Philly faces massive budget deficit | Morning Newsletter
And, the ex-Philly cop who investigates alone.
The Morning Newsletter
Start your day with the Philly news you need and the stories you want all in one easy-to-read newsletter
Good morning from The Inquirer newsroom.
First: The budget picture’s looking grim for Philly.
Then: Meet the ex-Philly cop who has dedicated his post-law enforcement career life to investigating deadly shootings of Black men by police.
And: South Philly’s Italian American food traditions suffered two great losses in a single day this month. In appreciation, restaurant critic Craig LaBan has written about what they meant to Philly’s food world.
— Ashley Hoffman (@_ashleyhoffman, morningnewsletter@inquirer.com)
Officials warned yesterday that Philly is facing a massive $450 million budget gap for the fiscal year starting this July.
It’s a smaller hole to get out of than the $750 million gap the city had to stare down last year with the pandemic’s toll on the economy, but it’s still big enough that it could take years to recover.
Mayor Jim Kenney presents his budget proposal to City Council on April 15. So far, there’s a lack of clarity on specific budget hikes or cuts, but for right now, everything’s on the table.
Read on for Laura McCrystal’s full story.
Ex-Philly cop Terence Jones has dedicated his post-law enforcement career life to investigating deadly shootings of Black men by police.
He works alone and without funding. In the view of those he’s helped with his nonprofit, Total Justice, justice is what they say they got.
He says it’s his groundwork and confrontational style that get people to cough up the answers he needs.
Read on for Samantha Melamed’s profile.
South Philly’s Italian American cooking traditions suffered two great losses in a single day.
Philip M. Mancuso, known for his storytelling, his masterly cheesemaking, and water ice wizardry, and the essential Angelo R. Scuderi, who worked through the night baking the dough to feed Philly millions of reliable hoagies and cheesesteaks, died early this month.
Restaurant critic Craig LaBan writes about their definitive contributions to an endangered constellation of the city’s artisans.
Helpful COVID-19 Resources
Can vaccinated people still spread COVID-19? Reporter Tom Avril answers questions about how the shots actually work in the real world.
Where can you get a vaccine in the Philly area if you’re eligible? Use our lookup tool and find out.
Here are the updated coronavirus case numbers as COVID-19 spreads in the region.
If you got vaccinated and were exposed to COVID-19, as long as you meet these three criteria, then you don’t need to quarantine.
What you need to know today
A snowstorm that will plaster the Philly region with several inches is looking likely for Thursday.
Pat Toomey has few defenders after impeachment, but as Pa. Republicans go all-in on Trump, it looks increasingly as though Pa. politics runs through the former president.
More than a dozen skulls that may be the remains of enslaved people taken from a nearby burial ground are being held in Penn Museum, and this is everything we know.
A nursing home group has some preliminary, but encouraging, results from vaccination efforts. Cases are dropping.
A man found shot inside his car may have been shot while trying to rob a 21-year-old man a few minutes earlier, Philly police said yesterday.
A South Jersey therapist was sentenced to six months’ home detention after paying someone to assault her ex-boyfriend.
Through your eyes | #OurPhilly
This cat’s status is in the wild and ready for Mardi Gras. Thanks for sharing, @phillyphotoculture.
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
😷 Black faith leaders received the vaccine in Montgomery County. Here’s what photos of that looked like.
🖥️ Welcome to the start-up surge, where it could be time to become a home-based business venture in Philly.
🦷 Here’s what parents need to know about treating dental injuries.
Opinions
“Vaccines should have brought hope. Instead, they’ve brought squabbling and politics. That’s sickening,” writes the Inquirer Editorial Board, which operates independently from the newsroom, about Philly’s missed opportunity to plan well enough to meet the moment.
These are three proven ways teachers can address their students’ trauma virtually in these challenging times, teacher Crystal Peralta writes.
Columnist Trudy Rubin writes about how Republicans are undermining American democracy in the eyes of the rest of the world.
What we’re reading
Dive into the joys of a neat home with plenty of delicious foods via YouTubers in South Korea featured in this New York Times story. Let it be your gateway to the minimalist approach to the home front, all to the tune of soothing music.
Locals have banded together in a grassroots effort to salvage wood from historic fallen trees and give them a second life by transforming them into furniture and even decorative works of art.