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

Quote for today… “I am not entirely convinced that Mr Bershidsky is right that increasing the level of militarisation of the police response in Ferguson will have the opposite of its intended effect. Ferguson’s own police force may have been heavily militarised, but they were also untrained and incompetent.” – Extracted from this article at The Economist: What is Ferguson doing on Europe’s Front pages?“

Oh, look! It’s the bluebird of happiness with news “about good things going on!”

• Online terrorism hides behind the mask of anonymity.

• Last evening’s Zoning Hearing Board is a model meeting format. Precise, concise and, actually, almost pleasant to observe. The agenda for the meeting is shown below (click on the image to enlarge); click here to read a bit more about what transpired. Oh, yeah, the main event, the decision on 631 South Thirteenth Street oversized structure was expedited swiftly with a denial. The attorney for Vincent Fiorella picked up a copy of the decision and he and the petitioners left the meeting. We did hear someone say before the meeting began that municipal employees cannot be sued and that this situation was created by “garden variety stupidity” on the part of the employee.

 

• Notice the Borough Manager’s name is atop the agenda; does that mean he’s returned from “leave?”

• More good news: When queried by a member of the Zoning Hearing Board, the zoning officer muttered that the alleged “group home” on Cherry Street will not be a group home. When asked about how many unrelated adults were going to be living there, he said he thought there were three. An abundance of the good things!

• Cole Umber’s news site has more on the hearing, too, including lots of comments, here’s one: “Do we know that they haven’t cut a deal with Fiorelli ? After all if borough money is paying for this mistake, it will not be broadcast. The taxpayers would be in an uproar.”

• Congratulations to the Crimson Tide players named to Lancaster County All Star football status: Austin Hartman – Kyle Warfel – Jason Price – Kenny Halterman – Lancaster OnLine

• Good things about the new Sheetz! Folks working there smile and say thank you.

• Columbia PD NEWS RELEASE 12-03-2014

• The graphic below comes from the same newspaper that the St. Paul’s Church did; Columbia’s population was projected to have a population of 11,000  by 1890.

• At a loss for words; here’s the Census Bureau’s glossary.

• Big doings on Saturday!

• Have a sunny day today

• For those folks who only want good news – the good news network or sunnyskyz

• “Bad news could be a signal that we need to change what we’re doing to avoid danger.” That one observation in this British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) article; another is: “When it comes to our own lives, most of us believe we’re better than average, and that, like the clichés, we expect things to be all right in the end. This pleasant view of the world makes bad news all the more surprising and salient. It is only against a light background that the dark spots are highlighted.”

• The “guv’mint” made me do it! – WFMZ-TV