Linn Washington Jr.

So, Philadelphia’s City Council is ready to take some real action on recurrent abusive policing in the city.

Brian O’Neill, the Republican City Councilman who’s represented Philadelphia’s Northeast section (Tenth District) since 1980 has achieved many distinctions locally, statewide and nationally.

Recent developments on America’s rocky road to equality of opportunity for all races merit cheers and jeers.

Just three-years after the June 2013 tragedy that left six dead and 13 injured when a demolition disaster crashed tons of bricks into a Salvation Army store, top Philadelphia City Hall officials, relatives of victims and others gathered at the site of that deadly Center City incident to break ground for a memorial honoring those killed and injured.

Among the persons that provided poignant testimonials on positive benefits from DACA during the recent ceremony in Philadelphia’s City Hall commemorating the fifth anniversary of that fair-minded initiative instituted by former President Obama were two persons from countries that few ever connect with the controversy around undocumented immigrants in the United States.

Philadelphia City Councilman Derek Green credits the barrier breaking Latino lawyer and jurist Nelson Diaz as one of his key mentors. 

New Jersey U.S. Senator Cory Booker introduced a measure recently on marijuana that could dramatically improve the lives of thousands of blacks and Latinos in the Philadelphia region if fully implemented, letter and spirit.

With news dominated by the misconduct of President Trump, members of his family and administration, a recent ruling in a Philadelphia courtroom received less attention than it deserved.

The career accomplishments of Kelley Hodge situate her well for the vital mission she volunteered to undertake over the next five-plus months.

Disappointment is how Louis Cruz described his reaction to the closed door he encountered when he sought work for his company on the project City Hall and Conrail proudly announced recently to cleanup a section of railroad tracks in West Kensington where a filthy heroin abuse corridor has festered for nearly twenty years.

This case involves “retaliation” the federal Third Circuit Court of Appeals declared in the first sentence of the second paragraph of a recent ruling.

The pompous, pilfering prosecutor pleads guilty to corruption charges on the eighth day of his unprecedented federal criminal trial. Authorities haul this prosecutor off to prison in handcuffs…another segment in the sordid saga of Seth Williams – Philadelphia’s now former District Attorney.

The recent announcement that City Hall and Conrail cut a deal to cleanup the notorious heroin corridor along a section of railroad track running through Philadelphia’s Fairhill and West Kensington communities is welcomed removal of a dangerous blight that’s festered for nearly two decades.