Penn funds on pause | Morning Newsletter
🌐 And Philly’s Portal is moving
The Morning Newsletter
Start your day with the Philly news you need and the stories you want all in one easy-to-read newsletter
Welcome to a mostly sunny Wednesday.
The University of Pennsylvania has spoken up on the impact of its faculty receiving stop work orders on federally funded research. The White House won’t say how they can get the money back.
And Philly’s Portal art installation won’t be in LOVE Park for much longer. Vandalism and logistics played a role in the decision.
Let’s jump into these stories and much more.
— Paola Pérez (morningnewsletter@inquirer.com)
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Penn President J. Larry Jameson confirmed Tuesday that school faculty has been told to halt their federally funded research across seven of the university’s 12 schools.
Last week, the White House said it would pause funding because the school allowed Lia Thomas, a transgender athlete, to compete on its women’s swim team. Penn gets about $1 billion in federal funding every year.
In a statement to the campus community, Jameson addressed the impacted contracts, and Penn’s compliance with athletic policies.
“We are actively pursuing multiple avenues to understand and address these funding terminations, freezes, and slowdowns,” Jameson said. Penn has not received any official communication from President Donald Trump’s administration on the paused funding.
Aubrey Whelan and Susan Snyder detail the latest developments, including other research institutions where grants were terminated in recent weeks.
More news: The University of Pennsylvania Health System is eliminating 300 positions. An executive said it was not a reaction to potential federal funding cuts. Plus, talks involving the nonprofit and Delaware County have made progress toward identifying a long-term solution for Crozer Health, which is in bankruptcy along with its owner.
What you should know today
The jury in the trial of three former Philadelphia homicide detectives accused of perjury in a murder case that spanned three decades will begin deliberation on Wednesday after more than a week of testimony.
The uncertainty over federal funding is likely to loom over this spring’s city budget negotiations. On Tuesday, the first day of budget hearings, City Council members questioned whether Mayor Cherelle L. Parker’s ambitious plans were right for the moment.
Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro is asking the Trump administration to reconsider its decision to cancel $13 million in funding for state food banks to buy food from local farmers.
A Philadelphia woman was charged with the murder of her estranged husband, police said Tuesday, after police found the man dead outside on a tarp in Northwest Philadelphia, with a gun on his chest.
Scammers are posing as Philadelphia’s 39th Police District and demanding money from targets. Here’s what to look out for.
Tower Health sold the campus of its shuttered Brandywine Hospital in western Chester County to Regal Builders for an undisclosed price.
Authorities said the two men killed and two others injured when a car plunged off I-95 late last week in Port Richmond were brothers from New Jersey.
Workers from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and supporters of the federal workforce gathered in a “solidarity march” Tuesday in Philadelphia, joining a day of coordinated actions against the Trump administration’s recent shake-ups at the agency.
St. Joseph’s University offered a buyout to some faculty and staff Monday as part of a plan to help close what its president said was “a small deficit.”
A man who posed as a nurse in two Montco urgent-care facilities and sexually assaulted more than a dozen women was sentenced Monday to five to 10 years in state prison. His victims are suing his employer.
A former Glu Hospitality investor has named the now-defunct restaurant group in a new lawsuit alleging that one of the company’s founders refused to return a six-figure investment last year and punched him repeatedly when he asked about it.
Well, Philly, our Portal privileges are on thin ice.
The company behind the international Portals art installation says our window to Ireland, Lithuania, and Poland will leave LOVE Park.
The reason: Organizers have run into trouble with event planning logistics. But the main concern involves vandalism, after thieves cut a section of copper wire from the installation and rocks damaged its screen.
It’s a uniquely Philly situation: Of the nearly half dozen Portal locations globally, Portal officials say no other locations have had issues with vandalism.
What’s next: The Portal is expected to stay in the city. Officials say there are three potential locations on the table.
Emily Bloch has the story on the Portal’s future.
🧠 Trivia time
Which former Philadelphian will co-headline the Make The World Better benefit concerts in South Philly?
A) Katie Crutchfield of Waxahatchee
B) Orion Sun
C) Zach Bryan
D) Lucy Dacus of boygenius
Think you know? Check your answer.
What we’re...
🏀 Designing: Philly-inspired mascots for March Madness.
🚌 Excited to try: A new weekend bus route that can take us to Longwood Gardens.
🧬 Wondering: What 23andMe’s bankruptcy means for the genetic data of 15 million people.
🦴 Following: The journey of an Indigenous adolescent’s remains, currently housed at the Penn Museum.
🧩 Unscramble the anagram
Hint: Pastry shop in Queen Village, named after a community in the Golan Heights of Syria
JERKY LAMBDA
Email us if you know the answer. We’ll select a reader at random to shout out here.
Cheers to Paige Ciccotti, who solved Tuesday’s anagram: George Foreman. The fearsome heavyweight, who lost the “Rumble in the Jungle” to Muhammad Ali before his inspiring second act as a 45-year-old champion and a successful businessman, recently died at 76.
Photo of the day
👋🏽 That’s it for now. See you again tomorrow.
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