Herb Riede's Blog

I've been fighting quite a nasty cough over the past month... Just completed the last of a round of antibiotics, prednizone and occasional uses of an inhaler to get over a pretty bad cough/respiratory infection that my daughter and I have been fighting since late July after (presumably the cause) plugging in an Air Conditioner that had been stored for months in the basement and not yet cleaned, but was still turned to "on". I immediately got a face full of dust and have been coughing since. Between always vigilantly avoiding triggers for cluster and migraine headaches and this, the past month has been a chore to do much more than my day to day work at Boyds (my day job, which I rarely talk about). The last bad day I had was Saturday, when I was cold to the world for 15 hours. --- I've just bought a "Democratic Blue" 2006 Chevy Cobalt and traded in my trademark bumperstickered "purple" (Maroon) 1998 Chevy Astro van. Here's a few reasons why I di...

I met Joe at the recent Democratic Club Picnic Club this past Saturday. I circulated for him in 2002, but we had started a few weeks and were a couple hundred signatures short of the 1,000 needed. Now he's calling for more people to run with him! Joe Otternein for Congress JOE OTTERBEIN JR LAUNCHES UNUSUAL BID FOR US HOUSE Shrewsbury Democrat Calls for More Democrats to Compete for Nomination (York, Pennsylvania) Today Shrewsbury resident Joe Otterbein announced his candidacy for the Democratic nomination to challenge Representative Todd Platts. Instead of hoping to keep other candidates out of what many consider a long-shot attempt to defeat the three term incumbent, Otterbein is asking other Democrats to challenge him. Otterbein told supporters at the York County Judicial Center that, "Politics should be about people getting together and solving problems. As competitors we can work together to find solutions to the real problems in our communities. Rather than bluster and pr...

Evening Sun Online - FRONT PAGE NEWS : "Outage leaves thousands in the dark" Where we you when the lights went out? Power in McSherrystown was out from about 1:30 until about 3:45. All street lights were out, as were both local traffic lights. Neither light had backup power to "blink". Power was out along Eisenhower Avenue as well. Met-Ed automated outage service had quoted 7:45AM as the time when power would be restored when I called in the outage on my cell phone at about 1:45AM. I received an automated phone call confirming the power was back on just before 4AM.

Wireless AMBER Alerts System - AMBER Alerts for your ZIP Code to your Cell Phone Help find missing children in our area when it matters most - in those first few hours. You will receive a AMBER Alert message when a child goes missing in the ZIP codes you designate. According to T-Mobile (my carrier, used as an example) - "You won't be charged for receiving an alert, and you just may be the one to save a child's life." Looking through the history of Wireless alerts sent for PA, it appears they've only sent one so far, in the Philadelphia area. They appear to be intelligently targeted into a focused area, so that if you get an alert, you should know to take notice.

Young Democrats of Adams County - YoungAdamsDemocrats.com I am resigning as President of the Young Democrats of Adams County at Thusday's Meeting. I've served as Preisdent since we founded the organization in February, 2003. Next Meeting: August 18, 6:00PM Ragged Edge Coffee House ( http://www.raggededgecoffeehs.com ), 110 Chambersburg St., Gettysburg, PA

Salon.com - War Room : "War Room It gets ugly in Crawford We thought the blowback against Cindy Sheehan hit rock bottom when Bill O'Reilly suggested that her vigil in Crawford, Texas, 'borders on treasonous' and Michelle Malkin offered up the view that Sheehan's dead son wouldn't approve. Then we thought it couldn't get any worse when the president of the United States said he couldn't take the time to meet with Sheehan because his exercise schedule was more important. We were wrong. On Monday night, a driver in a pickup truck rammed through rows of white crosses Sheehan and her supporters have placed across a road near the president's Crawford ranch. So much for supporting the troops: The crosses bore the names of soldiers who were killed in the war in Iraq. " Update: Arrest In Texas Protest Cross-Up

There will be a special meeting of Borough Council Wednesday to discuss the ongoing matter of the 2nd Street sidewalk project at 7:00PM at 338 Main Street, McSherrystown, PA (regular scheduled council meeting follows at 7:30PM). Other matters on road conditions may also be brought up at this meeting, however the focus is on the project last year where PennDOT and it's contractors, in the opinion of council and residents, failed to install sidewalks to the Borough Code, which had been provided to PennDOT in the contract. PennDOT has admitted an error in not passing on the Code to the contractor, and the contractor has admitted not following PennDOT's own soecifications for installing sidewalks, that expansion joints (the sidewalk lines that allow for expansion of the sidewalk with weather) were not installed according to Borough Code nor PennDOT specifications. The Borough has also pointed out that the sidewalks have a finish rougher than the Borough Code allows, and that one pr...

I'm honored to have been selected as the Pennsylvania Young Democrats Delegation Chair for the Young Democrats of America 2005 Convention in San Francisco, California. I am proud to be leading such a powerful and qualified delgation, consisting of vice-chair Will Anderson, a former PAYD VP, delegation whip Tony Campisi, the immediate past PAYD President, current PAYD Officers and Exec Board Members President Yarone Zober, National Committeeman Josh Pasek, National Committeewoman Christina Stacey, Recording Secretary Don Palesky, Mid-Atlantic YDA Caucus Chair Charles Duncan, YDA Women's Caucus Chair and Candidate for National Executive Vice President Stephanie Strazisar, and PAYD Northwest Regional Coordinator Christopher Seeley - who is poised to make history at 17 as the youngest Mayor in Pennsylvania's history. PAYD Delegates also include Ken Wolfe, Chrissy Rockwell, Andrew Lewis, Amanda Nowotny, Marvin Bing-Kinard, Robin Sciotto, Jeff Dzamko, Nyota Robinson, Alex McNeill...

Eric's model.. Coming to a campaign near you.. - Herb GOODWORKS-PAC.ORG ANNOUNCES A NEW MODEL FOR ALL DEMOCRATIC CAMPAIGNS GoodWorks-PAC.org : "GOODWORKS-PAC.ORG ANNOUNCES A NEW MODEL FOR ALL DEMOCRATIC CAMPAIGNS For Immediate Release Date: Tuesday, August 2, 2005 Contact: Eric Loeb, GoodWorks-PAC, 215-849-2737, info@goodworks-pac.org Shireen Barday, Tsabar campaign, 917-697-9402, shireen@gurforcitycouncil.com (Philadelphia, PA) GoodWorks-PAC.org, a Federal political action committee based in Pennsylvania, has endorsed the campaign of New York City Council candidate Gur Tsabar as a model for all Democratic campaigns. GoodWorks-PAC.org recruits and assists Democratic candidates who use public service in their campaigns. These campaigns highlight Democratic values, earn positive media, and strengthen the Democratic Party's ability to turn out voters. Gur Tsabar, a Democratic candidate for City Council in New York's 2nd District, has achieved stunning success by organiz...

Did I mention our State Rep voted for this pay raise? (After giving money back to the state for fiscal responsibiltity, and then using our judicial officials as excuses and blaming it on Philadelphia based economics - while not saying whether he'd forgo the money - see Colgan's blog below..) It could be noted that Rep. Nickol voted against the pay raise, refused it since, and has even proposed reducing the size of the state legislature - all things our bloated state budget could use, and I support. In the evening Sun, he said "I don't think I should be paid any less than my colleagues. I work just as hard as they do." and of course the candidate I support, who is opposing Rep. Maitland, Alan Henry has also been on about this.. Have I ever mentioned I'm taking a 25% pay cut by going to Mayor? It's even been noticed by some other local area bloggers: Daniel P. Colgan, McSherrystown (who has taken me to task as well about money and raising taxes - but I...

Susqehanna Poll : "Q6. Thinking about the new property tax reform law called Act 72 which was enacted by the State General Assembly and uses proceeds from slot machines to reduce property taxes for homeowners. Generally speaking, do you support or oppose using revenue raised from slot machines to reduce property taxes for homeowners? (Test Intensity) 1. Strongly support 107 36% Total Support: 54% 2. Somewhat support 55 18% Total Oppose: 36% 3. Strongly oppose 64 21% 4. Somewhat oppose 45 15% 5. Undecided 26 09% 6. Refuse 3 01%" MoE ~5.66%