Le Journal

Villanova University given the ‘all clear' following threat towards building

With $2.8B plan, Philly school district calls to close or repurpose 20 schools

Live updates: How much snow will the Philly region get this weekend? Latest totals
What to KnowThe Philadelphia region, surrounding Pennsylvania suburbs, South Jersey and Delaware are preparing for what’s expected to be the biggest snowstorm in years.A FIRST ALERT will be in effect from Friday, Jan. 23, at 11 p.m., through Monday, Jan. 26, at 7 a.m., for Philadelphia, the surrounding Pennsylvania suburbs, South Jersey and Delaware, due to an arctic blast, heavy snow, and freezing rain.The arctic blast will hit the region late Friday night into Saturday. Saturday morning temperatures will range in the single digits to around 12 degrees in the Philadelphia area, the coldest morning by far this season. Wind chills will make temperatures feel below zero.Snow arrives late Saturday with heavy snow developing into Sunday morning and continuing throughout the day.The snow intensity will be greatest Sunday morning and into the early afternoon hours but will gradually diminish Sunday night into Monday morning. Light snow will continue to fall Monday morning before clearing out Monday afternoon.In addition to the snow on Sunday, the winter storm is also expected to bring some sleet and freezing rain in Delaware and South Jersey with the wintry mix reaching the I-95 corridor by late Sunday afternoon and lasting into Sunday night.The Philadelphia region and surrounding suburbs are expected to get 9 to 13 inches of snow, the Lehigh Valley is expected to get 13 to 18 inches of snow, South Jersey is expected to get 5 to 9 inches of snow and coastal Delaware and the Jersey Shore are expected to get 3 to 5 inches of snow.Get the latest forecast by following the NBC10 First Alert Weather team and downloading the NBC10 app. A massive snowstorm is set to hit the Philadelphia region late Saturday night and last through Monday. Get the latest updates on how the area is preparing below: Léelo en español aquí.

Trump introduces Board of Peace at Davos, but many U.S. allies aren't participating

Health insurance CEOs to appear before House committees as premiums soar

Smith defends cases against Trump at public hearing: ‘No one should be above the law'
Former Justice Department special counsel Jack Smith on Thursday defended his investigations of Donald Trump at a congressional hearing in which he insisted that he had acted without regard to politics and had no second thoughts about the criminal charges he brought. Smith testified behind closed doors last month but returned to the House Judiciary Committee for a public hearing, his first since leaving the job last year. The hearing split along partisan lines as Republican lawmakers sought to undermine the former Justice Department official as Democrats hoped to elicit new and damaging testimony about Trump’s conduct. “It was always about politics,” said Rep. Jim Jordan of Ohio, the Republican chairman of the House Judiciary Committee. “Maybe for them,” retorted Rep. Jamie Raskin, the panel’s top Democrat, during his opening statement. “But for us, it’s all about the rule of law.” Donald Trump Jan 1 Capitol riot ‘does not happen' without Trump, Jack Smith told Congress Trump administration Dec 17, 2025 Jack Smith tells lawmakers there's ‘proof beyond a reasonable doubt' of Trump's ‘criminal scheme' Smith told lawmakers that he stood behind his decision as special counsel to bring charges against Trump in separate cases that accused the Republican of conspiring to overturn the 2020 presidential election after he lost to Democrat Joe Biden and hoarding classified documents at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Palm Beach, Florida, after he left the White House. He said that, as special counsel, he had “followed Justice Department policies, observed legal requirements and took actions based on the fact and the law.” “Our investigation developed proof beyond a reasonable doubt that President Trump engaged in criminal activity,” Smith said. “If asked whether to prosecute a former president based on the same facts today, I would do so regardless of whether that president was a Republican or a Democrat.” “No one should be above the law in our country, and the law required that he be held to account. So that is what I did,” he said. The hearing unfolded against the backdrop of an ongoing Trump administration retribution campaign targeting the investigators who scrutinized the Republican president. The Justice Department has fired lawyers and other employees who worked with Smith, and an independent watchdog agency responsible for enforcing a law against partisan political activity by federal employees said last summer that it had opened an investigation into him. “In my opinion, these people are the best of public servants, our country owes them a debt of gratitude, and we are all less safe because many of these experienced and dedicated law enforcement professionals have been fired,” Smith said of the terminated members of his team. Smith was appointed in 2022 by Biden’s Justice Department to oversee investigations into Trump, who has denied any wrongdoing. Both investigations produced indictments against Trump, but the cases were abandoned by Smith and his team after Trump won back the White House because of longstanding Justice Department legal opinions that say sitting presidents cannot be indicted. Smith was summoned to the hearing by Jordan, who on Thursday advanced a talking point frequently advanced by Trump that the investigation was driven by a desire to derail Trump’s candidacy. “We should never forget what took place, what they did to the guy we the people elected twice,” Jordan said. Smith vigorously rejected those suggestions and said the evidence placed Trump’s actions squarely at the heart of a criminal conspiracy to undo the 2020 election. “The evidence here made clear that President Trump was by a large measure the most culpable and most responsible person in this conspiracy,” Smith said. “These crimes were committed for his benefit. The attack that happened at the Capitol, part of this case, does not happen without him. The other co-conspirators were doing this for his benefit.” From the start,…

Michelle Obama explains why she thinks the U.S. isn't ready for a female president
Michelle Obama opened up on “Call Her Daddy” about whether she believes the U.S. is ready for a female president. The former first lady discussed a wide range of topics during her interview with Alex Cooper on the Jan. 21 episode of the podcast, including the scrutiny she faced while in the public eye and the media’s focus on her appearance during Barack Obama’s 2008 presidential campaign. Obama also expanded on comments she made last November about whether she would ever consider running for president herself and what that says about the country’s readiness for a woman in the Oval Office. “As we saw in this past election, sadly, we ain’t ready,” Obama said. “That’s why I’m like, don’t even look at me about running, because you all are lying. You’re not ready for a woman. You are not.” She previously touched on the subject during a conversation with actor Tracee Ellis Ross for a live taping of her podcast, “IMO,” at the Brooklyn Academy of Music on Nov. 5, 2025. Ross asked Obama whether serving as first lady had affected “the room that we’ve made for a woman to be president.” “You know, we got a lot of growing up to do,” Obama said. “And there’s still, sadly, a lot of men who do not feel like they can be led by a woman, and we saw it.” Speaking with Cooper, Obama elaborated further. “We’ve come a long way,” she said. “Whether people really feel yet that they can follow a woman as president… we’d be silly to think there aren’t some gut… I don’t know, like we’re not even analyzing what those feelings are about because we’re trying to pretend it’s all better.” “How could it be all better?” she continued. “We’ve been feeding off this bone for so long, it doesn’t just go away. It takes time. But we’re moving. We are moving in that direction.” Michelle Obama Nov 15, 2025 Michelle Obama says the U.S. is ‘not ready' for a woman president Michelle Obama Aug 14, 2025 The 3 words of dating advice Michelle Obama gave her daughters celebrity couples Jul 16, 2025 Barack and Michelle Obama break silence on divorce rumors “There are men out there who would not vote for a woman,” she said. “Let’s just be real about it and put that on the table and talk about what that’s about.” “Let’s not be mad because I made the statement,” Obama added. “Let’s look at the fact that we’ve had two really qualified female candidates.” “We have qualified women. They’re not perfect, they don’t cross every T and dot every I, there’s a falling-shortness that happens,” she said. “But why can’t we talk about that? Why are we pretending that didn’t just happen?” Cooper noted that some critics have argued that disliking certain candidates does not necessarily mean the country isn’t ready for a woman president. “We’re still growing,” Obama responded. “I think it’s going to happen. Are we ready now? I don’t know. Let’s prove us wrong. I would love that.” Cooper also raised a hypothetical scenario in which President Donald Trump changes the law and runs for a third term, asking whether Barack Obama would ever consider returning to politics. “I hope not,” Obama said. “I would actively work against that. I would be at home working against it.” “I do believe in the need for new vision,” she added. “This is a hard job, and it requires new energy, new vision all the time, new ways of looking at the world. So, I do think that eight years is enough.” “How are we going to build new leaders if the same people keep doing it again and again and again?”

Why Bruins' Charlie McAvoy wasn't allowed to run the family plumbing business
Charles McAvoy Sr. did not want his son to take over the family plumbing business. He made sure that, for Charlie McAvoy, becoming a professional hockey player would be more than just a pipe dream. “My dad, he always told me he had bigger dreams for me, that he wanted more for me than just to take over McAvoy Plumbing and Heating,” said Charlie, now a defenseman for the Boston Bruins who is set to compete in the 2026 Milan Cortina Winter Olympics with the U.S. men’s hockey team. “He gave me every opportunity in the world to follow my passions.” It was an opportunity his father never had growing up. Charles — before spending 30 years running a four-generation plumbing business on Long Island, New York — was a promising hockey player himself. But as the youngest of seven siblings, the expenses of travel hockey were too costly, and he was unable to play beyond high school. “The opportunity was probably there, but the finances weren’t always there,” Charles said on an episode of NBC Local’s “My New Favorite Olympian.” “And travel hockey was not cheap back then. And the hours were much different. The ice slots were not available as they are now. So, we stuck with it as long as we could. But my dad just couldn’t swing it. “I didn’t get that opportunity, and I wanted to make sure that Charlie and his sisters had that opportunity to play and give it their best.” Charlie began skating at the age of 3. He wouldn’t follow in his ancestors’ footsteps while on skates, but he’d go on to learn elements of the work ethic and physical grind that made the family business successful for decades. He’d spend some days — often under the sweltering summer sun — as a plumber’s helper. “I’d be all excited to go do it,” he said. “And very early in the day, I found out that we were doing some undesired work.” Like jackhammering the sidewalk and digging through sand to reach a water main with his father. “He threw me the shovel and basically was like, ‘Hey, dig until you hear a pipe,’” Charlie said. Charlie said he has the utmost respect for plumbers and trade workers, but he knew his father wanted something different for him — like a career where the tools of the trade include a hockey stick and puck instead of a jackhammer and wrench. “Every day I saw him work, he’s putting everything he has into that,” Charlie said. “So, I knew I owed it to him to put everything I had into hockey, the same way.” His father also happened to quite literally have the keys to success … as in the keys to the local hockey rink. 2026 Milan Cortina Olympics May 19, 2025 2026 Winter Olympics in Milan Cortina: See dates, sports, how to watch, more 2026 Milan Cortina Olympics Jun 16, 2025 Get to know Team USA Olympians ahead of the 2026 Milan Cortina Olympics 2026 Milan Cortina Olympics Jun 9, 2025 How to watch the 2026 Olympics in Milan Cortina “I was converting the whole building from oil to gas and putting in new equipment and gas lines, et cetera. So, they gave me the keys,” Charles said. “They said, anytime I want to use it, go. And Charlie was young and we took full advantage of that. We were probably there every night of the week when he was a little guy.” Charlie began to develop the skating skills he’d later use on the ice while competing for a Stanley Cup and gold medal. “His skating took off because skating is the whole game and he just loved getting on the ice,” Charles said. “I’d get off because I’d be exhausted from work and he would just stay out there and I would just sit and let him do his thing.” After growing up on Long Beach, an oceanfront city on the south coast of Long Island, Charlie played two seasons with USA Hockey’s National Team Development Program in Michigan. He went on to play for Boston University, being named a first team All-American in his sophomore season. Charlie was then selected by the Bruins with the 14th overall pick…

ICE detains 4 Minnesota students, including 5-year-old, school district says

‘Sinners' makes history, setting Oscars nomination record

Prue Leith exits ‘Great British Bake Off' after 9 seasons: ‘A fabulous part of my life'

