Additional funding for public transit is noticeably absent from Pa.'s $50.1 billion budget. It's another "disappointing" blow for SEPTA.

“These successful policies all do one thing: They make drugs boring again. Drugs are not magic, they are not demonic, they are not fundamentally different from all the other problems society faces. They are highly desirable and highly dangerous consumer goods. They are not unique in that regard.”

A little explainer on ventricular fibrillation, the most serious form of heart arrhythmia, which sent Sen. John Fetterman to the hospital yesterday: www.inquirer.com/health/ventr...

Now that the government shutdown has ended, the White House said that recipients would see their SNAP benefits restored almost immediately. But the damage may be far more lasting. (1/2)

The Supreme Court is expected to rule Tuesday on a request from President Donald Trump’s administration to keep blocking states from providing full benefits, arguing the money might be needed elsewhere.

What we’ve heard after a day of reporting is that some states couldn’t complete benefit payments, and some SNAP recipients could not use their cards. The Trump admin continues to block food stamp aid

The methadone clinic on East Market is closing. Its in one of the buildings bought by the Sixers and Comcast for their unspecified future development www.inquirer.com/real-estate/...

A new, more powerful tranquilizer on Philly streets is causing the worst complications some doctors have seen yet among opioid users. We unpack the rapid rise of medetomidine.

"Drug users would lose consciousness on the street, with their heart rates dropping. The paramedics who found them tried dispensing naloxone, a medication used to reverse opioid overdoses, but couldn’t wake them up." www.inquirer.com/health/a/med...

In a matter of months, the veterinary tranquilizer medetomidine has flooded Philly's illicit opioid markets. Patients addicted to a drug they never sought out are filling ERs -- and experiencing terrifying side effects. With @maxmmarin.bsky.social: www.inquirer.com/health/a/med...

🗳️ Philly has a DA race, New Jersey is electing a governor, and the balance of Pennsylvania's Supreme Court is on the ballot today. Follow live Election Day updates here 👇

BREAKING: Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro released $5 million in state funding for food pantries as a SNAP freeze looms on Saturday. The declaration expedites the delivery of those funds.

Longtime WMMR-FM host Pierre Robert was found dead in his home Wednesday. He was 70. Beasley Media Group, the station’s parent company, announced Robert’s death in a statement, calling him a “true radio icon.” 🔗 www.inquirer.com/entertainmen...

After a year in which the Trump administration has already cut grants at the National Institutes of Health, scientists worry more research will be disrupted. 🔗 www.inquirer.com/health/natio...

Before the shutdown, the Trump administration had already canceled grants and delayed scientific research funding. Now, scientists who review grants for the NIH are worried that more chaos is ahead. www.inquirer.com/health/natio...

NEW: The entire staff supporting ACIP was laid off, and most working groups haven't met in months. That means the US may not make routine vaccine recommendations for more than half of children in 2026, and it could halt new vaccines in the pipeline. My latest: www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025...

Dozens of Philadelphia-area Catholics rallied outside the Center City ICE office on Wednesday, joining a pro-immigrant push undertaken by fellow church groups around the country.

most wonderful time of the year at the Inquirer is the lead-up to the publication of The 76 because everyone inevitably gets recruited to help the scouts try out restaurants. one night in august i had 15 pizzas delivered to my house for research purposes. sublime

Despite escalating anti-vaccine rhetoric, most Americans support vaccine mandates, a University of Pennsylvania survey found.

"Despite heightened anti-vaccine rhetoric from the administration, surveys show that most Americans support vaccine mandates for children." Thanks to @inquirer.com @aubreywhelan.bsky.social for looking at our research. cc: @childrensphila.bsky.social @upenn.edu www.inquirer.com/health/ameri...

Trump on Monday claimed there is a link between Tylenol and autism. A Drexel University scientist who studied the topic found none.

THE EAGLES WON React to the game at inquirer.com/EaglesGameday!

Penn State's NPR station will be the first to go dark following Trump's cuts to public media. “The news devastated me,” said Jeff Hughes, WPSU’s former program director who retired in August, "it devastated all the employees.” www.inquirer.com/news/pennsyl...

OPINION: "The decision to shift capital funding to save operations does not prevent the collapse transit leaders have been warning about for years; it simply delays it." — The Inquirer Editorial Board

An Inquirer article inspired an anonymous $1 million donation to pay off nurses’ student loans at Paoli Hospital. For Damacia Gilbert, "every little bit helps; to have any amount of money freed up every month is amazing.”

A bit of good news: A while back I wrote an article about an anonymous donor who gave Lankenau Medical Center $1M to help pay off nurses' student loans. As it turns out someone read that article and decided to donate another $1M to the nurses at Paoli Hospital! www.inquirer.com/health/main-...

Amid a very chaotic COVID vaccine rollout, Pennsylvania is now allowing pharmacists to give out vaccines based on recommendations from several leading professional medical societies. Previously, they had to wait for the CDC’s recommendation. www.inquirer.com/health/penns...

For the past three years, the city has been giving cash to some struggling renters, no strings attached. The first-in-the-nation experiment has been even more successful than researchers studying its impact expected.

📉 Medicaid cuts could strip opioid treatment from 150,000 people, LDI and @bostonu.bsky.social researchers warn. A @nytimes.com editorial says this threatens the 25% drop in overdose deaths since 2023. Progress is fragile — and lives are at risk. Read the editorial: www.nytimes.com/2025/08/28/o...

A Philly vaccine expert fired by RFK Jr. reflects on the chaos at the CDC: "Historically, science led the way. That doesn’t appear to be the case anymore." www.inquirer.com/health/cdc-v...

SEPTA’s massive cuts are here. These tools can help you navigate the new normal: 🗞️ For the latest updates: Inquirer.com/septa 🚌 For a detailed cuts guide: Inquirer.com/septaguide 🚏 For the impact on routes near you: Inquirer.com/septacuts 🗣️ Share your observations: Inquirer.com/septa-feedback

SEPTA’s massive cuts are here. From students to late-shift workers and drivers on clogged roadways, the impact of the reductions will be felt immediately. We'll have live updates all day. Follow along 👇

Next week Philadelphia’s transit agency SEPTA is cutting 20% of service due to underfunding. The cuts come in various shapes and sizes. Enter your address and we'll talk you through how your services will be impacted. share.inquirer.com/he7l3z

“It will have absolutely have no bearing on our elections here in Pennsylvania and we will once again have free and fair, safe and secure elections,” Shapiro said at an unrelated press conference Tuesday.

SEPTA provides about 4,000 rides on an average weekday on these services, 54% of them on Shared-Ride and 46% ADA paratransit.

Last month, RFK Jr. demanded the retraction of a vaccine study in the scientific journal Annals of Internal Medicine. Its Philly-based editor refused. "He didn’t like the study Annals published," she told me, "mostly because it didn’t align with his beliefs." www.inquirer.com/health/chris...

me when jhoan duran comes to the mound

OPINION: "As a visitor from Berlin, what strikes me most about the fight over SEPTA funding is how public transportation is looked at by some as a vexatious budget item, when it's the exact opposite." — Adrian Schulz

Four months ago, the Trump administration froze funding that covered reproductive health care for uninsured patients in the Philly area. The funding is now restored -- but many clinics had already laid off employees or reduced their hours to cope with the freeze. www.inquirer.com/health/sexua...

We try to clarify what happened in D.C. this week, what we can expect in the future, and what this all means for the residents who call D.C. home. There's a lot we don't know, but we'll continue following this story in the days and weeks to come. 51st.news/trump-dc-mpd...

Kratom addiction is on the rise in the region, as powerful extracts sold as “7-OH” in smoke shops simulate the effects of opioids. We explain how the drug has proliferated, and thus far escaped regulation 👇

“Anyone and their mother can walk into a gas station and buy this stuff.” Kratom, an unregulated herbal supplement that acts on the brain's opioid receptors, is fueling addictions across the Philly region. With @maxmmarin.bsky.social and @ryanbriggs.bsky.social: www.inquirer.com/news/kratom-...

Pa. Senate Republicans have advanced a two-year, $1.2 billion transportation plan to fund mass transit operations and repairs to rural roads. The move likely means that the state’s budget impasse will continue, as Gov. Shapiro and House Majority Leader Matt Bradford both said they oppose the bill.

To find people to deport, ICE is increasingly turning to old, low-level arrests by local police. The number of illegal reentry prosecutions filed in Philadelphia’s federal courthouse this year is at its highest level in at least two decades, data show.

Anya Rainwater taps in and out of SEPTA around 8 times a day. As a traveling case manager, she meets her clients where they are, and that means traversing Philadelphia via public transit. With SEPTA cuts looming, she’s concerned for those clients. (1/4) 🔗 www.inquirer.com/transportati...

Breaking news: President Trump announced that he would place the D.C. Metropolitan Police Department under direct federal control and deploy the National Guard to the streets of D.C. to fight crime and clear the city of its homeless population.

As the FOP’s president since 2007, John McNesby secured for police officers wage and benefit increases that other city union workers could only envy. He publicly supported many disgraced officers who had been fired; vowed to get them rehired; and, more often than not, succeeded. (1/5)

An entire team of journalists, outside a hospital in a tent for journalists, killed by Israel. www.bbc.com/news/article...

“...disinformation, conspiracy theories & political violence is getting scarier by the day. I’m very worried about how this is now going beyond defunding of infectious diseases & public health to political violence against the people working in those fields." www.nytimes.com/2025/08/09/u...

UPenn researchers pioneered mRNA vaccine technology. Now, RFK Jr is cutting $500M in mRNA vaccine grants. While the university says their ongoing research won’t be affected by the cuts, scientists are concerned about a chilling effect on future mRNA studies: www.inquirer.com/health/upenn...