A just-released study by Transportation for America says 26.5% percent of Pennsylvania’s bridges – or roughly 6,000 – have critical structural problems, earning the Keystone State the distinction of being The Most Dangerous State In The Union To Drive Across A Bridge. Don’t expect that to change any time soon. “Are we trying to … find the funds for it? Yes. But I will go back, and you’ve heard me say it repeatedly: we inherited a $4.3 billion deficit that we have to resolve,” Governor Tom Corbett told Newswork’s Scott Detrow. In the meantime, we might want to start equipping […]
Reality Checking The Fables Of Budget Deconstruction
THIS IS OUR MONEY: LIE NO. 3: The prison budget increase is due to criminals, not poor policy. “In 1993, Pennsylvania had 24,000 men and women in its prisons. Today that number is over 50,000. This number speaks to a failure. Sometimes it’s a failure in our schools, or in our society, but ultimately in the personal character of the criminal.” – Tom Corbett Corbett’s budget includes a $186 million increase for the state Department of Corrections. That’s an 11 percent jump, part of a long trend of skyrocketing state prison costs. Corbett attributes this trend to the personal failings […]
PRICE IS RIGHT: Bob Barker Donates $1 Million To The Movement To Stop Pennsyltucky Pigeon Shoots
Dead pigeon, 20th & Springarden, October 1st, 2008 [photo by RAY SKWIRE] DAILY NEWS: Animal-rights activists, buoyed by the donation of $1 million to their cause by former game-show host Bob Barker, say that the money will go to help fight a Bucks County gun club known for its live pigeon shoots. The Philadelphia Gun Club, located on the Delaware River, in Bensalem Township, is “secretive” about the shoots, and protesters don’t know when the next shoot will be but plan to be there to voice displeasure, Steve Hindi, founder of an anti-cruelty group called SHARK, said late last week. […]
OFFICIAL: It’s Here — Now What?
ASSOCIATED PRESS: Health officials confirmed Pennsylvania’s first case of swine flu Sunday in a 31-year-old man in suburban Philadelphia’s Montgomery County. Gov. Ed Rendell told reporters at a late afternoon news conference that the man had recently arrived from Mexico but had recovered. State health officials said they are investigating seven more probable cases of the illness, including the first outside of the Philadelphia area , two cases in Philadelphia, two cases in Montgomery County and one each in Bucks County, Lycoming and Luzerne counties. Pennsylvania Health Secretary Everette James urged residents to remain calm and said officials are taking […]