The Morning Newsletter
Start your day with the Philly news you need and the stories you want all in one easy-to-read newsletter
Good morning! Pack your umbrella. Showers are likely, with highs again in the upper 80s.
Today we begin with the sweet story of a musical prodigy, and what it takes to get into a top music conservatory while still in elementary school.
And, how people in our region are using AI to find their next home.
Plus, U.S. AG Todd Blanche and DA Larry Krasner trade barbs, and more news of the day.
— Laura Benshoff (morningnewsletter@inquirer.com)
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This school year, Philadelphia’s Curtis Institute of Music received 154 applications to the piano department.
One of the world’s top music schools, it accepted only four.
Just one is so young her feet can’t reach the pedals.
Olivia Li, 7, is believed to be the youngest Curtis student since 1950. Prestigious music conservatories have their share of prodigies, but students under 10 are exceedingly rare.
Li’s experience, perhaps unsurprisingly, will be much different from those of her mostly college-age contemporaries. Instead of coursework covering music theory and history, Li will be attending third grade.
The Inquirer’s Peter Dobrin has the story of Li’s path to Curtis and what she hopes to learn there.
From her home in Mexico, JoAnne Kim opened up ChatGPT and started looking for an apartment in Pennsylvania.
She told the chatbot her priorities: someplace quiet, walkable, dog-friendly, with good transit access and things to do.
With the help of AI, she landed on Montgomery Plaza in Ardmore. She and her husband moved this month.
AI assistants are changing how renters find listings, replacing long lists of options to filter with a chatbot conversation.
Real estate agents, property managers, and rental sites are having to adapt, updating their websites to make them more prominent in AI search results.
Reporter Michaelle Bond has this story on how AI is changing real estate.
What you should know today
Philadelphia District Attorney Larry Krasner has drawn a rebuke from U.S. Attorney General Todd Blanche after Krasner gave a speech earlier this week saying the White House’s proposed ballroom project should be blown up and the pieces sold as paperweights.
A Philadelphia judge took the unusual step of imposing six months of outside supervision on property auctions by the Sheriff’s Office, following years of processing delays.
Zymire Hughes, the 22-year-old accused of menacing more than a dozen people near City Hall while wearing a Chucky-style mask, was arrested in Las Vegas. Philadelphia DA Larry Krasner is asking more of Hughes’ alleged harassment victims to come forward so that charges may be brought.
Pennsylvania and New Jersey will each receive more than $500 million from Meta, as a part of a recent settlement regarding how the tech company’s social media platforms target kids.
Plans to develop a lot used for the Pennsylvania Horticultural Society’s pop-up beer garden in Manayunk has drawn fierce backlash from neighbors.
The Landmark Ritz Five movie theater in Old City was ordered shut down by city inspectors for fire code violations.
With some prominent Democrats distancing themselves from a term they had previously embraced, Inquirer opinion columnist Jenice Armstrong digs into the history of “woke” and explains what it means to her.
🧠 Trivia time
Amtrak will soon expand daily service between New York and what other city, with a stop in Philadelphia?
A) Washington, D.C.
B) Wilmington
C) Baltimore
D) Pittsburgh
Think you know? Check your answer.
What we’re ...
🍽️ Reviewing: With live jazz and a Ferris wheel holding high-end liquor rotating above the bar, Mr. Edison, the new restaurant in the Bellevue Hotel on Broad Street, is high on spectacle. But as restaurant critic Craig LaBan writes, the steakhouse’s food falls short.
🚴 Cycling on: The Schuylkill River Trail now runs all the way to Reading, after a new 0.9-mile section in Montgomery County opened earlier this month.
🎟️ Jamming to: Inquirer pop critic Dan DeLuca breaks down this weekend’s jam-packed concert calendar, from beachfront dance music in Atlantic City to sweaty basement punk shows in Philly.
🧩 Unscramble the anagram
Hint: Dolly Parton’s literacy program.
MARGINALITY NAIROBI
Email us if you know the answer. We’ll select a reader at random to shout out here.
Congrats to Fred Kaplan, who correctly guessed Wednesday’s anagram: the Whitney Biennial. Several Philadelphia artists were selected this year for the prestigious exhibit. Their work is on display at the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York through Oct. 12.
Tomorrow is Friday! See you then 😀
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