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Myra Maxwell (right) is the Director of the Philadelphia CARES Unit in the District Attorneys Office. (Kimberly Paynter/WHYY)
The Philadelphia District Attorney’s Office has received a $1.2 million grant to continue helping families of homicide victims through its CARES program, a real-time, rapid-response initiative launched in October 2018.
The program, funded by the Pennsylvania Commission on Crime and Delinquency, offers families grief counseling, helps to make funeral arrangements, and even provides assistance getting utilities turned back on. The program will soon launch a 24/7 phone service where residents can connect with Peer Crisis Responders people who personally know the pain of losing a loved one to gun violence.
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Opening a location where people could use heroin violates federal drug law, according to an appeals court judge. (Shutterstock)
PHILADELPHIA Philadelphia s plans to open a facility in which drugs such as heroin would be administered by healthcare professionals in hopes of combatting the opioid epidemic have been shut down.
A federal appeals court Tuesday ruled 2-1 that the plans to open a supervised injection site in Philadelphia violates federal drug law, commonly referred to as the crackhouse statute.
According to Action News, Third Circuit Appeals Court Judge Stephanos Bibas said the effort to open the site admirable, but ultimately ruled the site violate the law.
Mr Elliott, then 18 years old, was arrested in June 2017 on gun- and drug-possession charges stemming after threatening a neighbor with a firearm. The District Attorney’s office granted him a plea bargain arrangement on January 24, 2018, and he was sentenced to 9 to 23 months in jail, followed by three years’ probation. However, he was paroled earlier than that, after seven months in jail.
Mr Elliot soon violated parole by failing drug tests and failing to mate his meetings with his parole officer.
Mr Elliott was arrested and charged with possession of cocaine on January 29, 2019. This was another parole violation, but Mr Krasner’s office did not attempt to have Mr Elliot returned to jail to finish his sentence, nor make any attempts to get serious bail on the new charges;he was released on his own recognizance.
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Philadelphians walk through a job and services fair at Girard College on Martin Luther King Day 2017. (Brad Larrison for WHYY)
Every year on the third Monday in January, communities across the U.S. honor the life and legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. by performing acts of service and Philly is home to the largest King Day event in the country.
Pennsylvania U.S. Senator Harris Wofford helped create the national King Day of Service in 1994 through federal legislation he co-authored with civil rights icon Rep. John Lewis.
What started in Philly in 1996 with 1,000 volunteers has morphed into a day of service that works to foster civic engagement and understanding of Dr. King’s legacy with hundreds of thousands of volunteers across the U.S.
Joshua Macias, who in November drove to Philadelphia in a Hummer adorned with QAnon stickers, an AR-15-style rifle, ammunition and other weapons, has been free on $750,000 bail.