Pennsylvania Juvenile Probation Departments in the Wake of the Luzerne County Scandal: What Has Changed?

In 2008, Luzerne County, Pennsylvania made national headlines when the “Kids for Cash Scandal” broke. As a result of the actions of the Juvenile Court Judge and other juvenile system personnel, the Interbranch Commission on Juvenile Justice was created to develop rules to prevent the juvenile jus-tice system in Pennsylvania from failing again. The purpose of this study was to determine how juvenile probation practices have changed since the scandal and if those departments were following through with the recommendations of the Commission. While many policies and practices have changed since the scandal, such as the policies regarding gifts and gratuities, there was a lack of consistency in the magnitude of those changes.

An Analysis of the Spanish-Language Landscape and Hispanic Identity in Hazleton, Pennsylvania (USA)

Linguistic landscapes refer broadly to the study of perceived or actual language use in a particular environment. Such an ever-changing landscape, metaphorical or not, can be most readily identified through the visible or audible presence of language, and this frequently occurs through the analysis of signs. The present study considers the small city of Hazleton, located at the southern edge of Luzerne County, Pennsylvania. Although it was recognized in the early and mid-nineteenth century as a refuge for Eastern European immigrants pursuing employment in the anthracite industry, Hazleton has garnered national attention in the last decade for its increasing Latino population, the overall reduction in monolingual English speakers, and the public reactions and legislation of local government officials. In particular, this study analyzes the types of signs found along the almost two-mile length of Wyoming Street, a street that intersects multiple neighborhoods commonly associated with the reification of Hispanidad. As such, we attempt here concurrently to determine the functions for which the Spanish language is employed publicly and also to consider the extent to which these signs reflect the identity of the Spanish-speaking community more broadly.

The Risky Business of Flood Control

This chapter discusses flood control policy, recounting how Frank Townend—who had been the civil defense director for Luzerne County, Pennsylvania, for over a decade when Hurricane Agnes struck—ignored the warnings coming from the National Weather Service. He was sure that the dikes could hold back the Susquehanna River. Convinced that the levees would protect the city, he did not order an evacuation of Wilkes-Barre before flooding began. In the hours before the Agnes-induced flooding, officials reassured the public that they would stay safe and dry behind their protective flood walls, but they soon found themselves and their property in peril. The tragedy is that while residents of the cities were unaware they were at risk, for many years scholars had been warning that structural barriers to flooding were not flood proof and instead encouraged risky behavior in river valleys. The floodwalls lulled people into believing they could safely build residences and businesses on the river's natural floodplain. Disaster scholars use the term “moral hazard” to describe government policy that increases public risk taking. Dikes and levees along the Susquehanna became a moral hazard because once they had been installed, local officials encouraged floodplain development to maximize land use and increase local tax revenues.

Trump’s Trump: Lou Barletta and the Limits of Anti-Immigrant Politics in Pennsylvania

This chapter examines the underpinnings and limits of ethno-nationalism in the politically pivotal state of Pennsylvania by tracking the career of Lou Barletta, US congressman and former mayor of Hazleton in the declining rustbelt area of Luzerne County. Often known as Donald Trump’s political godfather, Barletta rose to political fame by attacking Hispanic immigrants as criminals and sponsoring severe restrictions on their rights. He went on to win a seat in the US House and become one of the first members of Congress to endorse Trump’s 2016 candidacy. The president then recruited Barletta to run for the Senate in 2018 and strongly backed his campaign based on highlighting threats from immigrants. But Barletta lost, illuminating the limits of anti-immigrant appeals in statewide and national politics.