🍁 Forecasting fall foliage | Morning Newsletter
And Trump’s Pa. immigration playbook.
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The Morning Newsletter
Start your day with the Philly news you need and the stories you want all in one easy-to-read newsletter
Hi, Philly. Fall is officially here and the leaves are starting to turn. Our new interactive story shows when and where to see peak fall colors across Pennsylvania.
And former President Donald Trump’s messaging on immigration mirrors his 2016 strategy. It’s littered with misinformation — and it’s working in the Keystone State.
Plus, we’re launching something fun: Test your news know-how every Friday with our weekly News Quiz. Our first edition asks how well you paid attention to stories about the Savannah Bananas, Bruce Springsteen, and eight more. Let me know how you score!
— Julie Zeglen (morningnewsletter@inquirer.com)
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September means autumn’s official arrival, but for me, it’s not really fall until the one majestic maple tree in my neighborhood turns fire orange. My camera roll tells me that happened around late October last year. But as I noted while driving to a Carbon County campsite recently, north of the city, the leaves are already changing.
🍁 Pennsylvania has a “longer and more varied fall foliage season” than anywhere else in the world, according to the state’s Department of Conservation and Natural Resources.
🍁 The agency publishes weekly foliage reports throughout the fall, which gives us a good idea of when and where to see Pennsylvania’s best fall colors.
🍁 Trees are still looking pretty green in Philadelphia this week, but up near Scranton, leaves are closer to peak color.
Designer Charmaine Runes explains it all in this interactive story, and offers suggestions for the best places to see yellows and reds. We’ll be publishing a new forecast every week during the fall season, so be sure to check back for the latest color predictions.
In other nature-slash-planetary news: From Sept. 29 through Nov. 25 this year, our planet’s gravity will pull a house-sized asteroid into a loop around Earth. Yes, it’s a second moon.
The latest presidential polling in Pennsylvania shows Trump trailing Vice President Kamala Harris by four percentage points, within the margin of error. Yet on immigration specifically, the state’s voters favor the Republican candidate by more than twice that much.
From the affluent Philly suburbs to the Rust Belt, illegal immigration remains a potent force eight years into Trump’s time on the national political stage.
His playbook looks much like that of 2016: Encourage fear. Push false claims. Target low-information voters who believe the issue is linked to their own economic outlook.
“They’ve been able to other these folks and convince these voters someone’s getting something for free and you’re not getting it,” a Westmoreland County historian told The Inquirer.
P.S. If you’ve been near Seventh and Market Streets in recent months, you’ve seen that giant Trump ad atop the Lit Brothers building. It’s the work of a Florida personal injury attorney and major GOP donor.
What you should know today
A 25-year-old man has been charged with driving his car toward officers who had been attempting to break up one of last weekend’s illegal car meetups, authorities said.
The mother of a 31-year-old man who died after he was assaulted in Philadelphia’s federal detention center has sued the U.S. government.
Virtua Health has been sued by New Jersey’s attorney general over its policy of universally drug testing pregnant patients.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky’s visit to Scranton earlier this week with Gov. Josh Shapiro is now a subject of a U.S. House committee investigation.
New Sixers arena plans — which got a friendly reception from key City Council members — include development of the parking lot left over from a failed 1990s entertainment complex at Eighth and Market, a.k.a. the Disney hole. Plus, the Sixers and Mayor Cherelle L. Parker say they want to bring a WNBA team to Philadelphia.
The state agency that owns Philadelphia’s seaport facilities is in negotiations with Norfolk Southern Corp. to buy 150 acres on the site of the old Philadelphia Navy Base.
SEPTA is adding 97 more 8-foot, evasion-resistant fare gates at nine Philly transit stations.
Mayor Parker and the city have launched a $1 million public art and poetry project to combat gun violence in Germantown.
A South Jersey school district is implementing a cell phone ban to ease classroom distractions. Here’s how it works in practice.
The Philadelphia Flower Show has announced its theme for 2025, “Gardens of Tomorrow.”
Welcome back to Curious Philly Friday. We’ll feature both new and timeless stories from our forum for readers to ask about the city’s quirks.
This week, with the announcement that Hoda Kotb is leaving NBC’s “Today” show, we’re resurfacing reporter Michelle Myers’ story on what a daily routine is really like for those tasked with perkily describing the news while the rest of us are still waking up.
A quick summary of what we learned when NBC10-Telemundo 62 morning anchor Lucy Bustamante let Myers follow her around for a day last winter: Her first alarm goes off at 1:50 a.m. Yes, she does her own hair. And yes, she gets to have a family — four kids under 13. (Her husband makes her coffee the night before.) Here’s the full explanation.
Have your own burning question about Philadelphia, its local oddities, or how the region works? Submit it here and you might find the answer featured in this space.
🧠 Trivia time
A group of nature watchers and researchers got a super-rare encounter with which animal off the Cape May coast earlier this month?
A) Blue whale
B) Giant squid
C) Tiger shark
D) Sea lion
Think you know? Check your answer.
What we’re...
🕰️ Remembering: When Suburban Station opened in Center City in 1930, to great acclaim.
🏒 Learning how: The Flyers’ ice gets made at Wells Fargo Center.
🎤 Anticipating: The “definitive” Earth, Wind & Fire documentary directed by Questlove.
🧩 Unscramble the anagram
Hint: The Quakertown native playing Wells Fargo Center next month
APNEA TRANSCRIBER
Email us if you know the answer. We’ll select a reader at random to shout out here. Cheers to Dennis Disbrow, who solved Thursday’s anagram: Amy Gutmann. The former — and longest-serving — president of the University of Pennsylvania is back on campus with a new joint appointment after serving as the U.S. ambassador to Germany.
Photo of the day
Let’s do it again this Sunday, eh? Ahead of the Eagles’ Week 4 game against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, check out the latest edition of our Bird Box game.
👋 Thanks for starting your day with The Inquirer. Whenever your weekend begins, have a good one.
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