In the News

See Amtrak's new 110mph trains running between Philadelphia and Harrisburg

The New York Times Thursday, May 16, 2013

The New York Times reports on Amtrak's new, modernized fleet of trains that will operate on the Northeast Corridor and Keystone routes.

The new locomotives will be on regular trains, not the railroad’s high-speed Acela line, which reaches top speeds of 150 m.p.h.

“The new Amtrak locomotives will help power the economic future of the Northeast region, provide more reliable and efficient service for passengers, and support the rebirth of rail manufacturing in America,” said Joseph H. Boardman, Amtrak’s president and chief executive.

Original source: The New York Times

Read the full story here.

Harrisburg University cracks U.S. News & World Report's Best Colleges list

US News & World Report Thursday, September 20, 2012

For the first time, Harrisburg University of Science and Technology lands on US News & World Report's Best Colleges list.

Harrisburg University of Science and Technology is a private institution that was founded in 2001. It has a total undergraduate enrollment of 223, its setting is urban, and the campus size is 1 acres. It utilizes a semester-based academic calendar. Harrisburg University of Science and Technology's ranking in the 2013 edition of Best Colleges is National Liberal Arts Colleges, Tier 2. Its tuition and fees are $23,900 (2012-13).

Original source: U.S. News & World Report
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Hershey's new plant: 700M Kisses a Day and $1B impact on PA

Reuters Thursday, September 20, 2012

Reuters reports on Hershey's global and local moves, including its new $300 million plant that is expected to have a $1 billion impact on Pennsylvania.

Hershey, whose shares rose more than 1 percent, just spent $300 million to modernize and double the size of a plant less than two miles from where its founder Milton Hershey opened his first chocolate factory in 1905.

The updated factory, which officially opened on Tuesday, can make 70 million Hershey's Kisses a day, up from roughly 40 million before.

Original source: Reuters
Read the full story here.

Startup advice courtesy of Pennsylvania business profs

Huffington Post Thursday, August 02, 2012

Business experts from Susquehanna University and Lebanon Valley College weigh in on small business startup advice for Huffington Post.

There's no time like the present for conducting thorough market research, according to Leann Mischel, assistant professor of management at Susquehanna University in Selinsgrove, Pa. "Don't assume that if you build it, they will come," says Mischel. "It is much more difficult to get a product or service out there than you think, and now matter how great the product is, market research and the right marketing are both extremely important."

Original source: Huffington Post
Read the full story here.

Would you sit in something made of recycled plastic, glass and sawdust?

Fast Company Co.Design Thursday, May 31, 2012

Fast Company Co.Design writes about Hanover-based Emeco, the heralded innovative chair-maker that recently rolled out its Broom chair made from recycled plastic, glass and sawdust.

The Broom got its start back in 2001, when Starck conceived of a bucket chair with a curved aluminum seat and backrest embedded in a plastic frame, intended to add a more affordable version to Emeco’s existing catalog. But the costs of tooling and creating two molds--one for the plastic component, the other for the aluminum--led the company to mothball the idea. After partnering with Coke on the 111 chair, a revamp of the classic Navy made from recycled plastic bottles, the company set about finding another way to push the bounds of sustainability through the use of innovative materials. So Emeco’s director of product management, Magnus Breitling, began a quest for an eco-friendly substance made purely from waste, rather than from a food product such as corn. According to Metropolis, “It occurred to Breitling that using sawdust as a stiffening agent in combination with discarded offcuts of a suitable all-synthetic polymer would result in an almost entirely recycled product.”

Original source: Fast Company Co.Design

Read the full story here.

Poynter peeks at Pennsylvania's Pulitzers

Poynter Thursday, April 19, 2012

Poynter reports on the coveted Pulitzers won by the Philadelphia Inquirer and the Patriot-News.

There’s no question that the investigative soul of The Patriot-News now resides largely with its first Pulitzer Prize-winner: 24-year-old Sara Ganim, whose reporting of alleged sexual abuse by an ex-Penn State football coach shook the paper’s 67,000 central Pennsylvania readers, and resonated with journalists far beyond.

Original source: Poynter

Read the full stories here (Inquirer) and here (Patriot-News)

Third-party environmental group recognizes PA for forest protection

Essential Public Radio Thursday, April 05, 2012

Essential Public Radio reports that Pennsylvania was honored for the 14th year in a row for conserving the state's forests.

SmartWood, a third-party forest-management certification branch of the Rainforest Alliance, honored Pennsylvania for its sound management of 2.2 million acres of forests, including responsible management of drilling activities and protection of sensitive species.

Dan Devlin, director of the forestry bureau for the state Department of Conservation of Natural Resources, said the state is being recognized for balancing conservation and utilization.

“One of the things we do is try and ensure that we’re conserving the resources as best we can while still providing some values and uses to the citizens of the commonwealth,” he said.

Original source: Essential Public Radio
Read the full story here.

PA is one of country's top states for green jobs

The Atlantic Thursday, March 29, 2012

The Atlantic reports on a government study showing that Pennsylvania is the state with the fourth-highest number of green jobs, and about 3 percent of all jobs in the commonwealth can be considered green.

The report defines green jobs across five categories: production of energy from renewable sources; energy efficiency; pollution reduction and removal, greenhouse gas reduction, and recycling and reuse; natural resources conservation; and environmental compliance, education and training, and public awareness.

The majority of these green jobs (2.3 million) come from the private sector. The public sector employed about 860,000 people. The largest sector of employment was manufacturing, with more than 450,000 green jobs.

This squares with a July 2011 Brooking Institution study of clean economy jobs, which identified 2.7 million clean economy jobs across the United States. The report found that median wages for clean economy jobs are 13 percent higher than median U.S. wages, and that a disproportionate share of clean economy jobs are staffed by workers with relatively little formal education. This has created a sizable group of "moderately well-paying green collar occupations," according to the report.

Original source: The Atlantic
Read the full story here.

High-tech system to guide visitors away from full parking lots in Gettysburg

WTOP Thursday, February 02, 2012

WTOP explains how sensors, cameras and mobile phones will determine when parking lots at the Gettysburg Civil War battlefield are full, then direct tourists to take shuttle buses from overflow lots.

Backup systems will be installed using cameras and cellphone technology to ensure the cars are counted accurately.

"Essentially, the idea is no one system determines when the parking lots are full," park spokeswoman Katie Lawhon said.

Parking lots fill up only a few days each year, Lawhon said. But the system is designed to prevent headaches during the 150th anniversary of the Battle of Gettysburg in 2013. Tourism officials expect as many as 4 million people to visit Gettysburg next year.

Original source: WTOP
Read the full story here.

Steelmaker training Penn State students to take over future retirees' jobs

The Patriot-News Thursday, February 02, 2012

The world's largest steel company and two Penn State campuses are partnering to train future workers at a Harrisburg-area steel plant, The Patriot-News reports.

Many of the employees at ArcelorMittal Steelton have worked there for decades. As they retire and the plant upgrades, the company needs skilled workers who understand new technologies, said Ray Napoli, president of United Steelworkers Local 1688.

ArcelorMittal broke ground in Steelton in December for a $54 million high-efficiency reheat furnace project that it hopes to use this year, spokeswoman Mary Beth Holdford said.

Meanwhile, Marcellus Shale gas exploration has provided cheaper fuel for manufacturing, and because the company makes steel directly for the exploration, production and gas-distribution processes.

Original source: The Patriot-News
Read the full story here.

What happens to the Farm Show butter sculpture? It turns into energy

StateImpact Thursday, January 19, 2012

StateImpact explains how the Pennsylvania Farm Show's famous butter sculpture faced a future of being dumped into a manure pit, converted to methane gas and generating electricity for a farm north of Harrisburg.

Turns out, butter becomes gas through the work of a methane digester. Glenn Cauffman, the manager of Penn State University's Farm Operations, said the butter will be dumped into a big heated tank where microorganisms will feast on it. "Those microorganisms can break those fat molecules apart into the less complex molecules," he explained. "Then further take that to produce a gas called methane, which burns readily in an engine, and can be converted into electricity."

As long as the farmer keeps the digester hot, the bacteria will do all the work. "Those organisms at a hundred degrees, are working hard," said Cauffman. "They’re trying to live. They’re trying to reproduce. They’re trying to eat food, be happy, make more bacterial."

Original source: StateImpact
Read the full story here.

New WikiLeaks-style website created as outlet for whistleblowers in Appalachia

Associated Press Thursday, January 12, 2012

The Associated Press reports on Honest Appalachia, a newly launched website set up to accept leaked government and corporate documents from several states, including Pennsylvania.

The region also was selected, (co-founder Jim) Tobias said, because of its relatively rural area, believing there was less media scrutiny in the region and that a resource like Honest Appalachia would be particularly valuable.

Many newsrooms have shut down and many journalists have lost their jobs, Tobias says, increasing the chances that corruption and misconduct will go unchecked. And many whistleblowers are skeptical of sharing their information with mainstream media.

"We believe our country desperately needs watchdogs at the local, state and regional level," Tobias said.

Original source: Associated Press
Read the full story here.

DC charging stations coming to PA Turnpike in 2013

AutoBlog Thursday, December 22, 2011

Seventeen service plazas along the Pennsylvania Turnpike are slated to have EV charging stations for electric cars by summer, 2013, reports AutoBlog.

Each plaza will get one Level 2 charging stations and two DC fast chargers, the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection's Kevin Sunday told Essential Public Radio. The first stations will be put in in the spring of 2012.

Florida's Car Charging Group was awarded a grant worth a million dollars from the PDEP to install the Chargepoint charging stations made by Coulomb Technologies that look similar to this. On top of the million, the Turnpike Commission will spend up to $500,000 to upgrade the electricity infrastructure at the plazas "to provide the charging stations with the necessary voltage.

Original source: AutoBlog
Read the full story here.

Midstate customers taking another look at smaller banks and credit unions

Central Penn Business Journal Thursday, November 10, 2011

The Central Penn Business Journal reports that a growing number of area customers are considering switching their accounts to credit unions and small, community-owned banks.

Site traffic at www.ibelong.org, the Pennsylvania Credit Union Association's website for consumers considering credit unions, increased fivefold after Bank of America announced the $5 (monthly debit card) fee, said PCUA Senior Vice President Mike Wishnow.

Credit unions are anecdotally reporting an uptick in membership applications, though firm data won't be available for a week or two, Wishnow said.

Meanwhile, the midstate's small banks are touting their free debit cards, free checking and community ties.

Original source: Central Penn Business Journal
Read the full story here.

Spinal bleeding may indicate child abuse, Penn State-Hershey scientist finds

Health Imaging Thursday, November 10, 2011

A study from Penn State-Hershey shows that victims of child abuse are more likely to suffer from bleeding of the spine than children who are injured accidentally, Health Imaging reports.

According to the researchers, abusive head trauma is the leading cause of significant traumatic brain injury in infants, with a 20 to 38 percent mortality rate and significant neurological and developmental impairment in 30 to 78 percent of survivors, according to Arabinda Kumar Choudhary, MD, of the department of radiology at Penn State University College of Medicine in Hershey, Pa.

The radiologic features of abusive head trauma include bleeding within the skull and brain injury. Spinal injuries like spinal subdural hemorrhage are another feature of trauma that may be overlooked clinically in non-fatal cases because of coexistent brain injury and traumatic coma.

Original source: Health Imaging
Read the full story here.

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