The LuLac Edition #1971, March 5th, 2012

Rush Limbaugh might be sponsoring his own show by the end of this week. Rush's ice tea product line.

7 COME 11 !!!!!!!!!!!

The count is now up to 7. That’s the number of advertisers who have bailed on Rush Limbaugh. Pro Fowers.com mortgage lender Quicken Loans, mattress retailers Sleep Train and Sleep Number, software maker Citrix Systems Inc., online data backup service provider Carbonite and online legal document services company LegalZoom have all canceled their contracts because of Limbaugh’s remarks directed at Georgetown law student Sandra Fluke. Just like after Jack Paar walked out on his talk show in the early 60s, you can bet people will be tuned in to Limbaugh tomorrow to hear his take on t. If he is not on the air, there will be major crap hitting the fan. In the aftermath of this, I’m wondering if he can sustain his show on Twoeth By Tea” his honey’s company. I’m also wondering how long she’s going to stick around too.

ROMNEY WINS WASHINGTON STATE

Mitt Romney rolled to a double-digit victory in Washington state’s Republican presidential caucuses Saturday night, his fourth campaign triumph in a row and a fresh show of strength in the run-up to 10 Super Tuesday contests in all regions of the country. Rick Santorum and Ron Paul battled for second place, while Newt Gingrich ran a distant fourth. Claiming his victory, Romney said in a statement that the win meant Washington state’s voters “do not want a Washington insider in the White House. They want a conservative businessman who understands the private sector and knows how to get the federal government out of the way so that the economy can once again grow vigorously. “

WHO’S WATCHING THE STORE?

Once more, the saga of ineptitude in Luzerne County continues. The Times Leader revealed last week that the County might lose thousands of dollars in state reimbursements because an attorney, John Bellino did not obtain training required by the state. Bellino was a guardian ad litem The term ad litem refers to the appointment by a court of one party to act in a lawsuit on behalf of another party for instance for a child or incapacitated adult who is deemed as not being able to represent themselves. In this particular case, Guardian ad litems are attorneys appointed by the court to represent children who are in the custody of Children and Youth Services to ensure their best interests are protected, independent of their parents’ interest.
President Judge Tom Burke, on Friday would not comment on why Bellino remained employed when the County could not get a reimbursement on the work he did. Bellino was paid $50,000 grand a year. The Pennsylvania Department of Public Welfare reimburses Children and Youth 50 percent for guardian services. On July 1, 2011, the department no longer provided that funding for a guardian who did not obtain the training, which was mandated under an amendment to the state’s Adoption Act that went into effect last April. Bellino told the newspaper he did not obtain the training because he did not know he was required to take it. Belino was a guardian for 11 years and when the law changed requiring training, a few things appeared to have happened.
1. Bellino’s direct supervisors did not keep up with the amendment changes in a timely manner so he could get the training.
2. Bellino when informed of alternative training did not care enough about his job, his service to the Children & Youth Department or his $24.00 an hour job, or his flat $50,000 a year job to cancel his conflict and get his ass to training.
3. No one from C&Y, the Courts or anyone directly in charge prevailed on him to do so.
In a time when the County is in the red, when taxes have been raised, this is still another example of how things fall through the cracks. Mistakes can happen, I get that. I’ve made enough of them in my lifetime to build a mountain. But there has to be oversight, accountability and just plain common sense. On TV and here I have been calling for a systematic, employee/department audit to see if things could get better. Some will say, “how will we pay for that?” Government mindset is that a huge study like that will cost big bucks. It won’t. A team of managers/workers/citizen volunteers can look at each department objectively and get it done within a year. And I’m being generous here. Private business does it all the time. The added component here is this: reimbursement money might have been lost because once more in Luzerne county, no one was watching in the assigned department. I feel for Attorney Bellino a bit because he didn’t receive the proper guidance. But he should have taken the initiative to know the changes in the law too. And I’d bet that this is far from an isolated incident. The Dome is a big onion and right now the peeling process is just in its infancy. It’ll all get worse before it gets better.

WILKES BARRE’S DEBT

It was revealed this week that the City of Wilkes Barre is over 75 million dollars in debt. The taxpayers are up in arms because that amount is so huge. Karen Ceppa who ran for Controller last year has been concerned about the amount and has been vociferous in the pitfalls of it. But voters put in political veteran Kathy Kane as Controller. Mayor Leighton says the debt stacked up is tax base sustaining. The debt comes from reinvestment in the city through the rebuilding of the downtown, Coal Street Park and the Intermodal System. Leighton says that these projects with separate funding streams other than taxpayer dollars are paying down the debt. Even though the number is big, that does make sense to me. Economics people are saying that Wilkes Barre has an aging population either dying off or getting the heck out of town and has a pretty sick economy (thanks Wilkes Barre Chamber for that one) and that’s the reason the debt might be dangerous. But for right now, we have to take the word of Tom Leighton because he was duly elected, took a lot of hits from his opponents and was trusted to run the city for another 4 years.