MONDAY NOTES   ~ Looks like Mayor Smithgall is worried.  On the “Home” page of his website, www.smithgallformayor.com is this, “Finally we need you to work the polls for Charlie on Election Day.  We have no doubt that our doom and gloom opponents will be there in force, so we need you to help keep things balanced!”  Doom and gloom, Charlie?    In a wonderful piece of irony, Smithgall also has a link to this Sunday’s Sunday News article, “Smithgall should win 3rd, but ,” a total Charlie propaganda piece by Patricia Poist (see below).  The howl of the whole thing is that almost every post in the “Talkback” underneath the article is sharply against Charlie and the clear bias shown in the article! ~ Speaking of the Sunday News article, Poist and Charlie must have shared the whole “doom and gloom” thing, because she writes, “Mendoza has come out in attack mode with a gloom-and-doom message about the present state of the city, which he said continues to be plagued by crime.”  Then she says, “With the addition of new police officers and better programs, the mayor said overall crime has dropped by 13 percent.  Assaults with firearms have declined by 64 percent, while robberies with firearms have declined by 65 percent.”  Nonsense.  Where are these figures from?  What time frame are we talking about?  Who can back up these numbers and why don’t they do that?  And how many crimes that are committed get solved? ~ Speaking of crime, tomorrow I will have some questions for Mr. Smithgall on that topic.  These will serve two functions as I also promised Dave Hennigan, editor of the Sunday News, a list of in-depth and insightful stories his paper could research and publish. ~ Back to the Sunday News, it also printed the ridiculous article “Sen. Armstrong issues a challenge.  In a game of you bet your political life, he says he won’t run again if bonds for the convention center are taxable; asks Shellenberger not to run again if they aren’t taxable.”  Why don’t you do us a favor and just resign now, Senator Armstrong? ~ And in yet another stupid article in the Sunday News, “March on Wednesday to support project,” the final sentence reads, “Under the financing plan, the authority and the city have agreed to absorb the financial risk if the hotel does not generate the anticipated tax revenue needed to pay off the bonds as well as the anticipated return on investment.”  Can you say “yikes” and “who the heck came up with this lousy plan and how do we get out of it now?” ~ I’m still chuckling about the Intell lawsuit fiasco (see below), but I know some of you are saying, “Well, you were banned from Talkback as well.”  The shame and humiliation of it all is flooding back over me.  Yes, I was and I can prove it.  That’s why I have this website.  There will be more on my “bannation” at a later date.  I’ve run out of time today. ~ For that reason as well there will be more on the emails I mentioned this morning at a later date. ***************************************************************************** ~~This from Mayor Smithgall’s website: “Thanks to Charlie's successful leadership, gun crime in Lancaster has been reduced by 65 percent, and over $330 million has been invested in non-residential construction.  Everywhere you look, there are signs that it's morning again in the City of Lancaster.  You can read Patty Poist's article in today's Sunday News.”  ~Thank you to a high school friend who sent me an email – more later – and this email in some time ago, “It gives me the creeps these creeps living double lives Maybe packaging themselves as squeaky clean is part of the thrill for them.”   SATURDAY NOTES ~ I followed up with Franklin & Marshall College last week to find out who will be this year’s recipient of the Charles H. Holzinger Anthropology Award.  Suddenly, these educated individuals realized that this could be an “awkward” situation to say the very least.  I called the Dean’s office on Thursday and they told me that information was not yet available.  Why would a college award an “honor” to a student named after an incest perpetrator?  I will follow-up next week. ~ Speaking of Franklin & Marshall College, whatever happened with Glenn Wynn Robinson, the son of the F&M basketball coach?  He fired an AK-47 assault rifle near three hunters on his property.  The last article on this was in the Sunday News on April 16.  Quoting from that article, “More investigation is necessary before officials decide whether to charge Glenn Wynn Robinson or the hunters in connection with the incident at Robinson’s Fulton County home, according to Donald Totaro, Lancaster County district attorney.  Totaro said in an e-mail that his office would soon be scheduling a meeting with the investigator in the case, State trooper Thomas Barton.”  The incident happened on March 4, 2005.  It’s been over two months.  What is taking so long?  Where is the follow-up on this story? ~ No action has been taken in the Robinson case, but in Mountville, “Police have charged a Mountville woman in the death of a 39-year-old man who overdosed on prescription painkillers she allegedly sold him.”  That is the opening sentence from the Intell article and the link to it is here.   Please read the article and see what you think.  From the way this reads, I think people will have to think twice before they give a friend an aspirin.  ~ The lack of integrity of the Lancaster Newspapers just continues to amaze me.  As noted below on this website, on Tuesday the Intell ran a long and nice story about Luis Mendoza, Jr. just home from Iraq and never once mentioned he was Republican mayoral candidate Luis Mendoza’s son.  How do you do that?  Doesn’t the name sound familiar?  They certainly mentioned the father in the Robinson case above, and that’s also why the coverage stopped. ~ In that same vein, a note about the lawsuit fiasco in yesterday’s Intell (see below).  I spoke to Ernie Schreiber, the editor of the New Era, in early January of this year regarding why his paper had not printed a word about my lawsuit against my parents.  He said he hadn’t seen it to “review the merits” of it.  Apparently, Ernie reads every lawsuit and determines if it has validity before he runs an article.  He later noted that the suit was filed in Philadelphia and “we don’t go down there.”  Ernie, let me clue you in.   There are things called phones, faxes and emails.  You don’t have to “go down there!”  And the Lancaster Newspapers have run several stories on Lancaster men who have filed sexual abuse related suits in Philadelphia against the Archdiocese.  Your hypocrisy is apparent, Ernie. ~ Going back to Luis Mendoza, the Pennsylvania primary is Tuesday, May 17.  From the website www.lancasterfirst.org is this, “Vote for candidates who are AGAINST the hotel and convention center project.  There are a number of candidates who have lost their party’s endorsement because of their opposition to this project, including City Treasurer Barry Winterstein and City Controller R.B. Campbell.  Let’s show the political bosses what the PEOPLE think.  Mr. Luis Mendoza is THE ONLY city council member who voted against the hotel and convention center project.  PLEASE support Mr. Mendoza in his candidacy for Mayor of Lancaster in the upcoming primary election on May 17th.  This will send a strong message to the other candidates as to what the public really feels about this project.” ~ Speaking of all that, Democratic Mayoral candidate J. Richard Gray still has a “Position Paper” on his website, www.grayformayor.com , entitled, “Penn Square Partners (PSP) and Tax Increment Financing (TIF) Request” in which he strongly backs the TIF and the hotel/convention center project.  I think he needs to speak out on how he feels about this issue now.  He’s been sitting back out of the fray letting others duke it out.  That strategy only works for so long.   MONDAY MORNING NOTES ~ There is a lot coming today.  The above box has gone to 100 days.  This is a crime on many, many levels.  Coming later – the three signals that the Lancaster Detectives never intended to solve this murder and collusion by the Lancaster Newspapers. ~ I owe Luis Mendoza an apology.  I have spoken with him twice by phone at length.  I have not printed those interviews only because of time constraints.  He was forthright and honest and I will publish his comments at a later date.  Yesterday, the Lancaster Newspapers ran a nice story about Luis Mendoza, Jr., a U.S. Army Captain just home after 15 months in Iraq.  He and his wife sound like wonderful people.  The article never once mentions that this is Republican mayoral candidate Luis Mendoza’s son.  The article is here.   ~ Yesterday, the New Era ran a truly despicable article, “Commissioners could face suit if bond vow ends.”  Please go here  to read it and please read the “Talkback” underneath it.  Please also go to these two websites as there is new information posted on both, including “Dishonest Reporting in the Media” -  www.lookingatlancaster.com and www.lancasterfirst.org. ~ CHECK BACK LATER TODAY                MONDAY NOTES   “IT’S A VERY PERSONAL, FAMILY ISSUE” Keith Orris, Secretary of Franklin & Marshall College, 5-2-05  ~ I spoke with Keith Orris by phone this morning regarding the Charles H. Holzinger Anthropology Award.  You see part of his response above.  I need to cool off and strive to be calm  and collected in my article, so I will have all of the details here tomorrow including the next steps I am going to take. ~ Please see the “Breaking News” below and follow the link to read the article.  Let’s hope this is finally the end to the hotel/conventional center fiasco.  Please, let it be the end. ~ The box at the top of this page will go to 100 days on Wednesday, barring a murder charge today or tomorrow.  I have stated that I knew I would just keep changing the box when I posted it. That is true and it’s why I put the box up there in the first place. There were three distinct signals that the detectives never planned to solve this murder.   Those three signals and an update are coming on Wednesday. ~ Last week, in “Coffee with Clyde” (I can’t keep a straight face) the headline was, “Clyde ponders the future of newspapers.”  Mr. Editor thinks they will survive because newspapers have “stories of depth and insight.”  Since we have yet to see said articles of depth and insight, Mr. Editor, I’m trying to help out by making a list of good stories for you to do.  I will post it here shortly.  I can’t wait, Mr. Editor.  You most certainly are welcome.