The Spark

What to look for on Smart Talk Monday, April 2, 2018: Hurricane Maria devastated the island of Puerto Rico late in September and into early October of last year.  Maria came two weeks after Hurricane Irma, which also hit Puerto Rico.  Some 150,000 homes and businesses in Puerto Rico are still without electricity – six … Continue reading "Starting Over: Life in the Midstate After Hurricane Maria"

What to look for on Smart Talk Friday, March 30, 2018: White supremacist groups are recruiting on college campuses more than ever before. Pennsylvania ranked third, behind only Texas and California, among states that have been targeted with white supremacist propaganda. According to the Anti-Defamation League’s Center of Extremism, the amount of white supremacist propaganda … Continue reading "Rise in racist propaganda on college campuses/Child Abuse"

What to look for on Smart Talk Thursday, March 29, 2018: So what are Pennsylvanians thinking and saying about the hot-button issues of our time?  The just-released Franklin and Marshall/StateImpact Pennsylvania poll indicates most voters believe Pennsylvania is on the right track for the future.  That’s the first time since 2009 that those polled chose … Continue reading "F&M/StateImpact PA poll — climate change, guns, politics"

What to look for on Smart Talk Wednesday, March 28, 2018: A crisis of unprecedented proportions is killing 10 to 16 Pennsylvanians every day. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reports that number is rising every year. In the twelve-month period ending in May 2017, a staggering 5,260 Pennsylvanians died from drug overdoses. To … Continue reading "Battling Opioids: A Project of Pennsylvania Public Media"

Photo by Scott LaMar, WITF What to look for on Smart Talk Tuesday, March 27, 2018: A severance tax on natural gas pumped from the ground in Pennsylvania has often been suggested as a cure — or at least a contribution — toward solving the state’s fiscal woes. During the decade that natural gas has … Continue reading "IFO says severance tax may cost landowners"

What to look for on Smart Talk Monday, March 26, 2018: Large landowners are taking advantage of a law that was developed during the 1970s environmental awareness movement that allows them big discounts on property taxes. Act 319, also known as Clean and Green, offered discounted property taxes to farms and other undeveloped tracts based … Continue reading "Large landowners have reduced property taxes, put the burden on local PA taxpayers"

Nearly one in every five Americans meets the criteria for a mental health or substance use disorder. A government agency review found nearly that 20 percent of young people experience an emotional, mental, or behavioral disorder. For the nation’s poor and those living in foster care, the risk for mental health problems is even greater. … Continue reading "Mental/substance disorder prevention/Woman who experienced school shooting marches"

Is the personal information on your social media accounts safe?  Are you protected against those who would collect data from your accounts and maybe sell it to a third party, that could know what you like and don’t like and send advertising or news to try to influence you? The answer is probably no. Psychosocial … Continue reading "Is your info safe on social media?"

There are about two million people incarcerated in federal, state and local prisons in the U.S.. The majority of them will be released one day and will return to a challenging world. Among the challenges is getting and holding a job. The odds of an ex-offender breaking the law and being sent back to prison … Continue reading "Getting offenders on the right path/Health poll including gun attitudes"

What to look for on Smart Talk Tuesday, March 20, 2018: The U.S. Supreme Court denied an appeal by Pennsylvania Republicans Monday that upholds a new map of the state’s Congressional districts drawn by the Pennsylvania Supreme Court. WITF’s Capitol Bureau Chief Katie Meyer is on Tuesday’s Smart Talk with details. Hunting is one of … Continue reading "Supreme Court upholds PA Congressional map/Felons not allowed to have guns hunting?/MLK50 events"