COLUMBIA SPY

Retired Lancaster city cop helping ID locals who went to DC; says it's 'citizen's responsibility'

A retired Lancaster police lieutenant has been sending the FBI photographs of county residents who went to Washington, D.C., last Wednesday to help the federal law enforcement agency determine if any of them broke the law.

Gerald Wilson, 67, of Manheim Township, said he believes anyone who knows a person involved in the attack on the U.S. Capitol should do the same.

"I think it's a citizen's responsibility for people who have evidence about the insurrection to contact the FBI and give them whatever information you can give," he said Monday.

https://lancasteronline.com/news/local/retired-lancaster-city-cop-helping-id-locals-who-went-to-dc-says-its-citizens-responsibility/article_b7be6a60-5450-11eb-8a74-c7561311f609.html

GoFundMe set up for Donald Zink

https://www.gofundme.com/f/help-with-dons-funeral-cost

Republicans in Pa., elsewhere change party affiliation after riot at U.S. Capitol

HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) — In the 36 hours after last week's deadly insurrection at the U.S. Capitol, 112 Republicans reached out to the election office in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, to change their party registration. Ethan Demme was one of them.

"Ever since they started denying the election result, I kind of knew it was heading this way," said Demme, the county's former Republican Party chairman who has opposed President Donald Trump and is now an independent. "If they kept going, I knew there's no way I can keep going. But if you've been a Republican all your life, it's hard to jump out of a big boat and into a little boat."

https://www.pennlive.com/nation-world/2021/01/republicans-in-pa-elsewhere-change-party-affiliation-after-riot-at-us-capitol.html

Pa. State Police resume tracking racial data during traffic stops in response to Spotlight PA report

HARRISBURG — The Pennsylvania State Police announced Tuesday that it had resumed collecting racial data during traffic stops, nine years after the department quietly ended the practice and in direct response to a previous investigative report by Spotlight PA.

Many police departments across the nation collect racial data from traffic stops in order to detect potential racial bias in policing. In 2019, Spotlight PA revealed the State Police had ended its collection program in 2012 with no official announcement and for reasons that remain unclear.

In response to the findings, the statewide law enforcement agency pledged to resume the practice.

https://www.spotlightpa.org/news/2021/01/pa-state-police-traffic-stops-racial-profiling-data-collection/

Columbia earns key season-opening L-L League Section 5 boys basketball win in final seconds at Lancaster Mennonite

Down a bucket, Columbia junior guard Kerry Glover tied it with 1 minutes, 15 seconds remaining, and followed that with a game-winning and-1 layup and free-throw with three seconds left to lead the Tide to a 73-70 season-opening Lancaster-Lebanon League Section Five win at Lancaster Mennonite on Tuesday night.

"It was either me or Michael Poole to take the shot (in the final seconds)," Glover said. "I chose to be the one."

https://lancasteronline.com/sports/columbia-earns-key-season-opening-l-l-league-section-5-boys-basketball-win-in-final/article_78752a14-554b-11eb-a644-b3e819e8a64d.html

Corporations recoil from eight Pa. GOP vote ‘objectors,’ suspending their money

The paper sought comment from the GOP objectors in the House. Seven — Dan Meuser, Fred Keller, John Joyce, Mike Kelly, Guy Reschenthaler, Lloyd Smucker, and Glenn Thompson — did not return messages. A spokesperson for the eighth, U.S. Rep. Scott Perry referred questions to campaign staff, who did not respond.

https://www.pennlive.com/nation-world/2021/01/corporations-recoil-from-eight-pa-gop-vote-objectors-suspending-their-money.html

US Rep. Lloyd Smucker: You no longer can serve the 11th Congressional District effectively. You need to resign. [editorial]

THE ISSUE

Republican U.S. Rep. Lloyd Smucker of Lancaster County was reelected to his third term in November, in the same election in which President-elect Joe Biden defeated incumbent President Donald Trump by more than 80,000 votes in Pennsylvania. Smucker was one of eight Pennsylvania Republican members of the U.S. House of Representatives who sought to block Congress from accepting the commonwealth's 20 electoral votes for President-elect Joe Biden and Vice President-elect Kamala Harris early last Thursday morning. That was just hours after pro-Trump insurrectionists invaded the U.S. Capitol, seeking to stop the counting of the electoral votes and do bodily harm to Vice President Mike Pence and U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.

https://lancasteronline.com/opinion/editorials/us-rep-lloyd-smucker-you-no-longer-can-serve-the-11th-congressional-district-effectively-you/article_46a4ad54-553a-11eb-ba95-b3b9e4ba0a78.html

Friday, January 15, 2021