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On today’s The Spark, we start with the news shaping communities across Pennsylvania.
Carmen Russell-Sluchansky of WHYY brings us the latest on Philadelphia’s cleanup efforts after last weekend’s snowstorm and explains the growing controversy over the removal of a slavery exhibit at Independence National Historical Park.
Then Sydney Roach of WPSU joins us with an update on the ongoing debate over Pennsylvania’s rifle deer season, where proposed changes to the start date continue to divide hunters across the state.

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From there, we turn to a sweeping story of labor, race, and resilience. Author Jon Brandow talks with us about Goliath at Sunset, his new novel inspired by nine years as a welder and union activist in a Boston-area shipyard during the 1970s.

Brandow’s protagonist, Mike Shea, arrives fresh from Vietnam and the housing projects into a workplace defined by explosive racial tension, fading union militancy, and the pressures of a collapsing industry. As Shea reaches across entrenched color lines to build solidarity, he confronts ruthless management, a union leadership that has lost its fire, and a moral dilemma that forces workers to choose between risking their lives and losing their jobs.

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