Philadelphia Is Getting a New TV News Anchor

New NBC 10 Philadelphia news anchor Fred Shropshire (photo courtesy Fred Shropshire)

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TV News Anchor Fred Shropshire Is Joining NBC 10 Philadelphia

It has long been said that because Philadelphia doesn’t have any real celebrities who still actually live here, our TV news personalities are the celebrities in this town. (See: Cecily Tynan. Alex Holley. And, going back a bit further and into more tawdry territory, John Bolaris). And so, we do our best to keep track of the comings and goings at the local TV news stations. The latest coming? Fred Shropshire.

Longtime NBC 10 anchor Jim Rosenfield left the station at the end of December. And Shropshire, 44, is moving here from North Carolina to replace him. Shropshire will be the evening weekday anchor on NBC 10 beginning this June.

So what do we know about this Shropshire fellow? Well, he comes to us from Charlotte NBC affiliate WCNC, where he’s covered such big stories as the Charleston church shooting and the removal of the Confederate flag from the South Carolina state house. Before WCNC, Shropshire worked in a variety of TV markets, and he interviewed Barack Obama (before he was known as President Obama) no less than a dozen times.

In far more important news, Shropshire has been called one of the most stylish Charlotteans. The Charlotte-based organization Black Fathers Rock named Shropshire Father of the Year in 2018. And it was a photo of him and his kids that he shared on Instagram that led him to meet his new wife, Marley Shropshire. Their decision to remain celibate before marriage was quite the talk of the town. Because I guess Charlotte is a lot like Philadelphia in the no-celebrities respect.

“As a self-proclaimed history buff, I’m looking forward to learning more about Philadelphia, one of the country’s oldest cities,” Shropshire said in a statement. “It will be fun for my family and me to explore all that the Delaware Valley has to offer.”

Here’s a pro-tip, Fred: Nobody except news anchors use the term “Delaware Valley.”

The PPA Has a New Target: Ghost Cars

I’d never heard of the term ghost cars until now. So thankfully the PPA has introduced this particular nomenclature to me. A ghost car is a car without a license plate or one with its license plate obscured, presumably to evade detection by red-light cameras and speed cameras and the like. Also a good way to go if you don’t want to pay tolls. Anyway, the PPA is on the hunt for these ghost cars. The agency has towed more than 20 over the last month. That’s all well and good. But could we please do something about all these godforsaken abandoned cars?!

Bucks County Is Pissed About the Philadelphia Wage Tax

Ah, the Philadelphia Wage Tax, that tax that people love to hate more than most taxes.

If you live and work in Philadelphia, you have to pay a wage tax. And if you live outside Philadelphia but work in Philadelphia, you have to pay a wage tax.

If you’re in that latter camp, most municipalities will exempt you from paying certain local taxes. But now some officials in Bucks County are calling B.S. on that idea, saying that Bucks County towns need that money and that the whole wage tax setup is unfair.

Yeah, our wage tax in Philadelphia may be unfair. But at least we don’t have parents who go to federal court to liken COVID masking to worshipping Satan.

Remember That Pat’s Steaks Killing?

The man and the woman implicated in the shooting incident (which began as an altercation over either a parking spot or a sports-team rivalry, depending on which story you believe) just pleaded guilty for their roles in the victim’s death. Sentencing is scheduled for July.

Political Movements

Ah yes. It’s March 7th, so you know what that means, right? No, not that the first of the Saint Patrick’s Day bar crawls are only days away. Though that, too. (Actually, I was on Drexel’s campus on Saturday and saw a ton of seemingly drunk undergrads parading around in green midday, and I just wanted to shake them and say, “It’s still two weeks away!”)

No, March 7th is also Petition Day in Philadelphia. That means that today is the last day for all of the people who claim they are running for political office in Philadelphia to submit nominating petitions to back up their runs and then survive the inevitable challenges to those petitions. If they don’t have enough eligible names? They’re off the ballot. Truthfully, we could use a little culling of the herd.

As of Monday night, the only two prominent mayoral candidates who hadn’t submitted their petitions yet were Rebecca Rhynhart and Amen Brown, according to the City Commissioner’s office. Both are expected to submit by the deadline today.

More College Labor Drama

A lot of shakeup recently on Philadelphia college campuses surrounding working conditions. The latest? Penn medical residents. There’s talk of unionization.

And from the Lotta-Lotta-Points Sports Desk …

Down in DeSantis Land, the Phillies lost to the Orioles, 10-7. At least they’re starting to put up a fight. They play the Rays today at the usual 1:05.

The Sixers were in Indianapolis to face the Pacers, with De’Anthony Melton, Jalen McDaniels, Tyrese Maxey, Joel Embiid and James Harden starting. P.J. Tucker and Tobias Harris were still out with injuries. End of the first: 39-38 Pacers. Maxey hit four threes in the first quarter.

Subbing in the second, Shake Milton hit two threes. Harden’s passing was delightful, and the teams were on that proverbial seesaw. Myles Turner racked up his third foul with three minutes left in the half, but De’Anthony did, too. Tyrese Haliburton sank a last-second three from way out to lead the Pacers in scoring with 17.

Haliburton beats the buzzer to give the #Pacers the halftime lead! 🚨

TV: Bally Sports Indiana
Stream: https://t.co/Wilcs4PuZx pic.twitter.com/KdGBQIiqGp

— Bally Sports Indiana (@BallySportsIN) March 7, 2023

Halftime score: 79-78 Pacers.

Post-half, the Sixers were having a three-fest:

Embiid, Harden, and Maxey currently have 61 points on only 24 shots!🔥

— Aidan LaPorta (@AidanLaPorta69) March 7, 2023

There was A LOT of scoring in the game. It was tied at 110 with a minute left in the third, and Joel had 34 already. Still tied at the close, 114-114. On to the fourth! Five minutes in, the Sixers were up 128-118 on a 10-0 run.

Need sixers pacers to go to OT lol I wanna see if they can hit 200

— Nikhil (@NowNumberFive) March 7, 2023

Nah, not quite. The Pacers answered with a run of their own down the stretch. But nice work by Harden, who had 20 assists, and McDaniels, plus some — OMG, is that offensive rebounding?!? — and cold-hearted foul shots by Joel sealed the dealio, 147-143. Whew! We play the Timberwolves on the road tonight at 7:30.

Today marks the start of that confusing CONCACAF thing for the Union; they’ll play Alianza tonight at 8 p.m.

St. Joe’s faces Loyola Chicago in the first round of the Atlantic 10 tournament this afternoon at two, and La Salle goes up against Rhode Island in the same tourney at 4:30. Go teams!

All Philly Today Sports Desk coverage is provided by Sandy Hingston.