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Members of the House State Government and House Finance committees held a public hearing in Harrisburg last week on several pieces of legislation to address Pennsylvania’s public pension funding crisis, says State Rep. Jim Cox (R-129) 

Many of the proposals seek to phase in a defined contribution plan, rather than a defined benefit plan, for public employees, public school employees and state legislators. 

At the end of the last fiscal year, Pennsylvania’s pension funds for state employees and for school employees were underfunded by more than $30 billion.

Pennsylvania legislative leaders recently convicted of various crimes withdrew beaucoup bucks from the state retirement system before the hammer came down on them.

59 percent of U.S. smartphone owners used their device in 2011 to find a better price while shopping in-store, according to emarketer.com.

 Members of the House Veterans Affairs and Emergency Preparedness Committee held a public hearing in Juniata Countylast week to examine a proposal to update the state’s Emergency Management Services Code, or Title 35, says State Rep. Jim Cox (R-129). 

House Bill 2562, which was introduced by Steve Barrar (R-160), would update existing statute by addressing several areas of the law, including: 

• Dependent care facilities planning. 

• Powers and duties of county and local emergency management programs. 

• County animal rescue teams. 

• Public health measures. 

• Certification and accreditation of emergency professionals. 

• Regionalization of emergency management programs. 

Title 35 was last updated in 1996 and testifiers at the hearing indicated the need to modernize the system and enhance communication among responders at all levels to ensure successful emergency response. 

Multiple statewide hearings on the bill are planned in the coming weeks. 

Ever wonder what life was like before TV? When there was no video games? 

Kira Davis has released this  response to obnoxious statements commentator Toure Neblett made on MSNBC regarding Mitt Romney.

By Jim Vanore

I quit smoking thirty-two years ago, when cigarettes were well under a buck a pack—about sixty-five cents, as I recall. Today, here in Jersey, I was surprised to find out that they hover around eight bucks a pack, and in New York, they can cost twelve dollars.

That means each smoke you light up today can cost essentially what an entire pack cost in 1980. You would think that economics alone would bring the tobacco industry to its knees, and in fact, that largely is what’s being done—or at least being attempted, because the majority of that price increase over the years has been from taxes, as opposed to the actual cost of tobacco.

So if you smoke a mere pack a day and gave up the habit, you would stash away more than three grand a year—tax free! And even if you’re not a saver, think what you could do with an extra eight dollars a day. Every day!

Someone once scoffed at the price of my first novel—Grave Departure—which retails for $9.95. “Ten bucks is a lot to pay for a book by an unknown novelist,” he told me as he lit up a cigarette.

Now, I have a pretty good brain, but not a terribly quick one. If it were quicker, I would have done the afore-mentioned calculations and told him that if he gave up smoking for two days, he could afford my novel. If he gave it up for a week, he could afford the top tier of the New York Times Best-Seller List!

Excerpted from Good Writers Block

Ed note: Congrats to Jim for the nomination of his short story, Foxhole, for Book of the Month by Long and the Short Mystery Reviews.

A quarter of Americans will use a social networking site at least one a month by the end of this year.