The Commonwealth Beat with Laura LeBeau

October is Domestic Violence Awareness Month.  That might not be well-known, because October is also Breast Cancer Awareness Month, and the pink ribbons supporting that movement often overshadow the purple ribbons signifying support for domestic violence awareness.  In many ways, it's representative of domestic violence; kept in the shadows and often hidden behind the weary smiles of survivors trying to keep their abusers from turning on them, either physically, mentally, emotionally, or financially.  On this episode of The Commonwealth Beat, we want to look past the awareness campaigns and talk about the stark reality on the ground - with two of the people working tirelessly to change things at every level.  

Wednesday, October 14th was the first day of Pennsylvania's ban on all Skill Games in the state, after the General Assembly failed to pass a law making them legal.  The legislators were given 120 days to craft a regulatory framework for these electronic games, determined to be illegal slot machines by the PA Supreme Court.  The intention was to make the lawmakers address several key points related to them:  how many machines any particular business could have on their premises, how much they would be taxed, and where that tax revenue would go.  But as we have come to know, the General Assembly dropped the ball and did nothing.  Reaction on the ban from State Senator Chris Gebhard.  

Then,as breast cancer awareness month continues, a look back at a 2023 interview with Pat Halpin-Murphy, founder of the PA Breast Cancer Coalition.

On September 29th, heart transplant recipients, families, and care teams gathered at the Penn State Health Milton S. Hershey Medical Center to celebrate a life-saving legacy, and The Commonwealth Beat was there.   Since launching in 1984, the surgeons in the heart transplant program have completed 618 heart transplants. That's no small feat, considering the extraordinary number of events that have to occur before the surgery is ever initiated.  On this edition, we'll hear from three of those 618 heart transplant recipients, each with extraordinary stories about their experiences, as well as one of the surgeons who performs heart transplant surgery.  

When you stand anywhere on ground that was once part of Centralia, Pennsylvania, you're standing above a labyrinth of abandoned coal mines, and for the past six-and-a-half decades, an inferno has been raging inside them.  On this edition of The Commonwealth Beat, we sit down with the foremost expert on Centralia, journalist and author David Dekok.  He's been chronicling the plight of this once close-knit and bustling coal region community and its raging fire below ground since the 1970's.

For almost 20 years, the month of September has served as a nationwide push to turn awareness into action against food insecurity.  And that action is needed now more than ever, as nearly 1 in 7 Americans struggles with hunger.  In Pennsylvania the numbers aren't much better; 1 in 9 of our neighbors doesn't know where their next meal will come from.  Hear more about what's being done to combat hunger in Central Pennsylvania with Shila Ulrich, Chief Executive Officer of the Central Pennsylvania Food Bank.  

The nation has been reliving the horror of the September 11th terror attacks, with this year marking the 25th Anniversary of that fateful day that changed the way of life for all Americans, those alive on that day, and those born since.  A former Salvation Army Commanding Officer from Pennsylvania discusses his service at Ground Zero, arriving there just hours after the Twin Towers came down.  Reverend Chris Smith shares events of that day, providing both physical and spiritual nourishment to those first responders who were on scene, trying desparately to find anyone who may have survived.   

           A high-stakes clock is ticking inside the Pennsylvania General Assembly.  After declaring skill games to be illegal, the state's high court paused enforcement for 120 days, giving the General Assembly until October 13th to either ban them completely or finally enact a regulatory and tax framework to make them legal.  But with that deadline looming, the legislature appears to be sitting on its hands. 
          Meantime, small business owners, volunteer fire companies, and veterans groups remain in limbo, having heard next to nothing from lawmakers.  Today, an update, or lack thereof, from Willie Shay of Shay's Vending, about the status of skill games legislation. 
          Then, a shift to a story about about resilience, imagination, and learning to breathe a little easier with childhood asthma.  A discussion with Clearfield County budding author, Jake Lockett, who's book, "My Life as an Aasthmanaut" is now out.  

It seems like trains are having a moment in America these days, and a very well-funded startup rail company is hoping to capitalize on that moment.  On this edition of The Commonwealth Beat, a look at a bold proposal from Ameristar Rail, based out of Wilmington, Delaware.  The company is pitching a public-private partnership to overhaul Amtrak’s Northeast Corridor in a way that's never been tried, while giving Americans the chance to travel at 160 miles per hour in modern, high speed trains that expand corridor service by 35%, require no government subsidies or tax breaks, and would make Amtrak profitable for the first time, ever.  Scott Spencer, CEO of Ameristar Rail, discusses his background and the company's proposal, in detail.  

         Dipping into The Commonwealth Beat archives, the spotlight shines on a state-provided service that gives victims of domestic violence, sexual assault, human trafficking, and stalking an opportunity to begin their lives anew, without their abusers tracking them down.  It's called the Address Confidentiality Program.           Then, in an extended PA-mazing segment, you'll hear from a Bucknell University Professor who knows all about the Susquehanna River.  Like many Pennsylvanians, you may cross over it on a bridge, or spend the day on a boat in the middle of it.  But did you know it's been following its path longer than humans have walked the earth?   The Susquehanna River is PA-mazing, as you'll discover.  

 A "behind the headlines" look into the miraculous rescue of "The Quecreek Nine."  They were the team of nine coal miners who accidentally penetrated an underground wall separating an abandoned, flooded mine adjacent to the active coal mine they were working in during the evening hours of July 24, 2002 in Somerset County, Pennsylvania.