Philadelphia Inquirer

PHILADELPHIA — Even as President Donald Trump’s campaign is waging a well-publicized legal war on the broad rules governing the presidential election in Pennsylvania, its lawyers are engaging in lower-profile but no less important county-by-county trench battles to disqualify individual votes in Philadelphia and its suburbs over technicalities.In hearings before county Boards of Elections and Common Pleas Court judges, campaign attorneys have pushed for several thousand mail votes to be cast aside due to voter mistakes such as failing to date the envelope.Meanwhile, they are pursuing record nu...

SCRANTON, Pa. — As Joe Biden, son of Scranton, became president-elect, residents of Washington Avenue gathered for selfies and honked horns in celebration outside of the modest gray Colonial down the block where it all started for him.The tree-lined street in the Greenfield neighborhood, where Biden was born and lived until age 9, is a quintessential middle-class neighborhood that provided a central theme for his presidential battle.Scranton vs. Park Avenue, Biden called the race. And here, in the state’s sixth-largest city, which voted overwhelmingly for him, Scranton is claiming victory, too...

Joseph R. Biden has been elected the 46th president of the United States, and much of the nation, and the world, is breathing a sigh of relief. Going to the White House with him is Vice President-elect Kamala Harris — the first woman, first Black woman and first Indian American to hold a nationwide elected office.After a prolonged count, Biden secured victory by winning key states, including Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, and Michigan, to give him the 270 votes needed to win the Electoral College. The Trump administration has filed lawsuits and demands for recounts in key states. Even though Biden’s...

U.S. Rep. Jeff Van Drew, who infuriated Democrats when he switched parties and declared “undying support” to President Donald Trump, was declared the winner Friday over Democrat Amy Kennedy in New Jersey’s 2nd Congressional District.Van Drew himself declared victory Tuesday night with a 10,000-vote margin, and his lead has only increased since then, even as Kennedy vowed to fight to the last ballot.By Friday afternoon, results from The Associated Press showed 81% of precincts reporting and Van Drew’s lead widening to 15,867. Earlier Friday, with tens of thousands of ballots left to count and t...

PHILADELPHIA — The attorney for the family of Walter Wallace Jr. on Friday criticized the Philadelphia Police Department for failing to follow through on recommendations made by the U.S. Department of Justice in 2015 that all officers be equipped with Tasers, saying the officers’ lack of nonlethal options during a confrontation with Wallace was among the systemic shortcomings that helped lead them to fire their guns.Speaking at a news conference outside Philadelphia City Hall alongside Wallace’s relatives, attorney Shaka Johnson called for broad reforms in the Police Department and the city’s ...

PHILADELPHIA — Philadelphia police detained two men late Thursday night after receiving a tip that a Hummer vehicle from Virginia with two or three people armed with firearms was headed to the Pennsylvania Convention Center, where ballot counting is underway for the presidential election.Just after 10:20 p.m. Eastern time, police reported they had received information about a 2003 gray or silver Hummer with Virginia tags that was occupied by several people armed with AR-15 rifles.A few minutes later a Hummer fitting the description was found parked and unoccupied in the 200 block of North 13th...

PHILADELPHIA — President Donald Trump’s campaign vowed Wednesday to halt Pennsylvania’s election count with a barrage of lawsuits that it contended — without evidence — were needed to stop the state from “baking in a backdoor victory for Joe Biden with late, illegal ballots.”Repeating the president’s claim that Democrats were “scheming to disenfranchise and dilute” GOP voters, Trump’s team unleashed a pack of new filings on state and federal courts disputing issues that included the state’s decision to count late-arriving mail ballots and how much access Republican monitors had to watch the co...

PHILADELPHIA — As a kid growing up in Southwest Philly, Klinton Cooper remembers his grandmother was always dancing, no matter what she was doing.“When she was cooking, going food shopping, whatever,” he said. “Not enough to make a fool of herself, but enough to let the rhythm get into her.”It was from his grandmother, who died in 2015, that Cooper, 31, learned to love dancing. And though she was not around to see video of him dancing in line with other Philly voters go viral on social media this weekend, he knows he and his grandmother danced for the same reason.“As Black people, we dance out...

Thanksgiving is usually a time we cozy up around the dinner table and share food and stories with those we love. But given the pandemic, experts are recommending a change in holiday plans this year.The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention considers hosting people for a small outdoor dinner as moderately risky, as compared to low-risk activities like a virtual Thanksgiving or a dinner with only people who live in your household. And with rising coronavirus rates, Philadelphia Health Commissioner Thomas Farley advises families forego holiday gatherings altogether.But if you do plan to do s...

If your Black son is mentally ill and is behaving erratically, think before you call the cops.If you do, he may wind up shot multiple times like Walter Wallace Jr. was on Monday afternoon in West Philly.Two cops fatally wounded him in front of his mother as neighbors watched, leaving a community traumatized not just by the shooting but by the rioting and destruction that took place in the streets after.I viewed the cellphone video of the shooting numerous times and can’t get the sound of his mother’s wails out of my head. Or the questions we don’t yet have answers to: Why didn’t the officers u...

PHILADELPHIA — Police were called dozens of times in recent months about problems at Walter Wallace Jr.’s home, and had responded twice Monday to reports of disturbances at the West Philadelphia house before two officers answered a third call and shot him as he approached them with a knife, according to law enforcement sources.What happened during those earlier visits — including which officers responded and how much they knew about Wallace’s mental health problems — remained unclear Tuesday. Asked at a news briefing, Commissioner Danielle Outlaw declined to offer details about any prior conta...

PHILADELPHIA — Pennsylvania’s Republican Party has filed a new request that the U.S. Supreme Court overturn the three-day mail ballot deadline extension that the state Supreme Court had ordered for the general election.The Pennsylvania court had ordered ballots to be counted if they are received by mail up to 5 p.m. on Nov. 6, and are either postmarked by Nov. 3 or have no or illegible postmarks. State law normally requires ballots to be received by 8 p.m. on Election Day to be counted.In a filing Friday night with the nation’s high court, the state Republican Party made essentially the same a...

How can Joe Biden, who championed the foundational federal laws of the war on drugs over the last 40 years, be so compassionate toward his son’s struggle with addiction?When President Donald Trump tried to hit Biden during their first debate by mocking his son Hunter for drug use, the former vice president had a clear answer: “My son, like a lot of people, like a lot of people you know at home, had a drug problem. He’s overtaken it. He’s fixed it. He’s worked on it. And I’m proud of him.”Based on content hacked by an unknown entity and provided by Rudy Giuliani to the New York Post — which cho...

Thinking about stealing the government loan money you received in pandemic help?Before you do, listen to Jeff Grant’s story.After his opioid addiction, his theft of U.S. loan funds, and a federal prison sentence, Grant’s life as a lawyer and business professional was over.But according to him, his new life was just beginning. And for small business owners feeling desperate — enough to steal — he’s created a safe place to talk anonymously and seek guidance.Now clean and sober, remarried and out of prison, Jeff Grant, 64, co-founded the online organization Progressive Prison Ministries, what cou...

Bruce Springsteen and his stalwart E Street Band were last seen together on a 2016 tour that included two four-hour dates at Citizens Bank Park in Philadelphia that were the longest marathons he’s ever played.Since then, the now 71-year-old songwriter has been in contemplative, career-summation mode.He published his “Born To Run” memoir and converted it into the solo acoustic theater piece “Springsteen on Broadway.” Last year, he released “Western Stars,” an underrated stylistic departure that dipped into early 1970s country-rock melancholy.But the one thing Springsteen hadn’t given fans latel...