The Commonwealth Beat with Laura LeBeau

Part 2 of this exclusive interview with Gopal Balachandran, the lead appellate attorney handling the case of Subramanyam "Subu" Vedam, the man who spent 43 years in SCI Huntingdon for the murder of Tom Kinser, who was killed in December, 1980.  While Subu proclaimed his innocense throughout his incarceration, it was Attorney Balachandran's discovery of one line of a handwritten note...

If there ever was a case of justice delayed, it may be that of 64-year old Subu Vedam, the State College man who now stands as Pennsylvania's longest-serving prison exoneree.  However, he currently stands in the Moshannon Processing Center in Philipsburg on an immigration detainer, fighting a deportation order dating back to 1988.   In Part 1 of this exclusive interview with Subu's lead...

It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Y for the tens of thousands of Pennsylvanians who hunt, with the start of the deer archery seaon on October 4th, 2025.  And this year, their time on the hunt just got longer, now that Pennsylvania has Sunday hunting, thanks to the passage of Act 36 of 2025 in July.  While hundreds of state lawmakers and many Game Commission executives championed the cause f...

     It was in 2021 that a 17-year old Amish girl came to the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, suffering from fatigue, a severe headache and weakness on one side of her body.  Shortly after her arrival, she also developed brain inflammation that became so severe, physicians had to remove part of her skull to relieve the pressure.  Her team of doctors tried everything to treat her, includi...

The human body is the most complex biological machine ever, made up of groups of organs that work together to produce and sustain life.  Learning about the human body requires a great deal of study.  But for the students of the Greater Altoona Career & Technology Center, their education just took a huge step forward with the acquisition of "the Anatomage Table," a life-sized, fully i...

What does a retired state lawmaker, a couple of priests, some policy wonks, an a few others have in common?         Answer?  They were all personally selected by the Most Reverend Timothy Senior, Bishop of the Harrisburg Catholic Diocese, to serve on the “Uniting for Growth: Catholic Education Commission."   Their job over the next year will be to make recommendations about how to fix what ai...

The Commonwealth Beat with Laura LeBeau is a statewide Public Affairs program airing on all of the Seven Mountains Media Pennsylvania radio stations.     This summer has been one of the worst on record for ticks, the sometimes speck-like creatures that latch onto warm-blooded hosts, be it a rodent, a dog, a cat, or even you and me.  And if they do, there's about even odds that they may be car...

The Commonwealth Beat with Laura LeBeau is a statewide Public Affairs program airing on all of the Seven Mountains Media Pennsylvania radio stations.    Will a lawsuit filed July 15th by a group of plaintiffs pry open Pennsylvania's closed primary election system?  On July 15th, four Pennsylvania voters filed a petition  asking the PA Supreme Court to exert their King's Bench jurisdictio...

The Commonwealth Beat with Laura LeBeau is a statewide Public Affairs program airing on all of the Seven Mountains Media Pennsylvania radio stations.   A movement that grew out of outrage over a legislative pay raise passed in the dead of night with almost no one around, had its 20th anniversary on July 7th.  The PA Cleansweep movement was the brainchild of then-Lebanon County businessman, Russ Di...

"This above all; to thine own self be true."   That Shakespeare quote certainly fits the Knoebel family of Elysburg, Northumberland County.  For 99 years, through five generations of family members, the Knoebels have operated an amusement park that has thrilled millions of people, mostly from Pennsylvania and surrounding states, but also visitors from every state in the union and many fo...

The Commonwealth Beat with Laura LeBeau is a statewide Public Affairs program airing on all of the Seven Mountains Media Pennsylvania radio stations.   As state lawmakers work feverishly to come up with a cohesive budget plan for the commonwealth by the June 30th deadline, one of the biggest fights going on  concerns the development of a framework for the taxation of skill games.  There are two co...

The Commonwealth Beat with Laura LeBeau is a statewide Public Affairs program airing on all of the Seven Mountains Media Pennsylvania radio stations.   While an ounce of prevention may be worth a pound of cure, there's debate in Washington, DC about the weight of proposed cuts to medicaid, the nation's federal health insurance program that covers millions of Americans, including eligible...

What kind of impact does a teacher have on their students?  A good person to ask may be the 2025 National Teacher of the Year, Ashlie Crosson of Mifflin County High School   That's because the impact a few high school teachers had on her is the reason she's a teacher, today!  In particular, her journalism teacher's impact is the reason she decided to forego a journalism career and t...

The Commonwealth Beat with Laura LeBeau is a statewide Public Affairs program airing on all of the Seven Mountains Media Pennsylvania radio stations.  The Geisinger School of Nursing in Lewistown, Mifflin County, is basking in the glow of a major accomplishment, a national accreditation.  But it comes amid a continuing nursing shortage that doesn't appear to be easing.  We discuss what it too...

The Commonwealth Beat with Laura LeBeau is a statewide Public Affairs program airing on all of the Seven Mountains Media Pennsylvania radio stations.     For the past two years, the Keystone State has had an ally on the powerful House Agriculture Committee, 15th District Republican Congressman Glenn "GT" Thompson, who serves as the committee chairman.   He's a staunch supporter of P...

The Commonwealth Beat with Laura LeBeau is a statewide Public Affairs program airing on all of the Seven Mountains Media Pennsylvania radio stations.    Pennsylvanians are having a moment, with last Thursday's announcement that the successor to Pope Francis would be an American-born Cardinal from the south side of Chicago, who loves the White Sox, and traces his higher education to become a p...

The Commonwealth Beat with Laura LeBeau is a statewide Public Affairs program airing on all of the Seven Mountains Media Pennsylvania radio stations.   Fishing is big business in Pennsylvania, and for the PA Fish and Boat Commission, one of their main duties is overseeing the Commonwealth's rivers, lakes and streams.  So whether you're aiming to catch a rainbow, golden or brown trout, yo...

The Commonwealth Beat with Laura LeBeau is a statewide Public Affairs program airing on all of the Seven Mountains Media Pennsylvania radio stations.   What can be done about out-of-control spending in America's political campaigns?  In the 2024 election, between the presidential race and the US Senate race, nearly a billion dollars in political ads were purchased in Pennsylvania.  it didn&ap...

The Commonwealth Beat with Laura LeBeau is a statewide Public Affairs program airing on all of the Seven Mountains Media Pennsylvania radio stations.   Every month of the year has a designation, and in fact, most months have several.  Such is the case for the month of April.  In  addition to being Alcohol Awareness Month, National Financial Literacy Month, National Garden Month, Sexual Assault Awa...

The Commonwealth Beat with Laura LeBeau is a statewide Public Affairs program airing on all of the Seven Mountains Media Pennsylvania radio stations.  The Pennsylvania National Guard traces its roots back to 1747, when it was founded by Benjamin Franklin in Philadelphia as "The Associators," to  provide for a common defense against raiders and privateers. Since then, Pennsylvanians from...

The Commonwealth Beat with Laura LeBeau is a statewide Public Affairs program airing on all of the Seven Mountains Media Pennsylvania radio stations.   March is National Colo-Rectal Cancer Awareness Month, a time to raise awareness about the third-most deadly form of cancer in the US.  What are the symptoms, how prevalent is it, what kind of screening mechanisms exist, what are the current treatme...

The Commonwealth Beat with Laura LeBeau is a statewide Public Affairs program airing on all of the Seven Mountains Media Pennsylvania radio stations.   If it feels like the world is awash in gambling and you don't need to look any further than the cell phone in the palm of your hand to place a bet, you're right.  Gambling is big business, and it's everywhere!   But while most folks...

The Commonwealth Beat with Laura LeBeau is a statewide Public Affairs program airing on all of the Seven Mountains Media Pennsylvania radio stations.   How does a woman who was in and out of jail, and on and off probation for more than 20 years turn her life around, using nothing more than a her sheer determination to make it happen?  That's the situation LeRoya Ryan faced, as she left the Le...

The Commonwealth Beat with Laura LeBeau is a statewide Public Affairs program airing on all of the Seven Mountains Media Pennsylvania radio stations.  Since its inception nine years ago, the non-partisan grass roots advocacy group Fair Districts PA has focused on one simple belief, that Pennsylvania's legislative districts get drawn fairly, respecting city and county subdivisions, natural geo...

The Commonwealth Beat with Laura LeBeau is a statewide Public Affairs program airing on all of the Seven Mountains Media Pennsylvania radio stations.   Avian influenza has been top of mind across Pennsylvania and the nation, and continues to wreak havoc on the nation's poultry producers.  It's being felt, most prominently as the supply of eggs dwindles, and the price of them skyrockets. ...