Month: May 2016

China Sea Keeping Free

China Sea Keeping Free
Arleigh-Burke class guided-missile destroyer USS William P. Lawrence (DDG 110).

China Sea Keeping Free — China is claiming just about the entire ocean between Vietnam and the Philippines as its own and the rest of the world is telling it to get real.

The United States periodically sends warships into the area to make its point most recently the destroyer USS William P. Lawrence.

No relation.

The William P. Lawrence is named for a man who was the first naval aviator to fly twice the speed of sound in a naval aircraft and was also one of the final candidates for the Mercury space program. During the Vietnam War, Lawrence was shot down while on a combat mission and spent six years as a prisoner of war, from 1967 to 1973.

He was noted for resistance to his captors. He memorized every POW by name and rank while in captivity and developed a code by tapping on the prison walls to communicate with other prisoners.

John McCain said “he’s probably the greatest man I’ve ever known in my life.”

China Sea Keeping Free

 

FBI Pranks Pa Senate In Sting LOL

FBI Pranks Pa Senate In Sting LOL
Corrupt idiots work here.

FBI Pranks Pa Senate In Sting LOL — The FBI pranked the Pennsylvania Senate into unanimously passing a bill pushed by a fake business to limit who could dispose of used textbooks.

The vote on Oct. 14, 2010 was 49-0 to pass SB 1379. The bill never got out of the House and never became law.

It was part of a sting to catch corrupt Pennsylvania pols. It worked and is working. Good one, feds. Applause and a big LOL.

The FBI created the phony firm Textbook Bio-Solutions LLC in Florida as the bait and hired lobbyist Long and Nyquist — good choice, there — to do the fishing.

Long and Nyquist, who didn’t know they were being used, worked their magic and if the FBI wasn’t just goofing, the people of Pennsylvania would have had to deal with another stupid, corrupt, wasteful, special-interest law.

Details can be found in Jason Addy’s story at PoliticsPa.Com.

Since 2010, there have been significant, for-the-better changes in the Pennsylvania legislature including the arrival of Scott Wagner from the 28th Senatorial District. Wagner has been going after Long and Nyquist in the most beautiful fang-and-claw way.

Hat tip Bob Guzzardi.

Update: State Sen. Larry Farnese (D-1) has now been caught in the net.

FBI Pranks Pa Senate In Sting LOL

 

Paterno Focus Misguided

Paterno Focus Misguided — Joe Paterno is again the subject of headlines regarding the Jerry Sandusky scandal, this time alleging that he knew about his former assistant’s child molesting as far back as the 1970s.

Paterno Focus Misguided
Jerry Sandusky is not the only weirdness from Happy Valley.

The allegations appear to be wildly unfounded but just the same they got the headlines.

The legendary football coach  died in 2012 a few months after his dismissal from Penn State after charges were filed against Sandusky in November 2011.

Paterno’s culpability concerns his choice to inform university officials rather than law enforcement after being told Sandusky molested a young boy in the football team’s shower facilities in February 2001.

Sandusky who retired — strangely early and with an unusual compensation package  — as the football team’s defensive coordinator in 1999, still had access to the team’s facilities due to his emeritus status.

Among the officials so-informed was Penn State President Graham Spanier.

And this gets us to the puzzling aspect about the reporting. While Paterno’s name gets thrown out with even the most spurious connection to the events, far more relevant — and interesting — things are ignored.

Spanier, two weeks after he was told about Sandusky’s molesting, was informed that noted special education professor John T. Neisworth was also a molester.

As with Sandusky, he swept the matter under the rug and actually treated the victim bringing him the information with contempt.

So how accepted was (is?) child molestation in Happy Valley?

Here’s an even more remarkable under-reported story.

In 1998, a mother reported to University Police that Sandusky molested her son. Det. Ronald Schreffler compiled a case and submitted it to Centre County District Attorney Ray Gricar, who declined to prosecute.

In 2005, Gricar vanished without a trace along with county-issued laptop. The laptop was found in the Susquehanna River with its hard-drive missing.

You think that bit of weirdness might be a more interesting story than a whisper-down-the-lane report of something from the ’70s? Imagine if the Delaware County D.A. disappeared without a trace while in office.

In a more mundane matter, Spanier is getting an annual public pension of $59,000 for which Pennsylvania taxpayers are on the hook and can expect tax hikes to cover. Sandusky is getting a pension of $58,800. And Gary Schultz, another of the high-ranking officials to who Paterno reported the crime? He’s getting a sweet $330K per year.

Yes, Mr. and Mrs. Working Person, you are on the hook for this.

Paterno Focus Misguided

 

William Lawrence Sr Omnibit 5-7-16

Someone suggest you move to a cold, barren land of ice and rocks and you answer that you'll have Nunavut. Someone suggest you move to a cold, barren land of ice and rocks and you answer that you’ll have Nunavut.

Nunavut is the Canadian province north of Manitoba. It is the second-largest governmental subdivision in North America after Greenland and makes up about a fifth of Canada. About 37,000 people live there on 787,155 square miles.

Nunavut — William Lawrence Sr Omnibit 5-7-16

Corruption Caused Pension Crisis

Corruption Caused Pension Crisis

By Leo Knepper Corruption Caused Pension Crisis

No matter what pension plan design reforms the legislature enacts for future employees, the Commonwealth will still have a massive unfunded liability. The unfunded liability is the result of over-promising retirement benefits, poor investment performance, investment performance, but mostly a willful redirection of necessary pension contributions by the Pennsylvania government to other purposes. This gross negligence on the part of elected officials has been bipartisan. It started with the 2001 pension increase signed into law (Act 9) by Governor Ridge and continued through the Rendell years when he signed legislation that purposefully underfunded the pension systems (Act 40 in 2003 and Act 120 in 2010).

Decades of mismanagement have resulted in a combined $63.3 billion in unfunded liabilities, based on the market value of assets. The longer the unfunded liability persists, the worse it becomes. It’s helpful to look at the unfunded liability as a loan. This “loan” has a 7.5 percent annual rate. In Year 1, the principal is $63.3 billion. If no payments are made, the amount due increases to $68 billion next year, then $73.2 the following year and so on. In other words, the unfunded liability grows year after year unless the payment made exceeds interest and the cost of newly earned benefits.  And, just like any other loan we need to be making payments on the principal.

The loan example conveys the basics of the problem. Rep. John McGinnis (R-79) introduced HB 900 last year to address the unfunded liability. In his co-sponsorship memorandum, McGinnis states:

“Right now, just the annual interest on the pension debt is over $4 billion, equivalent to the full yearly salary and benefits for over 50,000 teachers.  The situation is so dire that there are likely scenarios where the pension assets will become exhausted in the next 8 to 15 years.  When that happens, benefits paid to retirees may well consume 40 percent to 50 percent of the general fund.  The consequences for our future only get worse as we delay dealing effectively with this problem.

“The right approach is to follow the recommendation of the 2014 Blue Ribbon Panel on Public Pension Funding commissioned by the Society of Actuaries and commit ourselves to paying off the current UALs [unfunded accrued liabilities] of SERS and PSERS over 20 years with level dollar funding.  It is not just the responsible thing to do after more than 10 years of serious underfunding–it is absolutely necessary to prevent substantial and irreversible harm to the future of Pennsylvania.”

We can avert the fiscal catastrophe. However, every day the General Assembly does not act, the unfunded liability grows. HB 900 is currently in the House State Government Committee. Please, contact your representative today at this link and urge them to take action.

Mr. Knepper is executive director of Citizens Alliance of Pennsylvania.

Corruption Caused Pension Crisis

Choosing Evil Is Not Voting

Choosing Evil Is Not Voting
Not participating is choosing evil.

Choosing Evil Is Not Voting — One of the annoying tropes that has occurred in the internet era is the tired claim that the “lesser of two evils is still evil.”

It’s not.

What is evil is to fail to fight evil. This means being unwilling to mitigate it. This means burying your talent which includes claiming that neither choice meets your pure standard hence you will not choose and escape blame.

It doesn’t work like that.

This November it appears the presidential race will be between a man with many flaws and a woman with no virtues.

A guy who occasionally says stupid and rude things, and a woman who is the subject of a serious criminal investigation, who has been a reputed liar since entering pubic life,  whose irresponsibility (putting it charitably) led to the unnecessary deaths of brave public servants and strengthened our enemies, who got a man imprisoned to cover up her failures, whose top assistant has close relations to our sworn enemies, and who has quite credibly committed the most base form of treason — selling out our national interest for mere cash.

And there are still some who are too “pure” to oppose this person.

That’s shameful.

Choosing Evil Is Not Voting

 

 

 

Heroin Oxy Plague In York County

Heroin Oxy Plague in York County

Heroin Oxy Plague Explained by SenatorBy Sen. Scott Wagner

This column concerns a very serious crisis that is plaguing our communities in Pennsylvania.

The crisis I am referring to is the prescription drug and heroin crisis.

In the summer of 2014 one of my Senate colleagues, Senator Gene Yaw from Lycoming County in Northern Pennsylvania who serves as Board Chairman for The Center for Rural Pennsylvania, announced to our Senate caucus that The Center was holding hearings around the state to highlight the heroin crisis.

The Center for Rural PA has held nine public hearings across Pennsylvania over the last two years.

I attended and participated in a hearing held in Reading on the heroin crisis in June of 2014.

I invited David Sunday – senior deputy prosecutor from the York County District Attorney’s office to attend the hearing with me.

What I learned that day was alarming. I learned that Baltimore is the heroin capital of the United States.

Click here for a story

York County is approximately 50 miles north of Baltimore – a short drive up Interstate 83. The majority of my Senate district borders the Maryland line.

While driving back to York from the hearing in Reading, Dave Sunday continued to educate me on just how large the heroin problem really is.

Dave Sunday discussed the interest that he and York County Coroner Pam Gay had in forming a Heroin Task Force in response to the heroin crisis in York County.

In the initial stages of the formation of the task force we received alarming York County drug death statistics from Pam Gay.

As a result of a combined effort the York County Heroin Task Force was co-founded by Senior Deputy Prosecutor Dave Sunday from the York County District Attorney’s office and York County Coroner Pam Gay in July 2014.

The mission of the York County Heroin Task Force is to form a partnership of community, medical and government agencies dedicated to reducing the abuse of heroin in our communities.

Click here to see the York County Heroin Task Force website –

I have personally known for years that prescription drug abuse was growing at an alarming rate.

As an employer, I noticed employees who experienced sprain or strain injuries being prescribed highly addictive pain killers.

The injured employees were treated at medical facilities and in many instances were given 30 day prescriptions for pain killers such as Vicodin or Oxycodone – both highly addictive drugs.

Approximately four years ago I had an informational piece printed regarding workers compensation system reforms that were needed in Pennsylvania – I sent the printed material to each and every Pennsylvania State House and Senate member to highlight changes that needed to take place within the workers compensation system, specifically the number of prescription drug pills that could be dispensed to an injured worker.

Surprisingly, only one House member contacted me to discuss ideas that I had.

I always knew that 30 day prescriptions to painkillers led to addiction, the cost to Pennsylvania businesses via the cost of the drugs, addiction treatment costs, lost work time, and absenteeism, to name a few are staggering.

In my opinion, prescription drug addiction has to easily be costing Pennsylvania businesses between $5 billion – $10billion  per year.

Statistics show that some people who become addicted to prescription drugs move on to heroin due to the lower cost and availability.

The prescription drug problem is a national epidemic.

The prescription drug industry is a multi-billion dollar industry – Drug companies pay cash inducements to doctors as an incentive to promote their drugs.

There are many articles on the internet that validate the size of the prescription drug industry and cash paid to doctors.

Many young teenagers have experimented at parties where a large bowl is passed around containing hundreds of various prescription drug pills obtained from family medicine cabinets – many teenagers become addicted to prescription drugs and due to the cost and availability they move on to heroin and become addicted.

I met with a group of York County school administrators in September of 2014 and I told them of my involvement in the Heroin Task Force and what I had learned.  I stated that drugs were available in their schools and that a fifty dollar bill could be given to most children in their school and they could go into the school and purchase heroin or prescription drugs.

I clearly remember the reaction from some of the school administrators. They were very upset with me for making these statements and they were sure that there were no drug issues in their schools.

During several conversations Dave Sunday stated to me that there are drug dealers standing on street corners or in alleys grossing $10,000 per week selling drugs.

The drug dealers have sophisticated operations and as a result drugs are everywhere – in the cities, at the malls, on street corners, convenience stores, in schools, at parties and at many places of employment.

This summer will be two years ago that the York County Heroin Task Force was formed.

We have all learned so much about the prescription drug and heroin crisis.

One of our Task Force members,  Charlene Sciaretta, shared the story of her son Danny who was taken by heroin.

Click here to view a video by Charlene about her son –

Charlene Sciaretta’s message is very clear.

Heroin does not discriminate.

Heroin does not know if you are black or white, rich or poor, young or old.

Heroin doesn’t care if you want to stop, if you’re clean and sober, rebuilding your life or have a family to take care of.

Heroin will eat you alive until you have nothing left, and then it still wants more.

Heroin is the type of drug that if you try just one time, you may be an addict forever.

Coroner Pam Gay continues to report death statistics monthly – the numbers are alarming.

We have seen an increase in heroin and prescription drug-related deaths since 2013, with a 3.5x increase in heroin-related deaths in just one year.

Below is a graph showing the increase in heroin-related deaths in York County from the 2013 – 2014 – 2015 years.

The goal of the York County Heroin Task Force is to reduce drug-related deaths and crime in our communities through public education, advocacy, media, law enforcement and legislation.

The Task Force is educating our citizens on the prevalence of the heroin problem, the signs and symptoms of addiction and the resources available.

Members of the Heroin Task Force and the York County Coroner’s Office have presented school and community heroin awareness programs approximately 70 times since July 2014 to church groups, middle and high schools (public and parochial), rotaries, lions clubs, police departments, fire departments, mayors groups, senior groups, township managers groups, borough supervisor groups, physicians, nurses and many more entities.

Since its formation, the Heroin Task Force has many notable accomplishments.

Members of the Heroin Task Force, in particular the District Attorney’s Office, were instrumental in obtaining Narcan / Naxolone for our local law enforcement in every police jurisdiction and the Pennsylvania State Police. Since implementing  the use of Narcan by York County Law Enforcement in April 2015 it has resulted in saving 99 lives by Law Enforcement personnel last year. Unfortunately not everyone who is saved by Narcan is grateful someone just saved their life – in many cases they can not wait to get their next dose of heroin.

It has partnered with the Byrnes Education Center to bring heroin and prescription drug education into middle schools and high schools. The Program is called, “Heroin: The Wake-up Call.” It is being funded by grant money. The program has been presented multiple times since January in York County and others.

The Task Force has and implemented use of prescription drug drop boxes in every York County Police Department and began a mobile program in Delta, PA in 2014 – in 2015, 4,460 pounds or 2.3 tons of prescription drugs were turned into the drop boxes and disposed of.

It has made recommendations to York-Adams Drug and Alcohol regarding treatment needs in 2014-15. As a result, additional funding obtained and detox/rehab and medication assisted treatment capacity has increased and is continuing to increase.

Members of the Heroin Task Force participated in several days of programming over a week-long prescription drug and heroin-related educational series that Central York High School offered to its students in April 2016, the first such series offered by any school in York County.
For a long time many people wanted to deny that their community, friend, child, spouse, co-worker, or family member was addicted to either prescription drugs or heroin.

Times have changed. People are dying in record numbers. Crime is up. Drug treatment facilities are overflowing with people that are addicted and need treatment.

The reality contains really bad news. People who are addicted to heroin only stand a 20 percent success rate of overcoming their addiction.

If you go to Google and search “prescription drug crisis America – heroin crisis – heroin needles in parking lots” story after story pops up.

I applaud Senior Deputy Prosecutor Dave Sunday, Coroner Pam Gay, and all the members of the York County Heroin Task Force for their involvement and participation to educate everyone in our community to address the prescription drug and heroin crisis.

I encourage you to learn more by visiting the York County Heroin Task Force website and Facebook page to see how you can get involved and what you need to do to help.

Click here to visit the Heroin Task Force website.

Sen. Wagner represents the 28th District in the Pennsylvania Senate.

Heroin Oxy Plague In York County