RST: Brad Bumsted’s Keystone Corruption

What to look for on Radio Smart Talk, Monday, October, 14, 2013:

One can only imagine that Brad Bumsted, the author of Keystone Corruption: A Pennsylvania Insider’s View of a State Gone Wrong, had too much material to work with. That’s not to say the entire state government is corrupt, but what Bumsted’s book points out in detail is that there certainly are more than enough examples of wrongdoing to write about.

And the longtime state house reporter, who currently covers the capitol for the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review does a marvelous job of describing one scandal or arrest after another.

It’s not just corruption from recent years that Bumsted documents in the book. It goes back more than a hundred years ago when the current state capitol building was opened. Taxpayers were overcharged more than $7 million for furnishings in the new building. Five people, including the state’s auditor general and treasurer, were convicted of illegal activities in the scandal.

Where Bumsted’s book shines though is in the stories he covered and witnessed personally. He provides insight from an observers point-of-view that most Pennsylvanians haven’t seen up close.

Brad Bumsted will be a guest on Monday’s Radio Smart Talk to tell those stories.

Keystone Corruption is witf’s October Pick of the Month. Pick-of-the-Month is supported by Midtown Scholar Bookstore in Harrisburg.

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