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  • Philly snow updates: City schools will be virtual Tuesday; city offices and courts will be open

    Philly snow updates: City schools will be virtual Tuesday; city offices and courts will be open


    // Timestamp 02/23/26 7:25pm

    Philly got its biggest snow in 10 years. This time nature will help with the cleanup.

    Sean Little of the Delaware River Waterfront Corporation shovels snow along the sidewalks on Race Street on Monday, Feb. 23, 2026.

    If it wasn’t an actual blizzard, Philly’s biggest snowfall in a decade sure acted like one, and the weather the rest of this week isn’t expected to be particularly pleasant.

    But in terms of disruption — not to mention aesthetics — this was in a wholly different category from the Jan. 25 siege of snow and ice. And the aftermath should not be anywhere near as punitive and burdensome.

    Although the 14 inches measured officially at Philadelphia International Airport dwarfed the 9.3 inches of snow and sleet that accumulated in last month’s storm, Zach Schwartz, 33, was among those who found the picturesque snow more palatable than the attack of ice balls and an Arctic freeze.

    “The last snowstorm was a tough time for everyone,” said Schwartz, who was at a Point Breeze playground helping a friend build an igloo for their kids, “and I think the city was kind of in shock a little bit.”

    Anthony R. Wood, Rob Tornoe


    // Timestamp 02/23/26 7:14pm

    Philly schools will be virtual on Tuesday; city offices and courts will be open

    Philadelphia schools will remain on virtual instruction for all students on Tuesday, the city announced Monday evening.

    City offices will be open for business on Tuesday and all First Judicial District courts will be open, too.

    Parking restrictions will remain in effect for posted emergency routes, the city said.

    Robert Moran


    // Timestamp 02/23/26 6:28pm

    Watch: Snowstorm turns Wissahickon into a winter wonderland


    // Timestamp 02/23/26 5:59pm

    Some city warming centers will remain open through Wednesday morning

    Philadelphia’s Office of Homeless Services said the city would maintain several 24-hour warming centers through Wednesday morning to help people stay out of the cold.

    The city is already in a Code Blue, which is declared when precipitation is falling and temperatures are 32 degrees or lower, or when temperatures feel close to or below 20 degrees due to the wind chill.

    During a Code Blue, the city sends outreach teams out 24 hours a day, looking for people without shelter and taking them inside. The designation also opens up 50 shelter beds, in addition to about 3,400 shelter beds available during the winter. Residents in emergency housing are also allowed to stay inside all day. (Some shelters require residents to leave in the morning and return at night.)

    An “enhanced Code Blue” is declared when Code Blue conditions persist for three days, and the city opens up warming centers that offer a place to sit out of the cold, usually in libraries and rec centers. Some people experiencing homelessness who are wary about entering shelters opt for less-restrictive warming centers.

    The city has not declared an enhanced Code Blue for this storm, but announced Sunday afternoon that it had planned to open warming centers at least overnight.

    On Monday afternoon, OHS’s Instagram account posted an updated list of warming centers that will stay open until 9 a.m. Wednesday. The following centers are already open unless otherwise noted:

    • Pelbano Recreation Center, 8101 Bustleton Ave. (opens at 9 p.m. Monday)
    • Hub of Hope, 15th Street and John F. Kennedy Boulevard (enter at the 15th Street trolley station entrance in Dilworth Park)
    • Appletree Family Center, 1430 Cherry St.
    • Prevention Point, 2913-15 Kensington Ave.
    • Kensington Wellness Support Center, 265 E. Lehigh Ave.
    • Samuel Rec Center, 3539 Gaul St.

    People who see someone on the streets in need of shelter, or who need shelter themselves, can call the city’s homeless outreach hotline at 215-232-1984.

    Aubrey Whelan


    // Timestamp 02/23/26 3:55pm

    Warmer weather is helping Philly’s cleanup, but so are lessons from the last storm

    Mother nature’s above freezing temperatures largely aided Philadelphia’s snow removal operations Monday, but the city also adjusted its response after the prior storm cleanup left many residents chockfull of complaints.

    Director of Clean and Green Initiatives Carlton Williams said the city secured three snow melters instead of just one, with two already on the road Monday, despite the much shorter notice of the storm.

    “They’re located throughout the city of Philadelphia, because quite frankly, from the last storm, we are running out of places to place snow,” said Williams in a news conference, referring to the dozens of snow drop off sites, such as the Navy Yard. “We needed to be able to put it in a location where it doesn’t have to sit in somebody’s neighborhood.”

    The city also added snow blowers to the mix of machines clearing the area around City Hall, said a city spokesperson.

    The softness of the snow, compared to the hardened sleet from the last storm, has made it easier for the smaller snow clearing equipment to double back and tackle ADA ramps and crosswalks after the last bit of snow fell, according to the mayor’s office.

    Even so, the city is slated to deploy crews of same-day-pay workers to manually shovel crosswalks, SEPTA stops, and ADA ramps that are hard to reach by machines as early as Tuesday.

    The deployment of these reinforcements comes at a much faster clip than the previous storm, where some 300 additional workers helped chip away at persistent ice by hand more than a week after the snow fell.

    Ximena Conde


    // Timestamp 02/23/26 3:00pm

    A puppy’s first snow

    Lee Paul and her puppy, Chay, check out the snow Monday near their Wayne Avenue apartment.

    Lee Paul, 36, was not ready to step out of her Wayne Avenue apartment complex in the middle of a blizzard. But her four-month-old puppy had other plans.

    “I had to take Chay to go to the bathroom,” said Paul, hands in her pockets and dreading the cold.

    She hates winter, but is happy that living in a building meant no shoveling was in her future.

    For Chay, this is all a new experience. He was thrilled to jump around in the snow, bury his paws over and over again, and catch tiny flakes with his nose for more than 10 minutes.

    Michelle Myers


    // Timestamp 02/23/26 2:54pm

    SEPTA resumes most services but Regional Rail remains suspended

    SEPTA bus stops, like this one in Germantown, sat empty most of Monday.

    SEPTA has reopened its Center City trolley tunnel, and resumed service on more than 20 of its bus routes. However, Regional Rail service remained largely suspended as of Monday afternoon, SEPTA general manager Scott Sauer said.

    “We’re hoping to have some Regional Rail service restored later this afternoon,” Sauer said Monday. “But I will caution: We will not be on a regular schedule.”

    Just before 3 p.m., the agency restored operations on its Manayunk/Norristown line, a representative said.

    The transit agency had inspectors and inspection trains working along Regional Rail lines evaluating them for any hazards, but their resumption was not immediately clear Monday afternoon. Sauer encouraged riders to follow SEPTA’s app and website for service updates as storm cleanup progresses.

    “SEPTA has nearly 300 Regional Rail and metro stations, most with a variety of platforms and infrastructure, so we are working to clear those in the best effort possible,” Sauer said.

    About 30 track inspectors were working to inspect SEPTA infrastructure, and roughly 700 in-house employees were working to clear the authority’s property of snow and other hazards, including downed trees. Sauer added that SEPTA has utilized “many, many tons” of rock salt to combat ice, and employed the use of all of its available heavy equipment to aid in cleanup.

    “We’ve made service adjustments, and now it’s back to restoration,” Sauer said. “But all while keeping an eye on safety for both our customers and our employees.”

    Nick Vadala


    // Pinned

    // Timestamp 02/23/26 1:10pm

    Light snow is possible Tuesday night. More next week?

    Snow removal vehicles plow at Swarthmore College Monday.

    It won’t be a big deal, but a round of light snow is possible late Tuesday night and/or early Wednesday as a weak “clipper” system approaches from the west.

    While temperatures on Tuesday will struggle to reach freezing and fall into the 20s at night and, thus, cold enough for snow, it shouldn’t accumulate more than an inch in the Philly region, forecasters say.

    It will warm into the 40s on Wednesday, and given the strength of the February sun it should be a decent melting day.

    More light precipitation, perhaps a mix of rain and snow, is possible Thursday, but that should be followed three consecutive dry days ,with high temperatures in the 40s to low 50s.

    Another batch of chiller air could arrive in time for a storm to produce more snow early next week, said Tom Kines, senior meteorologist with AccuWeather Inc. But, yes, it’s way, way early.

    At least by then, most of what fell Sunday and Monday should be liquefied.

    Kines warned that in the meantime temperatures the next few nights are going to fall below freezing, turning some of that daytime melt into ice.

    Anthony R. Wood


    // Timestamp 02/23/26 2:36pm

    Tens of thousands still without power in N.J.

    Snow fills a child’s basketball hoop in Haddonfield Monday.

    More than 130,000 households across the Philadelphia region lost power last night due to the snowstorm.

    Philadelphia households have mostly recovered from power outages on Monday, according to Peco, with only 213 active outages this afternoon.

    South Jersey still has around 75,000 households currently without power, according to Jersey Central Power and Light, but that number has slowly decreased since this morning.

    Outages in Atlantic City are still higher than they were this morning with 2,804 active outages, up from 1,892 around 7 a.m., according to Atlantic City Electric. Last night, more than 50,000 residents in Atlantic City lost power.

    Henry Savage


    // Timestamp 02/23/26 2:31pm

    Dozens of Philly trees downed in the storm

    Wet snow brought down trees in Rittenhouse Square Monday.

    At least 87 tress across the city were downed as a result of the storm as of Monday afternoon, and the city is working to determine which ones to prioritize clearing first, Parks and Recreation commissioner Susan Slawson said.

    “We have four certified arborists that are actively inspecting reports of fallen trees to determine priority for clearance,” Slawson said Monday. “Everything is not a priority.”

    Slawson asked for patience from city residents as the department works to clean up downed trees, and noted that some situations involving live wires require additional caution and coordination. Fallen trees blocking roadways, or those that have fallen on houses or cars, should be reported to 911, while those impacting power lines should be reported to Peco.

    While the number of downed trees may rise in the immediate aftermath of the storm, Slawson said she expects officials will continue to monitor the situation in the coming weeks and months. Longer-term implications, she cautioned, are possible.

    “This moisture, this snow, is going to continue to [have an] affect,” Slawson said. “Early on in the spring, we may continue to see trees come down, and it’s a direct result of all the storms that we’ve had.”

    Nick Vadala


    // Timestamp 02/23/26 2:14pm

    An easier time shoveling this snow in Germantown

    Ronald Barnard works to shovel outside his Coulter Street home in Germantown Monday.

    Ronald Barnard has been shoveling outside his Coulter Street home for two hours. At 69, snow clean up requires twice the effort, he said.

    “It’s just a lot,” Barnard said pointing to the surrounding unplowed sidewalks and ice covered road. “This snow is easier to push than the snow in January, but it’s more than I expected for sure.”

    He likes doing the clean up himself. But when neighbors offer to help, he takes the chance to reminiscent about a better time, when “the city used to give us salt and even plow the two way street, but times have change.”

    El Zahur shovels the sidewalk outside his Germantown property Monday.

    A block down Germantown Avenue, El Zahur, 42, is having an easier time. City plow trucks have been driving by all morning, making the street clean.

    “The administration dropped the ball last time, but she made out for it this time,” Zahur said, referring to Mayor Charelle L. Parker. “Before, the trucks were driving around with their plows up, but now they are doing a good job actually removing the snow.”

    Regardless, he is still responsible for his corner property sidewalks, which proved to be a bit of a hazard.

    “I have managed to stay out of the way from falling things,” Zahur said, as some snow rapidly fell off the roof into the sidewalk. “I don’t want nothing falling on me from three stories above.”

    Michelle Myers


    // Timestamp 02/23/26 1:56pm

    Weather Service cancels blizzard warnings for Philly and across the region

    Mike Ouellette plows his driveway with a snow blower in Wallingford Monday.

    The National Weather Service has taken down the blizzard warnings for the region.

    While strong winds and blowing snow are likely to persist, the threat of blizzard conditions has diminished, said Nick Guzzo, meteorologist at the National Weather Service Office in Mount Holly.

    The warning had been scheduled to expire at 6 p.m., but snow has moved out of the area, and overall visibilities and conditions have improved

    Anthony R. Wood


    // Timestamp 02/23/26 1:54pm

    Philly snow emergency remains in effect, no word yet if schools will reopen Tuesday

    Snow topped cars sit in a Old City apartment parking lot Monday.

    Mayor Cherelle L. Parker said at a Monday afternoon news conference it remained too early to determine when the city’s snow emergency could be lifted, but officials hoped to have an update on the resumption of city operations later in the day.

    In the meantime, Parker added, city residents should avoid unnecessary travel until further notice to allow crews to continue to clear the more than 2,500 miles of roadways in Philadelphia. Roughly 65% of streets had been treated in some way as of Monday afternoon — plowed, salted, or lifted, or some combination of the three — director of Clean and Green Initiatives Carlton Williams said.

    “When there are fewer cars on the street, we give our crews more flexibility to do the job that we are asking them to do,” Parker said.

    At the height of the storm, the city employed more than 800 pieces of equipment and about 1,000 workers to aid in snow removal, and that number “is still continuously growing,” Williams said. Workers will assist with the clearing of curb cuts, ADA ramps, and areas around schools, among other spaces, as cleanup efforts continue, he added.

    “We will continue to focus on those areas so that all pedestrians and motorists will have safe and accessible walkways,” Williams said.

    Officials expect to release additional information about Tuesday’s city services and school operations around 6 p.m., Parker said.

    Nick Vadala


    // Timestamp 02/23/26 1:49pm

    New Jersey travel ban lifted

    David Holmes cleans the snow off of his car as neighbor Bill McKean (rear) snow-blows the driveway in Haddonfield Monday.

    The New Jersey Office of Emergency Management has announced that the mandatory travel restriction, which began at 9:00 p.m. on Sunday and was extended until noon Monday, has been lifted.

    Officials nonetheless “strongly encouraged” motorists to avoid unnecessary travel as hazardous conditions remain in parts of New Jersey, according to a release from the state police.

    “Some roadways remain snow-covered, visibility is limited in some areas, and crews continue working to clear roads and restore safe travel,” the release said.

    Amy S. Rosenberg


    // Timestamp 02/23/26 1:28pm

    Was this a blizzard?

    Nicole Swinson looks into a snowy Penns Landing Monday.

    Philadelphia hasn’t experienced a verified blizzard in 33 years, and it remains unclear whether this Sunday-Monday snow fest qualified for the honor.

    According to NOAA guidelines, a blizzard requires “frequent winds of 35 mph or higher with considerable falling and/or blowing snow that frequently reduces visibility to 1/4 of a mile or less. These conditions are expected to prevail for a minimum of 3 hours.”

    That’s a lot to ask for a snowstorm, and it is going to take considerable forensic work of poring through observations to determine whether those conditions were met in Philadelphia or elsewhere in the region, said Nick Guzzo, a meteorologist at the National Weahter Service Office in Mount Holly. (Incidentally, 20 inches of snow were measured on the office’s property.)

    The last certifiable blizzard in Philly occurred on March 13, 1993. That one closed down the Philadelphia Flower Show.

    Meteorologists were confident that the conditions were met during the record 30.7-inch snowfall of Jan. 7-8, 1996, however they weren’t officially verified in the city.

    With or without a label, this was one impressive storm.

    Anthony R. Wood


    // Timestamp 02/23/26 1:02pm

    Watch: Philly Mayor Parker offers snow updates


    // Timestamp 02/23/26 9:53am

    Accumulating snow is over in the Philly area

    A Philadelphia Fire Department ambulance drives along Ridge Avenue at Midvale on Monday.

    Light snow is lingering in the Philly region and could continue into the afternoon, but no additional accumulation is expected.

    “What’s done is pretty much almost done,” said Amanda Lee, meteorologist at the National Weather Service in Mount Holly, where 18 inches was measured Monday morning.

    The potent coastal nor’easter that clocked South Jersey and areas along I-95 and generously layered several inches of snow throughout Philly’s neighboring counties in Pennsylvania is pulling away.

    Officially, 13.7 inches fell at Philadelphia International Airport as of 7 a.m. Here are more snowfall totals.

    Some stronger snow bands continue to pester the Shore, but for areas to the west, that should be it.

    At least until Tuesday night, when another inch is possible.

    Anthony R. Wood


    // Timestamp 02/23/26 1:00pm

    SEPTA service beginning to be restored

    Snow covered tracks at SEPTA’s East Falls Station along the Norristown Regional Rail.

    Almost all SEPTA services, besides some subway services, were temporarily suspended Monday due to the storm. But some are beginning to come back online.

    Bus service is in the process of being restored as streets are cleared, the agency said.

    The Center City Trolley Tunnel has reopened. The D and M lines are running on a modified service schedule, while Route G remains suspended.

    Regional Rail remains suspended until safety inspections are complete. If Regional Rail service returns, it will follow a Saturday schedule.

    The Broad Street Line (B), Market-Frankford Line (L), and Media-Sharon Hill Line (D) are operating as normal with some delays and cancellations.

    The Norristown High Speed Line (M) is running but only operating between the 69th Street Transit Center and Radnor Station.

    Henry Savage


    // Timestamp 02/23/26 12:48pm

    South Philadelphia is loving the winter wonderland

    Zach Schwartz builds an igloo in Wharton Square Park Monday.

    Fresh powdery snow, perfect for snowballs, blanketed Wharton Square Park in South Philadelphia after Sunday night’s snowstorm. Laughter from the playground, shovels scraping concrete, and snowmen slowly rolling into form took over the park on Monday morning.

    Two men in particular came with a mission: to build an igloo for their kids. Zach Schwartz, 33, and Josh Feist, 33, of Point Breeze shoveled a path to the playground, piling up a more than five-foot snow pile. Feist, who is a mason, helped stabilize the frame while Schwartz carved out the inside.

    “We have a really close crew of families in the neighborhood, so we’re here at the park like every day, no matter what. With the snow, we just have more fun things to do,” Schwartz said, who has lived in Philly since 2016. In recent memory, this storm had some of the most snowfall, Schwartz said, but that it doesn’t compare to the frozen snow of last month.

    “The last snowstorm was a tough time for everyone, and I think the city was kind of in shock a little bit,” Schwartz said.

    Samantha Schranck and John Gabel were out walking their dog enjoying the warmer temperatures compared to last snow storm. “I already had a day off, so I’m going to be a kid again and treat it like a snow day,” Schrank.

    While snow removal is a much easier task this time around with snow that Gabel said is less frozen and easier to pick-up, the couple is hoping city streets and trash service are up to par this week.

    “I’m very curious to see how the city clears the streets this time because it was a mess and took a long time in our neighborhood to clear snow from streets and take care of the trash build up,” Schranck said.

    Sonia Odenthal (lft) throws a snowball at her son, Finn, while her husband Eric carries a giant snowball in Wharton Square Park Monday

    On the other side of Wharton Square, Sonia Odenthal was having a snowball fight with her husband, Eric, and son, Finn. Despite trekking through the snow with a broken foot wrapped in a boot and water-proof bags, Odenthal couldn’t get enough of the snow.

    “I’m Russian so this feels like home,” she said. “Even with a broken foot, I don’t care, I’m still out here. I love the snow.”

    Philly’s snow accumulation is very reminiscent of her homeland, Sonia said, however, the temperature is much more reasonable. “A couple weeks ago when it got cold was very similar to home,” she said.

    The trio will usually come to the park on snowy days for snowball fights or rolling snow into gigantic three-foot-high balls. The only thing missing in South Philadelphia is a good sledding hill, the Odenthal’s said.

    Henry Savage


    // Timestamp 02/23/26 11:55am

    Museums across the Philly region close due to snow

    A griffin on the roof of the northern wing of the Philadelphia Art Museum.

    Several major Philadelphia arts institutions have announced closures due to emergency weather.

    Early Monday, the Philadelphia Museum of Art, the Franklin Institute, Philadelphia’s Magic Gardens, and Calder Gardens announced closures on their social media accounts.

    The PMA said it’ll reopen on Tuesday.

    The Mütter Museum, Rodin Museum, the Museum of the American Revolution, Independence National Historical Park, Otherworld Philadelphia, National Liberty Museum, the Independence Seaport Museum, have also announced closures.

    Per their usual hours of operation, the National Constitution Center, Eastern State Penitentiary, Penn Museum, the Fireman’s Hall Museum and others are closed on Monday.

    Earl Hopkins


    // Timestamp 02/23/26 11:30am

    Multiple sections of the New Jersey Turnpike closed due to numerous accidents

    Multiple sections of the New Jersey Turnpike are experiencing major delays and closures after a series of accidents Monday morning amid whiteout conditions.

    Gov. Mikie Sherrill extended a travel ban through noon, citing visibility issues, though those restrictions exclude the Turnpike and essential workers.

    In an interview with Fox 5 New York early Monday, Sherrill said plowers were “down to pavement” on the Turnpike.

    Still, throughout the early morning, reports of disabled vehicles, cars spinning out of control, and crashes have lit up the state’s 511 map, which provides real-time traffic updates.

    Around 8:20 a.m. a southbound tractor trailer jack-knifed along entrance ramp interchange 8A-NJ32 in South Brunswick, leading to an all-lane blockage.

    Shortly after 9 a.m. two crashes, minutes apart, played out in inner turnpike roadways in Carteret. First a northbound vehicle crashed north of Interchange 12, leaving one of three lanes blocked. Shortly after, a southbound vehicle crashed along Interchange 12. As of 11:15 a.m., all lanes were blocked.

    At around 10 a.m. a southbound vehicle spun out south of Interchange 8A-NJ32 blocking one of three lanes.

    A statewide 35 mile per hour speed limit remains in effect.

    Ximena Conde


    // Timestamp 02/23/26 11:17am

    Cape May mayor: ‘It’s like a snow globe’

    The Abbey on Gurney Street in Cape May, N.J.

    Cape May Mayor Zack Mullock said his coastal city of Victorian homes “looks beautiful” covered in the foot of snow that had fallen by Monday morning.

    “It looks like a snow globe,” he said.

    “We had a good amount,” Mullock said, speaking by phone, from atop a tractor, which he said he was using to help plow out some neighbors. “There’s a few individual homes where a tree took a power line. The tides were ok. We were a little nervous about that. Overall, I would say things are pretty good.”

    He cautioned his residents about shoveling themselves. “We have a lot of elderly in Cape May who shouldn’t be shoveling.”

    Amy S. Rosenberg


    // Timestamp 02/23/26 10:36am

    Updated snowfall totals from across the Philadelphia region

    Residents of W. Stanton, Philadelphia clearing snow from cars and sidewalks Monday.

    More than a foot of snow fell overnight across the Philadelphia region, though the Jersey Shore was hit hardest by a powerful winter storm that was still dropping heavy snow Monday morning.

    Due to heavy snow bands, the totals varied widely. Ten inches of snow were recorded in Boothwyn Monday morning, while 15 inches dropped overnight in Mount Ephraim, Camden County.

    Officially, 13.7 inches fell at Philadelphia International Airport as of 7 a.m.

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    Here are the latest snowfall totals from the National Weather Service, measured by trained spotters or observed by the service itself:

    Philadelphia

    • Philadelphia International Airport: 13.7 in (7 a.m.)
    • Fox Chase: 13.8 in (7 a.m.)    
    • Rockledge: 13.8 (7 a.m.)

    Delaware County

    • Boothwyn: 10.0 in (5:15 a.m.)
    • Chadds Ford Twp: 9.8 in (2 a.m.)
    • Lima: 8.8 in (5:35 a.m.)
    • Clifton Heights: 8.5 in (2:15 a.m.)
    • Garnet Valley: 6.0 in (10:07 p.m. Sunday)
    • Middletown Twp.: 5.2 in (9:38 p.m. Sunday)        
    • Media: 5.0 in (10:15 p.m. Sunday)

    Chester County

    • East Nantmeal Twp: 9.0 in (5 a.m.)              
    • SE Exton: 7.0 in (12:39 a.m.)   
    • West Chester: 6.2 in (12:11 a.m.) 
    • Oxford: 5.5 in (9:30 p.m. Sunday)     
    • East Coventry Twp: 4.0 in (9:36 p.m. Sunday)

    Bucks County

    • Morrisville: 21 in (8 a.m.)     
    • Langhorne: 20.5 in (6:30 a.m.)                            
    • Levittown: 15.0 in (3:53 a.m.)  
    • Warminster: 13.5 in (5:40 a.m.)       
    • Fricks: 10.3 in (6:58 a.m.)      
    • Souderton:  9.2 in (7 a.m.)        
    • East Rockhill Twp: 8.5 in (6:30 a.m.)   
    • Northampton Twp: 7.8 in (12:04 a.m.)   
    • Chalfont: 7.3 in (6:50 a.m.) 

    Rob Tornoe


    // Timestamp 02/23/26 10:24am

    Cape May County hospital lost power briefly overnight

    Cooper University Hospital Cape Regional in Cape May Court House lost power overnight in the storm “for a very short period of time” and reverted to its back up generators, said Cooper Health spokesperson Nancy Marano.

    “It was fully on back-up emergency power so no services were lost,” she said.

    Amy S. Rosenberg


    // Timestamp 02/23/26 10:11am

    Some Camden residents must boil water due to water main break

    A water main break may pose a threat to the water quality in Camden Monday morning, American Water Contract Services said. As a precaution, some areas of Camden are under a “boil water” advisory while crews assess the water supply.

    The water main break occurred at Ninth and Jefferson Streets on Sunday night. In response, American Water was advising all residents living between Ferry Avenue and Collings Road in Camden, which includes the Fairview, Morgan-Village, and Centerville neighborhoods, to not drink or use tap water until further notice.

    The advisory will remain in effect until repairs are complete and water quality is tested to be safe.

    Instead, residents should use bottled water or bring tap water to a rolling boil for at least one minute and let it cool before using, according to American Water. Boiling water kills bacteria that could be found in the water.

    Boiled or bottled water should be used for:

    • Drinking
    • Preparing Foods/Cooking
    • Mixing baby formula
    • Washing vegetables/fruits
    • Making Ice
    • Brushing teeth
    • Washing dishes

    Affected residents should throw away uncooked food, beverages, or ice cubes made with tap water on Sunday night or today. American Water also cautioned residents to not swallow water when showering or bathing.

    The following measures are also recommended:

    • Rinse hand-washed dishes with a diluted bleach solution (one tablespoon of household bleach per gallon of tap water) or clean your dishes in a dishwasher using the hot wash cycle and dry cycle.
    • Do not use home filtering devices in place of boiling or using bottled water; most home water filters will not provide adequate protection from microorganisms.
    • Use only boiled water to treat minor injuries.
    • Provide pets with drinking water that has been boiled (and cooled).

    Henry Savage


    // Timestamp 02/23/26 9:28am

    Photos: Snow falls across the Philadelphia region


    // Timestamp 02/23/26 9:18am

    Winter now ranks among the snowier ones in Philly

    Snow-covered Kelly Drive in Philadelphia Monday.

    With an official snowfall of 13.7 inches measured at Philadelphia International Airport, the city’s seasonal total bumped to 29.8 inches.

    Among the 142 winters in the period of record, this one now is tied for 27th place, and also is the snowiest since 2018.

    You may have noticed snow has been scarce in recent winters, and this also will be the first one since 2021 with snowfall above the normal, which is 23.1 inches.

    Historically, totals have ranged radically from 78.7 inches in the historic winter of 2009-10 to nothing in the winter of 1972-73.

    Anthony R. Wood


    // Timestamp 02/23/26 9:12am

    Photos: Heavy snow and wind bring down trees in Rittenhouse Square

    Wet snow brought down trees in Rittenhouse Square in Philadelphia Monday.
    Several trees around Rittenhouse Square were taken down by the storm.

    // Timestamp 02/23/26 9:08am

    Amtrak cancels more than 30 trains, Keystone Service to resume at noon

    Amtrak canceled more than 30 trains on its Northeast Regional and Acela train lines on Monday morning due to the snowstorm. Keystone Service has been suspended until at least noon.

    Alerts went out at 4 a.m. announcing a slew of cancellations and advising riders to book the next available train. Amtrak will notify impacted customers directly. Customers whose trains are cancelled can rebook or request refunds, without penalties, on Amtrak.com, through the Amtrak mobile app, or by calling the Amtrak Care Center at 1-800-USA-RAIL.

    Amtrak will operate 55% of planned service Monday on the Northeast Regional rail service, 33% of planned Acela trains, and half of the planned trains on the Keystone Service trains, when it returns at noon.

    Northeast Regional carries thousands of passengers every day with Philadelphia and New York among some of the leading destinations, and the William H. Gray III 30th Street station among Amtrak’s busiest in the country.

    Henry Savage


    // Timestamp 02/23/26 8:57am

    ‘Storm of a generation’: N.J. travel ban continues until noon, tree cutters ‘out in force’

    A car stuck in the plowed snow on Pacific Avenue near Ohio Avenue in Atlantic City Monday.

    Gov. Mikie Sherrill said Monday morning that New Jersey’s travel ban would continue until noon as white out conditions were making it difficult to see, especially on major roads like the Garden State Parkway.

    “It was an early morning call,” she said, in an online interview with South Jersey weather forecaster Nick “NorEaster Nick” Pittman. “It was difficult to see the edge of the road where the guardrails were. We still have snow falling in a lot of parts of our state.”

    She said more than 200,000 people had lost power across New Jersey, but that more than half of them had already had power restored. “which is pretty shocking given how horrible the conditions are.”

    “They’re hiking in to some pretty clobbered areas of the state,” she said of the utility workers, 5,000 of whom had been “predeployed,” she said.

    With heavy snow bringing down tbranches and trees, she said, “We have the tree cutters out in force.”

    She said the magnitude and reach of the storm across New Jersey, with overnight blizzard conditions and the dumping of a foot or more of snow, was “generational.”

    “I don’t think we’ve seen anything like this since 1996,” she said.

    Amy S. Rosenberg


    // Timestamp 02/23/26 8:16am

    Coastal flooding in Atlantic City ‘underperformed in a good way’

    Ice floods onto the street along Massachusetts Avenue in Atlantic City overnight Monday, Feb. 23, 2026.

    Scott Evans, Atlantic City’s Fire Chief and head of Emergency Management, said flooding in the coastal city was not as bad as feared. “The flooding definitely underperformed in a good way,” he said. “We’ll take it any day.”

    He described it as “the low end of moderate” level of flooding, something Atlantic City is used to dealing with. The city had about a foot of snow by daylight, he said, with persistent high winds over night prompting numerous calls for “arcing wires.”

    At the 11 p.m. Sunday high tide through around 2:30 a.m., there was about 8 to 10 inches of water in “some of our lowest lying areas,” he said, including Massachusetts Avenue, Bungalow Park and Lower Chelsea.

    “We were expecting to get more,” he said in a phone interview Monday morning. “No significant problems.”

    The city was still seeing the “residual ice” in the streets from the flooding, he said. Crews were out plowing streets, he said, and had mostly tamed the city’s famous Boardwalk. “They always have a team assigned to the Boardwalk,” he said.

    He said he was not expecting any issues from the next high tide around 12:15 p.m. in the back bays.

    Amy S. Rosenberg


    // Timestamp 02/23/26 8:10am

    Hundreds of flights canceled at Philadelphia International Airport

    Airport crew plow snow during a winter storm in Philadelphia last month.

    At Philadelphia International Airport, 604 flights had been canceled as of Monday morning, as snow blanketed the city. Another 42 flights were canceled for Tuesday, according to FlightAware, which tracks flights.

    “Passengers should check on the status of their flights with their airlines—the airlines will also provide guidance on what passengers should do in the event their flights are cancelled,” said airport spokesperson Heather Redfern.

    The airport also announced ticketing at Terminal A-West, B, and C and TSA checkpoints would be closed Monday.

    Some 40 million square feet need to be cleared at the airport when snow falls, including on airplane runways and taxiways. The airport also has an additional 11.9 million square feet of space on roadways, ramps and parking lots.

    While airplanes are deiced by the airlines, the department of aviation is required to ensure runways and taxiways are clear.

    More than two inches of dry snow or half an inch or wet snow trigger closing a runway, according to regulations by the Federal Aviation Administration, noted Redfern. Even if flights are canceled by airlines or in the event that the FAA issues a ground stop, the airport does not close, Redfern noted in January ahead of another snowfall.

    Ariana Perez-Castells, Rob Tornoe


    // Timestamp 02/23/26 7:20am

    Snow will continue across the Philly area through the morning

    A Sanitation Department dump truck clears snow on Midvale Avenue in the East Falls section of Philadelphia Monday.

    As much as a foot of snow fell overnight across the Philadelphia region as heavy snowfall from a massive winter storm continues across the Delaware Valley.

    Due to heavy snow bands, the totals varied widely. Ten inches of snow were recorded in Boothwyn Monday morning, while 11 inches dropped overnight in Mount Ephraim, Camden County.

    Officially, 13.7 inches fell at Philadelphia International Airport as of 7 a.m. Here are more snowfall totals.

    Latest timing

    Snow will continue throughout the morning, with another 3 to 5 inches expected to fall in Philadelphia, according to National Weather Service meteorologist Sarah Johnson.

    The highest totals are expected along the northern and central Jersey Shore, with the heaviest bands dropping as much as 2 inches of snow per hour or greater. Another 4 to 6 inches of snow is possible for Southern New Jersey and parts of Central and Southern Delaware.

    At the National Weather Service’s Mt. Holly observatory, 18.5 inches of snow had fallen as of 5:15 a.m. Monday morning.

    Snow is expected to taper off by noon, forecasters said, but strong winds and blowing snow will continue through at least 5 p.m., creating dangerous driving conditions. Wind gusts in Philadelphia could reach upwards of 40 miles per hour during the day.

    One bit of good news: Tidal flooding isn’t expected along the Delaware River due to the direction of the wind, so it won’t be a concern for Philly or the immediate area.

    Rob Tornoe


    // Timestamp 02/22/26 7:10am

    Why have these storms been happening on the weekend?

    A pedestrian walks across Race Street in Chinatown Sunday.

    If you perceive the atmosphere for whatever reason has a grudge against weekends, that’s understandable.

    Precipitation has fallen on six of the last seven weekends, with snowflakes making appearances in all of them, most emphatically on Jan. 25, when 9.3 inches of snow and sleet balls accumulated, and then refused to leave.

    The storm rhythm actually is a quite common one, meteorologists say.

    It has to do with the spacing between weather systems. Sometimes they show up in roughly 3½-day cycles, taking that long to traverse the country, and often it’s the second one in the cycle that is the stronger storm.

    Like so many things in the atmosphere — droughts, wet periods — they keep happening, until they don’t.

    We’re probably about due for a don’t, but not this weekend.

    Anthony R. Wood


    // LiveBlog Name: Snow resources

    // RelatedLink Text: Shoveling rules URL: https://www.inquirer.com/life/snow-shoveling-rules-philadelphia-fines-sidewalks-20260122.html

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    // RelatedLink Text: Snow totals URL: https://www.inquirer.com/weather/philadelphia-snow-totals-nj-jersey-short-pa-del-20260223.html

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  • A blot on history | Editorial Cartoon

    John Cole spent 18 years as editorial cartoonist for The (Scranton) Times-Tribune, and now draws for various statesnewsroom.com sites.

  • Immigration lawsuits are dominating Philly’s federal courthouse as ICE push continues

    Immigration lawsuits are dominating Philly’s federal courthouse as ICE push continues

    Philadelphia’s federal courthouse has become awash in lawsuits filed by undocumented immigrants challenging the government’s attempts to detain them, an Inquirer review has found, the latest example of how the mass deportation push by President Donald Trump’s administration has been affecting the nation’s legal landscape.

    Through six weeks this year, court figures show, 168 such lawsuits have been filed in Pennsylvania’s Eastern District Court, up from 115 in all of 2025.

    By contrast, only 11 such suits were filed between 2020 and 2024, meaning a new practice of litigation dominating the region’s federal court practically sprung up overnight.

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    U.S. District Judge Paul S. Diamond wrote in a recent court filing that these lawsuits, known as habeas petitions, now represent more than one in six civil suits filed in the district.

    In other jurisdictions, the surge has become so pronounced that judges and attorneys say they’re struggling to keep up. In New Jersey, the region’s chief judge last week issued new procedures for filing and litigating the petitions, writing: “The volume and timing of these filings is creating a substantial burden on the Court’s ability to expeditiously docket, assign, and address” them.

    And in Minnesota, a federal judge took the highly unusual step of holding a Justice Department attorney in contempt for failing to follow orders about the terms of an immigrant’s release.

    In Philadelphia, nearly all of the increase in habeas petitions appears tied to the Trump administration’s decision last summer to mandate detention for virtually every undocumented immigrant encountered by authorities. ICE and other agencies are now confining people who would have previously been eligible to remain in the community while their cases wound through the immigration system, such as people who have been in the country for years, or those who have not complied with ICE’s instructions while living here.

    “It was not a big part of our work up until about six months ago,” said Chris Setz-Kelly, a managing attorney with HIAS Pennsylvania, a nonprofit that provides legal assistance to immigrants.

    For decades, Setz-Kelly said, there had been a clear understanding about who was or was not eligible to be released on bond once they were picked up by ICE. But he said that changed under mandatory detention, which also says anyone who is newly detained should be denied a bond hearing.

    And the petitions represent just the tip of the iceberg, the attorney said, as many detained immigrants don’t have representation or leave the country during the process.

    “It had really dire consequences to the community,” Setz-Kelly said.

    The number of people in immigration detention has since grown from about 50,000 people in June, to nearly 70,000 people at the start of this year, federal data show.

    ‘The border is everywhere’

    Trump’s administration has been clear about its desire to increase deportations. And it has scored one legal victory in a higher court so far while defending its mandatory detention policy in court.

    Earlier this month, a three-judge panel in the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled the policy was legal and could be applied in Louisiana, Mississippi, and Texas.

    The government’s main argument in that case was that every undocumented immigrant is, in legal terms, “seeking admission” to the United States, despite a longstanding interpretation that the phrase only applied to people who had recently crossed the border without proper paperwork.

    “The everyday meaning of the statute’s terms confirms that being an ‘applicant for admission’ is not a condition independent from ‘seeking admission,’” the majority opinion said.

    Two Fifth Circuit judges agreed with the government’s position.

    The one who dissented, U.S. Circuit Judge Dana M. Douglas, wrote that the government’s interpretation contradicted the basics of immigration law and, in effect, would create a situation in which “the border is now everywhere.”

    A ‘trap’

    The ruling in the Fifth Circuit — based in New Orleans, and widely considered one of the most conservative courts in the country — has done little to change the views of judges in Pennsylvania’s Eastern District Court.

    This region’s federal judges have consistently criticized the government’s mandatory detention policy over the last eight months, ruling in favor of nearly every immigrant seeking to be released from confinement.

    Some judges have quoted Greek mythology to describe what they’ve cast as an unending attempt by the Trump administration to continue defending a policy that has been resoundingly rejected in court. The region’s chief judge even wrote that “the law is piled sky high against the government’s position.”

    Diamond, in an opinion this month, wrote that he’d reviewed 201 recent decisions in the district involving habeas petitions, and found that judges in every case had rejected the government’s view that mandatory detention — with no opportunity for bond — was both warranted and legal.

    U.S. District Judge Karen Spencer Marston, a Trump appointee, wrote in a recent decision that she was “unpersuaded” by the Fifth Circuit’s ruling as she agreed to free an undocumented immigrant from custody.

    Still, government attorneys have appealed dozens of those losses to the region’s Third Circuit Court of Appeals. Experts believe the effort is part of a Justice Department attempt to create opposing appellate rulings and propel the question of the policy’s legality to the U.S. Supreme Court, which has a conservative majority.

    “I think they’re just trying to tee up the right cases,” said Chris Casazza, a Philadelphia-based immigration attorney who has filed more than 60 habeas petitions in recent months. “They’re hoping the Supreme Court is going to rubber stamp this.”

    In the meantime, judges in Philadelphia are continuing to confront and rule on dozens of petitions in an emerging area of law.

    This week, in a blistering opinion, U.S. District Judge Gail A. Weilheimer wrote that ICE had set up a “trap” for “thousands of non-citizens,” who are required to file forms, attend check-ins, or apply for asylum to receive permission to stay in the country.

    But under mandatory detention, Weilheimer wrote, those applicants will now get arrested and taken to a detention facility for the duration of their removal proceedings, which could take months or years.

    The judge compared the situation to the government handing immigrants a bow and instructing them to shoot an arrow at a tree.

    If anyone hits it, Weilheimer said, “the Government will look at the mark, paint a target to the left of it, and accuse them of missing.”

    Correction: This story has been updated to correct the spelling of Chris Setz-Kelly.

  • Johnny Gaudreau’s dream was to be an Olympian. His family lived it for him, in a moment fit for a ‘movie.’

    Johnny Gaudreau’s dream was to be an Olympian. His family lived it for him, in a moment fit for a ‘movie.’

    In May 2024, Johnny Gaudreau reached out to his father, Guy. He’d recently wrapped up his 10th full NHL season, with the Columbus Blue Jackets, but he had a bigger goal in mind.

    For the first time since 2014, NHL players would be allowed to compete in the 2026 Winter Olympics.

    Gaudreau had already started conditioning, and wanted to do more. So, he went to his first coach.

    “He said, ‘Dad when I come home, we really have to push it,’” Gaudreau’s sister, Katie, recalled Sunday. “‘I really want to make the Olympics.’”

    From May through August, Johnny and Guy drove from their Shore house in Avalon — where their family spent the summer — to any rink in the area that would give them an hour of ice time.

    These weren’t always quick trips. Hollydell Ice Arena was about 60 miles away. Pennsauken Skate Zone was a little farther than that.

    But Gaudreau knew this was his chance to achieve a lifelong dream. So he put in the extra work, sometimes getting additional conditioning in before his father arrived to the rink.

    He was, by his own admission, “not impressed” with what shape he was in at the start. But by the end of the summer, he’d improved.

    Guy saw it himself. In August, he turned to his wife, Jane.

    “I think he might make the team,” he told her. “He’s in the best shape of his life.”

    The Gaudreaus started thinking about a future trip to Milan, where the Olympics would take place.

    Katie, who was set to get married in late August 2024, was already planning a honeymoon there, and joked that it wouldn’t make sense to go twice in a short span.

    She began sketching out the conversation with her supervisors at Oldmans Township School, where she works as a first-grade teacher.

    But all of this excitement and hope came to an unceremonious halt on Aug. 29, 2024.

    Johnny and his brother, Matty, were at home in Oldmans Township for Katie’s wedding the following day.

    They were hit by an alleged drunk driver while riding bicycles on County Route 551. The brothers were severely wounded and both died at the scene. Johnny was 31 years old, and Matty was 29.

    Ever since they died, their family has been trying to honor their legacy. Jane and Guy have attended multiple ceremonies to honor their late sons.

    After some initial hesitation, Jane and Guy Gaudreau made the trip to Italy to honor their son and root on his former Team USA teammates.

    In 2025, they started the annual Gaudreau Family 5K, an in-person and virtual road race to raise money for the Gaudreau Family Foundation.

    But last week, they received a special opportunity to celebrate Johnny’s ultimate goal.

    On Tuesday, a representative for USA Hockey asked the Gaudreau family if they’d want to attend the semifinal game against Slovakia on Friday. They were also invited to Sunday’s gold-medal game, if the Americans qualified.

    Initially, Guy and Jane said no. Katie and her sister Kristen weren’t able to make it, and they didn’t want to travel without them.

    It also seemed bittersweet to attend an Olympic semifinal or final without their late son.

    But on Wednesday morning, Jane had a change of heart.

    “My mom was like, ‘I really didn’t sleep,’” Katie said. “‘I think John would want us to go. I think we should go.’”

    A staple of Team USA

    Throughout his career, Gaudreau was a staple of USA Hockey. He’d been involved in development camps since he was a teenager.

    He’d competed in international tournaments since 2010, when he was a member of the Under-18 select team.

    In the 2013 World Junior Championship, Gaudreau led the tournament with seven goals en route to a gold medal.

    The forward continued to establish himself as a key player on the senior team, setting a number of offensive records despite never competing at an Olympics.

    He still holds the mark for the most points (43) and assists (30) by any American in IIHF men’s World Championship history.

    “He does his best, I swear, in a Team USA jersey,” Katie said.

    His Olympic enthusiasm went beyond tournament play. The Gaudreau family watched the movie Miracle, about the 1980 U.S. Olympic hockey team, so many times, they could recite it by heart.

    It was always playing in their minivan, as they traveled up and down the East Coast for Johnny and Matty’s hockey tournaments.

    As the years passed, and Gaudreau continued to solidify himself as an NHL star, the idea of him making an Olympic team seemed less of a dream and more a reality.

    Team USA confirmed as much after Johnny passed. Last year, at the Four Nations Face-Off, an official told Guy that “John would have had a spot on the team.”

    “Any hockey player growing up, of course they want to make it to the NHL, but the Olympics is really the big thing,” said Katie. “And it’s always been a dream of John and Matthew’s. And we knew it was a tangible dream.”

    So, when Team USA made the initial offer to fly the family out to Milan, Jane and Guy were hesitant.

    They knew going to a game or two would be an emotional experience. Katie knew this, too. But she encouraged her parents to at least try.

    Guy Gaudreau, a longtime coach in South Jersey, has spent time on the ice as a guest of Team USA over the past two years.

    “I said, ‘If you get there, and you go to the first game, and it’s entirely too hard, you don’t have to go back,’” Katie said. “‘You don’t have to go. You can leave. But if you’re watching the game at home, you can’t be there.’

    “‘So this is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to honor the boys. And keep their legacy alive. And that’s what we do, every day. We wake up and we just want to honor the boys’ legacy.’”

    Jane and Guy decided to go. They met Johnny’s widow, Meredith, in Atlanta, with her two oldest children, Noa and Johnny Jr.

    Together, they flew to Milan, where they attended Friday’s game against Slovakia and Sunday’s gold-medal game against Canada.

    Katie and Kristen watched from their parents’ house in South Jersey with family and close friends. They knew that the players had hung up Johnny’s USA jersey in their locker room, and hoped that he would be celebrated if they won.

    But they weren’t sure what would happen when the United States beat Canada, 2-1, in overtime. Katie and her sister were “in tears” when Auston Matthews, Matthew Tkachuk, and Zach Werenski carried Gaudreau’s No. 13 jersey as they glided across the ice.

    The next few moments exceeded the family’s expectations. Meredith, who was watching in the stands with her two oldest kids and in-laws, received a call from a Team USA official.

    He put her in touch with Tkachuk, who asked if she could bring Noa and Johnny Jr. down to the ice.

    Two players, Dylan Larkin and Werenski, skated off the rink, with gold medals hanging around their necks.

    They met Meredith at the bottom of the stands, scooped up Noa and Johnny Jr., and carried them back out for a team photo.

    Noa sat on Werenski’s lap. Johnny Jr. — who was celebrating his second birthday — sat on Larkin’s.

    “I was like, ‘There’s no way they’re going to do that. There’s no way,’” Katie said. “When they did that, I lost it. I’m so proud. I’m so happy that the kids got to experience that, because this is what John wanted. The team did an amazing job.”

    United States forward Dylan Larkin (21) holds Johnny Jr., the son of the late player Johnny Gaudreau, in the team photo after the gold-medal game.

    It’s a memory the Gaudreaus will hold close. They know that tomorrow, people will go to work, and get on about their days, and a fresh news cycle will take hold.

    But a year and a half later, Team USA still hasn’t forgotten about Johnny and Matty Gaudreau. And for that, their family is grateful.

    “Every time I think, ‘All right, now it’s time to move on, we’re not going to have all this support’ — they don’t [move] on,” said Katie. “This is a history book [moment] that there will be a movie about.

    “And in that movie, Noa and Johnny will be on the ice.”

  • The 2026 breakouts the Phillies need, starting with Aidan Miller

    The 2026 breakouts the Phillies need, starting with Aidan Miller

    Aidan Miller on the Phillies roster on opening day? Don’t count on it. But don’t completely rule it out. And don’t mark your calendar too far into the future. The April showers could bring a lot more than flowers this year.

    Two weeks into spring training, the Phillies aren’t going out of their way to disguise their hopes for their top prospect. The whole organization seems to understand that a certain degree of aggression is required in order to overtake the Dodgers in the National League and survive the Mets and Braves in the NL East. Bryce Harper made some news Sunday in an interview with Tom McCarthy and Ruben Amaro Jr. during the broadcast of the Phillies’ Grapefruit League game against the Pirates. Harper implied that Miller is battling an injury, jokingly saying that he wants to see the prospect “get off his butt and get in the game, that’d be nice. I need him to get healthy.”

    It was later revealed that Miller has been battling some back soreness. But the important part of Harper’s comment was his overarching point.

    “He could help us by the end, obviously,” the Phillies superstar said.

    The path of least resistance is the wisest path for now. Start Miller in the minors. Get him some time at second and third base in addition to shortstop. Evaluate the big league lineup over the first couple of months of the season, with a particularly keen eye paid toward Alec Bohm and Bryson Stott. Let the facts on the ground make the decisions for you.

    The important thing for the Phillies is not to fight those decisions should they become obvious. Miller is a special enough bat to warrant stepping outside your defensive comfort zones. He’ll be 22 years old by June 9. Over the last three seasons, 49 hitters have logged at least 200 plate appearances at the age of 22 or younger. That includes game-changers like Julio Rodríguez, Elly De La Cruz, James Wood, Corbin Carroll, and Gunnar Henderson.

    Miller is in the same class of prospects as those hitters. If he starts this season the way he finished 2025 — hitting .356 with 23 extra-base hits in his last 39 games — the Phillies will need to find a spot for him. Every day they wait will be a wasted one. They are at a point in their trajectory where they will need something unforeseen to happen in order for their lineup to produce at even 2022 levels. Miller is both the most likely candidate and the one who can move the bar the furthest north.

    Some others who still have some degree of upward mobility:

    Brandon Marsh

    Marsh is an interesting case. The gap between public perception and actual production is wider than for any player on the Phillies roster. In fact, it might be wider than for any athlete in the city. Look at Marsh’s final 2025 numbers compared with some randomly selected players:

    • Jackson Chourio: .270/.308/.463, 112 OPS+, 21 HRs, 589 PAs
    • Jackson Merrill: .264/.317/.457, 112 OPS+, 16 HRs, 483 PAs
    • Harrison Bader: .277/.347/.449, 117 OPS+, 17 HRs, 501 PAs
    • Steven Kwan: .272/.330/.374, 96 OPS+, 11 HRs, 693 PAs
    • Marsh: .280/.342/.443, 114 OPS+, 11 HRs, 425 PAs
    Brandon Marsh figures to platoon in left field with the righty-hitting Otto Kemp.

    Most interesting is the side-by-side comparison to Kwan, who was a hot trade-deadline name connected to the Phillies last summer. Marsh outproduced the Guardians’ veteran in virtually every category. Yet people would feel a lot differently about the Phillies’ outfield outlook for 2026 if it was Kwan in there instead of Marsh.

    This isn’t a one-year phenomenon, either. In the three years since the Phillies acquired Marsh from the Angels, his 115 OPS+ ranks 28th out of 106 MLB outfielders with at least 800 plate appearances. That’s higher than Chourio and Kwan and also Jazz Chisholm, Jurickson Profar, and Taylor Ward, to name a few.

    The lack of enthusiasm for Marsh isn’t entirely irrational. In the last two postseasons, he has reached base three times in 28 plate appearances over eight games. His left-handed bat is an inconvenience when attempting to construct a batting order around Harper and Kyle Schwarber. He hasn’t been the plus defender in center field that many expected when the Phillies acquired him. With a middling 39 home runs in 1,373 plate appearances over the last three seasons, he doesn’t bring prototypical corner-outfield power. Long story short, he hasn’t been the player the Phillies are sorely missing: a right-handed power bat who can hit behind Harper and/or Schwarber.

    Marsh can’t do anything about the fact that he hits left-handed. But he does bring some positive uncertainty on the upper end of the range of outcomes. He made some noticeable improvements in his bat-to-ball game in 2025, raising his contact rate from 74.7% to 78.3%, according to FanGraphs. Much of that jump came out of the zone. He swung at more pitches out of the zone (30.5%, up from 26.1% in 2024) but also connected on more of those pitches (56.3%, up from 51.4%). The result was less power and fewer walks, but also fewer strikeouts and more base hits. All in all, the tradeoff was positive one vs. 2024. The question now is whether he can add on a little more power in the zone.

    Marsh finished last season on a serious upswing. After a brutal first six weeks of the season, he hit .299 with an .835 OPS over his last 107 games. His last two months were especially spicy, with a .325/.367/.584 batting line and eight home runs in 166 plate appearances from July 28 to the end of the regular season. During that stretch, he ranked seventh among outfielders in weighted on-base average (.401) and sixth in slugging percentage (.584) with a home run pace of about 25 per 162 games.

    Justin Crawford slashed .334/.411/.452 in triple A last season.

    Justin Crawford

    Obvious, yes, especially now that it seems he has a spot locked up on the opening day roster. It would be a huge boost if Crawford could somehow bring his .334/.411/.452 triple-A batting line to the majors without much drop-off. Hello, leadoff spot. We’ll worry about lefties later.

    But that’s not the real game-changer of a scenario. No, the one the Phillies can dream of is the one Crawford hinted at in his first at-bat of the spring, a double off the center-field wall off of big league lefty Eric Lauer. What if Crawford finally starts to develop the power suggested by his frame and his pedigree?

    It’s awfully hard for a big league hitter to swing his way on base as routinely as Crawford did in the minors. But the Phillies would gladly sacrifice some of that average for some of the pop that his papa had during his prime. Carl Crawford’s power started to come at the age of 22, in his third season in the majors. That was his first All-Star season for the Rays, when he led the majors with 19 triples and also hit 11 home runs for a .450 slugging percentage that would continue to improve throughout his early 20s.

    Justin has his dad’s frame. He has a similar swing. He finished last season with just 34 extra-base hits in 506 plate appearances. But the jump is going to come, as long as he can make big-league contact.

    The moral of the story: There is upside on this Phillies roster. It only means so much. We’ve seen that with Bohm and Stott over the last few seasons. But Miller and Crawford offer plenty of reason to hope. At the very least, the Phillies seem to understand that they could be necessities.

  • Carli Lloyd’s return to Fox’s World Cup coverage comes with goals for herself and the USMNT

    Carli Lloyd’s return to Fox’s World Cup coverage comes with goals for herself and the USMNT

    In 2022, Fox Networks threw Carli Lloyd into the proverbial fire — on the other side of the world.

    Barely a year removed from her own retirement from professional soccer, the Delran native was announced as one of the primary studio analysts for the network’s monthlong coverage of the FIFA World Cup in Qatar.

    She handled it all in stride, finding her voice while taking cues from longtime on-air personalities Rob Stone and Alexi Lalas, but it was the first time she’d be a consistent presence, and a different look from what’s customary, with her observations of each match being critiqued and analyzed by soccer fans all over the world.

    From left, Fox Sports soccer broadcasters Carli Lloyd, JP Dellacamera, and Alexi Lalas speak at the United Soccer Coaches Convention in Philadelphia last month.

    “It was a lot to learn really fast, a lot to take in,” Lloyd recalled during the United Soccer Coaches Convention in Philadelphia last month. “But I was fortunate enough to learn from guys like Alexi and [Fox commentator] Stu [Holden] who helped me along the way really feel confident and like I can really do this.”

    Lloyd did it well enough that she’ll be among Fox’s lead crew of studio analysts once again for the 2026 World Cup as the tournament makes six stops through Philadelphia as part of a 104-match schedule this summer.

    It’s a task she says she’s “ready and excited for” after getting her feet wet in 2022, in addition to the commentary she’s been able to provide in the years since — some of which along the way stirred up a bit of controversy.

    But a new year finds the tournament on home soil, with the United States hosting the bulk of scheduled matches, also spread across Canada and Mexico. It’s the perfect time for the United States to return to the biggest stage and show the world just how far it has evolved as a soccer nation, Lloyd says.

    “I wouldn’t say there’s immense pressure in winning the World Cup,” Lloyd said. “But there’s the pressure to show the country that they are there to compete and they’re going to fight, and they’re going to give everything they have for our country.”

    Made to inspire

    Lloyd can recall being a 12-year-old girl watching the 1994 World Cup, the last time the men’s edition was held in America. That tournament, she recalled, sparked her excitement and love for the sport.

    Follow that up with the unforgettable 1999 women’s edition, also hosted in the States, and those two moments galvanized the idea that Lloyd would do all she could to pursue it as a career.

    The World Cup, Lloyd says, has that effect.

    Carli Lloyd celebrates scoring her third goal against Japan in the 2015 women’s World Cup final in Vancouver.

    “I don’t think we all know yet just how massive this is going to be, and the impact that it’s going to have on generations to come,” Lloyd said. Those 1994 and 1999 World Cups “jump-started my dream; they were life-changing for me. But I think it’s only going to be massive in the United States of America if our team shows up with that grit and that fight and that mentality.”

    But it’s not just on the fans’ side. Lloyd said U.S. manager Mauricio Pochettino’s decision to leave a lot of the USMNT’s bigger names off the roster for the Concacaf Gold Cup, deciding to bring top American talent from Major League Soccer and elsewhere — like the Union’s Quinn Sullivan and Nathan Harriel — was an eye-opening experience for those players who might work a bit harder to remain on Pochettino’s radar.

    “For me personally, I think the Gold Cup was the turning point for this team, leaving a lot of those well-known players off the roster,” Lloyd said. “I think it was the best thing that could have happened to this team going into this World Cup. It gave a lot of the non-European [American] players the confidence, the belief, and [allowed Pochettino] to instill the culture he wants to build.”

    U.S. manager Mauricio Pochettino, second from left. Carli Lloyd said the manager’s decision to bring fresh faces into the national team last summer and in the November cycle reinvigorated the team ahead of the World Cup.

    Games and opportunity

    Lloyd compared all of that to the success U.S. women’s coach Emma Hayes achieved in a short span, becoming the change that was needed after the Americans’ shocking exit at the 2023 women’s World Cup.

    There’s no reason, she says, that Pochettino can’t find similar success — despite being off to a noticeably slower start.

    “Obviously, the 2023 [women’s] World Cup didn’t end well,” Lloyd said. “The team needed change and almost needed to be blown up in order to be rebuilt again. Emma Hayes comes in. A lot of players retire. She selects different rosters, and they instantly change the culture, the mentality, the pride of wearing the jersey again, and that happened very quickly.

    “But with the men’s team, I feel like it took a lot of time, and I don’t know why it took time. Maybe it was the language barrier [between] coach and the team, and the lack of games and opportunities that they had together.”

    The U.S. seemed to find continuity during November’s qualifying cycle with a pair of exhibition wins, against Paraguay in Chester and a 5-1 rout of Uruguay in Tampa, Fla., to close the year.

    Pochettino will call up a number of players for matches against Belgium on March 28 (3:30 p.m., TNT, Peacock) and Portugal on March 31 (7 p.m., TNT, Peacock), in what will surely be a final audition for many on that roster.

    Both matches will be in Atlanta, home of U.S. Soccer’s new multimillion-dollar national training center. Lloyd noted that the investment and the caliber of nations the U.S. is bringing in show a commitment to improvement on the global stage.

    Now, it’s up to the players to cash in, she says.

    “I think we saw that fight [during this last FIFA window] in November,” Lloyd said. “You can see there’s a different tone within this group. And I’m glad that they found it when they did. There were some big wake-up calls for some players … and I think that’s all we’ve been wanting to kind of see, these guys having the pride when you put on that jersey. And they sure showed that those last two games in November.

    “It’s not a vacation when you come into the men’s national team anymore. There should be an excitement around it where you want to come in and lay your body on the line and do everything possible for the team and for your country.”

  • A coach, a promise, and chicken and rice: How Father Judge became king of the Catholic League

    A coach, a promise, and chicken and rice: How Father Judge became king of the Catholic League

    Jim Reeves, scissors in hand, directed traffic Sunday afternoon as each Father Judge player climbed the ladder at the Palestra to cut the net twine by twine after the Crusaders won their second straight Catholic League boys’ basketball title.

    Finally, the net was hanging by just a few threads.

    “Where’s Coach?” Reeves shouted over the crowd still buzzing from a 55-52 win over Neumann Goretti.

    And there he was: Chris Roantree, the former Judge power forward and linebacker who played college football and got his start coaching basketball by shepherding fifth graders at the Rhawnhurst Recreation Center.

    Roantree promised Judge’s president in 2021 that the Crusaders — who often just felt like a team on the schedule — would win a Catholic League title in five years if he was hired. Judge had not won since 1998, but Roantree had a plan. The job was his.

    Roantree followed through last February in season No. 5 and climbed the ladder on Sunday to cut the nets down for a second time, proving that last year was more than just a good story.

    Father Judge’s Max Moshinski (center) begins the celebration with teammates after the win over Neumann Goretti.

    The Catholic League has long been dominated by schools like Roman Catholic and Neumann Goretti, which Roantree called Sunday “the blue bloods.” But the team dressed in Columbia Blue — the same program that won just one Catholic League game the season before Roantree arrived — is suddenly at the head of the table.

    “Our goal was to try to be one of those programs like Neumann and Roman and build a legacy,” senior Max Moshinski said. “We’re at the top of the mountain now. When we first got here, we knew it would be a tough climb, but we knew if we showed up every day and put the work in, then we’d eventually get there. I think you can say we did that. We’re at the top of the mountain and now we need to stay here and keep getting back here.”

    A five-year plan

    Father Judge was looking for a new head coach in the spring of 2021 when Reeves pushed Roantree, his teammate on the 1998 championship squad, to go for it.

    They met with Judge’s president, Brian King, at Reeves’ home in the Far Northeast and Roantree detailed his plan at the dining room table. In four years, the Crusaders would play at the Palestra in the Catholic League semifinals. In five years, they’d win a title. Both of those came true.

    But not even Roantree could promise that Year 6 would bring a second straight title for a program that was often an afterthought.

    “We said we could do it, but to do it is different,” said Reeves, now an assistant coach. “To go back-to-back is just crazy. People go back-to-back, but to be where we were to where we are now is crazy. It’s unheard of.”

    The Father Judge coaches (right) celebrate winning a second straight PCL title.

    A 1998 Catholic League championship shirt hung behind the register for years at Marinucci’s on Brous Avenue, the deli owned by Reeves’ mother. It hung almost as proof that Judge did actually win a title before.

    The Crusaders had some moments since that 1998 championship, but it was hard to ever group Judge with teams like Roman and Neumann Goretti. The Crusaders were in a different tier. But the new coach believed.

    “It’s the players, man,” Roantree said. “Everyone talks about coaches and what makes you a good coach. But at the end of the day it’s about Jimmys and Joes. Them buying into our culture. When we first got here, we talked about the Palestra and everyone thought we were crazy. The players thought we were crazy. But then it continued to build. Then guys came through, accepted the culture, and accepted being coached hard. We coach these guys hard and they buy in. It’s not easy.”

    Father Judge fans after their team won the Catholic League final at the Palestra.

    Winning back-to-back titles was not the plan when Roantree returned home from Lycoming College and started coaching at the rec center. But he quickly fell in love with coaching, realizing he can have an impact on kids like Bill Fox did for him at Judge in the 1990s.

    He soon started coaching AAU and then joined Archbishop Wood’s staff as an assistant for eight seasons to John Mosco. He coached Collin Gillespie and helped navigate the underdog’s journey to Villanova. Roantree was back at Judge in June 2021 with a five-year plan. But he still needed his Jimmys and Joes.

    He swayed Derrick Morton-Rivera, the Temple-bound guard who lives in Mayfair but could have gone to Neumann Goretti like his father. He spotted Moshinski at a St. Albert the Great CYO game and asked him to give Judge a chance. Rocco Westfield’s parents went to Archbishop Ryan and he can walk to that school from his home in Morrell Park. But Westfield went to Judge to play for Roantree, who seemed to attend all of his youth games.

    “I really trusted them,” Westfield said. “Now we’ve won back-to-back titles. Why not come to Judge?”

    Father Judge’s Derrick Morton-Rivera reacts after hitting a three-pointer on Sunday.

    Judge’s win total increased in each of Roantree’s first five seasons before the Crusaders broke through last year for their first title in 27 years. Their rise to the top of the league was not an overnight sensation — “A lot of roller-coaster rides,” Reeves said — but there’s no denying now that the school on Solly Avenue long known for soccer players is now a basketball power.

    “There’s some guys who are waking up at 6:30 a.m. to get to school on time,” Roantree said. “They want to be a part of something special and I think we have something special. … These dudes will live on forever and rely on these friendships for the rest of their lives.”

    Chicken and rice

    The gatherings started with just a few players as the teenagers needed a place to hang on Friday afternoons before they played a game that night. Soon, Margaret Westfield was cooking for the whole team.

    “Chicken and rice,” her husband John said.

    The players ate on Fridays in the Westfields’ kitchen and then sprawled out around the house for their pregame nap as the rowhouse became like a hostel.

    “We have people on the couches, upstairs, downstairs,” John Westfield said.

    The players who came to Judge to play for Roantree bonded over chicken and rice, coming together to become the unlikely kings of the Catholic League.

    “It’s a special bond,” Rocco Westfield said. “We’re always with each other. I mean, I love these guys.”

    Neumann Goretti’s Marquis Newson (10) pauses after Father Judge halted the Saints on a possession.

    This season wasn’t easy — Morton-Rivera was on crutches in the start of the season and the Crusaders lost to Neumann Goretti earlier this month — but Judge was there on Sunday at a sold-out Palestra.

    The postseason included wins over Roman, Wood, and Neumann Goretti to capture the title. The Crusaders won their second straight title by knocking off the class of the Catholic League, leaving no doubt that they are for real.

    “That class that Chris brought in was the turning point,” John Westfield said. “That was the turning point to put it on the map. There was a guy tonight who said something to me: ‘Thanks for sending your son to Judge and helping put Father Judge basketball back on the map.’ Just a random fan. That’s what it means to people.”

    The net fell from the rim Sunday afternoon after Roantree trimmed the final threads. He waved it over his head as the student section — a few hundred crazies dressed in blue — roared.

    The coach tossed the net to Morton-Rivera, who will likely be remembered as Judge’s all-time player. A second title was complete. And then the student section turned the page to next season, chanting, “Three-peat.” That’s what happens when you become the king.

    “We have a bunch of dudes who bought into one common goal,” Roantree said. “We always talk about team success drives individual success. We bought into that one goal. You look into everyone’s goal sheet at the beginning of the year and there was one goal on there for our team goal: Cut the nets down at the Palestra.”

  • Republicans continue to sow distrust in elections. The SAVE America Act won’t change that.

    Republicans continue to sow distrust in elections. The SAVE America Act won’t change that.

    It is not unreasonable for people to be concerned about voter fraud or noncitizens voting. Not because it happens at a scale that could swing an election — researchers say it is so rare as to be statistically insignificant — but because Republican leaders have been pounding on that drum for so long that some can’t help but sway to the beat.

    As U.S. Sen. Dave McCormick recently reminded, more than half of Americans worry about fraud at the polls.

    “We have a duty to root out the source of this distrust and restore the integrity of our democratic process,” McCormick said, speaking on the Senate floor in defense of the SAVE America Act, the GOP’s latest effort to restrict voting.

    If Pennsylvania’s junior senator will allow me, I think I’ve cracked the case.

    Casting doubt on election security did not begin with Donald Trump and his bombastically false claims of hacked voting machines and millions of illegal immigrants voting. It started long before that, with “traditional” Republicans like McCormick legitimizing allegations of widespread fraud.

    Under President George W. Bush, Attorney General John Ashcroft warned that “votes have been bought, voters intimidated and ballot boxes stuffed” at a 2002 Voting Integrity Symposium. Yet, bringing the power of the U.S. Department of Justice to investigate these allegations resulted in few prosecutions by the time Bush left office.

    After 2013, when the U.S. Supreme Court removed a provision of the Voting Rights Act, thereby ending federal supervision of nine states with a history of racial discrimination, there was a slew of voting restrictions pushed by Republicans under the guise of voter integrity.

    By the time Trump came along, GOP voters were more than primed to believe that an election could be stolen, with the nadir being the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol.

    Having learned no lessons from what happened, Republicans continue to stoke doubt about elections.

    McCormick shamelessly used a November incident in Chester County, where independent and unaffiliated voters were left off the county’s poll books, to allege that “registered voters were turned away at the polls. And an unknown number of unverified voters cast regular ballots.”

    There is no evidence that either of those claims is true.

    What happened in Chester County was human error that was corrected later that day. In the meantime, anyone who wanted to vote but was not in the poll books was asked to fill out a provisional ballot that would later be verified for eligibility.

    Elections are run by people, and mistakes happen. There are 3,069 counties in the U.S. in charge of administering elections. It’s a testament to the dedication of local officials that voting is as smooth and secure a process as it is.

    McCormick is a smart man. He likely knows the facts. He also knows that nothing included in the SAVE America Act would have prevented what happened in Chester County.

    What is included in the legislation requires people to show proof of citizenship when registering to vote and produce ID when casting a ballot. It stiffens penalties against election officials for registering voters without proof of citizenship, and forces states to submit their voter rolls to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security to ensure only citizens are registered.

    All of that seems reasonable, but seeing as how folks like McCormick are using deception in its promotion, you will forgive me for being skeptical. I don’t buy the catastrophism coming from Democrats, either, but there are valid objections.

    For example, some people who could otherwise vote do not have ready access to the documents required in the law — that’s about 20 million Americans, according to some estimates. That the proposal would take effect immediately, just in time for the midterm elections, guarantees that millions would be disenfranchised.

    Information sharing with DHS is also problematic, as the tool used to identify potential noncitizen voting registration “keeps making mistakes,” according to a ProPublica/Texas Tribune investigation.

    None of these issues is insurmountable. Instead of blocking legislation like the SAVE America Act, Democrats should fight to improve it.

    For example, if you need documentation to exercise your rights, then that documentation should be free, and requirements should be implemented after a reasonable grace period. Any mandate should come with the funding to ensure every American has access to their birth certificate, or that every citizen can easily obtain a passport. Congress should also make Election Day a holiday, while they’re at it.

    Ironically, voter suppression efforts, which traditionally fall hardest on communities of color, come from the idea that the changing face of America would turn away from Republicans. Put another way, this line of thinking suggests that as the U.S. barrels toward becoming a majority-minority nation, the GOP would be at a disadvantage.

    But some high-turnout elections, including the 2024 contest that put Trump back in the White House, have shown that less frequent voters — i.e., those least likely to jump through the hoops put up by something like the SAVE America Act — back Republicans.

    Instead of making up stories and assuring the long-term erosion of democracy for short-term political gain, McCormick and his GOP colleagues should partner with Democrats to make elections secure and voting easy.

  • Penn expert says whether to take antidepressants during pregnancy is a ‘risk-risk conversation’

    Penn expert says whether to take antidepressants during pregnancy is a ‘risk-risk conversation’

    When Sarah Bynum was pregnant with her first child in 2017, her primary care doctor suggested she stop taking her antidepressant.

    He told her there wasn’t enough research to justify staying on the medication.

    By the time she delivered her daughter, the Delaware County woman’s anxiety was so bad that she decided never again to go through a pregnancy without her antidepressant.

    Bynum, who has taken medication for anxiety since she was a teenager, is one of the nearly 18% of women in the U.S. on an antidepressant. She takes a drug known as an SSRI, the most common class of antidepressants, which medical societies generally consider safe to use during pregnancy.

    Still, roughly half of women taking an antidepressant discontinue their use of the medication while pregnant, according to a 2025 study in the medical journal JAMA Network Open.

    Kelly Zafman, an OB-GYN at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, decided to research the issue that has also recently been under discussion on the federal level. She’s observed that patients often get mixed-messaging from providers.

    “The other side of the conversation that gets missed is this risk of not continuing medications,” said Zafman, who is in her final year of fellowship training in maternal-fetal medicine.

    Preliminary findings from her research showed the risk of a mental health emergency nearly doubled in women who discontinued SSRIs or SNRIs (another popular type of antidepressant), compared to those who stayed on their medication. She presented the unpublished results this month at the meeting of the Society for Maternal-Fetal Medicine.

    The analysis used data from 1,462 privately insured Pennsylvania women with active antidepressant prescriptions who gave birth between 2023 and 2024. While pregnant, 81% of them stopped or interrupted usage.

    Zafman said the highly personal decision comes down to factors such as the patient’s prior pregnancies, mental health history, and how well-controlled their symptoms are.

    Ultimately, the potential risks have to be weighed against those of untreated depression or anxiety.

    “It’s really a risk‑risk conversation,” Zafman said.

    Evolving research

    The American College of Obstetrics and Gynecologists discourages discontinuing antidepressants based on pregnancy alone, highlighting the risks of untreated mental health conditions. Studies have linked uncontrolled depression during pregnancy with preterm birth, low birth weight, higher suicide risk, and impaired mother-infant attachment.

    Research on the safety of antidepressants in pregnancy continues to evolve. Some potential risks identified in older research appear overstated when compared with more recent, better-designed studies, Zafman said.

    She cited as an example a rare but serious condition called persistent pulmonary hypertension — which causes a breathing issue — for which scientific evidence remains conflicting.

    “There’s definitely an association, but it’s not totally clear how causative it is,” Zafman said.

    Another concern, neonatal adaptation syndrome, tends to involve mild difficulties with feeding and breathing that resolve within days. Medical intervention is rarely required, and the treatment essentially is to cuddle and feed your baby, Zafman said.

    While antidepressants potentially pose risks in pregnancy, she said, overall, the risks of long lasting effects are “extraordinarily low.”

    A personal decision

    Bynum, a patient at Penn Medicine, was not on antidepressants during her first pregnancy. (She was not part of this particular study but has participated in other research with Zafman.)

    Five months into the pregnancy, she learned her daughter would be born with a congenital heart defect that would require monitoring, and later, surgery.

    Family and friends tried to help her, but they weren’t able to calm her heightened anxiety the way her medication usually would.

    When she became pregnant with her second child, she knew she wanted to have a “more mentally healthy pregnancy.”

    “I needed to be mentally and physically present not just for myself, but my daughter,” she said.

    She asked her OB-GYNs if she could continue on her antidepressant, Paxil. They weren’t sure.

    She turned to the fetal heart experts at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, who looked into the medical evidence and told her it was fine to continue taking her antidepressant.

    Sarah Bynum decided she would not go without her antidepressant for future pregnancies.

    Bynum has since had three healthy pregnancies while taking the antidepressant.

    She felt it was the right decision.

    “I need to focus on having a healthy pregnancy with as minimal stress as possible,” Bynum said. “And if that means taking a medication, that’s what’s gonna work.”

    Editor’s note: This story has been updated to clarify a quote by the researcher.

  • Union membership dipped in Pa. and N.J. amid Trump’s anti-labor push, data suggests

    Union membership dipped in Pa. and N.J. amid Trump’s anti-labor push, data suggests

    Following several years of major worker organizing efforts and high-profile strikes, 2025 brought a change in momentum for the labor movement. President Donald Trump’s administration sought to end federal workers’ union contracts and, through a firing, left the National Labor Relations Board without a quorum and unable to make decisions.

    But the percentage of workers who are union members nationwide has stayed pretty steady in the last year, new data shows. And in Pennsylvania and New Jersey, union membership rates fell.

    In 2025, 10% of the country’s total workforce was part of a union, compared to 9.9% in 2024, according to new data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. It’s the first time since 2020 that the rate has inched up — albeit slightly — instead of down.

    However, BLS noted, this year’s estimates are not fully comparable to past years because they are based on a BLS survey that is missing October figures due to the government being shut down in October and part of November.

    In the past year, there have been “a lot of kind of anti-labor efforts coming out of the White House,” said Todd Vachon, assistant professor of labor studies and employment relations at Rutgers University.

    Despite those efforts Vachon said, “labor has pretty much maintained the same at the national level. … The Trump attacks haven’t really had any effect yet, at least in the first year.”

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    Union membership rates dropped to an all-time low nationwide in 2023 and remained pretty similar in 2024. During those years, roughly one in 10 U.S. workers was part of a union.

    When BLS first started recording this data in 1983, about two in 10 U.S. workers were unionized. There were 17.7 million unionized workers in 1983 and 14.7 million last year.

    Danny Bauder, president of the Philadelphia Council AFL-CIO, speaks at an event supporting federal workers in October.

    Unionizing in N.J. and Pa.

    In New Jersey, 14.7% of workers were unionized last year, and in Pennsylvania, it was 10.9%.

    In both states, that was a decline of around one percentage point from 2024, but BLS noted that state-level data “should be interpreted with caution,” due to the shutdown-related incomplete data.

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    Some local labor action highlights from this past year include:

    What happened in labor organizing last year?

    The Trump administration moved to end union contracts for government workers, amid a push to reshape the federal government.

    Some 271,000 federal jobs were cut between January and November. Meanwhile, the union membership rate in the public sector increased by 0.7% nationally in the last year according to the new BLS data.

    Vachon notes that the vast majority of public sector workers are at the municipal level, not federal.

    “The hiring of police, and teachers, and sanitation workers across the thousands of cities around the U.S. more than compensated for [cuts at the federal level], because we see an increase in the public sector,” he said.

    Trump also fired a member of the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) early last year, which left it without a quorum to issue rulings. In some cases that can slow down the formation of a new union — at the Amazon-owned Whole Foods in Philadelphia, for example.

    The number of union elections overseen by the NLRB declined last year and the overall number of workers involved in those elections dropped too, according to the nonpartisan Center for American Progress.

    “A huge percentage of new union organizing is required every year just to maintain the same level of unionization, because of the churning and the growth of the overall labor force,” said Vachon. “If the labor force is not growing, then you can actually see increases in union density.”

    And unions are being cautious of reaching out to the NLRB under the Trump administration, he notes.

    “There’s a fear [that] if something gets sent up to the NLRB that the ruling is going to set a precedent that makes it even more difficult to organize,” said Vachon. “It’s kind of had a dampening effect in that way.”