🧑🏫 Teachers stuck in limbo | Morning Newsletter
And meet Delaware County’s reform-minded sheriff.
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, Philly! Welcome to the start of a new week.
While Philadelphia and school district officials have celebrated a deal to save 340 classroom jobs, teachers and staff members face continued uncertainties in an already tumultuous hiring season.
In other news, the newly elected sheriff of Delaware County, Siddiq Kamara said he was motivated to run after his cousin, Fanta Bility, was killed by Sharon Hill police while leaving a football game in August 2021. “The people in Delaware County, I’m here to work with them,” he said.
Plus, some Philly residents are questioning the late July Fourth fireworks, and more news of the day.
— Sam Stewart (morningnewsletter@inquirer.com)
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When a deal was struck to save 340 classroom-based jobs in the Philadelphia School District, Mayor Cherelle L. Parker and Superintendent Tony B. Watlington Sr. declared it “Christmas in June.”
It’s July now, but staffers still don’t have clarity on exactly who’s allowed to come back to positions that were almost cut, and how that affects vacancies systemwide.
Monique Braxton, the school district spokesperson, said the system is “moving forward with restoring the approximately 340 school-based positions approved in the revised budget,” but that staffing the positions is separate from restoring them.
The complex process is causing additional uncertainty for teachers and staff members, and prolonging an already tumultuous hiring season as the district deals with fallout from 17 forthcoming school closings and the back-and-forth over millions in cuts stemming from a $300 million district budget deficit.
The Inquirer’s Kristen A. Graham has the full story.
Siddiq Kamara remembers standing side by side with his aunt outside of the Delaware County courthouse and calling for changes in how police are trained, after a stray bullet fired by Sharon Hill police officers killed his cousin, Fanta Bility. Three years later, Kamara’s office is inside that same courthouse.
Kamara, 30, became the youngest sheriff in Delaware County history when he cruised to victory in November with 63% of the vote. He’s a born-and-raised Delco native who turned his family’s tragedy into a platform for improving the way community policing is carried out in his home county.
Notable quote: “This is the greatest country in the world. Being 30, being Muslim, being a first generation immigrant, and being the sheriff of one of the biggest counties in Pennsylvania, it’s unheard of. And I don’t take that lightly.”
In his first six months in office, Kamara has equipped all of his deputies with body cameras and beefed up recruiting efforts, including opening fitness tests throughout the county to help fill the 35 vacancies he inherited. He’s mandated de-escalation and regular firearms training for his deputies, in memory of his cousin.
Vinny Vella has more on Kamara’s inspiring story.
What you should know today
Linemen, call center workers, and other Peco employees went on strike over the weekend. The roughly 1,500 unionized workers, part of IBEW Local 614, officially walked off the job, becoming the first employees to strike in Peco’s history.
U.S. men’s soccer team star striker Folarin Balogun will be available to play in Monday’s World Cup round of 16 game after all.
University of Pennsylvania physician Anuja Dokras spent the last 14 years working to rename a common medical condition that can impact fertility in women, called polycystic ovary syndrome, or PCOS.
City officials have estimated that hundreds of thousands of people have flocked to the monthlong World Cup watch party, which started in mid-June and is set to run through mid-July. But last week, some Brewerytown business owners said they had yet to reap the benefits.
The Trump administration will not seek new bids to repair the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool, Interior Secretary Doug Burgum said Sunday as he faced new questions about the troubled project and the taxpayer money involved.
Quote of the day
City officials originally planned for Fourth of July fireworks to go off around midnight, but because of weather delays, the show didn’t start until roughly 2:30 a.m. Some residents are questioning that choice, but the city said safety was a big factor.
🧠 Trivia time
Which celebrity duo was just married at Madison Square Garden with actor Adam Sandler officiating?
A) Taylor Swift + Travis Kelce
B) Zendaya + Tom Holland
C) Rihanna + A$AP Rocky
D) Kylie Jenner + Timothée Chalamet
Think you know? Check your answer.
What we’re …
🤔 Wondering: Was it rude to turn down a Fourth of July barbecue because it’s 1,000 degrees outside? You asked, we answered.
🌎 Learning: Where tourists are traveling from to visit Philadelphia for the World Cup. As it turns out, Ecuador was one country where travel surged.
🏡 Impressed by: A man cut his rent by $2,000 a month. Within months, he had saved enough to buy his own house in Southwest Philly.
🧩 Unscramble the anagram
Hint: One of the Founding Fathers of the United States
INN LANK BENJI FARM
Email us if you know the answer. We’ll select a reader at random to shout out here.
Cheers to Brian Lowy, who solved the last anagram: Danny’s Guitar Shop. The destination for Main Line musicians closed its doors after 17 years.
Photo of the day
📸 One more thing: Check out what else our photographers saw over the weekend.
📬 Your ‘only in Philly’ story
Think back to the night that changed your life that could only happen in Philly, a true example of the Philly spirit, the time you finally felt like you belonged in Philly if you’re not a lifer, something that made you fall in love with Philly all over again — or proud to be from here if you are. Then email it to us for a chance to be featured in the Monday edition of this newsletter.
This “only in Philly” story comes from reader Gerard Letterie, who describes pretzels and politics:
Pretzel vendors and the occasional “pretzel boy” roving through neighborhoods in the summer were proudly part of the Philly scene in the 1960s and ’70s. My image of the average pretzel vendor changed with Frank Lomento, whose presence at his pretzel stand at the Free Library of Philadelphia and the Parkway Central Library was a familiar sight.
My Sunday afternoons were spent at the Central Library hammering out college writing assignments. The pretzels were a midafternoon incentive. As I learned while grabbing a pretzel, Lomento was a man of opinion. In 1971, he decided to run for mayor. He had no political background. No deep pocket sponsors. No super PAC. Just a pretzel vendor cart, a Squeeze Please yellow mustard dispenser, and an iconic presence at the curbside. He had a willingness to talk politics in addition to selling you a pretzel.
When he announced his candidacy, he propped up a cardboard sign with a handwritten message: “Frank Lomento for Mayor.” In Lomento’s opinion, what couldn’t be fixed with a pretzel (slathering of mustard optional) needed a political solution. So, he stepped up and in to the mayoral fray.
In an unusually crowded candidate field for the ’71 Democratic mayoral primary, Frank Lomento stood out as an independent and, by some counts, a “protest candidate” alongside William J. Green III, Ira Einhorn, James E. Poole, Albert Sprague, Frank Rizzo, and Hardy Williams. Rizzo ultimately won as the machine-backed candidate, known as “the toughest cop in America.”
Undaunted and after a time away from politics, Lomento entered the mayoral race again in 1983. He lost, but he also gathered 19,000 votes. He was a common, blue-collar guy with a presence and a message that resonated on several levels with Philly’s working-class crowd.
Where else other than Philadelphia would you find a pretzel vendor who leveraged (both figuratively and literally) a man-on-the-street presence into a mayoral candidacy? Not once, but twice in a major American city? A regular guy with the courage to run for office. Totally and uniquely Philly. And an abiding memory of Philadelphia for me, among so many others.
👋 Talk to you later, Philly!
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