Pastor Watkins Ends Lt. Gov. Bid

Joe Watkins, the pastor of Christ Evangelical Lutheran Church which is the oldest African American Lutheran Church in Philadelphia, has announced he is ending his bid to be the Republican nominee for lieutenant governor making the road for party-endorsed Joe Cawley, a Bucks County Commissioner, that much smoother.

Watkins was expected to Cawley’s biggest threat.

Those saying they are still in the race are:
Chet Beiler — former Lancaster County GOP chairman
Steve Johnson– York County businessman
Russ Diamond, founder of PaCleanSweep

Candidates who still have their campaign websites up include:
Billy McCue, a businessman
John Kennedy, a former state representative

The Democratic candidates are party-endorsed Jonathan Sadel, a former Philadelphia city controller; and Doris Smith-Ribner, a retired Commonwealth Courth judge.

The primary election is May 18.

More Seek Murtha Seat


The ballot to replace Democrat John Murtha as the representative for Pa-12 in Congress has gotten longer with announcements by Murtha’s former district director Mark Critz and Cambria County Controller Ed Cernic Jr. that they will seek the seat.

They join fellow Democrats former Lt. Gov Mark Singel and former State Treasurer Barbera Hafer in the race along with Ron Mackell Jr. and 34-year-old Ryan Bucchianeri who had begun primary challenges before Murtha’s Feb. 8 death.

Meanwhile, Murtha’s widow, Joyce, has announced she will not run.

The
leading contender for the GOP nomination is Bill Russell, who was
Murtha’s opposition in 2008.  GOP activist Dave Battaglia  and
businessman Tim Burns were also GOP primary candidates.

There will be a special election May 18, the day of the primary election, to fill the remaining months of Murtha’s term. The election for a full two-year term, of course, is in November.

Pa House Members Use Per Diem To Buy Houses

Pennsylvania state representatives  who don’t live within 50 miles of Harrisburg are eligible for a $163 per diem when in the state capital on legislative business. The money is supposed to be used for food and board — $111 for housing and $52 for meals.

It turns out some of members of our legislature are using it to solve the housing crisis.

For instance Jim Wansacz (D-114), rather than stay at hotels, bought a three-story row home at314 S. Second St. on Oct. 2, 2003, for $72,000, and is using the per diem to pay off his 30-year mortgage. Pretty clever.

He acknowledges he also rents to other legislators.

Now you might wonder why our representatives need the stipend since they are already getting a base pay of $78,000 along with a lot of really great benefits, but that would just show your insensitivity and intolerance to the important work they do.

For a list of other houses being bought by House members see this story from the Scranton Times-Tribune.

For solution to the problem, see this.

Kudos to Nathan Benefield of Commwealth Foundation for the tip.

 

Pa House Members Use Per Diem

 

Pa House Members Use Per Diem To Buy Houses

Rendell Tax Would Hurt Pa.’s Surprisingly Large Online Cigar Biz


Pennsylvania is one of two states without a tax on the sale of cigars — the other being Florida — and Gov. Ed Rendell is again attempting to let the Sunshine State own the field with the assumption that it would have no impact on the Pa. economy, as Commonwealth Federation’s Nathan Benefield points out.

However, Pennsylvania’s near unique status has caused it to become the headquarters for a large number of online cigar and smokeless tobacco retailers — such as Famous Smoke Shop, Cigars International, and Holt’s —that do tens of millions of dollars in online business, which is subject to corporate tax, and who employee hundreds of Pennsylvanians  who do pay income, property and sales taxes.

It should be obvious that these companies would not find it that hard to move to the land of orange trees.

Cigar International, a $90 million company with  150 employees, is one that would consider it according to its CEO Keith Meier.

It should be obvious that this would hurt the Pennsylvania economy.

But we are dealing with Democrats, however.

Welch Quits 6th District Race

Chester County businessman Steven Welch announced this morning that he is ending his quest to represent Pennsylvania’s 6th District in Congress preventing what could have been a costly primary battle with incumbent Jim Gerlach.

Gerlach said last year he was going to seek a move to the Governor’s Mansion rather than re-election to Congress, causing several strong candidates to put their hats in the ring for the GOP primary. Gerlach ended the gubernatorial bid Jan. 7. The next day he announced he was going to try to keep his House seat.

State Rep. Curt Schroder (R-155) left the field, Jan. 11, so with Welch’s announcement the most dangerous primary challengers to Gerlach are out of the game.

The gerrymanded 6th District 
includes Lower Merion in Montgomery County, Coatesville and Yellow Springs in
Chester County, a large part of Berks County and part of Lehigh County.

Kudos to Pa2010.Com for the tip.

Singel Seeks Murtha Seat

Former Lt. Gov. Mark Singel has announced that he will seek the 12th District Pennsylvania congressional seat left vacant by the Feb. 8 death of fellow Democrat John Murtha.

A special election will be held, May 18, the same day as the primary election, to fill the remaining months of Murtha’s term. An election for a fresh term will occur in November.

Singel represented the 35th District in the state senate from 1981-87, before becoming being elected lieutenant governor with Gov. Bob Casey. He wasacting governor for six months in 1993.

Ron Mackell Jr. and 34-year-old Ryan Bucchianeri  had announced primary challenges to Murtha. With the congressman’s death former state Treasurer Barbera Hafer has also expressed interest in the seat. Another possible candidate is Murtha’s widow, Joyce.

The leading contender for the GOP nomination is Bill Russell, who was Murtha’s opposition in 2008.  GOP activist Dave Battaglia  and businessman Tim Burns were also GOP primary candidates.

I’ve met Singel. Somehow, the subject of economist Milton Friedman came up. Singel seemed confused as to who he was then dismissed him saying something akin to “he’s from the 60s”.

Teacher Salaries Listed For Pa. And N.J.

 

The oppressed masses in the Rose Tree Media Education Association — the union the covers teachers, school nurses and guidance counselors in the Rose Tree Media School District — voted to strike Wednesday.

Obviously, the working conditions in the district must be horrible for these caring professionals to take the drastic step of harming a child’s education.

And they are! Consider the plight of Springton Lake Middle School physical education teacher Stephen Adams. His salary was $87,329 in 2009. And that was for 195 days grueling days of teaching gym class. Granted, he also gets benefits but can’t you understand why he might have to vote to hurt a child with working conditions such as that?

Or consider Indian Lane Elementary School teacher David Woods. He  made a mere $95,817  in 2009. I weep for these people.

BTW, this link can give you the salaries of just about every public school teacher in Pennsylvania.

This one can give you the salaries of just about every public school teacher in New Jersey.

Airport Screenings By F-Troop

F-Troop — I mean the Transportation Security Administration — sprang into action, Monday, after a passenger was flagged for having suspicious objects in his carry-on at Newark Liberty International Airport a.k.a Fort Courage.

Agents quickly apprehended a person, unfortunately the person was not the person flagged.

Parts of TerminalA were closed for over an hour as agents looked for the passenger.

He was never found.

After the search, a heavy TSA agent was seen smacking a skinny TSA agent with his hat and heard shouting “Gilligan”.

Lower Merion Spied On Students Via Laptop

Lower Merion Spied On Students Via Laptop
Blake Robbins being watched at home.

Lower Merion Spied On Students Via Laptop — A federal class action lawsuit was filed Feb. 16  alleging that Lower Merion School District used the webcams in the laptops distributed to students to spy on them in their homes.

The case, Robbins v Lower Merion School District,  is being heard in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia.

The suit was filed by Michael E. and Holly S. Robbins on behalf of their son Blake, a student at Harriton High School, and the 1,800 or so other students at Harriton and  Lower Merion, the district’s other high school.

The suit  seeks damages caused by school district’s alleged invasion of privacy, theft of private information, and unlawful interception of electronic communications, and alleges the district broke numerous  state and federal laws including the Electronic Communications Privacy Act, the Pennsylvania Wiretapping and Electronic Surveillance Act, along with the defendants’ Fourth Amendment Rights.

Lower Merion distributed the laptops to each high school student. Unbeknown to the students and the parents, the school district had the ability to remotely, and at anytime, activate the embedded webcam capturing the images in front of the camera.

The Robbins learned about this ability Nov. 9  when Harriton Assistant Principal Lindy Matsko told them that Blake was engaged in improper behavior in his home and presented as evidence a photograph taken via the webcam from the laptop the school gave Blake.

The suit doesn’t say what exactly Blake was doing but whatever it was it was not as bad as public officials stomping over duly passed laws.

The case is being handled by the law firm of Lamm Rubenstone LLC of Trevose, Pa. They can be reached at 1-215-638-9330. They were contacted and confirmed the filing of the suit.

 

Lower Merion Spied On Students Via Laptop

Cut Pennsylvania Legislature Size?

It seems a crusade is trying to be started to cut the size of the Pennsylvania state legislature to make it more like California, a significantly larger state in terms of geography and population which has 120 legislators compared to Pennsylvania’s 253 and which spends less on legislative salaries than Pa. Cut Pennsylvania Legislature Size?

Of course, as poorly as Pennsylvania is run I’m not so sure we would want to trade places with the not-so-anymore Golden State.

And why would we want to give up representation? It sounds more like a ploy to increase the influence of city machines, such as that of Philadelphia, than to save money.

So why not a crusade to go the other direction — increase the size of the legislature yet cut the salaries and benefits. For instance, New Hampshire, a significantly smaller state than Pa in terms of geography and population has 424 legislators but pays them just $200 for a two year term.

Of course, we don’t have to go that far. We can keep the size of the legislature as is and simply cut salaries.

The base pay for legislators is about $78,000. This doesn’t includes bennies, of course, and committee chairmen and party leaders and such get more.

So how about this:  Change the pay scale to $1,000 per day for the month of February. There would be no benefits, of course, but $28,000 — or $29,000 I don’t oppose the extra grand for leap years — is  still pretty sweet, and ending bennies would have the educational effect of making our servants understand what we must go through when funding retirements and buying health insurance.

The would be no per diem to cover expense, but a hotel near the Capitol would be rented at taxpayer expense to provide free rooms — two per room with the roommates being of opposing parties where possible. Breakfast and dinner buffets akin to those available to dormers at our state colleges would also be provided at taxpayer expense.

Missing votes will result in a loss of the day’s pay.

If the legislative business should be required to go beyond February, our servants will still get the free room and board but the pay scale would drop to $50 per day.

An interesting experiment might be mandating the rooming at the hotel while encouraging the legislators to exercise their Second Amendment rights to personal protection.

Regardless, in no way do we want to be like California.

 Cut Pennsylvania Legislature Size?