Noisy neighbors across the Delaware | Morning Newsletter
And, how a teen pilot felt after that emergency landing.
The Morning Newsletter
Start your day with the Philly news you need and the stories you want all in one easy-to-read newsletter
Hello, readers of The Inquirer Morning Newsletter.
First: Loud music and noise are bothering residents on both sides of the Delaware — but Philadelphians blame Camden, and Camdenites blame Philly.
Then: Genetic ALS, the disease that killed baseball great Lou Gehrig, affects thousands of people across the country every year. But new medical trials that Philly-area medical schools are participating in could make dealing with the disease easier.
And: A teen pilot had to make an emergency landing with his banner plane on the Ocean City bridge. And he couldn’t be more nonchalant about it.
— Lauren Aguirre (@laurencaguirre, morningnewsletter@inquirer.com)
Late last year, residents of Fishtown and Port Richmond began complaining about music flooding their homes at night. Some insist it’s coming from across the Delaware River in Camden. But in South Jersey, residents say they’ve been tortured by blaring music for years. And they blame Philadelphia.
“This has always been a blame game,” said Jeff Stefan, a Westville resident who has spent years fighting the noise. And, it turns out, water has a way of enhancing sound waves, so figuring out who is actually to blame isn’t easy.
Reporter Allison Steele explains the riverside dispute and the science behind sound over the Delaware.
For people with inherited forms of ALS, learning of their genetic predisposition can feel like a “death sentence.” But clinical trials are offering a level of hope not yet available to a majority of ALS patients.
Several Philly-area medical schools — including Jefferson, Penn, Temple, and Penn State — are participating in new research that could help people live with the debilitating disease.
Reporter Stacey Burling shows you how genetic ALS affected a Pennsylvania family — and what scientists are testing to combat the disease.
Reopening resources
Do I need a COVID-19 vaccine booster to protect myself from delta and other variants?
Track the latest data on COVID-19 cases in the region.
Don’t ask for someone’s vaccination status, do this.
Here’s what experts feel safe doing — and what they don’t.
How to navigate fear about getting the coronavirus, even if you’re vaccinated.
What you need to know today
A shooting at Pat’s Steaks in South Philly left one man dead.
With rising COVID-19 cases in Japan, Olympians from the Philly area are noticing a clear focus on safety in Tokyo.
Pennsylvania could get up to $1 billion in the opioid settlement with Johnson & Johnson and other pharmaceutical companies, attorney general Josh Shapiro said.
Pennsylvania Republicans are bringing their election bill back in the state legislature after Gov. Tom Wolf said he was open to voter ID changes.
President Joe Biden will nominate Comcast executive David Cohen to serve as his ambassador to Canada.
After being criticized, Philadelphia Mayor Jim Kenney is defending his decision to not declare a state of emergency on gun violence, saying there is “no greater priority than reducing violence and saving lives.”
The City of Philadelphia is entering its first union negotiations since the pandemic. Police reform, worker safety, and city finances are at stake in these talks.
Pennsylvania officials want to raise low staffing requirements at the state’s nursing homes. Experts have said the current standards are dangerous.
Life expectancy fell by 1.5 years in 2020, mostly due to COVID-19. Here’s what that really means.
Storms knocked out power for thousands in the Philly region on Wednesday, but the rain did help with the wildfire smoke.
Through your eyes | #OurPhilly
It’s been strange for the region over the last couple of days. Check out more photos of the haze over Philly.
Tag your Instagram posts with #OurPhilly, and we’ll pick our favorite each day to feature here and give you a shout-out.
That's interesting
😷 Will your COVID-19 mask protect your from the Western wildfire pollution that’s been drifting over Philly? It depends.
🚣♂️ The U.S. Olympic 8-man rowing team has four members from the Philly region.
🎭 Philly’s Fringe Festival will be back this fall and largely in person.
🍕 Wm. Mulherin’s Sons is planning to open another pizzeria in Center City after its popularity in Fishtown.
Opinions
“I changed the way I drive not because I believed it was dangerous, but because my daughter was killed by a distracted driver. It shouldn’t have to take a tragedy for all of us to do the same,” writes Philadelphia attorney Joel Feldman on why distracted driving is dangerous.
How are we still talking about trash pickup in Philadelphia? City Hall isn’t doing enough, writes The Inquirer Editorial Board, which operates independently of the newsroom.
A year after most news outlets decided to capitalize “Black,” inconsistent style guidelines cause confusion for readers, writes the Angry Grammarian.
Billionaires frolicking in space means mega pollution for the planet, writes Eloise Marais for The Conversation.
What we're reading
The couple whose gender reveal party sparked a brushfire in 2020 has been charged with involuntary manslaughter, the Los Angeles Times reports.
A Pennsylvania town just launched city-wide composting aimed at reducing household waste. WHYY has more.
A growing number of Republicans are now urging people to get vaccinated as the delta variant spreads across the country. Learn more with the Washington Post.
Your daily dose of | Living history
A new initiative at the Museum of the American Revolution, the African American Interpretive Program, is designed to elevate the stories of Black Americans who lived and fought during the Revolutionary War. Sometimes telling these stories provoke emotional conflict for the interpreters and pain for some Black people who see enslavement reenactments across the United States.