SEPTA working on fix for cards that aren’t working

SEPTA officials shared Thursday that a card production issue was causing some student, senior, paratransit and reduced fare passes to be declined at subways, buses and Regional Rail locations. The good news? The transit agency reports that the issue isn’t affecting riders who use standard SEPTA Key cards or contactless payments methods like credit cards, debit […]

Billy Penn’s, and Philly’s, biggest stories of 2024

Philadelphia had an eventful year, yet again.  A new mayor took office for the first time in eight years, the plan to build a downtown basketball arena ignited fierce opposition, and the city played its familiar starring role in a highly consequential presidential election.  Philadelphians also had fun entertaining themselves, as we always do — […]

Luigi Mangione makes appearance in New York court, faces federal charges

Luigi Mangione, the former Penn graduate accused of killing United Healthcare CEO Brian Thompson earlier this month, has been charged with multiple federal crimes, including murder, stalking, and weapons offenses. These charges are in addition to the state-level charges in New York and Pennsylvania already filed against him. During a brief court hearing in Lower […]

Kid-friendly theater abounds this holiday season near Philly

Yes, we all love Harry Potter, but really, isn’t it a little much? Eight movies, seven books, and 3,407 pages? We’re not even going to try to calculate the number of words. What if you could do the whole thing in about 70 minutes? Yep, “all seven books in 70 minutes,” promises British actor Amanda […]

Rare ‘flex’ puts off SEPTA crisis, annoys Republicans

On the face of it, Gov. Josh Shapiro’s surprise announcement that he would give SEPTA an extra $153 million seemed like a straightforward decision. The money was just sitting there, waiting to be spent on future highway projects, and SEPTA desperately needed it to avoid a huge fare hike and potentially devastating service cuts that […]

Years after dropping out, adults give high school another try

Christopher Ramos sat in a classroom at South Philadelphia High School, his head bent over a paperback of “Death of a Salesman.” Reading aloud, he picked his way through the part of Bernard, Biff Loman’s classmate.  “Listen, Biff, I hear miss — Mr. Burham say that he — that if you don’t start studying math, […]

‘Amsterdam’ asks, can we ever step out of shadow of trauma?

Imagine this. You are Jewish and by some miracle, you manage to survive the World War II concentration camps. Exhausted, emaciated, you find your way back to the home you left in terror years or months ago. And there, waiting for you in almost laughably cruel irony, is a gas bill – overdue. Overdue bills […]

City officials urge Philadelphians to return, track, fix mail ballots

Between misinformation, new protocols and a ballooning list of legal challenges to the voting process, it’s fair to say that Pennsylvanians are experiencing some nerves around the voting process. And with just days to go until the election, all eyes are on Philadelphia — a critical source of Democratic Party votes in the most-watched swing […]

Pa.’s Green Party courts Muslim voters as it seeks election gains

When someone mentions the Green Party, what comes to mind?  The party’s historic connections to the environmental movement, perhaps? Or its presidential candidate, Jill Stein, and the recurring complaint that she’s a potential spoiler for Democratic nominees? For actual Green Party members in Philadelphia, neither of those is a particularly salient aspect of their politics […]

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