Regional Roundup – 07/01/19

Guests: Micah Sims, Lawton Robert Burns, Marten Edwards

On this week’s Regional Roundup: a bill is moving through the Pennsylvania legislature that would open up primary elections to unaffiliated voters. MICAH SIMS, executive director of Common Cause Pennsylvania, will give us his thoughts on why the primaries should be open to Independents, and what effect this will have on elections in Pennsylvania. Then, last week, Philadelphia’s Hahnemann University Hospital announced it would close in September because of financial troubles. Since then Pennsylvania’s Department of Health has issued a “cease and desist” order to stop the closure. We’ll talk with LAWTON ROBERT BURNS, professor of health care management at the Wharton School, about what the loss of Hahnemann would mean for the community, health care access and the challenges of running a “safety-net” hospital. Lastly, we’ll talk about the perpetual summertime problem of ticks, and why recently, every year is a bad tick year. Our guest is MARTEN EDWARDS, professor of biology at Muhlenberg College.