Lower Heidelberg has highest housing prices, far and wide

by Steve Reinbrecht

Lower Heidelberg, right here in Southwestern Berks County, tops the county’s median housing prices, data from the county planning commission show.

On a map of prices, the township stands out against the rest of Berks, Lancaster and Schuylkill counties like a single cherry tomato in the middle of a big spinach and kale salad.

The ranking puts Lower Heidelberg average house price -- $286,500 [plus or minus $31,000] -- in the ranks of those in Chester County and Montgomery counties.

“If you drive around the township, we have some mighty big houses,” said Lower Heidelberg Supervisor Debbie Scull. “People don’t ever realize they are there.”

She said many of the people in the expensive houses have transferred here from New York and New Jersey, have high incomes and can buy big and expensive houses.

Berks Planning Commission Executive Director Shannon Brossman said she was not sure why Lower Heidelberg had the highest house prices.

It’s not because of big-lot zoning, she and Scull said. The township has a mix of housing, they said.

Having so much preserved farmland is very attractive to the remaining lots, Brossman said.

Across Penn Avenue from Lower Heidelberg, [and in another measure of economic health] South Heidelberg ranked 10th for total assessed value in Berks County in 2014, the latest data available.

From 2008 to 2014, South Heidelberg grew 4.2 percent, by nearly $16 million, to almost $400 million in total assessed value. Berks’ total assessed value rose 2.1 percent over that period.

[Get ready for more statistics. Remember, Census estimates have large margins of error, especially with small communities.]

Of Berks’ 74 municipalities, Southwestern Berks punches above its weight, according to numbers from the Berks Planning Commission, which gleans data from the Census and other sources.

Lower Heidelberg was ranked 13th in total assessed value in 2014, up 3.7 percent, to nearly $374 million. Sinking Spring was ranked 21st in assessed value.

Between 2010 and 2015, the median housing value DROPPED in:

• The United States
• Berks County
• Spring Township
• and Southwestern Berks:
• Lower Heidelberg
• South Heidelberg
• Sinking Spring

BUT NOT Wernersville. Anybody have a theory?

Spring Township, Southwestern Berks’s neighbor directly east, had the highest assessed value in Berks in 2014, almost $1.6 billion. Reading was second, at just over $1.4 billion. Berks County’s total assessed value was about $18.5 billion.

Spring ranked second in assessed value per resident, topped only by New Morgan, an outlier because of its tiny population. I guess Spring has a lot of value in commercial and business properties.

RACC will offer college classes in Wilson Southern Middle School

By Steve Reinbrecht

Reading Area Community College plans to offer evening classes in Wilson Southern Middle School, starting in late August.

The college [where I work as a part-time instructor] did a survey in 2014 to better understand the needs and expectations of current and future students. It found that people had a lot of interest in possibly taking RACC classes at places other than the college’s campus in downtown Reading.

The middle school would host about 50 sections of 23 different college courses, which could generate hundreds of students. 

The college zeroed in on the Wilson school, off Penn Avenue in Spring Township, not far from Lowe’s, for several reasons, President Anna Weitz told me on the phone. It has great access to Route 222, is surrounded by a big population, and has lots of parking and casual restaurants nearby for students making a dash to class from work, she said.

An announcement on the middle school’s website lists facts about the arrangement in response to “incorrect information posted on social media.”

  

RACC will lease the space. The classes will be offered on afternoons and evenings on Mondays through Thursdays in accelerated, 7-week sessions.

The move “speaks directly to our mission of providing accessible higher education,” Weitz wrote in an announcement.

The college wants to make sure this pilot program succeeds before trying satellites in other places, Weitz said.

“I don’t want to get ahead of myself.”

Wilson also participates in RACC’s dual-enrollment and early admission programs.

The public deserves to know why Mark Short slaughtered his family

by Steve Reinbrecht

I asked Berks County detectives for a copy of the suicide note Mark Short wrote after he shot his family to death in Sinking Spring on Aug. 6.

Top: Mark Jason Short Sr.; Megan L. Short;
Lianna G. Short, 8; Willow R. Short, 2; Mark J. Short, 5.

That might sound ghoulish. But I had hoped it would shed some light on the thinking of the ultimate domestic abuser.

The county denied my request, I appealed, and the state denied my appeal.

Here is my reasoning:

The issue is whether the public’s right to know more about this incident outweighs the privacy of Mark Short’s survivors.

The public has a strong interest in knowing the content of the note. It would shine light on the twisted thinking behind actions that grievously wounded the community.

Short was a murderer who gave up expectations of privacy when he planned and carried out the massacre of his family. He harmed the community grievously, and community members deserve to know the cause of their pain and grief.

• He forced first-responders and other public servants to immerse themselves in a crime scene of unimaginable atrocity.
• Wilson School District provided counseling for residents. One of the victims would be in third grade in the Green Valley Elementary School.
• Local religious leaders cited the incident in their sermons.
• Media around the world covered the tragedy.

Releasing the suicide note would give insight into the horrors of domestic violence, a problem that is both pervasive and neglected. If children are murdered, it’s probably by a parent, as in this case.

Despite clown threats, Wilson plans classes as usual Wednesday

by Steve Reinbrecht

UPDATE [10 p.m. Oct. 5] No clown hostility was reported at Wilson School District schools.

Wilson School District will hold classes as usual Wednesday -- although extra police will be on patrol -- after somebody made repeated “clown” threats against district schools, Superintendent Curt Baker said Tuesday night. He contacted residents by e-mail just after 10 a.m. and in a phone message just after 8 p.m.

Police “do not believe the threats contained in the messages to be credible,” Baker said in his message. “In an abundance of caution, police will increase patrols of our schools.”

A message posted Tuesday morning on Instagram, an online social medium, said:

“We will be coming to the following schools tommorow [sic] at 12:30: Reading HS, Governor Mifflin, Wilson Hs, Twin Valley. REMEMBER WE DID WARN YOU. There will be 3 of us at each school Love, gigglez.”

Berks County detectives were investigating “clown related threats” toward those four districts, according to a post on the Berks County district attorney office’s Facebook page.

Spring Township police said “several individuals” received the"threats" on Instagram.

High School Principal Chris Trickett sent a message to students about the hostile messages and thanked those who “quickly notified our teachers and principals. The prompt relay of information from social media is necessary and greatly appreciated."

Students were discussing the messages and that teachers were reassuring them, district spokeswoman Kristin Kramer said Tuesday afternoon. 

Early messages mentioned the high school, and later messages also mentioned the “MS.” The district has two middle schools.

Baker said he would not hesitate to send his own children to school.

Detectives ask that anyone with information call 610-478-7171.

Here is a recent bulletin about clown threats from the state police:

A number of clown related social media posts were displayed this past weekend regarding threats towards school districts in Pennsylvania and throughout the country. Some threats stated that a clown would arrive at the school and “shoot all students and teachers,” while another threat stated they “weren’t clowning around.” Most of the social media posts were attributed to a “clown joke,” possibly linked to numerous clown sightings throughout the nation and the world.

These sightings have not been validated and there are no known threats to schools in Pennsylvania. Residents are encouraged to remain vigilant and report any suspicious activity to their closest police department.

Over the last few months, “creepy clowns” have been reported throughout the United States and the world. The media has reported incidents where clowns have stood on the street not moving or speaking, to incidents where creepy clowns attempted to lure children into wooded areas. These sightings have occurred in Wisconsin, South Carolina, North Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, Pennsylvania, Maryland, Virginia, Florida, Ohio, Tennessee, Missouri, Colorado, Oregon, and Texas.

Many of these reported clown sightings have little to no evidence establishing their legitimacy, but it is fueling a clown panic throughout the country.

Due to the media coverage of clown sightings, many people want to become involved in the phenomenon. Over the past two weeks at least 12 people were arrested in Georgia, Alabama, and Virginia for making false reports of clown threats or chasing people while costumed.

This is not the first time a clown scare has occurred in this country. In the 1980s, clown sightings were reported in Boston, Pittsburgh, Kansas City, and Arlington Heights, among many other areas. Upon further investigation, police noticed that most, if not all the clown sightings, were witnessed only by children between the ages of five and seven.

The Pennsylvania State Police (PSP) is providing this bulletin for informational purposes only. The PSP encourages reporting of suspicious activity by calling the toll‐free Pennsylvania State Police (PSP) Terrorism Tip Line at (888) 292‐1919, or via email at tips@pa.gov.

Official conclusion: As mother was moving out, father murdered family, killed himself in Sinking Spring home

by Steve Reinbrecht

Mark Short Sr.’s wife and three pajama-clad children were on the living room floor among pillows and blankets when he killed them, and the dog, with a single bullet each.

Then he wrote a suicide note, left it on the dining room table, reloaded, and shot and killed himself.

On Monday, Berks County crime-fighters said the tragedy in Sinking Spring was the culmination of domestic problems and Megan Short’s decision to leave her marriage of 16 years. They gave the results of the investigation at a news conference in the county agricultural center.

Sinking Spring police found the bodies about 2 p.m. Saturday, Aug. 6, in the home at 51 Winding Brook Drive. County records show the Shorts bought it for $438,000 on Feb. 10, 2006.

The father was Mark Jason Short Sr., 40. The mother was Megan L. Short, 33. The children were Lianna G. Short, 8; Mark J. Short, 5; and Willow R. Short, 2. Willow had a heart transplant when she was six days old.

Law-enforcement officials and other sources gave this outline of events:

Over the summer, Megan and Mark Short were having marriage problems and were separating.

On June 4, hotel security staff were called for a domestic dispute in a room where Megan and Mark were staying in Philadelphia. On June 6, Mark turned 40.

On July 18, Megan called police from the home for help and told the dispatcher she had an argument with her husband and was afraid of him. When Sinking Spring police arrived, Mark had left, and they saw no evidence of physical injury. The officers advised Megan to get a protection-of abuse order, and she told them she would but didn’t follow up.

The next day, July 19, Mark bought a 5-shot, .38 caliber revolver and ammunition from a licensed dealer in Lancaster County. Investigators found the sales slip in the home.

On July 25, Megan leased an apartment in Yardley, Bucks County, and began moving.

On Aug. 1, Mark was demoted at his job as a loan officer because of poor attendance. On LinkedIn, Mark Short is listed as a sales manager [and previously a loan officer] at NVR Inc., a construction company in Reading.

On Friday, Aug. 5, Mark took his three children, but not Megan, to Hershey Park as part of a family day sponsored by his employer.

Friday night, a neighbor saw Megan park her car in the driveway about 7:30 p.m. behind her husband’s vehicle.

About 11:30 p.m., a post was made on her Facebook page.

On Saturday, Aug. 6, Megan’s mother and other relatives waited at her apartment to help her move in. Mark Short had agreed to rent a van to help his wife move to her new apartment that morning.

After Megan didn’t arrive, a family member called and asked a neighbor to check if Megan was home. The neighbor couldn’t contact anybody inside. She saw Mark's and Megan's cars in the driveway.

About 2 p.m., Megan’s mother called the police, and Sinking Spring officers broke into the house and found the bodies.

Investigators weren’t sure what time the victims were shot.

An autopsy Aug. 8 showed that Mark died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head.

Investigators found five empty .38 caliber casings in the basement family room, close to a stock of ammunition. A fingerprint was discovered on an unfired cartridge in the gun recovered next to Mark. This round was placed in the gun after the first five rounds were fired and the gun was reloaded. That fingerprint was positively identified as Mark’s.

Investigators found a one-page, handwritten note on the dining-room table that Mark wrote after killing his family. Officials would not release the contents of the note other than that Short admitted to buying the gun and killing his family. State police had confirmed it as Mark’s handwriting. 

District Attorney John Adams would not say if the note explained Mark's reasons for killing his family. Adams described the writer as emotional over the pending separation from his wife. Mark’s family opposes releasing the contents, he said.

Investigators found no evidence of romantic affairs or that Mark was under treatment for a mental disorder.

Asked about the tragedy’s effect on the community, Adams said: “Whenever we lose youthful, innocent children, it’s never easy for a community to recover from that.”

A lesson is that it’s a dangerous time when an abused woman is leaving, Adams said. Women who are planning to move out should develop a safety plan and contact Berks Women in Crisis for assistance, he said.

Number of gun-license applications rise steeply in Berks County

by Steve Reinbrecht

Almost 10 times as many people in Berks County applied for a state license to carry a firearm in 2015 as applied in 2001, according to the sheriff’s office.

In 2015, more guns were sold in Berks – 39,013 – than in any county in Pennsylvania except Allegheny, which contains Pittsburgh.


From 2008 to 2015, the average annual denial rate was 1.9 percent.

Southwestern Berks is next to rabies hotpot; reports here are rare

by Steve Reinbrecht

I’ve heard of two cases of rabies recently in Southwestern Berks County.

In early May, during the day, a resident killed a rabid skunk in his yard on Faust Road in Lower Heidelberg, according to the township. Because skunks, raccoons, foxes and bats are nocturnal, seeing them active during the day is a warning sign.

And a rabid bat was reported July 15 in Sinking Spring, according to the state agriculture department, which keeps track of cases in animals.

So far in 2016, Berks overall has had only seven reports of rabies, out of 223 reports year-to-date in Pennsylvania.

But Southwestern Berks is adjacent to the state's rabies hot spot.

“The southeast area of the state has reported the most rabies cases to date in 2016,” the state’s website says. “The southeast region frequently reports a high number of animal rabies cases in Pennsylvania.”

We abut Lancaster County, which has had 18 reports so far in 2016, the most in the state. Nearby Chester County has had 16 reports this year, the second highest number. [Maybe they have more disease; maybe better reporting.]

I’m from the generation that watched “Old Yeller” and “Cujo” in horror and recall gruesome stories of multiple painful shots in the belly as the only option to certain death. Rabies cases are rare and treatment much better. Only two or three people die of rabies in the U.S. each year, according to the federal CDC.

In the first seven months of the year, across Pennsylvania, rabies reports were up by almost 20 percent over the same period in 2015 – from 187 to 223.

Raccoons are by far the most common carrier, but don’t rule out other mammals: six cows, two goats and a horse were infected in Pennsylvania in the first half of 2016.

Ron Seaman leaving, South Heidelberg needs a new manager or two

by Steve Reinbrecht

South Heidelberg Township Manager Ron Seaman started working for the township in May 2003 after a career in Berks County government.

Now Seaman, 63, is returning to county government, and an office in Reading, to be Berks County’s chief administrative officer, the county's top non-elected post. The three Berks commissioners voted Thursday to appoint him.

After 13 years, Seaman will leave the township offices Aug. 12 and begin work for the county Aug. 17.

“These types of things don’t come along more than once in a lifetime,” he said

His exit means the township is stuck looking for a new manager. Or maybe two.

He said supervisors are considering hiring two administrators. One would manage public works – roads, storm management, parks. The other would take care of finances and day-to-day operations.

In the meantime, office manager Shelly B. Keehn will be in charge.

Berks County’s chief operations officer, Carl Geffken, left in March for a similar job in Arkansas.

Commissioner Kevin Barnhardt, a township resident, said the job opening came up informally in a conversation between him and Seaman. When Seaman said he was interested, Barnhardt and the two other commissioners decided to choose him or eliminate him before starting a search.

Southwestern Berks suffers few opioid overdoses, coroner's office says

by Steve Reinbrecht

It’s clear the world is having trouble controlling its use of opioid painkillers, with overdose deaths rising drastically in recent years in the United States, Pennsylvania and Berks County – but not in Southwestern Berks County.

In Berks, 64 people died of drug overdoses in 2014; and 69 died in 2015. Berks has had 22 heroin-related deaths this year through June, the Reading Eagle reported Monday.

But Southwestern Berks County has avoided many opioid deaths. The area – Lower Heidelberg, South Heidelberg, Sinking Spring, Wernersville -- had no opioid-related deaths in 2014 or so far this year, according to the Berks County coroner’s office. Drug information before 2014 was not stored in spreadsheets and is not feasibly searched.

In 2015, three people died of opioid-related causes in Southwestern Berks. A 31-year-old man died in his Sinking Spring home of an accidental overdose of Oxycontin.

Also that year, two men, ages 24 and 33, took heroin and fentanyl in the Wernersville Community Corrections Center in South Heidelberg and died of accidental overdoses. One died at the facility; one died at Reading Hospital.

In 2015, two other inmates of the state-run correctional center were charged with having heroin. One was caught selling heroin in Reading on work-release. The other had 36 packets of heroin in the center.

In other local opioid-abuse-related news, the Caron Foundation, another South Heidelberg institution, plans to borrow as much as $28.5 million to help build a 21-bed treatment facility at its campus near Wernersville.

Local police chiefs say opioids have not been a big problem in Southwestern Berks, nothing like a spike in abuse in the Topton area. At least five people from the Brandywine Heights area died from drug overdoses in early 2014.

In Pennsylvania, almost 3,400 people died of overdoses in 2015, up from about 2,740 in 2014 and about 2,425 in 2013. That’s a 40 percent increase over two years. Most involved opioids – highly euphoric and highly addictive painkillers such as heroin, fentanyl,Vicodin and Oxycontin that are based on opium.

Many people become addicted to opiates after using painkillers prescribed by doctors. Some steal the pills, which have saturated the United States, from family member’s medicine chests. As their tolerance for the drug increases, many users switch to heroin, which is often cheaper and easier to find, as regulations and wiser doctors are tightening diverted supplies of prescription pills. Heroin from Mexico has become stronger and cheaper, and is often adulterated with other opioids like fentanyl, which can create a fatal potency. 

Dog-license crackdown in Berks has underwhelming results

by Steve Reinbrecht

When I read in early April about dog wardens armed with $300 fines coming to Berks County to check if pet dogs have licenses dangling from their collars, I did the right thing.

As I was supposed to do at the beginning of the year, I went online and laid out $13 to properly license my two mutts for 2016.

The state requires that dogs have licenses and rabies vaccines. A license is one of the best ways to be reunited with your dog if you were to become separated, the department says.

It appears that lots of people responded to the Reading Eagle’s timely warning about the state’s canine crack down.

The number of dog licenses sold in Berks in the first half of 2016 jumped 15 percent over the number sold in the first half of 2015, according to the Berks treasurer’s office.

Should we have worried about a dog warden's knock?

I estimate 90,000 pet dogs live in Berks, using a calculator from the American Veterinary Medical Association.

In 2015, the Berks treasurer sold only about 27,000 licenses, so I figure the county was ripe for wide-scale enforcement among the 63,000 unlicensed dogs here.

When the dog wardens visited the week of May 9, they checked 753 houses in Berks County, according to Neil Logan, a state agriculture department spokesman.

They issued two citations in Berks County for not having a current rabies vaccination, he said. 

They issued no citations for not having a valid dog license.

Hall said the wardens typically give warnings so scofflaw dog owners have a chance to get their pooches legal. The idea is to educate owners, not penalize them.

In 2015, individual dog license sales generated about $6.3 million in revenue for Pennsylvania.

Berks County had no Keystone Innovation Zone credits in 2015

by Steve Reinbrecht

I want to know why the tech-entrepreneurial tidal wave that is obviously washing through many other small cities is passing Berks and Reading by.

In 2015, the state awarded almost $18 million to 239 companies across the state as part of the state's Keystone Innovation Zone.

They included companies in Johnstown, Erie, Williamsport, Harrisburg, Selingsgrove, Lancaster, Bloomsburg, Carlisle, with lots in Scranton and Wilkes-Barre and Erie and Doylestown.

Reading has a KIZ. 

How much did Berks get?

Zero.

Two Berks companies got KIZ credits in 2014.

The Reading Eagle had a story on its website about companies in Luzerne and Lackawanna counties getting tax credits.

But even though the Eagle is the major newsgathering organization in Berks and Beyond, it doesn't mention Berks' failure to incubate tech companies.

Why, other than the Eagle knows how to LOOK like a newspaper but the newsroom leaders don't know how to produce a REAL newspaper? Or is it the newsroom leaders' compulsion to assure everybody that everything is fine in Berks, so buy a new car?

The KIZ is an incentive program that provides tax credits to for-profit companies less than eight years old operating within specific targeted industries within the boundaries of a Keystone Innovation Zone, the state says.

“The KIZ tax credit program significantly contributes to the ability of young KIZ companies to transition through the stages of growth.”

Berks economy is stagnant because of poor leadership, crony journalism

by Steve Reinbrecht

To the tax-haters in Berks County, the front page of the Reading Eagle on Friday warned that your payments to support county government are going to rise if more people and businesses don’t move here.

The reporter wrote:

“If the county's property tax base continues to stagnate, budget chief Robert Patrizio warned, commissioners are going to face some tough choices about spending and taxes in the future.

“ ‘This has to be our No. 1 initiative,’ he said of efforts to grow the county's property tax base. ‘We have to find a way to get development in this county.’ "

Off Buttonwood Street in Reading

Why won’t Wegman’s build here? Berks’ economic activity is stagnant for many reasons. And the lack of good reporting on Berks’ serious issues has contributed to our local lack of progress. You can’t fix problems until you identify and understand them.

The county’s economic-development leaders have held their jobs for years with very little to justify their often taxpayer-subsidized salaries. If they identify practical goals and report on their progress, you won’t read them in the Reading Eagle. 

Jon Scott at the Greater Berks Economic Partnership, Ed Swoyer at the absolutely opaque Greater Berks Development Fund, Adam Mukerji at the Reading Redevelopment Authority, Lenin Agudo, the community development director in Reading City Hall, Ellen Horan at the business Chamber, Crystal Seitz at the visitor’s bureau – none is held accountable for demonstrating effective outcomes.

Investors shun Berks because it’s hard to get here. What other city is so isolated? We have no passenger rail or air service. To get to central Berks from Allentown and the north, you drive for miles of one-lane congestion on Route 222. Coming from Philadelphia and the east, you drive through endless traffic lights on Route 422 in Douglassville and Exeter Township. Or take the turnpike for a fee and lots of extra miles. From the west, you’ll get a close look at dozens of intersections on Route 422 from Lebanon through West Reading. 

In the south, we did get a beautiful expressway, Route 222, which my daughters drive to Park City Mall, outside Lancaster, because Berks has no shops they like. The state provided $140 million for highway work in Berks – to improve Interstate 78 so people can drive THROUGH Berks County faster.

The lack of adequate road access is due to the county’s lack of political clout, demonstrated by the obvious gerrymandering that has made Reading irrelevant on the state and national levels.

Here is another example of local leadership failing to lead. The Democratic political machine here can’t handle its responsibilities. The city of Reading will get nowhere without reasonable diplomacy with county and state officials. But the Dems can line up no one better than Vaughn Spencer or Wally Scott to tell the city’s story and grovel for help. 

Entrepreneurs have told me they won’t invest in Reading because they perceived it was corrupt. That perception has become a well-publicized reality.

I suspect Berks County suffers from a xenophobic business climate that favors established businesses over newcomers, discouraging the kind of innovation that is fueling development in the Lehigh Valley and other places. Do banks operating locally loan to minority entrepreneurs? They are not publicly embracing new credit-risk assessments designed to make it easier for deserving poor people and young people to borrow. The Chamber of Commerce promotes right-wing policy that channels growth to the wealthy and leaves the middle class struggling, and not spending, and thus not creating demand for jobs.

From the Chamber of Commerce's tax form

Reading has missed out on economic- development aid from the state. Bethlehem and Lancaster won tax advantages over Reading because of Reading’s shoddy application. 

Berks has received a paucity of development grants from the Ben Franklin Technology Partners compared to Bethlehem, York, and Scranton. On Oct. 15, Ben Franklin Technology Partners of Northeastern Pennsylvania announced $651,600 in loans to help young companies in the 21-county region. Berks got $25,000 for one company, about 4 percent of the total.

What’s the progress on the Ride to Prosperity? Berks didn’t regain its pre-recession peak employment [175,800 in July 2007] until December 2014, although it rose through 2015 to 177,000 in October. Economic development officials say we need “shovel ready” sites. So where are they creating them?

Our schools are mediocre. In a ranking of 681 state highschools, Wilson was 105th, Boyertown was 137th, and Wyomissing was 233rd. I’m sure our talented children can’t wait to leave. But that’s OK. Berks has also led the charge to defund public schools even further.

Do we really want visitors? If so, we need to get better people to run the visitor’s bureau. “Take a ride” is the motto; it sounds like “take a hike.” The agency, which got $50,000 in tax money in 2014, paid its president, Crystal Seitz, $135,000 that year. Is she worth it? How do we know?

Drivel from the visitor's bureau website

Once I called the bureau for information about an attraction. A staffer told me she shouldn’t tell me because the business I was interested in was not a member. So it’s clear the bureau, like so many Berks agencies, is more interested in internal politics and survival than serving its mission.

One whopping reason Berks can’t escape its lackluster growth is that Berks’ media – the Reading Eagle, WFMZ, bctv.org – don’t adequately cover the news in Berks. They hold no one accountable. They create no record to hold elected officials to. They ask no tough questions on practical issues. They don’t cover deep problems with health-care access, education, politics, or the environment because advertisers want to project the image that everything is wonderful here, so buy the new car. 

The media are happy to reinforce the world view that everything is OK in Berks County, from the environment to the economy; that people with brown skin cause our problems; and that what we celebrate is celebrated for Christian people who believe themselves white. That sells the media's products, but does nothing to solve the problems limiting our economic growth.