A cannonball was found buried in a Cherry Hill home’s backyard Friday morning, prompting street closures and evacuations.
The Cherry Hill Police Department responded to the 200 block of Woodstock Drive South just before noon, after residents found a very old cannonball buried in their yard, said Capt. Sheldon Bryant.
The Camden County Sheriff’s Department Bomb Unit was called in to handle the situation. The police temporarily evacuated neighboring homes and closed down surrounding streets.
Cannonballs have been discovered in New Jersey yards before.
In June 2015, an old cannonball mysteriously appeared in Madison in North Jersey, and was turned over to the U.S. Army, according to NBC New York.
A month later, a couple found what turned out to be an active cannonball while landscaping their backyard in Lower Township in Cape May County. It was later detonated in an unpopulated area, 6abc reported.
As for the Cherry Hill cannonball, it was unknown where the cannonball came from, how old it was, exactly how it was discovered, or how long it had been in the yard. The bomb unit took the cannonball for proper disposal, and the area was cleared in less than an hour, Bryant said. Streets were open soon afterward.
“We treat every situation like this with care and caution to ensure the safety of our residents,” Bryant said. “We are thankful for the swift response of the Camden County Sheriff’s Department Bomb Unit and for the cooperation of the neighborhood while we worked to resolve this safely.”
You may not have noticed, but that endless snowpack has developed a slow leak — in this case historically slow.
Its endurance continues to climb the charts among the snowpacks of yesteryear — and in at least one way may well be unprecedented in the period of record dating to the late 19th century.
As of 7 a.m. Friday, officially at Philadelphia International Airport, three inches of the snowy and icy remnants of what fell on the region on Jan. 25 had survived.
That made this the most-enduring snowpack of at least three inches in 65 years, said Alex Staarmann, a meteorologist at the National Weather Service in Mount Holly, the office’s climate specialist.
That earlier one, which lasted from Jan. 20 to Feb. 14, 1961, was replenished by multiple significant snowfalls, as did others at the top of the endurance list; the 2026 version was basically one-and-done after 9.3 inches were measured at the airport.
This one — and it still has its sparkle where it hasn’t mutated into frozen sludge — even has bested the snow cover attending the 44 inches that accumulated in a six-day period in February 2010, when at least four inches survived for 17 days.
The latest batch was at four inches for 18 days, good for fourth place all-time.
Not that it hasn’t had some aesthetic benefits. It can be like light therapy in the morning, and a spectacular screen for the tree shadows. It has beautifully entombed all that unfinished yard work.
Snow and ice debris is piled along the Camden waterfront in Camden, N.J., framing the Philadelphia skyline across the Delaware River, Thursday, Feb. 5, 2026.
But it’s also been a royal pain throughout the region and begged the question: When it will go away?
When will bare ground emerge in the Philly region?
A farewell tour is likely next week as a snow threat for the holiday weekend remains a remote one, with accumulations only between “wet flakes” and “a dusting” possible, said Staarmann.
And you might keep an eye on Tuesday for a melt watch. Temperatures are forecast to fall below freezing Monday morning, and then stay above 32, even at night, through the workweek.
Highs are expected in the 40s Saturday through Monday, and then 50 or better the next three days.
More significantly for melting, the air will become noticeably more moist on Tuesday, and that should accelerate the melting. Your skin might even notice the difference.
Why has the snowpack been so enduring in Philly?
Since the precipitation ended on Jan. 25, the air has been remarkably dry, an underrated factor in the persistence of the ground cover, along with what happened after the snow stopped that day.
After more than seven inches of snow had fallen, it was topped with several hours of accumulating sleet.
Those miniature ice balls turned out to be a mighty additive: Ice may be way slower to accumulate, but it is also way slower to melt, giving the snowpack staying power.
“If we hadn’t had this much sleet, we might have some evidence of it, but it wouldn’t be this deep or persistent,” said Staarmann.
The Arctic freeze that followed and the consistently arid air have been the ideal preservatives.
Moist air, an efficient melter, has been absent.
When enough invisible water vapor comes in contact with snow and ice, it condenses and gives off latent heat that can liquefy the pack in a hurry.
After Philadelphia’s record 30.7-inch snowfall of Jan. 7-8, 1996, it was a moisture surge 11 days after the snow stopped that had a whole lot to do with erasing the snowpack even before the modest rains that followed, recalled David Robinson, the longtime New Jersey state climatologist.
The melt set off disruptive flooding, but even though rain is in the forecast for midweek, anything resembling a repeat is unlikely this time around.
Is that all there is for the winter of 2025-26?
NOAA’s Climate Prediction Center on Friday had odds favoring above-normal temperatures through Feb. 23, followed by a possible cool down.
Regarding any potential for snow, “We still have a few weeks left of opportunities,” said Staarmann.
As long as computers are operating, snow chances will never die.
However, the February sun is getting stronger by the day and lasting longer. If it does snow again, it’s a near certainty that it won’t match this one for staying power.
Phil Sumpter, 95, formerly of Philadelphia, celebrated sculptor, artist, art teacher, TV station art director, veteran, mentor, urban cowboy, and revered raconteur, died Thursday, Jan. 1, of age-associated decline at his home in San Juan, Puerto Rico.
A graduate of John Bartram High School and the old Philadelphia College of Art, Mr. Sumpter taught art, both its history and application, to middle and high school students in Philadelphia for 27 years. He was an engaging teacher, former students said, and a founding faculty member at the Philadelphia High School for the Creative and Performing Arts in 1978.
He started teaching in 1955 and, after a break in the 1960s and ’70s, finally retired in 1992. “You are very lucky to have a teacher in your life that believed in you, nurtured you, challenged you, and loved you,” a former student said on Facebook. “Mr. Sumpter did all that and more.”
Other former students called him their “father” and a “legend.” One said: “You did a lot of good here on earth, especially for a bunch of feral artist teenagers.”
Mr. Sumpter (left) talks about his sculpture of Underground Railroad organizer William Still in 2003.
Outside the classroom, Mr. Sumpter sculpted hundreds of pieces and painted and sketched thousands of pictures in his South Philadelphia stable-turned-studio on Hicks Street. Prominent examples of his dozens of commissions and wide-ranging public art presence include the bas-relief sculpture of Black Revolutionary War soldiers at Valley Forge National Historical Park in Montgomery County, the action statue of baseball star Roberto Clemente in North Philadelphia, the Negro Leagues baseball monument in West Parkside, and the Judy Johnson and Helen Chambers statues in Wilmington.
He worked often in clay and paper, made murals, and designed commemorative coins and medals. He especially enjoyed illustrating cowboys, pirates, Puerto Rican jibaros, and landscapes.
His statue of Clemente was unveiled at Roberto Clemente Middle School in 1997, and Mr. Sumpter told The Inquirer: “I think I’ve captured a heroic image, an action figure depicting strength plus determination.”
He was among the most popular contributors to the Off the Wall Gallery at Dirty Franks bar, and his many exhibitions drew crowds and parties at the Bacchanal Gallery, the Free Library of Philadelphia, the Plastic Club, and elsewhere in the region and Puerto Rico. He hung out with other notable artists and community leaders, and collaborated on projects with his son, Philip III, and daughter, Elisabeth.
Mr. Sumpter worked often in clay and paper, made murals, and designed commemorative coins and medals.
He even marketed a homemade barbecue sauce with his wife, Carmen. His family said: “He is remembered for mentorship, cultural fluency, and presence as much as for material works.”
He founded Phil Sumpter Design Associates in the 1960s and worked on design and branding projects for a decade with institutions, educational organizations, and other clients. He was art director for WKBS-TV, WPHL-TV, and the Pyramid Club.
“The word for him,” his son said, “is expansive.”
Mr. Sumpter was friendly and gregarious. He became enamored with Black cowboys and Western life as a boy and went on to ride horses around town, dress daily in Western wear, and depict Black cowboys from around the world in his art. His viewpoints and exhibits were featured often in The Inquirer, the Philadelphia Tribune, Philadelphia Magazine, Dosage Magazine, and other publications.
Mr. Sumpter (in white cowboy hat) views his statue of Roberto Clemente in 1997.
He was an air observer for the Air Force during the Korean War and later, while stationed in England, studied sculpture, ceramics, and drawing at Cambridge Technical Institute. His daughter said: “He taught me how to open the portal to the infinite multiverse of my own imagination, where every mind, every soul can be free.”
Philip Harold Sumpter Jr. was born March 12, 1930, in Erie. His family moved to segregated West Philadelphia when he was young, and he earned a bachelor’s degree in art education at PCA.
He married and divorced when he was young, and then married Florence Reasner. They had a son, Philip III, and a daughter, Elisabeth, and lived in Abington. They divorced later, and he moved to Hicks Street in South Philadelphia.
He met Carmen Guzman in Philadelphia, and they married in 2001 and moved to San Juan for good in 2003. He built a studio at his new home and never really retired from creating.
Mr. Sumpter (second from left) enjoyed time with his family.
Mr. Sumpter enjoyed singing, road trips to visit family in Pittsburgh, and bomba dancing in San Juan. He was a creative cook, and what he called his “trail chili” won cook-offs and many admirers.
“He was a larger-than-life person,” his son said. “He was fearless in his frontier spirit.” His wife said: “His joy for life was contagious, as was his laughter.”
In addition to his wife, children, and former wife, Mr. Sumpter is survived by other relatives.
A celebration of his life was held earlier in Puerto Rico. Celebrations in Philadelphia are to be from 2 to 5 p.m. Saturday, March 14, at Dirty Franks, 347 S. 13th St., Philadelphia,Pa. 19107, and from 2:30 to 4:30 p.m. Sunday, March 15, at the Plastic Club, 247 S. Camac St., Philadelphia, Pa. 19107.
Mr. Sumpter’s work was featured in The Inquirer in 1994.
A Philadelphia jury ordered pharmaceutical and cosmetics giant Johnson & Johnson to pay $250,000 to the family of a York County woman after finding the company’s baby powder product led her to develop cancer.
Gayle Emerson sued Johnson & Johnson in 2019 as part of a nationwide wave of litigation accusing the company’s talc-based baby powder of causing ovarian cancer. Emerson, who was diagnosed with cancer in 2015, died at age 68, months after filing the complaint.
The complaint accused the New Jersey-based company of selling a defective product and failing to warn about its risks.
After a three-week trial, which Common Pleas Judge Sean F. Kennedy presided over,the jury began deliberating Tuesday afternoon and reached its verdict Friday around 2 p.m. During deliberations, jurors asked the judge questions that suggested they grappled with how strongly the evidence showed that external use of baby powder could allow a cancer-causing substance to reach the ovaries.
The verdict was comprised of $50,000 in compensatory damages and $200,000 in punitive damages.
“This token verdict reflects the jury’s appreciation that the claims were meritless and divorced from the science,” Erik Haas, Johnson & Johnson’s worldwide vice president of litigation, said in a statement.
The company plans to appeal the verdict, Haas said.
Johnson & Johnson specifically advertised the product for women, the suit says, stating on the bottle: “For you, use every day to help feel soft, fresh, and comfortable.”
Studies haveconnected talc to ovarian cancer since the early 1970s, according to the complaint. The mineral is excavated from the mines that also contain asbestos, riskingcontamination from the cancer-causing substance.
The Federal Drug Administration asked condom manufacturers in the 1990s to stop dusting their product with talc because of the risk to women.
The company was aware of the research about the increased risk of cancer for women who use the powder on their genital area, the suit says, based on internal documents and public statements.
“Gayle Emerson trusted Johnson & Johnson, and Johnson & Johnson betrayed that trust,” Leigh O’Dell, a Beasley Allen attorney representing Emerson’s family, said in her opening statement.
Attorneys in Pennsylvania aren’t allowed to advise jurors on how much to award in damages, but O’Dell noted in her closing argument that Johnson & Johnson’s net worth is $72.3 billion and a verdict should be “enough” to get the attention of the company’s boardroom.
During the trial, attorneys for Johnson & Johnson said the baby powder, which Emerson used externally, wasn’t responsible for the cancer. Other parts of her feminine care routine, such as douching, are also associated with increased risk of ovarian cancer, the attorneys said, and Emerson had other risk factors such as family history, obesity, and age.
Emerson’s attorneys ignored those risk factors because they have “talc blinders” on, Shaila Diwan, a Kirkland Ellis attorney representing the company, said to the jurors at the outset of the trial.
“Ms. Emerson would have still developed cancer if she never used Johnson’s baby powder,” Diwan said in closing.
It’s important that the jury found that Johnson & Johnson was directly responsibe for Emerson’s cancer but the award is “significantly less than the amount necessary to punish J&J,” O’Dell said in a statement.
While the Philadelphia trial was proceeding, a three-judge panel of a New Jersey appeals court disqualified Beasley Allen from the baby powder litigation in the state for ethical violations. The Alabama-based firm has been accused of receiving privileged information from an attorney who previously represented Johnson & Johnson. The firm said it would appeal the decision.
It’s unclear if the ruling will impact the Pennsylvania verdict, or future Beasley Allen cases outside New Jersey.
Emerson’s is the second talc-related lawsuit to reach a verdict in Philadelphia, after a 2021 trial concluded with the jury siding with Johnson & Johnson.
There are 176 lawsuits similar to Emerson’s pending in the Philadelphia court, and thousands across the nation. Another trial against Johnson & Johnson in a City Hall courtroom is scheduled for April.
Carver Engineering and Science’s quest for its first Public League boys’ basketball title was halted after the Engineers were disqualified following a skirmish in Thursday’s quarterfinal game, where they were 71 seconds away from winning.
E&S led visiting Constitution by 12 points in the fourth quarter when a shoving match paused the game. Video reveals players from both benches staying on the sidelines before fans stormed the court and surrounded players.
The E&S players left the bench while the majority of Constitution’s reserve players remained on the sideline. No players from either team appeared to throw punches.
The game ended with E&S leading, 61-49, but they were later informed that Constitution would advance to Tuesday’s semifinal against Imhotep Charter. James Lynch, the president of the Public League, said the league reviewed the referee’s report and video footage before disqualifying E&S.
“Several players from Constitution have also been assessed suspensions due to their involvement in the incident,” Lynch wrote in an email. “However, the entire Carver E&S team leaving the bench is what resulted in the forfeit loss for that game according to the PPL Unsportsmanlike conduct policy.”
The league’s policy says, “if an entire team leaves their bench area and steps onto the field of play during an incident, the entire team will be ejected from the game, and will serve a one-game suspension for their next contest. The ejected team will be assessed a forfeit for the current contest, and will forfeit their next contest.”
Carver E&S has been disqualified and Constitution will play Imhotep Charter in the PPL final four.
E&S coach Dustin Hardy-Moore posted on social media that his team was disqualified despite “the opposing team and fans inciting a fight.” The coach, who could not be reached for comment, posted a screenshot that showed seven Constitution players on the court when the skirmish began.
“And our bench is still on the bench,” Hardy-Moore wrote.
The Inquirer also reached out to Constitution for comment on Friday, but did not receive a response.
CLEARWATER, Fla. — One day after the Phillies released Nick Castellanos, it was business as usual in their clubhouse.
Even before the transaction was official, Castellanos’ absence had been obvious from the start of spring training. Not only because president of baseball operations Dave Dombrowski had repeatedly indicated over the winter that the Phillies intended to find a “change of scenery” for the right fielder for the final year of his contract, but because his usual locker at BayCare Ballpark was occupied by someone else.
Kyle Schwarber said he saw the handwritten letter that Castellanos posted on Instagram on Thursday, shortly after the Phillies announced his release. In it, Castellanos thanked several members of the organization and addressed what he described as the “Miami Incident.”
Castellanos revealed that he brought a beer into the dugout during a June road game against the Miami Marlins, upset that he had been removed for a defensive substitution in the eighth inning. He wrote that the beer was removed from his hand by teammates before he could take a sip, and his actions led to a one-game benching as punishment.
“I mean, I saw it. It is what it is, right?” Schwarber said Friday. “I think the biggest thing is that we all wish him the best. We’ve had a lot of really good memories here over the last four years, and he’s had some really big moments with us, and we wish him the best moving forward.
“Like it is what it is, but hopefully wherever he goes next, he’s able to keep going out there and keep doing his thing and keep having those big moments.”
Had the overall situation been a distraction for the team last year?
“I mean, that’s [neither] here nor there,” Schwarber said. “We did what we did. It felt like that in the Dodgers series that we played good games. There were just things that we didn’t execute. We didn’t walk away with wins at the end of the day. So it’s hard to say here or there, right? Like, you know, we put ourselves in the position of where we wanted to be, and we just got knocked out.
“So, can’t really say.”
Toward the end of his Phillies tenure, Castellanos had been openly critical of manager Rob Thomson’s communication, as his role changed from an everyday player to a platooning one.
Castellanos did not mention Thomson in the portion of the letter where he thanked members of the Phillies organization, including principal owner John Middleton, Dombrowski, outfield coach Paco Figueroa, and his teammates.
“I’m proud of him,” Thomson said Friday of the letter. “Because he owned up to what he did. And, hey, we all make mistakes. Mine are well-documented. But Nick helped us out in a lot of ways here. He’s had some big hits and big plays and helped us win a lot of ball games. So I do, I wish him all the best.”
Castellanos also wrote in his letter that he had planned to explain his actions in Miami to the media the following day but “was instructed not to by management.”
At the time, Thomson had described the reason for the benching as an “inappropriate comment.” On Friday, the manager said he wouldn’t change how the team handled that situation.
“I thought it was appropriate, what we did,” Thomson said.
Phillies pitcher Andrew Painter signs autographs for fans during a spring training workout on Friday in Clearwater, Fla.
Extra bases
Andrew Painter, Jesús Luzardo, Cristopher Sánchez, Aaron Nola, and newcomer Brad Keller were among the pitchers who threw bullpen sessions on Friday. “I hate sounding like Peter Positive all the time, but we had a really good day today on the mound,” Thomson said. “Painter was really good. Luzardo. Nola. Sánchez, Keller, some of the new guys, [Kyle] Backhus and [Chase] Shugart, just really good day. I mean, they’re filling it up. Balls coming out good, shapes are good.” … Max Lazar, Nolan Hoffman, and Andrew Walling threw live batting practice Friday to several of the catchers in camp, including J.T. Realmuto, Garrett Stubbs, and Rafael Marchán.
Two university-run science summer camps that have each served Philly kids for more than two decades will not run this summer due to budget limitations.
Academy Science Camp, run through the Academy of Natural Sciences of Drexel University, is canceling its camp for just this summer. The University of Pennsylvania’s Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology is ending its Anthropology Camp for this summer as well as “the foreseeable future,” the museum wrote on its website.
Both camps, which offered science lessons and projects tailored to the museums’ exhibits, cited financial pressures as the catalyst behind the decision.
The new truncated public schedule made continuing the summer camp, which typically runs Monday through Friday, no longer feasible, the academy wrote on its website.
The academy plans to assess later in the year whether to run the camp in 2027, academy spokesperson Kaitlyn Kalosy said.
Last year, the camp served 360 kids ages 5 to 12, Kalosy said. It offered museum tours, experiments, and field trips.
“We know this may be disappointing for campers who look forward to spending their summers exploring and learning with us, and we are truly grateful for the enthusiasm they bring to the Academy each year,” the academy wrote online.
The University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology, meanwhile, is unable to afford the cost of staff to run its camp because of a university-wide hiring freeze, it wrote on its website. The camp served about 500 kids ages 6 to 13 each summer, according to a museum spokesperson. It offered workshops, expert talks, and gallery explorations.
“This decision was reached only after extensive discussion and careful consideration of multiple scenarios,” the museum wrote on its website. “It was not made lightly.”
The school first ordered a hiring freeze in the spring to prepare for anticipated federal funding cuts under President Donald Trump’s administration. Last year, Penn and its centers were asked to cut 5% of certain expenses. This year, they have been asked to cut 4% on top of that. The cuts are aimed at helping the school keep up with mounting endowment taxes, legal, insurance and employee-benefit expenses, potential losses in research funding, and changes in student loan and visa programs, Penn leaders said.
Gov. Josh Shapiro implored Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem this week to reconsider converting warehouses in Berks and Schuylkill counties into mass immigration detention centers, citing “real harms” to the communities.
In a Thursday letter to Noem obtained by The Inquirer, Shapiro questioned the legality of the facilities, which the governor said could hold up to 9,000 people in total.
Hinting at a possible lawsuit, Shapiro said if DHS goes through with converting the sites, his administration will “aggressively pursue every option to prevent these facilities from opening and needlessly harming the good people of Pennsylvania.”
As part of President Donald Trump’s expanding deportation agenda, the federal government has started purchasing warehouses across the country to flip into U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention centers. ICE is planning to spend $38.3 billion turning warehouses into detention centers, The Washington Post reported.
Shapiro slammed the department’s escalating immigration enforcement strategy, saying that ICE and other federal immigration agents “resort to unnecessary and excessive force, leading to innocent people being injured or tragically killed.”
“Your Department’s record is reason enough to oppose your plan to use warehouses in Schuylkill and Berks Counties as detention centers,” Shapiro wrote, adding that the warehouses would also negatively impact residents’ health and safety, deplete tax revenue, and put extra stress on local communities and emergency response.
Tricia McLaughlin, DHS assistant secretary for public affairs, confirmed ICE’s purchase of these two warehouses and the department’s plans to use them as detention facilities in a statement to The Inquirer Friday.
She said that the sites will “undergo community impact studies and a rigorous due diligence process to make sure there is no hardship on local utilities or infrastructure prior to purchase” and that the facilities would create economic benefits, including bringing more than 11,000 jobs to the two Pennsylvania communities in total.
“Thanks to the One Big Beautiful Bill, ICE has new funding to expand detention space to keep these criminals off American streets before they are removed for good from our communities,” McLaughlin said.
He’s said the Trump administration’s strategies in American cities make communities less safe, violate constitutional rights, and erode trust in law enforcement.
In his letter to Noem, Shapiro said that DHS has not engaged local leaders to discuss the warehouse purchases and that both Democratic and Republican state and local officials have objected to the department’s “plans to interfere with our communities because of the chaos and harm your actions will bring.”
Some of Shapiro’s cabinet secretaries also penned an additional letter to Noem where they stressed that the facilities would be detrimental to the communities’ environment and public health and safety.
“The stress each facility will place on local infrastructure will, among other things, jeopardize Pennsylvanians’ access to safe water, deplete resources and infrastructure needed for emergencies, and overextend already strained emergency response personnel,” wrote Pennsylvania Health Secretary Debra L. Bogen, Fire Commissioner Thomas Cook, Emergency Management Director Randy Padfield, Environmental Protection Secretary Jessica Shirley, and Labor Secretary Nancy A. Walker.
In addition to the warehouses, DHS is also leasing new office space throughout the country, including in the Philadelphia area. The department said back-office staff, including lawyers and analysts, will be moving into a building in Berwyn, and the department will also share space with the Department of Motor Vehicles at Eighth and Arch Streets in Center City, WIRED reported.
Despite the governor’s vocal opposition to Trump’s enforcementstrategies, Pennsylvania still cooperates with ICE. Shapiro’s administration honors some ICE detainers in state prisons and provides ICE with access to state databases that include personal identifying information for immigrants.
Immigrant rights groups have for months called on Shapiro to take more decisive action against federal immigration enforcement in Pennsylvania and end all cooperation with the agency.
South Jersey native Jordan Gershowitz is no stranger to the bright lights.
In fifth grade, he wrote, cast, and directed his first musical at WestamptonMiddle School. Named Trial of Treason, the play was a “loose” retelling of the Revolutionary War, with the kind of sci-fi elements only true ’90s kids will appreciate.
Gershowitz’s story starred two characters whobuild a machine to travel back to the time American traitor Benedict Arnold was court-martialed for abusing military power. Gershowitz gave his actors ketchup packets to smear on their shirts to act out battle scenes.
“I don’t remember how we split up the viewing audience, but it was definitely a one-day-only production,” he joked.
South Jersey Jordan Gershowitz is the story editor and co-developer of Netflix’s new kids series “Hot Wheels Let’s Race.” The show premiered on March 4, 2024.
Years later, Gershowitz became the bassist for the neon pop-rock band Rushmore. They opened for the likes of the Plain White-Ts and Justin Bieber, and were nominated for best breakout artist at the 2009 MTV Video Music Awards.
The iconic traveling circus, billed as “The Greatest Show on Earth,” opens at Xfinity Mobile Arena on Friday. All eight shows will feature dancing acrobats, nimble trapeze artists, and Skylar “the human rocket” Miser, among other performers.
Gershowitz, who has previously written forNetflix’s Hot Wheels Let’s Race, Sharkdog, The Snoopy Show, and other shows, penned the script for the 148th edition of the longest-running circus in American history.
Gershowitz has written all the dialogue for the show guides and characters, including the robo-puppy named Bailey Circuit, and sequenced all the performing acts to establish the overall vibe of the show.
“Ringling Bros. is like the gold standard of family entertainment,” he said. “It was a fantastic opportunity to be a part of it.”
The man behind the newest rendition of Ringling Bros. is South Jersey native Jordan Gershowitz. The iconic touring circus opens at the Xfinity Mobile Arena on Friday. The show runs through Feb. 16.
None of his previous writing credits transported him back to childhood in the same way as Ringling Bros., he said.
“Ringling is just one of those rare American institutions that I think everyone has a personal memory of,” Gershowitz said. “And for me, it wasn’t just an opportunity to write a circus. It was a really compelling opportunity, and something the entire team was mindful of as we went into this.”
Before starting the writing process a year ago, he remembered the days he attended Ringling Bros. circuses growing up in Westampton. With his parents, he marveled at the gravity-defying stunts and masterful crowd interactions performed by artists from all corners of the world.
“I really loved the spectacle of it. Being a kid in the early ’90s, at least in South Jersey, you had to make a lot of your own fun,” Gershowitz said. “So, getting to go to a really big communal experience like Ringling Bros. was just eye-opening.”
The man behind the newest rendition of Ringling Bros. is South Jersey native Jordan Gershowitz. The iconic touring circus opens at the Xfinity Mobile Arena on Friday. The show runs through Feb. 16.
With a project as historic as Ringling Bros., Gershowitz said the challenge was reimagining the circus for modern audiences.
“I didn’t approach it necessarily trying to replace what came before,” he said. “I tried to look at what made it meaningful in the first place to so many people, and then worked with director Michael Schwandt to look at what does that mean for a new generation with social media and TikTok clips.”
Gershowitz lined up a series of electrifying acts back-to-back, making audiences question which direction the show would go next. He also incorporated more audience engagement, ensuring it felt more like the “Greatest Party on Earth” than a standard circus act.
The goal, he said, is to keep people off their cellphones and to fully immerse them into the music, the movements, and visual art illuminating the show’s 60-foot screen.
“You’re weaving all these amazing acts together, so you’re always thinking about pacing, emotion, and how each moment flows into the next,” he said. “It’s a really unique puzzle that you don’t get in other formats, so hopefully the audience is coming away feeling energized and connected.”
The man behind the newest rendition of Ringling Bros. is South Jersey native Jordan Gershowitz. The iconic touring circus opens at the Xfinity Mobile Arena on Friday. The show runs through Feb. 16.
Gershowitz’s script has transformed the circus into a more-interactive and “fun-filled” experience for generations of crowd-goers to enjoy, said Ringling Bros. DJ Lucky Malatsi.
“He made sure that we were able to connect with the audience, not only with the slang, but with all the conversation pieces,“ Malatsi said. ”It’s not your traditional, ‘Welcome to the circus.’ It’s more, ‘Come vibe with us. We’re having a party.’”
Since the tour opened Jan. 2, Gershowitz has enjoyed seeing audiences react to his work in real-time. He still loves writing for TV, but he said there’s nothing like seeing an arena filled with families cheering and dancing to a show like the Ringling Bros.
“When you’re writing for television, it takes a really long time for the audience to watch. Watching TV is also very solitary,” he said. “But the cool thing about Ringling, you’re watching the show along with the audience, and you can feel the energy.”
The man behind the newest rendition of Ringling Bros. is South Jersey native Jordan Gershowitz. The iconic touring circus opens at the Xfinity Mobile Arena on Friday. The show runs through Feb. 16.
Their reactions remind him of his own as a young circus fan, which later inspired his own performances in school plays and at music venues as one-fifth of Rushmore.
With the production’s Philly tour stop, he hopes to forge similar memories for young crowd-goers, and remind longtime circus fans of the magic that first struck them in their youth.
“Ideally, everyone is going to leave post-show talking to each other about what they saw and how it made them feel,” he said. “[Ringling] opened my eyes to larger possibilities, so hopefully it does the same for kids in the area. Whether they’re a future performer, or they start to see the world is much larger than their neighborhood.”
The Ringling Bros. tour stop runs through Feb. 16, Xfinity Mobile Arena, 3601 S. Broad St., Phila. Tickets at ringling.com.
While countries around the world strive to protect their citizens from climate change, the U.S. government is attacking its citizens through climate regulations. Repealing the Environmental Protection Agency’s 2009 “endangerment finding” hits Americans where it hurts: their health.
This all started last year, when the Trump administration convened a group of five “climate contrarians” who have profited from their fringe views denying climate change and called it a “Climate Working Group.” The group quickly threw together a report full of cherry-picked data and other bad science. It was soon disbanded in the face of widespread scientific criticism, but the damage was done. The EPA — or a gutted version of it — used this sham Climate Working Group’s conclusions to propose a repeal of the 2009 endangerment finding, the foundation of our ability to regulate the polluting emissions that cause climate change and endanger human health.
Instead, it wants environmental regulation to be based solely on costs to businesses — effectively valuing human health at $0 in its scientific models.
This battle of reports and regulations might seem abstract, but it threatens real people. In the nearly two decades since the endangerment finding was issued, the impacts of climate change on health have only become clearer. Air pollution and extreme weather cause hundreds of thousands of premature deaths in the U.S. every year, impacting everyone from newborns to working-age people to older adults — and it’s only getting worse.
Doctors understand this reality beyond the science. Pretending health has no economic value passes the cost of climate change and air pollution onto people who are sick.
In this 2023 file photo, buildings in downtown Erie, normally visible from West Grandview Boulevard, are shrouded in a smoky haze caused by smoke from Canadian wildfires.
These are our patients — the truck driver in Cleveland having an asthma attack because of smoke from the Canadian wildfires, the gig worker who wiped out on her e-bike in a torrential storm, the day laborer who gets kidney failure working day after day in extreme heat — and they are sacrificing their health to pay their rent and feed their families. It’s no surprise that 120 leading patient care organizations (including Doctors for America) signed a letter urging the EPA to save the endangerment finding.
None of this seems to matter to the Trump administration.
A geyser of runoff rain water spouts from the sidewalk along 12th Street outside Reading Terminal Market as storms with damaging winds and significant flash flooding, as well as localized rainfall in amounts as high as seven inches, impacted the Philadelphia region last July.
The EPA officially repealed the endangerment finding Thursday. As doctors, we can’t believe we’re having this conversation again. The evidence is clear: Climate change is making us sicker and sicker, but we can limit that harm with better policy and regulations. This government is trading our health for the interests of big business.
We’re tired and angry, but we’re also scared. We’re doctors, but we’re also people.
We’ve been the new mom afraid to bring her newborn home from the NICU under skies turned orange by wildfire smoke. We’ve sat in our driveways during a flash flood warning, wondering if it’s worth risking our safety to get to work on time. We stay up at night worrying about an America where a livable environment is a luxury.
The America we want puts its citizens over politics. It cares more about people than dollars. Repeal of the endangerment finding has made that America a pipe dream. Only real science, a government that protects its people, and strong climate regulations can get us there.
Madhury “Didi” Ray is a public health physician, a Drexel Med alum, and a Copello Fellow in Health Advocacy with Doctors for America. Olivia Rizzo is a pulmonologist from northeast Ohio and the cochair of the Public Health Taskforce for Doctors for America.
