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

Quote for today… “I would never go to Joe Pitts who’s intent on destroying the Affordable Care Act. He is one of the problems for the Republicans failure to help solve the nation’s problems.” – lancpa, commenter to this newspaper article about volunteer fire companies and the Affordable Care Act.

• “No oversight” and shenanigans result in overpay for Dallastown’s former school superintendent – The York Dispatch

• Columbia fugitive captured – The New York Daily News

• Columbia mother admits to beating infant son – Intelligencer Journal/Lancaster New Era

• Don’t piss off an old guy: Shrewsbury septuagenarian had hit list – The York Dispatch

• Economy of force? Tax dollars put to good use? Force concentration?

• Auditor concerned about Columbia School District’s budget reserve; says it’s “extremely low for a district your size.” – MyColumbiaNews

• Stewartstown drops cops and opts for regional coverage – York Daily Record

• Tough finding a competent business manager at this school district – Harrisburg Patriot-News

• The few at the top hate democracy everywhere: In Thailand, Standing Up for Less Democracy – The New York Times

• “When we consider that public officials are the trustees of the people, and hold their places and exercise their powers for the benefit of the people, there should be no higher inducement to a faithful and honest discharge of public duty.” That’s what Grover Cleveland said when he became mayor of Buffalo, NY in 1882. Now, 131 years later, the Harrisburg Patriot-News editorial, “Even with a final budget vote in sight, Washington is still unable to kick its addiction to dysfunction” suggests we’ve learned nothing. The editorial says, “As long as the voters continue to countenance this behavior, it will not stop.” Or as this letter writer to the Billings Gazette (MT) wrote earlier this year: “If the electorate continues to vote for buffoons, blockheads and pusillanimous pussyfooters, sooner or later the people will be hurt. Now it has come to pass … .” The downward spiral of the greatest democracy the world has ever known continues … all for the greed of the public servants a small percentage of the citizens have elected.