Biden’s win sets up Super Tuesday; supervised injection site halted for now | Morning Newsletter
Plus, two Leap Day babies in one family, delivered by a doc also born on Leap Day.
The Morning Newsletter
Start your day with the Philly news you need and the stories you want all in one easy-to-read newsletter
Turning the calendar to March has apparently come with some legit springtime weather. (Philadelphia is actually getting its earliest spring in 124 years.) It could get into the 60s today and tomorrow. And that’s coming after some random snowflakes on Friday ambushed Philly’s run at a snow record. As far as the news is concerned, we’ve got you covered with a national political update, reporting on the now in-flux supervised injection site proposed for South Philly, and more.
— Josh Rosenblat (@joshrosenblat, morningnewsletter@inquirer.com)
It might have been Joe Biden’s last stand, but the former veep won South Carolina’s primary on Saturday in decisive fashion. The Scranton native’s win pushed him to second in the delegate count behind Bernie Sanders and reshaped the presidential race by narrowing the path forward for other center-left candidates, according to my colleagues covering the race. One of those candidates — Pete Buttigieg — ended his presidential campaign yesterday.
Tomorrow, 14 states will have their primaries, and the outcomes could alter the outlook for the top-tier candidates. And with other states (including Pennsylvania) not voting until later in the cycle, the nomination could still be up in the air. We have a new weekly email newsletter that focuses on how Pennsylvania will shape the 2020 presidential election. You can sign up here, and don’t forget to share it.
Barely a day after the nonprofit Safehouse had announced a South Philadelphia location for a supervised injection site, the operators walked back their plans. Though they were armed with a judge’s approval, intense outcry from residents and city politicians about a perceived lack of community input forced the hand of the site’s operators.
Now, Safehouse and advocates for a site where people can use drugs under medical supervision, be revived if they overdose, and access treatment are mulling next steps. For now, the leader of the nonprofit is focused most on speaking with community members.
Most Pennsylvania districts provide full-day kindergarten. But those that don’t say it’s a challenge because they’re lacking money and/or space. And that leads them to question how they would implement a proposal by Gov. Tom Wolf to require it. In his budget address this year, Wolf called for “the expansion of universal, no-cost, full-day kindergarten so that it’s available for every child in our commonwealth.” Wolf’s budget plan doesn’t include funding designated for full-day kindergarten.
A few things are leading the full-day kindergarten charge, including research about the importance of early-childhood education, ramped-up standards for young students, and parents’ needs regarding work schedules and a desire for consistency for children who were in full-day pre-K.
What you need to know today
Easy-to-use coronavirus tests should soon be available. Top U.S. companies are racing to fill the need.
At least six Philly police officers were quietly fired and charged with abuse last year. But many of them will likely get their jobs back.
Last week marked the start of a new rule that will deny permanent legal status to immigrants who appear likely to need public benefits such as Medicaid or food stamps.
Supporters of convicted cop-killer Mumia Abu-Jamal rallied Friday to decry the Pennsylvania Supreme Court’s order for an investigation of whether Philly DA Larry Krasner’s office has a conflict in its continued prosecution of Abu-Jamal’s appeals.
The Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia is “essentially full" at its University City campus, so it’s launching $3.4 billion in expansions and new buildings.
“And Comcast, a company that spends millions and millions of dollars on their image – I’ll do everything possible to destroy their image because they are terrible," President Trump said at a rally Friday.
Through your eyes | #OurPhilly
Thanks for the pic, @thrudseyes. Today, we’re all looking back at the weekend like this.
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
🙌She was once homeless and a teenage mom. Now, as a Camden principal, her story inspires young girls.
💉A Pennsylvania doctor stopped a virus outbreak way back in 1934, doing it with blood.
📈Wharton’s first female dean Erika James says that “gender is the least of what I have to offer.”
💐Here’s what it looks like inside the 2020 Philadelphia Flower Show.
🎂There’s a 1 in 1,461 chance that you’ll be born on leap day. In one South Jersey family, two sisters were born on Leap Days four years apart. And the doctor who delivered them both was born on Feb. 29, 1972.
🌆Last week an article about ex-Sixer Markelle Fultz accused Philly of hating him. That article, which was reported by Bleacher Report, got everything wrong about the city, writes sports columnist David Murphy.
Opinions
“The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says there is no longer a question of if there will be community transmission of coronavirus in the U.S., but when — an assessment shared by Thomas Farley, Philadelphia’s health commissioner. There is no reason to panic, but there is reason for urgency on the city’s part.” — writes The Inquirer Editorial Board about how the city is preparing for the potential of coronavirus.
Emma Horst-Martz, a Philadelphia native who works at a consumer advocacy firm, writes that there’s a way to prevent devastating explosions like the one that hit South Philly.
Latinx voters have become the secret weapon for Bernie Sanders, writes columnist Will Bunch.
What we’re reading
The Philadelphia Business Journal reports on which regional business leaders have hosted big-money events for presidential candidates.
A small Georgia town was home to a Bible that seemingly oozed oil. The oil became a sensation, with god-like healing powers ascribed to it, Slate reports. And then the miracle fell apart.
GardaWorld built an armored-truck empire, but it took dangerous shortcuts, according to a Tampa Bay Times investigation. Workers and unsuspecting drivers felt the impact.
Your Daily Dose of | The UpSide
Less than a day after Charles Brewer Jr. made his pro boxing debut, he returned to do his day job: being a police officer in Pennsauken. That’s what pays the bills while his long-term professional goals are in boxing. And it runs in the family. His father was a middleweight champion.