Archive: August, 2011
Staff writer Angela Couloumbis is live tweeting from the plea agreement hearing for former House Speaker John Perzel. Follow her tweets below.
Auditor General Jack Wagner has released his audit of the Pennsylvania Liquor Control Board’s oft-criticized wine kiosks, saying they have cost taxpayers more than $1 million and concluding that if radical changes aren’t made to them, they should be scrapped.
“We think the wine kiosk program has failed, and it needs dramatic, radical changes if the program is going to continue to exist,” Wagner said at a press conference in the Capitol this afternoon.
Now that Irene has rolled out of town, a new storm - this one political -- is brewing in Pennsylvania.
On Tuesday and Wednesday this week in the Capitol, a package of controversial immigration bills will be debated by the House State Government Committee -- legislation that civil liberties and immigration advocates argue not only is discriminating but unfairly punishes some of society's most vulnerable people.
Greg Fajt is back on the Gaming Control Board.
But buckle your seat belts, it could be a rocky ride ahead.
Just a week after he was bounced as chairman by Gov. Corbett (who installed Bill Ryan his former top deputy in the attorney general's office in the post), Senate Democratic Leader Jay Costa (D., Allegheny) put him back on the board.
Attorney, corporate board member, college lecturer, sports commentator.
Leader of a movement to clear the name of Iranian opposition group with terrorist roots?
Among all the many hats former Gov. Ed Rendell is wearing, the latter is certainly the oddest.
He may be running the largest agency in the state, but Gary Alexander still has time to launch a new business venture.
The Department of Public Welfare chief has started a rental property business - out of his Rhode Island home, according to the Patriot-News of Harrisburg.
The newspaper reports that Alexander, appointed DPW secretary by Gov. Corbett, filed paperwork for Smart Alex Consulting LLC last month.
State Auditor General Jack Wagner was rattled today - and not only by the earthquake that disrupted his press conference.
Wagner said he will immediately begin an audit of the nearly $1 million buyout of Philadelphia School Superintendent Arlene Ackerman's contract, calling it the "the granddaddy" of school district executive departure deals.
“There is a proliferation of buyouts in school districts,” said Wagner, said at a hastily relocated press conference outside his Capitol office today. “What’s happening in Philadelphia sets a dangerous precedent.”
Rick Santorum's coming home -- to raise a few bucks.
The former two-term Pennsylvania Senator - and now Republican presidential candidate - will hold fundraising events in at least eight cities around the state next week, according to Politico.
Starting Monday, Santorum will hold events in Philadelphia and Montgomery County and the Lehigh Valley before heading to Scranton to be joined by Rep. Lou Barletta - who just announced his intention to run for a second term.
Former Gov. Ed Rendell - never one to mince words - had a few choice ones for the president today:
Step up and lay out your plan to fix the economy.
"It’s time for the president to say, ‘Here it is.'” said Rendell on CNBC's Squawk Box.
A former chief of staff to ex-state House Speaker John Perzel pleaded guilty today to two felony counts in the legislative corruption probe known as "Bonusgate."
Paul Towhey, 40, of Blue Bell, pleaded guilty to one count of criminal conspiracy and one count of conflict of interest at a hearing in Dauphin Court in Harrisburg. He is the third of a group of ten House Republicans charged as part of the sweeping Capitol corruption investigation launched in 2007 by then-Attorney General Tom Corbett.
Senior deputy attorney general Kenneth Brown told Dauphin County Judge Richard Lewis that Towhey conspired with others, including the once powerful Perzel, to use public money for computer research for non-public purposes.
