The Spark

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.

Support WITF: https://www.witf.org/support/give-now/

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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.

Support WITF: https://www.witf.org/support/give-now/

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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."

Support WITF: https://www.witf.org/support/give-now/

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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.

Support WITF: https://www.witf.org/support/give-now/

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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.

Support WITF: https://www.witf.org/support/give-now/

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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."

Support WITF: https://www.witf.org/support/give-now/

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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.

Support WITF: https://www.witf.org/support/give-now/

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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.

Support WITF: https://www.witf.org/support/give-now/

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Many of us grew up watching Marc Summers hosting the kids’ messy, chaotic game show Double Dare on Nickelodeon. Slime became a thing during that time.

A game show host is what Summers aspired to be, although being hit with pies and all kinds of other substances was not part of what he had in mind.

Summers has had a great career before Double Dare and afterwards as well hosting talk show on Lifetime and the History Channel and the Food Network’s Unwrapped, but on The Spark Monday, Summers said he being busy came natural to him,"It's weird. I always had this passion. I came out of the womb knowing exactly what I wanted to do, and I just never accepted the word no. And the thing about it is, in our show, we talk about the word no and how it stops creativity and halts wonder. And a lot of people just retreat. And I never wanted to be the kind of guy who got up and went to work every day and hated my life and hated my job. And so I just pursued. I never did it. I lectured colleges and I always said, why do you want to get in the entertainment business? And people will say, I want to be rich and famous. And I say, Well, don't even bother, because the odds of it happening are slim and none. And it's also be careful what you wish for. And so I never give up. I used to have people say, I'll hire you if you stop calling me. I was a pain in the neck. I just kept going after it and after it. And I was in L.A. for 13 years before I landed Double Dare, my first national TV show. But I worked as a page and I was at the Comedy Store. I was a regular at the Magic Castle. I always found stuff to do."

All the while Summers suffered from Obsessive Compulsive Disorder, which manifested itself as Summers always having to have things in order and clean,"Everything had to be perfect. Most of it had to be symmetrical. I couldn't do my homework, and unless everything on my desk was absolutely perfect and there was a rug that had fringe, and the fringe wasn't absolutely straight. I would sit there and straighten it. And it runs in families. My grandparents had it. My mom and dad had it and I had it. It passed down in the genes. And what drives you is intrusive thoughts. You tell yourself, unless you make these things perfect, bad things might happen to members of the family. Or the next time you take a plane ride, it's going to crash. And it just drives you to do these repetitive actions and it's miserable. And the way I got diagnosed, I was hosting a talk show on Lifetime television called Biggers and Summers, and we had Dr. Eric Hollander discussing OCD. And I was doing the research the night before in my apartment in New York City, and I thought, Oh my God, all these things I've been doing my entire life, it has a name and I guess I'm not crazy, but maybe I am."

Summers tells the story in a show called The Life and Slimes of Marc Summers at the Gretna Theatre in Mt. Gretna August 3rd through 6th. On The Spark he described the show,"It is about OCD and cancer and overcoming obstacles and the fight of getting your jobs in show business. And how the answer is no 98% of the time. And one why do some people keep pursuing it and why that some people give up? And, you know, I think it's a motivational show in many ways."

Support WITF: https://www.witf.org/support/give-now/

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Pennsylvania’s fiscal year 2023-24 state budget is now three weeks late. Budgets not approved by the General assembly and signed by the governor are fairly commonplace in Pennsylvania. In the past 20 years, 13 budgets have been approved after the June 30th deadline. But this year is different. A 45 billion dollar spending plan has been passed by both the House and Senate, but the Senate with a Republican majority won’t reconvene to sign off on the budget because they claim Shapiro reneged on a deal to create a state-funded private school voucher program. Spotlight PA’s Stephen Caruso this week reported on past budget impasses and is on The Spark today to see if we can learn anything from history.

Support WITF: https://www.witf.org/support/give-now/

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.