WATCHDOG

SUNDAY NEWS: "[Manheim] township said High must pay for about $27 million worth of traffic improvements at Harrisburg Pike and Route 30. High is eyeing government sources for most of the cost."

WATCHDOG: Better said, High is eyeing taxpayers for most of the cost. High makes a specialty of so funding their projects .

WATCHDOG

Apparently reporters and editors of the monopoly (well they were!) Lancaster Newspapers failed to notice that thousands of copies of the initial issue of the Lancaster Post were being handed out downtown on Friday and Saturday....or they didn't consider this news! Three guesses why.

NEW ERA

In his April 16 article "What's going on here", Jack Brubaker poses the question "Once scheduled events end at the Convention Center, will visitors find enough to do as they wander out into the town? Does Lancaster have sufficient restaurants, shops, nightclubs, theaters and other amenities to host thousands of new visitors?"

WATCHDOG: Good questions. But they were answered by the Pricewaterhouse.coopers, PKF Consultants and other professionals in their reports and the answers were "No." Had the New Era appropriately asked them a few years ago, we may have saved $200 million and by now opened a mixed use residential project on the site.

DISAPPOINTING

DISAPPOINTING: The Sunday News editorial heralded "I've got a secret: In two events last week, government told us in so few words that what we don't know won't hurt us."

WATCHDOG: It then went on to discuss the replacement of the Warwick School Board President in possible violation of the Sunshine Act and the police's delay in reporting the murder of James Kerek. The Sunday News ignored the third and most important event: The unprecedented payment of a quarter year of salary and benefits to two county executives who had resigned in exchange for their agreeing not to say anything "disparaging" about the commissioners.

WATCHDOG

WATCHDOG: The Intelligencer Journal of April 10 gave a byline to P. J. Reilly for allegedly reporting on the Commissioners Meeting but, if he was there, he must have been asleep most of the time.

Compare the Intell article devoted to a Board of Elections hand out with NewsLanc's report under News & Commentary headed "Regulars at Commissioners' Meetings Question Esterbrook Departure."

By-lines used to be a reward for an excellent report. Now the reporter doesn't even have to show up!

JEFF HAWKES

JEFF HAWKES is one for two this week with his superlative April 10 column "Thibault misguided on transit spending." The last paragraph sums up the view of many: "Thibault's mailer calls his style 'conservative leadership.' I call it pandering."


WATCHDOG: The age of terror at the monopoly newspapers during the convention center rip off seemed to have muted his voice and broken his heart. It is good to see a sign that he is again finding his brave voice. (But we still haven't heard back from him concerning his superficial column earlier this week on the proposed County Charter.)

SUNDAY NEWS

In its editorial of April 6 entitled "Take scissors to those cards," Marv Adams and company decry the issuance of credit cards to school district managers.

WATCHDOG: Is there a single corporation or large privately owned firm that does not provide credit cards for the use of its managers? Do they not do this because credit cards lead to far greater efficiency in making minor purchases and for travel expenses? (How does one even reserve a room, let alone pay for it, without a credit card?) Are we to assume that school district managers are either like children or thieves who cannot be trusted to follow guidelines for credit card uses? And do not the huge savings in time and paper work offset the occasional misuse by an employee?

THERE THEY GO AGAIN

Watchdog: There they go again! The New Era on April 4th published a prominent article, with a photo of the accused, alleging the man exposed himself to two women. With all of the real shenanigans going unreported by the monopoly press, this is what their editor considers news?