The latest poll conducted by Franklin and Marshall College proves once again -- in case you doubted it -- that the state of the economy colors our attitudes towards most things in life, including how we perceive politicians.

And for the moment at least, it looks like Pennsylvanians are giving their pols pretty good marks, despite the nation's bleak economy.

The poll found that even though Pennsylvanians are facing difficult economic times, they see better times ahead and demonstrate confidence in their political leaders. Seven in ten, or 70%, of registered adults are confident in President Obama’s ability to manage the country’s economic problems. And nearly three in five, or 58%, are confident in Governor Rendell’s ability to manage the state’s budget problems.

Having said that, the poll found that a number of Rendell's proposals to balance the budget - including one to legalize video poker machines to help people pay for college - haven't been all that well-received. Also getting lukewarm support: the governor's proposal to eliminate more state jobs (44% favor it, 45% oppose it), eliminate funding for public television stations (40% favor it, 52% oppose it), and reduce the number of school districts in the state (21% favor it, 70% oppose it).

And the governor's overall approval marks are not as high as they used to be: two in five (42%) of registered Pennsylvanians say he's doing an excellent (7%) or good (35%) job, while more than half (54%) indicate he is doing only a fair (37%) or poor (17%) job.

 

To read the whole poll, in which Pennsylvanians give high marks to Republican Sen. Arlen Specter and Democratic Sen. Bob Casey, click here.

 

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An overwhelming 81 percent of likely voters in next year's Pennsylvania Republican primary oppose proposed federal legislation that would make it easier for unions to organize workplaces, according to a new poll conducted for a coalition of business groups trying to kill the idea.

The findings appear aimed at an audience of one: Sen. Arlen Specter (R.,Pa.), who is running for reelection in 2010 and has not said how he would vote on the so-called Employee Free Choice Act, which is anathema to broad swaths of the GOP electoral coalition.

Specter has already inspired talk of a challenge from the right because he was a crucial vote for President Obama's economic-stimulus legislation, which many Republicans consider filled with wasteful spending.

The union-organizing proposal is also termed "card check," because of a controversial key provision that would allow union to win the right to represent workers by getting a majority of them to sign a public pledge card, replacing the current system of a secret-ballot election. Business groups say that would allow union organizers to intimidate or trick workers, while labor leaders say that it is employers who wield the intimidation in the sometimes-heated campaigns leading up to a certification election.

At any rate, "card check" has become a hot button issue in the GOP.

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Four months after the passage of the toughened dog law, the state has agreed to suspend enforcement of a core provision of the law until a federal lawsuit is decided.

In an order filed Feb. 18 in U.S. District Court, the state will allow commercial breeders appealing their license revocations to continue to operate pending the outcome of the case. In exchange, the Professional Dog Breeders Advisory Council, which is suing the Department of Agriculture on constitutional grounds, agreed not to seek an injunction to stop the enforcement of the entire law.

Under the law, the department has the right to issue cease and desist orders restricting breeders from selling or buying more dogs while their revocation cases are on appeal. It has issued such orders on two occasions since Jan. 10 when the law went into effect, officials said.

Now lawmakers who supported the bill to crack down on the state's puppy mills and animal welfare advocates, who fought for years for its passage, accuse state officials of conceding to breeders before the lawsuit has been heard.

"This litigation stops the enforcement of key provisions of the legislation and every day that this law is not being enforced is another day that dogs are potentially being abused in commercial facilities," said Rep. Bryan Lentz (D., Delaware).

Neither the council's spokesman, Robert Yarnall Jr, nor the plaintiff's attorney, Leonard Brown of the Lancaster-based firm Clymer & Musser, could be reached for comment.

Bill Smith, founder of Main Line Animal Rescue, which has taken in and treated hundreds of injured and diseased puppy mill dogs, called the agreement "cowardly."

"I feel cheated," he said. "They told us for three years that they couldn't do anything without a law and now we have a law and they are giving in."

A spokesman for Attorney General Tom Corbett denied that the state had capitulated to commercial breeders.

"Our goal is simple; to get the federal district court to rule that the statute is constitutional," said Corbett's spokesman Kevin Harley. "This allows [us] to move forward in an expiated manner toward that goal without extraneous issues."

Rep. Douglas Reichley (R., Lehigh) called it "a strange tactic that could set a precedent for other breeders to forestall revocation."

Reichley, a former prosecutor, represents the district where Almost Heaven kennel - which received a cease and desist order - is located.

"Mr. Eckhart and his cohorts have been thumbing their noses at law enforment authorities and this puts more animals in danger," he said.

Agriculture Department spokesman Chris Ryder said the agreement helps dogs by allowing dogs to leave more quickly and preventing additional dogs from coming in.

Ryder said the agreement was made to preserve the rest of the dog law from injunction and sets a six-week timeline for filings in the case.

"The department does believe in the constitutionality of the dog law and will very vigorously defend it," he said.

Ryder also said the agreement is temporary and does not allow kennels to buy or breed more dogs, only to sell them.

But Garen Meguerian, a Philadelphia-area attorney representing a plaintiff in a consumer fraud suit against CC Pets - one of the largest dog sellers in the state - fears that the state's strategy may backfire.

Meguerian said the deal "could demonstrate to the court that the Commonwealth was so concerned about an injunction and about the merits of the claims that they essentially entered into a stipulation acquiescing to one."

Both Lentz and Reichley say they want administration attorneys to explain their rationale for agreeing to such a deal.

The state has issued two cease and desist orders since the law went into effect last month, both of them are kennels with troubled histories of dog law and animal cruelty convictions.

In addition to Derbe Eckhart's Almost Heaven kennel in Lehigh County, the bureau also sent a cease and desist notice to Daniel Esh of Scarlet-Maple Farm in Lancaster County. The two are among the largest breeders in the state and both have long, troubled histories including multiple dog law violations. Eckhart has twice been convicted on animal cruelty charges.

In addition to the unamed members of the Pet Breeders Advisory Council, plaintiffs in the suit include Nathan Myer, one of the largest breeders in the state, as well as two New Jersey pet store owners, Nat Sladkin and Susan Inserra.

 

 

 

 

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Oh my God, can you BELIEVE it??

So screamed the headlines on several websites and blogs after Gov. Rendell's wife showed up at Sunday's dinner for governors at the White House wearing the same (or nearly the same) red gown as the wife of Gov. Bobby Jindal of Louisiana.

The dress, by the way, was quite easy on the eyes - despite the double vision of it on Marjorie O. Rendell, a federal judge, and Supriya Jindal. It had a single strap (the other shoulder was exposed) from which the rest of the gown flowed to the ground.

But oh, the horror of seeing it on two women at once! Tsk. Tsk.

Funny, some of the blogs call it Rendell's fashion faux pas - which is interesting, because that would mean that the judge deliberately went out looking for the same dress. That is hard to believe.

But it sounds like the two women had a sense of humor about the incident, complimenting each other on their taste. The Huffington Post has some cool photos of the guests, including Rendell and Jindal in their identical dresses. Click here to see them.

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When he was running to become national Republican chairman, former Maryland Lt. Gov. Michael Steele had to fight perceptions on the right that he was a little squishy, i.e. not sufficiently conservative for the job.

Maybe that won't be such a problem now. Steele said in a Fox News interview Monday that he would be open to supporting primary challengers to Sen. Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania and Sens. Susan Collins and Olympia Snowe of Maine, the three Republican senators who crossed the aisle to vote for President Obama's stimulus legislation.

Specter is the only one of the group who is up for reelection next year. Conservatives have ripped the three for betraying Republican principles in voting for what they consider a pork-swollen bill that has too few economy-spurring tax cuts and will do little to create jobs. Pennsylvania critics on the right have vowed to finance a challenge to Specter in next spring's primary, though no candidate has yet stepped forward.

"My retribution is the retribution of the voters in their states," Steele said on Fox's Your World with Neil Cavuto Monday. "They're going to have to go through a primary in which they're going to have to explain to those Republican voters in that primary their vote." He said he would "follow the lead" of the state parties; if leaders in Maine and Pennsylvania want a primary, Steele will put the resources of the RNC behind such a bid.

This is, needless to say, an unusual stance for a party chairman, who usually supports incumbents wholeheartedly. (hat tip: Politico.)

 

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Let’s ... get ... ready ... to ...REALLY ...rumble…

Pennsylvania has joined the growing number of states to allow Mixed Martial Arts, or MMA, events within its borders.

The State Athletic Commission announced today it had adopted final regulations that will allow for the ulta-rough bouts popularized on cable sports networks to be held in the Keystone State.

Among other rules, fighters must be at least 18 years old, undergo a pre-fight physical (female fighters also have to take a pregnancy test before each bout), and prove each year that they have tested negative for HIV, Hepatitis C and B.

Officials expect that state will host four to five MMA events per month, which could generate as much as $80,000 a year in revenue for the commission, which is a self-supporting agency that receives no state tax dollars.

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Gov. Rendell today announced the appointment of a new Pennsylvania "stimulus enforcer:" himself.

Rendell, speaking on Fox New Sunday, said he will dedicate the last two years of his administration to ensuring the federal economic stimulus money will be spent wisely here.

"It's very important that we get that right," he said of the billions expected to flow into Pennsylvania coffers.

Rendell said he expects infrastructure dollars to roll out first and that hundreds of "shovel ready" bridge and road projects will put people to work by May (that's a month later than he predicted last week.)

He said he believes in the end Pennsylvania could net about the same number of jobs the state has lost (76,000) in the last year. (According to White House estimates, the number of new jobs created or retained in Pennsylvania under the stimulus plan is 143,000.)

Stimulus critic, South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford, who appeared with Rendell on the program, said he is resisting stimulus money because, among other reasons, he fears his state won't be able to cover all the additional unemployment and worker benefits being offered when stimulus funds dry up.

Rendell said he recognizes that may be an issue for state budgets down the road, but that something must be done now to turn around the economic slide.

"I don't care," said Rendell. "My people are suffering, my people are hurting and they need that money."

Rendell, who is chairman of the National Governors Association,  was in Washington for the group's winter meeting.

He told reporters yesterday that the law, while not perfect, is a "tremendous help" to the states.

"There's not a state in this union that is going to be able to use the stimulus money to wipe away all the problems, all the challenges we face," he said.

 

 

 

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Pennsylvania's top prosecutor said yesterday he thinks legalizing video poker is a bad idea. The state's top cop is all for it.

Attorney General Tom Corbett told the House Appropriations Committee that Gov. Rendell's proposal to make video poker legal in bars and clubs, may seem like an easy way to generate revenue but it's "the wrong way."

Corbett, responding to a lawmaker's question during a state budget hearing, said some may argue the state already has casino gambling, so what's the problem with video poker? But he said, it's "morally complicated."

"It's a difficult issue," said Corbett, who investigated illegal video poker operations 20 years ago as U.S. Attorney for the Western District in Pittsburgh. "It's a slippery slope. At some point that slippery slope has got to stop." 

Sitting before the same committee earlier yesterday, Pennsylvania State Police Commander Frank Pawlowski reiiterated his position that video poker is a thriving underground industry.

"It’s all operating under the shadows,” Pawlowski was reported as saying in the online news service Capitolwire. He called the issue “particularly frustrating.”

Pennsylvania State Police officials estimate there are roughly 17,000 video-poker machines now operating illegally, and stress that they would rather use their time to crack down on drugs and sex offenders than track illegal video-poker machines.

Rendell wants to use the tax revenue from video poker machines - which he says could top $500 million a year-  to help as many 170,000 students attend college.

 

 

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Philadelphia state Sen. Christine Tartaglione is again introducing legislation to stiffen the penalties for assaults on public transit employees.

For the third straight session, Tartaglione, a Democrat, has introduced a bill aimed at deterring crimes against bus and train operators and other transit workers Under the bill (SB 387) anyone who assaults a transportation employee could be charged with a first-degree felony and sentenced to up to 20 years in jail.

"Transit officials from across Pennsylvania have collected hundreds of injury reports resulting from assaults," Tartaglione said. "It's time we send a message to harried commuters that they cannot take their frustration out on innocent workers."

Last year SEPTA reported a number of incidents involving attacks on its employees including a bullet fired through a bus driver's window and a driver assaulted by a knife-wielding passenger. In all there were ten incidents where employees were unable to work because of injuries from an assault.

In 2007, after a SEPTA driver was injured by a bullet that shattered his side window, Tartaglione's bill passed the  Senate, but the bill was never voted on in the House.

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