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Eagles season preview, two more Philly families seek sanctuary | Morning Newsletter

All the local news you need to know to start your day, delivered straight to your email.

Carson Wentz didn't play for the Lombardi Trophy, but at the rate he's going, it's likely he will sometime soon.
Carson Wentz didn't play for the Lombardi Trophy, but at the rate he's going, it's likely he will sometime soon.Read moreTIM TAI / Staff Photographer

I have an important question to ask you all: are you ready for some football? I sure do hope so, because it's about to be all anyone in Philly talks about for the next few months. Thanks to our Eagles season preview you can get riled up for tomorrow night's kickoff ahead of time. On a more serious note, an important story leading this morning's news is that of two immigrant families who've taken sanctuary in a Philly church. They are the second and third families to do so in the last 10 months in response to threats of deportation.

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— Aubrey Nagle (@aubsn, morningnewsletter@philly.com)

Football season is almost here. Tomorrow night our Super Bowl champion Eagles return to Lincoln Financial Field to face the Atlanta Falcons at 8:20 p.m.

Our reporters and columnists are ready for another year thanks to their new season preview. Catch up on the offseason, the latest Wentz-vs-Foles news, and the Birds' prospects before sitting down for tomorrow's season opener.

Two immigrant families, both with children who are American citizens, have taken sanctuary inside First United Methodist Church of Germantown in the face of imminent deportations.

The families, from Honduras and Jamaica, recently had long-standing pleas for asylum turned down. They say being deported to their homelands could mean death.

Carmela Apolonio Hernandez and her four children, all of whom face standing deportation orders, took sanctuary 10 months ago in the Church of the Advocate in North Philly. Hernandez says if the family returns to Mexico, they could be killed by gangsters.

Confirmation hearings for Brett Kavanaugh, President Trump’s nominee to the Supreme Court, got off to a contentious start Tuesday.

Democrats demanded the hearing be delayed over 100,000 pages of documents withheld from the vetting process by the Trump White House. Protesters repeatedly interrupted the hearing and several dozen were removed by police.

The hearings continue today, the second of at least four days of hearings by the Senate Judiciary Committee, and Kavanaugh can expect a long day of questioning.

What you need to know today

  1. A lawyer for Johnny Bobbitt, the homeless man whose act of kindness inspired a $400,000 crowdfunding campaign, says all the money is gone. He claims the couple in charge of the fundraiser mismanaged the funds.

  2. Phillies great Ryan Howard, who played his entire major-league career with the team, announced his retirement from baseball Tuesday and he didn't forget to thank Philly fans.

  3. Ex-Philly cop Ryan Pownall, who fatally shot a man as he ran from a traffic stop last year, turned himself in and was charged with murder Tuesday. It's been nearly 20 years since a city police officer was last criminally prosecuted for an on-duty shooting.

  4. Sorry, area Catholic high school students, you have class today. A strike was narrowly averted Tuesday as teachers accepted what the union president called a "terrible contract."

  5. Philly public school students, however, will have a short day today (again) as temperatures are expected to hit into the 90s with a heat index of 100 or more. Teachers joined a news conference Tuesday afternoon to call the conditions "dangerous."

  6. Inmates of Pennsylvania's brand new prison are reporting a chilly welcome, with some alleging they were the victims of hate crimes as they moved in.

Through Your Eyes | #OurPhilly

Hope you were in the passenger seat for this shot, @filladelphie!

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

  1. It might still feel like summer outside, but that isn't stopping customers from unabashedly enjoying their PSLs (or pumpkin spice lattes, for the uninitiated) earlier than ever, and even on the beach.

  2. Just can't wait for tomorrow night's Eagles game? Get hyped by watching not one but two new NFL Network specials on their Super Bowl win starting at 8 p.m. tonight.

  3. Philadelphia's Fringe Festival starts tomorrow, and this year's lineup includes interactive performance art and a play about the opioid crisis performed at the corner of Kensington and Allegheny.

  4. I had never heard of an affogato until learning where to find the delicious combination of espresso and gelato in Philly, but now they're all I'm thinking about.

  5. Lifehack for people who hate push-ups: shoulder presses, chest presses, and parallel planks combine for a great alternative. You're welcome.

Opinions

"But nobody said the struggle for equal rights and full recognition in this country was going to be easy. We have been fighting for a long time, and we will not stop today."
— Rev. Dr. Donald D. Moore of Philadelphia’s Mount Carmel Baptist Church on why
  1. U.S. magistrate judge Timothy R. Rice writes that a deathbed prayer for the Catholic church is the only appropriate response to the scandals and in-fighting rocking the clergy.

  2. Columnist Will Bunch calls the potential and expected confirmation of Brett Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court another death blow to democracy.

What we’re reading

  1. As New Jersey considers banning plastic bags, WHYY caught up with shoppers to find out what they think. Their answers may surprise you.

  2. If you've ever wondered how wheatpaste art ends up on Philly streets, you'll love Billy Penn's photo essay following street artists on the job.

  3. Eight Philadelphians (including Inquirer and Daily News columnist Christine Flowers) told Philadelphia Magazine all about their weird Eagles game day rituals and they are…something.

  4. The Washington Post analyzed and visualized all of the most common cliches baseball players use, from "did a heckuva job" to "that's a great question." It's a whimsical morning read.

  5. Another whimsical morning read: the Atlantic has created a "unified theory of meme death" to find out why some memes last longer than others. RIP Bad Luck Brian.

Your Daily Dose of | Song

The tradition of the South Philly serenade — in which a groom sings to his bride in public on the eve of the wedding — is staying alive thanks to Italian American millennials.