It’s Feb. 21 editorial harumphs:

(1)”Democrats in the U.S. Senate made a mistake when they bowed to racial power politics and voted to confirm Roland Burris to the Senate seat vacated by President Barack Obama…

(2) Burris, who clearly wanted the Senate seat, should have turned his back on Blagojevich — as all honorable people should do. ..

(3) … Burris now acknowledges he had conversations with key aides and even offered — unsuccessfully, it turns out — to raise money for Blagojevich…

(4) Burris faces the possibility of perjury charges in Illinois and the Senate has begun its own ethics investigation.

5) Burris should protect what remains of his reputation and resign.”

WATCHDOG: (For clarity, we added the numbers.) (1) Did they “bow to racial power politics” or did they approve the appointment because he was legally appointed and had as good or better record than most other senators? Is the New Era suggesting a white appointee would have been rejected?

(2) Turning down a legal and well earned appointment as U. S. Senator is doing the “honorable” thing? Other candidates were envious for not understanding that they also would have been seated.

(3) Since when is it unusual for politicians of the same party to offer to campaign and to help raise funds for each others campaign?

(4) The “possibility of perjury charges” - not even yet being charged, let alone found guilty – is reason for senators to resign?

(5) Resigning when you believe you did nothing wrong is the way to protect a reputation?

Politics is not a tea party. NewsLanc will await the outcome of an investigation before rendering its verdict.

This is for the bird lovers of Lancaster, “Are you pleased with the greasing of your roof, yard, sidewalk and auto with the feces of Crows?” … In as much as salmonella and other diseases are linked to excessive contact to bird waste, I think it’s time to either reduce the herd or send them packing – TAKE YOUR PICK!

How would it be if we all behaved in the 17th century manner dumping the chamber pot in the gutter or out the second floor window?

In the Feb. 23rd edition, David Bauder, AP Television Writer, states: “Of the 681 people who appeared as guests on a dozen cable news and four network Sunday morning talk shows in the three weeks the ended last Sunday, only 41, or 6 percent, were economists…That count alone indicates a lack of effort in tracking down what was most important about the story….”

WATCHDOG: Not necessarily. Few economists took issue with the need for hundreds of billions that will provide economic stimulus over the next two years. The big issues had more to do with political science than economics. The Stimulus Bill, like the Patriot Act of 2001, resulted from scare tactics and unnecessarily included numerous items requiring in depth study.

Thus commentary focused on the faulty process of approving important new initiatives without time for individual consideration, if indeed even reading!

John Fry, President of Franklin and Marshall College, is consumate at framing matters in a self serving manner. Small wonder he is the product of business schools rather than academia as were the college’s prior leaders.

The matter is deemed newsworthy because it raises the issue of why a joint effort by F & M, General Hospital and the Norfolk Southern railway was set forth as an F & M application as though F & M indeed was in the railroad business. Also many representations seem questionable.

The following is condensed from a submittal by a representative of TRRAAC. The article can be viewed in its entirety at www.trraac.com)

On March 15, 2007, PennDOT entered into a Capital Project Grant Agreement with F&M College (“Agreement”). The Agreement is for the period October 1, 2006 through September 30, 2008 and provides the state’s 70% share of the $ 1,000,000 estimated cost for the “engineering of a construction project to relocate Norfolk Southern’s Dillerville Yard.” The funding appears to have been originated in the 2005 Capital Budget. TRRAAC has obtained a copy of F&M College ’s application and the Agreement.

In response to whether the property is owned or leased, F&M responds the property is “owned.” Of course, they do not disclose the property is owned by LCSWMA and not the railroad.

The Feb. 23rd editorial states “Those who oppose [Williaml Ayers] visit have the right to protest, write letters to the editor or simply not attend. But they don’t have the right to force the university to cancel his visit.”

WATCHDOG: A wag of the tail in salute!

According to the Feb. 23rd issue of The New York Times, the filing for Chapter 11 Bankruptcy protection by the Philadelphia Newspapers, Inc. is in large part the result of paying too high a price, $562 million, in 2006 for the Philadelphia Inquirer and the Philadelphia Daily News.

It quotes Brian Tierney, Publisher of the Inquirer, as stating: “Philadelphia Newspapers’ goal is to bring its debt in line with the reality of current economic conditions.”

An Associated Press article published in the Intelligencer Journal quotes Tierney as saying “In the last two years, we experienced the rare trifecta of a dramatic decline in revenue, the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression and a debt structure out of line with current economic realities.”

NewsLanc scoffs at Tierney’s assertion that “This restructuring is focused solely on our debt, not our operations.”

When NewsLanc brought information to the attention of the Inquirer from the first stage of its investigation of the roots of the Convention Center Project, it was told the matter would have merited investigation in the past but was out of the question given the current skeletal news staff due to financial constraints.

The Lancaster Newspapers, Inc. probably does not have a problem of heavy debt since earlier generations of competent management created a thriving enterprise. Yet it too suffers from a loss of revenue due to the current recession and migration of advertisers and customers to the Internet. The editions get thinner and thinner. It is more intent on not “making waves” than ferreting out wrong doings… which in past cases would require a mirror!

The combination of the Intell and New Era on a daily basis in the manner that they are jointly published Saturdays and holidays would seem to be the next logical step. So the question is how long will Publisher Jack Buckwalter fiddle while the Steinman fortune burns?

Editor’s note: The author, Polly Cleveland, PhD, shared the following with NewsLanc’s publisher. It is posted at www.georgiststudies.org. We published it because it provides a different perspective on the national economic crisis.

Economists conventionally attribute the Great Depression to blunders by the then-new Federal Reserve Bank. According to this story, promoted by Milton Friedman and the Chicago School, after the stock market crash of 1929, the Fed kept interest rates too high, strangling the economy. This story made most economists confident that it couldn’t happen again.

But there’s a different story: the story of the great 1920’s real estate bubble. It began with cars.

Starting in 1899, the auto industry took off exponentially, dipped for two years during World War I, then took off exponentially again during the 1920’s. Production reached a peak of over 4 million vehicles in 1929, before collapsing. It did not again pass 4 million until 1949!

The auto suddenly opened up vast suburban and rural areas to housing. Developers–legitimate and bogus–leapt at the opportunity. Banks jumped in too, creating so-called “shoestring mortgages”–effectively allowing property purchases on margin. Within a few years, tens of thousands of acres around major cities had been subdivided and sold.

In rural areas, developers bought up farms, dug a pond, built a “club house” and sold cheap “vacation” lots. As reported in Homer Hoyt’s classic One Hundred Years of Land Values in Chicago, from 1918 to 1926 Chicago population increased 35% and land values rose 150%, or about 12% a year.

In 1926, land values stagnated, then fell. After 1929, home construction collapsed, and–paralleling the auto industry–did not again pass the 1926 level until 1950. Around Detroit, over 95% of recorded lots were vacant as of 1938. Nationally, there were an estimated 20 to 30 million vacant lots, compared to about 30 million occupied housing units. According to economic historian Alex Field, the barren subdivisions ringing the cities hindered the recovery of construction: Missing titles of defaulted owners and poor physical layout created de facto brownfields.

The real estate bubble helped set off and then worsen the Depression. Collapsing land values left people suddenly much poorer, so they cut spending. They also defaulted on mortgages, sticking the banks with “toxic” assets: liens on near-worthless property. The struggling banks in turn cut off lending even to good customers. Bank runs–panicky depositors withdrawing cash–further crippled the banking system. Between drops in spending and lending, businesses failed, unemployment soared, and prices fell.

Thus a radical innovation of the early 1900’s–the automobile–set off destructive real estate bubble in the 1920’s. Another radical innovation took hold in the late 1990’s: “securitization”, that is, the aggregation of consumer debts, especially mortgages, into marketable packages known as “collateralized debt obligations” or “CDO’s.” CDO’s set off another giant real estate bubble by making houses “affordable” to poorer Americans. The collapse of the CDO bubble stuck banks once again with “toxic” real estate.

Fortunately, economists–and markets–now recognize that to limit damage, we must force banks to write down the garbage quickly. But write-downs will reveal that some big banks’ liabilities exceed their assets, requiring drastic remedies, including restructuring, breakup, and possibly temporary nationalization. Unfortunately, so far our new Treasury Secretary, Tim Geithner, either lacks the nerve or the authorization. Unless he acts soon, we face another “lost decade” like the 1930’s.

NewsLanc inquired of the Lancaster Police Department concerning the recent lack of a well trained school crossing guard, if one is there at all, on Walnut Street in proximity to the Sacred Heart School and Reynolds Middle School. We received the following response from Officer M .Branner:

” … I am in the process of attempting to make changes in the School Crossing Guard program, while this program has been in affect for over fifty years.,, We have great difficulty in finding and hiring qualified people to maintain approximately 30 intersections. In past years crossing guards received salary and benefits, now they are paid $13.47 but receive no benefits.

I am working with our insurance carrier and training division to get more training for these employees….”

NewsLanc responded:

“May we suggest that a very viable solution to the traffic guard problem at all grammar, middle and high schools would be the purchase and distribution of the stand up portable signs in the middle of the cross paths with the message “State law – yield for pedestrians within cross walks.”

The portable stand up signs are more effective than untrained and inexperienced adult guards. Drivers are alerted and warned. No confusion results.”

I found the following purely by accident:

http://www.padutchcountryblog.com/

At first glance, this site looks like nothing more than a blog about Lancaster County. But look at the “About” page: it is actually a function of the Pennsylvania Dutch Convention and Visitors Bureau…

What’s more, the PDCVB is intentionally using social networks like Flickr, Twitter, FaceBook, and YouTube to “stealth” market Lancaster County tourism, making it look like ordinary people are posting when in fact it is really PDCVB employees. This has been announced several times at LCCCA committee meetings, and can be confirmed by documents posted on the PDCVB web site.

How is this all paid for? From the Visitors Bureau portion of the “hotel tax”.

Excerpts below reproduced courtesy of
http://LookingAtLancaster.blogspot.com/

One of the most often used reasons given as to why the downtown Lancaster, PA taxpayer-financed hotel and convention center project will be successful is because of how unique the facility will be. The combined structure includes the façade of the once-historic Watt & Shand building (which before demolition was listed on the National Register of Historic Places), as well as the remaining portions of Thaddeus Stevens’ home, the Kleiss Saloon, two buildings once owned by Stevens’ confidante Lydia Hamilton Smith, and the Montgomery House.

Visitors to the convention center who enter through the Vine Street entrance will be able to see the unearthed cistern behind Stevens’ home that MIGHT have hidden runaway slaves, as well as a part of the future underground museum. Hotel guests will enter through the Watt & Shand façade. The Montgomery House is being renovated into high-end hospitality suites, and will be off limit to the vast majority of visitors.

Once inside the hotel and convention center, what makes the facility unique?

Unfortunately, not much.

The hotel lobby and restaurant have a street-level view of downtown Lancaster. Unfortunately, both the first half-block of E. King St. and the first block of S. Queen St. primarily contain generic contemporary structures that could be in any city. Neither the hotel ballroom nor the convention center ballroom have windows that provide a view; only the hallways outside the hotel ballroom include windows in the Watt & Shand façade. There is no view of Lancaster from inside the convention center, other than in a small portion of the “prefunction” areas. And even the lowest hotel room (on the sixth floor) is too high to provide anything but a distant overview of downtown Lancaster.

In all fairness, four of the convention center small meeting rooms will have a view of Penn Square and/or the first block of E. King St., as will eight of the hotel’s small meeting rooms. But the large glass windows in the hotel restaurant open into a courtyard surrounded by concrete walls, where the hotel tower stairways exit onto E. King Street.

The virtual tour of the convention center, being used to sell the hotel and convention center to potential clients, shows a facility that could literally be located anywhere. (You can see the virtual tour on the Interstate Hotels and Resorts web site, www.lancasterconventioncenter.com/vrtour.asp.) There is nothing inside this facility to differentiate it from any other hotel and convention center located anywhere else in the developed world.

There was one small way that the hotel and convention center MIGHT have made guests feel like they were really in Lancaster, and that is through artworks. Had the hotel rooms and hallways included art or photographs depicting Lancaster, it might have enticed visitors to go exploring beyond the hotel and convention center walls.

Unfortunately, the contract between Interstate Hotels and Resorts and the Lancaster County Convention Center Authority dictate that all art displayed in all parts of the “shared space” be supplied by a division of Interstate Hotels and Resorts. Penn Square Partners has also selected IHR to provide art for all of their meeting and hotel rooms. Rest rooms throughout the entire facility will display “institutional art”, generic pictures purchased by the square inch. All that is left for the LCCCA to display art are the main convention hall, the prefunction areas, several hallways, and the corridor between the Penn Square (formerly King St.) parking garage and the convention center.

A committee was formed, led by representatives from IHR, to review and purchase artwork for the spaces available to the convention center authority. Unfortunately, questions about direction led to significant delays. A formal Request For Proposals to purchase art for the convention center was not published in the Legal Notices section of the Lancaster Newspapers until Thursday, February 19, 2009, with bids due no later than 5:00 PM on March 2, 2009. This means that potential bidders only have just over ten days to make a formal proposal, and for all intents and purposes prevents original artwork from being created specifically for the convention center. This also only allows just over 50 days until the convention center opens for business for the committee to review all proposals, select the finalists, present the artwork to the LCCCA board for approval, and mount the artwork in its final position.