Friday Night December 7th The Varsity Boys basketball team Plays Bristol at Bristol at 7:30. Lets get a big crowd at the game to cheer our boys since there was no Thanksgiving football game. Beat the Warriors !!!!
Thank you to anonymous above; my sentiments exactly. Come on out and support this great group of boys as they BEAT BRISTOL!!! They have quite a team this year!!!
Touching story of trouble in paradise for a simple freedom loving grass roots citizens group with no connnections whatsoever to Big Money.
Tea party group chief Armey quits
Posted: Wednesday, December 5, 2012 4:00 am
WASHINGTON (AP) — Eased out with an $8 million payout provided by an influential Republican fundraiser, former GOP House Majority Leader Dick Armey says he has left the conservative tea party group FreedomWorks because of an internal split over the group’s future direction.
A confidential contract obtained by The Associated Press shows that Armey agreed in September to resign from his role as chairman of Washington-based FreedomWorks in exchange for $8 million in consulting fees paid in annual $400,000 installments. Dated Sept. 24, the contract specifies that Armey would resign his position at FreedomWorks and its sister organization, the FreedomWorks Foundation, by the end of November.
According to the contract, Armey’s consulting fees will be paid by Richard J. Stephenson, a prominent fundraiser and founder and chairman of the Cancer Treatment Centers of America, a national cancer treatment network. Stephenson is on the board of directors of FreedomWorks.
Armey’s exit comes as a new sign of acrimony in conservative and Republican ranks as the party’s bruised leadership struggles with its November electoral losses and uncertainty over how to recast its principles and issues to compete with an ascendant Democratic Party.
Armey confirmed his departure Tuesday, telling the AP that “my differences with FreedomWorks are a matter of principle.” Armey said he made the decision to quit FreedomWorks in August, but Stephenson and other board members urged him not to leave until after the Nov. 6 election. Stephenson did not immediately respond to calls from AP for comment.
Armey would not describe his specific concerns, but he told Mother Jones magazine that the tea party group was moving in an unproductive direction. He also indicated dissatisfaction with the November election results, in which several GOP candidates supported by FreedomWorks Super PAC donations were beaten by Democratic Party rivals.
In an internal Nov. 30 resignation memo published by Mother Jones, Armey told FreedomWorks CEO Matt Kibbe to remove his “name, image and signature” from all the group’s materials and Web operations. Kibbe and other FreedomWorks officials were not immediately available for comment.
Armey, who had been with the tea party group since its 2004 founding, is a veteran Texas Republican Party political figure who was intimately involved in the GOP’s conservative “Contract with America” congressional movement in the 1990s. While Armey, 72, was FreedomWorks’ co-chairman and intellectual authority and at first, its public face, the younger Kibbe has been its most active official, appearing at the group’s public gatherings.
FreedomWorks flourished after a wave of tea party House candidates swept into office in 2010, but despite spending hundreds of thousands of dollars to back favored GOP candidates in November, the group’s influence appeared to wane at the polls. Among the GOP losers supported by FreedomWorks in November were Senate candidates Josh Mandel in Ohio, Connie Mack in Florida and Richard Mourdock in Indiana.
Overall, tea party-influenced House legislators fared better in the recent elections, though their ranks thinned. At least 83 of 87 members of the tea party-powered House GOP freshman class of 2010 ran for re-election to the House in November. All but 11 of them were returned to office while a 12th, Rep. Jeff Landry, R-La., faces an uphill runoff election this month against another GOP incumbent.
Posted: Wednesday, December 5, 2012 5:00 pm | Updated: 6:48 pm, Wed Dec 5, 2012.
By GEMA MARIA DUARTE Staff writer
Posted on December 5, 2012
by Gema Duarte
MORRISVILLE — Trying to get your pet in the holiday spirit?
Santa and Mrs. Claus will be available to take pictures with pets from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. on Saturday at the Morrisville Ambulance Squad on Union Street.
The free event is being sponsored by Morrisville First, a community group with the mission to improve and renew Morrisville. The group is being funded through a five-year Neighborhood Implementation Grant from the Wachovia Regional Foundation, according to the organization’s website, www.morrisvillefirst.com.
The group is taking monetary and food donations for the event. The money will be donated to a local animal shelter.
Washington will visit Morrisville this weekend Posted: Wednesday, December 5, 2012 4:46 pm | Updated: 6:38 pm, Wed Dec 5, 2012.
By GEMA MARIA DUARTE Staff writer
Posted on December 5, 2012
by Gema Duarte
MORRISVILLE — More than 200 years ago, Gen. George Washington arrived in Colvin's Ferry, what is now Morrisville.
The Historic Morrisville Society will commemorate the general’s arrival from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturday at Summerseat, which is located at the corner Hillcrest and Legion avenues.
At 11:15 a.m., Washington, portrayed by Jim Gibson, will arrive at the Victorian home in a horse-drawn carriage.
There are holiday festivities for children and adults, including a fireside lunch with homemade soup, baked goods, hot dogs and drinks.
Within the mansion, the historical society will have four rooms decorated for the holidays. In addition, a model railroad exhibit will be set up upstairs by the Delaware Valley Chapter of the Railway Society.
Speaking of The Founding Fathers and those who constantly invoke them .....
December 04, 2012
Republicans not handling election results well
PPP's first post election national poll finds that Republicans are taking the results pretty hard...and also declining in numbers.
49% of GOP voters nationally say they think that ACORN stole the election for President Obama. We found that 52% of Republicans thought that ACORN stole the 2008 election for Obama, so this is a modest decline, but perhaps smaller than might have been expected given that ACORN doesn't exist anymore.
Some GOP voters are so unhappy with the outcome that they no longer care to be a part of the United States. 25% of Republicans say they would like their state to secede from the union compared to 56% who want to stay and 19% who aren't sure.
One reason that such a high percentage of Republicans are holding what could be seen as extreme views is that their numbers are declining. Our final poll before the election, which hit the final outcome almost on the head, found 39% of voters identifying themselves as Democrats and 37% as Republicans. Since the election we've seen a 5 point increase in Democratic identification to 44%, and a 5 point decrease in Republican identification to 32%.
There will also be a coin toss on Saturday for the Ambulance Squad on Bridge and Pennsylvania avenues starting at 9am. be sure to bring down your change jars and help out your squad!
Having a coin toss is supposed to get an okay from the borough. Hope this has been done. I'm only saying this because I remember this coming up before with another group, (Little Bulldogs maybe?) who had been told they could not for a couple of reasons. I can't remember what the reasons were. I think one may have been liability falling on the borough. Sorry I just can't remember. Not trying to be a grinch here, I just think there is way too much whispering down the lane in Morrisville and misunderstandings formed by lack of communication, mis-communication and wild storytellers. No doubt, this will even get some sort of spin. I fully support the Morrisville Ambulance Squad and the efforts of those involved with trying to raise money for them. Just giving a heads up.
Tech school student organizing fundraiser to benefit family of accident victim Posted: Thursday, December 6, 2012 2:06 pm | Updated: 9:35 pm, Thu Dec 6, 2012.
By Jo Ciavaglia Staff writer
BRISTOL -- A Bucks County Technical High School senior is organizing a fundraiser in memory of classmate Ryan Viola, the Bensalem 17-year-old fatally injured last week after he was hit by a car while walking to his school bus stop.
The event -- “Come Skate or just come and Donate” -- will be held from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m. Dec. 15 at the Grundy Area, 475 Beaver St. in Bristol Township. The cost is $10 per person and includes skate rental.
The event, which benefits the Viola family, was organized by Jordan Ducko, who is in the school's electronic occupations program. Ryan was studying in same program.
Does the Morrisville Ambulance Squad need help? Yes. This is not new. Should everyone be able to do whatever they want,(finally), to make some change for the squad regardless of the rules in place, without bothering to do it correctly? No.
Neither NJ nor PA have laws requiring carbon-monoxide detectors in schools
December 6, 2012 Manasee Wagh and Todd McHale Staff writers
It's not like fire, which announces itself with smoke, heat and flames. Instead, it can strike down people without much warning.
Carbon-monoxide poisoning sent more than 40 students and several adults in an Atlanta school to a hospital recently. Now some school officials in Pennsylvania and New Jersey are reevaluating the need for carbon-monoxide detectors in their buildings.
Nobody was found unconscious in the Atlanta school, local news agencies reported. But by the time the colorless, odorless gas had gathered around heating units and saturated hallways, it was too late to prevent people from feeling the effects -- headaches, dizziness, nausea and confusion. A byproduct of the combustion of fuels commonly used to generate heat and energy in homes and vehicles, carbon-monoxide exposure can cause sudden illness and death, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
However, carbon-monoxide detectors are not required in either Pennsylvania or New Jersey schools.
Timothy Eller, press secretary for the Pennsylvania Department of Education, said no explicit requirements exist within the public school code to test for carbon monoxide or have detectors. Under Section 701, schools have a “duty to provide” healthful accommodations, he said.
Centennial School District, which includes Warminster, Upper Southampton and Ivyland in Bucks County, doesn't have detectors in any of its six schools because its furnaces don't burn a fuel prone to producing carbon-monoxide fumes, said school board member Michael Hartline.
Nevertheless, the board's operations committee on Wednesday decided to investigate the cost of installing the detectors. The full board will consider purchasing them at its Tuesday evening meeting.
"The school board would prefer having them. For peace of mind and extra safety, it’s something we should consider. We’re being proactive," said Hartline.
The interior of Morrisville School District's school buildings don't have carbon-monoxide detectors, either. However, the attached boiler rooms do, and they're wired to sound an alarm in the schools in case of fumes, said spokeswoman Pat Wandling.
Like Pennsylvania, New Jersey has no requirement in its Department of Education code for carbon-monoxide detectors in school buildings, said Richard Vespucci, department spokesman.
“The current requirements for carbon-monoxide alarms cover institutional and residential occupancies (places where people sleep),” said Tammori C. Petty, spokeswoman for the New Jersey Department of Community Affairs.
Cinnaminson School District officials said there shouldn’t be a problem with carbon monoxide in the schools because they are heated by boilers and not gas furnaces and forced air, so no combustion emissions.
“The point is that it is not an issue for Cinnaminson for when the boilers come on the air is automatically directed out of the building,” Cinnaminson School Superintendent Salvatore Illuzzi said. “The boilers are inspected annually.”
In addition, the district does not allow buses to idle more than three minutes near the school buildings, to cut down any risk of the colorless and odorless gas getting inside.
New Jersey state law does require carbon-monoxide alarms to be installed in single and two-family homes, buildings with multiple dwellings, hotels and rooming and boarding houses. The regulation requires the detectors to put in the immediate vicinity of all sleeping rooms in a residential building that have fuel-burning appliances or have attached garages. Open parking structures are not considered attached garages.
Pennsylvania state building code requires all newly constructed homes that have fossil fuel-burning heaters or appliances, or an attached garage, to install a carbon-monoxide detector. Older homes don't legally need the detector.
Wandling is a clueless busybody with just enough political hack connections to be mildly useful which is not to be confused with competent. What to do what to do?
Pa. district doesn't want to be put in state hands
Posted: Saturday, December 8, 2012 8:28 am
Associated Press |
CHESTER, Pa. (AP) — A long-struggling school district outside Philadelphia has asked a judge to reject a petition to put it in the hands of a state-appointed receiver.
An attorney for the Chester Upland School District told Delaware County Judge Chad F. Kenney on Friday that the state's recovery plan would hurt special needs students and close two better performing schools.
Attorney George Dawson, special counsel to Chester Upland, argued the district is not financially distressed and that the petition is "arbitrary and capricious."
State Education Secretary Ronald Tomalis is seeking to have Joseph P. Watkins, the state-appointed chief recovery officer, named as the district's receiver.
Kenney says he'll rule within 10 days.
Tomalis is asking for the appointment of Watkins because the school board voted to reject the recovery plan.
NJ Judge: Lawsuit against Morrisvile fireworks shop can proceed
By Laurie Mason Schroeder Staff Writer
December 9, 2012
A lawsuit filed against a Morrisville fireworks store by a New Jersey teen who lost sight in his left eye in a 2010 fireworks mishap can proceed to trial, a New Jersey judge has ruled.
Thomas Eldershaw, of Jackson, was 19 when he was helping a neighbor set off a fireworks display at a Fourth of July party. Eldershaw had just lit a fuse when an aerial shell misfired, sending a “tennis-ball sized projectile” into his eye, according to a lawsuit filed last year in Superior Court of Ocean County.
Despite two surgeries, Eldershaw lost vision in his eye.
Eldershaw’s neighbor had bought the fireworks at Sky King Fireworks on South Pennsylvania Ave., a short distance from the bridge to Trenton.
Although Pennsylvania residents are banned from buying fireworks without a permit issued by a municipality here, non-residents can purchase them without a permit. New Jersey law says that its residents may not legally buy or use fireworks without a permit from a municipality.
Sky King’s attorneys sought to dismiss the lawsuit, noting that under Pennsylvania law, the sale was legal and that the fireworks seller bore no responsibility for Eldershaw’s injuries.
N.J. Superior Court Judge James Den Uyl disagreed, saying that the large purchase made by Eldershaw’s neighbor — $1,229 worth of mortars, rockets and Roman candles — should have been a sign that the neighbor was planning a large, sophisticated display that could have resulted in injuries if the people setting them off weren’t trained or experienced.
In his decision to allow the lawsuit to continue, the judge noted that Sky King employees didn’t check to see if Eldershaw’s neighbor had a valid permit and didn’t give him any instructions on how to use the fireworks safely.
“The competence or sophistication of the purchaser/operator may or may not be a concern depending on the type and quantity of fireworks purchased. In the particular circumstances of this case and sale to (the neighbor), Sky King arguably had a duty to do something to either assess his knowledge, training or experience to stage a fireworks display and/or provide some instruction on how to do so safely,” the decision states.
In reaching his ruling, the judge cited news accounts that said that about 2,000 Americans sustain eye injuries due to fireworks each year, and a U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission report that estimated that about 9,600 people were treated in hospital emergency rooms due to fireworks-related injuries in 2011.
Eldershaw is seeking undisclosed monetary damages from Sky King. He is represented by Lawrenceville attorney Steven Blader.
Sky King has 18 stores in Pennsylvania, Florida and Indiana. An email sent to the company’s Port Lucie, Fla., headquarters was not immediately answered Friday.
Problem in this town is even when you follow the rules nothing still happens. Some people will just disagree with you so they don't argee with with you, even if what you want is what's best for this town. And people here do nothing but complain, they complain no one is doing anything about what ever, then when someone steps up the murder that person just because.
Somehow we muddle on and survive in our misinformed mediocrity. Count your blessings, Mihok Hellman and SOC ain't in charge of squat right now and we're all better off for it.
You can help snag $50,000 prize for Holy Trinity Story Posted: Friday, December 7, 2012 1:24 pm | Updated: 9:14 pm, Fri Dec 7, 2012.
A $50,000 prize is in sight for Holy Trinity Catholic School, but your help is needed for the final push.
The school has entered into the Power a Bright Future program, which awards the school receiving the most votes with the top grant of $50,000. The schools receiving the most votes in three categories — play, create and explore — will get a $25,000 grant.
Also, three schools will be selected from each category to receive a $25,000 judge’s choice grant.
As of Friday, Holy Trinity was in 79th place in the play category with fewer than two weeks before the voting process ends Dec. 19.
Holy Trinity beat the odds last year when many schools in the Archdiocese of Philadelphia shut down because of dwindling finances. Now, with a new lease on life, the school is seeking votes to create an outdoor miniature town and learning area. If selected, the planned play area would be placed outside the new prekindergarten cottage, which recently added a garden along the building.
“This is phase two of the garden project, with phase three and four to come,” said Holy Trinity principal Elaine McDowell.
Anyone above the age of 13 may vote by visiting powerabrightfuture.clorox.com/nominees/detail/?nid=1630 before Dec. 19.
Participants may vote by both Web and text message once per day. Texts should be sent to 95248 with the school code 1630pbf.
MORRISVILLE — A Morrisville woman was injured early Saturday when she ran back into her burning home to rescue a bull dog.
Morrisville Fire Marshal Robert Seward said the woman, 28, of the 200 block of Bank St., escaped the flames with her parents, but when she realized her dog was still inside, she went back in.
"That's when she took in all the smoke. She was taken to Helene Fuld Medical Center in Trenton with smoke inhalation," he said.
The dog was not hurt.
Her father suffered a high blood sugar attack, but not due to the fire, Seward said. He also was taken by ambulance to Helene Fuld.
Meanwhile, when volunteer Morrisville firefighters arrived shortly 12:10 a.m., they found flames pouring from the rear of the one-story home, Seward said.
It took them about 30 minutes to put the fire under control. Numerous Lower Bucks companies assisted Morrisville.
Dear Sirs, Ladies, Those Of Questionable Sexuality and All Fine Squirrels,
I wish to complain along with those complainers which will be complaining about the complaints complainers make regarding your complaint-inciting complaints that is your answer to the complaints complained by the complaining complainers community.
Quite simply, the changes made by the inevitable, foreordained, imminent, impending, ineluctable, ineludible, inescapable, inexorable, inflexible, irresistible, irrevocable, necessary, obligatory actions produced far too many complaints! Please change this, as if I have to listen to another chiding, complaining, condemnatory, condemning, critic, culpatory, denouncing, disapproving, disparaging, fault-finding, hypercritical, overcritical, reprehending, reproaching complaint I fear I will have to quit this blog, as I'm told I should stop blogging if I must complain, despite my not complaining about the blog itself, but rather the complainers complaining about the blog (it seems as though this blog is truly destined to attract complainers).
Sincerely,
The effervescent, perky, animated, peppy poster, Anonymous
December 13, 2012|By Rita Giordano, INQUIRER STAFF WRITER
The troubled Chester-Upland school district now is in the hands of a state-appointed receiver.
With a decision today, Delaware County Judge Chad F. Kenney in effect accepted a dramatic overhaul plan for the district that limits the school board's powers to levying taxes.
Kenney granted state Education Secretary Ronald J. Tomalis' petition to place the district in receivership and accepted his recommendation to appoint Joseph P. Watkins, who was already serving as the district's state-selected chief recovery officer.
Watkins' receiver appointment goes into effect immediately and ends on Dec. 12, 2015.
"The department is pleased with the court's ruling," said state education department spokesman Tim Eller. "The next step is for the receiver to implement the recovery plan."
Last month, Watkins released a far-reaching academic and financial recovery strategy for the district. It calls for increasing scholastic achievement, luring back students who have fled the district's schools, increasing programs, and attracting private funding.
However, it also calls for closing and consolidating schools, including two of the district's higher achievers; increasing class sizes; raising taxes, and turning the schools over to external control, such as education-management companies or converting them to charter or cyber schools if they fail to met federal progress goals by the end of the 2014-2015 school year.
"I'm delighted to have the opportunity to serve," Watkins said after the ruling was issued. "I look forward to working to make this an excellent district. Now we will start to execute the recovery plan. The first order of business is to find a great superintendent who will commit to a long-term contract."
Under the state's recently enacted distressed-district law, Tomalis had to seek court approval for the receiver because the school Board rejected the state's plan.
The board's five Republican members voted against it, saying they would be bound by a plan with which they diasgreed.
The four Democrats voted for it, saying they thought that board members would be able to retain some say over its implementation.
With a receiver appointed, the board's only powers would be to raise and levy taxes.
In a hearing before Kenney last week, an attorney for the board argued against the constitutionality of the receiver law.
Republican board members could not be reached Thursday.
Democratic board member Anthony Johnson said he hopes Watkins "will look out for the best interests of the children. As long as he works with the community and parents get involved ... hopefully we'll be alright."
As a parent of a district student, he said he would continued to give Watkins his input. He said he still thinks it would have been better if the board approved the plan.
"Voting no, now you have put it in somebody's hands that's really not from the district," Johnson said.
Some board and community members have said they suspect the state's plan all along ultimately was to put the district's schools in private hands.
37 comments:
Friday Night December 7th The Varsity Boys basketball team Plays Bristol at Bristol at 7:30. Lets get a big crowd at the game to cheer our boys since there was no Thanksgiving football game. Beat the Warriors !!!!
Thank you to anonymous above; my sentiments exactly. Come on out and support this great group of boys as they BEAT BRISTOL!!! They have quite a team this year!!!
Touching story of trouble in paradise for a simple freedom loving grass roots citizens group with no connnections whatsoever to Big Money.
Tea party group chief Armey quits
Posted: Wednesday, December 5, 2012 4:00 am
WASHINGTON (AP) — Eased out with an $8 million payout provided by an influential Republican fundraiser, former GOP House Majority Leader Dick Armey says he has left the conservative tea party group FreedomWorks because of an internal split over the group’s future direction.
A confidential contract obtained by The Associated Press shows that Armey agreed in September to resign from his role as chairman of Washington-based FreedomWorks in exchange for $8 million in consulting fees paid in annual $400,000 installments. Dated Sept. 24, the contract specifies that Armey would resign his position at FreedomWorks and its sister organization, the FreedomWorks Foundation, by the end of November.
According to the contract, Armey’s consulting fees will be paid by Richard J. Stephenson, a prominent fundraiser and founder and chairman of the Cancer Treatment Centers of America, a national cancer treatment network. Stephenson is on the board of directors of FreedomWorks.
Armey’s exit comes as a new sign of acrimony in conservative and Republican ranks as the party’s bruised leadership struggles with its November electoral losses and uncertainty over how to recast its principles and issues to compete with an ascendant Democratic Party.
Armey confirmed his departure Tuesday, telling the AP that “my differences with FreedomWorks are a matter of principle.” Armey said he made the decision to quit FreedomWorks in August, but Stephenson and other board members urged him not to leave until after the Nov. 6 election. Stephenson did not immediately respond to calls from AP for comment.
Armey would not describe his specific concerns, but he told Mother Jones magazine that the tea party group was moving in an unproductive direction. He also indicated dissatisfaction with the November election results, in which several GOP candidates supported by FreedomWorks Super PAC donations were beaten by Democratic Party rivals.
In an internal Nov. 30 resignation memo published by Mother Jones, Armey told FreedomWorks CEO Matt Kibbe to remove his “name, image and signature” from all the group’s materials and Web operations. Kibbe and other FreedomWorks officials were not immediately available for comment.
Armey, who had been with the tea party group since its 2004 founding, is a veteran Texas Republican Party political figure who was intimately involved in the GOP’s conservative “Contract with America” congressional movement in the 1990s. While Armey, 72, was FreedomWorks’ co-chairman and intellectual authority and at first, its public face, the younger Kibbe has been its most active official, appearing at the group’s public gatherings.
FreedomWorks flourished after a wave of tea party House candidates swept into office in 2010, but despite spending hundreds of thousands of dollars to back favored GOP candidates in November, the group’s influence appeared to wane at the polls. Among the GOP losers supported by FreedomWorks in November were Senate candidates Josh Mandel in Ohio, Connie Mack in Florida and Richard Mourdock in Indiana.
Overall, tea party-influenced House legislators fared better in the recent elections, though their ranks thinned. At least 83 of 87 members of the tea party-powered House GOP freshman class of 2010 ran for re-election to the House in November. All but 11 of them were returned to office while a 12th, Rep. Jeff Landry, R-La., faces an uphill runoff election this month against another GOP incumbent.
Pay me $8 Million and I'll walk away in a New York microsecond.
Santa gets pets in holiday spirit
Story
Posted: Wednesday, December 5, 2012 5:00 pm | Updated: 6:48 pm, Wed Dec 5, 2012.
By GEMA MARIA DUARTE Staff writer
Posted on December 5, 2012
by Gema Duarte
MORRISVILLE — Trying to get your pet in the holiday spirit?
Santa and Mrs. Claus will be available to take pictures with pets from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. on Saturday at the Morrisville Ambulance Squad on Union Street.
The free event is being sponsored by Morrisville First, a community group with the mission to improve and renew Morrisville. The group is being funded through a five-year Neighborhood Implementation Grant from the Wachovia Regional Foundation, according to the organization’s website, www.morrisvillefirst.com.
The group is taking monetary and food donations for the event. The money will be donated to a local animal shelter.
Washington will visit Morrisville this weekend
Posted: Wednesday, December 5, 2012 4:46 pm | Updated: 6:38 pm, Wed Dec 5, 2012.
By GEMA MARIA DUARTE Staff writer
Posted on December 5, 2012
by Gema Duarte
MORRISVILLE — More than 200 years ago, Gen. George Washington arrived in Colvin's Ferry, what is now Morrisville.
The Historic Morrisville Society will commemorate the general’s arrival from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturday at Summerseat, which is located at the corner Hillcrest and Legion avenues.
At 11:15 a.m., Washington, portrayed by Jim Gibson, will arrive at the Victorian home in a horse-drawn carriage.
There are holiday festivities for children and adults, including a fireside lunch with homemade soup, baked goods, hot dogs and drinks.
Within the mansion, the historical society will have four rooms decorated for the holidays. In addition, a model railroad exhibit will be set up upstairs by the Delaware Valley Chapter of the Railway Society.
Speaking of The Founding Fathers and those who constantly invoke them .....
December 04, 2012
Republicans not handling election results well
PPP's first post election national poll finds that Republicans are taking the results pretty hard...and also declining in numbers.
49% of GOP voters nationally say they think that ACORN stole the election for President Obama. We found that 52% of Republicans thought that ACORN stole the 2008 election for Obama, so this is a modest decline, but perhaps smaller than might have been expected given that ACORN doesn't exist anymore.
Some GOP voters are so unhappy with the outcome that they no longer care to be a part of the United States. 25% of Republicans say they would like their state to secede from the union compared to 56% who want to stay and 19% who aren't sure.
One reason that such a high percentage of Republicans are holding what could be seen as extreme views is that their numbers are declining. Our final poll before the election, which hit the final outcome almost on the head, found 39% of voters identifying themselves as Democrats and 37% as Republicans. Since the election we've seen a 5 point increase in Democratic identification to 44%, and a 5 point decrease in Republican identification to 32%.
Hey at least only 25% want to secede from the US and only another 19% aren't sure.
That's what I call Patriotism!
Traitorous charlatans, please let te door hit you in the a&S on the way out!
There will also be a coin toss on Saturday for the Ambulance Squad on Bridge and Pennsylvania avenues starting at 9am. be sure to bring down your change jars and help out your squad!
Having a coin toss is supposed to get an okay from the borough. Hope this has been done. I'm only saying this because I remember this coming up before with another group, (Little Bulldogs maybe?) who had been told they could not for a couple of reasons. I can't remember what the reasons were. I think one may have been liability falling on the borough. Sorry I just can't remember. Not trying to be a grinch here, I just think there is way too much whispering down the lane in Morrisville and misunderstandings formed by lack of communication, mis-communication and wild storytellers. No doubt, this will even get some sort of spin. I fully support the Morrisville Ambulance Squad and the efforts of those involved with trying to raise money for them. Just giving a heads up.
Switch it to a beef + beer @ Summerseat. Steve Worob can sell raffle tickets.
Tech school student organizing fundraiser to benefit family of accident victim
Posted: Thursday, December 6, 2012 2:06 pm | Updated: 9:35 pm, Thu Dec 6, 2012.
By Jo Ciavaglia Staff writer
BRISTOL -- A Bucks County Technical High School senior is organizing a fundraiser in memory of classmate Ryan Viola, the Bensalem 17-year-old fatally injured last week after he was hit by a car while walking to his school bus stop.
The event -- “Come Skate or just come and Donate” -- will be held from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m. Dec. 15 at the Grundy Area, 475 Beaver St. in Bristol Township. The cost is $10 per person and includes skate rental.
The event, which benefits the Viola family, was organized by Jordan Ducko, who is in the school's electronic occupations program. Ryan was studying in same program.
Next time you need an Ambulance call the Little Bulldogs.
"Next time you need an Ambulance call the Little Bulldogs"
I have no idea what this comment means.
it means the town may not have a squad soon and you will be waiting 15 -20 mins for one to come out of fairless hills,or longer
I believe the implication was that the comment was childish.
Agreed.
Does the Morrisville Ambulance Squad need help? Yes. This is not new. Should everyone be able to do whatever they want,(finally), to make some change for the squad regardless of the rules in place, without bothering to do it correctly? No.
A lot of people think Abraham Lincoln was a great man. I think he was all right. Do I think he was amazing? Not really.
Neither NJ nor PA have laws requiring carbon-monoxide detectors in schools
December 6, 2012 Manasee Wagh and Todd McHale Staff writers
It's not like fire, which announces itself with smoke, heat and flames. Instead, it can strike down people without much warning.
Carbon-monoxide poisoning sent more than 40 students and several adults in an Atlanta school to a hospital recently. Now some school officials in Pennsylvania and New Jersey are reevaluating the need for carbon-monoxide detectors in their buildings.
Nobody was found unconscious in the Atlanta school, local news agencies reported. But by the time the colorless, odorless gas had gathered around heating units and saturated hallways, it was too late to prevent people from feeling the effects -- headaches, dizziness, nausea and confusion. A byproduct of the combustion of fuels commonly used to generate heat and energy in homes and vehicles, carbon-monoxide exposure can cause sudden illness and death, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
However, carbon-monoxide detectors are not required in either Pennsylvania or New Jersey schools.
Timothy Eller, press secretary for the Pennsylvania Department of Education, said no explicit requirements exist within the public school code to test for carbon monoxide or have detectors. Under Section 701, schools have a “duty to provide” healthful accommodations, he said.
Centennial School District, which includes Warminster, Upper Southampton and Ivyland in Bucks County, doesn't have detectors in any of its six schools because its furnaces don't burn a fuel prone to producing carbon-monoxide fumes, said school board member Michael Hartline.
Nevertheless, the board's operations committee on Wednesday decided to investigate the cost of installing the detectors. The full board will consider purchasing them at its Tuesday evening meeting.
"The school board would prefer having them. For peace of mind and extra safety, it’s something we should consider. We’re being proactive," said Hartline.
The interior of Morrisville School District's school buildings don't have carbon-monoxide detectors, either. However, the attached boiler rooms do, and they're wired to sound an alarm in the schools in case of fumes, said spokeswoman Pat Wandling.
Like Pennsylvania, New Jersey has no requirement in its Department of Education code for carbon-monoxide detectors in school buildings, said Richard Vespucci, department spokesman.
“The current requirements for carbon-monoxide alarms cover institutional and residential occupancies (places where people sleep),” said Tammori C. Petty, spokeswoman for the New Jersey Department of Community Affairs.
Cinnaminson School District officials said there shouldn’t be a problem with carbon monoxide in the schools because they are heated by boilers and not gas furnaces and forced air, so no combustion emissions.
“The point is that it is not an issue for Cinnaminson for when the boilers come on the air is automatically directed out of the building,” Cinnaminson School Superintendent Salvatore Illuzzi said. “The boilers are inspected annually.”
In addition, the district does not allow buses to idle more than three minutes near the school buildings, to cut down any risk of the colorless and odorless gas getting inside.
New Jersey state law does require carbon-monoxide alarms to be installed in single and two-family homes, buildings with multiple dwellings, hotels and rooming and boarding houses. The regulation requires the detectors to put in the immediate vicinity of all sleeping rooms in a residential building that have fuel-burning appliances or have attached garages. Open parking structures are not considered attached garages.
Pennsylvania state building code requires all newly constructed homes that have fossil fuel-burning heaters or appliances, or an attached garage, to install a carbon-monoxide detector. Older homes don't legally need the detector.
Do we got em????
Why is there a quote from Pat Wandling in the CO2 monitor story? Is this school board still paying her $25K to be the district mouthpiece?
She's gonna blab whether you pay her or not.
Wandling is a clueless busybody with just enough political hack connections to be mildly useful which is not to be confused with competent. What to do what to do?
Pa. district doesn't want to be put in state hands
Posted: Saturday, December 8, 2012 8:28 am
Associated Press |
CHESTER, Pa. (AP) — A long-struggling school district outside Philadelphia has asked a judge to reject a petition to put it in the hands of a state-appointed receiver.
An attorney for the Chester Upland School District told Delaware County Judge Chad F. Kenney on Friday that the state's recovery plan would hurt special needs students and close two better performing schools.
Attorney George Dawson, special counsel to Chester Upland, argued the district is not financially distressed and that the petition is "arbitrary and capricious."
State Education Secretary Ronald Tomalis is seeking to have Joseph P. Watkins, the state-appointed chief recovery officer, named as the district's receiver.
Kenney says he'll rule within 10 days.
Tomalis is asking for the appointment of Watkins because the school board voted to reject the recovery plan.
NJ Judge: Lawsuit against Morrisvile fireworks shop can proceed
By Laurie Mason Schroeder Staff Writer
December 9, 2012
A lawsuit filed against a Morrisville fireworks store by a New Jersey teen who lost sight in his left eye in a 2010 fireworks mishap can proceed to trial, a New Jersey judge has ruled.
Thomas Eldershaw, of Jackson, was 19 when he was helping a neighbor set off a fireworks display at a Fourth of July party. Eldershaw had just lit a fuse when an aerial shell misfired, sending a “tennis-ball sized projectile” into his eye, according to a lawsuit filed last year in Superior Court of Ocean County.
Despite two surgeries, Eldershaw lost vision in his eye.
Eldershaw’s neighbor had bought the fireworks at Sky King Fireworks on South Pennsylvania Ave., a short distance from the bridge to Trenton.
Although Pennsylvania residents are banned from buying fireworks without a permit issued by a municipality here, non-residents can purchase them without a permit. New Jersey law says that its residents may not legally buy or use fireworks without a permit from a municipality.
Sky King’s attorneys sought to dismiss the lawsuit, noting that under Pennsylvania law, the sale was legal and that the fireworks seller bore no responsibility for Eldershaw’s injuries.
N.J. Superior Court Judge James Den Uyl disagreed, saying that the large purchase made by Eldershaw’s neighbor — $1,229 worth of mortars, rockets and Roman candles — should have been a sign that the neighbor was planning a large, sophisticated display that could have resulted in injuries if the people setting them off weren’t trained or experienced.
In his decision to allow the lawsuit to continue, the judge noted that Sky King employees didn’t check to see if Eldershaw’s neighbor had a valid permit and didn’t give him any instructions on how to use the fireworks safely.
“The competence or sophistication of the purchaser/operator may or may not be a concern depending on the type and quantity of fireworks purchased. In the particular circumstances of this case and sale to (the neighbor), Sky King arguably had a duty to do something to either assess his knowledge, training or experience to stage a fireworks display and/or provide some instruction on how to do so safely,” the decision states.
In reaching his ruling, the judge cited news accounts that said that about 2,000 Americans sustain eye injuries due to fireworks each year, and a U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission report that estimated that about 9,600 people were treated in hospital emergency rooms due to fireworks-related injuries in 2011.
Eldershaw is seeking undisclosed monetary damages from Sky King. He is represented by Lawrenceville attorney Steven Blader.
Sky King has 18 stores in Pennsylvania, Florida and Indiana. An email sent to the company’s Port Lucie, Fla., headquarters was not immediately answered Friday.
News Flash: Fireworks can be dangerous.
Problem in this town is even when you follow the rules nothing still happens. Some people will just disagree with you so they don't argee with with you, even if what you want is what's best for this town.
And people here do nothing but complain, they complain no one is doing anything about what ever, then when someone steps up the murder that person just because.
Somehow we muddle on and survive in our misinformed mediocrity.
Count your blessings, Mihok Hellman and SOC ain't in charge of squat right now and we're all better off for it.
Who do I contact to register a complaint about complaining?
You can help snag $50,000 prize for Holy Trinity
Story
Posted: Friday, December 7, 2012 1:24 pm | Updated: 9:14 pm, Fri Dec 7, 2012.
A $50,000 prize is in sight for Holy Trinity Catholic School, but your help is needed for the final push.
The school has entered into the Power a Bright Future program, which awards the school receiving the most votes with the top grant of $50,000. The schools receiving the most votes in three categories — play, create and explore — will get a $25,000 grant.
Also, three schools will be selected from each category to receive a $25,000 judge’s choice grant.
As of Friday, Holy Trinity was in 79th place in the play category with fewer than two weeks before the voting process ends Dec. 19.
Holy Trinity beat the odds last year when many schools in the Archdiocese of Philadelphia shut down because of dwindling finances. Now, with a new lease on life, the school is seeking votes to create an outdoor miniature town and learning area. If selected, the planned play area would be placed outside the new prekindergarten cottage, which recently added a garden along the building.
“This is phase two of the garden project, with phase three and four to come,” said Holy Trinity principal Elaine McDowell.
Anyone above the age of 13 may vote by visiting powerabrightfuture.clorox.com/nominees/detail/?nid=1630 before Dec. 19.
Participants may vote by both Web and text message once per day. Texts should be sent to 95248 with the school code 1630pbf.
I'll pray for them.
Woman injured rescuing dog in fire
Posted on December 9, 2012
by George Mattar
MORRISVILLE — A Morrisville woman was injured early Saturday when she ran back into her burning home to rescue a bull dog.
Morrisville Fire Marshal Robert Seward said the woman, 28, of the 200 block of Bank St., escaped the flames with her parents, but when she realized her dog was still inside, she went back in.
"That's when she took in all the smoke. She was taken to Helene Fuld Medical Center in Trenton with smoke inhalation," he said.
The dog was not hurt.
Her father suffered a high blood sugar attack, but not due to the fire, Seward said. He also was taken by ambulance to Helene Fuld.
Meanwhile, when volunteer Morrisville firefighters arrived shortly 12:10 a.m., they found flames pouring from the rear of the one-story home, Seward said.
It took them about 30 minutes to put the fire under control. Numerous Lower Bucks companies assisted Morrisville.
The cause of the fire is under investigation.
Ahh who needs ambulance and fire squads anyway........
Dear Sirs, Ladies, Those Of Questionable Sexuality and All Fine Squirrels,
I wish to complain along with those complainers which will be complaining about the complaints complainers make regarding your complaint-inciting complaints that is your answer to the complaints complained by the complaining complainers community.
Quite simply, the changes made by the inevitable, foreordained, imminent, impending, ineluctable, ineludible, inescapable, inexorable, inflexible, irresistible, irrevocable, necessary, obligatory actions produced far too many complaints! Please change this, as if I have to listen to another chiding, complaining, condemnatory, condemning, critic, culpatory, denouncing, disapproving, disparaging, fault-finding, hypercritical, overcritical, reprehending, reproaching complaint I fear I will have to quit this blog, as I'm told I should stop blogging if I must complain, despite my not complaining about the blog itself, but rather the complainers complaining about the blog (it seems as though this blog is truly destined to attract complainers).
Sincerely,
The effervescent, perky, animated, peppy poster, Anonymous
P.S. Please include Spam in your next update.
In today's Phila. Inquirer.
Chester-Upland School District in receivership
December 13, 2012|By Rita Giordano, INQUIRER STAFF WRITER
The troubled Chester-Upland school district now is in the hands of a state-appointed receiver.
With a decision today, Delaware County Judge Chad F. Kenney in effect accepted a dramatic overhaul plan for the district that limits the school board's powers to levying taxes.
Kenney granted state Education Secretary Ronald J. Tomalis' petition to place the district in receivership and accepted his recommendation to appoint Joseph P. Watkins, who was already serving as the district's state-selected chief recovery officer.
Watkins' receiver appointment goes into effect immediately and ends on Dec. 12, 2015.
"The department is pleased with the court's ruling," said state education department spokesman Tim Eller. "The next step is for the receiver to implement the recovery plan."
Last month, Watkins released a far-reaching academic and financial recovery strategy for the district. It calls for increasing scholastic achievement, luring back students who have fled the district's schools, increasing programs, and attracting private funding.
However, it also calls for closing and consolidating schools, including two of the district's higher achievers; increasing class sizes; raising taxes, and turning the schools over to external control, such as education-management companies or converting them to charter or cyber schools if they fail to met federal progress goals by the end of the 2014-2015 school year.
"I'm delighted to have the opportunity to serve," Watkins said after the ruling was issued. "I look forward to working to make this an excellent district. Now we will start to execute the recovery plan. The first order of business is to find a great superintendent who will commit to a long-term contract."
Under the state's recently enacted distressed-district law, Tomalis had to seek court approval for the receiver because the school Board rejected the state's plan.
The board's five Republican members voted against it, saying they would be bound by a plan with which they diasgreed.
The four Democrats voted for it, saying they thought that board members would be able to retain some say over its implementation.
With a receiver appointed, the board's only powers would be to raise and levy taxes.
In a hearing before Kenney last week, an attorney for the board argued against the constitutionality of the receiver law.
Republican board members could not be reached Thursday.
Democratic board member Anthony Johnson said he hopes Watkins "will look out for the best interests of the children. As long as he works with the community and parents get involved ... hopefully we'll be alright."
As a parent of a district student, he said he would continued to give Watkins his input. He said he still thinks it would have been better if the board approved the plan.
"Voting no, now you have put it in somebody's hands that's really not from the district," Johnson said.
Some board and community members have said they suspect the state's plan all along ultimately was to put the district's schools in private hands.
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