‘Prime to secure’ a regional vaccine site | Morning Newsletter
And, a Philly developer’s history of complaints.
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First: Pa. officials on Tuesday assured Bucks, Montgomery, Delaware, and Chester Counties that the area “is prime to secure” one of the state’s regional vaccine sites.
Then: The developer at the center of a North Philly eviction case has a history of complaints and a controversial project in the works.
And: As the Biden blitz commences, POTUS headed straight to Delaware County for the first stop on his American Rescue bill tour to tout the benefits of the sweeping legislation.
— Ashley Hoffman (@_ashleyhoffman, morningnewsletter@inquirer.com)
Pennsylvania officials on Tuesday told Bucks, Montgomery, Delaware, and Chester Counties that the area “is prime to secure” one of the state’s regional vaccine sites and could see a boost in doses in as soon as two weeks.
The regional site will be able to vaccinate “high volumes” of residents soon after the state’s weekly shipments of Johnson & Johnson one-shot doses start arriving around March 28, acting Health Secretary Alison Beam wrote to the counties. She asked the counties’ leaders to “find consensus on a centralized location” with a large capacity to house the clinic.
President Joe Biden did not speak specifically to the suburbs’ frustration with the vaccine rollout while visiting Delaware County on Tuesday to tout his pandemic stimulus package. Last week, Biden said every U.S. adult will be eligible to sign up for a shot on May 1, less than seven weeks away.
Read on to get reporter Erin McCarthy’s whole story on what’s possible for Pa.
Last week, Gagandeep Lakhmna made headlines for evicting and locking out tenants of one of his North Philadelphia apartment complexes. More than two dozen tenants say they made leasing agreements and paid rent to a property manager, who allegedly stole the money and now can’t be reached. Now, Lakhmna says they’re not legal tenants and wants them out.
At other properties Lakhmna owns, a tenant is withholding rent over frequent flooding and water damage, and others are deep in legal battles over construction flaws. (In one instance, a Fishtown home was deemed unsafe after Lakhmna’s crews dug a deep trench next door and its foundation was undermined.)
He’s also in conflict with neighbors of an apartment tower he has proposed in Kensington. Neither he nor his attorneys responded to Inquirer emails for comment on this story.
Read on for the whole story by reporters Ellie Rushing and Jacob Adelman on this developer’s history.
Here’s how you can protect yourself from rental scams.
Quickly find out when you’ll receive your $1,400 stimulus check with this tracking tool.
What’s in the stimulus bill? Here’s how you can benefit, from checks to health care to tax credits and more.
Where can I get a COVID-19 vaccine in the Philly area? Use our lookup tool.
Track the spread of coronavirus in the region.
What you need to know today
Here’s what it was like at Biden’s campaign kickoff at a Black-owned flooring company just outside Philly where he doubled down on his two key pledges to help Americans through the pandemic.
Pa. officials react to the exposure that the state’s largest pension fund error shifted $25 million more in yearly cost to taxpayers.
Nearly a third of customers are already past due on their water bills right when the Philadelphia Water Department wants a 17.6% rate increase.
For those who have been diagnosed with an eating disorder, being “very online right now” with social media can pose a concerning risk to recovery.
Through your eyes | #OurPhilly
Join us as we drink in this epic sunset. Now we’re thinking about skies that look like cotton candy. Thanks for sharing.
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That’s interesting
🥔 Even if you can’t split spuds between your buds this year, here’s your guide to that sweet Philly St. Patrick’s Day tradition, Irish potatoes.
🏫 High schoolers in the Philly areas are going to compete for full rides to culinary schools.
😅 These are 5 exercises that can dramatically improve how you feel.
🐕 One woman takes in senior dogs without a home at Happy Tails Rescue Retirement Home where they can relax.
Opinions
“Stimulus checks for her and her children, she said, are the help that people like her were begging for all last year to adequately cope with the pandemic’s ongoing crushing impact on their lives, but did not get until Biden was elected,” columnist Maria Panaritis wrote in her dispatch from Delco where President Joe Biden’s supporters gathered for his visit.
The recently leaked memo shows how much the Philadelphia Police Department needs a robust oversight body that can investigate systemic issues, the Inquirer Editorial Board, which operates independently from the newsroom, writes.
Writer Jobert E. Abueva discusses parting ways with the Catholic Church because it believes sexuality is a choice.
What we’re reading
For Philly’s theater world, pivoting to online shows has made the performance experience more universally accessible, WHYY reports.
Elliot Page discussed his decision to come out as trans with TIME.
These are the questions about clean air we should be asking of the purifier industry, in this must-read piece by New York magazine.
The urgency to get vaccinated is diminishing for the Cherokee Nation in Oklahoma now, the New York Times reports.
A vertical farming start-up in Japan raised $50 million to grow a special kind of strawberry that’s extra creamy and sweet. Food Dive has the story.
Fred’s Footsteps, named to pay tribute to G. Fred DiBona Jr., the Independence Blue Cross CEO who died in 2005, provides grants to families with children who have severe medical problems. As the executive director, his daughter, Christina DiBona Lobley, puts it, “Giving people even a small chance to overcome insurmountable odds can make such a huge difference ... in ways that are truly immeasurable.”