The Morning Newsletter
Start your day with the Philly news you need and the stories you want all in one easy-to-read newsletter
Rise and shine, Philly. Saturday will be partly sunny with a high near 73. Looking ahead, the remnants of Hurricane Isaias may drench the region on Sunday.
What should you do if your kid is disturbed by a neighbor’s Halloween display? Inquirer staffers offer some suggestions.
Plus, there’s news on the alarming source of a false tip to Philadelphia police, the imminent ban on “skill games” across Pennsylvania, and our report card for this week in Philly news.
— Paola Pérez (morningnewsletter@inquirer.com)
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What you should know today
Anthropic’s artificial intelligence model submitted false information about an unsolved homicide to the Philadelphia Police Department over the summer, though the incident was not discovered until September, officials said Friday.
In an interview with The Inquirer, Philly School Superintendent Tony B. Watlington Sr. defended the district’s reenrollment of 720 students who have not attended a day of school this year.
Keith Haring’s famed 1987 mural We the Youth in Point Breeze is now an officially designated historical place.
Corner stores, gas stations, and other businesses across the city have until Wednesday to remove “skill games” before authorities start seizing them, following a ban on the slot machine-like devices across Pennsylvania.
The Centurion Lounge at Philadelphia International Airport will close temporarily starting next week. The space is set to undergo a massive expansion.
The New Jersey Pinelands Commission approved a project to restore Atlantic white cedars. The plan has drawn objections from some environmentalists.
From the vanishing of $40,000 in ground beef to Wawa testing boundaries with sushi, catch up on the good, bad, and weird from recent stories out of Philly.
A reader asked: Hey, I saw you answered a question about someone who put their Halloween decorations up too early. I have a different problem. A neighbor a block over has extremely good Halloween decorations: blood and guts, real-looking flesh on bones, a speaker that plays screams when people walk by. It really is impressive. It also … terrifies my toddler. We can’t walk by it anymore and have to go around the block. I know he’s not the only kid who can’t deal with it.
We asked Inquirer reporters Jason Nark and Stephanie Farr to tackle this situation. They discussed ways to acclimate children to the spookier parts of Halloween, and the pros and cons of approaching a neighbor.
“Someone who puts real-looking flesh on their lawn may not care what your kid thinks,” Farr pointed out.
Read their full conversation here. And if you need advice, or just want to share your thoughts, we want to hear it. Email us here.
In this week’s Shackamaxon, Inquirer columnist Daniel Pearson argues that City Council should focus on holding Philadelphia Sheriff Rochelle Bilal accountable.
“Beating up on big out-of-town corporations is easy; fixing systemic issues in city government is hard,” Pearson writes, referring to Council’s support of Starbucks workers’ unionization efforts.
Get Pearson’s take on Council’s inaction, along with his perspective on traffic enforcement and historic preservation.
❓Pop quiz
Before Lane Johnson was an Eagles All-Pro tackle, he played quarterback for a junior college in:
A) New Jersey
B) Texas
C) Florida
D) North Carolina
Think you know? Check your answer.
🧩 Unscramble the anagram
Hint: 44th president of the United States
KABOB MARACA
Email us if you know the answer. We’ll select a reader at random to shout out here.
Cheers to Bernice Kaplan, who correctly guessed Friday’s answer: Wilma Theater. The Tony-winning theater is expanding its digital programming with a new platform to provide streaming productions of its performances.
We were there
Megan Kwiecien, 26, found herself crying alone in Old City after losing her job. She posted about it on TikTok, which led to the birth of a cathartic group event, “Sad Girls Crying in the Park.”
The Inquirer’s Dana Munro joined participants in Washington Square Park, as they found community and comfort in sharing stories of loss, loneliness, money troubles, and heartbreak. Read on here.
Somewhere on the internet in Philly
🥪 People are excited for Middle Child’s new limited-time offering: the “HOCUS KABOCUS” sandwich.
🇮🇹 The Philly-themed dive bar Passyunk Avenue is on our minds as the Birds land in London this weekend, but I feel like we also need to know more about this “Philadelphia Bar” farther abroad.
🦪 Are Wawa oysters next? Some can already taste the late-night mussels and beef tartar shortis.
👋🏽 That’s it for now. Thanks for catching up on the news with us.
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