Media Control
The Morning Call newspaper, whose main distribution area is Lehigh and Northampton counties, Pennsylvania, continues to conspire with the the officials of Northampton County in the construction of a Sands BethWorks slot machine gambling casino complemented by a luxury hotel, entertainment center, parking deck, and upscale shopping center, etc.
This ambitious project, which the Sands BethWorks developers have already scaled back, lies within the flood plain of the Lehigh River and wetland and directly in the path of storm-water runoff from South Mountain and the Lehigh University campus..
The Morning Call and its sister print media, The Express-Times - whose distribution area coincides basically with the MC’s - have both failed to report the facts of the Sands BethWorks development.
On the contrary, these two print media, and the electronic-media Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) station WLVT-39 and commercial station WFMZ-69, have aggressively promoted Sands/BethWorks through their distorted reporting favoring the casino and its related projects.
This is in stark contrast to Monroe County, adjacent to the counties of Lehigh and Northampton, and the Mount Airy Casino and Resort gambling palace. It has been the subject of extensive coverage in the media of Lehigh and Northampton counties (referred to commonly as the “Lehigh Valley”).
Monroe County is also the home of the Pocono Record, whose reporters Eric Mark and Robert B. Smith have written factual and informative articles about the corruption in the Mount Airy Casino and Resort and the Pennsylvania Gam(bl)ing Board (PGCB) that controls this nascent industry in the Keystone State..
Copyright © 2006-2008 Billy Givens
missy said,
August 1, 2008 @ 2:16 pm
hey billy, how ya doin?
can you write a post about what to expect in november… there’s lots of talk about how PA is gonna vote… what do you think?
spammys said,
November 4, 2008 @ 4:03 pm
You mention that BethWorks is being built on a flood plain and storm water run off from South Mountain. I was not aware of this. Is there a source for this information or a website I can research to learn more? If so, I am curious to also know who is insuring them after the building is erected.
Thank you,
Spammys
Billy Givens said,
November 4, 2008 @ 10:00 pm
Spammys,
Thanks for your comment. In 1955 Hurricane Diane flooded the Bethlehem’s South Side neighborhood between the Minsi Trail and Hill to Hill bridges, well within the 100-year flood zone.
In 1964, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers installed powerful sump pumps to mititage future flooding, The pumps through lack of maintenance have become inoperable sometime at some point since 1964 and provide no mitigation of flooding.
Storemwater runoff from South Mountain and the impervious roofs of the Lehigh Universe also contribute to the threat of flooding,
Is the Hudak your comments (and question) refers Roger Hudak, a member of Mayor John Callahan’s South Side Task Force. It the answer is yes, I thought he was a resident of Bethlehem City, not Bethlehem Township.