Philadelphia-area health systems have been moving swiftly to pull offline web links that publicly revealed the daily work schedules and cell phone numbers of healthcare workers, information that hospitals traditionally do not make available online.
The information for thousands of medical workers at Penn Medicine, Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, ChristianaCare, and dozens of hospitals nationwide was published online through a popular scheduling service, QGenda.
Experts said the online availability of internal information raises serious security and privacy concerns at a time when healthcare workers increasingly face the threat of workplace violence and doxing.
The Philly-area health systems took down the schedules in late August after The Inquirer alerted them that the information was publicly available. Penn and CHOP did not respond to questions about whetherthey were aware the link was accessible without a log in.
A spokesperson for ChristianaCare said the system “recently became aware” the pages were public, and “immediately” worked with the QGenda to “eliminate the vulnerability.”
“We are not aware of any impact to caregivers, clinicians, patient care, or operations,” Christiana’s statement said. “Protecting the privacy and security of our caregivers, clinicians, patients, and information systems remains a top priority.”
Other Philadelphia-area systems did not appear have publicly available links.
The web pages managed byQGenda, an Atlanta-based workforce management software company, exposed months of schedules of physicians, nurse practitioners, social workers, and other hospital employees.
The links don’t appear on Google searches, but anyone with access to basic AI chatbots could pull up live schedules showing the hours and assigned hospital service for on-call doctors andother providers.
“That’s very concerning,” said Lane Kantor, a fourth-year medicine-pediatrics resident at Penn and CHOP, explaining that healthcare providers’ work “sometimes comes with patients who can harass and threaten us.”
Kantor, a leader at Penn’s resident union, said the public information of providers who work with undocumented immigrants or in the areas of gender-affirming or abortion care was especially concerning.
QGenda is used by more than 4,500 organizations, according to the company’s website, including many hospitals that use the software as a one-stop source of information about providers who are on-call and available for consult at any given moment.
It is not clear how the schedules became public, how long the information was available online, to what extent hospital administrators knewthe information was not safeguarded with a log in requirement, or whether anyone — let alone someone wishing to inflict harm — accessed the information.
QGenda did not respond to multiple requests for comment.
The Hearst-owned company offers “QuickLinks” to allow “any staff member without a QGenda account” to easily access the schedule, according to the company’s website. The site also notes that “on-call schedules may contain sensitive information” and that there is risk of “unauthorized access or data breaches” without proper safeguards.
The platform also enableshealthcare systems to restrict access,“so that only devices on your practice’s secure network can access schedule data on the public-facing landing page,” the company’s site says.
Health systems in the Philadelphia area and across the country have taken steps in recent years to minimize doctors’ publicly available information in response to the growing politicization ofmany health services, especially those involvingdiversity, equity and inclusion, abortion, and gender-affirming care.
CHOP, for example, removed provider names from the webpage of its gender and sexual development program in 2022 as the clinic received threats because it provides gender-affirming care for teens. But information on clinic’s providers was available through the now-removed public schedule.
Security experts say releasingpublic work times and locations alongside cell numbers leaves providers vulnerable to being targeted by dissatisfied patients, or individuals who disapprove of the type of medicine a doctor practices.
“This is really alarming,” said Will Owen, a spokesperson for Surveillance Technology Oversight Project, a New York-based privacy nonprofit. “Hospitals must scrutinize the platforms they work with in their data collection to minimize information that can be weaponized.”
Live hospital schedules exposed
After receiving a confidential tip that three East Coast health systems had public QGenda web pages, The Inquirer identified public landing pages for nearly 50 health systems or hospitals nationwide, including Veterans Affairs hospitals, using OpenAI’s Codex.
For some, like Penn and CHOP, the landing pages for the entire system were public. For other hospitals, schedules for only one department or service surfaced.
Some of the United States’ largest and most prestigious institutions had public QGenda links, including Johns Hopkins Medicine and the University of California-San Francisco.
The Inquirer attempted to reach out to each hospital or system for which it found schedules before publication. At least 10,including Hopkins and UCSF, have removed the public link completely or added a password requirement.
A spokesperson for Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles said it was “unaware” that its anesthesia department’s schedule was public. The schedule has since been removed.
The call schedule for the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, and dozens of hospitals nationwide, was available online through a public QGenda link. CHOP updated the web page’s permissions to require a login after being alerted by The Inquirer.Screenshot
CHOP informed hospital staff last week about security updates made to QGenda “out of an abundance of caution.”
“We are taking a precautionary step to update access to the QGenda platform used to display CHOP on-call schedules,” CHOP said in an email to staff obtained by The Inquirer.
QGenda’s platform does not contain patient information, and CHOP “continually assess our systems, processes, and technologies with an eye toward privacy, security, and operational needs,” a CHOP spokesperson said in a statement.
Penn said it uses QGenda to support communication among care teams.
“We continually monitor the risk environment surrounding online information and, as it continues to evolve, we are adding controls that both preserve appropriate protection and provide reliable access for those who need the information to coordinate patient care,” Penn said in a statement.
Gennadiy Ryklin, a hospitalist at ChristianaCare, was surprised to learn a colleague had done a work-hour analysis for ChristianaCare’s attending union using an AI model.
“I asked him, ‘well, how’d you do that without having Claude get access to our private schedules?’ And, well, it’s not private, there’s a public link here,” Ryklin said.
Privacy and data security are principles are drilled into physicians through policies, procedures, and training courses, Ryklin said.
“We understand that patient information in the wrong hands can cause a lot of harm,” the doctor said. “Where’s that same concern for us?”
A June shooting that killed one IT intern and left another injured in ChristianaCare’s Wilmington Hospital underscored for Ryklin the threat of violence within health systems. Law enforcement charged a third intern in connection to the incident.
He reached out to hospital administrators and last week the hospital began removing the public web pages.
Employee privacy exists in a legal gray area, with protections often dependent on institutional policies, said Matthew Bodie, a law professor at the University of Minnesota.
Publicly sharing schedules and cell numbers does “feel invasive,” Bodie said, “especially if employees didn’t know about it.”
The combination of cell numbers and work schedules could be used to cause harm, whether by patients, politically motivated individuals, or stalkers, said Sharona Hoffman, a co-director of the Law-Medicine Center at Case Western Reserve University.
The lack of any sweeping federal employee privacy requirements makes the online availability of the information, “not surprising though very disturbing,” the professor said.
A decade-long void was filled: the whooshing winds of the peloton, the whooping and cheery sounds of cowbells, the whiffs of greasy food, and sips of cold beer.
All of it returned to the city’s vistas Sunday as the Philadelphia Cycling Classic, one of the nation’s most storied races — drawing cycling’s Olympians, national champions, and emerging talents to the City of Brotherly Love — made its resurgence. Funding snafus and waning support begone; biking in Philly is back.
For an international field of riders, the 14.4-mile looping, winding, and climbing course that weaved from the Benjamin Franklin Parkway to Manayunk was a giant chessboard of strategy, aerodynamics, and aerobics. For revelers, it was a great equalizer, a unique, unfettered opportunity in sports to see athletic prowess, drama, and world-class competitors up close.
That rarity was not lost on spectators, some of whom experienced the legacy race, which ended in 2016, and others for whom this was a novelty.
Ashley O’Neill’s stepfather talked relentlessly about the classic of yore’s folklore, but she never witnessed it herself. “The people [gathering] together, the happiness,” O’Neill, whose 41st birthday was also Sunday, recalled her stepdad saying, “but for years there was no race.”
Dylan O’Neill chimed in: “To have the city lose something like this is a huge loss for the entire community.”
As the Trenton couple huffed through humid air to reach a lookout on the famed “Manayunk Wall,” they talked about plans to come back, year after year.
“We hope they keep doing it,” Dylan O’Neill said. “It’s such a unique thing, and Philly is the perfect place to do it.”
Remembering the old
During its run from 1985 to 2016, Philadelphia’s criterium reigned, known for its theaterlike scene and famed “Manayunk Wall,“ an incline with a maximum 17% gradient.
“I remember the first race, it was amazing: No one was here and they had a helicopter,” said Thomas Gartside, 77, who moved to Manayunk, near the Wall, a year before the inaugural classic.
Over the years, as the race grew in prestige and attendance, his block got more crowded. In 2016, Gartside said he didn’t watch the spectacle — unaware the cyclists’ return would be an uphill battle.
The next year, the race had run its course; in 2017, organizers canceled the classic, citing increasing costs and decreasing sponsors, much to the chagrin of the city’s cycling community.
“I got a little tired of it, but this is reinvigorating,” Gartside said, looking out at hundreds of merry people packed shoulder to shoulder. Gartside hosted his own small fête, with bagels and coffee.
“Look at all the energy and all the neighbors,” he said.
Cyclists climb the Wall in Manayunk during the men’s race in the Philadelphia Cycling Classic on Sunday, Aug. 30.Monica Herndon / Staff Photographer
Organizers have described the free-to-watch revitalized classic as “the people’s race.” Road cycling is also one of the few professional sports where athletes brush right up against fans and front doors, bringing “the stadium to the streets,” said Philadelphia Mayor Cherelle L. Parker.
Michael Jones, a cyclist with Philly club Major Taylor, was among the throngs of fans who didn’t want to miss a second of the action — a 10-year break was long enough.
Jones even brought his bike along to follow some of the race route. A passerby remarked, “It’s like bringing a glove to a baseball game. But bigger.” And Jones couldn’t have agreed more.
Despite growing up in Philadelphia, the 48-year old was unfamiliar with the classic before getting into the sport himself, which he said transcends generations. Now, back and seemingly bigger than before, the race was electrifying, Jones said.
“It’s just so fantastic that so many people are down here taking in the scenes,” he said about the Fan Fest crowd.
“It’s just beautiful to see.”
If the verve of the morning’s women’s competition is any indication of the next era of cycling in Philly, it will be nothing short of “amazing,” according to Stefy and Sean Beury of West Mount Airy.
“The hype, the buildup, and the media attention to get more awareness and attention, in general, to the event and to bring more cycling back to Philly,” Stefy Beury, 47, said. “It’s just been awesome.”
It’s possible, Sean Beury, 54, said, that success on Sunday could inspire future road races, but he hopes the race motivates younger Philadelphians to start riding.
Spectators wearing orange cone costumes cheer in Manayunk during the men’s race in the Philadelphia Cycling Classic on Sunday.Monica Herndon / Staff Photographer
Ushering in the new
Eyes glued to a phone, siblings Tess and Fitz Dolan counted down the seconds it took the women’s field to arrive at the Wall, tracking their movements on a livestream of the race.
The teen mountain bikers’ ages were in the single digits when the race went away and they never had a chance to see it in person. On Sunday, they refused to lose sight of the riders.
“It’s so cool to see them do this,” said 16-year-old Tess Dolan, “we are used to these roads and we bike there. The women are putting in a lot of work and they are just rocking it.”
Her older brother, Fitz, was equally in awe by the bikers’ performance. The 18-year-old has biked the Manayunk Wall once and considers it to be a challenge for any cyclist. “They made it look so effortless,” he said.
Seeing the women’s strength and the jolliness of the spectators inspired Tess to put the Wall on her bucket list.
“It’s important for us to see them,” she said.
“It gives us inspiration to go outside and get on the bike.”
Bikers celebrate on the podium after placing in the Philly Cycling Classic on Sunday. From left are second-place finisher Alexandra Volstad of Canada, of EF Education-Oatly; winner Chiara Consonni of Italy, of Canyon-SRAM zondacrypto; and third-place finisher Ella Sabo of the United States, of Virginia’s Blue Ridge TWENTY28.Jose F. Moreno / Staff Photographer
Early Saturday morning, I clambered out of bed and pulled on the required brown Spandex. With my hair slicked back into a ponytail, I hustled down to Friends Select School in Center City, a yoga mat slung over my shoulder. There, on the private school’s rooftop turf, awaited hundreds of my peers all clad in the variations of the same Jacklyn.fit-branded workout set, the allure of complimentary energy drinks and facials, and the promise of rapper Waka Flocka Flame.
This was Sweat & Sculpt, a mat Pilates class slash wellness bazaar slash concert. It’s the brainchild of influencer and Sea Isle City native Jacklyn Romano (aka Jacklyn.fit online), who bills the women’s workout-palooza as a “one-of-a-kind celebration of female empowerment, fitness, and community” and the “largest women’s event” in Philadelphia. That’s a difficult superlative to quantify, but organizers said there were more than 800 women in attendance.
“A lot of people are like, ‘Wait, is this real? Like 800 girls in matching workout sets and Waka Flocka?’” Romano told me. (Nearly everyone I told about this event had a similar reaction, with notably more expletives. One friend texted me, “I can’t even believe that’s a real sentence.”)
That singularity is what interested me — how someone could successfully marry a $120 “viral Pilates event” and the song “No Hands.” A TikTok commenter said it best: “Pilates & Waka is a diabolical combo.”
So I went, I worked out, I Waka’ed. And I didn’t expect to leave feeling so girly and giddy and genuinely moved by the body-positivity of the same man who wrote “Round of Applause.”
Influencer Jacklyn Romano leads Sweat & Sculpt at the Friends Select School on Saturday, Aug. 29, 2026, in Philadelphia.Tyger Williams / Staff Photographer
Sweat & Sculpt’s mantra
Six years ago, Romano’s brick-and-mortar fitness business was thwarted by COVID-19, so she pivoted to Zoom classes. Then, three years ago, she parlayed her online success (some 111,000 followers on Instagram and 20,600 on TikTok) into in-person activations — a burgeoning trend of social media stars taking their shtick on the road. This spring, for example, I wrote about another influencer, TikTok’s “Dense Bean Salad Girl,” who sold takeout containers of her signature salads at a pop-up near Rittenhouse Square.
A trainer for nearly a decade, Romano said she had always looked for an event like the one she ended up creating with Sweat & Sculpt: An inclusive space for women to get fit, make connections, and feel powerful. Despite the steep admission fee — which included the brown bra and your choice of leggings or capris, with an optional, additional $20 tank top — Saturday’s Sweat & Sculpt was the largest yet, according to Romano. (Full disclosure, I was comped my ticket and athletic garb because I was writing about the event.)
“Once [these women] leave here, they’re also shining from the inside out,” Romano said. At 8:45 a.m., she was already bubbly and energetic, bouncing from fan to fan and selfie to selfie. As we chatted briefly, her tooth gem caught the morning sun and her red-ink patchwork tattoos peeked out from her capris.
“They’re leaving with new friends, they’re leaving with a new form of confidence, they’re trying something new,” she said.
Cousins Dakota Hurwitz, Caitlyn McHugh, and Crystal McHugh have followed Romano for years. They’ve watched as her events grew fortyfold, from 20-person classes in Sea Isle to filling up soccer fields. Here, they said, they found community.
“It’s more than just a workout class,” Hurwitz, 26, of Bucks County, said.
Crystal McHugh, 31, of Northeast Philly, added: “It’s not just [about] confidence, it’s empowerment.”
Admittedly, before this event, I was not familiar with Romano. I recently deleted most social media apps from my phone, expressly because of the constant barrage of body checking, nutrition misinformation, ads for fat-loss miracle drugs, and commentary on what women should or shouldn’t look like. It started to feel like a nightmarish echo chamber of shame.
Romano’s brand, she said, defies that: The workout sets come in an expansive size range, from XS to 4X, and she encourages people to “worry about how you feel” but “not how you look.”
“I try to take a positive spin onto social media,” she said. “On our page, you get to see every different kind of person. No matter what size, what fitness level, what race, what religion — we all come together and we all want to empower each other.”
The workout
Sweat & Sculpt was promoted as low-impact, body-weight mat Pilates.
Don’t be fooled. That doesn’t mean easy.
I’m an ex-ballerina who’s been doing Pilates since age 11. I’m 27 now, so that’s more than 15 years of — albeit on again, off again — Pilates practice. At one point, I was taking as many as five mat classes a week; nowadays, my exercise routine consists of long walks, occasional reformer Pilates, and a weekly gym session with a personal trainer.
Yet by the second set of single-leg glute bridges, my hamstrings were burning. Then came a three-minute ab circuit. According to my Apple Watch, over 42 minutes, I burned 144 calories and my heart rate reached 167 beats per minute, more than double my resting rate.
As my arms and legs started to shake, I certainly felt that sense of camaraderie and support Romano talked about: her steady stream of affirmations — “Hang tight, ladies!” — blasting over the speakers; the smiles from the women around me; finding comfort knowing that I was not alone, that we all signed up to be breaking a sweat at 9 a.m.
Eleven mats down from me, 6-foot-6 Waka Flocka Flame cried, “Call the paramedics!”
“Why not bring in someone who’s iconic to our generation of women and just make it fun?” Romano said. The chorus “Girl, the way you’re moving got me in a trance. …” once filled gymnasiums on prom night; hearing “‘Rain, rain, go away,’ that’s what all my haters say,” teleported me back to a college bar, my heeled booties sticking to a White Claw-laden floor.
Waka Flocka Flame performs some of his hit songs after the Sweat & Sculpt Pilates class at the Friends Select School on Saturday, Aug. 29, 2026, in Philadelphia.Tyger Williams / Staff Photographer
But before he performed his medley, Waka, whose given name is Juaquin Malphurs, took time to answer audience questions, offering reassurance to one new mom in the crowd:
“I need you not to be hard on yourself postpartum,” Malphurs, who is also a new dad, said. “The woman that you’re gonna be is not the woman you see today, and you’ll get there — don’t worry.”
“Give your body some time … then fight the fight.”
Afterward, I spoke to Tamika Ford, who was coincidentally also seven weeks postpartum.
She came Saturday morning worrying — “I’m going to be so out of shape,” she thought — and left feeling fun and light-hearted and buzzing with encouragement.
Philadelphia City Councilmember Jeffery Young Jr. intends to move forward with a limited, approximately $2 million renovation plan for the Cecil B. Moore Library in North Philadelphia, according to the city and library staff.
Young’s renovation plan for the building at 2320 Cecil B. Moore Ave. includes a new accessible elevator and restrooms, and improvements to the building’s HVAC, plumbing, fire-alarm system, lighting, and signage, according to city spokesperson Sharon Gallagher. Construction is expected to last roughly six months, she said.
The library building, first opened in 1962, will be closed during construction, and it is unclear whether the city and the Free Library of Philadelphia will operate a satellite branch for Cecil B. Moore during that time frame. The city is working with the Department of Parks and Recreation to temporarily relocate some of the library’s resources and programming to the nearby MLK Recreation Center at 2101 Cecil B. Moore Ave., Gallagher said.
“These are important. They’re also very basic,” said Kate Goodman, a Cecil B. Moore Library worker, at a community meeting and cookout at the library on Saturday afternoon to discuss the renovations. Goodman is a union member of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees District Council 47.
Tess Galen of Strawberry Mansion writes on a sign to bring awareness to the funding and renovations for the Cecil B. Moore Library on Saturday, Aug. 29, 2026, in Philadelphia.Tyger Williams / Staff Photographer
It is unclear when exactly construction will begin. Library staff were informed earlier this month by the city’s capital programs office that construction would begin in September, but Young’s spokesperson, Yumeno Young, said the project would be pushed back to allow for additional preparation and community engagement. He declined to give a precise timeline for construction to begin.
Halted renovation history
Young’s plan leaves about $8 million on the table, since roughly $10 million has been raised and allocated toward the renovation project over the last several years. A modest $1 million in renovations were originally scheduled to begin in October 2024 through the city’s Rebuild initiative, but community members and lawmakers fought to secure a total of roughly $5.3 million for the project.
Rebuild developed a comprehensive renovation plan for the library, which community members and staff still support. It includes much of Young’s limited plan, as well as a new teen space, a private study room, new flooring, exterior upgrades, additional computers, and more upgrades.
After Young came into office in 2024, replacing outgoing Council President Darrell L. Clarke, he secured an additional $5 million from the city’s 2025 capital budget and delayed the project. Young used the city’s longstanding custom of councilmanic prerogative, where Council members have near-unilateral control over which projects in their district go forward, to put his stamp on the plans.
Over the last few years, Young has pushed for several development proposals at the site and has resisted investing in the current space. Those alternative proposals have included demolishing the current building and constructing a new building with both a library and affordable housing on top, or moving the library to a new building at 19th Street and Cecil B. Moore Avenue and converting the existing building into another public space.
Councilmember Jeffery Young, Jr. in chambers as City Council meets Dec. 11, 2025.Tom Gralish / Staff Photographer
Young and the city declined to comment on what will happen with the other roughly $8 million that has previously been raised for the library renovation project, or why the Council member has opted for this plan despite significant community pushback. Young will host a community meeting sometime in September to provide more details on his plans, his spokesperson said.
Should construction begin soon, that timeline would set the library to reopen before May, when Young faces a likely contentious reelection. The Democratic primary is expected to feature several challengers for Young’s 5th District seat. He is considered the most vulnerable Council member. When Young first ran for office in 2023, he was unopposed in the primary election.
“Neither the Council member’s work on this project, nor our office’s efforts to advance it, are being driven by his reelection,” said Yumeno Young.
The library’s fate will play a significant role in the upcoming election for all candidates, not just Young. Joel Northam, a local resident and organizer with the Philadelphia Party for Socialism and Liberation, said he and other organizers will push the candidates to meet the community’s demands for a fully funded library renovation, or risk losing support.
“If you want that seat in District 5, you have to pledge to release the full $10 million to renovate,” he said.
The ‘soul’ of the community
At Saturday’s community meeting, library patrons spoke about how meaningful the library was to them, and how frustrated they were with how Young has presided over the renovation project. Goodman said the library has had a 70% increase in patrons since June 2025, despite the renovation delays.
Jayden Jackson, 18, loves to flip through comic books and manga at the library, especially ones about Sonic the Hedgehog. He started volunteering at the library a few months ago, because he also loves the community and atmosphere at the branch.
Volunteer Jayden Jackson, 18, of Sharswood, speaks at a community meeting about the importance of the Cecil B. Moore Library on Saturday.Tyger Williams / Staff Photographer
Jackson said the recent developments had provided a good opportunity to keep pushing for the library to receive all of the help it deserves, not just a limited renovation.
“It’s like a light in the middle of the neighborhood,” he said.
Karris Cantrell, 45, said Young’s handling of the library has been so frustrating it has made her want to cry sometimes. She wishes he understood “that he’s not God, that he just can’t do whatever the hell he wants” with the building, she said.
She and her three children have all been regular visitors over the years, and she said the place is as instrumental as a person’s daily coffee and as comforting as a child’s blanket. Cantrell believes the library deserves a full renovation immediately, so it can continue serving patrons in the neighborhood like her family.
“This library is not just a building and it’s not just books. It’s a soul,” she said.
Roads along the race route will remain shut down after the race and some SEPTA buses will be diverted. Here’s a rundown.
Inquirer sports reporter Ariel Simpson attempted to climb the imposing Manayunk Wall. Here’s how she did.
// Timestamp 08/30/26 4:52pm
After 10 years, a glorious return to Philly
// Pinned
// Timestamp 08/30/26 4:40pm
Tim Torn Teutenberg wins men’s race at Philly Cycling Classic
Tim Torn Teutenberg raises his arms as he crosses the finish line to win the men’s race Sunday. Jose F. Moreno / Staff Photographer
German cyclist Tim Torn Teutenberg cross the finish line first to win the men’s race at the first Philadelphia Cycling Classic in 10 years.
“It was a super good atmosphere today,” Teutenberg told 6abc following his victory, comparing it to the prestigious Tour of Flanders in Belgium.
Teutenberg finished the 120-mile race in just under four hours and 21 minutes. American cyclist Riley Sheehan finished fourth, coming in about 22 seconds behind the leaders.
Rain falls in Manayunk during the Philadelphia Cycling Classic Sunday, Aug. 30, 2026.Michelle Myers
Rain began to empty Levering Street Monday afternoon, but many fans remained to watch the Cycling Classic, some following the race closely on their screens.
He grew tired of race crowds. Now he’s thrilled the Cycling Classic is back.
Thomas Gartside watches the Cycling Classic in Manayunk.Michelle My
Thomas Gartside, 77, remembers feeling a bit tired of the crowds coming to his Manayunk block on race day. The decade-long hiatus changed his perspective.
“I remember the first race, it was amazing: No one was here and they had a helicopter,” said Gartside, who moved by the Manayunk Wall a year before the inaugural 1985 race.
Over the years, he said, the race expanded and his block got more crowded. By 2016, he didn’t come outside to witness the spectacle, unaware the cyclists’ return would be an uphill battle.
On Sunday, seeing the street packed with hundreds of cheerful people brought joy back to Gartside, who decided to hold his own small gathering with bagels and coffee.
“I got a little tired of it, but this is reinvigorating,” Gartside said staring at the crowd standing shoulder to shoulder outside his door. “Look at all the energy and all the neighbors.”
Kim Stoveld, a Philly native, on her unusual path to Cycling Classic
Kim Stoveld didn’t start cycling until her late 30s.Courtesy / Automatic Racing Team
Kim Stoveld, a Philadelphia native, took an unconventional route to appear in the Cycling Classic.
The former University at Buffalo swimmer did not pick up competitive cycling until the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. Six years later, she placed 71st in her hometown race with a time of 2:37:59.
“I watched this race in 2013, 2014, ’15, and ’16 when it was still going on, and I was just getting into cycling,” Stoveld said. “And then to be on the other side of it, 10 years later, is just like a dream come true. Just absolutely amazing.”
Stoveld looked to break away from the main pack of cyclists in the final stretch, but failed to will herself to the front.
“I am a breakaway rider,” Stoveld said. “My best bet is to win in a small break, and unfortunately, being caught by world tour teams was probably inevitable. But that was my shot, and I was happy to shoot it.”
One section of the race Stoveld had a leg-up in over some of her competition was Manayunk’s “The Wall” — which sees riders climb 210 feet at a steep incline. Stoveld hosts a “group ride” every Tuesday, noting that “those poor suckers” who sign up for her ride take on the Wall with her every week.
One reporter asked Stoveld what her advice would be to young women looking to take up cycling.
“If I can do this good in my late 30s, picking it up at 30, you as an 8-year-old getting into sports will dominate,” Stoveld said. “Please keep riding your bike”
There’s no shortage of cheers and warm welcomes at the Manayunk Wall. It’s not just the first to arrive who feel the crowd’s support – those coming behind get even more:
At the Manayunk Wall, the first riders aren’t the only ones to feel the support: pic.twitter.com/i2b4fGS4EQ
‘It’s inspiring me to put more effort into cycling’
Spectators cheer a group of women riders along Main Street in Manayunk.David Maialetti / Staff Photographer
Rita’s water ice in one hand and a cowbell in the other, Jim Lamond let the clank of the bell ring out as racers rode past on Ben Franklin Parkway on their third lap.
Lamond, 57, came to the race with his daughter, Katie Coulter, 28, who is just starting to get into cycling and triathlon and wanted to witness the sport on this scale in person.
“During the triathlon, cycling is the one discipline that I struggle with the most,” Coulter said. “So seeing the ladies and the professionals do this, it’s inspiring me to put more effort into cycling, and seeing how effortless they do it, it’s really inspiring for me.”
For the few seconds the cyclists are riding past, Lamond and Coulter are fixed on the course, but in the downtime between laps, the Fan Fest on the parkway has plenty to pass the time.
Food trucks line the streets, including the Rita’s Water Ice truck where Lamont got his. There are also tents with fan activations and giveaways, merchandise and cycling apparel for sale, a DJ, and a screen displaying all the action.
“Here at the Fan Fest, you have all different vendors between the equipment for the riding and things like that, the helmets, the bikes, keeps them interactive with the kids,” Lamond said. “They have a Fan Fest for the kids as well, and you get to experience the atmosphere of being outside.”
— Mia Messina
// Timestamp 08/30/26 10:46am
‘It’s like a mini Tour de France’
Alice Antonelli, an avid cyclist and financial consultant, is among those watching Sunday’s race.Michelle Myers
Alice Antonelli, 65, woke up at 4:30 a.m. on Sunday unable to contain her excitement for the return of the Philadelphia Cycling Classic.
“I wasn’t able to come before. I had kids and a lot going on,” Antonelli said. “I’m so thrilled it’s back. It’s like a mini Tour de France.”
In a new era of her life, the avid cyclist and financial consultant was among the 400 registered for the Charity Ride for AACR, the American Association for Cancer Research. She completed her race in under an hour, she said, and came back to the Manayunk Wall to cheer for the women’s race participants.
“Having done the course, it’s actually not bad, but the Wall separates the women from the girls. I am a girl,” Antonelli said.
Standing on the porch of a neighboring house, Antonelli couldn’t contain her enthusiasm at seeing cyclists more skilled than her go up the same hill she conquered.
“Not to say that my heart is pounding, but I’m anticipating for them; I am living vicariously through them,” Antonelli said, bringing her hand to her chest.
As the motorcycles announced the arrival of the cyclists, Antonelli couldn’t help but jump up and down in celebration, bringing her fingers to her mouth and whistling for the riders.
“I’m planning to come back next year, please keep bringing it back,” Antonelli said.
‘I’m just happy right now’: Father and son take in Cycling Classic
John Dempsey and his 11-year-old son, Orion, woke up at 5 a.m. to make the trip to Philadelphia from their home along the Jersey Shore.
John Dempsey wanted to show his son “something different other than the usual running or car events.”
“Even though we’re from New Jersey, we love the city of Philadelphia,” John Dempsey said. “My wife’s run the marathon here. I’ve run the half marathon here, and we’ve come here for Made in America Festival. Always nice to come back to Philly.”
Added Orion: “It’s very cool. It’s fun to be here, and I’m just happy right now.”
The two are rooting for women’s cyclists Kristen Faulkner and Laini Bones. Faulkner is two-time Olympic gold medalist while Bones won over the Dempseys through her social media content. Bones has found an online audience by attempting to beat male cyclists’ records.
“She’s viral on Instagram for taking men’s segments with Strava and talking a lot of trash to them lightheartedly and going out and beating their time,” John Dempsey said.
Teen spectators inspired by cyclists climbing Manayunk Wall
Spectators line Levering Street as the women’s race makes their way up The Wall in Manayunk.David Maialetti / Staff Photographer
Eyes glued to a cell phone, siblings Tess and Fitz Dolan counted down the seconds it took women cyclists to arrive at the Manayunk Wall, closely following their trip on the livestream.
The mountain biker teens’ ages were in the single digits when the race went away, and they never had a chance to see it in person. Now, they don’t plan on losing sight of the cyclists as they wait for their arrival at Tower and Levering Srreets.
“It’s so cool to see them do this because we are used to these roads and we bike there,” said 16-year-old Tess Dolan. “The women are putting in a lot of work and they are just rocking it.”
Her older brother, Fitz, was equally in awe of the bikers’ performances. The 18-year-old has biked up the Manayunk Wall just once and considers it to be a challenge for any cyclist.
“It was fun, but very hard because it’s so long and really stiff,” Fitz said. “They made it look so effortless and I can vouch it’s not as easy as it looked.”
Seeing the women’s strength and the cheering spectators inspired Tess to put the Manayunk Wall on her bucket list.
“It’s important for us to see them. It gives us inspiration to go outside and get on the bike,” Tess said, praising the work of the organizers and cyclists. “Thank you for bringing it back and putting in the work, because I’m sure it wasn’t easy.”
Mayor Parker says the Cycling Classic is bringing ‘the stadium to the streets’
Spectators cheer as the women’s race makes their first pass at The Wall in Manayunk.David Maialetti / Staff Photographer
Mayor Cherelle L. Parker is looking to “keep pushing” for the city to host “even more grander events.” In the meantime, she is enjoying the spotlight sports have shined on Philadelphia this summer.
“Philadelphia is a tough city,” Parker said. “When you hear people describe our grit, our resilience, our stick-to-itiveness, our fight… battling the underdog notion – it’s a real thing. But sometimes we forget how amazing we are, and when we look at 2026 and all that we have accomplished through FIFA, the MLB [All-Star Game], the Cycling Classic, all of the amazing events that were here, We are a world-class global city and prepared to receive guests from around the world.”
Parker also noted the event is a “very equitable opportunity” for all Philadelphians because it is free to watch. Unlike some of the other events Philadelphia held this summer, the Cycling Classic “brought the stadium to the streets.”
“We got a chance to drive through in Roxborough and Andorra and Manayunk, and even if you didn’t get a chance to see it, right now, you will see families have set up barbecues. They’re doing cookouts and parties at their houses. You also can tell that people have made sure their their lawns are well manicured, it’s a big thing.”
The Philadelphia Cycling Classic is underway. As a group of women speedily cycled by Main Street, dozens of people came out of their Manayunk homes to await them with cheers and praise.
Whistles began to blow, alerting spectators to their impending arrival. “They are coming,” some started yelling as a small fleet of police in motorcycles drove by.
Ringing bells, the eager crowd leaned harder on the barricade, cheering and clapping, before the cyclist speedily rode hill up, with such force the 8% to 9% incline looked effortless.
In less than 40 seconds the women were up the hill and gone from the view of their supporters, but the cheering spirit did not stop.
Shouts of: ”That’s crazy,” and “they are amazing” could be heard among the crowd as they disappeared into the next section.
Celebrating her birthday watching the return of the Philly Cycling Classic
Taking deep breaths, Ashley and Dylan O’Neill walked up Lyceum Street looking for the best spot to see cyclists ride the Manayunk Wall.
The walk was stiff and the air felt slightly humid, but after waiting a decade to experience their first Philadelphia Cycling Classic, Ashley felt like this was the best way to spend her 41st birthday.
“My stepdad wouldn’t stop talking about it: The people gathered together, and the happiness, but for years there was no race,” she said.
“We were bummed out because it’s such a unique thing for a city to do, that to have the city lose something like this is a huge loss for the entire community,” Dylan added.
As soon as the Trenton couple learned the race was coming back, they booked an Airbnb and bought train tickets to Philly.
“We are excited to see the women race and then the men race, especially Quinn Simmons, but we are definitely leaving the cycling to them, because even walking up is hard enough,” Ashley said.
As folks began to gather along the street, the O’Neills plan to return every year to see the race and watch it from different spots.
“We hope they keep doing it, because it’s such a unique thing and Philly is the perfect place to do it,” Dylan said.
For the first time in 10 years, the Philadelphia Cycling Classic is officially underway.
The 62-mile women’s race began shortly after 8:30 a.m. on the Ben Franklin Parkway. The cyclists will complete four laps before the men’s race begins at noon.
The course is a 14.4-mile circuit that will start and finish on the Benjamin Franklin Parkway. The women’s race will total 65 miles, while the men’s race will be 122 miles.
The original course ran up the Ben Franklin Parkway to Kelly Drive, passing through East Falls, Roxborough, and Manayunk, which was home to the most famous part of the course, the Manayunk Wall.
This year’s race will return to that original course, and will take participants past Strawberry Mansion, Lemon Hill, Boathouse Row — and, of course, up the Wall.
The Wall is a steep incline hill, reaching up to a 17% grade over a stretch of about a half mile, mostly on Levering Street in Manayunk. It is considered one of the race’s most iconic components, and has been part of the race since 1985, when Jerry Casale and David Chauner first mapped out the course
— Mia Messina
// Timestamp 08/30/26 7:18am
The best places to watch the Philly Cycling Classic
The women’s race will start at 8:35 a.m. with the men’s race to follow at noon.
For fans interested in attending, access to the race will be free, meaning anyone can line up along the course to watch.
Traditionally, large parties take place along the tight streets of Manayunk, turning the race into a festival of sorts. But for those not located in the Manayunk area, the event’s official Fan Fest will be held by the Iroquois Sculpture near the Philadelphia Museum of Art from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Saturday and 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Sunday. Entry is free and will include vendors, live entertainment, a stream of the race, activities for kids, and a beer garden.
— Mia Messina
// Timestamp 08/30/26 7:12am
Road closures in Center City Sunday
Matti Breschel raises his arms after winning the Philadelphia International Championship Liberty Classic along the Benjamin Franklin Parkway in 2008.Yong Kim / Staff Photographer
The Philadelphia Cycling Classic is back after a decade-long hiatus, bringing loads of cycling fans, events, and road closures along with it.
Plan ahead if you need to drive near the 14.4-mile path for the main women’s and men’s races, beginning at 8:30 a.m. and noon, respectively, and the morning charity ride, which begins at 6:30 a.m.
The following road closures will take effect from 3 a.m. until 10 p.m. on Sunday.
Near the Benjamin Franklin Parkway:
Benjamin Franklin Parkway from 17th Street to Eakins Oval (all lanes)
Spring Garden Street between Pennsylvania Avenue and 31st Street
All roads from Arch to Spring Garden Streets, 18th to 22nd Streets (access maintained for residents)
All roads from Arch Street to Fairmount Avenue, 22nd to Corinthian Streets (access maintained for residents)
23rd Street between Pennsylvania Avenue and Eakins Oval
22nd Street between Winter Street and Pennsylvania Avenue
21st Street between Winter Street and Pennsylvania Avenue
20th Street between Arch Street and Pennsylvania Avenue
19th Street between Callowhill and Cherry Streets
16th, 17th, and 18th Streets between Arch and Spring Garden Streets, if public safety conditions warrant
1600 and 1700 blocks of the Benjamin Franklin Parkway, if public safety conditions warrant
Fairmount Park:
Kelly Drive (all lanes)
Waterworks Drive
Reservoir Drive
Lemon Hill
Sedgley Drive between Girard Avenue and Kelly Drive
Poplar Drive between Girard Avenue and Kelly Drive
MLK Drive from Falls Bridge to Eakins Oval
Manayunk and Roxborough:
Ridge Avenue between Kelly Drive and Hermit Street
Main Street between Ridge Avenue and Green Lane
Levering Street between Main and Tower Streets
Cresson Street between Levering and Cotton Streets
Lyceum Avenue between Tower and Mitchell Streets
Pechin Street between Green Lane and Roxborough Avenue
Roxborough Avenue between Mitchell and Terrace Streets
Manayunk Avenue between Roxborough Avenue and Osborn Street
Rector Street between Terrace and Pechin Streets
Pensdale Street between Terrace and Lauriston Streets
Kingsley Street between Manayunk Avenue and Lauriston Street
Salaignac Street between Manayunk Avenue and Lauriston Street
Terrace Street between Dawson Street and Ridge Avenue
Vassar Street from Ridge Avenue to Cresson Street
Mitchell Street from Connaroe to Martin Streets
Additional streets: unit blocks of Shurs Lane, Jamestown Street, Pensdale Street, Roxborough Avenue, Grape Street, Levering Street, Gay Street, Carson Street, Rector Street, Cotton Street, and Connaroe Street, and the 300 block of Burnside Street
SEPTA detours
The following SEPTA bus routes will be detoured through Kelly Drive, Manayunk, and Roxborough beginning at 4 a.m. Sunday: 7, 9, 27, 32, 33, 38, 43, 48, 49, 52, 60, 61, 65, 82, 124/125, K.
For information on specific route changes, visit www.septa.org.
Two masked men, one wielding an AR-15-style rifle, robbed a man of his jewelry and a watch Friday in Center City, according to Philadelphia police.
Central detectives are investigating the incident, which took place about 2:15 a.m. on the 1500 block of Sansom Street. It was the second such robbery in Center City involving an AR-15-style rifle within a week.
Friday’s robbery occurred as a 23-year-old man and two friends were returning home.
Two masked men got out of a light gray or beige four-door sedan with tinted windows, police said. One was carrying the AR-15-style rifle, according to police. The second was armed with a black semiautomatic handgun.
The robbers stole two gold chains off the victim’s neck and demanded his silver diamond watch. They then fled west on Sansom Street, police said.
No one was injured.
Early on the morning of Aug. 23, masked men armed with handguns and what appeared to be an AR-15-style rifle robbed three men in Center City, forcing at least one of the victims to his knees at gunpoint, according to police.
The victims — ages 27, 35, and 36 — were talking on the sidewalk around 3 a.m. on the 1500 block of Locust Street when three robbers stepped out of a gray Hyundai sedan and demanded the men’s belongings, police said.
Two of the men complied but the third resisted, and one of the robbers hit him in the face with a handgun. He was taken to a hospital with injuries that were not life-threatening.
The assailants took cell phones, watches, car keys, wallets, driver’s licenses, and cash, police said.
Surveillance video showed one victim on his knees on the sidewalk as two of the robbers pointed guns at his head.
Justin Smith was grasping for the gun that his pregnantgirlfriend had pressed to her temple, he told a Philadelphia jury last week, when the weapon accidentally went off, firing 12 shots in a matter of seconds — 11 of them into her head.
Smith, 28, took the stand at his trial on murder and related charges in the death of Dianna Brice, 21,in Southwest Philadelphia and said the shooting was an accident.
But a jury rejected Smith’s account and convicted him of first- and third-degree murder on Friday in the 2021 death of Brice and her unborn child. Smithwas also convicted of abuse of a corpse, arson, and related crimes after he admitted to committing those acts to cover up the killing.
Common Pleas Court Judge Anthony Kyriakakis sentenced him to life in prison without the possibility of parole.
During closing arguments, Assistant District Attorney Lauren Crump cast doubt on Smith’s explanation of how his girlfriend died, saying it was impossible for that many shots to have fired into a concentrated area if the gun accidentally went off during a struggle over the weapon, as he suggested.
She pointed to other problems with Smith’s defense, urging jurors to reject his contention that the Glock handgun modified with a semiautomatic “switch” was Brice’s, not his.
And she dismissed Smith’s argument that he covered up the crime and fled Pennsylvania after the killing because he was scared, bidding jurors to recall his swift actions — setting his car on fire and disposing of Brice’s body in trash bags — before heading to Florida in an attempt to reach Cuba.
“That is not panic,” Crump said. “That is premeditation.”
Brice, 21, of Upper Darby, was 14 weeks pregnant with Smith’s child when she died on March 30, 2021, Lindsay Simon, chief medical examiner for the Philadelphia Medical Examiner’s Office, testified during the trial.
Prosecutors said she was last seen with Smith that day driving from a Delaware County laundromat to Philadelphia, where the couple got into a volatile argument after Brice learned she had tested positive for herpes and accused her boyfriend of giving her the sexually transmitted infection.
It was the last time Brice was seen alive.
Police discovered her body seven days later in a wooded area near 58th Street and Eastwick Avenue in Southwest Philadelphia, covered in black trash bags and wrapped in a tan blanket.
She had been shot in the head 11 times at close range and struck once in her right shoulder. Simon, the medical examiner, said the shots would have almost certainly killed Brice instantaneously.
Philadelphia police quickly identified Smith as a suspect: Cell phone records from the day Brice died showed her phone traveling the same path as Smith’s phone — until 1:38 p.m., when the phone’s trail went dark, said Anthony Vega, a former Philadelphia police detective who testified at the trial as a cell site expert.
Police also found Smith’s dark gray Ford Fusion, burned to a blackened shell, near 59th Street and Florence Avenue, about a mile from where Brice’s body was discovered.
Investigators traced the vehicle to Brice’s makeshift grave site, and to where it was found burned, using video footage from street surveillance cameras, Philadelphia Detective Thorsten Lucke testified.
But the cameras did more than capture the Fusion’s path: It also showed Smith and an accomplice, Tylydia Garnett, wearing gloves and loading what appeared to be a large object into the back of a Hyundai, which police traced to the same locations and to a gas station where its driver purchased a canister of fuel used to set the Fusion ablaze, prosecutors said.
While detectives soon suspected Smith was involved, he was not arrested until 2025, when Atlanta police took him into custody after he gave an officer a fake name during a routine traffic stop and fled.
Meanwhile, Philadelphia police arrested his accomplice, Garnett, in April 2021. She pleaded guilty to arson, abuse of a corpse, and related crimes, and was sentenced to 11½ to 23 months.
Last week, Garnett, 27, told jurors at Smith’s murder trial that he had confessed to her that he shot Brice.
She testified that she had helped him flee to Florida before he moved to Georgia, though Smith’s attorney, Samuel Stretton, suggested the woman had inflated details of her story to earn a more lenient sentence.
When Smith testified, he told jurors Brice’s death was a tragic, shocking accident.
During their argument in the car, he said, the exchange escalated as he drove. He denied cheating on her, he said, but Brice became agitated and held a gun to his head before turning the weapon on herself.
“I tried to hurry up and pull it from her,” he testified. Instead, he said, “it went off, and she died.”
In fear for what might happen to him, Smith said, he hatched a plot to dispose of her body and burn the car with the gun still inside it. The gun was never found, prosecutors said.
“Why didn’t you come to your senses and call for help?” Stretton, his attorney, asked.
“I just felt like this wasn’t going to go my way,” Smith said.
Following the jury’s verdict, Brice’s family, who had lined three rows of the courtroom during the three-day trial, expressed relief for the guilty verdict.
Among the most common types of newspaper photo assignments, I have a least favorite: a portrait of someone being interviewed by a reporter. Or being interviewed by a bunch of reporters. (Don’t worry, this is not a half-empty glass gripe. Keep reading, it’s actually a positive post.)
On TV they’re called “talking heads” and in still photos they’re “headshots.” But they’re not really heads. Their sole purpose is to show viewers/readers what a person looks like. A face.
Attorneys arrive for a press conference after filing a civil lawsuit Mar. 19, 2024.Tom Gralish / Staff Photographer
A while back, possibly while focused on a person standing behind a bank of microphones, my mind wandered and I started to think about different ways of photographing the press conference. Call it an anti-headshot.
That evolved into something I continued, collecting unconventional views of non-faces.
A vandalized Civil War memorial in Bridgeton, N.J., Jan. 31, 2012.Tom Gralish / Staff PhotographerMajor League Lacrosse team practice at PPL Park in Chester Aug. 23, 2013.Tom Gralish / Staff PhotographerA fan of all Philly teams shopping for Sixers merchandise and jerseys Aug. 25, 2026.Tom Gralish / Staff Photographer
At some point, maybe with more press conference daydreaming, I wondered what if… Say the images ended up on an art gallery wall? A highfalutin critics might say something like “the work is a meditation on our identity and desire to be seen. Gralish turns the idea on its head (no pun intended), showing us images that conspire against the countenance, and therefore, counter the very premise of a portrait.”
If I weren’t having fun with photography I would have stopped doing it decades ago.
My “funnest” assignment this week? My colleague Peter Dobrin’s sweet story of a musical prodigy, and what it takes to get into a top music conservatory while still in elementary school.
Seven year-old pianist Olivia Li with her stuffed panda in the lobby of the Curtis Institute. She began studying the piano at age four and will receive a full-tuition scholarship to the prestigious institution. On the wall is a Norman Rockwell painting of Curtis founder Mary Louise Curtis Bok Zimbalist (1877–1970).Tom Gralish / Staff Photographer
As is often the case with businesses and institutions, the public relations department always has ideas of how to pose the picture — usually with their sign, name or logo prominent. After photographing the young pianist playing — with an extender to reach the piano’s pedals — I just watched her as we toured the conservatory.
I prefer letting things unfold in front of me, anticipating what a person might do. Sometimes it works, and sometimes it doesn’t. I wondered how Olivia would pass though the security entrance. I guessed correctly — but used too slow a shutter speed. But, my glass was still half full. I had plenty of good photos (even one that likely made Curtis happy — with their name displayed).
Having just one person to focus on is a joy, but I also love photographing when there are lots of people and lots of action at events or gathering. The difficulty for me is just dealing with the visual overstimulation. Sometimes there is just too much going on.
Over the years, I have learned how to cope. I try to find one or two people in the crowd, meet them, and let them get used to me and to being photographed. Then I watch for them throughout the rest of the time I’m there. Sometimes even arriving early.
Tanisha Ortega and her daughter Ahlaura Conley, 7, are the first to arrive, before the gates even open getting an early start on second grade at McClure Elementary Aug. 24, 2026 on the first day of school in the Philadelphia.Tom Gralish / Staff Photographer
That way, no matter how distracted I get as my head is spinning around while I keep turning to see things happening all around me and missing other photos while I write down names, I always have those first folks I can return to.
That brings me back to the photo at the very top. I had noticed officials looking out of a window of the district’s bus on its annual Back-to-School Celebration visit to schools all around Philadelphia.
But I knew I had my photo when Superintendent Tony B. Watlington Sr. (at far left in the photo) started to gather everyone together for a group photo outside the bus and the president of the principals union showed up in the window. (She then left the bus to join in the photo.)
Since 1998 a black-and-white photo has appeared every Monday in staff photographer Tom Gralish’s “Scene Through the Lens” photo column in the print editions of The Inquirer’s local news section. Here are the most recent, in color:
Kyle Schwarber and whatever the hell that ninth inning was: A+
For eight innings last Sunday, the Phillies did absolutely nothing. Four hits, zero runs, down 4-0, and two outs in the ninth. The Cardinals had their closer on the mound, and everyone could reasonably start thinking about dinner.
Six runs, all with two outs, and we ended the game with a 6-4 win, sweeping the Cardinals. Nine straight victories. The kind of finish that had Scott Franzke yelling “It’s over!” on the radio, Tom McCarthy doing the same on TV, and John Kruk apparently deciding there was nothing he could add to the situation.
Michael Barkann called it maybe the greatest regular-season finish he’s ever seen, which could sound like postgame exaggeration until you realize the Phillies hadn’t won a game after trailing by four or more with two outs in the ninth since 1983.
This team lost 10 straight games in April, and now has swept three straight series for the first time in 16 years and is suddenly breathing down Atlanta’s neck. Please let this happy chaos continue.
Dolly Parton performing on her “Pure & Simple Tour” at the Mann Center in June 2016. (Photo by Owen Sweeney/Invision/AP)Owen Sweeney/Invision/AP
Patti LaBelle and Dolly Parton’s acrylic duet: A+
Dolly Parton was 80, had been famous for nearly 60 years, and somehow belonged to everybody — country fans, drag queens, kids getting free books, your mom, your grandma, anyone who ever owned a rhinestone.
Philly got its share of Dolly, from the Spectrum to the Mann and Atlantic City, where she once joked she’d keep performing until she dropped dead mid-song, “high heels to heaven.” But the clip we’ll keep replaying is her and Patti LaBelle in 1987, two icons in enormous hair and sparkly gowns, using their acrylic nails as percussion while singing “Short’nin’ Bread.” It looks less like television than two of your aunties got bored at a wedding reception and decided to put on a show.
She once said she hoped that long after she was gone, people would look back at her career and say, “Damn, that was good.”
And damn, Dolly. It was.
Back to school without the heat: B
There are certain signs that fall is coming in Philadelphia: Kids go back to school, the Eagles start playing games that count, and someone you know sets mums out on their porch.
That matters in Philly, where 52 district schools still aren’t fully air-conditioned and hot days can mean early dismissals or remote learning. Nothing eases a parent back into the school-year routine quite like dropping a kid off and then finding out you need to leave work to pick them up three hours later.
The district did eliminate half days this year, so families have one less factor contributing to scheduling chaos.
And this week’s cooler mornings have been enough to make us start thinking about sweatshirts, football, and maybe opening a window at night. But next week’s forecast has temperatures creeping back toward the 90s, so it looks like we still have a wait.
People gather on Independence Mall for an outdoor screening of the 2004 film “National Treasure” in Philadelphia on Friday, Aug. 21, 2026. The screening was part of Philadelphia’s first National Treasure Weekend.Erin Blewett / For The Inquirer
‘National Treasure 3’ is finally happening: A-
It has been nearly 20 years since Nicolas Cage last went hunting for treasure, which is an absurd amount of time to leave a man who once stole the Declaration of Independence without another important American document to steal.
But National Treasure 3 is finally real. Director Jon Turteltaub broke the news at Philadelphia’s first National TreasureWeekend. (Where else should this announcement happen?)
The original movie filmed some of its most memorable scenes here, and Philadelphia has spent the two decades since happily accepting National Treasure into the local canon. Benjamin Franklin signed the Declaration of Independence, and Nicolas Cage stole it.
There’s a script, Cage is expected back, and Turteltaub says they’re trying to bring back the rest of the cast.
No word yet on whether Philly makes it into the third movie, but after hosting an entire weekend in its honor, we better get robbed again.
The Honey Butter Hoe Cake at Sao on Wednesday, Nov. 26, 2025 in Philadelphia.
Philly restaurants make another national list: B+
At this point, a national food publication naming Philadelphia restaurants among the best in the country is less breaking news and more a recurring calendar event.
We could pretend to be surprised, but both restaurants already have plenty of hardware — and attention. Honeysuckle is Michelin-recommended, while Sao comes from Phila and Rachel Lorn, whose first restaurant, Mawn, remains one of the hardest tables to get in town.
So yes, another national publication has discovered that Philadelphia is very good at restaurants. We’ll take the nod and act appropriately impressed.
Philadelphia Police released an image of a masked man who had been harassing people in August 2026. The suspect, a 22-year-old man, was arrested in Las Vegas. (Philadelphia Police Department via The New York Times)PHILADELPHIA POLICE DEPARTMENT
The masked menace has been caught: A
Remember the guy in the creepy Halloween mask who spent a morning terrorizing people around City Hall? Well, he made it all the way to Las Vegas before the U.S. Marshals caught up with him.
The whole thing was bizarre even by Philly standards: A man in a cracked-doll mask allegedly spent half an hour chasing and scaring people, including asking one jogger if she was “ready to die.” One woman was injured trying to get away. Then he apparently packed his bags and left town.
There are plenty of characters around City Hall already, and we did not need one who looked like he wandered off the set of a low-budget horror movie.
Federal prosecutors have convened a grand jury to investigate at least one former Philadelphia Fire Department official who city investigators say facilitated a brazen overtime abuse scheme, according to court records.
Evidence of the probe became public in recent weeks as part of a lawsuit filed against the city by Anthony Hudgins, a former high-ranking fire official who was demoted after two women at the center of the overtime probe accused him of sexual harassment. He maintains that they did so only in retaliation after he exposed their wrongdoing.
Court documents made public this month include a report drafted by the Philadelphia Office of the Inspector General (OIG), which conducted a yearslong investigation into Hudgins’ claims that lower-level employees were abusing overtime. Attorneys for a woman at the center of that probe revealed that she is now the target of a U.S. Department of Justice grand jury, while the woman she is accused of conspiring with suspects she, too, is under federal criminal investigation, according to court records.
Inspector General Alexander DeSantis previously declined to release the findings of the office’s overtime probe into the fire department, saying the investigation was ongoing.
The report, dated September 2025, details claims of rampant overtime abuse by former paramedic Jacqulyn Murphy that amounted to more than $180,000 in “unjust” compensation through 2023 and 2024, well over her $94,549 annual base salary.
Murphy made some of that pay during “impossible shifts,” investigators wrote. In May 2024, for instance, Murphy clocked 22 hours of overtime while she was vacationing in Cancún. And four months later, she was paid to work 12-hour shifts every day while traveling to Las Vegas to get married, including on her wedding day and the day of her return trip home.
Investigators said that she did not act alone. Supervisor Marian Farris, they wrote, rubber-stamped the overtime approvals and manipulated tax withholding statuses for Murphy and herself. The report cited emails from Murphy’s city account showing she made biweekly $500 payments to someone named “Marian F.” for six months in 2024.
“Murphy and Farris worked together to defraud the City of Philadelphia of thousands of dollars in unearned compensation and other benefits,” the OIG report said. It calls for “heavy administrative and criminal consequences.”
Farris and Murphy did not respond to requests for comment.
In a June 4 letter included in the court filing, federal prosecutors based in Philadelphia informed Farris that she is the target of a grand jury investigation concerning bribery and wire fraud. The letter did not elaborate on the nature of the investigation.
Attorneys for Farris filed the target letter in the Hudgins case as part of a request to the court to delay discovery proceedings, citing conflicts with the federal investigation.
Murphy has not yet received a target letter, but she expects she will “given the findings of the OIG that Ms. Farris and Ms. Murphy worked together to commit fraud,” her attorneys wrote in a filing on Friday.
Farris resigned in March 2025. Her attorney did not respond to a request for comment. In an interview earlier this year after Hudgins initially filed his lawsuit and detailed some of the inspector general’s findings, Farris denied receiving cash payments from Murphy in exchange for manipulating time sheets and said any payments were innocent transactions between friends.
The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania declined to comment.
A spokesperson for the fire department did not comment.
City Solicitor Renee Garcia said in a statement that the city “takes any allegations of fraud, including overtime fraud, very seriously, including allegations of misconduct that predated this administration.” Some of the allegations involving Murphy date back to 2023. Mayor Cherelle L. Parker took office in January 2024.
Garcia declined to comment on “personnel matters,” saying only that “if misconduct is found, we take appropriate action to implement any warranted discipline.”
The publication of the inspector general’s long-guarded report is the latest twist in a saga that has long roiled the fire department. It began with what appeared to be dueling probes, as multiple women contended that Hudgins — who was formerly the fire department’s No. 2 in charge — engaged in sexually inappropriate behavior in the workplace that included unwanted touching and intimidation tactics, The Inquirer reported in 2025.
But Hudgins has maintained those complaints were lodged by Murphy, Farris, and other associates only after he uncovered and reported their overtime inconsistencies.
His timeline was confirmed in the OIG report. Investigators wrote that Hudgins conducted an overtime review that predated a discrimination complaint filed in November 2024 by the union that represents firefighters and paramedics. That complaint listed Murphy as an alleged victim and Hudgins as a respondent.
The OIG report does not offer a conclusion related to the sexual harassment complaints.
Hudgins declined to comment through an attorney on Friday.
The city hired the law firm Campbell Durrant to conduct an investigation into the sexual harassment allegations, but that report has not been made public. Hudgins claims in his lawsuit against the city that the firm cleared him of “verbal misconduct” and found that he had “hugged co-workers.”
Hudgins was reassigned to work remotely, and then was forced to take a leave of absence.
The inspector general recommended that the city implement several reforms to prevent future overtime abuses, including retraining and rehiring the fire department’s payroll and human resources staff. The office also said the fire department should implement new overtime controls.
Garcia did not respond to specific questions about whether those changes had been instituted in the fire department, saying only that “the administration has implemented significant actions across all city agencies to strengthen its overtime procedures and protocols.”
