Race for the Cure ends Mother’s Day tradition; Pocono neighbors weigh in on Fethullah Gülen | Morning Newsletter
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The Morning Newsletter
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Everybody hopes for good neighbors, but you don’t get to pick 'em. Neighbors of Fethullah Gülen, the man Turkey wants extradited from his current home in the Poconos, view the cleric with curiosity, ambivalence, and for some, suspicion. My colleague Vinny Vella’s look at the small town and its famous occupant is well worth your time this morning. In other news, fans of the annual Susan G. Komen Race for the Cure may not be pleased with changes coming to the event, but we’ve got the details either way.
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— Aubrey Nagle (@aubsn, morningnewsletter@philly.com)
Fethullah Gülen, the 80-year-old Turkish leader of a religious offshoot of Islam, has lived in the rural mountain town of Saylorsburg, Pa., since 1999.
In 2016, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan accused Gülen of masterminding a deadly and ultimately unsuccessful military coup from 6,000 miles away. He’s been calling for Gülen’s extradition ever since and President Trump is under increasing pressure to send him back.
In his adopted hometown, neighbors have conflicting opinions of Gülen. Many see a a good, quiet neighbor, while others see a mysterious man who’s only brought attention to their small town.
The Susan G. Komen foundation’s Race for the Cure has been a Mother’s Day tradition in Philadelphia for 28 years. But on Monday, Komen’s Philadelphia affiliate announced it will be switching things up.
Instead of a race, there will be the More than Pink walk. Unlike at the race, security guards will try to restrict the event to participants who have paid the registration fee.
Why the change? Revenues have been falling while expenses rise, thanks to the many participants who haven’t registered, donated, or raised money in recent years.
Tom Wolf is Pennsylvania’s governor, again. The Democrat took the oath of office for his second term Tuesday, pledging to bridge ideological divides and touting policy wins from the last four years.
Lt. Gov. John Fetterman, the unabashedly progressive former mayor of Braddock, swapped out his usual jeans and work shirt for a suit to take the oath, too.
Meanwhile, New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy gave his State of the State address Tuesday, denouncing a system that is “rigged” for the well-connected.
What you need to know today
The Trump administration has called nearly 50,000 furloughed federal employees back to work without pay to ease the impact of the government shutdown. If it continues, Pennsylvania and New Jersey farmers could be in trouble, too.
Activists gathered outside the New Jersey State Interscholastic Athletic Association headquarters Tuesday to demand they permanently revoke the referee license of Alan Maloney, who forced a teen wrestler to cut his dreadlocks to compete at a match.
Raymond G. Perelman, who built a fortune buying and selling factories, died Monday at age 101. Over the years, he gave more than $300 million to the University of Pennsylvania medical school and Philadelphia art and Jewish charities.
The Trump administration wanted to add a citizenship status question to the 2020 Census, but a federal judge in New York ruled it unlawful on Tuesday.
A Philly developer is once again trying to build a condo tower over the historic Dilworth House on Washington Square. Now all they need are demolition approvals.
Some good Philly sports news: the Sixers faced former teammates Robert Covington, Dario Saric, and Jerryd Bayless last night and came away with a 149-107 victory over the Timberwolves.
Through Your Eyes | #OurPhilly
What a serene view, @jen.strick. Many more winter feels to come.
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!
That’s Interesting
Some heartwarming news for Eagles fans: A second grader has written an adorable letter to console Alshon Jeffery and NFL referee Pete Morelli, long criticized by fans for what they view as unfair treatment of the Birds, is retiring.
Blue cheese, anchovies, tomatoes, and horseradish are just some of the ingredients Philly chefs hate. But they’ve learned how to cook with them anyway, and you can, too.
A $7.9 million freshwater mussel hatchery (a place for producing mussels, in this case up to 500,000 a year) is coming to Bartram’s Garden. The best part? It’ll help purify water in the Delaware, Schuylkill, and Susquehanna Rivers.
Carol Channing, the Broadway icon who passed away Tuesday at 97, may be best known for Hello Dolly, but it was her turn in the 1949 pre-Broadway run of Gentlemen Prefer Blondes at Philly’s Forest Theatre that made her a star.
Swing sets aren’t just for kids. The Kimmel Center just added a free virtual reality swing set, where you can “be” a jellyfish, a shuttlecock, or even a giant robot, to its lobby.
The phrase “black don’t crack” is an old stereotype about aging impossibly well, but, columnist Elizabeth Wellington writes, it can keep black women from focusing on their health.
Opinions
“Consumers are limited in their choice of distributors because cities have permitted local monopolies (see: Comcast in Philadelphia). When companies like Disney have a stranglehold over college and professional sports, viewers are truly a ‘captive’ audience in both content and delivery. And, when bundled with an internet package, what options do consumers really have except to pay more?” — Karen Weaver, an associate clinical professor at Drexel University and a sports media rights expert, on how Disney and Verizon have Philly sports fans in a choke hold.
As hysteria and misinformation about fentanyl spread, staff writer Abraham Gutman wants to bust myths surrounding the synthetic opioid, such as the effect of being in contact with it.
Now that Digital First Media wants to takeover America’s other big owner of daily newspapers, Gannett, columnist Will Bunch says the company is doing more to destroy a free press in America than Trump.
What we’re reading
The Delaware River wasn’t always a tourist attraction. WHYY has dug deep into the river’s not-so-distant past to chronicle how environmental regulation helped transform the river with a series of articles and broadcasts.
Add Martin Luther King, Jr. Day to the list of things disrupted by the government shutdown. The Philadelphia Tribune has the sad story about how plans to give back to others are being thwarted.
The shutdown hasn’t cut off funds for SNAP (Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program) benefits yet, but as PlanPhilly reports, a glitch that creates regular system outages, cutting off food access for users, has gone unfixed.
What’s it like to be furloughed, anyway? The Washington Post has collected photos (some funny, some heartbreaking) from workers sent home without pay to find out how they’re spending this way-too-free time.
A look at the collapse of insect life in Puerto Rico’s Luquillo rain forest by the Guardian puts the effects of global warming into harsh perspective — an unfortunately necessary read.
A Daily Dose of | Staying Power
Meet your new hero: Wynnifred Franklin, a 94-year-old great-grandmother, has worked in the bakery of the Giant supermarket in Audubon, Montgomery County since 1996.