Concluding with a celebratory TikTok dance, the Compton Youth Academy softball team took home the championship of the ninth annual MLB All-Star Jennie Finch Classic.
Eight MLB Youth Academy softball teams from across the country were flown to Philadelphia Thursday to compete in the Jennie Finch Classic, which opened Friday. The weekend of tournaments led to the championship battle at the University of Pennsylvania’s Penn Park, between Compton Youth Academy and the Houston Astros Youth Academy, where Compton won, 12-0, after just five innings.
After three years of making it to the championship game only to fall short, Compton Youth Academy players cheered that they finally won it all.
“I feel great, I can breathe now,” Compton center fielder Kaylee Allen said, beaming.
“It was pretty smooth,” Compton teammate Kalin Badgley said. “I feel like we had it from the beginning, and we just balled out and kept the ball rolling.”
Charley McKenzie, pitcher for the Houston Astros Youth Academy, during the Jennie Finch Classic Championship Game on Monday. Allie Ippolito / For The Inquirer
The Classic is sponsored by softball icon Jennie Finch, who was in attendance. In between giving players high-fives and fist-bumps, the two-time Olympic gold medalist said she began the Classic as a way to uplift MLB Youth Academy teams with the same opportunities travel softball teams have.
“As the Classic goes on, the talent just continues to get better,” Finch said. “But it’s so much more than that. It’s the intangibles. It’s great seeing Major League Baseball providing an opportunity for softball and having this role in investing in these young softball players, and giving them a place to train, play and strive for their goals.”
MLB founded the Urban Youth Academy as a nonprofit in 2006, beginning in Compton, Calif. Now expanded to nine cities in the U.S. and Puerto Rico, the organization fully funds youth baseball and softball teams. The Jennie Finch Classic and the Baseball Commissioner’s Cup, which also took place as part of the All-Star Game festivities, are open to youth academy players ages 13-17 and are often the highlight of the teams’ season, held in the All-Star host city each year.
“It’s been pretty fun, especially the events,” Allen said. “Meeting new people from all over the country, it’s definitely something that is exciting every year.”
Allen is one of many Youth Academy players planning to continue playing softball in college. The 17-year-old is verbally committed to play at Kansas starting in the fall of 2027.
The Jennie Finch Classic began as a way to uplift MLB Youth Academy teams with the same opportunities travel softball teams have, Finch said.Allie Ippolito / For The Inquirer
The tournament also awarded the Jennie Finch Empowerment Award to catcher of the Houston Astros, Alina Elias, for her leadership on and off the field. The award comes with a $10,000 college scholarship.
“As a male coach we try to be tough, but it truly brings a tear to my eye,” Astros coach Mekele Brown said. “To see something worthwhile actually given to them, and given to the right person. She has a really good heart and genuinely wants to see her teammates win and do well, even in hard losses like today.”
The gratitude on the field was palpable among all the teams. Players from all eight teams were there in support and laughing alongside one another as they took pictures and cheered each other on before heading to the home run derby at Citizens Bank Park.
“It’s huge having the MLB behind these girls,” Compton youth academy coach Hayley Reiner said. “Because now they have a big name behind them. Everybody knows who the MLB is, and now they know who we are.”
In March, Patty Martin and Liz Warren sat in an office at Monsignor Bonner and Archbishop Prendergast High School, poring over the Detroit Tigers’ 162-game schedule.
It wasn’t how the administrative assistant and math teacher typically spent their lunch breaks. But these were unusual circumstances. The women scanned each date, city, and time, looking for the right confluence of all three.
Former student Kevin McGonigle had just been named to the team’s opening-day roster. Martin and Warren were eager to see the 21-year-old shortstop play, ideally at Citizens Bank Park.
They realized, to their dismay, that this wasn’t going to happen. The Tigers were scheduled to face the Phillies only once in 2026, in Detroit. Undeterred, the Bonner & Prendie staffers continued their search.
Martin circled May 14, a 1:30 p.m. game against the New York Mets. This seemed like the perfect fit; teachers could drive to the stadium, and it was Ascension Day — a Holy Day of Obligation — which the Catholic school occasionally had off.
Only this year, it didn’t. The administrative assistant decided to throw a Hail Mary. That afternoon, Martin emailed a friend who worked for the Archdiocese of Philadelphia.
“And I said, ‘Do you think maybe somebody would allow us to close school that day?’” she recalled.
The answer was swift and unequivocal.
“‘Nah, don’t think it’s gonna work,’” Martin said. “‘Not gonna work.’ And we kind of knew, in our hearts, that we were shooting for the stars. But hey, it was worth a try.”
The co-workers found an alternative. On the morning of July 1, 55 members of the Bonner & Prendie community — coaches, students, maintenance workers, secretaries, teachers — piled onto a bus bound for the Bronx.
They arrived at Yankee Stadium at 12:45 p.m., donning Kelly green T-shirts with “Friars” on the front and “McGonigle” on the back. New York City was in the midst of a heat wave, but that didn’t seem to matter.
McGonigle greeted the group before the game and rewarded their efforts in the third with a 422-foot home run to right-center field. The Delco contingent went berserk.
“We’re all cheering, and everyone’s like looking at us like, ‘Who are these people?’” said Bonner’s baseball coach, Steve DeBarberie. “They’re wearing Kelly green to a Yankees-Tigers game?”
Added Martin: “We all went wild, of course, because we’re like, ‘He did that for us.’ I’m very certain, he did.”
Ever since McGonigle was drafted by the Tigers in 2023, Delaware County has shown up to support him. When he was in the minor leagues, residents traveled to places like Grand Rapids, Mich., Lakeland, Fla., and Erie, Pa.
The group from Archbishop Prendergast High School that took a bus trip to Yankee Stadium to watch Kevin McGonigle play.Jason Shepherd
They’ve attended spring training games and Arizona Fall League games and even an All-Star Futures Game. A few Bonner alums flew to San Diego in April for McGonigle’s big-league debut. Nearly 300 people made the trip to see him in Baltimore in May.
Some know the shortstop personally, but not all. Yet the Kevin McGonigle Fan Club keeps growing, and on Tuesday night, after years of cross-country travel and hourslong drives, their hometown hero will return to Philadelphia to compete in the 2026 All-Star Game.
It’ll be the first time McGonigle plays at Citizens Bank Park. To local supporters, this is almost too good to be true: an athlete who represents them wholeheartedly, on baseball’s biggest stage, mere minutes away.
“Everyone is so excited, especially for the Philly aspect,” said Warren. “Not only is it amazing that it’s his rookie year, but [also] that he gets to come home.”
Kevin McGonigle starred at Bonner-Prendergast before being selected by the Tigers in the first round of the 2023 MLD draft. Heather Khalifa / Staff Photographer
A kid worth traveling for
Delco has gone to such lengths for a reason. The future All-Star was not the type of ballplayer built in a lab, under the careful guise of top hitting instructors. He did not have endless resources for equipment or travel.
Rather than a baseball hotbed like Florida or Georgia, McGonigle was raised in a working-class home in Aldan. His parents, Kevin George and Tracy, worked opposite shifts at a local water utilities company.
When Tracy was growing up, in Lansdowne, the sport was relatively inexpensive. Kids would share bats and gloves. She’d never heard of anyone driving far to tournaments.
But the mother quickly learned that to capitalize on her son’s talent, she’d have to invest. Kevin George learned this, too. The parents, who divorced when Kevin was young, began saving money where they could.
Sometimes this meant working more. Sometimes it meant cutting back on expenses. Tracy remembers her son and his teammates standing outside a supermarket, or wandering through The Yard Pub in Havertown, selling raffle tickets to pay for travel.
“You scraped it together, you put it away, and you used the credit cards, and you worried about the payment later,” Tracy said. “And I think any parent would do that. You do what you have to do to make your kids happy.”
By middle school, McGonigle was playing for Drexel Hill Little League,St. Bernadette’s CYO,and a local travel ball team. He’d train every day with his father, who had recently purchased a bright blue Jugs pitching machine.
The McGonigles didn’t have much yard space, but one of Kevin George’s teammates, Jac Campbell, did. Kevin George asked Jac’s father, Jim, if they could use his lawn, where he’d set up a makeshift batting cage.
The elder Campbell agreed. Kevin George moved the pitching machine 60 feet away from home plate, and began toying around with it. Before long, the device was spitting out curveballs, change-ups, and sliders.
“It was an expensive machine that threw mid-90s,” said Campbell. “It wasn’t some candy-ass machine that you would set up down at the Little League.”
McGonigle did not like that his parents were financing his passion, and would often tell Tracy he needed to find a job. But with the time constraints of travel baseball, coupled with Bonner-Prendie baseball and his training schedule, it was difficult to get hired.
So, the mother and son came up with an agreement. The future All-Star would clean the bathroom, dust the family room, and do other tasks around the house to earn his keep.
Still, the guilt persisted, especially when it came to daily expenses like gas money. McGonigle hated asking for it. Tracy came up with another idea.
“In my kitchen, I have a little box,” she said. “It’s a wooden box, and on the top it says, ‘Blessed.’ And I said to him, ‘You know what? You don’t have to ask me anymore.’
“I said, ‘I’m just gonna put money in the blessed box. Whatever you need. And then you don’t have to ask me. You don’t even have to feel bad about it.’ And it worked.”
A young Kevin McGonigle swings off a tee is in his backyard in Delco.Tracy McGonigle
McGonigle was painfully aware of his parents’ sacrifice, and determined to make the most of it. By his senior year, MLB scouts were flocking to Bonner-Prendergast for games.
This became somewhat of a spectacle, so the shortstop started leaving class early to take batting practice on his own. His hope was that it would create less of a distraction for his teammates.
“Just so that it didn’t interrupt the routine,” said his former CYO, Little League, and Babe Ruth League coach, Jason Shepherd. “His teammates respected the fact that he thought of them before himself.”
It wasn’t the first time Shepherd had seen the selfless trait from McGonigle. When he was 14, juggling travel ball and Babe Ruth, the high schooler had two tournaments fall on the same weekend.
One was in Tampa, the other in Williamsport, Pa. McGonigle decided he’d play in both. After the game in Florida, he drove through the night to Delaware County with a teammate.
The next morning, McGonigle met Shepherd in his driveway for the three-hour ride to Williamsport.
“Obviously, he was the best player on the team,” Shepherd said. “One of the best players in the state at the time. When we knew we were getting Kevin for the rest of the playoffs, it brought a lot of energy.”
McGonigle has continued to give back to his community since being drafted by the Tigers in the first round in 2023. He’s donated signed bats to Drexel Hill Little League, and has occasionally stopped in during the winter to serve as a volunteer coach.
In 2024, fresh off his first season in the minors, the shortstop donated $40,000 to Bonner & Prendie. To Campbell, it’s gestures like these that compel people to travel so far.
“If he wasn’t a good kid, you wouldn’t have half of that [stuff] going on,” he said. “You know what I mean? The fact that he’s a good kid makes it easier for everyone to want to go see him.”
Justin Shepherd (left), Kevin McGonigle, and Jason Shepherd after McGonigle’s big league debut in San Diego.Jason Shepherd
‘I still miss home’
At times it can seem like the Kevin McGonigle Fan Club has the entire season mapped out. In April, Shepherd and his son, Justin, flew to San Diego for the rookie’s debut, but their flight was delayed a few hours and they missed most of the game.
They ended up staying for the rest of the series, and the following week drove eight hours from Delco to Detroit for his home opener. DeBarberie and four other Bonner coaches met them there.
McGonigle’s best friends, Michael Anderson and Joey DeMucci, visited him in June. Martin will watch McGonigle play in Chicago later this month. Jim and Jac Campbell willbe in Detroit in August,and DeBarberie has plans to drive to Pittsburgh after that.
But the biggest showing to date was over Memorial Day weekend at Camden Yards in Baltimore. Tracy reserved 265 tickets through group sales, and Shepherd coordinated a tailgate at Pickles Pub across the street from the stadium.
“They’re like, ‘Well, do you want us to put McGonigle on a sign?’” Shepherd said. “And I’m like, ‘No, do not make any reference to McGonigle. Just put ‘Delco tailgate.’ People will know where to go.’”
Saturday’s game was rained out, which turned the tailgate into a whole-day affair. The entire top floor of the bar was full of Tigers and Bonner McGonigle jerseys.
Tigers rookie Kevin McGonigle greets family and friends in Blatimore.Tracy McGonigle
It ended up being the highlight of the trip. McGonigle stopped by and stayed with friends and family for two hours, taking photos and catching up.
This wasn’t just a kind act on the shortstop’s part. Shepherd and his son visited him last November, while he was playing in the Arizona Fall League. One night, while the former coach was grilling steaks outside, he asked the future All-Star a question.
“I asked him, ‘What’s been the hardest thing so far?’” Shepherd recalled. “And he’s like, ‘Coach Shep, honestly, I still miss home.’ And it just struck me.
“I was expecting, ‘The workouts are hard,’ or, ‘This pitcher was really tough.’ He’s just like, ‘No, I just miss home.’ And I get it. No different than a kid going off to college, far away. Just homesick a little bit.”
Tigers rookie Kevin McGonigle is second in the AL with a .392 on-base percentage at the All-Star break.Lon Horwedel
Childhood bedrooms and mom’s laundry
As McGonigle wrapped up his first-half campaign, it became clear to his mother that the All-Star Game was within reach.
The rookie was near the top of a number of American League leader boards. He has more walks (60) than he did strikeouts (56), and is second among regulars in on-base percentage (.392).
But Tracy didn’t dare broach the subject. She knew her son wouldn’t want her to. So, she was surprised a couple of weeks ago when he brought up the Midsummer Classic on his own.
“He said, ‘Whether I’m in the game or not, I’m staying at home,’” Tracy recalled. “And that’s all he said.”
The shortstop reiterated this stance after the roster was announced.
“I’m coming home,” he told her. “I’m not staying in the hotel.”
Throughout All-Star Week, the eight-year, $150 million man is sharing a bedroom with his brother, Ryan, in Aldan. A signed watercolor of Cole Hamels still hangs on the wall there, alongside some framed USA Baseball jerseys and caps.
Just like any other parent with a 21-year-old sleeping under their roof, Tracy’s maternal instincts routinely kick in.
“He’ll say, ‘Mom, I can do my own laundry,’” she said with a laugh. “And I’m like, ‘But why? I’ll do it. It’s fine.’ When he’s home, in the offseason, he still has a job. He’s at the training facility every single day, all day.
“But yeah, it’s, ‘Who wants dinner? How about I do your laundry?’ He’s just a normal kid.”
Kevin McGonigle with the kids of his former Bonner baseball coaches.Steve DeBarberie
Of course, there are plenty of things that aren’t normal. McGonigle doesn’t borrow cash from the blessings box anymore. He no longer takes swings in the privacy of Campbell’s backyard.
But amid all this change, the Bonner alumnus can always return to a place that is refreshingly static. Full of people who are proud of him, not just for his talent, but also for the unglamorous work behind it.
And if he ever needs a reminder, McGonigle can look for the Kelly green T-shirts, scattered among a sea of Tigers blue; a sign that Delaware County is never too far away.
LAS VEGAS — VJ Edgecombe was in the middle of a spa day in his native Bahamas when he missed a call from Jameer Nelson, the 76ers’ executive vice president of basketball operations.
Then Edgecombe missed another call. Then he saw Nelson’s text message asking to call him back as soon as possible.
“I was like, ‘Man, it’s free agency, why [are] you calling me so much?’” Edgecombe recalled Monday morning. “I thought I was gone.”
Nelson actually wanted to give Edgecombe a heads-up that the Sixers were about to trade for All-NBA wing Jaylen Brown, a blockbuster deal that would surface publicly about an hour later. Though Edgecombe was initially “shocked” by the move, he said he is excited to play alongside Brown at the “peak of his career.”
And what about the Sixers’ still-ongoing pursuit of LeBron James, one of Edgecombe’s basketball idols with whom he swapped jerseys after their first matchup in his rookie season?
“I like it,” Edgecombe said with a grin while visiting the Sixers’ Summer League practice in Las Vegas. “It’s LeBron James. At the end of the day, despite how old he is, he’s still, to me, the greatest player of all time. If I get to play alongside LeBron, that would be amazing.
“Obviously, we know the goal — if we get LeBron or not — is a championship. So if we do get him, I’m happy. If we don’t, I’m still happy.”
Edgecombe called the trade for Brown “bittersweet” because of the quick rapport he built with the departing Paul George. Yet a reason the Sixers executed the all-in move is Edgecombe, who last season averaged 16 points, 5.6 rebounds, 4.2 assists, and 1.4 steals while logging heavy minutes as an instant-impact rookie on both ends of the floor.
Sixers vice president Jameer Nelson talks with guard Vj Edgecombe before Game 2 of the second-round playoff series against the New York Knicks.Monica Herndon / Staff Photographer
Edgecombe said he has spent his offseason working on his shooting — he went 43.8% from the floor and 35.4% on 5.6 three-point attempts per game as a rookie — and ballhandling as a lead guard in an effort to take pressure off All-NBA third-teamer Tyrese Maxey. Coach Nick Nurse added during a Saturday conversation with local reporters that he wants to see Edgecombe extend that beyond-the-arc range, and to use his dazzling athleticism to go coast-to-coast more often when he gets the ball in transition.
“Instead of two of those a game, I’d like to see 10,” Nurse said from the team hotel in Las Vegas. “Or at least try. I just think there’s a little bit more pace he can add to his game offensively.”
Before this visit to Las Vegas, Edgecombe played for the Bahamian national team during FIBA World Cup qualifiers, an honor he calls “one of the best things in the world.” He now has graduated from Summer League participant to being a resource “to show love, show support” to this year’s players.
He praised the “prolific scoring” and “underrated” defensive effort of first-round pick Labaron Philon Jr., whom Edgecombe matched up against (and went 2-0, he said) as high school prospects.
“He’s a great fit,” Edgecombe said of Philon. “I love the pickup. Just [adds] depth to the team, [adds] depth to the guard room.”
Justin Edwards understands ‘really important year’ is coming
Justin Edwards also visited the Summer Sixers Monday, after playing with that squad entering his first and second NBA seasons.
The 6-foot-7 wing recognizes he now heads into “a really important year” personally, because it is the last with guaranteed money in his contract ($2.4 million). The Philly native has a $2.6 million team option in his deal for 2027-28.
“I don’t really want to think of it like that,” he said, “because I’m pretty sure I’m going to have pressure on myself regardless. So I just got to be able to just go into the season and do what I can do to help this team.”
Edwards is part of the Sixers’ forward group that this offseason lost George and Kelly Oubre Jr., but added Brown and versatile defender Dean Wade. The 22-year-old Edwards was an early-career success story after going undrafted in 2024. While getting heavy minutes as a rookie during the Sixers’ disastrous 2024-25 season, he turned his initial two-way contract into a standard deal.
Though Nurse regularly reiterated some version of “I love Justin” last season, he was not an entrenched rotation player. He averaged 6 points, 1.5 rebounds, and 1.3 assists in 64 games, with a knack for shot-making early in his stints off the bench. He also is a sound decision-maker and a willing perimeter defender.
WASHINGTON — Sen. Thom Tillis (R., N.C.), who is still undecided about Todd Blanche’s nomination as permanent attorney general, drew a red line last month: He would vote no if Blanche was too soft on the rioters who had ransacked the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.
Soon after, Tillis, a moderate on the Senate Judiciary Committee, said he had a “positive predisposition” after meeting with Blanche, despite the fact that the acting attorney general had recently signed off on a $1.8 billion fund that could have been funneled to those who stormed Congress.
Just a single no vote from a Republican would deadlock the committee and effectively sink the confirmation of Blanche, who became the Justice Department’s acting leader after Pam Bondi was fired in April. That gives Republicans on the panel rare leverage to extract concrete concessions from Blanche, 51.
Whether they will use that leverage is arguably the biggest wild card before Blanche’s high-stakes confirmation hearing on Wednesday.
It is not yet clear how the death of a committee member, Sen. Lindsey Graham (R., S.C.) late Saturday, will affect the timing of the hearing — or who will be chosen by leadership to replace him on the panel.
“Blanche tries to dress it up, but at the end of the day, he’s just Donald Trump’s personal lawyer, and that is all he will ever be,” said Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D.,Md.), who squared off in May against Blanche in a contentious hearing that centered on creation of the compensation fund.
Republicans are not in revolt, but they are restless. During a testy confrontation in late May, Republican senators lambasted Blanche for agreeing to create what critics have described as a “slush fund.” The deal forced them to defend a related provision shielding Trump and his family from tax investigations that might be worth more than $100 million to the president.
Blanche quickly backtracked from the fund proposal, telling lawmakers during a June 2 hearing before the House, “We are not moving forward with the fund, period.” But Democrats have pointed to his flat refusal to put his reversal in writing as an indication that he could devise an alternative.
In private meetings, Blanche has repeatedly told senators the fund plan was “dead,” at times repeating the word three times for emphasis, according to people familiar with the conversations. But he has given no indication that he intends to scrap the part of the agreement offering immunity on past IRS audits.
On Monday the federal judge who oversaw the case, Kathleen M. Williams, issued a scathing decision calling the lawsuit an improper exercise in self-dealing, and criticizing Blanche for his actions.
The tax provision has emerged as a major sticking point for another Republican on the Judiciary Committee, Sen. John Cornyn of Texas, who lost a primary election this spring.
Unlike Tillis, Cornyn has not yet indicated how he is leaning and has requested a follow-up briefing on the tax issue. “I will not make a decision on confirmation until after that briefing and completion of his hearing before the committee,” Cornyn wrote in a recent social media post.
Cornyn and Tillis have also questioned Blanche’s independence from White House control. Tillis, who is retiring next year, warned Blanche during an interview on CNN that he would oppose his nomination if he detected “even a whiff of a lack of independence.”
Democrats say there has been a waft, not a whiff. They see the hearing as an opportunity for the committee’s Republican majority to reassert legislative authority over a department they regard as a cabal of Trump’s former personal lawyers acting in his interests, rather than for the public good.
“A lot depends on how much Trump baggage Republicans want to carry into the November election,” said Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D., R.I.), who serves on the committee.
The committee, led by Sen. Chuck Grassley of Iowa, has pushed through Trump appointees, even those Republicans have criticized — like FBI Director Kash Patel — after extracting vague assurances from the nominees that they would safeguard the department’s tradition of independence and abide by the rule of law.
Blanche is unique among recent Cabinet nominees in that he is basically seeking confirmation for a job he has already been doing for a year and a half, first as the deputy attorney general, then as acting attorney general.
Allies of Blanche believed he could simultaneously restore stability and competence to the department in the wake of Bondi’s turbulent tenure — and take a handful of calibrated actions sufficiently drastic to convince Trump he was tough enough.
He has been a compliant if not always gung-ho executor of Trump’s demand that the department open investigations against his perceived enemies and let friends off the hook. He played a major role, along with Bondi, in protecting the president during the furor over the Jeffrey Epstein files, vetting documents for Trump-related material and personally interviewing Epstein’s longtime associate, Ghislaine Maxwell, in prison.
During his monthslong audition for the job, he trumpeted Trump’s false claims of election fraud and greenlit the prosecution of former FBI Director James Comey, for posting an image of seashells on a beach spelling out “86 47.” He oversaw the drafting of the $1.8 billion fund that spurred a powerful backlash in his own party.
Blanche has a mixed record when it comes to the attacks on the Capitol in the wake of Trump’s defeat in 2020, the issue Tillis has identified as dispositive for his support.
It is not clear what Blanche, a former federal prosecutor in New York, thought of Trump’s decision to offer broad clemency or pardons to hundreds of rioters convicted of crimes. He has not talked about it much. But there is no indication he protested to anyone in the White House, and he has often diverted questions about its moral and political implications, citing Trump’s nearly unrestricted pardon power under the Constitution.
No one can last long in Trump’s orbit while offering frank criticism about the Jan. 6 rioters — or, for that matter, the riot itself.
But as Bondi’s deputy, he repeatedly clashed with the department’s most outspoken defender of the Jan. 6 rioters, Ed Martin, a right-wing lawyer from Missouri who raised money for many of the participants and even defended some in court.
Martin, who now serves as the department’s pardon attorney, was one of the first officials to back the idea of paying restitution to the Jan. 6 rioters, claiming they had been wronged by the criminal justice system. But Blanche shut down that proposal, according to allies of Martin and lawyers who helped the rioters file claims against the government.
He has since been more equivocal, however, holding up the presidential pardons during an appearance in March at the Conservative Political Action Conference as a prime example of the Trump administration helping those rioters who faced excessively aggressive prosecution.
Nonetheless, criticism from Martin’s allies persists. Jonathan Gross, a rabbi and lawyer who represented several Jan. 6 defendants before working in the Justice Department’s civil rights division, has been particularly vocal. Gross, who has left the department, claimed that Blanche stood in the way of efforts to investigate and expose wrongdoing by the prosecutors who worked on Jan. 6 cases.
Even if Blanche’s nomination were to make it out of the Judiciary Committee, he would still face the uncertainties of a floor vote. He could only afford to lose four Republicans if all Democrats vote no — three if Sen. Mitch McConnell (R., Ky.), who has remained hospitalized, is a no-show.
Another senator on the committee who could complicate the confirmation is Josh Hawley (R., Mo.,) who is typically in lock step with the White House. Hawley has criticized the department for failing to restrict access to abortion pills by mail — part of a campaign spearheaded by his wife, a conservative lawyer who argued a case involving the medication before the Supreme Court.
Blanche has met with many of the Republicans on the committee and said he was open to meeting with all the Democrats, too. Only a couple have taken him up on his offer, including Sens. Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut and Alex Padilla of California.
Blanche also met with Sen. Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, one of the few Republicans to criticize Trump publicly. Their conversation was cordial, but Murkowski asked him pointed questions about his handling of the Epstein files, a person with knowledge of the exchange said.
Blanche made his first visit to the state last week, for a previously scheduled listening tour aimed at addressing violent crime, fentanyl traffic, and cutting regulations on the state’s critical energy sector. Questions about his confirmation followed him north.
During a sit-down interview with a local TV station, Blanche wryly dismissed a scathing letter, signed by 1,200 former department employees, calling on the Senate to reject his nomination.
“There’s 1,200 former DOJ employees, I think, out of what — 40,000?” he said. “I’m not a math guy, but that’s not a very high percentage.”
The groans were audible outside Philadelphia’s Highmark Mann Center for the Performing Arts, where pop singer Louis Tomlinson was slated to take the stage.
Tomlinson had been scheduled to perform at the venue’s Skyline Stage on Saturday. Then the skies opened up.
“Due to impacts of severe weather on our campus, we are not able to proceed with tonight’s performance,” the venue said in a statement. The show was not rescheduled. Ticketmaster is in the process of issuing refunds.
For rabid fans of the singer, a former One Direction member with a devoted army of admirers, the last-minute cancellation cut deep.
“I came all the way from Italy,” a fan who goes by Crystal wrote on X. “I spent so much time and money to be here. I know this isn’t Louis’ fault, but right now I’m angry, exhausted, and my bank account is empty.”
One Directioners and Tomlinson superfans are pretty common in the area. There’s a One Direction-themed smoothie shop in Scranton that enthusiasts travel hours to visit. And Tomlinson’s former bandmate and collaborator Zayn Malik has expressed his own devotion to the region.
Tomlinson’s Philadelphia show would have been the 19th on his 27-stop North American tour, part of the “How Did We Get Here?” world arena tour in support of his third studio album of the same name. His show a few days earlier at Madison Square Garden was sold out.
On Reddit, a purported venue employee said there was flooding, downed trees, and power outages.
The venue did not respond to a request for comment.
“[I’m] absolutely gutted that the show can’t happen tonight,” Tomlinson said in an X post. “I understand how frustrating it is and how gutted you all must feel. I wish I had better news for you all.”
Absolutely gutted that the show can’t happen tonight. The storm damage to the venue and our equipment made it impossible for the show to take place and the decision was made to cancel for the safety of everyone attending and working on the site.
Online, fans swapped stories about how far they had traveled for the show and how many of Tomlinson’s tour stops they had caught so far.
One fan drove eight hours from North Carolina. Others attempted to snag tickets to shows scheduled for later dates.
The extent of the Highmark Mann’s damage was unclear. Bob Dylan was scheduled to perform on the main stage — which has covered amphitheater seating, in contrast to the all-outdoor Highmark Skyline Stage — on Tuesday evening.
Tomlinson’s next show was also set for Tuesday, at the TD Garden in Boston.
A Philadelphia judge has blocked the city from resuming work to upgrade protections for the bike lanes along Pine and Spruce Streets in Center City, the latest turn in a high-profile legal battle.
In an order dated July 6, Common Pleas Judge Damaris L. Garcia denied the city’s motion to dissolve an August 2025 injunction that had stopped the Streets Department from making certain changes.
“This is a very significant ruling in this case,” said George Bochetto, the lawyer for FOP.
The Streets Department intended the zones to give residents, delivery trucks, and contractors places to stop without parking in the bike lanes.
A ban on stopping in bike lanes was enacted in 2024 after a physician, Barbara Friedes, was killed by a drunk driver while cycling on Spruce Street. The crash helped galvanize support for a a parking ban in the bike lanes, and a planned upgrade, including with curb-styleconcrete barriers between traffic and the bike lanes.
“It’s a disappointment,” Jessie Amadio, an organizer with Philly Bike Action, said of the latest ruling. “There has been a tremendous amount of grassroots support, keeping the civic pressure on for two years.”
City Council passed an ordinance last year empowering the Streets Department to make any parking changes it deemed necessary. That cleared up any ambiguity, city lawyers argued in a hearing last month.
The judge’s decision dealt a blow to the loading zones, but did not address the bigger question of whether the city has the right to improve bike-lane protections.
FOPS amended its lawsuit to include a new complaint that the ordinance violated Sunshine Law requirements that lawmakers conduct business in the open. In addition, it alleges that Council violated the separation of powers in the city charter by delegating lawmaking to the executive branch.
That challengeis pending and set for trial next year.
“I’ll also say this: There are a lot more dangerous things happening in those bike lanes, with e-bikes and e-scooters,” Bochetto said. He said a girl on an e-scooter crashed into a light pole near his house, captured by security cameras.
Garcia did not write an opinion explaining the order.
WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump’s lawsuit against the Internal Revenue Service over his leaked tax returns was filed for an “improper purpose,” a judge said Monday in a scathing decision that referred one of his lawyers for potential disciplinary action and characterized the $10 billion complaint as an exercise in self-dealing.
The judge stopped short of explicitly voiding the deal shielding Trump from tax scrutiny but said the government cannot claim that the agreement was the result of a legitimate legal process.
“Whether Executive Branch actors can privately agree to give themselves and their former clients blanket immunities and billions of dollars in tax monies for legally undefined grievances was never an issue advanced to this Court,” said Williams, an appointee of President Barack Obama. “The question is whether the Parties could do so by claiming to be adverse and engaging the legitimacy of a court proceeding. The answer is a resounding ‘no.’”
Ruling comes just ahead of key confirmation hearing
Though the practical impacts of the ruling may be limited since the lawsuit was withdrawn months ago and the administration had already abandoned the $1.776 billion Anti-Weaponization Fund that came out of it, the order nonetheless amounts to a scathing rebuke and tees up a politically uncomfortable line of questioning for Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche as faces the Senate Judiciary Committee for his confirmation hearing on Wednesday.
“The nature of the suit itself and the conduct of the Parties and counsel from its filing make plain that this was an attempt to use the Court to provide some legitimacy to an agreement to confer immunity to people and entities affiliated with the President and to earmark billions of dollars from American taxpayers to redress grievances not defined in the law,” Williams wrote in her ruling.
She added: “The President may be the functional ‘dominus litus’ of the Executive Branch, but as a party to a civil suit, he, as well as all the parties and lawyers before a court, are bound by the rules. Ensuring that our courts are used only for the express purpose created by the Constitution is the obligation of every judge and an obligation that this Court must discharge in light of the matter before it.”
The suit against the IRS and Treasury Department in January accused the federal agencies of a failure to prevent a leak of the president’s tax information to news outlets between 2018 and 2020.
In May, however, the administration announced that it was settling the case and creating a fund to compensate people who believe they’ve been mistreated by the criminal justice system. The fund was quickly shelved amid bipartisan backlash, though the Trump administration has said it intends to proceed with a separate element of the deal affording Trump and family members protection from audits.
From the start, the judge had appeared skeptical of the complaint and assigned a group of attorneys to determine whether there was a conflict in the case since, as sitting president, Trump was suing “entities whose decisions are subject to his direction.”
Even after the settlement was revealed, she directed Trump attorneys to lay out their positions on whether the parties in the case were truly adverse to each other, whether the settlement was premised on fraud, and whether the case should be reopened.
She made clear in her ruling that she was not satisfied by the lawyers’ answers.
“After a review of the record, and the Parties’ statements, the Court declines to adopt or accept the credulous exercise of divorcing President Trump’s current job title from an understanding of what happened here,” she wrote.
Ruling also raises the possibility of disciplinary actions
The judge referred Trump attorney Alejandro Brito, who filed the case, for possible disciplinary action before the state bar in Florida and said another lawyer, Daniel Epstein, will not be granted permission to file within the Southern District of Florida for up to a year.
A spokesperson for the Trump legal team responded to a request seeking comment from Brito with a statement that blamed the IRS for allowing his tax returns to be leaked.
The judge also ordered that her ruling be sent to the state bars in New York and the District of Columbia, where ethics complaints have been filed against Blanche and Associate Attorney General Stanley Woodward.
Williams pointed to Blanche’s congressional testimony in early June in which he revealed that the anti-weaponization fund was no longer moving forward. Though nothing had been filed in court, Blanche appeared confident in his testimony that he “could speak for, and bind, both sides of this matter,” Williams said.
“Acting Attorney General Blanche’s apparent capacity to speak for both Plaintiffs and Defendants, sign a ‘settlement’ document on behalf of all Parties to this action, and then repudiate part of that agreement, demonstrates that there was only one party whose interests were being represented throughout this case,” the judge wrote.
The judge also raised ethical concerns about Blanche and Woodward’s involvement in the settlement given Blanche’s past representation of Trump as well as Woodward’s previous defense of Jan. 6 defendants and a co-defendant in Trump’s classified documents case.
“Instead of either recusing because of their previous representations or vigorously defending this lawsuit as required to do so by DOJ policies and procedures, these lawyers agreed to a ‘settlement’ involving a staggering amount of money potentially benefitting former clients,” she said.
Blanche denied in a CNN interview last spring that he had come up with the settlement terms, saying, “The president has outside counsel, and their counsel, the Department of Justice, not me.”
Philadelphia last week took a step toward renewing its contract with a controversial Chester trash incinerator after a high-profile bill to ban the city from doing so failed to garner enough support in City Council.
Mayor Cherelle L. Parker’s administrationissued a notice on Friday that it intends to enter into a new four-year contract for waste processing and disposal with Reworld, which operates a waste-to-energy facility in Chester. The city sends about a third of its garbage to the incinerator, the Delaware Valley Resource Recovery Facility.
Carlton Williams, who leads Parker’s Office of Clean and Green Initiatives, said in a statement that the city’s contracting process resulted in a deal that is “financially sound, environmentally safe, and includes the best option for the city to explore alternative methods for disposal.”
But advocates, local officials in Chester, and some City Council members have accused the company of severe pollution and environmental racism, saying it releases toxic chemicals into the air that cause adverse health effects in the majority-Black city that’s about 15 miles south of Philadelphia.
The amount of money the city intends to pay Reworld was not immediately clear on Monday. Parker administration officials issued a notice that they intend to renew the city’s existing contract with the company, but did not publish the contract itself.
Reworld was one of three companies selected to process and dispose of the city’s waste. The other two, Republic Services and Waste Management, operate landfills.
Council will need to approve legislation to greenlight the new contract with Reworld. The next scheduled meeting is in September.
It’s unclear what fate the bill might meet in Council. Last year, Councilmember Jamie Gauthier, a Democrat who represents parts of West Philadelphia, introduced the Stop Trashing Our Air act, which would have banned the city from entering into contracts with companies that burn trash or recyclables.
Chester resident Zulene Mayfield (left), Philadelphia Councilmember Jamie Gauthier (right), and Chester Mayor Stefan Roots meet to discuss Gauthier’s “Stop Trashing Our Air Act,” which would ban the city from incinerating waste, during a visit with lawmakers and staff in Chester on Nov. 7, 2025.Jose F. Moreno / Staff Photographer
But she never called the bill up for a vote, and ultimately put it on hold after it failed to garner support from a majority of the 17-member body.
Gauthier said in a statement Monday that dirty air causes asthma and cancer, and that Parker’s administration is “condemning Philly and Chester to at least four more years of toxic air and ash.”
“This is a choice. A choice that breaks Mayor Parker’s own campaign promise,” Gauthier said. “A choice that disproportionately harms Black and brown communities. A choice that makes every Philadelphian and Chester resident sicker.”
Parker, who ran on a platform of making the city “safer, cleaner, and greener” seized on it and told Brown: “That response is the same way you treat the Black and brown community.”
But Parker’s administration opposed Gauthier’s legislation, saying it would hamstring the city from being able to choose the best value waste disposal contractor through its typical competitive bidding process.
That process, city officials said in a news release Friday, included considerations of cost, as well as impacts on transportation in the region and the environment. The administration hired two independent firms to conduct environmental impact analyses.
The city previously held a seven-year contract with Reworld, which expired in June. Parker’s administration extended it for six months, ahead of selecting the company for a four-year renewal with the potential for three additional one-year extensions.
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — The U.S. launched strikes on Iran early Tuesday morning, hours after President Donald Trump said Washington is “reinstating” a blockade on Iran in the Strait of Hormuz. Trump separately suggested the United States will charge other ships for safe passage, upending hundreds of years of American policy supporting freedom of navigation across the globe.
Iran responded with attacks targeting Bahrain, Jordan and two tankers associated with the United Arab Emirates traveling through the strait, killing one mariner and wounding eight others. The Emirates threatened to retaliate against Iran, potentially drawing the nation home to Abu Dhabi and Dubai back into fighting with Tehran.
The attacks come as Iran and the U.S. both vie for control of the strait through which a fifth of all traded crude oil and natural gas once passed in peacetime. The price of benchmark Brent crude oil rose to a one-month high of over $84 in trading early Tuesday, still well below the nearly $120 reached at the height of the war but threatening to make costs everywhere higher.
Trump insists strait will be open
The U.S. military’s Central Command said it struck areas around Abu Musa, Bandar Abbas, Bushehr, Chahbahar, Jask and Konarak, targeting Iranian “coastal defense systems, missile and drone sites and maritime capabilities.” Iran acknowledged strikes around those areas, but provided no immediate casualty or damage assessments.
“These strikes will continue imposing a heavy cost on Iranian forces and degrade their ability to attack innocent civilians and commercial shipping in the Strait of Hormuz,” the U.S. military said.
Moments after the military announced the new strikes, Trump called it “another major attack.”
“We’re hitting them very hard. And it’ll continue, and we’ll see what happens,” he told reporters in the Oval Office. “We’re knocking out all of their offensive capability and we’re controlling the straits. We’re putting the blockade back.”
Trump also provided new details on his administration doing an about-face and suggesting it will charge tolls for ships going through the strait, after previously suggesting that it wouldn’t.
“We’re protecting a very rich portion of the world,” he said. “We’re spending money. And so, what we’ve done is, we are going to be reimbursed for protection.”
It’s a change in U.S. policy that, until now, said the strait should remain open to all without tolls — as it was before the U.S. and Israel attacked Iran on Feb. 28. Any attempt by the U.S. or Iran to charge fees would violate global norms on freedom of navigation and raise tensions, likely causing further economic disruption far beyond the region.
The U.S. Navy has fought for freedom of navigation on the seas since the Barbary Wars and the War of 1812.
Attacks resume across the Mideast
The United Arab Emirates’ Defense Ministry said early Tuesday that Iran attacked two tankers in the Strait of Hormuz, killing one mariner and wounding eight others.
The Emirati Defense Ministry said Iran launched two cruise missiles at the tankers Mombasa and Al Bahiyah.
The attacks set both tankers ablaze, though the fires were extinguished.
Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard claimed the attack on the tankers, saying the vessels “ignored repeated warnings.”
“They chose to pass through a minefield and were subsequently targeted and disabled,” the Guard said.
Bahrain also came under renewed attack early Tuesday morning as Iran retaliated over the latest round of U.S. airstrikes. Bahrain sounded its missile alert sirens twice, urging the public to seek shelter. There was no word on any damage or casualties from the attack.
The Emirati Defense Ministry said the attack on the tankers killed one Indian national and wounded six Indians and two Ukrainians.
“The UAE reserves its full right to respond to this escalation and to take all necessary measures to protect its territory, its citizens and residents,” the Defense Ministry added.
The Emirates used similar language before launching attacks against Iran during the war. Fighter jets could be heard overheard Tuesday morning in Dubai.
The U.S. Embassy in Abu Dhabi and the U.S. Consulate in Dubai alerted Americans early Tuesday that consular appointments had been canceled through Wednesday “due to the regional security situation.”
Jordan’s military said it intercepted four missiles from Iran, according to a statement carried by the kingdom’s state-run Petra news agency. Jordan hosts U.S. forces and has come under attack by Tehran in recent days.
Trump says Iran failed a test
Earlier Monday, Trump told conservative radio host Hugh Hewitt that the agreement reached last month was “built to test” Iran, adding that “when you’re dealing with sleazebags (agreements) don’t mean much.”
“They didn’t honor the test,” the president said.
Iran asserts it has the right to manage traffic through the strait and potentially charge fees in accordance with the interim peace deal. The U.S. has disputed that.
The American military and the United Nations’ International Maritime Organization have tried to establish a route through the strait along the coast of Oman that would be outside of Iranian control. Iran has attacked ships using that route, saying the U.S. is violating the interim peace deal. The U.S. has attacked Iran in response, drawing Iranian attacks on U.S.-allied Arab states.
Exchanges of fire in recent days had already cast further doubt on the interim peace deal. Washington had lifted a blockade it imposed in mid-April as part of that deal, which also called for the strait to be fully reopened.
“We are reinstating the THE IRANIAN BLOCKADE,” Trump said on social media. “All other countries will have fair and open use of the Strait.”
The president said the U.S. would be “reimbursed” by 20% of the value of cargo to help cover “any and all costs necessary to do the job of providing safety and security.”
The U.S. military said it will resume its blockade of Iranian ports at midnight local Wednesday in Dubai.
Pennsylvania State University, Temple and the University of Pittsburgh will split $10 million in the state’s first allotment toward performance-based funding under the new budget.
It’s the first time since the legislature passed the new performance-based formula last November that the three so-called state-related universities are receiving the funding in addition to the general appropriation they received last year. The formula considers overall enrollment, graduation rates, number of lower-income students as measured by those receiving federal Pell grants, students receiving degrees in high demand areas, and other factors.
For Penn State, the new funding will amount to a little over $4 million, raising its general education subsidy to $246.1 million, the school said in a news release. The school said it was its first increase in state education funding since 2019.
“This initial investment is an important first step that recognizes the essential role higher education plays in strengthening our commonwealth,” Penn State president Neeli Bendapudi said. “The metrics at the heart of this model align closely with Penn State’s mission and values.”
Temple said it would receive a little over $2 million in performance-based funding, in addition to its $158.2 million general appropriation. The North Philadelphia-based university also is set to receive $500,000 for its “University College,” which helps adult and non-traditional students and lifelong learners pursue degrees. A university spokesperson said the money is for the school’s bachelor of general studies program.
The performance-based funding grew out of a longstanding battle between the legislature and state-affiliated universities over transparency and accountability. State-related universities received hundreds of millions in state funding, yet have a quasi-public status exempting them from much of the state’s open records laws, a fact that has long been criticized by some legislators.
Gov. Josh Shapiro, a Democrat, signed the $50.8 billion budget deal Sunday, applauding leaders from both parties for their work on the issue. He specifically highlighted House Minority Leader Jesse Topper (R., Bedford), who has led the charge to create the new performance-based funding model.
“That’s something that leaders in Harrisburg have talked about for years and years and years, but we came together and we got it done,” Shapiro said during a news conference before signing the budget deal into law.
Meanwhile, the system that oversees Pennsylvania’s 10 universities including West Chester and Cheyney will receive $626.1 million, up about $5 million over last year. The Pennsylvania State System of Higher Education had been seeking a $31 million or a 5% boost in order to roll back a 4.3% tuition increase its board approved last week.
System spokesperson Kevin Hensil said Monday that the tuition increase would stay in place.
In-state students, who make up the vast majority of the system, will pay $8,338 annually, up $344 from $7,994.
The extra $5 million from the legislature, Hensil said, was “due to the expiration of funds related to a transfer workforce development partnership initiative” and would not impact the tuition increase.
The budget also included $78 million for debt relief in the system, but Hensil said that also would not impact the tuition increase.
“We are determining how it will be used, as we have in the past when such money was provided,” he said. “That analysis is underway.”
By the state covering the PASSHE debt, Shapiro said it would enable the state’s 10 state-owned universities to “shift those dollars into more funding for our faculty, more funding for our students, and more funding for our academic programs.”
In addition to West Chester and Cheyney, the other universities in the 83,005-student system include: Commonwealth, East Stroudsburg, Indiana, Kutztown, Lock Haven, Millersville, Penn West, and Shippensburg.
Lincoln University, which also is a state-related school, is not included in the performance-based funding plan, but it received a $1.1 million boost.
Funding for the state’s community colleges was held flat.
