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Wintry mix ahead; N.J. plant learns the power of meatball grease | Morning Newsletter

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Dennis Palmer, executive director, looks over one of the sewage holding tanks at Landis Sewerage Authority in Vineland, NJ on February 7, 2019. The facility makes more energy than it uses through a series of initiatives that include solar, wind, recapturing methane, and others. It even has its own farm fertilized by biosolids, and sells the hay it grows. It even has arrangements to take in meatball plant grease and convert it to energy.
Dennis Palmer, executive director, looks over one of the sewage holding tanks at Landis Sewerage Authority in Vineland, NJ on February 7, 2019. The facility makes more energy than it uses through a series of initiatives that include solar, wind, recapturing methane, and others. It even has its own farm fertilized by biosolids, and sells the hay it grows. It even has arrangements to take in meatball plant grease and convert it to energy.Read moreDAVID MAIALETTI / Staff Photographer
    by Aubrey Nagle
    Published 

    The Morning Newsletter

    Start your day with the Philly news you need and the stories you want all in one easy-to-read newsletter

Let’s get the bad news out of the way: today’s weather isn’t looking so good. The region is under a winter weather advisory and we can expect snow, ice, rain, and a messy morning commute. Yuck. Now, onto the good news: you have another reason to love meatballs! A local sewage plant is using meatball grease to make energy. Yes, seriously. You can thank my colleague Frank Kummer for bringing this delightful story to your attention. And possibly making you think about meatballs all day.

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

S. Jersey sewage plant makes energy from wind, solar - and meatball grease

The Landis Sewerage Authority, which services Vineland, Cumberland County, is wringing every bit of power out of the process of treating human waste, with an environmentally friendly bent.

The plant makes energy from a wind turbine, a solar array, plus meatball grease, pancake batter, soup mix, and vestiges from a fruit-juice plant.

It actually generates more power than it uses. Talk about getting creative with the leftovers.

Sources in ‘Johnny Doc’ case: PPA board chair Ashdale bribed councilman to squash agency audit

In 2016, City Council pushed for an audit to determine whether the Philadelphia Parking Authority was withholding money from city schools.

PPA Board Chairman Joseph Ashdale wasn’t happy about that and made his opposition known. According to the federal indictment filed against John J. Dougherty, Councilman Bobby Henon, and others, that included allegedly paying Henon for his support.

The alleged bribe took the form of more than $3,000 in free windows.

Why aren’t more doctors prescribing the gold standard for addiction treatment?

When it comes to treating addiction, opioid-based medications are the gold standard. They’re proven to help people achieve lasting recovery while curbing cravings and preventing painful withdrawal symptoms.

Though doctors need no special training to prescribe opioid pain pills, federal regulations surrounding these treatment medications require special training and monitoring.

That means doctors able to prescribe the treatment can be hard to come by, especially in rural areas.

What you need to know today

  1. Congressional negotiators reached a tentative agreement Monday night to avoid another government shutdown. The agreement includes nearly $1.4 billion for 55 miles of new fencing along the southern border, far less than the $5.7 billion for 215 miles the White House wanted.

  2. On Monday, the Roman Catholic dioceses in New Jersey announced plans to establish a victims-compensation fund for those who were abused by clergy members as children. Details are still being finalized.

  3. Two adjoining Fishtown rowhouses collapsed Sunday, including a home which a 94-year-old woman owned and lived in, after a contractor began working on the other building without proper permits or safety precautions. Luckily, no one was injured. 

  4. Mayor Jim Kenney took a conspicuously low-key route to announcing his bid for reelection: he posted it on social media. He was promptly dragged for it, which his campaign notes is par for the course. 

  5. New Jersey Sen. Cory Booker picked South Carolina for one of his first events as a presidential candidate. Why? He’ll need a strong showing there if he wants the nomination. 

Through Your Eyes | #OurPhilly

Only such poetry could shoo away the rainy day blues, @sniemkiewicz.

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. The Flyers fired 51 shots against the Pittsburgh Penguins last night but they still fell to their arch-rivals, 4-1. On Feb. 23 the two teams face off outdoors at Lincoln Financial Field.

  2. Fans really wanted Will Smith to be blue as the iconic Genie in the new Aladdin adaptation. The latest trailer is a big “be careful what you wish for” moment.

  3. It almost goes without saying: your body doesn’t love how much time you spend looking at a screen. With a few targeted exercises, you can reduce the pain of “text neck.”

  4. The Wells Fargo Center’s renovation isn’t quite finished. Sixers and Flyers games will get a $15 million “kinetic” scoreboard next season.

  5. If you’re tuning into the wacky reality show The Masked Singer, you’ll want to know the behind-the-scenes secrets TV critic Ellen Gray just learned about the Fox hit. 

  6. It’s spring training time, regardless of what our local weather says. Catch up with a look at every player on the Phillies roster.

Opinions

“Is this a crazy idea? Yes. Is it too ambitious? Definitely. Would it be expensive? Probably. But is it still worth exploring? I think so.” — John Andrew Gallery, former executive director of the Preservation Alliance for Greater Philadelphia, on his idea to save the Philadelphia History Museum.

  1. As America battles over race, sex, and politics, answering a few key questions could help us wrestle with these issues, writes Rick Barton, a lecturer at Princeton University, board member of the Alliance for Peacebuilding, and former ambassador and assistant secretary of state.

  2. Last week, nine City Council members voted against a bill that could have had an impact on the over-prescription of opioids, a deplorable decision amidst the city’s opioid epidemic, writes the Inquirer Editorial Board. 

What we’re reading

  1. It’s always a good time to make a difference in your community, but it might be even easier now that Curbed Philly has updated its mega-list of the best ways to volunteer and get involved in the city.

  2. Sad news for the sartorially-obsessed: Billy Penn has taken a look at the state of Philadelphia’s bespoke tailors and found they’ve slowly been closing up shop.

  3. Another sector facing difficult times? The trucking industry, which is trying to open up as it gets harder to find drivers, reports NPR. Their peek into a career you might not know much about is well worth it. 

  4. The story of princess Sheikha Latifa bint Mohammed al-Maktoum and her unsuccessful escape from Dubai, reported by the New York Times, is a startling look inside a woman’s life in the conservative society.

  5. The New Yorker has published photos from Robin Hammond’s series “Where Love Is Illegal," which sheds light on LGBTQ discrimination around the world, and they’re incredibly moving.

A Daily Dose of | Gritty(s)

There was going to be a Running of the Grittys, but the evolution of its mysterious Facebook event page has turned into a strange saga.