💸 2025 savings hacks | Morning Newsletter
And Shapiro considers sports hub funding.
The Morning Newsletter
Start your day with the Philly news you need and the stories you want all in one easy-to-read newsletter
Happy Friday, Philly. We’re in for a wild few days of weather. Temperatures will climb into the 40s today and tomorrow before possible snowfall during the Eagles game Sunday at the Linc. Next week? Expect regional temps to range from 20 down to zero degrees.
If you came into the new year with the resolution to improve your personal finances, our top story is for you: A local woman asked her peers for day-to-day money-saving tips — and got more than 100 responses. These Philadelphians’ financial hacks could help you with your 2025 money goals, too.
And after opposing the use of any state resources for the Sixers’ now-abandoned proposal to build an arena in Center City, Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro says he isn’t closing the book on the state getting involved in the team’s new South Philly arena project.
— Julie Zeglen (morningnewsletter@inquirer.com)
P.S. Friday means new games! Our latest news quiz includes questions on the Sixers’ arena pivot, Bryce Harper’s TikTok content, and more. And Birdle, our twist on another popular word game, is back in honor of the Birds’ playoffs run. Can you guess the Eagles-related word of the day?
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Personal finance doesn’t just mean big-picture decisions like investing or paying off debt.
When a millennial Roxborough resident decided to start the new year by implementing day-to-day practices for financial discipline, she turned to the popular Facebook group Philaqueens for tips — and they delivered. Consider these small daily acts if you’re looking to save money, too:
📱 Delete the apps: Removing Amazon, UberEats, and other shopping apps off your phone adds some friction to the purchase process and makes it harder to mindlessly scroll.
🚫 Incorporate no-spend days: No lunch out, no fancy coffee, no giving into online sales. The practice ensures you’re being mindful about your impulses to buy.
⏳ Wait 24 hours: Once you put something in your shopping cart, let it sit there a while. You might realize the next day that you love (or need) it less than you first thought you did.
Consumer reporter Erin McCarthy rounds up more money-saving tips from your fellow Philadelphians.
Gov. Shapiro, a Democrat in his first term and major Sixers fan, told The Inquirer he was “adamant and crystal clear” that he would not support the use of state funds to build an arena along Market Street East.
But now that the Sixers and Comcast have come together — announcing this week a new, multifaceted plan that includes the revitalization of Market East, an expansive sports hub in South Philly with retail, restaurants and residential options, and the prospect of bringing a WNBA team to Philadelphia — Shapiro says he’s interested.
Politics reporter Gillian McGoldrick has the details.
A different plan: Market East doesn’t need the Sixers arena to make a comeback, architecture critic Inga Saffron argues. Instead, with the right kind of planning, the east side of Center City could turn itself into a modern, mixed-use neighborhood.
Sixers’ secret dealing: The team kept negotiating a move to Camden even after making a deal with Philly for a Center City arena, a source told columnist Marcus Hayes.
Don’t stop the music: The Wanamaker Building’s New York landlord said it is committed to preserving the historic organ after Macy’s closes.
What you should know today
A Trenton man killed his girlfriend during an argument inside a Bensalem hotel early Wednesday, police said, and then hours later targeted one of her family members and shot at police officers who came to investigate the violence.
An accused Liberian war criminal who spent years living in the Philadelphia region pleaded guilty to lying on his immigration application by falsely asserting that he has never been part of a rebel group in the war-torn country.
President-elect Donald Trump has invited the CEO of ban-threatened TikTok to his inauguration. His reversal of support for the app came last year after meeting with Jeff Yass, Pennsylvania’s richest man and a GOP megadonor who owns a large share of its parent company.
A South Jersey man awaiting trial for his role in the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection, after which he was identified by his Eagles beanie, has been granted permission to attend the inauguration.
University of Pennsylvania law professor Amy Wax, who has a history of making racist statements, has sued the school, claiming a “racially discriminatory” policy led to her 2024 suspension.
Burlington County is hiring an inspector to look into why some lines during the November election had voters waiting as long as five hours.
Resident physicians and fellows at Jefferson University and Christiana Care became the third and fourth groups of local doctors to unionize in recent weeks.
PATCO will begin phasing out its Freedom Card this summer in favor of a contactless payment system.
Eagles cornerback Kelee Ringo’s mother was reunited with her dog two months after it was stolen inside a Port Richmond Target store.
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, we’re resurfacing an explainer on the Philadelphia Police Department’s seemingly nonsensical numbering of its police districts. They don’t seem to follow any order, and some numbers are skipped entirely. Case in point: In Southwest Philly, we have the 12th, 16th, 18th, and 19th Districts. Yet the 17th District is over in Point Breeze, the 15th is in Mayfair, the 14th in Germantown, and the 13th ... doesn’t exist.
Blame a long-ago consolidation for this numerical disjointedness. 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
Trump has tapped which Philadelphia icon as a special ambassador to help usher in a new “Golden Age of Hollywood”?
A) Sylvester Stallone
B) Kevin Hart
C) Kevin Bacon
D) Gritty
Think you know? Check your answer.
What (and who) we’re...
🐍 Celebrating: The Lunar New Year at Philly restaurants with dinner series and star chef collabs, and by shopping this Fishtown illustrator’s Target collection.
👟 Inspired by: The New Jersey grandmother who has completed 100 half-marathons.
🏈 Seeing: Ray Didinger’s Tommy and Me at People’s Light as a playoff season treat.
❌ Remembering: When a Penn student died during the strange, immediately discontinued “bowl fight” tradition.
🧩 Unscramble the anagram
Hint: The late, great, cult-favorite filmmaker who once called Philly his “greatest influence”
CHADD VINYL
Email us if you know the answer. We’ll select a reader at random to shout out here. Cheers to Frank L. Chance, who solved Thursday’s anagram: Navy Yard. The decommissioned aircraft carrier formerly known as the USS John F. Kennedy departed from the South Philadelphia ship hub yesterday morning, marking the start of what will be its final voyage on the way to the scrap heap.
Photo of the day
⛪ One last resilient thing: A blaze on Jan. 15, 2024, gutted the historic, 136-year-old Overbrook Presbyterian Church’s sanctuary, destroying items such as a 1939 pipe organ valued at $1.7 million. A year after a destructive blaze, the church is rebuilding its sanctuary and members’ hope.
Thanks for ending your week with The Inquirer. Paola has you covered this weekend, and I’ll be back with you on Tuesday after the holiday. ‘Til then, be well.
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