From USA TODAY:

Paying people for living kidney donations would increase the supply of the organs and would not result in a disproportionate number of poor donors, a study by researchers from the   University of Pennsylvania and the Philadelphia Veterans Affairs Medical Center concludes.

The study, published this month in the Annals of Internal Medicine, asked 342 participants whether they would donate a kidney with varying payments of $0, $10,000 and $100,000. The study called for a real-world test of a regulated payment system.

The possibility of payments nearly doubled the number of participants in the study who said they would donate a kidney to a stranger, but it did not influence those with lower income levels more than those with higher incomes, according to Scott Halpern, one of the study’s authors and senior fellow at the University of Pennsylvania’s Center for Bioethics…

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“All of us who are concerned for peace and triumph of reason and justice must be keenly aware how small an influence reason and honest good will exert upon events in the political field.”
Albert Einstein

Editor’s note:   Ongoing studies of the workings of the human brain establish that, once views are formed, it is very difficult for them to be altered through exposure to facts.

One of the main purposes of top liberal arts colleges is to nurture critical rather than group thinking. At best, we can only expect a small percentage of the population to embrace new information.

It is through their influence that the general population gradually changes its views.   This often takes years, even decades.  Witness the civil rights movement and the current War on Drugs.  Currently, the public’s perception of Lancaster General Health as beyond criticism is an example.

From the PHILADELPHIA DAILY NEWS:

State Attorney General Tom Corbett insists he helped file a federal lawsuit last week challenging health-care-reform legislation because he thinks it’s unconstitutional to require people to purchase health insurance. That’s policy.

Then there’s politics.

Corbett, who’s running for governor, used the issue to raise money for his campaign, sending supporters a letter lamenting the “health care monstrosity” before it was signed into law last week.

His campaign followed up with an e-mail plea for contributions by Monday, the end of the latest cycle to report campaign finances…

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From the PHILADELPHIA INQUIRER:

Sen. Arlen Specter won the backing of the state’s largest labor organization yesterday, with the Pennsylvania AFL-CIO endorsing him over Rep. Joe Sestak in the May Democratic primary.

It was a powerful affirmation of how smoothly Specter has managed his political transition to the Democratic Party since leaving the Republican Party less than a year ago.

“He is a proven leader who has stood with working families when the chips are down,” said Bill George, president of the state AFL-CIO, which represents 900,000 workers. George cited Specter’s crucial role last year in passing the $787 billion federal stimulus measure, which he said “prevented this nation from sinking into another Great Depression.” …

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At the March 30 Lancaster City council meeting, NewsLanc asked Mayor Rick Gray exactly how much the City had to spend last week to keep up with the American Quilter’s Society show held at the Lancaster County Convention Center. Gray said that the City’s expenses, which will be reimbursed by the Pennsylvania Dutch Convention and Visitors Bureau, have not yet been brought to a final calculation.

The costs temporarily incurred by the City were predominantly “public safety stuff,” as Gray put it, such as a heightened police presence in the area and traffic and pedestrian direction services. The visitors bureau, expected to repay those expenses, is funded by a state grant and almost a million dollars in county hotel room tax revenues.

Gray told NewsLanc that the City has recently been looking into other means of covering the costs of future event-related services necessitated by the convention center. In particular, he mentioned the possibility of setting aside a portion of funds already given to the City each year by the Penn Square Partners.

“We’ve been talking about possibly putting part of those aside and using them solely for security and other special things,” Gray noted.

Earlier, in his report to council, Gray recognized last week’s show as “something we can all be proud of.” He said that, in preparation for the event, numerous meetings were held with the police, the James Street Improvement District, the visitors bureau, and Randy Patterson of the department of economic development and neighborhood revitalization. Last week, as the event progressed, daily conference calls were held, where key players could troubleshoot problems as they arose.

One “minor glitch” that Gray acknowledged in his report was the lack of available shuttle transportation. Gray said that this particular problem had stemmed from some attendees not properly registering, which resulted in an incorrect total passenger count in arranging the buses.

“Meetings with the Mayor” coming to city neighborhoods

Also in his report, Mayor Gray announced the upcoming “Meetings with the Mayor” to be held throughout the city in April. According to Gray, the neighborhood gatherings will serve as a forum to discuss municipal finance and the City budget. The Mayor characterized the upcoming dates as an opportunity to “activate our taxpayers” in spurring state-level change in the way that municipalities are funded.

The meetings, which all begin at 6:30 p.m., are scheduled for the following dates and locations:

• Tuesday, April 6 at Price Elementary School, 615 Fairview Avenue
• Thursday, April 8 at John Reynolds Middle School, 605 West Walnut Street
• Wednesday, April 14 at Community United Methodist Church, 130 Tennyson Drive
• Monday, April 19 at Hand Middle School, 431 South Ann Street
• Wednesday, April 21 at McCaskey East High School, 1051 Lehigh Avenue

City applies for Google tech investment

According to Gray, the City recently responded to a request for information from Google, which is currently looking for a US city in which to install a super-high speed fiber optic internet network worth as much as $1 billion. The purpose of Google’s “experiment” is to demonstrate positive impact of readily available top-speed internet access.

About 1,100 communities have also sought the prize—some more fervently than others. In the case of Topeka, Kansas, the Mayor called for residents to refer to the city as “Google, Kansas” for the entire month of March.

By Ron Harper, Jr.

I saw Newslanc’s letter regarding the convention center STEALING the Host’s business. If the downtown Marriott and the Host were competing on the same footing, I would say: that’s capitalism! However, High’s Marriott doesn’t pay taxes, didn’t build any building (taxpayers did) and has lots of sweet-heart deals which gave them millions and millions of dollars.

If that wasn’t bad enough, and to add insult to injury, the Host is FORCED to collect a tax from ALL their customers that goes to subsidize and pay Dale High and Lancaster Newspapers who use the money to STEAL their business!

Here is the line from Newslanc commentary that prompted this:

“Adding to the irony, the show had in the past been held at the Host on Rt. 30 East. Not only did those Lincoln Highway East hotels have to pay for the convention center, but they lost vital business to the project!”

My response:  Despite assurances to the contrary.

Remember when Gib Armstrong ‘gave’ the taxpayer’s 15 million (that’s when the convention center was ONLY going to cost 30 million instead of the +160 million it did!)  He passed out shoo-fly pie to symbolize that the hotel/motel pie was going to GROW!

Reference article circa 1999.  (Too bad for Armstrong I have such a good memory.)

Ridge bringing $15 million for convention center
Bernard Harris. Lancaster New Era. Lancaster, Pa.: Nov 4, 1999. pg. A.1

“Standing in a vacant lot, Gov. Tom Ridge today is expected to turn over seed money that will make a downtown convention center grow.

“Ridge was due to deliver $15 million — half the estimated construction cost of a proposed convention center that the governor and backers of the proposal hope will make the Red Rose city bloom….

“The site, where the former Heinitsh furniture store and Reifsnyder’s Pianos and Organs building once stood, is framed by the former Watt & Shand department store, King Street Parking Garage and Oblender’s Inc. furniture store, all of which figure into the $75 million concept unveiled in August.

“The $30 million publicly owned convention center would be separate, but related to the $45 million privately funded hotel in the former store. Part of the store would be demolished for a 13- story tower, to be built behind the renovated front of the landmark building…”

County commissioner Scott Martin noted on Tuesday that, all too often, when people talk about protecting the vulnerable, they are only referring to children—and rarely to those in their later years. But, with a special justice assistance grant from the Pennsylvania commission on crime and delinquency, the County hopes to push a new initiative to better protect the elderly from abuse, neglect, and exploitation.

At the Tuesday, March 30 county commissioners meeting, the board voted to apply for the state grant, which would help employ a new victim advocate in the district attorney’s office to focus exclusively on preventing abuse of the elderly and cracking down on such abuse whenever it may occur.

The DA’s office, according to victim witness services director Pamela Gosh, has already been working with the County’s office of aging for about a year to better spot occurrences of such abuse. If the grant is awarded, Gosh said, the office’s new advocate would supplement the current initiative by building community awareness of common scams as well as the warning signs of potential elderly abuse. The advocate would also track fraud trends in the county and provide support for victims.

According to Gosh, those who are affected by abuse or exploitation often hesitate to seek help, either out of shame for having been conned or because the perpetrator of abuse may be a member of their own family. For this reason, Gosh told NewsLanc that it is extremely difficult to gauge the frequency of elderly abuse in Lancaster.

Hopefully, Gosh said, the new advocate could also assist in gathering statistics of abuse, in addition to promoting a more effective line of communication with the elderly community.

Before the final vote, Martin asserted the value of this new initiative: “Even if we don’t [get the grant],” he said, “I think this is an endeavor we need to keep pursuing—especially given the size of the senior population in our community.”

From NEWSMAX:

One week after the House passed the Democratic healthcare plan that President Obama subsequently signed into law, 54 percent of the nation’s likely voters still favor repealing the law.

The latest Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey shows that 42 percent oppose repeal.

Those figures are virtually unchanged from last week. They include 44 percent who strongly favor repeal and 34 percent who strongly oppose it.

Repeal is favored by 84 percent of Republicans and 59 percent of unaffiliated voters. Among white Democrats, 25 percent favor repeal, but only 1 percent of black Democrats share that view…

Click here to read the full article.

From USA TODAY:

For more than four decades, students have borrowed money from Uncle Sam to pay for college. That tradition continues this year, but with a twist: Starting July 1, all students who take out federal student loans will borrow directly from the federal government, instead of through a private lender.

The change, included in the health care overhaul bill that cleared Congress last week, has caused considerable turmoil in the banking industry, which stands to lose billions of dollars in federal subsidies. But for borrowers, the change will be much less drastic. Interest rates for federal student loans won’t change, nor will the limits on how much you can borrow. And Uncle Sam is no pushover: If you fail to repay your loans after you graduate, you’ll still face stiff penalties…

Click here to read the full article.

From the FINANCIAL TIMES:

Home prices in the largest US cities fell in January, underscoring how fragile one of the economy’s most crucial sectors remains in spite of aggressive efforts to stimulate the market.

Meanwhile, US consumers shrugged off fears about the housing market and unemployment in March as figures from the Conference Board showed Americans starting to regain their confidence.

The closely watched S&P/Case-Shiller home price index showed house prices had fallen by 0.7 per cent in January from the same month a year ago. However, that was in line with economists’ expectations and it was the smallest year-on-year decline in three years…

Click here to read the full article.