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  • With control of Congress on the line, Pa. Republicans head to Trump’s midterm convention in Dallas

    With control of Congress on the line, Pa. Republicans head to Trump’s midterm convention in Dallas

    Key figures in Pennsylvania Republican politics — including the state’s top elected federal GOP official and several lawmakers in the middle of heated reelection campaigns — will participate in their party’s first-of-its-kind midterm convention this week in Dallas.

    The gathering, spurred and heavily promoted by President Donald Trump, arrives as Republicans look to defend their control of Congress this fall amid difficult circumstances. Trump’s approval ratings, including on key issues such as the economy and the war in Iran, have sunk, including in Pennsylvania.

    And Democratic challengers, some of whom have outraised their Republican opponents, have waged aggressive campaigns.

    After Trump successfully won the White House and ushered in a wave of downballot Republican wins just two years ago, the convention — described as “Trump-a-palooza” by Republican National Committee chairman Joe Gruters — is aimed at energizing the base at a critical time.

    Pennsylvanians, representing a swing state that has been key to Trump’s success in the past, will play a role.

    U.S. Sen. Dave McCormick (R., Pa.) and a pair of House lawmakers in competitive districts — U.S. Reps. Ryan Mackenzie (R., Lehigh) and Rob Bresnahan (R., Luzerne) — are among the more than 100 scheduled speakers over two days, starting Wednesday.

    Their speaking slots were among the first to be announced. Underscoring the Keystone State’s role in keeping the House Republican majority, only the host state of Texas had more representatives on the initial list of elected officials scheduled to address the crowd.

    The Pennsylvania Republican Party, meanwhile, has orchestrated a “full slate” of 55 delegates and alternate delegates.

    “The Republican Party of Pennsylvania is excited and honored to be a part of the first ever RNC Midterm Convention in Dallas,” spokesperson James Markley said in a statement. “It will be a tremendous opportunity to hear from everyday Americans about how this administration has changed their lives for the better.”

    The state party had not provided the names of the delegates as of Tuesday, though the list is expected to include party activists and other elected officials. State party leaders had encouraged Pennsylvanians to attend the gathering.

    Democrats, who see the president’s lagging approval ratings as a key to their success in the midterms, were quick to blast Pennsylvania Republicans for attending. Their response includes plans to send a small group of House Democrats, including U.S. Rep. Madeleine Dean (D., Montgomery), to Dallas to push back against the GOP messaging.

    “While swing seat House Republicans try to hide from their record of raising costs on working families, gutting Medicaid to fund tax breaks for billionaire donors and supporting a reckless war of choice in Iran, House Democrats will be present to hold them accountable,” House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, the New York Democrat in line to become House speaker if his party wins the majority, said in a statement.

    Fitzpatrick skips as other Pa. Republicans take center stage

    Four of Pennsylvania’s 10 Republican-held U.S. House seats are considered key battlegrounds as the GOP looks to maintain its four-seat advantage nationwide.

    Of those, only U.S. Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick (R., Bucks) has distanced himself from parts of Trump’s agenda and is not planning on attending the convention.

    Mackenzie and Bresnahan, on the other hand, will be among the featured speakers, and U.S. Rep. Scott Perry (R., York) will attend.

    Perry, a close Trump ally, has routinely won reelection in a Harrisburg-based district but is running this year against Democrat Janelle Stelson, a former local television anchor who nearly defeated him two years ago.

    Freshmen Mackenzie and Bresnahan were elected to Congress in 2024 after they each defeated incumbent Democrats by less than 2 percentage points. Local, state, and national Democrats have rallied behind their challengers — union leader and retired firefighter Bob Brooks in the Lehigh Valley, and Scranton Mayor Paige Cognetti in the district that covers the northeast corner of the state.

    Bresnahan campaign spokesperson Samantha Bullock said the lawmaker was “excited to bring NEPA to the national stage because these are the people driving his work in Washington.”

    Mackenzie, in a statement that referenced his work to bring federal funds to his district and support areas like local healthcare and tax relief, said he was “looking forward to talking to the people of the Lehigh Valley, the Poconos, and the entire nation about these accomplishments, and how we can build on them in the years ahead.”

    Brooks said Mackenzie was “flying to Dallas to kiss the ring of Donald Trump and his party bosses.”

    “This is exactly why people are fed up with a broken Washington that isn’t working for working people,” Brooks said in a statement.

    Mackenzie’s campaign has similarly criticized Brooks for campaigning with national Democrats — calling an event Brooks had with Jeffries in July a sign that “establishment backers” were trying to “bail him out.”

    The convention will feature six hours of programming each night.

    Topics that speakers will highlight include the elements of Trump’s signature One Big Beautiful Bill Act, which Republicans have rebranded as the Working Families Tax Cuts Act.

    Supporters have applauded the law’s extension of Trump’s 2017 tax cuts and its litany of other features, such as investment accounts for children. Democrats and other critics have pointed to the law’s cuts to Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) and Medicaid spending, among other measures.

    The convention speakers will also touch on the president’s enhanced border control measures and his push for election changes such as universal voter ID, according to an outline of the agenda.

    A “candidate showcase” that will highlight “key candidates in target districts” and contrast them with their “extreme” opponents is set for Wednesday night. And an “opposition contrast” to “[deliver] the night’s sharpest partisan case against the extreme liberal Democrats” is slated for Thursday night, according to the agenda.

    Besides Trump, the members of his administration scheduled to speak include Vice President JD Vance, U.S. Attorney General Todd Blanche, Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services Administrator Mehmet Oz, and Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who has engaged in a war of words with Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro over the state’s measles outbreak.

    National Republicans have described the convention as a way to energize voters in a tough election year.

    Two years after winning Pennsylvania for the second time in 2024, Trump had an approval rating of 39% and a disapproval rating of 58% among likely voters in the state last month, according to an Inquirer/New York Times/Siena University poll.

    The poll found that 51% of likely voters said they were more likely to vote for a Democrat for Congress and 53% said they would want to see the House flip to Democratic control, though the poll did not ask about specific congressional races.

  • Honoring 9/11 heroes, Trump repeats disputed account of his role in recovery

    Honoring 9/11 heroes, Trump repeats disputed account of his role in recovery

    At an event where he awarded the Medal of Freedom posthumously to a man who died saving multiple people on Sept. 11, 2001, President Donald Trump returned to a disputed account of his own role in ground zero recovery efforts.

    Trump gave the nation’s highest civilian honor on Tuesday to the family of Welles Crowther, a 24-year-old equities trader and volunteer firefighter who saved an estimated 18 people before dying in the World Trade Center’s South Tower. Crowther has become known as “the man in the red bandanna” because of the cloth he tied around his nose and mouth to protect against heavy smoke while helping people out of the burning building.

    “The man in the red bandanna has become more famous than me,” Trump said during the speech on the Ellipse, where a steel beam recovered from the World Trade Center was on display. “I don’t like it.”

    Before recounting Crowther’s heroic acts, Trump claimed that he took “a big group of people” working on his building to ground zero to help in the aftermath of the attacks, re-upping widely disputed claims that he played a role in the response. Trump did not specify how soon after the attacks they went to ground zero. Richard Alles, a retired New York City Fire Department battalion chief, told PolitiFact in 2019 that he had “no knowledge” of Trump being at the site and said that there would be a record if Trump had sent a crew of 100 workers.

    There are videos of Trump in a suit in the neighborhood near ground zero days after the attacks, but not at the site of the disaster.

    Trump War Room, an X account for Trump’s political operation, posted a video recorded on Sept. 13, 2001, that showed Trump claiming that “has about 100 men working down here” and “was just down at Ground Zero.” The White House did not respond when asked for records that corroborate Trump had workers involved in the recovery.

    Trump on Tuesday also claimed that two firefighters carried him away when it appeared the U.S. Steel Building, now known as One Liberty Plaza, could also collapse. The president did not specify when, exactly, this incident occurred, and the White House did not respond to a request for the date.

    “We thought it was coming down on top of us,” Trump said. “And two firemen, big strong guys. … They grabbed me under the arms.”

    Trump told a version of the story about being evacuated by firefighters on the campaign trail in 2016. At the time, he said that it was a couple of days after the other buildings collapsed and said that the building was “not so far from us,” suggesting he was not inside the building.

    Trump’s exaggerations and fabrications related to the terrorist attacks have generated controversy for years. In 2015, he falsely claimed during a rally that “thousands and thousands of people were cheering as that building was coming down.” He claimed the celebrations occurred in Jersey City, which he said has “large Arab populations.” He doubled down on the claim even when told police said such celebrations never occurred. In 2016, Trump claimed that he “helped a little bit” with clearing the rubble after the attacks, which has not been corroborated by first responders or media coverage.

    Tuesday’s event was organized by the Tunnel to Towers Foundation, which assists the families of Sept. 11 first responders and has transported the steel beam from the World Trade Center to landmarks around the country, including the Space Center in Houston, Mount Rushmore in South Dakota, and MLB games.

    First responders and the families of those who died responding to the attacks entered the event Tuesday on a blue carpet flanked by red, white, and blue flowers and portraits of the firefighters, police officers, and medical professionals who died responding to the attacks. Several cabinet officials attended, including Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick. On Sept. 11, Lutnick was the chairperson of Cantor Fitzgerald, which lost 658 of its employees in the attacks, including his younger brother, Gary. Lutnick was taking his son to his first day of kindergarten when the terrorists struck.

    Trump is expected to commemorate the 25th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks on Friday at the Pentagon before flying to Ireland for a tournament at Trump International Golf Links Ireland. All of the living former U.S. presidents are expected to attend a memorial at ground zero in New York, which the White House has said Vice President JD Vance will attend. Trump did not respond when reporters asked why he could not go to both the Pentagon and ground zero.

    In Washington on Tuesday, Trump presented the Medal of Freedom to Crowther’s mother, Alison Crowther, and his sister, Paige Crowther Charbonneau. Alison Crowther said she sees how young people continue to be inspired by her son as she travels to schools to speak about his legacy.

    “Twenty-five years after September 11th, his life continues to remind us of something very simple,” she said. “In moments when others need us, each of us has the power to keep courage, compassion, and service. That’s the real meaning of the red bandanna: To be courageous, to find the good, and to be the good.”

  • The new Herr’s mac ‘n cheese-flavored curls are not safe around me

    The new Herr’s mac ‘n cheese-flavored curls are not safe around me

    When the new Herr’s four cheese mac ‘n cheese curls first landed on my doorstep, I was skeptical. The last round of snacks Herr’s sent me found few fans in The Inquirer’s newsroom and left a range of Philly chefs scratching their heads. Would I be subjecting my colleagues once more to snacks that were more or less just fine?

    The answer was no. Because I did not share. The package was sent to me right before Labor Day weekend, which gave me too many days alone with the cheese curls for there to be any left to bring to the office.

    To my colleagues, I am sorry.

    How Herr’s are made: A factory tour of Philly’s snack powerhouse

    These snacks have achieved what no other puffed cheese curl (including those peddled by a famous cheetah) has. They are incredibly cheesy, with lingering umami, thanks to the MSG in the ingredient list. They taste exceptionally rich, with a delightful bit of funk from actual blue cheese, noted in the nutrition facts label, but not in the snack’s branding.

    While mac ‘n cheese may not be the first inspiration that comes to mind, I get where Herr’s going. There’s a curious meltiness that comes from the curls’ blend of creamy and sharp cheeses: Parmesan, mozzarella, cheddar, and Romano.

    The new Herr’s mac ‘n cheese curls are long rather than curly. Consuming them with chopsticks will prevent your fingers from turning orange.Kiki Aranita / staff /

    Texturally, they are similar to Cheetos puffs, but shape-wise, they are more elongated, with actually very little curl.

    They launched last week and are a permanent addition to Herr’s lineup of snacks. Herr’s first debuted their original cheese curls in 1976 and has introduced a few other flavored cheese curls in the last 50 years, including Old Bay-seasoned cheese curls and Stubb’s Sticky Sweet Bar-B-Q cheese curls.

    The curls come in a range of sizes, from a .875-ounce concession bag, to a family-size 7.5-ounces bag. You will want to buy more than one if you have anything like the same need for cheese that I do.

    The delivery of Herr’s mac ‘n cheese curls.Kiki Aranita / staff /

    I have already given myself a stomachache and possibly permanently stained my fingers orange. I regret nothing.

  • Americans’ satisfaction with schools is at a low point, new Gallup poll shows

    Americans’ satisfaction with schools is at a low point, new Gallup poll shows

    Americans’ satisfaction with the quality of K-12 education in the country has hit a low point, driven by a growing political divide and concerns that schools are not preparing children for college and future jobs.

    Just 32% of American adults say they are “completely” or “somewhat” satisfied with the U.S. school system, according to an August poll published Tuesday by Gallup and the Walton Family Foundation and shared exclusively with the Associated Press. That’s an 11-point drop over the past two years and the lowest since Gallup began polling on the subject 27 years ago.

    At the same time, dissatisfaction has increased to a high of 67%.

    Experts on education and school policy say the findings are deeply concerning but not surprising.

    Democrats are driving the recent slide, with their satisfaction dropping about 19 points since President Donald Trump’s second term began in 2025. Independents’ satisfaction appears to be down as well, about 10 points from 2024, while Republicans’ satisfaction has also fallen slightly, about 6 points.

    The Trump administration has contributed to the erosion in public confidence by depicting schools as political battlegrounds, raising concerns about what teachers should be allowed to say in the classroom, and moving to abolish diversity programs and dismantle the Education Department, said Jack Schneider, director of the Center for Education Policy at the University of Massachusetts Amherst.

    “It’s terrifying. We’re on the precipice of the dissolution of the public education system as we have known it,” Schneider said. Democrats, he said, are also particularly concerned by Trump’s signature school choice program that will use taxpayer-supported scholarships to pay for kids’ private school tuition.

    National test scores have fallen since the pandemic

    But politics alone does not explain the dissatisfaction. Gallup polling shows public confidence in schools generally has declined since the COVID-19 pandemic closed classrooms, exacerbating academic declines, mental health issues, and other problems.

    Headlines have consistently told a story of a national drop in test scores, especially in reading, which sends a message that schools have struggled to rebound since COVID lows.

    “We’ve had a drumbeat of bad news about test scores and other social trends that could be driving this,” said Sarah Reckhow, a political-science professor at Michigan State University who specializes in public policy. “There’s a ton of debate, discussion, and noise about technology and AI in education,” she said. And recently, kids’ screentime at school has dominated education headlines locally and nationally.

    However, parents have a different view about their own children’s education. About two-thirds of parents with school-age children say they are satisfied with their child’s education, which is also a low point in the trend — parents haven’t had a similarly discontented view since 2013 — but double the 32% satisfaction with U.S. education among adults overall.

    That reflects a steady trend of parents feeling more confident about their own schools than the narrative they hear from elected officials and headlines about the national picture.

    “When people weigh in about the nation’s schools, what they are commenting on are 98,999 schools that they haven’t set foot in,” Schneider said.

    A separate survey, also conducted in August by Gallup and Walton, asked Americans how well they thought schools were preparing kids for the future. Only about 2 in 10 said schools are doing a “good” or “excellent” job teaching critical thinking or preparing students for the current workforce. Schools’ highest marks were for preparing students to adapt to new technologies, with 44% giving schools a high ranking in this area.

    Gallup senior education researcher Zach Hrynowski says the findings highlight a frustration with institutions more broadly.

    “People have a general negative vibe about everything in the country right now,” Hrynowski said. “People are frustrated, and don’t think any institution is working particularly well.”

  • Putin assures Trump that Moscow doesn’t have aggressive plans toward Europe, Kremlin says

    Putin assures Trump that Moscow doesn’t have aggressive plans toward Europe, Kremlin says

    KYIV, Ukraine — Russian President Vladimir Putin assured U.S. President Donald Trump in a phone call Tuesday that Moscow doesn’t harbor aggressive intentions toward Europe, a senior Kremlin official said, after European officials blamed Moscow for sabotage campaigns on their soil.

    Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said meanwhile that U.S. envoys who visited Kyiv presented some “very good, worthwhile ideas” for ending Russia’s 4½-year-old war, adding that he hopes to meet with Trump within two weeks.

    But Russia remains determined to accomplish its military goals and it believes it is close to winning, Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said. Ukrainian and Western observers, however, believe that Moscow has been unable to make any significant progress on the front line.

    The war could yet drag on for years as Russia reconstitutes its forces and its defense industry, said U.S. Undersecretary of Defense Elbridge Colby.

    “We must be prepared for a protracted conflict and for Ukraine’s requirements to persist in the months and years ahead,” Colby told an online meeting of countries helping Ukraine.

    U.S. envoys Jared Kushner and Steve Witkoff visited Moscow and Kyiv for separate talks with Putin and Zelensky over the weekend. The meetings appeared to produce no substantial breakthrough on ending the fighting, and both countries resumed their deadly air war after a weekend truce in their capitals for the American visitors.

    The attacks killed seven people and injured 28 in Kyiv and the surrounding region, authorities said. Officials from Russia reported three people killed and 13 wounded in areas it controls.

    Kremlin says call between Putin and Trump was ‘constructive’

    Yuri Ushakov, Putin’s foreign affairs adviser, said the hourlong conversation between Putin and Trump was “constructive and quite frank.” Moscow has a positive view of the results of the weekend visit by Witkoff and Kushner, he added.

    There was no immediate White House comment on the call.

    Ushakov told reporters that “in view of the speculation about Russia’s alleged hostile intentions toward European countries, it was underlined that we don’t have any aggressive plans regarding Europe.”

    That claim runs counter to European authorities’ versions of recent incidents, such as the German government last week blaming Russia for an attempted attack at Leipzig/Halle Airport in August using a drone laden with explosives.

    Ushakov said Putin told Trump about the combat situation in Ukraine and Russia’s plans to make battlefield gains and achieve its military goals in what Moscow calls its “special military operation,” not a war.

    Zelensky aims to meet with Trump this month

    Zelensky said he is counting on meeting with Trump around Sept. 20 — about the same time that the U.N. General Assembly is being held in New York. Putin isn’t expected to attend.

    He indicated he will press Trump to provide more Patriot air defense systems that Kyiv needs to counter Russia’s ballistic missiles.

    Ukraine needs 300 Patriot missiles from its partners’ stocks, 500 air-to-air interceptors, and $2 billion for more drones, U.K. Defense Secretary Wes Streeting told the meeting of countries providing help.

    Also on Tuesday, the European Commission approved a loan of 3.2 billion euros ($3.7 billion) for Kyiv to purchase components for Patriot air defense systems, Ukraine’s Defense Ministry said on its Telegram channel.

    Zelensky thanked U.S. officials for their efforts to unblock negotiations with Russia, which have been stuck since early this year with little progress.

    “As for the peace package that Kushner spoke about and the new ideas, I’ll tell you frankly, there were indeed a couple of very good, worthwhile ideas,” Zelensky said in audio messages answering reporters’ questions.

    The proposals will remain under wraps for now, he said, but he expressed hope that talks involving delegations from Ukraine, Russia, and the U.S. can take place in the fall.

    Ukraine is “ready to find a compromise” on the issues of grain exports and energy, he said. Moscow and Kyiv have targeted each other’s grain ships in the Black Sea, raising concerns that two of the world’s major suppliers won’t be able to get their produce to market.

    Ukraine has also battered Russian oil facilities while Russia has pounded Ukraine’s power grid ahead of winter.

    Russia is confident of victory, Kremlin spokesperson says

    Peskov said he believed “victory is very close” on the battlefield.

    “We’re very confident in our military potential,” he told reporters, while insisting Russia wants to find a peaceful solution and welcomes Trump’s diplomatic efforts.

    Putin has sought to portray Russia as negotiating from a position of strength. But European officials and Western analysts say its bigger army is unable to make significant progress on the 800-mile front line, where it is pushing to capture the Donetsk region of eastern Ukraine, part of its industrial heartland.

    “Russian forces will not seize Donetsk … until 2032 at their current rate of advance — if they can seize it at all,” the Institute for the Study of War, a Washington-based think tank, said Sunday. “The Russian rate of advance has slowed significantly across the theater since 2025, when Russia’s rate of advance had already begun to slow.”

    With troops bogged down on the battlefield, both countries have intensified their aerial campaign of drones and missiles.

    Top Ukraine diplomat says ‘horrific’ attack hurts peace efforts

    Russia’s main targets in its overnight attack were Kyiv and the Odesa region of southern Ukraine, Ukraine’s Interior Minister Ivan Vyhivskyi said.

    Explosions were heard in Kyiv for nearly five hours, according to Vyhivskyi. More than 50 sites were damaged during the attack, including residential buildings, dormitories, schools, stores, and gas stations, he said.

    Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha called it “a horrific attack” and accused Putin of undermining U.S. peace efforts.

    The Russian Defense Ministry said its forces overnight launched a massive strike on Ukrainian military industry facilities.

    It provided a detailed list of its targets. They included places storing Ukrainian drones and cruise missiles, as well as transport, logistics, and distribution centers for military cargo in Kyiv and the Kyiv region, the ministry said.

    Drone incursion is reported in Romania

    Romania’s Ministry of National Defense said a drone entered its territory and later crashed in neighboring Moldova east of the countries’ shared border after about 30 minutes. Two Spanish F-18 warplanes tracked its trajectory, the ministry said.

    Moldovan police said a drone crashed in a sunflower field outside a village in the Riscani district, causing fires, but no one was injured.

    Ukraine neighbors both Romania and Moldova, and the countries have reported dozens of drone incidents since Russia’s full-scale invasion in 2022.

  • Fantasy meets football — er, soccer — in Union’s latest ticket promo

    Fantasy meets football — er, soccer — in Union’s latest ticket promo

    Philadelphia soccer fans may want to brush up on their dragon lore.

    The Union are hosting a Fourth Wing theme night on Wednesday at Subaru Park, based on the popular romantasy (fantasy romance) book by Rebecca Yarros that’s part of the Empyrean series.

    The “Wing Leader” package costs $90.51 and comes with a ticket to Wednesday night’s game against FC Cincinnati (7:30 p.m., FS1, Apple TV), scarf, tote bag, book, and a Yarros-autographed bookplate. A “Dragon Rider” package that includes a ticket and scarf already is sold out.

    “It’s an opportunity to attract a new audience and maybe get some people out to a Union soccer match that have never been before,” said Greg Imming, the club’s vice president of group and inside ticket sales. “A lot of these people, north of 70%, are new to our database. So that tells me a lot of these people have probably never been to a Union match before.”

    A selection of the swag available as part of the Union’s “Fourth Wing” theme night.Philadelphia Union

    A portion of the proceeds from each ticket will go toward supporting the Trevor Project, which works to prevent suicide and provide crisis intervention for LGBTQ+ youth around the country.

    Though Yarros will not attend Wednesday’s game, it’s one of several Fourth Wing nights taking place across professional sports this year, after the series took the adult fiction genre by storm.

    The dedication of Yarros’ fan base has certainly been felt by the Union.

    “If you read Fourth Wing, you are really into Fourth Wing, for sure,” Imming said with a laugh. “Once Yarros puts out a tweet or an Instagram post, we definitely saw an uptick in sales coming through, which is great.”

    As the Union push for the playoffs, Ryan Richter is ‘never going to be excited about being in ninth place’

    Other teams hosting Fourth Wing or Empyrean nights includes MLB’s Seattle Mariners, New York Mets, and Texas Rangers; the NWSL’s Orlando Pride, Washington Spirit, and Seattle Reign; MLS’s Colorado Rapids; and the NHL’s Tampa Bay Lightning.

    The series, which features a dragon riding school and, of course, a tumultuous love triangle, isn’t the first to branch out into the sports market to connect to fans. The Phillies are hosting Harry Potter night on Sept. 24 vs. the Milwaukee Brewers, and the first 3,000 fans to buy a ticket will receive a Phillies-themed Harry Potter house banner.

    The Fourth Wing partnership is the first of its kind for the Union, according to Imming, who’s been with the club since its inception.

    “We’ve definitely never done any type of book deal, but obviously with ‘BookTok,’ the romantasy genre is really popular, I’ve come to learn,” Imming said.

    “We’ve been working on this for many, many months, and it’s hard to believe that [Wednesday is] the night where it all comes together.”

  • Local fence brand is shutting Northeast Philly factory 9 years after being acquired by a larger company

    Local fence brand is shutting Northeast Philly factory 9 years after being acquired by a larger company

    Faced with a huge rent increase, Northeast Philadelphia aluminum fence maker Jerith Manufacturing is closing its factory by next spring.

    Continuing to operate out of the 14400 McNulty Rd. facility would be “economically impractical” in light of the rising cost of rent, general manager K. Robert Lomber said in a layoff notice filed with the Pennsylvania Department of Labor and Industry.

    Rent on the 445,000-square-foot facility is expected to nearly triple starting May 1, Lomber said.

    In the layoff notice, Lomber said Jerith is “going out of business as a separate operating entity.” But the president of Jerith’s parent company, Ameristar Perimeter Security, said last month that Jerith would be adopting a new operating model “to better serve customers and support the long-term success of the Jerith brand.”

    The closure of the Philadelphia site affects 61 workers, 24 of whom will be offered new positions at a New Jersey facility owned by Jerith’s parent company, according to the notice. Layoffs will occur in phases beginning Nov. 15.

    Thirty-eight of Jerith’s 61 Philly workers are represented by Teamsters Local 830.

    Jerith spends about $4.4 million on employee payroll annually, and Philadelphia is expected to miss out on $140,000 annual tax revenue when it is closed, the layoff notice indicates.

    Going forward, some of the manufacturing, assembly, and transportation work Jerith has been doing in Philadelphia will be carried out by Ameristar, which also makes fences, gates, and other barriers, in New Jersey and Tulsa.

    Jerith, which dates back to 1961, uses U.S. aluminum in its products — one of the materials currently caught in the tariff dispute between the United States and Canada, under the Trump administration.

    Jerith was acquired in 2017 by Assa Abloy, which has 64,000 employees in over 70 countries and over 250 brands, including manufacturers of locks and doors, such as Ameristar Perimeter Security.

  • Iceland summons U.S. ambassador over provocative Trump map

    Iceland summons U.S. ambassador over provocative Trump map

    A day after summoning the U.S. ambassador for a formal rebuke, Iceland’s leaders on Tuesday publicly condemned a social media post from President Donald Trump showing the American flag covering their nation along with Greenland, Canada, Mexico, and Caribbean states.

    “It is an insult to Icelanders, Canadians, Greenlanders,” Prime Minister Kristrun Frostadottir of Iceland told reporters Tuesday, referring to Trump’s Monday post, which did not include any written commentary.

    “There is nothing funny or normal about making fun of the sovereignty of states,” she added.

    Icelanders have been wary of Trump since he threatened Greenland, their closest neighbor. Now, this social media post feels like a marked escalation in rhetoric, said Eirikur Bergmann, a politics professor at Bifrost University in Iceland.

    “Icelanders are used to looking toward the U.S. as Iceland’s defender,” he said. “Now, our protector has become our intimidator.”

    The U.S. embassy in Reykjavik declined to comment on Trump’s post or Iceland’s response, and the White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

    Trump’s post tests Iceland’s resolve just over a week after the Nordic country voted against exploring European Union membership.

    That vote sharply divided public opinion, as many of the 400,000 people living in Iceland felt like they were at a turning point. Many said that the vote came down to questions of how to protect their stability and sovereignty.

    Some Icelanders, who wanted to explore membership, saw the bloc as a potential protector in a world where superpowers are circling the Arctic and Trump is shaking international alliances. Iceland, the only NATO member without its own military, relies on the alliance for protection. And Trump’s aggressive remarks about Greenland have alarmed many Icelanders.

    Icelandic voters who wanted to explore EU talks said in interviews that they were shocked when Trump repeatedly confused Iceland with Greenland in a major speech in January. Many, too, were offended by reports that Billy Long, Trump’s pick to be the new U.S. ambassador, joked in private that Iceland could become the 52nd state. (Long apologized.)

    But late last month, those voters lost out to Icelanders who thought it would be better for Iceland to stay out of the bloc.

    Now, Bergmann said, Iceland’s choice to go it alone is heightening the national anxiety.

    “Iceland doesn’t have the same options as before of fleeing into the arms of Brussels as a response to an intimidation like this,” he said.

    In a show of sovereignty and outrage, Iceland’s government is reacting forcefully to Trump.

    Foreign Minister Thorgerdur Katrin Gunnarsdottir summoned Long to express what her ministry called a “clear message that the image was wholly inappropriate.”

    The ministry did not make Gunnarsdottir available for an interview.

    Gunnarsdottir told reporters that Trump administration officials had repeatedly offered her advice about their boss: “We should perhaps not take the current U.S. president literally, but we should take him seriously,” she said she was told.

    This post, she said, crossed a line. “This is not a joke in my opinion,” she said.

    “And if this is supposed to be a joke,” she continued, “it’s a bad joke.”

    This article originally appeared in the New York Times.

  • State prosecutors say DA Larry Krasner’s office should be kicked off a contentious federal court case. Krasner disagrees.

    State prosecutors say DA Larry Krasner’s office should be kicked off a contentious federal court case. Krasner disagrees.

    The Pennsylvania Attorney General’s Office said in court documents Tuesday that District Attorney Larry Krasner should be barred from continuing to oversee a controversial post-conviction case in federal court — and that his office should be kicked off the case as well.

    In a brief filed with U.S. District Judge Paul S. Diamond, state prosecutors said Krasner’s office should not be allowed to continue to weigh in on whether a man’s murder conviction should be overturned. In recent months, prosecutors wrote, inner-office drama about the case has consumed Krasner’s office, and “the DA placed his personal interest in protecting the office above the Commonwealth’s interest.”

    But Krasner’s office countered in its own filings Tuesday that that was not true.

    Without denying that the case had caused contentious internal disagreements between Krasner and his staff, Assistant District Attorney Thomas Gaeta wrote that Krasner had handled the matter in legally appropriate ways, and that his office should be allowed to continue overseeing it.

    And even though some of Krasner’s own staffers have accused him of questionable conduct in the case — including by saying he told them to “protect the office” and that they could face “consequences” if they didn’t — Gaeta wrote Tuesday that Krasner had taken pains to ensure the case was handled “with competence and integrity.”

    “DA Krasner has taken no action inconsistent with his obligation to fairly represent the Commonwealth on behalf of the people of Philadelphia, despite the intemperate comments witnesses claimed he made,” the document said.

    The dueling filings came a week after the end of testimony in a multiday hearing in front of Diamond, during which the judge sought to learn more about how various attorneys connected to the case have behaved while it has been moving through federal court.

    The underlying case began as a routine post-conviction matter, as Dennis Johnson — found guilty of second-degree murder in 2009 — sought to have his conviction overturned.

    But in recent months, the case has led to a series of explosive revelations about the inner workings of the district attorney’s office. Many of the accusations have come from four prosecutors who said they advised Krasner to refer the case to the attorney general’s office, which, in their telling, led Krasner to respond angrily, or by suggesting tactics they thought were legally inappropriate.

    Those tactics, they said, included keeping the case in-house, potentially seeking to assign blame to a line prosecutor while protecting her supervisor, and taking steps to “protect the office” in court.

    Diamond, at one point during the proceedings, suggested he viewed the allegations as potentially criminal, saying if they were true, they could amount to perjury, conspiracy, or obstruction of justice. He did not specify who he believed might be at fault.

    The attorney general’s office wrote Tuesday that the testimony from Krasner’s staff in the case demonstrated that he had acted in ways that were self-motivated or otherwise disconnected from the merits of the underlying petition — a situation that, in court cases, is considered a conflict of interest.

    And that conflict, wrote the state prosecutors — Susan E. Affronti and John J. Boscia — would inevitably extend to anyone working for Krasner, particularly after his threat of “consequences” for those who did not follow his orders.

    “At that point, any attorneys working under DA Krasner would themselves be subject to the conflict, knowing that they were required, on the one hand, to do what the boss wanted, and, on the other hand, to do what professional ethics required,” they wrote.

    Krasner, in his office’s filing, said that was not so.

    Although the filing acknowledged that Krasner “plainly did not appreciate [his staffers’] repeated, unsolicited, and wavering advice” to refer the case to state prosecutors, he said their recommendation was “inexpert and legally unsupported.” And he said he had consulted with legal experts who agreed with him, including one whose written opinion his office attached to Tuesday’s brief.

    He also reiterated that he had hired an outside attorney to handle the case on his office’s behalf: Jean Peters-Baker, a longtime prosecutor from Missouri who previously led the prosecutor’s office in the county that includes Kansas City.

    In addition, Krasner’s filing said, “as the elected chief prosecutor, the decision on whether or not to refer the case was entrusted to him. It was not a decision for his employees to make, or attempt to force him into making, via unauthorized and legally inappropriate public pleadings.”

    His office’s brief did not deny another notable allegation from his staff: that when they suggested he refer the matter to the attorney general’s office, he described that office’s lawyers as “Nazis.”

    While the filing did not address the use of that particular term, it did say Krasner had “general mistrust” of many people working in that office “based upon decades of observing their work” in the legal system — including, in his view, people who sought to secure or defend wrongful convictions. Some lawyers who now work in that office were fired by Krasner just days after he took office in 2018.

    “DA Krasner’s view (i.e. that illegally and willfully acting to convict and incarcerate an innocent person for decades is akin to kidnapping, torture, or other war crimes) is well known,” the filing says. “But any animus he may have towards individual employees of that office based upon their own actions and inactions has nothing to do with whether he correctly declined to refer a case.”

    The attorney general’s office, in its filing, said Krasner’s refusal to send the case to an office he disliked was another demonstration of how his judgment in the matter had been flawed.

    “His actions, and his words, thus demonstrate that he acted on the basis of personal animus, not the interests of the Commonwealth,” the filing said.

    Johnson’s attorneys, meanwhile, also filed a brief Tuesday in which they took no position on who should serve as the prosecutor in his ongoing case. Their only request was that Diamond appoint only one agency to handle it moving forward, rather than forcing him to litigate his petition against prosecutors from both the city and the state.

    The decision on whether to allow Krasner’s office to continue handling the case will now fall to Diamond. The judge has not indicated how quickly he might rule.

  • Stanley M. Schwarz, community-minded trial lawyer and former assistant district attorney, has died at 95

    Stanley M. Schwarz, community-minded trial lawyer and former assistant district attorney, has died at 95

    Stanley M. Schwarz, 95, of Philadelphia, community-minded trial lawyer and founder of what is now the Schwarz & Schwarz law firm, former Philadelphia assistant district attorney, Army veteran, mentor, and golfer, died Friday, July 17, of heart failure at his home in Society Hill.

    Public-spirited throughout his life and adept at litigation regarding workplace accidents, medical negligence, reckless driving, careless manufacturers, and other personal injury issues, Mr. Schwarz founded what is now Schwarz & Schwarz PC in 1967. He represented all kinds of clients in all kinds of cases and appeared before the Pennsylvania Supreme, Superior, and Commonwealth Courts more than 20 times.

    He was featured in the Daily News in 1968 when, at no charge to his client, he won $150 from the city for a Philadelphia hairdresser whose car was mistakenly towed. “I was disturbed by her experience” with city officials, he told the Daily News.

    “To many,” his family said in a tribute, “he was more than an attorney. He was a source of guidance and hope.”

    Mr. Schwarz doted on his children.Courtesy of the family

    Mr. Schwarz lived for decades in Society Hill Towers at Second and Locust Streets near the Delaware River and represented its owners association in 1997 as it contested high-rise development along the nearby waterfront. “They’re trying to take away this little Garden of Eden,” he told the Daily News.

    He joined the district attorney’s office in 1960, worked as an assistant district attorney in the major trials unit, and handled hundreds of cases involving murder, assault, robbery, burglary, arson, and other crimes. In one notable case in 1966, he noticed that the photo of a man in the Daily News looked like the at-large suspect in a recent robbery. Detectives tracked the man down and made an arrest.

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    He also served as a temporary judge and arbitrator for local, state, and federal courts. He belonged to several legal associations, won awards for his legal and community service, and was an honorary member of the Knights of Columbus.

    He joined the Army after high school, rose to first lieutenant, and served as an intelligence cryptographer during the Korean War. He was admitted to the Temple University School of Law after just a year in college, became editor-in-chief of its law review, and graduated in 1958.

    Mr. Schwarz and his wife, Kathy, married in 1991.Courtesy of the family

    He served two years as a law clerk in the Philadelphia Court of Common Pleas and then as assistant to three district attorneys over six years. “He mentored generations of young lawyers and quietly helped countless people through difficult times,” his family said.

    Born in Philadelphia during the Great Depression, Mr. Schwarz and his family moved often when he was a boy. He lived in New York when he was young and worked part-time as a stock boy and janitor when he was 10 to help pay the bills.

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    He attended two dozen schools before moving to Philadelphia in middle school and graduated from Germantown High School in 1948. His family praised “the work ethic and compassion that guided him throughout his life.”

    They said: “Stan’s life was shaped by perseverance, resilience, and a deep commitment to helping others.”

    Mr. Schwarz graduated from Germantown High School in 1948.Courtesy of the family

    Stanley Morris Schwarz was born Jan. 22, 1931. He worked as a mail clerk and accountant after high school and joined the Army when he was 20.

    He married Lee Rosen in 1955, and they had a son, Daniel, and a daughter, Stacy. After a divorce, he married Kathy Campbell in 1991, and they danced and traveled the world together for years. He was especially good at the jitterbug.

    Mr. Schwarz played golf and socialized for more than 50 years at the Bensalem Township Country Club. He was a longtime member of the Society Hill Club. He took his family to boat shows and on memorable vacations to Ocean City, Puerto Rico, the Pocono Mountains, Disney World, and elsewhere.

    He self-published a breezy memoir called The Roller Coaster Life of Flappy in 2022 when he was 91, and said: “As a father, it gave me the greatest pleasure in playing with the kids, whether in our backyard, in the community pool, or in the nearby parks.”

    Mr. Schwarz enjoyed time with his family.Courtesy of the family

    Mr. Schwarz was fun and funny, his daughter said. He taught himself to play piano and saxophone, and they performed duets.

    He was an engaging storyteller. He made personal scrapbooks for his children. Friends called him “amazing” and “incredible” on Instagram.

    His family said: “He made people feel valued and left them better than he found them.” His daughter said: “He was down to earth and playful. He was great with kids. He loved everybody’s children, and the children loved him.”

    In addition to his wife and children, Mr. Schwarz is survived by four grandchildren, a sister, and other relatives. A sister and a brother died earlier.

    Services were held earlier.

    Donations in his name may be made to Congregation Beth El, 8000 Main St., Voorhees, N.J. 08043.

    Mr. Schwarz was close with his daughter, Stacy, above, and his son, Daniel, below. Courtesy of the family