CATHOLICISM - The Cover-Ups

"‘Secret archives’ detailed priests’ child sex abuse and cover-ups, PA. attorney general says" PBS NewsHour 8/14/2018

Shocked?  But remember, first and foremost, Priests are only human beings.  It is our fault for placing them on a pedestal and thinking them saints.  Think about it, what positions would attract pedophiles: easy access to children, where they could gain the trust of children, and sometimes be protected.

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SUMMARY:  A scathing new grand jury report in Pennsylvania describes decades of sexual abuse by Catholic priests.  At least 1,000 children were molested by more than 300 clergy, the panel found, which also claims a conspiracy of silence extended all the way to the Vatican.  Judy Woodruff sits down with Pennsylvania Attorney General Josh Shapiro and Fr. Thomas Reese of Religion News Service.

TRUMP - Congressional Gridlock

"Trump has made political gridlock ‘more challenging,’ says retiring Rep. Charlie Dent" PBS NewsHour 4/17/2018

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SUMMARY:  Pennsylvania Rep. Charlie Dent (R-Pa) announced Tuesday he will leave Congress a few months earlier than expected; last fall he announced he would not seek re-election.  Why leave now?  Dent says he plans to bring a voice to the “sensible center” from outside of Congress.  He joins Judy Woodruff to discuss his exit, President Trump and the political headwinds for Republicans going into the midterm election.

Gosh!  Dent use a cuss word, "compromise."

PORTRAIT OF HOME - Braddock Pennsylvania

"MacArthur Fellow LaToya Ruby Frazier captures the town that survived" PBS NewsHour 1/5/2016

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SUMMARY:  Braddock, Pennsylvania, was once a thriving steel town before the town’s industry collapsed.  It's where LaToya Ruby Frazier grew up, like her mother and grandmother before her, and it's where the visual artist and 2015 MacArthur fellow has returned to document the change her community has endured.  Jeffrey Brown talks with Frazier about her art and activism.

JUDY WOODRUFF (NewsHour):  Finally, a look at a photographer’s more-than-decade-long project documenting hope and despair in her hometown.

Jeffrey Brown has that story.

JEFFREY BROWN (NewsHour):  Braddock, Pennsylvania, about nine miles outside of Pittsburgh, a once thriving steel town of some 20,000, now down to one-tenth of that, and captured through the very personal lens of LaToya Ruby Frazier, the 32-year-old winner of one of this year’s MacArthur Fellowships.

LATOYA RUBY FRAZIER, Photographer:  I see myself as an artist and a citizen that’s documenting and telling the story and building the archive of working-class families facing all this change that’s happening, because it has to be documented.

JEFFREY BROWN:  These days, Frazier teaches and lives in Chicago, where we talked to her, but her true home, her childhood home, is the one found in her work.

It’s a project titled “The Notion of Family” that she began more than a decade ago, documenting three generations of African-American women in a particular time and place.

LATOYA RUBY FRAZIER:  My grandmother, who grew up there in the ’30s, when Braddock was prosperous and a city itself that everyone came to, to my mother growing up there in the ’60s during segregation and white flight and the beginning of the collapse of the steel industry, to myself growing up there in the ’80s and ’90s, when the factories were already dismantled and the war on drugs kind of hit its peak.

JEFFREY BROWN:  Educator and photographer Lewis Hine used his camera for social reform.  Photographers from the Farm Security Administration documented the poverty of the Depression, the pioneering work of Gordon Parks in the 1940s and ’50s.

Frazier sees herself working in this tradition, first and foremost, though, as a visual artist.

LATOYA RUBY FRAZIER:  The art comes in with how it’s crafted, how it’s made, the material, me understanding the history, because the images, they’re not purely documents.

If you look at them, first and foremost, the fact that I appear on the other side of the camera lets you know that this is contemporary art, because now I’m performing and doing gestures in front of the camera to create…

POLICING - Reform in Philadelphia?

"Can police reform happen in Philadelphia?" PBS NewsHour 4/22/2015

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SUMMARY:  Last December, Brandon Tate-Brown was killed by Philadelphia police after being pulled over for driving with his headlights off.  His family is not alone in their pain -- there have been 394 shootings involving the police in Philadelphia since 2007.  Despite efforts to review and reform police training and transparency, the changes are far from reality at this point. Hari Sreenivasan reports.

JUDY WOODRUFF (NewsHour):  The death of a 25-year-old black man, Freddie Gray, in Baltimore is the most recent in a string of stories spotlighting use of force by police.

Many cities across the country are trying to improve relations between police and the citizens they protect.  In Philadelphia, a recent Justice Department report found nearly once a week over the past eight years Philadelphia police opened fire on suspects, who are almost always African-American.

Hari Sreenivasan has more.

TANYA BROWN-DICKERSON, Mother of Brandon Tate-Brown:  On December 15, 2014, I was going to work.  I got to work a little late.  I got there, I want to say 6:26.  And I was getting ready to cut my car off.  And I heard a black male, on the radio, a black male, 26 years old, gunned down by police at the 6600 block of Frankford Avenue, driving a white Dodge Charger.

So when I heard that, unfortunately, I knew that it was my son.

HARI SREENIVASAN (NewsHour):  Last December, Tanya Brown’s son Brandon Tate-Brown had been killed, shot by Philadelphia polices, after being pulled over for driving with his headlights off.

TANYA BROWN-DICKERSON:  To know that my son suffered like that and that I wasn’t there to protect him or lay my body on him, and them probably kill me too, it breaks my heart.  I’m his mother.  And I couldn’t do nothing to help him.

HARI SREENIVASAN:  Tanya Brown is not alone in her pain.  There have been 394 shootings involving the Philadelphia police since 2007.  In many years, the department saw more police shootings than New York City, a city that is five times its size.

STUDENTS - Whistleblowers Prevent Shooting

"These student whistleblowers spoke up to prevent a shooting" PBS NewsHour 4/22/2015

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SUMMARY:  One year ago, two students in Lebanon, Pennsylvania, began sharing plans to gun down their classmates.  They may have gotten away with it had it not been for a group of students who alerted school authorities.  Young journalists from NewsHour’s Student Reporting Labs look at the actions of the whistleblowers that led to the arrest of the potential shooters.

JUDY WOODRUFF (NewsHour):  This month we have been bring you stories from high school students around the country reporting on how the concept of school safety is evolving.

Tonight, we travel to the town of Lebanon, Pennsylvania, where a potential attack by students was foiled one year ago.

As part of our ongoing Student Reporting Labs series called The New Safe, student television network correspondent Nick Weiss investigates what inspired a handful of brave students to take action.

NICOLE MALINOSKI, Principal, Cedar Crest High School:  You know, the first thing I do when I wake up every morning is think about the safety and security of all students here.  It’s actually even before education, just because of school safety, how it’s been in the media and, unfortunately, you know, things that have happened over the last number of years.

I was actually out of the building the day that this occurred and I received a text message from Ms. May, who’s an assistant principal here.  She asked me if I could call ASAP.  She had something very important to discuss with me.

EDUCATION - The Philadelphia Public School Story

"Philadelphia schools aim to innovate to escape crisis (1 of 2)" PBS NewsHour 12/1/2014

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JUDY WOODRUFF (NewsHour):  As we have been reporting, it’s been a very rough go for the Philadelphia public schools this year, for its students, teachers and parents, and even further back.

Now the school superintendent is taking new steps and trying experiments with expanding charter schools to fight back.

The “NewsHour” special correspondent for education, John Merrow, has the first of two reports this week.

JOHN MERROW (NewsHour):  Philadelphia public schools are in trouble.  Not enough money.  Overflowing classrooms.  And the unkindest cut of all, more than one-third of its students, 70,000, are in charter schools, which Philadelphia has to pay for, but doesn’t control.

WILLIAM HITE, Superintendent, The School District of Philadelphia:  Individuals are choosing away from us, simply because they don’t think that our schools are meeting the needs of our children.

JOHN MERROW:  William Hite is superintendent of Philadelphia’s public schools.

WILLIAM HITE:  So what we want to do is to become a part of that choice.  Our survival depends on our ability to innovate, to think differently about how children are educated.

MAN:  You noticed there’s mirrors.  Mirrors are, like, fascinating to kids.  They, like, look at them and they’re like, who is that kid?  What brain development stuff is going on with those kinds of things now?

JOHN MERROW:  This is the kind of innovative model superintendent Hite is talking about.  These 12th graders at Science Leadership Academy are learning about brain development by designing toys for babies and infants.

WOMAN:  Aaron, what do you think?  Do you want to do like little infant or do you want to do like 4- to 5-year-olds?

STUDENT:  I want to do toddlers 1 to 3.

MAN:  You will need to research what’s going on and then think of what you could build, design that would help develop those parts of the brain that are developing during eight to 12 months.

JOHN MERROW:  Some teachers might have given a lecture on brain development, but that’s not how things work at Science Leadership Academy.  Here, kids learn by finding their own answers and working collaboratively on real-life projects.

"Can innovative schools be all-inclusive in Philadelphia? (2 of 2)" PBS NewsHour 12/2/2014

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SUMMARY:  Can schools that enroll students of all skill levels use the same methods as more academically selective programs?  In the second half of our report on Philadelphia’s public schools, special correspondent for education John Merrow reports on the city’s U School, a neighborhood school that’s copying the project-based learning curriculum of some of the city’s more exclusive charter schools.

PHILADELPHIA - Crippled Schools

My question, how much is your child's education worth to you?  My answer, whatever it takes.

"Philadelphia schools crippled by budget crisis" PBS NewsHour 10/3/2014

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JUDY WOODRUFF (NewsHour):  It’s a tough time to be a student, a teacher or a parent in the Philadelphia public schools.  The nation’s eighth largest school system is experiencing a severe budget crisis.

Special correspondent for education John Tulenko of Learning Matters looks at the impact hitting the classroom and what’s being done about it.

JOHN TULENKO, Learning Matters:  Last month, about 1,000 ninth graders marched to the football field at Northeast High School for a very different kind of kickoff ceremony.

WOMAN:  We are doing a mock graduation.  It’s an opportunity for our incoming ninth grade class to make a commitment.  We want to put the urge in them that they promise they are going to be right back here in June 2018.

JOHN TULENKO:  But hanging over this ceremony and the odds students will graduate is a school budget crisis that’s been called the worst in the country.  Northeast has 3,000 students and two principals, Sharon McColskey and Linda Carroll.

SHARON MCCOLSKEY, Northeast High:  In past years, operating budgets were probably 10 times what ours is right now, if not more.

Just the thought of opening the schools with what we have in the bank, real or in our budget, was really scary.

LINDA CARROLL, Northeast High:  You know, we’re hoping that money will be coming, but I don’t know.  We don’t have enough to even carry us through the end of this month, actually.

JOHN TULENKO:  Since 2011, when the cutting began, Northeast High School’s budget for extracurricular activities has dropped to zero, its budget for books zero, and for supplies to $14,000.  That’s roughly $5 per student to last the entire year.

What is that supposed to pay for?

SHARON MCCOLSKEY:  Everything that makes the school run, books, supplies, toner, ink, paper.

LINDA CARROLL:  Lab equipment, textbooks.

SHARON MCCOLSKEY:  Technology.

FRACKING - Sleaze of Greed, Protection Racket

"Aggressive Tactic on the Fracking Front" by Naveena Sadasivam, ProPublica 7/2/1024

A Pennsylvania gas company offers residents cash to buy protection from any claims of harm.

For the last eight years, Pennsylvania has been riding the natural gas boom, with companies drilling and fracking thousands of wells across the state.  And in a little corner of Washington County, some 20 miles outside of Pittsburgh, EQT Corporation has been busy – drilling close to a dozen new wells on one site.

It didn't take long for the residents of Finleyville who lived near the fracking operations to complain – about the noise and air quality, and what they regarded as threats to their health and quality of life.  Initially, EQT, one of the largest producers of natural gas in Pennsylvania, tried to allay concerns with promises of noise studies and offers of vouchers so residents could stay in hotels to avoid the noise and fumes.

But then, in what experts say was a rare tactic, the company got more aggressive; it offered all of the households along Cardox Road $50,000 in cash if they would agree to release the company from any legal liability, for current operations as well as those to be carried out in the future.  It covered potential health problems and property damage, and gave the company blanket protection from any kind of claim over noise, dust, light, smoke, odors, fumes, soot, air pollution or vibrations.

The agreement also defined the company's operations as not only including drilling activity but the construction of pipelines, power lines, roads, tanks, ponds, pits, compressor stations, houses and buildings.

"The release is so incredibly broad and such a laundry list," said Doug Clark, a gas lease attorney in Pennsylvania who mainly represents landowners.  "You're releasing for everything including activity that hasn't even occurred yet.  It's crazy."

Linda Robertson, a spokeswoman for EQT, said in a statement that the company had worked hard and conscientiously to address the concerns of the residents.  She said consultants had been hired, data collected on noise and health matters, and that independent analysis had shown the company was in compliance with noise and air quality requirements.  She would not comment in detail on the financial offers.

"When landowner and leaseholder concerns arise, it is a standard practice for EQT personnel to work diligently to listen to and understand their concerns, particularly those related to the temporary inconveniences of living near a production site," Robertson said.  "Regarding the neighbors on Cardox Road, the majority of whom are leaseholders, we have been in regular and ongoing communications with residents and local officials to address and resolve questions as they arise."

Hydraulic fracturing – or fracking – has provoked a litany of health and environmental concerns since it gained popularity within the last decade.  Many environmentalists and public health experts contend that the practice can pollute groundwater aquifers, drastically reduce air quality and endanger the health of residents living near wells.

Over the years, the industry has vehemently denied that its work is a threat, and has often pointed to a lack of conclusive proof that gas drilling operations are to blame for any harmful health or safety issues.  The industry has undertaken an array of efforts to quell these worries and preserve its business — lobbying state legislators, conducting its own scientific studies and occasionally settling quietly out of court with landowners who have threatened to sue.

The liability agreements EQT has used in Finleyville — they are often known as nuisance easements — have been used in other circumstances.  Residents living close to airports, for instance, are often offered such easements as compensation for having to bear with the noise, vibrations and fumes from air traffic.  Property owners close to landfills and wind farms may also sign similar agreements.

But experts say such easements are rare in the oil and gas industry.

"This is only the second time I've seen one," said Clark, the Pennsylvania attorney.  "They're absolutely not common at all."

Clark says it is unlikely that companies will start handing out such agreements en masse, saying doing so could decrease landowners' confidence about the safety of the company's operations and their personal health.

"People are going to say the gas companies must be concerned about air pollution because they're offering these easements," said Clark.  "Everybody's going to get suspicious."

Earlier this year, a couple in Texas was awarded $3 million in a lawsuit against a gas drilling company.  The couple alleged that the company's operations had affected their health, decreased their property value and forced them to move away.  The case was one of the first successful lawsuits alleging that air pollution from gas drilling activity caused health issues.

Experts say that verdict and others like it have emboldened landowners to take their claims to court.  Nuisance easements may be one way to ensure that the company can easily block landowners from claiming damages.

Apart from drilling and fracking wells, EQT also builds and operates the infrastructure — pipelines and compressor stations — necessary to move natural gas to market.  Its operations are headquartered in Pennsylvania but it also owns wells in Kentucky and West Virginia.

In 2008, landowners in Finleyville signed a gas lease for drilling with Chesapeake Energy.  The company only drilled one well, but last year it sold its leases to EQT, which has since drilled 11 additional wells.

So far the company's strategy to reduce its liabilities has worked with some landowners.

Muriel Spencer, whose house is about 500 feet from the drilling, took the money.  She said she did not consult with a lawyer, but had asked the company to put a five-year time frame around the release.  The initial contract released the company from liabilities indefinitely.

"I cannot complain about the drilling to this point," Spencer said, adding that EQT "has been nothing but fair with me."

The company's spokeswoman would not comment on how many landowners EQT approached with the proposed agreements, but said that "approximately 85% of the residents" had signed them.

An initial version of the proposed standard agreement listed 30 Finleyville residents and required that they all sign the agreements in order to receive the $50,000.  When the residents refused, EQT modified the agreement such that the compensation was not contingent on all landowners signing it.

ProPublica found that at least four of the 30 residents have agreed to some version of the initial agreement that EQT proposed and have received $50,000 in exchange.  It is unclear what changes were made to the agreement during negotiations.

Robertson, the company spokeswoman, said in her statement that "any changes made to the agreements during negotiations were based on requests directly from the resident, and/or their attorney."

But some of the residents have refused to negotiate with the company.

"I was insulted," said Gary Baumgardner, who was approached by EQT with the offer in January.  "We're being pushed out of our home and they want to insult us with this offer."

Baumgardner says his house is like an amphitheater, constantly vibrating from the drilling.  At times the noise gets up to 75 decibels, equivalent to a running vacuum cleaner, he said.  Earlier this year, EQT Corp. put up a sound barrier to limit the noise, but Baumgardner says it has made little difference to his quality of life.

"We took the pictures down in the bedroom because they still vibrate at night," he said.

Baumgardner says he has had to leave his house at least three times so far because the gas fumes from the well site were too much to bear.  A local health group has installed air quality monitors in his home and several of his neighbors.  Last year when the one of the monitors began flashing red, his daughter, pregnant at the time, fled the house.  She has since moved away after her doctor advised her not to live close to a drilling site.

"Our house is most often not livable," said Baumgardner.  EQT's response to his complaints, he said, has been "constant dismissals, excuses, delays and broken promises."

Robertson would not respond to Baumgardner's specific assertions.  She did point to several mitigation efforts she said the company had taken, including the sound wall, but also involving switching to quieter machinery and applying for permits to transport water via pipes instead of trucks.

Baumgardner believes the nuisance easement he was offered is a part of the industry's tactic to silence landowners.

"Throughout the last several months, an EQT regional land manager, one of our community advisers, and our community relations manager have all been engaged in phone calls and personal meetings with residents, attended township meetings, and visited the production site on multiple occasions to identify and confirm the reported issues, if any," Robertson's statement said.

"The easements are part of our overall consistent and ongoing effort to address leaseholder concerns."

CLOSING THE GAP - State, Federal Partnerships to Fight Poverty (Conversation-4)

"Closing the Gap: Mayor Michael Nutter on strengthening state, federal partnerships to fight poverty" PBS Newshour 2/14/2014

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JUDY WOODRUFF (Newshour):  We return tonight to the subject of poverty and inequality.

In recent days, we have spoken with members of both political parties weighing in on the problem for our series of conversations Closing the Gap.

For a closer look at how one particularly hard-hit city is coping, we turn to Philadelphia, where more than 28 percent of residents live below the poverty level.  That’s the highest rate of any U.S. city with more than one million people.  The median income in Philadelphia is just above $34,000.  Now, that’s the second lowest of any U.S. city, just ahead of Detroit.

Well, joining us now from Philadelphia is that city’s mayor, Democratic Mayor Michael Nutter.

PENNSYLVANIA - Sandusky Sentenced in Pedophile Scandal

"Jerry Sandusky Sentenced to at Least 30 Years for Sexual Abuse of Young Boys" PBS Newshour 10/9/2012

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SUMMARY: After being convicted of 45 counts of sexual abuse, former Penn State football coach Jerry Sandusky appeared in court to receive a sentence of 30 to 60 years in prison, where he will likely spend the rest of his life. Judy Woodruff talks to The Associated Press' Mark Scolforo about the reactions from Sandusky and his victims.

COMMENT: My GUT feeling on pedophiles, when convicted, the sentence should be slow-roasting on a spit over hot coals.

ELECTION 2012 - Pennsylvania Voter ID Law, NOT This Election

"Pa. Judge Rules Strict Voter ID Law Will Go Into Effect Year After Election" PBS Newshour 10/2/2012

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SUMMARY: A Pennsylvania judge blocked a law that will require voters to show government ID at the polls from taking effect until after the 2012 elections. Ray Suarez asks Republican Pa. state representative Daryl Metcalfe and Judith Browne-Dianis of Advancement Project if the law addresses voter fraud or merely disenfranchises voters.

COMMENT: This is, and always has been, a Republican 'red herring' attempt to disenfranchise a segment of voters that lean Democratic.

Voter fraud has never been an actual *big* issue, BUT the ability for some American citizens to actually get a legal ID has been an issue.

Also, the often repeated 'legislating from the bench' is ABSOLUTELY WRONG!

1. The law was legally challenged and the court has to rule.
2. In the U.S. no one has the right to do just anything they want to that is found unconstitutional. That includes state legislators AND citizens.

EDUCATION - News Live From Worrall Elementary

"From the Halls of Worrall Elementary School, News by Students with Aspergers" PBS Newshour 9/10/2012

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BETTY ANN BOWSER (Newshour): It was straight to the top for Donato Tocci. At 11 years old, he's already a television news anchor. And he's about to go live.

WOMAN: You look great, Donato.

ANNOUNCER: This is Action 7 News.

DONATO TOCCI, Action 7 News: I'm Donato Tocci, reporting live.

BETTY ANN BOWSER: News has an agenda at Worrall Elementary School in Broomall, Pennsylvania. The reporters aren't simply young and driven. They also have Asperger's syndrome.

Children with this form of autism often have trouble with social cues, like facial expressions and gestures and working well with others. And that's the very reason Asperger's specialist Randy Rentz and speech pathologist Kristen Dercole developed the newscast filled with kid-friendly skits and commercials.

They wanted their students to see the world from another angle.

SPORTS - NCAA Sledgehammer Falls on Pen State

"NCAA Fines and Penalties Will Have Lasting Impact on Penn State Football Program" PBS Newshour 7/23/2012

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SUMMARY: The NCAA imposed a $60 million sanction on Pennsylvania State University for perpetuating a 'football first' culture that failed to stop one ex-coach's sexual abuse of children. Ray Suarez speaks with University of Maryland's Kevin Blackistone and University of Pennsylania's Scott Rosner about the future for Penn State football.

AMERICA - Penn State Scandal, Report and Lessons

"Report Finds Penn State Shares Responsibility in Sandusky Abuse Case" (Part-1) PBS Newshour 7/12/2012

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SUMMARY: A report by former FBI director Louis Freeh concludes that leaders at Penn State, including head football coach Joe Paterno, did not do enough to protect the children who were abused by former assistant coach Jerry Sundusky. Judy Woodruff talks to Cate Barron of The Patriot-News and Mark Dent of The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.

"What Are the Lessons from the Penn State Scandal?" (Part-2) PBS Newshour 7/12/2012

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JEFFREY BROWN (Newshour): And -- and we return to the Penn State story with a wider perspective on what's happened and what should be taken from it.

For that, we're joined by Teresa Huizar, executive director of the National Children's Alliance, which works with groups around the country to provide services for victims of child abuse, Elizabeth Letourneau, a researcher and professor at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, and Scott Berkowitz, founder and president of the Rape, Abuse and Incest National Network, or RAINN, the nation's largest anti-sexual violence organization.

AMERICA - Penn State post-Paterno

"'Shock' Continues Over Penn State Scandal, Paterno's Scarred Legacy"
PBS Newshour 11/10/2011

CHILDREN - Abuse at Penn State University

"Penn State's Storied Football Program Rocked by Sexual Abuse Scandal" PBS Newshour 11/7/2011

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JUDY WOODRUFF (Newshour): And to the sexual abuse scandal that is rocking Penn State University and its renowned football program.

Margaret Warner has our report.

FRANK NOONAN, Pennsylvania State Police: This is not a case about football. It's not a case about universities. It's a case about children who have had their innocence stolen from them and a culture that did nothing to stop it or prevent it from happening to others.

MARGARET WARNER (Newshour): As the Pennsylvania State Police commissioner told it today, that innocence was stolen by Jerry Sandusky, former longtime defensive coordinator for Penn State's Nittany Lions football team. He was arrested Saturday on 40 counts of child sexual abuse after a three-year grand jury investigation.

Two top Penn State administrators, Athletic Director Tim Curley and Senior Vice President Gary Schultz, were arraigned today on charges that they didn't report the abuse to authorities and that they lied to the grand jury.