Franconia News

“Any voter reading this would think that she's the endorsed Republican in Montgomery County”

An acrimonious Republican Senate primary turned litigious yesterday with a fight over endorsement claims on mass-mailed sample ballots. via Philly.com

“Comparing our timeline to other states isn't going to get us anywhere”

It would be an understatement to say that progress toward a statewide indoor smoking ban has moved along at a slow burn. via Centre Daily Times

“Rolling back the PIT would benefit virtually every family in this state.”

Issue date: 4/16/08 Section: Opinion For too long, Pennsylvania's Republicans have evaded the issues most pressing and important to Pennsylvanians. via The Pitt News

“It's obviously a tremendous amount of money and is being taken very seriously”

A Montgomery County man is accused of stealing more than $500,000 from a friend who hired him to help handle his remodeling company's finances, according to information from the Bucks County district attorney. via The Morning Call

“Rolling back the PIT would benefit virtually every family in this state”

House Republican legislators are proposing a four-point program for spurring the state's economy, the most notable being a modest reduction in the state's personal income tax rate. via Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

“Without this, sectors of the Pennsylvania economy subject to international competition will continue to bleed jobs and wither from the lack of capital investment.”

Manufacturing job losses are crippling Pennsylvania's economic growth, which will result in a more prolonged and difficult recession unless swift policy action is taken, according to a report released Tuesday. via Philadelphia Business Journal

Franconia Township police are seeking a man who may have tried to abduct a woman from a parking lot. via The Morning Call

Carbon County has a new automated system that gives crime victims notice of any change in the status of offenders at the county prison, officials announced Thursday. via The Morning Call

Yesterday brought a dram of good news for Allegheny County bar and tavern owners. via Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

“I don't believe we can get a 100-percent ban passed”

Key lawmakers said today they are nearing a deal to put more limits on public smoking in Pennsylvania, but they delayed voting on a proposal for at least four weeks. via Evening Sun

“The current gaming law is flawed, and it's flawed in ways that have proven embarrassing to Pennsylvania”

Republicans are introducing proposals in the House and Senate that would overhaul the way prospective casino owners are investigated and how casino licenses are awarded. via Philly.com

“If conservatives are leaving the Republican Party and going over to become Democrats for the day, that would help Boback”

A voter rebellion that hit the Pennsylvania Legislature two years ago left power so balanced that business has occasionally ground to a halt when just a small handful of lawmakers have been absent. via The York Daily Record

“Because I know what I went through and I wouldn't wish it on anyone else.”

Over the past three years Pennsylvania has lost more than 16-hundred doctors. Many left because the skyrocketing number of medical lawsuits made getting malpractice insurance too expensive. via WPVI-TV Philadelphia

COVERAGE FOR PENNSYLVANIANS IS IMPORTANT, BUT SO IS FINANCING: Universal access to quality health care remains one of the great unresolved issues of our time, one that ultimately will be resolved at the ... via The York Daily Record

Pennsylvania is one of only six states that elects all of its judges, and that isn't a good thing. For the latest illustration why now is a good time to start changing that, just look at something that happened in the 2007 election for state Supreme Court justices.

Superior Court Judge Maureen Lally-Green was running for the Supreme Court when, one week before the election, television ads supporting her began appearing in the big-city broadcast markets. (She was not elected.) The ads, which urged people to 'thank' Judge Lally-Green for being tough on crime, were placed by an Alexandria, Va., non-profit group called the Center for Individual Freedom. Pennsylvania's top election official, Secretary of State Pedro Cortes asked Commonwealth to order the ad removed. Mr. Cortes reasoned that corporate donations to the Virginia group were in effect helping Judge Lally-Green's campaign, a violation of state law. The court decided, however, that since the ad didn't directly tell people to vote for her, it could not be removed. Read more

Pennsylvania 's embattled student loan agency decided Thursday to hire its interim chief executive five months after his predecessor resigned following criticism of the agency's spending practices. via The Morning Call

“W e're out to try to do what's best for this Commonwealth and for the health of our citizens, for the financial health of the Commonwealth and for the sustainability of our healthcare system”

State lawmakers crafting a compromise bill mandating a statewide smoking ban held a second public hearing on Thursday at the State Capitol. via WHTM

“Warning: This representative's decisions may be hazardous to your health.”

A legislative panel soon will face a big decision that will dictate whether Pennsylvania joins growing list of states to ban smoking in most public places. via The York Daily Record

The accident happened around 6:25 in the 1300 block of Welsh Road Montgomery Township. via WPVI-TV Philadelphia

Pennsylvania Democrats have added more than 65,000 voters to their rolls since last fall. via WHP-TV Harrisburg