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  • Cameron Payne is happy to return to Sixers: ‘When your focus is in the right place, things like this happen’

    Cameron Payne is happy to return to Sixers: ‘When your focus is in the right place, things like this happen’

    Cameron Payne was in the middle of Sunday’s game with Serbian team KK Partizan, when his agent, Jason Glushon, shared that a rest-of-season contract with the 76ers was in the works.

    “You might want to pack,” Glushon told his client.

    The veteran guard was at Sixers practice by Wednesday afternoon, working with new (and old) teammates and reviewing film with assistant coach Matt Brase. Payne, who played for the Sixers for part of the 2023-24 season, adds depth to a guard group that lost Jared McCain and Eric Gordon at the trade deadline. And though Payne said another NBA comeback was not his overwhelming goal, he is pleased to rejoin a familiar team that exits the All-Star break with a 30-24 record and in the thick of the Eastern Conference playoff race.

    Sixers’ Joel Embiid will miss Hawks game with right shin soreness

    “Obviously, I wanted to get back,” Payne said following Wednesday’s practice. “But all my focus was there [with Partizan]. I feel like, sometimes, when your focus is in the right place, things like this happen.

    “I was really locked in there, and me playing there got the looks to come back here.”

    Payne was a trade-deadline pickup in February of 2024, averaging 9.3 points and 3.1 assists in 19.4 minutes across 31 regular-season games. The 31-year-old is a high-energy guard whom All-Star teammate Tyrese Maxey has seen “change games, honestly,” such as when he provided an 11-point burst on 3-of-4 shooting from beyond the arc in the Sixers’ Game 3 playoff victory over the New York Knicks two seasons ago.

    Payne then played for the Knicks last season, averaging 6.9 points and 2.8 assists in 15.1 minutes in 72 games before entering free agency. He spent the preseason with the Indiana Pacers before being released, then had a workout with the Phoenix Suns (where he played for parts of four seasons, from 2020-23) that did not result in a contract.

    Cameron Payne averaging 6.9 points and 2.8 assists in 15.1 minutes in 72 games with the Knicks last season.

    When Partizan circled back with an offer, Payne jumped at the opportunity.

    “Man, I’m tired of sitting down,” he said to himself. “Yeah, let’s play some basketball.”

    Payne called the fan environment for the Belgrade-based club “lit,” complete with arenas packed “wall-to-wall” and lit flares causing smoke to hover over the court. He also appreciated that he was trusted to run Partizan’s offense, “like they’re counting on you, for real.” He averaged 11.6 points, 3.8 assists, and 1.5 steals in 15 games.

    Inside Sixers: VJ Edgecombe’s new mentor, Tyrese Maxey’s ‘tanking’ perspective, and more from All-Star Weekend

    Payne believes he can carry that same “ownership” to the Sixers’ second unit, which has sputtered throughout this season.

    He will be asked to push the pace, play in the pick-and-roll, and shoot three-pointers. Perhaps more importantly, Payne is expected to give the occasional blow to Maxey, who leads the NBA in minutes per game (38.6), and VJ Edgecombe, who ranks in the league’s top 10 in that category (35.4) while already playing in more games than he did at Baylor. Sixers coach Nick Nurse said Wednesday that Payne can “eat into” those players’ stints and also log “superhuge minutes” in specific scenarios, such as back-to-backs or blowouts.

    Cameron Payne returns to the Sixers after previously playing for the team during the 2023-24 season.

    “We can almost throw him in there to take over for certain games,” Nurse said. “He’s capable of doing that.”

    To get from Serbia to Philly by the time the Sixers officially reconvened from the All-Star break, Payne first took an early-morning flight Tuesday that connected through Amsterdam. He arrived at the team’s Camden facility around 3:30 p.m. for his physical. He acknowledged Wednesday that he is still adjusting to the time difference and has not slept much.

    Still, Nurse said Payne looked in-rhythm during Wednesday’s practice, that “you forget how fast he is.” Payne started to learn new teammates’ tendencies, such as Trendon Watford can initiate the offense as a point forward and that he can “throw it up” to athletic center Adem Bona. With Brase, he went through “a little package” of plays that he could successfully execute should he be called upon to play in Thursday’s home matchup against the Atlanta Hawks.

    And during a phone call Wednesday morning with Glushon, Payne turned reflective about his return to the Sixers.

    “I don’t know how I keep finding a way to get back,” Payne said. “But I guess the NBA’s still watching. And if you still take your game seriously and do the right things, play the right way, they’re still looking.”

  • Flyers call-ups bring ‘a new energy’ as the team prepares for the stretch run

    Flyers call-ups bring ‘a new energy’ as the team prepares for the stretch run

    On Wednesday, Travis Sanheim, Rasmus Ristolainen, Dan Vladař, and Rick Tocchet were part of tense, overtime battles at the Olympics in Milan, Italy.

    Those high-pressure games are exactly the kind of battles the Flyers hope to find themselves in come April. But with the team currently eight points out of third in the Metropolitan Division, a lot has to change to make that happen.

    “That’s our No. 1 mindset and why we’re doing the things we’re doing in practices is with that endgame in mind,” assistant coach Todd Reirden said. “We’re going to approach every game with that mindset. It’s something that is attainable and our guys believe in.”

    Flyers return to practice after the Olympic break with playoffs on the mind: ‘The urgency, the compete level needs to be up’

    Tocchet mentioned numerous times before the break that the Flyers haven’t had the opportunity to get a lot of practice time in. But the Olympic break provides an opportunity for a sort of second training camp — a full, uninterrupted week for the Flyers to drill new concepts and even work new faces into the mix.

    The Flyers called up defensemen Oliver Bonk and Hunter McDonald, and goaltender Carson Bjarnason, from Lehigh Valley to fill in for the players in Milan, and Reirden said having new, hungry players in practice has given the group a “new energy.”

    “The guys, their spirits have been really high,” Reirden said. “Today’s practice was pretty spirited, with some competitions that we had. That, in conjunction with bringing in new players that are excited about getting an opportunity, I think is really great experience for everybody involved.”

    Reirden said some of the drills were designed to test the Flyers’ prospects’ ability to handle NHL pace.

    During the hourlong practice, the Flyers ran five-on-five drills, and smaller one-on-ones and special teams sets. Drill losers dropped to the ice for pushups, and there were plenty of celebrations for goals and clears.

    “It’s cool,” Bonk said. “This is where you want to be all the time.”

    The Flyers still have a full week before their next game, on Feb. 25 in Washington, and they won’t be getting Tocchet back early after the Canadians pulled off the quarterfinal win.

    Travis Sanheim, pictured last year at the 4 Nations, is two games away from an Olympic gold medal.

    But Tocchet, working with some of the NHL’s best coaches, including Cup winners in Jon Cooper and Bruce Cassidy with Team Canada, also is picking up a lot of new tactics, Reirden said, which they’ve been discussing and implementing with the group back in Voorhees.

    “This scenario, I think, leads itself to more hockey discussion,” Reirden said. “There’s some things that he’s watching develop in terms of how they’re doing some different elements of their game strategically, and thinking about whether we should adjust different things. We’re always looking to tinker and tweak certain things to try to better fit the identity of our group.”

    Breakaways

    Sanheim, Tocchet, and Team Canada advanced to the Olympic semifinals with a 4-3 overtime win over Dan Vladař and Czechia … Ristolainen and Finland beat Switzerland, 3-2, in overtime to advance to the Olympic semifinals. Canada will play Finland on Friday, and the United States will play Slovakia.

  • Sixers’ Joel Embiid will miss Hawks game with right shin soreness

    Sixers’ Joel Embiid will miss Hawks game with right shin soreness

    Joel Embiid will miss the 76ers’ game on Thursday against the Atlanta Hawks with right shin soreness, the team announced Wednesday evening.

    Embiid, the 2022-23 NBA MVP, reported the soreness while participating in a right knee injury management program during the All-Star break, the team said. Following a consultation with doctors, the team added, Embiid has received daily treatment while progressing through on-court work and strength and conditioning. He will be reevaluated before the Sixers play back-to-back road games Saturday at the New Orleans Pelicans and Sunday at the Minnesota Timberwolves.

    Before this shin issue, Embiid had missed the Sixers’ last two games leading up to the break to manage that right knee.

    Inside Sixers: VJ Edgecombe’s new mentor, Tyrese Maxey’s ‘tanking’ perspective, and more from All-Star Weekend

    Sixers coach Nick Nurse said Embiid participated in “a little bit” of the Sixers’ Wednesday practice and was scheduled to meet with team doctors later that afternoon.

    “He looked pretty good,” Nurse said of Embiid.

    Before those unscheduled absences last week, Embiid was in the middle of a dominant stretch. He averaged 33.1 points on 52.9% shooting, along with 8.6 rebounds and 5.2 assists, in his last 10 games, putting him in the conversation to be named an All-Star reserve. Overall this season, he’s averaging 26.6 points, 7.5 rebounds, and 3.9 assists in 31 games.

    Embiid’s left knee, not his right, is the one that has undergone multiple surgeries in recent years.

  • Judge sentences Bucks man who killed his mother and hid body beneath drugs and money to decades in prison

    Judge sentences Bucks man who killed his mother and hid body beneath drugs and money to decades in prison

    Northampton police went to the first-floor condominium on Beacon Hill Drive for a welfare check on Dolores Ingram, an 82-year-old grandmother of three known for gifting her sewn and crocheted creations to family, friends, and those in need.

    Inside, officers found the living room in disarray, a heap of household items stacked haphazardly. They moved the things aside — a flipped-over futon, glass plates, a shattered aquarium that once housed two lizards — until they uncovered a bare foot. It was cold to the touch.

    The body was that of Dolores Ingram, who authorities say died from blunt-force trauma, asphyxiation, and lacerations inflicted by her son, William Ingram, before he fled in her car.

    On Wednesday, nearly two years later, a Bucks County judge sentenced William Ingram, 51, to 30 to 64 years in prison for killing her inside the home they shared.

    Ingram pleaded guilty in December to third-degree murder in the June 2024 killing of his mother, as well as abuse of a corpse and related crimes. He also pleaded guilty to a string of drug offenses, including possession with intent to distribute.

    Investigators said that as they continued searching the pile atop Dolores Ingram that day, they found approximately six pounds of marijuana and more than $53,000 in cash — proceeds, prosecutors said, from a marijuana and psilocybin distribution business that William Ingram ran from the home.

    They also found the family’s pet reptiles dead on the floor.

    “The money you threw on top of her was more than most people make in a year in this country,” said Bucks County Court Judge Stephen Corr, adding that it illustrated Ingram’s “disrespect” for his mother.

    In court on Wednesday, Dolores Ingram’s two daughters described their mother as “generous” and “kind, a “good example of how to treat people.” She loved yard sales and thrift stores, they said. She also had “lifelong anxiety,” including over her son, who suffered from mental illness, they said.

    Authorities initially charged Ingram with first-degree murder, which carries a potential life sentence. In exchange for a guilty plea to the lesser charge of third-degree murder, Bucks County prosecutors agreed to a sentence of 26 to 54 years in state prison.

    Corr used his discretion when he sentenced Ingram to four to 10 years in prison for the drug crimes. He also sentenced Ingram to consecutive terms, calling the move “necessary” given the circumstances of the crimes and the need to “protect the community” from Ingram.

    Defense attorney Riley Downs argued that Ingram has been diagnosed with schizoaffective disorder, which went untreated in the days before the slaying.

    At the sentencing hearing, Downs asked Ingram if he missed his mother. “Yeah,” Ingram replied. He added: “I didn’t mean for this to happen. It doesn’t even seem real to me.”

    Ingram denied hitting his mother and said he did not remember piling things on top of her. However, in an affidavit of probable cause for Ingram’s arrest, Northampton Township police said he confessed to hitting his mother in the head during an argument, then throwing “all this stuff” on top of her body.

    Then, police said, Ingram stole his mother’s Honda Civic and drove to Washington. There, authorities said, he assaulted a local police officer while naked and was taken into custody about a day after the killing.

    Downs asked the judge to sentence Ingram to 26 years, arguing that he would be 75 years old at his first chance at parole — an amount of time he called “significant” for a man Ingram’s age.

    Prosecutor Monica Furber pressed for consecutive sentences. While she acknowledged Ingram’s mental illness, she countered that it “did not stop him in any way from running a criminal enterprise” or covering his mother’s body “in the drugs and proceeds.”

    Before announcing the sentence, Corr said Ingram had “turned” on “the one person who was trying to help him.”

    He added: “I hope you have an opportunity to grow while you spend what is likely the rest of your life in prison.”

  • Philadelphia has spent $59 million on its snow response so far. Here’s how it breaks down.

    Philadelphia has spent $59 million on its snow response so far. Here’s how it breaks down.

    With the arrival of above-freezing temperatures, Philadelphia is declaring an end to an emergency response that lasted 26 days, closing the chapter on an all-hands-on-deck mobilization of various city departments that navigated the biggest snowfall in a decade and the persistent cold snap that followed.

    The city’s “enhanced code blue” response began the Friday before a winter storm that blanketed Philadelphia with 9.3 inches of snow and sleet on Jan. 25. The designation allowed the city to deploy support services across departments for some of the city’s most vulnerable, living on the streets.

    A preliminary estimate by the city puts the cost of the storm response at about $59 million, which officials said reflects the intensity of the storm and conditions that followed.

    “A tremendous City workforce, outreach teams, first responders, nonprofit partners, and community stakeholders came together without hesitation,” Mayor Cherelle L. Parker said in a statement Tuesday. “Because of their coordination, compassion, and commitment, lives were protected during some of the harshest conditions we have faced this winter.”

    Amid a bitter cold that hampered snow-removal efforts, the city embarked on a cleanup operation that lasted more than two weeks and combined heavy machinery and old-fashioned manual digging.

    Here are some key numbers highlighting how various city departments mobilized and the costs they accrued.

    Heavy machinery and dump trucks collecting piles of snow from Germantown and Thompson Street, Philadelphia, Wednesday, Jan. 28, 2026.

    $46,021,516 in snow removal

    The city crafted its $4.1 million snow operations budget for fiscal year 2026 using a rolling-year average of prior costs.

    But the storm brought about a slew of unanticipated expenses and challenges, including snow removal, ice control, and other emergency operations.

    The city looked to contractors to bolster its workforce as it launched a massive effort to treat and plow streets.

    Contractor plowing and salting operations during the storm cost $13.9 million, while the post-storm contractor cleaning and lifting operations cost $31.8 million. The remainder of the expenses came from snow-related operations across departments, such as the activation of warming centers.

    Part of what made the storm so costly was the uncooperative temperatures.

    Amid complaints from residents over what was perceived as a slow cleanup, the city noted that the below-freezing temperatures created increasingly tightly packed ice that had nowhere to go.

    The city even brought in a snow melter from Chicago, which eliminated 4.7 million pounds of snow in the first two days after the snowfall. The costs of melting, which is considered a specialized service, ran more than $139,000.

    After the initial snow removal, the city moved to what it called its lifting operations.

    Snowplows, compactors, front-end loaders, and backhoes took part in an intricate operation where snow was placed in dumpsters before being shipped off to more than 30 dumping sites.

    The Philadelphia Streets Department mobilized up to 300 pieces of equipment on any given day in an effort to leave no street untreated.

    The city went through 15,000 tons of salt through the three-week cleanup amid other challenges, such as an icy Delaware River that temporarily blocked additional salt orders, and the rising cost of salt post-storm.

    The cost of salt was more than $1.2 million.

    Emily Street is still covered in snow near Furness High School (top left) on Wednesday, Jan. 28, 2026 in South Philadelphia.

    18,340 ramps cleared

    The massive cleanup had the city looking at creative ways to boost the number of workers clearing streets.

    The streets department tapped participants in its Future Track Program for snow-removal efforts early on. These are trainees, typically at-risk young adults, who are not enrolled in higher education and are unemployed. They get job experience, as well as other services, and they help in beautification projects.

    The trainees cleared hundreds of ADA ramps across Philadelphia.

    But more than a week after the storm, the city was still being flooded with complaints about inaccessible crosswalks and SEPTA stops piled with ice.

    That’s when officials tapped into a city program that pays people the same day for their work, deploying 300 people to help chip and sweep away the hardened ice with shovels and brooms.

    The city assembled a more than 1,000-person workforce for cleanup efforts this way, deploying a mix of city employees, contractors, and participants from the same-day pay program.

    In all, the city said, the crews worked nearly 2,300 intersections, clearing 18,340 ADA ramps and about 2,800 SEPTA stops.

    The use of contractors, however, was met with pushback from American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees District Council 33, the city’s largest municipal workers union, which said the decision was made without consulting the union.

    “Our members are the trained, dedicated workforce responsible for this work, and it is disheartening to see the administration move forward without even a discussion on how best to manage these challenges,” DC 33 president Greg Boulware said in a statement in early February.

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    22 warming centers

    The cold snap presented another life-or-death challenge for the city: how to get people living on the streets indoors.

    Between Jan. 20 and Feb. 14, homeless outreach teams worked nonstop distributing more than 2,800 warming kits, 4,000 fleece blankets, 700 cases of water, and 35,000 food items while trying to get people to take a shelter bed or go to one of the city’s 22 so-called warming centers.

    The code blue designation allowed the city to activate some libraries and recreation centers as hubs for people looking to escape the cold.

    The warming center operation was seen as lifesaving, largely supported by library staff. Between Jan. 19 and Feb. 11, New York City recorded at least 18 cold-related deaths; Philadelphia had three over a similar time frame.

    Still, after 20 days of 12-hour operations, staff at the daytime centers described a lack of support from the city when it came to dealing with people who had medically complex issues requiring behavioral health support and wound care. (One library staffer said more city-assigned support staff showed up at the daytime centers after The Inquirer published a report about workers’ concerns.)

    Library warming centers strained workers and left people without help for complex issues, staff say

    Philadelphia officials said more than 100 people from more than 20 city and partner organizations helped support the warming centers.

    Nighttime warming centers had about 4,400 overnight guests, according to the city.

    Mount Market Street at 7th Street, Center City Philadelphia, Tuesday, Jan. 27, 2026. Large pile of snow on northeast corner of Market and 7th.

    $50 million from general fund

    Because snow operations exceeded the initial amount allotted in the budget, the city plans to transfer $50 million from its general fund to its transportation fund.

    Even so, the city said its general fund remains higher than projected in its five-year plan because of a larger-than-anticipated general fund balance in the previous fiscal year.

  • Chester County man pleads guilty to killing a 9-month-old baby

    Chester County man pleads guilty to killing a 9-month-old baby

    A Chester County man pleaded guilty to murder and related crimes earlier this month after he punched a 9-month-old infant and did not seek medical care for the child, prosecutors said Wednesday.

    Enrique Lopez-Gomez, 32, of West Grove, pleaded guilty to third-degree murder and endangering the welfare of a child on Feb. 11, according to prosecutors.

    He remains incarcerated in the Chester County Prison and awaits sentencing.

    Announcing the charges, Chester County District Attorney Christopher de Barrena-Sarobe called the crime “unthinkable.”

    Prosecutors say Lopez-Gomez was the child’s caregiver at the time of the 2024 incident, when he fell on the infant at a residence in Kennett Square. As the baby began to cry in pain, Lopez-Gomez punched the child in the abdomen, prosecutors said.

    He did not seek help or tell anyone about the child’s injuries, according to prosecutors, nor did he offer medical care as the child’s condition worsened that evening.

    First responders who were later called to the scene removed the baby from the home, and the child was pronounced dead at Nemours/A.I. DuPont Hospital for Children.

    Medical examiners determined that the child had died from blunt force trauma, leading to an intestinal rupture and soft tissue bleeding, prosecutors said.

    The baby had also suffered large bruises around the abdomen.

    Prosecutors have yet to set a date for Lopez-Gomez’s sentencing. He is being held on $10 million bail.

  • Dozens more drug, gun cases tied to cops who defenders say ‘lied’ are thrown out. Some sent people to prison for years.

    Dozens more drug, gun cases tied to cops who defenders say ‘lied’ are thrown out. Some sent people to prison for years.

    More than 40 drug and gun convictions were vacated Wednesday, the latest batch in what could grow to 1,000 cases tied to three narcotics officers who prosecutors say repeatedly gave false testimony in court.

    Common Pleas Court Judge Rose Marie DeFino-Nastasi dismissed 47 cases — most involving defendants jailed because of their convictions — after prosecutors conceded that the testimony of three officers on the Philadelphia Police Department’s Narcotics Strike Force could no longer be trusted.

    In December, the district attorney’s office said that Officers Ricardo Rosa, Eugene Roher, and Jeffrey Holden were found to have repeatedly given false statements in drug-related cases after attorneys with the Defender Association of Philadelphia uncovered video evidence that contradicted their accounts.

    The defenders said the officers regularly watched live surveillance footage to monitor suspects in drug investigations, then did not disclose it to prosecutors or defense attorneys in court. The video footage showed they also testified to things that did not happen or that they could not have seen from where they were positioned, according to court filings.

    Prosecutors later said that they could no longer vouch for the officers’ credibility and are expected to dismiss scores of cases built on their testimony in the coming months.

    Nearly all the defendants at the center of the cases dismissed Wednesday were in custody, including several serving years in prison tied to their drug convictions.

    Among them is Hamid Yillah, 34, serving four to nine years in state prison, plus two years’ probation, on gun and drug charges based on the testimony of Roher and Rosa, prosecutors said.

    And Juan Lopez, 38, serving five to 10 years in prison on drug possession and conspiracy charges.

    DeFino-Nastasi vacated their convictions and sentences.

    Not everyone whose conviction was overturned will walk free. Some are also serving time for unrelated serious crimes, including murder and aggravated assault.

    But many without additional arrests could be released as a result of Wednesday’s ruling.

    The dismissals follow more than 130 convictions that were thrown out in December after prosecutors and defenders identified more than 900 cases built almost entirely on the officers’ word. Approximately 200 cases have been resolved so far.

    The officers at the center of the case remain on active duty, but have been temporarily reassigned from narcotics amid an ongoing internal affairs investigation, said police spokesperson Sgt. Eric Gripp.

    That investigation, which began in early 2024, remains incomplete because the district attorney’s office has not provided the department with the information necessary to complete it, he said.

    The district attorney’s office previously said it provided internal affairs with details of the officers’ false statements last March. But Gripp said the records and evidence offered did not appear to show wrongdoing.

    (Paula Sen, of the Defender Association’s Police Accountability Unit, said she and her colleagues have also provided internal affairs with a few dozen cases where the officers’ testimony did not match surveillance footage.)

    Since the first batch of cases was thrown out in December, Gripp said, the department has followed up with the district attorney’s office for more information about the alleged wrongdoing, including the nine cases identified in court records in which the officers were said to have given false statements.

    “To date, we have not been provided with those cases,” he said.

    Gripp said that some of the cases discharged Wednesday involved dangerous drug dealers carrying weapons, and that narcotics officers risk their lives to make arrests.

    “This work matters, and repeated dismissals without providing the department the information necessary to review and address the concerns does not advance officer accountability or public safety,” he said. “We continue to expect good faith cooperation from all partners in the criminal justice system. We remain ready to act immediately upon receipt of any substantiated information.”

    The district attorney’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

    Prosecutors have stopped short of accusing the officers of lying, but said “there’s enough of a pattern of inconsistencies across testimony that we can’t rely on them as critical witnesses in court.”

    Michael Mellon and Paula Sen work in the Police Accountability Unit for the Defender Association.

    Sen and Michael Mellon, of the defenders’ Police Accountability Unit, disagreed, and said the officers “straight up lied.”

    Sen and Mellon said they first spotted a pattern of testimony discrepancies in 2019 while reviewing surveillance footage that conflicted with statements Rosa had made in drug cases. Over time, they said, they continued scrutinizing his narcotics squad and identified similar issues with testimony from Holden and Roher.

    According to the defenders, the officers relied on the city’s surveillance camera network to watch suspected drug activity in real time but did not disclose that investigative method — withholding evidence that should have been turned over to the defense.

    In court, Mellon said, the officers denied using the cameras and frequently testified that they personally observed hand-to-hand drug transactions. Video later showed those exchanges either did not occur or would have been impossible for the officers to see because the suspects were out of view.

    A video camera used by Philadelphia police is positioned at the corner of D Street and Kensington Avenue.

    Sen said her office sent letters to all of the defendants whose cases were being reviewed to let them know they might be eligible for relief.

    Still, she said, the convictions often resulted in years of peoples’ lives spent incarcerated and on court supervision — time they cannot get back.

    “We are not talking about big drug busts. We are talking about the lowest of the low cases, hand-to-hand drug sales … within a quarter of a mile radius of Kensington,” she said. “That’s what makes this especially egregious.”

  • Judge gives Trump administration a deadline to restore President’s House exhibits

    Judge gives Trump administration a deadline to restore President’s House exhibits

    President Donald Trump’s administration now has a hard deadline to restore slavery exhibits to the President’s House.

    The Department of Interior and National Park Service must restore the President’s House to its condition before the exhibits were removed by 5 p.m. Friday, according to a new order from District Judge Cynthia M. Rufe. In a blistering 40-page opinion Monday, the judge had ordered the exhibits to be restored “immediately,” but without a specific time frame.

    Rufe wrote that the deadline follows the agencies’ “failure to comply” with the injunction’s instruction to take action “forthwith,” which is often defined in law to mean as soon as possible or within 24 hours.

    While the federal government appealed the injunction to the Third Circuit Court of Appeals, the judge noted, the Trump administration did not ask for a stay.

    “Absent a stay granted by this Court or the Third Circuit, this Court must enforce its own order,” Rufe wrote.

    The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania did not respond to a request for comment. The city declined to comment.

    The National Park Service last month removed exhibits telling the story of the nine enslaved people who lived in George Washington’s Philadelphia home. The city sued the federal government in turn, and following a tense hearing and the judge’s inspection of the exhibits and site, secured an injunction on Monday that required the federal agencies to restore the interpretive panels.

    National Park Service staff were at the President’s House site on Wednesday morning to hose down the walls, which are covered with protest signs in lieu of the exhibits, and place barricades around them.

    The National Park Service did not respond to questions about the activity.

    A spokesperson for the White House, Taylor Rogers, said in a statement Wednesday that the lawsuit brought by Philadelphia was “premature” because the removal of the exhibits from the President’s House and other national parks is not final.

    “The Department of the Interior is engaged in an ongoing review of our nation’s American history exhibits in accordance with the President’s executive order to eliminate corrosive ideology, restore sanity, and reinstate the truth,” Rogers said.

    Staff writer Fallon Roth contributed to this article.

  • Phillies coach’s infield drills take an unconventional approach to practice a basic skill: Watching the ball

    Phillies coach’s infield drills take an unconventional approach to practice a basic skill: Watching the ball

    CLEARWATER, Fla. — For the first few drills that infield coach Bobby Dickerson often runs each day in Phillies camp, no gloves are necessary.

    The early days of spring training are an opportunity for players to work on fundamentals and reactivate their muscle memory before the 162-game grind. Some of Dickerson’s tactics for his infielders might look unconventional, but there’s a method to the madness.

    In one drill, the infielder wears a softball mask, and Dickerson tosses tennis balls at him, which he then “catches” with his face. In another, the infielder uses a paddle to field tennis balls that Dickerson hits toward him with a fungo bat.

    José Alvarado says ‘last year is over’ after PED suspension. Could the Phillies reliever throw more four-seamers in 2026?

    Both drills are designed to help with ball security. The idea behind the mask drill is to practice getting a player’s face in the path of the ball. That way, when a glove enters the equation, he will be more likely to watch the ball all the way into it.

    “You hear it all the time, ‘Watch the ball in,’ ‘See the ball to catch it.’ ‘Don’t take your eye off the ball,’ all these things,” Dickerson said. “But yet, if you pay attention and you really watch the game like, fortunately, I have for 40 years, and watching every little detail, you’ll see even great players, they’re so good they lose sight of the ball, the last six inches to 10 inches.”

    If an infielder forgets to watch a ground ball all the way into his glove, he still could make the play. But once in a while, he also could make a mistake that a bit of concentration may have prevented. Dickerson wants to eliminate those mistakes.

    Phillies shortstop Trea Turner knocks a tennis ball away during a drill on Tuesday at spring training in Clearwater, Fla.

    “This is a drill to get them to really focus. You’d be surprised how many times when you first do it to a guy, they don’t realize that their face is that far away from the ball, that they’re not really looking it in, looking at the ball,” he said.

    The paddle drill is intended to help with glove action. Dickerson said some infielders have a tendency to retreat their glove at the last second as the ball enters it, which can allow the ball to stay alive.

    Using the paddle helps reinforce better habits. Using a tennis ball, which bounces more, helps players work on timing.

    “It reinforces good glove presentation,” Dickerson said. “The face of that glove should be looking at the ball the whole time, and the last move to catch it is toward the ball.”

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    For players who have fielded thousands of ground balls in their lifetime, drills that take them out of their comfort zone can help them get back to basics. Dickerson likes incorporating them early in camp as a way to wake players’ gloves up. He also often tells them to do other activities at home with their nondominant glove hand, like using a fork.

    When Dickerson, 60, started incorporating these drills earlier in his career, he had to earn trust from players for some of his seemingly unorthodox instruction methods.

    But now, the results speak for themselves. Dickerson credits some of Trea Turner’s defensive improvements at shortstop last year to the work he put in with these drills. Turner went from minus-3 outs above average in 2024 per Statcast to plus-17 in 2025.

    “He had a little retreat to his glove. And there would be times where his glove was behind his face,” Dickerson said. “And I think both those drills — both the tennis ball with the paddle glove and the face mask — I think both of those helped him with just some cues to get the ball out in front of his face, see it in. … And his glove hand has woke up a lot in the last year.”

    Dickerson recently introduced the drills to 21-year-old Aidan Miller. The shortstop prospect, who is also getting work at third base this spring, said he found the mask drill fun.

    “At first, it was hard,” Miller said. “I sucked at it, but I really get the point behind it. It’s all about just keeping your eyes behind the ball, getting your head behind it. So it’s really good in that way.”

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    Dickerson has been impressed with what he’s seen from Miller.

    “They’ve done a lot of great stuff in the minor leagues with him,” Dickerson said. “I can see he’s already ahead of a lot of guys I’ve had at some point that have come to big league camps in my past and were highly touted players, but he’s ahead of that right now, for me. They’ve done a great job. His glove hand works great. His glove presentation is really good. His glove action is really good, and all these things. …

    “If I didn’t do the drill, he’d probably play great. And by doing the drill, maybe we can get him to play a little greater, just a little bit.”

    Extra bases

    Zack Wheeler (thoracic outlet decompression surgery) threw out to 120 feet on flat ground on Wednesday. … Orion Kerkering (hamstring strain) threw 10 pitches from the mound and was “fine,” Rob Thomson said. … Aaron Nola, Jesús Luzardo, and Andrew Painter pitched in live batting practice on Wednesday. … Bryse Wilson will start the Phillies’ Grapefruit League opener against the Toronto Blue Jays on Saturday.

  • Township should deny data center project proposed for Pennhurst, planning commissioners say

    Township should deny data center project proposed for Pennhurst, planning commissioners say

    Calling a developer’s plan for a data center at the historic Pennhurst site “technically deficient” and not in compliance with the zoning ordinance, East Vincent’s planning commission voted Tuesday to recommend that the township’s board of supervisors deny the proposal.

    The decision, which passed the commission unanimously and saw enthusiasm from residents who had been vehemently pushing back against the project for months, doesn’t hit the brakes completely. The township’s board of supervisors will still have a hearing for the project in March.

    The developer declined to appear at the meeting Tuesday, instead sending a letter indicating they intended to revise the submitted plan and pressing the commission for a positive vote.

    Their absence rankled the commission.

    “I take exception to the fact that the applicant and the applicant’s lawyers have declined to present this evening, and they informed us by letter” that morning, said vice chairman Lawson Macartney. “This is especially germane, given the lamentably poor technical quality of detail presented in the plans.”

    The commission’s vote is a win for the residents in the township — and surrounding municipalities — who have decried the plan that would bring five two-story data center buildings, a sixth building, an electrical substation, and a solar field, totaling more than 1.3 million square feet, according to sketch plans.

    The data center would sit on the property of the former Pennhurst State School and Hospital — known as Pennhurst Asylum during the Halloween season. It’s situated near the Schuylkill and borders Spring City, and would be a close neighbor to the Southeastern Veterans’ Center.

    “Based on the materials presently before the township, there is no factual or legal basis to conclude that the proposed development would create impacts greater than those ordinarily associated with a permitted conditional use,” Matthew McHugh, the developer’s attorney, wrote in the letter.

    But the commission found the plans lacking in detail and explanation of what impact it’d have on water, trees, employment, and more, saying the materials were “significantly technically deficient and do not comply with our zoning ordinance in some major ways.”

    The letter indicated the developer would submit a revised plan that would add private power generation consisting of natural gas and battery storage installation, and relocate the proposed substation. The overall square footage and building heights wouldn’t change, the letter said.

    “I just think this is the biggest, most impactful development that’s been proposed in our community since I’ve been on the planning commission,” said the commission’s chairwoman, Rachael Griffith. “I’m just shocked at the minimal detail that has been provided and just doing the absolute bare minimum, especially when data centers are just such a hot topic these days…I’m just sort of dumbfounded as to why they thought we might be interested in recommending this in the first place.”

    Residents praised the commission’s decision.

    “This is the kind of stuff that keeps people up at night, especially those of us who are impacted,” resident Larry Shank told the board. “You really made my night. Thank you.”

    State Sen. Katie Muth, who represents the township and is a resident, said commissioners protected the community.

    “I think that you all made the right decision tonight on a multitude of fronts,” she told them.

    In a statement, Kevin A. Feeley, a spokesperson who represents the developer, rejected the commission’s assertions, saying that they had “exchanged information about the development on a regular basis throughout this period.”

    He added that the developer would submit revised plans to “address some of the review comments, particularly with respect to onsite power generation and water usage.”

    East Vincent’s proposed data center comes as Democratic Gov. Josh Shapiro has championed data center development, promoting a 10-year plan that includes cutting regulatory “red tape” to make it easier to approve them. The governor’s office also announced Amazon would spend $20 billion to develop data centers and other artificial-intelligence campuses across Pennsylvania.

    Despite pushes at the federal and state level, 42% of Pennsylvanians say they would oppose the centers being built in their area, according to a recent survey.

    With the state’s strong private property rights, it creates a bind for township officials, who are struggling with residents’ pushback and zoning allowances.

    “Pennhurst LLC owns the land, so they can do what they want with it, as long as it aligns with our ordinances and what they’re allowed to do,” Griffith told attendees Tuesday. “They’re trying to do something that is not really allowed. It’s our role to uphold our zoning ordinance so that they stick to that.”

    In December, the township’s board of supervisors declined to move forward with a draft ordinance it had been penning for months that would govern data center development in the township, allowing the application to come before the planning commission and continue on to the conditional use hearings.

    The township’s solicitor said the scheduled March 16 conditional use hearing for the project would move forward. If the developer submits an updated plan, the proposal could come back before the planning commission.