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  • How Malvern’s Pa. Turnpike ramp sparked billions in economic development

    How Malvern’s Pa. Turnpike ramp sparked billions in economic development

    Michael Chain Jr. once had to exit the Pennsylvania Turnpike at Downingtown and drive a zigzag pattern on State Routes 100, 113, 401, and 29 to reach his hotel.

    So did his customers.

    But then the turnpike built Exit 320, an all E-ZPass interchange that connects to Route 29 and brings traffic right to the family-owned Hotel Desmond Malvern, a DoubleTree by Hilton.

    “It would easily take 20 minutes,” said Chain, general manager of the property. “Now you cut that in half, if not more.”

    When it opened in December 2012, the interchange helped spur billions in new commercial and residential development in Chester County’s Great Valley.

    Michael Chain, general manager at a hotel in Great Valley, says the Route 29 ramp has transformed his business.

    Corporate office parks expanded and new ones sprouted. Vanguard relentlessly expanded its campus for its 12,000 workers. Pharmaceutical and biotech companies moved there. Pfizer, Johnson & Johnson, Teva, and other pharmaceutical companies planted offices and research laboratories there.

    Thousands of people moved in to take advantage of the new jobs or a suddenly more convenient commute to Philadelphia and its inner-ring suburbs, Berks County, Lancaster, or even Harrisburg.

    More than 10 years later, the effects of the turnpike’s project are evident, but the real estate market is evolving to meet a lower post-pandemic demand for traditional office space and a higher demand for more housing.

    Through American history, transportation and development have been yoked. Towns and cities have grown around navigable rivers, post roads, national highways, railroads, interstates, turnpikes, and public transit.

    “This new interchange was explosive in terms of the economic impact in that particular region in a way I’m not even sure we had anticipated,” said Craig R. Shuey, chief operating officer of the Pennsylvania Turnpike.

    The key to success

    Experts caution it would be a mistake to attribute too much of the growth in the Great Valley solely to the turnpike exit.

    The area’s transition from agricultural and industrial to commercial mixed-use was already well underway when it opened. Real estate developers Rouse & Associates acquired land in 1974 and began building the Great Valley Corporate Center, a 700-acre business park.

    As the Pennsylvania 29 interchange was under construction, the U.S. 202 widening project occurred, helping ease the flow of traffic, although it still gets congested at peak hours.

    The Route 29 electronic toll interchange.

    The exit “plays well with an improved Route 202,” said Tim Phelps, executive director of the Transportation Management Association of Chester County.

    It’s also served by SEPTA Regional Rail Service and Amtrak, and there’s a connection to the 18.6-mile Chester Valley trail for biking, running, and walking.

    “The key is all the multimodal access to the area from different points,” Phelps said. “You move goods and freight along corridors and people to jobs; transportation is economic development.”

    New rise in residences

    Growth hasn’t been linear.

    ”Since COVID the office market has been struggling everywhere, and a couple of years ago the funding for biotech became harder to get,“ said John McGee, a commercial real estate broker and developer. ”Both of these events had a negative impact on demand for [office] space in Great Valley.”

    He and partners have turned an empty Exton office building into the Flats on 100, 24 studio and eight one-bedroom apartments, marketed to consultants and visitors who need to stay awhile while working with local companies.

    Other signs of a softer market in commercial space:

    • Malvern Green, a 111-acre office park owned by Oracle, is up for sale, marketed as a redevelopment opportunity. It has 759,000 square feet in four buildings on Valley Stream Parkway, off Route 29.
    • A 10.3-acre office property on Swedesford Road is slated to be demolished and turned into a mixed-use campus, with 250 apartments and about 6,700 square feet of retail and dining.

    With the pandemic rewriting the rules of work beginning five years ago, residential development has picked up, driven by housing scarcity and lack of affordability.

    Deb Abel, president of Abel Brothers Towing & Automotive, has seen the area evolve from her position as chair of the East Whiteland Planning Commission and as a member of the Chamber of Business & Industry.

    Deb Abel, chair of the East Whitefield Planning Commission, says workforce development is key to the area’s growth.

    “We talk all the time about workforce development,” Abel said. “People don’t want to come to work where they can’t afford to live.”

    More — and more affordable — housing is key both for current and future staffing needs. Workers shouldn’t have to commute from other areas with more housing options, Abel said.

    ‘A tangible asset’

    To Chain, the hotelier, travel time saved by the interchange is a tangible asset.

    “It improves the quality of life on a personal level, and [in business] I’m a beneficiary of people staying on the turnpike,” he said.

    As corporate travel budgets waxed and waned in the Great Recession and pandemic years, the Hotel Desmond beefed up other lines of business. An events space at the resort-like hotel now provides about half the revenues, Chain said.

    The interchange has helped him draw conference business from statewide associations, most of them in Harrisburg.

    And in recent years, youth sports travel teams from New York and New Jersey attending weekend tournaments in the region have filled rooms while using the interchange for easy access. Hockey teams are big.

    ‘A natural progression’

    A new multifamily project for Greystar Real Estate Partners is rising next to Route 29 on undeveloped land.

    IMC Construction is building a five-story, 267-unit apartment building featuring a rooftop lounge, fitness center, coworking space, pool courtyard, grilling stations, and more.

    IMC Construction signs and traffic markers along North Morehall Road in Malvern.

    A 133-unit “active adult” apartment building for people who are 55 and older is also under construction.

    Project manager Bob Liberato grew up in the area when Route 29 was a country road with one traffic light between Phoenixville and Route 30.

    It seems ironic now, but he remembers a petition circulating among fellow students at Great Valley High School to oppose the turnpike’s interchange proposal. Pretty much everybody signed.

    “We wanted to stop the turnpike because we liked our life,” Liberato said. “It was open, mostly fields and trees. Being able to go outside, have parties in the woods — all of that was great.”

    So what he’s doing now is, in a way, part of the circle of life.

    “We’re seeing a shift toward more residential projects, and there is a runway for more in the Great Valley,” said Liberato. With a scarcity of new development, ”it’s a natural progression in a lot of Philly suburbs.”

  • The first public Girl Scout cookie sale took place at the intersection of Broad and Arch Streets

    The first public Girl Scout cookie sale took place at the intersection of Broad and Arch Streets

    The Girl Scouts, founded in Savannah, Ga., in 1912 by philanthropist Juliette Gordon Low, held its first bake sale in 1917 to raise money for troop activities.

    The booming direct cookie sales business, however, was born in Philadelphia on Nov. 12, 1932, at the Philadelphia Gas Co., then located at the intersection of Broad and Arch Streets.

    That inaugural public Girl Scout cookie sale will be remembered Saturday at Center City’s PECO building, part of the Philadelphia Historic District’s weekly celebration of America’s 250th birthday. The historic district pays homage to events that happened in Philadelphia before anywhere else in America — and often the world — with a weekly day party called a Firstival.

    Artist Carol Cannon-Nesco, a top Girl Scout cookie seller as a child, celebrates the legacy of the Girl Scouts with pictures of the individual cookies.

    “It was the first time the Girl Scouts sold their cookies to people outside of their immediate community,” said Amanda Harrity, director of product programs for the Girl Scouts of Eastern Pennsylvania.

    In 1932, a Philadelphia Girl Scout told her parents that her troop needed a place to bake cookies in order to raise money for nurseries, Depression-era organizations that cared for children of working parents. The little girl’s parents, who worked at the Philadelphia Gas Co., got permission for the Scouts to bake cookies on the shiny new gas ranges in the gas company’s street-level windows.

    On the afternoon of Nov. 12, the Girl Scouts baked batch upon batch of their shamrock-shaped signature shortbread cookie, the Trefoil. The sweet, buttery aroma wafted through Center City streets and passersby asked if they could buy the cookies, hot out of the test kitchen’s ovens.

    The Girl Scouts agreed.

    Trefoils (shortbread) and peanut butter sandwiches, also known as Do-si-dos. (Dreamstime/TNS)

    “I don’t remember how many cookies we baked that day,” then 80-year-old Girl Scout Midge Mason told The Inquirer in 2001 when the state erected a historic marker at Broad and Arch, marking the sale. “I do know we baked a lot of cookies.”

    The next year, the Girl Scouts were back at the Philadelphia Gas Company to raise the money needed to pay off the mortgage of its facility at Camp Indian Run in Glenmoore, Chester County. (That facility closed in the early 2000s.)

    Yes, Philly is most definitely a basketball city. Dating all the way back to 1898.

    In 1934, the Philadelphia Girl Scouts hired Keebler — now Little Brownie Bakers — to bake Trefoils, selling them at 23 cents a box, making them the first Girl Scouts to sell commercially baked cookies.

    Two years later, Girl Scouts all around the country began using commercial bakeries to bake cookies for their yearly fundraiser.

    Today, more than 200 million boxes of cookies are sold in America at an average price of $6 a box; 3.5 million of those boxes are sold in Eastern Pennsylvania, Harrity said.

    Girl Scout cookies are baked in two bakeries in the country: ABC Bakers in North Sioux City, S.D., and Little Brownie Bakers in Louisville, Ky. There are 12 varieties of cookies including this year’s newest Exploremores, inspired by Rocky Road ice cream.

    Exploremores are the new flavor of Girl Scout cookie for the 2026 sales campaign.

    Seventy-five cents of every dollar from Girl Scout cookie sales are reinvested back into girl scouting, Harrity explained. In Eastern Pennsylvania, that includes maintaining 1,500 acres of property and underwriting Scouts’ camp experiences.

    This week’s Firstival is Saturday, Jan. 31, 11 a.m. — 1 p.m., at the PECO Building at 2300 Market Street. The Inquirer will highlight a “first” from Philadelphia Historic District’s 52 Weeks of Firsts program every week.

  • Swarthmore, Nether Providence take next step in merging fire departments

    Swarthmore, Nether Providence take next step in merging fire departments

    Swarthmore and Nether Providence are exploring a merger of fire departments to compensate for a drop in volunteers and aging equipment.

    The proposed merger would unite the South Media and Garden City fire companies in Nether Providence with the Swarthmore Fire and Protective Association.

    Swarthmore and Nether Providence commissioned Longwood Fire Chief A.J. McCarthy to study the challenges facing the three fire departments. He presented his report to both municipalities in early December.

    The report recommended creating one regional fire department to cover the two municipalities plus Rose Valley.

    McCarthy’s report highlighted a “critical” lack of volunteer firefighters and financial limitations.

    “Just because you haven’t had a disastrous fire doesn’t mean it’s not going to happen,” McCarthy said during a presentation of his report to Swarthmore Borough Council on Dec. 1. “I can tell you right now you’re not prepared for it.”

    Three Delaware Co. Township fire companies may merge into one.

    Swarthmore Mayor and Fire Chief Conlen Booth called the report “a vital first step” toward a merger.

    “The departments are going to need to sit down and look at these recommendations and then digest them,” Booth said. “And then identify ultimately what are ones that make sense for us.”

    Meet Conlen Booth, Swarthmore’s fire chief who just stepped into the mayor’s office

    A complete merger, forming one regional fire department, could take a year and a half to three years, he said, while something less formal could be completed more quickly.

    “I think there’s a very good chance that we would follow [the report’s recommendation] with maybe some nuances,” Booth said. “But there is no guarantee that happens and we could have other types of mergers, or we could start with other mergers and then evolve into that full merger.”

    Booth has a history of working in emergency services. He joined Swarthmore’s fire company in 2000, eventually working his way up to department chief.

    A single regional fire department would need new bylaws, a new charter, joint operation guidelines, and more. A complete merger would also require the departments to dissolve their existing nonprofit organizations and relief associations and create new ones.

    “A lot of these pieces are not difficult, it’s the sheer number of pieces that can be felt to be overwhelming,” Booth said.

    Nether Providence passed a resolution in support of the merger effort, but Township Manager Maureen Feyas declined to comment on the matter.

    The Swarthmore Fire & Protective Association firehouse.

    Lack of volunteers

    The biggest challenge for the fire departments is a drop in volunteers. In a 2023 report, Pennsylvania Fire Commissioner Thomas Cook said there were about 30,000 volunteers in the state at that time, down from 300,000 in the 1970s.

    South Media and Garden City operate solely with volunteers, while Swarthmore has some paid personnel.

    The report, however, says the full-time staff gives the department a “false confidence,” because they respond to both fire and medical emergencies. If two employees leave in the ambulance, that leaves only one behind with little volunteer support during daytime hours.

    The report also says South Media was “unable to produce a reliable and constant response” due to lack of volunteers.

    Garden City has had more success with volunteers. During a meeting in which McCarthy presented his report to Swarthmore Borough Council, he praised Garden City Chief Pat O’Rourke.

    “He’s doing an excellent job and is increasing volunteer numbers year-over-year, which is almost unheard of right now,” McCarthy said.

    Part of the reason these fire departments struggle to find volunteers is because they are located in affluent areas, McCarthy said, something he can attest to in his experience leading Longwood Fire Company in Chester County.

    “The area I protect has a very high cost of living, so I don’t have residents looking to do one of the most dangerous jobs in the world for free,” McCarthy said in the council meeting. “I have a lot of CFOs and CEOs. They’re busy in hospitals and law firms.”

    In 2024, Swarthmore had a median income of $146,992 and Nether Providence’s median income was $145,254, well above the national median of $83,730.

    The South Media Fire Company in Nether Providence.

    Equipment cost and maintenance

    A capital apparatus plan is also needed for upgrading and maintaining expensive fire trucks, ambulances, and other lifesaving equipment, the report states.

    Trucks have doubled in price over the last three years and take about five years to deliver, he said at the Swarthmore Borough Council meeting.

    “These things have to be planned out,” McCarthy said. “You can’t spend $2.5 million to replace a ladder truck and only start talking about it four months before you order it.”

    One of Swarthmore’s trucks costs more to maintain than to use, he said.

    Crozer’s closing

    The closing of Crozer-Chester Medical Center also put a burden on the area, with more medical emergencies to cover.

    Swarthmore stood up an ambulance service that can provide advanced life support in response to the closure, and it nearly doubled the number of calls the department responds to in a month, Booth said.

    The loss of Crozer’s ambulance service also means departments are being pulled further away to cover medical emergencies, causing a chain reaction where other departments are called to cover for them.

    Crozer’s new owner, Chariot Equities, said last week it hoped to reopen the hospital and resume emergency services in the county within two years.

    This suburban content is produced with support from the Leslie Miller and Richard Worley Foundation and The Lenfest Institute for Journalism. Editorial content is created independently of the project donors. Gifts to support The Inquirer’s high-impact journalism can be made at inquirer.com/donate. A list of Lenfest Institute donors can be found at lenfestinstitute.org/supporters.

  • Letters to the Editor | Jan 29, 2026

    Letters to the Editor | Jan 29, 2026

    Defund ICE

    Words sufficient to describe the horrors of this administration and the complicit Republicans have long left me. Our senators, though, have an opportunity to slow the imposition of authoritarian rule by voting to remove U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement funding from the current appropriations package. There is no need to shut the government down again if that particular funding package is cut to be addressed another day. The Trump administration has been squirreling away money in offshore accounts in Qatar, but any pushback from the Senate will send a message that democracy isn’t dead yet.

    Mary Ann Hanna, Media

    History repeats

    Unfortunately, governments murdering citizens and then lying about it is nothing new. I know because my grandfather was present when a band of government thugs attacked a group of people, killing four of them and injuring many more. The government lied and said shots had been fired at the thugs, and they were just acting in self-defense. So what we are witnessing in Minnesota is from an age-old playbook. In my grandfather’s case, the year was 1933, and the leader in charge was Adolf Hitler. I never thought that all these years later, I would live to see it happen in America.

    Stefan Keller, Huntingdon Valley

    No moral conviction

    The tone of the civil rights and social justice movements of the 1960s and the anti-Vietnam War protesters of the 1970s had some moral character. In contrast, these U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement-related protesting mobs are fundamentally different from those times, as they have no morals and no credibility. This endless massive wave of anti-ICE protesters — their chaotic confrontations with federal agents, their disrupting of a Christian church service — is creating even more emotional volatility, rather than any unified moral conviction of the ’60s and ’70s.

    Fueled by social media, the United States is now more polarized than ever before. As unrest continues to escalate, the armed military waits to get involved. We are now watching the collision of federal immigration enforcement and protesters (who I sincerely believe are being paid). The situation is now so unstable that it’s like we’re all just waiting for the next shooting. As law enforcement takes sniper positions, preparing for the mob’s coordinated violence, should we not take a minute of silence before the gunfire starts?

    Carl Marchi, Holliston, Mass.

    Standing on truth

    I thank special counsel Jack Smith for his calm, factual, disciplined, and courageous public testimony before Congress last week. He laid out evidence in the criminal cases against Donald Trump, including the persistent lie of a “stolen” 2020 election, without theatrics or spin.

    Mr. Smith did not editorialize or inflame. He stated the evidence and the law, exactly as his role requires.

    The response from President Trump was telling. While Mr. Smith testified before the House Judiciary Committee, Trump attacked him on Truth Social, calling him a “deranged animal,” and directing Pam Bondi to investigate him. That is not oversight. It is intimidation. It is retaliation.

    One man testified to facts and law. The other resorted to insults and threats. That contrast explains far more about the state of our democracy than any talking point ever could.

    History will take note.

    Maria Duca, Philadelphia

    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.

  • Horoscopes: Thursday, Jan. 29, 2026

    ARIES (March 21-April 19). Even when the work is important, you try to appear relaxed because overseriousness seems uncool when there are so many people in the world handling all kinds of challenges. Don’t doubt or judge yourself. Your instincts are legendary.

    TAURUS (April 20-May 20). You’re not wrong or vain to think about the optics of a situation. A reputation is a thing you own, like property. It’s an asset that you can leverage. Like all possessions, a reputation requires maintenance. You’ll make updates today.

    GEMINI (May 21-June 21). The answers are not in the attic of your mind, so no need to crawl through those cobwebs. The world around you will show you every single thing you want to know. All you have to do is slow down and observe.

    CANCER (June 22-July 22). Balancing work and play is challenging when all you want to do is play and all there is before you is work. But if you can turn the work into play, you’re golden. It’s done with an attitude. Your approach makes all the difference.

    LEO (July 23-Aug. 22). Your predictions will be accurate because you are a realist. Friends and loved ones will behave true to form, particularly in the form you have come to learn they tend to take, and not the form hopefully projected upon them.

    VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sept. 22). The good life is your current life. It’s good because you know this. Your senses take you to a vivid experience of things. To live fully, you don’t need to go anywhere or become anything other than what you already are.

    LIBRA (Sept. 23-Oct. 23). Your talent for organization kicks in. You want to move a mountain, so little by little you will make it move. You can make this clean and orderly. Amazing what a few containers and shelves can do.

    SCORPIO (Oct. 24-Nov. 21). As generous as you are, it’s good to keep reminding yourself that if you’re not the one deciding about the people, projects and terms of your life, then it gets decided for you. Stay at the center of your life.

    SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 22-Dec. 21). When something is personal, we can’t see it very well, the way we don’t see our own backs very well. We need mirrors and the eyes of others to get the whole perspective. Those lenses aren’t necessarily correct, but they do give more information.

    CAPRICORN (Dec. 22-Jan. 19). You’re looking forward to the day you get to the goal. It doesn’t mean you’re not engaged now. Of course there is no real success without a journey. What’s happening right now inside this work is golden, and you know it.

    AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb. 18). When life comes at you fast and colorful, it inspires excitement and awe. There is just as much of that in the slow shadows of your interior world today. Treasures will gleam in the silence.

    PISCES (Feb. 19-March 20). There’s a lot happening in your realm today that is not your responsibility, and yet, whatever you do to improve it will make your life much easier. Can you take it on unofficially? Anonymously?

    TODAY’S BIRTHDAY (Jan. 29). Welcome to your Year of the Stellar Fit. You discover where your skills are needed most and step into a role that seems made just for you. Meaningful, energizing work leads to recognition and the compensation you always knew was possible. More highlights: romantic sparkle, memorable gatherings and travel stories you’ll tell for years. Leo and Pisces adore you. Your lucky numbers are: 3, 22, 31, 8 and 27.

  • Dear Abby | Husband wants young familly to uproot for a new job

    DEAR ABBY: My husband and I are raising our 7-month-old daughter together, and we generally get along well. I love him very much, but he has a habit that worries me. He’s constantly on the lookout for a new job. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing, but every couple of months he says he’s bored and wants to work somewhere else. These are decent-paying jobs, but they never pay much more than what he’s earning now. They are also not always located in the same city or even the same state we live in.

    I don’t oppose moving away or moving up, but I don’t want to move clear across the country when the benefit won’t significantly add to what we have now and the relocation creates a burden with moving expenses.

    Recently, my father made an offhand comment during a conversation about a business that offers good pay, benefits, etc. — nearly the same benefits and pay my husband is receiving now. It would require that we move out of state, and I’d have to search for a new job.

    My husband has been at his current job less than a year, and I have been at mine less than six months. We just signed a new lease on our apartment. He wants to break the lease and move. What can I do to convince him that this is not a strategic move for our family at this time?

    — STRESSED-OUT WIFE AND MOM

    DEAR STRESSED-OUT: I don’t recommend breaking your lease and moving at this point because it will damage your credit. I don’t know what your husband’s problem is — whether he has trouble getting along with his co-workers or attention deficit disorder — but things won’t improve until you determine the cause.

    Neither of you has a solid job history. In a few short years, your daughter is going to be in preschool, and you do not want to constantly disrupt her education or socialization. Stay put until a move will be more financially beneficial.

    ** ** **

    DEAR ABBY: An elderly couple moved in next door. They once mentioned that they believed mothballs would keep ants away. That’s not all. Every time they open their garage door, we get blasted with the stench. It is so pungent we must retreat inside our house, which is about 80 feet from their property. We can’t open our windows, sit on our deck or do yard work outside until their garage door comes down. I don’t know how they stand it. How can we let them know it’s affecting our quality of life without causing a permanent rift?

    — STUNK OUT IN PENNSYLVANIA

    DEAR STUNK OUT: Contact your local health department to report what you are enduring and to share your concerns. Mothballs are not supposed to be used in the manner you have described. If you live in an area with a homeowner’s association, it also may be able to help. However, if there ISN’T one, you may have to bite the bullet and ask these neighbors to close their garage door more quickly because the scent of mothballs is making you ill.

  • Former Willingboro mayor is found guilty of mortgage fraud

    Former Willingboro mayor is found guilty of mortgage fraud

    The former mayor of Willingboro Township and a business associate were found guilty by a federal jury of mortgage fraud, the U.S. Attorney’s Office in New Jersey said Wednesday.

    Nathaniel Anderson, 59, who is still a town councilman in Willingboro, and Chrisone D. Anderson, 58, of Sicklerville, were each convicted of one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud affecting a financial institution, one count of bank fraud, and two counts of making a false statement on a mortgage application, said Senior Counsel Philip Lamparello from the prosecutor’s office.

    The jury deliberated for less than three hours after a two-week trial before U.S. District Judge Robert Kirsch in federal court in Trenton, Lamparello said.

    Sentencing is scheduled for June 1. “Though we respect the jury’s decision, we plan to appeal this conviction to the Third Circuit Court of Appeals,” Troy A. Archie, attorney for Chrisone Anderson, said in an email.

    Anderson was represented by federal public defenders who could not be reached Wednesday night.

    The Andersons, who are not related, conspired to save Nathaniel Anderson’s home, which was facing foreclosure in 2015, by orchestrating a fraudulent short sale to Chrisone Anderson, prosecutors said.

    The scheme involved Chrisone Anderson posing as a buyer of the home and claiming that Nathaniel Anderson would no longer live there so that his mortgage lender would forgive the rest of his loan.

    The fraudulent misrepresentations included that Chrisone Anderson would occupy the home as her primary residence, prosecutors said.

    Nathaniel Anderson’s problems with his residency began in 2009 as he and his then-wife fell behind on mortgage payments, prosecutors said.

    The couple divorced, but Anderson wanted to keep his home through a short sale. That’s a process by which a mortgage lender agrees to write off the remaining debt of a mortgage holder in default — provided the holder can arrange a sale of the property to dispense with most of the remaining debt.

  • Jason Kelce and Michael Strahan share their Super Bowl predictions, recap Championship Sunday, and more from ‘New Heights’

    Jason Kelce and Michael Strahan share their Super Bowl predictions, recap Championship Sunday, and more from ‘New Heights’

    On the latest episode of New Heights, Jason and Travis Kelce break down Championship Sunday and make their Super Bowl predictions.

    The brothers welcomed Hall of Famer Michael Strahan, who spoke about his transition to television host after his NFL career and shared some personal anecdotes of his time with the Giants.

    Here’s what you missed from this week’s New Heights …

    Championship Sunday recap

    Strahan was quick to point out that Denver should have beat New England — and even Houston should have came up with a win over the Patriots in the divisional round two weeks ago, he said.

    “[Denver] should have kicked that field goal and gone up,” Strahan added. “Early on, take the points — but I don’t get these coaches now because fourth down now is automatic go for it more than it’s not.

    “I get analytics but you got to feel the team. You got to feel the situation. … I felt bad for Sean Payton — I talked to him before the game, very confident in what they were doing.”

    Michael Strahan said Denver Broncos head coach Sean Payton was “very confident in what they were doing,” ahead of their matchup against New England in the AFC Championship.

    In the NFC Championship, Jason, Travis, and Strahan acknowledged the tough battle between the Rams and Seahawks, but were happy to see Seattle quarterback Sam Darnold get his opportunity on the big stage.

    “I’m happy for Sam Darnold,” Strahan said. “I played in New York, it’s hard. He comes in here as the third overall pick, doesn’t go well, gets beat down; mentally, physically, and then five teams in eight years, and everyone thinks he’s washed.

    “Why Seattle pay him all this money? Now you see why.”

    Super Bowl predictions

    When it comes to Super Bowl LX, there seemed to be a mutual consensus on a favorable winner.

    While Travis Kelce can’t share his opinion since he’s still in the league, he said he’s looking forward to watching the matchup between Seattle receiver Jaxon Smith-Njigba and Patriots cornerback Christian Gonzalez.

    Milton Williams, Jason Peters, and more Philly connections to Super Bowl LX

    As for Jason Kelce and Strahan, they were in agreement: Seattle.

    “I think Seattle has the edge,” Strahan said. “I don’t think it’s going to be a cakewalk — football’s not like the other sports, if you don’t show up with your best one day, it’s a wrap.”

    Jason Kelce, however, did praise the Patriots’ defense, noting their not getting enough credit.

    Strahan reflects on playing career

    Strahan, who spent 15 seasons with the Giants, said his real challenge in the NFL came five years into his career, when Jon Runyan was traded from Tennessee to the Eagles.

    “The whole thing was ‘We brought him to Philly to stop Strahan,’ which pissed me off,” Strahan said.

    “I studied Jon Runyan probably more than I studied anybody. I could tell what he was going to do before he could do it.”

    Michael Strahan gets blocked by former Eagle Jon Runyan on Jan. 1, 2001.

    As the two went head-to-head throughout their careers, the tougher the matchup became: Runyan got savvier and Strahan studied more. But the two ended their careers as friends. Strahan even recalled how Runyan attended Strahan’s Hall of Fame induction ceremony.

    “Jon made me a better player, because playing against him made everyone else seem easy,” he said.

    Life outside of the NFL

    Strahan retired from the NFL in 2008 and quickly got involved with television and broadcasting. He’s appeared as a football analyst on Fox NFL Sunday, and served as a co-host of ABC‘s Good Morning America.

    WIP host worries bad fans are hurting Eagles’ OC search, but national reporter says there’s more to it

    He shared some retirement advice on the podcast, including how to think about life after being a professional athlete, how he prepared himself for a new career, and when he knew it was time to walk away.

    “I realized, for me, after 15 years, I had done everything,” Strahan said. “There was no way I was going to cry at the final press conference. I knew I had put everything I had into it.”

  • What is Unrivaled, which kicks off its tour in Philly Friday night, and how is it different from the WNBA?

    What is Unrivaled, which kicks off its tour in Philly Friday night, and how is it different from the WNBA?

    The WNBA kicks off its 30th season in May, but that doesn’t mean fans have to wait until the spring to see stars take the court.

    Unrivaled, the three-on-three professional women’s basketball league, tipped off its season on Jan. 5. In its second season, the league is hitting the road for Philly is Unrivaled, in which four of the eight teams will head to Xfinity Mobile Arena for a doubleheader.

    Here’s everything you need to know:

    What is Unrivaled?

    Unrivaled is a three-on-three professional women’s basketball league that provides WNBA players with an opportunity to play domestically during the offseason.

    Its inaugural season tipped off on January 17, 2025, with six teams. The league now has eight teams and a total of 54 players.

    Here’s why Unrivaled picked Philadelphia to be the first stop on its nationwide tour

    The teams are: Laces, Mist, Rose, Lunar Owls, Phantom, Vinyl, and the two new additions — Hive and Breeze.

    Gameplay features three seven-minute quarters with a game clock, an 18-second shot clock, and six fouls per player.

    The fourth quarter of play uses a “winning score” rule. This means at the end of the third quarter, officials determine a winning score by adding 11 points to the leading team’s score. The first team to get to that winning number wins the game.

    In addition to the two new teams, another change this season is a development pool of six players. None of these athletes are assigned to a specific team at the start of the season but remain on-site and serve as injury-relief players.

    Lunar Owls forward Napheesa Collier (right) and Skylar Diggins are among injured Unrivaled players this season.

    How did Unrivaled start?

    WNBA players Breanna Stewart and Napheesa Collier founded Unrivaled in 2023 to give players a new option for offseason play.

    Within just one year, the league raised $35 million in capital and attracted sponsors like Miller Lite and Under Armour, while being backed by other professional athletes including U.S. women’s soccer star Alex Morgan.

    Unrivaled began with six teams and 36 total players, with each of the 36 earning more than $220,000 in salary. The league also offers players equity and revenue sharing, which has created an incentive for WNBA players to not head overseas during the offseason.

    In its second season, the league will feature more than a dozen first-time players, including Los Angeles Sparks guard Kelsey Plum, Indiana Fever guard Kelsey Mitchell, and Dallas Wings guard Paige Bueckers.

    Diane Richardson is an advocate for the WNBA. She says Unrivaled will get Philly ready for its franchise.

    What is Philly is Unrivaled?

    While Unrivaled games typically are played at Sephora Arena in Medley, Fla., the 2026 season has one scheduled stop in Philadelphia.

    Philly is Unrivaled, a doubleheader announced in October at LOVE Park, is set for Friday at Xfinity Mobile Arena.

    Game 1 is Breeze against Phantoms (7:30 p.m.), while the second game features last year’s champion, Rose, against the Lunar Owls (8:45 p.m.).

    Breeze guard Paige Bueckers (5) is defended by Phantom guard Tiffany Hayes in their Unrivaled season opener.

    How can I watch Unrivaled?

    For the 2026 season, Unrivaled games can be viewed on traditional TV via TNT and truTV or streamed on HBO Max. Both games of Philly is Unrivaled will air on those channels.

    Stateside Live! has partnered with the league and Miller Lite to offer watch parties for Friday’s doubleheader. The official pregame begins at 4:30 p.m.

    Who should I be on the lookout for?

    Natasha Cloud, a guard for Phantom, is a Broomall native and graduate of Cardinal O’Hara and St. Joseph’s. Cloud, a three-time WNBA All-Defensive team honoree, was traded to New York Liberty ahead of the 2025 WNBA season after stints with the Phoenix Mercury and Washington Mystics.

    This also is a pro hoops homecoming for North Philly native Kahleah Copper, who plays for Rose and the Mercury. She starred at Prep Charter before moving on to Rutgers. Copper, a four-time WNBA All-Star, also won a gold medal with the United States women’s basketball team at the Paris Olympics in 2024.

    While she won’t be competing in Philly is Unrivaled, former Villanova star Maddy Siegrist is playing for Laces in her debut Unrivaled season. Siegrist set Villanova’s all-time scoring record before getting drafted third overall by the Wings.

    Can I still get Unrivaled tickets?

    While Philly is Unrivaled is officially sold out, tickets are still available on the secondary market via websites such as Ticketmaster and StubHub. Prices started at $35 for standing room only, as of Wednesday afternoon.

    Unrivaled tickets for the league’s Florida games can be purchased on their website or resale ticket websites, including Ticketmaster, Vivid Seats, and GoTickets.

  • Trump administration reveals location of dismantled slavery exhibits from the President’s House in new legal filing

    Trump administration reveals location of dismantled slavery exhibits from the President’s House in new legal filing

    Informational exhibits about slavery removed by the National Park Service from the President’s House Site last week are being kept in storage at a facility adjacent to the National Constitution Center, according to a legal filing from the Trump administration.

    The exhibits will remain in the park service’s custody at the center, down the street from the President’s House, pending the outcome of the City of Philadelphia’s federal lawsuit against the Department of Interior and the National Park Service for taking down the exhibits.

    But the center said it has no role in storing the exhibits.

    “The storage facility [where the exhibits are being kept] is entirely under control and operation of the Park Service,” said a spokesperson for the Constitution Center, adding that the center does not have possession of or access to the space.

    Mayor Cherelle L. Parker’s administration is seeking an injunction to return the exhibits to the President’s House, which aims to educate visitors on the horrors of slavery and memorializes the nine people George Washington enslaved at the site during the founding of the United States.

    Jali Wicker records NPS workers remove interpretive panels at the President’s House site in Independence National Historical Park Thursday, Jan. 22, 2026. More than a dozen educational displays and illustrations about slavery were removed from the site, which serves as a memorial to the nine people George Washington enslaved there during the founding of America.

    The location of the removed exhibits was revealed Wednesday in a motion objecting to the city’s injunction. The motion was filed by U.S. attorneys and assistant Attorney General Brett Shumate, representing Interior Secretary Doug Burgum, acting National Park Service Director Jessica Bowron, and their respective agencies.

    The legal filing also provides further details into what transpired last Thursday when park service employees removed exhibits about slavery at the President’s House.

    Park service employees dismantled the exhibit after Bowron ordered Steve Sims, the park service’s acting regional director, to have workers remove the panels and turn off video displays at the site, according to the filing. Sims said the takedown was carried out the same day that Bowron requested it.

    There is also a remaining sign made of wood in a metal structure that was not removed last week because additional tools were needed.

    “When and if NPS removes the sign, it will be stored with the other panels,” Sims said in a declaration included in the legal filing.

    The footprints embedded in the site and the Memorial Wall featuring the names of the nine people Washington enslaved will stay at the President’s House, he said.

    Last year, Burgum and President Donald Trump ordered content at national parks that could “inappropriately disparage Americans past or living” to be reviewed and potentially removed.

    In addition to the actions in Philadelphia, the National Park Service has reportedly removed signage about the mistreatment of Native Americans from the Grand Canyon, among other changes implemented under the orders.

    Tuesday’s filing previews the Trump administration’s legal argument for a hearing scheduled Friday on Philadelphia’s suit, which could be used in other cases around the country.

    The attorneys claim in the filing that this case is “fundamentally a question of Government speech,” and they accuse the city of trying to “censor” the federal government.

    “Such interests are especially weighty where, as here, the City effectively seeks to compel the Federal government to engage in speech that it does not wish to convey,” the attorneys wrote.

    The city’s suit has received legal backing from Gov. Josh Shapiro and the Avenging the Ancestors Coalition, an advocacy group that helped establish the President’s House in the early 2000s.

    The exhibit takedown has been a heartbreak for those who helped develop the site and for Philadelphians who have left artwork memorializing what the site used to be.

    In a video posted to social media Tuesday, Parker said that her administration would keep “fighting” to have the panels restored to the site as the city prepares to play a central role in the nation’s 250th anniversary celebrations in July.

    “This history is a critical part of our nation’s origins, and it deserves to be seen and heard, not just by the people of Philadelphia, but by every person who comes to Philadelphia from around our nation and the world to see and learn from, especially as we celebrate our Semiquincentennial 250th birthday, I want the world to know you cannot erase our history,” she said.

    This story has been updated to include a comment from the National Constitution Center.