Nurses at Virtua Mount Holly Hospital have voted in favor of a new contract ensuring raises and safety enhancements under a deal reached with employers at the South Jersey hospital after their union threatened to strike last week.
Under the contract approved Friday, the hospital will enforce minimum staffing ratios to ensure a certain number of nurses are caring for a given patient at all times, and hire new staff in some areas.
Nurses will receive pay raises at an average of 16.5% through June 2028.
The three-yearcontract also includes provisions for new safety measures at the hospital, including panic buttons and wearable devices for staff, and increased visitor screening for weapons, the union said. The hospital will also implement a visitor ID system. Protocols will be improved to notify nurses when they have been exposed to an infectious disease.
“HPAE nurses are not willing to tolerate the status quo anymore so we are proud that we have won strong language to ensure nurses can care for their patients the way they were trained,” HPAE president Debbie White said in a statement.
The contract ratification comes after Mount Holly nurses, a local chapter of the Health Professionals and Allied Employees union, voted earlier this month to strike on June 16 if they could not come to an agreement with Virtua officials.
Both sides had been negotiating for two months, including in a 21-hour session the night before the strike vote. More than 700 unionized nurses work at the Burlington County hospital.
Staffing levels, a concern raised by nursing unions across the country, were a particular sticking point in bargaining. Many nurses say that the number of nurses assigned to care for a given patient is a safety issue.
Nurses last week said the strike vote — in which 92% of nurses threatened to walk off the job — helped the union reached a tentative contract agreement with Virtua.
In a statement Monday, Chrisie Scott, senior vice president and chief marketing officer, said the three-year contract “will enable Virtua Mount Holly to continue delivering safe, high-quality care for our patients, while providing wage increases, enhanced safety measures, and updated staffing levels for our nurses.”
“We look forward to moving ahead together,” she said.
The Norristown school board plans to vote Monday to hire Delaware’s Superintendent of the Year as the district’s next leader.
The board announced Sunday that it had selected Dorrell Green, the superintendent of the Red Clay Consolidated School District in New Castle County as its pick for superintendent.
Green is expected to start as superintendent in the Norristown Area School District on July 20, under a five-year term with an initial salary of $270,000, according to an agenda for Monday’s meeting.
Dorrell Green, the superintendent of the Red Clay Consolidated School District in New Castle County, Del., is to join Norristown Area School District as superintendent on July 20, 2026.
Throughout the superintendent search process, “our community made it clear that they were seeking a visionary leader who is committed to student achievement, educational excellence, and meaningful engagement with all stakeholders,” the board’s president, Jeremiah Lemke, said in a statement.
He said Green’s “experience, leadership record, and commitment to serving diverse school communities” set him apart during a search process that was led by a consulting group and attracted 88 applicants.
Green has worked in public education for more than 25 years, including as a teacher, principal, and assistant superintendent.
In Red Clay, Delaware’s largest school district with 15,000 students, Green has served as superintendent since 2019. He expanded early childhood education during his tenure there and increased access to advanced course work, according to the Norristown board.
Before that, Green was the first executive director of the Delaware Department of Education’s Office of Innovation and Improvement, an office created by former Delaware Gov. John Carney to support the state’s neediest schools.
Green has a bachelor’s degree in elementary education and master’s degree in educational leadership from the University of Delaware. He has a doctoral degree in organizational leadership from Wilmington University.
The Eagles are headed to the shore on Wednesday for Jason Kelce’s sixth annual celebrity bartending fundraiser event at Ocean Drive in Sea Isle City.
The Team 62 at Ocean Drive fundraiser will raise funds for the Eagles Autism Foundation. During last year’s event, Kelce and the Birds raised a record-breaking $1 million — surpassing the prior year’s total of $865,000. Since 2021, they have raised more than $2.4 million for the foundation.
Ahead of this year’s Team 62 fundraiser, which is set to take place between 4-8 p.m., there will be a family-friendly event hosted by the Eagles Autism Foundation at Excursion Park between 12-3 p.m. It will feature activities like mini football as well as cheer and drum line clinics. A $25 donation will grant families access to the event.
In addition to the bartending session at Ocean Drive on Wednesday, the fourth annual Beer Bowl starts at 11 a.m. Thursday at the Sea Isle City Yacht Club, where guests can watch teams compete for a $50,000 cash prize.
For general admission to the bartending session, there will be a $10 cover charge on a first-come, first-served basis. Ticket packages for early admission are available online with all proceeds from the evening benefiting the Eagles Autism Foundation.
A Philadelphia woman pleaded guilty Monday to voting twice in the 2024 election — first in northern New Jersey, then in the city.
Miya Pack, 40, said little beyond responding to routine legal questions as she pleaded guilty to a charge of voter fraud before U.S. District Judge Joshua D. Wolson.
Pack has been registered to vote since 2004 in Bergen County, N.J., prosecutors said in court documents, and she’s also been registered to vote in Philadelphia since 2016. She is not affiliated with any political party, voter records show.
On Oct. 26, 2024, prosecutors said, Pack cast a ballot in that year’s presidential election in Bergen County. Then, 10 days later, prosecutors said, she cast a ballot in the same contest in Philadelphia on Election Day.
They did not say whom she voted for, and she declined to comment as she left the courtroom Monday.
Pack was charged by federal prosecutors last September. Prosecutors announced her indictment alongside the indictment of another man, Matthew Laiss, who was separately charged with voting twice in the 2020 election.
Laiss later said in court documents that he voted twice for Trump, and unsuccessfully sought to claim that his actions were covered by pardons Trump extended to people who tried to help him overturn the results of the 2020 election.
Laiss was convicted of voter fraud earlier this year at trial and is awaiting sentencing.
Pack is scheduled to be sentenced in October. She faces the possibility of prison time, although prosecutors said in court that federal guidelines suggest a term of no jail time to six months.
Devan Kaney is saying goodbye to Philadelphia, at least for now.
Kaney anchored her final Fox 29 sportscast over the weekend and and is leaving town for a yet-to-be-announced job opportunity in a bigger market. Though she hinted she would still appear on Fox’s airwaves.
“I’m so grateful for the support all of my colleagues at Fox 29 have given me during my time there, but especially in the last few months,” Kaney said.
“As much as I would have loved to return as the sideline reporter, they never reached out,” Kaney said, “and I’ll be covering a different NFL franchise moving forward.”
Kaney had been with Fox 29 since 2023, serving as a part-time sports anchor and reporter. She also appeared on Good Day Philadelphia and featured prominently on the station’s Eagles coverage.
She’ll be replaced in part by former 6abc sportscaster Jamie Apody, who just landed an expanded role at Fox 29 and will anchor the station’s Saturday 10 p.m. newscast.
“I was absolutely not expecting Jayson Werth,” Kaney told The Inquirer earlier this month. “He’ll just drop the most insane stories, and it’s awesome to work with him.”
When Carson Benge’s home run ball started heading in his direction on Sunday at Citizens Bank Park, 14-year-old Josh Kirsch knew exactly what to do.
The eighth-grader from Royersford was planning for this moment for years, hoping to catch a home run ball in his glove.
After he actually got his hands on the Mets outfielder’s home run, he was expected to do what most other Phillies fans do when they catch the opposing team’s home runs — throw the ball back onto the field. Instead, Kirsch was caught on camera swapping out the ball, pocketing the home run ball and throwing a different one back out on the field.
The Kirsch family has had Sunday season tickets in the outfield since 2022, purposefully on the aisle to give Kirsch a better chance at one day catching a ball. But there’s obviously no guarantee that even if you do get a home run ball, it’ll be a Phillies home run, and you’ll get to keep it. So Kirsch had a backup plan.
“He knows that the Phillies fans will cheer for about 10 seconds, and then be like, ‘Throw it back! Throw it back!’ so he had brought this ball with him to every game we went to,” said his father, Matt Kirsch. “It’s a Little League ball that he wrote in Sharpie in his little chicken scratch, ‘Not the home run ball.’”
Sunday was the first time Kirsch has been caught on camera swapping out the ball, but it’s not the first time he’s “thrown back” a home run. On April 20 last season, Marlins rookie Javier Sanoja hit his first career home run against the Phillies, right into Kirsch’s glove. Kirsch, not knowing it was Sanoja’s first major league home run, threw back the ball he’d stowed away in his pocket, wanting to keep his first home run catch.
Josh Kirsch meeting Javier Sanoja after catching his first career home run on April 20, 2025.
But after one of their season-ticket neighbors, listening to the game on the radio, learned that it was Sanoja’s first major league home run, Kirsch wanted to find a way to give the ball back. Ballpark staff was able to verify that the ball Kirsch had was in fact the home run ball, and he got to meet Sanoja and trade it for a signed bat.
“That’s how his mind works,” Matt said. “He’s always thinking about every angle, like, ‘Oh my gosh, what if this happens?’”
Kirsch has always been an avid baseball fan. The family started going to Phillies games in earnest during the 2021 season, and after seeing just how much Kirsch loved to be at the ballpark, they invested in season tickets.
He plays in the Spring Ford Babe Ruth baseball league, and at home, Kirsch has a collection of baseball and other Phillies memorabilia, including balls he’s had signed during warmups, jerseys, and bats. That’s part of why he wanted to keep the ball — with how baseball works, who knows if Sanoja or Benge might end up being Phillies one day?
So, no regrets, even after he went viral for pocketing the ball, which will now get a place of pride nearby his Sanoja bat. It was still surprising for the family to see the video gain more than a million views across various channels, but they’re taking it in stride.
“My daughter committed to play field hockey at Northwestern,” Matt said. “If you were to ask me which of my two kids was gonna make the Instagram reel for ESPN, I’d be like, ‘Oh, my D-I athlete.’ My Little League eighth-grader made it.”
President Donald Trump is scheduled to speak Tuesday at a truck manufacturing facility in the Lehigh Valley, where a competitive race for Congress this year could determine which party controls the U.S. House for the second half of his term.
Trump will deliver remarks at Mack Trucks in Macungie in Lehigh County, according to the White House and two local members of Congress.
The visit will mark Trump’s fourth Pennsylvania appearance in his second term and his first this year ahead of November’s high-stakes midterm elections.
Pennsylvania has four competitive U.S. House districts — the most of any state — and the Lehigh Valley-based 7th District is widely considered one of the most likely in the nation to flip from Republican to Democrat.
GOP U.S. Rep. Ryan Mackenzie won that seat by 1 percentage point in 2024 as Trump defeated Democrat Kamala Harris statewide. Bob Brooks, a union leader and retired firefighter whom many prominent Democrats rallied behind before last month’s competitive primary, is facing Mackenzie in November.
The event Tuesday is scheduled as an official White House event, not a campaign event, and it could be the first of several trips by the president to the region and across Pennsylvania in the coming months.
“We’re looking forward to joining President Trump at Mack Trucks — one of our nation’s most iconic manufacturers,” Mackenzie wrote on social media.
“By investing in American workers and supporting domestic manufacturing, President Trump and Republicans in Congress have helped to put the Lehigh Valley and the Poconos at the forefront of our nation’s industrial revitalization. We appreciate President Trump coming to the region to help us highlight the work we’ve done together to support American workers, families, and industries.”
Mackenzie spoke Friday at a different Mack facility outside of Allentown to highlight part of a contract the company won from the U.S. Army last year to produce heavy dump trucks. The deal is worth up to $221.8 million, and Mack Defense said it received $47 million in the latest Department of Defense appropriations act.
A White House spokesperson said Trump will “stand with the American workers he has fought for” during his visit.
“Under the President’s leadership, key domestic industries are being revitalized, historic investments are pouring back into communities like Macungie, and families across the country are securing new, high-paying jobs,” Liz Huston said. “Pennsylvanians placed their trust in President Trump, and he has delivered for them.”
Former President Joe Biden visited the same Mack facility in 2021 for a speech focused on supporting American manufacturing.
Trump last appeared in Pennsylvania in December for a rally at the Mount Airy Casino Resort in Mount Pocono, which is in the neighboring 8th Congressional District where another freshman Republican is looking to fend off a Democratic challenger. Pitched as a speech to address voters’ concerns about affordability, the president repeatedly veered off script and called affordability concerns a “hoax.”
Some of the president’s former supporters in the region have since said they regretted voting for him, and national Democrats have made the area a priority as they look to win back a seat that Mackenzie flipped two years ago. Brooks, the Democratic nominee, has leaned into his working-class background while saying he understands voters’ financial concerns.
U.S. Rep. Dan Meuser, a Republican who represents a different neighboring district, said Trump’s visit signals the president’s support for workers.
“Mack Trucks are a symbol of America’s manufacturing strength,” Meuser said on social media. “Their Lehigh Valley operations are a pillar of the local economy, employing Pennsylvania workers and driving the nation’s trucking industry. Thank you, President Trump, for supporting American workers.”
The Flyers’ quest to build on their promising showing of last season will include the customary preseason schedule. That slate will just be a bit shorter — and include fewer opponents — than in years past.
The team announced a four-game preseason schedule Monday that includes home-and-homes with the Washington Capitals (on the road Sept. 21, at Xfinity Mobile Arena on Sept. 26) and Boston Bruins (on the road Sept. 22, at home Sept. 24). Flyers training camp opens Sept. 17.
The 2026-27 season schedule will look different across the NHL, as the preseason has been shortened to four games and the regular season expanded to 84 games.
The Flyers played seven preseason games last season, going 3-4 ahead of their 43-27-12 regular season.
The complete NHL schedule will be released later this summer.
Thunderstorms are expected to make their way through the Philadelphia region later Monday evening, potentially interrupting the World Cup match between France and Iraq (5 p.m, Fox).
The strongest storms are forecast to move in beginning around 4 p.m., bringing with them heavy rain, wind gusts approaching 60 mph, and the potential for an isolated tornado.
“Storms will certainly have lightning with them,” said Zack Cooper, a meteorologist at the National Weather Service’s Mount Holly station.
An inch or two of rain could fall in and around the city, Cooper said, but depending on the storm’s severity that could all come in an hour or less, leading to flash flooding. Philadelphia and the surrounding region are under a flood watch.
“Exactly how much would fall on a given thunderstorm is impossible to know, but we could certainly see some pretty high rain rates in these storms tonight,” Cooper said.
For those going to the game, umbrellas aren’t allowed in the stadium, but you can bring a poncho.
FIFA will pause play if there is a lightning strike within eight miles of the stadium. The match will remain paused for 30 minutes, with any subsequent lightning strikes resetting the clock.
Six Club World Cup matches were delayed by severe weather last summer. A match between Chelsea and Benfica at Bank of America Stadium in Charlotte, N.C., was delayed multiple times due to lightning strikes, taking four hours and 38 minutes to finish.
The FIFA Fan Fest at Lemon Hill Park in Fairmount would close if lightning is detected within an eight-mile radius. Fans would need to exit the grounds and move to a safe location, and could re-enter after 30 minutes if no additional lightning is detected.
Festivities were interrupted Thursday evening, when high winds prompted the event to close early.
Philadelphia is known for some great things: the Declaration of Independence (happy 250th!), Rocky, and the cheesesteak. It is also known for “killing” hitchBOT, the famous hitchhiking robot that was dismembered in August 2015. A decade later, there’s a new bot in town: the Uber Eats delivery robot, operated by Avride.
When these robots first arrived, I had my own spontaneous encounter with one. I was surprised by how unsettled I felt, especially as someone who has spent years researching them. I am an expert in human–robot interaction, and my research focuses on why people abuse robots. I immediately wondered how long it would be before another robot made headlines in this post‑hitchBOT world.
Since these delivery robots rolled into town, they have been making headlines for all the wrong reasons: getting beat up, hit by cars, and colliding with pedestrians. These coolers on wheels are having an effect on Philadelphians, and I do not blame my fellow city dwellers.
We are living in a cultural climate where artificial intelligence and automation are often framed as threats to jobs amid inflation and economic anxiety. Layer on top of that Philadelphia’s unique reputation as a destroyer of robots, and the reaction is hardly surprising.
Clockwise from lower left. 1) Last known image of an intact hitchBOT in Philadelphia in 2018. 2) Frame grab from surveillance video of man in No. 12 jersey after tossing what appear to be hitchBOT’s arms to sidewalk. 3 & 4) Man appears to stomp item believed to be hitchBOT.
With innovative technology, there is always disruption. When UberX and Lyft arrived, Philadelphians were up in arms about the traffic congestion caused by rideshare vehicles, a problem the city later officially acknowledged.
Yet in less than a decade, the norm quietly shifted. Today, many of us hail a rideshare instead of a taxi despite the unresolved congestion issue. The question now is whether we will react to delivery robots as another passing disruption, or whether we will choose to use them to actually improve city life.
Garci Peterkin, owner and CEO of Carter’s Cheesesteaks by Garci in the 1000 block of Race Street, demonstrates how food delivery robots work, in March.
Recently, Councilmember Jeffery Young proposed a $1,000 surcharge on deliveries made by autonomous delivery devices using city sidewalks. That may sound like mere regulation, but in practice it would push the robots out entirely. Before Philadelphia taxes these devices into irrelevance, we should look at how other cities are putting them to work for the public good.
West Hollywood, for example, has had delivery robots on its sidewalks since 2020. On Jan. 1, 2026, the city implemented a new program, the first of its kind, to use data and fees from these devices to improve and pay for sidewalk repairs. In this program, companies that operate delivery robots partner with an accessibility app used by blind and low-vision residents. As they travel city streets, the robots can report real-time obstacles such as blocked sidewalks, helping make navigation safer. The city then uses information gathered by the robots to map accessibility problems and prioritize sidewalk improvements.
The companies also pay a daily fee for each robot in their fleet, plus an advertising fee (about four dollars per day per device) with that advertising revenue directed into a sidewalk repair fund that is expected to bring in roughly $40,000 to $80,000 per year.
In other words, the robots are not just delivering takeout; they are quietly scanning the city, funding basic infrastructure, and making the streets more accessible.
There are a lot of potential benefits: using robot data to measure and assess street conditions, cutting down on short car trips by shifting them to small electric devices, and easing traffic congestion on already strained streets.
These are practical, achievable ways to use technology to help address the climate crisis and long‑neglected infrastructure. This moment should also demonstrate that it’s past time for us to stop pretending we can opt out of technological change altogether.
Philadelphia City Council should resist a blanket $1,000 surcharge that effectively bans delivery robots and instead work with residents, robotic operators, advocates, and experts in human–robot interaction to build a Philadelphia version of West Hollywood’s data‑and‑sidewalk‑repair model.
Uber Eats’ delivery robot in Chinatown on March 10, 2026.
If we are going to share our streets with robots, we should make sure the companies profiting from them are paying their way and helping fix the sidewalks they roll on.
Will Philadelphia embrace that possibility, or will we become a city of Robo-NIMBYs, elected officials and residents alike?
Lindsay Ouellette is a Philadelphia-based social psychologist and human-robot interaction researcher who studies public responses to robots and emerging technologies. She recently earned her doctorate from Temple University, where her research examined aggression toward robots.
