(The following letter refers to an article “South Square housing project planners seek new grants” appearing in the Intelligencer Journal / New Era.)
“The Lancaster Alliance, a business group that promotes city revitalization”
Isn’t this sweet? Doesn’t the Lancaster Alliance sound so philanthropic?
From MINNPOST.COM: …Now comes word from the Poynter Institute’s Bill Mitchell that Journalism Online’s system has been released into the wild; its first adopter is LancasterOnline, which serves a swath of south-central Pennsylvania.
What will be metered? Obituaries! Insert newspaper-audience-dying-off jokes here.
EPA Region 3 Press Release: PHILADELPHIA (July 28, 2010) — The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency today announced that High Steel Structures, Inc. and its sister company High Concrete Group, LLC, have settled alleged violations of toxic chemical reporting requirements at their plants in Lancaster, Williamsport and Denver, Pa.
Lancaster has come a long way in the since the Watchdog built the Manor House Apartments in Lancaster Township and the first African American couple moved in. As someone who hadn’t even yet moved to Lancaster, he had no knowledge of or interest in the implicit local understanding among government and those in real estate that Blacks were to be contained in the Seventh Ward.
The U.S. House of Representatives passed bipartisan legislation tonight sponsored by Rep. William Delahunt (D-MA) which would create a national commission to study the U.S. criminal justice system and make recommendations for reform. The bill passed under an expedited process that presumes unanimity unless a member of Congress objects. No member objected.
According to T. R. .Reid in “The Healing of America”, everyone in Germany is required to belong to one of the approximately 200 non-profit “sickness funds” that vigorously compete for members. On a regional basis, the groups negotiate rates with doctors and hospitals. The members never see a bill. Virtually all health issues are automatically covered and payment rates are pre- determined, so the purpose of the insurance companies is simply to process invoices.
Sad news: “Lancaster Mayor Rick Gray on Monday morning ordered flags in the city to be lowered to half-staff to mark the death of philanthropist and community volunteer Caroline Steinman Nunan.
“Nunan, 85, died Sunday at the Dartmouth Hitchcock Medical Center in Lebanon, N.H. She had been stricken Wednesday while visiting her daughter’s home in Norwich, Vt.”
There is quite a bit more to this issue than meets the eye. The ONLY people that serve to protect us taxpayers from the Penn Square Partners are the LCCCA Finance Committee, Mary Ellen Davis, and Kevin Molloy. The LCCCA Finance Committee meets once a month, where it hears a presentation from Interstate Hotels and Resorts, the joint manager of the “integrated facility”. Members of the LCCCA Finance committee can – and do – question the numbers provided by IHR, but they often don’t have all of the background.
Below is an excerpt from an arrangement agreed to by the County with the federal government under the American’s with Disabilities Act on June 9, 2010. The entire document is available here. Click here for the entire directive.
EFFECTIVE COMMUNICATION PROVISIONS
Chinese philanthropist donates it all: Shenzhen, China – Yu Pengnian’s journey from poor street hawker to Hong Kong real-estate magnate was already a remarkable one. Then the 88-year-old did something even rarer that shocked many in increasingly materialistic China: He gave it all away.
In describing the French health care system, considered by many to be the best in the world (including the French!), author T. R. Reid explains: “The carte vitale – the ‘vital card,’ or the “card of life ” – contains the patient’s entire medical record, back to 1998. Embedded in the gold metallic square just left of center is a digital record of every doctor visit, referral, injection, operation, X-ray, diagnostic test, prescription, warning, etc. together with a report on how much the doctors billed for reach visit and how much was paid, by the insurance funds and by the patient.”
In all fairness, Kevin Molloy and Mary Ellen Davis spend an immense amount of time keeping tabs on Interstate Hotels and Resorts. IHR operates the hotel and convention center as an “integrated facility”, with THREE sets of books: the convention center, the hotel, and the “Condominium Association” (which taxpayers must pay for half of everything).
Kevin and Mary Ellen have been very carefully monitoring all of the expenditures being charged back to taxpayers. Since the LCCCA (meaning taxpayers) is responsible for the building maintenance of the convention hall, ALL of the meeting rooms, ALL of the prefunction space (hallways etc.), the kitchen, most of the lobby space, and some of the offices, this can be a very complex task.
It would be one thing if this position had a correlation between the salary and revenue producing but alas? It doesn’t matter if it’s filled or not. Instead of saying “look we are saving money by not filling the position!” The question that I raise is “WHAT DO THIS TWO DO?!” After all, the marketing of the convention center and the running of the convention center is completely outsourced.
This is the scariest book I’ve read since The Day of the Triffids. Back in the ‘70’s, when I worked on my dissertation, US business monopolization seemed bad, but not getting worse. Spinoffs and breakups balanced mergers. So I forgot about the problem. Since then, as documented in Cornered by financial journalist Barry Lynn, global monopolization has rapidly returned us to a new age of robber barons.