WASHINGTON — House Republicans advanced a resolution Wednesday to hold former President Bill Clinton and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in contempt of Congress over the Jeffrey Epstein investigation, opening the prospect of the House using one of its most powerful punishments against a former president for the first time.
The Republican-controlled House Oversight Committee approved the contempt of Congress charges, setting up a potential vote in the House. It was an initial step toward a criminal prosecution by the Department of Justice that, if successful, could send the Clintons to prison in a dispute over compelling them to testify before the House Oversight Committee.
Rep. James Comer, the chairman, said at the start of the committee’s hearing that Clintons had responded not with “cooperation but defiance.”
“Subpoenas are not mere suggestions, they carry the force of law and require compliance,” said Comer (R., Ky.).
The Clintons argue that the subpoenas are invalid. Bill Clinton, President Donald Trump and many others connected to Epstein have not been accused of wrongdoing. Yet lawmakers are wrestling over who receives the most scrutiny.
Nonetheless, there were signs of a potential thaw as the Clintons, both Democrats, appeared to be searching for an off-ramp to testify. In addition, passage of contempt charges through the full House was far from guaranteed, requiring a majority vote — something Republicans increasingly struggle to achieve.
The repercussions of contempt charges loomed large, given the possibility of a substantial fine and even incarceration.
While the charges have historically been used only as a last resort, lawmakers in recent years have been more willing to reach for the option. Comer initiated the contempt proceedings after the Clintons refused for months to fulfill a committee subpoena for their testimony in its Epstein investigation.
The clash was the latest turn in the Epstein saga as Congress investigates how he was able to sexually abuse dozens of teenage girls for years. Epstein killed himself in 2019 in a New York jail cell while awaiting trial. The public release of case files has shown details of the connections between Epstein and both Bill Clinton and Trump, among many other high-powered men.
Comer rejected an offer Tuesday from a lawyer for the Clintons to have Comer and the top Democrat on the committee, Rep. Robert Garcia of California, interview Bill Clinton in New York, along with staff.
How the Clintons have responded
The Clintons released a letter last week criticizing Comer for seeking their testimony at a time when the Justice Department is running a month behind a congressionally mandated deadline to release its complete case files on Epstein.
Behind the scenes, however, longtime Clinton lawyer David Kendall has tried to negotiate an agreement. Kendall raised the prospect of having the Clintons testify on Christmas and Christmas Eve, according to the committee’s account of the negotiations.
The Clintons, who contend the subpoenas are invalid because they do not serve any legislative purpose, also say they did not know about Epstein’s abuse. They have offered the committee written declarations about their interactions with Epstein.
“We have tried to give you the little information we have. We’ve done so because Mr. Epstein’s crimes were horrific,” the Clintons wrote Comer last week.
How contempt proceedings have been used
Contempt of Congress proceedings are rare, used when lawmakers are trying to force testimony for high-profile investigations, such as the infamous inquiry during the 1940s into alleged Communist sympathizers in Hollywood or the impeachment proceedings of President Richard Nixon.
Most recently, Trump’s advisers Peter Navarro and Steve Bannon were convicted of contempt charges for defying subpoenas from a House panel investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, riot by a mob of the Republican president’s supporters at the Capitol. Both Navarro and Bannon spent months in prison.
The Jan. 6 committee also subpoenaed Trump in its inquiry. Trump’s lawyers resisted the subpoena, citing decades of legal precedent they said shielded ex-presidents from being ordered to appear before Congress. The committee ultimately withdrew its subpoena.
No former president has ever been successfully forced to appear before Congress, although some have voluntarily appeared.
The Democrats’ response
Democrats have largely been focused on advancing the investigation into Epstein rather than mounting an all-out defense of the Clintons, who led their party for decades. They have said Bill Clinton should inform the committee if he has any pertinent information about Epstein’s abuses.
A wealthy financier, Epstein donated to Bill Clinton’s 1992 presidential campaign and Hillary Clinton’s joint fundraising committee ahead of her 2000 Senate campaign in New York.
“No president or former president is above the law,” Garcia said at the committee hearing.
Democrats spent the hearing criticizing Comer for focusing on the Clintons when the Justice Department is behind schedule on releasing the Epstein files. Comer has also allowed several former attorneys general to provide the committee with written statements attesting to their limited knowledge of the case.
The committee had also subpoenaed Ghislaine Maxwell, Epstein’s longtime confidant who is serving a lengthy prison sentence for a conviction on sex trafficking charges.
“It’s interesting that it’s this subpoena only that Republicans and the chairman have been obsessed about putting all their energy behind,” Garcia said.
Comer said the committee will interview Maxwell next month. Attorney General Pam Bondi will also appear before the House Judiciary Committee in February.
Democrats embraced the call for full transparency on Epstein after Trump’s return to the White House, particularly after Bondi stumbled on her promise to release the entirety of the unredacted Epstein files to the public. The backlash scrambled traditional ideological lines, leading Republicans to side with Democrats demanding further investigation.
The pressure eventually resulted in a bipartisan subpoena from the committee that ordered the Justice Department and Epstein estate to release files related to Epstein. Republicans quickly moved to include the Clintons in the subpoena.
Comer has indicated that he will insist that the subpoena be fulfilled by nothing less than a transcribed deposition of Bill Clinton.
“You have to have a transcript in an investigation,” he said. “So no transcript, no deal.”
Local law enforcement leaders in Minneapolis and St. Paul are raising concerns about Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents violating U.S. citizens’ civil rights, including those of off-duty police officers, as ICE has surged into Minnesota in recent weeks.
Mark Bruley, police chief of the Minneapolis suburb Brooklyn Park, said at a Tuesdaynews conference that an off-duty police officer had been “boxed … in” by vehicles driven by ICE agents, who demanded with guns drawn to see paperwork proving the officer hada right to be in the United States. “She’s a U.S. citizen, and clearly would not have any paperwork,” he said.
The officer attempted to begin filming the interaction and her phone was knocked out of her hand, Bruley said. When she identified herself as a police officer, the federal agents “immediately left,” he said.
All of the off-duty police officers who had been targeted by ICE in his city were people of color, Bruley said.
Asked about the police chief’s comments, the Department of Homeland Security said Wednesday morning that it had no record of ICE or Border Patrol stopping and questioning a police officer and could not verify the information without a name. The agency added that it would continue to look into the claims.
DHS officials have repeatedly said agents are not racially profiling residents but only asking people in the vicinity of enforcement operations for identification.
“I wish I could tell you that this was an isolated incident,” Bruley said, adding, “if it is happening to our officers, it pains me to think how many of our community members are falling victim to this every day.”
At a news conference in Minneapolis on Tuesday, Border Patrol official Greg Bovino, called the immigration operation “a very professional, prudent and thoughtful law enforcement action.” Bovino is overseeing the federal enforcement effort.
Asked about Bruley’s remarks, Bovino blamed local Democratic leaders, including Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey and Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, for obstructing federal officers by urging the public to report them through emergency calls.
“You have a mayor and a police chief [Brian] O’Hara say, ‘Call 911 when ICE or Border Patrol are in the neighborhood,’ and then you wonder why the 911 system is overwhelmed with superfluous calls for assistance when that is not true,” Bovino said. “We’re going to continue to be out in the community, and we’re going to continue to conduct that mission.”
Dawanna Witt, sheriff of Hennepin County, which includes Minneapolis, said that people were being “stopped, questioned and harassed solely because of the color of their skin” and that the behavior of federal agents was eroding trust in law enforcement.
“We demand lawful policing that respects human dignity,” she said, adding that the surge of ICE agents in Minneapolis was impacting local officers as well as the community. “We will all continue to show up, even though times are hard, even though our law enforcement is exhausted.”
St. Paul Police Chief Axel Henry said that city employees had been subject to “traffic stops that were clearly outside the bounds of what federal agents are allowed to do.”
“We watch the news and we see very, very angry groups of people out protesting, but the people that we’re dealing with as police chiefs are the people that are scared to death, that are afraid to go outside,” he said. Not because their status is in question, but because people“are getting stopped by the way that they look, and they don’t want to take that risk.”
Bruley said the news conference was held to draw attention to the conduct of a “small group” of agents who had been deployed over the past two weeks.
“What you won’t hear from any of us today is rhetoric of ‘abolish ICE’ or that there shouldn’t be immigration enforcement,” Bruley said. “The truth is, immigration enforcement is necessary for national security and for local security, but how it’s done is extremely important.”
Thousands of ICE agents and officers have been deployed to Minnesota as part of Operation Metro Surge, which began in December as what DHS earlier this month said would be the agency’s largest immigration enforcement operation ever.
Minnesota officials filed suit last week challenging the operation’s legality, alleging that “armed and masked DHS agents have stormed the Twin Cities to conduct militarized raids” at sites including schools and hospitals. Earlier this month, Renée Good, a 37-year-old mother of three, was fatally shot in her car by an ICE agent in Minneapolis. A week later, an ICE officer shot an undocumented Venezuelan man in the leg during an arrest.
Former Sunday Night Football sidelines reporter Michele Tafoya announced a Republican bid for Senate on Wednesday to replace retiring Sen. Tina Smith (D., Minn.) with the backing of the Senate Republicans’ campaign arm.
“For too long, hardworking people have been ripped off by criminals, corporations and career politicians,” Tafoya said in a video announcing her candidacy. “And the people doing everything right are the ones paying the biggest price. Well I’m not going to stay on the sidelines any longer.”
Tafoya cited her work as a television reporter in her campaign announcement, saying the job “taught me about how leadership really works. When leaders are prepared and accountable, teams succeed. When they aren’t, people pay the price.”
Besides her time with NBC’s Sunday Night Football, Tafoya also had stints with CBS and ESPN. Since leaving network television, she has been a conservative commentator with her own podcast and appearances on other right-wing media.
Tafoya enters a crowded primary but is backed by the National Republican Senatorial Committee and its chairman, Sen. Tim Scott (R., S.C.).
“From allowing billions of dollars in fraud to vilifying law enforcement, the Walz-Flanagan administration has failed Minnesotans,” Scott posted on social media,referencing the state’s current governor and lieutenant governor.“But change is coming, and Michele Tafoya will lead the way.”
Royce White, a former professional basketball player who challenged Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D., Minn.) in 2024, is also running as a Republican, as are former Minnesota Republican Party Chair David Hann, former Navy SEAL Adam Schwarze, former House candidate Tom Weiler and others.
Tafoya’s announcement made passing reference to the unrest that has gripped the Twin Cities over federal immigration enforcement, noting the “pressure is mounting again” while showing a clip of protesters clashing with law enforcement. She said she would stand with police to combat crime and deport undocumented immigrants,but did not reference the growing tensions between local law enforcement and federal immigration agents.
Tafoyadid not name Renée Good, the 37-year-old woman who was shot and killed by an ICE officer earlier this month. Good’s killing sparked further demonstrations and calls from elected officials for federal immigration efforts to end in the city. The Trump administration defended the ICE officer as acting in self defense. Roughly 3,000 people have been arrested as part of the immigration enforcement operation — the largest in the country.
In the video, Tafoya also took jabs at the state’s Democratic leaders, including Gov. Tim Walz over the state’s multiyear welfare fraud that has become a national scandal. Scammers stole at least hundreds of millions of dollars in government funding for social safety net programs under Walz’s governorship, according to prosecutors. The scandal has damaged Walz’s image in the state, just over a year after he was vaulted into the national spotlight as then-Vice President Kamala Harris’s running mate. Republicans assert their downballot candidates will also be able to capitalize on the fraud scandal.
Tafoya also cited keeping trans athletes out of women’s sports and lowering costs for middle-class families as her policy priorities. Her affordability message focused on reducing taxes and bolstering manufacturing.
In what is expected to be a contentious Democratic Senate primary, Rep. Angie Craig is facing off against Lt. Gov. Peggy Flanagan.
Klobuchar, who holds Minnesota’s other Senate seat, is considering running for governor in the wake of Walz’s retirement announcement this month. That would leave both of the state’s Senate seats up for grabs.
Minnesota’s Democratic Farmer Labor Party has historically had a solid hold on the state. Minnesotahas not elected a Republican to the Senate since 2002 or a Republican to the White House since 1976.
But in 2024 President Donald Trump outperformed every GOPpresidential candidate since George W. Bush in 2004 and came within five percentage points of Harris, the Democratic nominee.
Republicans also have a narrow majority in the state House and are one seat away from a majority in the state Senate. Half of the state’s delegation to the U.S. House is Republican, including House Majority Whip Tom Emmer.
CAIRO — Israeli forces on Wednesday killed at least 11 Palestinians in Gaza, including two 13-year-old boys, three journalists and a woman, hospitals in the war-battered enclave said.
It was one of the deadliest days in Gaza since the ceasefire between Hamas and Israel took effect in October and comes at a time when the U.S. is trying to push the deal forward and implement its challenging second phase.
Among the dead were three Palestinian journalists who were killed while filming near a displacement camp in central Gaza, a camp official said. The Israeli military said the strike came after it spotted suspects who were operating a drone that posed a threat to its troops.
The two boys were killed in separate incidents. In one strike, a 13-year-old, his father, and a 22-year old man were hit by Israeli drones on the eastern side of the central Bureij refugee camp, according to officials from Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in the central town of Deir al-Balah, which received the bodies.
The other 13-year-old who died was shot by troops in the eastern town of Bani Suheila, the Nasser hospital said after receiving the body. In a video circulated online, the father of Moatsem al-Sharafy is seen weeping over his body on a hospital bed.
The boy’s mother, Safaa al-Sharafy, told The Associated Press that he left to gather firewood so she could cook.
“He went out in the morning, hungry,” she said, tears running down her cheeks. “He told me he’d go quickly and come back.”
Later Wednesday, an Israeli strike hit a vehicle carrying the three Palestinian journalists who were filming a newly established displacement camp managed by an Egyptian government committee, said Mohammed Mansour, the committee’s spokesperson.
Mansour said the journalists were documenting the committee’s work at the camp in the Netzarim area in central Gaza. He said the strike occurred about 3 miles from the Israeli-controlled area.
He said the vehicle was known to the Israeli military as belonging to the Egyptian committee. Video footage showed the charred, bombed-out vehicle by the roadside, smoke still rising from the wreckage.
One of the journalists killed, Abdul Raouf Shaat, was a regular contributor to Agence France-Presse, but he was not on assignment for the news agency at the time of the strike, it said.
“Abdul was much loved by the AFP team covering Gaza. They remember him as a kind-hearted colleague,” the news agency said in a statement that called him a “deeply committed journalist” and demanded a full investigation into his death.
According to the Committee to Protect Journalists, more than 200 Palestinian journalists and media workers have been killed in Gaza since the war began in 2023, including visual journalist Mariam Dagga, who worked for the AP and other news organizations.
Nearly five months after the strikes on a hospital that killed Dagga and four other journalists, the Israeli military says it is continuing to investigate.
Aside from rare guided tours, Israel has barred international journalists from covering the war. News organizations rely largely on Palestinian journalists in Gaza — as well as residents — to show what is happening.
Nasser Hospital officials also said Wednesday they received the body of a Palestinian woman shot by Israeli troops in the Muwasi area of the southern city of Khan Younis, which is not controlled by the military.
In a separate attack, three brothers were killed in a tank shelling in the Bureij camp, according to Al-Aqsa Martyrs hospital, where the bodies were taken.
More than 470 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli fire, according to the strip’s health ministry. At least 77 have been killed by Israeli gunfire near a ceasefire line that splits the territory between Israeli-held areas and most of Gaza’s Palestinian population, the ministry says.
The ministry, which is part of the Hamas-led government, maintains detailed casualty records that are seen as generally reliable by U.N. agencies and independent experts.
A mother’s plea
The first phase of the October ceasefire that paused two years of war between Israel and Hamas militants focused on the return of all remaining hostages in exchange for the release of hundreds of Palestinian detainees and a partial withdrawal of Israeli forces in Gaza.
The bodies of all but one hostage have been returned to Israel. Ran Gvili, a 24-year-old police officer known as Rani, was killed while fighting Hamas militants during the Oct. 7, 2023, attack that started the war. His relatives on Wednesday called again on the government and U.S. President Donald Trump to ensure the release of his remains.
“We need to continue to amplify Rani’s voice, explain about him, talk about him, and explain to the world that we, the people of Israel, will not give up on anyone,” his mother, Talik Gvili, said. She told the AP the family still doesn’t “really know where he is.”
Hamas said Wednesday it has provided “all information” it has on Gvili’s body to the ceasefire mediators, and accused Israel of obstructing search efforts in areas it controls in the Gaza Strip.
The ceasefire also allowed a surge in humanitarian aid into Gaza, mainly food. But residents say shortages of blankets and warm clothes remain, and there is little wood for fires. There’s been no central electricity in Gaza since the first few days of the war.
More than 100 children have died since the start of the ceasefire — including two infants who died from hypothermia in recent days.
Israel targets more sites in Lebanon
Israel’s air force carried out strikes Wednesday on sites in three villages in southern Lebanon that it said were part of the militant Hezbollah group’s infrastructure, including weapons storage facilities.
The strikes came after the Israeli military issued warnings to evacuate the areas, including in the southern village of Qennarit, just south of the port city of Sidon.
Drone strikes also hit cars in the villages of Bazouriyeh and Zahrani, killing two people, according to state-run National News Agency.
The strikes were the latest in near-daily Israeli military action since a ceasefire more than a year ago ended the 14-month Israel-Hezbollah war. The agreement included a Lebanese pledge to disarm militant groups, which Israel says has not been fulfilled.
DAVOS, Switzerland — President Donald Trump insisted Wednesday that he wants to “get Greenland, including right, title and ownership,” but said he would not use force to do so while repeatedly deriding European allies and vowing that NATO should not try to block U.S. expansionism.
In an extraordinary speech at the World Economic Forum, the president said he was asking for territory that was “cold and poorly located.” He said the U.S. had effectively saved Europe during World War II and even declared of NATO: “It’s a very small ask compared to what we have given them for many, many decades.”
The implications of his remarks were nonetheless enormous, potentially rupturing an alliance that has held firm since the dawn of the Cold War and seemed among the globe’s most unshakable pacts.
NATO was founded by leading European nations, the U.S. and Canada. Its other members have been steadfast in saying Greenland is not for sale and cannot be wrested from Denmark. That means the Davos meeting could be just the beginning of a larger standoff that may eventually reshape geopolitics worldwide.
A Danish government official told The Associated Press after Trump’s speech that Copenhagen is ready to discuss U.S. security concerns in the Arctic. But the official, who was not authorized to comment publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity, underscored the government’s position that “red lines”— namely Denmark’s sovereignty — must be respected.
Trump urged Denmark and the rest of NATO to stand aside, adding an ominous warning.
“We want a piece of ice for world protection, and they won’t give it,” Trump said. “You can say yes, and we will be very appreciative. Or you can say no, and we will remember.”
Despite that, he also acknowledged: “We probably won’t get anything unless I decide to use excessive strength and force where we would be frankly unstoppable. But I won’t do that, OK?”
“I don’t have to use force,” he said. “I don’t want to use force. I won’t use force.”
Instead, he called for opening “immediate negotiations” for the U.S. to acquire Greenland.
“This enormous unsecured island is actually part of North America,” Trump said. “That’s our territory.”
Trump suggests Europe is fizzling while U.S. booms
The president has spent weeks saying that the U.S. will get control of Greenland no matter what it takes, arguing that Washington should be in charge there to counter threats in the surrounding Arctic sea by Russia and China. His Davos remarks articulated what that push for control might entail more clearly than before, however.
Danish Foreign Minister Lars Løkke Rasmussen said he was encouraged by Trump’s comment about not using U.S. military force but called other parts of the speech “a way of thinking about territorial integrity that does not match the institutions we have.”
“Greenland is part of NATO. Denmark is part of NATO, and we can exercise our sovereignty in Greenland,” Løkke Rasmussen said.
In his remarks, Trump also argued that the U.S. is booming and its economy is strong, in sharp contrast to Europe.
“I want to see Europe go good, but it’s not heading in the right direction,” said Trump, who also noted, “We want strong allies, not seriously weakened ones.” He said of European economies, “You all follow us down, and you follow us up.”
Trump turned the Davos gathering upside-down even before he got there.
His arrival was delayed after a minor electrical problem on Air Force One forced a return to Washington to switch aircraft. As Trump’s motorcade headed down a narrow road to the speech site, onlookers — including some skiers — lined the route. Some made obscene gestures, and one held up a paper cursing the president.
Billionaires and top executives nonetheless sought seats inside the forum’s Congress Hall, which had a capacity of around 1,000, for Trump’s keynote address. When he began, it was standing room only. Attendees used headsets to listen in six languages besides English, and the reaction was mostly polite applause.
More than 60 other heads of state are attending the forum. After the speech, Trump met with the leaders of Poland, Belgium and Egypt and again repeated that the U.S. would not be invading Greenland.
“Military is not on the table. I don’t think it will be necessary,” Trump said, suggesting that the parties involved would use better judgment.
Trump said the tariffs would start at 10% next month and climb to 25% in June.
The president in a text message that circulated among European officials this week linked his aggressive stance on Greenland to last year’s decision not to award him the Nobel Peace Prize. In the message, he told Norway’s prime minister, Jonas Gahr Støre, that he no longer felt “an obligation to think purely of Peace.”
Even before his speech, Trump’s Greenland ambitions were rankling Europe.
British Prime Minister Keir Starmer vowed during his weekly questioning in the House of Commons, “Britain will not yield on our principles and values about the future of Greenland under threats of tariffs, and that is my clear position.”
French President Emmanuel Macron, in his address to the forum, urged rejecting acceptance of “the law of the strongest.” European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen warned that should Trump move forward with the tariffs, the bloc’s response “will be unflinching, united and proportional.”
The U.S. stock market, meanwhile, recovered on Wednesday from its worst day since October, as Trump’s talk of Greenland-related tariffs spooked investors.
Trump’s housing plan overshadowed
The White House had insisted Trump would focus his Davos address on how to lower housing prices in the U.S. That was part of a larger effort to bring down the cost of living, which continues to rise and threatens to become a major liability for the White House and Republicans ahead of November’s midterm elections.
Greenland instead carried the day, with Trump lashing at Denmark for being “ungrateful” for the U.S. protection of the Arctic island during the World War II. He also mistakenly referred to Iceland, mixing up that country with Greenland four times during his speech and for the fifth time since Tuesday.
When he finally did mention housing in his speech, Trump suggested he did not support a measure to encourage affordability. He said bringing down rising home prices hurts property values and makes homeowners who once felt wealthy because of the equity in their houses feel poorer.
Meanwhile, experts and economists are warning that Trump’s Greenland tariff threat could disrupt the U.S. economy if it blows up the trade truce reached last summer between the U.S. and the EU.
Promoting the ‘Board of Peace’
On Thursday, Trump plans to attend an event focused on the “Board of Peace,” meant to oversee a U.S.-brokered ceasefire in the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza. It could possibly take on a broader mandate, potentially rivaling the United Nations. Some European nations have so far been non-committal about participating.
“You know, the United Nations should be doing this,” Trump said Wednesday of his efforts to halt the fighting in Gaza and other conflicts around the world.
In early January, a giant sinkhole formed at an intersection in the West Oak Lane neighborhood of North Philadelphia after a water main break. Just two weeks earlier, the city reopened a section of the Schuylkill River Trail in Center City that had been shut down for two months due to a sinkhole. Last summer, some residents of Point Breeze in South Philly also waited two months for a sinkhole on their block to be repaired.
Laura Toran is a hydrogeologist and professor emeritus of environmental geology at Temple University. The Conversation U.S. asked her what causes sinkholes, whether Philly is particularly prone to them, and why repairs can take so long.
What are sinkholes and how do they happen?
A sinkhole is a hole that opens up in the ground due to some change in the subsurface.
There are two categories of change that create sinkholes. One type is associated with carbonate rock. This is a type of rock that can develop caves because the rock dissolves when underground water is even slightly acidic. When the bridge over one of these caves collapses, a sinkhole occurs.
The second type is associated with water supply or sewage pipes buried underground. The sediment next to the pipes can erode or wash away when there is a leak in the pipes. That leaves a gap, and if the collapse at the surface becomes big enough, it becomes a sinkhole.
What do we know about the sinkholes in West Oak Lane and on the Schuylkill River Trail?
West Oak Lane experienced two recent water main breaks. Debris from the flowing water made it hard to get to the leak.
Fixing a big leak is a complex job. You have to stop the leak, clear out the debris, get the parts for repair, do the pipe repair, then repair the road. This example also shows that repair teams need to look around to see whether other sections of pipe might be aging and repair them while they have a hole opened up, so you don’t want to rush the job.
The sinkhole on the Schuylkill River Trail late last year, which took two months to fix, was also the result of a pipe leak. The water department had to get involved in the repair, alongside the parks and recreation department. I should point out that the city has a limited budget for pipe repair. As one of the oldest cities in the country, Philadelphia has a lot of work to keep up with.
That said, I would rather try to fix a pipe leak than a carbonate rock sinkhole. With the cavities in carbonate rock, you don’t really know how big they are, and a typical solution is to fill them with concrete. Sometimes you have a much bigger cavity than your supply of concrete.
Is Philly prone to sinkholes?
The Philadelphia region has both types of sinkholes. Within the city, there isn’t carbonate rock present, but just outside the city, such as the King of Prussia area, we see carbonate rock that is subject to sinkholes.
The sinkholes that occur in Philly are where pipes leak and the surrounding soil gets washed away. Because we have the right geology for sinkholes in our region and we have an extensive water network that is aging, sinkholes are somewhat common.
Can nearby residents know when a sinkhole is forming?
We have a map of carbonate rock in the state, but not all carbonate rock develops sinkholes. Where and when in the carbonate rock a sinkhole is likely to develop is unpredictable.
Sinkholes in Philadelphia tend to also be unpredictable because the driving factor is happening underground and out of sight. We don’t know when a pipe leak is going to occur. Sometimes there is a sagging at the surface before a bigger hole opens up. Sometimes we see the leak before the sinkhole occurs. But not all leaks or sagging ground will lead to a sinkhole, and there won’t necessarily be any warning.
That said, it is important to report leaks and sagging ground so that they can be investigated before getting worse. Report leaks to the Philadelphia Water Department by calling their emergency hotline at 215-685-6300.
If we could replace all the aging infrastructure in the city, we would have fewer sinkholes. However, that would be costly and disruptive, so it really isn’t practical. In the meantime, the city just has to fix new sinkholes as they occur.
Laura Toran is a hydrogeologist and professor emeritus of environmental geology at Temple University.
This article is republished from The Conversation. Read the original article here.
Yvonne St Cyr strained her body against police barricades, crawled through a broken Senate window, and yelled “push, push, push” to fellow rioters in a tunnellike hallway where police officers suffered concussions and broken bones.
She insisted she did nothing wrong. A federal judge sentenced her to 30 months in prison and imposed $2,270 in financial penalties for her actions at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, declaring: “You have little or no respect for the law, little or no respect for our democratic systems.”
St Cyr served only half her sentence before President Donald Trump’s January 2025 pardon set her and almost 1,600 others free.
But her story doesn’t end there. St Cyr headed back to court, seeking a refund of the $2,270. “It’s my money,” the Marine Corps veteran from Idaho said in an interview with the Washington Post. “They took my money.” In August, the same judge who sentenced her reluctantly agreed, pointing to a legal quirk in her case.
“Sometimes a judge is called upon to do what the law requires, even if it may seem at odds with what justice or one’s initial instincts might warrant. This is one such occasion,” U.S. District Judge John D. Bates wrote in an opinion authorizing the first refund to a Jan. 6 defendant.
The ruling revealed an overlooked consequence of Trump’s pardon for some Jan. 6 offenders: Not only did it free them from prison but it emboldened them to demand payback from the government.
At least eight Jan. 6 defendants are pursuing refunds of the financial penalties paid as part of their sentences, according to a Post review of court records; judges agreed that St Cyr and a Maryland couple should be reimbursed, while five more are appealing denials. (St Cyr and the couple are still waiting to receive their payments, however.) Others are filing lawsuits against the government seeking millions of dollars, alleging politically tainted prosecutions and violations of their constitutional rights. Hundreds more have filed claims accusing the Justice Department, the FBI and other law enforcement agencies of inflicting property damage and personal injuries, according to their lawyer.
People walk from the Ellipse to the Capitol Building in Washington, D.C., last Jan. 6, the fifth anniversary of the Capitol attack.
The efforts are the latest chapter in an extraordinary rewriting of history by the president and his allies to bury the facts of what happened at the Capitol, sustain the false claim thatthe 2020 election was rigged, and recast the Jan. 6 offenders as victims entitled to taxpayer-funded compensation.
“Donald Trump and the DOJ want taxpayers to reimburse a violent mob for the destruction of the U.S. Capitol. The Jan. 6 nightmare continues,” said Rep. Joe Morelle (D., N.Y.), the top Democrat on the House Administration Committee, which oversees the Capitol’s security and operations.
The pro-Trump mob that ransacked the Capitol caused almost $3 million in damage, according to a 2022 estimate by the Justice Department. The losses included smashed doors and windows, defaced artwork, damaged furniture, and residue from gas agents and fire extinguishers.Defendants were sentenced to more than $1.2 million in restitution and fines, according to a tally by the Post.
But the government recovered less than $665,000 of those court-ordered payments, according to a source with firsthand knowledge who spoke on the condition of anonymity because of fear of retaliation. Sen. Alex Padilla (D., Calif.) and Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D., R.I.) are pushing legislation — backed by some law enforcement officers who defended the Capitol on Jan. 6 — to block government payouts to rioters. Without any Republican cosponsors, the legislation is not expected to proceed.
“The audacity of them to think they didn’t do anything, or to think that they’re right and then get their money back,” said former Capitol police officer Harry Dunn, who attended the sentencing of St Cyr and other Jan. 6 offenders. “It’s frustrating and it should not happen. They should have to pay more.”
‘It’s a principle thing’
Stacy Hager, a 62-year-old former warehouse supervisor, made his first trip to Washington, D.C., for the Jan. 6 rally. The lifelong Texan wasn’t that interested in politics before, but he was certain that Donald Trump was the rightful winner of the 2020 election.
Wearing a Trump hat and waving the Texas flag, Hager took photos and videos of himself roaming through the Capitol. He was convicted on four misdemeanor charges related to disorderly conduct and trespassing; he paid $570 in penalties and served seven months in prison, a punishment he describes as totally unjust and “a living hell.”
Hager still believes, fervently, that fraud marred the 2020 vote and that Trump won, though no new evidence has surfaced to contradict the findings of Justice Department officials, cybersecurity experts, and dozens of judges appointed by Democrats and Republicans alike.
Hager spent seven months in prison for his role in the Jan. 6, 2021, attack. Now that he has been pardoned, he is seeking a refund of the $570 in court-ordered penalties he paid.
“You tell me why I shouldn’t be entitled to getting my money back,” Hager said. “The government took money from me for doing the right thing, for standing up for the people’s vote. That’s the reason we were there — for a free and fair election.”
About one month after Trump’s pardon in January 2025, Hager was the first of the Jan. 6 defendants to ask for his money back, court records show. “It’s a principle thing,” Hager said. Among the other defendants seeking refunds: A Utah man who forfeited almost $63,000he made from selling videos recording some of the worst violence at the Capitol. A Georgia teenager who paid $2,200 in fines after heshoved a police officer and sat in Vice President Mike Pence’s chair in the Senate chamber.
While the charges and punishments vary, the defendants seeking refunds share one legal quirk: All of them were appealing their convictions when Trump pardoned them on Jan. 20, 2025. After the pardon, courts vacated their convictions and dismissed their indictments following requests from federal prosecutors, as the Justice Department that once prosecuted the Jan. 6 defendants now takes their side.
It’s routine for a criminal defendant who has paid financial penalties to get the money back if the conviction is vacated and the case is dismissed. But the attack halting the peaceful transfer of power for the first time in American history pushed the criminal justice system into uncharted territory.
And now, the legal debate over whether certain Jan. 6 defendants should receive refunds is forcing courts to weigh two obscure Supreme Court decisions — 140 years apart — involving a pardoned Confederate sympathizer and a woman convicted but later acquitted of sexually assaulting her children.
Judges who have denied refunds have all referenceda case brought by John Knote, whose West Virginia property was confiscated and sold for $11,000 under a law empowering the Union to seize Confederate property. Citing President Andrew Johnson’s pardon of former Confederates on Christmas Day 1868, Knote asked the court to reimburse him $11,000. The Supreme Court ruled in 1877 that money deposited in the U.S. treasury could not be returned without an act of Congress.
People walk from the Ellipse to the Capitol Building in Washington, D.C., last Jan. 6, the fifth anniversary of the Capitol attack. The pro-Trump mob that ransacked the Capitol caused almost $3 million in damage, according to a 2022 estimate by the Justice Department.
Jan. 6 defendants, however, are looking to a much more recent Supreme Court opinion — written by liberal icon Ruth Bader Ginsburg — to bolster their argument that the government owes them money. In that 2017 case, Colorado resident Shannon Nelson paid about $700 in penalties before her sexual assault conviction was overturned on appeal. At a later trial, she was acquitted of the alleged crimes against her children. The high court said Nelson was now “presumed innocent” and entitled to a refund.
In approving St Cyr’s request for reimbursement, Bates referred to the Nelson case 39 times. The other D.C. District Court judge who has ruled in favor of refunds for Jan. 6 defendants, Chief Judge James E. Boasberg, also cited the Nelson case in December. “When a conviction is vacated, the Government must return any payments exacted because of it,” he wrote.
Hager returned to Washington this month to gather with other Trump supporters to mark the fifth anniversary. He and other Jan. 6 defendants stay in close touch online.
“We’re like a family,” Hager said, wearing a weathered baseball cap celebrating America’s 250th birthday and a T-shirt proclaiming his love for Jesus Christ. “We have a great bond, the kind that political persecution forms.”
Had gun, would travel
Andrew Taake’s journey through the criminal justice system illustrates one of the most dramatic twists in a Jan. 6 case. He attacked police officers with bear spray and a “whiplike weapon,” according to a plea agreement he signed in 2023. Now he is suing the federal government for $2.5 million, claiming his civil rights were violated by a wrongful prosecution and mistreatment in prison.
Taake was on pretrial release on a pending charge of online solicitation of a minor when he traveled from Houston to Washington, D.C., in January 2021. He attended the “Stop the Steal” rally headlined by Trump and was among the first to breach the restricted area around the Capitol. One of the police officers who said Taake assaulted him with bear spray, Nathan Tate, filed a statement in court that said the experience left “a lifelong scar.”
“He came to the Capitol with multiple weapons,” Tate wrote. “He was not there for peaceful protest. He was there to be violent. He should not be allowed to claim victimhood today.”
Taake pleaded guilty to one count of assaulting, resisting or impeding law enforcement officers using a dangerous weapon. He was sentenced in 2024 to 74 months in prison.
His prison time was cut short by Trump’s pardon. Two weeks later, he was taken into custody by Houston-area law enforcement on the 2016 child solicitation charge. He pleaded guilty to a second-degree felony, was sentenced to three years in prison and was ordered to register as a sex offender.
But because Taake had already served more than three years in the Jan. 6 case, he got credit for time served and did not return to prison, records show. In September, he filed a lawsuit against the federal government that tells a very different story than the plea deal.
In the suit filed in D.C. District Court, Taake claims he used the bear spray to protect a fellow protester and that another officer disfigured his hand by stomping on it. He accuses prosecutors of using false evidence and manipulating him into the plea deal. In prison, he said he was mistreated by medical staff and assaulted by other inmates. “He should be compensated for his pain and suffering because it doesn’t get much worse than that,” said Taake’s lawyer, Peter Ticktin, a longtime Trump ally.
Tate, who now who works as a social studies teacher in La Plata, Md., was shocked to hear about Taake’s lawsuit. “He can say my allegations are false but it’s documented, you can literally see what took place,” he said. “It was real for me.”
In the most far-reaching effort on behalf of Jan. 6 offenders, Missouri lawyer Mark McCloskey is trying to build support for a government-backed compensation panel, similar to the fund that has distributed billions of dollars to families of victims in the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. McCloskey attracted national attention in 2020 when he and his wife pointed guns at Black Lives Matter protesters marching past their home; they pleaded guilty to firearms charges but were pardoned by the Missouri governor.
McCloskey said he has advocated for the Jan. 6 fund in four meetings with Justice Department officials, including Ed Martin, the director of a unit tasked with investigating Trump’s political opponents.
Martin, who helped plan and finance Trump’s rally that preceded the rampage through the Capitol, has said publicly that he supports “reparations” for Jan. 6 defendants.
Trump also has expressed support for government payouts. Asked about compensating Jan. 6 offenders in a March 2025 Newsmax interview, Trump said, “Well, there’s talk about that. … A lot of the people in government really like that group of people. They were patriots as far as I was concerned.”
But McCloskey is still waiting for the Justice Department to act. “We have had all positive responses but until President Trump pulls the trigger, it isn’t going to happen,” McCloskey said. “The president needs to take a position on it.”
In December, McCloskey sought to build momentum by posting a photo of himself on social media that he said showed him delivering claims to federal law enforcement agencies from about 400 Jan. 6 clients. The property damage and personal injury claims — a prerequisite to filing lawsuits against the government under the Federal Tort Claims Act — describe homes ransacked during arrests, lost jobs, and broken families, McCloskey said.
The White House and the Justice Department declined to comment on McCloskey’s efforts.
Another Jan. 6-related lawsuit against the federal government comes from several leaders of the Proud Boys who were found guilty of engaging in a seditious conspiracy to keep Trump in power despite his electoral defeat. The suit seeking $100 million, filed in federal court in Florida last year, echoes Trump’s claims that the investigation into the Jan. 6 attack was illegitimate and politically motivated.
Former Proud Boys leader Henry “Enrique” Tarrio speaks at the Jan. 6 anniversary rally this month.
The lead plaintiff, Henry “Enrique” Tarrio, called for charges against Jan. 6 prosecutors when he addressed the gathering in Washington, D.C., to mark the fifth anniversary this month. “The thing I am searching for,” Tarrio said, “is retribution, retaliation.”
Since Trump returned to office one year ago, many Jan. 6 prosecutors have been fired or resigned. Hager’s prosecutor, Adam Dreher, was demoted to Superior Court last year, he said, in retaliation for his work on Jan. 6 cases. He left the department a few months ago to return to his home state of Michigan and practice law. The Justice Department declined to comment on Dreher’s record.
Dreher was an administrative law judge in Detroit on Jan. 6, 2021. The riot at the Capitol inspired him to come to Washington as a federal prosecutor, he said, just as years earlier, the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attack moved him to join the military.
“It made me want to be part of trying to help things get back to normal, to hold people accountable and make sure the rule of law was something we could rely on,” he said. “That all we did is being unraveled has been very difficult to watch.”
During a recent CBS News interview, Sen. Dave McCormick — who was appearing with Sen. John Fetterman — drew a sharp distinction between violent language and physical violence, and I found myself in rare agreement with him. After all, that is exactly what happened on Jan. 6, 2021, when Donald Trump and his minions spewed violent language that stoked a mob to attack the U.S. Capitol, where they physically injured law enforcement officers. And, to the extent our dear senator was referring to actions in Minneapolis, I will remind him that the last words Renee Good spoke were, “I’m not mad at you,” which is about as nonviolent a statement as one could utter — but an agent still shot her three times. So, in the case of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, calm words still provoke violence.
Steve Morley, Philadelphia
. . .
I am appalled by comments made by both of Pennsylvania’s U.S. senators, John Fetterman and Dave McCormick, during their recent interview with CBS News.
McCormick complained that protesters were “dehumanizing” U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents by comparing them to Hitler. Fetterman said, “ICE has a job to do, as well,” and that everyone doesn’t have to agree on the tactics.
Both Presidents Barack Obama and Joe Biden deported more people than Donald Trump did in his first term, without the fuss and protests now accompanying the “jobs” of ICE agents, because they did it legally and followed international and U.S. law. Almost all of those deported were recent arrivals or convicted criminals, not people who peacefully made their homes here and contributed positively to their communities.
Trump wants the public to see ICE treating immigrants brutally, and has posted many videos on U.S. Department of Homeland Security websites as a display of what he sees as his unstoppable power — just in case the public was missing the point.
Most Americans want ICE to follow the law, obtain court-issued warrants, stop detaining and beating U.S. citizens caught up in its roundups, and allow immigrants to have the due process the Constitution affords to everyone, citizens and noncitizens alike. We want ICE agents to take off the masks and display their badges. And we want the shootings to stop — and justice for the senseless execution of Renee Nicole Good.
Jodine Mayberry, Brookhaven
. . .
I must respond to something Brian Fitzpatrick said in an interview with Philadelphia Magazine, as reported recently in The Inquirer. Mr. Fitzpatrick is quoted as saying, “[W]e’ve seen the weaponization of the Justice Department now, I believe, in two administrations.” Statements like that are exactly why Fitzpatrick has to go. It is not “weaponization” when egregious behavior is confronted by law enforcement authorities and criminal and civil charges are brought to stop that behavior. Donald Trump was convicted in civil court of sexually abusing a woman. Mr. Trump was convicted of cheating the state of New York out of millions of dollars of tax revenue. We all saw dozens of boxes of United States government documents, many of them highly classified, stored in bathrooms and hallways at Mar-a-Lago, after they were illegally removed by Trump from the White House. And even Sen. Mitch McConnell (R., Ky.) assumed the U.S. Department of Justice would bring charges against Trump in the wake of the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection. At Trump’s second impeachment, McConnell said that, even though Trump could not be impeached, he was “still liable to be tried and punished in ordinary tribunals of justice.”
To imply that Trump or his Jan. 6 insurrectionists were unfairly targeted is a grave misrepresentation of our justice system. The fact that Fitzpatrick cannot — or will not — acknowledge that justice must be done disqualifies him from being a member of the House of Representatives.
Michael Walsh, Elkins Park
Love thy neighbor
The Inquirer recently reported that a Norristown day center serving the city’s homeless population is itself in need of a new home. The day center was forced out of its current location and has been blocked from its new location over residents’ superfluous concerns about “loitering.” The fact that Norristown needs this center says something about our faltering economy, but this particular story says more about the failures of our culture — and each of us individually. The idea that we should “love thy neighbor” goes back to antiquity. Yet, Norristown residents demonstrated active disdain for their less fortunate neighbors by depriving them of much-needed support. Unfortunately, the NIMBYs of Norristown are not unique. Every day, Philadelphians turn a blind eye to our struggling, homeless neighbors living in Center City. Too many of us fail to empathize with those who are less fortunate than ourselves, and even more of us fail to offer help. Our collective lack of compassion is an evil that spreads through the body politic, infecting each of us. We must be better. The only way we can redeem ourselves is through action. We must actively love those less fortunate than ourselves, otherwise we contribute to the suffering of our neighbors.
Owen Castle,Philadelphia
Shift subsidies
I appreciated your editorial regarding the administration’s energy policies, but it’s not just that fossil fuels are “promoted.” It’s that the government is using our tax dollars to make the air we breathe dirtier and the weather we live in more dangerous.
President Donald Trump has been threatening to invoke the Insurrection Act and deploy the military to Minneapolis to quell the unrest. But when I look at the streets of Minneapolis these last few weeks, it feels like the military is already there: thousands of heavily armed federal agents are using tear gas, flash-bangs, pepper spray, and guns to intimidate (even kill, in one case) unarmed protesters exercising their constitutional right to express themselves. The presence of masked U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents and their heavy-handed tactics is what’s causing the unrest and fear, not the city residents. Remove ICE and the temperature will lower quickly. Sending in the military will have the opposite effect and is exactly what is not needed.
Stephen Kunz,Phoenixville, spkunz@aol.com
Admirable vs. abominable
Albert Schweitzer was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1952. This gifted scientist, musician, and doctor gave up a prosperous life to found humanitarian clinics where there were none. Finding Schweitzer in what was then known as French Equatorial Africa, Norman Cousins, editor of the then-influential magazine Saturday Review, asked him what the most important thing was that he had learned during his lifetime. Schweitzer responded after delivering a baby in a nearby village that the most important thing he had learned was that each person at birth contains a “cathedral within — a vast, precious, sacred cathedral!” Schweitzer sets a high standard for recipients of the Nobel Peace Prize. Donald Trump accuses the Minneapolis immigrants from Somalia (people he describes as “garbage”) of fraud. His recent acceptance of the Nobel Peace Prize awarded to María Corina Machado is fraud at the highest level. He should return it to her immediately. His motive for MAWA (Make America White Again) is in sharp contrast to Schweitzer’s “cathedral within!”
Terry Furin,Philadelphia
Patient in spirit
I was so happy to read recently that Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley have reported double-digit increases in their profits. Does anyone know when that will trickle down to me?
Dale Cochran,Downingtown
Join the conversation: Send letters to letters@inquirer.com. Limit length to 150 words and include home address and day and evening phone number. Letters run in The Inquirer six days a week on the editorial pages and online.
DEAR ABBY: My husband and I have been married for 40 years and share the same friendships — joint, his and mine. We have camped, hosted parties and traveled with the same friends. My problem is my husband says I’m not allowed to speak privately with the males in our group unless I first confirm with him what I’m talking about. He also gives me the third degree about my visits with the wives, mainly to find out if their husbands were around.
In all our married years, I have never given him reason to think there’s anything going on between me and anyone else. I have always held him in high regard. I consider him to be somebody with honesty and integrity, and I love him wholeheartedly.
Where in the world does he get off trying to order me around and think that I can’t ask a question of his friends, or visit with his friends and their wives without asking his permission? This has been a longtime situation between us, and I’m tired of it — almost to the point of leaving him and enjoying what’s left of my life in peace with all kinds of people and relationships. Please help.
— PUT IN A CORNER IN OREGON
DEAR PUT: Why didn’t you write to me about this 39 years ago? Your husband may be a man with “honesty and integrity,” but he is also someone with bottomless insecurities and an insatiable need to control you. I am surprised it has taken 40 years of this for you to finally say to yourself, “Enough!” I would recommend marriage counseling for the two of you, but I seriously question his ability to change. Counseling for you alone might give you the courage to draw the line.
** ** **
DEAR ABBY: After I found the courage to leave my abusive marriage, it has been difficult. My family refuses to accept that a woman could have actually abused a man, and they are very skeptical. Even after my mother and sister attended therapy with me, they still question my honesty, something that has never been questioned before. Still, I have an amazing 9-year-old daughter from the marriage. She is part of the reason I had to leave her mother: There was no way I could model acceptance of that abuse after her mother refused to seek help. I tried.
Now, two years later, I’m in a healthy relationship — with another man. While my daughter is overjoyed because he treats both of us well, my family continues to attack me, even saying they were no longer going to speak to me. They say this is why I left my ex, even though it is not true. (I didn’t anticipate this either.)
My mother, who refuses to talk to me, recently let me know she wants to take me to court for the right to see my daughter. My daughter no longer wants to spend any time with her after seeing how she has treated me. I don’t think allowing visitation would be in my daughter’s best interest. Should I be worried?
— UNRESOLVED IN OHIO
DEAR UNRESOLVED: Not every state has laws on the books that govern grandparents’ rights. Ohio, where you reside, is one of those that does. Because your question is legal in nature, and you are rightly worried, the person you should ask would be a lawyer familiar with family law. I understand why you are worried, and you have my sympathy.
ARIES (March 21-April 19). You honor someone by giving them a gift that shows you were listening to who they are, what they like and what they need. Bonus: You’re also paying attention to who they were and where they’re headed. Witnessing means more than you could know.
TAURUS (April 20-May 20). Today feels like a pop quiz from the universe. The lesson arrives as if guided by fate. Something you experienced or learned in the past becomes relevant again, and you can apply it here. Trust that you have the skills, insight and perspective to ace this.
GEMINI (May 21-June 21). Some people play every game like it is a long game, and those are the ones you want on your side. The gracious and the generous may lose a play or two, but they always win in the end. The real prize is integrity.
CANCER (June 22-July 22). The ability to read a room comes to those who have been in many rooms and been many people, too. You’ll do your best with it today and keep getting better with time and experience.
LEO (July 23-Aug. 22). No, you’re not making it up. The things filling your day are actually necessary to your current role. Although, you might consider whether your ideal role is something else entirely, and thus worthy of a different routine.
VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sept. 22). Playfulness happens when there is room for it. If a person can be playful, even when the situation is serious, it’s because their psyche is expansive, their emotional range as wide as a field. This is who you are today.
LIBRA (Sept. 23-Oct. 23). What if the thing you’ve been avoiding is exactly the thing that changes everything for the better? Instead of seeing it as a chore, see it as a gamble. Once upon a time, something you almost didn’t do opened a world to you, and it’s about to happen again.
SCORPIO (Oct. 24-Nov. 21). Intensity is so easy for you to create, wield and deal with. That’s why you’re fascinated by restraint. You observe, and life opens to you. You press or pry, and it closes. What matters will surface in its own time.
SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 22-Dec. 21). You’re in a friendly mood today. The more inclusive you are, the more people you’ll know. The more people you know, the easier it is to connect with the person who will help you solve a problem.
CAPRICORN (Dec. 22-Jan. 19). Knowing what’s good for you and getting more of it is wonderful. What’s less wonderful is finding out that what you like isn’t all that good for you. Luckily, in today’s case, substitutions abound.
AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb. 18). There are always pros and cons to consider. For instance, taller people have farther to fall, the richer have more to lose and the powerful few at the top are vulnerable to being conquered by the power of many at the bottom. You’ll look at all sides of an issue today.
PISCES (Feb. 19-March 20). Your work will get the attention it deserves. You may not know exactly what to make of the feedback, but things are still settling in. For now, it’s very good just to get the exposure.
TODAY’SBIRTHDAY (Jan. 21). Welcome to your Year of the Evolving Love Story. People, places and projects receive your enthusiasm and heart, and wonderful feelings boomerang back to you, sending you sailing on clouds. More highlights: You’ll lead where you once followed. You’ll cash in on what’s been growing in value for years. A problem is fixed once and for all, freeing your time and energy. Aries and Sagittarius adore you. Your lucky numbers are: 17, 32, 20, 18 and 25.
