A man was killed and four others were injured in a shooting overnightoutside an apartment complex in the city’s Crescentville section.
Nearbyofficers heard several gunshots coming from the 500 block of East Hill Creek Drive, where the Hill Creek Apartments, a Philadelphia Housing Authority complex, is located, at 11:52 p.m., according to police. The responding officers found two people suffering gunshot wounds, an unidentified male who wasshotin the leg and an 18-year-old woman who was shot in the shoulder, Philadelphia Police Capt. Louis Higginson said. Both were transported to Einstein Medical Center, where they were in stable condition.
Additional responding officersfound another unidentified man at the scene who was shot and taken to Temple University Hospital, where he died at 12:14 a.m. Monday, Higginson said.
While investigating, officers were called to a different part of the complex around 12:10 a.m., where they found two additional people who were shot: a 45-year-old man who was shot in the arm and a 16-year-old boy who was shot in the ankle. They had fled from the shooting into a nearby property on the 5500 block of North Hill Creek Drive, police said. They were transported to Temple University Hospital, where they were in stable condition.
Police said they found at least 17 spent shell casings at the scene.
PHA said an unauthorized “pop-up” party held at the Hill Creek Apartments prompted the large gathering before the shooting took place.
“The safety and well-being of our residents remain our highest priority, and PHA is making supportive services available to residents who may be impacted by this tragedy,” a PHA spokesperson said.
As of publication time, police could not confirm a motive and no arrests have been made.
A large crowd, shooting, and vandalism the night before
Police were working to determine if the shooting, which occurred following a large gathering late Sunday night, was connected to another large gathering that ended in shots fired early Sunday morning.
Around 2:45 a.m. Sunday, police responded to the Hill Creek Apartments to assist PHA police officers who were following a reportedly stolen vehicle into the area. During the incident, an unidentified person jumped onto a marked PHA police vehicle and vandalized it, police said.
As police officers worked to disperse a large crowd that had gathered, an unknown person fired several gunshots before fleeing the scene. Two unoccupied vehicles were struck by gunfire, and no injuries werereported.
No arrests have been made, and police did not confirm if these two shooting incidents are connected.
Officers cited three men, ages 22, 23, and 28, for disorderly conduct during Sunday morning’s large gathering.
Pennsylvania State University, Temple and the University of Pittsburgh will split $10 million in the state’s first allotment toward performance-based funding under the new budget.
It’s the first time since the legislature passed the new performance-based formula last November that the three so-called state-related universities are receiving the funding in addition to the general appropriation they received last year. The formula considers overall enrollment, graduation rates, number of lower-income students as measured by those receiving federal Pell grants, students receiving degrees in high demand areas, and other factors.
For Penn State, the new funding will amount to a little over $4 million, raising its general education subsidy to $246.1 million, the school said in a news release. The school said it was its first increase in state education funding since 2019.
“This initial investment is an important first step that recognizes the essential role higher education plays in strengthening our commonwealth,” Penn State president Neeli Bendapudi said. “The metrics at the heart of this model align closely with Penn State’s mission and values.”
Temple said it would receive a little over $2 million in performance-based funding, in addition to its $158.2 million general appropriation. The North Philadelphia-based university also is set to receive $500,000 for its “University College,” which helps adult and non-traditional students and lifelong learners pursue degrees. A university spokesperson said the money is for the school’s bachelor of general studies program.
The performance-based funding grew out of a longstanding battle between the legislature and state-affiliated universities over transparency and accountability. State-related universities received hundreds of millions in state funding, yet have a quasi-public status exempting them from much of the state’s open records laws, a fact that has long been criticized by some legislators.
Gov. Josh Shapiro, a Democrat, signed the $50.8 billion budget deal Sunday, applauding leaders from both parties for their work on the issue. He specifically highlighted House Minority Leader Jesse Topper (R., Bedford), who has led the charge to create the new performance-based funding model.
“That’s something that leaders in Harrisburg have talked about for years and years and years, but we came together and we got it done,” Shapiro said during a news conference before signing the budget deal into law.
Meanwhile, the system that oversees Pennsylvania’s 10 universities including West Chester and Cheyney will receive $626.1 million, up about $5 million over last year. The Pennsylvania State System of Higher Education had been seeking a $31 million or a 5% boost in order to roll back a 4.3% tuition increase its board approved last week.
System spokesperson Kevin Hensil said Monday that the tuition increase would stay in place.
In-state students, who make up the vast majority of the system, will pay $8,338 annually, up $344 from $7,994.
The extra $5 million from the legislature, Hensil said, was “due to the expiration of funds related to a transfer workforce development partnership initiative” and would not impact the tuition increase.
The budget also included $78 million for debt relief in the system, but Hensil said that also would not impact the tuition increase.
“We are determining how it will be used, as we have in the past when such money was provided,” he said. “That analysis is underway.”
By the state covering the PASSHE debt, Shapiro said it would enable the state’s 10 state-owned universities to “shift those dollars into more funding for our faculty, more funding for our students, and more funding for our academic programs.”
In addition to West Chester and Cheyney, the other universities in the 83,005-student system include: Commonwealth, East Stroudsburg, Indiana, Kutztown, Lock Haven, Millersville, Penn West, and Shippensburg.
Lincoln University, which also is a state-related school, is not included in the performance-based funding plan, but it received a $1.1 million boost.
Funding for the state’s community colleges was held flat.
Temple University will make student retention a focus in the year ahead with new programming for the first-year student experience and other efforts in the works as it seeks to reverse troubling trends in enrollment and matriculation.
Temple president John Fry and former interim provost David Boardman discussed the moves in an interview after the executive committee of the board of trustees approved a budget Wednesday that included a tuition increase and about 40 layoffs, the latest in a string of staff reduction efforts.
“We really want to mitigate any issues that we have around retention and really improve the success of our students through their journey through Temple,” said Boardman, who remains dean of Temple’s College of Media and Communication and the university’s chief strategy officer.
The move comes as the university copes with a slide in freshman retention. A decade ago, about 90% of freshmen returned for their sophomore year. By last fall, that percentage was 82%, and an internal Temple report that The Inquirer obtained in April showed there is concern the percentage will slip below 80% this fall.
Temple experienced a 27% decline in its U.S. enrollment over the last eight years, and falling retention is part of the problem. The school lost an average of $200 million annually during that period, the internal report said.
Employees from student affairs, enrollment management, and academic affairs have worked on the redesign of the first-year experience with support from the National Institute for Student Success, Fry said.
“This work has helped us identify barriers and create a more coordinated approach to orientation, advising, communication, and student support,” he said in a message to the campus Wednesday.
Boardman said the single biggest barrier is financial.
“There’s a very strong correlation here between the financial pressures on students and their ability to persist and graduate,” he said.
Academic success in the classroom early on is another, he said.
“There’s … a very strong correlation between first-year, even first-semester, GPA and their ability to persist,” he said. “That is tied directly to these other sorts of strategies that we’ve been talking about in terms of making sure that students have the proper preparation when they go into the classroom and the proper support around them.”
The new first-year experience is still under development, Boardman said.
“It’s just a more coordinated approach to how we bring students on board, making sure that they have the right and ample advising even before they get here,” he said.
Fry said the university is awaiting results from an audit by the institute, which began as a result of Temple’s involvement in the University Innovation Alliance, a national group aimed at graduating more students from low-income families. The results are expected in early to mid-fall, he said, which likely will kick off a university-wide discussion on retention.
“That’s going to help us think about first-year experience, but many other topics beyond that regarding retention,” he said. “It’s going to be a real moment for us.”
Several new leaders who will be integral to improving student retention are joining Temple this summer, he said. They include Evelyn Thimba as vice president for enrollment management; Elizabeth “Libby” Wentz as provost; and Heather Servaty-Seib as vice provost for undergraduate education. They will join Jodi Bailey Accavallo, vice president for student affairs, who has been working on the issue.
The university also has aimed at improving its recruitment, admission, and support of transfer students, and that also has shown results, Boardman said. The university is using a more streamlined process for the transfer of credits, primarily from community colleges, he said.
“In this enrollment cycle, our transfer enrollments are up almost 100% from the previous year,” he said.
Students in the Pennsylvania State System of Higher Education will face a 4.3% tuition hike — the largest percentage increase in a decade — if the system does not get a boost in state funding.
PASSHE’s board of governors voted unanimously Thursday on the plan, which would enact the tuition increase if the system does not receive a 5%, or $31 million, increase in its state appropriation, which currently stands at $625 million. Gov. Shapiro has proposed flat funding for the system, and budget negotiations are continuing.
Tuition would rise to $8,338 annually, up $344 from $7,994.
“We’re all disappointed to … have to make this motion,” board chair Cynthia Shapira said. “We hope we do get the increase.”
The 10 universities in the system are Cheyney, West Chester, Commonwealth, East Stroudsburg, Indiana, Kutztown, Lock Haven, Millersville, Penn West, and Shippensburg. Collectively, they enrolled 83,005 students last academic year, when the system experienced its first enrollment increase in 15 years. About 90% of students are Pennsylvania residents.
The vote to increase tuition came one day after Temple University approved a budget thatincreased tuition an average of 3.4% for next year.
Rutgers University also on Thursday voted to increase tuition 3% for in-state and out-of-state students, which the school touted as its lowest increase in four years. Tuition for a typical in-state, full-time arts and sciences undergraduate will increase on average $448 for the year, rising from $14,933 to $15,381, the school said. Meals and housing on average will rise 4%, from $15,332 to $15,945.
Earlier this year, the University of Pennsylvaniaincreased its total costs by 3.8% for 2026-27. Pennsylvania State University, which approves tuition increases a year in advance, hiked tuition 2% for in-state students at University Park for 2026-27 and froze it for those attending Commonwealth campuses.
The resolution approved by the PASSHE board calls for the increase to be rolled back “if sufficient funding in state appropriation is received.”
System chancellor Christopher Fiorentino said the tuition increase would cover the $31 million gap if the system does not get the increase. The board of governors took the same action last year and did not roll back a 3.6% tuition hike because the state held its funding flat.
“We’re still really the most affordable four-year option that’s out there,” Fiorentino said in an interview before the meeting, comparing PASSHE schools to state-related universities like Temple and Penn State where tuition is more than twice that amount.
Until 2025, the system had kept tuition at the same rate for seven years; if it had enacted inflationary increases, tuition would be $1,800 higher now, Fiorentino said. Preceding the freeze, tuition hikes were 2.5% in 2016-17, 3.5% in 2017-18, and 3% in 2018-19.
Fiorentino said he continues to make the system’s case to legislators for more funding.
“Our graduates earn 65% more over their careers than people without college degrees, which is about a million dollars in lifetime earnings,” he said. “Ninety percent of our students are from Pennsylvania, and 80% of them take their first job in Pennsylvania after they graduate. Investing in the PASSHE system … is truly an investment in the workforce of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania.”
System to launch new ‘last dollar’ scholarships
The system also announced that beginning in fall 2027, it would provide “last dollar” scholarships to all Pennsylvania students who receive federal Pell and state Pennsylvania Higher Education Assistance Agency grants. For many students from the lowest-income families, the grants cover full tuition, but some families in the middle range who receive smaller amounts of aid are still on the hook for part of the cost, the chancellor said.
“They’re the ones that tend to get caught in a bind, and they’re the ones that we’ve been worried about,” he said. “We’re going to cover the balance of their tuition” and make sure they are not affected by future tuition increases.
Fiorentino said he hopes that donors will want to contribute to the effort so the level of aid can be expanded.
The new scholarship program, called the PASSHE Pledge, will not cover room and board or fees.
He did not have an estimate of how many students would qualify, but said system officials have been worried about losing them. And that would add to the enrollment decline at a time when the system, like other colleges, already is challenged by a shrinking pool of available high school students.
“We’re hoping this is going to increase our enrollment numbers,” Fiorentino said.
It is too early to predict fall enrollment, he said, but some of the system’s 10 universities are doing better with deposits than last year, some the same, and some a little worse.
“We’re cautiously optimistic that we’re going to be stable,” he said.
The system is partnering with community colleges to streamline the transfer process and concentrating on bringing students with some college credits and no degree back into the system, he said.
“We will continue to work hard to maintain and grow our enrollments,” he said.
Temple University approved a $1.3 billion operating budget Wednesday that includes an average 3.4% tuition hike for both in-state and out-of-state students and plans for about 40 layoffs.
Both the average tuition increase — which is for undergraduate and graduate students — and the number of layoffs are smaller than those implemented last year. The university raised tuition an average of 3.6% in 2025 and laid off 50 employees.
The layoffs, which will occur this week, constitute less than 1% of the university’s workforce. Temple officials did not elaborate on who was affected or which positions but said jobs across the university from senior levels to the operational ranks were considered. An effort was made to limit the impact on “student-facing” roles, said chief strategy officer and former interim provost David Boardman.
“The decision-making overwhelmingly was made at the local level, at the schools, colleges, and administrative units,” said Boardman, who is also dean of Temple’s College of Media and Communication.
Fry said last month that layoffs were “inevitable” as the university works to close a projected $85 million budget deficit for 2026-27. Temple, along with many peer institutions, faces enrollment declines and financial pressures as the available pool of high school students drops, public attitudes toward higher education change, and the number of international students declines following changes in federal policy.
The budget, approved without public discussion by the executive committee of Temple’s board of trustees, includes a projected deficit of $25.5 million.
“We have met our savings target, which is obviously imperative,” Fry said in an interview after the board meeting.
Fry had asked schools, colleges, and administrative units to cut a total of $60 million, a significant portion of which was accomplished through the elimination of 236 positions, he said. That is on top of 190 positions that were eliminated last year.
More than 80% of the positions cut this year came through voluntary retirements, including a faculty program that netted more than 70 takers, as well as resignations and the elimination of vacant positions. Layoffs accounted for the rest.
“Implementing these targeted budget reductions and undertaking other organizational realignments is a critical first step toward returning the university to a balanced budget over the next three years,” Fry said in a message to the campus community.
The university is working under a new budget model that will “allow us to better align our resources with our strategic plan,” Fry said.
While the majority of the $60 million reduction was due to the position eliminations, schools, colleges, and administrative units are implementing other efficiencies. Some of the colleges, for example, have reduced doctoral student admissions, Boardman said.
The university’s 27% decline in domestic enrollment since 2017 and increased financial aid costs have been the most significant factors causing the school’s budget pressures, Fry said. The loss of students has amounted to an average of more than $200 million in lost revenue annually, according to an internal Temple report obtained by The Inquirer in April.
That report said the school anticipated falling below an 80% retention rate this fall.
Temple’s U.S. enrollment stood at 29,503 last fall; projections for this fall are not yet available.
But Fry said in his campus message that the school has received a record number of deposits for first-year enrollment compared with last year and that deposits from transfer students are up over last year.
The school also plans to roll out a new “first-year experience” program to help improve the school’s freshman-to-sophomore retention rate, which fell from a high of 90% about a decade ago to 82% last fall.
Employees from student affairs, enrollment management, and academic affairs have worked on the redesign with support from the National Institute for Student Success diagnostic, Fry said.
“The teams have taken a comprehensive look at how students transition to Temple and identified where we can better support their success,” he said. “This work has helped us identify barriers and create a more coordinated approach to orientation, advising, communication, and student support.”
The efforts already are having an impact. Because of changes to orientation, 3,268 first-year students were registered for the fall as of July 5, compared with 2,407 students the same time last year, Fry said.
With the tuition increase, the new base rate for full-time students from Pennsylvania will rise to $20,376 annually and to $36,600 for out-of-state students. (Excluding Temple’s Japan campuses, 62% of students are Pennsylvania residents.) While the average increase is 3.4%, percentage increases fluctuate across Temple’s schools and majors, from a low of 2.9% to a high of 3.9%.
Tuition increases are typical; the University of Pennsylvania increased its total costs by 3.8% for 2026-27. Pennsylvania State University, which approves tuition increases a year in advance, hiked tuition 2% for in-state students at University Park for 2026-27 and froze it for those attending Commonwealth campuses.
At Temple, fees will rise $42, or 3.9%, to $1,098 annually. And room and board will increase 4%. Students in a typical double-occupancy room at Johnson and Hardwick residence hall with 12 meals per week will pay $15,094 for the year.
Temple said it also would increase its financial aid budget by nearly 7% over last year, to $196.1 million, to help students with need afford the university.
“We know that financial barriers can impact our students and prevent them from persisting,” David Marino, interim chief operating officer, said in a statement. “This year’s historic investment in financial aid is an investment in the success of our students.”
Correction: This story was updated to correct the number of first-year students who registered during last year’s orientation, due to incorrect information from Temple.
For 30 years, Nettie King, 92, has relied on Social Security to survive.
She and her former employers at the Oak Lane Diner near her home paid into Social Security through payroll taxes for years.
While the storied institution closed in 2015, the Social Security benefit checks that King’s work generated have kept coming. “It’s been comfortable,” explained King, who said she was the diner’s first server of color in 1963.
But now there’s a problem.
King is among 68 million Americans facing possible reductions of 22% to their benefits by 2032 unless Congress acts, according to a new report by Social Security Administration (SSA) trustees released last month.
Pennsylvania residents could lose an average of $520 each from their monthly Social Security checks, according to the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget, a nonpartisan think tank. That would affect an estimated 255,000 Philadelphians receiving Social Security benefits, according to Olivia Mitchell, director of the Boettner Center on Pensions and Retirement Research at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania.
“Losing that much would be a disaster,” King said. “I pray the money doesn’t stop.”
It won’t if Congress overcomes its partisan divide and creates a workable solution to make Social Security solvent, say advocates for the elderly — including AARP, whose senior vice president Bill Sweeney warned in a recent press call that “the longer they wait, the harder it gets.”
Speaking for the Trump administration, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said in a statement, “We are working to preserve Social Security … and recognize that more work remains to secure benefits for future beneficiaries.”
Someday soon
Analysts have long predicted the Old Age and Survivors Insurance trust fund from which most retired Social Security claimants draw benefits could dissipate, said Temple University labor economist Samuel Solomon. But that was always regarded as a “someday” event.
“Someday” may now be just six years away. “That’s a big deal,” Solomon said.
The SSA wouldn’t stop paying benefits altogether, Mitchell said. Although the report predicts the fund’s reserves could be tapped out by 2032, “continuing payroll tax revenue [from people currently working] would cover about 78% of scheduled retirement benefits,” she added.
At nearly $1.6 trillion annually, Social Security represents more than 20% of the U.S. budget and is the nation’s largest single expense, Solomon said.
Various factors have combined recently to accelerate the fund’s potential depletion, according to the report submitted by SSA trustees, who include Bessent, as well as Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
First, the fertility rate this year is going down faster than predicted: 1.75 children per woman vs. 1.9.
Also, immigration is lower than estimated. That trend will continue as the government maintains restrictive immigration policies, experts say. It represents a potentially immense loss of revenue, according to Wharton research, which shows that “unauthorized immigrants” paid $24 billion in Social Security payroll taxes in 2024, despite being ineligible to collect any benefits.
Both the slowed fertility and diminished immigration rates have lowered the anticipated number of workers and the payroll taxes they’d have contributed to Social Security, said Kathleen Romig, Social Security expert with the Center on Budget Priorities and Policies, a left-leaning research group.
The final factor, the trustees report said, is that the One Big Beautiful Bill Act that decreased income tax rates has reduced revenue that would’ve flowed into the program.
The SSA didn’t respond for requests to comment.
The Social Security system had been strained long before the trustees report. The giant baby boomer generation has been retiring since around 2011, siphoning millions from the program, Solomon said.
In 1950, when the first boomers were 4 years old, every 100 workers paid the Social Security benefits of 13 elderly people, Solomon said. Today, it’s 25 elderly people per 100 workers — “more responsibility on a single working person to support more retirees,” Solomon said.
That worries Doris Kitt, 81, of Jenkintown, a Social Security benefits recipient who still works at a South Jersey pediatric dental practice.
Doris Kitt talks with coworker Asia Bagby. Kitt, who is 81, still works and also collects Social Security benefits. Tom Gralish / Staff Photographer
“Less Social Security when rent and food continue to cost more is a challenge,” Kitt said.
‘Give me what I’m due’
Through the years, Republicans and Democrats have forwarded competing remedies for repairing Social Security.
GOP suggestions include raising the retirement age to 70, and privatizing the system.
Democrats call for raising payroll taxes and ending the payroll tax cap. (Currently, wages above $184,500 are not subject to Social Security taxes. Democrats would eliminate the cap so higher-income earners pay into the system on 100% of their earnings.)
In a statement, U.S. Rep. Brendan Boyle, a Northeast Philadelphia Democrat running for reelection in November against Republican challenger Jessica Arriaga, said the trustees report makes it clear that “we must act to protect Social Security benefits for all generations.“
He referenced a bill he introduced in May 2025 that would require Americans earning more than $400,000 to contribute a greater percentage of their wages to Social Security. It’s now before the House Ways and Means Committee.
U.S. Rep. Lloyd Smucker, a Republican representing Lancaster County, also issued a statement, saying Social Security could be fixed by a “bipartisan fiscal commission” to “build consensus” and eliminate depletions of benefits. Smucker is being opposed by Democrat Nancy Mannion in his bid for reelection.
“We must preserve the trust fund millions of Americans rely on and keep our promise to those who have been paying into the system their entire lives,” he said.
That covenant must be honored, said Shirley Stringfield, 70, a retired city worker from Germantown.
“I spent 55 years of my life paying into Social Security,” she said, “so I want them to give me my due. I expect to receive my benefits until I expire. I need every cent.”
Bill Wine, 81, of Philadelphia, three-time Mid-Atlantic Emmy Award-winning film and TV critic, retired tenured associate professor of TV and film at La Salle University, onetime freelance TV critic for the Daily News, freelance writer, playwright, and popular lecturer, died Sunday, June 14, of complications from Parkinson’s disease at his home in Chestnut Hill.
The son of two part-time amateur actors and a lifelong devotee of theater, film, TV, writing, and teaching, Mr. Wine was a film critic for WTXF-TV, Channel 29, for 12 years and KYW radio for 17 years. Known for his pithy, witty, and often acerbic reviews, and a breezy conversational style of writing, he worked at Channel 29 from 1990 to 2002 and KYW from 2001 to 2018.
“Bill Wine was a character out of a Neil Simon comedy, more Oscar than Felix,” said Carrie Rickey, former Inquirer movie critic. “You didn’t have to wait long for the punchline.”
Mr. Wine’s film reviews on Channel 29 were often funny and entertaining. Channel 29
At Channel 29, Mr. Wine was nominated for eight regional Emmy Awards for commentary and writing, and won three. He appeared regularly on the station’s Ten O’Clock News, in primetime movie preview and review programs, and later on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays on Good Day Philadelphia.
By 1990, he had already written hundreds of freelance film reviews for the Daily News and Courier-Post, done radio reviews for WPEN, and taught a variety of classes about film and writing for a decade at La Salle. So, despite no previous TV experience, he was hired at Channel 29 over 60 other film critic applicants.
“I had never been on TV, but I wasn’t nervous,” he told the Daily News in 2001, “because I had been standing in front of 100 students for 10 years.”
Mr. Wine worked at at WTXF-TV, Channel 29, for 12 years.Courtesy of the family
He started at KYW radio in 2001 and usually aired reviews and reports on Thursdays, Fridays, and Saturdays. Sometimes, he watched three movies in one day. He left Channel 29 in 2002 and KYW in 2018 only after both companies eliminated their local film critic position.
“When I started [writing film reviews], it was before the internet,” he told The Inquirer in 2018. “A lot of people [now] feel like, ‘Who the heck is a movie critic to come on in a minute and to dismiss something that took hundreds of people and millions of dollars to create?’”
In the 1970s and ‘80s, he wrote articles and reviewed films, TV shows, books, and plays for WPEN, The Inquirer, Courier-Post, Philadelphia Magazine, and other outlets. In 1975, he wrote dozens of freelance TV columns called “On the Air” for the Daily News.
Mr. Wine wrote dozens of columns as a freelance TV critic for the Daily News in 1975.Newspapers.com
He spent three years in California in the 1970s working on plays and film and TV scripts. He hobnobbed with famous writers, producers, and actors in Los Angeles, staged one of his own plays, and was a winning contestant on a new TV game show.
He wrote 11 plays over the years, and several made it to the stage. “Now the people who disagree with my reviews can come and find out if I’m as dumb as they think I am,” he told The Inquirer in 2002.
He aired reviews on WIP radio and lectured often at libraries, schools, community centers, theaters, and other venues about his favorite films, adapting books to film, and other topics.“He could be wickedly funny, especially when delivering a pan of a movie,” his family said in a tribute. “One of his favorite quotes was: ‘I had a bad seat. It was facing the screen.’”
Mr. Wine was a prolific playwright who enjoyed table readings with family and friends. La Shina Clark / Staff Photographer
Mr. Wine earned a bachelor’s degree in math at Drexel University and a master’s degree in communications at Temple University. He helped design La Salle’s nascent Communication Department in the 1980s, and school officials called him one of their “Founding Fathers.” He also taught briefly at Drexel, and came close to earning a doctorate at Temple.
In 2001, he was featured in a Daily News story about “celebrity professors” and said: “You have to remind yourself that this is television, not the classroom. You mention, say, ‘film noir’ on TV, and you get a memo.”
William David Wine was born June 21, 1944, in Germantown. He grew up in West Oak Lane and Cherry Hill, attended Central High School, and graduated from the old Cherry Hill High School.
A story and this photo of Mr. Wine about his time as a professor at La Salle appeared in the Daily News in 2001.Newspapers.com
As a boy, he devoured newspaper movie reviews and fell in love with film after seeing Alfred Hitchcock’s 1954 thriller Rear Window. He got positive reviews of his own freelance movie review when he was at Temple, and he knew then, he said later, that writing about movies was his creative niche.
He married Dina Lichtman, and they divorced later. He married Suzanne Monsalud in 1981, and they had daughters Simone and Paulina, and lived in Germantown, Wyncote, and Chestnut Hill.
Mr. Wine and his wife, Suzanne, married in 1981.Courtesy of the family
Together, Mr. Wine and his family traveled to Paris and London, and he and his wife honeymooned in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. He doted on his daughters and sometimes took them to his La Salle classroom, the Channel 29 TV set, and movie screenings.
Friends, former colleagues, and former students called him “a force of nature,” “smart and gifted,” and “a rare combination of kindness, professionalism, and humor.” His daughter Simone said: “His humor, warmth, and presence made life brighter.”
Mr. Wine played tennis, third base on adult softball teams, and pickup basketball into his 70s. He followed the Phillies, 76ers, and Eagles closely, and hit tennis balls with Hall of Famer Rod Laver at a publicity event in Los Angeles.
Mr. Wine and his family made memorable trips to Paris, London, and elsewhere. Courtesy of the family
“He was a wonderful father and a dedicated teacher,” his wife said. “He was a real Philadelphian, and we complemented each other.”
His daughter Paulina said: “Dad, I think you cracked the code. We’ll see you at the movies.”
Editor’s note: The patient has been identified, Temple officials said Wednesday afternoon.
Temple Health seeks help from the community identifying a patient at its main hospital in North Philadelphia.
The health system on Wednesday released a photo of the patient, who appears to be in his 50s and was admitted to Temple University Hospital on June 8. Ithopes to locate his friends and family.
Danny’s Guitar Shop, an independent guitar store and lesson center run by musician Dan Gold, closed its doors after 17 years in downtown Narberth.
Over nearly two decades, Gold forged connections along the Main Line, sold guitars to celebrities, brought outdoor music to Narberth’s streets, and, briefly, starred in a TV show that drew on his talents as a self-proclaimed “kibitzer.”
Gold, 72, said retirement was already on his mind when his landlord raised the rent beyond what Gold could pay. Danny’s officially closed at the end of May. As Gold prepares for the next chapter, which will be filled with swimming, traveling, and playing bassin Broken Arrow, his Neil Young cover band, he said his time in Narberth was “just perfect.”
The former storefront of Danny’s Guitar Shop in Narberth. Tyger Williams / Staff Photographer
Gold opened Danny’s Guitar Shop in June 2009, right as the country had begun to dig itself out of the Great Recession. Guitar store Medley Music of Bryn Mawr had closed the year prior, and Center City’s 8th Street Music had moved across the bridge to New Jersey, leaving a vacuum for guitar lovers in Philly’s western suburbs.
Gold, a Newtown Square resident, grew up in Havertown and graduated from Haverford High School and Temple University. He started his career as a schoolteacher before taking a gig as a district sales manager for Fender Guitars, traveling across the region, from rural Pennsylvania to North Jersey, selling instruments and accoutrements.
Though it was risky to open a brick-and-mortar store at the heels of the financial crisis, Gold was bullish on the prospect. His mentors told him that as long as he ran guitar lessons, he’d be able to pay the rent. Gold had always loved Narberth’s “very distinct, charming personality” and was smitten with the Forrest Avenue storefront right away, with its ample natural light and welcoming front porch.
When Danny’s opened in 2009, the Main Line Times described it as having promptly “established itself as that rare kind of clubhouse — the kind where everybody’s allowed in.”
Over the years, the storefront’s shaded porch became the site of dozens of guitar recitals and summer evening jam sessions. Narberth residents gathered outside of Danny’s to talk about the news and the neighborhood gossip, and Gold always had treats for local dogs. Gold helped bring live music to Narberth during First Fridays and the annual July Fourth celebration. Ahead of a recital last fall, Gold posted on Facebook: “Students playin’ on the porch this Sunday 3:00! Bring a chair and come hang out!”
“Danny is loved around here and for good reason,” said Ed Ridgway, president of the Narberth Business Association, who took guitar lessons at Danny’s.
Ridgway described Danny’s as resembling an“old-timey barbershop.” If you asked Ridgway to make a list of 10 things that define Narberth’s downtown, he said Danny‘swould be on the list.
“He was just such a good presence in Narberth,” said Tracy Tumolo, owner of Narberth art and gift shop Sweet Mabel Store.
“This place,” Gold said. “It just fit me like a glove.”
Danny Gold (center) pictured at Danny’s Guitar Shop in Narberth in 2018 with partners Larry Freedman (left) and Ron Stanford. LAURENCE KESTERSON / Staff Photographer
Every once in a while, a star or two would stop into Danny’s Guitar Shop while visiting the area or prepping for a show at Ardmore Music Hall. The Eagles’ Timothy B. Schmit bought a few guitars and gave Gold backstage passes when the band played Atlantic City. Wilco’s John Stirratt stopped by, as did Dweezil Zappa, Frank Zappa’s son. Tumolo said Gold always encouraged them to shop at Narberth’s other businesses.
In 2014, Gold starred in a 13-episode series on WHYY-TV’s YArts cable channel, which aimed “to do for guitars what Anthony Bourdain has done” for international cuisine or ”Mike Rowe for the art of cleaning septic tanks,” according to an Inquirer story from the time. In the series, Gold explored the origins of Klezmer music, interviewed the scholar who wrote the definitive book on the history of the accordion, and spent quality time with electric guitar giant Paul Reed Smith.
Lessons were the biggest part of Gold’s business model at Danny’s, as his mentors predicted. He did a large consignment and secondhand business, as well, as he was mostly selling to first-time and beginner players.
“The lessons made me a destination store. It’s never like I carried away wheelbarrows full of money, but we were able to make a modest living and enjoy doing what we were doing,” Gold said.
Like many brick-and-mortar merchants, Gold said it became more difficult over time to keep up with the ubiquitous online marketplace. Consumers can now buy any model of guitar, in any color, at any time. Music stores across the countryhave shuttered in recent years, pointing to online shopping as a factor in their decline.
On one hand, Gold feels somewhat liberated from the day-to-day responsibilities of running his namesake storefront. On the other hand, there’s a lot he’ll miss — the people, the borough, watching the neighborhood kids grow up.
At the end of the day, Gold said, “It’s been a great run.”
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Daniel Martino didn’t set out to build an empire of pie shops. He just wanted somewhere to get coffee without leaving the neighborhood.
When he bought his home in Port Richmond in 2013, the closest coffee shop was an hour round trip, he said. “Selfishly, I thought, I can put a little coffee shop here.”
The takeout window at Little Susie’s flagship location at 2532 E. Lehigh Ave.Jessica Griffin / Staff Photographer
And what goes better with a cup of coffee than pie? He had a recipe he’d been baking for family get-togethers.
Seven years after Martino opened Little Susie’s Coffee & Pie in the building next door to his house, his modest idea has grown into four Philadelphia locations, with a fifth expected to open Friday at the former Pop’s Bun Shop in Bella Vista, a franchise headed to Milwaukee, and plans for additional shops in Fairmount and Northern Liberties. All his stores run from takeout windows, requiring little more than coffee stations and electric ovens.
Today, the company employs 28 people and turns out about 1,200 pies a day from a bakery occupying two cramped rooms in the corner rowhouse on Lehigh Avenue.
Owner Daniel Martino with trays of pies at Little Susie’s.Jessica Griffin / Staff Photographer
Martino, 46, who grew up in Northeast Philadelphia, has spent much of his working life around food. As a teenager, he worked at a swim club snack bar before taking a kitchen job at what is now Jefferson Torresdale Hospital.
After studying film at Temple University, he joined Public House Investments, which ran City Tap House, as a DJ before becoming the hospitality company’s creative director, designing menus, logos, ads, and marketing material.
When the property next door to his house became available, Martino said he used a home-equity line of credit to buy it before securing a Small Business Administration loan to renovate it.
The takeout window at Little Susie’s. Hand-lettered signs advertise the specials.Jessica Griffin / Staff Photographer
By the time Little Susie’s opened in December 2019, he said, “I had maxed out every credit card I had. I even had to go to the bank, hat in hand, and sign a signature loan for the last $10,000 just to get it open.”
His shop offered a simple menu, little more than coffees and lattes and four kinds of pies. There was a counter for seating. The first day brought in about $180, and “it was the greatest day of my life,” Martino said.
Then the pandemic arrived. When COVID-19 restrictions shut down indoor dining, Little Susie’s shifted to window service. Customers called in orders, paid over the phone, and picked up coffee and pies outside. Even after restrictions were lifted, the shop never reopened indoors.
It wasn’t what Martino had imagined. His idea was ”Cheers with coffee — the neighbors and the mailman talking about the weather,” he said.
Instead, customers embraced the walk-up model and the seating at a picnic table beneath a maple tree. The pies especially quickly caught on. The signature is the crust. Rather than trimming away the excess dough, workers twist it around each pie by hand, creating what Martino calls “a fluffiness that the fork doesn’t provide — that flaky tenderness you want in a pie crust. The twist is its own special treat in and of itself.”
Owner Daniel Martino (rear, right) with staff and pies at Little Susie’s, set up in a rowhouse.Jessica Griffin / Staff Photographer
The pies, which are baked and not fried, are made with a simple crust of flour, butter, sugar, and salt. It’s a 48-hour process. Dough is mixed at the company’s Kensington location, where a 20-quart mixer runs nearly all day. The dough rests for 24 hours before it is brought to Port Richmond, where it is sheeted, filled, twisted, frozen, and delivered to the other stores to be baked to order.
Little Susie’s first menu included only blueberry, pork roll, apple, and mushroom Swiss fillings. Today, it offers about a dozen varieties, with eight available year-round and others rotating seasonally. “You can practically throw anything in this pie crust,” Martino said. “I haven’t been disappointed yet.”
Pies at Little Susie’s.Jessica Griffin / Staff Photographer
Pork roll remains the top seller, followed by apple, and a sausage, egg, and cheese breakfast pie encrusted with everything bagel seasoning. Seasonal flavors have included ham and Brie, chocolate-covered strawberry, and Cajun crab and corn. None are gluten-free because of the shop’s limitations, he said.
Not every idea works. “We tried to make a cannoli pie, but the cream just melted right out,” he said.
Each shop sells 200 to 300 pies a day. The production kitchen now employs 11 bakers, who track production on a whiteboard nicknamed “the Pieble.” Each variety get its own knife mark on top; an inverted V, for example, denotes mushroom Swiss.
The “Pieble” at Little Susie’s, the flagship pie takeout place located at 2532 E. Lehigh Ave., in Philadelphia, June 24, 2026.Jessica Griffin / Staff Photographer
Lena Hurchick, who has worked at Little Susie’s for three years, said she enjoys “the competition of filling all the shops” and watching customers eat pies she helped make.
“Susie” was the name of the dog that belonged to the former owner of the building. “When we had the community meeting here, I said, ‘I’m thinking Little Susie’s,’ and people started crying,” he said.
Lena Hurchick crimps mushroom pies at Little Susie’s.Jessica Griffin / Staff Photographer
Expansion has brought complications. A planned Fairmount location was nearly ready to open before the city determined that the property required zoning approval for food sales. “The city does not make it easy,” he said, adding that it will take months to get onto the zoning board’s calendar.
Even so, he expects the company to keep growing. He has a handshake deal for a spot in Northern Liberties. Milwaukee is planned as the first franchise — operated by a friend — while Martino has begun thinking about a larger bakery in Philadelphia.
“We’re basically bursting at the seams,” he said. “We’re probably going to need a 10,000-square-foot facility.”
Owner Daniel Martino at Little Susie’s.Jessica Griffin / Staff Photographer
He wants that growth to remain slow enough that the pies are still made fresh every day. “I don’t want to get too far away from making them every day, because then it just becomes some frozen-food empire,” he said.
Little Susie’s Coffee & Pies’ locations are at 2532 E. Lehigh Ave. in Port Richmond, Second and Chestnut Streets in Old City, 1772 N. Front St. in Kensington, and 1754 S. Chadwick St. in Point Breeze. A fifth, at 800 S. Ninth St. in Bella Vista, is due to open Friday. Hours are 7 a.m. to 2 p.m. daily.
