BOSTON — Joel Embiid will play for the 76ers in the season opener against the Boston Celtics on Wednesday night at TD Garden.
As expected, Paul George, Trendon Watford, and Jared McCain will be sidelined.
The game will mark Embiid’s first regular-season contest since he faced the Brooklyn Nets in a 105-103 loss on Feb. 22. Embiid played in just 19 games last season before undergoing arthroscopic surgery on his left knee on April 11. It was his second surgery on the knee in 14 months and the third in nine years.
Embiid played Friday in the final preseason game against the Minnesota Timberwolves. He finished with 14 points, seven rebounds, eight assists, and three steals in a little over 18 minutes. The 7-foot-2, 280-pounder then took part in practices on Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday before being cleared to play.
George is sidelined as he continues to recover from left knee surgery. Watford will miss the game with left hamstring tightness, while McCain is out as he recovers from right thumb surgery.
Boston’s Jaylen Brown is questionable with a strained left hamstring and Jayson Tatum is expected to miss the season after suffering a torn right Achilles tendon during the playoffs.
HARRISBURG — The Republican-led Pennsylvania Senate sent a $47.9 billion spending plan to the state House on Tuesday, but the proposal was dead on arrival and deemed “unserious” in the Democratic-controlled chamber, marking the latest chapter of the nearly four-month-long budget impasse in the state’s bitterly divided legislature.
The Senate GOP plan, which passed the chamber by a 27-23 vote along party lines, included a $300 million, or 0.6%, total increase over last year’s budget that is intended to cover the state’s debt service and pension obligations, in addition to cutting operational spending for the legislative body by 5%, said Senate Majority Leader Joe Pittman (R., Indiana).
The House Democrats’ $50.25 billion spending bill was a slight decrease from the $51.5 billion budget proposal Democratic Gov. Josh Shapiro pitched in February. And it was an attempt by House Democrats at reaching a compromise — decreasing their proposed spending by 2.4% over Shapiro’s initial pitch — after encouragement from Senate President Pro Tempore Kim Ward (R., Westmoreland) for legislative leaders to bring the usually closed-door budget negotiations into the public eye.
But the Senate GOP’s counteroffer passed Tuesday included little compromise and little increase in spending. However, it is a budget that would fund Pennsylvania’s needs rather than wants, several top GOP senators said during floor debate on the bill.
“All it takes is one day and one vote to end this ‘Shapiro Shutdown,’” Pittman said in his floor remarks in support of the GOP budget bill.
Several GOP senators noted the state’s fiscal outlook as the reason lawmakers cannot afford to spend much more over last year, as Pennsylvania is on track to bring in $46.4 billion during the 2025-26 fiscal year, which is significantly less than Shapiro and House Democrats want to spend.
Pennsylvania is sitting on approximately $10 billion in reserves, from its leftover balance from the 2024-25 fiscal year and its hefty Rainy Day Fund. Democrats want to tap into those reserves and reinvest them in the state, while Republicans believe it is critical to protect those funds to maintain the state’s bond rating or cut taxes as a way to reinvest those surpluses back into taxpayers’ pockets.
Top Senate Republicans on Tuesday urged the state House to return to session and pass their $47.9 billion spending plan as the most responsible way to protect Pennsylvania taxpayers in future years. And some offered criticism of Shapiro, who has continued to host news conferences around Pennsylvania during the 113-day budget impasse, accusing the governor of failing to lead in Harrisburg on budget negotiations.
“If you want to have an honest conversation about how to get this budget done, a governor gallivanting across the state taking potshots at members of this caucus doesn’t help,” Pittman said.
What was not mentioned Tuesday among Senate Republicans was that $47.9 billion is the highest number that the most conservative members of the GOP Senate caucus have pledged to spend. Sen. Dawn Keefer (R., Cumberland), who led the House Freedom Caucus before her election to the state Senate last year, even went as far as to take a flamethrower to a replica of Shapiro’s budget proposal in a social media video earlier this year while promising viewers through a rhyme that she would “hold the line at $47.9″ billion.
Sign posted by the PA Senate at the Pennsylvania State Capitol in Harrisburg Aug. 26, 2025, reminds visitors of the state’s “multi-billion dollar structural deficit.”
Senate Democrats firmly rejected the GOP plan as a farce that would not cover the state’s obligations for this fiscal year or make critical increases to public education funding needed to improve Pennsylvania’s school funding system. The top Senate Democratic leader, Sen. Jay Costa (D., Allegheny), tried several legislative maneuvers to try to get the Senate to vote on the House Democrats’ bill instead of the GOP proposal, all of which failed.
“They thumbed their noses and they said, ‘Go to heck,’” State Sen. Vincent Hughes (D., Philadelphia), the minority chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee, said of his GOP colleagues’ response to the House bill ahead of Tuesday’s vote.
Senator Vincent Hughes, speaks at the Round table with Pennsylvania lawmakers, stakeholders, health systems to discuss potential cuts to Medicaid and ACA at the University City Science Center in Philadelphia, Pa., on Tuesday, April 22, 2025.
Shapiro, following a news conference in Allegheny County on Tuesday, voiced a similar sentiment when he told reporters the Senate’s proposal was “a joke” and “not designed to be serious or get the job done.” He again urged top GOP Senate leaders to begin meeting with top House Democrats to finalize a budget deal.
“I’m sorry transit didn’t get funded. But just because your top priority didn’t get addressed doesn’t mean that our priorities are no longer relevant, and that’s a hard truth,” Pittman,who has been critical of Pennsylvania’s mass transit systems and was a major roadblock in finalizing a deal, said Tuesday.
And, as evidenced by Tuesday’s vote, leaders still do not agree on how much Pennsylvania should spend for the current fiscal year, now almost in its fifth month. Pennsylvania is the only state in the nation without any spending plan. North Carolina, which passed a six-month budget in early summer, returned to session this week to finish budget negotiations.
Still in his gear after a lengthy practice on Tuesday, Travis Konecny was asked about the mighty yell he let out after punching in his first goal of the season in the Flyers’ 5-2 win against the Seattle Kraken the night before.
“Yeah, I mean, now I don’t have to hear about being snakebit again,” he said, eliciting a laugh as he seemed to poke fun at a question he was asked after Thursday night’s 5-2 loss to the Winnipeg Jets. “No, I mean, it was a big goal during the game. It wasn’t anything special about that one. It was just a big time in the game.”
Konecny has led the Flyers in scoring for five of the past six seasons, including the last four, but after putting up consecutive campaigns of 31 and 33 goals, Konecny slipped to 24 last season — and only three of those came over the final 35 games. He entered this season knowing he had to be more consistent across the 82-game slate, but despite not scoring through the first five games, he was contributing in other facets.
“I think sometimes when you’re looking for offense, you’re trying too hard, you almost want to do too many plays,” said his centerman, Sean Couturier. “And I’ve seen over the last two games a little more simplicity in his game, where he’s just making the easy pass and getting open, using his speed to go to the net and cycling.”
The 5-foot-10, 192-pound Konecny is throwing big checks, too. While Garnet Hathaway leads the Flyers with 24 hits, Konecny is fifth with nine — six of which have come in the past two games.
On Saturday against the Minnesota Wild, he had three of his four hits in the second period. One of them generated a roar from the crowd and seemed to spark the Flyers, who trailed by a goal before winning, 2-1, in overtime.
After the Noah Cates line had trouble getting out of its end, Konecny finally came on for a change. The Flyers worked the puck out from Couturier to Bobby Brink to Konecny. The two-time All-Star dumped it in and chased — crushing the 6-foot-2, 196-pound Jonas Brodin to the ground at the end boards.
Flyers right wing Travis Konecny is seeking a third 30-goal season.
Did it carry into Monday night?
“A little bit, yeah, for sure,” he said. “I mean, sometimes when I’m in that mood, it’s something that helps the team, but in the moment, some of it’s just for me, getting some anger out. And I think that in some ways that helps the team.
“But, yeah, that specific time I remember there was one that was meant for the team and one that was for me.”
Despite not burying the puck until Monday — which gave him 199 goals in 652 regular-season games — Konecny still was playing a key role for the Flyers. He’s had those big hits, dished out two assists, and is big reason why the penalty kill is tied for 10th in the NHL (83.3%). According to Natural Stat Trick, at five-on-five, the Flyers have scored four goals while giving up just two when he is on the ice.
“Well, right now, I think he was looking for a little bit for his game offensively, but I think he was, in our zone, he was really in the right positions, being on the D side and winning battles down low, helping me out a lot as a centerman,” Couturier said. “So I think when you’re not on your offensive game, and you find ways to help the team in other ways, that’s what you mean by taking care of details.”
And then he stood up for Owen Tippett. Late in the third period of a game that was out of reach for the visitors, Tippett was drilled from behind by Kraken defenseman Ryan Lindgren. Konecny went after him, dropping the gloves.
“I saw him keep going at Tipp, and he’s our hottest guy,” Konecny said of his teammate, who has five goals in the first six games. “It was just one of those things where I was just kind of in my head, like, ‘What are you doing?’ And then he tried to jump me.”
What did the captain Couturier say to Konecny afterward?
“Great job, way to go,” he said.
So, any history between the Flyers winger and former New York Rangers defenseman?
“There is now,” Konecny said with a smile.
Breakaways
The Flyers are off on Wednesday before taking on the Senators in Ottawa on Thursday (7 p.m., NBCSP). … Submit entries for Around the Rinks, which highlights the local ice, ball, and inline hockey scenes, Thursdays online and Fridays in the paper, by noon every Thursday with Around the Rinks in the subject line to jspiegel@inquirer.com. Entries can include information about your league, big moments on the ice, upcoming rivalry games, favorite players, and more.
Sen. John Fetterman (D., Pa.) said he would back a Republican plan to override the Senate filibuster if it meant passing a bill to reopen the government.
In an interview with The Inquirer on Tuesday, Fetterman admonished fellow Democrats who balk at the notion of using the so-called nuclear option to end the filibuster: “When I ran for Senate, everyone, including myself, said we’ve got to get rid of the filibuster. I don’t want to see any Democrats clutching their pearls about it now.
“If we’d had our way, the filibuster wouldn’t have been around for years.”
A staple of the Senate that has long been debated, the filibuster requires 60 votes to pass most legislation in the chamber.
Republicans have long vowed to protect the filibuster, noting that the 60-vote threshold presents a check on Democrats when they have the majority,but it’s now the rule standing in the way of their government funding bill. And in recent months, leaders have made moves to further weaken the minority party’s power, including bypassing the need to get Democratic support to confirm a slate of President Donald Trump’s nominees last month. Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R., S.D.) has thus far said he won’t use the same tactic to reopen the government.
Fetterman’s comments on Tuesday followed several Republicans floating the idea of getting rid of the filibuster in recent days.
Fetterman is one of three members of the Democratic caucus who voted with Republicans to reopen the government earlier this month, joining Sens. Catherine Cortez Masto of Nevada and Angus King, a Maine independent.
“If you look at my record, I’ve been voting the Democratic line, but this is different now. The tactic is wrong,” Fetterman said.
He said his main concern is the possibility that people in the state and across the country would face hunger if the federal government shutdown continues and Americans lose their Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits beginning Nov. 1.
“Nobody checks their political party when they’re hungry,” he said. “It’s not about a political side blinking. The only losers are the American people now.”
Fetterman added that he is in favor of extending tax credits, as Democrats are demanding during the shutdown. With those tax credits set to expire, people are going to start seeing higher prices when they sign up for health insurance come open enrollment in November, experts say.
“I don’t want people clobbered,” Fetterman said. “But Democrats designed them to expire this year. We passed these things when we were in the majority.”
Seeing room for dialogue, Fetterman said Thune “is an honorable man, and I believe a productive conversation to extend tax credits can be had with him.”
Sen. Andy Kim (D., N.J.) said he had multiple conversations with Senate Republicans on Tuesday who said they would “adamantly oppose” ending the filibuster.
“That’s been a huge part of how they’ve been able to lock down power here in D.C. before,” Kim said.
He said from his perspective, Senate Democrats are focused on getting the House back to work to negotiate a deal that includes the extended healthcare subsidies in a government funding bill.
“This is not an issue of Senate procedure. This is an issue of just doing our job.” Kim did not comment on Fetterman’s support for a filibuster carveout to end the shutdown.
In 2022, according to the media and politics site Mediaite, every Senate Democrat with the exceptions of then-Sens. Joe Manchin of West Virginia and Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona voted to eliminate the filibuster in a failed effort to pass former President Joe Biden’s elections overhaul.
A sometimes contrary figure, Fetterman has taken controversial stands in the past and is one of few Democrats who actively works with Republicans.
He has been criticized by progressives for his unwavering support of Israel in its war against Hamas.
And Fetterman garnered the enmity of some Democrats (and the praise of President Donald Trump) when he defended Immigration and Customs Enforcement by saying fellow Democrats’ calls to abolish the agency were “inappropriate and outrageous.”
JP Clark has been named head coach of the 76ers’ G League affiliate, the Delaware Blue Coats.
He replaces Mike Longabardi, who was promoted to an assistant coach with the Sixers this summer. Clark had served as a Blue Coats assistant since 2021. Before joining the organization, he spent seven years with the Los Angeles Clippers. He started his professional basketball coaching career with the Boston Celtics, first as an assistant coach for their G League affiliate, the Maine Red Claws. He later served as a Celtics player development assistant.
“I am thrilled to have the opportunity to coach this team and work with the great people in this organization,” Clark said. “I extend my sincere thanks to Daryl Morey, Nick Nurse, and [Blue Coats general manager] Ariana Andonian for this tremendous opportunity and for their confidence in me.
“I look forward to building on the Blue Coats’ strong history of player development and winning to achieve even greater accomplishments together.”
During his tenure in Delaware, the Blue Coats won a G League title (2023) and a Winter Showcase Cup (2021). The team also amassed three Eastern Conference titles.
The Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia called new evidence presented by President Donald Trump’s administration weak and untrustworthy in a blistering legal response to federal efforts to investigate its doctors providing gender-affirming care.
CHOP’s response, filed late Monday in federal court in Philadelphia, came in defense of accusations by the U.S. Department of Justice that it’s investigating “fraudulent billing practices“ at the hospital.Federal officials say they’re looking into whether CHOP doctors were fudging or lying about diagnoses to get private and public health insurance companies to cover off-label drug prescriptions used to treat patients with gender dysphoria — a medical condition in which a person’s body does not match their gender identity.
In its filing, CHOP lawyers called the DOJ’s allegations “unreliable,” and urged U.S. District Court Judge Mark A. Kearney to disregard claims that are “threadbare, of dubious origin, and so heavily qualified and caveated as to offer the court no meaningful information.”
CHOP and the DOJ are locked in a legal battle over a sweeping federal subpoena sent to the hospital in June. The subpoena seeks patient names, Social Security numbers, addresses, diagnoses, and treatment notes, in addition to doctor emails and encrypted text messages.
In July, CHOP filed a motion to limit the scope of the subpoena to protect patient privacy. Judge Kearney is now weighing CHOP’s motion.
In the latest filing, CHOP’s lawyers argued the DOJ’s “new evidence” against the hospital was unfairly “shoehorned” into a separate but related case filed last month by a group of CHOP patients and their families who also want Kearney to block the release of private medical records to the DOJ.
“That new evidence should not be considered because it is not before the Court in this case and is unreliable in any event,” CHOP lawyers wrote in the filing. “The government (still) cannot establish that its need for extraordinarily sensitive and personal patient information outweighs the highest-order privacy interests on the other side of the ledger.”
The DOJ did not immediately respond Tuesday to a request for comment.
Feds seek patient information from CHOP
In April, U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi issued a memo, entitled “Preventing the Mutilation of American Children,” in which she tasked the DOJ with enforcing measures targeting gender-affirming care for youth.
About two months later, the DOJ sent subpoenas to CHOP and at least 19 other hospitals nationally that are under scrutiny for treating transgender youth. The subpoenas sparked legal opposition playing out in federal courts in Pennsylvania and across the nation.
The DOJ’skey focus is how doctors are prescribing puberty blockers and hormones “off-label,” meaning for a condition not specifically approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.
Once a drug is approved by the FDA, it is legal for doctors to prescribe it to treat other conditions that could benefit from the medication. Off-label prescribing is a common and widely accepted medical practice, especially in pediatrics.
Gender-affirming care for children and adolescents has been deemed medically appropriate by the American Academy of Pediatrics and other major medical and mental health organizations. Research shows young people with gender dysphoria suffer higher rates of suicide, self-harm, depression, and anxiety.
CHOP’s Gender and Sexuality Development Program, created in 2014, is one of the nation’s largest such clinics and provides medical care and mental health support to hundreds of new families each year.
CHOP’s legal fight for patient privacy
Late last month, families and patients joined in CHOP’s fight against the federal subpoena by filing a separate motion to protect their privacy rights. That motion was filed on behalf of five parents with transgender children and one adult who received care at CHOP.
In response to that case, the DOJ filed a “Declaration,” or sworn statement, from Lisa Hsiao, acting director of the DOJ’s Enforcement and Affirmative Litigation Branch, formerly known as the Consumer Protection Branch. In it, Hsiao said the government has new evidence “particular to CHOP that raises concern that federal healthcare offenses may be occurring there.”
Hsiao said the government analyzed CHOP’sinsurance claims and found that between 2017 and 2024, CHOP providers diagnosed 250 minors with central precocious puberty at age 10 or older, “including numerous teenagers aged 14 to 18.”
“This is well beyond the age at which children are typically diagnosed with precocious puberty,” Hsiao stated. The government, she said, suspects doctors are improperly using the precocious puberty diagnosis to get insurance coverage for treatment of gender dysphoria.
In Monday’s court filing, CHOP lawyers accused the DOJ of attempting to “shoehorn its new evidence into CHOP’s case” through the other case.
CHOP also argued Hsiao’s declaration provides nothing to support its contentions surrounding precocious puberty diagnosis.
“Moreover, the government fails to contextualize the findings of its rudimentary analysis, offering no comparator for the use of the code for precocious puberty at peer hospitals, let alone hospitals that, like CHOP, have providers who specialize in treating endocrine disorders,” CHOP lawyers wrote.
The source of “the data set is entirely unknown,” CHOP’s lawyers noted, addingthe declaration never says how many patients were treated for gender dysphoria during that time frame.
The CHOP lawyers also criticized Hsiao for writing in her sworn declaration that the government was aware of a lawsuit filed against CHOP that alleges doctors hastily prescribed puberty blockers and hormones to a minor who later regretted it.
Hsiao later refiled the declaration to remove any reference to a lawsuit after learning that it hadn’t been filed.
CHOP lawyers wrote they believe the lawsuit reference came from a news article about a former CHOP patient. The article said the patient “was suing the hospital.” However, CHOP was unaware of any such lawsuit.
“The similarities between the report and the allegations in the Hsiao Declaration — including the reference to a lawsuit — raise suspicions that, in looking to justify its investigative interest in CHOP, the government simply searched the internet for stories fitting its narrative and presented the one it found as fact without adequately scrutinizing its veracity.”
The Eagles edge rusher corps is even more banged up following the win over the Minnesota Vikings than it was before the game, when rumors began to swirl about the end of Brandon Graham’s retirement.
Azeez Ojulari exited Sunday’s game with a hamstring injury, making him the third edge rusher to be sidelined with an ailment through seven contests this season. Nolan Smith and Ogbo Okoronkwo are out with triceps injuries. Smith is expected to return in November following the Eagles’ Week 9 bye, and Okoronkwo is done for the year.
Defensive coordinator Vic Fangio said Tuesday he doesn’t think Ojulari will be available to play Sunday against the New York Giants, the team that drafted him 50th overall out of Georgia in 2021.
So could Graham suit up on Sunday, given that the Eagles have just three healthy, full-time edge rushers — Jalyx Hunt, Joshua Uche, and Patrick Johnson — on the active roster?
The 37-year-old defensive end announced that he was coming out of retirement to rejoin the Eagles on Tuesday morning on his podcast, Brandon Graham Unblocked. Graham estimated that he would return to action after the bye week for the Eagles’ Monday night game against the Green Bay Packers.
That timetable would give him three weeks, including the bye, to get up to speed. But Fangio left Graham’s potential return date open-ended.
“We’ll see what kind of shape he’s in, what kind of retention he has from last year,” Fangio said. “Shape comes in two forms: one, just your conditioning, but in football shape, too. Contact shape. So hopefully the sooner the better.”
Fangio said he had been “teasing [Graham] not to retire” since the Eagles’ Super Bowl LIX victory in February. That ribbing continued into this season whenever Graham would visit the NovaCare Complex in an effort, Fangio said, to “try and light the fire.”
Now, following the surprise retirement of Za’Darius Smith last week, Graham is back under Fangio’s tutelage. The Eagles defensive coordinator said Graham’s experience in his defense last season gives him some reassurance that the 15-year veteran will have retained that knowledge.
Fangio wouldn’t put a number on Graham’s estimated snap count upon his return based on experience with other veteran edge rushers.
“I don’t know,” Fangio said. “Now, he’s coming out of retirement and he’s older, but when I was in Chicago, we traded for Khalil Mack, who had missed the entire training camp, and the fatigue police said, ‘Hey, he can only play about 20-22 snaps in this game’ because we got him the week of the first game. I said, ‘OK.’ He played about 45. So I don’t know.”
Dean’s return
Sunday marked Nakobe Dean’s first defensive snaps in 280 days, dating back to the wild-card matchup against the Packers in which he suffered a patellar tendon injury in his knee.
Dean had a busy afternoon. He played 31 defensive snaps (45%) at inside linebacker alongside Zack Baun.
Eagles linebacker Nakobe Dean played his first 31 defensive snaps on Sunday.
Entering the game, Fangio said he had planned for Dean to solely take snaps at inside linebacker when the Eagles were in base defense. In nickel, Jihaad Campbell would replace him. However, Fangio adjusted that plan in-game, keeping Dean at inside linebacker in nickel for select plays and moving Campbell to the edge, a role the rookie had filled in select packages throughout the season.
“I think he got about 30 plays, which I think was a good number, and the way they came was good, too,” Fangio said of Dean. “It wasn’t like he had 10 in a row, I don’t think. And I thought he did well. And I think we did the right thing in not playing him the week before, even though we technically could have.”
Fangio said Dean did not play defensively the previous week against the Giants because he didn’t have enough practice time.
“It would’ve been negligent on our part to put him out there without practice,” Fangio said.
Campbell, the Eagles’ top pick out of Alabama, ended up playing 60 snaps (87%) on Sunday. That broke down to 32 at inside linebacker and 28 on the edge, according to Pro Football Focus. He generated just one quarterback pressure from the edge alignment, according to Next Gen Stats, on five pass rushes.
“It’s new out there, particularly the packages he was going up there earlier were different than this week, this past game,” Fangio said of Campbell. “So there’s a lot to learn. There’s a lot to get comfortable with. The more he’s up there, the better he’ll get at it.”
Cornerback carousel
The Eagles saw continued movement at their second outside cornerback spot opposite Quinyon Mitchell when Adoree’ Jackson (concussion) left the Vikings game in the third quarter.
Kelee Ringo took Jackson’s place, but he didn’t fare as well. Before exiting the game, Jackson had allowed just one reception for 11 yards, according to PFF. Ringo conceded three for 47 yards, including a 25-yarder to wide receiver Jordan Addison in the fourth quarter on a drive that sputtered in the red zone.
Still, Fangio said Ringo did “fine” when he was called to action.
“Some of the completions he’s given up, not all of them, but some of them have come on tough routes,” Fangio said. “So still think he can eventually be better than he’s been. His opportunities will keep coming, probably, and hopefully he’ll turn the corner.”
Eagles cornerback Jakorian Bennett’s 21-day practice window can be opened this week.
Another opportunity for Ringo to play could come against the Giants if Jackson isn’t cleared to return by then. But he might not be the only candidate for the job. Corner Jakorian Bennett, who has been on injured reserve with a pectoral ailment since late September, is eligible to have his 21-day practice window opened this week.
The 5-foot-10, 200-pound Bennett was acquired from the Las Vegas Raiders during training camp in exchange for defensive tackle Thomas Booker. He saw limited action through three regular-season games, playing just 24 defensive snaps in spot duty.
Fangio said his assessment of Bennett preinjury was “incomplete” because he didn’t play enough. He also hesitated to define his precise role upon his eventual return to the active roster.
“He hasn’t practiced,” Fangio said. “You can’t practice when you’re on IR. So once we open up his window and get him on the practice field, see where he’s at, I can answer that better. But, obviously, he’s a guy we’ll take a hard look at.”
As nearly 2 million Pennsylvanians brace for the loss of their food assistance next month due to thefederalgovernment shutdown, the Pennsylvania Department of Human Services is pinning the blame on Republicans on Capitol Hill.
States administer the federally funded Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, which provides support to low-income people, including families with children. But as the standoff in Congress prevents federal funding from flowing to states, Democratic Gov. Josh Shapiro’s administration entered the messaging battle over the cause of the disruption to benefits.
“Because Republicans in Washington D.C., failed to pass a federal budget, causing the federal government shutdown, November 2025 SNAP benefits cannot be paid,“ reads a pastel orange banner on the DHS website from Friday, alerting recipients of the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program to the impending changes.
The message reflects the mounting impacts of the government shutdown, which is in its third full week, and the growing political tensions between Republicans and Democrats on the state and national levels after lawmakers failed to pass funding to avert a government shutdown by Oct. 1.
Shapiro has frequently gone head-to-head with the Trump administration, but the use of a state government website is a notable escalation.
The governor said in a news release Monday that Congress already had kicked off hundreds of thousands of Pennsylvanians from Medicaid and SNAP when it passed President Donald Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill Act in July.
“Now, Republicans are once again threatening vital support for Pennsylvania families and children — it’s time for them to pass a federal budget and end this shutdown.”
Pennsylvania Human Services Secretary Val Arkoosh added that “Inaction from Republicans in Congress” jeopardizes the well-being of Pennsylvanians.
A significant impact will be felt next month in Philadelphia, where half a million people will not receive SNAP benefits. The program,which is funded by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, serves households including elderly people, individuals with disabilities, and children.
Another Democratic-led state, Illinois, also referred to the lapse in funding as the “Republican federal government shutdown” on its benefits webpage. Other Democratic-led states near Pennsylvania, New Jersey and Delaware, have not posted political messages on their states’ SNAP benefits pages.
Republicans in Pennsylvania criticized the use of the DHS website for a partisan message.
“Public service isn’t a political weapon and using a government website to fuel your partisan agenda is indefensible,” the Pennsylvania GOPwrote Monday in a post on X.
The shutdown is “Democrat-led,” says the Trump administration’s State Department website.
“The Radical Left in Congress shut down the government,” declares a bright red banner on the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development homepage.
The rising political pressure comes as the Trump administration began rolling out highly politicized messaging to the public and federal employees after the government shutdown began earlier this month.
And some federal workers — nonpartisan civil servants who have been coping with plummeting morale and either being furloughed or working without pay during the shutdown — have been on the receiving end of politicized messaging, too.
“Is it funny?” “Am I just old?” “What does it actually mean?”
Those are common questions you’ll come across while searching for “six-seven” (or “6-7”), a phrase that has eclipsed internet obscurity and made its way into everyday speech, filling timelines, classrooms, and group chats in a way only the chronically online could understand.
The numbers, said out loud together, are really just that. It’s not code, or sexual innuendo. In reality, it’s just a lyric lifted from a song by Kensington-based rapper Skrilla.
The 27-year-old rapper, whose legal name is Jemille Edwards, has over 130 million streams across platforms and continues to rise in popularity.
In 2023, he signed with Priority Records — a Los Angeles-based label significant within the rap scene that worked with N.W.A and Ice Cube. Last year, his album Zombie Love Kensington Paradise earned praise in the industry.
The 19-track album, which he rereleased this year as a deluxe version with eight additional songs, underlines Edwards’ “affinity for the neighborhood while displaying his vocal flexibility and off-kilter delivery,” Pitchfork said in its mostly positive review, calling him likely “on the road to rap stardom.”
Philly rapper Tierra Whack has repeatedly shouted out Skrilla’s work while North Philly’s Lil Uzi Vert has collaborated with him.
In August, Edwards was arrested by Philadelphia Police during a music video shoot where he used a toy gun filled with gel pellets to shoot at an officer. He was charged with assaulting a police officer and related offenses.
One particular single by Skrilla has raised the rapper’s internet prominence.
Where did ‘six-seven’ come from?
Skrilla raps the lyric “six-seven” in his song “Doot Doot (6 7),” a track from the deluxe version of Zombie Love Kensington Paradise about life on the streets, fast cars, money, violence, and loss.
It’s a high-energy track that nods to Skrilla’s drill-rap style. The song’s chorus includes the lines, “6-7, I just bipped right on the highway,” and “pull up, doot-doot.”
What does ‘six-seven’ mean?
Philadelphia Eagles offensive tackle Laekin Vakalahi smiles while taking the field during the first day of Eagles Training Camp at the NovaCare Complex on Wednesday, July 23, 2025 in Philadelphia.
Well, it’s ambiguous. And Skrilla has said in interviews that he kind of likes it that way.
Meme lovers and unofficial lyric decoders have theories. Many think it refers to 67th Street in Philly, where Skrilla grew up (that’s what the Washington Post went with).
Owen Carry with Know Your Meme believes the Philadelphia ties are “largely speculative.”
Others think that it’s a nod to 67th Street in Chicago, where he has family. Taylor Jones, a linguistics and African American English expert, suggested it might be a nod to police radio code, where 10-67 is used to notify of a death. A contributor on Genius, a site dedicated to annotating song lyrics, theorized it was a reference to burial plots, six feet under and seven feet apart.
“Everybody else got their own different meaning,” Skrilla told Complex recently. “But for me, it’s just ‘negative to positive.’”
The most important part here is that it doesn’t really matter.
“Six-seven” has taken on a life of its own in recent months due to the pedestal it’s been placed on across TikTok and other social media platforms.
Why is ‘six-seven’ so popular?
The meme’s origins date back to late last year when Skrilla unofficially released “Doot Doot (6 7)” via Instagram as a leftover track from Zombie Love Kensington Paradise. It quickly started making the rounds on TikTok.
Content creators were using the line from the chorus in different, playful, extremely unserious ways: edits of a 6-foot-7 basketball player, lip dub memes, and scenarios that force someone to say the two numbers together. The creators are often nonsensical and copy Skrilla’s vocal pattern, a singsong “six-seven,” usually coupled with an open-palmed hand gesture.
Experts at Know Your Meme, who have been tracking the phenomenon since its inception, say videos surrounding “six-seven” have been viewed millions upon millions of times.
“The trend started with a series of bait-and-switch LaMelo Ball (of the Charlotte Hornets) edits late last year, which would intro with a random clip that included someone saying, ‘six-seven,’ and then switch to a Ball highlight reel,” said Carry, associate editor at Know Your Meme. “Skrilla’s ‘6-7′ lyric was used to queue the transition (Ball is 6 feet, 7 inches, which is relevant to why he was chosen).”
In turn, Carry said, young boys especially have been saying the numbers on camera in hopes of becoming the next NBA TikTok edit star.
“Six is a perfect number, and seven is a prime number, but only a glutton for punishment would put them together in front of a bunch of 13-year-olds,” the Wall Street Journal wrote in a piece about how the meme is wreaking havoc across campuses.
It’s safe to say the phrase has officially made its way into the mainstream.
“South Park” continued a buzzy season with its latest episode, “Twisted Christian,” on Oct. 15.
“Six-seven” was mentioned in a recent South Park episode where the kids can’t stop using the phrase, leading to an assembly about the Antichrist and satanic numerology.
Pro wrestler Je’Von Evans wore a “67″ jersey during his walk-in entrance last week, Shaq has given the trend his blessing (though he admits he doesn’t totally get it), and Skrilla claims the song will be included in the Grand Theft Auto VI soundtrack, though that hasn’t been made official yet.
Skrilla also performed the track in Philly last month when millennial icon Natasha Bedingfield, who was performing at the Theatre of Living Arts, pulled him on stage for a guest appearance. Bedingfield told Complex she’s a fan of the rapper and would like to get on a remix of “Doot Doot (6 7).”
Skrilla will be back in town at the Fillmore on Nov. 30.
What has Skrilla said about it?
In an interview this week with the Washington Post, he suggested the song referred to 67th Street in Philly, a block where a lot of his friends lived. It’s worth noting there isn’t a 67th Street in Kensington.
“We just rode by a truck that had ‘6-7’ written on it in dust, in Arizona, all the way out here,” the rapper said, speaking from a gas station on the way to Los Angeles.
The Inquirer couldn’t reach Skrilla for additional comment.
Will ‘six-seven’ still be cool by the time I start saying it?
Probably not.
With its place solidified in the mainstream — being analyzed by linguistic experts, printed on merch, and reported on by multiple newspapers (including this one), it’s safe to say the trend is likely on its way out the door.
But at least, for a fleeting moment, you can say you know what it means — which is nothing.
Former President Joe Biden completed a round of radiation therapy at a Penn Medicine cancer center in Philadelphia Monday as part of his treatment for prostate cancer, according to a family representative.
Biden, 82, announced in May that he had been diagnosed with an aggressive form of the disease that had spread to his bones.
A spokesperson for the Bidens, Kelly Scully, said that following his treatment over the course of several weeks, Biden “rang the bell” at Penn, alongside his wife, Jill Biden, his daughter Ashley Biden and grandchildren, Hunter and Finnegan.
Ringing the bell at Penn typically signifies that a patient has completed cancer treatment, according to the health system.
But Biden has not yet made a statement on his treatment, and it wasn’t immediately clear if the former president would need additional treatment.
Ashley Biden posted a story on her Instagram of the bell-ringing moment alongside a woman who Scully confirmed was Biden’s doctor at Penn. Another photo showed the doctor with a bouquet of flowers standing with Biden.
“Dad has been so damn brave throughout his treatment,” Ashley Biden wrote in her post. “Grateful.”
A Penn spokesperson directed questions to the Biden family.
