Contrary to assertions by so-called Lehigh-Valley’s Ramblings blogger Bernie O’Hare, the “valley’s” mainstream media including print media The Express-Times and The Morning Call and electronic medium WFMZ-69 TV, these media persist in managing the “valley’s” news.

Today’s edition of The Express-Times in a “news” article implies, for example, that Easton’s planning commission gave final approval to Ashley Development’s 9-story condominium-retail complex at last night’s meeting.

This “news” article is contradicted by by this blog posted September 7, 2006, at 9:45 AM: “The project still requires zoning approval to build in a flood zone.”

Project manager Erik Marsh of Los Angeles, Califormia, Ashley’s development partner and finacier of the condo-complex project, said “Ashley hopes to receive final project approval before year’s end, and that construction would begin sometime next year.”

That final approval includes that of the Easton Zoning Hearing Board for a special exception permitting Ashley to build in the Lehigh River floodplain, the restriction that prevented Allentown-Whitehall developer/speculator Abraham Atiyeh from building a new federal General Services Administration building on the defunct Cinema Paradiso theater site.

Following that denial, Atiyeh leased the flood-prone building to Lafayette College alumnus John Halecky, who reopened it for a short while as the Marquiz Theater, after the namesake of his College Hill alma mater.

Like Lafayette College alumnus Jonathan Davis, owner with partner Greg Schuyler of Schy-Rhys Development, Halecky received special consideration from Easton’s planning commission and the Easton Zoning Hearing Board, Halecky received privileged consideration not granted to the average Easton citizen.

As a matter of fact, Daniel G. Taggert, the dispute resolution specialist of Taggart Associates, exposed in yesterday’s http://www.billybyte.com/blog/, assisted Easton Mayor Philip Mitman, Northampton County Court of Common Pleas Judge Emil Giordano, Atiyeh, Atiyeh’s paid political consultant former Easton treasurer, controller, mayoral candidate, and current Easton Area School District director, Pat Vulcano Jr., and plainiffs of Atiyeh’s proposed project including that of Billy Givens’s from ever reaching court for a judicial review and decision.

Northampton County Sheriff Jeff Hawbecker failed to serve Atiyeh with court papers of Givens’s appeal.

Givens had experienced similar problems with the Easton’s planning commission and the Easton Zoning Hearing Board when Easton attorney Daniel Cohen, then general counsel for Lafayette College, pre-arranged with College Hill Neighborhood Association officer Debra Riley to announce at a public planning commission meeting that Givens did not represent the official views of the CHNA, though he had been elected as the CHNA’s chairman of the Lafayette College Committee to resolve disputes between the college and the College Hill neighborhood.

Cohen as solicitor to the Easton Redevelopment Authority also helped Schy-Rhys Development acquire the buildings at 437-439 Northampton Street through his influence with the officials of Easton, Northampton County, and the EASD, all of which the buildings’ owners owed back taxes.

The Ashley project also requires the approval of the Easton Historical District Commission followed by that of Easton City Council itself.

In September 2004, the flooding Delaware and Lehigh rivers destroyed the state of Pennsylvania’s welfare office on Larry Holmes Drive, forcing the evacuation of employees and clients to another more distant location from the convenience of downtown Easton, closed the drive-through tobacconist store at the Exxon service station at the intersection of S. 3rd and Washington streets, closed the pizza next door to the service station, and closed McDonald’s at the intersection of Washington Street and Route 611 at the Smith bridge.

The City of Easton always brings up these controversial issues at Thanksgiving and Christmas when the citizenry is preoccupied with the holidays.

Thus despite the misgivings of some planning commission members at last night’s meeting, the commission voted 6-0 to approve the Ashley project despite the fact that the public has not been given the opportunity to prevent its views before Easton’s Historic District Commission, the Easton Zoning Hearing Board, and, if necessary, an appeal into the Northampton County Court of Common Pleas.

One planning commission member who voiced concerns about the Ashley project was Joel Scheer, Easton’s assistant solicitor, who himself received prileged treatment from the Lehigh Planning Commission and Easton Zoning Officer Robert O’Neil to subdivide a lot at 179 Pennsylvania Avenue and to build a residence on what should have been prohibited by city ordinance because the building site is located on a steep slope leading to soil erosion and lacking sufficient off-street parking.

Daniel Taggart of Taggart Association could have learned his mediation skills from famed New York labor mediator Theodore Kheel whose illegal campaign contribution to International Brotherhood of Teamsters’ President Ron Carey, one of six campaign violations that led the U.S. Department of Labor to order a new election between Carey and his opponent James Hoffa Jr., a re-election that Hoffa won.

The elected officials of Easton and Northampton County, of which Easton is the seat, have introduced elements of organized crime into the “valley,” including Ashley Development’s partner Majestic Realty of Los Angeles, California.

Majestic also owns the Silverton Casino of Las Vegas, Nevada, and received $13.1 million from Northampton County’s illegal 2001 $111 million megabond issue for the construction of Commerce Center Boulevard, beginning at State Route 412 in South Bethlehem, running about a mile across the former Bethlehem Steel Corporation site, and ending in the cul-de-sac owned by Majestic Reality.

This deal with Majestic was negotiated by Bethlehem City Council President J. Michael Schweder and Pennsylvania’s 133rd legislative district representative and state Democratic Party Committe Chairman T.J. Rooney, both of whom made frequent trips to Los Angeles for the negotiations.

The Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board Chairman Tad Decker, appointed by Governor Ed Rendell, is the former managing partner of the Philadelphia office of Cozy O’Connor, the law firm ostensibly representing the Delaware and Lenni Lenape Indian tribes alleging in the federal courts that they were cheated out of 315 acres of their land in Forks Township in the infamous Walking Purchase scandal of 1737 - land on which sits the headquarters of the Binney & Smith crayola Crayon manufacturer, the Fuller Company, and homes built by Nic Zawarski and Sons.

As evidence of the conflict-of-interest between Cozy O’Connor and BethWorks Now law firm Fischbein, Badillo, Wanger, and Harding of New York City, O’Connor is hiring lawyers from the firm of Richard Fischbein, a major campaign contributor to the Democratic National Committee and frequent guest in the White House Oval Office and Lincoln bedroom when Bill Clinton was President.

Nothampton County officials of the administration and council and the offices of the controller and the district attorney continue to cover up the illegality of the 2001 $111 million bond and the General Purpose Authority that issued it.