"Bárbara asumirá lo que llamamos la silla de Polite", dijo el alcalde de Lancaster Rick Gray la noche del martes después de administrar el juramento de su cargo a Barbara Wilson. Y, por unos breves minutos, Wilson se sentó en la silla vacada momentos antes por ......

"Barbara is taking what we call the Polite chair," Lancaster Mayor Rick Gray said Tuesday evening after administering the oath of office to Barbara Wilson. And, for a few brief minutes, Wilson sat in the chair vacated moments earlier by her uncle, Nelson Polite Sr. It was a changi......

Lancaster city taxpayers will be starting the new year without a municipal tax increase, but they will see higher fees for city sewer and water service. City Council members Tuesday evening made only one $12,000 change in the $46.2 million general fund budget proposed by Mayor Rick Gray a......

Clutching a broom Tuesday night, the three Democrats running for Lancaster City Council said their hard work over nine months swept aside a better-funded, negative Republican campaign. Barbara Wilson, John Graupera and James Reichenbach will join four other council Democrats in January, k......

Over the summer, Charlie Smithgall raised more than twice as much money for his Lancaster City Council campaign as his three Democratic opponents combined. And, with a week to go before the election, Smithgall is sitting on a war chest with five times as much money as his opponents. ......

Joel Charles has a daunting three weeks ahead of him. That's all the time he has to get his name into the minds of Lancaster city voters as a candidate for City Council. And, more importantly, he has to convince them to care enough to go to the polls and select his name Nov. 8....

Lancaster city Democrats on Monday night announced that three veteran City Council members will not return to office in 2012. But only two of the Democrats running for council are newcomers. All three of the council members whose terms expire next January will not seek re-election......

As Lancaster City Council members approved the first city budget in six years without a tax increase, taxpayers should have celebrated. Instead, council members faced an unhappy audience Tuesday night. There were library supporters displeased by Lancaster Mayor Rick Gray's proposa......

Long gone are the days here when the zoning officer in Township A had never met his counterpart over in Township B.That used to happen even when the other township was right next door.Also long gone are the days when a municipality could operate as an "island," without sha......

Lancaster City Council on Tuesday lent its support to the call to save the county Human Relations Commission.And, after passionate debate, it called for the commission to also investigate discrimination against lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgendered people.The racially diverse sev......

On Tuesday, Market Street beside Lancaster city's Central Market was closed to traffic with a barricade.The street closure was to be expected. Market Street has been closed on Market days — Tuesday, Friday and Saturday — in recent months as extensive renovations are being d......

The state's dog law, passed in 2008, has made significant steps to curb inhumane dog breeding operations.But that law deals only with licensed kennels with 25 dogs or more.It does nothing to stop small-time breeders selling dogs under the table, said Dean Evans.Evans, a n......

Sen. Arlen Specter in Lancaster on Wednesday said that being a Democrat "feels very comfortable."Specter had better realize his comfort level is beside the point.Since he switched parties at the end of April, what matters is whether Democrats are comfortable with Specter....

Lancaster City Council on Tuesday unanimously approved a controversial ordinance designed to crack down on problem tenants and hold landlords accountable for the conditions of their properties.In addition to creating a list of problem tenants, the ordinance establishes a three-strikes poli......

Lancaster City Council members struck a supportive but sober response Monday night to the Gray administration's proposed 2009 budget.Council met with Mayor Rick Gray and Patrick Hopkins, the city's chief financial officer, inside Southern Market Center to review for the first time ......

For generations, capturing rain was a requisite for people living in cities and the countryside, a necessity for survival and a key source for water.Fritz Schroeder is hoping a new generation of city dwellers will be willing to see rain as a precious resource and to look at ways to keep it......

Hillary Clinton may have won the Pennsylvania Democratic primary Tuesday, but local Barack Obama supporters felt they scored a significant victory.Shortly before 10 p.m., CNN reported an Obama win in Lancaster County. The announcement was met with deafening cheers along with plenty of hugs......

Democratic presidential frontrunner Barack Obama, saying voters are "ready to write a new chapter in American history," said here today he would fight the status quo in Washington if elected. "I'm running because of what Dr. (Martin Luther) King called the fierce urgency o......

Buckle your seatbelts. We matter after all. Pennsylvania's 3.9 million Democratic voters won't be the deciders, but they will help determine which of the party's two presidential candidates finishes the delegate race with all the momentum — not to mention a major battl......

Lancaster City's Vietnamese community made an unsuccessful appeal for recognition of the former South Vietnamese flag on Tuesday. Instead, the Vietnamese-Americans left with the same Lancaster City Council resolution they had received last year. About 20 people attended the City Counci......

To sum up the night in one word — bittersweet.While Lancaster City Council sadly bid farewell Monday to two eight-year veterans, it celebrated the addition of new faces and a new president.Patricia Coller, Joe Morales and Nelson Polite Sr., who has served on council since 1996......

Lancaster County voters, seeking an end to four years of courthouse rancor, ousted the only commissioner seeking re-election Tuesday, and elected a clean slate to take office in January. They also booted the coroner, Dr. G. Gary Kirchner, after a term marked by errors — he once imposed......

Lancaster City's three Democratic City Council candidates ran an optimistic race. They spoke of a city that — while in need of improvement — is going in the right direction under Democratic control. "I think it encouraged people that we were looking at it as a glass half-full s......

Since a sweep of city government two years ago, Democrats have held all seven seats on Lancaster City Council.Voters made it clear Tuesday they want it to stay that way, giving an overwhelming nod to the Democratic ticket of Pat Coller, Joe Morales and Nelson Polite Sr.Polite, the l......

As Janice Jimenez began campaigning a few weeks ago, a man approached her and told her the only reason she would win the election for magisterial district judge is because she is Latino and a woman."He was degrading," said Jimenez.She encouraged him to look at campaign lit......

The six candidates for Lancaster City Council are excited and encouraged by the downtown's growth and development.In separate interviews this week, they cited the nascent hotel and convention center's role in revitalization, though they noted it's only one part of the broader e......

At their only political debate this year the six candidates for Lancaster City Council outlined different strategies for stimulating economic development during the next four years.Three four-year terms are up for grabs on Tuesday. The League of Humane Voters sponsored Thursday night's......

Lancaster City voters on Tuesday will pick from among six candidates — three Democrats and three Republicans — to fill three seats on City Council. Democrats Pat Coller, Joe Morales and Nelson Polite Sr. say that they want to build on the city's momentum. Republicans R.B. Campbe......

Brace yourselves. I'm going to issue a challenge.Seven weeks have passed since Labor Day, the unofficial start of the fall campaign, and just two weeks remain before Election Day.And in those nine weeks, not one debate has been scheduled for the Democratic and Republican candida......

Dinner this fall will be served with a side order of political celebrity. In the midst of the fall campaigns, both Republican and Democratic parties of Lancaster County throw their annual autumn banquets, and this year they provide a little star power.For the GOP, former Pittsb......

The three Republican nominees for Lancaster City Council rolled out their campaign platforms Wednesday with some tough talk about the all-Democrat city government.At the two-hour meet-and-greet in Mulberry Art Studios, R.B. Campbell, a business broker and real-estate agent, took City Counc......

The fall election for three Lancaster City Council seats experienced its first major event Wednesday as city Democrats unveiled their "Building Lancaster Together" platform at a press conference.The three Democratic nominees — incumbent Nelson Polite, state legislative aide......

Lancaster's Mayor Rick Gray swore in a new city treasurer during Tuesday's city council meeting.Cheryl D. Holland-Jones was named to succeed attorney Brook Duer, who was elected in November 2005. Duer, who attended Tuesday's council meeting, said he was leaving the job after being named to......

Lancaster County Coroner Dr. G. Gary Kirchner dropped out of the Republican primary Tuesday, but he vowed to win a second four-year term in the November election as an independent candidate.Kirchner said running as an independent gave him a "much better chance of having an organized, ......