... the Philadelphia Department of Public Health must have known Philadelphians wouldn’t take too kindly to the city calling its new public restrooms "Portland Loos," even though that is their actual name.

So last Friday, the department put out an online “Potty Poll” asking the public to help pick a Philly-related name for the six stand-alone bathrooms that will be part of its pilot public restroom project.

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Though the city’s poll only offered three predetermined names for people to vote on — “Phlush,” “Philly Loo,” or “Philly Public Restroom” — Philadelphians were more than happy to flush out their own creative ideas on Twitter. There were very few stinkers among the suggestions.

“Porta Jawn” received an especially high number of entries, along with other punny names like Philly Jawn and Jawnny on the Spot.

More than two dozen law enforcement agencies from across Pennsylvania and New Jersey joined forces to dismantle a catalytic converter theft ring based in Philadelphia that stole millions of dollars worth of the automobile parts, authorities said Tuesday. Bucks County District Attorney Matt Weintraub said at a news conference that his office had charged 10 adults, one juvenile, and a Philadelphia tow yard for running a sprawling operation that stole around 2,000 of the exhaust emission devices in the region.

TDI Towing of Port Richmond was the main buyer of the stolen catalytic converters, he said. The tow yard paid thieves about $300 for each device and bought an average of 175 catalytic converters per week, said Weintraub. From 2020 to 2023, TDI Towing purchased an estimated 27,300 catalytic converters for a total of $8.2 million, he said.

TDI Towing owner Michael Williams, 52, whom Weintraub dubbed the “kingpin” of the operation, was charged with counts including criminal conspiracy, dealing in proceeds of unlawful activity, and related crimes. His business faces similar charges. Also charged with those crimes were a group of his employees including “cutters,” who sheared the catalytic converters from cars to steal them. Many of Williams’ employees were related to him, authorities said.

Charging the company was a first for his office, said Weintraub, and he said he hoped that would serve as a deterrent for other organizations that might seek to commit similar crimes. “Our goal? To put them out of business. Forever,” he said. “A corporate death sentence.”

Last month, Aspinwall officials got a report from a resident that they didn’t quite know what to do with: a patch of poison hemlock was growing in the borough’s Fireman’s Memorial Park, on a walking trail next to a playground.

“We were surprised and confused,” said Aspinwall borough manager Melissa O’Malley. “We’ve had that park for over 50 years and we’ve never had to deal with it.”

Poison hemlock is a highly toxic plant in the carrot family that can grow up to 12 feet tall. If any part of the plant is ingested, it can cause dizziness, paralysis and even death from respiratory failure. Touching the plant causes a rash in some people, and inhaling particles from the plant or having sap from the plant come in contact with cuts can also be dangerous.

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The plant is a biennial, meaning that it takes two years to complete its life cycle. In year one, poison hemlock grows as a small rosette, just leaves close to the ground in a circular pattern. In year two, a thick stem with distinctive purple blotches shoots up, and the plant flowers and drops seed. A single plant can produce more than 30,000 seeds, which can stay in the soil for years. The best time to control the plant with an herbicide is in its first year or early in the second year. By the time it shoots up in year two, controlling it chemically is ineffectual.

On 23 June 2016, a referendum, commonly referred to as the EU referendum or the Brexit referendum, took place in the United Kingdom (UK) and Gibraltar to ask the electorate whether the country should remain a member of, or leave, the European Union (EU). It was organised and facilitated through the European Union Referendum Act 2015 and the Political Parties, Elections and Referendums Act 2000. The referendum resulted in 51.9% of the votes cast being in favour of leaving the EU. Although the referendum was legally non-binding, the government of the time promised to implement the result.

Membership of the EU had long been a topic of debate in the United Kingdom. The country joined the European Communities (EC), principally the European Economic Community (EEC) or Common Market, the forerunner to the European Union, in 1973, along with the European Coal and Steel Community (ECSC), and the European Atomic Energy Community (EAEC or Euratom). A referendum on continued membership of the Communities was held in 1975, with 67.2% of the votes cast in favour of Britain remaining a member.

In May 2015, following a Conservative Party manifesto pledge, the legal basis for the EU referendum was established through the European Union Referendum Act 2015. Britain Stronger in Europe became the official group campaigning for the UK to remain in the EU, and was endorsed by the Prime Minister David Cameron and Chancellor George Osborne. Vote Leave was the official group campaigning for the UK to leave the EU, and was fronted by Conservative MPs Boris Johnson and Michael Gove along with Labour MP Gisela Stuart. Other campaign groups, political parties, businesses, trade unions, newspapers and prominent individuals were also involved, with both sides having supporters from across the political spectrum. Parties in favour of 'remain' included Labour, the Liberal Democrats, the Scottish National Party (SNP), Plaid Cymru and the Green Party; while the UK Independence Party (UKIP) campaigned in favour of leaving the European Union;[8] and the Conservative Party remained neutral. In spite of the official positions of the Conservative Party and Labour, both parties allowed their MPs to publicly campaign for either side of the issue.

Immediately after the result, financial markets reacted negatively worldwide, and Cameron announced that he would resign as Prime Minister and Leader of the Conservative Party, having campaigned unsuccessfully to remain in the European Union. It was the first time that a national referendum result had gone against the preferred option of the UK Government. Cameron was succeeded by Theresa May on 13 July 2016. Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn also faced a leadership challenge as a result of the EU referendum. On 29 March 2017, the United Kingdom gave formal notice of intent to withdraw from the EU.

For decades, the drug that keeps Drew Katz alive sold for less than $1 a pill. Then its manufacturer started to raise the list price — slowly at first, then sharply, increasing it in 2015 to more than $200 a dose. Even when generic versions came along to treat the condition, called Wilson disease, the price stayed high.

It made no sense to Katz, 51, who needs the drug to prevent a toxic buildup of copper in his body. A Cherry Hill business executive and the son of the late Inquirer co-owner Lewis Katz, he can afford the medication. But he knew others could not — and it outraged him that the price didn’t seem to follow the laws of supply and demand.

Unlike most patients with a rare disease, Katz was in a position to take on the problem. Through his family’s NBA connections, he knew another businessman who had experience with the opaque world of U.S. drug pricing: billionaire Mark Cuban.

The result: Cost Plus Drug Co., an online pharmacy that Cuban cofounded, is collaborating with a generic drug maker, Dr. Reddy’s Laboratories, to sell the drug direct to consumers for $3.55 a pill. In announcing the plan on Tuesday, Cost Plus also said it would sell an alternative treatment for about $4.40 a pill.

Sen. Bob Casey worries that many of the 1 million-plus people living in 15,000 nursing homes across the United States are in facilities that haven’t been inspected for a long time. About one in four nursing homes hadn’t been inspected in at least 16 months, as required by federal law.

As the chairman of the U.S. Senate Special Committee on Aging, the Democrat from Pennsylvania’s staff spent the past year investigating nursing home oversight. They found that state inspection agencies are chronically understaffed. The Pennsylvania Department of Health, for example, has been hiring retired inspectors on a limited capacity to try to fill in the gap.

“It’s a really long standing problem,” Casey said. “We don’t have the investment in quality that we should have.”

The Inquirer spoke to Casey about the findings of the investigation, and why he fears the problem may worsen.