“Government video cameras are dangerous for two reasons. (1) They change the nature of policing by taking power away from citizens, and (2) they restrict or eliminate the possibility for alone time out of doors.

(1) Video surveillance radically strengthens the power of the state. Without cameras, victims or nearby people who empathize with victims are the ones who report crimes. This is an incredibly important natural safeguard on police power, because people can choose to not report violations of unjust laws. This is why black people could sometimes escape slavery, unions could organize, and people today can smoke marijuana without going to prison. Video cameras destroy this natural safeguard. When the government records all activities outside of the home, the state can pick and choose which crimes it wants to go after, and it can easily prosecute innocent people who normally would have been protected by their fellow citizens.

That shift is incredibly important. Any governmental abuses will be greatly intensified when the police see everything outside homes. The power to turn in criminals should stay with victims and concerned citizens. Otherwise governmental abuses will become much harder to combat.

(2) Video surveillance makes life worse by eliminating privacy. While misinformed people love to say that we have no expectation of privacy in public, this is not correct. We always have had privacy in public. Public property includes every street, every park, every beach, and nearly every place you spend time when you are not at home or working. Almost everywhere, it has been possible to be by yourself without other people watching, or to meet with a group of people without policemen observing you. With widespread video surveillance, that part of life is gone, and being alone out of doors is impossible.”

A June 27 editorial “Stopping earmark abuse in its tracks” concludes “The problem is not necessarily the individual earmark, but the process of earmarking as it is now being practiced on Capital Hill. It’s a politically charged process that sidesteps standard practices for evaluation and evaluation.”

WATCHDOG: And what is the alternative, allowing legislators in Harrisburg to pass on what local improvements are to be funded with state money? Are those in Harrisburg going to be better informed of a community’s needs than local elected representatives?

At least local legislators can be held responsible for their decisions when they come up for re-election.

Provided each community receives its fair share of funds, newspapers do their job of reporting (which perhaps is asking too much), and citizens speak out, some earmarking is justifiable.

That the Intelligencer Journal and the New Era needed to be merged was self evident several years ago. Nevertheless, Chair Jack Buckwalter and President “Chip” Miller continued to dawdle while advertising plunged and content suffered. (That is, when they weren’t disgracing the newspapers and our community by self serving propaganda and distortions concerning the Convention Center Project and vicious and unsubstantiated attacks on the former commissioners.)

Now the question is: Having merged the newspapers, will they have the guts to make the big cut in staffing needed to put the newspapers on a solid footing and have it over, once and done? Or will they continue to waste resources and create an atmosphere of terror at the newspapers as they gradually, ever so slowly, reduce staff and services?

We don’t know. But given Buckwalter’s and Miller’s deplorable records, we can guess!

It is not true that all surveillance cameras in Lancaster City are being supplied and monitored by the Lancaster Community Safety Coalition, even though Lori van Ingen’s article, “Protest to target city surveillance cameras” (Intell, June 26), gives that impression. There are cameras in northwest Lancaster that were installed and are being monitored by F&M College.

Some of these cameras are on F&M campus property, but not all. One of the cameras isn’t even in the City – it is in Manheim Twp. The monitors are located in the Safety and Security offices of F&M College and the monitoring is done by F&M employees. (One employee reviewing the images on an F&M monitor was dismissed when the College discovered that the employee was able to look through the windows of a College dorm.)

Charlie Smithgall, who was Mayor of Lancaster when the infrastructure for cameras was laid throughout the city, told a homeowner that there are more privacy safeguards with the Lancaster Community Safety Coalition cameras than with F&M, and more with cameras controlled by the City Police than with LCSC.

This is not a new issue. Race Avenue homeowners protested when F&M announced that they were putting cameras on the light poles that F&M had previously installed directly across the street from their houses. (Less than a year before the cameras were installed, F&M had denied that the College had any such plans.) College officials said they were blocking the windows – as required by law – of these houses, but did not promise any additional blocking. Many of the homeowners protested that these cameras violated their privacy rights on their own property, but they were criticized by F&M and City officials, as well as some citizens, as being against the “public good”.

Recently the College sent one of its police officers to a house across the street from one of its cameras because the monitor showed a burglar — in broad daylight –breaking into the house through a front window. It turned out that the “burglar” was a homeowner painting a front window of the house next door! The image apparently was not clear enough to show which house was being photographed.

When a homeowner who lives across the street from another F&M camera found a broken window in her car, she called F&M Security to see if there was video coverage of the vandalism. She was told that F&M had to get permission from the Lancaster City Police in order to review the tape. During a later call to F&M Security, an F&M police officer told the homeowner that the tape in question had already been erased. F&M only keeps the tapes for one month, the officer explained. Evidently, F&M is more concerned about its students’ cars than those of homeowners across the street. Yet these homeowners had been told that they would have increased security as compensation for any loss of privacy!

When two F&M students were robbed directly under an F&M camera earlier this year, there were no tapes at all of the robbery, because when this happened, the rotating camera “was pointed the other way”, according to the F&M police lieutenant who was in charge of the investigation.

When F&M installed the cameras on Race Ave., John Fry sent a letter to a Race Ave. homeowner, in which he wrote that “sacrificing private property rights for the greater good of increasing community security” was a “reasonable tradeoff”. That statement needs to be challenged by citizens who do not agree that being videotaped without their knowledge or permission while on private property that they own is reasonable, proper or acceptable.

By Cliff Lewis

It might be easy to miss. Just along the initial drag of N Prince St, right across from the Clipper Stadium—there it is on your left: Phở Thanh Thúy, Downtown Lancaster’s one and only Vietnamese noodle house. On the outside, there are few visual hints—no cultural images of rice paddies or sprawling rivers or water buffalo. There is simply a plain white sign reading: “PHO THANH THUY / VIETNAMESE NOODLE HOUSE.”

Inside, the atmosphere is casual and family-like. The walls are lightly decorated, here and there, with objects and pictures representing a Vietnamese heritage. But decor is not the reason to visit Phở Thanh Thúy. What makes this restaurant unique and well worthwhile is, far and away, the cuisine.

Vietnamese food is considerably different from Chinese, despite the close proximity of their lands of origin. The culinary palate of Vietnam is characteristically fresh, making ample use of raw herbs like lemongrass, mint, basil, and cilantro. This is evident at Phở Thanh Thúy from early on, when the server sets each table with a complimentary plate of fresh bean sprouts, bordered by the long leaves of various zesty herbs.

Gỏi Cuốn is a good way to get started. These egg-roll-like appetizers are tightly packed in an un-friend, translucent rice wrapper and filled with lettuce, rice vermicelli, bean sprouts, pork, and shrimp. And, for an entree that can satisfy the most Western of appetites, try the Cơm Tấm Đặc Biệt. This dish features a lively spread of rice, two kinds of grilled pork, and a slice of Vietnamese omelet. The meal is accompanied by a small bowl of fish sauce, an orange, lightly sweet mixture that carries a subtle depth of flavor.

And we would be remiss to ignore the rice noodle soup. The wide, steaming bowls of Phở Chín Nạm hold a rich beef broth with slices of beef brisket and flank, a dense tangle of light rice noodles, and strong presence of fresh cilantro.

Phở Thanh Thúy can take an American palate for quite a trip, while keep the experience pleasant and satisfying. And, considering it’s rather prominent location, it may well be one of the Clipper Stadium’s best kept secrets.

Phở Thanh Thúy is located at 603 N Prince St.

In its “Swan Song” as separate from the New Era, the June 26 editorial “Turning the page” states: “For the past 81 years, the two daily newspapers – the Intelligencer Journal and Lancaster New Era – have existed under a single ownership. During that time, they competed to provide readers with the latest and most complete information.”

WATCHDOG: If only it were true! Unfortunately, earlier this decade, Chair John M. Buckwalter and President, Harold E. Miller, self servingly “whored” the news and commentary in order to bring about a highly controversial and somewhat dubious convention Center Project.

They not only may have seriously impaired the financial stability of the City of Lancaster for decades to come (no real estate taxes, high service expenses, a $12 million debt guarantee on the hotel), but they drove two conscientious county commissioners out of office through propaganda, misrepresentations, and publishing downright misinformation. They trashed the reputation for integrity their predecessors had built over the decades!

Concerning the “dozen journalists – many of whom have won state and regional awards – are being laid off.” If there is one real reporter among them along the lines of the Sunday News Gil Smart, let the person apply to NewsLanc. We likely pay better and he/she will have an opportunity to practice true journalism.

According to a poll conducted by the Center for Opinion Research at Franklin and Marshall College and reported in the Philadelphia Daily News, only 28 percent of all those surveyed say United States Senator Arlen Specter deserves re-election.

“Even more troubling for the senator is that the proportion of state residents who believe he deserves re-election has declined from 40 percent to 28 percent,” said the poll’s director, G. Terry Madonna.

Specter was first elected in 1980. He is the only United States Senator from Pennsylvania to be elected to five terms.

Faced with what seemed like almost certain defeat in the Republic primary in 2010, earlier this year Specter switched to the Democratic Party, in part relying on commitments from leadership that he would retain important committee positions and seniority.

Instead, the Democratic Senate Caucus made him the most junior Democrat in the Senate, thus stripping him of his power and prestige.

Specter’s career has had many ups and downs, with re-election at least twice in question despite weak and ill funded opponents.

His election in 1980 was an amazing political come back when, after years of bad political luck and losing campaigns, Specter caught a tremendous break when then Senator Richard Schweiker belatedly decided not to run and Specter was able to ride his comparative statewide name recognition into a narrow primary victory, despite the opposition of Republican party leadership. He then benefited from Ronald Reagan’s electoral victory as President.

Will Specter choose to run in the Democratic primary against formidable opponents, especially Congressman (and former Admiral) Joe Sestak? He has never backed off from a fight yet!

The first of two in a series by Cliff Lewis on the Lancaster County Council of Churches

At 344 N Marshall St, the Council of Churches (CoC) headquarters rests behind a thrifty edifice: The simple white building is fronted with a modest parking lot and is adorned with little more than a few signs to identify the organization. But within those walls there runs an intricately patterned network of community services, each carefully modified over time to provide the highest quality care to the greatest number of people.

The CoC was initially formed under a different name in 1947 to increase unity and cooperation among the many churches and denominations resident in Lancaster County. The partnership has since expanded into an extensive system of community services supported by well over 100 local congregations.

Recently, Assistant Director Lindsey Hess offered NewsLanc a tour of the Marshall St center, from which a variety of community services are provided in a time-tested, well-organized manner.

A few doors beyond the front lobby lies the CoC’s food bank—what Hess describes as, “by far, the biggest” program run through the facility. The bank provides the usual dry and canned goods, as well as refrigerated items such as meat, eggs, and butter. The program has recently been reconstructed to a “client choice” model, in which food recipients are allowed to hand-select their groceries to best fit the needs and preferences of their families.

For this process, the bank is arranged like a scaled-down supermarket. Food is organized into three long aisles, sectioned out according to various meal categories. Staff or volunteers guide clients through the selection process, which typically ends with a cart full of free groceries. By closely engaging with clients, the CoC is able to continually refine their donation requests to better align with user preferences. Most of these donations come from participating churches and some individuals.

Read the rest of this entry »

At the Thursday, June 25, Lancaster County Convention Center Authority (LCCCA) Board meeting, Chairman Art Morris announced that he would step down from his role in the Authority as of July 31. Morris was nominated as Chair in May 2007, and has since led the LCCCA into a much-welcomed period of openness and transparency.

Regarding his exit, Morris was careful to note that the decision has not been motivated by any sort of grievance between himself and the Board: “I’ve truly enjoyed working with this Board, and we’re really fortunate, quite frankly, that we’ve been able to work together so well….” Although the announcement may come as a surprise to some, Morris indicated that he has been expecting to make this move for at least the past year.

Following the meeting, Randolph Carney, a longtime follower of the Convention Center project, explained that previous Chairmen “seemed to be doing everything that they can to limit the public’s access, to obstruct the flow of knowledge to the public. And I personally saw [former Chair Ted] Darcus do everything he could to quiet dissent, to shut up people who didn’t tow the line. And when Mr. Morris came on Board as Chairman, everything changed….But I have to emphasize that, as much good as Art Morris did (and Art Morris did a lot of good), it was basically the same as closing the barn door after the horse got out. Because by the time Art Morris took over, the damage was done.”

The next LCCCA chair will be initially be nominated by a committee consisting of Board Members Sharron Nelson, Laura Douglas, and Julie Dickson.

“Pennsylvania House leaders are steering a disproportionate share of grant money to their districts through a long-secret system of funding state lawmakers’ pet projects… this form of pork-barrel spending has been known as walking-around money, or WAMs. After the amount of money is set, legislative leaders submit their requests to the governor’s office, which then distributes them to state agencies to fund them…

“On the Republican side, House GOP grant requests helped put the home county of the minority leader in line for more money than most counties with similar populations.

“In the Senate, the home counties of two high-ranking Democrats were also in line for disproportionately large grants. Similar patterns were not as evident in the grants requested by the Senate GOP majority.”

WATCHDOG: Retired State Senate leader Gibson Armstrong extracted every cent imaginable (and then some!) for the Convention Center Project, although he apparently swindled the Lancaster Public Library out of a promised $2.5 million at the last minute to help cover CC deficits. Now Lancaster will receive less than its fair share for a couple of decades.