The LuLac Edition #899, Aug. 6th, 2009

SNAPPLE "REAL FACT" #748, a dog's average body temperature is 101 degrees Fahrenheit.

PHOTO INDEX: NURSE ON DUTY

AND THE GOP LOGO.

CONSULTING

The Pennsylvania Economy League was named Wednesday night as a Consultant to the Home Rule Commission. The group voted to have The Economy League give advice and consult the board on matters of public policy.

AND THE BEAT GOES ON

The corruption parade continues with WBRE TV reporting that there is chaos at the Luzerne County jail. Reports are a senior prison nurse is the subject of an ongoing investigation into drug abuse. Independent confidential sources tell the I-Team inmates' medical records were routinely used to obtain narcotics for illegal use. And some inmates have claimed the actions by the prison medical worker led to the cancellation of some prescription drugs. County Commissioner Stephen Urban said a prison employee was recently suspended without pay.

And the Wyoming Valley Sanitary Authority which has been a political dumping ground for friends, relatives, in laws, girlfriends, boyfriends and cronies who can’t cut it anywhere else has a scandal brewing. Turns out the FBI got wind of a deal between the Authority officials and a former employee Karen Holly. To add insult to injury, Holly is a former District Magistrate in the Wyoming Area. We haven’t shown this video in a while, but from our “Let’s blow it up and start all over again department:


LUZERNE COUNTY GOP NEWS

The Republican Party of Pennsylvania will provide committee person training for all committee people in Luzerne County on Saturday, Aug. 22nd at 10 a.m. at GOP Headquarters in Downtown Wilkes-Barre. Also, the 6th District Republican Committee's 2nd Annual Tailgate Party is in the planning stages. This year's event will take place at the new Republican Party Headquarters at 41 South Main Street on Saturday, September 26 from 12PM-5PM. Candidates will be present to meet, greet and speak to the public. There will be a Voter Registration Drive at the Tailgate Partyas well as food, fun and a terrific opportunity for Committee Members to introduce guests to the Republican party. If you ask me, that's a lot of excitement for a $10 donation! Tickets are available now at Luzerne Party Republican Committee Headquarters, and at our next 6th District Committee Meeting on Tuesday, August 25. More information on the Tailgate Party will be coming soon! I'd report on doings for the Lackawanna County Republican party but there appears to be no activity on that front.

NURSING A PROTEST

Following the House of Representatives’ passage of Senate Bill 850, registered nurses from state corrections institutions across the state went the Capitol on August 5 warning legislators about how cuts threaten communities. The RNs delivered surgical masks to legislators with a warning – cutting prison health care will put communities at greater risk of exposure to infectious diseases like HIV/AIDS and Hepatitis C. “We don’t just treat prisoners, we also diagnose. Many of the people we see don’t know that they’re sick until they come into the prison system,” said Eileen Hill, a registered nurse from Coal Township. “They’re out there infecting other people without knowing how to take care of themselves or the harm they’re doing others.” The Senate proposals will cut 247 medical service jobs, including RNs, from the Department of Corrections. “We’re already stretched to the limit,” said Hill. “Our prison population is rising and we’re trying to do more with less. These cuts will make it even worse and will mean that inmates will be released back into our communities without the proper information to manage their disease. That puts us all at risk.”
Nurses also warned legislators that the Senate-proposed cuts to public health positions in other departments will also have a impact on communities. The nurses gave their reasons concisely:
1. Proposed Senate cuts would result in the loss of an additional $3.5 million in federal funding and leave up to 400 veterans without a bed in our state’s veterans homes.
2. The Senate proposed to cut community health positions. Our Department of Health professionals are on the front lines of defense against threats like SARS, Bird Flu, or a terrorist attack with a virus like Smallpox. Pennsylvania is already among states with the fewest public health nurses per capita and this cut would put us at an even greater risk.
3. The Senate proposed deep cuts in DPW, which would result in a loss of $38 million dollars of funding for nursing care and support for citizens with mental disabilities.

The nurses who work in Pennsylvania’s state institutions are members of the Service Employees International Union, SEIU Healthcare Pennsylvania, the state’s largest and fastest-growing union of nurses and other health care employees.