Why so many racehorses die in Pa. | Morning Newsletter
And, the vaccine rollout in N.J. is different than Pa.
The Morning Newsletter
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Good morning from The Inquirer newsroom. Buckets of rain triggered flood warnings in the region.
First: Drugging horses to boost performance has become more prevalent.
Then: This is how the vaccine rollouts in Pa. and N.J. measure up.
And: Roxborough is outpacing the city as a whole in population growth and sheer number of housing units.
— Ashley Hoffman (@_ashleyhoffman, morningnewsletter@inquirer.com)
Racehorses are dying in staggering numbers at Pennsylvania tracks.
Drugging horses to boost performance has become more prevalent as owners and trainers say it’s the only way to stay competitive. More than 1,400 thoroughbred horses have died since 2010, and half of them have died at the facilities of Pennsylvania’s largest casino, Parx Racing. Despite reform efforts, drugging horses remains a leading factor for why so many die in Pa. and elsewhere.
At a 2017 trial in a sweeping doping case, the former president of the Pennsylvania Horsemen’s Benevolent and Protective Association said up to 98% of racehorses — including her own — were illegally drugged to block pain and unnaturally boost performance. And it’s big business.
Reporter Sam Wood takes you inside the racing world.
There’s no perfect way to compare vaccine programs.
But in interviews, residents and experts described what they view as a picture showing key differences between the states. Pa. ranks above average in percentage of residents with first vaccinations, and residents find that appointments are hard to snag in Jersey too. But the mass clinics in Pa. only recently opened their doors. Mass clinics across the river moved quicker than that. In fact, the mass vaccination sites have been accelerating the pace for months. Pa. offers only information by phone. In New Jersey, the hotline can get you an appointment.
Jersey is ranked by Becker’s Hospital Review in the top 10 in the nation, using more than 86% of doses from the government. On the other hand, that same scale puts Pa. in the bottom half of the country, using less than 75% available doses. The commonwealth also appears to be lagging behind the Garden State in eligibility groups. The current scientific evidence shows that prioritizing vaccines by eligibility is the best approach, but how eligibility affects pace remains an ongoing topic of discussion.
Reporters Allison Steele and Erin McCarthy have the whole story on why.
There’s an update. After weeks of Pa. lawmakers demanding more doses, the state House voted yesterday to require the Department of Health to change its coronavirus vaccine rollout plans, and force the state to allow Philly’s suburbs to run their own mass clinics.
Here’s what we know about whether temperature checks are still worth doing.
Where can I get a COVID-19 vaccine in the Philly area? Use our lookup tool.
This is a step-by-step process on how the COVID-19 vaccines work.
Is indoor dining safe once you’ve had the COVID-19 vaccine? Experts are split on the risk involved.
How to know what’s safe when it comes to summer travel this year.
What you need to know today
Roxborough is outperforming the city in growth as renters and new home buyers are flooding the zone.
Staff at the Delaware County Juvenile Detention Center in Lima held “private parties” where two young people endured widespread sexual, physical, and psychological abuse at the very facility entrusted with their care, according to a lawsuit filed on behalf of two former detainees.
Philly principals say the district needs to get more dollars into schools to meet the needs of their students as they contemplate tough staffing questions.
The Temple University Fox School of Business rankings scandal could lead to M. Moshe Porat’s federal indictment, lawyers say.
It’ll cost you if park on the grass on Kelly Drive.
Through your eyes | #OurPhilly
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That’s interesting
🏀 These are the five questions the 76ers need to answer before the fast-approaching trade deadline.
🧀 🥩 🥖We have ourselves a cheesesteak bowl winner.
🦅 Quarterback Joe Flacco: signed. Eagles beat writers have plenty of thoughts.
Opinions
“Full reopenings were startling. They revealed hope. But also: wreckage,” columnist Maria Panaritis writes on theft in a year when COVID-19 stole lives and also our “intangibles.”
Growing tensions between Beijing and Washington came to a head in an inevitable verbal clash at the Alaska Exchange, columnist Trudy Rubin writes. What comes next?
What we’re reading
Instead of competing, business owners on Lancaster Avenue are supporting one another to stay stronger together, the Philadelphia Tribune reports.
A “personal photo organizer” is a real job chronicled in the New Yorker.
A rising Minari star speaks with New York magazine about her touching performance in the Oscar-nominated movie.
The Week has gathered cartoons about spring-break superspreaders.
One of the all-time greats, fourth meal purveyor Taco Bell, once pulled a next-level stunt that may never be dethroned.
Let’s go back to 1966 because it’s a very #TBT thing of us to do. Our readers opened up their newspaper to see a full-page ad with a shot of the good old symbolic Liberty Bell and the headline: “Taco Bell Buys the Liberty Bell.” That non-fact checked out to ... a lot of people.
The switchboards at The Inquirer blew up. Callers must have breezed past their calendars on the way to the telephone. After all, it was April 1, 1996, April Fools’ Day. The creative outside-of-the-bun masterminds behind the persuasive campaign did it to hit younger people with a penchant for going rogue. And the news release with the “purchase” went out to highly respected news sources everywhere, reporter Mike Klein writes.
It paid off for Taco Bell to the tune of a $1 million spike over the next two days. Now that’s some “Fire!” spicy sauce.