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  • Hanwha vs. Holt: How New Jersey lost a shipyard

    Hanwha vs. Holt: How New Jersey lost a shipyard

    Hanwha Philly Shipyard says it needs a lot more space outside its 110-acre South Philadelphia complex to win lucrative U.S. Navy contracts, turn the money-losing facility profitable, and hire up to 1,000 union welders and metalworkers.

    The Korean-owned yard’s leaders thought they had found just the place, four miles by barge down the Delaware River at the New Jersey-funded Paulsboro facility, vacated by the offshore wind industry when President Donald Trump killed that program. In December, Hanwha agreed to take over the lease.

    But port operator Holt Logistics refused approval and sued to block the deal. After months of lobbying, Hanwha has given up and is now collecting offers from southern states that hope Hanwha will invest a big chunk of the $5 billion it has pledged for U.S. shipbuilding into their yards and future workers.

    Philadelphia Shipyard as seen from southbound I-95 in 2024.Alejandro A. Alvarez / Staff Photographer

    This despite the fact Hanwha’s proposal enjoyed support from federal, state, and local officials and even made it into the U.S. military budget for fiscal year 2026, which called for $110 million “to support shipbuilding industrial capacity” and steel fabrication in a manufacturing facility “formerly used for offshore wind manufacturing.”

    Paulsboro Mayor John Giovannitti estimates that on a given day, there are fewer than 50 workers at the port.

    Leo Holt, whose century-old company runs ports in Gloucester City and South Philadelphia, said he’s not completely averse to manufacturing around the Paulsboro terminal after his family’s plans to beef up container and bulk shipping there accelerate.

    Hanwha declined to comment, confirming only that the shipyard is still looking for space “in the U.S.”

    A rendering of a 600-acre shipyard that the Port of Tampa Bay has offered to build for Hanwha. Port Tampa Bay

    What went wrong?

    Since the early 2010s, New Jersey borrowed and spent more than $500 million building a Paulsboro wharf, highway ramps, and other facilities to attract big employers to the port. It replaced lost oil industry jobs and also compensated for nearby Camden’s loss of piers due to Holtec Inc.’s redevelopment in that city’s aging port district.

    In borrowing documents and news releases, the public spending was justified by predictions that the port would draw hundreds, even thousands, of port and industrial jobs, which in more than a decade have yet to arrive.

    Paulsboro sublets the facility to Holt as the port operator. Holt paid $1.6 million to use the property last year.

    At the urging of then-Gov. Phil Murphy, then-State Senate President and iron workers union leader Steve Sweeney, then-Paulsboro Mayor John Burzichelli, and other officials, Holt in 2020 agreed to let EEW, a global pipemaker based in Germany, build supports up to 400 feet long and 40 feet across for the federally subsidized offshore wind-electric generation facilities that its Danish partner Orsted planned to locate off the New Jersey coast.

    Orsted canceled in 2023, citing rising costs. Trying to cut his company’s losses, EEW executive vice president Esben Strandgaard began looking for new tenants, attracting more than 200 inquiries and initiating talks with Hanwha.

    Hanwha needed the landlord’s permission to take over the lease. Hanwha Defense USA president Tom Anderson, a retired Navy rear admiral, and the Holts met last fall to discuss the proposal.

    Instead of approving, the Holts sued, challenging EEW’s authority to pick a replacement and demanding control of the facility.

    Hanwha, aided by its political supporters, tried to make a deal, but Holt stood firm. In March, Hanwha canceled the agreement.

    What the Holts want

    “The north star for redevelopment at Paulsboro has been marine terminal operations,” said Leo Holt, president of the Gloucester City-based company. “We stretched to assist the state in any way we could,” but “Hanwha was never a part of the plan, nor was shipbuilding.”

    Holt spoke of the failed industrial proposals — wind, shipbuilding, and others to build power plant equipment on site — as an obstacle, not a goal.

    “The detour imposed on New Jersey is over, and the road is clear to the Paulsboro Marine Terminal,” he said. “We were glad to see that the page was turned on the detour.”

    Holt Logistics, which has been expanding containerized cargo facilities on both sides of the river, has shipped containers to Paulsboro and hopes to augment Paulsboro’s current port tenants, Holt said.

    Those include Novolipetsk Steel (NLMK), owned by Russian billionaire Vladimir Lisin, which due to Ukraine war sanctions stopped importing Russian steel through the port for its plant in Farrell, Pa., and has switched to steel from Latin America, East Asia, and other countries, according to Holt.

    The port also ships containers to the U.S. Navy base in Rota, Spain, and to ports in Cyprus, Israel, and other Mediterranean countries.

    More than a container port

    New Jersey has spent more than half a billion dollars improving the Paulsboro site with a wharf, highway connections to I-295, and other public works, the mayor said.

    “I’m not aware of Paulsboro people, Gloucester County people, working there right now,” said Burzichelli, now a state senator and a supporter of both the wind and the Hanwha projects.

    New Jersey invested in the BP site to make it more than a container port, Burzichelli says.

    “That [state-built] wharf was designed to handle any industry, and the public investment was designed to create the maximum amount of high-paying jobs that can be created,” he said.

    The port section “was always intended to be a bulk port,” requiring plenty of longshoremen’s labor, and “certainly not a container port,” which “take up a lot of space but don’t generate big jobs,” Burzichelli said.

    “They don’t pay taxes the way an [industrial] building will pay,” he added.

    The Holts’ “choices and the interest of the state of New Jersey, the interests of Gloucester County, and the interests of the borough of Paulsboro, are not aligned, at this point,” Burzichelli said. “I hope we can get them aligned.”

    Mayor Giovannitti said, “We thought we had a deal last year with Hanwha” but are left with “a $750,000 hole in our budget” — the annual payment, in lieu of taxes, that EEW and its partners paid the borough while it was operating. The town’s annual budget is $13 million.

    Instructors and graduates of the union-backed preapprenticeship program Global Skills Union Pathways Project at Philly Hanwha Shipyard in February.GSUPP

    What Paulsboro could offer

    Strandgaard says he’s not surprised Hanwha decided not to “waste any more of their time” on Paulsboro: “They could not see themselves working with a hostile landlord.”

    It’s an ideal site for shipbuilding or any other industry that needs a deep water port, he said. But “Holt Logistics really controls what comes in and out. This was very upsetting, for us and Hanwha, that Hanwha with the support of the Navy did not have enough leverage.”

    Other East Coast sites would take a year or more to prepare. “The beauty of Paulsboro is they could start the day after” concluding a deal, Strandgaard said.

    He said he was surprised the new administration of New Jersey Gov. Mikie Sherrill didn’t make landing Hanwha a priority.

    Sherrill was “disappointed that EEW could not reach an agreement with Hanwha or other parties despite the state’s efforts to facilitate discussions and bring stakeholders together,” spokesperson Maggie Garbarino said in a statement.

    Holt’s goal: A modern marine terminal

    On any given day, between 500 and 900 Holt employees are moving cargo at the company’s South Jersey operations, Holt said. He declined to estimate how many of those were in Paulsboro.

    According to tax records, the port handled about 250,000 tons of cargo last year. That’s less than one-tenth of all South Jersey Port Corp. cargoes.

    Holt called the state “vital partners in the renovation of the facility. We are working to have both marine operations and manufacturing operations. But we cannot be deterred from taking it where we promised: to be an active modern marine terminal.”

    He said he expects the Sherrill administration will prove to be more congenial to the Holts’ vision for the property — “manufacturing, distribution, or anything” that makes sense to his family.

    South Jersey officials say they haven’t given up. “The people of Paulsboro were told this was about jobs, jobs, jobs, and those would be manufacturing jobs. Not stacking containers four high with automated forklifts,” Giovannitti said.

    Burzichelli still hopes Hanwha and Holt can be brought to the same page. “Many of us still don’t think we are done with manufacturing,” he said.

  • The death of an immigrant held at Delaney Hall brings fresh focus to the ICE facility in Newark

    The death of an immigrant held at Delaney Hall brings fresh focus to the ICE facility in Newark

    A 41-year-old man from El Salvador who was detained at the Delaney Hall ICE facility has died, the U.S. Immigrations and Customs Enforcement confirmed Monday evening hours after his family and a member of Congress spoke out about the incident.

    Delaney Hall, a privately operated detention center under contract with ICE, has been the site of turmoil during President Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown. It’s been the target of complaints almost since it reopened in 2025. Elected officials have clashed with the federal government over accessing the facility, and altercations between law enforcement and protesters outside the facility went viral earlier this summer.

    On Monday, immigrant rights group Cosecha New Jersey shared a video identifying the person who died as Edwin Jeovanny López Cornejo.

    María Cornejo, who identified herself as his mother, said in Spanish in the video that the hospital called her to inform her of her son’s death, and that his heart was not beating when he arrived.

    “There is this pain that has struck me now — it’s not just me who’s been struck by it, yet there are many people in this country who are growing tired of this pain,” his mother said in Spanish.

    “If they don’t ensure that justice is served, well, they’re going to keep doing this forever, and we don’t know how many more people we’ll have to lose in this country,” she added. “Hardworking people. People who aren’t involved in other things, but who devote themselves to their work.”

    Shortly after that video streamed on Facebook, U.S. Rep. Rob Menendez, a North Jersey Democrat, said in a video on X that he was showing up for an unannounced oversight visit to Delaney Hall. A few hours later, he said ICE confirmed López Cornejo’s death.

    “We asked certain medical questions which ICE couldn’t give us answers to,” he said. “We have to request it or his family has to request it, which we will.”

    Later on Monday, ICE said in a statement that López Cornejo experienced a medical emergency while in custody and was pronounced dead at University Hospital in Newark after medical staff “responded immediately” and called emergency services.

    The agency said the cause of his death is pending further medical review on Monday evening, but Sen. Andy Kim attributed it to a heart attack and cardiac arrest in a video he posted on X later that night.

    Kim, whose office said it was notified of the death Monday morning, noted that López Cornejo already had a habeus corpus case open arguing for his release due to his medical issues.

    “I’m not going to jump to conclusions, but we have to get answers to what happened to Edwin to understand all of what transpired,” the South Jersey Democrat said.

    Cornejo said her son took medicine for blood pressure, diabetes, and seizures. She said that while she does not know for sure whether he had access to his medicine, she believes ICE neglected to provide it to him, leading to his death.

    She said she last spoke on the phone with her son on Friday — the day before his death — when he said that he felt ill and part of his face and hand had fallen asleep. He told her he was taken to the doctor that day and they were going to run some labs, but he didn’t say when.

    ICE said López Cornejo “received proper medical care and was seen by medical professionals.”

    Menendez said he learned that López Cornejo “complained of difficulties that he was having” on Saturday and collapsed at Delaney Hall, where CPR was performed before he was taken to the hospital.

    Cornejo said her son had been in the U.S. for 20 years and was a hard worker. She said he had a 12-year-old daughter who had not been able to see him since he entered the facility six weeks ago. He previously told her on the phone that his hands turned purple from the handcuffs he was arrested in.

    Danilo López, who identified himself as López Cornejo’s brother, said in the video he doesn’t know why his sibling was detained because he had a valid work permit.

    “I wouldn’t wish the pain we’re going through right now on anyone, and I don’t want this to keep happening,” he said. “Because it hurts so much — it leaves a void, it leaves a daughter orphaned, and above all, it leaves an irreparable void in the family. And that’s why I’m asking for justice for my brother.”

    According to ICE, López Cornejo was arrested by U.S. Border Patrol “for illegally entering the United States without inspection” in August 2006 and he was sent back to El Salvador that October.

    He later returned to the United States at an “unknown date” before he was arrested in Plainfield in Union County in June, according to ICE.

    Sebastiana Cornejo, who identified herself as López Cornejo’s aunt, said in the video that he was arrested on his way to work.

    She blamed her nephew’s death on ICE detaining him and called for the Trump administration to stop its mass deportations, and “that they stop separating families, leaving children orphaned with no one to care for them.”

    “Why are they detaining so many working people?” she said. “We immigrants don’t harm anyone; we come to work, not to harm anyone.”

    Democratic Gov. Mikie Sherrill said her administration is working with the state’s congressional delegation “to gather all the facts surrounding his death,” but noted that the state health department continues to struggle to access the whole facility for an inspection, which is at the heart of one of New Jersey’s court battles with Trump.

    “Every effort to block oversight raises serious questions about what is happening inside Delaney Hall and what those operating the facility are trying to hide,” she said. “This tragedy is another painful reminder of why Delaney Hall should be closed.”

    Sen. Andy Kim (D., N.J.) stands between federal agents and demonstrators in an attempt to prevent a clash outside the Delaney Hall migrant detention center in Newark, N.J., on May 25.DAKOTA SANTIAGO

    Turmoil at Delaney Hall

    Detentions have surged across the nation, from about 38,000 when Trump took office to more than 70,000 in January and standing at about 66,000 as of July. Delaney Hall, a gray, two-story building in an industrial area of Newark, has been a key part of that infrastructure.

    It has also been the site of protests, complaints, and political fights between the Trump administration and New Jersey Democrats since its doors opened in May 2025.

    Last year, Newark Mayor Ras Baraka was arrested outside the facility before his charges were dropped. U.S. Rep. LaMonica McIver, a North Jersey Democrat, still faces federal charges over an altercation outside the facility on the same day.

    And over Memorial Day weekend, reports of a detainee hunger strike exploded into violence between demonstrators and ICE officers and later between protesters and New Jersey State Police.

    Kim was pepper-sprayed outside the facility as he tried to quell tensions between ICE and demonstrators, and Sherrill faced pushback from her own supporters for unleashing state police.

    Federal officials insisted there was no hunger strike and said detainees there and elsewhere in the system were being held in safe and humane conditions.

    Delaney Hall is important to ICE officials who move detainees across the country and the world, because it offers easy access to major highways and to airports in the New York metro area. It also offers the Trump administration a stage for highly publicized battles against “sanctuary politicians” it believes should thank ICE for removing murderers, rapists, pedophiles, and drug traffickers off the streets.

    Research by Syracuse University professor Austin Kocher showed that 88.3% of detainees at Delaney have no criminal convictions. On a typical day the facility holds about 850 detainees, though the New Jersey Vindicator reported that about 120 were suddenly bused away during the July 4 weekend.

    Deaths in ICE custody

    At least 22 people have died in ICE custody so far this year, according to DHS data, provoking outrage from immigrant allies who blame poor medical care, unhealthy conditions, and lack of agency training.

    Human Rights Watch, a nonprofit watchdog group, calculated that more than 50 people died in ICE custody in the first 500 days of Trump’s term — the highest rate in more than a decade. It’s more than two and a half times as high as during the first Trump administration, and stands nearly four times that of the Biden administration, Human Rights Watch said.

    ICE says the health of detainees ranks among its highest priorities, and national detention standards require it to provide comprehensive medical, dental, and mental health care from the moment someone arrives at a facility.

    The federal agency says some people who are detained may not have received prior, reliable care for existing conditions. And some people may never before have had comprehensive medical care at all.

    In December, a 41-year-old Haitian national named Jean Wilson Brutus died one day after entering Delaney Hall, succumbing to what ICE said was suspected natural causes following a medical emergency. ICE said agents tried to revive him and EMS performed life-saving measures but he died in the hospital.

    Menendez said on Monday that another individual who had been in custody at Delaney Hall died just weeks ago at University Hospital after a possible seizure.

    Amol Sinha, executive director at the ACLU of New Jersey, said in a statement Monday that López Cornejo’s death is “another devastating result of the rampant inhumane conditions” at detention centers across the country.

    “The Trump administration’s detention and deportation machine continues to terrorize and traumatize communities at an unprecedented level, yet numbers cannot encapsulate the grief and devastation that these abuses cause,” he said.

  • N.J. GOP sees momentum for voter ID law after governor’s comments in favor

    N.J. GOP sees momentum for voter ID law after governor’s comments in favor

    Republican lawmakers say they’re hopeful the governor’s new comments expressing support for voter ID legislation could push long-stalled bills toward hearings when the Legislature returns to Trenton in the fall.

    “I absolutely think this should be one of the top priorities when we come back into session,” said Sen. Michael Testa (R., Cumberland). “There absolutely needs to be a discussion, and the people of New Jersey deserve that discussion to be had.”

    Gov. Mikie Sherrill, a Democrat, said last week during an appearance on News 12 that she would support a voter ID law in New Jersey if legislation reached her desk.

    “Certainly if that was the law passed here, I would support that,” she said, responding to a viewer’s question. “I don’t have a problem with voter ID.”

    Sherrill’s comments come on the heels of her revealing that thousands of noncitizens were registered to vote via the state Motor Vehicle Commission, and fewer than 400 of them cast ballots. The revelation led to a new round of voter fraud complaints from Republicans in New Jersey and nationwide, while the Trump administration demanded information about the voters in question. Sherrill declined to share that data and has said the state is conducting an independent investigation.

    Sen. Parker Space.Hal Brown/ New Jersey Monitor

    Sen. Parker Space (R., Sussex) is a sponsor of a bill that would require voters to show identification to cast ballots, including a driver’s license, a Real ID, or a passport, among others, and those without them would have to show utility bills in their name, a mortgage or rental statement, or two pieces of mail from a government agency or utility company. Any voter who does not show these would be subject to a challenge.

    Space said he was encouraged by the governor’s remarks that his bill — which has been introduced three times since 2022 but has never advanced to a committee hearing — could finally be posted for a vote.

    “Hopefully she stands by her word and we can get the Legislature on board,” he said.

    He noted that the issue hasn’t historically been a priority for Democratic legislative leadership, which decides which bills advance.

    Assemblyman Gerry Scharfenberger (R., Monmouth) has sponsored the bill in the lower chamber since 2022. He said he proposed legislation with more options for voters besides showing just photo identification because he thought it would get some support from Democratic lawmakers, though he concedes that has not worked so far.

    The new voter registration issue, Scharfenberger said, shows the “walls are closing in, as far as the Democrats being able to avoid this issue.”

    “There’s no way they can avoid addressing this. If I could be a little bit of a forecaster here, I think the more information they find out about the motor vehicle issue, the more those numbers are going to grow,” he said. “It’s become too much with the public psyche, and I think we’re going to have to address it with solid legislation, and not just token tweaks here or there.”

    Testa said he was “pretty shocked” to hear Sherrill’s comments on supporting voter ID, but “pleasantly surprised.”

    He’s the co-sponsor of a voter ID bill that would require a voter to show one of four forms of photo ID: a driver’s license, a Real ID, an identification-only card issued by the Motor Vehicle Commission, or a U.S. passport. He said it’s easier to train ballot workers on how to validate just these forms of ID.

    Sen. Michael Testa Jr.Anne-Marie Caruso/New Jersey Monitor

    “We’ve done everything in this state to be able to allow individuals to vote by mail, to expand the time period for vote by mail, to give people more locations to go vote — and I don’t necessarily have a major problem with any of these modalities for people to vote — but if you’re going to vote on Election Day, you should have a photo ID,” he said.

    A spokesman for Senate President Nicholas Scutari (D., Union) did not respond to a request for comment. A spokesperson for Assembly Speaker Craig Coughlin (D., Middlesex) declined to comment.

    Thirty-six states have laws requiring voters to show some form of ID at the polls, and eight of those strictly require photo ID.

    But voting rights groups say there are decades of studies showing certain communities are less likely to have access to photo ID. Liza Weisberg, supervising attorney of the American Civil Liberties Union of New Jersey, said people who are homeless, young voters, and communities of color are the “most likely to face disenfranchisement.”

    She called Sherrill’s comments on voter ID a “moment of concern.” Seven advocacy groups — including the ACLU, New Jersey Institute for Social Justice, and the League of Women Voters — sent Sherrill a letter Friday urging her to reject voter ID legislation outright.

    They noted that state law already requires people to provide a driver’s license number or their Social Security number to register to vote.

    Weisberg said the recent voter registration news doesn’t justify implementing voter ID, noting the newly registered voters in question represent a “small fraction” of the state’s voters, with an even smaller group actually casting a ballot. Sherrill initially said about 6,600 people who identified themselves as noncitizens at the Motor Vehicle Commission were added to the voter rolls, and later said about 2,000 of them may indeed be citizens. The state has 6.7 million registered voters.

    “I really hope that there is not an effort to continue using this event to justify voter suppression efforts that really don’t have anything to do with it,” Weisberg said.

    Republicans dismissed arguments that voter ID laws disproportionately burden low-income, elderly, minority, and young voters. They noted multiple reasons people need to show photo ID, like renting a car or applying for food stamps.

    Testa called the disenfranchisement argument “very, very pompous,” saying it suggests that voters could be “ill-equipped or too stupid” to obtain a photo ID. Scharfenberger called it “the most racist position I’ve ever heard,” and Space said those arguments “pander to the far left and liberal media.”

    This story originally appeared on New Jersey Monitor.

  • Artifacts from Gillian’s Wonderland Pier are still up for sale

    Artifacts from Gillian’s Wonderland Pier are still up for sale

    The vintage Gillian’s Wonderland Pier Canyon Falls Log Flume Bathing Guy is still up for grabs, with a $2,000 price tag.

    So is the 12-by-6-foot fiberglass Haunted Dark Ride Skeleton head, including the top hat and the skeletal hands that once gripped the front of the ride, for $8,500.

    Nearly two years after the iconic Ocean City, N.J., boardwalk amusement park closed down, and with the future of the site still uncertain, 20 of the kitschy and spooky disembodied artifacts from Wonderland remain unsold at Obnoxious Antiques in Burlington.

    Vintage Gillians Wonderland Pier Canyon Falls Log Flume Bathing Guy, priced at $2,000 at Obnoxious Antiques.Obnoxious Antiques

    John Polito of Obnoxious Antiques said the massive skeleton head and hands are the work of Bill Tracy, a noted and hugely influential creator of dark ride amusements.

    Much of the other work is the creation of former Wonderland staff artist Wayne Seddon.

    The relics were part of three truckloads hauled off for sale in late 2024 after the park shut down.

    Truckloads of Wonderland Pier relics for sale at Obnoxious Antiques

    The rotating Wonderland Pier letters sold for $10,000, and Obnoxious Antique’s website lists dozens of other pieces that have already sold, ranging from a Haunted House Moonshine Drunk Weasel to a Smiling Pier Lobster in a Trap to the Dark Ride Devil in a Cage. The sale prices are not listed.

    Polito is hoping another Halloween season will tempt buyers for the skeleton and the other dark ride props for sale, including a pair of coffin speakers ($600), an animated man in a closet ($1,150), and a spider automaton ($750).

    A pair of vintage Gillian’s Wonderland Pier Haunted Dark Ride Haunted House Mechanical Circus Clowns, priced at $1,750 for the pair at Obnoxious Antiques.Obnoxious Antiques

    Polito said about half the sold objects were sold to out-of-state buyers, but the other half “went back to Ocean City,” including the Monkey Band, which is on display with other Wonderland artifacts in the Boardwalk food court as a “Wonderland Pier Museum.”

    Some of the exterior figurines were bought by nearby Storybook Land in Egg Harbor Township.

    Polito says the $8,500 price tag for the skeleton and hands “is a steal,” and notes that they would be perfect for a committed Halloween house decorator.

    He estimates it cost $20,000 to create.

    “It’s heavy,” he said. “They would have to commit to it and they would have to really want it.”

    Ed Frischkorn, 30, holding the log flume miner from the now-defunct Gillian’s Wonderland Pier he purchased at Obnoxious Antiques in Burlington, N.J.Amy S. Rosenberg / staff

    Over objections from some nearby residents, Ocean City Council recently voted to designate the former Wonderland site at 600 Boardwalk in need of rehabilitation and will now negotiate with developer and owner Eustace Mita, who has proposed a seven-story luxury hotel on the site.

    Mita bought the site from Mayor Jay Gillian, who made the decision to close the beloved amusement park his family had owned for 65 years in October 2024.

    Mita’s original proposal called for restoring the Ferris wheel and historic carousel, and preserving several iconic kiddie rides from Wonderland.

    John Polito of Obnoxious Antiques with one of the men in the tub from the log flume ride at the now-defunct Wonderland Pier in Ocean City, N.J. Polito purchased three truckloads of relics that are now for sale at his warehouse on Route 130 in Burlington N.J.Amy S. Rosenberg / staff
  • Flood warnings are up for parts of the Philly area, with the potential for 5 inches of rain

    Flood warnings are up for parts of the Philly area, with the potential for 5 inches of rain

    For the first time since, well, Tuesday, flood warnings have been posted in the Philly region and a flash flood watch remains until 11 p.m. Monday, with a potential for up to 5 inches of rain in and around the city.

    The National Weather Service flood warnings were in effect until midafternoon for a broad area along the I-95 corridor where “slow-moving thunderstorms” had generated up to 4 inches of rain

    The Pennypack Creek in Northeast Philly jumped 1.5 feet in just 15 minutes to go above flood stage, the weather service said. At least one water rescue occurred in Montgomery County, and flooding resulted in lane closures along Route 130 in Gloucester County, the weather service reported.

    Strong storms remain possible during the day Monday, but Sarah Johnson, warning coordination meteorologist for the National Weather Service office in Mount Holly, said “the bigger threat we are concerned about is heavy rain and flash flooding.“

    While the weather service’s flood watch was in effect from 8 p.m. Sunday until 11 p.m. Monday, she cautioned that with computer models having their differences, the forecast had elements of “uncertainty.” (And when was the last time that happened?)

    Once again the atmosphere likely will be playing a version of rain roulette across the region, as it did on Tuesday, said Marc Chenard, senior branch forecaster at the federal Weather Prediction Center, in College Park, Md. Waterfall-like downpours turned the Delaware River into a shade of flowing mocha north of Philadelphia, while less than an inch fell upon the city.

    Areas of heavy rain moved through the region Sunday nigh an Monday morning. And regardless of how it all plays out this time around, “it’s definitely going to affect the morning commute” said Bill Deger, senior meteorologist with AccuWeather Inc., with rainfall rates of 1 to 2 inches an hour possible. Even if it’s not raining, he said, significant road flooding is possible.

    He said it’s likely that Philly and the surrounding area might be in the 2-to-4-inch bull’s-eye zone.

    When is likely timing for rain in the Philly region?

    “This is another setup where we have very moist air from the South,” said Deger.

    More rains were likely Monday morning, and again later in the afternoon with the approach of a cold front.

    That front could fire up strong thunderstorms, said Chenard, and it might take its good old time moving through the area.

    He added that as so often happens, the downpours “won’t be all that widespread, but where they do happen you usually get a flash flood.”

    The rains likely will shut off Monday night; however, the workweek is looking quite unsettled with shower chances every day.

    Will this end the drought in the Philadelphia area?

    While the drought warnings continue in New Jersey and Chester County, conditions have improved measurably in areas around the city, which was no longer in “severe” or “moderate” drought, in the latest interagency U.S. Drought Monitor update.

    Still, even in Philly conditions were listed as “abnormally dry” in the advisory issued Thursday, despite a July that was officially the wettest month in Philadelphia since March 2024.

    Philadelphia’s total, 7.03 inches, was 2.65 inches above normal. Over 8 inches was measured in Wilmington. However, as a testament to the randomness of summer rains, precipitation totals were significantly below normal in Atlantic City and Allentown, the weather service reported.

    And while downpours can trigger rapid rises on the local streams such as the Neshaminy Creek, in Bucks County, and the Frankford and Pennypack Creeks in Philly, they are less of a threat to the Delaware and Schuylkill Rivers, where water levels have remained relatively low.

    Those levels are the result of the longer-term dryness: July broke a 16-month streak of below-normal rainfall in Philadelphia.

    But Johnson said the region’s wetness trend has been showing some signs of staying power.

    Said Deger, “It’s been a long time coming.”

  • 🎃 An early welcome to spooky season | Inquirer South Jersey

    🎃 An early welcome to spooky season | Inquirer South Jersey

    Good morning, South Jersey. Our stormy summer seems to continue. We’re under another flood watch until tonight. Be prepared for more downpours.

    Approximately 3,000 people attended the grand opening of Spirit Halloween’s flagship location at Harbor Square Mall in Egg Harbor Township.

    And every Democrat in the New Jersey congressional delegation collectively asked President Donald Trump to reverse his FEMA aid rejection for the deadly snowstorm earlier this year.

    Plus, prosecutors filed a civil complaint to remove Willingboro council member Nathaniel Anderson, who has not resigned from his position despite being behind bars for mortgage fraud, and more news of the day.

    — Taylor Allen (southjersey@inquirer.com)

    If someone forwarded you this email, sign up for free here.

    🎃 Get in the spirit

    There’s no such thing as too early for Halloween (in my opinion).

    And I’m clearly not alone since about 3,000 people showed up to celebrate the annual grand opening of the flagship Spirit Halloween in Egg Harbor Township on Saturday.

    Children and adults — some wearing shorts and T-shirts, others decked out in full costumes — were able to play outdoor games, enjoy food trucks, get their face painted, and of course, shop. Some life-size animatronics sold out within minutes.

    The chain operates more than 1,500 stores in the U.S. and Canada from August through early November.

    Other locations that are now open include Mount Laurel, Cherry Hill, Deptford, and Sicklerville, with more to come.

    Did you know? The seasonally ubiquitous Spirit Halloween is a South Jersey company and Spencer’s is the parent corporation.

    The Inquirer’s Sarah Nicell has more on the festive celebration.

    A request to reverse FEMA aid rejection

    All of the Democrats in the New Jersey congressional delegation signed a letter to President Donald Trump asking him to reverse his rejection of disaster aid for February’s deadly snowstorm.

    Their plea in the letter — first obtained by The Inquirer — is in support of Gov. Mikie Sherrill’s appeal of the denial of the $84 million request to the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) for the blizzard from earlier this year.

    U.S. Sens. Cory Booker and Andy Kim led the effort. All of the members of New Jersey were invited to join but only three Republicans did, according to Booker’s office.

    Notably, South Jersey Republican U.S. Rep. Jeff Van Drew opted out despite initially supporting the FEMA request in April that sought money in every county in his district for costs related to the storm.

    Reporter Aliya Schneider has the story.

    What to know today

    • A man was charged with first-degree murder in the July 17 death of another inmate at Garden State Youth Correctional Facility in Chesterfield, Burlington County Prosecutor LaChia L. Bradshaw said Friday.
    • Prosecutors have a filed a civil complaint to remove the jailed Willingboro council member, Nathaniel Anderson, who has not resigned from his position.
    • The new CEO of the Pennsauken-based Bayada Home Care spoke with The Inquirer to discuss the importance of providing additional care at home as the country’s healthcare providers navigate financial strain.
    • Washington Township High School teacher Matthew Groark and fellow food influencer Maxwell McGibbon is competing on Food Network’s grilling competition show Pitmasters, Philly Voice reports.
    • Starting today, Camden County will begin the $2.5 million project to make infrastructure improvements to Collings Avenue Bridge over Newton Creek on the border of Gloucester City and Camden. The bridge will be closed for three months.
    • Back Alley Barbeque in Pennsauken is back after a deal for a seafood restaurant to take over the space fell through, according to South Jersey Food Scene.

    🧠 Trivia time

    South Jersey singer Mara Justine came in what place when she competed on season 24 of The Voice?

    A) Second

    B) Third

    C) Fifth

    D) Seventh

    Think you know? Check your answer.

    What we’re…

    🗳️ Considering: Columnist Daniel Pearson’s opinion piece, which reflects on his previous role when he investigated allegations of election fraud in light of New Jersey’s noncitizen voter disclosure.

    ⛳ Remembering: That time when Steph and Ayesha Curry’s Underrated Golf Tour stopped in South Jersey.

    ❌ Preventing: Lanternfly damage on your property.

    📬 Your South Jersey view

    An early spring morning at the Franklin Parker Preserve.Richard Lewis

    This submission was sent to us from Jess Fasano of the New Jersey Conservation Foundation who wrote:

    New Jersey Conservation Foundation’s Franklin Parker Preserve encompasses 16 square miles in the heart of the Pine Barrens. It’s open to the public year-round and contains some of the region’s most beautiful wetlands and provides critical habitat to more than 50 rare, threatened, or endangered species.

    What does your community look like? What South Jersey memory would you like to share? Submit a photo and/or a brief description for a chance to be featured in the Monday edition of this newsletter.

    🗞️ What other South Jersey residents are reading

    I hope you have a great start to your week. Catch you tomorrow! 📧

    By submitting your written, visual, and/or audio contributions, you agree to The Inquirer’s Terms of Use, including the grant of rights in Section 10.

  • The Spirit Halloween opening brought thousands to Egg Harbor for animatronics, costumes, and community

    The Spirit Halloween opening brought thousands to Egg Harbor for animatronics, costumes, and community

    Clowns, grim reapers, witches, and vampires ventured down the Shore on Saturday morning to welcome spooky season a little early.

    Spirit Halloween, the retailer best known for its costumes, animatronics, and creepy dolls, hosted the annual grand opening of its 20,000-square-foot flagship store in Egg Harbor Township, N.J. Preregistration for the event was capped at 2,000 people, but a company spokesperson estimated that an additional 1,000 showed up for general admission.

    By 9 a.m., the line snaked around Harbor Square Mall despite the heat. Seagulls circled. Food trucks, music, face-painting, outdoor games, and freebies awaited those who made it through. Children and adults alike varied in dress, from shorts and T-shirts to bloody character costumes.

    Cesar and Adrianna Balmaceda, with son Cesar, were among the attendees who made it through. They gathered near the entrance as Jack the Reaper, Spirit’s mascot, parachuted out of a blimp overhead.

    A skydiver jumps out of the Goodyear blimp wearing a Jack the Reaper costume for the newly opened Spirit Halloween flagship store in Egg Harbor Township, N.J., on Saturday, Aug. 1, 2026.Tyger Williams / Staff Photographer

    When Cesar Balmaceda, 31, asked the first person in line when they arrived and where they came from, he was not too surprised by the answer: 5 a.m., from Ohio.

    “I don’t think it’s as bad as previously,” Cesar Balmaceda said. “People used to camp out for days.”

    That obstacle had kept the Balmacedas, Atlantic City locals, from braving the line previously, even though 8-year-old Cesar makes YouTube videos featuring vintage Spirit animatronics. His favorite is Hugz the Clown, a discontinued 6-foot, purple-haired robot.

    But this year, Spirit banned camping out and used the preregistration system instead, which allowed the Balmacedas to get free tickets after the deadline from a kind Facebook user. Young Cesar won a swag bag and quickly changed into themed Spirit gear.

    Naoki Sanchez, 15, stood with her family nearby. They live in Atlantic City, too, and came to meet people with similar interests, since Sanchez also makes animatronic YouTube videos. On Saturday, she wore a zombie baby toy in a chest harness.

    “It’s part of the Spirit Halloween community,” Sanchez said of gathering for the store opening. “We live here, basically.”

    Jump scares and costumes galore

    From bedazzled Michael Myers masks to dog costumes to a pop-up trash raccoon animatronic, visitors to the flagship store had no shortage of options.

    When the doors opened at 10 a.m., employees called out numbers to welcome in small groups of customers one at a time. A life-size Freddy Fazbear animatronic, new to Spirit and sold only in person, sold out in 10 minutes.

    But attendees outside awaited that news anxiously. Employees chatted that the first one was nabbed by a family from Canada, and they weren’t sure how they would get the 6-foot-6, $499.99 robot back home.

    “Are there Freddys still?” a child shouted through the open doors.

    Lori Tesoro, a Spirit spokesperson, said several other animatronics sold out, including a life-size Jason of Friday the 13th and Michael Myers of Halloween fame, along with a line of horror-themed teddy bears.

    Nineteen staffers, including four from other stores, managed the frenzy.

    A limit of one animatronic per person, from Art the Clown of Terrifier to Harmonica Hank (a skeleton scarecrow who can play your music via Bluetooth), kept things from getting too chaotic, as customers leaned on boxes to claim them. Staff wore “Camp Harbor Lake” T-shirts, the 2026 store theme, inspired by campground horror movies. One employee said the company spent about a year planning the celebration.

    The chain, which operates more than 1,500 stores across the U.S. and Canada from August through early November, is headquartered in Egg Harbor in the same office as its parent company, Spencer’s.

    The flagship location, which looks much like every other Spirit store, is owned by the chain year-round but is used for research and development during the offseason, Tesoro said.

    About 400 Spirit stores opened on Aug. 1, while the rest will open in the coming weeks. Still, a company spokesperson said people came from hours away, including from California and the South, to get the earliest possible glimpse at Halloween.

    ‘Life’s too short’

    Back in line, Anthony and Jessica Trabolse and their four kids, all under 8 years old, waited in the sun. They came to Jersey from Staten Island, N.Y., and already have their Halloween costumes planned out, which will likely include wardrobe changes.

    During the Halloween season, Anthony Trabolse said, he works at Spirit to support his son Lucas and his horror obsession. They host an annual Summerween party, featuring years’ worth of Spirit animatronics. This year, Lucas, 7, said he hopes to expand his haunted collection with a 4-foot-10 evil clown, Wind-Up Wally, and meet his favorite Halloween YouTubers.

    “‘Cause I really like Halloween,” Lucas said, sporting a Mohawk and a camera around his neck.

    People gathering for the new Spirit Halloween flagship store in Egg Harbor Township, N.J., on Saturday, Aug. 1, 2026.Tyger Williams / Staff Photographer

    Ashley Giordano, 23, and Aliah Roseman, 36, both work as special effects makeup artists for Reaper’s Revenge Haunted Hayride in Scranton. They drove more than four hours for the Egg Harbor event with Giordano’s son, Nico, to celebrate his birthday.

    “He’s only 3, and he can name Spirit animatronics back to 2008,” Giordano said, fake blood spattered on her face. “That’s our Miss Rachel.”

    Roseman said Saturday was their first time coming to Spirit’s annual flagship opening. After recent health issues and a cancer battle, Roseman said people should not deny themselves a good time, including a long Spirit Halloween road trip.

    “Life’s too short to not do fun things,” Roseman said.

  • Man charged with murder in the death of a fellow inmate at Burlington County state facility

    Man charged with murder in the death of a fellow inmate at Burlington County state facility

    A 23-year-old New Jersey man was charged with first-degree murder in the July 17 death of another inmate at the Garden State Youth Correctional Facility in Burlington County, Prosecutor LaChia L. Bradshaw said Friday.

    Trevor Banton, of East Orange, allegedly killed 24-year-old Yasin Sellers in the prison gym after a religious service attended by other inmates, Bradshaw said.

    Correctional officers found Sellers unresponsive on the floor and he was pronounced dead at the scene, Bradshaw said.

    Banton is awaiting his first court appearance in the case.

    No other details about the fatal assault were released.

  • Image overload

    Image overload

    The juxtaposition of a flamingo and a honey bee may not have doubled you over in laughter, but it had me pause while walking into a South Jersey farm market. And it made me smile.

    Then I started to overthink it. Am I missing a joke here? “Q: What’s the difference between a flamingo and a honey bee?” Or, “a bee and a flamingo walk into a bar.”

    Nope. That doesn’t work either. Nor does a meme about having “the” birds and the bees “talk.”

    All this to justify picking that picture to feature with this column. Some weeks it’s an easier choice, and this week’s got me thinking about what in the newspaper business is called a standalone photo.

    A standalone photo made while my colleague was taking the escalator to his assignment at the International Congress of Mathematicians at the Convention Center on Monday.Jose F. Moreno / Staff Photographer

    Aka, a photo feature or wild art, a standalone is a picture published without an accompanying article. I talked about it in a previous column (click bonus: the photos there are from a cold, snowy January day. Maybe refreshing to look at now, as we’re here in the dog days of summer).

    In the heyday of dead-tree, printed ink-on-paper analog versions of newspapers not every story had a picture, so standalones were used when editors wanted to add some visual variety to a page that was all gray. That is precisely the 1998 origin of this column: it broke up a text-heavy page containing community news, calendars, traffic reports, school information, and volunteer listings.

    Online publishing changed everything, and digital design evolved toward image-heavy layouts. Since our brains process pictures much faster than words, photos make a story more likely to grab a reader’s attention while scrolling.

    Suddenly every story on news websites had an image attached. Pictures became plentiful.

    A standalone of two prominent Freemasons – Benjamin Franklin and George Washington – standing in bronze outside the Grand Lodge Masonic Library and Museum across the street from City Hall. (“The Bond” was created by sculptor Jim West in 2018.)Tom Gralish / Staff Photographer

    And that’s the paradox. Even though the internet is highly visual, it favors rapid consumption rather than contemplation. Lost in the mishmash array of thumbnails on a website, it is harder to appreciate a storytelling standalone photo, or enjoy the much slower experience of pacing through a dozen images and captions in lengthy photo essays.

    The web did not just become a bigger and better version of LIFE, Look, National Geographic — or our own Sunday Inquirer magazine (R.I.P.).

    And that brings me around to a photo I saw this week. A reader submitted a picture they’d snapped of a young man outside Reading Terminal Market dressed in a solid-color button-down shirt with trousers held up by suspenders instead of a belt and wearing a broad-brimmed straw hat closely examining a parked Uber Eats’ delivery bot.

    I reacted to it just as I did with the flamingo/honey bee, with a smile.

    For decades the old weekly LIFE magazine had a standing feature on the last page called Miscellany. It was mostly pictures of people and animals in unexpected or humorous situations. A standalone.

    Even with an abundant canvas there really isn’t a place on our website for a standalone photo — like the bot — without an attached story.

    Or maybe there is. I have this column where my unattached images are displayed every Saturday and I’m happy to share some of the space (means less writing for me). So readers, if you see and take a picture like those on LIFE’s back-of-the-book page, email it to me.

    (By the way, even though it was taken in a public place we wouldn’t have used the Amish/bot photo anyway. The subject may belong to a community that doesn’t enjoy being photographed, and he was minor. The photographer needed to talk to him — and a parent — to provide more context. But then it would no longer be a standalone.)

    And remember, if a bee lands on you, freeze. Let it investigate and it will leave without stinging as long as it doesn’t detect a threat. If a flamingo lands on you, well, you’ve got a different problem.

    Since 1998 a black-and-white photo has appeared every Monday in staff photographer Tom Gralish’s “Scene Through the Lens” photo column in the print editions of The Inquirer’s local news section. Here are the most recent, in color:

    » SEE MORE: Archived columns and Twenty years of a photo column.

  • DOJ drops Reflecting Pool charge, citing ‘botched’ work and angering Trump

    DOJ drops Reflecting Pool charge, citing ‘botched’ work and angering Trump

    Federal prosecutors on Friday moved to drop a criminal charge filed against a former Olympian who had been accused of vandalizing the Lincoln Memorial’s Reflecting Pool, suggesting that the damage was instead due to a “botched” and rushed installation.

    Prosecutors said they would dismiss an indictment against David Hearn, an Olympic canoeist, whose arrest last month drew national attention amid questions about why the pool’s new blue liner was peeling. President Donald Trump — who had ordered that officials install the new liner and make other changes to the pool — repeatedly blamed vandals after pieces of the refurbished liner started drifting to the surface.

    A Washington Post analysis earlier this month found that the basin’s peeling was likely due to application errors by workers, a conclusion challenged by Trump administration officials at the time but supported by experts in waterproofing materials.

    According to Friday’s filing in D.C. Superior Court, internal Interior Department documents also chalked up the peeling of the pool liner to contractor errors made during the hurried effort to overhaul the pool ahead of celebrations to mark the nation’s 250th anniversary in July. Justice Department lawyers said the information they received showed that “the damage was the result of a botched installation and not vandalism as initially represented” by the Interior Department.

    “Given all of this newly discovered information, it is difficult to attribute the widespread damage to the Reflecting Pool to vandalism, let alone to establish that fact beyond a reasonable doubt,” according to the Justice Department’s filing.

    The Justice Department also said that officials at the Interior Department initially did not provide sufficient information about contractor errors and turned it over only after “dozens and dozens” of requests from the office of the U.S. attorney for the nation’s capital.

    “Had [the Interior Department] been forthcoming with the information clearly in its possession, the government would not have sought a grand jury indictment,” the filing reads.

    The Associated Press reported Saturday that Trump sharply criticized U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro’s assessment that damage to the pool was the result of shoddy construction and not the work of vandals.

    Trump, in a posting on social media, acknowledged that there “may have been some contractor difficulty” in the installation of a new pool liner. But he continues to insist “the major damage was caused by VANDALS!”

    “I disagree 100% with Jeanine Pirro, the U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia, on the Reflecting Pool,” Trump added in his post.

    Trump on Saturday also posted a nearly four-minute video that appears to have been taken from a security camera, in which three individuals can be seen with their hands in the pool, including one for an extended period.

    The president claimed the video shows “material is being cut with a knife or a box cutter, for all to see!”

    It’s not clear from the video, which appears to be shot from some distance, that any vandalism occurred. Workers can also be seen standing nearby and don’t appear to notice the people sticking their hands in the water.

    The Interior Department did not immediately respond Friday night to questions about the administration’s past accusations against Hearn and others arrested for allegedly damaging the pool, or questions about the Justice Department’s decision to drop the case.

    The contractor, Atlantic Industrial Coatings, also did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

    In a statement on its website dated June 21, the company defended its work, saying that while the U.S. Park Service had identified areas of the pool that required repairs, the areas “are a very small part of the massive 7 acre project, and do not indicate a failure of the liner.”

    Hearn and three others charged with misdemeanors related to Reflecting Pool damage had a status hearing set for next Thursday. Court records show that at least one of those misdemeanor cases, against Justin Carreno, was dismissed Friday.

    “While we are pleased with this result,” Carreno’s attorneys, David Benowitz and Rammy Barbari, said in a statement, “Mr. Carreno is innocent of the charge and should never have been prosecuted in the first place.”

    Hearn’s lawyers and outside watchdog groups said Friday’s move to drop charges was insufficient, and accused the administration of seeking to punish innocent Americans rather than admit its own errors.

    “The Trump administration’s case against Davey Hearn should have never been brought,” Hearn’s lawyers, Norm Eisen, Mary Dohrmann and Steve Levin, said in a statement. “Its dismissal today does not erase the abuse of government power in arresting and charging a patriotic American who did nothing wrong. The government’s approach was ready, fire, aim. The administration owes Mr. Hearn an apology.”

    Hearn told the Post last month that he was cycling past the pool and put his hand in the water only to touch a piece of liner that was already dislodged. Reached by phone on Friday night, he declined to comment.

    The fight over the century-old Reflecting Pool — which sits at the foot of the Lincoln Memorial and has played host to famous speeches and events — has unexpectedly emerged as a major flash point in Trump’s second term.

    Trump announced plans in April to abruptly overhaul the pool, saying that he had personally picked out a new color for the basin, “American Flag Blue,” and had recommended contractors based on his experience managing pools at his various resorts.

    At the time, Trump said the pool renovations would cost less than $2 million and be completed within two weeks. The cost later swelled to more than $14 million, and historic preservationists and other experts repeatedly warned that the rapid renovations could backfire.

    The job was completed within six weeks, with the president and his allies saying it was a symbol of his efforts to remake Washington.

    “I’m very proud of it,” Trump said in the Oval Office as the pool prepared to reopen. “I’m very good at building things and constructing things.”

    The celebrations were short-lived. Within days, the pool was beset by major algae outbreaks and the liner’s peeling. The president responded by alleging that vandals were to blame, accusing them of cutting parts of the pool but providing no evidence.

    “Many additional people have been arrested having to do with the disgraceful Vandalism of our beautiful Reflecting Pool,” the president wrote on Truth Social in June.

    “It was slashed with a knife, or box cutter, high grade colored waterproofing liner — it was VANDALISM!,” Trump wrote in another post this month, criticizing an ABC News report that suggested the liner was peeling.

    A recent visual inspection found damage in the middle of the pool — “where a vandal would not likely attempt to peel the lining” — further indicating that the damage stemmed from mistakes during installation, DOJ lawyers wrote in their filing.

    The administration drained the pool after the July Fourth celebrations on the Mall, with officials saying further renovations would be necessary. In a Justice Department filing Thursday, the administration said the pool would be closed through Aug. 10.

    The Cultural Landscape Foundation, an education and advocacy organization, is suing to block the administration’s continued work on the pool, saying Trump has disregarded long-established processes and federal requirements intended to protect historic sites.

    “Today, the iconic pool sits empty, covered in peeling epoxy after a botched job,” the organization’s lawyers wrote in a court filing Friday, asking a federal judge to halt further changes to the pool until they can go through a formal review process.