A sixth person associated with the Young Bag Chasers was arrested overnight and is expected to be charged with two homicides, prosecutors said.
Hamzah Curry, 25, was taken into custody Wednesday evening in Kansas City, Mo., after spending nearly a year on the run after the killing of a 36-year-old man in 2021.
Curry was also newly wanted in connection with the killing of Qaadir Cheeks, a 20-year-old better known as “55Qua,” who was shot and killed near 55th Street and Baltimore Avenue in May 2024, said Assistant District Attorney Bill Fritze, supervisor of the Gun Violence Task Force in the Philadelphia District Attorney’s Office.
Curry is one of 19 people indicted by a grand jury as part of a sprawling investigation by Philadelphia police and prosecutors into years of retaliatory shootings between West Philadelphia gangs, Fritze said.
He will be charged once he is extradited to Philadelphia, he said.
Officials identified him as a member of Young Face Arrangers, or YFA, a younger subset of YBC. He is also the older brother of Arshad Curry, another YBC/YFA member, who is serving 42½ to 85 years in prison for killing three people in 2021.
A warrant was issued for Hamzah Curry’s arrest last spring after detectives tied him to the killing of Stangely Bertrand on the 300 block of North Salford Street on July 16, 2021.
Investigators believe Bertrand, who was shot in the head, was a bystander caught in the crossfire, according to a law enforcement source familiar with the investigation.
Salahuddin Carter, 21, another YBC/YFA member known as “YFA4our,” was arrested and charged with Bertrand’s death in June.
Carter was also charged Wednesday with two additional shootings — including the shooting of an 8-year-old near 13th and Oxford Streets in 2022 — as part of the indictment.
Investigators tied Carter and Curry to Bertrand’s killing after Carter, who was 16 at the time, was shot twice in the stomach during the exchange of gunfire, and Curry drove him to the hospital, according to the affidavit of probable cause for Carter’s arrest.
Inside Curry’s car, police found two 9mm handguns, blue latex gloves, and live rounds, the affidavit said. A ballistics report later showed that both guns were fired on Salford Street the night Bertrand was killed, the records say.
And then, this month, Curry was also sought in the killing of Cheeks, whom YBC members shot more than a dozen times in West Philadelphia.
Four others have been charged in that case: Stephen “Baby Yopp” Weddington, Jymir “Lil Mir” Burbage, Hasin Muse, and Tatiana Edwards.
The Philadelphia Police Department’s homicide fugitive task force and U.S. marshals had been working to locate Curry since last year, and on Wednesday evening found him at a motel in Missouri, the source said.
Celeste Ng’s 2022 New York Times bestseller,Our Missing Hearts, is the 2026 One Book, One Philadelphia pick. The dystopian novel is about a 12-year-old biracial Chinese American boy and his quest to be reunited with his mother in an authoritarian America.
“I’m thrilled and honored,” Ng said Wednesday, speaking from her Boston study a few hours before she hopped on a plane to Philadelphia for Thursday’s announcement.
“I love community reads programs,” Ng said. “I relish in this idea that readers will have a shared experience, that they will be able to talk to each other, get to examine the world they are living in, ask if this is the world they want to live in, and figure out what they are going to do about it.”
“Our Missing Hearts,” by Celeste Ng. (Penguin Press/TNS)
In Ng’s 335-page paperback, a future America is living under the Preserving American Culture and Traditions Act, where books are banned, voices are censored, and citizens are forbidden to criticize a government for its wrongdoings, especially its unfair treatment of people of color. People of Asian descent are particularly mistreated, considered scapegoats for a severe economic crisis.
Ng wrote Our Missing Hearts in 2020 during the pandemic when AAPI hate was at an all-time high. Years on, Ng’s PACT mirrors present-day America, where under President Trump’s executive order to “restore truth and sanity to American history,” historic panels honoring George Washington’s enslaved staff were removed from Independence Hall National Park last month.
(On Feb. 17, a federal judge ordered the panels to be restored, but the Trump administration appealed the decision and the return of the plaques to the park has been halted.)
“I sort of hoped the book would get further way from reality as the years went by, but that’s not the case so far,” said Ng, who stressed she’s not a psychic, just aware of history. “We are in a world where we just aren’t going to mention George Washington had enslaved people and we are taking down the gay pride [flag] at Stonewall, trying to pretend that none of this happened.”
Bird is the 12-year-old in the center of Ng’s book. His Chinese mother criticizes America through her poetry and art. She leaves Bird with his white dad, and continues to make public art that unites Americans and encourages them to speak out.
Celeste Ng attends Hulu Little Fires Everywhere Press Brunch at ROSS HOUSE on Feb. 19, 2020 in Los Angeles, Calif. (Photo by Erik Voake/Getty Images for Hulu/TNS)
“I feel like Philly is a living example of that,” said Ng, who was born in Pittsburgh and periodically visits Philadelphia. The Mütter Museum is one of her favorite places to visit. She’s keeping an eye on how the museum handles its collection of human remains.
“Philadelphians get to walk past history daily. There is art all around you, reminding you of the stories that form you and are a part of your lives. Philly is a space that can start connection through all of the beautiful sculptures and murals reminding us that change is possible.”
Our Missing Hearts is the Free Library’s 24th One Book, One Philadelphia pick. Last year’s choice was Tariq “Black Thought” Trotter’s 2023 memoir, The Upcycled Self.
The annual program urges Philadelphians to read the same book, fostering literacy and civic dialogue. The kick-off event is April 7. Ng will return to Philadelphia that day for a book signing and celebration. One Book ends May 28.
A series of events at Parkway Central and the 54 branch libraries will take place throughout the year.
“I hope the conversation will get people thinking, what do we lose when stories disappear,” Ng said. “What do we do if stories never get told? What happens when we intimidate people out of talking about the past and learning from it? I’m really grateful to the Free Library of Philadelphia for starting these conversations in this moment.”
WASHINGTON — Slightly more Americans applied for unemployment benefits last week as layoffs remain at relatively healthy levels.
The number of Americans filing for jobless aid for the week ending Feb. 21 rose by 4,000 to 212,000 from the previous week, the Labor Department reported Thursday. That’s in line with the forecasts of analysts surveyed by the data firm FactSet.
Filings for unemployment benefits are viewed as representative of U.S. layoffs and are close to a real-time indicator of the health of the job market.
Earlier this month, the Labor Department reported that U.S. employers added a surprisingly strong 130,000 jobs in January and the unemployment rate fell to 4.3% from 4.4%. However, government revisions cut 2024-2025 U.S. payrolls by hundreds of thousands, reducing the number of jobs created last year to just 181,000. That’s about one-third of the previously reported 584,000 and the weakest since the pandemic year of 2020.
While weekly layoffs have remained in a historically low range mostly between 200,000 and 250,000 for the past few years, a number of high-profile companies have announced job cuts recently, including UPS, Amazon, Dow and the Washington Post in recent weeks.
The Labor Department also recently reported that job openings fell in December to the lowest level in more than five years.
For now, the U.S. job market appears stuck in what economists call a “low-hire, low-fire” state that has kept the unemployment rate historically low, but has left those out of work struggling to find a new job.
Data over the past year has broadly revealed a labor market in which hiring has clearly slowed, hobbled by uncertainty stoked by President Donald Trump’s tariffs and the lingering effects of the high interest rates the Fed engineered in 2022 and 2023 to tamp down a spike of pandemic-induced inflation.
Economists are conflicted about whether the stronger-than-expected January job gains are a one-off or possibly the first sign of a recovering labor market, which could lead the Fed to further delay more cuts to its key interest rate.
The government issues it February jobs report next week.
Some Fed officials have specifically argued that last year’s weak hiring shows that borrowing costs are weighing on growth and discouraging companies from expanding. A sustained pickup in hiring could undercut that theory.
The Labor Department’s report Thursday showed that the four-week moving average of jobless claims, which balances some of the week-to-week volatility, ticked up by 750 to 220,250.
The total number of Americans filing for jobless benefits for the previous week ending Feb. 14 fell by 31,000 to 1.83 million, the government said.
Beginning Monday, people who illegally park in SEPTA trolley lanes and stops could be caught in the act by automated enforcement cameras, the Philadelphia Parking Authority announced Thursday.
Plans call for installing AI-camera systems on 30 trolleys across the six lines in the city to identify and ticket the owners of vehicles obstructing the streetcars or making it hard for passengers to board by blocking stops.
Violations will carry a $51 fine as of April 1. Before then, warnings will be mailed instead of tickets.
Parking violations are the enemies of surface transit, slowing buses and trolleys, making them less reliable and putting riders in danger.
SEPTA, PPA, and the Philadelphia Office of Transportation and Infrastructure Systems are collaborating on the effort. It uses camera systems made installed and maintained by Hayden AI, a San Francisco-based tech company.
“A single illegally parked vehicle can disrupt service for thousands of riders and create unsafe boarding conditions that force passengers into moving traffic,” PPA executive director Rich Lazer said in a statement.
“This is more than a minor inconvenience,” he said.
Legislation sponsored by Councilmember Mark Squilla and enacted in 2023 authorized using cameras mounted on buses and trolleys to enforce no-parking rules in Philadelphia.
“One of the most annoying things about this city is people stopping their cars wherever they want to stop them, in bus lanes, double parking. It just screws everything up,” then-Mayor Jim Kenney said at a news conference.
According to a 2019 study SEPTA commissioned from Econsult Solutions, Center City congestion causes 1.7 million hours of passenger delays per year, adding $15.4 million to yearly operating costs.
And then there is the almost incalculable cost to people who depend on buses and trolleys.
“In a city where 42% of Black residents and 50% of impoverished households do not own a car, efficient public transit is paramount to creating a strong transportation network that better provides economic opportunity for all,” said Christopher Puchalsky, director of policy and strategic initiatives for OTIS.
In some situations, SEPTA bus operators can steer around parked cars. Trolleys, running on fixed rails, don’t have any real flexibility when they are boxed out of their lanes.
SEPTA officials say bus speeds have improved on routes using the cameras. An average of about 14,746 violations are issued each month, according to PPA.
The cameras use artificial intelligence to determine if a car is stopped or parked to obstruct transit lanes and stops. Then, the systems transmit the vehicle’s license plate number and precise location to the Philadelphia Parking Authority using cloud technology.
“Keeping trolley zones clear isn’t just about enforcing parking rules — it’s about keeping Philadelphia moving,” said Marty Beard, CEO of Hayden AI. He added that Philadelphia will be the first city to deploy the cameras on trolleys.
Most of the wine regions located outside of Europe grow the same roster of famous French grapes, because those were in greatest demand when their vineyards first began trying to compete with the classics on quality. That’s why the top grapes of Burgundy and Bordeaux are so ubiquitous; almost every country of the Americas and southern hemisphere offers mostly chardonnay and sauvignon blanc for white wines and cabernet sauvignon, merlot, and pinot noir for reds. However, there are some exceptions, as with the singular case of Argentina, whose signature malbec grape is rarely grown anywhere else, and was chosen for that role the old-fashioned way.
All fine wine grapes belong to one single species and most European regions make wine from their own local “varieties.” These varieties reflect natural genetic variation, but in Europe, those that became dominant in any given place are those that have proven themselves over time to be well-suited to that region’s terrain, climate, and soil types.
While most New World wine regions simply adopted the most successful European varieties, one man in Argentina — a French agronomist — was determined to figure out first what grapes would perform best. Michel Aimé Pouget brought in cuttings of many European vines in the 1850s and established the country’s most influential wine institution. Malbec was then an obscure grape that was in decline in its native France but proved itself in trials to be ideally suited to the sun-drenched slopes of the Mendoza region. From that point forward, malbec was relentlessly promoted to growers as the safest bet for vineyard plantings, resulting in malbec becoming Argentina’s gift to the wine world. Bursting with flavors of black cherries and blackberry jam, this example features malbec’s distinctive purple color, velvety mouthfeel, and faintly floral scent of candied violets.
Ceibo Malbec
Ceibo Malbec
Mendoza, Argentina; 14% ABV
PLCB Item #100034251 — on sale for $11.99 through March 1 (regularly $13.99)
No alternate retail locations within 50 miles of Philadelphia according to Wine-Searcher.com.
A 14-year-old boy and his mother went to his pediatrician because the teen had just been placed on a three-day suspension. The reason? His loud snoring was disrupting his classes.
His doctor asked many questions to understand what was going on, and learned his patient had been frequently falling asleep in class over the last several months. He told the doctor that no matter how much he tried to stay awake, he couldn’t help dozing off. Previously he had received As and Bs in his classes, but since he was missing so much in class, lately he had been getting more Cs and even a D. He and his mother were both worried about this. He was also embarrassed over his loud snoring making him the center of attention in class.
His sleepiness was also causing problems at home. He and his mother agreed that waking up in the morning was a nightmare because he kept falling back asleep after his alarm sounded. His mother said that it often took up to an hour to get him out of bed.
The doctor reviewed his medical history and saw that he was a generally healthy teen who didn’t have any chronic conditions or take any daily medications. He had his tonsils and adenoids removed eight years prior for a reason his mother did not remember. His pediatrician noted that he had gained a significant amount of weight over the last two years and his body mass index (a ratio of weight to height) was now in the obese range.
His doctor then asked more questions about his sleep. Generally, he went to bed at 10 p.m. and woke up around 6:30 a.m. for school. He had already tried measures to improve his “sleep hygiene” which are the habits around sleep. He left his phone charging outside his room in the hallway so he wouldn’t be tempted to scroll all night long. He tried to pick a consistent sleep and wake up time, even on weekends.
He didn’t typically have problems falling asleep, and he didn’t wake up at night. He denied having restless legs that interrupted sleep. His mother told the doctor that he snored loudly enough that she could hear it outside the door. One or two times she had also noticed that he paused in breathing during sleep for a few seconds, without waking up. The doctor asked if the teen ever had muscle weakness when having a strong emotion. Both he and his mother were amused by the question but didn’t think this had ever occurred; the doctor explained that she was describing “cataplexy,” which can be seen in people with a neurological problem with sleep called narcolepsy.
The doctor then asked to speak with the teen one-on-one. She was worried that his sleepiness issues might be indicative of a problem like depression, anxiety, or drug use. The teen denied symptoms like a loss of pleasure in doing things or feeling worthless. He told her that his favorite thing to do was play in the band, where he played five different band instruments. Unfortunately, he had been kicked out of his band due to his declining grades and his suspension. He wasn’t someone who was easily anxious and he didn’t have anxious thoughts at night keeping him up. He had never tried alcohol, vaping, marijuana, or other substances.
The doctor invited the teen’s mother back in the room for the physical examination. She assessed his blood pressure, heart, thyroid, lungs, abdomen, and neurological system and did not find anything abnormal.
Answer:
The doctor referred the teen to a pulmonologist, or lung specialist for a sleep study to see whether the teen may have narcolepsy or obstructive sleep apnea. For the sleep study, also called polysomnography, the teen slept overnight in the hospital while his oxygen saturation, breathing patterns, and brain activity were monitored.
Due to many episodes of apnea (pauses in breathing during sleep) and hypopnea (partial decrease in air flow during sleep), he was diagnosed with severe obstructive sleep apnea. Obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) is a condition where the throat becomes closed or narrowed during sleep, causing pauses or decreases in air flow, which can cause oxygen levels in the body to drop.
This causes the body to wake up, even if the person doesn’t notice it. If this happens throughout the night, the person cannot get restful sleep and can be very tired during the day. Risk factors for OSA include male sex, obesity, and having large adenoids and/or tonsils.
The teen was grateful to understand that his sleepiness was not his fault or a sign of laziness. He started treatment with continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP) overnight to help keep his airway open. Once his daytime sleepiness improved, he was able to do more physical activity during the day. The best part was that his school let him back into the band, and he decided to challenge himself to learn another instrument.
Take home points
Teens generally need 8 to 10 hours of sleep to best support their health.
Daytime sleepiness is common in adolescents and can affect their schoolwork, relationships with peers and family, and daily activities.
Common methods to improve sleep hygiene include a consistent schedule of going to bed and waking up (even on weekends), avoiding screens in the bedroom, having a consistent bedtime routine, and being active daily but avoiding heavy exercise for at least an hour before bed.
In some cases excessive daytime sleepiness may be an indicator of an underlying health condition, such as obstructive sleep apnea. Be sure to talk to your child’s doctor if you have these concerns — OSA is becoming more common in children due to obesity, though it can have other causes as well.
Samantha Starkey is a third-year pediatric resident and Hayley Goldner is a pediatrician in the adolescent medicine department at Nemours Children’s Hospital, Delaware
A friend’s medical odyssey recently prompted me to ask whether AI could have helped. As an experienced primary care doctor, I was surprised to discover how much potential a chatbot has to serve as your true partner navigating the healthcare maze.
My friend, a middle-aged woman, was experiencing numbness and tingling in her hands and torso. A week went by, with no relief — occasionally the symptoms caused her to lose hand grip strength. She sought an evaluation at a busy urgent care clinic, which showed only a borderline elevated blood sugar. She was bewildered to receive a preliminary diagnosis of nerve inflammation from diabetes, since she was diligent about regular checkups and had no history of diabetes.
She decided to schedule both primary care and endocrinology visits. The specialist could see her first and ordered extensive blood testing which showed only prediabetes unlikely to cause nerve injury. She left with a follow-up plan to prevent her from developing overt diabetes, but no diagnosis for her symptoms. She was encouraged to pursue nerve testing and meet with her primary care physician (PCP).
It took her an agonizing three weeks to get an appointment to see her PCP, who reviewed the prior tests and agreed she should see a neurologist. By now, she had already self-scheduled the specialist appointment. Her symptoms resolved by the time she saw the neurologist, who was concerned that this may have been a sign of a chronic condition such as multiple sclerosis. For a third time, she left a medical appointment without a clear diagnosis.
My friend’s story shows how difficult it can be to get a timely and accurate medical evaluation when new symptoms arise. Access to primary care is constrained, and self-referral to specialists can sometimes land you in a rabbit hole of testing.
I was curious to see how an AI chatbot might have helped in my friend’s scenario, so I logged onto Microsoft Copilot and typed in the following prompt:
I have had numbness and tingling in my hands and torso for 1 week and occasional loss of grip strength. What could be wrong with me?
I received a warning that the chatbot could not formally diagnose me, followed by a list of possible diagnoses that were stunningly relevant. Next, the chatbot generated a list of warning signs that would require emergency care, and some tests that a clinician would likely order to zero in on the diagnosis.
As a doctor, I know it is still important to avoid trying to diagnose yourself. My advice is to continue to view your PCP as the best starting point when you have new symptoms that aren’t an emergency. Your PCP can perform an initial assessment and guide you toward appropriate specialty care. Your primary care office is also the medical “home” you can always return to if you encounter a follow-up problem, or develop new or worsening symptoms. But AI chatbots can help you along the way by proposing questions to ask and giving you a sense of what your doctor may be concerned about. It is important to be open with your doctor about your AI query, so you can have a thorough discussion together about the diagnostic possibilities and why some of these may require further evaluation while others do not.
Physicians today expect patients to use technology to advocate for themselves, so your AI findings should be received with curiosity and concern, especially from a doctor with whom you have a well-established trusting relationship. If you are met with dismissal or defensiveness, this may be a sign of a nonideal physician-patient partnership. A few months ago, I wrote about my first office encounter with a patient who openly discussed her use of an AI chatbot as a health advocate. That patient visit left me with cautious optimism about the role of AI in clinical care, with a caveat that these tools are designed to profit in a rapidly changing healthcare marketplace, not necessarily to keep you well. But they can still help you get there.
Some health systems, like the one where I work, are developing plans for personalized chatbots built into the electronic health record. Patients might interact with a bot in preparation for a visit, following prompts to answer questions about their health history or current symptoms. These advances may help with way-finding within the system, continuity of care, and tee up a more useful clinic appointment.
Doctors themselves use AI platforms like OpenEvidence, which helps us to quickly parse the latest medical research, to enhance their own diagnostic skills. AI tools like ambient listening are even being woven into medical school curricula to help students develop clinical reasoning and communication skills. The hope is that instead of spending time memorizing and re-memorizing facts, energy can be shifted to active listening and thoughtful problem solving.
The collaboration between patients, doctors, and AI is a new frontier with great potential to improve clinical care. It may have saved my friend a lot of time and angst searching for the right specialist, even as she continues to search for a diagnosis. But the promise of AI in patient care still hinges on effective communication, trust, and human connection. Sir William Osler’s famous adage will always remain our true north: “A good physician treats the disease; the great physician treats the patient who has the disease.”
Jeffrey Millstein is an internist and regional medical director for Penn Primary and Specialty Care.
When I studied American history in 11th grade, African American history was barely discussed, except for slavery. I took it upon myself to read about Black history to learn what my class hadn’t included.
Since then, I’ve always looked forward to Black History Month, as scholars of African American history and culture present new research on what had been an understudied aspect of American history.
After the Civil War ended, Confederate diehards, in a successful effort to memorialize “the lost cause,” reframed America’s deadliest conflict as the War of Northern Aggression. For over a century, this falsehood included textbooks that claimed plantation owners treated their slaves decently, and that the North’s interference in the South’s internal affairs caused the Civil War.
This Jan. 4, 2020, file photo shows a sign for Fort Bragg, N.C., which was named for a Confederate general who fought against the United States of America. The Confederate name was changed during Joe Biden’s presidency, but has been restored during Donald Trump’s second term.
With the increase in the Army’s man power during both world wars, new forts were established. The War Department named 10 of them to honor Confederate generals. Mind you, these generals led their forces in a rebellion against the United States that killed American servicemen.
Workers prepare the Confederate Memorial for removal in Arlington National Cemetery on Monday, Dec. 18, 2023, in Arlington, Va.
More importantly, federal and state governments were willing to acknowledge past mistakes in the treatment of America’s Black citizens.
During Biden’s administration, the unjust treatment of Black soldiers following the 1917 Houston Riot and of Black sailors convicted in the 1944 Port Chicago Mutiny was recognized. Although these men were dead, awarding them posthumous honorable discharges was an acknowledgment that they had been unfairly treated.
A photograph of the courtroom where 63 Buffalo Soldiers from the predominantly Black 24th Infantry Regiment stood trial in 1917 for the Houston riot.
These were signs of progress in race relations.
In early 2025, I marveled at the changes in relaying America’s history, including its unpleasant truths, to students. State and federal governments now emphasize the multiple contributions of Black Americans in all fields of endeavor.
The greatest aid in elucidating these contributions was the requirement to teach African American history in schools.
A worker pauses while rehanging a panel of Oney Judge at the President’s House in Independence National Historical Park on Feb. 19, 2026. Judge was a woman enslaved by George Washington. A federal judge earlier in the week ordered the Trump administration to restore the slavery exhibits that the National Park Service removed in January.
Having visited this site multiple times, I never saw any falsehoods on its signage. Instead, I saw an inconvenient truth. America’s first president — as well as the majority of our first 18 — owned human beings despite living 100 yards from where “all men are created equal” was adopted in our country’s founding document.
Mount Vernon, the Washingtons’ Virginia plantation, doesn’t hide their enslavement of hundreds. Nor do Thomas Jefferson’s plantation at Monticello, James Madison’s at Montpelier, James Monroe’s at Highland, and Andrew Jackson’s at Hermitage.
We cannot obfuscate the fact that slavery didn’t end in 1865, as throughout the South, convict leasing and debt peonage reigned for decades after the Civil War.
We cannot forget that federal and state governments failed to protect the voting rights of Black citizens for 100 years.
Germany doesn’t hide its horrific past. Instead, it has erected monuments memorializing victims of an earlier German government. Germany’s past is not buried, forgotten, or ignored.
America is not Nazi Germany, but if we start to hide our flaws, we risk repeating history. Black History Month teaches us to learn from our past, flaws and all, and ensure they aren’t repeated.
Paul L. Newman is an amateur historian of African American history. He’s working on a miniseries docudrama on the African American civil rights movement of the first half of the 20th century.
Everything at Land of Little Horses animal theme park in Gettysburg must go this weekend. That means tractors, picnic tables, porta potties, and about 30 miniature horses.
Sparkle, Pumpernickel, Russel’s Majestic Princess Gingerbread, Summer Wish, Shortcake, and the others will head for greener pastures at the Saturday morning auction, which will mark the end of the 55-year-old park.
In December, the park owners announced on social media that they’d decided to retire and close the facility, which hosted horse shows, trail rides, and grooming activities. They declined to be interviewed for this story.
Selling horses, let alone miniature horses, is a first for auctioneer Larry Swartz.
“We have had strong interest from really across the nation, even a breeder from Hawaii has reached out,” Swartz said.
(If you’re wondering if a mini horse can be transported on an airplane, it can, Swartz said.)
Swartz predicts one particular miniature horse, an 11-year-old chocolate mare with a bald face, to fetch the highest price.
“Cameo was the star of their show here,” Swartz said. “We expect her probably to be the high seller.”
Cameo, an 11-year-old miniature horse for sale at the Land of Little Horses auction, can wave, smile, untie, and sit down.
Not only does she have distinctive markings, she can wave, smile, untie, lay down, and sit.
As of Wednesday afternoon, she was already going for $3,550 in the online prebidding which started Feb. 14 and ends when the live auction starts Saturday at 10 a.m. at the Gettysburg farm at 125 Glenwood Dr. The auction will also be available to view on livestream. Swartz expects each miniature horse to sell for around $2,000 to $3,000.
The origins of miniature horses in the United States may date back to the 1800s, according to the American Miniature Horse Association, a Texas-based nonprofit that sets regulations and compiles registries of miniature horses around the country and world.
Sparkle, a 16-year-old miniature horse who will be available at the Land of Little Horses auction, is food motivated.
The horses were originally brought over from Britain to assist in the mining industry for hauling wagons of coal, said Valerie Shingledecker, the association’s operations manager. The United States now has around 100,000 of them, according to the association’s registry.
Texas, California, and Florida have the largest number of association-registered miniature horses in the country as of this month. States along the Appalachian Mountain range, where much 19th-century coal mining activity was concentrated, have the next-highest number. Pennsylvania has the fifth-largest population of association-registered miniature horses at about 3,800.
Can you own a miniature horse?
In recent decades, miniature horses are more commonly seen at petting zoos and in horse shows performing tricks, like pulling people in wagons.
They can also be kept as pets. In Philadelphia, residents can apply for a license to own a horse if they have a stable or one quarter acre of land per horse, according to a 2013 law. If residents have neither, they can still keep one so long as they have fewer than three horses in the same space and submit an equine veterinarian-approved exercise plan for the horses.
Most importantly manure must be disposed of every 24 hours.
Macy is a 30-year-old Falabella miniature horse who knows how to smile. She’ll be up for auction at the Land of Little Horses sale.
Under the Americans with Disabilities Act, a miniature horse can function as a service animal for people with disabilities. Facilities covered by the ADA are required to adopt policies detailing where and when service miniature horses are permitted. Facilities may elect to not allow them inside if they’re not housebroken.
If you’re interested in owning one, get ready for a long-haul commitment, Shingledecker said. These horses “cannot exceed 34 inches in height at the withers as measured from the last hairs of the mane,” according to the American Miniature Horse Association. They’re about a quarter the size of a regular horse and can live for over 30 years. However, they’re “easy keepers,” she said, meaning they don’t require a lot of food — about $2 of hay a day or $730 a year.
They also need vaccines and have to have their feet trimmed every six weeks by a farrier, but they don’t need horseshoes.
All in all, Shingledecker estimates one miniature horse costs about $1,500 a year to take care of.
Though they’re generally well-behaved, it’s important to remember they’re still animals with their own set of defense mechanisms.
“It is a horse, it’s not a dog,” she said. ”They can kick and they can bite if they were not socialized well. Don’t put them in the house.”
If they become afraid, they’ll either run, kick, or bite, Shingledecker said. “On the whole, they’re very friendly, very easy to work with.”
Readers were asked to draw a line where they believed South Jersey starts. Here is every individual submission we received. As you can see, the lines are scattered across the state, but there is a focus on the center of the state.
In the end, the average divider marking South Jersey sat near Burlington, Trenton, and just south of Toms River.
There were many factors that influenced where people drew their line, from using towns and counties to highways and area codes as boundaries.
I-195 was a popular point of division. “The dividing line in my mind is I-195, which goes from around Trenton east to the shore,” Will Dean from South Jersey wrote.
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Cultural factors also played a role. Eagles or Giants? Phillies or Mets? Flyers or Devils? Taylor ham or pork roll?
According to an analysis of Twitter accounts and what teams they follow, the county divide between Eagles fans and Giants fans tracks very closely with where readers drew the line.
After readers answered where South Jersey starts, we asked the more controversial question: Does Central Jersey exist? An overwhelming 74% of readers said that it did.
If a reader said yes, we challenged them again to draw the line between North and Central Jersey. Every line represents a submission.
Rebecca Overholt, a reader who has lived in all regions of the state, said of Central Jersey: "You get NYC and Philly stations in both TV and radio. You can find Eagles fans, Giants fans, and Jets fans all on the same block, and the only reason they get along is the jerk who flies a Dallas flag.”
Julie Lawson, another reader from South Jersey, weighed in, saying: “South and North Jersey are distinctly different. Central Jersey is amorphous and sort of exists where the two mix, sort of like the brackish water between fresh and saltwater.”
The average line was south of Hillsborough and New Brunswick.
“Happy to see a majority think Central Jersey exists because it does. I'd argue that New Brunswick is the dividing line; its county name, MIDDLEsex, screams Central Jersey,” said Tim Quinn, a Central Jersey reader.
As you can see, we are far from reaching a consensus here.
Maybe the one point New Jerseyans can agree on is best said by reader Ryan Wall: “Regardless of whether or not people believe Central Jersey exists, one thing everyone in the Garden State can agree on is that it's the greatest place in the world to call home. Lest we forget: ‘We're from Jersey, baby, and you're not.’”
What should we settle next?
Staff Contributors
Design, development, data, and reporting: Garland Fordice
