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

Quote for today… “He that goes a borrowing, goes a sorrowing.” – Benjamin Franklin

• According to an article in the Lancaster Intelligencer Journal/New Era, “Pennsylvania may be ending its one-year experiment with wine vending machines at grocery stores amid a contractor dispute. The Liquor Control Board said the contractor that provided the wine kiosks owes the state nearly $1 million, the Philadelphia Inquirer reported Friday. If the board’s differences with the company can’t be resolved within 45 days, LCB officials said they will “cease all kiosk operations.”
• Properties in Columbia Borough on the published Tax Upset Sale (Lancaster Intelligencer Journal/New Era)
• S&P downgrades US credit rating (York Daily Record)
• Google has a brithday greeting for Lucy … Google regularly changes the appearance of the home page to pay tribute to different happenings, thing, events, etc. Their recognition of the 100th anniversary of Lucille Ball’s birth is a nice tribute and well done.
• Almost all blog sites get a slew of spam messages, in addition to the real comments, to certain postings. All comments are queued into an “allow/disallow” pen for review by the host. Overwhelmingly, the spammers want access to the site and the site’s viewers to slip in their messages about the usual internet junk promises. Usually, there are little language gaffes that serve as give-aways. We will not willingly allow that kind of access to Columbia news, views & reviews. In a recent instance, we received this “opening message” that is almost sensible: “The United States is really made up of a bunch of little countries. It is really neat to see how there are different laws in each state and how each of them keep order. I am surprised that there isn’t more fights between states but I think someday there will be. There is too much pride in each one for horrible things not to happen some day. It might not be a bad idea to just have one law for all states instead of them being able to make their own. Thoughts?”