Jack Tomczuk

1 week ago | metrophiladelphia.com | Jack Tomczuk

Mayor Cherelle Parker attempted to head off objections to her $2 billion housing plan during a town hall-style meeting Wednesday night, just days before the City Council is set to formally interrogate her administration about the proposal. She told residents and stakeholders gathered at a Southwest Philadelphia charter school that “there’s some people already attempting to poke holes” in the Housing Opportunities Made Easy, or H.O.M.E., Initiative.

1 week ago | metrophiladelphia.com | Jack Tomczuk

City Council President Kenyatta Johnson said Wednesday that SEPTA’s doomsday plan would not go forward “under my watch.”“I’m pretty confident… that we will save SEPTA,” he stated during a budget hearing. “I think 2026 will come; I believe we will be in a good place. You have to speak it into existence.”Members of Council expressed support for the authority amid its fiscal crisis, though a few took issue with some of the ways the authority has allocated its resources in recent years.

1 week ago | metrophiladelphia.com | Jack Tomczuk

Posted on The School District of Philadelphia has taken steps in recent months to dramatically reduce the number of backlogged misconduct cases in an attempt to reform the “rubber room” process, administrators said Tuesday. Teachers and other staff report to the spaces – more formally known as reassignment rooms – at the district’s North Broad Street headquarters while investigations are pending.

1 week ago | metrophiladelphia.com | Jack Tomczuk

Volunteers hurriedly packed bags of food Thursday afternoon at the Mitzvah Food Program’s Bala Cynwyd location. Several clients were picking up food for their upcoming Passover meals, and the food pantry, which has four distribution sites, bought about $17,000 worth of Kosher items to prepare, said Michael Costello, the Jewish Federation of Greater Philadelphia’s director of donor services and projects.

1 week ago | metrophiladelphia.com | Jack Tomczuk

A man accused of setting fire to Gov. Josh Shapiro’s Harrisburg residence “admitted to harboring hatred towards” Pennsylvania’s chief executive, investigators said in court documents filed Monday. Cody A. Balmer, 38, allegedly told state troopers he filled empty Heineken beer bottles with gasoline from his lawnmower, grabbed a small sledgehammer and walked about an hour from his Harrisburg home to the governor’s mansion.