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

Quote for today … “It’s absurd and hypocritical for a legislative body controlled by conservative Republicans to complain about wasteful government and then do very little to reduce legislative costs.” – extracted from a York Daily Record editorial, “Pa spends far too much on its legislature.” [Nearly everyone agrees that over a quarter of a billion dollars is much too costly a way to govern a state. Is it time to cull the hogs at the trough? Click here for an ballotpedia overview of Pennsylvania’s legislature.]

SOURCE: National Conference of State Legislatures

• PA has more legislators than any other state (except New Hampshire, where legislators are paid $200 a year)

• PA’s legislative staff is the largest in the nation.

• The pay and perks are really good, too.

• “Pennsylvania, which has a third as many people as California, has more than twice as many state legislators and pays them a tidy $83,801 a year.” – The Economist, 2013 article

• Pennsylvania’s “gross state product” is about 29% of California’s

• The monthly borough council meeting is tomorrow evening at 7:00 pm – Borough Website

• Incoming governor thinks the appointment of the new “open records chief” was “was rushed through and done behind closed doors.” Ironic, given the title and essence of the position. [See “good governance article” on the right hand column on this page.]

• 24/7 Wall St. ranking shows PA schools eighth best in the nation.

• Energy crash – 97% of fracking now operating at a loss at current oil prices: This could be a disaster in the making. AlterNet.org

PHOTO SOURCE: kpho.com

• “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.”

• BUT … packernet.com offers “Tips for Avoiding paywalls.”

• 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.]
  

• 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.

• “All Farmers Market Vendors, with a few exceptions, must obtain a Retail Food License and be under inspection to operate a food facility of any kind at a farmers market, whether the market is indoor or outside. Each individual stand is considered its own retail food facility and must obtain its own license to operate.” – PA Department of Agriculture