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  • Measles detected in two more counties in Pennsylvania as health department recommends early vaccination

    Pennsylvania health officials have now detected measles cases in York and Northumberland Counties as cases in Lancaster County, the center of an ongoing outbreak, continued to rise.

    And the state health department is now recommending early measles vaccinations for infants beginning at 6 months in affected areas in an effort to protect them against the spread of the highly contagious disease, which is particularly risky for young children. The same precautions should be taken by families with infants traveling to these areas.

    Six Pennsylvania counties have now seen measles cases since an outbreak was first confirmed in Lebanon County in April. In all, the state has reported 81 measles cases across eight counties in 2026, more than five times the cases reported in 2025.

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    State health officials said it was too early to tell how the latest cases in York and Northumberland Counties are connected to others in the region, but that contact tracing investigations are continuing. All cases were among people who had not received at least two doses of the measles, mumps, and rubella (MMR) or whose vaccination status was unclear.

    As of Wednesday, six cases had been confirmed in Northumberland County, to the north of Dauphin County, and one case had been detected in York County, along Lancaster’s western border.

    Lebanon County has reported 20 cases and Dauphin and Berks Counties have reported two cases each.

    Lancaster County has seen 38 cases of measles since late April, with health officials confirming seven cases in the last two weeks. The area was at the center of a prior measles outbreak in January, when state health officials confirmed eight cases in Lancaster County and an additional four between Chester and Montgomery Counties.

    Vaccination rates among kindergarteners have decreased across Pennsylvania in recent years, and some counties affected in the current outbreak have particularly low rates, including Lancaster, where about 88.5% of kindergarten students are vaccinated. Health experts say that 95% of a community must be vaccinated to prevent the spread of the disease.

    A map showing vaccination rates in kindergarteners for the 2024-2025 school year. Counties in yellow have vaccination rates between 95% and 90%. Counties in red have vaccination rates below 90%. To halt the spread of measles, at least 95% of a community must be vaccinated against the disease.John Duchneskie

    Health officials have been conducting contact tracing to detect as many cases as possible. In the current outbreak, they have twice warned Lancaster residents that they could have been exposed to measles.

    Shoppers and employees at a local Kohl’s were potentially exposed to the virus over four days after a staffer tested positive in late May, LancasterOnline reported. And a person with measles visited the Lancaster County Courthouse on June 3.

    But doctors in Lancaster County say they fear some measles cases are going unreported, either because patients don’t understand the importance of tracking measles cases or because they fear repercussions.

    No cases have been confirmed in the Philadelphia region during this outbreak. But Delaware County health officials said last week that they had detected measles in two wastewater samples, indicating that someone with measles had used a bathroom connected to the county’s public water supply. It was unclear if that person lived in the county or was passing through.

    Early vaccination recommended

    On Wednesday, a statewide health alert urged physicians to accelerate vaccination schedules to protect children against measles. Officials had said they were considering the measure earlier this month as cases continued to rise.

    Measles can infect nine in 10 unvaccinated people who are exposed to it, and can linger in the air for up to two hours and incubate in patients for three weeks. The disease typically presents with a fever and a rash but can cause brain inflammation and pneumonia in serious cases.

    Typically, children receive the first of two MMR vaccines at 1 year old, then a second between 4 and 6 years old.

    But children as young as 6 months can receive an additional “dose zero” to protect them from the disease amid an outbreak. In its alert, the state health department said parents should vaccinate infants between 6 and 11 months with the “dose zero” if they live in affected areas or if they’re planning to travel there.

    Those children should then receive additional MMR doses at 12 to 15 months and 4 to 6 years.

    This “dose zero” is less effective than doses given at 1 year old, officials cautioned. But it’s 58% effective against measles when given at 6 to 8 months, and 83% effective when administered at 9 to 11 months.

    “Early MMR vaccination is safe and provides modest protection when measles is spreading,” officials wrote in the alert.

    Children older than 12 months who haven’t been vaccinated should get an MMR dose immediately, and a second 28 days later, health officials said. Unvaccinated adults, or those without evidence of immunity, should also get two MMR doses.

    And anyone who has received one dose of the MMR vaccine in the past should get a second at least 28 days after their first, officials said.

    Usually, children who received a first dose at around 12 months wait to get their second dose until they’re 4 to 6 years old. But in an outbreak situation, those children should get their second doses early — at least 28 days after their first shot.

    Adults born before 1957 are typically considered immune, but healthcare workers in that age group who don’t have lab evidence of immunity or prior infection should consider getting vaccinated, state officials said.

    Adults who received an inactivated measles vaccine between 1963 and 1967 are considered unvaccinated during an outbreak, and should also get two doses of the current MMR vaccine.

    Pregnant people, people with severely weakened immune systems, and people who have a history of experiencing severe allergic reactions, like anaphylaxis, to a vaccine ingredient or to a previous dose of MMR cannot receive the vaccine.

  • A former Delco woman tied to the Zizians extremist group has been charged with her parents’ killing

    A former Delco woman tied to the Zizians extremist group has been charged with her parents’ killing

    A former Delaware County woman tied to an extremist group known as the Zizians has been charged with killing her parents, execution-style, inside their Chester Heights home in December 2022.

    Michelle Zajko, 33, has long been a person of interest in the slayings of her parents, Richard and Rita Zajko. After years of investigation, Delaware County District Attorney Tanner Rouse filed first-degree murder charges Wednesday and accused her of shooting the couple on her 30th birthday.

    New information obtained in the last few months, including ballistics evidence and an extensive download of text messages and other data from Zajko’s cell phone, allowed prosecutors to piece together the case against her, according to the affidavit of probable cause for her arrest.

    Rouse, in announcing the charges Wednesday, said he believes that while Zajko planned and carried out the killings, she likely did not act alone. The investigation is continuing, he said.

    Building the case against her, he said, took years of skilled and disciplined police work as investigators interviewed dozens of people and connected threads of information in several states.

    Inquirer special report: From NASA intern to national fugitive

    “I want to emphasize — I cannot stress this enough — this is just about as exhaustive of an investigation that I’ve been a part of in my 16 years as an attorney,” Rouse said. “We don’t have a smoking gun. It is piece after piece after piece of evidence that has been collected painstakingly over many years.”

    Investigators say Zajko, an alumna of Cardinal O’Hara High School and Cabrini University, drove to her childhood home on Highland Circle in Chester Heights with a plan to kill her parents. She shot them both in the head, leaving their bodies for police to find days later, after a concerned friend reported they had missed an appointment to care for Rita Zajko’s elderly mother.

    The motive for the killings remains unclear.

    Rita and Richard Zajko, seen here in a 1993 family portrait.Courtesy Rosanne Zajko

    Zajko told friends she had a difficult relationship with her mother, and accused her of years of emotional abuse. In online writings, Zajko said her mother criticized her constantly, arguing with her over religion and her desire to be vegan.

    That strained relationship was detailed in the final text messages Zajko sent her father days before authorities say she killed him, according to the affidavit.

    “Every time I interact with mom in a nonsuperficial way she spends the time insulting a life she knows nothing about, makes assumptions that imdoing nothing, etc,” Zajko wrote, the document said. “Its uncalled for. I don’t want to speak to someone who treats me like that.”

    But Rita Zajko, just nine hours before she was killed, attempted to reconcile with her daughter, sending her a happy birthday text and apologizing for whatever she had done to alienate her, according to the affidavit.

    On Wednesday, Rosanne Zajko, the wife of Richard Zajko’s brother, stood alongside the prosecutor as he announced the charges against her niece. Losing her brother- and sister-in-law, she said, was “like the lights going out of our lives.”

    “We don’t know yet if the trial will begin to heal the void in our lives and the ache in our hearts,” she said. “But we do know that the detectives, the DA’s office, and we, the family, have done everything possible to achieve justice for Rick and Rita.”

    Delaware County District Attorney Tanner Rouse announces murder charges Wednesday against Michelle Zajko. Zajko’s aunt, Rosanne (left) spoke briefly about the impact the killings has had on her family.Vinny Vella / Staff

    Michelle Zajko, for her part, has said she had been unjustly accused.

    In a sprawling, handwritten letter sent to The Inquirer and other news outlets last year, Zajko insisted she did not kill her parents. Rosanne Zajko said Michelle Zajko told her at the couple’s funeral in January 2023 that she had not killed her parents, but said she knew who did. She would not name the killer, her aunt said.

    “I’m viscerally reminded of the witch hunts, of the Satanic Panic, of the mob that burned Joan of Arc at the stake, and of the mob that ripped apart Hippolyta,” Michelle Zajko said in the letter, written in a jail cell in Maryland, where she is awaiting trial on trespassing, gun, and drug charges. “The papers are lying. … I did not murder my parents.”

    Sources familiar with the investigation say it is possible that, as an only child, Zajko may have expected to inherit her parents’ substantial estate. The value of the estate has not been made public, but the sources, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss an ongoing case, say it is worth several million dollars.

    A person close to Zajko said she had contacted an attorney in the weeks after her parents were killed to discuss how she could access her parents’ estate.

    Zajko remains in custody in western Maryland with two other members of the Zizians, including the cultlike group’s leader, Jack “Ziz” LaSota, who identifies as female.

    They were arrested in February 2025 while trying to illegally camp on a swath of private property in a secluded mountain town. Police said they were armed with multiple guns and carrying military tactical gear, as well as LSD.

    Zajko is also charged with illegally supplying the guns used by other members of the Zizians in a fatal shootout with a U.S. Border Patrol agent weeks before her arrest in Maryland.

    A former Delco woman wanted for questioning in the death of her parents will remain in custody with other cult members

    In her letter from jail, Zajko said she and her friends were innocent of all criminal charges they face. She said they were being targeted by other members of the Bay Area tech community seeking to discredit them.

    Members of the Zizians — a group whose philosophy encourages making decisions through reason and logic, rather than emotion — are connected to six killings across the country, authorities say. Prosecutors have denounced the group as extremists and accused them of using violence when their worldview is challenged.

    For years, the deaths of Richard and Rita Zajko remained the only ones tied to the Zizians that remained unsolved.

    Deputies escort Michelle Zajko, left, Daniel Blank, right, and Jack LaSota, in orange, from the Allegany County Courthouse in Cumberland, Md. in January.Mark Scolforo

    Almost immediately after the killings, investigators in Delaware County learned that Zajko had been at her parents’ home on the night they were shot — a neighbor’s Ring security camera recorded someone screaming “Mom!” shortly before police believe the fatal shots were fired.

    The couple were found in their daughter’s childhood bedroom, which had remained virtually unchanged since she had moved out of the house decades earlier, the affidavit said.

    The gun used to kill the couple was the same caliber as, and a similar model to, one Zajko had purchased in Vermont weeks earlier, investigators said. She was labeled a person of interest in the case as a consequence. But authorities said there was not enough evidence to prove she had committed the crime.

    That changed this week, prosecutors said.

    When investigators spoke with Zajko at her home in Vermont after her parents’ killings, she showed them a different type of ammunition from the kind found at the Chester Heights home, the affidavit said. However, while serving a subsequent search warrant there, detectives found cartridges that were an exact match — and that they said Zajko had hidden from them.

    Initially, forensic investigators said they were unable to determine if the shell casings found near Rita and Richard Zajko’s bodies had been fired from their daughter’s gun. But late last fall, other casings found near trees behind Michelle Zajko’s home in Vermont, which she had used for target practice, had been fired by the same gun that killed her parents, authorities said.

    Another crucial piece of evidence, investigators said, was a list found on Zajko’s cell phone titled “There are so many things we f— up” that detailed missteps, including not taking shell casings from the homicide scene, according to the affidavit.

    The murder charges mark an unexpected turn for Zajko, whom friends and loved ones described as an ambitious, accomplished young woman with a keen interest in science. In her early 20s, Zajko pursued a career in bioinformatics and conducted research at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia with colleagues from the University of Pennsylvania.

    At the same time, Zajko became immersed in the Zizian movement through online message boards, and met some of the group’s members while interning with NASA in California.

    The Chester Heights, Delaware County home where Richard and Rita Zajko were murdered on New Years Eve 2022.Jesse Bunch / Staff

    In 2021, partly in reaction to the COVID-19 pandemic, Zajko abandoned her scientific research and moved to rural Vermont, where she lived with other Zizians and grew close to LaSota, the group’s leader.

    Zajko, in her prison letter, said that she rejects the characterization of LaSota as her “leader” and that the group does not refer to themselves as Zizians. Instead, she said that she and LaSota are close friends, and that she loves LaSota “infinitely more than I could ever express.”

    Investigators now believe that Zajko, LaSota, and Daniel Blank, another Zizian, traveled to Chester Heights together on the day Zajko’s parents were killed, and intentionally left their cell phones in Vermont to prevent authorities from tracking their movements, according to the affidavit.

    The three made that trip a second time weeks later, in January 2023, so Zajko could attend her parents’ funeral in Marple Township. Pennsylvania State Police troopers investigating her parents’ killings briefly detained Zajko and Blank at a hotel where they were staying in Chester.

    LaSota, however, refused to answer the troopers’ questions, was charged with obstruction of justice, and remained in custody in Delaware County for months before being released on unsecured bail.

    LaSota did not show up for subsequent hearings, and a bench warrant for her arrest was still active when Maryland State Police took her into custody last year alongside Zajko and Blank.

    Their criminal trial on the trespassing, gun, and drug charges is scheduled to begin in October in Maryland.

    As Zajko awaits trial in both cases, Rouse, the prosecutor, said her crimes “go beyond comprehension and circumstance.”

    “This is a child who killed her parents, who walked into her childhood home, took her mother to her childhood playroom, and executed her,” Rouse said. “There aren’t words or emotions that can capture it.”

  • A Delco judge denied a motion to dismiss trespassing charges in Swarthmore protest case

    A Delco judge denied a motion to dismiss trespassing charges in Swarthmore protest case

    A Delaware County judge on Monday denied a motion to dismiss criminal charges filed against nine people for refusing to leave a pro-Palestinian encampment on Swarthmore College’s campus last spring, setting the stage for a trial next week.

    Judge Dominic Pileggi ruled that prosecutors had presented sufficient evidence for the case to proceed to trial and allow a jury to decide whether the so-called Swarthmore 9 had trespassed.

    The group was arrested and briefly detained outside the college’s Trotter Hall in May 2025 when officers from surrounding police departments dismantled their encampment protesting the war in Gaza and Swarthmore’s IT contract with Cisco, a company that does business with the Israeli government.

    Of the nine people arrested, only one, Jace Boland, is a student at the college. Another, Brendan Cook, is a former student who was suspended for participating in an earlier protest in 2024, but the rest are not affiliated with Swarthmore, according to school officials.

    Members of the group — Boland, Cook, Jonathan Britt, Mara Helen Cahill, Daria C. Dressler, Thomas Falcone, Colin Buckley Malcarney, Riley J. McManus, and Andrew Thomas — have all been charged with trespassing, a third-degree misdemeanor.

    District Attorney Tanner Rouse has said his office offered each member of the group a plea deal that would see those charges reduced to summary offenses, similar to traffic citations, that could be resolved by paying a fine.

    The group has refused, saying pleading guilty would set a precedent on how colleges across the country could curtail students’ protest rights.

    During Monday’s hearing, the group’s attorney, Marni Jo Snyder, argued that Swarthmore and county prosecutors violated the protestors’ constitutional rights by arresting them.

    She noted that Swarthmore changed its policy allowing protests on its campus to explicitly outlaw encampments after a similar, monthlong demonstration in the same location in 2024.

    Policing a specific type of expressive speech, she said, is illegal.

    “The policy is wrong, the repeated orders to leave are wrong,” she said. “These are improper responses to constitutionally protected speech.”

    Snyder said that, though Swarthmore’s campus is private property, administrators have allowed previous demonstrations to be held there, as well as other quasi-private events. The arrests in this case, she said, showed that prosecutors were specifically targeting demonstrators protesting the war in Gaza.

    Samantha Door, who represented the district attorney’s office at the hearing, disputed that, saying the protestors’ conduct, and not the purpose of the encampment, was the reason criminal charges were filed.

    Swarthmore issued multiple warnings to the group to disperse over the course of three days, Door said, including one final warning 10 minutes before the encampment was dismantled.

    Other protestors who left the encampment and continued to chant and hold protest signs were not arrested, she said.

    Also, Door said administrators raised concerns about public safety, since many of the protestors wore masks and refused to identify themselves, vandalized campus property with graffiti, and used pallets and other materials to create barricades around the encampment.

    The trial in the case is scheduled to begin with jury selection on June 30.

  • 150 years, 2 world wars, 32 mayors, and 28 presidents later, a store still thrives in a bankrupt city

    150 years, 2 world wars, 32 mayors, and 28 presidents later, a store still thrives in a bankrupt city

    Humans still answer the phones. The business is family-owned and run by women. But perhaps the most remarkable aspect of T. Frank McCall’s is the reality that the store is still there, next to the railroad tracks in the Delaware County riverfront city of Chester, where it has been since 1876.

    It has somehow survived through the administrations of 28 presidents, 32 governors, and 32 mayors; two world wars; the Great Depression; and the collapse of Chester’s economy that has climaxed with a rare municipal bankruptcy, By the time the Philadelphia Phillies played their first game in 1883, McCall’s had been in business for seven years at Sixth and Madison Streets.

    The building has retained the faint odors of the company’s seed-and-grain roots. But these days the houses that had lined the streets are long gone. The nearest neighbor is a remnant of a factory that once was part of the city’s industrial might. The store’s owners are bemused by the unused bicycle lane on the other side of Madison Street, and the superfluous parking restrictions.

    The remnants of an abandoned factory building sit next to McCall’s.Tyger Williams / Staff Photographer

    McCall’s sells janitorial and cleaning supplies, but rather than a traditional “jan/san” business, it is more like a hybrid wholesale general store. That its website features a snowfall image is fitting: It made a killing selling ice-melters this winter to SEPTA, Philadelphia, and other customers.

    The assortment evidently continues to work; McCall’s generates about $10 million in annual revenue, said owner Lisa Witomski, whose father bought the company from the family of the original owners in 1957 in a decade when businesses were pulling out of Chester.

    What explains the staying power?

    In part, Witomski said, McCall’s sells things people have to have. “Nobody really wants to buy janitorial supplies, but if you have customers or employees, you need them.”

    Staying in the one location in Chester, even though only a tiny percentage of the revenue comes from in-store sales, has been an asset, Witomski said. Customers know where to find them, and the company owns the 50,000-square-foot facility outright; the mortgage was paid off in 1880.

    The county estimates the property’s value at about $850,000, and the company contributes about $17,000 annually to the city and the Chester-Upland School District in property taxes. It also pays a 6% sales tax to the city, and the 16 employees pay earned-income levies. The size of the workforce has not changed much through the years.

    Most of the building’s space, which includes a former stable for the horses that delivered the company’s goods in the wayback when Chester was transforming from a rural outpost to an industrial power, is devoted to warehousing. About 95% of the company’s business is shipped on McCall’s trucks, Witomski said, and the location has outstanding road access, close to I-95 and the Blue Route.

    When customers call during business hours, “a human being always answers the phone,” she said. “People are shocked when you say, ‘Hello,’ and they’re waiting for ‘press 1.’”

    Being a family business that has resisted corporate takeover has given McCall’s an edge with customers, said Witomski, who recalled playing hide-and-seek among the store’s galvanized trash cans as a kid.

    “Unlike almost all our competition, we haven’t sold out.”

    The original McCalls

    George McCall started his feed-and-grain business in 1876, when Chester’s population was growing rapidly. He eventually turned over the keys to his son Thomas, who later passed on the business to his sons under the name T. Frank McCall.

    A breakthrough came in the 1880s when nearby Scott Paper — on the Chester riverfront, the company that is believed to have been the first to market toilet paper on a roll and disposable paper towels — hired McCall’s as its distributor. (The plant now bears the Kimberly-Clark name, but the Scott brand name survives.)

    Along with Scott products, through the years it would sell and distribute a wide variety of janitorial and other products while remaining in the seed-and-grain business.

    The McCalls would run the company for 80 years.

    McCall’s today

    Owner Lisa Witomski (right) with her niece Lisa Claire, McCall’s office manager, and nephew Chas Wiley, warehouse manager, inside the store. Tyger Williams / Staff Photographer

    They sold the company in 1957 at a time when Chester was entering a postwar decline: In the 1950s, the number of apparel and general merchandise stores in the city fell from 68 to 19, according to Chester Planning Commission documents.

    Brothers Edward and Charles Witomski purchased the business on the advice of a member of the legendary Pew family, founders of the Sun Oil empire. The brothers had owned a bar in Essington and were looking for an enterprise that would be more family-friendly, Lisa Witomski said.

    Like the McCalls, they continued the tradition of selling and distributing a wide variety of products, including paints and even baby chicks at Easter time. Eventually the business was passed on to Charles Witomski’s daughters, Marcie and Lisa, the company president. Marcie Witomski’s daughter, Lisa Claire, is the office manager; Marcie’s son Chas Wiley manages the warehouse.

    In recent years their regular customers have included casinos throughout the region that have needs for paper and enzyme cleaning products. (Gamblers have been known to make a mess.)

    And ice melter has been a source of considerable cold cash — this winter in particular.

    “It was a doozy,” Claire said. It wasn’t just the 30 inches of snow, but the subsequent Arctic freezes that locked in the snow-and-ice coverage. The result was the sale of mass quantities of calcium chloride melter.

    On occasion, a motorist along Madison Street, which is part of Route 320, stopped in to buy some melter, Lisa Witomski said, but the store never was heavily trafficked even when the neighborhood was well-occupied in the 1950s and ’60s.

    Save for a few incidents — one person tried to walk off with a lawn mower, another tried to make off with a 100-pound barrel that he couldn’t carry — crime has not been an issue, Lisa Witomski said, even when the city went through a period a decade ago when it had the nation’s highest per capita homicide rate.

    “We are not exactly in a populated area,” she said.

    Cars parked in front of the store these days are anomalies. “We think the two-hour parking is very funny,” she said.

    Said Michelle Cubler, the purchasing manager, “We’ve never seen them actually ticket on this street.”

  • ‘Two Delco-heads,’ Matt Freese and Auston Trusty, helped the USMNT make World Cup history

    ‘Two Delco-heads,’ Matt Freese and Auston Trusty, helped the USMNT make World Cup history

    SEATTLE — At the final whistle of the U.S. men’s soccer team’s 2-0 win over Australia on Friday, Auston Trusty walked over to Matt Freese to offer a big hug.

    They didn’t know that a photographer from the Associated Press was standing nearby to capture the moment. But soon enough, everyone found out.

    Yes, Delco was very much mentioned on the world’s biggest stage.

    “He came over to me and said, ‘Two Delco-heads just had a shutout in the World Cup together. That’s fate,’” the Wayne-born Freese said after his shutout in net. “And I laughed and I said, ‘Yeah, who would have thought?’”

    Perhaps Jim Curtin, or other coaches across the Union ranks who worked with the duo over the years. But not too many people beyond Chester, or Wayne in those days, since that was YSC Academy’s first home.

    “It’s obviously such a cool thing to have known him for so long, and I knew him outside of the soccer world too,” Freese said of Trusty. “We were just friends. So it’s incredible.”

    The USMNT clinches advancing in the World Cup with a 2-0 win over Australia

    That wasn’t the only karmic coincidence of the day. Trusty made his World Cup debut in front of not just his wife, daughter, in-laws and cousins, but also two of his first youth soccer coaches with the old Nether United club in Nether Providence, Delaware County: Tor Hotham and John Waraksa.

    Like so many people around American soccer, they circled this day in this soccer-mad city and decided they had to be there. The reward was beyond measure.

    “To have them fly here, not knowing if I’m going to play or not, to come here and be here for this game where I actually make my World Cup debut, it’s just all meant to be,” Trusty said.

    The Media native beamed with pride again when he reflected on finally reaching this moment at age 27, 11 years after going to an under-17 World Cup with Christian Pulisic, Tyler Adams, Alejandro Zendejas, and Haji Wright.

    How all of Friday’s World Cup action unfolded in our live blog

    “When you’re a little kid, dreaming about the stadiums you play in and the atmospheres and everything involved, to play in a home turf World Cup, get minutes, it’s a dream come true,” Trusty said.

    Freese had his family in attendance too, plus his girlfriend’s family, and old friends from high school at Episcopal Academy. He shouted out one of the closest, Michael Hinkley, a soccer teammate back then who went on to play basketball at Dickinson.

    Matt Freese (left) clearing the ball in front ofAustralia’s Mo Touré during the first half.Maddy Grassy

    “Obviously incredible support,” Freese said. “It means a lot to play in front of them, and play in front of everyone in this country.”

    That support fueled the U.S. team all day, with the stands full and roaring well before kickoff. Trusty said the atmosphere “gives you chills,” especially when the crowd sang The Star-Spangled Banner over the orchestral rendition on the speakers.

    The USMNT knew it was in for an all-time home field advantage in Seattle

    “The atmosphere is one of those things you dream of,” Freese said. “I’ve heard ‘the 12th man’ is what they call the crowd here. It was definitely a 12th man for us — I think it was a 12th, 13th, 14th, 15th man for us today.”

    But things were getting dicey when Trusty and Joe Scally entered the game in the 80th minute as defensive reinforcements. Australia was gaining momentum even though it hadn’t scored, and an already physical game was getting even more fractious.

    Auston Trusty (left) tussling with Australia’s Cristian Volpato.Lindsey Wasson

    It got especially chippy in the last few minutes, but those two and the rest of the Americans kept their heads and finished the job. They did so at both ends, ensuring Australia didn’t score while also keeping a foot on the gas pedal in attack.

    “Just keep the pressure up,” Trusty said. “They weren’t really pressing too much, they kind of had like a halfway-block [formation], and obviously in a back five [defensively], they want pressure on them. So just continue the press that we had and the movement we had, and really just keep momentum.”

    Mayor Cherelle L. Parker shops for kits, American fans cheer on USMNT, and other highlights from Philly’s World Cup Fan Festival

    Mission accomplished on all counts. Not only did the U.S. men qualify for the knockout rounds before the group stage finale against Turkey, but the program has two wins in one World Cup group stage for the first time since the inaugural tournament in 1930. And thanks to Turkey’s loss at the end of the night, the U.S. clinched first place with a game to spare.

    “We came into the tournament wanting to make a statement,” Freese said. “The first part of that’s done, but, you know, there’s a lot more statements we want to make.”

  • Delta’s Monroe Energy refinery in Delco shuts due to internal leak

    Delta’s Monroe Energy refinery in Delco shuts due to internal leak

    The Monroe Energy refinery on the Delaware River in Trainer, Delaware County, stopped its two 100,000-barrels-per-day crude-oil distilleries Tuesday due to a leak inside the facility, Industrial Info Resources (IIR), a Texas-based energy research service, told clients Wednesday.

    Delta Air Lines owns the refinery and uses much of its capacity to make jet fuel. A Delta spokesperson said he could not comment on daily operations at Monroe Energy, adding there is no danger to the public.

    The stoppage was reported in other energy media and noted on Delaware River Shipping, a 7,000-member Facebook group frequented by people who work for shipping-related businesses and others with an interest in river traffic.

    Even before the war with Iran disrupted shipping and delayed oil deliveries, causing a spike in world energy prices, U.S. refinery closings had reduced supplies of gasoline, fuel oil, and jet fuel, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration. The shutdowns reflect lower demand for gasoline as Americans drive more energy-efficient vehicles.

    But the reduced supply makes prices more vulnerable to plant shutdowns and other supply disruptions, according to the agency.

    Delta bought the former ConocoPhillips refinery in Trainer in 2012 to insulate itself against swings in oil prices by producing its own jet fuel and other refined products for trade to jet fuel suppliers in other cities. Fuel is airlines’ largest single expense, according to the International Air Transport Association, which represents airlines that carry most of the world’s passenger traffic.

    The Trainer facility was among the larger U.S. importers of Russian crude oil before Russia attacked Ukraine in 2022 and U.S. refiners stopped buying Russian crude.

    Monroe Energy, which employs around 500 union workers, managers, and other professionals and contractors, is one of three similarly sized oil refineries remaining on the Delaware River since the closing of the former Sunoco refineries in Westville, N.J. (2010), Marcus Hook (2011), and South Philadelphia (2019).

    The other remaining refineries in Delaware City, Del., and Paulsboro, Gloucester County, are owned are operated by publicly traded PBF Energy, based in Parsippany, N.J.

    In a separate incident, neighbors of Monroe’s tank farm in Aston, Delaware County, which relies on well water, were issued bottled water last year after 378,000 gallons of gasoline leaked through a quarter-inch hole in one of the 12 tanks on the site over a period of several months before the leak was found last December.

  • Delaware County detected measles in wastewater samples, health officials say

    Delaware County detected measles in wastewater samples, health officials say

    Measles was detected in wastewater samples taken in Delaware County on two days last week, local health officials said Wednesday.

    This means someone infected with measles used a bathroom connected to the county’s public water supply, although no one in the county has been officially diagnosed with measles, said Lora Siegmann Werner, director of the county’s health department.

    Detecting the highly contagious disease in wastewater can serve as a reminder for parents to vaccinate their children, and for health providers to be on the lookout for people experiencing measles symptoms.

    “We’re not trying to scare people, but we thought it was a good opportunity to raise awareness,” she said.

    Health officials around the country regularly monitor wastewater for various diseases, including measles and COVID-19.

    The treatment plant where measles was detected in samples on June 9 and June 11, DELCORA Western Regional Treatment Plant in Chester, serves about 500,000 people in Delaware and Chester Counties.

    Health officials were able to determine the positive samples came from Delaware County, Siegmann Werner said. But it was impossible to tell whether that person was passing through the county or lives there.

    It was also unclear whether the infected person was connected to a measles outbreak in four counties west of Philadelphia, including Lancaster County, just over the border from Chester County.

    As of Wednesday, state health officials had identified 55 cases in that outbreak, with 32 in Lancaster County. Physicians there have said they fear more cases are circulating in the community among people who avoiding seeking medical care or notifying the state health department.

    “We’ve been tracking the outbreaks that occur, knowing it’s likely a matter of time before we have our own cases,” Siegmann Werner said.

    The county is engaging in planning exercises and reaching out to healthcare providers to prepare for potential cases in the area.

    More than 200 Philly-area schools are vulnerable to measles outbreak

    Measles spreads through the air, lingering in a room for up to two hours after an infected person has left it. About nine in 10 unvaccinated people who come into contact with the virus will contract it themselves.

    Two doses of the measles, mumps, and rubella vaccine are 97% effective against the disease.

    The virus’ early symptoms include a fever, cough, runny nose, red and puffy eyes, and a rash. In serious cases, measles can lead to pneumonia, brain infections, and death.

    There is no evidence it is spread through contact with untreated wastewater, Delaware County health officials said.

    Without a confirmed measles case in Delaware County, Siegmann Werner said, the detection of measles in its wastewater will not trigger an investigation into its origin.

    “It’s really limited to saying there was someone who was ill” who either passed through the county or lives there, she said. “Please be vigilant and get vaccinated.”

  • Pennsylvania parents will soon have easy access to school-level vaccination data to see measles risk

    Pennsylvania families will gain access to detailed information about vaccination rates in their schools before the new academic year, when the state health department launches a new online database to better inform the public.

    More than 200 Philadelphia-area schools with kindergarten classrooms — roughly one in three — have measles vaccination rates insufficient to protect against an outbreak, The Inquirer found earlier this year in an analysis that identified pockets of vulnerability hiding in plain sight at schools across the Philadelphia region.

    The Pennsylvania Department of Health routinely releases county-level data about childhood immunizations, which for the Philadelphia region shows only overall higher rates of measles protection.

    More than 200 Philly-area schools vulnerable to measles outbreak

    The highly contagious disease, which can linger in the air for two hours and infect nine in 10 unvaccinated people exposed to it, was once considered nearly eradicated after years of vaccination.

    But as more families opt out of vaccines required for school attendance through religious and philosophical exemptions, cases are on the rise. Pennsylvania has reported a total of 66 measles cases so far this year — the highest number in three decades and more than four times the total cases in 2025.

    The new data initiative follows a drumbeat of reporting by The Inquirer and the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette revealing the declining vaccination rates within communities across the state. Families are often in the dark about the risk because local data are not readily available.

    The joint effort between the state’s health and education departments stems from Gov. Josh Shapiro’s executive order last fall to improve access to vaccines, and from intense media scrutiny of vaccination efforts locally and nationally, said Debra Bogen, Pennsylvania’s health secretary.

    “We’re following the same instincts that you all were following,” Bogen said. “There is a huge interest among the public in this information.”

    The new initiative will offer a closer look at childhood vaccination rates, similar to an interactive school lookup tool published by The Inquirer with the latest available data from last school year.

    With the new online tool, the state wants to make people more aware of risks within their community and encourage schools to do more to improve access to vaccines.

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    Better access to local vaccine data

    Pennsylvania law requires schools to report vaccination data for students in kindergarten, seventh grade, and 12th grade. Kindergarten rates, in particular, are seen as a bellwether for a community’s attitudes toward vaccination, as parents are deciding whether to get the shots required to attend school.

    Families will be able to use the database to find vaccine information by school, county, and grade. It will allow people to search by vaccine and exemption type, and determine what portion of students in a school are attending unvaccinated without an approved exemption.

    The database will not include schools with fewer than 20 students in kindergarten, a privacy protection.

    In a joint letter to school administrators and nurses last week, state officials said the move was aimed at increasing transparency around vaccination rates. “We want to help ensure that parents, guardians, students, and community members have accurate, science-backed information to make immunization decisions for their family,” the letter read.

    As of Tuesday, the department had not received feedback from schools. Bogen hopes that schools will become more aware of potential vaccination challenges and work closely with local health providers to coordinate clinics.

    “We don’t want lack of access to be the barrier,” Bogen said. “That’s what public health does best — bring access to the resources.”

    In Lancaster, measles cases are rising as providers try to combat low vaccination rates

    Joshua Good, the head of a Lancaster County school where two students developed measles earlier this year, said he has no issues with the state’s new initiative, but does not expect it will negatively affect enrollment at schools like his.

    Fewer than half of the 27 students in the kindergarten class at Good’s Ephrata Mennonite School are vaccinated against the measles, and many people in his community have opted against vaccination in the last decade.

    He thinks parents at Ephrata Mennonite and other private Anabaptist (part of a Christian denomination that includes Amish and Mennonite churches) schools are already aware of vaccination rates there.

    “Information is always good, so that folks can make their best decisions,” he wrote in an email.

    More informed vaccine decisions

    In Delaware County, which has some of the Philadelphia region’s lowest kindergarten measles vaccination rates, public health leaders see an opportunity to help families make decisions about vaccinating their children.

    “Making this transparent at the school level helps parents, helps schools, helps all of us,” said Lora Siegmann Werner, director of Delaware County’s health department.

    As measles rises, Pa. parents should be able to see school-level vaccine data, some lawmakers say

    At Chester Community Charter School, for instance, 66% of kindergartners were vaccinated against measles in 2024 — well below the 95% vaccination rate scientists say is necessary to prevent the disease from spreading.

    A majority of those students did not have a signed exemption form or a plan for getting vaccinated, according to The Inquirer’s analysis.

    Public health experts say that high rates of so-called noncompliant but attending students can indicate that the community struggles with access to healthcare.

    The county health department launched a mobile health clinic earlier this month to improve healthcare access and provide vaccine education in a region where the leading hospital, Crozer-Chester Medical Center, closed last year.

    Dr. Gifty Key, administrator for the Delaware County Health Department, gives a tour this month of the new mobile health clinic, meant to help with public health education, vaccinations, and health services.Allie Ippolito / For The Inquirer

    Werner said she hopes the new state database will help her staff show families why it is important to get vaccinated, and encourage more schools to host vaccine clinics.

    Pennsylvania’s lax rules

    Pennsylvania’s vaccine exemption rules are among the loosest in the country, with the state among 15 that allow families to opt out for medical, religious, or philosophical reasons.

    With the resurgence of measles, some states, including New York and California, have updated their rules to allow only medical exemptions. Many more states allow medical or religious exemptions.

    Any future legislation proposing to tighten Pennsylvania’s rules would likely meet resistance in its split legislature, where Democrats narrowly control the House and Republicans control the Senate.

    Many GOP members broadly believe that parents should be free to decide whether their children are vaccinated.

    “Parents know what’s best for their kids,” State Rep. Robert Leadbeter (R., Columbia), chair of the House Freedom Caucus, told The Inquirer earlier this month. He did not respond to a request for comment for this story.

    Nearly a decade ago, State Rep. Michael Schlossberg (D., Lehigh), the majority whip, introduced unsuccessful legislation to tighten Pennsylvania’s rules.

    Now the state’s greater data transparency will “allow the public to hold school leaders accountable for enforcing Pennsylvania’s important vaccination requirements,” Schlossberg said in a statement.

    Improving access to information could help families make more informed decisions, he said.

    “Parents, students, and teachers deserve to know whether public health is at risk in our classrooms,” Schlossberg said.

  • House of the week: A 19th-century farmhouse in Delco for $475,000

    House of the week: A 19th-century farmhouse in Delco for $475,000

    The five-bedroom, two-bathroom farmhouse-style home in Springfield, Delaware County, was once a church and a mill. But since 2014, it has been the Hornberger family’s “pride and joy,” said Kortney Hornberger.

    That is when she and her husband, Bob, bought the 2,368-square-foot house, bordering Darby Creek and built in the mid-to late-19th century.

    “It’s one of the coolest houses in Springfield,” Kortney said. Their three children grew up playing in the creek.

    The kitchen has Shaker-style wood cabinets, stainless-steel appliances, and granite countertops.Derrick Kunzer

    “We had been looking for a long time,” she said. “The old wood beams were beautiful” and “the yard with no neighbors on three sides of the corner lot sold me.”

    But the Hornbergers — she is a civilian contractor for the Army National Guard and he is semi-retired from an administrative job with Wawa — are preparing to retire in Hawaii.

    The house has four bedrooms on the second floor and one on the main floor. Bob said the couple made many improvements over the years, including a new boiler, windows, siding, three new entry doors, and whole-house water heater. The second floor has a walk-in storage area. The home has a large basement for additional storage and laundry.

    The primary bedroom, which has an exterior door.Derrick Kunzer

    The main floor bedroom has a walk-in closet and a private entrance. An additional room on this level could be a home office, playroom, or gym.

    The eat-in-kitchen adjoins a large dining room and has Shaker-style wood cabinets, stainless-steel appliances, and granite countertops.

    The backyard has a patio, a pergola, and a firepit, and there is a shed for additional storage.

    The outdoor space, which has a patio, a pergola, and a firepit, as well as a shed.Derrick Kunzer

    The house is a seven-minute drive to Media, and is served by SEPTA’s Media/Wawa Regional Rail line, the trolley to Media, and bus routes. There is driveway space for three cars.

    It is in the Springfield School District.

    It is listed by Amanda Terranova of Compass Realty for $475,000.

  • Roundup of third-quarter financial results for Philly-area nonprofit health systems

    Half of the nonprofit health systems in Southeastern Pennsylvania had operating losses in the first nine months of fiscal 2026, the systems’ latest reports to municipal bond investors showed.

    All had strong revenue growth, with the exceptions of Redeemer Health and Tower Health, the two smallest systems by revenue. The gains at Jefferson Health and Penn Medicine benefited from acquisitions in fiscal 2025.

    The reports are not perfectly comparable because of variations in accounting practices.

    For example, Jefferson, Main Line Health, and ChristianaCare changed their depreciation rates, which reduced their expenses relative to competitors. Jefferson includes investment income in its revenue, boosting its results.

    Here’s a summary in order of revenue, from the region’s largest to smallest systems:

    Jefferson Health had a $252.6 million operating loss, which it attributed to severe winter weather, restructuring costs related to layoffs, and shortfalls in insurance reimbursement. Total revenue was just shy of $13 billion, up from $11.6 billion last year, which included only eight months of results from Lehigh Valley Health Network.

    The University of Pennsylvania Health System’s operating income in the nine months ended March 31 rose to $238 million, up sharply from $163 million in the same period a year ago. Total revenue for the nine months increased nearly 15% to $10.1 billion from $8.8 billion last year. This year’s results include Doylestown Health, which Penn acquired in April 2025.

    Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia had a $271 million operating profit in the first nine months of fiscal 2026, up from $195.8 million the year before. Total revenue rose 9% to $4.1 billion from $3.7 billion, thanks to strong gains in payments for hospital patients and unspecified other operating revenue.

    ChristianaCare reported $76.4 million in operating income, up from $57.4 million the year before. Its revenue climbed to $2.64 billion from $2.5 billion. This year’s results include a new micro-hospital that opened last summer in Chester County and five former Crozer Health outpatient facilities in Delaware County.

    Temple University Health System had an operating loss of $9.9 million, recovering largely from a $50.5 million loss in the first half of fiscal 2026. In the same period a year ago, Temple had a $10.9 million operating loss. The health system’s revenue was $2.6 billion, up from $2.3 billion last year.

    Main Line Health reported a small operating profit of $214,000, following a winter quarter setback. The four-hospital nonprofit system recorded an $8.5 million loss in the three months that ended March 31. Severe winter weather reduced patient visits, and the health system increased its reserves for medical malpractice expenses.

    Tower Health swung to a small operating loss of $3.6 million. During the same period a year ago, Tower had a $4.2 million operating profit. Revenue increased 1.6% to $1.6 billion.

    Steep losses continued at Redeemer Health, which reported a $29 million operating loss, compared to a $33 million loss last year. Redeemer’s total revenue rose by less than 1%, to $332 million. Redeemer owns Holy Redeemer Hospital, a 239-bed facility in Abington Township, Montgomery County, not far from Jefferson Abington Hospital.