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

Quote for today … “ … that for most every newspaper that isn’t a major national or international brand, the paywalls are looking like dismal failures.” – techdirt.com

The above Columbia Police Department news release appears at its facebook page – Columbia news, views & reviews applauds the Columbia Police Department for communicating with its citizens and interested parties via social media. Take the next step, share news releases with all local media including online news resources in Columbia.

• Tire slashing trash terrorizes town – Lancaster Online

• Vandalism is terrorism: Police investigate vandalism in Columbia Borough – FOX 43 TV

• WGAL-TV8 updates number of vehicles with slashed tires to 40

• Lebanon County police department’s “Fill a cruiser” program – FOX43-TV

• Two NY police officers murdered; senseless retaliation – New York Post

• Email to school: Pay $1 million or “be hacked” – WFMZ-TV

• and another Columbia facebook site emerges: “Columbia PA! The GOOD, The BAD, The TRUTH!!”

• and another: “Columbia Pa In Pictures”

• Let “Xenophobia” ring

• Yippee, Skippy … let the longer days begin – Summer’s coming – US Navy’s daylight hours Webpage

• Restaurant inspections in Lancaster County – Manheim restaurant goes from open to long violations list in just a year. Prospect Diner gets a warning. – The Sunday News

• Restaurant inspections in York County – The York Dispatch [NOTE: York’s newspapers have paywalls that inhibit people from reading their posts after a minimal number of view each month … unless people pay to become subscribers. We will include links to the referenced articles, though readers may not be able to read the article.] In the most recent inspections listed in York County, the McDonald’s store on South George Street racked up a large number of food serving establishment violations.
  

• BUT … packernet.com offers “Tips for Avoiding paywalls.” – Go Packers!
  

• “Readability is a website that pulls the content from any page and shows it to you in a nice, readable format, removing all the ads, navigation, etc.  Since it uses it’s own servers to render the page content, it’s not actually your browser that is requesting the content.”

• A complete listing of all inspections at food serving facilities in Lancaster, York counties and the entire state, except those in Columbia – Columbia persists in having its own inspection system with its own forms and inspection items – rather than the one used statewide, is available at the Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture Website.

• Soldiers meditate as alternative therapy – The Signal, Fort Gordon, GA