🌸 Blossom watch begins | Morning Newsletter
And a Penn hiring freeze.
The Morning Newsletter
Start your day with the Philly news you need and the stories you want all in one easy-to-read newsletter
Hi, Philly.
Today’s spring-like weather is an indicator that it’s almost cherry blossom season here in Philadelphia. Our 2025 illustrated guide will help you find and identify the different species of flowers, complete with when and where they are expected to bloom.
And University of Pennsylvania, bracing for federal cuts, has ordered a hiring freeze and other changes, while several local colleges were among the 60 threatened with sanctions amid ongoing investigations into antisemitic activity on their campuses.
Here’s what to know today.
— Julie Zeglen (morningnewsletter@inquirer.com)
If someone forwarded you this email, sign up for free here.
Cue the Kacey Musgraves song: It’s just about cherry blossom season in Philadelphia, and with it comes the return of our guide on where to see the cheerful pink and white flowers across the city.
🌸 Different species bloom at different times, flowering over six weeks or so each spring. In early March, for instance, you can spot Okame cherry trees starting to bloom in South Philly and at the Morris Arboretum, while Kwanzan cherry blossoms peak at the end of the season in May.
🌸 Autumnalis trees have more petals than the typical five found in cherry blossoms, so their flowers appear denser and more vibrant. Find them clustered in Fishtown.
🌸 Yoshino cherries arrived in Philadelphia in 1926, when Japan donated 1,600 trees in honor of the American Sesquicentennial. They now make up 70% to 80% of the city’s cherry tree varieties.
Check out the full, gorgeous guide from Jasen Lo and Hira Qureshi.
Penn officials have ordered a hiring freeze, effectively immediately, in the face of potential federal funding cuts under President Donald Trump’s administration.
Officials also ordered a freeze on staff mid-year salary adjustments, reviews of capital spending and faculty hiring, and a 5% reduction in non-compensation expenses.
Penn — one of the largest employers in the city and a national leader in scientific research — stands to lose $250 million in federal money as a result of a Trump administration order limiting National Institutes of Health spending.
Education reporter Kristen A. Graham has the latest.
In other collegiate news: Federal immigration agents arrested a Palestinian student activist who helped organize Columbia University’s solidarity encampment on campus last year. And the U.S. Department of Education threatened Temple University, Drexel University, and 58 other colleges with sanctions Monday amid antisemitism investigations.
What you should know today
An immigration judge is expected to decide today whether the Turkish woman arrested by federal agents at her family’s Jersey Kebab restaurant should be freed from custody.
Three members of a Philly street gang have been sentenced to decades in prison for committing several murders in 2021, including the fatal shooting of a woman they mistakenly targeted.
A former employee of Philadelphia’s Department of Public Health sued the city, alleging that she was targeted after reporting concerns of racial inequity in its COVID-19 response, hiring, and leadership.
Joe Khan, a Democrat who previously ran for Pennsylvania attorney general and Philly district attorney, launched a bid to be Bucks County DA.
A bankruptcy hearing today is expected to reveal details of the weekend funding deal that prevented an abrupt closure of Crozer Health’s Delaware County hospitals.
Voters in three South Jersey districts are considering school bond questions today to pay for improvements.
Four years after federal investigations of exaggerated investment returns and secretive land deals rocked Pennsylvania’s $77 billion school pension agency, a final report urges reforms.
Former Gov. Ed Rendell wants to build a national monument in LOVE Park for the Semiquincentennial. The city said no, but the idea still has supporters.
The Eagles have accepted an invitation to visit the White House.
🧠Trivia time
The Pennsylvania State University board of trustees approved a multi-year sponsorship deal to rename the football field at Beaver Stadium. What will it be called?
A) West Shore Home Field
B) Utz Snacks Home Field
C) Wells Fargo Home Field
D) Lion’s Den Home Field
Think you know? Check your answer.
What we’re...
🍻 Saying goodbye to: Every Joann fabrics store in the region, as well as Brewerytown’s only brewery, Crime & Punishment.
🏢 Peeping: The largest unit in Philly’s largest condo building, for sale for $2.3 million.
🎙️ Humming: Philly songwriter Ron Gallo’s viral protest song “If Only Zelenskyy Had A Nice Suit.”
🗣️ Considering: State Sen. Anthony Hardy Williams’ op-ed on the silence of allies.
🧩 Unscramble the anagram
Hint: Mission-driven, award-winning pizza spot in Strawberry Mansion
THROWN NOD
Email us if you know the answer. We’ll select a reader at random to shout out here.
Cheers to Rebecca Welch Pugh, who solved Monday’s anagram: Roberta Flack. “I remember her telling me that Philadelphia had a special energy — a city that knew how to listen, how to feel a song in its bones,” Shari Flack-Council wrote in an Inquirer op-ed memorializing her aunt, the “Killing Me Softly With His Song” singer who died last month.
Photo of the day
🤝 One last appreciative thing: Gov. Josh Shapiro on Monday visited firefighters at Northeast Philadelphia’s Engine 71, who were among the first responders at the scene when a Learjet medical transport crashed on Cottman Avenue on Jan. 31.
Enjoy the rest of your Tuesday. See you same time, same place tomorrow.
By submitting your written, visual, and/or audio contributions, you agree to The Inquirer’s Terms of Use, including the grant of rights in Section 10.