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A new route for bike lanes. Abortion scandal in Pa. Kick off your fall. | Morning Newsletter

Rep. Tim Murphy of Pa. will retire after revelations that he urged his mistress to get an abortion. The Flyers win with a historic hat trick. Sale rumors at Atlantic City's Revel.

A bicyclist weaving into traffic to avoid a parked van in the bike lane on on Pine Street.. DAVID SWANSON / Staff Photographer
A bicyclist weaving into traffic to avoid a parked van in the bike lane on on Pine Street.. DAVID SWANSON / Staff PhotographerRead moreDavid Swanson

Happy Thursday. Today feels like a good day to start penciling in some fun for this weekend and beyond. To get you started, here's our Fall Arts calendar. Starting tomorrow, you can take a lighted pumpkin tour of Fairmount Park. And Sunday, you can check out the Old City Fest. If you like what you're reading, it's free to sign up to get this newsletter in your inbox every weekday. I would love to hear your thoughts, ideas, and feedback, so please email me, tweet me @JS_Parks, or reach our social team on Facebook.

— Jessica Parks

» READ MORE: Bikers, drivers, can’t we all just get along?

Contrary to popular belief, bike lanes are actually good for motorists. And for pedestrians. And there is a place for them in a well-designed, well-executed urban streetscape. So says architecture critic Inga Saffron, laying out a 7-point argument for how more and better bike lanes can bring order to our chaotic streets.

The topic is getting proper attention from the city and many stakeholders, including in Mayor Kenney's Vision Zero plan to reduce traffic fatalities, which was unveiled last week. But it's always a controversial one, because bikers often have good reason to hate motorists and vice versa.

But under the scenario Saffron lays out, this animosity could give way to mutual benefit. No word yet on whether that plan will sway our own Stu Bykofsky and his fellow bike-haters.

» READ MORE: Abortion back in spotlight, legislator bows out

On Tuesday, the House approved a bill that would make it a crime to perform an abortion after 20 weeks of fetal development. A day later, one of the bill's co-sponsors, Pennsylvania Rep. Tim Murphy, announced he would retire after revelations that he urged his own mistress to get an abortion.

The scandal has a familiar ring to it: Legislators pushing for one thing in public, and another thing in their own private affairs. In text messages published by the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, Murphy said his staff was responsible for the anti-abortion messaging. "I read them and winced. I told staff don't write any more," he allegedly wrote.

The House bill, meanwhile, faces a near-certain defeat in the Senate.

» READ MORE: Has AC’s Revel Casino been sold?

Yes and no. A document filed in Atlantic County indicates that a Nevada-based group has agreed to buy the shuttered casino tower and adjacent power plant from developer Glenn Straub.

Experts told real estate reporter Jacob Adelman it would be extremely unusual to file such a document — called an "Agreement of Sale" — if no deal had been signed. But Straub himself denied Wednesday that there was any deal.

"There's no sale," he said. "I can file that I'm the king of Arabia at the clerk's office."

For now, I guess we'll chalk it up to another entry in the long, strange saga of Atlantic City.

What you need to know today

  1. It's getting harder to sign up for ACA health insurance. Here are 9 things to do about it.

  2. As the Supreme Court weighs whether cherry-picking legislative districts is legal, political columnist Michael Smerconish writes that we are also cherry-picking ourselves — seeking out areas where we want to live based on the political climate.

  3. Rates of suicide for teenage girls doubled since 2007, and climbed nearly a third for boys, who already were at higher risk, according to a recent CDC study.

  4. Gov. Wolf says he's fed up with House Republicans and "not going to play their games anymore." That does not bode well for Budget Watch 2017.

  5. The NRA is selling a new line of gun owners' insurance, to help them with criminal-defense lawyers and damage claims if they use those firearms against "alleged victims."

  6. The Flyers won their season opener in style with a historic hat trick by Wayne Simmonds.

» READ MORE: #OurPhilly

We want to see what our community looks like through your eyes. Show us the park that your family walks through every weekend with the dog, the block party in your neighborhood or the historic stretch you see every morning on your commute to work.

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 to build those followers!

That’s Interesting

  1. How times change. Bam Margera, the Chester County skateboarder made famous by MTV's Jackass, is grown up, sober, approaching 40 and fatherhood.

  2. Forget pasta stations and waffle bars. The latest innovation in college dining halls is letting the students cook their own meals.

  3. In Philadelphia, where 90 percent of homes were built before 1980 and the poverty rate is at 26 percent, it takes a village to rehab a rowhome.

  4. In this age of Instagram marketing and online mega-retailers, it's refreshing to read about family businesses like Minuteman Press, founded by a Nigerian immigrant and built through door-knocking and personal interaction with clients.

Opinions

"There is misery, but you learn to adapt and adjust. And you don't ever, ever, ever, ever quit." — Former Inquirer sports columnist Bill Lyon, on what it's like when Alzheimer's chips away at your ability to communicate
Dueling views

  1. Leah Libresco, a statistician, said she was surprised when her data showed that focusing on protecting the different kinds of potential victims and reforming potential killers would be more effective than sweeping bans focused on the guns themselves.

  2. Adam Gaffney, a doctor at Harvard Medical School, says we should stop pushing against "assault weapons" and instead ban all semiautomatic firearms. 'When it comes to a mass shooter in a civilian environment, what matters more than anything is the sheer quantity of terrifying projectiles flying through crowded spaces."

What we’re reading

  1. Bruce Springsteen talks about New Jersey, Broadway, his new album, politics and more in a lengthy two-part interview with Variety.

  2. Hundreds of police officers who were fired for misconduct nationwide have been reinstated, a Washington Post investigation found — including Cyrus Mann, a Philadelphia officer about whom our own Mensah Dean has written extensively. A defense attorney once described Mann to a jury as a "nightmare to the citizens of Philadelphia."

  3. Next City takes an in-depth look at how the Kensington community is rallying to combat opioid addiction in that community.

  4. A new set of alleged clergy victims is stepping forward: People who believe their parish priest is their biological father. The Boston Globe's Spotlight team returns to hear their stories.

Your Daily Dose of | Art

How does an artist who suffers from "face-blindness" become famous for his portraits of famous faces? He paints them really, really, really close up, lending them a sense of intimacy and vulnerability. Read this Q&A with modern photorealist painter Chuck Close and see his exhibit at PAFA opening Friday.

Updated: This post has been updated to correct that Rep. Murphy said his staff was responsible for the anti-abortion messaging. And to clarify the ownership group involved in potentially buying Revel.