Author: julrich

We take a look at some of our most important stories of the last week.
This week, for your convenience, we have a roundup of the top stories we’ve been following lately.
First, we hear from PA Post reporter Ed Mahon, who traveled to Erie last month to talk to the people who live there about a plant that turns coal into a crucial ingredient for steel manufacturing. It creates a lot of jobs for the area, but also has a long history of air quality violations.
We also looked into an unusual situation that has unfolded in York County, at Roundtop ski mountain. It’s not a big mountain, and it’s known mostly to people in the area. But it’s wrapped in a much bigger story about opioid addiction and some of the people who have profited off it. Brett Sholtis, with WITF’s Transforming Health project, had that story.
Finally, we have a story from Capitol reporter Katie Meyer (the host of this fine podcast) who looked into renewed debate over changing statute of limitations laws to let victims of child sexual abuse sue more easily. The proposed overhaul has a lot of support, but it has always gotten held up in the state Senate—and it’s unclear if that will change.

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Last week saw the beginning—and end—of a brief whirlwind of activity in the state House and Senate.
On this week’s podcast, we’ll recap two of the major developments: Republicans staking out a plan of action on guns, and the governor saying he wants to legalize marijuana.
The gun conversations stretched over several days in both chambers. By the time they broke for the month, GOP lawmakers in the House had passed a number of bills governing firearms, none of which gun safety advocates particularly wanted. They had also ruled out passing one of the measures for which those advocates have lobbied most strongly—a so-called “red flag” bill.
A similar partisan tension was evident on marijuana. After Governor Tom Wolf said he wants to allow recreational use of the drug—a position based on a months-long listening tour Lieutenant Governor John Fetterman conducted this year—Republicans came out firmly against the idea.
The legislature returns to session in late October.

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If a person is given a life sentence in Pennsylvania, they can be fairly confident that—barring a commutation—they’ll be behind bars until they die.
In the commonwealth, life in prison always means life without parole. And if a person is found guilty of non-capital first-degree or second-degree murder, life without parole is the only sentence available under current statute.
That sometimes means that if someone takes part in a crime—say, a robbery—in which someone dies, they can be handed a life sentence even if they didn’t kill anyone. And it also means Pennsylvania locks people up for life at a higher rate than any other state.
Last week, WESA reporter An-Li Herring published two stories explaining this practice and documenting a growing push to change the way Pennsylvania metes out life sentences.
This week on the podcast we’ll get an inside look at her reporting, and hear from two men she spoke to who, until recently, were serving life sentences in the commonwealth.

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The commonwealth’s lawmakers are still on their summer recess for another month. But a few are already laying out plans for their return—some more ambitious than others.

One of those ambitious legislators? Frank Ryan. He’s a second-term Republican who represents part of Lebanon County and wants to get rid of property taxes once and for all.

Harrisburg lawmakers have dreamed of getting rid of property taxes for years. The problem is, the revenue to fund public schools would then have to come from somewhere else. And the legislature hasn’t been able to agree on a substitute.

Ryan is taking a different route than most of the people who have tried to tackle the taxes.

His plan, which isn’t introduced yet, would leverage local sales and personal income taxes. And most crucially, it would put an almost five percent tax on all retirement income, except Social Security.

Ryan likes to remind people, he’s 68. His own taxes will go up under his plan, and he thinks that means he’s one of the only people who could get away with proposing something like this.

But will still be very, very difficult for him to get traction.

On this week’s episode, we look into the recent history of the property tax problem, and talk about some of the options lawmakers have suggested for alternative revenue.

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The 2020 election is still more than a year away, but Pennsylvania’s eighteen congress women and men are already well into the fundraising that they hope is going to get them another two-year term.
This week, we took a look at the quarterly reports the commonwealth’s incumbents and challengers have been filing to see how they’re doing. On this episode, we’ll brief you on those findings, and on which races you should be watching for potential flips.
We’ll also recap a rare town hall one of Pennsylvania’s most vulnerable incumbents recently held. Scott Perry, a conservative who has represented the 10th congressional since 2013, found himself with a much more liberal district after a map-redrawing last year. After squeaking by against a mostly unknown challenger in 2018, Perry is trying to connect with his more liberal constituents. If his recent town hall is any indicator, results have been mixed.
PA Post reporters Emily Previti and Ed Mahon join us to explain it all.

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By just about every measurement you can make, Pennsylvania is particularly susceptible to gerrymandering.

At least, that was PA Post reporter Emily Previti’s conclusion after taking an extremely detailed look at the factors that lead to gerrymandering in various states.

Pennsylvania is one of the only states that doesn’t have standards like compactness or contiguity baked into its congressional reapportionment rules. Its campaign finance laws are opaque, it doesn’t allow open primaries, and it doesn’t let voters decide policy by ballot referendum.
Emily joins us this episode to explain why these factors, and many others, make the commonwealth vulnerable to partisan mapmaking.

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Pennsylvania officially has a budget for the new fiscal year, and it was—mostly—signed into law two days ahead of deadline.

As far as budgets go in Harrisburg, it was a breeze—after all just four years ago, an impasse over funding dragged on for nine months.

But still, there were some hiccups this year.

An argument over whether to repeal a cash assistance program for the poor led to a rare shouting match on the Senate floor—an incident that has now gone fairly viral online.

The program’s ultimate repeal was a blow to Democrats, who also lost out on priorities like a minimum wage increase, boost to teacher salaries, and a fee for state police coverage.

But Democratic Governor Tom Wolf notes, he and his colleagues did manage to compromise with Republicans on an increase in K-12 education funding, more money for preschools and special education, funding for libraries, a transfer to the Rainy Day fund, and support for domestic violence, child welfare, and intellectual disability programs.

We’ll explain what is and isn’t in the budget, and how the process played out to get to a final deal.

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It’s been a busy time in Harrisburg. State lawmakers are hoping negotiations on next year’s budget are wrapped up before the end of this week—and that means in the meantime, there are a lot of balls in the air.
On Thursday, Governor Wolf stopped by WITF for a live show produced by Keystone Crossroads, in partnership with the major public radio stations in Pennsylvania, and PA Post. He took questions on a number of topics, and in this episode, we’ve included some of the newsiest ones.
Hear what the governor has to say about budget-related issues, like negotiations on a higher minimum wage, upgrading voting machines, and deciding the fate of the General Assistance program. Plus, we’ll get into broader conversations, like his pitch to upgrade infrastructure.
The full conversation with Wolf ran a full hour and covered a lot more ground, so if you’re interested you can check out the recorded broadcast here.

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Lawmakers are busy negotiating the budget for next fiscal year, which starts July 1. By all accounts, things are going relatively well. But a few major proposals are still up in the air.

One of those is the minimum wage.

Pennsylvania’s wage is at the $7.25 federal minimum—lower than any neighboring state. It’s been a sore subject for Democrats for years, but Republicans have, historically, been staunchly against an increase.

This year though, that opposition seems to have thawed slightly. GOP leaders have said they may be open to a modest increase, and lawmakers on both sides of the aisle have confirmed that talks on the minimum wage are happening in relation to the budget.

It’s still not clear if anything will change. But as negotiations progress, a few potential paths forward have begun to circulate among rank-and-file members.

Marc Levy of the Associated Press joins us this episode to discuss where the issue stands, and where it’s likely to go.

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This week, we’re marking the anniversary of D-Day by investigating a famous photo with a Pennsylvania connection.

For months, WITF News Director Tim Lambert has been unraveling the story behind a scene that happened on Omaha Beach in Normandy 75 years ago. It was immortalized in a picture taken on D-Day +1 — June 7th, 1944. It shows 31-year-old Private First Class Nicholas Russin of Lyndora, Pa.  being dragged ashore, clearly half-drowned, under artillery fire.

Tim and a number of historians have been able to figure out the events leading up to that photo, who some of the men pictured were, and what happened to them.

Tim joins us today to explain how he told the story, and why he thinks it’s still important to remember the lessons of D-Day. You can read his full story here.

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