One year in, Philadelphia soda tax still controversial

Associated Press photo

Laura McCrystal reports for Philly.com:


Soda prices have gone up in Philadelphia. And so has the number of children attending pre-K.


While those are among the things that have changed in the first year of Philadelphia’s tax on soda and other sweetened beverages, there has been one constant: The tax remains controversial, and advocates on both sides are working hard and spending money to support or fight it.


The 1.5 cents-an-ounce tax went into effect Jan. 1, 2017, and raised $72.3 million in its first 11 months. But is the tax successful? And is it here to stay? The answers to those questions depend on whom you ask.


City officials have defended the tax as a means of funding pre-K, community schools, and improvements to parks, libraries, and recreation centers. But the beverage industry has poured resources into opposing the tax through advertisements and legal challenges, and business owners say the tax has hurt them and led to layoffs.


Both sides are still waiting to hear whether the Pennsylvania Supreme Court will consider the legality of the tax. And because Philadelphia is the first major U.S. city to pass the tax, others are watching. Cook County, Illinois, which includes Chicago, passed and then repealed its own version of the tax last year. Seattle passed a tax that takes effect New Year’s Day. Other cities, including Oakland, Calif., and Boulder, Colo., have also imposed taxes on soda.


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What movie, movies will you be seeing in early 2018?

There appears to be a decent crop of new and recent films
to see, assuming you can summon up the courage to brave
the temperatures in the northeast.


Films that appeal to us, in no particular order, are:

Darkest Hour
Blade Runner 2049
Lady Bird
Star Wars – The Last Jedi
An Inconvenient Sequel
Wind River
Murder on the Orient Express
Wonder
The Star
Roman J. Israel, Esq.
The Foreigner
1945
American Assassin
The Shape of Water

The Post (coming
soon)


And you? What have we missed that you have seen or might see?
Ones you’d recommend? Stinkers we should avoid?


Let us know in the comment section or on our Facebook page.

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Still warming up your car on cold days? Don’t bother

Alexander Negron brushes snow from his car in Susquehanna Twp. Pa.  (Dan Gleiter photo)





Steve Marroni reports for PennLive:

It’s a frigid, bone-chilling January morning. The coffee is brewed, you’re bundled up and ready to go. But first, that awful winter task — trekking outside to warm up your car.
That is an all-too-common part of the morning routine for many, and the good news is that, unless you’re driving a car that’s old enough to be an antique, it’s totally unnecessary.
Letting your car idle for more than five minutes, in fact, can be harmful to your engine. 
If you start your winter day that way, don’t feel bad. You’re not the only one out there holding on to this commonly-held myth.
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First Day Hike draws hardiest for 7 miles in severe cold

Chuck and Linda Luther of Bucks County,Pa must really like hiking

Michelle Brunetti Post reports for the Atlantic City Press:


BASS RIVER STATE FOREST — Chuck and Linda Luther of Bucks County, Pennsylvania, drove to the Pinelands on Monday morning in bitter cold to hike for several hours through its famous pygmy pine forest.


“It’s exciting to be out in the cold,” said Chuck Luther. “It’s our goal this year to do more hiking.”


And in the evening on New Year’s Day they planned to take a moonlight hike back home in Pennsylvania.


They were part of a group of 14 of the area’s hardiest folks, who set out on an organized seven-mile hike early New Year’s Day morning, despite temperatures in the low teens and a steady wind.


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NJ Lawmakers ready to override DEP on Highlands septics

For the first time, the Legislature appears poised to revoke a controversial environmental rule that opens up some of the sensitive lands in the Highlands to more development.
Tom Johnson reports for NJ Spotlight:
Both houses are expected Thursday to vote on a resolution to rescind the new regulation adopted by the state Department of Environmental Protection this past summer, a change in rules that increases the density of septic tanks allowed in forested parts of the more than 800,000-acre region.
If approved, the resolution (SCR-163) would mark an unusual rebuke to the Christie administration in its final days, and a rare victory in fighting the executive branch’s efforts to ease protections in an expanse providing drinking water to six million residents.
Previously, lawmakers approved a similar resolution calling on the DEP to amend, rescind, or withdraw the rule as being inconsistent with the legislative intent of a 2004 law establishing wide protections for the Highlands region.
DEP officials have repeatedly defended the new rule, saying it is consistent with the Highlands Regional Master Plan and arguing it will not degrade water supplies, but merely provide a reasonable opportunity for economic growth.
The controversy revives an ongoing debate over the Highlands Act, a law enacted in a bitter legislative dispute more than a decade ago. In this instance, the issues involve highly technical disputes over how much leaks from septic tanks end up contaminating groundwater supplies with nitrates.
The change in rules allows 1,100 more septic systems on 69,000 acres of protected land in the Highlands, an expansion department officials and some local residents insist will not impact water quality. The DEP cited a U.S. Geological Survey of drinking-water wells to justify the new rule.
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