Inquirer.com – Zurich DR

Blog

  • House Republicans adopt $95 billion package for the Iran war and Trump’s priorities

    House Republicans adopt $95 billion package for the Iran war and Trump’s priorities

    WASHINGTON — The House adopted a Republican-only $95 billion budget proposal Wednesday, a long-shot effort to fund the Iran war and other White House priorities over objections from Democrats and a few GOP holdouts in a final push before the midterm elections.

    House Republicans were divided over the plan, with conservatives wary because there are no offsetting budget cuts. But Speaker Mike Johnson plunged ahead, viewing the go-it-alone process as the best chance to usher President Donald Trump’s priorities through the split Congress, despite skepticism in the Senate.

    The vote tally was 216-214, with two Republicans and one independent joining Democrats in opposition.

    “Just bullets and bombs to finish the job,” said Rep. Jodey Arrington (R., Texas), the chairman of the Budget Committee.

    Democrats argued the money should be spent at home, particularly on efforts to lower costs for Americans.

    “Republicans plan to spend tens of billions of dollars on Trump’s failed war in Iran,” said Rep. Pete Aguilar of California, chairman of the House Democratic caucus, this week. “Think about what we could spend with these resources instead.”

    Congress is at a standstill over the U.S. war against Iran — unable to stop Trump’s military strikes, but not having authorized the use of American military force — and politically torn over having to provide billions of taxpayer dollars to pay for it. Most Americans disapprove of Trump’s Iran strategy, according to a recent AP-NORC poll.

    The budget battle comes as Trump attended the dignified transfer of four service members killed in the Middle East, bringing the military death toll to 18. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth told senators at a fiery hearing this week that the Pentagon is running short of cash, despite a massive $150 billion one-time allotment in last year’s big budget bill.

    Even as the House action advanced the resolution, Johnson’s strategy faces uncertainty in the Senate.

    The package has $60 billion for the Pentagon and $13 billion for other national security needs, $12 billion for farmers struggling under Trump’s tariffs, and $10 billion for voting law changes aligned with the SAVE America Act and proof-of-citizenship requirements that are Trump’s top priority.

    A once rare budget tool is now the norm in split Congress

    Republicans are relying on the budget reconciliation process, which enables approval on a majority vote in Congress, bypassing the Senate’s ability to filibuster the measure t o stall or kill it.

    Once rare, the reconciliation process is now Johnson’s preferred strategy for pushing proposals through Congress. It’s the way Republicans approved Trump’s big tax breaks and spending cuts bill last summer and funded Homeland Security this year over Democrats’ refusal to fund Trump’s mass deportation agenda.

    “No matter how you feel about current events, these funds are necessary to ensure our fighting forces remain ready, our troops are paid and our nation is safe,” said Rep. Mike Rogers of Alabama, the Republican chairman of the Armed Services Committee.

    But House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries said, “Republicans have literally ripped food from the mouths of hungry children, seniors and veterans to sustain the Trump war machine.”

    Among those opposed was Rep. Kevin Kiley of California, a former Republican turned independent, who said he felt any war funding bill should be bipartisan. He also wanted to ensure Congress had a “much higher level of involvement” in bringing the war to an end, and he said this proposal did not set that process in motion.

    Republicans Rep. Thomas Massie of Kentucky and Rep. Warren Davidson of Ohio also voted against.

    This is the third time GOP leaders have relied on reconciliation, dubbing this version 3.0, and it’s a lengthy process. If the House approves the budget resolution, it next goes to the Senate for a round-the-clock session to consider politically tough amendments — something senators would rather avoid in an election year.

    The budget resolution sets out instructions for the various committees to draft legislation, which Johnson hopes could be done this summer, with final voting on the package once lawmakers return after the August recess.

    Senators pan House’s budget and have their own ideas

    Senate Majority Leader John Thune has been noncommittal on the House package that also divides his own GOP majority, with some Republican senators preferring more money for the military and others demanding the costs be offset with cuts elsewhere.

    “We’ll see,” Thune said this week.

    Thune’s focus, at the moment, is avoiding another government shutdown. He wants the Senate to approve a stopgap funding measure, called a continuing resolution, to provide routine government funding before lawmakers leave for the summer break.

    If senators are unable to reach agreement on government funding, Thune has said he may hold onto the House’s budget resolution and use it later in the fall as a way to push the resolution through the Senate over objections. He wants to prevent a federal shutdown when current funds expire, Sept. 30.

    “It’s a possibility that, if necessary, we could pull that budget resolution passed by the House and use it to fund government,” Thune said. “I hope that’s not necessary.”

    Thune has also clashed with Trump over the president’s push for the SAVE America Act, which would require proof of citizenship for voting. The measure, while popular among Trump’s most ardent supporters, does not have enough support among Senate Republicans for passage.

    It’s already against the law for noncitizens to vote in federal elections and experts warn the proposed new rules could make it more difficult for eligible Americans to cast ballots.

  • Tropical Storm Bertha makes landfall on southern Louisiana with threatening winds

    Tropical Storm Bertha makes landfall on southern Louisiana with threatening winds

    Tropical Storm Bertha crawled into southern Louisiana on Wednesday, making landfall and packing strong winds far from its center after closing beaches from the Florida Panhandle to Mississippi.

    The National Hurricane Center said Bertha made landfall in the afternoon in St. Bernard Parish, about 40 miles east of New Orleans. At landfall, the storm’s maximum sustained winds were around 45 mph.

    The wind and storm surge were the main threats for the Deep South states. Parks and piers were closed up and down the coast, as were some low-lying roads. A tropical storm warning stretched from Alabama to Louisiana, including New Orleans where extreme heat was adding to misery.

    Tropical storm force winds were felt as much as 160 miles from the center of the storm, the National Hurricane Center said. A wind gust of 44 mph was recorded at New Orleans Lakefront Airport on Wednesday afternoon.

    But the heaviest rains were staying offshore, reducing the risks of flooding, the center said.

    The storm will weaken now that it’s reached land and is unlikely to leave behind widespread damage, Louisiana State Climatologist Jay Grymes said. The impact should be manageable for coastal communities, he said.

    Gov. Jeff Landry called the forecast “encouraging” but also warned residents to be prepared for some flooding.

    Storm surges up to 3 feet were possible in Louisiana and Alabama, forecasters said. Rain totals were forecast between 1 and 4 inches, with higher amounts possible in isolated areas.

    Bertha is expected to maintain tropical storm intensity until it reaches the Texas coast on Thursday, the hurricane center said.

    Tornado confirmed in Cape May County as storms swept through New Jersey

    Elsewhere in the U.S., a line of storms on Tuesday generated reports of tornadoes stretching from Cincinnati to New Jersey. Torrential rains caused flash floods that swamped homes, washed out bridges and led to water rescues in West Virginia, authorities said.

    Rare combination of tropical storm and heat warnings

    Southern Louisiana was under tropical storm and extreme heat warnings for much of Wednesday — a rare double dose of suffering, the National Weather Service said.

    It was the first time in at least two decades that’s happened in the area, the weather service said, citing records that date back to 2005.

    Bertha is the second tropical storm of the Atlantic season

    Bertha is the second tropical storm of the Atlantic hurricane season. Tropical Storm Arthur in June brought heavy rainfall to the southeastern U.S.

    Bertha could dump heavy rain on coastal areas of Mississippi that are still recovering from flooding brought by Arthur that destroyed and damaged homes.

    Hurricane Fausto in the Pacific is far from land

    In the eastern Pacific Ocean, Hurricane Fausto churned far from land Wednesday. The hurricane was hundreds of miles west-southwest of the southern tip of Baja California with maximum sustained winds of 80 mph.

    It was forecast to gradually strengthen and the hurricane center said that ocean swells generated by Fausto were spreading along the Baja California coast and likely to cause life-threatening surf and rip tides.

  • How 6,600 noncitizens were registered to vote in New Jersey and what happens next

    How 6,600 noncitizens were registered to vote in New Jersey and what happens next

    New Jersey Gov. Mikie Sherrill was handed an election security crisis that took place under her predecessor just days after President Donald Trump’s administration pushed out claims of widespread noncitizen voting.

    Sherrill revealed Tuesday that about 6,600 noncitizens had been illegally registered as voters in New Jersey due to a system error in the state’s department of motor vehicle voter registration program under former Gov. Phil Murphy.

    The governor said fewer than 400 of those people had voted. There is no evidence that their ballots changed any election outcomes, but the news has thrust the Garden State into the middle of the national debate over election security.

    “This failure didn’t occur on my watch, but accountability starts now,” she said at a news conference Tuesday.

    Here is what to know about what happened and how, and what the fallout could be — both in Trenton and in Washington.

    How many noncitizens got registered in New Jersey and how many voted?

    About 6,600 people who identified themselves as noncitizens were registered to vote in New Jersey between June 2023 and June 2024 “through no fault of their own” due to the glitch, though fewer than 400 cast a ballot, Sherrill said.

    Sherrill said at a news conference that the error “was caught and stopped in 2024” but that her administration is now working to remove those hundreds of voters from the rolls. She said they could have voted in any elections since then but there is no evidence at this time that they could have swayed any results. She said they were registered as Democrats, Republicans, and mostly unaffiliated, and scattered throughout the state.

    She said her team is “taking a hard look at the process failures that occurred under the previous administration and the guardrails we can put down for the future.” Through a spokesperson, Murphy declined to comment.

    Sherrill, a former member of Congress who began her term in January, campaigned on changing the culture in Trenton and distanced herself from Murphy on the campaign trail but remained cordial with him. Her tone sharply changed this week.

    “This entire situation is unacceptable,” she said. “It’s unacceptable that the vendor released software with such a glaring error. It’s unacceptable that the MVC [Motor Vehicle Commission] took a year to get this fixed, and it’s unacceptable that no one in the previous administration brought this to light, demanded accountability, or took action when it happened years ago.”

    How did this happen?

    Sherrill called the issue a “serious software error in New Jersey’s motor vehicle system.”

    New Jersey began automatic voter registration in 2018, which allows citizens to be automatically registered to vote when they get an ID at the MVC unless they opt out.

    The noncitizens who were improperly registered had answered “no” when asked on a keypad at the MVC whether they were a U.S. citizen, Sherrill said. But she said the system registered them anyway “through no fault of their own.” She said the error could put those individuals’ immigration status at risk. It would be hypocritical for the state to charge the individuals and she wants to protect them, she said, but she “would not put it past” the federal government to charge them.

    U.S. Rep. Josh Gottheimer, a North Jersey Democrat who unsuccessfully ran for governor last year, called for a national audit into IDEMIA, the vendor whose software was used for the registrations.

    But IDEMIA pointed a finger at the New Jersey Department of State, noting that while the vendor’s role is to transmit information between the motor vehicle and state departments, it is ultimately the state department’s responsibility to verify voter eligibility.

    “Information submitted by IDEMIA must still be validated and adjudicated by the Division of Elections,” the company said in a statement.

    When did Gov. Sherrill find out?

    Sherrill said she learned about the error last Wednesday, the day before Trump’s speech. She announced the discovery on Tuesday.

    What is Gov. Sherrill doing about it?

    Sherrill said she immediately ordered an investigation when she learned about the issue and ordered the removal of the noncitizens from the voter rolls. She said that Rosalie Johnson, whom Sherrill appointed as New Jersey Motor Vehicle Commission administrator this year, had already begun replacing the system vendor.

    The governor said her administration hired an independent firm, CSG Law, to conduct the investigation. She said “they will be moving very quickly” and had already found the figures she has been citing. She said she will “present the findings” of the investigation to the public.

    Johnson said she expects to launch the new vendor next year and is working on creating additional safeguards to regularly review information before sending it to the elections division.

    Sherrill said her administration is looking at ways to make the state’s elections more secure and vowed to hold any government workers accountable.

    “Should there be anyone that is identified that is still working in this space that has not done the right thing, I will hold them personally accountable for this,” she said.

    How is the Trump administration responding?

    The Trump administration and other prominent Republicans are using the issue to call for the passage of the SAVE Act, a federal bill that Republicans say would improve election security but Democrats warn would suppress millions of voters.

    Assistant Attorney General Harmeet Dhillon said in a post on X that the Civil Rights Division of the Department of Justice “is investigating this unlawful dilution of American votes.”

    Additionally, the department argued in a letter that the incident justifies the Trump administration’s efforts to obtain the state’s unredacted voter rolls.

    Vice President JD Vance called on New Jersey U.S. Sens. Cory Booker and Andy Kim, both Democrats, to support the legislation in a post on X, given the issue in their home state.

    “If only there was a way to stop this type of ‘software error’ that allowed non citizens to vote in our elections,” Vance said in the tongue-in-cheek post.

    Booker said he trusts the Sherrill administration to solve the problem and criticized “those who will choose to weaponize this issue.” Kim declined to comment on the matter.

    Why is the timing beneficial for the president?

    The news came at an opportune time for Trump, just days after his speech in which he reignited conspiracy theories about his 2020 election loss. The same day, the White House shared claims of widespread noncitizen voting, including in New Jersey.

    DHS Secretary Markwayne Mullin claimed that more than 35,000 noncitizens could be registered in New Jersey. The department has not shared how it arrived at that number, and experts cautioned it could include new citizens who have not been updated in a system meant to check work eligibility.

    Sherrill said her administration received a letter with that 35,000 figure after Trump’s speech — which was also after she said she had learned about the 6,600 noncitizen voters.

    “We have asked them for any evidence of this, where they got that number, who this is,” she said. “We’ve received nothing back yet.”

    Sherrill said that the president “knows that if he provides us any credible information we will of course investigate it” but that he has “zero credibility on the issue of election integrity.”

    “For the past 10 years he’s cried wolf and peddled bizarre conspiracy theories about fraud with no evidence,” she said.

    Trump called for the passage of a national proof of citizenship requirement Wednesday during a speech in Georgia, but he did not directly reference New Jersey.

    How will New Jersey lawmakers respond?

    State Sen. Anthony Bucco of North Jersey, the Senate Republican leader, said the state should “at the very least” suspend the automatic voter registration program until a full investigation is complete and next steps are made clear.

    He also called on the state to enact a voter identification requirement.

    New Jersey requires identification or a Social Security number to register to vote, and first-time voters who registered to vote by mail may need to provide ID at the polls. But overall, most voters do not need to show ID at the polls in New Jersey.

    Republican-led efforts to enact legislation following this incident are unlikely to succeed in Trenton because Democrats hold a supermajority in the Assembly and a majority in the Senate.

    Sherrill said at the Tuesday news conference that the problem is not with the state’s laws, but rather with how the state government has been operating — further pushing blame on her predecessor.

    “I see no reason why our state cannot run our election system well and have a computer program that can operate well, and should any problem occur it should be caught quickly … it’s a problem with accountability,” she said. “It’s a problem with making sure government is effective and running well, and it really is a lack of responsibility.”

    Has this happened before?

    In 2017 Pennsylvania Secretary of State Al Schmidt, a Republican city commissioner in Philadelphia at the time, uncovered and resolved a similar glitch at the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation in which all Pennsylvania drivers were asked if they wanted to be registered to vote regardless of citizenship status.

    Schmidt said at the time that the glitch led to 168 noncitizens registering to vote in Philadelphia but that just 44 ballots were cast in the city as a result.

    Schmidt has since said that noncitizen voting is rare and that the threat has been exaggerated.

    Staff writers Michelle Baruchman and Abraham Gutman contributed to this article.

  • Ida Schmertz, pioneering women’s activist, political innovator, and former American Express senior vice president, has died at 91

    Ida Schmertz, pioneering women’s activist, political innovator, and former American Express senior vice president, has died at 91

    Ida Schmertz, 91, formerly of Jenkintown, pioneering women’s activist, international relations innovator, presidential appointee, first female senior vice president at American Express, volunteer, mentor, and role model, died Thursday, July 2, of organ failure at New York Presbyterian Hospital.

    Born in Amsterdam, Ms. Schmertz and her family made their way to Philadelphia and then Jenkintown at the start of World War II in 1940, and she became a trailblazing American powerhouse in civil and women’s rights, international relations, corporate management, and healthcare.

    She earned a bachelor’s degree in political science and a master’s degree in international relations, and did everything but write a dissertation for a doctorate in international relations and Soviet studies. She was founding codirector in 1971 of the groundbreaking Center for American Women and Politics at Rutgers University, founding cochair in 1994 of the International Business Incubator and Training Center in Russia, and founding chair of the board of trustees for the Romanian-American Foundation in Bucharest in 1994.

    Wherever she was, Ms. Schmertz championed research, education, and public engagement. She helped organize the first national conference of women in political office for the Center for American Women and Politics in 1972, and later provided professional services to small businesses and startups in Russia, especially those owned by women.

    “I have empathy for people,” Ms. Schmertz told a colleague at the Romanian-American Foundation in a 2018 video interview. “I’ve always felt badly for people who are hurt or poor or unfortunate or don’t have access to something.”

    Ms. Schmertz was interested in voluntary foreign service, gun reform, and U.S.-China relations, and she lectured and appeared on TV shows and in dozens of newspapers. She worked with New York Gov. Hugh Carey on statewide initiatives of all kinds in the 1970s and was appointed by President Bill Clinton to head the Romanian-American Enterprise Fund in 1994.

    Surviving spouses always remember how they met their mate. Here are the meet-cute stories told to The Inquirer’s obit writer.

    In the 1950s and ’60s, she worked for the Democratic National Committee, the CIA, and the American Association of University Women. She spoke English, Dutch, Russian, and French, and served as a guide at the State Department’s first U.S. promotional exhibition in Moscow in 1959.

    She lobbied for fair elections in South Africa in the 1990s, and pressed New York lawmakers to support the state’s medical aid in dying act until it recently passed. Colleagues praised her “vision, energy, and grit” and “integrity and long-term commitment” in online tributes.

    From 1979 to 1992, Ms. Schmertz was the first woman to supervise corporate strategy and philanthropy at American Express in New York.Courtesy of the family

    One colleague said: “I feel so fortunate to have known her.”

    Colleagues at the Romanian-American Foundation said in a tribute: “She helped shape not just an organization but a picture of what philanthropy in Romania could be: transparent, accountable, built on partnership, and dedicated to creating opportunity for all Romanians.”

    When parents die, even the mundane memories comfort their children. Here are their tales, as told to The Inquirer’s obit writer.

    From 1979 to 1992, Ms. Schmertz was the first woman to supervise corporate strategy and philanthropy at American Express in New York. She was also an honorary director of the Women’s Economic Roundtable and a former director at Prudential Financial Inc.

    “She was extraordinary, formidable, deeply caring, and exceptionally committed to the people and causes that she believed in,” her daughter, Lexy, said. “Her hobby was her job, learning and exploring.”

    Ms. Schmertz worked with President Ronald Reagan and many other political notables. Courtesy of the family

    Ida Frederieke Schaap was born Feb. 24, 1935. Her family traveled from the Netherlands to Indonesia in 1939 and then to the United States to escape the war.

    She was the first Jewish student to enroll in the old Stevens School for Girls in Germantown in 1940, was elected president of the student council and captain of the field hockey team, and graduated in 1952. She earned her bachelor’s degree at Wellesley College in Massachusetts in 1956 and her master’s degree at Columbia University in 1960.

    Survivors give advice about mourning their loved ones, as told to The Inquirer’s obit writer

    She also studied French political science at Sorbonne University in Paris and Russian at Middlebury College in Vermont. She married Herbert Schmertz in 1962 in Philadelphia, and they had a son, Anthony, and a daughter, Lexy. They divorced in 1976, and he died in 2018.

    Ms. Schmertz was tough and direct, her family said, intelligent and loving. She liked to read and travel, and was an engaging conversationalist.

    Ms. Schmertz was a summer camp counselor for underserved children as a teen, loved cats, and supported the Philadelphia Museum of Art.Courtesy of the family

    She lived in Washington after college, moved to New York in the 1970s, and hosted friends and colleagues from around the world in her Upper West Side apartment. She doted on her four grandsons and took them to museums and hockey games. “She met them where they were,” her daughter said.

    She was a summer camp counselor for underserved children as a teen, loved cats, and supported the Philadelphia Museum of Art. For 30 years, she lived with chronic lymphocytic leukemia.

    Why did best-selling author Carol Saline email The Inquirer’s obit writer?

    “She was compassionate and caring,” her daughter said. Her son said: “She was devoted to her family.”

    In addition to her children and grandsons, Ms. Schmertz is survived by two sisters and other relatives.

    Ms. Schmertz visited Amsterdam in May.Courtesy of the family

    A private memorial service is to be held later.

    Donations in her name may be made to Compassion & Choices, Box 485, Etna, N.H. 03750.

  • OpenAI blamed a hacking event on its AI models going rogue. Here are some things to know

    ChatGPT maker OpenAI says it is still investigating the “unprecedented cyber incident” that led its artificial intelligence systems to break out of a testing environment and hack into another AI company.

    OpenAI said Tuesday two of its most capable AI models were responsible for the cyberattack targeting AI startup Hugging Face. The incident is stirring debates over the need for stronger AI guardrails and the extent to which AI agents are capable of acting on their own.

    Hugging Face said last week that it had detected an intrusion into its data processing systems that it suspected was caused by an AI agent autonomously acting on its own. But the New York-based startup said it wasn’t until this week that it learned OpenAI was responsible, and it worked with the larger company to contain what Hugging Face CEO Clément Delangue called “an attack unlike anything we’ve seen before.”

    San Francisco-based OpenAI said its AI used stolen credentials and discovered a previously unknown vulnerability to access Hugging Face’s servers. It was working with reduced guardrails because it was supposed to be in an isolated testing environment known as a sandbox.

    But it went to “extreme lengths to achieve a rather narrow testing goal,” finding ways to connect to the internet without human direction and “gain access to secret information that it could use to cheat the evaluation,” the company said.

    Some experts say OpenAI is wrongly blaming the technology

    University of Amsterdam social scientist Hannes Cools said the framing of the cyberattack as an AI agent acting on its own is an unnecessary anthropomorphization that takes some of the heat off the company.

    “It is a human decision to switch off specific safeguards,” said Cools. “It’s not an AI that goes rogue in that sense. It followed specific instructions based on the prompt that was given to that AI system.”

    Even so, other experts say the cleverness with which the AI models were able to cause problems without human direction speaks to the dangers. OpenAI said the intrusion was caused by a combination of its AI models, including its newly released GPT‑5.6 Sol and an “even more capable” model that is still being tested internally.

    “It went off and did this hack all by itself, as far as we can tell,” said Colin Shea-Blymyer, a cybersecurity research fellow at Georgetown University’s Center for Security and Emerging Technology. “This is the highest level of autonomy that we’ve seen in the use of a large language model for cyber operations.”

    How an AI agent found the keys to the ‘teacher’s house’

    One of the most surprising innovations in what Shea-Blymyer describes as an “almost entirely self-directed” attack was the AI agent’s apparently independent decision to target Hugging Face, a well-known AI development hub and marketplace.

    He said OpenAI’s internal environment for testing AI capabilities and risks worked a “little bit like putting a student in a room and telling them, ‘Do bad things. Your job now is to evaluate how bad of a person you can be.’ And then you lock the room and you leave for the weekend and you come back and they’ve left the room.”

    But then “the cybersecurity agent that was being tested broke out of its sandbox, had access to the internet and sort of thought to itself, ‘Who would have the answers to the test that I’m working on?’”

    The answer was Hugging Face, a repository for AI testing data.

    “And so the agent thought, ‘Well, we’ll go to the teacher’s house,’ so to speak. And from there it devised a plan to break in and steal the answer key,” he said.

    The hack highlights the debate on open-source vs. closed AI

    The hack comes at a time of intense debate about the benefits and risks of open-source AI models, particularly those built in China that are cheaper and almost as good as those that U.S.-based “frontier AI” companies like Anthropic, Google, and OpenAI are building.

    Despite its name, OpenAI’s models are closed. Hugging Face, by contrast, is a big promoter of open-source technology, in which developers make key components accessible for anyone to examine, modify, and build upon.

    Hugging Face co-founder and chief science officer Thomas Wolf said the attack has reinforced his belief in the importance of wide access to open-source models for cybersecurity defense. Hugging Face used a Chinese model to combat the intrusion.

    “When a frontier model is attacking you and moving laterally inside your infrastructure, defenders need wide access to near-frontier tools within hours or even minutes, rather than being pointed toward a closed-door” platform, Wolf wrote in a social media post.

  • Tornado confirmed in Cape May County as storms swept through New Jersey

    Tornado confirmed in Cape May County as storms swept through New Jersey

    The National Weather Service in Mount Holly on Wednesday confirmed a tornado briefly touched land in Cape May County during powerful thunderstorms that swept through the region Tuesday evening.

    The agency said a waterspout was witnessed going ashore at Cape May Point around 6:15 p.m. Tuesday and causing minor tree damage for about a minute. The tornado was classified as EF-0, with estimated peak winds between 60 and 70 mph, the agency said.

    The National Weather Service also confirmed North Jersey tornadoes in the Stanhope and Mount Olive area, and in the Lower Berkshire Valley. An investigation was still ongoing in the Parsippany and Troy Hills area in North Jersey, the agency said.

    The waterspout that became the tornado on the southwestern tip of Cape May County could be viewed as far south as Rehoboth Beach, Del.

    The high winds tore down some trees and a few power lines in Cape May Point, said Bill Gibson, the borough’s emergency management coordinator.

    “We commonly get waterspouts in the bay and harbor, but this was a big one, and when it hit land it was able to continue on for a little bit,” Gibson said Wednesday morning. “But it’s already all cleaned up.”

    National Weather Service surveyors were investigating the remaining North Jersey areas with tornadic damage Wednesday. Findings were expected Wednesday evening. The agency conducted a virtual survey for Cape May Point since the damage was minimal.

  • HBCU football is returning to the Linc this fall when Lincoln University hosts Virginia Union

    HBCU football is returning to the Linc this fall when Lincoln University hosts Virginia Union

    Following the success of Michael Vick’s Norfolk State and DeSean Jackson’s matchup in the HBCU Battle of the Legends game last fall at Lincoln Financial Field, more historically Black college and university football is coming to South Philadelphia this fall.

    The Eagles are coordinating with the City of Philadelphia to host an HBCU weekend that could feature one or two games at the Linc, according to a team spokesperson. Because the negotiations are ongoing and not yet finalized, the spokesperson could not confirm which teams will be featured that weekend.

    Last week at the Central Intercollegiate Athletic Association media day, Lincoln University head coach Frank Turner revealed his team would be playing Virginia Union at the Linc. Those teams, who compete at the Division II level, are scheduled to play Oct. 31, per the program’s schedule.

    Neither school responded when The Inquirer reached out directly.

    Boisterous DeSean Jackson gets the best of stoic Michael Vick during ‘surreal’ HBCU showdown at the Linc

    It would be Lincoln’s first game in Philadelphia in 16 years, when they played Cheyney University at Northeast High School in back-to-back years in 2009 and 2010. The two programs played yearly from 2009 until Cheyney’s football program was shut down in 2017.

    Lincoln was winless in 10 games last season, including a 66-21 loss at Virginia Union. Overall, Lincoln is 1-16 all-time against Virginia Union, with its only win coming in 2011, a 19-10 victory.

    Frank Turner (center) has coached at Lincoln since 2018 and became the program’s head coach ahead of the 2023 season.Erin Blewett

    Turner is entering his fourth season as head coach and has been on the staff since 2018, serving previously as the defensive coordinator and assistant head coach. Turner has a 6-24 record at the helm.

    Virginia Union, meanwhile, finished with a 9-3 record last season and lost in the first round of the Division II playoffs to California University of Pennsylvania. The Panthers were picked as the preseason favorite to win the CIAA in 2026. Lincoln was picked to finish last in the preseason conference poll.

    Penn State and Temple set a kickoff time for their Week 2 matchup at Lincoln Financial Field

    The matchup between Lincoln and Virginia Union will be the second straight year the Linc hosts an HBCU game. Last year, Jackson’s Delaware State squad held off a late rally from Vick’s Norfolk State for a 27-20 victory. The game brought in a crowd of 47,266 people and brought out all types of stars, from former NFL players Cam Newton and Marshawn Lynch to rapper Meek Mill and longtime Eagle Brandon Graham.

    Lincoln, located in Chester County, was the first college-degree granting HBCU in the country.

  • Cheltenham to pull millions from Citizens Bank over immigrant detention facilities

    Cheltenham to pull millions from Citizens Bank over immigrant detention facilities

    Cheltenham Township is closing its two remaining Citizens Bank accounts over the bank’s financing of companies that run detention facilities, despite the bank’s announcement it would no longer lend to those companies.

    Cheltenham officials said they are working to move around $9 million in two bank accounts from Citizens Bank into Santander Bank after months of lobbying by local residents concerned about Citizens’ financing of private prison companies that operate detention centers, including CoreCivic and GEO Group Inc. GEO Group runs Moshannon Valley Detention Center near State College, Pa., and Delaney Hall in New Jersey.

    Cheltenham’s Citizens divestment still pending

    The township’s tax collector, Melvin Pitts, said he is also closing his office’s four Citizens accounts, but that process will take longer because of the nature of the accounts, which include real estate and income tax money. The total the tax collector holds at Citizens was not immediately available, but May bank statements showed around $3 million between three of the four accounts.

    Cheltenham’s commissioners said at a recent finance meeting that they had hoped to have the township’s two remaining Citizens accounts closed already but hit some administrative hurdles. Cheltenham was also waiting to receive pending state money in one of the accounts before closing it, township spokesperson Lauren Walter said.

    Cheltenham’s primary accounts were already at Santander, she said.

    Pitts and Matthew Areman, president of the township’s board of commissioners, both confirmed that resident lobbying against the detention facilities motivated the switch.

    “The Cheltenham Township Board of Commissioners has committed to divest all Township accounts from Citizens Bank,” Areman wrote in a statement.

    “While the Board remains committed to protecting taxpayer resources and maintaining sound fiscal stewardship, we also believe that where we choose to do business is an expression of our community’s values.”

    Divestment campaign began with dog walkers

    Much of the divestment push came from a community group formed after the 2024 presidential election, said Pam Albright, a member of East Cheltenham CARES.

    Neighbors started chatting while out walking their dogs, Albright said, and EC CARES grew from there.

    With a sizable immigrant community — about 14% of the township is foreign-born, according to U.S. Census Bureau figures — immigration enforcement was among their top concerns.

    After advocacy from EC CARES and other local groups such as Cheltenham Immigration Response, the town adopted a policy last October to affirm that local police would not ask about immigration status or take on federal policing roles when not legally required.

    EC CARES joined Indivisible Jenkintown in protesting monthly outside their local Citizens Bank, volunteers said, and began asking Cheltenham about closing its accounts after seeing other towns take action.

    Everyone played a different role, organizers said: Some talked to township officials, while others pulled research and records or handed out flyers at protests.

    “I like rabble-rousing,” said Susan Shachter of EC CARES. “I like making signs, I like screaming and talking to people.”

    Private prisons have long been a target for organizers over poor conditions and concerns over private companies’ involvement in government-mandated detention. Eight major U.S. banks agreed to stop funding private prison operators back in 2019 under activist pressure.

    But GEO Group and other companies have come under particular scrutiny in recent years for holding immigrants in concentration facilities amid alleged due process violations, detaining young children for months, and reportedly depriving detainees of food, water, sleep, and medical care. Most detainees have no criminal conviction, according to analyses by think tanks, research nonprofits, and news outlets.

    “If we think corporate America is doing what’s ethical in terms of people being detained, we’re joking ourselves,” said KayLee Taylor, another member of EC CARES.

    Some Cheltenham officials were hesitant to push back against federal action, Albright said, but they came around.

    “It is a little scary for them to, as they said, stick their necks out, or have a target on their back,” she said.

    But once commissioners passed the town’s immigration enforcement policy, it got the ball rolling, Taylor said: “Our commissioners have more guts than any others in the county because we were the first ones to put in writing our policy.”

    Albright also got the impression from a commissioner that Santander was fiscally better for the township, she said.

    Walter, the township spokesperson, said Cheltenham likely moved its main account to Santander for better rates a few years ago, but due to township staff turnover she could not confirm details with the officials who were involved at the time.

    Citizens says it stopped lending to GEO, but organizers want more

    Last week, Citizens announced it had stopped lending to private prison companies like CoreCivic and GEO Group now that the federal government has begun buying up facilities and the corporations need less capital than before.

    Walter said Wednesday that she had made commissioners aware of Citizens’ announcement late last week and that the officials did not indicate it had changed their plans. Walter was not sure if Pitts had changed his plans for the tax office accounts or not. Pitts could not be reached for comment on the issue.

    The bank’s announcement also criticized activists for failing to appreciate Citizens’ “virtues,” including the volunteer work its employees do.

    But organizers pointed out that lending is not the only business a bank can do with detention facility providers, and renewed a call for Citizens to end all banking relationships with private prison companies.

    “We want them to completely pull out,” Taylor said. “What you’re doing is wrong.”

    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.

  • Trump pays respects to 4 U.S. service members killed in the Middle East

    Trump pays respects to 4 U.S. service members killed in the Middle East

    DOVER AIR FORCE BASE, Del. — President Donald Trump on Wednesday honored the lives of four U.S. service members who were killed in the Middle East and returned to their families at an air force base in Delaware.

    The president saluted as four transfer cases carrying the service members’ remains were escorted off an airplane during the dignified transfer at Dover Air Force Base. The ritual is one of the most somber duties of a commander in chief. It was the third that Trump has attended since he launched the war in Iran in February.

    Speaking at an event in Georgia hours later, Trump described the ritual as “the toughest thing I do.”

    “I’ve been there many times before,” he said of Dover. “This was, in particular, something very sad.”

    Earlier in the day, Trump said his message to families was simple: “We love you. We love your child,” Trump told reporters.

    Trump was accompanied at the dignified transfer by administration officials including Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and Gen. Dan Caine, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. Also present were Sen. Thom Tillis (R., N.C.) and Sen. Chris Coons (D., Del.).

    During the ritual, transfer cases draped with the American flag and holding the remains of the fallen soldiers are carried from the military aircraft that transported them to awaiting vehicles to take them to the mortuary facility at the base. There, the service members are prepared for their final resting place.

    Fallen troops came from Hawaii, Texas, New York, and North Carolina

    Two U.S. Army soldiers killed in Iranian missile and drone attacks in Jordan were returned during the dignified transfer. The remains of a third service member who is believed to be the soldier missing after the Jordan attacks were also returned, as well as the remains of a soldier killed in Iraq during a detonation of an Iranian drone.

    The soldiers killed in Jordan were identified by the Defense Department as Tyler James Feehan, 25, of Ewa Beach, Hawaii; and Isabella Gonzales, 19, of Carrollton, Texas. The soldier who disappeared after the Jordan attacks is Angel S. Rampersad, 28, of Ozone Park, N.Y., the Defense Department said.

    The soldier killed in Iraq was identified as Michael Emmanuel Swinton, 30, who lived in Spring Lake, N.C.

    Trump said Feehan’s family accepted an invitation to join him on Air Force One on Wednesday as he traveled to an event in Georgia, where the family lives. Speaking at the event in Marietta, Trump described Feehan as a “flawless” person who was “going all the way — he was going to be a general.”

    “We will carry Tyler’s memory in our hearts forever, and I just want to thank you,” he told Feehan’s parents during his remarks. “It’s an honor to have you here today.”

    Trump previously said the soldiers died while protecting America and other nations from Iran.

    “We feel very badly, but you know, those great people, those great patriots were out there fighting so that Iran cannot have a nuclear weapon,” Trump told reporters on Sunday. He added that the U.S. was striking Iran “in honor” of the fallen troops.

    Trump vows to retaliate for each U.S. death

    The U.S. has launched multiple retaliatory strikes against Iran as an interim agreement to end the war falls apart. Trump on Monday said that every time Iran kills an American soldier, “they will pay for that killing many times over!”

    Since the war began on Feb. 28, 18 U.S. service members have been killed.

    Trump on Tuesday said that while almost all the incoming fire in Jordan was stopped, some made it through.

    “They did slip something through in Jordan,” he said. “If we had other operators, you know, it would have not happened, unfortunately.” He added that “we let other people do the job — and sometimes it doesn’t work out so well.”

    Trump did not elaborate on his comments, and it was not immediately clear who he was saying was responsible for protecting U.S. forces in Jordan.

    Trump attended two previous dignified transfers since the outset of the war, most recently in March.

    Soldier had planned to marry fiancée and attend law school

    Feehan, a first lieutenant who was killed Saturday, will be posthumously promoted to the rank of captain and awarded the Bronze Star, Purple Heart and Combat Action Badge. He was assigned out of Fort Bragg, North Carolina, to the 32nd Army Air and Missile Defense Command.

    Feehan’s family said in a statement that their hearts were shattered by his loss. They remembered Feehan, who went by “Tivo,” as someone who “packed in more living” in his 25 years than most do in a lifetime.

    “He chased adventure relentlessly,” the statement said. “He believed deeply in the power of military service, especially what it builds in a person: discipline, leadership, character.”

    He planned to marry his fiancée and attend law school after his deployment. The family said they’re starting a scholarship in his name.

    Gonzales, who was killed Friday, was a private with the 10th Army Air and Missile Defense Command in Ansbach, Germany. She graduated last year from Hebron High School in Carrollton, near Dallas, school officials said.

    Rampersad, a sergeant who was believed to have been killed in Friday’s attacks, was assigned to the 57th Air Defense Artillery Regiment, 52nd Air Defense Artillery Brigade, 10th Army Air and Missile Defense Command in Ansbach, Germany.

    In a brief statement, Rampersad’s family called her a “gentle giant” who “stood up for those who couldn’t fight for themselves.”

    “She loved her family fiercely and will live on in the hearts of everyone she touched,” the statement said.

    Deonne Jinkins, 22, a friend, said Rampersad “loved deeply, cared genuinely, and always made people feel seen and important.”

    Swinton, a sergeant who was killed Sunday, will receive a Bronze Star, Purple Heart and Combat Action Badge, and will be promoted to staff sergeant. He enlisted in the Army in 2017 and was assigned to the 55th Air Defense Artillery Regiment, 108th Air Defense Artillery Brigade, out of Fort Bragg, N.C.

  • Judge gives Pennsylvania the green light to fund abortions through Medicaid

    Judge gives Pennsylvania the green light to fund abortions through Medicaid

    Gov. Josh Shapiro’s administration can pay for abortions through the state’s Medicaid program while an appeal of the April ruling that recognized “a fundamental right to reproductive autonomy” plays out, a Commonwealth Court judge ruled.

    Judge Matthew S. Wolf last week granted a request from abortion providers to allow Medicaid to fund the procedure during the appeal from the Pennsylvania Attorney General’s Office because the state Supreme Court held previously that the funding restriction was “presumptively unconstitutional.”

    The Philadelphia Democrat wrote the April majority opinion that struck down a decades-old state law limiting public funding for abortions to cases involving rape, incest, or danger to the life of the mother.

    Attorney General Dave Sunday appealed the ruling to the Pennsylvania Supreme Court, where three justices previously signaled their willingness to rule that abortion access is a right.

    The appeal led to an automatic stay on the Commonwealth Court ruling, which meant Medicaid could fund abortion only in the cases allowed by the state’s Abortion Control Act.

    The coalition of abortion providers that brought the lawsuit in 2019 argued the stay would cause irreparable harm because it would force “an unknown number of their patients to carry pregnancies to term” during the appeal, the opinion said.

    If the coverage ban were to remain in place, despite the ruling holding it amounts to sex-based discrimination and recognizing the right to reproductive autonomy, that would violate the constitutional rights of Pennsylvanians, Wolf wrote.

    Sunday’s office argued that lifting the stay would allow more abortions, despite the opposition of many taxpayers.

    “There can be no legitimate interest — for the Commonwealth or the public — in knowingly violating constitutional rights,” Wolf said, rejecting the attorney general’s argument.

    A spokesperson for Sunday declined to comment.

    “At last, a terrible injustice that has harmed Pennsylvanians for decades has ended,” Susan Frietsche, executive director of Women’s Law Project, which represented the providers, said in a statement.

    Sunday, a Republican, stepped in to defend the law when Shapiro’s administration bowed out after the 2024 state Supreme Court ruling, which used language strongly endorsing abortion access as a constitutional right. But the justices were ultimately split on whether they were ready to make that call and sent the case back to the Commonwealth Court.

    The statewide court that oversees government-related matters sided with the abortion providers in a 4-3 ruling.

    It is unclear how quickly medical providers will be able to bill Medicaid for abortions. The Pennsylvania Department of Human Services has not issued guidance for providers yet.

    “Gov. Shapiro has a proven track record of defending a woman’s right to choose and protecting access to safe, legal abortion services,” Rosie Lapowsky, a spokesperson for Shapiro, said. “He will continue to fight for women’s right to make their own medical decisions in consultation with their doctor.”