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

• Today’s Weather! 
• Today in History!
• Traffic Cam Rts. 30 & 441
• The Official Time! – Population Clock (U.S. and World)

Quote for today… “The opinions of men are not the object of civil government, nor under its jurisdiction.” – Thomas Jefferson

• Letters to the editors published in today’s Lancaster Intelligencer Journal/New Era discuss art, media, skewed data and education. Columbia’s Tom Hermansader has letter published.
  
• REMINDER – A Special Meeting of the Columbia Borough Community Development Committee  (Councilors for this committee are Renae Sears, chairperson; Jim Smith; Barry Ford and Mary Wickenheiser, alternate) will be held tonight, Tuesday, January 10, 2012 at 7:00 p.m. in the Borough Municipal Building, 308 Locust St., Columbia, PA to address Economic Strategic Plan actions and any other business.
• No baloney; free Seltzer’s balogna – Lebanon Daily News
• Manheim Township supervisors enact “code of conduct” for elected “public servants.” – Lancaster Intelligencer Journal/New Era
  
• Mega-car dealer, CarMax, opening in Lancaster in March – Lancaster Intelligencer Journal/New Era [Read more about this behemoth here.]
  
• C“PennDOT Travel Notice – 1/9/2012 – Westbound Route 30 on the Wrights Ferry Bridge over the Susquehanna River between York and Lancaster Counties will be reduced to one lane on Tuesday, January 10, and possibly Wednesday, January 11, so that the contractor can repair additional bridge joints in the left passing lane to improve safety for motorists driving over the bridge. The westbound single-lane restriction will take place during the daytime hours between 9 a.m. and 3 p.m., weather permitting.”
• Jeff Hawkes, Lancaster Intelligencer Journal/New Era columnist echoes citizen frustration and outrage with politicians “at the trough” with comments like this in his column this morning: “Under Corbett’s watch, the Legislature remains a captive of the same grandiose entitlement mentality that led to such corrupt and anti-democratic practices as the midnight pay raise and the Bonusgate shenanigans. Lawmakers, unlike governors, are not term-limited, opening the door to a careerlong gravy train that rewards those who lie low, toe the party line and quietly accumulate seniority. Left to their own devices, lawmakers have shown they’re too wedded to cushy privilege to make anything more than a show of retrenchment.And now Corbett, too, is reading from the Legislature’s playbook. Rather than champion structural change to make Pennsylvania’s leaders and judges more accountable to the people than to moneyed interests, he has been silent.”