I have highlighted a few of my favorite articles below, which include my time with POLITICO, The Brown and White, Lehigh’s student paper, The Jersey Journal in Hudson County, New Jersey, the Maine Monitor and the Pennsylvania Legislative Correspondent’s Association. To view all of my work with POLITICO, click here. To view all of my work with The Brown and Whiteclick here.

 

Long-form. 

A Crisis of Connectivity: Internet Access in Rural PA

By Jordan Wolman for WLVR News, a local NPR station, with support from the Pulitzer Center

Tim Westgate walks down from his house, cell phone in hand, to his dock on Lake Underwood.

He then gets into his pontoon boat. It’s quiet on the water. It’s quiet almost everywhere in this corner of rural Pennsylvania’s Wayne County.

If he holds his phone up while he’s out on the water where there’s a clearing, Westgate says, he might get two or three bars of signal. It’s the closest place he can go to connect to the outside world.

Westgate has no internet at home. Instead, he regularly makes the 1.5-mile drive to the nearest library, where he can sit in the parking lot and access free Wi-Fi.

But when COVID-19 hit, those challenges only grew.

Westgate said his son moved up to Wayne County with him this past May after graduating from a technical school in Delaware for physical therapy. But once he arrived, applying for a license to practice physical therapy in Pennsylvania became a chore because of their lack of internet and the closure of state offices due to the pandemic.

Westgate said his son would join him at Sunday church extra early to access the building’s Wi-Fi to work on his cover letters and job applications.

As for Westgate himself, a retired optometrist, his weekly Bible study classes have been moved to Zoom since the pandemic began. In order for Westgate to tune in on Tuesday nights at 7:30 p.m., he not only needs to drive to the library, he needs to find a street light to park under — so people on the call are able to see him.

Westgate then climbs in the backseat, resting his device on the truck’s center console.

“There’s no access here,” he said of the area.

Westgate isn’t the only one with no internet.

Honesdale is Wayne County’s most populous municipality and home to 5,000 people. It’s known for its homey Main Street, where residents come in to eat at one of the town’s classic diners and greet the wait staff by name.

The pace is slow but comfortable. On one end of Main Street, there’s a picturesque bridge crossing over a river with mountains rising gently behind it. The fall colors are radiant in this part of the state.

But walk five minutes, and Bruce Johnson doesn’t have the internet connection he needs to work from home.

Read the full story here. 

Listen to a promotional interview for the project, which aired on WLVR news, a local NPR radio station based in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania.

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Investigative.

B&W Exclusive: New information emerges in James Peterson scandal

By Jordan Wolman and Nicole Walker for The Brown and White

Over two years ago, James Peterson, a former professor of English and the former director of Lehigh’s Africana studies program, resigned amidst an investigation into allegations of sexual misconduct. 

Yet on the heels of the dismissal of a lawsuit filed by Monica Miller, an associate professor of religion studies, some faculty members are speaking out about the situation on campus during Peterson’s tenure at Lehigh. Some sources argue the university still has not fully healed from the ordeal, blaming the administration for a lack of transparency on the matter. 

The Brown and White has reached out to more than 45 sources over the past month and has spoken to more than 20 of them, both on and off the record, to learn more about their roles and perspectives on the Peterson investigation and the university’s handling of the situation. Sources also shared documents with The Brown and White relevant to certain aspects of the story, of which some names and personal information have been redacted for confidentiality purposes to protect victims and mandatory reporters.

Through the reporting process, The Brown and White has become aware of a timeline of the investigation into Peterson that does not match what the university has publicly shared with members of the campus community. Sources and documents also confirm that the nature of the complaints filed against Peterson involved “sexual assault.” Those same sources and documents raised questions regarding the details of certain job responsibilities that were distributed after Peterson was placed on paid leave. Faculty members also discussed the tenuous circumstances surrounding Peterson’s promotion to full professor, and many feel they are still grappling with a perceived lack of transparency.

The university includes sexual violence, sexual assault and rape under the official umbrella term “sexual harassment/sexual misconduct” on its harassment and non-discrimination policy. The university did not use the term “sexual assault” in public communications with campus regarding Peterson.

Read the full story here. 

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Enterprise.

‘Weird bedfellows’: Maine voters to weigh in on controversial transmission project

By Jordan Wolman for POLITICO Pro

The fight over a $950 million transmission line project that would carry hydropower across the U.S.-Canadian border has created some strange bedfellows and sparked the most expensive ballot campaign in Maine’s history.

Voters in the state will have their chance to weigh in on the 145-mile transmission line that would carry hydropower from Quebec into the New England grid when they head to the polls Tuesday. The controversial project has linked environmentalists and natural gas plant operators who oppose the line against the local officials and the Biden administration who back it, and it has prompted concerns about the influence of outside, sometimes foreign, funding into local politics.

Democratic Gov. Janet Mills and former Republican Gov. Paul LePage — who is running to unseat Mills in 2022 — both support the New England Clean Energy Connect transmission project. And Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm weighed in on the debate, tweeting that she hopes Mainers vote to support the project.

But several environmental groups like the state’s chapter of the Sierra Club and the Natural Resources Council of Maine are on the same page as energy companies NextEra, Vistra and Calpine in opposing the project, although for different reasons. NextEra is the world’s largest generator of renewable energy, and all three companies operate natural gas plants in Maine that could experience competitive pricing pressure from the Canadian power. And environmentalists are concerned about the tree clearing needed to pave the way for the project and other potential environmental effects.

Read the full story here (or access a PDF here).

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General news.

Harvard cracks on fossil fuels and a dam breaks

By Jordan Wolman for POLITICO

Academic endowments are entering a new normal after the richest school in the world followed the lead of other colleges and universities to divest from fossil fuels.

Harvard University and its nearly $42 billion endowment succumbed to years of pressure this month when President Lawrence Bacow said it would phase out its current fossil fuel holdings. The institution said it has no intention of making future investments in the industry.

Now a cascade of similar announcements has followed, with Boston University, the University of Minnesota and the $8 billion MacArthur Foundation pulling the plug on fossil fuels.

We’re going to see this ripple out in the coming months. There really are no more excuses for any financial institution to stay invested in fossil fuels,” said Richard Brooks, climate finance director at Stand.earth, a San Francisco-based nonprofit group. “The financial arguments have never been stronger, with declining demand for oil, gas and coal. The social acceptability has now shifted as well.”

Read the full story here .

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Long-form.

‘Death by a thousand cuts’: Controversy in Lebanon County school district  highlights Pa.’s education challenges

By Jordan Wolman for The Pennsylvania Capital-Star

For Palmyra, it’s become an annual debate.

The issue of whether the school board should raise property taxes on this Lebanon County community’s approximately 3,700 homeowners has become a yearly ritual. 

The board has voted to raise taxes on those same residents seven times in the last eight years, according to PA Schools Work, a coalition advocating for public schools in Pennsylvania.

And with jobless claims and unemployment benefits surging during the pandemic, residents are tiring of the district coming back and asking for more.     

This year, the decision on whether to raise property taxes felt different. 

The state flat funded education while trying to fill a $5 billion hole in a stopgap budget plan approved last month. And a recent report found Pennsylvania school districts could face $1 billion in lost revenue — meaning $2 million in lost revenue for Palmyra schools. 

Everyone’s pockets feel squeezed.  

One resident, Casey Long, decided to take matters into his own hands.

Read the full story here. 

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Long-form. 

How McGreevey-led jobs and reentry program went from national model to political firestorm 

By Jordan Wolman for The Jersey Journal

JERSEY CITY — On one sunny day in September 2014, Jersey City was a glitzy gathering place for some of the nation’s most high-profile political figures.

The red carpet was rolled out at 398 Martin Luther King Jr. Drive for VIPs like Nancy Pelosi, who was then the House minority leader; Gov. Chris Christie; Sen. Robert Menendez; Mayor Steve Fulop; and former Gov. Jim McGreevey. They posed for photos while Fulop cut a large ribbon with oversized scissors in front of an audience of more than 500 people.

For McGreevey, who’d been forced to resign as governor 10 years before, the glamorous ribbon cutting for the Jersey City Employment and Training Program’s new administrative offices was a long-awaited comeback.

But today, nearly five years later, McGreevey stands accused of mismanaging millions of dollars while serving as the JCETP’s executive director. A former board chair says the program has been “decimated” under the agency’s current leadership, city funding has been cut, and the agency has been without a permanent leader since McGreevey was fired in January.

The controversy centers on claims by top Jersey City officials that McGreevey improperly redirected JCETP money to a similar organization under his direct control.

An auditing firm hired by JCETP found “millions of dollars unaccounted for or redirected out of JCETP and into the nonprofit run by Jim McGreevey,” said Jersey City spokeswoman Kim Wallace-Scalcione, who works for Fulop.

Read the full story here. 

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General news. 

Coronavirus-related school safety grant provides boost for struggling districts, but school officials question its effectiveness

By Jordan Wolman for The Caucus/Lancaster Online

A Pennsylvania school safety fund created in the wake of the 2018 school shooting in Parkland, Florida, has now been refocused for costs related to COVID-19.

School districts statewide, including in Lancaster County, are reaping the benefits despite grave uncertainty around what the year might hold. The funds can go toward anything from hand sanitizer and cleaning supplies to bolstering technology programming and functionality, especially for districts that plan on online-only instruction or a hybrid of in-person and remote learning.

The school safety grant has allocated $150 million to 779 eligible Pennsylvania school districts and charter, cyber charter and technical schools. But as schools continue to plan for a number of scenarios this year — including the hybrid plan recently endorsed by Gov. Tom Wolf’s administration — the grant funding could be redirected if the health crisis forces schools in another direction.

The grant’s tight timeline, however, forced districts to make seemingly impossible decisions about how to spend the funds months before the school year begins, some school officials said — compounding an already difficult decision in the balance between health and the desire to get students back in the classroom.

Unlike the general CARES Act funds, the safety grant dollars must be spent by the end of October. Michele Orner, superintendent of Octorara Area School District, said it was this tight timeline of the grant that was most frustrating for her — especially since a draft grant proposal was due in June and Octorara won’t announce a plan for the school year until Aug. 3.

Orner added that opening up her schools involves one set of costs while moving virtual could mean an entirely different set of costs.

“Our needs since June have changed, and a lot of that is due to the guidance and directives from the state Department of Health and Department of Education and so many public health agencies that don’t necessarily agree,” Orner said. “You keep asking yourself who’s in charge, and when who’s in charge continues to be a moving target, it does really make it hard to plan for the grant.”

Read the full story here. 

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Explanatory. 

Red tape, lack of funding limit public’s oversight of Pa. police through body cameras

By Jordan Wolman for Spotlight PA/Philadelphia Inquirer

HARRISBURG — In 2017, Pennsylvania lawmakers approved a bill aimed at clearing the way for widespread use of body cameras.

Law enforcement agencies said they wanted to adopt the tool, but feared state law on recording without consent made them vulnerable to being sued. Act 22, passed by wide margins with bipartisan support and signed by Gov. Tom Wolf, fixed that problem.

But what should have been a watershed moment to bolster public oversight of police officers across the state has been hampered by a lack of funding and an abundance of red tape that makes it virtually impossible to obtain recordings.

The law also gives police departments broad discretion to deny requests, and the ability to withhold footage indefinitely, even after a case has concluded.

“What’s really dangerous about this is you could have those records denied forever, there’s no time limit,” said Elizabeth Randol, legislative director for the American Civil Liberties Union of Pennsylvania. “What you’ve effectively done is: Here’s this incredible piece of technology that could surveil, and none of it is publicly accessible.”

Body cameras are widely seen as an important oversight tool to protect the public from overly aggressive or violent officers — and to be able to prove those claims in court — while at the same time protecting officers from false claims of excessive force or other misconduct.

According to the state’s Office of Open Records, an individual requesting police footage under Act 22 must submit the date, time, and location of the recorded event, explain their relationship to the recorded event, and identify every person present at the time of the recording if the incident occurred inside a residence. The request must come within 60 days of when the footage was recorded, and be submitted through certified mail or by hand.

If a request for footage is denied, a petitioner has to appeal to the Court of Common Pleas, which comes with an initial $125 price tag.

Just how often that happens is difficult to say. There’s no centralized database showing how many requests have been approved or denied by different departments to view such recordings. A 2018 Morning Call investigation found State Police at the time had granted just two of 16 requests.

 

Read the full story here. 

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Investigative. 

Track and field head coach issues apology to team over alleged insensitive comments

By Jordan Wolman and the Investigative Team for The Brown and White

A Lehigh University track coach has apologized to his team for complaints lodged by multiple athletes regarding inappropriate and unprofessional language and actions.

In a July 1 email to the 120-member team, shared with The Brown and White by a former Lehigh track athlete, track and field coach Matt Utesch said that he is remorseful and that the result of this past year’s coaching evaluation “hurts.”

“Some of the themes that have emerged from last season involve perceptions that I am insensitive to a number of issues from mental health/stress, religion, race and sexual orientation,” he said in the email. “…I am saddened and disappointed that I may have caused undue stress or anxiety for some of our team. … I ask that you would have the courage to discuss with me those times when I may make you feel awkward or uncomfortable.”

The Brown and White was tipped to the allegations by a former athlete, who has since transferred, and investigated numerous allegations against the coach, reviewing reports and emails shared by sources and reaching out to dozens of individuals close to the team in order to obtain confirmation of certain claims. 

In particular, five female track athletes, one assistant coach and the father of a prospective student-athlete shared with The Brown and White their experiences of inappropriate, often sexually-charged comments, on record. All of the alleged incidents occurred within the past two years.

Several of those who shared allegations reported their experiences through the proper equal opportunity and compliance reporting channels with varying degrees of resolution. Among the mandated reporters who have fielded complaints include Athletic Director Joe Sterrett, President John Simon and Title IX Coordinator Karen Salvemini.

Read the full story here. 

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Statehouse coverage. 

As more people enroll in MaineCare, they may face fewer options for care

By Jordan Wolman for the Maine Monitor

Health facilities have expressed concern that they won’t be able to maintain quality medical care for the state’s lowest-income residents without an increase in the amount of money they receive from the state. 

The problem has magnified over the last year. More people enrolled in MaineCare amid the pandemic, raising questions about the sustainability of the program tasked with ensuring the most vulnerable people have access to healthcare, including those with low incomes and those who are medically needy.

“The biggest issue we have right now is getting coverage for individuals and having a sustainable model of reimbursement (from MaineCare) for those services,” said Chrissi Maguire, the president and CEO of Mount Desert Island Hospital. “It’s really abysmal.”

More than 345,000 residents — about 1 in 4 Mainers — are signed up for MaineCare, Maine’s Medicaid program, and the number of new monthly enrollees has grown substantially in the last year. An average of 3,600 more individuals enrolled each month since March 2020 compared to the six months prior to COVID-19, according to the Office of Fiscal and Program Review.

The rates at which the state compensates health providers for serving MaineCare patients have been under review by an outside firm for a year. Reimbursement rates vary depending on the type of service, covering as little as 20 percent of the cost for some dental services to 50 percent for occupational therapy and as much as 100 percent or more for ambulatory surgical center procedures.

The cost of care those reimbursement rates cover were calculated as a percentage of the typical private insurance payment rate for that service.

An interim report released last month by Maine’s Department of Health and Human Services, or DHHS, announced that certain rates are “now out of date” and contain inconsistencies that create “inequities across providers” and “potential incentives” for providers to offer some medical services “in favor of others because of the payment rates.” It also noted that “there is no regular update process” for the rates of certain medical services. Some haven’t been adjusted for 20 years or longer

Read the full story here. 

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Investigative.

Lehigh invests $28 million in fossil fuels

By Jordan Wolman for The Brown and White

Three years ago, members of Lehigh’s Green Action club demonstrated on the university’s front lawn, demanding the university divest any portion of its endowment from fossil fuel companies.

The group of students passionately chanted, holding signs that read, “Divest Now” and “Climate Justice.” 

Eventually, members of the club submitted an 18-page report to the board of trustees calling on the university to divest from fossil fuel companies. Divestment is the opposite of investment, or the removal of capital from stocks, funds and bonds. The board agreed to discuss the issue at its March 1, 2018, meeting, as reported by The Brown and White

Today, the university invests 2 percent of its $1.4 billion endowment, or $28 million, in fossil fuels, said Lori Friedman, Lehigh’s media relations director. Roughly 2 percent is also invested in renewable energy.

Fossil fuels, including coal, oil and natural gas, emit greenhouse gases like carbon dioxide, methane and nitrous oxide when burned for human activity, which is contributing to a warming of the planet and other impacts associated with climate change. 

Friedman said while the endowment is not directly invested in individual companies, investments are made through private investment managers, as chosen by the Investment Office and the board’s investment subcommittee. 

“Investment decisions are primarily driven by the principal financial objective of the investment program, which is to preserve and, if possible, enhance the real purchasing power of the endowment principal in order to ensure the University’s financial future,” Friedman said in an email. 

Friedman said maximizing the endowment’s earnings is critical to funding university cornerstones such as research and financial aid.

Susan Cheng, ‘21, the president of Lehigh’s Green Action club, said she feels “powerless” after like-minded students tried and failed to get the board of trustees to divest. 

“They basically said it wasn’t within their power to decide where this money was going because they paid an outside company to decide where to put this money. And I think it’s absolutely incorrect,” Cheng said. “As a (Division I school) that has the money, you have absolute control over how you’re investing this money, and so I think it’s just an excuse for them to say, ‘We’re not going to divest because we have no control over it.’”

Read the full story here. 

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Long-form. 

Swimming upstream: issues related to trout stocking hit local Lehigh Valley waters

By Jordan Wolman for The Brown and White

It’s quiet outside.

The late afternoon sun provides a blanket of warmth on a comfortable September day. Bethlehem’s Saucon Creek is shining, and the sound of the rush of its shallow yet commanding waters acts as a backdrop to the scenery. 

Mark, a Bucks County resident, is pacing around the creek. He’s fished these waters for 20 years.

But as he stands on a bridge overlooking the Saucon Creek carving its way downstream, he’s concerned. The Saucon Creek is artificially stocked with trout by the Pennsylvania Fish and Boat Commission.

“I know stocking fish can have a negative effect on wild trout,” Mark said, who requested only his first name be used in this report. “You want fish to reproduce.”

Trout stocking has been around in the United States for well over 100 years and has its origins in the 1880s. In Pennsylvania, opening day for trout season is somewhat of a statewide holiday: Anglers purchase their licenses, prepare their gear and oftentimes ready their entire families for a prime fishing experience in the early spring with trout galore swimming in cool waters.

The Pennsylvania Fish and Boat Commission stocked 832 streams and lakes this year with over 4.4 million trout — three million of which come from state-owned hatcheries while the remainder are stocked through private cooperative nurseries. Trout typically spend anywhere from 18 months to three years in a hatchery before being released. 

The multi-million dollar state-regulated program which aims to provide recreational opportunities for Pennsylvanians is also the subject of scrutiny from ecologists and some anglers who worry the program ultimately harms the state’s waters and biodiversity. 

Read the full story here.

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Explanatory.

An update on marijuana in Bethlehem: Questions surround implementation of decriminalization

By Jordan Wolman for The Brown and White

When Bethlehem unanimously passed an ordinance last June to decriminalize marijuana, city officials knew implementation of the legislation wasn’t going to be easy.

However, after Bethlehem Police Chief Mark DiLuzio released numbers regarding his department’s enforcement of the ordinance, the situation became more tense.

The ordinance allows city officers to use discretion when determining how to charge an individual who is found in possession of 30 grams of marijuana or less: either charge under the state misdemeanor law, which could mean prison time, or issue a summary ticket citation under the new city law.

A summary offense does not go on one’s criminal record, unlike a misdemeanor offense.

An individual caught with a small amount of marijuana will be fined $25 for the first offense and up to $150 for a fourth offense in one year under the ordinance’s guidelines, if the officer chooses to apply the city law.

But Bethlehem is split between two counties, Northampton and Lehigh. Three-quarters of the city’s 75,000 residents, including Lehigh University, are in Northampton County under the jurisdiction of District Attorney John Morganelli, who has determined that he will not interfere in the decriminalization ordinance.

Jim Martin, though, the district attorney of Lehigh County, has decided that Bethlehem’s decriminalization ordinance is not valid in Lehigh County.

Read the full story here. 

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Feature.

Bethlehem’s state representative of 21 years gets challenge from fellow lifelong city resident

By Jordan Wolman for The Brown and White

For the first time since 2012, Bethlehem voters are going to have a choice over whom they want to represent them in Harrisburg. 

This November, Democratic incumbent Rep. Steve Samuelson, ‘86 — a graduate of Liberty High School and a Lehigh University alum — is facing Scott Hough, his first Republican challenger in eight years. The winner will serve a two-year term to represent State House District 135, which includes the Northampton County portion of Bethlehem and Bethlehem Township, in the state Legislature. Lehigh University and the South Side fall within the district.

Before the 2012 race, Samuelson hadn’t had a challenger since 2004. The National Institute on Money in Politics is reporting that Hough has raised about $1,300 more than Samuelson so far. 

The district has about 2.5 times more registered Democratic voters than Republican voters, according to the Pennsylvania State Department.

But in Hough, who will be attempting to oust Samuelson after 21 years in office, voters find a candidate who is well-rooted in and well-connected to the Bethlehem community. 

Hough grew up on East 5th Street on the South Side before moving to the North Side with his single mother later on in childhood. Hough attended Bethlehem Catholic High School and went on to study criminal justice at DeSales University. His mom worked at Lehigh, and he even drove the late-night TRACS van picking up and dropping off Mountain Hawk students at locations around campus for extra income on nights and weekends.

He is married and still lives on the North Side with his family. Hough is a former security director at the ArtsQuest facilities on the South Side and the PPL Center in Allentown before he accepted a job as a venue security director for an entertainment company in New York City, where he is currently on furlough. Hough’s grandfather is also a former employee at Bethlehem Steel, working in Martin Tower. 

Hough said he never envisioned running for public office.

“I decided last year that Bethlehem needed a fresh perspective on things in Harrisburg,” he said. “I felt it was important to give the people of Bethlehem an opportunity to have some diversity in government.”

Read the full story here.

 

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