Things to ponder, Aug. 5
From the windmill of my mind … Isn’t it interesting how many people complain about our summer weather when it’s too hot, and our winter weather when it’s too cold? When one season is here, people start wishing for the other. The truth as I see it is that we pretty much live in a “comfort zone” that doesn’t have the insufferable summers of the deep South or the tundra-like winters of the Midwest or Rocky Mountain states. Mountain weather observer Jack Hughes always said as much.
What’s going on in Masontown Borough, which ran a legal advertisement for a special meeting, but did not fulfill the legal requirement to state the reason for the meeting? You’d think by now that all municipalities would be aware of the requirements under the state’s Sunshine Law. Fortunately, council didn’t hold the meeting.
State Sen. Sean Logan, a Democrat from Allegheny County, is stirring the pot by questioning why the University of Pittsburgh, which is the recipient of millions in state funds each year, conducted a symposium on outsourcing in April. Logan believes the symposium, which included several panelists from India, was about showing businesses how to ship high-paying information technology and engineering jobs overseas. If that’s true, the concept is worth debating.
This isn’t the sports section, but does anyone think the Pittsburgh Pirates are on the right track to building a competitive team? Forget about winning; it would be an improvement just to have a team that you think has a chance of winning as many as it loses.
If and when the state legislature gets around the passing a lobbyist disclosure bill, I’d like to see representatives and senators have to list, on the individual pages they already have on the state government Web site, each and every thing they’ve accepted from a lobbyist, its value and the date of the gift/favor. I’m betting some of them would be sitting down to a free dinner almost every night.
Also, each of the legislators who is attending the National Conference of State Legislators in Nashville at taxpayer expense should be required to tell us exactly what he or she learned, and how this knowledge is going to help Pennsylvania.
Maybe I’ve missed it, but I’m still waiting to hear Republican gubernatorial candidate Lynn Swann say he wants to make the legislature subject to the state Open Records Law. It’s long overdue.