Keeping up with the Joneses is tough to do | Former Worley & Obetz CEO AND CONTROLLER arrested – Lancaster County’s District Attorney’s Crimewatch Page

Political “leadership” is ain’t | “Dozens of local officials fail to disclose their financial interests” – Lancaster Online

Retaliation is a word we’ve heard from lots of corners in Columbia. This is from a comment a this Columbia Spy article: “I have talked to other people that feel the same way, they live in fear of retaliation for calling the police.” We’ve heard it from business and property owners, too: “Codes will retaliate if we say something.”  Recently, a business owner told us about an intimidation hurled “if the person didn’t ‘shut up’ about a local issue.” It’s not a healthy community in which people feel they’re targeted for speaking up.

They knew!!! | “Former Vatican envoy: popes knew of sexual misconduct allegations against ex-cardinal” – Penn Live

Condescending paternalism in this letter-to-the-editor | “Government socialism isn’t the answer” – Lancaster Online

More than half | That’s the percentage of firefighter “deaths last year related to cardiac or other medical issues while firefighters were either on scene at an incident or within the 24-hour span afterward.” – firehouse.com

NFPA reports | “Of the 32 deaths in this category, 29 were classified as sudden cardiac deaths (usually heart attacks), two were due to strokes and one was due to complications from a recent medical procedure that developed while the victim was at work. The 29 sudden cardiac deaths in 2017, with onset while the victim was on-duty, represents the fourth time in the last six years that the toll has been below 30, but still accounts for almost half of the deaths while on-duty.”

Firefighter fitness | “What do the NFPA 1582 physical fitness requirements say? – In order to perform their best, firefighters must adhere to NFPA 1582 standards” –  Fire Rescue 1

It’s been on our “to do” list | This Penn Live article asks, “Who Owns the Susquehanna River Islands?

Politicaly motivated? | “Lip-synch challenge video featuring York City Police pulled from Revs game” – The York Daily Record

Mayor: Not so | “York Mayor defends decision to pull police lip sync video from Rev’s game after learning it featured Maple Donuts” – FOX43-TV

“There aren’t many two-newspaper towns left in the US …”  | That’s the beginning of this Columbia Journalism Review article about the long-standing competition of two newspapers duking it out in Wilkes-Barre, PA. Interestingly, there’s a similar instance just west of Columbia in York. The Citizens’ Voice claims it leads in circulation; i.e., the number of newspapers it sells each day. The parent of The Citizens’ Voice, Scranton’s The Times-Tribune reported on the circulation lead too.

Struggle claims jobs | The Citizens’ Voice reports that The “Times-Leader cuts jobs as downsizing continues.”

Impressive, though | Wilkes-Barre — with a population of around 40,500 — and its suburbs, have a high newspaper readership when adding the claimed circulation of the competing newspapers; every town should have its own newspaper.