With relish, Billy Bytes takes chunks out of those who hold themselves up as
models of probity but are venal, be they officials such as mayors and school
board members, political parties, or the mainstream media. Billy is
mesmerized by the political process and serves it up in all its radiant,
rubbishy, riotous detail as played out on the stage of Easton, a river town
half way between Philadelphia and New York. Billy began as a newsletter
distributed in downtown Easton, peddled to local merchants, shoppers, and
passers-by. Occasionally, he used a megaphone to get his message out.
With the launching of billybytes.com, the newsletter, once a toy boat in the
bathtub, unfurls heroic sails to the powerful world-wide winds of the
Internet. Those mainsails will catch readers' comments and the reflections
of guest writers from the four corners of the globe.
Kill CAFTA! 5/25/2004
- Billy Givens
Do it to me once, shame on you. Do it to me twice, shame on me. We didn't
kill NAFTA. Let's kill CAFTA...
Being There: Washington, D.C.,
10/26/2002 - Billy Givens
War-weary - reflecting on 40 years of war - from Vietnam to Iraq II...
Report from Ann Arbor - Eileen
Parker - 10-27-2002
Many cities in the U.S. and around the world demonstrated for peace on Saturday.
Here are some notes and a photo from Ann Arbor, Michigan...
An Interview with Joe DeRaymond
- 3-18-2002
Joe DeRaymond talks with BillyBytes about the Middle East conflict and his
recent trips to El Salvador and Nicaragua...
Private Power - Environmental Devastation and
Institutional Corruption in Papua New Guinea - Simon Divecha
Papua New Guinea is as far from the Eastern United States as one can travel
on this earth. It is a great island with tropical forests, vast resources, and
a richness of humanity unmatched anywhere. There are literally hundreds of languages
and cultures in the Highlands of PNG. Australia and Indonesia (half of the island
is part of Indonesia) are the dominant local Great Powers. Yet, the power of
the multinational corporation to exploit and escape with the plunder is the
same around the world. Here is another tale of corruption and destruction being
made legal...
Palestine, Israel, the United States - Where is the Solution to the Conflict
in the Occupied Territories? - Joe DeRaymond
The Israeli occupation of the West Bank and Gaza has lasted 35 years. It
has led to a series of uprisings and many deaths of Palestinians and Israelis.
Does the United States, finally, hold the keys to peace? What should be the
dynamics of a peace plan...?
Notes from Ground Zero Nicaragua - Paul
Baker
September 11 resonates in many ways around the world. It is the date Pinochet
overthrew the elected government of Salvador Allende in Chile, a coup which
took the life of famed Chilean poet and singer Victor Jara. Paul Baker is a
singer and writer who sings the songs of Victor Jara. He is also a staffperson
for the Nicaragua Network and follows closely the environmental devastation
ongoing in his adopted country Nicaragua. He writes with energy and wit on conditions
in Nicaragua, and has some trenchant observations on North/South relations in
our "post-911 world"...
Will Council step up to the plate at this time of fiscal crisis, a crisis confronting every level of government? ...
Abuses in the Sheriff's Department, Current Report: Northampton County, Pt.2 - Bernie O'Hare - 2/10/2003
A system in need of reform: Spending abuses in the Sheriff's Department ...
A System Cries Out for Reform, Current Report: Northampton County, Pt.1- Bernie O'Hare - 2/07/2003
This is the first of a multi-part series of articles that surveys the current state of Northampton County.
An entity called the LVP - the Lehigh Valley Partnership - binds government and the press in a shadowy realm where campaign fund raising, other governmental fiscal abuse, and a policy of corporate welfare are overlooked by the news media. Our Common Bond seeks to put campaigns, elections and government on a new, open footing. Calling all citizens to actively make our government accountable. It begins now...
Toomey, the Flea on Bush's Wagging Tail - Nancy Marshall - 10/29/2002
Talkin' Ed Rendell - Matthew Gordon and theBlue Moon Band
Listen to Blue Moon's campaign song for Ed Rendell in the style of Dylan/Guthrie. Spread the link. Seven days left to get out the vote for Ed Rendell, Lisa Boscola, Ed O'Brien and Jim Maza...
If You Want Peace, Work For...
Sustainable Agriculture? - Martin Boksenbaum
In the Fall of 2001, the Lehigh Pocono Committee of Concern (LEPOCO) sponsored
a multi-week forum on "Guns, Greed and Globalization". Here are one participant's
thoughts on how our agriculture and food can affect our politics and our lives
in the global economy. It is an excellent reference on sources for sustainable
agriculture projects. Martin also discusses groups which focus on food, nutrition
and health in the Lehigh Valley and the region...
Puerto Rico, Vieques and the United
States: a History of Occupation and Struggle - Joe DeRaymond
On Thursday, December 6, Luis Sanabria of the Philadelphia-based Centro Juan
Antonio Corretjer, recounted a living history of Puerto Rican struggle, and
how it relates to the current struggles to liberate the island of Vieques, site
of decades of United States bombing...
Closing the School of Assassins
- Joe DeRaymond
Protesting terrorist training at the Western Hemisphere Institute of Security
Cooperation, formerly the School of the Americas and known throughout the hemisphere
as the "School of the Assassins"...
Alaskan Bikes to Save Wildlife Refuge - Joe DeRaymond
On September 22 - 23, Russell DeForest, of Fairbanks, Alaska, traveled
through the Lehigh Valley. He is on a bike trek from Maine to Washington, DC to bring to
our attention the threat to the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. He pointed out during
his stay that legislation to allow drilling in the Refuge is being attached to Defense
Appropriation bills at this time. This is not an appropriate way to deal with an issue
that needs independent debate, not passage as a rider to emergency legislation. Russell
urges us to contact our federal representatives, particularly our Senators, to insist on an independent hearing on this important national issue. Below is an excerpt from Russell’s
statement...
Mining the Harbor
- Billy Givens - 9/27/2005
Northampton County's lame-duck Executive Glenn Reibman continues to mine the harbor as he limps from office toward the graveyard of political hacks.
Flood Plain
- Billy Givens - 4/28/2005
Only months after the September 2004 flooding from Hurricane Ivan and only days after the flooding from the drenching rains of April 3, the county continues plans to construct a parking deck in a flood plain ....
Fast Eddie
- Billy Givens - 4/17/2005
Fast Eddie, his poll numbers falling across
Action Alert!
- Billy Givens - 12/13/2004
Swaption still no option...Call the Northampton County Executive and urge him to veto the 2005 Budget "Swaption" line item for Open Space...
Hard-on -
Billy Givens - 11/14/2004
Each Saturday morning from 10 to 11, protesters against
President George W. Bush's pre-emptive invasion of
Where Are Easton's
Democrats? - Kathy Parker - 9/21/2004
A friend removes his bumper sticker because he's been getting funny looks.
An anonymous neighbor throws your lawn sign up on top of the hedge. How do you
react? Assume it's the historical imperative carrying George Bush to a second
term as President of the U.S.? Some visible Democratic leadership in our town
could have powerful consequences...
EASTON SIGHTINGS
- Nancy Marshall - 9/12/2004
Happily, Northampton County's over-burdened taxpayers won't have the added
expense of a paternity suit, to identify the bastard Swaption's father. With
breast-thumping pride, County Executive Glenn Reibman proclaims this monster
to be his baby. Indeed, Glenn blames county council members, including some
of his own political party, for delaying its timely birth - thus bringing it
into the world of municipal finance weighing only slightly more than half Reibman's
hoped-for $3.5 million figure. The county's taxpayers are more inclined to pin
the delay on the unethical and perhaps even criminal birthing procedures utilized
by the midwives of Blank, Rome, Comisky, and McCauley LLP of Washington, D.C.,
and Philadelphia and Allentown, PA; and Jeff Skinner Consulting and Concordia
Financial Services, of Allentown and Reading, respectively...
Down with Tyrants-
Rob Leiser - 9/7/2004
Check out Rob Leiser's middle finger to tyranny on the huge wall next to
his rental business at 2212 Sullivan Trail in Forks Township...
Swaption not
an Option - Billy Givens - 6/4/2004
County Council Cassandras, forecasting the doom and gloom of continuously
rising interest rates, program for future failure...
EASTON SIGHTINGS
- Nancy Marshall - 5/20/2004
Northampton County Executive Glenn Reibman . . .
EASTON SIGHTINGS
- Nancy Marshall - 5/6/2004
Reibman's fiefdom spreads beyond the boundaries of Northampton County.
It extends to Lehigh County through the LVEDC (Lehigh Valley Economic Development
Corporation); to the State House in Harrisburg through former County Administrator
Jim Hickey, former Bethlehem Mayor Don Cunningham, and former Easton Mayor Tom
Goldsmith out of which all three now work; and to Capitol Hill and the White
House through Reibman's bond counsel Blank, Rome, Comisky, and McCauley, LLP,
whose CEO and Managing Partner is David F. Girard-diCarlo, a George W. Bush
Ranger, committed to raising $200 thousand personally for the President's 2004
reelection bid and, along with fellow Rangers across the country, a whopping
$200 million - double the amount Bush's Rangers and Pioneers raised for the
2000 election.
Change of Address
- Billy Givens - 4/22/2004
Dutchtown-Gallows Hill, a fixture of Easton's Downtown Historic District
and home to two of the country's oldest Jewish synagogues, is losing its protected
status because of the greed of politicians and developers...
Springtime
Follies - Billy Givens - 4/13/2004
Like speculators during the tulip mania that gripped seventeenth-century
Holland, Northampton County and its bond counsel, Blank Rome, would open taxpayer
wallets in their frenzied quest for quick easy money. A significant portion
of this money will find its way into Bush's campaign war chest...
Abort the
GPA - Billy Givens - 3/11/2004
More multimillion dollar bonds gestate in the GPA's womb waiting to be hatched...
EASTON SIGHTINGS
- Nancy Marshall - 3/9/2004
Allentown's own Snidely Switchback - Abraham Atiyeh - working his mischief
in the city of Easton.
Officials Pay
Lip Service to Easton's Heritage -
Billy Givens - 3/1/2004
Easton won't let her timeless but still ravishing beauty be further scarred by invading hordes of real estate speculators like Allentown's Abraham Atiyeh, or be sacrificed by her high-priest officials on the altar of "economic development," which for the grand dame sitting proudly at the Forks of the Delaware has proved thus far to be a false prophet.
Call
to Action - 2004 County Budget - 12/9/2003
If the 2004 Northampton County budget is approved, your taxes will rise by
37.5%, despite cuts in many essential services. Read why, and what you can do
about it.
Invitation
to MoveOn.org Screening - 12/7/2003
This Sunday, December 7th at 6 p.m., over 2,000 MoveOn members are hosting
house parties to screen the new documentary "Uncovered: The Whole Truth
about the Iraq War". You’re invited to attend the Easton party.
Open Letter
to Easton Voters - David A. Clark - 10/8/2003
Thanks to KOZ and LERTA exemptions at least 45 percent of the properties
in the City of Easton are now tax-exempt. The next mayor will have to deal with
Easton's eroding tax base.
Media Control -
David Clark & Billy Givens - 9/15/2003
An account by a local merchant illustrates the threat of media monopoly.
Fraud
- Billy Givens - 8/5/2003
As County and City officials wilfully ignore the mandates of the Northampton
County Home Rule Charter, the National Historic Preservation Act, local, State,
and Federal Flood Plain ordinances, and the Municipality Authorities Act, when
will Northampton County District Attorney John Morganelli or Pennsylvania Attorney
General J. Michael Fisher step up to the plate to protect the public's interest?
13 Years Tax-Free
(Except for You and Me) - Billy Givens - 5/28/2003
Another large property is about to fall off the tax rolls as Allentown developer
Abraham Atiyeh picks up a KOEZ designation for his most recent purchase, the
Cinema Paradiso building and parking area. To add insult to injury, he plans
to erect a one-story, yellow brick eyesore that he will lease to the Social
Security Administration. Our Mayor, City and County Councils, and School Board
have approved tax-free KOEZ status for the property...
Council To
Choose Interim Mayor - Billy Givens - 4/29/2003
Council to appoint an interim mayor to succeed Thomas Goldsmith. Reject McFadden,
Goldsmith's hand-picked successor, who would continue Goldsmith's disastrous
policies...
PRISON REVIEW: NEIGHBORS SPEAK
- Kathy Parker - 3/5/2003
Can the public stop a project on the fast track?...
EASTON SIGHTINGS - Nancy Marshall
- 12/3/2002
Residents and City officials are working together to save a neighborhood
still threatened by the County's proposed prison expansion.
EASTON SIGHTINGS - Nancy Marshall
- 9/18/2002
Easton residents wound County wolf. Lacks wind to blow down S. Sixth Street houses.
EASTON SIGHTINGS - Nancy Marshall - 8/20/2002
He Told Them So - Nancy Marshall
Take Back Our Neighborhoods -
Billy Givens
Our neighborhoods are integral to who we are. Should we continue to let our
elected officials use them for their own political ends?...
Northampton's Slough of Despond - Billy Givens
Trolling for Bottom Feeders -
Billy Givens & Nancy Marshall
BillyBytes joins shad fishers trolling chilly local waters...
The Still - Billy Givens
BillyBytes cracks down on County bootleggers...
Fusion Confusion - Billy Givens
Plenty of fusion on the menu in Easton...
Solomon's Ghost Haunts Reibman's
Shadow Governments - Billy Givens
LVEDC...DCED...EEDC...Targeting these shadow governments could be a winning
issue for Nick Sabatine in his bid for Lisa Boscola's State Senate seat....
Michael Solomon's Legacy: 30 Years
of Mega-Bondage - Billy Givens
Two and a half years of jail time for Solomon; 30 years of mega-bondage for
County taxpayers...
Bethlehem City Council Waffles on
Lowe's - Joe DeRaymond
After 13 months of controversy, Bethlehem City Council failed to act last
night (January 15) on the proposed rezoning of the Durkee Foods plant site on
Eighth Avenue in Bethlehem. The Lowe's chain of "home centers" wants to be part
of a mall development on this West Bethlehem tract. The citizens' group opposing
the rezoning is facing some tough decisions...
First Meeting of New County Council
= Lawsuit Against GPA - Joe DeRaymond
The January 10 Northampton County Council meeting yielded some determination
by Council to assert themselves, also, a glimpse of what is to come...
Northampton County Rats Feast on
Taxpayer Cheese - Billy Givens
Billy slams some of the big corporate beneficiaries of the Northampton County
$111 million megabond and wants to know why District Attorney John Morganelli
will prosecute residents but lets the politicians run wild.
Billy Bites the Bond - Bernie O'Hare
Bond Blues - They Took the Money and Ran,
Like Thieves in the Night - Joe DeRaymond Clones Take Over Northampton County
Government - Billy Givens Will the Real Executive Please Stand Up? -
Bernie O'Hare III Northampton County Campaign 2001 -
Notes From the Inside - Joe DeRaymond Why Have a DCED? - Billy Givens
He Hit It Correctly - George Myers
Opponents' Tactic: Isolate Angle
"Gag Rule" Government - John J. Finnigan, Jr.
Corruption Can Be Legal - Joe DeRaymond
Easy-Pickin' Fish Fry - Bill Givens
Mayor Goldsmith: Sound Financier or Shaky
Finagler? Shipwrecked and Airborne MOBILIZE...OR LOSE THIS VALLEY - Joe DeRaymond
Flip Flops - Bill Givens Hot off the press from the Excess Times: County exec and incumbents contribute $50k
to their own campaigns Easton Bond Issues: The City's Record of
Non-Performance - Bill Givens Council to Consider Third Bond
Issue - Bernie O'Hare
Bernie O'Hare's petition for injunctive relief to stop the Reibman $111,000,000
bond issue was thwarted because the Reibman Administrations simply took the
money before the Judge could hear the case. As Bernie stated, it was a slap
in the face to the Courts. It was also a dip into the taxpayer wallets, as the
administration and the General Purpose Authority used over $500,000 in taxpayers'
money to insure the bond against pending lawsuits. Like thieves in the night,
Reibman's administration avoided the law and simply took the money and ran...let
us examine, once again, what they are buying with the Northampton County taxpayers'
money...
Billy Givens follows the trail of taxpayer money flowing out of the shadow
governments of Northampton County, from the GPA to the IDA to the LVEDC, dominated
by self-appointed members who favor well-heeled projects like the Hotel Easton
Parking Garage and the BallYard. Why are our garbage tipping fees one-twelfth
of a neighboring County and why was Michael Solomon's bench warrant quashed?...mysteries
in the County of Clones...
Lead bond opponent Bernie O'Hare examines the Northampton County Executive
office and shares some ideas about the shadow governments that dominate the
Reibman administration...
Joe DeRaymond, Green Party candidate for County Council and co-plaintiff
in the lawsuits which have stopped the Reibman administration's $110,000,000
and $111,000,000 bond issues, weighs in on the campaign, and the current issues
facing the County Executive and County Council...
Billy raises some problems with the recent Court opinions on the bond issues...
Concerning Joe De Raymond's Comments on U.S. Rte 22 ...
George Gemmel's Republican primary-election loss to Ron Angle alarmed Glenn
Reibman and the three Democratic council members running for re-election (two
seats are open). Angle's support was stronger than his opponents', both Republican
and Democrat, had anticipated. To offset Angle's strength, the Democrats began
making deals with Republicans, in an effort to siphon off as many votes as possible
from Angle ...
As we follow the actions of our Northampton County government over the last
year, there has been a striking thread running through their administrative
and legislative action ...
The Green Party candidate for Northampton County Council joins other critics
in claiming that current Council members plan to spend $5.35 million in taxpayer
bond money on a parking deck and a ballfield that will benefit two groups of
well-heeled developers who are involved beyond comfortable profit margins on
these projects ...
Through the years, fat-cat developer-speculators have picked the Hotel Easton
to its bones, as if they, not it, were the piranha fish, leaving only its bleached-out
skeleton on their plate...
- Bill Givens
Jim Flagg is editorial page editor of The Excess-Times (bows and scrapes
to excess before officialdom at all times). Jim often appends letters from the
public with his own editorialized comments - especially when he sees the opportunity
to flatter Easton's mayor or spare him embarrassment. A case in point is last
Saturday's letter (9-1-01) from Jack Price, former head of the Easton Parking
Authority...
What standards do local newspapers apply when informing the public on fiscal matters
such as bond issues? Our editorialist finds inconsistent, unreliable, and irresponsible
commentary in one Easton newspaper...
This summer, the Lehigh Valley Planning Commission unveiled its plan to widen
Route 22 to six-to-eight lanes between Route 100 and Route 33. They spent a
million dollars to determine that there is no other feasible method to move
people around this Valley than to build a bigger road. They discarded all mass
transit models as being too unwieldy and ineffective for reducing congestion
on the one road that seems to matter - Route 22...
Question: Why the Northampton County Industrial Development
Authority's (NCIDA's) rush to judgment with a third multimillion-dollar bond
issue?
Answer: To pull the Williams Township BallYard's chestnut from the fire.
In so doing, the NCIDA would also pull from the fire its vice chairman Bruce
Davis; his benefactor New Jersey developer Jim Petrucci; and all the so-called
"Friends of the BallYard"...
GRUBE TO HANDLE COUNTY DEFENSE OF BOND CHALLENGE!!
Easton - In a surprise announcement late Sunday night, County Council President
Wayne Grube declared that he will personally handle the defense of the Northampton
County bond challenge. "Defense is what I'm all about" said Grube, who persuaded
County Executive Reibman to fire all county lawyers assigned to the case...
- Bernie O'Hare
Today was a happy day for County Executive Reibman and Councilpersons Brennan,
Grube, and Leiberman, all of whom are running for reelection. Although Northampton
County was formed on March 6, 1752, the current administration has decided to
start the 250th celebration now. Today, in the bowels of the government center,
there was free cake, coffee, and pearls of wisdom by Messrs, Reibman, Grube,
and others. They must have been especially happy to see TV cameras filming this
historic occasion...
Who is willing to state for the record that the solution to downtown parking
problems, real or imagined, warrants the construction of a parking deck in the
flood plain of the Delaware River? Also, who will state for the record that
the water runoff from such a facility won't further overburden downtown Easton's
antiquated storm-water sewer system?...
According to today's Morning Call, Council expects to consider a third bond
issue on 9/6 on projects that will include, among other things, $2.35 million
for an expandable parking deck for customers of Hotel Easton and to alleviate
an alleged growing downtown parking problem...