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

Quote for today… “that’s a disgrace to our town. How do those guys get so much authority to do what they want?” – Comment from this Cole Umber news post about the dumpsters, yep, dumpsters, in front of the Hotel Locust and Columbia during the Christmas shopping season. Remember now, this was discussed and approved at the November council meeting of the whole. This “J-effed up” action comes after council approved to waive the dumpster fees for the “not-for-profit” CEDC on which one of the councillors sits and speaks for at council meetings. Another commenter refers to the town as “Smithville.”

• “Several citizens expressed disbelief that the council would consider allowing the CEDC to put a dumpster on the main shopping street at the beginning of the Christmas shopping season. The request to place the dumpster on the street, taking up metered parking spaces “for roughly a week” was approved. Looks like it could be a “J-effed up” Christmas for downtown Columbia’s merchants.” – from the Columbia news, views & reviews post following the council meeting.

• OMG … there’s a recent post at the Columbia Police Department facebook page. – thx

• Cole also reports, “A decision on the garage/pole barn at 631 South 13th Street is expected to be announced at this Wednesday’s Zoning Hearing Board meeting at 7 p.m. at Borough Hall, 308 Locust Street.”

• Falling behind? Interestingly, Internet use growth rate has been very different for the various languages. Most impressive is the very high growth rate for Africa and the Middle East. US growth rate is the lowest of all the world’s regions. In 2000, US users made up almost one-third of worldwide users; today that number is 1o%.

• “In the wake of Ferguson and protests, a plea for civility” – Today’s editorial at LNP – Always Lancaster speaks to the same issue of hostility in comments following the articles about Ferguson. [See this Columbia news, views & reviews post, “A thin veneer”.

• Know any state workers? Want to see that person’s salary? [NOTE: This report provides information on the annual salaries or hourly/daily wages earned by employees.  Salary and wage amounts do not include other forms of compensation, such as overtime. Or health insurance benefits, we’d guess, too.]