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  • Frank Beard, drummer of boogie-rock trio ZZ Top, has died at 77

    Frank Beard, drummer of boogie-rock trio ZZ Top, has died at 77

    NEW YORK — Frank Beard, the drummer for the Texas boogie-rock trio ZZ Top who kept the tempo for the band’s biggest hits like “Sharp Dressed Man,” “Gimme All Your Lovin’,” and “Legs,” has died. He was 77.

    Mr. Beard was in hospice care when he died Tuesday at his ranch in Richmond, Texas, with family members at his side, according to publicist Bob Merlis. Band cofounder and guitarist Billy Gibbons, on tour with bassist Elwood Francis, hailed Mr. Beard in a statement.

    “Today, Elwood and I lost a great friend and collaborator, and the world lost one of the most naturally innovative drummers and a great and true son of Texas. His signature backbeat was key to keeping ZZ on top. The band of which he was part for six decades is going to keep on keeping on as he had wished,” Gibbons said.

    ZZ Top sold more than 50 million records and had six singles that reached No. 1 on Billboard’s Mainstream Rock Airplay chart. Seven of their albums have been in the Billboard 200’s Top 10 and they earned three Grammy Award nominations.

    “I’ve found the people I was meant to play with,” Beard says in the 2019 documentary ZZ Top: That Little Ol’ Band from Texas. “I never wanted to quit, and never wanted to get fired.”

    Drummers went to social media to pay tribute to Mr. Beard’s influence, including Rage Against the Machine’s Brad Wilk, who wrote his mind was blown seeing Mr. Beard’s two-hand shuffle live in high school. Former Guns N’ Roses drummer Matt Sorum called Mr. Beard “a very special and unique man behind the kit.”

    How the band came together

    Mr. Beard, from Frankston, Texas, met Gibbons in a band called the Moving Sidewalks and later introduced bassist and vocalist Dusty Hill who had been in several bands with Mr. Beard.

    The trio formed ZZ Top in 1969, naming themselves in part after blues singer Z.Z. Hill and influenced by the British power trio Cream and Jimmy Reed. They maintained their original lineup for more than five decades. Their signature look — long, bushy beards on Gibbons and Hill, and dark sunglasses for all — didn’t change much, either.

    When Rolling Stones guitarist Keith Richards helped induct the trio into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 2004, he joked: “These cats know their blues and they know how to dress it up. When I first saw them, I thought, ‘I hope these guys are not on the run, because that disguise is not going to work.’ ”

    ZZ Top songs — with their sly and humorous lyrics — were popular in Hollywood, which used “Gimme All Your Lovin’” in Happy Feet, “Sharp Dressed Man” in Evan Almighty, “Legs” in Air, “Sleeping Bag” in I, Tonya, “Tush” in Dazed and Confused, “Mexican Blackbird” in From Dusk Till Dawn, and “La Grange” in Armageddon.

    “The best way to describe ZZ Top is we’re interpreters of a great American art form,” Gibbons told the Dallas Morning News.

    Their debut release, ZZ Top’s First Album, came out in 1970. Their sound was described as a hybrid mixing elements of rock, blues, and funk into a steaming-hot Houston stew. They called themselves a “Little Ol’ Band From Texas.”

    Breaking through

    Three years later, they broke through commercially with “La Grange,” a funky blues song on the album Tres Hombres that paid tribute to the Chicken Ranch, a brothel outside of the Texas town of La Grange that operated from 1905 until 1973 and was immortalized in the Broadway show and the film The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas. Gibbons has ascribed the power of “La Grange” to its simplicity — just two chords and a Robert Johnson-inspired guitar solo.

    The band went on to have such hits as “Tush” and “Cheap Sunglasses.” But their 1983 Eliminator — named after one of Gibbons’ custom cars — added more production elements, synthesizers, and drum machines to their stripped-down sound and yielded the hits “Gimme All Your Lovin’,” “Legs,” and “Sharp-Dressed Man.” The band toured with a Texas-shaped stage, live rattlesnakes, and a longhorn steer.

    Long beards weren’t always part of the band’s look. Gibbons said it happened by accident: In 1976, the trio took a long break and scattered. Mr. Beard went to Jamaica, Hill went to Mexico, and Gibbons went to France.

    “Although we were speaking by phone, this was pre-video phone. And Dusty and I did not know that we had gotten so lazy that we had decided to forget to shave,” Gibbons told The Tribune in San Luis Obispo in 2010. “So after three years we returned and showed up, and lo and behold here was this sort of wacky-looking image. And it just kind of stuck with us.”

    A boost from MTV

    The band’s rock-chic cool played well on the nascent MTV crowd and their videos, featuring models in short skirts emerging from one of Gibbons’ custom roadsters, became a mainstay.

    They kept the beards, hats and cheap sunglasses in the video trilogy of “Gimme All Your Lovin’,” “Sharp Dressed Man,” and “Legs,” made with director Tim Newman.

    “ZZ Top reveled in the humor and ridiculousness of it all, busting their synchronized dance moves and spinning their white-fur guitars. These guys always got the joke, at a time when other bands were still just nervously lip-syncing in front of brick walls,” Rolling Stone said in 2021.

    In 2012, superstar producer Rick Rubin helped update the trio’s sound with the band’s comeback album, La Futura. The album landed at No. 6 on the Billboard chart, their highest position since 1990’s Recycler, some 22 years previously.

    Hill died in 2021.

    In March 2025, the band announced via Instagram that Mr. Beard would temporarily step away from the band’s tour to tend to foot and ankle problems. Mr. Beard died weeks after ZZ Top called off its Aug. 5 concert at the Hollywood Bowl due to his health issues.

    Mr. Beard is survived by his wife, Debbie Meredith, and three children.

  • Market East retail pop-ups extended at 76ers and Comcast properties

    Market East retail pop-ups extended at 76ers and Comcast properties

    A row of East Market Street storefronts owned by Comcast and Harris Blitzer Sports & Entertainment (HBSE) will continue hosting small local businesses until at least the end of 2026.

    The experimental initiative, dubbed Meantime on Market, is meant to activate the once-barren stretch of the 900 block of East Market Street. When announced earlier this year, it was planned to only last through the end of July.

    “Midway through the summer pop-up, I think everybody felt like, ‘Why would we go back to vacancy?’” said Brian Phillips, founder of Interface Studio Architects (ISA), which founded the Meantime project. “I don’t think anybody wanted this to end if it didn’t have to.”

    All six businesses that took part in Meantime were offered the opportunity to continue their residency on the 900 block of East Market, and four decided to do so: vintage clothier Almost Famous, music listening hub Clubfriends Radio & Records, media convener space Love Now Media, and West Philadelphia’s Siddiq’s Water Ice.

    “This summer has been incredibly meaningful,” Siddiq Moore of Siddiq’s Real Fruit Water Ice, said in a news release. “It’s been an incredible and beautiful experience for our business, and I’m excited to carry that energy into the fall extension.”

    The city-operated MY Market East, run by the Planning Commission, will continue to function as a community engagement hub at 930 Market St. as well.

    Two Persons Coffee and vintage furniture store Rarify will not continue their tenure on the strip. But those retail spaces will be available for other entrepreneurs to participate in the incubator program and receive three months of free retail space.

    Phillips said that Meantime is in talks with several small Philadelphia businesses about occupying the spaces and that an announcement would be coming “in the next couple weeks.”

    In the first three weeks of the Meantime businesses being open in May and June, 3,300 people visited the stores and $50,000 in sales were generated, according to the news release.

    “That momentum extended to the corridor as a whole — foot traffic along the observed stretch of Market East rose approximately 10% from May to June, outpacing growth in surrounding areas and signaling that the programs were doing more than filling empty storefronts,” the release reads.

    Phillips said weekends have been even busier than weekdays on this stretch of East Market Street, at least for Meantime.

    “Weekend life in Center City has, if anything, become more robust than it was 15 years ago,” Phillips said. “Weekday is a little bit tamped down since COVID.”

    Brian Phillips, architect and Meantime executive director, at the Green Room grand opening in University City in April. Yong Kim / Staff Photographer

    The properties have a long history with HBSE. From 2022 until early last year, the company planned to build the Philadelphia 76ers a new stadium on East Market Street with accompanying residential and commercial development on the 900 block.

    Then in early 2025, after a contentious political battle, HBSE announced that the Sixers would stay in South Philadelphia and renew their alliance with Comcast Spectacor, which owns the team’s current arena in the stadium district.

    But last June, HBSE and Comcast purchased the buildings on the 900 block of East Market anyway. They promised a project in this corner of Center City that has long lagged its neighboring counterparts in development and foot traffic. A longtime methadone clinic on the block closed down, too.

    The Meantime initiative, first spearheaded by Center City District, activated the long vacant storefronts, which HBSE and Comcast repaired, as they figure out their plans.

    HBSE declined to comment on what the extension of Meantime’s tenure on East Market will mean for potential larger development projects.

    “Our vision for the Market East Revival has always included both the large-scale investment that can transform this corridor and space for small, local businesses from communities across Philadelphia to help shape its future,” Mayor Cherelle L. Parker said in a statement.

  • Whistleblower alleges political pressure, lack of evidence in antisemitism probes targeting schools

    Whistleblower alleges political pressure, lack of evidence in antisemitism probes targeting schools

    WASHINGTON — A Trump administration task force created to combat antisemitism pushed for settlements with Ivy League universities despite government investigations that were rushed and incomplete or that failed to establish legal violations by the schools, a former Justice Department lawyer alleged in a whistleblower disclosure obtained by the Associated Press.

    The complaint alleges that the investigations into some of the nation’s most prestigious academic institutions were designed to strong-arm the schools into cutting deals for political purposes. Outcomes of the investigations were “predetermined, without regard to the evidence” in a “politically mandated effort” to extract money from schools through settlement demands and funding freezes under the pretext of rooting out antisemitism, the complaint alleges.

    The work of the multiagency task force, launched by the Justice Department under then-Attorney General Pam Bondi in February 2025, was “marked by extraordinary procedural irregularities, predetermined outcomes without factual or legal support” and disregard for the law and Constitution, lawyers for the former government attorney wrote in seeking watchdog investigations into their client’s complaints.

    The complaint taps into a broader public discussion about the administration’s efforts to confront allegations of antisemitism at colleges, a problem that received renewed attention during campus protests over Israel’s war in Gaza that some Jewish students said made them feel unsafe. President Donald Trump returned to the White House with a goal of rooting out antisemitism that he said had gone unchecked during the Biden administration, but critics have called his government’s response heavy-handed and said it infringed on free speech rights and coerced concessions from public institutions.

    A key House Democrat is publicizing whistleblower’s allegations

    Lawyers for the former Justice Department attorney, identified as Haley Van Erem, filed the disclosure Tuesday with the inspectors general at the departments of Justice and Health and Human Services and the Office of Special Counsel.

    Van Erem spent nearly a decade working in the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division before being involuntarily assigned to HHS to work on the Title VI investigations into the universities, the complaint says.

    The health department assignees were initially told to scrutinize allegations of antisemitism at medical school commencement ceremonies — the lawyers were advised of a New York Post story describing antisemitic conduct at graduation events, the complaint says — but the inquiries were later expanded to focus on the entire schools in the cases of Columbia and Brown, according to Van Erem’s account.

    She left the Justice Department in May 2025 because she was “unwilling to be made vulnerable to further participation in politically motivated investigations unsupported by facts and contrary to law,” says the complaint, which also accuses the task force of having targeted Muslim professors.

    Kiersten Pels, a Justice Department spokesperson, said the department “stands behind the integrity” of its investigations. A spokesperson for the Health and Human Services Department did not immediately respond to requests seeking comment Tuesday.

    Rep. Jamie Raskin, the top Democrat on the House Judiciary Committee, wrote separately to Harmeet Dhillon, who as the assistant attorney general in charge of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division has been a public face of the department’s efforts to counter antisemitism. In his letter, Raskin said antisemitism at colleges and medical schools is a real problem that needs to be investigated.

    “But,” he told Dhillon, “your ‘investigation’ into antisemitism was fake, a pre-baked frame-up operation thoroughly political in nature.”

    Raskin wrote that “the whole project was designed to harass professors and administrators at major universities, to curtail their freedom of speech and academic freedom, and to strip targeted institutions of hundreds of millions of dollars in grants that they had already been awarded on the merits of their applications.”

    Scrutiny over the handling of investigations into elite schools

    The whistleblower complaint deals chiefly with investigations into three Ivy League universities: Brown, Harvard, and Columbia.

    It alleges that in the case of Brown, the investigative team did not find evidence to support a violation of Title VI, the section of the Civil Rights Act that bars discrimination on the basis of race, color, or national origin in programs that receive federal funding, but that “leadership refused to permit a notice of no violation and instead sought some form of settlement or resolution despite acknowledging the absence of a legal basis for doing so.”

    Investigators did find evidence of discrimination at Columbia, the complaint says, but the investigation was done on an accelerated timetable before adequate factual development and legal review were completed and relied on allegations that “were unsupported, based on news reports or litigation filings, or that implicated protected First Amendment activity.”

    Columbia University agreed to pay the government $200 million as part of an agreement restoring access to federal funding. Brown University separately agreed to pay $50 million to Rhode Island workforce development organizations to end the three federal investigations involving allegations of antisemitism and racial bias in admissions, with no findings of wrongdoing.

    In the investigation into Harvard, Trump administration officials discussed “extraordinary funding freezes and sweeping proposed settlement terms” before an investigation had been completed that could establish Title VI violations. Sean Keveney, then-HHS acting general counsel, said he believed Harvard would settle because they were “over a barrel,” according to the complaint.

    A federal judge last year ordered the Trump administration to reverse its cuts of more than $2.6 billion in research funding for the university, saying the government “used antisemitism as a smokescreen for a targeted, ideologically-motivated assault on this country’s premier universities.” And a different judge last week dismissed a Trump administration lawsuit that accused Harvard University of turning a blind eye to harassment of Jewish students.

  • Trump says U.S. has no talks planned with Iran, says Strait of Hormuz is open

    Trump says U.S. has no talks planned with Iran, says Strait of Hormuz is open

    U.S. President Donald Trump said Tuesday the U.S. has no talks planned with Iran but insisted the Strait of Hormuz remains “open and operating,” despite limited traffic and a reported strike on a ship exiting the waterway.

    Earlier this week, Trump threatened to bomb Oman as the country sought a deal with Iran to manage shipping traffic through the strait, two regional officials said Tuesday, a day after Trump reportedly leveled the threat if Oman “gets in the way.” Iran says the waterway will not be reopened until the U.S. meets its conditions.

    As talks between Iran and Oman continue, a projectile hit a ship in the strait and Iran-backed Houthi rebels claimed they fired drones at an oil refinery in Saudi Arabia.

    Trump looms over negotiations to reopen Strait of Hormuz

    As Oman and Iran say they are nearing a deal to reopen the Strait of Hormuz, Trump said on social media Tuesday that the U.S. blockade of Iranian ports remains “in full force and effect,” but asserted that all water mines have been removed and that other marine traffic was free to pass.

    Trump posted a map depicting the strait as U.S. territory.

    Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister Kazem Gharibabadi appeared to respond to Trump’s post.

    “Just as Trump correctly wrote the name of the eternal Persian Gulf, soon his delusion regarding the Strait of Hormuz will either be corrected or we will correct the delusions of this deluded man,” he wrote on X.

    The Trump administration has told Oman it opposes parts of the yet-to-be-announced deal, according to officials briefed on the U.S. position. Those include joint Iranian and Omani management of the passage’s exit route and the collection of voluntary fees from vessels, even if the money is used for security and maritime environmental protection.

    The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to talk to journalists.

    The White House on Tuesday referred to Trump’s remarks in the Oval Office and declined to comment further about Oman.

    Egypt says Iran-Oman agreement could open door to Iran-U.S. deal

    The Egyptian Foreign Ministry said Tuesday that the Iranian-Omani deal could pave the way for Washington and Tehran to return to negotiations for a “comprehensive and permanent deal that addresses all concerns and enhances regional security and stability.”

    The statement came after a meeting between Egyptian Foreign Minister Badr Abdelatty and Omani counterpart Badr al-Busaidi. But it did not address Trump’s latest threat against Oman.

    The 60-day negotiating period ended this week between the U.S. and Iran with no clear end to the war in sight.

    Ship traffic drops significantly in Strait of Hormuz

    Ship traffic through the Strait of Hormuz dropped significantly last week, with confirmed crossings falling 19.5% to 95 transits. Only three vessels made it through the waterway on Sunday, according to shipping data platform Kpler.

    The ships used the Iranian-designated route through the strait, with no crossings recorded through the Omani routes.

    Crossings through the Bab el-Mandeb Strait increased 6.7% to 254 transits, while so-called dark transits, in which ships turn off the transponders that broadcast their location, fell from 40 to 16, Kpler said.

    Projectile damages ship in strait causing casualty

    An unidentified projectile damaged the engine room of a ship in the Strait of Hormuz near Oman and “resulted in a crew casualty,” according to the British military’s U.K. Maritime Trade Operations center.

    The maritime monitoring agency did not release any details about the ship or its cargo, and it was not clear whether the crew member was killed or wounded.

    No environmental damage has been reported and the agency said the Omani Coast Guard was assisting other crew members and authorities were investigating.

    Iran-backed Houthis claim an attack on a Saudi oil refinery

    Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthi rebels claimed they fired drones at an oil refinery in neighboring Saudi Arabia, the latest attack threatening to reignite Yemen’s civil war and open another front in the Middle East.

    The attack targeted a facility run by Saudi Aramco, Saudi Arabia’s state-owned oil company, according to a report by the Houthi-run SABA news agency. There were no immediate reports of damage or comment from Saudi Arabia.

    The Houthis have escalated attacks against government forces in Yemen and oil facilities in Saudi Arabia, which supports the Yemeni government, and the kingdom’s shipping in the Red Sea, an important alternative to the Strait of Hormuz.

    Israel strike on Gaza City kills 7 people

    An Israeli strike hit Gaza City on Tuesday, killing six people, including a child, and wounding 14 others, according to Shifa Hospital, where the casualties were taken.

    The Israeli military said it struck Hamas commanders in the Shati area who it said were planning to carry out attacks against Israeli forces.

    The heaviest fighting has subsided since a ceasefire in the more than two-year war took hold in October. Israeli forces have carried out repeated airstrikes since then, killing at least 1,266 Palestinians, according to health officials in Gaza.

    The Gaza Health Ministry, which is part of the Hamas-led government, maintains detailed casualty records that are seen as generally reliable by U.N. agencies and independent experts. But it does not give a breakdown of civilians and militants.

    Missiles fired at the United Arab Emirates

    The defense ministry of the United Arab Emirates said two ballistic missiles were launched from Iran toward the UAE on Tuesday.

    One landed outside of the country’s waters, and the other landed within them, the Emirati Defense Ministry said. It was unclear whether the missiles were shot down by air defenses or fell. No damage or injuries were reported. There was no immediate statement from Iran.

    In the weeks after the U.S. and Israel launched a war against Iran on Feb. 28, the UAE was frequently targeted by Iranian missiles and drones, but Tuesday’s reported attack was the first in weeks.

  • Westtown Township fired its entire historical commission. All six members just started their own society.

    Westtown Township fired its entire historical commission. All six members just started their own society.

    Members who were fired from Westtown Township’s historical commission after disagreements with local officials over the future of a historic inn have launched an independent historical society with a mission to protect buildings and history in the area.

    The six former members of the township commission now constitute the board of the Westtown-Brandywine Historical Society, which they started within weeks of the Chester County township’s three elected supervisors’ July vote to remove all members from the commission.

    “Although it’s very disappointing to see the township operate the way that they did, it was perhaps an opportunity for us to build something even better,” said Stephen Wahrhaftig, one of the society’s founders.

    Wahrhaftig, who served on the township’s commission for four years, had been involved with other historical organizations. One, which was privately run, seemed to operate more efficiently and effectively without political oversight, he said.

    Within the new society’s first two meetings, the group had already sketched out a long list of potential events and activities, Wahrhaftig said.

    “I was crushed when we were all dismissed, sad and angry. But within two weeks, we all came back together and said, ‘OK, let’s try something new and different,’” said Christine Gunsaullus, who served on the township’s historical commission for more than a year. “I feel like we’ve continued without missing a beat.”

    The newly formed society has already teed up four events in the coming months. They plan to host a hike and historical tour of Crebilly Preserve, the 204-acre preserved open space in Westtown that was purchased by the township in 2024 to fend off residential development. Also in the works is a historical book club. In October, the society will have a table at Westtown Day — an event the commission helped found — and will give historical tours of Oakbourne Mansion and Park, where festivities are held, and have activities for children.

    And they’ll host a presentation about the Darlington Inn, the 19th century property on the Crebilly tract that the township also purchased when it sought to preserve the farm. At that talk, they’ll show “what a gem we have and why it’s important to save,” Gunsaullus said.

    That stance is the very thing that the commission members believe led to their dismissal.

    The township’s officials have said that it wasn’t the conflict over the inn that led to the members’ removal from the commission, which sits on a two-acre parcel at the corner of State Routes 202 and 926. But the dismissal came as the commission had been advocating for the township to preserve the inn, while officials have sought to offload it.

    The inn was acquired in 2024 as part of a larger battle to preserve Crebilly. It was purchased with taxpayer money separately, and the township plans to sell it off to recoup the funds it used to buy it, and to prevent ongoing maintenance costs of the property.

    The members of the now-fired historical commission had argued that the inn was worth preserving, and asked officials to include a facade easement to protect the property from being demolished for commercial construction. The supervisors declined to do so at the time, but nothing precludes them from adding it in the future.

    The historical commission was composed of volunteers, appointed by the board of supervisors, and acted as an advisory body, with no governing power. The supervisors said in July they would be reexamining the goals of the commission, and invited the fired members to reapply once that process was complete.

    Even with the abrupt parting, the new society doesn’t foresee any tension blossoming between their new organization and the township they once served. They received the OK to represent the new group at the annual Westtown Day, which they think “bodes well” for working together. The township did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the group.

    The society will offer free membership to those who want to join, and the intent broadly is to do what they accomplished with the township “but do even more and do it better and do it faster,” Gunsaullus said. That includes a newsletter, lectures, and historical tours. They’ll also be able to look broaden the scope beyond Westtown and welcome members from outside the municipality.

    Without being under the restraints of the township government, they envision they’ll be able to offer more and varied events. But like the commission, the group is made up of volunteers with the leadership composed of working architects, engineers, an author, and people with marketing expertise. Only one member is retired, making the society a labor of love, Gunsaullus said.

    “We’re very pumped up about what we’re able to accomplish now,” Wahrhaftig said.

    And they’ve seen an outpouring of support, they said.

    “The response we’ve gotten from the community, from other historical societies and commissions — everyone is supporting us, wants to know how they can help, wants to provide venues for us to continue giving talks,” Gunsaullus said. “We’re very grateful for the support we’re getting from other historical geeks in the area.”

    There are no plans to make the society a nonprofit at the moment, they said, but they aren’t sure what the future holds. They’re operating with no funding (but that’s not exactly unfamiliar; their finances were already “hilariously abysmal” under the township, Wahrhaftig noted), and may consider donations.

    But aside from money, “It takes time, passion, and creativity, and we’ve got plenty of that,” Gunsaullus said.

    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.

  • Pentagon orders audit of 30 universities’ partnerships with foreign institutions

    Pentagon orders audit of 30 universities’ partnerships with foreign institutions

    The Department of Defense has ordered 30 U.S. universities to audit their partnerships with mostly Chinese universities and military training institutions as the Trump administration scrutinizes the country’s growing global influence.

    If the schools don’t complete a review and terminate any arrangements deemed problematic within the next two weeks, they face losing funding. The goal is to protect taxpayer-funded research from theft and exploitation, the Pentagon said Monday.

    “The Department of War has zero tolerance for academic partnerships that compromise our national security,” Emil Michael, the Pentagon’s chief technology officer, said in a news release.

    The release didn’t name the schools, but a U.S. official who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss internal matters said they include Harvard University, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and Johns Hopkins University.

    The schools didn’t immediately respond to emails from the Associated Press seeking comment.

    Sarah Spreitzer, vice president at the American Council on Education, which represents college and university presidents, raised concerns that the announcement suggests, without any evidence, that the schools are engaged in wrongdoing.

    The order comes after the Pentagon last month released an updated list of 130 foreign institutions it accused of engaging in “activities that increase the likelihood of U.S. government-funded research and development efforts being misappropriated.”

    While the vast majority were Chinese, such as the University of Science and Technology of China and the country’s Academy of Military Medical Sciences, several Iranian and Russian institutions also appeared on the list.

    The first version of the list was developed during Trump’s first term, with the help of the American Council on Education, Spreitzer said.

    She said most of the council’s member institutions moved away from research partnerships with those institutions in the years that followed. She said she worries U.S. schools will be held liable for partnerships that predate the creation of the list.

    “We don’t appreciate the implication that we are not good partners on research security, given that we helped create this list, and given that we’ve always partnered with the federal government when there has been national security concerns,” she said.

    The audit comes as the Trump administration continues to express deep concern about China’s activities in the Americas, pushing back on Chinese ownership of ports at either end of the Panama Canal, infrastructure projects funded by China’s Belt and Road initiative in the region, and Chinese investment in the telecommunications sector.

    The Justice Department also is investigating whether Harvard University is allowing Chinese donors to create scholarships that exclude American students, adding to the barrage of federal inquiries the Trump administration has opened in its battle against the Ivy League school.

    A spokesperson for the Chinese embassy said in a statement that the country opposes what it described as the politicization of “normal scientific, educational, and academic exchanges.”

    “The U.S. side,” the statement continued, “should abandon the Cold War mentality and foster an open, fair, and non-discriminatory environment for educational, scientific, and people-to-people exchanges between China and the United States.”

  • Sandwich split: After N.A. Poe’s dramatic exit, new food vendors coming to Human Robot and the Monto

    Sandwich split: After N.A. Poe’s dramatic exit, new food vendors coming to Human Robot and the Monto

    One bar is finally firing up its kitchen and another is switching food vendors as irreverent sandwich maker N.A. Poe parts ways with his second business partner in three months.

    Poe’s Sandwich Joint is out as the food vendor at Human Robot after seven years at the original Olde Kensington brewery, and a little over a year at its Brewerytown outpost. His last day at both locations is Sept. 3, Poe — whose real name is Richard Tamaccio — confirmed to The Inquirer.

    Tamaccio’s menu of chicken cutlet hoagies and loaded fries will be replaced by Cantina La Martina, the acclaimed Mexican restaurant from James Beard-nominated chef Dionicio Jimenez and his wife, Mariangeli Alicea Saez. The move is a both an expansion of the couple’s relationship with Human Robot — Cantina La Martina has been serving brunch, tacos, and enchiladas at the brewer’s Jenkintown location since 2024 — and a homecoming.

    Jimenez and Saez opened Cantina La Martina in 2022 at the corner of D Street and Kensington Avenue, where the restaurant was hailed as one of Philly’s “most thrilling” Mexican eateries and a pillar of the community for its festivals and fundraising efforts. When the pair announced they were closing the restaurant in November 2025 over mounting safety concerns, they said they wouldn’t abandon Kensington.

    Cantina La Martina owners Mariangeli Alicea Saez (left) and her husband chef, Dionicio Jiménez, in front of their former Kensington Avenue restaurant. Starting Sept. 13, the couple will be Human Robot’s new food vendors in Olde Kensington and Brewerytown.Elizabeth Robertson / Staff Photographer

    “We really wanted to be back” in the neighborhood, Saez told The Inquirer. “We built really strong relationships with the community and lifetime friendships” while on Kensington Avenue.

    Cantina La Martina’s menu at 1710 N. Fifth St. will include a mix of burritos, tacos, wings, and nachos, plus the return of its popular weekday happy hour, which featured $1 tacos alongside $2 wings, ribs, and empanadas. At 2711 W. Girard Ave. in Brewerytown, Cantina La Martina will run a burrito bar.

    Both locations will have a grand opening Sept. 13.

    Shrimp and chapulines tacos at Cantina La Martina. At Human Robot’s Olde Kensington location, the menu will feature a mix of tacos, nachos, burritos, and wings.Tyger Williams / Staff Photographer

    Poe’s exit from Human Robot coincides with a switch-up at the Monto, Fergus Carey’s new Irish pub in Old City. Tamaccio was supposed to run the kitchen before quitting after just two days of business.

    Starting Sept. 1, chef Jake Bukowski will reopen the kitchen at the Monto with a menu that Carey described as “modern Irish food”: Think black pudding sliders, cheesy chicken fillet rolls, and spice bags, the viral Irish-Chinese takeout staple popular in Dublin.

    Bukowski is a Temple grad who previously worked at the long-closed Belgian Cafe (also owned by Carey) and, most recently, as the culinary director of the Havertown gastropub Brick & Brew. Bukowski was best-known for the Galley, the residency he ran for six years from a window inside Garage Fishtown, where he served handmade pierogis alongside wings and burgers.

    The Monto, 226 Market St., in June. Michael Klein / Staff

    Why is Poe’s leaving Human Robot?

    Tamaccio’s abrupt split with Human Robot played out publicly over Instagram, when the brewery announced that it had renewed its lease in Olde Kensington. Poe’s would not be staying on, however.

    “We are thrilled to kick off this new chapter with a brand-new food partner at both our 5th St & Girard locations,” the brewery captioned their post. “Before we look ahead, we want to send a massive thank you to Poe’s Sandwich Joint for being our food partner for nearly 7 years. Thank you, Poe and team, for slinging some amazing sandos and even better memories.”

    The same day, Tamaccio posted a video on his Instagram account, where he continues to digest the messy breakup.

    “I guess we’re looking for a new home,” Tamaccio says, while puffing on a joint. “Poe’s is getting booted from Human Robot.”

    In the video, Tamaccio explains that Human Robot’s lawyers sent him a letter earlier this month that said the brewery was terminating its contract with Poe’s “immediately” over his behavior on social media.

    Human Robot co-owner Ken Correll told The Inquirer that the decision to part ways was precipitated by an Aug. 3 meeting to discuss concerns about Tamaccio’s behavior, to which Tamaccio showed up “late and alone” instead of with his investors, as discussed. “Given the lack of an active lease with Poe’s and his failure to uphold previous promises, we decided to move on,” Correll said.

    In an interview Monday, Tamaccio told The Inquirer that the termination letter, sent Aug. 4, centered on a series of Instagram stories he posted in July after leaving the Monto. They included, among other things, an antisemitic quote from The Sopranos, a homophobic slur, and an AI-generated image of Carey engaging in indecent acts with a phallic potato.

    “I was very angry at the time,” Tomaccio said, adding that he sees himself as a provocateur. “Comedy has always been the way that I process or deal with anything … I know what I’m doing, I crossed the line, and this is the result.”

    N.A. Poe at the sandwich window inside Human Robot’s Olde Kensington location in 2020. His last day there is Sept. 3.Michael Klein / Staff

    Before gaining a reputation for his cult-favorite hoagies, Tamaccio, 47, was known for well-documented marijuana activism under his pseudonym. In 2017, he organized a warehouse party in Northeast Philadelphia that ended in the arrest of 22 people. Instead of jail time, Tamaccio took a plea deal in 2018.

    Later that year, he opened the first iteration of Poe’s Sandwich Joint at 1429 Marlborough St. It closed months later in 2019 due to what Tamaccio characterized as a dubious business loan. He resurrected the business at Human Robot that fall, when the brewery first opened.

    Tamaccio has long used social media to promote his sandwiches alongside a near-constant stream of controversial memes on his Instagram story that ranged from 9/11 conspiracies to off-color jokes about politicians. Most of his content, he said, doesn’t reflect his actual beliefs.

    “Everything I’m saying is a joke. I’m not a serious man,” Tamaccio said.

    The Hamilton sandwich, served at Poe’s Sandwich Joint inside Human Robot, has chicken cutlet, Cooper sharp cheese, fries, house ranch dressing, and crumbles of bacon.Michael Klein / Staff

    The sandwich maker said he felt blindsided and “gaslit” by Human’s Robot decision, which he worries will impact his 10 employees across the Brewerytown and Olde Kensington locations.

    Poe’s kitchen staff at both Human Robot outposts have been offered jobs with Cantina La Martina, a representative for the restaurant said.

    What happened at the Monto?

    This is Tamaccio’s second business partnership to dissolve this summer.

    In February, Carey and Tamaccio announced they were going into business together at the Monto, an Irish pub at 226 Market St. There, Tamaccio would serve a mix of Poe’s signature sandwiches alongside more traditional pub fare like shepherd’s pie.

    But just two days after the Monto’s June opening, Tamaccio resigned. “I was very excited about the project,” Tamaccio said. “But when it came down to the actual execution in a high-pressure environment, I just couldn’t do it.”

    Sandwich specialist N.A. Poe (right) with Monto co-owner Fergus Carey.N.A. Poe

    Tamaccio said he decided to leave the Monto after working without a contract, a claim that Carey disputes: “He quit after preparing for six months. That’s totally on him.”

    Carey — who never saw the image of himself with the potato — said that Tamaccio has since apologized for the post. He’s choosing to look at the humor of it all.

    “I think it’s the funniest twist to the story you could imagine,” said Carey. “One of my partners said, ‘Karma didn’t take very long this time.’ I don’t feel like that at all. I wish him well.”

    Tamaccio believes Poe’s Sandwich Joint has a future, either with a new partner or in a storefront of its own, where he can “do and say” whatever he wants.

    “Maybe I went too far,” he said. “But what is happening to free speech? Most people don’t even get in a position to be able to own their own business, and then when you do, you just need to shut up to make money.”

  • Minnesota attorney general sues Texas governor to compel extradition of ICE agent for trial

    Minnesota attorney general sues Texas governor to compel extradition of ICE agent for trial

    ST. PAUL, Minn. — Minnesota’s attorney general sued the governor of Texas on Tuesday, seeking to compel the extradition of an Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent charged with wounding a man and then lying to justify the shooting during the agency’s crackdown in Minneapolis.

    Attorney General Keith Ellison is asking a federal judge to bar the sheriff in Cameron County, Texas, from releasing ICE agent Christian Castro, and to order Texas Gov. Greg Abbott to sign his extradition warrant so that Minnesota officers can take custody.

    Minnesota officials have clashed with the federal government over who has jurisdiction to investigate and prosecute federal officers for on-duty conduct. Ellison is a Democrat and Abbott is a Republican ally of President Donald Trump.

    Castro was arrested in Texas in May on Minnesota charges of assault and falsely reporting a crime in the Jan. 14 wounding of Julio Cesar Sosa-Celis. Castro, 52, is accused of firing a gun through the front door of a Minneapolis home, striking Sosa-Celis in the leg with a bullet that lodged in a child’s bedroom wall. Prosecutors say Castro then falsely accused Sosa-Celis and another man of attacking an ICE officer with a broom handle and a snow shovel.

    Minnesota officials fear ICE agent could flee

    Ellison told a news conference that unless he’s extradited, Castro could be released from jail next week — 90 days since he was detained — under Texas law. And if he’s freed, Castro could slip into Mexico from the border town where he’s being held, Ellison said. The lawsuit said Castro has been making calls from jail to a woman in Mexico, talking “about marrying her and buying a house in Mexico when he is released.”

    “Christian Castro has been charged with breaking the law in Minnesota,” Ellison said. “He must face justice in Minnesota. Gov. Abbott should have granted Gov. Walz’s extradition request long ago and is required to do so now.”

    It was not immediately known if Castro had a lawyer who could speak for him. Online court records in Minnesota and county jail records in Texas did not list a defense attorney.

    Abbott’s office said in a statement that it would not comment on “pending extradition matters.”

    Hennepin County Attorney Mary Moriarty said the legal action to compel Castro’s extradition “should be a completely unnecessary lawsuit.” She said jail officials and prosecutors in Texas have been “very cooperative,” and that an extradition “is not supposed to be controversial.”

    The office of Cameron County Sheriff Manny Trevino declined to comment Tuesday on the case.

    Federal agency has called agent’s prosecution a ‘political stunt’

    Authorities say Sosa-Celis was shot after Castro and another officer chased a different man, Alfredo Alejandro Aljorna, to the Minneapolis apartment duplex where he and Sosa-Celis lived. Sosa-Celis and Aljorna were legally in the U.S., according to Minnesota officials.

    Federal authorities initially accused Sosa-Celis and Aljorna of beating an officer. A federal judge later dismissed the charges, and ICE and the Justice Department opened an investigation into whether agents lied about what happened.

    Regardless, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security has called Moriarty’s prosecution of Castro “unlawful and nothing more than a political stunt,” saying only federal authorities have jurisdiction in the case.

    The federal government took a similar stance following the fatal shootings of Renee Good and Alex Pretti during the Minneapolis enforcement surge. Moriarty sued the Trump administration to gain access to evidence in those cases before federal prosecutors turned it over last month.

    The extradition lawsuit Ellison filed in U.S. District Court in Texas cites a 1987 U.S. Supreme Court ruling that compliance with the Constitution’s extradition clause is mandatory, affording no discretion to the governor or courts of a state where a defendant is being held.

    Moriarty said that since Castro’s arrest, Texas has extradited three unrelated criminal defendants without incident to Minnesota.

    “Gov. Abbott has received communication with us on an ongoing basis, including recently,” Ellison said. “We have to take the position that they are refusing to honor the extradition request.”

  • San Francisco’s Chase Center, Valkyries to host 2027 WNBA All-Star Game

    San Francisco’s Chase Center, Valkyries to host 2027 WNBA All-Star Game

    SAN FRANCISCO — The WNBA All-Star Game is coming to the Bay Area next summer.

    League commissioner Cathy Engelbert announced Tuesday that the game will be July 31, 2027, at Chase Center after a weekend of All-Star activities around the San Francisco region.

    “We are thrilled to bring AT&T WNBA All-Star to the San Francisco Bay Area for the first time,” Engelbert, a Collingswood native, said in a statement. “The Golden State Valkyries have brought incredible energy and excitement to the WNBA from the moment they were announced as an expansion team in 2023, and the response from fans across the Bay Area has been remarkable. Valkyries fans have embraced this team with an extraordinary level of passion and enthusiasm, and we can’t wait to see that energy on full display for an unforgettable All-Star weekend next summer.”

    At the All-Star Game in Chicago last month, players’ union president Nneka Ogwumike, who played at Stanford, said many players felt that Golden State would be a great host for next year’s midsummer exhibition.

    Our favorite looks from WNBA All-Star Weekend

    The Valkyries have sold out all of their home games at the Chase Center, which opened in 2019, since the franchise’s inception last year. They became the first expansion organization to make the playoffs in its inaugural year and ultimately lost to the top-seeded Minnesota Lynx. The Valkyries clinched a playoff berth for this year on Monday night with a win over Dallas.

    The NBA All-Star Game was played at Chase Center last year.

    “Hosting AT&T WNBA All-Star in only our third season is an incredible honor and a reflection of everything this fanbase, this region, and this organization have built together,” Valkyries president Jess Smith said. “From Day 1, the Bay Area has shown up for this team in a way that’s redefined what’s possible in women’s basketball, and we can’t wait to put that same energy on display for the entire league next summer.”

    Dawn Staley talks WNBA ownership, while Doc Rivers reflects on Sixers leadership at Hall of Fame induction weekend

    Last week, Major League Baseball announced the 2028 All-Star Game would return to nearby Oracle Park, home of the San Francisco Giants.

    The Super Bowl was played in February at Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara, Calif., which then hosted the World Cup this summer.

  • After 13 straight nominations, South Jersey’s Mark Tatulli has won the nation’s biggest cartoon award

    After 13 straight nominations, South Jersey’s Mark Tatulli has won the nation’s biggest cartoon award

    Mark Tatulli doesn’t know what made this year different from the last 12 times the National Cartoonists Society nominated him for one of the highest honors in his field.

    But something did, since the creator of long-running comic strips Liō and Heart of the City finally won the biggest award of the annual celebration.

    He had not expected his name to be called this time around, so the Gloucester County resident and Willingboro native didn’t bring his reading glasses for his acceptance speech. While it was an honor to have been nominated so many times, Tatulli said, he felt relieved to finally be off the docket.

    “I’m looking forward to not being nominated this year and drifting back into the shadows,” Tatulli, 63, said.

    The National Cartoonists Society gathered on Aug. 7 in Columbus, Ohio, for the 80th Anniversary Reuben Awards, named after cartoonist and Pulitzer Prize winner Reuben “Rube” Goldberg.

    The Reuben Award has gone to the most outstanding cartoonist of the year since 1954 (and has been retroactively awarded to those who won the award under its original name, the Billy DeBeck Memorial Award, from 1946 on) chosen by a secret ballot of NCS members. The late Pogo creator Walt Kelly, a Philly native, was one of the first.

    This year, there were seven nominees, including Dave Blazek, a Philly resident and creator of comic strip Loose Parts, and Dav Pilkey, creator of Dog Man and Captain Underpants.

    Tatulli won the honor on his 13th consecutive nomination, joining the likes of Peanuts creator Charles Schulz and Bill Watterson of Calvin and Hobbes.

    “I don’t even include myself in this group,” Tatulli said. “I’m a byproduct of what they already achieved.”

    His wife, Donna Tatulli, and fellow members of the NCS Philadelphia chapter were present to celebrate the win. When Tatulli shouted out his home chapter, an attendee responded with a familiar “Go Birds!,” said Jamar Nicholas, a member of the NCS board of directors and chair of the Philly chapter.

    Mark Tatulli, 63, of Pitman, poses front and center with his Reuben Award for 2025 Outstanding Cartoonist of the Year, which the National Cartoonists Society awarded him at a ceremony in Columbus, Ohio, on Aug. 7, 2026. He stands with his fellow members of the NCS Philadelphia Chapter.National Cartoonists Society, Philadelphia

    Nicholas, author of the graphic novel series Leon the Extraordinary, said he believes Tatulli is the first NCS Philly member to win the Reuben since the chapter was formed in 2014.

    “Even though this is his accomplishment, we all win,” Nicholas said.

    Blazek, who has seven nominations of his own, won the Divisional Silver Reuben Award in the newspaper panel category.

    Tatulli, a Willingboro High School alumnus, was 26 years old when his first comic strip debuted in the Burlington County Times. Mr. Fipps told the story of a new teacher and his experiences with junior high school students.

    While Tatulli said he cannot speak for everyone, South Jersey was a good place to grow up drawing comics.

    “You can literally write comics from everywhere,” Tatulli said. “My experiences in South Jersey predominantly feature in all of my comics.”

    Since Mr. Fipps, Tatulli has won three Emmy Awards, become an internationally syndicated cartoonist (including features in The Inquirer), created a graphic memoir, written and illustrated several middle-grade books, and had two of his longtime comic strips explode in popularity.

    Liō, a pantomime comic that shares the adventures of a young boy who treats the monstrous as everyday happenings, recently hit its 20th year running in newspapers, and Tatulli does not plan to end it until he stops having fun.

    Mark Tatulli, 63, of Pitman, poses with his Reuben Award for 2025 Outstanding Cartoonist of the Year, which the National Cartoonists Society awarded him at a ceremony in Columbus, Ohio, on Aug. 7, 2026.Mark Tatulli

    “If I’m not totally excited about what I’m doing, the readers will know,” he said.

    Tatulli launched Heart of the City, a strip about a girl named Heart living in Philadelphia, in 1998. Six years ago, Tatulli passed the Heart baton to fellow cartoonist Steenz, who has kept the comic going since.

    As for what comes next for Tatulli, he said he hopes to one day create a long-form version of Liō and keep writing middle-grade graphic and illustrated novels. He will continue to spend time with family, a benefit of moving to Pitman a year and a half ago from Washington Township. The Reuben Award — a bronze, abstract statuette designed by Goldberg — will live either on the mantle over his fireplace or down in his office, depending on where his wife wants it.

    “I’m going to keep drawing until I drop,” Tatulli said.