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  • The grand opening of this West Chester bookstore went exceptionally well. The owners had to close early after they almost sold out.

    The grand opening of this West Chester bookstore went exceptionally well. The owners had to close early after they almost sold out.

    Jessie Hilker and her father, Jeffrey, knew they had built some buzz and intrigue ahead of opening their West Chester fantasy bookshop, Leaves & Lore, this past weekend.

    But nothing could have prepared them for the hours-long line that wrapped around the building and left their shelves “pretty much barren.”

    “We’re a little, like, what just happened,” Jessie Hilker, 29, said.

    Leaves & Lore officially opened its doors Saturday at 118 N. High St., and the response was immense and instantaneous. The bookshop, which is themed around fantasy novels, had a line for six hours. It sold 600 orders on the first day. Jeffrey Hilker, 64, estimates about 1,500 people walked through.

    “I’m a pretty optimistic person, and I thought we would do well,” he said. “I just didn’t think it would be like this.”

    Though spotlighting fantasy and “romantasy,” the bookshop also sells genres like romance, dark romance, mystery/thriller, horror, and fiction, plus books for kids and teens.

    It also carries “bookish merch” like apparel, bookmarks, themed candles, stickers, and more. Customers can purchase a “book bouquet” — a book swaddled with flowers — or book the space for events (think birthdays or girls’ nights) and photography sessions (like engagement shots or bridal portraits).

    A sweet treat or freshly brewed coffee and tea are also on offer.

    By Saturday night, the shelves were nearly empty, Jessie Hilker said. On Sunday, she and her father had planned to open during normal hours, from 10 to 4 p.m., but had to close early because they had run so low on stock.

    “It’s definitely a passion project,” Jessie Hilker said. “I wanted to open a bookstore because I enjoy reading. So to see so many other people enjoy it, as much as I do, makes it very special.”

    Jessie Hilker is a lifelong reader. If she was punished for something as a child, she would get her books taken away, she said. Her dad had a hard time giving her enough books to read. During college, she fell out of the habit for a bit, but the fantasy genre sparked the love within her again.

    Leaves & Lore opened at 118 N. High St. in West Chester with enthusiastic success on Aug. 22. Lines wrapped around the building for hours.Photo courtesy of Robin Dayley

    She is not alone. “Romantasy,” a blend of romance and fantasy, has buoyed the publishing industry in recent years, selling millions of copies and generating hundreds of millions of dollars. You’ll see those novels, like A Court of Thorns and Roses or Fourth Wing and plenty more, on Leaves & Lore’s shelves. Traditional fantasy, alongside romance and dark romance, has also seen staggering success.

    Propelled in part by social media, like TikTok’s “BookTok” community, independent bookstores are also seeing a boost from the books’ popularity. Across the region, themed bookshops have done well; Philadelphia’s Cupid’s Bookshop, which is entirely dedicated to the romance genre, drew in hundreds when it opened last year.

    Fantasy is not exactly Jeffrey Hilker’s genre, but he and his daughter always wanted to open a business together. When it became clear that business would be a bookstore, he was down to see her vision through. They went to Europe, traveling across Scotland and the U.K. to peruse bookshops that they wanted to emulate.

    For about two years, they kept an eye on available spaces in West Chester. They knew that was where they wanted to be since they both live in the borough, and it felt like the right spot for such a shop.

    Leaves & Lore is fantasy-focused, and offers bookish apparel and merch, along with “book bouquets” and freshly brewed coffee.Photo courtesy of Robin Dayley

    Jessie Hilker wanted Leaves & Lore to feel like stepping inside a fantasy novel, with the space “Renaissance-inspired, very medieval.” She pictured bookcases that stretch floor to ceiling and a moving ladder; her father was “just trying to make it happen,” he said.

    They built up a following on social media. A peephole let passersby take a peek as the Hilkers brought Jessie’s vision to life, creating some in-person interest, they said.

    Still, their opening was unbelievable, Jessie Hilker said.

    But they plan to keep the momentum going. They have events scheduled for some forthcoming book releases in the fall, and an interest to partner with local authors on signings.

    Jessie Hilker said she was “ordering like crazy” to replenish the store’s stock, though there was enough supply left to fill the shelves to reopen Tuesday.

    “I wanted to just be a place where people feel like they can come and just escape for a little bit. Whether they come to study, whether they come to pick up a book … whether that’s picking up just their coffee for the day, I hope it’s just a place that many people feel like they are accepted and welcomed,” she said.

    This suburban content is produced with support from the Leslie Miller and Richard Worley Foundation and The Lenfest Institute for Journalism. Editorial content is created independently of the project donors. Gifts to support The Inquirer’s high-impact journalism can be made at inquirer.com/donate. A list of Lenfest Institute donors can be found at lenfestinstitute.org/supporters.

  • A Delco firefighter was convicted of making racist threats for calling a woman the N-word during an argument

    A Delco firefighter was convicted of making racist threats for calling a woman the N-word during an argument

    A Delaware County volunteer fire chief was convicted of ethnic intimidation, terroristic threats, and related crimes for calling a woman the N-word, among other slurs, during a tense encounter in 2024.

    John Romano, 48, said the woman was “a wild animal,” according to police body camera footage played during his trial last month before Judge Margaret J. Amoroso, who handed down her verdict Monday.

    Romano, the assistant fire chief at the Sharon Hill Fire Company, also said he was “tired of dealing with them,” the footage showed.

    District Attorney Tanner Rouse said that Romano’s conviction “is an important reminder that words have consequences.”

    Delco officials condemn hatred as firefighter accused of yelling racist slurs faces criminal charges. Here’s what you need to know.

    “What happened in this case was not an argument between two people,” Rouse said. “It was a disturbing encounter involving racial slurs, intimidation, threats, and behavior that left someone fearing for their safety. No one should have to endure this kind of treatment, plain and simple.”

    Romano and the woman crossed paths on Hook Road in Darby Township in November 2024, while Romano was using a forklift to unload Christmas trees. His forklift, the woman testified, was blocking the road, causing a traffic jam of irritated drivers who were honking their horns.

    After the car in front of hers squeezed through a small gap near the forklift, the woman said, Romano got out of the forklift, “rushed” to the passenger-side window of her car, and demanded to know why she was honking at him.

    From the outset, she said, Romano was “on full-blast rage.”

    He called her the N-word, as well as another slur, she said, and took a picture of her license plate, telling her he would “take care” of her at her home. When she said she was calling the police, Romano told her to do so, saying he knew the county sheriff.

    Romano’s attorney, Christopher Boggs, said in his closing arguments that the confrontation was “more akin to a road-rage incident” and was not a case of ethnic intimidation.

    Romano, upset at the car horns honking, would have said “awful things to anyone in that circumstance,” he said.

    Amoroso is expected to sentence Romano on Sept. 28.

  • Lower Merion school board member stole $50K from employer to fund vacations, clothing, and a friend’s bar mitzvah video, DA says

    Lower Merion school board member stole $50K from employer to fund vacations, clothing, and a friend’s bar mitzvah video, DA says

    A member of the Lower Merion School District Board of Directors embezzled more than $50,000 from the marketing agency where she works, prosecutors said Monday, and spent the money on family vacations, clothing, and a videographer to film a friend’s son’s bar mitzvah.

    Jennifer Rivera, 41, has been charged with theft, receiving stolen property, and related crimes in the theft from SMB Team, a Bala Cynwyd firm that helps lawyers advertise to prospective clients.

    She was released on $25,000 unsecured bail. Rivera could not be reached for comment, and there was no indication she had hired an attorney.

    Representatives of SMB did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

    Rivera used a company credit card issued to her to make the purchases, which began in October, when she had a dress and a bathroom organizer shipped to her home, according to the affidavit of probable cause for her arrest.

    Jennifer Rivera (second from left) paid for her family’s vacations using a credit card given to her by her employer, SMB Team, which Montgomery County prosecutors say was a violation of company policy.Denali Sagner / Staff

    In a statement Monday, Lower Merion school board president Kerry Sautner emphasized that none of the criminal charges Rivera faces are related to the district or its finances.

    “As of this time, I have not had an opportunity to discuss Ms. Rivera’s future on the School Board with her,” Sauter said. “While it is important to note that anyone charged with a crime remains innocent until proven guilty, we must also consider the potential impact of this situation on our Board.”

    Rivera was elected to the school board in November, alongside Sauter, as part of the ElectLMSD Democratic slate.

    Her theft from her employer was uncovered in May, when a senior vice president at SMB found that she had used the company card to pay a coworker nearly $1,400 through Venmo, the affidavit said.

    When questioned, prosecutors said, she lied and said it was a business expense.

    But her coworker, who owns a private videography business, told company officials the payment was for a “last-minute” bar mitzvah gig he agreed to do after the original videographer canceled. He said Rivera told him he had paid her from her personal account, but he realized afterward she had used company money.

    He said he knew it was “shady” and was “not sure how she could be so blatantly untruthful,” according to the affidavit.

    The coworker said Rivera also used the company card to fly him and his wife to another employee’s wedding, where he was hired to take photos. He said Rivera assured him she was allowed to use the company card for that, according to the affidavit.

    After being presented with evidence about the bar mitzvah payment, Rivera said she may have used the wrong Venmo account by mistake. She “became distraught” and said the accusations put her in a “dark place,” the affidavit said.

    Rivera was placed on administrative leave, but asked to be fired, saying “the waiting is adding stress,” the affidavit said.

    As SMB continued to investigate, the company learned that Rivera had also spent more than $25,000 for airline travel and family vacations, according to the affidavit.

    At the time of the investigation, Rivera had booked a forthcoming trip to the Bahamas that was worth more than $9,000 in credit card travel points.

    Rivera is scheduled to appear before a district judge for a preliminary hearing on Sept. 2.

  • Ron Avery, retired Daily News reporter and Philadelphia historian, has died at 85

    Ron Avery, retired Daily News reporter and Philadelphia historian, has died at 85

    Ron Avery, 85, of Philadelphia, retired eclectic reporter and columnist for the Daily News, Philadelphia historian, volunteer city tour guide, author, high school history teacher, veteran, and canoe enthusiast, died Sunday, Aug. 2, of complications from amyotrophic lateral sclerosis at his home in East Falls.

    Reared in Fairmount, Mr. Avery graduated from Thomas Edison High School and earned a bachelor’s degree in history at Pennsylvania State University. He was assigned to the ship newspaper in the Navy after college, found a creative niche in journalism, and went on to work for more than 30 years at the Associated Press, the Bucks County Courier Times, the Courier-Post in South Jersey, and the Daily News.

    He wrote for the Daily News as a correspondent in 1981, joined the staff in 1982, and, until his retirement in 2000, wrote thousands of stories about crime, casinos, war orphans, historic houses, the MOVE bombing, local notables, and other subjects. His columns, “Poor Ronald’s Almanac” and “One of Us,” hammered away at local issues and featured everyday people doing exceptional things.

    “He covered every nook and cranny of the city,” said his son Serge. “That burning curiosity sustained him till his last days.”

    He wrote three books about Philadelphia, including A Concise History of Philadelphia in 1999. He produced a series of video guides he called the Urban Explorer for local TV in 2004 and posted blogs about the city from 2017 to 2019 on a website called Philadelphia Cracks Me Up.

    “Like all cities,” he said in a 1995 Daily News column, “Philadelphia is honeycombed with hidden spaces and forgotten places.” In a 1997 review of his book, City of Brotherly Mayhem: Philadelphia Crimes and Criminals, The Inquirer’s Thomas Brady said: “The book … is decidedly a fun read.”

    Alex Strang, his director on the Urban Explorer videos, called Mr. Avery an “unforgettable legend” and “a walking encyclopedia of the city’s history and eccentricities” in a Facebook tribute. Other former colleagues said he was “a clever journalist” and “a true Philadelphian.”

    Longtime Daily News colleague Robin Palley said on Facebook: “He had an amazing knack of finding quirky people with fascinating skills or habits and making them come to life on our pages.”

    Mr. Avery (left) mans a Salvation Army donation kettle in 1999.Steven M. Falk / Staff Photographer

    Before the Daily News, Mr. Avery wrote news and feature stories for the Courier-Post in the 1970s, and the Courier Times and the AP in the 1960s. He moved to Israel for six months in 1972 but returned to work for the Courier-Post in 1973.

    He also wrote freelance pieces for the Hidden City Daily, PhillyHistory.org, UShistory.org, and op-eds later for The Inquirer and Daily News. He served in the Navy from 1964 to 1966, joined the Philadelphia Canoe Club later, and led water trips in the New Jersey Pine Barrens and elsewhere.

    Ron Avery: Philadelphia tour guides should be educated, tested, and licensed

    Knowledgeable, energetic, and naturally affable, he was a tireless promoter and volunteer guide in Philadelphia. He led walking tours throughout the city for students, civic groups, and other organizations, and his explanatory video tours featured cobblestone alleys, urban gardens, museums, statues, and other features of city life.

    He was a stickler for details and historical accuracy, and he helped spur City Council to pass an ordinance in 2008 to educate and certify paid Center City tour guides. “They score high as Philadelphia ambassadors of good will,” he said in a 1995 column about uneducated guides, “but as historians they often flunk out.”

    Mr. Avery wrote a column for the Courier-Post in 1974.Newspapers.com

    Ronald Avery was born June 10, 1941, in Strawberry Mansion. He joined the Boy Scouts, earned his bachelor’s degree at Penn State in 1963, and taught history at Bensalem High School for a year.

    He was a boxer in college and, mesmerized by the sport, later worked as a referee for amateur matches.

    Ron Avery: When journalism involved typewriters and glue pots

    He met Suzet Habif in Israel in 1967, and they married in 1968. They had sons Serge and Ben, and lived for years in a rowhouse in Oxford Circle.

    Mr. Avery cared for his wife during her long illness in the 1980s and ’90s. She died in 1993.

    Mr. Avery liked to hang out with Benjamin Franklin and other historic figures. Alex Strang

    He lived later in Pennsport and East Falls, was diagnosed with ALS in 2015, and proudly outlived its average life expectancy of 18 months by nearly a decade. “He defied that diagnosis and did not let it define him,” his son Serge said. “He always said he had a lot to live for.”

    Mr. Avery was an avid reader and street photographer. He liked poetry, wrote limericks on birthday cards, and posted hundreds of his photos on flickr.com. One of his photos won a contest and was displayed at the airport.

    Ron Avery: History repeats itself with the reincarnation of the hateful Know-Nothing Party

    He enjoyed jazz and jokes, led the prayers at family gatherings, and gave Yiddish quizzes to his two grandsons. He shared favorite recipes with Daily News colleagues and whipped up memorable homemade soups, especially white bean.

    “I’ll greatly miss his endless anecdotes about all things Philadelphia,” said his daughter-in-law, Rebecca Houlding, “the stories about the local criminals, and his love of his family and friends.”

    Mr. Avery wrote about his life in Northeast Philadelphia for the Daily News in 1997.Alejandro A. Alvarez / Staff Photographer

    His son Serge said: “He loved chasing the stories from the back alleys and driveways, highlighting the working people of our town.”

    In addition to his sons, daughter-in-law, and grandsons, Mr. Avery is survived by other relatives. A sister died earlier.

    Services were held earlier.

    Donations in his name may be made to Paralyzed Veterans of America, Box 758589, Topeka, Kan. 66675; and the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society, Box 8688, Philadelphia, Pa. 19101.

    Mr. Avery “loved chasing the stories from the back alleys and driveways, highlighting the working people of our town,” his son Serge said.Alex Strang
  • SEPTA drivers fear screaming riders and chaotic commutes as bus overhaul takes effect

    SEPTA drivers fear screaming riders and chaotic commutes as bus overhaul takes effect

    The lines are drawn, the maps are set, and on Sunday SEPTA began reconfiguring bus routes across the Philadelphia region.

    Bus operators say they worry passengers frustrated over changed routes that take them by surprise and unexpected delays will yell at, curse, or assault them. It has been a persistent problem in recent years.

    In some cases, riders accustomed to staying on one bus route will need to transfer to other buses or the subway and elevated trains. That increases the chances of missed connections and delays. And angry people.

    “You’re upset because you had counted on the bus,” said Keya Sampson, 52, a bus driver for 12 years. “You have to be at this appointment or you’ve got to punch in on time.”

    She is sympathetic, even though delays are outside her control.

    “We’re going to end up in a tricky situation because we’re the face of SEPTA,” Sampson said. “They don’t have anybody else to scream at, unfortunately.”

    Vulnerable riders

    Carlos Guillen, who has worked for SEPTA for 19 years as an operator on buses and the Broad Street Line, noted that SEPTA advises Route 4 riders to take the B, SEPTA’s new name for the subway line, to avoid longer wait times.

    “I can see how it can impact elderly and those with disabilities, especially moving down the sidewalk — they’re not the smoothest thoroughfares,” said Guillen, a safety officer for Transport Workers Union Local 234.

    He noted a lack of ADA-accessible stations on the B north of City Hall.

    Longer term, some bus operators are concerned about the possibility they could be replaced in the future by autonomous driving technology.

    “Autonomously driven vehicles have no place in mass transit,” said Joe Coccio, secretary-treasurer of Local 234, which represents more than 5,000 SEPTA employees, including operators on buses, subways, and trolleys. “They’re flawed. They’re unpredictable.” He said they also can be hacked.

    SEPTA says it has no plans to use robot bus operators and is hiring human ones as fast as it can. But a spokesperson also said the authority wants to keep its options open.

    Most operators are anticipating some confused passengers at first, even though SEPTA has sent out teams to educate people about Phase 1 of the New Bus Network. Maps and cards illustrate the changes, translated into multiple languages.

    New color-coded signage is part of SEPTA’s plan to communicate changes to bus routes that begin on Sunday. Tom Gralish / Staff Photographer

    Some people won’t get the message.

    “People right now don’t even read our destination signs to see if it’s the right bus,” said Ryan Stewart, who operates a Route 35 bus from the Midvale depot in Nicetown.

    What’s changing

    SEPTA has pushed for much of the last decade to streamline its bus network amid declining ridership that predated the pandemic. Planners found that slower travel times due in part to traffic delays and long, twisty routes made service less reliable and discouraged people from relying on buses.

    In the first wave of changes, 30 bus routes will be affected.

    Some routes with low ridership or that duplicate nearby service have been eliminated. Others have been extended. Some will run more frequently, others less frequently, based on analysis of demand. Two new routes have been added.

    What you need to know about phase 1 of the New Bus Network

    The people who pilot the buses on Philadelphia’s narrow streets know that some small and overlooked issues could undercut the New Bus Network program’s goal of quicker, more efficient service.

    Sampson, for instance, has been driving the 63 for the summer. She will be back behind the wheel on Route 4, her regular run for the last four years, this week — as the changes begin.

    Route 4 will have fewer buses running. So SEPTA is deploying 60-foot articulated buses, which carry more passengers.

    SEPTA had been using 40-foot buses on the route, which has narrow streets and hairpin turns, especially in its northern reaches, where there is a longstanding detour that will not end until summer 2027. Operators think the longer buses will have trouble navigating the route.

    Operators have asked SEPTA to look at the issue. “If there’s nothing they can do, it’s going to be a nightmare,” Sampson said. “We’re going to get stuck.”

    She knows well the hard turn from Erie onto Rising Sun, an angled intersection with a pub that often has a beer truck parked on the curb. Only one articulated bus at a time can fit down that little stretch of Old York Road. And the church at 10th and Rockland Streets that has packed funerals, with cars parked to the corners.

    “How do you ask someone who’s grieving, ‘Hey, move your car’? … At the same time, we do need to make the turn, and it does need to be safe.”

    Time will tell

    Paul Pollard, a veteran bus operator on Route 61, said he spends precious minutes stuck in traffic on Main Street in Manayunk on his way north to Roxborough during morning peak hours, as parents drop students off at school.

    But the schedule assumes his bus can sail through.

    “I’ve had people get off my bus, walk two or three blocks down, and go into their job,” Pollard, 49, said. “I’m still sitting in traffic.”

    It is “virtually impossible” to meet the schedule safely, he said. The result: late buses and steamed customers.

    Time will tell if worries become reality, but operators know that they will bear the brunt of any outrage.

    “There’s nobody at SEPTA headquarters getting somebody throwing coffee on them, or spitting on them,” Pollard said.

  • ICE inked a $9 million contract with a Montco firearms manufacturer — and is spending $17 million at Philly area businesses

    ICE inked a $9 million contract with a Montco firearms manufacturer — and is spending $17 million at Philly area businesses

    U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement has awarded more than $17 million in contracts, mostly to businesses, in the Philadelphia area since the start of President Donald Trump’s second term, with more than half of that money going to a firearms manufacturer in Montgomery County.

    The local data, compiled by The Appeal, highlights the Trump administration’s spending related to raids and enforcement operations as the agency carries out the president’s mass deportation agenda, including its purchases of weaponry.

    Geissele Automatics, a firearms manufacturer based in North Wales, has the largest and perhaps most consequential contract with ICE in the Philadelphia area.

    The company — which specializes in selling high-grade, AR-15-style semiautomatic weapons and parts to consumers, law enforcement agencies, and the military — entered a contract with ICE for nearly $9.1 million in September 2025, according to federal data.

    The payment was for the delivery of “precision long guns and accessories” to support ICE agents as well as the agency’s tactical programs, the data show. It’s unclear where the equipment is being used.

    Neither the company’s founder, Bill Geissele, nor a representative from the company’s sales team returned a request for comment.

    Nationwide, ICE and U.S. Customs and Border Protection has dramatically increased spending on firearms in Trump’s second term, according to a report earlier this year from U.S. Sen. Adam Schiff (D., Calif.), leading to outcry from Democratic officials and voters who say the agency has become a militarized force with little oversight or accountability.

    That outrage continued this month when Democrats voiced their opposition to ICE’s plan to provide ICE officers with electric shock gloves. Schiff’s oversight report, released earlier this year, called ICE and CBP’s contracts for weaponry a “misuse of taxpayer dollars to maximally arm federal immigration agents.”

    A spokesperson for Department of Homeland Security said in a statement that $17 million in contracts in the Philadelphia region is “simply not accurate” and “conflates nationwide ICE contracts” with spending in the area.

    “ICE contracts with vendors across the country to support its law enforcement mission. The existence of a federal contract, a vendor located in a particular region, or a nationwide contract vehicle does not mean that the full value of that contract was spent in Philadelphia,” the spokesperson said

    “Reporting should accurately distinguish between nationwide contract values, vendor locations, places of performance, and actual federal expenditures before presenting a misleading figure as fact,” they added.

    The details on the contracts come as residents and advocates in the Philadelphia region and nationwide are continuing to remain vigilant of ICE’s presence in their communities. Earlier this year, ICE struck deals to retrofit warehouses in Pennsylvania and New Jersey into mass detention centers before later backtracking after residents and leaders in both states voiced opposition.

    Bill Geissele — who hosts the manufacturer’s podcast Shots Fired in Anger —has donated to Republican elected officials in Pennsylvania, including U.S. Sen. Dave McCormick and U.S. Rep. Dan Meuser. Geissele’s contract, while not the company’s first with the federal government, is by far the most significant contract between the gun manufacturer and the federal agency on record.

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    In August 2024 for example, under former President Joe Biden’s administration, Geissele Automatics entered a $12,224 contract with ICE for equipment to support a “sniper sustainment” course, according to data compiled by The Appeal.

    By 2025, when Trump returned to the White House and significantly ramped up ICE operations nationwide, those contracts ballooned.

    On top of the $9.1 million contract that year, Geissele was paid $27,936 to provide training rifles and magazines for the agency’s Office of Firearms and Tactical Programs, as well as $16,544 for rifles and accessories required for testing and evaluation.

    ICE also took its spending across the river to Burlington County in New Jersey, where it awarded George J. Petronis Enterprises Inc., a gun shop, slightly more than $505,000 since the start of Trump’s second term for training ammunition and ink cartridges for 9mm training ammo to support ICE’s Office of Firearms and Tactical Programs in Fort Benning, Ga.

    George J. Petronis Enterprises Inc. did not return an email requesting comment.

    The Appeal’s dashboard also shows a contract for rental of a firing range between ICE and the county’s fire academy, located in Conshohocken, that has existed since at least 2021. But Montgomery County officials said Friday that the contract is with the broader Department of Homeland Security — which ICE is a part of — and not with the federal immigration enforcement agency directly.

    County Commissioner Jamila Winder, a Democrat, said that the academy is used by local, state, and federal agencies for law enforcement training but “this facility is not available for training for those engaged in immigration enforcement activities.”

    Other contracts highlighted by The Appeal dashboard may also be directly tied to DHS, instead of ICE.

    Earlier this year, Montgomery County’s Board of Commissioners passed a resolution restricting federal immigration enforcement from using county property or resources for noncriminal investigations.

    Other local contracts with ICE include a roughly $50,000 contract with the Philadelphia Parking Authority for rental spaces for 16 vehicles and more than $78,000 to Ricoh USA Inc., an office technology company headquartered in Chester County that was also used under the Biden administration. Coast2Coast Shredding LLC, which is headquartered in Montgomery County but shreds documents in California, received more than $94,000 from ICE.

  • Amazon plans to start drone delivery in South Jersey

    Amazon plans to start drone delivery in South Jersey

    Autonomous drones may soon be delivering Amazon packages across South Jersey.

    Amazon representatives have told local officials and emergency responders that the e-commerce giant plans to start drone-delivery service out of its West Deptford facility this fall, according to West Deptford Mayor James Mehaffey and Mantua Township Police Chief William Murphy.

    The news comes days after Amazon announced a massive expansion of its Prime Air program, which already delivers packages via drone from launch sites in 11 U.S. cities, none of which are in the Northeast.

    By the end of the year, Amazon wants to expand its drone coverage area to nearly 500 cities and towns nationwide, the company said, allowing tens of millions of customers to get products flown to their doorsteps in 30 minutes to an hour.

    The announcement is the latest effort by Amazon to decrease delivery times and hold its edge as the world’s most popular online retailer — and the most lucrative company in terms of sales. In May, Amazon rolled out 30-minute ground delivery across Philadelphia.

    Amazon’s top rival, Walmart, recently announced its plans to offer drone delivery in Philadelphia.

    Walmart plans to bring delivery drones to Philly. What that means for Amazon and the same-day delivery wars.

    “We are always exploring new ways to get customers a wider selection at faster speeds,” Amazon spokesperson Smitha Rao said in a statement, in response to The Inquirer’s questions about the South Jersey meeting, which occurred last week.

    “We are currently working with local officials and exploring opportunities to expand our fast, reliable drone delivery service to reach customers in areas across the country.”

    Amazon is hiring for several West Deptford-based Prime Air positions, including flight monitor, ground manager, and a safety and compliance officer. The job listings were posted on the company’s online portal last month.

    The West Deptford warehouse opened in 2018 as the company’s fourth robotic fulfillment center, where robots and humans work together. It has also been the site of a walkout by employees who say they deserve better pay and working conditions.

    According to local officials briefed on the Amazon plans, the company’s drones would fly out of the warehouse at 240 Mantua Grove Rd., a 650,000-square-foot facility that sits next to I-295 and is among the company’s largest in the region.

    The Amazon Fulfillment Center in West Deptford, seen in 2019, is among the region’s largest.TIM TAI / Staff Photographer

    The company’s drones can typically deliver to addresses within 175 square miles of each launch site.

    In a Facebook post from the Mantua Township Police Department account, Murphy shared a screenshot of the local drone-delivery radius that he said Amazon shared during the Zoom meeting. The photo indicated that drones from the West Deptford site would be able to reach places within about a 15-mile radius — from Bellmawr to Mullica Hill in New Jersey, as well as parts of Ridley Park, Darby, Glenolden, and South Philadelphia across the Delaware River.

    Amazon told local officials that the drones would operate from 15 minutes before sunrise to 15 minutes after sunset, according to Murphy, and be authorized to fly at altitudes below 400 feet, in accordance with Federal Aviation Administration regulations.

    The company plans to start drone delivery from West Deptford as early as October, according to Murphy and Mehaffey.

    Amazon’s drones can deliver groceries, cosmetics, medications, even iPhones — anything that weighs 5 pounds or less and fits in a large shoebox. Amazon says those characteristics apply to more than 60% of its most popular products.

    Boxed orders are sorted at the Amazon Fulfillment Center in West Deptford in 2019.TIM TAI / Staff Photographer

    Customers can browse drone-deliverable items the same way they search for any other Amazon products, according to the company, and select the best spot for a drone to leave the package.

    Amazon Prime members can get complimentary drone delivery on orders of $50 or more, or pay an extra $2.99 on orders under $50. Nonmembers can pay $4.99 for drone delivery.

    Philly shoppers have a ‘love/hate relationship’ with Amazon but can’t stop spending — as much as $2,000 a month

    The drones are not monitored by humans in real time, according to Amazon. Instead, the devices use an autonomous system of cameras and sensors to navigate, avoid obstacles, and deliver the package safely.

    Some South Jersey residents said they have questions about those cameras, as well as the impact Amazon drones may have on their quality of life, safety, and environment. As of Sunday, more than 100 people had signed a petition asking for public hearings and written disclosures about Prime Air and its data practices before the drones start flying in the area.

    Amazon said in its expansion announcement that the drones’ cameras do not “track individuals or record movement.” The drones are electric, emit no exhaust, and make little noise, according to the company. The drones are quieter during drop-off than “an idling delivery truck,” Amazon said, and sound similar to a “window fan on low” while in flight. The company said people indoors cannot typically hear the drones outside.

    In areas where the drones are already flying, company spokesperson Rao said, “the response from customers using Prime Air has been overwhelmingly positive.”

    Mantua Township Mayor Bob Zimmerman told residents in a Facebook post that the Amazon drones were “forthcoming.”

    “Please understand that whether you are for, or against deliveries of this kind by drones, we have no say over the matter,” wrote Zimmerman, who did not return a request for additional comment.

    Amazon has not said whether it plans to fly drones from other warehouses in the Philadelphia area, and has not posted Prime Air job openings at other local sites.

    The company has dozens of facilities across the region, with larger warehouses in Carneys Point and Logan Townships in South Jersey, and near Wilmington. Officials in those areas did not return requests for comment.

    Amazon’s Logan Township warehouse is pictured in 2021.STEVEN M. FALK / Staff Photographer

    Jason Bobst, township manager of West Norriton Township in Montgomery County, said the company has not been in touch about flying drones from its facility there.

    “We have not been approached by Amazon regarding drone delivery operations from its West Norriton facility, nor have we received any indication that Amazon is currently considering that location for drone delivery service,” Bobst said in an email.

    Bobst said township officials did have a preliminary conversation about Walmart looking to expand its drone delivery service in the area, but nothing formal has been presented.

    In recent weeks, food-delivery apps Uber Eats, Grubhub, and DoorDash also have unveiled similar plans, but have not started flying to Philly-area customers.

  • Police in Montgomery County fatally shot a man while responding to a reported break-in, the DA says

    Police in Montgomery County fatally shot a man early Sunday morning while responding to a reported break-in at a home, according to county officials.

    Upper Pottsgrove Township Police were called about 12:30 a.m. to a possible attempted break in at a home on Snyder Road, the Montgomery County District Attorney’s Office wrote on Facebook. Upper Pottsgrove Township is about 35 miles northwest of Philadelphia.

    When police arrived, they found a man at the back of the residence and an “encounter ensued and police fired” at the man, killing him, the post said.

    It was not immediately clear what led to the gunfire or if the man was armed. His identity, and the names of the officers involved, have not been made public.

    The Montgomery County Detective Bureau is investigating.

    No additional information was immediately available.

  • SEPTA’s bus route overhaul is here. Ready?

    SEPTA’s bus route overhaul is here. Ready?

    SEPTA is eliminating seven bus routes, debuting two new ones, and adjusting more Sunday as the first phase of a bus network redesign gets underway.

    In all, riders will find changes to 30 routes, including more frequent service on those with high ridership, and buses coming less often on some lower-performing routes.

    Highlights include:

    • Routes 35, 47M, 62, 78, 80, 89, and 106 will disappear. SEPTA says they are less used or have nearby alternatives for passengers.
    • The new Route 72 will connect Frankford Transportation Center and Cedarbrook Plaza, running mostly along Cheltenham Avenue.
    • Route 76, the second new route, will travel between South Philadelphia’s Columbus Commons shopping center, anchored by Ikea and Lowe’s, and the intersection of Rising Sun and Olney Avenues.
    SEPTA is using this graphic to summarize bus-route changes at a glance for the first phase of the redesigned system.SEPTA

    This is the first comprehensive makeover of the bus network since 1968, when the authority took over bus service in the Philadelphia region from several private transit companies.

    SEPTA launched its bus system redesign efforts in earnest after ridership declined 13% from 2013 to 2019, a drop attributed to slow speeds, reliability problems, and competition from rideshare companies. And that was before the COVID-19 pandemic.

    Originally called Bus Revolution, SEPTA’s redesign was set to launch in 2025 but faced significant community pushback and coincided with the state funding crisis that halted many planned transit initiatives. It was officially shelved in November 2024.

    How Septa’s new bus network impacts you

    Along with the additions and subtractions, there are a few route extensions:

    • Route 45 will extend southward to serve the Navy Yard, the first time in a decade that a bus will serve the development seven days a week. There will be nine stops inside the Navy Yard for the 45. Currently, the route ends at Broad Street and Oregon Avenue. Route 17 will no longer stop at the Navy Yard on weekends.
    • Route 79, which ended at Snyder Avenue in South Philly, will cross the Schuylkill, go through Grays Ferry and University City, and end at 40th and Market Streets, where there is a stop on the L train, SEPTA’s new name for the Market-Frankford Line.
    • Route 53 is to be extended both east and west, to connect the Carpenter Regional Rail station on the Chestnut Hill West Line and the Richmond-Westmoreland Loop, via Aramingo Avenue. The 53 will no longer serve the Broad Street-Hunting Park Station on the B subway.

    SEPTA says it is redesigning the bus network to modernize an outdated route structure and enable more efficient travel.

    “We function as a network,” said Brandon Miller, manager of planning programs at the transit agency.

    The changes will require riders to transfer to other bus routes, as well as metro trains, more often than they do now. And discontinuing low-ridership routes while beefing up popular ones is a needed trade-off to strengthen the overall system, Miller said.

    Additional rounds of changes are scheduled for February and June 2027, with a fourth round in the fall.

  • Six Coatesville men sentenced to prison, two for life, in an ill-fated revenge plot that left a friend dead

    Six Coatesville men sentenced to prison, two for life, in an ill-fated revenge plot that left a friend dead

    In August 2023, Dametrius “Meechie” McClain-Jackson had a path out of Coatesville, his family said Friday. He was just days away from returning to Lycoming College for his sophomore year and playing for the school’s football team.

    Instead, he got caught up in a cycle of violence that Chester County Chief Deputy District Attorney Andrea Cardamone said is all too common in the community.

    McClain-Jackson, along with six of his friends, armed themselves with guns and sought revenge for being disrespected. But the only casualty was McClain-Jackson, killed accidentally by one of his coconspirators.

    And on Friday, nearly three years to the day after the fatal shooting, all six surviving members of the conspiracy were sentenced to state prison by Chester County Court Judge Alita Rovito.

    “There is this idea that what it means to be a man, what it means to be tough, to be worthy of respect, is to carry a gun,” Cardamone said. “It’s a tragic view that leads to too many young people killed, and it victimizes the entire city of Coatesville.”

    At its core, Friday’s hours-long hearing was about the two men who prosecutors said were most culpable: Victor Lara-Ortiz, one of the gunmen involved in the shooting, and Zaire Harley, who supplied weapons to the group and then drove them through the city, searching for their intended target.

    For their roles, both men were sentenced to life in prison.

    Lara-Ortiz, 22, and Harley, 23, were convicted of first-degree murder earlier this year under the legal principle of transferred intent. Though they were looking to attack Elijah Green, a criminal rival, they accidentally killed McClain-Jackson.

    Some of McClain-Jackson’s family took turns Friday addressing his friends, expressing shock and outrage that men who grew up with him would be involved with his death.

    “That night, people I consider family were there, people I trusted my life with,” McClain-Jackson’s sister Lyamoni Jones said through her tears. “But I couldn’t trust them with my brother’s life.”

    Samaria Turner said her brother’s murder has left a “Meechie-sized hole that can never be filled.”

    “My brother wasn’t perfect; nobody is,” she said. “But I should not be speaking about him in the past tense. I should remember what his voice sounds like without having to watch a video of him.”

    It was unclear who fired the fatal shot, and prosecutors were unable to recover any of the guns wielded by the group that night.

    The group’s animosity toward Green began on Instagram, after he posted a video taking credit for a shooting weeks earlier that wounded Harley and another man, and taunted them for not retaliating. It reached its peak hours before the fatal shooting, authorities said, when Green confronted another member of the group, Quadir Lavender, and threatened to kill him.

    The four others involved in the fatal shooting — Markel Jones, 23; Richard Rochester-Cottle, 24; Lavender, 19; and Gary White, 22 — pleaded guilty in the months leading up to the trial and testified for the prosecution.

    Rochester-Cottle and White pleaded guilty to conspiracy and third-degree murder, while the others pleaded guilty to manslaughter, conspiracy, and related crimes.

    The sentences for the four other defendants varied, from 5 to 10 years in prison to as much as 10 to 21 years. Rovito noted that they each played a specific, and different, role in the ill-fated shooting.

    “You knew guns kill. You knew none of you should’ve had them and you know you can’t take this back,” she said. “I hope a day doesn’t go by where you don’t think of Meechie and tell him you’re sorry.”

    The group rode together on Aug. 23, 2023, in a Chevrolet Traverse that Rochester-Cottle had stolen from a Sheetz store in Berks County in search of Green, according to testimony. The car’s owner had also left his loaded .308 handgun inside the vehicle. That gun, witnesses told police, would later be used by Lara-Ortiz during the shooting.

    When they found Green and his friends in the driveway of a home on Community Lane, Lara-Ortiz, McClain-Jackson, Rochester-Cottle, and White got out of the vehicle, prosecutors said. All but White opened fire — having second thoughts, he fled, running all the way home without firing a single shot, according to prosecutors.

    One of the bullets struck McClain-Jackson in the back and hit his lungs. He was later pronounced dead at Paoli Hospital.

    Rochester-Cottle and Lavender, horrified at what happened to their friend, stayed behind with him to call 911 and ensure medics would find him. That gesture earned them some leniency from Rovito, who also gave credit to Jones for calling McClain-Jackson’s family to notify them of what happened.

    But Lara-Ortiz and Harley showed no remorse, prosecutors said, and made calculated moves to hide their involvement, including fleeing to Lincoln University in an attempt to create a false alibi.

    They even lied to McClain-Jackson’s mother, telling her they had no idea what had happened to him. And later, when he learned that White was cooperating with police, Lara-Ortiz allegedly sent him death threats.

    Rovito admonished them both for their callousness.

    “This really is so, so senseless,” she said. “This was a waste of seven lives, and you both actively worked to hide the truth.”

    Prosecutors pointed out that Lara-Ortiz’s involvement in the shooting came six months after he professed to a different Chester County judge that he would stop carrying illegal guns, and would seek a life away from crime.

    He made that promise after being sentenced to five years of probation in the death of his younger brother, Roman Aguilar-Ortiz, who accidentally killed himself with a loaded Glock handgun that Lara-Ortiz had left unsecured in his bedroom.