meteo30

Thu., 01/03/13 - 12:11 PM

Because of redistricting the Republican party holds 13 of 18 congressional house seats even though it won less than 50% of the votes cast for Republican congressional candidates in the 2012 election. Nationally Republicans got a little less than 50% of the votes cast for congress but control 54% of the seats. If PA divided their electoral votes accoring to congressional districts Romney would have won 13 of PA's 20 electoral votes even though he lost the state by over 300k votes.

Thu., 01/03/13 - 11:15 AM

get'er done (damn it)

Thu., 01/03/13 - 11:05 AM

Since when did Frank Drebin from Police Squad become governor of this state?!?

Thu., 01/03/13 - 10:37 AM

Other disasters got quick OKs from Congress. Why the difference now? My guess is a particular distain for anything to do with northeast urban areas in the Republican party.

Thu., 01/03/13 - 10:05 AM

I've got mixed emotions on this (disclosure: I'm a PSU grad). I certainly am ashamed at how the school tried to cover its tracks on this, but I do believe the NCAA rushed judgment after feeling it had to do something. While PSU deserves the bulk of the blame I can't leave out the lax Republican machine in Centre County since they ignored the initial complaint in 1998. Thanks for the update on outside council: I hadn't heard of this but it does make no sense given the lack of state resources for other more worthy endeavors.

Thu., 01/03/13 - 09:40 AM

I'd say this is good advice. Maybe your kid will get a college scholarship but I wouldn't count on it. All the best schools are hyper competative and who know's what your kids achademic interests will be. Less structured time and fewer helicopter parents are probaly a good thing.

Mon., 12/31/12 - 07:39 AM

No heart. I'd be more embarassed if I allowed a team to drive 50 yards in, what was it like 14 seconds, to score a touchdown before the half!

Mon., 12/31/12 - 07:09 AM

Andy will work again somewhere next season. It will be interesting if he can build a winning program again. IMO he benifited from a great D coordinator and a very good quarterback. It might have been a more pleasant tenure if he had only invested in a stud WR about 8 years ago.

Tue., 09/11/12 - 14:28 PM

If the summers have been unusually warm in the Del Valley they've been down right obnoxious up north. Bangor, ME had several 90 degree days this summer. I've been summer vacationing up there for almost 10 years and have never seen anything warmer than the low to mid 80s. Just my observations.

Fri., 09/07/12 - 12:22 PM

Help, help I'm being repressed (geesh, get over yourself). In a nutshell this has what politics has become in this country; all sniping and no substance. I'm a registered republican who disagrees with most of my parties planks but hopes one day that some (fiscal) sanity comes back to the party.

Fri., 09/07/12 - 12:14 PM

Is the debt due to medical expenses or just living beyond your means? Health insurance status may also be an important consideration. Why wasn't this asked? The prognosis here probably depends on what health insurance this person has.

Fri., 09/07/12 - 07:07 AM

Just because the governor's unpopular now doesn't mean he's not going to win reelection (no matter how much I personally disapprove of him). Nothing wrong with a contested primary, this is a democracy after all.

Mon., 07/02/12 - 09:44 AM

Still wondering how this team would have done under Leyland.

Mon., 07/02/12 - 09:36 AM

Glad to see another immensly profitable company getting $25 million in government money to run a business. Do we get a cut of the profits?

Sat., 06/16/12 - 11:11 AM

The Clean Air Act, which EPA enforces, has been on the books since 1963. US GDP has grown substantially over this time period and you'd be hard pressed to find any recession due to the Clean Air Act. Contrary to what some people think it's cheaper to have those responsible for pollution to lower their emissions than it is for the rest of us to clean up their mess.

Wed., 05/16/12 - 14:13 PM

I guess you can try and take measurements and draw some trends conclusions but climate change will most likely impact our children and their children. It's a long-term trend, in all likelihood, and therefore difficult to pin down using short-term trends.

Wed., 05/16/12 - 10:42 AM

One can't discuss the evils of big government without discussing the evils of big corporations.

Tue., 05/08/12 - 07:18 AM

Don't expect any sypathy from Harrisburg. The current administration and legislature has deemed unions, teachers, state workers, and the poor "enemies" instead of constituents. Their actions speak louder than their "heartfelt" words and I suspect you'll hear others who feel the same way echo in this comment section.

Tue., 02/28/12 - 08:41 AM

Not sure diving with a 1000 lb animal would be a good idea anyway. I've seen film with the horse going in sidways just missing the edge of the tank.

Mon., 02/13/12 - 21:05 PM

Does it really matter? If people perceive the economy is getting better this will be a rerun of 1984 with the incumbant running away at the end.

Fri., 01/20/12 - 13:05 PM

It's easy to say gas has no impact when you defund any studies that could say otherwise. On a side note, how can we trust this administration to collect "fees" from gas wells in the state when it can't even count them?

Mon., 10/31/11 - 17:35 PM

Not a big tea party person but it seems the "movement" is done with her and is throwing her away.

Tue., 10/04/11 - 10:14 AM

Can't really figure out how much this proposal saves the gas industry. Would be nice if we could see what collections would be under a typical severence tax. My guess is the industry will save a boatload under the governors proposal (like they haven't saved millions alread on the delay of this proposal).

Wed., 06/22/11 - 14:29 PM

At this time condolances are more in order. There will be plenty of time for moral posturing later, and let those people who live in glass houses cast the first stone.

Sat., 02/26/11 - 11:50 AM

In the long run this is more costly to the state and industry if air-quality worsens in the drilling areas. Controls would be imposed on the drillers themselves and other industry in the region.

Sat., 02/26/11 - 11:46 AM

Good news. Now if we could just upgrade the system into the 20th century.

Mon., 02/14/11 - 15:00 PM

What's even more repugnant is how little the oil companies had to give to get these people to cooperate with their high jinks.

Mon., 02/14/11 - 08:59 AM

Maybe a dorm option at the capital complex would suffice. Members od f Congress would probably be less likely to bad-mouth each other and get things done if they had to live in close quarters with one another. Would also be quite funny to see some of the more "conservative" members of congress interact with those who pursue "alternative" lifestyles.

Wed., 02/09/11 - 13:30 PM

Good point dragoon6. Is it the credit rating or is it the anticipation that NJ will try and declare bankruptcy to void its contractual obligations? It would be interesting to see the value of the NJ pension fund actually is, its withdrawl/contribution rates and its annual return. PA is in a similar boat but the fund is far from payments exceeding contribution+returns.

Wed., 02/09/11 - 08:32 AM

I don't doubt in the long run that this will happen but I don't think anyone can accurately predict when it will happen and what the consequences will be. I find it completely frustrating that some companies and individuals have made a genuine effort to become more energy efficient while others plod away using 1950s era technology that wastes precious resources. I would have thought that everyone could agree that we need some basic efficiency standards that are applicable to all parties (not just the auto industry).

Tue., 02/08/11 - 15:22 PM

Didn't vote for him but want to see how he can keep his promise without taking actions that raise fees, college tuition and/or local taxes. As others have said the numbers don't add up. Maybe he (and other repubs) know this and are in hiding.

Mon., 02/07/11 - 08:37 AM

There should be enough money in this game to make both sides happy, but something tells me neither side will be and we'll be stuck watching Canadian football next season.

Thu., 02/03/11 - 06:48 AM

I'll defer to the coach on this one. If it works out then great. But I have my doubts, like the doubts I have about installing a starting quarterback who hasn't historically done well in games below 40 degrees.

Fri., 01/28/11 - 16:58 PM

Throw the sticks in the middle...brings back memories and shows the reporter gets out and does this stuff once in awhile.

Wed., 01/26/11 - 07:41 AM

You'd think journalists would be all over this story. Guess they don't have the guts to try and their luck against the company-sponsored spin misters.

Mon., 01/24/11 - 08:40 AM

To the BULB Act people, is it someone's right to waste resources if they have more money than the rest of us?

Wed., 12/29/10 - 07:59 AM

So if these people suddenly voted Repub all their troubles would be gone, right? Please, most of these people probably don't vote and by the comments posted here most people don't seem to care. And we wonder why they are "discouraged".

Mon., 12/27/10 - 09:38 AM

Business is booming, meanwhile the state and local governments are broke and cutting back services. A severance tax that could help the state has been nixed because it would strangle the industry. Profits go to out of state workers and back to company headquarters, which are also out of state. Our politicians are now "business friendly" so don't ask for anything but crumbs.

Fri., 12/17/10 - 14:50 PM

Why in the hell did McNabb want to go to Washington?!?

Fri., 12/17/10 - 14:47 PM

Nothing like kicking people when they're down.

Tue., 12/14/10 - 08:10 AM

Not good but you have to credit the paper for solving this.

Sat., 10/23/10 - 10:57 AM

Charlie is going to sink or swim with the guys. I say Howard has to take a seat. Bring him out to pinch hit and see if this gets him going. The bench helped the Phils get to where they are this year. Let them have a chance to contribute.

Tue., 10/12/10 - 09:52 AM

This study will come too late to really mitigate the damage. NY was wise to hold off on drilling. "Economics" have trumped the environment once again; PA DEP staff spend more time issuing permits than monitoring compliance.

Thu., 10/07/10 - 06:28 AM

Well done.

Wed., 09/29/10 - 06:43 AM

Would love to see this. Riding the train from Philly to DC or NY city would be much easier than driving. As the article rightly points out this will remain a pipe dream with endless feasibility studies unless the politicians get their act together and make it happen.

Tue., 09/28/10 - 07:11 AM

Friggin'-gosi as I remember...

Thu., 09/23/10 - 06:27 AM

So much for tha almanac's forecast. Write some more "dry" stories so we can get some more rain like last night; it poured at my place.

Sat., 09/18/10 - 11:26 AM

WOW, caught wind of this last year when I attended the Icer Alumni game. One unsung hero in this is former coach Joe Batista who built a very successful program that made this possible.

Thu., 09/16/10 - 06:51 AM

Dissing a kid and his family is pretty classless; nice story.

Wed., 09/08/10 - 06:39 AM

Naw, he's busy playing golf with fox news...

Wed., 09/01/10 - 06:45 AM

Lets not forget the coal supporters and their kin. No need to update your power plants that waste 20% of their fuel.

Wed., 07/21/10 - 07:42 AM

If you're going to make the comment then back it up with some actual facts like who told him that and some people that are staying unemployed to collect benefits. I knew one person who did that and he votes R as far as I know.

Thu., 07/01/10 - 12:34 PM

137 years roughly covers the start of the industrial revolution so one wouldn’t expect much of a change due to industrial emissions prior to this. “The Earth warms and cools over the eons” is not a testable hypothesis since it inherently predicts randomness and not a trend. If you look at the ice core data, the Earth has warmed and cooled over the last 100k, it’s just done so with CO2 levels going up during the warm periods and down during the ice ages.

Wed., 06/30/10 - 09:08 AM

My electric bills have gone up before CAP and TRADE, so what's the difference? Oh, I remember the market people killed rate caps and assured me that the "market" would keep my rates low! I'm for cap&trade if it forces the utilities to kill their dog generators that operate at 30% efficiencies.

Fri., 06/11/10 - 06:41 AM

Thought Emery had a career threatening injury. A fifth defenseman would be good to take some of the playing minutes off of Pronger. The only person with some trade potential at this point is Carter.

Fri., 04/16/10 - 12:47 PM

Do good

Fri., 04/16/10 - 08:38 AM

The horse is out of the barn so to speak. Gas development is well underway and due to our state's financial condition don't expect it to stop anytime soon. The problem here is that while the sources are relatively small individually there are a lot of them so collectively they will be much more of a problem. Environmental regs are usually designed to exempt small sources for financial considerations; individually these sources are small so cost controls are large for the associated environmental benefit. The problem will be that little or no controls on the individual sources will lead to much greater costs/impacts when all of the individual sources are combined.

Fri., 04/16/10 - 07:38 AM

It seems we are all about punishment these days.

Sat., 04/10/10 - 17:50 PM

Lucky goal?!? Come on give me a break! A goalie should never go down on shots from between the face-off dots and the goal line. Boucher has been a disaster in goal. At this point playing against Washington in the first round doesn't appeal to me. Funny how nobody is calling out management for picking up an unproven goalie and not getting a viable back up; letting Nitty go in the off-season was really dumb in hindsight.

Thu., 03/25/10 - 07:11 AM

The fund is mandated to seek a return of 8% a year. Tell me under this requirement what type of bond gives you an interest rate this high? Answer not a government backed one. There is a lot going on here that makes simple analysis difficult. Here are a couple of items from the SERS website that should be contemplated. First the fund has about one worker for each person receiving a retirement check. It pays our ~$2.2B/year and receives about $500M in investments. Worker contributions make up nearly 65% of these of the funds received by SERS (so the state and school districts are only matching half or less of employee contributions). Adding school teacher pensions to SERS have weakened SERS because most school districts have skimped on their payments over the years (the state has too). SERS currently has over $20B in assets and has met or exceeded its mandated return rate of 8%/year for most years. While the fund may run out of money at some point and some hard decisions may be needed in the future I don't think knee-jerk decisions are warranted at this point.

Tue., 03/23/10 - 12:05 PM

Barbarian: At least you understand the basic principles behind Mann's work, which is way more than the rest of the doubters. I have limited knowledge on this topic but the crux here is how well the tree-ring growth rate relates to average spring-summer temperatures (when the tree actually grows). Mann’s data-base is therefore limited to relatively recent (growing season only) time periods where the record can be reconstructed (last several hundred years). We can fuddle around with the tree rings trying to reconstruct what the spring-summer temperature record actually is or we can deep-six this and look at the ice-core and oxygen isotope records which plainly show the correlation between global temperatures and CO2 levels over the long term, that is if you believe the Earth is over 6k years old.

Mon., 03/22/10 - 07:14 AM

One wonders if Jamiw would still be pitching if he had won a world series game, which he should have except for a blown call at 1st base.

Sun., 03/14/10 - 10:12 AM

Not sure if you'll have to wait for long. Interesting price tag on this. Can't wait to see some congress person try and cut this program as "too expensive".

Fri., 03/05/10 - 07:03 AM

Brown's a class act for not kicking Iverson when he's down. In the end I think all the good things he did for the sixer organization out weigh all of the frustration he caused us. This team was dead before he returned. It was nice to see the players and fans generally support him upon his return. I can't help but think that that response did him some good.

Tue., 02/23/10 - 06:48 AM

Lot's of heat and no light, thus far...

Thu., 02/11/10 - 20:24 PM

Jeez, now we own the Devils. Why couldn't we do this ten years ago?!?

Thu., 02/04/10 - 10:18 AM

Tune back tomorrow if you want a more accurate forecast. This morning's model runs pushed the storm more to the south than yesterdays (this suggests less snow for areas west and north of Philly). Getting precipitation forecasts close to reality is very difficult for a number of reasons so don't read too much into exact totals.

Thu., 01/28/10 - 11:59 AM

New sixers coach Kate Fagan, seriously, couldn't the NBA use a woman's touch?!?

Fri., 01/22/10 - 07:36 AM

Could be exposure to autos; gas and combustion gases are probably your largest exposure to carcinogens. Lots of autos along the I-95 corridor. Could be radon exposure also since the MidAtlantic has a high incedence of this.

Sun., 01/10/10 - 11:01 AM

It's winter for crying out loud. I remember it being much colder in the early 80s than this! That said we had some of the warmest and driest summers during that time also.

Tue., 12/22/09 - 09:20 AM

Sun's magnetic field?!? How's that work? The earth's magnetic field is probably much stronger. In fact it's the sun's an other planet's gravity that causes the periodicities in the Earth's orbit that have caused the last several ice ages.

Mon., 12/14/09 - 09:16 AM

Nice history. The basic physics of climate change are undisputable; more CO2 leads to more IR absorption, which should lead to higher temperatures. The only real arguments now are over the magnitude of climate change and how rapidly it will occur. There are a myriad of possibilities ranging from extreme warming (palm trees in the MidAtlantic) to even cooling (freshwater lens over the North Atlantic shutting down the Gulf Stream). The problem here is that we are really stressing the climate system; CO2 levels and climate have been relatively stable for most of our (human) history. What happens next is just about anybody’s guess but looking at the ice-core records and what’s going on now in the Arctic Sea tells me things could get out of whack climate wise very quickly.

Sun., 12/06/09 - 10:50 AM

The missing piece is in goal. The Emery gamble isn't working at the moment. For an organization that had a history of solid goaltending the current situation is a disaster.

Fri., 11/06/09 - 06:31 AM

What a turn around. Years ago this team would have packed it in. Makes you wonder how Temple would be doing if it was able to stay in the Big East conference.

Tue., 11/03/09 - 12:12 PM

For the life of me I don't understand why Happ hasn't been given a start. Would start Happ in game seven with Lee and Hamels in the bullpen. Hope we give Pedro some run support for a change. Go Phils!!!

Tue., 11/03/09 - 11:50 AM

Bus driver was kind enough to take me to the R5 Villanova station this morning. R5 in was late and only had two old Pennsy cars but it wasn't overly crowded. Will take the R6 to Norristown then the 100 to get my car. Probably use the R5 or R6 if this drags on for awhile.

Wed., 10/07/09 - 07:18 AM

Hopefully his salary will be transfered to DEP so they can actually have some bodies to keep an eye on things in the field instead of rehiring another policy wonk who sits at a desk all day. Yea right....