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.

Read more:  http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/n-korea-says-it-has-scrapped-armistice-that-ended-korean-war/2013/03/11/47762d7a-8a2c-11e2-98d9-3012c1cd8d1e_story.html?hpid=z1

In York County, Telecommuters Extol Its Perks

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

York, PA – Yahoo recently said it was ending the telecommuting option for its employees.

After it was criticized for the decision, the company issued a brief, follow-up release, saying it was not offering a broad judgment on the practice of working from home.

In recent years, telecommuting has become a more viable option for some professions as work moves to online platforms that are accessible from any computer.

Local telecommuters have said they are glad for the option to work from home or outside a formal office environment because it eliminates the distractions of the office.

Read more:  http://www.ydr.com/business/ci_22748732/telecommuters-extol-its-perks

Scranton Shop Sells $1 Million Powerball Ticket

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

MIDDLETOWN – As the Powerball jackpot has rolled again to $183 million for the March 13 drawing, one Powerball ticket worth $1 million from the March 9 drawing was sold at Convenient Food Mart, 1100 Moosic St., Scranton, Lackawanna County.

The ticket correctly matched all five white balls, 10-37-40-46-52, but not the red Powerball 12, for a $1 million second-tier prize, less 25 percent federal withholding.

Read more:  http://www.timesleader.com/news/340977/Moosic-Street-shop-sells-$1-million-Powerball-ticket

Geisinger Tops UPMC In Pennsylvania Member Satisfaction, J.D. Power Reports

Geisinger Health Plan was tops in member satisfaction among Pennsylvania health plans with UPMC Health Plan and Central Pennsylvania’s Highmark Blue Shield not far behind, according to a report released today by J.D. Power and Associates.

Geisinger finished with 739 points out of a possible 1,000 to claim highest member satisfaction for the second year in a row.

Read more: http://www.post-gazette.com/stories/business/news/geisinger-tops-upmc-in-pennsylvania-member-satisfaction-jd-power-reports-678839/#ixzz2NFD01q76

Building Boom Resumes In Towamencin Township

Location of Towamencin Township in Montgomery County (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

From the curved pedestrian bridge Towamencin Township built over the crossroads village of Kulpsville, you can see the next suburban boomtown rising.

It’s taken long enough, says Robert Nicoletti, 82, who bought ground there in 1958.

From the bridge, against a backdrop of the behind-schedule Pennsylvania Turnpike widening at the nearby Lansdale exit, you can watch crews build the four-story Bridgeview apartment complex, which will start renting next month; the thick concrete core of a six-story Courtyard by Marriott hotel, due in the fall;, and the Culinary Arts Institute of Montgomery County Community College, which will enroll its first students in the spring.  Farther north stands ball-bearing maker SKF Corp.’s U.S. headquarters, certified “platinum” by the U.S. Green Building Council.

The apartments, hotel, cooking school, and corporate headquarters all are the work of Nicoletti’s Philadelphia Suburban Development Corp., better known in the city as a major landlord of parole and welfare offices and other state agencies, as well as a South Philly site proposed by Penn National Corp. for a casino.

Read more: http://www.philly.com/philly/business/20130311_Building_boom_resumes_in_Towamencin.html#ixzz2NF5kBdso
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Playing With Philadelphia’s Tax Money

Editor’s note:  Here’s another reason they call Pottstown “little Philadelphia“.   Just change out Philadelphia with Pottstown.  Same problems, just a smaller scale but equally as devastating to the residents of both communities.

Philadelphia’s decades-long neglect of property-tax collections has been a disaster for public schools, the city budget, and typical taxpaying homeowners.

But the system does have its advantages for low-rent landlords, out-of-town speculators, and anyone else interested in playing property Powerball, a game where the objective is to pile up real estate in hope of hitting a gentrification jackpot, while keeping out-of-pocket expenses – like taxes – as low as possible.

Some are big winners, such as the investor who picked up three adjacent Northern Liberties lots in 1994 for a combined $16,000, skipped paying taxes on the lots for more than a decade, and made good on the debt only after flipping the parcels for $750,000 in 2010.

Such speculative windfalls are rare, but it’s not for lack of trying.  Of the roughly 100,000 tax-delinquent properties in Philadelphia, at least 57,500 are owned by investors, not occupants. These are parcels deeded to suburbanites and Floridians, developers and Brooklyn-based holding companies, small-time local speculators and real estate tycoons with dozens of properties to their name.

Read more:

http://www.philly.com/philly/news/politics/city/20130311_Playing_with_the_city_s_tax_money.html