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  • This secluded, charming Jenkintown alleyway is having a moment

    This secluded, charming Jenkintown alleyway is having a moment

    It looks like a street that belongs in its namesake English city, but the secluded, bricked Yorkway Place instead sits near the heart of Jenkintown, Pa.

    For years, locals say, the pedestrian walkway drew few pedestrians: Offices and empty storefronts offered little reason to stroll along the 1930s Tudor-lined path, which runs into Route 611.

    “I still meet people today who don’t even realize it’s there,” said Ross Abel, a Jenkintown resident who bought a Yorkway Place building this year that now hosts a cafe.

    Unusual bar concept sparks alley renaissance

    The tide began turning in 2023 when Melissa Hager turned her herb and tea store into a meadery, the Keep Easy, with her partner, Mike O’Donnell. While the Herb Shop had struggled, the bar took off.

    Yorkway Place in Jenkintown, June 2026.Mel Hager

    “That might’ve been the catalyst,” said Borough Manager George Locke. “The secret was getting that foot traffic in there.”

    After the Keep Easy came Carminati Creamery, a gelato shop from Glenside, bringing a kid-friendly option to the alley.

    The ice cream store “is the first thing that drew us in,” said Jenkintown Mayor Gabe Lerman, who has school-aged children. “Whatever we do for dinner, we can just walk up to Carminati’s.”

    The Lore Café, an upscale, all-day coffee shop, added morning visitors to the scene. That’s what gave Jackie Botto the confidence to move Capricorn Books into Yorkway Place.

    “We took a gamble,” Botto said. “I did not plan for it to be so busy.”

    A custom jeweler and haberdashery and a nail salon round out the alley’s shops.

    Themed events have attracted more newcomers, from a Nic Cage bar crawl to Jenkintown Festivus. Capricorn participated in the annual Philadelphia Bookstore Crawl, typically the store’s biggest day of the year, at their new Yorkway Place location for the first time this past weekend.

    Vicky Hutz and Mike Hutz, of Huntington Valley, speak with a reporter at the Keep Easy during the Nic Cage cocktail crawl on Sunday, June 28, 2026, in Jenkintown, Pa. Participants gathered to celebrate actor Nicolas Cage with Cage-themed cocktails, movie screenings, and “Cage matches.”Monica Herndon / Staff Photographer

    Personalized support helped local businesses

    Personalized, direct support has helped bring more small businesses to Jenkintown, locals say.

    The borough started helping owners secure sewer permits from the state several years ago, Locke said. Each permit is “20 to 40 hours of my time.”

    “It’s a tough process,” he said.

    As for filling Yorkway Place, “It’s been Mel,” Botto said, who’s been reaching out to potential owners about vacancies.

    “I was texting everyone I know,” Hager, the meaderist, said.

    Lerman said Jenkintown also recently added free 20-minute parking spots, which helped stores throughout the town.

    And many of Yorkway Place’s business owners live in the borough, the mayor said: “They’re all invested in being good stewards and in having a place you can feel good about sending your kids with a few bucks to get a gelato, or a book.”

    Jenkintown alley to see new stores in 2026

    Several more businesses are set to arrive in Yorkway Place in the coming months.

    In September, insect taxidermist Kat Smith is opening an art supply, stationery, and craft cafe.

    A game room and bottle bar is slated to open above Keep Easy in October.

    And a record store, Smelly’s Vinyl Vibes, is also coming this fall.

    “This is such a cool little street,” Abel said. “All these new shops are helping people to discover it.”

    This suburban content is produced with support from the Leslie Miller and Richard Worley Foundation and The Lenfest Institute for Journalism. Editorial content is created independently of the project donors. Gifts to support The Inquirer’s high-impact journalism can be made at inquirer.com/donate. A list of Lenfest Institute donors can be found at lenfestinstitute.org/supporters.

  • Angelo’s made cheesesteaks on seeded rolls a sensation. At Donkey’s in Camden, they’ve been doing it for decades.

    Angelo’s made cheesesteaks on seeded rolls a sensation. At Donkey’s in Camden, they’ve been doing it for decades.

    New Jersey Gov. Mikie Sherrill made a bold statement on a social media post last week.

    “The best cheesesteaks actually aren’t in Philly,” she said. “They’re right here in Jersey, and we’re about to go have one.”

    She was talking, of course, about Donkey’s Place — the Camden cheesesteak staple that has long been a point of pride for South Jersey.

    Founded in 1943 by Olympic boxer Leon “Donkey” Lucas, Donkey’s earned its name from Lucas’ hard-hitting fists. “They said he had a punch like the kick of a donkey,” says Rob Lucas Jr., the third-generation owner of Donkey’s Place after his father, Bob, and grandfather Leon.

    Donkey’s has long been a favorite of locals and foodies in the know — Anthony Bourdain stopped by for his show in 2015.

    And while Philly favorite Angelo’s made waves in 2019 with its cheeseteak innovations — including a crusty, seeded roll — Donkey’s Place has been doing it that way for more than 80 years. (Angelo’s roll is baked in-house and crusted with sesame seeds, while Donkey’s uses poppy-seeded rolls.)

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overflow:hidden; padding:8px 0 7px; text-align:center; text-overflow:ellipsis; white-space:nowrap;"><a href="https://www.instagram.com/p/Dan3pGhgajK/?utm_source=ig_embed&utm_campaign=loading" style=" color:#c9c8cd; font-family:Arial,sans-serif; font-size:14px; font-style:normal; font-weight:normal; line-height:17px; text-decoration:none;" target="_blank">A post shared by Donkey's Place - Camden (@donkeys_place)</a></p></div></blockquote>
<script async src="//www.instagram.com/embed.js"></script>

    Lucas sources the rolls from Del Buono’s Bakery in Haddon Heights. Customers old and new cite it as a secret to the sandwich’s success.

    “I like it a lot,” says Bryan Neill, a real estate developer from Jenkintown who — after getting out of work from Moorestown early — decided to make the commute to Donkey’s for the first time. “You know, I don’t like too much bread. It’s a very thin roll. You get some flavor with the bread and the poppies, but a lot more focus on the meat and the onions.”

    John Lynch, a warehouse owner from Maple Shade, who has been coming to Donkey’s for roughly 25 years, agrees. “His rolls are the best. Most rolls get soft and break apart — not these. You can eat a whole sandwich and the roll never deteriorates. It’s such a difference.”

    The seeded roll has had some detractors — in a 2002 profile of Donkey’s in The Inquirer, food writer Rick Nichols noted that some “customers who are on probation worry the [poppy] seeds will taint their urine tests.”

    So why a seeded roll? Lucas has a theory. “I think they put the poppy seeds on so it wouldn’t slide out of your hands when you were trying to eat it, to give it a little traction,” he said. “It’s just so much better. Hard on the outside, soft on the inside, and the poppy seeds really put it over the top.”

    Donkey’s Place 📍 1223 Haddon Ave., Camden, NJ 08103. (856) 966-2616.

  • Is Bradley Cooper really from Jenkintown? We investigate.

    Is Bradley Cooper really from Jenkintown? We investigate.

    Unlike Philadelphia — a city, county, and school district all in one — the collar counties are a mesh of townships, boroughs, and informal neighborhoods.

    That geographical maze, along with the centuries-long evolution of the U.S. Postal Service, means some suburbanites are not even sure what town they live in.

    Which may explain why one of Montgomery County’s most famous sons, former Daily News contributor Bradley Cooper, is often reported to be from Jenkintown, but he is not.

    He is from Abington Township and, like many Abingtonians, he has been living a lie.

    Where is Bradley Cooper from?

    Cooper grew up not in Jenkintown, but a mile away in the unincorporated Abington community of Rydal, in a house his parents bought before he was born, property records show.

    In the 1980s, he attended Rydal Elementary, where he played a mime, according to a playbill shared on social media.

    The Oscar-nominated actor later enrolled at Germantown Academy, a private school in Whitemarsh Township whose reunions he still attends.

    Cooper is known to call nearby Jenkintown his hometown from time to time — maybe because the borough is more well-known, and because that is what his childhood mailing address was. His reps did not return a request for comment this week.

    Some Abingtonians don’t know where they live

    But unlike people who grew up in the tiny enclave, Cooper could not have attended Jenkintown School District or participated in its National Geographic-famous Color Day.

    “As someone who grew up in Jenkintown and loved cute boys and is about the same age as Bradley Cooper, I can tell you he is not from the Borough of Jenkintown,” writer Lauren McCutcheon said.

    Many Abingtonians think they live in J-town, borough manager George Locke has said — so much so that his staff starts resident service calls by asking for an address. Otherwise they could spend 45 minutes on the phone, Locke said, before realizing the caller is in Abington.

    Residents of unofficial neighborhoods like Glenside, or towns that span counties like Telford, may be more aware of their official designation. Some Glensiders attend school in Cheltenham, while others attend Abington School District.

    For people without a kid in public school, an invisible municipal boundary may not matter much day to day. But it matters for local elections and during tax season.

    Nye Stevens, a longtime Postal Service expert for the U.S. Government Accountability Office and the Congressional Research Service, said mailing addresses can also affect people’s insurance rates, which are often based on zip code instead of municipality.

    And a zip code across two towns is nothing, Stevens added — some people get their mail from another state.

    Bob O’Brien of Wyncote used to think his practice, Relief Counseling & Art Therapy, was located in Jenkintown — until the tax bill from Abington arrived.

    “It was confusing,” O’Brien said — especially since there is a Jenkintown post office in the same building.

    “How it got this way, I’m not sure,” he added.

    The demands of mail delivery

    U.S. post offices began primarily as a pickup service in cities until the agency introduced home delivery in the late 1800s.

    Then cars expanded the suburbs, townships shifted, and assigned post office locations grew increasingly messy.

    “As townships grow, post offices seem farther away,” a New York Times headline about South Jersey observed in 1997.

    The U.S. has also closed tens of thousands of post offices in the last several decades, Stevens said, which may mean losing a mailing city that reflects where people actually live.

    A map shows the city limits of Waterloo, Iowa, in yellow, while a blue line shows the boundaries of the “Waterloo” zip code.U.S. Census Bureau

    Around 1990, some in Congress tried to fix the issue with a bill requiring the Postal Service make zip codes match municipal boundaries if towns request it.

    But such a change would “absolutely ruin the postal system,” Stevens said. “You can’t have a post office for every little borough.”

    The bill failed, and years later, the Postal Service was routinely rejecting zip code change requests, Stevens wrote in a 2006 Congressional Research Service report.

    “Some communities that lack delivery post offices complain that the need to use mailing addresses of adjacent areas robs them of a community identity,” he noted in the report.

    But at the end of the day, “zip codes are basically a delivery system. They’re not a neighborhood recognition system,” Stevens said this week.

    As for Bradley Cooper, the confusion around his addresses in the Philly suburbs has not ended.

    He supposedly owns an estate in New Hope. But he really lives in Solebury Township.

    This suburban content is produced with support from the Leslie Miller and Richard Worley Foundation and The Lenfest Institute for Journalism. Editorial content is created independently of the project donors. Gifts to support The Inquirer’s high-impact journalism can be made at inquirer.com/donate. A list of Lenfest Institute donors can be found at lenfestinstitute.org/supporters.

  • Prosecutor drops rape charges against a prominent Philadelphia doctor

    Prosecutor drops rape charges against a prominent Philadelphia doctor

    A prosecutor dropped felony rape and sexual assault charges against Philadelphia-area doctor John Smyth Michel on Tuesday after his accuser failed to appear at his criminal trial.

    The woman’s testimony against Michel, the former medical director of Excel Medical Center, was key because the case lacked physical evidence. The then-38-year-old patient from Northeast Philadelphia had claimed Michel raped her during a 2024 office visit.

    Michel’s criminal defense lawyer, Andrew Gay Jr., told jurors the sex was a “terrible” mistake but consensual.

    “As terrible of a decision as it could have been for a physician to make,” Gay said during his opening statement Monday on the trial’s first day, “it was an entirely consensual act between two adults.”

    Gay declined to comment on Michel’s behalf after Common Pleas Court Judge Chesley Lightsey dismissed the case at the prosecutor’s request.

    “This case is done,” Lightsey declared before excusing the jury empaneled at the city’s Criminal Justice Center.

    The stakes were high for the 56-year-old doctor from Jenkintown on two fronts: He faced up to 20 years in prison on the rape charge alone and loss of his medical license, if convicted.

    Under state law, doctors convicted of sexual offenses are prohibited from being licensed and practicing medicine.

    The Pennsylvania State Board of Osteopathic Medicine, which regulates and oversees licensure of osteopathic doctors like Michel, suspended his license last year after he apologized for having sex with a patient — a violation of state licensure laws. As of Tuesday, his license remained suspended, according to a state spokesperson.

    Excel Medical Center, which Michel founded, is currently closed, Gay said. The center was composed of 12 locations in the Philadelphia region, with more than 200 employees and about 20,000 patients.

    In a letter to the medical board last year, Michel described the October 2024 sex with the patient as a “lapse in judgment” for which he is “profoundly contrite.”

    “I fully acknowledge that I crossed a professional boundary,” Michel wrote to board members last year. “I recognize that boundaries are not only a legal and ethical obligation but a critical element of safe, respectful, and therapeutic care. I make no excuses for my actions.”

    Claims of rape

    The patient, identified in police records by the initials “D.R.,” had accused Michel of kissing her during a May 2024 exam at his East Mount Airy office on Stenton Avenue. She told him “no,” left the office, and did not report the kissing incident.

    About five months later, she went to an appointment at Michel’s North Philadelphia office on West Diamond Street. During the Oct. 14, 2024, visit, she said, Michel raped her with such force that her head banged twice against the exam room wall. She pushed him off her and fell to the ground crying, according to criminal court records.

    In early November 2024, she told her husband what had happened and subsequently filed a police report, records show.

    Late last year, a second woman accused Michel of sexual abuse. The woman had worked for Michel as a medical assistant from 2015 to 2019 at his East Mount Airy office and at a location in Germantown on Chelten Avenue.

    The former employee claimed that beginning in 2018, Michel touched her breasts over her clothing on multiple occasions while she was working in the office. He additionally groped her vagina over her clothing before she quit in 2019, according to a document filed in court last year by the Philadelphia District Attorney’s Office.

    Prosecutors never charged him in connection with those accusations, but argued the former employee’s claims bolstered their patient rape case, given there were no witnesses. Gay, Michel’s lawyer, had declined to comment after the second woman came forward.

    A no-show witness

    In the patient’s case, Philadelphia police arrested Michel in February 2025 after prosecutors charged him with three felonies — rape, sexual assault, and involuntary deviate sexual intercourse — and two misdemeanors — indecent exposure and assault. He was released on bail.

    Assistant District Attorney Allison Christian dropped all but the rape and sexual assault charges prior to the trial. Michel pleaded not guilty.

    The former patient had been scheduled to testify on Tuesday morning. Christian told the judge that she had spoken with her the night before. She sounded “very emotional” and seemed to be having a “nervous breakdown,” but said she would testify, Christian said.

    “I’ve been calling her since 8:15 a.m. this morning every 15 minutes,” Christian said. “I haven’t heard from her.

    “I’m not going to issue a bench warrant for a rape victim,” she said before dropping the charges.

    A path to practicing medicine

    Prior to the patient’s accusations, Michel had no criminal complaints and no disciplinary history against his medical license, state records show.

    Michel agreed to be disciplined by the board of osteopathic medicine for violating a state law prohibiting sexual misconduct, according to a June 2025 agreement.

    The discipline included a $4,000 civil penalty and an indefinite suspension of his medical license for a minimum of 24 months, followed by probation, according to a spokesperson for the Pennsylvania Department of State, which oversees licensing boards.

    While Michel is on probation, a chaperone must be physically present when he treats female patients and a separate monitor must oversee his practice. Michel also must complete in-person classes on physician-patient boundaries and 15 hours of continuing education on ethics, the disciplinary agreement says.

    The state spokesperson on Tuesday said the board will reinstate Michel’s license to “non-suspended, probationary status” once he has met the agreement’s reinstatement conditions.

  • Family speaks on Cheltenham High assault | Inquirer Greater Abington

    Family speaks on Cheltenham High assault | Inquirer Greater Abington

    Hi, Greater Abington. 👋

    Thanks for reading the third edition of this newsletter. It’s been incredibly helpful to hear your thoughts so far. Please keep sharing your insights with us via this survey so we can shape this resource to be the most helpful it can be!

    This week, we go inside the alleged assaults in the Cheltenham High School locker room that led to the cancellation of two football seasons. We also take a look at the resident-driven push that’s prompted Cheltenham Township to pull millions from Citizens Bank, what caused the Friends of Fox Chase Farm volunteer group to disband, and the approach Jenkintown’s new superintendent is taking to overseeing the school district.

    — Laura Smythe (greaterabington@inquirer.com)

    P.S. If you’re not in a survey mood, you can also share your feedback on this newsletter by replying directly to this email.

    If someone forwarded you this newsletter, sign up for free here.

    The long shadow of locker room assaults

    A Cheltenham mother has spoken exclusively to The Inquirer about the alleged assaults her son experienced last year in the Cheltenham High School football locker room. In one instance, nearly 20 students watched as the boy’s teammates attempted to sexually assault him, his lawyers said.

    No students have been disciplined even after the school district determined that an assault had taken place and been recorded on video by witnesses, while the affected teenager “can’t escape” continued harassment throughout the local community, his mother said.

    The school’s previous and upcoming football seasons were both canceled amid the ongoing investigation by the Montgomery County District Attorney’s Office.

    Meanwhile, the teen’s family is still awaiting accountability.

    The Inquirer’s Maddie Hanna tells the story of a school district’s nightmare and a mother’s push for justice.

    Cheltenham closing Citizens Bank accounts over immigrant detention center ties

    Cheltenham Township is closing its last two accounts with Citizens Bank over the bank’s financing of companies that run detention facilities, despite the bank’s announcement it would no longer do so.

    The accounts hold about $9 million cumulatively, which township officials are planning to divert to Santander Bank. The move comes after months of lobbying by local residents.

    The Inquirer’s Jess Rohan explains the divestment plan, plus the pending status of some other Citizens Bank accounts held by the township’s tax collector’s office.

    💡 Community news

    • Friends of Fox Chase Farm, a volunteer group that supports the 112-acre expanse that straddles Abington Township and Philadelphia, has disbanded after more than 30 years.
    • Ramah Day Camp, a Jewish summer program in Cheltenham, will also shutter soon, ending its 30-year run.
    • Abington, Jenkintown, and Cheltenham are among the Montgomery County locales that will be scrutinized by law enforcement in the coming weeks in an effort to combat aggressive drivers.
    • A 27-year-old Nigerian man who laundered money as part of a “sextortion” plot that led a 20-year-old Abington native to kill himself has been sentenced to five years in federal prison.
    • Jenkintown man Seok Joon Lee, 54, has been charged with impersonating a federal officer after allegedly pretending to be an FBI agent at a Philadelphia grocery store, where he carried a loaded gun and attempted to conduct a security check of the supermarket.
    • The community is mourning the deaths of esteemed clothing designer and professor of fashion Emil DeJohn, 88, who was a congregant of St. Luke the Evangelist Church in Glenside, and Ida Schmertz, 91, a former Jenkintonian who became a pioneering women’s activist, presidential appointee, and the first female senior vice president at American Express. They each died in recent weeks.
    • Inquirer contributor Paul Jablow takes a good look at a three-story, six-bedroom Queen Anne Victorian home up for sale in the Wyncote Historic District.

    🏫 Schools briefing

    • Meet Brea D’Angelo, the former Sixers reporter who is now leading Jenkintown School District as its new superintendent.
    • Also in the Cheltenham School District, a new vice principal starts at Wyncote Elementary on Aug. 1. Plus, Glenside Elementary has named an interim principal and Cheltenham Elementary has named a new principal, both pending school board approval.
    • Construction is underway on Abington High School’s forthcoming Ash Carter Courtyard, a tribute to the late 1972 alumnus who served as U.S. Secretary of Defense from 2015 to 2017, the Main Line Times reports.

    🍽️ On our plate

    🎳 Things to do

    🔨 Legacy Park Community Build Week: Volunteers will help assemble the new Legacy Park playground. ⏰ Tuesday, July 28-Sunday, Aug. 2, various shifts 8 a.m.-8:30 p.m. 💵 Free 📍 Legacy Park, Jenkintown

    👻 Summerween Character Event: Enjoy spooky-themed drink specials, check out your favorite scary characters in their summer garb, and get a reading from a medium (if you dare). ⏰ Saturday, Aug. 1, 11 a.m.-1 p.m. 💵 Pay as you go 📍 Pot Heads Coffee House, Jenkintown

    🕺 The Concert: A Tribute to ABBA: The touring production from Sweden, featuring original band members from the iconic pop group, will perform renditions of ABBA’s ‘70s and ‘80s hits to Montgomery County. ⏰ Tuesday, Aug. 4, 8 p.m. 💵 $52.53-$75.74 📍 Keswick Theatre, Glenside

    🏡 On the market

    A cozy Colonial with a wood-burning fireplace

    1248 Gordon Rd. features a bay window in the dining space.

    Built in 1935 in Jenkintown Manor, this charming four-bed, three-bath home features original hardwood floors, a bay window in the dining area, and a wood-burning fireplace. There is a front porch as well as a back patio.

    See more photos of the home here.

    Price: $725,000 | Size: 2,982 SF | Acreage: 0.31

    🗞️ What other Greater Abington residents are reading this week:

    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.

    This suburban content is produced with support from the Leslie Miller and Richard Worley Foundation and The Lenfest Institute for Journalism. Editorial content is created independently of the project donors. Gifts to support The Inquirer’s high-impact journalism can be made at inquirer.com/donate. A list of Lenfest Institute donors can be found at lenfestinstitute.org/supporters.

  • House of the week: A three-story Victorian in Wyncote for $675,000

    House of the week: A three-story Victorian in Wyncote for $675,000

    As mason William Clark was driving around Wyncote in 1988, he spotted a six-bedroom Queen Anne Victorian house that had great potential but needed a lot of work.

    He spent much of the next 30-plus years working on the 19th-century house, which is in the Wyncote Historic District, until he died in 2024.

    Clark redid the kitchen, put in a four-car driveway, and added a garage in 2017 to match the style of the original house.

    KitchenBright House Photo

    “It was a labor of love for him,” said his wife, Patti, a programmer for an investment planning firm. But at 3,679 square feet, “it’s a great big house for one person.”

    So with the couple’s three children all moved out and married, she is moving to a much smaller home in Blue Bell.

    GarageBright House Photo

    The Wyncote home features original hardwood floors, stained glass windows, pocket doors, two ornamental fireplaces, and front and rear staircases.

    It has a side yard and a wraparound porch. The basement contains William’s workroom.

    Living roomBright House Photo

    The first floor has the kitchen with a built-in range and microwave, self-cleaning oven, granite countertops, and stainless-steel appliances.

    The second floor has four bedrooms, including the primary. The third floor has two bedrooms and an office.

    Dining roomBright House Photo

    The home is close to SEPTA’s Jenkintown-Wyncote Regional Rail station. Thomas Williams Park and Robinson Park are also nearby.

    The house is in the Cheltenham School District.

    It is listed by Pat and Mike Jula of Long & Foster Real Estate for $675,000.

  • Meet Jenkintown’s new superintendent, whose background ranges from Sixers reporter to Russian translator

    Meet Jenkintown’s new superintendent, whose background ranges from Sixers reporter to Russian translator

    After the sudden departure of Jenkintown’s longtime superintendent in April, the school district’s new CEO started work this month, and she already has plans.

    “I’m really excited once the year starts to really dive in and go into classrooms,” Brea D’Angelo said last week, “and get the narrative out to the community of the incredible things that are happening. … I’m really looking forward to being the communicator of those types of things.”

    D’Angelo used to be a professional communicator: She went to Rider University for TV and radio and then took a reporting job covering the Sixers at WBCB radio in Levittown.

    “I had the opportunity to go into the locker room and interview players,” D’Angelo said. “What I started realizing was that I wasn’t making a difference.”

    New superintendent Brea D’Angelo poses for a portrait at Jenkintown High School on Wednesday, July 22, 2026, in Jenkintown. D’Angelo comes to the Jenkintown School District from the Hatboro-Horsham School District.Monica Herndon / Staff Photographer

    From Sixers to secondary education

    She switched from communications to education, starting as a special education assistant in the Lower Moreland Township School District and spending seven years as a secondary school teacher there before working her way up as an administrator in the Hatboro-Horsham School District, where she spent more than 12 years and still lives with her husband and teenage daughter.

    D’Angelo chose to teach English — a subject she came to love as a reluctant reader who learned the joy of books from a teacher when she was about 15.

    “[She] really took an interest and was like, ‘You just haven’t found the right thing to read yet,’” D’Angelo said, and helped her find early favorites, such as Of Mice and Men. “You want teachers to be that for someone.”

    Her plans as superintendent include a return to publishing, of sorts.

    “I’m going to do a newsletter that comes out monthly, from me,” D’Angelo said. “I just want our story to get out there and to show what an incredible place we really are.”

    Jenkintown finds comms pro to replace superintendent

    Jenkintown’s last superintendent, Jill Takacs, had announced her retirement for Aug. 31 this year before leaving early, in April, for an administrator job in New Jersey.

    Takacs’ departure came after an email from a retiring principal leaked to the public last fall that outlined concerns with Takacs’ management style, including a ”lack of transparency,” outgoing Jenkintown Elementary principal Christopher Jahnke wrote. Takacs was on leave shortly afterward.

    But some locals said they had already had concerns about Takacs’ communication with parents in Montgomery County’s smallest school district — particularly amid the universally quick-shifting plans and procedures of the COVID-19 era.

    Jenkintown’s school board appears to have taken that note, highlighting D’Angelo’s narrative chops as a reason for hiring her.

    “The board decided to hire Dr. D’Angelo due to her combination of leadership, team building, and communication skills,” board president Carolyn Riley said. “She struck the right balance between expertise and a ‘friendly but firm’ quality.”

    Riley also highlighted the new superintendent’s experience with special education and facilities management — critical for the steward of Jenkintown’s 103-year-old high school building.

    But the district’s new chief storyteller also knows what communication barriers feel like: D’Angelo grew up hearing both English and Russian, but had to pick up much more Russian as a child to interact with her Ukrainian grandmother.

    Those skills came in handy when Ukrainian refugees arrived in Hatboro-Horsham, and D’Angelo was enlisted to help families get settled.

    “I fell into it because I was pretty much the only Russian speaker on the staff,” D’Angelo said. ”I can’t even imagine fleeing my home, going to a place not speaking the language. … That was really something that I pride myself in, being able to connect with these families and support them.”

    Public relations is often a struggle for public schools, which must balance legally required disclosure with legally required secrecy, especially for personal details about individual students and staff — details like the circumstances surrounding Takacs’ departure.

    D’Angelo, who earned her Ph.D. from Gwynedd Mercy University, hopes that being fully transparent from the beginning with information she is allowed to share will help residents trust her on topics she cannot say much about.

    “I’m OK with being vulnerable in certain situations,” D’Angelo said. “When you build that strength with community members, with staff, with families — there’s a bit more understanding when I go silent on certain things, knowing it’s not because I don’t want to say it; it’s because I can’t.”

    Perhaps sports will be one of those topics: A diehard Philadelphia football and basketball fan (“I bleed green for the Eagles,” she said), D’Angelo already attended a Color Day this year, but she refuses to say which team is better.

    “I will be rooting for Blue and Red all the time, or I’ll be purple,” the new superintendent said. “Yeah, it’s gonna be one of those.”

    This suburban content is produced with support from the Leslie Miller and Richard Worley Foundation and The Lenfest Institute for Journalism. Editorial content is created independently of the project donors. Gifts to support The Inquirer’s high-impact journalism can be made at inquirer.com/donate. A list of Lenfest Institute donors can be found at lenfestinstitute.org/supporters.

  • A Nigerian man who laundered money in a ‘sextortion’ scheme targeting a Kutztown U student sentenced to five years in prison

    A Nigerian man who helped launder money in the twisted online extortion of a Montgomery County college student — a plot that led the 20-year-old to kill himself by walking in front of a train — was sentenced Friday to five years in federal prison.

    Afeez Olatunji Adewale, 27, was one of two men who helped collect money and mask its source while a third man orchestrated the tormenting of Abington native Jack Sullivan, prosecutors said.

    The scheme took place on social media in 2023, when one of the co-defendants, Imoleayo Samuel Aina, began communicating with Sullivan using fake social media accounts under the moniker “Alice Dave.” Aina, posing as the woman, convinced Sullivan, a student at Kutztown University, to share intimate photos of himself, and then demanded money to keep the images private.

    Sullivan ultimately turned over more than $3,000, prosecutors said, and Adewale helped try to hide the source of those funds, including by having money sent to what they called “compromised American banking accounts” as well as accounts in Nigerian banks.

    But on Jan. 4, 2023, only about 18 hours after Aina had begun messaging Sullivan, the harassment reached a tragic end.

    Aina reached out to Sullivan to demand more money, prosecutors said, but Sullivan sent a message back saying: “I don’t think I have enough for it.”

    Three minutes later, prosecutors said, he walked onto the tracks near the Jenkintown SEPTA station, where he was struck and killed by a passing train.

    The case is an example of what authorities have come to call “sextortion,” a crime in which perpetrators, typically based in other countries, strike up flirtatious online relationships with victims, primarily teenage boys. The harassers then try to lure their victims into sending compromising photos of themselves, and go on to demand money to keep the images private.

    The FBI says the crime has skyrocketed in recent years, with more than 54,000 cases reported in 2024, a 60% increase from the year before. And authorities believe the crime is undercounted because many victims feel shame and embarrassment about what happened.

    The men involved in Sullivan’s harassment were purportedly associated with the so-called Yahoo Boys, a network of West African scammers who use the internet to try to swindle people out of money.

    Adewale was arrested in Nigeria three years ago, and, after being extradited to the United States, pleaded guilty earlier this spring to wire fraud and money laundering charges.

    In court Friday, he cried while apologizing to Sullivan’s relatives, saying he didn’t know the money he was trying to launder had been collected as part of a sextortion scheme, and that he wishes he’d never taken part in it.

    “I didn’t wish for this to happen,” he said. “I’ll never do anything like this again.”

    Sullivan’s parents, meanwhile, said Adewale played a key role in their son’s torment, and that his crimes had robbed them of a future with a young man who was caring, curious, and thoughtful.

    “He was a beacon of light in any room he would enter,” said his father, Jim.

    Adewale’s co-defendants were sentenced last year: Aina, the plot’s mastermind, was ordered to serve six years in prison, while Samuel Olasunkanmi Abiodun, another money launderer, was sentenced to five years behind bars.

    In imposing a five-year sentence on Adewale, U.S. District Judge Joel H. Slomsky said it was “astounding” that cybercrimes committed a continent away could have fatal consequences in the United States.

    “The damage done to a family by these kinds of crimes,” he said, “is incalculable.”

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

    A private memorial service is to be held later.

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

  • Access to high school sports in Pa. depends on where you live, a new report finds. Here’s a breakdown.

    Access to high school sports in Pa. depends on where you live, a new report finds. Here’s a breakdown.

    More than 30% of high school students in the affluent Radnor and Wallingford-Swarthmore districts played sports in the 2024-25 school year.

    In the Philadelphia school district, less than 10% of high school students did.

    The disparities are part of a pattern, with fewer students playing sports in lesser-resourced urban schools, according to Research for Action, a Philadelphia-based educational research organization that released a report Thursday analyzing high school sports participation rates across Pennsylvania.

    The report, which looked at sports as another barometer of opportunities available to students, found participation varies widely — as does school spending on sports programs.

    It also found a link between funding and sports participation, with more students on average playing in higher-spending districts.

    “The degree to which a student may have access to school athletics really depends on what district they’re in,” said Maja Pehrson, the report’s lead author.

    Here’s what the report found — and what questions it raises about access to high school sports in Pennsylvania.

    There are big differences in sports participation rates

    Participation in school sports “hasn’t really been looked at very much,” Pehrson said. Research for Action analyzed data that school districts and charter schools are required to report to the Pennsylvania Department of Education on athletic opportunities.

    The report found participation rates in the 2024-25 school year ranging from 5% in some school districts, to a handful of districts with rates above 40%.

    Topping the list locally were Jenkintown School District, at 35%, and Springfield Township School District in Montgomery County at 34%; followed by Radnor and New Hope school districts, at 31%; Wallingford-Swarthmore, at 30%; West Chester, at 28%; and Upper Dublin, at 27% — all majority white, relatively affluent districts.

    Below the Philadelphia school district’s 9.6% rate were Upper Darby, at 9%; William Penn and Norristown, at 8%; and Chester-Upland, at 6% — all districts that are majority non-white and high-poverty.

    Overall, large, urban districts tended to have the lowest participation rates, meaning “almost half of Pennsylvania high school students are enrolled in districts where the likelihood of participating in a school athletics team is relatively low,” the report said.

    Those “very low” participation districts — with 5% to 17% of students participating — also offered fewer sports per 1,000 students than high-participation districts, the report found.

    Naima DeBrest, a spokesperson for the Philadelphia district, said the district had expanded athletic opportunities in recent years “by introducing new sports such as girls wrestling and girls flag football” and creating intramural programs at the elementary and middle school levels.

    Despite “common challenges” faced by urban districts, “the district remains committed to expanding access to high-quality athletic opportunities and ensuring students have meaningful opportunities to participate in sports that support their academic success, well-being, and overall development,” DeBrest said, noting that the district’s rate is comparable to other urban districts.

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    There are also big gaps in spending

    The report found a relationship between money and sports participation rates. Among the 10% of school districts deemed most underfunded by a state formula calculating what schools need to adequately educate students, more than half had “very low” sports participation rates, while more than two-thirds had “very low” or “low” participation, according to the report.

    And looking at what districts spend on athletics, it varied widely, the report found. Districts with “very low” participation reported spending an average of $409 per high school student on athletics, while “very high” participation districts — with 28.2% to 61.6% of students participation — spent an average of $939 per student.

    Locally, the Jenkintown, West Chester, Phoenixville, and Colonial school districts reported spending more than $1,100 per high school student on athletics, compared with $145 per high school student in Philadelphia.

    The report noted that those figures don’t fully reflect spending on school sports. Many districts didn’t report any spending on athletic facilities, for instance; Pehrson said it was likely hard for schools to calculate how much of their overall facilities spending was tied to athletics.

    The data also don’t reflect any activities fees paid by students.

    Charters have lower participation rates — but in line with Philly

    Statewide, brick-and-mortar charter schools, which are publicly funded but independently run, reported lower rates of sports participation. On average, 8.4% of charter high school students participated in sports, compared with 18.1% in district schools. (Cyber charter schools reported no participation; charter students who participate in district programs are counted by districts.)

    Rather than a difference between the charter and district sectors, however, the gap could largely be a product of school district conditions, the report said. Half the state’s charter high schools are located in Philadelphia, where the charter sports participation rates largely mirror the district’s, the report said.

    In front of their boarded up dilapidated stadium, Olney High School athletes Cindi Lizardo (from left), Emma Blanco, Sidi Traore; and principal Michael Roth, coach Siena Childs, recent graduate Ysis Rivera, and athletic director Jorge Gonzalez point out the deplorable condition the sports facilities are in July 24, 2025. Olney High School, which spent a decade under charter management, was turned back over to the Philadelphia school district in 2022.Tom Gralish / Staff Photographer

    Gender gaps persist

    Boys participated in sports in 2024-25 at a higher rate than girls — at an average rate of 20.3% compared with 15.8%, the report found.

    And those gaps persisted across different types of school districts, the report found. For instance, in districts with “very low” overall sports participation, 14% of boys participated, compared with 10% of girls. In districts with “moderate” participation, 24% of boys participated, compared with 19% of girls. And in “very high” participation districts, 35% of boys participated, compared with 30% of girls.

    What’s driving the disparities?

    The report found that access to high school sports in Pennsylvania “is not evenly distributed and is strongly shaped by structural conditions.”

    “Districts with fewer athletic opportunities are more likely to be urban districts with large high schools and more students of color, and they tend to offer a narrower range of teams and spend less per student on athletics, limiting the extent to which students can engage,” the report said.

    But district funding alone isn’t responsible for disparities, the report noted. The gender gap, for instance, is found in well-funded and poorly funded districts.

    The pattern of higher-spending districts seeing more participation “doesn’t line up neatly for every district,” Pehrson said, noting that the data can’t fully answer questions about what’s driving differences in participation.

    Other possible factors could include transportation and sports outside of schools, Pehrson said.

    DeBrest, the Philadelphia spokesperson, noted that urban districts may also have limited athletic facilities, and practice space “and the need for some students to balance academics, work, or family responsibilities.”

    Pehrson hopes the findings prompt more investigation into the availability of school sports, which “are a key part of students’ educational opportunities,” Pehrson said — from boosting physical and mental health, to promoting social-emotional skills and building community.

    “There are clear disparities in terms of sports opportunities students are having,” Pehrson said. “Why is that, and how can we move forward and try to figure out these differences?”

    Editor’s note: This story has been updated to reflect that Jenkintown and Springfield Township were the local districts with the highest sports participation rates.