Crying in H Mart, the first book by Michelle Zauner of Philly-born band Japanese Breakfast, was a memoir published in 2021 that mourned the death of her mother, Chongmi, and explored her own Korean identity through food. It was a runaway bestseller.
The book, whose titular Asian grocery store is in Elkins Park, turned the indie songwriter and bandleader into a literary sensation. It spent 67 weeks on the New York Times hardcover nonfiction bestseller list and 43 more on the paperback list.
Now, Zauner has announced a second memoir, Thank You for Your Suffering, which will be published by Alfred A. Knopf in April.
The book chronicles the year that Zauner — who was born in Eugene, Ore., and graduated from Bryn Mawr College, before starting her Philly bands Little Big League and Japanese Breakfast — spent living in South Korea, learning the language, and connecting more deeply with her mother’s family.
The cover to Michelle Zauner’s new memoir, “Thank You for Your Suffering.”Alfred A. Knopf
As she explained it in an interview in Elle, the book’s title comes from a phrase she initially heard in a hair salon in Seoul. Gosaeng haesseoyo is a colloquial expression that Koreans use to mean “good job” but literally translates to English as “you suffered.”
“So much of the book is about working really hard,” Zauner toldElle. “I was just so hungry and scared of not doing a good job. I think part of that was this strange psychological feeling after my mom died, of wanting to be this perfect daughter that I wish I could have been when she was alive.”
This July, she and the band, including husband Peter Bradley, played the Highmark Mann, opening for Death Cab for Cutie. Zauner, pregnant with her first child, is due to give birth in the coming weeks.
Michelle Zauner. Her new memoir “Thank You for Your Suffering,” will be published in April.Pak Bae
A group of clergy, political leaders, and activists gathered at the Philadelphia ICE office on Friday in the wake of a deportation officer’s suicide, condemning what they said was the agency’s destruction of lives both inside and outside its ranks.
Speakers said they said they grieved with the family of Joseph Moore, 38, who died of a self-inflected gunshot wound while parked near the Center City headquarters, and with the families of immigrants treated wrongly and cruelly by the agency.
Moore died Aug. 28 as he was facing dismissal, along with other new officers brought on amid a huge wave of ICE hiring, one that critics say has led to the employment of unqualified and unvetted recruits.
“He was an ICE agent,” said state Sen. Art Haywood, a Democrat who represents parts of Philadelphia and Montgomery counties, “but he was also a human being.”
Local ICE officials did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Speakers called ICE a rogue agency, and called on its officers to quit their jobs.
One man, who kept vigil outside ICE headquarters nearly every day in August, said he tried to talk to officers as they went inside, and wished he could have talked to Moore.
Generally, said Jim Nicholson, who described himself as Quaker and non-violent, the officers he addressed were “not interested in being human, compassionate beings,” that they told him everyone they arrest is a criminal.
“I’m a very sorry to hear an agent of ICE committed suicide. That’s a tragedy,” he said. “If the agent had come to us, to me, I would have tried to help.”
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, charged with carrying out President Donald Trump’s mass-deportation plan, has been on a hiring binge that more than doubled the size of the agency. Now ICE has begun quietly firing some of those new officers, The Washington Post reported, citing multiple officials who said officers were put on the streets without being properly vetted.
Federal agents arrest a woman after smashing her car window and dragging her from the vehicle in Minneapolis on Jan. 13, 2026. The legality of the Trump administration’s tactics during its immigration enforcement operation, known as Metro Surge, in Minneapolis early this year was challenged by a series of federal lawsuits.DAVID GUTTENFELDER
The Post reported on Monday how Moore, a Marines reservist who graduated from Cheltenham High School in 2006, died by suicide while parked near ICE headquarters.
Philadelphia police officials said officers called to the scene tried to stop Moore from hurting himself.
Police were summoned to the area of Eighth and Race Streets ― the ICE office is one block south ― for a report of an armed man in distress who had barricaded himself inside a vehicle, officials said.
The officers communicated with the man and tried to de-escalate the situation, but he drew a gun and shot himself, police said. No Philadelphia officer fired a weapon, the department said.
Police, without identifying Moore by name, said they have finished their inquiry into the death, and would provide no additional details because it involved a suicide.
In mid-2025, ICE received massive new funding for hiring — about $30 billion, part of $76.5 billion it received through President Donald Trump’s “Big Beautiful Bill.” The administration has said it wants to deport a million people a year, which would require a vastly larger ICE and extensive new detention capability.
Part of the lure was a promised $50,000 signing bonus.
ICE said the majority of new hires were police and military veterans, but an investigation by The Associated Press found evidence that applicants with questionable histories were not fully vetted or were hired in spite of their pasts.
The Post said Homeland Security would not answer questions about specific hiring decisions. It did say that some applicants received “tentative selection letters” and offers to begin working on a temporary status before being subjected to full background checks.
The hiring happened so fast that new officers were put on the streets before being adequately vetted, multiple former officials told the Post. One ICE whistleblower urged officials to halt the expansion, saying in an August 2025 memo that the “overwhelmed” agency had hired officers without checking their fingerprints or their identities, the Post said.
In recent months, ICE has begun quietly firing some of the recruits, the Post reported, citing three former DHS officials who spoke on the condition of anonymity. They said ICE has cited poor performance or red flags that should have been identified earlier.
The Department of Homeland Security rejected those concerns.
Relatives of an ICE officer who shot a Colombian man in Maine in July told The Associated Press he struggled with serious mental health issues since early childhood, and never should have been given a badge and gun. The revelations about the officer, David Brouillette, brought fresh attention to ICE hiring procedures.
The Post said Moore had dreamed of a life in law enforcement since he was a teenager. But two law enforcement agencies fired him, and others rejected him. ICE hired him in the fall as a deportation officer.
Efforts to reach Moore’s family members were unsuccessful.
His obituary said the father of two served 20 years in the Marines as both an active member and a reservist. And that he graduated with a 4.0 grade-point average from Rosemont College, where he earned a bachelor’s degree in criminal science.
Wonder, the food hall and meal delivery company with more than 150 locations across the Northeast, has plans to open a newproduction and distributionfacility in Gloucester County and lay off hundreds of workers in the process.
The company plans to lay off 533 New Jersey employees between Sept. 16 and Jan. 8, according to a WARN notice. Wonder’s facilities in Cranfield and Fairfield in North Jersey are closing, but not any other locations or offices in the state.
“Eligible employees” in Cranford and Fairfield will receive severance, “outplacement services,” and would have to reapplyto continue working at Wonder, including at the new facility in Logan Township, Gloucester County.
Wonder is leasing the new site, 160,000 square feet, at 1130 Commerce Blvd.The move is an effort to consolidate Wonder’s operations across the state as Wonder expands into “new regions,” according to Wonder spokespersonNajy Kamal.
“To set our supply chain up for long-term growth, Wonder made the strategic decision to transition away from our existing New Jersey facilities and move into a new, higher-capacity facility in Swedesboro, New Jersey,” Kamal said in an emailed statement.The new facility has a Swedesboro mailing address, but is located in Logan Township.
Years in the making, after a series of fits and starts that included both a premature groundbreaking and a real one, Philadelphia Ballet’s sparkling new headquarters on North Broad Street officially opened Friday morning.
Ballet leaders and other officials formed a kind of corps de ballet to cut a ribbon in front of the building’s main entrance on Wood Street. A miniperformance by actual dancers in the new black box theater followed, featuring an excerpt from George Balanchine’s Stars and Stripes.
A number of dignitaries were on hand with celebratory words; State Sen. Nikil Saval spoke particularly eloquently about dance and the place of the arts in a “thriving city.”
But it was Louise H. Reed, the stalwart ballet supporter who has seen the company through thick and thin over several decades, who perhaps put it best.
“It’s a miracle,” she said after walking into the building lobby lined with paintings of dancers captured in roles from Giselle, The Prodigal Son, and other works.
The Philadelphia Ballet Center for Dance on North Broad St.Monica Herndon / Staff Photographer
The new facility doubles the ballet’s space for rehearsing — including a studio that matches the size of the stage of the Academy of Music, where it often performs — as well as allows for roomier quarters for the school, wardrobe shop, offices and a music library.
“It’s providing everything the dancers and the school needs as well as a way for us to invite people into our home,” said ballet CEO Shelly Power. “That’s our mantra, really making this for the community. This opens a whole new chapter for us, something we couldn’t do before because we didn’t have enough space.”
Leaders say the new facility brings Philadelphia Ballet up to the standards enjoyed by other major American dance companies — a boast heretofore elusive.
Cutting the ribbon, from left: ballet artistic director Angel Corella; current ballet board chairman David F. Hoffman; ballet CEO Shelly Power; State Rep. Mary Isaacson; State Sen. Nikil Saval; Philadelphia cultural chief Val Gay; and Victoria B. Mars, the ballet’s next board chairperson.Jessica Griffin / Staff Photographer
“Our dancers and our staff have a building, a space, that matches the quality of the organization,” said Victoria B. Mars, a major donor to the project and, as of the end of this month, the ballet’s new board chairperson. “What they were in before was, I would have used the word kind of unacceptable, for the quality of the company we have. So now we finally have a space where everyone can flourish and everyone can feel that they are supported, that they have the tools they need to perform at their highest level.”
The building may be up, but the work isn’t done. About $36 million has been raised toward the $50 million project (whose budget includes not just construction but also costs like financing and outfitting the building).
The ballet’s development department has been expanded and “over the next year will be working really hard to finish this project off. Hopefully donors will see the impact it has on the city and company and the school,” said Power.
The arrival of the five-story 43,000-square-foot building allowed for the renovation of the ballet’s other building set back from Broad Street. That older structure, which will primarily house the school, has been joined with the new one, giving the group a total of 58,000 square feet.
The company is also entering a new era of leadership. It now has Mars, who follows David F. Hoffman, who headed the board for 13 years. She is former chairperson and director of the board of Mars, one of the largest family-owned corporations in the U.S., whose products include M&Ms, Cheez-Its, Pop-Tarts, Snickers, Life Savers and other snack items, as well as pet food and pet care services.
Philadelphia Ballet artistic director Angel Corella being interviewed outside of the company’s new building Friday.Jessica Griffin / Staff Photographer
Mars, 69 — the great-granddaughter of Mars founder Frank C. Mars — said in an interview this week that she was introduced to Philadelphia’s ballet company about a dozen years ago after being seated next to Angel Corella at a dinner party around the time he became artistic director.
“I was inspired by his vision, I was inspired by his commitment and passion for transforming the Philadelphia Ballet into a quality organization that we could all be proud of. And I’ve watched that transition. When I now go to the ballet and when I bring my friends to the ballet, I am proud and inspired by what is being performed.”
Every performance, Mars says, “impresses me, amazes me, and so that passion that Angel has and had at that point in time is what inspired me and has kept me connected.”
Mars — who studied ballet as a child in Paris, holds degrees from Yale and the Wharton School and lives in the Philadelphia area — said that among her goals was increasing philanthropic support for the company.
“I’m talking about everything from government funding to corporate support to contributed revenue coming from foundations, individuals — all the pieces that support the arts.”
The ballet has received $6.7 million in money for the new building from the state.
Members of the Philadelphia Ballet performed an excerpt from George Balanchine’s ‘Stars and Stripes’ in the black box theater of the ballet’s new building after Friday’s ribbon-cutting ceremony.Jessica Griffin / Staff Photographer
Part of Philadelphia Ballet’s pitch to funders is the idea of the building as more than a factory for dancers. The group is still planning its slate of public events, but already has scheduled a series of talks about dance; performances to introduce children and families to classical ballet; and master classes for high school students to create their own dance works.
The building also provides space to woo philanthropists by giving them close-up encounters with the art form. Beyond the artistic connection, a significant enticement awaits potential donors. The ballet’s building currently has a generic placeholder name, the Philadelphia Ballet Center for Dance, while it stumps for a gift that would involve a naming opportunity.
“I was inspired by a story, by a person, by a passion,” says Mars. “The building now enables us to bring people into that space and hopefully inspire them in the same way that I was inspired.”
Titans star defensive tackle Jeffery Simmons made headlines this week when he seemed to take a shot at Jalen Hurts.
Asked a question about the Eagles quarterback Wednesday, Simmons said, via ESPN: “We just need to make Jalen Hurts be a QB. Stop his runs, make sure Hurts doesn’t get out of the pocket and make plays.”
This quote seemed like textbook bulletin board material, a motivator ahead of the Eagles’ Week 2 matchup with Tennessee on Sunday. But when left tackle Jordan Mailata was asked about it, he downplayed its impact.
“I don’t pay attention to that stuff. That’s clickbait stuff,” said Mailata. “That’s what you guys get paid for. … I only care about everyone in this locker room. This locker room is all I give a damn about. I don’t care what you guys say about this locker room, I don’t care what any other locker room says about this locker room. This is my focus.”
Cam Ward has yet to live up to his promise as a No. 1 pick but has the Eagles’ respect, per Nolan Smith Jr. George Walker IV
Edge rusher Nolan Smith Jr. took it one step further. Smith was asked about Titans quarterback Cam Ward, who had a QBR of 34.4 in Tennessee’s Week 1 loss, which was the seventh worst in the league. Smith took the opportunity to praise the former No. 1 pick.
“Man, I ain’t gonna do what [Simmons] did,” Smith said with a smirk. “Man, they’re a good team. Any team in the NFL, they get paid just like we get paid and they go out there and put their best foot forward. And Cam Ward is a great quarterback. The media may portray this and that, but he’s a really good quarterback.”
Simmons’ analysis came days after a solid Week 1 showing from Hurts. The seventh-year QB was one of only three quarterbacks to toss three-plus touchdowns with zero interceptions. He finished with 203 yards on 14-of-25 passing, along with 46 rushing yards on seven carries.
How, in Smith’s opinion, did Simmons’ comments ring throughout the locker room?
“Man, everybody got phones,” Smith said. “Everybody’s got social media, you know? I just tell people, they’re an NFL team, too. They get paid just like we get paid and they go out there and try to put their best foot forward. I’m not a big ‘tearing people down’ type of person, man. Just because you never know what somebody is going through personally in life off this field.”
Developer Brian O’Neill has sued the Upper Merion Township Board of Supervisors over its rejection last month of his proposed 4.6 million-square-foot data center campus.
In lawsuits filed Wednesday in Montgomery County Court of Common Pleas, O’Neill said Upper Merion officials have stated in recent years that data centers — which house the equipment that powers AI — qualify as warehouses and are therefore permitted under its zoning code. They changed their tune, according to O’Neill’s team, only after residents pushed back against the plans.
“The township issued a zoning officer’s determination letter that the proposed use was a permitted use, and then when the people started to bombard them, they did a 180,” said Marc Kaplin, an attorney representing O’Neill. “This is what happens when there is public pressure.”
Brian O’Neill has proposed five data centers in Upper Merion Township and one across the river in Plymouth Township.John Duchneskie
Township Manager Anthony Hamaday said Thursday that Upper Merion officials had been informed of O’Neill’s land-use appeals but that the documents had yet to be delivered to them. They declined to comment, pending a full review of the filings.
O’Neill is asking a judge to reverse the supervisors’ denial, give his plans preliminary approval, and appoint an independent third-party “referee” to conduct an evidentiary hearing and oversee the rest of the process. In the lawsuit, O’Neill says the board acted in bad faith and denied his plans over “minor technical items.”
At a contentious Aug. 13 meeting, the supervisors unanimously rejected O’Neill’s five data center plans on the grounds that the proposals lacked specificity, including on fire-safety-related issues, and did not meet zoning requirements. They said O’Neill’s team failed to address their many questions and concerns during the review process.
O’Neill had said his team needed more time to respond and requested an extension until Sept. 30, a request township officials denied.
A day before the supervisors’ vote, the developer sued the township, its planning commission, and its board of supervisors, saying they violated his legal right to an extension. In response, Montgomery County Court Judge Garrett D. Page ordered a pause on township proceedings and decisions related to the data centers. That decision was vacated the next day, just hours before the supervisors’ vote on Aug. 13.
A building at 2701 Renaissance Blvd., as seen in May, is one of the sites that Brian O’Neill wants to turn into a data center in Upper Merion Township.Alejandro A. Alvarez / Staff Photographer
O’Neill has said the centers would emit little light and noise, operate on a closed-loop system that requires no outside water, and provide their own power. They would also be an economic engine for Montgomery County, according to O’Neill, who released an economic impact study saying the project would result in more than 10,000 jobs during construction, more than 700 permanent jobs, and more than $55 million a year in local tax revenue.
Neighborhood groups have rallied against O’Neill’s plans, organizing on social media, packing township meetings, and displaying bright orange lawn signs opposing the project. About 18,000 people had signed a Change.org petition against the Upper Merion data centers as of Friday. Opponents have expressed concerns about pollution, light, noise, electricity prices, property values, and quality of life.
The pushback in Upper Merion mirrors the opposition seen across the Schuylkill River in Plymouth Township, where O’Neill has spent a year trying to get the OK to build another 2 million-square-foot data center on a shuttered steel mill outside Conshohocken. The project was set to be the subject of a Plymouth Township Zoning Hearing Board meeting on Thursday, but the meeting was canceled due to what the township called “an administrative oversight.”
The closed Cleveland-Cliffs steel mill in Plymouth Township, outside Conshohocken, that Brian O’Neill wants to turn into a 2-million-square-foot data center. Monica Herndon / Staff Photographer
Plymouth Township officials failed to post the meeting agenda 24 hours in advance, in violation of the Sunshine Act.
“Out of an abundance of caution and in the interest of legal compliance and public transparency, the board will not convene as scheduled,” Plymouth Township officials said Thursday in a statement, adding that the meeting will be rescheduled.
O’Neill has also faced off with Plymouth Township officials in recent months. In July, he filed a legal challenge to the Plymouth Township zoning ordinance, which prompted township leaders to accuse O’Neill of “throwing a tantrum” in an attempt to bully and intimidate them. O’Neill called their statements “a bald-faced lie.”
Despite pushback, O’Neill’s team remains bullish on data centers.
“Everybody is against data centers but everybody wants their Amazon order delivered instantaneously,” Kaplin said. “We want all these things that are powered by data centers, so you can’t have it both ways.”
Two decades ago, Kaplin said he worked for a developer trying to get several of the region’s Walmarts approved. At the time, there was great public opposition, he said, but now “everybody is like, ‘Walmart is part of the community.’”
“This too shall pass,” Kaplin said. “We have to have this computing power to compete in the world.”
Pennsylvania State University’s board of trustees agreed Friday to sell two of its closing Commonwealth campuses to developers for more than $6 million.
Plans call for the Wilkes-Barre campus in Northeastern Pennsylvania to be developed into event and conference space for a nearby golf course and space for educational programming, while the Shenango campus in Northwestern Pennsylvania will be used for educational, cultural and workforce training purposes. The Shenango campus enrolled 309 students in 2024 and the Wilkes-Barre campus 329 students, according to a Penn State report on the closures.
Sara Thorndike, Penn State’s senior vice president for finance and business and chief financial officer, told trustees at a committee meeting Thursday that discussions continue on the future use of the other five campuses: Dubois, Fayette, Mont Alto, New Kensington and York. The seven closing campuses are spread from Northeastern Pennsylvania to Western Pennsylvania. The campuses in the Philadelphia region — Abington, Brandywine, and the graduate education-focused campus at Great Valley — are not impacted.
“Every campus is on its own path and own time line,” Thorndike said of the closing campuses. “Our goal is to find a positive path forward.”
Penn State in May 2025 voted to close the seven campuses at the end of the 2026-27 academic year due to precipitous enrollment declines, marking the largest remake of the Pennsylvania flagship university’s Commonwealth campus system in its history.
Since then, Penn State has been conducting meetings at each of the campuses with elected officials and others in the community to hear concerns about future uses, Thorndike said.
The board approved the sale of the 13-acre, 12-building Shenango campus in Mercer County to JCL Development LLC for $1 million. It will be used for education, workforce training, economic development and cultural enrichment, Thorndike said.
Penn State Wilkes-Barre’s 57-acre, 17-building campus in Luzerne County will be sold to HGC Development LLC for $5.25 million. HGC is a subsidiary of the Huntsville Golf Club, which is next to the campus. The property will be used for event space “complementary to the golf club,” the university said, and educational purposes, including a planned partnership with the nearby Misericordia University.
Thorndike said the university considered community benefits, appraised values, deferred maintenance and the costs Penn State would have to pay if it held on to the campuses. Though both offers were below the value of the properties, she said the university determined they were the best overall offers.
“Both proposals outline a vision for preserving the community-facing qualities of these properties while building on the educational impact the campuses have had for decades, and that’s an outcome we’re pleased to see reflected in each plan,” Renata Engel, vice president for Commonwealth Campuses and executive chancellor, said in a statement.
There’s a generalization that rich white guys think it’s OK to laugh at violence against women. Most rich white guys say that’s not true.
You know what would be a great way for rich white guys to dispute that generalization?
Stop laughing at violence against women.
I know it feels these days like we’re at crisis level on several fronts, whether it’s the economy, politics, the climate, or, for lack of a better term, social justice issues. More than anything else, though, it feels like we’re experiencing an overload of casual toxic masculinity.
Two weeks after Good Good Golf ruined its brand by partnering with Callaway in a commercial in which a Good Good executive tackled and berated a woman who was preparing to touch his driver, the biggest Texas home win in 76 years, over No. 1 Ohio State, became a sidelight to the antics of the millionaire principals who made it possible.
𝗧𝗥𝗘𝗡𝗗𝗜𝗡𝗚: Texas QB Arch Manning is facing immense criticism after laughing about the viral AI video of HC Steve Sarkisian hitting female ESPN reporter Holly Rowe.
Fans are calling this "unacceptable behavior" from the team's star quarterback.
First, coach Steve Sarkisian, working under a roughly $76 million contract partially funded by TV rights, refused to participate in halftime and postgame TV interviews, to which he is contractually obligated. Sark tried to justify his actions by citing technical glitches. Please. These sorts of glitches are commonplace on the sidelines of a raucous stadium, and Sarkisian knows it. He was just being a jerk.
He simply ditched Laura Rutledge after waiting all of 10 seconds at halftime. He was just getting warmed up.
After the game, as ESPN threw to respected sideline veteran Holly Rowe — a cancer victim who has worked the sidelines through debilitating treatments — Sarkisian ignored Rowe’s question, screamed, “That’s called Texas fight! That’s called Texas fight!” offered the Longhorns’ catchphrase, “hook ’em,” and ran off like an over-caffeinated teenage boy.
“If hindsight’s twenty-twenty, if I could do it all over again, I would have exuded [he meant practiced] more patience in that moment and sat through and waited for the interview with Holly,” he said.
He offered explanations that only painted him as even less professional, justifying his impetuousness by saying, basically, he didn‘t want to wait before halftime, and that, postgame, he couldn’t wait to celebrate with his team.
Predictably, he failed to actually apologize, and worse, he failed to address the massive, vicious fallout that targeted Rowe all week on forums such as talk radio and social media. Sarkisian did manage to blame his quarterback’s reaction entirely on his quarterback and to paint himself and the precious program as blameless.
Even more predictably, Sarkisian didn’t bother to address the incidents at all until Thursday. They should have been addressed no later than Monday night, as things further deteriorated.
By the time quarterback Arch Manning took to the podium Monday, an AI-generated internet meme that depicted Sarkisian slapping Rowe during their interaction had gone viral. Asked about the original video, Manning, a junior who has made an estimated $10 million in NIL money, said he considered the violent, fake one more entertaining.
“I’ve seen a few AI edits and stuff, but that’s about it,” he said. “I saw an AI edit of Sark’s interview. Y’all seen that one? That’s a good one.”
Which one?
“Of him slapping Holly Rowe. It’s hilarious!”
Again: Manning was asked about the original video, but instead blithely touted the AI imagery of a woman being beaten by his coach.
Disgusting.
Manning — who has sponsorship deals with Red Bull energy drink, Vuori clothing, and Warby Parker glasses — issued an apology Tuesday on Instagram to the millions he offended, for the shrapnel of online hate directed at Rowe following his misogyny, and promised he would be “more thoughtful” in the future.
There was nothing remotely funny or entertaining about the Good Good ad.
There is nothing remotely funny, much less “hilarious,” about the AI violence in the Sarkisian video, which Manning noted: “There is nothing funny about it.”
Really?
Seems like it was plenty funny when he was in front of a gaggle of adoring sportswriters, some of whom, astonishingly, laughed along with Manning … but not so funny when your sponsors are threatening to fire you.
One of the reporters in the room posted the video of Manning’s response with the revealing caption, “ … his answer is gold.”
“I saw the AI Edit of (Sark) slapping Holly Rowe.”
I asked Arch Manning if he’d seen any edits on TikTok or Twitter after the game, and his answer is gold. pic.twitter.com/70FnNCVEHb
The reporter has since apologized, but his initial processing of the situation is troubling, to say the least. He was not alone.
Everywhere you looked there were people, mainly men, downplaying what the faces of the Texas program did. The same demographic downplayed the Good Good ad.
In his statement Thursday, Sarkisian said, “Nowhere do we condone domestic violence or violence against women.”
What he doesn’t realize, or what he conveniently ignores, is that there’s a big difference between expressly condoning it, which nobody does, and implicitly, tangentially seeding it by disrespecting and bullying female sideline reporters. There’s also a difference between expressly condoning it and expressing casual indifference by waiting more than half a week to address it while the real life victims endured merciless condemnation for doing nothing more than their jobs and being treated horribly by the coach and quarterback of the No. 1 team in the country.
Texas quarterback Arch Manning — who has sponsorship deals with Red Bull energy drink, Vuori clothing, and Warby Parker glasses — issued an apology Tuesday for his comments about an AI video of coach Steve Sarkisian and ESPN sideline reporter Holly Rowe.Eric Gay
LIV … victims?
Nobody feels sorry for the professional golfers and their caddies who began accepting tens of millions of dollars in Saudi sportswash in the middle of 2022, when LIV Golf embarked on its obvious goal of tearing down the PGA Tour that had provided those golfers and caddies the means to the millions they’d already made. They were painted as traitors, often on these pages, and were accurately portrayed.
Many now find themselves uncertain of their futures as LIV slogs through bankruptcy proceedings that will, at best, spawn a toothless replication of itself in 2027. So, yeah, screw those guys.
However …
Should we feel sorry for the folks who worked in LIV’s administration?
Should we feel sympathy for vendors and contractors who are owed millions but will get paid little, if anything, for their efforts?
After all, for moralists (like me), just like the golfers, these folks chose to work for a nation whose government was linked with terrorism against America, kidnapped and murdered a journalist residing in America, and practices a brutal and repressive theocracy. In recent weeks, as we commemorated the 9/11 attacks 25 years ago, it became even more difficult to empathize with even the commoner folk who chased inflated, oil-drenched paychecks.
Aren’t the administrators, vendors, and contractors just as guilty as the golfers for feeding at such a rancid trough?
Shouldn’t they have been just as leery of the Saudis, who are internationally notorious for welching on payments?
LIV laid off more than 300 employees last month. Nobody likes to see folks out of work. I know some of the people who got laid off.
LIV Golf, which features the likes of Bryson DeChambeau, is going through bankruptcy proceedings.Chris Trotman
My dad was a union bricklayer, but he also had a small contracting business on the side, so I also know what it’s like to not get paid cash for hard work done.
We had to accept two sheep once, 10 chickens another time, and, probably the best consolation prize, a balky, World War II Willys Jeep.
I hope the 300 laid-off employees find work elsewhere (actually, I couldn’t care less if former CBS and NBC analyst David Feherty and former Premier League announcer Arlo White, as feckless a pair as ever held a microphone, ever work again).
And I hope the contractors at least get a Jeep, because sheep are pretty useless, and those damned chickens, man, they were the worst.
Penn Medicine’s newest mobile medical van features a giant mural of Philadelphia’s City Hall set against a bright, colorful eye.
It’s right on theme: the 26-foot-long van will travel around the city, offering free eye exams and education services to underserved communities. The project is led by Penn ophthalmologist Lama Al-Aswad, whose vision is to prevent blindness by improving access to eye care.
Called the Scheie Eye Institute In MOTION, the van will screen adults for the four major causes of blindness: glaucoma, macular degeneration, diabetic retinopathy, and cataracts.
The goal is to detect eye diseases early, so they can be treated before progressing to blindness. Half of an estimated 2.2 billion cases of visual impairment worldwide could have been prevented or still haven’t been properly treated, according to the World Health Organization.
Lama Al-Aswad is the lead physician behind the new Scheie Eye Institute in MOTION mobile unit.Monica Herndon / Staff Photographer
Al-Aswad had previously launched a similar effort in New York City that screened more than 8,500 people for glaucoma. She found more than half of them had never seen an eye doctor before.
By teaching community members about eye diseases and expanding access tocare, she hopes they can avoid worse outcomes.
“By the time we say [patients] have a disease, we are improving their eye health literacy, so they understand the impact and the need to follow up,” Al-Aswad said.
Those who cannot afford follow-up care can receive services for free, thanks to donations from Philadelphia native Rick Campbell and family, and the New York-based organizations, Save Vision Foundation and Envision Health Technologies.
The van made its first appearance at Saunders Park in West Philadelphia in mid-September. The unit aimsto run at least two to three times a week and see 25 patients at each event.
The Inquirer spoke with Al-Aswad about the new mobile screening van in an interview lightly edited for length and clarity.
Lama Al-Aswad speaks during an event introducing the Scheie Eye Institute in MOTION mobile unit.Monica Herndon / Staff Photographer
What should the public know as part of eye health literacy?
The four leading causes of blindness: That includes cataracts, which are reversible. People who have cataracts slowly lose vision, but once we do cataract surgery, it goes back to your baseline vision.
Glaucoma is the leading cause of irreversible blindness. It’s called the silent thief of blindness because it’s asymptomatic until the end.
Diabetic retinopathy is another leading cause of blindness. That’s preventable too, if there is annual evaluation for it and better control of diabetes.
Macular degeneration is a disease that affects the macula and, with aging, slowly over time can affect vision. That can be treated with injection and monitoring.
A lot of eye diseases can be blinding. But, in general, if we catch it early and take care of it continuously, we can prevent blindness.
What communities are you hoping to reach?
We are hoping to reach the underserved or vulnerable communities in West Philly, North Philly, and other places. We are even targeting the unhoused community with this mobile unit.
The inside of the mobile unit.Monica Herndon / Staff Photographer
What are some lessons that you learned in New York that will be guiding your new effort at Penn?
One of the lessons that I learned is how to close the loop.
Let’s say you go out to the community and you screen. But what happens after that? You tell the patient they have a disease. If you’re lucky, 50% follow up.
When we did a lot of the screening in New York, I did an analysis of the people who followed up and people who didn’t follow up. A couple of things came up:
It’s hard for individuals with mid- to low-socioeconomic status to take time off work. Second, eye health literacy is very, very important for blindness prevention. A good number of patients didn’t understand the need to follow up.
We would call them and they would say, “I have no problem, I don’t feel anything, and I have other priorities.” The other thing is how to target populations at a higher risk.
How will you help patients who require follow-up care after screening?
If we identify disease, we refer them to our practices to be seen in person by one of our physicians. If they are uninsured, we see if we can help them access insurance, and if they cannot access insurance, we can provide care for them for free, thanks to Mr. Campbell and his family’s generous support for this project.
Why is it important to catch eye diseases early?
People go to their internists or other doctors, but the last thing that they think about is their vision.
That’s because eye diseases most of the time are asymptomatic early on, so patients only go when it’s advanced. That’s a problem in itself because a lot of the vision loss we cannot reverse.
It’s really important to identify disease early and manage it for blindness prevention.
Donor Rick Campbell and his wife Marie Campbell walk into the Scheie Eye Institute in MOTION mobile unit.Monica Herndon / Staff Photographer
How do you feel about the launch?
Closing the loop is going where patients are, providing screening and diagnosis, providing education, and providing care to the uninsured. This is a dream come true to be able to do all of this together.
Is the Ed Sheeran concert scheduled for Saturday at Lincoln Financial Field going to go on?
As of Friday afternoon, it appears that it is. But later than initially announced.
The start time for the concert, initially advertised at 5:30 p.m. to accommodate openers has now moved to 8 p.m., per the concert listing on the ticket resale site Ticketmaster.
The enormously popular British singer-songwriter’s Loop Tour has been in crisis since earlier this week when rapper Macklemore was dropped as an opener over pro-Palestinian comments he made during two shows at MetLife Stadium in New Jersey on Sept. 4 and 5. He performed his 2024 song “Hind’s Hall,” about pro-Palestinian protestors at Columbia University, showing footage from the war in Gaza and shouting out “Free Palestine.”
Macklemore was dropped from the tour under pressure from New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft by promoters Messina Touring Group, who told Rolling Stone that several venues “will not allow a concert to take place with Macklemore on the lineup.”
Those venues include Gillette Stadium in Foxboro, Mass., which Kraft owns, and Lincoln Financial Field, where Sheeran’s tour is scheduled to resume on Saturday.
All of Sheeran’s opening acts — Finneas, Danish pop artist Lukas Graham, Irish band Beoga, and Irish singer Aaron Rowe — have since quit in solidarity with Macklemore.
Given the late start, it is unlikely that any opening acts will be added to the Philadelphia stop. The least expensive tickets on the resale site which were priced at $91 on Thursday were available at $66.30 on Friday afternoon.
Ed Sheeran performs during filming for the Graham Norton Show, at BBC Studioworks 6 Television Centre, Wood Lane, in London, Thursday, Nov. 6, 2025, to be aired on BBC One on Friday evening. (Jas Lehal/PA via AP)Jas Lehal
“Kraft had rallied some of the other stadium owners and collectively they gave [Sheeran] an ultimatum: if Macklemore stays on the tour, you will not be allowed to play in our venues,” Macklemore’s Monday social media post reads.
In a statement obtained by USA Today Sports, Kraft acknowledged his decision that Macklemore’s “participation in the Sept. 25 and 26 concerts at Gillette Stadium would cross that line.”
“Too many lives have been lost, and there has been too much suffering,” he wrote, “but only sharing selective information and ignoring the actions of Hamas is not honest and only advances more divisiveness and hate.”
The Linc is owned by the city, but its day-to-day functions and events are managed by the Eagles. This week, The Wall Street Journal reported that the respective owners of the Carolina Panthers and Atlanta Falcons decided to not host the Sheeran concert if Macklemore was not removed from the bill, and that “Philadelphia Eagles owner Jeffrey Lurie would soon reach the same conclusion, as the owners traded phone calls and prepared to address the situation.”
The Eagles did not respond to the Inquirer’s request for comment on whether Lurie played any role in the decision to drop Macklemore. The Philadelphia mayor’s office and Messina Touring Group did not respond to requests for comments either.
On Tuesday, Sheeran took to social media to say that he was in touch with venue owners, promoters, and activists to “find a mutual resolution for all.”
He respects Macklemore’s “strength of purpose to stand up and shout for what he believes,” he said, but found it hard to “build bridges” with venue owners and promoters because of the way the rapper “conveyed part of his message” during his shows at MetLife.
Not removing Macklemore, Messina representatives said in a Monday statement, would “result in the cancellation of the tour and impact hundreds of thousands of fans.”
Local grassroots organizations have spoken out in protest of Macklemore’s removal from the tour lineup.
The local office of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), the nation’s largest Islamic civil liberties group, published an open letter on Wednesday to the Philadelphia Eagles, City of Philadelphia, Lincoln Financial Group, and other groups.
The group criticized the decision to remove Macklemore from the “Loop Tour,” calling it a violation of free speech.
“This is about more than one artist or one concert,” the organization stated. “It raises serious questions about free expression, public accountability, and whether advocacy for Palestinian human rights can become grounds for exclusion from a major venue operating on publicly owned property.”
FILE – Macklemore performs at Austin City Limits Live during the South by Southwest Music Festival in Austin, Texas on March 17, 2023. (Photo by Jack Plunkett/Invision/AP, File)Jack Plunkett
The group has submitted a right-to-know form with the state’s office of open records, requesting information about which party told the Messina Touring Group that Macklemore was no longer able to perform.
A coalition of pro-Palestinian protesters announced Friday they will rally outside the South Philly stadium an hour before Sheeran’s concert.
Adi Chattopadhyay, a West Philly resident who intends to participate in the demonstration, said the protest is to combat the silencing of pro-Palestinian advocacy and the suppression of freedom of speech.
The rally, scheduled for 4:30 p.m. on Saturday, will include speakers from Writers Against the War on Gaza, the Boycott Cooknsolo Coalition, and Shut Down Day & Zimmermann, according to a statement.
New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft watches warm ups prior to the AFC Championship NFL football game against the Denver Broncos, Sunday, Jan. 25, 2026, in Denver. (AP Photo/David Zalubowski)David Zalubowski
Regarding the expected protests in South Philly on Saturday, Philadelphia Police Department spokesperson Tanya Little said in a statement: “As with all large events at the stadium complex, the Philadelphia Police Department is working closely with venue and event organizers to help ensure the safety of concertgoers, employees, and neighborhood residents.”
“PPD routinely monitors large events and assesses staffing needs to ensure an appropriate police presence. The Department will continue to monitor the event and make any necessary adjustments based on public safety needs.”
Staff reporter Maggie Prosser contributed to this article.
