Sweeping plans announced to study Presque Isle, Erie’s bayfront

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Sweeping plans announced to study Presque Isle, Erie’s bayfront

"Being the most visited state park in Pennsylvania with 4 million visits annually means Presque Isle State Park has its share of challenges when it comes to managing traffic and congestion."

"The extended holiday weekend alone drew roughly 150,000 people, with some stalled in their vehicles for more than 20 minutes en route to their desired destination — likely one of the peninsula’s beaches."

"Better accommodating that demand was the subject of a Wednesday news conference at Presque Isle, where officials from Gov. Tom Wolf’s administration announced two sweeping initiatives to consider mobility improvements on the peninsula and on Erie’s bayfront."

Monday Morning Update

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Walking around camp, talking about some of the things I did on Sunday including hiking back to Cascade Lake.

Hopes of ‘Trump Bump’ for U.S. Economy Shrink as Growth Forecasts Fade

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Hopes of ‘Trump Bump’ for U.S. Economy Shrink as Growth Forecasts Fade

"The promise of faster economic growth has become a study in the triumph of hope over experience."

"While the June jobs report, coming on Friday, is expected to show that hiring continued at a healthy pace last month, other recent indicators in areas like consumer spending, construction and auto sales have been decidedly less robust."

"As a result, Wall Street forecasters have been busy lowering their growth estimates for the second quarter, which ended last Friday, much as they were forced to do over the first three months of the year. Economic expansion for the full year now appears unlikely to be much greater than 2 percent — about the average for the current recovery, which celebrates its eighth year this month."

July 6, 2017 Morning

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Good morning! National Fried Chicken Day. Next Thursday is Hottest Day of Year (83 Average). Its only downhill from there. Mostly cloudy and 71 degrees in Delmar. There is a south breeze at 10 mph. The dew point is 58 degrees.

Road construction is well underway in Delmar with the detours fully in effect. Minor traffic delays but they seem better today than yesterday as people are learning the detours. I’m glad that the bus is totally avoiding the construction as it is ensuring that it runs smoothly. 

Today will be mostly cloudy, with a high of 82 degrees at 3pm. Typical for today. Maximum dew point of 61 at 6pm. South wind 10 to 13 mph. A year ago, we had mostly sunny skies and a high of 90 degrees. The record high of 97 was set in 1886.

The sun will set at 8:35 pm with dusk around 9:09 pm, which is 20 seconds earlier than yesterday. At sunset, look for mostly cloudy conditions and 77 degrees. The dew point will be 62 degrees. There will be a south breeze at 10 mph. Today will have 15 hours and 10 minutes of daytime, an decrease of one minute over yesterday.

Tonight will have isolated showers before 9pm, then a slight chance of showers after midnight. Mostly cloudy, with a low of 66 degrees at 5am. Five degrees above normal. Maximum dew point of 62 at 7pm. South wind 6 to 10 mph. Chance of precipitation is 20%. In 2016, it got down to 70 degrees with thunderstorm and thunderstorm rain and rain and fog and mist and partly cloudy skies. The record low of 44 occurred back in 1979.

On this day in 1947, The AK-47 goes into production in the Soviet Union. Even after almost seven decades, the model and its variants remain the most popular and widely used assault rifles in the world because of their substantial reliability under harsh conditions, low production costs compared to contemporary Western weapons, availability in virtually every geographic region and ease of use.

Cleaned my apartment, especially the kitchen which had mildew showing up. I didn’t get it real clean prior to my July 4th trip and with tracking mud after camp it was kind of a mess. I also noticed some mildew problems had popped up in places, and while it hadn’t gotten really bad, I wanted to clean it up before it got worse. I really hate cleaning, especially because I’m not really good at it. That’s why I’m thinking about eventually owning a small cabin on lots of land that is easy to clean – and then I can just haul the junk out back and have a big bonfire watching the trash burn up to crisp. Fire and redneck neighbors makes everything good. 

As previously noted, next Thursday is Hottest Day of Year (83 Average) when the sun will be setting at 8:31 pm with dusk at 9:05 pm. On that day in 2016, we had mostly sunny skies and temperatures between 90 and 70 degrees. Typically, the high temperature is 83 degrees. We hit a record high of 96 back in 1894.

What on Earth Is Wrong With Connecticut?

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What on Earth Is Wrong With Connecticut?

"So, the complete story isn’t just about the taxes being too high. In fact, Connecticut’s recent rise and fall reflects the history of the entire United States—its industrial changes, the hollowing out of the middle class, and the migration patterns reshuffling the U.S. population."

"Let’s start with industry. Connecticut was not always a bastion of high finance. Like the U.S., it was once famous for building things. Manufacturing accounted for half of Connecticut’s jobs in the 1950s. But the finance sector took off in the 1980s and 1990s, feeding on the migration of corporate offices from Boston and a bankrupt New York City. Even today, in Fairfield County, 15 percent of residents work in Manhattan, according to a state tax study."

"Connecticut was a manufacturing state, which became a finance hub, which is now bleeding both manufacturing and finance, as bankers have moved to New York or shut down their operations in the wake of the Great Recession. The fastest-growing job opportunities are mostly for low-wage workers in health care, leisure, and retail, whose income and sales taxes cannot fund the state’s expensive promises to teachers and pensioners. Connecticut is losing rich companies (and their tax revenues) while it’s adding low-wage workers, like personal-care aides and retail salespeople. Yet it remains a high-tax state. That’s a recipe for a budget crisis."