The following appears at School District of Lancaster school board member Charlie Chrystle’s blog:

“Just now, the newspaper just took TalkBack offline. Here’s part of the message:

[LNP:]  “ ‘Unfortunately, what began in 2000 as a good faith effort by Lancaster Newspapers to increase reader interest in community news, has provided a few individuals with a means to communicate hateful, abusive and unacceptable comments about their neighbors, area residents and the Lancaster community at large. While Lancaster Newspapers has installed strict user guidelines for TalkBack and invested in state-of-the-art computer software to address this matter, the blatant misuse of TalkBack continues and can no longer be tolerated. As a result, effective immediately, Lancaster Newspapers is removing TalkBack from LancasterOnline.com.’”

Crystle continues:  “I don’t want to see the online community go away–that’s not what I was asking. I was asking for moderation by LNP, removing the comments from right next to the articles but providing a link to the forums, and for the community to step up and police itself better. I respect their decision, though.”\

Later in the afternoon, LNP posted an explanation for the cancellation on their web site.

From the FINANCIAL TIMES:

Fewer US workers made first-time claims for jobless benefits last week, giving hope that accelerating economic growth would soon translate into job creation, official figures showed on Thursday.

Initial jobless claims fell by 11,000 to 448,000, according to the Department of Labor. Analysts were hoping for a bigger fall, but the decline brought claims to the lowest level in a month.

However, the less volatile four-week average of jobless claims remains elevated and rose last week by 1,500 to 462,500. Economists argue that claims need to fall to the low 400,000 level before US employers will begin adding consistently to payrolls…

Click here to read the full article.

NewsLanc is inquiring of the Lancaster Newspapers whether the discontinuation of “Talk Back” is a technical glitch, a change over, or -  hard to believe – a discontinuance of the feature.

From the EXPRESS-TIMES’ opinion staff:

Thomas Caltagirone, a state representative from Reading, is just plain crazy…

He wants to start the process – which requires amending the state Constituition – to conjoin the state’s 2,562 municipaplities into 67 county governments.

As we said, nuts. Certifiable.

Except … except that if you’re listening to everything going on in local government and school districts these days, this old model is gaining traction. Budgets and taxes have reached a breaking point, but, more importantly, taxpayers and municipal officials are starting to come around…

Click here to read the full article.

It’s a disgrace that freedom of speech is being pushed to the limits by people not fit to lead.  Passionate debate supporting solid points of view that might hurt some feelings are one thing, but civility is seriously breached when it leads to influencing the lunatic fringe.

Words do matter when the message resonates with the audience.   “The pen is mightier than the sword” has echoed through history by deep thinkers.   Even Napoleon Bonaparte who knew much about warfare said “Four hostile newspapers are more to fear than a thousand bayonets.”

Then there is the other kind of speech – hateful speech, and speech that incites violence.  Yelling fire in a crowded theatre when there is no fire could cause panic and stampede and result in injury as the Supreme Court ruled.  Clearly all circumstances can’t be covered.  There’s a need for good judgment.

Instead of using the pen and “the tongue which is mightier than the blade” for good, words that incite violence are being used to appeal to people who are unstable.   This has to come to a screeching halt.

From the PITTSBURGH TRIBUNE:

Gov. Ed Rendell has asked lawmakers to consider rolling the Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission into PennDOT.

He raised the issue with legislative leaders during a conference call this week, lawmakers said Wednesday…

Over the past three decades, lawmakers of both parties have tried without success to abolish the turnpike commission, which has served as a base of patronage and lucrative contracts for political supporters of governors and legislative leaders. Rep. Mike Vereb, R-Montgomery County, has a bill pending this session that would eliminate the commission…

Click here to read the full article.

From the ASSOCIATED PRESS:

Creditors won the frenzied bankruptcy auction for Philadelphia’s two major newspapers with a $139 million bid on Wednesday, despite last-minute pledges from area philanthropists to boost a local group’s bid.

Publisher Brian Tierney fought strenuously to retain local control of The Philadelphia Inquirer and Philadelphia Daily News, rounding up business moguls Raymond and Ronald Perelman, H.F. “Gerry” Lenfest and others. But the final bidding went in eye-popping $10 million increments, and the investors ultimately felt they had to walk away.

“They paid a lot of money for it. We stayed in it as long as we thought made sense,” said 92-year-old philanthropist Raymond Perelman of Philadelphia, who along with son Ronald, the Revlon chairman, offered $27 million in cash and loans…

Click here to read the full article.

In “Test of political character”, Washington Post columnist Michael Gerson comments on the newly enacted (but yet unchallenged in court) Arizona immigration law as follows:

“The law creates a suspect class, based In part on ethnicity, considered guilty until they prove themselves innocent.  It makes it harder for illegal immigrants to live without scrutiny – but it also makes it harder for some American citizens to live without suspicion and humiliation.  Americans are not accustomed to the command ‘Your papers, please,’ however politely delivered.  The distinctly American response to such a request would be ‘Go to hell,’ and then ‘See you in court.’”

WATCHDOG: Three wags of the tail!

On March 20^th, the Sunday News observed “…The trustees voted to pay up to $14.5 million, quite a bit of depreciation from the estimated $32 million that [The Pennsylvania Academy of Music] spent to construct its palace on Prince… PAM founders Michael Jamanis and Frances Veri …seem to be in denial about the damage they’ve done to some of the biggest charitable foundations in the county – including the foundations associated with Lancaster Newspapers – and, by extension, to other nonprofits that won’t get the money they need because the foundations lost so much in the PAM debacle.”…

In fact, the $14.5 million price is approximately the amount needed to relieve the debt guarantees  on behalf of PAM of  Paul Ware, the board chair of PAM during the debacle, his Ferree Foundation, the Lancaster Newspapers, Inc. and the Steinman Foundation  and to pay off the UNCB mortgage.   Instead, generous other donors of around $5 million and the tax payer who contributed the balance are the ones being harmed.

In addition Ferree has insisted on acquiring the valuable musical instruments that other members of the community and supporters from throughout the country have donated, in one case to take a donated violin out of the hands of an accomplished student who needs it for recitals.  Seems like an act of vengeance by the person who led PAM to its ruin!

Did the State conduct any MAI appraisals of the value of PAM?   NewsLanc’s publisher, a prominent real estate developer and sole Advisor to PAM’s recent Business Committee, had opined the value of the single purpose building to be around $3 million, perhaps as much as $5 million.

We are thrilled that Millersville is likely to acquire the PAM building.  We are furious that they may be overpaying by $11.5 million, the equivalent of in-state tuition scholarships for 1,480 students.

This ‘bail out’ of powerful members of the Lancaster elite would make Wall Street blush!

Here’s an interesting sign of how far marijuana law reform has come.  Republicans are using a phony marijuana legalization petition as a front for getting people to register Republican.  The party of “Just Say No” and Nancy Reagan is now embracing marijuana because legalization is more popular than the Republican Party!  The corporate duopoly parties are becoming the third rail of American politics and marijuana is becoming “mom and apple pie.”