(Harrisburg) -- Travelers this Labor Day holiday weekend have one less thing to stress out about once they hit the road: the prices at the pump. Gas prices have remained relatively stable this summer, at between $2.68 and $2.78 across the state. Triple-A Mid-Atlantic spokeswoman Jana Tidwell says demand is up over last year, but still relatively low. She points to the unemployment rate as one of the main reasons. "If people aren't driving...if close to 10 percent of our population is unemployed and they're not driving, that's a big chunk taken out of gasoline demand," she says. Tidwell says gas price should be between $2.65 and $2.75 through the Labor Day holiday. She adds the national average for the cost of a gallon of gas peaked in early May at $2.93. Some 1.2 million Pennsylvanians are expected to travel during the three-day holiday weekend.

(Philadelphia) -- Some financial experts say Harrisburg's plan to default on a nearly $3.3 million bond payment coming due in a couple weeks will raise concerns on the municipal bond market. Assuming it happens, it will be the second-largest municipal bond default of its kind to occur in the U.S. this year. The largest, amounting to $227 million, happened in Jefferson County, Alabama. David Fiorenza, an economics professor at the Villanova School of Business in Philadelphia, sees a silver lining to Harrisburg's situation. He says the current low interest rates make it possible for cities like Harrisburg to refinance -- or re-fund -- bonds they issued years ago. "I do see it as an opportunity for finance professionals in the marketplace as well as the ones who are hired by the municipalities to go in and look at their debt situations and hopefully come out of it with payments back to the insurers," he says. Fiorenza says it would be similar to a home mortgage. The bonds would be called back and reissued at much lower rates, saving the municipalities a lot of money. He concedes, though, it won't solve all the city's problems. An analyst from Janney Montgomery Scott in Philadelphia tells the Wall Street Journal the missed payment by Harrisburg could raise fears on the bond market that other distressed issuers might be likely to skip bond payments guaranteed by insurance companies.

Matt Babcock, photo by Kevin Clancy

In May, a group of students from Messiah College spent two weeks in Spain, living with local families and exploring the art, history, language and music of the country. Led by Dr. Kim Yunez, Associate Professor of Spanish and Professor Randy Zwally, Director of Guitar Studies, the cross-cultural trip is offered for credit by Messiah every two years.

Scott Hoeckele

Before they left, we handed a recorder to two of the students, Matt Babcock and Scott Hoeckele, and asked them to bring back an audio diary of their experiences. You can hear their feature below. And check out a photo album from the trip on WITF’s Facebook page.

Centralia was a pleasant community of about 1,435 souls in 1962. On May 27 of that year, with the best of intentions, a fire was set in Centralia’s garbage dump by firemen hired by the borough council. But something went horribly wrong and the fire found its way through a hole in the pit into the vast, black labyrinth of abandoned coal mines that lay beneath Centralia. The borough council tried desperately to put out the underground fire, but after a few days it was beyond their reach. Now, nearly 50 years after it began, the fire continues to rage. David DeKok's book, Fire Underground, tells the story of the ongoing tragedy of the Centralia Mine Fire, and the failures of the government officials to take effective action. It's the WITF/Borders Pick of the Month for September, on special display at Borders stores throughout the region. Author David DeKok lives in Harrisburg and will be available for book signing on September 18th at 2 p.m. at the Borders store in Harrisburg.