Spain is the world’s third largest wine producer, with a longer history of growing grapes and making wine than France. However, the region was slower to modernize due to its unique history, which included a teetotaling 20th century dictator who systematically forced the wine industry to churn out cheap wines rather than improve their quality during his 35-year rule. In a remarkably swift turnaround sparked by joining what is now the European Union, Spain is today making some of the most exciting world-class wines, many of which blend old-world traditions with new-world techniques to broaden their international appeal.
(Sadly, wines like this one — from one of Spain’s most respected appellations — have not been well represented in Pennsylvania wine stores, simply because the state-run system has also been slow to modernize.)
Most of Spain’s wines are red, and the vast majority are made with grapes native to their localities. The nation’s two most famous red wine appellations are Rioja and Ribera del Duero, which are both made using primarily tempranillo grapes and hail from neighboring regions. On the map, these zones appear to be separated only by a range of mountains, but their climates and cultures could not be more different, and these key factors shape the flavor of their wines.
Of the two, Rioja is better known and far better represented in our area. It is also the cooler of the two regions. Makers blend tempranillo with other grapes and have a tendency to age wines longer in barrels, often producing old-school wines that can be as delicate as French pinot noir. Ribera del Duero wines are usually denser, darker, and stronger and more often made with 100% tempranillo, as with this example. Since they are grown in warmer, drier conditions that amplify their ripeness, their winemaking is more likely to reflect modern sensibilities familiar to fans of California wines. This value-oriented example features tempranillo’s signature combination of red- and blue-fruit flavors like raspberry and blueberry. Being of the oaked “roble” style, it also features an overt gloss of new-oak aromas (think vanilla and coconut).
Cune’s Ribera del Duero ‘Roble’ (oaked tempranillo) from Spain.
Cune Ribera del Duero “Roble”
Castilla y León, Spain; 14% ABV
PLCB Item #100049322 — on sale for $14.99 through Feb. 1 (regularly $17.99)
No alternate retail locations within 50 miles of Philadelphia, per Wine-Searcher.com.
Temple had a chance to break its tie for second place in the American Conference on Wednesday night against Charlotte. The Owls trailed once in the second half and at one point held an eight-point lead.
It wasn’t enough, however, as the 49ers stormed back to hand Temple an 80-76 overtime loss at the Liacouras Center.
The Owls (13-8, 5-3) were within striking distance with 17 seconds remaining in overtime. Then Charlotte guard Dezayne Mingo drilled a three-pointer that pushed the 49ers (12-9, 6-2) lead to five and squandered the Owls’ comeback hopes as they missed their final four shots.
Temple coach Adam Fisher reacts to an official’s call against Charlotte on Wednesday.
“We won the first half, but the second half, we had a couple lapses,” said Temple coach Adam Fisher. “This is a team we knew [to] try to keep them in the 60s. Great credit to Charlotte. There’s a reason they’re 6-2 [and] towards the top of the league.”
Statistical leaders
Guard Derrian Ford led Temple with 21 points, while guard Jordan Mason added 20.
Charlotte center Anton Bonke stole the show with a career-high 25 points, breaking his previous high of 20, which he set against Temple on Dec. 30. Mingo also had 19 points off the bench while dishing out 10 assists.
Mason took charge of the Owls’ offense, and 14 of their first-half points were three-pointers.
Temple’s defense had to deal with the 49ers’ size and height advantage. When Bonke attacked the paint, the Owls found themselves in foul trouble. They finished with 20 personal fouls.
“Good job getting into some pick-and-roll spaces and they throw it up to him, and he’s huge,” Fisher said. “Great credit to him. He had 20 against us out there last time, when we won, we knew ‘Hey, they can’t make threes.’ When Harrison scores double figures, I think they’ve won every game. So they got a lot of weapons.”
However, Temple did limit the American’s third-best team in shooting to make 9 of 24 attempts in the first half, going 4 of 9 in three-pointers. Charlotte shot 53.8% in the second, but went 3-for-12 in three-pointers.
Temple kept up with Charlotte and trailed once in the second half and took an eight-point lead with under seven minutes remaining. But that advantage didn’t last.
Game-changing play
Temple had possession with 30 seconds remaining in regulation, leading 68-66, with a chance to put the game to rest. Guard Masiah Gilyard snagged a steal and it seemed like Temple would secure a victory.
Gilyard attempted a dagger three-pointer, but it went off the mark and after a scramble for the loose ball, it got into the hands of Mingo. He found guard Damoni Harrison, who converted a layup to send the game to overtime.
“It looked like almost a broken play,” Fisher said.
Temple never recovered, as it went 1-for-6 from the field in the extra period.
Up next
Temple will host South Florida (13-7, 5-2) on Saturday (8 p.m. ESPN+).
COLUMBUS, Ohio ― The Flyers traveled more than four hundred miles from where they’re known. Although they had a change in scenery, they carried many of their issues over from Monday.
Despite Dan Vladař’s spectacular saves in net, in his first game since getting injured against the Buffalo Sabres on Jan. 14, and the third career hat trick by Travis Konecny, the Flyers were handed a 5-3 loss by the Columbus Blue Jackets.
The Flyers have now lost nine of their last 11 games, including two straight in which they have been outscored a combined 9-3.
Sean Monahan scored with 3 minutes, 28 seconds left in regulation as he stood alone at the left post. The Flyers struggled to get the puck out, and Damon Severson sent the puck across from the right boards to the open winger. Mathieu Olivier scored an empty-netter to seal it for Columbus.
It was a delicate few opening seconds for the Flyers when, on the first shift, Charlie Coyle gave the Blue Jackets a 1-0 lead 38 seconds into the game. Trevor Zegras was on the boards and tried to pass to his centerman, Christian Dvorak, to start a breakout, but it went through, and Zach Werenski kept the puck in to Olivier.
The rugged forward then fed Coyle, who was honored before the game for reaching 1,000 games on Jan. 22, as he got behind the defense. Coyle scored over the glove of Vladař.
Later in the period, Konecny evened the game with his 18th goal of the season. It also tied him with Zegras for the points lead (46).
Zegras had the puck deep and tried to chip it to Konecny, but it popped all the way out to Noah Juulsen at the left point. The defenseman fed it across to Cam York, and he hit Konecny in the middle. He had room and skated down and snapped the puck past goalie Elvis Merzļikins.
The Flyers had a great chance to take a 2-1 lead with under 2 minutes left in the opening frame when, on a power play, Zegras skated through the Blue Jackets defense. He hit the puck off the heel of his blade, but the Flyers kept going, ultimately with Zegras getting another look at a wide-open net. His shot ended up hitting either the right post or the stick of Bobby Brink that was lying in the crease after he lost it during a commotion.
Columbus took the lead with 20 seconds to go in the period on a goal by Kirill Marchenko. Skating four-on-four, after the Flyers were called for too many men during the man advantage, the Blue Jackets skated down with Werenski and Owen Tippett chasing after the puck.
From one angle, it looked like Werenski interfered with Tippett. From another, it looked clean. Regardless, there was no call, and Werenski, who will represent the United States at the 2026 Milano Cortina Olympics, fed the puck from the right circle to Marchenko in the left for the one-timer.
Erik Gudbranson made it 3-1 less than two minutes into the second period when his point shot off a faceoff beat Vladař. It may have nicked Dvorak on the way in.
Despite allowing four goals, Vladař did not look rusty as he kept the Flyers in the game. He made a phenomenal standing pad save on Werenski as it looked like he batted the puck out of the air with 3:05 to go in the second.
And then in the third period, in between Konecny scoring again from the middle of the ice to make it 3-2, Vladař robbed Adam Fantilli sitting at the right post with his glove, and then did it again to Boone Jenner from the same spot. The first save on Fantilli was reviewed, but it confirmed Vladař’s magnificent save.
Konecny finished off the hat trick to tie the game at 3-3. He received a pass from Travis Sanheim from the left board as Konecny crashed down the right side.
This goal and his other in the final period came off a gutsy performance by the forward, who blocked a shot late in the second period and hobbled to the bench. He went down the tunnel right at the buzzer of the middle frame and didn’t get back to the bench until after the puck dropped for the third period.
Konecny now leads the Flyers in goals (20) and points (48).
“He’s hitting the holes, and he’s, we call it, race inside, and he races inside on them and beats people, and then obviously he’s got a good shot,” said Rick Tocchet.
“And he took one off the foot. He’s limping around. He might not play tomorrow. We don’t know. He [had] a lot of guts tonight.”
Breakaways
Defenseman Rasmus Ristolainen did not return following his second shift of the game, leaving with a lower-body injury. The Finn returned on Monday after missing six games. Tocchet did not have an update on him after the game. … Defenseman Emil Andrae was a healthy scratch, along with forwards Nic Deslauriers and Garnet Hathaway.
Up next
The Flyers will get right back to it in Boston on Thursday against the Bruins (7 p.m., NBCSP+).
New Jersey Gov. Mikie Sherrill said her administration will create an online database for people to upload videos they record of ICE.
“If you see an ICE agent in the street, get your phone out,” she urged New Jerseyans in an appearance on The Daily Show on Wednesday night with host Desi Lydic in New York City.
Sherrill, a Democrat and former member of Congress, said her administration will set up an online portal “so people can upload all their cell phone videos and alert people.”
Cell phone video from onlookers has been used to rebut the narrative of President Donald Trump’s administration after federal agents fatally shot Renee Good and Alex Pretti in Minneapolis.
“They will pick people up, they will not tell us who they are … they’ll pick up American citizens. They picked up a 5-year-old child,” she said on the show. “We want documentation, and we are going to make sure we get it.”
The policy announcement was not featured in the television broadcast, but it was posted to YouTube shortly afterward by The Daily Show.
New Jersey residents routinely report ICE activity and arrests around the state, including recently in Bridgeton and Princeton. The Garden State is home to about the seventh-largest undocumented population in the country, an estimated 476,000 people, according to the Migration Policy Institute in Washington.
Amy Torres, executive director of the New Jersey Alliance for Immigrant Justice, said Sherrill needs to do more.
“We don’t need to see more evidence of what ICE is doing,” Torres said. “They’ve arrested a New Jersey mayor. They’ve gone after a sitting member of Congress. They’ve opened up a 1,000-bed facility in our state’s largest city and they’re ripping our families apart. New Jersey doesn’t need more evidence, we need leadership who is going to act.”
Sherrill, meanwhile, also said her administration plans to put out information to help New Jerseyans know their rights in the state. And she said she will not allow ICE raids “to be staged from state properties.”
Sherrill, a former Navy helicopter pilot, compared U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement to secret police forces she observed in foreign nations during her service.
“I knew where this was headed when we started to see DHS people taking loyalty oaths to the president, not the Constitution,” she said. “We saw people in the street with masks and no insignia, so not accountable at all, hiding from the population.”
New Jersey has become a key state in the Trump administration’s plan to arrest and deport millions of immigrants, and has been slated for an expansion of ICE detention.
A facility in Elizabeth was for a time the only detention center in the state. But the 1,000-bed Delaney Hall in Newark was reopened for detention in May, and the administration recently announced plans to hold 1,000 to 3,000 detainees at Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst, which spans parts of Burlington and Ocean Counties.
In Wednesday night’s television appearance, Sherrill denounced the Minneapolis shootings, calling Good “a mother of three, who drops her 6-year-old off in her Honda Pilot and then gets shot and killed.”
And shenoted that Pretti worked at the Minneapolis VA as an ICU nurse.
“I saw his official photo, and I’ve seen a million of those … with the flag in the background, I know those guys,” Sherrill said.
Pretti was fatally shot by a Border Patrol agent, while Good was shot and killed by an ICE agent. Both agencies fall under the Department of Homeland Security.
The new governor also said on The Daily Show that she called Trump to discuss his decision to freeze funding for the planned Gateway Tunnel in North Jersey, a project championed by Sherrill that would connect New York and New Jersey under the Hudson River.
New Jersey Gov. Mikie Sherrill does her best New Jersey “Oh!” and “C’mon!” impressions on The Daily Show with host Desi Lydic.
“I haven’t heard back from him yet to flag for him that this is about 100,000 jobs in the region, and by the way, his numbers aren’t looking so good in that area,” she said.
Sherrill said the president “should listen to me because I just won back all his voters,” citing her victory in November of more than 14 percentage points, outperforming her Democratic predecessors and reversing rightward shifts in 2024.
But she also said it is time to “rethink” the federal government’s relationship with states because of attacks from Trump.
“We need to start looking at expanding,” she said. “This is a time when I think we’re going to see a large expansion of state power, because the states are the rational actors in this space.”
Sherrill also played a game with Lydic where she picked which things were most New Jersey, choosing Tony Soprano over Snookie; hating New Yorkers over hating Pennsylvanians; diners over Wawa; and “C’mon!” over “Oh!”
McGlinchey’s Bar, which survived decades of shifting tastes, smoking laws, and disco, is now on the market, five months after its closing.
The asking price for the property at 259 S. 15th St. is $2.45 million, according to the listing, which is being handled by Nadia Bilynsky and Dennis Carlisle of MPN Realty on behalf of the Sokol family, which has owned the building since 1968.
The family is selling not only the century-old building — with bars on two floors and a vacant third floor — but its liquor license and the McGlinchey’s name.
For generations of regulars, McGlinchey’s was known less for reinvention than for what it refused to give up: cash-only tabs, smoking long after most bars banned it, and prices that seemed detached from inflation. It seemed to outlast trends simply by ignoring them.
And if walls could talk, McGlinchey’s would probably ask for another shot before answering.
Its building, on 15th between Locust and Spruce Streets, opened in 1922. For the first decade, it housed offices for the Allen-Sherman-Hoff Co. In 1932, Joseph A. McGlinchey bought it, leasing the first floor to a book and gift store called the Odd Shop, opening McGlinchey’s Restaurant on the second floor, and living upstairs.
The bar downstairs opened in the 1950s, and Henry Sokol purchased the business in 1968. In 1976, he converted the second floor into Top’s Bar, which began as a disco, later hosted music and poetry, and eventually became an extension of McGlinchey’s itself.
Five decades ago, the neighborhood sat on the seam between old Center City grit and the city’s new, corporate face; the clientele continued to reflect a broad cross-section of society.
Stained-glass windows inside of McGlinchey’s on Aug. 18, 2025.
After Henry Sokol’s death in 1985 — the year construction began on One Liberty Place, the city’s first building taller than William Penn’s hat on City Hall — McGlinchey’s was passed along to sons Ronald and Sheldon.
Ron Sokol died in 2022, and last summer’s closing was prompted by Sheldon’s retirement.
“It was just time,” said Sandra Sokol, Ron’s widow.
Sheldon Sokol was the daytime manager, while Sandra Sokol said she handled administrative work behind the scenes. Douglas Sokol, Ron and Sandra’s son, worked at the bar, too.
McGlinchey’s owner Sheldon Sokol in a 2004 photo taken for “The Regulars,” a series by former bartender Sarah Stolfa, who went on to publish the collection in a book of the same name.
For Sandra Sokol, the bar’s meaning extended well beyond its balance sheets. “We used to joke that we had two children, but McGlinchey’s was [Ron’s] third child,” she said. “It was that important to him. He was really responsible for what it became.”
Under Henry Sokol, she said, the business began as a more traditional restaurant and gradually evolved. “When Ronnie began hiring art students as bartenders and waitstaff, that’s when it started to shift into something more edgy,” she said. “What it became wasn’t planned. It just morphed that way, the way family businesses often do.”
Sign at McGlinchey’s.
That evolution extended upstairs as well. Sandra Sokol recalled visiting Top’s in its early disco days. One night, her sister, visiting from out of town, was asked to dance by a man who turned out to be a carpenter, still wearing his tool belt — hammers and all — straight from work. “It was that kind of place,” she said. “Spontaneous, serendipitous moments.”
Those moments, she said, added up to something larger. “People would often say — and I agreed — that it was like the experience of Cheers,” she said. “It was more than a bar. More than a business. It became an institution — and in many ways, an extension of our family.”
Even the bar’s most controversial feature — smoking — was handled pragmatically. “It was a double-edged sword,” she said. “If they banned smoking, they might gain new customers, but they would lose longtime ones.”
A Miller High Life on the bar inside McGlinchey’s on Aug. 18, 2025.
When Ron Sokol died, former employees turned out for the memorial. “So many people who had worked at McGlinchey’s over the years came and told me how important the bar had been in their lives,” she said. “I’m not really talking about the business side — I’m talking about the presence it had in people’s lives.”
Among its alumni was Fergus Carey, the serial Philadelphia bar owner, who got his start in the industry there, as did his business partner, Jim McNamara. Carey said they had considered putting in an offer on McGlinchey’s, “but at this point, Jim and I have let it go in our hearts. We met so many people there — people we worked with, people we served, people who became friends. It was an important steppingstone for both of us, professionally and personally. It’s a big part of our history in this business.”
As the property changes hands, Sandra Sokol said she hopes its identity survives the transition. “I would really like it to remain McGlinchey’s and for a new owner to keep it as close as possible to what it was,” she said. “I especially feel that way because I know Ronnie would have wanted it to continue into the next chapter.”
An Inquirer analysis of the decisions and the data behind them shows the proposed closures would disproportionately affect Black students. And despite efforts to minimize the impact, schools in the most vulnerable sections of Philadelphia would also be disrupted.
The closures would mostly address buildings with hundreds of unused seats, though some largely empty buildings were spared. And eight of the closures would affect schools given the district’s worst building condition rating — though 30 more buildings in that category would stay open and receive upgrades of some kind.
Monique Braxton, district spokesperson, said the facilities plan was “designed to provide access to high-quality academic and extracurricular programs across every neighborhood regardless of zip code.”
Most affected students — 90% — would be reassigned to schools with similar or better academic outcomes, and all would be reassigned to schools with either similar or better academics or comparable or better building conditions. Receiving schools will get additional supports, Braxton said.
Overall, the proposal would shake up at least 75 schools, with 20 closing entirely, four leaving their current buildings to colocate within other schools’ buildings, and three moving to new buildings. It would create new schools and, in one case, result in a new building. Nearly50 other district schools would take in displaced students from the closing schools, with some adding grades and others modernizing to fit new programming needs.
Collectively, about 32,000 district students learn in the 75 affectedschools — more than a quarter of the district’s total enrollment — not counting children in pre-K programs.
And those are just the changes Watlington introduced this month. Other shifts, some of them major, district officials said, are expected to be announced by the time he presentsthe planto the school board next month. A final vote is planned for later this winter.
Superintendent Tony B. Watlington (center) speaks about his proposal this month for the Philadelphia school facilities master plan.
The racial impact
The 20 schools that could close have twice as many empty seats as the district’s other schools. But The Inquirer’s analysis found that the closures will hit Black students disproportionately.
Among the closing schools, about 68% of the student population is Black, compared with 40% for the rest of the district’s schools — not including disciplinary or other specialized schools.
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Of the district’s schools where at least 90% of the students are Black, more than half are scheduled to close or take in more students from the closures.
Overall, amajority of students in the 75 schools that could close, take in students, or change in some way are Black, at about 54% of enrollment.
Some majority-Black schools, however, are earmarked for upgrades. Bartram High would get a modern athletics facility after nearby Tilden Middle School in Southwest Philadelphia is closed and upgraded for that purpose.
Nysheera Roberts is the parent of multiple children who attend Waring Elementary, in Spring Garden, which landed on the closure list. Waring now educates under 200 students; its pupils would be sent to Bache-Martin.
Roberts is stunned that her school — which educates mostly Black students like her kids — could close.
She worries about the logistics of getting her kids to school safely further away, then getting to her job in home care in Frankford on time. She worries what will happen to her children, including the niece and nephew she now raises who have lived through significant trauma and have behavioral and learning needs, if they have to adjust to a new and larger school.
“It’s not fair,” Roberts said. “They’re hurting Black kids more.”
Paying attention to vulnerable neighborhoods
In deciding which schools to close or expand, the district considered the vulnerability of the surrounding neighborhood.
Two dozen neighborhood elementary schools were labeled “very high risk,” meaning they have likely dealt with a previous school closure, or the community is otherwise vulnerable to high poverty, housing concerns, or other factors.
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Welsh, in North Philadelphia, was the only school building in a neighborhood labeled “very high risk” to land on the closing list.
Bethune in North Philadelphia and Martha Washington in West Philadelphia will colocate with other schools.
But three schools with building conditions considered unsatisfactory, poor programming options, and “very high risk” neighborhood ratings were left off the closure list. Those schools are Philadelphia Military Academy in North Philadelphia, Sheppard in West Kensington — which has successfully fought off closure in the past — and Francis Scott Key in South Philadelphia, the district’s oldest building, constructed in 1889. Sheppard and Francis Scott Key are both majority-Hispanic schools.
Sheppard Elementary School in West Kensington has faced the threat of closure in the past but was spared in the latest proposal.
The district plan calls for closing five schools in neighborhoods it deemed to have a “high risk” of vulnerability, the level below “very high”: Blankenburg, Harding, Stetson, Tilden, and Wagner.
Watlington has made it clear that the district is phasing out middle schools when possible, in favor of the K-8 model — and of that list, four are middle schools. Only Blankenburg, in West Philadelphia, is an elementary. Also, of those schools in vulnerable neighborhoods, four of the five are rated as having “unsatisfactory” buildings, the district found.
Perhaps no section of the city faces as much disruption from the recommendations as the lower part of North Philadelphia.
Fourteen schools with a combined enrollment of 5,400 students could be affected, including the closures of Ludlow, Morris, Penn Treaty, and Waring.
“If you are closing schools during a literacy crisis, then you should be held directly accountable to the people you serve,” Young said last week.
Right sizing mostly empty buildings
Underused space was a factor in the district’s decision-making, an Inquirer analysis found.
Data released by the district last year identified about 60 schools that were more than half empty. The recommendations attempt to realign some of these schools by taking significant action on 31 of the 60 half-empty schools.
Of the 20 schools the district wants to close, 14 are currently at less than half capacity.
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AMY Northwest, Conwell, Robert Morris, Motivation, Tilden, and Welsh are all recommended for closure, with each educating fewer than a quarter of the students they have room for.
Overbrook High in West Philadelphia — a 100-year-old school with roughly one in four seats filled — would remain open but begin sharing space with the Workshop School, a small, project-based high school located nearby.
Overbrook has received millions in funding from the state for remediation and a new roof. It also has a strong alumni association.
Overbrook High School in West Philadelphia has thousands of empty seats but was not tapped for closure. Instead, The Workshop School, a small, project-based high school now located in another West Philadelphia building, will colocate with Overbrook.
Having a more robust enrollment, however, did not save some schools from landing on the closure list. Harding, Parkway Northwest, Pennypacker, Robeson, and Stetson operate at 50% to 74% of capacity but would still close.
Besides shutting down underused schools, the plan would alter an additional 17 half-empty schools by moving them into colocations, adding grades, or otherwise expanding their use by taking in students from the closing schools.
To make it work, the district’s recommendations often involve a series of logistical steps. A pair of North Philadelphia neighborhood schools built in the 1960s are one example.
Hartranft, a K-8 school in North Philadelphia with a building rated in “good” condition but only 37% occupied, would take in students from Welsh, a school marked for closure. Welsh teaches the same grades but in a building rated “poor” about a half a mile away. The district would then convert the Welsh building into a new year-round high school.
John Welsh Elementary school is on the list of 20 schools proposed to close by the 2027-28 school year.
Getting students out of (some) fatigued buildings
By one city estimate, district schools need about $8 billion in repair costs for 300-plus buildings that are about 75 years old on average. Watlington’s plan calculates the district could do it for $2.8 billion.
Even with some investments over the last decade, many schools still have asbestos, lead, or mold issues. And many schools that don’t have bad building quality ratings still need improvements.
Eight schools recommended for closure are in buildings rated “unsatisfactory” by the district, its lowest score.
An additional 30 schools also rated “unsatisfactory” would remain open under the plan, including some expected to see an increase of students.
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Watlington wants the district to pay for $1 billion of the plan’s price tag with its own capital funds over the next decade. That would leave $1.8 billion unfunded, and he wants the state and philanthropic funders to cover the rest.
If the full $2.8 billion plan is funded, Watlington said, the district could improve every building labeled “poor” or “unsatisfactory.”
To achieve this, some buildings could get the same kind of treatment Frankford High received — a $30 million major renovation project to remedy significant asbestos damage. Students had to relocate into an annex and another building for two years while the work was done.
The district plan calls for some of the buildings in the worst shape to receive more students. Bache-Martin, Catharine, Howe, John Marshall, and Middle Years Alternative are in buildings that need significant upgrades, according to the district’s analysis, but all would take on more pupils.
In the case of Howe, the district wants to add grades to keep students who would have attended Wagner, a middle school that is proposed to close.
The district has said Bache-Martin would receive upgrades if the plan is adopted. For other schools, neither the timeline nor the fixes they would receive are clear.
The recommendations so far only mention a handful of schools set to modernize.
Among them is Comly, a K-5 in the Somerton neighborhood.
Comly now has 660 students enrolled, putting it at 107% of its capacity. But the district recommends modernizing the school and accepting middle grades students from the Comly and Loesche catchments. Students who now attend Loesche, another K-5, go to Baldi Middle School, which is also overcrowded.
Watson T. Comly Elementary School in Somerton. It’s slated to be modernized and accept more grade levels under the district’s proposed plan.
What appears to set schools like Bache-Martin apart from some of the closures is higher occupancy. Together, about two dozen schools that are more than half occupied would remain open, even though the buildings are “unsatisfactory.”
Schools on this list — like Barton Elementary, which runs at about 80% of its capacity — are harder to shutter or colocate if no nearby school has low attendance. That makes building upgrades a more logical solution.
But those two dozen schools are not the only ones in need of significant building upgrades.
An additional 45 schools currently operate in buildings rated slightly better at “poor,” the category just above “unsatisfactory.” The district recommends closing seven of them and colocating two.
And beyond that large number of fatigued schools, many others in poorly rated buildings will remain unchanged for now, with about 10 even taking in more students.
Watlington has said that in total, 159 schools would modernize over a decade if the plan is approved and fully funded, but absent extra state and private money, that number could drop.
City Councilmembers Kendra Brooks and Rue Landau on Thursday plan to formally introduce their “ICE Out” legislative package, which aims to place restrictions on federal immigration enforcement operations in Philadelphia.
The seven bills range from codifying into law Philadelphia’s existing “sanctuary city” policies to a controversial ban on law enforcement officers wearing masks. Almost all of the bills contain exceptions noting that they do not apply if Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents secure judicial warrants for their activities or are acting under superseding federal laws.
It’s likely that several of the bills will face legal questions, such as whether the mask ban is constitutional and whether Council has the authority to enact some of the rules the proposals seek to establish.
After the bills are introduced Thursday, Council President Kenyatta Johnson will refer them to committee. One or more hearings will likely be scheduled in the spring.
At that point, officials from Mayor Cherelle L. Parker’s administration, stakeholders, and experts will testify. Lawmakers could then amend the bills and vote on them in committee. If they advance, they would head to the Council floor for a final vote.
In a sign that the bills are likely to gain traction, Majority Leader Katherine Gilmore Richardson on Wednesday praised Brooks’ and Landau’s efforts.
“My heart breaks for everyone who has been impacted by ICE’s violent and dangerous actions and for everyone who feels afraid and unsafe in their communities,” Gilmore Richardson said, adding that she will work with other Council members “to protect our residents.”
If approved on final passage, the bills would head to Parker’s desk. The mayor can veto them, sign them into law, or allow them to become law without her signature.
Here’s what you need to know about each of the bills.
Banning ICE agents from wearing masks
Author: Brooks.
Key excerpt: “A law enforcement officer is guilty of criminal concealment if the law enforcement officer, while performing official duties and interacting with the public …. wears a mask, facial covering, disguise or any other garment that obscures the identity of the law enforcement officer, or fails to identify themselves to a subject of arrest, holding or detention.”
A person looks out of their vehicle as Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents walk away, Thursday, Jan. 15, 2026, in Richfield, Minn. (AP Photo/Adam Gray)
What it does: The bill would ban law enforcement officers from obscuring their identities with masks. It also would require officers to wear badges, and would make it an offense to conceal badges or to decline to provide identifying information if requested by people they are arresting. Additionally, the bill would ban officers from using unmarked vehicles.
Exceptions: The bill includes exceptions for undercover assignments, medical or religious masks, SWAT teams, and smoke-filtering masks worn during fires or similar emergencies.
How it would be enforced: The district attorney would be able to charge an officer with a summary offense, the lowest level of crime in Pennsylvania. If found guilty, the officer would pay a fine of $300 for each day the law was violated or face up to 90 days in prison.
Additionally, the bill would give any individual “aggrieved by a violation” the right to sue an agent for wearing a mask, with fines up to $2,000 per offense if a judge sides with the plaintiff.
Twist: This bill applies to all law enforcement officers, not just ICE agents. That includes city police. It is likely that the Philadelphia Police Department, which sometimes uses unmarked cars, will have something to say about the proposed rules once the bill gets a committee hearing.
Key excerpt: “No City Agency or Employee shall enter into, renew, or participate in a 287(g) Agreement with the federal government.”
What it does: The primary objective of this bill is to ensure the city never enters into a 287(g) agreement, in which local law enforcement officers are trained to perform immigration enforcement duties. (The agreement refers to a section of the U.S. Immigration and Nationality Act.) Philadelphia is not currently in a 287(g) agreement, so that provision would not have a significant impact in the near term.
But the bill includes several other notable provisions, such as prohibiting city employees from assisting immigration enforcement in any way, and requiring them to report requests to assist ICE to their superiors.
How it would be enforced: The city solicitor, Philadelphia’s top lawyer, would be responsible for suing city agencies or employees who violate the bill’s provisions. Potential consequences include a $2,000 fine and termination.
Kendra Brooks shown here during a news conference at City Hall on Tuesday to announce a package of bills aimed at pushing back against ICE enforcement in Philadelphia.
Prohibiting discrimination based on immigration status in city services
Author: Landau.
Key excerpt: “No City agency, official, employee, contractor or subcontractor shall …
“request information about a person’s citizenship or immigration status …
“condition the provision of City benefits, services, or opportunities on a person’s citizenship or immigration status or national origin …
“threaten, coerce, or intimidate a person based on their actual or perceived citizenship or immigration status [or] …
“initiate an investigation or take law enforcement action based on a person’s actual or perceived citizenship or immigration status.”
What it does: This bill aims to protect individuals from being treated differently based on their immigration status when dealing with city government services.
How it would be enforced: The city solicitor or anyone aggrieved by violations of the bill would be able to sue the offending city employee or agency.
Banning employment discrimination based on immigration status
Author: Landau.
Key excerpt:“It shall be an unlawful employment practice to deny or interfere with the employment opportunities of an individual based upon … citizenship or immigration status.”
What it does: The bill would add “citizenship or immigration status” to Philadelphia’s Fair Practices Ordinance, which prohibits employers from discriminating against workers based on characteristics including race, ethnicity, gender, and sexual orientation.
How it would be enforced: If the bill is approved, Philadelphians who feel their employers have discriminated against them based on their immigration status will be able to file complaints to the Philadelphia Commission on Human Rights, which adjudicates alleged violations of the Fair Practices Ordinance.
Rue Landau shown here at the Tuesday news conference.
Withholding data on citizenship and immigration status
Author: Landau.
Key excerpt: “No City agency … shall enter into any contractual agreement or arrangement with a federal agency or federal contractor to provide access to any data, database, or dataset where the purpose of such access includes assisting or supporting immigration enforcement operations.”
What it does: This bill aims to prevent the federal government from accessing city data that could help immigration agents determine individuals’ citizenship status.
It also would require the city to produce an annual report tallying federal data requests related to immigration status and any violations of the bill.
How it would be enforced: The city solicitor or any individual aggrieved by violations of the bill would be able to sue the offending city employee or agency.
Prohibiting immigration enforcement on city-owned property
Author: Brooks.
Key excerpt: “It is unlawful to use City-owned or controlled property for the purposes of staging, conducting or assisting federal immigration enforcement activities.”
What it does: The bill prohibits immigration enforcement operations on city-owned land, such as federal agents making arrests in city parks or ICE staging raids on municipally owned parking lots.
The bill also allows city agencies to post signs on municipal property stating: “This property is owned and controlled by the City of Philadelphia. It may not be used for immigration enforcement activities.”
How it would be enforced: The city solicitor may file a lawsuit to ask a judge to order the federal government to cease and desist from using city property.
Advocates and protesters on Tuesday in Center City call for ICE to get out of Philadelphia.
Requiring warrants for nonpublic areas of ‘Safe Community Spaces’
Author: Brooks.
Key excerpt: “No employee or agent engaged in official duties at a Safe Community Place shall have the authority to consent to permitting a law enforcement officer to enter a nonpublic area of the facility … to identify, arrest or otherwise impose a penalty upon a person for purposes of federal immigration enforcement.”
What it does: The bill would effectively require immigration agents to secure judicial warrants to access nonpublic areas in “Safe Community Spaces,” including city-owned or -controlled hospitals, libraries, courthouses, recreation centers, and other city facilities. Currently, agents can access those areas if they get permission.
The proposal also would also require judicial warrants for instances in which law enforcement seeks access to nonpublic areas “to identify or impose civil or criminal liability upon a person” exercising protected rights such as the freedom of speech, assembly, and petitioning.
Lastly, the bill would require city agencies to “identify property that has been, and is likely to be used by, immigration enforcement” and mark it with signage stating: “In nonpublic areas of this property, a judicial warrant is required for law enforcement activities and no voluntary consent may be solicited from any employee.”
How it would be enforced: Only the city solicitor can sue to enforce the bill’s provisions. Such a suit would not be filed against a federal agent. Instead, it would be filed against a staffer at a “Safe Community Space” who gave federal agents permission to access nonpublic areas at the facility.
Staff writers Anna Orso and Jeff Gammage contributed to this article.
What others are saying: “Highs: Compliant ride, upscale furnishings, impressive list of standard tech and safety features. Lows: A bit pokey for the segment, F Sport deserves to be sportier,” says Car and Driver.
What Lexus is saying: “The stylish Lexus luxury crossover.”
Reality: Not just stylish, but quick, fun, and supple. But don’t change songs or set the cruise.
What’s new: The midsize SUV from Lexus now features all-wheel-drive standard. It was last redesigned in 2022.
Up to speed: The F Sport adds a lot of oomph to the NX package. The 2.4-liter four-cylinder engine is turbocharged and creates 275 horsepower.
It roars to 60 mph in 6.6 seconds, according to Car and Driver. That’s actually a little slower than competitors, but it still feels quick. When left to its own devices, the NX 350 F Sport just seems to aim for 70 to 75 mph.
Shifty: The 8-speed automatic does its thing well, so you don’t have to. You can, though; the Prius shifter pattern (up-left for Reverse, down-left for Drive) adds a straight-down pull for Manual mode, and then the paddles take over. Toggle to your heart’s content.
On the road: All-wheel drive and the adaptive suspension combine to make the curves even more fun; the test model rolled through turns and even around corners like a much smaller vehicle. Sport and Sport+ modes are ideal; it can feel a little sluggish in the other modes.
The interior of the 2026 Lexus NX 350 F Sport definitely grabs your attention, and won’t let go.
Driver’s Seat: The NuLuxe seats are delightful, agree Mr. Driver’s Seat and the lovely Mrs. Passenger Seat. They hug, they cuddle, they make you happy like a good Lexus should. (The seats, not the happy couple. Or at least we don’t cuddle you.)
A favorites button on the infotainment screen should help get where you want to go.
If only all the controls were this simple. Read on.
Friends and stuff: People in the corners will be moderately happy, with comfortable seats and plenty of room to stretch out. The center seat is perched and the floor has a hump, so you need the person with the most balance sitting there. But only bring along forgiving friends because they’re going to get mad if they feel the front seats at some point.
Cargo space is 22.7 cubic feet in the back and 46.9 with the seat folded.
In and out: It’s not too big a leg lift to get into the NX.
Play some tunes: Oh, for crying out loud, there has to be someone at Lexus who gets as annoyed at the steering wheel buttons as I do. Every time I want to skip a song or replay a song, I’m left to wonder, “Will it take two stabs? One stab? Several stabs?” It always a mystery, while the hover function waits to recognize my thumbs hovering as intended. Do you really want this? Do other drivers on the road want you to have this?
And that’s not to mention when I want to move several songs forward or back. We’d been having such a good time up till now, but it’s ruined. Just when that dastardly touch pad is gone, too. (Yes, I know it’s been seven years, but it left a mark.)
Sound from the Mark Levinson Premium Audio ($1,020) system is good, probably an A-. Not super clear but pretty close. A volume knob is too small and fussy to be helpful. The touchscreen is large at 14 inches (part of a $2,865 F Sport package) and easy to operate. But those darn steering wheel buttons.
Steady speed: On the other side of the steering wheel, the cruise-control buttons add to the sadness. More confusion, and in this instance it would be impossible to pull over to set it.
Keeping warm and cool: Weird tire-shaped Lexus dials control the temperature, and then the ebony touch pad allows you to heat and cool the seats and adjust the fan or source. But there are all sorts of automatic control adjustments that get way too intricate for someone driving it around for a week, or, more important, trying to adjust things while driving.
Fuel economy: The test vehicle averaged 21.2 miles per gallon and didn’t budge at all while testing.
Where it’s built: Cambridge, Ontario.
How it’s built:Consumer Reports predicts the NX reliability to be a 4 out of 5.
In the end: The NX is a nice vehicle, if you can live with the controls. I don’t think I could.
Among competitors, if I wanted to throw caution to the wind, I’d go for the Stelvio — it’s just so much fun to drive. The GV70 is also nice, especially in full EV form.
Cailin Williams was always interested in hockey. Like most middle-school athletes, she just wanted to make friends and compete. It didn’t matter that she could barely skate — Williams just wanted to play.
But there was one issue: There was no league for her to play in.
In 2021, Comcast Spectator and the Flyers Training Center changed that. Together, they launched The Philadelphia Liberties, a youth hockey program for girls.
The girls train and practice out of the Flyers Training Center and often have a front-row view of Flyers practice. This past month, Flyers forward Trevor Zegras dropped in after a Liberties game to take pictures and meet some of the girls.
“I think it’s just something really cool to experience,” Williams, 16, said. “To be able to have this opportunity, knowing that I get to play when some people aren’t lucky enough to, and then I also get to share the same ice as professional players is really great.”
But it wasn’t necessarily a smooth start.
“We didn’t win one game [that first season],” said Flyers Training Center director of development Jeremy Hall. “Actually, I don’t know if we even scored a singular goal. But that first season was just something to get them started.”
Since then, the Liberties have only continued to expand. The organization started with just one team, but it now has three teams running across various age groups — 10U, 14U, and 19U — for a total of 53 girls in the program.
“We actually won a handful of games [the second season] and just really got some momentum going,” Hall said. “From that point forward, the growth in the last three to four years is honestly quite incredible to see where we’re at today, compared to where we were when we started. I’ve been in the rink here for 17 years, and I haven’t seen another program grow as fast and have had as much success as this one.”
Thank you to all of our staff, volunteers, and teams that make the Liberties Invitational an event we look forward to every year.
Four years ago the Invitational began with 7 teams. Since then this tournament has exceeded our wildest expectations pic.twitter.com/hR96VG6rrf
But the program’s goal wasn’t just getting more girls involved in hockey — it was about visibility for girls’ hockey in general.
In 2023, the program hosted the first Philadelphia Liberties Invitational, which featured seven teams. Three years later, the tournament hosted 45 teams ranging from 8U to 19U. And the visibility that has come from this expansion is setting up the players for a childhood full of opportunities.
These opportunities aren’t just limited to on the ice, though. Through the Flyers and Comcast, the girls have done ceremonial puck drops at Flyers games, have been invited to the White House to skate at the rink, and some players even met Jessica Campbell, an assistant coach for the Seattle Kraken and the first female coach in the NHL.
“Some of those opportunities come from [the Flyers’ Training Center] being our home,” Hall said. “That’s something that the girls definitely don’t downplay. They recognize that it’s a privilege.”
Philadelphia Liberties U16 player Emily Esposito does the ceremonial puck drop at a Flyers game against the Vegas Golden Knights on March 8, 2022, to celebrate International Women’s Day.
As the Liberties have expanded, girls’ hockey in general is on the same path.
“In the last two to three years, [girls’ hockey has] exponentially grown,” Flyers Training Center general manager Jay Freeman said. “Not only for us, but just in general, for the country.”
And that’s the goal of the Liberties: growth. In every possible way.
“I always tell my team that hockey is the most beautiful game in the world,” 19U coach Linda Rehmann said. “And any day you get to play it, you’re a lucky person. But the game is about more than what happens on the ice. Our organization is about growing good people, teaching life lessons that they’re going to take with them, adversity, teamwork, resilience, all kinds of things that I think when you’re in that intense, competitive sport environment, it just accelerates your learning process.”
Rehmann started her hockey journey in Canada when she was just 5 years old. She played with boys for the first seven years before making the transition to girls’ hockey.
Her journey led her to Cornell, where she won an Ivy League title as a sophomore and was cocaptain her senior year.
“Hockey played a huge role the first 22 years [of my life],” Rehmann said. “My whole life was basically centered around my hockey schedule, and I loved it. I really felt like it shaped who I became. I’m an engineer. Professionally, I feel very comfortable in rooms full of men, and I believe that competitive sport makes girls strong.”
Rehmann has been with the Liberties for the past three years, and that message of empowering girls and women has carried over to her athletes.
Congratulations to the New York Islanders and New Jersey Colonials!
After four days of non-stop action, the 4th annual Liberties Invitational has officially come to a close. pic.twitter.com/dS7ru89W9A
“Coach Linda, she’s been amazing,” Williams said. “I started out not really being able to skate very well, and now I can move, I’m doing good. I think a big part of it is having a really supportive group of coaches who are always there and want us to get better.”
Said Rehmann: “I’m getting a little bit teary just thinking about [how Liberties has changed these girls’ lives]. What we offer is a place where they can be themselves. They can be honest with each other; they can make mistakes.
“[They have social pressures in their lives], but at the rink, they can relax, they feel at home, they feel safe. I think that’s really what [this] is. [The Liberties] gives them a tremendous growth opportunity as an athlete. It shows that they’re willing to put [themselves] out there, try new things, and open [themselves] up to something else that [they] might otherwise not be willing to do.”
If you’ve never heard the parable of the “Prodigal Son,” you can watch it unfold in real time over the next few months on the PGA Tour.
LIV defector Brooks Koepka is back.
It’s the biggest moment in golf since Phil Mickelson announced he was joining the renegade league on June 6, 2022. Koepka, a five-time major championship winner, an all-American success story, is the first LIV player to kneel and beg forgiveness of the men that he betrayed.
This is biblical, if you will, in its importance to the golf world.
Briefly: Jesus, in Luke 15: 13-31, tells a tale in which the younger son of a rich man asks to have his inheritance immediately, so he can seek his fortune in the world. The son soon squanders the money, the economy collapses, and he hits rock bottom feeding pigs (sorry, LIV fans). The son then crawls back home, hoping his father will hire him as a servant. Instead, the father rejoices at his son’s return and calls for a feast, featuring a fatted calf.
In this analogy, Koepka is the son. New PGA Tour CEO Brian Rolapp is the father — or, perhaps the stepfather, considering Jay Monahan ran the Tour when Koepka followed dozens of other LIV defectors, all of whom Monahan banned, and who remain banned by Rolapp.
The feast of the fatted calf? That would be the Farmers Insurance Open, Koepka’s first tournament during his season of mild penance. It begins Thursday at Torrey Pines in San Diego. Harris English is the defending champion. Two-time major winner Xander Schauffele, ranked sixth, and U.S. Open champion J.J. Spaun, ranked seventh, lead a 147-player field that includes 25 of the top 50 players in the world.
But make no mistake: This is Brooks Koepka’s party.
But he’s bringing guests.
About 24 hours before Koepka’s marquee comeback tee time, golf’s biggest brat, LIV dud Patrick Reed, announced that he will return to the PGA Tour, too. Reed, who won just once on LIV, on Wednesday said in a statement that he will leave LIV and compete on the DP World Tour until Aug. 25, when he will be eligible to play in PGA Tour events. His DP performances have him ranked 29th in the world, which, along with his lifetime exemption as a Masters champion, virtually assures him entry to all four majors this year.
After careful thought and consideration, my family and I have decided that I will no longer compete on the LIV Golf Tour.
I am excited to announce that I am returning to the PGA TOUR as a past champion member for the 2027 season and am eligible to begin competing in PGA TOUR… pic.twitter.com/LFq61njCrh
The parameters of Reed’s imminent return are murky, and he has applied to return to the PGA Tour in 2027 as a past champion (he has nine wins), but he is not subject to the hastily constructed Returning Player Program (RPP) that Koepka’s interest spurred and targets only the biggest names on LIV.
One of the facets of the program produced a 147-player field at the Farmers. It would have been a 144-player field, but according to Rolapp’s RPP, the Tour couldn’t kick out an actual qualifier to add Koepka. However, adding Koepka made it necessary to add two other players to balance out the three-player groups. That meant alternates Lanto Griffin and Jackson Suber got spots.
The eventual return of Reed indicates that Rolapp is eager to build his business and to siphon talent from LIV, no matter how bad the optics or how minor the love. Reed, who won the Dubai Desert Classic last week on the DP World Tour, is a far less formidable presence than Koepka. Further, he has a reputation as a longtime cheater with a bad temper, a potty mouth, and little time for fellow competitors.
Patrick Reed, who won just once on LIV, is returning to the PGA Tour.
Rolapp might not kill the fatted calf for Reed, but, as Rolapp knows from his NFL days dealing with Bill Belichick and Tom Brady, every sport needs villains.
With a 12:32 p.m. EST tee time Thursday and a 1:38 p.m. tee time Friday, Koepka will be part of the featured group with Ludvig Åberg, an inoffensive rising Eurostar, and Max Homa, the PGA Tour’s social media genius.
The program is open to any LIV player who won a major from 2022-25 and has been away from the PGA Tour for at least two years, a group that includes only Koepka, Jon Rahm, Bryson DeChambeau, and Cameron Smith, all of whom have, so far, decided to stay with LIV. They have until Monday to change their minds, and then the application window closes.
So, for the foreseeable future, it’s the Brooks Koepka Returning Player Program.
As a punitive measure, the program restricts Koepka earning power from ancillary means, such as FedEx Cup bonus money and the Player Equity Program, for varied periods of time; makes sure that Koepka doesn’t bump anyone from any field; requires that he plays in at least 15 events this season; and demands a $5 million donation to charity.
None of this is especially “punitive” for the likes of Koepka, who reportedly made $165 million in signing bonus and winnings on LIV, added to his $43 million he made on the Tour.
Because it is the first real, tangible, important step into reconciling the best LIV players with the best players in the world, which is what fans deserve.
The Tour suffered from the absences of superb players in their primes such as Koepka, Rahm, DeChambeau, young Chilean star Joaquin Niemann, who has been the cream of the LIV Tour, and even Mickelson, whose game is garbage but whose name still would sell tickets on both the PGA and Champions tours.
The careers and games of all of the LIV players suffered, playing benign, inferior courses in 54-hole tournaments against laughable competition.
The game also lost personalities to LIV obscurity: Koepka’s surliness, Rahm’s earnestness, Dustin Johnson’s goofiness, Mickelson’s buttery condescension, and DeChambeau’s energetic petulance which, thanks to YouTube, has somehow transformed into energetic affability.
None of the LIV stars has sworn to never return to the PGA Tour, but no one is better suited to begin reconciliation than Koepka.
Brooks Koepka celebrates after a LIV win in 2024 with his wife, Jena Sims, and son Crew.
When he joined LIV in 2022, in contrast to most players who were clearly interested in only the sportswashing money offered by the Saudi-backed rival tour, Koepka was cast as a reluctant defector — a massive talent who feared that the injuries he’d been dealing with for months might derail the career of the most promising player since Rory McIlroy.
Koepka, mellowed by years of insignificance and decline, seemed repentant when he addressed his return at a Farmers news conference Tuesday. He was less like the Koepka who belligerently denied cheating at the 2023 Masters, when his caddie told Koepka’s playing partner which club Koepka had used, and more like the Koepka who, in 2018 at Shinnecock, won a second consecutive U.S. Open: reflective, appreciative, mature.
There are reasons for that.
Since winning the 2023 PGA Championship, which keeps him qualified for all majors, Koepka has finished inside the top 25 of his last eight majors just once. In 2025, he finished tied for 30th in the LIV rankings among just 52 regular players, many of them the definitions of “washed” and “obscure.” Koepka’s game is poor, and, at 35, time is running out.
His family life has changed, too. His wife, Jena Sims, suffered a miscarriage last fall.
Jena Sims has posted on Instagram that her and Brooks Koepka lost a pregnancy at 16 weeks earlier this year.
This is awful news and we’d just like to wish Jena, Brooks and Crew all the best 🙏 pic.twitter.com/NVsarKBVdD
Koepka, who has a 2½-year old son named Crew, enjoys fatherhood, and the international nature of the LIV Tour, combined with playing DP World Tour events in Europe to accumulate world golf ranking points, made a normal family life more difficult than he’d imagined.
“Just having my family around’s really important. I’ve grown up a lot over the last few years, and especially the last few months,” he said.
The timeline of his decision seems dubious on its face, both from him and the PGA Tour.
Koepka said Tuesday that he negotiated his release from LIV, finalized on Dec. 23, before contacting any PGA Tour entities regarding reinstatement. He said only then did he contact Tiger Woods, the chairman of the PGA Tour’s competition committee, and, voilá, just 19 days later, over the busiest holiday season of the calendar year, the PGA Tour had devised a comprehensive Return to Play protocol for the Koepka crowd.
It took five years for these guys to agree on how to limit golf ball flight. So, yeah.
The machinations that led to Koepka’s return are far less important than the reality of Koepka’s return. In many ways, Koepka was the PGA Tour’s biggest loss to LIV.
Rahm was more dynamic, DeChambeau was more interesting, Koepka was the best player, was the best athlete, was American, and was a major championship-winning machine.
Does McIlroy win eight times in Koepka’s absence? Does he complete the career Grand Slam last April if Koepka’s in good form?
More significantly, does Scottie Scheffler win 17 times, including three majors, if Koepka’s not honing his skills against Pat Perez on a burned-out course in Indiana? (Notably, Perez, Kevin Na, and Hudson Swafford also have been reinstated, sort of, pending unspecified penalties. Perez plans to join the Champions Tour when he turns 50 in March, pending penalties and fines.)
Maybe Koepka delays Scottie’s ascension, and maybe he slows Rory’s roll. Maybe not.
He isn’t likely to make much noise any time soon, especially at Torrey, where he’s missed four of five cuts at the Farmers.
At any rate, the game will be better for the presence of Koepka’s talent. His penalties aren’t nearly harsh enough, considering the hundreds of millions of dollars players like Sheffler, McIlroy, Rickie Fowler, Jordan Spieth, and Justin Thomas left on the table by declining LIV offers, but that isn’t Rolapp’s main objective.
Rolapp, the NFL’s former chief media and business officer, oversaw much of the growth of the most lucrative league in the history of the planet. Don’t expect Monday to be the last chance for the biggest LIV stars to return. Rolapp clearly will do anything he needs to do to accommodate the return of any player who can help the PGA Tour heal.
Just after noon on Thursday, Koepka, the prodigal son, begins that healing.
