Safe Injection Sites To Fight Opioid Overdose Deaths Get Green Light From Philadelphia Officials
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Philly.com- After a year in which overdoses outstripped the murder rate by 4-1, librarians ran outside to save people from overdosing, and makeshift heroin camps sprawled under bridges and on street corners, Philadelphia city officials Tuesday took their most radical step yet against the opioid crisis.
It’s time, they declared, to do what no other U.S. city has done: Establish medically supervised facilities where people can inject drugs, be revived if they overdose, and then be helped into treatment.
“We are facing an epidemic of historic proportions,” Health Commissioner Thomas Farley said at an afternoon news conference at City Hall. “The people in the city of Philadelphia, our brothers, our sisters, our parents, our children, are dying. And they don’t need to die. And we have an obligation to do everything we can to prevent those people from dying.”
The city will not operate the sites — at locations yet to be determined — but will encourage private organizations to take on the task. Farley and others emphasized that the sites are just one aspect of what must be a major, coordinated response to a crisis that took an estimated 1,200 lives last year, the highest death rate of any major U.S. city.
Pat Meehan Says He Saw Younger Aide As ‘A Soul Mate’ But Denies Harassment
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Philly.com- U.S. Rep. Pat Meehan acknowledged Tuesday that he had a deep “affection” for a younger aide and told her last year that he saw her as “a soul mate,” but said he never pursued a romantic relationship with the woman and, despite paying her a secret settlement, denied her claims of sexual harassment.
Meehan, a Delaware County Republican, also said that he initially reacted “poorly” when he found out that the longtime aide, decades younger, had begun a serious relationship with another man and might leave his office. He released a heartfelt letter he wrote to her in May in which he wished her well, thanked God “for putting you into my life,” and signed it, “With all my heart, Patrick.”
His comments in an interview with the Inquirer and Daily News were his first extensive response to a report Saturday that he used thousands of taxpayer dollars to quietly settle the harassment claim brought by the former aide.
Day Of Disasters Takes Mueller Probe To Critical Point
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CNN- Finally, inexorably, special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation has clawed all the way up to Donald Trump himself.
Now a foreboding moment looms for his presidency and for the nation.
A stunning barrage of revelations on Tuesday suggested that at least one strand of Mueller’s Russia probe is racing toward its endgame, emphasizing the gravity of the situation facing the White House and the potential vulnerability of the President.
Mueller’s request to question Trump, and news that his team has already interviewed fired FBI Director James Comey and Attorney General Jeff Sessions, indicate that the special counsel has a clear picture of where he is headed in what could turn into an obstruction of justice case, legal experts said.
“It’s possible that Mueller is closing in on his determination about what obstruction looks like and whether it is a criminal offense,” former Mueller aide Michael Zeldin told CNN’s Brooke Baldwin.
