Reporters’ Notebook: Sounds on Penn Street create quite a mashup

Reporters’ Notebook gives our staff a chance to share some of the stories behind the news. The feature appears each Tuesday and Thursday.

Stanley Scott and Dora Hast tapped into the rhythm of Penn Street during a recent visit to Reading.

Connecticut residents, they were in town to visit James E. Hubbard, 90, who lives in a downtown high-rise building.

Hast, Hubbard’s niece, is also his guardian and visits on occasion.

As the couple reached the railroad tracks on Penn Street, they stopped to allow a train to go through.

So happened, there was a Mr. Softee truck nearby.

The rhythmic pounding of a freight train and the dinging of the Mr. Softee jingle merged to form an urban symphony.

Scott and Hast, Irish folk musicians, were so excited they recorded the auditory marriage of Norfolk Southern and Mr. Softee.

“I heard the recording,” said Hubbard, a World War II veteran. “It was hilarious.”

– Ron Devlin, reporter

Budget debate just part of balancing act

The Tom Wolf Budget Tour of 2015 continues.

John Hanger, state secretary of policy and planning, recently stopped by the Reading Eagle to chat about the stalled negotiations between the Democratic governor and the Republican leadership teams. He’s been the latest in a line of Wolf supporters to come through the newsroom.

It’s been interesting to watch how each official makes an individual pitch for Wolf’s plan. But some people don’t like it.

Republican lawmakers have criticized Wolf and his friends for traveling the state touting a rejected budget proposal, saying it’s time to get off the campaign trail and get serious about working on a final spending plan. It kind of makes me laugh.

Wasn’t former Republican Gov. Tom Corbett criticized for not doing that enough?

There were rumors last year that Republican leaders were concerned that Corbett’s communications team was doing a poor job of selling his accomplishments and fighting back against attacks. In fact, there are some political experts who would argue that Corbett’s inability to connect with the public cost him a second term.

Politics is odd like that.

You want to get voters involved in the debate but not at the risk of alienating the people you need to make a deal. And you want to get a deal done, but not by ignoring the people you need to get re-elected.

It’s a crazy balancing act.

– Karen Shuey, reporter

Both parties need to focus on Latinos

I recently attended a meeting at which local members of the Republican Party brainstormed how to attract more Latinos to the party.

One of the central ideas was to change the perception we have about the party.

But with the Republican frontrunner talking about mass deportations, building a wall at our southern border and using the pejorative “anchor babies,” I’d say it is going to be an uphill battle.

And no, not all Latinos care about immigration issues, because millions of them are U.S. citizens, born and raised here. Some of us Chicanos, others Puerto Ricans, some second and third generation Dominicans and those of us targeted with the derogatory term “anchor baby.”

But if what we are talking about is perception, then I would say the GOP, and the Democrats for that matter, need to focus on the Latino community more often than just every election cycle.

– Anthony Orozco, reporter