Rescuer haunted by Philly plane crash | Morning Newsletter
And political parallels in Germany’s election.
The Morning Newsletter
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It’s Friday, Philly. I hope you caught some snow flurries yesterday.
A Kensington man helped save a 9-year-old after the Northeast Philadelphia plane crash. Weeks later, he’s still haunted by images of the disaster.
Read on for this story and more, including a look at how Germany’s rightward shift reflects both Pennsylvania’s Rust Belt realignment and Democratic failures with the working class.
— Julie Zeglen (morningnewsletter@inquirer.com)
P.S. Friday means trivia: Our latest news quiz includes questions on Super Bowl superstitions, cinnamon bun mania, and more.
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Caseem Wongus was grabbing dinner with friends in Northeast Philadelphia three Fridays ago when a fireball fell from the sky.
Moments after the plane crashed along Cottman Avenue, the Kensington resident ran outside to see a 9-year-old boy walking through the smoke. Wongus used his own jacket to put out the flames fanning from the boy’s back, then rode with him in a police car to St. Christopher’s Hospital for Children.
Ramesses Raziel Dreuitt Vazquez survived. Wongus has since grown close to his family after getting in touch to learn how the boy is faring. He’s been called a hero. But heroism comes with a cost.
“It will sneak up on me out of nowhere,” he told The Inquirer. “It will be dark in the house, and I’ll be staring down the stairs, thinking [Ramesses] is going to pop out of nowhere, on fire again, and I’m replaying it in my head.”
🎤 Let’s pass the mic to politics reporter Julia Terruso.
The coal mine in Cottbus shuttered 10 years ago, bolstering fears among residents of the East German city of being left behind, a feeling that’s lingered since reunification just 35 years ago.
Today, Cottbus has shifted politically rightward, and away from the previously dominant Social Democratic Party — which, along with Germany’s other left-leaning parties, is grappling with how to hold on in the approaching election. The city’s turn is at the core of a political realignment in Germany, which holds its federal election on Sunday — the first European contest since President Donald Trump was elected to a second term.
It’s hard not to see the political parallels between Cottbus, a city of 100,000 about 75 miles south of Berlin, and Rust Belt swaths of Northeastern Pennsylvania. The region’s rightward shift and the issues fueling it — a sense of economic inferiority, frustration with government, fears of migration, and rampant online misinformation — mimic a trend among working-class voters both across Germany and the United States.
Here’s what Democratic strategists in Germany learned from watching the U.S. campaign closely this fall. — Julia Terruso
What you should know today
The four-alarm fire that ravaged the SPS Technologies campus in Abington was described as “active but contained” Thursday, and no contaminants were found in the air or water supply, officials said.
The widows of hockey stars Johnny and Matthew Gaudreau have filed lawsuits against the Salem County man charged in the brothers’ deaths.
After New Jersey’s ballot design was ruled to be likely unconstitutional, lawmakers are recreating the rules of the ballot. Here’s what it could look like.
The Republican primary for Delaware County’s two open council seats is officially underway. Here’s who’s running. Plus, three Democratic officials in tiny Millbourne illegally cast dozens of ballots in a 2021 mayoral race only to have their candidate lose, federal prosecutors allege.
Pennsylvania Treasurer Stacy Garrity banned the AI platform DeepSeek from all Treasury-issued devices because the chatbot originated in China.
A group of Internal Revenue Service workers in Philadelphia were among the thousands laid off Thursday within the federal agency.
Trump’s funding freeze “suspended” millions for electric cranes at Philly’s port. Now the money is available again.
Following a federal directive, the University of Pennsylvania has begun removing diversity language from its websites. Other schools so far are reviewing but not making changes.
An enrollment surge fueled a 144% bank balance increase for Pennsylvania cyber charters. The state’s auditor general has concerns.
Welcome back to Curious Philly Friday. We’ll feature both new and timeless stories from our forum for readers to ask about the city’s quirks.
This week, we’re resurfacing an explainer on why the Pennsylvania court system compensates jurors with a measly $9 — an amount that might cover a coffee and bagel — per day for fulfilling your civic duty. (That rate gets bumped to $25 after the third day of service.)
That initial daily rate was set 66 years ago, in 1959. It made sense at the time — when the state minimum wage was $1 an hour. Why hasn’t it been updated since? Here’s the full explanation.
Have your own burning question about Philadelphia, its local oddities, or how the region works? Submit it here and you might find the answer featured in this space.
🧠 Trivia time
A Jurassic Park-like park and museum is set to open in March, complete with full-scale dinosaurs, virtual reality, and a fossil quarry. Which university is behind it?
A) West Chester University
B) Rowan University
C) Drexel University
D) Rutgers University–Camden
Think you know? Check your answer.
What we’re...
♟️ Remembering: This week in Philly history, when a man and a computer faced off in an intensely followed chess tournament.
🦅 Loving: A.J. Brown’s life-size mannequin to display his unwashed Super Bowl uniform, and this fan tradition passed along in a vintage Eagles jacket at the victory parade.
🗣️ Not sure about: The accents in Ridley Scott’s latest project, the Philly-set crime thriller Dope Thief.
🏀 Congratulating: La Salle University’s Fran Dunphy on his retirement as the winningest coach in Big 5 history.
🧩 Unscramble the anagram
Hint: Makers of a Philadelphia delicacy, now expanding to Florida
FLOPPILY LATHER ZYRTEC
Email us if you know the answer. We’ll select a reader at random to shout out here. Cheers to Rae Ritter, who solved Thursday’s anagram: Palestra (a place many readers hold dear, it seems!). For 42 years, Mark Quigley helped keep the lights on at Penn’s historic basketball arena. The community he found there changed his life.
Photo of the day
👠 One last fashionable thing: Philly Fashion Week is honoring a style community 20 years in the making with this weekend’s slate of runway shows. A yearlong celebration of the anniversary will also include pop-ups, fashion installations, and an awards ceremony.
Thanks for ending your week with The Inquirer. Wishing you a relaxing weekend.
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