Things To Do In Somerset Pa

Santorum launches White House bid

Former Sen. Rick Santorum (R-Pa.) positioned himself as a champion of personal freedom and an advocate for “average Americans” when he officially launched his presidential bid Monday.

He enters the race as a long shot for the 2012 Republican nomination. Despite campaigning for virtually the last two years, Santorum hasn’t registered on the radar screens of GOP primary voters, gathering only 2 percent support in a recent Gallup poll of the Republican field.

“I’m ready to lead. I’m ready to do what has to be done for the next generation,” Santorum said during a rally on the steps of the county courthouse in Somerset, Pa. “That’s why I’m announcing today that I’m running for president of the United States of America.”

His speech was filled with attacks on President Obama.

Obama has “devalued our currency, and he’s not just devalued our currency, he’s devalued our culture,” said Santorum, a staunch social conservative.

The former senator, a Roman Catholic, is appealing to evangelical voters during the primary process, particularly in Iowa. That voting bloc is influential in the early caucus state and helped former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee win the caucuses in 2008.

In his remarks, Santorum lamented the state of the economy and high gas prices and said he “loved our Tea Partiers who raised our Constitution up.”

Notably absent from his speech was any criticism of his fellow Republican contenders. Santorum has not been shy about criticizing them in the past. In particular, he’s had harsh words for the healthcare law Mitt Romney signed as governor of Massachusetts. 

And while that wasn’t mentioned in Monday’s remarks, he did attack the healthcare measure Obama signed into law, calling it the “lynchpin” of the Democrats’ agenda. 

That attack was part of his broader critique of the role of government under the Obama administration, including the president’s defense of Social Security and Medicare.

In a speech last month, Obama indicated those entitlement programs made the United States a “great country.”

But Santorum made a pitch for smaller government.

“America was a great country before 1965,” said Santorum, in a reference to when those programs were created by Congress. “America is a great country not because of our government. It’s because our Founders founded it a great country.”

He made similar comments at the Faith and Freedom Coalition conference in Washington on Saturday, which could mean he plans to make entitlement reform a central theme of his campaign.

Pa. man extradited in assault, robbery case « Somerset Hills

A man accused of attacking and robbing a borough man last month is in the custody of local authorities after waiving extradition from Pennsylvania, officials said.

Anthony Ramos, 20, of Mount Pocono, Pa., was returned Wednesday to New Jersey and was held in the Somerset County Jail, Somerset County Prosecutor Geoffrey D. Soriano said.

Ramos, who was a Pennsylvania National Guardsman, had been held in the Lebanon County Jail in Pennsylvania since June 15, Soriano said. He had been arrested on a robbery charge after he allegedly stalked the ex-boyfriend of his wife and beat the man to the ground on June 2.

The victim, 20, reported to police that about 3 a.m. that day, he received a telephone call from his ex-girlfriend asking him to meet her in front of his borough home, Soriano said. Sometime later, the victim met her and stepped outside at her request, only to find a man emerge from a vehicle and confront him.

The assailant kicked and beat the victim to the ground, Soriano said. The suspect, later identified as Ramos, took the victim's cellphone and $75 in cash before leaving the area.

The victim was taken to Morristown Medical Center for treatment of a broken nose and fractured facial bone, the prosecutor said.

After a series of interviews, investigators learned that Ramos was a member of the Pennsylvania National Guard, Soriano said. He was arrested on June 15 at Fort Indiantown Gap in Annville, Pa., where he was taking part in a two-week military training exercise.

The Umberger tragedy, with a criminal history of Somerset County, Pa

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A brief history of the Andrew Putman (Buttman, Putnam) Christian Wyandt (Weyandt, Weygandt, Voint, Wyand) and Adam Snyder families (Schneider) of Washington County, Maryland

Corporation report of Secretary of State, March 4, 1905, to March 1, 1907. Charters issued to and other proceedings concerning corporations

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