1UA TV

A fast-moving wildfire whipped by hot, dry Santa Ana winds destroyed hundreds of homes and other buildings in and around Ventura, California, on Tuesday as thousands of residents were forced to flee ahead of the flames.

The blaze, dubbed the Thomas Fire, broke out Monday evening in the foothills above Ventura. Winds quickly drove it west into the city, which is about 50 miles northwest of Los Angeles. By Tuesday afternoon, it was zero percent contained, had charred more than 45,000 acres and had forced thousands to flee their homes.

California Governor Jerry Brown declared a state of emergency, freeing state funds and resources to assist the more than 1,000 firefighters battling to save homes from the conflagration.

“This fire is very dangerous and spreading rapidly, but we’ll continue to attack it with all we’ve got,” Brown said in a written statement. “It’s critical residents stay ready and evacuate immediately if told to do so.” 

There were no immediate reports of fatalities from the blaze, but local KABC-TV reported that one person had been killed in a car crash while fleeing the area.

The Los Angeles Times reported that a car hit a firefighter who was protecting homes from the flames. It said he was being treated at a local hospital.

“Due to the intensity of the fire, crews are having trouble making access, and there are multiple reports of structures on fire,” officials said on Ventura County’s emergency management website.

More than 250,000 homes were without power, local utilities said. All schools in the Ventura Unified School District were closed.

The Thomas Fire was the largest of several large blazes that broke out across Southern California following the onset of the Santa Ana winds.

In the San Fernando Valley north of Los Angeles, the Creek Fire had blackened more than 4,000 acres and forced the evacuation of 2,500 homes and a convalescent center north of Interstate 210. The highway remained open even as other roads were closed, officials said.

“We’re chasing the fire, trying to get ahead of it, trying to get in front to provide structure defense,” Los Angeles County Chief Deputy David Richardson told reporters at an afternoon briefing as thick black smoke drifted across the city.

The Santa Ana winds, which blow in from the California desert, were forecast to top out at 70 miles per hour (115 kph) and remain strong through the week.
…

President Donald Trump is planning to announce Wednesday that the United States will recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel. But analysts and officials say the president is not expected to set a date for moving the U.S. Embassy from Tel Aviv, a step that would most likely trigger an extreme reaction in the Arab world.

In preparation for the announcement, Trump spoke by phone Tuesday with five Middle East leaders to brief them on his decision.

A White House statement identified the five as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas, Jordan’s King Abdullah, Egypt’s President Abdel Fattah el-Sissi and Saudi King Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud.

Few details

The statement gave few details of the conversations except to say, “The leaders also discussed potential decisions regarding Jerusalem.” It added that Trump had reaffirmed his commitment to advancing Israeli-Palestinian peace talks.

Bloomberg News quoted a person familiar with Trump’s decision as saying the president had decided to sign a waiver postponing the relocation of the U.S. Embassy in Israel to Jerusalem.

Under a law signed by President Bill Clinton in 1995, the embassy must be relocated to Jerusalem unless the president signs a waiver every six months stating that the matter is to be decided between the Israelis and Palestinians. Every president since Clinton has signed the waiver, including Trump, who did so when it came due in June.

Dennis Ross was U.S. point man on the Middle East peace process under three presidents and worked with Israelis and Palestinians to reach the Interim Agreement on the West Bank and Gaza Strip in 1995. He said Tuesday that Trump appeared to be leaving a lot of room for both Israelis and Arabs to maneuver in the new environment.

In a briefing for reporters, Ross said it’s very important for the president to allow opportunities for Palestinians and Arabs in the region to say that their position “still has to be part of the negotiation process. … That seems to me to be the key to this.”

On the eve of Trump’s expected announcement, Reuters quoted unnamed State Department officials as expressing concern about the potential for a violent backlash against Israel and also possibly against American interests in the region.

When asked whether Secretary of State Rex Tillerson was “on board” with a decision that could put U.S. citizens and troops in the Middle East at risk, State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert said, “I think the secretary has communicated clearly, as have all the members of the inner agency who have a role in making this decision. … He has made his positions clear to the White House. I think the Department of Defense has as well. But it is ultimately the president’s decision to make. He is in charge.”

​Preparing for violence

In a security message released Tuesday, the U.S. Consulate General in Jerusalem, noting widespread calls for demonstrations this week, barred personal travel by American government workers and their families in Jerusalem’s Old City and West Bank, including Bethlehem and Jericho, until further notice. 

U.S. embassies worldwide also were ordered to increase security in anticipation of protests.

Jerusalem lies at the heart of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and the international community maintains its final status must be determined in negotiations.

Nevertheless, Trump has said he is committed to a promise he made last year during the election campaign to move the U.S. Embassy out of Tel Aviv, a step favored by many American Jews and Christian evangelicals.

Jerusalem is home to the Al Aqsa Mosque, the third-holiest place in Islam. For Jews, it is the Temple Mount, the holiest site of all.

Arab and Muslim states have warned that any decision to move the U.S. Embassy could inflame tensions in the region and destroy U.S. efforts to reach an Arab-Israeli peace agreement.

No longer a credible mediator

Senior Palestinian leader Nabil Shaath said Trump would no longer be seen as a credible mediator. “The Palestinian Authority does not condone violence, but it may not be able to control the street and prevent a third Palestinian uprising,” he said, speaking in Arabic.

Gerald Feierstein, director for Gulf affairs and government relations at the Middle East Institute in Washington, said the level of anger the announcement might provoke would depend greatly on how Trump presented the issue.

“If the president just says, ‘We recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel,’ without trying to define it further and without actually beginning the process of moving the embassy, then it’s a big nothingburger,” he told VOA.

Feierstein, who served as U.S. ambassador to Yemen, and later as principal deputy assistant secretary of state for Near Eastern affairs under former President Barack Obama, said if Trump went any further, it could trigger a backlash and deal a crushing blow to peace efforts.

“If what he says is perceived as, or is in fact, a recognition of all of Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, and he is no longer maintaining the international position that Jerusalem is to be divided and that East Jerusalem is to become the capital of the Palestinian state once there is an agreement, then that is going to have a very negative effect on the peace process,” Feierstein said.

“So the devil is in the details about how significant this is going to be,” he said.

VOA’s Cindy Saine at the State Department contributed to this report.
…

The Senate on Tuesday confirmed Deputy White House chief of staff Kirstjen Nielsen as President Donald Trump’s choice to lead the Department of Homeland Security.

Senators approved Nielsen’s nomination, 62-37, on Tuesday. Nielsen, 45, is a former DHS official who is considered a protege of White House Chief of Staff John Kelly, a former DHS secretary.

Senate Majority Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., called Nielsen a qualified candidate with the talent and experience to succeed. As a former DHS chief of staff, Nielsen understands the department’s daily operations and is ready to lead on her first day, McConnell said.

Democrats have concerns

Democrats complained that Nielsen lacks the experience needed to run a major agency with 240,000 employees. They also cited concerns about possible White House interference in a recent DHS decision to send home thousands of Nicaraguans and Haitians long granted U.S. protection.

Homeland Security oversees the nation’s borders, cybersecurity and response to natural disasters, among other areas.

Senate Homeland Security Chairman Ron Johnson, R-Wis., said Nielsen brings valuable, practical experience to DHS. He called her an expert in risk management, with a focus on cybersecurity, emergency management and critical infrastructure.

Nielsen “is ready to answer this call to duty,” Johnson said. “She has been working in and around the Department of Homeland Security since its creation.”

Questionable decisions

Sen. Kamala Harris, D-Calif., said Nielsen has played a role in several questionable Trump administration decisions, including a travel ban to restrict entry from six mostly Muslim countries, termination of a program for young immigrants and what Harris called a “feeble response to Hurricanes Irma, Maria and Harvey.”

Harris also said she was troubled by Nielsen’s failure to acknowledge at her confirmation hearing how human behavior contributes to climate change.

Frank Sharry, executive director of America’s Voice Education Fund, which promotes immigrants’ rights, said Trump has worked to punish immigrants and refugees, from his call to build a wall along the Mexican border to the partial travel ban to raids against immigrants.

‘Architect’ in Trump’s policies

As a key Kelly aide, Nielsen is “one of the architects” of Trump’s immigration policies, Sharry said. He called Nielsen “a willing accomplice, helping to shape and implement this profoundly disturbing and un-American vision of our country.”

Nielsen said at her confirmation hearing last month that climate change is a crucial issue and said the Trump administration is revising its climate models to better respond to rising sea levels.

“I can’t unequivocally state it’s caused by humans,” she said. “There are many contributions to it.”

Cybersecurity a top priority

On other topics, Nielsen said she agreed with Kelly that a U.S.-Mexico border wall is unlikely to be a physical barrier from “sea to shining sea.”

She also condemned white nationalism, rejected Islamophobia and promised to make cybersecurity a top priority.

Trump repeatedly promised during the campaign that he would build the wall and that Mexico would pay for it, but the administration is seeking billions in taxpayer dollars to finance the project.

Homeland Security has been leading the charge on implementing Trump’s aggressive immigration agenda, and Nielsen pledged to continue that work.

 
…

Secretary of State Rex Tillerson says he plans to affirm an “ironclad” U.S. commitment to NATO during a visit to Belgium, Austria and France this week.

Dogged by reports by several media outlets that the White House is considering replacing him with CIA Chief Mike Pompeo, Tillerson called those reports “laughable.” President Donald Trump also tweeted that Tillerson is not leaving any time soon.

NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg dismissed Tillerson’s job insecurity speculation Monday as a distraction, saying the trans-Atlantic alliance “and NATO ministers are able to focus on the core tasks of the job we have to do despite any speculation and rumors.”

Stoltenberg also praised Tillerson’s strong personal commitment to the trans-Atlantic bond and to NATO. Tillerson is set to meet with Stoltenberg to discuss a range of global security issues.

The U.S. envoy to NATO, former Republican Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison, said that there has been no change to plans for two days of talks starting Tuesday in Brussels between Tillerson and his NATO foreign minister counterparts.

A senior State Department official briefed reporters ahead of the trip, Tillerson’s seventh visit to Europe since talking the job as chief U.S. diplomat. The official said while in Brussels, Tillerson will also meet with EU High Representative Federica Mogherini, have lunch with the 28 EU foreign ministers and meet with Belgian officials to discuss defense cooperation, Afghan strategy and the defeat of the so-called Islamic State.

The senior state department official said Tillerson will reinforce President Trump’s central message of “shared responsibility” in Europe and the global agenda that includes North Korea, Syria and issues related to Russia. The president has repeatedly called on NATO countries to pay more for mutual defense.

From Brussels, Tillerson will travel to Vienna for the annual meeting of the OSCE, with the emphasis on arms control and human rights, and the senior State Department official said, a message of support for Ukrainian sovereignty.

The official said his final stop will be in Paris “where we have a very special and deep cooperation with the French on a global agenda that encompasses issues on Iran, Syria, Lebanon, Libya, North Korea and Sahel.”

But some analysts say Tillerson’s main obstacle abroad may be his own strained relationship with President Donald Trump, as he seeks to reassure U.S. allies at a time of multiple foreign policy challenges with North Korea and a potentially explosive U.S. decision that might be coming later this week on recognizing Jerusalem as the capital of Israel.

The President of the American Academy of Diplomacy, former Ambassador Ronald Neumann told VOA: “The greatest effect on his ability to do his job is whether people are confident that he speaks for the president and it is the president who makes that uncertain from time to time with tweets and position changes.”

But Neumann added: “I think by and large NATO members are reasonably comfortable with what Tillerson has been doing with diplomacy.”

Aaron David Miller of the Wilson Center served five or six different Republican and Democratic secretaries of state and said the president’s treatment of Tillerson is unprecedented.

“No president ever undercut a working secretary of state while on a mission [to Asia], as he did in North Korea. No president ever adopted positions that were unethical to the ones that the secretary was taking on Qatar.”

But James Carafano of the Heritage Foundation said he finds there an been a healthy and open airing of differences on foreign policy views among Tillerson and other members of Trump’s team, and that this is appreciated abroad.

“By and large I think there is a recognition of a generally clear direction from U.S. foreign policy that a lot of our friends and allies appreciate,” he said. “And Tillerson, has -the leaders that I have talked to – think that he has well represented U.S. views and engagement with him has been helpful and useful.”
…

President Donald Trump will not announce a decision on Monday on whether he will again delay moving the U.S. embassy in Israel to Jerusalem, a White House spokesman said, despite Monday’s deadline for doing so.

An announcement on the decision will be made “in coming days,” White House spokesman Hogan Gidley told reporters aboard Air Force One as Trump was returning from a trip to Utah.

Temporary order expected

Trump had been due to decide whether to sign a waiver that would hold off relocating the embassy from Tel Aviv for another six months, as every U.S. president has done since Congress passed a law on the issue in 1995.

Senior U.S. officials have said that Trump is expected to issue a temporary order, the second since he took office, to delay moving the embassy despite his campaign pledge to go ahead with the controversial action.

No final decision yet  

But the officials have said Trump is likely to give a speech on Wednesday unilaterally recognizing Jerusalem as Israel’s capital, a step that would break with decades of U.S. policy and could fuel violence in the Middle East. They have said, however, that no final decisions have been made.

“The president has been clear on this issue from the get-go; that it’s not a matter of if, but a matter of when,” Gidley said.

The Palestinians want East Jerusalem as the capital of their future state, and the international community does not recognize Israel’s claim on all of the city, home to sites holy to the Jewish, Muslim and Christian religions.

 
…

Thousands of people are still waiting on access to safe drinking water in parts of Texas more than three months after Hurricane Harvey.

The storm and the heavy rains that followed overflowed drainage districts, cut off water and prompted hundreds of boil-water notices across the Gulf Coast. More than a dozen boil-water notices remain in effect across affected areas.

The areas included cities, mobile home parks and housing developments in seven counties across southeast Texas, the Beaumont Enterprise reported. The Texas Commission on Environmental Quality reports more than 3,700 people in those areas haven’t had clean drinking water since late August.

In Rose City, the city’s boil notice hasn’t been lifted because the plan hasn’t met TCEQ standards for pH levels and other chemicals, said Janice Ratcliff, the city’s water operator. Running water returned to the city’s 600 residents in September, but it still requires a two-minute rolling boil before safe consumption.

“It’s been so touch-and-go,” Ratcliff said. “It will run good for two weeks but then something will happen. It just makes no sense to remove the notice just to have to go right back on it.”

Ratcliff said the city’s original goal was to have the notice rescinded for good by Thanksgiving. But issues with insurance have pushed back installing the necessary equipment.

“It’s crazy what they put us through,” Ratcliff said. “It’s just been delay after delay. We understand that insurance companies and FEMA (Federal Emergency Management Agency) were so overloaded, but a water facility should come first.”

Mayor Bonnie Stephenson said that faith-based organizations have been working to provide Rose City with enough bottled water.

“We’ve barely had any complaints from residents,” Stephenson said of the rebuilding process. “They know that they’re working as hard as they can to fix it. Nobody has gotten real mad yet.”
…

As the United States and South Korean air forces on Monday launched their largest ever joint drills, questions are being raised whether North Korea’s missile test has shown it has already crossed what Seoul deems a “red line” – having a nuclear-tipped intercontinental ballistic missile –and what can be done about it.

The five-day annual Vigilant ACE military exercises this year involve more than 230 warplanes and 12,000 U.S. military personnel joining with South Korean troops.

While such large-scale joint exercises are routine, and scheduled well in advance, the drills begin less than a week after Pyongyang successfully launched its most advanced ICBM and declared itself a nuclear weapons power, a status the U.S. has called unacceptable.

South Korea’s air force says the drills will include simulated attacks on mock North Korean nuclear and missile targets.

Red line

North Korea’s test of the Hwasong-15 missile last week showed ruler Kim Jong Un’s ICBM program is more advanced than many previously believed and already capable of hitting the continental U.S.

Pyongyang has claimed the missile is nuclear ready – a subject of debate among experts, most of whom argue it is months or even years from perfecting. But South Korea does not believe the assertion. 

“The government does not accept the North’s ‘unilateral’ claim to completing its nuclear program,” said South Korea’s Unification Ministry spokesman Baik Tae-hyun at a Monday briefing. “We are making efforts to resolve the North’s nuclear issue peacefully with the international community.”

Seoul says it has not verified that North Korea’s missile has capabilities such as re-entry, precise guidance to terminal phase, and warhead operation.

If Pyongyang demonstrates those advances, it would cross what President Moon Jae-in in July called a “red line” for possible U.S. military action – having a functional, nuclear-tipped ICBM. 

Pyongyang might soon cross that line, if it hasn’t already. 

“It now appears that the Hwasong-15 can deliver a 1,000-kg payload to any point on the U.S. mainland. North Korea has almost certainly developed a nuclear warhead that weighs less than 700 kg, if not one considerably lighter,” wrote ballistic missile analyst for the U.S.-Korea Institute at SAIS’s 38 North program, Michael Elleman, shortly after the test.

Potential for war

U.S. officials have warned they will not allow Pyongyang to threaten the U.S. with a nuclear missile, raising the possibility that Washington could launch a preemptive attack on North Korea. 

Pyongyang denounced this week’s drills as preparation for such an attack, as it always does, and warned the U.S. is driving the peninsula to the “brink of nuclear war,” according to North Korea’s state-run Korean Central News Agency.

But North Korea is not alone this time in warning that the two sides are getting closer to war. 

White House national security adviser HR McMaster on Saturday said the chance of war with North Korea was “increasing every day.”

Republican Senator Lindsey Graham on Sunday called for the Pentagon to move U.S. military dependents out of South Korea because conflict with Pyongyang was getting closer to reality.

U.S. President Donald Trump has threatened to destroy North Korea if it attacks the U.S. or its allies. But it is not clear if Washington is ready for the heavy death-toll and destruction in South Korea – with half its population within Pyongyang’s artillery range – that would likely result from a preemptive attack to destroy North Korea’s nuclear and missile facilities. 

“Red line responses don’t have to be military but they should be significant and painful politically and economically, if not militarily,” said Pacific Forum CSIS in Honolulu President Ralph Cossa. “They are also most effective if spelled out in advance and then acted upon.” 

Hawaii on Friday tested nuclear alarm sirens not used since the end of the Cold War in the 1980s.

U.S. missile defense

Despite the warnings of war, and the Hwasong-15’s demonstrated reach, the Pentagon has said North Korea is not yet a threat to the continental U.S. 

U.S. missile defense includes the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD), also used in South Korea and Guam, the Ground-based Midcourse Defense (GMD) in Alaska and California, Patriot missiles in Japan, and the U.S. navy’s ship-based Aegis system. 

U.S. missile defense has a checkered test record, successfully intercepting a mock warhead about half the time, noted 38 North’s Elleman.

“If five missiles are fired, and the US responds with four interceptors per NK (North Korean) warhead, all five warheads would be destroyed about 80% of the time. In other words, the expectation would be that at least one warhead will evade the defenses 20% of the time.”

Peace in our time?

With North Korea’s nuclear missile program advancing much faster than expected, time is running out to avert war, said HR McMaster on Sunday.

Multilateral diplomatic options haven’t gained any traction with Pyongyang since it refused nuclear inspectors in 2008 and withdrew from a deal on ending its nuclear programs made with China, Japan, Russia, South Korea, and the United States.

“I think diplomatic policy or six-party talks are over and North Korea is focusing on whether it can have negotiations with the U.S. or not, and it does not consider six-party talks at all,” said head of the World Institute of North Korean Studies Ahn Chan-il. “It’s because the (purpose) of the six-party talks is to stop the operation of North Korea’s nuclear program. So, even if the six countries gather and talk, they cannot reach anything as North Korea has almost become a nuclear power state.”

“I suspect we will just see more and more sanctions,” said Pacific Forum president Cossa. “The U.S. seems to be warning that it will seek ship inspections and more intrusive maritime measures, but it’s unclear Beijing and Moscow will go along.”

More optimistic analysis has suggested North Korea’s declaration of having “completed” its nuclear ambition may signal Pyongyang will turn towards its decrepit economy and away from further nuclear provocation.

“In order to reach both nuclear and economic development, it requires a huge budget, technology, labor, and resources,” said Ahn. “But the pressure and sanctions of the United Nations are reaching their highest and it is remote to prepare such conditions to realize Kim Jong Un’s hope.”

North Korea experts will be watching Kim’s annual New Year’s Day speech closely for any clues on how much closer Pyongyang intends to push the red line between peace and war. 
…

U.S. Defense Secretary Jim Mattis made a visit Monday to Pakistan where he said he did not plan to “prod” the government, but expected it to adhere to its promises to combat terrorism.

Speaking aboard a military plane ahead of his first visit to Islamabad as Pentagon chief, Mattis said he did not expect to butt heads during his meetings with Pakistani Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi and Army Chief Qamar Javed Bajwa.

“That’s not the way I deal with issues,” Mattis said. “I believe that we (can) work hard on finding common ground and then we work together.”

In October, Mattis warned the United States is willing to work “one more time” with Pakistan before taking “whatever steps are necessary” to address its alleged support for militants.

But on Sunday, Mattis said he is focused on trying to find “more common ground … by listening to one another without being combative.”

The United States has for a decade accused Pakistan of sheltering or having ties to terrorists, such as the Haqqani Network and the Afghan Taliban, which attack NATO coalition forces in neighboring Afghanistan.

Islamabad rejects the accusation, saying Washington is scapegoating Pakistan for its own failures in Afghanistan, where the United States remains in a stalemate after 16 years of war.

Tougher stance

Before Mattis’ visit, other Trump administration officials are taking a harder public stance on Pakistan.

Speaking at a defense forum Saturday, CIA director Mike Pompeo said, “We are going to do everything we can to ensure that safe havens no longer exist,” if Pakistan does not heed the U.S. message on militants.

Since 2004, the CIA has conducted drone strikes – mostly against al-Qaida and Pakistani Taliban targets – in northwest Pakistan, near the border with Afghanistan.

The United States is considering expanding those strikes, along with several other measures, according to media reports.

Other options include downgrading Pakistan’s status as a major non-NATO ally or sanctioning individual Pakistani leaders suspected having ties with the Taliban.

But any kind of punitive action wouldn’t take place for at least a few weeks at minimum, predicts Michael Kugelman, a South Asia analyst with the Woodrow Wilson Center.

“I think (the administration) wants to give the Pakistanis a bit more time to see if they’re responding to the various demands the United States made of them when it comes to cracking down on terrorists,” said Kugelman.

One of the likelier U.S. responses, according to Kugelman, is expanding not only the geographic scope of the drone war, but also widening the type of targets the United States goes after.

“I think we could start seeing the U.S. trying to target more Haqqani Network and Afghan Taliban targets,” especially in the sparsely populated Baluchistan and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa provinces, he said.

The Trump administration has also threatened cut off aid to Pakistan. Since 2002, the United States has given over $33 billion in assistance to Pakistan. But the aid has already been cut sharply in recent years.

Pakistani leverage?

If ties were to deteriorate, the United States also has much to lose. Pakistan controls U.S. military supply routes to landlocked Afghanistan, and could close them down, as they did in 2011. The United States would also like Pakistan to scale back its nuclear modernization, improve ties with India, and stay engaged in the broader fight against Islamic militants.

But despite the risks, Michael O’Hanlon, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, warns Washington appears to be running out of patience.

“For many years we were trying to hold out hope that the Pakistanis would change their mind about Afghanistan and our role there,” he said. “But those kinds of hopes aren’t as prevalent anymore. And on balance, therefore, I think we are closer to using some of those tougher methods.”

Mattis, who is on a regional tour that also took him to Egypt, Jordan, and Kuwait, wouldn’t elaborate on any possible U.S. action. But he says the situation is pressing.

“There’s always an urgency to something when 39 nations plus Afghanistan have their troops in the midst of a long war where casualties are being taken,” he said.
…

Anthony walks the streets of Philadelphia’s Kensington neighborhood looking for two competing things: His next heroin fix – and help in what he says is his struggle to end addiction.

He traces the habit to one fateful day.

“I shattered my leg and I was on oxycodone pain medication prescribed through my doctor,” recalls the 28 year-old, who asked for anonymity to share his story. “I withdrew so bad, a friend put me on heroin and it’s been a slippery slide for five years.”

He ended up in Kensington, a predominantly Hispanic neighborhood where drug users can find some of the cheapest and purest heroin in the country. The area is also home to unscrupulous healthcare providers who continue to over-prescribe opioid medications. 

Open drug use occurs within easy view of storefronts. Teenagers riding their bikes pass addicts in zombie-like states on the sidewalks and porches. Kensington is a destination for heroin users from afar. Many end up staying to feed their addiction.

“We have not only people from other parts of the state, we have people from other parts of the country who come here,” said Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), Special Agent Patrick Trainor. “Unfortunately, it’s sparked a heroin tourism industry,”

The drug epidemic is not a new phenomenon for Kensington. For decades, it’s contended with addicts. More than half the population lives below the poverty line, 2.5 times the rate of the rest of Philadelphia. The wide availability of prescription opioids from healthcare providers, along with the influx of individuals from outside the community, has made matters dramatically worse.

In 2017, a deal was reached by city officials to clear out an open air heroin market known as El Campamento, or “The Tracks.”

It existed beneath sunken train tracks, hidden from street level. The property was riddled with syringes and all kinds of drug paraphernalia.

People in the area regularly died from drug overdoses. At times, 75 to 125 opioid addicts lived there in makeshift homes.

“It was contained,” said Councilwoman Maria Quinones Sanchez, who represents the Philadelphia district that includes Kensington. “But now it’s out in the open and people are kind of struggling about dealing with the problem. What are we going to do with it? Because this problem is not going to go away in the next six months or in the next year,” said Sanchez.

Pure Heroin Fills the Streets of Kensington

The attraction of Kensington is simple: cheap and powerful heroin primarily piped in by Mexico’s Sinaloa cartel. And in the streets of Kensington, drug dealers compete with one another to sell heroin, some laced with fentanyl, a synthetic opioid.

“In order to compete, you have to have the purest stuff on the street, we’ve seen purity levels in Philadelphia around 93% at times, and that’s street purity level,” said (Drug Enforcement Administration) DEA Special Agent in Charge Gary Tuggle. “So in order to compete with that, many groups have started to adulterate that 50% [of heroin] or so with fentanyl. Often not recognizing the fact that fentanyl is 80 to 100 times more powerful than morphine, 50 to 80 times more powerful than heroin.”

Davey, a 31-year-old heroin addict knows firsthand how strong, and dangerous, the fentanyl laced drug can be. “I had a good friend, the bag was empty, I scraped an empty bag for him, some grains, and just a tiny amount and he overdosed,” Davey said. “That’s just how powerful it is.”

Philadelphia recorded 900 overdose deaths in 2016. Officials say the city is on track for at least 1,200 deaths in 2017. Overdoses are the number one cause of death in Philadelphia for every age group from 25 to 44, the number two cause from age 45 to 54, and the number three cause from age 55 to 64.

“It’s extraordinary to have an epidemic like this appear on leading causes of death,” said Dr. Thomas Farley, Philadelphia’s Health Commissioner. “The problem is not only not slowing down, but it’s accelerating. There are not enough beds for addicts he said.

“I lived through the worst drug epidemics in the country’s history. The post-Vietnam heroin epidemic, the crack cocaine epidemic of the ‘80s and early ‘90s and then there’s this particular opioid epidemic that dwarfs the other two,” Tuggle said.

“It has a feeder system to it that the others didn’t have. And that’s the misuse and abuse of prescription opioids,” Tuggle said.

“We still have a major focus on the enforcement piece, but we also engage with the community in prevention and education to try to drive down that insatiable demand for opioids that exists in this country,” said Tuggle. The engagement includes non-traditional partnerships within the public health sector such as treatment providers and medical examiners where they analyze data to assist in explaining the drug epidemic trends.

Councilwoman Sanchez wants all sectors working together to ensure those who understand what is happening are the ones leading the fight. “We now have to have the political will to sit all of those actors at the table and say, ‘OK, how do we work our way backwards,” she said.

The biggest obstacles are lack of treatment facilities and housing for addicts and others. Estimates suggest that 30,000 heroin addicts are in Philadelphia, currently, only half would have access to proper treatment.

“Not all people who are drug users have housing, and housing is often a part of treatment. It’s hard for people to get treatment if they are living on the street,” said Dr. Farley. 

A Community Connected beyond the Drug Epidemic

On a recent walk down Kensington Avenue, Sanchez recalls growing up in the neighborhood and her commitment to the people.

“All I see is people who survive despite circumstances that are sometimes created outside of their control, and those are the folks that I represent,” she said. “And so my job is to be the cheerleader for those folks who work really hard and despite all the situation, whether it’s the teacher, principal, the librarians, you know, the folks that are here.”

Convenience store owner Sam Kuttab said things have improved some. He plans to stay in Kensington.

“About 10 years ago we had a big fire here and the insurance company paid us good money,” Kuttab said. “We could have just taken the money and moved on. But we felt there is a community here, there’s a community here that really appreciated our services, and we appreciated them. So we put our money back into this neighborhood, and it’s paid off,” he said.

Officials recognize there are obstacles, but unless they do something impactful more people will die in Kensington and Philadelphia.
…