Fox 29’s Morning Show Is Getting a New Face
Plus, another major meat heist!
Left: Fox 29 Philadelphia newcomer Morgan Parrish at the Fox 35 anchor desk in Orlando. (Photo courtesy Fox 35). Right: Morgan Parrish in a photo used for her announcement that she’s coming to Fox 29 Philadelphia. (Photo courtesy Morgan Parrish)
Check phillymag.com each morning Monday through Thursday for the latest edition of Philly Today. And if you have a news tip for our hardworking Philly Mag reporters, please direct it here. You can also use that form to send us reader mail. We love reader mail!
Fox 29’s Morning Show Is Getting a New Face: Morgan Parrish
If you turn on Good Day Philadelphia one morning soon and see a new face, that would be Morgan Parrish.
The South Jersey native and Rutgers alum comes to us from Orlando, where she’s been an anchor on Fox 35’s Good Morning Orlando for two years. At Fox 29, you can expect to see her popping up here and there and filling in on the popular morning show hosted by Mike Jerrick and Alex Holley.
Judging by this reel of her work in Orlando, Parrish has the energy to fit right in with the Fox 29 morning crew:
View this post on Instagram
“I always want to make a difference by telling positive stories,” Parrish told a Rutgers publication amid the pandemic in 2020. “I hope that people will watch my stories and feel a bit inspired and realize this isn’t going to last forever. Through my work, my writing, and the stories that I share, I always try to connect with the viewers and say ‘I know what you are going through, I know it’s tough times, but there is a light at the end of the tunnel. Things are going to get better.’”
Prior to her gig in Orlando, she was on TV in Cincinnati. Before that, Wilkes-Barre. She was also an intern on The Today Show, The Meredith Vieira Show, and for 6ABC. Definitely moving up in the world.
Parrish starts work at Fox 29 next week.
High School Drama
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, whom the White House is now calling a “madman,” attended Cheltenham High School. And there’s a raging debate over whether the school should remove him from their Wall of Fame. The New York Times has more on this controversy.
Great Giveaways
You’ve always wanted an Eagles Super Bowl ring but you can’t tackle, throw or kick? That’s OK. The team is launching a sweepstakes with one lucky winner receiving a ring and 50-yard-line tickets to an Eagles game. You can sign up here.
The Coming of Cannabis?
Pennsylvania has had medical marijuana for years now, but we can’t seem to agree on recreational sales. A key Republican legislator (along with State Senator Sharif Street of Philadelphia) just introduced a bill that might move things along. Neighboring states New York, New Jersey, Maryland, Ohio and Delaware all have legalized recreational weed. That said, literally nobody I know who smokes weed gets it from a dispensary. They all still use their regular dealer, and they get some great stuff for $100 per ounce.
By the Numbers
$20.52: The new hourly minimum wage for all government workers in Montgomery County. That’s up from $16 per hour. It’s also the highest minimum wage of any local government in the Commonwealth. Meanwhile, the minimum wage for regular folks in Pennsylvania remains stubbornly stuck at $7.25, which, yes, works out to $290 for a 40-hour workweek… before taxes. All of the states bordering us have higher minimum wages, some more than double ours. There’s an effort underfoot to boost Pennsylvania’s minimum wage, starting with $15 in big counties like Philadelphia and then having the more rural areas eventually catch up. Because we can’t just pay all people across the state fairly to begin with.
$0: Federal dollars that Jersey Shore towns are getting to help with beach replenishment. The last time this happened was in 1996.
$700,000: Value of meat that some guys in a gold Nissan stole from a truck in Northeast Philly on Sunday. If this sounds familiar to you, you’ve gotta read this: “The Beef Bandits of Nicetown: Inside the Biggest Cargo Theft Ring in Modern Philadelphia History.”
Local Talent
If you’re a fan of Philly novelist Jo Piazza (The Sicilian Inheritance and We Are Not Like Them), she’s back with Everyone Is Lying to You, a trad-wife thriller, which is apparently now its own literary genre. Piazza will tell you all about it on Tuesday at 6 p.m. at the Center City Barnes & Noble. The random price of $23.53 gets you the book and the privilege of hearing what she has to say.
