INQUIRER: In a bitter and secret legal fight, state Attorney General Kathleen Kane has succeeded in ousting the judge who has long overseen corruption investigations in Pennsylvania, The Inquirer has learned. After a conflict that had been roiling since she took office in January, Kane took the unusual step of asking the state Supreme Court to remove Judge Barry F. Feudale as the supervising grand jury judge in Harrisburg. Kane told the high court in April in sealed papers that the judge was no longer fit to run a grand jury. Among other concerns, she cited an episode in which Feudale, stopping at her offices, showed a secretary a 10-inch knife. Feudale, 67, has overseen grand juries in some of the Attorney General’s Office’s biggest cases, including the Bonusgate scandal in the legislature and the Pennsylvania State University child sex-abuse case. Asked about Kane’s allegations, he called them “a sneak attack” that twisted facts. MORE
WASHINGTON POST: The 47-year-old Kane, who made waves Thursday by refusing to defend the state’s same-sex marriage ban in federal court, has quickly established herself as an up-and-coming Democrat who is willing to challenge powerful politicians to achieve her aims. She has already clashed repeatedly with her state’s Republican governor, Tom Corbett, who is slipping in the polls and must now defend Pennsylvania’s gay marriage law on his own. “It’s the role of the attorney general to be an independently elected voice,” Kane said the day after winning the attorney’s general race. “People see politics as a close-knit, good ol’ boy network, and I want to change that starting Day One.” MORE