Media Mentions

City Council is calling on immigration authorities to release a 44-year-old Philadelphia man who has been detained for months and is at risk of being deported to a country he has never visited. In a resolution adopted Thursday, lawmakers also urged the city’s...

Straddling Philadelphia’s Old City and Chinatown neighborhoods, Franklin Square has a handful of park improvements on the way. The one that generated the most excitement at Wednesday’s announcement was the new bathrooms costing $2.2 million.

Local lawmakers walked out of a meeting with University of Pennsylvania officials on Tuesday due to what they said was insufficient support for diversity, equity and inclusion, WHYY reported. Pennsylvania state senator Art Haywood and state representative Napoleon...

PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — A new playground and restrooms are among the enhancements coming to Franklin Square Park over the next 18 months, as revealed by community leaders on Wednesday. 

Millions of dollars worth of upgrades are coming to Center City’s Franklin Square. A significant playground renovation, expanded restroom facilities, a reopened PATCO station, traffic safety improvements and new lighting are all on the horizon, representatives from...

Franklin Square will undergo a major overhaul that includes adding new restrooms, playground equipment, LED lighting, and bike lanes. The projects will cost about $7.8 million and take about 18 months to complete, according to announcement from nonprofit Historic...

Two Philadelphia-area lawmakers walked out of a meeting with the University of Pennsylvania’s president on Tuesday after they say a university administrator referred to diversity as a “lightning rod.” City Councilmember Jamie Gauthier was among the elected officials...

Senior Penn administrators met with Pennsylvania lawmakers on Tuesday morning to discuss the University’s rollback of diversity, equity, and inclusion policies, with multiple elected officials expressing concern about recent changes — and one calling the meeting...

A group of state and local elected officials on Tuesday slammed the University of Pennsylvania for its response to President Donald Trump’s attacks on diversity initiatives in recent weeks, saying the state’s only Ivy League school is preemptively ceding ground to an...

PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — Local officials have made it known to University of Pennsylvania leadership that they’re not happy with how the school scrubbed itself of anything related to diversity, equity or inclusion after an executive order from President Donald...

Hamilton Hall, the University of the Arts’ iconic building on South Broad Street, will go to Lindsey Scannapieco’s Philadelphia company Scout, which intends to preserve it for artist workspaces and the attached Furness building for subsidized apartments for artists....

The Lawrence E. Murphy Recreation Center will see significant upgrades thanks to a $600,000 state grant. The beloved recreation center at 300 Shunk St. in South Philly’s Whitman neighborhood will undergo repairs and upgrades while plans formulate for a $7.5 million...

Amid the flurry of orders President Trump signed on his first day in office was a memorandum: “Promoting Beautiful Federal Civic Architecture.” It called for federal public buildings to respect “classical architectural heritage,” implicitly taking aim at a more recent...

Over 300 individuals gathered together in Center City on Wednesday to protest recent federal funding cuts to academic research. The rally, held outside the office of Sen. Dave McCormick (R-Pa.) in Center City, was organized by Labor for Higher Education in...

Dozens of protesters filled the atrium of the Life Sciences Building at Rutgers University-New Brunswick to show their opposition to President Donald Trump’s administration’s funding cuts and freezes targeting scientific research and higher education. The researchers...

The lead bidder for the iconic Hamilton Hall on South Broad Street said Monday that the arts would be a focus for the building, with plans for a gallery in the front lobby where local artists’ work would be displayed and the public could view it for free. “Our goal is...

The main hurdle artists face is accessing information for opportunities to work and exhibit work in Philadelphia, according to a survey conducted by City Councilmember Rue Landau. The online survey conducted last fall shows that the top three concerns among artists...

When Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials showed up at Boricua Restaurant #2 in Port Richmond this week, staff refused their request to see the kitchen. All of their paperwork was in order and the agents didn't have a warrant, the owner of the Puerto Rican...

Pro-immigrant groups are calling for a general strike on Super Bowl Sunday in Philadelphia in order to show how important immigrants are to the regional economy. The groups gathered outside of City Hall Friday morning and were joined by Democratic elected officials...

Democrat Pennsylvania state senator Nikil Saval represents the first district, which is the heart of Philadelphia. First elected in 2020, Senator Saval was re-elected in November 2024. He started his political career working with the labour union movement and in 2016...

Chilly winds are blowing through the Philadelphia region, but there’s an event on the horizon designed to chase away the cold and offer an air of optimism for what is to come when winter leaves town. The Philadelphia Flower Show is just over a month away, so...

The 2024 election delivered resounding losses for the Democratic Party. Critical swing states broke for Donald Trump and the president-elect carried a coalition that included many working-class minority voters. A Pew study in November found that Democrats were more...

PHILADELPHIA — At Whole Foods’ flagship location in the city of brotherly love, management tried to lure workers away from a union rally on Monday by offering up no-cost hoagies and bags of chips. Just outside, however, their colleagues — joined by about a dozen...

PHILADELPHIA— Nearly one month after Philadelphia City Council approved a package of bills giving the green light to the Philadelphia 76ers to build an arena in the Market East section of Center City, Gov. Josh Shapiro told reporters he hopes it will have a positive...

Committees are where legislation gets discussed, amended and approved in the General Assembly, and the legislative bodies are crucial to the policymaking process in Harrisburg. Additionally, they often determine what policies get advanced – and which bills stall –...

A pair of state lawmakers are advocating to again provide universal free lunches to students in the coming school year, though nobody knows for sure how much it would cost. State Sen. Lindsey Williams, D-North Hills, and Sen. Judy Schwank, D-Berks, will reintroduce...

Pennsylvania Senate Democrats held a virtual press conference on Monday to commemorate the fourth anniversary of the riot on Capitol Hill when supporters of President-elect Donald Trump attempted to overturn the certification of the 2020 presidential election. Though...

Philadelphia commemorated the city’s fourth annual Palestine Day with a series of speeches at City Hall. While several people mentioned the conflict in Gaza, much of the event focused on the local community. “The sole purpose of this day is to recognize the...

If at first you don’t succeed, try try again. That old adage has apparently been adopted by Pennsylvania’s Republican state legislators as they enter the 2025-26 legislative term. Earlier this month, Republicans in the State Senate released a legislative memo...

One of the downstream impacts of Donald Trump’s election last month has been a renewed interest in socialist organizing. That has been reflected in the growing ranks of the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA), which has seen its membership increase by nearly 3,000...

The Welcoming Center will use a $1 million grant from the Pennsylvania Legislature to expand its work throughout the commonwealth. The Philly-based nonprofit promotes economic growth through immigrant integration, offering a number of programs supporting immigrants in...

It’s been 21 years since the Welcoming Center opened in Philadelphia, and the nonprofit that aids local immigrants in all kinds of ways has had some glittering successes. None have been more impressive than Saturday’s announcement of a $1 million legislative grant...