Most Penn undergraduates won’t be coming back to campus this fall, the university announced yesterday.

The university revised its plan for on-campus undergraduate housing for the 2020 Fall semester due to continuous spread of COVID-19. The revised plan was announced on Tuesday and now includes very limited on-campus housing for the Fall semester for international students and students experiencing significant housing or personal hardships.

Penn announced earlier this summer that the majority of instruction for undergraduate students would be online during the Fall semester, but the plan allowed for students to move onto campus.  Continue Reading

UPDATE (8/12/2020): Joyce Miller has been found and reunited with her family, according to neighbor reports. We’re still waiting for confirmation from police.

Joyce Miller, 70, has been missing from her West Philadelphia residence since Sunday, Aug. 9, according to police. She lives on the 3600 block of Hamilton Street in the Powelton Village neighborhood and was last seen early Sunday morning. She is 5 feet tall, weighs 150 pounds and is physically very fit, but she suffers from dementia and easily gets lost, according to police.

If you have any information about this person please call Detective George Williams, PPD, at 215-686-3160.

The City’s Streets Department is expected to collect this week’s trash and recycling a day behind the normal schedule beginning Monday, Aug. 10. Residents should set their trash and recycling materials one day later than their regular day. The Streets Department will use Monday, Aug. 10 to only collect recyclables that have been accumulating curbside from previous weeks.

Streets Department crews have been working hard in the last several days to return to a regular trash and recycling collection schedule after significant delays over the past month due to staffing shortages, increased amount and weather. Trash collections have been on or close to a regular collection schedule over the last week, according to Streets Commissioner Carlton Williams. However, recycling collections have been significantly delayed as the Department prioritized trash collections for health and safety reasons.  Continue Reading

A 33-year-old woman was shot several times on the 46th Street platform of the Market-Frankford line just after 3 p.m. on Wednesday.

The unidentified woman was taken to Penn Presbyterian Medical Center and her condition is “unknown,” according to police. She was shot several times in the stomach and once in the leg. No weapon was recovered and no arrests were made as of Thursday morning, police said.

There will be no recycling collections in the city from Wednesday, Aug. 5 through Friday, Aug. 7, the Streets Department announced on Saturday. If these days are your trash/recycling collection days, please hold on to your recyclables until next week.

The Department is still trying to catch up to a regular trash and recycling collection schedule after going off schedule in July, with delays lasting up to 4 days due to shortage of staff and a larger amount of trash and recycling materials last month. While trash collection remains a priority for the Department, recycling collections may still be delayed by several days or even suspended. The city is also currently monitoring a severe weather storm forecast expected to cause high winds and heavy down pours from Hurricane Isaias. Severe weather can cause major delays with trash and recycling collections as it happened in July because of tropical storm Fay.  Continue Reading

The Board of Education has approved the School District of Philadelphia’s revised plan for the 2020-2021 academic year, which proposes 100 percent remote learning for all students from the beginning of the year until at least the end of the first marking period. The new plan was discussed at the Board of Education’s meeting last night. The Board has also approved proposed changes to the academic calendar, which included moving the first day of school from Monday, Aug. 31 to Wednesday, Sept. 2.

The District’s revised plan will have all public school students in grades K-12 engaging in online learning five days per week and receiving instruction by teachers from their enrolled schools through the first marking period, which ends on Nov. 17. Students may transition to a hybrid model of in-person and digital learning after that if it is deemed safe.  A 100 percent digital learning option will also be available at that time, and the District will explore opportunities for students to be taught by teachers from their enrolled school.  Continue Reading