Tuesday, June 25, 2024

Rookies reflect; Lanterns ignite; Trump visits

Starting a new job can be a whirlwind. Remembering everyone’s name. Filing everything in the correct format. Figuring out how to eat throughout a day on the run.

Now imagine six months in, you have to help turn around the budget for one of the nation’s largest cities.

BP’s Nick Kariuki caught up with council’s four newbies — Nina Ahmad, Rue Landau, Nicolas O’Rourke and Jeffrey “Jay” Young Jr. — to see what they learned, what surprised them, and what’s next. Continue reading…

Councilmember Nina Ahmad (clockwise from top left), Councilmember Rue Landau, Councilmember Nicolas O’Rourke and Councilmember Jeffrey “Jay” Young Jr. (Nick Kariuki/Billy Penn and Cory Sharber/WHYY)

Philadelphia’s Chinese Lantern Festival features more than 1,200 works of art at Franklin Square this summer.

This year’s festival takes place during the Year of the Dragon. The classic 164-foot-long dragon will be on display, which is longer than three school buses and weighs 6,000 pounds. Standing at 21 feet, the head was installed with a 15-person crew. More than 70 pieces make up this one lantern. Continue reading…

Smoke-breathing dragon at the 2023 Philadelphia Chinese Lantern Festival in Franklin Square. (Jeff Fusco for Tianyu)

RECAP: What else happened?

$ = paywalled

• Trump met with protests ahead of speech at the Liacouras Center while thousands of supporters cheered him on. [WHYY]