Celebrating Memorial Day — Philly style | Morning Newsletter
And the robots have touched down in Philly.
The Morning Newsletter
Start your day with the Philly news you need and the stories you want all in one easy-to-read newsletter
It’s Felicia Gans Sobey, filling in today for Kerith. It’ll be a mostly cloudy day with a high temperature near 80, a chance of morning showers, and a possible thunderstorm later today.
First up, we’ll give you some ideas about how to spend your Memorial Day weekend in the city.
Plus, it’s a bird! It’s a plane! No, it’s a robot! The annual robot conference came to town, and you won’t believe what some of these devices can do.
— Felicia Gans Sobey (@FeliciaGans, morningnewsletter@inquirer.com)
We did it, readers. We’ve reached the (unofficial) start of summer.
But before you pack up your beach chairs, slather on your sunscreen, and head to the Shore, we have another idea. Here are some ways to celebrate Memorial Day right here in Philly:
The Museum of the American Revolution: Veterans, military, and Blue Star Families can get into the museum for free all weekend. (Visit amrevmuseum.org for more information.)
Philadelphia Kickoff-to-Summer Fireworks Show: Fireworks and a free concert? Count me in. (Visit cherrystreetpier.com for more information.)
Chaddsford Winery: And for my 21+ friends out there, raise a glass to the start of summer with a wine flight, sangria spritz, or sangria slushie. (Visit chaddsford.com for more information.)
For more ideas on what to do this weekend with your family or friends, check out our list of suggestions.
What you should know today
There are still many unanswered questions about the health of Lt. Gov. John Fetterman, who had a stroke just days before he won the Democratic primary for a U.S. Senate seat earlier this month. His campaign says he received a combination defibrillator-pacemaker, but cardiologists say the story doesn’t add up.
A house explosion in Pottstown killed four people Thursday evening.
Spotted lanternflies are starting to hatch across the region, and if you haven’t seen them yet, you likely will soon.
A 20-year-old college student has filed a federal lawsuit against the City of Philadelphia and two city police officers who he says hit him in the face with a metal baton while he filmed protests from his car in 2020.
A new report by the Education Law Center and PA Schools Work found that Pennsylvania isn’t covering the rising cost of special education in public schools.
Employees at four Philadelphia Starbucks voted on Wednesday to unionize, joining a group of Starbucks stores around the country that have done the same.
Local Coronavirus Numbers: Here’s your daily look at the latest COVID-19 data.
Some of the world’s top robotic researchers and companies were in Philly this week for the annual International Conference on Robotics and Automation, which was first held here in 1988.
The robots presented can do everything from fly to swim. Some can even enter the human body.
🎤 My colleague Joseph N. DiStefano sets the scene:
The robots are here. An eagle-sized quadcopter flew above a wooded Schuylkill river bank, counting trees as it was designed to do in the forests of the Andes.
Other robots swam underwater, where their hoops of mesh-like material billowed like jellyfish as they took pictures or searched for watercraft.
Still others swarmed like mosquitoes, reading the landscape with GPS to find landing targets. Or they were seen wheeling and running, on four legs and two, as if practicing to further automate Amazon’s warehouses.
🧠 Philly Trivia Time 🧠
Dock Street Brewery is closing its West Philadelphia location. Today’s Question: What kind of business will be moving into the space? Take a guess and find the answer here.
a. A deli
b. A sports bar
c. Another brewery
d. A bowling alley
What we’re…
💻 Reading: The first edition of the Inquirer’s Down the Shore newsletter, which dropped yesterday. Sign up here.
🔍 Looking for: Your advice for the class of 2022.
🪄 Excited to visit: The new bar-restaurant “The Cauldron,” which opened this week in Center City and was described by my colleague Michael Klein as “a high school chem lab, but it’s decorated like some low-lit fantasy out of a Rowling novel.”
🧩 Unscramble the Anagram 🧩
Want some marijuana before you get to the Shore? This pot shop in Egg Harbor Township is likely on your way.
BETHINA TOTS
Think you know? Send your guess our way at morningnewsletter@inquirer.com. We’ll give a shoutout to a reader at random who answers correctly. Today’s shoutout goes to Linda Bross, of Philadelphia, who correctly guessed Mack & Manco as Thursday’s answer.
Photo of the day
That’s all for today. 👋 My colleague Matt Mullin will be in your inbox for Sunday’s newsletter.