Hi,
I assume all will take a minute to remember all those that perished eleven years ago. It is the anniversary of another dark day in American history, the Mountain Meadows Massacre happened in 1857. Emigrants traveling by wagon train were stopped by John Doyle Lee, a Mormon leader in Utah, on their journey to California. 140 adults were massacred and seventeen small children were parceled out to Mormon families. Tomorrow is Pakistan’s founder’s day, a state holiday commemorating the death of Qaid-e-Azam Mohammed Ali Jinnah, the founder of modern Pakistan in 1948.
OMG, I can’t believe he may have out done himself. My frequent subject of conversation, Steve Bland from the Port Authority, is unbelievable. He’s asking for $3M from RAD (the Regional Asset District-the body that takes 50% of the added Allegheny County 1% sales tax and RAD divides it between deserving arts programs). In exchange for taking $3M from that arts (and I’m not necessarily against this), he’s offered to put that wraparound advertising they put on their buses, on one or two buses!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Did I say OMG, he thinks a bus or two’s advertising is worth $3M!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! This may be better than his quote in 2006 (before the Northshore extension was approved) when asked if they would provide extra trains on Steeler home game days and he said “No, that would require overtime”!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! If Florida offers him that job in Jacksonville, I’ll pay to subsidize his move. 🙂
Extras the credit card companies are trying to get you to sign up for so they can make even larger profits. Payment Protection is set up to pay the minimum payment on the amount you owe if you loose your job or are disabled. #1, the GAO found banks charge between .85 and $1.35 per $100 on your credit card. That is one of the highest rates of any insurance. #2, there’s a ton of fine print excluding them having to pay in the event you loose your job or are disabled. The GAO found that in 2009, customers paid $2.4B into this program and redeemed $518M. Pretty hefty profits. For around $15 per month, your credit card company will monitor your credit that someone doesn’t make unauthorized purchases on your credit card. #1, they are required by law to do this anyway. #2, they are required by law to do this anyway. I’m going to let you figure out what #3 is. The best thing you can and should do is monitor your own credit. When the bills come in, don’t wait until the due date to look at it. Look at the charges as soon as you receive it. Anything you don’t recognize, call the phone number next to the charge. If the phone number doesn’t work (this has happened to me), or the person answering the phone doesn’t satisfy you-immediately contact the credit card company and file a dispute. You should also look at your free credit report yearly for inaccuracies. You can get this report by visiting annual credit report or by calling 877.322.8228.
West Homestead acquiring another free standing casual restaurant, Dorothy 6 Blast Furnace Cafe hopes to open soon on Eighth Avenue. Olivia Crocker is joining Nelda & Jeff who opened Smoke Barbeque Taqueria down the street a year ago May. Olivia doesn’t have a web site yet, so I can’t send you there. Also, around the corner is one of my favorite little casual family restaurants, the Miller family’s Blue Dust on Amity Street and farther down Eighth Avenue Tin Front Restaurant is doing a nice job. So if you are down in Homestead visiting The Rivers of Steel Heritage Museum and looking for lunch or dinner, you have options. If you are shopping at the Waterfront, why patronize one of the box chains when you can have some pretty exciting food, instead of the boring box restaurants and support small business.
Next weekend, the sleepy little town of Bridgewater will be hosting Bookfest 2012: a Celebration of Reading, Writing and the Arts-this will be their fifth. Fifty regional authors will be on hand Saturday talking about their works. Friday from 7 – 10 pm they will have a block party featuring conga drumming, African dance lessons and refreshments. Saturday from 10 am until 4 pm the authors will be on hand as will crafters, refreshments and children’s readings.
Nittany Greyhounds is a rescue organization for the ex-racers. They have been around since 2009 and they run a separate boarding operation to help pay their mortgage. A soulless neighbor that owns storage facilities takes objection to this “money making” operation next to his property and has filed complaints with the township’s zoning department. He objects to the “traffic” the boarding operation brings to the neighborhood. How much traffic does dropping a pet off and then retrieving him/her later create? A lot less than trucks and minivans dropping off items in his storage units. My opinion, running the boarding kennel is like a fire company having a bingo, with less traffic. Nittany Greyhounds is seeking financial help with their legal battles with soulless Houtz. You can visit their web site or like them on Facebook.
Dave Messersmith of the Penn State Extension Office will be hosting a number of webinars on shale gas drilling. The first one, this Thursday will address an overview of trends in shale-gas drilling. The next one on October 18 will cover reading royalty checks (I wish I needed this one 🙂 ), November 15 will feature gas utilization, December 20 will discuss what a water study means and putting them in perspective, January’s topic will be ethane cracker plant impact in a community and finally on February 21 the discussion will be on environmental organizations perspective on natural gas impact on forestry and wildlife. I think it will be a good source of unbiased information on this controversial subject. More info on their web site.
Well, if you weren’t aware before, Fall’s right around the corner. Low humidity and 70 degrees right now. This part I like. 🙂
ed
