The LuLac Edition #2596, February 6th, 2014
COURTRIGHT…..REALLY?
So during the big water crisis in Scranton last week, new Mayor Bill Courtright was nowhere to be found in the media. Just ask Steve Corbett. But this week during a snowstorm he’s all over the place welcoming the cast of “Jersey Boys” to the Electric City. Rally? Priorities here? I’m mean this isn’t even the original cast of the Broadway show, it’s the touring company! And to go further yet, it isn’t even the original Four Seasons. Can’t wait when a Beatles replica band passes through Scranton. Mayor Billy will just lose control.
NOW THE “W2” DEAL
A lot of my readers accuse me of bashing county employees, being envious of their positions and say I am biased toward each faction that seems to have become evident in the new Council form of government. But I wouldn’t want to be a County employee now for all the money in the world. As a worker, you do your job, try to impress your bosses and if you’re not into that, just do no harm. Whatever your stripe, if you are the office suck up or the guy just trying to make it to retirement you expect a few things to go right. You expect the basics to be taken care of. One of those basics is a W2 form.
Any normal person wants to get their taxes over with. No one likes to pay them and you rely on your employer, good, indifferent, bad or horrendous to provide this basic necessity to you. But when you find out that the person who at one time was the interim Finance head of the broke, embattled and beleaguered Luzerne County screwed up some of the W2 forms for employees, you have to wonder just what the hell is going on.
Once more the battle lines are drawn. Councilman Brominski says the person was being targeted for being too candid and asking questions. The other side says numbers don’t lie. Now a third camp says that there is a contingent of Lawton people who are only standing by him and no one else.
Here’s the bottom line. Once more fault is equally distributed. If this Finance person was so bad, why wasn’t she let go before this? And are we to believe that this new guy who was put in that place had no idea there was a problem?
I voted for the County Home Rule Form of government. Yeah I’m one of the few admitting to it these days. I want it to work but when you can’t handle the basics, how can you implement a grand vision.
THE TOWERING SNAPPLE CASES
Before I had my hip surgery in 2011, I took some precautions that would enable my life to be bit easier in my recovery. One of the mundane tasks that I took upon myself was to load up on Snapple.
I don’t pay full price for it and onw day I went out and bought six cases that were on sale. My sister who was thinking the same thing went out and got me four cases independently. I had one case at home. So when I went to the store with a buddy of mine to get my six, I was stunned when I returned home and counted 10 cases. My friend graciously took them upstairs to put in the storage area and I asked him to stack them side by side. He didn’t hear the side by side part and stacked them one on top of another. Later on that night, when I went to get something near the area, I saw 11 cases of Snapple stacked all the way to the ceiling. It was like something out of a Three Stooges episode. I had given my friend instructions and thought he understood them. I decided to let him handle it since he had over forty years of working for major manufacturers and warehouses in the Scranton area. But he handled it in the way that was familiar to him and not the way I wanted it.
I thought of that story today when I’ve been reading about the recent dust up regarding the new seating for the County Council meetings and how the wires were cut by county workers who were instructed to “handle it”. The wiring was vital to the broadcasting of the County Council meetings on Service Electric Channel 19. Video producer Scott Cannon who has been taping these feeds was said to have found the cut wires. Again, I don’t blame the workers on this because if they have a specific way of doing things for years, you can’t expect change overnight. But was there not someone in the Custodial staff that might have said, “What are these wires for?” Again, a little common sense. Some say this will cost the county more money and that’s a lot of Snapple if you ask me.
MANNERS PLEASE
When I did have the opportunity to watch the Council meeting (It was being replayed during the upper Bowl, shows you how awful that game was) I saw an exchange between tax payer advocate Brian Shiner and Chair Rick Morelli. I have to give Morelli credit for stopping Shiner’s snarky comments when he started to refer to Morelli as Maryanne in reference to past confrontations with former Commissioner Maryanne Petrilla. To those taxpayer groups taking time to speak, “Get to the point, be polite and stop with the snarky comments”. Actions like that only demeans your position and hurts your cause. These are elected officials and not punching bags for your sarcasm.CIPRIANI GOES FOR SEAT
Cipriani is a graduate of Bloomsburg University and holds a masters degree in organizational management from Misericordia University. In her most recent employment she served as legislative assistant to Representative Phyllis Mundy, specializing in constituent services and district outreach.
She is the 2011 recipient of the Governor’s Award for Local Government Excellence in the category of responding to adversity. Cipriani is also the founder and president of the West Side Council of Governments and an officer on the board of directors of CASA, court appointed special advocates. A founder of the Abrahams Creek Watershed Association, she was awarded the Luzerne Conservation Award for Stewardship. Cipriani has a record of service in many additional community organizations. She is married to Joe Cipriani, a professor at Misericordia University and is the mother of their two sons, David and Michael, both students at Kings.
MEDIA MATTERS
BEATLEDD ON PA LIVE
ECTV
ECTV Live hosts Tom Munley and David DeCosmo will be joined by Scranton's new Mayor William Courtright during their program for the week of February 10th. This segment represents the 200th program for the Public Affairs series which airs each day on Comcast Ch19 in northeastern Pennsylvania! DeCosmo, who also produces the show, points out the milestone represents well over 2,000 hours of Public Affairs programming! ECTV Live presents information on attractions, entertainment, and services presented to the general public FREE of charge. It is unique among area TV programming. The show runs at Noon and Midnight each day with some additional showings at 6 pm on available dates.
SUNDAY MAGAZINE
This Week on Sunday MagazineBrian Hughes speaks with Robert May, Producer of the "Kids For Cash" movie, which tells the story of the juvenile judicial scandal that rocked Luzerne County and the nation, opening in theatres this weekend.
And an encore of Brian's interview with Bela Ghandi from Match.com, and Dr. Mitch Nides, who discuss a recent survey about dating and smoking, just in time for Valentine's Day.
Sunday Magazine, Sunday morning at 5am on NASH-FM, 93.7, 5:30am on 97BHT, 6am on 97.9X, 6:25am on Magic 93, and 7am on True Oldies 590, WARM.
SUE HENRY’S SPECIAL EDITION
Tune in to Sue Henry's "Special Edition" this week as Sue recaps the week's news. Special Edition is heard Saturdays and Sunday on these Entercom stations, WILK FM Saturday at 2pm Sunday at 6 am on Froggy 101 Sunday at 7 am on The Sports Hub 102.3 Sunday at 7 am on K R Z 98.5 Sunday at noon on WILK FM 103.1.BUDDY RUMCHEK
Want to hear some great parodies on the news? Tune in to WILK Radio at 6:40 and 8:40 AM on Mondays. As Ralph Cramden used to say, “It’s a laugh riot!”
Our 1974 logo.
1974
When it was announced that the House of Representatives were going to be tasked to look into the Impeachment of Richard Nixon, this list of the entire committee was introduced to the country. By the summer they would later become household names.Peter Rodino (D-New Jersey) – Chairman
Harold D. Donohue (D-Massachusetts
Jack Brooks (D-Texas)
Robert W. Kastenmeier (D-Wisconsin)
Don Edwards (D-California)
William L. Hungate (D-Missouri)
John Conyers (D-Michigan)
Joshua Eilberg (D-Pennsylvania)
Jerome R. Waldie (D-California)
Walter Flowers (D-Alabama)
James Mann (D-South Carolina)
Paul S. Sarbanes (D-Maryland)
John F. Seiberling (D-Ohio)
George E. Danielson (D-California)
Robert F. Drinan (D-Massachusetts)
Charles S. Rangel (D-New York)
Barbara Jordan (D-Texas)
Ray Thornton (D-Arkansas)
Elizabeth Holtzman (D-New York)
Wayne Owens (D-Utah)
Edward Mezvinsky (D-Iowa)
Republicans (17)
Edward Hutchinson (R-Michigan)
Robert McClory (R-Illinois)
Henry P. Smith III (R-New York)
Charles W. Sandman Jr. (R-New Jersey)
Tom Railsback (R-Illinois)
Charles E. Wiggins (R-California)
David Dennis (R-Indiana)
Hamilton “Ham” Fish Jr. (R-New York)
Wiley Mayne (R-Iowa)
Lawrence J. Hogan (R-Maryland)
M. Caldwell Butler (R-Virginia)
Delbert L. Latta (R-Ohio)
William S. Cohen (R-Maine)
Trent Lott (R-Mississippi)
Harold V. Froehlich (R-Wisconsin)
Carlos J. Moorhead (R-California)
Joseph J. Maraziti (R-New Jersey)
In Pennsylvania, one of the Judiciary Committee members, veteran Congressman and former State House member Joshua Eilberg heard that he was going to be opposed in the Democratic primary by Chris Matthews. Eilberg later went on to impeach the President and Matthews wound up on MSNBC…….
in Luzerne County Attorney Michael Lewis says he will run for the Democratic nomination for the State Senate in the 20th district. He will eventually face off again incumbent T. Newell Wood and forty years ago this week the number one song in America and LuLac land was “Show and Tell” by Al Wilson.
posted by David Yonki @ 8:12 PM
11 comments
11 Comments:
From the "For what it's worth Department" Dave, Mayor Courtright was on Sue's program earlier in the day. In the past we sought out news about water breaks and actions being taken from the Water Company. The inability to reach it, as long as efforts were made beyond an on the air appeal, should be of far greater concern to the media and the public it represents.
IN RESPONSE
From the "For what it's worth Department" Dave, Mayor Courtright was on Sue's program earlier in the day. In the past we sought out news about water breaks and actions being taken from the Water Company. The inability to reach it, as long as efforts were made beyond an on the air appeal, should be of far greater concern to the media and the public it represents.
GOOD POINT, THANKS DAVE.
Manners?
I have more manners than most, it's the way I was brought up. Perhaps you should have listened to the entire back-and-forth and if you then still didn't understand my response you could have asked me. Virtually everyone in the room and those who watched/heard laughed because they understood and knew the background.
Mr. Morelli didn't stop my 'snarky comments'. There was only one and it was in direct response to several, repetitious warnings from him of what he perceived as me wasting my allotted time. In response to his saying he could 'have me sit down' I stated "Yes you can, sir" then continued with my public comments.
Respect is earned. From me it is a given at first until proven otherwise, even then I still act with respect unless the moment makes it unnecessary. I am probably the only person around who still addresses our County Manager as 'Mr.' Lawton, even in private as a face to face greeting.
In the future, Mr. Yonki, if you have a question or concern about me or my comments feel free to call and ask. I will respectfully answer your inquiry.
Thanks David DeCosmo.
Sad that Yonk is jumping on Corbett's attempted manufactured controversy.
The water main break was a large diameter pipe, the water company got on it, the city did their part and service was restored w/i a very reasonable time period.
Water and shower stations were set up, and the information was disseminated through the real media.
Corbett has a bug up his ass about the new Mayor, so if the mayor sneezes or coughs without covering his mouth and nose, Corbett will sound the alarm that the Mayor is causing a flu epidemic.
It is expected from Corbett, not from you Mr. Yonki.
Is that guy Ranieri a college student?
A few things Yonk, first off Eileen C. should be the State Representative for that area. She is a worker.
I'm stunned at what happened to the wiring in the meeting room at the Courthouse. Either the guys had no clue on how to set up a meeting, got bad or no direction from Morelli or everyone there is afraid to move. And when you are afraid to move, you make mistakes.
As for the Hoshanna chorus that attends the County Council meetings, let me say this. Mr. Shiner and his gang love to perform. I respect their endurance and I watch the meetings. But when the horse is dead and buried, don't try to embalm it again.
Al Wilson, good singer, good sound.
Shalom.
Bromo is no fool. He turns his back on some of the citizens. There might be a reason why.
IN RESPONSE
In the future, Mr. Yonki, if you have a question or concern about me or my comments feel free to call and ask. I will respectfully answer your inquiry.
WILL DO SIR.
A few things to go over, Edd Raineri is not a student at King's. He is a retired drug and alcohol manager. But he brings great expertise to his show.
Every time Yonki writes something about the county, someone gets pissed. I love it.
But here's an important question about the W2s and the jughead workers. Do you think this is just happening now or was it happening for years under the Commissioner form of government and no one just said anything about it?
Home Rule..rules man. As nasty as it seems, better to get it out than keep it in.
It's kind of funny, you feel for Steve Crbett's manufactured bullshit about Mayor Courtright, neither of you talked about the great job that was done in restoring water service, or mentioned something out of the area, around philly still no electricity.
Fine you were duped by corbett, but give creidt to the fine job that was done.
Glad to see Shiner having a pair of balls and calling NO-RELLI out. County Council is a lame duck with Marianne Morelli Petrilla heading the whole dog and pony show. Thank you Mr. Shiner for standing up to the clowns!!!
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