The Reading Eagle should ask elected officials the reasons for their votes

by Steve Reinbrecht

Reading City Council on Tuesday voted 5-1 to appoint John Slifko to fill a vacancy until the end of the year.

The Reading Eagle was there, but didn’t do its job -- finding out why elected officials vote the way they do.

If only one person resists a unanimous vote, it’s often for a good reason. The Establishment values unanimity and pressures people who rock the boat.

So let’s hear from the boat-rockers, especially on important things like the composition of Reading City Council.

“Councilman Chris Daubert cast the lone vote against Slifko. He did not say why,” the Eagle reported.

Daubert told me later that he was surprised nobody from the Eagle asked him why, and he gave me his reasons for his no-vote on Slifko.

“I voted the way I voted because I didn't have him ranked as the best candidate, all things considered. (Experience with budget, etc.)

“I also am not a fan of appointing someone who has never run for the office or garnered votes for the office. I am beholden to the people that elected me.

“Anyone that is appointed has Council members to thank, not the people. I'd support a change to the Charter to eliminate long-term appointments, but that doesn't fit in this case as it is only for four months.

“Why I didn't speak up in the meeting to explain my vote was very truly out of respect for my colleagues and for Mr. Slifko. He was going to be appointed, regardless of my vote.

“I spoke with him before I voted to let him know why I was doing what I was doing. I really didn't want to ruin it for him, as I have nothing against him. He's a smart and nice guy.

“I was really expecting a question which I would have then answered just as I shared with you.”

State Rep. Jim Cox mails Republican propaganda at taxpayers’ expense

by Steve Reinbrecht

My state representative, Jim Cox, mailed us a “newsletter” a couple of weeks ago.

Cox represents much of Berks County west of Reading. His mailing is meant to look informative but is more a GOP party propaganda tool. 

It has the Republican line on the state budget and the “Property Tax Independence Act.” It includes a “survey” supposedly to garner constituent opinion. One asks about “welfare reform,” emphasizing the abuse that in GOP mythology is ruining budgets. 

But cracking down on poor people is the last thing Cox should be worried about.
In 2014:

• More than 190,000 Pennsylvania residents were enrolled in Temporary Aid for Needy Families [TANF], about one out of every 67 residents.
• The inspector general’s office reviewed 977 fraud tips involving TANF, about one for every 195 recipients.
• The office filed welfare-fraud charges against 162 people in the TANF program, about one for every 1,175 recipients.
• The office convicted 62 individuals in the TANF program, or about one of every 3,070 recipients.
• The fraud totaled almost $400,000, or about four-hundredths of a percent of the more than $1 billion in TANF expenses.

[This from Department of Human Services and Office of Inspector General spokespeople.]

Cox’s newsletter says:

“WELFARE REFORM: Legislators routinely hear about welfare recipients who abuse the system. While offenders are often prosecuted when caught, far too many welfare recipients continue to misuse the money provided to help them.

“QUESTION 10: Do you support or oppose strengthening state laws to fight welfare abuse and bring to justice those individuals who misuse the social safety net?

“□ I support taking stronger actions to penalize people who abuse the welfare system.

“□ I oppose taking strong actions to penalize people who abuse the welfare system.”

Now you decide. Is this a priority for state lawmakers? What about tax fraud – people not paying their taxes? Why not let Cox know what you think about the matter?

True journalists on the job in Berks County might challenge our elected officials on some of their bullshit and hold them accountable to the real needs of residents: better education and career training, better infrastructure, more help for researchers, innovators and libraries. None of these issues is mentioned in the newsletter.

Google alerts, FB consistently scoop Reading Eagle

I often learn more news about Berks County from Google alerts and Facebook than I do from the Reading Eagle pseudo-newspaper.

Some recent examples:

Cultural sensitivity? Did you know that Ramadan has started? Other local newspapers realize the importance and help explain the holiday to non-Muslims, but not the Reading Eagle. Not that the Eagle is shy about religion – if it’s the Christian kind. Its Christmas coverage goes on ad nauseum for days, and it carries a daily Bible verse and weekly columns about local churches. But Ramadan? Meh.

Hundreds if not thousands of Muslims live in Berks, and many families worship at its two Islamic centers. If you haven’t noticed, Muslims have been in the news a lot lately, often the victims of misperception, prejudice and stigma. Often it’s the media that maintain the misperception, prejudice and stigma. Other local news organizations had stories last week. 

The Reading mayoral election? Al Walentis, not the award-winning Reading Eagle, broke the news on his blog about retailer Al Boscov providing $70,000 to Reading Mayor Vaughn Spencer for his campaign:

“It shows that the Albert Boscov money spigot is at full guzzle feeding the mayor's campaign coffers. Naturally, some might question whether one individual should have such influence in a municipal election. What might Albert Boscov be hoping for in return?” 

When the Eagle editors thought they had figured out how to spin the story without embarrassing Boscov, a major advertiser and de facto but untrained city planner, the result was pathetic.

Deportations? I didn’t see anything in the Eagle about a judge’s dramatic order June 19 to stop the deportation of a woman and her child from a Berks detention center. But other media have the fascinating story.

“A U.S. Court of Appeals judge has ordered U.S. officials to intercept a mother and her 12-year-old daughter on a plane Friday being deported to Guatemala and immediately return them to the United States.

“The 34-year-old mother, Ana, and her daughter were woken up at 3 a.m. Eastern Daylight Time on Friday and pulled from their rooms at a [Berks] Pennsylvania family detention center, where they had been living for over a year, said her attorney, Bridget Cambria. By 10 a.m., the two were placed on a plane flying to Panama City, where they would catch a second flight to Guatemala City.

“In a rare move that will likely draw more attention to the controversial practice of family detention, Chief Judge Theodore A. McKee of the Third Circuit Court of Appeals ordered U.S. officials to stop Ana and her daughter when they arrive in Guatemala City and immediately return them to the United States."

The Reading Eagle’s journalism produced this headline about the center, which it had ignored for years: “Berks County Residential Center: 'family friendly' or 'bad'?”

Pedestrian killed? I first learned that a woman had been killed on Route 422 in Lower Heidelberg Township on Facebook. Other news media identify her and talk of a fight and bikers at a barbecue joint. The Eagle can’t get the story because its reporters no longer seem to develop sources. I can’t remember the coroner’s office not releasing basic info if the police won’t. The Eagle’s lack of credibility has injured it.

Same with a story about possibly contaminated water at a Berks bottling company. A warning from the state came out June 19; nothing in the Eagle as of Sunday night, June 21.

How about this: Police say 30-year-old former teacher Jonathan Ruppert of Hamburg sexually assaulted a 17-year-old student in a Lebanon High School classroom in April.

You can read about it everywhere but the Reading Eagle, because although it LOOKS like a newspaper, it really isn’t one.

We need to know why police can search people's houses, and the Reading Eagle should tell us

One great thing about America is that we have the right to say “No!” when government agents want to, or are ordered to, search our houses and vehicles.

In 2014, Pennsylvania’s top judges decided that cops don’t need to convince a judge to sign a warrant to search your car.

But as far as I know they still need a warrant to get around the Fourth Amendment and search your house without your permission.

And because we rely on the news media to be the watchdog for our rights, reporters who write about police searching homes should always find out why the police were allowed to do the search.

On June 16, the Reading Eagle had a story about Spring Township police arresting two 20-something brothers after finding 2 pounds of marijuana, guns and $3,000 in their home.

“Detective Steve Brock said the search of the residence was conducted June 2 after investigators responded to complaints from residents about suspected illegal drug activity.”

We’re all glad these pot dealers were busted, because their guns were really dangerous. Though now their disappointed customers might have to turn to smoking bath salts or toxic synthetic "marijuana," or alcohol or other Establishment-approved anti-depressants.

But this is where the rubber hits the road with respect to the Big Question of government: How to balance the rights of the individual with the good of society?

This is the exact spot where I want my local media to shine their lights upon, for us all to see exactly how public-safety policy is working. No need to remind you that police behavior is generally under scrutiny lately.

The Eagle reporter should have reported:
• Did the suspects give permission to search?
• Did the police get a search warrant?
• If they did, who was the judge?
• What was the “probable cause,” the reasons why the police believe a crime was probably committed?
• Are reports by suspicious neighbors enough to get a search warrant? The story suggests it is.

In an e-mail, Detective Brock told me: “The incident was based off citizen complaints about drug activity at the residence. The search of the residence was consensual.”

I bet he would have explained it to the Eagle reporter.

Of course, most of us are very law-abiding and never have contraband. So what’s the big fuss? An editor, Dave Warner, once told me it’s the oozing stories – where something slowly, apparently innocently creeps into the world – that are more important than the breaking-news stories.

By publicizing the oozing signs of the erosion of human rights, better journalism could have benefited many societies in the world that are in trouble now. But of course the Establishment leaders always get control of the media and use them for their agendas, not to publish truth.

In the New World Order, when I am appointed editor of the Reading Eagle, I will insist that reporters always ask police chiefs the reasons their officers search pockets, homes and vehicles.

Once I went, as the managing editor of bctv.org, to the state police headquarters for a forum on trooper-journalist relations. I told the room full of troopers and mostly TV reporters that news releases about vehicle stops should always include the probable cause.

I was quickly surrounded by in-leaning troopers decrying my attack on their ability to do their job. Later, one trooper more gently told me that frankly, people are ignorant of their rights and will quickly consent to a search of their vehicle, and that police depend on this to save themselves a lot of trouble.

I don’t really think the police in Berks are doing anything wrong. They are doing their jobs.

But the Reading Eagle newspaper is not doing its job.

Reading voters made a bad decision choosing Wally Scott as mayor

by Steve Reinbrecht

The Democratic primary election May 19 was important for Reading.

The wrong guy won.

The Democrats had a sensible candidate -- Tim Daley.

Voters chose Wally Scott.

Scott's becoming mayor [he's certain to beat Republican Jim McHale in November] will set Reading back at a time when cities small and large are finding opportunities to develop into fun, prosperous places -- visit Lancaster or Allentown or Philadelphia or Pittsburgh or New York ....

City leaders must not scare off investors. In Berks County, I've heard business leaders dismiss prospective projects in Reading, citing perceived corruption and incompetence.

Scott, 63, is a great politician -- a charismatic strongman whose promises soothe basic fears among Reading's poor, uneducated residents. You won't get your water turned off if you don't pay the bill, or go to jail if your kid skips school.

Scott is a populist caudillo who has entered the power vacuum of Reading politics and I'm afraid will rule so that everything hangs on the web of how leaders grant favors to supporters.

Reading will suffer under Scott as it suffered under mayors Joe Eppihimer [2000-2004] and Vaughn Spencer -- old-school mediocrities driven by what they felt the job entitled them to rather than the long-term good of the city.

I'm worried Scott, who served more than 30 years as a [elected] city district judge [and whose $1 million bails got headlines] will have a system where his buddies can disregard the formal rules of government and use personal clout to gain advantages.

He'll get a $72,600 salary, the chance to hand out some plum jobs, and an inside position to protect his personal assets in the city. County records show Scott owns 10 city properties, commercial and residential.

Scott is a career elected official who probably learned the angles from the earlier generation of corrupt politicians in Reading.

In 1987, Scott was found guilty of crimes related to trying to cover up a car wreck involving a city councilman. "After a grand jury investigation, he was charged with perjury, tampering with evidence, hindering an apprehension, obstructing justice and four counts of conspiracy. Investigators say he aided in an attempt to cover up a March 13, 1987, accident by former city Councilman Thomas A. Loeper," according to the Allentown Morning Call.

His supporters properly point out that the decision was overturned on appeal. 

Does that mean he didn't do it?

In 1999, Wally Scott worked to get Eppihimer elected mayor. Eppihimer, a career school-district plumber, quickly settled into the old-school model of petty tyrant, firing enemies, demanding a specifically decked-out SUV as his mayoral ride and hiring a top supporter's brother as human-resource director, who rarely was in City Hall.

About the same time, Scott aligned himself with trash haulers who successfully defeated a proposal to have the city manage trash collection. He supported letting residents hire their own hauler, a system that led to tall piles of stinking household waste in alleys, abandoned houses stuffed with garbage from basement to attic, and loaded garbage trucks parked for the weekend in neighborhoods.

I was the Eagle's City Hall reporter at that time. Once, when I was leaving a meeting about trash legislation as Scott was entering, he told me, "You'd better be careful. You're hurting a lot of people."

Scott's long-ago scandal hardly prevented him from getting a 38 percent margin and more votes than the next two candidates combined -- incumbent Vaughn Spencer and Daley, a former city cop who runs the local Habitat for Humanity.

Still, that's not much of a mandate. About 6,875 people voted for a mayoral candidate, a turnout of about 16 percent of the city's 42,500 or so registered voters.

Spencer also adopted a strongman role, according to one insider.

"He [Vaughn Spencer] made Council's life hell, he made Council's staff lives a living hell," former city councilman Randy Corcoran wrote recently on Facebook.

"The managing director, the solicitor, the admin services director and basically everyone who worked at City Hall. His staff ruled by intimidation. If you didn't agree, you would be eliminated. ... He listened to the wrong people. ... You have no idea the games his administration played. ... I was threatened by one of his staffers, I was lied to, he surrounded himself with bad people, and that cost him dearly."

Scott's family members add weight to the idea that he lives in a culture where intimidation is acceptable and impunity can be expected.

In March, Scott's brother, Mallory, was suspended as a constable [also an elected position] after he was charged with DUI and assaulting two Muhlenberg Township cops who allegedly found him slumped in his car. Police said Mallory asked for a break and then fought them and spit at them when they refused him special treatment.

In June 2010, Scott's three daughters were charged with assault after an attack on a woman in a diner in West Reading. They pleaded guilty to disorderly conduct.

As any populist will, Scott goes for religious hyperbole, deftly weaving together even God and zoning.

His website states: "I was saddened, as a Christian, that in 2011 the Zoning Ordnance restricted churches in R1-R2-R3 districts (R means residential). Linda Kelleher, the Chief of Staff, for city council was asked, by Christian Ministers, which would you rather have, a bar on every corner or a church; her reply, she said “That’s easy – bars; they pay taxes you people don’t”. God left City Hall that day – remember, God is in all our lives." [sic]

In 2006, Scott's website says, he earned a bachelor's degree from Mountain State University in West Virginia. Muckraker that I am, I tried to confirm this with the school, only to learn it had lost its accreditation and closed down “after years of failing to correct major problems in leadership, program evaluations, and campus-wide governance."

Scott raised $48,000 for his primary campaign, compared with Tim Daley's $46,000 or so. Mayor Spencer raised the most -- $132,000 -- with a whopping $70,000 contribution-loan from retailer and ersatz city planner Al Boscov.

Beside Boscov, Spencer's donors comprised mostly unions and Philadelphia organizations. Daley's centered on local business people.

Scott's included doctors, nurses, and many city small-businesspeople -- for examples:

• ·        Nelson E. Espinal, Reading, grocer
• ·        Felipe Fana, Reading, self-employed
• ·        El Gallito Mexican Bakery II LLC, Reading
• ·        Jose O. Delacruz, Reading, self-employed
• ·        Reinaldo Antonio Jimenez, Reading, restaurateur
• ·        Sunilda D. Tejada, Reading, multi-service operator
• ·        Clemencia Reyes, Wyomissing, landlord

Reading needs government based on planning and expert advice, as I bet Allentown and Lancaster have.

Allentown's Ed Pawlowski has a master’s degree in urban planning and public policy from the University of Illinois. Lancaster's Rick Gray was president of his Dickinson law school class.

Good mayors choose the best people for the top jobs. Eppihimer and Spencer hired supporters and friends of supporters for jobs in City Hall. Spencer even created positions for them.

Good mayors would seek and consider the best advice and help from people in county and state government. Eppihimer thought he knew best and listened to people like Scott and Eugene LaManna.

Good mayors are a mouthpiece to tell the world about how cool their cities are, the good things that are happening, and successful outcomes. Philly's Mayor Michael Nutter [University of Pennsylvania] talks, talks, talks to the media. Reading's PR has sucked.

Reading Eagle follows the herd, chokes on air-quality report

The Reading Eagle had a rare environmental story today, on Page A11, about how bad the air we're breathing in Berks is.

The print-version headline said “Berks earns ‘D’ in report on air quality; up from ‘F.’ ”

The web-site version said “State of the Air Report offers mixed bags for Berks, region.”

I guess a business-friendly editor gave the order – tone down the bad news about Berks.

The article says: “Berks was the only county in the study to have a worse result in year-round particle pollution, dropping very slightly from last year's score. And Berks had the biggest drop [in grade] of all the counties in short-term particle pollution, falling from a ‘C’ to an ‘F.’ ”

The story then quotes a doctor saying air pollution is bad for people – duh!

But it doesn't say why Berks’ air is getting worse.

Did you know the state Department of Environmental Protection has deep data on ozone days and particulates – the cancer-causing dust that lodges deep in your lungs?

Did you know landfills and battery manufacturers are big contributors to air pollution? And Berks has a lot of both. 

Why not ask the Berks County Chamber of Commerce what they think about Berks’ air being so polluted, and about regulations to reduce it?

Instead, the Eagle sent two – two! – of its award-winning reporters to Baltimore along with half of North America’s press herd to report on things we read about on the Internet 12 hours earlier.

Maybe the Eagle’s reporters could spend a day or two investigating the decline of air quality in Berks. Might even qualify for a journalism award.

But truth and a better quality of life are not the goals of Berks County’s pseudo-newspaper.

Sensational front-page headlines and pleasing the Establishment are.

Berks County needs better journalism.

Reading Eagle’s manner of reporting day-time burglaries is criminal

By Steve Reinbrecht
Did you know that there is an “epidemic” of day-time burglaries in rural Berks County townships?

That state police and local detectives are meeting about the problem?

To me, this is big news, a matter of public safety. Burglary rates are good measures of quality of life and security. The idea of a desperate intruder entering one’s house and tearing it apart in a search for one’s treasure is terrifying. This is why people think they need guns. I know burglary victims feel violated and may grieve over the loss of their domestic inviolability. 

If people were breaking into houses in your neighborhood, wouldn’t you want to know about it? But it’s hard to understand what’s going from our local newsgathering institution, the Reading Eagle. They bury the news and scatter it on back pages.

In paragraph 10 of a column in the Eagle on Saturday, we learn that “there's been an epidemic of daytime burglaries in recent months, mostly along rural roads not far from population centers. Homes in Alsace, Lower Alsace, Ruscombmanor and Earl townships, to name a few, have been ransacked in the middle of the day.”

How about a NEWS STORY about these brazen crimes? Are they connected? How about a map? On which rural roads not far from which population centers did the victims live? When did they happen? Any descriptions? How did they get in? What was taken? What times? Any patterns? Any advice from police?

Searching the Eagle archives, my privilege as a subscriber, I discovered a lot of burglary reports. But it’s up to editors and reporters, not to mention the police, to connect the dots and spread the news.


From my sloppy and likely inaccurate notes: Two stories Jan. 25 on page B4 mentioned three break-ins reported in Earl Township and one in Oley Township. A police log item on page B5 in November mentions a burglary in Earl. In a November story on B2, way down “in other business,” the police chief tells Lower Alsace supervisors that burglaries were rising, probably due to one culprit. A story on B3 in mid-November reports three daytime burglaries in Perry, Tilden, and Centre townships. A story on page B7 on Nov. 14 reports daytime burglaries in Upper Bern and Centre townships. A community log item Dec. 8 mentions, “in other business,” that a state trooper came to an Alsace Township meeting and reported 17 burglaries in the past two years, many during the day.

The column Saturday said “I'm told state police met recently with a consortium of municipal detectives to address strategies to combat this problem.”

So why not call Trooper David C. Beohm, a state police information officer [610-378-4036] and ask him about this? Who are the detectives?

All this, but no story on A1.

More from the Reading Eagle column, in case you’re stupid:

“Burglars drive to a neighborhood and select a house where it looks like no one is home. They may park along the road or pull into the neighbor's driveway.

“They'll walk to the front door, ring the doorbell a few times, and if no one answers, break in.

“Then rummage through your drawers and take all your jewelry and other valuables.
“They have a ready excuse for any nosy neighbor who may ask why a vehicle is parked where it is.

Lots of words, few facts or new ideas. Berks needs better journalism.