Posted in Uncategorized on Dec 12th, 2007 1 Comment »
• Where things stand: It’s wait till next year after all. Majority Leader Bill DeWeese (D-Greene) announced yesterday evening that the House will take up the final passage vote on Senate Bill 1 as the first order of business this morning at 10. Sen. Dominic Pileggi R-Chester), that body’s majority leader and the prime sponsor […]
Posted in Uncategorized on Dec 11th, 2007 No Comments »
Wait till next year.
“Somebody once said when the legislative process is really geared up it’s an awesome thing to behold,” Pennsylvania Newspaper Association lobbyist Deb Musselman told the AP’s Mark Scolforo yesterday. “With two days left, and both chambers in town, we’re still optimistic.”
But a press release this morning from Senate Majority Leader Dominic […]
Posted in Uncategorized on Dec 11th, 2007 No Comments »
Dan Moul (R-Adams) recently wrote a letter to the editor of the Evening Sun in Hanover. Mr. Moul, who was elected to the House as part of the 2006 reform wave that led to the replacement of 50 state legislators after the 2005 pay-raise scandal, explained why he voted to exclude all emails from the […]
Posted in Uncategorized on Dec 10th, 2007 No Comments »
It may pale in comparison to D-Day, and they will certainly never make a movie about it, but today is the beginning of W-Week, the last chance we have to get open records reform legislation passed this year.
All year we have been told that a new open records law is the foundation of […]
Posted in Uncategorized on Dec 7th, 2007 No Comments »
Having been out of state for a while, I am scrambling to figure out what is going on with reform efforts in general and the open-records fight in particular. So I turned to the folks who have been following this “process” all along, and they are as bewildered as I am. No betting man or […]
Posted in Uncategorized on Dec 6th, 2007 No Comments »
What are they doing? What are they saying? Who is saying what? Why are they saying what they are saying and doing what they are doing?
I don’t know, but with Bill DeWeese and Vince Fumo beating the drum for open records reform, with the Black Caucus walking out just before a vote was to be […]
Posted in Uncategorized on Dec 5th, 2007 No Comments »
Several members of the Legislature have walked out of the House session just before the open records vote. From the AP:
Black lawmakers in the Pennsylvania House walked off the floor Wednesday to force action on gun legislation and some threatened to boycott the remainder of the year’s session.
Posted in Uncategorized on Dec 5th, 2007 No Comments »
The Pottstown Mercury likes HB 2072 better than SB 1. The Allentown Morning Call agrees, but thinks that both versions of the law lack teeth to enforce the more stringent regulations, while The Erie Times-News suggests that Pennsylvanians “cross their fingers” and hope for reform.
The Pottsville Republican & Herald says […]
Posted in Uncategorized on Dec 4th, 2007 No Comments »
The House Appropriations Committee voted along party lines yesterday to send SB 1 to the house floor for debate today. Republicans on the committee voted against the bill because of procedural issues, reports the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette:
“This is outrageous,” said Rep. Scott Petri, R-Bucks. “Senate Bill 1 is 47 pages long and we haven’t had […]
Posted in Uncategorized on Dec 4th, 2007 No Comments »
From township, cities, counties, and the state, there are lots of PA government entities creating records hurdles for the media.
The Pocono Record reports that on a “settlement agreement Tunkhannock Township supervisors made with a former employee and tried to keep quiet” that is “about 2½ times more expensive than the township previously disclosed.”
The Patriot […]