Cheer C

Although hunger is a year-round issue for many Americans, the holiday season is when the issue becomes more visible.

Food cupboards do important work and recently they have been dealing with two challenges — more people needing food and less food to give.

Locally, the Butler County Community Action and Development Agency, which helps with distributions to food cupboards, reports that about 1,759 families are served by the cupboards every month. This figure has been increasing by about 100 families a year for several years.

In addition to more families seeking help, most food cupboards are dealing with less food being donated by the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA). The USDA buys surplus food from farmers and donates it to regional food banks, which then supply food cupboards, soup kitchens and shelters. Stable food markets and expanded overseas sales have meant that farmers have less surplus for the USDA, and thus less food is being passed to food banks.

With more than a dozen food banks in Butler County, there are plenty of opportunities for people to donate. And the need, sadly, is always there.

Just a week or so ago, the children of St. Peter's Episcopal Church in Butler collected nonperishable food to donate to the food cupboard located at Covenant United Presbyterian Church, next door to St. Peter's on EastJefferson Street.

No doubt similar food drives are happening in churches, charities, social clubs and companies across the county. The 30 young people at St. Peter's deserve a holiday cheer for their efforts. And additional cheers are due to all the people who work at the food cupboards or donate their time and energy to help provide food to hungry families.

Those interested in donating to a food cupboard can contact Butler County Community Action at 724-284-5125.

Jeer D

It looks like a case of Harrisburg pols putting a fox in charge of guarding the chicken coop.

While it's possible that ongoing investigations will reveal that there was no interference, it's still troubling to learn that one of the high-level House Democratic staffers recently fired as part of an ongoing corruption investigation was the person supervising the outside investigator brought in by Democratic leadership to look into the controversial year-end bonuses of $1.9 million in taxpayer funds paid to top Democratic House staffers (for apparently partisan, re-election work). The investigating firm is also being paid to provide ethics guidance.

The head of the firm doing the House investigation and ethics consulting, Wiliam G. Chadwick, served as inspector general under the late Gov. Robert Casey and was deputy general counsel for Gov. Tom Ridge. Chadwick's contract calls for his firm "to promote a culture of integrity" in the House Democratic caucus and to help improve internal controls.

The investigator maintains that he generally reported directly House Majority Leader H. William DeWeese, D-Greene, and that the now-fired staffer was not materially involved.

There's another jeer associated with this investigation and consultation — Chadwick's $25,000-per-month contract to help House Democrats improve ethics and internal control in their caucus will produce no written reports.

But, while Chadwick's work apparently will not let the public know what's been going on with House Democrats regarding the bonus scandal and other matters, the ongoing corruption investigation by state Attorney General Tom Corbett will.

Jeer D

Yet another jeer is awarded to the new Butler County Prison, where general contractor A.G.Cullen Construction of Pittsburgh quit the job on Thursday.

Cullen has had an ongoing dispute with county officials and on Thursday sent official notification that it was ending its contract due to overdue payments.

Among the money in dispute is $1 million in so-called retention, money that is held back until a job is completed satisfactorily. Other money issues relate to costs associated with heating the building during winter construction, and the county's plan to deduct those heating costs from payments to Cullen Construction.

From the very beginning, including the debates over whether the new prison should be built in the city or on county-owned land near the Sunnyview complex, this project has been plagued by a string of problems, including delays, escalating costs and legal bickering.

The latest move by Cullen to quit the job is just another in a series of jeer-worthy events associated with the county's prison project.