today’s news and information gleanings from here and there! Today’s Weather!   Today in History!

Quote for today… “Laws control the lesser man. Right conduct controls the greater one.” ─ Chinese Proverb

• from LancasterOnline.com: “Police investigating mysterious pool of blood outside Marietta Sheetz“
• from the Washington Post: Bad news and good news! The bad news is more demonstration that “special interest” money, indeed, does try to buy political favor; the good news may be that it doesn’t always work the way they want it to. Big labor and firefighter interests are withholding funds in “Frustrated labor leaders may pull away from congressional Democrats.”
• from the Lancaster Intelligencer Journal/New Era: Another county school considers activity fee: ” … the board discussed the possibility of having an activity fee for students in extracurricular programs in the 2011-12 school year.” “Area students earn Wilkes University degrees”: Marietta — Elizabeth Ed­wards, master of science, ed­ucation; Jennifer Small, mas­ter of science, education. 
• And this Letter to the Editor from a Maytown writer: “Politicians bought, paid for” With all the attention paid to environmentally dangerous gas drilling and Pennsylvania’s massive educational cuts, there seems to be quite a bit of pressure on the voters who elected Gov. Tom Corbett. Marcellus shale drilling will leave our water toxic, and the state will not reap any benefit beyond the enrichment of an already powerful industry. Corbett’s cuts in education will not stop our property taxes from rising, but they will severely undermine the quality of education in this state. I’d like to say we could influence our government by holding rallies or writing our legislators, but we can’t. Our elected officials are already bought and paid for. After Corbett’s term, he’ll leave office and likely find lucrative work in the same sector he failed to monitor as our governor. The uninformed voters who gave him his job aren’t going to share in the benefits of Pennsylvania’s exploitation, but will they share the blame? And what about the scores of young people who just didn’t bother to vote at all last November? Will this state’s electorate finally understand the importance of the vote and the grim consequences of handing our highest offices to corrupt politicians with the biggest advertising budgets? Probably not. – Dennis Reider, Maytown
• “Flabbergasted” may be one word; “nut case” may be another! … from the San Francisco Chronicle: “Harold Camping ‘flabbergasted’; rapture a no-show“