The Morning Newsletter
Start your day with the Philly news you need and the stories you want all in one easy-to-read newsletter
Morning, Philly. Good news for baseball fans: We’re likely clear of any rain through this weekend’s playoff games.
Around 14,000 Philadelphia School District employees were supposed to get a raise this month. They’re still waiting.
And a recycling company’s bankruptcy leaves tons of discarded artificial turf across Pennsylvania. The turf, laden with chemicals, now faces an uncertain future.
— Julie Zeglen (morningnewsletter@inquirer.com)
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Thousands of Philadelphia teachers, school nurses, counselors, paraprofessionals, and other school workers were supposed to get a 3% raise in September, thanks to recent contract negotiations. But after weeks of waiting, they’re now being told their money is coming in late October.
The delay comes amid a frustrating start to the school year for school district employees who have been subject to these and other paycheck mistakes. They say it’s impacting morale.
In their own words: “As a teacher with over a decade of devoted service, I find these recurring payroll errors extremely demotivating, and I’m sure other people feel the same way,” one teacher told The Inquirer. “And having demotivated teachers can lead to worse student outcomes.”
Education reporter Kristen A. Graham has the story.
In other education news:
West Chester University was among several Pennsylvania state universities that received active shooter calls Sunday that were quickly deemed to be fake.
Dozens of local Black and Jewish college students converged Sunday at Penn Hillel for one of the first in a national series of Unity Dinners.
South Philly’s Edwin M. Stanton School just celebrated 100 years, despite efforts to close it.
Four years ago, a Danish startup was promised a nearly $2 million state loan to build an artificial turf recycling plant in Pennsylvania. Then it went bankrupt.
Now, 6,000 tons of discarded, PFAS-laden artificial turf rolls are still lingering on a Wyoming County farm that had contracted with the company to store the rolls. Cleanup is estimated to cost more than $680,000. Many thousands more tons are scattered at other sites around the state.
There’s no clear path to removing them, let alone dealing with the so-called forever chemicals they carry. Environmental experts worry, too, about the dumped rolls the state isn’t tracking.
Reporters Barbara Laker and David Gambacorta investigate.
What you should know today
A partial government shutdown would take effect at 12:01 a.m. on Wednesday if a funding deal isn’t reached. Here’s what could be impacted.
Kilmar Abrego Garcia was wrongfully deported from the U.S. to his native El Salvador before being ordered returned and transferred to a Pennsylvania detention center. The Maryland man’s case has gained international attention.
The New Jersey Attorney General’s Office released body cam video showing the fatal shooting of a 46-year-old man by a South Jersey police officer late last year.
Police said Monday that they had a person of interest in custody and had located the driver’s car after a 77-year-old grandmother was fatally struck in a hit-and-run last week in West Philly.
A Philadelphia jury hit Bayada Home Health Care, the Moorestown nonprofit agency, with a $14 million verdict over the death of a patient with Alzheimer’s.
In an unusual arrangement, Comcast Corp. on Monday named Michael J. Cavanagh as co-chief executive officer, splitting the job with longtime CEO Brian L. Roberts.
Pennsylvania state parks saw a 30% bump in campground reservations after President Donald Trump’s cuts closed federal sites.
After years of development, a mural dedicated to Holocaust remembrance was unveiled Friday on the Benjamin Franklin Parkway.
Yusuf/Cat Stevens announced Monday that his sold-out performance at the Met Philly scheduled for Thursday is on hold because of visa trouble.
Quote of the day
At Saturday’s Delco Downhill Derby, creative contestants in themed cars competed for the honor of having their named etched into the “William Penn Stump.” The inaugural event was hosted by the Delaware County Historical Society in honor of the county’s 236th birthday and the society’s 130th anniversary.
🧠 Trivia time
Whose speech at the New York Film Festival screening of Springsteen: Deliver Me From Nowhere on Sunday included the cheer-inducing line “America is worth fighting for”?
A) Jeremy Allen White
B) Jeremy Strong
C) Odessa Young
D) Bruce Springsteen
Think you know? Check your answer.
What we’re...
🏏 Tracking: All 56 Schwarbombs hit in an epic season.
🍝 Peeking: Inside Eataly, opening in King of Prussia this week.
⚽ Downloading: The Union’s first-ever mobile app.
🫘 Learning: Why Starbucks is closing these six Philly locations.
🚑 Considering: This emergency physician’s question, “Who will write our history?”
🧩 Unscramble the anagram
Hint: Royal Sushi and Izakaya followup
CON ABORTED
Email us if you know the answer. We’ll select a reader at random to shout out here.
Cheers to Jan Dalina, who solved Monday’s anagram: Echo Valley. Task creator Brad Ingelsby’s Chester County-set crime thriller stars Julianne Moore and Sydney Sweeney.
Photo of the day
🗑️ One last postseason thing: Give it up for the Citizens Bank Park team in charge of making ballpark visits run smoothly. Scroll for the reminder that its these stadium workers who must collect your waste from the stands after a game.
Enjoy your Tuesday. I’ll see you tomorrow, same time and place.
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