Inquirer.com – Zurich DR

Category: Pennsylvania News

  • Philly declares a heat emergency and Welcome America alters events as 100-degree temperatures loom

    Philly declares a heat emergency and Welcome America alters events as 100-degree temperatures loom

    The National Weather Service on Tuesday issued an “extreme heat” warning for the entire region through July Fourth, with a record-tying three consecutive days of 100-degree temperatures possible in Philadelphia.

    Though heat warnings may lack the sizzle of warnings for blizzards or hurricanes, health officials advise that they can be more dangerous — slow-motion disasters that target the most-vulnerable populations. Plus, the timing of this one couldn’t be much worse.

    Along with the daytime heat indexes approaching 110, the nights aren’t going to be much cooler. Temperatures Friday morning may not get below 80 degrees in the city, said Sarah Johnson, the warning coordination meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Mount Holly, which has been briefing emergency managers since late last week.

    “It’s very concerning,” she said.

    The city on Tuesday declared a “heat health emergency” in effect from 1 p.m. Wednesday through 8 p.m. Saturday, activating its pioneering heat-response system.

    In deference to the heat, Wawa Welcome America announced several schedule changes, including canceling Thursday’s All-American Block Party, and moving back start times for concerts Thursday and Friday.

    It also said the Liberty Medal ceremony on Friday honoring Pope Leo XIV would be moved to inside the Constitution Center and the route of the Semiquincentennial Parade, which begins at Fifth and Chestnut Streets, would end at Broad and Chestnut, rather than proceeding to Logan Circle as originally planned.

    PJM Interconnection, the region’s electric grid operator and one of the nation’s largest, already has sounded alarm bells regarding power demands. Peco advised that it has a contingency plan in case workers go on strike Saturday, as they have threatened.

    SEPTA is making preparations for what would have been a challenging week even if the weather was cool (as it was in 1776, by the way). At Philadelphia International Airport, a bigger concern would be pop-up thunderstorms that could disrupt the weekend celebrations that have been 250 years in the making.

    The heat wave will have staying power in Philly

    Only twice has Philly had three consecutive days of triple-digit temperatures — in 1993, and on July 2, 3, and 4 of 1966. That could happen again on July 2, 3, and 4 of 2026, the weather service says.

    Officially it reached 90 degrees Tuesday at the airport, the 16th time this year that the high reached at least 90 degrees, the second-most number of days before Jul 1 in records dating to 1874. Wednesday’s forecast high, in the mid to upper 90s, would be the prelude to the holiday heat festival.

    Along with the heat, of concern for event planners is the potential for strong thunderstorms on Saturday afternoon and evening during the climax of the Semiquincentennial events.

    Preparing for the heat and storm threats in the region

    At Philadelphia International Airport, it’s not the heat so much as the attendant storm threat that is the major concern, said spokesperson Heather Redfern.

    The national extent of the extreme heat — the result of a so-called heat dome of high pressure — and the pop-up storm threat could “impact flights with delays, diversions to other airports and cancellations,” she said.

    The airport was expecting more than 680,000 departing and arriving passengers from Wednesday through next Tuesday. Redfern advised travelers to sign up for airline flight alerts.

    In its forecast discussion Tuesday, the weather service cautioned “that any holiday weekend festivities could be impacted by thunderstorms,” adding that “the environmental setup would be favorable for strong to severe” storms.

    SEPTA was expecting a crush of passengers, especially Saturday when in addition to the 250th bash, a World Cup soccer match will be played in South Philly. The agency may set up misters outside stations where long lines may develop, spokesperson Andrew Busch said. The agency would try to make some cooling buses available if the city requests, he said.

    A Saturday complication for Peco is a threatened strike by 1,500 union members. The company said it has a “contingency plan” in place to keep customers’ air-conditioning systems operating and would be able to respond to any severe storm issues.

    With or without storms, in deference to the heat SEPTA will be reducing speeds on all rail lines, said Busch, as extreme heat can cause overhead lines to sag and tracks to buckle.

    Heat-wave response is a Philly thing

    It’s not in a league with the Rocky statue or cheesesteaks, but heat response is a very Philly thing that got its start in the 1990s when the city won high praise from the Centers for Disease Control and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

    The impetus was the summer of 1993 when Philadelphia recorded 118 heat-related deaths — about triple the combined total of 2015-16. That summer was also the last time the city had three consecutive days of 100-plus degree temperatures.

    The relatively inexpensive program includes setting up more than 50 cooling centers; health officials hold that even a short break from extreme heat can save lives. Residents are encouraged to look in on elderly neighbors, and the Philadelphia Corporation for Aging will be operating a heat hotline, 215-765-9040.

    Variants of Philly’s response system have spread to other cities around the country.

    In Philadelphia, even though summer temperatures have been rising, heat-related deaths have declined dramatically.

    May that trend continue.

    Staff writer Ariana Perez-Castells contributed to this article.

  • Shelter-in-place order lifted after freight train derailment in Bucks County

    Shelter-in-place order lifted after freight train derailment in Bucks County

    No injuries were reported after a CSX freight train derailed Tuesday afternoon in Bensalem Township in Bucks County, and shelter-in-place and evacuation orders have been lifted, authorities said.

    Hazmat teams and other emergency personnel responded to the derailment that occurred between Street Road and the Neshaminy Falls train station just before 2 p.m., and no hazmat leaks were found, authorities said.

    A SEPTA spokesperson said the West Trenton Line on the agency’s Regional Rail service was suspended, but later was cleared to resume.

    “We operate on our own tracks in this area, but the CSX tracks are sort of parallel to ours in that area, so we had to suspend due to the emergency response,” said SEPTA spokesperson Andrew Busch.

    Bensalem Township police said 72 train cars were traveling eastbound when 13 cars derailed, though CSX said 16 cars derailed. Three of the derailed cars were marked as possibly containing hazardous materials.

    “Out of an abundance of caution, the Bucks County Hazardous Materials Response Team was activated while police officers established a shelter-in-place order for the surrounding area. Officers also conducted door-to-door notifications along Grove Avenue and Old Lincoln Highway to evacuate nearby residents and businesses,” the Bensalem Township police said.

    “Residents are asked to avoid the area and stay away from the railroad tracks while cleanup operations continue,” the police said.

    A spokesperson for CSX said the train derailed near the crossing of East Bristol Road and Grave Avenue.

    “Our primary focus remains the safety of onsite personnel and the surrounding community,” CSX spokesperson Jonathan Stuckey said in an email.

    “CSX crews are currently on scene and working as safely and quickly as possible to restore the impacted site. The cause of the incident is currently under investigation. We will provide more information as it becomes available,” Stuckey said.

    U.S. Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick, who represents all of Bucks County, said he was closely monitoring the situation and the cause of the accident was under investigation.

    “In moments like this, every minute matters. Response time, coordination, calm under pressure, bravery, and professionalism are what keep people safe,” Fitzpatrick said.

    “We are grateful for the safe outcome, and for the incredible men and women on scene this afternoon who protect our community day in and day out,” Fitzpatrick said.

  • Peter Grove, award-winning science educator and lifelong environmentalist, has died at 82

    Peter Grove, award-winning science educator and lifelong environmentalist, has died at 82

    Peter Grove, 82, of Narberth, longtime award-winning science teacher at Friends’ Central Lower School in Wynnewood, former executive director of the Norris Square Neighborhood Project in West Kensington, lifelong environmentalist and conservationist, prolific writer, lecturer, British Special Air Service Reserve veteran, mentor, and world traveler, died Wednesday, May 6, of age-associated decline at his home.

    Reared in rural Surrey, England, Mr. Grove arrived in Philadelphia in 1972 and spent the next 45 years teaching science, horticulture, and civic responsibility to students young and old. He also mentored other teachers and fellow naturalists, and created dozens of notable community gardens and wildlife habitats around the region.

    “Gardening,” he told The Inquirer in 1986, “is a real way to bring about change.”

    He earned bachelor’s and master’s degrees in English and education at the University of Pennsylvania in the 1970s, and joined the Friends’ Central Lower School faculty in 1987. Until his retirement in 2017, Mr. Grove taught thousands of preschool and elementary school-age students at Friends’ Central about gravity, butterflies, bees, birds, mold, trees, and other scientific wonders.

    He was a gifted young student of horticulture back at the old Surrey County Merrist Wood Farm Institute in the 1950s and ‘60s, and he dreamed up dozens of riveting scientific demonstrations for his students. They launched hot air balloons, waded in streams to study fungi, and traversed fields and woods on orienteering treasure hunts.

    They even pulled his car up a hill every year with a scientific pulley system. “He made learning come alive,” a colleague said in a tribute.

    Outside his brick-and-mortar classroom, Mr. Grove and generations of students landscaped much of Friends’ Central’s Lower School campus on Old Gulph Road. They designed fish ponds, a bird blind, a bridge, and flower and vegetable teaching gardens.

    In 1995, they collaborated with students at Overbrook School for the Blind to make a fragrance and texture garden for blind people. “This was great for our kids,” Mr. Grove told The Inquirer. “They’re all digging and working, and making new friends, and learning about a different kind of school.”

    Mr. Grove and his wife, Nancy Greene, scaled Mount Kenya in Africa.Courtesy of the family

    Before Friends’ Central, Mr. Grove taught second graders at the Miquon School in Montgomery County. He was also an adjunct science professor at Rosemont College in the 1990s, a summer camp science instructor for the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C., in the early 2000s, and a science instructor for Penn’s Teach for America program from 2007 to 2010.

    In 1981, he became executive director of the Norris Square Neighborhood Project and supervised the building of a solar greenhouse in 1983 and the cleanup of Norris Square Park in 1985. “Everything we do here is slanted toward the neighborhood,” he told The Inquirer in 1983. “It’s all aimed at being able to produce something, do something, or find something.”

    Peter Grove’s green Midas touch

    He was also an award-winning lifetime honorary board member at the Riverbend Environmental Education Center in Gladwyne and onetime president of the Narbrook Park Improvement Association. During a sabbatical from teaching one year, he volunteered in Costa Rica to protect leatherback turtle eggs from poachers.

    He earned a lifetime achievement award from the Lower Merion Township Environmental Advisory Council, was a semifinalist for the National Science Teachers Association’s Teacher of the Year Award, and received more than a dozen other honors.

    Inspired by the 1956 film Around the World in 80 Days, he signed on with a Norwegian oil tanker in 1966, bicycled across North America, and returned to Europe on a Swedish oil tanker in 1968. He then hitchhiked to India, worked for two years on agricultural improvements for underserved communities, and met his future wife, Nancy Greene, a longtime Philadelphia resident.

    Amazingly, she was also inspired by Around the World in 80 Days and on her own global road trip. After India, Mr. Grove moved on to construction jobs in New Zealand and Australia. He finally settled in Philadelphia and married Greene in 1976.

    Peter Grove’s Joy of Experience

    For the next 50 years, the two adventurers hiked trails in Borneo and New Zealand, and climbed Mount Kenya and Mount Kinabalu. “I was his biggest supporter,” his wife said.

    Born June 1, 1943, Peter Adrian Grove grew up in Send, a village about 28 miles southwest of London. He connected with nature as a boy, worked as a landscaper and carpenter in the early 1960s, and spent two years in the British Special Air Service Reserve.

    Mr. Grove and his wife, Nancy Greene, traveled the world together for decades. Courtesy of the family

    He earned an associate’s degree in English and biology in 1974 at Montgomery County Community College, and his bachelor’s degree at Penn in 1976 and master’s degree there in 1977. He constantly wrote and recorded audio clips about his life and adventures, and he shared those tales enthusiastically in school and at public events.

    He and his wife had a son, Evan, and a daughter, Marian, and lived in Fitler Square and then Narberth. He doted on his children and grandchildren, and bonded with his dogs.

    Why did best-selling author Carol Saline email The Inquirer’s obit writer?

    Mr. Grove constantly whipped up candlelit gourmet dinners for his family. He was funny, everyone said, and he loved to sing, dance, and fish.

    He called himself a simple man despite his many achievements and lived with cancer for years. “He was,” his wife said, “quite simply one of a kind.”

    Mr. Grove met his wife, Nancy Greene, in India in 1968.Courtesy of the family

    In addition to his wife and children, Mr. Grove is survived by five grandchildren and other relatives. Two sisters died earlier.

    A celebration of his life is to be livestreamed on YouTube.com at 1 p.m., Saturday, Aug. 8, at Wayne Presbyterian Church, 125 E. Lancaster Ave., Wayne, Pa..

    Donations in his name may be made to Friends’ Central School, 228 Old Gulph Rd., Wynnewood, Pa. 19096; the Lower Merion Conservancy, 1301 Rose Glen Rd., Gladwyne, Pa. 19035; and Friends of the Earth, Box 7010, Merrifield, Va. 22116.

    Mr. Grove was an avid fisherman.Courtesy of the family
  • ‘Swarthmore 9’ protesters plead no contest to noise violation for pro-Palestinian encampment

    ‘Swarthmore 9’ protesters plead no contest to noise violation for pro-Palestinian encampment

    Nine protesters who were charged with trespassing for refusing to leave a pro-Palestinian encampment at Swarthmore College last year have entered no-contest pleas to summary noise violation offenses, ending a contentious legal case that had spanned more than a year.

    The so-called Swarthmore 9 entered the pleas late Monday, the day before their trial was expected to begin before Delaware County Court Judge Dominic Pileggi.

    As part of the plea negotiation, all nine agreed to perform eight hours of community service and pay court costs.

    The group had been charged with misdemeanor trespassing, and had refused to accept an earlier, similar plea offer made by District Attorney Tanner Rouse that would have had the same outcome. Doing so, they said at the time, could chill future student protests.

    In a statement Tuesday, members of the group said the decision to take the plea deal was “an incredibly difficult and far from unanimous decision.” They said they felt they had “no good options” and accepted the deal to avoid probation or jail time.

    “We are deeply grateful for the outpouring of support in solidarity with our case,” the statement said. “The community’s work in pressuring the DA and condemning Swarthmore’s repression and complicity only strengthens our upcoming fight for divestment and an end to the genocide.”

    Rouse, for his part, said the case came to a close in “the same way that every other defiant trespass case that we have handled during my time in the office has concluded.”

    “This offer had been on the table since the morning of their arrest, and in fact the case would have been withdrawn entirely, as they requested and as other protesters have had their cases withdrawn, if they had performed the same community service before formal arraignment,” he said in a statement Tuesday.

    The group was arrested and briefly detained outside the college’s Trotter Hall in May 2025 when officers from surrounding police departments dismantled their encampment protesting the war in Gaza and Swarthmore’s IT contract with Cisco, a company that does business with the Israeli government.

    Of the nine people arrested, only one, Jace Boland, is a student at the college. Another, Brendan Cook, is a former student who was suspended for participating in an earlier protest in 2024.

    The others — Jonathan Britt, Mara Helen Cahill, Daria C. Dressler, Thomas Falcone, Colin Buckley Malcarney, Riley J. McManus, and Andrew Thomas — are not affiliated with Swarthmore.

    Last week, Pileggi denied a motion to dismiss the charges against them, ruling that prosecutors had presented sufficient evidence for the case to proceed to trial.

    Swarthmore issued multiple orders to protesters last spring to leave the campus, citing concerns over vandalism and public safety. Many of the protesters wore masks, refused to identify themselves, and were not affiliated with the school, according to administrators at the college.

    Prosecutors noted that other protesters at the encampment avoided arrest by following an order to leave the area and were allowed to continue chanting and holding protest signs elsewhere on the campus.

  • Norristown man charged with running Ponzi scheme that bilked more than $3.8 million

    Norristown man charged with running Ponzi scheme that bilked more than $3.8 million

    A 59-year-old Norristown man has been charged with allegedly running a Ponzi scheme that cheated investors of more than $3.8 million, Pennsylvania Attorney General Dave Sunday said.

    Richard L. McNeil was charged Friday by the Pennsylvania State Police with felony theft by deception, dealing in proceeds of unlawful activity, violations of the Pennsylvania Securities Act, and related offenses.

    McNeil allegedly solicited funds from investors by promising he would invest their money in various opportunities that would generate steady returns, Sunday said. He turned himself in Monday and was released on a $250,00 unsecured bond after arraignment.

    The investors allegedly were told by McNeil that they would receive monthly interest payments and the eventual return of their full principal investment. However, he did not actually invest the victims’ money, according to Sunday.

    More than $1.8 million remains owed to 50 investors, Sunday said. Some investors did receive payouts, but others allegedly sustained six-figure losses, Sunday said.

    McNeil’s preliminary hearing is scheduled for Aug. 3. Court records did not list a lawyer representing McNeil.

    “This defendant duped dozens of people into investing substantial funds — victims who believed they were to see monthly gains, but instead were left with depleted bank accounts and unanswered pleas for their money,” Sunday said in a statement.

    “Investment fraud is obviously devastating to victims, and we will work hard to recover restitution as part of this prosecution,” Sunday said.

  • Olney man charged with unlawful sexual contact with Cheltenham teen inside high school

    Olney man charged with unlawful sexual contact with Cheltenham teen inside high school

    An Olney man posing as a teenager groomed an underage student into a relationship, police said Tuesday, and persuaded her to enter Cheltenham High School after hours and have sexual contact.

    Jamaal Raheem, 21, has been charged with unlawful sexual contact with a minor, corruption of minors, and related crimes for the incident, which came to light late last week after Raheem’s preliminary hearing when administrators at Cheltenham School District sent a letter to parents about the case.

    Raheem was released on $100,000 unsecured bail. His attorney, Kenneth Carlton Edelin Jr., did not immediately return a request for comment.

    The letter to parents about the incident came days after Abington School District announced a review of its security protocols following the arrest of a man who, in a nearly identical case, repeatedly gained unauthorized access to the district’s high school from a female student.

    Abington schools are reviewing security after a man charged with trying to rape a girl repeatedly entered the high school

    Cheltenham investigators say Raheem and a female Cheltenham High student were found inside the school on April 29. The two gained access to the building and walked throughout it until stopping at a stairwell, where the girl performed oral sex on him, according to the affidavit of probable cause for Raheem’s arrest

    District officials found them and asked them to leave, according to a letter from Cheltenham Superintendent Dr. Brian W. Scriven. The district filed a report with the state Department of Human Services ChildLine system and contacted local police as well as the girl’s parents.

    “While it’s unfortunate that this incident occurred, we are reassured that our recently updated building safety protocol prompted administration to respond in a timely manner,” Scriven said in his letter.

    Two days later, the girl’s parents met with Cheltenham Police, the affidavit said. In an interview with detectives, the girl said that she met Raheem through Snapchat and that he told her he was 17. He had sent her explicit images and asked her to send some of herself, which she declined to do.

    The two continued to talk through social media and eventually agreed to meet. Police found that Raheem also attempted to get a job at the restaurant where the girl worked but that his application was denied.

    After they were caught in the school, the girl tried to arrange a meeting between Raheem and her parents, according to the affidavit. He asked her whether they knew the two were dating.

    Later, when the girl’s mother texted Raheem using her daughter’s cell phone, telling him she was contacting the police, he lied and said he was 18, “is also a child,” and is still in high school.

    In the Abington case reported last week, Raeem Grange-Allen, 25, met a female Abington Senior High School student online and later asked the girl to let him into the school “and requested she perform oral sex on him behind a stairwell,” according to the affidavit of probable cause for his arrest.

    The girl told police that she “saw him or let him into the school approximately three to four times.”

    Grange-Allen later tried to rape the girl inside her home, according to police. His criminal trial on attempted rape by force and attempted statutory sexual assault is pending.

  • A Ukrainian family was welcomed to Philly when Russia attacked. Now they’re leaving as pressures rise on immigrants.

    A Ukrainian family was welcomed to Philly when Russia attacked. Now they’re leaving as pressures rise on immigrants.

    Four years ago Veronika Pavliutina and her three young children landed in Philadelphia after fleeing Ukraine, escaping the war as Russia shelled their home city of Odesa.

    Their big shock: the outpouring of care and kindness that greeted them here.

    A Mount Airy couple, strangers, invited the family to live in their home ― just move in and take the third-floor bedroom while figuring out next steps. Neighbors delivered meals and clothes and Target gift cards, and others organized events and outings.

    Pavliutina, 48, said she’ll never forget it.

    But now, she said, it’s time to leave.

    Federal pressure on Ukrainian war immigrants has created doubt about the family’s ability to stay in the United States and raised fears about what could happen if they do.

    The government designation that allows Pavliutina and her children to live here, temporary protected status, expires for Ukraine in October. There’s been no sign the Trump administration plans to renew it, fostering uncertainty among thousands who have worked to rebuild their lives in this country.

    TPS, as it’s known, is a humanitarian immigration status that can be granted to nationals of countries embroiled in war, environmental disasters, or other extraordinary circumstances. It allows people to legally live and work here and protects them from deportation.

    The Trump administration wants to end TPS for some countries ― and the Supreme Court ruled on June 25 that the administration could lawfully strip protections from more than 350,000 Haitians and 6,000 Syrians, leaving them vulnerable to removal.

    Pavliutina has felt the changed government attitude toward immigrants, the ICE arrests and detentions, the common resentment and casual hate.

    “More and more I can see, it’s becoming not safe,” she said in an interview at the family’s home in Perkasie, Bucks County. “I may not be their target for now, but we don’t know.”

    Veronika Pavliutina speaks about leaving the U.S. for Italy during an interview at the family’s home in Perkasie. William Thomas Cain / For The Inquirer

    She and her two younger children, Nina, 15, and Yegor, 12 ― Polina, 19, is studying in South Korea ― intend to move to Italy in mid-July. Pavliutina doesn’t know anyone there, but for a family that is again starting over it’s a logical choice.

    In Italy, Ukrainians escaping the war can receive a Permesso di Soggiorno per Protezione Temporanea, a fast-track residency permit that provides work authorization and access to healthcare.

    “It makes me very sad to know they’re leaving,” said Richard McIlhenny, who with his wife, Marissa Vergnetti, welcomed the then-newly arrived family to live in their Mount Airy home. “I’m excited for their new adventure, but sad that it’s not here.”

    Russia struck the southern city of Odesa on the first day of the war, Feb. 24, 2022, blowing up warehouses and air-defense systems and killing at least two dozen.

    Pavliutina told her children they needed to leave, and fast. They fled by car and eventually reached friends in Serbia.

    Meanwhile, 4,700 miles away in Philadelphia, McIlhenny, a real estate agent, and his wife, a preschool teacher, watched the war unfold on TV and decided to become actively involved in helping refugees.

    McIlhenny contacted a childhood friend who was working in Ukraine, asking if perhaps there was a family in need. The friend knew of someone, a single mother with three children.

    The Russian invasion drove a mass exodus, with an estimated 6.9 million Ukrainians leaving the country by the end of 2025, according to the Migration Policy Institute in Washington. An additional 3.7 million were displaced internally, forced from their homes to other parts of the country.

    Richard McIlhenny and Marissa Vergnetti (rear) outside their Mount Airy home May 2, 2022, where they are hosting Veronika Pavliutina (right) and her son, Yegor, then 8, and her two daughters. At the time, Pavliutina and her children had just arrived, escaping the Russian shelling in Ukraine.Tom Gralish / Staff Photographer

    The United States opened its arms. And the Philadelphia region, home to one of the nation’s largest Ukrainian communities, helped lead that effort. Churches, civic groups, and families organized to help new arrivals navigate housing, employment, and schools.

    Now tens of thousands of Ukrainian war immigrants face uncertainty.

    “The protections Ukrainians rely on in the United States are quietly but dangerously eroding,” Krish O’Mara Vignarajah, president and CEO of Global Refuge, said in a statement earlier this year. “We’ve even seen Ukrainians swept up by immigration enforcement.”

    The Trump administration placed an indefinite pause on applications for the main Biden-era humanitarian program, “Uniting for Ukraine.”

    That effort admitted more than 200,000, but now expired work permits have left many struggling to maintain jobs and housing. Losing legal status can result in deportation, and some have left on their own.

    Meanwhile, as of March 2025, more than 100,000 Ukrainians were in the U.S. under TPS, which has faced backlogs and delays. The designation for Ukraine is due to end on Oct. 19, the prospect of renewal clouded as Trump touts his close relationship with Russian dictator Vladimir Putin and criticizes Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.

    Since 2022 TPS for Ukraine has been extended twice, each instance a nerve-fraying rise and fall of worry and relief that makes it hard to plan for the future.

    Last year, Pavliutina, who has worked as a chef, began thinking it might be time to, as she put it, self-deport.

    The children adjusted to the U.S., she said, learning English, making friends, and earning good grades in school. They also hear other kids talking up Trump, whose pledge to deport millions of immigrants was central to his election campaign.

    Son Yegor said he’s ready to move, “because I’m tired of America a bit.” Nina did not wish to be interviewed.

    Their mother follows the news.

    “It’s a little bit concerning, to be honest with you, because you don’t know when exactly it will be triggered to some kind of violence,” Pavliutina said. “For me it’s easier to think about a new country than to stay here with unknown status, with an unknown future.”

    She’ll miss their house in Perkasie, she said. In fact, it was a new American friend who provided the private loan for her to buy it, an example, she said, of the extraordinary kindness that’s been shown to her family.

    When she hears “Make America Great,” Pavliutina said, she thinks of the countless big and small acts of caring offered by everyday people, the Americans who help others simply because it’s their nature and think it’s a good thing to do. That’s what makes America great, she said.

    “I would definitely keep it in my heart, everything and everyone who was contributing to our life here,” Pavliutina said. “I love the country. I love the people. I just don’t feel safe to stay. And I don’t see the legal way to do so.”

  • 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.

  • Uber driver pleads no contest in the rape of a Villanova student inside her dorm room

    Uber driver pleads no contest in the rape of a Villanova student inside her dorm room

    An Uber driver pleaded no contest Monday in the rape of a Villanova University student inside her dorm room in 2024.

    Mirvan Dinler, 27, was set to begin his trial before Delaware County Court Judge Mary Alice Brennan when he instead entered the no-contest plea to rape of an unconscious victim. Prosecutors said Dinler attacked the woman after driving her home from a bar in North Philadelphia and walking her to her dorm room as she drifted in and out of consciousness.

    Semen found on a comforter and towel inside the dorm room were found to be a match to Dinler’s DNA, according to Assistant District Attorney Danielle Gallaher. And surveillance footage taken from cameras outside of the dorm building showed Dinler escorting her inside, arm-in-arm, because she was too intoxicated to walk on her own, the prosecutor said.

    In agreeing to plead no-contest, Dinler did not admit guilt but did not dispute the prosecution’s statement of the facts in the case.

    Gallaher said she would seek a prison term of three to six years at sentencing in October.

    Dinler’s attorney, Shaka Johnson, did not return a request for comment Monday. Previously, Johnson said there were “glaring, glaring cracks” in the woman’s account of what happened that night.

    The woman, who was a senior at Villanova at the time, testified at a preliminary hearing that she woke up, drunk and disoriented, as Dinler raped her in September 2024. She said she was too terrified to fight back or call out for help.

    Earlier that evening, she said, she had been drinking with friends on campus before the group headed to Warehouse on Watts, a bar in North Philadelphia.

    The woman said she did not drink regularly, but on that night had three glasses of wine and two shots of liquor. After arriving at the bar in the city, she said she felt dizzy and ill, and decided to return home.

    “I knew I wasn’t feeling good, and I didn’t want my friends to have to babysit me,” she said.

    The woman ordered an Uber, and Dinler arrived in his Toyota Prius to pick her up, she said.

    Her memory was spotty, she said, until waking up to find that Dinler was raping her.

    After the assault, she said, Dinler returned to the dorm and loudly banged on her door, demanding that she pay a cleaning fee because she had vomited in his car during the ride.

    Gallaher, the prosecutor, said there was evidence that Dinler, using the victim’s phone with her permission, sent a $150 payment to a friend of his through Venmo. That person then transferred the money to Dinler’s bank account.

  • An explosion leveled a home in Bucks County, drawing a multi-agency response

    An explosion leveled a home in Bucks County, drawing a multi-agency response

    Local police and fire responded to a house explosion in Sellersville, Bucks County, on Monday that left the property in ruins and white debris scattered in a broad blast radius.

    Hilltown Police Department, which serves Sellersville, said the reports of the explosion on Highview Road came in sometime around 9 a.m.

    Hilltown Police Chief Christopher Engelhart told Fox29 that a contractor was on site at the time of the explosion and was taken to an area hospital for treatment. His injuries and condition, however, were not immediately clear, though Engelhart said the worker was expected to survive.

    The blast resulted in a flood of support from neighboring fire and police departments.

    Silverdale Volunteer Fire Company, Sellersville Fire Department, Hilltown Police, Hilltown Township Volunteer Fire Company, Souderton Fire Company, and Telford Fire Company were among the crews on site.

    The source of the blast is under investigation.

    Properties on Highview Road are spaced out with lots of green space between, and aerial footage from local television stations shows the debris was largely contained within the home’s property line.

    The three-bedroom “contemporary designer farmhouse” sits on a three-acre lot, according to a previous real estate listing. The home garnered media coverage from publications such as Elle Decor and Philadelphia magazine in 2022 after interior designer Ghislaine Viñas listed the renovated property for sale.