Vito, Hanger get cabinet approval

HARRISBURG - The state Senate yesterday approved two cabinet appointees of Gov. Rendell's, including Sandi Vito as secretary of the Department of Labor and Industry.

Vito was acting secretary for more than a year, a stint that was interrupted in March by a guilty plea to a public-drunkenness charge and about a week in alcohol rehabilitation.

She joined the department as a deputy secretary in 2003 after working on Rendell's campaign for governor.

John Hanger became secretary of the Department of Environmental Protection. He had been acting secretary since August and before that ran Citizens for Pennsylvania's Future, a nonprofit environmental group in Harrisburg.