True stories from the case files of A Town Gone Bad
Can the Hershey Trust survive in Pennsylvania?
The DNA of the Hershey chocolate company holds something that can’t be measured on ledger sheets.
So Mondelez's recent offer to buy Hershey Foods is not so much a measure of the monetary worth of a company, so much as it is a measure of the political and moral decline of Pennsylvania.
Katie McGinty repeats The Thornburgh Mistake:
Embracing big money and politicsThere are any number of reasons why the unseemly dumping of $1.5 million in television ad money from top party officials in Washington to McGinty’s foundering campaign is a bad idea, and may backfire on them all. Posted 4-13-16 Read more »
In the field of the Lord: Pennsylvania senate exposes darkest chapter in state legislative history in Kane removal bid
Senate invokes constitutional provision against A.G. Kathleen Kane tied to era of eugenics, forced sterilizations, and the Holocaust. Posted 12-27-15 Read more »
Clueless in the Pennsylvania Senate: 1885 case suggests Senate lacks jurisdiction to remove AG Kane
What does “reasonable cause” mean? Don’t ask anyone in the Pennsylvania Senate. But the history of tyranny tells us. Posted 11-17-15 Read more »
PA senate convenes kangaroo court ‘inquiry’ into Kathleen Kane
A state senate ‘Special Committee on Senate Address’ held its first hearing, of questionable legality, on November 9, 2015. These GOP senators and reporters have an ax to grind, and need lots of help from each other to grind it. Posted 11-12-15 Read more »
Back door impeachment: ‘Direct removal’ clause wasn't intended to apply to attorney general
An obscure PA constitutional clause from 1873 meant to quickly remove low-level elected officials from office wasn’t intended to apply to an appointed state attorney general, much less an elected one. Posted 11-6-15 Read more »
Pressure builds for U.S. DOJ to investigate PA Supreme Court’s porno email chain
State AG Kathleen Kane says federal prosecutors received or sent porno emails Posted 10-8-15. Read more »
‘Direct removal’ clause eyed for PA AG Kathleen Kane tried once — and failed
Kane opponents play fast and loose with state constitution, law and history Posted 9-24-15. Read more »
When politicians wear robes
From the perspective of the politicians running Pennsylvania courts, state Attorney General Kathleen Kane is a dangerous and uncontrollable loose cannon who must be stopped, at all costs. Posted 9-4-15. Read more »
Star-chamber justice in Pennsylvania
“Sunlight is said to be the best of disinfectants; electric light the most efficient policeman,” U.S. Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis wrote. But that policeman hasn’t been on the job in Pennsylvania, and hasn’t been for some time. Posted 2-14-15. Read more »
Pennsylvania judges make million dollar pay grab
Pennsylvanians have been well served and protected in recent decades by a hard-won constitutional reform requiring all state judges retire at age 70. But some Pennsylvania judges are working hard to do away with this needed protection. Posted 3-5-15. Read more »
Harrisburg Parking boycott
Harrisburg PA bailout parking scheme shows $3 million revenue shortfall
Revenue numbers associated with parking transactions for Pennsylvania's capital city are starting to come in. In 2014 revenues from this new parking deal were a whopping $3 million short of projections, according to a report released in late January by the Pennsylvania Economic Development Financing Authority. Posted 2-7-15. Read more »
Pennsylvania state official wants links to Jerry Sandusky trial transcripts removed from the web. ‘Right to be forgotten’ comes to U.S.? Posted 10-22-14. Read more »
Google blinded Pennsylvania state government officials want links to Jerry Sandusky trial manuscript removed from web
See no evil: DA Ray Gricar drops the ball Young victims surrounded Jerry Sandusky in 1998. So why didn't Centre County PA District Attorney Ray Gricar make a serious attempt to find and interview them?
Tom Corbett's cash and carry Harrisburg bailout Lobbying firm at center of Pennsylvania's capital city bailout gave Gov. Corbett more than $55,000 over last decade
Tom Corbett's $50 million parking space? Behind Corbett's 'backdoor bailout' of Pennsylvania's capital city
A thorough site assessments is needed at the Harrisburg incinerator before the sale Why have the Harrisburg and Lancaster authorities skipped this vital step?
Hazardous waste for years dumped illegally at Harrisburg incinerator, DEP documents reveal Who will pay to clean up Mt. Ashmore?
Mt. Ashmore: Environmental Time Bomb: The mystery of the ‘missing’ toxic waste at Harrisburg’s incinerator. Posted May 17, 2013
Risky Business in the Cayman's? Lancaster waste authority's mysterious offshore Cayman Islands accounts. Posted April 16, 2013
Skin deep: What would MLK say? Lessons of history lost in one town gone bad's bond debt crisis. Posted April 4, 2013Take My Incinerator, Please! A pending incinerator deal represents big stakes for two midsized Pennsylvania towns. Posted March 26, 2013
Kids as commodities: PA child welfare officials and Second Mile protected Jerry Sandusky, not kids
Aided by Pennsylvania child welfare officials, the Second Mile charity protected Jerry Sandusky, not kids. Posted January 26, 2013PA Gov. Tom Corbett's office caught attempting to silence Harrisburg debt critic
PLCB memo cites Corbett's Office of Administration's 'determination' to silence state worker. Posted October 10, 2012Old Boys Gone Wild: The Clery Act meets its match in Pennsylvania
The Sandusky case demonstrates that sometimes the mad man on campus may not be a deranged loner toting a gun.The mad man may be a respected and well-connected campus icon, not hiding behind a gun, but shielded by a protective phalanx of complicit public and school officials. Posted September 24, 2013Tom Corbett's governorship imperiled by spin
What's the truth about Gov. Tom Corbett's role in the Penn State - Jerry Sandusky case?Don't ask Tom Corbett. Posted July 21, 2012Freeh Report ignores obvious question:What about Tom Corbett?
Former FBI Director Louis Freeh's report is a disservice to the people of Pennsylvania. The most troubling question of all remains: Are state officials, and not children, protected in Pennsylvania? Posted July 12, 2012The Magic Moment: Six decades of Pennsylvania governors, AGs, and the state Republican Party
Part 1 The Apppointed Years 1950 to 1980 >
'Joe Paterno was a Republican from another era, when to be a Republican in Pennsylvania meant something much different than it means today' Posted February 20, 2012
Part 2 The Elected AG Years 1980 to 1995. Here Come the Prosecutors >
'You want to live, you want to retire, you play ball.' Posted March 18, 2012
'JoePa' takes the fall: A slow Tom Corbett throws Joe Paterno under the bus
'Joe Paterno was Pennsylvania's Coach, and we owed him, in his final days, our debt of gratitude, not a death of instant scandal and ruin.' Posted January 22, 2012Busted: Behind the Sandusky arrest
Narcotics agent nabs Jerry Sandusky. 'Tom didn't want to do it.' Posted January 11, 2012An insider's timeline of the Corbett/Sandusky/PSU scandal
A timeline decades in the making. Posted January 12, 2012Town officials say PA Attorney General Tom Corbett's office was obstacle preventing 'VIP' sex ring investigation
Tom Corbett's political agenda and modus operandi began to emerge: A prominent figure would be sacrificed, but the VIP sex and prostitution ring would be concealed and protected for years. This was done not only to protect Corbett's political allies, but also to protect Corbett's own political fortunes and ambitions. Read more and watch video> Posted November 28, 2011PA District Attorney Tom Kearney asks FBI to investigate Corbett security contractor with ties to pedopphile ring
District Attorney Tom Kearney, of York County, PA, asks the Federal Bureau of Investigation to investigate longstanding allegations that Corbett Administration security provider Russell Wantz, Jr. has ongoing close ties to a prostitution and pedophile ring centered in and around the York County courthouse. Posted November 16, 2011Related: PA attorney Larry L.C. Heim boasts of courthouse pedophile ring protected by state AG's office and Pennsylvania courts. Posted April 18 2011
'Put a ring on it'
Federal Judge Yvette Kane lists approximately $80,000 in gifts of jewelry, an automobile, interest, trips and other gifts. Posted August 4, 2010Feds investigate PA Chief Justice Castille family court building deal
The FBI has opened a preliminary investigation into a failed family court building deal in Philadelphia. The deal had been approved by Pennsylvania state Supreme Court Chief Justice Ronald Castille. Posted June 7, 2010No Sanctuary
In a Pennsylvania officials and judges often ignore serious mental illnesses and don't heed the sound advice of doctors or psychologists. Posted March 25, 2010A long history of harming kids
York County, Pennsylvania, Children and Youth Services has a long history of negligence. Posted March 7, 2010'Bubba' takes the fall
Chief Becky Downing hoped Pennsylvania Attorney General Tom Corbett would help fight the courthouse corruption she'd uncovered, but AG Corbett had his own secrets to hide, and friends to protect Posted May 6, 2008