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  • You can still be arrested in Delaware for smoking weed in public. A new bill might change that.

    You can still be arrested in Delaware for smoking weed in public. A new bill might change that.

    While weed is legal in Delaware, with a baker’s dozen worth of dispensaries to buy it from, people can still face jail time for public marijuana use under current state law.

    State Rep. Eric Morrison (D., Newark) introduced a bill last month that would ease those punishments. House Bill 252 would reduce the penalties for public marijuana consumption from a misdemeanor to a civil violation.

    “This is not saying that public consumption of cannabis is OK. It is simply making the penalty commensurate with the offense,” Morrison said. “Almost all of the states that have legalized cannabis like we have revisited their laws and changed this violation to a civil offense instead of a misdemeanor, which carries higher fines, a criminal record, and possible jail time.”

    Customers line up for the first day of recreational marijuana sales at Thrive Dispensary in Wilmington on Aug. 1, 2025.

    Currently, police can either stop and fine someone up to $200 for smoking weed in public, or officers have the option to arrest the person, with possible imprisonment for up to five days.

    Under Morrison’s bill, police can still stop people for smoking or consuming marijuana in public, but instead of a misdemeanor, the offense is considered a civil violation — similar to a traffic violation — that carries a fine of up to $50 for a first offense, and up to $100 for subsequent offenses.

    People driving a vehicle while under the influence of marijuana would still be considered a DUI.

    Delaware’s decriminalization of public marijuana use would match the policies of neighboring states, like New Jersey and Maryland, where weed is fully legal, and some Pennsylvania cities where only medical marijuana is legal, such as Philadelphia and Pittsburgh. In these places, only fines are given out, and violations do not appear on criminal records.

    New Jersey went a step further and approved the East Coast’s first legal weed lounges, which means more adults can safely and legally consume cannabis outside of their homes.

    Zoë Patchell, president of the Delaware Cannabis Advocacy Network, said some lawmakers are now correcting a policy that should have been included in the original legalization laws.

    “This simply just brings Delaware’s law in line with the standards used by most other states,” Patchell said. “This measure does not legalize public consumption. It reduces the penalty from a misdemeanor, which can result in a criminal record.”

    Criminal charges have “severe collateral consequences,” Patchell added. For example, arrest and incarceration can negatively impact someone’s health and social outcomes, like losing access to housing, financing, and employment.

    “Especially today, for people in America living paycheck to paycheck, spending time in jail can lead to lost wages or having this charge on a criminal record can lead to being terminated from your job,” Morrison said. “For a whole lot of Americans, losing any wages puts their family in a hard predicament financially.”

    A customer browses through product offerings on Day One of recreational marijuana sales at Thrive Dispensary in Lewes on Aug. 1, 2025.

    Delaware legalized recreational marijuana in 2023, but it took years to open legal sales to adults in recreational dispensaries. The first 13 dispensaries opened to adults last year, but advocates like Patchell say the current law makes it difficult to consume cannabis legally.

    Delaware’s laws on consumption on private property are also restrictive, Patchell said. Adults can consume cannabis on private property, but only in locations that are at least 10 feet from a sidewalk, street, parking lots, businesses, or “any other areas to which the general public is invited,” according to state law.

    “This means that someone can be arrested for consuming cannabis on their own private property,” Patchell said. This proves even more difficult for those living in households that don’t have the property space to be away from the public, she said.

    Morrison said he wants to keep working with cannabis advocates to create a safe and robust cannabis industry, but that it would be premature to say if additional measures will be taken at this time, such as amending the 10-foot rule around private property and public space.

    “For this year, [decriminalization of public use] is what I’m focused on regarding cannabis,” Morrison said.

  • Minneapolis ICE murder is Trump’s Waterloo in America’s war for the truth

    Minneapolis ICE murder is Trump’s Waterloo in America’s war for the truth

    “You might murder a freedom fighter … but you can’t murder the freedom fight.”

    — Fred Hampton shortly before his own assassination by the U.S. government in 1969

    The Honda Pilot family SUV with the glove compartment crammed with a 6-year-old’s adorable stuffed toys and its deployed airbag and headrest drenched in fresh red blood hadn’t even been towed from the Minneapolis murder scene on Wednesday before the full force of the U.S. government attacked Renee Nicole Good a second time.

    After the three deadly bullets came a fusillade of outrageous and morally reprehensible lies.

    Tricia McLaughlin, the already notoriously fact-averse spokesperson for the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, didn’t even know the identity of the 37-year-old Colorado native — let alone any details of her intricate life or her beautiful, award-winning poetry — when the DHS flack smeared Good as “one of the violent rioters” who’d “weaponized” her SUV against the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agent who shot and killed her, and called it “an act of domestic terrorism.”

    Just moments later, DHS Secretary Kristi Noem — the absurdity of her words only ratcheted up by her ridiculously oversized cowboy hat at a Texas border press hit — joined the verbal pile on and amplified the “domestic terrorism” angle, even though the investigation of what had actually happened on snowy Portland Avenue had barely begun. This was all just a warm-up for America’s prevaricator-in-chief.

    President Donald Trump took to his so-called Truth Social to offer his own, further-embellished version — insisting to the nation that the still-at-that-moment unidentified woman had “violently, willfully, and viciously ran over” ICE officers, blaming “the Radical Left,” and even claiming that the ICE gunman was recovering in the hospital.

    A deployed airbag and blood stains are seen in a crashed vehicle on at the scene of a shooting in Minneapolis on Wednesday.

    In reality, the violent, reckless actions by masked agents of an American secret police were nothing new, and neither was the government’s massive assault on the truth of what happened in Minneapolis, ripped from the pages of a fascist playbook.

    But this time, millions of Americans could see what really happened to Good, thanks to multiple videos taken on that south Minneapolis street by everyday citizens with a righteous distrust of their own government. It’s the deep skepticism that began with three gunshots and a blurry home movie in Dallas’ Dealey Plaza on Nov. 22, 1963. Now, the digital clarity of three gunshots at 9:30 a.m. on Jan. 7, 2026, may have marked a kind of Waterloo, a righteous turning point in our existential war over the truth.

    Americans could believe their elected president, or the completely different reality they could see with their own eyes.

    The citizen videos showed Good — it’s unclear whether she was a volunteer observer of the amped-up ICE raids in Minneapolis, or just filming the agents on a whim — parked at an angle across Portland Avenue when an ICE SUV approached. Two agents hopped out and approached Good’s Honda while a third — the soon-to-be shooter — moved in from the opposite side. One agent screamed, “Get out of the f— car,” but Good, with her window now open and her partner in the passenger seat, slowly backed up and then started a sharp right turn, seeking to leave the scene.

    But the third federal officer, seen adjacent to the left front fender, had already drawn his gun and fired a shot through the windshield as Good turned her Honda away from him. The videos then show the agent — now a few feet from the vehicle and clearly not in danger — firing two more times into the open window, as the vehicle and the mortally wounded Good traveled halfway down the block and into a parked car.

    The shooter — the agent the president claimed had been run over and hospitalized — was filmed walking around the murder scene, apparently unharmed. Meanwhile, the government’s crusade to dehumanize Good was already well underway, as agents were shown blocking a physician who pleaded to aid the dying woman before they finally dragged her away by her limbs.

    The senseless killing of Good was exactly the tragedy that state and city officials had feared when DHS declared at the start of the new year that it was flooding Minnesota — whose large community of Somali American refugees had been viciously slurred by Trump as “garbage” — with some 2,000 armed, masked immigration agents.

    The national spotlight ensured wall-to-wall cable news coverage when agents killed a white U.S. citizen and a mother of three on the second day of the surge in and around Minneapolis, but all of this has happened before. In the last four months, according to the New York Times, federal agents have fired their weapons in nine separate incidents — each time into a vehicle. And often the initial story from DHS collapses under the weight of truth.

    In October, U.S. Customs and Border Protection agents involved in Chicago’s “Operation Midway Blitz” claimed they were boxed in by as many as 10 cars — again, not supported by video — and fired at least five shots at Mirimar Martinez, who was not seriously injured, but was then indicted, along with her passenger, on assault and attempted murder charges. Martinez was not charged with a gun crime — despite an initial DHS claim that she’d brandished a semiautomatic weapon — and soon the entire case crumbled, and now all charges have been dismissed.

    Federal agents are only allowed to fire into a moving car when they believe the driver is trying to kill or maim them or other bystanders. As videos of Good’s killing circulated Wednesday afternoon, an unnamed DHS official told NBC News that the agents’ actions — from approaching the vehicle from the front to firing the fatal shots — went against their training. But how can the public expect sound decision-making from a surge of inexperienced new hires that ICE recruits on social media, or in slick ads during NFL games, with plans to target gun shows and military enthusiasts?

    People gather for a vigil on Wednesday evening after a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer shot and killed a woman hours earlier in Minneapolis.

    What’s more, why would the Trump regime tell the truth about killing Good when its entire Minnesota operation — along with everything else about its immoral mass deportation drive — is built atop a foundation of despicable lies, from the White House racist slander of Somali refugees seeking a better life in Minnesota to the gross exaggerations (spiked by a dishonest viral video) about a childcare fraud scandal?

    “GOOD MORNING MINNEAPOLIS,” DHS tweeted from its official account Monday as it began an unwarranted, unwelcome operation that is making no one safer, especially not the children of Minnesota. A local coalition of childcare operators called Kids Count on Us reported Wednesday that ICE agents have been swarming their facilities as operators report that little kids are frightened, adding, “We are terrified.” After Good’s death, protesting students at nearby Roosevelt High School were pepper-sprayed by federal agents. And now a 6-year-old child, whose military veteran father had already died in 2023, is an orphan.

    Exactly who are the violent rioters committing acts of domestic terrorism here?

    In New Orleans and across U.S., anger over ICE raids sparks a 2nd American Revolution | Will Bunch

    Minneapolis is a great American city that has been bombarded with needless tragedies throughout the 2020s, beginning on May 25, 2020, when George Floyd was murdered under the knee of police officer Derek Chauvin, just 0.7 miles from where Good was killed. That homicide also began with official lies that were absurdly false, until a brave citizen’s video showed America what really happened.

    Wednesday’s ICE murder carried the grim echoes of past government killing across the upper Midwest — an icy wind that blows from the massacre at Wounded Knee through the 1969 assassination of Black Panther Fred Hampton and over Floyd’s senseless demise. Yet, there is also reason to feel that, this time, a change is in the air.

    For one thing, true leaders like Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey — who stunned a national TV audience when he bluntly told ICE, “Get the f— out of Minneapolis” — and Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz made it clear they are fed up with the performative violence and the blatant lies. “Maybe we’re at their McCarthy moment,” Walz told a news conference. “Do you have no decency? Do you have no decency? We have someone dead in their car for no reason whatsoever. Enough. Enough is enough.”

    But there was something even more critical on this frigid prairie morning: brave everyday citizens willing to put their lives on the line for neighbors they don’t even know, and to risk everything in pursuit of the truth. America knows what really happened to Good because courageous people ran toward the scene with their phones aloft to bear witness, not knowing if ICE would kill again.

    It’s the revolutionary spirit we’ve been seeing all across America for months — regular folks from the community blowing whistles, filming ICE raids, and telling the world that our citizens will defend their communities even when all the big institutions and their overpaid leaders will not. Authoritarian governments only thrive in their own manufactured reality, gaslighting the masses that their hardworking, brown-skinned neighbor is a rapist, or that an uninjured federal agent is instead in the emergency room.

    Mark down Jan. 7, 2026, as the day America started turning off the gas, and the masks came off. No wonder it came out Thursday morning that the FBI is not cooperating with Minnesota state authorities on the investigation, in a pathetic, too-late effort at covering this mess up.

    I was one of many on Wednesday who couldn’t stop thinking about another unprovoked government killing: the Kent State Massacre and the murder of four college students on May 4, 1970. That moment caused Neil Young to write these words that still feel so relevant: “What if you knew her and found her dead on the ground?/ How can you run when you know?”

    Good Americans who still believe in truth and justice ran into the danger on Portland Avenue, and we are a better place for that. Some day, and probably soon, there will be a statue on that spot in honor of Renee Nicole Good, an American hero whose bigger freedom fight could not be murdered by tyrants.

  • Health officials urge vaccination as flu cases surge in Pennsylvania

    Health officials urge vaccination as flu cases surge in Pennsylvania

    More Philadelphians are visiting emergency departments with the flu than a year ago, as cases are surging across Pennsylvania.

    Flu cases in late December hit higher counts locally and statewide than at this time last year, according to city and state data. It’s too early to say whether flu has peaked for the season, or whether cases will continue to rise, health officials say.

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    Philadelphia-area physicians say they’re dealing with an increased flu caseload, including patients suffering from severe complications.

    COVID-19 and respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) cases are also rising, but flu is the biggest concern right now, said Brett Gilbert, Main Line Health’s infectious disease chief.

    “We’ve been fighting COVID for the last five years, while flu took a back seat,” he said. “But flu is in the driver’s seat this year.”

    One reason for the high number of flu cases this early in the flu season, which runs from winter to early spring and typically peaks in December to February, is a new flu variant that emerged this summer.

    World health experts meet twice a year to determine which flu variants are circulating and recommend seasonal flu shots to target them.

    The variant causing the most cases right now, subclade K, was detected after flu shots for the Northern Hemisphere had already been selected this year, Gilbert said. “There is some degree of vaccine-disease mismatch,” he said.

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    But that doesn’t mean that the current flu vaccine is not effective, especially in preventing hospitalizations and deaths.

    “It may not be so great at preventing the illness itself, but [with a vaccine], it may be a mild illness, easily treatable with antivirals or supportive care,” Gilbert said.

    Flu in children

    Just over half of Pennsylvania children were vaccinated for the flu this season, according to federal surveys, slightly up from last year’s rates.

    Childhood flu vaccination rates in Philadelphia were even higher than the statewide rate, with about 56% of children vaccinated this season.

    Some of the most serious cases of flu that pediatrician Daniel Taylor sees are among unvaccinated children.

    At St. Christopher’s Hospital for Children, where Taylor sees patients, the outpatient sick clinic is filled with children with severe cases of flu and RSV.

    Some are suffering from dehydration and require care in the ER at the North Philadelphia hospital.

    Taylor stresses the risk of serious complications from the flu in conversations with parents about vaccination. (Taylor also regularly writes about his experiences as a physician for The Inquirer.)

    The flu can trigger severe health crises that can cause brain damage or temporary paralysis from inflammation of the spinal cord. Taylor has seen two children this flu season with benign acute childhood myositis, a rare complication of an upper respiratory infection that causes swelling and muscle damage in the legs, and in even rarer cases can lead to kidney failure.

    “They’re not able to walk, and in so much pain from the swelling of the legs,” he said.

    Nine children have died nationwide from the flu this season. The season before, flu deaths among children were the highest since 2004, when the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention began tracking them, the American Academy of Pediatrics noted. Among Americans of all ages, the CDC has estimated 5,000 total flu deaths so far this season.

    Taylor said that President Donald Trump’s chaotic upheaval of longstanding vaccine policy — with the CDC changing recommendations around flu vaccines and slashing six vaccines from the routine childhood immunization list — makes it harder for physicians to help patients.

    He said he had recently met with a mother who told him she’d previously vaccinated her children, but now was avoiding vaccines because she was “scared of giving her kid vaccines with everything going on in the government.”

    “They hear something different from the government and the CDC, and they question the relationship” with their doctor, Taylor said.

    He said parents can find trustworthy information about vaccination at websites run by the American Academy of Pediatrics and the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia.

    ‘It’s never too late to get a flu vaccine’

    Anyone who hasn’t been vaccinated for the flu still has time to get immunized. Flu season runs through May, and cases can occur year-round.

    About 40% of Pennsylvanian adults and about 42% of New Jersey adults have been vaccinated for the flu so far this season, lower than in previous years and slightly below the national rate for the first time.

    About 47% of Philadelphians have been vaccinated so far this season, above the national rate.

    Patients who are feeling sick can get tested for the flu at a hospital or a doctor’s office, and home tests are also available. Antiviral treatments can help ease symptoms. Wearing a mask can also protect others from contracting the flu.

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    In Philadelphia, residents can get free flu and COVID vaccines at five health centers, and the health department regularly conducts vaccine outreach in the city, said Gayle Mendoza, a spokesperson for the Philadelphia Department of Public Health.

    “People might say ‘We’re past the holidays, what’s the point in getting vaccinated?’” she said. “Sure, winter break is behind us, but the influenza virus is still forging ahead.”

  • A 72-year-old woman imprisoned for over half a century was released after her life sentence was commuted

    A 72-year-old woman imprisoned for over half a century was released after her life sentence was commuted

    For the first time in more than half a century, Marie Scott is free.

    Scott, 72, who served more than 52 years in prison for felony murder, was released from custody on Wednesday after Gov. Josh Shapiro commuted her life sentence in June. Despite opposition from the victim’s family, community advocates had pushed for her freedom for years, saying she had served enough time, was a model inmate, and no longer posed a threat to society.

    Scott, known as “Mechie,” has been incarcerated since 1973, after she and her then-16-year-old boyfriend, Leroy Saxton, robbed a Germantown gas station. She was 19 and addicted to heroin when she helped Saxton restrain the cashier, Michael Kerrigan, and then rummage through the store’s cash register and safe. Her attorneys say she was acting as a lookout when — to her surprise, she says — Saxton shot Kerrigan, 35, in the back of the head.

    Philadelphia firefighter Michael Kerrigan, left, was killed in 1973. His family, shown in a 1973 photograph, was never the same. In the photo, from right to left, is Kerrigan’s son Kevin, wife Florence, and daughter Erin holding 8-month-old Angela.

    Saxton was later convicted of first-degree murder and sentenced to life in prison. Scott was convicted of felony murder and handed the same fate.

    But Saxton was released on time served in 2020 after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned mandatory life sentences for juveniles.

    Scott had remained behind bars ever since.

    Until Wednesday, when hours before dawn, she walked out of her cell in State Correctional Institutional Muncy for the final time, stepped into the back of a van, and was driven three hours toward her new life in Philadelphia.

    There, for the first time in her life, she hugged her daughter, Hope Segers, outside the prison walls.

    “I just covered my face and lost it,” Scott said of seeing her Wednesday. “That was the first time I have seen my daughter and grandson in the real world. … To feel them, to smell them in the free air.”

    Marie Scott had her life sentence commuted after 52 years in prison.

    Segers was born in SCI Muncy 45 years ago. During one of the three times Scott escaped from prison between 1975 and 1980, she reunited with a man who worked in the prison kitchen and with whom she had fallen in love, and she got pregnant.

    Segers has known her mother only through prison visits often years apart, and short calls via phone and Zoom. Now, she said, she is eager to begin building a true relationship with her.

    “It’s still not real,” she said of sitting next to her mother. “I’m still in shock.”

    Scott, who will be on parole for the rest of her life, will move into her daughter’s home in Northeast Philadelphia after living in a halfway house for a year, as is required by the prisons.

    Scott’s health has deteriorated in recent years. She uses a wheelchair, suffered from Stage 2 breast cancer, and had a double mastectomy last year. She was not ill enough to qualify for compassionate release, her attorneys said.

    But she has since learned she is cancer free, she said.

    Marie Scott, 72, survived Stage 2 breast cancer while in prison.

    Scott had been serving a mandatory life sentence under Pennsylvania’s felony murder law, which allows people to be convicted of second-degree murder if a death occurs during the commission of a felony such as robbery — even if they did not kill the victim or intend for anyone to die. Pennsylvania is one of only two states where a felony murder conviction automatically carries a life sentence, a punishment Shapiro has called unjust and unconstitutional. (Pennsylvania’s Supreme Court is currently weighing the issue.)

    Other than the decades-old escapes, her attorneys said, she has been a model inmate. She is deeply remorseful for her actions, and has written books about healing, directed plays, and led drug and alcohol treatment courses for inmates, they said. She became a mentor and mother figure to dozens of women at Muncy.

    Rupalee Rashatwar (from left, Hope Segers, Bret Grote, and Sam Lew worked to free Marie Scott through their work at the Abolitionist Law Center.

    For years, Scott and her attorneys at the Abolitionist Law Center applied for a commutation from the Pennsylvania Board of Pardons, asking that her life sentence be reduced. Her applications were repeatedly denied without explanation, lawyer Bret Grote said.

    She applied last year with renewed hope after the leadership at SCI Muncy said they would support her petition.

    Still, Grote said, Laurel Harry, secretary of the state Department of Corrections, told officials she would not support Scott’s petition because of the prison escapes decades ago. Harry’s support was typically a requirement of the board’s approval for release, he said.

    Grote, his colleagues, and a collection of volunteers drafted a social media, phone, and letter writing campaign to persuade Shapiro and prison officials to support her commutation. Members of Philadelphia City Council, alongside state senators and representatives, called for her release, as did Philadelphia rapper Meek Mill.

    It worked. In May, the Board of Pardons voted to recommend a commutation of her sentence, and the following month, Shapiro formally approved her release. The board then required that Scott spend six additional months in prison for the prison escapes.

    Her release comes amid opposition from the victim’s family.

    Michael Kerrigan holding his granddaughter, Angela Kerrigan Hightower. His wife later adopted Angela to be one of her seven children.

    Initially, two of Kerrigan’s daughters said they supported Scott’s release and could forgive her, but later changed their minds and asked the board of pardons and parole not to release her. They said they do not believe she has taken enough responsibility for the crime.

    Angela Kerrigan Hightower, a grandchild of Kerrigan’s who was later adopted by his wife and would have been his seventh child, said Wednesday that “the system failed the victims in this case.” She said she does not believe Scott has shown sufficient remorse, and that she and Saxton should have had to serve a life sentence for the suffering they brought her family.

    “I want to know,” she said, “where is the justice for the victims in this case.”

    Scott has said she deeply regrets what happened. She said Wednesday that she hopes to use her time outside of prison to tell the story of the cycle of drug and sexual abuse and codependency that she has said contributed to her actions.

    She also wants to push for the release of other women who she said have been reformed in prison and don’t deserve to die there.

    Marie Scott, 72, joined a Zoom call with the Coalition to Abolish Death by Incarceration alongside her daughter, Hope Segers, and grandson Dashawn Green.

    Scott’s grandson, Dashawn Green, 28, said he wants to get his grandmother’s health and diet back on track, introduce her to his girlfriend and miniature schnauzer, and maybe even plan a road trip.

    Scott said her first order of business is to find a church.

    Seated on the couches in the Abolitionist Law Center in North Philadelphia Wednesday night, she recalled gathering for her final Sunday service inside the prison last week and saying goodbye to the women in the facility who raised her.

    “You’re my family,” she said she told them. “I don’t make promises because they’re made to be broken, but if you don’t have your word, then you don’t have anything. And I give you my word, I am going to die trying to get all of my women out.”

    “It feels like I’m on another planet,” Marie Scott, 72, said of her newfound freedom.
  • Avelo stops deportation flights in Arizona; protesters in Delaware applaud

    Avelo stops deportation flights in Arizona; protesters in Delaware applaud

    Avelo, the only commercial airline serving Wilmington’s airport, has ended its contract flights to carry foreign nationals detained by U.S. immigration agents. The change takes place amid a larger consolidation of Avelo’s routes.

    The Delaware Stop Avelo Coalition of groups critical of President Donald Trump’s deportation policies hailed the airline’s move. They had been leading pickets at the Wilmington airport in New Castle, Del., since last spring, when Avelo joined several charter airlines transporting deportees for the Department of Homeland Security.

    For Avelo, the latest move was part of a cost-cutting reorganization “streamlining its network” to four of its regional bases: Wilmington; New Haven, Conn.; Charlotte/Concord, N.C.; and Lakeland, Fla. Among the regional bases it is closing is Mesa, Ariz., which handled deportation flights.

    “Avelo will close the base” in Arizona, where it had managed what the airline called “removal flights” for the government, “and will conclude participation in the DHS charter program” by Jan. 27, Avelo spokesperson Courtney Goff said in a statement. The airline said earlier that it had not moved deportees through Delaware.

    Avelo also said it has gotten rid of six Boeing jets. Airline industry information sites are reporting DHS has picked up at least some of those former Avelo airliners, as if moving deportation capacity in-house.

    Avelo plans a new base at the McKinney National Airport, near Dallas, later this year.

    Avelo CEO Andrew Levy last year said the DHS contract was part of the airline’s plans for growing and maintaining operations. Levy started the airline in 2020 and has rapidly increased its route network, but also has acted quickly to cut and shift unprofitable service.

    The coalition, a group including local Democratic Party activists in chapters of the Indivisible organization, Working Families Party affiliates, the Delaware Democratic Socialists of America, and Unitarian-Universalists, said in a statement that it welcomed Avelo’s decision to end deportation flights, “especially those without due process.”

    “We don’t know, to be honest, but we have indications from behind the scenes that we had some effect. Sometimes these things build and build,” said Gayle Gibson, an engineer who serves as coalition spokesperson.

    The coalition also coordinated some of the sign-waving picketing with actions at other airports Avelo serves around the country.

    Gibson noted that Wilmington City Council passed a resolution calling on Avelo to stop flying deportees rushed into custody without due process. State legislators drafted similar bills, which had not yet advanced to a vote, and “hundreds” of protesters had turned out to airport picket lines, local-government meetings, and University of Delaware rallies to pressure Avelo. Leaders also met with Gov. Matt Meyer and other top state officials.

    Safety concerns raised by Avelo employees also had an impact, Gibson said. “This shows Delaware stands behind businesses that operate according to laws and value people and due process.”

    The organizers in their statement took credit for making Avelo’s deportation flights “politically and reputationally radioactive,” leading to the company’s decision to stop.

    Avelo cited poor financial returns. The program did not pay Avelo enough “to overcome its operational complexity and costs,” according to Goff’s statement.

    State and local officials in Connecticut, New York, and other states had called on Avelo to stop the deportation-related flights.

    Meyer, who welcomed Avelo to the airport when he was New Castle County executive in the early 2020s, had said he personally boycotted Avelo after the protests began.

    Activists said they couldn’t measure the effect of any customer boycott.

    “We did not see an impact regarding customers choosing to fly,” said Goff, the airline spokesperson. Customer flights rose to 2.6 million last year, up 11% from 2024, as planes were fuller. She credited low fares and on-time reliability.

    The protests put Meyer and other Democratic officials in a quandary. They had encouraged Avelo to begin service from the airport, which formerly managed only charter, corporate, and general-aviation flights, as a way of boosting Delaware’s corporate employment sector as the state economy turns from heavy and chemical manufacturing toward biotech and other developing industries.

    Meyer did not act on protesters’ demands that the state cancel tax incentives and other Avelo financial benefits to pressure the airline to end the flights.

    The airport is operated by the Delaware River and Bay Authority, which also controls the Delaware Memorial Bridge and Cape May-Lewes ferry. The authority’s board represents the Democratic-led states of Delaware and New Jersey.

    Like the governor, the authority declined activist requests to pressure Avelo, saying the airline had the right to conduct its business the way it sees fit.

    “We’re aware of the community concerns regarding Avelo’s past operations at other airports,“ James Salmon, the authority’s spokesperson, said in a statement after Avelo announced an end of the flights. “We’ve consistently maintained a neutral position” and focused on keeping the airport accessible to customers for Avelo’s flights to Florida and other destinations. The airline’s flights from other airports were “outside the scope” of the agency’s authority.

    “This decision proves that public pressure really works,” the coalition said in its statement. It said it would keep pushing proposed laws to prevent airlines receiving state benefits from “quietly” resuming flights or other deportation contractors from winning government support.

  • Villanova suffers first Big East loss to Creighton, snaps five-game win streak

    Villanova suffers first Big East loss to Creighton, snaps five-game win streak

    Villanova succumbed to Creighton, 76-72, marking its first home and conference loss of the season on Wednesday night.

    Villanova (12-3, 3-1 Big East) had its five-game winning streak snapped and picked up its first defeat since Dec. 9. The Wildcats could not find defensive stops in the second half, which was coupled with poor three-point shooting. Creighton (10-6, 4-1) pulled away after shooting 18-for-27 (67%) from the field in the second.

    Acaden Lewis finished with a team-high 20 points for Villanova. He dished out five assists within the first few minutes of the game and ended with seven and only one turnover. The freshman guard also collected a game-high three steals. Lewis is averaging 13.4 points and 4.3 assists in conference play.

    In the paint, ’Nova’s Duke Brennan continued to be a force, picking up his sixth double-double of the season with 16 points and 12 rebounds (seven offensive).

    Villanova guard Acaden Lewis led the team with 20 points against Creighton on Wednesday.

    Villanova shot 44% from the field and 25% from beyond the arc, compared to Creighton’s 50% on field goals and 30.4% on three-pointers.

    Next, Villanova will visit Marquette (6-10, 1-4) on Saturday at 2:30 p.m. (TNT/truTV). The Wildcats lead the all-time series, 28-20.

    Decisive second half

    For just the second time this season, Villanova was outscored in the second half, 46-38. The only other time was in the 76-66 overtime win against Wisconsin on Dec. 19.

    Villanova had no answer defensively for a surging Creighton offense. The Bluejays spun off a 13-2 run, while Villanova went on a three-minute scoring drought.

    Kevin Willard coaching Villanova during the second half against Creighton on Wednesday.

    “I thought [the Bluejays] did a really good job of using their size to their advantage,” Villanova coach Kevin Willard said. “I thought [Josh] Dix and [Blake] Harper made some really big plays just using their size against us, and every time we tried to get a stop. You’ve got to give those two credit. They played really well.”

    Creighton made Villanova’s best shooter, redshirt sophomore Bryce Lindsay, a nonfactor. Lindsay, who averaged 45.8% from deep in the last three games, went 0-for-3 on three-pointers against Creighton. Villanova made only 2 of 12 three-pointers in the second half.

    With Villanova knocking on the top 25 door, is it NCAA Tournament or bust in Year 1 of the Kevin Willard era?

    “We had our opportunities at the rim,” Willard said. “I thought [Jasen] Green had two really good wall-ups towards the end, but we had our opportunities. It had nothing to do with [our] offense. It was totally just abysmal defense.”

    Beaten on the boards

    Villanova kept Creighton at bay in the first half, and at one point led by25-15. However, it all slipped away after halftime. Villanova gave up 13 offensive rebounds, which Creighton turned into 11 second-chance points.

    “Just defense,” Willard said when asked about what he took away from the loss. “I thought we took some bad shots in the first half, when we had a good run going. And I thought we were playing good defensively early. So I thought our offense in the first half was the issue. But defensively, you just can’t give up 13 offensive rebounds to a Greg McDermott team. You’ve got no chance.”

    Villanova forward Duke Brennan (center) reaches for the ball against Creighton guard Ty Davis (9).

    Brennan was quick to take accountability for Villanova’s defensive performance.

    “Being a senior, I need to adjust my ball-screen coverages on different teams as we play,” Brennan said. “I don’t think I did a great job at it tonight, but I do look at the film and help out our defense. I’m that line for us.”

    Creighton’s 76 points were the most a conference opponent has scored against the Wildcats this season.

    Watching rotations

    At the beginning of the season, Willard consistently rotated nine to 10 players each game. Injuries limited the rotations with Devin Askew and Zion Stanford missing time to start the season. Villanova had multiple games with eight or more scorers.

    Villanova forward Tafara Gapare leaves the program

    Now, it looks like Willard has found his rotations that work efficiently. The coach has leaned on his starting five of Lewis, Lindsay, Tyler Perkins, Matt Hodge, and Brennan for a bulk of the minutes, with most of them playing an average of 30 minutes or more.

    As of recently, only Askew and Malachi Palmer have had meaningful minutes off the bench. Freshman guard Chris Jeffrey has missed the last five games due to a knee injury that required surgery, sidelining him indefinitely.

  • Despite sluggish second half, Temple prevails over East Carolina to extend winning streak

    Despite sluggish second half, Temple prevails over East Carolina to extend winning streak

    Temple looked like it would easily secure its seventh straight victory by beating East Carolina, a team that sits at the bottom of the American Conference, on Wednesday at the Liacouras Center.

    The Owls (11-5, 3-0 American) carried a 15-point lead into halftime. Then ECU started to crawl back. The Pirates (5-10, 0-2) got within five points in second half, but it was too little too late.

    A 29-point surge from ECU guard Jordan Riley wasn’t enough as Temple shook off its horrid offensive slump and finished with a 75-67 victory, marking its longest winning streak since the 2014-15 season.

    “We told our guys at halftime, ‘Hey, they’re going to ramp it up. They’re going to go on a run. We’ve got to be ready,’” coach Adam Fisher said. “I know we got a little stagnant and didn’t score as much as we would have liked in parts of that second half. But winning is hard. … So again, I’m really proud of our guys and I thought it took everybody to prepare the right way and then to get this win here tonight.”

    Next, Temple will face a true test in the American when the Owls visit defending conference champion Memphis (7-7, 2-0) on Wednesday (8 p.m., ESPN+).

    First-half defense

    Temple’s mentality all season has been simply to play defense. The Owls had one of the worst defenses in the country last season, and they’ve shown signs of improvement this year, allowing 70.4 points per game, the fourth-lowest average in the American.

    On Wednesday, the Pirates had little room to breathe as Temple searched for momentum on offense.

    The result was 12 turnovers, with eight coming in the first half. ECU had multiple scoreless stretches, including a five-minute drought, which helped Temple push the lead to seven points.

    The biggest win was Temple’s success on the glass. After ECU center Giovanni Emejuru picked up his second foul, Temple managed to get through.

    Guards Gavin Griffiths, who finished with a season-high 24 points, and Masiah Gilyard were key contributors for the Owls, as they finished with six and five rebounds, respectively.

    Griffiths also was Temple’s best defender. He swatted away four shots and had two steals.

    Hot-and-cold offense

    Toward the end of the half, Griffiths ended his 12-minute scoreless stretch with a three-pointer. Owls guard Derrian Ford, who missed the last game with an injury, started finding his rhythm. He finished with 18 points, with 10 coming at the free-throw line.

    But the offensive slump returned after halftime.

    Temple guard Gavin Griffiths scored a season-high 24 points on Wednesday.

    The Pirates clamped down after the break, limiting any chance for the Owls to stay comfortable.

    Guard Aiden Tobiason, who is second on the team in scoring, was a nonfactor. His first and only field goal came late in the game, as he finished with four points.

    Temple finished the second half going 8-for-22 and had six turnovers, forcing the defense to save the game. Then came a big three-pointer from Griffiths to make it 65-56 with 3 minutes, 21 seconds left.

    “I just felt like I was open, so I was going to shoot it,” Griffiths said. “My teammates did a great job finding me. I think I only took one dribble for my three. So most of them are catch-and-shoot.”

    Containing Riley

    Temple’s game plan was to stop Riley. The former Temple guard entered his homecoming as the conference’s leading scorer with 20.8 points per game, powering an offense that averages 67.3.

    In the first half, Riley was stuffed. But in the second half, the seal was lifted, and Temple had no way to stop him.

    Temple guard Derrian Ford guards East Carolina guard Jordan Riley on Wednesday.

    “Jordan Riley is a fantastic player,” Fisher said. “I thought Jordan made some tough shots. He gets downhill. We know how good he can be, but in the second half they were really good, and we’ve got to be better. Our second-half defense wasn’t where we needed to be.”

    Riley’s 23 second-half points kept the Pirates in the game as they finished the half with 46 points. But ultimately Temple’s lead was too big to overcome.

  • A woman died in an early-morning fire in Ogontz

    A woman died in an early-morning fire in Ogontz

    Philadelphia firefighters pulled a 60-year-old woman away from a burning building where she was trapped early Thursday morning, but she later died at a hospital.

    The fire department responded to the blaze around 4:45 a.m. on the 6200 block of Ogontz Avenue in North Philadelphia. Firefighters arrived to find a heavy fire scorching throughout the two-story rowhouse.

    About 60 firefighters, medics, and support staff were at the scene, officials said. Upon searching the house, firefighters found an unresponsive woman, who did not survive. The Medical Examiner’s Office will soon determine the cause of death, with the Fire Marshal’s Office investigating the cause of the fire.

    There have been at least two deadly fires in the area over the last month, in addition to Thursday. Additionally, two people were rescued and survived a fire in South Philadelphia Wednesday, according to CBS.

    Earlier this week, Bucks County officials confirmed the death of a third person related to the Bristol Health & Rehab Center fire, which claimed the lives of two other people and injured 20 others. Days before the Bristol fire, a deadly fire in Upper Darby killed one person, critically injured another, and left a firefighter and a handful of others with less-severe injuries.

  • Sizing up the area’s top high school boys’ basketball teams in the 2025-26 season

    Sizing up the area’s top high school boys’ basketball teams in the 2025-26 season

    Since the PIAA basketball championships were canceled because of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, District 12 boys’ basketball teams, comprised of the Catholic and Public Leagues, have won 11 state titles and appeared in 20 of the 30 state finals. No other district across the state has come close to matching that.

    District 12 is the only area to ever four-peat in the state championships, doing it twice: once in 2022 (Class 6A Roman Catholic, 5A Imhotep Charter, 4A Neumann Goretti, and 3A Devon Prep), and again last year, when the Catholic League became the first league to win four state titles in one season (6A Father Judge, 5A Neumann Goretti, 4A Devon Prep, and 3A West Catholic).

    It shows the dominance the Philadelphia area has on high school basketball.

    This season should be no different, even though there are stark differences for several marquee programs. Roman Catholic and West Catholic have new coaches. Imhotep will be competing for the second straight year as a Class 6A school, while two-time defending state champion Devon Prep and two-time defending Inter-Ac League champ Penn Charter have seen most of their impact players graduate.

    Breaking down the area’s top high school girls’ basketball teams this season

    Some prominent players have changed schools. Former Imhotep guard RJ Smith, who’s committed to La Salle, is now at Roman Catholic. Academy of the New Church’s Marquis Newson is now at Neumann Goretti, and Germantown Friends’ all-time leading scorer Jordan Dill now calls Imhotep home.

    In the Catholic League, Judge will be challenged by Roman, Archbishop Wood, Neumann Goretti, and a sleeper, Bonner-Prendergast, while Imhotep appears to be the clear favorite to win another Public League title. Academy of the New Church has enough back to three-peat in the Friends Schools League, with a challenge coming from Westtown, while Coatesville, Central Bucks East, Penn Wood, Garnet Valley, and Plymouth Whitemarsh look strong in District 1 Class 6A, and Penncrest, Springfield (Delco), Holy Ghost Prep, and Upper Dublin battle for supremacy in District 1 Class 5A.

    Here are some of the area’s top boys’ basketball teams to watch during the 2025-26 season.

    Academy of the New Church

    The Lions went 15-9 overall and 6-2 in the Friends Schools League last year. ANC returns 6-foot-7 senior forwards Ryan Warren and Cam Smith, 6-4 senior guard Dior Carter, and 6-foot senior point guard Bryce Rollerson. With a senior-laden team, the Lions are looking for their first Pennsylvania Independent School Athletic Association (PAISAA) state championship since they repeated as PAISAA winners in 2009. The Lions were knocked out of last year’s PAISAA semifinals by eventual champion Phelps School.

    Archbishop Wood

    The Vikings had a rare down year last season, finishing 11-13 overall and 5-8 in the Catholic League. Under coach John Mosco, Wood has been a perennial Catholic League contender. It looks like the Vikings are back, buoyed by a core group of 6-3 senior guard Brady MacAdams, 6-4 junior guard Caleb Lundy, and 6-11 junior center Jaydn Jenkins, who is on the radar of major college programs. The addition of Dylan Powell, an athletic 6-2 sophomore guard, makes the Vikings even stronger.

    Brady MacAdams will look to be one of the leaders this season for Archbishop Wood.

    Bonner-Prendergast

    The Friars are small and fast, possibly the fastest team in the Catholic League, the deepest league in the state. They finished 18-11 overall and 7-6 in the PCL last season, including a buzzer-beating victory over league champion Father Judge. Bonner-Prendie is a guard-oriented team, centered on juniors Korey Francis — who recently received a scholarship offer to La Salle — Kam Jackson, and Jakeem Carroll. Size inside will be provided by 6-7 senior Aydin Scott. The Friars reached last year’s Class 5A state quarterfinals, where they were upset by Upper Moreland in overtime.

    Coatesville

    The Red Raiders feature 6-6 sophomore Colton Hiller, who is rated as the top sophomore in the state by 247 Sports. Hiller will be joined by 6-7 senior forwards Larry Brown and Jonas Chester and junior guards Jahmaad Williams and Chris Allegra. Coatesville went 24-7 last season and is looking to three-peat as Ches-Mont champion, beating its opponents by an average of 25 points in the league tournament last year. The Red Raiders lost in the District 1 6A semifinals to eventual champ Conestoga and reached the state quarterfinals, where they lost to eventual state finalist Roman Catholic. Coatesville is a favorite in District 1 and last won district and state titles (under the Class 4A system) in 2001, when current Coatesville coach John Allen was the star of the team.

    Father Judge

    The Crusaders experienced their best season in program history last year, going 24-7 overall and 10-3 in the Catholic League, winning the PIAA 6A state championship for the first time, and the first Catholic League title since 1998. Judge returns three prominent players from that team: Temple-bound Derrick Morton-Rivera, Merrimack-bound Rocco Westfield, and Iona-bound Max Moshinski. The Crusaders have size, though they are untested, in 6-6 sophomore Rezon Harris, a transfer from Imhotep; 7-foot junior Jamal Hamidu, a transfer from New York; and 6-7 junior Jeremiah Adedeji, who played sparingly last year for Judge.

    How two Father Judge graduates are leading the way for Merrimack men’s basketball

    Imhotep

    The Panthers could be the best team in the city. They finished 26-6 last year and reached the PIAA Class 6A state semifinals, where they lost to Judge, breaking a 35-game state playoff winning streak. The Panthers’ legendary coach Andre Noble has won 10 PIAA state and 12 Public League championships. The Panthers are the five-time defending Public League champions, only the second school to win five straight titles since the legendary Gene Banks and West Philly’s five-peat (1974-78). Imhotep is looking to break that mark this season as a Class 6A school. Everything will revolve around 6-7 junior forward Zaahir Muhammad-Gray, who missed last season with a knee injury. He will be joined by Drexel-bound 6-5 senior Latief Lorenzano-White, 6-4 junior guard Kevin Benson III, 6-foot sophomore point guard Ian Smith, and 6-1 senior guard Dill.

    Malvern Prep

    The Friars return a strong nucleus that includes junior forward Nick Harken, junior point guard Marvin Reed, and 6-10 sophomore center Logan Chwastyk for a team that went 17-10 overall and 5-5 in the Inter-Ac, which has been ruled by two-time defending league champion Penn Charter. The Quakers lost most key players to graduation, leaving Malvern, under coach Paul Romanczuk, an open invitation to challenge for the Inter-Ac crown this season.

    Neumann Goretti

    The defending PIAA Class 5A state champion enters this season with vengeance, after going 18-11 (7-6 PCL) and being ousted in the Catholic League quarterfinals last season by Father Judge. Coach Carl Arrigale, who holds the all-time mark of 12 Catholic League titles and nine state titles, returns a loaded team with four starters back from Neumann Goretti’s first PIAA Class 5A state title team: Stephon “Munchie” Ashley-Wright, DeShawn Yates, Kody Colson, and 6-6 East Stroudsburg-bound Alassan N’Diaye. Add in exciting, above-the-rim 6-5 junior guard Newson, and the Saints could arguably be the best team in the city.

    Penncrest

    Why are the Lions on this list? They had eventual state champion Neumann Goretti down, 63-58, with 31 seconds left in last season’s state quarterfinals before Yates saved the Saints. Penncrest finished 23-4 last season and has one of the best coaches in the area, Mike Doyle, plus everyone back from a team that is a favorite in District 1 Class 5A. Everything will go through Carnegie Mellon-bound 6-7 senior star Mikey Mita, complemented by seniors Sean Benson, Will Stanton, Ryan McKee, and Connor Cahill, who scored 19 points in last year’s state quarterfinals.

    The area’s best boys’ basketball players to watch in the 2025-26 season

    Roman Catholic

    The Cahillites reached the Catholic League and state finals last season, losing both times to Father Judge. Brad Wanamaker takes over for Chris McNesby after Roman went 25-6. Roman will be led by VCU-bound Sammy Jackson, the son of former Temple star Marc Jackson, along with Smith, the former Imhotep point guard, and seniors Semaj Robinson, Bryce Presley, and Al Jalil-Bey Moore. Roman won consecutive Catholic League titles in 2023 and 2024 and last won a state title in 2022. This senior-loaded team wants to leave its mark.

  • The Sixers finally have a full roster. Now it’s time to see how all the players fit.

    The Sixers finally have a full roster. Now it’s time to see how all the players fit.

    About 70 minutes before tipoff Wednesday, Kelly Oubre Jr. let out a scream when he popped into the 76ers’ locker room. A few minutes later, Tyrese Maxey announced that “12 [is] back” while settling into his seat next to Trendon Watford.

    They were, indeed. Oubre and Watford both returned from lengthy injury absences in the Sixers’ comfortable 131-110 victory over the Washington Wizards at Xfinity Mobile Arena. Their modest stat lines — Oubre totaled two points, three rebounds, and two steals in 20 minutes, 16 seconds; Watford three assists and did not attempt a shot in 4:45 — reflected that they had been sidelined for more than a month.

    But their outings were an appropriate first step for the 20-15 Sixers, who had their full roster available for a game for the first time since December 2023.

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    “It’s been a long journey to get back out there,” Oubre said postgame. “And it felt amazing, just to even be able to just touch the court and be able to do anything out there.”

    Coach Nick Nurse’s eyes widened when informed that, according to research by PhillyVoice, it had been more than two calendar years since the Sixers had not ruled out any players before a game because of injury or personal reasons. When the public address announcer shared that the Sixers had “no injuries” a few minutes before tipoff, cheers erupted from the crowd.

    There was another big ovation when Oubre initially checked in during the first quarter, wearing a knee brace under a leg sleeve that provides proper support but “just [messes] my swag all the way up,” he quipped.

    Kelly Oubre Jr. averaged 16.8 points on 49.7% shooting along with 5.1 rebounds in the season’s first 12 games.

    Oubre airballed his first shot, an elbow pull-up off a rebound that he said he rushed because he “was so happy and geeked” to be back on the court. After two more misfires — which the 11-year veteran attributed to fatigued legs — Oubre’s fourth-quarter jumper in the lane bounced in just before he exited for the final time.

    But on the defensive end, the Sixers consistently felt Oubre’s full-court pressure. That was where he was most eager to test that knee, he said.

    “He just started going out there and picking his guy up,” Nurse said. “And everybody behind him saw how hard he was working, and I think they picked it up, too.

    “I think he was a big spark tonight, even though it doesn’t look like his offense is anywhere near his capabilities yet.”

    As Tyrese Maxey ascends, his shotmaking in ‘clutch’ scenarios is still a work in progress

    While rehabbing the knee sprain he suffered on Nov. 14, Oubre said he felt “no pain” but added that he needed to regain his stability and strength. When he finished “like my 1,000th sprint,” however, Oubre said he was “so done.”

    “I just wanted to get out there and play basketball,” Oubre said, “and test my wind out there on the court.”

    Next, Oubre will be tasked with recapturing his career-best play, when he averaged 16.8 points on 49.7% shooting along with 5.1 rebounds in the season’s first 12 games. He was more in control with the ball in his hands on offense and was another defender who could guard bigger wings and switch on to multiple positions.

    Oubre also has been a consistent starter when healthy throughout his two-plus Sixers seasons. Dominick Barlow, who had become a terrific fit as a rebounder and cutter in Oubre’s absence, maintained that first-team role Wednesday.

    Nurse said before the game that he would prefer to eventually become “a little more fluid” with lineup combinations, depending on opponent matchups. Personnel tweaks also could affect players further down the rotation, such as Jabari Walker and Jared McCain.

    Watford, who averaged 8.9 points, 4.7 rebounds, and 3.6 assists in 14 games before suffering an adductor strain in his thigh, put himself in the category of needing to earn one of those spots again.

    He believes his three assists in Wednesday’s short stint are evidence of his playmaking as a 6-foot-8 “point” forward. He said he needs to get more comfortable playing off former MVP center Joel Embiid, who is looking far more like himself than earlier in the season.

    Yet after Watford also missed training camp and the preseason with a hamstring injury, Nurse said he needs to evaluate the forward for “a long stretch of games.”

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    “We certainly like his size, his skill, his kind of versatility,” Nurse said. “But I just haven’t seen enough of it yet to really understand where he’s going to help us and fit into this thing.”

    That process will continue when the Sixers hit the road for a Friday matchup against the Orlando Magic before two straight games against the Raptors in Toronto. Nurse knows Oubre and Watford regaining their conditioning, rhythm, and “peak performance” will take time. And the coach does not want to disrupt the cohesion that has been building as Embiid and Paul George have become more available, mobile, and productive alongside the dynamic backcourt of Maxey and VJ Edgecombe.

    But Wednesday was the first step with the Sixers’ full roster.

    Finally.

    “I feel fine,” Oubre said. “I feel amazing, actually. So I’m just happy to get one under my belt and just continue to grow from there.”