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… “Under democracy one party always devotes its chief energies to trying to prove that the other party is unfit to rule – and both commonly succeed, and are right … The United States has never developed an aristocracy really disinterested or an intelligentsia really intelligent. Its history is simply a record of vacillations between two gangs of frauds.” – H.L. Mencken

• Columbia High School students featured in today’s Lancaster Intelligencer Journal/New Era‘s FreeStyle page interview section, “SAY WHAT?”

• Yuengling becomes No. 1 US beer brewer! – Allentown Morning Call
• It could happen! – “York building vacant since ’60s now apartments, retail space” – York Dispatch
• No snow=municipalities save money! – York Daily Record
  
• PennDOT adds more traffic viewing cameras – More PennDOT Traffic Cameras Available for Public Viewing in South Central Pennsylvania – PennDot Travel Release
• Maintenance completed at the Turkey Hill at the intersection of Lancaster Avenue and Prospect Road Gas prices (regular) are leveling at the higher side  at area stations.
• “Lancaster County taxpayers with low or moderate incomes can get free help preparing their tax returns through the annual AARP Tax-Aide Program, starting Wednesday, Feb. 1. In Columbia, Columbia Senior Center, 510 Walnut St., call 684-4850 for an appointment. Three additional sites are at Brethren Village, Willow Valley Lakes and Willow Valley Manor, serving their residents and employees. People requiring assistance with rent rebates will be served after March 15. The AARP Tax-Aide Program began in Lancaster County seven years ago with a half-dozen volunteers in two locations. Now in six sites, supported by nearly 70 volunteers, more than 3,000 local taxpayers were served last year. For more information, call 464-4560.” – Lancaster Intelligencer Journal/New Era
• DCED facilitates fire company merger – DCED press release
• “24/7 Wall St. examined the 10 states that had budget shortfalls of 27% or more of their general funds for fiscal year 2011 — the states that were short the most money before they balanced their budgets. Because of their budget shortfalls, all of them have been forced to make dramatic cuts to government services. These are the ten states that won’t be able to pay their bills.”