Man who planted corn in York City: I'm 'planting life'

Mother of police shooting suspect blames Black Lives Matter

Here are the stories for this week's Pennsylvania Member Exchange package. If you have any questions, contact the Philadelphia bureau at 215-561-1133. For use anytime: EXCHANGE-EDITORIAL RDP Editorials from around Pennsylvania. EXCHANGE-UNEMPLOYED MINERS NEMACOLIN — A steady drizzle fell over the United Mine Workers union hall in Nemacolin Thursday morning as unemployed miners streamed into the two-story building next to the post office to pick up boxes of food and supplies. Nearly nine months after Alpha Natural Resources closed its Emerald Mine near Waynesburg, costing 235 miners their jobs, the harsh economic reality has set in for many of the company's former workers still in shock over the loss of their livelihoods. More than half are still unemployed and many who found new jobs get less than half what they did before. Greene County Commissioner Blair Zimmerman, who was a miner for 40 years, said some are still having trouble letting go of mining after experiencing earlier down cycles. "People have that mentality - and they've lived it - that layoffs are temporary," Zimmerman said. "But times have changed. It's not the same world. Mike Jones, (Washington) Observer-Reporter. EXCHANGE-FIRE TOWERS SOMERSET — High atop a heavily wooded stretch of the Laurel Summit where ferns and mayapples carpet the forest floor, it's easy to miss the narrow path off Fire Tower Road near the Westmoreland-Somerset county line. The road — a pair of rough dirt ruts through lush green woods — leads to a clearing where one of the region's last iconic fire towers stands watch over the seemingly endless mountains. At one time, 449 of the storied towers — most were built in the 1920s and 1930s — stood watch over 3.2 million acres of state forest and game lands. But their numbers were dwindling — at least 380 are no longer standing — until recently when they experienced a rebirth thanks to private efforts. Although park enthusiasts view the hard-to-miss fire towers with nostalgia, the state's move to make them operational again stems from the high cost of using airplanes to monitor forests during peak fire season. Debra Erdley, Pittsburgh Tribune-Review. EXCHANGE-HAM RADIO STATIC BRISTOL — When he decided to become a ham radio operator, Charles Dillenbeck, of Bristol Township, went all out for his new hobby. He purchased the Cadillac of radios — an $8,000 model that allows him to chat for a few hours every night with amateur radio enthusiasts around the world. Five antennae surround his house. Then one night this spring, the static he normally heard on different frequencies became much louder, so loud he could barely hear the the people with whom he was chatting. He suspects the culprit is a new LED light fixture the township installed as part of its plan to replace incandescent street lights with cost-saving LED bulbs, and a recent report supports his theory. Peg Quann, Bucks County Courier Times. EXCHANGE-CEMETERY CLEANUP ALTOONA — Wendy Lynch grew up in the area of Fifth Street and Bell Avenue and used to walk through Oak Ridge cemetery to get to her grandparents' house. When she saw the condition in 2013, she was appalled. "I couldn't believe it," Lynch said. "It looked like a horror story." So she got involved through a Facebook group called Volunteers Unite to Clean Up Altoona, PA Cemeteries, but it became apparent that the situation at Oak Ridge required a lot of work so the group changed just to focus on that location. "It's not real organized, but they get it done," Lynch said of the volunteers who carve out time on weekends - a few hours here and there - to cut grass, trim around headstones or remove dead trees and branches. Lynch said some of the more dedicated volunteers of the past are getting older, and fortunately, this year a new crop of volunteers has helped get the cemetery into much better shape than it had been in the spring. Greg Bock, The (Altoona) Mirror. EXCHANGE-CITY CORN YORK — Gumercindo Minaya thinks flowers are a waste of time — you can't eat them. So when he turned his daughter's yard into a massive garden, he didn't plant marigolds or roses. He planted corn. Rows of the tall stalks now fill the backyard of her corner lot on Madison Avenue in York. But, when he was planting, he didn't stop in the backyard. "When I saw he planted outside of the fence it was already too late," Dolores Minaya said, chuckling. Corn stalks line both sides of the sidewalk next to the house and continue to the front. Minaya's yard is like a chunk of farm land picked up and plopped into the city. Kate Penn, York Daily Record.

AP-PA--Exchange,Advisory, PA