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… “A hospital bed is a parked taxi with the meter running.” – Groucho Marx

• This week’s restaurant inspections in  Lancaster County – Lancaster Sunday News

• This week’s restaurant inspections in York County – York Dispatch

• A complete listing of all facilities in Lancaster, York counties and the entire state, except those in Columbia, are listed at the Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture Website.

• “Who’s challenging their assessments? Everybody.” A listing of the 764 properties filed for reduced assessments is included with the linked article. “BHI Properties LLC, of Mifflintown, challenged assessments on 17 separate properties, most of them single-family dwellings in Columbia. The firm got four reductions; 13 other appeals were denied.”- Lancaster Sunday News

• Columbia’s Mike Burke IV is the only Lancaster-Lebanon player or coach selected to next week’s Pennsylvania East-West All-Star Game. – Lancaster Sunday News

• Gulp; 24% unemployment rate. “(Spain’s) government reported Friday that unemployment rose to 24.4 percent in the first quarter — compared with 22.9 percent in the fourth quarter — and that more than half of Spaniards under 25 are now without jobs.” – The Boston Globe

• “Graham Packaging, York, Pa., has been assigned a patent (8,162,655) developed by Gregory Trude, Seven Valleys, Pa., and Paul Kelley, Wrightsville, Pa., for a “system and method for forming a container having a grip region.” – TargetedNews

• There’s an interesting newcomer, Columbia & Reading Railway, LLC, to Columbia in the Property Transfers listing: “Paul H. Meisenbach and Cleona E. Meisenbach conveyed property on a public road to Columbia & Reading Railway LLC for $145,000.” – Lancaster Sunday News

• “A Volkswagen sedan crashed into the front porch of a house at 45 W. Main St. in Mountville on Saturday evening, briefly trapping two occupants of the car, who were taken to Lancaster General Hospital, West Hempfield Township police Sgt. Jeffery Mullin said. Mountville fire rescue crews dismantled part of the car to free the victims.” – Lancaster Sunday News

• Lancaster’s Spring ArtWalk is May 5 and 6

• Uh-oh … “A Lancaster County runner won the YWCA’s 14th annual Race Against Racism in Lancaster city Saturday after a small group of lead runners headed in the wrong direction. Mark Stallings, of Washington Boro, a former Division II All-American at Millersville University, finished the 5K race first (16:06) and was aided in his winning bid by what YWCA spokeswoman Angela Trout characterized as a “heartbreaking” miscalculation.” – Lancaster Sunday News