Author: Michael Sorrentino

Harrisburg, Pennsylvania needs a lot of help. The picturesque capital city with a population of around 48-thousand has an unemployment rate of 8.6 percent and more than a quarter of its families are living in poverty. While the city comptroller is suggesting the town file for bankruptcy, Mayor Linda Thompson tells Fox that she is keeping that last on her list of options.

Amidst all the gloomy news in Harrisburg, hope is rising – in the form of a minor league baseball player named Stephen Strasburg.
Michael Reinsdorf, Chairman of the Harrisburg Senators baseball team, grins with pride when asked about his star player, “they say he comes around once in a lifetime.”

21-year old Strasburg has been called the most talented pitching prospect of all-time and was the first overall pick in the 2009 baseball draft by the Washington Nationals with a fastball which has been clocked as high as 102 mph.
He reportedly received a $15.1 million contract with the team and has been sent to start his career with the Nationals’ minor league team in the struggling city of Harrisburg, sending ticket sales out of the park.

A record crowd of 7,895 waited through a two-hour rain delay, followed by a 20-minute power outage, almost all of them to see Strasburg pitch last week in his first home game in a newly renovated 42 million dollar stadium. The sell-out crowd has Mayor Thompson optimistic that the success will help area businesses, “hopefully at the end of the day, people will empty out into our streets and support our local businesses in terms of dining and entertainment in the evening so that we can boost the evening economies and just create an atmosphere of excitement.”

Fans like Brian and Trish Anthony were thrilled with the performance of their flamethrower star, and even more thrilled with the prices. Tickets at Metro Field range from 5 to 30 dollars and beers go for 2 bucks. “It’s affordable entertainment for a family, and you don’t break the bank doing it. Especially in these times, that’s pretty important”, Brian said.

Strasburg may get pulled up the ranks by the Washington Nationals to play in the Majors at any time. While his time with the Senators is uncertain, the future of Harrisburg already looks brighter according to Reinsdorf, “I think that this will bring a lot of pride to not only people of Harrisburg but to the surrounding areas. I think it will bring a lot of people into the city and obviously that’s a good thing”.

Harrisburg Senators pitcher Stephen Strasburg

What do you think? Have you heard of any small towns in America looking at creative ways out of the fiscal gutter?

Let me know in your comments below!

Standing outside the flagship Apple store this morning was quite a rush. Some people had been in line for days, while some waited less than an hour.

Seconds before the 9am launch, Apple store employees got the crowd riled up with a count-down. A woman from the crowd said, “A baby has been born.” As people began to file out of the store victoriously with their new gadgets, a woman passing by asked an NYPD officer, “Are they giving them away?”, to which he replied, “It sure seems like it doesn’t it?”

We had a brief trip to the Hotel Montana site today.  Of all the recovery efforts I’ve seen so far, this is the most productive and well organized. There was a constant flow of trucks carrying out rubble that has been sifted through and then sent off to a landfill about six miles away.

Dumptrucks arrive to recieve rubble.

As we walked up to the site, workers were pulling a body from the rubble, bringing the total number of recovered to 25.

It was quiet, and machines were shut off.  Workers handled the remains with complete respect and dignity – this was someone’s child. Colonel Norberto Cintron said that he treats this site like a shrine to those who are now buried there.  These workers are emotionally attached to this mission – some have friends or family in there.  Major Chris Muller of the US Army told us that his friend and colleague was in there  – Air Force Major Ken Booreland – he was seen a few minutes before the quake emailing in the building and has not been found.

Fox News photographer Jeff Burton at the Hotel Montana site

Also on site was Bil Hawkins, the Incident Commander of the Hotel Montana Recovery Mission for the US Army Corp of Engineers. Hawkins is a tall military man and engineer from Denver.  Bil noticed the wedding band of a Columbian man that he was working with.  A day or so later, they were pulling a woman’s body out and he noticed that the man wasn’t in the area for the recovery.  When he looked close, he saw the woman had a matching wedding band to his.  A tough guy, Hawkins held back tears in recalling the moment when he told the man it was, in fact, his wife.

Just two days ago, the body of a 4 year old Guatemalan boy was recovered, his father holding him in his arms as the building crumbled around them.  The mother and brother of that boy are alive.  Bil said to me, “I don’t know if you have a family, but I do – and no parent wants to see that.”

Amidst the devastation around them, the men and women working this mission have a sense of duty to the families of those who have been entombed in what was once a 5 story symbol of Haiti’s potential.  The hotel was capable of holding 145 people.  The day the earthquake struck it was at 95% capacity.  It is believed that only 50% of the people were in the hotel at the time of the quake since many were at work during the daytime.

A total of 17 survivors have been pulled from the rubble since Hotel collapsed, but officials say they expect no more survivors to be found.

Power lines hang from trees at the site of the Hotel Montana

When a victim’s body is found the process of identification is a difficult one, a contractor carefully packages up the remains for identification under the watch of the US State Department in the US Embassy in Port au Prince’s makeshift mortuary. From there, they are sent to Dover Air Force Base in Delaware and then home to rest, while some families will come and receive their loved ones here in Haiti by means of commercial aircraft.

Safety is the biggest concern, though the demolished structure is at rest, it can shift at any time, causing serious injuries to workers.
As we head away from the hotel site back to Fox’s makeshift Haiti Bureau, a body partially covered with a tarp lay on the side of the road just yards from the gates of the Hotel Montana.  Thanks to the efforts of volunteers from all over the world, the family members of those lost in the Hotel Montana will eventually be able to lay their loved ones to rest, while many Haitians are left with only questions.

Here at the airport in Port Au Prince, the University has officially opened the doors on it’s makeshift hospital. The hospital has been running full steam for days, but today marks the grand opening with a giant banner that stands almost two stories tall.

U of Miami workers proudly raise the two story banner.

In this hospital is one of the first civilian run wound care units, which is designed to treat open wounds and sores as soon as the injured arrive. Dr. John MacDonald from the University of Miami, who works in that unit, tells us that 80 percent of people who come into the Emergency Room have open wounds, and by treating them off the bat – they can save lives bedside while sparing the extra trip to the Operating Room.