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

Quote for today… “America is great because she is good. If America ceases to be good, America will cease to be great.” – Alexis de Toqueville

• Yeah, Joe … it’s working! Captial BlueCross lays off dozens of workers (WGAL-TV)
• Back in May we posted an article about property assessment and appeals; here are the minutes from the County Assessment Board from the June meeting: assessment appeals monthly meeting minutes 6-8-2011
• US “maxes” credit card on August 2 (New York Times)
• Steelton-Highspire teachers agree to wage freeze (WGAL-TV)
• Lancaster restaurant abruptly closes (Fox43.com)
• Columbian, Russell Stepanchak, writes letter to the editor (Lancaster Intelligencer Journal/New Era): “Fourteen days after the March 12 explosion at Japan’s nuclear power station Fukushima Daiichi, rainwater samples taken at Harrisburg contained radioactive iodine-131 at a level 3,300 percent above federal drinking water standards. Ever since, we’ve been experiencing radioactive fallout from Japan, but we don’t know how much because our government’s solution to the problem was to stop testing for radioactivity. We will continue to accumulate radioactivity from Fukushima for perhaps a year, until the damaged nuclear reactors can be encapsulated. The damaged reactor will continue to emit radiation until its radioactive material burns out. That will take thousands of years. The method of dealing with nuclear disasters is to entomb the reactor in concrete, as was done in Chernobyl, to contain the radiation, preventing it from entering the atmosphere. Presently, we must rely on testing done by private citizens. One citizen reported an alarming amount of radiation in Lake Louise, Alberta, Canada, on July 18, four months after the Fukushima disaster. The tester wiped the windshield of his truck with a napkin after a short rain, and then tested the napkin with a Geiger counter. He got a reading of 1.68 microsieverts per hour. That translates into 14.7 millisieverts per year. Government standards limit public radiation exposure to 1 millisieverts per year. You can view the Lake Louise report at YouTube, Radioactive Rain in Lake Louise.”
• We like this letter to the editor, too. “Mayor Rick Gray’s disapproval of the artistic aliens in town is understandable given his position. However, while by definition graffiti may always be “illicit,” that doesn’t necessarily mean it’s not beneficial to the community. There are some guerrilla artists out there whose mindset is to create and not desecrate a given space. And from a 2008 Washington Post article, it seems like “stikman” is more concerned about provoking wonder than anger with his work, even having safety concerns as to where he places the artistic terrestrials. In general, we’ve all seen elected political public servants disregard both the legal and moral law. What if the opposite is also possible, that those who don’t have an official position can and are somehow serving the public in a supposedly “illegal” way? The fruit of someone’s work, as well as the heart behind it, should be considered. We need to take conversations about graffiti beyond a surface level. There will always be those who use unconventional art narcissistically, but don’t lump all graffiti in that category — there is also the possibility of its use being very redemptive, as well.”
• “Woman not guilty of disorderly conduct – A 76-year-old Marietta woman on July 12 was found not guilty of disorderly conduct, a spokeswoman at District Judge William Reuter’s office said. Susquehanna Regional police had charged Lois Haas, of 87 Fairview Ave., in an April 28 incident involving a dispute with a neighbor, they said.” (Lancaster Intelligencer Journal/New Era)
• York County residents weigh in on debt-ceiling standoff (York Daily Record)