Will Philly schools reopen? Depends on whom you ask. | Morning Newsletter
And, the nation’s oldest juvenile lifer left a Montgomery County prison after serving 68 years of a life sentence.
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: In Philly, the School District is in a standoff with the teachers’ union over kids and teachers returning to class. Meanwhile in the suburbs, students have been back, but not at full capacity.
Then: The nation’s oldest juvenile lifer left a Montgomery County prison after serving 68 years of a life sentence.
And: The Philadelphia DA’s Office has refiled charges against a former police inspector in the assault of a student at a protest against the police killing of George Floyd.
— Tommy Rowan (@tommyrowan, morningnewsletter@inquirer.com)
Superintendent William R. Hite Jr. seems pretty confident that Philadelphia public schools are safe for children to return to in-person learning Feb. 22. “The time for reopening is now,” Hite said Thursday.
But the Philadelphia School District is in a standoff with its teachers’ union, which has, over COVID-19-related safety concerns, directed teachers to not report to school buildings as Hite wanted, Kristen A. Graham reports.
At least not until all of the terms of a reopening agreement are met, Philadelphia Federation of Teachers officials argue. A mediator is weighing whether the district met those terms, but there’s no current timetable for that ruling.
Meanwhile, Maddie Hanna tells the story of the suburbs, where many schools already teaching students in-person part time are grappling with how, and when, to reopen fully.
Joe Ligon walked out of a Collegeville prison Thursday a free man after serving 68 years of a life sentence.
Ligon, now 83, left as the oldest and longest-serving juvenile lifer in the country, having been imprisoned since 1953, when he was just 15 years old. Ligon received his life term for taking part in a spree of robbery and assaults in which two people died. Ligon admitted to participating in the crime with a group of drunk teens but denies killing anyone.
After a U.S. Supreme Court ruling that automatic life terms for kids are cruel and unusual, he was one of more than 500 people in Pennsylvania resentenced to terms contingent on lifetime parole. But Ligon rejected the very idea of parole after nearly seven decades in prison and continued fighting for his release with time served.
“With parole, you got to see the parole people every so often,” he said. “You can’t leave the city without permission from parole. That’s part of freedom for me.”
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.
Symptoms of COVID-19, flu, common cold, and allergies can be similar. This is how you can tell the difference.
“By the time we get to April, that will be what I would call, for better wording, ‘open season,’ namely virtually everybody and anybody in any category could start to get vaccinated,” said Anthony Fauci, the nation’s highest-ranking infectious-disease expert.
What you need to know today
Weeks after a Philadelphia judge cleared ex-police inspector Joseph Bologna of criminal wrongdoing for striking a Temple University student with a baton at a spring protest against the police killing of George Floyd, the Philadelphia District Attorney’s Office refiled charges against him.
On Feb. 17, Atlantic City will implode the former Trump Plaza Hotel and Casino, offering an “exclamation point to the end of the Trump presidency: a post-Trump Plaza implosion coda to a post-Trump presidency impeachment, a literal wiping out of the once larger-than-life Trump footprint reduced to a literal shell of itself — cue the metaphors,” writes reporter Amy S. Rosenberg.
When Danielle Outlaw was chief in Portland, Ore., police responded to a series of protests with pepper spray and flash-bang grenades, which “unintentionally escalated tensions with the crowd” and “deepened community mistrust in the police,” according to a new report.
Gun-violence rates in Philadelphia spiked after the coronavirus lockdown went into effect in March and remained at unprecedented levels for the rest of the year, a new study led by a Temple University Hospital trauma surgeon found.
A high school referee who made national headlines after making a South Jersey wrestler choose between having his dreadlocks cut or forfeiting his match in 2018 has filed a lawsuit alleging he was unfairly suspended.
Through your eyes | #OurPhilly
As pretty as a picture, @carolynleonard.photos.
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
🌹 Philadelphians have sent more flowers during the pandemic than in each of the previous five years, said a West Philadelphia florist. And most often, the florist said, people sent flowers for no reason except to say, “I hope this brightens your day.”
🎣 In October, Mat Falco converted his 24-seat Pennsport cafe into a gourmet grocery and was banking on the durable shelf life of tinned fish and the pandemic’s stay-at-home cooking push to boost his prospects. In the four months since, Falco has transformed Herman’s Coffee into a true paradise of seafood conservas, with over 150 cans from around the globe — and counting.
🏀 The Sixers’ Joel Embiid returned the third-most fan votes for Eastern Conference frontcourt players in the second round of NBA All-Star voting returns, released Thursday.
💪 A South Jersey hammer thrower has spent the pandemic perfecting his skills for the NCAA nationals.
💝 We’re not allowed to see our family, let alone kiss strangers. And restaurants aren’t allowed to fill to capacity, let alone pack in the lovebirds. So let’s just call a truce on love’s biggest holiday, and be your own Valentine this weekend.
Opinions
“The top priority of our restaurant operators is the safety of our teams and patrons. The new guidelines — which allow restaurants to open indoors at 50% capacity if they document that their ventilation sufficiently circulates air at least 15 times per hour — fail to protect both,” writes Qamara Edwards, Philadelphia chapter president for the Pennsylvania Restaurant and Lodging Association.
President Joe Biden campaigned on promises of reversing his predecessor’s xenophobic immigration policies on Day One of his term. So far, Biden is finding that abruptly reversing U.S. immigration policy isn’t so simple, writes columnist Will Bunch.
“The Philadelphia School District struggled to keep students engaged in school before the pandemic,” writes educator Jonathan Butcher. “Nothing during the COVID-19 era indicates the problem has gotten any better.”
What we’re reading
Facebook’s automated advertising systems, writes the New York Times, have repeatedly rejected fashion ads submitted by small clothing companies selling fashionable gear for people with disabilities.
Your Daily Dose of | Crosswords
Meet Soleil Saint-Cyr, a South Jersey high school student — and the youngest female crossword puzzle constructor published in the New York Times.