🚎 Back on track | Morning Newsletter
And preservation groups address Independence Park threats.
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. Today’s forecast sounds like a pop-punk song from the aughts.
It’s official: SEPTA will restore service previously rolled back by the mass transit agency’s steep service cuts on Sunday. We explain how the state got here.
And for the first time, a major coalition of Philadelphia’s preservationist groups have coordinated a widespread opposition to President Donald Trump’s administration’s threats to Independence Park.
— Julie Zeglen (morningnewsletter@inquirer.com)
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Feeling queasy from all the back-and-forth on the state of your commute? The latest moves might bring some calm, for the moment.
What’s happening now: The Pennsylvania Department of Transportation on Monday signed off on transferring $394 million from the state to SEPTA, officially allowing the transit agency to undo its 20% service reduction on Sunday, just three weeks after the initial cuts were implemented. A 21.5% fare increase is also expected to go into effect, for a base price of $2.90 per ride.
Where the funds come from: The one-time transfer comes from a pot of money intended for capital projects, and will cover two years of SEPTA’s operating expenses.
What Gov. Josh Shapiro says: The governor blamed Senate Republicans for being “unwilling to pass recurring revenue” for mass transit. He also cited Philadelphia public school’s sharp drop in first-week school attendance as a motivator for finding a short-term solution.
Reporters Gillian McGoldrick and Tom Fitzgerald have more details.
In other transit news: The shiny new NextGen Acela trains are here. Inquirer editor Bedatri Choudhury rode one from NYC to Philly and back, and has some thoughts on the amenities (many), cleanliness level (high), and smell (neutral!).
Forty-five local preservation and historical organizations have convened to send a message to Interior Secretary Doug Burgum: Removing or editing Philly slavery exhibits is “ahistorical and un-American.”
The groups signed a letter opposing the potential changes or removal of more than a dozen exhibits at Independence National Historical Park that could occur in a little over a week. Most of the at-risk exhibits are at the President’s House Site, which memorializes the nine people President George Washington enslaved there during his presidency.
The letter was circulated by the Preservation Alliance for Greater Philadelphia and included signatories such as the Avenging the Ancestors Coalition. The Black-led group helped shape the President’s House Site’s creation 23 years ago and has been prominent in the fight to protect the displays.
As of Monday, the exhibits’ fates were still unclear.
Politics reporter Fallon Roth has the story.
Plus: As Philadelphia prepares for a big year for tourism, Shapiro on Monday said Trump’s immigration policies will discourage foreign visitors from attending 2026 events, and that tariffs will make participating more expensive.
What you should know today
A Philadelphia man has been charged with shooting and killing a woman Friday after she attempted to intervene in an argument outside of a convenience store in Center City, police said.
Three Pennsylvania Supreme Court justices dismissed suggestions that their decisions were political as they made their case for retention in Philly on Tuesday.
Former President Joe Biden has chosen his home state of Delaware for his presidential library.
A fired high school principal is suing the Cherry Hill School District, alleging he was subjected to discrimination and a “calculated campaign of targeted retaliation.”
Montgomery County hired its first chief sustainability officer as it pursues ambitious clean electricity and renewable energy goals.
Penn Medicine just opened a $376 million research facility focused on immune health, planned years before the Trump administration began slashing federal scientific research funding.
There will be no Center City District Restaurant Week this fall, for the first time in 22 years. The discount promotion will return in January, when the restaurants say it’s needed.
A New Jersey woman’s name was trending on X after social media sleuths accused her of taking a home run ball at a Phillies game in Miami. They had the wrong person.
Quote of the day
Golf superstar Tiger Woods visited West Philadelphia on Monday to christen the new learning lab, located at Cobbs Creek Golf Course. In the six months since the lab began offering classes, Choudhry, 17, has taken psychology classes, had college and career prep, and tinkered with tech.
🧠 Trivia time
Eight people were arrested after staging a sit-in Monday morning to raise awareness about the need for hospital services in Delaware County. Where were they sitting when arrested?
A) In front of Taylor Hospital
B) On West Chester Pike
C) In a Crozer-Chester Medical Center building
D) In the Delaware County Courthouse
Think you know? Check your answer.
What we’re...
🎥 Applauding: The South Jersey-set, Emmy-winning documentary Patrice: The Movie.
🧀 Absolutely trying: South Philly bar O’Jung’s Caesar salad martini.
⚾ Naming: All 11 Phillies who have hit 35-plus home runs in a season.
🎙️ Bumping: University of the Arts alum and Bel-Air star Jabari Banks’ debut LP.
📺 Tuning in to: Fox 29 host Mike Jerrick’s new late-night show, which he calls “pure Philly.”
🧩 Unscramble the anagram
Hint: Suburban hospital system
LIMINAL HEATHEN
Email us if you know the answer. We’ll select a reader at random to shout out here.
Cheers to Michael Mann, who solved Monday’s anagram: tomato pie.
Inquirer food reporter Kiki Aranita once thought of the Italian-origin snack as just cheeseless pizza — and therefore, not worth trying. “But over the course of tasting through dozens of examples for our tomato pie map, I fell in love with it,” she writes.
Photo of the day
🩰 One last revived thing: Six months after Macy’s vacated the space, the Wanamaker Grand Court was lively once again on Sunday, when Opera Philadelphia hosted the first event of its “Pipe Up!” series. Culture writer Peter Dobrin describes which performance of the dancers, opera singers, and organ players best captured the majestic room’s latest iteration.
Thanks for starting your day with The Inquirer. I’ll be back with you tomorrow.
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