ARIES (March 21-April 19). Your need for validation comes under scrutiny. It is a human social instinct that falls under the category “unavoidable.” It will benefit you to get curious. So, whose approval do you seek and why?
TAURUS (April 20-May 20). The most intoxicating relationships are the ones that contain an element of uncertainty. If you always know what you’re going to get, what you really get is bored. Surprises can be an act of love. Unpredictability will work in your favor.
GEMINI (May 21-June 21). Brevity will be lucky. Put time constraints on the meeting. Put a word limit on the email. Short messages will get right to the point. The more direct you can be, the better the results. You simply won’t leave any room for confusion.
CANCER (June 22-July 22). There are many different interpretations of loyalty. For some it’s a “ride or die” quality, and for others it’s more like, “I’ll choose you if that’s what makes sense to me in the moment.” It’s just something to be aware of today.
LEO (July 23-Aug. 22). The lucky move: Get dressed up, all confidence and openness, and meet fresh faces in unfamiliar territory. People will be drawn to you. Savor the attention. You only get to be the new person once!
VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sept. 22). Let “no answer” be the answer today. Thinking of today’s problem as unanswerable will cause worry, expectation or desperation surrounding an issue to drop away. All that is left is a whole entire world of other things to think about.
LIBRA (Sept. 23-Oct. 23). However much help you thought you would need at this point, today proves your estimation was a bit off. Your new assessment will be realistic. You’ll put the word out and find just the assistance you need for moving forward.
SCORPIO (Oct. 24-Nov. 21). Someone is attracted to the way you kick back and have fun, but you won’t find out who it is until you actually kick back and have fun. Does the mystery inspire you to let up on the work? You deserve a break.
SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 22-Dec. 21). Adventure calls, but today the thrill comes in small doses. A spontaneous detour, curious question or mini exploration will give you more than a grand plan ever could.
CAPRICORN (Dec. 22-Jan. 19). You’re no stranger to how consistent moves can add up to a rather big deal. You just didn’t expect it to happen so quickly! Still, you won’t be swept up. Continue to trust steady effort over spectacle.
AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb. 18). Ideas are flowing, but only some are worth following today. Trust your instincts and discard the ones that feel heavy or forced. Sharing a fresh thought with the right person could spark a chain reaction. Don’t hold back, but be selective with your energy.
PISCES (Feb. 19-March 20). To speak on matters you know very little about is colloquially referred to as “talking out of school,” but what do you call it when the “school” itself is woefully misinformed? It’s a day to examine even reputable sources, with an ear for bias.
TODAY’S BIRTHDAY (Jan. 17). In this Year of Creative Mastery, you’ll be lauded for resourceful wins where you make the most of what’s already in reach. You discover that ingenuity outperforms excess. With clever adjustments and timely decisions, you turn modest inputs into meaningful returns. Collaboration fuels momentum. More highlights: inspired travel, healing and closeness in the family tree and sweet, funny companionship. Gemini and Aquarius adore you. Your lucky numbers are: 14, 24, 1, 19 and 38.
Jaylon Tyson scored a career-high 39 points, Evan Mobley’s dunk with 4.8 seconds left was the winner and the short-handed Cleveland Cavaliers completed a two-game sweep of the 76ers in Philadelphia with a 117-115 victory on Friday night.
Donovan Mitchell added 13 points, 12 assists, and nine rebounds for Cleveland, which rallied from an 11-point deficit in the fourth quarter. The Cavaliers defeated the Sixers 133-107 on Wednesday.
Joel Embiid scored 33 points and Tyrese Maxey had 22 points, nine assists and five steals for the 76ers.
Cleveland was without Darius Garland (right big toe soreness) and Sam Merrill (right hand sprain), who were both injured on Wednesday. Coach Kenny Atkinson said both will be reevaluated when the team returns to Cleveland this weekend.
The Sixers looked in control when Paul George hit a jumper with 8 minutes, 47 seconds remaining for an 11-point lead. But the Cavaliers used a 13-2 run, capped by De’Andre Hunter’s three-pointer with 5:53 left to tie it at 102. Philadelphia moved ahead by seven points after turnovers by the Cavs on three straight possessions, but Cleveland hung around.
Sixers’ Dominick Barlow (left) and Paul George (right) defend Cleveland’s Donovan Mitchell during the first quarter of Friday’s game.
Hunter’s layup with just over a minute left put the Cavs up a point. After Mobley made one of two free throws with 22.7 seconds remaining, Maxey tied it at 115 on a runner with 8.1 seconds left. After a timeout, Tyson set up Mobley near the basket for an easy dunk to put Cleveland in front by two. Maxey’s shot from just beyond half court that could have won the game went long.
Dominick Barlow was back in the lineup for Philadelphia after leaving Wednesday’s game early due to a back contusion. He was questionable entering the contest and finished with two points.
The Sixers will host the Indiana Pacers (10-32) on Monday (7 p.m., NBCSP).
The exact details aren’t all set yet, but the picture is starting to come together in U.S. Soccer’s buildup to this summer’s FIFA World Cup.
Four of the big pieces are well-known: the games the men’s national team will play before the tournament kicks off. They’ll face Belgium and Portugal at Atlanta’s Mercedes-Benz Stadium on March 28 and 31, respectively, with the game against the Portuguese sold out at the 71,000-seat venue.
The World Cup team will be announced at an event in New York in late May. U.S. Soccer Federation chief marketing officer Catherine Newman revealed the news during a speech Friday at the United Soccer Coaches Convention, and said the event will be open to the public in some form.
She did not specify the exact date or venue, so it’s unclear just how many fans will be able to attend.
U.S. Soccer Federation chief marketing officer Catherine Newman.
The team’s training camp will start right after that at the new national training center in suburban Atlanta. U.S. manager Mauricio Pochettino has already said he’ll set the roster before camp starts, not wanting to leave any choices until the last minute.
There will be two tournament warm-up games: First, Senegal on May 31 in Charlotte, followed by a match against Germany on June 6 in Chicago. After that, the team will head to southern California to get ready for its World Cup opener against Paraguay on June 12 in Inglewood, Calif.
Another milestone along the way will be the unveiling of the team’s World Cup jerseys in mid-March. Some renderings have already made the rounds on social media, of a red-and-white horizontal striped primary kit and a navy alternate kit with a star pattern.
“You’ve seen the leaks, I’m sure — I’m not going to stand up here and pretend that you haven’t,” Newman said. “And [I] will not confirm or deny if they’re true either. But what I can say is that the kits are absolutely fantastic, they look brilliant, and importantly, the players helped us to design them.”
Perhaps the details of how that happened will become known upon the official announcement.
Newman tried to make the case that “what we are trying to do with a lot of things at U.S. Soccer is to make sure that if you can’t attend a match, that you can attend things with U.S. Soccer … Just come in and be a fan, that’s all we ask.”
But those words will be met with skepticism from some fans, for one big reason: ticket prices.
People who’ve paid attention know that U.S. Soccer has no influence on World Cup ticket prices. In fact, the 2026 host nations’ bid book proposed prices far lower than what FIFA decided on.
But there have been complaints for years about the prices of tickets for U.S. Soccer’s own games, whether in big NFL stadiums or smaller MLS venues.
So it will be noticed that as of Friday, tickets for the Belgium game were available for $44 through the governing body’s official sales page, run by Ticketmaster. Unfortunately, the news was less positive for the other games: $73 and up for Senegal, $122 and up for Germany, and $193 and up for what’s left for Portugal.
That doesn’t seem to fit with Newman’s claim that “we are not an expensive option in the U.S.,” even as she referred to $40 tickets and a free “block party” at last year’s U.S. women’s team game at SoFi Stadium. That’s the venue where the U.S. men will play two of its three World Cup group games.
“We try very hard to think about that as part of our pricing, and to make it as affordable as we can,” Newman said. “And if we think about those four matches, there will be fan activations for all fans that our commercial partners are helping us [with], and there will be no cost to the fans. It is very important to us that fans can participate and can be part of it.”
Atlanta’s Mercedes-Benz Stadium will host the U.S. men’s soccer team’s March games against Belgium and Portugal.
She pivoted from there to more community-oriented events like watch parties, noting that U.S. Soccer is working with the American Outlaws supporters’ group to promote events across the country.
“Soccer isn’t about just being in the stadium,” Newman said. “It’s about how you watch at home, and how you have those other parts. And that is where it’s incumbent on all of us as part of the soccer community to make sure that people feel part of that.”
As true as that point is on its own, the words might not satisfy fans who want to take their family to a game, and look at ticket prices before anything else.
Escalating President Donald Trump’s fight against transgender rights, a top official at the Department of Health and Human Services on Thursday asked the department’s inspector general to investigate two Philadelphia-area children’s hospitals over their gender-affirming carefor transgender children.
Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP) and Nemours Children’s Health in Wilmington are among a dozen hospitals that HHS general counsel Mike Stuart said in posts on X he had referred to the agency’s Office of the Inspector General (OIG) in recent days.
A CHOP spokesperson declined to comment on Friday,and Nemours did not respond to a request for comment.
Both hospitals treat children and teens with gender dysphoria — a medical condition in which a person’s body does not match their gender identity. Doctors can prescribe hormone therapy and puberty blockers to treat the condition, although Nemours has already limited its use of these treatments in response to threats from the Trump administration.
The administration hastargeted CHOP and other hospitals that treat transgender youth with subpoenas demanding patients’ medical records, including their dates of birth, Social Security numbers, and addresses, as well as every communication by doctors — emails, voicemails, and encrypted text messages — dating back to January 2020.
CHOP filed legal action in response, asking a federal judge in Philadelphia to block the parts of the subpoena that sought detailed medical records of patients. In November, the judge ruled in CHOP’s favor.
The Trump administration appealed the decision Friday. It has argued that it needs the records as part of its investigation into possible healthcare fraud or potential misconduct by the hospitals.
Stuart said in a Thursday post on X that the administration is investigating hospitals in order to safeguard children from “sex-rejecting procedures,” adding: “There is no greater priority than protecting our children.”
Corinne Goodwin, executive director of the Eastern Pennsylvania Trans Equity Project, called Stuart’s post part of the Trump administration’s ongoing efforts to intimidate doctors and hospitals that provide gender-affirming care to those under 19.
“This action by the Department of Health and Human Services is yet another attempt to intimidate healthcare providers and to harm young people who simply want access to proven healthcare that helps them to live happy and productive lives,” said Goodwin, whose nonprofit organization provides services to transgender people in 42 counties, including Montgomery, Bucks, and Delaware.
The administration has said it recognizes only two genders, limited research into LGBTQ+ health, and phased out gender-affirming care at the Department of Veterans Affairs.
Directly targeting children’s hospitals, HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. issued a declaration in December rejecting gender-affirming procedures for minors, including puberty blockers, hormone therapy, and surgeries.
The American Academy of Pediatrics and other major medical associations, citing research, widely accept such care as safe, effective, and medically necessary for the patients’ mental health.
HHS’s OIG declined Friday to confirm or deny the existence of an investigation.
Last month, the U.S. Senate confirmed Thomas “March” Bell to serve as inspector general over HHS. During his confirmation hearing, Bell submitted written testimony saying, “If confirmed as inspector general, I will examine, evaluate, audit, and investigate to support the initiatives of President Trump and Secretary Kennedy.”
An ongoing legal battle
CHOP runs one of the nation’s largest clinics providing medical care and mental health support for transgender and nonbinary children and teens and their families. Each year, hundreds of new families seek care at CHOP’s Gender and Sexuality Development Program, created in 2014.
Nemours’ Gender Wellness Clinic, launched in 2018, provided hormone therapy and puberty blockers, as well as mental health support, to transgender patients in Delaware, and Nemours is the only hospital in the state that provides gender-affirming care for children.
Starting last July, its clinic began accepting only new patients who need behavioral healthcare. Existing patients receiving hormones or puberty blockers at the clinic were allowed to continue their treatment, the hospital said at the time.
On Thursday, Stuart wrote on X that CHOP and Nemours “appear to continue to operate outside recognized standards of healthcare and entirely outside @SecKennedy’s declaration that sex-rejecting procedures for children and adolescents are neither safe nor effective.”
Kennedy’s Decemberdeclaration says that these procedures “do not meet professionally recognized standards of health care.” Doctors who perform such procedures could be barred from participating in federally funded healthcare programs like Medicaid and Medicare, he said.
The lawsuit says that Kennedy has no authority to define “a national standard of care,” and that any substantive changes to Medicare rules are legally required to be subjected to a decision-making process that includes 60 days of public comment.
Officials at the Centers for Medicaid and Medicare Services have started that process, announcing alongside Kennedy’s declaration that they are proposing a rule that would bar hospitals from Medicaid and Medicare if they offer gender-affirming care to children under 19. They also proposed that Medicaid should not cover gender-affirming care for minors.
But those rules have not yet been instituted, and the lawsuit alleges that Kennedy’s declaration is skirting the law by immediately imposing restrictions on gender-affirming care in hospitals.
The Public Interest Law Center, a Philadelphia-based nonprofit that advocates for the civil, social, and economic rights of marginalized communities, is representing five parents of transgender children in legal motions seeking to protect their medical records.
Mimi McKenzie, PILC’s legal director, said the federal judge in Philadelphia was “very clear and on firm ground” when he ruled in November that the DOJ had no authority to issue the sweeping subpoena and that it violated the privacy rights of children.
She noted that six other courts around the country have similarly ruled that DOJ “has no right to rifle through children’s medical records.”
“Gender-affirming care is legal in Pennsylvania and endorsed by every leading medical association,” McKenzie said. “This is just another tactic in their ongoing attack against providers and patients.”
Some snow is possible in the Philly region during the holiday weekend, but about the only thing certain is that schools will be closed until Tuesday.
Snow — not a whole lot of it — is expected Saturday morning, and possibly again during the day Sunday.
“Definitely something,” said Ray Martin, a lead meteorologist at the National Weather Service Office in Mount Holly, “maybe not a lot of something.”
In short, he added, expect a “100% chance of forecast uncertainty.”
How much for Philly?
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Some snow is expected in the early morning hours of Saturday, said Dan Pydynowski, senior meteorologist with AccuWeather Inc., and “sidewalks and streets could be slick for a time” in the Philly region.
However, temperatures in the afternoon are expected to approach 40 degrees and that should melt any snow. If the precipitation lingers, it likely would turn to rain.
That snow would be associated with a system from the west, and more significant amounts are expected well north and west of Philly.
On Sunday when it will be colder, the source would be a coastal storm that has been befuddling computer models the last three days. On Wednesday, the U.S. model was seeing a significant snowstorm for the I-95 corridor. On Thursday, it said never mind and fell in line with other guidance that kept the storm offshore.
On Friday, models were bringing the storm closer to the coast, but the model consensus was that it would be more of threat at the Shore and perhaps throw back a paltry amount to the immediate Philly region.
“On the other hand, a slight shift … in the track could bring 1-2 inches into the urban corridor,” the weather service said in its afternoon discussion.
Said Martin, “It’s always tricky with these offshore lows. It’s also possible that both systems pass us and we get basically nothing.”
Far more certain is a rather big chill
A Philadelphia firefighter spreads salt to control icing at a fire scene on Friday.
That the region was about to experience its coldest weather of the season to date was all but certain.
High temperatures on Monday, Martin Luther King Jr. Day, probably won’t get out of the 30s, and no higher than the mid 20s Tuesday and Wednesday, forecasters say.
Overnight lows are due to tumble into the teens, with wind chills approaching zero early Wednesday.
No more precipitation is forecast at least through Thursday, but with odds favoring continued below-normal temperatures through Jan. 29 and above-normal precipitation, it should be a robust period for virtual snow threats, if not actual snow.
Union manager Bradley Carnell addressed the media for the first time in 2026, as the club prepares for its preseason camp next week in Marbella, Spain.
Carnell was accompanied by Jon Scheer, the Union’s director of academy and professional development, and, in the absence of sporting director Ernst Tanner, who has been on administrative leave, is part of a collective braintrust on sporting direction that includes Carnell, assistant sporting director Matt Ratajczak, and chief scout Chris Zitterbart.
The two spoke on the Union’s approach to what was an eventful winter transfer window, one that saw the departures of all-star-caliber players from the club’s Supporters’ Shield-winning campaign last season in Tai Baribo, Jakob Glesnes, and Kai Wagner.
But the Union were also active in acquiring players to retool its roster. The club spent a record $4.5 million to acquire Ghanaian striker Ezekiel Alladoh in December and made another deal to acquire centerback Japhet Sery Larsen for around $938,000.
Even with the changes, Scheer said the club has some more shopping to do.
Ezekiel Alladoh (center) joined the Union in the offseason as the team’s record signing all-time.
Transfer talk
Alladoh was the most significant of the Union’s acquisitions this offseason. The club paid a record fee for the 20-year-old striker, topping the $3.4 million fee it paid for striker Bruno Damiani last winter.
The Union sold Baribo, last year’s leading goalscorer, to D.C. United and allowed Mikael Uhre to leave in free agency, clearing the way for Damiani and Alladoh to begin the season as the first-choice strikers.
“[Alladoh’s] rise has been phenomenal,” Carnell said. “He’s been a target of the club upon my arrival, for example. So to get this acquisition, we’re incredibly excited about continuing his growth and development with us.”
The Union shored up their attacking line with Alladoh, but they also sought reinforcements on the backline after trading Glesnes to the Los Angeles Galaxy and sending Wagner to English Championship side Birmingham City.
To help fill Glesnes’s spot at centerback, the club brought in 25-year-old Sery Larsen from Norwegian side SK Brann. Sery Larsen, a Danish national, made 80 appearances in three seasons with Brann. Carnell compared Sery Larsen’s arrival to Glesnes’, who joined the Union in 2020.
"I think the style of play is really entertaining."
“[Sery Larsen] is of a caliber of a young leader,” Carnell said. “Jakob came into this environment, I think at a similar age to Sery Larsen, at the age of 25, and developed into a real good leader in and around the locker room and the team. Sery Larson comes in from a caliber and a quality level that almost commands respect in and around teammates. But, you know, the performance has to fit.”
Bedoya’s back
While a few of the team’s more vocal leaders have left, Alejandro Bedoya returns for his 11th season with the Union. Carnell said that he and Tanner met with Bedoya to discuss the captain’s future prior to Tanner being placed on administrative leave, and left the decision up to Bedoya.
“Knowing the impact that Ale’s had at this club, and knowing how important he is, in and around here, from setting the tone, the standards, the locker room, the leadership, we totally left it open to Ale Bedoya, if he would like to continue,” Carnell said. “Knowing the changes that happened in 2024, the conversation was so enlightening and so rewarding because, you know, he felt surprised that we were willing to bring him back.”
Alejandro Bedoya (center, with ball) returns for what will be his 11th season with the Union.
Bedoya’s on-field role has diminished in recent years, though the 38-year-old made 10 starts for the Union last season.
“I’ve seen what Ale does on the training field,” Carnell said. “I’ve seen what he does in games, the commitment, the bloody nose on the shield game. I know exactly what kind of person Ale is. When he reached out to us in the offseason to say he’s still chasing the cup and he wants to come back, doors opened, conversations happened, and we were so happy to bring him back.”
In addition to his playing roles as team captain and versatile midfielder, Bedoya will also continue his front office responsibilities as a player development and front office specialist.
The Union are shopping for a new starting-level left back to replace Wagner. For years, it was no secret that Kai Wagner wanted to go to Europe. It came up seemingly every offseason, even after the left back signed a new long-term contract with the Union in early 2024.
At a certain level, that part of Wagner’s tenure in Chester will not be missed. But his contributions on the field obviously will be, as statistically one of the best left backs in MLS for many years. His departure ended up coming at a time when the Union’s depth chart at the position isn’t great.
Union defender Nathan Harriel is an option at left fullback in the departure of Kai Wagner, but the club is still looking for a solution.
Frankie Westfield and Nathan Harriel can play the role, but neither is a natural. So it will come as a relief to fans that the club’s brass made it clear Friday that they’re shopping for a new left back, presumably one who can start.
“While we’ve made a few signings, we aren’t done,” said Scheer on Friday. “We’re very active in the transfer market. We look forward to continuing to attack, so that our club is in the best possible position come 2026 and the season’s start.”
Ben Bender (right) is also training as a left back to support the team’s depth chart in the absence of defender Kai Wagner.
“Kai is a player that has had a lot of interest over the years, and has had ambition to go across to Europe as part of his career,” Scheer said. “He’s been an important part of the team and certainly brought a lot of key characteristics. But certainly we feel like we’re in a position where this is something we’ve been planning for just in case, and it’s really important that Bradley has a lot of tools at has disposal.”
Carnell said that, along with Westfield and Harriel, attacking midfielder Ben Bender has been training at the position in case of emergency.
“If we had to play a game tomorrow,” Carnell said, those three names would be the depth chart.
“Like John mentioned, we’re always also looking,” he continued. “And we feel we’re not done in terms of our scouting and process to see what’s on the market. But we don’t want to make a rush purchase where it doesn’t make sense, or a rush purchase where we feel under pressure just to make an acquisition.”
Cavan Sullivan (6) and the Union depart for Spain on Saturday, where they’ll play three matches over the course of a two-week preseason camp.
Preseason match schedule
The Union finalized its preseason schedule on Friday, with five games on the calendar. The team will leave for Marbella, Spain, on Saturday night, and will play three games there: Jan. 20 vs. Czech club Sigma Olomouc, Jan. 23 vs. Demark’s Nordsjælland, and Jan. 29. vs. Montenegro’s Budućnost.
The Nordsjælland matchup could see Milan Iloski play the club he came to MLS from, moving first to San Diego FC before joining the Union in the middle of last year.
After returning to Philadelphia on Jan. 31, players will get a few days off before the team heads to Clearwater, Fla. They’ll play the second-tier USL Championship’s Tampa Bay Rowdies in St. Petersburg on Feb. 7 and CF Montréal on Feb. 10 at the Joe DiMaggio Sports Complex in Clearwater.
The Tampa Bay game will be open to fans. It’s not clear yet if the Montréal game will be, or if any of the five games will be broadcast.
ATLANTIC CITY — The Atlantic County prosecutor said Friday his office would not go forward with a child abuse trial against Atlantic City Superintendent La’Quetta Small, the wife of Mayor Marty Small, after determining that their daughter no longer wanted the case to proceed.
Their daughter, who turned 18 this month, testified for hours at the December trial of her father, who was later acquitted by a jury of charges that he beat his daughter with a broom and further abused her with terroristic threats.
The office will also request dismissal of charges against Constance Days-Chapman, the principal of Atlantic City High School, who was accused of failing to properly report to the state hotline the accusations made by the daughter.
In a statement Friday, the prosecutor said the decision was based on the daughter’s wishes and the prior verdict.
“We believe it is prudent and responsible to dismiss the remaining indictments against them,” prosecutor Williams Reynolds said in the statement.
The charges have been hanging over the Small family for two years. After being acquitted last month, Mayor Small shouted, “Thank you, Jesus. Thank you, jury.”
Atlantic City Mayor Marty Small Sr. speaks to the media after being found not guilty on all counts of abusing his teenage daughter, Thursday, Dec. 18, 2025.
His daughter attended the ceremony when the newly reelected Small was sworn in, and the mayor said the family had spent New Year’s Eve together like old times and begun the healing process.
Small, 51, faced charges stemming from a handful of incidents in late 2023 and early 2024 in which prosecutors said he and his wife abused and assaulted the teen. The couple said the incidents stemmed from their disapproval of their daughter’s relationship with a young man, leading to escalating tension and arguments in the family home.
The jury delivered its verdict at noon after having deliberated for two days. They found Small not guilty of endangering the welfare of a child, aggravated assault, making terroristic threats, and witness tampering. A conviction would have required Small to relinquish his office.
La’Quetta Small was scheduled to stand trial in April on charges of endangering the welfare of a child and simple assault.
Also facing a forthcoming trial was Days-Chapman, the principal of the Smalls’ daughter’s high school. Prosecutors say when the teen reported her parents’ abuse, Days-Chapman failed to notify child welfare authorities and instead told the couple of the report.
Days-Chapman, who is Marty Small’s former campaign manager, was later charged with official misconduct and related crimes.
Mayor Small could not be reached for comment.
La’Quetta Small’s lawyer, Michael Schreiber, said Friday he was “happy they decided to do the right thing.”
“It was a very difficult time for my client and her husband and their daughter,” he said. “We have to work on reunification, which is hard.”
He said the matter should have been handled by counselors or in family court, “where you have therapists to help everyone involved.”
“When the case is over, the prosecutor goes to the next case,” he said. “Where does that leave everybody? What is the benefit of the prosecution to the daughter? Whether it’s guilty or not guilty, how do you pick up the pieces and help this family?”
He said he would now be officially appealing a ruling by the state Division of Child Protection and Permanency that made an initial finding that substantiated the allegations.
He said the daughter has been living with her boyfriend and his mother.
In the statement, the prosecutor said the victim had last week “received a threat, racial in tone, on one of her social media accounts pertaining to her accusations she made against her father.”
“While we actively investigate this threat, we believe it is no longer in her best interest both emotionally and perhaps even physically for us to continue with our cases against La’Quetta Small and Constance Days-Chapman at this time,” the prosecutor said. “The further intent of this decision is to hopefully allow [the daughter], her family, and the community the time to heal and move forward.”
In 2020, he voted for Trump. Four years earlier, he wrote in former Vice President Mike Pence’s name instead of Trump.
Those decisions by the moderate Republican, who represents purple Bucks County and a sliver of Democratic-leaning Montgomery County, underscore Fitzpatrick’s unique relationship with and perspective of the president, Philadelphia Magazine reported Friday.
There are times when Fitzpatrick is blunt in his opposition, telling Philly Mag that Trump’s placation to Russian President Vladimir Putin is because of a “lack of moral clarity.”
But in other instances, he couches his words against the Trump administration. Fitzpatrick, a former FBI agent, told the magazine that the state of the FBI under Director Kash Patel is “heartbreaking,” but that “we’ve seen the weaponization of the Justice Department now, I believe, in two administrations.”
He also called it “unbecoming” for Trump to accuse six Democratic members of Congress — including U.S. Rep. Chrissy Houlahan of Chester County — of committing sedition after they appeared in a video urging service members to refuse illegal orders.
Trump claimed in a social media post that the lawmakers, all military veterans or former members of the intelligence community, had engaged in behavior that was “punishable by DEATH!”
Fitzpatrick’s comments came in a Philadelphia Magazine profile that details how the Bucks County Republican — who rarely gives interviews to local media — is grappling with an American political system that he wishes was drastically less partisan.
“I could talk for hours about this, but the two-party system needs to go away. We need to move to a coalition government and not the way it is now, which is a zero-sum, all-or-nothing game,” Fitzpatrick said, describing his preference for a form of government in which competing political parties govern and work together.
“In the House, if you get 218 votes on a bill, you get everything. And if you get 217 votes, you get nothing,” he said. “Well, a 218-217 breakdown is representative of a very divided electorate that wants compromise, but they don’t get it. And that’s why we have this great, cavernous divide.”
The interview comes as the lawmaker’s district has been named a key target for Democrats in the midterms, along with the seats of Republican U.S. Reps. Scott Perry of York County, Ryan Mackenzie of Lehigh County, and Rob Bresnahan of Lackawanna County.
“I’m going to keep doing this as long as I can,” Fitzpatrick told the magazine.
Fitzpatrick said that party leadership discourages reaching across the aisle, but that he attempts to do so on certain issues.
Recently, Fitzpatrick, Bresnahan, and Mackenzie joined Democrats to sign a discharge petition on extending Affordable Care Act subsidies. He also voted against the final version of Trump’s domestic policy package, the One Big Beautiful Bill Act.
The latter vote earned Trump’s ire. Without using his name, the president said that Fitzpatrick was disloyal after Trump did him “a big personal favor. As big as you can get having to do with death and life.” This was in reference to Fitzpatrick’s family receiving permission from Trump’s acting secretary of veterans affairs to bury Fitzpatrick’s late brother, Mike Fitzpatrick, who held the seat before him, in a national veterans’ cemetery in Washington Crossing, Pa., that Mike Fitzpatrick had proudly established.
The late representative, a former Navy ROTC enlistee, did not meet the required years of service.
Fitzpatrick told Philly Mag that he thought Trump’s invocation of his brother crossed a line.
“I was really upset to hear that,” he said.
This story has been updated to clarify that Fitzpatrick wrote in Nikki Haley in the 2024 presidential election, following a revision to Philadelphia Magazine’s profile.
By all accounts, Malinda Hoagland was the kind of 12-year-old girl who would make any parent proud.
She received A’s in school, loved unicorns and going to Wawa with her older sisters, and wrote her lunch ladies notes thanking them for stocking the cafeteria with applesauce and milk.
But her father, Rendell, clearly didn’t see that little girl, prosecutors said Friday in Chester County Court.
Instead, Rendell Hoagland and his fiancee, Cindy Marie Warren, tortured Hoagland’s daughter for months in their West Caln home, depriving her of food and medical care.
They chained her to furniture and forced her into stress positions for hours, beating her if she moved or displeased them.
Once, when the girl forgot her jacket at school, they forced her to do push-ups in the kitchen late at night, striking her with a belt. Other times, the beatings came with a metal spatula.
The lack of care ultimately killed Malinda in May 2024.
Medical examiners found the girl died from severe malnutrition, her organs atrophied from starvation. More than 70 bruises, ulcers, and sores riddled her body, which by then weighed just 50 pounds.
It was the rare type of crime that brought tears even to a judge’s eyes.
On Friday, that judge, Anne Marie Wheatcraft, accepted a guilty plea from Hoagland on one count of first-degree murder and related crimes. The 54-year-old will be confined in prison for life without the possibility of parole.
“This was calculated, sustained cruelty inflicted on an innocent child,” said Malinda Hoagland’s maternal aunt, Christine Mayrhauser, as the girl’s family read tearful victim impact statements.
Rendell Hoagland, a bald man whose size tested the limits of a red prison jumpsuit, gazed on.
“A quick execution is too good for him,” Mayrhauser said.
Warren is also charged with first-degree murder and related crimes. Her trial, scheduled for early January, has been delayed and she will receive a pretrial hearing in May.
Lead prosecutor Erin O’Brien described Malinda Hoagland’s final years as a period of abuse no child should ever endure.
After Rendell Hoagland separated from his wife, he received custody of Malinda in 2020 and moved with the girl from Monroe County to West Caln.
He enrolled the girl at school, but she soon began missing day after day of classes. By 2023, Hoagland had pulled Malinda out of school entirely, and she was completing school online under his and Warren’s near-constant supervision.
After the girl’s death in 2024, investigators recovered photos, videos, and text messages from both Hoagland and Warren that detailed the girl’s horrific life at home.
She was often chained to an air hockey table or other pieces of furniture, even sleeping there, O’Brien said, or made to run in place or do jump squats at Hoagland and Warren’s command.
They punished her with scalding showers and ice baths, forced her to hold books over her head for hours, and poured hot sauce down her throat. The couple monitored the girl through security cameras they had installed throughout the home.
They also kept locks on the refrigerator and snack cabinet, and the girl lost more than a third of her body weight in the last two years of her life. She was often sleep-deprived or suffering open wounds; by the end of her life, she struggled to do her homework because of her eye injuries, O’Brien said
The abuse ended only with death, prosecutors said.
On May 3, 2024, Hoagland called 911 claiming that Malinda had fallen off her bike and had lost consciousness at a campground in Quarryville.
But prosecutors say that the girl had been unconscious for hours, and that Hoagland had driven to CVS the night before, looking for smelling salts in an attempt to wake her up. He propped up the girl’s body so that she did not raise the suspicions of passersby.
It was a common pattern in attempted cover-ups, O’Brien said, and Hoagland and Warren were also known to use makeup to cover up the girl’s bruises for the few people they allowed to see her.
One of the last people to see Malinda Hoagland alive was William Delmedico, an emergency medical responder who wrapped the barely conscious girl in his sweatshirt as he rushed her to a hospital, where she died after surgery.
“I kept telling her she’s not alone, she’s loved, and that we’re doing everything possible to help her,” Delmedico told the court, his voice breaking.
Hoagland and Warren managed to keep the abuse hidden from Malinda’s extended family, prosecutors said, including her three older sisters, his biological children. The women were not living in Southeastern Pennsylvania during the time of the abuse, they said.
In addition to murder, “You should also be facing several counts of robbery,” said Emily Lee, Malinda Hoagland’s older sister, addressing her father. “You robbed my baby sister’s future. You took a life she deserved.”
Jamie Hoagland, another sister, said she begged her father for access to Malinda, sending her sister cards and gifts and playing Minecraft with her online when possible.
“I fought for every inch of communication,” Jamie Hoagland said. She later lamented: “Instead of taking her to the movies, I visit her grave.”
When given the chance to speak, Rendell Hoagland told Wheatcraft he had “nothing to say at this time.”
Wheatcraft said she was not surprised that Hoagland did not express remorse.
Losers of five straight, the Flyers are spiraling.
To be clear, it’s not that they’re spiraling because they’ve lost five straight. The issue is how the Flyers have been playing during this stretch.
And have they been facing some adversity regarding injuries? Yes. Across the past five games, defenseman Jamie Drysdale missed three with an upper-body injury; forward Bobby Brink (upper-body) has missed five and is now on injured reserve; defenseman Rasmus Ristolainen is day-to-day with an upper-body injury; and Dan Vladař was injured against the Buffalo Sabres on Wednesday.
But all teams face adversity. The Flyers just need to play better.
Saturday, the Flyers face a New York Rangers team that is not just spiraling but plummeting. Facing the Rangers is a prime opportunity to get back in the win column, but it won’t happen unless the Flyers correct a bunch of things.
Aside from the power play, which is at 12.5% during the slide, and goaltending — the Flyers went from 2.80 goals-against per game in the first 41 to 5.00 in the past five — needing to, be better, here are five things they need to do to right the ship.
1. Stop taking bad penalties
Is every penalty a bad penalty? No. Is every penalty the correct call by the officials? Absolutely not, and there have been some horrendous calls this season against the Flyers.
But when the penalty kill has been struggling — it went from 80.2% across the first 41 games and is at 61.1% during the five-game losing streak — you have to stay out of the box.
The Flyers have taken 28 penalties during this stretch, which is the most by any team, have been shorthanded 18 times, tied for the second most, and have been shorthanded more than 5 minutes per game. They’ve also allowed the most power-play goals against (seven), three of which came on Thursday in the 6-3 loss to the Pittsburgh Penguins.
The Flyers left Sidney Crosby all alone to score a power-play goal in Thursday’s 6-3 loss to Pittsburgh.
“Yeah, I think it’s just being smarter, not letting frustration creep in. I think it’s, I don’t know, a lot of away from the puck stuff that’s kind of creeped in recently, and I think that’s due to frustration,” forward Owen Tippett said after Wednesday’s game when the Sabres scored twice on the man advantage.
2. Maintain the diamond on the penalty kill
What’s going wrong on the penalty kill? A lot. But the biggest issue is that it has lost its structure.
“Yeah, just really disappointed, like, I’m pretty disappointed,” said coach Rick Tocchet after the Sabres game. “I’m a PK guy, and the reads that we gave them weren’t good. They’re just unacceptable for me, so we’re going to have to tidy that up.”
Tocchet prefers the diamond PK setup to take away point shots, the player in front of the net, and passes to the bumper. The diamond shape is designed to take away specific passing lanes from the player who is typically set up right in the slot in the 1-3-1 structure typically employed by NHL teams.
Buffalo scored two power-play goals on Wednesday, including this one, where all four of the Flyers’ penalty killers got caught too tight together in front of the net, allowing Rasmus Dahlin to walk in and score.
Of course, that doesn’t mean you should ignore the other guys — see Sidney Crosby’s goal Thursday from the right flank. But the Flyers’ structure has fallen apart, and if you’re going to be a team to take penalties, this needs to be airtight.
Remember the good old days of fans yelling, “Shoot the puck?” It was always kind of annoying and probably didn’t come at the right time, but maybe it’s time to start doing that again because, as Wayne Gretzky and Michael Scott said: “You miss 100% of the shots you don’t take.”
The Flyers have never poured the shots on in Tocchet’s system. They averaged 26.3 in the 41 games before the losing streak, which had them ranked 25th in the NHL. And they have only put more than 30 shots on goal in a game 11 times.
Flyers center Denver Barkey skates with the puck against the Tampa Bay Lightning on Monday, January 12, 2026 in Philadelphia.
Across the losing streak, that average has dipped to 23.8, which is the sixth-fewest — and only looks better than it is because of the 33 shots they put on Stuart Skinner on Thursday night, including 17 in the second period.That’s by far the most in a single period during a stretch in which the Flyers did not have more than 23 shots on goal in a game; in 12 of their previous 13 periods, the Flyers hit double digits just once.
The problem is that at five-on-five, they are getting chances but not scoring. Natural Stat Trick has the Flyers tied for 13th in the NHL at shot attempts (205), but with only 86 shots and six goals during the losing streak. The Flyers are also No. 2 in missed shots during that span (92).
“I think there were a few chances tonight that could have changed, maybe the momentum of the game, but at the end of the day, that’s the part of it, you’ve got to score more goals than the other team,” Drysdale said in Buffalo. “So I think we got better [as the night wore on]. We will be better.
4. Follow Owen Tippett’s lead
Tocchet has long talked about Tippett being a guy he can unlock and how, with his size, speed, and scoring ability, he can be a power forward in the NHL. He just hadn’t put it all together — until maybe now.
The winger has been using his size to lay timely hits — he has 10 in the past five games — that create turnovers, and speed and footwork to drive to the net.
During the Flyers’ loss to Tampa Bay on Monday, he used his speed and body to drive down the boards and set up Sean Couturier for a Grade A chance that went off the post.
And in the overtime loss to Toronto, he was the one who turned on the jets and tried a wraparound that just missed before Trevor Zegras thought he scored an insurance goal on the power play.
His speed pushes defenses back, which led to another Grade A scoring chance, this time for Denver Barkey as he streaked to the net against the Leafs.
Owen Tippett has six goals in his last 13 games.
Now, does Tippett miss the net too much still? Yes. But he has 31 shot attempts across the five games with 18 shots on goal. He also has two goals and one assist.
According to Natural Stat Trick, the Flyers have 60 shot attempts to 43 when he is on the ice at five-on-five across the slide. Individually, he leads the team in five-on-five in individual scoring chances (12), shots (14), and individual shot attempts (25).
5. Let the kids play
The Flyers have three kids 22-and-under who bring different elements but have shown they can add to the lineup.
Barkey, 20, was a healthy scratch on Wednesday and bounced back with a two-assist performance against the Penguins. He set up Nick Seeler for a goal and connected with Matvei Michkov on a two-on-one after Couturier made a nice play along the boards to spring them.
Matvei Michkov had a goal and an assist on Thursday. Could he be coming out of his slump?
Despite playing juniors last year, Barkey has shown he has an extremely high hockey IQ and a motor that gets him up and down the ice with efficiency. Did he have two not-so-great games with turnovers leading to goals by the Lightning? Absolutely. But it’s obvious what he can bring, whether teaming up with Tippett or Michkov.
Grebenkin, 22, is a fireplug. He’ll make coverage mistakes and is still uncertain as to when to jump into piles vs. staying back, but he drives to the net, throws the body around, and stands up for his teammates. Considering Tocchet wants his team to go to the net more, he’s heeding the bench boss’s edict — and as noted, he did just that on Tippett’s goal against Buffalo.
And then there’s the polarizing Michkov. The 21-year-old is still learning the North American game, and does appear to be “stuck in mud” at times — watch his skating in the overtime against the Toronto — but his vision and desire for the puck is unmatched.
He scored against a goalie for the first time in 20 games in Buffalo, playing it perfectly by driving to the net on a two-on-one and shooting right off the pass. It’s what the Flyers need to do as a whole, as a lot of their shots are not quick enough, giving the opposition and goalies a chance to stop the play or make the save.
Across the past five games, he has shown that he can provide offense, but he also needs to work on his defensive game. Across all strengths, according to Natural Stat Trick, the Flyers have a 63.99% expected goal share when he is on the ice; Barkey is No. 1 at 81.86%, and Tippett is No. 2 at 67.50%.
And although he’s been on the ice for two goals by the Flyers and six against at even strength — plus the short-handed goal by Laughton — he has the second-highest expected goals for on the Flyers (4.27) behind Zegras 4.99. He even made a nice defensive play on Peyton Krebs in the first period on Wednesday, and has seemingly stopped taking bad penalties
The Flyers need offense — going from 3.02 goals per game in the first 41 to 1.80 the past five — and the Russian has shown he can bring that, whether scoring himself or setting up his teammates.
