🚫 A tech backlash grows | Morning Newsletter
And why schools are limiting screen time.
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. We’re in for sunny skies and highs in the upper 70s.
Today, we have two important stories about our evolving relationship with technology. The first covers a movement to restrict automated license plate readers in New Jersey.
The second chronicles new limits on screen use in classrooms around our region.
Plus, a former Philadelphia cop turned contractor faces multiple fraud charges, and more news of the day.
— Laura Benshoff (morningnewsletter@inquirer.com)
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On the outer rim of a Home Depot parking lot in West Berlin, N.J., around two dozen people stood in the searing August sun.
They were there to protest the black, solar-powered license plate reader perched on a pole above them.
“They’re watching you! And you!” shouted one man, pointing as cars rolled past.
Groups like this one, called DeFlock South Jersey, hoped to ultimately limit the use of these readers due to privacy concerns.
But in New Jersey, they face an uphill battle, reports The Inquirer’s Ximena Conde. Simply put, the readers are already all over the place.
The vast majority of New Jersey’s law enforcement agencies, more than 520 entities, use automated license plate readers. Major retailers, like Home Depot, also deploy the cameras, saying they help with loss prevention and employee safety.
Read Conde’s full story on nascent efforts to restrict this tech in the Garden State.
After years of giving every student a computer, public school districts across the Philadelphia region are starting this school year differently: They’re pulling back on screens, particularly for early grades.
Some examples:
The Tredyffrin/Easttown School District in Chester County has stopped assigning iPads to kindergartners.
In the Colonial School District in Montgomery County, elementary school students have time limits on using their Chromebooks.
The Wallingford-Swarthmore School District in Delaware County has restricted YouTube access for kids up to the fifth grade.
The rollback comes in response to parent concerns about an overreliance on computers as teaching tools, and concerns that kids can browse sites like YouTube without adequate parental controls.
The Inquirer’s suburban education reporter Maddie Hanna has more on this trend.
What you should know today
A former Philadelphia police officer faces fraud charges in three local counties for allegedly starting contracting jobs and leaving them unfinished — and in one case, leaving a house uninhabitable.
The Jefferson County coroner has confirmed another suspected measles-involved fatality in the commonwealth, this time of a 40-year-old unvaccinated woman.
A Main Line art dealer faces a lawsuit for allegedly participating in a scheme to forge Andy Warhol paintings and prints and sell them through a gallery in Miami.
Police have arrested a suspect in a 2022 cold case, in which a 30-year-old father of two was fatally gunned down outside of a West Philadelphia night club.
Family members are planning to sue a Reading-area nonprofit that serves people with intellectual and developmental disabilities, after a man died following a choking incident there last month. The facility has been operating after its license was revoked.
Langhorne Borough residents aren’t pleased with PennDot’s newest proposal to build a partial cloverleaf interchange on Route 1, saying the measure would still push highway traffic onto local streets.
Philadelphia-set Abbott Elementary is up for seven Emmy Awards tonight. Go, Quinta, go!
Germantown is slowly adding new businesses, but residents like Patrick Jones would like to see even more.
🧠 Trivia time
This Chester County borough is called the “Mushroom Capital of the World” and recently held its 41st annual Mushroom Festival.
A) Phoenixville
B) Downingtown
C) Honey Brook
D) Kennett Square
Think you know? Check your answer.
What we’re...
🌶️ Eating. Chiles en nogada, a traditional Mexican dish of stuffed poblano peppers in white walnut sauce, are briefly in season. Inquirer food writer Kiki Aranita has where to get them right now.
🏡 Reading. They bought their home in West Oak Lane with the help of Quaker reparations. Inquirer real estate report Michaelle Bond has this account.
🇵🇷 Celebrating. The 42nd Feria del Barrio, an annual festival of Puerto Rican culture in Fairhill, filled the air with the sounds of bomba on Sunday.
🧩 Unscramble the anagram
Hint: Originally founded as a school for white, male orphans, this North Philly institution became the site of pitched legal battles over integration during the civil rights era.
GLACIER LODGER
Email us if you know the answer. We’ll select a reader at random to shout out here.
Cheers to Joe Zalewski who correctly guessed Sunday’s answer: Connor Barwin. On Barwin’s “perfect day” in the city, the former Eagles linebacker orders an open-faced burrito (like a burrito bowl) from the same NoLibs cafe he’s visited for about 12 years.
Photo of the day
📬 Your ‘only in Philly’ story
It’s time for our weekly ‘only in Philly’ feature, where we elevate stories from our readers. Email us a colorful anecdote about life in Philly for a chance to be featured in the Monday edition of this newsletter.
Today’s story comes from reader Sam Waltz, who describes hitchhiking to North Philly’s Connie Mack Stadium with his friend Eric back in 1969. A police cruiser stopped to pick them up. I’ll let Sam finish the story, which has been edited for length:
... Eric and I walked to the back of the Philly Police paddy wagon, opened the door, stepped inside, closed the door, and took a seat.
We could watch out the windows as the cops drove up Broad Street, finally pulling over to the curb at the intersection of Broad and Lehigh [a few blocks from the stadium].
Through the window, I heard the cop — not getting out of his seat — rap on the window and yell out, “Hop out, boys, we’re here.”
I pushed open the back door. As I did, I spied a young boy about 9 years old standing right there, watching me curiously.
As I stepped down, suddenly he yelled out, “RUN, MISTER, RUN!”
Of course, he thought I was escaping!
👋 Happy Monday! May the children of Philadelphia be on your side today as well.
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