White Haven Closure by Dave

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UNCOVERING THE WHITE HAVEN CLOSURE A joint investigation into its impact in Luzerne County.

Biden’s wins big for his Pa. backers

WHAT’S NEXT? Families worry about the future as the state looks to close White Haven Center

Party insiders were worried Biden wouldn’t survive Super Tuesday. BY MARC LEVY ASSociAted PreSS

see residents daily and notice changes in their conditions. Respiratory therapists, noting humidity, decide whether residents with breathing problems can go outside to enjoy sunshine or should spend the day indoors, away from drafts.

HARRISBURG — Democratic Party stalwarts in Pennsylvania heaved a collective sigh of relief as Joe Biden, the choice of many party leaders in the battleground state, emerged from the presidential primary pack as the consensus pick to lead the party’s moderate wing. After all, the former vice president and Delaware senator is viewed as a hometown boy in the Democratic bastion of Scranton, where he grew up. Most members of Pennsylvania’s Democratic congressional delegation, including U.S. Sen. Bob Casey, endorsed Biden early in the primary. And his longstanding relationships with party leaders in Pennsylvania have made him their favorite candidate to beat President Donald Trump in a state Democrats can’t afford to lose. Party insiders in Pennsylvania who support Biden, however, had worried that his campaign wouldn’t survive the crowded primary fray before Super Tuesday voters flocked to Biden, who won the most delegates on the presidential primary calendar’s biggest night. “My phone has been buzzing, beeping, texts, all kinds of messages,” John Cordisco, Bucks County’s Democratic Party chairman, said this week. “You can feel that sense of, ‘It’s OK now.”’ Polls in Pennsylvania generally favor Biden over Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, a democratic socialist running to Biden’s left, ahead of the state’s April 28 primary.

Please see CENTER, Page A6

Please see BIDEN, Page A4

WArren rudA / StAff PhotogrAPher

the state Department of human services announced that it was closing White haven center, citing the declining numbers and cost per resident as key factors in the closure. inset, From toP: the White haven center’s administration building; the center is located on 192 acres; the center’s Pocono hall.

ABOUT THE PROJECT this is the latest in a series of investigative reports by the citizens’ Voice and the Standard-Speaker of hazleton. today, we examine the potential closing of the White haven center.

MORE INSIDE ■ thousands are waiting for services. Page A7 ■ ‘it’s a choice you make.’ different care scenarios work for different families. Page A7

COMING TOMORROW in Monday’s edition, we take a closer look at what life is like inside community care homes.

BY KENT JACKSON StAff Writer

oey Jennings cruises around White Haven Center on a golf cart, dons a day-glow green jacket to collect trash on the grounds and dresses as Batman to celebrate Halloween. He also goes to dances, karaoke parties and barbecues at the center for people with intellectual disabilities and takes field trips to pizzerias, ball games and Knoebels Amusement Park. His parents contrast his life at White Haven, which the state wants to close, with six group homes and five psychiatric wards that he shuffled between because workers had trouble controlling him. In those settings he seemed like a prisoner in solitary confinement to his parents, was overmedicated until he developed female breasts, and he suffered a broken eye socket and other injuries. Joey’s parents, Susan and Richard Jennings, and family of other center residents said the state facilities offer skilled, compassionate care to their relatives. Doctors and nurses

courteSy of SuSAn JenningS

Joey Jennings takes a pizza break at White haven center, where he found a home after leaving six group homes.

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St. Pat’s parade a ‘great day’ for Pittston BY MICHAEL P. BUFFER StAff Writer

dAVe Scherbenco / StAff PhotogrAPher

hunter hufford and max mylet hang out before the start of the leprechaun loop prior to the Pittston st. Patrick’s Day Parade.

PITTSTON — Paradegoers and participants dressed in green lined up along Main Street at noon Saturday in chilly but sunny weather conditions. “It’s a great day for the Irish,” U.S. Rep. Matt Cartwright, D-8, Moosic, said as the seventh annual Pittston City St. Patrick’s Parade was about to start. Other area officials were lining up with the congressman to be in the parade.

“I’m here today because it’s a celebration of Pittston. It’s a celebration of Irish heritage. It’s a celebration of spring. It’s a great, great thing in Pittston,” said state Rep. Mike Carroll, D-118, Avoca, said. “Everybody in the community has a role to play. You try to play your part well, and when things go well, you get the result like we have today in Pittston — a real celebration, thousands of people. They’ll have a great time.” Parade committee co-chairwoman Sarah Donahue said 90 groups were participating in the parade. Please see PARADE, Page A5

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UNCOVERING THE WHITE HAVEN CENTER CLOSURE

SUNDAY, MARCH 8, 2020

TIMES-SHAMROCK FILE

Supporters of the White Haven Center line state Route 940 in front of St. Patrick’s Church prior to a public hearing last year on the state’s plans to close the center.

CENTER: Plan part of a nationwide trend toward community living FROM PAGE A1

Population

5,000

3,460

SOURCE: LEGISLATIVE BUDGET AND FINANCE COMMITTEE REPORT, SEPTEMBER 2015

’80

‘85

’90

’95

‘Now is not the time to be adding hundreds more to the community care setting. It appears these people are doing a horrible job of keeping people safe.’ STATE REP. GERALD MULLERY D-119, Newport Twp.

A logical place to shift funds available if White Haven and Polk closed is to programs that care for people with intellectual disabilities and autism in communities. While the vast majority of people with those conditions live in the community, nearly 13,000 of them are waiting to receive services. Susan Jennings said living in the community didn’t work for her son. Rather than staying in group homes, Joey moved to homes where he was the only resident. With caregivers rotating in and out, Joey seemed like he was in solitary confinement. His parents paid for a pool membership, but he never went swimming. Where Joey used to break windows or rip off refrigerator doors in group homes, shatterproof glass and commercial grade appliances at White Haven withstand his outbursts. At White Haven he can retreat to his apartment on bad days, and the workers have learned how to handle his ups and downs. In contrast, before moving to White Haven, Joey broke his eye socket. His parents were told that he ran into a door, but they wonder.

36 30

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eo ch

Tr a

rb ve n-

t en

Se i

g in ar

s di im

ee lf ra

te En

irm

ls pa

tis m

SOURCE: WHITE HAVEN CENTER

1,452

1,189 ’00

’05

’10

KEVIN O’NEILL / STAFF ARTIST

<720 ’12

61-65

56-60

1,123

’19

KEVIN O’NEILL / STAFF ARTIST

White Haven Center special needs

Total by age, male

2,127

1,000

ple with conditions as complex as those at White Haven and Polk already are being cared for in community settings. More than 2,500 people receiving care in the community need complex medical or behavioral support, a state report from September 2019 about the closing of a center in Hamburg said. “We truly believe the community is a better place to live,” Sherri Landis, executive director of the ARC of Pennsylvania, said in the Rotunda of the State Capitol just after groups had held a rally to keep open White Haven and Polk centers on Jan. 21 At the rally, families of other center residents, center employees and lawmakers representing White Haven and Polk gathered with an attorney to discuss their federal lawsuit to save White Haven and Polk. Those bringing the lawsuit, Landis said, were “only putting out the worst case scenarios.” If White Haven and Polk centers close, Landis said people still would have the right to live in one of two remaining state centers or in privately operated centers as well as residences in the community. Meanwhile keeping residents in the centers for five years, a provision of a bill that the lawmakers ushered through the state Legislature but that the governor vetoed on Feb. 12, would push the per-person cost of care in a center to $750,000. After 10 ye a r s, t h e c o s t wo u l d approach $1 million, Landis said. “Imagine what this money could go to?” she said.

3,986

4,000

KENT JACKSON / STAFF PHOTO

Male

Female

2,000

disability wings of state hospitals. T heir numbers dropped to 3,000 residents by 2000. Now fewer than 720 people live in four centers that remain open, and Wolf ’s administration wants to close two of them, in White Haven and Polk, Venango County, which has 190 residents. In comparison, more than 55,000 Pennsylvanians with intellectual disabilities or autism currently reside in community settings. By moving people out of centers, Pennsylvania has followed a nationwide trend. America has been closing institutions like psychiatric hospitals for people with mental illness, centers like White Haven for people with intellectual disabilities, orphanages and special schools. Instead of involuntarily confining people to institutions, national and state government leaders sought to p r ov i d e m o r e c o n t a c t between non-disabled people and those who would have been institutionalized. Wolf’s administrators, too, point out that providing care for people at foster homes, group homes or other community settings costs less than caring for them at centers like White Haven and Polk. A b u d g e t t h a t Wo l f released on Feb. 4 lists the operating costs for the four centers this year at $245.93 million. Divided among the 719 residents in centers in July 2019, the cost per resident was $343,472. The estimated average cost of caring for someone with a waiver to receive services in the community for this year is between $180,000 and $270,000 per person annually. In Wolf’s proposal for closing two centers in three years, no one would be released from White Haven or Polk until they, their caregivers, family or guardians form a plan for where they will live. Residents might move to a community setting such as a foster home, apartment, group home, private care center, nursing home or transfer to one of the two other state centers that would stay open in Selinsgrove, Snyder County, and Ebensburg, Cambria County. Agencies that advocate for giving people more access to the community say that peo-

As of Nov. 30, 2019

Total by gender

3,000

Attorney Thomas York discusses a lawsuit to keep open state centers in White Haven and Polk while flanked by lawmakers, center workers and family members of center residents during a rally in the state Capitol Rotunda on Jan. 21

White Haven Center residents

5,980

6,000

The state has been moving people out of institutions like White Haven for a half century. Fifty years ago, 13,000 people with intellectual disabilities lived in more than 20 state centers and intellectual

Population of people with Intellectual disabilities in Pennsylvania centers.

7,290

7,000

Phasing out state centers

8,000

Special needs

At centers, a shop worker might make a wedge to prop up and help a resident breathe in bed or an aide might look through family photos with a resident while they listen to music together. “Those are good-paying state jobs that you have at White Haven,” state Rep. Aaron Kaufer, R-120, Kingston, said. But Gov. Tom Wolf and his administration propose closing White Haven and a larger center in Polk, Venango County. The administration’s plan allows residents to transfer to other state centers but encourages residents to move to community settings, such as private group homes, where workers receive lower pay and managers say attracting and finding employees are their greatest challenges. At White Haven and other state centers, workers have learned to interpret the actions of residents, including those who cannot speak. When a woman twists in her wheelchair, for example, her caregiver might move the chair to face what the woman is trying to watch. Susan and Richard Jennings, who live in Mansfield, Tioga County, said caregivers at White Haven deal with mood swings of their son, who has intellectual disabilities and autism, but also psychiatric disorders. On good days, Joey joins in activities across the 192 acres at White Haven. But there are bad days when he hears voices and might break glass, rip off a refrigerator door or bite, hit or scratch himself. His failures in group homes and psychiatric wards convinced his parents that Joey would fare better in one of four state centers, after learning about care that the centers provide. Joey, 27, is younger than most residents at White Haven, where the average age is 58. Of the 110 people living in White Haven, 40 don’t walk, and 53 don’t talk. Maria Kashatus does neither, but she smiles at familiar faces like the friends she made and people who cared for her during her 39 years at White Haven. Her parents believe her life is better at White Haven than when she lived in group homes. Maria’s father, Thomas Kashatus of Glen Lyon, who took guardianship of other center residents as the head of White Haven Relatives and Friends, and her mother, Margaret Kashatus, are among the parents and guardians who filed a federal lawsuit on behalf of all residents to retain state centers.

Disabled people in state centers

“My son can’t tell me what happened,” Susan Jennings said.

Accountability without centers In hundreds of other cases, state agencies and law enforcement didn’t know what happened to Pennsylvanians with disabilities living in the community. A federal inspector looking at cases from 2015 and 2016 found providers of housing and other services in the community to Pennsylvanians with disabilities failed to fully comply with rules for reporting emergency room visits and hospitalizations within 24 hours. The report by the Inspector General for the Department of Health and Human Services said of 1,162 ER visits in which the diagnosis indicated a high risk of fraud or abuse, providers failed to file reports in 307 cases. In one case, an individual tried to commit suicide by stabbing a pencil to the chest and then tried to commit suicide again 12 days later. The provider reported the first ER visit 63 days after it happened, without mentioning suicide, but never reported the second ER visit. Failure to report prevents supervisors or state agencies from protecting individuals from further har m, the inspector general said. Providers also failed to report 167 of 510 hospitalizations indicative of abuse or neglect. One man spent five days in a park where his mother, who previously tried to drown him in a bathtub, bound him in his wheelchair so he couldn’t communicate and covered him with a tarp, sticks and leaves, the inspector general’s report said. Two weeks after being rescued, he went to two hospitals on consecutive days for dehydration and bedsores, yet neither hospital stay was reported. Providers failed to investigate 80 of 654 deaths, the report added. State Rep. Gerald Mullery, D-119, Newport Twp., used the report as an argument for keeping open the White Haven Center, which he represents. “Now is not the time to be adding hundreds more to the community care setting,” Mullery said. “It appears these people are doing a horrible job of keeping people safe.”

46-55

66+

22-45

Total by age, female 66+

61-65

22-45 56-60

46-55

Total by level of intellectual disability Profound 72

Severe

Mild Moderate

Total by Ambulation Partially Ambulatory 31

Ambulatory Non-Ambulatory

SOURCE: WHITE HAVEN CENTER KEVIN O’NEILL / STAFF ARTIST

In the four years since the cases mentioned in the report occurred, the state has tightened procedures and adopted new methods for evaluating hospital visits. Since 2017, providers have had to report all deaths of people who received a waiver that allows them to receive home and community based services. Prior to then, death reports were required in provider-based settings, but not in private homes, where most occur. The state Department of Human Services now reviews ER and hospital records for diagnostic codes such as bedsores or choking, which might indicate abuse or neglect. Regulations that took effect Feb. 2 list more types of incidents that must be reported to an inspector certified by the department and impose new sanctions for failing to report. The department’s press secretary, Erin James, said the report doesn’t compare community settings with state centers or say that care is better or safer in either setting. “We look forward to continuing to work with our partners at the county level and providers throughout this system so we may work together to ensure that people we all serve are receiving the care they need safely,” James said in an email. Contact the writer: kjackson@standardspeaker. com; 570-501-3587

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UNCOVERING THE WHITE HAVEN CENTER CLOSURE

THE CITIZENS' VOICE A7

A matter of choice

Families currently can choose what scenario is best for their loved one BY KENT JACKSON Staff Writer

tHe CitizeNS’ VOiCe file

Susan Jennings talks about her son, Joey, a White Haven Center resident, during a SUbMitted PHOtO protest outside the Westmoreland Club in Wilkes-Barre prior to a visit from state Thomas Kashatus, left, and his sister, Mary Kashatus, Secretary of Human Services Teresa Miller last year. She said her son failed to center, sit with Tom’s daughter, Maria, at the White adjust to life in group homes, but is doing well at the White Haven Center. Haven Center. Thomas Kashatus has been a vocal advocate in the fight to keep the White Haven Center part of the lawsuit, which says state centers. expects people with disabiliopen for his daughter and the other residents. federal law doesn’t require “The devil is in the details,” ties who are coming of age states to impose community living on people who don’t want it. Their lawsuit quotes the Olmstead decision as saying for some individuals, “no place outside the institution may ever be appropriate.” If White Haven closes, Susan Jennings said she doesn’t know where Joey will live. Rep. Aaron Kaufer, R-120, Kingston, whose aunt lives in a group home, said living options should reflect that people with intellectual disabilities require different levels of care and some behave violently. “It’s not one-size-fits-all,” Kaufer said. He called the governor’s plan to close White Haven and Polk, “a very ideological decision.” Philosophically, Richard Edley, an advocate for organizations that serve people with disabilities in communities, supports closing the

sions to state centers in September 2015. “As long as new residents continue to be admitted to all centers,” the report by the Legislative Budget and Finance Committee of the General Assembly said, “fixed costs and staffing will remain high at all the centers, and closing due primarily to attrition will be less likely.” Susan Jennings calls the policy decline by design. When she and her husband Richard went to court to admit their son Joey after he had failed to adjust to six group homes, the state opposed them in court. The Jennings family of Mansfield won in Tioga County Court, but the state appealed. Joey Jennings only moved into White Haven after his family prevailed in Commonwealth Court. The Jennings family, too, is

Edley said. “What about the choice of families” of residents? “What about the community providers? Are they ready? “How do you implement it?” Thinking of older residents who have lived in centers for decades, Edley thinks the state should keep some open. Wolf’s plan would maintain centers in Ebensburg, Cambria County, and Selinsgrove, Snyder County. George Gwilliam, Cori’s father, who started Cori’s Place for his daughter and other people with intellectual disabilities in Hanover Twp. 18 years ago, understands that closing centers causes a shock. “Certain people have to be there. If somebody has been there 40 years, what are you going to do for them? Emotionally, that’s their support,” Gwilliam said. In the future, Gwilliam

White Haven Center population by county 30 21

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Population

iar faces. They are among families who filed a federal lawsuit as a class action on behalf of all residents to keep centers open. As of July 2019, the centers had capacity to take in 574 new residents, according to the budget that Wolf proposed on Feb. 4. Thomas Kashatus said the state could make it easier for younger people to move in. Admitting people also would bring down the per-person cost of care in the centers, Kashatus said. During a rally at the state Capitol on Jan. 21, Kashatus wore his advice on a T-shirt that said, “Open the doors.” State officials counter that the doors to state centers are open, but people with intellectual disabilities prefer to wait to receive services in the community. Moreover, people generally have needed a court order to move into state centers since 1966. In 1999, a landmark decision of the U.S. Supreme Court said unnecessary incarceration of people with intellectual disabilities might constitute discrimination. The ruling in Olmstead v. L.C. gives people with disabilities the qualified right to receive services in the community rather than an institution. A committee of Pennsylvania lawmakers recommended continuing to restrict admis-

They made different choices at different times. Cori Gwilliam, 39, lives with her parents, who started a program where their daughter and other people with intellectual disabilities now receive training and make friends. State and federal funds help Cori and others live in the community. Thomas and Margaret Kashatus selected another type of home for their daughter, Maria. The state-run White Haven Center was her best option when she moved in 39 years ago. Since then, the state has let populations dwindle and closed centers. Gov. Tom Wolf inherited the policy to phase out centers and now wants to close centers in White Haven and Polk, Venango County. Court decisions and attitude shifts during the past generation favor allowing people with disabilities the rights to control their own lives and to receive government funding that helps them live in the community, rather than in institutions. Caring for people in institutions like state centers costs more per person than community care. So state centers receive a disproportionate share of available funding, funding that thousands of people with intellectual disabilities await while already living in the community. Closing centers, however, puts a strain on residents who have lived there for years while befriending each other and their caregivers. When Wolf announced plans in January 2017 to close the Hamburg Center in Berks County where 80 people resided, six residents died before they could move. By September 2018, another 13 former residents died. One death was due to negligence. The Kashatus family believes that the medical and personal care available at White Haven is vital for Maria, who neither walks nor talks but smiles at famil-

Source: WhiTe haven cenTer

KeViN O’Neill / Staff artiSt

now might want more independence. Many have gone to public schools, like Cori, who was voted prom queen; this year she decided to dye her hair pink before the Valentine’s Day dance at Cori’s Place. They might want to live in their own apartment with the caregivers who make that independence possible. Workers from Step By Step of Wilkes-Barre help communities accept the people with disabilities for whom they care. They donate books and read stories to school children about being more respectful to people with disabilities. “We need to educate the adults of tomorrow,” said Michael Bernatovich, who has worked 43 years at Step By Step and became interim president this year. Bernatovich said he knows Thomas Kashatus as one of the strongest advocates for keeping open White Haven Center. After Kashatus’ daughter Maria spent so long in White Haven Center, Bernatovich said he can’t argue against her father’s plea that she stay there. But Bernatovich likes to think if Maria did move to a community setting, she would receive good care. “We do a good job. You could trust us,” Bernatovich said, “but it’s a choice you make.” Contact the writer: kjackson@standardspeaker. com; 570-501-3587

Thousands already on a waiting list for state services BY STEVE MOCARSKY Staff Writer

Gov. Tom Wolf budgeted nearly $15.6 million for community care as part of his plan to close two state centers for the intellectually disabled, but that amount comes nowhere near covering all of the nearly 13,000 people waiting for services. Wolf wants to close White Haven Center and Polk Center in Venango County within the next three years and have residents move out gradually as accommodations become available. He added $594,000 to his 202021 budgetto help residentsleaving the centers adjust to community settings if they choose to move into the community rather than into one of the two remaining state centers. He also added another $15 million to the budget for those already living in the community but waiting for services. State officials have said residents of the centers won’t have to wait for community services or housing if they close, which is fortunate because there were 12,700 individuals with intellectual disabilities on a state waiting list for services as of Dec. 31, according to the Pennsylvania Waiting List Campaign. Erin James, press secretary for the state Department of Human Services, said that while intermediate care facilities such as White Haven Center are considered an entitlement, Medicaid-funded home and community-based services for people with intellectual disabilities and autism are not. Allocations of funding for individuals for home and community-based services are referred to as waivers. An agreement that the com-

Pennsylvania ID unit closures

State center and id (intellectual disability, formerly referred to as Mr) Units in State Hospital Closures

Center/Unit

Year Opened

Year Closed

1974 1982 1974 1964 1957 1972 1960 1972 1974 1920 1975 1974 1908 1983 1897 1929 1974 1974 1975 1974 1962 1956 1974

1988 2006 1992 1982

allentown Mr Unit altoona Center Clarks Summit Mr Unit Cresson Center ebensburg Center embreeville Center Hamburg Center Harrisburg Mr Unit Hollidaysburg Center laurelton Center Marcy Center Mayview Mr Unit Pennhurst Center Philadelphia Mr Unit Polk Center Selinsgrove Center Somerset Mr Unit torrance Mr Unit Warren Mr Unit Wernersville Mr Unit Western Center White Haven Center Woodhaven Center Source: leGiSlaTive BuDGeT anD finance commiTTee rePorT, SePTemBer 2015

monwealth has with the federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services allows the department to maintain waiting lists for home and community-based services when funding is insufficient to provide waivers for all who need services or will need them in one to five years, according to James. The campaign to end the waiting list and fully fund the services that individuals with intellectual disabilities need is a program of Vision for Equality, a Philadelphia-based nonprofit advocating to support and empower individuals with intellectual disabilities and their families. According to the campaign,

1998 2018 1982 1976 1998 1982 2001 1988 1989

1996 1998 1976 1987 2000 1985 KeViN O’Neill / Staff artiSt

of those 12,700 individuals on the waiting list, 5,269 were in the “emergency needs” category, which means they are at risk and need services immediately or within six months. Another 4,617 were considered to have “critical needs,” meaning they will need services within two years. Another 2,814 people in the “planning needs” category will need services within five years. Of the 399 individuals in Luzerne and Wyoming counties on the waiting list, 246 had emergency needs; 99 had critical needs; and 54 were in the planning needs category, according to data from the campaign. State officials estimate the

HOW THE WAITING LIST WORKS

Q: A:

or home and communitybased services. if they select an intermediate care list? facility (iCf), they will be a person seeking intellectual disability referred to iCf facilities. if they select home and comor autism services applies for services at their county munity-based services, depending on their circummental health / developmental services office. the stances, they will likely be county determines eligibility placed on the waiting list. for services. eligibility crite- if they select home and ria include having a diagno- community based services, an assessment is conductsis of intellectual disability or autism and having a level ed to determine the urgenof care determination for an cy and nature of the person’s need for services. intermediate care facility this assessment, the Priorisuch as White Haven Centization of Urgency of Need ter. for Services (PUNS), deterOnce a person is determined eligible for services, mines whether the person they are offered a choice of is in emergency need of an intermediate care facility services (now to within six How does someone get on the waiting

additional $15 million Wolf set aside for those waiting for services would remove 832 people from the waiting list. That represents a 15.8% decrease in the emergency needs category and a 6.6% decrease in the waiting list overall. James noted that during Wolf ’s first term, more than $267 million was invested in expanding services to 4,560 individuals previously waiting for services. This year another 865 people are being enrolled for services. And significant reductions in wait times have occurred in the past decade. Twelve years ago, the waiting list was at 21,500 individuals, according to a June 2008 state advisory report on the list. Cathy Smink, program manager at Avenues which provides community services in Hazleton and Schuylkill County, said a lack of available waiver funding at the federal and state levels is the main reason more people with intellectual disabilities are not receiv-

ing community-based services. “There is just not enough money allocated to serve all of the individuals who need services. When the counties receive referrals and funding for individuals, we get referrals fairly quickly,” Smink said. Without a waiver, people generally cannot afford to attend day programs, Tara Gwilliam, CEO of Cori’s Place day program in Hanover Twp. said. People awarded consolidated waivers receive enough funding to cover medical and personal care, attend programs and adapt residences to their needs. People awarded less funding through person/ family-directed support waivers spend much of their allocation each year on transportation to and from programs, Gwilliam said. Gwilliam said people can be moved up on the list for various reasons, such as their caregiver becoming too ill to care for them. However, she also cited another case in which the

months), critical need (six months to two years) or has planning needs (two to five years). What happens after that? Once someone is found eligible for services, they are assigned a supports coordinator (case manager) who meets with them a minimum of twice a year while they are on the waiting list. When the person is enrolled in a waiver, the supports coordinator would have much more intensive involvement and support the development of an individual support plan.

Q: A:

Source: The PennSylvania DeParTmenT of human ServiceS

state denied a request to upgrade an individual to emergency need after his mother’s doctor warned her that her own medical problems would intensify if she continued to care for her child. That individual was not moved up on the list, Gwilliam said. A similar story appeared in the 2008 advisory report. Among the advisory committee’s recommendations was that the General Assembly and governor should make elimination of the waiting list a priority. The committee recommended that officials commit sufficient funds and other resources to eliminate the emergency waiting list within two years; eliminate the critical waiting list within five years; and anticipate future need so that all Pennsylvanians with intellectual disabilities can have their service needs met within a reasonable period of time. Contact the writer: smocarsky@citizensvoice.com 570-821-2110, @MocarskyCV

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CORONAVIRUS OUTBREAK

UnCoVeRInG THE WHITE HAVEN CLOSURE A joint investigation into its impact in Luzerne County.

US deaths up to 21; cases rise in state Four new cases over the weekend increase cases in Pa. to six. BY OLGA R. RODRIGUEZ AND CHRISTOPHER WEBER ASSociATED PrESS

PREPARING FOR CHANGE KENT JAcKSoN / STAff PHoTo

Sandy Pelleschi, director of developmental disability services, shows a painting done by a client that hangs at Step By Step, a nonprofit that operates group homes and day programs across the state and is based in Wilkes-Barre.

Community care homes an option for White Haven Center residents BY STEVE MOCARSKY AND KENT JACKSON STAff WriTErS

rthur’s typical day might include eating breakfast, going to work at Wilkes University, coming home and relaxing in his recliner, eating dinner with his three housemates, helping clean up and venturing out for a night of bowling at Chacko’s in Wilkes-Barre. The 65-year-old might have intellectual disabilities, but he’s

living a productive, fulfilling life on his own terms with support in place when needed. Arthur lives in a group home — a bi-level ranch-style in Nanticoke — with his brother Terry, housemates Dee and Willy, and Snowball, a fluffy, white and orange tabby. The home is owned and staffed by Step By Step, a private, nonprofit agency devoted to providing community support and services to individuals with intellec-

tual disabilities, behavioral health difficulties, autism spectrum disorders and physical disabilities. Some current residents of White Haven Center and Polk Center, intermediate care facilities for the intellectually disabled, might find themselves moving into group homes like the one in which Arthur resides sometime in the next three years. Please see COMMUNITY, Page A9

aBoUT THe PRoJeCT This is the latest in a series of investigative reports by The citizens’ Voice and The StandardSpeaker of Hazleton. Today, we examine the potential closing of the White Haven center.

moRe InsIDe ■ comfort Keepers provide in-home help to people with special needs. Page A9

ComInG TomoRRoW in Tuesday’s edition, we take a closer look at the economic impact from the White Haven center closure.

Cori’s Place offers people with disabilities chance to learn life skills BY KENT JACKSON STAff WriTEr

KENT JAcKSoN / STAff PHoTo

Friends attend a recent Valentine’s Day dance at Cori’s Place in Hanover Twp. Cori Gwilliam’s parents, George and Therese Gwilliam, started Cori’s Place 18 years ago so their daughter and her friends could learn life skills.

A breakfast meeting was nearing its 105th minute when Cori Gwilliam stood and circled her hand in a signal to her father, who was talking about social programs with a state lawmaker: Let’s wrap it up, dad. Cori drew laughs from state Rep. Eddie Day Pashinski and others at the breakfast in Wilkes-Barre on Feb. 21 for agencies that serve people with disabilities. Her sense of humor also surfaces when she introduces her sister Tara as her elder even though Tara is 10 years younger.

“She’ll tell people, ‘Oh, I’m 20,’” Tara said. Cori has a shock of pink hair and is no taller than her father’s shoulders so she can pass for 20, although C. GWILLIAM she turns 40 this year, her sister said before telling another story. This one is about an exchange with an employee at a day program for people who have intellectual disabilities that Cori attends. Please see CORI, Page A9

SAN FRANCISCO — As the U.S. death toll from the new coronavirus reached at least 21, California Gov. Gavin Newsom and the mayor of Oakland sought Sunday to reassure the public that none of the passengers from a ship carrying people with the virus will be released into the public before undergoing a 14-day quarantine. The Grand Princess carrying more than 3,500 people from 54 countries is expected to MORE dock Monday INSIDE in Oakland, in italy, other the east San nations Francisco Bay, reeling from and was idling coronavirus. off the coast Page A6 Sunday as officials prepared a port site. Those needing acute medical care will come off first. “This is a time that we must be guided by facts and not fears, and our public deserves to know what’s going on,” Mayor Libby Schaaf said. Meanwhile, the number of infections in the United States climbed above 500 as testing for the virus increased. Dr. Anthony Fauci, the National Institutes of Health’s allergy and infectious diseases chief, said Sunday that widespread closure of a city or region, as Italy has done, is “possible.” “You don’t want to alarm people, but given the spread we see, you know anything is possible and that’s the reason why we’ve got to be prepared to take whateveractionisappropriatetocontain andmitigatetheoutbreak,”Fauci said on “Fox News Sunday.” Health officials in Pennsylvania have announced two more presumptive cases of the new coronavirus, making a total of six in the commonwealth so far. The Pennsylvania Department of Health said the two new cases announced Sunday are in adults in Montgomery County, in addition to two other Montgomery County cases announced Saturday. Please see VIRUS, Page A4

Biden, Sanders get endorsements ahead of this week’s primaries Kamala Harris endorsed Biden and Jesse Jackson backed Sanders in the battle for the nomination. ASSociATED PrESS

WASHINGTON — Kamala Harris endorsed Joe Biden on Sunday and said she would “do everything in my power” to help elect him, becoming the latest dropout from the Democratic race for president to line up behind the former vice president in

his battle with Bernie Sanders for the nomination. The decision by the California senator who was one of three black candidates seeking to challenge President Donald Trump further solidifies the Democratic establishment’s move to close circles around Biden after his Super Tuesday success. Her endorsements comes before the next round of primaries, with six states voting Tuesday, including Michigan and Mississippi.

Sanders, a Vermont senator, countered with his own major endorsement on Sunday, announcing that civil rights icon Jesse Jackson was formally backing him. Jackson appeared with Sanders during a campaign stop in Grand Rapids, Michigan. In a statement released by Sanders’ campaign, Jackson said Biden had not reached out to him for endorsement and Sanders had. He also said he chose Sanders after the senator’s campaign offered responses

on 13 issues Jackson raised, including protecting voting rights, increasing funding for historically black colleges and universities and committing to putting African Americans on the Supreme Court. In a statement on Biden, meanwhile, Harris said, “There is no one better prepared than Joe to steer our nation through these turbulent times, and restore truth, PAul SANcyA / ASSociATED PrESS honor, and decency to the Oval Office.” Democratic presidential candidate U.S. Sen. Bernie Please see ELECTION, Page A9

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Sanders, I-Vt., arrives at a campaign rally at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, Mich., on Sunday.

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OBITUARIES / NEWS

MONDAY, MARCH 9, 2020

Jennie A. Brennan

Carol A. Weaver Jeanette Wydo

March 5, 2020

Jennie A. Brennan, 93, of LaPlata, Md., died Thursday, March 5, 2020, at Genesis Healthcare. Born in Shickshinny, she was the daughter of the late Charles and Antoinette Adamski. She was a member of St. Ignatius Church, Kingston, and was previously employed as a seamstress.

She loved spending time with her family and friends, knitting and Polka dancing. In addition to her parents, she was preceded in death by her husband, John. Dorothy is survived by her children, John Brennan and his wife, Cathy, Waldorf, Md.; grandchildren, John and Tracey;

and great-grandchildren, Riley, Reese, Madison and Brennan, Waldorf, Md.; and several nieces and nephews Funeral services will be conducted at 10 a.m. Wednesday from Andrew Strish Funeral Home, 11 Wilson St., Larksville, with a Mass of Christian

THE CITIZENS' VOICE A9

Burial celebrated at 10:30 a.m. in St. Ignatius Church, 339 N. Maple Ave., Kingston. Interment will follow in parish cemetery. Friends are welcome to join the family for a visitation from 9 to 10 a.m. at the funeral home. Visit www.StrishFuneralHome.com for information.

March 8, 2020

March 7, 2020

Carol A. Weaver, 76, of N o r t h m o r e l a n d T w p. , p a s s e d aw ay S at u rd ay afternoon, March 8, 2020, in Geisinger Wyoming Valley Medical Center, Plains Twp. Ar rangements are by Nulton Kopcza Funeral Home, 5749 state Route 309, (Beaumont) Monroe Twp.

Jeanette H. Wydo, 75, of Hanover Twp., passed away Saturday, March 7, 2020, at Guardian Healthc a r e & Re h a b i l i t a t i o n Center, Nanticoke. Arrangements are pending from George A. Strish Inc. Funeral Home, 105 N. Main St., Ashley.

Comfort Keepers provide in-home help to people with special needs BY KENT JACKSON STAFF WRITER

From his office in Hazleton, Marlon Duncan directs care that workers give to people with special needs in homes across much of Eastern Pennsylvania. Workers with the Comfort Keepers might prepare meals and feed clients, give baths, pick up around the house, or they drive clients to shop, run errands or visit doctors. “We will do the things the family would do if the family were there,” Duncan said. Assistance from Comfort Keepers and similar agencies makes living at home possible for people who couldn’t live without help. Clients might be young people who have lost limbs or older folks losing mobility. They include the morbidly obese, diabetics and people with traumatic brain injuries. Some clients have intellectual disabilities and physical conditions also found among residents of care centers at White Haven and Polk, Venango County, that the state wants to close. Duncan says he hires readily at Comfort Keepers. “Our challenge is sheer staffing,” he said. Retaining workers also is a struggle at Step By Step, an agency based in WilkesBarre that serves 2,000 people by assisting in their homes, providing travel and helping them at day programs or jobs. To provide that support, Step By Step needs 1,300 workers. Michael Bernatovich, who has been at Step By Step for 43 years and recently became interim president, said workers can make $15 an hour in

warehouses and factories, whereas the personal care industry pays about $12 an hour. Step By Step has started offering extra pay to those with experience or academic credentials in the field. The agency also began a leadership program that allows workers to advance. But if 30 applicants who met all the job requirements showed up today, Bernatovich said he would probably hire all 30 of them. At Comfort Keepers, Duncan said keeping open the White Haven Center might be a good idea. But if the center closes, he expects to receive referrals from people moving to the community. Since 1998, Comfort Keepers has been caring for people in the community. The company started when a nurse making home visits noticed patients needed nonmedical care. Five years later, Duncan bought his first franchise in Hazleton. Now he has 12 offices across the state, and is the largest Comfort Keepers owner in the nation. His 660 employees all receive training in skills such as giving a bed bath or helping a person in and out of the bathroom. On a new employees’ first visits, more experienced workers shadow them to watch what they do and offer coaching. Then they continue training online in 50 subjects such as infection control. Collectively, the workers make 2,200 visits a week. After each visit, workers use a telephone app to report. The app verifies they are at the customer’s home and asks questions about wheth-

er they completed tasks on the customer’s plan of service. If, for example, the caregiver had instructions to bathe the customer, the app will ask if a bath was given. If the worker answers no, the app will ask why not. The worker will provide reasons, such as the customer wasn’t feeling well and refused a bath. Also, the app will ask the worker to describe any other changes in the plan or the customer. Reports give managers information about customers whose health or care needs might be changing. Federal law requires providers to start using electronics to verify that caregivers made visits, but Duncan said his workers have been using them since 2004. He adds, “We have someone: their job is to call everybody every week and ask how they are doing and if there are any new issues.” Also Duncan helped develop software that coordinates care between workers, customers and their health providers. When patients leave hospitals, for example, a doctor in the hospital might have prescribed the same medicine as their regular doctor. As a result patients might take “two meds for the same thing,” Duncan said. “We work with doctors and share their plan of care.” Comfort Keepers workers also take notes for patients during visits to doctor’s offices and watch as a therapist teaches exercises during home sessions. Contact the writer: kjackson@standardspeaker. com; 570-501-3587

ELECTION: More voting this week FROM PAGE A1

“He is kind and endlessly caring, and he truly listens to the American people,” her statement added. Harris said the United States “is at an inflection point. And the decision voters make this November will shape the country and the world our children and grandchildren will grow up in. I believe in Joe Biden.” Among Biden’s former rivals, Amy Klobuchar, Pete Buttigieg, Beto O’Rourke, Mike Bloomberg, Tim Ryan, Deval Patrick and John Delaney have endorsed him. Sanders has gotten the endorsement of Marianne Williamson and Bill de Blasio. Also coming out for Biden on Sunday were two prominent Mississippi Democrats,

former Gov. Ray Mabus and Mike Espy, agriculture secretary under President Bill Clinton. Espy is also on the ballot Tuesday as he seeks the party’s Senate nomination for the chance to face the Republican incumbent, C i n dy H yd e - S m i t h , i n November. Harris withdrew from the race in December, ending a candidacy with the historic potential of becoming the first black woman elected president. The former California attorney general was seen as a candidate poised to attract the multiracial coalition of voters that sent Barack Obama to the White House. But she ultimately could not craft a message that resonated with voters or secure the money to continue her run. Biden and Sanders, two white men in their 70s, are

now the front-runners for the nomination in what was once a field of candidates that included several woman and much younger politicians. Harris said in her statement that “like many women, I watched with sadness as women exited the race one by one.” Four years after Hillary Clinton was the party’s nominee, “we find ourselves without any woman on a path to be the Democratic nominee for president.” “This is something we must reckon with and it is something I will have more to say about in the future,” she said. “But we must rise to unite the party and country behind a candidate who reflects the decency and dignity of the American people and who can ultimately defeat Donald Trump.”

PEEKS: Chairman to request grant extensions PEEKS, FROM PAGE A5

Rice Twp. supervisors took steps last week to hold onto grant money the municipality received for the Ice Lakes dam retrofit project while it seeks additional funds needed to complete the project. The board authorized chairman Robert Pipech to request extensions for three grants the township has received for the project estimated to cost nearly $500,000. The grants for which the township is looking for extensions are an Economic Development and Community Development Initiatives Program Grant for $60,000 a nd t wo L o c al S h are s Account grants totaling $119,354. The township re-bid the project last summer and

the lowest bid was $490,833. Last December supervisors voted to apply for $508,883 from the H2O P for the dam project. The grant program was established over a decade ago to provide for grants for the construction of drinking water, sanitary sewer and storm sewer projects; the construction or renovation of flood control projects; and the repair or rehabilitation of high-hazard unsafe dams. The resolution authorizing the grant application indicates the funds will be used to bring the dam into compliance with state law. Supervisors approved purchase of a 2020 Ford Responder for the police department under the state COSTARS program for $36,527.51.

KENT JACKSON / STAFF PHOTO

The living room of a group home that four people share in Nanticoke. Step By Step owns the group home and hires workers who help care for residents.

COMMUNITY: Wolf has proposed closing White Haven Center FROM PAGE A1

Gov. Tom Wolf has proposed closing the centers in Luzerne and Venango counties, respectively, and having residents transferred to one of two other remaining state facilities or into the community, depending on the preference of the individuals or their families. Inside and out, the group home looks like any other house in the neighborhood, and Arthur feels comfortable there. He smiled as he told visitors about riding his bike outside, waving to a neighbor and having the neighbor wave back. He enjoys being part of the larger community and interacting with others in public at his jobs, at church and at outings, he said. The group home is usually staffed by two or three Step By Step employees, although the ratio for this particular group can be as low as one staffer to four residents. The staff provide the supervision or assistance Arthur and his brother used to receive when they lived on a farm with their parents until a fire occurred. In addition to living with family or in a group home, the state encourages life sharing. People with intellectual disabilities can live with a foster family that has been licensed and vetted. “It’s near and dear to my heart,” Sandy Pelleschi, said of the life sharing program while putting her hands to heart during an interview in the Wilkes-Barre offices of Step By Step, where she is director of developmental disability services. While Step By Step has 2,000 clients, only six of them have life-sharing arrangements, down from 16 when the agency started the program in 1995. If and when the time comes for residents of White Haven and Polk centers to either move to another state facility or into the community, they will have assistance of staff

KENT JACKSON / STAFF PHOTO

Arthur knits rugs in his spare time at his group home in Nanticoke. with an agency from their home county responsible for making sure they get the support they need. Tara Vallet, administrator of Luzerne-Wyoming Counties Mental Health/Developmental Services Programs, said department staff has already begun preparing for the closure of White Haven Center. Each county that sent residents to White Haven Center is responsible for supporting the individuals who live there, Vallet said. Luzerne-Wyoming County MH/DS staffers are familiarizing themselves with the needs and support requirements of the 31 individuals who lived elsewhere in Luzerne County before entering the center, she said. “Our role, if the center were to close, would be to support the individuals and their families to make sure every need is met. It’s not an easy process for anyone,” Vallet said. “We met with the individuals, met with their family members. At this point, we’re not developing any solid plan.

We’re getting to know them and what their needs are. As time goes on, it will be more case specific,” she said. Part of any transfer would require the development of community resources or resources at another intermediate care facility. Operators of group homes, day programs and other services in the community have been invited to give presentations about what they offer to families of White Haven residents. “We would work with providers to offer options to meet specific needs” of the individuals, Vallet said, adding that those needs vary widely among individuals and families. “It’s really helpful for us to know what their needs are, what their fears are, what they want for their family members,” Vallet said. “A lot of family members never thought they would need to have these conversations, and right now, the emotions are raw.”

to manage a respirator that helped Cori breathe for two more years. Therese, a re gistered nurse who volunteered with Easter Seals and Special Olympics before Cori was born, started an inclusive Girl Scout Troop. She and George also for med and managed an inclusive baseball league on which their daughters played together. George ran Cori’s Place until handing control to Tara, who has a degree in special education. Tara said people at Cori’s Place start their day in groups of six, that a worker leads. “They go over the newspaper every day. Watch the weather. What should you wear?” Tara said.

Every day, the clients exercise, do chores such as cleaning the kitchen. They operate a snack bar and cook meals which they’ve planned and purchased at grocery stores while following a budget that they drafted. Folks from Cori’s Place pack eggs into cartons at Hillside Farms, help with Meals on Wheels, serve lunch at the Jewish Community Center and stack shelves or pack boxes at the Weinberg Food Bank of the Commission on Economic Opportunity. “Just because you have a disability, doesn’t mean you can’t help others,” Tara said.

Contact the writers: smocarsky@citizensvoice.com, 570-821-2110; kjackson@standardspeaker.com; 570-501-3587

CORI: Center opened 18 years ago FROM PAGE A1

The township recycling When the employee said center will resume summer hours on April 4. Hours will Cori isn’t her boss, Cori be Saturdays from 9 a.m. to 2 pointed to the sign that p.m. and Wednesdays from 4 reads Cori’s place. Her parents, George and to 7 p.m. Therese Gwilliam, started Fish or chicken Cori’s Place 18 years ago so finger fry their daughter and her Mountain Top Hose Com- friends could lear n life pany No. 1 will hold a fish or skills. chicken finger fry from 2 to Cori’s Place opened with 7 p.m. Friday, April 3, at the five young adults. Now 58 hose company. Dinners will a t t e n d t h e c e n t e r i n be served with French fries Hanover Twp. and cole slaw. The famous Even before star ting MTHC potato pancakes will Cori’s Place, the Gwilliams also be sold. The cost for a were innovators — from dinner is $9. The potato necessity. pancakes are $1 each. All When Cori came home food is take-out only. Pre- after spending her first two orders are encouraged. Con- years in a hospital and havtact Jared Aigeldinger at ing surgery to close a pas570-239-3393 to place your sage that let food enter her order. lungs, her parents learned

Contact the writer: kjackson@standardspeaker. com: 570-501-3587

WB_VOICE/PAGES [A01] | 03/09/20

voice

the citizens’

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‘Careers in care’

$1.5M pledge will address nurse shortage in NEPA. C1 BASKETBALL: WVC TEAMS GEARING UP FOR SECOND ROUND OF STATE PLAYOFFS. PAGE B3

TUESDAY, MARCH 10, 2020

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CORONAVIRUS

UNCOVERING THE WHITE HAVEN CLOSURE A joint investigation into its impact in Luzerne County.

‘IT’S GOING TO AFFECT EVERYONE’

White Haven Center closure would hurt community financially

Stocks plummet amid virus fears, oil-price crash It was the worst one-day drop for markets since the 2008 financial crisis. BY STAN CHOE AND ALEX VEIGA ASSoCIATED PrESS

Stocks took their worst one-day beating on Wall Street since the global financial crisis of 2008 as a collapse in oil prices Monday combined with mounting alarm over what the coronavirus could do to the world economy. The staggering losses, including a 7.8% tumble in the Dow Jones Industrial Average, immediately raised fears that a recession might be on the way in the U.S. and that the recordbreaking 11-year bull market on Wall Street may be coming to an abrupt end in a way no one even imagined just a few months ago. The drop was so sharp

STEVE MoCArSky / STAff PHoTo

Tyra Alford works at Capone’s Bar in White Haven. She said workers from the White Haven Center often stop by the bar after their shifts or order food for takeout.

BY KENT JACKSON STAff WrITEr

HITE HAVEN — Trish Capone sized up the state’s plans to close her town’s largest employer, a residential center for people with intellectual disabilities. “I’m sure it will have some effect on the whole town,” said Capone, as she sold lottery tickets at White Haven Market, which supplies eggs and butter to the center. She figures most other local businesses sell to the center, too. “It’s going to affect everyone,” Capone said. “It’s a small town.” Small enough that the bar across the street shares her last name. At Capone’s, her father-in-law’s place, workers from the center order food for takeout. A handful stop in after day and evening shifts, said Tyra Alford, who was behind the bar. Center workers also patronize the social club of White Have Fire Co., another place that Alford works. A former dietary worker at the center, herself, Alford said her father spent his career there, starting as an aide and retiring as a supervisor. Now her son’s girlfriend is a nurse there. “I think it’s unbelievable it’s going to shut down. It’s going to be a sad day,” Alford said. Please see IMPACT, Page A5

that it triggered the first automatic halt in trading in more than two decades. European stock indexes likewise registered their heaviest losses since the darkest days of the 2008 meltdown and are now in a bear market. Together, the sell-offs reflected growing anxiety over the potential global economic damage from the coronavirus, which has infected more than 110,000 people worldwide and killed about 4,000 while prompting factory shutdowns, travel bans, closings of schools and stores, and cancellations of conventions and celebrations big and small. Please see STOCKS, Page A7

Local events canceled over virus concerns Gov. Tom Wolf ordered insurers to provide coverage for the virus test.

MORE INSIDE ■ The coronavirus threatens blood supply as donations drop. Page A8 ■ PIAA: High school sports will go on as normal. Page B1 ■ Scientists are preparing for a test of a coronavirus vaccine. Page B7

BY BOB KALINOWSKI STAff WrITEr

STEVE MoCArSky / STAff PHoTo

Renee Machulsky said her hoagie shop will suffer if White Haven Center closes, though she added she is more concerned about the future of the residents who live there.

ABOUT THE PROJECT This is the latest in a series of investigative reports by The Citizens’ Voice and The Standard-Speaker of Hazleton. Today, we examine the potential closing of the White Haven Center.

COMING TOMORROW Today is the third in a four-part series. In Wednesday’s edition, we take a closer look at the deinstitutionalization of state centers.

Concerns about the coronavirus, or COVID-19, have led to the cancelation of the 2020 Northeast Regional Science Olympiad at Penn State Wilkes-Barre, an annual event that draws more than 800 students from 14 counties in the region. The event had been slated to be held Wednesday at the school’s campus in Lehman Twp. “The safety of our community was the driving force in reaching this decision,” Jennifer Henniges, a school spokeswoman, said in a statement. “Through consultation with the Northeast Regional Science Olympiad and Penn State University Park, we ultimately made the decision to

cancel the competition to help protect the health and safety of our community.” Students from Bradford, Carbon, Clinton, Columbia, Lackawanna, Luzer ne, Lycoming, Monroe, Montour, Pike, Sullivan, Tioga, Wayne and Wyoming counties planned to compete in the competition. The Northeast Regional Science Olympiad is a qualifier for the state competition, with the goal of advancing to the international level. Please see EVENTS, Page A8

ADVE RTISE M E NT

Juul sought to court state AGs as teen vaping surged Pennsylvania Attorney General Josh Shapiro met with Juul in 2018. BY MATTHEW PERRONE AND RICHARD LARDNER ASSoCIATED PrESS

ASSoCIATED PrESS fIlE

Pennsylvania Attorney General Josh Shapiro and four staffers met with representatives from Juul in 2018.

WASHINGTON — It was a blunt warning about the dangers of youth vaping: Georgia Attorney General Chris Carr announced late last month that his state had joined 38 others to investigate whether Juul Labs, the nation’s largest electronic cigarette company, promoted and sold its nicotine-heavy products to teens. It was a moment Juul had worked

to avoid. Ten monthsearlier, ateam of Juulrepresentatives met with Carr and his staff. They delivered a 17-page presentation laden with information about the public health potential of Juul’s combustionfreevapingdevicesforadultsmokersand the company’s “commitment to ending youth use,” a pledge that included more rigorous retail and online sales controls. Juul had access, but it did not pay off. In that way, the company’s experience in Georgia was typical. Again and again, the company met with Carr and other state attorneys general, in many cases giving money to their campaign funds. Please see JUUL, Page A13

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TUESDAY, MARCH 10, 2020

FROM A1

THE CITIZENS' VOICE A5

IMPACT: Business owners share concern over fate of residents FROM PAGE A1

“The people who work there can get a job somewhere else,” she said. “The people who live there — it’s the only home they’ve ever known.” Likewise, Renee Machulsky said her hoagie shop will suffer if the center closes, but she worried more about residents. “I lose my breakfast and my lunch and I take a pretty good beating … but what about the people there over 50 years? They don’t know the outside world,” Machulsky said. The center has 110 residents and 429 workers and is in Foster Twp., just outside White Haven Borough, where the Census Bureau most recently estimated the population at 1,227. If White Haven closes, workers will have chances to transfer to vacant state jobs for which they qualify, Wolf ’s administration said. That happened for the most part after the state closed the Hamburg Center in Berks County in 2018. Of 351 workers at Hamburg, 24 didn’t enter new contracts or rejected offers. The rest transferred to other state jobs, retired or found work off the state payroll. Seventeen continued working in Hamburg to maintain the campus until state Departments of Agriculture and Military and Veterans Affairs, state police and the Berks County Intermediate Unit divided up the campus. But in White Haven, where White Haven chamber president Linda Miller and other business owners are trying to serve the community and stay profitable, losing the center’s workforce wo u l d b e d eva s t at i n g , according to a report she authored in August 2019. Miller interviewed owners of other businesses in and around White Haven. She said the borough is a commercial hub for a region of about 7,500 residents spread among Penn Lake and Dennison townships, East Side Borough, Hickory Hills and other housing developments. Though not all center employees live in White Haven, landlords told Miller they worry about losing rents and even their properties to foreclosures — if no new tenants fill the void. “I’m sure it would create a little loss and lead to distressed sales if landlords can’t rent anymore,” Brian McCardle, a real estate agent, said after the chamber’s meeting. Gas stations expect fuel sales will drop 15% and retail sales of snacks and other items to slump 10%. Chris Tunnessen said his family’s auto parts store has contracts with the center, and center workers take their cars to repair shops that buy their parts from the store. “It would have a huge impact on my business,” Tunnessen said. Other retailers forecast 10% drops, which could lead

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This Week in Wilkes-Barre

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THE CITIZENS’ VOICE FILE

The White Haven Center, which is located in Foster Twp., just outside of White Haven, employs more than 400 people.

‘The people who work there can get a job somewhere else. The people who live there — it’s the only home they’ve ever known.’ TYRA ALFORD

Employee at Capone’s bar

years before a developer purchased the site for $1 million. Since then, a clash with residents who want to keep the land as open space delayed plans to construct 1,100 residences and commercial buildings. Through a settlement last fall, most of the land will become a park, but the developer can build houses on a small parcel. If Wolf has a plan for reusing White Haven Center, Miller wishes he would disclose it so the community could prepare. At White Haven Center, the current operating cost shared between state and federal funds is $50.76 million or $461,454 for each of the 110 residents. Treating people who leave centers in the community costs less, between $180,000 and $270,000 per person each year, the department estimates. Erin James, press secretary for the Pennsylvania Department of Human Services, said the state expects to save $18.8 million annually from closing White Haven. A fiscal note attached to a bill postponing the closing of any state center for at least five years, says the state would save $60,371 per resident by closing White Haven and moving people to the community. The note prepared by Ann Bertolino for Republicans in the House Appropriations Committee estimated the cost for care in the community at $225,000 per person, an amount based on the state’s experience after closing Hamburg Center. Pennsylvania pays $32.24 million more to keep residents in all four centers than it would spend to transfer them to the community, the note says. Any money saved by closing centers, James said, could help move some of the 12,700 Pennsylvanians with intellectual disabilities or autism off a waiting list for services that will help them live in the community. People at White Haven and Polk can skip the waiting list, and won’t leave centers without a plan in place for where to live next, according to the Wolf administration’s plan.

mom and pop stores to close and larger retailers to move, the report said. Restaurants expect to suffer the most, Miller’s report said, with sales falling 40% for sandwiches and sit-down dining declining by 65%. White Haven’s only dental office gets 40% of its business from the center and probably would fold after operating for a half century, the report said. Local lawmakers who gathered at a restaurant near Retreat on Jan. 31 said they support a Community Recovery and Community Reinvestment Act. As proposed, the state would plan strategies to help communities and families hurt by closings and form a community response team. Meanwhile, Gov. Wolf in his budget proposal, said the state will have to spend $5 million a year to maintain the buildings and grounds at White Haven Center — if it closes — until the campus is sold or put to other use. After shutting down, some centers have been reused. The federal government, for example, purchased the Marcy State Hospital in Pittsburgh and converted it into a Job Corps Center for training teenagers and young adults. A developer named Mountain Valley Inc. paid $1.79 million for the Laurelton Center in 2006, eight years after it closed, and operated a car customizing shop for a while. Now little or no economic activity occurs there. “In essence, no jobs were created for local folks that were out of work from the center closing,” Shawn McLaughlin, planning and economic director for Union County, said in an email. After the state closed the Embreeville Center in West Bradford Twp., Chester Contact the writer: County, in 1998, however, the kjackson@standardspeaker. campus went unused for 15 com; 570-501-3587

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Tuesday, March 10 Rotary Club of Wilkes-Barre Weekly Meeting TIME: 12:00 PM - 1:00 PM PLACE: The Westmoreland Club, 59 South Franklin Street More information: www.facebook.com/ RotaryClubofWilkesBarrePa.

Saturday, March 14 “One More Row” Knit & Crochet Group TIME: 10:30 AM - 12:00 PM PLACE: Osterhout Free Library, 71 South Franklin Street More information: www.osterhout.info or 570-8211959.

Tuesday, March 10 Transformation Tuesday Pop-Up Party TIME: 5:00 PM - 7:00 PM PLACE: 58 - 60, Public Square More information: http://wyomingvalleyartleague. org/

Saturday, March 14 Osterhout St. Patrick’s Day Fun TIME: 1:00 PM PLACE: Osterhout Free Library, 71 South Franklin Street More information: www.osterhout.info or 570-8230156.

Wednesday, March 11 Lenten Organ Recital Series TIME: 11:30 AM - 1:00 PM PLACE: St. Stephen’s Episcopal Pro-Cathedral, 35 South Franklin Street More information: www.ststephenswb.org or 570825-6653. Wednesday, March 11 Osterhout Teen Night: “Play With Clay” TIME: 6:00 PM PLACE: Osterhout Free Library, 71 South Franklin Street More information: www.osterhout.info or 570-8230156. Wednesday, March 11 The F.M. Kirby Center presents comedian Nate Bargatze TIME: 7:00 PM PLACE: F.M. Kirby Center for the Performing Arts, 71 Public Square More information: www.kirbycenter.org or 570-8261100. Thursday, March 12 Wilkes University Women’s History Month Lecture: “Not Just Housewives: Women’s Activism before the 19th Amendment” TIME: 4:30 PM PLACE: Sordoni Art Gallery, 141 South Main Street More information: www.wilkes.edu/sordoniartgallery or 570-408-4325.

Saturday, March 14 The F.M. Kirby Center presents “Dinosaur World Live!” TIME: 3:00 PM PLACE: F.M. Kirby Center for the Performing Arts, 71 Public Square More information: www.kirbycenter.org or 570-8261100. Saturday, March 14 Friendly Daughters of St. Patrick Dinner Celebration TIME: 6:00 PM PLACE: Jonathans Restaurant, 45 North River Street More information: https://www.facebook.com/ events/2900580393501599/. Sunday, March 15 The Renal Race 9 TIME: 10:00 AM PLACE: Public Square More information: www.therenalrace.org. Sunday, March 15 40th Annual City of Wilkes-Barre St. Patrick’s Day Parade TIME: 2:00 PM PLACE: South Main Street and Public Square More information: www.wilkes-barre.city or 570208-4149.

Thursday, March 12 Karl Hall presents a Night of Live Music TIME: 8:00 PM PLACE: Karl Hall, 57B North Main Street More information: https://karlhall.org

Sunday, March 15 “St. Patrick’s Day Tea” at the Frederick Stegmaier Mansion TIME: 2:00 PM - 5:00 PM PLACE: The Frederick Stegmaier Mansion, 304 South Franklin Street More information and reservations: www. stegmaiermansion.com or 570-332-4250.

Friday, March 13 Osterhout Friday Movie Matinee: East of Eden TIME: 2:00 PM PLACE: Osterhout Free Library, 71 South Franklin Street More information: www.osterhout.info or 570-8211959.

Sunday, March 15 Live From the Chandelier Lobby: Mickey Spain TIME: 2:30 PM PLACE: F.M. Kirby Center for the Performing Arts, 71 Public Square More information: www.kirbycenter.org or 570-8261100.

Friday, March 13 75th Anniversary Friendly Sons Of St. Patrick Dinner TIME: 5:00 PM - 9:00 PM PLACE: Genetti’s Best Western Plus, 77 East Market Street More information: https://www.facebook.com/ events/232734601053514/.

Sunday, March 15 Karl Hall presents a Night of Live Music TIME: 5:30 PM PLACE: Karl Hall, 57B North Main Street More information: https://karlhall.org/.

Friday, March 13 Karl Hall presents a Night of Live Music TIME: 8:00 PM PLACE: Karl Hall, 57B North Main Street More information: https://karlhall.org/.

Walk Wilkes-Barre This week’s historic buildings are: Catlin Hall (1843) 92 South River Street Weiss Hall (1850) 98 South River Street Roth Hall (1887) 68-74 West Northampton Street

Wilkes University’s Catlin and Weiss Halls help to illustrate the continuing desirability of South River Street as an elite address, even as styles and generations changed. These were once almost identical neighbors, both built in the Greek Revival style less than a decade apart. In 1886, however, new homeowner E. L. Brown had Wilkes-Barre architect Albert Kipp remodel his house, now known as Weiss Hall, into a turreted, richly textured Queen Anne-style showpiece. The transformation of Brown’s home led to new commissions for Albert Kipp and his partner, Thomas Podmore, throughout the neighborhood, including a picturesque block of four rowhouses for businessman Benjamin Reynolds (now Roth Hall) on the other side of West Northampton Street. The Reynolds rowhouses were published nationally in the architectural periodicals of the time, and Kipp & Podmore soon joined the ranks of Wilkes-Barre’s most prolific Victorian architects.

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WEDNESDAY, MARCH 11, 2020

CORONAViRuS OuTBREAK

UNCOVERING THE WHITE HAVEN CLOSURE A joint investigation into its impact in Luzerne County.

A TIME OF CHANGE This isn’t the first time the potential closing of a state facility caused a stir

tHe CitizeNS’ VoiCe file

A vehicle leaves the State Correctional Institution at Retreat in Newport Twp. Gov. Tom Wolf has announced plans to close the prison.

By KENT JACKSON ANd STEVE MOCARSKy Staff WriterS

he State Correctional Institution at Retreat in Newport Twp. that Gov. Tom Wolf wants to shut down along with state centers at White Haven and Polk has closed before. In 1981, then-Gov. Dick Thornburgh closed Retreat, which had been a state hospital for 80 years. Seven years later, Thornburgh remodeled and reopened Retreat — as a prison. The current efforts to close Retreat and the state centers parallels an era of deinstitutionalization that Anne Parsons writes about in her history book “From Asylum to Prison.” The book focuses on Pennsylvania between the 1940s and 1980s and features Retreat as a case study. Then as now, the public debated how to care for people released from institutions and to replace jobs and dollars that the institutions provided to their small communities.

pARSONS

ROCKOViCh

ABOUT THE PROJECT this is the last in a series of investigative reports by the Citizens’ Voice and the StandardSpeaker of Hazleton. today, we examine the deinstitutionalization of state centers.

“Very much we are in another time of major change, and Northeast Pennsylvania is right in the midst of it in really kicking up these issues and grappling with them again,” Parsons said in an interview. A history professor at University

of North Carolina Greensboro, Parsons doesn’t propose current policies. But she said her research points to historical problems of releasing people from institutions without providing money to care for them in the community. Across the country, Parsons’ book notes 63 other asylums that became prisons. Pennsylvania, however, had onefifth of the mental hospital population of the nation in the 1950s, which is one reason why Parsons wrote about the state. By the 1960s, mental hospitals began emptying and closing, sparked by movements to provide civil rights to people with disabilities who had been kept against their will and return them to homes in the community. As asylums closed, recycling them into prisons was cheaper than building from scratch during the prison boom that followed, Parsons writes. Please see pRiSON, Page A8

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President suggests payroll tax break. By liSA MASCARO ANd ZEKE MillER aSSoCiateD PreSS

WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump’s proposed payroll tax break met with bipartisan resistance Tuesday on Capitol Hill as pressure mounts on the administration and Congress to work more vigorously to contain the coronavirus outbreak and respond to the financial fallout. Flanked by his economic team, Trump pitched his economic stimulus ideas privately to wary Senate Republicans on another grueling day in the struggle against expanding infections. Fluctuating stock markets rebounded but communities discovered new cases and the two top Democratic presidential candidates, Bernie Sanders and Joe Biden, canceled Tuesday primary night rallies in Ohio. The president’s GOP allies have been cool to addi-

tional spending at this stage, especially for cutting taxes that would have to be reimposed later — presumably after the November election. Democrats prefer their own package of low- or nocost virus testing, unemployment insurBidEN ance and sick pay for workers struggling to keep paychecks coming as the outbreak disrupts workplaces. “We’re taking this unbelievably seriously,” Trump said after his meeting at the Capitol. “It will go away, just stay calm.” Asked why he has not yet been tested for the virus, after having been in close contact with several advisers and members of Congress who are now self-quarantined after exposure, Trump said: “I don’t think it’s a big deal” and “I feel very good.” Please see ViRuS, Page A8

NEPA summit will gauge readiness for outbreak in region By BOB KAliNOwSKi Staff Writer

Health care and municipal leaders from throughout Northeast Pennsylvania will gather for a summit on Thursday to address the region’s readiness for a coronavirus outbreak here. The summit will be held at the Wilkes-Barre headquarters of the AllOne Foundation, a health care nonprofit serving 13 area counties. It is not open to the public. Board members of the charity recently voted to host the meeting as a proactive measure against a possible outbreak of the coronavirus, or COVID-19, John W. Cosgrove, executive director of the AllOne Foundation, said Tuesday. “They felt it was really

LOCAL EFFECTS Wilkes-Barre’s St. Patrick’s Day Parade will go on as scheduled, but with one change. A3 Bloomsburg University’s decision to extend spring break affects speech Meyers High School’s speech and debate team. A8 impor tant to call the municipal leaders and health care leaders together to focus on our readiness in Northeast and Central Pennsylvania,” Cosgrove said. “It speaks to the collaborative nature of the leaders of our region.” Please see SuMMiT, Page A8

BUSINESS

Trump pitches tax relief to wary Congress

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Stocks recoup most of their historic losses on hope for U.S. economic aid. Page C1

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PrisoN: Closures helped trim state budget, but at a cost FROM PAGE A1

Her study of Retreat begins with the administration of Thornburgh, governor from 1979 to 1987. Thor nburgh had a daughter with intellectual disabilities, and he favored providing care offered to people with intellectual disabilities in state centers or the community. But he didn’t propose increased funding for other social programs, including care of people with psychiatric illness in state hospitals. Thornburgh, as a former prosecutor, also embraced policies such as mandatory sentences that grew the prison population. Closing Retreat State Hospital and other state institutions, helped Thornburgh trim the budget, which had little money for social services. Building prisons at Retreat and elsewhere further sapped funding that could have served people released from state hospitals, “From Asylum to Prison” says. Policymakers thought tougher sentences would ultimately reduce crime rates and prison populations. “Unfortunately, it didn’t happen,” Parsons said. Prisons, too, opened more psychiatric wards after asylums closed. In Luzerne County, Mark Rockovich, director of correctional services, said an inmate requiring mental health services arrives at the county jail about every two months. Rockovich said a medical professional evaluates every new inmate at booking, which includes a look at the prisoner’s mental health. Accommodations depend on an inmates’ particular circumstances. For example, an inmate with certain mental health issues might be assigned to a dayroom where up to 10 inmates are housed together rather than to a cell so they can be better observed by correctional officers, Rockovich explained. “We have mental health professionals here over 120 hours a week that are part of our contract with the medical services provider. We have a psychiatrist, we have a psychiatric nurse, we have nurse practitioners with a specialty in mental health. Our goal is to treat inmates with any kind of mental health or medical problems appropriately while in our custody,” Rockovich said. T h e p r i s o n’s m e n t a l health staff also works with Luzerne-Wyoming Counties Mental Health and Developmental Services to ensure inmates with mental health disorders or intellectual disabilities are placed in the most appropriate setting. “We work with the director, Mark Rockovich, to get them out as quickly as possible. People with intellectual disabilities and those with mental health disorders, we want people receiving treatment, not incarceration,” said Tara Vallet, MH/DS department administrator. Rockovich said inmates deemed incompetent in a psychiatric evaluation for a court proceeding are usually transferred to Norristown State Hospital near Philadelphia or Torrance State Hospital near Pittsburgh “to have their competency restored.” Individuals with intellectual disabilities are sometimes transferred to Danville or Clarks Summit state hospitals, he said. A judge’s or magistrate’s order is required for any transfer. Over his 29-year career in cor rections, Rockovich said, he’s seen increases in inmates with mental health

‘Our goal is to treat inmates with any kind of mental health or medical problems appropriately while in our custody.’ MarK rocKoVicH

Luzerne County director of correctional services

tHE sEriEs To read previous installments in this series, visit citizensvoice.com and click on this story.

issues as state hospitals closed. “We’d typically wait 12 to 18 months to get someone into Norristown or Torrance. At this point in time, I was told last week there was zero wait time,” he said, adding that litigation helped decrease wait times. The American Civil Liberties Union sued the state Department of Human Services in 2015 on behalf of hundreds of inmates found incompetent to stand trial and having to wait months in prison before receiving mental health treatment because of severe bed shortages in the state’s mental health care system. In “From Asylum to Prison,” Parsons says the prison system began absorbing people previously treated by the mental health system, including those with alcohol and drug abuse problems and people whose minor crimes related to mental conditions. But she cautions about oversimplifying. S ay i n g t h at p e o p l e released from state hospitals merely ended up in prison, she writes, “ignores facts on the ground.” Many people found homes and received services that they needed in the community. More recently, parole changes kept violators out of prison as have specialty courts for veterans, drug users or people with mental health issues, Parsons writes. On Jan. 31, the state’s prisons held 45,868 inmates, down 1,538 from the previous year. A declining population of prisoners and a budget deficit are among the reasons that the Department of Corrections cites for planning to close Retreat now. Similarly, declining numbers of residents at the state centers and a desire to shift resources to people waiting for care in the community led Wolf to propose closing White Haven and Polk. When institutions closed in the 1960s, the state didn’t put enough resources into caring for people in the community, Parsons writes. A process for closing Byberry, another state hospital, decades later served as a better model. Before closing Philadelphia State Hospital at Byberry in 1990, the state set up programs to develop af fordable housing and housing structured for people who needed intensive care. The state assisted people leaving Byberry; after it cl o s e d , wh i l e t h e c i t y helped people who would have gone there. A lawsuit also sought to guarantee that for mer Byberry residents would be served in the community. Pa r s o n s, aw a re t h at Wolf ’s administration has pledged to provide a plan of care for residents leaving White Haven and Polk, said, “it sounds like they’re trying to learn from the past.” contact the writers: kjackson@standardspeaker. com, 570-501-3587 smocarsky@citizensvoice.com 570-821-2110

PAUL VERNON / ASSOCIATED PRESS

Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden hugs Crystal Turner, with Moms Demand Action, during a campaign rally in Columbus, Ohio, on Tuesday.

Biden’s win in Michigan delivers blow to Sanders

Former VP also won in Missouri and Mississippi.

By WiLL WEissErt aNd LauriE KELLMaN ASSOCIATED PRESS

WASHINGTON — Joe Biden won Michigan’s Democratic primary on Tuesday, seizing a key battleground state that helped propel Bernie Sanders’ insurgent candidacy four years ago. The former vice president’s victory in Michigan, as well as Missouri and Mississippi, dealt a serious blow to Sanders, who is urgently seeking to jumpstart his flagging campaign. Sanders could still get a boost later in the night in Idaho, North Dakota or Washington state. But fewer delegates were at stake than in Mississippi, Missouri and Michigan, where Biden’s decisive performance again showed his strength with working-class voters and African Americans, who are

vital to winning the Democratic nomination. It’s a dramatic reversal of fortune for Biden, whose campaign appeared on the brink of collapse just two weeks ago. Sanders opened the nomination process with strong showings in Iowa, New Hampshire and Nevada, but Biden rebounded in South Carolina and built on that success with a surprise Super Tuesday rout last week. Sanders had been hoping to pull off a victory in Michigan, where his win four years ago lent much-needed credibility to his 2016 primary challenge of Hillary Clinton. The state is also vitally important since President Donald Trump’s win there was so narrow four years ago that Democrats are desperate to show they have the strength to flip it back. Even as the contours of

the race took shape, however, the campaigns faced new uncertainty amid fears of the spreading coronavirus. Sanders and Biden both abruptly canceled public events in Ohio that were scheduled for Tuesday night. Sanders’ campaign said all future events would be decided on a case-by-case basis, while Biden called off a scheduled upcoming stop in Florida. The Democratic National Committee also said that Sunday’s debate between Sanders and Biden would be conducted without an audience. As soon as polls closed in Mississippi and Missouri at 8 p.m. Eastern time, The Associated Press declared Biden the winner in both states’ Democratic presidential primary. The AP called Biden the winner over Sanders even though state officials had yet to release any results from Tuesday’s election. The news agency did so based on

results from AP VoteCast, its wide-ranging survey of the American electorate. That election research captures the views of voters on whom they vote for, and why. Tuesday marked the first time voters weighed in on the primary since it effectively narrowed to a two-person race between Sanders and Biden. It showed that Sanders had yet to really broaden his appeal among African Americans after earlier setbacks in the South on Super Tuesday. Biden, meanwhile, kept up momentum after a dominant South Carolina victory. With 125 delegates at stake, Michigan got most of the attention Tuesday. Trump won the state by only about 10,000 votes during the general election in 2016, his closest margin of victory between it, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin — the three states that gave Trump the edge in the Electoral College after Clinton won the popular vote.

is receiving a cool response. Some Republicans endorsed Trump’s suggestion that help be provided to the beleaguered cruise-ship and airline industries, while others spoke up for other industries, including energy and gas. Some pushed for broader economic stimulus from a bipartisan highway bill they said was shovel-ready and popular. The payroll tax plan remains a work in progress. “They didn’t get into specifics,” said the No. 2 Republican, Sen. John Thune of South Dakota. Increasingly, it appears a solution will originate in the House, where Speaker Nancy Pelosi told House Democrats they would keep working this week despite concerns about the risk of infection at the Capitol. “We are the captains of the ship,” Pelosi said during a closed-door meeting, according to a person in the room unauthorized to discuss the private caucus and granted anonymity. “We are the last to leave.” But time is short as Congress heads toward its scheduled break next week. Trump tapped Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin to meet with Pelosi, whose support will be needed for any deal in the divided Congress, where

Republicans hold the Senate majority but Democrats hold the House. Munchin declared the meeting with Pelosi “productive” and said they’d “work together on a bipartisan basis to figure out how we can get things done quickly.” Pelosi insisted the “threshold” for any proposal must be its ability to respond to the virus. Her team was preparing to come out with a package in the next day or so. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell was noncommittal after the meeting with Trump, emphasizing the path forward rests in the talks between Mnuchin and Pelosi. “We’re hoping that he and the speaker can pull this together,” he said. That reflected divisions even within the administration on the best approach. The payroll-tax plan found support from Trump’s son-in-law and adviser Jared Kushner and trade adviser Peter Navarro, among others. Other aides, including Mnuchin and Larry Kudlow advocated more modest measures. Trump prefers the payroll tax holiday “last through the end of the year,” Kudlow said. For most people, the new coronavirus causes only mild

or moderate symptoms, such as fever and cough. For some, especially older adults and people with existing health problems, it can cause more severe illness, including pneumonia. The vast majority of people recover from the new virus. According to the World Health Organization, people with mild illness recover in about two weeks, while those with more severe illness may take three to six weeks to recover. In mainland China, where the virus first exploded, more than 80,000 people have been diagnosed and more than 58,000 have so far recovered. In Washington, there were mixed signals about the public mood. Tourists still arrived for visits while marquee events, including this weekend’s Gridiron Club dinner, an annual mingling of political Washington, was postponed. At the U.S. Capitol, some senators said they resisted shaking Trump’s hand when he arrived for lunch. Lawmakers were given new instructions on how to protect themselves, with the House’s attending physician asking them to stop shaking hands or touching people during greetings. He recommended the split-fingers Star Trek greeting instead.

Virus: Trump’s proposals are not complete FROM PAGE A1

White House officials have been blindsided by the president’s sudden moves. As Trump headed to Capitol Hill, two administration officials said the proposals he was putting in play had not been completed. They were unauthorized to discuss the planning and requested anonymity. Trump’s team offered few specifics at the closed door GOP lunch on the size of the payroll tax break or its duration, senators said. Trump has long promised to bring about an election year “tax cuts 2.0,” and seemed to be seizing on the virus fears as a way to bring about a victory on that front before November. Behind closed doors he discussed the coming elections in swing states like Arizona and Montana where GOP senators face tough races. In addition to payroll tax relief, Trump has said he wants help for hourly-wage workers to ensure they’re “not going to miss a paycheck” and “don’t get penalized for something that’s not their fault.” He’s also mentioned smallbusiness loans. But details are slight. So far, the president’s approach, based on tax breaks,

suMMit: Getting ready FROM PAGE A1

people,” Cosgove said. “Our primary goal here is to provide leadership in convening the experts.” The AllOne Foundation was founded out of the merger of Highmark and Blue Cross, but now is a separate nonprofit health care charity. “Hopefully the summit will direct your readers and our neighbors to the services they may or may not n e e d , ” C o s g rove s a i d . “Overall, we want the message to be that as a region we are prepared for this outbreak.”

Top officials with Geisinger Health System, Commonwealth Health, Wayne Memorial Hospital, Highmark insurance, Allied Services and the Wright Center for Community Health will take part in the summit. Also taking part will be the mayors of WilkesBarre, Scranton, Hazleton and Pittston; Luzer ne County government representatives; and WilkesBarre Area School District officials. “This feeds into our mis- contact the writer: sion to improve the health bkalinowski@citizensvoice.com and wellness of the region’s 570-821-2055, @cvbobkal

Blooomsburg extends spring break Bloomsburg University has responded to the coronavirus health threat by extending spring break a week and suspending all university-sponsored non-athletics events and gatherings. The Pennsylvania High School Speech League state championships were going to be at Bloomsburg University this weekend and were canceled, said Kimberly Borland, a coach for the Meyers High School speech and debate team. PHSSL is exploring the possibility of re-scheduling, Borland said.

Bloomsburg University is also canceling all university-sponsored travel for faculty, staff and students that involve professional development and other non-essential business activities. Classes are anticipated to resume on Monday, March 23. During this spring break extension, faculty will be provided training in online course delivery methods to enable continuity of instruction if another delay in student return to campus becomes warranted. — Michael P. Buffer