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Harris Conservatory to present ‘Snow White” ballet April 23-24 at Dallas Performing Arts Center

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Special Recognition Awards presented to students from St. Nicholas-St. Mary’s

<p>SCRANTON &#8212; The line wrapped around the Scranton Cultural Center and down Mulberry Street as people waited to get an up-close look at their favored candidate for president &#8212; U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders, D-Vermont.</p><p>The 2,000-plus crowd filtered into the center and anxiously awaited Sanders&#8217; arrival, chanting &#8220;Feel the Bern&#8221; and &#8220;Bernie, Bernie, Bernie&#8221; over and over.</p><p>After meeting with local media for about a half hour before the speech, Sanders walked on stage to a roar of the crowd and a standing ovation.</p><p>&#8220;Is Scranton ready for a political revolution?&#8221; Sanders asked as the crowd, which responded with a resounding &#8220;yes.&#8221;</p><p>Sanders, standing before a banner that read &#8220;A future to believe in,&#8221; began by noting that when he began his campaign for the presidency a year ago, he was considered to be a &#8220;fringe&#8221; candidate.</p><p>&#8220;Ha,&#8221; yelled a supporter in the audience. &#8220;That&#8217;s right,&#8221; Sanders answered.</p><p>He then said his campaign has come from being a 65-point underdog to running, in some polls, ahead of his opponent, fellow Democrat Hillary Clinton.</p><p>&#8220;In the last 11 months, we have won 18 caucuses and primaries,&#8221; Sanders said, pointing to five more this Tuesday, including Pennsylvania.</p><p>Sanders said he has been called a &#8220;radical&#8221; in American politics.</p><p>&#8220;That&#8217;s because we are telling the truth,&#8221; he said. &#8220;And we are treating the American people with respect and intelligence.&#8221;</p><p>Sanders blasted the national media, that he said haven&#8217;t reported &#8220;the real issues&#8221; in the race.</p><p>&#8220;This country has some very serious problems,&#8221; Sanders said. &#8220;The more serious problem is that we don&#8217;t discuss them. We need to talk about the real issues and find solutions.</p><p>&#8220;But if we are going to talk about them and seek those resolutions, we are going to have to take on some very powerful special interest groups.&#8221;</p><p><strong>On the issues</strong></p><p>Sanders said the middle class in the U.S. has been declining for 35 years and childhood poverty is at its highest level in history.</p><p>&#8220;At the end of the day, no president can solve or address the real problems facing the middle class without a political revolution,&#8221; Sanders said. &#8220;We need people to stand up and challenge and get involved.&#8221;</p><p>Sanders drew loud responses when he talked about making Wall Street accountable, not just in business, but in the courtroom as well for the 2008 financial crisis that crippled the U.S. economy. The crowd also rose to its feet when Sanders mentioned his support for tuition-free college, expanding social security, adding funding for pre-K education, LGBT rights and creating a single-payer health care system that people can afford.</p><p>&#8220;I have been criticized for saying this in the past, therefor I will say it again &#8212; I believe that health care is a right of all people,&#8221; Sanders said. &#8220;We must get involved and become engaged in the political process and demand we have a government that represents all of us, not just the one percent who possess 90 percent of the wealth. If we don&#8217;t change things, the rich will continue to get richer and the poor will get poorer.&#8221;</p><p>Sanders also expressed support for veterans and the rights of women and all minorities.</p><p>&#8220;We need a vibrant democracy,&#8221; Sanders said, prompting another supporter to shout, &#8220;We need you.&#8221;</p><p>Sanders also wants to change what he called &#8220;our corrupt campaign finance system&#8221; that he said &#8220;allows Wall Street and wealthy billionaires to buy elections.&#8221; He explained he favors overturning the U.S. Supreme Court 2009 decision that favored Citizens United, calling the ruling &#8220;disastrous.&#8221;</p><p>Sanders said college should be &#8220;tuition free&#8221; and no student should have to incur thousands of dollars of debt to get an education.</p><p>&#8220;We shouldn&#8217;t punish our young people for getting an education,&#8221; he said. &#8220;Who made that decision? That, my friends, is nuts. Congress is OK with bailing out Wall Street, but not OK with helping out the middle class and college students.&#8221;</p><p>Sanders favors a raise in the minimum wage to $15 per hour.</p><p>&#8220;Anybody who works 40 hours a week should not be living in poverty,&#8221; he said. &#8220;A great nation is not judged by its number of billionaires or nuclear weapons. A great nation is judged by how it treats its weakest and most vulnerable people.&#8221;</p><p><strong>Meets with Times Leader</strong></p><p>Sanders sat down with the Times Leader prior to his campaign speech and discussed how he intends to create meaningful, family-sustaining jobs in the U.S. and, specifically, in Pennsylvania and the northeast region.</p><p>&#8220;Many, many thousands of jobs have been lost in Pennsylvania and gone to Mexico and China,&#8221; Sanders said in a dressing room in the basement of the cultural center. &#8220;And then those cheap products are brought back to the U.S. for sale. As president, I will demand those corporations return those jobs to the U.S.&#8221;</p><p>Sanders also said he would create more than 13 million new jobs by investing $1 trillion in the country&#8217;s infrastructure &#8212; &#8220;Roads, bridges, airports, railways,&#8221; Sanders said. &#8220;I also support tax breaks for small and medium businesses.&#8221;</p><p>On the question of a railway from Northeastern Pennsylvania to New York City, Sanders said he would favor putting &#8220;a good portion&#8221; of that $1 trillion infrastructure investment into the country&#8217;s rail system &#8212; both passenger and cargo rail systems.</p><p>Sanders said he is not counting himself out in the race for the nomination. He said he expects to walk onto the stage at the Democratic National Convention in July in Philadelphia and accept his party&#8217;s nomination for president.</p><p>&#8220;If that doesn&#8217;t happen, I will still have 1,200-plus delegates at the convention and we will fight for a platform that speaks to the needs of the middle class and takes on Wall Street and the wealthy,&#8221; he said.</p><p><strong>Anticipation and reaction</strong></p><p>Matthew and Courtney Golden of Pittston brought their year-old son, Charlie, to the rally.</p><p>&#8220;I thought he was amazing,&#8221; Courtney said of Sanders. &#8220;He&#8217;s for the people and we need a political revolution in this country.&#8221;</p><p>Matthew said Sanders addressed the needs of the middle class.</p><p>&#8220;People need help,&#8221; he said. &#8220;And Bernie is the candidate that will help us.&#8221;</p><p>Joanna Miller, 24 of Allentown, and Layla Gonzalez, 22 of Bethlehem, were pleased overall with Sanders&#8217; speech, but said they wished he talked more about women&#8217;s rights, like equal pay.</p><p>&#8220;I liked that he talked about children in poverty and said he would help them,&#8221; Miller said. &#8220;And he recognizes the seriousness of climate change.&#8221;</p><p>Gonzalez agreed and said she feels Sanders still has a chance to be the Democratic nominee.</p><p>&#8220;Bernie hasn&#8217;t been treated fairly in the media,&#8221; she said. &#8220;He can&#8217;t win if his message doesn&#8217;t get out to the people.&#8221;</p><p>Miller said she likes one more thing about Sanders. &#8220;He cares,&#8221; she said.</p><p>A truck with signs supporting Republican front-runner Donald Trump was parked across the street from the cultural center.</p><p>Joseph Patterson, 29 of Hanover Township, said Sanders will address the shrinking middle class, pursue the prosecution of Wall Street &#8220;criminals&#8221; and will do away with predatory college loans.</p><p>Kirsten Somarelli, 19, and her mother, Marion, 48, both of Tafton, said Sanders will make a change in America. Kirsten likes that Sanders will make college tuition-free and her mother said Sanders is &#8220;for the people, not the elite.&#8221;</p><p>About 20 students from Hanover Area High School were on an &#8220;educational field trip&#8221; Thursday and were waiting in the long line at the Scranton Cultural Center.</p><p>Frank Geklinsky, 18, Jake Smith, 17, and Hannah Mendygral, 18, said they like Sanders because of his plan to redistribute the country&#8217;s wealth and his support of free college education.</p><p>Also with the group was Berengre Meyer, 19, who moved to the area a year ago from France. Meyer said she can&#8217;t vote in the U.S., and said she had noticed how much more expressive Americans are during their elections.</p><p>&#8220;If I could vote, I would vote for Bernie,&#8221; Meyer said. But, she said, she intends to return to France after graduation to attend college &#8212; because in France, it&#8217;s free.</p><style>
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<div class="neCaption">Bernie Sanders during his hour-long speech Thursday in Scranton. </div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo0>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/web1_TTL042216Bernie13-3.jpg</photo0><caption0>Bernie Sanders during his hour-long speech Thursday in Scranton. </caption0><photoCredit0></photoCredit0></div><div class="neFile"><img class="neImage" src="https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/web1_TTL042216Bernie8-3.jpg">
<div class="neCaption">Supporters wait for Bernie Sanders to speak at his rally in Scranton. </div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo1>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/web1_TTL042216Bernie8-3.jpg</photo1><caption1>Supporters wait for Bernie Sanders to speak at his rally in Scranton. </caption1><photoCredit1></photoCredit1></div><div class="neFile"><img class="neImage" src="https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/web1_TTL042216Bernie16-3.jpg">
<div class="neCaption">Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders walks through a narrow hallway in the basement of the Scranton Cultural Center to meet with the media prior to his speech. </div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo2>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/web1_TTL042216Bernie16-3.jpg</photo2><caption2>Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders walks through a narrow hallway in the basement of the Scranton Cultural Center to meet with the media prior to his speech. </caption2><photoCredit2></photoCredit2></div></div>
<div class="metaInfo"><subheadMeta>Presidential candidate addresses overflowing crowd at Scranton Cultural Center</subheadMeta></div><div class="metaInfo"><bylineMeta><p>By Bill O&#8217;Boyle</p><p>boboyle@www.timesleader.com</p></bylineMeta></div><div class="metaInfo"><shirttailMeta><p>Reach Bill O&#8217;Boyle at 570-991-6118 or on Twitter @TLBillOBoyle.</p></shirttailMeta></div><div class="metaInfo"><videoMeta><p><table style="border:none;width:98%;" class="mceItemTable"><tbody><tr><td style="font-weight:bold;font-size:100%;vertical-align:top;text-align:right;border:none;">VideoID:</td><td id="videoid" style="width:50em;font-size:90%;"> X1usLYq_SDk</td></tr><tr><td style="font-weight:bold;font-size:100%;vertical-align:top;text-align:right;border:none;">VideoType:</td><td id="videotype" style="font-size:90%;"> YOUTUBE</td></tr><tr><td style="font-weight:bold;font-size:100%;vertical-align:top;text-align:right;border:none;">URL:</td><td id="url" style="font-size:90%;"> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X1usLYq_SDk</td></tr><tr><td style="font-weight:bold;font-size:100%;vertical-align:top;text-align:right;border:none;">Video Embed String:</td><td id="videoembedstring" style="font-size:90%;"> &lt;iframe width=&#8221;560&#8221; height=&#8221;315&#8221; src=&#8221;https://www.youtube.com/embed/X1usLYq_SDk&#8221; frameborder=&#8221;0&#8221; allowfullscreen&gt;&lt;/iframe&gt;</td></tr><tr><td style="font-weight:bold;font-size:100%;vertical-align:top;text-align:right;border:none;">Video Caption:</td><td id="videocaption" style="font-size:90%;"> Bernie Sanders energizes overflowing crowd at Scranton Cultural Center</td></tr><tr><td style="font-weight:bold;font-size:100%;vertical-align:top;text-align:right;border:none;">Video Credit:</td><td id="videocredit" style="font-size:90%;"> Aimee Dilger | Times Leader</td></tr><tr><td style="font-weight:bold;font-size:100%;vertical-align:top;text-align:right;border:none;">Video Position:</td><td id="videoposition" style="font-size:90%;"> </td></tr></tbody></table></p><p style="margin-top:10px;font-size:70%;color:#555;">(use the &#8220;for files&#8230;&#8221; link above to associate attached files with this source)</p></videoMeta></div>