"Police officers called to testify about the situation to the state labor arbitrator reported seeing civilian employees "watching movies, sleeping, doing puzzles, reading magazines books and newspapers" on the job." - WNEP-TV

A state appointed arbitrator has nixed the city of Wilkes-Barre using non-union employees to monitor the city's elaborate network of surveillance cameras. The Police Benevolent Association said that using non-police to operate the system was in violation of their contract.

According to WNEP-TV, the city released a statement saying: "This ruling has no impact on the camers system's effectivenemss because highly trained personnel continue to monitor the system. The city has the option to appeal the decision until April 14th."⁽¹⁾

^{(1) That's copied from WNEP-TV's website verbatim. We're assuming someone, somewhere doesn't have spell check. It'd be funnier if it was someone in City Hall, but we really couldn't tell who was responsible.}

Times-Leader story

WNEP-TV Story

"Someone to Watch Over Me."

"WEST PITTSTON – A couple hallucinating from bath salts were using knives to stab “the 90 people living in the walls”...

"SCRANTON – City police said a man high on legal bath salts broke into St. Ann’s Monastery and attacked a priest"

According to this recent news report; this online video; this breaking story; this tragic tale; this shocking footage; this editorial and this cautionary tale, every single person living in Pennsylvania is either snorting bath salts; being attacked by a person who just snorted some bath salts or is actively selling bath salts.

Go ahead and laugh at us, all you folks in the rest of the world, at least here in Pennsylvania, we don't live in HOUSES THAT LOOK LIKE HITLER!

FURRY ALERT! L.C. Bee is the official mascot of the
Pennsylvania Liquor Control Board. No, really.

"Groups like Pennsylvanians Against Underage Drinking oppose any loosening of restrictions on alcohol on principle, and it’s not like there’s a Pennsylvanians For Underage Drinking to counter-lobby." - Will Dean, AVClub

Philadelphia has many things to offer besides the Rocky statue and that strange merger of punk and hippie vibes that created the Philly hipster scene we all know and love.The recently launched Philly version of the AVClub is a convenient guide to crappy DJs and the latest advancements in Jell-O shot technology.

Like our urban comrades in the big city, we also direct a certain amount of fear and loathing towards the state-run liquor stores that are a curiously accepted part of life in the Commonwealth. No one is sure why the archaic PLCB (Pennsylvania Liquor Control Board) still exists so the AVClub clarifies things with this handy guide to the upside of state-control over the source and solution to most of life's problems.

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Meanwhile, Wendell W. Young IV --head honcho of the union that represents 2,500 employees of the state liquor stores-- tells the Times-Leader that the state is better off maintaining the current system.

"...between 2,000 and 6,000 items are available at the more than 600 state stores, and people can special-order any of 30,000 products through the PLCB system, Young said." - Times-Leader

Special order? Are you freakin' kidding me? How about a special order for a liquor store that doesn't close at 7PM on a Monday?

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WILKES-BARRE PENNSYLVANIA – CityVest  has announced construction of a new casino, the Hotel Sterling Casino Hotel and Conference Center. The project, located on West Market street adjacent to the Susquehanna river, will enhance the Valley’s resort, tourism and hospitality offering, while solidifying Wilkes-Barre’s standing as a premier entertainment destination.

CityVest Executive Director Alex Roger said: Did you ever try and sell a 113 year old hotel on Craigslist? You hear from all kinds of weirdos. One guy said he would buy the Sterling if I agreed to watch him masturbate on his model train set.”

Rogers acknowledged that he understood the initial skepticism that greeted CityVest's acquisition of the Hotel Sterling and said: “Why don't you people just get off my back already? Just because we spent 8 million dollars of public money and had nothing to show for it, doesn't make me a bad guy. Did you ever try and sell a 113 year old hotel on Craigslist? You hear from all kinds of weirdos. One guy said he would buy the Sterling if I agreed to watch him masturbate on his model train set.”