THE ISSUE
As LNP | LancasterOnlineâs Aniya Thomas reports in todayâs edition, a rally and candlelight vigil will take place at 6 p.m. Saturday in Penn Square in downtown Lancaster to show support for Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders in the face of a growing tide of hateful attacks against them. âMore than 6,600 hate incidents targeting Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders were reported to the Stop AAPI Hate reporting center from the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic through March 31,â Thomas reported. Rally organizer Julia Cao said Saturdayâs event will include speakers from organizations such as Church World Service, the Lancaster Interfaith Coalition and YWCA Lancaster.
THE ISSUE:Â
Lancaster city hired a social worker to join its police department in September 2019. In her first 18 months on the job, Leilany Tran referred more than 400 cases for social work, LNP | LancasterOnlineâs Dan Nephin reported Tuesday. To help with that workload, the department hired a second social worker, Grace Mentzer, earlier this year. Now-retired Capt. Sonja Stebbins first proposed using social workers in the department after studying the concept at Northwestern Universityâs School of Police Staff & Command.
The headline on Nephinâs article states: âHow social workers are transforming the city police department.â
And thereâs no doubt they are. Nephin details how Tran â and now Mentzer â have bolstered the effectiveness of the city police force and helped at-risk members of the community.
In what seemed like weeks, the COVID-19 pandemic swept from around the globe to our doorsteps. Our lives became like suspended animation as we went home and waited. We found ways to endure â through separation, loss, growth, fear, joy, frustration, change. We ve shifted our expectations and perspective to accommodate new realities.Â
Itâs been one year. More than 950 people have died in Lancaster County. Photos of crowded bars and big family dinners are like postcards from the past. Â
Weâve experienced the impact of COVID-19 in separate ways, with no two experiences exactly the same. Some of us havenât been back to our jobs in a year; others never stopped going; others donât have jobs to return to. Weâve defined and redefined essential worker. We shuttered, reopened, shuttered and reopened in waves. We taught ourselves new ways to teach our children. We hoped for a va
THE ISSUE
âIf the attorney for the 14-year-old Manheim Township girl charged as an adult in the stabbing death of her older sister tries to have her case moved to juvenile court, he will face an almost impossible task,â LNP | LancasterOnlineâs Dan Nephin reported in Sundayâs edition. âA review of LNP | LancasterOnline archives going back five decades found only one case in more than a dozen in which an attorney persuaded a judge that a minor charged with homicide should be handled in juvenile court.â And, Nephin noted, the facts of that one âcase differ from the accusations Claire Miller is facing.â That 1999 case involved an Elizabethtown 14-year-old who gave birth and was accused of smothering the infant and placing it in a drawer; a deal was reached with prosecutors. Attorney Robert Beyer, who represented that teen, also represents Claire Miller.