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… “Be practical as well as generous in your ideals. Keep your eyes on the stars, but remember to keep your feet on the ground.” – Theodore Roosevelt

• MegaMillions teachers – Fox43

• Columbia Borough Council meeting topics: how to pay for Memorial Day parade; “double-dipping” and more. – MyColumbiaNews

• “Lancaster city parks to be ‘tobacco free,’ but with no penalties” – Lancaster Intelligencer Journal/New Era

• Banned book on the American Library Association list: The Hunger Games? Yep. “The American Library Association has released its annual report, adding The Hunger Games series to its list of “top 10 frequently challenged books.” Suzanne Collins’s popular trilogy about a dystopian future society ranks third on the list of books that people have attempted to ban across the U.S. While any 13-year-old kid can now see the Hunger Games film starring Jennifer Lawrence, the book has been singled out as the root of all evil. Others on the list include My Mom’s Having a Baby! A Kid’s Month-by-Month Guide to Pregnancy along with classic literature like To Kill a Mockingbird and another dystopian novel, Brave New World, which was published 80 years ago but is still making waves among conservative readers.” – The Daily Beast

• Mountville’s borough health and sanitation committee chairperson said “Columbia is considering the installation of video cameras and a controlled-access gate to the Blue Lane (yard waste compost) facility to solve the problem” of co-mingled trash and refuse. – MyColumbiaNews

• “The Mount Joy Area Historical Society will meet Monday at 7 p.m. at the society building, 120 Fairview St. Guest speaker will be Ken McCrea, who will discuss “The Planning and Building of the Reading and Columbia Railroad.” Refreshments will be served after the program. The meeting is free.” – Lancaster Intelligencer Journal/New Era  [NOTE: Today, there is an operating business known as the  Columbia and Reading Railway Company located at  197 Dock Street, Schuylkill Haven, PA 17972. There is “chatter” about it at the Railway Preservation News Website. There may be more chatter in the future.]

• Filing Reminder: “Taxpayers will have until Tuesday, April 17, to file their 2011 tax returns and pay any tax due because April 15 falls on a Sunday, and Emancipation Day, a holiday observed in the District of Columbia, falls this year on Monday, April 16. According to federal law, District of Columbia holidays impact tax deadlines in the same way that federal holidays do; therefore, all taxpayers will have two extra days to file this year. Taxpayers requesting an extension will have until Oct. 15 to file their 2012 tax returns.” – IRS Website

• “POLICE LOG: COLUMBIA: Robert N. Lewis Jr., 30, of Columbia, was charged Thursday at Third and Locust streets. – EAST DONEGAL TWP.: Riley D. Thomas, 18, of Ashley Drive, Marietta, was charged after an investigation into a March accident on Maytown Road.” – Lancaster Intelligencer Journal/New Era

• Councilor turbulence in Middletown – fourth leaves in four months – Harrisburg Patriot News