Why did Amazon take $3,800 for a late rental textbook?; Johnny Doc’s lawyers seek to throw out corruption charges | Morning Newsletter
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College textbooks can get expensive. But when Amazon took nearly $4,000 out of his bank account for a late return, the father of a University of Delaware student embarked on a long journey to figure out what happened. In other news, Philly labor leader Johnny Doc’s lawyers were in court yesterday to ask the judge to dismiss corruption charges that allege he bought a councilperson’s vote on key issues with a union salary.
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— Josh Rosenblat (@joshrosenblat, morningnewsletter@inquirer.com)
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“Get your textbooks delivered to your door and save both time and money,” Amazon boasts on its website. It sounded good enough for thrifty college freshman Amelia SanFilippo.
She rented a book from Amazon for a spring semester class at the University of Delaware. Due back June 24, returning the book slipped her and her father’s mind for a few days. On June 28, they got an email from Amazon saying that the rental had now been “purchased.”
The cost: Nearly $4,000.
What followed was a days-long saga of repeated chats with Amazon customer service and mysterious emails.
Defense lawyers for John J. “Johnny Doc” Dougherty urged the judge overseeing his case to throw out his corruption charges yesterday. They said the allegations that the labor leader bought Philadelphia City Councilperson Bobby Henon’s vote on key issues with a union salary “ludicrous” and “legally deficient.”
Henon received a $73,000 salary from Dougherty’s union. Prosecutors painted Henon as a crooked politician who sold his seat for that money, while the defense argued that it’s fine for Henon to have income from a job outside of City Council.
The judge did not make a ruling Monday, but is expected to decide in the coming weeks whether to allow the charges to proceed to trial.
Last week, state legislators quietly passed a law that essentially gives the state Attorney General’s Office equal jurisdiction to the district attorney in prosecuting certain gun-related cases in Philadelphia.
Rep. Martina White, a Republican from Northeast Philly and an ally of the city’s police union, proposed the provision.
As debate rages over the city’s gun violence epidemic, it’s unclear how Krasner and Attorney General Josh Shapiro will interact in the new legal landscape.
What you need to know today
Authorities seized the ship involved in the 20-ton cocaine bust from a firm with a history of other drug busts on its ships.
Investigators apprehended a suspect in the robbery tied to the kidnapping and murder of the Camden City Council president’s grandson.
Are undocumented immigrants in Pennsylvania and New Jersey at risk in ICE facial recognition searches of driver’s license photos?
Members of a New Jersey-based hate group placed a wreath with white supremacist slogans on Benjamin Franklin’s tomb last week.
A longtime Philly Democrat switched parties and relaunched the city’s gay Republicans club, the only one in all of Pennsylvania.
New Jersey senators filed a complaint against a judge for the comments she made during a child sexual assault case.
Wharton is shutting down the business center where Urban Outfitters and Destination Maternity got their starts.
Through Your Eyes | #OurPhilly
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That’s Interesting
Fifth-graders at a South Philly school saw their classmates struggling. Then they wrote a book of poems to inspire those with depression.
The new Pennsylvania state budget contains millions to make college free for more Cheyney University students.
A Philly teacher was praised for getting his 18-year-old students to register to vote until he was accused of “liberal indoctrination." Now the Central High social studies teacher is firing back at the person who made those claims: ex-Pennsylvania Republican Party Chairperson Val DiGiorgio.
A new Philly publisher is giving the world’s “most forgotten" cartoonist a new life.
There’s a new minimum load amount for your SEPTA Key Travel Wallets.
Want to get beer delivered right to your door? Here are our favorite ways.
Opinions
“From the ‘Equal pay!’ chants that rained down in Lyon to the roars that rose up from bars across this country, there’s been more than enough noise to prove that consumer demand exists for women’s soccer. The time has come to meet it.” — The Inquirer’s Jonathan Tannenwald on the U.S. women’s soccer team’s victory at the World Cup and their push for equality both on and off the field.
Geologist Breana Hashman of Clean Water Action writes about how the environmental damage caused by the Philadelphia refinery won’t disappear, even after it closes.
Democrats need to “grow a spine," Inquirer columnist Will Bunch writes.
What we’re reading
Philadelphia magazine asks: Do we have too many Italian restaurants?
PhillyVoice reports on a radio interview where Sixers co-owner Michael Rubin discusses how Allen Iverson helped in Meek Mill’s legal battle.
In light of authorities charging billionaire financier Jeffrey Epstein with sex trafficking, it’s worth recounting the Miami Herald’s three-part investigation into his past.
Your Daily Dose of | An Activist Chicken
Meet Corrie the chicken. After being rescued from a Philadelphia slaughterhouse, Corrie travels the country attending animal rights events as a symbol of the movement.