Bill Cosby Charged Says Biz Journal

Bill Cosby Charged Says Biz JournalBill Cosby Charged Says Biz Journal — The Philadelphia Business Journal has just reported that Montgomery County District Attorney Risa Vetri Ferman has charged disgraced celebrity Bill Cosby with aggravated indecent assault for  a 2004 incident in which he allegedly sexually attacked  Andrea Constand at his Cheltenham home after drugging her with wine and pills. Ms. Constand was then the director of operations for Temple University’s women’s basketball team.

The charge is a first degree felony which means that if convicted the Cos theoretically faces a 20 year sentence in a state prison.

This is a racial thing. If Cosby was a white guy like Bill Clinton, his wife would be running for president and he’d still be going hey, hey, hey.

Bill Cosby Charged Says Biz Journal

Wolf Ego Wasted 6 Months

By Leo Knepper Wolf Ego Wasted 6 Months

On Tuesday (Dec. 29), Governor Wolf used  his line-item veto on the budget lawmakers sent him right before Christmas. He could have and should have done the same thing back in June. However, he was more interested in holding state funding hostage to apply maximum leverage through the negotiation process.

In his address on the line item veto, Wolf continued to repeat the lie that the budget as passed would result in a cut to education funding. First and foremost, Pennsylvania already has the eleventh highest spending per pupil in the country. The argument that taxpayer need to continue to put up more money without seeing any improved results is absurd. However, that is Wolf’s demand; he is more than willing to play fast and loose with the facts and math to make that happen.

During his press conference announcing his decision to exercise the line-item veto, Governor Wolf continued to repeat the lie that the budget on his desk would cut education funding. In fact, as noted by the Commonwealth Foundation the only “cut” one might be able to identify would be the difference in spending between what the Governor wants and what the legislature sent him. When you compare the 2015-2016 budget to the 2014-2015 budget, this year’s proposed education budget outspends last year’s budget when you look at the totals.

Mr. Knepper is executive director of Citizens Alliance of Pennsylvania

Wolf Ego Wasted 6 Months

 

Wolf Whining Explained By Benefield

Wolf Whining Explained By BenefieldBy Nathan Benefield

This morning, (Dec. 29) Gov. Tom Wolf signed the state budget on his desk, using his line-item veto (and item-reduction veto) power to cut the spending by more than $6 billion, targeting certain areas.

Calling the budget “garbage” and an “exercise in stupidity” while lambasting lawmakers because “they ran out of town,” Wolf asked for more compromise, saying, “Let’s get back to work.”

Of course, such overtures are unlikely to improve his relationship with legislative leaders.

So what did Gov. Wolf strike from the budget? Here are some notable cuts from the veto message:

  1. Reducing the “basic education” line item by $3.1 billion. Ostensibly, this provides six months worth of funding and is intended to get lawmakers back to the table. The real difference between the current budget and what Wolf wants is about $250 million in K-12 education funding.As we pointed out this morning, Wolf’s claim that the budget would “cut” education funding by $95 million is a lie. The budget provides a $400 million increase in public school funding. The only item being reduced is for school construction—this isn’t being “cut” but will be funded with state bonds. In fact, that proposal is part of the framework budget too, as you can see from Gov. Wolf’s own spreadsheet.

    The only cut to education is the one Wolf made today.

  2. Reducing Medicaid by $2 billion and Corrections by $900 million. Wolf reduced the line items “Medical Assistance – Capitation” (Medicaid) and “State Correctional Institutions”—also to provide six months of funding.But these reductions don’t make much sense. Is the commonwealth not going to make Medicaid payments after January 1? Will the state stop paying prison guards in the new year? That seems unlikely—these payments have been going out already, even without a budget.
  3. Zeroing out the Public Employee Retirement Commission (PERC). This makes little sense—unless Wolf wants to prevent PERC from issuing analyses of pension legislation, which is a requirement for passing pension reform. Oh…I see what he did there.
  4. $69 million in line-item vetoes in the Department of Agriculture.
  5. $6 million in line-item vetoes and reductions in Community and Economic Development. This includes items the Commonwealth Foundation has identified as “corporate welfare”—we actually had more suggestions for line item vetoes here.
  6. $9 million in line-items vetoes from the Department of Health.
  7. A $31 million reduction for the Senate and $19 million reduction for the House of Representatives. I wonder who he is trying to punish with those vetoes? Wolf also vetoed $14 million from legislative support agencies.

Gov. Wolf did well to release emergency funding for schools and nonprofits. But that’s something he should have done six months ago. Wolf’s own comment, “We’re now at a point where I don’t want to hold the children of PA hostage,” confirms this is exactly what he’s been doing by vetoing the entire budget in June and vetoing subsequent stop-gap measures.

His signing of the budget today releases some of those hostages, for the time being at least. But his punitive vetoes show he’s not yet done playing political games.

Mr. Benefield is vice president of Policy Analysis for the Commonwealth Foundation for Public Policy Alternatives.

Wolf Whining Explained By Benefield

James Bond Actors Include Names You Might Not Consider

James Bond Actors Include Names You Might Not Consider
The real James Bond

James Bond Actors Include Names You Might Not Consider William Lawrence Sr Omnibit 12-29-15

Can you name all the actors who played James Bond in movies? Try. Betcha forget David Niven who had the role in the 1967 version of Casino Royale, which strangely enough, was made as a comedy. It also featured Wo0dy Allen  who played Jimmy Bond. No Jimmy does not count as James.

Actually, a plot point involves Niven naming all the spies James Bond to confuse the enemy so one could argue that those spies played by Terence Cooper, Joanna Pettet, Daliah Lavi, Peter Sellers and Ursula Andress also played James Bond.

The Burt Bachrach song, The Look of Love, comes from the movie. It was a hit and got an Oscar nomination.

If you really want to get technical stuntman Bob Simmons played Bond in the opening credits of the first few movies.

And yes,  Barry Nelson played him in a 1954 television CBS special based on Casino Royale. Peter Lorre played his adversary, Le Chiffre.

Bond, of course is named for famed Philadelphia ornithologist James Bond who must have had a heck of time ordering a pizza after the movies became popular.

For the record, the other actors who have played  Bond in film are Sean Connery, George Lazenby, Roger Moore,  Timothy Dalton, Pierce Brosnan, and Daniel Craig.

James Bond Actors Include Names You Might Not Consider

 

 

William Heider R.I.P.

William Heider R.I.P.William Heider R.I.P. — William A. Heider of Springfield, Pa., died Dec. 27. He was 77.

Mr. Heider was born in Passaic, N. J. He was the son of the late William and Ruth Heider (nee Bonnema).

He was a proud 1st Lieutenant in the New Jersey National Guard. He was employed as an engineer and product manager for AT&T, launching telephone prototypes. He had a great sense of humor, a big heart and loved spending time with his family, especially his grandchildren. He was a swimming official for his daughters’ swimming careers with PCY Dolphins.

He is survived by his beloved wife, Marilyn (nee Kole), his children Jennifer Berenyi (Norbert), Melissa Companick (John), and Alison Lavery (Billy), his grandchildren Isabella, Julianna, Liam, Alyssa and Ryan, his siblings Anna Dolack (the late David), Ellen Mitro (John), Ruth Cabral and Richard Heider (Linda), and many nieces and nephews.

Relatives and friends are invited to visit the family  10-11 a.m., Saturday, Jan. 2,  at  The Donohue Funeral Home, 3300 West Chester Pike, Newtown Square, PA  followed by a memorial service.

In lieu of flowers, contributions in his memory may be made to the American Diabetes Association, 150 Monument Road, Suite 100, Bala Cynwyd, PA 19004.

William Heider R.I.P.

William Lawrence Sr Omnibit 12-28-15

William Lawrence Sr Omnibit 12-28-15

Yes Miranda, there is a Good King Wenceslas. The Bohemian ruler is buried in Saint Vitus Cathedral in Prague.

James Wigo Bonus At RTM

James Wigo Bonus At RTM — The Rose Tree Media School Board just voted to give Superintendent James Wigo a $6,667 performance bonus. James Wigo Bonus At RTM

Wigo’s base salary is $181,001 — at least as of 2013-14, the most recent record at OpenPaGov.org. Note that does not include benefits like health care or the obscene pension he can look forward to getting.

So why does he need a performance bonus? Is his base compensation package really not enough to ensure top performance?

In the private sector, bonuses are a way of divvying up profits hence they make sense there. They make no sense for non-profit like the Rose Tree Media School District. Wigo is more than — far more than actually — compensated with his base package. We are, in fact, quite confident RTM can find someone who would work just as hard and perform just as well if not better with half of Wigo’s compensation package.

What the RTM Board did was not just pointless — Wigo would have quit if he didn’t get the bounus? LOL — but thoughtless considering Pennsylvania’s budget turmoil. Did you know that RTM gets about 15 percent of it’s $94.76 million budget from the state?

Wigo should — no must — give this bonus back. It’s the only decent thing to do. It’s just a drop in the bucket to this very rich man and it would set an necessary example of leadership.

James Wigo Bonus At RTM

 

William Lawrence Sr Omnibit 12-26-15

William Lawrence Sr Omnibit 12-26-15

Life begins at 40? That was the title of the best selling non-fiction book in 1933 from which we get the saying.  It’s author was Walter Boughton Pitkin. When he was born in 1878 the life expectancy was 40. When he wrote the book it had risen to 60.

William Lawrence Sr Omnibit 12-25-15

William Lawrence Sr Omnibit 12-25-15

The first Christmas in the Philippines was celebrated about 1300 AD. This would be about 200 years before Ferdinand Magellan discovered the country for the western world.

Merry Warm Christmas 2015

Merry Warm ChristmasMerry warm Christmas from maybe not sunny but certainly warm Philadelphia. Or Delaware County, anyway.