After drawing a crowd of 47,266 in the HBCU Battle of the Legends game last fall, DeSean Jackson’s Delaware State and Michael Vick’s Norfolk State will meet again in South Philly.
The rematch between the former Eagles teammates is set for Oct. 31 at Lincoln Financial Field. Last year, Delaware State squad held off a late rally from Norfolk State for a 27-20 victory.
The Norfolk State-Delaware State matchup is one of two historically Black college and university football games set for the weekend at the Linc. As previously reported by The Inquirer, Division II Lincoln University will host Virginia Union, but the game will take place a day earlier, on Friday, Oct. 30.
“I know firsthand what it means for a young person to walk into a room and see excellence that looks like them. That’s why this event is so important,” Mayor Cherelle L. Parker wrote in a news release, noting she’s a Lincoln University graduate. “Last year’s Delaware State-Norfolk State game brought 47,266 fans together and celebrated the excellence, pride, and tradition of HBCU athletics.
“With Philadelphia legends Michael Vick and DeSean Jackson joining us, it became more than a football game. It became a powerful source of inspiration. We were honored to partner with Delaware State University, Norfolk State University, and the Philadelphia Eagles to make that day such a tremendous success, and we are excited to build on that momentum through One Philly HBCU Week 2026.”
Last season, Delaware State finished with an 8-4 record in Jackson’s first season at the helm, and he was named the Boxtorow HBCU Coach of the Year. He was rewarded with a contract extension in December, tying him to the program through 2028.
Vick is coming off a tough season in which the Spartans finished 1-11.
Michael Vick’s Spartans finished with a 1-11 record during his first year as head coach.Alejandro A. Alvarez / Staff Photographer
“Coming back to Lincoln Financial Field never gets old for me — this is a place that holds a lot of special memories,” Vick, an Eagle from 2009-13, said in a Norfolk State release. “Last year’s game was a special moment for our program, and to lead our players back onto a field I once called home is something I’ll always cherish. Doing it against Delaware State, led by my former teammate and longtime friend DeSean Jackson, adds another exciting chapter to the matchup. It’s also an opportunity to celebrate the bands, traditions, and pageantry that make HBCU football special.”
Added Jackson: “We are not putting any limits on our potential. And we are not resting on that potential either. There is no replacement for hard work. That’s the standard. The game at the Linc just gives our scholar-athletes a bigger stage to do what they do every day.”
For Lincoln, the Oct. 30 game will be its first game in Philadelphia in 16 years, when it played Cheyney University at Northeast High School in 2009 and 2010. The two programs played yearly from 2009 until Cheyney’s football program was shut down in 2017.
Lincoln was winless in 10 games last season, including a 66-21 loss at Virginia Union. Overall, Lincoln is 1-16 all-time against Virginia Union, with its only win coming in 2011, a 19-10 victory.
Kickoff times and ticket information for both games will be announced at a later date.
“Lincoln Financial Field is thrilled to serve as the host site for two highly anticipated HBCU matchups this season,” said Frank Gumienny, the Eagles’ senior vice president and chief operating officer. “In partnership with the City of Philadelphia, we look forward to hosting the programs, families, alumni, and fans for what will be a memorable One Philly HBCU Week at Lincoln Financial Field.”
Renee Garcia, the top lawyer in Mayor Cherelle L. Parker’s administration, is resigning from her job as city solicitor to work in the private sector, the mayor announced Tuesday.
The reason for Garcia’s departure was not clear Tuesday, and she was not present at a news conference announcing the staff change.
Garcia will be replaced at the top of the city’s law department by Monique Galloway, who most recently worked as an assistant U.S. attorney in Philadelphia. Galloway’s resume also includes stints as counsel at the federal General Services Administration and the Federal Transit Authority.
Parker said Galloway’s experience working in the federal government was a key reason for her selection as the next city solicitor.
“These are challenging times for cities and states as we all have to interact with the federal government,” Parker said. “On any given day, we can never be sure if we’re going to face a legal filing, a summons, or a subpoena out of Washington on a range of different issues.”
She added that Garcia’s law department has been “Philadelphia’s frontline defense on many of these issues.”
Galloway said she was “moved by this moment.”
“Integrity, sound judgment, excellence, and a key focus on public service are who I am,” she said. “And they are the anchor through everything that I do.”
(left to right) Charlie Ellison, Director of the Office of Immigrant Affairs, Renee Garcia, City Solicitor, Francis Healy, Deputy Police Commissioner, at the City Council hearing about ICE Out legislation, in Philadelphia City Council, Monday, April 13, 2026.Jessica Griffin / Staff Photographer
Garcia’s departure was the second major leadership change Parker announced Tuesday. Managing Director Adam K. Thiel, who oversees much of the city’s day-to-day operations, is also resigning to take a job in the private sector. He will be replaced by Carlton Williams, a longtime city official who most recently led the Philadelphia Office of Clean and Green Initiatives.
Taken together, the changes represent a significant shift in the top rungs of Philadelphia’s government. The managing director is in charge of implementing much of the mayor’s agenda, and the city solicitor is responsible for a host of matters, including overseeing litigation and advising both the mayor and City Council on legislation and policy.
Parker also on Tuesday formalized her appointment of Ralph DiPietro, a deputy commissioner in the Philadelphia Department of Licenses and Inspections. The administration announced last month that DiPietro would replace Basil L. Merenda as commissioner.
The mayor said Tuesday that she is “excited to welcome this next generation of leadership.”
Insurers are asking for double-digit increases to health plans sold on Pennsylvania’s Affordable Care Act marketplace, Pennie, in 2027.
Insurers have requested an average increase of 17% for plans sold to individuals and families through Pennie. They are asking to raise the premium price of plans sold to small businesses by an average of 11.5%, according to rate requests released last week by the Pennsylvania Insurance Department.
The proposed rates are not final. A public comment period is open through Aug. 22, and insurance administrators expect to release final rates this fall.
Pennsylvania Insurance Commissioner Michael Humphreys said in a statement that the rates were “higher than we’d hoped.”
New Jersey has not released 2027 rate requests for its ACA marketplace, Get Covered NJ.
In their rate proposals, Pennsylvania insurers said they needed to charge more to account for the rising cost of medical services and prescription drugs, and a shift in who is buying health insurance and how sick they are. Insurers are required by law to spend 80% of the money they collect through premiums on healthcare for members.
“Addressing rising healthcare costs requires a shared commitment across the healthcare system, and we will continue working with providers and other partners to help keep quality care within reach for the people we serve,” Independence Blue Cross, which has proposed a 14% average premium increase, said in a statement.
The proposed increases for 2027 come on top of massive price hikes in ACA marketplaces this year, when a critical financial incentive program was eliminated. The cost of a Pennie health plan more than doubled for many in 2026 and 177,000 people have dropped coverage as a result.
Advocates worry that another price increase will cause even more people to drop coverage, which could further raise costs.
“If these proposed rates take effect, even more Pennsylvanians are likely to be priced out of coverage,” Antoinette Kraus, executive director of the Pennsylvania Health Access Network, which helps people enroll in coverage, said in a statement.
Rising costs and premium prices
A major factor that affects the cost of insurance is who the plan will cover — how healthy or sick they are, and how much the plan will need to spend on their care.
Healthy young adults who have few healthcare expenses typically help balance the higher cost of insuring older adults who may have multiple chronic conditions.
But young adults — many buying insurance on their own for the first time — can be highly sensitive to cost. They have been among those dropping out of ACA plans at the greatest rates after Congress failed to renew a financial incentive program that ensured no one paid more than 8.5% of their income on insurance.
About a third of adults who dropped out of Pennie health plans so far this year were under age 34, according to state data.
“They’re the ones looking at the cost and saying, ‘Well I’m pretty healthy right now, I’m going to take the gamble,’” said Devon Trolley, Pennie’s executive director.
People with ongoing medical needs are more likely to stick with their plan, despite cost increases.
Pennie’s 2027 enrollment period will run Nov. 1 through Jan. 15.
Lawmakers have not shown signs of bringing back the enhanced tax credits, which were introduced in 2021 and had been renewed annually since.
Income-based tax credits that are part of the ACA are still available. People remain eligible for these tax credits if they earn up to 400% of the federal poverty level — about $62,600 a year for an individual or $128,600 for a family of four.
Street artist irregular. rarely cries. But when LeBron James announced he was going to end his NBA career with the Sixers, he shed a single tear — and then got to work.
Within 48 hours, after a sleepless Friday night, his mirrored tribute to James was up on the side of a Center City building.
“Someone said, ‘Oh, that was so fast!’” irregular., whose full name is Sean Hassett, said Tuesday. “I don’t think it was fast enough. Actually, I think it could have been a little quicker.”
As soon as rumors began to swirl that James could potentially join the Sixers, the 37-year-old artist began to pull reference images, knowing that if it happened, he’d want to make art of it. He had a gut feeling it was going to happen.
“Philly just felt like — why would they even say it if it wasn’t going to be true?” Hassett said. “I was a firm believer three weeks ago.”
As the weeks wore on, his hope started to dim, but that changed late last week. Within two hours of James announcing his decision, Hassett had already drawn out what he wanted the piece to look like, and then spent the night cutting out each piece of mirror.
Hassett usually sells art at Rittenhouse Square on Saturdays, but instead spent most of this past Saturday afternoon walking around Center City to scout potential locations for the piece. He ultimately settled on a building at Eighth and Market, the site of a former Burger King.
“King James, Burger King, I don’t know,” he said. “It’s a weird tie. I love the slogans that Burger King uses, which is what I used as my captions on my Instagram. One of them is ‘There’s a new king and it’s you.’ That makes perfect sense for exactly what I did. I mirrored LeBron James. Their classic slogan is ‘Have it your way,’ and I felt like that’s what the Sixers chose this year, is to have it our way, and we’re going to just put all the chips in and go for it all.”
Adam Hock, of Center City, saw on Facebook about the LeBron James mosaic on Eighth and Market Streets on Tuesday.Tyger Williams / Staff Photographer
Hassett has been creating mirror art for 11 years. He started as a painter, but as he developed his skills, he yearned to find a way to stand out from the crowd. Working with mirrors became his medium.
“The viewer can see themselves in the art,” he said. “It explains itself. It speaks for itself, truly, I would say.”
Hassett created a mirrored Saquon Barkley and put it up a week before Super Bowl LIX, since he was that confident the Birds would win. His Allen Iverson mirror art, created after the Sixers unveiled their small practice facility statue, is still up on Third and South Streets.
“I see [sports] as the true glue of the city,” he said. “I remember the Eagles parade, and I have a bit of social anxiety. I don’t like large groups, but [at] that parade I was literally shoulder-to-shoulder, toe-to-toe with people, and there was nothing better than the energy there.
“I think we’re going to get that back. We think this year was great, but I think there’s just more great years to come here in Philly.”
A new comedy set at the Jersey Shore is in the works from Irish writer Lisa McGee, the creator behind the hilarious hit show Derry Girls.
Called Wildwood, the series will follow a group of college girls visiting New Jersey from Ireland in the summer of 2000 with “no money, no visas, no plan, no clue,” according to Deadline.
McGee’s Derry Girls became a whopping international hit after first airing on Britain’s Channel 4 in 2018 and later landing on Netflix.
It follows a group of messy, raunchy, and zany teens — including Bridgerton star Nicola Coughlan — at an all-girls Catholic school in the 1990s during the Troubles conflict in Northern Ireland.
A still from “Derry Girls.” (Netflix)Netflix / MCT
The show was a semi-autobiographical story for McGee, who grew up in Derry and writes irreverent, cheeky young characters that make audiences cringe, cry, and laugh out loud. Her most recent project was the comical murder mystery How to Get to Heaven From Belfast, which premiered on Netflix in February.
Described as a “spiritual successor” to Derry Girls, Wildwood marks McGee’s first U.S.-based project. It will be developed with 20th Television and FX following a reportedly competitive bidding process. McGee will serve as creator and executive producer.
It’s not yet clear whether Wildwood will film in the eponymous beach town where it’s set, but FX — the longtime home ofIt’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia — is certainly no stranger to the region.
Philadelphia Managing Director Adam K. Thiel, a top mayoral appointee who supervises many of the government’s day-to-day operations, is resigning from his job in Mayor Cherelle L. Parker’s administration, the mayor announced Tuesday.
Parker said Thiel is leaving his city role to “reenter the private sector” after serving as managing director for about 2½ years.
Thiel will be replaced byCarlton Williams, a longtime city official who currently leads the Philadelphia Office of Clean and Green Initiatives. Williams, 57, will assume oversight of a 550-person staff and a vast portfolio of city operations, including health agencies, homeless services, the streets department, parks and libraries, prisons, and the fire department.
Parker praised Williams’ work implementing new initiatives such as twice-weekly trash collection, and she called him “the individual with all of the attributes the position requires.”
“Whenever we’ve had a crisis of any kind in this city, he has been on my speed dial,” she said.
The transition, Parker said, will take place over the next “four to six weeks.” It was not immediately clear who will lead the Philadelphia Office of Clean and Green Initiatives.
New Philadelphia Managing Director, Carlton Williams speaks at the podium after being announced by Philadelphia Mayor Cherelle L. Parker, left, during a news conference at City Hall in Philadelphia on Tuesday, July 28, 2026.Jose F. Moreno / Staff Photographer
Thiel, 54, has been the city’s managing director since Parker took office in January 2024. Prior to being appointed to the role, Thiel spent eight years as the city’s fire commissioner under former Mayor Jim Kenney.
In the early days of Parker’s tenure, Thiel emerged as a key crisis manager, often flanking the mayor when she responded to emergencies. He was the face of the administration’s strategy in Kensington, where Parker campaigned on ending the sprawling open-air drug market that has persisted in the neighborhood for decades.
Details of Thiel’s new job were not immediately clear. He is a major in the Army Reserve, and he has worked as a consultant and an adjunct professor, in addition to his role as managing director. His city salary is $310,000, and last year, he made more than half a million dollars in additional income through his other jobs, according to his financial disclosure.
Managing Director Adam Thiel, center, gives an update on the Northeast Philly plane crash, during a press conference on Tuesday Feb 4, 2025 at the Fire Administration Building in Philadelphia, Pa.Jose F. Moreno / Staff Photographer
Since Thiel joined the Reserve in August 2024, he has been one of the administration’s least visible senior officials and was frequently on leave. He did not oversee the response to a January snowstorm that was the city’s worst in five years — despite emergency services falling under his purview — and parts of the Kensington strategy are now led by other offices.
The Inquirer reported in February that Thiel was absent for a total of about five months last year. Of that, six weeks were for military leave — the maximum the city covers for employees — and an additional 13 weeks were for general paid leave, according to city records obtained by The Inquirer. A spokesperson for Thiel said he used most of that time off for military service.
Thiel refused to discuss his role in the Army Reserve with The Inquirer. A spokesperson for the Army said Thiel is a major assigned to a civil affairs unit based in Staten Island, N.Y. Last year, the Army Reserve paid Thiel about $32,600, according to his financial disclosure paperwork.
In addition to his jobs with the city and the Army, Thiel has worked on the side as a consultant. Last year, he earned $390,000 as president of Pantheon Global Strategies, an opaque company with little in the way of an online footprint. Thiel has in the past refused to discuss the business in detail.
He also earned $120,000 last year from FACETS Consulting LLP, an Arizona-based firm that is publicly advertised as a fire safety consultancy. Thiel is a founding partner.
Philly city managing director Adam Thiel in the bowels of the stadium during the France vs. Iraq 2026 FIFA World Cup Group 1 soccer match at Philadelphia Stadium on Monday, June 22, 2026.Elizabeth Robertson / Staff Photographer
Thiel has said his consulting work takes fewer than 10 hours per week and did not interfere with his responsibilities as Philadelphia’s managing director. When The Inquirer first reported on Thiel’s consulting work in 2024, he would not disclose his clients but said he followed the city’s ethics guidelines related to conflicts of interest.
Before coming to Philadelphia in 2016, Thiel worked in a variety of firefighting, disaster response, and emergency preparedness roles around the country, including as Virginia’sdeputy secretary of public safety and homeland security.
He is the third top official to leave Parker’s administration since she took office in January 2024. Former chief deputy mayors Aren Platt and Sinceré Harris, the architects of Parker’s mayoral campaign, each left their postsfor jobs in politics outside government.
In some administrations, the managing director has been the mayor’s clear No. 2, while other mayors have preferred for power to be concentrated among deputy mayors or other staffers in their office.
Under Parker, chief of staff Tiffany W. Thurman is seen as the mayor’s top adviser and the central figure in her administration. Parker has called Thurman her “chief air traffic controller.”
She has also placed the execution of much of her agenda on Williams’ shoulders. Earlier this year, he oversaw the city’s response to a major snowstorm, despite that work in the past falling squarely in the managing director’s scope.
Mayor Cherelle L. Parker walks along Kensington Avenue with Adam Thiel, managing director of city, on Thursday, April 11, 2024. Mayor Parker took the El to attend an event in the Kensington neighborhood in Philadelphia.Heather Khalifa / Staff Photographer
Still, Thiel oversaw a large team, and the leaders of more than 30 city agencies and offices reported to him.
One of his major initiatives was coordinating the administration’s efforts to improve quality of life in Kensington. Thiel’s office worked to expand homeless shelter and recovery bed space throughout the city, and he led the development of the Riverview Wellness Village, a city-run recovery house in Northeast Philadelphia that dramatically grew the city’s capacity to house people with substance use disorder.
Williams recently toured parts of Kensington alongside Parker and other administration officials to get a sense of the challenges ahead. He said Tuesday that his goal is to be accessible to all residents and to look at the delivery of city services “through the eyes of everyday residents.”
“You just don’t take these jobs because of the glamour,” he said. “You take the job because you believe that you can make a change.”
Staff writer Sean Collins Walsh contributed to this article.
City Council on Tuesday renewed its call for officials to amend their plan to shut 17 Philadelphia schools, saying it had been more than a month since talks broke down over removing schools from the closing list.
“We’re here to basically beg the school board to come back to the negotiating table, and let’s come up with a plan that we can work with,” City Councilmember Isaiah Thomas said at a news conference at City Hall.
He was joined by six other Council members — Anthony Phillips, Jamie Gauthier, Curtis Jones Jr., Quetcy Lozada, Nina Ahmed, and Mark Squilla.
The board voted April 30 on a $3 billion blueprint that would close 17 schools and modernize 169. The plan — which is $2 billion short of being fully funded — was largely unpopular with the public, but is necessary, district officials said, to accelerate achievement and solve for 70,000 empty seats, a vast stable of aging buildings, and a chronically underfunded system.
Council technically has no say in the plan — the school board is the sole decider. But Council controls roughly half of the district’s budget, and some members have expressed frustration that they have not had more input on major decisions like closings.
Council members, led by Thomas, had attempted to body-block the plan, shutting down the meeting at which the school board voted it through. A large contingent of Council vowed to vote against the reappointment of any school board member who supported the closings. Some also said they think it is time to explore changing how school board members are appointed.
Councilmember Isaiah Thomas, along with members of council, speaks at the school closing vote, in the School District Building, in Philadelphia, April 30, 2026.Jessica Griffin / Staff Photographer
Jones said Tuesday that “we have tools in our tool belt that we will use” if the board does not budge on school closings.
Jones said he wanted Council to move forward with legislation to bring in an authority like the Pennsylvania Intergovernmental Cooperation Agency, an independent body that provides oversight of the city’s finances, to supervise the district.
Vincent Thompson, a spokesperson for Council President Kenyatta Johnson, said that Johnson was “still in discussions about this issue” and that he would have more information in the coming days.
Thomas also said lawsuits over the facilities plan are possible, though he suggested advocacy organizations, not Council, could bring the suits.
Delise Williams, a Democratic committeeperson who has been active in the fight to keep Parkway Northwest High School for Peace and Justice open, has already filed a lawsuit, saying she has concerns about student safety.
At one point toward the end of the school year, the board was negotiating making changes to the closing list with Council, said Thomas and Phillips, the chair and vice chair of Council’s Education Committee. Those talks broke off abruptly, Thomas said.
Reginald Streater, the school board president, suggested in a statement Tuesdaythat negotiations with Council were a nonstarter.
“For transparency and fairness to impacted school communities, any conversations regarding the board’s April 30th resolution on the Facilities Master Plan’s implementation must occur through the formal transition planning process,” Streater said in the statement. “The board values City Council’s partnership and remains committed to engaging stakeholders throughout the plan’s implementation. As the process moves forward, the board will continue reviewing community feedback and the district’s recommendations when making any decisions.”
Monique Braxton, a school district spokesperson, emphasized the modernization projects planned and the academic advancements projected.
“We understand the passion surrounding this matter, and we look forward to being collaborative partners in this process,” Braxton said. “As we begin the transition planning process, we will continue to work closely with students, families, staff, elected officials, community members, and the board of education to ensure every transition is thoughtful, transparent, and centered on student success.”
Technically, the board’s April vote does not actually close schools; rather, it was a vote to begin the closure process, which officials said could change as circumstances change.
Pennsylvania public school code requires formal closure hearings to be held at least three months before any closures. The first closures are scheduled to happen in 2027; the 2026-27 year has been designated a planning year for transitions.
About 2,000 New Jersey voters identified last week as noncitizens could actually be citizens after all, Gov. Mikie Sherrill said Tuesday, a week after her disclosure of a voter registration glitchput the state at the center of a heated national debate over election security.
Sherrill announced last week that approximately 6,600 noncitizens had been registered to voteahead of the 2024 election due to a software glitch with the New Jersey Motor Vehicle Commission’s automatic voter registration program. She said fewer than 400 of those people had voted and there is no evidence that they affected the results of any election. The finding came in the midst of a political fight over President Donald Trump’s claims of widespread voter fraud, including by noncitizens, and his aggressive push for an overhaul of the country’s election system.
The first-term governor said Tuesday thatthe New Jersey Department of State’s Division of Elections has begun a process to remove more than 4,500 individuals who were registered because of the software error, but that the rest of the registrations will be referred to county election officials for further review “to ensure that any lawfully registered voters are not being disenfranchised.”
“We are taking this extra step because our initial review indicates that a number of these individuals may be citizens,” she said in a statement. “That has been the case in other states where clerical and administrative voter registration errors have occurred, and we’re determined to get this right.”
Her office announced the discovery a little more than one hour after celebrating New Jersey’s new John R. Lewis Voter Empowerment Act, which Sherrill signed July 2. Lewis was a civil rights leader who represented Georgia in Congress from 1987 until his death in 2020.
The law, which is based on a federal proposal that former President Joe Biden unsuccessfully tried to pass, promotes equal opportunity to voting and voter outreach to communities that do not speak English proficiently, and prohibits intimidation, deception, violence, or restraint of voters or election workers.
The law lays out a process for individuals who want to file a complaint over voting rights and requires public hearings for redistricting.
If jurisdictions have a history of discrimination, the law requires approval from the attorney general before they can make changes to their election administration. It also gives the attorney general authority to enforce the law through litigation, investigations, and studies, and by representing the public in federal court.
“Here in New Jersey, if your rights are violated, you have a right of action,” Sherrill said at Union Baptist Church in Trenton.
Sherrill said New Jersey is the 10th state to enact the model, but the first to do so since an April Supreme Court ruling that weakened part of the Voting Rights Act as the court’s conservative majority ruled against a majority-Black district in Louisiana.
Supporters of the bill said they had been advocating for it for four years in New Jersey.
Sherrill’s Tuesday celebration at the church shows the governor is not shying away from the issue of voting rights even as the state becomes a talking point for Republicans whowant enact new national restrictions — including requiring voters to provide proof of citizenship to register with documents like a birth certificate or passport.
Sherrill opposes the national legislation, known as the SAVE America Act, which has been championed by Trump as a way to make elections more secure but which opponents warn could make it tougher to vote for millions of Americans.
“Trump has only one concern: winning at any cost, and he’s willing to put the right to vote at risk,” Sherrill said Tuesday. “There’s no line he won’t cross, no rule he won’t break, no norm he won’t violate. But we will not stand idly by.”
The former member of Congress will likely continue to have a role in the debate as Republicans ramp up their advocacy ahead of November’s midterm elections.
U.S. Rep. Jeff Van Drew, a South Jersey Republican who was elected as a Democrat in 2018 before vowing his loyalty to Trump a year later, led a public letter with other House Republicans calling on Sherrill to answer a series of questions about the noncitizen voting issue. He questioned how she knows it was “just a software glitch and not a nefarious act.”
Van Drew, who chairs the House Judiciary Subcommittee on Oversight, said he plans to hold hearings over the issue and is “absolutely exploring” the possibility of subpoenas, Politico reported.
On Tuesday, Sherrill said Van Drew “has a very sordid history as far as elections go.” She said Van Drew’s campaign had hired a political operative who was a “known ballot harvester” — referring to Craig Callaway, who worked on Van Drew’s 2022 bid.
Sherrill said her administration hired the CSG law firm to conduct an independent investigation into the voting registration glitch. One of the firm’s main partners, Jeffrey Chiesa, served as attorney general under former Republican Gov. Chris Christie, who later appointed him to the Senate.
“We have a bipartisan, independent investigation going on right now because we have nothing to hide,” Sherrill said.
Jayson Werth was sleeping on his couch when Pat Gillick called him in the winter of 2006. Zack Wheeler is one of the best pitchers in baseball yet wasn’t the highest-paid pitcher in his free-agent class.
If we’re talking about the best signings in Philadelphia sports history then Werth — a flier who became an essential piece of a great Phillies era — and Wheeler — an underpaid pitcher who should’ve won two Cy Young Awards — would have a case. But that’s not this list.
These are the 10 players whose arrival to Philadelphia via trade or free agency made you stop in your tracks, text your group chats, and blast sports talk radio as if it was your favorite song. These are the acquisitions that felt like championships. Would anyone have been opposed if the Sixers dropped a banner last week that said “We Signed LeBron?”
Here’s a list of 10 players (including LeBron James) who brought Philadelphia to a halt in the last 50 years simply by coming here.
Honorable mentions: Jeremy Roenick, A.J. Brown, Trea Turner, Kyle Schwarber, Peter Forsberg, Ricky Watters, Paul Coffey, Lance Parrish.
Saquon Barkley smiles while meeting with the local media during an introductory news conference in March 2024.Yong Kim / Staff Photographer
10. Saquon Barkley, 2024
It’s easy to forget now but this move was met by some with trepidation: Why did the Eagles pay for a running back? How much does Barkley have left? Those questions were soon dismissed and the fanfare around the trade only grew that summer when John Mara said he would lose sleep if Barkley was an Eagle. Then, Barkley scored three times against Green Bay to open a special season. There was never a reason to have angst.
Jim Thome hit 89 home runs in his first two seasons with the Phillies.
9. Jim Thome, 2002
How important was it to land Jim Thome? Even Johnny Doc got involved. The Phillies were a season away from opening Citizens Bank Park and needed a big name to drum up interest in a franchise that hadn’t done much since 1993. Enter Thome. The Phillies blew him away with an offer that Cleveland could not match. The Phils were suddenly relevant again.
Cliff Lee, being presented with his jersey during a news conference, had a 2.94 ERA in five seasons with the Phillies.Laurence Kesterson / Staff Photographer
8. Cliff Lee, 2010
The excitement felt two months earlier with the arrival of Roy Halladay was tempered by the accompanying trade of Lee to Seattle. Lee became a hero in October of 2009 when he casually dominated the Yankees in the World Series. In December, he was gone. And it was pure joy when the Phils operated in secret — they were the “Mystery Team” — and signed Lee late at night at the winter meetings. Lee’s return was doubly sweet when it was reported that he picked the Phils over a better offer from the Yankees. The Four Aces were assembled 12 days before Christmas and the Daily News headline the next morning nailed it: Merry Cliffmas.
Terrell Owens is all smiles after a September 2004 Eagles win.JERRY LODRIGUSS / Staff Photographer
7. Terrell Owens, 2004
You knew Owens’ arrival was a big deal when they lit up “WE GOT T.O.” at the top of the PECO building, which then felt like the city’s way to celebrate big events. It took 12 days for the Eagles to land Owens, who had agreed to a deal with the Eagles before the 49ers traded him to Baltimore after his agent missed the deadline to void the final years of his contract and make him a free agent. A hearing was held at Penn where lawyers from the NFL and NFLPA argued if Owens should have been granted free agency. The parties agreed on a settlement: a three-way trade between the Eagles, 49ers, and Ravens that brought Owens to Philly. The team landed the piece they were missing after three straight losses in the NFC Championship Game. The party — remember his first preseason game? — was on.
The Daily News on July 1, 1992 with the news that the Flyers won the rights to 19-year-old center Eric Lindros, completing a blockbuster deal with Quebec.
6. Eric Lindros, 1992
The Flyers agreed to a deal with the Quebec Nordiques for Lindros before the 1992 NHL draft. But so did the Rangers. Now what? An arbitrator ruled that the Flyers-Nordiques deal came first so Lindros — who refused to play for Quebec and skipped the previous NHL season — belonged to Philly. Fans still remember the name Larry Bertuzzi, who was the arbiter who ruled in the Flyers’ favor. Lindros was pegged as a generational player and the best talent to enter the NHL since Mario Lemieux. The Flyers were five years removed from their last trip to the Stanley Cup Finals and Philly was still very much a hockey town. The arrival of Lindros was huge.
The Sixers and coach Billy Cunningham (left) rode to the championship in Moses Malone’s first season in Philly in 1982-83.(Philadelphia Daily News/George Reynolds)
5. Moses Malone, 1982
Who better to add after losing in the NBA Finals than the NBA MVP? That’s what happened to the Sixers after they fell to the Lakers in 1982 and went after Moses Malone. So how did they land him? Cash. Houston had the right to match any offer Malone signed since he was a restricted free agent so Harold Katz built a deal that he knew the new Rockets ownership group could not match. The contract was the largest in NBA history and was built on cash instead of deferred payments, stocks, or bonds. Katz said Houston would lose money if they agreed to the terms. They agreed with Katz and worked out a sign-and-trade to send Malone to Philly. The headlines wrote themselves — “76ers Hope to Follow Moses to Playoffs’ Promised Land,” said the Daily News back page — as the Sixers looked for their missing piece after promising Philly that they owed them a title. “There is good money to be spent and there is bad money. Money for Moses Malone is good money,” Katz said. His “Good money” was “Stupid Money” before “Stupid Money.”
Pete Rose (right) tells the media in 1978 that negotiations with Phillies owner Ruly Carpenter (left) were unsuccessful. Rose wanted more money than the Phillies were offering.Bill Ingraham
4. Pete Rose, 1978
Pete Rose came to Veterans Stadium in 1978, met with the Phillies, and then held a news conference — sitting alongside owner Ruly Carpenter — to say he declined the team’s offer that was substantially lower than others. Can you imagine that happening today? The Phils were out on Rose, who they thought was the player needed to get over the hump after years of near misses. But they got back in the box a week later at the winter meetings in Disney World. The Phillies upped their offer and landed Rose. No player until James came to Philly with a track record like Rose: an MVP, two World Series titles, three batting crowns, and on his way to becoming baseball’s hit king. And it almost didn’t happen. Inquirer columnist Larry Eichel wrote the next day that Rose was “the hired torch brought here in the hopes that his undying competitive fire will catch and ignite a team known as much for its listlessness and studied nonchalance as for its performance.” The Phillies were hoping for more than just a player but a new identity. Sounds familiar.
Julius Erving shakes hands with 76ers owner Fitz Eugene Dixon at a news conference to announce the signing of the former ABA star on Oct. 21, 1976.A
3. Dr. J, 1976
The Sixers outbid the Lakers and the Bucks to land Erving, who won three straight MVP awards in the ABA with the Nets and was considered to be the best player in the world. He reimagined the slam dunk earlier that year and kids dreamed of being like the Doctor long before they wanted to “Be Like Mike.” Like James, Dr. J was more than a basketball star: he was a celebrity. And he joined a team that made the playoffs the previous season for the first time in four years. The dormant Sixers were finally starting to emerge.
Bryce Harper is introduced to the Phillies with his new friend the Phanatic during a news conference on March 2, 2019 in Clearwater, Fla.Mike Ehrmann / MCT
2. Bryce Harper, 2019
You thought LeBron James took awhile to make a decision? The Bryce Harper chase lasted months and bled into spring training before Harper finally joined the Phils days after John Middleton flew his private jet to Las Vegas to give a final sales pitch. The saga was long, but it was filled with great drama: The Phils went to Vegas to meet Harper, hosted Manny Machado at Citizens Bank Park, lost Machado to the Padres, and then seemed to be losing Harper to the Dodgers. But then Middleton’s “Stupid Money” prevailed. It was euphoria best summed up by the 8-year-old kid who got off the school bus to learn Harper was a Phil: “What!? No. No. He’s a Dodger. You’re joking!”
Harper beats out Dr. J and Rose because sports are just a bigger industry now than they were then. Every move — and flight — was tracked all offseason as the Phillies pursued their guy. Those other moves took a few weeks to finish. This was a quest. The team store at Citizens Bank Park ran out of the letter “E” to make Harper jerseys and Fanatics said it was the most popular sports jersey in a player’s first 48 hours with a team. The Phillies sold more than 100,000 tickets in the hours after Harper signed as everyone was swept up in the hysteria. The reactions were just different in 2019 than they were in 1976 or 1978.
LeBron James picked the Sixers to play with for his 24th NBA season in 2026-27.Yong Kim / Staff Photographer
1. LeBron James, 2026
It made basketball sense for James to pick Philly after the Sixers traded for Jaylen Brown. James could join a win-ready roster with Brown, Tyrese Maxey, and Joel Embiid. Of course, he’s coming to Philly. But then the decision slowed down. Maybe we were thinking with our hearts and not our minds. The insiders narrowed his choice to Miami or Cleveland with Philly being a No. 3. And then came the best Friday news dump in Philadelphia history: James was joining the 76ers. It was the biggest transaction in the history of Philadelphia sports. Harper was exciting. This was bigger. Dr. J moved the needle but not like this. Pete Rose? Sorry, Charlie Hustle. That was no match for LeBron’s arrival. No matter what happens next, you’ll always remember where you were last Friday when LeBron picked Philly.
A West Philadelphia renter has filed a class-action lawsuit against his property manager and a national company that sells property management software, alleging that his landlord used price-setting algorithms that Philadelphia has banned.
Since early 2025, Philadelphia has prohibited rental home providers from coordinating to set prices and using software that facilitates the practice. Officials argued that price coordination, especially among large corporate landlords, can lead to artificially inflated rents.
This month, renter Yiyao Liu sued Willow Bridge Property Co., which manages his apartment building and is one of the country’s largest residential property managers, and RealPage, an industry leader in software for landlords. Liu alleges that Willow Bridge used RealPageservices to getrent recommendations based on information from competing landlords that is not available to the public, in violation of a Philadelphia ordinance.
The lawsuit, filed in Philadelphia’s Court of Common Pleas, is the first known case brought under the city’s ban, according to the office of City Councilmember Nicolas O’Rourke, who introduced legislation in 2024.
At the time, O’Rourke said his bill was a preemptive move based on corporate landlords’ use nationwide of software to coordinate rental prices. City Council unanimously passed the legislation in October 2024, and the ordinance went into effect in February 2025.
Liu, who lives in the Vue32 apartment building, asks in his lawsuit to represent as a class other tenants of Philadelphia rental units managed by Willow Bridge.
A representative from RealPage said Monday that the company does not comment on active litigation, and Willow Bridge’s general counsel did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Last month, Washington, D.C.’s Office of the Attorney General announced that it had reached settlements with two landlords it accused of conspiring to inflate rents using RealPage software. The landlords agreed to pay a total of $1.4 million. These were the latest settlements to come from the district’s 2023 lawsuit against RealPage and 14 of the district’s largest residential landlords.
The association said algorithm-based technologies improve operational efficiency, which “directly benefit[s] residents and rental communities.” And it argued that algorithmic software “encourages pricing competition within the marketplace through greater transparency.”
