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1. Public education failed our children and our nation

By Todd Shepherd

If the Russians or the Chinese Communist Party wanted to take over or weaken America without firing a shot, they could focus on our children to slowly undermine and weaken our society. Then, we couldn’t compete economically, and wouldn’t think America is worth defending. 

A frightening number of our students aren’t proficient in reading, writing or math, with science scores so bad they sometimes aren’t reported. And their knowledge of American history is so demonstrably bad that their ignorance and misunderstanding of our history would be embarrassing even if they were foreigners. Their appreciation of America is even lower than their understanding of our history and Constitution. 

So many students and Gen Z are anxious, easily rattled, and lonely that colleges have “safe spaces,” and even Harvard and the New York Times have studied and written about the rising anxiety among younger Americans.

And a shocking number of Americans under 30 prefer socialism to capitalism — some studies suggest a clear majority.

Why It Matters. For decades, the education swamp — the teachers’ unions, their allies on school boards, and higher education who “prepares” them to teach — has tossed-aside common sense, de-emphasized academics, divided and frightened our children, and taught them to have contempt for America. The “modern” education establishment failed our students and our nation. 

Intentionally at each step. With little to no concern with what it did to our students or our nation — which many of them were taught to dislike, or despise.

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2. Cleaning up Filthadelphia

By Jeff Cole

The news tip was unlike anything we’d ever received.

A visitor to an East Falls cemetery in Philadelphia complained vandals had broken into a crypt on the property exposing human remains inside. The tip detailed how the visitor was outraged by the scene and worried others coming to mourn loved ones would also be startled and offended.

The cemetery gates were wide open when we entered, and no one responded to a knock at the office door for us to question. We decided to do what reporters often do in situations like these, find an out-of-the-way spot, sit, and watch. What we saw was a stunning example of illegal dumping of trash, often called short dumping, in a city long plagued by the practice.

Why It Matters. Illegal dumping has long plagued Philadelphia. In twenty-five years of reporting here, I've done dozens of stories and spoken with many residents disheartened, often livid, at the tires, old furniture, construction debris and foul-smelling trash dumped in their communities often overnight along side streets, dead ends even main roads hit repeatedly. Sometimes we’d pick through the trash looking for an address or an indicator of where it had come from and who did it. Often, the piles were filled with wood, drywall, broken glass, and window frames short-dumped on a city street by work crews cutting corners and ducking disposal fees.

But there may be yet another way to slow the scourge of illegal dumping in Philadelphia: embarrassment. 

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3. Lightning Round

4. What we're reading.