The Mayoral saga goes on and on and.........

Well, the Patriot News is still sticking this breaking story on the back page of Section B - B6 about the possible criminal investigation of the Mayor and his use of his own personal piggy bank, the Harrisburg Authority.
The city's Budget Director and Acting Mayor (since the Mayor-for-life is out of state right now) has issued a statement about the Authority's records concerning the purchase of artifacts has been made public, been scrutinized and fully addressed by the Mayor. She's wrong on that account. These are records that City Council has been asking for for a long time, and neither the Mayor nor the Authority has made them available to Council. The Budget Director has denied the allegations made at the Authority meeting Wednesday night by Eric Papenfuse. I have learned that Mr. Papenfuse is a respectable man, and was very thorough in combing through all the records in the Authority's possesion. He does not make these accusations lightly and he has found the smoking documents. The Mayor and his enablers are in big trouble.
Linda Thompson of City Council has an excellent "As I See It" article in today's Patriot-News. Her rebuttal is to the paper's Editorial of Sept. 25 about the continuing saga of the Authority, the Mayor, City Council, etc. She correctly picks apart the inaccuracies in the paper's Editorial. And if you have been paying attention the last 2-3 years or so to this incinerator issue you too will see the inaccuracies in that Editorial.
And so it continues...........

Let's really bury this story.........

Last evenings big news story about Mayor Reed, the Harrisburg Authority and the artifact buying spree by Reed at 7 & 11 PM on WHTM 27 News didn't make the front page in the Patriot News. They really buried it in Section B on the last page - B6. Now if this was some kind of a juicy story about Harrisburg City Council it would have been front page news. Am I right? Just goes to show the cozy relationship this paper has with Harrisburg's Mayor and the GOP state legislature.

Breaking News from WHTM's 27 News at 7 PM.......

One of the new members of the Harrisburg Authority Board at it's meeting tonight is calling for an investigation of Harrisburg's Mayor Reed. Eric Pappenfus, one of the new members appointed by City Council is recommending that there be an investigation by the State Attorney General's office of Mayor Reed's spending of funds from the Harrisburg Authority to buy artifacts. Could this be why the Mayor was using the court system to prevent these new members of the from taking their seats on the Authority Board? Interesting, isn't it?

The old Harrisburg Authority Board was hand-picked by the Mayor, and they gave him carte blanche to use authority funds to go on an artifact buying spree. What was the role of the former Board members and the Board Chairman in all this? We'll find out, won't we?

And the saga continues.............

State House Dems in trouble.........

The state House Democratic Caucus is trying to quash subpoenas for 7 of their staffers to appear before an investigating state grand jury. Tsk, tsk. It seems they got caught doing something illegal: paying staffers to do political work on state House Dems re-election campaigns. That is a big no-no. 100 staffers of the Dem Caucus collected big bonuses coming out of our (taxpayer) pockets. House Dem leader Bill DeWeese asked bonus recipients in a letter to keep quiet about the bonuses. Evidently, somebody leaked it to the press and now it's become a big albatross around the neck of the Caucus leaders.
So now the Caucus is doing everything they can to de-rail this investigation. Mr. DeWeese is now the one keeping quiet about all of this. Funny isn't it? What goes around comes around Mr. DeWeese.
The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette in an editorial in their Sunday, September 23 paper says the House Dems must come clean on the bonuses. I agree. I'm a Dem and I'll go after Dems as much as I'll go after Republicans. I don't care who you are, I'll call you on it whenever you screw up. And I'm calling on the state House Dem Caucus to come clean about this.

Our State Legislature.......

It seems the state Senate Republicans are spending the taxpayers' money foolishly......again. This time it's State Senator Jeff Piccola who wants to hire a private investigator or two to look into reports that a representative for Lionsgate Films had lobbied the Legislature for a tax break for filmmakers shooting movies in Pennsylvania without registering as a lobbyist. When it was brought to the lobbyist's attention, the lobbyist promptly filed the required paperwork.
Senator Piccola wanted to find out who the lobbyist was lobbying. Turns out the lobbyist was lobbying the entire state Senate including Senator Piccola. That should be the end of the story but it isn't. The Senator is on a fishing expedition at taxpayers expense. The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette had a great editorial in their Saturday paper about Senator Piccola that is worth reading. Senator Piccola needs to issue a public apology to the lobbyist and to Governor Rendell.
I certainly hope the state Dems come up with a worthwhile candidate to run against Piccola in his next re-election bid. We need to get this clown out of the state Capitol.

Kudos to Mars, Inc.

Have you heard about a lot of chocolate makers that want to change the definition of chocolate? Actually they want the government to allow them to replace cocoa butter with another vegetable fat, up to a level of 5 percent. The chocolate makers that want the change say it would save them money and allow for more flexibility and innovation. Some chocolate makers already use vegetable fats instead of cocoa butter, but they aren't allowed by the FDA to call it chocolate.

Hershey is one of those manufacturers that wants to replace the cocoa butter with another vegetable fat. Hershey has said high quality oils are available that "are equal to or better than cocoa butter in taste, nutrition, texture and function, and are preferred by consumers." What consumers? For Hershey I guess the bottom line is all that matters. Forget about taste.

Tuesday, September 18, 2007 in the Business section of the Patriot News there was an article about Mars vows NOT to make any changes to it's chocolate recipe. I am so glad that at least one local giant candy maker has taken a stand against faux chocolate. Mars has said it will continue to use 100% cocoa butter in its US chocolate products. Hooray for Mars! The company said that allowing vegetable oil would have diluted the quality of its chocolate. "Changing the definition of what chocolate is would be a mistake," said Todd Lachman, president of Hackettstown, NJ-based Mars Snackfoods US. "The bottom line is that we're not going to change our chocolate. Today, Mars US chocolate products are pure, authentic chocolate and they're going to stay that way." Thank you Mars Inc.!

Hershey, you lost me as a consumer. Kiss off!

Mayor's a Drag........

In the September 12 edition of the Harrisburg Patriot News, the Mayor circled the wagons at City Hall and surrounded himself with senior citizens, union members, clergy and employees of Covanta. DRAMA QUEEN!!! The Mayor just loves drama, doesn't he?

This whole thing with the Harrisburg Authority and the incinerator is just one big drama that seems like it will never end. Funny how over the last several years the Mayor was using the Harrisburg Authority as his own personal piggybank to buy artifacts, isn't it?