Philadelphia can’t prevent U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents and other federal officers from concealing their identities, a federal judge ruled Thursday.
U.S. District Judge Chad F. Kenney issued an order preventing Mayor Cherelle L. Parker’s administration and District Attorney Larry Krasner’s office from barring federallaw enforcement officers from wearing masks, intentionally covering their badges, or using unmarked vehicles.
The U.S. Constitution’s Supremacy Clause prevents states — or a city in this case — from imposing requirements on how federal agencies carry out their duties, the judge appointed by President Donald Trump said.
When City Council passed the bill in April as part of the ICE Out legislative package, the lawmakers “attempted to sidestep the Constitution’s clear mandate and disregarded this fundamental principle of law that has informed American jurisprudence for over 200 years,” Kenney’s opinion said.
Parker allowed the bill to become law without her signature, following City Solicitor Renee Garcia’s advice that signing the bill “would send an inaccurate signal to the public that the Administration can legally and practically enforce” its provisions.
“Mayor Cherelle Parker acted with civic wisdom and courage to stand up for the Constitution and follow the rule of law to where it led, despite what may have been strong personal inclinations to the contrary,” the judge said.
While the ordinance’s requirements apply to all law enforcement, its inclusion in an “ICE Out” package suggested the city planned to be selective in its enforcement, Kenney said.
“The Department of Justice will keep fighting jurisdictions that try to obstruct President Trump’s immigration enforcement with policies that endanger agents and public safety,” a department spokesperson said.
The city is reviewing the ruling and potential next steps, a law department spokesperson said.
Kenney showed an “unnecessary urgency” from the beginning of the case, Krasner said.
“The red-hot rush of this federal district court judge, a Delaware County Republican appointed by Donald Trump, was predictable,” the district attorney said.
The ordinance at the heart of the litigation made it a crime for law enforcement officers, including Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents, to wear face coverings or conceal personal identifiers like badges and nameplates while carrying out their official duties in Philadelphia, and required officers to identify themselves. It also prohibited the use of unmarked vehicles.
The bill included exceptions allowing officers to wear masks in certain circumstances, such as medical emergencies or SWAT operations.
An officer could face up to 90 days in jail plus a fine for violating the ordinance.
The other bills prohibit federal immigration agencies from staging raids on city-owned property, ban discrimination on the basis of citizenship status, and prohibit the city from engaging in most forms of information-sharing with ICE.
Parker signed the six other bills, which will take effect Tuesday.
Kendra Brooks shown here during a press conference at City Hall to announce a package of bills aimed at pushing back against ICE enforcement in Philadelphia, January 27, 2026.
Officials from various federal agencies told the court the bill would harm their operations and officers.
Members of the public routinely dox ICE agents, who are later subject to threats, John Rife, acting director of ICE’s Philadelphia field office, said in a filing.
“Facial coverings reduce the risk of officers’ personal identities being shared publicly, which helps ensure that officers’ privacy and safety, and that of their family members, remains intact,” Rife said.
The city argued the litigation was premature as the ordinance hasn’t gone into effect and there was no attempt to enforce it.
The city also said federal agents had applied “aggressive enforcement tactics behind the mask of anonymity, undermining public safety and trust.”
But Kenney’s opinion said, “there can be no public interest” in enforcing a provision that violates the Constitution.
It doesn’t make sense that the city can’t hold federal officers to the same standard it holds its own police department to, Councilmember Rue Landau, who authored the bills with fellow progressive Kendra Brooks, said in a statement.
The Trump administration has sued other jurisdictions, including New Jersey, over similar requirements. In April, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit found that a California bill requiring agents to “visibly display identification” was unconstitutional.
“It’s unfortunate the Parker administration’s own doubts were used against the bill in this injunction,” Brooks said in a statement. “No one else is dealing with that dynamic in their lawsuits.”
While all eyes are on Independence Hall this week, something almost unfathomable happened more than 200 years ago: It was nearly demolished.
Between the 18th and 19th centuries, Pennsylvania’s capital had moved to Harrisburg from Philadelphia, by way of Lancaster, and lawmakers wanted a new statehouse. The obsolete building then known as the Old State House in Philadelphia, on Chestnut between Fifth and Sixth Streets, was on prime real estate, according to Villanova University professor and historian Whitney Martinko.
So, they contemplated demolishing the building and selling off the salvage and parcels of land to the highest bidders to fund the grand statehouse. But Philadelphians mounted a campaign to save what’s now called Independence Hall — the Georgian-style building where the Declaration of Independence and U.S. Constitution were debated and drafted. Today, Independence Hall stands as a testament to the Founding Fathers’ ideals as the country prepares for its 250th birthday this Saturday.
“People looked to Independence Hall — already in the 1810s — as an important building and historic site,” said Martinko, who studies historic preservation in the early U.S. “Some of those people were residents of Philadelphia who didn’t want to lose a local landmark … but other people were really tourists who came to Philadelphia to see the site.”
Independence Hall in 1950, looking north from Walnut Street, in the area that would become Independence Mall.
The state initially wouldn’t budge on its $150,000 price tag for the building, according to Martinko’s research, but after its yearslong campaign, the city ultimately purchased the plot for $70,000, or less than $2 million today. The deal, which was finalized in 1818, cemented Independence Hall’s legacy as a monument to the great American experiment.
Government offices occupied the building, while the State House yard remained public green space. What’s now Independence National Historical Park was once a maze of industry, mixed-use buildings, and alleyways.
By the mid-20th century, those blocks were razed, with some giving way to Independence Mall, in a push to beautify and boost civic pride.
“Preservation and stewardship of historic sites is an ongoing decision — it’s very easy to take for granted buildings that are preserved today are going to be there tomorrow,“ Martinko said, ”but there’s no guarantee that any building will be here tomorrow or in 50 or 100 years.
“History needs stewards and we all need to think of ourselves as people who should be engaged with saving places.”
On a small Lancaster County farm last month, five of the eight King siblings sprawled on the living room floor, sucking on ice pops and listening to calming music, trying not to scratch their itchy skin.
The next county over, in Hershey, children were lying in hospital beds as their immune systems battled an infection damaging their organs.
Pennsylvania is now seeing its worst measles outbreak in 30 years, centered around rural counties just west of the Philadelphia metro area. Lancaster County has emerged as a particular hot spot, with 51 of the 89 total measles cases reported this year in the state.
Anti-vaccination sentiment is prevalent in Lancaster County, where vaccination rates among kindergarteners are some of the lowest in the state. Known for its agricultural bounty and the Amish and Mennonite communities that dot its rural landscapes, Lancaster is also home to the state’s eighth-largest city with an economy heavily supported by tourism and entertainment.
In Lancaster, doctors say many are flocking to local clinics and pop-up vaccination events as cases rise. But others, like the King family, remain resolute in their decision not to vaccinate, instead preparing to ride out what they hope will be an inconvenient summer interruption that builds character and family bonding.
The family isolated in their home for weeks in June while all eight unvaccinated children, who range in age from a 1 to 15, recovered from measles. Their 14-year-old son experienced the most severe symptoms, and went to the emergency department when coughing and nausea rendered him unable to keep down water or medicine.
“Measles isn’t fun, seeing your kids sick isn’t fun,” said Gina King, 41, who lives outside New Holland. But, she added, “I know this is going to be added to the King family core memories.”
The 89 cases Pennsylvania has recorded so far this year exceed by more than five times the cases recorded in 2025. Doctors say the official tally may be an undercount, with many cases going unreported.
An Inquirer analysis found both the metropolis and state increasingly have become vulnerable to a major outbreak.In the 2024-2025 school year, kindergarten vaccination rates in 50 of Pennsylvania’s 67 counties were below the 95% vaccination rate scientists consider necessary to keep the virus from spreading. And even in counties with vaccination rates near so-called “herd immunity,” school-level vaccine data show that susceptible communities pockmark the region.
The majority of measles cases resolve in weeks with mild-to-moderate flulike symptoms, but the disease can take life-altering and even deadly turns, especially for young children.
Doctors and nurses who spoke to The Inquirer could not comment on the King family’s experience because they did not treat them.
But they cautioned that they have seen the harm measles can do to a child’s body: neurological damage, respiratory infections, and pneumonia, which can lead to death.
“Each one of those cases where a child suffers something really devastating — it only takes seeing one for it to really be something that hits home very hard,” said Evan Shirey, a pediatric infectious disease physician who has treated several children with measles at Penn State Health Golisano Children’s Hospital this year.
On the front lines of measles
As a medical student, Shirey never expected he would treat a measles case himself. By 2000, vaccination rates across the United States were so high that the disease was declared eliminated.
“I read the textbooks like they were history books,” Shirey said.
But as vaccination rates decreased, he and other providers began preparing in the last couple of years. He feared inevitably seeing cases like the several adults and children treated at Penn State hospitals this year.
He declined to share details on the cases, saying hospitalization numbers are low enough that doing so would risk compromising patients’ privacy.
Shirey said he’s also fielding “constant” phone calls from pediatricians all over the state as they prepare for — or deal with — emerging measles cases.
Intensive protection measures implemented at Penn State hospitals in Dauphin County, for example, include testing patients with respiratory symptoms, or who were potentially exposed to measles, and isolating them while they wait for test results.
The virus is so contagious, it can infect nine in 10 people who haven’t been vaccinated.
“Airborne diseases are a whole other world,” said Nancy Himmelberger, a critical care registered nurse at Golisano Children’s Hospital and the vice president of its nurses’ union, which is affiliated with SEIU.
Shirey tries to explain to parents why vaccination is the best defense against measles. “I do encounter a lot of parents who truly want the best for their child, and they’re afraid because of what they see on TV or social media.”
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends children receive two doses of the measles, mumps, rubella (MMR) vaccine at 1 year of age and before starting kindergarten, typically around age 5.
The vaccine is among those required for students to attend school, though Pennsylvania’s lax rules allow families to opt out for medical, religious, or philosophical reasons.
In response to rising cases, Pennsylvania earlier this year updated its guidelines to recommend babies be given their first dose as early as 6 months.
Once someone is infected with measles, Shirey stresses, no treatments are available that specifically target the virus.
Vitamin A may be given to children who have been hospitalized with severe measles symptoms, but it is not a cure and cannot prevent the disease. Excessive amounts of vitamin A can be dangerous.
“For measles, it is supportive care and trying to manage the complications that occur,” Shirey said.
Gina King and her daughters pick strawberries at their home in Lancaster County.
Trying to change vaccine perspectives
When King and her husband, Shawn, began their family 15 years ago, they thought carefully about each vaccine recommended for their babies. They read package labels and looked up ingredients. For each shot, they considered whether they were more comfortable with the risk of side effects from the vaccine, or the risk of illness from skipping it.
When their pediatrician recommended a hepatitis shot before traveling to India, the Kings decided the risk of the disease was greater than any potential side effects.
But when it came to the measles, mumps, rubella (MMR) vaccine, they were uncomfortable that the rubella portion of the vaccine was developed using cells of an aborted fetus.
Vaccines themselves do not contain fetal material. And most major religions promote vaccination, even if they oppose abortion, reasoning that parents have a moral duty to protect their children and the health of the public.
Gina and Shawn King’s sons relax in hammocks after being cooped up inside with measles for several days.
Measles at home
The Kings weren’t aware their children had been exposed to measles, but knew cases were spreading locally. When their two oldest sons, aged 14 and 15, began showing symptoms, they locked down their home.
They appreciated how people can be contagious before and after they experience symptoms. They have relatives with cancer and Down syndrome, conditions that could put them at risk of severe illness if they contracted measles.
“If you made the choice to not vaccinate, you knew there was a risk of getting sick,” King wrote in a tip sheet she created to share with other families. “We should care about others enough to be willing to make some sacrifices to protect vulnerable people.”
Grandparents offered to help care for the children, but the Kings declined for fear of getting anyone else sick.
Instead, friends and family left treats for the kids on the front porch, picked up grocery orders, and checked in through video chat.
Days four, five, and six, were the thorniest, King said. She draped chilled washcloths over the foreheads of her usually independent teens, brought them tea, and read books to them.
She spent at least one night sitting beside the bed of her 14-year-old son, whose coughing and nausea were so bad he couldn’t eat or drink, and she worried he’d become dehydrated.
“I just wanted to be there and keep an eye on him,” she said.
A few days after the boys started feeling well enough to go outside, the five girls, who range in age from 4 to 12, were sick. The baby experiencedthe most mild symptoms among the siblings.
King, who is vaccinated, also got sick, though her husband, who is not vaccinated, has yet to develop symptoms. Vaccinated people, in rare instances, can contract measles, and infection is more likely in an outbreak.
After being inside all day, it became part of the family’s routine to tuck the kids into the back of their family ATV with blankets and more ice pops, and ride around their property to say goodnight to the sheep, cows, horses, and fruit trees.
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Community support
Elsewhere in Lancaster, church communities and friend groups are encouraging people who are sick to stay home, as well asthose who are unvaccinated with a higher risk of severe illness.
Claudia Beiler, a Lancaster mother of five and a Christian wellness influencer,said she has dropped off vitamins, coffee, and dinner for friends and others in her community who were quarantining at home.
Beiler has posted frequently to her more than 110,000 Instagram followers about her decision not to vaccinate her children. She has also offered tips about how to weather measles cases at home.
Like the Kings, she says families who don’t vaccinate must avoid spreading the virus to vulnerable people.
“There’s a seriousness I’m proud of,” she said. “It feels like a lot of care and kindness.”
At Penn Medicine Lancaster General Hospital, physician JeffreyMartin is heartened when he hears that residents have decided to isolate themselves when diagnosed with the virus. He sees it as a measure of the community spirit inherent to Lancaster County.
But isolating once symptoms emerge isn’t enough to protect the community, since the virus can spread days before the first sneeze or cough. The disease’s signature rash typically does not appear for several days.
“‘I can accept the risk’ doesn’t play well with infectious disease,” he said. “Creating space for people to think about that on another level is really important.”
Amid the latest outbreak, Martin said, clinics run by the state health department and Penn Medicine have seen high attendance, with unvaccinated patients choosing to get the shot.
Martin and his colleagues don’t ask many questions about why: “We’re just thankful that people are showing up,” he said.
Philadelphia-based restaurateur Stephen Starr and his company, Starr Restaurants, settled with the National Labor Relations Board in May over union-busting allegations at his D.C. steakhouse St. Anselm, according to a copy of the settlement agreement obtained by the Inquirer.
The move is the latest in a lengthy dispute between Starr Restaurants and D.C. union Unite Here Local 25 at St. Anselm, where staffers voted 51 to 42 in favor ofunionizing in February 2025. Now more than 16 months later, Starr restaurants has yet to recognize the union, with more pending litigation leaving St. Anselm workers in limbo.
Reached on May 25, the settlement resolves a set of unfair labor practice (ULP) allegations that Local 25 filed with the NLRB on behalf of St. Anselm employees in June 2025. They alleged that Starr and a St. Anselm supervisor made promises of improved benefits for workers who voted against the union and directly coerced employees with false information. In one instance, they alleged, Starr interrogated a host about her involvement with Local 25 during a one-on-one conversation.
Starr “made a lot of promises about sick pay, about vacation pay,” Ana Reyes, a St. Anselm line cook, previously told the Inquirer, recalling a meeting the restaurateur had with staff during the union drive.
After an investigation, the NLRB’s general counsel found merit in the accusations that Starr Restaurants had violated the National Labor Relations Act, and it pursued charges against the company.
The settlement is not an admittance of wrongdoing and is similar to the standard penalty Starr Restaurants could have received had the case played out fully, according to James M. Cooney, a Rutgers University labor and employment law professor.
St. Anselm, Stephen Starr’s D.C. steakhouse.
The agreement requires Starr Restaurants to post a notice in St. Anselm for 60 days stating that the company will not:
“Threaten you that it would be futile” to unionize,
Solicit complaints and “imply that we will fix them” in order to discourage union support,
Give new or better wages and benefits to discourage unionizing,
Or “promise to pay you for previously unpaid leave” to dissuade workers from supporting a union.
The settlement “allows us to move on and get back to the business of delivering amazing hospitality to our guests,” a spokesperson for St. Anselm said in a statement. “We have vigorously denied, and continue to deny, all allegations listed in the original complaint, and are fully complying with the terms of the settlement while making no admission of violation.”
A delegation of workers pose in front Stephen Starr’s D.C. steakhouse St. Anselm before delivering their union petition in Feb. 2025.
That case remains open, and a hearing was held in mid-June where the NLRB heard testimony from witnesses on both sides. Unite Here Local 25, which represents more than 7,500 hospitality workers, is optimistic that settlement will open up a path to union recognition.
“We feel vindicated,” said Paul Schwalb, Local 25’s executive secretary-treasurer. “It’s the same board that’s going to oversee [the unionization case], and we are quite confident — because we did actually follow labor law — that at the end of the day this unit will be certified, and all the objections that Stephen Starr and his many lawyers have filed will be thrown out because they are not true.”
Legalese that ‘meant nothing’
The battle between Starr Restaurants and Local 25 began last January, when the union began to organize at three of Starr’s seven D.C restaurants: Pastis, a French bistro; the Parc-inspired Le Diplomate; and St. Anselm, an upscale steakhouse.
The efforts — which coincided with union drives at two other high-profile D.C restaurants — stood to add 500 members to Local 25. St. Anselm was the only one that voted to unionize. (Local 25 lost the union election at Pastis, and Le Diplomate’s has been suspended indefinitely.)
A picket line outside of Stephen Starr’s D.C. restaurant Le Diplomate, led by Unite Here Local 25 after Starr Restaurants challenged a unionization vote at St. Anselm.
Almost immediately, relations soured between Starr Restaurants and Local 25. The restaurant group hired anti-union consultants to meet with St. Anselm staff, Washingtonian magazine reported, while other employees told food publication Eater that Local 25 organizers were ambushing them at their homes to sign cards indicating they wanted a union vote.
Local 25 also called for an ongoing boycott of Starr’s D.C. restaurants — including those where no union efforts were taking place. Top Democrats such as Sen. Bernie Sanders, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortes, and Sen. Chuck Schumer signed on.
Legally, the settlement doesn’t state that Starr Restaurants broke any laws or affirm any of the union’s allegations. In practice, however, Cooney said that workers and employees might have a different interpretation.
Posting a notice “doesn’t sound very intimidating on its face, but employers will sometimes fight tooth and nail over the wording” or try to hide them, said Cooney. “Looking at it from the viewpoint of the common worker, if they see that notice … I think they would see it as an indication that a company violated the law.”
Starr Restaurants posted the notice required by the settlement inside St. Anselm on June 16 and also emailed a copy to staff.
Greg Varney (left) and Ana Reyes, both with Unite Here Local 25, outside Starr headquarters at 134 Market St. in July 2025.
When St. Anselm server Abigail Dunki-Jacobs received the email, it felt like “a bunch of legalese … that meant nothing,” she told The Inquirer. Dunki-Jacobs, who voted against the union, said she hasn’t heard much chatter among her colleagues after it was posted.
“It just feels like a list of facts to me,” she said. “Nobody even really gives a shit about it.”
Delays upon delays
Local 25 organizers and employees who voted for the union also find the settlement meaningless.
Starr Restaurants “didn’t have to admit to doing anything wrong with the statement they made,” said Ellery Grimm, a member of support staff at St. Anselm who helped organize the union drive. “We’ll be vindicated when we have our contract.”
St. Anselm’s union election case has sat unresolved with the NLRB for nearly a year and half, which Cooney said was abnormal. The agency tends to prioritize certifying election results over unfair labor practice allegations.
The NLRB has been beleaguered by delays for more than year, first from the firing of a board member that left the agency unable to issue rulings, and then from a government shutdown that furloughed employees.
The delays have caused at least one St. Anselm employee to quit. Bridget Killburn, a baker at the steakhouse, left in April after more than three years at the restaurant. She now works at a bakery in Maryland that she said offered higher pay and more time off — two things she hoped the union would’ve won by now.
A chef in the kitchen at Le Diplomate, one of Stephen Starr’s three D.C. restaurants that Unite Here Local 25 attempted to unionize.
“I’m someone who wants a very stable job with good pay, good benefits. At this rate, it felt like I was never going to get those things so I needed to try and find a workplace who would allow me to have them,” Killburn said.
Schwalb acknowledged that Local 25 hasn’t done any public campaigning at St. Anselm in months, and has abandoned the union drives at Starr’s other restaurants until all litigation is resolved.
“Rome and the restaurant union — neither one will be built in a day,” he said.
Check your change: You might have one of the U.S. Mint’s special-edition coins celebrating the nation’s 250th birthday.
For one year only, circulating nickels, dimes, quarters, and half-dollars will feature new historical designs. Part of the U.S. Mint’s Semiquincentennial program, many of the coins entered circulation at the beginning of the year.
“The program is the most significant redesign of the nation’s circulating coins in the past century,” said Jill Westeyn, acting chief of public affairs at the U.S. Mint. “These coins commemorate 250 years of American Liberty by reflecting our country’s founding principles and honoring our nation’s history.”
What’s on the coins
The quarter is a star of the program, boasting five different designs that highlight pivotal moments in American history.
The Mayflower Compact, signed in 1620 as one of the New World’s earliest documents establishing self-government, inspired one of the quarter’s designs, which features the iconic ship.
Motifs from the Declaration of Independence, the Revolutionary War, and the U.S. Constitution appear on three of the other quarters. Images include Philadelphia landmarks like the Liberty Bell and Independence Hall.
The fifth quarter honors President Abraham Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address. Meant to highlight the Civil War-era speech’s commitment to equality, the quarter depicts Lincoln on one side and clasped hands on the other.
The quarters are scheduled for circulation in separate intervals throughout the year. So far, the Mayflower Compact Quarter, the Revolutionary War Quarter, and the Declaration of Independence Quarter have been released. The remaining two designs will enter circulation later in the year.
The dime and half-dollar feature Liberty, an American allegorical figure of a mythical goddess. The dime includes her cap, a symbol of freedom in ancient Rome, and the half-dollar depicts Liberty gazing to her right, meant to convey looking toward the future.
The nickel may look familiar with its portrait of President Thomas Jefferson, but an addition of the dual date, “1776 ~ 2026,” updates the coin for the anniversary.
A collectible penny with the dual date is alsoavailable for purchase in annual sets sold on the mint’s website. The mint discontinued the copper cent in 2025 because it cost more to produce than it’s worth.
The bipartisan Citizens Coinage Advisory Committee had reportedly proposed designs for the 250th that will not see the light of day, including coins that would have commemorated the end of slavery, the women’s suffrage movement, and the civil rights movement. But Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, tasked with making the final design choices, did not pick any of those.
Other coins
President Donald Trump’s 24-karat gold coins, which feature his portrait and were also intended to highlight the country’s 250th anniversary, are not among the program. The U.S. Commission of Fine Arts voted unanimously to approve the design in March, but the coins are not slated for production until after July 4.
The U.S. Mint has approximately 1,400 employees across four production facilities (one of which is in Philadelphia), a bullion depository, and its headquarters in Washington, D.C. It produced 8 billion coins during fiscal year 2025, per the organization’s annual report.
This is the birthplace of democracy, and with it, comes the responsibilities that America’s founders left behind.
“The founders made clear that we have a real responsibility to do the work to constantly perfect our union,” Shapiro said in an interview this week, ahead of his speech before the ceremonial meeting of Congress, marking 250 years since the Declaration of Independence was signed in that same building. “And that the Congress of the United States has a unique responsibility in that to be a check on the executive branch.”
Those words come at a critical inflection point in America’s history, amid a tumultuous presidency, and as Shapiro is rumored to have aspirations of a White House bid in 2028. The first-term Democratic governor will appear before approximately 40 bipartisan members of Congress in Old City at the event convened by U.S. Rep. Brendan Boyle (D., Pa.), speaking to the lawmakers from across the country about their collective duty to the public. Shapiro will attend numerous other 250th celebrations across Philadelphia in the coming days, during which he said he plans to share his optimism for America’s future and deep concerns that President Donald Trump has led the nation astray from its founders’ design.
“I don’t think patriotism belongs to one party. I don’t think it should ever be partisan,” Shapiro said. “Unfortunately, Donald Trump routinely divides us, routinely injects partisanship into his definition of patriotism, and his actions, in many ways, are the opposite of patriotism.”
Assembly Room in Independence Hall (Pennsylvania State House) Monday, June 15, 2026. This is the exact space where the Second Continental Congress met and the Declaration of Independence was adopted.
As Trump plans to spend America’s 250th birthday hosting a politicalrally on the National Mall — with no plans to visit Philadelphia, the city where the nation was founded — Shapiro sees his own role as a unifier, and in direct contrast to Trump. As attention shifts to Philadelphia this weekend, he’ll appear on the national stage from sunup to sundown at events and on frequent TV hits — all with a home-turf advantage for his 2028 presidential prospects, as the governor of the nation’s quintessential swing state and also most important to the country’s founding.
“[Celebrating the 250th] allow the spotlight to shine on Shapiro, even though it’s not entirely about him,” said Alison Dagnes, a political-science professor at Shippensburg University. “Do I think that helps his ambitions? Sure.”
‘Direct contrast’
Sitting with Shapiro in his Harrisburg office earlier this week, it’s undeniable that he’s a history nerd — another reason why he was built for the moment.
He casually quotes segments of The Federalist Papers, and references his favorite story about Benjamin Franklin‘s fixation on a half-sun on the back of George Washington’s chair during the 1787 Constitutional Convention, which Franklin remarked during the U.S. Constitution signing that “it is a rising and not setting sun.” Without having to look for its location, he points to his right to a portrait of Franklin, one of his predecessors as governor of Pennsylvania, hanging on his office wall. He notes lesser-known Pennsylvanians who played an important role inthe nation’s founding whom he plans to highlight over the coming days.
“You know, I hate to quote a guy not from Pennsylvania,” Shapiro said, returning to The Federalist Papers to recite James Madison’s concerns about giving an executive too much power.
Gov. Josh Shapiro in the Capitol in Harrisburg Feb. 21, 2023.
“If Madison were here today, he’d be really concerned about how one man has accumulated so much power and is wielding it in really dangerous ways, and I hope that at this 250-year mark we find our way back to that balance and back to the constraints on the people who lead our government,” he said.
Shapiro sees his leadership style as a “direct contrast” to Trump’s, especially at this moment.
“[Trump] restricts peoples’ freedom and liberties,” the governor added. “He whitewashes our history. That doesn’t further a sense of community, that doesn’t further patriotism. All that does is divide us, and I refuse to participate in that.”
But for the next few days, Shapiro said his approach to the 250th celebrations is to: “Celebrate America, find ways to bring people together, and to have some fun in the process.”
Fair games
Despite his overtures of political unity, Shapiro has faced accusations from Republicans in recent days for playing partisan games over Pennsylvania’s participation in Trump’s 16-day Great American State Fair. Shapiro, in addition to several other Democratic governors last week, announced that Pennsylvania would not take part in the fair due to his administration being unable to secure any state businesses to sponsor the exhibit. Staffing and sponsoring the exhibit on the state’s dime would have cost $700,000 that would be better spent on in-state 250th events, he said this week.
In the weekend that followed, Pennsylvania’s U.S. senators, Republican Dave McCormick and Democrat John Fetterman, made a push to fill the state’s empty exhibit. By Tuesday, it was filled with antique flags lent by a York County man, bags of potato chips from Snyder County, and a Christmas tree display from Fayette County, among other Pennsylvania-centric items.
Pennsylvania’s pavilion showcases state history and memorabilia at the Great American State Fair on June 30, 2026, in Washington, D.C.
Some of the businesses originally told Shapiro’s office they didn’t have enough time to participate. But when McCormick and Fetterman approached them with the idea to fill the empty pavilion, they joined in.
“They obviously had a change of heart at the last minute. That’s fine,” Shapiro said about the revived Pennsylvania pavilion.
State Treasurer Stacy Garrity — Shapiro’s Republican challenger for governor, who has aligned herself with Trump — in a statement called Shapiro the “only career politician who has politicized America 250.”
“Josh Shapiro put his political ambitions above his commonwealth and his nation when he pulled Pennsylvania out of the national celebration of our 250th birthday in a pitiful attempt to score cheap political points with the liberal wing of his party,” Garrity said.
Beyond the 250th
Shapiro’s strength as a politician has always been his ability to appear “harmonizing” and bringing people together, dating back to his days as a Montgomery County commissioner, Dagnes said.
A careful politician, Shapiro is known to stick to his message and has faced criticism from some fellow Democrats for his well-rehearsed statements.
When Shapiro delivers his messages of unity and freedom to a broader audience in the coming days, voters are likely toview them as authentic — one of the most important qualities to any presidential hopeful, she added.
“If [California Gov.] Gavin Newsom is the guy who’s gonna punch Trump in the face, then Shapiro is going to be the guy who’s like, ‘No, let me offer you an alternative,’” Dagnes said.
“It’s what he should be doing right now, because this is what America is about,” she added.
Philadelphians sweated through Julys in the 1940s, brooding over World War II as temperatures averaged in the mid-to-upper 70s, including nighttime lows.
Today, as the city prepares to mark the nation’s 250th anniversary, they swelter under average July temperatures of around 80 degrees — and those nighttimes have gotten warmer.
Over the past 85 years, Julys in Philadelphia are running on average 4.4 degrees warmer than in 1940, based on an analysis of historical weather data. That translates to an increase of about 0.52 degrees per decade.
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Nights are even toastier, showing a rise of 4.8 degrees over the same time period.
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“Science shows that while summer heat is nothing new, climate change is pushing it beyond what we’ve experienced in the past,” Zachary Labe, a climate scientist at the nonprofit Climate Central, said in an email.
The Inquirer used 1940 as a base year in its analysis because it is the oldest year for consistent records at Philadelphia International Airport. The data from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Regional Climate Centers ends at July 2025.
The data does not include this July, which could set records.
105 degrees possible
The National Weather has issued an extreme heat warning with possible record highs starting Thursday and heading into the July 4 weekend.
And Philadelphia has declared a heat emergency, activating the city’s pioneering heat-response system.
High temperatures Thursday, Friday, and Independence Day are all forecast to top 100 degrees and threaten daily records. The current record highs for those dates are 103 degrees for Thursday, 104 for Friday, and 103 for the Fourth.
The record-warmest lows are 82, 77, and 79 for those days respectively, according to data from the National Weather Service’s Mount Holly office.
The weather service says dangerously hot conditions with heat index values between 100 and 110 degrees are expected each day. Very warm low temperatures in the mid-70s to the low 80s at night won’t offer much relief, the office noted.
When combined, multiple days of such high temperatures and humidity will exacerbate impacts, say those meteorologists. The hottest conditions are expected Thursday through Friday.
Climate change
Although it’s difficult to pin any single heat wave to climate change, the majority of climate scientists say the burning of fossil fuels has led to ever-increasing amounts of heat-trapping greenhouse gases in the atmosphere and transformed the climate.
The Princeton-based Climate Center says human activities have warmed the planet by about 1.2°C (2.2°F) above pre-industrial levels. The Princeton-based organization of scientists says that since 1970, July has warmed in 94% of the 243 U.S. cities it studied. Temperatures for the month have risen by 2.6 degrees on average.
“That includes hotter and more humid nights like those this week, which raise health risks because the body has less time to cool down and recover,” Labe said.
A big impact on cities
Excessive heat hits urban areas like Philadelphia hard, said Mathy Stanislaus, of the Philadelphia Climate Justice Collective.
The collective is a partnership of the Mantua Civic Association, SEAMAAC, Esperanza, Overbrook Environmental Education Center, and the Environmental Collaboratory at Drexel University. Stanislaus is vice provost and executive director of The Environmental Collaboratory.
In the most densely populated, least tree-lined parts of Philadelphia temperatures can soar 20 degrees higherthan in greener, wealthier neighborhoods, he notes.
That’s because of the heat island effect, which occurs when cities are significantly warmer than surroundingareas because of the lack of tree canopy combined with high concentrations of heat-absorbing pavement, dark roofs, and buildings.
It’s something many people in the suburbs, or wealthier areas, might not think about, Stanislaus said.
“I don’t think people realize the gravity of the circumstances for lower income urban communities who have an affordability crisis compounded by the heat crisis,” he said.
Stanislaus said some households in the city don’t have air-conditioning, and those that do can face a choice as to whether they should use it or not.
“Even if they have an AC, they may not be able to afford to actually run it,” he said.
According to a report by the collective, Philadelphia households overall on average spend about 6.7% of their income on energy, but that the burden is much higher for Black and Hispanic households. The poor conditions of many homes because of their age contribute to the strain.
Stanislaus says temperatures strain critical public and healthcare systems.
He credits Philadelphia for its array of cooling centers, pools, and spraygrounds. But, he said, many residents are notaware of them or lack transportation. He’d like to see more money devoted to public awareness during heat waves.
In addition, he said healthcare systems need more staff trained in heat-related care and education, as well as better tracking heat-related illnesses and deaths.
There has been one death attributed to heat so far this year, according to data from the Philadelphia Department of Public Health. In the past two decades, the biggest number of deaths came in 2011 and 11 with 35. But the city has upped its response measurably since then and the number of deaths has trended down.
Stanislaus believes heat-related deaths and illnesses are underreported.
“There’s an urgency to heat,” Stanislaus said. “We need to meet the moment.”
The word spread through the Veterans Stadium locker room: The Rolling Stones were at the bar across the street, and the Fury were invited.
The Philadelphia Fury played on artificial turf that goalkeeper Bob Rigby said “might as well have been black rocks on Iwo Jima.” The crowds, Rich Reice said, often were so sparse that he could point to the people he knew in the stands. The players didn’t make much, the team lasted only three seasons, and the losses piled up.
The team’s publicist, Thom Meredith, said a few years ago on a podcast that the Fury — a North American Soccer League franchise that debuted in 1978 — were “a poster child for what not to do.”
But the players still had someone waiting for them at the back entrance of the Holiday Inn, opening the door and ushering them to where the Stones were hanging while a mob of fans were kept in the hotel lobby.
The Fury was owned by rock stars — Peter Frampton, Paul Simon, and Rick Wakeman of Yes had stakes — and rock executives like Stones manager Peter Rudge and music agent Frank Barsalona. They entered when the NASL was riding the momentum of Pelé, who had retired a season earlier.
But that wave faded, and the Fury struggled to grab Philly’s attention before moving to Montreal in 1980, leaving Philadelphia without a first-division men’s soccer team until the Union arrived in 2010.
“The Fury is a story in and of itself,” Rigby said. “Oh my God. Really. There’s aspects of it that are mind-boggling. It’s a fascinating tale.”
Peter Frampton, one of the owners of the Fury, performs during a concert at JFK Stadium in 1977.
The sport has been met this summer in Philadelphia with fanfare as the city hosts its sixth World Cup match on Saturday at Lincoln Financial Field. But the game still was a curiosity to most of the region in the 1970s. Philly had soccer hot spots — places like Kensington, Frankford, and Roxborough, along with ethnic clubs in Bucks County — surrounded by soccer deserts.
The Fury players grew up in those soccer neighborhoods, and that was enough to get them a drink with the Rolling Stones.
“They were just as excited to talk to you as you were excited to talk to them,” said former Fury player Bill Straub. “You were a professional soccer player, and they were wide-eyed. What’s it like to play professional soccer? It was nothing to us. It was just what we did.
“These rock stars all grew up wanting to be professional soccer players in the Premier League. And we were here, we wanted to be rock stars.”
Kevin Murphy when he played for Philadelphia Fury. He now owns Varsity Pizza and Subs in Lawrenceville, N.J.
A mini-circus
Philadelphia had an NASL team for four seasons, but the Atoms flamed out shortly after winning an unlikely title in 1973 as an expansion team. The local owners sold the team in 1975 to a Mexico-based group that stocked the roster for a season with Mexican players. Interest dipped lower, and the team folded with $90,000 in unpaid bills.
The NASL returned to Philly a year later when the league added six expansion franchises. The Fury signed Irish midfielder Johnny Giles, 1966 World Cup champ Alan Ball, and former Chelsea forward Peter Osgood.
“They have books written about him,” former Fury player Brooks Cryder said. “The Wizard of Os, they used to call him. But it was a little soon for soccer in the United States.”
Rick Wakeman of Yes with Philadelphia mayor Frank Rizzo and Fury player Peter Osgood.
The real attractions were the stars in the crowd. An Amtrak train brought a cast of A-listers from New York for the season opener at the Vet. Gilda Radner, James Taylor, and Peter Wolf of the J. Geils Band joined owners Frampton, Simon, and Wakeman in a super box.
“It wasn’t the Cosmos with Pelé,” Straub said. “That was a real circus. But this was a mini-circus here in Philly because you never knew who was going to show up.”
The Fury drew 18,191 to their opener, but the crowds soon dwindled. The Fury averaged 8,075 fans in 1978 and had the league’s lowest attendance in the 1979 (5,624) and 1980 (4,465) seasons. They had cheerleaders, held free clinics at schools, and even tried to spice up their uniforms. Nothing worked. Veterans Stadium felt cavernous.
“It was tough because it seemed like everyone was far away from the actual field,” Dave MacWilliams said. “It was a different environment, for sure. I wanted it to succeed and do well, but it was tough.”
The team’s uniforms were designed by fashion designer Sal Cesarani after Ralph Lauren outfitted the Cosmos. Barsalona told The New York Times in 1978 that the Fury wanted their uniforms to have “a touch of show business and a lot of sex appeal.”
They were inspired by the wife of owner Larry Levine, who Barsalona said struggled to follow the play at a soccer game but enjoyed seeing “guys running around in what looked like their underwear.” Cesarini had simple instructions: the tighter, the better.
The burgundy and gold jerseys, which were made by Adidas, had a three-button collar and capped sleeves. The shorts were two inches shorter than the usual soccer shorts. It was as close to underwear as Cesarini could get.
“Looking back, they do show a lot of leg,” Reice said.
Kevin Murphy, shown at Varsity Pizza and Subs in Lawrenceville, N.J., displays his Fury jerseys from the 1970s.
The stars
Kevin Murphy was a senior at Pennington Prep near Trenton when a group of Fury decision-makers visited his home to meet his parents and ask if he was willing to turn pro. The new franchise planned to use its draft pick on Murphy as the NASL introduced a rule allowing teams to draft high schoolers.
Murphy was in, as Walt Chyzowych — “Philadelphia soccer royalty,” Murphy said — told him earlier that year that he had the skills to be a pro. A few months later, he sat in a suite at the Vet with Frampton to sign his contract.
“It was Frampton’s birthday,” Murphy said. “I thought, ‘Well, I probably made a good decision.’ That was pretty amazing.”
Pelé retired in 1977, but the NASL still was filled with some of the game’s biggest names. The Cosmos had Giorgio Chinaglia, Carlos Alberto, and Franz Beckenbauer. The Los Angeles Aztecs had George Best. Johan Cruyff played for the Washington Diplomats, Gerd Müller was with the Fort Lauderdale Strikers, and the Tampa Bay Rowdies had Oscar Fabiani and Rodney Marsh.
Bill Straub playing for the Fury at Veterans Stadium.
The foreign Fury players had great careers overseas but were past their primes and did not draw in Philly. They filled their roster with a cast of locals. Straub went to Germantown Academy, MacWilliams played on a cinder field in Kensington, and Bobby Smith was from Trenton. Rigby grew up in Ridley and was on the cover of Sports Illustrated. Cryder learned to play at a YMCA in Roxborough, and Pat Fidelia went to Rancocas Valley Regional High School.
“It was exciting because as American players we had a chance to play in a professional league,” Fidelia said. “But you knew sooner or later that it wasn’t going to last because we weren’t getting paid much at all. It was like we were amateur players in a professional league. My first contract was $20,000. They gave you a car and an apartment to share with two other players.”
The Fury could not match the star power of the other NASL squads, but they did have actual rock stars. The players could score tickets to any concert they wanted. They were backstage at JFK Stadium, in boxes at the Spectrum, and saw the Stones at a tiny theater in North Jersey.
“We would drive back and we’d say, ‘This is unbelievable. How are we in these places?’” said Straub, who was working at his family’s jewelry store while playing for the Fury.
The Fury played a charity game at Franklin Field with Wakeman and other members of Yes. Frampton, whose industry-shifting live album Frampton Comes Alive! was released in 1976, regularly popped into the locker room after games. And Murphy found himself backstage at Madison Square Garden standing with Dan Aykroyd before riding an elevator with Meat Loaf, Debbie Harry, and the Wailers.
“That was pretty good,” Murphy said. “It was more than pretty good. It was awesome.”
Kevin Murphy’s photograph of the Fury.
‘No sun. No sun.’
The Fury fired their first manager midway through the season, finished the year with a player-manager, and hired Marko Valok in 1979. The former Yugoslavian national team coach didn’t speak much English.
“I used a line from him for years on the kids I coached,” said Reice, who coached soccer at Neshaminy High School for 17 seasons. “If I took a bad shot at goal, he would say, ‘Reach, why you make present to goalie?’ He would be thinking in Yugoslavian and then it would come out in English.”
Rigby, the goalie for the Atoms’ title squad, returned to Philly during the 1979 season after being traded from the Aztecs. He was told by the Fury to join the team in Houston, but they said Rigby would be on the bench. That was good by Rigby, since he had not practiced in a week while his trade was finalized and spent his final night in L.A. at a going-away party with his Aztecs teammates at Best’s bar in Hermosa Beach.
And then Valok approached him in the locker room and asked through an interpreter if he was ready to go.
“I have no clothes and no intent to play,” Rigby said. “I’m literally not playing. I’m just coming in. Honest to God. I played a half. I’m thinking, ‘If this is the onus of coming back to Philadelphia, I probably made the biggest mistake of my life.’ But what was I supposed to say, ‘I’m not going to play’ in front of a new team?
“Then I’m sitting during the pregame meal, and Marko Valak stands in front of the team with a chalkboard for 45 minutes just drawing arrows all over the place. Speaks no English. I’m going, ‘I just left five guys who played in the World Cup final and the most tightly run team,’ and I’m like, ‘What is this?’”
The Fury’s 1979 playoff game at Franklin Field against the Tampa Bay Rowdies headlined the back page of the next day’s Daily News.
Frank Worthington, a Fury forward from England, left the team that season when Valok had the team practice at the public fields in FDR Park instead of the Vet or JFK Stadium. He flew to Memphis, visited Graceland, and returned to the Fury after a few days.
The Fury advanced that season to the playoffs despite having a losing record and played the Houston Hurricane at the Astrodome. The team practiced at the stadium and then returned to their hotel. Valok told his players to stay inside — “No sun, no sun,” he said — and rest for the game.
“I look out the window when we get back, and Frank is laying out, reflecting himself with a sun blanket,” Reice said. “All of the energy is being zapped out of his body. Frank was a free spirit, to say the least.”
The Fury still had enough energy to win that game before falling in the next round to Tampa Bay. The franchise lasted one more season before soccer left Philadelphia again.
A cast of rock stars tried to make soccer happen in Philadelphia, but it proved to be too tall a task. Nearly 50 years later, the game has found its place in Philly. The Linc has been a happening this summer. If only the Holiday Inn — which was razed in 2019 — was still here to see it.
On a sweltering and humid summer afternoon — as tourists and historical reenactors milled about Old City ahead of 250th anniversary celebrations — Cristian Marín guided his family through the President’s House.
Loyal soccer fans, Marín’s family had traveled from Colombia to visit their son in Philadelphia, attend the World Cup matches, and see the Revolutionary Erasites.
But it was up to Marín, 37, to play tour guide last Friday and explain to his family why large gaps of brick wall were covered by paper adorned with handwritten messages expressing their indignation with President Donald Trump after his administrationremovedexhibits about slavery at George Washington’s former home in Independence National Historical Park.
Marín’s family started laughing from pure disbelief about the “craziness of the situation,”he said.
Marín’s relatives are among an influx of tourists visiting Philadelphia in the lead up to the city’s Semiquincentennial festivities only to find themselves confronted with evidence of the largely partisan battle playing out over how to tell the complicated story of America’s founding.
“For me, it’s shocking to see a country trying to erase that history,” said Marín, a freelancejournalist. “I think it’s important to remember our past in order to just not repeat those kinds of things.”
Cristian Marín, 37, tours the President’s House in Independence National Historical Park last week.
Ahead of the 250th, both Philadelphians who have been engaged in the fight to protect historical exhibits and tourists who have wandered through the President’s House for the first time, have lamented the Trump administration’s changes to the exhibit, which was largely dismantled by the administration earlier this year.
They told The Inquirer that the missing panels, such as those that discuss the brutality of slavery, do a significant disservice to understanding the full picture — even the ugly parts — of U.S. history.
“History is going to be out there, and the more we share history, the better for everybody,” said Hector Vargas, 40, from New York. “For the new generation, and even ourselves, because this is something from the past and we need to understand better — what happened and how this great country basically became the great country it is.”
The Philadelphia Convention and Visitors Bureau estimates that from 250th-related events alone the city will welcome over 1.5 million overnight visitors in 2026.
But the turmoil facing the President’s House is hanging over the celebrations, as the site’s stakeholders and the Trump administration battle over which version of history residents and visitors will see as they celebrate on Independence Mall.
Judges presiding over lawsuits related to the President’s House or other threats by the Trump administration to change historical content at national parks have viewed the Fourth of July as a deadline to set the record straight as to whether the federal government has the authority to rewrite history.
Some advocates believe the Trump administration saw it that way, too.
Visitors read unofficial signage put up to protest the Trump administration’s changes to the President’s House site, which memorializes the nine people enslaved by George Washington in Philadelphia.
The Inquirer reported that the federal government also quietly removed mentions of slavery from Independence Hall and a panel under Thomas Jefferson’s portrait at the Second Bank — sending a new wave of outrage among historians and advocates ahead of this weekend.
“In the 250th anniversary of the founding of the Declaration of Independence, there’s probably increased impetus and motivation to get these changes installed before the dawn of the Fourth,” said Paul Steinke, executive director of the Preservation Alliance for Greater Philadelphia.
‘They want to make us believe that slavery did not happen’
Perched on folding chairs bordered by patriotic banners that flapped in the wind, dozens of Philadelphians spent their Friday night at the People’s Plaza, a concrete gathering space just steps away from the President’s House eight days before the 250th anniversary.
A truck displaying a digital screen with the name of the event, “Trump Fascism: Historical Erasure and the Battle Over the Truth,” parked across the street.
With Independence Hall towering behind them, state Rep. Chris Rabb, attorney and advocate Michael Coard, civil rights organizer Masaru Edmund Nakawatase, and visual artist Dread Scott railed against the federal government’s changes to history at an event hosted by Refuse Fascism, an anti-Trump organization.
The gathering is one of many events opponents to the Trump administration’s actions are holding in the days surrounding the 250th. Coard’s group, Avenging the Ancestors Coalition, is hosting its annual Black Independence Day on July Fourth at the President’s House.
“We have so much power and it scares these people. If it didn’t scare them, why would they be worried about this exhibit right here?” Rabb (D., Philadelphia) declared, pointing at the President’s House.
Rabb, who will represent parts of Philadelphia in Congress after winning the Democratic primary for the Third District in May, has often spoken of how he is a descendant of both a signer of the Declaration of Independence who enslaved people and of Black abolitionists.
The Trump administration had spent a year eyeing the President’s House and other exhibits before they abruptly dismantled the site in January, just weeks into the nation’s 250th year. Last year, the president had issued an executive order directing parks to conduct a content review of materials that could “inappropriately disparage Americans past or living.”
Subsequent legal battles have allowed some — but not all — of original panels to be reinstalled, though the administration can now install its own spin on history at the President’s House, the Third Circuit Court of Appeals in Philadelphia has ruled.
But the struggle to confront the full scope of U.S. history is baffling to some visitors, like Camila Ordenana, 24, from Ecuador. Ordenana, who ventured from Guayaquil to Philadelphia to attend a World Cup game, said she hasnever seen this kind of censorship in her other travels.
“It is weird, because we have been to several places, several historical cities, like, I can remember going to the U.K. or going to Germany, and you can learn about the experience in a very neutral and respectful way,” Ordenana said.
Katrie White, 53, from Illinois, traveled to Philadelphia specifically for sightseeing to learn more about African American history. She said she was disturbed by the removal of the signs.
“They want to make us believe that slavery did not happen,” White said. “And that’s how it affected African Americans, that it wasn’t a big deal, that it made us better. But of course, we all know that it didn’t, and it really did affect us. It was a trauma that is still carried on to this day.”
Many Philadelphians appear to agree.
A recent Suffolk University / Inquirer poll found that a quarter of city residents see preserving historic sites as Philadelphia’s top responsibility to the nation ahead of the 250th.
Richard Porter (left), 52, of Michigan, at the President’s House last week.
Gathered by the Market Street entrance of the President’s House last Friday, looking at the colorful illustration panels that remained, Richard Porter grappled with the impact of the removals, saying that without the educational information, “We’ll repeat it over and over again.”
The Michigan resident said that the country is at a point where it needs to move forward but that the changes to the President’s House are sowing further divisions.
“This is an everyday battle. It’s not just today or for the 250; this is all the time,” Porter said.
About a year before police raided a crumbling Olney twin in connection to a missing woman last month, Philadelphia narcotics officers scoured Eugene Horsch’s basement and found telltale signs of a drug dealer.
Firefighters had responded to a small blaze on the second floor of the property on May 18, 2025, alerting police to what they said was a sprawling marijuana grow operation. And when narcotics cops searched the home later that morning, court records show they recovered a modified fully automatic assault rifle with an obliterated serial number, a sawed-off shotgun, a pistol, and ammunition.
The top floor was filled with cannabis plants, tents, and UV lights, with exposed wires running between the floors and into the basement, where vats of chemicals were stored, apparently to “cultivate marijuana,” the records said.
The police report detailing the drug bust at the Olney house made no mention of missing women, despite the fact that concerned relatives and friends had told police years earlier that at least two women who stayed at the house had vanished.
Now, the disappearance of one of those women, Blair Tonzelli, is central to an ongoing search at the property, where police found fake IDs and bank cards in her name, among other disturbing evidence.
That law enforcement did not appear to connect the missing women to the search for drugs at the same address raises questions about whether the officers who searched the property last summer were aware of the two missing persons cases. The Philadelphia Police Department declined to comment, citing the ongoing investigation.
Police began reexamining Tonzelli’s disappearance on June 19 after arresting Horsch, whose companion had a fake ID in her name. Investigators reinterviewed witnesses and viewed footage of a statement given in February 2023 by Tonzelli’s friend, who told officers Tonzelli was last seen at 417 W. Chew Ave. Police have also revisited the 2016 disappearance of Amy McHale — the ex-wife of Horsch’s father, erotic filmmaker Raymond C. Horsch — whose mother said she vanished from the Olney home.
Gloria McHale, Amy’s mother, said she was surprised to learn that police had searched the property for drugs in 2025.
“I wish they would have looked deeper,” she said.
Police have not charged Horsch with any crimes linked to missing women. He has been jailed since his arrest last month on $500,000 bail for gun and drug charges, as federal and local police prepare to excavate the property in search of more evidence.
His attorney, Jerome Brown, declined comment. Brown has previously said police had interviewed Raymond Horsch several times over the years about McHale’s disappearance.
When local and federal law enforcement officers searched Horsch’s home last month in connection to the missing women, police said they again found guns, ammo, and drugs. More troubling, according to police records, is that they also found a “significant amount” of blood, a handwritten letter referencing serial killer Ted Bundy, and fake IDs and bank cards in Tonzelli’s name.
The latest search began after police arrested Horsch in his black BMW with an array of weapons, drugs, and a woman donning a fake ID in Tonzelli’s name. A sworn affidavit to initiate the search includes witness testimony that suggested Horsch was a “sociopath” who knew how to dispose of human remains.
But it was a fire that brought police to Horsch’s property one morning in May 2025.
Eugene had been living in the twin with two other women, including his father’s longtime companion, Krista M. Killen. City firefighters said the small blaze was started by “careless smoking” on the second floor, according to Horsch’s arrest report. While extinguishing the fire, a fire marshal and police patrolman on the scene discovered a “marijuana grow operation” on the home’s third floor and basement.
Officers with the PPD Narcotics Strike Force later searched the home and seized 26 pounds of marijuana, 131 grams of dried mushrooms, $1,200 worth of methamphetamine, $800 cash, and “numerous gold colored and silver” coins in a safe, records show.
Police also recovered a BCI Defense AR-15 style rifle modified to be fully automatic, a 12-gauge Stevens Model 67 pump-action shotgun with a sawed-off barrel, a 9mm Girsan MC28 pistol and more than a hundred rounds of ammunition. The serial numbers had been destroyed on all three firearms, according to records.
Horsch had previous felony convictions for drug manufacturing charges and was not legally allowed to own firearms. He was arrested and held on $750,000 bail for manufacturing drugs, illegal gun possession, and related crimes.
Brown, the family attorney, told a judge that the weapons belonged to Horsch’s father, who had died just three days before the drug raid. Brown said Eugene Horsch was planning to properly dispose of the firearms, according to a spokesperson for District Attorney Larry Krasner.
His health became a factor in determining an appropriate resolution to the case. Sources familiar with the case, who were granted anonymity because they are not authorized to discuss the details publicly, said Horsch appeared frail at the time of his 2025 arrest and could barely walk into court.
Horsch pled guilty to manufacturing drugs, and prosecutors withdrew the additional gun charges. He received three years probation.
Within months of his release from jail, Horsch would be locked up again.
In March, police arrested Horsch and charged him with stabbing a man at Eighth and Market Streets. Prosecutors dropped the charges after a witness failed to appear in court, records show, and he was released from lockup in May.
Three weeks later, U.S. Park Police stopped him in his car near Independence Mall, where they recovered a fake ID in Tonzelli’s name.
The search of the Olney property continued Wednesday.
