⚾ Those other, weirder mascots | Morning Newsletter
And Pa.’s new budget.
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The Morning Newsletter
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It’s Friday, Philly. The region is forecast to get a slight break from the heat today, with high temps in the mid-80s, showers, and a possible thunderstorm.
To kick off the weekend (and celebrate the Phillies sweeping the Dodgers), we’re starting with something fun: Who are the members of the Galápagos Gang, the Phillies’ weirder, lesser-known mascots?
Read on to find that story and much more, including details about Johnny Doc’s sentencing and the newly passed Pennsylvania state budget.
— Julie Zeglen (morningnewsletter@inquirer.com)
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Iggy the land iguana. Bessie the blue-footed boobie. Calvin the giant tortoise. Sid the Galápagos sea lion.
🪿 If you spot these four together, you’re not in the midst of a zoo outbreak — you’re just at Citizens Bank Park on game day.
🐢 As their lore goes, the members of the so-called Galápagos Gang are the Phillie Phanatic’s friends from the Galápagos Islands, where he was born. The inflatable creatures made their debut nine years ago and have been bobbing and slapsticking around Ashburn Alley ever since.
🟡 IMO, Iggy is the most delightful. He looks nothing like an iguana! He bounces on his tail! He “eats” people who disrespect the Phanatic, gobbling them right into his inflated mouth! I mean, how do two people even fit inside that costume? (... Unless?)
After a missed deadline and weeks of negotiations, as of late Thursday night, Pennsylvania has a budget for the 2024-25 fiscal year.
🏛️ The top-line number: The $47.6 billion budget deal increases spending by 6.2%, or $2.72 billion, over last year.
🏛️ The education plan: The deal includes more than $1 billion in new funding dedicated to public schools. But it scales back plans to address inequities between rich and poor school districts that were ruled unconstitutional last year.
🏛️ The transportation shortfall: The new budget leaves transit agencies wanting. SEPTA may have to cut services if more funding isn’t secured in the fall.
🏛️ The higher ed hope: Earlier in the day, the board overseeing Pennsylvania’s state universities postponed a decision on setting tuition for 2024-25 until the state’s budget was finalized. But the system is hoping for a sixth consecutive year to freeze tuition for in-state undergraduate students.
Visit Inquirer.com throughout the day to find more analysis of the new budget.
What you should know today
Project 2025 has burst into the public consciousness in the last few days, though it’s been the subject of talk — and worry — by political wonks for more than a year. Here’s what the Republican plan says.
Churches don’t pay taxes, and aren’t supposed to campaign. Was President Joe Biden’s Sunday visit to a West Oak Lane church allowed?
John Dougherty, a towering figure in local politics and organized labor, has been sentenced to six years in prison after having been found guilty of bribery and embezzlement charges.
More than six years after University of Pennsylvania student Blaze Bernstein was found dead in California, the man accused of killing him was convicted of a hate-fueled murder.
The July 4 shooting that killed 19-year-old Maurice Quann may have been part of a gang feud he had nothing to do with, police sources say. Here’s how his loved ones remember him.
A federal judge said Thursday he would rule that Philadelphia’s prison system is in contempt of court for failing to follow an agreement in a long-running lawsuit over conditions in the city jails. The system will soon open a secure ward inside Jefferson Frankford Hospital that can accommodate up to nine incarcerated people in need of care that the city jails cannot offer.
Journalist Deng Yuwen settled in the Philadelphia area after being expelled from China for criticizing its authoritarian government. Now, his teen daughter is being targeted.
District Attorney Larry Krasner’s office is in the beginning stages of creating an “elite team” to target election interference crimes surrounding the 2024 election.
The Parker administration has postponed scheduled community meetings about a potential Old City Greyhound station, stating that it had little to say at this at this point and triggering an angry reaction.
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 have an explainer from reporter Hannah Nguyen on whether Philly drivers can get fined for parking in a school zone when school’s out for summer. The function of the restriction from 7 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. is null, after all ... right?
As with so many questions we feature here, it depends — in this case, on whether the building in question is hosting summer programming. And where does Mayor Parker’s year-round schooling plan fit? 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
The Philadelphia Zoo welcomed a new baby last month. The infant is the zoo’s first birth in 15 years of which species?
A) Red panda
B) Huacaya alpaca
C) Sumatran orangutan
D) Humboldt penguin
Think you know? Check your answer.
What we’re...
⛳ Checking out: The Oval’s seasonal pop-up festival and beer garden, complete with a new mini golf course and dining options.
🏀 Reading: Rare Gems, this South Jersey sportswriter’s book on women’s basketball.
🎥 Watching: Philly-made music videos on the big screen at the Bok Building.
🧩 Unscramble the anagram
A company in Reading made the sparkly uniforms that will be worn by Team USA athletes competing in this sport.
MYSTIC SNAG
Email us if you know the answer. We’ll select a reader at random to shout out here. Cheers to Dawn Poole, who solved Thursday’s anagram: Garage Beer, the latest product to get an investment from the Kelce brothers. But is it better than Bud Light? The Inquirer conducted a taste test.
Gif of the day
🚙 One last interactive thing: Pennsylvania just dropped its first major license plate redesign in 25 years. Reactions have been mixed — so The Inquirer’s interactives team came up with a way for you to design your own. You can even go chaos mode with a purple background, orange font, Lenape turtle symbol, and “Keep it Gritty” tagline.
Have a great weekend, OK? I’ll see you back here soon.
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