A beat from the islands can be heard this weekend at Moon Dancer Vineyard and Winery near Wrightsville in York County. It's the Moon Dancer Winery Reggae Festival.

Eight bands, a DJ, wine, beer and food will all be available during the two-day event.

On The Spark Friday, DJ and emcee Lance O described the event,"The vibe in the flow is, it's definitely an easygoing vibe, relaxed, kind of chill. But then at times it's definitely going to get you up and you want to move and you want to shake the hips and the energy is always positive, The lyrics are positive. It's either about the upliftment of the downtrodden or it's the biggest and most popular theme in any music is usually love. And there's lots of love there. There's just lots of war and love and peace and love. And and it's always a good time.

What sets reggae apart from other genres of music,"it's definitely the drum and bass, The syncopation of the drum and bass, coupled with the kind of the skank sound of either the guitar or the keyboards coupled with, they like to use brass a lot. Music creates all kinds of moods."

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Lititz in Lancaster County is truly one of the most charming places in Central Pennsylvania. Besides the shops and restaurants, Lititz always holds great events.

One of the best is The Lititz Outdoor Fine Arts Show that will be held Saturday at Lititz Springs Park.

Carolann Van Wyen is with the Lititz Art Association, is an artist herself and appeared on The Spark Friday, where she talked about what makes the Lititz show special,"We're talking about an elevated piece of work that is going to be a standalone piece in your home that when someone comes in, you're going to talk about that piece of art."

Van Wyen described the types of art in the Lititz show,"We have oils and acrylics, watercolors, ceramics, mixed media pastels and sculpture. And these are artists who are some are professionally trained, studied and in college and are degreed. Others are self-taught and studied in other ways. But these are artists that work at their art, work with a passion and intensity that allows them to then create this high level artwork that they're excited to present to the public."

The Lititz Outdoor Fine Art Show is open free-of-charge 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday.

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It’s Friday when we take a look back at a few of the significant news stories or topics you are talking about with journalists on The Spark.

Among those topics are toxic trains traveling through the region, radioactive fracking waste, how extreme climate events impact us mentally, and WITF’s new partnership with LNP.

We’re joined on the program by WITF’s Director of Journalism Scott Blanchard.

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The Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board has approved petitions by its Office of Enforcement Counsel to ban seven adults from all casinos in the state for leaving a total of nine children unattended while the adults gambled.

Since the beginning of 2022, almost there have almost 400 incidents of adults leaving 633 kids unattended while the adults gambled. Unattended children happens so often that the Gaming Control Board has an on-going awareness campaign called “Don’t Gamble With Kids.”

With us on The Spark Thursday was Douglas Harbach, Director of Communications foe the Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board who said,"They aren't thinking, which is is part of the problem. But one of the ideas of not just the campaign that we put in place, but also what the casinos are doing and they are really going to great lengths to identify these people and put out the message that this is unacceptable behavior, that they're getting the message. Those numbers. They're very, very disturbing. It certainly happens to places outside of casinos. But our regulatory authority has to do with the casinos. And that's what we're putting our efforts toward. The other issue with these individuals are is they likely have a gambling problem. And we have millions of millions of dollars that are brought in from the casinos into the state to help these individuals."

Harbach indicated that those who leave kids unattended can be banned from casinos or even face child endangerment criminal charges.

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Soul singer and legend Aretha Franklin made headlines after her death in 2018, when a handwritten will was discovered in a couch cushion. This began the domino effect of questions being asked about how her estate would be handled. It went on for years. Earlier this month, a jury from Michigan declared that the will that was found in the couch cushion is valid, according to Michigan law.

But how do you know what wills are or aren’t legitimate? Where do you even begin? How do you even create a will?

Attorney Marielle Hazen, founder of Hazen Law Group, was on The Spark Thursday and said the handwritten will in a cushion is not ideal,"It's not the way you want to have your estate handled. And it's not good for anybody involved. That family. It's been a long journey for them and it's not good for those family relationships going forward. So certainly not the legacy that you want to leave for your family. And it also means that you have a court working to interpret what your intentions were instead of you making those intentions clear yourself."

Hazen described what's unique about Pennsylvania and wills,"The probate process is a little bit different in each state. And and also one of the big differences is what the taxes are. So Pennsylvania does have an inheritance tax. And so a lot of people think that they're familiar with the federal estate tax and they're vaguely aware that it's a big level. Right now it's close to 13 million that you have is an exclusion. So if you unless you exceed that, you're not exposed to federal estate tax. But a lot of people think that is the only death tax. But Pennsylvania does have an inheritance tax. It's a 0% tax for what you leave to a spouse for lineal descendants. It's four and a half percent. For your siblings, it's 12. And for everybody else, it's 15. Charities also are zero."

Hazen was asked the basics about creating a will,"You have to be 18 or older. You have to have put it down in writing and you have to have signed it. The things I think you need to think about in that will the obvious thing -- how do you want your assets distributed when you die? Who are the beneficiaries and how do you want it to be distributed? And I think it's important to think about contingent beneficiaries. So if one of those beneficiaries that you've named predeceased you, what should happen? Where does that share go? Also important to think about. Do you have any beneficiaries who may have special considerations? Are there minor beneficiaries that we don't want to leave money outright to? And do you want to take control over at what age they get it, how it's used for them until they get to that age, who's responsible for it, Who's the trustee? Is the name for that over that money, while they are under the age before the distribution age, thinking about any beneficiaries you have that may have special needs. So if you have a beneficiary that qualifies for or may in the future need to qualify for means tested benefits like SSI or Medicaid, then you want to be careful how you leave money for them. Special needs trusts can be an excellent tool to make sure you are providing financial security for them in a way that will not interfere with their eligibility for essential public benefit programs."

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At its best, art makes one think or touches the touches the emotions. Some art uplifts and brings joy. That’s the stated goal of the Brigham Young University Idaho Dance Alliance, which will be performed Friday night at Millersville University. 35 student dancers, who just graduated last week, will be part of the performance called Look Up. Proceeds benefit Church World Services in Lancaster. With us on The Spark today are Ashley Storm, Director of BYU Idaho Dance Alliance, Brett Sampson, Tour Manager and dancer Tyler Carlson.

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It’s the hottest week of the year but the work is never done in the garden or with plants, flowers and trees around the yard. How do you keep those plants and flowers or even the lawn healthy with the sun beating down?

How can you prepare for later in the season?

Horticulturist Erica Jo Shaffer is on the Spark talking about weeds, fertilizing, pruning and especially watering.

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Forty-eight million Americans help take care of parents, spouses, grandparents or other loved ones and most say they could use more support. In fact, 70% of them say they’d be more likely to support a candidate who backs proposals to help caregivers. That’s according to a survey from AARP.

On The Spark Tuesday, Joanne Grossi, AARP Pennsylvania’s State President Emeritus, who cares for her 92-year-old father, said many caregivers don't know what caregiving entails when they become a caregiver,"It takes in everything from managing medications to managing doctor's appointments to things like nutritional supplements and how you even change your house. That was a surprise to me. All the different ways I had to change my home. My occupational therapist came in and told me, get rid of that rug, put a bar here, for example. So even things like as simple as how you have to change your home to make it work, I think all these kind of things are surprises to people, including the financial cost. The average person who's a caregiver is spending over $7,000 out of pocket, out of their own money to supplement this care.

Caregiving can take a toll on caregivers emotionally and physically and Grossi encouraged caregivers to seek support from family, support groups or even AARP.

AARP wants government support for caregivers as well,"We want Congress and state legislatures to do a bit more. And that includes things like tax credits for caregivers, paid family leave, paid respite care, and even an increase in our area Agencies on Aging, which really do provide a lot of services for our older Pennsylvanians."

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The Norfolk Southern train derailment in East Palestine, Ohio last February was a wake-up call for many across the country.

Firefighters who responded to that scene didn’t know what materials or chemicals were contained in the tanker cars of the freight train after they ran off the tracks.

Thousands of residents in the town on the Ohio-Pennsylvania border evacuated. Three days after the derailment, the decision was made to release toxic vinyl chloride from five tank cars and burn it to keep them from exploding.

Every day, trains pass through our local neighborhoods and near our homes and schools and we really don’t know what they’re hauling.

Reporters for LNP | LancasterOnline and WITF sought detailed information about train cargo in a series called Toxic Trains. LNP reporter Ann Rejrat investigated what we know about freight trains and what they haul through Lancaster County and other Central Pennsylvania counties as well and said on The Spark Tuesday the information on what trains are hauling isn't easy to get, "The information belongs to the private train companies themselves, and they are not required to share that information unless something such as a derailment happens. So what happens with a derailment is responders show up to this scene. You're looking at firefighters, the people in the community are going to come to respond to the scene. And when they respond, they have a few options, none of it streamlined. They can use what's called the Ask Rail app, which is not mandated or they have to get a hold of what's called a manifest on the train, which should be near the engineer." That manifest may not be accessible if an engineer is injured or the train has been damaged.

Federal and state governments are working on ways to rectify the lack of information as Reyrat explained,"Things like creating a database that holds all the information. And then when there is a situation, any type of hazmat release, it can get pushed out to local responders. What happens with that if it actually does happen? That's all on the federal and state level right now. But there are proposals to try to fix it, to try to get the information faster. But none of those changes have actually started to happen."

The LNP/Lancaster Online/WITF investigation found counties don't know what's on trains traveling through their areas on a daily basis, although some have records of materials that have been hauled through those counties in past years.

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James Garfield was the second American president to be murdered by an assassin. But unlike the first, Abraham Lincoln, there haven’t been many books written about Garfield and many Americans don’t know much about Garfield.

C.W. Goodyear, author of the new biography President Garfield From Radical to Unifier, pointed out on The Spark Monday, Garfield had a great impact during Reconstruction after the Civil War and the Gilded Age before ever running for president,"Whenever you ask contemporary Americans about the presidents they remember, it's always a product of how long that president was in the White House and what they accomplished within it. And for Garfield, that's a short story. By no fault of his own, of course, he was assassinated. But the greater legacy of his life is a pretty incredible one. He was not only one of the longest serving congressional congressmen in American history by that point. So he had witnessed and participated the rise and fall of reconstruction."

Goodyear described Garfield's as a man who led a remarkable life,"He was also this incredible American renaissance man. He was raised by a single mother, the last president to be born in a log cabin. And by his late twenties, he was a college president and a state senator and a preacher simultaneously. And then soon thereafter, he was the youngest brigadier general at that time in the Union Army. And then he was the youngest congressman, or at least technically the second youngest congressman in America halfway through the war. And then he also he had this incredible congressional career. And he also founded the first federal Department of Education as a congressman. And he wrote an original proof, the Pythagorean Theorem. So it's an amazing life and just one that was real. It was honestly very revelatory, given a lot of the things that we're going through today."

Republicans were the progressives politically in the late 1800s and Goodyear said Garfield was on eof the most outspoken,"He was a burn it down radical. He joined Congress in. 1863. He was this very young member of the House, and he was incredibly progressive. He was a member of the radical Republicans so far to the left of Lincoln. On the subject of social and racial issues in America at that time, by the time Lincoln was, I'd say, hesitantly embracing the idea that the abolition of slavery would be necessary. Garfield and their brand of Republicans, including the great Pennsylvanian, Thaddeus Stevens, by the way, I believe saw not only in the need for immediate abolition, but also immediate equality of race throughout the nation. They believe that leading Confederates should be exiled, disenfranchised or even executed. And they also believed in the necessity of breaking down Southern property, redistributing plantation land from the southern gentry of that time, the slaves to slaves and what they called loyal whites. So they believed fundamentally in the need for this thorough reconstitution of the South in order to make America into what they think it needed to be, which was something more in line with its founding ideals."

As president for just a short time, Garfield became disenchanted with the patronage system of the party in power handing out federal jobs. It actually indirectly led to his assassination when a mentally ill man, who thought he should getting one of those positions, shot Garfield.

C.W. Goodyear will be at Midtown Scholar Bookstore in Harrisburg, Thursday, July 27 at 7 p.m.

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