When Michael Nixon pulled the trigger on the handgun he was carrying last May, he robbed Khalief Webster Jr. of his future, Webster’s family of a loving son, and the community of any semblance of safety, Webster’s mother said Tuesday in a crowded Delaware County courtroom.
“Khalief was not just the headlines, not just the crime scene tape that haunts me through the night, not just a victim,” Talaya Shaw said of her 17-year-old son. “Khalief was a young boy growing into a young man with a heart bigger than this world could handle.”
And Nixon, she told Judge Deborah Krull, “had no God-given right to decide when and how he left this world.”
For killing Webster, Nixon, 18, of Upper Darby, was sentenced to 18 to 36 years in state prison. Nixon pleaded guilty to third-degree murder earlier this year for the fatal shooting, which unfolded in May 2025 as the two teens, classmates at Upper Darby High School, crossed paths on Long Lane near Pine Street.
Emotions and tempers flared during Nixon’s hours-long sentencing, which the judge had to pause multiple times to rein in outbursts from those who filled the standing-room-only courtroom. Webster’s friends and relatives screamed to be heard, calling Nixon a coward, among other insults, and demanding justice.
Sheriff’s deputies barred more people from entering the hearing, and had to respond to a scuffle that erupted outside the courthouse after Nixon’s sentence was handed down.
In May 2025, Upper Darby Police Superintendent Tim Bernhardt (center) announced the arrest of Michael Nixon for the murder of Khalief Webster.Vinny Vella / Staff
On the day of the shooting, Webster was riding a miniature dirt bike when he encountered Nixon, who had walked 25 minutes from his own neighborhood to the area, according to investigators.
What happened next was the subject of debate during Tuesday’s hearing.
Nixon’s attorney, Pete Manaras, said Webster asked his client if he was the “young boul” he had seen “the other day,” and got off the bike to confront him.
The two teens, he said, knew each other and had gotten into disputes before. Nixon, fearing for his safety, shot Webster in the abdomen, Manaras said.
But Senior Deputy Attorney General Christopher Phillips, who prosecuted the case, said Nixon was the aggressor. He was out looking for Webster, Phillips said, armed and lying in wait in an area where he knew he would encounter the other teen.
“The public needs to be protected from people that would do such a thing on a sunny afternoon, on a beautiful May day, to a young man who didn’t see it coming,” Phillips said.
After the shooting, Nixon fled and was recorded on a surveillance camera telling someone on a phone call that he had shot somebody in the chest, according to the affidavit of probable cause for his arrest. Nixon’s mother then picked him up and drove him away.
Nixon addressed Webster’s family Tuesday to apologize, saying he wished he could take back what had occurred.
“I didn’t want to kill him. I never wanted to hurt him,” Nixon said. “I was just scared and my body reacted before my mind.”
Nixon said he encountered Webster by chance. He was carrying the gun because of previous run-ins with him, he said, and needed it for protection as he walked to a friend’s house.
Webster grabbed at his waistband as he confronted him, Nixon said. He believed Webster was reaching for a gun and reacted.
Nixon said he had grown up in an abusive household and that made him “perceive everything as a threat” and grow anxious when people get too close to him.
“I’m not saying this as an excuse for my actions, because I know I deserve to be locked up for what I did,” he said. “But that doesn’t mean I don’t want to turn my life around, because I do.”
Webster’s relatives, including his grandmother, Charlotte Webster, said that while they have not yet forgiven Nixon, they know that will come in time through their faith.
Still, she said, the pain Nixon caused their family was devastating.
“I believe this was a deliberate, heinous crime he committed,” she said. “He didn’t care about anything or anyone.”
The father of a Philadelphia man who was killed in an ATV crash this spring said police officers pursued his son moments before he drove the wrong way down a one-way street, ran a red light, and collided with a sedan.
Sterling Jones, 22, was killed on May 9 after the crash in North Philadelphia, according to police.
Lawyers for Jones’ father, Sterling Lamont Jones Sr., said his son and a group of friends had been riding off-road vehicles near Broad Street and Fairmount Avenue when officers from the police ATV and dirt bike detail spotted the young men popping wheelies and began a pursuit.
They followed Jones up Broad Street to West Thompson Street, the attorneys said. There he briefly sped in the wrong direction down the one-way street and ran a red light before striking an Uber driver’s Toyota sedan at the intersection as it turned onto 15th Street.
He was taken to Temple University Hospital and pronounced dead shortly after his arrival.
Sterling Jones Sr., 57, has since hired a team of attorneys to investigate the incident. Late last month, they filed a notice of intent to sue the city, alleging that the officers and the department violated Jones’ constitutional rights when they chased him and caused his fatal injuries.
Sterling Jones, a 22-year-old who lawyers say was killed in an ATV crash after being chased by police officers.Courtesy of Sterling Lamont Jones Sr.
Riding ATVs and dirt bikes on public streets in Philadelphia is against the law, and police have increased efforts to crack down on that behavior in recent years.
But the incident raises questions about whether the officers followed a department directive barring vehicular pursuits for all but the most serious offenses — a policy enacted because of the public safety risks posed by such chases, particularly in densely populated areas.
The initial police account of the incident did not mention that officers had been pursuing Jones before the crash. It could not be learned whether the department had since concluded that officers were engaged in a pursuit and whether it was conducted a high rate of speed, as the lawyers contend.
Sgt. Eric Gripp, a police spokesperson, said the incident is under investigation by the department’s internal affairs bureau. He declined to comment further, referring questions to the city’s law department.
A spokesperson for the law department said the city does not comment on pending litigation.
Surveillance footage gathered by lawyers for Jones’ father and viewed by The Inquirer showed at least eight police officers on dirt bikes, a squad car, and a tow vehicle tailing Jones that evening.
Around 9:23 p.m., Jones was seen cutting through a Sunoco gas station and speeding down West Thompson Street with dirt bike officers close behind. Within seconds, his ATV careened into the driver’s side of the sedan.
Under police department policy, vehicular chases are allowed only in situations in which officers believe they can prevent imminent danger to others, or if a suspect is either fleeing after committing a violent felony or in possession of a deadly weapon used in a crime.
And while riding off-road vehicles violates city code, attorneys for Sterling Jones Sr. say that type of infraction still should not trigger a police chase.
“The police department’s policy is, in our view, clearly violated,” said Thomas Kline of Kline & Specter, which is handling the case alongside the firm Hill & Associates.
A 2025 Inquirer investigation found police in Philadelphia and across Pennsylvania were conducting hazardous and unnecessary chases, disproportionately endangering young people. Roughly half of all reported pursuits conducted by city police were not justified under department policy, the investigation found.
A police department spokesperson attributed the increase in chases to the COVID-era surge in violent crime, and said the department investigates every crash for policy violations.
Between 2020 and last year, records show, the city had paid out $20 million in crash- or chase-related settlements as a result of such chases.
In 2017, a 6-year-old girl and her great-aunt were seriously injured when they were struck by a dirt bike rider who was being chased by Philadelphia police into Upper Darby Township. The city settled a lawsuit with their attorneys for nearly $3 million last year.
Sterling Jones Sr. said that while he was planning to sue, no amount of money could make up for the loss of his son.
The young man was a graduate of Hunting Park Christian Academy and had been working for two years as a delivery driver for the U.S. Postal Service before his death. He had bought the ATV with money from that job, his father said.
“He wasn’t a criminal. He had a license,” he said.
Jones Sr. learned of the crash in the early morning of Mother’s Day, when his son’s mother came to his house to tell him Jones was dead.
He said he hired lawyers with the aim of ensuring that the officers who pursued his son would be reprimanded and removed from the beat.
“They killed my only son,” he said. “I just want justice.”
An eclectic crop of new restaurants has opened over the last several months across the Philadelphia suburbs in Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and Delaware. Some — like the three sports bars in Camden County alone — are breathing new life into familiar addresses. Others mark ambitious first ventures.
Here are 18 of them, from Phoenixville to Gloucester Township to Wilmington.
Pennsylvania
Academy Grill (424 S. Bethlehem Pike, Fort Washington): Michael Sloane and Jay Rosenthal’s group, Fine Line Dining, has transformed the former Cantina Feliz into a polished white-tablecloth destination. Jeffrey Power, longtime chef at the erstwhile Dettera in Ambler, oversees a menu of house-made pasta, seafood, and steaks.
Bluebird Distilling has reopened with a new neo-Neapolitan pizzeria and restaurant.Photos courtesy of Ed Newton
Noah Clifford (left) and Sofia Siano working the pastry case at the Buttery in Bryn Mawr.Allie Ippolito / For The Inquirer
The Buttery Bryn Mawr (836 W. Lancaster Ave., Bryn Mawr): The Malvern bakery-cafe opened its Main Line expansion with 82 indoor seats and daily service from 7 a.m. to 5 p.m. The menu includes sourdough breads, pastries, Turkish eggs (poached eggs cooked in garlicky yogurt with a drizzle of spicy butter), sandwiches, and seasonal lunch dishes, plus grab-and-go foods after the kitchen closes at 3 p.m.
Cleavers (103 Squire Dr., Newtown Square): The Center City cheesesteak shop grand-opened its second location last month at Ellis Preserve, offering cheesesteaks, chicken cheesesteaks, burgers, sandwiches, fries, and milkshakes.
The Coffee Station (1117 Smithbridge Rd., Glen Mills): The Delaware County breakfast-and-lunch operator took over the former Meghan’s Restaurant, which had occupied the building for 27 years. The menu includes omelets, pancakes, breakfast sandwiches, burgers, hoagies, wraps, soups, and salads. Other locations are in Morton and Garnet Valley.
Tabletop and tableside cooking are offered at Ogyu Japanese BBQ.Jose F. Moreno / Staff Photographer
Ogyu Japanese BBQ & Bar (60 Greenfield Ave., Ardmore): Restaurateur Sam Li’s upscale yakiniku restaurant occupies the former Iron Hill Brewery. Customers grill premium Wagyu and other meats on tabletop burners, choosing from fixed-price packages or à la carte selections. The dramatically remodeled space includes black-and-gold finishes, marble-paneled walls, a large bar, and private dining rooms.
Upper Darby’s Tina Fey offers Jimmy Fallon a slice of Pica’s pizza on the “Tonight” show in 2014.Lloyd Bishop / NBC
Pica’s Italian Market (1101 Sussex Blvd., Broomall): After closing its landmark Upper Darby dining room earlier this year, the Pica family soft-opened this mostly takeout shop in a Delco light-industrial park, carrying the restaurant’s signature square pizzas, sandwiches, prepared foods, and other Italian specialties. Pica’s, which hit the national radar in 2014 when locally raised Tina Fey sampled its pizza on the Tonight show, traces its roots to Frank Pica Sr.’s West Philadelphia pizzeria. There’s a West Chester location, too.
P.J. Whelihan’s (2920 S. Eagle Rd., Newtown): The regional sports-bar chain took over the former Iron Hill Brewery at the Village at Newtown with its signature wings, burgers, sandwiches, salads, and American entrees, backed by numerous televisions and a broad draft-beer selection. Most of Iron Hill’s existing layout was retained.
Pomelo Rooftop Terrace at the Brandywine, 165 King of Prussia Rd., King of Prussia.The Brandywine
Pomelo Rooftop Terrace (165 King of Prussia Rd., Radnor): This expansive rooftop bar and lounge atop The Brandywine hotel in Radnor (with 136 seats, inside and out) will grand-open Aug. 8 with chef Michael Davies’ menu of shareable plates (e.g. oysters, scallop crudo, a smash burger, grilled branzino, lion’s mane mushroom cake), raw bar, botanical-focused cocktails, wine, and beer. Weekend brunch begins Aug. 22.
Porter (34 E. Butler Ave., Ambler): This newcomer is in the former Gypsy Blu space on the first floor of Ambler’s historic former Wyndham Hotel, offering contemporary American cooking in a candlelit, vintage-inspired dining room. Menu includes oysters, pasta, risotto, seafood, and meat dishes. Gaslight, a separate craft-cocktail bar with small plates, is upstairs.
Rick’s Tavern (201 W. Seventh Ave., Conshohocken): Chef Derek Davis runs the show at Rick and Gale Mahoney’s modern tavern on the rebuilt site of Pizza Time Saloon and Old Time Saloon. The two-story restaurant honors those neighborhood institutions with wood-fired pizza while adding house-made pasta, cocktails, private-event space, and live music upstairs on Friday and Saturday nights.
The bar at the Scratch Kitchen by Gallo’s, 575 Horsham Rd, Horsham.Michael Klein / Staff
The Scratch Kitchen at Gallo’s (575 Horsham Rd., Horsham): The Harvey family, owners of Gallo’s Seafood in Northeast Philadelphia, is behind this casual, roomy neighborhood restaurant in the former Farm & Fisherman Tavern. Chef Bob DeLange, the owners’ son-in-law, combines seafood dishes from Gallo’s with burgers and bar food inspired by Harv’s Burger Bar, Gallo’s adjoining Northeast Philadelphia tavern.
The exterior of 333 Belrose in Radnor’s St. Davids’ area.Allie Ippolito / For The Inquirer
333 Belrose (333 Belrose Lane, Radnor): The longstanding contemporary American restaurant has reopened under chef Ross Essner after an extensive renovation that flipped the positions of the bar and main dining room.
Yume Sushi in the Shoppes at English Village, 1460 Bethlehem Pike, North Wales.Michael Klein / Staff
Yume Sushi (1460 Bethlehem Pike, North Wales): This Japanese restaurant has opened in the Shoppes at English Village, down the row from Trader Joe’s. Co-owner and head chef Kevin Wan brings about a decade of sushi experience to the venture. The menu centers on sushi, sashimi, rolls, and Japanese-Asian fusion dishes.
New Jersey
Flying Pig Tavern & Tap (1300 Blackwood-Clementon Rd., Gloucester Township): The sprawling former Favorites off-track-betting building has come up as the fifth unit in a growing group. Menu of pizzas, burgers, wings, tacos, and entrees shares billing with live bands, darts, shuffleboard, and a covered tiki bar. A sixth location is planned for the former Andalusia Bar & Grill space in Bensalem.
Home Team Tavern (267 S. Black Horse Pike, Mount Ephraim): Greg D’Alesio has turned the former Mount Ephraim Bar & Grill into a compact, sports-themed neighborhood tavern. Its scratch kitchen serves pizzas, burgers, wings, sandwiches, and elevated bar food, alongside draft cocktails and beer.
Thirsty Turtle Tavern (270 White Horse Pike, Barrington): This new concept from SAS Restaurant Group in the former Chuck Lager space features an open kitchen, burgers, pizza, sushi, cocktails, draft beer, and an outdoor patio behind garage doors. It operates daily; weekday happy hour and weekend brunch are expected to begin in the fall.
Delaware
Ezme (625 N. Market St., Wilmington): Chef Antimo DiMeo and the Bardea Restaurant Group opened this coastal Mediterranean restaurant across from Bardea Food & Drink. Inspired by cuisine from Turkey, Greece, and the Aegean coast, the menu encompasses mezze, raw-bar dishes, handmade breads, grilled seafood, and fire-driven preparations accented with herbs, citrus, and spices. Both à la carte and tasting-menu formats are available.
Police recovered a vehicle on Tuesday believed to have been used in a fatal hit-and-run earlier this week.
Deputy Police Commissioner Frank Vanore said Wednesday that investigators found a black Dodge Charger Hellcat, a high-performance version of the standard Charger, in Upper Darby on Tuesday. Investigators also learned the vehicle had been stolen around an hour before its driver fatally struck Talyia Bernice Nesmith, 29, on Monday morning.
On Monday, just after 3 a.m., Nesmith exited a rideshare vehicle on the 7200 block of Elmwood Avenue in the Eastwick section of Southwest Philadelphia. As she attempted to cross the street, someone driving a black Dodge Charger Hellcat struck her at a high rate of speed, police said.
Nesmith was struck with so much force that she was thrown into the rear of a nearby unoccupied parked car. After striking Nesmith, police said, the driver of the Dodge continued east, striking another parked car before fleeing.
Police responded to the scene at 3:30 a.m. for reports of a multi-vehicle crash involving a pedestrian. Philadelphia Fire Department medics took Nesmith to Penn Presbyterian Medical Center, where she was pronounced dead at 4:05 a.m.
In the hours following the crash, investigators in Northwest Philadelphia found a report of a stolen 2019 black Dodge Charger Hellcat, a similar model to the one involved in the hit-and-run, Vanore said. Officers began tracking where the vehicle traveled after the theft and were able to identify the car in the area of the fatal hit-and-run.
Following that lead, investigators were able to further track the Hellcat into Delaware County. Vanore said that officers notified Delaware County law enforcement agencies of the vehicle they were looking for Tuesday, and that by 5 p.m., officers had recovered a 2019 black Dodge Charger Hellcat in a residential area of Upper Darby at Broadway and Oak Avenues. The vehicle will be processed for forensic evidence.
Police did not identify a suspect in the stolen vehicle or the hit-and-run, and no one is in custody. Investigators are combing through video evidence of the car theft and recovery and the fatal hit-and-run to identify a suspect, but are continuing to ask the public for any information.
“We still ask that anybody from the public who may know anything about this theft, who may know who was operating that Dodge Hellcat, we’re urging them to call us at our tip line or in our crash investigation division,” Vanore said.
Anyone with information can submit an anonymous tip by calling the police department’s tip line at 215-686-TIPS (8477). Tips can also be submitted electronically at phillypolice.com/tips.
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The number of hit-and-run crashes, like the one that killed Nesmith, has fallen in Eastwick in recent years, according to Pennsylvania Department of Transportation data. There were nine hit-and-runs in 2025, down from 15 in 2023. But since 2019, nearly 100 hit-and-run crashes occurred in the neighborhood, resulting in 84 people injured and four deaths.
When Robert Barclay’s two daughters moved from Africa to live with him in Delaware County, getting them up-to-date on their vaccines was at the top of his list.
His daughters, 14-year-old Albertine and 20-year-old Ruth, were among the first clients at the Delaware County Health Department’s new mobile clinic, which launched earlier this summer. The sisters did not bring their vaccination paperwork when they moved here from Africa earlier this year.
On Monday, the 33-foot-long RV trailer was set up at Observatory Park in Upper Darby to mark the beginning of the county’s back-to-school vaccination campaign. As part of the campaign, the mobile clinic will make stops across the county to provide vaccines, physicals, and STI testing.
Encouraging families to vaccinate and hosting clinics in advance of a new school year is a time-honored tradition for health departments. But vaccination efforts have extra urgency this year: Measles cases have reached their highest rate in more than 30 years in Pennsylvania, with a total of 142 cases reported as of Monday.
The highly contagious virus has not yet been reported in Delaware County, but cases are mounting in Chester and Lancaster Counties, as well as in the state of Delaware.
At the same time, vaccination rates across the state are declining. And parts of Delaware County have among the lowest measles vaccination rates in Pennsylvania.
“We don’t have to have measles here,” said Lora Siegmann Werner, director of the Delaware County Health Department.
The key, she said, is boosting vaccination rates before the virus begins to spread locally.
“This is really only a matter of time,” Werner said Monday of the possibility that the current measles outbreak reaches Delaware County. “This is our window to prevent it.”
In Delaware County, 94.3% of kindergarten students had received the measles, mumps, and rubella vaccine in the 2024-25 school year — just below the “herd immunity” rate that scientists say is required to prevent the spread of the disease. But the Philadelphia region is dotted with schools with lower vaccination rates, pockets of vulnerability that put communities at higher risk for an outbreak.
Getting more children vaccinated is a complex and evolving public health challenge. In many cases families have access to vaccines, but do not want them.
About 740 families in the five-county Philadelphia region opted out of vaccination for religious reasons in 2024, a 76% increase over five years. An additional 568 families claimed philosophical exemptions in 2024, a 49% jump from 2019, according to an Inquirer analysis.
The measles vaccine is typically given in two doses: when children are 1 year old and before they enter kindergarten. Pennsylvania requires students be vaccinated to attend school, but also allows medical, religious, or philosophical exemptions, making it among the easiest places to opt out. Recently, state health officials have recommended parents vaccinate children early if they live in or plan to travel to counties where measles is circulating.
On Monday, the clinic vaccinated just three people, including 9-year-old Kayle. Her mother, Pearl, a nurse who declined to give her last name for privacy reasons, said she had heard about the mobile clinic from Delaware County’s health center, and had brought her daughter to get up-to-date on shots before starting fifth grade in the fall.
Robert Barclay heads into the mobile clinic behind his two daughters, who received follow-up vaccine doses during the clinic’s stop in Upper Darby on July 27. Jessica Griffin / Staff Photographer
Aside from directly providing shots, Werner hopes the clinic’s presence will put vaccination top of mind for families who see the RV parked in their neighborhood.
“We don’t need to be the ones doing it — we just want people to get vaccinated,” Werner said.
Barclay, who works in corrections in Delaware County, said the clinic’s spot at Observatory Park was a convenient place for his daughters to get their second doses of needed vaccineson Monday.
The sisters moved from Africa in the spring and did not have the paperwork needed to prove to their school that they had been vaccinated as younger children.
Barclay did not hesitate to get them scheduled for the necessary vaccines.
More than 30% of high school students in the affluent Radnor and Wallingford-Swarthmore districts played sports in the 2024-25 school year.
In the Philadelphia school district, less than 10% of high school students did.
The disparities are part of a pattern, with fewer students playing sports in lesser-resourced urban schools, according to Research for Action, a Philadelphia-based educational research organization that released a report Thursday analyzing high school sports participation rates across Pennsylvania.
The report, which looked at sports as another barometer of opportunities available to students, found participation varies widely — as does school spending on sports programs.
It also found a link between funding and sports participation, with more students on average playing in higher-spending districts.
“The degree to which a student may have access to school athletics really depends on what district they’re in,” said Maja Pehrson, the report’s lead author.
Here’s what the report found — and what questions it raises about access to high school sports in Pennsylvania.
There are big differences in sports participation rates
Participation in school sports “hasn’t really been looked at very much,” Pehrson said. Research for Action analyzed data that school districts and charter schools are required to report to the Pennsylvania Department of Education on athletic opportunities.
The report found participation rates in the 2024-25 school year ranging from 5% in some school districts, to a handful of districts with rates above 40%.
Topping the list locally were Jenkintown School District, at 35%, and Springfield Township School District in Montgomery County at 34%; followed by Radnor and New Hope school districts, at 31%; Wallingford-Swarthmore, at 30%; West Chester, at 28%; and Upper Dublin, at 27% — all majority white, relatively affluent districts.
Below the Philadelphia school district’s 9.6% rate were Upper Darby, at 9%; William Penn and Norristown, at 8%; and Chester-Upland, at 6% — all districts that are majority non-white and high-poverty.
Overall, large, urban districts tended to have the lowest participation rates, meaning “almost half of Pennsylvania high school students are enrolled in districts where the likelihood of participating in a school athletics team is relatively low,” the report said.
Those “very low” participation districts — with 5% to 17% of students participating — also offered fewer sports per 1,000 students than high-participation districts, the report found.
Naima DeBrest, a spokesperson for the Philadelphia district, said the district had expanded athletic opportunities in recent years “by introducing new sports such as girls wrestling and girls flag football” and creating intramural programs at the elementary and middle school levels.
Despite “common challenges” faced by urban districts, “the district remains committed to expanding access to high-quality athletic opportunities and ensuring students have meaningful opportunities to participate in sports that support their academic success, well-being, and overall development,” DeBrest said, noting that the district’s rate is comparable to other urban districts.
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And looking at what districts spend on athletics, it varied widely, the report found. Districts with “very low” participation reported spending an average of $409 per high school student on athletics, while “very high” participation districts — with 28.2% to 61.6% of students participation — spent an average of $939 per student.
Locally, the Jenkintown, West Chester, Phoenixville, and Colonial school districts reported spending more than $1,100 per high school student on athletics, compared with $145 per high school student in Philadelphia.
The report noted that those figures don’t fully reflect spending on school sports. Many districts didn’t report any spending on athletic facilities, for instance; Pehrson said it was likely hard for schools to calculate how much of their overall facilities spending was tied to athletics.
The data also don’t reflect any activities fees paid by students.
Charters have lower participation rates — but in line with Philly
Statewide, brick-and-mortar charter schools, which are publicly funded but independently run, reported lower rates of sports participation. On average, 8.4% of charter high school students participated in sports, compared with 18.1% in district schools. (Cyber charter schools reported no participation; charter students who participate in district programs are counted by districts.)
Rather than a difference between the charter and district sectors, however, the gap could largely be a product of school district conditions, the report said. Half the state’s charter high schools are located in Philadelphia, where the charter sports participation rates largely mirror the district’s, the report said.
In front of their boarded up dilapidated stadium, Olney High School athletes Cindi Lizardo (from left), Emma Blanco, Sidi Traore; and principal Michael Roth, coach Siena Childs, recent graduate Ysis Rivera, and athletic director Jorge Gonzalez point out the deplorable condition the sports facilities are in July 24, 2025. Olney High School, which spent a decade under charter management, was turned back over to the Philadelphia school district in 2022.Tom Gralish / Staff Photographer
Gender gaps persist
Boys participated in sports in 2024-25 at a higher rate than girls — at an average rate of 20.3% compared with 15.8%, the report found.
And those gaps persisted across different types of school districts, the report found. For instance, in districts with “very low” overall sports participation, 14% of boys participated, compared with 10% of girls. In districts with “moderate” participation, 24% of boys participated, compared with 19% of girls. And in “very high” participation districts, 35% of boys participated, compared with 30% of girls.
What’s driving the disparities?
The report found that access to high school sports in Pennsylvania “is not evenly distributed and is strongly shaped by structural conditions.”
“Districts with fewer athletic opportunities are more likely to be urban districts with large high schools and more students of color, and they tend to offer a narrower range of teams and spend less per student on athletics, limiting the extent to which students can engage,” the report said.
But district funding alone isn’t responsible for disparities, the report noted. The gender gap, for instance, is found in well-funded and poorly funded districts.
The pattern of higher-spending districts seeing more participation “doesn’t line up neatly for every district,” Pehrson said, noting that the data can’t fully answer questions about what’s driving differences in participation.
Other possible factors could include transportation and sports outside of schools, Pehrson said.
DeBrest, the Philadelphia spokesperson, noted that urban districts may also have limited athletic facilities, and practice space “and the need for some students to balance academics, work, or family responsibilities.”
Pehrson hopes the findings prompt more investigation into the availability of school sports, which “are a key part of students’ educational opportunities,” Pehrson said — from boosting physical and mental health, to promoting social-emotional skills and building community.
“There are clear disparities in terms of sports opportunities students are having,” Pehrson said. “Why is that, and how can we move forward and try to figure out these differences?”
Editor’s note: This story has been updated to reflect that Jenkintown and Springfield Township were the local districts with the highest sports participation rates.
The Price Point compares homes listed for similar sale prices across the region to help readers set expectations about house hunting.
According to recent Zillow data, homes with “character” — visual distinction and a sense of history — are all the rage.
As the birthplace of the nation, the Philadelphia region has its fair share of drool-worthy older homes of all shapes, sizes, and price tags.
In May, the median sale price for homes in the Philadelphia metropolitan area was $405,000.
So, here are three pre-World War II homes in the Philadelphia region that about$405,000 can buy — all with ample “character.”
A Fairmount condo with a private patio
This second-floor condoboasts a desirable location, according to its listing agent, Jeniffer Benner with Home Sweet Home PHL.
It’s situated on a tree-lined street in the heart of the Art Museum neighborhood, with easy walkability to Center City, the Schuylkill River Trail, and Roberto Clemente Park just a block away.
Benner said a main draw is the property’s private rear patio, which is “tough to find in condo spaces.”
Built in 1920 with a major remodel in 2014, the home’s living room boasts modern features and touches of the past with its traditional red brick exterior. It has nine-foot ceilings, custom shutters, hardwood floors, recessed lighting, and crown molding. The built-in entertainment center has been a favorite of prospective buyers.
“A lot of people think that’s a really nice feature, rather than having a blank box like some of the newer construction condos,” Benner said. “They like that character.”
There are two bedrooms and two bathrooms, with the primary suite including two closets, one a walk-in.
Benner said the condo fee isminimal — $223 per month — because it only covers exterior maintenance and insurance for the townhouse’s three units. Compared to city condo fees that can reach upward of $1,000 a month, the cost is “very affordable.”
The property was listed for sale in March for $420,000. The listing price has since come down to $410,000.
A Tudor-style home in Drexel Hill
This Tudor-style home in Drexel Hill has an old-fashioned feel, as most of the neighborhood’s homes were built between 1925 and 1934, said listing agent Jason Cox with Long & Foster Real Estate.
“This is a throwback, and that’s one of the reasons people love it,” said Cox.
Two columns frame the property’s double-entry doors, which Cox said is an imprint of historical Drexel Hill homes. The kitchen’s mullioned glass-front cabinets and the bathroom’s checkered-tile accents further the home’s traditional aesthetic.
The front yard is shaded by a willow tree, and the backyard is spacious enough for a garden, play set, pool, or all of the above.
The three-story home has one full bathroom and five bedrooms — rare for its listing price. There are three larger bedrooms on the second floor, in addition to a smaller room that could double as an office, and a finished attic with skylights on the third floor.
The living room has a traditional brick fireplace, and the dining room features access to a deck that is a prime location for outdoor grilling. Recently repainted and carpeted, the home is move-in ready.
Cox, who lives a block away from the property, “can’t say enough about the neighborhood.” Ideal for families, the home is walking distance from the local elementary and middle schools, and is a five-minute drive from Upper Darby High School. In the neighborhood, some families have stayed for two or three generations.
Sitting on more than a half-acre, this home’s standout feature is its expansive backyard. About three years ago, the homeowners installed a patio and a gazebo with a mounted TV, transforming the empty space.
“It makes the outside feel like the inside, and it can be screened in,” said listing agent Aaron Wallace with KW Main Street. “It’s the best thing about this property.”
The four-bedroom, two-bath property was built in 1911 but underwent a major renovation in 2020. The contractor did everything “soup to nuts,” Wallace said, including the roof, windows, both bathrooms, and kitchen. “They left no stone unturned with this renovation.”
The bright and airy ground floor includes the mudroom, living room, dining room, kitchen, and full bathroom. Going up a level, there are three bedrooms and the second full bathroom. On the third floor, there’s a generously-sized carpeted room that can be utilized as a bedroom, office, or an alternative living space.
Another highlight is the living room’s fireplace, which is framed by a wooden chevron accent wall and serves as a focal point in the house.
Magnolia’s pre-K-8 school is within walking distance from the home, and there is a baseball field behind the house that hosts local games. Wallace said the homeowners enjoy watching games from their gazebo.
“It has a great small-town feel, and the big city is not too far away,” said Wallace.
“I had fun doing that,” describing “how AI algorithms were working on a microscopic level,” Mahin said.
Now an Upper Darby graduate, Mahin, 18, was honored at the White House earlier this month for a proposal he created for another use for AI: to combat human trafficking.
First lady Melania Trump praised Mahin and the other five winning teams of the inaugural Presidential AI Challenge at a June 9 ceremony.
“You saw AI’s potential and created ideas that will shape America’s future in many areas, including healthcare, nutrition, public safety, and beyond,” Trump told the winners, who were chosen from a field of 20,000.
Upper Darby graduate Khandakar Mahin, right, poses for a picture with First Lady Melania Trump at a June 9 ceremony honoring Mahin and other winners of the Presidential AI Challenge.Courtesy of Khandakar Mahin
Mahin — who said he got to see the Oval Office and “network with many different types of people” — won for a proposal to use computer vision to match photos from the dark web to a database of 64,000 hotels.
The tool would identify details like carpet designs or headboard features in photos depicting trafficking, then match them to known hotels, using images scraped from the internet. Mahin created a framework and demonstration of the tool, and said hisproposal included ideas for how it could be scaled to be used by law enforcement nationwide.
The award, which Mahin said came with a $22,500 prize, was yet another achievement for Mahin, who will attend Harvard University this fall; he was also accepted to Yale and Princeton.
While at Upper Darby High School, he took 16 Advanced Placement classes and won an array of awards and scholarships, including being selected for the Amazon Future Engineers and the Disney Dreamers Academy earlier this year.
“This is a very bright kid who’s been looking into things like this for a long time,” said Dan McGarry, the superintendent of the Upper Darby School District.
Mahin immigrated to the United States with family from Bangladesh 12 years ago and has attended Upper Darby schools since then.
Mahin has been “heavily invested in being a contributor in a positive way to his school community,” McGarry said, noting that the recent graduate was involved in setting up local libraries. “It’s not just artificial intelligence. He’s also a good kid.”
But Mahin has a particular interest in AI. Mahin, who recently served as a student representative on Upper Darby’s school board, was among a group of students who joined school leaders in meeting with company representatives about the weapons detection system.
The students made a video about the system, which McGarry said was critical in getting student buy-in.
The district also sends students to the Delaware County Intermediate Unit to share their perspectives; Mahin has addressed othersuperintendents about AI, “the good and the bad,” McGarry said.
At Harvard, Mahin hopes to study political science and government with an aim toward creating “more ethical AI policies,” he said.
Mahin, who has already participated in programs at Princeton and MIT, credits teachers in Upper Darby — not just in computer science and math, but English, he said — with teaching him “how to have the grit to do research.” His award-winning AI project was supervised by Roseann Burns, an Upper Darby teacher who McGarry said works with gifted students.
Despite being an underfunded district, Upper Darby “has a lot of opportunities,” Mahin said. “As a student, you really have to seek out the opportunities if you really want it.”
While Mahin may stand out for the level of recognition he has received, McGarry said Upper Darby has many “amazingly talented, bright” students.
“That’s often overlooked, unfortunately,” McGarry said. He said Mahin “represents what I think makes this country great. … Every opportunity that was there, he took it.”
This Fourth of July will be unlike any in recent memory. As the nation marks its 250th anniversary, Philadelphia and the surrounding region are packed with celebrations — and fireworks displays. From the city and suburbs to South Jersey and the Shore, there are dozens of opportunities to catch a show.
Whether you’re staying in Philadelphia, heading to the suburbs, or spending the holiday down the Shore, here’s where to find Fourth of July fireworks across the region.
Wawa Welcome America: 🕙 July 4, 5 p.m. 📍Christina Aguilera and Philadelphia native Jill Scott headline a concert followed by fireworks, 2600 Benjamin Franklin Parkway, Philadelphia, Pa., 19130, 🌐 july4thphilly.com
Conshohocken Fireworks Display: 🕙 July 3, 9:15 p.m., 📍The fireworks will take place at Sutcliffe Park, but the borough is closing the park and surrounding areas to the public due to the size of the display. (They advise you to watch the show from another vantage point in town.), 🌐 conshohockenpa.gov
The show, initially an adaptation of a 1981 film directed by Alan Alda, released its second season in May with its ensemble cast, including Fey, Colman Domingo, Will Forte, Kerri Kenney-Silver, Marco Calvani, and Erika Henningsen. Each season sees the friend group travel together on four trips throughout the course of one year, going as far as Italy and Puerto Rico and as near as upstate New York and the Jersey Shore (where they filmed in Ocean Grove and Point Pleasant Beach).
Created by Fey and fellow 30 Rock writers Tracey Wigfield and Lang Fisher, The Four Seasons has been credited for its realistic and heartwarming portrayal of middle-aged couples in long-term relationships and friendships.
Fey and Domingo, from Upper Darby and West Philly, respectively, direct some episodes as well. Like their on-screen friendship, the actors have gotten closer as they’ve worked together on the show, they told The Inquirer last month.
“We grew up so geographically close together. I was like on the very edge of the last street in Upper Darby, and across the street was Cobbs Creek Park,” said Fey, adding that they’re the same age.
Tina Fey as Kate and Colman Domingo as Danny in Season 2 of the Netflix comedy series “The Four Seasons,” which premiered May 28.Emily V. Aragones/Netflix
“I feel like you can see [our friendship] on screen, because it’s actually what has happened personally for us as well, as we got to know each other and each other’s families, each other’s hearts,” said Domingo. “The Jersey Shore location felt very personal for us, because I feel like we grew up there and it brings up [memories].”
In Season 2, the group is grieving the death of their friend Nick (Steve Carrell) and navigating major life changes, like in the case of Domingo and Calvani’s characters. Danny and Claude move to Italy after deciding not to have children. In the finale, however, the couple decide to move to Danny’s hometown of Philadelphia to care for his aging mother. (Initially, Danny tries convincing his mom to live with them in Italy, but when she hears there’s no Wawa in the country, she simply replies, “Then there’s no Beverly in Italy.”)
Will Season 3 see the cast spending any time in Philly? The itinerary hasn’t been announced, but we’re holding out hope.
Cocreator and writer Tina Fey in “The Four Seasons.”Emily V. Aragones/Netflix
Calvani, in the Netflix announcement, suggested that Season 3 might feature Danny and Claude’s “other, hotter” friend group; Calvani said he hopes to “explore our gay friends” and Domingo added that it would be fun to “take the straights on that vacation.”
One potential new addition to the show is Doctor Who actor David Tennant, who made a cameo in the Season 2 finale as a love interest for Kenney-Silver’s character, Anne. Wigfield hinted at the idea of more story lines with Tennant’s character, but his involvement isn’t official just yet.
“Tina Fey, Lang Fisher, and Tracey Wigfield have a magical way of blending heart and sharp humor, making us feel like part of the inner circle,” said Netflix’s vice president of U.S. comedy Tracey Pakosta in the announcement. “Audiences have fallen in love with these characters and this legendary cast’s electric chemistry.”
