00:00 - The following program is sponsored in part by

00:03 - customer's bank.

00:12 - Welcome to journalist roundtable I feel Beckman

00:14 - today we're joined by Elizabeth de ornelas a reporter with the morning call

00:18 - Joyce Davis opinion editor for pen live

00:21 - in care jeffers Harrisburg correspondent for

00:23 - Lilly broadcasting thank you for being here today.

00:26 - I care of

00:27 - tickets through your week with what kind of stories caught your eye this week.

00:30 - This week we had the Pennsylvania house of representatives was in session and

00:36 - there was

00:37 - some voting on

00:38 - the fairness act

00:39 - in Pennsylvania

00:41 - deals

00:41 - with just

00:42 - equality

00:43 - for members of the LGBTQ plus community a along with other protected classes.

00:49 - As far as committees go lots of conversation

00:52 - about artificial intelligence continuing on

00:55 - and then we also had a vote on

00:57 - a potential phone ban in schools.

01:01 - That Pennsylvania lawmakers are considering making a statewide policy.

01:06 - Joyce what what's the

01:07 - were for catching your eye this week.

01:09 - Well of course the one that's at the top of my list is what's going on with the

01:12 - supreme court and the voting rights act

01:14 - because

01:15 - that's going to have repercussions throughout I think the nation with that

01:18 - eliminating any consideration of race

01:21 - in

01:22 - An election so

01:24 - that's something that we'll be watching of course Vincent inflation Iran and the war

01:28 - and how it is sending gas prices surging I

01:30 - think people are starting to get a little bit

01:33 - let's say concerned

01:35 - and of course I wrote

01:37 - the editorial this week about political violence

01:39 - and how we have to make sure that as voters

01:42 - we do not elect people that encourages.

01:45 - Elizabeth where where you take a look at this week.

01:48 - Lots of enterprise reporting this week we have already a sustainability summit

01:53 - ought to sales.

01:55 - Lots of talk about data centers there that's on everybody's mind

01:58 - and also

02:00 - there is a

02:01 - farm meeting happening on Friday that I'm keeping an eye on number

02:06 - talking about impacts of the Iran wars some of that

02:08 - is really hitting our farmers that interest policies so.

02:12 - I'm keeping an eye out for that as well and

02:14 - then it is budget season and I cover schools so

02:18 - tracking that in particular long-term capital and

02:21 - infrastructure needs for the allentown school district.

02:25 - Georgia mentioned the issue of political violence I'd

02:28 - talk talking about your editorial and and

02:30 - what's your point of view on

02:31 - that was.

02:32 - Well

02:33 - basically the editorial

02:35 - you know we've said it before as I said but we have to say the game

02:38 - violence has no place in politics

02:41 - politics is supposed to be about debating ideas

02:43 - for the good of the community there for for the good of the nation or the state

02:47 - not about bullets flying or or killing people

02:51 - and so we make that statement but we also

02:54 - make it clear that this is the responsibility

02:56 - of each and every citizen each and every voter

02:59 - we get what we ask for

03:01 - and in politicians we get what we are

03:03 - what we tolerate

03:04 - and so to call calling on our readers to

03:07 - make it clear

03:09 - they do not tolerate this continued

03:11 - violent rhetoric and violence in politics

03:14 - nor will they vote for people that don't denounce it.

03:18 - Akira will start looking at some of your your

03:20 - stories and then you've written extensively about

03:22 - a pharmacies and some of the issues surrounding

03:25 - pharmacies particularly the closing of pharmacies

03:28 - why why are we seeing so many pharmacies close

03:30 - yeah we've had over a thousand pharmacies close

03:33 - since twenty twenty so in the past six years which is

03:37 - a lot we have.

03:38 - The pharmacists association of Pennsylvania really mapping this out showing that

03:43 - there are pharmacy deserts that are popping up

03:46 - on plenty of places both

03:48 - rural and urban and suburban where people have to drive over thirty minutes to get to

03:53 - a pharmacy

03:54 - this

03:54 - matters for Pennsylvania it's because

03:56 - pharmacists can be just x assessable

03:59 - healthcare if they're not doctors but

04:01 - they can be that person just like a touch point for someone

04:04 - like hey maybe I haven't been to the doctors in awhile

04:06 - you're a pharmacy

04:08 - like your pharmacist can you

04:09 - give me some input on what's happening with my

04:11 - healthier can you point me in some directions

04:14 - and so when we're losing our pharmacies whether they be our local like

04:18 - mom and pop shop

04:20 - community pharmacies whether it be

04:22 - you know chains like rite aid

04:24 - it's just one less access point for people

04:27 - to

04:27 - Get

04:28 - to

04:28 - Healthcare and the reasons they are closing

04:32 - is something that most people probably haven't heard about sometimes even pharmacists

04:36 - are like how did these operate pharmacy

04:38 - Ben befit

04:39 - managers

04:40 - they're kind of the middlemen of the

04:44 - pharmaceutical supply chain that exists here in the united states

04:49 - you have the

04:50 - pharmacy kind of manufacturers the creators of the drugs do you have

04:54 - wholesale manufacturers who actually

04:56 - you know

04:56 - make the product once it's created

04:58 - you have inch parents companies and then you

05:00 - have the pharmacies who actually distribute

05:02 - and pharmacy benefit manager sit in the middle of

05:06 - all of these have

05:07 - you know participants

05:09 - and kind of negotiate like oh wait well for the pharmacy company and the

05:14 - insurance company how much are you going to

05:15 - exchange each other for you know any deals you make

05:18 - and then for the

05:19 - end parents come

05:20 - company and a pharmacy a local pharmacy that you go to

05:23 - they negotiate how much will the insurance company

05:27 - reimburse a pharmacy for

05:30 - filling a prescription

05:31 - and that's most.

05:32 - People who go into a pharmacy if you get a

05:34 - prescription filled you have insurance and so

05:37 - is a large portion a of a local farm c's business

05:40 - is filling these prescriptions that are covered by insurance

05:43 - pharmacy benefit managers have been making negotiations

05:47 - where

05:48 - pharmacies get paid less

05:51 - than the actual cost of that

05:53 - prescription drug

05:54 - for the prescription itself

05:55 - and you know some of the overhead of like we have to

05:58 - pay someone for filling the prescription and you have

06:00 - the rent and electricity bills

06:02 - so this is a problem that has kind of been

06:04 - growing it's been on the radar for advocates in the pharmacy community for a while

06:09 - but now we're really seeing that impact of these closed pharmacies

06:13 - there is a policy that's trying to happen

06:15 - at the state level and the federal level to address this but

06:18 - yeah

06:19 - to

06:20 - Big thing that's happening.

06:21 - It also spoke to students at pharmacy programs

06:24 - Howard the closing of pharmacies affecting their job prospects

06:27 - yeah I talked to some students from le com I

06:31 - do coverage up in the eerie area

06:33 - and they were talking about even if they don't want to go into community pharmacy.

06:39 - They are so seeing that impact their workforce

06:42 - workforce cause as

06:43 - you know

06:44 - community pharmacies close the pharmacists who are working there

06:47 - trying to find other jobs in other places whether it's

06:49 - hospitals whether it's more research or commercial

06:51 - and so

06:52 - even if you're not wanting to go into community community pharmacy

06:55 - you

06:56 - are

06:57 - feeling that impact in the workforce and then I talked to a student who

07:00 - she is she's from a rural area she's like I'm excited

07:03 - to go back to my community or similar community and

07:06 - give back and fill that role and

07:08 - those opportunities are disappearing for her.

07:12 - Elizabeth.

07:13 - You

07:14 - wrote about the lehigh valley emergency response network

07:17 - they have an ice hotline what what would that hustle hotline do.

07:21 - It's just a couple of things a monitor is ice activities so if there are reports of

07:27 - ice activity that is something that hotline can be used for

07:30 - it is increasingly being used for mutual aid also so people are calling and

07:35 - saying I am having trouble.

07:37 - Meeting my red though I am having trouble.

07:41 - Finding

07:42 - groceries because I am afraid to leave my house

07:44 - or the breadwinner in my family has been detained

07:48 - and I can't pay my utility doll rates so

07:51 - it is increasingly not just sightings of

07:55 - ice agents or potential ice agents because we have to recognize it is very

07:59 - confusing

08:01 - to kind of know what you're seeing with the way that

08:04 - multiple agencies have been involved in reads the only large scale read

08:08 - in our area

08:10 - was in south Bethlehem and it involved.

08:13 - Multiple

08:14 - agencies not just ice so there's kind of a lot of confusion now

08:18 - when people see officers in the streets.

08:21 - Whether those are ice or whether that might be you know de

08:24 - I we saw Iris involved in

08:28 - that raid like agencies that you wouldn't normally think of as immigration agencies

08:32 - are being used in some of these large scale

08:35 - workplace raids so there's a need I think for people

08:39 - they feel a need to report

08:41 - acts seventy

08:42 - and just kind of

08:43 - you know report to somebody who can help them figure out what that activity is

08:47 - because sometimes it's it's local police raid sometimes it's not

08:51 - federal agents but again figuring out

08:53 - who federal agents are

08:55 - who they work for why they're there is very complicated

08:58 - and mutual aid is an increasing need for our community this is a heavily

09:03 - his panic community here in the urban centers of the lehigh valley

09:07 - and not just in

09:08 - urban centers and the people who do that mutual aid

09:11 - are reporting both increased fear and increased need

09:15 - a modern community members.

09:18 - The Georgia had written

09:19 - about

09:19 - another immigration related story the Pennsylvania

09:21 - immigration coalition expressed concerns

09:23 - about the conditions at the machina detention center

09:26 - what's going on there what were their concerns.

09:29 - Oh well their concerns yeah and just like Liz this is a huge

09:32 - issue I think in our area the

09:34 - concerns that people have over deportations and the fear

09:38 - that people have even to leave their homes you

09:40 - know even if they're legal they're still afraid

09:42 - to go out into risk

09:44 - even being wrongfully detained because that's happening as well

09:47 - but admiral Sean it's horrible because they're they're indicating that the

09:51 - conditions there are not only unsanitary they think they're just downright

09:55 - I mean

09:56 - horrible

09:57 - with worms being

09:59 - seen in water and

10:02 - with

10:03 - the foods

10:04 - the milk curdled and all of that I mean and

10:06 - and there were reports they have three deaths in the in recent years there

10:11 - so they are really many people are calling for back

10:14 - centre to be closed

10:15 - but the whole issue of deportations and the impact.

10:19 - Being

10:19 - an immigrant communities

10:21 - the fear that's there is is really is real and

10:23 - it's impacting everyone businesses as well.

10:26 - Who manages the detention center.

10:29 - That's a good question I don't really know who manages that but I'm assuming it's a

10:33 - it's a federal agents that are better in charge that it's not stayed stated.

10:37 - I don't believe

10:38 - have you heard about any

10:39 - potential policy

10:41 - resolutions to the issue there.

10:43 - I have not but I do know that there is a push at least I have

10:47 - the state take much more of an aggressor have stance on

10:50 - I'm trying to get the closed or at the very

10:53 - least to try to get the conditions improved.

10:57 - Shakira i.

10:59 - Think

10:59 - you ever seen a lot of debates about.

11:03 - Federal oversight vs private oversight of detention

11:06 - centers I mean one of the things we track with our partners

11:10 - at the reading eagle and

11:12 - also the republican herald is what's going on with

11:15 - these proposed conversions of warehouses into detention centers and.

11:20 - You know we've seen in neighboring states.

11:23 - There are differences between the federal government owning a facility and

11:28 - a private company operating it as far as if you're a local or state

11:32 - politician and you want to push back

11:35 - your options are different so in Pennsylvania we're seeing

11:38 - we're actually seeing environmental regulations being used

11:41 - by state officials to push back big because the

11:43 - federal government has already bought properties and so

11:46 - the shapiro administration has decided

11:49 - we're going to use the department of

11:50 - environmental protection we are going to use these

11:53 - criminal regulations to try to make sure

11:56 - that our communities are not

11:59 - overwhelmed these are teenagers that are already in

12:01 - drought that are already facing water shortage does

12:04 - that are worried about things like well

12:06 - are you know will our fire protection systems be overwhelmed like

12:10 - well are.

12:12 - You know will our rivers be further polluted right so like you you're seeing this

12:16 - strategy in Pennsylvania of environmental regulations but in other places

12:20 - if a private company still owns a facility there are other ways you can push back

12:25 - like we've seen in in Maryland they have tried to

12:28 - kind of examine those contracts and like look at

12:32 - their relationship with these private companies so like it really really matters

12:36 - if the federal government owns the building.

12:40 - It's the geo group it is a private prison

12:44 - corporation that is that is one thing it is the geo group so

12:47 - there may be some ways that the the state and I'm sure there's a push going on now

12:51 - for the state to kind of move in and do something about it.

12:54 - Yeah and again you have different options and straight if you're dealing with a

12:57 - private operator whereas if you're dealing directly with the federal government.

13:01 - We're seeing these.

13:03 - Large debates about

13:06 - state regulations vs federal government power versus

13:10 - local regulations you know that is not is not just

13:14 - here that is not just the northeast that is

13:16 - that is nation wide that we're seeing these debates about

13:20 - how much local control do people have

13:22 - and how much state control

13:25 - do

13:25 - Governor is having and this is bipartisan

13:28 - opposition I really want to emphasize that this is

13:31 - very bipartisan opposition in our area.

13:35 - There's a lot of Republicans in these areas that are concerned about

13:40 - things like

13:41 - water shortages strains on local emergency services

13:45 - and increased pollution like this is bipartisan

13:47 - opposition and I think that people don't always realize

13:51 - how bipartisan the opposition is people come to this.

13:55 - For very different reasons from very different places but i.

14:00 - You know that local pushback it is local it is grass roots it is not just

14:05 - the shapiro administration by any means.

14:07 - Courage or walk the halls of the general assembly

14:10 - are these topics that you heard people talk about

14:12 - yeah just this week we had

14:14 - a press conference on welcoming schools and there's definitely some Democratic

14:18 - lawmakers who are pushing for just

14:20 - statewide policy statewide guidelines for public school districts on.

14:25 - What do you do if you get a request from ice what do you do if there's a student

14:30 - who's scared trainings for teachers and students

14:33 - on how to respond in different situations

14:36 - so it's definitely a conversation that's coming up

14:38 - there's also from some republican lawmakers years continue conversation about

14:42 - identities and driver's licenses and state ids and

14:45 - are there things that we should put on those ids to.

14:50 - Signify as someone you know a citizen or non citizen so definitely a continued

14:54 - conversation in the general assembly in Harrisburg.

14:58 - Girls who were to ask you about a recent story

15:00 - sort of do key for

15:01 - introduce a patient right to understand bill

15:03 - what is the issue that is trying to solve

15:06 - yeah patients have a right to know

15:08 - what they're kind of going through with healthcare but

15:11 - often times we don't

15:13 - actually know you can walk out of a doctor's office still very much confused on

15:17 - what your options were you might get handed a piece of

15:19 - paper with a lot of small print and most people are like

15:22 - I'm not going to read that

15:23 - so

15:24 - Centered on kiefer is proposing a patient right to understand and really this gets to

15:30 - understand your options but also understanding the cost

15:33 - and and there's a lot of interplay between

15:36 - if I chose to pay for this just for myself vs if I have insurance and

15:40 - some

15:41 - significant differences

15:42 - in cost for healthcare

15:44 - services

15:45 - depending on which of those two camps you fallen

15:48 - and the bill proposes

15:51 - that if a patient requests it

15:53 - a hospital a healthcare entity would have to give a one to two page

15:57 - summary of hate this is the care that you're thinking about getting

16:01 - here are the different options that you could take to address that care

16:05 - and then here's the cost of

16:06 - both of those options

16:08 - with insurance

16:09 - without insurance it's trying to get to this clarity

16:12 - on

16:13 - Why is all our healthcare system so expensive something that people are definitely

16:18 - thinking about when it comes to affordability

16:20 - is healthcare costs costs continue to rise so

16:23 - this is one way that

16:25 - she's trying to address this issue definitely

16:28 - again lots of lawmakers coming at this multiple

16:30 - angles for affordability and healthcare.

16:33 - Though you quoted a doctor

16:34 - today powers who says there's no individual

16:36 - bad actors but the entire system is crushing

16:39 - what does she mean by that

16:40 - yeah it was interesting this the bill kind of got launch with

16:43 - also a new coalition called we the patient and I was.

16:47 - Attended the press conference lots of conversation for people not

16:51 - trying to blame

16:52 - insurance or trying to place

16:54 - blame doctors are trying to blame hospital systems but really saying

16:57 - this system has become so complicated

17:01 - that there's many

17:02 - players.

17:03 - In healthcare that don't fully understand how it operates that's what

17:07 - the

17:08 - members of this coalition are

17:10 - saying so

17:11 - yeah not

17:13 - pointing fingers at one part of the system but saying we need to look at

17:17 - how this entire thing has grown so complex in ways to simplify.

17:21 - Elizabeth.

17:22 - You read about the parkland school board that

17:24 - there's a proposed tax break for Eli Lilly

17:27 - building a

17:27 - new facility in

17:29 - the area there

17:30 - you talk about the significance of that and

17:32 - how important would the tax break be

17:34 - to look for the school district if it lost that money.

17:38 - I mean that

17:39 - that's the debate right that's the crux of that'd be a thought is happening right now

17:43 - these are tax incentives that are designed

17:47 - to encourage people to act in

17:51 - collaboration so it's designed to encourage

17:55 - the township

17:56 - the county and the school destroy church too.

18:00 - Kind of work in concert but you do not have to you can opt out and we are seeing

18:06 - the school district say we might want to opt out of this we feel.

18:13 - What board members have expressed is these kind of.

18:17 - This balancing act between people want Lily to convert they're very excited about the

18:22 - opportunities for growth they're excited about job opportunities for their students

18:27 - and they're excited about workforce training pathways and this partnership with the

18:31 - community college but they're saying

18:34 - we haven't seen concrete commitments we have seen

18:37 - stay money go to the community college

18:39 - no one has said to park lane here's how your students are going to

18:44 - feed and she's not training pathway or

18:47 - you know maybe we'll do internships or maybe it's all maybe

18:50 - now so you see school district saying

18:52 - you are asking us to give up significant

18:55 - revenue

18:56 - and everyone's face shit is tight parkland has a reputation

19:00 - for being a rich district that does not mean

19:01 - that their budget isn't tight they are growing

19:04 - they know they're going to keep growing and

19:06 - so they're you know projecting down the road

19:09 - going

19:10 - this is a ten year commitment I'm like can we really

19:13 - tell our constituents that we are going to give up tax revenue even if it's partial

19:17 - right though we're going to do that for ten years

19:20 - when our budget is tight and.

19:22 - You know what board members kept saying and

19:25 - members of the public also is Eli Lilly is a massive massive company

19:30 - and

19:31 - you know there are just some questions about.

19:33 - Why give a tax break to the massive massive company on the backs of of

19:38 - the school district i.

19:41 - And a lot of pushback from that economic development

19:43 - people who would like to see everyone work in concert.

19:47 - I

19:47 - Am late to see this these incentives to be put in place.

19:51 - So yeah we're going to see this to be

19:53 - continue for sure it's on the agenda

19:55 - moving forward in may.

19:58 - And

19:59 - this Lilly investment is such a huge deal for the lehigh valley so

20:03 - you know the governor really supported at theirs.

20:06 - I.

20:08 - You know one hundred million at least one hundred million in state incentives going

20:12 - towards this so you know this has been a big project

20:14 - for the economic development folks for a long time

20:17 - and now you have the school district saying you

20:19 - know it's our turn to Iran and we want to be

20:21 - responsible to our constituents our families our students.

20:26 - And it's a very

20:27 - it's a tough job

20:28 - if the school members feel

20:30 - caught in the middle I think that's what we're seeing.

20:33 - Georgia one of the stories you wrote about was the upcoming primary in the tenth

20:37 - congressional district which is in the central Pennsylvania

20:39 - region

20:40 - and add

20:41 - the the incumbent representative Scott Perry is running unopposed

20:45 - in the primary but there are two democrats vying for

20:47 - finding the challenge him in the November general election

20:50 - who are those candidates.

20:52 - Yeah we called both of the candidates that commissioner dolphin county commissioner.

20:56 - Justin Douglas as well as.

21:00 - Janelle

21:00 - Nelson

21:01 - and they're both are vying against each other Janelle

21:05 - had what some people think was a pretty remarkable showing in the last election

21:09 - against Perry she lost but only by a few thousand votes so

21:13 - a lot people in the Democratic party are simply banking on her to

21:17 - bring it on home that standing but

21:19 - but Justin Douglas has stepped in and Justin

21:21 - Douglas is a popular commissioner he he stepped in

21:24 - and has really brought some fresh air I I would say we

21:27 - done editorials on this

21:29 - dealing with the dauphin county prison system and exposing

21:32 - some of the quest cannibal

21:34 - expenditures including Grant are things that have been happening there

21:38 - so he is popular as well but

21:40 - the issue is that he's just step this is his first term

21:43 - so some people are saying why don't you

21:46 - stay focused on dauphin county and finish

21:48 - that job but he believes he can do even more

21:51 - if he were to be able to go to congress

21:54 - so we've got these two Janelle stouts and it ain't got the endorsement of the

21:57 - Democratic party at least in dauphin county

22:00 - and she's got governors to support that and other high power support so

22:05 - the two of them have similar platforms they're not identical at all.

22:10 - Especially when it comes to foreign policy and

22:12 - Janelle is

22:13 - a lie little bit softer on deportations I think and and then he is

22:18 - he's really strong and he stood with

22:20 - many of these communities as they have faced

22:23 - their members being deported so

22:25 - we'll see what happens but that

22:27 - they're going ahead it right now hot and heavy.

22:30 - Character a few days away from the may eighth deadline

22:32 - for direct home care of workers to apply for retroactive pay increase.

22:37 - Would the

22:38 - who applies for who's.

22:40 - Eligible for that pay increase or what do they need to do

22:43 - that direct care

22:44 - workers are

22:45 - home care workers if you're someone who maybe your

22:48 - elderly senior citizen or someone with a physical disability

22:52 - you can choose to receive care

22:54 - in your home

22:55 - have someone come help you get ready for the day

22:57 - have to get dressed

22:58 - they take care of your meals maybe do some light housework

23:01 - maybe do some transportation.

23:03 - So that says the workforce we're talking about

23:05 - there is a small portion

23:07 - of

23:08 - The clients around eight thousand Pennsylvania ones

23:11 - who

23:12 - kind of are their own boss they go get the

23:15 - medicaid or medicare money

23:17 - goes directly to the client and then they

23:20 - directly pay someone

23:21 - directly at work

23:22 - and

23:23 - they got a twenty one million dollar increase in the last state budget

23:28 - and so that's something that has been officially put into place

23:32 - those direct care clients can pay their direct care workers

23:35 - however there is a

23:36 - cut off if you want to apply for it that increase

23:40 - the increase will remain

23:42 - but if you want to apply and make sure your worker gets

23:46 - paid

23:47 - retroactively back to January first

23:50 - the deadline for that is may

23:52 - eighth so you could still apply for the increase after may eighth but then

23:55 - your person would just

23:56 - start getting their raise from may eighth

23:59 - there is a chance to maybe you didn't apply for it until

24:02 - this weekend

24:03 - your direct care worker could get

24:06 - you

24:06 - the extra pay

24:07 - retroactively back from January which could be a big boost to

24:11 - many of our direct workers.

24:13 - Georgia recently attended the bethel synagogues freedom seder

24:17 - tell us what you saw there.

24:19 - Oh well the freedom seder that bethel does is basically an annual event

24:24 - they've been doing it now I think for at least

24:26 - the past decade and it's focused on uniting

24:29 - the Jewish community and African American community frankly and looking at

24:33 - issues of social justice that that's been in civil rights that's been it's focus

24:37 - this year

24:38 - they had an interfaith coalition

24:40 - of people that came together

24:42 - and they they always tried to.

24:45 - Deal with what they think the community's top issues

24:47 - were and we've already talked about deportations that was

24:51 - top of the list

24:52 - but also inflation they are

24:54 - there's concern that with

24:56 - the pending cut offs in.

24:58 - Snap benefits and then October they're they're warning health care benefits will

25:04 - will end for many groups

25:06 - and

25:06 - that that is going to have a devastating impact on our communities and on people

25:12 - being able to simply

25:13 - afford to eat

25:15 - and

25:15 - to live churches are gearing up to try to help but

25:18 - they don't feel it's going to be enough so they will a lot of discussion about

25:21 - what is our responsibility in a democracy to make sure that all people

25:27 - I have a basic standard of living and that no one is

25:30 - basically left behind remember these are people of faith

25:33 - so they have consciences and they have morale morals

25:36 - that kind of guide them

25:38 - and there's very great concern certain that our nation may be losing those.

25:42 - Those same ideals.

25:44 - Yeah there's so much clergy leadership and

25:48 - the emergency response network here.

25:51 - From different denominations and

25:54 - there's also a lot of interfaith dialogue with

25:56 - the Muslim community here

25:58 - saw a lot of

26:00 - interfaith gatherings for ied recently

26:02 - and.

26:04 - I do think that we're seeing people of conscience of all different denominations and

26:08 - all different face come together you know you see rabbis show up at these events too

26:13 - so I I definitely think there's a very large

26:16 - nationwide debate going on about how

26:19 - different

26:19 - really you are handling some of these issues and I

26:21 - think we've heard at the federal level concerns about

26:25 - sensitive areas that

26:27 - are

26:27 - taking back the protections for schools and for houses of worship

26:31 - from immigration enforcement and you know that's a thing that democrats in

26:35 - congress have said that they want to revisit but who knows if firewall be able to

26:40 - you know

26:40 - even get that on the table at the federal level so at the local level

26:45 - my sources are saying they're still

26:47 - worried everybody has a security plan for their church their mosque or

26:52 - synagogue rate everyone has a security plan

26:55 - they won't even talk about the security plan

26:56 - because they're so worried right but they have one

27:00 - but I am hearing that attendance has not

27:03 - dropped as much as people feared that.

27:06 - There are people who you know

27:08 - matters important to them services of any kind are

27:10 - important to them and the churches around here saying like

27:13 - people are still coming out but that doesn't mean that they're not

27:17 - scared

27:17 - right and that doesn't mean that

27:19 - we don't see this interfaith die dialogue about how to

27:22 - have thought leadership and moral leadership

27:25 - across these different denominations and these different face and

27:29 - that

27:29 - set the stage

27:30 - there also was discussion of the wars as well

27:32 - including the war between Israel and gaza

27:35 - that that

27:36 - they

27:36 - you know

27:37 - you have to at least take a stand on war in general as long how you treat people

27:42 - of any

27:43 - faith or denomination or ethnicity

27:45 - so that was just honest dialogue there at this and I think it's a reflection of

27:49 - what's going on throughout our area

27:51 - to fifteen seconds final fuck yeah

27:53 - I'd say for quality of life this is something that state lawmakers to ship your

27:57 - administration are thinking about they've said that they can't back fill the funds for

28:01 - federal losses to snap or to medicaid

28:04 - there's administrative burdens that the department

28:06 - of human services is also talking about so

28:09 - definitely on the minds in the halls of Harrisburg to

28:11 - er yesterday have been Elizabeth de ornelas a reporter with the morning call

28:15 - Joyce Davis opinion editor at penn live

28:18 - in carer jeffers Harrisburg correspondent for

28:19 - Lilly broadcasting thinks you are for Julius.

28:23 - Thank you for

28:23 - being with you

28:24 - and I'm Phil Beckman thank you for watching.