Local Lead
Relatives of a man shot and killed by undercover police in Tacony this week met with Commissioner Richard Ross on Thursday to express their concerns about the incident, according to a lawyer for the family. The head of the police union, meanwhile, issued a letter asking for people “to hold judgment until all facts are […]
Police on Wednesday night had two teenage boys in custody in the shooting death last week of Kristian Marche, the 18-year-old track standout from Imhotep Charter High School who was gunned down after he confronted a pair of teens trying to break into his family’s house. Taron Small, 16, and Byron Vinson, 15, were trying […]
One hundred thousand dollars. That’s the minimum amount Mayor Jim Kenney gave as the cost of moving the statue of former mayor and police commissioner Frank Rizzo from the steps of the Municipal Services Building. Like the statues of Confederate Generals in the South, Rizzo’s statue is widely considered a symbol of racism and oppression. […]
Report details sexual abuse by more than 300 priests in Pennsylvania’s Catholic Church According to various news outlets, a new report specifies that internal documents from six Catholic dioceses in Pennsylvania shows that more than 300 “predator priests” have been accused of sexually abusing more than 1,000 child victims. “We believe that the real number […]
Aretha Franklin is in hospice care at her home, a source close to the 76-year-old singer told CNN’s Don Lemon. Word of the “Queen of Soul” being gravely ill was first reported by Showbiz 411. Showbiz 411’s Roger Friedman told CNN: “She has a great family, she’s surrounded by love, and the world is sending […]
Two preteens confessed to hanging a black doll from a noose in a Philadelphia playground.
Furor erupted Thursday when a black doll was found hanging with a noose around its neck in Queen Village until two preteen boys — one black and one white — said they had put the doll there as a prank. There was nothing racial about their act, they said. Rev. Mark Kelly Tyler, pastor of […]
President Donald Trump was lauded by inner-city pastors, including one who said he may go down as the “most pro-black president” in recent history, during a White House roundtable on Wednesday that was focused on efforts to reform the prison system. Trump told the group, which included pastors and bishops from across the country, that […]
The man accused of fatally stabbing a city developer near Rittenhouse Square last month will not be charged with first-degree murder, opening the possibility for him to be released from jail while awaiting trial and all but eliminating the potential of a life sentence. Assistant DA Lou Tumolo told Municipal Court Judge Charles Hayden on Wednesday that […]
As a lifelong Eagles fan, I was bred to view the Dallas Cowboys as our rivals. But as a black man, I now dislike them even more, thanks to the hypocritical reaction of Cowboys leadership to NFL players who protest racial injustice by kneeling during the national anthem. Cowboys owner Jerry Jones, who has since […]
I firmly believe that black lives matter, but I’m beginning to wonder if America shares that conviction. If black lives mattered, would the Washington Post have found that in America’s largest cities, nearly three- quarters of the unsolved murders over a decade involved black victims. Would they have found that in Philadelphia, where we’ve had […]
The failure to solve black homicides fuels a vicious cycle: It deepens distrust of police among black residents, making them less likely to cooperate in investigations, leading to fewer arrests. As a result, criminals are emboldened and residents’ fears are compounded. In almost every city surveyed, arrests were made in killings of black victims at […]