In an article “Fry to Drexel”, a sub heading reads “Franklin & Marshall College’s president of 8 years says he leaves the school ‘well positioned for the future.’”

WATCHDOG: As we recently described, “Fry did the best possible things in the worse possible ways.” His tenure was a wave of terror for the institution.

Representative was his standing on the lawn of his residence watching his bully security force throw non-resistant Ron Harper to the ground across the street. Harper (and companion Chris Hart-Nibbrig) had done nothing to justify detainment or the brutal action. They were never charged. We hope Harper sues Fry and F&M.

When NewsLanc publisher asked Fry to justify his action, Fry said “Ron Harper owns a gun.” Owns a gun? There are probably three times as many guns in the county as people. Harper’s weapons are his tongue, his pen and, of course, his video camera. Otherwise, Harper is a pussy cat!

The whole matter had to do with reporter Harper going to Fry’s home in the evening seeking an interview, a time-honored journalistic practice. It is hard to describe Fry’s subsequent actions other than ‘paranoid’ when days later Harper happened to be in the right-of-way in front of Fry’s residence to locate a circulation box.

(Under Fry, scores of people were sent letters threatening their arrest if they set foot on F&M’s campus, a bogus and deceitful practice.)

Despite having an honorary Franklin & Marshall Alumni Building membership, the Watchdog has not set foot on F&M’s campus without an invitation since the incident. He is aware that friends on the campus are afraid to even be in contact with him less they engender Fry’s wrath. Faculty members and others employees keep their thoughts to themselves.

How Fry treated CAARRT neighbors, who had the temerity of asking if there could be an alternate and better location for relocating the rail yard, was brutal and heartless. Whoever is his successor needs to clean house or scrub the brains of staff and the public relations department so that they prize accuracy and decency over spin.

Worse yet, Fry infected the leadership of Lancaster General Health just as Dale High did with the leadership at the Lancaster Newspapers.

Yes, John Fry has done some good things as president of F&M. But, our sentiment was summarized by the first contributor comment we received…“good riddance.”

We wish Fry well in his new position. He will likely do a good job at Drexel for a few years. Moreover, he will be constrained by the level of resistance he will encounter to any bully tactics.

John Fry will be swimming in the ocean, not a small pond. Unlike in Lancaster, if he doesn’t take care, he may end up lunch for a bigger fish.

An article “Roberts: Presidential address is ‘pep rally’” reports “Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts told an Alabama audience Tuesday that he found the atmosphere ‘very troubling’ at January’s State of the Union Address, during which President Obama criticized the high court.

“He questioned why justices attend the annual event. ‘To the extent it has degenerated into a political pep rally, I’m not sure why we’re there.’” (Click here to read more.)

WATCHDOG: Fair point. This was not the time or the place. An unsual  lapse of courtesy and judgment. A wag of the tail.

An “In my opinion” column entitled “Is Pennsylvania leading the national race to be the world’s greatest prison state?” commences “In the category of imprisonment, the U.S. leads the world. Our commonwealth has shared in this title by growing our corrections budget every year. It’s apparent that our country is headed in the wrong direction if we are dependent on crime to help our local economies.”

It continues “ … Corrections has mushroomed to the third largest allocation in our state budget behind health care and education. Can we afford to keep being ‘tough on crime’? Isn’t it time to be ‘smart on crime’?

“The increase in prisoners is not an influx of new residents as our population has been relatively stagnant; it is an increase in long mandatory minimum sentences and technical parole violations for nonviolent offenders. The current methods of incarceration are ineffective and the majority of inmates who are released return to crime.” … (more)

WATCHDOG: Two wags of the tail. What is missing from this cogent presentation is that so many shouldn’t be there in the first place. They are victims of the War on Drugs.

We partake of drugs such as alcohol and tobacco and the relatively benign coffee, and go on with our lives. They smoke the relatively benign marijuana (far less dangerous than alcohol and tobacco and about equal to coffee) and go to prison.

“School District of Lancaster eyes firms for upgrades; Would pay architects $3.8M to design next phase of project” reports: “School District of Lancaster plans to pay architects $3.8 million to design the next phase of upgrades to district schools and administrative offices. ..

“Under the proposed contracts, the architects would be paid 6 percent of the projects’ costs, slightly less than the 6½ percent the district is paying DLR Group, which designed the first phase of upgrades, said Matt Przywara, SDL’s chief financial officer….

“Those projects, which total about $54.9 million, are expected to be completed by next school year…” (more)

WATCHDOG: Although 6% of project cost is a normal rate of pay for a package of architectural and engineering design services, given the steep recession, especially in the construction industry, the school board might have been able to get the work done for somewhat less.

What is not stated in the article is whether inspection of all aspects of the construction is included in the 6% rate. It is essential that the architect provides these services and accepts responsibility for monitoring that all of the work is performed correctly.

A factoid is buried in a paragraph towards the end of an article, “Postal Service’s survival plan: Drop Saturday, close branches” stating: “Federal law bars the service from closing branches for economic reasons.”

WATCHDOG: Growl! What a way to run a postal service. What a way to run a country!

“Pa. Academy of Music founders don’t want to lose $1M in assets” opens “Frances Veri was walking through the Pennsylvania Academy of Music’s headquarters a few weeks ago when she noticed something missing. A $130,000 Bosendorfer piano….

“Veri’s concerns proved unfounded — for now. The piano merely had been moved to another room.  Sooner or later, though, her fears probably will come true…” (more)

WATCHDOG: Two wags of the tail for an exceptionally well researched and written article that provides a description of the recent past and current status of the academy. We highly recommend that it be read.

We only withhold a third “wag of the tail” because:

(1) It is not sufficiently pointed out that philanthropist Paul Ware also was chair of the Academy’s board of trustees and a major factor behind the $32 million expansion, the poor financial planning, and the lamentable management.  Furthermore, continuing as chair while trying to extricate himself from potential financial loss appeared to NewsLanc and others as a conflict of interest. This was likely a factor in his resignation.

(2) With or without the recession, it is highly unlikely that sufficient funds could have been raised annually to support what was basically a faulty business plan generating a cash-flow loss of perhaps $2 million a year, including debt service.

Nevertheless, the situation can yet be salvaged were the current building and the dormant Brunswick Hotel acquired and turned into a downtown international campus for high school students and also for graduate students in musical education. Had there been competent business leadership to counterbalance the artistic vision, PAM would have spent far less in expansion and operations and invested more time and money in a manner that such a campus would by now have become a reality.

“Buffett: Healthcare Costs Hurt U.S. Economy” goes on to report:

“Billionaire Warren Buffett says health care costs are a major drain on U.S. businesses and act like an ‘economic tape worm.’

“The head of the holding company Berkshire Hathaway Inc. said Monday on CNBC that America’s health care system needs fundamental reform to attack costs because it’s not practical to continue devoting roughly 17 percent of the nation’s gross domestic product to health care.

“Buffett says much of the rest of the world is paying about 9 percent of their GDP on health care and have more doctors and nurses per person…”  Click here to read more.

WATCHDOG: Two wags of the tail!

“3,500 PPL acres to be preserved” reports “PPL is selling that land, assessed at somewhere around $20 million, for $6 million. The utility will then give the money to the conservancy for an endowment fund for longer maintenance of the land.”

WATCHDOG: Wow! Three wags of the tail. At the time that Lancaster and the nation have been and are being  ripped off by avaricious ‘bastards’, it is rewarding and encouraging to see some companies and institutions contributing to the public good.

In “Zero tolerance makes zero sense”, columnist Larry Alexander writes,

“…School officials say Alexa used a green marker to write on her school desk, ‘I love my friends Abby and Faith. Lex was here 2/1/10,’ followed by a smiley face…

“The appropriate, common-sense reaction would have been to punish the girl by making her clean the markings from the desk or have them removed professionally and bill her parents for the cost.

“The zero-tolerance reaction chosen by the school was to have police escort the crying child from the building in handcuffs in front of her classmates…

“Come on. Even criminals get three strikes.”

WATCHDOG: A wag of the tail!

An article headed “Fry may leave Franklin & Marshall College for Drexel” reports, “F&M’s 49-year-old president is one of two finalists for the top job at the downtown Philadelphia university of about 22,000 students. The identity of the other finalist is not known.”

WATCHDOG: John Fry has a way of doing the best possible things in the worst possible ways. (Witness his rolling over the reasonable requests of neighbors concerning the relocation of the Norfolk &  Southern railyard and the ‘mugging’ of reporter Ron Harper across the street from Fry’s home by F&M security personnel while Fry looked on. Harper was released without charges and may yet bring suit for false arrest and assault and battery.)

We wish him good luck in his candidacy.