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Protesters rally in Rittenhouse Square, Senior Week puts the ‘wild’ in Wildwood | Morning Newsletter

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Ethan Schiller (left), 4, and his brother Lukas, 2-1/2, look over the dozens of shoes representing children who were separated from their parents by immigration officials, part of a protest at Rittenhouse Square on Tuesday, near the hotel hosting a GOP fundraiser with Vice President Pence.
Ethan Schiller (left), 4, and his brother Lukas, 2-1/2, look over the dozens of shoes representing children who were separated from their parents by immigration officials, part of a protest at Rittenhouse Square on Tuesday, near the hotel hosting a GOP fundraiser with Vice President Pence.Read moreTOM GRALISH / Staff Photographer

Welcome to Wednesday, Philadelphia. If you've spent the last week devastated by the separation of children from their families at the U.S. border, you are certainly not alone. Many protesters joined a rally in Rittenhouse Square yesterday to voice their opposition to the policy causing the mass separations while VP Mike Pence was in town. Meanwhile, down the Shore (which could be another planet, considering how incredibly different these stories are) other young people are living it up for Senior Week in Wildwood. Perhaps unsurprisingly, the town has a love-hate relationship with the rowdy tradition. And by the way, it will be warm again today, but not so humid.

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

» READ MORE: Protesters rally outside Pence fund-raiser at Rittenhouse

Hundreds of protesters joined a rally at Rittenhouse Square Tuesday afternoon to protest the Trump administration's "zero tolerance" policy at the southern U.S. border, which has separated more than 2,000 immigrant children from their families. The location was no coincidence; Vice President Mike Pence was attending a fundraiser nearby.

Images and recordings of children crying in detention centers after being taken from their parents have provoked national outcry. The governors of Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and Delaware have all opposed sending troops to the border due to the policy.

Two-thirds of Americans oppose the separations, which the president has falsely and repeatedly blamed on existing laws. The surge in separations follows a Justice Department policy announced in April.

» READ MORE: Wildwood Senior Week: A money-maker that residents love to hate

Each year at just about this time, thousands of teenagers flock to the Shore to celebrate their high school graduations. The gatherings dot every beach town, but Wildwood is its, well, wild epicenter.

Senior Week is typically a parent-free, loud-music-filled, alcohol-fueled affair that can be best described by residents as a "necessary evil." Rental owners abhor renters' sometimes destructive tendencies and business owners love the extra cash.

But the teens don't just go on spending sprees; they bring in money for underage drinking and noise violations, too.

» READ MORE: Jehovah’s Witness leaders dismiss abuse allegations, but one letter says differently

Stephen Lett is a member of the small governing body that runs the Jehovah's Witnesses. When he has weighed in on coverage of the organization's widespread child sex abuse problems from Australia to Pennsylvania, it's largely been to deny there are problems at all.

Some ex-Witnesses claim the organization knows its molestation issues run deep and refuse to meaningfully address them. One victim, Chessa Manion, says she has a letter from Lett that backs her up.

What you need to know today

  1. It's been 38 years since Debbie Africa first went to jail as one of the MOVE Nine after a deadly 1978 police standoff at MOVE's Powelton Village compound. At 62 she's now out on parole, but other members of the group remain behind bars.

  2. A green patch of Pennsylvania lawn holds the remains of nearly 200 Native American children who perished at boarding schools created to destroy native cultures. Now, nearly 130 years later, families are traveling to reclaim and repatriate their remains.

  3. Authorities have released the 911 call and police audio from the fatal shooting of a Deptford shoplifting suspect earlier this month, illustrating how the incident escalated to a deadly confrontation.

  4. The price of insulin and other supplies required to manage diabetes are climbing in the U.S. and doctors and patients are struggling to find solutions. But there are some ways patients can save money, like shopping around and talking to their doctor.

  5. A new report on drug overdoses across Philadelphia shows that, while the epidemic is worst in Kensington, it has its grip on less visible communities in South and West Philly.

  6. Rejoice, commuters. SEPTA just unveiled the first stage of its huge renovation project making over the pedestrian tunnels beneath Center City. One day we'll be able to walk from 18th to 8th Streets and JFK to Spruce and Broad all underground.

Through Your Eyes | #OurPhilly

@anthony.pezzotti captures the best way to beat the heat.

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. We're about to see what all those Creed II cameras were capturing around town: the trailer for the new Rocky film lands today. (Meanwhile, Sylvester Stallone remains under investigation in Los Angeles for an alleged sex crime.)

  2. Congratulations are in order for Stella and Gus, the Philadelphia Zoo's giraffe couple, who welcomed a baby boy, Beau, into the world Sunday. Say it with me: awwwww!

  3. It's been an unlucky season so far for Phillies rookie J.P. Crawford. Just two weeks after coming off the disabled list, Crawford's back on it for four to six weeks after breaking his hand Tuesday night.

  4. It's that time again: inspectors recently shut down another round of local restaurants (including some with familiar names) due to mouse feces, expired food and more gross violations.

  5. Robert Marchisello was a Philadelphia firefighter for 37 years and he remembers every day of his long career — thanks to a meticulously kept journal documenting every sight, smell, and feeling.

  6. There's just one more day until the NBA draft. But it's not just coach Brett Brown making all the decisions. Go inside his draft-night war room with its diverse team of basketball minds.

Opinions

"I see America once again treating brown children as objects to be used and manipulated, and I am appalled. Not because I see what is happening to other people, but because I am watching a repetition of what happened to my own." — Columnist Solomon Jones on families being separated at the U.S. border 153 years after slavery was abolished in Texas.

  1. The "zero tolerance" policy at the U.S. border has seen a sweeping backlash. Columnist John Baer expects the policy to end soon, for political reasons, but that it will soon be forgotten among the president's other controversies. 

  2. Following the tragic shooting at a Trenton arts festival Sunday, longtime resident and Philadelphia Media Network's Vice President of Reader Engagement Michael Days reminds readers that Trenton is so much more than this violence.

What we’re reading

  1. The New Yorker has two important stories on the U.S. immigration crisis that you should read today. The first explains how the government has no plan in place for reuniting the immigrant families being separated at the border. The second focuses on one Honduran woman's story in ICE detention; she fears she'll be deported without the son she hasn't seen in six weeks.

  2. Don't miss Philadelphia Weekly's new investigation into the city's system for reporting internal misconduct, like sexual abuse complaints. They say those who've attempted to navigate it found it woefully ineffective.

  3. Philly is considering doing away with the 10-year property-tax abatement on new construction. But as WHYY writes, one new report just provided arguments for both sides of the debate. Wait, what?

  4. The life story of Bobby Czyz, once a world champion boxer who's now a New Jersey grocery store cashier, as told by NJ.com, is almost stranger than fiction.

  5. On a more musical note, if you're headed to Beyoncé and Jay-Z's tour when it stops by Lincoln Financial Field next month, you'll want the scoop on how their secret album came together straight from their collaborators, via Rolling Stone.

Your Daily Dose of | Snakes

"Some are friendly as hell, and some are just nasty." To hunters who join snake roundups for fundraisers and family entertainment, Pennsylvania's venomous rattlesnakes are just like dogs.