Browsing Month June, 2013
Developers use courts to SLAPP down citizen objections
By John Messeder at September 30, 2011 | 9:41 am | 129 Comments
It almost sounds like a football metaphor. The big guy SLAPPing down a smaller opponent on the way to the goal line.
It is a concept many municipalities across the commonwealth are too familiar with. A big developer comes to… Read the rest
[...read more]Business , Economy , Energy & Environment , Featured , Legal , Marcellus Shale , Pennsylvania Issues , Political
Sludge
By Terry Shaffer at September 29, 2011 | 10:07 am | 101 Comments
I should have known something was wrong when I heard the cheerful voice of the operator who sounded something like the ProgressiveAuto Insurance woman on hallucinogenics. It was a voice reflecting a level of happiness I didn’t usually associate with… Read the rest
[...read more]Business , Energy & Environment , Legal , Pennsylvania Issues , Political , Satire
Low-level rad waste: Nuclear’s other disposal challenge
By Garry Lenton at September 28, 2011 | 10:25 am | 98 Comments
When the Limerick nuclear power station near Philadelphia ran out of space to store some of its radioactive waste earlier this year, owner Exelon Nuclear asked the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission for permission to send it down the Pennsylvania Turnpike… Read the rest
[...read more]Business , Economy , Energy & Environment , Featured , Pennsylvania Issues , Political , Watch Dog
“Zero to Sixty,” a tale of two overage boys on a road trip to the end an era
By John Messeder at September 27, 2011 | 8:49 am | 7 Comments
Oct. 4, 1957. A sound on the radio has an 7-year-old boy entranced. The Russians have put a satellite into space.
“(That sound) would change everything,” videographer Ira Meistrich said in the opening scenes of a documentary about a road… Read the rest
[...read more]Top Ten Republican Candidates for President
By Eric Epstein at September 26, 2011 | 8:18 am | 2 Comments
10) Somebody Messianic in stature but not too weird.
9) Random Governor from Western state.
8) Rich Mormon with health care.
7) Former Pennsylvania resident.
6) Attractive woman in mid-40s.
5) Descendant from Mayflower.
4) Raving lunatic from Texas.
3)… Read the rest
[...read more]The Mugging of SpongeBob SquarePants
By Walter Brasch at September 24, 2011 | 11:51 am | 51 Comments
SpongeBob SquarePants may be hazardous to your mental development—if you’re a four-year-old. At least that’s what two psychologists at the University of Virginia claim, based upon a study they conducted that may have as many holes as the average sponge… Read the rest
[...read more]Taxpayers pay twice for coal-generated electricity
By John Messeder at September 23, 2011 | 9:44 am | 112 Comments
There is coal in the Appalachian Mountains of western Pennsylvania, West Virginia and Kentucky. Depending on which statistics are being quoted, the region may be the source of nearly half the electricity needs of the United States.
We expect to… Read the rest
[...read more]Business , Economy , Energy & Environment , Featured , Pennsylvania Issues , Political
ACLU of PA Calls House Committee Hearing on English “Theater of the Absurd”
By Guest Writer at September 22, 2011 | 8:46 am | 2 Comments
by Andy Hoover, PA ACLU Legislative Director
The commonwealth is facing numerous challenges right now. And yet the most important thing the House State Government Committee can do this week is debate naming English as the official language, as if… Read the rest
[...read more]RTC Statement on Redistricting Proposal
By Eric Epstein at September 21, 2011 | 10:02 am | 463 Comments
Statement of Eric Epstein
(Harrisburg, Pa) - Senator Dominic Pileggi has proposed to disenfranchise voters by changing Pennsylvania’s method
of allocating electoral votes from a “winner-take-all method” to a Gerrymandered system of allocating one electoral vote
… Read the rest
Kill the electoral college; anything less is just playing politics
By John Messeder at September 20, 2011 | 8:20 am | 173 Comments
The Pennsylvania legislature is considering re-writing the way electoral college votes will be counted in the 2012 election.
Currently, Pennsylvania is a winner-take-all state. The candidate who wins a majority of the state’s popular tally gets all 20 electoral college… Read the rest
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