President Donald Trump professed his admiration of miners Tuesday night at his Poconos rally, contending the brave workers are so enamored of their profession that Trump wouldn’t be able to convince them to swap jobs with anyone — including himself.
“I love miners. … They wouldn’t trade jobs with me if I gave them a beautiful, magnificent penthouse in the middle of Manhattan, where I used to live — if I gave them the most beautiful penthouse — they wouldn’t take it,” Trump told the crowd at the Mount Airy Casino Resort in Mount Pocono.
“They’d rather go 10,000 feet underground and dig. That’s what they want.”
Can that be true?
Trump has long extolled the virtues of “beautiful, clean coal,” as he calls it, during nearly a decade of campaigning in the Keystone State.
President Donald Trump makes his first stop on an “economic tour,” in Mt. Pocono Pa., Tuesday, December 9, 2025 .
But would miners really prefer to toil in the damp darkness, somewhere between the buried dead and the devil, rather than run the free world in a clean blue suit, with access to a lavish high-rise in the gorgeous sunshine they forsake eight hours a day?
“Yes, of course,” said Edmund Neidlinger, 75, a fourth-generation coal miner who dug black Pennsylvania anthracite in Schuylkill County and its environs for 40 years. He now works as mine foreman at the Lackawanna Coal Mine Tour, a Scranton tourist attraction.
“If I was offered any other job when I was mining, I would have turned it down,” he said. “And I wouldn’t have traded the life I led for a penthouse. No way.”
There is, Neidlinger believes, a passion just a few special people hold toward working with a band of headlamped brothers, risking entrapment, methane explosions, black lung from dust, and cave-echoing machine noise down in an inky coal seam to perform the ninth-most-dangerous job in the world (logging is the riskiest), as the Occupational Safety and Health Administration tells it.
“You fall in love with this job,” Neidlinger said. “Very few people can do it. Most miners feel like it’s in their blood.”
While it’s not in his veins, Trump has made coal mining a big part of his energy policy. The industry is declining, experts say, but he has signed executive orders to expand it, and has opened up new land for mining while directing agencies to scotch regulations that “discriminate against coal production or coal-fired electricity generation,” as one presidential order reads.
Not everyone agrees that tempting miners to abandon their coal mines would be all that difficult.
“I’m sure the average miner would turn down a jet plane, private island, and gold-plated toilet, too!” said a sarcastic Mark Ferguson, cofounder of Woodshed: An Appalachian Joint, an online magazine dedicated to the culture of the region responsible for an immensity of U.S. coal mined over the centuries.
Cautioning people not to romanticize the lore and lure of mining, Ferguson pointed out that “folks here literally had to go war with mining companies to be paid in real U.S. currency, not scrip that could only be used at the company store.
“They know the value of a dollar, and sure as hell wouldn’t turn a penthouse down.”
The thing about mining you have to understand is, for most people, it starts out as a job you have to do, said Bob Black, 68, who dug coal for half a century in Allegheny County.
As a young man, Black wanted to be a teacher, but after his father died, Black set the dream aside and descended into the earth to work at the higher-paying job to support the family.
“You go into the mine, blink your eyes, and you’ve been doing it for 30 years,” Black said. “By then, you can’t imagine doing anything else.”
There were “days you hate, and days you love,” said Black, who ultimately became a mine manager. “Every ex-miner would tell you they miss fighting Mother Nature — like when the roof falls in, or when you’re dealing with water coming in,” he said. “You can’t run to Ace Hardware for help. You find solutions.”
What you remember most, though, is the company of soot-faced guys, he said.
“It’s like a city down there, with 250 men working, spread out over 15 miles,” Black said.
“The camaraderie. That’s what I miss most.”
So does Black think Trump was right? Would he have refused to trade 50 years of fellowship and labor in perpetual midnight for anything in the world?
“Oh, no,” Black said. “I’d have taken the penthouse. For sure.”
Staff writer Julia Terruso contributed to this article.
Philadelphia lawmakers voted Thursday to ban mobile outreach groups that provide medical care and support services to people in addiction across a swath of Kensington, the epicenter of the city’s drug crisis.
The vote came just days after the city began enforcing controversial new regulations in a different part of the neighborhood, where the same providers may operate only if they have a permit to do so and park in areas designated by the city.
Taken together, the actions spearheaded by City Council members who represent Kensington and Mayor Cherelle L. Parker’s administration amount to a major shift in how transient people who use drugs obtain medical care and basic needs like food, water, and clothing.
Many have long relied on mobile outreach services that met them on the street. Those same providers can now park only in designated areas or serve people for limited amounts of time.
Council members who support the legislation say residents in the neighborhood do not want people in addiction lining up for medical care or support services near their homes.
Councilmember Mike Driscoll authored the bill banning mobile service providers entirely from his 6th District, which includes parts of the neighborhood that are northeast of the infamous open-air drug market at the intersection of Kensington and Allegheny Avenues.
Driscoll said his bill, which passed Council 14-3 on Thursday,is not aimed at punishing providers. He said he is open to finding a location in his district where they can operate with the city’s permission.
“I just don’t want the service providers picking where they want to go at the expense of the kids and the neighbors,” he said.
Councilmember Michael Driscoll in chambers as City Council meets Thursday, Dec. 11, 2025, on the last day of the 2025 session.
But advocates for people who use drugs slammed the bill, and said reducing access to care will not help people in addiction.
“Restrictions like these will not end the opioid crisis. They will not make anyone in Kensington or District 6 safer,” said Katie Glick, a nurse who treats people in addiction and lives in the neighborhood. “These restrictions will disable and kill people.”
In Kensington, inconsistent rules for providers
If Parker — who has never issued a veto — signs Driscoll’s bill, it would result in a patchwork of rules for mobile service providers in Kensington, which is represented by three different Council members.
The western side of Kensington is in the 7th District, where Councilmember Quetcy Lozada’s legislation that required the permitting system applies. Organizations that do everything from handing out water to providing medical care now face a $1,000 fine for operating without a permit.
In the southern parts of Kensington that fall in the 1st District, represented by Councilmember Mark Squilla, no legislation applies to mobile providers.
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The inconsistency is the result of councilmanic prerogative, the unwritten rule that gives Council members who represent geographic areas a large amount of sway over what happens in their districts. Lawmakers largely approve legislation offered by a district Council member when it affects only that member’s district.
Some of Council’s progressive members who represent the city at-large have bucked that practice several times on matters related to Kensington, where Parker and her allies in Council have placed an intense focus on improving quality of life.
In this 2023 file photo, the mobile home belonging to the Behavioral Wellness Center at Girard parked along Kensington Avenue. It is one of the city’s so-called mobile service providers that have faced increasing regulation from City Council.
The progressives — who favor an approach to the crisis called harm reduction that aims to keep people alive until they are ready to enter treatment — argue that placing restrictions on mobile service providers will make it harder for them to reach vulnerable people in addiction and ultimately reduce the number of providers on the street.
“When human beings are trying to provide help,” said Councilmember Nicolas O’Rourke, “the attitude should never be ‘how can we limit them.’”
O’Rourke and Councilmember Kendra Brooks, both of the Working Families Party, and Democrat Rue Landau voted against Driscoll’s measure.
But Lozada said implementing new regulations was not about restricting care.
“We’re hoping that services continue,” she said. “People have just moved to other spaces to find a way to be able to continue to provide the services that people need.”
And Parker administration officials said the goal is not to reduce the number of providers, but to better coordinate them and ensure safety, especially for people receiving medical services.
Councilmember Quetcy Lozada in chambers as City Council meets Thursday, Dec. 11, 2025, on the last day of the 2025 session.
Kensington has been a key issue for the Parker administration and Council members who have pushed for more law enforcement in the neighborhood, where sprawling homelessness, open drug use, and violent crime have been commonplace for years. There have been some signs of progress, including a reduction in the number of people living on the street.
The city has tried new tactics, including opening its own recovery house and expanding police foot patrols. The local government has also at times operated its own mobile medical services and contracts with organizations that do so.
So far, the city has issued nine permits to providers who perform mobile medical services and 40 to organizations considered “nonmedical,” like those that distribute food. Some of those organizations also operate in other neighborhoods.
“We don’t have a problem if there’s five or 500 providers,” said Crystal Yates-Gale, deputy managing director for health and human services. “As long as they’re qualified to provide the care, and as long as we can help coordinate the care.”
Despite the changes, city says ‘people are still coming’
Under the new rules, nonmedical providers are prohibited from staying in one place for more than 45 minutes. Medical providers can station on a two-block stretch of Allegheny Avenue at nighttime or at a designated parking lot at 265 E. Lehigh Ave. during the day.
That lot, which is managed by the city and addiction service provider Merakey, is connected to the city’s Wellness Support Center.
Inside, people can access first aid, showers, and food, as well as get directed to treatment, legal aid, housing assistance, and other services.
People walk near Kensington Ave. in January 2025.
In the parking lot, two mobile medical service providers run by Merakey and Kensington Hospital are currently stationed, according to Kurt August, executive director of the Philadelphia Office of Public Safety’s Criminal Justice Division. He said officials are looking to expand the number of providers that operate there.
In late October, Merakey began dispensing methadone out of an RV parked in the lot. The tightly regulated opioid medication is a popular treatment for people experiencing withdrawal because it helps stave off cravings.
Raymond Bobb, a medical director at Merakey, said he has seen promising results in just a few weeks, including starting people on methadone and getting them stable enough to transition to inpatient drug treatment. Merakey offers to transport people on the street to the RV to enroll them in medication-assisted treatment.
“We’ve been able to take everything right to the heart of the epidemic and engage people the way you would treat your brother, or your sister, or your family,” said Bobb, who is also in recovery and became emotional when speaking about the program.
“Our goal,” he added, “is to build people up and motivate them to want treatment for themselves.”
August said retention has been high, despite the police presence at the support center. The officers, he said, were “handpicked” to be stationed alongside behavioral health professionals.
“It’s not a secret that police are on site, and people are still coming,” August said.
Still, other providers have expressed concern that requiring people to travel to the lot adds an additional barrier to care, especially for those who were used to mobile services coming to them.
Sarah Laurel, who runs the addiction outreach program Savage Sisters and has a nonmedical permit, said she fears that providers who offered medication-assisted treatment on the street will now be less accessible.
However, she said, some clients greeted the news of service limits with a shrug.
“The friends we serve are so used to not being heard that when they realize that services are going away, they adjust quickly to not having things,” Laurel said. “They just say, ‘No one cares about us. They hate us anyway.’ That is how people feel seen in this city.”
Staff writer Ellie Rushing contributed to this article.
KYIV, Ukraine — Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Thursday that negotiators are wrestling with the question of territorial possession in U.S.-led peace talks on ending the war with Russia, including the future of Ukraine’s eastern Donetsk region and the Russian-occupied Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, one of the world’s 10 biggest atomic plants.
Zelensky revealed details of the ongoing discussions before he headed into urgent talks Thursday with leaders and officials from about 30 countries that support Kyiv’s efforts to obtain fair terms in any settlement to halt nearly four years of fighting.
Zelensky said Ukraine submitted a 20-point plan to the U.S. on Wednesday, with each point possibly accompanied by a separate document detailing the settlement terms.
“We are grateful that the U.S. is working with us and trying to take a balanced position,” Zelensky told reporters in the Ukrainian capital Kyiv. “But at this moment it is still difficult to say what the final documents will look like.”
Russia has in recent months made a determined push to gain control of all parts of Donetsk and neighboring Luhansk, which together make up Ukraine’s valuable Donbas industrial region.
Ukraine doesn’t accept the surrender of Donbas, Zelensky said, saying that both sides remaining where they currently stand along the line of contact would be “a fair outcome.”
American negotiators have put forward the possibility of a “free economic zone” in the Donbas, with the Russians terming it a “demilitarized zone,” according to Zelensky.
Russian officials have not publicly disclosed their proposals.
U.S. negotiators foresee Ukrainian forces withdrawing from the Donetsk region, with the compromise being that Russian forces do not enter that territory, Zelensky said.
But he said that if Ukraine must withdraw its forces, the Russians should also withdraw by the same distance. There are many unanswered questions, including who would oversee the Donbas, he added.
The Russians want to retain control of the Zaporizhzhia plant in southern Ukraine, which is not currently operating, but Ukraine opposes that.
The Americans have suggested a joint format to manage the plant, and negotiators are discussing how that might work, Zelensky said.
Ukraine’s allies discuss peace plan with Zelensky
The leaders of Germany, Britain and France were among those taking part in the meeting of Ukraine’s allies, dubbed the Coalition of the Willing, via video link.
Zelensky indicated the talks were hastily arranged as Kyiv officials scramble to avoid getting boxed in by President Donald Trump, who has disparaged the Ukrainian leader, painted European leaders as weak, and set a strategy of improving Washington’s relationship with Moscow.
In the face of Trump’s demands for a swift settlement, European governments are trying to help steer the peace negotiations because they say their own security is at stake.
German Chancellor Friedrich Merz said Thursday that he, British Prime Minister Keir Starmer and French President Emmanuel Macron suggested to Trump that they finalize the peace proposals together with U.S. officials over the weekend. There may also be talks in Berlin early next week, with or without American officials, he said.
The talks are at “a critical moment,” European leaders said Wednesday.
Next week, Ukraine will coordinate with European countries on a bilateral level, Zelensky said late Wednesday, and European Union countries are due to hold a regular summit in Brussels at the end of next week.
Russia has new proposals on security
Trump’s latest effort to broker a settlement is taking longer than he wanted. He initially set a deadline for Kyiv to accept his peace plan before Thanksgiving. Previous Washington deadlines for reaching a peace deal also have passed without a breakthrough.
Russia is also keen to show Trump it is engaging with his peace efforts, hoping to avoid further U.S. sanctions. Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said Thursday that Russia has relayed to Washington “additional proposals … concerning collective security guarantees” that Ukraine and Europe say are needed to deter future aggression.
NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte said Thursday that so far this year Russia has launched over 46,000 drones and missiles against Ukraine.
He warned his European audience at a speech in Berlin: “We are Russia’s next target.”
He also described China as “Russia’s lifeline” for its war effort in Ukraine by providing most of the critical electronic components Moscow needs for its weapons. “China wants to prevent its ally from losing in Ukraine,” Rutte said.
Russia claims battlefield progress
Putin claimed Thursday in a call with military leaders that Russian armed forces are “fully holding the strategic initiative” on the battlefield.
Russian troops have taken the city of Siversk, in the Donetsk region of eastern Ukraine where fighting has been fierce in recent months, Lt. Gen. Sergei Medvedev told Putin.
Ukrainian officials denied Siversk had been captured.
Putin wants to portray himself as negotiating from a position of strength, analysts say, although Russia occupies only about 20% of Ukraine. That includes Moscow’s 2014 illegal annexation of Crimea and the seizure of territory in the east by Russia-backed separatists later that year, as well as land taken after the full-blown invasion in 2022.
Ukrainian drones hit Russian oil rig, disrupt Moscow flights
Meanwhile, Ukrainian long-range drones hit a Russian oil rig in the Caspian Sea for the first time, according to an official in the Security Service of Ukraine who was not authorized to talk publicly about the attack and spoke on condition of anonymity.
The oil rig in the northern part of the Caspian Sea, about 600 miles from Ukraine, belongs to Russia’s second-biggest oil company, Lukoil, the official told The Associated Press. The rig took four hits, halting the extraction of oil and gas from over 20 wells, he said.
Russian officials and Lukoil made no immediate comment on the claim.
Ukraine also launched one of its biggest drone attacks of the war overnight, halting flights in and out of all four Moscow airports for seven hours. Airports in eight other cities also faced restrictions, Russian civil aviation authority Rosaviatsia said.
The original Fresh Prince, Will Smith, makes a cameo in the final scene ofBel-Air, Peacock’s reimagining of the 1990s hit The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air.
The older, fictional Will has a heartfelt talk with his younger, fictional self (West Philly-born Jabari Banks) on a mountaintop overlooking Los Angeles.
After a tumultuous four seasons in Bel-Air, Will is returning to Philadelphia to attend the University of Pennsylvania. He’s worried he will forget the life lessons he learned with the Banks family.
Peacock dropped the season finale on Monday.
“You know I used to worry this city would make me forget who I was and where I came from,” the younger Will tells OG Will. “Now that I’m going back home I’m afraid I’ll forget who I became.”
“That’s good,” OG Will replies. “That means you’ve become something worth holding on to.”
OG Will goes on to tell young boul Will not to worry, that no one has all the answers, especially the people who pretend they do. He tells him that he will make mistakes. Then, he conspiratorially leans in as if he’s dropping knowledge forbidden by the Universe that the younger Smith will be OK.
In that moment, you wonder if Smith, the Academy Award-winning actor, is speaking to the 1990s version of the Fresh Prince of Bel-Air star.
“You are going to mess things up,” the older Smith continues. “You will learn, you will grow. Live. Laugh and cry.”
Then he adds a little levity.
“Eat a cheesesteak,” the older Smith says laughing. “Not every day, because cholesterol is real.”
Show us the lie.
Peacock debuted Bel-Air in 2022, after Kansas City writer Morgan Cooper posted a trailer titled, “What would happen if Will Smith was in ‘The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air’ today?” positioning the classic sitcom as a serious drama with 2020 technology and a modern soundtrack.
The viral video caught Will Smith’s attention, and after swearing he’d never return to the fictional world of Bel-Air, he signed on as one of the show’s executive producers. Shortly after it debuted, Bel-Air became Peacock’s most streamed original series ever, reaching 8 million subscribers.
“I almost played the father,” Smith said, of the role of Lou played by Marlon Wayans. “It just felt like it might be a little too meta, a little too weird.”
Smith’s cameo was a perfect ending to a series that was as emotional as it was nostalgic.
“Life goes by fast, man,” says the older Smith as he closes the series. “Try to enjoy the ride. I’ll let you in on a little secret. We’re going to be all right.”
Douglas Dulgarian sat in Woodlands Cemetery on a sunny West Philly afternoon, talking about why he loves Philadelphia, and Philadelphia music.
“People move here and slowly their music changes,” he said, wearing a throwback Sixers Allen Iverson jersey. “And I was just drawn to how palpable and powerful that was.”
His band They Are Gutting a Body of Water, known as Tagabow to fans — more on that name in a minute — is the most acclaimed Philly act of 2025.
Both the New York Times and the New Yorker have called the band’s Lotto one of the best albums of the year. Rolling Stone called it “heavier than heaven, hotter than hell, bold as love.”
The Tagabow sound is often categorized as shoegaze, the evolving subgenre invented to describe the ethereal sonic schmear conjured by 1990s bands like My Bloody Valentine and Lush. (Musicians appeared to stare at their own feet on stage, hence the name.)
Dulgarian’s music tends to be more rugged and fast-paced, with roots in punk and the guitarist and bandleader’s affection for 1990s bands like Nirvana and Sonic Youth. But more than any genre, Dulgarian says, Tagabow belongs in a geographically specific category.
“Are we shoegaze? Are we a punk band?” he asks. “What we are is Philadelphia music. There is a long lineage of Philly music that is very strictly this place.”
From left: They Are Gutting a Body of Water are Ben Opatut, PJ Carroll, Douglas Dulgarian, and Emily Lofing. The Philly band’s new album is “Lotto.” They have shows at First Unitarian Church on Dec. 12, 13, and 19.
Along with prominent indie acts like Alex G and Spirit of the Beehive, Dulgarian names Blue Smiley, Cooking, Horsecops, and Gunk as bands that inhabit the Philly underground scene of house shows and DIY venues that Tagabow is emerging from.
Dulgarian has put out music by many of those artists — as well as breakout artists MJ Lenderman and Wednesday — on his own label Julia’s War, which releases music digitally and on cassette.
Dulgarian, 35, grew up splitting time with his father, a dirt track race car driver, in New York’s Hudson Valley and his mother, who did secretarial work, in North Jersey, “which has a similar kind of brashness” as Philadelphia, he said.
He first started playing guitar when he was 13or 14; skateboarding led him to start to get serious about music, and develop a fascination with Philadelphia.
“The first time I heard punk rock was in Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater I,” he recalls, about the video game which, in its second iteration, featured a re-creation of former Philly street skating mecca LOVE Park.
He got serious about making music at 19 during a 13-month stay in a drug rehab facility in Albany, N.Y. “I always say that I don’t want this stuff to define me,” Dulgarian says, speaking of his struggles with addiction. “But it’s so much a part of my story.”
They Are Gutting a Body of Water play facing each other on a stage set up in the middle of the dance floor with their backs to the audience. The Philly band has three upcoming shows at the First Unitarian Church.
Lotto begins with “The Chase,” about a harrowing bout of fentanyl withdrawal this past New Year’s Day. (He’s been clean since then and calls himself “an inactive addict.”) It’s also a love letter to Dulgarian’s girlfriend, Emily Lofing, the band’s bassist. (Her name is tattooed on Dulgarian’s right bicep.)
“She gazes at me lovingly,” Dulgarian talk/sings, recounting waking up to 2025 with Lofing by his side in their West Philly apartment. “The me she remembers, the promising mirage of water in this cruel desert.”
In 2016, while still in New York state, Dulgarian put out an album called topiary with the band Jouska. Playing shows at underground venues like Pharmacy in South Philly, he felt the pull of the tight-knit Philly music community.
He moved here and started performing as They Are Gutting a Body of Water with drummer Ben Opatut, who’s still a member of the band, along with guitarist PJ Carroll.
The band name was the result of a misheard song lyric from Grouper, the California ambient musician Elizabeth Harris.
“All these bands were calling themselves Football Dad or Soccer Mommy,” Dulgarian said. “And I was going to name this band the most psychotic thing I possibly could,” because Tagabow’s music on early releases like 2018’s Gestures Been and 2019’s Destiny XL, “felt incendiary.”
Singer and bandleader Douglas Dulgarian at the railroad tracks adjacent to Woodlands Cemetery, in Philadelphia on Oct. 6, 2025.
Grouper makes “really calming music,” Dulgarian said, but Harris’ lyrics are difficult to hear. “I was singing this song called “Heavy Water / I’d Rather Be Sleeping” incorrectly. I was singing ‘They are gutting a body of water.’”
As a band name, it stuck. “Now it’s my cross to bear,” he said with a laugh.
“Then people started calling us Tagabow, which is an acronym that phonetically makes sense. So we lucked out, I guess.”
Dulgarian loves what he calls the “strangeness” of his adopted city.
“There are places you can go in Philadelphia and you’re like, ‘How can this possibly exist? This can’t be real. It’s like Eraserhead, and how David Lynch was so inspired by Philly.
“It feels so otherworldly in comparison to other places. And the music feels otherworldly sometimes. But it also feels jovial in light of clear anger and dissatisfaction. Every time we go on tour, I come back to this filthy place and I just feel so at home.”
Lotto eschews electronic seasoning, aiming to capture four musicians playing live in the same room. It delivers an emphatic rush from a band poised to find a wider audience that’s now on the same label as Alabama Shakes, My Morning Jacket, and Phish.
The cover image to They Are Gutting a Body of Water’s album “Lotto.”
“I sent it to my mom. She was like, ‘What?! Oh my God!’ I always joke about this, but I set the bar so low with my parents, because I was a drug addict and I tortured them for a long time.
“So for me to be able to point at something and say: ‘Look, it’s happening!’ is great. And I think that really clicked for my mom. She was like: ‘You’re doing pretty well. You’re good at this thing.’”
The band is set to play three shows at the First Unitarian Church to wrap up a U.S. tour for the album, the fourth by the band Dulgarian formed after moving to Philly from upstate New York in 2016.
The church shows on Dec. 12, 13, and 19 will be performed Tagabow-style, with Dulgarian and bandmates facing each other on a custom-made stage in the middle of the dance floor, with the musicians encircled by the crowd.
Lotto consists of 10 tightly disciplined songs that rage on and resolve themselves in just 27 minutes. It kicks up a righteous racket and conjures moments of real beauty as Dulgarian reaches out for human connections in a relentlessly commodified world.
The albummixes self-reflection while reaching for something pure and true, hoping to find peaceful sanctuary in the eye of a hurricane of noise.
It’s the band’s first album to be released on prominent label ATO Records.
“I was thinking about how I seek out brief, artificial reprieves from existence,” said Dulgarian. “And what I was really trying to get at is the American dream, and how hollow it is. That the thing I will remember is not whatever commercial success my band has, but the guy at the corner store I connect with.
“That’s where the title comes from: this whole idea of the lottery and ‘I can change my life if I buy this ticket.’ That the American Dream of convenience — it’s not real. I think the things in life that are worth it are hard to earn.”
They Are Gutting a Body of Water at First Unitarian Church, 2125 Chestnut St., at 8 p.m. Dec. 12, 13, and 19. r5productions.com.
Emil Bove, a judge in Philadelphia’s federal appeals court and a staunch defender of President Donald Trump, faces an ethics complaint over his decision to attend the president’s rally in Pennsylvania earlier this week.
That code includes provisions that a judge “should avoid impropriety and the appearance of impropriety in all activities” and “should refrain from political activity,” the complaint noted.
“I believe Judge Bove has violated multiple Canons of the Code of Conduct, should be admonished for his behavior and should be subject to any other discipline under the Judicial Conduct and Disability Act that the Chief Judge and the Judicial Council deem fit,” Roth wrote in the complaint, questioning whether Bove’s attendance hindered his impartiality as a judge.
A spokesperson for the Third Circuit, where Bove has been serving since his contentious confirmation in July, declined to comment. White House communications director Steven Cheung wrote in a post on X that it is not unusual for a judge, like Bove, to be at a rally.
“Stop your pearl-clutching,” Cheung wrote in response to another user. “An American citizen is at an event listening to the President of the United States speak. In your world, you’d rather give rights to illegal criminals over Americans.”
Trump nominated Bove, who had worked as his personal criminal-defense attorney before the president chose him for a prestigious Justice Department role, in May to fill a vacant seat on the Philadelphia-based court. He was confirmed 50-49 by the U.S. Senate in July, with two Republicans voting with Democrats to oppose his appointment. The confirmation solidified Bove, whose career highlights have been defined by his loyalty to Trump, in a lifetime appointment on the bench.
Soon after coming into office in January, Trump tapped Bove to serve a key role in his administration’s plans to revamp the Justice Department. Bove oversaw swaths of firings and resignations, threatened consequences for officials who did not comply with the Trump administration’s immigration agenda, and secured the vexed dismissal of corruption charges against New York City Mayor Eric Adams.
He has also been the subject of whistleblower allegations. In June, a former high-ranking department lawyer accused Bove of saying U.S. officials should consider resisting court orders blocking deportations of alleged gang members.
Bove denied these allegations during a confirmation hearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee by saying, “I did not suggest that there would be any need to consider ignoring court orders.”
In July, new whistleblower accounts emerged from organizations representing former Justice Department employees. One alleged that an employee was concerned about Bove “actively and deliberately undermining the rule of law” when it came to court orders in an immigration case.
Another whistleblower said they had evidence that Bove was not truthful to the Senate Judiciary Committee during his confirmation hearing.
As to what could happen to Bove next when it comes to the misconduct complaint, the chief judge of the Third Circuit could conduct a “limited inquiry” into the allegations, according to the U.S. Courts website. Then, after considering, the chief judge would dismiss or conclude the complaint or appoint a special committee of judges to investigate.
Philadelphia lawmakers on Thursday approved two changes to city law that are aimed at boosting business for restaurants and the hospitality sector ahead of an expected influx of tourists visiting the city next year.
Legislators also voted to ban so-called reservation scalpers, which are third-party businesses that allow people to secure tables and then resell them without authorization from the restaurant.
Both measures passed Council unanimously and were championed by advocates for the restaurant industry, who lobbied lawmakers to ease burdens on the tourism and hospitality industry ahead of several large-scale events in the city next year, including celebrations for America’s Semiquincentennial, when Philadelphia is expected to host a flurry of visitors.
They both now head to the desk of Mayor Cherelle L. Parker, who has never issued a veto.
The outdoor dining legislation, authored by Councilmember Rue Landau, a Democrat who represents the city at-large, expands the number of so-called by-right zones, where businesses can have sidewalk cafes without having to obtain a special zoning ordinance.
Currently, by-right areas are only in Center City and a few commercial corridors in other neighborhoods. Restaurants outside those areas must undertake a sometimes lengthy process to get permission to place tables and chairs outside.
The expanded zones, which were chosen by individual Council members who represent the city’s 10 geographic districts, include corridors in Manayunk and on parts of Washington Avenue, Passyunk Avenue, and Point Breeze Avenue in South Philadelphia.
The legislation also includes all of the West Philadelphia-based Third District, which is represented by Jamie Gauthier, the only Council member who chose to include her entire district in the expansion.
The cafe area on the sidewalk outside of Gleaner’s Cafe in the 9th Street Market on Thursday, July 27, 2023.
Nicholas Ducos, who owns Mural City Cellars in Fishtown, said he has been working for more than a year to get permission to place four picnic tables outside his winery. He said he has had to jump through hoops including working with multiple agencies, spending $1,500 to hire an architect, and even having to provide paperwork to the city on a CD-ROM.
“There are a lot of difficult things about running a business in Philadelphia,” Ducos said. “This should not be one.”
At left is Philadelphia Council President Kenyatta Johnson greeting Rue Landau and other returning members of council on their first day of fall session, City Hall, Thursday, September 11, 2025.
Council members also approved the reservation scalping legislation authored by Councilmember Isaiah Thomas, a Democrat who represents the city at-large. He has said the bill is modeled after a similar law in New York and is not aimed at popular apps and websites like OpenTable, Resy, and Tock that partner directly with restaurants.
Instead, it is a crackdown on websites that don’t work with restaurants, such as AppointmentTrader.com, which provides a platform for people to sell reservations and tickets to events.
Jonas Frey, the founder of AppointmentTrader.com, previously said the legislation needlessly targets his platform. He said his company put safeguards in place to prevent scalping, including shutting down accounts if more than half of their reservations go unsold.
But Thomas has cast the website and similar platforms as “predatory” because restaurants can end up saddled with empty tables if the reservations do not resell.
Zak Pyzik, senior director of public affairs at the Pennsylvania Restaurant and Lodging Association, said the legislation is an important safeguard for restaurants.
“This bill provides clear, sensible protections that will keep restaurants in the driver’s seat,” he said, “and in control of their business and their technology services.”
NASHVILLE, Tenn. — Tennessee executed Harold Wayne Nichols by injection Thursday in Nashville for the 1988 rape and murder of Karen Pulley, a 20-year-old student at Chattanooga State University.
Nichols, 64, had confessed to killing Pulley as well as raping several other women in the Chattanooga area. Although he expressed remorse at trial, he admitted he would have continued his violent behavior had he not been arrested. He was sentenced to death in 1990.
“To the people I’ve harmed, I’m sorry,” Nichols said in his final statement. Before Nichols died, a spiritual adviser spoke to him and recited the Lord’s Prayer. They both became emotional and Nichols nodded as the adviser talked, witnesses said.
Media witnesses reported that a sheet was pulled up to just above Nichols’ waist and he was strapped to a gurney with a long tube running to an IV insertion site on the inside of his elbow. There was a spot of blood near the injection site. At one point he took a very heavy breath and his whole torso rose. He then took a series of short, huffing breaths that witnesses said sounded like snorting or snoring. Nichols’ face turned red and he groaned. His breathing then appeared to slow, then stop, and his face became purple before he was pronounced dead, witnesses said.
Nichols’ attorneys unsuccessfully sought to have his sentence commuted to life in prison, citing the fact that he took responsibility for his crimes and pleaded guilty. His clemency petition stated “he would be the first person to be executed for a crime he pleaded guilty to since Tennessee re-enacted the death penalty in 1978.”
The U.S. Supreme Court declined to issue a stay of the execution on Thursday.
In a recent interview, Pulley’s sister, Lisette Monroe, said the wait for Nichols’ execution has been “37 years of hell.” She described her sister as “gentle, sweet and innocent,” and said she hopes that after the execution she’ll be able to focus on the happy memories of Pulley instead of her murder.
Jeff Monroe, Lisette Monroe’s husband and Pulley’s brother-in-law, said the family “was destroyed by evil” the night she was killed.
“Taking a life is serious and we take no pleasure in it,” he said during a news conference following the execution. “However, the victims, and there were many, were carefully stalked and attacked. The crimes, and there were many, were deliberate, violent, and horrific.”
Pulley, who was 20 when she was killed, had just finished Bible school and was attending college in Chattanooga to become a paralegal, Jeff Monroe said.
“Karen was bubbly, happy, selfless, and looking forward to the life before her,” he said.
Nichols has seen two previous execution dates come and go. The state earlier planned to execute him in August 2020, but Nichols was given a reprieve due to the COVID-19 pandemic. At that time, Nichols had selected to die in the electric chair — a choice allowed in Tennessee for inmates who were convicted of crimes before January 1999.
Tennessee’s lethal injection protocol in 2020 used three different drugs in series, a process that inmates’ attorneys claimed was riddled with problems. Their concerns were shown to have merit in 2022, when Gov. Bill Lee paused executions, including a second execution date for Nichols. An independent review of the state’s lethal injection process found that none of the drugs prepared for the seven inmates executed in Tennessee since 2018 had been properly tested.
The Tennessee Department of Correction issued a new execution protocol in last December that utilizes the single drug pentobarbital. Attorneys for several death row inmates have sued over the new rules, but a trial in that case is not scheduled until April. Nichols declined to chose an execution method this time, so his execution will be by injection by default.
His attorney Stephen Ferrell explained in an email that “the Tennessee Department of Correction has not provided enough information about Tennessee’s lethal execution protocol for our client to make an informed decision about how the state will end his life.”
Nichols’ attorneys on Monday won a court ruling granting access to records from two earlier executions using the new method, but the state has not yet released the records and says it will appeal. During Tennessee’s last execution in August, Byron Black said he was “hurting so bad” in his final moments. The state has offered no explanation for what might have caused the pain.
Many states have had difficulty obtaining lethal injection drugs as anti-death penalty activists have put pressure on drug companies and other suppliers. Between the shortages and legal challenges over botched executions, some states have moved to alternative methods of execution including a firing squad in South Carolina and nitrogen gas in Alabama.
As Harlem Lacrosse Philadelphia wrapped up its clinic hosted by the Philadelphia Wings for middle school players on Wednesday, forward Eric Fannell wanted to end it on a high note. The session consisted of passing, fielding ground balls, and shooting drills led by Fannell and forward Brennan O’Neill.
To end the day at the Phield House on Spring Garden Street, Fannell and O’Neill had the attendees line up to take shots in the corner of the net. Each player took turns trying to perfectly place their shot. Some failed while others succeeded.
One middle schooler participating in the clinic made a shot that rang off the top left corner and echoed. The players swarmed their teammate as he yelled, “I’m the king.”
“It was amazing to see the kids smile,” Fannell said. “Amazing to see the teammates cheer for [each other]. At the end of the day, that’s what it’s about.”
Harlem Lacrosse, a nonprofit organization that helps under-resourced communities, began in Harlem, N.Y., in 2011. It has since grown to 39 programs for middle and high schoolers, and has visited cities including Boston, Philadelphia, and Baltimore. Philadelphia gained a chapter in 2017.
The Wings, Philly’s professional lacrosse team, partnered with Harlem Lacrosse three years ago. The partnership allows crossover clinics and gives Philly’s youth a chance to meet players at the pinnacle of the sport.
“You can start [participating in] the program beginning in sixth grade,” said Anita Roberson, Harlem Lacrosse Philadelphia’s executive director. “So we have some kids here who have participated in sixth, seventh, and eighth [grade], but we also have some kids where this is one of their first experiences and are a brand new lacrosse player, and to meet a professional, someone who gets paid to play the game at that level, I think it’s pretty exciting.”
Harlem Lacrosse middle schoolers were coached by two of the top players in the sport. Fannell and O’Neill also gave the players pointers. If a player did something well, they would congratulate him. If there was a mistake, they would correct it.
Fannell signed with the Wings in the offseason after three seasons with the Halifax Thunderbirds. The 31-year-old wanted to give back to the community, so when the Wings asked if he was on board for the clinic, the answer was simple: yes.
“The more they have fun, the more they’re going to pick their stick up at home,” Fannell said. “They’re going to go home and play wall ball, call their friends and play pass because they had fun.”
The Harlem Lacrosse coaches also participated in the fun. During drills, some coaches would join in, passing and catching with the middle schoolers.
The clinic was hosted ahead of the Wings’ home opener against the Colorado Mammoth at Xfinity Mobile Arena at 1 p.m. Saturday. Ahead of their matchup, the Wings will present Harlem Lacrosse with a $10,000 grant that will go toward the program. Philly’s Harlem Lacrosse program will be in attendance as Roberson and players accept the check on the field.
With the funds, Roberson plans to continue to grow a program that has been on the rise in recent years. Harlem Lacrosse has an initiative to introduce Black youngsters to lacrosse.
“I grew up in the Philadelphia area; I was one of a few Black students who was exposed to the sport,” Roberson said. “I went to school in a suburb that actually had it. Had I lived five minutes away across the street, I would not have ever had access to the sport. But the thing I think that was critical for me is that sports, in my own personal life, was a means of transformation.
“So I think for kids that come from backgrounds that may not be considered traditional or just kids in general, because there’s a lot of threats and things that kids have to deal with these days, a sport can be just such a viable mechanism for them to find safety, both emotional and physical safety.”
CARACAS, Venezuela — Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado said Thursday that “decisive” actions by the United States, including the seizure of an oil tanker, have left the repressive government of President Nicolás Maduro at its weakest point, and she vowed to return to the country to keep fighting for democracy.
Machado’s statements to reporters came hours after she appeared in public for the first time in 11 months, following her arrival in Norway’s capital, Oslo, where her daughter received the Nobel Peace Prize award on her behalf on Wednesday.
The actions of President Donald Trump “have been decisive to reach where we are now, where the regime is significantly weaker,” she said. “Because before, the regime thought it had impunity …. Now they start to understand that this is serious, and that the world is watching.”
Machado sidestepped questions on whether a U.S. military intervention is necessary to remove Maduro from power. She told reporters that she would return to Venezuela “when we believe the security conditions are right, and it won’t depend on whether or not the regime leaves.”
Machado arrived in Oslo hours after Wednesday’s prize ceremony and made her first public appearance early Thursday, emerging from a hotel balcony and waving to an emotional crowd of supporters. She had been in hiding since Jan. 9, when she was briefly detained after joining supporters during a protest in Caracas.
Machado left Venezuela at a critical point in the country’s protracted crisis, with the Trump administration carrying out deadly military operations in the Caribbean and threatening repeatedly to strike Venezuelan soil. The White House has said the operations, which have killed more than 80 people, are meant to stop the flow of drugs into the U.S.
But many, including analysts, U.S. members of Congress and Maduro himself, see the operations as an effort to end his hold on power. The opposition led by Machado has only added to this perception by reigniting its promise to soon govern the country.
On Wednesday, President Donald Trump said the U.S. had seized an oil tanker off the coast of Venezuela. On Thursday, Machado called on governments to expand their support for Venezuela’s opposition beyond words.
“We, the Venezuelan people that have tried every single, you know, institutional mean, ask support from the democratic nations in the world to cut those resources that come from illegal activities and support repressive approaches,” she said. “And that’s why we are certainly asking the world to act. It’s not a matter of statements, as you say, it’s a matter of action.”
Machado, 58, was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in October after mounting the most serious peaceful challenge in years to Maduro’s authoritarian government. Her daughter, Ana Corina Sosa, accepted the prize at a ceremony in Oslo.
Machado was received Thursday by Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Støre, who said that his country is ready to support a democratic Venezuela in “building new and sound institutions.”
Asked whether the Venezuelan government might have known her whereabouts since January, Machado told reporters: “I don’t think they have known where I have been, and certainly they would have done everything to stop me from coming here.”
She declined to give details of her journey from Venezuela to Norway. But she thanked “all those men and women that risked their lives so that I could be here today” and later acknowledged that the U.S. government helped her.
Flight tracking data show that the plane Machado arrived on flew to Oslo from Bangor, Maine.
Machado won an opposition primary election and intended to challenge Maduro in last year’s presidential election, but the government barred her from running for office. Retired diplomat Edmundo González took her place.
The lead-up to the election on July 28, 2024, saw widespread repression, including disqualifications, arrests and human rights violations. That increased after the country’s National Electoral Council, which is stacked with Maduro loyalists, declared the incumbent the winner.
González sought asylum in Spain last year after a Venezuelan court issued a warrant for his arrest.
It’s unclear how Machado and González could return to Venezuela. An opposition plan to get González back before the Jan. 10 ceremony that gave Maduro another term didn’t materialize.
Machado, alongside the Norwegian prime minister, said that “we decided to fight until the end and Venezuela will be free.” If Maduro’s government is still in place when she returns, she added, “I will be with my people and they will not know where I am. We have ways to do that and take care of us.”
