Scranton School Board Wants Metal Detectors After Ross Township Shooting

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

The next time the Scranton School Board meets, members of the public will have to pass through a metal detector.

Just 18 hours after three people were killed at the Ross Township municipal meeting when a gunman opened fire, members of the Scranton School Board on Tuesday authorized the superintendent to have a walk-through metal detector placed at the entrance to the Administration Building.

“I think it’s a wake-up call,” Director Bob Sheridan, a retired police officer, said.  “Any municipal building should have metal detectors at all times.”

Directors were conducting their monthly meeting Monday night when Sheridan received a news alert on his cellphone, alerting him of the shooting.  Sheridan then called for a moment of silence.

Read more: http://www.poconorecord.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20130808/NEWS90/308080312

Reputed Wilkes-Barre Drug Trafficking Hub To Become Deli

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

WILKES-BARRE – The Master Barber Shop on Hazle Street has been shuttered for more than a month, ever since prosecutors called it the “hub” of a multimillion-dollar drug trafficking operation.

But on Friday, the shop was abuzz.  Workers swept the floors, cleaned the shop and put a fresh coat of paint out front.

A sign on the front window tells the neighborhood a “Mexican deli” is on its way.

City resident Fernando Ortega, 45, said he hopes to open the shop in about a month.  He plans to install a small grill to cook food, he said, and will sell soft drinks, coffee, sandwiches and tacos.

Read more: http://citizensvoice.com/news/reputed-drug-trafficking-hub-to-become-deli-1.1534029

Booming Greater Berks Food Bank Considers Bigger Home

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

The Greater Berks Food Bank has seen its demand triple in the 18 years the organization has been in its Muhlenberg Township warehouse, and officials are eager to expand the facility or move into a larger building.

A feasibility study, initiated in June, is expected to wrap up this month and provide an idea of what that would cost.

“We simply are out of space and cannot do more at our current location,” executive director Peg Bianca said of the 19,500-square-foot warehouse off Tuckerton Road.

“We are constantly moving pallets of food out of the way to get to the products on the pallet behind them,” Bianca added, “and have been storing some of our inventory off site as well.”

Read more: http://readingeagle.com/article.aspx?id=501724

Some Residents Ready To Take A Stand After Rash Of Recent Shootings In Harrisburg

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

Rather than giving in to fear in the wake of eight shootings reported in the city since July 30, some Harrisburg residents are taking a stand against further bloodshed.

Rallying behind the city’s latest effort to combat crime, residents from all over the city will meet at the YWCA of Greater Harrisburg on Monday to discuss future cooperation between different neighborhoods to stop violence and keep the street clean.  At the center of the meeting is Bryan Wade, the city’s new Community Policing Coordinator.

“Harrisburg in general is very fragmented, you have a lot of good things going on, but in terms of information about neighborhood and community safety and what each group is up to, it’s very fractured,” Wade said of the current state of community groups.  “I’m hoping to bring some more cohesion and unity to the process.”

Since early April Wade has been reaching out to existing neighborhood watch groups like the Friends of Midtown and the 18th Street Neighborhood Watch to marshal interest in the meeting.

Read more: http://www.pennlive.com/midstate/index.ssf/2013/08/some_residents_ready_to_take_a.html#incart_m-rpt-2

Police Cuts Talk Of 2 Luzerne County Towns

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

Two municipalities facing budget shortfalls are exploring options to ease their finances by cutting police services.

Edwardsville Mayor Bernard “Ace” Dubaskas said council members are talking about reducing the number of full-time officers, while Laflin council members are considering contracting with a neighboring municipality for police protection.

Cutting police services is not a new concept for cash-strapped municipalities.

Warrior Run disbanded its police force in favor of contracting police services from Nanticoke two years ago.

Read more: http://www.timesleader.com/news/local-news/741394/Police-cuts-talk-of-2-towns

Air Products To Set Up Shop In Downtown Allentown

The PPL Building (seen here in the distance) is the tallest building in Allentown, Pennsylvania. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Downtown Allentown has attracted a new tenant — one of the region’s nameplate companies.

Air Products of Trexlertown said Thursday it had signed a lease for space at Two City Center, the 11-story office tower being built on the site of the former First National Bank building at Seventh and Hamilton streets, across from the city’s new hockey arena.

The company — one of two Fortune 500 companies in the Lehigh Valley and the region’s third-largest employer with more than 3,600 local workers — expects to move its liquefied natural gas commercial and engineering teams to the building next summer.

“We feel locating these teams at this new development is a meaningful contribution and visible commitment to the revitalization of the city,” Air Products Senior Vice President John Stanley said in a news release.

Read more: http://www.mcall.com/news/breaking/mc-air-products-leases-city-center-space-20130808,0,7399771.story#ixzz2bXcxcx9L
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Swiss Apologize For Encounter Oprah Calls Racist

English: Oprah Winfrey at the White House for the 2010 Kennedy Center Honors (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Editor’s note:  I guess in addition to not getting the Oprah Winfrey Show in Switzerland they don’t follow the Forbes listings of wealthy people.  Oprah is on numerous lists, including being #1 on the Celebrity 100 List and #13 on the list of 100 Most Powerful Women in the World. Maybe it would be a good idea learn who these people are so when they pop into your shop and want to look a handbag that costs the equivalent of a beginning teacher’s salary, you might have a clue.  #customerservice

GENEVA (AP) – Switzerland is a glamorous playground of the rich and famous, filled with glitterati from princes to movie stars. It’s also a land with a sometimes uneasy relationship with foreigners – especially when they aren’t white.

Billionaire media mogul Oprah Winfrey says she ran into Swiss racism when a clerk at Trois Pommes, a pricey Zurich boutique, refused to show her a $38,000 handbag, telling one of the world’s richest women that she wouldn’t be able to afford it.  Winfrey earned $77 million in the year ending in June, according to Forbes magazine.

“She said: ‘No, no, no, you don’t want to see that one.  You want to see this one.  Because that one will cost too much; you will not be able to afford that,'” Winfrey, appearing on the U.S. television program “Entertainment Tonight,” quoted the clerk as saying.  “And I said, ‘Well, I did really want to see that one.’  And she refused to get it.”

She brought up the incident during an interview about her new movie, “Lee Daniels’ The Butler,” which opens next week and focuses on civil rights and race relations in the U.S. She was asked to open up about her own experiences with discrimination.

Read more at http://www.philly.com/philly/entertainment/celebrities/20130809_ap_dc0748727bf040c780d8d9610a4a7749.html#Heyzqs5U21ELC7lZ.99