Inquirer.com – Zurich DR

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  • D.C. reaches court settlement with man detained while protesting troops’ patrol with Darth Vader song

    WASHINGTON — The District of Columbia has reached a settlement agreement for an undisclosed amount of money with a resident who claims police illegally detained him for following an Ohio National Guard patrol while playing Darth Vader’s theme song from “Star Wars” on his phone — an act of protest against the Trump administration’s federal law-enforcement surge in the nation’s capital.

    A court filing late Thursday says the plaintiff, Sam O’Hara, will drop his lawsuit’s claims against the district and four Metropolitan Police Department officers within three business days of receiving the settlement payment. The filing doesn’t specify a dollar amount for the deal between the district and O’Hara, who is represented by the American Civil Liberties Union of the District of Columbia.

    In an email on Friday, an ACLU spokesperson referred to the settlement’s financial terms as “a significant amount” that O’Hara ”is pleased with” but said they aren’t disclosing the dollar figure to protect his privacy. A spokesperson for D.C. Attorney General Brian Schwalb’s office declined to comment on the settlement.

    O’Hara’s agreement with the district doesn’t resolve his related claims against an Ohio National Guard member. Attorneys for the Guard member, Sgt. Devon Beck, has asked a judge to dismiss O’Hara’s claims against him.

    “He was there because that was his assigned duty,” Beck’s lawyers wrote. “This was not an accidental encounter or a one-time disagreement on a public sidewalk.”

    An earlier court filing, in February, said O’Hara had reached a settlement agreement “in principle” with the district. In response, a judge agreed to suspend the case while they negotiated terms.

    “The government’s efforts to silence me ultimately backfired and brought more attention to the unjust deployment of the National Guard in Washington, D.C.,” O’Hara said in a statement. “This settlement serves as a reminder that constitutional freedoms are worth defending, especially when those in power would prefer we stay quiet.”

    O’Hara sued the district last October, claiming police officers violated his First Amendment rights to free speech and his Fourth Amendment rights against unreasonable seizures and excessive force.

    The ominous orchestral music of “The Imperial March” from the Star Wars movies was the soundtrack for O’Hara’s peaceful protests against President Donald Trump’s ongoing deployment of Guard members in Washington. Millions of TikTok users have viewed O’Hara’s videos of his interactions with troops, according to his lawsuit.

    O’Hara, an artist who works in the hospitality industry, says he didn’t interfere with the Guard troops during their Sept. 11, 2025, encounter on a public street. One of the troops summoned Metropolitan Police Department officers, who stopped O’Hara and kept him handcuffed for 15 to 20 minutes before releasing him without charges, according to the lawsuit.

    “The law might have tolerated government conduct of this sort a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away. But in the here and now, the First Amendment bars government officials from shutting down peaceful protests,” the suit says.

    Trump, a Republican, issued an executive order declaring a crime emergency in Washington last August. Within weeks, hundreds of Guard troops and federal agents were helping police patrol the city. The surge inflamed tensions with residents of the heavily Democratic district. Hundreds of Guard members remain deployed in the district nearly a year later, with no clear end in sight.

  • Left-wing Democratic primary wins pose a test for a Jeffries speakership

    As New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani and fellow democratic socialists celebrated a trio of insurgent leftist victories that rocked last week’s House primaries in New York, so did congressional Republicans.

    In the days since, the GOP has gleefully speculated that a potential Democratic majority next year could be just as unruly and restive as its own has been, with an ideological battle between liberals and moderates undermining a possible speakership of Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D., N.Y.).

    “You can call it the Bolshevik Revolution of 2026,” House Speaker Mike Johnson (R., La.) said following the election results, while the National Republican Congressional Committee facetiously sent Jeffries a sympathy card and flowers.

    Jeffries and his Democratic allies have downplayed the tensions, noting that their party held together a broad spectrum of members the last time they were in charge of the House, from 2019 to 2023.

    But there are warning signs for Jeffries, who already faces frustration from the Democratic base that he is not fighting back hard enough against President Donald Trump. If Democrats win only a narrow majority in the heavily gerrymandered chamber in November, it will give each vote outsize importance and Jeffries critics more opportunities to stir up trouble.

    Two of the challengers backed by Mamdani, Darializa Avila Chevalier and Claire Valdez, defeated Democratic incumbents endorsed by Jeffries; only one of the three, Brad Lander, has committed to vote for him as speaker. Those candidates, all of whom are likely to win their heavily Democratic districts in November, and a handful of others who have prevailed against more moderate Democrats in primaries this year are expected to push for more liberal policies, particularly regarding Israel and Gaza, immigration enforcement, and universal healthcare.

    “What I hope will happen is that Democratic leadership will incorporate the lessons that voters are sending into the agenda that we’re going to be fighting for,” Lander said.

    Jeffries, for his part, has projected his typical calm and refused to engage with conjecture about how his leadership could be challenged. His office did not respond to a list of questions from the Washington Post but pointed to a CNN interview on the subject.

    “What’s in front of us right now is we’ve got to do everything to take back control of the House of Representatives,” Jeffries said in that interview Friday, where he steered every question about the New York primary back to a message of Democratic unity. “That’s actually the moment that we’re in.”

    On Saturday, Jeffries congratulated Valdez, Lander, and Avila Chevalier on social media.

    Not everyone in the party is ready yet to rally around Jeffries in return. A viral video from Valdez’s watch party on Tuesday night showed a crowd erupting with chants of “you’re next” when Jeffries appeared in news coverage they were watching.

    “If he continues to ignore what voters, not only in New York City but across the country, are telling him is important to them, he will do so at his own peril,” said Grace Mausser, co-chairperson of the New York City chapter of the Democratic Socialists of America. “It will weaken his power and ability, not only to control his own caucus, but to fight the right wing.”

    It’s not the first time that Democrats have navigated this dynamic.

    The wave that carried the party to the House majority in 2018 elected “the Squad,” a group of left-wing newcomers — Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D., N.Y.), Ayanna Pressley (D., Mass.), Rashida Tlaib (D., Mich.), and Ilhan Omar (D., Minn.) — who were more willing to openly challenge party leadership to achieve their aims. Ocasio-Cortez, who also defeated a high-ranking Democratic incumbent in her first primary, notoriously joined a sit-in in then-Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s office during her freshman orientation.

    But Pelosi (D., Calif.) wrangled the Squad by simultaneously embracing them and diminishing their power. By 2021, she was delivering historic legislative victories for then-President Joe Biden.

    In an interview, Pelosi dismissed the significance of the liberal victories from 2018, which she said “didn’t make that much difference,” and from Tuesday in New York, which she insisted would not be a problem for Jeffries because the Democratic caucus has long maintained ideological diversity.

    “I wouldn’t make so much of it,” she said. “You always have to balance. We have Blue Dogs to Squad, and they represent their districts as they ought to be respected. So he’ll be fine.”

    Since retaking control in 2023, Republican leaders, who lack Pelosi’s decades of experience, have struggled more to contain their antiestablishment wing: the ultraconservative House Freedom Caucus, whose members have a history of withholding votes unless their demands are addressed. Those rebellions cost former speaker Kevin McCarthy (R., Calif.) the gavel after only nine months and have nearly derailed some of Trump’s legislative priorities.

    With a new generation of Democratic leadership confronting a rising populist wing of the party, the Jeffries era could face the same kind of turmoil — a prospect that has Republicans gloating.

    “Democrats had a very bad week,” said Rep. James Comer (R., Ky.). “When you’re Hakeem Jeffries and you’re trying to be the next speaker of the House, and you lose three elections in your hometown, that’s a pretty big slap in the face.”

    This year’s cohort of left-wing challengers, many of whom come from organizing backgrounds, is already connected to strategize about their campaigns and beyond.

    Mai Vang — who finished ahead of Rep. Doris Matsui (D., Calif.) in a primary this month for a Sacramento-area seat — said she regularly speaks with other candidates including Valdez, Avila Chevalier, and Chris Rabb, who won the Democratic primary for a Philadelphia House seat in May.

    Under California’s top-two system, Vang will face Matsui again in a November runoff. If she wins, Vang said, she would decide whether to support Jeffries as leader only after a conversation with the other liberal freshman members.

    “These election wins in the primaries are mandates from the people,” she said. “Right now, the Democratic Party has to reckon with whether they are bold enough to represent the people.”

    Democratic strategist Trip Yang said the disagreement is healthy because it keeps the party more responsive to the public.

    “There will be some discord in the House Democratic caucus. Discord is good,” Yang said. Jeffries “is no stranger to hard, necessary conversations.”

    Some of the more moderate House Democrats are already bracing themselves. Rep. Gregory W. Meeks (D., N.Y.) warned the insurgent candidates who won Tuesday that “they’re going to have to compromise and work together” once they arrive in Congress.

    On social media last week, Rep. Josh Gottheimer (D., N.J.) sounded pessimistic about that prospect.

    “The Democratic-Socialists are bomb throwers, not problem solvers,” he said. “They’ve declared war on common sense Democrats, which will only lead to more deadlock, dysfunction, and hard-working families paying the price.”

    But publicly, most establishment members of the caucus are generally brushing off the idea that the arrival of more liberal colleagues will complicate their agenda should they win control in November. Rep. Jamie Raskin (D., Md.), the top Democrat on the House Judiciary Committee, plans to launch investigations into the Trump administration’s alleged abuse of the justice system.

    “I served opposite James Comer, and I serve opposite Jim Jordan, so I can work with anybody,” Raskin said, citing two of the most conservative members of the House. “There are exciting new generations within the Democratic Party.”

    Ocasio-Cortez called the expectation that the incoming class of left-wing members would pose trouble for Jeffries a “double standard.”

    “Conversation, negotiation, all of that is the business of governance, and it’s the business of Washington,” she said. “There’s this tendency that when a progressive negotiates, that means that they’re bad, but when a moderate negotiates, that means they’re savvy. And that is a myth. We’re all here doing the same job.”

  • Trump administration quietly removed mentions of slavery from Independence Hall, Thomas Jefferson portrait

    Trump administration quietly removed mentions of slavery from Independence Hall, Thomas Jefferson portrait

    President Donald Trump’s administration has wiped almost all mentions of slavery from a panel accompanying a portrait of Thomas Jefferson at the Second Bank of the United States.

    As the Founding Father who wrote the words “all men are created equal” while enslaving more than 600 people throughout his life, Jefferson embodies the paradox at the heart of the revolutionary era.

    The description under his iconic portrait attempted to grapple with that tension.

    Despite Jefferson’s lifelong pursuit of knowledge, he “never solved the problem of slavery“ and was ”unable to determine how to let go of the notorious system,” the original plaque read.

    But a new panel simply states that Jefferson’s “vision of an informed, self-governing citizenry was central to his belief that education and liberty were the foundations of an ideal government,” among other changes.

    It’s not the only change the administration has made to exhibits around Philadelphia’s Independence National Historical Park ahead of the 250th anniversary.

    A touchscreen with a virtual tour of Independence Hall’s second floor now tells visitors that one of the rooms was used to hold “individuals accused of crimes of the period” before their court hearings.

    Who were these individuals? A previous version stated clearly: “accused fugitives from slavery.”

    A side by side of the original and new descriptions Thomas Jefferson’s portrait at the Second Bank of the United States. The references to slavery have largely been removed by President Donald Trump’s administration.The Philadelphia Inquirer

    The Second Bank and Independence Hall sites — in addition to the President’s House, where slavery exhibits were dismantled by the federal government earlier this year — had been scrutinized by the administration since last summer.

    While the changes are more subtle than those that took place at the President’s House in January — and the new exhibits the government proposed a few months later — they further underscore the Trump administration’s goal to sanitize U.S. history, as signified by his executive order to review or remove content at national parks that “inappropriately disparage Americans past or living.”

    They also show a lack of transparency. The change to the description under Jefferson’s portrait was only acknowledged following a demand by a federal judge in Boston that the National Park Service share a list of all removals the administration undertook to comply with Trump’s “restoring truth and sanity” edict ahead of the country’s 250th celebration.

    In a statement Monday, Avenging the Ancestors Coalition — which has helped lead the efforts to protect the President’s House — said the additional changes were “extremely troubling.”

    “The preservation of history requires ongoing vigilance,” the organization said. “Restoring historical interpretation is only one part of the work; protecting it from future revision or erasure is equally important.”

    Cheryl LaRoche, a historical and archaeological consultant who helped excavate the President’s House during its development in the early 2000s, said the changes were like “somebody committing murder and wiping the murder weapon clean, so that there is no trace.”

    “One of the greatest disappointments of my life, is that we get to the 250th anniversary of this country, and we are still trying to evade the truth of our founding,” LaRoche said.

    Among the most blatant examples of the federal government’s desire to retell history has happened at the President’s House, which opened almost two decades ago to memorialize the nine people George Washington enslaved at his Philadelphia home. It also serves as a symbol of exploring the stark juxtaposition of slavery and liberty during the nation’s founding.

    But the moves at the Second Bank and Independence Hall signify that the administration is not letting any stone go unturned when it comes to ridding or softening even smaller mentions of slavery at Philadelphia’s most iconic historic sites.

    The Department of Interior did not answer repeated questions about the changes.

    “No changes have been made,” a spokesperson said via email, citing the President’s House litigation. When an Inquirer reporter pressed again about changes to Independence Hall and the Second Bank, the government spokesperson repeated that there were no changes to the President’s House during the litigation. The Department of Interior did not respond to further inquiries.

    At the Second Bank, the panel under Jefferson’s iconic portrait also informed visitors about the population of persons enslaved in 1776, that John Dickinson — a member of the Continental Congress — was an enslaver, and about the life of Moses Williams, an artist who was enslaved at birth and later became a free man.

    That’s drastically changed in the new panel.

    Jefferson’s grappling with slavery is no longer present and Dickinson is referred to as a “fellow patriot and influential writer. …” The only mention of slavery remaining is Williams’ story, though it’s reworded.

    And at Independence Hall, the touchscreen kiosk describing the second floor Committee of Assembly Chamber previously outlined the irony of the space being used for ratifying the U.S. constitution and later housing the office “where accused fugitives from slavery were held before their hearings, right above the room where the Declaration of Independence had been signed.”

    A touch screen at the entrance to Independence Hall with photos and descriptions of the building’s second floor. The description of the Committee of the Assembly Chamber has been edited to replace the words “accused fugitives from slavery” to “individuals accused of crimes of the period.”Abraham Gutman

    But the reference to slavery has been removed, among other rewordings.

    It remains unclear when these changes were made. The Inquirer reported last summer that these items — and an interactive exhibit at the Benjamin Franklin Museum about the Founding Father’s conflicting views on slavery, which is still intact — were flagged for review.

    Earlier this month, a federal judge in Boston ordered the Interior Department and National Park Service to restore before July 4 all the removed exhibits nationwide. The order also required the administration to submit to the court a list of all removed items.

    An appeal court has since paused the judge’s order, all but guaranteeing that visitors on July 4 won’t see the original exhibits.

    Why a Boston-based appeals court ruling matters for President’s House

    In addition to the President’s House exhibits, the list says the administration removed a “portrait description” and cites “disparages Americans past or living” as the reason it is gone.

    No entry in the list corresponds to the change made at Independence Hall, which Philadelphia owns.

    The city did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

    All material changes at Independence Hall should be done after consultation with the city, said Cynthia MacLeod, former superintendent of Independence National Historical Park.

    But the Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit ruled that the administration can make changes to the President’s House, which is owned by the National Park Service.

    “The National Park service has been known for excellent historians and interpreters and its a shame that they are being muzzled now,” MacLeod said. “It’s a shame and a disservice to all the visitors not to have a more complete history told.”

  • House Republicans are looking to get their agenda on track after a chaotic week

    WASHINGTON — With a social media assist from President Donald Trump, House Speaker Mike Johnson is looking this week to ease the divisions in his Republican ranks and make progress on key legislative priorities before this fall’s elections.

    Johnson sent lawmakers home early last week after tumult in his conference prevented the House from voting on two spending bills and a measure dealing with veterans’ benefits. Meanwhile, the list of legislative priorities only grew with Trump requesting $87.6 billion in new spending, mostly to cover the cost of the war with Iran.

    The week ahead could signal whether Johnson can turn a short summer in Washington into a productive work period that voters will reward in November.

    “We have got a lot more to do. We have got to keep it going,” Johnson told Fox News Channel’s Sunday Morning Futures.

    Johnson, of Louisiana, went to the White House moments after the House wrapped up its abbreviated workweek and returned with a coveted Trump social media post telling Republicans to quit voting down the procedural rules that allow for final votes on their legislative priorities.

    “No more grandstanding, please!” Trump wrote.

    Before Trump’s message, Republican and Democratic lawmakers were openly doubting whether the House would even return this week or just follow the Senate’s lead and break for the July Fourth holiday.

    “I got to have everybody working here on all cylinders, and I’m excited to bring them back,” Johnson said on Fox.

    A promising week quickly turns sour for Republicans

    The House began last week with a legislative victory that speaks to voters’ concerns about affordability, passing bipartisan legislation aimed at lowering the cost of housing. It was the culmination of years of work by members on both sides of the political aisle.

    But Trump abruptly called off the bill signing ceremony, saying he would not act until Congress passed legislation that requires proof of citizenship for those registering to vote. Johnson said he would send the housing bill to Trump on Monday and hopes the Republican president signs it with the “biggest, boldest marker that he has.”

    Hard-liners in the House have also taken up Trump’s demand for the elections bill. More than two dozen of them have signed a letter pledging to vote against any Senate bills unless the elections legislation is attached. Rep. Anna Paulina Luna (R., Fla.) led the blockade that prompted Johnson to send lawmakers home early.

    Democrats seized on the Republican gridlock.

    ”This is the incredibly pathetic Congress,” said Rep. Jim McGovern (D., Mass.). “The fact they can’t get their act together, can’t establish discipline to keep this place running, is stunning. I’ve never seen such incompetence.”

    Republicans also voiced their frustration.

    “I just think it’s a very self-defeating position for anyone to take, that they’re going to shut everything down over one issue,” said Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick (R., Pa.).

    But Rep. Andy Harris (R., Md.) predicted there will be more gridlock ahead unless a bill that includes the elections legislation is sent to Trump. While the House has already passed a version of the measure, it has stalled in the Senate.

    “Yeah, I think everything is going to be held up until we come to an agreement on voter ID and especially confirming the citizenship of Americans before they register to vote,” Harris said.

    Asked if Americans want Congress to be advancing other priorities besides the voting bill, known as the SAVE America Act, Harris replied. “I think they truly believe that this is a very important bill. I’m not sure they believe that a lot of the other things we’re doing here in Washington are very important.”

    The test ahead is on an important defense bill

    Trump’s admonition to House Republicans to quit voting down their own procedural rules will be put to the test this week. Leadership is expected to tee up a vote on an annual defense policy bill, must-pass legislation that calls for some of the increased spending that Trump wants for the Pentagon.

    Luna, a Trump ally, was making no promises about standing down, even after the president’s social media post. She has proposed attaching the elections legislation to the defense bill. Because of the narrow Republican majority, it takes only a few Republican “no” votes to block a bill from advancing to a final vote.

    “If they want my vote, they should entertain it, debate it, and if they block it, then we’ll see. But that’s how you get my vote,” Luna told reporters.

    There’s little time left for top GOP priorities

    The House is scheduled to be in session for only about 28 days before the midterm elections. The lawmakers are out for virtually all of August and October, giving them additional time to campaign back home for reelection.

    In that window, they must pass bills to keep the government running beyond the Sept. 30 end of the budget year. They also aspire to pass a bill on a party-line basis that would include more defense spending, partially paid for by cuts in other programs. Republicans have billed their effort as going after waste and fraud.

    It would be the successor to the big tax and spending cut bill that Republicans passed last year. That measure extended the tax cuts passed in Trump’s first term and expanded tax breaks for those who get income through tips and overtime. The bill also focused on boosting immigration enforcement, paid in part through reduced spending on Medicaid and nutrition assistance.

    Johnson has talked optimistically about being able to pass such a bill before the August recess. He met with members of the House Budget Committee last week as they try to find a path forward. But Republican senators are not counting on it. There are also doubters in the House, given the difficulty of the process that is required to bypass a filibuster in the Senate.

    “I’m just not seeing a path forward on it,” said Republican Rep. David Valadao, who represents a perennial swing district in California’s farm belt.

    But Budget Committee Chairperson Jodey Arrington (R., Texas) said members are close to a framework. He predicted it will be politically rewarded if they are able to address election integrity and curb waste and fraud.

    “We have to energize our base, and we have to address the enthusiasm gap,” Arrington said.

  • Supreme Court rules constitutional privacy protections apply to cellphone users location history

    WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court held Monday that constitutional privacy protections extend to cell phone location information, ruling in the case of a bank robber whose identity was discovered through a geofence warrant.

    Justice Elena Kagan wrote for the 6-3 court that people don’t forfeit expectations of privacy even when they opt into Google’s location history.

    “A cellphone user is not to be viewed as sharing private information with third parties — which then can be freely passed on to the government — just by doing the ordinary things cellphone users do,” Kagan wrote.

    Justice Samuel Alito wrote in dissent that Okello Chatrie had no expectation of privacy in information he voluntarily turned over to Google.

    The decision is the court’s latest effort to apply a constitutional provision ratified in 1791 to technology the nation’s founders could not have envisioned.

    Police obtained a geofence warrant after a bank robbery in a suburb of Richmond, Va., and used it to locate cell phones that were near the bank around the time it was robbed in May 2019.

    One of those phones belonged to Chatrie, who had eluded the police until they turned to the powerful technological tool.

    The warrant kick-started the investigation. After determining that Chatrie was among those near the Call Federal Credit Union in Midlothian at the time, police obtained a search warrant for his home. They found nearly $100,000 in cash, including bills wrapped in bands signed by the bank teller.

    Chatrie pleaded guilty to robbing the bank and was sentenced to nearly 12 years in prison. His lawyers argued on appeal that none of the evidence should have been used against him.

    They challenged the warrant as a violation of his privacy because it allowed authorities to gather the location history of people near the bank without having any evidence they had anything to do with the robbery. Prosecutors argued that Chatrie had no expectation of privacy because he voluntarily opted into Google’s location history.

    The Supreme Court did not decide Monday whether the search complied with the Fourth Amendment, which bans unreasonable searches and seizures. It sent the case back to a lower court for more work.

    A federal judge had ruled that the search violated Chatrie’s rights, but allowed the evidence to be used because the officer who applied for the warrant reasonably believed he was acting properly.

    The federal appeals court in Richmond upheld the conviction in a fractured ruling. In a separate case, the federal appeals court in New Orleans ruled that geofence warrants “are general warrants categorically prohibited by the Fourth Amendment.”

  • Float builders are transforming history into colorful, sequin-filled displays for the Semiquincentennial parade

    Float builders are transforming history into colorful, sequin-filled displays for the Semiquincentennial parade

    In the dull glow of the overhead Convention Center lights, Todd Marcocci and a band of craftspeople stood next to large wheeled platforms, some housing floral gazebos, others a recreation of a Pennsylvania farm. Sweat dripping from his brow, Marcocci intently drilled palm tree crowns into the base of a platform dedicated to Central and South America.

    With just days until Philadelphia’s Semiquincentennial parade, Marcocci, alongside his crew and John Shaw of Shaw Parades, is assembling 19 parade floats to commemorate the United States’ 250th birthday.

    Todd Marcocci works on a float back stage with the crews of Friday’s parade and festival.Jessica Griffin / Staff Photographer

    The “Salute to Independence” Semiquincentennial Parade is scheduled to begin at noon Friday nearwhere the Declaration of Independence was signed in 1776, which Marcocci reminded himself of while he designed a historical parade.

    “I told all the groups who signed on for the parade that we’ll be lining up in the footsteps of the Founding Fathers,” Marcocci said. “We’ll walk through history.”

    In the halls of the Pennsylvania Convention Center, where float builders worked on Monday, larger-than-life recreations of Martin Luther King Jr. and Harriet Tubman awaited placement on a platform celebrating the Civil Rights movement.

    Mike Oyer works backstage on the floats.Jessica Griffin / Staff Photographer

    The next float over was bathed in white sequins, where a giant “peace dove” sculpture accompanied by a globe would rest. A few paces over sat a 6-foot-tall Wawa smoothie and coffee cups, and right by that were multiple United States-themed layered birthday cakes marking the various anniversaries of the country.

    Shaw worked a blade saw, slicing through two-by-fours to construct the float frames that Marcocci and Co. were painstakingly deciding the minutiae of, such as how many American flags or sequins can be threaded through a float.

    Annie Woods (left) and Johanna Gelber working on the floats.Jessica Griffin / Staff Photographer

    Shaw, whose parade float company has passed down through four generations, said Philly Fourth of July parades usually average seven floats. “This year it’s almost tripled,” he said. “Todd designs everything in his head, and then we collaborate back and forth to come up with the plan to actually make these ideas work.”

    Mayor Cherelle L. Parker will be on board the “One Philly — A United City” float, which features a large sculpture in the shape of the number 1 and a butterfly-and-floral gazebo symbolizing the city’s commitment to a clean and green city, Marcocci said.

    Jeremy Williams, works on a float back stage.Jessica Griffin / Staff Photographer

    A Liberty Bell float will commemorate some of the Founding Fathers and Betsy Ross with an Independence Hall backdrop. Another celebrates Philadelphia Pride with prominent LGBTQ figures and pride flags atop a vibrant rainbow platform.

    “The most important thing for me is that people, whether they’re watching on TV at home across the nation or here in person, is that they see themselves in our parade,” Marcocci said of representing the diversity of America’s history.

    Philadelphia’s Semiquincentennial Parade on Friday starts at noon at Fifth and Chestnut Streets, passing such historical landmarks as Independence Hall before heading to Sixth and Market Streets and then west on Market to circle City Hall before ending at Broad and Chestnut Streets after a heat emergency was declared, cutting short the route that was to continue to Logan Circle and loop around before heading back to City Hall.

    Fan zones are at Sixth and Market Streets , 11th and Market, and the northeast side of City Hall, where a bar is available for those 21 and over.

    Television coverage is on NBC10.

  • Supreme Court rules mail-in ballots arriving after Election Day can be counted

    The Supreme Court on Monday upheld a Mississippi law that allows officials to tally mail-in ballots postmarked by Election Day that arrive later, a decision that keeps voting procedures in place in several states as the midterm elections loom.

    In an ideologically mixed 5-4 ruling, the justices turned aside a challenge by Republicans and Libertarians, who argued federal law preempts a Mississippi statute that allows the counting of such ballots that arrive up to five days after polls close.

    The decision could make less likely similar legal challenges in 14 states that allow the counting of ballots that arrive days or weeks after polls close, and others that allow military members to return ballots later. Most states require mail-in ballots to be received by Election Day.

    Justice Amy Coney Barrett delivered the opinion for the majority, which included Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. and the court’s three liberals. Barrett said federal election law did not address when ballots should be received.

    “The election-day statutes say nothing about ballot receipt, and we cannot add to the words Congress chose,” Barrett wrote.

    The ruling came over the objections of four of the court’s conservatives. Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr. wrote the opinion for the group, which included Justices Clarence Thomas, Neil M. Gorsuch, and Brett M. Kavanaugh.

    “Not only is today’s decision inconsistent with statutory text, legal context, historical practice, and precedent; it also threatens to produce lamentable consequences,” Alito wrote. “The majority’s holding spawns a slurry of troubling election-law questions and risks further undermining Americans’ confidence in election integrity.”

    President Donald Trump and some Republican allies have falsely argued that voter fraud is rampant in mail-in balloting. Trump partly blamed his loss in the 2020 presidential election on mail-in votes and unsuccessfully called on states to stop tallying them during the contest.

    Trump called the ruling a “tremendous loss” in a post on Truth Social. He called on Congress to pass the Save America Act, which tightens voter identification laws.

    Republicans in a number of states have launched legal challenges to mail-in voting, which has grown in popularity since the onset of the coronavirus pandemic. One study found about 1 in 3 voters voted by mail in 2024, but the practice is more widespread in Democratic-leaning states.

    Conservatives in Congress also have introduced legislation to limit mail-in voting.

    In March, Trump issued an executive order telling the Postal Service to send ballots only to voters who appear on lists of citizens created by states in conjunction with the federal government. A federal judge in Massachusetts blocked that provision of the executive order last week, saying states — not the president — are responsible for setting election rules.

    Despite his criticism of mail-in voting, Trump voted by mail in a special election in Florida earlier this year.

    In the case decided by the high court, the Republican National Committee, the Mississippi Republican Party, a state voter, and a county election commissioner had sued Mississippi in 2024, claiming it was illegal to count mail-in ballots that arrive after polls close because federal law sets elections for a specific day. The Libertarian Party later filed a similar suit.

    The cases were consolidated by a federal judge, who allowed groups of veterans and retirees to intervene in the suit on behalf of Mississippi. The judge dismissed the case, but the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit reversed that ruling. Mississippi then appealed to the Supreme Court.

    During arguments in March, Paul D. Clement, an attorney for the conservatives, told the justices that casting and counting ballots at the same time has long been “intertwined.” He said allowing mail-in ballots to be counted after Election Day could increase fraud and undermine faith in elections, particularly if the winning candidate was not the one ahead when polls closed.

    “The losers are going to doubt the result, full stop,” Clement said. “That is bad for our system.”

    Mississippi Solicitor General Scott G. Stewart countered that existing law required only that voters fill out their ballots by Election Day. He said mail-in voting has a long history in the United States, pointing to field voting that occurred during the Civil War.

    “States have allowed it for over a century, and Congress has respected it,” Stewart said.

    This term has been an active one for the justices on voting and election issues. In January, the court allowed a Republican congressman from Illinois to challenge the state’s mail-in balloting laws, finding candidates have inherent standing to sue over election rules.

    The case brought by Rep. Mike Bost (R., Ill.) also argues that federal law prohibits ballots from being counted after Election Day. The case was sent back to the lower courts.

    The justices also severely limited a key section of the Voting Rights Act, which has cleared the way for a number of Republican-controlled states in the South to carve up districts held mostly by Black Democrats ahead of the midterm elections. Hundreds of other minority officeholders could be redistricted out of their seats in state and local boards.

    The court has yet to rule in a case challenging limits on spending coordinated between political parties and candidates that is being pushed by the Republican Party. Striking down the spending limits could give Republicans a big money boost in November.

    Fourteen states provide grace periods for all mail ballots, and another 16 provide them for military and overseas voters. Republican-led states have been steering away from ballot grace periods recently, with Kansas, North Dakota, Ohio, and Utah eliminating them last year, according to Voting Rights Lab.

    RNC Chairperson Joe Gruters said Republicans would push Congress to pass legislation requiring ballots in all states to be returned by Election Day.

    “Democrats are inviting chaos at the ballot box by allowing elections to drag on for days and weeks after voters cast their ballots,” he said in a statement.

    Voting rights advocates praised the decision, saying they feared the court could reverse long-standing policies on when ballots are due.

    “Good news rarely comes out of this Supreme Court, but today’s ruling is a win for our democracy,” NAACP President Derrick Johnson said. Virginia Kase Solomón, president of Common Cause, said the decision was correct because voters “shouldn’t lose their voice because of mail delays outside their control.”

  • Joe Frazier statue moves to the base of the Philadelphia Museum of Art

    Joe Frazier statue moves to the base of the Philadelphia Museum of Art

    “Smokin’” Joe Frazier is finally in his new home, just in time for the 250th birthday of the United States.

    City officials, alongside Frazier’s family, friends, and fans, on Monday unveiled the real-life heavyweight boxing champion’s statue at the base of the Philadelphia Museum of Art. Intended to be the statue’s new location in perpetuity, the spot was occupied by a monument to fictional boxer Rocky Balboa for two decades.

    “During this 250th celebration in the birthplace of democracy, we will forever remember that the city got right what it had gotten wrong for a long, long time,” Mayor Cherelle L. Parker said. “Now, Joe Frazier is attached, and connected to, and will permanently be here at our Philadelphia Museum of Art.”

    Monday’s unveiling was the culmination of months of planning. The Philadelphia Art commission in February approved a plan to move the statue from by Creative Philadelphia, the city’s office for the creative sector. Chief cultural officer Valerie V. Gay said Monday’s event was something of a “soft launch” for the statue’s new home, as a granite base will be installed in the future, along with more formal interpretive panels.

    Mayor Cherelle L. Parker speaks at the unveiling of the statue of former heavyweight boxing champion Joe Frazier at its new home outside the Art Museum. Jessica Kourkounis / For The Inquirer

    “Today, we did not want to wait,” Gay said.

    Frazier’s statue, after all, lived at the South Philadelphia sports complex for more than 10 years. Created by sculptor Stephen Layne, the statue was unveiled outside what is now Stateside Live! in 2015, four years after Frazier’s death in 2011 following a battle with liver cancer. Frazier, the undisputed heavyweight champion in 1970-1973, is probably best remembered for his three battles against Muhammad Ali in the 1970s.

    The city’s statue of Rocky had called the base of the Art Museum’s famed steps home since 2006. The monuments’ moves are part of a larger shuffling of statues at the Art Museum that began in March, when the Rocky statue was moved inside the museum for the first time as part of the ongoing exhibition Rising Up: Rocky and the Making of Monuments.

    That Rocky statue will be installed at the top of the Art Museum steps in the fall, when the statue of the Italian Stallion currently there will be returned to actor Sylvester Stallone’s private collection. Stallone, Parker said, was supportive of the Frazier statue’s new location.

    Dozens of the boxer’s supporters attended on Monday, including Philadelphia boxer Bernard Hopkins who held world championships in two weight classes, promoter Joe Hand Jr., and Frazier’s daughter Jacqueline Frazier-Lyde. Frazier-Lyde, a retired boxer and current Municipal Court judge, said the the color of the shroud covering her father’s statue — green —was fitting.

    “My mother’s favorite color was green, because we’re from the South and we love green, because it represents life,” she said. “My father, Joe Frazier, liked it because it was the color of money.”

    Boxing legend Bernard Hopkins at the unveiling of the new home for the statue of heavyweight boxing champion Joe Frazier.Jessica Kourkounis / For The Inquirer

    To the end, the statue’s new location wasn’t the end of efforts in the boxer’s memory. Parker also announced plans for a capital campaign to restore the former Joe Frazier’s Gym on Broad Street above Glenwood Avenue in North Philadelphia. Now a discount furniture store, the building is a legendary location in Philadelphia boxing history, having served as a training location for not just Frazier but other famed fighters and community members.

    Parker said plans were underway to establish a way to accept donations for that effort via the Philadelphia City Fund. The amount of funds targeted be raised was not immediately clear.

    “It’s important to show the world who we are,” Gay said. “Joe Frazier was a humble underdog whose determination and grit inspires us all. What could be more [a] more Philadelphia story than that?”

  • Supreme Court rejects Trump’s push to toss $5 million verdict in E. Jean Carroll sexual abuse case

    WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court on Monday rejected a push by President Donald Trump to throw out a jury’s $5 million finding that he sexually abused the writer E. Jean Carroll at a New York City department store in the mid-1990s and later defamed her.

    The high court declined to take up the case in a brief, unexplained order, as is typical. There were no noted dissents. Trump also plans to appeal another $83.3 million verdict awarded to Carroll by a different jury after a second defamation trial, his lawyers have said.

    The decision comes as the court hands down its biggest opinions, including a ruling that expands Trump’s firing power over the federal bureaucracy with the exception of the Federal Reserve.

    Trump called the decision to pass on the Carroll case “surprising” in a social media post, and he said he would continue to fight the defamation claims. “This Case is really against the United States of America, and all it stands for,” he wrote.

    Trump’s lawyers had argued that allegations leading to the verdict were propped up by “highly inflammatory” evidentiary rulings, including those that allowed the testimony of two other women who accused Trump of sexual abuse decades ago. Trump has denied all three women’s allegations.

    Trump’s attorneys argued the judge broke federal evidence rules in the case. They framed it as a distraction from Trump’s unique duties as president, though the verdict came before his return to the White House.

    “This mistreatment of a President cannot be allowed to stand,” Attorney Justin D. Smith wrote in court documents. Trump, a Republican, has since nominated Smith to be an appeals court judge. His lawyers called the case “Liberal Lawfare” in a statement on Monday.

    Carroll’s lawyers had urged the justices to pass on the case. They argued that the women’s testimony was relevant because the allegations were similar and that Judge Lewis Kaplan’s decisions were in line with others around the country. “This question is not worthy of review,” wrote attorney Roberta Kaplan, who is not related to the judge.

    Monday’s decision affirms the jury’s verdict will stand, she said in a statement Monday. “His multiple efforts to appeal that verdict have all failed and today’s ruling ends his quest to avoid accountability for his actions,” she said.

    Carroll, a longtime advice columnist and former TV talk show host, testified at a 2023 trial that Trump turned a friendly encounter in spring 1996 into a violent attack in the dressing room at Bergdorf Goodman, a luxury retailer across the street from Trump Tower in Manhattan. The jury also found Trump liable for defaming Carroll when he denied her allegation in 2022.

    The Associated Press does not identify people who say they have been sexually assaulted unless they come forward publicly, as Carroll has done.

    Trump has successfully fended off other hefty court judgments, including a New York civil fraud penalty of over $500 million thrown out by a New York appeals court. The Supreme Court also granted him broad immunity from criminal prosecution in 2024, though it later narrowly rejected his bid to halt sentencing in his New York hush money case.

  • U.S. and Iran pause strikes but disagree over next steps on talks

    DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — The United States and Iran on Monday separately announced they will send delegations to Qatar this week, though Tehran insisted it has not agreed to meet with the U.S. “at any level” after attacks across the Persian Gulf over the weekend challenged negotiations to end the war.

    U.S. President Donald Trump said the Islamic Republic had requested a meeting with U.S. counterparts and that they planned to convene Tuesday in Doha, Qatar.

    But one of Iran’s senior negotiators denied talks had been scheduled. And the spokesperson for Iran’s Foreign Ministry said Tehran was sending its delegation to Qatar, a key mediator in the negotiations, to discuss terms of the interim deal without involving the U.S.

    The U.S. president has tried to preserve a fragile interim deal, but hostilities mounted in recent days in the Strait of Hormuz, through which a fifth of the world’s oil had been shipped before war began. After four days of trading strikes, both sides appeared to pause their attacks Monday.

    The U.S. and Iran agreed to an interim deal earlier this month that calls for Tehran to dilute its stockpile of enriched uranium. It also waives U.S.-backed sanctions on the country, opens the Strait of Hormuz, and gives each side 60 days to hammer out broader agreements.

    Confusion mounts over next round of Iran-U.S. talks

    After Trump said Monday morning on social media that the U.S. and Iran planned to meet, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told Fox News’ Fox & Friends that special envoy Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, the president’s son-in-law, were flying to Qatar.

    Pakistan, also a key mediator, had said talks between Iran and the U.S. would resume Tuesday.

    But Kazem Gharibabadi, a senior negotiator for Iran, said in comments published by Iranian state media that no talks had been confirmed. And Esmail Baghaei, spokesperson for Iran’s Foreign Ministry, said that its delegation was traveling to Qatar this week to discuss the planned release of frozen Iranian assets and other issues related to the deal.

    “There are no negotiation meetings with the U.S. side at any level scheduled in the coming days,” Baghaei said. “The fact that U.S. representatives are traveling to Qatar has no connection with the visit of the Iranian delegation.”

    Increased tension in waterway

    During the war that began Feb. 28, Iran’s attacks and threats stopped cargo ships and tankers from moving through the Strait of Hormuz, creating a global energy crisis.

    In recent days, Iran has twice attacked vessels in the strait — including a tanker filled with Qatari crude — following efforts to open Oman’s territorial waters to both inbound and outbound traffic from the Persian Gulf.

    The attacks drew retaliatory American airstrikes and raised concerns that negotiations to reach a formal end to the war could be disrupted. Iran launched drone and missile attacks targeting Bahrain and Kuwait on Sunday.

    The strait has long been considered an international waterway despite its location in Iran and Oman’s territorial waters.

    The Trump administration was operating Monday on the understanding that the U.S. and Iran are standing down after the recent back-and-forth strikes and that vessels can move freely through the Strait of Hormuz, said a U.S. official who requested anonymity to discuss the sensitive negotiations.

    Iran’s president, U.S. official say $6 billion coming to Iran

    The U.S. official also said that Qatar planned to release $6 billion in frozen Iranian assets that would be used to purchase U.S. food products for the Iranian people.

    Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian had announced the expected release of funds earlier Monday in comments published by the state-run IRNA news agency. He called it “a great victory for the Iranian people.”

    Pezeshkian, a reformist within Iran’s theocracy, is the highest-ranking official within Iran to reference the release of the funds held by Qatar, a key mediator along with Pakistan in the negotiations.

    Oman, Iran discuss possible fees for transiting the strait

    Oman’s foreign minister, Badr Albusaidi, said Monday that Oman and Iran are considering charging service-related fees for commercial ships transiting the Strait of Hormuz.

    Albusaidi said services could include water safety measures, pollution prevention, navigational assistance, and preparedness for incidents such as fires. He told Radio Monte Carlo while visiting France that there are “successful examples” of similar services being provided in compliance with maritime law.

    Albusaidi said Oman does not support imposing transit fees on ships.

    “This is internationally forbidden,” he said, “and we are abiding by these rules.”

    Iran, France clash over clearing mines from strait

    An Iranian official warned France against “provocations” Monday after French President Emmanuel Macron posted on X that France and others were coordinating efforts to clear mines from the Strait of Hormuz.

    Kazem Gharibabadi, an Iranian deputy foreign minister, said on X that under the interim deal “demining is carried out solely by Iran and by no other country.”

    Macron’s post came after he greeted Sultan Haitham bin Tariq of Oman ahead of high-level diplomatic talks in Paris.

    Oman and France called for “free, unconditional, and unrestricted navigation” in the Strait of Hormuz, in a joint statement issued Monday after the Paris meeting. Both parties said they “agreed to work collaboratively with all stakeholders to support freedom of navigation going forward and conduct joint demining operations.”

    Lebanon’s president says it will deploy troops

    Lebanese President Joseph Aoun said Monday that Lebanon is determined to deploy troops along its entire southern border as part of a framework agreement with Israel signed Friday. He made the remark while meeting with Adm. Brad Cooper, the top U.S. military commander in the Middle East.

    The deal was rejected by the Iran-backed Hezbollah militant group, which triggered the latest war with Israel on March 2 when it fired rockets across Lebanon’s southern border and into northern Israel.

    The Israel-Lebanon deal calls for Hezbollah to be disarmed before Israel will withdraw its troops from southern Lebanon. Israel agreed to withdraw initially from a couple of “pilot zones” where the Lebanese army would then deploy, but no details have been shared about how that will work in practice.

    Hezbollah officials have warned that attempts to implement the plan could lead to civil war.