It’s worth comparing the Penn Square Partners’ “What’s The Risk?” document from March 2006 to what is actually happening right now.

FYI, all of the important LCCCA documents are now online for all to see.

My theory is that the LCCCA wants the public to know just how badly they – and the taxpayers who support them – are being screwed by the Penn Square Partners.

http://www.lccca.com/priorities/food-beverage-agreements/

http://www.lccca.com/priorities/joint-development-agreements/

http://www.lccca.com/priorities/interstate-hotels-resorts/

http://www.lccca.com/priorities/ordinances-and-county-guaranty/

http://www.lccca.com/priorities/penn-square-condominium-association/

http://www.lccca.com/priorities/penn-square-partners/

http://www.lccca.com/priorities/pennsylvania-dutch-convention-visitors-bureau/

http://www.lccca.com/priorities/professional-services-development-agreements/

All of these can be accessed via the “Library” pull-down menu at this link: http://www.lccca.com/priorities/

Gov. Tom Corbett’s fiscal policies are having a devastating effect on schools all across Pennsylvania, especially in urban districts. Corbett’s cuts include significant reductions in basic education subsidies, deep cuts in grants for state mandated programs, and recently a moratorium on reimbursements for state-approved (PLANCON) school renovation and construction projects – including funds already promised to and spent by numerous school districts, including School District of Lancaster (SDoL).

One of the biggest issues is the state-controlled PSERS, the Public School Employees’ Retirement System, which covers all school employees (even service staff). After willful manipulation of the system by former governors Ridge and Schweiker, the retirement fund was left with greatly increased obligations based on the assumption that investments would provide double-digit returns forever. No governor nor legislature since has adequately dealt with PSERS funding, which is now grossly underfunded. SDoL is facing mandatory increases in contributions which has already added many millions of dollars to our budget every year, and if left uncorrected will add an unsustainable drain to our funds.

An unpleasant example of what can happen as a result of these issues is being played out right now in York: http://www.yorkdispatch.com/news/ci_20568144/york-city-schools-budget-sports-art-gym-kindergarten. More details about the situation in York are spelled out in videos here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8CtTwKSzXbo and here: http://video.msnbc.msn.com/the-ed-show/47363980.

Let’s examine the Ryan budget.

Revenue

The Republican budget continues the Bush tax cuts which are to expire at the end of this year. The extension of these tax cuts will aggravate the federal deficit that already exists. They contributed to the deficit in order to pay for two wars as well as inadequately funding the expansion of Medicare to include prescriptions.

Supporters of the Republican Budget developed by Congressman Ryan, however, argue that the tax cuts will foster economic growth. According to them, when this occurs, prosperity will come to all classes of our society. Unfortunately, this was tried by President Hoover which led to the Great Depression. It was tried by President Bush and it led to the Great Recession.

Congressman Ryan states that tax loopholes will be closed but doesn’t specify the ones to be closed. However, the Republicans voted this year to continue the tax subsidies to large oil and gas companies despite their record profits. If this is an example of closing tax loop holes, there will be no credible effort to reduce the deficit.

Expenditures

The major change the budget stresses is in regard to Medicare.  In this plan, people 55 years and older at time the budget is adopted will have no changes. They will continue to get Medicare as presently structured.  For people under 55 years of age when the budget is adopted, Medicare will be privatized. An individual will be given a sum of money to purchase health insurance from the private market. The individual will be subject to the insurer’s conditions such as being denied service for pre-existing conditions or high deductibles or co-pays. Moreover, if Medicare can be altered for people under 55, what assurances exist that it won’t be changed for those over 55 in the future?

The Republicans are proud of their approval of cuts from the federal government to state and local governments.  The Ryan budget expands on these cuts.  Latest figures show that 300,000 teachers have lost jobs due to reduce aid to local school systems in the U.S.  Since our economy is consumer driven, how can the laid off teachers contribute to our economy’s growth?

One safety net example is the Food Stamp program which is designed to help poor people purchase food.  It also assists farmers.  The Ryan budget nearly eliminates funding for this

program.  How the poor are to obtain food becomes the responsibility of non-profits.  Non-profits are struggling to meet the current needs, let alone having this additional responsibility added to their caseloads.

The Ryan budget adopted by most Republicans, including Mitt Romney, protects the wealthy in the mistaken belief that the

benefits will trickle down to benefit all working groups. It has been tried before and twice failed. If Romney is elected president with control of Congress, it will be tried a third time and our children and grandchildren will be economically harmed.

I gave up expecting anything from the Steinman family, LNP, or PSP a LONG time ago. The only ‘easy’ solution and the only really ‘fair’ solution is to demand that PSP make up any cash shortfall difference, both now and anytime in the future. And a rewrite of the obviously one-sided lease agreement between the Marriott and Convention Center also must be done.

To in any way ‘tax’ innocent by-standers and non-participants in the Marriot/Convention Center ill-conceived alliance is GROSSLY unfair. We have elected city/county officials to make tough decisions, not easy ones. Will they (?)……….I hope so!!!!

LNP can spin this however they want; any intelligent person knows what LNP’s objective is. A full, impartial investigation (Harrisburg Patriot News??) needs to be done, and then disseminated to Lancaster County/City taxpayers/voters (perhaps by WGAL???)..

EDITOR: We refer you to NewsLanc’s Convention Center Series .

EDITOR: The following was forwarded by a reader:

I enjoy brewing beer, and have invested a lot into equipment. But most of this equipment is useful for more than just beer. We can use it to make food! Some friends and I do this with a group called Food not Bombs. Basically, we just serve free lunches at our local college campus, no strings attached. It’s a great way to connect with your community and make friends.

This post describes how I combined the two hobbies, and will hopefully inspire you to do the same. First we’ll take a look at how to use the homebrew equipment, and then we’ll look at a recipe for Chinese stew. It’s easy to cook, cheap to make, and delicious! If you’re cooking outdoors, you can smell the amazing spices hundreds of feet away. You can serve between 120-150 people spending less than $30 for food!

And if you serve it, they will come:… (more)

By Andrew Byrnes, MD, author of “Addict in The Family”

Dear Colleagues,

I have been in New York City for three weeks and will try to summarize some of my activities relating to dependency issues (opera blog below for those interested). I will give more detailed accounts of some of these meetings in the future but wanted readers to know what issues were being looked at currently in the dependency field at the four or more centers of learning here in New York.

It has been a terrible time for public funding of research in our field and some of the most well endowed and well known organisations have been threatened with closure over a lack of continuing funding from NIDA under current austerity measures as well as increasingly strict guidelines and requirements for such funding. I noted a lack of enthusiasm across the board in the development and research areas but continued optimism in those involved in the clinical side of dependency medicine and what Americans often refer to as ‘recovery’, a word seldom used by Australian patients and clinicians in my experience. It may be partly due to the lack of public funds that drug company sponsorship is also eagerly sought, despite it ensuring that research is almost always slanted towards the use of big-profit drugs and avoidance of ‘bread and butter’ medications (see many references for this and work of Marcia Angell, previous NEJM editor).

My trip began with a 3 hour seminar/dinner at Columbia University in which Dr Deborah Hasin told us that the essential change to DSM-V is that the new classification will lose the distinction between abuse and dependency so that there will only be one diagnosis based on 11 criteria. Substance Use Disorder (SUD) will be ‘moderate’ if 2 or 3 are present and severe SUD if there are 4 or more. Patients with just one of the criteria will have no DSM diagnosis and will not be considered to have SUD. The old criterion of involvement in frequent legal issues has been removed while ‘cravings‘ has been added this time. The time frame for such reports needs to be within 12 months apart in general. The concept of ‘dependence’ now only refers to the physiological states of tolerance and withdrawal. I cannot help thinking that the new definition will have no benefits and may cause confusion in the ‘dependency’ field for years to come. It is slated for introduction in May 2013.

Grand rounds at Bellevue Hospital were chaired by Dr Marc Galanter: three addiction medicine registrars discussed literature reviews on three topics: ADHD in SUD (and vice versa); Acupuncture in dependency treatments; Ketamine in the treatment of severe depression. These were each comprehensive and equally fascinating – more anon.

Fort Hamilton, Brooklyn, is where the Guantanamo Bay trials were televised for New York journalists, family members and others. I was asked to give Grand Rounds on methadone maintenance treatments in Australia there and was paired with one of their experienced doctors, Lucas Dreamer who spoke about buprenorphine. It was intriguing that most American doctors who routinely prescribe buprenorphine in their practices (on in this case the Veterans Administration) have never prescribed methadone for addiction cases (and vice versa for many doctors in methadone clinics). There was a lively discussion about maintenance, detox, psychosocial service, induction and transfer from one agonist to the other.

I also gave a talk at Beth Israel Medical Center only a stone’s throw from the institution where methadone was first used in addiction treatment. The department ‘Leaders’ seemed pleased to hear about treatment down-under. There were discussions about hepatitis C, diazepam ‘maintenance’, needle provision and injecting centres.

I had a brief discussion with a colleague from NDRI who is investigating drug courts in America. These vary in the way they operate in different states with methadone and buprenorphine available as treatment services in most instances. I called in on the Drug Policy Alliance where Ethan Nadelmann and his capable staff are working on a series of initiatives from ‘medical marijuana’ (cannabis to Australians), chronic pain medications, buprenorphine and much, much more. Today would have been the 99^th birthday of Dr Vincent P. Dole who died in 2006. Dr Dole, who was a great friend, colleague and mentor to me and lots of others, changed the lives of many people during his long career. In fact he pioneered blood ion measurement (sodium/potassium, etc) and cholesterol aggregation research years before they became commonplace, prior to his ground-breaking work on drug addiction treatments at Rockefeller University in 1964.

I was interviewed by a senior anthropologist who is doing an in-depth study on the history and implementation of buprenorphine treatment. Her group is only too aware of the commercial factors involved in each aspect, some very positive and in the interests of dependency patients while other moves by the manufacturer or distributor may have in fact denied substantial numbers of dependent patients receiving any opioid maintenance treatment at all, both in America and elsewhere.

Dr Tom Haines brought me up to date with the situation in Portugal as well as the history of how their government brought in decriminalisation of all personal drug use 12 years ago … stemming amazingly from the persistent use of derogatory humour by a popular radio personality and whose views were then supported by the Law Faculty at Lisbon University and both political parties numerous early public forums on the subject. While it has not eliminated drug use, the Portuguese ‘experiment’ has been a success in every other way according to reports which have been published in reputable places. In a way, the implementation of interdiction of drugs from the 1950s was in fact a world-wide, uncontrolled experiment, only to compare with the American experiment with alcohol in the 1920s. We never learn from history!

My last evening in the city is back to where I started with a panel discussion including Dr Jerome Carroll, Herman Joseph, Charles Winick and George De Leon on the past, present and future of dependency interventions starting from the 1950s. This is the final meeting for Dr Carroll who has run these meetings for over ten years.

I hope these brief notes are of interest to readers.

Andrew Byrne .. (back to Australia next weekend).

The editor may wish to give LNP a free ride but I do not. I am in total agreement that Dale High, has, and is driving the bus through his surrogates Cooley, Fitzgerald and Smithgall.

That said, LNP is happy to be a passenger be it riding shotgun or sitting in the back seat and will take their free “private” hotel and profit with a smile…they need something to offset the loss of their old cash cow (classified ads).

If they felt they way the editor suggests, they could have pulled the cord and got off at the next stop. Instead they just keep riding along.

These articles and editorials published in the Lancaster Newspapers make it appear to be more and more likely that LNP truly does not know what their “partner” in the Penn Square Partners has really been up to. Is it possible that Lancaster Newspapers has been manipulated and taken advantage of nearly as much as the public?

EDITOR: It is a moral certitude that the Steinman Foundation would not have wished to profit at the expense of the community.

Rather, it has always been the gist of NewsLanc’s reflections that that the then CEO involved LNP with the best of intentions, improperly relied on others to handle the project, and , when properly informed, lacked the will power to redress the situation.

Meanwhile the Steinman family leaders were of an advanced age where they could not appreciate what was taking place.

It is evident in my industry that apartment living is growing rapidly. I get the opportunity to interact with many residents of Lancaster County because I am also a School Board Director. The conversation of my profession always tends to come up. I had a very respectable public figure say to me, “Isn’t the perception that all apartment communities house undesirable members of our population?”

While I was floored that this person asked me such a question, it caused me to really sit back and look at how apartments are perceived throughout Lancaster County and also around the Country. I am only 28 years old and factor right into the Generation Y demographic that seems to be cornering the rental market. I speak with many “Gen-Y’ers” and most feel that renting provides them with much more financial security. There are ways to break a lease without impacting your credit worthiness—same can’t be said for breaking the terms of your mortgage.

Flip the coin and you will see the bigger picture from our senior citizen population…Many seniors are planning ahead because the thought of nursing homes pushes them to sell their homes and downsize into a housing solution.

While I can’t change every person’s perception of apartment communities, I can tell you that what we do for our residents is beyond customer service and what we do for our surrounding communities is equally as impressive.

Not only do we spend countless dollars on renovations and upgrades, we tend to our lawns like award winning golf courses. We don’t work off a budget, we work off a need! If it needs to be done, we do it. Period!

We offer a complimentary shuttle service that transports our Seniors to the grocery store, movies, shopping, restaurants and extra-curricular activities. We hold monthly resident events where we invite the entire community and offer food, fitness and fun.

Our seniors don’t take their trash out, we do! When I say, “we” I mean any staff member. We have maintenance changing light bulbs for our residents if that is what their need is and even as the Vice President of Operations, I take trash out or clean an apartment if that is what is needed to move a resident in or keep a resident happy.

In our community it is typical to see a 70 year old senior citizen sitting with a newborn so his/her exhausted mother can take a shower! Or, a college student helping his elderly neighbor with their groceries. We don’t promote “apartment living” we promote “community involvement!”

We partner with outside agencies that offer free transportation, food or recreation activities to try to promote a feeling of well being for all of our residents. We offer complimentary swimming & tennis lessons. We bring outside personal trainers into our fitness centers to teach residents how to properly use our equipment. In addition, we offer complimentary fitness classes to get our residents moving and living healthy lifestyles.

Our Managers are constantly searching and promoting Lancaster/York, PA events, fairs, activities, etc. to keep our residents spending their time and money in their respected counties.

The most important thing to our company is the overall experience of our residents. We send out so many surveys and information to respond because we want to hear about what we do right and we quickly want to correct what we do wrong or could improve upon.

When we purchase a home, we have no control over the behavior of our neighbors. If they pay their mortgage not much can be done in terms of their behavior, cleanliness, upkeep of property, etc.

When we rent an apartment, it is the landlord’s commitment to their reputation and pride in what they built and own to maintain a quality standard of living for all.

“Isn’t the perception that all apartment communities house undesirable members of our population?” I would say that this is unfortunately the perception. But, I would encourage our community leaders and members to do some research. Apartment living offers an affordable & flexible alternative to many members of our community—from various walks of life.

EDITOR: The above was excerpted from a note to a local journalist, a copy of which came into our hands.  Modesty prevents us from mentioning the company for which the contributor works.