17512 Columbia

Archive for April 20th, 2012|Daily archive page

today’s news … Friday, April 20

In Uncategorized on April 20, 2012 at 6:00 am

today’s news and information gleanings from here and there! 

Quote for today … “Spring makes its own statement, so loud and clear that the gardener seems to be only one of the instruments, not the composer.” - Geoffrey B. Charlesworth

  • There are rumblings around town that there’ll be an “informational meeting” concerning tax incentives at the Borough Hall around 9:30 this morning. Apparently, the parties involved (elected public servants – municipal and school board) have invited certain folks to attend. While Pennsylvania’s “Open Meetings-Sunshine Act” supports a concept of “informational sessions,” court decisions “do not support the theory that ‘so-called informational sessions’ are anywhere authorized as closed meetings by the Sunshine Law.” Seems that if some citizens are invited, all citizens should be.
  • LEGAL NOTICE, published in the Lancaster Intelligencer Journal/New Era, April 20, 2012. “NOTICE The West Hempfield Township Board of Supervisors will meet on Friday, April 27, 2012 at 8:00 A.M. at the Township Municipal Building, 3401 Marietta Avenue, Lancaster, Pennsylvania to conduct their Spring Road Tour and any other business that may properly come before the Board. TOWNSHIP OF WEST HEMPFIELD By: Ron L. Youtz, Secretary.”

  • And who would not think this would happen?  “When fishermen returned to the deep reefs of the Gulf of Mexico weeks after BP’s gushing oil well was capped, they started catching grouper and red snapper with large open sores and strange black streaks, lesions they said they’d never seen and promptly blamed on the spill. Now, two years after the Deepwater Horizon rig exploded and sank, killing 11 men and touching off the worst offshore spill in U.S. history, the latest research into its effects is starting to back up those early reports from the docks: The ailing fish bear hallmarks of diseases tied to petroleum and other pollutants.” – LancasterOnLine
  • And this? “66 percent of Americans to decide that the war is no longer worth fighting, a new Washington Post-ABC News survey found. Late last month, a New York Times-CBS News poll came to a similar conclusion: 69 percent said they believed the U.S. should end the war. Other surveys, by Gallup, the Pew Research Center and others, offered consistent findings.” – A syndicated opinion column by Joel Brinkley in The Chicago Tribune
  • Tripped across this interesting Webpage with pictures of the flooding last year. What’s interesting, and kinda’ cool about the page is the “normal and flooded” pictures. To view each shot, of sites in Columbia and Harrisburg, roll your cursor off of and onto each of the pictures. – AccuWeather
  • POLICE LOG: “WEST HEMPFIELD TWP.: Someone used red spray paint to paint the letters “DM” on the walls of some buildings in the 3800 block of Locust Grove Road on Tuesday. A billboard in the 4000 block of Columbia Avenue was similarly vandalized.” – Lancaster Intelligencer Journal/New Era

“Many public workers agree they have it better than private sector peers”

In Government, Opinions, Opportunities on April 20, 2012 at 5:29 am

“Many Americans continue to believe government workers have it easier than their private sector counterparts, and that includes public servants themselves.

“Sixty-six percent of 1,000 adults polled recently by Rasmussen Reports said they believed private sector employees work harder than government employees, and 56 percent believed government workers earn more annually.

“Nearly half of government workers in the survey — 46 percent — agreed they don’t work as hard as their private sector counterparts; 32 percent said they work harder, and 22 percent were not sure. The government workers also saw eye to eye with their private sector counterparts about job security: 62 percent of government employees said they have more security and 67 percent of overall respondents held that view.

“The government employees did differ in how they viewed their pay. Just 35 percent of those who identified themselves as government workers said they thought the average public servant earns more annually than the typical private sector worker.

“Rasmussen Reports conducted the telephone survey April 1-2 with an online survey tool to target those without landline phones. Participants were randomly selected from a range of demographic groups, including age, ethnicity, employer and political affiliation. The margin of error was plus or minus three points, with a 95 percent level of confidence

“Only 9 percent of the survey’s respondents identified themselves as government workers — 31 percent said they worked for private companies, 20 percent were entrepreneurs, 20 percent were retired and 21 percent identified as “other.”

“‘Though Americans of all political affiliations tend to think government workers have it better than private sector workers, Republicans feel the strongest about it,’ Rassmussen said in a statement.

“The latest results are consistent with similar surveys Rasmussen conducted in previous years.

“A Pew Research Center study of several national polls released in March found attitudes toward government pay and benefits favored policies unfriendly to feds, such as the current federal pay freeze. Michael Dimock, associate director of research for the Pew Research Center for People and the Press, said during times of economic uncertainly people “have an impression that government jobs are good jobs, and their sense of fairness tells them that the uncertainly should be applied more equally.”

“The survey results stem from ‘all the unflattering lies being spewed about our federal workforce the last few years,’ the National Association of Federal and Retired Employees said.

“‘It’s not surprising that there are still Americans who don’t fully understand all that federal employees do to protect us and keep our country moving forward,’ NARFE legislative director Julie Tagen said.

“The National Treasury Employees Union questioned the Rasmussen poll’s methodology.

“‘Using flawed questions with prejudiced multiple choice answers, the Rasmussen poll — not surprisingly — ends with biased results,’  NTEU President Colleen Kelley said in a statement provided to Government Executive.”

COLUMBIA Connections … in the Merchandiser

In Everyday Living, In Columbia on April 20, 2012 at 4:45 am

In case you missed this insert in this week’s Merchandiser, click on the photo to read it.

 

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