Flag, pledge, anthem are the law

HARRISBURG, PA — Governor Schweiker signed House Bill 592 last week requiring all supervising officials and teachers in charge of public, private or parochial schools to display the U.S. flag in every classroom during the school day and to provide for the recitation of the Pledge of Allegiance or the singing of the National Anthem at the beginning of each school day.

Under the bill, students may decline to pledge and may refrain from saluting the flag on the basis of religious conviction or personal belief.

Fighting spam and child porn

HARRISBURG, PA — Pennsylvania is acting on Internet abuses in two newly adopted laws.

Under the Unsolicited Telecommunication Advertisement Act, a person may not initiate, conspire to initiate, or assist transmitting an unsolicited commercial electronic mail message or fax which includes false or misleading information in the return address portion of the electronic mail, fax or wireless advertisement so that the recipient would be unable to reply to the original sender of the message.

The legislation also prohibits a person from using a third party’s Internet domain name without permission to send an unsolicited commercial message.

A new Computer Offenses Chapter of the Pennsylvania Crime Code provides for the new offenses of computer theft, unlawful duplication, computer trespass and unlawful transmission of electronic mail.

It also requires Internet service providers to remove or disable access to child pornography sites on the Internet.

Here a meeting, there a meeting

RIVER VALLEY — If, like us, you were wondering what happened to some of the scheduled public meetings on December 11 and 12, here’s a brief storm postponement rundown:

• Town of Lumberland Town Board was rescheduled to December 12.
• Town of Cochecton Town Board was rescheduled to December 18.
• Eldred Central School Board was rescheduled to December 17.
• The already rescheduled Upper Delaware Council meeting was also rescheduled to December 17.

Meddaugh to be sworn-in

MONTICELLO, NY — Having won re-election in November, Family Court Judge Mark M. Meddaugh will be sworn in for a second term on Monday, December 30, 2002.

Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kane will be presiding at the 1:00 p.m. ceremony at the Lawrence H. Cooke Sullivan County Courthouse.

The public is invited to attend.

School report card is PA law

HARRISBURG, PA — Students, parents and taxpayers will now be able to see how their school district is performing compared to similar districts.

The legislation creates School Report Cards, which will now be a regular offering on the Department of Education website. The report card is a school profile for each school entity.

The Department of Education will determine what is in the report card and can conduct audits of the data submitted.

A ramp in the right direction

MILFORD, PA — The Lords Valley Rotary Club and Citizens Bank this week announced that they have joined forces with the United Way of Pike County to start a revolving community fund for the purpose of providing home ramps for handicapped people.

The program will be managed by Habitat for Humanity.

The fund has already raised $6,000, enough to begin the project, which is expected to be up and running in early 2003.

Survey: Woodloch one of the
best places to work

LACKAWAXEN, PA — Woodloch Pines has been rated the fifteenth best, large-sized company to work for in Pennsylvania in a state-sponsored survey of employees and employers.

The Best Places to Work in PA program is made up of two groups of companies: 50 medium-sized (50-250 employees) and 50 large-sized companies (251 employees or more). A scientific survey is sent to the employers and the employees, and the data is used to rank the participating companies. The employee evaluation carried 75 percent of the overall weight.

The winners were chosen by the Great Place to Work Institute using the same formula as the Fortune “100 Best Companies to Work for in America.”

Sullivan joins New Year’s party

MONTICELLO, NY — It’ll be a heck of party and everyone’s invited.

The I LOVE NEW YORK Winter Festival will be hosted by cities and communities throughout New York State celebrating First Night© 2003, which takes place on December 31, 2002.

Monticello and Liberty will be hosting activities including an afternoon Family and Children’s Festival, performances at venues along Broadway and Main Street and a Main Street procession and fireworks at midnight.

First Night© is an alcohol-free, community-wide New Year’s celebration using the arts, reviving the ancient traditions of marking the passage of time in a present-day context.

Participants purchase First Night© admission buttons, enabling them to take part in a wide variety of festivities at numerous locations.