First responders came to the rescue of a young woman who got stuck up a tree playing "Pokemon Go" inside a Gloucester County, New Jersey, cemetery Tuesday night.
East Greenwich Township Fire and Rescue posted a safety message about the woman's plight on their Facebook page as their "Public Safety Message of the Day."
The woman, who police described as a young adult, climbed a tree inside Eglington Cemetery to catch a Pokemon. When she couldn't get down, she called 911 and reluctantly admitted when rescuers talked to her that she'd been playing the game. "She was a bit embarrassed at that point," said Rob Gould III, the township's fire chief.
Rescuers used a ladder to get the woman down and didn't embarrass her any further by releasing her name.
They did ask people to think more about their safety when playing "Pokemon Go."
"We have noticed there has been an increase in foot traffic around town. Some of the sites in town such as the churches and the cemetery are game stops," Gould said.
"We were just trying to get the word out that people need to be cognizant about watching where they are going and what they are doing so no one gets hurt. This game phenomenon is happening everywhere, not just the urban areas and we don't want to see anyone get hurt. Luckily this person escaped injury."
Kitty Heite remembers the Republican National Convention well.
She protested the whole week in August 2000 when the RNC came to Philadelphia.
Next week, Heite will be at it again -- marching and protesting with a coalition of activist organizations called the DNC Action Committee. To the longtime activist, it feels the same, except with a different political party.
“Sixteen years ago, we protested the prison industrial complex. That's only gotten worse. Inequality in wealth? It's gotten worse. Healthcare? Schools?” Heite asked, reeling off causes that protesters hope to rouse Democrats with during the DNC. “Nothing’s gotten better. It's gotten worse.”
A dozen activist organizations who make up the DNC Action Committee came together Wednesday at the Center City liberal stronghold Arch Street United Methodist Church to make two things clear: There will be numerous marches and rallies throughout Philadelphia July 24-28 and Hillary Clinton is not part of the solution.
“We are taking our demands to the streets, the convention floor, and the entire nation,” committee leader Brianna Jones said at the church. “Make no mistake. There will be protests during the DNC.”
Groups included in the coalition include Black Lives Matter, Democracy Spring and Poor People’s Economic Rights Campaign. All of the groups have planned protests and marches.
Jones said the DNC Action Committee has been meeting every other Sunday since the beginning of the year in preparation for the convention.
Several leaders spoke of support for Bernie Sanders, but Heite said the coalition is not about a particular politician. It's about the issues affecting a vast number of Americans, she said.
While the group’s message may not be centered around Sanders, who last week endorsed his rival Hillary Clinton for the party nomination, many showed strong animosity for the woman expected to formally receive the party nod Tuesday night at the Wells Fargo Center.
Cheri Honkala, the leader of the Poor People’s Economic Rights Campaign, was among the more adamant and went so far as to suggest Clinton has spies infiltrating the ranks of protest groups.
Honkala said she will vote for Green Party candidate Jill Stein in the November general election. Many others at the meeting said they would not vote for Clinton in November.
“The Democrats are creating loyal opposition because they don’t want an exodus from the Democratic Party,” Honkala said, adding that some so-called protesters are “on the payroll” of the Clinton campaign.
When Deja Lynn Alvarez found out the well-reviled Westboro Baptist Church planned to spew hate at a demonstration outside Philadelphia’s transgender clinic at the Mazzoni Center, she knew some love was in order.
The transgender woman, who runs the city’s only LGBTQ shelter, got a few friends together and organized "The Great Wall of Love," a counter-protest to block Westboro’s message that transgender individuals, like gays, are an abomination.
The idea: flood the street with members of the LGBTQ community and straight allys who would make noise and hold up signs to keep the entrance to the Mazzoni Center, at 9th and Locust in Center City, open and free of the negative distraction.
"This is a safe place where members of the transgender community can come to get their care and to think that the Westboro Baptist Church could derail that or interrupt it in some way, just didn’t sit well with us," she said.
They made a Facebook event page asking people to show up. And they weren’t let down.
Hundreds of people filled the sidewalk outside the center Tuesday afternoon ready for a battle of love against hate. People holding signs like "God is Transgender," "Philly Hearts LGBTQI and Trans People" and "Love Wins" stretched four deep for nearly the entire block from 8th to 9th Street.
Leanna Vanencia, who appeared at the event as "Gay Jesus," dressed in a white tunic and flower crown, was overwhelmed by the show of support.
"It makes me feel very hopeful," she said. "It makes me definitely feel like there’s hope for our community in the future."
Westboro supporters, who are in town to protest during this week’s Democratic National Convention,” were supposed to set up across the street from the Mazzoni’s entrance, but were relegated to the corner of 8th and Locust.
About a dozne were expected, but only five showed up. They were surrounded by police as they chanted and held signs denoucning the LGBTQ community.
A number of counter-protesters didn’t even realize Westboro had shown up. Sara Frazier was one of them.
"I think we did [achieve our goal]," she said.
After about an hour, Westboro was gone. But the wall of love continued to stand.
"We have a community that no matter how hot, no matter where they need to go, that’ll step up and stop people from harassing, hurting and preventing people from getting access to health care,” said Nellie Fitzpatrick, director of the city’s Office on LGBT Affairs.
For Alvarez, the event demonstrated a lot more.
"For so long the 'T' has been left out of the 'L-G-B' and this is showing that there’s a movement to change that. I feel like the transgender community has kind of taken hold and claimed their own space and the rest of the community has come together with us," she said.
"And I can’t help but feel like 'finally.'"
An arrest has been made in a shooting near a Penn's Landing bar that left a 24-year-old man dead.
Xavier Braswell, 23, of Burlington, New Jersey, was arrested and charged with murder and other related offenses.
Philadelphia Police initially responded to the area of Columbus Boulevard and Spring Garden Street for the report of a fight outside Cavanaugh's River Deck late Sunday night. As officers arrived, they heard gunshots around 11:45 p.m., said Philadelphia Police Chief Inspector Scott Small.
"We know at least nine shots were fired... some just inches from where he victim collapsed," said Small.
Police said the victim, identified as 24-year-old Shelton Merritt of Lawnside, New Jersey, was shot in the head and torso. The man appeared to be getting into the rear door of sport utility vehicle at the time, said investigators. Merritt was taken to Hahnemann Hospital where he was pronounced dead at 12:07 a.m.
Police say the shooting stemmed from an argument. They also believe Merritt was involved in an altercation at Cavanaugh's prior to the shooting. After the shooting, three men ran into the parking lot of Cavanaugh's, said investigators. The nightclub had earlier hosted a "Day Break" party sponsored by radio station Power 99 and McDonald's.
A witness pointed officers toward three men saying, "They just shot my boy," said police.
Officers were able to take the three suspects into custody after they were seen running from the scene. One of the suspects threw a gun into the Delaware River, said police. Marine officers searched the water for it.
Several bars in the area -- popular for its waterfront nightclubs -- were open at the time, said Small.
Dozens of Bernie Sanders delegates walked out of the Democratic National Convention Tuesday night following Hillary Clinton's nomination for president, and many promised to leave the political party in protest.
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Vincent Venditti, a Georgia delegate pledged to Sanders, said outside Philadelphia's Wells Fargo Center that he considers himself a political independent effective immediately.[[388324462,C]]
Their protest and exodus is in line with what hundreds of protesters had been saying outside the convention's security perimeter. Many said Hillary Clinton's nomination as the Democratic candidate for president would prompt them to quit the party.
"They know where to find me," Venditti said, noting that he would consider returning to the party if Clinton's candidacy was abandoned.
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The group held a sit-in at a tent for journalists, some with tape over their mouths. It dispersed after about an hour, but the protesters' point was made.
The Democratic Party and their convention have been roiled by an email controversy. Hacked emails published by Wikileaks appeared to show some in the Democratic National Committee favoring Hillary Clinton, a charge leveled throughout the presidential primaries but which party leader Debbie Wasserman Schultz had denied.
But the email scandal led to her ouster on Monday — she had been supposed to gavel in the convention on Monday, but did not do so. Even Sanders was booed at an event Monday, when he told supporters it was in the country's best interest to elect Clinton president.
Hundreds of people who gathered in a hot meeting room at a downtown Philadelphia Quaker meetinghouse on Tuesday afternoon came because they had one thing in common: Whether personally or through a loved one, they have faced some kind of battle with addiction.
"There's no road map for addiction," said Jim Hood, a co-founder of Facing Addiction, the nonprofit that organized the caucus. Speaking before the event kicked off, Hood became emotional and choked up while sharing the story of his son, who died of an overdose, leaving his father with an eternal drive to keep fighting the battle against addiction.
"My oldest boy started drinking at 14, marijuana at 15 and pills at 16. It went on many years," Hood, who is based in Connecticut, said. "When he had a fatal overdose before he turned 21, it was soul-crushing. I said, 'Why the hell was it so hard to get trusted help for somebody who's sick?'"
That question is what much of the discussion was about at the caucus, which Hood and his fellow co-founder, Greg Williams, said was the largest addiction caucus ever to take place during a Democratic National Convention. The event drew about 500 people, who packed shoulder-to-shoulder on the benches in a meeting room at Center City's Friends Center to hear speakers including former Congressman Patrick Kennedy, Philadelphia Department of Behavioral Health and Intellectual Disability Services Commissioner Arthur Evans, Delaware Gov. Jack Markell and a host of other politicians, advocates and people in long-term recovery.
"The threats to our streets are not in Aleppo or Fallujah," U.S. Sen. Ed Markey, D-Mass., told the crowd early in the caucus. "The terrorism that could come into peoples lives is this drug epidemic."
Markey spoke in a line of several politicians from New England, where the Facing Addiction organization is headquartered. As part of the DNC, Facing Addiction is also sponsoring wellness rooms for recovery in the Convention Center all week. Hood and Williams said their group sponsored the same at last week's Republican National Convention, marking the first time in history that the RNC had wellness rooms for addiction recovery.
Most of the speeches and panels centered on reforms for the criminal justice and health care reforms including establishing strong drug-treatment programs in jails, ending incarceration as a way to handle addiction, overhauling the insurance industry to require coverage for addiction treatment, and full funding of the Comprehensive Addiction Recovery Act, commonly called CARA.
Many speakers stressed that although it was the DNC that brought them to town for the caucus, addiction is a nonpartisan issue.
"This is not a Democrat or Republican disease," Boston Mayor Marty Walsh said. "This disease doesn't care what side you're on."
Watch former U.S. Rep. Patrick Kennedy share the story of his own battle with addiction here:
Rhode Island state Sen. Joshua Miller talked about criminal justice reform in his state, saying that advocates there determined that a high percentage of people dying of overdoses had been incarcerated within 90 days before their deaths. To combat those deaths, Miller said, the state carved out between $1.5 million and $2 million in its most recent budget for medication-assisted treatment in prisons.
Walsh and others echoed the importance of removing addiction from the criminal justice system and instead treating it in the health system.
"If you take the drug or alcohol out of their system, they don't commit the crime they're there for," Walsh said. "We have to catch them the day before they commit the crime. Not the day after."
Evans, Philadelphia's DBHIDS commissioner, said access to treatment is a major issue for people facing addiction, stressing that the other side of insurance parity -- aside from mandating coverage for treatment -- is ensuring that people can access help.
"Part of our advocacy has to be making sure our policies align," Evans said, adding that 90 percent of people in need of treatment don't get it.
Several of the speakers during the caucus, including delegates for both Bernie Sanders and Hillary Clinton who participated in a panel, were in recovery themselves, and shared the stories of their own struggles with addiction.
"Ten years ago, I was homeless on the streets in Norwalk, working as a sex worker and doing anything for my next drink or drug," Mariel Harrison, a panelist, said. "Before that was me, I thought that was other people."
Harrison, 30, has been in recovery since 2007. She said she shares her story to break the stigma around addiction and raise awareness that it can happen to anyone.
"If this were Zika, if this were cancer, if this were anything else, it wouldn't be treated this way," she said.
Also speaking from personal experience on a panel about humanizing addiction, Patty DiRenzo, of South Jersey, said that what families battling addiction need is more support -- both from workplaces and the health care system. DiRenzo's son, Sal, died of a heroin overdose in Camden in 2010. NBC10 told Sal's story in-depth in Generation Addicted, a special report on the heroin and opioid epidemic, earlier this year.
"When you have someone in your household struggling with addiction, the whole family struggles," DiRenzo said. "We need support for families. I never knew what to do with my son when he came out of treatment."
Al Shaffer, who attended the caucus, knows DiRenzo's battle all too well -- Shaffer's son battled his own addiction, but made it out, and has been in recovery about two and a half years, Shaffer said.
"It affects everyone," Shaffer, of Cherry Hill, who is in an advocacy group with DiRenzo, said. "It's in every corner of society. It has a ripple effect."
After the caucus ended, many participants and attendees headed a few blocks to Dilworth Park, outside City Hall, for a "Like-Minded" rally to call for reform in mental health and addiction treatment.
Among some 200 to 300 people who gathered for the rally -- many donning green shirts with the words "Like-Minded" emblazoned on the front -- Greta Schwartz stood out. Schwartz didn't put on a T-shirt, but instead dragged a life-size coffin, with dozens of names of people lost to addiction and suicide written on it, strapped to her thin body.
Schwartz said she decided to make the coffin and take a trek from Trenton to South Jersey -- more than 90 miles -- on Memorial Day to raise awareness about the need for reform in the mental-health system. She's seen up close how bad things can be for those in need.
"I carry markers with me so people can put their loved ones' names on it," Schwartz said of the coffin, which followed her like a specter. She estimated that about 120 names have made it onto the coffin since she first began her advocacy in May.
Gary Tennis, Pennsylvania's secretary of Drug and Alcohol programs, took the podium during the rally, along with U.S. Rep. Donald Norcross, D-NJ, Evans and other leaders.
Tennis, who did not speak during the caucus but instead sat in the audience, traveled to Philadelphia from Harrisburg for the events.
"It's an important day," Tennis said. "It's time to start treating addiction like other diseases. We have a lot of strange, inhumane and irrational policies, and with 1,000 people dying a week, it's time to change that."
Watch U.S. Rep. Donald Norcross' address during the rally here:
Learn more about the impact the addiction crisis has on our region in Generation Addicted, NBC10's in-depth special report on the heroin and opioid epidemic.
A driver is recovering after he or she crashed into a Chinese restaurant in South Philadelphia Tuesday night.
The victim was driving on 21st Street and Oregon Avenue shortly before 9 p.m. when he or she lost control of the vehicle and crashed into the Pearl of East Chinese Restaurant. A firefighter managed to pull the victim out of the car and he or she was transported to the hospital. Officials have not yet revealed his or her condition.
No one else was hurt during the incident.
PHILADELPHIA — On a night headlined by President Bill Clinton’s admiration for his wife — the now official Democratic nominee — there was a less-than-glowing treatment of some facts.
Note to Readers
This story was written with the help of the entire staff, including some of those based in Philadelphia who are at the convention site. As we did for the Republican National Convention, we intend to vet the major speeches at the Democratic National Convention for factual accuracy, applying the same standards to both.
Former Vermont Gov. Howard Dean said Donald Trump’s “whole plan” for health care was to replace Obamacare with “quote, ‘Something so much better.'” Dean added: “Six-word plan for health care.” In fact, Trump has more than 1,000 words on his plans for health care on his campaign website.
Dean: Now, Donald Trump has a plan, too. He would rip up Obamacare and throw 20 million people off their health insurance; Donald Trump will take us back to a time when insurance companies could deny you coverage if you have a preexisting condition, or he will take you back to the time where insurance companies could charge you more just because you are a woman. And what is he going to replace this with? Quote: “Something so much better.” “Yuge,” no doubt. That’s it. That’s the whole plan right there. Six-word plan for health care.
Dean was referring to comments from Trump at a debate in February, when he said, “We are going to replace Obamacare with something so much better.” Even then, he went on to say the replacement should rely on private insurance and do something to help low-income Americans. And in March, he released a seven-point plan.
It calls for: repealing the Affordable Care Act, allowing the sale of insurance across state lines, allowing individuals who buy their own health insurance to take a tax deduction for the cost of premiums, enabling health savings accounts that could be used by other family members or inherited by heirs, changing Medicaid to a block-grant program, instituting price transparency, and allowing the sale of imported drugs.
Trump’s plan calls these ideas “simply a place to start,” but it’s far from a “six-word plan.”
The list of proposals doesn’t include subsidies or other aid to low-income Americans. It doesn’t say anything about keeping the ACA provisions that Dean mentions — requiring insurance companies to cover those with preexisting conditions and not charge higher premiums based on gender. And an analysis by the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget supports Dean’s claim that Trump’s repeal-and-replace plan would “throw 20 million people off their health insurance.”
CRFB said that the two aspects of the plan that would increase insurance coverage — selling insurance across state lines and allowing a tax deduction for premiums — would “only cover 5 percent of the 22 million individuals who would lose coverage upon the repeal of Obamacare.” That estimate relies on past figures from the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office on the impact of similar proposals.
So far, the number of uninsured has dropped by 15.2 million people since 2008, before President Obama took office, through 2015, according to the most recent data from the National Health Interview Survey conducted by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The Obama administration puts the total who have gained coverage under the ACA at 20 million through early 2016.
Bill Clinton said that the United States’ approval rating soared 20 percentage points during the time that Hillary Clinton was secretary of state. But analyses of the U.S.’s global ratings don’t support such a claim.
Bill Clinton: That’s why the approval of the United States was 20 points higher when she left the Secretary of State’s office than when she took it.
Hillary Clinton served as the United States secretary of state from January 21, 2009, to February 1, 2013.
We asked the Clinton campaign to support this claim, but got no response.
But three different international polls show the country’s approval ratings went up during Clinton’s tenure, but then dipped again before the end of her term, according to an analysis by Bloomberg Politics.
Weighting the poll data from several different countries by their populations, Bloomberg found mixed results.
The Toronto-based GlobeScan poll, which asks whether the U.S. is “having a mainly positive or mainly negative influence in the world,” found that sentiment improved during the first two years of Clinton’s tenure, but fell to nearly the point where it was when she took office.
The Pew Research Center, which asks, “Do you have a favorable or unfavorable view of the U.S.?” found the favorability rating of the U.S. rose steeply in 2009 and continued to improve through April 2010. But then “net favorability fell steeply, and continued to decline until just after her departure,” Bloomberg stated.
Gallup’s U.S.-Global Leadership Project, which asks, “Do you approve or disapprove of the job performance of the leadership of the United States?” didn’t start polling until August 2009, seven months after Secretary Clinton’s start date. Bloomberg found that from August 2009 until the summer of 2011, the Gallup measure declined — and then essentially remained flat for the next two years.
None of this supports former President Clinton’s claim of a 20-point boost in U.S. approval. Furthermore, none of the polls asked specifically about the role of the secretary of State, as opposed to that of her boss, President Obama.
Walking into the Truth to Power art Installation at 990 Spring Garden Street, visitors are instantly aware this exhibition is unlike any other. Instead of Picasso and Van Gogh, they are met with breathtaking pieces of art that all speak to prominent issues, including police brutality, gun violence, and women’s rights.
The installation, presented by Rock the Vote, was put together to showcase issue-based artwork from local, national and international artists. Activists and political and cultural leaders were also brought together to host panels to open dialogue about issues that affect young voters in the 2016 election.
"We’re here to kick off our Truth to Power campaign which is all about speaking your truth and recognizing your power as a voter," said Luis Calderin, Vice President of Marketing and Creative for Rock the Vote.
The art takes forms in all media types; Neon signs shining words like 'White Privilege,' a wooden hand-crank machine that spits out a penny every three seconds representing the work behind minimum wage, and even a hanging mural of toe-tags with the names of people killed by police.
The installation hits home for artist Russell Craig, whose piece 'Self Portrait' sits right next to famous street artist Banksy’s piece for the collection. Craig’s art shows his image sitting atop his sentencing papers, as well as his halfway house papers and parole papers. It stretches across 4 separate canvasses, which represents the crosshairs of being targeted.
"I put my face on the piece with pastel, symbolizing the stuff that I went through and it's supposed to be behind me, but in reality the stigma of being an inmate or an ex-con is a hinder to getting jobs," explains Craig, who said he taught himself how to read and write while in prison so he could read books on how to become an artist.
The issues don’t just hit home for artists --Visitors admit the artwork is eye opening and makes them think deeper about the issues surrounding the election.
"It’s a very impressive collection of a lot of very different media from what you would normally see," said Juliana Rockefeller, glancing back at the police brutality piece beside her. "I think what I’m taking away from it more is that there’s a lot of hope in this younger generation, that there’s something more we can do about these things if we just increase the awareness."
Alexis Wilson, still buzzing with excitement after meeting political activist Angela Yvonne Davis, says she is thrilled to see artwork that speaks to important issues.
"I love art in general but especially pieces that communicate this type of power," explains Wilson. "Immediately you come in and it’s talking about mass incarceration, really illustrating that theme of speaking truth to power… already, I’m riveted."
Abdul Hamid agreed with other visitors that one piece in particular stands out in the room, as the installation takes up an entire corner of the space. The installation is a large sculpture showing guns, hanging by threads in the shape of America as you face it head on. However, as you make the right around the piece, it transforms into the shape of a gun.
"This piece is really speaking volumes right now," said Abdul Hamid, who says his friends recommended he check out the gallery and he is definitely happy he did.
The gallery's success and the outpouring of positive response opens up an opportunity for new conversation about important issues facing young voters.
"At a subconscious level, strong, powerful, issues-based art speaks to your heart… It will grab you and tug at your heart," said Calderin. "This particular type of art allows viewers to really think about these issues, as opposed to the dialogue, the banter, that goes on about the issues. We want people to actually feel it and interact and have an emotional reaction to it."
Folks in Philadelphia can celebrate the close of the show and 25th anniversary with a concert by the Black Eyed Peas tomorrow night at the Fillmore Wednesday night. For tickets and more information on Rock the Vote, visit their website.
Editor's note: NBC10.com's Brian X. McCrone is following two delegates at the Democratic National Convention as they navigate the city and the "raucous" convention floor, as one called it. Check back throughout the afternoon and evening for updates on Matthew LaRonge of Wisconsin and Jené Jackson of Colorado.
Tuesday Evening - Votes Tallied, Protests Begun, Apologies Sought
After nearly seven hours on the floor of the Wells Fargo Center on Day Two of the Democratic National Convention, Matthew LaRonge wasn’t happy.
His candidate, Bernie Sanders, who LaRonge represented as a delegate from Wisconsin, officially lost to Hillary Clinton two hours earlier. And within the last hour, dozens, perhaps hundreds by some estimates, of Sanders delegates walked out in protest.
LaRonge wasn’t one of them. Instead, he stayed behind and put up a motion for the DNC’s party leadership to apologize onstage about Democratic officials’ emails exposed by a Wikileaks release last week.
“I have filed twice now with the party,” he said, standing in front of the 90-plus Wisconsin delegates’ seats. “That Wikileaks showed the DNC was actually working with the Clinton campaign, which is illegal,” he said, All they basically gave so far is a nonchalant apology on a blog online that no one is going to read.”
LaRonge is not a “Bernie or Bust” delegate, but on the second evening of his first political convention, he looked like a hardened political operative.
Would he run as a delegate for the 2020 Democratic National Convention? He said it depends on one big factor.
“If there is another progressive candidate that excites me, maybe, sure,” he said. “But I need to know who the candidate is.”
Two days into his first convention, the 20-something married man from Plover, Wisconsin, now knows who the 2016 candidate is -- and he hopes her party apologizes for its behavior leading up to this political gathering.
“An apology would go a long way,” he said, as he waited for Bill Clinton to take the stage.
Well, wait might be a strong word.
“I don’t even like Bill Clinton,” he said.
Tuesday Afternoon
At 2 p.m., LaRonge hustled into the Marriot Downtown to meet a waiting reporter. He’d missed a workshop he hoped to attend at 1 p.m. Instead, he and other Bernie Sanders delegate whips were trying to track down a rumor that all of Vermont’s Sanders delegates were changing their votes to Hillary Clinton.
Within minutes, he was getting on a subway at City Hall Station, but he wasn’t done wondering about the Vermont delegation.
“Have you heard anything about Vermont delegates giving their votes to Hillary?” He asked other delegates on the subway ride south to the Wells Fargo Center. He would arrive by 2:30, more than an hour and a half before the 4 p.m. “Gavel Drop” to begin the day’s convention proceedings.
(Reporter’s note: As of 4:20, the gavel had yet to drop.)
About 45 minutes after LaRonge entered the arena, Jackson and two delegate friends from Colorado arrived at the arena. Jackson, her roommate Angelina Hagan, and another delegate ran into Lena Dunham, the creator and star of HBO’s “Girls,” within moments of entering.
They found the entrance to their delegation seats on the arena floor, and joined LaRonge in the scrum of an eventual 4,000 delegates - though only a fraction had yet to arrive.
Tuesday Early Afternoon
LaRonge and Jackson officially cast their vote for Bernie Sanders a couple hours earlier at their delegation breakfasts. The results will be announced later this evening on the floor of the convention.
“It was very emotional,” Jackson said. “It’s what we’ve been waiting for.”
She said the entire time in Philadelphia has been emotional, including the first day on the floor, when she said she uncharacteristically lost her cool at one point during an argument with a Hillary Clinton delegate from Colorado.
She saw him this morning at the breakfast.
“It was an intense breakfast, honestly,” she said.
After a visit to the La Colombe coffee shop across from City Hall in Center City, the Colorado Springs mother of three headed back to her room for a short nap at Embassy Suites hotel on the Ben Franklin Parkway. She’ll be catching a bus or subway down to the Wells Fargo Center for day two of the convention at about 3 p.m.
LaRonge, a Sanders delegate representing the 3rd congressional district of Wisconsin, didn’t have time for a nap. He attended a workshop called Working Families at a hotel near the Reading Terminal Market.
LaRonge visited the market for a short walk through in the morning, and couldn’t believe how many options there are.
“It was a little overwhelming,” he said, happy to have so many foods in front of him. “We don’t have anything like that.”
As a whip for the Wisconsin delegation, he spent some of his time Tuesday early afternoon meeting with other states’ leaders. He said the Sanders delegates won some crucial concessions on day one related to the 2020 convention, including the elimination of two-thirds of the super delegates for the Democratic Party in the next presidential election cycle.
“That’s a big win,” he said.
After his workshop ends at 2 p.m., he’s jumping on a subway to head to the convention.
Jackson will head down sometime after 2 p.m. With her roommate for the week, Angelina Hagan, another Colorado delegate. The two became friends during the delegate election process a few months ago.
Tuesday Morning
Matthew LaRonge wore a suit on the first day of his first political convention, expecting a shuttle bus from his hotel in Center City to the convention at the Wells Fargo Center.
Thanks to throngs of protesters blocking the entrances to the Democratic National Convention on day one, however, the young Bernie Sanders delegate from Plover, Wisconsin, had to trudge it from 12th and Arch streets to the subway station at City Hall.
"It was a lot of Bernie supporters blocking the entrances," LaRonge witnesses as he got off the subway, then walked a couple hundred yards in the sweltering heat to the Wells Fargo Center. "They were blocking the Bernie delegates, though, too."
Today, he decided "to dress casual."
He said he actually didn't mind the subway. But he and the rest of the Wisconsin delegation was able to ride a bus back to Center City. There, they went to the Constitution Center to party until 2 a.m.
"I'm paying for that now," LaRonge said.
He is a delegate whip for his delegation, which means he has some planning meetings before he heads back to the arena for day two. He is also going to a workshop called Working Families at a Center City hotel.
The delegates have plenty of meetings to attend this week, and many more optional workshops.
Then there are the photo ops, as Colorado delegate Jené Jackson can attest. She got up after also staying out checking out the city until nearly 3 a.m. Tuesday. She sat in La Colombe at noon sipping a double espresso across from City Hall.
"We have a group photo with all the Coloroado delegates at 1 p.m., I think in front of the Rocky Statue," she said.
What are LaRonge and Jackson expecting today on the floor, as the roll call vote takes place.
"The Bernie Sanders campaign told us not to be rude when the roll call happens," LaRonge said. "But when they announce Hillary Clinton is going to be the nominee, it's going to be ugly."
