Staff and news services Updated 11:06 pm, Thursday, April 5, 2018 Thousands of fans lined up in downtown Philadelphia to celebrate another sports championship with a parade, this time for Villanova’s Wildcats. The winners of the men’s basketball tournament rode double-decker buses along Market Street, ending at City Hall for a rally. They threw T-shirts into the cheering sea of blue and white and lifted the trophy aloft as confetti fluttered. “We do this so much in Philadelphia now, I thought you guys would be tired of parades,” head coach Jay Wright joked to the crowd, referencing the Eagles’ first-ever Super Bowl win just two months earlier. The Wildcats’ romp through the NCAA Tournament ended Monday with a 79-62 victory over Michigan. It’s their second national title in three seasons. Many fans layered their Villanova gear with a bit of Eagles swag. Several talked about how meaningful it was to have a series of champs in the city. … [Read more...] about Philadelphia cheers NCAA champs Villanova with parade
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Philadelphia considers opening site for heroin users to shoot up safely
PHILADELPHIA -- In just six years, the number of deaths year from opioid overdoses in the U.S. has doubled to more than 42,000. The crisis spurred the surgeon general on Thursday to encourage more people to carry an antidote to reverse overdoses. In Philadelphia, the nation's fifth largest city, the opioid epidemic is so bad that city officials are now taking extreme measures to save lives. They want to give addicts a safe place to get high. One 30-year-old woman who goes by Rachel has been getting high for the past 13 years. "I'm actually trying to get a detox so I don't want my habit to take control," she said. She's a mother of two. But her desire to care for her kids, she says, isn't strong enough to pull her from under a sheet of darkness and away from her body's call for heroin. Last year, 1,200 people died of a drug overdose in Philadelphia, a number that's quadrupled in the past five years. To address that, Philadelphia is moving to become one of the first cities in the … [Read more...] about Philadelphia considers opening site for heroin users to shoot up safely
Philadelphia District Attorney’s Office Stands By Rapper Meek Mill in Latest Court Filing
The fight over rapper Meek Mill’s prison sentence has reached Pennsylvania's highest court. The Philadelphia District Attorney’s Office filed a motion Thursday to the state Supreme Court reiterating that it does not oppose Mill being released on bail, a position the office first shared with NBC10 last month. The rapper, whose legal name is Robert Williams, was sentenced to 2 to 4 years in prison in November of 2017 for violating his probation after failing a drug test, traveling out of the region and getting arrested for fighting and other related offenses. Attorneys representing Mill have filed several motions to release the rapper from prison, accusing the judge overseeing his case of harboring a grudge and even being infatuated with the 30-year-old. Former Trump Estate in Greenwich Listed for $45 Million “We are encouraged by the Philadelphia District Attorney’s steadfast stance in not opposing Meek Mill’s release on bail at the Pennsylvania … [Read more...] about Philadelphia District Attorney’s Office Stands By Rapper Meek Mill in Latest Court Filing
Report: In Philadelphia, HPV vaccination rate lags behind other youth vaccines
A recent report from Independence Blue Cross found that, though rates of HPV vaccination are on the rise among youths, the vaccine is lagging compared to others in the Philadelphia region. The HPV vaccine, which prevents cancer-causing human papillomavirus, is typically suggested for children aged 11 or 12, the vaccine distributed in two separate visits. If the patient is a little older, three shots may be required. Adults who came of age just as the HPV vaccine became more common -- the FDA first approved the vaccine in 2006 -- are encouraged to receive the vaccine before age 26.Though the vaccine has grown more common in recent years, a seven-year study of medical claims by the Blue Cross Blue Shield Association (BCBSA) found that only 34 percent of adolescents in the Philadelphia region received the first dose of the vaccine before turning 13. For Philly-area adolescents, the first-dose HPV vaccine rate averaged around 28 percent for adolescents turning 13 in 2013. Adolescents … [Read more...] about Report: In Philadelphia, HPV vaccination rate lags behind other youth vaccines
Philadelphia marijuana activist gets four years probation in high-profile ‘Smoke Session’ case
Even though things could have gone considerably worse, Richard Tamaccio – aka N.A. Poe – wasn’t exactly happy when he walked out of a Philadelphia courtroom early Wednesday afternoon. He had just appeared before a judge just two weeks short of the one-year anniversary of the high-profile raid on a Philly Smoke Session event that Tamaccio helped organize in an East Frankford warehouse. Promoted widely via social media, the party brought marijuana smokers, sellers and activists together. Among those who bought tickets were undercover Philadelphia police officers who went inside, took a look around and sparked a raid that resulted in the arrests of 22 people, including Tamacccio. Early on, the charges leveled against him could’ve landed him behind bars for years upon years. Months of hearing and negotiations between the sides saw resulted in a Risking a Catastrophe charge being dropped and a guilty plea to possession of marijuana with intent to distribute. On that … [Read more...] about Philadelphia marijuana activist gets four years probation in high-profile ‘Smoke Session’ case