Hour 2 An annual survey of Pennsylvania school districts (pdf) found that schools are in financial crisis and are planning deep cuts to education programs. Things like summer school, Advanced Placement classes, tutoring, music, gym, arts education and full-day kindergarten are all on the chopping block in districts throughout the commonwealth.  The survey, conducted by [...]

Filed under: Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, criminal justice, education, politics |

Hour 1 Former Rutgers University student Dharun Ravi was sentenced yesterday to 30 days in prison for committing a bias crime in connection with the suicide death of his roommate Tyler Clementi.  Bias intimidation laws, also known as hate-crime laws, enhance penalties for crimes committed against protected classes of people and are on the books [...]

Filed under: LGBTQ, New Jersey, crime, criminal justice, education, law enforcement, technology, teens |

Hour 1 The shocking death of 6-year-old Khalil Wimes, who was allegedly starved and beaten to death by his parents, has outraged and confused many Philadelphians. Why was this young boy removed from a safe foster home and returned to his unstable family? Why did a Department of Human Services worker not report the abuse [...]

Filed under: Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, crime, criminal justice, family issues, health, law enforcement, parenting, social issues |

Hour 2 [REBROADCAST] Vanity Fair editor-at-large CULLEN MURPHY believes there is nothing new under the sun about interrogation. He says ingredients for a modern day inquisition are here today as bureaucracies, information technology, and surveillance keep expanding; and there are still religions and totalitarian regimes fixed on an idea, forcing everyone else to tow the [...]

Filed under: author, criminal justice, history, military, religion |

Hour 1 In announcing its award for local reporting last week, the Pulitzer Prize committee praised crime reporter SARA GANIM and her colleagues at the Patriot-News of Harrisburg for “courageously revealing and adeptly covering the explosive Penn State sex scandal involving former football coach Jerry Sandusky.” Ganim, who is 24 years old and graduated from [...]

Filed under: Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, author, crime, criminal justice, food, journalism, media, social issues |

Hour 1 Last week’s fire at the former Bucks Hosiery factory in Kensington killed two firefighters and cast a spotlight on a longterm problem confronting Philadelphia: the economic opportunities, challenges and physical dangers presented by its many old and abandoned and underutilized buildings. What does the fatal warehouse fire mean for the city's years-long efforts [...]

Filed under: Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, crime, criminal justice, history, law enforcement, politics |

It is estimated that  20 to 25 percent of women will be the victim of a completed or attempted rape while in college, but fewer than 5 percent of these cases go reported. High profile cases at Penn State and Yale University have continued to raise questions about how  universities and colleges deal with sexual [...]

Filed under: business, criminal justice, education, law enforcement, parenting, teens |

Hour 1 The U.S. Supreme Court ruled last week that anyone arrested can be subjected to a strip search even if they’re being held for a minor offense. That’s what happened to plaintiff Albert Florence, who was wrongly arrested for an unpaid traffic violation which in fact, he had paid. Florence was strip-searched twice by [...]

Filed under: New Jersey, crime, criminal justice, law enforcement, politics, social issues |

BRISA DE ANGULO is a student at Rutgers School of Law-Camden and a co-founder of  Centro Una Brisa De Esperanza (CUBE), or A Breeze of Hope Center — the only place in Bolivia specializing in providing comprehensive assistance for children who are victims of sexual abuse. De Angulo herself was repeatedly raped by an adult [...]

Filed under: criminal justice, family issues, psychology, social issues, teens, world |

Hour 1 In his new memoir, "Life Among the Cannibals: A Political Career, a Tea Party Uprising, and the End of Governing As We Know It," former Pennsylvania Senator ARLEN SPECTER tells stories about his decades in politics, serving in the U.S. Senate as a moderate Republican from Pennsylvania. He writes about his controversial votes [...]

Filed under: Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, author, criminal justice, economy, politics |