PA Attorney General Charges 16 In Drug Ring

HARRISBURG, PA — A Luzerne County man was charged Thursday in connection with a drug trafficking ring being prosecuted by state Attorney General Kathleen Kane’s office.

A grand jury determined evidence is sufficient to charge Darryl Elliot, 27, of South Grant Street, Wilkes-Barre, and 15 others with drug trafficking and conspiracy.

Of those charged, Juan Carlos Alvarez, was already serving time in Lackawanna County Correctional Facility. The grand jury found Alvarez supplied other suspects with drugs from the Dominican Republic and Puerto Rico to be distributed in New York City and Pennsylvania. Thirteen suspects are from Northumberland County.

Prosecutors do not know where one suspect, Joseph Galgocy, is from, according to a press release from the Attorney General’s Office.

Read more: http://www.timesleader.com/news/news/845389/AG-charges-16-in-drug-ring

Poverty In Reading Worsens, Census Says

English: Downtown Reading, Pennsylvania; with Berks County courthouse on left; July 2007 (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Reading’s poverty rate worsened in 2012, making it the second most impoverished city in the country behind Detroit.

The percent of city residents in poverty increased from 40.1 to 40.5, according to statistics released today by the U.S. Census Bureau.

That’s less than the 41.3 percent of Reading residents who were in poverty in 2010 when Reading had a higher percentage of residents in poverty than any other U.S. city with 65,000 or more people.

But hope for Reading still exists, said Jane Palmer, principal author and coordinator of the 65-page 2011 report of the Rebuilding Reading Poverty Commission.

Read more: http://readingeagle.com/article.aspx?id=512690

Hispanics In Berks County Double Since 2000

Map of Pennsylvania highlighting Berks County (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Ibrain Marquez-Pacheco knows exactly why he came to Reading: the low cost of living.

“He’s seen that poor people can survive here,” said Luz Mendez, who was translating on Thursday for the 73-year-old man originally from Cuba. “For him, this is like any other city he can go to, but here he can live and survive.”

Marquez-Pacheco was one of several hundred Hispanics who were having their daily lunch at the Daniel Torres Hispanic Center’s senior center at Fifth and Washington streets, where Mendez is a case manager.

Marquez-Pacheco is also one of tens of thousands of Hispanics who came to Berks since the 2000 Census.

Read more: http://readingeagle.com/article.aspx?id=386940