🏁 Escape the Linc | Morning Newsletter
And Philly’s mafia power struggle of the 1990s.
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, Philly.
Getting out of Lincoln Financial Field after an Eagles game can be a slow-moving nightmare. Inquirer staffers raced by car, bike, rideshare, and public transportation to find the fastest route.
And Philadelphia’s violent Mafia power struggle of the 1990s is chronicled in a Netflix docuseries out today. Read on for a primer, told through reporting from that period by The Inquirer and the Daily News.
— Julie Zeglen (morningnewsletter@inquirer.com)
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Getting out of any event at the South Philly sports complex is a harrowing experience. That goes double for Eagles games, when nearly 70,000 fans are trying to exit the Linc at once. Besides my own tried-and-true method of getting ahead of the masses — leaving early — what’s the most efficient route out?
For the sake of journalism, four colleagues and I agreed to put ourselves through mild torture via a race from Xfinity Gate to Dalessandro’s in Roxborough. We took off by foot a few minutes after the Oct. 5 Broncos game ended, then each traveled by a different mode:
🚕 Sports reporter Ariel Simpson hailed an Uber.
🚇 Graphics editor John Duchneskie took SEPTA.
🚗 Breaking news reporter Henry Savage drove from the Q lot to I-95.
🚲 Interactives developer Jasen Lo rode his bike along MLK Drive.
🚙 And this newsletter editor drove from FDR Park to I-76.
Was voluntarily inserting ourselves into postgame swarms of disappointed Birds fans more than a little stressful? Yes. Did I take the competition far too seriously, resulting in an end-of-race sprint from my car to Dalessandro’s? Unfortunately, also yes.
See who won — and if you’re guessing, you’re probably wrong.
Netflix’s Mob War: Philadelphia vs. The Mafia is out today. The docuseries chronicles a bloody 1990s power struggle in the local La Cosa Nostra through the eyes of investigators and former crime family members who were there.
Throughout the decade, the violence led to several high-profile deaths and criminal trials, and a new mob leader in the city.
Reporter Nick Vadala explains how the mob war unfolded in the news more than 30 years ago.
Further reading: In the ’90s, mob boss John Stanfa didn’t have a nickname. The Daily News tried to change that. And a South Philly native was a central Mafia figure who now says he regrets ever having joined. Meet hitman-turned-informant John Veasey.
P.S. Another Philly-tied production begins streaming this week: Allen Iv3rson, the former Sixers star’s new Prime Video doc.
What you should know today
Lawyers filed a petition seeking the release of Michael Gaynor, saying he was wrongfully convicted of killing a 5-year-old in 1988. The petition cited the work of a 2024 Inquirer investigation.
Four years ago, the Philadelphia School District scuttled plans to redevelop the crumbling Ada H.H. Lewis Middle School in East Germantown. The discovery of Kada Scott’s body near the vacant building has reignited the debate over its future.
Former President Joe Biden completed a round of radiation therapy at a Penn Medicine cancer center Monday as part of his treatment for prostate cancer, according to a representative.
President Donald Trump’s administration on Tuesday asked a Center City federal appeals court to overturn an order that has blocked the deportation of pro-Palestinian activist Mahmoud Khalil.
Sen. John Fetterman, the Democrat from Pennsylvania, said he’d back a Republican plan to override the Senate filibuster if it meant passing a bill to reopen the federal government. Meanwhile, Gov. Josh Shapiro’s administration has entered the messaging battle over the cause of the disruption to SNAP benefits.
Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia filed a blistering legal response Monday to White House efforts to investigate doctors providing gender-affirming care.
Pennsylvania still doesn’t have a state budget, with the Republican-led Senate on Tuesday approving a budget bill that Democrats say wouldn’t even cover the state’s obligations.
Delaware County Democrats have dominated county government for six years, but Republicans think a recent property tax increase could change that trend.
Philly lawmakers are trying for the third time to pass legislation requiring that stores charge customers a fee for paper bags. Again, it’s facing opposition from the mayor.
Alycia Marshall, who has been serving as interim president of Community College of Philadelphia, has been unanimously endorsed for the permanent role.
Quote of the day
The Rev. Carolyn Cavaness has become something of a celebrity in the last year. She is the first woman pastor of Mother Bethel, known as a hub for Black activism and the oldest church property in the United States to be owned continuously by Black people.
🧠 Trivia time
Another Pennsylvania politician is releasing a memoir, this one in January. Who is it?
A) Gov. Josh Shapiro
B) State Sen. Vincent Hughes
C) Treasurer Stacy Garrity
D) District Attorney Larry Krasner
Think you know? Check your answer.
What we’re ...
🗺️ Making one big map of: All the Philly-area locations you can see in the first season of Task.
🫴 Understanding, kinda: The “six-seven” meme’s maybe-Philly origins.
🌲 Pretty sure that: Delco is not ... rural.
⚽ Wanting in on: The United States’ continent-wide bid for the 2031 women’s World Cup.
🏥 Considering: How frontline workers can drive change to stop emergency room violence.
🧩 Unscramble the anagram
Hint: Place in Montgomery County
FONTINA GROWTHS
Email us if you know the answer. We’ll select a reader at random to shout out here.
Cheers to Afrah Howlader, who solved Tuesday’s anagram: Point Breeze. A once-crumbling church in the South Philadelphia neighborhood is being preserved as a brewery and community space.
Photo of the day
Wishing you an easy Wednesday. I’ll be back with you tomorrow.
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