From the PITTSBURGH POST-GAZETTE: …The commonwealth was tied for 12th place in terms of the highest percentage — 17 percent — of major rural roads in poor condition in 2008… While the country roads here are bad, they can’t compare to the bridges, according to “Rural Connections: Challenges and Opportunities in America’s Heartland” by TRIP, a transportation research group.
Tag: featured
The DMC Report on the School District of Lancaster
If you read this post, you’ll find a link within it that will take you to the long-awaited and still “secret” DMC report… The report is a very positive first step toward transforming the district from one with 38% of its High School students proficient in reading, 47% of its Middle Schoolers, and 52% of its elementary students….
Special tabloid edition of NewsLanc on Convention Center Project
Over the Labor Day weekend, thousands of copies of an eight-page tabloid will be distributed around Lancaster, chiefly near the Central Market, downtown during First Friday, and outside Clipper Stadium. Its headline: “The Final Chapter in the Convention Center Series: Betrayals of Public Trust”.
Up To $60 Billion In Iraq, Afghanistan War Funds Lost To Poor Planning, Oversight, Fraud
From the HUFF POST / AP: As much as $60 billion in U.S. funds has been lost to waste and fraud in Iraq and Afghanistan over the past decade through lax oversight of contractors, poor planning and payoffs to warlords and insurgents, an independent panel investigating U.S. wartime spending estimates.
How did corporate power get a stranglehold?
The memo was written to the director of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and laid out a plan for corporations to gain control of the institutions that create public opinion, policy and law in the U.S. Powell was a corporate lawyer, tobacco lobbyist and counsel to the Richmond Chamber of Commerce at the time.
State liquor stores’ profit misses state budget target
From the MORNING CALL: State wine and liquor store profits jumped $30.2 million in the last year, but fell short of a targeted contribution to the state’s budget for a third year in a row. As lawmakers prepare the latest push for legislation to auction off the state’s booze business, the Liquor Control Board released newly audited figures that show an $83.7 million operating profit on a record $1.6 billion in sales for its July 2010 through June 2011 fiscal year.
NEW ERA
Editorial “SDL holds back on taxpayers” opines: “School board members say results of a consulting firm’s study of the School District of Lancaster eventually will be released to the public. “What are they waiting for? To hear school board president Richard Caplan, immediate release of the study will invite ‘potential chaos’ from the people whose tax dollars paid for it…
Not-so-sweet conditions greet Hershey workers
From the DELAWARE COUNTY TIMES: …News recently filtered out that the company that makes some of the world’s tastiest treats exploited about 400 foreign students who came to work at the company’s Palmyra, Pa., packaging plant…
Gas lease, royalty income taxes top $100 million
From the PITTSBURGH TRIBUNE-REVIEW: Pennsylvania landowners are paying hundreds of millions of dollars in income taxes on money earned from Marcellus shale gas activity, and the tax revenue, like the drilling, is growing fast… Since the shale gas rush started in Pennsylvania in 2005, drillers have bored more than 3,700 wells into the gas-rich Marcellus rock layer, a mile or deeper underground, according to the Department of Environmental Protection.
SUNDAY NEWS
In a column “When coal and unions were king”, Associate Editor Gil Smart describes a family trip to “coal country last week – Ashland, right over the hill from smoldering Centralia….
Number of “Top Doctors” at LGH appears distant third within 25 mile radius
In an August 22nd article, “Eleven LGH physicians chosen as ‘Top Doctors’”, we reported: “The Castle Connolly Guide of 30,000 ‘‘Top Doctors” featured in News Week magazine includes eleven physicians from Lancaster General Hospital.”
The chance for hurricane condition range from 12% to 22%; Tropical storm, from 86% to 92%
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE (12:20 PM SATURDAY): SITUATION OVERVIEW…HURRICANE IRENE IS FORECAST TO TRACK NORTHWARD ALONG THE EAST COAST…WITH THE CENTER OF THE HURRICANE PASSING VERY CLOSE TO THE COASTS OF DELAWARE AND NEW JERSEY FROM LATE TONIGHT INTO SUNDAY MORNING. THE STORM WILL BRING DAMAGING WINDS…TORRENTIAL RAIN WITH DANGEROUS FLOODING…AND COASTAL FLOODING.
OVERALL…6 TO 10 INCHES OF RAINFALL IS EXPECTED WITH A FEW LOCATIONS RECEIVING OVER 12 INCHES. HEAVY AND POSSIBLY RECORD SETTING RAINFALL AMOUNTS THROUGH SUNDAY WILL LIKELY RESULT IN MAJOR FLOODING ACROSS PORTIONS OF NEW JERSEY…EASTERN PENNSYLVANIA…DELAWARE AND NORTHEASTERN MARYLAND. SMALL CREEKS AND STREAMS ARE HIGHLY SUSCEPTIBLE TO FLASH FLOODING. THE RARITAN AND SCHUYLKILL RIVERS HAVE THE POTENTIAL TO REACT RATHER QUICKLY AND ARE HIGHLY SUSCEPTIBLE TO FLOODING. THE DELAWARE…SUSQUEHANNA AND PASSAIC RIVERS REACT MORE SLOWLY. HOWEVER…THEY ALSO ARE HIGHLY SUSCEPTIBLE TO FLOODING FROM THIS RAINFALL EVENT.
…HURRICANE WARNING REMAINS IN EFFECT…
LCCCA Article #2: Consequences of Hotel Room Rental Tax on industry
The sponsors of the Convention Center anticipated an annual increase in the Hotel Room Rental Tax that had been imposed to subsidize the problem. In fact, revenue from the tax has remained flat over the past few years, despite the addition of hotel rooms including the approximately 300 room downtown Marriott Hotel.
INTELLIGENCER NEW ERA
The concluding paragraph in “Convention center authority votes to refinance debt” states:
“Since it was proposed, supporters have said the center would not be financially self-supporting, but they said it would be a boon for the county due to spending of conventioneers and others who would come to center events.”