Month: January 2010
Volpe To Discuss Pittsburgh VA Matter
Investigative journalist Michael Volpe will discuss the strange case of Anna Chacko and the Veterans Affairs Pittsburgh Health System, 8 tonight on Blog Talk Radio which can be heard live or afterwards at http://www.blogtalkradio.com/patriotaction/2010/01/22/patriot-action-live
God Bless Rendell (for a change)
Ed Rendell has not been the most competent governor to lead our state but God bless him for the effort he put out to rescue those 54 orphans from Haiti and for persevering through the garbage thrown at him to get the job done.
Here’s a story about what the mission had to go through before a successful end.
Benefield’s Excellent Plan For Not Tolling I-80
The Big-Spenders-With-Our-Ransacked-Money (BSWORMs) who now run Pennsylvania are still scheming for toll booths on I-80.
Nathan Benefield of the Commonwealth Foundation has come up with a list of alternatives for finding the desperately needed dollars that the BSWORMs say must come from new government-caused traffic snarls.
Benefield’s suggestions are:
- Repeal prevailing wage laws which mandate wages for government projects 40 percent higher, on average, than the private sector pays for the same work; and would free up hundred of millions, if not billions, for highway construction and repair.
- Stop redirecting highway and bridge money to other purposes.
- Enable public-private partnerships, especially for new construction like express lanes, high occupancy lanes, new highways, new bridges etc.
- Eliminate the Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission (PTC) –rolling the Turnpike Commission into PennDOT, would eliminate an unnecessary bureaucracy and offer substantial saving in transportation spending.
- Privatize rest stops.
Excellent ideas all; and I would also point out that forbidding all government workers from striking — which would include SEPTA employees and public school teachers — would free up a lot of state money for highway projects since the state would not have to subsidize public schools and transportation to the degree it now does.
I would also point out that making the Pennsylvania Turnpike a freeway and replacing the revenue by hiking the gasoline tax (or by spending less) would be a net tax cut since we would no longer have to pay the people to snarl the traffic.
Planned Parenthood ‘Supercenter’ To Be In A Black Neighborhood
Planned Parenthood is preparing to open a “supercenter” this spring in Houston. It will be six stories and 78,000 square feet and have a “surgical wing” for abortions.
It will be in a Black and Hispanic neighborhood.
Margaret Sanger, the founder of Planned Parenthood, believed the country would be better off with fewer Blacks (and Italians, and Slavs and Jews for that matter).
Today, Blacks, who make up about 13. 5 percent of the population, have 36 percent of abortions.
Planned Parenthood ‘Supercenter’ To Be In A Black Neighborhood
East Stroudsburg Sex Scandal Fearless Coverage
East Stroudsburg Sex Scandal Fearless Coverage — May the Pocono Record get a Pulitzer Prize for its reporting of the sex scandal at East Stroudsburg University, which is a state institution administered by the Pennsylvania State System of Higher Education.
Six current and former students are suing the university, its trustees and current and former administrators alleging that a former administrator at ESU used money and gifts to repeatedly solicit unwanted sex from them, and that other administrators covered up the matter.
The suit was filed in Monroe County Common Pleas Court last February and moved to U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Pennsylvania a month later
The administrator accused of the homosexual harassment is Isaac Sanders, who was then vice president for university advancement and executive director of the ESU Foundation. He was fired in October 2008, about a year after the first complaints were made.
The latest story describes how one student, a freshman, describes how he was harassed by Sanders and how the superiors of the school’s then director of diversity and campus mediation attempted to influence his investigation of the matter.
Just in case you might have missed this in the Philadelphia Inquirer or Delaware County Daily Times.
East Stroudsburg Sex Scandal Fearless Coverage
Does Billion Dollar Spending Hike Loom For Pa. After All?
McCall.Com is reporting that Gov. Rendell along with the leadership in the state Senate and House has agreed that state spending will increase by $1 billion for 2010-11.
“We’ve agreed with the Legislature we will try to hold spending growth to about 4 percent,” Rendell reportedly said in a conference call. That would mean mean a $1 billion increase to the current $27.8 billion budget.
State Senate Minority Appropriations Committee Chairman Jay Costa (D-43) said a $1.2 billion spending hike is expected.
Anna Chacko Kept VA Job After Intervention By N.C. Dem
Anna Chacko Kept VA Job After Intervention By N.C. Dem — The head of radiology at the Veterans Affairs Pittsburgh Health System had her job saved by North Carolina Congressman Brad Miller (D-NC13).
Why?
Dr. Anna Chacko was hired in October 2008 or, according to Miller, September 2008. Previously, she had headed the radiology department at St. James Hospital in Butte, Mt., a job she left after 15 months in which she left the department in turmoil and was prominently named in at least four lawsuits, according to Mike Volpe at BigGovernment.Com.
Before that she spent a year at the Boston University until she was removed after complaints of sexual harassment to the human resources department, according to Volpe.
And before that she spent six years at Lahey Clinic in the Boston suburb of Burlington before being fired after which security reportedly had to forcibly carry her out while Dr. Chacko — who is of Indian descent — screamed “Kiss my big Indian Ass,” according to Volpe.
Well, in March ’09 the Pittsburgh VA had convened an administrative investigative board regarding Dr. Chacko and the expectation was that she would lose her job after just five months. A lawyer got Dr. Chacko some breathing room when he convinced the powers-that-be that she was denied due process, and a new hearing was scheduled for May 21.
It never convened, however, due to this letter from Miller to Gen. Erick Shinseki, the secretary for the Department of Veterans Affairs and the word was passed to stop the attempts to remove Dr. Chacko.
Dr. Chacko was ordered to complete an anger management course and she returned to work Aug. 1. Complaints resumed, however, and in October she was placed on indefinite administrative leave. A formal notice of termination has been issued to her effective Jan. 25.
So why did a North Carolina congressmen intervene in this matter and how did Dr. Chacko get the job in the first place?
Volpe has contacted Miller for a response, and Miller has declined to give him one.
Anna Chacko Kept VA Job After Intervention By N.C. Dem
Rick Schenker Quits Lt. Gov Race
Maybe you can chalk this one up as a victory for President Obama. Former Erie County Executive Rick Schenker, a Republican, announced yesterday that
he is ending his bid for lieutenant governor.
“My employment and economic circumstances have changed drastically causing me to look for employment all over the country,” Schenker said.
Still
in the race for the GOP nomination are:
Carol Aichele (Chester County Commissioner)
Bruce L. Castor Jr. (ex-Montco D.A.)
James F. Cawley (Bucks County Commissioner)
Russ Diamond (founder of PACleanSweep)
Dominic D. “Nick” DiFrancesco II (Dauphin County Commissioner)
John H. Eichelberger, Jr. (state senator representing the 30th District)
James R. Matthews (Montco Commissioner, last GOP Lt. Gov candidate, Chris Matthews’ brother)
Frank L. Rizzo Jr. (Philly councilman, son of legendary mayor)
Mike Turzai (state representative for the 28th District)
Joseph P. Watkins (pastor of Christ Evangelical Lutheran Church, the oldest African American Lutheran Church in Philadelphia)
Seeking the Democratic nod are:
Michael F. “Mike” Gerber (state representative for the 148th District)
Valerie McDonald Roberts (Allegheny County recorder of deeds)
Jonathan A. Saidel (former Philadelphia city controller)
Josh Shapiro (state representative for the 153rd District)
Doris Smith-Ribner (former Commonwealth Court judge)
The primary election is May 18.
Rendell Wants $170 Million In Spending Cuts
Rendell Wants $170 Million In Spending Cuts — Pennsylvania’s Obamaconic budget crisis has caused Gov. Ed Rendell to announce a plan to cut state spending by $170 million and has specified where $161 million of those cuts would be.
It should be noted that Rendell said he was cutting last year but spending actually rose.
Under the just announced plan, State Correctional Institutions would receive $15.377 million less than last year. This appears to be the biggest line item cut.
Public Welfare would be cut $53.688 million, with County Child Welfare (-$10.4 million), Acute Care Hospitals (-$4.7 million), Autism Intervention and Services (-$4.5 million), the Human Services Development Fund (-$4 million), and Health Care Clinics (-$3 million) taking the biggest hits. Money to the acute care hospitals and health care clinics would, in fact, being zeroed out.
State money for education would be cut by $27.835 million with the biggest share of the cuts coming in the Authority Rentals and Sinking Fund Requirements line item at $11.5 million.
Things like Cultural Preservation Assistance, Regional History Centers and Minority Business Development would be zeroed out.
For the complete list see here.