6-year-old computer scientists. Drool-worthy pastries. Luring Zara. | Morning Newsletter
One of Craig LaBan's most mouth-watering reviews ever. What's the ultimate goal for A.G. Josh Shapiro? And why is Mayor Kenney's campaign paying the NAACP president?
![Joey Cervone and Hannah Dolan, first graders at Ridge Park Elementary School in Conshohocken, work with teacher Brian Adams on their first computer-coding lesson.](https://www.inquirer.com/resizer/yd45VHfYqoX1eE8pNRsZWa2HyyY=/760x507/smart/filters:format(webp)/arc-anglerfish-arc2-prod-pmn.s3.amazonaws.com/public/SOKYINKFTNATXCI7LCL64F5JNI.jpg)
In a hastily-called photo shoot with military leaders last night, President Trump referred cryptically to "the calm before the storm." He wouldn't tell reporters what that means, but hey, have a relaxing weekend! If you like what you're reading, it's free to sign up to get this newsletter in your inbox every weekday. I would love to hear your thoughts, ideas, and feedback, so please email me, tweet me @JS_Parks, or reach our social team on Facebook.
— Jessica Parks
» READ MORE: As if your kids weren’t already more computer-savvy than you …
With thousands of unmet computer science jobs nationally and a prediction that one day most jobs will require coding skills, Pennsylvania schools are finally getting the message. Start 'em young.
Some schools are introducing coding lessons to students as early as 1st grade. Pennsylvania as a state is not among the front of the class in this subject, but two local school systems are — Colonial School District in Plymouth Meeting and DelCo Intermediate Unit. Philadelphia is also gearing up for a big computer science conference in December to make a push for more programming in schools.
» READ MORE: Something fizzy going on between Mayor and NAACP?
My intrepid colleagues at Clout found something awfully suspicious in Mayor Kenney's latest campaign-finance report. They tell it better and more humorously than I can, but to make a long story short: The mayor's campaign is paying Philly NAACP president Rodney Muhammad for undisclosed consulting services, which are "not necessarily" related to the mayor's signature effort — the soda tax, for which Muhammad did community outreach, and for which he also got paid an undisclosed sum by the leading pro-soda-tax lobbying group.
Did you follow all that? If not, it's probably because the whole thing is fuzzy, because no one will answer our questions about it. Rest assured, the Clout team won't stop asking those questions.
» READ MORE: Pennsylvania’s A.G. is never still; but where is he going?
Pennsylvania Attorney General Josh Shapiro's brisk schedule and assiduous courting of the news media all suggest a grand design. He's considered a leading contender for governor in 2022, and some of his longtime friends even whisper about the White House.
In recent months, he has sued the Trump administration over its travel ban; investigated Equifax over its data breach; sued the nation's largest student-loan servicer; investigated drug companies' role in the opioid crisis; and sprinted from Harrisburg to Philly to D.C. in single day.
He's careful to consider how his actions might affect his image. And he doesn't seem to mind if that image mirrors other attorneys general who have used one office to vault up to another.
WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW TODAY
Mohammed Jabateh, the Delco man on trial as an alleged Liberian war criminal, had his own account heard by jurors Thursday. In his asylum application, he argued he was a victim of the gory, cruel ethnic conflicts of the 1990s.
Anita T. Connor, a breast cancer survivor, believes that "God spared my life, so I could help save another." Out of that gratitude arose an organization that supports fellow patients and survivors, educates men, comforts children and turns them all into "my sister's keeper."
Panthers QB Cam Newton was taking heat and lost a sponsor after making a sexist remark to a female reporter. He later apologized. The reporter then started taking heat after people found some old, racist tweets on her account. She also apologized. Nobody wins, we all just shake our heads.
No budget deal? No problem. "I can do this indefinitely," Gov. Wolf says. Great.
While many are still pushing to have Frank L. Rizzo's statue removed, not much attention has gone to removing the statue of Christopher Columbus or renaming Philly's Columbus Day Parade. Many other cities have downgraded their Columbus connections due to his legacy "as a killer and a slaver," one museum director said.
» READ MORE: #OurPhilly
We want to see what our community looks like through your eyes. Show us the park that your family walks through every weekend with the dog, the block party in your neighborhood or the historic stretch you see every morning on your commute to work.
Tag your Instagram posts or tweets with #OurPhilly and we'll pick our favorite each day to feature in this newsletter and give you a shout out to build those followers!
THAT’S INTERESTING
Restaurant critic Craig LaBan reviews the decadent pastries at Walnut Street Cafe, and I can barely finish this sentence because I'm so busy drooling. This newsletter might need a hiatus next week as I'll be mummified in sugar and butter and hazelnut cream and "the crackle of gossamer caramel sheets."
And you thought sports trades were brutal? Mall company PREIT moved five Cherry Hill tenants — Banana Republic, Hollister, Clarks, Call It Spring, and Aveda — to free up space for one Zara, the wildly popular European fast-fashion brand.
In times of trouble, we turn to the classic protest songs — like those featured in Ken Burns' "The Vietnam War" — again and again. But nowadays, music critic Dan DeLuca writes, the calls for protest and catharsis in pop culture fall more to comedians like Jimmy Kimmel.
TV critic Ellen Gray lists the 7 "timeless" TV shows she says everyone should go back and watch. They're not your usual suspects. I would be surprised if most people have seen even 5 of them (If I'm wrong, tweet @ me!).
Meet the women who helped make Philadelphia a hotbed of fine arts in the late 1800s. Known as the Red Rose Girls, they were feminists who often had romantic relationships with women, and some made their own living as highly skilled illustrators, stained-glass artists and mural-painters.
OPINIONS
“On the night of Sept. 27, at the Phillies-Nationals game, my wife’s face was split open by a baseball off the bat of Odubel Herrera.
— PJ Brennan, chief medical officer of the University of Pennsylvania Health System, arguing that teams should do more to protect their fans from errant bats and balls.
Since 2010, the natural-gas industry has spent $46.6 million on lobbying and $14.5 million on strategic campaign contributions to legislative leaders, effectively buying their way out of paying their fair share in taxes. Our Editorial Board says it's time for lawmakers to step up and pass a sensible severance tax.
Readers responded to our package about how to improve Independence Park with some really brilliant ideas. Add a reflecting pool? Stop hiding the Liberty Bell? Turn it into a water park? OK, maybe not that last one.
WHAT WE’RE READING
In one of the most astonishing investigative reports I've read in a long time, Reveal uncovers a court-ordered rehab program where defendants from Oklahoma, Arkansas, Texas and Missouri were sent to work in a chicken-processing plant under grueling conditions — with the "rehab center" pocketing their wages.
The New Yorker profiles Gloria Allred, the famous attorney and Southwest Philly native who went to Girls High and Penn.
A flood of anti-Trump volunteers are canvassing and making calls for Democratic candidates for governor in New Jersey and Virginia, the only states with gubernatorial elections this year. [The New York Times]
A gunman climbed into a bell tower at the University of Texas in 1966 and unleashed unholy hell on students and teachers below, a horror that was incomprehensible at the time. Less so now. [Texas Monthly]
YOUR DAILY DOSE OF | TRENDY
Ridding the world of wasteful plastic water bottles used to be purely a utilitarian or humanitarian endeavor. But with the proliferation of trendy stainless-steel bottles, style columnist Elizabeth Wellington writes, who knew being green could be so chic?
Updated: Mohammed Jabateh's account of his time in Liberia came from a written statement in his asylum application, not from in-person testimony.