A reader alerted us of two articles on the subject by Gil Smart which we had not seen, apparently because they were not his regular column but posted at www.LancasterOnLine.com
End schools blame game
It would be hard to overestimate the damage Pennsylvania’s elected leaders have inflicted on the commonwealth by failing to adequately and equitably fund public schools over the past four years. The inferior education being provided to students as a result is the reason so many are failing to pass assessment and graduation exams. Better-paying jobs will be out of their reach when they become adults, which will ultimately have a negative impact on the state’s economy.
Pa. Legislature needs a good papal ‘blessing’
The greatest failing of leadership in Harrisburg is the absence of anyone in power reminding our elected servants of their reputation for corruption, greed and stasis (evident in surveys of states and in strings of criminal charges) and telling them finally that enough is enough.
2nd NYPD officer honored at funeral; many again turn backs on de Blasio
WASHINGTON POST: The frustration and defiance of the nation’s police officers were on display again Sunday in New York City, where tens of thousands of them gathered for the funeral of the second of two officers who were slain at the height of the ongoing protests and scrutiny after several high-profile deaths of unarmed black […]
Automakers challenged by low gas prices
USA TODAY: An auto industry that has worked so hard to burnish its lineups of small cars enters 2015 with an SUV-sized problem: Low gas prices have buyers craving bigger vehicles. It’s not just that gas prices are the lowest since 2009, but also a sense by some buyers that this time they may stay […]
COMMENTARY: Stop the NYPD Coup and Create the Police-Community Relationship We Want to See
By Kevin Zeese POPULALAR RESISTANCE: Do the police serve the city or are they a law unto themselves? This is an issue of concern throughout the country but it has come into crisp focus in New York. The conflict in New York City spurred by the death of Eric Garner and the failure of a […]
Pope names 15 new cardinals from 14 different nations to reflect church diversity
FOX NEWS: Pope Francis named 15 new cardinals Sunday, selecting them from 14 nations, including far-flung corners of the world such as Tonga, New Zealand, Cape Verde and Myanmar, to reflect the diversity of the church and its growth in places like Asia and Africa compared to affluent regions…. With his picks, the Argentine-born Francis, […]
Withering wage: The neighbors put the Pa. minimum to shame
PITTSBURG POST-GAZETTE EDITORIAL: … In West Virginia and Maryland the minimum wage jumped Jan. 1 by 75 cents to $8 an hour. In Ohio it rose by 15 cents to $8.10. In New Jersey it increased by 13 cents to $8.38. And in New York it jumped by 75 cents to $8.75. Delaware’s rate stayed […]
Park City some day? “The Economics (and Nostalgia) of Dead Malls”
…the fundamental problem for malls is a glut of stores in many parts of the country, the result of a long boom in building retail space of all kinds.
Ukraine Leader Was Defeated Even Before He Was Ousted
NEW YORK TIMES: …At dawn on the morning of Thursday, Feb. 20, a bedraggled pro-European protest movement controlled just a few hundred square yards, at best, of scorched and soot-smeared pavement in central Kiev. They had gathered there the previous November, enraged that Mr. Yanukovych, under heavy pressure from Moscow, had abruptly turned away from […]
State government revenues continue late-year uptick in Pennsylvania
The trendlines, if they hold, will be a help to incoming Gov. Tom Wolf and lawmakers as they wrestle with a 2015-16 budget picture sure to be complicated by rising public pension costs and medical assistance costs, among other costs…
A Hundred Years’ Failure: How did a law to regulate heroin traffic turn into the costly, futile War on Drugs?
During the Progressive Era, a culture war was raging over sexuality, alcohol and modern life—as seen in efforts to censure pornography and eliminate “red light” districts—and prohibition offered the best hope of legislating moral certainty. While alcohol prohibition had the largest domestic constituency, drug prohibition fit with foreign policy interests.
A longtime proponent of marriage wants to reassess the institution’s future
WASHINGTON POST: …Though she is a Democrat and a former Clinton administration official, [Isabel V. ] Sawhill’s staunch defense of marriage has often put the economist at odds with some thinkers on the left who have dismissed the institution as an oppressive vestige of patriarchy… In “Generation Unbound,” a book released this past fall that […]
New year, new leadership: LNP publisher is now chairman of paper’s parent company
NEWSLANC EDITOR: With the arrival of Krasne, an anomalistic era of incompetence, bullying and deceit replaced by sound business practices and respectable reporting. Nevertheless, an attitude of ‘getting along’ largely exempts powerful leaders, advertisers and subscribers from just criticism.