Joe Pa Near Death

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Former Penn State football coach Joe Paterno is near death, a source close to the Paterno family told The Citizens’ Voice.

On Saturday afternoon, Paterno’s wife, Sue, called close friends of the former coach to the State College hospital where Paterno has been undergoing treatment since Jan. 13 for complications from his fight against cancer.

 

Paterno, 85, wanted to say a final goodbye, Sue said, according to the source.

 

Those close friends included his longtime secretary. Members of Paterno’s extended family were also summoned to the hospital.

 

His son, former assistant coach Jay Paterno, cancelled an appearance in Reading, Pa., telling organizers 15 minutes before the scheduled start that he would not be able to make it because “his wife” was sick.

 

Read more: http://thetimes-tribune.com/source-paterno-in-grave-condition-1.1260839#ixzz1k8oscUrL

AirTran Discontinuing Service At Lehigh Valley International Airport

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AirTran Airways and Southwest Airlines confirmed plans to combine operations at 22 airports and will discontinue service at Lehigh Valley International Airport and five other operations, LVIA officials announced in a news release.

The service will be discontinued at LVIA effective Aug. 12, 2012. LVIA officials said all ticketed passengers, passengers holding reservations, or passengers wanting to make reservations for flights to or from LVIA have no need to alter their travel plans.

Read more: http://www.mcall.com/news/breaking/mc-lehigh-valley-air-tran-20120120,0,7458520.story

Hollywood’s War Of The Wages

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The second season of a Simon Cowell-free “American Idol” started this week. Cowell ditched the popular talent show last year to launch a U.S. version of his British music competition “The X Factor,” which he vowed would attract 20 million viewers. It fell short, topping out at 12 million. Now there’s word that the new “American Idol” judges, Steven Tyler and Jennifer Lopez, had been joking backstage that they would be “devastated” if they didn’t get 20 million viewers. (They did for the season premiere, but just barely.)

Lopez may be winning the ratings war, but Cowell is winning the war of the wages. The music executive earned $90 million last year thanks to “The X Factor,” which he owns a share of, and his record label, Syco. Lopez earned $25 million. Most of that came from “Idol” but she also has several movies coming out and a new clothing line.

Read more: http://tv.msn.com/tv/article.aspx?news=697139

Poe Fans Call An End To ‘Toaster’ Tradition

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BALTIMORE — Edgar Allan Poe fans waited long past a midnight dreary, but it appears annual visits to the writer’s grave in Baltimore by a mysterious figure called the “Poe Toaster” shall occur nevermore.

Poe House and Museum Curator Jeff Jerome said early Thursday that die-hard fans waited hours past when the tribute bearer normally arrives. But the “Poe Toaster” was a no-show for a third year in a row, leaving another unanswered question in a mystery worthy of the writer’s legacy. Poe fans had said they would hold one last vigil this year before calling an end to the tradition.

“It’s over with,” Jerome said wearily. “It will probably hit me later, but I’m too tired now to feel anything else.”

It is thought that the tributes of an anonymous man wearing black clothes with a white scarf and a wide-brimmed hat, who leaves three roses and a half-empty bottle of cognac at Poe’s original grave on the writer’s birthday, date to at least the 1940s. Late Wednesday, a crowd gathered outside the gates of the burial ground surrounding Westminster Hall to watch for the mysterious visitor, yet only three impersonators appeared, Jerome said.

Read more: http://dailyitem.com/0300_entertainment/x431304607/Poe-fans-call-an-end-to-Toaster-tradition

Tamaqua Borough Council Makes Tough Decisions Rather Than Raise Taxes

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Tamaqua, PA Borough Council decided it did not want to raise taxes to offset a $200,000 deficit in the 2012 budget.  (Imagine that idea Pottstown Borough Council)

And so, the cuts began.

Council eliminated random drug tests for borough police officers, dropped the DARE anti-drug program in schools for a year, laid off a police officer and deciding not to fill a vacancy in the streets department.

Council also hopes selling what one official called an underutilized community center will help balance the budget.

Read more: http://standardspeaker.com/news/mayor-center-s-sale-would-be-loss-1.1260511#ixzz1k872u0SE