Pearl Jam’s concert at the Wells Fargo Center in April 2016 is legendary among fans because the band played its 1991 debut album Ten in its entirety.
The performance happened after Eddie Vedder was struck by the idea during the sound check for the show. The venue had surprised him by hanging a Flyers-style banner made by Native Colors Flag Co. in Haddonfield marking the band’s 10th sold-out performance in a South Philly arena.
“I saw that number, and it was like, ‘I think we gotta do it,’ ” Vedder said with a smile that night, after the band had finished playing Ten from start to finish for only the second time in its career.
Now, Pearl Jam is releasing Ten Live, a three-sided vinyl LP that captures live versions of the 13 songs on the album, which includes songs that have long been centerpieces of the band’s repertoire, such as “Even Flow,” “Alive,” and “Jeremy.”
The live album recorded April 29, 2016, in the building that is now known as Xfinity Mobile Arena comes out Nov. 27. That’s Record Store Day Black Friday, the holiday season day on which music retailers put limited-edition vinyl exclusives on sale in shops in Philly and around the U.S.
In 2020, Pearl Jam made a video stream of the entire 32-song 2016 concert available through Philly-based music platform nugs.net. That release was timed to promote PJ Votes, a voter mobilization initiative ahead of the 2020 presidential election.
At the time, Pearl Jam guitarists Stone Gossard and Mike McCready spoke to The Inquirer about the band’s special relationship with Philadelphia. That dates back to a 1991 show at J.C. Dobbs on South Street (now Nikki Lopez), and the final four shows at the Spectrum in 2009 before that venue was demolished the next year.
“I remember playing Dobbs, and it was the strangest stage I’ve ever been on,” McCready recalled. An oversize column on one side of the stage made it difficult to see an entire band at the defunct South Street club. “I’ll never forget that.”
Eagles’ owner Jeffrey Lurie (left) talks with Eddie Vedder (center) of Pearl Jam, and Bradley Cooper (right) before the Philadelphia Eagles play the Seattle Seahawks in Seattle, on Nov. 20, 2016. David Maialetti / Staff Photographer
During the October 2009 Spectrum shows, which ended on Halloween with the band dressing up like Devo and playing “Whip It,” McCready said “in four nights, we tried to play every song we’ve ever written.”
“There’s something about Philadelphia,” Vedder said during the Ten show.
“It seems tough, and intense. I get the City of Brotherly Love. But I also know brothers beat the [stuffing] out of each other! So to see all these intense people … release themselves and open up and celebrate and seem to love each other, it’s really powerful.”
The Pearl Jam banner at the Wells Fargo Center on April 29, 2016.nugs.tv
At one point in the show, Vedder looked up to see the Bruce Springsteen banner in the rafters with a number 56 much larger than Pearl Jam’s 10. He then did an impression of the Boss: “Hey Ed, I hear you’ve got a little banner up there. You’ve got some catchin’ up to do. Call me in 20 years.”
”I think there really is a tangible difference in the level of engagement. I mean, since we started playing Philadelphia and over into New Jersey, it’s … insane. Things are generally sort of twice as big there.
“Some of it has to do with the longevity, I think. There’s a consistency with talking to fans, and then having them turn their kids on to the music. It’s magical, and I don’t want to know too much about it. I just want to honor it. It feels real.”
A version of the 2016 Ten show, which includes covers of Pink Floyd, Wayne Cochran, the Dead Boys, Neil Young, and the Who, can be streamed on YouTube. And a pro-shot video of the concert can be rented or purchased on PearlJam.com, where the Ten Live vinyl can be preordered.
Eddie Vedder and Pearl Jam perform during their Dark Matter World Tour stop at the Wells Fargo Center in Philadelphia on Saturday, September 7, 2024.Elizabeth Robertson / Staff Photographer
Top economic policymakers from many of the world’s wealthiest nations began two days of meetings Monday in Asheville, N.C., at an incredibly challenging moment. Global inflation is high, growth is choked by war in the Middle East, and rising borrowing costs are straining government budgets.
But on the eve of the summit of finance ministers and central bankers from the Group of 20 nations, those questions were clouded by a series of controversies around participation, including whether the Trump administration would let Russia attend while refusing to allow South Africa’s delegation to join.
Representatives from South Africa, a longtime member of the G20 and Africa’s largest economy, were not invited by the Treasury Department to Asheville. President Donald Trump announced last year, after skipping a G20 summit hosted by South Africa, that he would exclude the country from this year’s meetings, citing a false narrative that white South Africans were being indiscriminately killed and their land was being seized.
Administration officials also invited a group of American business executives from industries including banking and cryptocurrency to meet with the government leaders, in an effort to create networking opportunities between government officials with the private sector. They rebuffed requests to also include executives from other G20 countries. The moves have unsettled some attendees at the gathering.
The summit comes at a pivotal moment, with the International Monetary Fund projecting that global growth will slow this year and inflation will rise. The decision by the United States to attack Iran in February disrupted the flow of oil and pushed energy prices higher, darkening the outlook for a world economy that has been battered by wars and a pandemic in recent years.
Huddled in a North Carolina mountain resort, officials are expected to discuss ways to reinforce global supply chains for commodities such as critical minerals, opportunities to increase international investment, and strategies for reducing or restructuring debt. The conversations are taking place as the U.S. gross national debt just topped $40 trillion, creating anxiety among bondholders and raising fears about higher borrowing costs.
“Mounting fiscal pressures, as evidenced by rising bond yields, and a stalled disinflation process — they are sources of worries both for markets and for policymakers,” Kristalina Georgieva, managing director of the IMF, told reporters before the meetings.
Those concerns have been especially evident in the United States. In recent weeks, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent initiated surprising interventions in global currency markets and in the U.S. bond market in an effort to contain rising borrowing costs. Those measures have so far been only modestly effective, and they have drawn pushback from the European Union, which has seen its own currency suffer as a result of some of Bessent’s machinations.
Global leaders also remain wary of the ongoing U.S.-Israeli war with Iran, which has driven up energy costs worldwide, disrupted supply chains and dragged on growth.
“Everyone must contribute to reducing the massive global uncertainties” affecting growth, Lars Klingbeil, the German vice chancellor and finance minister, told reporters before flying to the summit. “That is why we are pushing for an end to the war with Iran and open shipping lanes through the Strait of Hormuz.”
Unifying the G20 has been a challenge for the administration, as countries continue to cope with uncertainty surrounding Trump’s trade policies and the steep tariffs that he has imposed on imports, along with fallout from the war.
U.S. officials have asked allies to join their Operation Economic Outcast initiative, which aims to strangle the Iranian economy and resolve the conflict through economic sanctions. Bessent last week warned that countries that do not sever economic ties with Iran would also face U.S. sanctions.
A senior Treasury official said in a briefing before the Asheville meetings that the Iran plans would feature prominently in the discussions. Bessent signaled last week that the United States would have limited patience for countries that maintain economic ties with Iran but that he hoped other countries would comply with the Trump administration’s demands to cut off Iran in order to avoid a broader global economic war.
“Why would I want to blow up the global financial system?” Bessent said.
In another controversy, the Treasury has denied press credentials for attending the meetings to certain U.S.-based reporters for the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal, along with correspondents for Bloomberg News from several countries.
Germany’s Finance Ministry intervened with the Treasury after it initially denied credentials to German-based reporters from the Times and Bloomberg, who planned to travel with Klingbeil to Asheville.
The ministry succeeded in securing a credential for the Times reporter, the newspaper’s Berlin bureau chief, but not the Bloomberg reporter.
A diplomatic official, speaking on condition of anonymity under a customary practice in the official’s home country, said German officials viewed the denial of credentials for Bloomberg, an international news agency, as unprecedented and unacceptable.
Sixty-one years ago, the U.S. Supreme Court decided Griswold v. Connecticut — striking down a state law that banned married couples from using contraception. The court recognized what should have been obvious: that the most intimate decisions people make about their bodies, their families, and their futures belong to them, not to the government. That ruling established the constitutional right to privacy, and laid the foundation for modern reproductive healthcare.
Today, those rights are not as secure as they once seemed.
The political landscape has shifted. Forces that once operated at the margins of American politics are now driving policy — and contraception is squarely in their sights, along with access to in vitro fertilization (IVF) and even vaccines.
Lab staff prepare small petri dishes, each holding several 1- to 7-day-old embryos, for cells to be extracted from each embryo to test for viability, at the Aspire Houston Fertility Institute in vitro fertilization lab in 2024 in Houston.Michael Wyke
The legal landscape has also shifted, with the Supreme Court a standout case in point when it issued its decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization and took away women’s hard-fought right to abortion care.
In his concurring opinion, Justice Clarence Thomas went even further in his endeavor to strip women of their bodily autonomy. He wrote that the court should “reconsider” earlier rulings, specifically naming Griswold. The right to contraception has been settled law for more than half a century, and this was not an offhand comment. It was a sitting Supreme Court justice signaling that, in his view, the constitutional protection for birth control could be reconsidered next.
Those of us in Harrisburg cannot wait for that to happen.
That is why I introduced legislation to ensure everyone in Pennsylvania has a clear statutory protection to the right to contraception and fertility treatment, no matter what the Supreme Court does. If Washington will not protect this right, Pennsylvania will.
The same constitutional principles Griswold recognized — privacy, autonomy, and freedom from government interference in personal medical decisions — deserve protection under state law, so no court ruling can strip them from Pennsylvanians overnight.
We have already seen how quickly long-established rights can disappear. We watched Roe v. Wade fall in Dobbs. We have seen misinformation about birth control spread — false claims that common forms of contraception are abortifacients — designed to create legal grounds to restrict them.
Contraception and fertility treatment are a part of everyday life for millions of Americans. People use birth control to plan their families, pursue their education and careers, and manage health conditions like endometriosis and polyendocrine metabolic ovarian syndrome (PMOS). These are deeply personal decisions that belong to individuals and their doctors — not politicians.
Supporters of abortion access listen to Democratic State Rep. Mary Jo Daley speak in 2022 in Harrisburg.Mark Pynes | pennlive.com / AP
Yet, there remains a gap between what the public supports and what some lawmakers set out to personally and politically accomplish. That is why action by states matters.
The lesson of Dobbs is that rights cannot be taken for granted.
Pennsylvania has an opportunity to act before another right comes under attack. The question is not whether contraception and fertility treatments deserve protection. The question is whether we are willing to protect them.
I am. And I hope my colleagues are, too.
State Rep. Mary Jo Daley (D., Montgomery) represents the 148th Legislative District. She is cochair of the Pennsylvania Women’s Health Caucus.
The U.S. Supreme Court this summer overturned limits on how much money political parties can spend in coordination with their chosen candidates — the latest in a series of decisions by the conservative majority that have unleashed a flood of money into national politics.
How that will play out in Philadelphia remains to be seen. But local elections lawyers said last week it could boost the power of the city’s political parties to influence the outcome of elections.
“It will be disruptive to city elections,” Adam Bonin, a Philadelphia-based Democratic elections attorney, said of the case, National Republican Senatorial Committee v. Federal Election Commission. “It will give parties more power, and it will give incumbents more power.”
The Philadelphia Board of Ethics, which enforces the city’s campaign finance rules, plans to consider the potential impacts of the Supreme Court’s 6-3 ruling this fall, said board chair Ellen Mattleman Kaplan. That would ensure any changes would take effect before next year’s municipal elections, when Mayor Cherelle L. Parker and all 17 Council members are up for reelection.
In deep-blue Philadelphia, where most local elections are effectively decided by Democratic primaries, two key questions will determine the case’s impact: Does the ruling apply to local elections, and does it apply to primaries?
Both are legally thorny issues that could require lengthy court battles to sort out. But if the answer to both questions ends up being yes, the NRSC ruling has the potential to give significant advantages to candidates who are endorsed by the Democratic City Committee.
For instance, in crowded Democratic primaries for mayor or City Council, the party-endorsed candidates would be the only ones who could effectively circumvent the city’s limits on the size of political donations — currently $3,700 per year for individual donors — by directing deep-pocketed supporters to give additional money to the party, which is not subject to those limits.
The party could then work directly with its endorsed candidates on how to spend that money, including decisions on the messaging and timing of TV ads or door-knocking efforts.
To be clear, experts said, there are many uncertainties about how, and even if, the ruling would apply to Philadelphia municipal elections, where political money is more tightly regulated than in state and federal races.In the immediate future, the ethics board could take the position that the ruling applies only to federal races, not the city races it regulates.
“We haven’t come to any conclusions yet,” said J. Shane Creamer Jr., the ethics board’s executive director. “We’ve got to keep in mind that the federal law in that case is a little different than Philadelphia’s laws, including different rules designed to prevent circumvention of contribution limits.”
Additionally, the Supreme Court opinion did not specify whether its ruling applies to local elections, a question that could be addressed by subsequent federal court cases. The NRSC case before the justices centered on limits on coordination between parties and candidates in federal law that apply only to general elections.
But Philadelphia elections lawyer Kevin Greenberg said the underlying philosophy in the decision — that limiting political parties’ coordination with their candidates constituted a violation of the constitutional right to free speech — would likely extend to primary elections.
“There is nothing about the Supreme Court’s logic that inherently applies only to general elections,” said Greenberg, who has done legal work for the Pennsylvania Democratic Party. “What any judge and any lawyer thinking about how to implement this … would and should do is apply the Supreme Court’s opinion to what the next set of facts are, and under the Philadelphia law, this will be problematic for the existing [campaign finance] statue.”
The ruling directly applies to general elections for U.S. House and Senate races, meaning that federal party committees can now coordinate with — and spend freely on behalf of — candidates running for Philly congressional seats and Pennsylvania’s U.S. Senate seats.
But the two outstanding questions, about local elections and primaries, would likely have to be sorted out in court because the city is unlikely to voluntarily change its system, said Matthew Haverstick, a Philadelphia elections lawyer who often works with Republican clients. Such a case would require a candidate or, more likely, a political party suing the city, he said.
“Given the way the Philly ethics board and the city regulates elections, they’re not going to do anything unless they’re told to do it by a court,” Haverstick said. “Whether this decision has a direct impact on the Philadelphia rule is unclear. … You could argue that political parties can coordinate in primaries — there are good arguments that it could — but it would have to be considered in court.”
Haverstick is representing 2023 mayoral candidate Jeff Brown in a lawsuit against the ethics board. During that campaign, the ethics board alleged that a super PAC backing Brown coordinated with him in violation of campaign finance rules. A judge later threw out the case.
With Haverstick as their attorney, Brown and the PAC have since sued the ethics board, alleging in part that it unfairly targeted him during the campaign. The Commonwealth Court in March ruled against Brown and the PAC. They have appealed the decision to the Pennsylvania Supreme Court, where it is pending.
A potential opportunity for Philly’s Democratic establishment
The local Democratic establishment’s influence in recent years has been waning as insurgent candidates backed by progressive groups have notched key victories, oftentimes with the backing of deep-pocketed outside spending groups supported by organized labor.
Depending on how it is applied, the court’s decision could create an opportunity for the Democratic City Committee to reassert itself by giving its preferred candidates, who are typically more centrist or conservative Democrats, access to a major financial advantage over their rivals.
The Democratic City Committee did not respond to a request for comment.
Currently, candidates for city offices are subject to strict limits on the size of donations they can collect: $3,700 per year for individual donors, and $14,800 for organizations. Outside groups known as super PACs can raise money in unlimited amounts — but they are prohibited from coordinating with campaigns over fundraising, strategy, and spending.
If applied to city elections, the ruling could create an exception to those rules for one type of outside group — political parties — allowing them to raise money in unlimited amounts and spend as much as they want while working hand in glove with their endorsed candidates. And in a primary election, where there is only one party involved, that could give the establishment-backed candidate a major advantage.
Chairman of the Democratic City Committee, former U.S. Rep. Bob Brady, at Mother Bethel AME Church Nov. 2, 2025.Tom Gralish / Staff Photographer
But there is reason to doubt that scenario will become the norm in high-profile Philadelphia elections. In addition to legal questions about the NRSC case’s applicability, there are political obstacles that could prevent candidates from taking advantage of the court’s ruling.
To be endorsed by the city committee, candidates must receive the support of a majority of the 69 Democratic ward leaders, who often fail to reach that level of consensus in crowded races. And even if a candidate wins the endorsement, there is no guarantee they would have the donor network to be able to take full advantage of coordinating fundraising with the party.
Lastly, the party may differ with a candidate’s campaign on strategy decisions, or it could decline to raise money beyond the limits applicable to other candidates to avoid the appearance of tipping the scales.
Bonin said he opposes the current Supreme Court’s campaign finance rulings, such as the 2010 Citizens United decision that helped usher in the dominance of super PACs. But in light of those rulings, he said, the NRSC decision may be a positive development.
“If we’re going to live in a world where super PACs exist, we are better off strengthening political parties, which are more accountable,” he said.
A new twist in Council election races for the GOP and Working Families Party?
There is another arena in which the decision could have a major impact in Philadelphia: the general election races for the two seats on City Council that are reserved for independent or minority-party candidates.
Republicans held those seats for about 70 years until Councilmembers Kendra Brooks and Nicolas O’Rourke of the progressive Working Families Party won them in the two most recent city election cycles, a major factor in Council’s recent shift to the left.
At left is Kendra Brooks speaking with colleague Nicholas O’Rourke during caucus session. Philadelphia City Council gathered today for the budget address from Mayor Cherelle L. Parker in chambers, Thursday, March 12, 2026. .Alejandro A. Alvarez / Staff Photographer
The Philly GOP has seen anemic fundraising levels and dismal results in recent years. If applied to local primaries, the NRSC ruling could potentially help the party gain traction with the help of just a handful of major donors — especially given that it is less clear the Working Families Party, without a primary election, would be able to take advantage of the change.
If the NRSC ruling is applied to city elections, the Philly GOP would undoubtedly be able to coordinate with its nominees in those Council races. Vince Fenerty, who chairs the Republican City Committee, said he is seeking legal advice on that question.
“We’re hopeful that there could be a chance for us to help our City Council candidates next year and everyone else who runs [as a Republican],” he said.
It is unclear whether the ruling would benefit the smaller Working Families Party, which under Pennsylvania law is not a major political party. (Pennsylvania’s Commonwealth Court is currently deciding an unrelated case on the Green Party that could affect the legal standing of groups like the Working Families Party.)
At left is attorney Matt Wolfe and Vince Fenerty, chair of the Philadelphia Republican Party attended the hearing for Working Families Party candidates. Hearing in courtroom 443 Philadelphia City Hall for Working Families Party candidates on Friday, August 11, 2023.Alejandro A. Alvarez / Staff Photographer
In a statement, Working Families Party spokesperson Nick Gavio lamented the direction of the U.S. Supreme Court’s recent rulings on campaign finance law.
“Anyone who has knocked a door in Philadelphia knows that regular voters are not pushing to give billionaires and the ultra-rich more power to influence our elections,” he said. “WFP has no interest in overturning existing campaign finance regulations that act as guardrails against political and corporate insiders buying elections. We will of course continue to follow all campaign finance rules that are on the books.”
A new quandary for the ethics board
In stark contract to the increasingly unregulated world of federal elections, Philadelphia has some of the tightest campaign finance restrictions in the country, and the ethics board has aggressively enforced the city’s rules.
Critics, including Greenberg, believe the board has already overextended itself by sticking to Philly’s rules as the Supreme Court increasingly takes a wrecking ball to federal campaign finance law. And for Greenberg, the NRSC case is the latest decision that shows Philly is overdue for a full redo that “addresses these issues in light of the [Supreme Court’s] clear direction.”
“City Council needs to write appropriate rules, and the board of ethics needs to rescind almost all of its existing regulations and readopt them in law,” he said.
It is unlikely the ethics board would lead the charge in demolishing the campaign finance system it helped to create — one that has been widely credited with limiting the influence of corporate interests and super-wealthy individuals since it was implemented in 2005.
In an interview, Creamer, the ethics board executive director, referenced differences between the federal law in question in the NRSC case and Philly’s system — an indication the board could determine the decision has no bearing on local elections.
“We don’t have a similar structure to our law. So it may impact our law somehow; it may not,” Creamer said. “We’re still analyzing it.”
There are several important differences the board could point to. In federal law, for instance, there are limits on how much individuals can give to political parties, but in Philadelphia there are none.
In addition, the majority opinion in the NRSC decision, which was authored by Justice Brett M. Kavanaugh, discusses at length how rules around “earmarked” donations — in which donors give money to political parties and direct them to spend it on specific candidates — provide a “prophylaxis” against corruption that could result from eliminating limits on coordination with political parties. Philly does not have an earmarking process.
If the ethics board stands pat, candidates or political parties seeking to take advantage of the NRSC ruling could challenge the board’s regulations in court. Politicians in heavily Democratic cities like Philadelphia, however, face strong disincentives from taking that step, which would allow them to be painted as supportive of moneyed interests playing a greater role in local politics.
Bonin, who has been less critical of the ethics board’s approach to campaign finance than Greenberg, said resistance to the NRSC case would be difficult.
“Whether they like it or not, they have to allow it,” Bonin said, referring to coordination between candidates and parties.
The Landmark Ritz Five movie theater could reopen soon, after shuttering abruptly this month because it failed city inspections.
Landmark Theatres’ parent company, Cohen Media Group, said “we are actively working with the local authorities to address certain requirements related to the theater and are committed to completing the necessary work as quickly and thoroughly as possible,” in a statement shared by spokesperson Daniela Sapkar.
The Philadelphia Department of Licenses & Inspections ordered the movie theater to close last week after two failed inspections. Violations, noted in a March inspection, included failure to obtain a permit to install a fire alarm system, share documentation that fabrics are flame retardant, ensure that exit doors fully “self-close and latch,” and certify emergency lighting. The theater was also found to be missing a valid food license.
The theater, located at 214 Walnut St., failed a subsequent inspection on Aug. 11. By Aug. 26, the movie theater was closed, and a cease operations order was plastered on its doors.
“We understand the importance of this theater to the Philadelphia community and greatly appreciate the patience and support of our guests,” the Cohen Media Group statement said. “We look forward to an imminent reopening.”
Sapkar said Monday that a reopening date has not yet been decided, “but we’re hopeful it will be as quickly as possible.”
On Monday morning, the theater’s website still listed that it was temporarily closed “due to administrative issues.” No showtimes were listed for Monday or Tuesday.
Tickets appeared to be available to purchase online for Wednesday viewings of The Odyssey, The Invite, and Spider-Man: Brand New Day, among other movies.
Landmark Theatres was purchased by Cohen Media Group in 2018. The Landmark Theatres brand has locations across the country, including theaters in Arizona, California, and Florida.
Big Charlie’s Saloon, the South Philadelphia corner bar known nationally for its unlikely devotion to the Kansas City Chiefs, is getting a new playbook.
DiTomo and Jacobsen say they plan to turn it into Sweets, a neighborhood bar. DiTomo said that he would remain at Meetinghouse and that his business partners there have no stake whatsoever in Sweets.
Sweets will have no Chiefs memorabilia — or sports theme of any kind, for that matter. DiTomo said they’re thinking low-key. “I’m not a big concept guy,” he said. “I’m going to stay true to what that neighborhood deserves out of a neighborhood bar, and that’s about it.” The partners started an Instagram account to float photos that inspire them.
DiTomo said he and Jacobsen are working through due diligence for the purchase of the building, which had been listed at $1.1 million and includes apartments upstairs. A liquor license transfer is also pending.
They are aiming for a winter opening, though that timing is tentative. “If we could capture the holiday season, that would be beyond fantastic,” DiTomo said. “But we’re both realists. We’ll see how it goes.”
Its allegiance dated to Super Bowl IV in January 1970, when Staico’s father, Charlie, bet on Kansas City to beat the Minnesota Vikings and promised his young son a bicycle if the Chiefs won. They did, Paul got the bike, and a lifelong allegiance began.
After taking over the bar following his father’s death in 1983, Staico bought a satellite dish in 1986 so he and friends could watch Chiefs games that rarely appeared on Philadelphia television. Over the decades, the bar became known as “Arrowhead East,” its wood-paneled rooms covered with signed helmets, pennants, bobbleheads, street signs, and other Chiefs memorabilia.
But Big Charlie’s was also a neighborhood bar, and that is the aspect of the property that DiTomo intends to preserve — rather than its sports identity. He and Jacobsen both live in South Philadelphia.
“I’ve always admired neighborhood bars,” he said. “I grew up in neighborhood bars, so I want it to be true to form — just the classics, done well.”
That philosophy will extend to the drinks. DiTomo said the bar will pour Meetinghouse beer, along with a straightforward selection of beer, wine, and cocktails built around classics.
Sweet’s food will be simple, he said, because of the tiny kitchen.
DiTomo, a Culinary Institute of America graduate who rose to prominence a decade ago in the Marc Vetri organization at Amis, was a chef consultant on M. Night Shyamalan’s series Servant on Apple TV+ when Meetinghouse opened in 2023.
DiTomo and Jacobsen have been friends for about five years. DiTomo said Jacobsen had long been interested in doing a project together, but nothing had clicked until the Big Charlie’s building became available. “This building spoke to him, so he jumped on it,” DiTomo said.
Stickball, Jacobsen’s shop, specializes in vintage clothing, art, and objects. GQ included it on its 2024 list of 30 notable vintage menswear stores in the United States.
DiTomo said the Sweets name came from a running list he has kept over the years. He associates the word with several of his uncles, who used it as a term of affection. “I always liked the feeling of it,” he said. “It sounds nice, and it’s timeless. It feels good for the neighborhood, too.”
There were so many jaw-dropping moments in U.S. District Court Judge Paul S. Diamond’s courtroom on Thursday that it is hard to know where to begin.
For starters, I had a stint covering courts in the mid-2000s, and have never seen a courtroom packed with so many lawyers — including lawyers representing lawyers — for a hearing in an exoneration case. An overflow room was needed to handle the rapt onlookers.
The hearing grew out of efforts by Philadelphia District Attorney Larry Krasner’s office to overturn the conviction of Dennis Johnson, who was found guilty of second-degree murder in the 2007 shooting of a man at a North Philadelphia convenience store. While Johnson’s future was ostensibly on the line, it quickly became clear that so was Krasner’s.
By the end of the day, the future for both men looked bleak.
While Johnson was in court with his attorneys, the hearing focused on the machinations within Krasner’s office.
The office has already run into a heap of legal trouble over previous efforts to overturn other convictions or reduce sentences, mainly for those convicted ofmurder.
Federal courts have disbarred and suspended prosecutors in Krasner’s office for lying to the court. The state Supreme Court found more lies and, in an unprecedented move, appointed the state attorney general to review future efforts to undo prior convictions.
So essentially, Krasner’s office now has a court-appointed babysitter because it can no longer be trusted.
It was easy to see why after three prosecutors — who still work for Krasner — provided damning testimony about their own office’s sloppy handling of efforts to vacate Johnson’s conviction. They accused Krasner of conduct that bordered on paranoia and cover-up, and painted a picture of an office that seemed less focused on the pursuit of justice than on shielding itself.
Katherine Ernst, the chief of training in the law division, went first, followed by colleagues Steven Wildberger, an assistant district attorney in the appeals unit, and David Napiorski, the head of the law division.
David Napiorski, the head of the law division in the Philadelphia District Attorney’s Office, testified that Krasner eschewed his official email account and “always prefers oral, in-person conversations.”Alejandro A. Alvarez / Staff Photographer
They came with receipts, providing meeting times, memos, and emails documenting conversations with Krasner about how to handle errors in court filings by the DA’s office related to an attempt to undo Johnson’s conviction.
Krasner did not respond to a request for comment, but in an earlier filing his office said the prosecutors were “ill informed.”
The three prosecutors provided alarming testimony detailing how Krasner avoided using his official office email and threatened them.
“DA Krasner typically didn’t use that email,” Ernst said about his office email. “He wouldn’t check it. And so, if you wanted to email him, then you typically had to email his private address.”
Napiorski backed that view: “He always prefers oral, in-person conversations.”
In late June, after the three prosecutors drafted a memo to Krasner detailing the office’s conflict of interest in handling the Johnson matter, he responded with an email sent from the account of his chief of staff, Jennifer Lin, which began, “This response is not from Jen Lin, it is from Larry Krasner.”
At another point, Wildberger testified that when they presented Krasner a letter turning the Johnson case over to the state attorney general, he went “apoplectic.”
“He said something about having already told us not to bring him printed-out material, things in writing,” Wildberger said.
‘Paraguay’
The prosecutors pushed for the attorney general to take over, because their self-interest had become a focus rather than the merits of the case. In their view, they had conflicts, and so did Krasner.
But Krasner wanted to hire an outside lawyer to handle the matter, and repeatedly resisted efforts to turn the case over to the state Office of Attorney General, or OAG.
Ernst testified that Krasner “hated” everyone in the OAG. Wildberger said Krasner “referred to the Office of the Attorney General as Paraguay” and “the people that work there as Nazis.”
Adding to the drama was the fact that the attorney questioning Ernst and Wildberger was John Boscia, a senior deputy attorney general in the OAG.
To clarify, Boscia asked Wildberger, “So that the people from the OAG’s office were escaped Nazis who had gone to Paraguay?”
“That’s my understanding,” Wildberger responded.
All three prosecutors testified that throughout the internal discussions, Krasner remained adamant about retaining control of the case in order to “protect the office” — a phrase that came up more than two dozen times during the hearing.
At one point, Judge Diamond asked if Krasner’s reference to “protect the office” meant “protect himself?”
“I think that was probably part of it,” Napiorski said.
In another twist, Thomas Gaeta, the DA’s civil litigation supervisor, was involved in some of the internal discussion, yet he handled the brief and mild cross-examination of his colleagues on Thursday.
The roots of the DA’s conflict began after Johnson appealed the verdict, claiming his defense attorney was ineffective.
In 2022, then-Assistant District Attorney Jaclyn Mason filed a document that agreed with the arguments made by Johnson’s attorneys at the Pennsylvania Innocence Project, and that his conviction should be overturned. According to the document Mason signed, the detective’s testimony in Johnson’s trial was improper and had “tipped the scales” toward a conviction.
But this spring, following an order from Diamond, Ernst and some of her colleagues reviewed the case. Ernst said she found multiple errors in Mason’s motion and confronted her.
Ernst and her colleagues urged Mason to fall on her sword for the office,take responsibility for the errors, and withdraw the motion. Napiorski said he told Mason he had done something similar in a different exoneration case that blew up.
Profiles in courage.
‘Reluctantly but loudly’
The main hero in what is shaping up to be an unraveling of Krasner’s mass exoneration scheme appears to be Mason.
Her dramatic testimony in Diamond’s courtroom last month provided a window into the lack of independent investigation by Krasner’s office into the wrongful conviction claims. (Mason also appears to have provided some backbone to the three prosecutors who testified on Thursday.)
Mason explained that she had only been on the job a few months in 2022, and had largely taken directions from her supervisor, Matthew Stiegler, who she said told her if Johnson’s claims were good enough for the Innocence Project, they were good enough for him.
In the meeting with the prosecutors, Ernst recounted that Mason said, “This is all Matthew Stiegler’s fault.”
Mason told her colleagues that Stiegler should have to sign the withdrawal motion, as well. Apparently, that was not an option. Instead of going along with the plan to take all the blame, Mason resigned on June 2.
In a two-page resignation letter addressed to Krasner, Mason wrote that she had limited experience with federal habeas law when she was hired. Yet, the first two cases Stiegler assigned to her “involved complicated cases where he determined that it was appropriate to concede habeas relief.”
Mason said she “trusted” Stiegler, but later learned about a mass exodus of prosecutors when he oversaw the federal litigation unit.
Mason said Stiegler had “worked closely with the Innocence Project and the Federal Defenders on the [Johnson] case, deeming it worthy of a concession with little independent investigation.”
Therein lies the problem when it comes to reviewing past convictions. Under Krasner, the prosecution and defense are largely on the same team.
Mason added that Stiegler reviewed several drafts of the concession she filed in the Johnson case, but did not sign his name to it. Mason ended by writing that she “reluctantly but loudly” resigned.
After Mason quit, all three prosecutors testified that Stiegler hatched a plan to manage the fallout. He suggested combing through Mason’s past cases for errors and claiming she was a rogue operator.
Ernst testified that Stiegler asked to meet and told her, “Mason purposely inserted the false facts into the response.” Ernst explained that Stiegler wanted to make it seem as if any mistakes in the case were “100% [Mason’s] fault and 0% his fault.”
Krasner was on board with Stiegler’s plan, according to Ernst, who recounted a conversation with the district attorney.
Krasner said Stiegler “gave me this really good idea,” Ernst testified. “I think that we should go through Ms. Mason’s cases, say that this was a pattern by her, and then file something with the court saying that.”
Why the deference to Stiegler is unclear. He has come and gone from Krasner’s office three times and remains a lightning rod. Stiegler now oversees the Conviction Integrity Unit, a departmental name fast becoming an oxymoron.
Stiegler sat in the front row of Judge Diamond’s courtroom on Thursday as the other prosecutors testified about his role and reputation with the office.
Wildberger testified that in the meeting with Mason and the other prosecutors, he told her, “You’ll find no Matt Stiegler apologists here.” He later explained that Stiegler “was not well liked” and had chased away many prosecutors.
The internal drama and legal troubles have roiled Krasner’s office. Ernst testified that many frontline prosecutors were “angry” at Krasner for what happened to Mason. Wildberger said he had “lost faith in the administration of the Philadelphia District Attorney’s Office.”
Amid the discussions over whether to tell the court about the errors in the Johnson case came another bombshell.
Ernst testified that Napiorski warned her Krasner had threatened “to fire anyone who tells the judge about this.” She added that Wildberger clarified Krasner didn’t use the word fire, but said that “there would be consequences.”
Early on in the proceeding, Judge Diamond signaled his take on the emerging testimony.
“If what they say is true, potential wrongdoing abounds,” Diamond said. “There’s a question of whether perjury was committed, subornation of perjury was committed, criminal conspiracy was committed, and obstruction of justice was committed.”
The hearing is scheduled to continue on Tuesday. It is unclear what the judge will do next.
I left the courthouse thinking about the Watergate hearings and, in particular, a March 1973 meeting in which White House counsel John Dean warned RichardNixon about a “cancer” on the presidency.
Has something similar metastasized in Krasner’s office?
Next year’s Met Gala will not spotlight controversial fashion designer John Galliano after all.
The Metropolitan Museum of Art and Galliano announced in a joint statement that the museum would not move forward with John Galliano: Horizons. Galliano, 65, is a British designer who has worked for some of the industry’s top fashion houses, including Christian Dior, Givenchy, and Oscar de la Renta.
At the peak of his career, he served as Dior’s creative director for nearly 15 years. But in 2011, he was infamously canceled after his conviction in a Parisian court over a series of racist and antisemitic comments. It cost him his job leading Dior. At the time, Galliano said his alcohol abuse sparked the outburst.
The museum’s retrospective was reportedly going to highlight the fashion director’s portfolio while also addressing his personal life, including his public exile and the work he later did to atone and get sober.
“Following thoughtful discussions with many stakeholders and with John Galliano, we together have decided not to proceed with the exhibition,” said Metropolitan Museum of Art director Max Hollein.
The announcement came exactly one month after the initial Met Gala theme reveal. Galliano’s exhibit would have only been the third retrospective for a living designer in the Costume Institute’s history.
While fashion experts largely agreed the fashion director’s work is seminal, critics said the exhibit’s timing — which coincides with a global surge in antisemitism — was cause for concern.
Professional thrifter and fashion writer Virginia Chamlee previously told The Inquirer that while the Met was equipped to accurately cover the designer’s checkered past, she was concerned about whether the storytelling would resonate with the average Met Gala consumer.
The annual exhibit’s largest publicity draw is a televised red carpet where celebrities invited often wear pieces by or paying tribute to the spotlighted designer — not the exhibit itself.
“Even if the museum intends to offer a complete examination of Galliano’s complicated legacy, it may come off as a straightforward celebration of someone who said things so heinous and racist that they were charged and fired for them.”
In the joint statement, Galliano himself said he requested not to move forward with the exhibit.
“After much reflection and discussion with The Met and all those involved, I have decided, with great sadness, that it is best for the exhibition not to take place at this time,” Galliano said. “I remain fully accountable for the pain caused by my words in the past, particularly the hurt I caused to the Jewish and Asian communities, and I remain deeply sorry for it. I understand that meaningful atonement is not achieved through an exhibition, institutional recognition or a single public gesture. It is a continuing responsibility, demonstrated through listening, learning and one’s conduct over time.”
Galliano went on to thank Anna Wintour, a longtime champion of Galliano’s and the global editorial director of Vogue, chief content officer of Condé Nast, and Met Gala chairperson responsible for the event’s programming.
In her extended statement to Vogue, Wintour framed Horizons’ cancellation as a “postponement.”
“John’s decision to ask the Museum to postpone the exhibition devoted to his work is very courageous and a measure of the man he is,” she said. “I believe this is the right decision, and both he and the Museum have my full support.” The Met’s version of Wintour’s statement does not use that phrasing.
Information on a new Spring Costume Institute exhibition and the 2027 Met Gala will be announced later, the museum said. The Gala itself was initially scheduled to take place May 3, though it’s unclear if that date would shift in light of the exhibit change.
Donald Trump seemed genuinely happy last Sunday as he waved the green flag to start the Freedom 250 Grand Prix, the first IndyCar race in the nation’s capital. Whether you regarded the event as crass exploitation or a rousing sports presentation, it certainly wasn’t surprising.
Way before he became a politician, the president was an entertainer.
Trump made cameos in movies, headlined his own reality TV show, The Apprentice, and organized high-profile boxing matches and MMA fights at his casinos. He owned the Miss Universe pageant and a football franchise of the short-lived USFL, brought in Michael Jackson to the grand opening of his Trump Taj Mahal in Atlantic City, and he even “fought” in wrestling bouts himself.
As a journalist based in Berlin, I’ve done a great deal of reporting over the past decade about the global tilt to the political right. What Trump has done as president, especially in his second term, echoes what autocrats around the world do to boost their public image.
The race was already the final event of Trump’s attempt to commandeer America’s Semiquincentennial festivities under the Freedom 250 banner. But just in case it wasn’t clear who the star was, the military flyover and the presidential limousine cruising down Pennsylvania Avenue before the race made it obvious. The president was also front and center (it was coincidentally his birthday, after all) when he used the South Lawn of the White House to host a mixed martial arts event on June 14.
It seems fitting that, just like Trump’s family businesses have no problem taking large amounts of money from the leaders of authoritarian nations like Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates — including $2 billion to a private equity firm founded by son-in-law Jared Kushner and $500 million for the Trumps’ crypto ventures — the president would also take to their sportswashing playbook.
Both the Saudi government and the UAE have used sports and entertainment to improve their global reputation and distract from allegations of human rights abuses and repressive policies.
Trump’s supporters may argue that the president’s great race wasn’t much different from the high-profile sporting contests that are held in European capitals — and they would be right, up to a point. A crucial difference is that most of those European events have historical and communal aspects to them that are very different from the spectacles Trump is setting up left and right.
The Monaco Grand Prix, for instance, was first held in 1929, during a time when European motor sports were gradually turning professional. In the years leading up to the first race in the principality, other famous European circuits like Monza, the Nürburgring, or Spa-Francorchamps had held their first races, so it was fitting for the time.
The Tour de France has been held since 1903 and was founded as a marketing ploy for a French sports paper. The first tour consisted of only six stages, ended in a small suburb of Paris, and developed steadily over time to become the global phenomenon we know today. Formula E races are held in world capitals, but in restricted spaces like former airports or fairgrounds.
Trump’s Freedom 250 Grand Prix had more in common with the Azerbaijan Grand Prix in Baku.
A former member state of the Soviet Union, Azerbaijan had been ruled autocratically by former Azerbaijani KGB head Heydar Aliyev since 1993. Shortly before his death in 2003, he had his son take over in an election described as fraudulent by independent observers. Ilham Aliyev has been ruling the country ever since — and has implemented a thorough sportswashing strategy for more than a decade.
Baku has hosted European Football Championship games and has been a sponsor of Spain’s Atlético Madrid. For the grand prix, the country pays 40 million to 50 million euros per year to Formula One — all while freedom of speech is highly restricted, journalists are being jailed, and there’s a gap — in both income and equity — between the shiny capital of Baku and the rural areas filled with subsistence farmers.
With the ongoing war in the Middle East, the Jeffrey Epstein issue still looming, and the cost of living continuing to rise thanks to his bad policies, Trump may believe he can paper over the cracks with a checkered flag.
After all, if the people can’t afford bread, Trump’s happy to give them circuses.
Wim Orth is a journalist with WELT in Berlin and an Arthur F. Burns fellow at The Inquirer.
After graduating nursing school and navigating the loss of her mother, Corinne Kucewicz was looking for something positive to focus her energy on. That’s when she found Brandywine Roller Derby, Chester County’s only league.
Now the league’s president, overseeing roughly 26 members, Kucewicz, 28, worries about Brandywine’s future as they struggle to find a permanent and affordable home in Chester County to practice, hold games, and fundraisers. Without any roller rinks in the county, they’ve ended up at their current space at a school facility in Exton. It offers enough room for their track, but with a slippery — and sometimes muddy — floor that can make skating conditions iffy, the location is starting to hurt retention.
“It worries me if we don’t find another space that our league is going to go kaput,” said Kucewicz, who goes by Maria Von Scrapp on the track. “That would obviously be worst-case scenario, but unfortunately, as one of the leaders of the league, that’s something I have to worry about.”
Corinne “Maria Von Scrapp” Kucewicz, captain of Brandywine Roller Derby, sits for a portrait at the 422 Sportsplex in Pottstown on Saturday, Aug. 22, 2026.Kriston Jae Bethel / For the Inquirer
Roller skating has seen its peaks and valleys. There was a boom as far back as the 1880s. More recently it’s been a fixture of school trips or birthday parties. Roller derby, which started in 1935, has a long history itself, transforming from a race, to a full-contact sport, to a scripted professional-wrestling-esque performance.
Today’s roller derby — a DIY, gender-expansive, and LGBTQ+-friendly sport — cropped up in the early 2000s. Gone are many of the banked tracks, the raised, curved oval that was synonymous with derby of the ’70s and ’80s. Many leagues rent spaces and play on “flat tracks,” which is exactly how it sounds.
COVID-19 offered a bit of a paradox for roller skating and derby. The pandemic led to the closing of rinks across the country, as many large venues struggled with shutdowns. It simultaneously put roller derby leagues on pause, with skaters unable to hold practices or bouts (i.e. games), eating into funds they had raised through selling tickets and skaters’ dues. Some leagues collapsed.
Members of the Brandywine Roller Derby warm up on the track before a bout against the Dirty Jersey Roller Derby Violet Uprising at the 422 Sportsplex in Pottstown. Kriston Jae Bethel / For the Inquirer
As pandemic restrictions eased, and roller derby leagues were able to practice again, they saw a depleted returning membership but heightened interest in the niche sport.
Kucewicz was among them. She showed up with a cohort of other interested skaters to a 2024 recruiting event. The team took her in despite having no past skating experience, and taught her how to skate, how to fall safely, how to hit, and how to take a hit.
“It was an amazing mix of friendly people and people that I saw myself being friends with,” Kucewicz said. “That was something that I definitely needed at the time, and is still important.”
Before the pandemic, Brandywine had a large league that was doing well, Kucewicz said. When they were able to start skating again after, they were down to six returning skaters but also had a crowd of interested newbies.
Rachael “The Texorcist” Gable laughs alongside teammates. Kriston Jae Bethel / For the Inquirer
Finding a space has proven to be difficult. When the league was founded in 2010 by a group of skaters, they met at the Caln Roller Rink in Downingtown. But a changing of the rink’s ownership ultimately closed the rink.
The league ended up at Collegium Charter School in Exton two years ago, practicing in an outdoor-indoor, climate-controlled space. The floor is, essentially, plastic tiles on top of dirt. When it rains, mud seeps through.
The floor itself is uneven: On one side of their track, it goes uphill; the other, downhill. Aside from scrimmaging, derby is a lot of learning and drilling fundamentals, focusing on agility and footwork. A slippery, uneven floor makes that difficult.
“Members have left and gone to other leagues because they’re afraid, because our floor is so slippery, that they’re going to injure themselves. Or they just want a higher level of derby that we can’t really provide at this moment because our floor is not that great,” Kucewicz said.
Brandywine Roller Derby and Dirty Jersey Roller Derby Violet Uprising compete during a bout at the 422 Sportsplex in Pottstown. Kriston Jae Bethel / For the Inquirer
In their hunt, they’ve been priced out of anywhere that can be an option for them, said Christi Tuminelli, a league skater who has been overseeing the search for a new space. Most warehouse spaces are going for $12 to $24 per square foot. Their budget is closer to $2 per square foot. They’ve reached out to more than 30 properties. Most have gone quiet.
Others don’t work, either because the property doesn’t fit the size of the track they need, or the owner isn’t interested in sports. They also have had to contend with worries about damaging the floor, which they say is a nonissue.
The league is open-minded about its future home; Tuminelli was contacting farms about their barns. They need an open space, with minimal columns in the way. The track spans 108 by 75 feet, which is roughly 8,100 square feet. They want to stay in Chester County, with the hope of getting more involved with the community when they have a stable location. Ideally, they’ll be able to host the public for games or fundraising events. Right now, the team hosts its bouts in Pottstown, in Montgomery County. They’re breaking even between renting the space and raising funds from ticket sales, they said.
“Right now we’re at an impasse because we need the space to generate the income, but we can’t afford the space without new people,” Tuminelli said. “We are a working nonprofit that can pay sustainable rent. We just can’t compete with the market rates in Chester County.”
While derby is a sport, it’s also a community.
Najah “Chaotic Condor” Coon from Brandywine Roller Derby sits on the bench during a recent bout. Kriston Jae Bethel / For the Inquirer
Tuminelli — or Mother Mayhem, on the track — went to her first bout wracked with nerves but walked away feeling excited and empowered. Tuminelli, 42, was never a “sports girlie” growing up, she said. But if she had known what they offered, maybe she would have joined earlier.
With other teams an hour or so away from the suburbs, it’s an important to have the outlet within their own community, Tuminelli said.
“When I moved here from New York, I didn’t know anybody. And having a kid that was young and being in a new space, it’s scary as a new mom,” she said. “I wanted something for me, and this was great. Derby just allows you to do things. It raises your confidence.”
This suburban content is produced with support from the Leslie Miller and Richard Worley Foundation and The Lenfest Institute for Journalism. Editorial content is created independently of the project donors. Gifts to support The Inquirer’s high-impact journalism can be made at inquirer.com/donate. A list of Lenfest Institute donors can be found at lenfestinstitute.org/supporters.
