TIGHT RESTRICTIONS

AUGUST 5, 2020 • PHILLYFREEPRESS.COM • UCREVIEW.COM • 3 Overly tight restrictions in Pennsylvania hampered ability to recover, according to policy analysis Review

By Dave Fidlin The Center Square

(The Center Square) –

The Pittsburgh region’s slow climb out of the economic fallout incurred by months long lockdowns amid COVID-19 precautions could have been lessened with fewer restrictions, a recent policy analysis states.

In the policy brief, researchers with the Allegheny Institute for Public Policy, a conservative think tank, delved into the payroll jobs numbers within the Pittsburgh statistical metropolitan area for the month of May.

Within the snapshot in time, overall numbers were on the mend from the April figures – when widespread lockdowns forced all nonessential ry Krasner on Monday announced Attempted Murder and related charges against Christopher Linder (DOB: 4/14/1993) for his role in an incident on Saturday resulting in the shooting of 7-year-old Zamar Jones, who remains in serious condition. At least two additional people are wanted by Philadelphia Police for their roles in this tragedy; the public is asked to relay any information about them or this incident to law enforcement.

The District Attorney’s Office (DAO) has opened three criminal cases against Linder for his alleged attempt to murder businesses to close their doors amid government regulations.

In the jointly authored brief, Frank Gamrat, executive director of the Allegheny Institute, and Jake Haulk, president-emeritus, were critical of Democrat Gov. Tom Wolf’s policies in the initial months of the coronavirus and their impact on various areas of the state, including Pittsburgh.

“Despite a loosening of restrictions in May, with all counties in the (Pittsburgh) metro area being moved into the governor’s yellow phase by midmonth, ongoing dramatic job declines from pre-virus levels continued,” Gamrat and Haulk wrote.

As with most area of Pennsylvania and across the U.S., jobless claims in the Pittsburgh region an adult man; his role in an ensuing shootout involving others during which Jones, a child, was shot in the head; and his alleged theft of a vehicle as he fled the scene.

For his role in the alleged targeting of an adult man and shooting of Zamar Jones, Linder is charged with two counts each of Attempted Murder (F1), Aggravated Assault (F1), Simple Assault (M2), Recklessly Endangering Another Person (M2), Possessing an Instrument of Crime (M1), Obstruction of Justice (M2), Unsworn Falsification to Authorities (M2), Tampering with Evidence (M2), as well as Violations of the Uniform

declined between April and May – a trend that has continued in some areas of the U.S., depending on state’s specific mandates.

In the Pittsburgh area, there were 15 percent fewer payroll jobs in May in year-over-year comparisons. The month prior, there were 18 percent fewer payroll jobs in the same comps.

While all areas of the country are grappling with higher-than-average unemployment figures at an unprecedented time, Gamrat and Haulk said the numbers within Pittsburgh and other areas of Pennsylvania point to deeper issues that predate the coronavirus.

“The area’s economy has seen sluggish growth for the last few years and has been unable to keep up with national growth Firearms Act (VUFA) for unlawful possession, unlawful carrying, and unlicensed carrying. Linder has also been charged with Theft of a Motor Vehicle (F3) and Receiving Stolen Property (F3).

“I join Philadelphians across the city in expressing sadness and outrage that senseless gun violence has once again caused grievous injury to a child. Every kid deserves to live free of violence, harm, or fear. All children deserve an opportunity to develop and grow into healthy, happy adults. As long as our communities are flooded with firearms, and as long as the conditions exist that spur people to rates,” Gamrat and Haulk wrote. “The business-unfriendly, high-tax and regulatory environment in the state and area that was responsible for the pre-virus sluggish growth will also hamper the economy’s recovery.”

On a more granular level, Gamrat and Haulk also delved into different sectors of the Pittsburgh area’s economy. The job losses, whether temporary or permanent, were widespread, they wrote in the policy brief.

The so-called “eds and meds” category – accounting for such jobs as health care and social assistance – incurred a loss of 30,400 positions between May 2019 and May 2020. This category, according to Gamrat and Haulk’s analysis, accounted for a 79 percent of the overall pick them up with little care for their futures, these tragedies will occur,” District Attorney Krasner said. “We still can be the caring society we purport to be by taking meaningful action on gun safety, and by addressing the structural conditions that often underlie interpersonal violence – such as poverty, unemployment, and substance use disorder. My office’s Victim/Witness Unit is in touch with Zamar’s family and will be offering support for them during this terrible time. This case has been specially assigned to the joint Gun Crimes Strategies and Prevention Collaborative, as the search for additional jobless numbers within the Pittsburgh area in May.

“Part of this huge drop can be attributed to the governor’s orders to shut down non-essential medical practices, which included elective procedures at hospitals and outpatient centers,” Gamrat and Haulk wrote.

The new Allegheny Institute policy brief came on the heels of the Pennsylvania Department of Labor and Industry’s June jobs report.

According to the state agency, overall unemployment across Pennsylvania was 13 percent, as of June 30. In the report, state officials said 40 percent of the nonfarm jobs lost in March and April had recovered

District Attorney Krasner announces charges following shooting of 7-year-old in West Philly

District Attorney Lar

by the end of June. suspects continues.”

Members of the public who have information about the August 1st incident on the 200 block of North Simpson Street or the two suspects still at large are urged to contact Philadelphia Police by calling 911 or 215-686-TIPS (8477), where they can remain anonymous.

The DAO is a member of the PA Safety Alliance, a new statewide coalition of organizations committed to preventing and reducing gun violence in Pennsylvania, which ranks 5th in the nation for registered firearms and has the 3rd-highest firearm death rate among Northeastern states.

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4 • PHILLYFREEPRESS.COM • UCREVIEW.COM • AUGUST 5, 2020 City Safari continued from page 1 prior to the coming of covid-19 were eager about keeping storefronts clear of loiterers but they now seem to have reached the point of sheer exhaustion. Are security guards tired of regulating so many legal channels simultaneously - policing the wearing of masks while policing the panhandling homeless?

Sheer exhaustion seems to be the state of many in the city now, as more and more of the homeless sit for hours atop trash and recycling containers outside my neighborhood WAWA and Rite Aid. Regular customers who would formerly register their objection to scenes such as this now just walk by with a shrug. Add to this the city’s trash collection crisis—the fact that the stench from uncollected trash covers entire blocks of some city neighborhoods—and you have another distressing development: the smells from uncollected trash are barely noticeable anymore.

This apathy, this exhaustion is in stark contrast to old images of business security guards who were once ready to pounce at the slightest behavioral deviation. These same guards are now more likely to stare indifferently into space as a drugged-out girl in dirty yogi pants stumbles into a WAWA sandwich counter, or wobbles aimlessly into other customers. Why pick on one poor girl when there are twenty more behind her and ten of her friends outside the store walking around aimlessly looking for money or drugs?

The “new” normal isn’t very normal, of course. That’s especially true when it comes to city restaurants.

I met a friend recently at the Riverwards’ Mercer Café. This friend wanted to take me to lunch because of an editing project I did for her. There was outside seating at the Mercer Café but because the sidewalk tables were in the sun (no umbrellas) during a heat wave, the prospect of getting a sun burn while dining seemed like a hellish thing. Our lunch date was slightly before August 1 st, the day when Philadelphia restaurants and cafes were supposed to allow indoor dining. The mayor, of course, postponed the opening for indoor dining for another thirty days,

offering to look at the situation at the end of August when I suspect he will postpone the opening yet again, and so on and so on.

We chatted with the owner of the Mercer Café and listened to her as she talked about the open restaurants and cafes just ten minutes away by car (outside the city limits) where indoor dining was allowed.

Meanwhile, a restaurant-bar near my home, Green Rock Tavern, has always been a popular burger and beer joint. When the city moved into its version of the green phase, Green Rock added outdoor seating so that now the sidewalk in front of the bar is packed with diners. The cliental has taken over the sidewalk making it impossible for neighbors to navigate past the bar. Worse, some bar patrons bring their dogs on leashes and allow their dogs to stretch out across the sidewalk as if the leash was a yellow Police ‘Do Not Cross’ tape.

Passersby have two choices: walk out into the street to avoid stepping over the dogs and the legs of bar patrons or to maintain their rights as

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‘sidewalk pedestrians’ and walk straight through the tangle of humans and furry beasts. If you choose the latter, be prepared for a large dog to growl or jump up alongside you and be ready to see the annoyed looks of the diners who seem to think that you are infringing on their sidewalk rights.

Neighbors here have complained about Green Rock Tavern. The main complaints come from the owners of homes along Lehigh Avenue where Green Rock is located. One neighbor told me that drunken Green Rock weed and crack smoking revelers can sometimes be seen making love in their parked cars late at night as crack fumes “incense” the sidewalk.

My neighborhood, as you can see, is an interesting mix of old school Philly, gentrified Fishtown-style (pretentious) glitz, and a dash of oh-no-not-another-nail-salon predictability.

And then there’s Stock’s Bakery.

Stock’s Bakery is on the street where I live. It’s a quality German bakery famous for its pound cake. People flock here from the suburbs, from New Jersey, Delaware and elsewhere to store up on cakes, pies and cookies. Intense sweet bakery smells from Stock’s sometimes inundates my entire street so that it smells like a storybook lane in Hansel and Gretel. Whenever a holiday approaches, the lines outside Stock’s assume legendary proportions. Regular Stock’s customers tend to be big people: big thighs and hips. I have seen new employees there, male and female both, begin their tenure as thin, lean people but then over time morph into body bakery super sizes. Even the skinny guys who work in the back of the store soon mushroom into pound cake dough boys with 38 inch waists.

The quality of Stock’s measures up to the quality of a slice of pizza I had in pizza shop not far from the Frankford Market Huntingdon station.

I visited this pizza shop near the Huntingdon station during the height of the virus. It was a clean, large store that allowed only one person inside at a time to order take out. This particular shop offered large slices and the price was right so I decided to give it a try, very much aware that people who don’t know how to make pizza always make it with too much cheese. The cheese on these slices was nearly half an inch thick. If there was tomato sauce it was buried somewhere underneath all the layers of cheese. All you tasted was cheese. I might as well have been eating a block of Velveeta on doughy Dollar Store white Wonder bread. Most of the people buying slices and whole pies were people from the street or slick looking hustlers driving up in cars with black tinted windows. I ate the slice because I was hungry, but vowed I would never return to the place, having dubbed it “Addict’s pizza, or food for people with no taste. What can you expect from a pizza place so close to the Huntingdon El station?

A few months later I found myself in the same neighborhood, and experiencing another desire for pizza, I decided to give this place another slice. My experience this time was radically different. The woman-girl at the counter, I noticed, seemed to be of Irish descent, so as I ordered my slice, I felt quite comfortable chatting with her and telling her how I wished that this corner shop sold thin slice pizza with not too much cheese. At this her eyes perked up and she said, “Oh….I know just what you’re talking about,” never thinking that she’d actually concoct the kind of slice I had in mind. But that’s what she did. The woman behind

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the counter had worked a miracle.

That’s not the way things usually are near Kensington Avenue. The area is quite depressing and the food choices awful.

The Kensington area has taken a downturn since covid-19. There seem to be more strung out people on the streets, more panhandlers and more people stretched out on the sidewalk in various stages of disarray. Drug-induced mental illness seems to be at an all time high.

The area is so bad that The Juniata News reported on July 31, that Four Sons Pizzeria in Kensington is moving from its present location at 3145 Kensington Avenue to a new location at 186 W. Lehigh Avenue.

Four Sons Pizzeria is not the pizza parlor where I had that specially made gourmet slice, but Hector Fuentes, owner of Four Sons Pizzeria in Kensington, announced that he is moving his business from its location at 3145 Kensington Avenue.

The Juniata News reported Fuentes’ Facebook post about the dangerous environment on Kensington Avenue as the reason for making the move.

“So, after 50 years of serving the community in Kensington, 4 Son’s Pizzeria is moving. We could no longer stay in a place where the drug dealers, drug addicts and prostitutes outnumber hard working citizens. The city through its lack of services and inept leadership allowed this problem to get out of control. Business is great but allowing my family and coworkers as well as our loyal clientele to continue being in this dangerous environment is not only unjust but immoral on my part. To all our clients we will now be at 186 W. Lehigh Avenue starting August 1. We will still be offering the same great pizza and steaks that you have come to love and will continue delivering …”

“Fuentes,” the article continues, “Acknowledged problems with staffing employees because of the dangerous environment on Kensington Avenue.”

Fuentes apologized to customers for the delays in delivering food and blamed that on the unwillingness of people wanting to work for him because of all the drug infestation and crime in the area.

Pennsylvania to provide postage so voters can return mail-in ballots without stamp

By Dave Lemery | The Center Square

(The Center Square) –

The administration of Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf revealed Friday that it will pay to include a self-addressed, stamped envelope with every ballot it mails to voters this year in the interest of boosting voter participation during the coronavirus pandemic. Secretary of State Kathy Boockvar announced the move, saying that anyone who applies for a mail-in ballot online, in person or by mail will also have the cost of mailing the ballot back paid for.

“Our goal is to make voting as accessible, safe, and easy for eligible voters as possible,” Boockvar said in a news release. “Mail-in or absentee voting with prepaid postage means Pennsylvanians can vote from the comfort of their own home, without having to make a trip to the post office to buy a stamp, during the COVID-19 pandemic.”

The cost of the stamps

By Ad Crable, Bay Journal News Service

every three miles of streams and rivers in Pennsylvania has impaired water quality, according to a draft report detailing the state’s latest assessment. The number of impaired stream miles has grown by 5,568 miles since the last assessment two years ago.

Of the 85,146 miles of stream and rivers that have been tested, 25,468 miles failed to meet standards in at least one of four categories — water supplies, recreation, aquatic life or fish consumption. That’s 30% of all stream miles in the state.

One in every eight miles of streams and rivers are considered unsafe for recreation. In addition, nearly half of the acreage of public lakes in Pennsylvania have fish that are not to return the ballots was estimated at $2 million by the Pennsylvania House Republican Caucus, which called it an unnecessary expense given that the U.S. Postal Service has already promised to deliver mailed ballots with or without postage.

“All Americans can vote for free by voting in-person at their polls, but in addition, the United States Postal Service has a long-standing policy of delivering ballots cast by mail in federal elections regardless of whether or not they have proper postage,” a caucus spokesperson said in a statement. “Instead of a narrowly tailored approach that considers the true costs of ensuring voting remains free to the voter, the Wolf Administration has once again taken the overbroad approach of carelessly [doling] out taxpayer dollars under the false pretense of solving a phantom problem.”

The Wolf administration, however, argued that many voters might be unaware of the Postal Service’s guarantee and thus safe to eat, according to the report.

The state is required under the federal Clean Water Act to conduct the assessment every other year and list restoration actions for approval by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. The reports also help identify priorities for restoration.

The 2020 report reviews 1,700 more miles of streams than the last report did. It identifies the top three sources of water pollution leading to impairment as agricultural runoff (5,765 miles), abandoned mine runoff (5,559 miles) and stormwater (3,206 miles). On the plus side, 26 streams, rivers or lakes have been fully restored for aquatic life since 2016, according to the report. That includes the Conestoga River and various tributaries to the West Branch of the Susquehanmiss out on voting because they lack easy access to stamps.

Mail-in voting has become a fraught topic this election cycle as President Donald Trump has voiced concerns that ballot fraud could lead to incorrect results. One such case has already emerged after several individuals, including a city councilman, were arrested in Paterson, New Jersey, and accused of engaging in a voting fraud effort in that state’s primary election.

Supporters of mail-in voting say that absentee voting on a smaller scale has taken place for decades without any significant history of problems.

Dave Lemery

Regional Editor

Dave Lemery is a veteran journalist with more than 20 years of experience. He was the editor of Suburban Life Media when its flagship newspaper was named best weekly in Illinois, and he has worked at papers in South Carolina, Indiana, Idaho and New

Report: Nearly a third of PA waterways impaired

Nearly one of

York. na River — the largest tributary of the Bay. Twenty-eight of the streams in the state that are impaired for use by aquatic life have been made a top priority for restoration. Agriculture runoff is to blame for all but two of those, according to the assessment. One is impaired because of acid mine drainage and one from urban runoff. Approximately 99% of all streams and rivers in Pennsylvania have now been assessed. The impairment and assessment status of any stream can be found at https:// www.depgis.state.pa.us/ IRViewer2020/.

Ad Crable is a Bay Journal staff writer based in Pennsylvania. Contact him at 717-341-7270 or acrable@bayjournal.com. This article was originally published in the Bay Journal and was distributed by the Bay Journal News Service.

AUGUST 5, 2020 • PHILLYFREEPRESS.COM • UCREVIEW.COM • 5 Wolf Administration launches Pennsylvania violence data dashboard

Harrisburg,

PA – Governor Tom Wolf has announced that the Department of Health has launched a violence data dashboard to collect data on the scope, frequency, geography and populations affected by violence in Pennsylvania. The creation of the dashboard was a mandate in the governor›s 2019 Executive Order to Reduce Gun Violence.

“The executive order I signed last year included tangible actions to reduce gun violence in our commonwealth and this dashboard is one that under the leadership of the Department of Health will work collaboratively across multiple agencies to collect data we need to determine the scope, location and factors that contribute to gun violence in our state,” Gov. Wolf said. I encourage every Pennsylvanian to view the dashboard for information that can inform policies and initiatives in their own communities.”

The governor’s executive order set forth to establish a Violence Data Dashboard that will collect and provide data on the scope, frequency, locations, and populations affected by violence, including data on the number of victims of gun violence, rates at which gun violence occurs in locations, and contributory factors. The Department of Health will coordinate with and collect data from the Department of Human Services, Pennsylvania State Police, PCCD, and other commonwealth entities to populate the dashboard.

“Violence is a significant public health issue that affects many people each and every year,” Secretary of Health Dr. Rachel Levine said. “This dashboard will assist in providing information on the scope of violence in Pennsylvania, and the populations affected by it. Working alongside a number of state agencies, we are committed to taking steps to reduce the impact violence has on an individual’s health and way of life.”

Gun violence in the United States and within the commonwealth has resulted in the tragic loss of human life, with more than 1,600 individuals losing their life to a firearm death in Pennsylvania in 2018.

The violence data dashboard includes data looking at death cause and hospital discharge summary statistics. Hospital discharge data is from the Pennsylvania Health Care Cost Containment Council (PHC4). Data is also available by gender, race/ethnicity, age group and geography.

For more information on violence from a public health perspective, visit www.health.pa.gov or follow us on Facebook and Twitter.

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6 • PHILLYFREEPRESS.COM • UCREVIEW.COM • AUGUST 5, 2020 Lanternfly continued from page 1 sive species with origins in China, Bangladesh, and Vietnam.

After hatching from eggs, the Spotted Lanternfly undergoes five stages of development. During the first four or nymph stages, they are unable to fly. They are black with bright white spots and are said to be about the size of a pencil eraser. During the fourth stage of growth (just before adulthood), the SLF is bright red with visible patches of black and distinct white spots. Adult spotted lanternflies have grey wings and black spots that, when opened, a vivid red underwing is visible. Because of its colorful visage, the spotted lanternfly is easily confused with the butterfly or moth, which they certainly are not. They appear to be more comfortable hopping from leaf to leaf than flying, which is consistent with the finding that the spotted lanternflies are not good at flying.

“Eggs are laid generally around September to December, and the eggs are arranged in rows and then covered with what looks like concrete or a sticky putty looking substance. Each of those egg masses contains thirty to sixty eggs.” Ms. Niedermeier says that the egg masses can be found almost anywhere, such as patio furniture, the underside of barbeque grills, outdoor play toys, cars, trees, houses, trailers, and various other surfaces. They have a life span of a year and live through the winter only as eggs.

A study by Penn State economists estimates that the spotted lanternfly can cause more than three hundred million dollars in damage costs to the Pennsylvania economy. Their diet includes sap from more than 70 different plant species. A piercing-sucking mouth

part extrudes the fluid from the plant under siege. While the SLF is feeding, it exudes a sugary substance called honeydew, which attracts other insects such as bees and wasps. A danger posed by the honeydew substance is its accumulation leading to the growth of sooty mold or fungi that can engulf anything underneath its feeding site.

The Pennsylvania economy is at substantial risk from the SLF infestation because of the devastation to the plants favored in its diet. High on the list of plants preferred by this pest are grapevines, birch, walnut, maple, willow, black walnut, and other trees.

The threat to grapevines posed by the spotted lanternfly places the Pennsylvania wine grape production in jeopardy. The commonwealth currently ranks fifth in the nation in the production of wine grapes only behind California, Washington,

Robin Rick, Facilities and Landscape Manager at The Woodlands, leads a SLF scouting expedition for research to be conducted by Uyi Osariyekemwen, PhD, PSU Department of Entomology Post-Doc. Bernard Brown (Nature Writer) in background. Photo: Michelle Niedermeier

New York, and Oregon. Of the fifty states, Pennsylvania is first in hardwood production. In maple syrup production in the United States, Pennsylvania ranks fifth in gallons produced. Only three states produce more peaches than Pennsylvania. The prospect of increasing damage to these critical sectors of Pennsylvania’s economy is inescapable if the Spotted Lanternfly’s infestation goes unchecked.

The first confirmed observation of the Spotted Lanternfly was in Berks County in 2014. It is currently on a march to other parts of the commonwealth, leaving in its wake twenty-six counties under quarantine. Ms. Niedermeier says absent evidence to the contrary, it’s believed the SLF hitchhiked to Pennsylvania. Why it landed in Berks County is open to speculation. “It may have been somewhere else previously...You know it’s a global economy. We ship things, including pests that are invasive to other countries along with the goods and services we ship there and vice versa.” Although goods entering the United States are subject to inspection, which conceivably would prevent the introduction of an invasive species into the country, Ms. Niedermeier says there are not nearly enough inspectors to ensure every shipment undergoes inspection.

That the Spotted Lanternfly is undoubtedly here to stay is an accepted fact in the scientific community. Unfortunately, the only avenue open today to minimize the harm the SLF wreaks on our economy is through the implementation of measures to manage the SLF population.

Ms. Niedermeier says the SLF as it emerged in the United States is different from the SLF in its native lands. “They are behaving differently here in the United States then they do in their native [habitats].” This different behavior involves changes in diet, the absence of parasites, and the loss of fear of the threat posed by predators.

A function of the Penn State Extension service in partnership with the United States Department of Agriculture and the Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture is doing that. Scientists and technical staff in the Department of Entomology at the Extension service launched a program to inform and educate the public about the dangers presented by the infestation.

Moreover, in cooperation with scientists from countries native to the SLF, American scientists are searching for active control measures as explained by Ms. Niedermeier. “There are a couple of things

continued on page 12

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