Philly's jails system held in contempt of court--lawyers want the city fined, with money going to the detainees. Similar issue in NYC jails, but requests for contempt are linked to a call for a complete federal takeover of the system. Samantha Melamed: inquirer.com/news/philadelp…

Why is the Philly senior complex Brith Sholom falling apart? The answer is way weirder than you’d think. It involves an NJ family that spent decades buying affordable complexes & sucking out the equity—while hiding their role with LLCs & phony charities inquirer.com/real-estate/ho…

NEW: A NJ real estate dynasty bought a West Philly senior complex and profited while running it into the ground Samantha Melamed and I discovered they’d done the same thing upwards of one hundred times, jeopardizing thousands of tenants across the US inquirer.com/real-estate/ho…

“They bought older buildings with substantial renovation needs... they defaulted on loans... squeezing out profits while allowing properties to fall into decline.” buff.ly/3y07jBQ By The Philadelphia Inquirer’s Samantha Melamed Ryan W Briggs

"In June, one debris-strewn Land Bank-owned lot on the 3200 block of Hartville Street in June caught fire — forcing neighbors to evacuate. A spokesperson said the Land Bank, whose staff inspects the properties, was unaware of the fire until The Inquirer asked about it in July."

The amount of legwork it takes to clean up the mess of a couple scammy RE investors is truly astonishing. Glad that there will maybe be a resolution to the crisis at Brith Sholom inquirer.com/news/philadelp…

Security incidents at Philly court facilities are up 300% since 2019 amid a shortage of sheriffs deputies Criminal trials face chronic delays due to missing deputies The sheriff has funding to hire dozens more officers but the problem keeps getting worse inquirer.com/news/sheriffs-…

w/Max M. Marin Some in Kensington say police have weaponized Narcan by administering it, or threatening to, on people who aren't overdosing. One woman said an officer Narcanned her while she was asleep--and the agonizing withdrawal sent her to a hospital. inquirer.com/news/kensingto…