Local Dems oppose SCOTUS pick, school board hosts first public meeting | Morning Newsletter

Without electricity and facing the summer heat, ICE protesters outside of City Hall are working (and sleeping) in shifts, acting as citizen-medics, and welcoming outside solidarity in their new camp. Mayor Jim Kenney met with protesters and immigration advocates Monday to discuss demands that the city end information sharing with ICE.

The National Republican Campaign Committee has officially withdrawn its support of South Jersey congressional candidate Seth Grossman following weeks of headlines documenting hateful rhetoric he used in public postings and comments.

Starting this month, Pennsylvania's state employees will see some extra cash in their paychecks. Yesterday Gov. Tom Wolf signed an executive order to raise their minimum wage.

In recent months, former members of the Jehovah's Witness community have claimed they were sexually abused as children and that leaders protected their abusers. Now a video has surfaced in which a Jehovah's Witness official explains how to destroy potentially damaging records.

Thanks to a 2016 U.S. Supreme Court ruling, more than 500 juvenile lifers in Pennsylvania are getting new sentences and, so far, the outcomes have varied wildly from Bucks County to Philadelphia.

The Abington School District superintendent who engineered the $25 million donation from billionaire Stephen Schwarzman that would have renamed the high school is retiring.

The Phillies faced a doubleheader yesterday, losing one and winning one against the Mets. In the second game, pitcher Aaron Nola picked up the team on the mound and at the plate.

It flourished for years, but now only one store remains standing in South Jersey's Burlington Center Mall — and even that one is about to close.

In local development news, plans are moving forward to turn the old Family Court building on the Ben Franklin Parkway into a hotel; the Delaware River Waterfront Corp. is looking for someone to develop a parking lot by the Ben Franklin Bridge; and demolition of the Christian Street Baptist Church has begun.

The Sixers have been without a general manager for over a month since Bryan Colangelo resigned amid a Twitter scandal, but the team is in no rush to fill the position.

If you've ever been told getting tattoos would hurt your job prospects, you will be surprised to discover one profession where it won't hurt. (And no, it's not "tattoo artist.")

A new study has revealed what amenities renters want most in cities across the country. What do Philadelphians want? Private laundry tops the list.

As the nation gears up for a fight over Trump's Supreme Court pick, Jason L.S. Raia, executive vice president of Freedoms Foundation at Valley Forge, has issued a challenge: seek out someone who disagrees with you and talk to them about it earnestly.

Temple University history professor Kenneth Finkel is fine with the closing of the Philadelphia History Museum. We don't need an old-school museum to honor Philly's past, he writes.

Next City just took a deep dive into how Germantown is gentrifying without displacing its core residents, and they claim the success stems from a focus on common spaces and affordable housing. It's certainly food for thought for Philly's many changing neighborhoods.

Think you're seeing more fireflies this year? You're not imagining things. PhillyVoice says the glowy little guys could be making a comeback in our area.

Think you're also seeing a lot of celebrities using their children (both born and as-yet-unborn) to sell Instagram ads? As Racked explains, the strange new trend is infiltrating our feeds faster than you can hit "unfollow."

Busted: NJ.com took a radar gun out onto the streets of New Jersey to find out where (not if!) drivers are speeding and how badly. They even built a fun quiz to test your internal speedometer.

A startling new BuzzFeed report explains how the Chinese government is using an enormous digital surveillance system to target minorities and pressure those in exile to spy on others. It's a truly shocking story.