Category: Philadelphia, Pennsylvania Local News

The Catholic League Championship Came Down to Overtime in A Game for the Ages As Part of a Fantastic Double Header.

The Palaestra is one of those formidable, powerful, descriptive terms describing a structure from ancient Greek times – which featured an open-court configuration.

Athletes would train in the Palestra — from boxers to wrestlers in one of humanity’s ancient gymnasiums.

They had nothing on our building at the University of Penn.

In overtime on Monday night in the boys Catholic League Championship at the Palestra, #1 Roman Catholic was locked in an overtime battle with #5 Archbishop Ryan. With just seconds left and trailing 44–42, Archbishop Ryan appeared to have won the game when they hit a three-pointer to go up 45–44.

Roman Catholic High School — Philadelphia’s first Diocesan high school in all of America founded in 1890 — who just honored the 115th anniversary of its 1902–03 basketball team — was going for its 34th PCL Championship for basketball. The 1902–1903 team was Philadelphia’s first integrated high school basketball team — and possibly the first in the United States.

With time running out, Roman did not utilize a timeout. They brought the ball up the court, utilized a set offense, and won the championship with a pull-up, foul-line jumper with no time remaining on the clock, 46-45.

Earlier that evening, it took double overtime for the Archbishop Wood to defeat Archbishop Carroll 54–52, which featured Archbishop Wood making eight free throws down the stretch to win the game.

Penn’s Palestra — first built in 1927 and named by Greek Professor William N. Bates — the location of many great games including a 26–15 Penn win over Yale on New Year’s Day of that year — had yet another fantastic finish occur within its walls.

The Palaestra’s of Pompeii and Olympus were athletic training areas in ancient Greece.

On Monday night, OUR Palestra was the scene of two more championships.

Congratulations to all four teams on great, winning seasons.

The Philadelphia Orchestra’s home is being renamed Marian Anderson Hall in honor of the pioneering Black American contralto, a rare case of an artist’s name replacing a corporation.

The orchestra’s auditorium in the Kimmel Center for the Performing Arts was known as Verizon Hall from 1999 through 2023, as part of a $14.5 million contribution agreed to by Bell Atlantic Corp. before its name change in 2000 to Verizon Communications Inc.

Anderson, who died in 1993 at age 96, was born in Philadelphia and in 1955 became the first Black singer to appear at New York’s Metropolitan Opera. The renaming was announced Wednesday, a day after the 127th anniversary of her birth.

“Knowing Marian, she would be humble,” said her niece, Ginette DePriest, the wife of late conductor James DePriest. “She always used to say: ‘Don’t make any fuss about this,’ but I think that the fact that it’s her hometown that she adores — I think she would be obviously honored but mostly humbled by by this gesture.”

Richard Worley and wife Leslie Miller, who live in suburban Bryn Mawr, are underwriting the name change with a $25 million gift to the Philadelphia Orchestra and Kimmel Center, which united in 2021. Worley joined the orchestra’s board in 1997 and served as its president from 2009-20; Miller was on the Kimmel Center board from 1999-2008, serving as acting president.

“A tribute to Marian Anderson of this nature, we think it’s long overdue,” Miller said. “She was an iconic artist and she fought discrimination at every turn with grace and grit and kept on going. She deserves this kind of recognition.”

The newly named hall will reopen with a concert on June 8 featuring music director Yannick Nézet-Séguin conducting a program with Broadway star Audra McDonald, soprano Angel Blue and pianist Marcus Roberts.

Philadelphia orchestra CEO Matías Tarnopolsky made a presentation to the board in August 2022 to name the hall after Anderson.

“We feel that what we’ve done for the orchestra and other Philadelphia institutions is well-enough known and well-enough recognized,” Miller said. “We just thought with a non-corporate name and a name in honor of someone that deserves the honor we might be able over time to raise more money for sustaining the hall than if we named it after an individual donor.”

A statue of Anderson is planned for the vicinity of the hall.

“We hope that in naming the hall Marian Anderson it will be an indication of the efforts that the orchestra is making to diversify its audiences, its programing, and in so doing, to be more relevant to all Philadelphians and beyond,” Miller said.

Tarnopolsky and music director Nézet-Séguin have in recent years programmed music written by Black Americans Florence Price, Valerie Coleman and William Grant Still.

“We have a lot of catching up to do,” Tarnopolsky said. “We began that journey several years ago and it’s ongoing and we feel like we’re making some really positive change. So what’s the logical next chapter is what we asked ourselves. And we thought about the legendary artist, civil rights icon and Philadelphian Marian Anderson.”

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Huge Changes Coming to the South Philly Sports Complex

While the battle over the proposed Sixers arena continues to unfold in Center City, the owners of the South Philadelphia sports complex, where the Sixers currently play basketball, have big, big plans for that area. Big in the range of $2.5 billion.

Those plans include a 5,000-seat concert venue, upgrades to Xfinity Live, and a hotel and restaurants. There’s also talk of apartment buildings and office buildings and a potential pedestrian connection to FDR Park, which is currently undergoing its own transformation.

There’s no clear timeline for some of the bigger-ticket items, but upgrades to Xfinity Live are already underfoot. Those upgrades include improvements and additions to the exterior areas, such as terraces and areas to gather for — let’s hope! — a big watch party for the next Super Bowl or World Series.

Xfinity Live expects to roll those changes out in phases. These upgrades, some seen below, are expected to account for about $12 million of the larger plan.

“We are excited to announce several major enhancements to continue making Xfinity Live and South Philadelphia a premier, dynamic destination for fans in Philadelphia to celebrate and experience the best in sports and entertainment,” Wells Fargo Center prez Phil Laws said in a statement on Tuesday.

Last year, Comcast Spectacor unveiled many changes and upgrades to the Wells Fargo Center as part of a dramatic $400 million transformation. You can read more about those changes here and here. Gritty’s Chaos Corner, anyone?

This Sounds Like It Could Have Ended Badly

Police in Montco recently arrested a man who they say was standing outside his ex-girlfriend’s house at night with a gun, plenty of bullets, and night-vision goggles. Because who doesn’t keep night-vision goggles around? Turns out the guy has a past rape conviction. And he’s not allowed to own a gun because of his criminal past. Well, guess what? When authorities searched his home following the goggles incident, they say, they found several other guns, bulletproof vests and a silencer. He’s being held on $250,000 bail.

By the Numbers

1: Number of races that could determine whether Democrats retain control of the 203-seat Pennsylvania House or whether it will flip red.

3: Days in the next week with forecasted highs in the 60s.

$440,000: What a stylish four-bedroom South Philly trinity will cost you these days. Just make sure you leave room for a Peloton, because this home is within walking distance of Claudio’s, Isgro Pastries, etc. …

Reader Mail

I have to say, yesterday’s story about the Girl Scouts trying to sell cookies at Suburban Square was pretty damn entertaining. On the one hand, you had this Suburban Square executive asking the Girl Scouts to move, although we later find out that she actually offered them another place at Suburban Square (outside of Shake Shack) where they could sell their cookies. And on the other hand, you have the father of the Girl Scout in question, who pulls out the I know my rights! card when he refuses to relocate.

Lots of comments and reader mail about this. But I picked out a couple of favorites.

James J. summed it up pretty neatly with this one-liner: “How did you find a story where everyone is literally the worst?”

And Christine F. (OK, I normally just use an initial for the last name, but this is the conservative columnist Christine Flowers) weighed in as follows:

Sorry this father sounds like an asshole. The executive gave him options, I know Suburban Square. Shake Shack is an equally central location, and the father filming the event is the usual, yawn, “MY RIGHTS ARE BEING VIOLATED” schmuck I see all of the time screaming about his own rights and prerogatives. The executive was doing what she needed to do in order to appease a paying tenant, so honestly, this is a ridiculous non event. I feel horrible for the psychologically scarred Brownies who will need therapy. And as a Brownie back in the day (GET OFF MY LAWN!) I never needed a parent to do my legwork for me.

In other news, there was the story about Villanova student Nalin Haley, the insult-hurling son of Nikki Haley, who, yes, is still running against Donald Trump. I ran that story last week and got quite a bit of feedback that then died down. Until this came in yesterday from Joe C.:

I have long enjoyed Philly magazine for many reasons, but your political jab at Nikki Haley’s son is a real downer. I really don’t want Philly magazine to become one of the many outlets for partisan politics.

Joe, you’ll be happy to know that I/we rarely write about national politics. But when the grown son of a major political candidate voluntarily thrusts himself into the spotlight by engaging in dirty politics and then I find out he’s a Villanova student, yeah, I’m going to write about that.

And From the Doop-Yeah! Sports Desk …

The Sixers were in Boston last night to play the top-ranked Celtics, who had won their last eight straight. We were still without Joel and RoCo, but against all odds, the teams were tied 30-30 after the first quarter, and the Celts only led 53-51 at the half. But Boston went to town in the third quarter. The Sixers put up a valiant effort, and Tobias Harris did this:

Tobias Harris cuts it to 2 in the 4Q on TNT! pic.twitter.com/Grwd5paHK7

— NBA (@NBA) February 28, 2024

But Boston went on to score 16 straight points, and in the end, it was their 117-99 win. Tyrese Maxey had another good game, ahead of all scorers with 32 points; Ricky Council IV had 16 in 19 good minutes.

In better news, rumor has it that Embiid could return to the team sooner than some of us thought.

Woj: Sixers expect Joel Embiid back in late-March pic.twitter.com/yG60otjsmh

— Oh no he didn’t (@ohnohedidnt24) February 27, 2024

How’d the Phils Do?

They clung to the single run they put up in the third inning for the longest time and held the Twins scoreless even as they tacked on two more in the seventh. But Minnesota fought back to score three in the bottom of the ninth, and the game ended in a 3-3 tie. Cristopher Sanchez went two scoreless innings in the start; centerfielder David Dahl hit a homer. We face the Braves today at 1:05.

Any Doop News?

The Union took on Deportivo Saprisso again in the CONCACAF Champions Cup at a rainy Subaru Park, and the visitors scored first, in the 14th minute. Andre Blake was still out with his hamstring pull, so Oliver Semmle was in goal again. Julián Carranza tied it up three minutes later, and Quinn Sullivan put us ahead at the 26-minute mark, but damn if Saprisso didn’t tie it up two minutes after that. The guests went ahead again in the 62nd, 3-2, which tied up the two teams on points. So even though it was 3-2 at the whistle, the aggregate was tied at five points each, and we had overtime again. Jack Elliott had been hit with a red card in overage, so we were down a man, but damn:

UHRE!!! MIKAEL UHRE IN EXTRA TIME!!! pic.twitter.com/agTngfm4PR

— Philadelphia Union (@PhilaUnion) February 28, 2024

Damion Lowe got a yellow in the second overage for protesting too much on what he thought should have been a Philly corner, and Kai Wagner nearly did a minute later on what he thought should have been a foul as things were getting chippy. A wild flurry at Saprissa’s goal — shots, deflections, bounces off the crossbar and the upright — made for a furious lead-up to a fantastic block by Semmle to hold on and send the Union through. Doop!

And in College Hoops?

In last night’s Main Line showdown with Georgetown, Villanova’s T.J. Bamba was out with a facial fracture suffered in the Wildcats’ Saturday loss to Connecticut. The ’Cats jumped out to an early lead, up 41-19 at the half, which ended with a shoving match that drew technical fouls on each team. These are not the Hoyas of old, and they never got into the game. Final score: 75-47 Villanova; Eric Dixon finished with 22, leading all scorers. The ’Cats needed that win; NCAA tourney hopes still alive! Tonight brings La Salle at Duquesne at 7 p.m. and Temple at Rice at 8 p.m.

The Flyers also played.

All Philly Today sports coverage is provided by Sandy Hingston.

Starbucks and the union organizing its workers have agreed to restart contract talks after a standoff that has persisted for two and a half years.

Announced by both the coffee shop chain and Workers United on Tuesday, the breakthrough came during a mediation last week involving intellectual property rights and trademark litigation.

“Starbucks and Workers United have a shared commitment to establishing a positive relationship in the interests of Starbucks partners,” the company and the union said in a joint statement.

Making a major concession, Starbucks agreed to provide the roughly 10,000 workers in unionized stores with pay hikes and benefits given non-unionized employees in May 2022, including allowing customers to add a tip to their credit card payments. 

Workers have voted to unionize at nearly 400 company-owned Starbucks stores across the country, but none have reached a contract agreement with the Seattle-based chain. 

The two sides have been persistently at odds with each other. Starbucks has been ordered to bring back workers fired after leading organizing efforts at their stores, and regional offices of the National Labor Relations Board have issued more than 100 complaints against Starbucks for unfair labor practices. That includes refusing to negotiate and withholding pay raises and other benefits granted other workers from unionized stores. 

Starbucks in December signaled it wanted to ratify contracts with its union workers this year, after a seven-month impasse. 

Asked by Starbucks what the company could do to show it was serious about returning to the bargaining table, the union offered a laundry list of demands, according to Michelle Eisen, a barista and organizer at the first unionized Starbucks store in Buffalo, New York. 

“The major ones are going to be credit card tipping and back pay,” said Eisen, who works as a production stage manager in addition to working as a barista since 2010. Workers are now to be given what they would have made had they been given the same raises and credit card tips given to non-union stores in May 2022. “It all has to be calculated,” said Eisen. “This is a nightmare of their own making.”

“We have not stopped fighting for two and a half years,” said Eisen. “For every one barista that got tired and had to step away from this fight, there were 10 more to take their place.” 

Certain non-union locations that did receive credit card tipping have workers making an additional $2 to $3 an hour beyond their hourly pay, said Eisen. “If you’re making around $19 an hour, an additional $3 an hour is pretty substantial.”

— The Associated Press contributed to this report.

News

Check phillymag.com each morning Monday through Thursday for the latest edition of Philly Today. And if you have a news tip for our hardworking Philly Mag reporters, please direct it here. You can also use that form to send us reader mail. We love reader mail!

Suburban Square Calls Cops on Girl Scout Cookie Sales

It’s that time of year: Girl Scout cookie season! If you haven’t encountered tables of Girl Scouts selling their cookies or you haven’t bought boxes of Girl Scout cookies from your neighbors, fellow churchgoers or co-workers, it may be a sign you need to get out more — or increase the size of your social circle. I’ve been suckered into shelling out $5 per box a few times already.

Most of these Girl Scout cookie sales you see go off without a hitch. But that wasn’t the case on a winter Wednesday earlier this month at Suburban Square. That’s the very Main Line-y shopping center in Ardmore.

Ardmore resident Eric Lowry showed up outside the Starbucks at Suburban Square with his 13-year-old daughter, whose name he asked us not to reveal. Between his two daughters, Lowry has been helping sell Girl Scout cookies for close to 10 years. And he says he’d never been told that the girls couldn’t sell wherever they chose to. They’d even sold at Suburban Square in the past.

But on this particular day, an executive with the Suburban Square management group, Kimco Realty, approached Lowry and his daughter and asked them to move. “They said we had to stop selling cookies because we were standing on private property,” Lowry tells me, insisting that the specific spot they were on was not private property, but public. “They threatened to call the police as some kind of intimidation tactic.” Lowry flat-out refused to move and dutifully documented the encounter on his cell-phone camera.

At some point thereafter, the Suburban Square executive relocated to a different part of Suburban Square. There, she spoke with officers from the Lower Merion police department who had arrived on the scene. As seen on police body-cam footage that Lowry later obtained and published on YouTube (yes, this guy actually jumped through the required hoops to obtain body-cam footage from the cops), the Suburban Square executive explained her dilemma to police.

Part of that dilemma, it becomes apparent, is that Lowry’s Girl Scout cookie setup was outside of Starbucks. And Starbucks is a Suburban Square tenant that sells cookies, so the Girl Scout cookies were presumably creating a business conflict. She said that Starbucks was “freaking out.” (A manager at that Starbucks told me they have no comment on the matter.)

There’s also some confusion in the footage (seen below) over what is and what is not a public space. And there are open questions about who is allowed to sell what outside at Suburban Square. “I can’t have a hot-dog guy just come and put an umbrella up and starting selling stuff on the corner,” the exec tells the cops. The cops then tell her that a nonprofit like the Girl Scouts isn’t the same as a hot-dog guy.

Eventually, the cops suggested that while they sort out with the township exactly what the laws and rules are regarding this sort of thing, they’d talk to the dad and tell him to make sure he stays on a section of the complex that the cops know to be public property. But then the exec had second thoughts about getting the cops to intervene at all.

“He was filming everything,” the exec told the cops. “So I don’t know if I want you to approach him. I don’t wanna be on the [Facebook] community page. The Big Bad Wolf of the community knocking down these little Brownies.”

And sure enough, once Lowry’s account wound up on social media, the backlash was swift against Suburban Square. But consider this: The Suburban Square exec also told police she actually suggested to Lowry that he and his daughter set up near Shake Shack, because Shake Shack doesn’t sell cookies. When I interviewed him earlier this week, Lowry’s position was clearly that he believed he had a right to be where he was, and he wasn’t moving. As far as Lowry is concerned, he and his daughter can take their wagon of Girl Scout cookies and sell them wherever they want, so long as they’re on public property or on private property with owner permission.

“We as Americans have certain rights,” he maintains. “And this was just gross abuse on their part. I know they’ve done this to other Girl Scouts in the past, and it’s just wrong.”

It’s true that we as Americans have certain rights. But the Girl Scouts actually do have rules about where Girl Scouts can sell cookies. According to a representative from the Girl Scouts of Southeastern Pennsylvania, public sales can only happen at locations that the Girl Scouts organization has pre-approved. The local Girl Scouts office wasn’t able to say whether Suburban Square or the area immediately surrounding it is on their pre-approved list.

I reached out to the Kimco exec seen in the video. In response, a spokesperson for Kimco sent me the following statement:

We welcome nonprofit organizations to Suburban Square and Kimco properties across the country, collaborating to support fundraising initiatives. We have a simple application/approval process to ensure safety and security. In this particular instance, a father and daughter set up a wagon on a sidewalk at Suburban Square with no prior notification. When asked, the father would not share his daughter’s Girl Scout troop number, so we were unable check if it was an authorized Girl Scout booth location. We offered a safer, larger area along our primary road next to Shake Shack and our firepit. We remain committed in our support of the Girl Scouts and invite them to contact Suburban Square to set up a booth for the duration of the cookie selling season.

That’s all well and good. Get your Thin Mints while you can. Girl Scout cookie sales officially end on March 10th. I have two boxes in my freezer — frozen Thin Mints is the only way to go.

Yet Another Escaped Prisoner

Is it just me, or are more prisoners escaping these days? Police are asking for the public’s help to find Alleem Bordan, who escaped from Temple University Episcopal Hospital early on Monday. He was in custody for allegedly stealing a car last week. And he’s set to stand trial soon in an aggravated-assault case in Delco. One notable thing about his escape: He was wearing handcuffs, though police note that he may have been able to get them off by now.

I’m Definitely Not a Fan of This

Area Wendy’s are about to start testing surge pricing on their menu, basing it on demand, time and location. As of Tuesday morning, I was still able to get a Frosty for $1.29. So humankind isn’t completely doomed.

Local Talent

We were all pulling for Chris Pannullo. The Ocean City resident went on a 21-game Jeopardy winning streak in December. That brought him to the “Tournament of Champions.” Pannullo appeared on the ToC on Monday night.

But Pannullo went into Final Jeopardy with less than half of what the front-runner had. So his only chance at winning was that the front-runner was really bad at math. He wasn’t.

Rowan prof Melissa Klapper is set to appear on the ToC next week.

By the Numbers

$1 million: What the Charles Koch-connected SuperPAC Americans for Prosperity Action is spending to help Dave McCormick become the next United States senator from Pennsylvania. His opponent: Bob Casey. You may remember that McCormick tried to be the Republican nominee for the job in 2022 but was defeated by Dr. Oz, who went on to lose to John Fetterman. You may also remember McCormick for his gun ad that seemed to play on TV nonstop:

$550 million: Size of the wild Par Funding financial scandal that has absolutely rocked Philly and the Main Line.

35,000: Number of cigarette butts this war veteran is hoping to pick up off the streets, in support of lung-cancer awareness.

And From the They’re-Number-One Sports Desk …

The Sixers are in Boston tonight to play the top-ranked Celtics, who’ve won their last eight straight. Still no Joel or RoCo. Tip-off’s at 7:30. Pray.

How’d the Phils Do?

They faced the Red Sox in Fort Myers yesterday afternoon, with David Buchanan on the mound to start, followed by a cast of thousands. Buchanan worked two innings and allowed two runs on four hits and a walk. The Phils eventually lost, 7-6, but their bats have been smokin’ hot. Second baseman Whit Merrifield hit his first Phillies homer, and DH Darick Hall and catcher Aramis Garcia hit round-trippers as well. I gotta learn these guys’ names. Today they’re up against the Twins, starting at 1:07.

Any Doop News?

It’s déjà vu all over again tonight as the Union face Deportivo Saprisso in the CONCACAF Champions Cup, starting at 8:15

And in College Hoops?

The Drexel Dragons dragooned the Delaware Fightin’ Blue Hens last night in Newark, leading 33-27 at the half and staying strong, fighting off a Fightin’s flurry toward the end. Archbishop Wood grad Justin Moore had 18 points.

Finishing off the road trip in style 🐉 pic.twitter.com/DRcWuVgojm

— Drexel Men’s Basketball (@DrexelMBB) February 27, 2024

Tonight, Villanova’s 15-12 Wildcats, who still have a shot at making the NCAA tournament, host the Georgetown Hoyas, tipping off at 6:30.

The Flyers also play.

All Philly Today sports coverage is provided by Sandy Hingston.

Donald Trump Jr., son of former President Donald Trump, received a letter containing a white powdery substance at his Florida home on Monday afternoon, officials said. 

Trump Jr. received the letter at his home in Jupiter, Florida, and he personally opened it, two law enforcement sources confirmed to CBS News. Early results indicated the substance was “not deadly.”

Trump Jr. saw the white powdery substance, put the letter down and called 911, the sources said. 

Police, fire and hazmat units immediately responded to the residence in Jupiter’s Admiral’s Cove neighborhood. Some responders arrived wearing protective suits, boots, hoods and gloves to investigate, the sources said.

The substance was removed by investigators and sent for laboratory testing, but early results were inconclusive as to what the actual substance was, the sources said. Further testing is being done.

U.S. postal officials are assisting in the investigation, the sources said. The Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office said it was also assisting federal law enforcement with the investigation. 

The U.S. Secret Service declined to comment to CBS News. Two federal law enforcement sources confirmed to CBS News that Trump Jr. is no longer a Secret Service protectee. 

“The FBI, along with our local law enforcement partners, responded to an incident involving a suspicious letter sent to an address in Jupiter, Florida,” the FBI Miami field office said in a statement. “We encourage the public to remain vigilant and report any suspicious activity to law enforcement.”

—Pat Milton and Andres Triay contributed reporting.

S. Dev

S. Dev is a news editor for CBSNews.com.