The Spark

The Catholic community in Pennsylvania is still reeling more than a year after a grand jury reported decades of child abuse and cover-ups in six of Pennsylvania’s eight Roman Catholic dioceses. Wednesday, the Diocese of Harrisburg announced it is filing for bankruptcy. It’s the first Pennsylvania diocese to do so. While the eight dioceses have opened … Continue reading "Catholic Diocese of Harrisburg files for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection"

The photographs are haunting. Images of shackles and bondage force the viewer to face the reality of the people held by the chains. The reality that theirs was a brutal existence and it happened not that long ago. Michael Doub says that seeing the chains and shackles in person have an even more profound impact. … Continue reading "The relics of slavery’s painful past"

Any parent who has attempted to roust a sleeping teenager for school will tell you it is not always an easy task. Teenagers, it seems, really like to sleep. According to experts, teenagers also need to sleep and there is science to back it up. The Pennsylvania General Assembly commissioned a report in 2019 called, “The Case for Delaying Secondary School Start Times.” The … Continue reading "Starting school later – possible solution to kid’s sleep deprivation crisis?"

Monday is Presidents Day. Actually, the federal government still recognizes the Monday holiday as Washington’s Birthday but some time in the past 50 years, the holiday has been expanded to honor and recognize presidents other than George Washington. Monday’s Smart Talk goes back more than 200 years and also discusses more contemporary stories of presidential … Continue reading "Presidents Day — George Washington and Medals of Freedom"

Last Saturday the Susquehanna Art Museum in Harrisburg unveiled their new exhibit, Many Visions; Many Versions: Art from Indigenous Communities in India. The exhibit is on view in the newly renamed Beverlee and Bill Lehr Gallery until May 10, 2020. The exhibit features 47 drawings and paintings from contemporary artists that highlight the four major … Continue reading "Rarely seen indigenous artwork from India on display in Harrisburg"

Ninety percent of firefighters in Pennsylvania are volunteers and there are far fewer of them than in the past. There were more than 300,000 volunteer firefighters in the state in the 1970s. Today there are about 38,000. The problem may get worse too because the average volunteer firefighter — at least nationally — is over … Continue reading "Shortage of volunteer firefighters in Pa. becoming a crisis"

Most people probably associate polluted, unhealthy air with large metropolitan cities — that’s entirely accurate in some places across the country, but in Pennsylvania, the metropolitan areas with the most days of unhealthy air in 2018 were Lancaster, Harrisburg and Lebanon. York wasn’t far behind. All four places had more days of unhealthy air than … Continue reading "Report finds Central Pennsylvanians breathing polluted air"

The three-decade long effort to restore the Chesapeake Bay appears to be entering a critical stage. In 2010, the federal Environmental Protection Agency established what it called the total maximum daily load or TMDL, which set limits for the amount of nutrients that drain into the Chesapeake. Six states and the District of Columbia were … Continue reading "Pa. not meeting Chesapeake Bay cleanup goals; Maryland may sue"

In Pennsylvania, human services, emergency management, 911 services, and administration of courts, corrections and elections are all administered by the state’s 67 counties. However, those county governments often believe they don’t get the kind of attention from the state and even their residents that they deserve. That’s why the County Commissioners Association of Pennsylvania (CCAP) … Continue reading "Pa.’s counties seek help to pay or expand mental health services and broadband"

There are more than a thousand lobbying firms and 12,000 lobbyists registered to lobby the federal government in Washington D.C. They present their views and try to influence government on many issues. Those that attract the most lobbying interests relate to business, healthcare, energy, pharmaceuticals and communications. The Friends Committee on National Legislation is not … Continue reading "Quakers lobby Congress for peace, equality and simplicity"