PITTSBURGH POST-GAZETTE COLUMN: …The ballot question goes like this: “Shall the Pennsylvania Constitution be amended to require that justices of the Supreme Court, judges and magisterial district judges be retired on the last day of the calendar year in which they attain the age of 75 years?” Sounds pretty reasonable, right? Jurists, who enjoy about […]
Kathleen Kane, Former Pennsylvania Attorney General, Is Sentenced to Prison
NEW YORK TIMES: The brief, unlikely political career of Kathleen G. Kane, Pennsylvania’s brightest rising star when she was elected attorney general less than four years ago, came to a humiliating close on Monday when a judge sentenced her to 10 to 23 months in prison for her conviction on charges of perjury and abuse […]
Kremlin Conducts Large Scale Nuclear-Bomb Survival Drills for 40 Million Russians
WALL STREET JOURNAL: …The country recently held its biggest civil defense drills since the collapse of the U.S.S.R., with what officials said were 40 million people rehearsing a response to chemical and nuclear threats… The rhetoric reinforces Russians’ idea that their country is a superpower on par with the U.S. It also offers a distraction […]
Who pays for higher ed hike?
By Dick Miller WE.CONNECT.DOTS: Who will pay for the settlement State System for Higher Education made with the union representing 5,000 faculty members on Friday? Senators spent this week on new laws allowing cops to wear body cameras without telling citizens and use radar for local speed traps. If progress was made on pension reform, […]
Recent Russian Events That Are of Significance
By Slava Tsukerman This week three events were most commented upon in Russian press. From the first look these events have nothing in common. Still they are so characteristic of today’s Russia that together they give pretty accurate sense of the atmosphere in the country. The first event happened on October 9, two days after […]
Warnings of conspiracy stoke anger among Trump faithful
BOSTON GLOBE: … Anger and hostility were the most overwhelming sentiments at a Trump rally in Cincinnati last week, a deep sense of frustration, an us-versus-them mentality, and a belief that they are part of an unstoppable and underestimated movement. Unlike many in the country, however, these hard-core Trump followers do not believe the real […]
Say “No” again to judges
By Dick Miller WE.CONNECT.DOTS: Pennsylvania was once known for the quality of its judicial system. At least that is the claim of Peter F. Vaira, a respected former U.S. Attorney from Philadelphia. Today, this branch of state government could more aptly be branded as a “good ole boy legal system,” similar to what ruled southern […]
BUDAPEST BEACON: Thousands protest closure of Népszabadság and corruption in Budapest
By Justin Spike, originally published at the Budapest Beacon Oct. 16, 2016, reprinted here by permission. “When those in power believe the media is their opponent, that’s a very big problem. Because it means they are afraid. In my opinion, they should not take up the fight by banning newspapers and media outlets. Rather, they […]
Weed is Going to Win Big in November
Home » Drug War Chronicle » Issue #947 by Phil Smith This article was produced in collaboration with AlterNet and first appeared here. A month out from Election Day, it’s looking like marijuana legalization is going to be a big winner. Initiatives are on the ballot in five states, including California, and all indications are that they are going to […]
LNP editorial tip toes around city’s hundred forty million dollar storm water / sanitary sewage price tag
By Robert Field LNP’s editorial “Becoming good stewards of the Chesapeake Bay” at long last lifts up the lid a bit more to allow its readers to take a peak at what is brewing as a result of the Rick Gray administrations blatant ignoring and concealing the largest financial challenge that the […]
KEISLING: Does Trump have hidden support in Pennsylvania?
The ‘Undercover Trump Voter’: A ‘Reverse Bradley Effect?’ Donald Trump is pandering to angry, often under-educated and politically unsophisticated voters in Pennsylvania and elsewhere. So are voters shy to tell pollsters of their real voting intentions? by Bill Keisling Is Donald Trump’s support in Pennsylvania stronger than polls suggest? In the last several weeks polls have placed […]
Federal agencies to stop accepting Pa. driver’s licenses as proof of identity
PITTSBURGH TRIB LIVE: Federal agencies will begin rejecting Pennsylvania driver’s licenses and photo IDs as official forms of identification on Jan. 30 unless the state comes into compliance with a national law that sets standards for state-issued IDs. Pennsylvanians won’t be able to use their state IDs to enter military bases, nuclear power plants and […]
“Right-wing extremism is on the rise in Europe” – Mitchell Orenstein and Daniel Kelemen
BUDAPEST SENTINEL: One thing Brexit shows is that it is not really fruitful to try and appease these kind of right-wing, anti-EU, Eurosceptic movements, which (former British prime minister David) Cameron tried to do. In fact, one of the concerns that stopped the EU and the commissioners from doing more against Orbán earlier was that […]
Is Putin’s war on Syria prelude to something much worse?
By Slava Tsukerman Reading Russian newspapers and watching Russian state controlled TV can bring one to conclusion that Russia is preparing for the start of nuclear war. On September 30, Russian government officially informed Muscovites that underground shelters had been built, which could house 12 million people, enough for the entire population of Moscow. Russian […]