May 10 2013

Major Shift: New Baby Names Suggest High Hopes

Seal of the United States Social Security Administration. It appears on Social Security cards. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

WASHINGTON – Talk about high expectations for a newborn: King and Messiah are among the fastest-rising baby names for American boys.

They’re just a little behind Major, the boy’s name that jumped the most spots on the Social Security Administration‘s annual list of popular baby names.

Jacob is the most popular for boys – again – and Sophia is the top name for girls, according to the list released Thursday.

It was Jacob’s 14th straight year at the top. Next were Mason, Ethan, Noah and William. Liam cracked the top 10 for the first time, coming in at No. 6. Daniel slipped out of the top 10 for the first time since 1998, to No. 11.

May 3 2013

As Honey Bee Numbers Drop, U.S. Sees Threat To Food Supply

A European honey bee (Apis mellifera) extracts nectar from an Aster flower using its proboscis. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Honey bees, which play a key role in pollinating a wide variety of food crops, are in sharp decline in the United States, due to parasites, disease and pesticides, said a federal report released on Thursday.

Genetics and poor nutrition are also hurting the species, which help farmers produce crops worth some $20 billion to $30 billion a year.

Honey bee colonies have been dying and the number of colonies has more than halved since 1947, said the report by the Environmental Protection Agency and the Agriculture Department.

The decline raises doubt about whether honey bees can fulfill their crucial role in pollinating crops that play a role in about one-third of all food and beverages sold in the United States, the report said.

Apr 23 2013

Richest 7 Percent Got Richer During Recovery, Report Says

English: Map of the United States. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

WASHINGTON, D.C. – The richest Americans got richer during the first two years of the economic recovery while average net worth declined for the other 93 percent of U.S. households, says a report released today.

The upper 7 percent of households owned 63 percent of the nation’s total household wealth in 2011, up from 56 percent in 2009, said the report from the Pew Research Center, which analyzed new Census Bureau data released last month.

The main reason for the widening wealth gap is that affluent households typically own stocks and other financial holdings that increased in value, while the less wealthy tend to have more of their assets in their homes, which haven’t rebounded from the plunge in home values, the report said.

Tuesday’s report is the latest to point up financial inequality that has been growing among Americans for decades, a development that helped fuel the Occupy Wall Street protests.

Apr 6 2013

President Proposing Tax Hikes

WASHINGTON — Seeking an elusive middle ground, President Barack Obama is proposing a 2014 budget that embraces tax increases abhorred by Republicans as well as reductions, loathed by liberals, in the growth of Social Security and other benefit programs.

The plan, if ever enacted, could touch almost all Americans. The rich would see tax increases, the poor and the elderly would get smaller annual increases in their benefits, and middle income taxpayers would slip into higher tax brackets despite Obama’s repeated vows not to add to the tax burden of the middle class. His proposed changes, once phased in, would mean a cut in Social Security benefits of nearly $1,000 a year for an average 85-year-old, smaller cuts for younger retirees.

Obama proposed much the same without success to House Speaker John Boehner in December. The response Friday was dismissive from Republicans and hostile from liberals, labor and advocates for the elderly.

But the proposal aims to tackle worrisome deficits that are adding to the national debt and placing a long-term burden on the nation, prompting praise from independent deficit hawks. Obama’s budget also proposes new spending for public works projects, pre-school education and for job and benefit assistance for veterans.

Apr 6 2013

Bloom Is Off Daffodil Days

For the past 40 years the arrival of spring has coincided with Daffodil Days in Berks County, an event that spread the bright yellow flowers to homes and offices while raising a lot of money for the American Cancer Society.

But the most recent Daffodil Days was the last.

The society in Pennsylvania has done away with the popular sale, which already had been phased out in most other states.

“After 40 years, there is certainly some nostalgia to seeing it go,” said Jo-Anne Sessa, vice president of the society’s region that covers Berks and 11 other counties.

Apr 4 2013

The Real Fiscal Cliff: The 4.8 Million Long-Term Unemployed

Today’s alarming financial news is the rise in first-time unemployment claims to 385,000, up 28,000 and also above expectations. The U.S. Labor Department report shows the labor market is weakening, not that it was anything resembling strong in the first place. It makes me want to cry, because every piece of news like this makes me even more distraught about the future of the 4.8 million long-term unemployed.

I’ve covered unemployment issues or more than a decade and the future for those who are out of work beyond the normal six months funded by state benefits is very bleak. These aren’t lazy bums, but desperate people who are financially and emotionally devastated by their situation.

Mar 30 2013

North Korea Says It’s In State Of War With South Korea

English: Own work, based on Wikipedia blank map. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Editor’s note: Nut jobs with nukes! Never a good combination!

SEOUL, South Korea – North Korea issued its latest belligerent threat Saturday, saying it has entered “a state of war” with South Korea a day after its young leader threatened the United States because two American B-2 bombers flew a training mission in South Korea.

Analysts say a full-scale conflict is extremely unlikely and North Korea’s threats are instead aimed at drawing Washington into talks that could result in aid and boosting leader Kim Jong Un’s image at home. But the harsh rhetoric from North Korea and rising animosity from the rivals that have followed U.N. sanctions over Pyongyang’s Feb. 12 nuclear test have raised worries of a misjudgment leading to a clash.

In a joint statement by the government, political parties and organizations, North Korea said Saturday that it will deal with all matters involving South Korea according to “wartime regulations.” It also warned it will retaliate against any provocations by the United States and South Korea without “any prior notice.”

The divided Korean Peninsula is already in a technical state of war because the 1950-53 Korean War ended in a cease-fire, not a peace treaty. But Pyongyang said it was scrapping the war armistice earlier this month.

Mar 29 2013

Reading Postal Facility To Lose 162 Jobs

USPS service delivery truck in a residential area of San Francisco, California (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

The U.S. Postal Service will close most operations in the Gus Yatron mail processing facility in north Reading by June 1 – and all of them by July 1 – transferring its work to a larger Harrisburg facility as part of a nationwide cost-cutting effort.

The move is expected to save $7.2 million a year, but it means the Yatron facility at 2100 N. 13th St. will lose 162 jobs.

However, the Harrisburg facility will add 87 jobs that many local employees will get.

The retail and bulk operations and their related services – such as post office boxes and counter service – will remain at the Yatron facility, Postal Service spokesman Ray V. Daiutolo Sr. said Thursday.

Mar 19 2013

Of Big Cities, Philadelphia Worst For People In Deep Poverty

Philadelphia has the highest rate of deep poverty – people with incomes below half of the poverty line – of any of the nation’s 10 most populous cities.

The annual salary for a single person at half the poverty line is around $5,700; for a family of four, it’s around $11,700.

Philadelphia’s deep-poverty rate is 12.9 percent, or around 200,000 people.

Phoenix, Chicago, and Dallas are the nearest to Philadelphia, with deep-poverty rates of more than 10 percent.

Mar 18 2013

Rise Of Latino Population Blurs US Racial Lines

WASHINGTON (AP) — Welcome to the new off-white America.

A historic decline in the number of U.S. whites and the fast growth of Latinos are blurring traditional black-white color lines, testing the limits of civil rights laws and reshaping political alliances as “whiteness” begins to lose its numerical dominance.

Long in coming, the demographic shift was most vividly illustrated in last November’s re-election of President Barack Obama, the first black president, despite a historically low percentage of white supporters.

It’s now a potent backdrop to the immigration issue being debated in Congress that could offer a path to citizenship for 11 million mostly Hispanic illegal immigrants. Also, the Supreme Court is deciding cases this term on affirmative action and voting rights that could redefine race and equality in the U.S.

Mar 16 2013

Days Of Promise Fade For Ethanol

Editor’s note: Wondering when we will end our dependence on foreign oil? This isn’t the way to do it!

Backed by government subsidies and mandates, hundreds of ethanol plants rose among the golden fields of the Corn Belt, bringing jobs and business to small towns, providing farmers with a new market for their crops and generating billions of dollars in revenue for the producers of this corn-based fuel blend.

Those days of promise and prosperity are vanishing.

Nearly 10 percent of the nation’s ethanol plants have stopped production over the past year, in part because the drought that has ravaged much of the nation’s crops pushed commodity prices so high that ethanol has become too expensive to produce.

A dip in gasoline consumption has compounded the industry’s problem by reducing the demand for ethanol.

Mar 11 2013

North Korea Says It Has Scrapped Armistice That Ended Korean War

English: Locator map of South Korea. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Editor’s note: Very scary situation. Unstable governments with nukes!

SEOUL — North Korea said Monday that it had “completely scrapped” the 1953 armistice agreement that ended the Korean War, following up on a threat made days earlier and increasing the prospect of a strike against or a skirmish with the South, analysts said.

The North has made several similar announcements in the past, most recently in 2009, and analysts said this latest declaration could prove to be bluster rather than the marker of a wholesale shift in Pyongyang’s dealings with Seoul. Experts also note that Pyongyang — whether bound by the cease-fire or not — has occasionally ignored its terms, most notably with fatal attacks on the South in 2010.

Still, the armistice has kept a shaky peace on the peninsula for 60 years, and the North’s apparent withdrawal — coupled with its severing of a communications hotline at the demilitarized border Monday — makes it more difficult for South Korea and the United States to prevent or resolve disputes with Pyongyang.

Anxiety about the North is particularly high for the United States and its allies because they have little insight into the decision-making style of Kim Jong Eun, the young leader who took power of the opaque police state in December 2011 and now appears to be using the same brand of brinkmanship his father once did.

Mar 9 2013

Daylight Saving Time: Why Do We Do It?

As we set our clocks forward an hour this Sunday, there are at least a few things we can be sure of:

• There will be lots of groaning about losing an hour of sleep,

• People will be cheery about the growing length of the day (and sunshine), and

• Lots of people will debate why we even have Daylight Saving Time.

The government tells us that DST does three fundamentally good things — saves energy, saves lives by preventing traffic injuries, and reduces crime. But where’s the proof? Where are the studies?

“There’s really not anything recent that’s been done,” said Bill Mosley, public affairs spokesman for the Department of Transportation, which oversees the nation’s time zones and observance of DST.

Mar 2 2013

Federal Budget Cuts Will Affect More Than Federal Programs, Officials In Scranton Say

English: Official photo of Senator Bob Casey (D-PA). (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

The across-the-board federal budget cuts known as sequestration will hurt everything from the local barbershop to the largest manufacturers in Northeast Pennsylvania, said members of a panel at Sen. Bob Casey’s office Friday in downtown Scranton.

With no deal between Congress and the White House in sight and just hours before sequestration kicked in at midnight, the Democratic senator and a cross-section of local civic leaders struck a dire tone.

“We don’t have a full sense of what will happen,” Mr. Casey said. ”If this goes a day or week, it will have an impact. If it goes six months, the effect will be devastating.”

As the furloughs and cuts begin, sequestration will have an immediate impact not just on the government employees, but on contractors, and the communities where they live and spend.

Feb 25 2013

The Impact Of The Fiscal Cliff On The States: Sequestration

Click here to see a chart of all 50 states and where your state stands: http://www.pewstates.org/research/data-visualizations/the-impact-of-the-fiscal-cliff-on-the-states-sequestration-85899435504

You can click on the state of your choice and get all the details broken down for you.

Feb 22 2013

Gas Prices Soar Across U.S.

WASHINGTON – The average price of a gallon of regular gasoline has jumped 45 cents in the past 31 days, according to AAA, the fastest run-up since 2005.

Retail gasoline prices have climbed for 33 days in a row. A month ago, a gallon of regular gasoline cost $3.30; on Tuesday it stood at $3.75 nationwide.

Gasoline prices have risen to within a nickel of $4 a gallon in the District of Columbia as pump prices nationwide have been marching higher – the result of refinery closures and maintenance, lower oil production by Saudi Arabia, market anxiety about tensions in Iran and Iraq, and guarded optimism about the prospects for economic recovery in the United States, Europe and China.

Feb 16 2013

Lititz Wins Coolest Small Town In America Contest

Map of Pennsylvania highlighting Lancaster County (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

“Free Moravian Sugar Cake and Wilbur Buds for Everyone???” Sandy Hendricks Morris proposed on the Downtown Lititz Facebook page.

Lititz and those who love it were in a celebratory mood Saturday after learning it really is “America’s Coolest Small Town.”

The borough north of Lancaster, known for its chocolate, pretzels and Moravian heritage, won Budget Travel‘s online contest after nearly 100,000 votes were cast for 924 towns.

Self-described Lititz “cheerleader” Gaylord Poling said he learned of the honor Friday evening on the Budget Travel website.

Feb 1 2013

Clinton Leaves Secretary Of State Position, Sailing On Fair Wind

Official portrait of Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

She has traveled nearly a million miles, it seems, from Whitewater, Travelgate and the Task Force on National Health Care Reform — a tumultuous and very public journey from polarizing first lady to “workhorse” senator, to the U.S.’s top diplomat, where she really did almost hit the million mark and now basks in 69 percent approval ratings.

She could have, as she said once, stayed home and baked cookies, or divorced her husband for his infidelities or withdrawn from public life after her failed presidential campaign, but Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton has, through ambition, calculation, fortitude and formidable intellect, just kept on going.

And it’s not over yet.

While today is her last day as secretary of state, the Hillary for President forces are already massing. Super PAC “Ready for Hillary,” registered with the Federal Election Commission last week, although Mrs. Clinton has said she was “not inclined” to run in 2016.

Jan 27 2013

Mexico: The New China

3-D perspective image of the San Diego-Tijuana area from NASA’s Shuttle Radar Topography Mission (SRTM) (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

In November I quit my job as the editor of Wired to run 3D Robotics, the San Diego-based drone company I started with a partner as a side project three years ago. We make autopilot technology and small aircraft — both planes and multirotor copters — that can fly by themselves. The drones, which sell for a few hundred bucks, are for civilians: they don’t shoot anything but photographs and videos. And they’re incredibly fun to build (which we do with the ample help of robots). It wasn’t a hard decision to give up publishing for this.

But my company, like many manufacturers, is faced with a familiar challenge: its main competitors are Chinese companies that have the dual advantages of cheap labor and top-notch engineering. So, naturally, when we were raising a round of investment financing last year, venture capitalists demanded a plausible explanation for how our little start-up could beat its Chinese rivals. The answer was as much a surprise to the investors as it had been to me a few years earlier: Mexico. In particular, Tijuana.

Jan 22 2013

Bottom Dollar To Close Shelbourne Square Shopping Center Site

Map of Berks County, Pennsylvania, United States with township and municipal boundaries (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

The Bottom Dollar Food store is closing in Shelbourne Square Shopping Center by mid-February.

Christy Phillips-Brown, spokeswoman for Delhaize America, the American parent company of Bottom Dollar, said the store at 20 Shelbourne Road, Exeter Township, is one of three underperforming stores closing in the Philadelphia area.

Phillips-Brown said employees will have to apply for jobs at other stores; the company is not transferring employees to other stores.

The low-cost grocer has two other stores in Berks County, another one in Exeter, in the Reading Mall, and one on Lancaster Avenue.

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