McClure Wants $2.5 Million From CARES Act For Hazard Pay, IT

Executive Lamont McClure is asking Northampton County Council to approve a transfer of $2.5 million from CARES Act funding to the county's general fund. This is to reimburse the county for $621,485.10 in hazard pay for county workers at the jail, Juvenile Justice Center and in Human Sources. Gracedale workers were also paid hazard pay, but funding for that comes from a different source. The remaining $1,878,514.90 is to reimburse the county for IT expenses related to remote work and teleconferencing options, including a mobile broadcasting center.

If approved, this will leave the county with $2-3 million.

NorCo Council Considers 10 More Temps in Elections Office

Northampton County Voting Registrar Amy Cozze asked Council for permission to hire as many as 10 more temporary employees to work in the elections office. This office is dealing both with in-person voting and is also processing a huge number of mail-in ballot applications. Those positions were already funded, but Council needs to approve their creation.

Cozze said she expects ballots to go out next week, and that the office will be manned until 8 pm. She is waiting for a ruling from the Supreme Court on Green Party candidates. The official count begins at 7 am on election day, unless the law changes. So far, there are about 59,000 mail-in ballot applications. She said she has hundreds of back-up pollworkers.

538: Pa Will Determine Election

On Monday, I told you NorCo is poised to vote again for Donald Trump. Since 2016, Democrats have added just 324 voters to their ranks while Republicans have added nearly 4,000. On Tuesday, I pointed out that 11.3% of NorCo's registered Democrats are considered inactive, meaning they have not voted in five years. Why does all this matter? After all, NorCo is just one county. Biden has an 8-point advantage in the latest Monmouth University poll. It matters because Biden's national lead means nothing in and of itself. He wins only if he wins in the electoral college. And guess what? According to 538, "Pennsylvania is by far the likeliest state to provide either President Trump or Joe Biden with the decisive vote in the Electoral College ... ."

From the article:

"Campaigns have also been forced to reconsider their conception of Pennsylvania’s political geography. The conventional wisdom was that western and eastern Pennsylvania were Democratic and central Pennsylvania was solidly Republican (memorably summarized by Democratic strategist James Carville’s quote that, between Pittsburgh and Philadelphia, Pennsylvania was just Alabama). While this may have been true (at least politically) in, say, 2000, working-class western and northeastern Pennsylvania have slowly but surely been getting redder. As a result, Pennsylvania’s new geographic divide is between southeastern Pennsylvania and the rest of the state — in other words, the parts of the state that are culturally Northeastern and the parts that are culturally Midwestern or Appalachian."

Democrats Have High Percentage of "Inactive" Voters

Yesterday, on the basis of statistics maintained by Pennsylvania's Department of State, I told you there are currently 8,748,726 registered voters in the Keystone State. This includes 217,849 in Northampton and 239,619 in Lehigh County. But this number is deceptive. It includes both active and inactive voters. If you subtract inactive voters from the total, the number of registered voters becomes smaller.

What are inactive voters? These are persons who have not voted over the past five years and who have failed to respond to inquiries about their registration. Though still eligible to vote, they might be required to produce ID or verify their address at the polls.

Statewide, 442,563 of 4,125,889 Democrats are inactive. That's 10.7% who have failed to vote for at least five years. In NorCo, 11,229 (11.3%) of 99,253 registered Democrats are inactive. In Lehigh, 11,365 (9.8%) of 115,862 registered Democrats are inactive.

How about Republicans?

Statewide, 252,464 of 3,376,463 registered Republicans are inactive. That's just 7.4% . In NorCo, 6,580 (8.4%) of 77,532 registered Republicans are inactive. In Lehigh, it's 5,347 (6.5%) of 81,677. Though Democrats still have a numbers edge, it's hardly overwhelming. Moreover, it appears they lack the enthusiasm of the GOP.

US District Ct: Gov' Wolf's Pandemic Restrictions Unconstitutional

Regular readers of this blog know I have long objected to Governor Tom Wolf's abuse of his "emergency" powers to put Pennsylvania out of business. That emergency, incidentally, still exists. Though Wolf has eased up on his ruination of Pennsylvania's economy, he could re-impose a lockdown tomorrow. A Pennsylvania's Supreme Court, divided largely along party lines, has agreed he has this power But yesterday, U.S. District Court Judge William Stickman IV, a Trump appointee, ruled in a 66-page opinion that Wolf's shutdown orders and other pandemic restrictions exceed his constitutional authority. This decision will almost certainly be appealed.

It's a well-written opinion. In addition to his constitutional conclusions, Judge Stickman has some interesting observations:

1) Though Pennsylvania has been willing to impose quarantines when necessary, William Penn himself limited their use because of his belief they had a disproportionate impact on the poor. His experience in London is that families with plague cases were boarded up for 40 days with no way of taking care of themselves. Instead of being provided food, homes were decorated with a red cross and the plea, "Lord have mercy on us." (Just as plague families were without means, millions of unemployed Pennsylvanians waited months for unemployment relief.)

2. The response to this pandemic was far more severe than the measures taken in response to the Spanish Flu. As this blog itself has noted, the measures taken in response to the Spanish Flu were far less draconian and of much shorter duration.

3. Even now, Governor Wolf's stay-at-home order is still in place. It has merely been suspended and could be reimposed tomorrow.

4. "It appears as though the imposition of lockdowns in Wuhan and other areas of China - a nation unconstrained by concern for civil liberties and constitutional norms - started a domino effect where one country, and state, after another imposed draconian and hitherto untried measures on their citizens."

Governor Wolf's measures were well intended and imposed to protect Pennsylvanians. But good intentions are no justification for violating the Constitution. "[T]he greatest threats to our system of constitutional liberties may arise when the ends are laudable and the intent is good - especially in a time of emergency. In an emergency, even a vigilant public may let down its guard over its constitutional liberties only to find that liberties, once relinquished, are hard to recoup and that restrictions - while expedient in the face of an emergency situation - may persist long after immediate danger has passed.

And so it has happened here. Piece by piece, civil liberties have been shredded away with ever changing metrics and no seeming end in sight.

Wolf's Pandemic Restric... by BernieOHare

Judge John Morganelli Becomes an Independent

For decades, John Morganelli has been known as one of the Lehigh Valley's top Democrats. Though he supported many Democratic issues, he was conservative on others. Basically, he's never been in lock step with either party. Now that he's a judge, he's changed his party registration from Democrat to Independent. Here's how he explains it:

"Throughout my entire career as District Attorney, I have been independent of both major political parties . I have never walked in lock step with the rigid ideology of either party because my views sometimes align with one party on a particular issue and sometimes align with the other party on a different issue. Now that I am a Judge, I felt that it was the right time to officially become an Independent . Judges should judge matters solely on the law , with independence and free from any alliance to a particular political party or a political philosophy."

So far as I know, Morganelli is the sole NorCo judge who is unaffiliated with a major party.

I am basically an independent myself. The only thing that stops me from registering as such is that independents lose the ability to vote in primaries. This enables both parties to cater to their extremes.

NorCo Poised To Vote For Trump Again

According to the most recent data maintained by Pennsylvania's Department of State (9/7/20), there are 8,748,726 registered voters in the Keystone State. These include 4,125,889 Democrats, 3,376,463 Republicans, 840,816 no-affiliation and 405,558 minor parties. So Democrats have a registration edge. But they did in 2016, too, when Donald Trump was elected President, At that time, there were 8,646,238 registered voters consisting of 4,172,826 Democrats, 3,280,202 Republicans and 1,193,210 unaffiliated or minor party voters. There are fewer Democrats now than there were four years ago, when Trump won a state he should have lost. Despite all the claims about a blue wave, Pennsylvania is increasingly a purple state.

In the Lehigh Valley, the data shows that Lehigh County Democrats have improved their position while Northampton County Democrats are losing ground.

In 2016 in Lehigh County, there were 109,353 Democrats, 78,062 Republicans and 37,293 others. Now there are 115,862 Democrats to 81,677 Republicans. Both parties have gained, but Democrats have done slightly better.

The situation is the reverse in Northampton County. In 2016, there were 98,929 Democrats, 73,638 Republicans and 39,026 others. After four years of Donald Trump, the Democratic registration has barely budged. There are 99,253 registered Democrats, an increase of just 324 voters. In the meantime, Republicans have slowly but surely been increasing their numbers. They now have 77,532 registered voters, an increase of nearly 4,000.

The fact that Democrats have done so poorly at attracting new voters in a blue collar county is a bad sign for those who think NorCo is going blue this year. The numbers don't lie.

Democrats need to take a good hard look at their priorities. The party of the working poor has increasingly become a clique of elitists who have no understanding what it means to have no job.

Where's The Subway?

At this time of year, I do a lot of walking. In addition to exercise, I walk to the stores every day. I've lent out my car, so I've also been depending on my bike and LANTA to get where I need to be. I enjoy it quite a bit, to be honest. Yesterday, I was walking down Main Street to visit Giant and a fellow walking in the opposite direction stopped to ask me where the Subway was. I thought he meant the restaurant and began to tell him, but he interrupted me, "No, I mean the subway, the subway. Like we have in New York."

"This is Nazareth, not New York. There is no subway. No rats, either."

Actually there are, but most of us are two-legged.

Would You Take Pre-Election Vaccine?

I told you several weeks ago that I've volunteered to be a Covid-19 vaccine guinea pig. As I'm sure most of you would agree, we bloggers are pretty much nonessential. Thus far, no one has contacted me even though I'm relatively certain I am human. Here's my question, and it's one that was also asked on C-Span radio this morning. If a vaccine is announced and available before the election, would you take it?

We know that President Donald Trump pressed health officials to approve convalescent plasma therapy so he could announce it on the eve of the Republican convention. Although this treatment might actually be helpful, its effectiveness was overstated by a President who lied to the public about Covid-19, the worst thing public officials can do in a pandemic.

So if a vaccine is announced, would you take it?

Although I have no trust in anything Trump says, I would take a vaccine if it were recommended by Dr. Anthony Faucci.

Family Learns of Suicide From Ce-Ce Gerlach Video

Allentown City Council member Ce-Ce Gerlach, who would like to be Mayor C-Ce Gerlach, walks the streets of Allentown more often than a hooker. I guess they both aim to please. Nearly every hour, she's shooting a video about this or that injustice. But she's in hot water over one of her latest video productions. It was the sad aftermath of a suicide by a man who jumped from atop the PPL parking garage. She rushed over and began using this incident to support one of her numerous rants about a lack of city services. In her rush to draw attention to herself, she never stopped to think that the family of this jumper would learn about his death by seeing her video. She's been getting slammed, and rightly so, by her own Black Lives Matter base.

Local activist Rodney Be dropped his "Fuck the Police" bullhorn long enough to trash her. "Yall will do anything for clout #FcknSleazeBalls Someone just lost there [sic] life & yall tryna build a following #FcknSleazeBalls."

Gerlach eventually deleted her video and explained:

I'll take this head on and respond since this isnin reference to my live video from tonight. I apologize. I am sorry. A man from the ATC texted me about someone we knew who had jumped from the parking garage. I arrived about 2 hours later. My intentions were not to exploit but to bring awareness of the lack of services in the city. Having people watch a live video on fb isn't clout to me. The purpose of going live was to talk about the systemic problems and the value of each human life. In retrospect I see how the timing of me doing so was not good. I didn't know that me going live would be breaking news for anyone and for that I am deeply sorry. I intentionally did not mention the name or identifying factors out of respect but clearly this wasn't enough. I'm not sure what else to say other than I am sorry.

Some people accepted what she said, but not the family of the suicide victim.

my family wasnt notified and you went live how dare you.  A 17 yr old child had to see it on live.  And has to go claim his father's body and you decided for your satisfaction to go live.  I lost all respect and will never forgive you.  But your days are numbered in office I promise you that..

Justan Parker, King of LV Black Lives Matter, dropped his bullhorn to say. "Super sad and disgusting." He later added, "Election season coming up and we're starting to see true colors."

I hope they're black.

Another big mouth, Hasshan Batts lackey Positive Kyle Lassiter, said, "I can't not [sic] believe what I saw today ppl Using a bad situation to gain exposure."

Maybe she should call herself Me-Me instead of Ce-Ce.

Trump and the Politics of Fear

NorCo's GOP is hosting the St. Louis couple who brandished firearms at protesters on June 28. They will be at Fairview Park in Palmer Tp on September 17.

Law-and-Order Trump is stoking fear again. In 2016, it was Mexican rapists. Now it's Antifa, blacks and Communists. This won't work in the cities. It may in the 'burbs and rural America.

NorCo Jail and Gracedale Remain Covid Free

I hesitate to write this out of fear I could be jinxing them, but there are no current cases of Covid-19 at either NorCo's jail or Gracedale. The jail has had no positive cases since July. It currently houses 514 inmates. At Gracedale, there are no cases among 514 residents and 700 staff. The home is inching towards outdoor visitation and permitting some volunteers to return.

Lehigh County's Elections Office Will Have Extended Hours

Lehigh County's Government Center and its Voter Registration Office will have extended hours for a two-week period between October 19th and October 30th. The building will also be open on Saturday, October 24th and Saturday, October 31st from
9am-1pm for drop-off.

A complete list of hours are as follows:
Monday – Friday 10/19 – 10/30 8am – 8pm
Saturday 10/24 & 10/31 9am – 1pm
Tuesday 11/3 7am – 8pm

Reserved parking will be available in front of the Government Center on 17 S 7th St, Allentown during these times. Two spots will be accessible on 7th Street and two spots will be available on Hamilton Street.

Lehigh County warns that a voter can only hand in his or her own ballot to the Voter Registration Office. Any bulk submissions or a ballot that is not your own will not be accepted.

Mail-in ballots are scheduled to be sent out the last week of September or the first week of October.

Lehigh County is still awaiting confirmation on the approved state ballot that will go into print. This is due to the pending status of the Green Party presidential candidate.

Additionally, ACT 77 allows for registered voters to vote at the Voter Registration Office at any time after mail-in ballots have been distributed. If a resident applied for a mail-in ballot but has not received their ballot in the mail, they may instead vote in-person at the Voter Registration Office. The deadline to apply to vote at the office is Tuesday, October 27th at 5pm.

No word yet on extended hours for NorCo voters.

NorCo Residents Being Scammed by "County Park Attorney"

From Northampton County: The Northampton County Sheriff’s Department has received inquiries about someone claiming to be a “County Park Attorney” calling residents and alleging that they have been issued a ticket for violating park rules.

These calls are a scam. The Northampton County Parks department does not call people about tickets.

Report any suspicious solicitations to the Pennsylvania Attorney General’s office at 800-441-2555 or scams@attorneygeneral.gov

Today is Suicide Prevention Day

Today is World Suicide Prevention Day.

According to a county news release, suicide affects all ages and was the 10th leading cause of death in the United States in 2018. Over 2,000 Pennsylvanians die from death-by-suicide every year. Americans disproportionately impacted by suicide include Veterans and other military personnel and workers in certain occupational groups like construction, the arts, and design, entertainment, sports and media fields. Suicide negatively impacts the health of others and the community.

NorCo Executive Lamont McClure established a suicide prevention task force in 2018 to, in his words,"make certain our citizens know we are here, we care and that they should never hesitate to reach out.” It is spearheaded by Human Services Director Sue Wandalowski, and has determined there is a need for more training on suicide awareness.

The Suicide Prevention Task Force will hold an award ceremony to recognize Northampton County residents who’ve contributed to suicide prevention on September 24th.

Wolf: Covid-19 Risk "Moderate" in LV

According to Governor Tom Wolf, the chances of contracting Covid-19 are "moderate" here in the Lehigh Valley. Lehigh and Northampton are lumped in with 45 other counties.

The other counties considered a moderate risk are Adams, Allegheny, Armstrong, Beaver, Berks, Blair, Bucks, Butler, Cambria, Chester, Clearfield, Clinton, Crawford, Cumberland, Dauphin, Delaware, Erie, Fayette, Franklin, Huntingdon, Indiana, Lackawanna, Lancaster, Lawrence, Lebanon, Luzerne, Lycoming, Mercer, Mifflin, Monroe, Montgomery, Montour, Northumberland, Philadelphia, Schuylkill, Snyder and Somerset.

Wolf has placed these 19 counties in the "low" risk category: Bedford, Bradford, Cameron, Carbon, Clarion, Elk, Forest, Fulton, Greene, Jefferson, Juniata, McKean, Perry, Pike, Potter, Sullivan, Tioga, Venango, Warren AND Wyoming.

The chances of contracting Covid-19 are considered "substantial" only in Centre and Columbia Counties.

It is unclear what metrics Wolf used to arrive at these conclusions.

Using the state's own data, for the 7-day period ending September 3 (the latest 7-day period for the scary "Early Warning" dashboard), York County reported 398 new cases out of 3,102 tests for a positivity rate of 12.3%. For the same 7-day period, NorCo had 49 new cases out of 2,361 tests for a positivity rate of 2.08%.

York has 8 times as many new cases and 4 times the positivity rate of NorCo, but York and NorCo are both "moderate"?

York is Wolf's home county.

Wolf has released data on where people are contracting Covid-19, suggesting it might be at a restaurant. But there are problems with that data. Only 44% of those questioned answered whether they had even been to a business establishment. He goes on to conclude that businesses are a cause of community transmission, but I would be a bit more concerned about the lack of response to some important questions.

Gracedale Offering $250/Week to CNA Trainees

CNA trainees are being paid $250 a week as independent contractors, says Gracedale Administrator Jennifer Stewart King. Previously, they were unpaid during the four weeks of training they must undergo, which King said makes the position a "hard sell." The CARES Act, however, authorizes the County to pay for this type of training, which King hopes will lead to more CNAs.

CNAs start at $15.07 an hour.

Census as of September 3 was 536, still well below the target of 670. This drop in residents, however, appears to have had no effect on finances. For the first six months of 2020, Gracedale has $50 million in revenue and $47 million in expenses.

Trump is Terrible, But is a Victim of Unfair Reporting

I'm hardly the person from whom to seek advice on journalism. I'm a bottom-feeding blogger who gets stories (and sometimes dinner, too!) by dumpster diving. But you might be surprised to learn that I apparently have higher standards than Jeffrey Goldberg, Atlantic's widely-respected editor-in-chief. On September 3, exactly two months before the election, he published a highly inflammatory report about Donald Trump's 2018 refusal to visit the cemetery of 1,800 Marines who died in Belleau Wood. The soldiers who died there were supposedly "suckers" and "losers." Goldberg relies on four anonymous sources. His story is unfair.

I get contacted all the time by people who wish to remain anonymous. I am often provided good tips. But before I go ahead, I want to know two things: (1) How damaging is this story to the target? and (2) How reliable is my source?

If the story reveals some kind of malfeasance, I will sometimes write a story. If it is highly inflammatory, I will refuse to write a story even if I believe the anonymous accusation.

This just happened to me last week. I was provided highly damaging information about a public official. It came from an anonymous email. The target strongly denied the charge. I decided against writing a story.

Four people could contact me and accuse a public official of all sorts of abhorrent behavior that is subsequently denied. Am I supposed to write, "Public Official A denies beating wife despite four anonymous accusers?"

I think that would be irresponsible.

The Goldberg story strikes me as unfair for the following reasons: (1) It is highly inflammatory; (2) It is about an incident that supposedly occurred two years ago, but is being published two months before an election; (3) The sources involved refuse to identify themselves; and (4) the accusation appears to be refuted by Trump's seeming desire to build up the military.

This accusation could very well be true, but all this story does is give Trump more ammo with which to argue he is being treated unfairly. This is sensationalism, not journalism.

History will judge, but I consider and have said Trump is the worst President this nation has ever seen. Here's a thought. Why not report on what he all know he has actually said and done? Just yesterday, in a rambling speech from the White House, Trump's demagoguery consisted of statements like "Biden is a stupid person."

In the meantime, 189,000 Americans have been killed by the Covid-19 pandemic that Trump minimized, while unemployment is at 8.4%.

Write what you can prove. That's bad enough.

DiLuzio Out in Bethlehem

From Mayor Bob Donchez: Today I accepted the retirement letter of Bethlehem Chief of Police Mark DiLuzio.

His retirement is a result of the consequences of his recent re-posting of an offensive Facebook post.

The United States is in the midst of a national discourse on important issues of systemic racism, police conduct and social injustice. The City has been actively engaged with citizens and groups to deal with these numerous and complex issues. Chief DiLuzio has been an important representative of the City in this effort.

The credibility and effectiveness of leadership in government is always paramount. These are times when those qualities are critical to managing the numerous challenges we are facing.

Chief DiLuzio has accepted that his standing in the community has been compromised. This has happened at a time when the citizens of Bethlehem justly expect the effectiveness of their Chief of Police to be beyond reproach.

I, and many who know him, will not allow it to outweigh our appreciation for the Chief’s dedication and service to the City of Bethlehem for the over 30 years.

Deputy Chief Scott Meixell will immediately assume the duties of interim Chief of Police.

NorCo Council Unanimously Awards $4.6 MM in CARES Act Grants to 349 Small Businesses

At their September 3 meeting, Northampton County Council voted unanimously to award $4,616,397.91 to 349 small businesses located within the county. Most grants were for the maximum $15,000, and are listed below. This is in addition to $4 million in grants previously awarded.

The Greater LV Chamber of Commerce,m which processed these applications, received an administrative fee. But Council member Kevin Lott reported that the Chamber has poured that money into its Main Street grant program. Thus, every penny awarded will fund small business.

NorCo Council Awards $4.6 M... by BernieOHare