2010-03-14 00:20:00
JO-ANN GREENE, Books Editor
Hero to the right, villain to the left, Karl Rove signed his new book at Borders Saturday afternoon, attracting many more admirers than detractors. By the time of his noon arrival, the bookstore had sold more than 300 copies of "Courage and Consequence," a memoir of Rove's year......
2010-03-12 00:01:00
TOM MURSE
Jerry Flury has been a Republican committeeman in Manheim Township since 1986, when he won his first election.He's never faced a challenger in 24 years.Until now, that is.Edward J. Plakans, a financial adviser and one-time basketball star......
2010-03-11 21:16:00
TOM MURSE
House Republicans voted to swear off earmarks in this year's spending bills by a near-unanimous vote Thursday, an election-year appeal to voters frustrated with Washington's spending."This is a small but significant step in the right direction of fiscal responsibility," s......
2010-03-11 00:02:00
TOM MURSE
The Republican who is mounting a surprise primary challenge to state Rep. Tom Creighton wasn't actually a Republican as recently as 2½ months ago.Barry I. McFarland, a retired industrial-arts teacher from Penn Township, defected from the Democratic Party on Dec. 28, county recor......
2010-03-09 22:20:00
TOM MURSE
State Rep. Tom Creighton, a 9-year veteran of the state House, is facing a surprise challenge for the Republican nomination in May.A retired industrial-arts teacher from Penn Township has collected the 300 signatures necessary to appear on the GOP's May 18 primary ballot, according to ......
2010-03-05 21:29:00
TOM MURSE
Gov. Ed Rendell said school property taxes will "go through the roof" within the next several years unless the Legislature takes dramatic, painful steps to pay for rising public pensions costs."We can get out of this budget with no tax increase, no more spending cuts, and we......
2010-03-05 13:15:00
GIL SMART and CASEY KREIDER
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2010-03-05 00:01:00
TOM MURSE
Gov. Ed Rendell's three-county traveling roadshow will make a stop in Lancaster at noon today.Pennsylvania's Salesman-in-Chief will be pitching his sales-tax expansion plan to a friendly crowd at Filling's in College Row, an upscale clothier across from Frankli......
2010-02-28 00:21:00
MARY BETH SCHWEIGERT
Office workers are paying higher health-insurance premiums. So are farmers, store clerks and factory employees. But while health care costs skyrocket for most Americans, one group still gets its coverage for free: Members of the state House of Representatives. Pennsylvania taxpayer......
2010-02-28 00:17:00
MARY BETH SCHWEIGERT
As health care grows increasingly expensive, government workers and elected officials — with the exception of state House members — are shouldering more of the costs, just like their private-sector counterparts. Here's a look at national and local elected officials' healt......
2010-02-28 00:16:00
MARY BETH SCHWEIGERT
Why do government employees' health plans tend to have higher-than-average premiums? Government employees often trade relatively low salaries for job security and better benefits, health-care expert Jon R. Gabel explains. Strong benefits can serve as a recruiting tool for government......
2010-02-24 22:52:00
LARRY ALEXANDER
Under the governorship of Sam Rohrer, Pennsylvanians would see an end to property taxes, a heavier reliance on such clean fuels as natural gas and a more business-friendly culture that would draw industries back to the state.Those were some of the programs state Rep. Rohrer, a Berks County......
2010-02-24 06:13:00
TOM MURSE
Republican Tom Corbett raised a few eyebrows earlier this month when he promised to veto any tax increase if elected governor of Pennsylvania.The state faces a fiscal crisis over the cost of public pensions, and it will be scraping for revenue over the next couple of years.So why th......
2010-02-19 12:14:00
GIL SMART and CASEY KREIDER
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2010-02-19 00:01:00
TOM MURSE
Penn Township businessman Chet Beiler won't let a second-place finish at last weekend's state GOP endorsement convention get in the way of his run for lieutenant governor.The former chairman of the county GOP is staying in the primary race against the party's e......
2010-02-17 21:01:00
TOM MURSE
U.S. Sen. Bob Casey said the $787 billion economic stimulus is just "beginning to work" and called for more measures to bolster the recovery effort — from tax credits to investments in education and training and more spending on highways."It's not good enough just ......
2010-02-17 00:01:00
JEFF HAWKES
Mainstream economists and U.S. Rep. Joe Pitts don't see eye to eye on the value of deficit spending during hard times.Pitts, who voted against last year's $787 billion stimulus bill, said he'd do it again."It's a mistake to go into deficit spending to try to sti......
2010-02-16 23:08:00
TOM MURSE
Republicans showed up determined to get an endorsement.And that's precisely what they did.Members of the Lancaster County GOP took less than half an hour and just two ballots Tuesday night to back a successor to retiring state Rep. Katie True: 32-year-old Ryan Aument of Landisvi......
2010-02-14 00:12:00
PAULA WOLF
Former Lancaster County Republican Party Chairman Chet Beiler failed to get the endorsement for lieutenant governor Saturday at the state GOP's annual winter meeting, coming in second behind Bucks County Commissioner Jim Cawley. After the vote, Beiler told ...
2010-02-12 10:45:00
GIL SMART and CASEY KREIDER
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2010-02-12 06:14:00
TOM MURSE
Most Americans who have health insurance are pleased with their coverage, a new national Franklin & Marshall College poll shows.But many of those same people are worried about those who can't afford insurance, and overwhelmingly believe the health care system needs to be reformed, ......
2010-02-12 00:01:00
TOM MURSE
Tuesday night is the big night for Lancaster County Republicans.The GOP will meet to endorse candidates for the General Assembly, where all but one of our state House members and two state senators are up for re-election this year. It also will endorse candidates for Republican State Commi......
2010-02-09 20:52:00
TOM MURSE
Thomas L. Garman Jr. will try to do what Republicans have failed to achieve for two decades: unseat Democratic state Rep. Mike Sturla.Garman, who runs a Lancaster city landscaping business, said in an interview Tuesday that he will challenge Sturla in November if for no other reason than t......
2010-02-09 20:17:00
MARC LEVY, Associated Press
Gov. Ed Rendell on Tuesday presented lawmakers with a $29 billion spending plan that would devote more money to schools, prisons and health care for the poor while taxing the sale of many services for the first time.The proposal would increase spending by $1.1 billion, or about 4 percent, ......
2010-02-07 00:20:00
TOM MURSE
They don't call him a political survivor for nothing. U.S. Sen. Arlen Specter easily won the Pennsylvania Democratic Party's endorsement here Saturday afternoon, nine months after quitting the GOP at a time when his re-election prospects appeared dim. The 79-year-old cancer surv......
2010-02-05 22:37:00
TOM MURSE
U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, whose party faces a tough 2010, mounted a passionate defense of Democratic principles here Friday night, telling state committee people that "we are defenders of the middle class, fighters for fairness and health care as a right, not a privilege."......
2010-02-05 20:23:00
TOM MURSE
Lancaster businessman John J. McClure has pulled the plug on his underdog congressional campaign before it got off the ground.The 35-year-old South Prince Street resident who intended to seek the Democratic nomination for the 16th Congressional District seat held by U.S. Rep. Joe Pitts sai......
2010-02-04 00:01:00
JEFF HAWKES
It was frigid last Friday morning, the kind of cold that can tax a car battery, sap the soul and provide a good excuse for skipping a legislative breakfast.Stepping lively across North Lime Street and entering the meeting space in the basement at St. Andrew United Church of Christ, I expec......
2010-02-03 00:01:00
TOM MURSE
Republican U.S. Rep. Joe Pitts is substantially outraising his Democratic opponents in his campaign for an eighth term in Congress, new finance reports show.So why are Democrats pleased?Here's one reason: Challenger Lois Herr is on pace to surpass her 2006 fundraising total of m......
2010-01-31 00:11:00
PAULA WOLF
Former Lancaster County GOP Chairman Chet Beiler captured the straw poll for lieutenant governor Saturday at the Republican State Committee Southwest Caucus meeting in Latrobe. Beiler, who also won the Central Caucus vote earlier this month, received 21 of the 59 votes cast, according to ......
2010-01-28 00:03:00
TOM MURSE
A few months ago, U.S. Rep. Joe Pitts joined fellow Republican lawmakers in congratulating James O'Keefe for his "exemplary actions" as a government watchdog and journalist.O'Keefe, they wrote, was "owed a debt of gratitude by the people of the United States" fo......
2010-01-27 06:14:00
TOM MURSE
Republican U.S. Senate hopeful Pat Toomey is riding high on a wave of pessimism about the economy and discontent with the ruling party in Washington — the same wave that got Scott Brown elected in Massachusetts.Don't believe it?Consider these new poll numbers:...
2010-01-26 20:18:00
CINDY STAUFFER
Molly Poole understands the need for health care reform on a personal level.Poole's husband, Scott, has ALS, or Lou Gehrig's disease.He soon is going to hit the $1 million cap on his insurance. Poole said that sounds like a lot of money, but, with 24-hour nursing care and ot......
2010-01-22 20:52:00
TOM MURSE
Lancaster County Clerk of Courts Ryan Aument won the first and only straw poll of Republican committee people in the 41st Legislative District Thursday night.The poll reaffirmed the Landisville resident's position as the front-runner for the GOP's endorsement for retiring state Rep......
2010-01-22 00:01:00
TOM MURSE
Five local lawmakers are behind a plan to turn the nation's largest full-time legislature — yeah, that's ours — into a part-time operation.Republican Reps. Bryan Cutler, Gordon Denlinger, John Bear, Scott Boyd...
2010-01-21 22:14:00
TOM MURSE
Pundits will claim that Republican Scott Brown's stunning U.S. Senate victory in Massachusetts this week was an equally stunning defeat for President Barack Obama and his agenda — and a precursor to massive mid-term losses for the Democrats.Whoa, whoa, whoa.Let's not g......
2010-01-21 13:20:00
GIL SMART and CASEY KREIDER
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2010-01-19 00:01:00
JEFF HAWKES
Stranger things have happened than die-hard Democrat Mike Sturla endorsing Democrat-come-lately Arlen Specter.The new ad in which Domino's admits its pizza is barely edible comes to mind.Still it's almost surreal to find Sturla's name on a list of endorsements at ...
2010-01-17 00:14:00
JO-ANN GREENE
To the average citizen, he's the state attorney general. To Warwick GOP Committee leaders, he's "The General." And they weren't referring to Tom Corbett's rank in the Pennsylvania Army National Guard. The nickname seems to acknowledge the leadership of Cor......
2010-01-14 07:10:00
TOM MURSE
Democratic U.S. Rep. Joe Sestak said the greatest damage to the country hasn't been done by the worst recession since the Depression, the two wars overseas or the health care crisis."It comes from a complete lack of trust in public servants," he said in an interview Tuesday w......
2010-01-12 00:01:00
JEFF HAWKES
Even in a topsy-turvy universe where smoking cures cancer and Wile E. Coyote catches a break, don't look for a Democrat representing Lancaster in Congress.Republicans would sooner read "The Audacity of Hope" than let a Democrat win the Pennsylvania Dutch seat.But wait.......
2010-01-10 00:15:00
PAULA WOLF
Penn Township businessman Chet Beiler won the state Republicans' first straw poll vote for lieutenant governor Saturday, narrowly edging Dauphin County Commissioner Nick DiFrancesco. Beiler, who didn't announce his candidacy to the media until after Saturday's vote, said in a pho......
2010-01-09 09:29:00
BERNARD HARRIS
Ben Bamford didn't know he was making history. He just wants to get people involved.Bamford, 45, took office this week as the second Democrat on the Lancaster Township supervisors board. In doing so, he shifted the board to Democratic control for the first time in Lancaster Township......
2010-01-08 23:31:00
CINDY STAUFFER
Pennsylvania hosted the nation's first superhighway, stock exchange, oil well and agricultural society.State Attorney General Tom Corbett told local business people Friday he wants to see other new firsts in Pennsylvania, as he kicks off a more intensive campaign for governor.&q......
2010-01-08 00:01:00
TOM MURSE
More than 44,000 of us here in the 16th Congressional District picked up the phone recently only to hear the recorded voice of our congressman, U.S. Rep. Joe Pitts.Why did he call?In his words: "I would like to have your feedback on some of the issues our country faces."...
2010-01-07 20:26:00
STAFF
Republican Ryan P. Aument has emerged as the front-runner for retiring state Rep. Katie True's House seat after three other potential GOP candidates said Thursday they will not seek the position.Aument, Lancaster County's clerk of courts, also has won support from True, who has said that "......
2010-01-06 21:42:00
TOM MURSE
The Lancaster County commissioners, in a 2-0 vote, elected Republican Scott F. Martin to be the three-member board's new chairman during their first meeting of the new year Wednesday.Martin, who abstained from the vote, will replace fellow Republican Dennis P. Stuckey in leading the pa......
2010-01-04 21:29:00
TOM MURSE
The Lancaster County GOP and two of its former top officials are seeking reimbursement of more than $45,000 in legal fees from a committeewoman whose federal lawsuit and appeals were dismissed.In court papers filed Wednesday, the Republican Committee also asked the U.S. Court of Appeals fo......
2010-01-01 00:01:00
TOM MURSE
Happy new year, political prognosticators.There's a lot to look forward to in 2010 — statewide, the election of a new governor and the potential that Pennsylvania might have a new U.S. senator; locally, voters will choose a successor to state Rep. Katie True and decide whether U.......
2009-12-31 00:01:00
TOM MURSE
Here are some of the other major news stories of the decade that didn't make it into the top 10 list, according to a survey of Intelligencer Journal/Lancaster New Era staffers.• The infamous and since-repealed legislative pay raise of 2005, which led to the ouster......
2009-12-18 00:01:00
TOM MURSE
State Rep. Katie True announced her plans to retire from the House more than a month ago, and only one of the half-dozen people who've said they are considering a run has made a decision.Ryan Aument of Landisville said earlier this week that he will, i......
2009-12-15 06:14:00
BERNARD HARRIS
The first candidate to openly seek state Rep. Katie True's House seat has made it official.Ryan Aument, 32, the county's clerk of courts, sent letters to Republican committee members Saturday informing them that he will seek their endorsement to replace True, who announced last mon......
2009-12-11 08:11:00
BERNARD HARRIS
Rick Gray's margin of victory in last month's election may have been relatively slim, but in fundraising Gray won by a landslide.Gray, Lancaster city's mayor, received $85,258 in campaign contributions in his bid for re-election last month and spent $72,306.Those totals ......
2009-12-04 00:01:00
TOM MURSE
If you came to the conclusion that U.S. Rep. Joe Pitts is lukewarm to President Barack Obama's decision to send 30,000 more troops to Afghanistan, you'd be right.The congressman's statement lacked the sort of adulation that many of his fellow R......
2009-12-04 07:01:00
GIL SMART and CASEY KREIDER
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2009-12-03 22:23:00
TOM MURSE
The Democrat challenging U.S. Rep. Joe Pitts in the 2010 election says she opposes President Barack Obama's decision to send 30,000 more soldiers to Afghanistan.Lois Herr, an Elizabethtown resident taking her third run at the 16th Congressional District seat, added, however: "I as......
2009-11-20 13:46:00
GIL SMART and CASEY KREIDER
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2009-11-20 00:01:00
TOM MURSE
Perhaps the worst-kept secret in Harrisburg in the early years of the decade was that John Barley didn't have what you and I would call a warm and fuzzy relationship with his Republican colleague John Perzel."While both leaders worked closely toge......
2009-11-18 00:01:00
TOM MURSE
National abortion-rights groups are targeting Republican U.S. Rep. Joe Pitts in next year's election, saying the health-care amendment he co-authored threatens a woman's "fundamental right" to have an abortion.But the congressman, who has long been an anti-abortion crusad......
2009-11-15 00:20:00
JON RUTTER
Jeff "the janitor" Harrison described his status as unofficial spokesman for the Elk County Freedom Fighters as tentative: "I'm unpaid, unqualified, unappreciated," he said. But he added that he sure likes to push back against taxation and "outrageous" ......
2009-11-15 00:18:00
JO-ANN GREENE
On Friday, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third District dismissed a civil rights lawsuit filed by an Elizabethtown Area Republican committeewoman against the Republican Committee of Lancaster County, its former chairman and its former executive director. The defendants expressed hope Sat......
2009-11-15 00:10:00
JO-ANN GREENE
Both plaintiff and defendants say the Millie Max v. Republican Committee of Lancaster County lawsuit could have been avoided. She could have proposed a resolution amending GOP Committee bylaws, said defendant David M. Dumeyer, former committee chairman. They could have apologized, th......
2009-11-13 20:19:00
TOM MURSE
Republican Tony Allen conceded the race for Lancaster Township supervisor Friday after a painstaking, 3½-hour manual recount showed his Democratic opponent had won by 13 votes."That's it," Allen said after the tally was announced by county elections officials shortly before 2:30 Fri......
2009-11-13 12:10:00
GIL SMART and CASEY KREIDER
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2009-11-13 00:01:00
TOM MURSE
An official canvass of the Nov. 3 election results Thursday confirmed Democrat Ben Bamford as the winner — by a razor-thin 11-vote margin — over longtime Republican Lancaster Township Supervisor Tony Allen.Elections workers did find four previo......
2009-11-12 23:11:00
TOM MURSE
A Lancaster County native who once worked as a top aide to Rep. John Perzel is among 10 people charged in the wide-ranging probe of corruption in the state Legislature.John R. Zimmerman, a 1965 Garden Spot High School graduate, is accused of obstructing agents from the Attorney General'......
2009-11-12 20:56:00
MARK SCOLFORO, Associated Press
A former House speaker, an ex-lawmaker and eight aides Thursday became the latest — and the first Republicans — to be charged in a 3-year-old investigation into the diversion of public resources and employees to Pennsylvania legislative campaigns.Attorney General Tom Corbett sa......
2009-11-12 00:02:00
TOM MURSE
Seats in the Legislature don't open up very often.And when they do?Look out.There's typically an avalanche of folks interested in running for office.News that state Rep. Katie True is retiring after 2010 has sparked a flurry of interest in her House seat, which......
2009-11-11 06:29:00
CINDY STAUFFER
Two Warwick High School students said they saw music teacher Todd Sheerer passionately kiss and embrace a 15-year-old student "in a full make-out session" during school hours in 2006.One of the students went home that day and told her father, who happened to be the Warwick school......
2009-11-10 00:02:00
TOM MURSE
State Rep. Katie R. True, a tireless advocate for children and families whose willingness to stand up to House leaders earned her the reputation of a maverick, will retire after 2010.True, an East Hempfield Township Republican, said she decided not to seek re-election because she has achie......
2009-11-08 00:22:00
PAULA WOLF
The bipartisan abortion amendment passed during Saturday's health care debate was co-sponsored by Rep. Joseph Pitts. A Republican who represents Lancaster County and parts of Chester and Berks counties, Pitts teamed with Democratic Rep. Bart Stupak, of Michigan, to draft the amendment mo......
2009-11-08 00:21:00
GIL SMART, Associate Editor
Phil Zangari was walking his dog near his home in the first block of Seymour Street a few weeks ago when he came across a pistol in a nearby alley. Zangari called Lancaster police, who dutifully came out and took a report. "The cops suggested I put up a gate" to keep people out of ......
2009-11-08 00:10:00
PAULA WOLF
Immediately after the Democrats' health care bill was passed, Rep. Joseph Pitts — who opposed the legislation — released the following statement: "Instead of passing health care reform with a united front of Democrats and Republicans, Speaker Nancy Pelosi chose to rej......
2009-11-06 10:50:00
GIL SMART and CASEY KREIDER
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2009-11-06 00:01:00
TOM MURSE
I know, I know. You've had it up to here with election news (judging by the meager turnout, most of you didn't give a rip), but this is a political column, after all, so we're going to keep doing what we do.This week: Trivial Pursuit Mayoral Edition.Grab your pe......
2009-11-05 05:58:00
TOM MURSE
Lancaster Mayor Rick Gray had all the advantages a candidate could ask for:A 2-to-1 voter-registration edge.A well-oiled party machine to get out the vote.The positive name recognition that comes with four controversy-free years in City Hall.And loads more campaign cas......
2009-11-05 00:01:00
JEFF HAWKES
In his victory speech Tuesday night, Mayor Rick Gray gave credit to his campaign, and he singled out volunteers.But I think there was a more decisive factor in Gray's eking out a close-call win against Republican Charlie Smithgall.Day in and day out, in a strictly nonpartisan fa......
2009-11-04 01:49:00
BERNARD HARRIS
Lancaster city voters by a narrow margin Tuesday returned Democrat Rick Gray to City Hall for four more years and voted to retain an all-Democratic City Council.It was the second consecutive sweep by city Democrats in a mayoral election.Gray, who is completing his first four-year te......
2009-11-04 21:38:00
DAVID O’CONNOR
Lancaster County officials have announced the results of two additional township races in Tuesday's election.In Martic Township, where three candidates were vying for two seats on the township's board of supervisors, two Republicans both captured more than 300 votes to win.T......
2009-11-04 01:38:00
DAVID O’CONNOR
Local Democrats have been pointing to the Lancaster Township supervisor's race as one they thought they could win.And by the narrowest of margins — 11 votes — they did.Democrat Benjamin Bamford, a member of the township Planning Commission, defeated longtime Supervis......
2009-11-04 01:27:00
TOM MURSE
In overwhelming fashion, Lancaster County voters chose to retain two Lancaster County Court of Common Pleas judges who were seeking new 10-year terms in Tuesday's election.And in the only contest for a courthouse row office — for controller, the county's top fiscal watchdog &......
2009-11-04 01:23:00
LARRY ALEXANDER
It was a bad night for local Democrats, as Republicans won mayoral and most council seats in every contested borough race.Democratic challengers in Columbia, Ephrata, Manheim and Mountville fell at the ballot boxes, including Mountville's incumbent mayor.Connie M. Guy, 54, at th......
2009-11-04 01:12:00
BRIAN WALLACE
Manheim Township school board will have three new members in December.Board president Hannah Bartges was successful in her bid for re-election Tuesday, but fellow incumbent Beth Ross — one of two Democrats in the race — fell short of capturing one of the four open seats.......
2009-11-03 05:19:00
TOM MURSE
Republicans are seeking to break the Democratic Party's domination of City Hall and City Council in Lancaster as thousands of voters head to the polls today."We've got two good candidates, and people are working very hard," said city GOP Chairman Dave Stoltzfus. "It&......
2009-10-31 08:27:00
LARRY ALEXANDER
Ralph E. Mowen believes Ephrata is a safe and attractive place to live, and he wants a fifth term as its mayor to make things even better.The 64-year-old Republican, who works as a security manager for Susquehanna Bancshares, said he would like to strengthen the borough's enforcement p......
2009-10-31 08:14:00
TOM KNAPP
Leo Lutz hopes eight years as mayor of Columbia Borough will give him an edge in Tuesday's race for re-election.Lutz, a Republican seeking his third term in office, faces a challenge from Democratic newcomer James Robert Haug."Obviously, I have the eight years of experience......
2009-10-30 08:28:00
TOM KNAPP
Tony Allen thinks things are running pretty smoothly in Lancaster Township."I don't see any real issues," Allen, chairman of the board of supervisors, on which he's served 18 years, said Wednesday."Lancaster Township operates in the black. We work within our b......
2009-10-30 06:16:00
BERNARD HARRIS
Children who will soon be teenagers have never known a Lancaster city in which the mayor has not been either Rick Gray or Charlie Smithgall.The two mayors have controlled the county's only city for a dozen years. Both are asking for another term.For Gray, 64, a win Tuesday will ......
2009-10-30 00:01:00
TOM MURSE
A few notes, quotes and anecdotes before the big day.Pitts: Aid jobless with StimU.S. Rep. Joe Pitts has taken a lot of flak for being the only House vote from Pennsylvania against a 13-week extension of unemployment benefits in states with a jobles......
2009-10-29 08:21:00
BRIAN WALLACE
Correction Oct. 30, 2009 — The party affiliations of Eastern Lancaster County school board candidates Alexander Sitar and Michael C. Upton were incorrect in the article below. Sitar is a Republican, and Upton is an Independent. Both are list......
2009-10-29 00:02:00
BERNARD HARRIS
Rick Gray was hailed as a champion of efforts to get illegal guns off the streets on Wednesday, while his challenger, Charlie Smithgall, was praised as an accessible public servant who will restore good government to Lancaster city.The competing press events were held less than a week befo......
2009-10-29 00:01:00
TOM MURSE
U.S. Sen. Arlen Specter is in "a world of trouble" in his bid for a sixth term next year, a new statewide poll shows.The Republican-turned-Democrat's job approval ratings are the lowest they've been since the survey began tracking his performance in 1991. Now, only 23 per......
2009-10-28 09:47:00
DAVID O’CONNOR
Correction — The article below about the East Hempfield Township supervisors race incorrectly stated Lori McGowan's medical specialty. She is a doctor of podiatric medicine and surgery.•••...
2009-10-28 08:43:00
BERNARD HARRIS
In the closing days of the fall election campaign, two candidates used the Lancaster city council meeting to tell a tale of two cities.Matt Holden, the lone Republican council candidate, used the meeting's public comment period to tell council members that city residents feel forgotten......
2009-10-27 08:31:00
TOM MURSE
Lancaster Mayor Rick Gray, trying to win a second term in the Nov. 3 election, has raised and spent nearly five times the money challenger Charlie Smithgall has since June, new finance reports show.Gray, a Democrat and former defense attorney, brought in $33,908 and spent nearly as much si......
2009-10-23 11:32:00
GIL SMART and CASEY KREIDER
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2009-10-23 00:01:00
TOM MURSE
Election Day is nearly upon us.Stop it. I see you. You're yawning.It's a so-called off year, so you think it's pretty boring out there, right?Here's a tip: It's not.I know, I know. You've heard and read a lot about the mayoral slugfest in Lancas......
2009-10-22 00:06:00
BERNARD HARRIS
Lancaster city's two mayoral candidates took turns speaking for an hour Wednesday night, but their disagreements were more in the numbers than in their words.Charlie Smithgall, the Republican and former two-term mayor, and Rick Gray, the Democrat finishing his first term as mayor, diff......
2009-10-22 00:01:00
P.J. REILLY
Lancaster County Election Board on Wednesday scrapped plans to establish a policy for accepting and rejecting write-in votes.Heeding the recommendation of county elections staff, the board, which is made up of the three county commissioners, unanimously voted to toss the proposed policy in......
2009-10-21 16:16:00
BERNARD HARRIS
Lancaster mayoral candidates Rick Gray and Charlie Smithgall will face northeastern city residents — and potential voters — this evening in the second forum of their election campaign.Smithgall, a Republican and a former two-term mayor, and Gray, an incumbent Democrat who is co......
2009-10-18 00:01:00
GIL SMART, Smart Remarks
So last week the Obama administration stepped up its war on Fox News, with White House Communications Director Anita Dunn asserting that Fox operates as an arm of the Republican Party. The right shrieked its outrage, and media analysts cried foul, saying demonizing the press never works &......
2009-10-16 14:02:00
GIL SMART and CASEY KREIDER
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2009-10-16 00:06:00
BERNARD HARRIS
The directions from organizers of the candidate forum at Ray's Temple Community Church were clear. The event — the first for candidates running for Lancaster city mayor and City Council — was not to be a debate.The candidates were to answer panelists' questions. They we......
2009-10-16 00:01:00
TOM MURSE
There's an important milestone next week in the race for mayor in Lancaster and in contests across Pennsylvania's 2,565 other cities, townships and boroughs.It's the Friday deadline for candidates to file their one-and-only* pre-election report telling voters who has been givin......
2009-10-15 17:51:00
STAFF REPORT
The Democratic and Republican candidates for Lancaster city mayor are scheduled to meet for their first candidates forum this evening at 7 p.m. at Ray's Temple Community Church, South Ann Street and East End Avenue.Current Mayor Rick Gray, a Democrat, and former Mayor Charlie Smi......
2009-10-14 07:33:00
P.J. REILLY
Charlie Smithgall earned a spot on the Nov. 3 General Election ballot in the race for city mayor with write-in votes cast last May for "Charles Smithgall," "Charley Smithgall," "C. Smithgalll" and even "Mayor Smithgall."About three weeks after the Pr......
2009-10-13 00:03:00
BERNARD HARRIS
Three times when Charlie Smithgall was mayor, Lancaster City cut proposed funding to install an elevator in City Hall.The elevator would have made the second floor of the municipal building accessible to people in wheelchairs and compliant with the federal Americans with Disabilities Act....
2009-10-11 00:21:00
GIL SMART, Associate Editor
Lancaster Mayor Rick Gray stopped his Toyota Prius at Shippen and Chester streets to talk to a man working in the corner yard. Gray knows the guy, he explained; there was some trouble with a neighbor and Gray intervened on the man's behalf with city police. "How's it going?"......
2009-10-10 00:02:00
MARC LEVY, Associated Press
Gov. Ed Rendell and the politically divided Legislature finally signed off on a state budget Friday night, resolving a multibillion-dollar, recession-driven shortfall and ending Pennsylvania's 101-day budget stalemate, the nation's longest this year.Rendell and top legislators ackn......
2009-10-09 10:36:00
GIL SMART and CASEY KREIDER
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2009-10-09 00:01:00
TOM MURSE
Sharpen your pencils, kids. It's pop-quiz time here at Politically Speaking, and our five questions this week deal with the mayoral race in Lancaster.Let's get started.• Which one of the following folks is campaigning door-to-door with Mayor ...
2009-10-08 00:07:00
LARRY ALEXANDER
The presidency of Barack Obama, what it has accomplished to date and what it has not, was the topic Wednesday for political talk show host and journalist Chris Matthews.The host of MSNBC's "Hardball" and "The Chris Matthews Show" on NBC spoke at Franklin & Marsh......
2009-10-04 00:19:00
GIL SMART, Associate Editor
Charlie Smithgall rolls through town in his big black Chevrolet Suburban, pointing out the things he said have gone wrong since Rick Gray replaced him as mayor of Lancaster. "I don't mean to be critical," he said. "But I'm gonna be critical." "Ever been ......
2009-10-03 00:04:00
STAFF AND WIRE REPORTS
Democrats in the Pennsylvania House sent a plan to the Republican-controlled Senate late Friday that would tax natural gas extraction and tobacco products to replace a previous proposal to tax small games of chance and tickets to arts events.The 103-to-98 vote came exactly two weeks after ......
2009-10-02 11:17:00
GIL SMART and CASEY KREIDER
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2009-10-02 00:02:00
TOM MURSE
The handshake agreement that was supposed to end Pennsylvania's protracted budget stalemate two weeks ago appeared to fall apart Thursday as House Democrats backpedaled on the deal and came up with a new plan on their own.Frustrated Senate Republicans said such a move would send things......
2009-10-02 00:01:00
TOM MURSE
If you want to vote in the November elections you have until 5 p.m. Monday to register if you do it in person at the county Voter Registration office, 150 N. Queen St.If you're doing it by snail mail, make sure your application is postmarked Oct. 5 or earlier.We have the registr......
2009-09-30 08:29:00
BERNARD HARRIS
Seven years ago, when Charlie Smithgall was Lancaster's mayor, a proposal was made to bring back a downtown trolley line.Smithgall, speaking Tuesday to a group at Christ Lutheran Church, said he looked into the idea and quickly dismissed it.Smithgall said he and his staff conclu......
2009-09-29 08:34:00
Perhaps there's a good reason why Pennsylvania needed an extra three months to pass its budget.That's three months beyond the deadline. And the deadline (July 1) is written in the state lawbooks, so any living and sentient legislator (which description certainly covers mor......
2009-09-29 06:08:00
P.J. REILLY
U.S. Rep. Joe Pitts was bombarded Monday night with emotionally charged complaints, ranging from health care reform and the government's rising debt to a fellow congressman calling President Barack Obama a liar on national television.And, for the most part, the crowd agreed with Pitts&......
2009-09-19 00:14:00
TOM MURSE
Republican U.S. Senate hopeful Pat Toomey said the Democratic majority in Washington is leading the nation on an unprecedented lurch to the left, and he challenged conservatives to fight back — at tea parties and town halls and, of course, the voting booth in 2010. "I want to be t......
2009-09-18 00:01:00
TOM MURSE
A few notes, quotes and anecdotes from the week in local politics.Pitts not convincedPresident Barack Obama, speaking about health care reform on prime-time TV last week, forcefully denied that his plan would cover illegal immigrants or spend taxpay......
2009-09-18 15:35:00
GIL SMART and CASEY KREIDER
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2009-09-17 07:34:00
SUSAN JURGELSKI
As a steady throng of people form a jagged line, Jim Belcher slathers peanut butter on bread, determined to serve a meal with a message.Every Monday, he and fellow members of the year-old chapter of Food Not Bombs, a loose-knit international volunteer and donation-funded organization, offe......
2009-09-16 08:33:00
BERNARD HARRIS
For 38 years, Lancaster city has had a contract to provide police services to surrounding Lancaster Township.It took Mayor Rick Gray just four years to lose that contract, his predecessor and political rival Charlie Smithgall said Tuesday.The day after Lancaster Township supervisors......
2009-09-12 06:02:00
TOM MURSE
Deal? What deal?Gov. Ed Rendell quickly put the kibosh on a $27.9 billion budget framework hashed out by three of the four legislative caucuses and unveiled Friday morning. ...
2009-09-11 13:03:00
GIL SMART and CASEY KREIDER
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2009-09-11 00:01:00
TOM MURSE
Welcome to the post-Labor Day edition of Politically Speaking, the first since the unofficial start of the fall campaign season. Time to check in with our pols and parties and ask: Whose stock is rising and whose is falling?Let's start with the obvious.FALLING: ......
2009-09-10 10:33:00
LORI VAN INGEN
Crime, parking, communication and snowstorms were among the topics Republican mayoral candidate Charlie Smithgall talked about with more than 30 city residents at a rally Wednesday evening in Buchanan Park."I've gone door-to-door and people aren't happy," Smithgall said. ......
2009-09-09 06:10:00
TOM MURSE
William R. Coder says he was just "at the wrong place at the wrong time;" that his arrest was the result of a "misunderstanding."But Lancaster city police tell a far different story about the high-ranking county GOP official's arrest on charges of soliciting a prost......
2009-09-05 00:06:00
TOM MURSE
The executive director of the county Republican Committee was arrested for alleged solicitation of prostitution in Lancaster on Thursday night and has resigned his position.William R. Coder, 25, of the 1300 block of Union Street, was arrested by city police about 11 p.m. Thursday in the 10......
2009-09-04 00:01:00
TOM MURSE
After two town hall meetings, it is clear that U.S. Rep. Joe Pitts' opposition to the health care reform proposals put forth by the Obama administration is based on one fundamental, underlying belief:The crisis has been overblown."This is about a 10 million-person problem,&......
2009-09-04 00:01:00
TOM MURSE
Pennsylvanians are a sour lot, a new statewide poll shows.And, really, can you blame us?We live in the only state in the nation operating without a budget, and there's no sign of an end to the stalemate, which is in its third month.A majority of us are also skeptical of P......
2009-08-30 00:10:00
JEANNETTE SCOTT
Kaila Tyson-Aikins, a sixth-grader at Park Elementary School in Columbia struggled with her homework, night after night. But her grades improved and her confidence soared with state-funded tutoring last year, her mother, Joy Tyson, said. Columbia Borough School District relies on the st......
2009-08-29 06:48:00
TOM MURSE
The setting was a tad more intimate: a small, warmly lit auditorium.The emotion, however, was just as raw.Some 175 people from this Chester County community jammed into an elementary school here Friday night, and many directed sharp words at their congressman, Republican Rep. Joe Pi......
2009-08-28 10:18:00
BRIAN WALLACE
About $25 million in state funding that was supposed to arrive at local school districts this week has been delayed by the budget impasse in Harrisburg.That's on top of about $14 million in payments the state failed to make last month.The funding delay — a consequence of t......
2009-08-28 06:03:00
TOM MURSE
U.S. Rep. Joe Pitts was cheered by opponents of President Barack Obama's sweeping health-care proposals at a spirited — and occasionally testy — town-hall meeting here Thursday night.But the Republican lawmaker also faced tough questions from many of the 400 people in the c......
2009-08-28 00:01:00
TOM MURSE
Only a select few of our state lawmakers — a half dozen, to be exact — are actually involved in negotiating the details of Pennsylvania's long-overdue budget for the fiscal year that began nearly 60 days ago.The remaining 247 legislators are in a rather unenviable position.......
2009-08-26 00:04:00
TOM MURSE
U.S. Rep. Joe Pitts, who was criticized for holding a teleconference on health care reform instead of meeting with a skeptical public, has scheduled a town-hall meeting here Thursday night.The forum will be held from 6:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. at Conestoga Valley High School, 2110 Horseshoe Ro......
2009-08-25 06:03:00
CINDY STAUFFER
The nation has broken the promise of the American Dream, that the next generation will have the opportunity to do better than the present one, Democratic Congressman Joe Sestak told a small crowd in Penn Square Monday afternoon.Sestak said that's why he is running for the U.S. Senate a......
2009-08-22 15:30:00
CASEY KREIDER and GIL SMART
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2009-08-21 00:18:00
BRIAN WALLACE
A Republican candidate who was seeking a seat on the School District of Lancaster board has dropped out of the race. Nick Jabbour's withdrawal means the four remaining candidates will take the four open school board seats in the November general election, barring a successful write-in campa......
2009-08-21 00:02:00
TOM MURSE
One of my first assignments for this newspaper was to cover a meeting in Manheim Township. The year was 1998, and the suburb's five commissioners were to vote on the creation of a "community trash hauler." The issue seemed pretty mundane to me. If you wanted your garbage pic......
2009-08-18 08:14:00
TOM MURSE
U.S. Rep. Joe Pitts has long opposed the public health care option sought by President Barack Obama, saying any government-run plan would undercut private insurers.But on Monday, Pitts said he also dislikes the administration's alternative to the "public option" — nonpr......
2009-08-14 10:16:00
BERNARD HARRIS
On Tuesday in Lebanon, Sen. Arlen Specter stood face to face with angry constituents at a town hall meeting on health care.In an interview after the meeting, Specter said he placed himself squarely before the people attending the forum because he felt that would make them less likely to sc......
2009-08-11 08:34:00
BERNARD HARRIS
On a steamy Monday afternoon, children played in the fountain in Lancaster city's Binns Park.Downtown office workers came out to walk around, and people sat in the shade and ate their lunches.And, as they do every Monday at lunchtime, Food Not Bombs members hung their banner on ......
2009-08-07 00:01:00
TOM MURSE
Hello there, state workers.If you're up for a little cheap fun this weekend — I know you haven't gotten a paycheck in awhile and likely won't get one at least until next week — here's an idea. (Consider it a treasure hunt, of sorts.)See if you can find ou......
2009-08-06 09:18:00
TOM MURSE
More than 77,000 state workers, some of whom have been relying on food banks to get by during the budget stalemate, will get their first full paychecks in nearly a month beginning next week. Democrats in the state House?They've already paid themselves.The Democrats dipped......
2009-08-06 00:01:00
JEFF HAWKES
Are you angry with Gov. Ed Rendell for wanting to raise your taxes?Apparently, Sen. Dominic Pileggi doesn't think you're angry enough.Pileggi, of Delaware County, is the leader of the majority Republicans in the state Senate and Rendell's chief nemesis in Pennsylvania......
2009-08-04 00:01:00
JEFF HAWKES
It was a classic Ed Rendell thing to say. AUDIO: Rendell discusses budget At a news conferenc......
2009-08-01 09:00:00
As of yesterday, 33,000 state workers were without a paycheck. For the past month, they have continued to show up for work, do their jobs and serve the public despite the threat of payless paydays. Good for them. That's the kind of integrity Pennsylvanians expect from public servants.I......
2009-07-31 00:01:00
TOM MURSE
It wasn't exactly a cage match to the death.But anyone who caught the latest round of the State Budget Blame Game — courtesy of Republican Rep. John Bear and Democratic Rep. Mike Sturla — should have a decent feel for why Pennsylvania is in......
2009-07-30 09:36:00
BERNARD HARRIS
It's official. There is a race for Lancaster city mayor.Former Mayor Charlie Smithgall has filed paperwork with the Lancaster County Board of Elections, accepting the Republican nomination for city mayor.Smithgall, a two-term mayor, lost his re-election bid four years ago to cur......
2009-07-28 10:42:00
TOM MURSE
As Pennsylvania's budget stalemate enters its fifth week, state Sen. Mike Brubaker says he's come up with a plan that could prevent future impasses — by docking lawmakers' pay and perks, among other things."By us not being paid, that can put on a lot of pressure,&quo......
2009-07-25 08:01:00
TOM MURSE
Republican U.S. Rep. Joe Pitts, who will seek his eighth term in Congress next year, is raising more money than his challenger and has nearly five times as much campaign cash in the bank, new finance reports show.But Democrat Lois Herr has raked in twice as much money from individual donor......
2009-07-24 06:01:00
TOM MURSE
Republican U.S. Senate hopeful Pat Toomey, a hero to some conservatives in Pennsylvania, says he can beat any opponent next fall — even in a state dominated by Democratic voters."I can definitely win this race," he said in a brief meeting with reporters of this newspaper Th......
2009-07-24 00:01:00
TOM MURSE
Ten thousand corrections officers patrol our prison cell blocks and stand between hardened criminals and the public in Pennsylvania — and those officers are getting only a fraction of their pay during the budget stalemate.The inmates?They're still getting paid in full.......
2009-07-23 05:01:00
Al Franken was sworn in recently as the nation's 100th senator.Franken, from Minnesota, gives the Democrats the coveted 60th vote, which, in theory, allows the majority party to break a filibuster by the minority Republicans.Nothing. however, in the ego-filled power pool that is......
2009-07-19 00:13:00
JON RUTTER
District Judge Maynard A. "Bud" Hamilton Jr. is stepping down early, and Republicans are launching a search to fill the vacancy. Hamilton's district comprises Strasburg, Pequea and West Lampeter townships and Strasburg Borough. Hamilton recently tendered his resignation to Pe......
2009-07-12 00:08:00
HELEN COLWELL ADAMS
Bob Kettering was set to vote for Superior Court Judge Cheryl Allen as the Republican nominee for state Supreme Court. But before the May primary, the president of Lancaster County ACTION got a call asking if he'd meet with Allen's opponent, fellow Superior Court Judge Joan Orie Melvin. Ke......
2009-07-12 00:04:00
PAUL FRANZ and AMANDA BALIONIS
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2009-07-10 00:01:00
TOM MURSE
For all the huffing and puffing from our state lawmakers during the budget stalemate, Rep. Ron Marsico doesn't see any action to back up the bluster."Look where we are today: no budget in site," said the Dauphin County Republican. "They're not even m......
2009-07-09 00:01:00
It doesn't require a soothsayer to foretell the train wreck that lies in Pennsylvania's fiscal future. The numbers speak for themselves.The budget that state lawmakers are now wrestling with is $3.2 billion short. Gov. Ed Rendell and a number of House Democrats say the the only way......
2009-07-08 10:04:00
TOM MURSE
Pennsylvania's 253 state lawmakers have been working without pay during the week-old budget stalemate. But that doesn't mean they're scraping to get by.More than 200 legislators, including two from Lancaster County, are being reimbursed by taxpayers for meals on the days they&#......
2009-07-07 10:02:00
AD CRABLE
Democratic Congressman Joe Sestak, on a frenetic media blitz of 67 counties in three weeks, swept through Lancaster County on Monday, calling himself the principled and credible alternative to Sen. Arlen Specter in the race for the Senate.Sestak, 57, a Slovakian immigrant's son who fol......
2009-07-03 00:01:00
TOM MURSE
Republican Charlie Smithgall has understood from the get-go he would be fighting an uphill battle against Rick Gray, the city's Democratic mayor, in a rematch of 2005's mayoral election."I am absolutely an underdog," he said.But th......
2009-07-03 00:01:00
JEFF HAWKES
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....
2009-07-02 10:07:00
TOM KNAPP
Municipalities that don't have their own police departments soon may be asked to pick up the cost of state police coverage.A measure to impose fees on those municipalities — about 20 percent of those in Pennsylvania, including several townships in Lancaster County — passed ......
2009-07-02 10:01:00
BERNARD HARRIS
When political candidates announce they are running for office, they often hold a press conference in which they are backed by a crowd of family and friends.When former Lancaster Mayor Charlie Smithgall said last Friday that he would challenge current Mayor Rick Gray, he stood alone outsid......
2009-07-02 00:11:00
TOM MURSE
U.S. Sen. Arlen Specter came to town Wednesday morning to talk about the $5 million in federal stimulus money going to Red Rose Transit Authority. ...
2009-07-01 00:05:00
TOM MURSE
Now that the deadline to pass a state budget has come and gone and there's no prospect of an agreement anytime soon, you might be wondering: What makes this year different?It is true that the Legislature and Gov. Ed Rendell haven't been able to approve a spending plan before July 1......
2009-06-30 00:06:00
TOM MURSE
Forget midnight.In fact, some Harrisburg insiders say, forget July.The disparate factions warring over next year's state budget are still miles apart, which means reaching an accord before the constitutional July 1 deadline — or even over the next several weeks — is ......
2009-06-30 00:01:00
TOM MURSE
Wesley A. Snyder was able to keep his $29 million mortgage brokering scam hush-hush, for a time, by withholding crucial information — namely account statements — from his clients.Such a practice soon will be illegal.Gov. Ed Rendell on Monday signed into law a measure tha......
2009-06-27 00:41:00
BRIAN WALLACE
Lancaster city residents appear split on whether Charlie Smithgall's decision to run against Mayor Rick Gray in the fall election is a good idea.In a sampling of patrons at Friday's Celebrate Lancaster! festivities downtown, five people said they don't support Smithgall, and fo......
2009-06-26 11:01:00
BERNARD HARRIS
Charlie Smithgall — Lancaster's most famous cannoneer — wants to take another shot. The former two-term city mayor announced this morning that he will seek a third term in City Hall. His announcement late this morning, comes nearly four years after his re-election loss to D......
2009-06-25 01:01:00
JEFF HAWKES
With inner-city Fulton Elementary School as his backdrop, Gov. Ed Rendell defended his call for higher state taxes as a "moral obligation" to children.Noting that Republican lawmakers have drawn a line in the sand against a tax increase, the governor drew his own line.&quo......
2009-06-25 00:36:00
LARRY ALEXANDER
"The library is a wonderland of endless possibilities. There is so much to do and see and learn."Those words are part of a letter written by a Quarryville resident in support of Lancaster County libraries, which face drastic cuts in the proposed Pennsylvania budget....
2009-06-24 00:32:00
DAVE PIDGEON
Mayors of five Pennsylvania cities — Lancaster, York, Reading, Easton and Bethlehem — announced Tuesday they've formed a coalition to meet the challenge of paying for municipal government.The cities had been the subject of a study earlier this year by the Pennsylvania Econo......
2009-06-24 00:24:00
BRIAN WALLACE
Gov. Ed Rendell issued a simple warning Tuesday to Republican lawmakers who want to slash millions in public school funding from next year's state budget: "Don't mess with education."Education is too important to the state's future to fall victim to cost-cutting in th......
2009-06-18 00:01:00
Budget battles in Pennsylvania are rarely collegial. Rather than working to bridge the gap between revenue and expenditures, the two parties tend to migrate to their own aisles and throw barbs at each other.Faced with the largest deficit in state history, lawmakers this year have reverted ......
2009-06-17 01:02:00
DAVE PIDGEON
An income-tax increase proposed Tuesday by Democratic Gov. Ed Rendell probably won't pass, state lawmakers said Tuesday.But as Democrats and Republicans look to slash spending in ways that will have consequences for local governments, most people will probably end up paying higher taxe......
2009-06-16 00:19:00
DAVE PIDGEON
The Joe Pitts-Lois Herr rivalry has become a trilogy.The Federal Elections Commission confirmed Monday that Democrat Lois Herr filed paperwork to make her third run at unseating Pitts, the venerable Republican congressman from the 16th District who first took office in 1997.Should P......
2009-06-12 00:18:00
JEFF HAWKES
State Sen. Lloyd Smucker of Lancaster County last week described the Senate Republicans' no-tax-increase budget bill as putting Pennsylvania on "the new road of responsibility."Sen. Jake Corman, the Centre County Republican and Appropriations chair, similarly called the deep ......
2009-06-10 01:13:00
DAVE PIDGEON
A local Republican and the Democratic governor will hold dueling press conferences today to lay out ideas about how to jumpstart the housing industry and the general economy.State Rep. John Bear, a Lititz Republican, will go first at 10 a.m. from the steps of the state Capitol. He will int......
2009-06-10 00:31:00
LARRY ALEXANDER
I just checked the Weather Channel on TV. I wanted to make sure hell hadn't frozen over.The reason I suspected this might have occurred is that I find myself agreeing with a letter to the editor written by fellow Ephratian Anna Mae Ressler. I know Anna Mae and, politically, we don'......
2009-06-06 01:33:00
JEFF HAWKES
If the state budget were a jungle in which you were lost, you'd appreciate having someone like state Sen. Jake Corman around.He'd take a machete and chop his way to the rescue.How satisfying to whack away at everything and anything impeding the mission.As Senate Appro......
2009-06-05 01:41:00
TOM KNAPP
An ongoing dispute over police matters in East Hempfield Township heated up again Wednesday as board members and residents bickered and a top Republican official chastised supervisors for humiliating a township police officer in a public forum.Although the board was supposed to focus on po......
2009-06-03 22:48:00
Correction — The editorial below regarding proposed changes in the state slots law, posted on LancasterOnline Tuesday, noted that casino applicant Louis DeNaples failed to disclose a 1978 conviction to the Gaming Control Board. That is incor......
2009-05-28 00:53:00
BRETT HAMBRIGHT
Police on Wednesday accused a former Lititz mayoral candidate who also served as the youth group leader at a borough church of having a sexual relationship with a pre-teen girl.Gregory J. Nies, 56, of South Spruce Street, was arraigned Wednesday morning on two felonies and two misdemeanors......
2009-05-28 00:36:00
P.J. REILLY
Lancaster County commissioners are listening to the chatter in Harrisburg about the state's 2009-10 budget.What they're hearing has them worried."The goal of Senate Bill 850 is no tax increases, and I think that notion is a fallacy," Commissioner Craig Lehman said.......
2009-05-26 22:36:00
STEPHEN J. ENGLE
Lately, there seems to be no such thing as "business as usual" at Pequea Township supervisors meetings, and a May 20 event was true to form. Tempers flared between supervisor Virginia Brady and a few residents, overshadowing the evening's regular business.Before the meeting m......
2009-05-22 01:13:00
JEFF HAWKES
At budget time, here's the easiest argument to make: cut spending, do more with less.Matthew Brouillette of the Commonwealth Foundation, which promotes free enterprise and limited government, made that pat argument Thursday before the state House Appropriations Committee.The pan......
2009-05-22 00:56:00
LARRY ALEXANDER
If the budget passed by the Senate in Harrisburg were implemented, Pennsylvania history could be put on hold.The $27.3 billion spending plan proposed by Senate Republicans and approved along party lines earlier this month would cut funding to the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commissi......
2009-05-22 00:01:00
The Berlin Wall fell, but for years thereafter American Cold Warriors were mocked for not giving up on the old fight they seemed to have grown to love.Well, Obama's in the White House, but some Democrats appear to be stuck on the past like a fading "01-20-09" label on a Prius......
2009-05-22 10:45:00
PAUL FRANZ and GIL SMART
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2009-05-20 20:08:00
LARRY ALEXANDER and P.J. REILLY
Correction — In a tight primary race in Manheim Township, incumbent commissioner Rick Casselbury polled 101 votes more than the next nearest candidate, James M. Martin. The wrong number was included in the article below, posted on LancasterO......
2009-05-20 17:41:00
JENNIFER TODD and BRIAN WALLACE
Correction — Timothy Craven, who is running for Ephrata Area school board, will appear on the November ballot as a Democratic candidate. The article below, posted on LancasterOnline Wednesday, contained inaccurate information about his statu......
2009-05-20 03:44:00
DAVE PIDGEON
Tuesday turned into happy hour for those who wanted to overturn a prohibition on alcohol sales in West Lampeter Township.Because residents voting in a referendum chose to reverse the township's 74-year-old ban on alcohol sales, major changes are likely in store for Willow Valley Resort......
2009-05-20 03:06:00
TOM KNAPP and MICHAEL YODER
C. Chuck Mummert, an Elizabethtown Borough councilman for the past four years, handily snatched the vacant mayor's seat away from political newcomer Donald Keller in one of six Republican face-offs for mayoral slots in Lancaster County.Mummert, a salesman for a home-re......
2009-05-19 00:33:00
SUSAN E. LINDT
On election eve, hundreds of the county's Republican elite turned out for the GOP's spring dinner, where fourth-term congressman and possible gubernatorial candidate Jim Gerlach pumped up the party.In a short speech Monday night at Willow Valley Palm Court, the congressman from Che......
