To the casual observer, it’s just an L-shaped hole in the ground, about 40 inches deep, showing two distinct layers of dirt.
But to the archaeologists who dug the hole, it’s a portal into the past going back thousands of years.
Croft Farm is a national historic site. Its owners during the mid-1800s helped Black people escape from slavery. The farmhouse, outbuildings, and 80 acres of the farm are now owned by Cherry Hill Township, part of a recreational and educational space for the public.
The darker brown top layer of “silty sand” contains artifacts from the last 300 years, an era when both enslavers and those dedicated to emancipation lived on the site, according to Matt Kraemer, 27, an archaeologist from Summit, N.J.
Below it, the lighter-colored layer has revealed artifacts from a time when the Lenni-Lenape Indigenous people lived on the land along the Cooper River, in what is now Cherry Hill.
“It’s a very significant site for the fact that it has a Native American component, plus everything the Evans family left behind,” Kraemer said Saturday.
Alanna-Corinne Konkisre (center), 9, of Gloucester County, sifts through dirt to find artifacts at Croft Farm in Cherry Hill, N.J. on Saturday, Feb. 21, 2026. Croft Farm, listed on the National Register of Historic Places, is now an active archaeological site due to the farm’s role during the time of the Underground Railroad.
The Evans family was part of the Quaker religious movement, and like many area Quakers of the time, owners Thomas Evans and his son Josiah were part of the New Jersey Abolition Society, “a group that advocated an end to slavery and also helped to maintain the Underground Railroad,” according to a history of Croft Farm provided by Cherry Hill Township.
Matthew Tomaso, senior director of cultural resource practices at PS&S, speaks to a crowd of people before the start of an archeological dig at Croft Farm in Cherry Hill, N.J.m on Saturday, Feb. 21, 2026. Croft Farm, listed on the National Register of Historic Places, is now an active archaeological site due to the farm’s role in the Underground Railroad.
The farm’s historical significance presents a great learning opportunity, said Matthew Tomaso, the archaeologist leading the project for PS&S, an architecture and engineering firm with a location in Warren Township.
A year ago, PS&S was brought in to oversee cultural resource management as the township sought to stop groundwater from entering the basement of the brick house on the property, Tomaso said.
That gave Tomaso and his team a chance to see what they might find that would shine a light on the property’s role as a station on the Underground Railroad.
Animal bones, pieces of pottery, and other artifacts help tell that story, Tomaso said, by showing the dietary patterns, habits, and traditions of the people living there at the time.
Nolan Arcinese (left) and Aaron Arcinese (right) look through dirt to find artifacts at Croft Farm in Cherry Hill, N.J., on Saturday, Feb. 21, 2026. Croft Farm, listed on the National Register of Historic Places, is now an active archaeological site due to the farm’s role during the time of the Underground Railroad.
That includes previously enslaved people known to have lived there, such as Joshua Sadler, as well as others who worked and lived on the farm, he said. Sadler went on to found nearby Sadlertown, a Black settlement located in what is now Haddon Township.
What they learn could be especially important since the Underground Railroad was not well documented at the time it was in operation, due to the need to maintain secrecy, Tomaso said.
Mostly, though, they have found bones, said Chelsea Carriere, 29, an archaeologist who called herself “the bone lady.”
Carriere explained that she was looking closely at cow, pig, and bird bone fragments — and the ways the animals were butchered nearly 200 years ago.
To her, the rough cuts on the bones show that these animals likely were raised on the farm or hunted, and were likely butchered on-site, rather than through a butcher shop.
“They were doing it themselves, and that suggests lower socioeconomic status,” Carriere said. Her team is still in the early stages of examining the artifacts.
To her, some of the most amazing finds so far were discovered deeper down in the dirt and would date back 2,000 or more years. These include a piece of argillite that she surmised was a spear point, and a basalt biface, an ancient tool that would have been used for cutting.
“This is a really good site,” Carriere said.
It was also a great experience Saturday for learners of all ages who listened to demonstrations and, with archaeologists’ guidance, used a sifter to search for artifacts in the dirt.
“I love to know what people were doing hundreds of years ago,” said Cherry Hill resident Debbie Kilderry, 71, as she watched children sift the soil.
She came to the site with two artifacts she had obtained — a small porcelain container and a stone — hoping that the archaeologists might have insights into their origins. Tomaso’s professional analysis: She had a real arrowhead, likely from the American West, and a cup once used for coffee cream.
To Kilderry, it is exciting to connect with those who came before her.
“I’m excited to see what they were doing, because they were people just like us — just with different inconveniences.”
Longtime Thomas Jefferson women’s basketball coach Tom Shirley received a welcome surprise before his team’s matchup with Caldwell on Saturday.
Shirley, who has coached the Rams for 36 years, was announced as one of 10 inductees into the Pennsylvania Sports Hall of Fame’s Class of 2026. The class will be inducted on Sept. 19.
“I am honored to be recognized by the Pa. Sports Hall of Fame,” Shirley said. “I do realize there is group of individuals that have assisted me in receiving this recognition. Thank you to the players, alumni, coaches, staff, and Thomas Jefferson University, who have made this possible.”
The other inductees are: Mike Bantom (basketball), Larry Bowa (baseball), Brad Cashman (administration), Joe Crawford (official), Marc Jackson (basketball), Benjamin Johnson (track and field), Kelsey Kolojejchick (field hockey), Ted Lachowicz (football), Darrelle Revis (football), Chris Snee (football), Nancy Stevens (field hockey), and Willie Thrower (football).
Shirley has led the Rams to 14 NCAA Tournament appearances, five Central Atlantic Collegiate Conference championships, two Eastern Collegiate Athletic Conference titles, and two New York Collegiate Athletic Conference titles.
He has 922 victories, the most an for active Division II coach, and is considered one of the most decorated college women’s basketball coaches.
“This is a significant moment celebrating Coach Shirley’s contributions to basketball and sports in Pennsylvania,” said Hall of Fame president James Parrella.
Shirley has been named CACC Coach of the Year four times, including consecutive seasons in 2024 and 2025. He also was named the American Women’s Sports Federation Division II Coach of the Year and Converse District Coach of the Year in 1993.
His team had one of its best seasons in program history in 2023-24. The Rams set a program record with 23 straight wins, lost just once during the regular season, reached the Sweet 16 for a second straight year, and finished 32-2.
The Rams are 17-10 and 11-8 this season, after a 48-45 loss to Caldwell. They have one more regular-season game, Wednesday night at home against Chestnut Hill, before the conference tournament begins March 3.
Longtime Thomas Jefferson University women’s basketball coach Tom Shirley with Rams alumni.
Montgomery County health officials on Saturday warned residents of a possible measles exposure at two locations in the county, after confirming another case of the highly contagious disease.
A person infected with measles visited a car dealership and a convenience store in Royersford and Limerick earlier this week, officials said.
The case is connected to another in the county that was confirmed earlier this month, said Richard Lorraine, the medical director of the Montgomery County Health Department.
The original measles case was linked to a larger outbreak centered on a college in Florida, Lorraine said. A person infected with measles connected to that outbreak then traveled to Montgomery County and visited an urgent care center in Collegeville on Jan. 29, he said.
Later, two people in their household, who live in Montgomery County, contracted measles; they were already quarantining by the time they developed symptoms, Lorraine said.
The latest case, announced on Saturday, was in an adult who had visited the Collegeville urgent care clinic at the same time as the original patient, Lorraine said. That person developed symptoms about 20 days after exposure to the virus, Lorraine said. The virus can incubate for up to 21 days before symptoms appear.
All of the Pennsylvania residents who have contracted measles so far this year, including the Montgomery County cases, were not vaccinated against the disease.
What to do if you were exposed to measles
People who were at the following Montgomery County locations during the following time periods may have been exposed to the virus, which can linger in the air for up to two hours, officials said.
Nissan 422 of Limerick at 55 Autopark Blvd. in Royersford:
Wawa at 579 N. Lewis Rd. in Limerick:
People are generally considered protected from measles if they were born in 1957 or earlier or have had two doses of the measles, mumps, and rubella (MMR) vaccine, or the recommended number of doses based on their age, health officials said.
People are also considered protected if they have undergone lab testing that confirms they have already had the disease or have immunity to it.
People who are not fully vaccinated or do not have immunity to measles and were exposed to the virus should call their doctor or the county public health office. The office can be reached at 610-278-5117 or after hours at 610-635-4300.
Lorraine said that county health officials are working to track anyone who worked at or visited the Wawa and the car dealership earlier this week.
Once health officials identify people who passed through those locations, he said, they check to ensure they are vaccinated for measles. People with two doses of the MMR vaccine are of little concern, since the vaccine is about 98% effective at preventing disease, Lorraine said.
The county can also test residents without documentation of vaccination for measles immunity. People without immunity can get an MMR vaccine within about 72 hours of exposure to the virus that can prevent them from contracting measles, Lorraine said.
“For those folks who don’t have an immune status, and don’t get the MMR, they do need to quarantine for up to 21 days afterward, because that’s how long the incubation period is,” he said.
People without immunity who were potentially exposed to the virus should observe themselves for symptoms during that period. Symptoms include fever, an unexplained rash, a cough, congestion or a runny nose, and red, watery eyes.
Health officials said people who develop measles symptoms should stay home and call a doctor immediately. They should also call ahead to any healthcare providers they plan to visit to protect staff and other patients from the disease.
Measles in the Philadelphia area
As of Saturday, Pennsylvania health officials said they have confirmed 11 cases of measles in state residents, a Pennsylvania Department of Health spokesperson wrote in an e-mail.
Seven Lancaster County residents had been infected, as well as three in Montgomery County and one in Chester County. Two more cases were identified in out-of-state residents who visited the area: one in Montgomery County and one in Chester County.
Chester County health officials did not immediately return a request for comment Saturday.
Lorraine said it is imperative for area residents to get vaccinated against measles, which can cause severe complications including pneumonia and brain infections. About 1 to 3 of every 1,000 children who contract measles will die, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Infants and children under 5 years old, adults over 20, pregnant women, and people with weakened immune systems, including patients with leukemia or HIV, are at particular risk for complications from the disease, according to the CDC.
“Like every other illness, measles can be mild, it can be severe. But that’s the reason why we want to immunize: We want to mitigate the possibility of severe illness. We really don’t want to even take a small chance on that,” Lorraine said.
Philadelphia and its suburbs are forecast to receive 16 to 22 inches of snow and face blizzard conditions beginning Sunday and continuing into Monday, with weather prediction models sharpening their focus as the storm approaches.
“Mother Nature has spoken again and made it clear that winter is not over,” said Mayor Cherelle L. Parker during an emergency press conference, declaring a citywide snow emergency, starting 4 p.m Sunday. “Yet another big winter storm is coming. It’s a major snow storm with real accumulation anticipated, and it’s heading our way .”
City government and courts will not open Monday, while public schools will switch to virtual learning. SEPTA riders should expect significant service disruptions over the next three days, said officials, who implored drivers to stay off the road Sunday.
Dominick Morales, the city’s emergency management coordinator, described the expected storm as “dangerous,” adding that heavy, wet snow could threaten trees and power lines.
“Dangerous because of the amount of snowfall that is being forecast in about a 24-hour period, but it’s also dangerous because of high winds — and for Philadelphia — near blizzard conditions. When this storm picks up, we have to take it seriously,” he said.
When all is said and done, the total snowfall may be closeto 18 inches in the city, and could surpass20 inches in South Jersey, where high winds are forecast to create blizzard conditions, according to the National Weather Service. Early Sunday morning, the weather service extended a blizzard warning to cover Philadelphia and Bucks and Delaware Counties, as well as eastern Montgomery County and all of South Jersey.
“It does look like it’s going to be quite an impactful storm for the whole [I-]95 corridor and further east,” said Sarah Johnson, warning coordination meteorologist at the weather service’s Mount Holly office, on Saturday.
This will lead to potentially dangerous driving conditions starting Sunday into Monday. And the Shore and Delaware Bay could experience flooding duringhigh tide Sunday evening.
While forecasters saw trouble brewing for several days, it was not clear how heavily the storm would affect Philadelphia, Johnson said.
“Pretty much throughout the week, we were aware that there was going to be this storm system off the coast. The question was just going to be how close to the coast it came,” she said.
The storm is expected to begin with a mix of snow and rain Sunday morning, with the potential for only rain falling before dawn. By early to midafternoon, that is forecast to change over entirely to snow, Johnson said.
The blizzard warning is in effect from 10 a.m. Sunday to 6 p.m. Monday.
“We are also going to be seeing some gusty winds with the heaviest snow amounts,” Johnson said. Wind speeds of up to 45 mph late Sunday and early Monday have the potential to cause blowing and drifting snow that may make it difficult to keep roads clear, according to the weather service.
The blizzard warning is in effect from 1 p.m. Sunday to 6 p.m. Monday.
Johnson emphasized that whatever the storm brings, it will be significant for Philadelphia.
“The period that we are most concerned about in terms of both snow rates and wind is Sunday evening through the morning on Monday,” she said.
The storm arrives while the administration is still stinging from criticism over what many perceive as a slow and ineffective response to the January snowstorm, the biggest to hit the city in a decade, which left many neighborhood streets and byways encased in snow and ice for 25 days.
On Saturday, Parker said the city would be ready.
More than 1,000 emergency city personnel, 800 snow removal vehicles, and a reserve of 25,000 tons of salt will be deployed, she said.
“I want to be very clear,” Parker said. “We will do whatever it takes, for however long it takes, to ensure that we have cleared our streets and are keeping Philadelphians safe.”
Snowfall rates could intensify to as much as two inches per hour Sunday afternoon into evening, Parker said.
“It’s going to be a big one, and we’re going to be ready for it,” said Carlton Williams, city emergency management director.
Williams said two high-powered melters, often capable of melting 135 tons of snow per hour, would be strategically placed near residential locations, where snow removal proves difficult, though he did not exactly say where. He said the city is also adding more locations for residents to pile snow.
Williams and other officials requested the public’s help, asking drivers not to block corners, which prevents ploughs from accessing snow-clogged streets. Deputy Police Commissioner John Stanford was clear about parking:
“You cannot save parking spots,” he said. “If we are called to a location for any cones, chairs, or any other items out there, we will remove them.”
All Philadelphia public school activities will be canceled Monday, officials said.
SEPTA is expecting major delays.
“There are going to be significant disruptions to service all throughout the duration,” said SEPTA General Manager Scott Sauer.
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In contrast to the very low temperatures for days after the Jan. 25 storm that dumped a foot of snow in areas around Philly, temperatures are expected to rise above freezing on Monday afternoon.
Higher temperatures later in the week may help melt the snow, as opposed to the long-lasting snowpack after the January storm.
Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro and New Jersey Gov. Mikie Sherrill urged residents in their states to stay off the roads during the storm.
On social media, Shapiro said state agencies are prepared to respond to the weather in Eastern and Southeastern Pennsylvania.
Our teams at @PEMAHQ, @PennDOTNews, and @PAStatePolice are prepared to respond to snow and winter weather across much of East and Southeast Pennsylvania beginning tomorrow afternoon and continuing through the overnight hours into Monday morning.
Sherrill on Saturday declared a state of emergency ahead of the storm.
She said at an afternoon news conference that it was the first time since 2022 that the National Weather Service had issued a blizzard warning along the coastline.
The state of emergency will go into effect at noon Sunday.
“I know we just got through a historic winter storm just a few weeks ago — we all did it together by heeding warnings, staying off the roads, and taking public safety seriously,” Sherrill said. “Now we have another serious winter storm on our hands, and my top priority is your safety.”
Officials urged people to stock up on essentials ahead of the storm, keep electronics like cell phones charged, and avoid driving once the snowfall begins.
NEWS: In preparation for the severe winter storm, I am declaring a State of Emergency across all 21 counties in New Jersey – effective at 12:00 PM on Sunday, February 22.
I urge New Jerseyans to use caution, stay off the roads, and follow all safety protocols during the storm.
Sherrill advised New Jerseyans to stay home and suggested watching the U.S. men’s Olympic hockey team play for gold Sunday, doing a puzzle, and eating chili.
Staff writer Stephen Stirling contributed to this article.
MILAN — Johnny Gaudreau was working hard to make the U.S. team heading to the 2026 Winter Olympics. He and brother Matthew watched the event growing up in South Jersey, always with eyes on playing in it.
“It was their dream,” Jane Gaudreau said her sons.
Johnny and Matthew died on Aug. 29, 2024, when they were struck by an SUV while riding bicycles near their hometown of Salem County on the eve of their sister Katie’s wedding. Their deaths shocked the hockey community, and the Gloucester Catholic High School graduates have been honored since by retired numbers, a memorial 5K, and more.
An elite player a decade into his NHL career and the all-time U.S. leading scorer in international play, Johnny Gaudreau was on track to be in Milan for the tournament that wraps up Sunday when the Americans play rival Canada for the gold medal. Guy Gaudreau said USA Hockey was gracious enough to tell the family their oldest son was on the projected roster.
“He wanted to be on this team,” Guy Gaudreau said during the third period of the U.S. semifinal win on Friday night. “And it would’ve been nice if he’d been here.”
The U.S. is honoring the Gaudreau brothers with a tribute to them in their locker room at the Milano Santagiulia Ice Hockey Arena. A blue No. 13 Gaudreau jersey hangs there as a reminder of the player known as “Johnny Hockey,” who was beloved by so many on the national team and beyond.
“It means everything — we all know he should be here with us,” said Dylan Larkin, who played with Gaudreau at multiple world championships. “He should be with us. We love him, and I like that we continue to think about him and I wouldn’t imagine it any other way.”
Jane and Guy Gaudreau, along with Johnny’s widow, Meredith, and their two oldest children arrived in Milan on Friday. The Gaudreau parents had been planning a trip to Las Vegas and initially hesitated after USA Hockey invited them to attend.
The family of Johnny and Matthew Gaudreau is in the building tonight while Johnny's jersey hangs in the Team USA locker room…
“Our two daughters, for 24 hours, they just kept at us: ‘You have to go. The boys would want you to do this. This would mean so much to John,’” Jane said. “It just means so much to our family, and we’re so excited to remember what our boys meant to hockey.”
The Gaudreau family connections to players on the roster run deep, from Boston College to the NHL. In addition to the world championships, Johnny played with Noah Hanifin on the Calgary Flames and Zach Werenski on the Columbus Blue Jackets.
“Johnny was close to a lot of guys in that room,” Hanifin said. “We know he’d be here with us, so we’ve been thinking about him and carrying him with us.”
Werenski said after he and his teammates advanced to the final that Meredith reached out to his wife a few days earlier to let them know they were coming.
“It’s great having them here, and it’s super special,” Werenski said. “We’re happy that we made it to the gold-medal game so they can watch that and be a part of it. It’s on us to make them proud.”
Not that it would have been much of a debate, but coach Mike Sullivan confirmed what management told the Gaudreaus: Johnny would have been on the team if he were still alive, based on his body of work and how well he has played in a U.S. uniform.
“He was one of America’s very best,” Sullivan said. “He’s just a good person on the ice and off the ice, and I think he’s an inspiration to our players to this very day.”
Players still talk about Gaudreau, and “all the stories are funny,” according to Charlie McAvoy, who played alongside him at worlds.
“Just an amazing person, just an infectious personality,” McAvoy said. “The detail, really, with our staff and our equipment staff especially to make sure that he’s always with us, little reminders of him in the room, and they just go a long way. You always see them. They’re just gentle. They’re right there. But we know that he’s always with us.”
Along with Johnny’s No. 13 jersey is that number on the wall alongside Matthew’s No. 21. It’s similar to what USA Hockey did a year ago at the 4 Nations Face-Off, when Guy Gaudreau took part in practice as a guest coach.
This would have been Johnny Gaudreau’s first chance to play at the Olympics after the NHL did not participate in 2018 and 2022. But it almost certainly won’t be the last time his jersey hangs in the U.S. locker room at the game, a tradition that could continue for years to come.
The Bucks County District Attorney’s Office is investigating the Quakertown Borough Police Department’s response to a high school student protest against federal immigration enforcement.
On Friday, a Quakertown High School student walkout protesting U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) escalated into a confrontation with adults that left at least one teenager bloodied and in handcuffs.
“Our office is conducting an independent investigation into the police response during this incident,” said Manuel Gamiz Jr., a spokesperson for Bucks County District Attorney Joe Khan. “To ensure a thorough and transparent review, we are seeking the community’s assistance and encourage anyone with information, including video footage or photos, to contact the Bucks County detectives at 215-348-6354.”
Bystander video footage showed police, adults, and what appear to be teenagers, at times fighting, on a sidewalk along Front Street. In a widely shared video, teens were seen scuffling with a man who put a girl in a chokehold. Several news organizations have reported that the man, who was not wearing a police uniform, was Quakertown Police Chief Scott McElree. Quakertown police and McElree did not respond to requests for comment Saturday morning.
Quakertown police said Friday that five or six minors and one adult were taken into custody. Police have not provided details on who was arrested and said that the students had been acting violently.
Standing outside the Quakertown police station Saturday morning, parents and leaders from local civil rights groups called on police to provide answers.
Adrienne King, president of the Bucks County NAACP, said that when young people are involved in a police encounter, “the standard for care, restraint, and adherence to policy are high and must be adhered to.”
“Video circulating publicly has raised serious questions in our community,” King said. “Those questions deserve answers, and we are here to ask for those answers today. Transparency is not optional in situations like this.”
Family members of one of the girls in police custody provided a written statement Saturday.
“We are looking for answers and accountability from the Quakertown police department and school district as well as justice for our daughter and the other children. We offer solidarity with the other families affected and hope to have our children home immediately.”
A winter storm warning is in effect for Sunday — a blizzard warning for the Jersey Shore — and Sunday into Monday Philly’s snow has a shot at doubling the amount that fell on Jan. 25, the National Weather Service says.
“At this point, that’s certainly possible,” Zachary Cooper, meteorologist with the National Weather Service said Saturday. The official forecast is calling for just over a foot in the city, with the potential for the total reaching 18 inches.
Blizzard warnings up for the Shore, where onshore winds are forecast to howl past 35 mph, with moderate to major flooding possible.
While it wasn’t in the official language, the weather service on a Saturday morning might well have included a supermarket stampede warning.
The actual winter storm warning is in effect from 7 a.m. Sunday until 6 p.m. Monday.
Witha surprising level of agreement computer models and their interpreters Saturday were seeing the storm as being inevitable. It was forecast to affect the I-95 corridor from Washington to Boston — a rarity in recent winters.
The weather service listed a 25% chance that totals could approach two feet in the city.
“It’s going to be a long-duration event,” said Cody Snell, meteorologist with NOAA’s Weather Prediction Center in College Park, Md.
On the plus side, this will not have the staying power of the 9.3 punitive inches that accumulated on Jan. 25 and spent a three-week vacation in the region. No ice is in the forecast, and daytime temperatures above freezing and the February sun likely will erase most it by the end of the workweek.
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What time would the snow begin in Philly?
Precipitation is expected to begin Sunday morning, said Snell, possibly as a mix of snow and rain that becomes all snow.
Snow may have a hard time sticking during the day, said Tom Kines, senior meteorologist with AccuWeather Inc., since temperatures will be near or slightly above freezing and the late-winter sun will be a factor, even it’s just a rumor in the sky.
Plus the ground won’t be especially cold after a Saturday in which the temperature may approach 50 degrees.
However, the upper air is going to be quite cold, Snell said, and when the snow is falling heavily, as it is expected to do Sunday night, “it will cool the column.”
He said areas that get caught in heavy snow “bands” would see the highest amounts.
What would be so different about this storm?
The storm is forecast to mature into a classic nor’easter, so named for the strong winds generated from the Northeast.
Nor’easters are the primary source of heavy snows along I-95, but the ones that produce heavy snow from Washington to Boston have been scarce lately.
“Over the past several years, they’ve been few and far between,” Kines.
The Jan. 25 storm was not a nor’easter per se, said Snell, but more of a case of the “overrunning” of warm air over cold air producing the snow and sleet.
John Gyakum, an atmospheric scientist at McGill University in Montreal and a winter storm specialist, said he anecdotally has seen a trend of coastal storms intensifying too far north to have much of an impact on the Philly region.
If that were the case, it could be a symptom of global warming, said Steve Decker, meteorology professor at Rutgers University. Storms form where cold and warm meet, and that may have been happening farther north lately.
In any event that evidently won’t be the case Sunday.
What could go wrong with the forecasts?
Are you new around here?
The storm consists of multiple moving parts, and as it bounds off the Southeast coast, it is due to intensify rapidly over the warm Atlantic waters.
Meteorologists advised it was still unclear precisely how intense it would become and what path it would take.
Forecast busts have been known to happen, including a famous one 25 years ago. On a Friday, the weather service warned of a storm of “historic” proportions to begin that Sunday.
What Philly got was about an inch of snow that fell over three uneventful hours.
In 2015, the head of the Mount Holly weather service office publicly apologized for a busted forecast.
However, in recent years, the region hasn’t had all that many serious snow scares.
In this case, expect details to jump around even as the precipitation is falling, but Snell said “confidence is growing” that substantial snow is going to happen.
Inquirer staff writer Stephen Stirling contributed to this article.
Through a constant series of beeps, flashes, and messages, it badgers me in a manner that’s a cross between an unrepentant mansplainer and passive-aggressive nanny.
It comes with all sorts of ways to protect me from being, well, an idiot. It has a “lane sway warning” in case I’m dozing off. It blocks searching for a new Sirius radio station while driving — presumably to prevent distracted driving. (All while displaying postage stamp-sized album cover images of the music being played.)
“Lane departure!” it warns if I swerve six inches over the center line of a country road to avoid hitting a bicyclist.
When the salesman started to explain how to work the headlights, he stopped midsentence to pronounce: “Just don’t touch it. The car already knows what to do.”
In short, my new car yearns to be a driverless car, kind of like those Waymo taxis, which will soon be rolled out in Philly. It deigns to have me as its owner; tolerates — nay, suffers — my ownership of it. I’m surprised the dealer didn’t require my SAT scores in order to buy it.
Take the day I tossed my yoga mat in the back seat after class, drove home, then spotted this yellow dashboard warning upon alighting: “Reminder, look in rear seat.”
This was puzzling, until I realized it was a safety feature designed to prevent drivers from absentmindedly leaving their baby (or pet) behind during a heat wave.
A Waymo autonomous taxi in San Francisco, in August 2023.
Well-intentioned, to be sure — yet an ineffectual mixture of condescending and vague. It merely hints at the problem, as if it is too polite to accuse someone of literal child endangerment. Better it should just come out and say, “Hey, don’t forget the baby, ya moron!”
Or better yet: “I got you here safely. Do you need me to parent for you, too?”
Whenever the warning flashes, I find myself muttering, “Calm down — it’s a yoga mat.”
My friend’s Mercedes claims it can detect if she’s “fatigued,” barking a suggestion to take a break, and even flashing an image of a coffee cup. (Is Mercedes in cahoots with Big Coffee?)
When the outdoor temperature hits 37 degrees, the dashboard flashes a little orange icon that looks like the Imperial fighter plane from Star Wars. It’s to warn me about possible ice — and functions even in bone-dry weather.
This safety system — which I alternately sense as being either male or female — doesn’t seem to grasp that I just want to run errands, not pilot the Starship Enterprise.
Fed up with its bewildering collection of multicolored dashboard symbols, I finally decided to read the instruction manual.
Correction: Manuals. This car comes with three, and like the Harry Potter novels, each one is longer than the last.
This photo released by Nissan Motor Corp. shows sensors attached to the top of its car, which assist the Japanese automaker’s self-driving technology with computer functions, radars, and cameras.
Here I learned the trademarked “Eyesight” driver assistance technology will detect pedestrians … unless they’re carrying an umbrella. Its disclaimer says it can also get confused by: ditches, fog, dirt, dust, strong sunlight, motorcycles, bicycles, animals, rain, and windshield washer fluid.
The car has automatic braking, should you fail to notice that the car ahead of you has stopped. That feature, along with the rear-seat warning, has triggered the ire of Senate Republicans, who announced hearings on whether such safety features are worth the added cost.
It also has keyless entry, using just a fob, whose presence the car can sense even when it’s in my purse or pocket.
Last November, I was a volunteer poll worker on Election Day, which required that I depart in darkness to arrive at my polling place by 5 a.m. When I gathered my belongings to go inside, I couldn’t find my keys. I figured they had to be in the car, because otherwise the car wouldn’t run, right?
I spent the morning searching my purse and backpack. No keys. I spent my lunch break rummaging around in the car to see if they’d fallen between or under the seats. Nope.
I tried to start the car, on the premise that if the keys were somewhere in the car, it would start. It didn’t.
I panicked. Since I was the poll worker assigned to bring the all-important USB stick containing our district’s voting tallies to the town clerk, it was vital that I depart as soon as possible once the polls closed. I shuddered at the prospect of going viral, with CNN announcing, “New Jersey’s machine vote tally is now final — with the exception of a single missing district.”
Luckily, my husband brought over my spare keys. When the polls closed, I dropped off the voting equipment, then went to a music rehearsal. At its conclusion, as I leaned down to load my music bag into the back seat, I spotted something on the vehicle’s roof: my keys, nestled snugly against the luggage rack.
Yes, I had driven over five miles, up proverbial hill and dale, with the key fob atop my car.
And this know-it-all car, which can sense I’ve veered a centimeter across a lane line and barely tolerates my presence, never realized it.
Hey, Mr./Ms. Smarty-Pants: Who’s the idiot now?
Kathleen O’Brien is a retired newspaper columnist who lives with her know-it-all car in northwest New Jersey.
There is a particular kind of ugliness that does not merely offend but instructs. It tells us something about who we have been, who we are becoming, and what social permissions are quietly being expanded. Donald Trump’s circulation of an image portraying Barack and Michelle Obama as apes belongs squarely in that category. It is not a one-off lapse. It is a signal flare.
This was not just racist imagery; it was historically literate racism. The ape trope is among the oldest tools in the dehumanization kit, refined over centuries and deployed whenever Black Americans have come too close to full belonging. One does not stumble into it by accident.
To understand why this matters — and why it is likely to get worse — we have to situate Trump not just as a provocateur, but as a product of moral inheritance, cultural permission, and a long American tradition of racial degradation repackaged as “joking” or “provocation.”
Trump has always been less an ideologue than an accelerant. He doesn’t invent resentments; he senses which ones are newly safe to express. His strategy, if we must call it that, is social intuition — an ability to intuit when cruelty will be rewarded rather than punished.
That worldview maps neatly onto racial hierarchy. When Trump rose to political prominence by falsely claiming Barack Obama was not really American, he was not engaging in policy disagreement. He was policing the boundaries of belonging. The ape image is simply that instinct stripped of euphemism.
From left, Fred Trump, boxing promoter Don King, and Donald Trump participate in a 1987 news conference in Atlantic City.
It is also not untethered from history. Trump’s defenders bristle at any mention of white supremacist lineage, but history is stubborn. His father, Fred Trump, was arrested at a 1927 Ku Klux Klan rally in Queens — an event Trump has long dismissed without serious reckoning.
Whether Fred Trump was a member or merely present is ultimately less important than what this moment symbolizes: Trumpism did not emerge in a vacuum. It grew in soil long fertilized by segregationist politics, racial grievance, and coded contempt that later became uncoded.
Police officers break up a scuffle amid demonstrators outside South Boston High School on the first day of a court-ordered busing program to integrate Boston public schools in September 1974.
Cultural historians like Henry Louis Gates Jr. have shown how the ape trope was central to 19th and early 20th-century pseudoscience, minstrel culture, and colonial propaganda. To depict Black people as simian was to deny them reason, morality, and ultimately rights. It was a way of making cruelty feel natural.
Scholars from Frantz Fanon to Saidiya Hartman have traced how this imagery did not vanish with Jim Crow; it merely went underground, resurfacing whenever racial hierarchy felt threatened.
The Obama presidency was precisely such a moment. For some Americans, it symbolized not progress but displacement. Trump rose by giving voice to that panic, laundering it through grievance and mockery. The ape image is not regression; it is escalation.
Why will it get worse? Because norms erode asymmetrically. Once a president can circulate imagery that would once have ended a public career — and suffer no meaningful consequence — the floor drops out. What was once unsayable becomes debatable. What was once debatable becomes funny. And what was once funny becomes policy.
What made this episode briefly arresting — before it slid into the familiar churn of outrage — was that condemnation came, at least initially, from both sides of the political aisle. Democrats responded with predictable fury, naming the image for what it was: racist, dehumanizing, indecent. But some Republicans, too, recoiled. A handful of conservative commentators, former officials, and religious leaders expressed a kind of moral embarrassment, as if they had suddenly overheard a family secret spoken aloud at the dinner table.
That bipartisan outrage matters, but not in the way we might hope. It did not signal a renewed moral consensus so much as a fleeting recognition of how far the ground has shifted.
Many of the Republican critics framed their objections narrowly — not that the image was wrong in itself, but that it was “unhelpful,” “distracting,” or “beneath the dignity of the office.” This is the language of procedural discomfort, not moral revulsion. It suggests that the line being defended is not the humanity of the Obamas but the decorum of politics.
On the Democratic side, the outrage was morally clearer but strategically fatigued. There was anger, yes — but also weariness. A sense that we have seen this movie before, named its villain, issued our statements, and then moved on. Moral clarity without moral consequence eventually becomes ritual. It reassures the speaker more than it restrains the offender.
This asymmetry reveals something crucial. Outrage alone does not halt degradation; it can even normalize it by making it routine. When every transgression is met with the same crescendo of denunciation and the same absence of consequence, the culture learns a quiet lesson: that cruelty is survivable, that it carries no lasting cost. Trump understands this intuitively. He relies on the fact that outrage is loud but short-lived, while the permissions he expands are durable.
What we witnessed, then, was not a national reckoning, but a brief moral spasm — a reminder that many Americans still know, at least intellectually, that some lines should not be crossed. The tragedy is that knowing is no longer the same as enforcing. In a healthier moral ecosystem, bipartisan outrage would be a stopping force. In ours, it is often just a speed bump.
Trump’s political project has never been about persuasion in the classical sense. It is about habituation. Repetition dulls outrage. Shock exhausts resistance. Eventually, people stop asking whether something is wrong and start asking whether it “works.”
This is how democracies corrode — not in grand coups, but in the slow reeducation of moral reflexes. The danger is not only Trump’s blatant racism and cruelty, but the lesson it teaches: that dignity is conditional, and that some people may always be safely reduced.
If history teaches us anything, it is that dehumanization does not stop where it starts. Once a society relearns how to sneer, it rarely remembers where to stop.
And that is why this moment deserves more than disgust. It deserves memory.
Jack Hill is a diversity consultant, child advocate, journalist, and writer.
CLEARWATER, Fla. — From his third-floor office overlooking the Phillies’ spring-training ballpark, John Middleton can see clear sky for miles.
Never mind the creeping storm clouds.
“We’re way too far away from it,” Middleton said Friday. “I don’t know when in the next nine months, or whenever the heck it is, we’ll have a clearer sense of the landscape. But we sure as heck don’t have it now.”
So, why worry? Yes, baseball is barreling toward a labor battle that is expected to get nasty. The particulars: Many owners want a salary cap, similar to what the NFL, NBA, and NHL have; players have historically opposed all limits on wages. The collective bargaining agreement will expire Dec. 1, and a lockout seems inevitable, with the possibility that it could eat into next season.
But that’s 283 days away. There are 162 regular-season games from here to there, with an All-Star Game to host in July. And it will be another expensive season for Middleton and his ownership partners.
Last year, the Phillies’ luxury-tax payroll totaled $314.3 million, fourth-highest in the sport after the Dodgers, Mets, and Yankees. The Phillies paid a club-record $56.1 million in taxes and are bracing for a similar bill at the end of this year.
“Higher,” Middleton said.
Indeed, the projected payroll is $317 million. It will be the fifth consecutive season that the Phillies have gone into luxury-tax territory and the second year in a row they cleared the highest threshold ($304 million for 2026), which carries a 110% tax rate. Middleton said they’ve also budgeted $80 million in local revenue (tickets, concessions, media deals, etc.) for revenue sharing.
John Middleton and the Phillies missed out on signing Bo Bichette this offseason.
“Do the math,” he said. “You’re pushing $140 million in spending essentially [for] being taxed. If I had $140 million back, could I have a higher payroll? Yes. But that’s not happening, so I don’t think about that fantasy. But it’s a lot of money. It really is.”
It’s also life among the big spenders in baseball’s current economic system. Middleton doesn’t sit on the owners’ labor policy committee, which is headed by the Rockies’ Dick Monfort and includes the Yankees’ Hal Steinbrenner, and said he’s restricted by the National Labor Relations Act from speaking publicly about negotiations with the players’ union that are set to begin in late March.
But in a wide-ranging conversation with The Inquirer, Middleton said the Phillies’ offseason spending wasn’t impacted by the looming labor uncertainty. If anything, it was business as usual.
They re-signed Kyle Schwarber and J.T. Realmuto and added reliever Brad Keller and right fielder Adolis García. They were ready to make a seven-year, $200 million offer to free-agent infielder Bo Bichette, who signed a short-term (three years), higher-annual-salary ($42 million per year) deal with the Mets.
In all, the Phillies spent $227 million on free agents, then paid $19.2 million for Nick Castellanos to play elsewhere.
“Any time you get to the end of a collective bargaining agreement, you just never know what the next one’s going to look like,” Middleton said. “And the rules have changed [over the years]. So, you could make decisions in the year or two preceding a new CBA that you look back and you say, ‘Hmm, had I known this was going to be the new CBA with this new rule, I maybe would’ve done something different.’
“I just think the problem, if you give that too much weight, you don’t do things that you should be doing in today’s world with today’s sets of rules to win today. So, I would say we were aware of it, we talked about it, but it didn’t change any of the decisions that we made.”
Because Middleton is chasing that (dang) World Series trophy. It’s been 18 years since the Phillies won it. They went on an unexpected ride to Game 6 of the World Series in 2022 but haven’t won a postseason series since ‘23. They’re 2-8 in their last 10 postseason games.
Owner John Middleton wasn’t angry about the Phillies’ exit in the NLDS last season against the Dodgers.
Middleton, 70, has the sensibilities of a lifelong fan who grew up watching Dick Allen in the 1960s and the competitiveness of a former collegiate wrestler. He was disappointed after last year’s exit in the divisional round. But unlike the previous October, he wasn’t angry.
The Phillies went toe-to-toe with the vaunted Dodgers, holding them to 13 runs and a .199 batting average in four games. Their three losses came by a total of four runs. And don’t even get Middleton started on umpire Mark Wegner’s missed strike call on a 2-2 pitch to the Dodgers’ Alex Call with one out in the seventh inning of Game 4. Call walked on the next pitch and scored the tying run. Cristopher Sánchez said Wegner later admitted to him that he got it wrong.
“Assuming he made the correct call, all of a sudden that’s a strike, [Call is] out, [the run] never scores, we win the game, we go to Game 5 two days later in Philadelphia,” Middleton said. “I’m not telling you we would have beaten the Dodgers because they beat us twice at home. But the Dodgers didn’t want to play us in Game 5 in Philadelphia. There’s not a chance in the world that they were looking forward to that prospect.”
Middleton acknowledges that the Dodgers, owned by Guggenheim Partners, have inherent financial advantages that only Steve Cohen, the billionaire hedge-fund manager who owns the Mets, can match.
The Phillies have won more regular-season games in each of the last four seasons. Attendance to Citizens Bank Park has risen from 2.23 million fans in 2022 to 3 million in 2023, 3.36 million in ‘24, and 3.37 million last season.
But in 2024, Middleton also added three new investors to the Phillies’ ownership group. At the time, he said it would “allow us to pursue our strategic growth opportunities and long-term goals.”
“Look, when Hal Steinbrenner publicly says the Yankees can’t do what the Dodgers are doing — and the Yankees for decades have been the team that can do pretty much whatever it wants — that’s telling,“ Middleton said. ”[The Dodgers] are smart, competent people, which makes them fierce competitors. And the fact that they’ve got some financial clout, particularly clout that other teams can’t match, it makes them even tougher competitors.
“But the division series that we lost was the first time in three years, I think, that we lost a series to them. We were 5-1 against the Dodgers in series prior to that. So, it’s not like we haven’t beaten the Dodgers consistently.”
Middleton touched on other subjects, with answers lightly edited for brevity and clarity:
Phillies owner John Middleton (right) says president of baseball operations Dave Dombrowski (left) and Bryce Harper hashed out their differences recently.
Q: What was your perspective on Dave Dombrowski’s comments about whether Bryce Harper is still elite and the baseless rumors that followed about possibly trading him?
A: I just kind of chuckled to myself like, ‘Well, I guess they know something that I don’t know.’ The good news is Dave and Rob [Thomson] and Bryce talked it through after the last set of comments that Bryce made down here, and they’ve agreed that everything’s fine. I’m happy that they’ve reached that point, and I’m comfortable, confident that everything’s behind us now.
Q: You have a close relationship with Bryce. Did you personally call him to make sure everything was OK?
A: Nah. I’ve talked to Bryce over the years about other issues. But in Dave, you’re talking about one of the truly historically great GMs in the history of baseball. People in my position should not undermine their GMs and their head coaches, their managers. And when you have the background and the track record that Dave does, it’s particularly important that you understand your limitations [as an owner].
There have been times when Dave and I are talking about something, and he’ll look at me and say, ‘I’d like you to talk to the player.’ If he thought I needed to talk to Bryce, he would have been the first person to raise his hand and say, ‘John, it would be helpful if you talked to Bryce.’ He didn’t do it. Because Dave asked me to do it, I spent most of a day in Kyle Schwarber’s living room, at his kitchen table, because Dave said it would be helpful. And I talked to J.T. I’ll do whatever I need to do to be helpful, but I’m not going to force myself into a situation where I’m not needed.
Q: What’s your reaction to the narrative that the Phillies are “running it back” again with the same core that keeps falling short in October?
A: I understand the frustration. I will also tell you I do talk to a lot of fans, and there are clearly fans who voice the issue that you did. But I would tell you most of the fans understand. They look at it and they say, ‘OK, I get it. You were a missed call away from probably winning Game 4 and going on to Game 5.’ Not everybody’s going to acknowledge that. But it’s also not like we didn’t try. First of all, we re-signed Kyle. We could have let him go like the Mets, let [Edwin] Díaz go or [Pete] Alonso go. We re-signed J.T. We tried to sign Bichette. We actually thought we had a deal. At 11 o’clock that night, we had a deal, in our opinion. Not finalized. And the Mets did nothing that we wouldn’t have done and haven’t done, so I don’t blame the Mets. But you went to bed at 11 o’clock thinking we had a deal, and I woke up at 8 o’clock worried we didn’t have a deal, and two hours later, I knew we didn’t have a deal. So, it’s not like we didn’t try. We did try to tweak the team.
But go back to that [Phillies] team in ’76, ’77, ’78, they missed the World Series three years running. They go out and sign Pete Rose after the ’78 season. They promptly finish fourth in ’79 with theoretically a better team, and they ran it back in ’80. Now, that doesn’t mean we’re going to win the World Series in ’26 because the ’80 Phillies won the World Series after four tries. But you certainly don’t blow up teams. And it’s hard with a team that was good as that team was and our job is to improve it. You can look at certain places and say, ‘Well, you can improve it here or you can improve it there,’ but that means you have to go out and find the better player and bring that player in. Look, we tried to do that with Bichette. So, I get the frustration. I’m frustrated. I mean, Dave’s frustrated. Rob’s frustrated. A lot of the players are frustrated.
Going back to the Dodgers series, our players executed. You look at ’23 and ’24, even ’22 frankly a little bit, I think there were execution problems in those three years. I don’t feel that way about ’25.
Q: The Phillies have had a top-five payroll now for five years. Could you have ever envisioned a $317 million payroll?
A: So, the answer is yes. And I’d say yes because I think we have such a spectacular fan base. I trust the fan base. I have confidence in the fan base that, if we put the right team on the field, they’ll respond. And that doesn’t always happen. There’s plenty of examples in not just baseball, but other professional sports where there’s a team that’s really, really good and the fans yawn. And I knew that was never going to happen in Philadelphia. New York’s clearly a bigger market than Philadelphia, and they have higher prices than Philadelphia, so their seats sell for more, their hot dogs sell for more, their suites sell for more. But I always thought we could get reasonably close to them from a revenue standpoint, and then hopefully outcompete them. And look, I still feel that way.
Q: What has the ramp-up for the All-Star Game been like? How hectic are the next few months going to be?
A: I think we and MLB are better organized that I wouldn’t say it’s hectic. But there are a lot of details you have to get from the planning stage and the early conversation stage to a final decision and getting that decision implemented. And we’re kind of down that path so that we’ve kind of made final decisions on most everything. But now we’ve got to implement them, and that’s a whole other set of challenges. So, yeah, it’s nerve-wracking. I’m excited. I’m looking forward to it. I think of it like my daughter’s wedding. I’m excited, I’m looking forward to it, and I know I’ll be really happy the day after when I wake up and it’s done.
