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Will Pa. sue Trump over emergency declaration? K2 use on the rise in Philly | Morning Newsletter

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The funeral card for Gail D. Harrison shows her date of death in 2011, but deeds forged in her name are dated July, 2015.
The funeral card for Gail D. Harrison shows her date of death in 2011, but deeds forged in her name are dated July, 2015.Read moreStaff Illustration

    The Morning Newsletter

    Start your day with the Philly news you need and the stories you want all in one easy-to-read newsletter

I hope you got through yesterday’s winter weather OK — and maybe even got a snow day out of it. Luckily, temperatures will rebound today. Earlier this month, the Inquirer reported on the arrest of William E. Johnson III, a man accused of stealing homes from the dead. Now a closer look at one of those homes by reporter Craig McCoy reveals yet another layer of questionable signatures. In other news, the rise of a synthetic drug called K2 is having an impact on Philly’s vulnerable populations.

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— Aubrey Nagle (@aubsn, morningnewsletter@philly.com)

Donnie McLaurin Jr. weaves an unbelievable tale of how Gail Harrison took him into her Brewerytown home while his dad was in prison. She was like his stepmother. When he rummaged through her house after she died in 2011 he says he found a will naming him the heir to her newly valuable home.

The story is literally unbelievable to friends and neighbors who knew Harrison, as well as the Philadelphia Register of Wills, who now calls the will a counterfeit.

In the years since her death, Harrison’s home has been caught up in a tangled timeline of suspicious dealings by McLaurin and William E. Johnson III, a man recently arrested for stealing her home and six others.

Last week, President Donald Trump declared a national emergency in order to divert billions of dollars in funding from other federal projects to a border wall.

On Monday, 16 states — including Delaware and New Jersey — mostly led by Democrats — filed a lawsuit to try to block it. But Pennsylvania and 10 other Democratic states were absent from the suit.

Pennsylvania Attorney General Josh Shapiro says, before deciding, he needs to know whether the money is going to be taken from his state.

SEPTA transit police have recently come under scrutiny for their interactions with homeless people in Suburban Station, including a January clash that turned violent.

Use of the drug K2, which can lead to erratic behavior and unpredictable side effects, is on the rise in Philadelphia and advocates for the homeless and those with addiction say it’s making the situation more volatile.

What you need to know today

  1. Pope Francis called for “concrete and effective measures” Thursday as he kicked off a summit with the globe’s top Roman Catholic leaders aimed at defining a worldwide response to the issue of sex abuse within the church.

  2. Following an Inquirer investigation into violence at Glen Mills Schools, Philadelphia’s Department of Human Services will remove its 51 boys currently at Glen Mills.

  3. When neighborhoods like those in Springfield, Montgomery County, find themselves leafleted with racist and anti-Semitic fliers, what can the police do? The answer is complicated.

  4. A member of Gettysburg College’s board of trustees resigned this week after a photo from the school’s 1980 college yearbook surfaced showing him wearing a Nazi uniform.

  5. Despite criticisms from election-security advocates, the Philadelphia city commissioners chose a new voting machine system Wednesday. The winner? The ExpressVote XL.

  6. Empire actor Jussie Smollett was charged Wednesday with making a false police report when he said he was attacked in downtown Chicago last month.

  7. In November, the Play for Keeps basketball team lost their coach, Bakeer Green, when the popular West Philly figure was fatally shot. Now they could lose their space to play, too. 

Through Your Eyes | #OurPhilly

What a beautiful view, @bhalda.

Tag your Instagram posts or tweets with #OurPhilly and we’ll pick our favorite each day to feature in this newsletter and give you a shout out!

That’s Interesting

  1. Tierra Whack, the ascending North Philly rapper who wowed the hip-hop world last year with a 15 minute, 15 song album, has released a new (full-length) track.

  2. Move over, Phoenixville. Pottstown may be the next Montgomery County borough to see a revitalization. 

  3. The life of Marian Anderson, the great Philadelphia-born African-American opera singer, is full of groundbreaking moments. A new documentary is bringing them to the big screen

  4. Bam Margera wants to throw another party at Castle Bam but Pocopson Township doesn’t want him to, and a new ordinance targeted at such events may get in his way.

  5. When Burlington County’s newly-elected clerk found out she’d be performing civil weddings, she wanted to make each one special by turning a conference room into a chapel.

  6. Mayor Jim Kenney’s mentions are always blowing up. Whether it’s an email, letter, or social media post, one woman takes on Kenney’s voice to respond to it all. 

Opinions

“We need to stop tricking ourselves that simply shuffling students around until the schoolyard looks diverse will magically address educational disparities. The real work is harder because it’s about the almighty dollar.” — Mastery Charter principal Sharif El-Mekki and Assistant Professor of Practice at Relay Graduate School of Education Zachary Wright on why fixing schools requires integration and equitable funding.

  1. President Donald Trump shouldn’t be forcing Republicans to choose fidelity to him or to the Constitution over his border wall, writes Washington Post columnist Marc Thiessen.

  2. Hollywood could help slow the opioid crisis by telling the truth, rather than use inaccurate portrayals like in Netflix’s You and NBC’s Chicago Med, writes Penn Center for Public Health Initiatives researcher Rachel Feuerstein-Simon.

What we’re reading

  1. Need a little gym-spiration this morning? Meet the 10 black women that Philadelphia Magazine reports are transforming fitness in Philly — complete with links so you can follow them on the 'gram.

  2. Grid Philly has published a glimpse at rare, firsthand accounts of a free black woman in Philadelphia during the Civil War (including President Lincoln’s funeral procession) and it is downright fascinating.

  3. A Temple University voice therapy program has become popular among transgender women and WHYY’s look inside the program gives a peek inside the complex task of changing your voice.

  4. The timeline that links cybergoths to a viral dance craze called “Orange Justice” — go with me here — as reported by New York Magazine will be the weirdest and most wonderful thing you read today. 

  5. Esquire has gone inside the “Apple store of weed," the California-based MedMen cannabis dispensary, to see what all the fuss is about. And, well, there’s a lot of fuss.

A Daily Dose of | Flour

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