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 […]
Month: April 2010
Turnpike Commission, PennDOT merger eyed
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 […]
Creditors bid $139 million to win Philly Inquirer and Daily News
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 […]
INTELLIGENCER JOURNAL
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 – […]
EDITORIAL: PAM; Worse than AIG and Chrysler bail outs?
On March 20th, 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.”…
As popular as apple pie
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 […]
Facebook Updates Find Few Fans on Capitol Hill
From AOL.COM: Facebook may be the world’s most popular social network, but recent changes to the website’s privacy settings have members of the U.S. Senate commenting “Dislike.” In an open letter addressed to Facebook’s 25-year-old founder and CEO, Mark Zuckerberg, and published by Politico this morning, Democratic Sens. Charles Schumer, Michael Bennet, Mark Begich and Al Franken raised major concerns about Facebook on behalf of “users who want to maintain control over their information.”
Financial Reform Halted in Senate, President Seeks to Rally Support
From C-SPAN: President Obama promoted the financial reform effort at a town hall meeting in Ottumwa, Iowa. His “White House to Main Street” tour continues in Missouri and Illinois tomorrow. Private negotiations over financial regulatory reform legislation continue in the Senate after a vote to begin a floor debate on the bill failed for the […]
Democracy can’t work without information, as newspapers’ woes remind us
From the PHILADELPHIA INQUIRER OP-ED: Today’s auction of the company that publishes The Philadelphia Inquirer and Daily News will determine who owns the city’s major daily newspapers as they emerge from bankruptcy. It will also help determine whether – and in what form – one or both papers survive. The idea that the nation’s sixth-largest city could be without a daily newspaper would have been unthinkable a decade ago, and even now the odds are against such a dire outcome. But the mere possibility says much about the state of the American news industry.
Consumers Gain Confidence as Job Outlook Picks Up
Consumers in the U.S. turned more optimistic in April as the growing economy raised hopes jobs will become available. The Conference Board’s confidence index rose to 57.9, exceeding all forecasts of economists surveyed by Bloomberg News and the highest level since Lehman Brothers Inc. collapsed in September 2008, according to data from the New York-based private research group. The measure averaged 97 during the last expansion.
INTELLIGENCER NEW ERA
“[Charlie] Crystle, a School District of Lancaster board member, criticized the newspaper company, which publishes the Intelligencer Journal/Lancaster New Era and the Sunday News, at the school board’s meeting last Thursday, claiming it allows people to anonymously post demeaning and racist comments about Hispanics, blacks and other minorities on its website, lancasteronline.com. “Bob Magel, Lancaster […]
Proposes higher salaries but lower benefits for state employees
Your article on a bloated State bureaucracy is something I’ve been bothered about — it’s good that there has been a recent study backing up such charges. Could it be made an election topic? Not by any incumbant lawmaker, for sure, but maybe by the public or new candidates? Maybe NewsLanc should do a chart comparing state […]
A bumpy economic recovery, with hope in Midwest, South
By most any measure, the economic recovery is in full swing. More factories are humming again. The stock market is roaring. Even consumers are loosening viselike grips on their wallets. But the nascent rebound is not a massive wave that’s sweeping every corner of the USA at the same time with equal force. Rather, it’s arriving in ripples that are lifting different cities at different times and with varying strength.
Syringe exchange still active in Lancaster
The Urban League had requested funding from Lancaster General Health to administer and enlarge the syringe exchange and public health efforts that have existed over the past decade on the lower floor of the Bethel AME church office building at 450-512 Strawberry Street. It was thought that now that the sale of syringes has been deregulated, ‘public charity’ LGH would use some of its $113 million ‘excess’ (profits) to defray the $50,000 to $100,000 in annual expenses, depending on the extent of services to be offered.