In the February 7th press release announcing the formation of the Wonderling Panel, Governor Corbett repeated an important message from his budgetary address, “We need to have a thorough, public and candid conversation about how best to deal with the spiraling costs and our own obligations.”
Tag: featured
The War on Drug Users: Are Syringe Exchanges Immoral?
From THE ATLANTIC: … Syringe exchanges, are internationally credited with dramatically reducing HIV and hepatitis infections among injection drug users. They’ve also been proven to link addicted people to care (PDF), save taxpayers millions of dollars in health care costs, and help keep syringes off the streets, protecting both cops and kids.
Six Decades of PA’s Governors, AGs, and Republicans: Part Two
Here come the prosecutors
Corruption in the Shapp administration, and what to do about it, not only resulted in a constitutional amendment to elect the state’s attorney general in 1980. It became the preeminent issue in the 1978 campaign for governor to replace Gov. Shapp. Five former prosecutors sought nominations for governor that year.
Richard Thornburgh set the prosecutorial tone on the campaign trail. Thornburgh was a former Nixon-appointed U.S. Attorney for the Western District of Pennsylvania, and a former Assistant Attorney General in the U.S. Justice Department’s Criminal Division.
‘Medical home’ concept targets health care costs
From the HARRISBURG PATRIOT-NEWS Opinion: The Patient Centered Medical Home is a simple idea — a patient has a relationship with a primary care physician who looks after his or her overall health. …We have the world’s most expensive health care. Health care now takes up roughly 16 percent of the gross domestic product. At present rates of annual increase, it will approach 25 percent in the not-too-distant future.
LETTER: Never a Lender Be !
Here are ” Sovereign debt as a percentage of GDP “figures for various countries , as provided by Times of India ( July 15 , 2011 ) :
LANCASTER SUNDAY NEWS
Three-quarters of the front page is devoted to articles “First of a three-part ‘inside story’ series on Lancaster County Criminal Court”: “Justice Delayed; The wheels turn slowly here as an inefficient system causes one of the worst backlogs of cases in the state” and “One victim’s long ordeal”.
Afghanistan: “U. S. a supporting actor in a 35-year old civil war”
“To put [it] simply: I fail to see the value or the worth in continued U. S. Casualties or expenditures of resources in support of the Afghan government in what is, truly, a 35-year old civil war…If the history of Afghanistan is one great stage play, the United States is no more than a supporting actor, among several previously, in a tragedy that not only pits tribes, valleys, clans, villages and families against one another, but, from at least the end of King Zahir Shah’ reign, has violently and savagely pitted the urban, secular, educated and modern of Afghanistan against the rural, religious, illiterate and traditional…
Joe Paterno could have done more after hearing allegations about Jerry Sandusky, Gov. Corbett says
From the HARRISBURG PATRIOT-NEWS / AP: Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Corbett says he wishes former Penn State football coach Joe Paterno had done more after telling university officials about child molestation accusations against an assistant coach.
LANCASTER NEW ERA
“Don’t think our merit-based economic system is slowly being replaced with an ‘entitlement society,’ in which government-benefit programs – food stamps, welfare, unemployment insurance –create a dependent class of Americans?”…
Microcredit doesn’t end poverty, despite all the hype
From the WASHINGTON POST Opinion: …Few proposals for economic development have been so durable and so celebrated as microcredit — the provision of business loans as small as $100 to the poor. Its appeal has spanned the political spectrum, drawing in the left with its subversive promise to empower women in sexist societies and enticing the right with its emphasis on entrepreneurship and individual responsibility.
LGH: The sick and needy be damned?
EDITOR: The following is a Report from a syringe exchange in a city comparable to Lancaster. Prevention is a lot cheaper than treatment. LGH’s states its mission as “To advance the health and well-being of the communities we serve.” Hypocrisy? ‘501 (c) 3 Public Charity’ has refused to lend support to an offer by the Urban League to operate a similar syringe exchange here in Lancaster.
Pa. Republicans seek to suppress vote with voter ID bill
LEHIGH VALLEY EXPRESS-TIMES Editorial: First, Republicans in Harrisburg saw hobgoblins when it came time to redraw legislative and congressional districts, and they created a Frankenstein monster of their own — gerrymandered maps that fractured communities to preserve GOP voting strongholds.
Now those same Republicans are seeing ghost voters where there are none. They’ve come up with a voter-ID bill designed to turn away people who show up at the polls without photo identification cards. Those people tend to be poor, disabled and elderly, and they tend to vote Democratic.
Penn State trustees’ retreat draws criticism over lack of transparency
From the HARRISBURG PATRIOT NEWS: …Because — according to board Chairwoman Karen Peetz — most of the trustees met at a private retreat at the university last month to lay out the new committee format, make assignments and set short and long-term goals. Since then, the steering committee, also a new creation from the Thon-weekend retreat, has met for an hour every Sunday by phone, Peetz said in an interview with The Patriot-News.
Pat Robertson Says Marijuana Use Should be Legal
From the NEW YORK TIMES: …“I really believe we should treat marijuana the way we treat beverage alcohol,” Mr. Robertson said in an interview on Wednesday. “I’ve never used marijuana and I don’t intend to, but it’s just one of those things that I think: this war on drugs just hasn’t succeeded.”…