Cencora Inc., a drug-distribution giant based in Conshohocken, is expanding its presence in oncology and retina care, two medical specialties that rely heavily on pharmaceuticals.
The company announced on Dec. 15 that it had agreed to buy out its private-equity partner in a national cancer practice management company, OneOncology, for $5 billion in cash and debt.
Cencora already owned 35% of OneOncology, which has a small presence in the Philadelphia area.
In January, Cencora spent $5 billion, including contingency payments, for Retina Consultants of America, a network of specialized practices withlocations in 23 states, including two in Pennsylvania outside the Philadelphia area.
The deals are part of Cencora’s effort to extend its reach into medical specialties that rely heavily on pharmaceuticals to treat patients. By positioning itself closer to patients, Cencora can capture more of the profit margin that goes along with selling drugs.
“We like those two spaces because they’re pharmaceutical centric,” Cencora’s CEO Robert Mauch said at the 2025 J.P. Morgan Healthcare Conference. He said the company doesn’t see other specialties with the same makeup as oncology and retina.
“That’s where we will continue to focus,” he said. “Now as we look forward, there could be other specialties. There could be other innovations in the pharma industry that create something in another area.”
Cencora had $321 billion in revenue in its fiscal year that ended Sept. 30. It had $1.5 billion in net income. That’s a great deal of money, but amounted to less than half a percent of its revenue.
McKesson and Cardinal Health, Cencora’s two biggest U.S. competitors in the drug-distribution business, face similarly narrow margins from drug distribution. Both also own companies that manage cancer practices. Among the benefits of owning the management companies is securing the customer base.
Cencora’s follow-up to 2023 deal
Cencora, then known as AmerisourceBergen, paid $718.4 million for a 35% stake in OneOncology in June 2023. That deal, in partnership with TPG, valued OneOncology at $2.1 billion. The seller was General Atlantic, a private equity firm that had invested $200 million in the Nashville management services company in 2018, according to the Wall Street Journal.
The deal announced last week valued OneOncology at $7.4 billion, including debt. The big increase in value came thanks to a doubling in the company’s size. OneOncology now has 31 practices with 1,800 providers who treat 1 million patients across 565 sites, according to the company.
Rittenhouse Hematology Oncology, which has offices in Bala Cynwyd, Brinton Lake, King of Prussia, and Philadelphia, became part of OneOncology last year.
Out of the 50 largest metropolitan areas, the Philadelphia region is where minimum-wage earners must work the most hours to afford rent.
Two workers who make Pennsylvania’s $7.25 minimum hourly wage would each have to work 96 hours per week to afford the Philadelphia metropolitan area’s median asking rent of $1,739 in November, according to an analysis by Realtor.com.
Only five of the top 50 metros have rents that are affordable without overtime for a household in which two workers make the minimum wage. In all five metros, the minimum wage is above the federal floor of $7.25, and the median rent is lower than the median across the 50 metros.
The most affordable metro is Buffalo, N.Y., where two workers making the state’s minimum wage of $15.50 would need to work only 30 hours per week each to afford the region’s median asking rent of $1,176 in November.
Joel Berner, senior economist at Realtor.com, noted that demand for workers often pushes the lowest actual starting wages above mandated minimums. But in areas with high costs of living, even wages driven higher by market forces or increases to the state minimum don’t close “the affordability gap.”
“It’s a clear signal that housing costs continue to pose a massive hurdle for those at the bottom of the pay scale,” Berner said in a statement.
Rents were considered affordable if they were no more than 30% of renters’ income.
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Nationwide, rents have moderated in recent years. But in November, the median rent across the top 50 metros was still 17% higher than just before the pandemic in November 2019.
Danielle Hale, chief economist at Realtor.com, pointed out that some states’ minimum wages are scheduled to increase in the new year, which “will help to improve affordability for the most burdened households.”
“While the challenge remains immense, particularly in high-cost areas, the number of metros where two minimum-wage earners can afford a typical rental without working overtime will grow in 2026, a positive sign,” she said in a statement.
Two metros are set to join these ranks next year: Detroit, where the minimum wage is scheduled to increase from $10.56 to $13.73; and Jacksonville, Fla., where the minimum wage will increase from $13 to $15.
The number of hours people need to work will drop most in Florida metros. Two minimum-wage workers living together in Tampa would each need to work 45 hours per week in 2026 to afford the median asking rent. That’s down seven hours from this year.
With First Day hikes surging in popularity, Pennsylvania and New Jersey are rolling out a full slate of outings to welcome 2026 — from daybreak rambles to sunset treks, and nearly every hour in between for those easing into the new year.
Many of the guided hikes require advance registration and fill quickly.
The Jan. 1 hikes are offered through the Pennsylvania Department of Conservation and Natural Resources (DCNR) and the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection (DEP). Some are guided by rangers, others by volunteers.
Another option: Join the Friends of Ridley Creek State Park in Media, Delaware County, for a 3.5-mile loop featuring creek views and a stop at historic hilltop Russell Cemetery.
Or, for a spectacular bird’s-eye view of the Pinelands at daybreak, you can tackle a 2.5-mile round trip, starting at 6 a.m., to Apple Pie Hill in Wharton State Forest, where hikers climb the 79 steps of the fire tower at sunrise. The only drawback: The hike has become so popular that the DEP holds a lottery at 1 p.m. on Dec. 31 to select participants.
Apple Pie Hill Tower offers a dramatic view of the Pinelands.
First Day Hikes began in Massachusetts in 1992, and went nationwide in 2012 under an effort by the National Association of State Park Directors.
Ian Kindle, environmental education regional program coordinator for DCNR’s Bureau of State Parks, said the hikes in Pennsylvania started not long after that. But, he said, they have become increasingly popular since the pandemic, when many people took to the outdoors.
“I think people have really taken to the idea of making getting outdoors on the first day of the year a tradition.” Kindle said. “I know that some of the first ones I led at Delaware Canal State Park, we could have 100, 150, and upward of 200 people, which is a challenge to lead.”
Last New Year’s Day, 2,488 people — and 224 dogs — participatedin Pennsylvania. They gathered for 74 hikes at 47 state parks and one state forest, accumulating 6,478 miles.
Cheryl and Gary Moore, of Bucks County, ride their horses over the Schofield Ford covered bridge in Tyler State Park in Newtown, Bucks County in this 2021 file photo.
The two most attended hikes were at Beltzville State Park in Carbon County in the Poconos (175 people) and Tyler State Park in Bucks County (170 people).
This year, DCNR has organized 60 free guided hikes in 49 state parks and three forest districts, choosing to make the walks more focused.
Kindle said an “almost full moon” hike is set for Delaware Canal State Park in Yardley, Bucks County, at 4 p.m. He noted a two-mile hike around Militia Hill at Fort Washington State Park in Montgomery County.
The hikes include: walks at 10 a.m., noon, and 2 p.m. through historic Revolutionary-era Batsto Village in Wharton State Forest; a more rigorous six-mile hike at Brendan T. Byrne State Forest on the Cranberry Trail that includes Pinelands cedar swamps and Pakim Pond; and a two-mile hike at Washington Crossing State Park in Mercer County where you can learn about the famed feat by the Continental Army that routed the Hessians at Trenton.
Tanner Rouse will be Delaware County’s new top law enforcement officer, but he’snot new to the work.
Rouse will be sworn in on Jan. 5 as district attorney after his predecessor, Jack Stollsteimer, steps down to assume the county judgeship he won in November. Rouse, 42, will finish out the final two years of Stollsteimer’s term after working as his first assistant since 2020.
In a recent interview, Rouse discussed the strides in reducing violent crime he and his colleagues have made under Stollsteimer — the first-ever Democrat to serve as district attorney in Delaware County — as well as how he plans to continue those advances.
The short answer: Keeping the same playbook, but “putting a personal stamp on it,” as an offensive coordinator does when he takes over as head coach, said Rouse, an avid Eagles fan and ambitious Little League coach.
A former Philadelphia prosecutor under Seth Williams, Rouse credited the lessons he learned from investigating gun violence in the city, along with the recruitment of several former colleagues he brought over the county line, withimproving the way crime is prosecuted in Delaware County.
“We have demonstrated you can reform the criminal justice system and that it doesn’t have to come at the expense of stopping violent crime,” Rouse said. “They’re not mutually exclusive.”
Who is Tanner Rouse?
Rouse, a Phoenixville-area native, is the son of the late Willard Rouse III, the prominent Philadelphia developer behind One and Two Liberty Place. After graduating from the University of Wisconsin and Fordham Law School, Rouse spent seven years in the Philadelphia District Attorney’s Office, prosecuting crimes in Center City and North Philadelphia.
Rouse left the office in 2017, months before Larry Krasner took over. He practiced civil law for a time and ran an ultimately failed campaign to unseat then-State Sen. Tom McGarrigle before Stollsteimer called and offered him the first assistant job.
At the time, Rouse said, the offer was unexpected. But, looking back, he now considers it one of the greatest opportunities of his career.
What is Rouse most proud of from his tenure as first assistant?
The most notable achievement of his tenure to date in the district attorney’s office, Rouse said, is the steep reduction of gun violence in Chester.Shootings are down 75% since 2020. Rouse credits community outreach efforts for that, especially through the Chester Partnership for Safe Neighborhoods program, overseen by veteran homicide prosecutor Matt Krouse, whom Rouse worked with in Philadelphia and recruited to join him in Delaware County.
The partnership’s fundamental philosophy is a combination of focused deterrence programs Rouse helped oversee in Philadelphia that target repeat offenders, as well as community outreach efforts run by trusted neighborhood figures.
Rouse said he never wanted to be a faceless presence in the county and made it his priority to get out and form relationships in all of the municipalities he served, visiting community meetings, block parties, and even a few pickup basketball games.
“I don’t do this job from behind a desk,” he said, speaking in his county courthouse office. “And I think demonstrating that commitment and that care by being more present in those communities, and not just being kind of the big, scary law enforcement agency on a hill is incredibly important.”
Rouse said he is proud of other reforms including creating a diversionary unit in the office, revamping its drug court and instituting a special “child’s court,” created by Kristen Kemp — Rouse’s chosen first assistant and an expert in special-victims’ cases — that allows young victims to testify against adult offenders in a more comfortable environment.
The county’s jail population is down 50% as well, something Rouse says is a result of approaching prosecuting crimes in a humane, logical way.
What are his priorities as district attorney?
Rouse said he plans to create a similar community outreach program in Upper Darby, a community he said is “on the verge of some big things.”
“It’s not as if we’re saying, ‘We’re coming in here to take on Upper Darby and what goes on there,’ but more of, ‘Guys, look, we’re not just the people you pick up and call when there’s a crime.’”
He also expressed interest in creating reciprocity agreements with his counterparts in the other collar counties around Philadelphia, specifically when it comes to handling drug cases and providing treatment to the people caught up in them.
How has his time in Philadelphia influenced his work in Delco?
Rouse said he cut his teeth in the city working alongside veteran prosecutors, and he’s worked to bring that environment of mentorship to Delaware County.
He said he and his more senior deputies often sit in on trials, giving feedback to younger staff members just as his mentors did for him nearly two decades ago.
“That’s how I got better, and that’s one of the roles I most cherish here,” he said.
Crowds of last-minute shoppers, customers looking for seasonal ingredients, sappy hands from tying Christmas trees to cars, and of course, hours and hours of cheery holiday music playing on a loop.
Such is the life of a grocery worker during the holidays.
“Everyone wants to get, like, the biggest tree on, like, the smallest car,” said Edward Dupree, who has worked at the Center City Whole Foods for over nine years.
Working at a grocery store during the holiday season can be hectic and intense, requiring a lot of patience, he said.
“It’s, I think, definitely under-appreciated,” said Dupree.
Grocery employees from across the region say this time of year brings a surge of stressed shoppers making larger purchases, even in the age of DoorDash, grocery delivery, and curbside pickup.
Customers rush into the store for their last-minute shopping, said Erika Keith, who works at the Fox Street ShopRite in Nicetown. And they’re often hurried as they fill their carts, said Charletta Brown, of the Acme in Trooper, juggling year-end demands at work and pressures at home as they prepare for the holidays.
“Those three days moving into Thanksgiving are just insane,” said Dupree. He said the store starts getting busier in September as students return to the area, and it stays hectic through the end of the year.
Customers aren’t just getting their regular groceries and Christmas trees. They’re looking for specialty seasonal items including cranberries, decorative gourds, chestnuts, eggnog, and black-eyed peas for the New Year.
“Even in spite of the current economy — we do hear a lot that things are a little rougher than they have been in past years — people still want that tradition,” said Brown.
Specific holiday wishes
As the holidays approach, the Philadelphia Whole Foods bakery makes hundreds of pies and a slew of custom orders, said baker Jasmine Jones. During the holidays, they said, “the cakes get bigger.”
Many are seeking out pie crusts and fillings, as well as phyllo dough to make hors d’oeuvres, said Brown, of Acme. These freezer items are hidden “way in the back” for most of the year, but they get the star treatment, “front and center” for the holidays.
Keith, of ShopRite, said the holidays bring in more business for the store’s Western Union service, as people send money to loved ones as gifts.
Union workers gather outside the Center City Whole Foods Market in January.
At the Trooper Acme, Brown said, shoppers start looking for Ivins Famous Spiced Wafers starting around Halloween, and as the holiday season progresses, they’re looking for specific nostalgic sweets to fill their candy dishes — minty After Eight chocolates or the multicolored, straw-shaped Plantation hard candies, for example.
“Some people say, ‘We don’t eat them, but we just want them to sit out in the candy dish, because I had that as a kid, and my mother and father always had it out,’” she said.
Holiday gripes
For Jones, Whole Foods is a second job on weekends. They said they’re “stretched kind of thin” during the holidays as they juggle another full-time job. Jones sometimes volunteers to work extra hours for the money during the holidays, but they don’t like losing the time with loved ones.
And, Jones added, the holiday music is not a perk.
“It kind of makes me angry,” said Jones, adding that they’re “still an overworked worker.”
“It kind of just reminds me that I could be home if you paid me more.”
Shoppers peruse the Save-a-Lot grocery store in Atlantic City in this Jan. 2024 file photo.
Dupree, also of Whole Foods, isn’t a fan of the constant seasonal music either.
“If I want to go listen [to the song] ‘This Christmas,’ I’ll listen to it on my own — don’t play it 82 times a day,” he said. “It’s a bit intrusive.”
The customers
Some customers, for their part, avoid the busiest times at the grocery store.
In Wayne, Lisa Goldschmidt has become dependent on Instacart grocery deliveries most of the year. But when it’s time to shop for her holiday dinners, she makes a couple in-person trips to her local Acme. For her sanity, she keeps to a personal code, she said: “Avoid the weekends and the after-work times when it typically gets crazy.”
Goldschmidt, a 58-year-old attorney who works from home, said she’s fortunate that she can run out midday on weekdays to buy her holiday essentials, which include an expansive antipasto assortment that her family eats on Christmas Eve and the prime rib they make on Christmas Day.
April Beatty, 51, of Broomall, also tries to avoid peak shopping times at her go-to stores — Wegmans, Trader Joe’s, and Gentile’s produce market. She aims to pick up all her groceries at least a couple days before Christmas, and she also buys more this time of year with her two children home from college.
But her job, too, keeps her busy during this season — she works in supply-chain logistics — so shopping the way she prefers, at “off times, just because it’s more efficient,” isn’t always an option.
This year, her Wegmans trip for Thanksgiving happened during a shopping rush: “aisles packed, parking lot packed,” she said. During the holidays, she added, “at least people are polite.”
Customers browse Iovine Brothers Produce at Reading Terminal Market in this 2022 file photo.
Customers at Whole Foods are more outgoing during the holidays, said Dupree, part of a kind of jolly Christmas mentality around this time of year.
The days leading up to Thanksgiving are usually the busiest — more so than Christmas — but he didn’t notice quite as much Thanksgiving hustle this year.
“I wonder if this is because, you know, people’s pockets are hurting,” Dupree pondered aloud.
At ShopRite, Keith said, some of the busiest shopping days she recalls are the day before Thanksgiving and Christmas Eve.
“We have our last-minute shoppers — and, you know, I get it. I get the busy life,” she said.
A Save-a-Lot supermarket employee arranges pears at the chain’s Camden store in this January 2024 file photo.
At Acme, Brown sees pressure and stress on some customers.
“Being sympathetic to that, listening to them, is probably half the battle of dealing with any stresses or strain that I might be under — and also what they might be under,” she said.
Brown said she tries to get a head start on her own holiday decorating and planning each year because there isn’t a lot of downtime once the store gets busy.
“I have to manage that time effectively in order to be able to really decompress and enjoy the holidays myself,” she said.
This year, for the first time in a while, she won’t be working on Christmas Eve because it‘s on a Wednesday, her usual day off.
But Brown said she actually loves working Christmas Eve, “because it just seems to me like everybody’s just so happy.”
Haverford College senior Jackson Juzang earlier this year had been talking to a school administrator about the need for more resources to support student journalism.
The administrator, Chris Mills, Haverford’s associate vice president for college communications, asked if there was a network of student newspaper journalists in the region that Haverford could join and seek support from.
There wasn’t.
“So I decided to create one,” said Juzang, 22, an English major from Pittsburgh who serves as associate editor of the Clerk, Haverford’s student newspaper.
Jackson Juzang explains why he started the Philadelphia Student Press Association.
He established the Philadelphia Student Press Association as a nonprofit and created a board with student editors from 11 college news organizations around the region, including Temple, Drexel, Villanova, St. Joseph’s, La Salle, Rowan, Rutgers-Camden, Bryn Mawr, Swarthmore, Haverford, and Eastern.
With the slogan “Rooted in Philly, Reporting for All,” the group — which collectively represents about 400 student journalists — is seeking funding from organizations to support student journalism at a time when college budgets are tight and the news industry faces challenges, including rising print costs and lower readership. The association already has held workshops with more planned next year, and its 21-member board meets monthly and discusses common issues and problems and brainstorms solutions.
“We have so many people coming from different regions, but we are united in the sense that we are all here for the same reason,” said Claire Herquet, an editor at the La Salle Collegian.
At a recent meeting, members talked about artificial intelligence and what to do if an editor suspects a student writer used it, Herquet said. There were two instances over the past semester when she read an article submission and thought the terminology and phrasing didn’t sound like the writer, she said.
“If I didn’t have PSPA, I wouldn’t have people to lean on,” said Herquet, 21, a junior communications major from Camden. “It would just be me versus the problem.”
Herquet manages communications for the association. She has been reaching out to foundations about obtaining grant funding for the association. Some college newsrooms are better funded than others and can give writers and editors stipends.
She’s hopeful that uniting the newsrooms will result in better experiences for students and more funding.
La Salle’s publication is only digital; there is no print version. Costs are minimal, but funding would cover professional workshops for students and costs, such as travel, associated with their reporting.
The Whit, Rowan University’s student news site, prints a newspaper once a week and receives financial support via student government, but print costs are rising, said junior Katie Thorn, who serves as managing editor.
“We’re trying to figure out with the budget we have if it is possible and what we are going to have to sacrifice to keep our paper printing,” Thorn said.
Thorn, who is serving as treasurer for the association, said it’s been helpful to learn that other student organizations are facing the same challenges.
“Journalism as a whole is such a scary world right now,” said Thorn, 20, a journalism major from Mantua, Gloucester County, “and you’re kind of throwing yourself into the fire. Am I going to find a job? Where does my future lie? Having people who support you and uplift you is a great thing.”
Haverford’s student newspaper has received funding via the president’s office and is able to pay its writers, Juzang said. In January, the Clerk will publish its first print edition.
But the Clerk would like resources for deeper reporting and investigative work and mentorship, he said.
Juzang, who hopes to pursue a graduate degree in communication management next year at the University of Southern California, said he’s invested thousands of dollars of his own money to get the association started. He currently works as a research/editorial intern for NBC Sports.
He said the association also has received support from the Philadelphia-based Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression.
Juzang said he would like to help schools, including Widener and Lincoln, that used to have student news sites revive them. He also has begun talking to student journalists in other metro areas, including Washington, Boston, New York, and Baltimore, about starting an association for their university newsrooms, he said.
Mills, the Haverford communications administrator, was pleased to see Juzang take that conversation the two had last March and create a mechanism for student journalists to share their experiences and learn from each other.
“It’s really important for the students to share resources and knowledge and wisdom,” he said. “For those of us who value student journalism, it’s great to see them prioritizing this and making the time to do it.”
Why is the federal government involved in healthcare at all? Private industry does most of the medical research, invents new drugs, and develops medical procedures. Private industry can deny coverage to anyone they choose; deny payment of any and all medical claims they choose; charge whatever they want for drugs, hospital stays, and treatment; withhold reimbursements to doctors; and lobby politicians to keep their hold on a healthcare industry that earns them millions of dollars every year.
Following World War II, President Harry S. Truman tried to pass universal healthcare legislation. During the war, companies began offering healthcare benefits to workers as an incentive. Guess what the pharmaceutical, hospital associations, doctors’ associations, and healthcare insurance companies did? Big money to politicians’ campaigns guaranteed that no government plan would be adopted.
Almost every president since has tried some form of legislation to help the American people, with the same results. President Barack Obama’s Affordable Care Act began as a dream of universal healthcare, but big money to politicians and negative advertising forced the final version to be a weak version of the original proposal.
Tell your members of Congress and senators that Health Saving Accounts (HSAs) are not healthcare — they are your money being saved for specific medical events. Associations of small companies, trying to obtain better insurance premiums for their members, are at the mercy of the healthcare insurance companies.
Why do the politicians not put pressure on the pharmaceutical companies, pharmacy benefit managers (middlemen who take a cut of every drug purchased), hospital associations, especially privately owned hospitals, doctors’ associations, and healthcare insurance companies? You guessed it. Political contributions and lobbying.
Dave Savage, (ret.) Lieutenant Junior Grade, U.S. Navy, Collingswood
Trump’s lies are a “weapon of mass delusion” that will only be defused when responsible news media and brave Democratic politicians fact-check him with evidence — immediately — after every lie he spews.
Reggie Regrut, Phillipsburg
Objective criticism
I appreciate and respect the passionate letters to the editor from Inquirer readers, including a recent submission calling out Republican lawmakers for seeking to corrupt the electoral process through manipulative gerrymandering. The criticism of Republicans is certainly warranted, but unless we can objectively call out equally damaging manipulation by Democratic lawmakers, including efforts in Illinois, New York, California. and other blue states, we will continue to dig our partisan holes deeper. Politicians respond to voter voices and behaviors. As long as they think a voting bloc is OK with gerrymandering that helps their party gain or stay in power while opposing the same actions by the other party, we will continue to get more of the same from Republicans and Democrats. Behavior like that should be an embarrassment to all American citizens.
Larry Senour, Doylestown
Join the conversation: Send letters to letters@inquirer.com. Limit length to 150 words and include home address and day and evening phone number. Letters run in The Inquirer six days a week on the editorial pages and online.
ARIES (March 21-April 19). You can say no warmly, strangely, lightly, whimsically and without anyone feeling hurt: “I don’t think my spirit wants to go.” “My energy’s being weird today.” It’s really acceptable for you to do — or not do — what you want.
TAURUS (April 20-May 20). There’s intelligence in what your attention gravitates toward, especially when you’re not stressed. So take care of your nervous system first. Then, from the calm place, let intuition choose the order of activities, and you’ll be golden.
GEMINI (May 21-June 21). There are changes that occur without awareness or effort, but those aren’t the sort you’re interested in now. You want to steer your life. That’s why you’re educating yourself about all options, and as you do this, more options open up.
CANCER (June 22-July 22). You’re in that awkward phase where it feels like your past efforts didn’t matter because you can’t yet see results. But the seeds you’ve planted are maturing underground. You can relax today in the knowledge that your day is approaching.
LEO (July 23-Aug. 22). Thinking about something in the abstract creates internal conflict. You can imagine so many possibilities, risks, meanings, interpretations — it all gets quite dizzying. This doesn’t have to be complicated. Just act. When you actually do the thing, the ambiguity dissolves.
VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sept. 22). This new habit you’re building is still a struggle, but it will get easier. Soon you’ll notice this is no longer any effort at all for you, and after that, you’ll be the proud owner of a new identity. It’s not even a habit. It’s just who you are.
LIBRA (Sept. 23-Oct. 23). You’re caught between two things, and neither option feels quite right. It’s OK to let it be uncomfortable for a minute. Because that’s better than letting fear push you into a choice you’re not ready to make.
SCORPIO (Oct. 24-Nov. 21). Your presence is a gift, not a guarantee. People need to learn not to assume access to you. You’re not being aloof; you’re just asserting your right to your own time and experience. Follow your own rules today.
SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 22-Dec. 21). Your confidence grows because of the action you take. Even when it is not immediately rewarded or even noticed, you witness yourself. Your body knows the truth, and the mind stretches its idea of what you’re capable of.
CAPRICORN (Dec. 22-Jan. 19). You have values you don’t think about until they surface, as they will spontaneously today. You’re not afraid to notice and wonder at your own behavior, some of which will surprise you in the best way.
AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb. 18). You don’t have to worry about what people think — their opinions are already shifting. If you tried to manage them now, you’d have the influence of a sandcastle builder 10 minutes before high tide.
PISCES (Feb. 19-March 20). Energetic mismatches are just a dud. Avoid! Work alongside people who match your intensity, and together you’ll find ideas you couldn’t reach alone. Shared effort makes progress easier, victories sweeter and the whole journey far more fun.
TODAY’S BIRTHDAY (Dec. 22). Welcome to your Year of Graceful Mastery. You’ll refine what you already do well into something extraordinary. People notice; opportunities follow. Money flows more steadily, and you spend it on things that genuinely bring joy. More highlights: tickets to sold-out shows, professional accolades and a deepening relationship that makes you believe in partnership again. Capricorn and Cancer adore you. Your lucky numbers are: 4, 39, 1, 11 and 17.
DEAR ABBY: My son has completely given up on dating. Whether it’s blind dates, casual meetings with members from our church or dating events I pay for and make him go to, he still hasn’t found a wife. At 36, he should already have children and a partner, but despite the best efforts of my wife and me, he remains unmarried.
Our son is 6 feet tall, athletic and godly, and he has his own apartment and clears $100k a year. Despite all this, he still doesn’t have a wife. It’s even reached the point that he gets angry at my wife and me for pressuring him. During a few of the blind dates we set up for him, I watched from afar, and each time he was stood up! How can I ensure my son gets a wife before I grow too old?
— DAD LOSING HOPE IN NEW YORK
DEAR DAD: If you are sincere about this question, STOP EVERYTHING YOU HAVE BEEN DOING. Your son’s chances of finding a wife will increase the further you step back. Has your tall, athletic, successful and godly son told you he even WANTS to be married? As many of the women whose letters I publish express, not all men do.
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DEAR ABBY: I’m hoping you can provide some advice on a sensitive subject. Our family of four adult siblings was once very close but, since our parents passed away, has fractured. A brother has moved to another state, and we rarely see him. A sister has a partner nobody can stand whom she talks about incessantly. She took advantage of our parents by taking money and items from their house before and after they passed that were intended for their long-term care.
My younger brother and I, despite all this, miss our family. My sister has not been invited to the out-of-state brother’s daughter’s wedding, and, I admit, I feel bad. Am I being silly, or is there something I should say about this action that might further fracture our family?
— DISTANCED IN NORTH CAROLINA
DEAR DISTANCED: You are not being silly. What you are missing is the fantasy of what your family “should” be like. However, the wedding is not something you should chime in on. This is your niece’s big day, and if you make waves, you will only further alienate yourself from that branch of the family.
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DEAR ABBY: I have a male friend who texts me every morning (“Good morning, beautiful lady”) and sends flower emojis (“Beautiful flowers for a beautiful lady”). Do you think he has feelings for me? I’m a widow, and he was a good friend of my husband’s. He was the best man at our wedding.
It has been so long since I dated that I am out of touch. He asked me to go to a nude campground overnight. I don’t know what to think. Help!
— A LITTLE LOST IN KENTUCKY
DEAR LOST: Oh, he’s definitely interested. But if the first time he has invited you out is to a nude event, be sure to ascertain exactly WHAT he’s interested in before accepting the invitation.
That means the Birds will host at least one playoff game at the Linc, where the Eagles haven’t lost a postseason game since the 2019 playoffs.
It’s the first time a team has won the NFC East in back-to-back seasons since the Birds won four straight division titles from 2001 to 2004. It will also be the fifth straight postseason appearance under Birds head coach Nick Sirianni.
Another fun fact: Since being named the Birds’ starting quarterback in 2021, Jalen Hurts has never taken a snap in a game where the Eagles have been mathematically eliminated from the playoffs. He did start four games after replacing Carson Wentz at the end of the dreadful 2020 season, where the Eagles finished 4-11-1.
Now that the Birds locked up the division, the focus shifts to playoff seeding. The Eagles are currently the NFC’s No. 3 seed, and odds are good that’s where they’ll end the season. That would mean hosting a wild-card game against the No. 6 team, currently the San Francisco 49ers (10-4).
The Eagles missed out on a chance to clinch No. 3 seed or better because the Carolina Panthers (8-7) defeated the Tampa Bay Buccaneers (7-8) Sunday.
If the Eagles and Panthers both end the season with a 10-7 record, Carolina would win the tiebreaker with a better record among common opponents. That would force the Birds down to the No. 4 seed.
The good news is a win next week against the Buffalo Bills (11-4) or just one more Panthers loss will lock the Eagles into the No. 3 seed or better heading into the playoffs.
Here’s a look at the current playoff picture for the Eagles and the rest of the NFL:
NFC East standings, Cowboys eliminated
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The Eagles’ win officially eliminated the Dallas Cowboys (6-7-1) from the playoffs, since winning the NFC East was their only remaining path to the postseason.
It’s the second-straight season Dak Prescott and company have failed to advance to the postseason. Cowboys owner Jerry Jones took responsibility for the failed season earlier this week on Dallas sports talk radio.
“I take it real serious,” Jones said, according to The Athletic. “I’ve got to live with when we’re out of money and we want to sign a player and we don’t have any money left under the [salary] cap. I have to live with that.”
Both the Commanders and New York Giants (2-13) have been eliminated from the playoffs for weeks.
NFC playoff picture
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The Seattle Seahawks (12-3) clinched a playoff spot and moved into the No. 1 seed Thursday night, thanks to their thrilling overtime win against the Los Angeles Rams (11-4), who dropped down to No. 5.
The Seahawks now control their own playoff destiny. If they win out, they’ll end the season with the No. 1 seed and home-field advantage throughout the playoffs.
The same goes for the 49ers, who clinched a playoff spot Sunday thanks to the Detroit Lions (8-7) wild loss to the Pittsburgh Steelers.
Despite being one game back, San Francisco and Seattle face off in Week 18. The 49ers defeated the Vikings way back in Week 1, so a win in Week 18 would clinch a tiebreaker and send the NFC playoffs through Santa Clara, where this year’s Super Bowl is being held.
The Lions loss also benefited the Chicago Bears (11-4), who clinched their first playoff spot since the 2020 season.
Then there’s the NFC South, where the Panthers took over sole possession of first place thanks to their 23-20 win against the Buccaneers. Both teams will play again in Week 18 in Tampa Bay.
AFC playoff picture
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Bo Nix and the Denver Broncos (12-3) had a chance to clinch the AFC West, but lost to the surprising Jaguars (11-4), who have a decent chance of ending the season as the AFC’s No. 1 seed.
The New England Patriots (12-3) clinched a playoff spot Sunday night, defeating the Baltimore Ravens (7-8) and decreasing their already-slim playoff hopes.
Three teams will clinch a playoff spot if the Colts lose to the 49ers Monday night — the Jaguars, Chargers, and Bills.
Can the Eagles still end up with the NFC’s No. 1 seed?
Yes, but you’d have better odds buying a Powerball ticket.
The Eagles have less than a 1% chance of ending the season with the NFC’s No. 1 playoff seed, according to the New York Times, but weird things have happened before.
In 2018, the Eagles needed a host of things to happen to secure a wild-card spot down the stretch, and they all did, pushing the Birds to the postseason.
Same thing happened in 2008, with the Chicago Bears and Tampa Bay Buccaneers losing to give the Eagles a shot at the playoffs if they defeated the Dallas Cowboys in the final game of the season, which they did in a 44-6 blowout.
So while it is highly unlikely the Eagles get all the help they need to move up to the top playoff seed, here what would need to happen, according to Wharton professor Deniz Selman:
Eagles win their final two games against the Bills and Commanders
49ers lose to the Colts Monday and the Bears in Week 17
Seahawks lose their final two games against the Panthers and 49ers
Bears win against the 49ers in Week 16 and lose to the Lions in Week 17
Rams lose one of their final two games against the Falcons or Cardinals
If all that happens, the Eagles would finish the season with a 12-5 record and would win a three-way tiebreaker with the Bears and Seahawks.
The path to the No. 2 seed is more realistic. If the Eagles win out, all they would need is for the Bears to lose their final two games to move up to the No. 2 seed. In that case, they’d host a wild card game against the No. 7 seed, currently the Green Bay Packers.
When do the NFL playoffs start?
The first playoff game will take place on wild-card weekend, beginning Jan. 10.
Six games will take place in the first round of the playoffs, airing across Fox, CBS, NBC, and ESPN/ABC. Amazon will also exclusively stream a wild-card game on Prime Video for the second straight season.
Full 2025 NFL playoff schedule:
Wild-card round: Saturday, Jan. 10, to Monday, Jan. 12
Divisional round: Saturday, Jan. 17, to Sunday, Jan. 18
Super Bowl LX (or 60, for those who don’t like Roman numerals) is being held at Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara, Calif., home of the San Francisco 49ers. NBC will broadcast this year’s Super Bowl.
Here are the sites announced for future Super Bowls:
