Remembering Shanksville | Morning Newsletter
And, SEPTA wants to rename its city rail lines.
The Morning Newsletter
Start your day with the Philly news you need and the stories you want all in one easy-to-read newsletter
Hope y’all are well-rested after a long weekend. Let’s catch you up on all the news that’s fit to email. You’re reading The Inquirer Morning Newsletter, and today we remember Shanksville 20 years after 9/11, look at SEPTA’s proposal to rename its city rail lines, and dive into the endless Ida cleanup.
We’d love to know what you think. Send a reply to this email, and let’s start a conversation.
— Tommy Rowan (@tommyrowan, morningnewsletter@inquirer.com)
In Shanksville, where the fourth weaponized jet crashed in the 9/11 attacks on America 20 years ago, the swarms of visiting media and tourists are largely gone.
The 2,200-acre Flight 93 National Memorial, operated by the National Park Service, is accessible right off Route 30, leaving no need to go through town at all.
The borough has changed in small ways, but not in one big one: Residents continue to dedicate themselves to honoring the victims of Flight 93 as heroes who laid down their lives to save many more in Washington. They’ve become the stewards and storytellers of hallowed ground.
Reporters Julia Terruso and Tom Fitzgerald tell the stories of some of those stewards in this moving report from Western Pennsylvania.
Join me (Tommy Rowan) and L.A.-based architect Paul Murdoch at noon today for an Inquirer Live interview. We’ll discuss Murdoch’s vision for his design of the Tower of Voices portion of the Flight 93 memorial, and how his Philly roots have influenced his work.
SEPTA is trying to make its rail transit system easier to use. No, seriously.
The agency is planning to rebrand its system “The SEPTA Metro.” And with it, rebranding six key routes.
To make the transit system easier to navigate, each of the six routes will be assigned a specific color (think orange for the Broad Street Line) and be identified by a single letter (think B for Broad Street Line).
The rebrand is expected to cost $40 million through the 2023 fiscal year to design and implement a new wayfinding system.
Reporter Tom Fitzgerald has the full story.
Reopening resources
Here’s our latest list of restaurants, large performance venues, universities, and gyms in the Philly region where you need to show proof of vaccination.
Should you laminate your vaccination card? What if you lose it? Here are the dos and don’ts.
Here’s what you need to know about medical exemptions.
It could be time to upgrade your face gear. Which masks work best?
What you need to know today
Sean Parnell’s wife sought protective orders against him. A Pa. Senate race rival says that’s “disqualifying.”
Around the Philly area, especially in Mullica Hill, Gloucester County, cleanup from Ida continues.
Was the 2021 Shore season closer to “normal” than the summer of 2020? As the Shore season drew to its unofficial close on Labor Day, we asked business owners their opinions.
As tenants have struggled with loss of income during the pandemic and paid less rent, more landlords are putting off property repairs, or selling. And it is threatening the supply of affordable housing.
Beginning this week, millions of unemployed people in Philadelphia and across the country will see less money deposited into their bank accounts — if they receive anything at all. Here are the pandemic assistance programs that can still help.
How easy it is to vote inside a Pennsylvania county jail? Depends on where you are, this new report finds.
With rising COVID-19 case counts, La Salle University moves to remote instruction for a week.
For long COVID-19 patients with brain fog and other neurological symptoms, such as headaches, dizziness, balance problems, and unusual fatigue, a Penn program seeks answers.
Through your eyes | #OurPhilly
@_mtkrupka sees Philly’s best in everything.
Tag your Instagram posts with #OurPhilly, and we’ll pick our favorite each day to feature here and give you a shout-out.
That's interesting
🚴Siddeeq Shabazz got a bicycle when the pandemic hit. Now he’s leading rides and modeling for Bicycling magazine.
🦅From Kobe to Kobayashi: How the Eagles’ Nick Sirianni uses “storytelling” to teach his players.
🍣For the lunchtime crowd: Here’s a list of the best sushi in Philly.
🏀Herb Magee’s Hall of Fame coaching career will end after this season.
🥃Hop Sing Laundromat, Philadelphia’s most celebrated bar, will reopen for the first time since March 2020.
Opinions
“If there was ever a time for collective outrage, it was certainly after the deaths of 2,753 people in the Twin Towers, of 184 people at the Pentagon, and of the 40 passengers and crew members of United Airlines Flight 93, who sacrificed their lives to avert another attack. But 20 years later, there are lessons to be learned about where an open-ended call for blood can lead — and about the role of the military, politicians, and the media in creating the conditions for a forever war,” writes The Inquirer Editorial Board.
Tria founder Jon Myerow borrowed $2 million to keep his restaurants afloat. And he says it’s not enough.
Felicia Parker-Cox, a district director in the U.S. House of Representatives and committeewoman in the 61st Ward/1st Division, doesn’t think Philly needs to reinvent the wheel to reduce homicides.
What we're reading
For Terrill Haigler, solving Philadelphia’s trash issues is about so much more than clean streets. Philly Mag offers an inside look at Haigler’s (aka YaFavTrashman’s) meteoric rise from mild-mannered sanitation worker to garbage superhero.
“Outdated textbooks, not enough teachers, no ventilation — for millions of kids, the public-education system has failed them their whole lives,” writes the New York Times as it goes deep on America’s rural schools.
The benefits of ventilation reach far beyond the coronavirus. The Atlantic writes: What if we stop taking colds and flus for granted, too?