This article is about the Pennsylvania city. For other uses, see Scranton (disambiguation).
Location of Scranton in Lackawanna County, Pennsylvania.
Scranton is the sixth-largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. It is the county seat and largest city of Lackawanna County in Northeastern Pennsylvania's Wyoming Valley and hosts a federal court building for the United States District Court for the Middle District of Pennsylvania. With a population of 77,291, it is the largest city in the Scranton–Wilkes-Barre–Hazleton, PA Metropolitan Statistical Area, which has a population of about 570,000. The city is conventionally divided into 7 districts: North Scranton, Southside, Westside, East Scranton (Hill Section), Central City, Minooka, and Green Ridge, though these areas do not have legal status.
Scranton is the geographic and cultural center of the Lackawanna River valley, and the largest of the former anthracite coal mining communities in a contiguous quilt-work that also includes Wilkes-Barre, Nanticoke, Pittston, and Carbondale. Scranton was incorporated on February 14, 1856, as a borough in Luzerne County and as a city on April 23, 1866. It became a major industrial city, a center of mining and railroads, and attracted thousands of new immigrants. It was the site of the Scranton General Strike in 1877.
People in northern Luzerne County sought a new county in 1839 but the Wilkes-Barre area resisted losing its assets. Lackawanna County did not gain independent status until 1878. Under legislation allowing the issue to be voted by residents of the proposed territory, voters favored the new county by a proportion of 6 to 1, with Scranton residents providing the major support. The city was designated as the county seat when Lackawanna County was established in 1878, and a judicial district was authorized in 1879.
The city "took its first step toward earning its reputation as the "Electric City" when electric lights were introduced in 1880 at Dickson Locomotive Works. Six years later, the nation's first streetcars powered exclusively by electricity began operating in the city.[dubious – discuss] Rev. David Spencer, a local Baptist minister, later proclaimed Scranton as the "Electric City".
Present-day Scranton and its surrounding area had been long inhabited by the native Lenape tribe, from whose language "Lackawanna" (or lac-a-wa-na, meaning "stream that forks"), is derived. In 1778, Isaac Tripp, the area's first known European-American settler, built his home here; it still stands in North Scranton, formerly a separate town known as Providence. More settlers from Connecticut came to the area in the late 18th and early 19th centuries after the American Revolutionary War, as their state claimed this area as part of their colonial charter.
Though anthracite coal was being mined in Carbondale to the north and Wilkes-Barre to the south, the industries that precipitated the city's early rapid growth were iron and steel. In the 1840s, brothers Selden T. and George W. Scranton, who had worked at Oxford Furnace in Belvidere, New Jersey, founded what became Lackawanna Iron & Coal, later developing as the Lackawanna Steel Company. It initially started producing iron nails, but that venture failed due to low-quality iron. The Erie Railroad's construction in New York State was delayed by its having to acquire iron rails as imports from England. The Scrantons' firm decided to switch its focus to producing T-rails for the Erie; the company soon became a major producer of rails for the rapidly expanding railroads.
In 1851, the Scrantons built the Lackawanna and Western Railroad (L&W) northward, with recent Irish immigrants supplying most of the labor, to meet the Erie Railroad in Great Bend, Pennsylvania. Thus they could transport manufactured rails from the Lackawanna Valley to New York and the Midwest. They also invested in coal mining operations in the city to fuel their steel operations, and to market it to businesses. In 1856, they expanded the railroad eastward as the Delaware, Lackawanna and Western Railroad (DL&W), in order to tap into the New York City metropolitan market. This railroad, with its hub in Scranton, was Scranton's largest employer for almost one hundred years.
The Pennsylvania Coal Company built a gravity railroad in the 1850s through the city for the purpose of transporting coal. The gravity railroad was replaced by a steam railroad built in 1886 by the Erie and Wyoming Valley Railroad (later absorbed by the Erie Railroad). The Delaware and Hudson (D&H) Canal Company, which had its own gravity railroad from Carbondale to Honesdale, built a steam railroad that entered Scranton in 1863.
In 1856, the Borough of Scranton was officially incorporated. It was incorporated as a city of 35,000 in 1866 in Luzerne County, when the surrounding boroughs of Hyde Park (now part of the city's West Side) and Providence (now part of North Scranton) were merged with Scranton. Twelve years later in 1878, the state passed a law enabling creation of new counties where a county's population surpassed 150,000, as did Luzerne's. The law appeared to enable the creation of Lackawanna County, and there was considerable political agitation around the authorizing process. Scranton was designated by the state legislature as the county seat of the newly-formed county, which was also established as a separate judicial district, with state judges moving over from Luzerne County after courts were organized in October 1878. This was the last county in the state to be organized.
Creation of the new county, which enabled both more local control and political patronage, helped begin the Scranton General Strike of 1877. This was in part due to the larger Great Railroad Strike, in which railroad workers began to organize and participate in walkouts after wage cuts in Martinsburg, West Virginia. The national economy had lagged since the Panic of 1873, and workers in many industries struggled with low wages and intermittent work. In Scranton, mineworkers followed the railroad men off the job, as did others. A protest of 5,000 strikers ended in violence, with a total of four men killed, and 20 to 50 injured, including the mayor. He had established a militia, but called for help from the governor and state militia. Governor John Hartranft eventually brought in federal troops to quell the strike. The workers gained nothing in wages, but began to organize more purposefully into labor unions that could wield more power.
The nation's first successful, continuously-operating electrified streetcar (trolley) system was established in the city in 1886, inspiring the nickname "The Electric City". In 1896, the city's various streetcar companies were consolidated into the Scranton Railway Company, which ran trolleys until 1954. By 1890, three other railroads had built lines to tap into the rich supply of coal in and around the city, including the Erie Railroad, the Central Railroad of New Jersey and finally the New York, Ontario and Western Railway (NYO&W).
As the vast rail network spread above ground, an even larger network of railways served the rapidly expanding system of coal veins underground. Miners, who in the early years were typically Welsh and Irish, were hired as cheaply as possible by the coal barons. The workers endured low pay, long hours and unsafe working conditions. Children as young as eight or nine worked 14-hour days separating slate from coal in the breakers. Often, the workers were forced to use company-provided housing and purchase food and other goods from stores owned by the coal companies. With hundreds of thousands of immigrants arriving in the industrial cities, mine owners did not have to search for labor and workers struggled to keep their positions. Later miners came from Italy and eastern Europe, which people fled because of poverty and lack of jobs.
Business was booming at the end of the 19th century. The tonnage of coal mined increased virtually every year, as did the steel manufactured by the Lackawanna Steel Company. At one point the company had the largest steel plant in the United States, and it was still the second-largest producer at the turn of the 20th century. By 1900, the city had a population of more than 100,000.
In the late 1890s, Scranton was home to a series of early International League baseball teams.
Given its industrial basis, Scranton has had a notable labor history; various coal worker unions struggled throughout the coal-mining era to improve working conditions, raise wages, and guarantee fair treatment for workers. The Panic of 1873 and other economic difficulties caused a national recession and loss of business. As the economy contracted, the railroad companies reduced wages of workers in most classes (while sometimes reserving raises for their top management). A major strike of railroad workers in August 1877, part of the Great Railroad Strike, attracted workers from the steel industry and mining as well, and developed as the Scranton General Strike. Four rioters were killed during unrest during the strike, after the mayor mustered a militia. With violence suppressed by militia and federal troops, workers finally returned to their jobs, not able to gain any economic relief. William Walker Scranton, from the prominent family, was then general manager of Lackawanna Iron and Coal. He later founded Scranton Steel Company.
The labor issues and growth of industry in Scranton contributed to Lackawanna County being established by the state legislature in 1878, with territory taken from Luzerne County. Scranton was designated as the county seat.This strengthened its local government.
The unions failed to gain higher wages that year, but in 1878 they elected labor leader Terence V. Powderly of the Knights of Labor as mayor of Scranton. After that, he became national leader of the KoL, a predominately[dubious – discuss] Catholic organization that had a peak membership of 700,000 about 1880. While the Catholic Church had prohibited membership in secret organizations since the mid-18th century, by the late 1880s with the influence of Archbishop James Gibbons of Baltimore, Maryland, it supported the Knights of Labor as representing workingmen and union organizing.
The landmark Coal strike of 1902, was called by anthracite miners across the region and led by the United Mine Workers under John Mitchell. The strike was settled by a compromise brokered by President Theodore Roosevelt. A statue of John Mitchell was installed in his honor on the grounds of the Lackawanna County Courthouse in Scranton, "the site of the Coal Strike of 1902 negotiations in which President Roosevelt participated. Because of the significance of these negotiations, the statue and the Courthouse were added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1997. John Mitchell is buried in Cathedral Cemetery in Scranton."
By the United States Census of 1900, the population of Scranton was about 102,026, making it the third-largest city in Pennsylvania and 38th-largest U.S. city. At the turn of the 20th century, wealthy businessmen and industrialists built impressive Victorian mansions in the Hill and Green Ridge sections of the city. Most were descended from colonists and belonged to the Republican Party. The industrial workers, who tended to be later immigrants from Ireland and southern and eastern Europe, were predominately Catholic. With a flood of immigrants in the market, they suffered poor working conditions and wages.
In 1902, the dwindling local iron ore supply, labor issues, and an aging plant cost the city the industry on which it was founded. The Lackawanna Steel Company and many of its workers were moved to Lackawanna, New York, developed on Lake Erie just south of Buffalo. With a port on the lake, the company could receive iron ore shipped from the Mesabi Range in Minnesota, which was being newly mined.
Scranton forged ahead as the capital of the anthracite coal industry. Attracting the thousands of workers needed to mine coal, the city developed new neighborhoods dominated by Italian and Eastern European immigrants, who brought their foods, cultures and religions. Many of the immigrants joined the Democratic Party. Their national churches and neighborhoods were part of the history of the city. Several Catholic and Orthodox churches were founded and built during this period. A substantial Jewish community was also established, with most members coming from the Russian Empire and eastern Europe. Working conditions for miners were improved by the efforts of labor leaders such as John Mitchell, who led the United Mine Workers.
The sub-surface mining weakened whole neighborhoods, however, damaging homes, schools, and businesses when the land collapsed. In 1913 the state passed the Davis Act to establish the Bureau of Surface Support in Scranton. Because of the difficulty in dealing with the coal companies, citizens organized the Scranton Surface Protection Association, chartered by the Court of Common Pleas on November 24, 1913 "to protect the lives and property of the citizens of the City of Scranton and the streets of said city from injury, loss and damage caused by mining and mine caves."
In 1915 and 1917, the city and Commonwealth sought injunctions to prevent coal companies from undermining city streets but lost their cases. North Main Avenue and Boulevard Avenue, "both entitled to surface support, caved in as a result" of court decisions that went against civil authorities and allowed the coal companies to continue their operations.
"The case of 'Penman v. Jones' came out differently. The Lackawanna Iron & Coal Co. had leased coal lands to the Lackawanna Iron & Steel Co., an allied interest, which passed the leases on to the Scranton Coal Co. Areas of central Scranton, the Hill Section, South Side, Pine Brook, Green Ridge and Hyde Park were affected by their mining activities. Mr. Penman was the private property owner in the case. The coal operators were defeated in this case."
The public transportation system began to expand beyond the trolley lines pioneered by predecessors of the Scranton Railways system. The Lackawanna and Wyoming Valley Railroad, commonly referred to as the Laurel Line, was built as an interurban passenger and freight carrier to Wilkes-Barre. Its Scranton station, offices, powerhouse and maintenance facility were built on the former grounds of the Lackawanna Steel Company, and operations started in 1903. Beginning in 1907, Scrantonians could also ride trolley cars to the northern suburbs of Clarks Summit and Dalton. They could travel to Lake Winola and Montrose using the Northern Electric Railroad. After the 1920s, no new trolley lines were built, but bus operations were started and expanded to meet service needs. In 1934, Scranton Railways was re-incorporated as the Scranton Transit Company, reflecting that shift in transportation modes.
Starting in the early 1920s, the Scranton Button Company (founded in 1885 and a major maker of shellac buttons) became one of the primary makers of phonograph records. They pressed records for Emerson (whom they bought in 1924), as well as Regal, Cameo, Romeo, Banner, Domino, Conqueror. In July 1929, the company merged with Regal, Cameo, Banner, and the U.S. branch of Pathe (makers of Pathe and Perfect) to become the American Record Corporation. By 1938, the Scranton company was also pressing records for Brunswick, Melotone, and Vocalion. In 1946, the company was acquired by Capitol Records, which continued to produce phonograph records through the end of the vinyl era.
By the mid-1930s, the city population had swelled beyond 140,000 due to growth in the mining and silk textile industries. World War II created a great demand for energy, which led to the highest production from mining in the area since World War I.
After World War II, coal lost favor to oil and natural gas as a heating fuel, largely because the latter types were more convenient to use. While some U.S. cities prospered in the post-war boom, the fortunes and population of Scranton (and the rest of Lackawanna and Luzerne counties) began to diminish. Coal production and rail traffic declined rapidly throughout the 1950s, causing a loss of jobs.
The Knox Mine Disaster of January 1959 virtually ended the mining industry in Northeastern Pennsylvania. The waters of the Susquehanna River flooded the mines. The DL&W Railroad, nearly bankrupted by the drop in coal traffic and the effects of Hurricane Diane, merged in 1960 with the Erie Railroad. Demand for public transportation also declined as new highways were built by federal subsidies and people purchased automobiles. In 1952, the Laurel Line ceased passenger service. The Scranton Transit Company, whose trolleys had given the city its nickname, transferred all operations to buses as the 1954 holiday season approached; by 1968, it ceased all operations. The city was left without any public transportation system until the Lackawanna County government formed COLTS, which began operations in 1972 with 1940s-era GM busses from New Jersey.
Scranton had been the hub of its operations until the Erie Lackawanna merger, after which it no longer served in this capacity. This was another severe blow to the local labor market. The NYO&W Railroad, which depended heavily on its Scranton branch for freight traffic, was abandoned in 1957. Mine subsidence was a spreading problem in the city as pillar supports in abandoned mines began to fail; cave-ins sometimes consumed entire blocks of homes. The area was left scarred by abandoned coal mining structures, strip mines, and massive culm dumps, some of which caught fire and burned for many years until they were extinguished through government efforts. In 1970, the Secretary of Mines for Pennsylvania suggested that so many underground voids had been left by mining underneath Scranton that it would be "more economical" to abandon the city than make them safe. In 1973, the last mine operations in Lackawanna County (which were in what is now McDade Park, and another on the Scranton/Dickson City line) were closed. During the 1960s and 1970s, the silk and other textile industries shrank as jobs were moved to the South or overseas.
In 1962, businessman Alex Grass opened his first "Thrif D Discount Center" drugstore on Lackawanna Avenue in downtown Scranton. The 17-by-75-foot (5 by 23 m) store, an immediate success, was the progenitor of the Rite Aid national drugstore chain.
During the 1970s and 1980s, many downtown storefronts and theaters became vacant. Suburban development followed the highways and suburban shopping malls became the dominant venues for shopping and entertainment.
Since the mid-1980s, the city has emphasized revitalization. Local government and much of the community at large have adopted a renewed interest in the city's buildings and history. Some historic properties have been renovated and marketed as tourist attractions. The Steamtown National Historic Site captures the area's once-prominent position in the railroad industry. The former DL&W train station was restored as the Radisson Lackawanna Station Hotel. The Electric City Trolley Museum was created next to the DL&W yards that the Steamtown NHS occupies.
Since the mid-1980s the Scranton Cultural Center has operated the architecturally significant Masonic Temple and Scottish Rite Cathedral, designed by Raymond Hood, as the region's performing arts center. The Houdini Museum was opened in Scranton in 1990 by nationally known magician Dorothy Dietrich.
In 2003, Hilton Hotels & Resorts opened the Hilton Scranton Hotel & Conference Center at the corner of Adams Avenue & Lackawanna Avenue in the heart of downtown Scranton. Due to the rage for paranormal-themed televisions shows, a popular downtown historic Scranton Ghost Walk has been expanded to operate 365 days a year. Other attractions include the Montage Mountain ski resort (formerly Snö Mountain), the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins, AHL affiliate of the Pittsburgh Penguins; the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre RailRiders (formerly the Scranton/Wilkes Barre Yankees and, before that, the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre Red Barons), AAA affiliate of the New York Yankees; and their PNC Field, and the Toyota Pavilion at Montage Mountain concert venue.
According to The Guardian, the city was close to bankruptcy in July 2012, with the wages of all municipal officials, including the mayor and fire chief, being cut to $7.25/hour. Financial consultant Gary Lewis, who lives in Scranton, was quoted as estimating that "on 5 July the city had just $5,000 cash in hand."
Since the revitalization began, many coffee shops, restaurants, and bars have opened in the downtown, creating a vibrant night-life. The low cost of living, pedestrian-friendly downtown, and the construction of loft-style apartments in older, architecturally significant buildings have attracted young professionals and artists. Many are individuals who grew up in Scranton, moved to big cities after high school and college, and decided to return to the area to take advantage of its amenities.
Scranton is located at 41°24′38″N 75°40′3″W / 41.41056°N 75.66750°W / 41.41056; -75.66750 (41.410629, −75.667411). Its total area of 25.4 square miles (66 km2) includes 25.2 square miles (65 km2) of land and 0.2 square miles (0.52 km2) of water, according to the United States Census Bureau. Scranton is drained by the Lackawanna River.
Center City is about 750 feet (229 m) above sea level, although the hilly city's inhabited portions range about from 650 to 1,400 feet (200 to 430 m). The city is flanked by mountains to the east and west whose elevations range from 1,900 to 2,100 feet (580 to 640 m).
Scranton has a humid continental climate (Köppen Dfa/Dfb), with four distinct seasons. Summers have occasional heat waves bringing temperatures well above 90 °F (32 °C), while winters can have cold snaps bringing temperatures below 0 °F (−18 °C). The monthly daily average temperature in January, the coldest month, is 25.8 °F (−3.4 °C), while the same figure in July, the warmest month, is 71.4 °F (21.9 °C). Extremes in temperatures have ranged from 103 °F (39 °C) on July 9, 1936 down to −21 °F (−29 °C) on January 21, 1994; there is an average of only 9.2 days of 90 °F (32 °C)+ highs, 37 days where the high fails to rise above freezing, and 3 days where the minimum is at or below 0 °F (−18 °C). Precipitation is generally slightly greater during late spring and summer, while winter is generally the driest. On average, each month sees 10 to 13 days of precipitation, and the mean annual total is 38.23 inches (971 mm). Snowfall is variable, with some winters bringing light snow and others bringing numerous snowstorms. For the 1981–2010 period, snowfall has averaged 42 inches (107 cm) per year, with January and February accounting for the majority of the seasonal total; on average, the first and last dates of measurable (≥0.1 in or 0.25 cm) snowfall are November 15 and April 4, respectively, with snow in October a rare occurrence.
As of the 2010 census, there were 76,089 people, 30,069 households, and 18,124 families residing in the city. The population density was 3,006/mi² (1,161/km²). There were 33,853 housing units at an average density of 1,342/mi² (518/km²). The racial makeup of the city was 84.11% White, 5.45% African American, 0.23% Native American, 2.98% Asian, 0.04% Pacific Islander, 4.69% from other races, and 2.49% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race make up 9.90% of the population.
There were 30,069 households out of which 24.4% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 39.8% were married couples living together, 13.8% had a female householder with no husband present, and 42.1% were non-families. The city had 36.7% of its households with single occupancy and 18.1% whose individuals was aged at least 65. The average household size was 2.29 and the average family size was 3.01.
The age distribution of the population included 20.8% under 18, 12.3% from 18 to 24, 25.5% from 25 to 44, 21.2% from 45 to 64, and 20.1% at least 65. The median age was 39. For every 100 females, there were 87.0 males. For every 100 females aged at least 18, there were 83.0 males.
The median income for a household in the city was $28,805, and the median income for a family was $41,642. Males had a median income of $30,829 versus $21,858 for females. The per capita income for the city was $16,174. Found below the poverty line are 15.0% of the population, 10.7% of families, 18.9% of those under age 18 and 12.0% of those at least age 65.
As of the 2006 American Community Survey, the average family size is 2.95. Of the population that's 25 years old and over, 83.3% of them have graduated from High School. 18.7% of them have a Bachelor's degree or higher. In labor force (population 16 years and over), 57.6% of them work. The per capita income (in 2006 inflation-adjusted dollars) is $17,187.
The Bureau of Fire was incorporated as a paid service in 1901. It is a full-time service consisting of about 130 firefighters. Its headquarters is on Mulberry Street in Central City. The fire department has eight fire stations, which are located in the city's South Side, Central City, the Pinebrook section, West Side, North Scranton, Bull's Head, and on East Mountain. It has nine firefighting vehicles, including six engines, two trucks (ladders), and one rescue. Due to recent changes in staffing in early 2011, Engine Company #9 and Engine Company # 15 was closed and, at times, some remaining companies are left unmanned due to lack of manpower.
Police headquarters is located on South Washington Avenue in downtown Scranton. Special Units include Arson Investigations, Auto Theft Task Force, Child Abuse Investigation, Crime Scene Investigation, Criminal Investigation, Juvenile Unit, Special Investigations Unit, Special Operations Group (SWAT/SOG), Canine Unit, Community Development and Highway Unit. The Police department has recently opened two new satellite stations. The Highway Unit was relocated to one new station at N. Keyser Ave & Morgan Highway. The second was opened at the Valley View Housing complex. There are plans for at least one more, and possibly two.
Local public-access television and government-access television (ECTV) programming is aired on Comcast cable TV channels 19 and 21.
Scranton hosts the headquarters of Times-Shamrock Communications, which publishes the city's major newspaper, The Times-Tribune, a Pulitzer Prize-winning broadsheet daily founded in 1870. Times-Shamrock also publishes the Electric City, a weekly entertainment tabloid, and The Citizens' Voice, a daily tabloid based in Wilkes-Barre. Times Leader is a daily paper that primarily covers nearby Wilkes-Barre. The Times Leader also publishes Go Lackawanna, a Sunday newspaper serving Scranton and surrounding municipalities, and the Weekender is a Wilkes-Barre-based entertainment tabloid with distribution in Scranton.
The Aquinas is the weekly student newspaper of the University of Scranton. The Scranton Post is a weekly general interest broadsheet which bills itself as the city's first online newspaper. There are several other print publications with a more narrow focus, including the Union News, La Voz Latina, and Melanian News.
The Scranton/Wilkes-Barre radio market is ranked #71 in the country by Arbitron.
In football, the Scranton Eagles, a semi-pro/minor league team, dominate their Empire Football League, having won 11 championships. The former arena football Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Pioneers, who played eight seasons at the Mohegan Sun Arena (formerly Wachovia Arena) in Wilkes-Barre Township had made the playoffs in their last six years of existence and contended for the ArenaCup VIII in 2007 and the ArenaCup X in 2009, their final year, but lost both times. Another semi-pro/minor league team the North East Pennsylvania Miners of the Big North East Football Federation started play in the area in 2007. The NEPA Shock are a Semi-Pro/Minor League team that currently operate out of the Dickson City borough. The Shock were established in 2012 and participate in arena style football as a member of the Great Eastern Football Association.
Scranton previously had pro basketball teams, including the Scranton Apollos, Scranton Miners and Scranton Zappers. Syracuse University men's basketball coach Jim Boeheim played for the Miners before turning to coaching. In 2012, the city played host to the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre Steamers of the Premier Basketball League. The team went inactive after that season, and no professional teams played in the city. In 2018, the Scranton Shamrocks joined the American Basketball Association (2000–present), once again bringing professional basketball to the region.
Professional ice hockey arrived in 1999 when the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins of the American Hockey League began play at the Mohegan Sun Arena at Casey Plaza (formerly Wachovia Arena) in Wilkes-Barre Township. The team won conference championships in 2001, 2004, and 2008.
The Electric City Shock SC semi-professional soccer team was founded in 2013 as part of the National Premier Soccer League. The team is on the fourth tier of the American Soccer Pyramid and plays at the University of Scranton's Fitzpatrick Field.
Watres Armory in Scranton hosted World Heavyweight Championship fight between titlist Larry Holmes and challenger, European champion Lucien Rodrigues of France on 27 March 1983. Holmes retained his title via a unanimous 12-round decision without losing a single round in any official scorecard.
Starting in 2014, Scranton also became home to the Skyliners Drum and Bugle Corps, a professional marching drum corps in the Drum Corps Associates circuit. They compete with other corps throughout the nation, as well as play multiple community parades, events and performances. The Skyliners have won numerous awards for their performances, including national and world open titles.
The Steamtown National Historic Site showcases steam-era railroading. Excursion trains give visitors tours through Scranton and portions of the Pocono Mountains.
Many of Scranton's attractions celebrate its heritage as an industrial center in iron and coal production and its ethnic diversity. The Scranton Iron Furnaces are remnants of the city's founding industry and of the Scranton family's Lackawanna Steel Company. The Steamtown National Historic Site seeks to preserve the history of railroads in the Northeast. The Electric City Trolley Museum preserves and operates pieces of Pennsylvania streetcar history. The Lackawanna Coal Mine tour at McDade Park, conducted inside a former mine, describes the history of mining and railroads in the Scranton area. The former DL&W Passenger Station is now the Radisson Lackawanna Station Hotel.
Museums in Scranton include the Everhart Museum in Nay Aug Park, which houses a collection of natural history, science and art exhibits; and the Houdini Museum, which features films, exhibits, and a stage show in a unique, century-old building. Terence Powderly's house, still a private dwelling, is one of the city's many historic buildings and, with Steamtown, the city's other National Historic Landmark. In addition, The Lackawanna Historical Society, founded in 1886 and located at the George H. Catlin House in Scranton's Hill Section, focuses on the history of Lackawanna County. Tripp House, built by the Tripp family in 1771, is the oldest building in the city.
The city's religious history is evident in the Basilica of the National Shrine of St. Ann, which draws thousands of pilgrims to its annual novena, and St. Stanislaus Cathedral, the seat of the Polish National Catholic Church in North America. The history of the founding of this denomination is tied to Polish immigration to Scranton in the late 19th century.
Since the 1970s, Scranton has hosted La Festa Italiana, a three-day Italian festival that takes place on Labor Day weekend on the courthouse square. The festival originally took place around Columbus Day, but was moved because Scranton generally receives cold weather in October.
Scranton's large Irish population is represented in the annual Saint Patrick's Day Parade, first held in 1862. Organized by the St. Patrick's Day Parade Association of Lackawanna County, it is the nation's fourth-largest in attendance and second-largest in per capita attendance. Held on the Saturday before Saint Patrick's Day, the parade includes more than 8,000 people, including floats, bagpipe players, high school bands and Irish groups. In 2008, attendance estimates were as high as 150,000 people.
For recreation, there is Montage Mountain Ski Resort, known as Sno Mountain for a short period, which rivals the numerous resorts of the Poconos in popularity and offers a relatively comprehensive range of difficulty levels. The 26.2-mile (42.2 km) Steamtown Marathon has been held each October since 1996 and finishes in downtown Scranton. Nay Aug park is the largest of several parks in Scranton and was designed by Frederick Law Olmsted, who also laid out Central Park in Manhattan, New York City. The city is the home to numerous artistic organizations, including the Scranton Fringe Festival (a performing arts festival held in the downtown section of the city in fall).
Scranton's primary concert venue is the Toyota Pavilion at Montage Mountain, a partially covered amphitheater that seats 17,500. Its summer concerts have included James Taylor, Dave Matthews Band, and many other musical acts.
Scranton Cultural Center at the Masonic Temple is an impressive piece of architecture which houses several auditoriums and a large ballroom. It hosts the Northeast Philharmonic, Broadway Theater and other touring performances.
A banner promoting Dunder Mifflin, the fictional paper company on NBC's The Office, hangs in downtown Scranton.
The Harry Chapin song "30,000 Pounds of Bananas" is about an actual fatal 1965 accident in Scranton, where a driver hauling bananas lost control of his truck as it barreled down Moosic Street.
The city is the setting for the Scranton branch of the fictional paper company Dunder Mifflin on NBC's The Office. The Scranton branch is the setting for the majority of the episodes of the television show.
The city is imagined as a member of the class of interstellar Okies in James Blish's 1962 novel, A Life for the Stars, in which 2273 AD Scranton, equipped with a space drive, flies away and leaves an impoverished Earth behind.
The main highways that serve Scranton are Interstate 81, which runs North to Binghamton, New York and Ontario and south to Wilkes-Barre, Harrisburg and Tennessee; Interstate 84, which runs east to Milford and New England States; Interstate 380, which runs southwest to Pocono Pines and Interstate 80 east to New York City and west to San Francisco; Interstate 476/Pennsylvania Turnpike Northeast Extension, which runs south to Allentown and Philadelphia; U.S. Route 6, which runs east to Carbondale/Honesdale and parallel to I-84 to New England States and west to Erie; and U.S. Route 11, which runs parallel to I-81.
Martz Trailways and Greyhound Lines provide coach bus transportation from its downtown station to New York City, Philadelphia and other places in the Northeast.
Rail transportation, vital to the city's historic growth, remains important today.
The Norfolk Southern Railway runs freight trains on the former Delaware, Lackawanna & Western (DL&W) line between Scranton and Binghamton, having taken over operations from the Canadian Pacific Railway (Delaware and Hudson Railway division) in 2015. The Reading Blue Mountain & Northern Railroad serves the former DL&W Keyser Valley branch in the city.
The Delaware-Lackawanna Railroad, as designated operator of county-owned rail lines, oversees the former Delaware and Hudson line from Scranton north to Carbondale, the former DL&W line east to the Delaware Water Gap and the former Lackawanna and Wyoming Valley Railroad third-rail interurban streetcar line south to Montage Mountain, Moosic. These lines host the seasonal passenger trains of both the Steamtown National Historic Site and the Electric City Trolley Museum and are under the jurisdiction of the Pennsylvania Northeast Regional Rail Authority.
The PNRRA was created by Lackawanna County and Monroe County to oversee the use of common rail freight lines in Northeastern Pennsylvania, including one formerly owned by Conrail running from Scranton, through the Pocono Mountains towards New Jersey and the New York City market.
One of its primary objectives is to re-establish rail passenger service to Hoboken, New Jersey and thence by connection to New York. As of 2011, regular passenger train service to Scranton is slated to be restored under a plan to extend New Jersey Transit (NJ Transit) service from Hoboken via the Lackawanna Cut-Off. The trains would pass the Lackawanna Station building and pull in at a new Scranton station on Lackawanna Avenue along the northernmost track east of Bridge 60 (the railroad bridge over the Lackawanna River) and the Cliff Street underpass.
The city's public schools are operated by the Scranton School District (SSD), which serves almost 10,000 students. The city has two public high schools for grades 9–12: Scranton High School just northwest of the downtown and West Scranton High School located on the West Side of the city. The district also has three public middle schools for grades 6–8: Northeast Intermediate, South Scranton Intermediate, and West Scranton Intermediate. In addition, SSD maintains 12 public elementary schools for grades K–5.
Scranton has two private high schools: Scranton Preparatory School, a private Jesuit school, and Yeshiva Bais Moshe, an Ultra Orthodox school. Holy Cross High School in Dunmore is a Catholic high school operated by the Diocese of Scranton that serves students in Scranton and the surrounding area. The diocese also operates several private elementary schools in the city. Protestant schools that serve the Scranton area include Abington Christian Academy, Canaan Christian Academy, The Geneva School, Summit Academy, and Triboro Christian Academy. The Pennsylvania Department of Education provides oversight for the Scranton School for Deaf and Hard-of-Hearing Children. Penn Foster High School, a distance education high school, is headquartered in Scranton.
Scranton, West Scranton, Scranton Prep and Holy Cross all compete athletically in Pennsylvania's Lackawanna League which is a part of District 2 of the Pennsylvania Interscholastic Athletic Association.
The city hosts five colleges and universities: The University of Scranton, Geisinger Commonwealth School of Medicine, Johnson College, Lackawanna College, Marywood University; and one technical school, Fortis Institute. The Pennsylvania State University operates a Commonwealth Campus, Penn State Scranton, north of the city, in the borough of Dunmore. Penn Foster Career School, a distance education vocational school, is headquartered in Scranton.
The Lackawanna County Library System administers the libraries in Scranton, including the Albright Memorial Library and the Lackawanna County Children's Library and the Nancy Kay Holmes Library. As of 2008, Scranton libraries serve more than 96,000 people and have a circulation of over 547,000.
Margot Douaihy – writer, author of "Scranton Lace: Poems"
^ Official records for Avoca/Wilkes-Barre–Scranton kept at downtown Scranton from January 1901 to 17 April 1955 and at Wilkes-Barre/Scranton International Airport since 18 April 1955.
^ "Population Estimates". United States Census Bureau. Archived from the original on 2014-05-22. Retrieved 2014-06-11.
^ "Scranton, Wilkes, Barre Metro Area". Usa.com. Retrieved 2015-10-26.
^ "Pennsylvania Historical Marker Search". www.phmc.state.pa.us.
^ Kashuba, Cheryl A (22 August 2010). "Scranton gained fame as the Electric City, thanks to the region's innovative spirit". Scranton Times-Tribune. Retrieved 14 April 2015.
^ Azzarelli, Margo L.; Marnie Azzarelli (2016). Labor Unrest in Scranton. Arcadia Publishing. ISBN 9781625856814.
^ Vincent J. Falzone, "Terence V. Powderly: Politician and Progressive Mayor of Scranton, 1878-1884," Pennsylvania History 41.3 (1974): 289-309.
^ Sarah Scinto (October 30, 2013). "Labor leader's grave restored". Scranton Times-Tribune.
^ a b "Scranton(city) QuickFacts". Retrieved 2007-07-24.
^ "The Citizens Voice – Knox mine disaster remains in our memory because it is a story of right and wrong". Zwire.com. Archived from the original on January 7, 2009. Retrieved 2011-08-29.
^ "cover". Msha.gov. Retrieved 2011-08-29.
^ Asimov, Isaac (1998). Facts & Trivia. Bristol: Siena. p. 74. ISBN 0-75252-822-X.
^ a b Klaus, Mary (2009-08-28). "'Beacon of generosity'". Harrisburg Patriot-News. Retrieved 2009-08-31.
^ "Scranton, A City That's Seen Many Come and Go". Grapple. Keystone Crossroads. 2016-10-04. Retrieved November 17, 2016.
^ "Scranton Ghost Walk". scrantonghostwalk.com. Retrieved 2017-03-16.
^ a b Harris, Paul (2012-07-14). "Scranton, Pennsylvania: Where even the mayor is on minimum wage". The Guardian. Retrieved 2012-07-14.
^ Rich, Megan (27 September 2012). ""From Coal To Cool": The Creative Class, Social Capital, And The Revitalization Of Scranton". Journal of Urban Affairs. 35 (3): 365–384. doi:10.1111/j.1467-9906.2012.00639.x.
^ Kottek, Marcus; Greiser, Jürgen; et al. (2011-02-25). "World Map of Köppen–Geiger Climate Classification". Meteorologische Zeitschrift. 15 (3): 261. Bibcode:2006MetZe..15..259K. doi:10.1127/0941-2948/2006/0130.
^ a b "NowData - NOAA Online Weather Data". National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Retrieved 2017-02-25.
^ "Station Name: PA WILKES-BARRE INTL AP". National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Retrieved 2016-09-11.
^ United States Census Bureau. "Census of Population and Housing". Archived from the original on May 12, 2015. Retrieved June 11, 2014.
^ "Scranton Fire Fighters IAFF Local 60". Scrantonfire.com. Retrieved 2011-08-29.
^ a b "Scranton, PA – Official Website". Scrantonpa.gov. Retrieved 2011-08-29.
^ "Nielsen Local Television Market Universe Estimates" (PDF). Nielsen. Retrieved 2015-05-26.
^ "Wilkes Barre – Scranton Television Stations". Station Index. Retrieved 2011-08-29.
^ "Arbitron Radio Market Rankings – Spring 2011". Arbitron.com. 2009-10-14. Retrieved 2011-08-29.
^ "EMPIRE FOOTBALL LEAGUE: EFL Mission & History". Eteamz.com. Retrieved 2011-08-29.
^ "ArenaFan Online Page". Retrieved 2011-02-27.
^ "NEPA Miners Official Website". Retrieved 2011-02-25.
^ "PA Hoops". Retrieved 2011-02-25.
^ "Jim Boeheim and the Scranton Miners". Retrieved 2011-02-25.
^ "The Premier Basketball League | Premier Basketball League adds Scranton/Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania | Premier Basketball League". Thepbl.com. 2011-07-07. Archived from the original on July 12, 2011. Retrieved 2011-08-29.
^ "Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins Official Website". Retrieved 2011-02-25.
^ "National Premier Soccer League". Archived from the original on 2015-04-05. Retrieved 2015-04-06.
^ "Electric City Shock Official Website". Retrieved 2015-04-06.
^ "Iron Furnaces". Anthracitemuseum.org. Archived from the original on 2011-09-02. Retrieved 2011-08-29.
^ "Steamtown National Historic Site (U.S. National Park Service)". Nps.gov. 2006-02-21. Retrieved 2011-08-29.
^ "The Electric City Trolley Museum Association". Retrieved 2007-04-14.
^ "Lackawanna Coal Mine Tour". www.visitnepa.org.
^ "Lackawanna County Coal Mine Tour". Theminegame.com. Retrieved 2011-08-29.
^ "Radisson Lackawanna Station Hotel". Retrieved 2007-04-14.
^ "2008 Scranton Pennsylvania Saint Patrick's Day Parade – The Scranton, Pennsylvania St. Patrick's Day Parade will be held on Saturday, March 15th, 2008 11:30 am". Saintpatricksdayparade.com. 2010-03-13. Retrieved 2012-09-08.
^ "Scranton Times-Tribune - News - thetimes-tribune.com". 12 September 2012. Archived from the original on 12 September 2012.
^ "Scranton's Saint Patrick Parade". Stpatparade.com. Retrieved 2011-08-29.
^ Buynovsky, Sarah (18 March 2015). "The 'Banana Truck' Crash: 50 Years Later". WNEP. Retrieved 11 April 2015.
^ "Lackawanna Cutoff". New Jersey Transit. October 2009. Retrieved 2011-01-02.
^ "NJ-ARP Annual Report 2008–2009" (PDF). November 19, 2009. Archived from the original (PDF) on January 1, 2011. Retrieved 2011-01-02.
^ NEW JERSEY – PENNSYLVANIA LACKAWANNA CUT-OFF PASSENGER RAIL SERVICE RESTORATION PROJECT ENVIRONMENTAL ASSESSMENT, U.S. Department of Transportation, Federal Transit Administration and NEW JERSEY TRANSIT in Cooperation with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, June 2008.
^ "Enterprise Portal". Portal.state.pa.us. Retrieved 2012-09-08.
^ "Scranton School District". Archived from the original on August 14, 2010. Retrieved 2011-02-26.
^ "Penn Foster High School". Penn Foster High School. Retrieved 2011-08-29.
^ "PA Colleges and Universities" (PDF). Retrieved 2011-02-26.
^ "Penn Foster Career School". Pennfoster.edu. Retrieved 2011-08-29.
^ "Statistics Public Libraries 2008". Retrieved 2012-09-08.
^ "Clinton's girlhood home in Pa. (sort of) Lake Winola may have primary role. – philly-archives". Articles.philly.com. 2011-11-02. Retrieved 2015-10-26.
^ Hurdle, Jon; Pérez-Peña, Richard (24 October 2016). "Kathleen Kane, Former Pennsylvania Attorney General, Is Sentenced to Prison" – via NYTimes.com.
^ O'Connell, Jon (2015-12-28). "Former Pennsylvania first lady Mary L. Scranton, 97, dies". The Citizens' Voice. Retrieved 2015-12-30.
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Scranton, Pennsylvania.
Wikivoyage has a travel guide for Scranton, PA.
This page was last edited on 19 April 2019, at 21:03 (UTC).


Balanced audio is a term used to describe a type of connection between two audio devices. Balanced audio technology is designed to reduce the effect of environmental noise on the quality of the signal. The difference in signal quality between balanced and unbalanced setups is especially pronounced in longer cable runs: the longer the cable, the more noise introduced. Balanced audio cables work best with balanced devices.
How can I identify Balanced Audio Cables?
How does Balanced Audio work?
What are the benefits of Balanced Audio?
Is my audio device Balanced or Unbalanced?
What happens if I mix Balanced and Unbalanced audio?
How does 'stereo' fit into all this?
What kind of Balanced Audio cables does DataPro carry?
You can identify a balanced cable by the number of contact points on the connector -- 3 points of contact means it is balanced, 2 indicates that it is unbalanced.
There are two identical "leads" inside a balanced cable that carry the signals from device A to device B. The two signals are carried in opposite polarity to one another. Each lead inevitably picks up interference (radio frequency, electrical interference, etc). Since each wire contains the same amount of interference, when the device at the end of the connection inverts the polarity again, the result is a clean, low-noise signal to the input.
The output device outputs two signals, identical but in opposite polarity to one another.
While traveling through the cable, unwanted noise is introduced. Because of the proximity of the two leads, the noise picked up by each lead is identical.
The input device's circuit flips the polarity of the previously flipped signal, and when the two signals are combined, the noise is negated.
A louder signal with more headroom is transmitted because balanced cables are less susceptible to signal loss along the cable run. This means your device won't have to be turned as high to achieve the desired volume, and the dynamic range of the source material will be maintained.
Subtle harmonic distortion can be created by the device's output circuit -- like a speaker amplifier, for example. These distortions are cancelled out with a balanced connection to the receiving device, thus providing a clear and accurate representation of the audio.
Details and transparency of the source are preserved, and audio artifacts are eliminated, providing a more precise, life-like, high-fidelity sound.
Most "consumer" audio gear has only unbalanced inputs and outputs. You might start seeing a mix of unbalanced and balanced in "pro-sumer" gear, and (for the most part) only balanced connections with professional gear, with the exception of guitar amps, guitar/instrument cables, and speaker cables.
Mixing unbalanced and balanced audio devices usually just results in an unbalanced connection.
Unbalanced to unbalanced connections are simple, as are balanced to balanced connections. It gets a little more complicated when you try to mix the two, and there are questions you need to answer first. Take a look at the device(s) in question. What type of connectors does each device have?
1) If your output device has unbalanced outputs and you are connecting to an device with balanced inputs, it's fairly straightforward. Say your output device has 1/4 inch TS (unbalanced) jacks, and your input device has 1/4 inch TRS (balanced) jacks. You can use either a TS/TS, TRS/TRS, or TS/TRS cable to establish a connection. These will all work. The downside? Even if you plug a balanced cable into an unbalanced output jack, the signal will be unbalanced (see the downsides of unbalanced above). Where it gets a little more "custom," so to speak, is TS or RCA outputs to XLR inputs, for example. Almost any combination of audio connection is possible, but not necessarily standard or stock.
2) So your output device has balanced outputs and you are connecting to the input of another device with unbalanced inputs. Much of how to achieve this connection depends largely on the device's output circuit design. Diving into the many different output circuit topologies would get a little too technical, and not the intended purpose of this article. In many cases, interconnecting a balanced output to an unbalanced input will work just fine - your signal will be unbalanced. However, with this method there are cases in which the user could experience high levels of (unwanted) distortion, and in the extreme cases, the output device could be damaged by plugging in a standard unbalanced cable. Simply said: Read the manual! Or call the manufacturer of the device and ask the people who made it! Or call us! Let us do the research for you.
"Stereo" can be a confusing way to describe balanced audio cables. A balanced audio cable, such as an XLR or TRS, is a mono cable. The cable can only carry one independent audio signal, which is duplicated in opposite polarity (described above). For devices with balanced input/output jacks, you will need two balanced cables to achieve stereo -- this would look like "Audio Input Left & Right" (or Audio Output Left & Right.) There are only two exceptions to this: 1/8 or 1/4 inch headphone jacks/cables and 1/8 inch auxiliary jacks/cables. These cables LOOK like they would be balanced, but they are not. These are "stereo" jacks in the sense that each side carries a signal that is independent to the other. What makes them unbalanced is that there is only one cable lead going to either side of the headphones or to the left and right speaker, not two. Stereo cables that are also balanced are manufactured, but they are essentially just two balanced audio cables sharing a jacket.
We hope this guide will serve as a starting point for familiarity with balanced audio. Should you have any questions, or if you're looking for a specific solution, feel free to contact our Sales department.


Many people who visit an acupuncturist's office come with a history of chronic headache. While a headache may sometimes be a warning sign of a more serious medical condition, most types of headache seen by an acupuncturist are either a tension headache, migraine, or a combination of both.
For migraines, acupuncture treatment depends on whether the patient comes into my office experiencing acute pain or is seeking preventative treatment in between migraine attacks. Prevention should be the long-term goal. Here I will describe how I approach each situation with acupuncture.
Although several studies suggest that acupuncture is effective for migraine prevention, the use of acupuncture for reducing pain during a migraine attack requires further study.
In my clinical practice, I have found acupuncture to be quite effective for managing the acute pain of mild to moderate migraine attacks.
A typical acupuncture treatment involves the insertion of fine needles into acupuncture points on the body followed by gentle manipulation of the needles. This instantly increases blood flow in the tissues through a mechanism know as the "axon reflex", which dilates the small vessels around the needle area. An increase in circulation where blood flow is poor is called removal of "stagnation" in Asian medicine and is generally considered a very good response for most chronic conditions and for migraine prevention.
However, this is not the approach I take during a migraine attack. Since pain during a migraine is believed to be associated with dilation of blood vessels in the head, inducing this physiological reaction through the insertion of needles into the head and neck area would not be desirable during an attack. It may even temporarily worsen the patient's pain and accompanying symptoms such as nausea.
Instead I minimize activity of the blood vessels in the head and neck during a migraine attack. How is this done? By limiting the acupuncture points selected to those on the arms and legs. The head and neck areas are rarely stimulated to avoid unnecessary dilation of vessels in that area.
In addition, the entire treatment is often done with the patient in sitting position rather than the usual lying position. This is because blood vessels are under greater control in sitting position, minimizing the chance of undesired dilation of the blood vessels following acupuncture. In certain situations, a high frequency (100 Hz) electrical current may be connected to the acupuncture needles to help constrict the blood vessels.
Emotional stress is a well known trigger for migraine. Japanese researchers have found that people living in fast-paced business centers in Tokyo tend to have an imbalance in the autonomic nervous system, specifically, an inhibition of the parasympathetic system that is active during relaxation, and an excitation of the sympathetic nervous system, which governs our response to stress. This type of imbalance is associated with other health conditions such as heart disease, insomnia, high blood pressure, and premenstrual syndrome.
In order to harmonize the autonomic nervous system, I use a special acupuncture technique called SES. The SES technique involves the shallow insertion of acupuncture needles just to the dermis of the skin, with manual needle stimulation given while the patient is exhaling and in sitting position. My recent studies suggest that this acupuncture technique may activate the parasympathetic nervous system and decrease muscle tension. Acupuncture points for this technique are usually chosen on the forearms and lower legs.
An imbalance of female hormones is another factor believed to be related to migraine. In my practice, females with migraine outnumber males. Application of indirect heat using moxibustion, a traditional heat treatment that involves gently burning medicinal herbs over the skin on the lower abdomen, low back, and sacral bone may help balance female hormones.
Significant muscle tension in the neck and upper back is common in people with migraines, so reducing this tension is an important part of migraine prevention. We apply acupuncture needles to points on the patient's body We find to be sensitive or reactive in order to cause an instantaneous increase in blood flow to those tight muscles. A low frequency electrical current (1 Hz) may be attached to the needles, as the slow repetitive muscle twitching further enhances blood flow in the muscle tissue.


Q: Title VII of the civil rights act of 1964 protect employees against sexual harassment in the workplace. What are the two forms of sexual harassment?
Q: Young Del Mar, who consumes only corn chips and french fries.
Q: Hello I am having problems with a math question Use the method of successive differences to determine the next number in the given sequence.


Who were the real Ninja, what skills did they possess and how were they employed in warfare? Based upon new translations of the three most important ninja scrolls and other authentic documents, some never seen before.
Lost in modern myth, false history, and general misinterpretation, the Ninja have been misrepresented for many years, but recently, a desire for a more historical view of the ninja has become a popular theme in the history/martial arts community. Providing a rare, accurate view of the Ninja, this book is based upon the Historical Ninjutsu Research Team's translations of the major ninja manuals and consists of genuinely new material. Little historical research has been done on the Ninja of Japan. Here for the first time the connection of the famous Hattori family warriors with the Ninja is explained, the Samurai versus Ninja myth is dispelled, and the realities of Ninja skills are analyzed. Such questions are answered as How did a Ninja work underwater when mining castle walls? and How can a bird be used to set fire to the enemy's camp? The book explores newly discovered connections to ancient Chinese manuals, lost skills, and the "hidden: Zen philosophy that the Ninja followed.


I would like to apply for supported housing jobs through agencies.
I have not had experience of working as a such, but have worked with homeless people working with vulnerable groups including people of mental health problems or at risk of developing mental issue in a voluntary capacity and had the following trainings.
And recently completed NVQ in understanding domestic violence.
I need help with phrasing the cover-letter as my English is not that good (yes, I went British University and been here for a long time but have not had a lot of opportunities to practise my writing or even my spoken English).
I would like to apply for a supported housing job with your agency.
I have not had experience working as such, but have worked with homeless people and with vulnerable groups, including people with mental health problems or who were at risk of developing mental issues. This was in a voluntary capacity and I received the following training.
I also recently completed NVQ in Understanding Domestic Violence.


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To do this you need a few handful of colorful fruits and vegetables, a spoonful of creativity, and a large mixing bowl of fun. Here are a few dye suggestions to get you started.
1. Boil two cups of vegetable in two cups of water. Simmer for 15 minutes at medium low heat. Add 2 tsp vinegar (for onion skin dye do not add vinegar) . Cool slightly before straining out the liquid into a stainless steel or glass bowl for egg staining.
2. Place up to 6 hard boiled eggs into the lukewarm (not hot) vegetable dye. Hot dye may cause the eggs to crack. Make sure all parts of the eggs are covered. Soak overnight for deep colors.
1. Boil two cups of crushed berries in 2 cups of water. Simmer for 15 minutes. Cool slightly and strain.
1. Place 2-3 handful of powdered spice in 2 cups of water. Soak for 10 minutes then bring to boil.
2. Place hard boiled eggs directly into solution.
2. Use parsley/ mint/ thyme leaf or edible flowers for a more natural motif. All you need is a clean nylon stocking or thin cheese cloth. Place a leaf/ flower and 1 egg in a stocking, tightly secure the two with a knot, repeat until the entire stocking is filled. Since you are only soaking the eggs in lukewarm dye, the heat will not melt nylon.
3. Place a few drops of vegetable oil into your dye solution. Stir the dye slightly before slowly placing a few eggs into the solution. This will create a spotted pattern to your eggs. Leave the eggs soaking undisturbed.


Ann Marie Thomas, Author: Pretty as a Picture?
Thinking of the characters in my story, especially Alina, how do I describe them? I can get a small idea of their character from their history, but what did they look like? I talked to my husband Michael about it, and surprisingly Alina may have been the typical heroine - blond hair and blue eyes. They were Norman, and Normans were descended from the Vikings - they were 'North men'.
I wonder if that is right? I can't help thinking that it's going to look trite, to make her blond and blue eyed, but it may be true.


I received an email from a reader who asked for advice about buying a home in Tallahassee for when he relocates here.
Specifically, he only plans on living in Tallahassee for two to three years, so he wants some expert advice.
We don't have kids so school zones aren't a factor for us, but I think in the future, it might be easier to rent/sell if the property was in a good school zone. Is that assumption correct?
In your experience, between single family homes and condos, which is easier to sell, which is easier to rent, in Tallahassee?
I know that you've written that if the property is priced right it would sell quickly in the market. All else being equal, would a single family house or a condo sell faster?
At what rate do you anticipate property values to increase in the next few years?
I will answer each question above in due order, but there is a more important issue that should be addressed initially.
JW should consider renting. Why? Because (as a general rule), he will pay 3% to 5% in closing costs when he buys, and he'll pay 7% to 10% when he sells. That means he should budget about 12% in costs that he will occur to buy and sell his home in Tallahassee, so if he only lives here two years, he needs to have 6% appreciation to recover his costs. Of course, at 3 years, the number drops to 4%.
Historically, the average appreciation rate in Tallahassee is just over 3%, thus historically JW would be better off financially to rent.
If financial investment were the only consideration, JW would be far smarter to avoid the risk and simply go rent a house while he is here.
Of course, home selection and quality of life are considerations as well, so we know it's not purely a money decision.
The area where JW wants to live is very popular (the Thomasville Road Corridor), so I would focus more on price range than neighborhood. The following map and list shows all homes for sale priced from $200,000 to $275,000 within a few miles of the I-10 - Thomasville Road intersection.
If JW specifically chooses a home in the wrong school zone, then he'll get a lot more home for the money. When it comes time to sell, he will likely have to sell a lot more home for the money. In other words, the current state of the schools has caused homes to be discounted in some areas. If he buys discounted and sells discounted, then he will lose nothing (the money has already been lost by a previous buyer). Now if the schools improve during his ownership, JW can buy discounted and sell at market (sounds like a win to me).
Similar to our answer under school zones, property types also have differing markets. Currently, JW can buy an attached home significantly cheaper than he can a detached one. The rental market for each is more location dependent than type dependent, and it is an analysis a good buyer's agent will help JW conduct during his home selection process.
So the short answer on property type is "ask your buyer's agent about the supply and demand for homes by type" to ensure liquidity in the "attached" market, but you will likely find the answer is "buy the best buy you can find, as the future will either require you to offer the same discount to your buyer ... or it won't." Buy smart now, it will not hurt you later!
Well priced property sells fast. Well priced condos sell fast. Well priced town homes sell fast. Well priced single family detached homes sell fast. The key is to get the price right. Price it too low, you have the wrong people bidding on it. Price it too high, nobody is bidding on it (you might dig up a bottom feeder who will NOT buy the home).
Supply and demand determine your pricing strategy, thus there is not "best" type of property to buy without looking at the current state of supply and demand by type. And this changes. Always. You have to know when you are shopping. Here's a good analogy ... what's a better commodity to own, Oil or Wheat? Where do you find the answer? The answer can be found by studying the commodities market and to see which one is likelier to perform better over the period of time for which you plan to hold it. Your home purchase decision should include similar considerations.
If I were buying a home, I would assume long-term appreciation to be around 3.5% (based upon my experience, this is a sound assumption).
But if you have read any of my recent market reports, then you know I'm expecting double-digit appreciation for the lower 90% of our market over the next year or so. Our supply is too low. Demand is growing as credit is restoring from the housing market collapse. Builders have a hard (impossible) job of bringing sub $250K homes to the market, thus values will move higher at a faster than normal rate.
JW, I started off my response by saying you should consider renting ... and I stand by that. If you own for only two years, why burden yourself with the risk?
But as a "math guy," I feel you are considering this at the best time in Tallahassee's history, as I am confident in faster-than-normal appreciation rates. If you felt that you would be here 4 years, "buy" is the answer as I just don't see the risk if you buy wisely.
My final advice is this. Sit with a buyer's agent and discuss what you want. Compare your rental options with your purchase options and then identify the likely financial risk you take by buying and compare it with the benefit of getting your own home. I am confident you'll enjoy a nicer home that you can buy in this market versus the one you can rent for the same monthly cost.
As always, simply drop me a note if I can answer something not addressed in this post.


ORLANDO, Fla., March 27 -- Two studies -- one a surgery trial and one a medical study, but both with practice-changing potential -- are shaping up as the big news at the American College of Cardiology meeting that kicks off this weekend.
But the headlines may be dominated by the familiar -- more analyses from the JUPITER trial and the SYNTAX study.
Turning first to the new research, the STICH (Surgical Treatment for Ischemic Heart Failure) trial tops the list.
The study, which will be reported at a Late-Breaking Clinical Trials session Sunday morning, presents data on a novel approach to treating ischemic heart failure -- coronary artery bypass grafting plus surgical remodeling of the left ventricle.
In patients with ischemic heart failure, the left ventricle balloons into a round shape, which impairs its ability to pump efficiently.
Ventricular reconstruction attempts to restore it to an efficient, elongated shape.
Remodeling the ventricle to improve function is, however, not a new concept. Several years ago researchers attempted to accomplish remodeling by slipping a mesh sock over the ballooning ventricle. But the device failed to demonstrate an improvement in left ventricular ejection fraction and the FDA finally rejected it in 2005.
Another trial with practice-changing potential -- slated to be reported on Tuesday -- is a study of a "polypill."
Researchers tested a single pill that contained five medicines known to reduce the risk of second heart attacks -- aspirin, a statin, and three blood pressure medications: a diuretic, a beta blocker, and an ACE inhibitor.
The notion that the key to reducing cardiovascular events might be to develop a single pill for primary prevention is a popular one, especially among world health experts, who have raised concerns about the increasing number of cardiovascular deaths in developing nations.
The new studies will have to compete for headlines with the familiar: JUPITER is likely to the "big" story at the meeting -- again.
Last fall the JUPITER researchers reported that giving a statin to apparently healthy adults -- people who didn't meet the label indications for lipid-lowering therapy -- could save lives.
The initial buzz about putting statins in the water was followed by a series of reports that suggested that the apparently healthy adults in the JUPITER trial may not have been all that healthy.
Critics pointed out that along with an elevated, highly sensitive, c-reactive protein -- which was an entry criterion -- the adults in the study also came very close to meeting criteria for metabolic syndrome.
But while the ensuing months have been long on debate, they have been short on definitive suggestions for applying the JUPITER results to clinical practice.
That may change next week.
The implications of the JUPITER trial will be the focus of the opening plenary session on Sunday and two additional presentations of JUPITER data -- an analysis that attempts to narrow the population who would benefit from statin therapy and a report on the impact of statin therapy on risk of deep vein thrombosis -- will be reported in late-breaking clinical trial sessions on Sunday and Monday.
Other familiar studies will be stealing the limelight at an interventional meeting, i2, that runs in conjunction with the ACC meeting.
Attendees will be presented with additional analyses from SYNTAX, first reported at the European Society of Cardiology last September, and HORIZONS AMI, which has reported findings at almost all major cardiology meetings in the past two years, and had primary findings published in the New England Journal of Medicine in 2007.
SYNTAX compared coronary artery bypass grafting to stenting for patients with extensive coronary disease. The primary endpoint, which the stent arm failed to meet, was a reduction in the combined endpoint of MI, stroke, death or revascularization.
The latest analysis is expected to provide details that may help in patient selection.
HORIZON-AMI compared bivalirudin (Angiomax) with standard anticoagulants in patients undergoing stenting after MI and found bivalirudin superior.


How to review a book about cinema, though? And especially a book that only a handful of people would be able to read by the time this text is out? Not that I wouldn’t recommend William Brown’s Non-Cinema: Global Digital Film-making and the Multitude (Bloomsbury Academic, July 2018) to anybody who cares about digital media and cultural politics, but a couple of weeks after its publishing, the e-version costs £88.13, whereas a hardcover copy comes at the price of £91.80. That’s the way it is in scholarly publishing, you would say (probably), secretly sighing for the high-end lifestyle some of you might imagine film academics are enjoying. Nevertheless, this is not the conversation I would like to have about Brown’s work.
At the time when (English-language) Film Twitter is constantly engaging in “discussions” around canonical titles and unorthodox approaches to criticism, and divisions seem to stem from demographic factors such as race, gender, age, education level, etc, one factor is always grinning in our face — so close, we tend to ignore it. This factor is money. Or maybe I should use the word “capitalism,” given that the first sentence in Brown’s book reads as follows: “For Jonathan Beller, cinema is co-extensive with capital.” I am old enough to remember times when the ghost of Karl Marx was often being summoned as part of a non-language that was the very tissue of mass media on that side of Europe where I come from.
Still, with a Mark Fisher-ian lightness, Brown adopts the thesis that digital technology, particularly in the domain of audiovisual production, is the essence of Capitalism 2.0, and this red thread guides him through a very complex oeuvre that is his expedition to faraway lands. On his quest to define his subject (interestingly enough, Brown’s previous book is titled Supercinema: Film-Philosophy for the Digital Age), he revises corresponding takes on non-cinema as the area beyond the Spectacle — Glauber Rocha’s aesthetics of hunger, Jean-François Lyotard’s acinema, even Mikhail Bakhtin and his theory of carnivalization — and also spins an elaborate map of terminology along the way.
Armed with this political optics and propelled by the impulse to re-discover territories usually reserved for guilty festival pleasures, Brown traces the chart of digital filmmaking in a variety of countries: as a non-profit practice, as an attempt to rend visible the invisible, as a desire to disrupt traditional production and distribution methods. Some of these national labels (China, Iran, the Philippines) are well explored, while others (Afghanistan, Nollywood, Francophone Africa) are reserved for true connoisseurs. The States, for example, are represented by Giuseppe Andrews, named by Vice “the eccentric trailer park auteur.” The grand finale, with two chapters on mobile filmmaking and 3D cinema, is reserved for Jean-Luc Godard.
In another decade, I would be commissioned to write a feature or two on the rise of these national (non)cinemas, often branded as waves. In that part of Europe, as previously mentioned, my remuneration for such a piece would be more or less the current price of Brown’s book. Thus, the cultural journalist in me jubilates — every single chapter in his text is a true manifestation of the politics of care at their academic best. No matter if Brown theorizes on the books spotted on Jafar Panahi’s home shelf in such an overmunched work like This Is Not a Film, or on some randomly discovered DVD of Afghan action flicks, his gaze is knowledgeable and respectful. The film critic in me is getting anxious — how come this attentiveness strikes such an impression on me? It could be the effect of all those “ignorance is a virtue” arguments (insert the face-with-rolling-eyes emoji).
There is something more that adds to the pleasure of reading Non-Cinema, and namely the fact that similarly to his essay films, Brown is in a constant dialogue with himself, thus also engaging the readers to be active participants in this journey, encouraging them to stay critical to every idea being brought to the table while he serves the most delicious bites of concepts to intellectuals you can imagine, from Franz Kafka to Giorgio Agamben, with several detours through quantum mechanics (I won’t lie, it is a feel-good experience). Nevertheless, with Brown’s erudite urge to shape his ideology based on dichotomies (cinema/non-cinema, light/darkness, singularity/multitude, etc.), the book falls into the old Cartesian trap of dualism, albeit the signs of self-aware gnoseological irony.
In this regard, I will take the liberty to express one sole commentary, or better yet — a recommendation of Non-Cinema and its rational stance. As the chapter on Iranian cinema claims, “Shi’a women should be veiled at all times in Iranian cinema, since the cinema screen is deemed to be a public space (meaning that many Iranian films are unrealistic as women wear their chador in domestic settings, something that would not necessarily happen in real life).” Reading this paragraph coincided with the real-life case of an Iranian girl being detained by local authorities due to the fact that she posted Instagram videos of her dancing, “without wearing the obligatory Islamic headscarf.” This spurs the question: if we consider films shot with mobile phones to be “cinema,” due to the fact that they are still being shown on big screens, or somehow find their way in the DVD/VOD milieu, why not think about the display of our mobile phones in terms of “cinema” and “spectacle”? Isn’t the touchscreen the most capitalist space, and isn’t social media the most “kinocentric” environment we even get to live in? Pardon my dialectical monism.


I have been baking bread a few years, initially in a bread machine but more recently using the machine only for mixing and kneading the dough.I have a plain white bread recipe that gives me a perfect loaf every time without exception.
Recently I decided to try to convert this to a sourdough loaf, so took advice from various websites and created a starter using equal weights of rye flour and water which I kept in a cupboard that contains our hot water tank and has a constant temperature of 28deg C (82.4deg F). After 7 days of feeding (during which I changed to white flour), the starter was very active so I decided to try it with a loaf.
I deleted the instant yeast I normally use in my bread and put in 150g of the 100%H starter. To compensate for this I deleted 75g each of flour and water. I used the bread machine to mix and knead then placed the dough in a bowl in the warm cupboard to rise.
This took just on 9 hours till it had doubled in bulk and I thought everything was going well until I removed the dough from the bowl to knock it down a bit. The dough had turned into a very wet and unusable mushy paste.
I gave it another try this time using less water and making a much firmer dough, but after leaving for 8 hours the dough had doubled but was again a sloppy mess.
Can anyone advise how a dough that normally works well behaves like this when all I have done is replace the yeast and some flour and water with the starter?
I would very much appreciate any advice anyone can offer.


OFFENSIVE BACK - Sean Renfree, Duke, R-Senior, QB, 6-5, 225, Scottsdale, Ariz. Renfree completed 36-of-59 passes for 432 yards and four touchdowns in Duke's 52-45 loss to Miami. The senior quarterback directed the Duke offense that ran 94 plays, posted 30 first downs, totaled 583 yards of total offense, and did not commit a turnover. The 432 yards passing and 428 yards of total offense both marked the eighth-highest single-game total in program history. Renfree matched the Duke record for touchdown passes in a half with four in the second half and set the program single-game mark for pass attempts without an interception. He completed a 99-yard touchdown pass to Jamison Crowder en route to setting single-game career highs for pass attempts and passing yards.
RECEIVER - Jamison Crowder, Duke, Sophomore, WR, 5-9, 175, Monroe, N.C. Crowder hauled in eight passes for 203 yards and two touchdowns in Duke's 52-45 loss to Miami, including a 99-yard score, the longest pass play in the 60 year history of ACC football.. The 203 yards rank as the seventh-highest single-game total in Duke history as the sophomore averaged 25.4 yards per catch. Crowder totaled 272 all-purpose yards in the game and now holds the Duke single-season record for most touchdown receptions of over 50 yards with five this year.
DEFENSIVE LINEMAN - Bjoern Werner, Florida State, Junior, DE, 6-4, 255, Berlin, Germany Werner matched his career high with 3.5 sacks and recovered a fumble in Florida State's 37-26 loss to No. 6 Florida. He finished the game with six tackles, including four solo stops, while sacking Florida quarterback Jeff Driskel twice in the first and 1.5 more times in the second half. His recovery of a Driskel fumble and 9-yard return set up Florida State's go-ahead touchdown in the third quarter as the Seminoles rallied from a 13-3 deficit with 17 unanswered points. His play earned him National Defensive Lineman Performer of the Week honors from the College Football Performance Awards.
LINEBACKER - Steve Greer, Virginia, Senior, ILB, 6-2, 230, Solon, Ohio Greer played the best game of his career in his final college contest. Greer led the Cavalier defense with 19 tackles in a 17-14 loss at Virginia Tech. Greer led both teams in the defensive-oriented game with a career-high 19 tackles, along with nine solo stops. Greer finished the season with 122 total tackles. Virginia held the Hokies to 303 yards of total offense, almost 100 yards below their season average (399.9).
DEFENSIVE BACK - Xavier Brewer, Clemson, R-Senior, DB, 5-11, 190, Jacksonville, Fla. Brewer had the best game of his career on Senior Day against South Carolina with a career-high 12 tackles, including nine individual tackles. He was the leading tackler in the game for either team, three more than any teammate. He also had two tackles for loss, including a sack, an interception and three total passes defended. Brewer became the first Clemson player to record a sack and an interception in the same game since Rashard Hall did it against Boston College in 2009.
CO-SPECIALIST - Stefon Diggs, Maryland, Freshman, WR/KR, 6-1, 185, Gaithersburg, Md. Diggs, who ranks sixth nationally with 172.3 all-purpose yards per game, turned in his most productive all-around performance of the season in Maryland's 45-38 loss to North Carolina. The freshman totaled 248 all-purpose yards and made plays in a variety of ways. With 0:21 left in the second quarter, Diggs took a pitch from quarterback Shawn Petty and threw across the field to Matt Furstenburg for an 8-yard touchdown. It was Maryland's first touchdown pass by a non-quarterback in over two years. Then, to open the third quarter, Diggs took a kickoff 99 yards for a touchdown that gave the Terrapins a 35-21 lead. Diggs had eight receptions for 82 yards and 20 rushing yards on three attempts. He ranks ninth on Maryland's single-season receiving yards list with 848 and second on Maryland's single-season all-purpose yards list with 1,896, trailing only Torrey Smith (2,192 in 2009).
CO-SPECIALIST - Dustin Hopkins, Florida State, Senior, K, 6-2, 190, Houston, Texas Hopkins continued his memorable senior season with another career first against Florida - connecting on two field goals of 50 yards or longer in the same game. The Houston, Texas, native closed out the first half with a 50-yard field goal on the final play to get the Seminoles on the scoreboard after falling behind 13-0. He then added 53-yard field goal to Florida State's run of 17 unanswered points in the third quarter as the Seminoles built a 20-13 lead. Hopkins was named National Placekicker of the Week by the College Football Performance Awards. He is the first FSU player to kick two field goals of 50 yards or longer in the same game since Derek Schmidt in 1985. Hopkins is now 9-of-14 all-time from 50 yards or longer with his total field goals from that range ranking second among active kickers. With 87 career field goals, Hopkins now shares the NCAA FBS all-time lead with Georgia's Billy Bennett. Already the all-time NCAA FBS leader in kick scoring, he pushed his all-time point total to 456 points. He currently ranks third all-time in FBS All-Player Scoring, trailing only Montee Ball (476 points) and Travis Prentice (468).
ROOKIE - Duke Johnson, Miami, Freshman, RB, 5-9, 188, Miami, Fla. Johnson rushed for a career-high 176 yards and a career-best three touchdowns in Miami's 52-45 win at Duke in the season finale. Included in his three rushing touchdowns was a 65-yard score, his 11th play of over 50 yards in 2012. He finished with 277 all-purpose yards, his sixth game with 200-plus all-purpose yards this season. In the process, Johnson broke Miami's single-season rushing record held by Clinton Portis (838 in 1999). His 2,070 all-purpose yards are the most by a Miami freshman and second-most in program history (2,108 by Willis McGahee in 2002). Johnson had four 100-yard rushing games this season, and finished his rookie campaign with 957 rushing yards and 10 scores on 139 carries. He also finished 2012 with a single-season school-record 892 kick return yards and two touchdowns. Johnson's 13 touchdowns on the season are tied for the fifth-most in program history.
How Bad Is The 2012 Dr. Pepper Bowl Match Up?