Kids left waiting for school buses | Morning Newsletter
And some are wary of remote work.
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! Happy Monday. It’s expected to be another hot one today, with highs nearing the 90s.
Some special-needs students in Philadelphia say they are waiting hours this summer for buses that never come. The Philadelphia School District acknowledged “significant delays” for some students in the extended school year program.
And some young, Philly-area workers say they fear remote work more than AI. There are disadvantages to remote and hybrid work, but they can be mitigated.
Plus, Mayor Cherelle L. Parker declared a disaster emergency as Philly cleans up from weekend storms, and more news of the day.
— Sam Stewart (morningnewsletter@inquirer.com)
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Brent Rose and his 9-year-old son, Alexander, were ready for the bus on the first day of a summer school program in North Philadelphia for children with special needs. Alexander, who is on the autism spectrum, was told to be ready for the bus at 8:08 a.m. But when it had not come by 9:30, Rose’s wife drove their son.
The episode was not an anomaly. Three weeks into the Philadelphia School District’s extended school year program, Rose said that on more than half of the days, his son’s bus simply has not shown up.
Rose said the district has directed him to call dispatch for First Student, the company that operates his son’s bus route. But often no one answers that line, Rose said.
A spokesperson for the school district said the district is aware that “some families have experienced transportation delays and service disruptions for the Extended School Year (ESY) programming.”
The Inquirer’s Maddie Hanna has the full story.
Soon after Aubrey Lee graduated college and moved to Queen Village in 2021, she determined that her burgeoning career in marketing would be aided by time spent in an actual office. She had found it alienating to fully work from home, with little chance to interact with coworkers.
“I feel like remote work, especially at such an early point in my career, made me more of a face on a Teams screen than an actual person,” said Lee. “I’d also been inside, locked away from my senior year of college during COVID and feeling very isolated.”
Remote work has many advantages, especially for those with physical disabilities, parents of small children, older workers, and those caring for elderly relatives. It also reduces time spent commuting and money spent eating at restaurants.
But soon after desks emptied in the face of the COVID-19 pandemic, battle lines began forming over the future of the office.
What you should know today
Philadelphia Mayor Cherelle L. Parker has declared a disaster emergency one day after at least four storms known as microbursts ripped through parts of Philadelphia and Montgomery County, downing trees and power lines and causing electrical outages and road closures.
Eastern State Penitentiary opened its new permanent exhibition, “Freedom Through Faith: Judaism at Eastern State and Beyond,” a restored synagogue that’s the first within a U.S. prison.
Sen. Lindsey Graham, one of President Donald Trump’s closest allies in Congress who traveled the globe to advocate for a more aggressive U.S. foreign policy, has died after a “brief and sudden illness,” his office said. He was 71.
The White House directed FBI Director Kash Patel to oversee a leak investigation into reporting by the New York Times about security issues with the new Air Force One, according to people with knowledge of the situation.
A federal judge on Friday night granted the Justice Department’s request to dismiss the seditious-conspiracy case against four top members of the Proud Boys who led a violent mob into the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.
Quote of the day
Susan Morrissey’s body was discovered along the banks of the Brandywine River nearly seven years ago. But to this day, the Delaware County teacher’s murder remains unsolved, and her family is still left wondering what happened.
🧠 Trivia time
Which of these counties has drastically reduced homelessness thanks to one family’s hard work along with countywide cross-sector collaboration?
A) Bucks County
B) Delaware County
C) Montgomery County
D) Chester County
Think you know? Check your answer.
What we’re...
🍦 Trying: A new ice cream shop in Fishtown, hailing all the way from Idaho!
🍽️ Appreciating: Home Appétit, a Philly business that started by making dinners for doctors. Now, it’s selling thousands of meals a week.
⚾ Listening to: The story behind why Tug McGraw, a beloved Phillie, gave a teen fan his World Series jersey. After decades of holding onto the jersey, its owner is ready to part with it.
🚽 Considering: Does Philly need more public restrooms? A self-proclaimed “toilet scholar” weighs in.
🧩 Unscramble the anagram
Hint: He’s a baseball pitcher
ACHINESS CROP HERTZ
Email us if you know the answer. We’ll select a reader at random to shout out here.
Cheers to Gerry Dinon, who solved Sunday’s anagram: Kylian Mbappé. The French soccer star condemned a Paraguayan senator over racist remarks she made following Paraguay’s loss to France in the round of 16 at the World Cup game in Philadelphia.
Plus: Two soccer hopefuls from Kensington got the full World Cup experience, including getting to meet Mbappé.
Photo of the day
📬 Your ‘only in Philly’ story
Think back to a night that changed your life and 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 Michael Leibrandt, who describes gridlock in Philly:
If you call yourself a true Philadelphian you are used to spending time in some traffic gridlock. We’re not just one of the most congested cities in America, but in the world. By the time that I was an adolescent it was a part of almost any trip that I took around the city. But for a chance to take in a fun weekend trip in North America’s oldest planned city, my father never complained.
Sometime around the late 1960s, the days of Philadelphia winning championship after championship were over. What would follow was the relocation of professional sports to South Philadelphia. Attending an Eagles home game on a Sunday afternoon? Better leave early.
Now, Governor Josh Shapiro, in cooperation with the Parker Administration, has announced a $30 million project intended to improve the traffic patterns around the sports complex including a new I-76 ramp, an expansion of I-95 access, a hub for traffic operations located in the complex, even new AI traffic signals.
It’s hard to imagine what Philly would be like without the traffic. After all — if you were traveling through Philadelphia in the summer of 1776 — you were almost certainly equally as frustrated with bulky horse-drawn carriages rumbling slowly through cobblestone streets. That must have been a whole other level of aggravation.
👋 Bye all! Have a good one!
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