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  • Philly City Council grilled Police Commissioner Kevin Bethel over officers’ Pride response as LGBTQ+ advocates demanded accountability

    Philly City Council grilled Police Commissioner Kevin Bethel over officers’ Pride response as LGBTQ+ advocates demanded accountability

    Several members of Philadelphia City Council and a bevy of LGBTQ+ community leaders on Wednesday sharply criticized Police Commissioner Kevin Bethel, who testified about the department’s response to Pride festivities in the city’s Gayborhood in June and largely defended the force’s crowd-control tactics that had drawn outrage.

    Bethel acknowledged that June 7 was “not a perfect day” and vowed that the police department would implement more robust planning procedures ahead of next year’s celebrations.

    But he stopped short of apologizing for the police department’s response, saying chaotic scenes from the Pride events were part of officers’ attempts to disperse crowds from the Gayborhood, where thousands of people congregated instead of the city’s official festival on the Benjamin Franklin Parkway.

    Among them, Bethel said, were hundreds of teenagers, some of whom were seen on video fighting.

    “There’s a large group of young people who [had] descended into the neighborhood for what they think is something there,” Bethel said. “There is nothing for them there, other than to take over the street.”

    That comment did not sit well with Council members and dozens of LGBTQ+ community members who attended the hearing at City Hall.

    “Your testimony today and what I’m hearing is both painful and perplexing,” said Councilmember Rue Landau, a Democrat who called for the hearing and is the first out LGBTQ+ person to serve on Council. “It is mind-boggling to think that you and your team would not know that people were going back to the Gayborhood.”

    Councilmember Isaiah Thomas, a Democrat, said he was “confused” why groups of teenagers fighting would have prompted an outsized police response throughout the Gayborhood that included crowds running amid police on horseback and motorcycles.

    “It doesn’t really feel like we’re having a conversation that can put us in a position of earning the trust of a lot of the people who feel like the trust has been lost,” he said.

    And C. Michael Robinson, a community advocate, added: “Only adult bullies scapegoat children, and that was a weak display of leadership.”

    Councilmember Rue Landau questions Police Commissioner Kevin Bethel (foreground) as Council’s Committee on Legislative Oversight holds a hearing Wednesday, Aug. 5, 2026 into the Philadelphia Police tactics used during Pride celebrations in June.Tom Gralish / Staff Photographer

    The hearing Wednesday before Council’s Committee on Legislative Oversight was the most tense questioning that Bethel, a veteran of the city’s police force, has faced since he was sworn in as commissioner in January 2024 at the beginning of Parker’s term. He has enjoyed a largely warm relationship with Council members, who have been supportive of his leadership amid a significant drop in violent crime.

    However, the police department faced intense scrutiny following June 7, the day of the Pride parade and celebration during which 15 people were arrested and videos of police corralling crowds in the Gayborhood drew widespread criticism. Videos posted to social media showed officers physically struggling with Pride attendees, as well as police on horseback and motorcycles dispersing people, and at times displaying batons and Tasers.

    Following the backlash, Landau called for Council’s Committee on Legislative Oversight to hear testimony from the department’s top brass, as well as members of Mayor Cherelle L. Parker’s administration and LGBTQ+ advocates.

    Pride attendees who testified Wednesday said police forcefully directed them through a maze of barricades in the Gayborhood. Several described being pushed and yelled at, and said that the most aggressive tactics were used on crowds of mostly Black people. One person said they heard an officer use a slur.

    Parker said in a statement Wednesday that the events described during the hearing “show us we can and must do better.”

    “We can and will learn from what occurred,” she said.

    Councilmember Rue Landau (seated, left) shows a collection of social media videos as City Council’s Committee on Legislative Oversight holds a hearing Wednesday, Aug. 5, 2026 into the Philadelphia Police tactics used during Pride celebrations in June.Tom Gralish / Staff Photographer

    This year marked the first time the city’s Pride festival was held on the Benjamin Franklin Parkway, where Bethel said police had been well-prepared to manage crowds. Thousands of people still congregated in the Gayborhood, where celebrations were held in previous years, creating dueling events that he said overwhelmed the department.

    Officers attempted to manage crowds in the Gayborhood for hours, Bethel said, and began working to disperse people by late afternoon. To do so, he said, officers used barricades, as well as officers mounted on horseback and motorcycles to motivate people to leave on their own.

    A large police presence at a Pride celebration in the Gayborhood on Sunday, June 8, 2026.

    Landau said she was horrified by the crowd-control tactics and asked Bethel if he supported the decision to have officers on motorcycles on the sidewalk, calling it “terrifying” and “dangerous.”

    He said the goal of moving the crowd was “appropriate at the time.”

    In what became a tense back-and-forth, Landau said that people attending Pride “did not believe that you were there to protect them.”

    “They were terrified, they were harassed, they were traumatized,” she said. “This was not about protection. You had 150 officers there, by your own testimony. That is a significant amount of officers.”

    Bethel responded: “Do you want police there at all?”

    Landau appeared taken aback.

    “My comment that there was 150 officers there should not turn into the end-sum game of ‘Do you not want anybody there?’” she said.

    The police commissioner did not specify how many officers in total are facing potential discipline stemming from Pride events on June 7, but he said “eight or nine″ are under investigation by the internal affairs division for wearing facial coverings, a violation of department policy.

    Bethel, who was formerly the department’s liaison to the LGBTQ+ community, vowed a more collaborative planning process next year.

    “Next year it will not be like that. It will be prepared,” Bethel said. “It is not my job to police that event. It is to keep it safe.”

    Several LGBTQ+ advocates and community members testified in favor of additional accountability measures.

    Jacen Bowman, the president of Philly Black Pride, called for an independent after-action review, a permanent LGBTQ+ public safety advisory council that is consulted during the planning of large events, and more consistent cultural competency training for officers.

    “Versions of these structures already exist,” Bowman said. “The question is whether or not the structure has the authority, independence, or enforcement power necessary to produce accountability. Oversight without authority is observation.”

  • Afghanistan’s child deaths are rising as food distributions face cuts, UN says

    Afghanistan’s child deaths are rising as food distributions face cuts, UN says

    ROME — Child malnutrition has reached critical levels in a third of Afghanistan’s provinces and is expected to worsen as funding shortfalls force cuts in food distributions and other support, the U.N. World Food Program said Tuesday.

    “We must act now to stem the rise in child deaths, which this crisis is provoking,” John Aylieff, WFP’s country director in Afghanistan, said in a statement, adding that “it is already too late for too many.”

    Afghanistan continues to recover from decades of conflict and upheaval, including the chaotic withdrawal of U.S. forces in 2021 as the Taliban took power.

    Olga Cherevko, spokesperson for the U.N. humanitarian office in Afghanistan, said nutrition specialists report that “wasting among children has worsened this year in over three-quarters of the country.” Children suffering from a condition known as wasting are acutely malnourished, become very thin for their height, and need immediate therapeutic feeding.

    But “too many children arrive at health facilities severely malnourished” while others never make it, Cherevko told reporters at U.N. headquarters by video from Afghanistan, where she has traveled across the country in recent months and weeks.

    WFP said 142 health centers closed in 2025 because of aid reductions and more than 13,000 children lost access to nutrition treatment. It did not mention any specific donor, such as the United States, where the Trump administration has made sweeping cuts in foreign aid.

    Nearly 3.7 million Afghan children are projected to suffer from acute malnutrition this year, along with 1.2 million pregnant and breastfeeding women, according to WFP.

    The agency said 12 Afghan provinces have reached critical levels of acute child malnutrition, a record number. It cited a combination of conflict, unemployment, rising food prices, disease outbreaks, poor water and sanitation, and reduced humanitarian funding.

    Deliveries delayed by the Iran war and other fighting

    WFP said supply shortages linked to conflict in the Middle East and the nine-month closure of Pakistan’s border because of fighting between the neighbors have disrupted deliveries of nutrition products, leaving nearly one million malnourished women and children without essential nutrition services for five months.

    From August through October, WFP said, food distributions aimed at preventing famine in the worst-hit areas are being suspended due to lack of funding, even though the annual peak season for malnutrition is between July and October.

    It said it urgently needs $540 million over the next six months.

    WFP previously described cuts as ‘devastating’

    Humanitarian groups in Afghanistan are grappling with steep funding cuts. In February, Aylieff told the Associated Press that cuts had been “devastating” and were forcing the agency to turn away three out of four acutely malnourished children.

    Funding for food assistance has dropped sharply — by about 59% since 2022 — even as needs have surged, according to a recent WFP report.

    In June, the U.S. pledged $800 million to WFP, which said it will help more than 38 million people in at least 37 countries.

    Cherevko of the U.N. humanitarian office said the larger $1.71 billion humanitarian appeal for Afghanistan is just over 26% funded, which is “alarming,” especially since malnutrition and other indicators are worsening.

  • The rules for Philly’s school selection process are changing again — here’s how

    The rules for Philly’s school selection process are changing again — here’s how

    The guidelines for how students are admitted to Philadelphia’s magnet schools are changing.

    Philadelphia School District officials announced a number of shifts Wednesday that will be put into place for the application window for the 2027-28 school year, opening this fall.

    It is not yet clear when the school district will open the 2027-28 application process for its 37 criteria-based schools.

    The changes are:

    Only students’ grades in math, English, and science will count toward students’ eligibility for criteria-based schools. Social studies grades will no longer count.

    The zip codes that guarantee admission to four of the city’s top magnet schools to students are shifting. Children who live in 19132, 19133, 19135, 19138, 19140, or 19141 who meet academic criteria are now guaranteed admission to Masterman, Central, Carver High School of Engineering and Science, or Academy at Palumbo.

    New to the list are 19138 — Germantown — and 19141 — sections of North Philadelphia including Logan and East Oak Lane.

    No longer on the preference list are 19121 — parts of North Philadelphia including Brewerytown and Sharswood — and 19136, Holmesburg and Torresdale.

    The zip code list is recalculated annually based on which sections of the city were most underrepresented for admissions to Philadelphia’s selective schools.

    Students who attended a prekindergarten program at a district school now get preference for admission to that school’s kindergarten class.

    Students who attended a district summer career and technical education program now get preference for admission to a career and technical education program.

    More students will receive individualized review, or consideration for admission to criteria-based schools, as long as they meet eligibility requirements for any of the five schools they apply to. Individualized review applies to any student who is an English learner, or who has an Individual Education Plan or qualifies for a federal 504 plan.

    The change is “to allow more students with disabilities or who are English learners to access magnet schools,” officials said.

    The changes come weeks after a judge signed off on a $650,000 settlement in a lawsuit brought by three families challenging the special-admissions policy.

    The families, backed by lawyers from America First, an organization formed by Stephen Miller, a top aide to President Donald Trump, alleged that the school system had shifted to a “blatantly unconstitutional, race-based” admissions system.

    Each of the families had children who met academic criteria for the magnets of their choice in 2022, but who did not get in. The litigation came after Philadelphia overhauled its special-admission system in the name of equity.

    The settlement forced no changes to the process, which has evolved since its inception in 2021. Though zip code preference is still in place, the district no longer uses a computer-scored writing exam. It gives some sibling preference, and it guarantees admission to high school programs attached to magnet middle schools as long as students maintain high grades.

  • Man arrested at Trump’s California golf course faces illegal weapons charges

    Man arrested at Trump’s California golf course faces illegal weapons charges

    LOS ANGELES — A California man who was arrested at President Donald Trump’s Los Angeles-area golf course was pretending to be part of the security detail preparing for Trump’s visit and had a stash of illegal weapons in his car and home, authorities said.

    Jeanine John Taele, 38, was due in court Wednesday on a federal weapons charge but the hearing was canceled. He is being held at a downtown LA jail on state charges, according to booking records, and not yet in federal custody, said a spokesperson for the U.S. attorney’s office.

    Taele was arrested Sunday at Trump National Golf Club in Rancho Palos Verdes, two days before Trump visited for a fundraising dinner.

    Taele was first seen on the property Friday, walking throughout the course wearing an earpiece and taking photos and videos of federal agents’ activities as they conducted a security assessment, according to a federal criminal complaint.

    Taele drove away but then returned to the course Sunday. He approached federal agents and said he was employed by the State Department and was there for a security detail. Taele said he had a loaded weapon in his vehicle and was arrested after it was searched, according to federal officials. Authorities also found a 16-round magazine with ammunition in his pocket.

    He already appeared in court on state weapons charges and a second-degree robbery charge for an unrelated incident.

    Taele is charged federally with possession of an unregistered short-barreled rifle that was found at this home, authorities said. The complaint alleges the firearm is an illegally modified AR-style rifle with a barrel that was cut down to 10 inches from 14 inches.

    The Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department said a search of his pickup truck in the club parking lot turned up a loaded 9mm pistol, binoculars, and a badge that read “security protection agent,” according to federal prosecutors.

    Law enforcement searched his home in the nearby city of Downey on Monday and found a rifle and other firearms, magazines and ammunition, body armor, and notebooks with “concerning statements,” federal authorities said. No details about the statements were released.

    “Mr. Taele’s troubling behavior at the President’s public golf course merely days before the President was expected to arrive raised serious red flags for law enforcement,” Patrick Grandy, the assistant director in charge of the FBI’s Los Angeles office, said in a statement. “There is no room for error, particularly in light of previous attempts on President Trump’s life.”

    In brief remarks about Taele’s arrest to Fox News on Tuesday, Trump said “only consequential presidents” are targeted, “and I am definitely consequential,” which he said brought him “a little solace.”

    Taele was a corporal in the U.S. Marines who was deployed to Iraq in 2008 and Afghanistan in 2010 and worked as a warehouse clerk, according to the U.S. Marine Corps. He earned numerous commendations, including an award for good conduct, during his service from 2008 to 2016.

    The Los Angeles County public defender’s office, which is representing Taele in the state criminal case, did not immediately return an email seeking comment Wednesday. Family members could not immediately be reached for comment.

    Last year a jury found a man guilty of trying to assassinate Trump at the president’s Florida country club. And while a candidate in 2024, Trump narrowly escaped an assassination attempt by a shooter on a roof at a campaign rally in Butler, Pa.

  • Funding was cut to life-saving medical research programs in Philly. Rep. Brendan Boyle demands to know why.

    Funding was cut to life-saving medical research programs in Philly. Rep. Brendan Boyle demands to know why.

    Rep. Brendan Boyle sent a formal letter to the federal government on Wednesday, demanding an explanation for the recent cuts to health care research funding in Philadelphia.

    The Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality last month cut dozens of grants nationwide, totaling hundreds of millions of dollars. The cancellations affected multiple programs at the University of Pennsylvania and Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, disrupting studies into how healthcare systems can be organized and financed to improve health outcomes.

    That included projects on improving translation services for hospitalized patients and expanding access to hormone therapy for menopausal women.

    “Their funding isn’t partisan, nor is it controversial,” Boyle said at a Wednesday press conference on Schuylkill Avenue where he was joined by affected researchers from Penn and CHOP. “It represents exactly what our federal government should be doing, creating jobs and saving lives by funding critical medical research.”

    Penn and CHOP researchers lost millions in federal funding for healthcare research last week, forcing programs to close

    As the top Democrat on the United States House Committee on the Budget, Boyle asked in his letter to AHRQ and the Office of Management and Budget whether the administration would commit to fully spending the funding that was congressionally appropriated for AHRQ.

    He requested a list of every grant that was cancelled and the justification given. His letter referenced a recent district court ruling in New Jersey v. OMB that found the government “cannot terminate grants based on their inability to effectuate program goals and agency priorities identified after the award was made.”

    The original cancellation notices sent to researchers in mid-July did not list specific reasons, stating only that continuing the grant was not “in the best interest of the Federal Government.”

    Boyle also asked whether AHRQ grants were cancelled based on the political identity of the grant recipient’s state, city, or congressional district.

    He said this information would help determine whether the grants were illegally cut and if Philadelphia was targeted for political reasons.

    “We are here to demand that the Trump administration immediately reverse these cuts and unfreeze the programs sitting in limbo,” Boyle said.

    In a statement on Wednesday, the Department of Health and Human Services said that the AHRQ director determines “whether continuation funding is in the best interest of the federal government.”

    “To be clear, these grants were not terminated – they were not awarded continued funding,” the HHS statement said. “The Trump Administration remains committed to the responsible stewardship of taxpayer dollars.”

    Local researchers speak out

    Rachel Werner, a professor of medicine at the University of Pennsylvania and former executive director of the Leonard Davis Institute of Health Economics, was among the researchers who spoke at the press conference.Kayla Yup / Staff

    CHOP pediatrician Christopher Forrest had to shut down his PEDSnet Scholars program in June after AHRQ cancelled the $5 million grant designated for it.

    For nearly a decade, the program had trained 44 early-career scholars on how to design studies that improve the safety and quality of healthcare for kids.

    One project focused on preventing strokes in children with sickle cell anemia, a rare blood disorder.

    Another project reduced antimicrobial resistance in the intensive care unit by improving providers’ ability to identify which children needed antibiotics.

    A third helped families adapt to a congenital heart disease diagnosis, reducing rates of post-traumatic stress disorder.

    “These are not just abstract academic accomplishments,” said Rachel Werner, a Penn professor who was also affected by grant cuts. “They are real improvements in the practice of medicine that have resulted in thousands of lives being saved.”

    Werner has helped lead the PORTAL program at Penn, an AHRQ-funded research training program that lost millions in funding last month.

    She said the grant cancellations would lead to fewer discoveries, an immediate loss of jobs, and a shrinking pipeline of future scientists.

    “For the sake of the health of all of us, it’s really imperative that that work continues,” Werner said.

  • A judge has tossed Cherry Hill schools’ lawsuit against a journalist for filing too many public records requests

    A judge has tossed Cherry Hill schools’ lawsuit against a journalist for filing too many public records requests

    Freelance journalist Benjamin Shore will not have to stop filing public records requests in South Jersey after a judge dismissed Cherry Hill schools’ lawsuit alleging that his requests amounted to harassment.

    The Cherry Hill Board of Education filed a 128-page lawsuit in Superior Court in February claiming that the “numerous, repeated and vexatious” requests that Shore filed under New Jersey’s Open Public Records Act qualified as harassment and “substantially interrupted” school operations.

    Shore operates the online outlet Shore Investigates, a news site focused on Cherry Hill. His brother Daniel was also named in the lawsuit.

    The suit sought to bar Shore and his outlet from submitting requests for public documents for one year. It also sought to shut down an online portal that Shore created where the public can file requests instead of using the district’s website.

    Journalist Ben Shore in front of the Cherry Hill Public Schools Board of Education headquarters in the Arthur Lewis Administration Building in Cherry Hill on Thursday April 2, 2026.Elizabeth Robertson / Staff Photographer

    “The Board tried to stop us from requesting records,” Benjamin Shore said in an email following the dismissal. “Instead, the case ended with its complaint dismissed with prejudice and its unsupported allegations rejected. Shore Investigates will continue following the records, asking difficult questions, and keeping the public informed.”

    Cherry Hill Public Schools did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

    The school board’s lawsuit specifically referenced 18 OPRA requests that Shore had filed over the course of a year and a half, averaging out to roughly one request per month.

    The board claimed that as a result, district personnel, including the custodian of records, spent more than 100 hours reviewing and redacting documents and responding to Shore’s requests.

    Shore argued that the amount and frequency of his requests is in line with standard journalistic practice.

    Superior Court Judge Michael Mikulski agreed, dismissing the suit on July 31 and stating that the district had failed to provide evidence of Shore’s ill intent.

    Instead, the judge found that Shore actually displayed a “willingness to cooperate with the Board in making the requests less intrusive,” he wrote in the seven-page ruling.

    “The Court finds the Board has failed to establish by clear and convincing evidence that Defendants filed their requests with the intent to disrupt agency operations,” the ruling concluded.

    Journalist Ben Shore in front of the Cherry Hill Public Schools Board of Education headquarters in the Arthur Lewis Administration Building in Cherry Hill on Thursday April 2, 2026.Elizabeth Robertson / Staff Photographer

    Mikulski determined that the suit met the requirements to be dismissed under New Jersey’s Uniform Public Expression Protection Act, which is meant to shield people from baseless lawsuits meant to silence political speech or engagement.

    The law allows defendants to request an early, expedited dismissal of a lawsuit and to recover legal fees if the suit is ultimately tossed.

    While Shore succeeded in getting the case thrown out, he said it still had its intended effect.

    “The lawsuit nevertheless accomplished something before it was dismissed: it chilled our reporting. We paused records requests and held back stories because every new inquiry appeared to carry the threat of further litigation,” Shore said. “That is what it means to report with a target on your back.”

    New Jersey’s new open records laws

    The district’s lawsuit was possible thanks to a controversial June 2024 bill signed by then-Gov. Phil Murphy that overhauled the state’s existing public records laws.

    The new law enables governmental entities like the Cherry Hill Board of Education to sue someone seeking public information if they can prove the request amounts to harassment or substantially prevents them from doing their jobs.

    The new law also no longer guarantees that people who successfully overturn record request denials in court can recoup their legal fees.

    “We knew when they amended OPRA in 2024 to include this provision that it would sadly be weaponized to retaliate against people who seek public records,” Shore’s attorney, CJ Griffin, said in a statement. “But thankfully the trial court agreed this suit had no merit and that my clients were nothing but polite and had no intention of disrupting agency operations — they simply wanted government records to report on matters of public concern.”

    “No one should be hauled into court for filing public records requests, especially not reporters who keep us informed about the public business,” Griffin said.

  • Monroe Township has requested the dismissal of a $300 million lawsuit against its data center ban

    Monroe Township has requested the dismissal of a $300 million lawsuit against its data center ban

    Monroe Township officials requested in late July to dismiss a $300 million lawsuit by Princeton-based real estate developer Hexa Builders challenging the municipality’s data center ban.

    The Gloucester County case continues as other South Jersey municipalities consider and pass data center bans, including Cherry Hill, Millville, Medford, and, as of this week, Collingswood.

    The request for dismissal came less than a month after Monroe pushed Hexa Builders’ complaint from state to federal court under the claim that some of Hexa’s allegations fell under the U.S. Constitution and should be addressed federally.

    Some of the 20 counts alleged by Hexa include violations of the equal protection clause of the 14th Amendment and freedom of speech under the First Amendment.

    On July 28, Todd Gelfand, the attorney representing Monroe’s mayor and council, filed a four-page letter listing reasons that he said Hexa’s lawsuit against the data center ban is not valid.

    Gelfand rejected Hexa’s constitutional arguments, cited a lack of a physical contract promising data centers to Hexa, and argued Monroe had a right to amend a zoning ordinance based on public objections.

    “[The data center ban] does not regulate the content of speech, a speaker, a message, or Plaintiffs’ ability to engage in expressive activity. The fact that data centers support electronic communications does not transform a land-use regulation into a speech restriction,” Gelfand wrote.

    In response, Jim Maley, the attorney representing Hexa Builders, requested on Monday to push the majority of Hexa’s complaint — the parts that are not based on the Constitution — back to New Jersey state court. The next day, he asked the federal judge currently overseeing the case to reject Monroe’s request for dismissal.

    Maley said state courts have more expertise to consider the local land-use laws that affect Hexa Builders most, and Hexa’s federal claims should be considered second.

    “To further the federal claims, the constitutional claims, there has to first be determination of whether there was a violation of the land-use laws,” Maley said. “If land use wasn’t violated, that will hurt [our] federal claims.”

    U.S. District Judge Edward Kiel has not yet made official moves in reaction to the letters, which Maley said could take a while.

    Sandra Graise, Monroe Township’s solicitor, declined to comment and said the township does not speak about pending litigation.

    Hexa filed the original lawsuit on June 5 in New Jersey Superior Court shortly after Monroe officials denied its application to build a 1 million-square-foot data center and a warehouse at 3043 Black Horse Pike, a property the company has sought to develop since 2022.

    The denial followed months of public outcry at local government meetings after residents discovered that a change to Hexa’s redevelopment plan in early 2025 allowed the developer to propose a data center.

    Collingswood considers ordinance on data centers

    As the parties go back and forth, nearby municipalities have taken initiative to ban data centers before a proposal ever arrives.

    At a Monday night meeting in Collingswood, the Camden County borough’s three commissioners considered an ordinance amending Collingswood’s code to ban data centers and “computing nodes,” which the borough defines as modular units installed at residential or small commercial properties that supply computing capacity to third parties in exchange for payment or credits to the property owner.

    Maley, who represents Hexa in Monroe, is also a member of Collingswood’s board of commissioners.

    Two residents who attended the borough meeting brought up Maley’s connection to the Hexa case and asked whether Maley would recuse himself from the vote based on his employment as a private attorney supporting a potential data center nearby.

    In response, Collingswood solicitor Caitlin Harney Norcia said she could not find evidence that would disqualify Maley from voting under New Jersey’s Local Government Ethics Law, since Maley’s job as an attorney does not directly affect his work in Collingswood.

    While Maley decided to abstain from the vote, he said the borough should have a six-month waiting period to allow the borough planner time to consider standards for data centers, called the move “a ban of reaction,” and said the borough does not have room for a data center anyway.

    “We don’t prohibit airports. OK, that’s a permitted use. We don’t do that because there’s no place you can put an airport. There’s no place in this town you can put a data center,” Maley said in a live recording of the meeting on Facebook. “But the nodes are another issue.”

    When reached for comment Wednesday, Maley said he did not have to abstain from the vote, but he still chose to for nonlegal reasons.

    “Folks in the crowd, they’re working really hard to beat me up on a lot of different things. It’s a group that’s been against me for years. … Whatever my vote would have been, they would have been yelling and screaming about it and impacting my work,” Maley said.

    Collingswood’s two other commissioners voted to approve the data center and computing node ban on its second reading. The ordinance took effect immediately.

  • More than a week into Eagles training camp, Jalen Hurts and the new-look offense are ‘calibrating’

    More than a week into Eagles training camp, Jalen Hurts and the new-look offense are ‘calibrating’

    Jalen Hurts had his strongest showing of a young Eagles training camp on Monday, the fourth day of practice. And after connecting with Elijah Moore near the end zone on a deep post that went for about 40 yards, Hurts celebrated a little more than he normally would during a practice rep.

    It wasn’t the play itself, or even his perfect throw, that had the quarterback feeling good, Hurts clarified Wednesday. The emotion came because of a “mishap” between the two new teammates earlier in practice. Moore, who was getting extra reps with first-round pick Makai Lemon dealing with a hamstring injury, ran the wrong route earlier that practice during seven-on-seven work. The end result was a Quinyon Mitchell interception that would have been an easy pick-six.

    “I just think that was an example of responding,” Hurts said. “That’s what I was so proud of and happy about; not the throw, but that he was able to play the next play, show up in the right window at the right time and rip it in there for a touchdown down the middle of the field.”

    It was the highlight of the day during what was a clean — besides the Mitchell interception — and efficient day from Hurts and the offense, and it showed Hurts’ willingness to throw the ball in the middle of the field, a characteristic of his game that he’ll need to show when the real football begins to silence those who say he isn’t willing.

    Jalen Hurts has had both hot and cold moments within the new offense in the early days of training camp. Jose F. Moreno / Staff Photographer

    The new-look offense under first-year coordinator Sean Mannion is still in the early days of installation. While it got the best of Vic Fangio’s defense Monday, the defense has the upper hand so far through six days of practice.

    Wednesday’s practice was a run-heavy day, and it was a shorter practice compared to Tuesday’s session that ran nearly two hours. For Hurts, Wednesday was another chance to “continue to take strides.” It isn’t supposed to be easy to install a new offense against one of the best defenses in the NFL.

    “I like to think of the term calibrating,” Hurts said. “This is a time where we’re kind of putting it together and finding out who we are. We’ve got a lot of new pieces, an entirely new approach and MO, philosophy, to our offense. Being able to put that together and make it our own, I’m excited about where we are.”

    Andy Dalton and Tanner McKee are in a competition for QB2 duties. And they’re trying to embrace it.

    The Eagles have a walkthrough on Thursday that is closed to media before returning to regular practices on Friday and Saturday, ending what will be the busiest practice week of training camp. Mannion’s unit has shown a lot of new wrinkles. Hurts is taking more snaps from under center. The run and play action plays are looking the same. The wide-zone blocking scheme is being installed. Hurts has kept the ball on more designed quarterback runs, including a read option Wednesday that he smartly pulled away from the running back and ran up the left sideline for a nice gain.

    Hurts said it was “too soon to answer” how those designed quarterback runs mesh with the new offense. “I think we’re still installing things and putting all aspects of our offense in,” he said. “We haven’t finished installing. There’s still more to come.”

    That’s important context to avoid overreacting to media reports and social media chatter about the offense during camp. Certain days have certain themes. The offense is brand new for most of the roster. There are components of it still not being repped. Lemon, Lane Johnson, and DeVonta Smith have missed multiple practices. Mannion is going through his first training camp as a coordinator and play caller. Oh, and Wednesday was just Aug. 5, more than five weeks ahead of the first meaningful snap.

    Eli Stowers opens up about early camp struggles: ‘It’s a mental challenge’

    There are a lot of adjustments for Hurts, but perhaps the biggest is going under center and using play action from under center. Asked Wednesday how that change impacts the way Hurts goes through his reads, Hurts said that nothing changes.

    “It’s all going to my feet,” he said. “When I’m playing with my feet and I’m getting my eyes to the right place, you just play the position. I just think that’s more of a flow thing. … It’s a sequencing thing. In the end, you’re still playing the position. You want to play the position the same way: play with your feet, sweep through your reads, know exactly where you’re supposed to go with the ball, where your alerts are, whether it’s down the field or a man alert, just trying to play fast.”

    Hurts said he is “letting curiosity lead me” during camp. He has long talked about wanting to know the why behind what he’s being asked to do. With the fresh scheme, he’s also learning about what each player’s responsibility is on a given play and even how Mannion “is seeing the game from a sequencing standpoint” when it comes to calling plays.

    Eagles offensive coordinator Sean Mannion watches the offense during training camp at Jefferson Health Training Complex. Yong Kim / Staff Photographer

    Mannion said on Saturday that Hurts “asks really thought-provoking questions.”

    “It’s been a constant back and forth,” Mannion said. “Jalen’s had a ton of success in this league and has played in a lot of games. I always want to know the things that he feels comfortable with and if there’s something that maybe we need to go into more detail on for him. There are so many things that you love to dive into, the really nitty-gritty of a play, and help him with total mastery. A lot of it is, for me as a play-caller, getting a feel for what are his comfort calls? What are the things that on a second-and-long he feels super confident in?

    “It’s been a great partnership with Jalen since we got here.”

  • Lawmakers call for Pentagon probe of Trump family-backed companies

    Lawmakers call for Pentagon probe of Trump family-backed companies

    A group of Democratic lawmakers have asked the Pentagon’s official watchdog to open an investigation after the Washington Post revealed that 15 companies with investment from President Donald Trump’s sons have garnered $3.2 billion in federal contracts, investments, and loans — most coming after Trump took office for the second time.

    The letter from Sens. Elizabeth Warren (Mass.), Richard Blumenthal (Conn.), Tammy Duckworth (Ill.), and Rep. Robert Garcia (Calif.) asks for an inquiry into Defense Department contracts awarded to companies affiliated with Eric and Donald Trump Jr., according to a copy of the request provided to the Post.

    Excluding giants SpaceX and Anduril from the tally, companies with investment from funds associated with Trump’s sons have gained more than three times the number of government contracts and other funding than they had before the president’s second term, the Post reported.

    “We are concerned about a growing cloud of corruption amid questions about whether the President’s family and administration officials may be abusing their positions to influence DoD awards, and the extent to which this is undermining the competitive, apolitical contracting process used to ensure that service members have the best equipment and most effective technologies and weapons systems on the market,” the lawmakers wrote in the letter to the Pentagon’s inspector general, Platte B. Moring III.

    Trump’s sons have amassed a sizable portfolio of defense technology startups as the Pentagon shifts its strategic focus to new warfighting tools, putting large amounts of money into developing smaller, nimbler weaponry. While the new direction has broad bipartisan support, ethics experts and Democrats have raised transparency concerns about how companies are selected for opportunities. Republicans have largely avoided the issue.

    The Trump brothers have said that their investments in companies seeking defense contracts are aligned with patriotic goals of creating new U.S. manufacturing jobs and defeating China’s edge in drones, artificial intelligence, and other critical components of the supply chain. Trump Jr. previously told the Post, through a spokesperson, that he does not “interface with the Federal Government as part of his role with any company he invests in or advises.” The spokesperson, Andy Surabian, stressed that Trump Jr. is a private citizen and a businessperson who has never served in government.

    A spokesperson for the Trump organization, Kimberly Benza, told the Post that “Eric Trump and Donald Trump Jr. are passive, minority investors with absolutely no involvement in the day-to-day operations, strategic decisions, management, or any activities of these companies. They have no role whatsoever in the awarding, oversight, or management of any government contracts and remain proud to invest in American companies and American technology.”

    White House spokesperson Anna Kelly referred the Post to an earlier statement that said there were “no conflicts of interest” and that “This is the same, tired narrative that Democrats have pushed against President Trump, his family, and his administration for a decade.”

    The Pentagon also referred to the department’s earlier statement from acting Pentagon press secretary Joel Valdez in response to the Post’s original story. The statement said that “No company receives preferential treatment.”

    One company that Trump Jr. is invested in, Vulcan Elements, received a $620 million direct federal loan from the Pentagon’s Office of Strategic Capital. The Post previously reported that the company was fast-tracked ahead of other firms waiting in line for a loan from the unit, which focuses on innovative technology. ProPublica reported that a senior White House official, Peter Navarro, intervened on behalf of the company to help it garner a loan.

    While no evidence has surfaced that either brother has used political connections inappropriately to advocate for their companies — and doing so is not against the law — ethics experts have said the brothers should not be involved in companies whose primary business is seeking government contracts because of the potential for abuse. Many of the companies that the brothers are invested in are not primarily defense companies, but sell to the Pentagon as a part of their business.

    The congressional letter requests that the inspector general probe Pentagon awards to Trump family-tied companies, and review the decision-making process to determine whether protocols to prohibit conflicts of interest are being followed. The lawmakers noted in their letter that they have “repeatedly sought, and failed to obtain” an explanation from the Pentagon and White House about the decision-making criteria and the ethics obligations associated with recent awards to the companies.

    According to the letter, the Pentagon responded to a previous request with assurance that the Office of Strategic Capital is “committed to upholding the highest ethical standards” and ensuring that the process is free of conflicts of interests. The lawmakers described that response as unsatisfactory, saying it “left us with more concerns that OSC is unaware of or willfully ignoring the potential for corruption in the awards process at the expense of U.S. national security.”

    Trump Jr.’s investment portfolio largely runs through a venture firm called 1789 Capital. The firm has garnered billions in new investment since Trump Jr. joined as a partner in November 2024, just days after his father was reelected president, according to the Post’s previous reporting. Trump Jr. does not sit on the firm’s investment committee, the Post reported, meaning he doesn’t make direct investment decisions, even though he shares in the profit as a partner in the firm. 1789 Capital declined to comment.

    Eric Trump’s defense tech investments run through American Ventures, the venture capital arm of the investment bank Dominari Holdings. Dominari is located in Trump Tower and its leaders are friendly with the Trump brothers, according to people familiar with the relationship, who spoke on the condition of anonymity in order to describe it.

  • Ukraine fails to halt Russian barrage as Zelensky blames partners for ‘horrific casualties’

    Ukraine fails to halt Russian barrage as Zelensky blames partners for ‘horrific casualties’

    KYIV — Ukrainian forces failed to shoot down a single Russian missile early Wednesday during Moscow’s latest aerial bombardment of Kyiv and the surrounding region — a consequence that President Volodymyr Zelensky blamed on a plunge in anti-ballistic systems supplied by its partners, including the United States.

    Zelensky wrote on X that 17 people were killed and 44 injured, adding: “Ballistic missile interceptors could have saved the lives of those killed today. It is very important that our partners understand that delays in supplying them, or an unwillingness to provide anti-ballistic systems, lead directly to such horrific casualties and destruction.” In a separate post Wednesday, he said that the number of air defense missiles supplied by partners “has dropped threefold compared with 2025.”

    “Our partners do have the missiles,” Zelensky wrote. “It is important that the necessary political decisions on supplies and the acceleration of production processes are ultimately made.”

    It was the third major ballistic attack on Kyiv in a week, and came only days after Zelensky warned that his country had run out of air defense interceptors. Russia launched 24 ballistic and four hypersonic cruise missiles overnight, along with 115 attack drones, most of which targeted the area outside of Kyiv, Ukraine’s Air Force said on social media. All of the missiles and 17 drones struck targets.

    Russian forces also appear to be expanding their list of civilian targets to include Ukraine’s major supermarket chains.

    In a statement posted on social media, Russia’s Defense Ministry said it carried out a “massive strike” that resulted “in the destruction of transportation, logistics, and distribution centers in the city of Kyiv and the Kyiv region.”

    Ukraine relies on the U.S.-designed Patriot air defense systems as its only means to shoot down Russian ballistic missiles, and until recently, a large number were intercepted. However, the system’s interceptor missiles are in short supply, in part because of the large number used during the Iran war.

    European governments, Ukraine’s chief military backers, have been reluctant to hand over more of their Patriots out of worry this could hobble their own defenses. Earlier this year, the Trump administration prodded several European countries to send Kyiv their Patriot missiles, but some declined out of such concern, people familiar with the private discussions said.

    NATO officials say production of the U.S.-made batteries and other air defenses is lagging behind the pace of global conflict and impacting countries including the United States.

    On Friday, President Donald Trump also appeared to reverse an agreement reached with Zelensky earlier to provide Ukraine with licenses to produce interceptor missiles itself.

    On social media on Wednesday, Zelensky also called for Ukraine’s allies to impose additional sanctions on Russia since he said “a significant share” of the components that Moscow obtains abroad for its ballistic missile production were not under sanctions.

    Russia’s latest attack destroyed warehouses and logistics centers of some of Ukraine’s largest retail companies.

    Iryna Chechotkina, a co-founder of Rozetka — Ukraine’s largest online marketplace, similar to Amazon — said that a distribution warehouse in the Kyiv suburb of Brovary, where more than 100,000 orders were processed daily, was destroyed completely and could not be restored. No one was injured in the attack, to her “great relief,” she said.

    “Today I was supposed to post about Rozetka turning 21. To thank our customers, partners, and team for this long journey we have traveled together,” Chechotkina wrote on Facebook.

    “Instead, at night I watched as my life’s work burned down after three ballistic missiles hit,” she said.

    For its part, Ukrainian drones in recent weeks have been bombarding warehouses run by Russia’s largest e-commerce marketplace, Wildberries. On Wednesday, Ukrainian drones attacked a facility in Russia’s central Tula region, Telegram channels and local officials said.