Finally, hope returns to Philadelphia | Morning Newsletter
And, a look at Howie Roseman’s staying power.
The Morning Newsletter
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Good morning from The Inquirer newsroom.
First: Hope is, finally, springing in Philadelphia.
Then: A look at Howie Roseman, and the miraculous staying power of the Eagles’ general manager.
And: From tests to vaccines, state health officials are still missing crucial race data for COVID-19.
— Tommy Rowan (@tommyrowan, morningnewsletter@inquirer.com)
Temperatures are rising, and the air is softening. Birds are chirping from budding tree branches, and more and more people in the Philadelphia area are getting their vaccines.
And with it, hope is rising.
After a year of grief and loss, Philadelphians are finally starting to remember what hope feels like, writes reporter Anna Orso. And while life still isn’t as it was before, residents told Orso, they’re optimistic in a way they haven’t felt in a year.
Read on for their new outlook — and maybe a little hope.
Howie Roseman’s remarkable tenure as Eagles general manager has included a Super Bowl title, three fired coaches, and a four-win disaster in 2020.
And despite the Eagles’ fall since their Super Bowl championship three years ago, Roseman’s authority remains untouched.
Reporter Jeff McLane spent months talking to more than two dozen insiders to build a portrait of a team in transition, guided by an overarching question: Why is Howie Roseman still the guy in charge?
Read on for the whole story on Roseman’s staying power.
Where can you get a vaccine in the Philly area if you’re eligible? Use our lookup tool and find out.
Here’s how you can prepare for your COVID-19 vaccine appointment when you get one.
Stimulus Q&A: Who gets $1,400 and when? Here’s what the $1.9 trillion package means for you.
Here are the updated coronavirus case numbers.
What you need to know today
Time and again — from testing to reporting confirmed cases and now vaccine administration — state health authorities have taken a reactive approach to collecting data on race and ethnicity, rather than ensuring and enforcing collection from the start.
As the pandemic begins to subside, economic annihilation continues for the nation’s 11 million undocumented immigrants who are excluded from government safety nets and from the federal stimulus money.
After months of uncertainty over when they would be vaccinated, teachers in three of the four Philadelphia suburbs have begun getting coronavirus vaccines.
City officials have chosen a Black-owned firm to develop a tiny-house village in West Philadelphia for people experiencing homelessness.
The state has lifted its moratorium on pandemic shutoffs and is allowing utilities to resume terminations starting March 31.
Some of Philadelphia’s most iconic skyscrapers will soon go dark overnight as their owners take part in a program to protect migrating birds from being lethally drawn to the bright lights.
The CEO of Philadelphia’s massive wholesale produce market was charged with embezzling $7.8 million.
For the widow of slain Police Cpl. James O’Connor, the last year has been “an unreal nightmare.”
Through your eyes | #OurPhilly
Things are looking up. Thanks for sharing, @jasoncoopman.
Tag your Instagram posts or tweets with #OurPhilly and we’ll pick our favorite each day to feature in this newsletter and give you a shout-out!
That’s interesting
🌡️ Philly set a temperature record with a high of 74 on Thursday. It was the highest reading in four months, topped the 72 recorded on March 11, 1977, and was a full 24 degrees above the normal for the day. But it’s not going to last.
🏀 If not Kyle Lowry, then who? The 76ers have some intriguing potential targets on the NBA trade market.
💻 From anxiety to eye strain, Zoom burnout is real. Here’s how to practice self-care.
🥗 Here’s how the coronavirus stimulus plan will help Philadelphia restaurants, caterers, food carts, tasting rooms, taprooms, and more.
⚾ Phillies prospect Jonathan Hennigan might become the answer to a baseball trivia question: Who threw the last pitch of spring training in 2020 before it was canceled in response to the COVID-19 outbreak?
Opinions
“The economic argument for bolstering labor unions is arguably more powerful than the political one. Experts who have researched why U.S. paychecks started stagnating around the 1980s, and why income inequality exploded, have found the decline in bargaining power from a weakened labor movement — punctuated by Ronald Reagan crushing the air-traffic controllers’ union in 1981 — was a huge factor, and maybe the biggest one,” writes columnist Will Bunch, who is energized to see President Joe Biden and the Democratic party betting on labor unions to help bring back America’s middle class.
When my roommate got COVID-19, I lost pay to quarantine, writes restaurant worker Nour Qutyan. She argues: “We need a national, comprehensive paid family- and medical-leave program.” And now.
The Inquirer asked a Masterman student and the Unionville-Chadds Ford School District president to debate: Should schools have the option to cancel standardized tests this year?
What we’re reading
Rob Friedman, whom the New York Times dubbed “The Lawyer Who Became a (Pitching) Ninja,” has a huge social media following, top pitchers who swear by him, and deals with ESPN and MLB. But the self-proclaimed “pitching whisperer” insists this is just a hobby.
Your Daily Dose of | Dolly
Country-music icon Dolly Parton is bringing her Imagination Library to Philadelphia. So far the book distribution program, which was created in her father’s honor and is aimed at promoting literacy among children, has given away more than 150 million books to kids from birth to age 5. Now The Little Engine That Could and up to 60 other titles are coming to thousands of Philadelphia children.