Welcome to The Easton Eccentric's newest weekly feature! Published every Sunday, "And in Other News" brings you links from around the web that we think may be of interest to our readers in the Easton area.
Whether you love or hate the idea of the city selling the Alpha Building and relocating City Hall, Easton's tallest building isn't the only one likely destined to be repurposed for residential use.
Going to be in NYC any time soon? Dial 1-855-FOR-1993 at any pay phone in Manhattan to hear what it was like on that block 20 years ago. Not sure what the best way to implement it would be, but something along these lines sounds like a great thing for Easton too. "Art-meets-history" maybe?
What's behind the sudden popularity of America's downtowns?
(Thanks, Easton Planning!)
Perhaps it's also this: Urban environments steeped in traditional residential architecture are great places to raise your children. Not a lot of chance of these problems associated with mid-century ultra modernistic architecture happening here, thankfully. (Spoof.)
One in five tax dollars in the City of Easton goes toward paying for pensions, but the problem isn't just a local one. Here's another perspective on what's up with municipal pensions across the country.
(Credit for this one goes to Easton Finance Director Chris Heagele.)
Tax returns are due tomorrow, April 15. But what if you can't pay your taxes? Here's what to do.
Getting back to the home front: Adding insult to injury, those that lost their homes due to banks' foreclosure practices in the last few years are likely to see very little in the way of compensation from the government's largest effort to compensate the victims.
However, at least the relief program for homeowners whose mortgages are underwater to refinance their debt has been extended.
Bed bugs are a problem everywhere, including in the Easton area. Turns out, an old folk method of eliminating bed bugs with kidney bean leaves is quite effective. But since it's not patentable, scientists are trying to create a synthetic version of the technique...with no real success so far.
With school districts being sqeezed, making sure our children get the best education for our tax dollars is more important than ever. Can putting high school students more in charge of their educations improve learning?
But after graduation, it's still tough to find a good paying job, even for well-educated 20-somethings. For some, internships seem permanent.
Of course, that employment thing goes both ways. Here's what not to do if you want the best and the brightest to work for you. (Not a spoof.)
What did one of the wars in the Middle East cost us? "For the Amount Spent on the Iraq War the US Could be Generating 40 to 60 percent of its Electricity with Renewable Energy"
On the health front:
Is this the link between red meat, energy drinks, and heart disease?
Calcium supplementation may not be all it's chalked up to be. (Pun intended.)
http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/04/08/thinking-twice-about-calcium-supplements-2/
Should companies have the right to patent human genes? The Supreme Court will shortly decide this very thing.
On the social front:
Your Twitter account and your followers are probably real, but about 20 million out there very likely are fake.
Facebook has also been invaded by people who are really robots too--and they're really sneaky too.
And, if you use Facebook's new emoticon feature, you may just be gift-wrapping your message for the data-miners.
On the odd and eclectic political front:
The difference between "American Barbie" and "Mexican Barbie" isn't just skin tone or clothes. It's more political than that.
This is why you should never leave a gift camel unattended.
Former Pennsylvania Senator Rick Santorum puts forth his idea on how to revitalize the Republican party--defund Planned Parenthood. (Yeah, we're pretty confused on how that would help too.)
And finally, this is why we all need more than one news source.\
If you see a story you think others in Easton enjoy or benefit, please let us know. Email us.
If we use it, we'll give you the credit!
Do you like our new feature? Have an idea about how we could make it better, or specific subjects you'd like us to cover? Please, tell us in the comments!
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