By Dick Miller WE.CONNECT.DOTS: The Wells Fargo scandal prompts a look at banking in Western Pennsylvania. If you are under 50, you probably can’t remember when local banks were an important part of the community. A single share of local bank stock was something you might give to each of your children at Christmas or […]
Lewd Donald Trump Tape Is a Breaking Point for Many in the G.O.P.
NW YORK TIMES: Donald J. Trump’s campaign was teetering on Saturday after the release of a video in which he speaks of women in vulgar sexual terms, with more Republican leaders calling for him to leave the ticket and demanding that the party shift focus to down-ballot races. Representative Charles Dent, Republican of Pennsylvania, said […]
How could the GOP replace Trump?
AOL NEWS: …The Republican National Committee’s rules say it can fill any candidate vacancies that occur because of “death, declination, or otherwise” by either reconvening all 2,472 delegates to vote at another convention, or by letting its 168-member body decide via majority vote. In the latter scenario, each member would get a certain number of […]
ART MORRIS: “Is a $10.3 million tax break fair to Lancaster residents?”
Letter to the Editor by former Lancaster mayor Art Morris About 10 years ago, Lancaster Newspapers (LNP) and High Associates (High) were given an estimated $43.8 million property tax break to build the downtown Marriott Hotel. Now they want to expand and build an adjoining Marriott Tower. The city is planning to give them, under a state economic […]
Hillary Clinton visits Harrisburg: Not your father’s presidential rally
You could see and sense pride and even awe in the eyes of the girls and college-aged women who drifted into the hall. The possibilities of what they themselves might achieve with their lives because of this campaign lit their faces. For all the talk about how Donald Trump is bucking the system, it’s nothing […]
Capitolwire: Toomey breaks away from McGinty in new Quinnipiac poll.
NEWSLANC EDITOR: If and when Republican Pat Toomey is re-elected, the responsibility for not gaining this senate seat will rest fully on former Democrat governor Ed Rendell and Senator Chuck Schumer of New York. They conspired to subvert the people’s choice of Admiral / Congressman Joe Sestak through a last minute campaign filled with lies […]
When You Hear the Margin of Error Is Plus or Minus 3 Percent, Think 7 Instead
NEW YORK TIMES: In a new paper with Andrew Gelman and Houshmand Shirani-Mehr, we examined 4,221 late-campaign polls — every public poll we could find — for 608 state-level presidential, Senate and governor’s races between 1998 and 2014. Comparing those polls’ results with actual electoral results, we find the historical margin of error is plus […]
The Innocent Origins of Today’s Corporate Crimes
WALL STREET JOURNAL: For much of recorded history, businesses were financed by a single person or small group. Investors served as operators, and a firm’s owner and manager were one and the same. Managers had little incentive to misappropriate assets since that would simply mean moving money from one pocket to another… For all the […]
An Online Education Breakthrough? A Master’s Degree for a Mere $7,000
NEWSLANC EDITOR: We have often opined that the college and university systems have not evolved much since the Middle Ages when students had to travel to major center of learning for an educate. There is nothing more saintly about the academic industry than others: They seek to protect their vested interests, which means plentiful […]
A reader asks why RealReporting / NewsLanc publishes articles on Russia
Concerning “Is chairmanship of Russian State Duma a demotion for Vyacheslav Volodin?” “Who is the audience for this? Why are you publishing this in Lancaster, Pennsylvania?” <strong>EDITOR: </strong> Excellent question. Unlike as recently as twenty years ago, the Internet has permitted medium that are anchored regionally to communicate world wide, because it is the […]
Is chairmanship of Russian State Duma a demotion for Vyacheslav Volodin?
By Slava Tsukerman The moving of Vyacheslav Volodin to the position of speaker of the State Duma (Russia’s lower house of parliament) was one of the events most discussed by Russian media last week. From December 2011 until now Volodin was the first vice chief of the Kremlin’s staff, officially overseeing home affairs […]
In this case, LNP editors exhibit integrity and courage
LNP editorial “In veering off-script in Manheim, Trump also strayed from the path of decency” observes: “ ‘Hillary Clinton’s only loyalty is to her financial contributors and to herself,’ Trump said. “I don’t even think she’s loyal to Bill, if you want to know the truth. And really, folks, really, why should she be, right?” […]
PA lawmakers have full plate
By Dick Miller WE.CONNECT.DOTS: The Pennsylvania legislature has a full plate of business to get through in these waning days of their two-year session. Including themselves, there are many special interests to be served and so little time. Both chambers of the state legislature return to Harrisburg for very short pre-election sessions, after eight-week […]
EDITORIAL: What does it take to get Pennsylvanians to wake up to statewide corruption?
Publisher Robert Field and columnist Bill Keisling have long pondered how Pennsylvania can be consistently rated among the most corrupt five states in the union and yet the state media and population don’t seem to get the message, let alone do anything about it. Instead we keep on electing political front persons and, when someone like […]