CLOSE UP by Brian Rudnick

Loving Barbados and the NYPD Scooter family

Eudene Yardehope loves her New York Police Deparment family on the traffic enforcement scooter patrol and her dual homes of America and Barbados. Watch video here.

Police Seargent to citizens: Get organized

HOW CAN WE HELP [YOU,] THE POLICE, DO YOUR JOB? The way citizens can help out the police department- we're supposed to work in partnership with each other. I would suggest that the best way is just to be visible. First, call us, 911, if you see anything that is suspicious or out of hand and the police can come and investigate it. But also, as a community, there's more that you guys have to take on your block. So it would be better to get organized and work with the police. You guys are out there every day, you're coming home from work, from school and play. You can just form up, you can have meetings on the corners that you identify as problem corners and inform us that you're doing it. Take charge of your block.

HOW DO THE PSA'S WORK?

The PSAs are police service areas and we've been up and running with the PSAs for at least two years already. Basically, we can identify problem areas, we can bring in specialists such as L&I, Abandoned Autos, on the specific problems you're having in the neighborhood. 

I NOTICED A YOUTUBE CHANNEL WHERE YOU HAVE VIDEOS,MAYBE SURVEILLANCE CAMERA? DO YOU KNOW IF THEY'RE EVER HELPFUL IN APPREHENDING ANYONE? With the technology these days, everything is helpful. If it's verbal, by telephone, or if it's video the detectives or police can definitely use it.

Philadelphia Police Seargent Michael Kennedy with daughter Lori after a Town Watch Meeting he helped lead at the 14th police district headquarters on Haines Street in Germanown, Philadelphia.

Watch video interview here.

Nuclear faith, nuclear fears- workmates differ on energy alternatives

Workmates Stephen McShane and Jarek Heljak (seated on other side of table) of Northeast Philadelphia talk about the nuclear plant crisis in Japan and energy generation alternatives. McShane has a Japanese friend whose parents in Sendai were far west enough to have only lost power. He expressed grave concerns about water and food contamination and favors solar or wind energy. Heljak, who says his native Poland relies on coal and has no nuclear plants due to the expense, favors nuclear. Starbucks Coffee, Chestnut Hill. Watch video interview here.

Gasland comes to Philly - fracking for natural gas in the Delaware River watershed?

Punctuated by first hand accounts  of health problems caused by fouled air and water and scary stunts  by homeowners across the country setting their polluted tapwater on fire, the film “Gasland”, an Academy Award nominee,  documents the dirty production side of  what’s marketed as clean natural gas.

On Tuesday evening,  about seventy five people attended a showing  of the banjo-playing filmmaker Josh Fox’s movie at the Germantown Jewish Center, organized by the synagogue, Weavers Way, the Neighborhood Interfaith Movement and the Unitarian Society of Germantown.

Afterwards. a panel of scientists and directly affected individuals and activists from the Marcellus Shale region of upstate Pennsylvania described the adverse health and environmental  impacts of hydraulic fracturing for natural gas (“fracking” in common parlance, “frac jobs” in industry terms). SEE PANELIST INFORMATION BELOW

It’s a process that injects water combined with several of some hundreds of available chemicals, many known toxins such as benzene,  at high pressure, to release the gas.  Developed by former Vice President Dick Cheney’s Haliburton company, fracking was exempted from the Safe Drinking Water act by the 2005 Energy Policy Act.

Under newly elected  Pennsylvania Governor Tom Corbett, it appears to be open season for the drilling of new wells in Pennsylvania which may extend into the watershed area which is the source of drinking water in Philadelphia. This is cause for serious local concern as expressed by Linda Cherkas, a Mount Airyite attending the filming  and the subject of a  Philadelphia city council forum the very same evening.

After the showing, attendees flocked to tables to sign letters urging President Obama, who voted for the 2005 Energy Act, to direct his representative on the Delaware River Basin Commission to vote against finalizing draft rules on gas drilling and urging the President to call a nationwide moratorium until an Environmental Protection Agency study is complete.

Watch video here.

This account makes use of critical analysis of the film and counter-allegations of its critics in the New York Times by Michael Soraghan of Greenwire athttp://www.nytimes.com/gwire/2011/02/24/24greenwire-groundtruthing-academy-award-nominee-gasland-33228.html

Peace High School Students talk about guns and Martin Luther King Day

WE WOULDN’T BE CELEBRATING MARTIN LUTHER KING DAY IF HE WERE STILL ALIVE AND NOT ASSASSINATED BY SOMEONE WHO WAS A LITTLE CRAZY, WITH A FIREARM. I’M THINKING THAT IT’S TIME TO REPEAL THE SECOND AMENDMENT. YOU HAVE A RIGHT TO SELF-DEFENSE BUT NO RIGHT TO BEAR ARMS. WHAT’S YOUR OPINION ABOUT THE ARIZONA SHOOTING AND THE VIRGINIA TECH SHOOTINGS?

“Most of us agree that the second amendment should be revised as to who’s allowed to carry a gun. We learned that in certain states you can carry concealed weapons. There’s no law against it. They force some colleges to allow students to carry concealed weapons…. There should be some sort of test to pass, not just filling out paperwork.” Breanna Hawkins, right.

“We’re actually learning about that in our English class. We have a lot of opinions about what happened what should have happened … Maybe it’s time for the police to also step up and go through the streets and find those people that are selling the guns and people that are buying them illegally. Most teenagers that have firearms are getting their guns illegally from the streets.” Brittany Moldey, left.

Brittany and Breanna, eleventh graders at the Parkway Northwest High School for Peace and Social Justice in Mount Airy, were welcoming prospective students and their parents on Saturday as part of their required community service. On Martin Luther King Day, Parkway students will help paint the lunchroom and others are volunteering to cook with younger children at the Waldorf School, also situated on the New Covenant Church campus in Mount Airy.

Watch video interview here.

Cat kidney transplants and adorable, adoptable Darla, rescued pit bull

WHAT’S NEW? “Well, we have kidney transplants. We have a cat that we had a kidney transplant done. So they take a kidney from a donor, put it in your cat and then you have to adopt that cat. That’s been going on a few years. It’s a nice thing we can do today. DO YOU DO IT HERE? No we send it to Penn. It’s working very well. HOW DOES A CAT BECOME A DONOR CAT? That’s a cat that’s usually from a shelter and the kidney’s taken out or they may have them at Penn, donors ready to go. And then you adopt that cat too. So you have two cats now, instead of one. You have two healthy kidneys in the house one in each cat… and this is Darla, she’s being fostered. She’s a rescue from down south, a real sweetie, so if anyone wants to adopt Darla, she’s here in our hospital. She comes with Julie our technician.” Sheldon Gerstenfeld, VMD, Chestnut Hill Veterinary Clinic, Erdenheim, with Darla and Julie Raymond. Watch video interview here.

Flourtown evacuates heart patient by helicopter

“What it is- we get involved. It’s the heart rescue program out of Chestnut Hill Hospital. The individual has a ‘STEMI’, a blockage in his neck and they get to Penn Presbyterian within a 90 minute time frame and they have a 95% recovery rate. So the fastest way to get down there for them is to take him by helicopter. This year we’re also celebrating the 10th anniversary of the Flourtown Fire Company being a hundred percent volunteer- started in 1910 and still going strong in 2010.” George B. Wilmot III, Chief, Flourtown Fire Company.

Watch helicopter evacuation and interview here.

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PA Green Party candidate for U.S. Senate protests Marcellus shale drilling

“I’m running for U.S. Senate on the Green Party ticket.” CAN YOU TELL US A LITTLE BIT ABOUT YOUR CAMPAIGN? “I just started to campaign now. Our new brochure is out. We’re the only party and I’m the only senatorial candidate in this state who’s standing against the corporations - against Marcellus Shale drilling and for fair play for all people. Our economy right now has been completely taken over by the banksters and there’s no redress for the average people. We have five million homes being foreclosed, we have 30 million people unemployed with no help in sight and we don’t see an end to this economic crisis.” WHAT ARE SPECIFIC ISSUES YOU’RE TAKING ON LIKE THE MARCELLUS SHALE ISSUE? “The ones we just talked about which is the unemployed issue; we need to end all the wars now. These endless wars have got to stop, it’s just taxing us incredibly. We need to start bringing all the troops home and start using that money to create public sector jobs” AND HOW’S THE CAMPAIGN GOING? “It’s going fine. You have to understand we just started the campaign. A lot of people just now are involved in the primaries” YOU CAME IN FROM PITTSBURGH TODAY? “I came in from Pittsburgh to join this protest against Marcellus shale drilling and I will also stop down to Temple University Hospital picket line today; the strike needs a great deal of support and from there I’ll be going to speak at Cheyney University. There is a political candidate debate tonight.” Mel Packer, Pennsylvania Green Party Candidate for U.S. Senate, outside Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection regional office, Norristown. Watch video interview here.

Jenks School Traffic Sign Causes Confusion

 
This new "Safe Corridor Program" traffic sign posted at the Ardleigh Street entrance of the Jenks K-8 Public School lists drop-off and pick up times and reads,"PLEASE DO NOT DRIVE UP ON SIDEWALK OR PRIVATE DRIVEWAY." Apparently,it did not please the drivers of the cars shown to stay off the school sidewalk.
Little video here

Dennis Novack Tests for Cross-Connections Between Sanitary and Storm Pipes

"Q: I got a letter that you're doing these inspections - what's it about? A: This is for cross reference to see if the sani[tary sewer] is going to the sani pipe from your home and the storm is going to the storm pipe. Q. And what does that show over there? A. This the the storm pipe that runs the whole length of the street. it's made out of brick. Its' two feet 0 inches which is 24 inches up and down. And if you look, that's from the house over there, that's the lateral that runs from the house...That other crew will put dye in because you have two inlets on the curb. One goes to sani one goes to storm. You put differnet color dye in and then when they run water they see if the right color dye comes out in the pipe. If it does, everything is fine. Q. Is everything fine so far? A. Well, we haven't started yet."  Dennis Novack, Water Department Electronic Technician.