La Salle advanced to the Atlantic 10 quarterfinals with a 59-51 win over St. Louis in the second round of the conference tournament on Thursday at the Henrico Sports & Events Center in Glen Allen, Va.
The sixth-seeded Explorers (18-12, 10-8 A-10) were led Ashleigh Connor’s 16 points.
La Salle won its 18th game of the season, the best win total for Mountain MacGillivray in his eight seasons as head coach. It is the most wins for an Explorers team since 2006-07, when La Salle finished 19-11.
La Salle has won six of its last seven games and will make its first appearance in an A-10 quarterfinal since 2021 when the Explorers face third-seeded Richmond on Friday night.
— Atlantic 10 Women's Basketball (@A10WBB) March 6, 2026
Aryss Macktoon scored 15 points and pulled down 14 rebounds. The redshirt sophomore guard was recently named the A-10 Defensive Player of the Year.
Alyssa Koerkenmeier led St. Louis with 18 points. Koerkenmeier, the A-10 Rookie of the Year, also grabbed 12 rebounds and blocked five shots.
La Salle’s Aryss Macktoon (center) finished with 15 points and 14 rebounds against St. Louis on Thursday night.
What we saw
La Salle never trailed, but its lead stayed within a few possessions for much of the first half. An extended 12-2 Explorer run over the final 6 minutes, 16 seconds of the second quarter pushed La Salle’s lead to 10 at halftime.
Macktoon scored eight points in the second quarter, including a turnaround mid-range jumper before halftime.
— Atlantic 10 Women's Basketball (@A10WBB) March 6, 2026
Both offenses sputtered in the third quarter. St. Louis was held scoreless for a 6:43 stretch but still outscored La Salle by three in the frame. The Explorers had a 42-35 advantage entering the fourth.
Despite going scoreless from the field over the final 2:57 of the game La Salle held on for the win.
La Salle led by as many as 10 points in the fourth, but the Billikens trimmed the Explorers’ lead to four with 1:13 remaining.
With a chance to make it a one-possession game, St. Louis’ Alexia Nelson drove into the lane against Macktoon, but her shot was blocked by a rotating Amiya Moses to keep La Salle’s lead at four with 22 seconds to go.
Up next
No. 6 La Salle will face No. 3 Richmond in the A-10 quarterfinals on Friday (7:30 p.m., CNBC).
There were two things hanging over the Flyers at Xfinity Mobile Arena on Thursday night: the impending NHL trade deadline and extending their winning streak.
But as the minutes continued to tick off until Friday’s 3 p.m. deadline, the Flyers’ inability to win four straight kept on going with a 3-0 loss to the Utah Mammoth.
It is the third time this season the Flyers have been shut out, and it’s been more than two years since the Flyers strung together a four-game winning streak. The last ended with a 5-3 win against the Arizona Coyotes, who are now the Mammoth, on Feb. 12, 2024.
From the drop of the puck on Thursday, it was a lackadaisical effort by the Flyers that saw them muster just 44 shot attempts and 16 shots on goal, tying the season low set on Feb. 5 in a 2-1 overtime loss to the Ottawa Senators. It is the 10th time this season that they have not put at least 20 shots on goal.
“I think we’ve got to simplify our game, go to the net hard, drive to the net hard, get some bodies there, bring pucks to the net,” captain Sean Couturier said. “It almost feels like we’re trying to play on the outside and find a backdoor tap-in, which is hard to do in this league.
“I think if we simplify things, eventually things will open up. But I think we’re too content on playing a little bit on the outside at times.”
In the first period, the Flyers had four shots on goal, despite having a power-play opportunity.
“I think the first 10 [minutes] kind of dictated [play]. We were soft; execution was tough,” said coach Rick Tocchet, who also said the Flyers didn’t push back.
Added defenseman Rasmus Ristolainen: “I feel like at times we might have got a little bit outworked and outbattled, and I think that’s where we should start every game, and obviously we didn’t do that enough tonight.”
To be fair, Utah also had only four shots in the first period, but in the second, the Mammoth broke through on two of their 14 shots.
Lou Nolan didn’t even have time to announce the penalty before Nick Schmaltz found the back of the net to give Utah a 1-0 lead less than two minutes into the frame. Eight seconds after Noah Cates was called for holding the stick, Dylan Guenther curled off the boards and into the high slot before going against the grain to Schmaltz on the goal line for the shot.
“Just didn’t play hard enough tonight,” defenseman Travis Sanheim said. “They’re a tough team to play against. They battle hard, hard on the walls, and make it tough on you. And we weren’t willing to play that style so hard to win when you don’t dig in and win those battles.”
Less than seven minutes later, it was 2-0 on a goal by Clayton Keller, who just helped the United States win gold at the Winter Olympics.
Off a faceoff, Sanheim got the puck from Matvei Michkov, who took his spot at the left point and carried the puck down and around the net, trying a wrap-around. The puck slid off his stick, and while he tried to regroup, he eventually lost the puck to Guenther.
Utah’s speedy forward chipped the puck around Ristolainen, and as Sanheim backchecked and tried to cut off Guenther, Keller split through a hole with Michkov too far over.
“What do you want me to say?” Tocchet retorted when asked about the play.
“Yeah, I tried to make a play at the net,” Sanheim said. “And then as it came up, Risto goes to step up on, I think it was on Guenther, and I saw that we had an F3, so I thought I could play Guenther on the wall. Obviously misread it with Mich, and obviously don’t want to give up a breakaway at that time of the game.”
Michael Carcone added an empty-netter for Utah in the third period.
Now the question is, who will be here after the trade deadline at 3 p.m. on Friday?
Flyers defenseman Rasmus Ristolainen has been a hot name in trade deadline rumors.
Ristolainen, whose name is swirling as someone more than likely getting traded, suited up and skated more than 22 minutes in his 800th NHL game.
“I can’t really control that,” Ristolainen said. “So I just try to come in every day, and obviously [Friday], we’ll see what happens.”
Did the pending trade deadline impact the team?
“Hard to say, maybe for some guys, I guess,” Sanheim said. “But we’re in the thick of it and just trying to win every hockey game and take it day by day and deal with it as it comes.”
Breakaways
Forward Travis Konecny missed his second straight game with an upper-body injury, and defenseman Nick Seeler, who sustained a lower-body injury in Monday’s game against the Toronto Maple Leafs, did not play. … On Thursday, the Flyers signed forward Garrett Wilson to an NHL contract to finish the 2025-26 season. A member of Lehigh Valley of the American Hockey League since 2019, a team source has also confirmed the captain inked a new AHL contract for next season. Wilson, a native of Barrie, Ontario, has 16 points (four goals, 12 assists) in 51 games this season and leads the team in penalty minutes (99), which enters Thursday tied for 11th overall in the AHL. Wilson, who turns 35 on March 16, has played 751 AHL games for San Antonio, Portland, Wilkes-Barre/Scranton, Toronto, and Lehigh Valley. He is Lehigh Valley’s all-time leader in games played (338) and ranks fourth in goals (62) and points (148). A rugged 6-foot-3, 218-pound winger, Wilson was drafted in the fourth round of the 2009 NHL draft by the Florida Panthers and has 84 regular-season and 10 playoff games at the NHL level. His last NHL game was a playoff game on April 16, 2019, for the Pittsburgh Penguins.
Up next
On Saturday, the Flyers will be in Pittsburgh taking on the Penguins (5:30 p.m., NBCSP).
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — President Donald Trump said Thursday he should be involved in choosing Iran’s next supreme leader as the U.S. and Israel hammered the country for a sixth day. Iran kept up retaliatory attacks on Israel, American bases, and countries around the region.
Trump ruled out Mojtaba Khamenei, a front-runner to replace his father, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who was killed in the opening strikes of the war. Trump’s comments to the American news website Axios were likely to renew questions about whether the U.S. and Israel seek the overthrow of the Islamic Republic or just a change in its policies, as the conflict has appeared increasingly open-ended.
The war has escalated each day, affecting an additional 14 countries across the Middle East and beyond. On Thursday, Azerbaijan accused Iran of drone attacks, which Tehran denied. Iran said the U.S. would “bitterly regret” torpedoing an Iranian warship near Sri Lanka a day earlier.
Israel issued a mass evacuation warning for Beirut’s southern suburbs as the fighting escalated with Iran-allied Hezbollah militants. U.N. peacekeepers reported ground combat in southern Lebanon as more Israeli troops crossed the border.
Iran’s attacks have targeted their Arab neighbors, disrupted oil supplies, and snarled global air travel. The war has killed at least 1,230 people in Iran, more than 120 in Lebanon and around a dozen in Israel, according to officials in those countries. Six U.S. troops have been killed.
Trump’s decision to strike Iran won enough support from Republican lawmakers in the U.S. House on Thursday to defeat a resolution to halt the bombardment. The Senate voted down a similar measure a day earlier.
Trump again urges Iranians to ‘take back’ their country
In brief remarks at the White House, Trump again urged the Iranian people to “help take back your country.” This time he promised the U.S. would grant them “immunity” amid the war and ongoing dangers under the current Iranian regime.
“So you’ll be perfectly safe with total immunity,” Trump said, without giving any details about what that meant. “Or you’ll face absolutely guaranteed death.”
In the Axios interview, Trump derided the 56-year-old Mojtaba Khamenei, who has never been elected or appointed to a government position, as “a lightweight.”
“We want someone that will bring harmony and peace to Iran,” Trump said.
“I have to be involved in the appointment, like with Delcy in Venezuela,” Trump said, referring to the acting president in the South American country. Delcy Rodríguez took power in January after a U.S. military operation captured Nicolás Maduro and whisked him to the U.S. to face federal drug conspiracy charges.
Israel’s defense minister, Israel Katz, said this week that Iran’s next supreme leader — if he continues to threaten Israel, the U.S. and others — “will be a target for elimination.”
Iran remains defiant
Iran is not engaged in any direct or indirect communication with the United States to bring an end to the widening war, Iran’s ambassador to Egypt told the Associated Press on Thursday. Ambassador Mojtaba Ferdousi Pour said comments by Trump that Iran wants to negotiate aren’t true.
He blamed a lack trust after the U.S. twice attacked Iran amid negotiations of a possible nuclear deal.
“There will be no trust in Trump,” Ferdousi Pour said.
Meanwhile, Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi accused the U.S. Navy of committing “an atrocity at sea” for sinking the Iranian frigate IRIS Dena in the Indian Ocean, killing at least 87 people. He said on social media the U.S. “will come to bitterly regret” its action.
The Iranian ship was returning from an exercise hosted by the Indian navy that the U.S. also joined. Sri Lankan authorities said 32 crew members were rescued. Araghchi said it had been carrying “almost 130” crew.
An Iranian cleric later called on state television for the shedding of both Israeli and “Trump’s blood.”
The statement from Ayatollah Abdollah Javadi Amoli represented a rare call for violence by an ayatollah, one of Shiite Islam’s highest clerical ranks. There are dozens in Iran.
Sri Lanka said more than 200 sailors aboard another Iranian warship near its coast were being escorted to a naval base outside the capital, Colombo. The ship will be taken to a Sri Lankan port, said Sri Lankan President Anura Kumara Dissanayake.
The war keeps expanding
Adm. Brad Cooper, head of U.S. Central Command, said Thursday that U.S. forces have sunk more than 30 of Iran’s ships, including “an Iranian drone carrier ship roughly the size of a World War II aircraft carrier.”
“And as we speak, it’s on fire,” Cooper said.
The Israeli military carried out a wave of strikes on Iran’s ballistic missile launch sites, and its top general said that 80% of Iran’s air defenses and 60% of its missile launchers had been destroyed.
Still, Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir said: “The threat has not yet been removed.”
Gulf countries also reported coming under fire. The U.S. State Department announced it was closing the U.S. Embassy in Kuwait, which activated air defense systems in response to incoming missiles.
Iran has fired waves of missiles and drones at American-allied Kuwait, where a drone strike Sunday killed six American soldiers.
In the United Arab Emirates, a drone was shot down near the Al Dhafra Air Base, which hosts U.S. forces. Shrapnel fell to the ground, authorities said, and six people were wounded.
Qatar evacuated residents near the U.S. Embassy in Doha as a temporary precaution and later reported a missile attack. Saudi Arabia said it destroyed a drone in a province bordering Jordan.
Bahrain said an Iranian missile hit a state-run oil refinery Thursday, sparking a fire that was extinguished. It said there were no reports of casualties.
Azerbaijan’s President Ilham Aliyev accused Iran of carrying out “a groundless act of terror and aggression” after a drone crashed Thursday near an airport. Another drone fell near a school. Authorities said four airport workers were wounded.
Iran denied it launched drones toward Azerbaijan. Iran has also repeatedly denied targeting oil infrastructure and other civilian targets, even as its missiles and drones have hit such sites.
Cars sit in traffic on a highway Thursday as residents flee Israeli airstrikes in Dahiyeh, Beirut’s southern suburbs.
Israel issues evacuation warning for Beirut suburbs
Israel struck Beirut’s southern suburbs Thursday evening after urging residents to “save your lives and evacuate your homes immediately.” Two hospitals evacuated patients and staff.
The Lebanese health ministry said the death toll has risen to 123 since the resurgence of hostilities between Israel and Hezbollah, which struck Israel in the opening days of the war.
A spokesperson for the U.N. peacekeeping force in southern Lebanon, Tilak Pokharel, said Thursday that peacekeepers had seen and heard clashes, including ground combat, in southern Lebanon as more Israeli forces have moved across the border.
Chester County’s former chief executive officer said his departure this week stemmed from an “administrative decision” he made more than a year ago, which allowed county staff to access online sports betting and fantasy sports websites.
David Byerman, who was the county’s top administrative official for just over a year until his departure Monday, said in a phone call Thursday that Commissioner Josh Maxwell informed him that he had overstepped when he approved an employee’s request to allow access to fantasy sports and regulated online gaming sites on the county Wi-Fi. Byerman acknowledged that he made the decision after being told website access issues were previously under the commissioners’ purview.
Byerman argued that by creating a new CEO role — moving away from the traditional county structure of a county administrator and two deputies — the county increased his responsibilities and authority, and this “was likely a situation where I felt I had the authority to make that decision,” he said. Though Byerman said he did not recall the email exchange with the employee, he said he had no reason to doubt it happened.
“Did I occasionally update my fantasy baseball team and put bets on the Sixers and Eagles using the county’s Wi-Fi? Yes, that is true, but it’s also true that I regularly ate lunch at my desk. It’s also true that I regularly worked verifiably 60-hour-plus weeks in this job,” Byerman said. “And I believe I represent the county professionally and persuasively with external constituencies. I take the role extremely seriously. I take my work extremely seriously.”
A spokesperson for the county on Thursday declined to respond to Byerman’s comments. In a weekly community newsletter, the county’s commissioners publicly acknowledged Byerman’s departure.
“Mr. Byerman, whose lifetime career of public service includes impactful roles across the country, is a hard-working executive who focused on improving innovation and communication in county government,” they wrote. “We wish him well in his future endeavors.”
Byerman said he had a “profound appreciation” for the commissioners and the county staff.
Byerman was appointedto the role in 2024, as the commissioners restructured their administrative leadership structure. He was the first to take the title of “CEO” in the county, which came with increased responsibilities, including terminating employees, something previously left to the commissioners, he said.
In his role, Byerman oversaw the county’s 2,600 employees and a roughly $730 million annual budget.
He moved to the county from Kentucky, where he had served as the director of the state’s legislative research commission. He had previously worked as secretary of the Nevada Senate. But the county CEO job was a return to Pennsylvania for Byerman, who was the chairman of the Chester County Democratic Committee in the 1990s (a fact he said he disclosed to the commissioners during his interview, as his role was nonpartisan).
Earlier this week, the commissioners announced to county staff that they had appointed a new county administrator, former deputy county administrator Erik Walschburger, to fill Byerman’s role. They rounded out the rest of a three-person leadership team by adding Chester County Prison warden Howard Holland as an acting deputy county administrator for operations to work alongside Megan Moser, whom the county hired last year.
During his tenure, Byerman said, he improved internal communications and addressed policy concerns, includingthe establishment of a research partnership with Temple University to focus on housing within the county and the creation of a working group on immigration enforcement. The county has also spent months responding to a series of election errors, the most significant of which forced more than 12,000 voters to cast provisional ballots in the November election. Residents have said it rattled their trust.
Byerman said he had previously been given “very good” and “excellent” performance reviews from the commissioners, and found it “surprising and disappointing that they opted to move directly to remove me because of this infraction.” He said it was the only reason he was given.
“I think it’s especially important for public servants to demonstrate professionalism, accountability, and respect for the people we serve, and I always work to hit that standard,” he said. “I want the taxpayers who paid my salary to know that I worked my tail off for them, and I’m incredibly proud of the work that we did.”
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.
After months of varying reports about the future of the William Way LGBT Community Center’s headquarters in Philadelphia, a firm plan is finally emerging.
The 176-year-old building at 1315 Spruce St. will be torn down and replaced with a new headquarters, which will include up to 42 new affordable apartments for seniors, according to the development team.
The existing four-story, 14,000-square-foot building is expected to be replaced by a six-story structure. The apartments would be on the top four floors and William Way’s community center on the bottom two.
The idea is to give the storied organization more space, while providing housing for people who might not otherwise be able to live in Philadelphia’s historic Gayborhood.
“We want to make sure that people are given the opportunity to live in all areas of the city, including areas like Washington Square West that have a lot of higher income folks,” said Dan Anders, a vice chair of Dr. Magnus Hirschfeld Fund (DMH Fund), a group that also developed the celebrated John C. Anderson apartments,half a block away.
The DMH Fund is partnering with HELPDevCo, an affordable-housing builder. William Way Center referred all questions about the proposed building to those two groups.
The William Way Center is not likely to demolish the building in the immediate future, as the project will need funding from the federal Low Income Housing Tax Credit, which will not disperse funds again until late this year. The community center is currently still open.
The property is within the recently designated Washington Square West historic district, which was overturned in court last week. The timing of the announcement was coincidental, however. Plans have been in the works for months.
The facade of the William Way LGBT Community Center, located at 1315 Spruce St.
William Way purchased 1315 Spruce St. in 1996, and over the last 10 years, the LGBTQ community has been trying to raise money to stabilize and redevelop the historic headquarters.
Last June, the group announced that even after a fundraising drive, $3.5 million was still required for “immediate repairs.”
Swathes of the building are currentlyunusable, although the structure is not imminently dangerous. There are holes in the floor of some rooms, roof leaks, and standing water often fills the basement.
“It sounds like a really good plan,” said Councilmember Mark Squilla, who represents the area. “The building is in really, really bad shape. It’s been hard to maintain. The reason why it hasn’t been fixed is because the cost to fix it has been astronomical.”
In late November, William Way announced that it would shutter the building and disperse its operation to other locations, raising concerns about clients maintaining access to services.
But a week later, the community center said it planned to rehabilitate the historic building and would return to the existing structure.
“We know that there are questions regarding the future of the building and acknowledge that messaging has been confusing,” William Way board chairs Laura Ryan and Dave Huting said in a January email to supporters. “We understand the frustration and will be sharing more information soon.
Last week Philadelphia Gay News reported that William Way would be demolishing its building and moving forward with a comprehensive redevelopment.
The announcement occurred at a gala for the publication’s 50th anniversary, with Gov. Josh Shapiro and Mayor Cherelle L. Parker in attendance and expressing support for the proposal.
“I strongly support the restoration of the William Way Community Center, as an essential part of the LGBTQ+ community in Philadelphia,” said Mayor Parker in a statement, “and will commit resources through our H.O.M.E. initiative to support this vital project.”
Historic preservation advocates have expressed concern and sadness over the proposed demolition.
“We are alarmed by the news that the historic William Way building would be demolished in the recently announced plans for the future of the real estate,” said Paul Steinke, head of the Preservation Alliance. “We hope they will be willing to incorporate historic preservation into their plans.”
Steinke served on William Way’s board for six years and helped lead a pre-pandemic fundraising drive to replace the windows and HVAC system and conduct other repairs. (In the end, that plan did not move forward.)
Steinke said he has reached out to William Way for more information on its proposal. He also hopes that the city will appeal the ruling against the Washington Square West historic district.
“I understand the frustration of some folks that the building will be demolished, but it’s in such a state that it’s not feasible to renovate it,” Anders said.
“It is a sad reality, but that’s where we are. We will honor the tradition of that location and the William Way Center and build a building that celebrates our community and that everyone can be proud of,” he said.
The Washington Square West Civic Association declined to comment on William Way’s plans.
The property is in one of Philadelphia’s most flexible zoning categories, so land use regulations will not pose a barrier to the community center’s proposal.
The prominent mural on the side of William Way’s building is crumbling. Anders said the new structure would be designed to advertise the community center’s mission.
“The artist herself acknowledged that the mural was never intended to be permanent,” Anders said. “What we want to do when we’re designing the building is very clearly communicate with passersby and the community itself that something LGBT is going on inside, and to celebrate that.”
The full cost to attend the University of Pennsylvania next school year will exceed $94,000 under a resolution approved by the school’s budget and finance committee Thursday.
The 3.8% increase in overall costs for the 2026-27 academic year is slightly more than last year, when costs rose 3.7%, but slightly less than the year before that, which was a 3.9% increase. Overall, the tab will rise from $91,112 to $94,582 for 2026-27.
The costs include tuition of $65,670, fees of $8,308, room charge of $13,644, and $6,960 for meals.
“People ask me when are we going to break through the $100,000 barrier,” Trevor Lewis, vice president of budget and management analysis, told board members. “Probably in FY28 or 29.”
Lewis said Penn also will increase its undergraduate financial-aid budget 3.8%, to $347 million. Penn guarantees full tuition scholarships for students from families with incomes of $200,000 or less with typical assets and covers full attendance costs for students from families earning $75,000 or less. Of the university’s approximate 10,000 students, 46% receive need-based aid.
Tuition for graduate and professional students will be set by the individual schools, the university said.
U.S. Sen. John Fetterman promised to back President Donald Trump’s pick to succeed Kristi Noem within minutes of her abrupt firing as secretary of homeland security.
Trump has tappedU.S. Sen. Markwayne Mullin (R., Okla.) to lead the Department of Homeland Security, which oversees Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the Border Patrol, and the two agencies’increasingly unpopular operations in carrying out Trump’s deportation agenda.
Mullin’s nomination must be confirmed by the Senate.
“I’m not sure how many fellow Democrats will vote to support our colleague [Sen. Mullin] as the next DHS Secretary, but I am AYE,” Fetterman said in a post on X, which also noted his membership on the committee that oversees the department.
Mullin and Fetterman (D., Pa.) were both elected to the Senate in 2022. The Oklahoma Republican had served in the U.S. House for a decade before joining the upper chamber. Mullin told reporters he had already received a text message from Fetterman after Trump’s announcement.
“You guys know John and I are friends. … We’re going to try to earn everybody’s vote,” Mullin said when asked whether other Democrats would vote for him.
The sudden change in leadership at DHS follows growingoutrage over ICE’s tactics and questions aboutNoem’s leadership, both of which escalated nationally after federalagents shot and killed U.S. citizens Renee Nicole Good and Alex Pretti in January in Minneapolis.
Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem appears for an oversight hearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee, at the Capitol in Washington, March 3, 2026.
Fetterman and other senators who had voted for Noem’s confirmation called for her to be fired after Pretti’s killing. She also faced criticism from both sides of the aisle at a recent oversight hearing before the Senate that examined a controversial $220 million ad campaign she approved, among other topics.
U.S. Sen. Dave McCormick (R., Pa.) said on Thursday that he supports Mullin’s nomination.
It is unclear whetherother Democratic senators will give the green light to Mullin’s nomination, but many on Thursday were quick to celebrate Noem’s departure as she transitions into a newly createdrole in the Trump administration called “the Special Envoy for the Shield of the Americas.”
Sen. Markwayne Mullin, R-Okla., speaks with reporters on the steps at the Capitol in Washington, Thursday, March 5, 2026.
But he cautionedthat Noem’s termination is “only the start of getting rid of the deep rot of corruption in the Trump administration,” and that other officials, including Trump adviser Stephen Miller and Tom Homan, the border czar, should be held accountable for immigration agents’ conduct.
Kim and U.S. Sen. Cory Booker (D., N.J.) have offered legislation to prohibit such moves and Gov. Josh Shapiro has floated possible legal action over DHS’s purchase of two warehouses in Pennsylvania.
Democratic House members from the region echoed Kim’s sentiment that more change is needed than just the leadership of the department.
Lawmakers are still debating future funding for DHS, with Democrats demanding reforms to immigration enforcement before they will approve more money for the department.
“Change the lousy policies, not just the person,” U.S. Rep. Dwight Evans (D., Philadelphia) wrote on X.
“We still need real accountability at DHS, including meaningful reforms to ICE so agents are not terrorizing Americans,” U.S. Rep. Brendan Boyle (D., Philadelphia) said on X.
Boyle criticized Fetterman for immediately pledging to support Mullin, saying in another post that the Pennsylvania senator is “Trump’s favorite Democrat for a good reason.“
U.S. Rep. Chrissy Houlahan (D., Chester) congratulated Trump in a statement Thursday for “taking this long overdue action” in firing Noem.
“I sincerely hope Mr. Mullin or whomever is eventually confirmed will be prepared to reform ICE and to work with the Congress to rein in its most destructive practices,” she said.
U.S. Rep. Ryan Mackenzie (R., Lehigh), who represents a key swing district, said he looks forward to “seeing a greater emphasis on transparency” under Mullin.
He stopped short of criticizing Noem and said in the last year DHS“made critical progress towards securing the border once and for all.”
His office underlined that a new leader should focus on rebuilding the department’s reputation with the American people.
“The Department of Homeland Security carries one of the most important missions in government — protecting the American people. That mission requires the public’s trust, and Congressman Fitzpatrick believes a leadership change was needed to help restore confidence in the department,” Fitzpatrick spokesperson Casey-Lee Waldron said in a statement.
“He hopes Senator Mullin will work to rebuild that trust and strengthen DHS moving forward.”
Swarthmore Borough manager Sean Halbom has been terminated from the office after just six months, the latest in a string of short employment stints he has held in recent years.
The borough council voted unanimously on the termination Monday, though Council President Jill Bennett Gaieski declined to give a reason for the decision in a phone call with The Inquirer.
Halbom did not respond to phone or email messages lefton Thursday.
He began in the borough manager role in September after holding several roles in Montgomery County, including most recently in Upper Frederick Township, where he was township manager for less than a year, according to his LinkedIn profile. Halbom resigned from his position in Upper Frederick in June 2025.
Prior to the job inUpper Frederick, Halbom was an interim human resources director in Bucks County for two months and township manager for Worcester Township for a year and a half. Halbom’s employment in Worcester Township was terminated by its board of supervisors in April 2024.
He was also thedirector of veterans affairs for Montgomery County for six years, from 2012 to 2018, his LinkedIn profile shows.
Halbom succeeded William Webb, who left the Swarthmore manager role in September to become an assistant county administrator in Isle of Wight County, Va.
Halbom’s leave came around the same time as another personnel shake-up in the small borough. On Feb. 18, Scott Schumacher vacated his position as a longtime Swarthmore Public Library employee and children’s librarian.
Swarthmore Public Library board president Elizabeth Brown said Schumacher’s departure was unrelated to Halbom’s termination.
The Swarthmore council on Monday also named David Unkovic as interim borough manager. He “came highly recommended” by Upper Providence Township, where he previously served as interim township manager, Gaieski said.
Before retiring as a practicing lawyer, Unkovic spent a decade at McNees Wallace & Nurick, a Harrisburg-based law firm with multiple offices, including in Radnor. He also briefly served as the state receiver for the City of Harrisburg in 2012.
The Swarthmore council has already begun the search for a permanent borough manager, Gaieski said, and hopes one will be in placeas early as June 1.
The search will take “until we find the right person,” Gaieski added. “We have a really good interim in place. We will do what we need to do to find the right person.”
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.
An undocumented West African immigrant who federal authorities say has been living in Philadelphia for more than two decades cast a ballot in the 2024 federal election — and may have voted in at least six other elections, federal authorities said.
Mahady Sacko was charged with fraudulent voting, according to the affidavit of probable cause for his arrest. If convicted, he could face up to five years in federal prison.
Investigators said Sacko registered to vote in 2005, affirming on the registration form that he was a U.S. citizen. According to the affidavit, he went on to vote in five federal general elections and two primary elections over the next two decades.
Prosecutors charged him only with casting a ballot in the 2024 election.
Sacko had been ordered deported to Mauritania, in Northwest Africa, by an immigration judge in 2000, the affidavit said. But federal authorities never carried out the order because Sacko did not have a valid Mauritanian passport. Instead, immigration officials placed him under supervision, requiring him to regularly report to Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
The charges against him come amid political attention on allegations that people who are not U.S. citizens are voting rampantly in American elections — a frequent talking point among conservative politicians and commentators. President Donald Trump has pushed federal officials to amp up efforts to prosecute undocumented immigrants who vote.
But election experts and government investigations have consistently found that such cases are rare. Studies examining tens of millions of ballots have identified only a handful of suspected instances of such voting — a fraction of a percent of votes cast, according to research by the Brennan Center for Justice.
Only U.S. citizens may vote in federal elections. Voters must attest to their citizenship when registering, and falsely claiming citizenship can lead to criminal prosecution and deportation.
Voting records show that Sacko registered as a Democrat, though the affidavit does not specify which candidates he supported in the elections in which investigators say he voted.
A spokesperson for the U.S. Attorney’s Office said Sacko had been released on bail after an initial appearance on Thursday. She did not provide the bail amount.
Every summer, Williamsport, Pa., becomes the epicenter of youth baseball as the Little League World Series hosts its annual tournament.
And since 2017, Major League Baseball has brought in two teams to play an August regular-season game at Historic Bowman Field, giving Little Leaguers a chance to take in major league action just five miles from the Little League complex.
But in addition to making memories for Little League ballplayers, the home of the Little League Classic has also been a hazard to fans, a new lawsuit says.
Deborah Barbella, of Livingston, N.J., attended Bowman Field for a Penn College of Technology baseball game on May 2. She sat behind the first base dugout when a foul ball hit her in her face, breaking her jaw, nose, and eye socket, according to the complaint, which was filed Monday in the Lycoming County Court of Common Pleas.
The suit accuses MLB, the Williamsport Crosscutters, and the city of Williamsport of carelessness and recklessness leading to the injury.
MLB and the Crosscutters did not immediately return requests for comments regarding the lawsuit. Williamsport Mayor Derek Slaughter declined to comment on the lawsuit.
The Crosscutters, one of six teams in the MLB Draft League, have used Bowman Field as their home stadium since 1994. The team was the class A short-season affiliate of the Phillies from 2007 until the MLB restructured its minor leagues in 2021.
Bowman Field, which opened in 1926, is owned by Williamsport and leased to MLB to host its Little League Classic games.
Barbella was struck because Bowman Field did not comply with a 2022 dictate that all minor league baseball stadiums install protective netting that extends from foul pole to foul pole by opening day 2025, the suit says.
The Seattle Mariners played the New York Mets in last year’s Little League Classic at Bowman Field.
The netting at Bowman should have been extended even before to comply with major league rules because it hosts games between MLB teams, the suit says, such as the Little League Classic.
But when Barbella attended a game at Bowman, the suit says, only those sitting behind home plate were covered by a netting canopy. The net in front of Barbella was lower and stopped at the end of the dugout.
“Our goal is to achieve justice for a woman whose life was permanently altered by an allegedly foreseeable and preventable incident, and to hold the League and the stadium accountable for their delay,” John Morgan, founder of Morgan & Morgan law firm representing Barbella, said in a statement.
Williamsport officials discussed the netting problem in a Feb. 13, 2025, city council meeting, according to the complaint. Council approved a contract with a construction company for the netting that day, saying the project needed to be done “very quickly,” but the work never started. The city reopened its bid for netting installation in March 2025 but couldn’t find a company that would agree to take on the project with opening day as a deadline, the suit says.
The city decided to install a temporary netting system to allow more time for the permanent netting’s installation.
“Despite being aware that the netting at Bowman Field needed to be changed prior to opening day in 2025, the Defendants failed to make any changes to the netting system at Bowman Field,” the suit says.
With the exception of the 2020 season, the Little League Classic has brought a regular-season MLB game to Williamsport to open the final week of the Little League World Series since 2017. This year’s edition of the game will feature the Milwaukee Brewers and Atlanta Braves on Sunday, Aug. 23.
The Phillies have played in two Little League Classic games. They lost, 8-2, to the Mets in the second annual Little League Classic in 2018 and lost, 4-3, to the Nationals in the game’s 2023 edition.
When the Phillies took the field for the Classic in 2018, it was the first time the team had played at Bowman Field since it suffered a 5-1 loss to the club’s class A-affiliate, the Williamsport Grays, in an exhibition game on July 31, 1962.
