents.
“If you’re leaning on a daycare and that is your sole, the go-to, it will be very hard to work in the department because there is 24/7 operations, and there are so many things that are going off and beyond the regular work schedule.”
Josh Maxwell, chair of Chester County Commissioners and the county Elections Board, presides over a September commissioners meeting.
Maxwell and Moskowitz declined to comment specifically when asked if they were confident in Barsoum’s leadership, but Maxwell has repeatedly asked residents to direct their anger at November’s error at him rather than Barsoum or her staff.
“I think it’s important that we protect these folks and we empower them to make the best decisions possible,” Maxwell said at an election board meeting last week.
Speaking to The Inquirer, he reiterated that point.
“We want to make sure that people feel welcomed and empowered and are in a working environment they appreciate,” Maxwell said in an interview.
“Elections have changed so much in five years it’s not surprising to me that some people want to find something new to do.”
This suburban content is produced with support from the Leslie Miller and Richard Worley Foundation and The Lenfest Institute for Journalism. Editorial content is created independently of the project donors. Gifts to support The Inquirer’s high-impact journalism can be made at inquirer.com/donate. A list of Lenfest Institute donors can be found at lenfestinstitute.org/supporters.
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.
AfterLincoln University’s homecoming in October ended with seven people shot, including one killed, the rural Chester County township where the school is located plans to pass new regulations on large events.
Several officials in Lower Oxford Township said there have been ongoing problems with parking, trash on neighbors’ lawns, disturbances and, in some cases, crime when the 1,650-student university hosts events. After the Oct. 25 shooting, when thousands of people gathered for homecoming, emergency personnel had to use all-terrain vehicles to transport patients on stretchers because ambulances could not access the campus, given how many cars were parked around the venue, they said.
“We have had meetings with people at Lincoln,” said township supervisor Noel Roy, who oversees emergency management. “They’ve been somewhat reluctant to do what needs to be done to try and control the situation.”
Lincoln University has declined to answer specific questions from The Inquirer, but President Brenda Allen at a board of trustees meeting last month acknowledged that changes were needed, especially around the school’s large events, and that the school has to do a better job of collaborating with the township.
“Our top priority remains the safety of our students, faculty, staff, alumni, and community,” the school said in a statement to The Inquirer Thursday. “The university continues to refine our safety measures and protocols.”
At a township supervisors meeting this week, university officials pledged to work with the township.
Lower Oxford Township officials meet and discuss a potential large event ordinance following the homecoming shooting at Lincoln University.
“We want to come together because we are a part of this community as well,” said Venus Boston, Lincoln’s general counsel.
Yeda Arscott, Lincoln’s associate vice president of facilities and program management, told supervisors the university is considering several steps to improve safety, including ending all outside events at dusk, eliminating open invitations, requiring guest registration, and canceling large events such as Spring Fling. The school also is looking at parking and safety protocols, she said.
Yeda Arscott, associate vice president director of facilities and program management at Lincoln, speaks at the Lower Oxford Township meeting and shares actions the university is considering following the homecoming shooting.
“This shows real commitment,” said Arscott, who lives five minutes from Lincoln, “but real safety requires joint planning between the township, Lincoln, other major businesses, our neighbors, and emergency services.”
Township and Lincoln officials said they plan to meet privately to discuss solutions.
“Our goal is to work with Lincoln to make this better,” said Kevin R. Martin, chairman of the board of supervisors. “We need to think this through, but we also have a sense of urgency because it does affect our community.”
Kevin R Martin, chairman of the township supervisors, said the township wants to work with Lincoln on improvements.
Chester County Commissioner Josh Maxwell said county officialsand the university also will meet in January to discuss best practices for emergency services and student and community safety.
“It’s important that the kids feel safe,” said Maxwell, who also is an adjunct professor at Lincoln. “No one wants this to ever happen again.”
The shooting remains under investigation.Jujuan Jeffers, 20, of Wilmington, was killed, and six others, ages 20 to 25, including a student, were also shot. Zecqueous Morgan-Thompson, 21, of Wilmington, was charged with possessing a concealed firearm without a license. Neither Jeffers nor Morgan-Thompson have any known connection to Lincoln.
Arscott also urged township leaders to “broaden the conversation beyond event permits” and look to address the problem of gun violence.
“We were a victim, too,” Boston said.
“We were a victim, too,” said Venus Boston, Lincoln University’s general counsel.
Tensions with neighbors
The proposed township ordinance would require those seeking to hold special events to apply for a permit 30 days in advance and outline how they will control the number of guests, traffic, alcohol, and security, said township solicitor Winifred Moran-Sebastian. The township couldapprove or reject applications.
Township supervisors last spring passed a parking ordinance to cope with access problems created during past large events at Lincoln, but parking at homecoming still led to issues for emergency responders.
Several residents who attended this week’smeeting were skeptical of Lincoln’s intent to make improvements and called for larger fines than the $1,000 proposed in the ordinance.
Vanessa Ross lives about a half a mile from campus and said she was afraid for her family the night of the homecoming shooting. She spoke at the Lower Oxford Township supervisors meeting.
“I feel my life is in jeopardy with how things are being currently managed,” said Lincoln neighbor Celestine Getty, fearing what could happen if vehicles were unable to get to her house in the event of an emergency.
Vanessa Ross, who has lived about a half mile from Lincoln for 14 years, said crime and disruption have happened at large Lincoln events for half those years.
“There is no excuse whatsoever why the college cannot increase their police force and install the metal detectors that are necessary,” she said. “I can’t even go see Barry Manilow in Philadelphia without going through a metal detector.”
Founded in 1854, Lincoln is known as the first degree-granting historically Black university in the nation. Its 429 acres are nestled in a township of farm fields with a little over 5,000 residents, the majority of them white. Racial tensions have come into play over the years, with township residents saying they have been unfairly accused of racism for raising safety issues.
Allen, the Lincoln president, has not pointed to racism as a factor in the conversations about safety, said Boston, the university’s solicitor.
A storied institution with recent safety issues
Lincoln has a storied history. The first presidents of both Nigeria and Ghana are Lincoln graduates, as are Philadelphia Mayor Cherelle L. Parker, former U.S. Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall, and poet Langston Hughes.
The school hasreceived $45 million in gifts fromphilanthropist MacKenzie Scott, ex-wife of Jeff Bezos. And Allen, who in 2020 had survived an internal battle to oust her and had her contract extended to 2030, was named a top historically Black college leader by a national nonprofitin 2021.
But over the last decade, the university has struggled with safety issues.
In spring 2023, two women were shot and injured on Lincoln’s campus during its annual Spring Fling event. In 2022, a student was fatally stabbed during a fight inside a dorm by the sister of a student. During an on-campus dance in 2018, 15 students were taken to the hospital following a brawl in which a security officer was assaulted. In 2016, there was a robbery and shooting on Lincoln’s campus following homecoming. And in 2015, Lincoln tightened security after shots were fired in a dorm.
Some residents said it’s time for the township to put in additional controls.
“We can no longer wait and see or hope the university will simply do the right thing,” said Andrew Cope, who lived near Lincoln for nearly two decades and still owns property there. “The pattern is too long, the consequences too severe, and the community’s trust too damaged.”
Carmina Taylor, former president of Lincoln parents association, addresses the Lower Oxford Township supervisors.
Carmina Taylor, who led Lincoln’s parent association from 2013 to 2016, said she has had longstanding safety concerns.
When a student was killed in the dorm in 2022, Taylor told The Inquirer she had previously sounded the alarm: “I had said, ‘If Lincoln doesn’t do something, we’re going to have a death on campus.’”
The university’s response to the homecoming shooting, said Taylor, who got a master’s degree from Lincoln in 2011 and whose son graduated from Lincoln in 2016, is “beyond fluff.”
“Until someone does something from the outside to bind them,” she said, nothing will change.
Security expert Brian Higgins said measures, including controlled entrances and screening of guests with hand-held wands, metal detectors or bag checks, are typically used for large crowd events. He acknowledged that imposing strict guest screening may not create the welcoming, upbeat environment characteristic of college homecomings.
“But in light of what happened, it’s very prudent to do so,” said Higgins, president of Group 77, a public safety and security consulting firm, based in the New York metro area.
Higgins, whosecompany has colleges among its clients, said drones increasingly are being usedas part of safety monitoring at large events. Traffic control measures and the setting of crowd size limits are other issues the school should consider, he said.
Anthony Floyd, a former police chief at Lincoln and a Philadelphia city police officer for about 20 years, said the university’s police chief and president should attend every township meeting and work more closely with the township on addressing safety issues.
Anthony Floyd Jr., who was police chief at Lincoln in 2013 and also had been a Philadelphia city cop, told the supervisors at the meeting that better coordination is needed between the community and the university. The school’s police chief and president should attend the supervisor meetings every month, give updates on safety and security, and be held accountable, he said.
Lincoln says it’s working on changes
Last month at a Lincoln board of trustees meeting, Allen, the president, said the campus had been focused on restoring a sense of safety for students and making sure they and staff had counseling support. Allen, a 1981 Lincoln graduate who has led the school since 2017, said the university was examining “safety protocols, parking, traffic, registration for guests,” and the process for inviting guests as part of its review process.
Lincoln University President Brenda A. Allen (left) announces plans for an after action review following the homecoming shooting.
Allen said the university is seeking feedback from the student government association and faculty and staff.
Roy, one of the township supervisors, saidparking restrictions put into place earlier this yearwere not heeded, and the township had to tow 60 cars the night of the homecoming shooting.
“Every time they towed a car, another car would pull into that space,” he said.
An event that would draw 10,000 people to a township with half that population and no police force is concerning, said Moran-Sebastian, the township solicitor. Lower Oxford relies on Pennsylvania State Police for law enforcement. For the homecoming event, the university requested state police, but only got two, Arscott, the facilities’ head, said.
Deborah J Kinney, secretary/treasurer and code enforcement officer, listens during the Lower Oxford Township supervisors meeting.
Township officials have been frustrated with the responses from Lincoln in the past. When a meeting was held in November 2024 to discuss parking-related problems during the previous Spring Fling event, Allen said she didn’t need the township’s help, said Deborah Kinney, township secretary/treasurer and codes enforcement officer. Kinney said she had suggested an event process that would have included a plan for parking.
“So we decided we needed to be proactive on our end, not just for our residents but for their students,” Kinney said. “It’s not the students. It’s the outside influences that are coming in to these events.”
She also said that in 2024, Lincoln accounted for 183, or 26%, of the township’s emergency calls.
Winfred Moran-Sebastian, Lower Oxford Township solicitor, outlines the proposed ordinance to regulate large events in the township. The ordinance is still under draft.
Veronica Carr, a 2016 Lincoln alumna, said she had been concerned about safety when she was a student, and conditions seem to have gotten worse. She did not attend homecoming.
Carr, who works for an African American heritage consulting firm and lives in North Carolina, said she is concerned that two people have been killed on the campus in less than four years.
While you may be familiar with kombucha’s benefits for your gut, one brewer is determined to show that the beverage and its byproducts can also make for excellent skincare.
Phoenixville-based Olga Sorzano, 49, the owner and brewer behind decade-old Baba’s Brew as well as a chef and culinary instructor, has an expansive, multifaceted career — but all her varied interests are united by one thing: fermentation. Her newest venture is A Culture Factory, a line of kombucha-infused skincare products that ranges from toners and masks to scrubs and serums.
Olga Sorzano, owner of Baba’s Brew of Phoenixville, holding a scoby in the brewing room, Wednesday, December 10, 2025.
“Our skin is alive. Most skincare is like Wonder Bread, designed for shelf-stability, but what if it could be like a beautiful, artisanal loaf of sourdough, which is living and nourishing? It feeds you with a living culture,” said Sorzano.
“As a chef, I want to feed you. And I have a chef’s approach to the skin as well. My great-grandmother and grandmother didn’t have all these [store-bought] solutions. They had lard and they would put it on their elbows. And kombucha vinegar on their skin. If they had berries leftover from making jam, they’d mix it with yogurt for a face mask.”
Sorzano‘s kombucha company generates large amounts of scoby, or the mother culture used as a kombucha starter. “It’s loaded with all these enzymes and I was thinking, how awesome to use some surplus scoby and turn it into face masks.”
Many ingredients from Baba’s Brew — like turmeric, which Sorzano also ferments — make it into A Culture Factory’s products, too, along with tallow from Breakaway Farms in Mount Joy, which Sorzano renders, refines, and blends with green coffee oil for a bright yellow eye butter.
Paying tribute to Baba
“Baba” means grandmother in Russian. Sorzano’s kombucha company, in both its branding and its recipes, is an homage to her great-grandmother, who raised Sorzano in the town of Barnaul, Siberia (close to the Mongolian border) when she was very young.
“I would say, ‘Baba, my belly hurts,’ and she would say, ‘Have some kombucha.’ Or I would say, “My leg hurts,’ and she would also say, ‘Have some kombucha,’ ” said Sorzano with a laugh. She grew up thinking kombucha was everywhere, that everyone had access to it, and that it was a balm for all ills.
If Sorzano’s Baba made kombucha that over-fermented, “she would put it on her skin as a toner.” This was a beauty tip that has followed Sorzano her entire life, brewing as an idea for years until finally blooming into a business concept.
Olga Sorzano, owner of Baba’s Brew, Phoenixville, on Wednesday, December 10, 2025. She is shown in a portrait as a child with her great-grandmother.
Fermentation, and the patience it demands, has long been a part of Sorzano’s family. To survive the long, bitter winters, the women in Sorzano’s family fermented everything they grew in their garden. “When I tell people about my childhood, they think I grew up in the 1700s,” she joked. “We foraged, we would go on mushroom hunts, we’d have a big cabbage day where several families would get together, chop cabbage, and preserve it for the winter.”
Baba’s Brew uses organic, fair-trade tea and sugar as the base for its kombuchas, but otherwise all its ingredients are local, like plums from Frecon Farms, blueberries from Hamilton, N.J., and honey from Swarmbustin’ Honey. They also brew many one-off, seasonal kombuchas, with ingredients like black currants, which frequently show up on Sorzano’s doorstep, brought by small farmers.
Olga Sorzano, owner of Baba’s Brew, with brewer Sarah Jagiela in the brewing room in Phoenixville on Wednesday, December 10, 2025.
Sorzano came to the U.S. in 2000 as an exchange student with Future Farmers of America after receiving a doctorate in veterinary medicine in Moscow. She worked on a dairy farm in Nebraska for a year, milking cows and doing other farm work, then moved to Florida, met her husband, and when he was offered a job in Philly, moved to the area. She enrolled at the Restaurant School at Walnut Hill College and applied her veterinary school-informed chemistry knowledge to cooking.
“I found cooking very easy, because to me, everything is about chemical reactions,” she said. Cooking eventually led to her opening Baba’s Brew, the spark of which was born at a fermentation festival, where she realized there was a community of people in the U.S. fermenting single ingredients, just as her Baba had. In a sense, she found her own culture, through cultures.
Olga Sorzano, owner of Baba’s Brew, in Phoenixville, Wednesday, December 10, 2025.
A Culture Factory skincare launched this month and shares its name with the tasting room where Sorzano hosts private events and teaches cooking and fermentation classes (such as making your own kimchi or mastering basic cooking skills). “It’s where I bring people in and teach them to cook but focus on techniques like how to season or layer flavors,” said Sorzano.
An assortment of kombucha beverage flavors by Baba’s Brews, a Phoenixville, company, Wednesday, December 10, 2025.
Like the notions of producing fermentation “mothers” and the actual mothers in Sorzano’s family who treated every ailment with kombucha, Sorzano’s life has been threaded with yet another motif: the squirrel. She constantly “squirrels” ingredients away to ferment them.
The logo for Baba’s Brew is a squirrel because “Baba’s nickname was Belka [the Russian word for ”squirrel”]. And when we moved into this brewery, we had a squirrel infestation and we had to call animal control to remove them from the attic. And when we moved to our farmhouse, we had a flying squirrel infestation. I safely captured and released all 18 of them,” said Sorzano, proudly.
The tasting room is adjacent to the now-squirrel-free brewery in which Baba’s Brew produces 4,000 liters of kombucha per week. There, along with Baba’s Brew’s eight kombuchas on tap, you can now purchase Sorzano’s handmade skincare products, as carefully and locally sourced as the fruit that goes into her kombuchas.
The Coatesville Area School District will soon see a swath of changes as it prepares to shutter two elementary schools at the end of the school year, open a new one, and realign its attendance boundaries to ensure equity amid the transition.
The new map, approved by the school board Tuesday, splits the district into four geographic regions, intended to keep communities together while maintaining ethnic and socio-economic balance, according to the district’s presentation.
“We’re proud of our diverse population that we have in Coatesville, so we were looking to sustain that in each of our elementary schools as well,” the district’s superintendent, Anthony P. Rybarczyk, said in an interview Thursday.
The update,slated to take effect next school year, comes as the district has been rolling out a new facilities plan over the last several years, while its enrollment has declined and its budget has been squeezed by charter schools. When students leave Caln and East Fallowfield elementary schools for the summer, the two nearly century-old schools will close permanently. The schools, which both serve kindergarten through fifth grades, enroll roughly 730 students between them.
Under thenew attendance zones, families in the Indian Run Village are being reassigned to Kings Highway Elementary School. Families in the area of Millview Park will be reassigned to Kings Highway, rather than split among three of the district’s elementary schools. The community divided by Barley Sheaf Road will now attend Reeceville Elementary. The district began communicating the changes Wednesday.
“Geographically, it made sense,” Rybarczyk said during the school board meeting. “We met with transportation as well, they were very promising in how they said this could save time on their runs and avoid the crossovers between going from one community to the next.”
The middle school feeder pattern will be split into two sections, with Kings Highway and Reeceville matriculating to North Brandywine Middle School. Rainbow Elementary School and the new Doe Run — which will open in August on the former South Brandywine Middle School site — will feed to Scott Middle School.
Fourth graders at elementary schools will be “grandfathered in” to complete their fifth-grade year at the elementary school they’ve been in, even if its enrollment is set to shift. The district plans to ask parents to provide transportation for those students next year, Rybarczyk said.
As the district winds down two of its schools, it will celebrate their history over the summer, with legacy walks and celebrations.
“The great thing about Coatesville is the children are in the schools where their parents went,” he said.
The district will keep the buildings, with an eye toward potential growth in the future, Rybarczyk said, though the district has no immediate plans for them.
The schools’ closure and the opening of Doe Run Elementary School are part of a broader effort to update the district’s aging facilities, which Rybarczyk said would continue next year.
“I think the community has been looking for something like this for a long time as well,” he said.
With “a shift of a number of charter school families coming back to our district” and new development, Rybarczyk said he believes the district could see its enrollment grow. Its campaign to bring students back from cyber and charter schools, launched alongside its upgrading of facilities in the last few years, has gained back 64 students, and hundreds of thousands of dollars, he said.
“We’re going to see what the need will be in the future, because we could have an influx where we need to repurpose them in some way,” he said at the board meeting. “Obviously, they’re two older schools …There’s some work to be done if we were to repurpose those.”
This suburban content is produced with support from the Leslie Miller and Richard Worley Foundation and The Lenfest Institute for Journalism. Editorial content is created independently of the project donors. Gifts to support The Inquirer’s high-impact journalism can be made at inquirer.com/donate. A list of Lenfest Institute donors can be found at lenfestinstitute.org/supporters.
State Street in Kennett Square sees lots of additional visitors during the holiday season.
Kennett Square is buzzing thanks to a holiday swell of visitors in town for the annual Longwood Gardens holiday display.
To capitalize on the “economic engine” that is “A Longwood Christmas,” merchants kicked off the holiday season a little early this year, including with a festive parade a week ahead of its usual schedule. That decision was a boon for businesses, which reported “record-breaking” sales during Thanksgiving week, something they plan to replicate next year.
The Longwood effect isn’t just great for the gardens or area shops — it also means increased hotel bookings and full restaurant dining rooms.
The county’s Board of Elections certified November’s general election results on Friday as it continues to investigate why third-party voters weren’t included in poll books. (WHYY)
The Chester County Economic Development Council launched a new program last week aimed at helping startups and entrepreneurs throughout southeastern Pennsylvania. The investment group, i2n Angels, will fund promising early-stage companies with between $50,00 and $500,000, as well as provide coaching and advice.
The Chester County Department of Community Development was recently recognized by community solutions organization Built for Zero for its efforts in reducing homelessness. County CEO David Byerman said there was a 33% decrease in first-time homelessness in 2024 compared to 2022 and that the number of people entering emergency shelters was slashed by nearly half over the past five years.
SEPTA missed Friday’s federally imposed deadline to finish repairs to the heat-detection system on its Regional Rail cars. The agency said the lapse was due to a shortage of the thermal wire required to make the repairs. Installation of the backordered wire for 30 of SEPTA’s remaining trains is expected to be completed next week.
💡 Community News
Philanthropist MacKenzie Scott has made another donation to Lincoln University, this time for $25 million. The no-strings-attached gift to the historically Black college will support scholarships and other initiatives.
Last week, PennDot outlined its updated plans for the busy intersection at Old Baltimore Pike and Newark Road in New Garden Township, a project that is expected to cost upward of $11 million and has already been pushed from its original timeline. In 2022, the agency projected work would get underway in 2025, but plans now call for the three-phase project to begin in 2028 and is expected to take several years to complete. (Daily Local)
South CoatesvilleBorough has been awarded a $200,000 grant from the Pennsylvania Department of Community and Economic Development to hire a full-time municipal manager. There’s no timeline yet for when the hiring process will begin.
After 45 years, Brandywine Conservancy announced last week that 2026 will be its last year as the sole operator and beneficiary of the Radnor Hunt Races. The popular Malvern steeplechase event is looking for a new operator going forward. The 2026 races will take place May 16.
Still in search of a fresh-cut Christmas tree? Wiggins Farm, which has locations in Cochranville and West Chester, is one of a number of area farms offering delivery this year. The service runs about $50 near West Chester and jumps to $75 for deliveries more than 30 minutes away.
Residents in West Bradford Township are expressing concern over skyrocketing sewer bills after being switched to a metered rate for running water rather than the previous flat rate. The change doesn’t differentiate between interior and exterior water use, causing some residents to say they’re now being charged for a service that isn’t being provided. (CBS News Philadelphia)
NBC10 recently profiled The Barn at Spring Brook Farm in West Chester, a nonprofit that connects children and teens with disabilities to nature- and animal-based programming. The organization launched in 2005 and served 477 children last year alone. See the segment here.
Gadaleto’s Seafood Market in West Chester will continue providing family meals for free to those in need throughout the holiday season. (6abc)
Santa is making a stop in Spring City and East Vincent Township this weekend. At 11 a.m. on Sunday, Santa, Mrs. Claus, and Rudolph will hop aboard one of Liberty Fire Company’s trucks and travel around town.
🏫 Schools Briefing
New student registration for kindergarten through 12th grade is now open for the 2026-27 school year at Downingtown Area School District.
Last Friday, several school districts throughout the county held reorganization meetings, swearing in new members as well as voting on leadership. In Tredyffrin/Easttown School District, Sue Tiede was elected president and Kenneth Hong as vice president. In the Unionville-Chadds Ford School District, the board reelected Victoria Baratta and Erin Talbert as president and vice president, respectively. And Avon Grove School District’sboard reelected Dorothy Linn as president, and elected Ruchira Singh as vice president.
Some local high school football players have signed on to play college ball. Last week, Malvern Prep edge rusher Jackson Ford committed to playing with Penn State next year. Fellow Prep teammates Max Mohring, a linebacker, will head to Northwestern University, and running back Ezekiel Bates will play for Minnesota. Kennett Square kicker Shay Barker is headed to Syracuse University and West Chester East offensive tackle Tyler Duell is off to Rutgers.
🍽️ On our Plate
The former Lotus Inn in Berwyn has gotten new life. Karthic Venkatachalam and Gopal Dhandpani of Nalal Indian Cuisine in Downingtown and Adyar Cafe in Exton opened Vibe Haus Indian Plates & Taps there last week. The restaurant, at 402 Swedesford Rd., features Indian-meets-American pub food, with plans to add a brewery in the coming months.
Our Deli Café expanded to its second location on Monday, opening at 498 Nutt Rd. in Phoenixville. The Paoli-based eatery serves breakfast, lunch, and dinner, including staples like burgers, sandwiches, wraps, and milkshakes.
After nearly two years in business, Bookstore Bakery in West Chester has announced it will close at the end of the year. Located at 145 W. Gay St., the shop was known for its selection of both books and baked goods, including customized cakes.
🎳 Things to Do
🎁 There are more holiday markets and events taking place this weekend, including the Downingtown Good Neighbor Christmas Parade on Saturday. That same day, Christkindlmarkt takes over part of Gay Street in West Chester, and on Sunday, shoppers can browse vendors at the Berwyn Holiday Market at Bronze Plaza. On Saturday and Sunday, the Kennett SquareHoliday Village Market returns for its second weekend at The Creamery, while in Phoenixville, Fitzwater Station’s Christmas Villagecontinues. On Sunday evening, Congregation B’nai Jacob in Phoenixville will host its Hanukkah Celebration with a menorah lighting, jelly donuts, and games of dreidel.
Here’s what else is happening around Chester County:
🎭Anastasia:It’s the final weekend to catch SALT Performing Arts’ stage performance of the lost Romanov. ⏰ Saturday, Dec. 13 and Sunday, Dec. 14, times vary 💵 $31.60-$36.70 📍 SALT Performing Arts, Chester Springs
🏡Home Alone: Catch a screening of the beloved holiday classic, which celebrates its 35th anniversary this year. ⏰ Saturday, Dec. 13, 12:15, 4:30 and 7 p.m. 💵 $10-$15 📍 The Colonial Theatre, Phoenixville
🐦🔥 Phoenixville Firebird Festival: Now in its 22nd year, the festival inspired by ancient mythology and the symbols of resurrection and renewal returns to Phoenixville, where a 20-foot phoenix will be burned. There will also be a Festival Village. ⏰ Saturday, Dec. 13, 4 p.m. 💵 Pay as you go 📍 Reservoir Park, Phoenixville
Part of the family room’s ceiling reaches two stories, while another part has a stone fireplace.
Located just outside the borough, this West Goshen Township home recently underwent a full update, with over $560,000 in improvements. The sprawling home features an office, dining and living rooms, and an open-concept kitchen on the first floor. A sunny family room, part of which spans two stories, features a stone fireplace. There are four bedrooms upstairs, including a primary suite with two vanities, a soaking tub, and dressing area with a wardrobe and separate walk-in closets. Other features include a finished walk-out basement and a new deck overlooking the pool.
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This suburban content is produced with support from the Leslie Miller and Richard Worley Foundation and The Lenfest Institute for Journalism. Editorial content is created independently of the project donors. Gifts to support The Inquirer’s high-impact journalism can be made at inquirer.com/donate. A list of Lenfest Institute donors can be found at lenfestinstitute.org/supporters.
