The LuLac Edition #673, Dec. 21st, 2008

PHOTO INDEX: FORMER LACKAWANNA COUNTY COMMISSIONER BOB CORDARO AND CONGRESSMAN PAUL KANJORSKI.

OH THOSE MACHINES

The state Supreme Court denied an appeal by the secretary of the commonwealth in a lawsuit filed by a group of Pennsylvania voters who say electronic voting machines violate state election code. The ruling clears the way for the Commonwealth Court to determine whether touch-screen machines violate the state code.

FROM THE CONGRESSMAN

Congressman Paul E. Kanjorski (PA-11), the Chairman of the House Financial Services Subcommittee on Capital Markets, Insurance, and Government Sponsored Enterprises, sent a letter to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) expressing the urgent need to provide aid to municipalities facing devastating budget shortfalls as a result of the economic crisis. Chairman Kanjorski recommends creating a General Revenue Sharing program to help municipalities and including such a program in the stimulus bill. As a result of their budget deficits, municipalities are unable to fund social services to the aged and the poor, needed job-creating infrastructure projects, and public safety networks.

CORDARO ON LOKUTA

On his monthly radio program today, former Lackawanna County Commissioner made some news by saying that he felt the penalty against former Luzerne County Judge Ann Lokuta was too harsh. Cordaro said the loss of her pension was too much of a punishment and felt that it inhibited the former Judge from seeking employment as an attorney. Cordaro also took a shot at Commissioner Mike Washo saying that Washo made the voting in the Pennsylvania Electoral College “all about him and not history”. The Cordaro show is heard every fourth Sunday on WILK Radio Sundays from noon to 2pm. Other weekly hosts are Joe Peters, Paul Stueber and Cathy Donnelly.

20 YEARS AGO

Much of the political fallout from the Lockerbie air disaster has been resolved, but doubts remain about who was behind the explosion 20 years ago today in the skies above Scotland. A cancer-stricken Libyan secret agent is in prison, the sole person convicted in the tragedy, but he has earned a second appeal by convincing judges that “a miscarriage of justice” may have occurred during his trial. Some of the victims’ families are still not convinced that Abdel Basset Ali al-Megrahi, 56, is to blame for the bombing of Pan Am Flight 103, which killed 259 people, mostly Americans, in the air, and 11 more on the ground. Al-Megrahi, convicted in January, 2001, is serving a life sentence. The Palestinian groups suspected of being involved have steadfastly denied any link to the plot. The dynamics of the case have changed in recent years as Libyan leader Col. Moammar Gadhafi has engineered a rapprochement with the West in the dangerous times following the 9/11 attacks on Washington and New York. The self-styled revolutionary leader, who once seemed to thrive on confrontation, has renounced terrorism and voluntarily dismantled his clandestine program to develop nuclear weapons. Britain, the United States and Libya are friendly now, publicly committed to working together to contain the threat of international terrorism. Libya has paid out several billion dollars to the families of Lockerbie victims, and has accepted “general responsibility” for the attack. U.S. officials, and the families involved, said in November that Libya had made the final compensation payments. These acts of contrition have allowed Libya to restore diplomatic ties to Britain and the United States and to curtail United Nations-imposed sanctions.
From AP and various sources, '08.