Can the Reading Eagle dig up detention center compliance reports?

by Steve Reinbrecht

Here’s some investigative journalism for the Reading Eagle to do.

Berks County owns a detention center near Leesport that federal officials are using to lock up immigrants – including mothers and young children – waiting for legal decisions on their status.

A “bi-annual” report from February 2009 prepared for federal officials says the center was “non-compliant.” It has pages describing deficiencies and recommendations. Were any followed up?

A lot of the report was redacted. Did the blacked-out sections describe conditions too horrible for the public to know about?

The Reading Eagle should track down the reports from 2011, 2013 and 2015. I could find no stories about any reports in the Eagle archives.

I did find an editorial in the Reading Eagle on Aug. 31, 2009, urging the Berks County commissioners to keep the center open, to retain 50 jobs. No comment on the ethics or the morals of keeping innocent people locked up.

The newspaper had a wire-service story in February 2007 about reports of abuse in the place.

The detention center and associated protests and legal procedures make up a major story at the center of a national issue, right here in Berks County.

It reflects on the national debates about whether we welcome people fleeing horrible conditions, and whether locking people up for victimless crimes is the best way to solve problems.

Why won’t the Berks County commissioners comment on why they continue to abet the detention of innocent people?

The Reading Eagle has dropped the ball covering this place, failing to find sources and press local officials about their stands on keeping the detention center open.

Compliance report from February 2009

Report from 2007

Wire story in the Reading Eagle from February 2007

Reading Eagle editorial Aug. 1, 2009

Most Berks state reps scold Obama over transgender bathroom letter

by Steve Reinbrecht

Five of the nine state representatives who represent Berks County signed a letter directly to President Obama opposing his administration’s directive to public schools to accommodate transgender students. 

Why do conservative lawmakers get so wigged out about anything to do with sex?

The letter, signed by 96 of the 203 Pennsylvania state representatives, plays to fear in a way that reminds me of the Republican push to require identification cards to vote. Just as voter fraud is practically non-existent, attacks by creeps posing as transgender people in public bathrooms are unlikely.

The lawmakers are pandering to fear of sexual deviancy to target a tiny, vulnerable population, perhaps 3 people out of 1,000, or maybe 1,200 Berks County residents – but certainly some students in every school district.

The White House can be accused of overreach for its letter, because most school districts are quietly and appropriately accommodating transgender students, defined in Obama’s letter as individuals whose gender identity is different from the sex they were assigned at birth.

In a Reading Eagle article, local school officials appear to be working on the issue with the best interests of the students in mind.

"This is a real concern about real people," Reading School Board President Robin Costenbader-Jacobson said. "We have more than 17,000 students, and we want what's best for every single one of them. We want to be sensitive to every person and not sitting in a seat of judgment."

As she notes, the issue is truly one of compassion. Any parent can imagine the struggles of a young person who realizes ze is gay or feels like ze is in the wrong body.

But the tone of the lawmakers’ letter is one of persecution, linking transgender people to perverts.

“We are writing to express our extreme outrage at the legally spurious ‘Dear Colleague’ letter issued jointly by the Department of Education and the Department of Justice on Friday, May 13, 2016 regarding the use of bathrooms by transgender students in public schools,” says the lawmakers' letter.

“Plainly, this directive will allow men to go into legally sex-separated bathrooms with young girls. The parents of these young girls are rightly concerned about your policy and its implications for their daughters’ safety.”

I don’t see that happening in any properly run public school.

And believe me, America is the most uptight country I’ve ever visited about bathroom purity. These letter signers probably wouldn't be able to go in some of the public restrooms I've used in Japan, Brazil, Paris, the Bahamas.... 

Is the Berks historical society planning to move out of Reading? No one will say no

by Steve Reinbrecht

I wonder if the Historical Society of Berks County is planning to move from its longtime home in Reading to join with the Pennsylvania German Cultural Heritage Center at Kutztown University.

I heard that someone has offered a $1 million donation if the merger takes placed.

When I asked the leaders of those organizations if the organizations will merge, my wonder increased.

Sime Bertolet, executive director of the historical society, said talk of such a move is “rumors at this point.”

When I asked him what he meant by “at this point,” he refused to comment further.

I left a message for Patrick Donmoyer, who runs the cultural center, but he didn’t contact me. When I called again, a woman who answered the phone said the center has no comment on my question.

She said others have called to ask the same thing. 

So that’s it.

Because the Reading Eagle has trained local leaders that if they don’t like a story, they can call the newsroom and get it censored, many Berks organizations have never had to learn how to answer tough questions from the public.

“No comment” is never a good answer.

With social media filling in the cracks around the county newspaper’s crumble into journalistic irrelevance, organizations will need to stay on their toes with unexpected public relations.

Reading Mayor Wally Scott has little to show

by Steve Reinbrecht

So Wally Scott has been mayor of Reading for almost five months. The biggest part of the job is finding good people to fill key jobs in the city government.

The poor city needs the best help and leadership it can get to survive a world that is very unkind to small cities, which well-paying employers have fled but poor people fleeing worse places have flocked to.

Wally drove off two apparently very competent if not excellent administrators – the police chief, William Heim, and the city manager, Carole Snyder, and hasn’t been able to hire permanent replacements.

On Tuesday, Cumru Township hired Reading’s acting police chief, Madison Winchester.

Although he never impressed me, Lenin Agudo, the city community development director, left his important job early in the year. Alejandro Palacios is the acting director, but I can find no information about him.

On Friday, Wally fired David Ruyak, ‎operations division manager. In July, Ruyak was given a $6,000 raise because he had taken over the curbside waste program. Wally has proposed a complicated trash hauling program, an old theme of his.

The parking authority appears to be in disarray, with a floundering Wally-appointed executive director and the loss of its longtime finance director Christina Gilfert, who quit after 15 years.

In April, Wally fired Ron Natale, a 13-year City Hall veteran who had run the codes department since 2010.

Several different people have told me Wally seems to be developing Alzheimer’s disease or some sort of dementia.

He certainly didn’t impress this letter writer:

“We hear stories that clearly show that he [Scott] lacks a grasp of fundamental concepts of economic development and city management, which was evident in his comments in last week's Berks Community Foundation program at Albright College. Quoting lines from Cheech and Chong movies, declaring that Mexico should be a U.S. territory and touting his railroad theme and Monopoly board plan as a way to incentivize new business left the audience dumbfounded.”

Scott could shake up the Reading Redevelopment Authority, where apparently two men have worked full time for years, trying to sell a 50-acre plot.

People have also told me about the friendly relationship between Scott and the new City Hall reporter, Dan Kelly. I hope it’s friendly AND professional. Reading needs better journalism.

Would the Reading Eagle publish a call to Allah?

by Steve Reinbrecht

Doesn't our newspaper want to appear inclusive? As if it respects everybody in Berks County? As if it doesn't think heathens in other countries need to be "saved"?

The Reading Eagle, the media monolith in Berks County, published this "daily thought" in its Daily Docket on Sunday.

A Bible verse from an Old Testament prophet:

"Turn to me and be saved, all the ends of the earth! For I am God, and there is no other." Isaiah 45:22

And the interpretation, by a local preacher:

"From New York to Timbuktu, from Kabul to Santiago people just like you and me can come to Jesus and be saved! So won't you come?" - Rev. Jonathan Peters, Covenant Presbyterian Church, Sinking Spring.

Doesn't Peters know that Timbuktu and Kabul are in Muslim nations? Why would he think anybody there needs to be saved by his religion? Saved from what?

Would the Reading Eagle publish this verse from the Quran?

"When the victory of Allah has come and the conquest, And you see the people entering into the religion of Allah in multitudes, Then exalt [Him] with praise of your Lord and ask forgiveness of Him. Indeed, He is ever Accepting of repentance." Quran 110

It's hard to prove negatives, but I looked through Reading Eagle archives for the past six months and could find no "daily thoughts" from the Quran or from a rabbi.

 
 

 
 

It’s an outrage Reading Eagle hasn’t pursued secret DUI hearing

By Steve Reinbrecht

A letter writer asks why the award-winning Reading Eagle newspaper has completely dropped reporting about a secret DUI court hearing for a lawyer who had contributed to a judge’s election campaign.

The reason is that the Eagle looks like a newspaper but really isn’t.

Real journalists follow important stories to make sure powerful people, like judges, are accountable.

But Berks is run by people used to getting favors. See how that is working out, as the rest of the region passes us by.

The letter is eloquent:

Editor:

In a February Reading Eagle story that raised the issue about a private court proceeding she held, Judge Eleni Dimitriou Geishauser's staff said she would not comment on a pending case. 

That was nearly three months ago, so the case is no longer pending.

What gave Geishauer the right to authorize a secret, back-door hearing for Reading attorney Zachary A. Morey? Anyone else with three times the legal limit drunken driving charge would have had their hearing held in public.

According to the Ballotpedia website, Geishauser ran for judge on a judicial philosophy of unwavering ethics and strict respect for the laws of our land.

It looks like this judge has two judicial systems in her courtroom: one for the average citizen, and another for the well connected.

President Judge Paul Yatron admitted in February that this case was improperly handled, so should I assume he filed a complaint to the Judicial Conduct Board of Pennsylvania?

Both of these judges have an ethical obligation to provide the citizens who voted them into office an explanation.

Being silent shows defiance and an abuse of power.

Many readers posted comments at the time the story happened because it deserves attention.

Michael A. Kouvaros
Spring Township

Berks voters should elect lawmakers who rely on reason, not belief

by Steve Reinbrecht

All of the state representatives who represent Berks County in Harrisburg voted to encourage public schools to post “In God We Trust” in public school buildings – except Mark Rozzi, a Democrat who represents part of Reading and communities just north of the city.

Rozzi was brave to vote against House Bill 1640. The vote in the state House was 179-20. The Senate hasn’t considered it.

But if you don’t want God-Squad politicians making your rules in Harrisburg – tough luck. None in the Berks delegation faced opposition in the primary nor will in the general election in November. 

The voting tally shows that the American Taliban is strong in Berks County – people who think only their beliefs are correct, and want to punish you for believing differently. That sort of intolerance is rampant in the world’s trouble spots – where women are second-class citizens, sexuality and procreation are governed by men, individual expression is prohibited, science has no place, and unbelievers – if not stoned or banished -- are punished by persecution and exclusion. Berks isn’t at the level, of course, but it’s on the spectrum.

Many atheists, Buddhists and Hindus -- fine, moral people who may believe in no or many gods -- live in Berks County. They don’t want their children to go to school and see a sign on the wall that speaks to the majority group but not to them.

The Pittsburgh Tribune-Review’s TribLive interviewedElizabeth Cavell, staff attorney with Freedom From Religion Foundation, based in Madison, Wis.

“It [the act] equates God-belief and religious piety with patriotism, and that's wrong to do in public schools where students are of all religions and of no religion, and they are young and impressionable,” she said.

“Religion is divisive,” Cavell said. “It's something that makes insiders of the majority-students — the god-believers who understand themselves to be included in the ‘we' of ‘In God We Trust' — and that's not all students by any stretch.”

Why promote the supernatural in our schools? We must trust in reason and action to improve society, not simply prayer, worship and tithing. If you want to inspire good behavior and moral self-reflection, why not post Immanual Kant’s moral imperative: “Act only in accordance with that maxim through which you can at the same time will that it become a universal law.”

You’d have to explain that to the children who read it on the school wall. But isn’t it better that children come to their sense of right and wrong through reflection and understanding rather than through blind authority?

As a sort of sop, I guess, the act also calls for “providing for the display” of the Bill of Rights in classrooms and other areas in public school buildings.

I have no problem with that.

Religion and politics have always been connected, which is why the guys who wrote the Constitution said government should stay away from religion, although they could have been clearer. The Old Testament and the Koran are all about laws and ruling. The New Testament is suddenly different, catching humanity’s eye. Now the divine message is unconditional love for all other human beings. Treat others as you would have them treat you, so similar to Kant’s rationally derived categorical imperative. A way to negate ego and find the meaningfulness of serving others, as Buddhism had and Islam would. But then Paul took charge, recognizing the power of leading an evangelical organization, comandeering Jesus to start a church that for more than 1500 bloody years inflicted crusades, inquisitions, forced conversions, wars over schisms and reformations, and the repression of science [not the Muslims], generally known as the Dark Ages, on much of the world.

This connects darkly with today's national politics, not with Donald Trump's questionable religiosity, but with his recognition that people who seek power can stimulate the fear and yearning for authority so prevalent in people not properly educated.

As the national motto, “In God We Trust” replaced “E pluribus unum” – “out of many, one.”

According to the infallible Wikipedia:

The change from "E Pluribus Unum" to "In God We Trust" was generally considered uncontroversial at the time, given the rising influence of organized religion and pressures of the Cold War era in the 1950s. The 1956 law was one of several legislative actions Congress took to differentiate the United States from atheistic Communism. Earlier, a 1954 act added the words "under God" to the Pledge of Allegiance.”

New Wilson schools chief should answer to public

by Steve Reinbrecht

If Wilson School District’s last superintendent, Rudy Ruth, was a paragon of longevity, working for the district for more than 30 years, the new one is a job changer, working at four districts in the last 10 years.

I’m glad newspapers have reported about this important man, the new Wilson schools chief, Curtis Baker. I’m betting he might like to stay in Wilson and has answers to our questions.

Baker worked at his last job, as superintendent of the Moon School District, near Pittsburgh, for two years.

The Moon School Board voted to put him on paid leave in December.

Funny the Reading Eagle hasn’t mentioned that.

In any case, reading between the lines of coverage by the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, it seems a newly elected majority tossed Baker out because they didn’t like his ideas.

In response, Baker has sued the district and seven school board members, claiming a broken contract.

“Curtis Baker claimed "he has been subjected to verbal abuse, sabotage of district image and administration performance, and micromanagement by members of the School Board of Directors and the Board as a whole,"” according to the Post-Gazette.

“Mr. Baker also said in the lawsuit that he had done nothing to warrant termination, was not given written notice of the allegations against him and was not granted a due process hearing, in violation of the Pennsylvania School Code.

“In addition to breach of contract and violation of due process, Mr. Baker is alleging a violation of the state Sunshine Act, tortious interference with contract and wrongful use of civil proceedings.”

That Baker carried out a decision by the previous board to close an elementary school was “a major flash point,” the Pittsburgh paper said.

The Moon district had hired Baker in December 2013 from the Roanoke School District, where he was deputy superintendent for operations, according to an article in the Roanoke Times.

Discussing the re-organization in the Virginia district as Baker and others departed, the article said that Margaret Lindsay would become executive director for fiscal services in Roanoke as the district reorganized as Baker left.

But it appears she followed Baker to Moon – the Post-Gazette says she resigned as that district’s chief financial and operating officer in December.

Before working in Virginia, Baker was the chief financial officer at the Lancaster School District from November 2004 to November 2007, according to his Linkedin résumé.

Why doesn't the Reading Eagle write about politics in BERKS?

by Steve Reinbrecht

Reading Eagle reporter Karen Shuey wrote an 800-word front-page story that ran Monday about the upcoming state Senate race in Pennsylvania between Katie McGinty and Pat Toomey.

That’s bound to be an important race. But we can get that news and analysis from many sources.

And then we get almost a page’s worth again of state politics on Page B3, more political words – “10 takeaways from the Pennsylvania primary” -- from News Editor Ron Southwick, who provides insights such as this:

“The Reading Eagle interviewed voters at polling places across Berks County on Tuesday. They have different ideas about who would be best to lead the nation. But voters expressed a shared sense that things need to change.”

Instead of writing stuff we can read in many other places, why not write something valuable, that no one else knows? 

Why doesn’t the Eagle publish some big, long stories about politics in Berks?

Especially, why did no Democrats oppose any of the Republican state representative incumbents in this primary? There are more registered Democratic that Republican voters in Berks.

Some people are not happy with how our state government is working. But nobody ran against these incumbent Berks GOP state politicians:

David G. Argall

Barry J. Jozwiak

John C. Rafferty Jr.

Jerry Knowles

Mark Gillen

Jim Cox

David Maloney

Ryan E. Mackenzie

Gary Day

Of course, no one ran against the incumbent Democrats, either:

Judy Schwank

Tom Caltagirone

Mark Rozzi

Isn’t that a big story? That, on the state level, democracy has ceased in Berks County?

Maybe exploring this issue would demand original thinking and cultivating new sources. But it would be news worth reporting. News-gathering resources are too short these days to waste them following the herd.

I'd also be happy if I heard Harry Deitz say, just once, "You're right, Reinbrecht. We're just playing at being journalists, for the easy jobs and status, and because we do what we're told."

Does politics, not medicine, control addiction treatment in Berks County?

by Steve Reinbrecht

I think I finally understand why the Reading Eagle is having such a hard time telling its readers about how opiate addicts get treatment in Berks County.

The rest of the world is using medications to treat opiate addicts. 

But the Berks County establishment, which includes conservative politicians, the newspaper, the Caron Foundation and the generously public-funded Council on Chemical Abuse [humorously known as COCA], is stuck on the 12-Step Alcoholics Anonymous model for ending addiction. That works for drunks, maybe, but not so much for pill poppers.

That means the Eagle can’t search for the truth on the matter without stepping on important toes.

Since its newsroom noticed that Big Pharm’s drenching of America in opiate-based painkillers had led to more overdoses, including of white people, the Reading Eagle has been struggling to tell a story so far from the sensibilities of newsroom leaders that the results have been troubling.

The Eagle’s 1,700-word, front-page story Sunday is another example of faulty understanding at the deepest level. The rest of the world has awoken to the fact that addiction is a health story, not a crime story.

But Sunday’s story considers the latest, politician-written chapter in the War on Drugs -- charging heroin dealers as murderers if a customer ODs. Harsher penalties might assuage our thirst for revenge, but won’t solve the problem of helping young people recover from some very bad decisions. We can’t crime-fight our way out of this.

The solution is education to dampen the stigma and then making sure everyone who needs it can afford treatment. Consider: some countries provide clean needles, safe places to inject, and uncontaminated heroin to addicts.

Here’s where the Eagle’s troubles start.

I’ve been wondering when our award-winning newspaper would get to the crux of the issue: Does Berks County have accessible, affordable and effective treatment options for people addicted to opiates?

The Eagle has had stories about how treatment often fails, and that Berks County spends astonishingly more on treatment than any other county, including Philadelphia.

But it has written little about medication-based treatment as opposed to faith in a “higher power.”

For example, why do we have only one methadone clinic, the one in West Reading? Does that one clinic meet the needs?

COCA itself reports in its 2015 annual report that “Berks County’s methadone out-patient clinic [in West Reading] … is at full capacity serving 300 individuals. The expansion of this program has been prohibited in part due to local zoning restrictions.”

The Eagle has trouble seeking the truth on the issue because the Berks treatment scene is dominated by Caron Foundation, outside Wernersville, which prefers to use a 12-step, Alcoholics Anonymous style treatment regime. I know that can work – a good friend of mine who was a drunk turned his life around after 30 days in Chit Chat. But he was addicted to beer, not Oxycodone.

Most doctors these days instead support treatment where addicts take a small maintenance dose of a drug such as methadone or suboxone that quiets their cravings so they can go to work or take care of their children instead of breaking into a car to get money for the next fix.

Buprenorphine, the active ingredient in suboxone, significantly reduces cravings, mortality, blood-borne disease, and illicit drug use. Researchers say users are likely to stay in treatment longer than those who use abstinence based treatment.

It doesn’t seem to be catching on in Berks. The Berks COCA website shows no results if you search for “buprenorphine” or “suboxone." COCA’s 2015 annual report shows that only 16 of its 2,741 “treatment episodes” that year involved buprenorphine. Only about 20 doctors in Berks can prescribe buprenorphine. Each is limited to 100 addicted patients.

In February, George J. Vogel Jr., COCA’s executive director, said in the Eagle “that other than methadone, medication-assisted approaches to treatment were relatively new and unproven.”

Our top county drug-fighting expert is wrong about that.

In fact, buprenorphine was approved in 2002, and the federal Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration says that “buprenorphine represents the latest advance in medication-assisted treatment. … When taken as prescribed, buprenorphine is safe and effective.”

In 2008, according to the National Institutes of Health,

“In the first clinical trial of a medication that was used for an extended time to treat opioid addiction in young adults, participants who received counseling and Suboxone (buprenorphine-naloxone) for 12 weeks had substantially better outcomes than those who received the standard treatment of short-term detoxification and counseling.”

But Vogel thinks it’s unproven, and Caron – the treatment organization outside of Wernersville -- won’t use suboxone.

 It’s website says buprenorphine, the main ingredient in suboxone, is a “a mood altering opioid receptor partial agonist, which has the potential for abuse and a risk of overdose upon abrupt cessation and relapse on heroin or opioid analgesics. If a Caron patient refuses Vivitrol and insists upon Buprenorphine, we make a prompt referral to an appropriate facility and/or treatment provider.”

In April 2015, the American Medical Association suggested how getting better treatment is political as well as medical. [Sorry for the long quote.]

“The regulatory process for becoming a prescriber and the patient limits serve as barriers to increase capacity to treat opiate addiction and the availability of suboxone to opiate-addicted patients, particularly those patients in jurisdictions that have adopted a law enforcement approach (as opposed to a public health approach) to combat prescription drug abuse. The advantages of reducing the regulatory burdens to prescribing suboxone would not only increase the availability of suboxone treatment for patients with opiate addiction, but would also increase clinical identification, awareness, and acceptance of opiate addiction as a disease and reduce the stigma associated with opiate addiction."

[My emphasis.]

The Eagle has barely touched these issues in its tens of thousands of words of “coverage.”