The historic Wanamaker Building in Center City will soon be home to a new $4 million event space.
The Wanamaker Room, the latest addition to the Finley Catering portfolio, will be able to serve as a standalone venue or an expansion of the Crystal Tea Room, where Finley has held weddings and banquets for 25 years.
The new 5,000-square-foot space, on the same floor as the Crystal Tea Room, is currently under construction, according to the Finley team, and is set to open in early 2027.
A rendering of the bar area in the Wanamaker Room at the Crystal Tea Room, which is set to be the latest venue in Finley Catering’s portfolio when it opens in 2027.Courtesy JKRP Archiects
“The Wanamaker Room is an investment in the guest experience and in the future of this landmark space,” owner and CEO Steve Finley said in a statement. “We’re excited to give our clients new possibilities for their events while continuing to welcome people to the heart of Philadelphia.”
With large windows overlooking City Hall, the Wanamaker Room will serve as the new cocktail-hour space for weddings at the Crystal Tea Room, a grand ballroom that can fit up to 1,200 people.
The Wanamaker Room will also be available to book for independent events, such as corporate functions, rehearsal dinners, and cocktail receptions, with space for as many as 400 guests.
A rendering of the “flex space” at the Wanamaker Room at the Crystal Tea Room, which is set to be the latest venue in Finley Catering’s portfolio when it opens in 2027.Courtesy JKRP Archiects
The new addition marks the latest change for the Wanamaker Building. Last year, its iconic Macy’s closed after occupying the bottom floors for 19 years. Like many brick-and-mortar retailers, the 435,000-square-foot location had struggled since the pandemic, and the company deemed it “underproductive.”
The company also wants to bring new retail, entertainment, and fitness outlets to the Macy’s shell, which it has owned since 2019. TF Cornerstone has said it sees the building being “a mixed-use anchor for Center City.”
The company also operates the Ballroom at the Ben and Union Trust in the city, as well as two suburban venues, The Ivy at Ellis Preserve and The Ballroom at Ellis Preserve, both in Newtown Square.
Federal prosecutors this week charged a former Philadelphia Fire Department supervisor with bribery in connection with what investigators described as a brazen overtime abuse scheme that involved her accepting cash from a colleague in exchange for approving fraudulent time sheets.
Marian Farris, 55, a former supervisor in the department’s payroll unit, faces one felony count of bribery and related theft charges. She was charged Tuesday by information, a process that is typically used when a defendant intends to plead guilty.
Attorneys for Farris, who resigned from the department in March 2025, did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the charges.
According to charging papers filed in the U.S. District Court of the Eastern District of Pennsylvania, Farris accepted multiple payments from a fire department employee that totaled more than $9,000 between 2023 and 2024. In exchange for those payments, prosecutors allege Farris made more than 300 fraudulent entries in the city’s payroll system amounting to more than $139,000 in payments to the employee.
Some of the overtime claims, according to prosecutors, were logistically impossible. Prosecutors wrote that Farris on 16 occasions credited the employee — identified only as “J.M.” in charging papers — with working 22 to 24 hours of overtime in a single 24-hour period. On other occasions, prosecutors wrote, the employee was credited with working overtime while she was vacationing in Bermuda, Cancun, and Las Vegas.
The Inquirer previously reported that Farris was under federal criminal investigation and that she was at the center of two tangled investigations into alleged misconduct at the fire department.
The city’s Office of the Inspector General led one investigation into the overtime abuse and found that Farris conspired with former paramedic Jacqulyn Murphy to defraud the city by abusing the system.
In a separate probe, the city retained a law firm to examine multiple sexual harassment allegations lodged by Murphy and other women against Anthony Hudgins, a former deputy commissioner and the department’s No. 2 in charge. According to court records, several women, including Murphy, told city investigators that Hudgins made sexual advances, including unwanted hugging and inappropriate comments.
Hudgins claimed that the harassment reports were orchestrated by Murphy only after he discovered the overtime fraud. In January, Hudgins sued the city and the women saying that he was defamed and subjected to a “bad faith” investigation that resulted in a demotion and a $75,000 pay cut.
Inspector General Alexander DeSantis had previously declined to publicly release the results of his investigation, citing an ongoing criminal investigation.
But Hudgins’ attorneys included the report in court filings related to his lawsuit, and the OIG investigation appears to confirm Hudgins’ timeline. The report stated that Hudgins had already conducted an overtime review before a November 2024 discrimination complaint was filed against him.
Those findings also align with a June 2025 report authored by attorneys at Campbell Durrant, the outside law firm that the city retained to investigate the sexual harassment claims. Hudgins’ attorneys included portions of that report in a recent court filing.
In the report, investigators reviewed some of the allegations brought by Murphy and her wife, who was also a paramedic in the Philadelphia Fire Department. The women told investigators that Hudgins had openly discussed his desire to engage in sexual activities with other women.
However, the conclusion of the report described the allegations brought by Murphy and her wife as “unsubstantiated” and lacking corroboration. It said that the “connection between the harassment complaints and the overtime investigation raises serious concerns about motive and credibility.”
The report said that the primary concerns regarding Hudgins were that he “has a habit of hugging employees and enforcing policies that are sometimes unpopular.” The investigators recommended that Hudgins receive a formal warning and be required to undergo harassment training.
A spokesperson for the city declined to release the full report on Friday, saying the city generally does not release reports of investigations into allegations of sexual harassment, and that the reports are only disseminated to the subjects of an investigation.
In the fall of 2025, shortly after Campbell Durrant completed its report, Hudgins was demoted from his role as a deputy commissioner to deputy fire chief, and he was reassigned to the Incident Safety Office.
Farris has not yet been scheduled to appear in court.
Staff writer Abraham Gutman contributed to this article.
Think you know your news? There’s only one way to find out. Welcome back to our weekly News Quiz — a quick way to see if your reading habits are sinking in and to put your local news knowledge to the test.
Question 1 of 10
This musical performance in Philadelphia this week observed a strict “no phones” policy, with audience members’ devices locked inside Yondr pouches:
CorrectIncorrect. XX% of other readers got this question right.
What was different about Phoebe Bridgers'The Lost Tour at the Xfinity Mobile Arena was that none of the 20,000 or so people in the room had their cell phones with them. Bridgers was accompanied by her nine-piece band and her opening act, Havertown’s own Alex G.
Question 2 of 10
Who is the new Sixers jersey sponsor this season?
CorrectIncorrect. XX% of other readers got this question right.
A Silicon Valley company that makes off-grid mini-power plants in Delaware, Bloom Energy, just joined the S&P 500 and became a Sixers sponsor.
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Question 3 of 10
A local grocery store has a large hay and pumpkin display people have dubbed the “Fauxnatic” for its off-brand resemblance to the Phanatic. Which grocery store has the Phanatic-like fall display outside?
CorrectIncorrect. XX% of other readers got this question right.
Rotund, snouted, and wearing a pinstripe baseball tee, the creature has all the trappings of our dear Phillie Phanatic. But somewhere along the way, the details in Sprouts’ new fall display got lost in translation.
Question 4 of 10
Saturday’s Parallel Parking Championship will feature social media influencer Betsy Kenney and Fergie of Fergie’s Pub as guest judges. A Philly figure who went viral will also judge. Who is it?
CorrectIncorrect. XX% of other readers got this question right.
In May, Jamele Ransom gave an animated interview to NBC10 about having witnessed a carjacked truck crash into a playground. He gave that interview while actively eating a soft-serve vanilla ice cream cone the entire time. The clip quickly went viral, with people hailing Ransom as a Philly “legend” and “hero.” Now, he’ll help judge parallel parking skills.
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Question 5 of 10
Which Philly cocktail bar is opening a bigger second act near Rittenhouse Square?
CorrectIncorrect. XX% of other readers got this question right.
Almanac co-owners Vy To and Victor Ng and bar manager Rob Scott are building a two-level bar in the former Franklin Mortgage & Investment Co. space at 112 S. 18th St. A name and opening date have not been announced.
Question 6 of 10
This Phillies player delivered a "career-altering performance" in his playoff debut during the wild-card series against the Atlanta Braves:
CorrectIncorrect. XX% of other readers got this question right.
Game 2 of the wild-card series Wednesday was deadlocked at 3 in the eighth inning, and one pitch could mean the difference between their season extending another day or the Phillies packing their bags. The 23-year-old pitched a scoreless eighth and ninth to force extra innings, and returned to close it out
Question 7 of 10
What beloved Chinatown restaurant reopened its renovated dining room this week?
CorrectIncorrect. XX% of other readers got this question right.
Since 2020, David’s Mai Lai Wah has only operated as a takeout restaurant (with no delivery). But on Monday, David’s Mai Lah Wah quietly opened up its dining room again, and the renovations were significant.
Question 8 of 10
Many of sculptor Zenos Frudakis' works of public art in Philadelphia are widely lauded. But the one depicting this figure has seen significant controversy since its debut in 1999:
CorrectIncorrect. XX% of other readers got this question right.
Frudakis recently told The Inquirer that he had second thoughts about the Rizzo statue — he didn’t vote for Rizzo, and has been concerned with civil rights and social issues. But working on it, he said, allowed him to survive "another day as an artist," and brought him additional work.
Question 9 of 10
A sickly peregrine falcon found at the Philadelphia Museum of Art in June was recently released into the wild after being rehabilitated at the Schuylkill Center for Environmental Education. What was the bird's name?
CorrectIncorrect. XX% of other readers got this question right.
Patient 718 — animals are rarely named at the Schuylkill Center — arrived thin and sickly on June 4, suffering from high levels of lead poisoning. It was released Tuesday afternoon, bolting from the tote that contained it into Roxborough.
Question 10 of 10
After nearly three decades in business, this music club — touted as the only woman-owned music venue in the city — closed for good this week:
CorrectIncorrect. XX% of other readers got this question right.
Karen Lauria Saillant, the owner of the club at 412 W. Girard Ave. that is housed within the Philadelphia Bar & Grille, announced the venue's closure Wednesday. Many rising stars played there, particularly between 2003 and 2017, including John Legend, Rilo Kiley, and My Chemical Romance.
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Faces from the past were dragged into the present.
Oil portraits in City Hall of three former Philadelphia mayors were defaced on Sept. 27, 1978.
Around 4:30 p.m., a former city employee smashed the portraits that were hanging in a gallery on a lobby wall outside the second-floor Mayor’s Reception Room. The gallery features stately portraits of the city’sdozens of former mayors.
A 21-year-old recently fired city carpenter, Russell Byrd from Ogontz, pulled four framed, two-foot-by-three-foot portraits off the wall and smashed three against nearby railings and stairs. He left a fourth portrait — of John Barker, mayor from 1808 to 1812 — unharmed.
A cop on duty watched Byrd suspiciously pacing the stairway and went to investigate. He found the portraits in the second-floor stairwell, and followed Byrd into a men’s room and placed him under arrest.
Byrd was charged with theft, burglary, receiving stolen goods, and criminal mischief. He pleaded guilty to the mischief count in June 1979 and was sentenced to two years of probation, court records show.
The damaged paintings were of Isaac Roach, who served in the 1830s; Robert Conrad, who led the city in the 1850s; and William Smith, who helmed the big desk in the 1880s.
A descendant of Conrad, his great-great-grandson Wendell W. Oberholtzer, read about the destruction the next morning in the newspaper.
After the City Hall portrait-defacing in 1978, Wendell W. Oberholtzer holds a book with an engraving of his ancestor, Mayor Robert T. Conrad.Robert L. Mooney / Staff Photographer
Oberholtzer called City Hall and offered to help.
He said he would lend the city a personally owned portrait of his famous relative, or he could supply photos, for an artist or engraver to useto create a replacement portrait.
But the donations were not necessary. Robert Silver, commissioner of public property, said conservators from the Philadelphia Museum of Art sized up the situation and decided the portraits were not beyond repair.
Silver told The Inquirer that he could have the portraits restored to “practically their pre-smash condition” within a few months.
And the honored could once again return to their rightful places in history.
HARRISBURG ― Pennsylvania’s Judicial Conduct Board on Thursday urged a judicial disciplinary court to permanently remove a Philadelphia judge from the bench, saying he had displayed a pattern of unethical and “boorish” behavior that culminated in an effort to influence a colleague’s decision in a criminal case last year.
Common Pleas Court Judge Scott DiClaudio showed “little respect for the court and little respect for the rules of the court,” said Elizabeth Hoffheins, deputy counsel for the Judicial Conduct Board.
DiClaudio had a history of disciplinary issues, she said, and he had not taken adequate responsibility for his actions.
“Anything less than removal would fall short of restoring the public’s trust,” Hoffheins said.
The board’s request came after two days of testimony before the Court of Judicial Discipline, which is expected to determine DiClaudio’s fate as a judge in the coming months.
DiClaudio acknowledged Thursday that his remarks to fellow Common Pleas Court Judge Zachary Shaffer were improper, but insisted it was a complete misunderstanding and was never meant to tilt the scale of justice.
“I wish I never said it. I regret ever saying it,” DiClaudio said of the comments to Shaffer. “I wasn’t thinking.”
Shaffer testified that he was on the bench in his courtroom on June 12, 2025, when DiClaudio’s personal assistant, Gary Silver, walked in and said DiClaudio wanted to see him.
Shaffer said he and his clerk, Nicole Vernaccio, had been in touch with DiClaudio that week about buying T-shirts from the cheesesteak shop owned by DiClaudio’s wife. They assumed the request was to go pick them up.
The exchange occurred in the robing room of DiClaudio’s former courtroom inside the city’s criminal courthouse. Alejandro A. Alvarez / Staff Photographer
The two walked to DiClaudio’s courtroom, then gathered in his robing room. They spoke for several minutes about various topics, he said, before DiClaudio asked Vernaccio to leave. Vernaccio also testified that she was asked to step out.
Shaffer said DiClaudio then pulled out a piece of lined paper with “Dwayne Jones, courtroom 905, and Monday’s date” written on it.
DiClaudio held it out at his side, he said, then looked at him and said, “OK?”
Shaffer said he was confused, and hesitantly said, “OK.”
He said DiClaudio ripped up the paper and threw it away.
As Shaffer started to leave, he said, DiClaudio told him: “‘You probably would have done the right thing anyway.’”
Shaffer said he was shocked and believed DiClaudio was suggesting he should give a favorable sentence to Jones, who was scheduled to appear before him in the coming days on charges of illegal gun possession connected to a fatal shooting.
Shaffer reported the conversation to his supervisors the next morning, and they referred the matter to the Judicial Conduct Board. He recused himself from Jones’ case.
The board charged DiClaudio with multiple ethical violations last September. He was later suspended without pay.
All of this came to be, DiClaudio said, after he attended the Roots Picnic in June 2025 — where he said he hung out backstage with Philadelphia rapper Meek Mill. In the common area, he said, Jones approached him and said he had a forthcoming sentencing before Shaffer.
DiClaudio said he didn’t know Jones, and told him only that his colleague was “a good judge who would do the right thing.” When Jones handed him his business card, he said, he put it in his wallet, not wanting to be rude.
DiClaudio denied that he later summoned Shaffer to his courtroom, despite an audio recording that showed that shortly before his assistant went to retrieve Shaffer, DiClaudio asked: “Is Judge Shaffer on the bench right now? Can you call down there and see if he’s still on the bench please?”
DiClaudio said he only asked about Shaffer because he had just addressed a case where a defense attorney Shaffer is dating did not appear in court. He said he wanted to ask Shaffer why she didn’t show. (The courtroom audio confirmed that DiClaudio addressed the woman’s case just before inquiring about Shaffer.)
He said he did not instruct Silver to visit Shaffer, and was surprised when the judge walked in.
Once inside the robing room, DiClaudio said, he, Shaffer, and the clerk discussed various topics. It was only as Shaffer went to leave, he said, that he picked up his phone and wallet holding Jones’ business card, and remembered the concert exchange.
He said he took out the card and told Shaffer: “I saw this guy at a concert. I told him you’re a good judge and you’d do the right thing.”
Then, he said, he tossed it into the trash.
“It was improper and wrong. There was no good reason to say that even though it wasn’t my intention to influence the case,” he said Thursday, adding: “I never wanted him to do anything with that statement other than to say thank you.”
The board had initially said that DiClaudio sought to sway the case because Jones was a friend of Meek Mill. Jones, in an interview last year, also said he was a friend of the artist’s.
DiClaudio, too, is close to Mill.
But Hoffheins did not introduce evidence of that during Thursday’s hearing. She said this week that the board still believed that to be true, but did not need to prove a motive in its case.
Common Pleas Court Judge Scott DiClaudio speaks with rapper Meek Mill on Facetime outside the Philadelphia courthouse on Sept. 16, 2025. DiClaudio, while on the call, approached the family of Tyree Musier, whose murder conviction was overturned, and said he thought they would appreciate Mill saying hello.Alejandro A. Alvarez / Staff Photographer
“This remark was not simply a compliment, not simply an off-the-cuff remark,” she said. “It was calculated to occur three days prior to this man’s sentencing.”
DiClaudio was elected to Common Pleas Court in November 2015, and took the bench in January 2016. Before his suspension last year, he mostly heard cases filed by people seeking to have their murder convictions overturned.
He presided over many high-profile exonerations and wrongful-conviction cases, and approved the release or resentencing of dozens of people who had been serving life in prison.
DiClaudio was known for working long hours, moving cases efficiently, and thoroughly explaining his decisions to the families of victims and the defendants. But he was also unconventional in his at times brash communication style on the bench.
That was on display again Thursday. He often rambled in a stream of consciousness from the stand, breathlessly veering between accepting responsibility, disputing Shaffer’s testimony, and even relaying his colleague’s dating history. His attorneys, Samuel Stretton and George Bochetto, struggled to reel him in.
“Just stop,” Stretton interjected several times.
Hoffheins pointed to the display, as well as DiClaudio’s previous disciplinary record, as proof of a pattern of misconduct.
Before becoming a judge, DiClaudio was censured by the Pennsylvania Supreme Court for “serial misconduct,” including violating legal ethics rules. Shortly after he took the bench in 2016, Hoffheins said, the Judicial Conduct Board sent him a private disciplinary letter for engaging in “boorish behavior” toward his court staff.
Then, in 2020, the Court of Judicial Discipline determined that he violated the code of conduct for judges when he failed to report debts on annual financial disclosure forms and repeatedly defied a judge’sorders to pay thousands of dollars in overdue bills to a Bala Cynwyd fitness club. He was suspended for two weeks, and placed on probation through 2026.
And last April, the Judicial Conduct Board accused him of using his position as a judge to promote his wife’s cheesesteak shop, eroding public trust in the judiciary, and abusing the prestige of the office for personal gain. DiClaudio has denied the allegations, and the case remains ongoing.
“What I am hearing, what I am feeling, is a persistent theme of your doing things and saying things … that are not wise,” said Judge Charles L. Becker, of the disciplinary panel.
Judge Carolyn Nichols called it “a painful trail of incidents.”
In a final plea, DiClaudio, 63, said if he returned to the bench, he would only work the few weeks necessary to secure his pension and lifetime health insurance to support his wife and two young children. Then he would retire, he said.
He teared up as he spoke of his children and defended his integrity and career.
“I talk a lot, but it’s my greatest strength and my greatest weakness,” he said. While he might be a “crazier judge,” he said, he’s “a judge who makes the right decisions.”
“That may be an explanation,” Becker said, “but, frankly, I’m not sure that’s a defense.”
Stretton, in his closing remarks, asked the panel for mercy.
“Yes he did something bad. And some of his conduct here can get a little rambunctious,” he said. “… But I see a great, decent judge. He’s done a lot of good in the community and on the bench. He’s well-respected.”
The tribunal will now weigh the matter, a process that could take months.
John Baer was the son of a Harrisburg newspaperman. He literally grew up in the Pennsylvania state Capitol. And he never left.
His father, John H. Baer, was a political reporter for what is now the Patriot-News in Harrisburg, and Mr. Baer spent many Sunday afternoons hanging around the old Capitol press room while his father worked on stories. Decades later, in 1972, Mr. Baer joined the Evening News in Harrisburg as a reporter and went on to work for nearly 50 years in that same press room.
“I’m probably unique in Pennsylvania politics and journalism,” Mr. Baer said in a 2020 oral history interview for Pennsylvania State University. “I dare say there probably aren’t any who can say they worked in the same state capitol newsroom that their father did.”
In 1987, the Daily News hired Mr. Baer to cover state politics in Harrisburg. He became a political columnist for the newspaper in 2000, and his plainspoken, no-holds-barred stories later appeared in The Inquirer as well. Before he left the papers in 2019, he covered hundreds of political campaigns, conventions, and elections, and wrote about thousands of local, state, and national politicians.
Mr. Baer’s column on politics appeared in The Inquirer and Daily News from 2000 to 2019. Newspapers.com
“He was the most feared reporter in my eight years in Harrisburg,” former Gov. Ed Rendell said. “He did his work. He did his digging. He really cared about the issues.”
On Thursday, Sept. 24, Mr. Baer died of cancer at his home in New Cumberland, Pa. He was 79.
For 32 years, Mr. Baer was a hard-hitting, award-winning political reporter and columnist for The Inquirer and Daily News. He was also a columnist for PennLive and the Patriot-News, onetime public TV producer and show host, former press secretary, author, teacher, and mentor.
Many of those Mr. Baer covered in Harrisburg, Philadelphia, and Washington praised his “deep integrity” and “fierce independence,” and called him a “keen observer of Pennsylvania politics” and “a heavyweight in Pennsylvania political reporting” in online tributes. State Rep. Ben Waxman called Mr. Baer a “legendary Capitol journalist.” U.S. Rep. Dwight Evans said he was “authentic and a one-of-a-kind journalist.”
Mr. Baer told Penn State he wanted to “let people see the inside of the game in Harrisburg.” His Inquirer.com online profile reads: “John Baer has written about politics and government since 1987. Neither subject ever fails to provide him with stories of policies and politicians walking on or skirting by paths to perdition.”
In addition to covering nine Pennsylvania governors, the impeachment trial of President Bill Clinton, and the ascensions of Presidents Barack Obama and Donald Trump, Mr. Baer wrote about the execution of serial killer Gary Heidnik, the pleas for more research funding by a cancer victim, and the battle of a state policeman’s widow to receive her husband’s pension benefits.
He said some of his favorite columns were the mea culpa pieces he wrote at the end of each year that highlighted things he got wrong. “I truly just had a ball at the Daily News,” he told Penn State. “I just loved it. … I’ve always said I had no adult supervision, and it was wonderful.”
Mr. Baer joined PennLive in 2019, and his last column was published in July. “The depth and breadth of his knowledge was beyond compare,” said Amy Worden, his editor at PennLive.
Mr. Baer and his wife, Rosemary, married in 1969.Courtesy of the family
Before the Daily News, Mr. Baer spent 14 years in total as a reporter for the Patriot-News, an award-winning public TV producer and show host for WITF in Harrisburg, and a press secretary during Lt. Gov. Bill Scranton’s unsuccessful run for governor in 1986.
He wrote freelance stories for Philadelphia Magazine and national publications. He was a frequent guest on political TV and radio shows and moderated several statewide candidate debates.
A lifelong foodie, he also reviewed Harrisburg-area restaurants for a magazine under the pseudonym “the Phantom Diner.” His book, On the Front Lines of Pennsylvania Politics,was published in 2012.
“He was so good at writing strong opinions with depth,” Paul Vigna, a retired Daily News editor, said.
Mr. Baer earned awards for his journalism and was inducted into the Pennsylvania News Media Hall of Fame in 2024. He was cofounder of the Pennsylvania Press Club and onetime president of the Pennsylvania Legislative Correspondents Association.
In tributes, colleagues praised his “sharp wit” and called him a “journalism giant,” “terrific writer,” and “mentor to many of us.” The internship program at the Pennsylvania Legislative Correspondents Association is named in his honor.
“He was an All-Star, a Hall of Famer,” Vigna said. Rendell said: “He didn’t take any BS.”
John Baer was born June 25, 1947, in Harrisburg. He graduated from Bishop McDevitt High School in 1965 and earned a bachelor’s degree in English at Mount St. Mary’s University in Maryland and a master’s degree in education later from Temple University.
He coached basketball and football teams while teaching English for three years at Trinity High School in Harrisburg after college. He married Rosemary Ruggieri in 1969, and they had sons Johnny and James.
Mr. Baer and his wife hosted many memorable Christmas parties and enjoyed road trips to Georgetown University basketball games, New York Mets baseball games, and their sons’ many sporting events. He played racquetball and tennis, and ran a marathon at 50.
He was a longtime member of St. Theresa Catholic Church in New Cumberland. “He liked interesting people and had lifelong friendships,” his family said in a tribute. “He loved his friends.”
On Facebook, colleague Diana Robinson said: “Here’s to you, John Baer. You’ll always be The Most Interesting Man in Harrisburg.”
In addition to his wife and sons, Mr. Baer is survived by three grandchildren and other relatives.
Services were held earlier.
Donations in his name may be made to Vickie’s Angel Foundation, 511 Bridge St., Box 174, New Cumberland, Pa. 17070.
Nearly a dozen Philadelphia-area small-business owners stole almost $1 million in public funds by defrauding a program designed to support low-income mothers and their children, authorities said Thursday.
The businesses accused of fraud are small groceries or corner stores located throughout the city, according to the state attorney general’s office, which announced Thursday that it had charged 11 people with theft by deception, forgery, and related crimes.
Prosecutors said the business owners submitted false claims for funds through the federal food assistance program WIC, the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children. The program and funds are administered by Pennsylvania’s health department.
Participating businesses are reimbursed through the state for purchasing food and infant formula, which is provided to recipients in stores using a benefits card. Prosecutors said the businesses abused their role as providers, submitting fraudulent claims for purchases — nearly 10,000 in all, they said.
Investigators reviewed thousands of receipts and audited paperwork submitted by the businesses between 2021 and 2025, finding they were “forged and fabricated,” they said.
Attorney General, Dave Sunday on March 13, 2025 in Philadelphia.Jose F. Moreno / Staff Photographer
The fraudulent claims in several cases exceeded $100,000, and almost all amounted to tens of thousands of dollars. Most of the claims were fulfilled, prosecutors said, resulting in the loss of $985,000 in public money.
The largest sum was paid to Felix Sosa, 35, of El Paisano Express Food in South Philadelphia, according to prosecutors. Sosa was reimbursed a total of $342,183 for such claims, they said, and was charged with theft and related crimes.
He was arrested Wednesday and was being held on $25,000 bail. No attorney for him was listed in court records.
Musa Barry, of Uncle Musa Grocery in Southwest Philadelphia, was charged with submitting fraudulent claims totaling $226,557. He was arrested Wednesday and has not hired an attorney.
Nearly all of the remaining business owners are accused of stealing sums in the tens of thousands.
Attorney General Dave Sunday decried the crimes in a statement Thursday, saying the business owners had “intentionally defrauded” state government for years.
Nine of the merchants have been taken into custody, Sunday said.
“This type of criminal activity doesn’t just victimize taxpayers by defrauding the government, it hurts the women and children who rely on the services programs like WIC provide,” he said.
Officials estimate about 175,000 Pennsylvanians are enrolled in the WIC program, about 36,000 of them in Philadelphia. It is available for low-income women who are pregnant or have given birth within six months (if breastfeeding, up to 12 months), as well as children under 5.
The announcement of the criminal charges comes at a challenging time for the Pennsylvania Bureau of Women, Infants, and Children.
The bureau’s director, Sally Zubairu-Cofield, resigned last week, citing “significant and ongoing workplace challenges” and barriers to leadership. She had led the office since 2022 and was appointed during the administration of former Gov. Tom Wolf.
She declined to comment Thursday.
Zubairu-Cofield wrote in her resignation letter that she had faced “multiple allegations and investigations that I understood were subsequently determined to be unfounded” during her tenure, according to Spotlight PA.
She did not elaborate on the nature of those allegations, according to the outlet.
A former Philadelphia woman who voted twice in the 2024 presidential election was sentenced Thursday to three years of probation.
Miya Pack, 40, who now lives in Georgia, pleaded guilty earlier this year to voting more than once in a federal election after prosecutors said she cast ballots in 2024 in Bergen County, N.J. — where she grew up — and in Philadelphia.
Pack was not affiliated with any political party at the time, according to Pennsylvania voter records. And prosecutors did not specify which candidate she voted for.
Pack also did not name her preferred candidate Thursday while addressing U.S. District Judge Joshua D. Wolson. Instead, she simply said she was “nervous” about the election’s outcome, but recognizes now that that was no excuse for voting twice.
“I was wrong,” she said. “I’m very, very sorry.”
Pack voted in-person in North Jersey on Oct. 26, 2024, court documents said, and then cast another ballot in-person in Philadelphia 10 days later, on Election Day.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Nancy Potts said Pack’s crime “violates the trust that we have in one another to abide by the basic rules of society.”
And Wolson, the judge, said Pack’s offense “strikes at the heart of democracy in many respects.”
“There’s a degree of honor code in voting, and breaches of that undermine the public confidence in elections,” he said. “And our elections function in no small part because they rely on a public perception of confidence.”
Pack said she understood. And both she and her attorney said Pack has been left “mortified” and “embarrassed” by the case, which has been covered by a variety of news outlets, making her name and background easy to find online.
Election officials and other experts generally agree that voter fraud has not historically occurred on a large scale, or at rates that might undermine electoral results — particularly in national elections, such as presidential contests.
Pack’s indictment was announced last year alongside the indictment of another man, Matthew Laiss, who voted twice for Trump in 2020. Laiss was sentenced earlier this year to six months of house arrest and three years of probation.
Philadelphia police have identified the victim of a fatal car crash in Center City as a teacher at a West Philly elementary school.
Zoe Schemm, 26, was attempting to catch a bus near 19th and Lombard Streets when the driver of another vehicle struck her at 6:42 a.m. Wednesday. Schemm suffered severe injuries after becoming trapped underneath the vehicle and was pronounced dead at the scene, according to police.
The driver of the white Audi sedan was traveling west on Lombard when the car hit Schemm while she was crossing the street. The driver remained at the scene. Police are investigating but have made no arrests.
Schemm was a teacher at Belmont Charter Elementary School in West Philadelphia. Belmont Charter’s elementary and middle school held classes virtually Thursday to give its community space to grieve Schemm’s death.
“Belmont Charter Network is heartbroken by the unexpected death of a member of our school community. She was a valued teacher who cared deeply for her students and made a lasting impact during her time at Belmont. Her loss is being felt deeply across our community,” Aquilla Waller, Belmont Charter’s head of school, said by email.
“I’m heartbroken that a young Belmont Charter teacher lost her life after being struck by a vehicle. … This is another somber reminder of how important it is to make sure our streets are safe,” City Councilmember Jamie Gauthier, who represents West Philadelphia, said in a social media statement.
A Philadelphia man who thought he was waiting for approval of a green card was deported to London on Wednesday night, his wife said, removed a month after being arrested by ICE at a California airport.
Michael “Sandy” Sims, 42, had flown to California in September for what was supposed to be a short business trip, but was stopped outside the San Jose airport when he arrived to fly back to Philadelphia. He was held at the Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention center in Bakersfield, Calif.
His wife, Jennifer Sims, 46, an American citizen, said Thursday that she had spoken to her husband, who was safe and in England. He was deported days before a scheduled Oct. 8 bond hearing that the couple had hoped would free him from detention.
Jennifer Sims said she and her husband were now trying to figure out the next steps for their future.
The Department of Homeland Security said Thursday that Sims was “a criminal illegal alien” who on Wednesday was lawfully deported to the United Kingdom.
“This administration will not ignore the rule of law,” the department said in a statement.
Sims’ Sept. 2 arrest came as American airports have become risky places for foreigners, even those who are here legally.
Sims, a veteran of the entertainment-lighting industry, was born in Ireland and raised in London. He had been expecting approval of a green card that he and his wife sought after they married in 2017.
He told his wife that immigration agents had been waiting for him when his Lyft driver pulled up at the San Jose airport. He was confined at the Mesa Verde ICE Processing Center in Bakersfield, a 400-bed facility operated by the for-profit, Florida-based GEO Group.
The Department of Homeland Security earlier said Sims had entered the country legally but overstayed his visa.
“Criminal illegal aliens are not welcome in the U.S.,” DHS said in a statement. “Under President Trump and [Homeland Security] Secretary [Markwayne] Mullin, if you break the law, you will face the consequences.”
The department said earlier, and repeated on Thursday, that Sims faces a criminal charge of domestic battery in Nevada, where he lived at one time. DHS provided no further details and, along with ICE, did not respond to requests for information on what allegedly happened and when.
In a search of Nevada court documents, The Inquirer could find no record of any criminal case against Sims. And Sims’ Philadelphia immigration lawyer said he had no knowledge of and could locate no record of such a case.
His wife said he had never been charged with a crime.
Sims’ wife said he legally entered the U.S. on a work visa in 2016.
When that expired, he was approved for entry under ESTA, the Electronic System for Travel Authorization. That is an online initiative the federal government uses to prescreen travelers before they visit the United States under the Visa Waiver Program.
Jennifer Sims said after they wed, she filed Form I-130, the document required to prove a valid family relationship with a foreigner who wants to immigrate to the United States.
That application, she said, was approved in March 2020 ― a key step toward a green card. Her husband had completed his biometrics appointment, where the government collects the applicant’s fingerprints, photograph, and digital signature, three months earlier, she said.
The couple thought they were waiting for approval of his green card when he was arrested, Jennifer Sims said.
