Media Mentions

It’s not every day you see a baby chilling on its back in the middle of Walnut Street, and for very good reason — babies are squishy and generally well-liked. But during Open Streets: West Walnut on Sunday, I saw just that, a baby on an area rug in the center of the...

WILKES-BARRE — State Sen. Katie Muth (D-Chester/Montgomery/Berks), chair of the Pennsylvania Senate Democratic Policy Committee, joined Sen. Nikil Saval (D-Philadelphia) and state Rep. Ismail Smith-Wade-El (D-Lancaster) to host a joint policy hearing on homelessness...

The University of the Arts has filed for bankruptcy after a plan to merge the shuttered school with Temple University fell through. UArts abruptly announced its closure in June, shocking students, faculty, city officials, higher education experts and the community....

Gov. Josh Shapiro unveiled a new priority for his administration Thursday when he signed an executive order directing officials under his purview to develop a statewide housing action plan to address housing shortages and homelessness across the commonwealth. Shapiro...

PHILADELPHIA - Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro has signed an executive order that has created the state’s first housing action plan to increase affordable housing and address homelessness. Governor Shapiro signed Executive Order 2024-03 in Wynnefield Thursday.

Philadelphia, PA – Today, Governor Josh Shapiro signed Executive Order 2024-03(opens in a new tab), directing his Administration to create Pennsylvania’s first comprehensive Housing Action Plan to address the state's housing shortage, address homelessness, and expand...

The Camden 76ers? Has a nice ring to it, if you’re from New Jersey. In response to massive grassroots protests against plans by Gensler to build 76 Place—a speculative $1.3 billion basketball stadium in Philadelphia’s Chinatown—76 DevCo. is now eying sites in Camden,...

PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- The Save Chinatown Coalition held a rally and march in Philadelphia on Saturday against the proposed new 76ers arena, 76 Place. The Sixers, who currently play at Wells Fargo Center in the South Philadelphia Sports Complex, have proposed building...

More than a month before the basketball season even begins, the Philadelphia 76ers – and their underdog adversary – continued to be the talk of the town on Saturday as opponents to the NBA team’s Center City arena proposal marched from City Hall through Chinatown...

Scores of demonstrators marched with members of the Save Chinatown Coalition through Center City and Chinatown Saturday to protest the Philadelphia 76ers’ arena proposal with songs, drumming, dancing, and speeches. Drenched by a sudden downpour, protesters shouted “No...

PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — After the University of the Arts suddenly shuttered its doors earlier this year, Pennsylvania Democrats are working to prevent other colleges from doing the same. “It is not normal for me at age 22 to blame myself for the mistakes of...

As president of University of the Arts Student Association, Alex McFadden routinely met with the school’s top officials. They sat on the selection committee that helped pick Kerry Walk as president. So when the school closed with just a week’s notice in June, shocking...

Despite news reports that New Jersey is trying to woo the 76ers to build a new arena in Camden, Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro on Tuesday said he’s confident the team will remain in Philadelphia. “The mayor is the lead on this, together with city council. We’re in...

In a summer filled with explosive political news, even the most assiduous media consumer may have missed the Pennsylvania legislature increasing the value of the state’s historic tax credit. This policy is meant to provide resources to developers to renovate buildings...

Turmoil continues to surround the abrupt closure of the University of the Arts (UArts) in Philadelphia just over two months ago, at the end of the Spring semester. The shuttered school is now subject to a demand for immediate repayment of a more than $50 million debt,...

Visitors to the Springline complex in Menlo Park, Calif., are surrounded by a sense of comfort and luxury often found at high-end hotels: off-white walls with a Roman clay finish, a gray-and-white marble coffee table and a white leather bench beneath an 8-by-4 resin...

Sereyrath Van, known to many as “One,” has no memories outside U.S. soil. Now, the 44-year-old is fighting an order from Immigration Customs and Enforcement (ICE) that would deport him to Cambodia — a country Van has never visited. Van had a check-in with ICE on...

Despite a month-long campaign coordinated by Southeast Asian community leaders and immigration advocates, federal authorities detained a man last week and appear to be preparing to deport him to a country he has never visited. Sereyrath “One” Van, 44, was born in a...

The Supreme Court’s momentous ruling last month in the Grants Pass v. Johnson case removed a key protection for unhoused people, allowing criminalization even when there is no available shelter. While some Democrats condemned the decision, several leaders on the West...

The Supreme Court’s momentous June ruling in the Grants Pass v. Johnson case removed a key protection for unhoused people, allowing criminalization even when there is no available shelter. While some Democrats condemned the decision, several leaders on the West Coast,...

The blue flame on the stovetops in millions of American homes is fed by a web of some 3 million miles of natural gas pipelines crisscrossing the country – including some 90,000 miles of these conduits in Pennsylvania. Regulated by an outdated set of standards, many of...

PHILADELPHIA – Today, six weeks after the Angel Davis Eviction Accountability Act was signed into law, the municipal court announced that landlord-tenant officer Marisa Shuter will cease conducting evictions. As the lawyer appointed to oversee private evictions in...

PHILADELPHIA (WPVI) -- Food service workers at the stadium complex in South Philadelphia were voting all day on Wednesday over Aramark's latest contract proposal. The union representing those workers says it does not expect the new proposal to pass, however. The...

Though Pennsylvania has a lot of historic sites, it has lagged behind other states in providing tax incentives to preserve and restore them. Some classic buildings in Philadelphia are in need. Pennsylvania is packed with historic properties dating back to colonial...

The horrific death of a Philadelphia cyclist in the famous Rittenhouse Square neighborhood has local advocates demanding that the city finally install real protection on its bike lanes — and sparking a conversation about why half-measures like flex posts are so common...

On July 11, the Pennsylvania General Assembly passed its 2024-2025 budget. It was 11 days past the deadline, but offered some good news for historic preservationists and adaptive reuse developers. The new budget included tax code changes that raised the historic tax...

Barbara Friedes’ life and career were always driven by altruism, those who knew her said. From the moment her husband-to-be, Cole, sat behind her in organic chemistry class at Florida State University, he said, he knew she was special. She was magnetic, he said,...

Barbara Ann Friedes, 30, was struck from behind by a 2018 Volkswagen on the 1800 block of Spruce Street around 7 p.m., Philadelphia police wrote in a release. The Volkswagen then hit three parked cars before coming to a rest, police continued. Friedes was taken to...

A group of workers at Thomas Jefferson University who are paid to simulate patients for medical students celebrated a victory earlier this year when they won a union election. But six months later, they say they're struggling to be taken seriously in bargaining...

When the British Consul General arrived at 3rd and Walnut streets on a drizzly Friday morning for a ribbon cutting of the newly imagined Benjamin Rush Garden, she felt right at home. Not only is the garden dominated by a bell donated in 1976 by Queen Elizabeth II, but...

“Who sits there and thinks, with all the needs we have in America, of criminalizing the homeless?” wonders Pastor Robert Brown of Bristol’s Bible Evangelical Methodist Church after learning that the United States Supreme Court approved punishing those experiencing...

PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — Democratic senators in Pennsylvania are drafting a bill to prevent the criminalization of homelessness in the state after the Supreme Court recently ruled that cities can enforce bans on homeless people sleeping outside in public places.

HARRISBURG, PA — In response to a recent U.S. Supreme Court ruling, several Pennsylvania state senators announced plans to introduce legislation aimed at preventing the criminalization of homelessness. The proposed law would counteract the Supreme Court’s decision in...

The U.S. Supreme Court ruling in Grants Pass v. Johnson that cities can punish people for sleeping in public has some Democrats in Pennsylvania seething. The high court said laws regulating camping on public property does not constitute “cruel and unusual punishment,”...

Dear Democratic Senate Leaders, As the 2024 budget season kicks into high gear, we are writing to ask that you work to ensure that renewable energy legislation and climate solution policies currently pending in the legislature are included in any final budget...

Preservationists and developers are keeping their fingers crossed for new state funding to revitalize historic buildings. Two bills introduced this month would significantly raise the annual cap for the state’s Historic Preservation Tax Credit program, a public...