This has been a quiet week in the state Capitol. Lawmakers are lying low, introducing legislation, and prepping for their first real session days in the coming week.
But life goes on outside Harrisburg.
This week, we’re bringing you two stories. One is about a festering conflict between a neighborhood and a massive gas company. And the other on a young Pennsylvania man who was recently killed in a war that’s been dragging on since he was a child.
Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf meets with officials after he is sworn in for his second term, Tuesday, Jan. 15, 2019, at the state Capitol in Harrisburg, Pa. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke)
Tom Wolf has been sworn in for his second—and final—term as Pennsylvania’s governor. Wolf gave a low-key inaugural address, touting the bipartisan successes of his first four years in office and urging his fellow lawmakers to find common ground despite their often-intractable differences.
There weren’t a lot of policy specifics—Wolf seems to be saving those for his budget address February 5th. But the governor did allude to some of Pennsylvania’s most deep-rooted issues, like its inexorably aging population and the fact that it habitually loses more educated young people than it attracts.
The week also saw growing alarm over the lengthening federal government shutdown. More than 12,000 people around the commonwealth are furloughed or working without pay, and the state is starting to see an impact.
We’ll hear from the Department of Labor and Industry, which is seeing an upswing in people filing for unemployment, from the Central Pennsylvania Food Bank, which is upping services for federal workers, and from Senate Democrats, who are trying to help SNAP recipients prepare for shutdown-related changes to the program.
And finally, we’ll get an update from the small town of Tamaqua, about an hour to the northwest of Allentown, where residents are embroiled in a debate—and legal proceedings—over how to keep kids safe at school.
4-H leader Kelsey Bollinger, of Manheim, Pa., leads her Milking Shorthorn named Sadie during the 103rd Pennsylvania Farm Show in Harrisburg. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke)
Picture a farmer.
If you’re like a lot of people, the first thing that popped into your brain might have been a man in overalls and a big hat, maybe standing in a field, possibly on the older side.
Of course, you know that’s a caricature. Anyone can be a farmer. Still, the image of an older male farmer is pervasive, and if you visit the Pennsylvania Farm Show, it may not appear all that inaccurate.
But farming is changing, in Pennsylvania and elsewhere.
For comparison, the 2002 survey found 5,186 farmers 34 and younger and 12,816 farmers 65 and older.
Plus, while family farming is still a tenet of the industry, particularly when it comes to smaller farms, it’s increasingly common for farmers’ children to opt out of the family business.
So this year at the Pennsylvania Farm Show, we talked to a lot of farmers—longtime farmers, new farmers, future farmers—to learn how they think the industry is going to keep evolving and changing in the years to come.
A new legislative session is dawning in Harrisburg, and with that comes a lot of change.
This week, the state Capitol was flooded with family and friends and supporters of dozens of new lawmakers, as they were sworn in for the next two years.
The House and Senate also approved a whole bunch of changes to the internal rules that’ll govern them this session. Plus, House Republicans have announced their new slate of committee chairs—people who have a lot of influence on which bills get heard in the chamber.
Stephen Caruso from the PLS Reporter and Charlie Thompson of PennLive join us to discuss what this all means—plus, we’ll hear directly from newly-minted House Majority Leader Bryan Cutler.
