County budget |No tax increase – Lancaster Online

newspaper apocalypse | a “national crisis.” – Politico

“When my newspaper died!” | ” … public notices, press releases, and meeting agendas …” How will people in America’s small towns find out what’s happening with no newspapers?

Small Business Saturday | This extract from a letter-to-the-editor in today’s LNP – Always Lancaster is “For the good of our local community, I challenge everyone to skip the bigbox retailers and chain restaurants and shop small this Saturday.” Though not listed at the Small Business Saturday Webpage of participating towns across the US, several merchants will be participating in Small Business Saturday on Saturday, November 30.

Annual updates | At last night’s council meeting, the agreement for the independent contractor assigned to provide human resources and policy guidance for the borough was extended into 2020. Several councillors and the borough manager generally identified some of the improvements the independent contractor effected. Most of those are normal practices at effective organizations: Consistency in job descriptions, regular updating of personnel policies, etc. “… most experts recommend reviewing policies annually.”

Ah, holiday debt | “People who are living close to the edge, those who already have some amount of credit card debt they’re carrying around, are more likely to add to it this time of year. Of those who already have credit card debt, 61% say they’re willing to add to it over the holidays, as opposed to just 30% of people who don’t have credit card debt”

5th biggest increase in vaccination rates [New Analysis]. | A Study from Health Testing Centers.com:

• Overall U.S. vaccination rates fall below the CDC’s target rates, including rates for the MMR (measles, mumps, and rupella) and Polio vaccines.
• A majority of U.S. States (27) have seen decreases in vaccination rates since 2009.
• PA increased vaccination rates by 6.1 percentage points over that span, 5th most of any state.
• PA has the 9th highest MMR vaccination rate (96.7%), and is tied for 12th highest Polio vaccination rate (96.5%). Both above CDC target rates.

While most states are moving backwards, Pennsylvania has continued to improve when it comes to vaccinations.  – SOURCE: news release