The LuLac Edition #4,489, March 31st, 2021

 

WRITE ON WEDNESDAY

Our “Write On Wednesday” logo.

This week The Times Leader issued a very cogent response to the construction of a skate park for people who enjoy that type of thing. Take a look on the reasons for the support.

SKATEBOARDERS DESERVE A PARK, BUT DON’T DAMAGE EXISTING PROPERTY

In the “This is why we can’t have good things” category: Because people keep proving they don’t appreciate and take care of said things, such as Wilkes-Barre’s Barney Farms tennis courts.

No one is going to argue that the Diamond City — or any other municipality — does a consistently outstanding job of creating, maintaining and updating municipal parks. Bigger cities in particular tend to drop park maintenance early in the “can’t afford it” process when money gets tight.

It’s unfortunate of course, because even small parks have been proven to provide many positives to municipal residents. But it’s also understandable. Cut essential services like police and fire protection, road repairs or snow removal and the howling is almost instant and ubiquitous. Neglect to spruce up a park and you likely will get little griping until the deterioration grows into an eyesore, or into a hazard.

So criticizing what some people did to Wilkes-Barre’s Hollenback Park tennis courts comes with a caveat: The park didn’t look its best to begin with. Part of this may be the old “broken window” theory: People see property deteriorating, so they figure they can do what they want with it, causing more deterioration.

 But that’s self-defeating logic for those doing any damage or altercations to a city park, which is what happened at the tennis courts. Someone decided the perceived disuse justified makeshift re-purposing, and they tried to turn it into a skateboard park, damaging the court surfaces.

 All those people did is send a message to taxpayers that suggests skateboarders won’t respect city property, making the average resident less inclined to support a real skateboard park. We had a similar situation when the levee was thoroughly revamped to create two gateways to the river with lots of concrete and masonry to carve out public spaces. Skateboarders started abusing the facilities, forcing modifications to the property.

According to one story — never verified — from a city official, a skateboarder even threatened to keep damaging the property until the city built a park for the sport. Ah, blackmail through vandalism: How could that fail to win hearts?

Skateboarders deserve a park. Mayor George Brown is trying to arrange funding to not only build one, but build a first-class facility.

Brown showed considerable restraint, in a Tuesday story by staff writer Jerry Lynott, regarding the damage done at Hollenback. He voiced dismay and vowed to remove the makeshift obstacles, but shifted the conversation to his effort to create a real skateboard park, possibly with the help of the Luzerne Foundation, at the city’s Hollenback Park.

Skateboarders — and all who use public park property — would serve their own ambitions best by respecting what taxpayers provide. Indeed, they could prove they are worthy of additional investment in new facilities by helping maintain the old ones, volunteering to keep things clean, maybe even working to line up some free help and supplies for maintenance if an appropriate deal could be worked out with the city.

You want a skateboard park? Earn it by respecting the public parks we already have.

— Times Leader

The Lulac Edition #4,488, March 25th, 2021

 

MORE GUN EPISODES

Nearly twenty Americans shot to death by two crazed gunmen. Young punks who are the very definition of losers.

Innocent productive lives taken. Families mourn. Candlelight vigils fired up. Tears shed.

Republicans offer thoughts and prayers but SAY DON’T TAKE OUR GUNS!

Democrats and thinking people say, “We never wanted your fucking guns!”

Senators like Joe Mancien say they won’t support even the mildest of background checks,

The media has past victims and gun advocates on TV.

Bodies are buried. Families cry.

Nothing gets done. Again.

Wash rinse and repeat.

We move on.

Until the next time a maniac with an assaults weapon kills innocents.

Obla di  oblada….life goes on.

So does the killing.

Again.   

 

BOBECK AD FOR JUDGE UP 

 

 

 

RACHEL LEVINE BECOMES FIRST TRANSGENDER OFFICIAL CONFIRMED BY SENATE

Dr. Levine (Photo: AP)

The Senate on Wednesday confirmed Rachel Levine as assistant secretary for health at the Department of Health and Human Services. Levine is the first openly transgender federal official to be confirmed by the U.S. Senate. The vote was 52-48.

 Levine, who is a graduate of Harvard and Tulane Medical School, has helped lead Pennsylvania's response to the COVID-19 pandemic. She previously served as the state's physician general.

 “Dr. Rachel Levine will bring the steady leadership and essential expertise we need to get people through this pandemic — no matter their zip code, race, religion, sexual orientation, gender identity, or disability — and meet the public health needs of our country in this critical moment and beyond,” Biden said at the time of her nomination. “She is a historic and deeply qualified choice to help lead our administration’s health efforts,” he added.  (Yahoo News)  

 

JOE MANCIEN’S (FATHER OF MISS 671%) AND HIS PATHETIC EGO DANCE

Little Joey Mancien has now decided that he wants to be the Democratic party kingmaker. This sorry excuse for a leader has done nothing in his tenure but build himself and his family up. Remember the EpiPen episode.

In 2016, Mylan's pricing of the EpiPen, used to treat anaphylaxis (severe allergic reactions), became a focus of public anger. Mylan had secured the rights to the nearly 50-year-old EpiPen as part of the Merck KGaA deal in 2007. At that time annual sales were around $200M.^[Bresch saw an opportunity to increase both the sales volume and the profit margin. The company launched a marketing campaign to increase awareness of the dangers of  it for people with severe allergies that made the brand "EpiPen" as identified with its product as "Kleenex" is with facial tissue; the company also successfully lobbied the FDA to broaden the label to include risk of anaphylaxis and in parallel, successfully lobbied Congress to generate legislation making EpiPens available in schools and in public places like defibrillators are, and hired the same people that Medtronic had worked with on defibrillator legislation to do so. From 2007 to 2016, Mylan also increased the price of EpiPens by 461 percent, from around $100 for a package of two pens to around $600. By the first half of 2015, Mylan had an 85% market share of such devices in the U.S., and in that year sales reached around $1.5B and accounted for 40% of Mylan's profit. The price increase in 2016 was met with widespread, sometimes vitriolic, criticism of Bresch and Mylan. Bresch explained at the 2016 Forbes Healthcare Summit that Mylan's price increases were justified by the many improvements that the company made to the product.  As a response to the controversy, Bresch led Mylan to introduce a generic version of the device which sells for half the price of the brand-name device The generic version remains more expensive than the original brand version of EpiPen prior to Mylan's purchase of the rights, even when accounting for inflation.

Proxy filings show that from 2007 to 2015, Bresch's compensation rose from $2,453,456 to $18,931,068, a 671% increase in pay. (wikipedia)

That’s the morality of his daughter. But little Joey needs to get affirmation by saying he wants bi partisanship when he knows he is the person that can stall efforts to really make America a better place to live.  He calls himself a Conservative Democrat but in reality he is stubborn and never has produced any real results           

In July 2017, he said that he was one of about ten senators from both parties who had been "working together behind the scenes" to formulate a new health-care program, but that there was otherwise insufficient bipartisanship on the issue.

Insufficient bipartisanship on the issue? Hey little Joey, that was a clue!

Try getting one and get to work supporting this President. (LuLac)

  

VOTING RIGHTS CLASH HURTLES SENATE TOWARD NUCLEAR BREAKDOWN

 

There’s no better preview of the voting rights buzzsaw that’s about to splinter the Senate than the current disagreement between Amy Klobuchar and Roy Blunt.

Klobuchar and Blunt are a notably effective bipartisan pair on many issues, running the Rules Committee in near-alignment during its thorough probe of the Jan. 6 Capitol insurrection. But the goodwill between the Midwesterners falls apart when it comes to the voting rights package that Democrats are championing.

Despite a career built on her rock-solid relationship with Republicans, Rules Chair  Klobuchar (D-Minn.) now says she’d be willing to scrap the filibuster to pass the voting rights measure – echoing a growing number of Democrats trying to consolidate around one bill to force the Senate into a nuclear rules change. But Blunt, a former Missouri secretary of state and senior Republican on the committee, calls Democratic voting rights legislation an “unprecedented power grab by the federal government.”

“This is just a fundamental disagreement … people believe that we should make it easier to vote,” Klobuchar said. “We continue to talk to them to figure out if there’s any common ground. But right now you are seeing a fundamental difference between the two parties on voting. Let’s not sugarcoat it.” (Politico)

Here’s the thing. Democrats need to start taking cannons  to a knife fight.  The Republican party will not budge on issues that even benefit their own constituencies . All they care about is power. Power to obstruct, power to enrich their donors and power to screw the middle class. The Democrats need to enforce the filibuster. Make the son of a bitches work for it. Or else eliminate it all together.

Bipartisan ship is DEAD. It was bludgeoned to death by Mitch McConnell and his lust for power. His cunning sick mind has penetrated the very soul of his party.  

He and the impotent GOP party Senators so afraid of their shadows need to be stopped. The Democrats need to show the same consideration to the Republicans that the GOP has done since electing Barack Obama.

It’s time for the Dems to grow some stones and crush this ignorant prideful group of Republicans who claim to be patriots.

They are nothing BUT! (LuLac)

 

CASEY, COLLEAGUES REINTRODUCE LEGISLATION TO PREVENT HAZING ON COLLEGE CAMPUSES

 Senator Bob Casey (Photo: LuLac archives)

U.S. Senators Bob Casey (D-PA) and Bill Cassidy, M.D. (R-LA) and U.S. Representatives Lucy McBath (D-GA-06) and Steve Stivers (R-OH-15) re-introduced the End All Hazing Act to provide parents and prospective students with better information about universities’ histories of hazing in an effort to increase transparency and accountability in hazing nationwide. The bill would require colleges and universities to post on their websites instances of hazing that took place on campus or within a student organization. Providing this information would improve transparency and assist students in making the best choices for their future.

 “Hazing is a horrendous act that has absolutely no place in our society. The bipartisan End All Hazing Act is a critical tool that would provide much needed transparency to students and parents about past instances of hazing on college campuses to help prevent families from losing loved ones,” said Senator Casey.

 “Prospective students and their families should feel safe no matter what school they choose,” said Dr. Cassidy. “By increasing transparency, the bill will ensure that hazing is never swept under the rug.”

 “We have a duty to ensure that schools are a safe environment for our students. The impacts that hazing has on young people across our country are heartbreaking and unacceptable,” said Rep. McBath. “This bipartisan, bicameral legislation strengthens important national standards for data collection and reporting hazing instances so that students and their families are able to make the best decision to support their educational wellbeing. This step we are taking together represents a vital one to protect the health, safety, and success of students.”

 “Hazing is an unacceptable and dangerous practice that does not have a place in any student organization that’s mission is to help young people learn and develop,” said Rep. Stivers. “I’m proud to join this bipartisan, bicameral coalition to continue to educate, inform, and ensure that students have the safe learning environment they deserve.”

 Casey first introduced the End All Hazing Act in October 2019 as a result of the death of Tim Piazza, a Penn State student who died due to hazing at a fraternity event in February 2017.

 

 REP. CARTWRIGHT: AMERICAN RESCUE PLAN ESTIMATED TO BRING AT LEAST $300 MILLION TO NEPA TO PROTECT JOBS AND CRITICAL PUBLIC SERVICES

MILLIONS MORE TO BE DISTRIBUTED TO STATE GOVERNMENT TO PASS ON TO PA-08 BOROUGHS, TOWNSHIPS, SMALLER CITIES

 

Congressman Matt Cartwright (Photo: LuLac archives)

U.S. Representative Matt Cartwright (PA-08) today announced that the American Rescue Plan passed by Congress and signed by President Biden yesterday would make an estimated $300 million available directly to the counties and larger cities that comprise the Eighth Congressional District. Millions more will also be distributed to the state government to pass on to boroughs, townships and smaller cities. These urgently needed resources will help keep frontline employees like police, firefighters and EMS workers on payroll and maintain essential local public services.

 “The American Rescue Plan is now law, and more help is on the way to Northeastern Pennsylvania,” Rep. Cartwright said. “I pushed for this because it is desperately needed to pay for police departments, first responders, municipal waste collection, street and road repair, and the whole range of local government services we depend on. The pandemic created shortfalls in the revenue that normally pays for all these things.”

 Relief Funding Estimates for Counties and Cities in PA-08

 County Allocations

 Allocation ($ millions)

 Lackawanna

 40.66

 Luzerne

 114.70

 

Metro cities

 Allocation ($ millions)

 Hazleton

 17.90

 Scranton

 69.90

 Wilkes-Barre

 38.80

 Source: Calculated estimates prepared jointly by the House Committees on Appropriations, Oversight and the Budget.

 These funds will be distributed through the U.S. Treasury Department via the Coronavirus Local Fiscal Recovery Fund created by the American Rescue Plan. The Pennsylvania State Government will also receive millions of relief dollars to distribute to boroughs, townships and smaller cities in Eighth Congressional District counties. Localities of every size would receive dedicated allotments.

 The American Rescue Plan also creates a Coronavirus State Fiscal Recovery Fund, from which Pennsylvania’s state government is estimated to receive $7.29 billion. From a Capital Project Fund, the state government would receive an estimated $279 million to carry out critical capital projects directly enabling work, education, and health monitoring, including remote options, in response to the public health emergency.

 Funds are available for use until December 31, 2024.

 All matters of execution — including allocations of funding, regulations prescribing eligible uses of payments and resolving matters of statutory ambiguity — will be determined by the guidance and regulations promulgated by the Secretary of the Treasury, which will be determinative. As such, final allocations may vary from the estimates provided above.

 Note: Metro cities estimates use FY2020 HUD data to identify populations eligible for assistance. Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) urban county adjustments use FY2020 HUD data to identify populations eligible for assistance. Funding to localities would be reduced to the extent that such cities apply for and receive funding as a metro city under this proposal.

 In all, the American Rescue Plan makes available $350 billion for state and local government entities across the U.S. through the Coronavirus State and Local Fiscal Recovery Funds, $10 billion through a Capital Project Fund and $2 billion for counties where there is a negative revenue impact from federal activities.

 

 MEDIA MATTERS

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BOLD GOLD COMMUNITY FORUM

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SUNDAY NIGHTS!

 

1987 

 

Our 1987 logo.

IBM releases PC-DOS version 3.3………Gerber survey find most popular names for newborns are Jessica and Matthew……US performs nuclear test at Nevada Test Site…. Fred Currey acquires Greyhound Bus Company……American televangelist Jim Bakker resigns amid rape accusation by his secretary, Jessica Hahn…….Yvonne van Gennip skates ladies world record 3 km (4:16.85)……FDA approves sale of AZT (AIDS treatment)……NASA launches Palapa B2P……Soap opera "Capitol" final episode…….Soviet filmmakers arrive in Hollywood for an entertainment summit………France beats Ireland, 19-13 at Lansdowne Road, Dublin the clinch the outright Five Nations Rugby Championship for the 8th time and 4th Grand Slam title……Soap "Bold & Beautiful" premieres….US offers military protection to Kuwaiti ships in the Persian Gulf….Former West German Chancellor Willy Brandt resigns as chairman of the Social Democratic Party At the 1st Soul Train Music Awards: Janet Jackson, Luther Vandross win….The US Supreme Court rules that gender-based workplace affirmative action plans do not constitute discrimination on the basis of sex under the Civil Rights Act 1964……National Federation of State High School Associations adopt the college 3 point shot (21 feet)…..WrestleMania WrestleMania III: Pontiac Silverdome, Pontiac, MI (93,173): Hulk Hogan successfully defends WWF Heavyweight title against André the Giant…. 7th Golden Raspberry Awards: "Howard the Duck" wins…..Vincent van Gogh's "Sunflowers" sells for a record 22.5 million pounds ($39.7 million) and the 49th NCAA Men's Basketball Championship: Indiana beats Syracuse, 74-73; Hoosiers' guard Keith Smart hits game-winner in final seconds, intercepts full court pass at the last second and in 1987 the number one song this week in LuLac land and America was “Lean On Me”  by  Club Nouveau.