Proposed COVID-19 testing partners that heard ‘no’ | Morning Newsletter

❄️ The ice threat in the region is thawing, but another winter storm could come our way later in the week.

First: In the wake of the Philly Fighting COVID scandal, advocates of an equitable vaccine effort have questions about how the city vetted funding proposals.

Then: The Pa. Republicans condemning Sen. Pat Toomey for his vote to convict Donald Trump signal how definitive loyalty to the former president has become for the party.

And: Residents believe that the wind farm at the Jersey Shore spells trouble in paradise.

— Ashley Hoffman (@_ashleyhoffman, morningnewsletter@inquirer.com)

After getting turned down, groups interested in diversifying the racial breakdown of the vaccine push are questioning the city’s vetting process for COVID-19 testing funding.

City spokesperson Mike Dunn says that the partnership proposals vetting committee is devoted to racial equity and has more funding available. (So far, Philadelphia has provided $10.7 million for testing to hospitals, health centers and groups such as Philly Fighting COVID, the predominantly white self-described “group of college kids,” and the Black Doctors COVID-19 Consortium, the group dedicated to reaching the communities hit hardest by the virus.)

But after Philly Fighting COVID’s chips fell quickly and the city cut its ties last month, advocates, activists and City Council members alike say the scandal is “a glaring example of the city’s blind spots in vetting providers and ensuring racial equity in the distribution of testing and now vaccines,” reporters Ellie Silverman and Laura McCrystal write.

Read the full story here.

Party insiders tell us that the momentum behind the move to censure Sen. Pat Toomey is growing after he voted to convict Donald Trump in his impeachment trial, becoming one of only seven Republican senators to do so.

It was the single most bipartisan referendum of a president in history. So the condemnation from those resolved to censure the consistently conservative senator lays bare “how loyalty to Trump has become an overriding litmus test in the GOP,” reporters Jonathan Tamari and Andrew Seidman write.

Why it’s significant: It shows how Trump’s influence could extend beyond the Oval Office and over how the party portrays his platform ahead of next year’s campaigns.

Read on for the word around Pennsylvania’s “T.”

The spinning blades of a wind energy project that would power half a million Jersey homes have hit some opposition in the ocean air from Jersey Shore residents who view it as an “industrial park.”

The group of Shore residents and second-homeowners are concerned that offshore windmills will obscure their beach views. Petitions with thousands of signatures ask that the turbines be farther away to safeguard what separates the oasis from the sights of industrialization. But not everyone is just concerned about the visual dissonance. Those taking issue with the project raise concerns about the impact on commercial and recreational fishing, and interference with bird and marine life, too.

Here’s what residents and the company behind the project have to say about the conflict at the Shore.

Such a charming slice of Society Hill. Thanks for sharing, @jordanparenti.

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“It’s one thing to have a general sense of diversity issues in a newsroom and a whole other thing to see them quantified in a study,” columnist Jenice Armstrong writes about being a part of desperately needed change in the journalism industry.

Stanley Tucci talks to CNN about his new CNN show Stanley Tucci: Searching For Italy starring Stanley Tucci, guru of life itself.

The view from her window in the hospital where she was being treated was ugly. That’s where an artist came in to beautify things with a floral mural bursting with vibrant color.