Today’s news and information gleanings from here and there.

Quote for today … “People who don’t like how things are ran really need to leave the town.” – Observation from a commenter following this Columbia Spy article.

A second quote for today … “Well, that’s the news … where all the women are strong, all the men are good looking, and all the children are above average.” – Garrison Kiellor’s famous ending each week.

• Handing out jobs in secrecy – There’s an LNP – Always Lancaster (and Lancaster Online Insider article) about another instance of “elected public servant’s” deciding to do things their own way and shield their actions from the public. It’s just shameful!

• The American health care system has been “very, very good to us insurers.”|“Highmark recently reported overall profits of $59 million for 2016, after losing $85 million in 2015. Its net assets stand at $5.2 billion.” The big insurance companies would have done even better under the failed American Health Care Act.

• “Study: Forget school property-tax elimination, tax the wealthy more” – Central Penn Business Journal [NOTE: The study is from The Keystone Group, another non-profit special interest group that “was created to broaden public discussion on strategies to achieve a more prosperous and equitable Pennsylvania economy.”

• A Report | “Driving More Money into the Classroom: The Promise of Shared Services” 

• Better use of tax-credits |“$5.5M tax credit will fuel Lebanon commercial development – Plaza will include supermarket” – Central Penn Business Journal

• Free Home Composting Workshops Scheduled – Lancaster County Solid Waste Management Authority Website

• Yeah, but he’s our “rubber stamper.” A letter writer in today’s LNP – Always Lancaster‘s letters-to-the-editor says that Representative Smucker is not the only “rubber stamper”  saying, “Maybe the writer never heard of Sen. Bob Casey, rubber stamper for the Democratic Party.“

• Gotta’ love how the extremist not-for profit lobbying organizations get press time. There’s an advertisement masked as a column in today’s LNP – Always Lancaster that’s condemning Medicaid. Frankly, this ought to be a paid advertisement or alternatively, a letter to the editor. When you’re taking in around $4 million a year to “craft free-market policies, convince Pennsylvanians of their benefits and counter attacks on liberty” all you have to do is write a column and send it to a newspaper to get your agenda pushed. This glowing recommendation at the organization’s Website from the elected public servant in the US Senate is testament: “The Commonwealth Foundation is the leading organization in Pennsylvania that champions free markets and limited government.  No public policy group in the state is more effective at advancing the common sense reforms that our state so desperately needs.”

•  “Citations for distracted driving are up dramatically in Pennsylvania.” – WITF