Philadelphia Safe Injection Site Faces Opposition and Then Cancellation

The first safe injection site in the U.S. had been set to open in Philadelphia on Monday, but the proposed location in a health center in South Philadelphia faced pushback from residents and local officials after it was announced this week. The owner of the facility where it was to be located, Constitutional Health Plaza, announced on Thursday that they were canceling plans to host the facility. Not long before that announcement, officials with Safehouse, the group that wants to open the facility, said they would put their plans on hold. Safe injection sites provide people who use drugs with supplies like clean needles, as well as supervision from medical or social services professionals. The goal of a safe injection site is  to reduce the spread of disease and prevent overdoses. They are common in some other countries, but controversial in the United States. But after the site was announced, Councilmember Kenyatta Johnson said that residents feel blindsided by the proposal because there were no community meetings held after the location had been chosen. “They are moving forward without input from the community, which is downright disrespectful and unacceptable,” Johnson said. Before the project was put on hold, Ronda Goldfein with Safehouse said it needed to open quickly because the city is facing one of the worst drug overdose crises in the country. Almost 3,500 residents have died from overdoses in the last three years. “We welcome your concerns. We want to have a conversation with you. We know this is a highly charged issue. But we also know that there are plenty of people in South Philadelphia who say they can’t tolerate what’s happening anymore. They can’t stand to lose any more neighbors,” Goldfein said. Janette Spirk, vice president of the Newbold Community Development Corporation, said that the area around the site is already an injection site, just not a safe one. “It would have been nice [for Safehouse] to ask for opinions, but I understand that’s not how these things always work. ... Some opinions are based on just not having the information,” Spirk said. U.S. Attorney William McSwain, who opposes the concept, said that he will consider criminal forfeitures, drug seizures, and arrests to stop the site from opening, and on Wednesday he filed an appeal to a federal judge’s decision that found safe injection sites legal and gave Safehouse the green light to establish their site. [Philadelphia Inquirer; CBS Philadelphia; Associated Press]

LAWMAKER LOBBYISTS | An Illinois lawmaker introduced a bill to ban lawmakers in the state from acting as lobbyists while they are in office. The measure would also ban lawmakers’ immediate family members, spouses, and people living with them from being lobbyists. The proposal is meant to curb corruption. A recent analysis found that Illinois has had more public corruption convictions since 2000 than any other state. In a recent case that would be made illegal by the new measure, former state Sen. Martin Sandoval took a separate job lobbying the Illinois Department of Transportation on behalf of a red light camera company (he later pleaded guilty to separate charges of bribery and tax fraud). Chicago City Council made a similar change in 2019, passing a resolution that bans aldermen, city workers, and state from lobbying city departments for private gain. [Illinois Policy]

FEMA PAYMENTS | A bill in California called the Preventing Disaster Revictimization Act has been introduced to stop FEMA from taking back payments it made to disaster victims. The bill was introduced by a bipartisan slate of legislators after FEMA said that it may ask wildfire victims in the state to pay back the money they received for disaster expenses if they also end up taking money from a lawsuit with Pacific Gas & Electric, the company that has been blamed for starting several California wildfires. That would happen if FEMA does not get $3.9 billion directly from PG&E to cover some of the costs of disaster aid. State Rep. Doug LaMalfa, a Republican sponsor of the bill, said that FEMA should leave wildfire victims alone. “FEMA should not claw back the individual assistance they provide to those who also receive claims from the PG&E wildfire settlement. This money is negligible to FEMA, but to wildfire victims, it may be the leg-up they need to recover,” he said. [Chico Enterprise Record]

HEALTHY HOLLY SENTENCE | Former Baltimore Mayor Catherine Pugh was sentenced to three years in prison Thursday for her orchestration of a fraud scheme involving the “Healthy Holly” children’s books she authored. Pugh, who resigned from office last May as details of the scandal were reported by the Baltimore Sun and later pleaded guilty to federal charges, apologized for her actions, telling U.S. District Court Judge Deborah K. Chasanow, “No one is more disappointed than me.” But Chasanow was stern with the former mayor. “I have yet frankly to hear any explanation that makes sense. This was not a tiny mistake, lapse of judgment. This became a very large fraud,” she said. [Baltimore Sun; CBS Baltimore] 

STOLEN HEARSE | The Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Office took to Twitter this week to ask whoever stole a hearse from a church parking lot to please return the body inside it. “Out of all the bad decisions you have made, at least make one good one & bring back the deceased person & casket inside,” the Sheriff’s Office tweeted. The hearse and body were later recovered. [CBS 47]