ANCHORAGE, Alaska — After a summer spent packing away sockeye salmon, Alaska’s heftiest brown bears are ready to throw their weight around.
Online voting began Tuesday for Fat Bear Week, the annual contest that pits the rotund residents of Katmai National Park and Preserve against each other for the title of most oversized ursine.
Last year’s winner, Chunk — known officially as Bear 32 — is hungry for a repeat. Chunk’s weight in 2025 was estimated at 1,200 pounds, which gave him a narrow victory. This year he’s back and facing corpulent competition like Gully — aka Bear 903 — the offspring of two-time champion Grazer.
The contest, which is in its 12th year, celebrates the resilience of the 2,200 brown bears that live in the preserve on the Alaska Peninsula, which extends from the state’s southwest corner toward the Aleutian Islands. The animals gorge on the abundant salmon that return to the Brooks River, sometimes chomping the fish in midair as they make their way upstream to spawn.
The event this year features 16 bears facing off in a single-elimination, bracket-style tournament. All voting is done online at www.fatbearweek.org, with the winner declared Sept. 29. The public can watch the bears on explore.org’s livestream cameras before deciding on their favorite.
“Fat bears are successful bears,” the nonprofit’s website says. They gorge on salmon starting in late June in order to accumulate fat reserves to prepare for winter hibernation, when they do not eat or drink and lose one-third of their body weight.
Adult male brown bears typically weigh 600 to 900 pounds (about 270 to 410 kilograms) in midsummer. By the time they are ready to hibernate after feasting on migrating and spawning salmon — each eats as many as 30 fish per day — large males can weigh well over 1,000 pounds (454 kilograms). Females are about one-third smaller.
Voters in the online contest can review before-and-after photos of the bears, lean at the start of summer and fattened at the end. The bears are not actually weighed — imagine that process — and some fans choose their favorite based on their looks or backstory.
To be featured in the contest, the bears must frequent the area around the river.
The live cameras at Brooks Falls captured the moments in 2024 when mother bear 128 Grazer ‘s cub slipped over the waterfall and floated into the fishing spot occupied by Chunk, who attacked and injured the cub. Grazer fought Chunk, but the cub ultimately died. After the dramatic fight, voting fans handed Grazer a victory over Chunk. Then Chunk returned in 2025 to take the title.
Fat Bear Week was started in 2014 as an interactive way to inform the public about brown bears, the coastal cousins of grizzlies.
NEW YORK — President Donald Trump is set to address the U.N. General Assembly on Tuesday at a tumultuous moment for the world — and for his presidency.
The global economy has been shaken by his decision to launch a war against Iran. Anxiety about the social impact being wrought by artificial intelligence is surging. And questions linger about the future of the United Nations itself with Trump’s scaling back U.S. financial support for the United Nations.
He’s also set to meet with leaders and senior officials from Gulf Cooperation Council nations — Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and United Arab Emirates — to discuss the way ahead with the war in Iran and growing concern about recent Iran-backed rebel attacks on Saudi Arabia.
The visit to the U.N. comes when Trump’s foreign policy approach — particularly his decision to start a war with Iran — has become a drag on his fellow Republicans’ hopes of retaining control of both chambers of Congress during the coming midterm elections. Nevertheless, administration officials signaled Trump will make the case in his address that the world is better off for his leadership.
“We expect the president will highlight how he has and his administration have confronted complex problems head-on around the world,” Ambassador Mike Waltz, Trump’s chief envoy to the international body, told reporters.
Waltz also suggested that Trump might revisit some of his long-held criticism of the United Nations. The president has criticized the body as being ineffectual on issues of war and peace, has claimed the organization is perpetuating a “con job” by emphasizing the need to address global warming, and has asserted the U.N. has promoted the “invasion” of migrants into Europe.
He returns to the General Assembly nearing the seven-month mark of a new war against Iran that he insists is necessary to address a nuclear threat posed by Iran.
The war has grown more complicated even though strikes by the United States and Israel have killed much of Iran’s top leadership and destroyed its air force and navy, while a U.S. blockade of Iranian oil has left Tehran in economic shambles.
The passage of oil from other Gulf countries through the Strait of Hormuz has improved in recent weeks with the help of the U.S. Navy helping guide commercial vessels through the narrow waterway. Still, the flow of oil is significantly below pre-war levels. And Brent crude continues to hover around $100 per barrel, up from about the $70 range in the weeks before the start of the war.
But the energy market continues to be spooked. Saudi Arabia earlier this month shuttered a key pipeline that acted as a relief valve for oil blocked in the Gulf. The kingdom made the move after the pipeline came under attack by Iran-backed militants in Iraq.
At the same time, territorial grabs by the Yemen-based Houthi rebels, another Iranian-backed group, near the Bab al-Mandab Strait has now made it treacherous for oil carriers to use that Red Sea shipping lane.
Majed al-Ansari, chief spokesman for the Qatari Foreign Ministry, said Monday that Qatar and other mediators are trying to penetrate a “deep deficit of trust” between the U.S. and Iran and get the sides back to negotiations.
“What we’re trying to say is that, ‘Listen, this will end at the negotiating table,” said al-Ansari, speaking at the Concordia Annual Summit, a global affairs forum taking place during the U.N.’s high-level week. “Either we sign a deal now or sign a deal 10 months away. The only difference is the number of dead and destruction that we see.”
The administration will sign a Greenland deal
At last year’s General Assembly, Trump touted his record as a peacemaker and claimed that “everyone says that I should get the Nobel Peace Prize” for his administration’s efforts mediating several conflicts around the globe.
This year, his administration is set to sign an agreement on the sidelines of the General Assembly with Danish and Greenlandic leaders that aims to set the pathway for the expansion of the U.S. military’s footprint on Greenland.
The deal, announced last week, came together after Trump repeatedly threatened to “take over” Greenland, a territory of NATO-ally Denmark, by military force if necessary.
Under the deal, Greenland remains Denmark’s territory. “I’m looking forward to the meeting tomorrow. I think we have reached a good agreement,” Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen told Danish broadcaster TV2 Denmark.
Trump’s frustration with Russia-Ukraine war mounts
The president has routinely expressed frustration about the conflict. He hasn’t obscured that his patience is being tested by Ukraine’s targeting of Russia’s diesel refineries — an issue that’s added to oil markets’ volatility — and Russia’s targeting of Ukraine’s energy grid.
Trump last week asserted that he got the two sides to agree to not target each other’s energy infrastructure. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said he was willing to go along with Trump’s plan if Russia abided by it. Russia said it could only go along with Trump’s energy truce proposal if Western energy sanctions on Moscow were lifted first.
The two sides have continued carrying out strikes on refineries and other energy infrastructure. Trump on Monday, before departing for New York, expressed his frustration with targeting of energy infrastructure.
“Russia has unfortunately lost control of its Diesel Oil Industry due to its War with Ukraine,” Trump posted on social media. He added, “This ridiculous and never ending War with Ukraine must be ended.”
Trump to hold critical talks with UK, Japan and Venezuela leaders
The president is set to hold his first face-to-face meeting with Burnham, the center-left Labour Party leader who became prime minister in July.
With elevated oil prices dragging the British economy, he may also be eager to discuss ways to fully reopen the Strait of Hormuz. He announced on Monday that he would send a Royal Air Force plane to the Mideast to help Saudi Arabia repel attacks from Houthi rebels. The plane will refuel Saudi planes during defensive missions.
Trump’s meeting with Japan’s Takaichi comes as he prepares to welcome Chinese President Xi Jinping later this week to Washington for a state visit.
The historically complicated Japan-China relationship became even more fraught after Takaichi said last year that Japan’s military could intervene if China were to take action against Taiwan, a semi-autonomous island democracy that Beijing considers its own territory. The tensions have spilled over into the China-Japan economic relationship.
Trump’s engagement with Rodriguez, Venezuela’s interim president, will be the first meeting between the two leaders since Trump in January ordered a U.S. military operation to capture then-President Nicolás Maduro and swept him off to New York City to face federal narco-terrorism and drug trafficking charges. Maduro’s lawyers have objected to the U.S. military action that snatched him from power.
BOSTON — A lawyer for Lindsay Clancy is asking a judge to investigate the conduct of the lone juror who wanted to convict the Massachusetts mother of murder in the deaths of her three young children.
In a motion filed Friday but made public Monday, Clancy’s lawyer asked the court to question juror Michael Desronvil about his alleged use of a cellphone during deliberations, his truthfulness on a questionnaire that prospective jurors filled out before the trial began, and his truthfulness when jurors were questioned by the judge a day before the trial ended.
Among other things, lawyer Kevin Reddington asked the court to obtain a record of any calls or texts Desronvil made between 8 a.m. and 4:30 p.m. on each day the jury deliberated. Phone use during deliberations is prohibited in the state.
The judge declared a mistrial Sept. 4 after the jury insisted it couldn’t reach a unanimous verdict, despite days of trying. Eleven of 12 jurors were ready to clear Clancy of criminal responsibility, with the majority feeling that she was in the grip of a rare condition called postpartum psychosis when she strangled her kids.
But Desronvil sided with the prosecutors, who had argued that Clancy knew what she was doing.
Desronvil hasn’t been accused of any wrongdoing in connection with his service on the jury, though some other jurors complained that he was inflexible in his opinion that Clancy was guilty. In a statement released by his lawyer last week, Desronvil said he “didn’t have any doubts.”
Prosecutors have yet to say whether they plan on putting Clancy on trial again. She remains charged with murder and is in a psychiatric hospital until her case is resolved.
In another motion on Monday, another lawyer for Clancy, Martin Weinberg, asked the judge to take the unusual step of dismissing the criminal case, rather than putting on a new trial, on the grounds that a mistrial shouldn’t have been declared in the first place.
Weinberg argued that the judge should have replaced Desronvil with an alternate during the deliberations after the jury foreperson complained he was refusing to listen to the law on reasonable doubt.
“Contrary to the court’s stated belief at the time, it did have viable choices other than declaring a mistrial,” Weinberg wrote.
A spokesperson for Plymouth County District Attorney Timothy Cruz would not comment on the motions.
At the trial, jurors heard from psychologists and clinicians who treated Clancy for several months before the killings, when she was suffering from worsening mental health problems that emerged after the birth of her youngest child. She was released from a psychiatric hospital less than three weeks before she killed her children.
If you haven’t given much thought to COVID-19 lately, that’s understandable. The impact of the coronavirus has “substantially diminished” since the early pandemic years, said William Schaffner, a professor of infectious diseases at the Vanderbilt University Medical Center. As a result, “people are perhaps less attentive to COVID.”
That’s probably due in part to the fact that most people have had some prior protective exposure to COVID-19, either through vaccination, infection or both. But COVID-19 “hasn’t gone away,” said Schaffner. “It’s still apt to produce serious illness.”
Previous years have seen increases of COVID-19 activity in late summer as well as winter, and cases are starting to ramp up this year, especially in certain parts of the country, said Thomas Russo, chief of infectious disease in the department of medicine at the Jacobs School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences at the University at Buffalo. “COVID-19 is certainly coming,” he said.
Vaccination remains the best way to decrease the likelihood of severe outcomes from the virus, as well as protect those around you who might be at higher risk.
In late August, the Food and Drug Administration approved updated COVID-19 vaccine formulations that target the variants currently circulating around the country. But there hasn’t been new federal guidance this year on who should get the vaccine. Last year’s recommendations have been thrown into legal limbo after a federal judge ruled that Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. improperly reconstituted an influential advisory panel. Instead, major medical groups have banded together to release their own recommendations.
Here, answers to questions you may have about getting the COVID-19 vaccine this year.
Who should get a COVID shot
The FDA approved the updated COVID-19 vaccines for people with at least one underlying condition placing them at higher risk for severe COVID-19 — such as people with cancer, a chronic disease (like diabetes or HIV) or a weakened immune system — as well as all adults age 65 and older.
This differs from what major medical societies have said previously and are now recommending. The American Academy of Pediatrics, the American Academy of Family Physicians and the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists suggest the vaccines for most people, including healthy adults ages 18 to 64 and healthy children ages 2 to 18, if their parents want them to get one.
While many experts stress that anyone can and should get a COVID-19 vaccine, “the risk of developing severe disease is variable depending on the individual,” said Russo, meaning vaccination is especially critical for higher risk groups. Those include people age 65 and older, children under 2 years old, children between the ages of 2 and 18 years in certain high-risk groups, people with underlying conditions and those who are immunocompromised, and pregnant women.
What healthy people should know
If you’re an adult under 65 and don’t have an underlying health condition, you may think you don’t need an updated COVID-19 vaccine. But healthy people can still be hospitalized because of COVID-19 or have severe outcomes. “The other thing that the vaccine does is it helps prevent long COVID, and that could be a devastating problem,” said John Swartzberg, a clinical professor emeritus in the division of infectious diseases and vaccinology at the University of California’s School of Public Health.
A healthy person may also live, work or be around someone at high risk of severe disease. “Getting vaccination would be beneficial because you’re less likely to be infected, or if you do get infected, you’re going to shed lower levels of the virus,” said Russo, “so you’ll be indirectly protecting those individuals.”
Schaffner added that medical professional societies will continue to recommend comprehensive COVID-19 vaccination for nearly everyone, including adults age 19 to 64 who are otherwise healthy. “Vaccine acceptance of both COVID and flu vaccines slipped last year, and we are hoping to reverse that trend this year.”
How effective is the updated vaccine?
The FDA recommended that the newest formulation target the XFG variant, which currently has the widest circulation.
As for how effective this newest formulation will be? “We never really know how well it’s going to perform until it’s been used by millions and millions of people,” said Schaffner. However, preliminary data suggests it should be “very active” against this XFG strain, noted Swartzberg.
Like the flu shot, COVID-19 vaccines are updated annually after monitoring of the circulating variants in the United States. While there’s no guarantee you won’t get sick at all, you can feel reassured that the vaccine helps prevent severe disease, said Schaffner.
A study published in JAMA last year found that the 2024-2025 vaccine formulation offered 45.1% effectiveness against emergency department visits and 57.5% effectiveness against hospitalization or death.
More recently, a study on the effectiveness of the 2025-2026 COVID-19 vaccines found that the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines provided between 48.3% and 59.3% protection against hospitalization for adults over age 65.
In addition to reducing the severity of COVID-19 infection, the vaccine may prevent you from getting infected. That same 2025 JAMA study found that the 2024-2025 COVID-19 vaccine provided 44.7% protection against infection four weeks after vaccination. This was similar to the level of protection provided by the previous formulation, the authors said.
The best time to get a COVID shot
It takes a week or two to develop maximum antibody levels from a COVID-19 booster, said Russo, and a little longer if you’ve never been vaccinated before. “Ideally, you want to get that close to the winter respiratory virus season when we see a lot of cases and your likelihood of getting infected increases,” he said.
Medical experts generally recommend COVID-19 vaccination toward the end of September and during October. “Then the protection will be sufficient to stretch out through most of the winter,” said Schaffner.
It’s safe to get your annual flu vaccine at the same time as your COVID-19 shot.
Where you can get a COVID-19 vaccine
“Year in and year out, the substantial majority of COVID vaccines have been given out in pharmacies,” said Schaffner. Doctor’s offices or health clinics can also supply COVID-19 vaccines, though you might want to confirm that your provider has them in stock, he said.
Children, however, are “somewhat of a unique case,” noted Russo, “because depending on the age of the child and the state, the pharmacist can’t vaccinate them.” Some states have age restrictions for COVID-19 vaccines: Maine, for example, allows pharmacists to vaccinate anyone ages 3 and up against COVID-19, while you must be at least 18 to get a COVID-19 vaccine from a pharmacist in Iowa.
If your child can’t get vaccinated at a pharmacy, you may need to ask their pediatrician.
Many insurers have indicated that they will continue to cover COVID-19 vaccinations, said Schaffner, though check with your insurance provider to be sure. You can also use the HHS.gov Health Center Finder to look up federally funded health centers near you that don’t require insurance and may offer sliding fees based on income. However, there have been questions about when COVID shots will be available that are typically offered through a federal program providing vaccines to children who are uninsured, underinsured or on Medicaid.
Like last year, “there will be confusion about who ought to receive COVID vaccines this fall” and whether they will be covered by your health insurance company, said Schaffner. “That was the case last year, and we hope that it will work that way again this fall and winter.”
George Nakashima never intended to move his family to New Hope.
The famous furniture maker became one of the most sought-after artists in modern American design, considered so impactful that his home and studio in Bucks County were named a National Historic Landmark.
It was a significant recognition from the government that had previously incarcerated Nakashima, his wife, Marion, and their then newborn daughter, Mira, forcing them to relocate from their home in Seattle to the Minidoka concentration camp in Idaho in 1942.
The family was among some 120,000 Japanese Americans — including about 80,000 U.S. citizens — imprisoned during World War II due to the unsubstantiated fear that they could be foreign spies.
By that point in his late 30s, Nakashima was already a successful architect and woodworker who had earned a master’s degree from MIT and traveled the world. Incarceration shaped his artistic practice and changed his trajectory significantly. At the camp, he met a skilled carpenter who taught him traditional Japanese carpentry techniques that greatly influenced his burgeoning signature style.
Furniture designer and craftsman George Nakashima in his woodworking shop. In 2014, the U.S. Department of the Interior named his Solebury property a national landmark.The Intelligencer, file
New Hope became a new home to the Nakashimas in 1943 when the War Relocation Authority released them under supervision, thanks to Nakashima’s old boss Antonin Raymond, who sponsored their freedom.
(Ironically, the government respected the authority of the Czech immigrant Raymond, who was a naturalized citizen, over that of the Spokane-born Nakashima.)
The conditions of the release prevented Nakashima from pursuing architecture projects with Raymond, so he worked as a farmhand by day while continuing to craft furniture by night. He transformed the farm’s milk house into a workshop and found inspiration in the woodlands surrounding him, where he would eventually establish himself as a giant of American design for decades to come.
George Nakashima (1905–1990), Milk House Table, 1944, Teak and cypress, 17 1/4 × 37 1/4 × 33 1/2 in. (43.8 × 94.6 × 85.1 cm), Nakashima Foundation for Peace.Christian Giannelli
One of his earliest pieces after incarceration served as a poetic callback to the home he was compelled to leave behind: a coffee table made of teak wood from Washington a friend shipped to him.
Milk House Table (1944) is one of 10 Nakashima artworks on view at the Barnes Foundation this fall as part of its American art programming marking the 250th anniversary of the nation’s founding. The exhibit “Noguchi to Asawa: Designing Postwar America” examines six renowned Japanese American artists whose work defined modern American art and design in the mid to late 20th century — all of whom were severely impacted by mass incarceration.
“This project is focused on six pretty iconic Japanese American artists who very much collectively shaped the look and the feel of mid-century America. The idea was to really look at the collective impact of this pivotal moment of Japanese incarceration during World War II, not only in the lives and careers of these artists, but by extension, in American art and design,” said Barnes curator Cindy Kang, who spearheaded the exhibit. “The roots of American modernism actually do extend into the Japanese incarceration camps. Some of these artists received their first really important artistic experiences there because they were incarcerated with professional artists, and that very much shaped the direction of their future careers.”
Two generations are represented in the show — those who were older, established artists before incarceration (Nakashima, sculptor/designer Isamu Noguchi, and sculptor Leo Amino) and a younger generation who had formative experiences learning from artists while incarcerated (graphic designer S. Neil Fujita, fiber artist Kay Sekimachi, and sculptor Ruth Asawa).
Ruth Asawa (1926-2013), Untitled (S.272, Hanging Seven-Lobed Continuous Interlocking Form with Spheres in the First and Sixth Lobes), c. 1954, Copper and iron wire, 111 × 14 × 14 in. (281.9 × 35.6 × 35.6 cm), Private collection.Laurence Cuneo @ Studio 71, Inc
Their works span media, from wood furniture to copper wire sculptures to jazz album covers. (Fujita got his start at a Philadelphia ad agency and taught at the Philadelphia Museum College of Art, which was later named University of the Arts, before becoming the design director at Columbia Records.) The final room in the exhibit evokes a typical postwar American living room with everything made by Japanese American artists that underscores how essential their artwork became to the aesthetics of modern design.
“You may not have a Noguchi Akari lamp, but you may have the knockoffs from Target and Ikea,” said Kang.
In her research, Kang explored how wartime incarceration contributed to the complicated formation of an Asian American political identity following decades of anti-immigration policies and discrimination. She found that these artists’ assimilation into the legacy of American design often sidelined or erased their connections to these historic injustices.
“Especially with Nakashima and Noguchi, their work has been so fully assimilated into American design that the fact that they have these histories is so buried … you don’t even connect American design with these histories,” Kang said.
“That’s what I was trying to bring out [in this show]… You see a Noguchi or Nakashima chair or lamp or table and think, ‘Oh yeah that’s American design,’ and then not have any idea that it’s connected to Asian American history.”
Who gets to be an “American”? That question weighed heavily on Kang as she developed the exhibit and studied the historic period when the U.S. government imprisoned thousands of immigrants, including American citizens and children. She had no idea just how timely her project would feel opening this year, as the U.S. government continues to imprison tens of thousands of immigrants under President Donald Trump’s second administration.
“It really was not in our minds that this would be as relevant, or as on the nose as it is today, that’s really unfortunate,” said Kang. “We need to keep remembering we’ve been through this and we already know this is not a good direction. We need to learn this lesson again.”
George Nakashima (1905 – 1990), Dried Bitterbrush collected by the Nakashimas in Minidoka, Idaho, c. 1942, Wood, 5 1/2 × 14 × 10 in. (14 × 35.6 × 25.4), Nakashima Foundation for Peace.Christian Giannelli
For many of the featured artists, life after incarceration provided an opportunity to move past that traumatic time — they often did not discuss or share details about their imprisonment with their families or others. However, younger generations of Asian Americans, including the artists’ descendants, want to interrogate these histories further to understand how that trauma lingered on in the lives of these beloved artists.
For his part, Nakashima told his daughter that “his wounds healed over and left no scars.”
Still, he kept pieces of wood he collected from the Minidoka camp, which he used to create case furniture for their family home. In the exhibit, one of these remnants will be on display: a branch of dried bitterbrush.
“Noguchi to Asawa: Designing Postwar America,” runs through Jan. 10, 2027 at The Barnes Foundation, 2025 Benjamin Franklin Pkwy., Philadelphia, 215-278-7000 or barnesfoundation.org
Rep. Ro Khanna of California leaned forward in a patterned armchair as a rooster crowed outside, listening as a group of farmers in rural Sharpsville, Pennsylvania, told him that Democrats came across as inauthentic and insincere.
“Don’t promise the farm and not come up with it,” said Joe McCann, who grows hay and raises pigs. “And don’t lie to people. I can take anything, but if someone’s standing there physically lying to me and blowing smoke up my butt, that’s not going to cut it.”
Khanna agreed, fretting that his party had for too long “looked down” on blue-collar voters. Then he quipped: “How do you think I’m doing? Lying?” McCann, 78, said he didn’t think so.
Khanna, D-Calif., has emerged as one of the most prolific surrogates of the 2026 cycle. He has endorsed more than 70 candidates for seats in the House, Senate and state legislatures, positioning himself on the front lines of a burgeoning progressive movement as discontent with the status quo has propelled a series of left-wing candidates to primary victories.
But there was another reason for his vigorous political itinerary this campaign season: a possible presidential run in 2028. He wants to see the left’s power grow within the Democratic Party. He wants its policy prescriptions, such as universal healthcare and taxing the rich, to shape the conversation about who the party’s nominee for president should be.
And he knows that none of that is likely to happen if the left bombs in November.
A little 2026, and a little 2028
Despite their major wins in primaries this season, progressives’ ability to sway the general electorate in competitive races remains untested. A new poll released by The New York Times and Siena University on Sept. 15 found that a slight majority of voters disliked socialism.
In Khanna’s view, the only way the movement can change that perception is if it figures out how to talk to the working class.
Khanna, born outside Philadelphia to immigrants from India, has been preparing for his political future out in the open. In the past two months, he has taken many of the steps of an early presidential candidate.
He held a town hall with Latino voters in Nevada. He told the Democratic National Committee in a searing speech that the party needed to turn its back on corporate interests and military aid to Israel. He also ventured abroad, leading a congressional trip to the Vatican to discuss safeguards against artificial intelligence with Pope Leo XIV and visiting the West Bank, where he was detained by armed Israeli settlers.
Icons of the progressive movement, such as Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York, have been choosier with their high-profile endorsements this year. Khanna is lesser known, and has work to do to change that. The eagerness can occasionally backfire; he has expressed regret for his endorsement of Graham Platner, the Maine Democrat who withdrew his Senate bid in July after a woman accused him of rape.
“He’s hustling,” said Bill Hyers, a progressive strategist who worked with two House candidates — Kat Abughazaleh in Illinois and Chris Rabb in Pennsylvania — whom Khanna endorsed in primaries this spring. Rabb won. Abughazaleh lost.
Added Hyers: “He’s just been out there really working hard and he’s the only person on the left I have seen where there’s no doubt he’s running.”
Over five days in Pennsylvania in July, Khanna, who grew up outside Philadelphia in suburban Bucks County, rallied for two House candidates whose primary victories in May stood out as early triumphs for the progressive movement. Their very different districts illustrated both the advantages and challenges facing the progressive left this fall.
In Philadelphia, Khanna talked about liberal priorities like “Medicare for All” with Rabb, a democratic socialist who is virtually assured of victory in November in his deep-blue district. In a battleground district in Allentown, Khanna discussed tariffs and job losses with union factory workers to help the candidacy of Bob Brooks, a firefighter and labor leader who faces a more difficult path to victory in November against Rep. Ryan Mackenzie, a Republican.
On behalf of both candidates, Khanna offered a similar pitch: The wealth and technological innovation of his high-income Silicon Valley district should be shared more widely. His agenda of “new economic patriotism,” he said, would spread technology jobs among Midwestern states and redistribute profits through a wealth tax.
“If we just are running on centrist mush that is put out by ChatGPT, bland and inoffensive, we’re not going to win,” Khanna told a reporter in the SUV he was riding in for the Pennsylvania swing. “It has to be a transformative vision.”
Khanna was generally well-received by an electorate in Pennsylvania that has soured on Republicans and seems increasingly willing to give Democrats another chance. But he also encountered the enduring skepticism of voters who see their leaders as having failed them.
“He comes across very progressive with his plans, but I don’t know that he’ll be able to carry them through,” said McCann, after Khanna’s conversation in Sharpsville. “This area that I live in right now is a depressed area — and anybody that gives anybody around here a vision of hope is the person they’re leaning toward. They just have that vision of hope that this might happen, and it never does.”
In an interview, Khanna said he planned to decide about 2028 between Thanksgiving and Christmas, after talking to his family and determining how viable he could be in battleground states.
His trip across Pennsylvania was intended in part to assess that. A progressive contender for president, Khanna said, would have to “do well in the Black South” and “do well in states like Pennsylvania.”
He said he was also forging bonds in southern states, including in South Carolina, where his partnership with Rep. Jim Clyburn and his daughter Jennifer Clyburn connects students at historically Black colleges and universities with scholarships from tech companies.
Khanna has recruited alumni of both progressive and establishment campaigns. He is being advised by Ron Klain, the chief of staff to former President Joe Biden, and has enlisted longtime advisers to Sanders such as Julian Mulvey and Jeff Weaver, according to a person familiar with the partnerships who requested anonymity to describe internal staffing issues.
The road ahead, plus AOC
A dismal progressive showing in November could instantly set back Khanna’s fortunes. So could something else: Ocasio-Cortez. If Ocasio-Cortez, the breakout star of the left, runs for president, she would appeal to the same liberal constituency as Khanna but with an enormous head start in popularity.
Khanna called Ocasio-Cortez an “extraordinary talent,” and dismissed the idea that she is a rival.
“I have a tremendous amount of respect and admiration for her,” he said, adding, “I have genuinely never discussed what she wants to do in the future.”
Khanna said he talked with Ocasio-Cortez occasionally in the halls of the Capitol. He communicates more frequently with Sanders, speaking with him on the phone about AI and answering the senator’s queries about the chances of California voters passing a tax on billionaires this fall.
Khanna readily acknowledged that he lacked the political “star power” of his left-wing compatriots. “I’m not delusional,” he said.
His speeches are also a little heavy on policy and light on the kind of soaring rhetoric that voters often look for in a president.
That was the case in Pennsylvania, but he also tested catchphrases such as “economic patriotism,” and retail politicking seemed to come easily enough for him. One particular line, when he argued that President Donald Trump had not followed through on a simple promise — to replenish sand that had washed away along Lake Erie — got a good response from voters.
“I’ve seen a lot of clips of him online — I thought he was much more charismatic in person,” said Gideon Tsoutsouris, a college student in Pittsburgh.
Khanna portrayed his low profile as an asset, noting that other successful candidates — including former Presidents Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton — began their bids as long shots. It’s an advantage, he said, “to go meet people and interact without the entourage.”
Khanna, a multimillionaire, likewise dismissed potential criticism of his wealth, which largely stems from his wife’s father, the founder of an automotive company.
“I tell people my own story of growing up middle-class in Bucks County, taking out loans for law school in my 20s, having forbearance and massive credit card debt,” Khanna said. “I think people will see that I had a middle-class life and even economic challenges.”
Hyers, the progressive strategist, said Khanna would likely face criticism for his long-standing relationships with the tech industry.
“The perception in a lot of the circles that I run in is, ‘How much money has he taken from the bad guys?’” Hyers said. (Khanna has since broken ties with many wealthy tech executives and called for taxing them more heavily.)
When Khanna’s tour rolled into Pittsburgh, he hopped around town, chatting with union leaders who are faculty members at a local university, nurses fighting for a labor contract and a group of college students.
Before addressing the students, he spoke with two groups protesting his visit on nearby street corners: the pro-Israel Beacon Coalition and the pro-business Americans for Prosperity, a creation of the conservative Koch family. One of the AFP protesters urged him to reject socialism.
The moment illustrated another challenge that Khanna would face in a presidential primary. He may be too progressive for moderates, and not progressive enough for some on the fractious left.
“I don’t believe the government should take over the means of production,” Khanna told the protesters. But, he added, many young people were turning to socialism “because they can’t afford rent, they don’t have a good job. They lost the American dream.”
Pay and benefits typically account for more than half the total costs in hospital systems at a time when healthcare costs are rising sharply in the Philadelphia region and nationally.
Local nonprofit health systems reported compensation ranging from $1.2 million to $3.7 million in 2024 for the 100 highest-paid employees listed in their most recent federal nonprofit tax returns. The ranking excludes system CEOs.
Meanwhile, employers are expecting insurance increases approaching 10% for the coming year, according to several national surveys by benefits consultants. Experts cite increased use of healthcare services, widespread use of expensive specialty drugs, and rising hospital prices as key factors leading to overall rising benefit costs.
Clinicians accounted for 60 spots in The Inquirer’s top 100 ranking, which is based on compensation reported in dozens of 990 tax forms from Philadelphia-area hospitals, affiliated physician groups, and other related entities.
Highly specialized neurosurgeons accounted for the highest number of top-paid clinicians, followed by cardiac and cardiothoracic surgeons and orthopedic surgeons.
Chief financial officers and chief operating officers were well represented in the management ranks.
The region’s largest health system also claimed its highest-paid non-CEO, Jefferson Health president and physician Baligh R. Yehia. His $3.7 million in compensation also topped that of all but two CEOs, as disclosed in a previous Inquirer analysis.
Thomas Jefferson University, which is Jefferson Health’s parent entity, had 30 executives and physicians in The Inquirer’s top 100. The Jefferson group includes four executives who left during or before 2024, but not salaries reported through the Lehigh Valley Health Network, which Jefferson acquired in August of that year.
Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia had the second-largest number of employees in the top 100, with 18, including surgeons and numerous top executives, such as CFO, general counsel, and head of human resources.
Virtua was third, with nine employees, mainly surgeons.
Across the region, 176 nonprofit health system employees received at least $1 million in total compensation in 2024. That amounts to one in five employees in The Inquirer’s database of more than 800 people.
IRS rules require nonprofits to report compensation for officers, highest-paid employees, and employees with a certain level of responsibility.
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During the whirlwind spectacle of his daughter’s Sept. 1 wedding, business leader Duvi Honig noticed his guest, Lt. Gov. Dale Caldwell, was sharing his business card and private cell phone number with everyone he met.
Honig said he told Caldwell to stop — he was there as a friend and he wanted him to relax and have fun. Caldwell assured him that in his role as Gov. Mikie Sherrill’s liaison to the business community, he was happy to help anyone in need, Honig recalled.
So when Honig read the news days later that Caldwell, a minister, was the subject of a monthslong ethics investigation for allegedly giving business cards to women he wanted to date, among other claims, he said he had to defend the lieutenant governor. No one else seemed to be speaking up for him, he said.
“I thought, ‘What the heck is this?’ What I witnessed — him being overly nice to everyone — is being used against him?” said Honig, a Lakewood resident and founder of the national Orthodox Jewish Chamber of Commerce. “He is a special person. He is accessible to anyone and he has no agenda.”
Lt. Gov. Dale Caldwell plays with a soccer ball at the Collingswood World Cup fan fest on July 19.Courtesy Camden County
Now that Caldwell’s name and political future are tied to an investigation — which Sherrill will not confirm but is privately being carried out by a former state attorney general — some of his friends and colleagues are rushing to his defense to answer the question: Who is Dale Caldwell?
Before the investigation became public, Sherrill, a rising star in the Democratic Party, had been hitting the road for the party’s candidates in key congressional races, transferring the gubernatorial powers and responsibilities to Caldwell when she left the state.
But she has since curtailed her travel while the investigation drags on amid Republican criticism and concerns from members of her own party, according to three veteran Democrats who were involved in her campaign or have ties to her administration who were not authorized to comment publicly.
“She is failing at the most important time” by not being able to campaign, said one veteran adviser.
The governor recently made trips to New York City for a 9/11 memorial event and a live interview with the Atlantic, but she did not make Caldwell acting governor because of an exception that allows travel across the river.
“We’re not going to speculate about the Governor’s schedule, but her priorities are always guided by the best interests of New Jerseyans,” Sherrill spokesperson Sean Higgins said in a statement.
Gov. Mikie Sherrill (right) stands beside New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani at the National September 11 Memorial in lower Manhattan on Sept. 11, 2026. Hiroko Masuike
Democratic power players have privately expressed frustration that Sherrill has left them in the dark about the probe while Republicans call for Caldwell’s resignation. Sherrill said in a statement days after the news broke that “any credible report must be fully examined and addressed.”
The veteran campaign adviser, who is close to both Caldwell and Sherrill, said the two have not spoken directly with each other as the investigation proceeds.
A senior campaign adviser, impressed with Caldwell’s resuméand “unblemished public record,” recommended the pick. It dramatically raised his public profile to new heights in a role that would entrust him to lead the state in Sherrill’s absence.
The 66-year-old divorced minister with degrees from Princeton University and the University of Pennsylvania previously served as the first Black president of Centenary University. He worked as deputy commissioner of community affairs in former Democratic Gov. James McGreevey’s administration more than 20 years ago.
Lt. Gov. Dale Caldwell embraces his daughter Ashley Caldwell after she introduced him at Sherrill’s election night party in East Brunswick on Nov. 4, 2025.Tom Gralish / Staff Photographer
He also held a seat on the New Brunswick Board of Education for nearly three decades and founded charter schools in Asbury Park and Trenton.
Last year, the state comptroller’s office interviewed Caldwell, a founder and then-board president at the College Achieve Greater Asbury Park Charter School, as part of its ongoing investigation into whether the school had violated public contract laws and misused public funds.
Caldwell is the first man and third Black person to serve as lieutenant governor. He quickly embraced the opportunity to be Sherrill’s No. 2, a campaign adviser said.
“Their dynamic [between Sherrill and Caldwell] was terrific. Reports coming back on his appearances were all very positive and they got off on a strong start on inauguration day, as far as I knew,” the adviser said.
One person close to the campaign, however, said after the election Caldwell asked others how he should do the job.
“You are there as the governor’s person. You report to the governor and chief of staff,”the source said. “He laughed. I think he was trying to do his own thing.”
New Jersey Gov. Mikie Sherrill and Lt. Gov. Dale Caldwell celebrate their victory on Nov. 4, 2025, in East Brunswick.Kevin R. Wexler, Kevin R. Wexler
The investigation, sparked by at least one anonymous complaint, began more than four months ago, according to the campaign adviser.
The complaint accused Caldwell of bringing uninvited women to events andhanding his business card out to women he wanted to date. And a state employee accused him of making inappropriate comments, the New York Times reported.
Caldwell declined a request for an interview through a spokesperson. His attorney, Thomas Calgagni in Newark, did not respond to requests for comment.
Caldwell denied the allegations and suggested racism was a factor in a May 28 letter to the state’s chief ethics officer, noting that he is “the first single Black man to serve at this level in government,” and that “in this current political environment, false accusations, especially against people of color, seem to be commonplace,” which was first reported by BINJE.com.
“I have never asked anyone out on a date, ‘hit on,’ or pursued anyone romantically while conducting official business as Lieutenant Governor and Secretary of State,” his letter said. “Throughout my career in government, higher education, nonprofit leadership, ministry and public service, I have consistently conducted myself professionally and respectfully.”
Lt. Gov. Dale Caldwell (center) applauds as Gov. Mikie Sherrill finishes her budget address March 10 in the Assembly Chamber at the New Jersey State House.Tom Gralish / Staff Photographer
Former congressional candidate Tim Alexander, an Atlantic County-based civil rights attorney, got to know Caldwell while working on the campaign trail for Sherrill in South Jersey last year. He sang Caldwell’s praises and said he believes he is “good for the state.”
Alexander, a former detective, said Caldwell supported his congressional bid but stepped away to avoid a conflict as the new secretary of state, which he called a “testament to his character.” The former candidate, who is Black, said he cannot believe race is a factor in the allegations without knowing more.
“Dale has impeccable credentials, and he also has Black skin. So there’s a lot that I could opine on, but when it comes to investigations, I got to leave it out. … If we have confirmation bias, it turns the investigation to trash,” he said.
Fighting back, with help
Last week, a small band of friends and colleagues spoke out to condemn the vague allegations, the snail’s pace of the investigation, and the permanent harm to Caldwell’s reputation no matter the outcome.
Felicia Simmons of Asbury Park was one of several friends to rush to Caldwell’s defense last week by questioning the legitimacy of the investigation. She helped organize one of the events in question — the Whitesboro Black History Gala, an event in April recognizing the preservation efforts of the state’s first planned Black community, located in Cape May County.
Simmons said she invited the lieutenant governor to hand out proclamations to honorees. She said she saw no questionable behavior on his part.
“It was very meaningful for him to be here,” she added.
Lt. Gov. Dale Caldwell walks with Collingswood Mayor Daniela Solano-Ward in Collingswood on July 19 before reports of the investigation.Courtesy Camden County
Caldwell’s staff alerted her prior to the event that he would be bringing guests, which is not unusual because many dignitaries seldom travel alone, Simmons said.
And after all these months, no one from former Attorney General Christopher Porrino’s law firm, which is leading the probe, has spoken to her yet — even after she issued a statement criticizing investigators for not contacting her.
“I feel highly offended,” she said.
Lt. Gov. Dale Caldwell (third from the right) attended the Whitesboro Black History Gala in April, at the invitation of Felicia Simmons (center). He is the target of an ethics investigation after an anonymous complaint said he acted inappropriately around women, including at this event. Simmons denies the allegation.Courtesy of Felicia Simmons
Caldwell “comes from a line of men with integrity,” noting his father marched with the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., she said.
“I truly believe Gov. Mikie Sherrill made the right choice picking this man and we can’t just sit back,” Simmons said. “These awful allegations could follow him for the rest of his life.”
Albert Stark, from the Philadelphia- and Marlton-based law firm Stark & Stark, also came to Caldwell’s defense in an interview, calling him a reliable friend and public servant. Stark said Caldwell, a pioneer in bringing tennis to young Black youth, helped establish the National Junior Tennis and Learning network in Trenton.
When he first heard about the scandal, Stark said, he wondered: “Who was setting him up?”
They haven’t spoken since the investigation was publicized, he said, but he offered this advice: “‘Just be yourself. You’re a terrific guy.’ He has got nothing to be ashamed of.”
‘They are trying to destroy his integrity’
Before the investigation leaked, Caldwell spent his summer visiting with business leaders and elected officials throughout the state, including in South Jersey. Local leaders did not comment on the accusations but said they appreciated Caldwell spending time in the region.
Collingswood Mayor Daniela Solano-Ward said Caldwell visited her small borough for the second time for its World Cup fan fest. Caldwell kicked a soccer ball around with the mayor, thanked volunteers, and fist-bumped Deputy Mayor Amy Henderson Riley’s daughter. He posed with local vendors, smiled in front of a “giggle juice slushies” menu at Racoon Taproom, and chatted with kids at the All Fired Up! pottery studio.
Lt. Gov. Dale Caldwell poses at Racoon Taproom in Collingswood on July 19.Courtesy Camden County
“He was kind and respectful, and seemed like he was very engaged in the things we were saying,” she said, noting that their interactions were limited.
As acting governor he visited Campbell’s and the Philadelphia 76ers training facility in Camden for an economic development tour in August, and he returned later that month for a Chamber of Commerce Southern New Jersey resource fair alongside Camden Mayor Vic Carstarphen, a Democrat who declined to discuss Caldwell.
Thank you to @ChooseNJ and Camden Community Partnership for showing me some of the great work the City of Camden is doing to strengthen its economy and expand opportunity.
The Governor and I are committed to making sure Camden – and every community across the state – thrives. pic.twitter.com/95zIkO3KNy
— Lieutenant Governor Dale Caldwell (@LtGovCaldwellNJ) August 21, 2026
New Jersey Democrats have not been rushing to defend Caldwell, who has become a complicated topic for them with the extent of the allegations against him unclear.
Gerard Cleaves, a professor at Pillar College, a private evangelical Christian school in Newark, said he was angry at the Democrats who, he believes, are “out there fanning the smoke” by leaking tidbits of the investigation and not offering public support.
“They are trying to destroy his integrity,” he said.
“I am an old, white male Republican conservative who worked very hard to get [Sherrill’s GOP opponent] Jack Ciattarelli elected,” said Cleaves, who said he met the lieutenant governor at Fairleigh Dickinson University, where Caldwell taught from 2018 to 2023. When Caldwell joined Sherrill’s ticket, Cleaves said, he told his colleagues they “would be hard to beat” based on Caldwell’s resumé and character.
Caldwell has not missed their Wednesday morningBible study lessons since news of investigation broke earlier this month, Cleaves said.
“He doesn’t appear stressed. He knows in his heart who he is. He has told me he will not resign. He is not going to give up,” he said.
Benjamin Franklin once said there were two certainties in life: death and taxes. Then, the Jury Selection and Service Act of 1968 codified a third: getting summoned to jury duty.
For senior folks, age could be the qualifying factor to excuse them, leaving a reader to ask Curious Philly, The Inquirer’s forum for questions about the city: Is there an age limit on serving for jury duty in Pennsylvania?
As long as you are an adult citizen, residing in Pennsylvania, and have a beating heart, frankly, the answer is no.
Anyone with an able body and mind who can read, write, and speak English and has never been convicted of a felony or crime punishable by more than a year in prison is can participate in jury duty well into their sunset years.
That said, in Pennsylvania state courts, people 75 years and older can request an exemption from fulfilling jury duty to not have to show up, under state law.
The process, however, isn’t as easy as just choosing not to appear.
Ages for excusal from jury duty
In federal courts, summoned jurors can often be excused as early as their 70th birthday, said Corey McCrea, a courts public affairs specialist.
The precise age, however, depends on the district court a person is summoned to; some may have higher or lower age requirements, McCrea said.
Septuagenarians and older citizens can request to be excused from jury duty, but can still choose to fulfill their jury service if they want to, McCrea said.
State courts also have varying ages for exemptions.
Across the river, in New Jersey, residents must be 75, like in Pennsylvania. They have to prove their date of birth to the jury management office.
But in Mississippi, people 65 years old and older can be excused, and only need to file an online form.
Folks in the state of Washington, on the other hand, need to reach 80 years old before qualifying for an age-related excuse. Even then, they need to prove they can’t serve due to health reasons through an attestation form.
Requesting an age-related excusal for jury duty in Pennsylvania
Older Pennsylvanians who are summoned for jury in state court may request to be excused, with the specific procedure varying by county.
Those summoned in federal court — the Eastern District of Pennsylvania for residents in Berks, Bucks, Chester, Delaware, Lancaster, Lehigh, Montgomery, Northampton, and Philadelphia Counties — must send an email to ejuror@paed.uscourts.gov within five days of getting the summons to submit their excusal request.
Change on the way?
Seven decades might soon become the rule for all Pennsylvanians, including those summoned in state court.
A new bill in the Pennsylvania General Assembly proposes to lower the jury duty age exemption for all Pennsylvanians to 70.
“When you see people that are 75 years old having trouble just walking into there, to me that’s a bring it down, bring it down to 70,” said Nancy Guenst, the Montgomery County Democrat sponsoring the bill.
A legal battle over Cheltenham Township’s pool contract has bred tension at meetings and divided some neighbors, but a township official and the suing resident’s lawyer agree on one thing: It could take a while.
The dispute centers on Cheltenham’s lease of land to a private developer for $10 per year to build a pool complex — the same land that the developer had given Cheltenham for free in December 2025.
The agreement requires the township to pay up to $4.5 million for three public pools that a new entity, Melrose Pool LLC, will construct on that land, or rent the pools from that entity. The township had hoped to open the new complex at the former Melrose Country Club by 2027 to replace the aging Conklin Pool across town. The developer, meanwhile, is building houses and a medical facility next to the new pools.
But Cheltenham resident Sam Thacker sued in July, and he argues that the ground lease was in fact a public construction contract and should be subject to a bidding process to determine the best provider.
Cheltenham has argued that the township received estimates for replacing pools on other properties, and therefore determined that $4.5 million is a good deal for the Melrose project.
The litigation has reached a stage that could take a year to resolve, Thacker’s lawyer said. And whether construction continues alongside the suit may depend on whether a court grants an injunction Thacker filed last week to halt the project. A long delay may scuttle the entire pool project, a township official said.
Where the suit stands
Thacker’s injunction request was denied by a judge last month who found he lacked standing, but he has appealed to Commonwealth Court.
It could take six months to hear the case, said Thacker’s lawyer, Christopher McCabe, who specializes in construction and government contracts, and a year to get a decision.
Thacker, who was representing himself until he hired McCabe this month after raising more than $6,000 from dozens of donors in a GoFundMe campaign, also filed a new injunction with the higher court to halt pool construction in the meantime.
A long delay could mean the new pools do not happen, Township Commissioner Emily Cheramie Walz wrote in a social media post last week after delivering the same remarks at the Sept. 16 commissioner meeting.
“There is a real risk that continued litigation could jeopardize the funding and timeline for the Melrose project,” Cheramie Walz wrote. “Families across the township who were excited about having a new pool could lose that opportunity.”
Cheramie Walz’s comments echoed part of Cheltenham’s legal defense in the case, that halting the project would cause more harm to township residents than allowing the project to proceed — an argument the lower court judge agreed with.
But McCabe asserted in the emergency injunction request filed last week that that logic does not hold up, because the Melrose agreement is a no-bid construction contract disguised as a land rental.
“Then every municipality would simply argue that the object of an illegal contract will be greatly beneficial to their residents and the taxpayers,” McCabe wrote, and residents would be unable to stop an illegal contract.
When the developer, an entity associated with BG Capital, gave 2.7 acres to the township last winter, the document referred to an unspecified “advantage” that the developer would receive by gifting the land to Cheltenham.
Amee Farrell, a lawyer for the developer and a former chair of the township’s zoning board, has not answered questions about what the developer expected to gain from the land gift.
“If [Cheltenham] owns the land free and clear, what prevented them … from putting out a request for bids?” McCabe said Monday. “You don’t know whether there was corruption here because you don’t know what the discussions were.”
An ongoing topic at public meetings
Although the township has repeatedly declined to comment on the details of the ground lease because of the lawsuit, Cheramie Walz addressed the subject of the suit directly in her post last week.
“There is no secret no-bid deal,” she wrote. “We have spent an embarrassing amount of time and public resources dealing with this litigation — resources that could be going toward the work residents actually expect us to be doing.”
Some residents have also expressed frustration over the suit and the controversy.
“We want new centers for community to grow and businesses to develop and thrive,” resident Nick Steever said. “The bidding process isn’t what certain people are upset about, but rather the fact that [Conklin] Pool is closing.”
Thacker and the township commissioners have exchanged tense words during public comment. When Thacker spoke at a Sept. 14 committee meeting, Cheramie Walz asserted that Thacker’s lawyer had told officials they should not speak directly to Thacker, so they would not.
McCabe said Monday that he had told Cheltenham’s lawyers to communicate with him, not Thacker, now that he had legal representation, and was not referring to all township officials.
Thacker said Monday that any delay or waste is on the township.
“They are the ones who executed a no-bid construction contract,” he said. “I do not bear any responsibility for the costs incurred as they dig deeper into defending it.”
Correction: This story was updated to reflect the status of Thacker’s case.
This suburban content is produced with support from the Leslie Miller and Richard Worley Foundation and The Lenfest Institute for Journalism. Editorial content is created independently of the project donors. Gifts to support The Inquirer’s high-impact journalism can be made at inquirer.com/donate. A list of Lenfest Institute donors can be found at lenfestinstitute.org/supporters.
