Pennsylvania Act 71 of July 1, 2004, “legalizing” slot machine and horse racing-track (casino/racino) gambling occurred only four months following the admission by leaders of the National Museum of Industrial History including its Executive Director Stephen Donches that the project lacked sufficient funding to proceed.

The same kind of scam is being employed in Bethlehem’s sister city, Easton, located nine miles to the east on State Route 22 and on the Delaware River bordering New Jersey, to construct an interstate transportation bus terminal and/or depot-parking garage-shopping center-condominium mutation in the flood plain of the Delaware River and a major Delaware River tributary, Bushkill Creek.

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“As director of the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs [OIRA] at the White House of Budget and Management [OMB], Susan E. Dudley will have an opportunity to change or block all regulations proposed by government agencies,” as reported by Los Angeles Times Staff Writer Joel Havemann at Latimes.com.

Much of the plot to overthrow our government through a bloodless coup centers on the so-called “Lehigh Valley,” a geographical area in eastern Pennsylvania, whose borders, like shifting sand (quicksand, that is) undulated with the latest U.S. Bureau of Census figures used to establish Metropolitan Statistical Areas.

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As reported in today’s New York Times, the U.S. Supreme Court in a 5-4 ruling decided against defendants George W. Bush Administration and the Environmental Protection Agency’s that they lack authority to enforce Congress’s Clean Air Act (Justices Rule Against Bush Administration on Emissions).

The article quotes Democratic Senator John Kerry of Massachusetts, as saying “It ia an[sic] historic moment when the Supreme Court has to step in to protect the environment from the Bush administration.”

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The Subject so-called “Industrial Center,” dubbed “Piggie #3 by fellow blogger Bernie O’Hare is the forerunner to his “Lehigh Valley Ramblings” blog, “Our Common Bond,” is also described in FR (Federal Register) Doc E6-1259, dated July 28, 2006.

Quoting O’Hare’s Our Common Bond, “The E. Allen Tp official who proposed this project [Piggie #3] last week now opposes it because the water extensions will benefit only the industrial developer and not nearby residents. He [the E. Allen Tp official] was not recognized or permitted to speak during the first supposed ‘public’ hearing, a violation of both the Sunshine Law and [Northampton County’s] Home Rule Charter. Council has no intention of listening to the public anyway. Why? The developers have political clout. State Rep. Craig Dally has telephoned all republican Council members for support because the developer is a big political contributor. Turns out the developer has also given money to Nick Sabatine [Council member Nicholas R. Sabatine III, Esq.], who seems to think this is the best project of all [compared to Piggie #1, Palmer Towne Center and Piggie #2, Bangor Junction Industrial Park]. Nick Sabatine stated publicly that he would abstain from voting on this project (MC [Moring Call], 2/20), but his committee voted to endorse this project to the rest of council, and he has actively promoted it to other Council members. Perhaps he forgot. (During his election campaign, he said he opposed all government grants to developers. Perhaps he forgot that, too.”

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Billy Bytes Blog post titled “The Selling of Easton, Pennsylvnia’s. Environment,” dated August 17, 2006, describes the ladder at the convergence of the Delaware and Lehigh rivers.

This is not the fish ladder that enables the fish to negotiate the dam off Scott Park. Rather, it’s the ladder proposed by this public-private partnership: the City of Easton and its Parking Authority; Northampton County and LANTA (Lehigh and Northampton Transit Authority); the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania; the Delaware River Joint Toll Bridge Commission (DRJTBC); Lafayette College and Arcadia Properties.

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“Atlantic City Aiming Higher as Casinos Slip,” published in today’s edition of The New York Times, is turning increasingly to money and sex to survive:

“Money is one way Atlantic City is fighting back [against the growing casino gambling competition], sex another.”

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I e-mailed dozens of my subscribers on Thursday, March 15, 2007, at 8:37 a.m., alerting them to last night’s Northampton County Council meeting.
This meeting was covered by the county’s two mainstream newspaers, The Morning Call and The Express-Times.

It was also reported on by the so-called “Lehigh Valley Ramblings” of Nazareth, Pennsylvania, blogger Bernie O’Hare.

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The Small Business Liability Relief and Brownfield Revitalization Act (H.R. 2969), signed on January 11, 2002, by President George W. Bush in Conshohocken, Pennsyvania, is a fraud - particularly as applied to the former Bethlehem Steel Corporation CERCLA (Superfund Site) in Bethlehem Pennsylvania.

Whatever relief small businesses have experienced on the 1600- to 1800-acre site is not the result of the Act, but the promise of an $879 million redevelopment effort anchored by Sands BethWorks LLP of Las Vegas, Nevada, and the support of that state’s senior U.S. Senator, Harry Reid, now the Senate’s Majority Leader.

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Easton’s Philistines, including those on College Hill, are back at it:

They’re cutting down the city’s public trees, those located between sidewalk and street, without approval, and therefore in violation, of Easton’s tree ordinance.

Or has Easton’s officials capitulated to campaign contributors and the utility companies (one and the same?)  and rescinded the tree ordinance?

At yesterday’s lovefest between Easton Mayor Phil Mitman and Gov. Ed Rendell - as represented by DEP Secretary Kathleen McGinty, a huge banner had been placed across an exterior brick wall of the former Simon silk mill, accessed from 13th Street and Bushkill Drive.

The banner bore the seals of the City of Easton in the lower left -hand corner and that of Pennsylvania’s in the lower right-hand corner.

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