New York Sought WTC Back Taxes

New York Sought WTC Back Taxes — An attempt by New York City to try to get $34.8 million in back property taxes for the Twin Towers and two nearby buildings was slapped down, Dec. 9,  by Administrative Law Judge Marlene F. Scwhatz of the city’s Tax Appeals Tribunal.

The city claimed the property was subject to 3.9 percent commercial rent tax through 2005, when the state legislature ended the tax for all properties below Canal Street, and that despite the destruction of the buildings by terrorist on Sept. 11, 2001,  “the airspace that had been surrounded by the buildings still existed.”

Property owner Larry Silverstein pointed out that the government seized control of the entire site in 2001.

New York Sought WTC Back Taxes

New York Sought WTC Back Taxes

Inky Finally Reports On The Crisis In Obstetrics

The Philadelphia Inquirer, this morning, got around to reporting about the health care crisis facing expectant mothers and their babies.

“Fifteen hospitals in the eight-county Philadelphia region have closed their labor and delivery units since 1999, including two last year,” the Inky noted.

In the last paragraph, the Inquirer finally gets around to explaining the cause via Ken Braithwaite, regional executive of the Delaware Valley Healthcare Council of the Hospital and Healthsystem
Association of Pennsylvania, which represents area hospitals.

“Hospitals are being squeezed by low insurance payments, especially from Medicaid; the high cost of medical liability insurance; and a shortage of obstetricians,” said  Braithwaite.

Ten years ago the doctors were screaming about these issues especially regarding the need for tort reform regarding medical liability.

The Inquirer dismissed these concerns with stories that could have been written by the trial lawyers.

If they did a proper job of journalism the problems would be much less today.

 

Inky Finally Reports On The Crisis In Obstetrics

Pope Benedict Addresses Ecology

Pope Benedict Addresses Ecology — Pope Benedict XVI in his homily for the liturgical feast of Solemnity of Mary, Mother of God — which coincidentally occurs on New Year’s Day — commanded the faithful to be environmentally responsible.

And,of course, he’s right.

So the next time some green-wearing Chicken Little throws this at you in an attempt to lead you to the power-hungry statist den of a government Foxy Loxy tell him that you hate pollution and love the environment more that he and that we must;

–Stop tearing down hydro-electric dams and start replacing coal plants with nukes.

–End Davis-Bacon so we can maximize the use of time and resources to replace traffic bottle-necks.

–Get rid of toll roads.

–Indemnify businesses for accidents that occur in the homes of telecommuters.

–Drill for oil in Alaska so we don’t have to drill in areas  under the control of nations not inclined to hear the Pope.

Pope Benedict Addresses Ecology

Pope Benedict Addresses Ecology

Pennsylvania Losing Congressional Seat

Pennsylvania Losing Congressional Seat — Pennsylvania’s congressional delegation will drop by one to 18 according to census estimates. This will be exactly half the number of congressmen the Keystone State sent to Washington in 1930.

The 435 members of Congress are divvied among the states based on population. While Pennsylvania is estimated to have grown by 2.6 percent to 12.6 million persons in the last decade that is far short of places like Arizona and Nevada which are estimated to have grown by 32 percent.

Each congressmen represents about 700,000 persons.

The district that gets dumped will be determined by Harrisburg.  In the last redistricting — which also resulted in the loss of a House seat — the Republican-controlled legislature made Democratic incumbents John Murtha and Frank Mascara fight it out in the newly drawn 12th District, a battle which Murtha sadly won.

The Republicans now hold a solid majority in the state Senate and the Democrats have narrow hold in the House. Obviously, things could change after November and the dumping of a congressman will be an underlying issue in the looming races.

Pennsylvania Losing Congressional Seat

Stories Missed By The Dino Media In ’09

Stories Missed By The Dino Media In ’09 — Foxnews.com has a slide show on the nine biggest stories missed by the “mainstream” media in 2009, which it says are:

1. The resignation of White House Green Jobs adviser Van Jones which happened after it became public that he thought the U.S. government was behind the 9/11 tragedy.

2. The ACORN tapes which revealed that the government-funded activist organization had no problem with giving advice on how to maximize the financial benefits of underage girls brought to this country illegally for prostitution.

3. How White House science adviser John Holdren has floated draconian ideas as to how to reduce the human population.

4. Climate-gate in which emails leaked from the leading research center for climate change showed the entire global warming movement to be a fraud. (I would have made this #1)

5. How the federal National Endowment for the Arts asked artists to promote President Obama’s political agenda.

6. The connections that Chas Freeman, who President Obama tried to appoint to chair the National Intelligence Council, has to the Chinese and Saudis.

7. The massive Tea Party protests.

8. President Obama’s appointment of Kevin Jennings as “safe school czar”. Jennings has promoted homosexual sex with minors.

9. That Democratic congressional districts have received nearly twice as much money per district as Republican ones.

I think I would add the water shortages in California’s San Joaquin Valley caused by government policy — it is likely to increase the cost of food for all of us; the pending removal of four major hydro-electric dams on the Klamath River on the California-Oregon border to restore a 300-mile migratory route for salmon — so much for global warming; and the attempts by the Obama administration to force Honduras to violate its constitution to  reinstall a law-breaker as president, whose socialism Obama had been sympathetic to.

And something to consider — if we continue to use the phrase “mainstream” to refer to newspapers, magazines and network TV newscasts,  it will soon be an antonym to its present definition.

The phrase, IIRC, was coined by Rush Limbaugh.

Stories Missed By The Dino Media In ’09

Christopher Coates Removed From Post

Christopher Coates Removed From Post — Christopher Coates, the man  who approved the civil rights complaint against New Black Panther Party for its behavior at a Philadelphia polling place in the November 2008 election, has been removed from his post as chief of the Voting Section of the Justice Department. Reportedly he is being transferred to the U.S. attorney’s office in South Carolina.

Deputy Chief Chris Herren is now acting chief.

The complaint was made after members of the New Black Panther Party wearing  military garb waved nightsticks and made racially-tinged remarks to voters.

The incident was videotaped and widely viewed on the internet.

The complaint was dismissed in May after Associate Attorney General Thomas Perrell, an Obama appointee, overruled six career lawyers who
were recommending it go forward.

Christopher Coates Removed From Post

 

Rate Hike For Pa.’s Self-Inflicted Traffic Snarls

Pennsylvania’s self-inflicted traffic snarls become more expensive, Jan. 3, when the Turnpike Commission raises the rate by 3 percent.

The PTC raised the rate by 25 percent last January.

Toll booths are always devices funded by taxpayers to snarl traffic,waste gas and produce smog and are an extraordinarily inefficient meansof raising revenue.

Kudos to the Commonwealth Foundation for the tip.

Thornburgh Say End ‘Top Heavy’ Turnkpike Commission

Former Pa. Gov. Dick Thornburgh is the latest to call for ending the Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission.

He notes that the ” top-heavy”  PTC, with more than 2,000 employees,  manages 537 miles of turnpike highways; compared to PennDOT which manages nearly40,000 highway miles along with tens of thousands more miles of localroads, railways and bridges.

“The Turnpike Commission is a haven for those who wish to gorgethemselves upon commonwealth tax dollars and load the payroll forpolitical purposes.”

Couldn’t say it any better, although It’s always nice to note that toll booths are always devices funded by taxpayers to snarl traffic, waste gas and produce smog and are an extraordinarily inefficient means of raising revenue.

BillLawrenceOnline.Com Home Page

Pennsylvania 38th In Roads

Pennsylvania 38th In Roads — Pennsylvania ranks 38th in cost-efficient highways according to a study by the Reason Foundation.

That would be out of 50 states, President Obama.

Hey, at least we are still ahead of New Jersey and New York.

North Dakota was first.

Pennsylvania 38th In Roads

Bob Surrick Called It 26 Years Ago

Bob Surrick called it 26 years ago Bob Surrick Called It 26 Years Ago

Today’s Philadelphia Inquirer has a story about Pennsylvania’s Judicial Conduct Board and how it has become perverted to protect rather than remove corrupt or bad judges.

The impetus for the piece is the scandal in Luzerne County where Common Pleas Judges are facing charges of taking nice kickbacks for sending juveniles to private-run detention centers often for fairly minor offenses.

Anyway, with regard to corruption in the state judiciary and the way the corruption is supposed to be sniffed out, attorney Bob Surrick brought up those very same points as a member of the state’s Judicial Inquiry and Review Board 26 years ago and was roundly quoted  regarding them in newspapers throughout the state. His crusade is part of his book Lawyers, Judges and Journalists, The Corrupt and Corrupters. 

Bob Surrick Called It 26 Years Ago

 

Bob Surrick Called It 26 Years Ago