The Commonwealth Beat with Laura LeBeau

It's called the Pennsylvania Department of Corrections, and if one thing's clear about those who work under the current Secretary, they are trying to live up to the agency's name.  That's because about 80% of the 38,000 men and women currently serving time in a Pennsylvania prison will be getting out at some point or another.  So, to hopefully try and get those inmates flying r...

October is Domestic Violence Awareness Month.  That might not be well-known, because October is also Breast Cancer Awareness Month, and the pink ribbons supporting that movement often overshadow the purple ribbons signifying support for domestic violence awareness.  In many ways, it's representative of domestic violence; kept in the shadows and often hidden behind the weary smiles of survivor...

Wednesday, October 14th was the first day of Pennsylvania's ban on all Skill Games in the state, after the General Assembly failed to pass a law making them legal.  The legislators were given 120 days to craft a regulatory framework for these electronic games, determined to be illegal slot machines by the PA Supreme Court.  The intention was to make the lawmakers address several key points re...

On September 29th, heart transplant recipients, families, and care teams gathered at the Penn State Health Milton S. Hershey Medical Center to celebrate a life-saving legacy, and The Commonwealth Beat was there.   Since launching in 1984, the surgeons in the heart transplant program have completed 618 heart transplants. That's no small feat, considering the extraordinary number of events that...

When you stand anywhere on ground that was once part of Centralia, Pennsylvania, you're standing above a labyrinth of abandoned coal mines, and for the past six-and-a-half decades, an inferno has been raging inside them.  On this edition of The Commonwealth Beat , we sit down with the foremost expert on Centralia, journalist and author David Dekok.  He's been chronicling the plight of th...

For almost 20 years, the month of September has served as a nationwide push to turn awareness into action against food insecurity.  And that action is needed now more than ever, as nearly 1 in 7 Americans struggles with hunger.  In Pennsylvania the numbers aren't much better; 1 in 9 of our neighbors doesn't know where their next meal will come from.  Hear more about what's being don...

The nation has been reliving the horror of the September 11th terror attacks, with this year marking the 25th Anniversary of that fateful day that changed the way of life for all Americans, those alive on that day, and those born since.  A former Salvation Army Commanding Officer from Pennsylvania discusses his service at Ground Zero, arriving there just hours after the Twin Towers came down.  Rev...

           A high-stakes clock is ticking inside the Pennsylvania General Assembly.  After declaring skill games to be illegal, the state's high court paused enforcement for 120 days, giving the General Assembly until October 13th to either ban them completely or finally enact a regulatory and tax framework to make them legal.  But with that deadline looming, the legislature appears to be sit...

It seems like trains are having a moment in America these days, and a very well-funded startup rail company is hoping to capitalize on that moment.  On this edition of The Commonwealth Beat, a look at a bold proposal from Ameristar Rail, based out of Wilmington, Delaware.  The company is pitching a public-private partnership to overhaul Amtrak’s Northeast Corridor in a way that's never been t...

         Dipping into The Commonwealth Beat archives, the spotlight shines on a state-provided service that gives victims of domestic violence, sexual assault, human trafficking, and stalking an opportunity to begin their lives anew, without their abusers tracking them down.  It's called the Address Confidentiality Program.           Then, in an extended PA-mazing segment, you'll hear fr...

A little old, a little new.  We'll hear a "Best Of" segment on TICKS from last summer, with a look at East Stroudsburg University's Tick Research Center and everything you never new you wanted to know about ticks and Lyme Disease, with the center's director, Dr. Nicole Chinicci.   Then, a new segment about Cryptocurrency; what it is, how it works, and whether it's saf...

 A "behind the headlines" look into the miraculous rescue of "The Quecreek Nine."  They were the team of nine coal miners who accidentally penetrated an underground wall separating an abandoned, flooded mine adjacent to the active coal mine they were working in during the evening hours of July 24, 2002 in Somerset County, Pennsylvania.   

         Is a college degree still necessary in today's workforce? Between shifting corporate demands and the rising appeal of specialized technical fields, the traditional academic path is under the microscope.  Hear a Higher Education Roundtable discussion featuring leaders at three different levels of the educational spectrum, to gauge whether college is still the best bet for today's...

         Summer’s in full swing, and for many, it’s a chance to pack some shorts and a t-shirt in a bag and hit the road for a much needed weekend getaway.   If you’re into handmade art - and independent film - the perfect weekend awaits in one of Pennsylvania’s most quaint, and truly artistic locations, Mount Gretna, PA, nestled in the mountains straddling Lebanon and Lancaster counties.         ...

Best of The Commonwealth Beat:  The Union Pacific Big Boy 4014 steam locomotive is making a historic trip this summer, and Pennsylvania has a front row seat!  Hear all about this historic event with the Conductor of the Big Boy 4014, Ed Dickens, Jr.  

          Sometimes, reality can be stranger than fiction, and other times, it's just downright fascinating.  On this edition of The Commonwealth Beat , there's a little bit of both all wrapped up in the fairly small body of a parasitic blow fly with a very misleading name:  the New World Screwworm.  Pennsylvania agriculture officials are implementing new rules to keep the New World Scre...

          If it feels like Pennsylvania has become the center of the sports universe this year, that's because it has.           From a record-setting NFL Draft in Pittsburgh to the PGA Championship outside Philadelphia, to this weekend's Nascar Cup Series race at the famed "Tricky Triangle" in the Poconos, 2026 has already delivered a remarkable run of marquee sporting events....

School's out for summer and vacation is on the mind!  This edition of The Commonwealth Beat is a bit of a best-of-mash-up, featuring two previous reports from earlier editions of the show, featuring destinations not too far out of bounds for budget-conscious vacationers.     In the first segment, we'll revisit Erie County, Pennsylvania, the commonwealth's only "Gateway to the G...

As officials in cities and towns across the nation finalize their plans to mark America's 250th birthday this July 4th, a marvel of 20th Century industrial and technological innovation is on a historic tour east of the Mississippi. It's Union Pacific's Big Boy 4014, a massive steam locomotive that has rail fans coast to coast lining up for a glimpse.  And likely when the Big Boy rum...

With school ending in a few weeks and summer on the horizon, many Pennsylvanians are counting the days until their much-anticipated summer vacation.  But while there's plenty of concern over the economy, health experts worry that rising measles cases may put many people in the hospital, rather than on the beach.  We'll discuss the risks associated with measles, and why the two-shot measl...

Part 2 of an exclusive interview with Igal Feibush, Founder and CEO of Pennsylvania Data Center Partners.  He discusses the energy consumption used by data centers, and why he believes they won't drain the grid dry of electricity, while jacking up prices for ratepayers.  In fact, he thinks they'll actually be a catalyst for lowering electric prices.  Also discussed, his massive hyperscal...

How much do you really know about DATA CENTERS? What they do, what's inside them, who works there, and why do we need them?  Igal Feibush, Founder and CEO of Pennsylvania Data Center Partners will break it all down in an extended, two-part interview.  In Part 1, he also discusses concerns about noise coming from Data Centers, and some of the new technologies being used to cool down the thousa...

          Founded on ground purchased by Richard Allen, a freed slave who became a prominent Methodist pastor in the late 1780's, Mother Bethel A.M.E. Church in Philadelphia is one of the Pennsylvania Historic and Museum Commission's 50 Pennsylvania places to see.             The oldest African-American-founded Methodist church in the nation proudly sits at the corner of 6th and Lombard...

It's a reality we all must face at one time or another:  the death of a loved one.  And whether it's expected or not, it can still be an emotionally charged time.  But when the death comes because they are incapacitated, and someone has had to make potentially end-of-life decisions, a completely different set of emotions settles in.  Encouraging folks to think about the kind of care they...

If you're old enough to remember "Must See TV," then you remember that 8 to 11 Thursday night time frame when you were parked in front of your television, watching your local NBC affiliate.  One of the most legendary shows from that period was Seinfeld , a show about nothing.  What made the show an instant classic was the rapport of the four main characters, coupled with a strong su...