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  • Another Jan. 6 coup? Trump is screaming it out loud. | Will Bunch Newsletter

    What amazes me about the fact that America turns 250 on Saturday is that I’ve been alive now for 27% of U.S. history. When I was 17 and watched the Bicentennial parade of tall ships down the Hudson River from my dad’s conveniently located Manhattan skyscraper office on July 4, 1976, I thought I was celebrating ancient history. I was wrong. In a big, diverse world, the United States remains a young adult among nations. Like most young adults, we have a lot of issues.

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    Trump thinks anything besides stealing the election is ‘a big yawn’

    Voting booths are set up at a polling place in Newtown in 2024.Matt Rourke

    Donald Trump gets a lot of flak, and deservedly so, for telling so many lies. On Monday, he held an Oval Office press availability, and much of what he said — false claims that other nations don’t have birthright citizenship or mail-in voting — was flat-out untrue.

    But nothing is scarier than when the 47th president speaks the truth about what’s really on his mind. Because the only thing that’s in Trump’s brain right now is stealing the November midterm election by changing the rules in his favor … or worse. If Trump’s vocal cords were not so weak and diminished, he’d have been screaming the quiet part out loud.

    A reporter asked the president about last week’s abrupt cancellation of a ceremony to sign a popular and surprisingly bipartisan bill to lower the cost of housing. Trump tied that move to an extortionary threat that Congress must pass his bill, which is called the SAVE America Act, but which could ruin democracy by suppressing votes.

    “Here’s what I would like to say,” Trump said of the still-unsigned housing bill, which passed in the House by a 396-13 vote. “It’s a yawn. Some people say it’s wonderful. To me, compared to the SAVE America Act, just about everything is a big yawn.”

    In quainter times, Trump’s disrespect for the housing bill — a grab bag of measures all geared toward encouraging contractors to build more units, which would lower both purchase prices and rents — might be the political gaffe of the year. Currently, only 29% of Americans think it’s a good time to buy a house, and nearly two-thirds are more likely to vote for a Congress member who helped lower prices. Republicans who voted for the bill are desperate for a win.

    Trump doesn’t care. He’s forgotten his “forgotten Americans” who think the rent is too damn high, not to mention the GOP members of Congress who’ve followed him off the cliff. But that’s not even close to the most alarming thing about Trump’s Oval Office moment of truth.

    The president says the only thing he cares about — even with his conflict in Iran becoming another “forever war,” and with the economy down the toilet for everyone who’s not a tech trillionaire — is a bill that critics say would be a disaster for free and fair U.S. elections. One report found that some 12 million people who fairly and successfully voted in the 2020 presidential election don’t have the documentation — such as a birth certificate or passport — that the bill requires.

    We don’t know how such a massive drop in turnout would change the election results, or whether a weakened Trump can pressure the GOP to find a way to pass a bill with zero Democratic support. But we do know this: The president’s maneuvers are not even the worst thing Trump has done this month on the steal-this-election front. Not by a long shot.

    The Trump regime has been signaling for months that it sees the U.S. intelligence community — spy agencies like the CIA — not as a tool for finding out what comes next in the Persian Gulf, or if or when China is invading Taiwan, or when Vladimir Putin’s Russian empire will fall. No, Trump wants secret agents who can creatively invent theories of foreign-born election fraud that would demand a strongman response.

    We saw this coming back in January, when the regime dispatched Trump 47’s first director of national intelligence, Tulsi Gabbard, to Fulton County, Ga., to oversee an FBI raid of voting materials from the 2020 election that Trump, with no evidence, continues to dispute. That link made it clear the regime is looking to create links to foreign actors.

    When Gabbard left the administration this spring, Trump named a temporary replacement who can serve through the November election: Bill Pulte, who also continues to lead the Federal Housing Finance Agency. Pulte lacks a key prerequisite for his new job — any experience in intelligence whatsoever — but has the only quality that matters to Trump: undying loyalty. Pulte’s main focus in the housing job has been combing through the mortgage records of the president’s political enemies, looking for undotted i’s and uncrossed t’s that could be used to manufacture criminal charges from nothing.

    In just a few days at intelligence, Pulte has not disappointed his boss. He showed up Monday and immediately began firing current staffers, with a rumored list of hundreds. The steep reduction in eyeballs on the world’s trouble spots is disturbing, but what’s even more alarming is the one person Pulte has hired.

    The newsletter SpyTalk described Pulte’s new chief of staff, Christina Norton, as “a party-loving MAGA activist with no background in national security issues but who last year boasted of running ‘the largest election integrity operation the Republican Party has ever seen’ …”

    The pairing of Pulte and Norton is an alarm bell that the national intelligence team under Trump will have one job: investigating fantastical “foreign election plots” that will be cited to justify radical measures like sending troops to polling places, seizing voting machines, or worse.

    SpyTalk noted that Norton, in her active Instagram feed, “talks about supervising more than 200,000 Republican poll watchers ‘standing guard’ at polling booths and vote-counting stations across the country” during her 2024 stint at the Republican National Committee.

    Yet, intelligence is just one of many tools in the federal government that the obsessive Trump is working to activate ahead of a November election that polls suggest will be a “blue wave” for Democrats hoping to retake Capitol Hill. Trump has issued several executive orders seeking to assert federal control over voting, which has been a state and local function throughout 250 years of American history.

    That effort suffered a bit of a setback Monday, when the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that states can continue to count mail-in ballots that are postmarked before Election Day but arrive after the polls have closed. But that will not stop the Trump regime from politicizing the U.S. Postal Service ahead of November.

    Last week, Postmaster General David Steiner told Congress that USPS plans not to deliver mail-in ballots in states that don’t turn their voter rolls over to the Trump regime, a demand many governors have resisted so far. “President Trump does not believe that elections he loses are valid,” Democratic Michigan Sen. Elisa Slotkin said after the hearing. “It’s all part of his authoritarian playbook.”

    This all feels very familiar. In the lame-duck days after Trump’s 2020 election loss to Joe Biden, the 45th president — instead of packing up to return to Mar-a-Lago — got busy putting in a new team at the Pentagon, ordering the U.S. Department of Justice to probe alleged voter fraud, challenging vote count certifications in court, and urging state lawmakers to seat rival slates of electors. Most pundits laughed this off, but I wrote a column — “So, is President Trump staging a coup, or what?” — that ran on Nov. 10, 2020, nearly two months before the actual attempted coup on Jan. 6, 2021.

    Now Trump is not only staging another coup, but he is yelling about it, in your face. There is nothing he won’t try over the next five months to prevent a Democratic Congress from investigating how he and his family have made billions of dollars off the American presidency.

    When Trump says anything that’s not election meddling is a “big yawn,” this should be our wake-up call. The time for a full-court press — lawsuits, public hearings, and investigative journalism — can’t wait until after the election. The new putsch has already begun.

    Yo, do this!

    • If you didn’t think I raced to download the new audiobook of Zayd Ayers Dohrn’s tale of growing up in the radical Weather Underground in the 1970s and ’80s — Dangerous, Dirty, Violent, and Young: A Fugitive Family in the Revolutionary Underground — then you must be new around these parts. Dohrn had already used his unique access to his parents — Bernardine Dohrn and Bill Ayers, revolutionary royalty — and their friends to tell a history of that era’s far left in 2022’s award-winning podcast, Mother Country Radicals. His new book aims to go deeper into the psychology of what it was like to be raised as a toddler on the run from the FBI, or whether bombings and bank robberies can change the world. That’s a question — also explored in this viral essay — with new resonance in the Trump era.
    • A few weeks ago, I suggested that folks see the new movie The Sheep Detectives. The film is already streaming on Amazon Prime (which produced it), and Sunday’s rare night off for the World Cup offered the excuse to finally watch. I can now highly recommend it. The movie — with an adapted script by the acclaimed showrunner of HBO’s Chernobyl, Craig Mazin — manages to merge police procedural cliches with moving thoughts about prejudice, existentialism, and what it means to belong to a flock. Even a flock of talking sheep.

    Ask me anything

    Question: Is Markwayne [Mullin, the Homeland Security secretary and former Oklahoma senator] the least qualified cabinet level official in American history? — Richard McGovern (@richardmcgovern.bsky.social) via Bluesky

    Answer: Good question from Richard, a fellow long-suffering Philadelphia Union fan. Not because I know the answer, when there are rivals for the title like Donald Trump’s war-losing “Secretary of War” Pete Hegseth, to name just one. But Mullin is now behind a move so outlandish that it showed me I haven’t lost my capacity for shock after all. This weekend, Trump nominated a previously unknown former Oklahoma state trooper named Lance Schroyer to run U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, a powerful agency with 22,000 agents and a budget of around $30 billion a year. It turns out that just recently, Schroyer was heading a security detail for Mullin in Washington, D.C., and has become a close enough friend that he is an occasional dinner guest. Yes, he hired his bodyguard to run the equivalent of a large corporation. Stay tuned for all of this to unravel.

    What you’re saying about …

    I guess we’re not as close as we thought, as very few of you were eager to share your July Fourth plans with me or discuss what America’s 250th birthday means at such a dark moment. The ones who did reply are looking forward to spending time with family and friends, but all that patriotic jazz, not so much. “Probably, we will have our usual picnic and take the grandkids to see the local fireworks, but I have no intention to watch any special programming or parades, etc.” Marianne Zollers wrote. “It will just make me sad. Such a different feeling compared with the Bicentennial which was such a joyous and happy occasion for my entire family.”

    📮 This week’s question: One of the big stories of 2026 that’s finally getting a lot of attention is the success of more progressive Democrats, including democratic socialists, in key primary races against party moderates. Is this a good thing, lifting up candidates who’ll fight against Trump and for the working class? Or do you worry Republicans will capitalize against their opponents with more left-wing views? Please email me your answer and put the exact phrase “2026 progressive Democrats” in the subject line.

    Backstory on crossing the World Cup off my bucket list

    The Ivory Coast team celebrates their win in the middle of the field against Curaçao with a score of 2-0 for the FIFA World Cup at the Lincoln Financial Field in Philadelphia on Thursday.Tyger Williams / Staff Photographer

    I can’t say exactly when, but at some point during my first-ever in-person World Cup match between Côte d’Ivoire and Curaçao, watching from the thin air of the top deck of the temporarily renamed Philadelphia Stadium, it struck me: My decades-long dream of being there for the world’s greatest sporting event was not like what I’d imagined.

    And yet, in some weird, quasi-religious acid test kind of way, it was even better.

    I’ve been to countless sporting events going back to 1968, but never one where the vibe was basically: So happy to be here. I’ve certainly never been to a game where the PA announcer uttered something before the match about giving a big hand to both teams — and the sold-out crowd obliged. Fans would have burned down Section 220, Row 27, where I was sitting, if this had happened during an Eagles-Cowboys game. During a tense match with a place in the Round of 32 on the line, the gathering repeatedly did the wave and threw their vocal cords more behind the halftime singalong of the Bruce Channel 1961 oldie “Hey! Baby” than either of the two decisive goals by Côte d’Ivoire’s Les Éléphants.

    Up in nosebleed country, many of the fans repped soccer jerseys, but they were for club teams like Liverpool or Christian Pulisic’s USA No. 10, joined by me in my Philadelphia Union T-shirt. We were Philly’s soccer aficionados, desperate to be a part of maybe the only time in our lives the World Cup would take place in the City of Brotherly Love. A match pitting the smallest nation to ever qualify for the FIFA tourney (Curaçao, population 158,000) and an African underdog was pretty much the only way to crash the party without a bank loan. (Full disclosure: I paid about $280 apiece for two seats on StubHub — much like buying a stock, it could have been more or less, depending on how one timed it.)

    No, this wasn’t much like the Eagles games played here, where excitement merges with pins and needles of anxiety. On a picture-perfect late afternoon in June, bookended by the Philadelphia skyline and a lazy Delaware River, it felt more like a rock concert. It wouldn’t have seemed out of place if folks had started batting a beachball around at this soccer Woodstock. There was a mind-meld of the faithful, who saw FIFA and its commercialization as the devil, with the loudest boos for the TV-ad-laden “hydration breaks,” but with — I swear to God — a loud roar for the announcement of the attendance: 68,324. In a city where a 1976 Bicentennial match of some of the world’s best players took place in a mostly empty stadium, soccer is indisputably here to stay.

    Fans walked out of Philadelphia Stadium beaming less over the final score and more about the instant karma of the afternoon. After years of tavern taunts and ridicule from sports-talk radio, local soccer die-hards lived long enough to see America’s founding city become the world’s co-capital of the sport that, for its true believers, passes all understanding. It was all too beautiful. If I can somehow make it to Spain or Portugal or Morocco in 2030 (because, hey, I need a new bucket list now), I will be sure to wear some flowers in my hair. Soccer time will be a love-in there.

    What I wrote on this date in 2019

    I’ve been writing about the topic of journalism reform since the mid-2000s, or around the time it became clear to me and a lot of other folks that newsrooms needed to change or die. My fear, circa 2006 or so, was that we’d start seeing entire communities without newspapers or the accountability journalism that flows from that — which is exactly what happened in Youngstown, Ohio, when its paper closed seven years ago. I wrote: “The loss of the Youngstown Vindicator every morning doesn’t mean that the region’s 200,000 people will no longer be getting information. It just increases the likelihood they’ll be getting bad information — intentionally manipulated, and sometimes out-and-out fakery.”

    Read the rest: “How the first U.S. city with no daily newspaper will help Trump in 2020.”

    Recommended Inquirer reading

    • Only one column this week, as I took a well-deserved day off to attend the World Cup. In that piece, I looked at the sorry state of justice in America on the eve of its 250th birthday, with an emphasis on the outrageous sentences — ranging from 30 to 100 years — handed down to left-wing anti-ICE protesters convicted of rioting in North Texas. The U.S. Department of Justice that pushed these virtual life sentences is also pardoning the right-wing rioters of Jan. 6, 2021, as well as billionaire fraudsters who donate money to MAGA players and causes. They’ve made a mockery of liberty and justice for all.
    • Let’s be honest: People — not to mention sheep (see above) — can’t get enough of a murder mystery, especially a real-life true crime. It’s been a while since a crime saga has riveted Philadelphia readers as much as the stench of possible foul play that is growing at a home on West Chew Avenue in the city’s Olney section that police have branded a crime scene as they search for clues in the disappearance of two local women. Since the case broke open last week, nearly a dozen Inquirer reporters have produced riveting articles about the discovery of drugs, chemicals, and “a significant amount of blood” at the Horsch family residence, profiles of the two missing women — Amy McHale and Blair Tonzelli — and interviews with neighbors who talked about living next door to “a house from a scary movie.” The backstory here is that — whatever you may have heard about AI — it still takes a lot of human shoe-leather to get to the bottom of a story like this. Subscribing to The Inquirer is a twofer: You get to hurdle the paywall to read compelling journalism and feel good about being a supporter.

    By submitting your written, visual, and/or audio contributions, you agree to The Inquirer’s Terms of Use, including the grant of rights in Section 10.

  • John Fetterman says he will open Trump Accounts for his kids, urges others to do the same during rare Philadelphia appearance

    John Fetterman says he will open Trump Accounts for his kids, urges others to do the same during rare Philadelphia appearance

    In a rare public appearance in Philadelphia, Democratic U.S. Sen. John Fetterman joined Republican U.S. Sen. Dave McCormick at a youth basketball camp in Nicetown on Monday to promote Trump Accounts, the new federally backed savings accounts for kids that became law with the president’s signature One Big Beautiful Bill Act.

    Fetterman — who did not vote for the GOP-led initiative last year but has more frequently supported President Donald Trump’s policies since then — said he was urging families in deeply Democratic Philadelphia to look past Trump’s name on the program.

    “Do not fall into that political trap,” Fetterman said. “This isn’t some radical thing. … Do this for your child.”

    The accounts, which launch on July 4, are available to children under 18 — with children born between Jan. 1, 2025 and Dec. 31, 2028 receiving $1,000 in seed money.

    All accounts will also receive $250 because of a $6.25 billion donation from tech CEO Michael Dell and wife Susan Dell. Families, businesses, and nonprofits can add up to $5,000 annually. A portion of the funds may be accessed when the child turns 18, with the rest transferred into an IRA retirement account.

    “Who is excited about getting $200? Put your hands up,” McCormick asked more than 100 kids gathered on one of the indoor courts at Philadelphia Youth Basketball’s summer camp, at the Alan Horwitz “Sixth Man” Center in Nicetown.

    Both McCormick and Fetterman appealed directly to the children during speeches between basketball camp drills.

    Despite being 6-foot-8 and palming a basketball as he posed for pictures, Fetterman said his basketball skills weren’t “worth much.” But he told the kids that he was there because he wanted them all to be millionaires someday. And the Trump accounts — which he said he and his wife, Gisele, would open for all three of their children — were a step in that direction.

    U.S. Senator John Fetterman palms a basketball Monday, June 29, 2026 as he appears with fellow Pennsylvania Sen. Dave McCormick to promote the savings accounts for kids that were a signature piece of President Trump’s Big Beautiful Bill. Tom Gralish / Staff Photographer

    “I am begging your parents to get involved in this,” Fetterman said. “It’s about all of your futures.”

    In a joint interview after the event, the senators described the initiative as a groundbreaking effort to build long-term wealth for individuals who don’t typically have access to it.

    “This is one of many things that we need to do to think about how we address a fundamental problem — which is, we have a growing concentration of wealth in our country,” said McCormick, a former investment firm CEO and millionaire many times over.

    “He was talking almost like a Democrat … a concentration of wealth,” Fetterman quipped, prompting McCormick to laugh.

    The accounts were established as part of Trump’s most significant legislation of his second term, which narrowly passed Congress last year.

    Fetterman, at the time, joined other Democrats by calling the bill a “disaster” for its cuts to Medicaid spending and other programs like the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP.

    After voting against the law — or voting “hell no,” as he said at the time — Fetterman has broken with his party to support Trump and Republicans in a number of high-profile moments, and in ways that have deeply frustrated Democratic voters. His appearances at public events in Philadelphia and around Pennsylvania have been extremely rare, and many political observers question whether he will seek re-election in 2028.

    At the same time, Fetterman has developed a close working relationship with McCormick, a Republican elected in 2024. The pair frequently partner on issues in Washington and stress the need for bipartisanship, particularly in a purple state like Pennsylvania.

    “He and I are in this together,” McCormick, who has stopped in Philadelphia frequently, including for meals with Democratic Mayor Cherelle L. Parker, told the crowd Monday.

    Philadelphia Youth Basketball CEO Kenny Holdsman said he had worked with both senators and credited a conversation he had with Fetterman for helping push the organization to keep its doors open for longer hours as safe haven for the 2,400 young people in its programs.

    Holdsman said the Trump Accounts would “really help young people and their families in a big way” — from the financial security that comes with a compounding investment account, to the educational and financial literacy aspect that will come with kids having access to their savings.

    Invest America founder Brad Gerstner, who had pushed for the idea behind Trump Accounts for years and now leads the nonprofit that manages the initiative, showed the children a screenshot of the app that will display the contents of each account.

    “We want kids across the country, when they’re in middle school, to be able to open up this on their phone, so it’s not some abstract notion that I have money. This is the way the teachers in public schools are going to be able to teach them about ownership, compounding, financial literacy, et cetera,” Gerstner said. “It’s hard to teach kids about money when they don’t have any money.”

    Bipartisan groups have said the Trump Accounts do not have the same kind of tax-advantaged structure as other investment accounts, such as 529 plans that are specifically used for education. Cato Institute, a conservative think tank, has also criticized the $1,000 contributions for children born in the years around the program’s founding and called the overall plan “a government welfare program rather than a tax-neutral investment vehicle.”

    Fetterman said he supported 529s but the Trump Accounts were a “much more versatile vehicle” for investing in children’s futures. McCormick said the program’s ability to accept philanthropic donations made it particularly appealing as other individuals and corporations can buoy the accounts on top of families’ investments. Both also stressed convenience.

    “You’re going to share in the prosperity of America,” McCormick said. “It’s easy. You don’t have to overthink it.”

    Sen. Fetterman pauses to fist bump a youngster on his way to the more than 100 children attending a summer basketball day camp at the Alan Horwitz “Sixth Man” Center.Tom Gralish / Staff Photographer

  • Partisanship, divisive Trump presidency hang over 250th celebrations in Philadelphia and Washington

    WASHINGTON — Fifty years ago this week, President Gerald Ford’s helicopter arrived at Valley Forge in a dense fog.

    After a speech to 15,000 people, he designated the Revolutionary War landmark as a national park before heading to Philadelphia, where an estimated crowd of 1 million gathered outside Independence Hall. Ford spoke soberly, recounting the story of a nation that, on its 200th birthday, should find confidence in its ability to both celebrate its founding ideals and ask “hard questions” in the pursuit of something better.

    “The American adventure,” Ford said on July 4, 1976, “is a continuing process.”

    Philadelphia’s 250th anniversary celebrations this week are set to feature no appearances from the president. No reflections on self-improvement from the commander-in-chief at the birthplace of American democracy, no luncheons with the Philadelphia mayor near City Hall, as Ford also did after his speech.

    President Donald Trump has said he will instead use the occasion to throw “the most spectacular TRUMP RALLY” on the National Mall — one of several ways the president’s critics have said he has injected partisanship and self-serving events into what should be a unifying moment.

    Trump’s stamp on “America 250” has been clear.

    A UFC fight on the White House lawn branded as “Freedom 250” overlapped with the president’s 80th birthday and featured adulations directed at him. The Great American State Fair, which some Democratic-led states declined to participate in, opened last week with a campaign-style speech in which the president railed against DEI and transgender athletes. It also featured the U.S. Marine Band playing the Village People’s “Y.M.C.A.,” a Trump campaign rally staple. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy, using an offensive term that combines liberal with a slur for people with intellectual disabilities, said the band was better than the “libtards” who canceled their performances because of concerns over Trump’s partisan behavior.

    “This is really, more than anything else, an opportunity to attempt to bring us all together as Americans. That’s what past celebrations have done,” said U.S. Rep. Brendan Boyle, a Democrat whose district includes Independence Hall. “It’s just so tragic that for this anniversary, the president we have is Donald Trump, someone who is completely not capable of doing any sort of national unity-type event.”

    Historic Interpreter, Lane Norris, as Alexander Hamilton, speaks with tourists outside Independence Hall in Philadelphia. Alejandro A. Alvarez / Staff Photographer

    Boyle worked for years to arrange a ceremonial gathering of Congress at Independence Hall for the 250th, which is set for Thursday. Though not officially a joint session outside of Washington — which has only occurred two other times since the capital relocated from Philadelphia — the event will mark the moment on July 2, 1776, when the Second Continental Congress voted to adopt a resolution for independence.

    The commemorative moment “just gives me chills to think about it,” said U.S. Rep. Mary Gay Scanlon, a Delaware County Democrat who represents part of Philadelphia and plans to attend Thursday. Scanlon said she was hopeful the event will be bipartisan at a time when the president’s divisiveness was “taking an edge off the celebratory aspect” of the 250th.

    Both Scanlon and Boyle described the president’s lack of plans to mark the moment in Philadelphia as disappointing. The White House did not respond to questions for this article, including whether it made any attempts to plan an event with the president in the city.

    “I always just kind of assumed that the president of the United States would, at some point in the days leading up to the Fourth of July or even on Fourth of July itself, be in Philadelphia,” Boyle said. “But obviously this president has different priorities.”

    Injecting polarization into apolitical events

    Matthew Levendusky, a University of Pennsylvania political science professor who has studied how July Fourth celebrations affect sentiments about national identity and polarization, said previous presidents participated in “patriotic, but not political,” events like concerts, fireworks, and parades.

    Trump has taken a distinctly different path since his first term, Levendusky said, noting the military parade in 2019 and a speech at Mount Rushmore in 2020 when, after the murder of George Floyd in Minneapolis, he used the moment to criticize the removal of monuments that symbolized racial oppression.

    The 250th events are an example of how Trump, a “conflict entrepreneur,” makes such events more political at a time when American society has already become more partisan, Levendusky said.

    “There’s more debate over the meaning of American identity than there was a decade or 15 years ago — in part because there’s been more polarization,” said Levendusky, the director of Penn’s Institutions of Democracy at the Annenberg Public Policy Center. “But he’s also done things that inject polarization into that process.”

    Those actions appear to have affected how voters feel about America’s democracy 250 years in — at least among Philadelphia’s largely Democratic electorate.

    According to a new Suffolk University/Philadelphia Inquirer poll that surveyed 500 city residents, 70% of Philadelphians believe Trump’s presidency has made them feel less confident in the country’s democracy. The answers were strongly correlated to political party, with more Republicans than Democrats saying that Trump’s presidency made them feel more confident in democracy or that it made no difference.

    Tourists flocking to the city have reflected those ideological divides but also a bipartisan desire to set politics aside for a historic milestone.

    “We’re all Americans, I don’t care who the president is,” said Greg Sage, 55, a Republican from Michigan who voted for Trump and toured the city’s historic sites this month. “I try not to politicize it, you know? But I believe we’ve been around 250 years. Maybe we’ll make another 250.”

    Phyllis Ahnberg, 68, a Democrat from California, said that it was “empowering” to visit Philadelphia’s sites and that she would not let one person or administration change how she celebrated a moment for unity. Still, it was hard to ignore Trump’s impact during a recent trip to Washington.

    “We were up at [the] Washington Monument, and we were looking, and it was disgusting to see the White House and this, like, fight thing,” Ahnberg said, referencing the towering structure built to host the UFC fight on June 14. “And to see the East Wing torn down … I mean, it was disgusting. Nobody hired this man to do that.”

    U.S. Sen. Dave McCormick, Pennsylvania’s highest-ranking Republican and a close Trump ally, attended the fight and posted on social media that it was an “incredible evening” that honored “the strength, resilience and spirit of the American people.” His office did not grant a request for an interview for this article.

    Pennsylvania’s empty booth at the Great American State Fair on Thursday in Washington. On Saturday, Sens. David McCormick (R., Pa.) and John Fetterman (D., Pa.) announced that they had secured private-industry sponsors for the booth at no cost to taxpayers.Sam Janesch / Staff

    A debate over past and future America

    Other Republicans on Capitol Hill have defended Trump’s role in the anniversary while using the moment to say they believe left-leaning Democrats are the primary threat to America’s democracy.

    “We are in a fight right now to save the republic, and every American needs to take this seriously. You need to wake up,” an animated House Speaker Mike Johnson (R., La.) said at a news conference last week after three insurgent candidates backed by New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani, a democratic socialist, won competitive congressional primaries.

    “Are we going to maintain our status as a constitutional republic on our 250th anniversary?” Johnson continued. “Or are we going to make a new choice and go down some road toward a communist utopia?”

    Chris Rabb, who won Philadelphia’s competitive primary in May to succeed retiring U.S. Rep. Dwight Evans (D., Philadelphia) next year, endorsed two of the candidates Johnson criticized and is likely to join them in the most progressive bloc in Congress next year.

    A democratic socialist and state legislator, Rabb has been adamant about what he sees as a need for “radical” change. After speaking at an event titled “The Next American Revolution: Breaking Oligarchy and Making a New Democracy” in Washington last week, he said in an interview that Trump’s presidency has in some ways been a “valuable distraction.”

    Instead of celebrating the anniversary in traditional — or what Rabb called “milquetoast” — ways, Trump is creating an opportunity for more critical, nuanced discussions about American identity and history, he said.

    It is a particularly meaningful opportunity for him personally. A longtime family genealogist, Rabb has spoken often about his heritage as the descendant of both a signer of the Declaration of Independence — the slave-owning Philip Livingston — and Black abolitionists.

    “I am an embodiment of the hypocrisy and the complexity of choices and systems that have never really been addressed … [and] that are very similar to what we had 250 years ago,” Rabb said. “Unless and until we have a real public, ongoing, and substantive conversation, it will be more of the same.”

    Staff writer Andrea Padilla contributed to this article.

  • Pa. Attorney General Dave Sunday talks Supreme Court’s Krasner ruling, abortion appeal

    Pa. Attorney General Dave Sunday talks Supreme Court’s Krasner ruling, abortion appeal

    Attorney General Dave Sunday has spent 18 months as the state’s chief law enforcement officer, overseeing a sprawling office that handles criminal prosecution, civil litigation, consumer protection services, civil rights enforcement, and more.

    In that time, the 51-year-old Republican and Harrisburg native says, he has taken on issues ranging from the opioid crisis to illegal crime guns. And last week, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court handed his office broad authority to review the efforts of Philadelphia prosecutors to overturn murder convictions they have called unjust, a signature initiative of District Attorney Larry Krasner’s office.

    In a recent interview at his Philadelphia office, Sunday talked about that and more.

    What is your reaction to the Supreme Court ruling on the work of District Attorney Larry Krasner’s Conviction Integrity Unit?

    Obviously, it’s an unprecedented ruling.

    Oftentimes, the best outcome is through the adversarial process. We work with the Philly DA’s office in a lot of different areas, and I viewed this ruling as any other that provides me with instructions on a way on which I have to run my office.

    Moving forward, the ruling requires your office to review any post-conviction concession that Krasner’s office aims to pursue. How will that work?

    There are questions. How many times will we have to intervene? What will that do to staffing? Will we have the logistics and resources to do it appropriately? I think that process will unfold over the next month or so.

    There’s no other real comparison for this ruling, and so what I can say very simply is this: It is absolutely crucial that there is a voice for the families of victims, and at the same time, I think it’s crucial to make sure that we protect the rights of individuals who are charged with crimes and convicted of crimes.

    That balance is found in applying the law and the facts to the issue. That’s something we will enthusiastically do.

    .Assistant General David Sunday, in Philadelphia, June 23, 2026.Jessica Griffin / Staff Photographer
    Since Krasner first took office, his prosecutors have supported efforts to overturn around 115 convictions. Given the Supreme Court’s findings, do you now question whether some of those overturned convictions should be reconsidered?

    Well, we have to look at the legal process there. For individuals who the court has already ruled in a manner in which they’re out of prison, those cases are done.

    But with cases that are still going through the appellate process, individuals that are incarcerated, those are situations where we’re going to have to take a look at it. I mean, this is very serious, and when the Pennsylvania Supreme Court rules in this manner — not just the ruling itself, but the verbiage — I, as attorney general, take that extremely seriously.

    We will do our job, and we’ll do our duty, and we’ll review it, but it’s also important to understand that this isn’t a quest to prove someone wrong. It’s a quest to ensure that all parties are zealously advocated for.

    Krasner has strongly opposed the ruling. He’s likened this issue to the struggles of the Civil Rights Movement and said that the decision undermines the votes of those who elected him to office. What is your response to that?

    I don’t think that it benefits anyone for criminal justice leaders to editorialize a lot of the work we do.

    It’s critical that the citizenry knows and understands that their case will be dealt with by applying the facts to the law — and I know that’s not the most exciting answer, but there are things that are in my control and there are things that aren’t in my control, and his reaction to anything is completely out of my control.

    The last thing individuals who live in the community want to hear are elected officials yelling at each other. They want to see outcomes.

    Earlier this year, justices ruled that mandatory life sentences without parole for those convicted of second-degree murder are unconstitutional. What are your thoughts on that?

    Third-degree murder, second-degree murder, those are cases where the acts resulting in the crime are vastly different case to case. As a prosecutor, I’ve tried horrific second-degree murder cases — one was an in-home burglary where an individual was left face down on the ground, duct-taped, and they ultimately died from positional asphyxiation, which really is torture.

    At the same time, there are second-degree murder cases where you have multiple codefendants, and — this case is highlighted a lot — one of the codefendants pulls a gun out, kills an individual, and all those codefendants, because they were acting in concert and furthering some conspiracy, they’re all guilty of second-degree murder and they’re in for life.

    So there are second-degree murder cases where the individuals should have an opportunity for parole, and at the same time, there are cases that are absolutely horrific, where individuals should spend the rest of their lives in prison.

    The important place we’re in now is the legislative process, moving forward to ensure that the punishment is commensurate with the harm caused in the crime.

    Violent crime has fallen dramatically from its pandemic-era highs in Philadelphia and across the state. Should the attorney general’s office get some credit for that?

    There is no one individual or agency that can take credit for these outcomes. We’re with our federal partners, we work with everybody.

    After I was elected, some of the very first calls I made were to the Philadelphia mayor and the police commissioner, and I made it very clear that we’re partners. I’m excited, let’s go. And that’s what we’ve done.

    The Attorney General’s Gun Violence Task Force is a huge part. We do everything we can every day to go after gun traffickers, illegal straw purchasers. We’ve removed more than 500 crime guns off the streets [statewide] in 2025.

    In addition to that, our Bureau of Narcotics works every day in Philadelphia. Last year, we removed 56 million doses of fentanyl from the streets, and a large portion of that was in the city.

    The Commonwealth Court struck down a decades-old law that banned Pennsylvanians from using their Medicaid benefits to pay for abortions, and last month, your office appealed. Why?

    A lot of people don’t understand the role of the AG in a lot of issues. In Pennsylvania, we have the Commonwealth Attorneys Act, the rules that dictate the job, and one of the rules in there is that the attorney general shall defend the constitutionality of statutes in Pennsylvania.

    I have irritated the entire political spectrum, because I am defending statutes whether you like them or not. That’s literally my job. What a lot of people don’t understand is that the [Medicaid] law is part of the Abortion Control Act — the same law that allows abortions to occur up to six months of pregnancy, the very same law.

    In that law is a subsection that also says that government funds cannot be used for abortions — so I’m defending the abortion law in Pennsylvania, just like I would any other section of that law.

    Critics say that by appealing the ruling and prolonging this issue, you are denying Pennsylvanians of what the court called a “fundamental right to reproductive autonomy.” How do you respond?

    Just like every law we defend — every single one — there are people that like it and don’t like it, and they will have commentary. I certainly respect their absolute right to have that commentary.

    What I will say is, this decision has nothing to do with that. It is the job of the attorney general to defend the statute.

    .Assistant General David Sunday, in Philadelphia, June 23, 2026.Jessica Griffin / Staff Photographer
    What would you say has set your tenure apart from your predecessor, Gov. Josh Shapiro, and his appointed successor, Michelle Henry?

    Very simply, I came into this job as a prosecutor. I ran on public safety. I wasn’t a legislator, so when I look at the office, I view it as a place where you follow the facts in the law, and you fight hard to keep people safe.

    With that being said, I have hyper-focused on issues impacting citizens. We have huge crises in Pennsylvania that need to be addressed, specifically the mental health crisis.

    When I came into office, I saw our prisons are full of people that have mental and behavioral health challenges. Individuals go to jail solely because they have a mental health crisis, and what I want to see are people getting treatment.

    What we did was create a new initiative that gives police a toolbox, so when they come into contact with someone in a mental health crisis [who is committing a low-level criminal offense], they can get that person into treatment [if the person chooses to do so]. At the same time, that person can be charged, and the police have the flexibility to hold that charge.

    This is brand-new, and we have nine counties that are already signed up and are rolling. We have five more lined up and ready to roll over the next few months.

    President Donald Trump held a rally in Pennsylvania on Tuesday, and he was joined by some of the state’s other top Republican officials, such as Stacy Garrity. Is that an event you would have liked to attend?

    In all candor, I have events that have been scheduled for months and months, and the reality is, a lot of these [presidential] events pop up pretty quickly.

    On Tuesday, I had an event with the first elected attorney general in Pennsylvania, LeRoy Zimmerman. I was with him at a fireside chat, talking about what the AG’s office has looked like, and how it’s changed over the last 30 years.

  • Three years ago, the school choice debate shut down Harrisburg. Now Democrats are ready to engage.

    Three years ago, the school choice debate shut down Harrisburg. Now Democrats are ready to engage.

    HARRISBURG — Three years after a bitter budget standoff over allowing state funding to be used for private school tuition, top Democrats in Harrisburg are ready to engage on school choice.

    Legislative action and comments from a top House Democrat this week expressing openness to a federal school-choice program marked a notable change from 2023, when a fight over school vouchers put Democratic lawmakers at odds with both Republicans and Gov. Josh Shapiro, a member of their own party.

    The shift comes as Shapiro, who has embraced school choice and is a likely 2028 presidential contender, faces a deadline to opt in to President Donald Trump’s new federal tax credit program.

    House Majority Leader Matt Bradford (D., Montgomery) said this week that some of the uses of Trump’s tax credits, which are opposed by the country’s largest teachers unions, are “intriguing.” And he noted he is proud of some money the state now pours into one of the tax credits to fund private-school scholarships for low-income families in low-achieving districts. Those comments from Bradford, a top leader in Harrisburg, suggested a public softening on an issue that was previously a non-starter for his party — and signaled the school-choice debate may once again factor into state budget negotiations.

    “For our members of our caucus who want to see alternatives for the poorest kids in the poorest schools, we’re being responsive to the needs of those constituents,” he said in an interview, referencing growing support for school choice among some House Democrats, particularly those from Philadelphia.

    State Rep. Matt Bradford (D., Montgomery County) during a press conference at the Capitol in Harrisburg Feb. 3, 2026.Tom Gralish / Staff Photographer

    The school-choice movement, a largely Republican-backed effort to allow public dollars to go to private schools, faces strong opposition from education advocates who say such programs can take money from public schools.

    And that debate is sure to continue. Bradford said more oversight — and an overall reform of the current tax credits — is needed to make sure the state tax dollars are actually reaching poor students.

    Earlier this week, House Democrats fast-tracked an overhaul to the state’s current $680 million school-choice tax-credit programs to require additional reporting from private schools in order to secure funding. The legislation is likely to face opposition in the GOP-led Senate, where Republicans on Thursday advanced a $25 million increase to the programs ahead of a June 30 deadline to pass a state budget.

    Senate Republicans called the tax credits a “priority for empowering parents,” while the Archdiocese of Philadelphia said the House bill would be “devastating” to local Catholic schools and lead to fewer scholarships for students.

    A spokesperson for Shapiro said his office is reviewing the House bill, and declined to comment on whether his position on school choice has changed. Shapiro, who has sent his own children to private school in Montgomery County, has previously said he supports school choice, including school vouchers.

    Shapiro has until the end of the year to decide whether to opt in to the federal program. But the signal of openness from Bradford, who is close with the governor, offers potential insight into his path forward.

    That program, enacted last year under Trump’s “One Big Beautiful Bill Act,” would offer federal tax credits to donors for giving to organizations that grant private school scholarships. Many GOP-led states have already signed on, while some Democratic governors have declined to participate.

    Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro taking questions from media on election day, Tuesday, May 19, 2026. He voted today at Rydal Elementary (West) 1231 Meetinghouse Road Rydal, PA. At left is Jamila H. Winder, Chair, Montgomery County Commissioners.Alejandro A. Alvarez / Staff Photographer

    Shapiro will also likely face questions about school choice on the campaign trail.

    He is running for reelection in November against Republican Treasurer Stacy Garrity. Garrity’s platform focuses, in part, on expanding school-choice options in Pennsylvania and she has the support of Commonwealth Partners, a political action committee largely funded by Pennsylvania’s richest man, Jeff Yass, which has poured money into supporting school choice.

    The issue will also likely surface a national stage if Shapiro enters the 2028 Democratic presidential primary race. His support for vouchers drew criticism from fellow Democrats in 2024, when he was a potential vice presidential nominee.

    Debate over state tax credits

    Pennsylvania does not have a direct school voucher program. Instead, the state sets aside $680 million each year for tax credits that allow businesses and individuals to write off charitable giving that supports private school scholarships.

    House Democratic support for those credits has quietly grown in recent years. In a June 2025 letter recently obtained by The Inquirer, 10 House Democrats, including five from Philadelphia and the head of the Pennsylvania Legislative Black Caucus, asked their leadership to expand a portion of the tax credits for students in the lowest-achieving school districts — revealing more Democratic support for the programs than was previously known.

    Public education advocates who oppose voucher programs say the state is funneling money to private schools with little accountability.

    “It’s just a pot of money that a bunch of people get, and nobody really knows where it goes or what happens to it,” said Susan Spicka, executive director of Education Voters PA.

    New requirements approved by the state legislature last year are set to take effect in November and will require scholarship organizations to report the dollar amount of each award, the recipient’s district of residence, and where they attend private school.

    The bill advanced by the House in a 105-97 vote this week would also require organizations to report each scholarship recipient’s income level — reducing the current limit to $144,000 for a family of four — and the amount of remaining tuition charged to a student. Advocates, including Spicka, called that information key to gauging whether scholarships are going to families who otherwise could afford private school.

    Bradford said he’s proud of the $110 million earmarked in existing state tax credits to provide additional money to kids attending schools where a majority of students are getting scholarships. House Democrats say their newest proposal would steer more money toward those students.

    But the proposed legislation — which would also reduce the tax credit donors could claim for some contributions, and require scholarship organizations to set 2% of funding aside for state oversight of the programs — drew swift backlash from private school advocates.

    Philadelphia Archbishop Nelson J. Pérez is “deeply concerned that this legislation would have a devastating impact,” said spokesperson Ken Gavin. “The clear intent is to lead to the dilution or elimination of the programs, which are vital.”

    Schools affiliated with the Philadelphia archdiocese educate nearly 44,000 students across 117 schools in the region, according to its website.

    Bradford, who is Catholic, said the Archdiocese’s response “missed the mark,” arguing that this legislative effort is trying to achieve a similar goal of serving students from poor families who attend the roughest schools.

    “I’m proud of my own Catholic faith. I love when my Catholic Church stands for those communities,” Bradford added. “No one should ever fear transparency, especially when you’re talking about three-quarters of a billion dollars of state tax dollars.”

    President Pro Tempore Kim Ward gavels the opening as the Pennsylvania Senate hosts a ceremonial meeting at the National Constitution Center Tuesday, May 5, 2026. Tom Gralish / Staff Photographer

    Meanwhile, Senate Republicans on Thursday amended another House bill to increase the state’s current tax credit programs to $705 million.

    President Pro Tempore Kim Ward (R., Westmoreland), a staunch supporter of school vouchers, said in a statement that Bradford‘s attention to school choice is disingenuous, criticizing the House Democrats’ bill as “overly burdensome auditing requirements disguised as ‘transparency.’”

    The 2023 budget breakdown, where Shapiro ultimately vetoed the school voucher program he‘d helped draft with Senate Republicans because it couldn’t pass the Democratic-controlled House, continues to tarnish his relationships with top GOP leaders, including Ward. He and Ward have hardly spoken since.

    “While Senate Republicans have consistently advanced legislation to provide scholarships to disadvantaged students, the track record for Gov. Josh Shapiro and House Democrats has been nothing more than a case of whiplash as their words and actions rarely align,” Ward said. “To me, it seems like the support for school choice by the House Democrat Leadership is more of a façade as they continue to cater to political special interests.”

    Ward has also called for changes to Pennsylvania’s new public school funding system, which includes an adequacy formula that directs more money to the state’s poorest school districts, including Philadelphia.

    Bradford, in response, said he is open to conversation about accountability and transparency, but that debate needs to include private schools benefiting from taxpayer dollars.

    “We shouldn’t carve out any portion of our K-to-12 education,” Bradford added. “That conversation needs to be uniform.”

    A choice for states on Trump’s tax credits

    Shapiro has previously said he would wait for more details before making a decision on whether to participate in the new federal tax credit program. The U.S. Department of the Treasury earlier this month released additional details, including that it will allow individuals to receive up to $1,700 in credits for making donations to private school scholarships that can cover tuition, tutoring, and more. In Philadelphia, families making $368,100 annually, or 300% of the county’s gross median income, would be eligible to receive the scholarship.

    School-choice advocates say Pennsylvania taxpayers will be able to claim the credit regardless of whether Shapiro opts in. But in order for Pennsylvania schools and students to benefit, the governor needs to join.

    Shapiro’s press secretary Rosie Lapowsky said the governor appreciates the guidance, but continues to await information on “how this will affect use of our existing tax credits, how states will be expected to administer the program, and how eligibility will be determined.”

    Twenty-eight states have opted in to the program, most of which are led by Republicans. And Democrats are facing pressure to stay out of the program.

    In a letter sent to Democratic governors this week, American Federation of Teachers President Randi Weingarten and National Education Association President Becky Pringle called the program “a Trojan horse carrying near-universal K-12 private school vouchers into every state that participates.”

    So far, Democratic governors elsewhere have taken differing approaches to the program. New York Gov. Kathy Hochul has said her state will participate but is waiting for final guidance before officially signing on. Other governors like Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz and Oregon Gov. Tina Kotek have announced that their states will not participate. Democratic governors in Arizona and Wisconsin have vetoed legislative efforts to force their states to opt in, while governors’ similar vetoes in North Carolina and Kentucky were overridden by legislators.

    Bradford said it’s “an abomination” that funding for Trump’s program came from Republicans making other cuts to the federal budget, and emphasized that state Democrats remain committed to increasing public education funding.

    “Here in Pennsylvania,” he said, “we are a humble 102 [Democrats] in the Pennsylvania House and we are nimble and pragmatic.”

  • The hidden link between mummers and Pennsylvania’s most notorious labor rebels

    The hidden link between mummers and Pennsylvania’s most notorious labor rebels

    The biggest mass execution in Pennsylvania’s long history took place 149 years ago this week.

    Ten Irish Catholics from the hard coal region went to the gallows, convicted of murder in a long-running labor war against the all-powerful coal companies. Another 10 would be hanged over the next few years, for a total of 20. Their trials made a mockery of justice, with a coal company president as prosecutor, a Pinkerton detective hired by the company as the star witness, and Irish Catholics excluded from the jury.

    The hanged men were called Molly Maguires, a name straight out of Ireland, where a secret society using that moniker battled the landlords on behalf of starving peasants during the horror of the 1840s potato famine. These Mollies disguised themselves in women’s clothing, or straw clothing, or whiteface or blackface. And they timed their killings around major holidays.

    That’s because the Molly Maguires were merely the flip side of a group quite familiar to Philadelphians — the mummers. The connection explains many of the mysteries about the Mollies — where the name came from, why the Mollies wore odd disguises, why they did their killing around high points of the calendar, and why they were revived in Pennsylvania amid resistance to the Civil War draft.

    In Ireland, mummers were more actors than musicians. They visited every home in a district around New Year’s and collected money by putting on a skit that always featured a killing. The money paid for a party for the whole community. Groups like the mummers performed this kind of trick or treat around other big holidays — St. Brigid’s Day on Feb. 1, Easter, the summer solstice and Halloween.

    During the potato famine, small bands of men — dressed in the women’s clothes or the straw of the mummers — began going from house to house, collecting money for the hungry. But these men weren’t mummers. They were Molly Maguires. And when they didn’t get what they wanted, or when landlords evicted tenant farmers, the mock killing of the mummers became the very real violence of the Molly Maguires.

    The entrance to the former Carbon County Jail in Jim Thorpe, Pa., where seven Irish coal miners were hanged in 1877.CHARLES FOX / Staff Photographer

    The killings often took place around the days that the mummers celebrated, to signal that the Mollies were acting on behalf of the community. The three most celebrated Molly murders in Ireland came within a day or two of St. Brigid’s Day, the summer solstice, and Halloween.

    The name itself sounds like something from the mummers’ play. A female character often had names that began with the letter M — Molly Masket or Mary Ann McMonagle. And, curiously, Molly Maguire wasn’t always Molly — a number of death threats were signed “Mary Ann Maguire.” The similarity between “Mary Ann McMonagle” and “Mary Anne Maguire” underlined the links between the mummers and the Mollies.

    Famine emigration led many from the Molly Maguire heartland to the booming anthracite industry in Northeastern Pennsylvania. It was one of the few rural places in the United States where famine immigrants settled in such concentrated numbers that the folkways of the Irish countryside were transplanted wholesale, including mummery — and its associated pattern of violence. In 1848, a man acquitted of killing an Irishman was murdered in Schuylkill County, on Dec. 30. The killer, an Irishman, had whitened his face like a mime or a mummer.

    Mummery had long been established in Philadelphia, but a peculiar offshoot, called the fantasticals, emerged in Northern Liberties before the Civil War, as a protest against mandatory militia service. At the time, able-bodied men between ages 21 and 45 were regularly required to muster for militia drill. This meant a day without pay — and the fantasticals protested by making a mockery of it.

    They showed up for drill in ridiculous costumes, with giant wooden swords, or in some cases the leg of a deer. This mockery widened from muster day to mummers parades around Christmas and the Fourth of July and Halloween, and spread beyond Philadelphia.

    Before one of the Molly Maguires was hanged, he put his hand on the dirty floor of his cell in the former Carbon County Jail and then placed it firmly on the wall proclaiming, “This handprint will remain as proof of my innocence.”CHARLES FOX / Staff Photographer

    In 1855, the Pottsville militia was called out after a mine boss was beaten in Branchdale, Schuylkill County. Though just four men attacked him, the militia rounded up 28 Irish Catholics. Adding insult to arrest, the militia then played a Protestant anthem from Ulster, “The Boyne Water,” which celebrated the defeat of Catholic Ireland.

    It just so happened that the fantasticals made their first appearance in Schuylkill County that very year, marching in Pottsville on Christmas Day. The whole performance mocked the Pottsville militia and its music. The captain wielded a giant wooden sword, the rest were dressed in “every imaginable burlesque costume,” and the band was drunk — and played that way. In 1857, when the militia was used to break a strike by largely Irish mine workers in Cass Township, the fantasticals appeared in Schuylkill Haven on the Fourth of July and in Cressona on Dec. 26.

    A few short years after those anti-militia mummers parades, opposition to compulsory militia service in the Civil War led to the revival of the Molly Maguires. The man who administered the 1862 militia draft in Schuylkill County was a nativist Republican who saw conscription as a way to sweep large numbers of Irish Catholic Democrats into the maw of a bloody war. He set unfairly high conscription quotas for heavily Irish Cass Township, then urged that the draftees be shipped out before a crucial election.

    A cell in the former Carbon County Jail in Jim Thorpe, Pa.CHARLES FOX / Staff Photographer

    In response, Irish mine workers went out on strike, marching under arms with a fife and drum from mine to mine. Two months later, they went out on strike again, calling themselves Molly Maguires. When a government crackdown appeared imminent, the Mollies targeted residents who had shown government sympathies by volunteering for the military.

    On Jan. 2, 1863, five men fatally shot an Irish mine worker home wounded from the Union Army, then cheered for the Confederate president. Over the next nine days, two former militia men were attacked in Cass Township. A few days after Halloween, gunmen with false whiskers and blackened faces killed a mine owner who had been helping to enforce conscription.

    Note the progression. In the last half of the 1850s, some Schuylkill County residents were making fun of the militia, but by 1862, they were on strike to oppose the militia draft, and as 1862 edged into 1863, they were shooting former militia members around New Year’s. As in Ireland, what started as mummer revelry ended as Molly Maguire rebellion.

    The Molly troubles raged for another 15 years, ending only when a Pinkerton infiltrated the organization. The ensuing executions showed that the Mollies were no match for the coal companies and the state of Pennsylvania when it came to dealing death at high points of the calendar. The biggest killing — the hanging of 10 men on June 21, 1877 — came on the summer solstice.

    Mark Bulik is the author of “The Sons of Molly Maguire: The Irish Roots of America’s First Labor War.” A retired senior editor for The New York Times, he grew up in Ridley Park, Delaware County.

  • Could a Pa. Supreme Court decision on skill games help fund SEPTA?

    Could a Pa. Supreme Court decision on skill games help fund SEPTA?

    More funding for SEPTA and dozens of financially strained mass transit systems across Pennsylvania has been on the back burner in this year’s budget debate, but it may get some more attention now.

    The Pennsylvania Supreme Court ruled June 15 that tens of thousands of the so-called skill games in bars and convenience stores are in fact slot machines — and illegal unless licensed, regulated, and taxed like casino-based slots.

    “By dedicating a portion of skill game revenue to transportation, we can protect and strengthen transit services without placing additional burdens on taxpayers, while ensuring our transit agencies have the resources they need,” Republican State Sen. Frank Farry of Bucks County said Friday in a statement.

    Transit advocates renewed what has become an annual public push for more money for SEPTA and fellow transit agencies at a news conference in front of the Fifth Street/Independence Hall Station — prompted in part by the court decision.

    Farry issued the statement in support of that effort.

    “I have the freedom to be able to come here, thanks to this elevator behind us, which was recently renovated,“ said Julie Rea, an organizing fellow for Transit Forward Philadelphia who uses a wheelchair and depends on the Market-Frankford El (now called the L).

    “Without the long-term funding that SEPTA really needs, we’re not going to be able to keep the system accessible for all,” she said.

    Last year, lawmakers and Gov. Josh Shapiro failed for a third time to reach agreement on his proposal to dedicate an increased portion of general sales tax revenue to consistently fund transit agency operations for five years.

    Republicans, who control the Senate, did not want to take more sales tax revenue for transit, and the Democrats in charge of the House did not want to take up the GOP leadership’s counterproposal to use state money for infrastructure projects for operations instead.

    Farry offered legislation in 2024 to regulate and tax skill games and dedicate 50% of the revenue to create a stable source of funding for public transit. The most optimistic assessments are that taxes on the games at or near the rate casinos must pay for their slots could generate up to $1 billion a year.

    Taxing skill games has been discussed in budget deliberations for several years, though it never came together, in part because of differences of opinion in the GOP Senate caucus.

    “Maybe the court decision will spur people to get their act together,” Farry, who is up for reelection in the fall, said in an interview. “We have a pathway.”

    Shapiro has proposed taxing skill games at 52%, the same rate casinos pay for slot machine proceeds. Last year, the Senate GOP proposed a tax rate of 35% on the machines.

    When a transit funding deal failed to come together in 2025, SEPTA raised fares and slashed service, eliminating 32 bus routes outright, until a Philadelphia court ordered it to restore cuts in service.

    Shapiro then allowed SEPTA to use $394 million of reserved capital money in a state trust fund to pay to operate the transit system for two years; ironically, that was the same maneuver behind the GOP’s proposal.

    Meanwhile, this year, paratransit and shared-ride services are in trouble throughout the state and transit systems in Lancaster, Westmoreland County, and the Lehigh Valley are considering service cuts.

    “We know that the rural-urban divide is manufactured, and that a public good, like transit, touches us all,” said Connor Descheemaker, statewide campaign manager for Transit for All PA.

  • Josh Shapiro says progressives’ wins in New York show voters ‘are channeling that pain into purpose’

    Josh Shapiro says progressives’ wins in New York show voters ‘are channeling that pain into purpose’

    The Democratic Party should be a big tent and welcoming to a diversity of voices, Gov. Josh Shapiro told MS NOW’s Jen Psaki in a live event in Philadelphia on Thursday.

    Following Tuesday’s primary races in New York that saw the elections of more progressive and socialist candidates, Shapiro said the results there and around the country show that voters are eager for change.

    “I appreciate the passion that we are seeing from voters all across this country,” Shapiro said during the event at the Academy of Music, part of MS NOW’s celebration of America’s 250th birthday.

    People are feeling the strain and opting to support more progressive candidates, Shapiro said, because of rising health insurance costs, struggles to purchase a house, and the feeling that their rights are being stripped away.

    “They are channeling that pain into purpose, they’re channeling that into showing up at the ballot box, they’re channeling that into showing enthusiasm,” he said. “That is a good thing.”

    But he stopped short of explicitly endorsing more left-leaning ideologies. In a separate interview with CNN on Thursday, Shapiro added that the successful candidates must now deliver results.

    “I get that there are some candidates out there that just say a lot words and attract a lot of attention but what we need to do as a party is drill down on how we take those words turn them into actions and make people’s lives better,” he said.

    In Philadelphia, voters elected Chris Rabb, the democratic socialist who has challenged the city’s political establishment, in May’s Democratic primary for Pennsylvania’s 3rd Congressional District. Shapiro did not get directly involved in Rabb’s district, despite making endorsements in other races.

    He also dodged direct criticism of Sen. John Fetterman, a fellow Pennsylvania Democrat who has become increasingly unpopular among the party’s voters, after Psaki posed some of the senator’s recent comments to Shapiro.

    Fetterman referred to the New York congressional candidates, endorsed by Mayor Zohran Mamdani, as “the dirtbag left” and “outrageous” on Fox News. (The phrase “dirtbag left” comes from the leftist podcast Chapo Trap House and refers to a strand of democratic socialism that counters the political right by mimicking its dark humor, among other tactics.)

    Shapiro said “John should answer for himself.”

    In both Philadelphia and New York, the victorious progressive candidates during their campaigns heavily criticized Israel’s war in Gaza and the United States’ role in supporting its material.

    Psaki did not ask Shapiro, who supports Israel but has been critical of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, about the issue during the event. And he did not refer to it when talking about the New York results.

    To show voters that Democrats hear their pain, the party needs to get “real stuff done to make people’s lives better,” he said.

    Sandra Dungee Glenn, who attended the event Thursday, said Shapiro could have been even more forceful against Fetterman, who is viewed unfavorably by 43% of Philadelphia residents, according to a recent poll.

    “Don’t even mention that name,” said Glenn, who lives in West Philadelphia, referring to Fetterman. “He’s a big disappointment.”

    In addition to his own reelection campaign in November, Shapiro is focused on getting Democrats elected in four competitive congressional seats and flipping the Pennsylvania state Senate, which has been under Republican control for three decades.

    Should the chamber flip, Shapiro said his immediate priority would be raising the state’s minimum wage and codifying the right to access abortion — blaming Republicans for standing in his way.

    How the Pennsylvania governor’s race will help decide who controls the U.S. House

    But Shapiro, a first-term Democrat, is also looking ahead, past 2026 and Donald Trump’s presidency, as he builds a national profile and becomes a likely contender for the presidency in 2028.

    He said Congress should pass a 28th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution that guards against corruption and gerrymandering, and railed against the 2024 U.S. Supreme Court decision that gave presidents absolute immunity from criminal prosecution for actions taken within their constitutional authority, following Trump’s efforts to overturn the 2020 election.

    Shapiro said he is also open to adding more justices to the Supreme Court, which has been set at nine justices since 1869.

    “I think we’ve got to have everything on the table. We’ve got to be bold,” he said.

    Josh Shapiro’s reelection campaign in Pennsylvania starts now — but 2028 looms large

    Expansion has been pushed by progressives as a way to reform the court and end its conservative majority.

    Leslie Berger, 69, who attended MS NOW’s event Thursday said she supports adding more justices to the court.

    “These norms we have aren’t etched in stone,” she said. “We need to change this justice system and more justices would be a great start.”

    Democrats, Shapiro said, need to be aggressive and elevate candidates who will drive down costs, increase access to healthcare, repair the country’s standing in the world and rein in artificial intelligence.

    “We’ve got to understand that our sole mission right now is winning in these midterms and providing a check against Donald Trump at the state and the federal level,” he said. “Then as we go forward, I think we have to understand that rebuilding a federal government like it was before Donald Trump showed up cannot be the answer to the Democratic Party.”

  • Corner stores say ‘skill games’ are an essential part of their business. A court ruling threatens that.

    Corner stores say ‘skill games’ are an essential part of their business. A court ruling threatens that.

    Amid rising inflation and business costs, many Philadelphia corner stores, bars, laundromats, and smoke shops have turned to skill games, the slot machine look-alikes, to help keep their slim margins afloat.

    The machines, which shop owners say also encourage their customers to linger in stores and make additional purchases, are particularly profitable because they are not taxed or regulated like slot machines — and they have been operating without state oversight in a legal gray area for more than a decade. But a recent state Supreme Court ruling may force that to change.

    Last week, Pennsylvania’s highest court handed down a decision deeming skill games the same as slot machines. That means the skill game terminals proliferating around the state will soon be illegal if not operated and taxed at 52%, and housed in a highly regulated casino or truck stop with a license to carry slot machines. Those terms will take effect in less than four months unless the state legislature intervenes.

    In major decision, Pa. Supreme Court rules ‘skill games’ are slot machines

    Owners and clerks at several corner stores throughout Philadelphia that offer the games say they do not contribute a lot of revenue to their establishments directly, but they foster more of a lounge atmosphere in the shops that leads patrons to stay longer and purchase more snacks, drinks, lottery tickets, and other goods. Many of the business owners said they are willing to stomach a tax on skill games, but additional regulations would make them rethink keeping the machines.

    José Pérez, who runs a corner store on Opal Street in South Philadelphia, said his store runs on incremental profits. And, he said, when people play the skill game machines and start feeling lucky, they often are inclined to make other purchases there.

    “This business is about getting a little bit of money from every product, and the machines are a tiny source of income that adds up to that,” he said in Spanish between transactions at the store’s register. “While people play, they buy other stuff in the store. And if they win, they buy lottery tickets. Because when someone has one vice, they probably have two.”

    Tax proposals from Harrisburg

    Lawmakers in Harrisburg have for years failed to reach an agreement on how to tax and regulate the so-called skill games

    The issue has proved to be tricky in Pennsylvania’s split legislature, where Democrats narrowly control the House and Republicans control the Senate. The skill games industry leader, Georgia-based Pace-O-Matic, long maintained a friendly relationship with the Senate GOP, and the Republican lawmakers appeared willing to support policies that benefited them. But last year, the goodwill began to sour after the company backed political campaigns against incumbent Republican state lawmakers who did not support its requested low tax rate on the machines.

    State Rep. Danilo Burgos (D., Philadelphia) and State Sen. Anthony H. Williams (D., Philadelphia) have introduced a bipartisan bill in their chambers to impose a $500-per-month fee on each skill game machine operated in Pennsylvania, with a 50,000-machine cap across the state. There are currently an estimated 70,000 skill game machines in Pennsylvania, according to the state attorney general’s office.

    Skill games can be seen through the door of a mini mart on Kensington Avenue in the Kensington section of Philadelphia on Wednesday, July 30, 2025.Elizabeth Robertson / Staff Photographer

    The proposed legislation would split revenues among transit and infrastructure, local governments, and state police for enforcing the cap and fee. The bills also prohibit small businesses whose “primary source of net revenue” is from skill games, in an effort to prevent mini casinos in stop-and-go corner stores around the city. Burgos estimates the regulations would bring in $300 million in new revenue to the state in their first year.

    The bill includes additional protections for Philadelphia, where City Council voted in 2024 to ban the machines. The ban never went into effect, after a lawsuit was filed seeking to block it. In the legislation before the General Assembly, Philadelphia has specific carve-outs that would allow city officials to block stop-and-go businesses or “chronic nuisance” businesses from getting a license to carry the games.

    Surrounded by hundreds of skill games supporters at a news conference Wednesday on the Capitol steps in Harrisburg, Williams said rank-and-file lawmakers would hold up passing the state budget, due June 30, if there is not a deal to protect small businesses from losing their skill games altogether.

    “In this time when everybody talks about affordability, I can’t afford a 52% tax,” Williams said.

    The fee-per-machine option offered in the Democratic-sponsored bills is backed by Pace-O-Matic, which has spent millions of dollars on political campaigns and lobbying in the state, in addition to millions more spent by other parts of Pennsylvania’s booming gambling industry.

    Meanwhile, a separate proposal backed by the Senate GOP and penned last year would set the tax at 35% on gross terminal revenue, in addition to annual license fees. A small portion of those fees would go toward the state’s resources for problem gambling.

    Gov. Josh Shapiro, a first-term Democrat, has proposed taxing the machines at the same rate as slot machines — a hefty 52% levy on each machine’s net revenue — in his last two budget proposals. As the machines have continued to proliferate around the state, Shapiro’s office estimated the newly regulated industry could bring in nearly $800 million in revenue in its first year.

    Uncertain future with uncertain revenue

    Philly store owners were divided on whether it would be worth keeping the machines if they needed to pay a lofty tax on either housing the devices or the profits they made on them.

    Andrew Karki, who operates a laundromat near Pérez‘s store in South Philadelphia, said the machines occupy the customers while they wait for their laundry to finish and, as at Pérez‘s store, lead to purchases of candy and soda from the small bodega he runs inside the laundromat.

    He estimated the machines make up 15% to 20% of his monthly revenue, and he said he would likely be willing to take on a tax on the games, even a rather large one, to keep them around.

    “It’s hard, but we got to pay it. We got to pay it,” Karki said.

    For others, like Diego Reyes, who runs a secondhand shop on Kensington Avenue with about a dozen skill machines inside, taxing the small businesses for the machines does not seem fair. The terminals are often owned by small amusement companies, and are largely operated by Pace-O-Matic. The business owners get a cut from the machine’s revenue for allowing the terminal in their building.

    “They should tax the owner,” Reyes said in Spanish, wearing a Phillies cap and T-shirt with a size-medium sticker still stuck on the back, as three people played the machines.

    Pérez agreed that any tax should be on skill games companies and not on the businesses that carry them.

    It is frustrating to think another tax may be coming down the line, he said, when small-business owners already pay so many of them and see little return on the investment in the community.

    “Look outside, that pothole has been there for six months. We have no safety,” Pérez said. “What do you want me to pay more taxes for if you are not doing anything to better the conditions with it?”

    Staff writer Isabel Maney contributed to this article.

  • How this property tax relief program for New Jersey seniors could change under the state’s budget deal

    How this property tax relief program for New Jersey seniors could change under the state’s budget deal

    A nascent property tax relief program for New Jersey seniors has been at the center of budget negotiations between Gov. Mikie Sherrill and lawmakers as the state’s budget deadline quickly approaches.

    That program, called Stay NJ, is expected to undergo changes that would slice the income eligibility by more than half, kicking off seniors that made hundreds of thousands of dollars and started reaping the benefit this year.

    The benefit is currently available to seniors making less than $500,000, but that cap would be lowered to $200,000 under an agreement between the governor and legislative leaders, according to reports of closed-door budget talks. Those making less money would be eligible for a larger refund under the arrangement.

    The proposal is a compromise between Sherrill, who pushed for cuts to the program, and House Speaker Craig Coughlin (D., Middlesex), a key player in budget negotiations who has championed Stay NJ.

    As the name suggests, Stay NJ was created in 2023 to incentivize New Jerseyans to remain in the Garden State by providing refunds to eligible senior homeowners. The program was designed to start payments in 2026, so the very first checks had just begun going out when the first term governor presented her early March budget proposal.

    She argued that the state could face a dire financial situation if there aren’t serious cuts.

    Here’s what to know about the status of the Stay NJ program.

    Is there a budget deal?

    Sherrill, Coughlin, and State Sen. President Nicholas Scutari (D., Union) announced Tuesday that they came to a budget “agreement.” The closed-door deal wasn’t made public, and legislators continue to iron out the details ahead of the deadline this coming Tuesday.

    They said the budget agreement totals $60.7 billion, the same total Sherrill proposed in March. The governor has touted her proposal as “fiscally responsible,” though it’s still the highest price tag in the state’s history.

    The joint statement mentioned few details but cited a handful of measures, including Stay NJ.

    The state leaders said their agreement ensures the program “is a sustainable benefit retirees can count on.”

    The fate of other programs impacting South Jerseyans is less clear, including Rowan’s veterinary school, a program that provides healthcare to children that have experienced abuse, and resource centers that help Hispanic women get employment.

    What is Stay NJ?

    The property tax relief program issues refund payments to eligible seniors in quarterly installments. The first Stay NJ payments were issued in February with an average of $600 each, according to the state treasurer’s office.

    Under the current policy, eligible homeowners over 65 years old who make under $500,000 a year are eligible to get refunds for as much as half their property tax bills. The refunds are capped at $6,500 in a year.

    What did Gov. Sherrill want to change about Stay NJ?

    Sherrill wanted to slice the eligibility cap in half so only seniors with an annual household income below $250,000 would qualify.

    She also wanted to lower the maximum benefit to $4,000.

    “That’s a fairer, more efficient use of taxpayer money,” she said in her budget address in early March.

    Stephen Sigmund, a spokesperson for Sherrill, said at the time of her proposal that 90% of Stay NJ recipients would keep their benefits.

    The AARP expressed outrage at her proposal as New Jersey seniors struggle with the cost of living. But critics of the program who believe it directs too much state money to higher earners praised her for wanting to rein it in.

    So what’s actually changing?

    According to reports of the budget agreement, Sherrill and legislators agreed on a compromise.

    Sherrill agreed to steer an additional $100 million funding to the program, NJ.com reported.

    Meanwhile, legislative leaders agreed to lower the income threshold to qualify for the program to $200,000, even lower than what Sherrill initially suggested.

    And as part of the new plan, those earning the least would get bigger deductions, according to the report.

    Seniors making $100,000 or less would qualify for up to $6,500; those making between $100,000 and $150,000 would be eligible for up to $5,000, and those making $150,000 to $200,000 would qualify for up to $4,000, according to the report.

    Coughlin said at an AARP town hall that Sherrill’s proposed cap across the board of $4,000 was “too low,” and that he would “stand up for Stay NJ,” New Jersey Monitor reported earlier this month.

    Spokespeople for the governor did not respond to a request asking for confirmation of the plan.