As Anfernee Simons was discussing the first day of training camp for the 76ers, the noise from outside the Sixers practice facility began getting louder.
The sound of a helicopter mixed in with the soft-spoken responses from Simons, and there could not have been a more obvious metaphor for what awaits the Sixers this season. The external chatter, or noise, will be loud; the Sixers have to deal with it.
The helicopter was there to whisk LeBron James away as he will split his time between Philadelphia and New York while at home this season. James himself acknowledged at media day Monday that his arrival comes with a lot of noise, noise that will be “doubled, tripled and quadrupled now that I’m here,” he said.
He wasn’t talking about actual decibel levels, but that also increased in the gym Tuesday.
“Ultimate professional,” Simons said of James. “I think he’s built that for 20-plus years now. You hear the stories about him being here early, getting his work done, and saw that today. He was here already getting warmed up by the time I walked through the door. Just speaks to how he’s able to play like this for 24 years.”
The helicopter was one part of what was hardly a typical practice day for the Sixers. Dozens of media members attended Tuesday with camera operators lined up in a small hallway just outside the practice courts, waiting for the door to open so they could rush at practice’s end to get the best spot to film interviews.
Leaving Sixers practice today. As LeBron walked outside toward the building. Two plus two? pic.twitter.com/YRRYZRVG1X
But so many were present that the Sixers called an audible before coach Nick Nurse spoke post-practice and moved their media setup away from the corner of the facility to create more space for the assembled horde to circle around Nurse.
“It’s going to be different,” Nurse said of the attention. “Just … more people, more eyes, more stories, more national TV, all that kind of stuff. I mean, it’s the same. It’s just a little more, right?”
When the team let reporters in for the last few minutes to watch players go through individual workouts, James and some of the other big names, like Joel Embiid and Jaylen Brown, had left the floor, a slight disappointment for those hoping to catch some B-roll of the stars working out.
Sixers coach Nick Nurse said he understands the team will experience ups and downs. Jose F. Moreno / Staff Photographer
No one is under any illusions that the Sixers will be under the media and social media microscope, the kind of pressure cooker that examines every interaction and dissects body language looking for internal points of friction.
“I’m just trying to get to the practice floor and to the game floor. If we can do those two things, all that other stuff, we just kind of handle it as smoothly as we can,” Nurse said. “We understand there’ll be some ups and downs. Let’s look out for each other. Let’s connect if there’s any bumpy stuff happening outside this wall, let’s get back in between the lines and let’s get to work.”
To Simons, blocking out the proverbial noise means not letting the outside world define what the expectations are for this team.
“Focus on our goals that we got inside this building,” Simons said. “Everybody’s gonna set outside expectations on us, but if we fulfill our own expectations that we set for ourselves, and focus on that, I think we’ll be fine.”
As James pointed out this week, that will take “honest conversations” and “doing things that [are] uncomfortable.” He also mentioned how he spoke to Tyrese Maxey before joining the team and asked if he thought his personality would be a good fit with the franchise.
“Because I understand my personality and what comes with me,” James said. “Sometimes it can be a negative. You know, I understand some people maybe can’t handle what I may bring to the table, and I was just … asking all the questions that I could ask to him.”
As the helicopter noise faded, Simons finished his media session a few minutes later. The team took down its interview setup, and the gym was quiet. Day one of practice was in the books, a few hundred more to go.
ATLANTA — The only thing dead in the Phillies dugout was the stare from the guy who is now their brightest hope. All around him, Cristopher Sánchez’s stunned Phillies teammates gathered their belongings and shuffled toward the clubhouse tunnel in the wake of a come-from-behind 5-3 win by the Braves. But Sánchez remained, his eyes locked on the pitching rubber at Truist Park.
“Just looking out at the mound,” Phillies designated Kyle Schwarber said later, a gleam in his eye.
The Phillies competitive advantage in this best-of-three wild-card Series was always going to be Game 2. That was true before they nearly stole Game 1 with a two-run go-ahead triple by J.T. Realmuto off Didier Fuentes in the seventh inning. It remains true now, even after Austin Riley stole the game back with a three-run home run off Jhoan Duran in the eighth.
Win Game 2 with your ace on the mound. Find a way in Game 3. That was the most likely formula heading into the series. It is the only formula now.
“We knew we had to win two out of three, we knew it wasn’t going to be easy,” Realmuto said. “Losing Game 1 isn’t going to deter us at all.”
The history is daunting, sure. Since MLB expanded its playoff format to include the best-of-three wild-card series, the winner of Game 1 has gone on to win the series 21 out of 24 times.
Yet few of those teams had a pitcher like Sánchez starting Game 2. The veteran lefty enters the postseason fresh off a second straight Cy Young-caliber season, with a 2.91 ERA in 207 innings and a career-best strikeout rate of 10.0 batters per nine innings. Sánchez has faced the Braves twice this season, holding them to three runs in 12 innings with 13 strikeouts and four walks. Over the last two seasons, he has posted a 2.19 ERA in four starts against Atlanta.
That Sánchez has never faced Atlanta in the postseason is a testament to his meteoric rise over the last few seasons. In 2022 and 2023, when the Phillies twice knocked off the Braves in the National League Division Series, Sánchez pitched a total of 2⅓ postseason innings, all of them in the 2023 NL Championship Series against the Diamondbacks. By last October, he had become their ace, holding the Dodgers to three runs in 12 innings with 13 strikeouts and three walks in the Phillies’ four-game NLDS loss.
This year, there is nobody they’d rather have on the mound.
Philadelphia Phillies second baseman Bryson Stott (left) jogs off the field after the final out as the Atlanta Braves relief pitcher Raisel Iglesias (center) celebrates their win with Atlanta Braves catcher Drake Baldwin (right).Yong Kim / Staff PhotographerPhiladelphia Phillies relief pitcher Jhoan Duran reacts after giving up a three-run homer to the Atlanta Braves Austin Riley in the eighth inning.Yong Kim / Staff PhotographerAtlanta Braves Austin Riley celebrates his three-run homer in the eighth inning.Yong Kim / Staff PhotographerPhiladelphia Phillies relief pitcher Jhoan Duran reacts after giving up a three-run homer to the Atlanta Braves Austin Riley in the eighth inning.Yong Kim / Staff PhotographerPhiladelphia Phillies relief pitcher Jhoan Duran reacts after catching a line drive off the bat of Atlanta Braves Matt Olson in the eighth inning.Yong Kim / Staff PhotographerPhiladelphia Phillies relief pitcher Jhoan Duran pitches against the Atlanta Braves in the seventh inning.Yong Kim / Staff PhotographerPhiladelphia Phillies Bryson Stott celebrates after he scores in the seventh inning.Yong Kim / Staff PhotographerPhiladelphia Phillies Bryan De La Cruz (right) celebrates with Bryson Stott after they both scored on J.T. Realmuto hit in the seventh inning.Yong Kim / Staff PhotographerPhiladelphia Phillies catcher J.T. Realmuto knocks in two runs in the seventh inning.Yong Kim / Staff PhotographerPhiladelphia Phillies Bryson Stott singles in the seventh inning.Yong Kim / Staff PhotographerPhiladelphia Phillies Derek Hill reaches for a ball of the bat of Atlanta Braves second baseman Ozzie Albies in the sixth inning.Yong Kim / Staff PhotographerPhiladelphia Phillies Alex McFarlane pitches against the Atlanta Braves in the sixth inning.Yong Kim / Staff PhotographerPhiladelphia Phillies Bryce Harper strikes out in the sixth inning.Yong Kim / Staff PhotographerPhiladelphia Phillies Kyle Schwarber singles in the sixth inning.Yong Kim / Staff PhotographerPhiladelphia Phillies catcher J.T. Realmuto strikes out to end the fifth inning.Yong Kim / Staff PhotographerPhiladelphia Phillies second baseman Edmundo Sosa celebrates his fifth inning double.Yong Kim / Staff PhotographerPhiladelphia Phillies starting pitcher Jesus Luzardo delivers a pitch against the Atlanta Braves in the fourth inning.Yong Kim / Staff PhotographerPhiladelphia Phillies starting pitcher Jesus Luzardo reacts to the third out in the third inning.Yong Kim / Staff PhotographerAtlanta Braves Ha-Seong Kim tags Philadelphia Phillies shortstop Trea Turner as he tries to steal second base in the third inning.Yong Kim / Staff PhotographerPhiladelphia Phillies starting pitcher Jesus Luzardo (left) and Philadelphia Phillies catcher J.T. Realmuto (center) talks as pitching coach Caleb Cotham makes a visit after the Phillies game up a run to the Atlanta Braves.Yong Kim / Staff PhotographerAtlanta Braves starting pitcher Chris Sale pitches in the first inning.Yong Kim / Staff PhotographerPhiladelphia Phillies starting pitcher Jesus Luzardo pitches against the Atlanta Braves in the first inning.Yong Kim / Staff PhotographerPhiladelphia Phillies Kyle Schwarber and Derek Hill (right) celebrate after Schwarber scores on an Alec Bohm double in the first inning.Yong Kim / Staff PhotographerPhiladelphia Phillies Alec Bohm hits a RBI double in the first inning.Yong Kim / Staff PhotographerPhiladelphia Phillies Bryce Harper (right) and Trea Turner greet each other before the start of game 1.Yong Kim / Staff Photographer
“The playoffs are momentum-based it seems like, and really momentum starts with your starting pitcher,” interim manager Don Mattingly. “It’s just a game at that point.”
Clearly, Game 1 was an opportunity squandered. It could very well prove decisive, especially if Duran’s 27-pitch workload in the seventh and eighth innings impacts his availability or effectiveness moving forward. Both Mattingly and Duran said afterward that they would wait and see about his availability for Game 2. Therein lies the most valid criticism of the manager’s strategy in Game 1. If you are going to risk Duran being unavailable behind Sánchez in Game 2, you’d better make sure you win Game 1.
They could have. That was surely Mattingly’s mindset, even if it would have left him still needing some other pitcher to save the game in the ninth.
The Braves had their guy on the mound, having won five of Chris Sale’s last six starts against the Phillies, all primarily because of him. The Phillies were forced to start Jesús Luzardo rather than Zack Wheeler, who would have been on the mound had they clinched a playoff berth sooner than Game 162. They nearly transcended those circumstances.
Luzardo was magnificent, facing the top of the Braves’ order three times and throwing 77 pitches in five innings despite entering the game having thrown just four pitches since returning from a 20-day stint on the injured list. The Phillies took a 1-0 lead in the first inning on an RBI double by Alec Bohm. Luzardo gave up a leadoff double to Mauricio Dubón in the bottom of the second, which eventually led to a game-tying run. It was the only run Luzardo allowed.
While the Braves briefly retook the lead on an Ozzie Albies triple off rookie setup man Alex MacFarlane in the sixth, the Phillies answered loudly with Realmuto’s two-run triple to the right field corner in the seventh.
Jesús Luzardo delivered five innings for the Phillies on Tuesday in Atlanta.Yong Kim / Staff Photographer
It sure felt like we’d seen this sort of thing before. For eight innings, all of it was there. The demon lurking in the corners of their minds, memories of postseasons past. Three losses in four games in 2022. Three losses in four games in 2023. Orlando Arcia poking the bear. Realmuto racing around the bases for an inside the park home run in 2022. This was the postseason and it was the Phillies and it was the Braves and thus, all of it felt as if it’d already been written.
And then it didn’t. One swing of the bat was all that it took. It came in a manner that, from the other dugout, felt like an exorcism. Two on, two out, one-run lead, Duran on the mound, the Phillies four outs away from stealing a Game 1 win on Tuesday in which everything seemed to be going right.
“You know, everyone walks away from that game and everyone says what if,” Schwarber said. “The what ifs go away when you leave here. Everyone’s focused on the task at hand tomorrow.”
After being boxed in by two cars, rear-ended by a U-Haul truck, and punched in the face through his car’s open window, a man driving to Philadelphia on I-76 said he heard Samuel Marquez say a few words that filled him with dread.
“Go get my knife.”
The man testified Tuesday at Marquez’s preliminary hearing that, fearing for his life, he crawled out the window of his damaged Mercedes-Benz and called 911 from a median on the Blue Route in Lower Merion after taking the exit from I-76.
And while trying to read the license plate of one of the vehicles involved in the four-car crash Sept. 6, the man said, he felt a blow to his side. At first, he said, he thought Marquez had punched him. Then he saw the blood.
Marquez, 40, of Kensington, was held for trial on charges of aggravated assault and related crimes in the alleged road-rage stabbing, which left the victim with a 2-inch wound to his lower abdomen, as well as a shallow slash to his left arm.
Marquez’s attorney, Andrew Levin, said afterward that, given the chaotic nature of the fight on the highway, it was unclear who held the knife that stabbed the victim: The melee involved Marquez, as well as his nephew, his girlfriend, and another male relative.
“You have multiple vehicles involved, and what I believe is a mutual physical altercation,” Levin said. “It’s clear that the complaining witness got stabbed. I don’t think it’s clear by who.”
Assistant District Attorney Robert George said the evidence was clear that Marquez was the one holding the knife, which investigators later recovered, still covered in the victim’s blood, from behind a Sunoco where he parked the U-Haul.
That truck was part of a caravan of vehicles, including a Toyota Sienna minivan and an Acura SUV, whose drivers were heading to Philadelphia to help Marquez move to the city from Reading, according to the affidavit of probable cause for his arrest.
During the trip, a minivan driven by Marquez’s girlfriend had engine trouble, and the group pulled onto the highway’s shoulder to fix it, the affidavit said.
When they merged back onto the road, they cut closely in front of a Mercedes-Benz, the driver of which told police he honked his horn and drove around the group.
The man testified Tuesday that Marquez was driving aggressively, veering into his lane and gesturing at him as he drove. The other vehicles connected to Marquez tried to pass him, he said, but he did not allow them to do so. He also brake-checked the U-Haul to get it off his tail.
“Wouldn’t you, if you thought something bad was going to happen?” the man testified.
Eventually, the man took the exit onto a ramp connecting I-76 with I-476, known as the Blue Route. As he did so, the U-Haul intentionally rammed his vehicle, while the minivan and SUV drove past and stopped in front of him, he said.
The fight, and eventual stabbing, broke out afterward, and Marquez fled in the U-Haul.
He was later arrested at Memorial Park in Bryn Mawr. The knife police believe he used in the stabbing was found nearby.
At the time of the highway stabbing, Marquez had an active arrest warrant out of Delaware County in connection with the gunpoint robbery of a Royal Farms gas station in Upper Chichester in November 2022.
In that case, Marquez plotted the robbery with Elizabeth Serrano, his girlfriend, who worked at the store as a cashier, according to the affidavit of probable cause for his arrest.
Serrano pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit robbery and a related crime in 2024, and served a year in county jail, court records show.
Marquez remained in custody in the road-rage case with bail set at $1 million. He will be arraigned in Montgomery County Court in November.
The parents of a nonverbal autistic 10-year-old who was among the students the Central Bucks School District has said were abused in an elementary school classroom in 2024 have filed a lawsuit against the district and nearly a dozen former and current employees.
James Pepper, a former school board member, and his wife, Lisa Pepper, say their son’s “horrific abuses” at Jamison Elementary School amounted to a “calculated pattern of debasement” that district and school leadership failed to report as part of a “concerted cover-up.”
The bulk of the 92-page complaint, filed Tuesday in federal court in Philadelphia, outlines events that began in fall 2024, when a special education aide reported the abuse. Her allegations rocked Pennsylvania’s third-largest district, spurring an investigation by a disability rights watchdog, a public outcry, and a series of terminations that included the district’s superintendent.
Now, the Peppers are suing Central Bucks, as well as former Superintendent Steven Yanni, former Jamison principal David Heineman, other former district administrators, the special education teacher and educational assistant accused of misconduct, and teachers union representatives.
The district continued to endanger the child after learning about the abuse, and the alleged “cover-up” was motivated by James Pepper’s position as a board member and history of advocacy, the suit says.
“This case involves an extraordinary betrayal of a child who depended entirely on the adults around him for his safety, education, and care,” M. Stewart Ryan, the attorney representing the parents, said in a statement.
Central Bucks spokesperson Michael Petitti said in a statement that the district “has acknowledged what occurred” in that classroom.
Petitti said the district “took the actions within its power” to discipline employees, including firing Yanni, Heineman, and the former special education director, Alyssa Wright. It also “fully litigated” terminations of the teacher and educational assistant, Petitti said, and “implemented significant changes at Jamison Elementary School to make sure that nothing like this ever happens again.”
“The district understands that none of these actions can change what happened,” Petitti said.
The allegations
District officials learned about the allegations in November 2024 from Alyssa Kline, who was assigned as the one-on-one aide for the Peppers’ child.
Kline said special education teacher Gabrielle McDaniel and educational assistant Rachel Aussprung had improperly restrained and punished the Peppers’ child, among other forms of abuse.
The abuse included “nearly 3,000 illegal restraints … water restriction, corporal punishment, forced exposure to nudity and sexual self-stimulation, screaming, mocking, belittling, and concealment of a head injury in a series of events that were intended to, and indeed did, dehumanize” the boy, the lawsuit says.
The nonverbal child could not share his experience in school, and his parents were not initially informed of the accusations, the suit says. The district reassigned Kline days after she made the allegations, telling the Peppers the reason for the change was a “personal conflict” between the aide and classroom staff, according to the complaint.
The Peppers learned about the allegations of abuse only in December, when Kline reached out to share what she had reported with the parents, the suit says.But in an official letter that month, the district said its investigation found “no evidence of abuse.”
Members of the public watch the joint termination hearing of Central Bucks Superintendent Steven Yanni and Jamison Elementary School Principal David Heineman in August 2025.Fallon Roth / Staff
School board members initially stood by district officials, who noted police had not found any abuse. But that changed in April 2025, when a report from the watchdog group Disability Rights Pennsylvania found that the teacher and assistant had illegally restrained students, creating a “reasonable likelihood of bodily injury” and likely interfering with their breathing, among other abusive behaviors.
It also faulted Yanni and other administrators for failing to adequately investigate the allegations, and accused Yanni of withholding information from police.
Yanni, now the CEO of Northwood Charter School in Philadelphia, did not respond to a request for comment.
A lawyer for Heineman did not return a request for comment. Neither did a lawyer for McDaniel and Aussprung, who have sued the district since their terminations. Wright, whose lawyer did not return a request for comment, has also sued the district, saying she was scapegoated.
The Peppers’ lawsuit says district and teachers union officials, whom Kline also informed, failed to report the abuse.
Cara Alderfer, the union president, declined to comment Tuesday.
The ‘cover-up’
The Peppers’ lawsuit alleges a sprawling cover-up that started the moment Kline made the allegations.
The accused teacher and assistant were not removed from the classroom, and the district recommended thatMcDaniel or Aussprung take the Peppers’ child to therapy sessionsafter Kline was reassigned, according to the complaint.
The district did not turn over an email outlining Kline’s allegations to Disability Rights Pennsylvania, the suit says.
Yanni and other officials “were actively engaged in a conspiracy to bury the reports of child abuse they had received,” the complaint says.
The complaint blames a few factors as motivatingthe alleged “cover-up.”
And the district was motivated to retaliate against Pepper — then the only Republican on the board — for stances he had previously taken against the district, the suit says.
The actions of the school district and its employees deprived the Peppers’ son of “safety, liberty, and bodily integrity,” the complaint says.
“It is devastating to learn that our son was treated this way by the very people we trusted to care for and protect him,” the Pepper family said in a statement. “Our son and entire family have been changed forever. This can never happen again to another child.”
Surrounded by government officials with fishing rods, Nancy MacGregor proved herself to be the master angler of the afternoon at the 103-acre Newton Lake Park on Tuesday.
MacGregor, president of the Oaklyn Borough Council, pulled in a four-inch fish and, with a shocked look, asked what to do next. Camden County Commissioner Director Louis Cappelli Jr., who spent time as a kid fishing in the park that runs through Oaklyn, Collingswood, and Haddon Township, removed the tiny catch from the hook and tossed it back into the lake.
Cappelli, MacGregor, and others were there to officially open seven new fishing piers at the park that replaced deteriorated ones from the 1930s, a $1.3 million project developed using open space funds.
“These piers are safer, stronger, and fully ADA compliant, making sure residents of all abilities can enjoy fishing, spend time along the water, or simply enjoy everything Newton Lake has to offer,” Cappelli said at the opening.
Newton Lake has several varieties of fish, including large-mouth bass and catfish. They are strictly catch-and-release and not safe to eat, according to the county.
Olivia Liu of the nonprofit Upstream Alliance said the piers mean more than just catching fish. Looking on is, from left, Collingswood Mayor Daniela Solano-Ward, Camden County Commissioner Edward T. McDonnell, and County Commissioner Director Louis Cappelli Jr.Neill Borowski for The Inquirer
Improved paths near the piers will be the next phase of the project, said Jeremy Noll, whose company, Environmental Resolutions Inc. of Mount Laurel, oversaw the project. Some will be raised so they are not covered in mud during heavy rain, which is an issue with the current ones, he said.
The piers are also 6 to 8 inches higher than the old ones, so they will be accessible when Newton Lake rises.
Noll said he expects the piers to last 50 years, but the decking may need to be replaced after 20 years.
Local leaders at the opening said they are excited for the public to visit the piers, which are free to use.
“This project here today isn’t just about catching fish. It’s about improving people’s quality of life and creating fun, engaging, and meaningful outdoor experiences right in their own backyard,” Olivia Liu, program and communications director for the nonprofit Upstream Alliance, told the group. “It’s about having the opportunity to love and appreciate the community that you live in.”
The high court will rule in the case of Jerome Coffey, a Philadelphia man convicted in a 1992 killing in which prosecutors said a group of men posing as law enforcement officers boxed in a man’s car and shot him.
The court’s decision will reach well beyond Coffey. It will settle whether roughly 1,100 people — including more than 500 convicted in Philadelphia — can ask judges for new sentences, or will remain bound by a punishment the state’s highest court has ruled unconstitutional.
In a unanimous decision in March, the justices said Pennsylvania’s mandatory life sentence for second-degree murder violates the state constitution’s ban on cruel punishments.
Second-degree murder covers killings committed during another felony — even when the defendant did not kill anyone. The high court held that judges must weigh a person’s individual role before imposing a punishment that lasts a lifetime.
But the high court did not say whether its ruling applied to people who had already been sentenced. Instead, it put the decision on hold for 120 days so the General Assembly could write a new sentencing law and, if lawmakers chose, decide the question of retroactivity themselves.
The legislature did neither, as measures introduced in both the Republican-controlled Senate and Democratic-controlled House failed to advance.
Coffey was convicted in 1994 in the death of Johnny Moss two years earlier. According to court records, three men got out of two cars that had pinned Moss’ vehicle near 24th and Thompson Streets in North Philadelphia. One man shouted “task force” and pulled Moss from his car.
Moss was shot in the head. His brother, who was standing beside the car, was shot in the arm.
At trial, prosecutors said Coffey was the man who shouted “task force,” while Coffey’s mother and sister testified that he was at home that night. The jury convicted him of second-degree murder, conspiracy, and related crimes. It acquitted his codefendant, Lee Smith, of all charges.
No physical evidence tied Coffey to the killing, his lawyers have said, and a key prosecution witness recanted before trial. The lawyers also said prosecutors withheld evidence that could have helped Coffey, but the state Superior Court rejected those contentions.
And on Tuesday, the state Supreme Court declined to review them, limiting the scope of his appeal to the sentencing question alone.
Even so, Bret Grote, the legal director of the Abolitionist Law Center, which represents Coffey, praised the court’s decision to hear the case.
“This is what those who have been serving this sentence have been waiting for,” said Grote, who also represented Derek Lee, the Pittsburgh man whose appeal of his life sentence for his second-degree murder conviction led to the court’s decision in March.
Grote said Coffey, who founded the grassroots Human Rights Coalition from prison, will be “well able to demonstrate” why the decision “should apply to people like him who need to be home with us out here in our communities.”
Because Coffey’s case began in Philadelphia, the district attorney’s office will argue for the state in his appeal. In an interview Tuesday, District Attorney Larry Krasner reiterated his support for retroactivity, saying, “We cannot have a legal system where people sit in jail for the rest of their lives for an unconstitutional sentence.”
He added that “this office, consistent with its obligation to seek justice and uphold the Constitution, will support retroactivity” in Coffey’s case.
Prosecutors elsewhere have signaled resistance, however. In August, the Pennsylvania District Attorneys Association’s communications chair, Berks County District Attorney John Adams, said prosecutors would not concede that the high court’s ruling applies retroactively without a new sentencing law.
Coffey’s case is unlikely to be resolved quickly. And in the meantime, lawmakers could still act.
Some stakeholders have predicted that legislative agreement on how to handle such cases is more likely after the Nov. 3 elections. A law that applies to people already serving the sentence could make the court’s answer moot.
But the outcome was always likely to land back with the high court without action by lawmakers, said Ben Lerner, a former Philadelphia Common Pleas Court judge and former chief defender.
“I’m not surprised,” Lerner said Tuesday. The high court, he said, was going to give the legislature “the first crack” at reforming the system. But if it failed, “the court was always going to have to step in and do what needs to be done.”
“It’s too important an issue,” he added. “Too basic a right.”
ATLANTA — Derek Hill thought he had a chance at it.
Off the bat, even Austin Riley didn’t think it was gone. He barreled up a mistake from Phillies closer Jhoan Duran — who was pitching in the eighth inning as an indication of how shallow the Phillies’ bullpen is this time of year — and as he made his way toward first, Riley prayed that it would keep carrying.
“It just caught a jet stream,” said Hill.
The ball landed atop the brick wall in center field of Truist Park, taking with it the Phillies’ chances in Game 1 of the wild-card series. Riley’s three-run shot propelled the Braves to the 5-3 come-from-behind win. And it left Duran shaking his head on the mound, as the latest Phillies reliever to watch a late lead evaporate in the first postseason game.
“That’s a dagger,” Bryce Harper said.
The Braves’ Austin Riley celebrates his three-run homer in the eighth inning.Yong Kim / Staff Photographer
In Game 1 of the 2024 National League Division Series, a combination of Jeff Hoffman, Matt Strahm, and Orion Kerkering coughed up a one-run lead over the Mets in the eighth inning. In Game 1 of the 2025 NLDS, Strahm gave up a three-run homer to the Dodgers in the seventh. The Phillies lost both games, and eventually both series.
Two of those relievers are not on the team anymore, and Kerkering finished the season at triple A. It was the Phillies’ best bullpen arm that lost the game Tuesday.
“In our minds, we had our best guy out there,” said interim manager Don Mattingly. “You live with this one.”
Even by postseason standards, when managers tend to become more aggressive with their pitching changes, Mattingly using his closer for the seventh and eighth was a surprising move. But the Phillies were clinging to a one-run lead, courtesy of a two-run triple from J.T. Realmuto, and the circle of trust in the bullpen has been ever-shrinking.
Should the Phillies have gotten to the ninth still with the lead, the plan for the final three outs would depend where the Braves were in the order, Mattingly said. Andrew Painter or Jonathan Bowlan were potential options, and the Phillies could have also used a combination of relievers.
It nearly worked out. Duran needed 12 pitches to handle the top of Atlanta’s order in the seventh, and got two outs on three pitches to start the eighth. But a soft infield hit from Michael Harris II to shortstop, followed by a mislocated splitter that hit Ozzie Albies gave the Braves some more life. And then Duran missed his spot to Riley with a fastball.
Jesus Luzardo gave up one run in five innings. Yong Kim / Staff Photographer
“It’s hard to see something like that,” Duran said. “I missed the pitch in the zone, and I paid the price.”
The early deployment of Duran wasn’t the first risk Mattingly took with his pitching plan on Tuesday.
It had been 22 days since Jesús Luzardo started a game. He faced batters for the first time on Sunday, in a four-pitch outing that lasted mere minutes. Nobody — not Braves manager Walt Weiss and his club, not even Mattingly — knew what to expect from him when he took the ball to start Game 1. Mattingly hoped he would at least begin the game “on a good foot.”
But Luzardo delivered much more than that. He held the Braves to one run and three hits over five innings, turning a 1-1 game over to Alex McFarlane. For 77 pitches, Luzardo went toe-to-toe with Atlanta ace Chris Sale.
“I feel like our bodies are pretty well-conditioned, even though I was down for three weeks,” Luzardo said. “But I feel like the long season helped condition me for that situation.”
Luzardo gave up one run in the second on a ground single up the middle from Mike Yastrzemski. An adrenaline spike helped him top out at 98.2 mph with his fastball during the outing. But as the game progressed, Luzardo felt like he was tiring. His velocity started to drop in the fourth and fifth innings, and that was the end of the line.
“He gave us more than we thought, honestly,” Mattingly said. “Just kept checking with him every inning, checking with the trainers, seeing if he was having trouble getting loose between innings. Zeus was great today.”
Phillies center fielder Derek Hill can’t come up with a ball hit by the Braves’ Ozzie Albies in the sixth inning. Yong Kim
The Phillies managed to squeeze out a first-inning run against the 37-year-old Sale, who started the game a little erratic with his command. A walk to Kyle Schwarber and a double from Alec Bohm on an elevated fastball well above the zone got the Phillies on the board first.
The second time he walked out to the mound, though, Sale seemed back to himself, and he diced up the Phillies lineup. Sale continued his career dominance over Bryce Harper, who went 0-for-3 against him.
It briefly appeared Harper’s fortunes might be changing when he came a few feet from a towering two-run shot that would have given the Phillies the lead in the sixth. But it landed just foul, and Harper badly whiffed on a slider well outside two pitches later to strike out.
“It was close,” Harper said of the foul ball. “Not close enough.”
The Braves briefly took a lead in the seventh off McFarlane before the Phillies snatched it right back. Hill was inches from another highlight-reel catch in center on a deep fly ball from Albies at the wall, but he slightly mistimed it and the ball deflected off his wrist. Hill couldn’t corral the ball immediately, and Albies advanced to third on an RBI triple.
After the Phillies finally chased Sale from the game in the seventh, they jumped in front again with a triple of their own. Realmuto pounced on a fastball from Didier Fuentes and sent it to the right field corner, where Ronald Acuña Jr. misplayed it, allowing two runs to score.
“Obviously the triple was fun, exciting. Not too many batters later, giving up the lead, that wasn’t fun,” Realmuto said. “That’s the playoffs, though. It’s such a roller coaster, and that’s why we love this game so much, is the emotions that come with it.”
Philadelphia Phillies second baseman Bryson Stott (left) jogs off the field after the final out as the Atlanta Braves relief pitcher Raisel Iglesias (center) celebrates their win with Atlanta Braves catcher Drake Baldwin (right).Yong Kim / Staff PhotographerPhiladelphia Phillies relief pitcher Jhoan Duran reacts after giving up a three-run homer to the Atlanta Braves Austin Riley in the eighth inning.Yong Kim / Staff PhotographerAtlanta Braves Austin Riley celebrates his three-run homer in the eighth inning.Yong Kim / Staff PhotographerPhiladelphia Phillies relief pitcher Jhoan Duran reacts after giving up a three-run homer to the Atlanta Braves Austin Riley in the eighth inning.Yong Kim / Staff PhotographerPhiladelphia Phillies relief pitcher Jhoan Duran reacts after catching a line drive off the bat of Atlanta Braves Matt Olson in the eighth inning.Yong Kim / Staff PhotographerPhiladelphia Phillies relief pitcher Jhoan Duran pitches against the Atlanta Braves in the seventh inning.Yong Kim / Staff PhotographerPhiladelphia Phillies Bryson Stott celebrates after he scores in the seventh inning.Yong Kim / Staff PhotographerPhiladelphia Phillies Bryan De La Cruz (right) celebrates with Bryson Stott after they both scored on J.T. Realmuto hit in the seventh inning.Yong Kim / Staff PhotographerPhiladelphia Phillies catcher J.T. Realmuto knocks in two runs in the seventh inning.Yong Kim / Staff PhotographerPhiladelphia Phillies Bryson Stott singles in the seventh inning.Yong Kim / Staff PhotographerPhiladelphia Phillies Derek Hill reaches for a ball of the bat of Atlanta Braves second baseman Ozzie Albies in the sixth inning.Yong Kim / Staff PhotographerPhiladelphia Phillies Alex McFarlane pitches against the Atlanta Braves in the sixth inning.Yong Kim / Staff PhotographerPhiladelphia Phillies Bryce Harper strikes out in the sixth inning.Yong Kim / Staff PhotographerPhiladelphia Phillies Kyle Schwarber singles in the sixth inning.Yong Kim / Staff PhotographerPhiladelphia Phillies catcher J.T. Realmuto strikes out to end the fifth inning.Yong Kim / Staff PhotographerPhiladelphia Phillies second baseman Edmundo Sosa celebrates his fifth inning double.Yong Kim / Staff PhotographerPhiladelphia Phillies starting pitcher Jesus Luzardo delivers a pitch against the Atlanta Braves in the fourth inning.Yong Kim / Staff PhotographerPhiladelphia Phillies starting pitcher Jesus Luzardo reacts to the third out in the third inning.Yong Kim / Staff PhotographerAtlanta Braves Ha-Seong Kim tags Philadelphia Phillies shortstop Trea Turner as he tries to steal second base in the third inning.Yong Kim / Staff PhotographerPhiladelphia Phillies starting pitcher Jesus Luzardo (left) and Philadelphia Phillies catcher J.T. Realmuto (center) talks as pitching coach Caleb Cotham makes a visit after the Phillies game up a run to the Atlanta Braves.Yong Kim / Staff PhotographerAtlanta Braves starting pitcher Chris Sale pitches in the first inning.Yong Kim / Staff PhotographerPhiladelphia Phillies starting pitcher Jesus Luzardo pitches against the Atlanta Braves in the first inning.Yong Kim / Staff PhotographerPhiladelphia Phillies Kyle Schwarber and Derek Hill (right) celebrate after Schwarber scores on an Alec Bohm double in the first inning.Yong Kim / Staff PhotographerPhiladelphia Phillies Alec Bohm hits a RBI double in the first inning.Yong Kim / Staff PhotographerPhiladelphia Phillies Bryce Harper (right) and Trea Turner greet each other before the start of game 1.Yong Kim / Staff Photographer
As Riley’s ball kept carrying in the eighth, it was hard not to be reminded of those other Game 1s, and what happened after them. Falling behind in a wild-card series is an even graver blow. Since the current playoff format was instituted in 2022, only one team has ever advanced to the division series after dropping the first game.
But the Phillies have done unlikelier things.
“We know what’s at stake tomorrow,” Schwarber said. “So it’s, sure, frustrating, right? Everyone walks away from that game, and everyone says, ‘What if?’ But the what ifs go away when you leave here, and everyone’s focused on the task at hand tomorrow.”
In the dugout after the final out, Schwarber noticed Cristopher Sánchez standing off by himself, staring out at the mound. Sánchez will take the ball on Wednesday as the Phillies see if they have any last-minute heroics left in them to extend their season another day.
“Let’s go. You know what I mean?” Schwarber said. “That’s our guy.”
Health insurance premiums will cost 34.4% more for 300,000 public school and county college employees and their familiesacross New Jerseynext year as medical costs continue to escalate and the popularity of costly prescription drugs soars.
The change will affect teachers and other school staff in Camden, Pemberton, Evesham, and nine other South Jersey districts, as well as six unions at four local colleges.
What is to come for students, employees, and taxpayers may be just as dire. Cutting jobs, reducing transportation and student extracurricular activities, and raising property taxes are the most likely options school districts and collegeswill consider, said Jonathan Pushman, advocacy director for the New Jersey School Boards Association.
“The dilemma is there are limited options we can turn to,” Pushman said. “A lot of difficult decisions are ahead.”
On Friday, the New Jersey School Employees Health Benefits Commission voted 4-2 to accept the premium increases forecast by the state’s actuary. Democratic Gov. Mikie Sherrill’s administration had warned that if the commission did not act, it would have closed down the insolvent program at the start of the new year.
Instead, the rate hikes will take effect in January.
The School Employees’ Health Benefits Program serves 212 school districts and county colleges, representing 300,000 employees, retirees, and their dependents.
The local districts covered by the plan are Camden, Brooklawn, Beverly, Delanco, Evesham, New Hanover, Pemberton, Willingboro, Elk, Newfield, Camden County Technical Schools, and the Burlington County Board of Special Services, which serves special-needs students.
It also provides coverage for employees of Camden County College, Rowan College at Burlington County, Rowan College at Gloucester County, and Rowan College of South Jersey, according to the New Jersey Treasury Department.
There are a total of 590 school districts in New Jersey, with the majority of them, including Cherry Hill, obtaining health coverage outside the state plan. In recent years, steeper costs have compelled many districts to leave in search of a more affordable option. Those who stay tend to serve an older and sicker — and therefore a more expensive — population and cannot afford a better deal on the open market.
These conditions have created a “death spiral” for the plan, actuarial and state officials say. The State Health Benefits Plan for state and local workers faces a similar crisis.
The union-affiliated members on the commission voted against the premium hikes, insisting there had to be a way to cut costs.
After the vote, New Jersey Education Association president Steve Beatty and other top officials said in a statement that their members on the commission “requested information, proposed specific steps to reduce the rates and sought greater transparency about the factors driving these increases. Unfortunately, the division has refused to meaningfully engage in that effort.”
The rate hikes “threaten the resources available for students,” the union officials’ statement said. “They should not lose out because health care costs are out of control. When districts are forced to spend significantly more on health care, that leaves less money for the programs, staff and services our students rely on every day.”
School officials huddled this week to consider the array of unpalatable options. Few were ready to say what comes next.
Rowan College of South Jersey “will continue to evaluate the situation and make adjustments as necessary while keeping student success our priority,” said Susan Nardelli, vice president of communications, marketing, and enrollment management. “Every industry is facing the same healthcare struggle.”
Union leaders said they are counting on state lawmakers to find a solution. They said they seek action on a proposed bill that would create a new health benefits trust, composed of union and management leaders, and establish a three-doctor medical advisory panel. Districts that join would not be permitted to leave, according to the bill.
The new insurance trust would “provide greater transparency and accountability and is focused on controlling costs,” the union’s statement said.
School boards agree that dramatic changes are necessary, Pushman said. This must include “honest conversations with unions,” he said.
Schools — which are funded by taxpayers — bear 98% of the cost of health insurance compared with the 2% covered by employees, Pushman said. In the private sector, employers pay about 90% of the cost.
A law enacted during the pandemic set specific limits on what school employees must pay for healthcare, based on their income level. That law, which expires at the end of next year, has limited the options for savings, Pushman said.
“As much as we want to provide quality healthcare coverage, bearing the costs of these incredibly rich plans is getting to the point of unsustainability,” he said.
State Sen. Troy Singleton (D., Burlington) agreed.
“We have to be honest with … what the state can afford to provide sufficient coverage for employees. It’s not a bottomless pit for taxpayers,” Singleton said. “It’s become a frustrating point for all parties.”
In more official terms, that makes Wilkins, 29, a MacArthur Fellow — the youngest member of his class. All fellows will receive $800,000 in unrestricted funding over the next five years, with the awards giving financial flexibility to recipients for their artistic and scholarly visions.
“I was just outside,” he said. “Which was nice because then I could yell as loud as I wanted to and celebrate.”
In a video introducing the 2026 fellows, Wilkins described himself as a saxophonist and composer who anchors “original compositions in history and spirituality.” He added that as a performer, he was “looking to escape the gaze that might be on me and direct my creative energy inwards and upwards.”
Presented by Ars Nova Workshop, “RECESS” featured the musicians playing on a stage modeled into a combination playground and bandstand, which Wilkins earlier told The Inquirer was a way to inspire “radical play.”
“I started thinking about the landscape of Philadelphia as functioning as a kind of abstracted play space,” Wilkins said in a May interview.
Wilkins’ debut album, Omega, was released in 2020, and connects the 1918 lynching of a pregnant Black woman, Mary Turner, to the 2014 fatal police shooting of a Black teenager, Michael Brown. The abstraction of music, Wilkins told the AP, allows him to represent these stories without “recreating the violence of them.”
“Although it is some of the most painful material, the music itself feels so good,” Wilkins said in the MacArthur Foundation clip.
Most recently, Wilkins released Immanuel Wilkins Quartet: Live at the Village Vanguard Vol. 1, a three-volume recording of performances at the iconic New York City jazz club.
In addition to Wilkins, two other MacArthur Fellows this year have ties to the Philadelphia area. Both are Princeton University professors.
Ellora Derenoncourt, an associate professor in the university’s economics department, told the AP that she would use the award to translate issues of economic justice for the broader public and interested policymakers. And Elizabeth Ellis, an associate history professor, hopes to support research projects focusing Native American history, the university said.
This article contains information from the Associated Press.
A week after they signed free agent Kenny Moore II to their practice squad, the Eagles on Tuesday signed the veteran defensive back to their active roster, filling an open spot on the 53-man unit.
Moore, 31, played nine seasons with the Indianapolis Colts, where Eagles coach Nick Sirianni was an assistant from 2018 to 2020. Moore has 111 starts in 132 career appearances and made the Pro Bowl in 2021.
It’s unclear how the Eagles plan to use Moore in their defensive backfield. He has played just 58 of 7,525 career defensive snaps at safety and has primarily been a nickel corner.
Vic Fangio last week said the Eagles did not have any plans to move nickel Cooper DeJean to safety on a full-time basis. DeJean has been playing safety in the team’s base package, but the position group has had a few concerning performances to open the 2026 season. Marcus Epps has missed multiple tackles and appeared to be benched during Monday night’s 27-7 loss in Chicago when the Eagles started rotating him and Michael Carter II next to Andrew Mukuba.
While Moore has not played a lot of safety, his acquisition likely means the Eagles think he’s capable of making the transition late in his career. Or at least trying to.
“Just being a football player,” Moore said last week when asked about his role. “I think in the back end, the more you can do the better. Being in year 10, I just want to pour everything that I’ve learned, resources, however way I can help, be a great teammate, and push those guys as best as possible.”
Asked last week about Moore’s role, Fangio said he wasn’t sure yet.
“I’ve never laid eyes on him, never watched him play,” he said. “So, we’ll see.”
Moore was released by the Colts in May after the Georgia native requested a trade and no deal came to fruition.
