Posted - March 1, 2008

I recently received another glossy brochure in the mail from State Representative David Argall. In this brochure, Mr. Argall proclaimed, "I will continue to work to create and retain family-sustaining jobs for the people of our area."

First, Mr. Argall is using government printing at taxpayer expense to campaign for reelection. Mr. Argall has an opponent in the upcoming Republican primary election and will use cardboard checks, walking around money, glossy brochures and questionnaires, newspaper opinions, telephone town meetings, citizens' breakfasts and television legislative reports, all at taxpayer expense, to campaign for reelection.

Second, let's take a look at some of the economic development results that Mr. Argall failed to report in his glossy brochure.

On February 15, 2008, a newspaper article reported on the demise of three auto dealerships in Tamaqua in the past year www.republicanherald.com Hosak Pontiac GMC, Keich Buick and Chevrolet, and Maff Motors-Dodge and Chrysler have all closed in the past twelve months. The article did not report how many jobs were lost.

Former Maff Motors, Dodge and Chrysler -- jobs lost

On December 7, 2007, the Times-News reported that Kennedy Pharmacy was closing after 30 years www.tnonline.com. Owner Bill Kennedy stated, "Business is not what it once was, and it was slipping, so I decided to sell it while I could still get something out of it." Three jobs were lost.

Former Kennedy Pharmacy – three jobs lost

On December 1, 2007, the Times-News reported that Leiby's Restaurant was closing after more than four decades www.tnonline.com.. The article noted that the restaurant was closing due to business circumstances and that approximately 80 jobs were lost.

Former Leiby's Restaurant – 80 jobs lost

It would be nice if Mr. Argall told the whole truth about his economic development record. Instead, he brags about the limited successes that have occurred during his term in office and denies the numerous failures abounding in his area. If you don't believe me, just open your eyes and look around.

It is time for a change. We need someone who is capable of telling the truth and who will represent all of the people of this district and not just the special interest groups.

John Schickram for state representative

Posted - March 06, 2008

On August 30, 2007, the Pottsville Republican & Herald newspaper ran an editorial entitled "Delay on coal-to-oil approval an outrage" www.republicanherald.com. The first line of the editorial indicated that there is only one word for the fact that companies aren't producing oil from coal right now – inexcusable. After reading this puff piece, we published an article that was critical of the newspaper's editorial (August 2007 Archives, One Word: Irresponsible"). Here are two of the many examples of more serious problems with the Pottsville Republican & Herald. On March 2, 2008, the Hazleton Standard-Speaker published an article by Kent Jackson entitled "Power plants are polluters, too" www.standardspeaker.com. In part of the story, Mr. Jackson stated:

"The academies recommend recycling the ash into other products and suggest best practices for protecting the public if ash is placed into mines and other disposal sites, such as the proposed amphitheater grounds in Hazleton."

This sentence clearly states that the National Academies of Science (1) recommend the recycling of fly ash into other products and (2) suggest that if fly ash is going to be placed into mines, best practices should be followed to protect the public.

On March 3, 2008, the Pottsville Republican & Herald republished the article www.republicanherald.com. However, the article contained the following change:

"The academies recommend recycling the ash into other products and suggest the best practice to protect the public is placing the ash into mines and other disposal sites, such as the proposed amphitheater grounds in Hazleton."

The National Academies of Science did not suggest that the best practice to protect the public was to place fly ash into mines and other disposal sites. It appears that an editor of the Republican & Herald changed the meaning of the sentence to conform to the editorial policy of the newspaper on fly ash dumping. Obviously, this change was not the result of a typographical error.

On December 22, 2007, a letter to the editor from Dante Picciano was published in the Lehighton Times-News www.tnonline.com. In the letter, Dr. Picciano wrote:

"Mr. Argall should introduce a resolution in the House of Representatives designating a day in 2008 as "Polycythemia Vera Victims' Day" for the people afflicted with this cancer in this area. In fact, Mr. Argall should introduce a resolution designating the entire year of 2008 as "Victims' Year" in honor of the thousands of people afflicted with cancer, asthma and other diseases caused by the polluting industries in Pennsylvania. However, I doubt that this will happen because not enough victims have contributed to Mr. Argall's re-election campaign."

The same letter was submitted to and published in the Pottsville Republican & Herald www.republicanherald.com. However, someone at the newspaper deleted the following sentence from the final version of the letter:

"However, I doubt that this will happen because not enough victims have contributed to Mr. Argall's re-election campaign."

The deletion of a key sentence from the letter did not appear to be accidental. Apparently, an editor of the newspaper deleted the sentence to conform to his or her personal beliefs.

It appears to this reader of the Republican & Herald that accuracy, honesty and integrity are not highly valued attributes for members of their editorial staff. Furthermore, the examples above should make all readers cautious, leery and suspicious of anything that they read in this newspaper.

Posted - March 12, 2008

Heinz Field

Forbes Magazine estimates the value of the Pittsburgh Steelers' National Football League franchise at $929 million. The team is privately owned by multimillionaire Dan Rooney and plays its home games at Heinz Field. Last week, the Steelers signed quarterback Ben Roethlisberger to an eight year contract extension for $102 million. The contract included so-called "guaranteed money" of slightly more than $36 million and a $25 million signing bonus.

Heinz Field was completed in 2001 at a cost of $261 million. In spite of the private nature and financial success of the Steelers' franchise, our legislators provided $160 million of our tax money for the construction of the stadium.

Now, the Steelers want to build a $10 million entertainment complex adjacent to Heinz Field. The complex would have covered seating for about 2,000 people and would host concerts, special performances and festivals. Again, the Steelers want the taxpayers of Pennsylvania to contribute and again, we can count on our state legislators to give corporate welfare to this private venture for the benefit of a multimillionaire. Alms for the poor, alms for the Steelers!

Our legislators should give priority to programs that benefit all Pennsylvanians, such as bridge and highway repair and property tax elimination. The legislators should stop giving our tax money to a few politically connected individuals, who just happen to be significant contributors to the legislators' reelection campaigns.

Let's see what our current crop of legislators have done with our money. They have given hundreds of millions of taxpayers' dollars to fund stadiums for the Pittsburgh Steelers, the Pittsburgh Pirates, the Philadelphia Eagles, the Philadelphia Phillies, and the Pittsburgh Penguins and they are giving millions of our dollars for the construction of a soccer stadium in Chester. Throw in the $700 million in corporate welfare for the Philadelphia Convention Center and we are now talking BILLIONS of taxpayers' dollars. However, there is no money for bridge and road repair unless we increase taxes or toll interstate highways. Baloney!

We need new blood in Harrisburg. We need legislators who will pass laws that are of benefit to all Pennsylvanians such as necessary bridge and road repair. We do not need legislators who have given away hundreds of millions of dollars of our tax money to private sports franchises and now want to raise our taxes for bridge and road repair. It is time for a change for the better.

Posted - March 17, 2008

Dave "Tax and Spend" Argall

State Representative Dave Argall has represented the people of the 124th legislative district in the General Assembly since 1985. The district consists of parts of Berks and Schuylkill counties. We doubt if many people have ever analyzed Mr. Argall's voting record. Let's take a look at his votes on major issues since 1998.

In 1998, Mr. Argall voted for Act 50, which was the legislature's first attempt at a partial tax shift to reduce property taxes. Only four school districts statewide thought it was a good enough idea to adopt.

In 1999, Mr. Argall voted for Act 1, which provided hundreds of millions of tax dollars to professional sports teams to build new stadiums. This act is a prime example of corporate welfare for politically connected millionaire owners of private sports franchises at taxpayer expense.

In 2001, Mr. Argall voted for Act 8, which gave a 50% increase to the pensions of legislators, while giving a 25% increase to other government employees. In other words, Mr. Argall voted himself a 50% increase to his own pension. This act sends Pennsylvania taxpayers hurtling toward a fiscal nightmare in the coming years. The state-government and teachers' pension systems project that the amount taxpayers must pay to support the funds will increase sharply in 2012.

In 2003, Mr. Argall voted for Act 46, which raised the personal income tax rate for Pennsylvanians by 10% from 2.8% to 3.07%.

In 2004, Mr. Argall voted for Act 71, which legalized slot parlors, impinged on the rights of local citizens to determine where casinos would be built and created a system in which only the wealthiest of the wealthy and the politically connected could get into the business.

Also in 2004, Mr. Argall voted for Act 72, a companion bill to the slots legislation, which was the legislature's second attempt at a partial tax shift to reduce property taxes and was rejected by most school districts.

In 2005, Mr. Argall voted for Act 44, which gave legislators pay raises of 16 to 54%. Mr. Argall gave himself a 34% pay raise and a black eye when he helped design and pass the notorious pay raise in the early morning hours of July 7, 2005, with no public debate.

Part of Act 44 authorized legislators to take their pay raise immediately through "unvouchered expenses," which were later declared unconstitutional by the Supreme Court. Mr. Argall refused to return the reported $7000 in unconstitutional unvouchered expense money he took from Pennsylvania's taxpayers.

In 2006, Mr. Argall voted for Act 1, which was the legislature's third attempt at a partial tax shift to reduce property taxes. Referendums on Act 1 were defeated in 494 of 498 school districts that placed this tax-shifting scheme on the May 15, 2006 ballot.

All three tax-shifting schemes were worthless scams that were meant to deceive us into believing that the politicians had given us property tax "relief." They did nothing to control costs, to address equity for under funded schools or to solve the education finance crisis.

Mr. Argall may be our representative at present but his voting record clearly shows that he has betrayed the principles of fiscal responsibility, moral culpability and accountability to the people.

This letter was paid for by Dante Picciano, private citizen – it was NOT paid for with taxpayers' money.

Posted - March 26, 2008

Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko before and after dioxin poisoning

Italian cheese makers are trying to recover from the recent discovery of high levels of dioxins in milk used to make Italy's best mozzarella cheese www.iht.com. The best mozzarella cheese is made from buffalo milk and is known for its use on pizza. Mozzarella cheese is also eaten alone or in salads with fresh tomatoes and Mozzarella cheese made from buffalo milk costs twice as much as mozzarella made from cow milk.

The buffalo milk mozzarella is made in the economically depressed area of southern Italy near Naples. Recently, health officials found high levels of dioxins in samples of buffalo milk from farms near Naples. Eighty buffalo herds in the area have been quarantined on suspicion that their milk may be contaminated with dioxins.

Dioxins are formed as an unintentional byproduct of many industrial processes involving chlorine such as waste incineration, chemical and pesticide manufacturing and pulp and paper bleaching. Dioxins are some of the most toxic chemicals known to science and there is no "safe" level of exposure.

According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's (U.S. EPA) Toxics Release Inventory report, industry released 8.93 grams of dioxin and dioxin-like compounds into the environment in Schuylkill County, Pennsylvania in 2006 http://epa.gov.

Dioxins are known to cause cancer, to persist in the environment for a long time without breaking down and to accumulate in living tissue over time. Exposure to dioxins can also cause, in addition to cancer, severe reproductive and developmental problems and at levels 100 times lower than those associated with cancer causing effects.

Chloracne is the most common symptom and the hallmark effect that follows high dose exposure to dioxins. It is a serious skin disorder that begins with an acne-like appearance two to four weeks after exposure and progresses to pus-filled boils, pimples that may be colored more darkly than the rest of the face, blackheads and cysts that sometimes persist for years.

In 2004, Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko was poisoned with dioxins. The pictures above show Victor Yushchenko on the left before dioxin poisoning and on the right after dioxin poisoning. His chloracne problem after exposure is obvious.

Italian officials are investigating the possibility that toxic waste generated by industrial plants have been dumped in the countryside where the toxic waste leaches into the water and contaminates the pastures where the buffalo graze. This is Italy's version of "beneficial use" of toxic waste and is analogous to Pennsylvania's use of hazardous fly ash waste dumping in mine reclamation and sewage sludge waste as fertilizer. It seems that corporate greed trumps human health all over the world.