“The official national unemployment rate stood at 25 percent, but that figure was widely considered to be low. Among non-farm workers, unemployment was more than 37 percent, and in some areas, like Toledo, Ohio, it reached 80 percent. Business investment was down 90 percent … Per capita real income was lower than three decades earlier….If you were unfortunate enough to have put your money in a bank that went bust, you were wiped out.
Tag: featured
LGH would serve public better as a tax paying corporation
One might think that operating a non-profit ‘public charity’ foundation would result in transparency while operating as a for-profit corporation would shield a company from the public eye. Furthermore, one might anticipate that a non-profit foundation would bring greater financial benefits to the public than a normal corporation. But in the case of Lancaster General Hospital (LGH), both suppositions would be incorrect.
Title Insurance: A real estate rip off
As an investor builder, the Watchdog has attended many settlements and mortgage closings and yet has never ceased to ask at each one: “Why must we pay $15,000 to $20,000 for title insurance, when title has been insured again and again over the decades…and perhaps even since we acquired the land?”
The pleasant gentleman or lady representing the title company replies while counsel sits sagely by: “It is a requirement of the lender.”
LETTER: Is it impossible for us to have a sane discussion?
Upon the testimony of many people and institutions I respect (including our state dept), I believe Imman Rauf is a good man and a man of peace, who is trying very, very hard to defuse a very ugly situation. He certainly did not cause the ugliness and there was virtually no controversy when the Muslim Community Center was first proposed but this was long before our mid-term political season began. So, It may be better, for the present, at least, that the Muslim community Center not be built two and one half blocks from, and invisible to, “ground zero”.
Amish population growing, heading west
From USA TODAY: … The Amish population is growing and embarking on a westward migration that has now reached as far as Colorado, South Dakota and Montana, according to an annual survey by Elizabethtown College in Pennsylvania, which tracks the Amish.
In the past year, the North American Amish population has grown 5%, an increase from 237,500 in 2009 to 249,500 today, the survey found.
Will there be four political parties by 2016?
The success yesterday of the ‘Tea Party’ in nominating Christine O’Donnell over nine-time U. S. Rep. Mike Castel in the Republican U. S. Senate primary in Delaware and Carl Paladino defeating Rick Lazio in the Republican gubernatorial primary in New York raises the question of whether the Republican Party may split for a period of time into two competing factions.
LETTER: An evening with Ralph Nader
It’s over a decade since I last heard Ralph Nader speak in Charlottesville, Va., and I was curious to see what kind of crowd would greet him Monday evening. The answer was one of the biggest rooms on campus packed, and mostly with students, enthusiastic students who gave standing ovations, and laughed and responded throughout a 90-minute speech.
Further example of why American health care is broken
Some may recall the NewsLanc commentary “Local examples of why American health care is broken” in which a Otolaryngologist (hearing doctor) invoiced the insurance company $145 for a routine examination and then added a charge of $250 for removing a “Foreign body removal external ear canal”, a hair resulting from the patient just coming from a barber appointment.
Not just the housing market is under water
In his Sunday News column “When a house is just a home”, Gil Smart observes:
“’So why try to prop up prices any longer with federal programs?’ asked CNNMoney.com, rhetorically, earlier this month. ‘Is it time to simply let prices free fall, clearing the way for a genuine correction of the real estate market?’
McCaskey Tornado’s turnaround has deep roots
The Intelligencer Journal – New Era sports article “Williams helps red-hot McCaskey sail past York High” reports the surprising news that “The team that had won one game over the previous two seasons is suddenly 2-0, its latest success a 45-14 smackdown of York Friday night, in which senior tailback Markeith Williams ran 21 times for 168 yards and three touchdowns.”
Higher unemployment and lower earnings inevitable
David Cay Johnston writes in “Free Lunch”:
“From the perspective of a company, people who do factory and most office work are so many oranges and tankers of gasoline; their labor is just another commodity purchased in the market. Minimally skilled labor is far more common in China than it is in the United States. This means that until the vast supply of Chinese labor is fully employed, the forces of supply and demand…
$2 million county funding goes to System, not libraries
Even a careful reading of the Task Force Report and listening to its chair Terry Kauffman at times left confusion of whether the reference was simply to the System which provides certain services or to the federated 14 libraries including the System. The county provides $2 million a year to the System located in a posh suburban office setting, but in fact only a tiny amount ever passes through to the 14 independent libraries which comprise the federation.
AOL SURGE DESK
“NYC Mayor Michael Bloomberg: Terry Jones Has Right to Burn Quran” reports:
New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg is defending the Rev. Terry Jones’ right to burn copies of the Quran on Saturday, in what the controversial pastor has deemed “International Burn-a-Quran Day.”
Task Force report first big step for libraries
The County Commissioner’s meeting room was filled to capacity by an audience eager to learn the findings of the “Lancaster County Public Library Task Force, half of the crowd identifying themselves as associated with the fourteen independent libraries or the Library System. What they heard likely pleased those with the individual libraries, but not likely Susan Hauer, the Administrator of the Library System.