According to a motion filed June 18, the company opposed the city’s requested stay because it would prevent Covanata from jockeying for priority repayment through proceeds from the upcoming Wild West artifacts auction that begins July 15 on the same public works compound as the incinerator… (more)
Month: June 2013
Gov. Corbett writes newspaper column, but state worker gagged
Should the governor of Pennsylvania and his top staff be allowed to write commentary for newspapers and journals, but not other state workers? That’s a controversy now brewing in Harrisburg.
Younger Americans still utilize public libraries, survey finds
PITTSBURGH POST-GAZETTE: People in their 20s and older teens are just as likely as older Americans to have visited a public library in the past year — and about as likely to have taken out books or browsed the shelves once they got there, a new study from the Pew Research Center’s Internet & American […]
Turnpike staffer testifies about contractor’s cozy dealings with officials
PITTSBURGH TRIBUNE: Testimony at a preliminary hearing Wednesday in a pay-to-play scandal at the PennsylvaniIA Turnpike included allegations of gifts to agency officials. During the third day of the hearing, expected to last through Friday, testimony began to emerge about agency officials and vendors also raising campaign money, mostly for top Democrats… [Deborah Davis, the […]
“The Future”: A complex ethical calculus
“One of the early pioneers of in vitro fertilization, Dr. Jeffrey Steinberg, who runs the Los Angeles Fertility Institutes, said that the beginning of the age of activite trait selection is now upon us. ‘It’s time for everyone to pull their heads out of the sand,’ says Steinberg.
Barney Frank Backs Heroin Legalization, Has ‘Never Been Tempted’ To Try It
HUFFINGTON POST: The Massachusetts Democrat is writing a book that will make the case for why the government is and can be a force of good, he told The Huffington Post in an interview. Part of Frank’s case rests on the idea that if Congress could pay for more, important social services it provides would […]
Scalia Dissent: Gay Marriage Decision ‘Jaw-Dropping’
NEWS MAX: …”Today’s opinion aggrandizes the power of the court to pronounce the law,” [Justice Antonin ] Scalia wrote in the dissenting opinion. It will have the predictable consequence of diminishing the “power of our people to govern themselves,” wrote Scalia, who was joined in his dissent by Justices Clarence Thomas and Chief Justice John […]
N.J.’s largest newspaper says closure looms
USA TODAY/AP: The owners of The Star-Ledger plan to close New Jersey’s largest newspaper by year’s end if its production unions don’t make concessions in contract negotiations, the publisher said Wednesday. In a letter to staff, publisher Richard Vezza said the company felt “pushed into a corner” by the unions, whose contracts expire in July. […]
License-plate readers let police collect millions of records on drivers
The paperback-size device, installed on the outside of police cars, can log thousands of license plates in an eight-hour patrol shift. Katz-Lacabe said it had photographed his two cars on 112 occasions, including one image from 2009 that shows him and his daughters stepping out of his Toyota Prius in their driveway.
Morsi: Divisions threaten to paralyse Egypt
ALJAZEERA: In an address to the nation from Cairo on Wednesday, he acknowledged that he made errors but also blamed unspecified “enemies of Egypt” for damaging the democratic system that sprung out of the uprising of 2011. “Political polarisation and conflict has reached a stage that threatens our nascent democratic experience and threatens to put […]
Twin Supreme Court victories for gay Americans
FINANCIAL TIMES: The Supreme Court has handed two landmark victories to gay Americans and advocates of same-sex marriage, ordering the federal government to recognise legally married gay couples and paving the way for the resumption of same-sex weddings in California…
Corbett Calls Obama’s Climate Change Proposal A War On Coal And Jobs
STATE IMPACT: Governor Tom Corbett reacted to President Obama’s climate change proposal today, calling the initiative a “war on coal” and a “war on jobs.” “Here in Pennsylvania, nearly 63,000 men and women, including 8,100 miners, work in jobs supported by the coal industry.” Corbett said in a statement. “This proposal is not only a […]
There’s no end in sight to ongoing turmoil at Penn State
… the former Penn State administrators accused of covering up complaints about Sandusky have yet to stand trial. Former President Graham Spanier, former Vice President Gary Schultz and former athletic director Tim Curley maintain their innocence.
At Turnpike pay-to-play hearing, witnesses describe how contracts were awarded
Marrone told District Justice William Wenner that former Turnpike Chief Operating Officer George Hatalowich would tell him what firms to rank highly before each meeting…