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Desk nurse Ashley Jacobs, ‘It never gets boring’

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An event with heart

<p>WILKES-BARRE &#8212; Community leaders throughout Pennsylvania&#8217;s Anthracite Coal Region are urging the General Assembly to support Gov. Tom Wolf&#8217;s aggressive infrastructure plan &#8212; Restore Pennsylvania.</p><p>&#8220;Many of the municipalities that comprise Northeast Pennsylvania&#8217;s Anthracite Coal Region are facing a backlog of infrastructure projects that have been accumulating since the mining industry began to decline,&#8221; Wolf said. &#8220;By using Restore Pennsylvania to tackle critical infrastructure issues like blight, flooding and brownfields, we can help communities turn the corner and position them for economic success.&#8221;</p><p>Restore Pennsylvania is a statewide plan to aggressively address the commonwealth&#8217;s vital infrastructure needs. Funded through a yet to be enacted &#8220;commonsense&#8221; severance tax that the Independent Fiscal Office has determined will be primarily paid for by out-of-state residents, Wolf claims Restore Pennsylvania is the only plan that will help make Pennsylvania a leader in the 21st century.</p><p>When Wolf announced the Restore Pennsylvania plan in Wilkes-Barre, he said the tax would generate some $4.7 billion over the next several years. When asked how he would otherwise pay for the repair of the state&#8217;s infrastructure, Wolf said, &#8220;I don&#8217;t know. There are no other options.&#8221;</p><p>Wolf said supporters of Restore Pennsylvania include the Wilkes-Barre city council and mayor; Scranton city council and mayor; and Carbondale city council and mayor. Leaders of these communities say Restore Pennsylvania will play a critical role in improving not only the economy, but the daily lives of residents.</p><p>&#8226; &#8220;Pennsylvania&#8217;s aging infrastructure hurts our state&#8217;s competitiveness, risks public safety, and impacts our citizens&#8217; quality of life,&#8221; Wilkes-Barre Mayor Tony George said in a letter to the General Assembly. &#8220;The time is right for Pennsylvania to position itself as a leader in the 21st century by investing in critical infrastructure needs that for too long have been neglected.&#8221;</p><p>&#8226; &#8220;On behalf of the City of Carbondale and the entire Upper Valley region of Northeastern Pennsylvania, I commend Governor Wolf on his &#8220;Restore PA&#8221; proposal,&#8221; said Carbondale Mayor Justin Taylor after city council voted to pass a resolution supporting Restore Pennsylvania. &#8220;The governor &#8216;gets it&#8217; when it comes to cities and municipalities needing assistance to revitalize neighborhoods and downtowns. And to make such a comprehensive proposal using potential revenue from natural gas drilling &#8212; not taxes collected directly from the citizens of the Commonwealth &#8212; this should become a model for all regions and states.&#8221;</p><p>&#8226; &#8220;Stormwater management, flood control, blighted neighborhoods and overall infrastructure investment top the list of challenges we must begin to address to position the City of Scranton to be competitive and successful in the 21st century,&#8221; Scranton City Council members Bill Gaughan and Kyle Donahue said in a joint statement regarding city council&#8217;s approval of a resolution supporting Restore Pennsylvania. &#8220;We can&#8217;t face those challenges alone. We are proud to stand with Governor Wolf in support of his vision outlined in Restore Pennsylvania to finally begin to address the urgent need for infrastructure investments across Pennsylvania.&#8221;</p><p><strong>AG:	</strong><strong>rape kits still backlogged</strong></p><p>Auditor General Eugene DePasquale this week said newly released data shows that 60 percent of the state&#8217;s 245 backlogged rape kits remain in the hands of law enforcement instead of at crime labs, where he said they belong.</p><p>&#8220;The law clearly states that, once consent for testing is received, law enforcement must submit a kit to an approved forensic lab within 15 days,&#8221; DePasquale said. &#8220;I&#8217;m urging police departments and prosecutors to make sure they&#8217;re doing everything possible to move these cases forward.&#8221;</p><p>Released today, the Department of Health&#8217;s annual report shows a total of 245 backlogged kits as of Dec. 31, 2018 &#8212; a 90 percent decrease from three years ago, when more than 3,000 kits were awaiting testing. A backlogged kit is one that has been waiting 12 months or longer to be tested.</p><p>&#8220;While this progress is commendable, hundreds of people have waited more than a year to find out what evidence, if any, their kits contain,&#8221; DePasquale said. &#8220;These brave victims underwent grueling physical exams not only for the sake of their own cases, but also to potentially help protect others from being assaulted.&#8221;</p><p>Of Pennsylvania&#8217;s roughly 1,100 local law enforcement agencies, 1,060 reported their kit numbers &#8212; a 112 percent increase over the 499 agencies that reported in 2016, the first year the statewide report was released.</p><p>However, DePasquale said, simply reporting that untested kits exist is not enough. Instead, law enforcement must send these kits to one of the state&#8217;s three public forensic crime labs, where they can be processed and have any usable DNA uploaded into the FBI&#8217;s national DNA database, known as CODIS.</p><p>&#8220;Some of these law enforcement agencies are holding onto a dozen or more kits,&#8221; DePasquale said. &#8220;That is patently unacceptable, and it must be corrected. When a victim has agreed to allow testing to occur, it needs to take place as quickly as possible.&#8221;</p><p><strong>Justice reinvestment </strong><strong>bills get committee OK</strong></p><p>The State Senate Judiciary Committee approved a package of bills this week designed to reduce prison and probation costs, better protect crime victims and strengthen public safety, according to Committee Chair Sen. Lisa Baker, R-Lehman Township.</p><p>The plan builds on the success of the Justice Reinvestment Initiative (JRI) measures approved in 2012 to reduce prison costs to taxpayers and reinvest the savings in programs to improve public safety.</p><p>Over the past six years, the inmate population in state prisons has been reduced by more than 4,000, and the crime rate has decreased by approximately 3.7 percent, saving $400 million in projected costs to taxpayers.</p><p>The new phase of JRI reforms (JRI2) would further reduce costs in the justice system and ensure the money saved through these reforms is put to good use by providing assistance to our county probation and parole offices in evaluating public safety risks and compensating crime victims.</p><p>&#8220;The problems caused by rapidly rising correctional costs are compelling us to seek approaches to criminal justice that will improve community safety and relieve pressure on state taxpayers,&#8221; Baker said. &#8220;The steps contained in these bills are aimed at changing how we sentence and incarcerate wrongdoers, and how we prevent recidivism, so public safety is not compromised.&#8221;</p><p>The package of JRI2 bills include proposals sponsored by Baker and Senators Tom Killion (R-9), Camera Bartolotta (R-46), Vince Hughes (D-7) and Art Haywood (D-4).</p><p>&#8226; Senate Bill 500, sponsored by Baker, would create a County Adult Probation and Parole Advisory Committee to help ensure expenditures will not exceed savings from the program. The panel would help counties better assess the unique risks and needs of probationers to reduce incarceration and cut costs to taxpayers. Adult probation departments across the state would be supported financially and trained on best practices to achieve better outcomes for offenders. A special provision will ensure that future expenditures never exceed the savings realized.</p><p>&#8226; Senate Bill 501, sponsored by Killion, would streamline the placement of offenders in drug treatment programs and other intermediate punishment programs, and improve and expedite the parole process for non-violent offenders.</p><p>&#8220;This legislation will ensure that offenders get the treatment they need while implementing reforms to our parole process,&#8221; Killion said. &#8220;These changes will not only enhance our criminal justice system but will also be greatly beneficial to society.&#8221;</p><p>&#8226; Senate Bill 502, sponsored by Bartolotta, Hughes and Haywood, would help improve communications with crime victims and ensure they receive any compensation they are owed.</p><p>&#8220;We need to do more to ensure that victims understand their rights and are not forced to endure even more hardships long after the crime has been committed. Many crime victims have no idea that compensation may be available to them or how to begin the process to get the money they are entitled to receive,&#8221; Bartolotta said. &#8220;My bill will help streamline the entire process and ensure more victims receive the help they need.&#8221;</p><style>
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<div class="neCaption">Gov. Tom Wolf addresses his Restore Pennsylvania plan to restore Pennsylvania&#8217;s infrastructure during a stop at the Luzerne County Emergency Management Agency. From left, Sen. John Yudichak, West Pittston Mayor Tom Blaskiewicz, Wilkes-Barre Mayor Tony George, Luzerne County Manager David Pedri, Pennsylvania Emergency Management Agency Director Randy Padfield, and Rep. Eddie Day Pashinski.  </div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo1>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/web1_TTL020119gov2.cmyk_.jpg</photo1><caption1>Gov. Tom Wolf addresses his Restore Pennsylvania plan to restore Pennsylvania&#8217;s infrastructure during a stop at the Luzerne County Emergency Management Agency. From left, Sen. John Yudichak, West Pittston Mayor Tom Blaskiewicz, Wilkes-Barre Mayor Tony George, Luzerne County Manager David Pedri, Pennsylvania Emergency Management Agency Director Randy Padfield, and Rep. Eddie Day Pashinski.  </caption1><photoCredit1>Times Leader file photo </photoCredit1></div></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>

NEPA communities urge passage of Gov. Wolf’s Restore Pennsylvania plan