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Radio PA’s “Countdown 2016” – The Top 10 PA Stories of the Year

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This is “Countdown 2016” a one-hour retrospective on the top 10 Pennsylvania stories of the year, as voted on by the Radio PA news staff.

Radio PA’s Brad Christman and WITF-Harrisburg’s Scott LaMar review the top 10 and offer insight and analysis on the stories and names that shaped 2016.

All of us at Radio PA and PAMatters.com wish you a very happy, safe and prosperous new year!

Click the audio player below to hear the full program:

This audio/video material is being presented by Radio PA and PAMatters.com for the private use of our web visitors. This copyrighted programming may not be broadcast, reproduced or otherwise exhibited without the written consent of Radio PA.

Battleground: Pennsylvania – An Election Preview from Radio PA (Part 1)

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This is “Battleground: Pennsylvania,” a special 2-hour election preview from Radio PA that examines the candidates and races appearing on the statewide ballot on Tuesday, November 8th.

Hour #1 features interviews with Pennsylvania Attorney General candidates John Rafferty (REP) and Josh Shapiro (DEM), as well as Democratic U.S. Senate candidate Katie McGinty. Incumbent Republican U.S. Senator Pat Toomey’s campaign rejected numerous requests to take part in the program.

In hour #2, we will be joined by political analyst and pollster Dr. Terry Madonna from F&M College in Lancaster for a top-to-bottom analysis of the statewide ballot. Also, we talk to founding board member Adelaide Kimball from Project Vote Smart to talk about the resources that organization makes available to voters in every state. Learn more about the candidates on your ballot at www.votesmart.org.

Click the audio player below to hear hour #1 of this special two-hour election preview from Radio PA:

This audio/video material is being presented by Radio PA and PAMatters.com for the private use of our web visitors. This copyrighted programming may not be broadcast, reproduced or otherwise exhibited without the written consent of Radio PA.

Battleground: Pennsylvania – An Election Preview from Radio PA (Part 2)

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This is “Battleground: Pennsylvania,” a special 2-hour election preview from Radio PA that examines the candidates and races appearing on the statewide ballot on Tuesday, November 8th.

Hour #1 featured interviews with Pennsylvania Attorney General candidates John Rafferty (REP) and Josh Shapiro (DEM), as well as Democratic U.S. Senate candidate Katie McGinty. Incumbent Republican U.S. Senator Pat Toomey’s campaign rejected numerous requests to take part in the program.

In hour #2, we are joined by political analyst and pollster Dr. Terry Madonna from F&M College in Lancaster for a top-to-bottom analysis of the statewide ballot. Also, we talk to founding board member Adelaide Kimball from Project Vote Smart to talk about the resources that organization makes available to voters in every state. Learn more about the candidates on your ballot at www.votesmart.org.

Click the audio player below to hear hour #2 of this special two-hour election preview from Radio PA:

This audio/video material is being presented by Radio PA and PAMatters.com for the private use of our web visitors. This copyrighted programming may not be broadcast, reproduced or otherwise exhibited without the written consent of Radio PA.

Christman Blog – Kane Makes It Unanimous: She Doesn’t Belong in the Race

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This blog post is taken from commentary in this weekend’s edition of Radio Pennsylvania Roundtable, hosted by Brad Christman. You can listen to the entire show, which includes Kathleen Kane’s statement here on PAMatters.com.

The great tragedy of this whole situation (the Kathleen Kane saga) may be that Kane had a chance to be the crusading power of justice she envisions in her own mind. The porn email scandal that has rocked Harrisburg – and was uncovered by her initial investigation of the handling of the Sandusky probe – could have been a shining moment for her, because…like Kathleen Kane or not…she is right about those who were involved in the inappropriate email chains. But her crusading effort is overshadowed and tainted by Kane’s use of the emails as a weapon in her own personal political agenda and legal battles. All along, the emails were used as a “chip” she would threaten to throw into the pot as her personal legal situation got murkier and murkier. As a result, any cries of justice in her efforts were overwhelmingly drowned out by the noise of a politician using her office as an arsenal for her own personal battles.

Kathleen Kane is not running again, and she seems to be the last person on the planet to have realized that. Her announcement this week fell on mostly indifferent ears even within her own party, as Democratic candidates and strategists noted that it was determined long ago that Kane was a non-factor in the coming election – whether she was a candidate or not.

Brad Christman is the News Director of the Radio PA Network, based in Harrisburg, and is the host of the network’s flagship program Radio Pennsylvania Roundtable. He has covered Harrisburg for the past 22 years.

Christman Blog: Remembering Gulf War I – 23 Years Later

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January 16th is one of those dates that always makes me stop and reflect for a bit. I’m sure most of us can probably remember where we were and what we were doing 23 years ago tonight when operation Desert Shield became Operation Desert Storm.

On the evening of January 16, 1991, I was set up to broadcast a high school basketball game in Greencastle, PA. The school had set up a TV in a classroom across the hall from the gym and prior to going on the air I watched the first bombs fall on Baghdad. Of course, in 1991 smart phones were science fiction and breaking news was not instantaneously transmitted to our pockets, so the school officials there asked me to make the announcement to the crowd that our boys were in the air in the skies over Baghdad. I did so right before they played the National Anthem and there was a stunned silence, with the exception of the audible gasps when I said the war was finally underway. I say “finally” because if you remember, the start of the first Gulf War was anticipated for weeks and months following Iraq’s move on Kuwait on August 2, 1990.

I’ll never forget the tears, the looks of concern or that heavy feeling of history in the gymnasium that night as the National Anthem filled the air. The game itself seemed like an afterthought as we spent most of the broadcast focusing on what was happening half-a-world away from Greencastle, PA that night.

Of course, I’ll also never forget going home to watch the first-ever live television broadcast of a war as Peter Arnett, Bernie Shaw and John Holliman nervously reported from Baghdad.

January 16th…it’s just one of those dates that sticks with me.

 

(Brad Christman is the News Director for Radio PA in Harrisburg)

 

 

Christman Blog: I Hate to Say I Told Ya So, But…

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Two weeks ago, I asked you to watch the state legislature during their frantic week-long sprint to the state budget deadline. And, I asked you to remember…

So what happened? Well, we did get a budget, but that was the one thing lawmakers had to accomplish by law. That on-time budget will be the headline on most of the junk mail your local lawmaker sends you the rest of this year (you’re paying for that postage, by the way).

But was the budget on time? As we head into the second week of July, lawmakers have yet to approve key portions of the fiscal code, the set of laws that allows the state to spend the money it approved on June 30th. The House and Senate have been engaged in a skirmish likely stemming from leftover hard feelings from the votes that did and did not take place in the final week of June.

As for the other issues that week, let’s take a look at how these high-paid lawmakers handled the big issues…

Transportation Funding: FAIL
This one is especially concerning given the fact that it’s a crisis that has been building for years and it’s a matter of public safety for every Pennsylvanian who gets into a moving vehicle that touches Pennsylvania’s roads and bridges. Not only did lawmakers fail to act, the transportation funding plan became a pawn in chess game, apparently being held up by lawmakers who had their own personal agendas.

Pension Reform: FAIL
Did this one ever really have a chance this spring? It looked like lawmakers were just going through the motions down the stretch and never expected this one to gain traction.

Liquor Privatization / Expansion: FAIL or SUCCESS (depending on your position)
Again, did we really think this had a chance? It seemed like the unions were calling the shots all the way on this one, and when push came to shove, Republicans were accusing Democrats of holding up transportation funding in an effort to kill alcohol privatization…all at the behest of, you guessed it, the unions.

Remember that a lot of work goes into doing nothing in Harrisburg, so the coming three month vacation is a welcome respite to most of your lawmakers. Hopefully they’ll use that time to plan ahead for fall and show us a little more than they did in the spring session.

 

(Brad Christman is the News Director for Radio Pennsylvania and has covered 19 state budgets)

 

Christman Blog: What’s Your Work Philosophy?

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It’s January and you return to your very well-paid job from a nice holiday break – a month and a half holiday break. Certainly everyone can relate to that.

Your boss welcomes you back and then informs you that he has several big and important projects for you to complete by mid-year. In fact, some of them are so important that the very financial future of the company is at stake. The good news, though, is that you have 6 whole months to make it happen.

What is your approach?

Do you jump into action, prioritizing and tackling each project independently and thoughtfully, spreading the work out so that you have adequate time to devote to each initiative? After all, this is very important. Remember…the entire company is trusting and counting on YOU.

Oh, did I mention that you can’t get fired for another year and a half? Yes, no matter how badly you bungle things, short of breaking the law, you’re guaranteed to be employed through December of 2014.

So, maybe you take a different approach to your assignments this year. Perhaps you spend 5 months and 23 days arguing with co-workers, demanding you get your way on everything and enlisting outside special interests to come in and bad-mouth anyone else’s ideas. Then, 6 days before your boss’s deadline, and with none of your work actually done, you can try to squeeze everything into one week before heading out the door bragging about how well-deserved your three month summer vacation is, regardless of how many of your projects are left unfinished. Why, you might even issue a press release boasting of your accomplishments.

Those are two possibilities for your approach to this important work assignment. Guess which one your state lawmakers took on the major issues of transportation funding, pension reform, alcohol privatization and the state budget in 2013.

Oh, sure, there was lots of talking, followed by more talking and then concluding with…talking, but here we are – 6 days before the expected end of the fiscal year – and not a single major initiative is finished in Harrisburg. Not one. In fact, a birdie is whispering in my ear that it’s quite possible this final week of the fiscal year is about to get off to an even rockier start than expected.

The games people play…with your company. With your money…

There is a silver lining to all this. Remember that boss I mentioned? Well, that boss is you. Remember that when you watch your employees’ performance in Harrisburg this week. Remember it when you’re looking at the condition of your company, also known as the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. Most of all, remember it when you pull the curtain in November of 2014 and issue your worker evaluations, and don’t be fooled by those clever employees, who know about the power you hold in 2014 and will certainly try to convince you, maybe even bribe you, into believing that they are valuable members of the team and deserve to be retained for another 2-to-6 year contract. They’ll fill your inbox with full-color memos (produced on the company printer you paid for, by the way) detailing what they think, which usually fills up more space than would detailing what they accomplish. They’ll smile in your presence and tell you everything is just fine and dandy with your company.

But you’ll know better because you’ll remember everything you’ve seen this year…

 

(Brad Christman is the News Director of Radio Pennsylvania and a veteran of 19 state budget seasons in Harrisburg)

 

Christman Blog: Farewell to “The Office”

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Since 2005, the fictional paper company Dunder Mifflin has called Scranton, Pennsylvania its TV home. Production of the NBC series The Office didn’t take place in Lackawanna County, but the constant references to local businesses and other real-life features of the region were a boost to locals over the sitcom’s 9-season run.

Yes, you can go to Scranton and have a drink at Poor Richard’s Pub. You can go shopping at the Steamtown Mall. There’s even an Alfredo’s Pizza Cafe, whose pizza was declared in one episode to be better than the “hot circle of garbage” served by rival Pizza by Alfredo. If you watch closely, you can also see actual Scranton-donated props among the cubicles, including newspapers and radio bumper stickers.

Quite frankly, The Office put Scranton on the TV map.

During Monday’s Ask the Governor taping, I asked Tom Corbett about the show’s impact on northeast PA. He says Pennsylvania has a little bit of a “chip on its shoulder,” perhaps feeling under-appreciated by the rest of the nation, but he says the people of Scranton were very proud to be the fictional neighbors of Michael Scott, Dwight Schrute, Jim Halpert, Pam Beesley and the rest of The Office staff. Despite the off-beat characters, the governor believes the show showed that Scranton is a great place to live.

The Office debuted in 2005, and was nearly cancelled after its initial 6-episode run. The show was finally green-lighted for a 2nd season and proceeded to take the Emmy for Outstanding Comedy Series in 2006. Although suffering through the departure of lead actor Steve Carrell (the aforementioned Michael Scott) after season 7, the sitcom has brought us some of the funniest and most original TV laughs in the past decade. Despite being based on a British version created by Ricky Gervais, the mockumentary style format was a true original concept for American television.

Scranton’s sitcom swansong comes as the final episode of The Office airs Thursday night at 9pm on NBC. The final episode will be preceded by a one-hour retrospective at 8pm.

 

(Brad Christman is the News Director of Radio Pennsylvania and a self-proclaimed “Office junkie”)