PITTSBURGH TRIBUNE: … “There’s been nothing as systemic, as enduring and widespread,” Peter Samuel, publisher of Tollroadsnews.com in Frederick, Md., said of allegations in a state grand jury report last month.
Attorney General Kathleen Kane has said the investigation continues; the grand jury had concluded that eight people, including a former Senate Democratic leader and former top turnpike officials, used the agency as a “cash cow” to raise campaign money for lawmakers and gubernatorial candidates. Campaign donations and gifts paved the way for rigged turnpike contracts in a pay-to-play scheme, the grand jury said…
Pennsylvania’s corruption appears to be “the worst such case, of a large scale, over a long period of time,” said Robert Poole, transportation fellow at the Reason Foundation, a free-market think tank in Los Angeles. The grand jury report covered activities over a decade… (more)
