A bronze statue of Philadelphia-native Sgt. Wild Bill Guanrere, whose heroism was depicted in the Band of Brothers, will be unveiled Saturday, Sept. 19, at the Delaware County Veterans Memorial in Newtown Square, Pa. 19073.
The ceremony will run from noon to 2:30 p.m. according to spokeswoman Barbara Ann Zippi. The memorial is at 4599 West Chester Pike which is a few blocks east of Providence Road. The public is invited.
Apollo 16 was the next to last moon landing. Little, however, has been spoken of the crisis it faced and the horrific conditions which the crew had to endure. Astronauts John W. Young, Thomas K. Mattingly II and Charles M. Duke, Jr. were given potassium fortified citrus fruit drinks to avoid irregular heartbeats due to potassium deficiency. Unfortunately, this had an unconsidered side effect and there was no air flow to dissipate the aroma.
This was what was overheard by ground control: I have the farts again. I got ‘em again, Charlie. I mean, I haven’t eaten this much citrus fruit in twenty years! And I tell you one thing. In another twelve gosh darn* days, I ain’t never eating any more.
Think of the children, Governor, and stop playing politics.
The Pennsylvania Council of Children, Youth and Family Services has filed a lawsuit against Pennsylvania Governor Tom Wolf and the Pennsylvania Department of Human Services seeking to compel them to perform their duty to continue to fund the critical and essential services necessary to care for and protect the most vulnerable populations of this Commonwealth – abused, neglected and dependent children, their at-risk families and juvenile offenders.
The legal action, filed today, Sept. 15, with Commonwealth Court by Lamb McErlane, PC, seeks to ensure that child safety and community protection services are designated as being essential even during budget disputes. PCCYFS, which represents more than 100 private providers of child welfare and juvenile justice services in Pennsylvania, believes that children, youth and their families must be able to access needed and defined services without fear of delay or disruption, even in the absence of state budget decisions.
“Since July 1, PCCYFS has tried to work in a proactive and positive manner with the Wolf Administration to have the state’s child welfare and juvenile justice services designated as essential services to ensure that public dollars flow despite the current budget impasse,” said Bernadette Bianchi, Executive Director of PCCYFS. “Unfortunately the Governor’s Office has failed to acknowledge the Commonwealth’s responsibility to financially support funding for these mandated services. We wish we did not have to take this legal action, but it is necessary to ensure that children, who are entitled to these services, continue to have uninterrupted access to these crucial services.”
“In the vast majority of cases, these child welfare services – which include in-home supports, foster care, and residential placements – are court-ordered. Children requiring placement out-of-their own homes due to abuse or neglect need protection, but the Administration has nonetheless refused to classify these interventions as ‘essential’,” said attorney Joel L. Frank, legal counsel for PCCYFS.
“Juvenile offenders requiring rehabilitation to keep communities safe are also not included on this essential services list,” Frank said. “That the state receives federal money for many of these programs, but the Administration is refusing to make those existing federal funds, or the necessary state funds, available to counties to pay counties and service providers is frustrating, improper and violates a comprehensive federal and state statutory scheme enacted to protect and serve this specific population”.
“The state has a responsibility and a duty to fund these critical, essential programs,” said Alex Rahn, Wanner Associates and Government Affairs Consultant for PCCYFS. “The Administration’s failure to fund these programs – while at the same time claiming that child daycare subsidies are “essential” — is unacceptable and irresponsible public policy. This court action is designed to protect these vulnerable and at-risk populations. We will not stand by and allow the safety of children or our communities to be held hostage in this budget debate.”
Federal and state laws define the entitlements of children who have been abused or neglected. Services to ensure their ongoing safety, as well as the supports to be available to their families, are often also put into court orders. Many of these supports, including programs offered in the child’s home, foster family care and residential placement, are delivered through contracts between counties and private provider agencies. These services are clearly intended to be funded with designated public tax dollars.
Juvenile offenders who have been declared by the court to be in need of rehabilitation are another population of youth with entitlements to interventions. Those youth who present a threat to the safety of their community require placement interventions and are again primarily served through the private provider network. Although funding continues for some youth served in the State Youth Development Centers, services for youth presenting the same behaviors placed in private facilities are not.
Private agency staff are working every day to meet these legal and ethical expectations – many programs are staffed round the clock, seven days a week. The additional pressures of worrying about how to pay for the care, supervision, food and transportation for these children and youth by exhausting agency resources, taking out loans and staff layoffs are an unfair consequence to the agencies committed to this work. These services are absolutely essential to the health, safety, and protection of Pennsylvania’s children, are certainly required by federal and state laws and must be funded. PCCYFS is confident the Commonwealth Court of Pennsylvania will agree.
It appears that newspaper editorial departments across the state are offering their opinion on the state budget. Let me set the record straight — the legislature met its obligation to pass a balanced budget by the constitutionally required deadline.
The budget sent to Gov. Wolf on June 3 included $1 billion more for spending than the previous budget. Gov. Wolf chose to veto a budget that was balanced, did not raise taxes, and provided increased education funding. Notably, two-thirds of the line items were funded at or above the amount that the governor requested.
Gov. Wolf had the power to use what is called a line-item veto — he could have approved approximately 270 items, and he could have vetoed the rest. Instead he has left organizations in our communities scrambling to stay afloat because he insists on a tax-and-spend budget that exacerbates the problem that I continue to call attention to — Harrisburg does not have a revenue problem, it has a spending problem.
Gov. Wolf claimed during his political campaign that he turned around his family business, which meant reining in costs and reducing waste. Unfortunately, we haven’t seen him show a willingness to perform his private sector business magic on Pennsylvania.
Our state is financially distressed and needs a turnaround governor, not a tax-and-spend governor.
I take my role as a state senator seriously. I serve on the Senate Appropriations Committee. I sat through 33 hearings on the budget covering 80 hours.
I have considerable private-sector business experience. The various companies that I own, along with thousands of other businesses in Pennsylvania, continue to withhold weekly payroll taxes from employee paychecks and send those taxes to Harrisburg weekly along with other taxes the companies pay, so the cash flow to Harrisburg continues.
Let me be crystal clear: I will not be voting for any additional tax increases. I will continue to beat on the table demanding accountability for the taxes everyone already pays.
I would ask editorial writers to do everyone a favor and stop blaming the legislature and point the blame to Gov. Wolf.
It’s easier to hit the party button than to research those on it. We are not judging party button pushers. It is wiser, after all, to vote for the group that might look after one’s interest when one knows the other side certainly won’t.
Still, it is best to do the research and vote the person.
Which gets us to Pennsylvania Supreme Court Race 2015.
The Republican nominees are Judith Olson, Michael George and Anne Covey. The Democrats are David Wecht, Christine Donohue and Kevin Dougherty. The independent is Paul Panepinto.
Unions are also giving money to Ms. Covey, a Commonwealth Court judge from Bucks County who spent years as a labor lawyer and served on the Labor Relations Board.
So that gives us a pretty clear indication that ticket splitting is the thing to do this Nov. 3. Those who care about keeping their homes will vote for endorsed Republicans George and Ms. Olson along with independent Panepinto.
We are not labor bashing here or defending greedy corporate types. Pennsylvania labor leaders, however, are not one whit interested in saving decent jobs for working people. Their prime motives are saving their near-one-percenter lifestyles by keeping the legally mandated automatic dues deductions and the one-percenter pensions of state workers.
Regarding the backgrounds of the Supreme Court candidates, all are judges. As noted Ms. Covey sits on Commonwealth Court, the state intermediate appellate court regarding decisions by government regulatory agencies; Wecht, Ms. Donohue, and Ms. Olson are on Pennsylvania Superior Court, the intermediate appellate court for criminal and civil cases; George is an Adams County Common Pleas Court judge, and Panepinto is a Philadelphia Common Pleas Court judges.
Ms. Covey is the only candidate not recommended by the state Bar Association.
Ms. Olson and George have been endorsed by the Pennsylvania State Troopers Association.
Update: Office Depot CEO and Roland Smith has apologized. “We sincerely apologize to Ms. Goldstein for her experience and our initial reaction was not at all related to her religious beliefs,” he said. “We invite her to return to Office Depot if she still wishes to print the flier.”
It should be noted that Office Depot assistant general counsel Robert A. Amicone and corporate spokeswoman Karen Denning initially defended the decision.
Father Frank Pavone of Priests for Life composed a prayer for the elimination of the abortion industry and the conversion of those whose hearts are hardened to support it.
Maria Goldstein thought it would be nice to distribute it at her Catholic parish’s Sunday mass and ordered 500 copies of it at the Office Depot in Schaumburg, Ill.
And the corporate headquarter people are defending the decision so we can’t blame some misguided store manager.
Pope Francis gets criticized by conservatives for the things he has said about American corporations and that is quite unfair as he is dead right.
Our big businesses are more often than not run by selfish people with distinctly anti-Christian mindsets.
The strident advocacy for gay marriage and the ensuing corporate celebration of the Supreme Court’s gay marriage decision is mind-boggling from the economic standpoint. It’s not, though, if those that run things think their gravy train will last forever and don’t want to be bound by old-fashioned morality regarding how to treat spouses, employees and others whom they think can’t retaliate.
But gravy trains don’t run forever and consequences are never ultimately escaped.
Ms. Goldstein is preparing legal action against Office Depot. It really doesn’t matter if she is successful in forcing them to do the right thing via this route.
Office Depot will not escape the consequences of its bigotry. The knowledge of what they did will quietly and slowly become known to the tens of millions of Americans who feel the very profitable “non-profit” abortion business is vile and tens of millions of Americans will put Office Depot last on the list when seeking the services it provides. This decision-making change won’t be announced or declared or even be a full-fledged boycott. They will see something they want in an Office Depot ad and they will look for it online or at Staples or at Walmart first.
Yes, shareholders, it will affect the bottom line.
Here is Father Pavone’s pro-life prayer that offended the corporate suits:
Lord, for whom all things are possible, We are confronted once again today With the evil of the abortion industry And the corruption found In the world’s largest abortion business, Planned Parenthood.
Lord, we pray for all who plan to be parents, And we ask your mercy on those Who teach others to reject parenthood. In the light of your Word, Lord, We affirm today that children are a blessing from you, And that the origin of all parenthood Is likewise in You, the God of life and love. Therefore, Oh God, We stand against the evil that has been exposed In Planned Parenthood And in the entire abortion industry. We stand today for the triumph Of truth over falsehood, Of light over darkness, And of life over death. Bring an end to the killing of children in the womb, And bring an end to the sale of their body parts. Bring conversion to all who do this, And enlightenment to all who advocate it. Close the doors of the death camps in our midst, And open the doors of your mercy and healing! Close the grisly trade in baby body parts, And open the abundant gifts of your salvation and life! Hasten the day when our land Will no longer be stained with innocent blood, And when the bodies of all your children Will be raised from the dead And set free forever.
I am writing this email on this very important day – a day that we must never forget – September 11th.
I got up this morning at 6 a.m. and for some strange reason I had three times the amount of energy I usually do.
I had my first cup of coffee and turned on the TV – the channels were full of news and comments regarding this tragic day back on September 11, 2001.
Do you remember where you were on Tuesday, September 11, 2001?
I do – I was sitting in my office working on two municipal bids for my waste company that I had founded just 18 months earlier.
At 9:20 a.m., the TV that I always had on in my office reported the first airplane crash into the World Trade Center.
In just 10 days – on September 21st – I will be 60 years old.
On September 11, 2001 – I was 45 years old.
Time has passed quickly, but on this day every year the weight of what happened that day still weighs heavy on all of our hearts.
Earlier this morning on MSNBC there was a conversation – one of the hosts commented that back on September 11, 2001 everyone in our country came together to overcome the tragedy and to honor everyone who was killed.
The show host went on to say that today our country is more divided than ever – Icould not agree more.
Fourteen years later, I am extremely concerned about the direction of our great country which is why I decided to run for the Pennsylvania State Senate.
Today is a day of reflection for me to be thankful for our great country – for every opportunity afforded to me – to every veteran who shakes my hand – to be thankful for the men and women who have fought battles since the founding of our great country to save our precious freedom.
Please take time today to reflect on all that we have to be thankful for in the United States of America.
A bronze statue of Philadelphia-native Sgt. Wild Bill Guanrere, whose heroism was depicted in the Band of Brothers, will be unveiled Saturday, Sept. 19, at the Delaware County Veterans Memorial in Newtown Square, Pa. 19073.
