Daily Archives: May 1, 2014
Baltimore Landslide
Another Bad Air Report For Lancaster County
Map of Pennsylvania highlighting Lancaster County (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
The air Lancaster County residents breathe continues to be among the worst in the nation, according to the American Lung Association.
In the ALA’s annual “State of the Air” report, which examined federal pollution records from 2010-2012, Lancaster County ranked as the 18th-worst metropolitan area out of 217 in the United States for average daily levels of particle pollution, which is composed of soot, dust particles and aerosols.
The Harrisburg-York-Lebanon metro area was tied with Lancaster.
Lancaster County had an average of 4.7 unhealthy days per year over the three-year period, compared to three unhealthy days in last year’s report.
Scranton/Wilkes-Barre Region’s Health Checkup Results Less Than Stellar
Locator map of the Scranton-Wilkes-Barre Metropolitan Statistical Area in the northeastern part of the of . (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
WILKES-BARRE, PA — Northeastern Pennsylvania should be concerned about its health.
Luzerne and Lackawanna counties possess a “hard-living” population that is predominantly overweight, smokes and drinks too much, has easy access to illegal drugs, has a rising increase in mental-health issues and is living in poverty, according to data released Tuesday at the Community Health Needs Assessment forum sponsored by Geisinger Wyoming Valley Medical Center.
Teri Ooms, executive director at the Institute for Public Policy and Economic Development in Wilkes-Barre, gave a presentation to about 6o people representing various agencies and health care facilities that showed the area’s needs and offered recommendations to improve health care, increase services and retain patients who seek care outside the area.
Read more: http://timesleader.com/news/local-news-news/1358272/Regions-health-checkup-results-less-than-stellar
Easton’s Northampton Street To Become Classic Car Cruising Strip On Designated Summer Nights
English: Skyline of Easton, PA from Lafayette College (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
As Easton Mayor Sal Panto Jr. recalls, Northampton Street at one point was the most popular cruising strip in the Lehigh Valley, but that changed in the 1980s when the city banned the practice.
Nearly 30 years later, Panto says it’s time to bring back cruising, albeit on a limited basis.
Easton will be hosting cruise nights on one Saturday per month between May and August this summer, Panto announced this afternoon at a news conference.
Classic car owners are invited to drive the strip from 6 to 9 p.m. on the designated nights. The Mayor’s Office of Special Events is teaming with WGPA Sunny 1100, which will broadcast cruising music during the nights — think the Beach Boys, The Four Seasons and Motown groups — over the AM airwaves.
Read more: http://www.lehighvalleylive.com/easton/index.ssf/2014/04/cruise_nights_to_hit_city_of_e.html
Widespread Flooding Submerges Cars, Causes Major Commute Problems
The logo of the United States National Weather Service. The source page states that is not an “official” version but it looks very close to the version used on NWS’s website. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Rain that pounded the Philadelphia region last night and into this morning left widespread flooding that stranded motorists and caused the shutdown of major routes from the western suburbs to South Jersey.
The National Weather Service said around 5 inches fell in most parts of the area, with some places seeing a bit more, such as the 6.56 inches recorded in Spring City, Chester County.
A weather service flood warning is in effect until 12:45 p.m. Authorities are warning that the flood situation is dangerous in many areas as motorists continued to underestimate the severity. Rescue crews were busy throughout the night rescuing stranded drivers.
Even though the flooding had started to recede, crews were still busy rescuing people this morning.
April Showers Swamp Region, Trigger Flooding
The rains came heavy Tuesday into Wednesday as if all those metaphorical April showers waited until the last day of the month to show up.
It all started when a low-pressure front slinked into the region Tuesday and started dumping rain into the area to the point that by 5:30 p.m. Wednesday, a United States Geological Survey rain gauge along the Schuylkill River had recorded nearly 5 inches of rain in a 24-hour period.
And, as you might expect, the result was creeks bursting their banks — along with the Schuylkill River they ultimately feed — and flooded roads, and then trapping some motorists on those roads after they tried to drive through the water.
One of at least four “water rescues” in the area occurred on Bethel Church Road in East Coventry when a small blue sedan stalled in a deep swell of water on the road.
Read more: http://www.pottsmerc.com/general-news/20140430/april-showers-swamp-region-trigger-flooding
Great Harrisburg Cleanup This Saturday
Map of Pennsylvania highlighting Dauphin County (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
It may be wet & cold today but Saturday will be sunny & dry. Perfect weather to come out and join Friends of Midtown in the Great Harrisburg Cleanup which runs from 9:00 am to 1:00 pm. There will be a dumpster located at the Broad Street Market for the bags of trash & debris collected. Our new incinerator owner, LCSWMA, has agreed to waive the tipping fees and the dumpsters have also been donated by local businesses. This is truly a community event and city-wide as there will be donated dumpsters located in Uptown and Allison Hill.
We will meet at 8:45 am in front of the Broad Street Market on the Third Street side and set our plans to clean up our neighborhood. If you prefer to work with your neighbors in your own block and find hauling your collected trash bags to the Broad Street Market dumpster could be difficult, register your group on the Great Harrisburg Cleanup website at http://historicharrisburg.com/index.php/events/volunteer-registration and indicate what street corner your bags will be placed so they can be picked up by Public Works.
Any questions? Contact us at beautification@friendsofmidtown.org before 8:00 am on Saturday.
Hope to see you there!
The 107th Bethlehem Bach Festival
The Bach Choir of Bethlehem presents the 107th Bethlehem Bach Festival May 2 at Lehigh University, Bethlehem. This concert will feature a majestic range of J.S. Bach Cantatas – from some of Bach’s most intimate and contemplative cantatas to his most epic.
On Friday evening at 8 pm, the entire choir will assemble with the full Bach Festival Orchestra and renowned soloists to present works of incredible power and majesty including the immortal Cantata 34, Cantata 19, which is one of Bach’s great cantatas for the Feast of St. Michael and All Angels, and Cantata 78 which includes the famous duet (We race with weak but eager strides) sung by soprano Agnes Zsigovics and counter tenor Daniel Taylor; the immortal Cantata 34 (O light everlasting) ends with the great chorus proclaiming “Peace be to Israel.”
A not-to-be-missed concert filled with especially vivid music!
Buy Rush Tickets for the May 2nd performance today for
ONLY $9.99!!
For more information on the 107th Bethlehem Bach Festival, visit: www.bach.org/festival.php or contact: 610-866-4382 / office@bach.org
Festival Soloists
Agnes Zsigovics, soprano
Rosa Lamoreaux, soprano
Daniel Taylor, countertenor
Benjamin Butterfield, tenor
William Sharp, baritone
Daniel Lichti, bass
“…an American musical treasure… they sing with a fervor and a level of musicianship that carries one away—from bass to soprano, the supple strength “…an American musical treasure… they sing with a fervor and a level of musicianship that carries one away—from bass to soprano, the supple strength and solidly integrated tone of this amateur choir reflects the most admirable qualities of the European-American tradition of choral song.”
– Wall Street Journal May, 2007
The 10 Most Exciting Small Cities In America
Editor’s note: Lancaster is number 4! We agree!
Not everyone can live in Oakland, CA. But after the Movoto Real Estate Blog named it the Most Exciting City in America earlier this year, it seemed like everyone in the Bay Area was thinking about giving it a shot. For some people, though, big cities just aren’t their thing. They enjoy the lifestyle that comes with living in a smaller city–but that doesn’t mean they don’t like to have fun.
With that in mind, and given the fact that we’ve been looking more at small cities and suburbs lately, we decided it was time to look at excitement on a smaller scale. We set out to apply our mathematical methods to ranking the Most Exciting Small Cities in America–places that might be scaled down in size, but where people can still do some really big things.
What did we find? We’re sure the passionate citizens of New Jersey will be happy to learn that their very own Hoboken, NJ took the (flashing, noise-making, spinning) crown of excitement after our results had been tallied.
The birthplace of baseball–a sport whose degree of excitement varies depending on who you talk to–headed up a diverse top 10 of miniature metros.
Read more: http://www.movoto.com/blog/top-ten/most-exciting-small-cities/#ixzz30R5pVbwz
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