Scott Wagner Hint — Pennsylvania State Sen. Scott Wagner (R-28) has come as close to confirming a 2018 gubernatorial as possible without specifically stating so.
We received, today, Dec. 22, the below email.
One of the main reasons that I decided to run for the Pennsylvania State Senate was because I was tired of being an ATM machine for politicians who did nothing and got zero results.
After a few years in office we have accomplished A LOT, much in part because of your help and steadfast support.
Even the media has taken notice of our results and how we have been successful in making Harrisburg more accountable to the people they serve.
Check out a video and news article on the link below which details the progress we have made in Pennsylvania in only a couple of years.
We are on the right track but have much more work to do.
Stay tuned for a BIG announcement early next year. Hint Hint.
What’s is hoar frost? That is snow that forms on surfaces that are colder than the frost point in the air around them, so water goes straight from vapor to solid. It’s often the kind on tree branches, telephone wires and other skinny items exposed to the chilly air.
So what is graupel? That is what happens when snowflakes fall through a cloud that contains supercooled water droplets. The droplets freeze onto the snowflakes and form misshapen, lumpy balls.
Republican incumbent Dan Truitt was 80 votes ahead in the initial count in the race for the 156th District Pennsylvania House seat but when all the votes were counted he lost by 25.
The Democrat replacing him on Jan. 3 is West Chester Mayor Carolyn Comitta.
Political organizations modeled after restrictive country clubs are doomed to failure.
Sorry Skyler, the extended forecast does not indicate a White Christmas.
Winter 2016 Starts Now — Today, Dec. 21, is 2015’s winter solstice which is the day with the fewest hours of sunlight during the whole year.
If this website’s clock is properly synched it is 5:44 a.m..EST. and that means winter has started.
The word solstice comes from the Latin words for “sun” and “to stand still.” As per the Old Farmer’s Almanac: In the Northern Hemisphere, as summer advances to winter, the points on the horizon where the Sun rises and sets advance southward each day; the high point in the Sun’s daily path across the sky, which occurs at local noon, also moves southward each day.
At the winter solstice, the Sun’s path has reached its southernmost position. The next day, the path will advance northward. However, a few days before and after the winter solstice, the change is so slight that the Sun’s path seems to stay the same, or stand still. The Sun is directly overhead at “high-noon” on Winter Solstice at the latitude called the Tropic of Capricorn.
A Russian TV company remade every single episode of the ’90s sitcom Married With Children in Russian with a Russian cast. They called it Schastlivy Vmeste which means happy together. Shoe Betcha.
Altoona Call Center Was Most Efficient And Is Now Closed
By Leo Knepper
In November, the Wolf administration announced that they would be laying off 600 employees from unemployment call centers across the state. The official line is that the layoffs were due to the Senate’s failure to pass legislation funding the call centers. On the surface that explanation makes sense. However, it becomes less likely when you consider that the Governor had redirected billions of dollars in state funding during the extended budget process in 2015. It is also an odd “coincidence” that four of the seven call centers selected for closure were in Republican Senatorial Districts.
He closed unemployment call center rated most efficient.
When that coincidence was pointed out to the Department of Labor and Industry, their spokeswoman flatly denied that politics played any role in the selection process. According to the Patriot-News, Governor Wolf stated that the closure decisions were “”based on a series of variables, including performance, capacity, efficiency, and ability of the centers to handle increased call volume.” Now information has come out refuting those claims as well.
Last Friday, Senator John Eichelberger and Senator Scott Wagner visited the Altoona Call Center. He had some interesting thoughts on the visit:
“The Altoona Center is rated as the most efficient center with the lowest cost per call, they are the only office trained to handle a federal displaced workers program, and their building is one of two owned by the Commonwealth; the remainder of the Call Center buildings are leased. Most businesses would not close their most productive office, nor would they shut down an operation in a building they’re stuck with instead of closing one where they can get out of a lease. Some of the employees feel that after the layoff, claim filing will become severely backed up and take out their anger on state legislators. The real question is whether or not that is the strategy of the Wolf administration. If their plan is to inflict enough pain on people who just lost their jobs simply to leverage the House and Senate, that smacks of the “Bridgegate” charges in New Jersey.” (Emphasis added)
The New Jersey Bridgegate scandal involved Governor Christie’s staff closing lanes of a local bridge to punish his political opponents. Considering how much heartburn some Republicans in the General Assembly are causing Governor Wolf, there are certainly some interesting parallels to the closure of the call centers and the Bridgegate Scandal in New Jersey. Senator Wagner and the Senate have submitted right-to-know requests for communications related to the closures and we’ll be curious to see what they find.
Prisoners have a lot of time on their hands. That is one explanation of why so many novels are written in jail cells. Name one? Okay. Cervantes was doing time when he started writing “Don Quixote.”
Respected attorney Lawrence Tabas has announced his candidacy for chairman of the Republican Party of Pennsylvania.
Thank God.
The leading alternative is Chesco GOP Chairman Val DiGiorgio, whose incompetency has weakened that once-powerful county organization. He has demoralized the most dedicated Republicans — many of whom now consider themselves former Republicans — for go-along/get-along-toe-the-party-line-at-all-cost types.
What is especially damning is that he did not even bother to try to win over dissenters but launched what could fairly be called a purge. That is the very definition of bad leadership.
A DiGiorgio chairmanship could very well be the end of the Pennsylvania Republican Party.
Tabas is general counsel of the state Republican Party. Even those he beats in court respect him. He has been a Republican activist for 38 years and has worked with candidates at every level.
And he knows what the job of party chairman is.
“Our mission will be to build a grassroots party that has 67 county parties that are stronger than the year before,” he said in the announcement of his candidacy. “In the next four years, we must achieve the following: win the Governor’s office; win an additional U.S. Senate seat; keep and expand our Congressional, State Senate, and State House majorities; win the row offices and judicial races; and re-elect Donald Trump and Mike Pence. “
He has pledged not to take a salary or do lobbying while chairman.
“I will serve as a volunteer Chairman and will not accept any legal work from the State Committee or any other Republican committees.. I have not been, nor will I be, a registered lobbyist, using my position for personal or professional benefit,” he said. “I also will go a step further and fully disclose all the state committee business to our membership so there are no conflicts of interest. I will be accountable to you by visiting all 67 counties every year.”
