A safari on taxpayers’ dime | Morning Newsletter
🏥 And Northeast Philly health clinic timeline.
The Morning Newsletter
Start your day with the Philly news you need and the stories you want all in one easy-to-read newsletter
Hi, Philly. The region saw a tornado Monday night after all. Today, it’s just cold.
Montgomery County school officials expensed international trips, including a 14-day African safari, an Inquirer investigation found.
And a Northeast Philadelphia health clinic could take years to open. Residents say they need it sooner.
Plus, two more security checkpoints at Philadelphia International Airport will close, and more news of the day.
— Julie Zeglen (morningnewsletter@inquirer.com)
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Executives at Montgomery County’s Intermediate Unit are facing scrutiny for spending around $40,000 worth of public funds on international travel. That includes a two-week safari to Kenya and Tanzania that cost about $18,000.
The executive director and assistant executive director for the Norristown-based agency, which provides support services to more than 200 public and private schools, say the trips were for professional development, run by national education leadership associations.
The safari, for instance, was “about that process of survival of the fittest, and how are you a leader, and what do you prioritize.”
They also say the Montco IU board president approved the expenses, though at least one former board member questioned their validity.
Education finance experts worry about the potential impact of such spending on public trust.
Notable quote: “We use examples like this to warn people that these are public funds,” one expert told The Inquirer. “You need to make sure your expenditures make sense and are justified, but also, contemplate the optics.”
Reporter William Bender has the story.
In an area with few primary care options, Northeast Philadelphia residents say a new health clinic needs to open on a faster timeline.
🏥 Under the city’s current plans, the clinic set to be built on the Friends Hospital campus in Lawndale would not be completed until 2030.
🏥 Meanwhile, waits can stretch for months at Health Center 10, the area’s only city-run primary care clinic, which accepts patients regardless of their insurance status and charges on a sliding scale.
🏥 Health Center 10 is a lifeline for many Philly immigrants who don’t qualify for government-funded Medicaid health coverage and aren’t able to afford private insurance. And more residents could be in need next year, when about 300,000 Pennsylvania residents will risk losing Medicaid coverage because of new eligibility criteria.
Reporter Aubrey Whelan has more.
In other health news: Philadelphia vaccine experts on Tuesday called a federal court decision reversing changes to the U.S. childhood vaccination schedule under Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. a win for public health.
What you should know today
A federal judge in New Jersey this week declined to hold a routine sentencing hearing because of what he said were unresolved questions about who is leading that state’s U.S. Attorney’s Office.
Residents in Tredyffrin, where a woman was killed in a random act of violence last weekend, said Monday that more could have been done in the hours leading up to the shooting.
The daughter of a man who was killed by a train at the Tacony station has sued Amtrak and SEPTA, alleging the station was designed in a way that made such an incident inevitable.
A man who recently served as a dean at Ocean County College was charged with sexually assaulting a minor, Atlantic County prosecutors said.
In a crowded Philly primary for Congress, Ala Stanford is banking on her healthcare message to break through to voters.
A nuclear power company founded by Bill Gates is planning a $450 million plant in South Philadelphia’s Bellwether District to make radioactive molecules for cancer research.
Camden County thought it had secured a $19.5 million federal grant for its ambitious LINK Trail. The money is held up, but officials broke ground anyway.
A ruling in Italy ended citizenship by ancestry. Hundreds of thousands of Philly and New Jersey Italian Americans could be impacted.
Two more security checkpoints at PHL will close Wednesday due to Transportation Security Administration staffing shortages.
Quote of the day
The Citizens Police Oversight Commission, formed via Councilmember Jones’ legislation, has struggled to be effective because Philadelphia Fraternal Order of Police Lodge 5 has strongly opposed giving it power to conduct independent investigations of officer misconduct.
Now, CPOC leaders say they’re seeing progress with their “live audits” of investigations by the police department’s internal affairs division.
🧠 Trivia time
The Roots Picnic’s organizers announced last week that the 2026 music festival will be held at Belmont Plateau. What big announcement did they make this week?
A) The Roots are no longer involved
B) This year’s event will be headlined by Jaÿ-Z
C) This will be the fest’s final year
D) The fest is moving back to the Mann Center
Think you know? Check your answer.
What and whom we’re ...
🛣️ Noting: The Market Street ramp to southbound I-95 has reopened.
🥊 Seeing: Jackie Robinson’s game bag and Muhammad Ali’s robe at the National Liberty Museum.
🦗 Wondering: What a short porn film about praying mantises can teach us about “desire and devotion and sacrifice.”
🍺 Drinking: St. Joseph University’s Sterling Pig Brewery’s Hawk Hill-themed beer.
🏙️ Considering: Kensington as “a failure to step in early.”
🧩 Unscramble the anagram
Hint: Bistate agency, the Delaware River _ _
YOUTH PORTRAIT
Email us if you know the answer. We’ll select a reader at random to shout out here.
Cheers to Chris Garrity, who solved Tuesday’s anagram: Frankford Creek. The bridge carrying Frankford Avenue over the Delaware River tributary is closing this week for rehabilitation work and will not reopen for a year.
Photo of the day
I, for one, can’t wait until T-shirt weather is here to stay. Enjoy your Wednesday.
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