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 number of hogs at the trough? Click here for an ballotpedia overview of Pennsylvania’s legislature.]

…FREEZING RAIN ADVISORY IN EFFECT UNTIL 10 AM EST THIS MORNING…

• Well said – A Columbian’s letter to the editor: “A family’s proud role at the local newspaper.” – LNP – Always Lancaster

• No Powerball winner – prize now is $208,000,000 and growing

 PHOTO SOURCE: PennLive

• Agenda pushing! Here’s another instance of a legislator, in a bulked-up political environment, pushing for new legislation that will cost oodles of money for a project that another state rejected because EZ-ID licencing has no scientific evidence of success. The previous link to an article in the Springfield (MA) newspaper says, “So far, the only other state looking at implementing EZ-ID is Pennsylvania.” PA really has better use for $50 million dollars than splurging on an untested concept with no scientific evidence that’s been adopted by no other state.

• Modern-day “Bonnie and Clyde” teens captured – WGAL-TV8

• Following recent suicides at Lancaster County prison, protesters stage march on prison. – WGAL-TV8

• Who is in Lancaster County Prison?

• According to a listing in today’s LNP – Always Lancaster‘s Government Calendar, The Columbia Historical Architectural Review Board will address “40 North Third Street, Columbia LLC, owner, Install curved canvas awning above an entry door to a commercial business.”

• “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.]
  

• Restaurant inspections in Lancaster County – Wonder why some of these food serving places “just don’t get it or don’t care” about food prep and serving standards? Take Trio’s for example – violations during the past three inspections.

• 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