Loading: Student debt relief đź’¸ | Morning Newsletter
And testing wastewater for COVID
The Morning Newsletter
Start your day with the Philly news you need and the stories you want all in one easy-to-read newsletter
We’ll have sunny skies with a high of 92.
In today’s newsletter:
💰 Student debt forgiveness: We have everything you need to know about President Joe Biden’s announcement yesterday.
🦠COVID tracking: Philly is testing wastewater for COVID but isn’t using the data.
đźš— License plates: Keep it visible or you can get pulled over.
— Taylor Allen (@TayImanAllen, morningnewsletter@inquirer.com)
The big news of the day (maybe week): President Biden greenlit several initiatives to ease federal student debt, including loan forgiveness of up to $10,000 for Americans who make less than $125K a year. Low-income Americans who received Pell Grants could see federal debts up to $20K forgiven.
Biden has touted his policy as making good on his 2020 campaign promise, but the policy has drawn criticism across the political spectrum for doing both too much and too little.
Important numbers:
In Pennsylvania and New Jersey, more than three million borrowers owe a combined total of more than $108.6 billion.
Pennsylvania ranks sixth nationwide for the total amount of federal student debt. New Jersey is 12th.
Less than a third of borrowers in New Jersey and Pennsylvania owe less than $10,000. For those who make less than $125,000, the plan would wipe out their debt and would account for $26 billion across both states.
Reporter Kasturi Pananjady crunched the numbers to reveal what debt cancelation means for borrowers in New Jersey and Pennsylvania.
Bonus note: Some people may have their debts completely erased while others consider this a drop in the bucket compared with the amount they still owe. Regardless, the mental health toll stemming from debt could take longer to resolve than paying the debt itself. The effects range from stress and anxiety to depression and feelings of hopelessness.
Question: What does the federal student loan forgiveness mean for you? Our newsroom wants to know. Your answer will help inform our future coverage of this topic.
What you should know today
Opioid maker Endo International paid top executives $55.5 million in bonuses in the year before it filed for bankruptcy.
Doug Mastriano pledged to make Pennsylvania the “Florida of the north” during his bus tour stop in Delaware County.
U.S. Rep. Scott Perry is trying to block the Justice Department from accessing his cell phone content as officials investigate his involvement in then-President Donald Trump’s efforts to stay in power after losing the 2020 election.
Brown University acquired 60 boxes of artwork, writing, and other materials from Mumia Abu-Jamal that span nearly four decades.
FreshDirect is leaving the Philadelphia area after a decade serving the city.
A state court affirmed the right of police officers to stop drivers if any part of their license plate is obscured.
Local coronavirus numbers: Here’s your daily look at the latest COVID-19 data.
Philadelphia isn’t using one of its best tools for tracking COVID-19 and other infectious diseases: wastewater.
Necessary context: Genetic material in the poop of people with the virus allows health officials to see whether cases are growing in an area and can even identify what variants are circulating.
Philly has been collecting COVID wastewater samples since May and the health department considers it to be reliable. But this data aren’t informing public policy or being shared with the federal government or the public.
For perspective, about 1,000 jurisdictions across the country, including Montgomery County, are increasingly relying on it.
The technology has been adapted in other cities to conduct similar surveillance on such viruses as monkeypox or polio. Philly isn’t using the technology to track those diseases, either.
My colleagues Jason Laughlin and Kasturi Pananjady hunt down the million-dollar question: Why?
🧠Philly Trivia Time đź§
No state has had more sand pumped on its beaches than New Jersey. Its beaches have enough piped-in sand to fill more than 62,000 Olympic-size swimming pools.
Question: How many cubic yards of sand is that?
A. 200 million
B. 150 million
C. 100 million
D. 75 million
Think you know? Find out if you know the answer.
What we’re...
🍺 Planning: To go to Penn Treaty Park next week to kick off Parks on Tap.
📖 Reading: Jodi Picoult’s Small Great Things.
🎧 (Re)-listening: To one of Mac Miller’s final albums, Swimming.
🧩 Unscramble the Anagram 🧩
Philly’s “First Lady of Guitar”
DELEON TRUSTMEN
Think you know? Send your guess our way at morningnewsletter@inquirer.com. We’ll give a shout-out to a reader at random who answers correctly. Today’s shout-out goes to Victoria Hepp, who correctly guessed Down North Pizza as Wednesday’s answer.
Photo of the day
And that’s your Thursday. Seize the day and make it count. Talk to you tomorrow.