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  • Gloria Steinem, a potent voice of U.S. feminism and cofounder of Ms. Magazine, has died

    Gloria Steinem, a potent voice of U.S. feminism and cofounder of Ms. Magazine, has died

    NEW YORK — Gloria Steinem, the celebrated author and activist who became one of the most visible symbols and potent voices of the U.S. women’s movement and a fierce advocate for feminist causes throughout her life, has died. She was 92.

    With her trademark streaked hair parted down the middle and large aviator glasses, Ms. Steinem, a co-founder of Ms. Magazine, was a hugely recognizable presence wherever she went. And she went everywhere: Much of her life as an advocate was spent on the road, speaking at college campuses and community centers, at rallies and marches.

    She died Wednesday at her home in New York City, according to her and her foundation’s social media pages.

    “Gloria’s greatest gift was her ability to listen to others, to make others feel seen and heard,” the posts said. “Her words, actions, and example gave people permission to be their truest selves. Gloria lived true to her independent spirit, always with curiosity and a great sense of humor.”

    Ms. Steinem enjoyed writing and spending time in the community in recent years, the posts said. She also hosted talking circles for hundreds of people in her home. She died just before a planned memoir was to be released this fall.

    “You can’t do it on the phone or on the web,” she told The Associated Press in a 2015 interview. “You have to be there with all five senses. It should be obvious that people can’t empathize with each other unless we’re in the same room.”

    Ms. Steinem changed her career path after a start as a journalist

    Ms. Steinem at an Equal Rights Amendment rally outside the White House on July 4, 1981.Scott Applewhite

    She began her career as a journalist, notably one who reported, in 1963, on degrading conditions in Hugh Hefner’s Playboy empire, an undercover assignment she came to later regret. She credits a meeting six years later, where women spoke out boldly in favor of abortion rights, with changing her career path.

    “That speak-out was the beginning of activism for me,” Ms. Steinem, who had undergone a secret illegal abortion herself at age 22, told the AP in an email in 2022, reflecting on the reversal of Roe v Wade. “Either our control over our own bodies is equal, regardless of sex or race, or we’re not living in a democracy.”

    Though she soon became a known activist, those who watched Ms. Steinem denounce discrimination for so many years likely never suspected that she’d had to overcome a deep fear of public speaking. She would have simply stuck to writing, she said, if only editors at the time had been willing to let her write about the women’s movement.

    But they weren’t interested, she told the AP in 2015. “So I ended up going out and speaking, which was my nightmare,” she said. “I mean, I was terrified. But I’m grateful, even though I still get scared even now.”

    Ms. Steinem’s visibility endured throughout her life

    Ms. Steinem claps as she walks on the stage during an International Women’s Day event in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, in 2023.Kamran Jebreili

    Time hardly slowed Ms. Steinem down; well into her 80s she was traveling the globe and speaking out on issues of importance to her. These included everything from genital mutilation to Korean reconciliation, but it was equality for women that took precedence. “Being a feminist means that you see the world as whole instead of half,” she once said. “It shouldn’t need a name, and one day it won’t.”

    As the years went on, Ms. Steinem’s visibility endured. At 83, she sat in the front row of her first fashion show, guest of designer Prabal Gurung. A few days after her 85th birthday, she was leading a women’s “talking circle” at an off-Broadway play celebrating her life, where one by one, women in the audience — many fighting tears — rose to thank her and tell their own stories of discrimination. In 2020, her life was the subject of a feature film, The Glorias, A Life on The Road, based on her 2015 memoir and starring Julianne Moore.

    And at 91, she collaborated on a picture book with Liberian peace activist and Nobel laureate Leymah Gbowee aimed at inspiring young people to change the world. Rise, Girl, Rise: Our Sister-Friend Journey. Together for All was published in February.

    The constant visibility came with a price; even into her older years, Ms. Steinem expressed frustration that despite her accomplishments, she was often described as beautiful or glamorous (A 1992 Vanity Fair profile even noted her “spectacular racehorse legs.”) It was a label she said unfairly detracted from her message.

    “Nobody ever called me beautiful until I was publicly a feminist, and that was in my mid-30s,” she told AP in a 2011 interview. “It was clear that label was being assigned to me. The most hurtful part is that you work very hard, and people say it’s because of your looks.”

    Ms. Steinem dealt with hostility from many directions

    Of course, Ms. Steinem also had to deal with hostility. Sometimes it came from surprising places. Appearing on Larry King’s talk show on CNN in 1990, she was visibly stunned when a female caller greeted her cheerfully, then told her to “rot in hell” because she had ruined “the beautiful American family.”

    But by then, she noted, at least people were taking feminists seriously. That wasn’t the case in 1972 when she co-founded Ms. Magazine and many commentators — especially male — dismissed it as ridiculous, predicting an early demise. (The magazine continues to this day, published by the Feminist Majority Foundation.)

    Among Ms. Steinem’s detractors was President Richard Nixon, who was caught on an Oval Office tape ridiculing both her and the “Ms.” title. The ridicule was mutual: In a 1972 National Press Club speech, Ms. Steinem called Nixon “the most sexually insecure chief of state since Napoleon.”

    It was just one example of Ms. Steinem’s trademark wit. Before she married at 66, she often explained her singlehood by saying “I can’t mate in captivity.” Laughter, she wrote, was “the only free emotion — the only one that can’t be compelled.”

    In 2013, Ms. Steinem was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by President Barack Obama. “Because of her work across America and around the world, more women are afforded the respect and opportunities that they deserve,” he said, “but she also changed how women thought about themselves.”

    Ms. Steinem ‘read everything I could get my hands on’ growing up

    Gloria Marie Steinem was born on March 25, 1934, in Toledo, Ohio. Her father was a traveling antique salesperson; she spent her early years on the road with her parents, not attending regular school. “I just read everything I could get my hands on,” she told an audience at Manhattan’s 92Y in 2026. “Which was frequently completely unsuitable … just everything and anything. I also was in love with the movies — my idea of heaven was a movie and a malted.”

    In 1944 her parents divorced, and 10-year-old Gloria was left to take care of her mother. a once-promising journalist who struggled to combine her work with running a household, and eventually suffered a nervous breakdown.

    As a young girl she excelled at tap dancing — it was even going to be her “ticket out of Toledo,” she said. Although she remained a good dancer, that particular career didn’t materialize. She attended Smith College in the ’50s, a time when, she has said, women were being educated to be mothers and wives.

    But marriage was not on Ms. Steinem’s mind. “I was engaged to a very nice man. It wasn’t his fault, but I just didn’t want to get married,” she told her 2026 audience. Instead, she took advantage of a modest fellowship to travel to India. After that, Ms. Steinem headed to Manhattan, where she couldn’t rent her own apartment because, she said, landlords avoided single women, assuming “if you could earn enough, you must be a hooker.”

    The aspiring journalist wanted to write about politics. But editors gave her assignments on food, fashion, and, in what she jokingly called “the low point of my life,” an article about textured stockings. Even more demoralizing was her experience with an editor who, she said, gave her a choice one day: Spend the afternoon in a hotel with him, or mail his letters on the way out.

    She chose to mail the letters. “There was no word for sexual harassment then,” she has said. “It was just life.”

    But one assignment in 1963 sounded compelling: posing as a Playboy Bunny, for an exposé in the now-defunct Show magazine. Ms. Steinem went through the audition process, assuming she’d be weeded out. But she was given her bunny costume — “so tight, it would give a man a cleavage,” she joked — and worked in the job for about a month.

    “I could not have made a bigger mistake,” she told the AP in 2011. “It was personally and professionally a disaster. In the short term, it was much harder to get assignments, and in the long term it’s been used to ridicule me.”

    Ms. Steinem’s writing became more political in her 30s

    Ms. Steinem was in her 30s when she joined the editorial board of New York magazine, and her writing became more political. In 1969, she went to cover an abortion rights hearing. She had never told anyone about her illegal abortion at 22, in London. That was the moment, she has said, that triggered her career as a women’s rights activist. “I don’t think I had ever felt part of a group before,” she said in a 1970 TV interview.

    Ms. Steinem founded the National Women’s Political Caucus in 1971 along with Betty Friedan, Shirley Chisholm and Bella Abzug. The latter became a dear lifelong friend — “the woman I wished I had had as a mother,” she said at Abzug’s funeral.

    Unlike Abzug, Ms. Steinem was naturally reserved, not comfortable in front of a crowd. Gradually, with her early speaking partner Dorothy Pitman Hughes, a Black feminist and child welfare advocate, she found her footing. The two formed a powerful partnership at a time when feminism was viewed as largely a white, middle-class movement. In an iconic photo, the two raise their right arms together in the Black Power salute.

    As she grew more famous, Ms. Steinem drew attention not just for her work but for a glamorous Manhattan life. Asked once about her streaked hair and aviator glasses, she explained that the hair was inspired by Holly Golightly, the free-spirited character played by Audrey Hepburn in Breakfast at Tiffany’s. The glasses? They were “more about hiding,” she said.

    When reaction was hostile, Ms. Steinem would try to reason that it was a step above ridicule. But sometimes it stung, like a snarky Esquire profile in the early ’70s, so hurtful that she cried, and colleagues called a news conference to defend her.

    Ms. Steinem co-founded Ms. Magazine and stayed with it as an adviser

    (From left) Tennis star Billie Jean King, astronaut Sally Ride, and Ms. Steinem at a reception hosted by the Girls Club of America and Ms. Magazine to honor Ride in 1983.ASSOCIATED PRESS

    Then came Ms. Magazine in 1972, a magazine by women, for women. “I was so obsessed with the fear that it would fail and be a disgrace to the movement,” Ms. Steinem, age 37 when it launched, told the AP in 2011. And opponents hoped that would happen. TV newsman Harry Reasoner, an especially tart critic, later apologized on air. Ms. Steinem continued with Ms. until it was bought in 2001 by the Feminist Majority Foundation, and remained an adviser.

    By 1977, numerous gains had been made for women, including Roe in 1973. But the Equal Rights Amendment, which had passed the House and Senate in 1972 but needed to be ratified by three-quarters of state legislatures, remained elusive. The issue was front and center at the 1977 National Women’s Conference, convened on a congressional mandate to examine women’s rights.

    “If they want us to become the radicals that they fear we are, just let them stop the ERA and we will become those radicals,” Ms. Steinem said there.

    Among groups Ms. Steinem co-founded were the Women’s Action Alliance, which was active through the 1990s; the Women’s Media Center in 2004, the Voters for Choice political action committee in 1977, and the Ms. Foundation for Women. She also helped establish the Take Our Daughters to Work Day.

    Ms. Steinem never had her own children, and said she never regretted it. “No, not for a millisecond,” she told the AP, describing an incident in which she was afraid to answer that question in front of a group of women in India, fearing they wouldn’t like the answer. “But they applauded,” she said. “It’s important that some of us not have children, to show that we have a choice.”

    In 2000, Ms. Steinem she did something she’d never planned to: She got married, at 66, to British activist and businessman David Bale, whom she met at a fundraiser (Bale was the father of actor Christian Bale.)

    “I thought, ‘I haven’t changed, marriage had changed,’” Ms. Steinem said. “David and I wanted to be together, we loved each other. He needed a green card.” They married at a Cherokee ceremony in Oklahoma. Several years later, he became ill with brain lymphoma, and Ms. Steinem cared for him until his death in 2003.

    Ms. Steinem said she had few regrets in life, but did miss being present when her father died. She received word that he’d been in a serious car accident, but did not respond in time, and he died alone. “I had taken care of my mom as a child, and I feared I’d never come back,” she explained. She was also sorry that she didn’t become closer to her mother. “I was so fearful of becoming her,” she said in an HBO documentary, Gloria: In Her Own Words.

    Ms. Steinem’s books included ‘A Life on the Road’

    Ms. Steinem’s books included the 2015 road memoir A Life on the Road — but she wryly noted at the time that she’d actually never learned to drive. It would have taken away, she said, from her ability to converse with her hosts, who would pick her up from airports or train stations. And, she noted, she always loved to chat with taxi drivers.

    On Jan. 21, 2017, when hundreds of thousands of women gathered in Washington in their pink “pussy hats” for the historic Women’s March, it surprised nobody that the keynote speaker, and the most rousing, was Ms. Steinem.

    “We are linked,” she told the crowd. “And this is a day that will change us forever because we are together.”

    For many women, Ms. Steinem was the galvanizing voice that day. She would go on to advocate fiercely. But, though many saw her as a singular figure in history, she often liked to say that if she hadn’t come along, someone else would have accomplished the same things.

    By the same token, she said, it was less important that younger people listen to her, and more important that they listen to themselves.

    “The primary thing is not that they know who I am,” she said, “but that they know who THEY are.”

  • Living in an exhausted, morally distressed nation

    Living in an exhausted, morally distressed nation

    This is not us.

    This is not the America we thought we were. As nurses, we’re sensitive to negative shifts in compassion and empathy. Almost two years of multiple, relentless attacks on America’s core values have left us morally distressed.

    It is not like us to set a weekly quota of arresting 2,000 of our law-abiding neighbors seeking asylum in the United States. It’s not like us to propose spending $20 million in taxpayer dollars on a device that will allow immigration agents to deliver painful electric shocks to any human being. It’s not like us to put those without criminal records in jails and provide them with less than adequate medical care that has now resulted in the deaths of at least 50 innocent human beings.

    Values out of whack

    As a nation, our actions are out of alignment with our values.

    We are overwhelmed by the constant barrage of toxic messages and distressful events that shape our sense of who we are as a society and negatively affect our physical and mental health. We have seen, and some have personally experienced, the horrific public health impact of the resurgence of preventable diseases and deaths from measles, a disease that had been eradicated from the U.S.

    As nurses, we have seen how words are used to evoke false beliefs. We have never seen a “vat” of solution injected into any person — let alone an infant, as President Donald Trump recently claimed about the childhood vaccination regimen. We have witnessed the fear and confusion of parents related to the mixed messages coming from non-pediatricians about the value of childhood vaccinations. Why change the vaccination schedule without evidence?

    We see reductions and disinvestments in essential research funding that will hurt Americans waiting for scientific breakthroughs. Discouraging the next generation of investigators threatens our standing as a global leader in research innovation.

    President Donald Trump and his former press secretary Karoline Leavitt at the White House earlier this year. Both have brought a new level of coarseness and personal denigration to official public discourse.Tom Brenner

    We experience ourselves the rising costs of life’s necessities, such as food, housing, and healthcare. And we endure public coarseness and disgraceful conduct among those elected to represent us, increasingly characterized by contempt and by labeling those with whom they disagree as “radicals,” “socialists,” “fascists,” or worse.

    These developments are not mutually exclusive, and they represent a troubling sign for a country where trust in the values of public institutions and in government leaders and workers is being eroded by outright lies and a lack of mutual respect. In 2025, only 17% of Americans trusted the government to do “what is right.”

    Moral distress occurs when one’s values are constrained because of institutional, social, political, or other barriers.

    The concept is often applied to healthcare workers, such as nurses. For example, moral distress has been widely documented when nurses are unable to deliver a treatment they know is best because of restraints imposed by the healthcare system in which they work.

    Repeated experiences of moral distress often lead to a sense of disillusionment, disengagement, moral outrage, burnout, and apathy. When this moral distress and resulting harm is experienced by a broad swath of the general population, we call this civic moral distress.

    So what can we do?

    We know respectful dialogue instead of derision advances collaborative agendas and builds solid coalitions. We know public health is key to the prevention of disease. We know respect for the dignity of our fellow humans has nothing to do with their age, race, gender, political ideology, or immigration status. We know a lack of basic healthcare leads to emergency room visits and higher costs. We know the average citizen is not being heard by those who represent them to address the broader societal and moral problems at home and feels powerless to change any of it.

    Don’t be disillusioned

    There are no easy antidotes to civic moral distress. Experts coalesce around key principles, grounded in a foundation of trust, that could move us from a morally distressed nation to one characterized by moral strength and integrity.

    For everyone: Be kind, be truthful, perform one random act of kindness every day, care for your neighbors. For newspapers: Publish one issue a week that focuses on local community issues. For all government officials: Don’t break everything just because you can; stay in your lane and do not make healthcare recommendations out of your area of expertise.

    For all Americans: Do not be disillusioned.

    Advancing this agenda will require significant moral courage. Failing to do so will further erode our society, our humanity. And although civic moral distress is our current reality, it need not be our future.

    Connie M. Ulrich is a registered nurse and professor of nursing and of medical ethics and health policy at the University of Pennsylvania School of Nursing. She is a Hastings Center Fellow. Mary D. Naylor is a registered nurse and professor of gerontology and nursing at Penn’s School of Nursing. Martha A.Q. Curley is a registered nurse and professor of pediatric nursing at Penn’s School of Nursing.

  • Russia will close German cultural centers as Moscow and Europe spar over Ukraine

    Russia will close German cultural centers as Moscow and Europe spar over Ukraine

    WARSAW, Poland — Russia will close German cultural centers on its territory, Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said Thursday in a retaliatory measure reflecting the deepening tensions between Moscow and European countries that are helping Ukraine resist the Kremlin’s 4 ½-year-old invasion.

    Lavrov’s announcement came after Berlin blamed Moscow for an attempted drone attack at Leipzig/Halle Airport on Aug. 4. The explosives-laden drone was found near a Ukrainian plane at the airport, a major international freight hub used for providing support to Ukraine. The drone was later defused.

    Earlier Thursday in Munich, several incendiary devices were thrown at a construction site near a building where several companies, including from the defense sector, are located, the Bavarian State Criminal Police Office said. There was a brief fire that caused no significant damage, police said, adding they suspect the target was one of the companies in the area.

    Two Bulgarian nationals were arrested, police said, but their suspected involvement was not confirmed.

    Western officials have repeatedly accused Moscow of conducting a campaign of sabotage and disruption in their countries with the aim of undermining support for Ukraine and destabilizing European nations, something Russia denies.

    Germany says it has become a “daily target” of the Kremlin’s hybrid campaign.

    It said Wednesday it was closing both the Russian Consulate in Bonn and the Russian House cultural center in the German capital.

    Lavrov countered that cultural centers belonging to Germany’s Goethe-Institut would be closed in Moscow, St. Petersburg, and Yekaterinburg, adding that any other response would show a lack of “self-respect” on Russia’s part.

    He told an economic forum in the far east city of Vladivostok that Germany “could not have failed to understand” that closing the center in Berlin would “signify the end of their cultural presence in Russia.”

    Russian President Vladimir Putin said Berlin wants to distract from its own failings and dissatisfaction among voters. Any proof being offered “has been planted,” Putin said.

    Europe increasingly views itself as facing what it calls hybrid attacks by Russia, marked by cyberwarfare and disinformation as well as a conventional military threat. Each side accuses the other of state terrorism.

    The tension has continued for months and grown into a major foreign and defense policy challenge for countries in the European Union.

    Putin is testing the West with tactics that fall “just below the threshold of war” and is determined to “harass NATO members,” the head of Britain’s MI6 spy agency said last year.

    European countries seek to counter Russia’s threat

    Following Germany’s claims, Poland, Denmark, Finland, the U.K., the Czech Republic, and Lithuania have summoned Russian diplomats stationed in their countries.

    In Norway, authorities on Wednesday seized a Russian vessel in the Arctic archipelago of Svalbard at the request of Ukraine’s state-owned Naftogaz energy group.

    A Norwegian court ordered the seizure as part of efforts by Naftogaz to recover a $4.22 billion arbitration award stemming from Russia’s 2014 illegal annexation of Crimea and its seizure of Ukrainian energy assets, including gas fields and pipelines. After Moscow refused to pay the 2023 award, Naftogaz petitioned national courts for orders to seize Russian commercial assets.

    Putin on Thursday compared it to “state terrorism,” and Russia’s Foreign Ministry summoned Norway’s ambassador to Moscow, Heidi Olufsen, to protest the seizure of the vessel, which it said belongs to the state weather and environmental monitoring agency.

    It carried workers, scientists, and cargo to Russian settlements on one of the islands in Svalbard, the ministry said, adding that Moscow “will seek to lift the vessel’s arrest.”

    In Finland, meanwhile, more than 2,000 people took part Thursday in the biggest civil defense exercise in Europe since the end of World War II. Among the threats envisioned were missile strikes from neighboring Russia.

    EU weighs how to respond further

    EU ministers on Wednesday weighed how best to respond to the attempted drone attack but struggled to find new ways to meet the challenge without resorting to military means.

    The EU has slapped almost two dozen packages of sanctions on Russia over the war, targeting over 3,000 officials, oligarchs, and entities including banks, energy companies, and drone makers.

    One senior EU official said the bloc’s anti-terrorism procedures could be put to effective use.

    “If we list individuals as terrorists, we can deploy a range of instruments to actually target those individuals and to track them, all their activities, and people associated with those individuals,” EU Counter-Terrorism Coordinator Bartjan Wegter said.

    He told The Associated Press that EU methods for combating terrorist financing and money laundering, as well as boosting the resilience of infrastructure like airports, could be put to good use.

    “It is a very worrying development,” Wegter said of the failed Leipzig drone attack. But he noted that “it is not new what we’re seeing.”

    Both Russia and Iran have used hybrid warfare methods before, he said.

    “They’re actually deploying terrorist tactics” that are meant to “destabilize our society,” Wegter added.

    Denmark sounds alarm about Russian sabotage plans

    Danish security services are warning that Russian acts of sabotage against the country’s defense industry may be imminent.

    Intelligence services have seen signs of specific planning by Russia to conduct sabotage operations in Denmark, Emil Græsholm, head of counterintelligence at the national security and intelligence service PET, told the Berlingske newspaper.

    The targets are primarily companies in the defense industry and especially those associated with delivering military components to Ukraine, he said.

    Russian Ambassador Vladimir Barbin said PET has not presented any concrete evidence that Moscow was preparing sabotage acts in Denmark. He said Græsholm’s comments were actually an acknowledgement of Denmark’s involvement in Ukraine.

    The transformation of Danish territory into a production and logistics base for the Ukrainian military posed a security risk to Denmark, he added.

    Italy’s Defense Minister Guido Crosetto told AP on Wednesday that the German airport incident was “a very serious act that could have very grave consequences.”

    But he said the threats aren’t discouraging Italy from further helping Kyiv as Rome weighs whether to send SAMP/T air defense batteries. As in other Western countries, limited weapons production capacity is hampering efforts to supply more to Ukraine, he said.

  • EPA proposal could leave the public in the dark on data center plans

    EPA proposal could leave the public in the dark on data center plans

    WASHINGTON — A plan by the Environmental Protection Agency could make it harder for the public to learn about and comment on proposed AI data centers that have sparked backlash in communities across the United States and transformed the midterm election landscape.

    The EPA proposal would eliminate a federal requirement that states notify the public and seek comment before issuing air pollution permits for data centers and other industrial facilities. States could still offer opportunities for public comment, but the EPA would no longer mandate them as a condition for states to grant permits.

    Critics say the move could thwart local residents from learning about proposed data centers or making their voices heard before projects are approved and construction begins. The move comes during a widespread backlash as tech giants build hundreds of massive server warehouses to fuel artificial intelligence and cloud computing.

    “By eliminating the long-standing federal requirement for public notice, this proposal continues efforts by the Trump administration to turn its back on the fundamental EPA principle of transparency,” said Mike Koerber, a former deputy director of EPA’s air quality office.

    If made final, the plan could create “an unlevel playing field where citizens in one state are kept completely in the dark about new data centers and heavy industrial emissions in their backyards, while neighboring states maintain oversight,” he said.

    Under the EPA plan, states with weak or no requirements for public comment could speed permits for data centers, power plants and other pollution sources without consulting the public or even informing communities where the facilities are located, Koerber and other critics said.

    Communities deserve a chance to weigh in, advocates say

    “Data centers and other industrial sources should not be able to get their air pollution permits in secret,” said Keri Powell, senior attorney for the Southern Environmental Law Center, an advocacy organization that leads a coalition of nearly 200 environmental, health and community groups that filed comments with the EPA opposing the plan. “Communities deserve a chance to weigh in” before potentially harmful projects are approved.

    An EPA spokesperson called that a false narrative.

    “In our proposal we are saying that states get to pick how they want their permitting process to go for minor sources” of air pollution, spokesperson Carolyn Holran said.

    The EPA proposal does not specifically identify data centers, she said, noting that the plan also would apply to laundromats, car repair shops and even landfills and steel mills that are considered “minor” pollution sources under the federal Clean Air Act.

    The proposal does not demand that states make particular changes to their programs, nor does it alter federal emission standards or weaken environmental protections, Holran said. “Rather, the proposal simply aligns the national program with the Clean Air Act language to ensure that states are in the lead regarding their programs.”

    EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin, who has made U.S. leadership in AI a top agency priority, said in a statement that the plan is aimed at “cutting unnecessary and burdensome red tape, unleashing American energy and advancing cooperative federalism” with states. The EPA is expected to make the rule final next year.

    President Donald Trump continues to stick up for data centers, even as politicians from both parties criticize them and many communities try to block them. Trump said on social media this week that U.S. communities that don’t have data centers will “end up being backwards and poor.”

    Trump says data centers are crucial in the AI race against China

    Trump has acknowledged that data centers need “a little public relations help” and has pushed tech companies to generate their own electricity to shield consumers from higher utility bills. The Republican president calls data centers critical to winning the AI race against China.

    Environmental groups and other critics say the EPA proposal ignores the reality that many states, particularly in the South and Midwest, don’t require public notice or hearings beyond those set by federal agencies. The federal plan would leave many communities in the dark before data centers show up in their backyards, they said.

    “It’s beyond cruel for Trump’s EPA to silence front-line communities who bear the brunt of unhealthy air,” said Brandon Jones-Cobb, a senior attorney at the Center for Biological Diversity, another environmental group.

    The EPA “has already turned its back on science, cut enforcement against industrial polluters and eliminated life-saving air pollution measures,” he said. “Now it wants to shut the public out of decisions to build or expand facilities that expose communities to dangerous air pollution, including data centers.”

    Powell, whose organization focuses on six Southern states from Virginia to Alabama, said many states “only do what is required by federal law” when it comes to public notice of land-use projects and other environmental concerns.

    “We rely on a minimum federal requirement to ensure we have environmental protections and a voice,’’ she said in an interview, calling regulation of data centers a crucial issue in a region where the energy-hungry behemoths are proliferating. Virginia and Georgia are both among states with the highest concentration of current and proposed data centers.

    Americans worry data centers could cause pollution, job losses

    Besides powering AI and cloud computing, data centers are often sources of nitrogen oxide, which helps form ozone, as well as carbon monoxide and other air pollutants. Local communities also have expressed concerns about excessive water use and noise from data centers. Many Americans worry that AI could increase economic disparities and cause widespread job losses.

    Data center advocates stress that local taxes paid by the centers can help fund public schools, reducing the financial burden on homeowners.

    Jane Williams, executive director of California Communities Against Toxics, said even if data centers ultimately are approved, “every community should be able to participate robustly in governmental decisions that can pollute our air.’’

    Rolling back the EPA rule “pulls a dark cloud, filled with soot and toxic chemicals, over communities’ right to know what polluting facilities are planned in their community,” she said.

  • A federal judge has blocked Trump’s second try to restrict birthright citizenship

    A federal judge has blocked Trump’s second try to restrict birthright citizenship

    A federal judge in Maryland temporarily blocked much of President Donald Trump’s latest effort to withhold citizenship from babies born in the United States to noncitizen parents, ruling that the Supreme Court had already settled questions reopened by an executive order Trump signed in August.

    While the decision was limited to children born after Feb. 19, 2025, including those born in the future, Judge Deborah L. Boardman wrote that the order would likely affect babies the Supreme Court had already defined as citizens. The ruling delivered a sharp rejection of the president’s renewed efforts to restrict birthright citizenship, after the Supreme Court ruled 6-3 in July that a previous, more sweeping, executive order from 2025 was unconstitutional.

    “No presidential executive order can undo what the Supreme Court has done,” she wrote.

    Boardman’s order took a dim view of the Trump administration’s reasoning, which she characterized as a thinly veiled attempt to get around the Supreme Court’s decision. She wrote that the president and others named in the lawsuit “completely misread” the majority’s opinion and embraced a “distorted interpretation” of its conclusions.

    In a 35-page opinion, she described the latest order as only the most recent attempt to curtail birthright citizenship by any means that could survive legal scrutiny.

    “Since his second term in office began on January 20, 2025, the president has tried, through executive order, to upend our country’s longstanding tradition of birthright citizenship and eliminate, for large swaths of Americans, the right to citizenship by birth, a right enshrined in the Citizenship Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment,” she wrote.

    Boardman described a number of ways that children covered by the lawsuit could have their citizenship rescinded, including if the Trump administration moved to label their parents members of terrorist groups or “alien enemies” under arbitrary legal determinations. She cited a pattern in which the administration has accused Venezuelan nationals of being affiliated with the criminal organization Tren de Aragua, often without evidence, in deportation proceedings.

    While she stressed that it was too soon to find that the order itself was unconstitutional, she wrote that it already appeared clear that it was unconstitutional as applied to the class of babies defined when immigration groups initially sued last year to block Trump’s first order.

    The order this year had included other measures to create novel categories of babies that could be disqualified from citizenship, including those born to parents engaged in so-called “birth tourism,” through which mothers deliberately traveled to the United States to give birth.

    It was unclear how the Trump administration planned to tag those it suspected of traveling to the United States to have their children. But Boardman noted that the executive order was broad, describing anyone who engaged in a “commercial transaction” — such as purchasing a plane ticket — as traveling to access birthright citizenship.

    The Supreme Court’s decision upholding birthright citizenship “is the law of the land,” Boardman wrote. “The President must follow it.”

    This article originally appeared in The New York Times.

  • History offers hope for the future of an independent military newspaper

    History offers hope for the future of an independent military newspaper

    On Aug. 21, the Pentagon abruptly terminated Max Lederer, Erik Slavin and Lara Korte, the publisher, editor-in-chief and Middle East correspondent for the military newspaper, Stars and Stripes.

    The Department of Defense justified the firings on the vague grounds of “insubordination,” but in a recent interview, Korte pointed to remarks that the journalists made in a July 5 CBS News segment as the cause for their termination.

    In the interview, Korte had bluntly stated, “I’m working for Stars and Stripes. Not for the Pentagon, not for any administration, not for any policymaker, I am here to cover the military community.” Her notice of termination highlighted these comments. Similarly, Slavin’s notice of termination singled out that he had pledged that a demand from the military not to publish a “perfectly accurate story” would constitute a “red line.”

    Though abrupt, the firings are simply the latest development in an intensifying battle between the Department of Defense and Stars and Stripes’ journalists, who seek to maintain the paper’s editorial independence. In January 2026, the Pentagon announced that it would reform the outlet by removing “woke distractions” and Associated Press reprints. In April, the DOD fired Jacqueline Smith, the paper’s ombudsman.

    With Lederer and Slavin removed, the administration has installed Navy Captain William Urban — a “communication professional” with no formal journalism experience — as deputy publisher.

    Collectively, the Pentagon’s recent moves have constituted an aggressive attack on the editorial integrity of Stars and Stripes; Urban’s appointment does not bode well for the newspaper’s independence. Yet, history suggests that the fight isn’t over. In the past, Stars and Stripes reporters and American troops have checked the Pentagon’s interference by drawing the public’s attention to military overreach and heightened censorship.

    Guy T. Viskniskki, a U.S. Army Officer and member of the American Expeditionary Forces (AEF), established Stars and Stripes during World War I. General John J. Pershing, the commanding general of the (AEF), quickly endorsed the new publication. In 1918, he issued a directive ordering that military officials abstain from interfering with the paper. This order, however, proved difficult to enforce.

    Though Congress authorized funding for the publication, it has always been housed within the DOD, giving the Pentagon the ability to interfere and exert authority over Stars and Stripes. Consequently, throughout its long history, the newspaper has intermittently struggled against military interference. The unpopularity of the Vietnam War brought frictions between the paper and the military to a breaking point.

    In the late 1960s, military officials attempted to use the Military Assistance Command, Vietnam’s Office of Information (M.A.C.O.I.) to pressure Stars and Stripes reporters into softening stories or shelving them entirely. When the paper ignored these “suggestions,” the relationship between the military command and Stars and Stripes journalists grew tense. One military official infamously labeled the newspaper the “Hanoi Herald” — a reference to its frequently unfavorable combat reports.

    To cut down on the unflattering coverage, the military distanced itself from the journalists; reporters were excluded from news briefings and left in the dark about visits from prominent politicians (including President Richard Nixon, who made a surprise visit to South Vietnam in July 1969).

    Events took a turn for the worse when the paper’s editor — Colonel Peter Sweers — retired and was replaced by the pro-M.A.C.O.I. Colonel William Koch. Sweers had led a team of highly educated civilian and military reporters, many of whom had professional journalism experience and were committed to preserving journalistic integrity.

    Under Koch, however, Stars and Stripes’ policies changed significantly. The new editor forced reporters to wear military uniforms, a change that identified them as enlisted men to higher-ups, thus reinforcing military hierarchies. Additionally, Koch moved the paper’s news bureau out of Saigon to a remote location, effectively removing the journalists from the center of the action, and encouraged his reporters to focus on features, not news stories. Military directives, such as the “Let’s Say It Right” policy, forced reporters to replace straightforward language with euphemisms — “Viet Cong tax collectors became extortionists and search-and-destroy missions became search-and-clear missions.”

    Yet, as the military exerted more power over Stars and Stripes, American troops began pushing back. In October 1969, Private David Dugger, a 21-year-old rifleman from Georgia, told the New York Times, “They’re just not telling it like it is.” Dugger complained that “[l]ots of times we’ve been kicked around by Charlie [the Viet Cong]. But it always comes out sounding like nothing more than a skirmish after the editors are through with it.”

    Made By History sponsors. FOR USE ON MADE BY HISTORY STORIES ONLY.Inquirer Staff

    A few months later, in April 1970, Robert Hodierne — a recently returned Army veteran and a former reporter for Stars and Stripes — published a story in the New York Times chronicling the deterioration of the newspaper’s independence. While it had once been “the one place that GIs could sometimes read about the shooting, bleeding, bombing, gassing, dying, and killing [of the war],” Hodierne wrote, the paper was no longer a reliable source of news.

    The news report quoted Pat Luminello, Stars and Stripes’ civilian bureau chief, who lamented that the military clearly wanted “a pap sheet in which they could air their views and prevent even a hint that all was not wine and roses on the war front.” When news of Hodierne’s piece reached military officials, Koch promptly terminated Luminello, ushering in a period of heightened censorship for Stars and Stripes.

    The firing ignited another round of controversy. That month, the GI-produced, underground-style magazine Grunt Free Press weighed in. In an editorial titled “Should the Troops Get All the News?” the magazine invited GIs to debate the issue. Voicing the “Yes” side, one GI posed a salient question: “If students can tell college presidents the curriculum is lousy and irrelevant, if civil rights marchers can demand more integration, then why shouldn’t a young soldier be allowed enough information to evaluate his establishment, the military?”

    The 1970 censorship episode ended inconclusively. After his firing, Luminello reached out to the House’s freedom of information subcommittee with a five-page list chronicling the military’s various attempts to censor Stars and Stripes. While the subcommittee didn’t force any changes, that didn’t deter the champions of an independent Stars and Stripes.

    Two years later, Sweers, the retired editor, proposed instituting a civilian review board to monitor and check military oversteps. “The chief editor at PS&S,” Sweers explained, “would then know his performance would be regularly examined by a group of leading professionals whose opinions would carry weight with Congress.”

    Congress didn’t immediately adopt Sweers’ recommendation, but over time, the demands of Luminello, Sweers, the troops and subsequent Stars and Stripes reporters and service members paid off. In 1991, Congress created the position of ombudsman for the newspaper. The ombudsman was tasked with monitoring the paper’s editorial independence and reporting concerns to Congress. Since the April firing of Smith, however, the position has remained vacant.

    Today, the question posed by Grunt Free Press in 1970 remains unanswered. Stars and Stripes is a military newspaper intended to give the troops access to the very rights they fight to defend — including their right to a free and independent press. Yet, recurring episodes of heightened censorship, from the Vietnam era to the present day, prove that this freedom is fragile.

    The escalating efforts seem to suggest that Stars and Stripes’ future is bleak. Yet, hope can be found by looking at the response of employees and troops who didn’t back down during the Vietnam War and subsequent periods of military censorship.

    These individuals brought the story of Pentagon interference to the public’s attention and pushed for Congress to make tangible changes to safeguard the newspaper’s independence. Although it took years of pushing, eventually these efforts resulted in the creation of the ombudsman role. It was a reminder that, when troops and journalists resist censorship, Stars and Stripes can regain its independence, even if it’s a slow process.

    Addison M. Jensen is an assistant professor of history at Montana State University. She is currently at work on a monograph titled, “News from ‘The World’: Media, Counterculture, and the American Military in Vietnam,” which uses media and popular culture to examine the experiences of American service members alongside their awareness of the stateside countercultural movements of the era.

    Made by History takes readers beyond the headlines with articles written and edited by professional historians. Opinions expressed do not necessarily reflect the views of The Inquirer.

  • 🏗️ Wrecking ball vs. Shore cottage | Down the Shore

    🏗️ Wrecking ball vs. Shore cottage | Down the Shore

    The unofficial end of summer is here, and I’m (Jason Nark) back to write one of the final Jersey Shore newsletters of the season. I’ve done a few of these end-of-summer newsletters over the years, and they get me feeling a little introspective. I’ve written about getting ditched by my teenage kids on the Wildwood boardwalk in the past, the ebb and flow of nostalgia I experience there, and the joy of getting to do it all over again with a toddler.

    And that’s what I’m doing this year, too.

    For almost 30 years now, most of my Shore time has been at my parents’ two-bedroom condominium on Hereford Inlet in North Wildwood. It’s been a real blessing, particularly with my four kids, and I’ve grown more grateful for it as time passes. I made a few trips to other shore towns, like Asbury Park and Ocean Grove, this summer that really cemented that for me: I couldn’t afford to spend even one night there.

    The author and his daughter, Penelope, on the rides on Wildwood’s boardwalk.Jason Nark

    I’ve always been concerned with the affordability of the Shore, how that goal of a weekend at the beach must be a real struggle for working families, and the hassle of finding a hot shower if you’re a day-tripper.

    I visited North Wildwood irregularly myself this summer, a few days here and there with my daughter but never anything too long. Still, I found a nice rhythm, some real peace in walking my dog, Wanda, at night — bless my parents for letting me bring her — after my daughter went to bed. I’m talking two-hour walks, along the sea wall, on side roads, past the bars, etc. During many of those walks, I just studied houses, watching people watch the Phillies or hearing them laugh on a deck. Some were too brightly lit, others a bit cookie-cutter for my taste, but I found myself pausing at the interesting ones and the smaller homes with faded siding and old screen doors. I take photos of them, sometimes, from afar.

    One of those houses, a 760-square-foot cottage that was built in 1950, was up for sale. It was bright yellow and charming. It was going for just over $2 million and, as I suspected, probably wouldn’t be there next summer.

    “They’re not buying the house, they’re buying the location,” a local real estate agent said in a Facebook video about the home. “Most likely, this place gets torn down and replaced with a luxury shore home.”

    This 1950 bungalow sold for $1.9 million in North Wildwood last month.Jason Nark

    The wrecking ball has been cruel to me in the Wildwoods, taking the Thunderbird Inn, the Golden Nugget ride on the boardwalk, and the postcard-perfect Château Bleu hotel. There are too many to name.

    I’ll feel it a bit next summer when that cottage is gone. I’d love to be wrong.

    As I get older, I’ve tried to loosen my grip on nostalgia, to not waste emotions worrying about the long-gone Lamp Post Diner, or bait shops that seem to be barely hanging on.

    I’ve even accepted that my parents’ place may someday change hands. They are older now and deserve to reap the rewards of a wise investment, whether it’s retiring there or selling altogether. They get plenty of feelers from real estate agents.

    Still, watching my daughter — she’s 5 — on the beach this summer, seeing her eat all the pepperoni off her slice of Sam’s Pizza, or work up the nerve to ride the log flume I’ve been on 100 times, I feel nostalgia’s strong grip again. I’m not sure I’d be able to afford all those memories without that cozy, little condo.

    “I love it,” my father told me when I asked why he’s held out so many years. “Plain and simple, I love it.”

    My parents’ place is in a whole unit of condos, and I couldn’t fathom it being torn down for something larger, but I’ve been wrong before, and stranger things have happened… in Avalon.

    📮 What do you think about the tear-down trend at the Jersey Shore? Do you see it as progress? Does it hurt a bit, or can you look on the bright side and see the rising tide — property values — lifting your boat, too? Let me know what you think by replying to this email. Have ideas or news tips about the Shore? Send them to us here.

    — Jason Nark (🐦 Tweet me at @jasonnark. 📧 email me here.)

    Shore talk

    🐟 What happened to all the weakfish?

    🐺 Coyote concerns grow in Wildwood.

    🐢 Here’s what the new Wetlands Institute building will look like.

    🎰 One-third of Atlantic City’s 21,000 jobs could be lost to New York and North Jersey casinos, a report says.

    🏋️ Is a Jersey Shore reboot filming in Seaside Heights?

    📣 Two Shore locals, including Cape May’s Jackson O’Brien, were named to the Eagles cheerleading squad.

    What to eat/What to do

    🎪 Catch a show at the Hook before it closes for good on Sept. 6. Chuck Darrow considers what should replace it.

    👑 Miss the Irish Pub? Check out the Green Goddess wings at King’s Pub in Atlantic City

    🧑‍🍳 Visit the Ocean City bakery where Dominic Sessa learned to become Anthony Bourdain.

    💡 Check out these ideas to make the Shore better.

    Shore snapshot

    Remember Memorial Day? The weather wasn’t so great that day in Cape May. Jose F. Moreno / Staff Photographer

    🧠 Trivia time

    Tom Cramp was first with the correct answer to last week’s question. Ocean City officially outlawed BYOB in 1984.

    How old was the first Miss America when she was crowned in Atlantic City on Sept. 7, 1921?

    A. 19

    B. 23

    C. 16

    D. 26

    If you think you know the answer, click on this story to find out.

    Ask Down the Shore: Where have all the manners gone?

    We asked our text group The Shore Line about changing manners down the Shore after a reader observed that people were angling for the right of way even on mobility mats leading to the beach.

    Here’s a sampling of the response:

    • Just the other day, walking to the beach with little ones and a group of teens did not move over, even a little bit. I’m 70, and the kids are 4 & 2. They acted like I was the one who SHOULD move out of their way. No manners. I blame the parents.
    • It’s not just beach etiquette — all manners have declined, and proper decorum isn’t valued like it used to be. I definitely agree that walkers rarely drop into a single file on those mats. Fortunately, I do still see people move aside for wheelchairs, as they should.
    • Periodically, I experience the same obstruction behaviors. I hold my ground until they move; I’m in my seventies! Manners everywhere are deteriorating, not just at the shore, though many who vacation here seem entitled.

    Your Shore memory

    An end of summer memory from Jacqui Delario:

    My sisters and I grew up in South Philly and summered with my aunt and uncle on Cresse Ave in Wildwood Crest. I live in Margate now; nothing was as magical as Wildwood in the 60s. Just before Labor Day, we always had a big crabs and macaroni dinner. My dad purchased the crabs somewhere offshore, with corn from a Goshen farm.

    Aunt Betty declawed the crabs — she wore sturdy black shoes and wielded her kitchen tools like weapons. My mother and Aunt Sue were inside preparing the rest. Aunt Betty and Uncle Joe had a big picnic table. They removed the umbrella and added newspaper. Shortly before sunset, we started eating. First was the linguine. The crab gravy was so sweet you hated to stop at one serving. Then magically, the crabs appeared, later the corn. We stayed at the table for hours. My mom and my aunts somehow kept the food coming while never appearing to leave the table.

    But it was also a bittersweet occasion — a highlight of the summer, which was ending.

    Keep sending us your Shore memories! You never know when Down the Shore will pop up in your inbox. In 200 words, tell us how the Shore taps into something deep for you, and we will publish them in this space.

    By submitting your written, visual, and/or audio contributions, you agree to The Inquirer’s Terms of Use, including the grant of rights in Section 10.

  • Our summer of floods | Inquirer South Jersey

    Our summer of floods | Inquirer South Jersey

    Good morning, South Jersey. I’m sorry to share that thunderstorms could return today.

    Speaking of frequent rainfall, an Inquirer analysis has found that our region has been much more flood-prone than usual, and it’s pushed us into becoming a national hot spot for warnings.

    And a veteran teacher and her new kindergarten class navigated the first day of school with mostly smiles and some nerves in Cinnaminson.

    Plus, nearly 20 people were evaluated after exposure to irritating fumes at a Walmart in Deptford, and more news of the day.

    — Taylor Allen (southjersey@inquirer.com)

    If someone forwarded you this email, sign up for free here.

    An influx of floods

    While constantly trying to dodge the thunderstorms, you may have perceived a higher frequency of flash flood warnings throughout the summer. (This is probably accompanied with getting startled by the blaring urgent warnings on your phone.)

    The data backs up the hunch.

    With only four months left in the year, an Inquirer analysis found that the region has already nearly tripled the annual average for flood warnings.

    Camden, Gloucester, and Burlington Counties are all within the top 25 of more than 2,200 counties that have recorded at least one flash flood warning this year.

    The city of Camden is particularly flood prone on Admiral Wilson Boulevard, as well as Cooper and Third Streets.

    But why the frequency? Locally, we’ve had some unusually warm sea-surface temperatures in June that could have enhanced the rainfall, but there are more factors.

    The Inquirer’s Stephen Stirling and Anthony R. Wood have the data and more insight.

    ⛈️ In related news: The residents of Mantua Township are reeling from the damage from Tuesday evening’s storms. It resulted in a difficult Wednesday morning with downed trees and wires, power outages, and closed roads and schools.

    First-day jitters

    On the first day of school at New Albany Elementary in Cinnaminson, veteran teacher Maureen Coller welcomed her new full-day kindergarten class.

    Although most were excited, some needed a bit more reassurance. Throughout the day, Coller put them at ease through complimenting their outfits or showing them the three class rabbits, all named after NBA players.

    This is nothing new for Coller, who is in her 26th year as an educator. She was recently inducted into the district’s Educator Hall of Fame.

    “Kindergarten is where I really belong. You get something different every day,” she said. “I love their energy and I love creating a clean slate.”

    New Jersey has encouraged every public school in the state to offer free, full-day kindergarten. Kindergarten is not mandatory in New Jersey.

    Follow along as reporter Melanie Burney shadows Coller and her students as they navigate day one of the school year.

    What to know today

    🗓️ The best things to do this week

    🍴 Al Fresco Affair Food Truck Festival: Start the holiday weekend a bit early with food trucks, live music from the School of Rock Cherry Hill, and a beer garden. ⏰ Thursday, Sept. 3, 5:30-8 p.m. 💵 Pay as you go 📍 Croft Farm, Cherry Hill

    🚗 Car Show & Food Truck Festival: Peruse a showcase of 300 antique, classic, and muscle cars. There will be food vendors, handcrafted goods, two beer gardens, and live music. ⏰ Friday, Sept. 4, 5-9 p.m. 📍 Glassboro Town Square

    🎆 Labor Day End of Summer Celebration: Collingswood will host a marathon of events on Saturday including a pool party at Robert’s Pool, live music at Pocket Park, and a fireworks show that will be viewable from Knight Park or Collingswood High School. ⏰ Saturday, Sept. 5, 1:30-8:30 p.m. 📍 Multiple locations, Collingswood

    See more event listings here.

    🧠 Trivia time

    Grand Slam champion Naomi Osaka honored which former Sixer with her walk-on outfit for her first-round match at the U.S. Open?

    A) Charles Barkley

    B) Allen Iverson

    C) Julius Erving

    D) Moses Malone

    Think you know? Check your answer.

    What we’re …

    🍴 Craving: Eggplant terrine from LesbiVeggies in Camden.

    🎧 Listening to: The start of the new season of the New Heights podcast, hosted by Jason and Travis Kelce.

    🏒 Anticipating: The Flyers coming to Voorhees in a little more than two weeks for the start of training camp.

    Have a great day. See you tomorrow!

    By submitting your written, visual, and/or audio contributions, you agree to The Inquirer’s Terms of Use, including the grant of rights in Section 10.

  • Creating shaded outdoor havens | Real Estate Newsletter

    Creating shaded outdoor havens | Real Estate Newsletter

    In the heat of summer, shade can mean the difference between relaxing on your patio or deck for hours or feeling your skin cooking in the sun for 30 minutes before you’ve had enough and head back inside.

    With housing costs as high as they are, homeowners are looking to get the most out of their properties. And they’re turning outdoor space into living space they can use for most of the year. That means adding shade.

    Options range from budget-friendly DIY shade sails and simple pergola kits to custom structures that can cost tens of thousands of dollars or more.

    A couple in Washington Square West spent about $140,000 to extend their living space into their yard with a fancy pergola.

    Keep scrolling for that story and more in this week’s edition:

    — Michaelle Bond

    If someone forwarded you this email, sign up for free here.

    Shaded outdoor living spaces

    When Amy and Bob Kothari moved from Ambler to Washington Square West, they wanted city living but didn’t want to give up the outdoor space they loved in the suburbs.

    The historically designated home they chose has an 800-square-foot yard they wanted to make the most of.

    They spent about $140,000 to transform the space. A pergola includes a ceiling fan, heaters, and a roof with slats that automatically close in the rain. The couple added lighting, brickwork, flagstone, and landscaping.

    The yard is not only a spot to relax and entertain, but it also functions as a home office.

    Homeowners like the Kotharis are extending their living spaces and keeping cool in the summer with pergolas, awnings, motorized retractable shades, screens, and UV-resistant fabric strung up for shade.

    Keep reading to learn about options and what to keep in mind.

    📮Have you done something with your outside space that makes you use it more? Tell me about it.

    Philly apartments are shrinking

    If you’ve noticed that newer Philly apartments seem smaller, you’re not imagining things. They are.

    In fact, among the country’s largest cities for renters, Philly has some of the smallest new apartments. The city ranked 88th in a list of 100.

    That’s according to a new report by RentCafe, the nationwide apartment search website.

    New Philly apartments, which the platform defined as those built between 2016 and 2025, span an average of 747 square feet — 163 fewer square feet than the national average.

    And although apartments across the country got slightly bigger last year, in Philadelphia, they’re shrinking.

    Keep reading to learn how much space apartment renters have lost and why Philly’s in-demand rental market means smaller homes.

    The latest news to pay attention to

    Home tour: Gardens in Merion Station

    I’d give myself a solid C+ in caring for plants.

    My home is filled with greenery, and my spider plant makes more babies than I know what to do with.

    But I accidentally killed the vine my mom had grown for decades. (My fault for bringing it to the office.) I couldn’t keep my money tree alive. (Is that a bad sign?) And I’ve recently learned — on my second attempt — that I can’t handle lilies. (How could drooping leaves mean I either gave them too much water or not enough?)

    But many people I’ve featured in my newsletter have had green thumbs.

    When Laura White and her husband, Boots Levinson, bought their Merion Station home, the yard didn’t have much life. Now, it’s filled with thriving flowers, and gardens surround the house.

    White learned to garden from watching her dad and, more recently, seeking advice from neighbors.

    Take a look at the fruits of the homeowners’ labor and learn what goes into maintaining their gardens.

    📷 Photo quiz

    What is this building in the foreground?

    📮 If you think you know, email me back.

    Last week’s quiz featured a photo of the Market Street Bridge.

    Bob D. and Heidi O. were among the readers who got that right. Heidi told me her grandfather worked in the Peco building in the background for 50 years.

    In case you haven’t heard, the Market Street Bridge will be closed to cars for more than a year.

    Enjoy the rest of your week.

    By submitting your written, visual, and/or audio contributions, you agree to The Inquirer’s Terms of Use, including the grant of rights in Section 10.

  • What’s open Labor Day? Grocery stores, SEPTA, trash pickup, and more.

    What’s open Labor Day? Grocery stores, SEPTA, trash pickup, and more.

    Labor Day, which falls on Monday, Sept. 7, marks the unofficial end of summer in Philly — one last long weekend to squeeze in a Shore trip, a park picnic, or a few errands before fall routines kick in. But holiday weekends also mean schedule shifts, closures, and crowded highways.

    This year, city services including trash collection will run on altered schedules, while government offices, banks, and other services will close for the day. Many businesses, stores, and attractions may also adjust their hours, so it pays to check before you head out.

    Whether you’re trying to avoid a surprise at the curb, plan a grocery run or figure out what’s open for some last-minute fun, here’s your guide to what’s open and closed in the Philadelphia region this Labor Day.

    Grocery stores

    Acme Markets

    ✅ Acme Markets locations will be open. Hours vary by location, so check your local store before heading out.

    Whole Foods

    ✅ Whole Foods stores will be open. Hours may vary by location, so check your local store before visiting.

    Giant Food Stores

    ✅ Giant locations will be open. Check your local store for hours.

    Sprouts Farmers Market

    ✅ Sprouts Farmers Market locations are expected to be open. Check your local store for holiday hours.

    Trader Joe’s

    ✅ Trader Joe’s stores are expected to be open. Check your local store for hours.

    Aldi

    ✅ Aldi stores will be open with limited hours on Labor Day. Check the store locator for your local store’s schedule.

    Reading Terminal Market

    ❌ Reading Terminal Market will be closed on Labor Day and will resume normal operating hours Tuesday, Sept. 8.

    Liquor stores

    Fine Wine & Good Spirits

    ✅ Fine Wine & Good Spirits stores that are normally open on Mondays will operate on a modified schedule, opening at their regularly scheduled time and closing at 5 p.m. Check your local store for hours.

    Mail and packages

    U.S. Postal Service

    ❌ Post offices will be closed, and USPS will not deliver regular mail. Regular mail delivery and retail services will resume Tuesday, Sept. 8.

    UPS, FedEx, and DHL

    ❌ UPS will not offer regular pickup or delivery service. UPS Store locations may have modified hours or be closed.

    ❌ Most FedEx pickup and delivery services will be closed. FedEx Office locations will operate on modified hours.

    ⚠️ Check your local DHL location or service for its Labor Day schedule.

    Banks

    ❌ Labor Day is a federal holiday, so most banks, including TD Bank, Bank of America, Wells Fargo, and Chase Bank, will be closed. ATMs and online banking services will still be available.

    Transit

    SEPTA

    ✅ SEPTA buses, Metro, and Regional Rail will operate on a Sunday schedule on Labor Day. Routes that do not have Sunday schedules will not operate.

    Pharmacies

    CVS

    ✅ Most CVS stores will be open on Labor Day, though pharmacy and store hours may vary by location. Check your local store before visiting.

    Walgreens

    ✅ Most Walgreens stores will be open. Pharmacy and store hours may vary by location, so check before visiting.

    Trash collection

    ❌ Philadelphia trash and recycling will not be collected on Labor Day. Collections will be delayed by one day for the remainder of the week.

    Big-box retail

    Target

    ✅ Target stores are expected to be open. Hours may vary by location, so check your local store.

    Lowe’s

    ✅ Lowe’s stores are expected to be open. Check your local store for Labor Day hours.

    Home Depot

    ✅ Home Depot locations are expected to be open. Check your local store for hours.

    Shopping malls

    Mall and individual retailer hours can vary on Labor Day. Check with the Shops at Liberty Place, Cherry Hill Mall, Fashion District Philadelphia, and King of Prussia Mall before visiting.