Read The Patriot-News’ main story on the second round of charges in the Bonusgate investigation here.  Check out the front page here.

And here was my contribution to the package of stories in today’s paper:

Corbett outlines conspiracies

By Kari Andren, November 13, 2009

State Attorney General Tom Corbett said the charges filed Thursday broke down broadly into two categories. Here is what he outlined:

Rep. John Perzel’s misuse of taxpayer-funded resources for political campaigns

After winning re-election by a razor-thin margin in 2000, Perzel vowed never to face such a close election again, so he embarked on a plan to use technology to gain a competitive advantage in campaigns.

He became the architect of a political strategy that used $10 million in taxpayers’ resources to hire ghost employees, direct automated “robocalls” that cost thousands of dollars each time they were used, and develop sophisticated computer systems to help himself and other Republicans get elected.

Perzel developed a cover story that these were for constituent services, but the grand jury found that the House Republican Campaign Committee, the outside arm of the caucus, was the primary user.

The grand jury also found that Perzel had staffers spend hundreds of hours on state time to work on his re-election efforts.

Obstruction of justice: the missing boxes and handwritten notes

In February 2008, a grand jury served subpoenas on the House Republican Caucus to produce all evidence of campaign work. Two days later, a legislative employee alerted Corbett’s office that boxes containing campaign materials were being removed from a Capitol basement storage room.

Testimony and video footage confirmed that two cartloads of boxes were transferred from the storage room to Perzel’s Capitol office suite.

Brett Feese, as chief counsel to the caucus, was closely involved in the collection and review of evidence sought by the grand jury. Corbett said Feese was well aware of investigators’ growing frustration due to missing or incomplete information.

In December 2008, Feese gave Corbett’s agents several handwritten notes between him and his assistant, Jill Seaman, supposedly taken at meetings held by Feese in 2007 and 2008 with caucus employees and some vendors.

The grand jury found that the handwritten notes were fabricated, were obviously false, and intentionally sought to mislead investigators into believing that Feese had been unaware and uninvolved in the use of public resources for campaign purposes.

In July 2008, state Attorney General Tom Corbett charged 12 people connected to the House Democratic caucus with awarding taxpayer-funded bonuses for political campaign work.  On Nov. 12, Corbett brought long-anticipated charges against House Republicans.   Below is the final version of what I posted live (a first for me!)  for The Patriot-News during Corbett’s press conference.

John Perzel is ‘architect’ behind political strategy in ‘Bonusgate’ case, Corbett says

Rep. John Perzel, R-Philadelphia (AP)

By KARI ANDREN, The Patriot-News

November 12, 2009, 1:47PM

Former House Speaker John Perzel, R-Philadelphia, former Republican Rep. Brett Feese and eight other current and former aides to the men used taxpayers’ funds, employees and resources for political campaign purposes, Attorney General Tom Corbett alleged today.

Corbett has charged 10 lawmakers and staffers in the second round of the “Bonusgate” investigation into whether taxpayer money was used for political purposes.  He said the investigation is ongoing and looks at all four legislative caucuses.

The aides charged Thursday are Perzel’s former chief of staff Brian Preski; current chief of staff Paul Towhey; Perzel’s brother-in-law and former House employee Samual “Buzz” Stokes; Perzel legislative aide John Zimmerman; his campaign aide Don McClintock; Feese aides Jill Seaman and Elmer Bowman; and former GOP information technology deputy director Eric Ruth.

They are each charged with several theft, criminal conspiracy and conflict of interest counts.  Additionally, Perzel, Preski, Feese, Seaman, Towhey and Zimmerman are charged with obstruction of justice in a 188-page presentment by a grand jury.

Corbett called Perzel “the architect” behind the political strategy that used the resources for political campaigns. He said Perzel hired “ghost” employees and directed robo-calls be used against some of his caucus members, costing thousands of dollars each time they were used.

Corbett said Perzel used technology to help himself and other Republicans. House Democrats, charged in July 2008 with misusing taxpayer resources, paid publicly funded bonuses to individuals for campaign work, Corbett said.

Corbett said Perzel directed the development of a sophisticated computer system to try to make sure voters who supported him made it to the polls on election day.  Perzel also used computer programmers, employed by taxpayers, to work on his re-election databases.  To pay for them, Perzel developed a “cover story” that these were for constituent services, Corbett said Thursday. The grand jury also found Perzel had staffers spend hundreds of hours for his re-election efforts, Corbett said.

Corbett said he and his agents gathered evidence from across the country to regain evidence missing from the House Republican caucus. Corbett said on Feb. 26, 2008, the grand jury served subpoenas to the caucus for this investigation.  Two days later, an employee of the Legislature stated boxes containing campaign materials were being removed from the basement of the Capitol. The campaign materials were allegedly taken to Perzel’s office and then to the House Republican Campaign Committee office.

Feese, as chief counsel to the House Republican caucus, reviewed evidence being sought by the grand jury, Corbett said. The grand jury forced a series of Feese’s handwritten notes to be turned over.  The notes describe how Feese had no knowledge of the activities relating to campaign work, Corbett said. The grand jury found the notes were produced to derail the investigation, Corbett said.

Corbett said the investigation is continuing. “Justice doesn’t have a timetable,” he said.

Perzel issued a statement via e-mail:

“First and foremost, I am innocent of the charges against me.  I have faithfully served the people of my district, my city and my state for more than 30 years, and I have never used public funds for my personal or political gain.

“Second, this investigation has lasted for nearly three years, and it’s only now, on the eve of his gubernatorial campaign and in response to claims that he was unfairly pursuing only Democrats, that Attorney General Corbett has decided to bring charges against 10 Republicans, including me.  It smacks of political opportunism at the expense of my reputation, and I am going to fight very aggressively to prove my innocence.”

Two military working dogs have found homes in the midstate

By KARI ANDREN, The Patriot-News

November 10, 2009

As four-footed soldiers, they sniffed out bombs, looked for drugs and stood guard.

Now, Derrick and Fritz, recently retired German shepherds who served as military working dogs, have found homes in the midstate. Both dogs arrived from Lackland Air Force Base in Texas last month.

About 800 dogs are in various stages of training for the Department of Defense or the Transportation Safety Administration at any time at the base, said Rodney Sparkowich, adoption coordinator at Lackland.

Derrick and Fritz were honored in the state House of Representatives on Tuesday with a resolution recognizing the contribution military dogs have made to America since World War I.

Both dogs were trained in bomb and drug detection and helped train hundreds of soldiers. Derrick was also trained as a guard dog.

Nedra Dugan said she adopted Derrick, who is 11 and dying of cancer, after reading a story about military working dogs online. After filling out a five-page application, being screened and answering a lot of questions, she was told Derrick was ready for her.

“I had to do this,” Dugan said. “I’m an animal person anyhow.”

Derrick was on active duty from March 2001 until September, before joining Dugan in her Newberry Twp. home.

“These dogs are so incredible,” Dugan said. “Even though they basically worked with [lots of] different people, they are so well adjusted.”

Dugan said that a woman in New York heard about Derrick’s service and his cancer and paid for a private jet to fly Derrick and Fritz from Texas to Harrisburg.

“She just said she had to help with this,” Dugan said.

The private flight meant the dogs spent only about three hours in crates compared to the 12 hours they would have spent flying if they had flown commercially, Dugan said.

Jennifer Cox, who adopted Fritz, said the 12-year-old dog with cataracts is learning to adapt to a more playful lifestyle at her Duncannon home.

Fritz, who served from November 2002 until September, recently jumped into the back of a UPS truck and started sniffing the packages inside, Cox said.

It can take military dogs months to ease out of their work mode and enjoy a more typical, freewheeling lifestyle, she said.

Sparkowich said it’s important for prospective owners to remember that these are kennel dogs who are not house trained. But, he said, when older dogs come into your home after being kennel dogs, “they truly show appreciation.”

Adopting a military working dog can take as long as six months, but Dugan and Cox were able to get theirs faster.

Dugan said Derrick’s cancer and worsening condition expedited his adoption. Cox said hers went faster because she applied for an older dog when many families want a younger one.

“I wanted a dog who had already served our country,” Cox said. “I wanted to help give back to these dogs and the people who helped train them.”

Some parents feel ill-served on special-education concerns

By KARI ANDREN, The Patriot-News

November 03, 2009

Jennifer King envisions her son going off to college, having a career and maybe even getting married.

Those might sound like the average mother’s dreams for her son, but for the parent of a special-needs child, they can sound downright extraordinary.

“Everything will be his decision,” King said of her son’s future. “But I work very hard to not limit his own thoughts of his own potential.”

King is fighting the West Shore School District to keep her third-grade son, who has Down syndrome, in mainstream classrooms as much as possible.

When the district proposed transferring her son to a special-education classroom for two core academic subjects, King said she requested a meeting with school and district officials.

In the past, when she requested a meeting, no changes were implemented during the process of working out their differences, she said.

But this time, King found out her son’s classroom placement was changed before the meeting took place because she did not initiate mediation or file a due-process complaint to halt the changes.

So King helped organize a group of parents and supporters who co-signed a letter to the school board and attended the Oct. 15 board meeting.

In the letter, parents cited concerns over the process the district uses to change students’ Individualized Education Programs, the tailored blueprint for each student’s special needs and educational goals.

They contend that the district has become less willing to work with the parents of special-needs children when it proposes a change to the child’s program. They say parents’ steps if they disagree with the proposed changes — entering mediation or filing a due-process complaint — are burdensome for families.

But to King, it’s worth fighting to keep her son in the mainstream classroom so he has a better chance of being independent and successful later in life.

According to the U.S. Department of Education, students with disabilities who spend 75 percent or more of their high school education in regular classrooms are five times more likely to be employed — and make more money — after leaving school than students who spend 25 percent or less of their high school time in those same classrooms.

District spokeswoman Crista DeGregorio would not comment on the letter to the school board.

Rosemary Holecki, special-education coordinator for the district, did not return a call seeking an explanation of the district’s Individualized Education Program procedures.

This is not the first time the district has run into problems with parents over students’ educational plans.

In December, the district agreed to pay up to $16,000 to two families — $3,500 to one and $12,500 to the other — to compensate them for “education-related expenses” related to disagreements about the course of the students’ education plans.

The families were unhappy with what the district was proposing for the students.

Kathy Brill, president of the Pennsylvania chapter of TASH, a nonprofit disability rights advocacy group, said it’s up to each school district to establish smooth working relationships in these cases.

“It depends upon the administration of the school district,” Brill said. “They have a huge role in the environment and attitude that runs throughout the school. When they don’t show that type of leadership, all sorts of things can break down.”

Parents express a variety of frustrations with special-education issues in the district beyond just classroom placement, but many are united in feeling that the working relationship between parents and school officials has deteriorated.

Some want their child placed in mainstream classrooms, while others want their child in classes taught only for children with special needs.

But the parents are united by feelings that concerns are brushed aside or that the district stalls in remedying their complaints.

Michele Gibb said parts of her son’s educational plan were not followed last year and that the district’s unresponsiveness to her concerns ultimately contributed to her son’s failing ninth grade.

Gibb said Eli, who has attention-deficit disorder, was supposed to receive study guides from teachers to help narrow the material he should focus on learning, but that he never received one until about a month before the school year ended.

She said weekly conferences between Eli’s learning-support teacher and his regular classroom teachers to determine whether he needed help or was falling behind also did not happen.

“I was at point where I felt maybe we needed to hire an advocate or a lawyer, because every time I tried to climb a rung on the ladder … it was almost like they’d brush things over, not give me the help I needed,” Gibb said. “It seemed they felt maybe I’d give up and go away.”

She said that in Individualized Education Program meetings she and her husband requested, they told school officials what Eli needed and what parts of the program weren’t being followed, but officials just said Eli needed to try harder.

“That’s not what IEP meetings are supposed to be,” Gibb said. “It’s for us all to work together as a team to make our kids more successful in school.”

Judy Chabanik, who said she has a great working relationship with her son’s classroom teachers, echoed Gibb’s concerns at the district level.

“I simply found that there has been a slow and steady decline … in the amount of cooperation that we feel during IEPs and during reviews,” said Chabanik, whose son is autistic and legally blind.

“It feels they are not as responsive and open to parent input as they have been in the past,” Chabanik said. “None of us wants to go to litigation … we would rather just sit down and talk this out and as a team come up with what would work.”

Students graded globally in IB program

BY KARI ANDREN kandren@patriot-news.com

October 30, 2009

A program known for its world-class standards shows students how to really learn, teachers say.

Last year, Harrisburg Academy graduated its first group of seniors with an International Baccalaureate diploma and became the second school in the midstate to offer the rigorous two-year diploma program.

Now Cumberland Valley High School is poised to become one of the next schools in the area to offer the degree. The district expects to begin offering courses in the 2011-12 school year, with the first IB students graduating in 2013.

International Baccalaureate, or IB, students take high-level courses in each of the major academic subjects, a foreign language and a philosophical course called Theory of Knowledge. They also must complete a full-fledged research paper and community service.

Students’ exams and samples of classroom work are graded by experts all over the world, a process that ensures IB students from Harrisburg to Paris to Shanghai are held to the same standard.

Only 14 schools statewide offer the IB program.

IB and Advanced Placement exams would be acceptable alternatives to the Keystone Exams that were approved recently by a state panel in a major step toward attaching tests to high school graduation.

Tom Banks, IB coordinator and principal of Harrisburg Academy’s upper school students, said it took about three years from the time the school began researching the IB program to becoming a certified IB World School.

“[IB] is a high-level academic program with global standards and global resources,” Banks said. “It’s a tough standard, but that’s why we like it.”

The challenge is what students like, too.

Read the rest of the story here.

Shortfall prompts furloughs

BY KARI ANDREN kandren@patriot-news.com

October 09, 2009

Lower Allen Twp. officials say the township took in nearly $1 million less than expected in 2008, which is prompting one-day-a-week furloughs for all nonunionized employees for the rest of the 2009 calendar year.

At a Tuesday morning meeting with employees, township manager Tom Vernau said the township’s fund balance, or net worth, lost $988,000 from Jan. 1, 2008 to Jan. 1, 2009.

“We didn’t overbudget,” Vernau said. “And we didn’t overspend.”

The furloughs for the 46 full-time employees and nine part-time workers were announced Thursday. No layoffs have been announced, but that idea is on the table, Vernau said.

Vernau said he wanted to dispel rumors that the township’s deficit was the result of building the $9 million, 21,000-square-foot municipal service center that opened in 2008. The payments on the building are an expense, but not the cause of the deficit, Vernau said.

The shortfall can be traced directly to the economy and a loss of revenues, he said.

Exempted salary employees — such as township commissioners, directors and Vernau — also will be affected by the cost-cutting efforts. Vernau said they will return 20 percent of their salaries, which is equivalent to the pay employees will lose through the furloughs.

The furloughs, slated to last for the 13 weeks remaining in 2009, will save the township $120,000, which will go toward rebuilding the fund balance.

According to township policy, the fund balance must be equal to 15 percent of operating expenditures, Vernau said.

If the township faces a deficit one year, as it did in 2008, it must create a plan to rebuild the fund to the same level. Vernau said officials calculated that the township must budget a surplus of $180,000 for the next five years to rebuild the fund.

After seeing how much revenue came in through the third quarter of this year, he said the township would only have posted a roughly $60,000 surplus, so officials decided to implement the furloughs to make up the difference.

Vernau said he hopes that higher-than-expected fourth-quarter revenues and other cost-cutting measures could allow the furloughs to be suspended before the end of the year.

Capitol displays student murals

Creating the art depicting intolerance inspired a passion for acceptance and diversity, one of the painters says.

BY KARI ANDREN

September 14, 2009

Cedar Cliff High School graduates unveiled a series of their murals depicting intolerance Friday at the state Capitol.

Inspiration for the murals stemmed from a two-day training session on diversity and conflict resolution last year by the Pennsylvania Human Relations Commission, the state agency that enforces anti-discrimination laws.

The murals were painted by a group of Cedar Cliff students, who were then high school seniors, in small groups during their final marking period last spring. They will be on display in the East Wing Rotunda until Sept. 18.

“We learned to be tolerant of each other” as they worked on the murals, said Katie Savage, now a freshman at Temple University. “It made us passionate about tolerance and diversity.”

Savage said that each student came to the project with different ideas and that the challenge was to blend those ideas together on one canvass.

Britany Ziegenhagen, now a student at Harrisburg Area Community College, said her group repainted portions of a mural multiple times until it became a finished product they could all agree on.

As an added challenge, the students painted the murals in school hallways in view of other students walking by rather than in the seclusion of the art room, said Bao Yen Nguyen.

She said other students would constantly ask questions about the paintings, so she and the other artists would have to stop and explain their work.

The theme of tolerance and working with diverse ideas and opinions is a fitting topic given that the unveiling fell on the anniversary of the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, said Stephen Glassman, the chairman of the Human Relations Commission.

Glassman said the exhibit showcases students who have used their artwork “to illustrate complex societal problems in a way that inspires others to think.”

“Intolerance isn’t always so overt [as the Sept. 11 attacks], thank goodness,” Glassman said. “But bullying has always been a pervasive element of society.”

Taxpayers’ anger shadows Wormleysburg beautification project

The groundbreaking ceremony/Photo by Sean Simmers, of The Patriot-News

By KARI ANDREN, The Patriot-News

October 01, 2009

The project has been labeled ludicrous. Senseless. A frivolous waste of money. An embarrassment.

The project is an effort by Wormleysburg, Cumberland County, to beautify the riverfront approach to what was the western span of the Walnut Street Bridge.

The borough broke ground this month on the $212,000 plaza that will include benches, planters, decorative brick walkways, fences and landscaping at the approach to the former span. It’s been nearly 14 years since a flood carried away chunks of the iron bridge, leaving a gap of several hundred feet between City Island and the West Shore.

In a question posed to readers last week, The Patriot-News asked if the project, funded through state and county grant money, was a good use of public tax dollars. Nearly 60 percent of the 266 people who responded said no.

The opposition to this project and other beautification efforts stems from a variety of sources.

Some opponents are worried about the use of taxpayers’ money for purely aesthetic projects, as the poll indicated. But others worry about the increased foot and vehicle traffic that comes with making public spaces more attractive.

“As Americans, we should be embarrassed we’re wasting our money in such ways,” said Jeff Glatt, a Harrisburg resident who opposes beautification projects generally. “Why not spend the money on schools, parks, the Amtrak train station in Harrisburg? It’s just unbelievable.”

Amanda Ewing, who lives and works in Wormleysburg, said the timing of the plaza project is the problem, not the concept of making the area look nicer. “It seems like a ludicrous sum of money to spend on it right now,” Ewing said. “There’s a time and a place for everything, and I don’t think in today’s economic times that the time is right now … [but] it’s a noble idea.”

Ewing also raised concerns about encouraging more people to visit the bridge plaza, given the limited parking available in Wormleysburg.

Mike Bowers, who owns Black Dog Motorcycles and other properties on Front Street in Wormleysburg, echoed concerns about parking, especially if the bridge is ever reconnected to City Island.

But, Bowers said, he likes the bridge plaza idea, particularly if it acts as a “focal point” that helps garner momentum to complete the other phases of the borough’s revitalization plans, like a proposed streetscape and river walk.

Connie Branch, who lives near the plaza on Front Street, said a community can always do with a new, clean look.

Rich Hergenroeder, a member of Wormleysburg’s revitalization committee, agreed.

“Many of us want to improve and upgrade our town, and there are some eyesores in our town,” he said. “We’re not covering anything with gold or marble. We’re simply upgrading what we have. … That space was an embarrassment.”

Schools relent on T-shirt messages

BY KARI ANDREN, kandren@patriot-news.com

October 20, 2009

A temporary agreement will allow a Crossroads Middle School student to wear a homemade “Abortion is not healthcare” T-shirt that school officials had ordered him to turn inside out.

Under the agreement approved Monday by a federal judge, the West Shore School District will also permit other students to wear anti-abortion and religious T-shirts. Additionally, the district will not enforce other portions of its dress and grooming policies that are being challenged in a federal lawsuit filed by the student’s father, William Boyer.

Boyer, of New Cumberland, claims his son, identified as E.B. in the lawsuit filed in U.S. Middle District Court, was unfairly censored on Sept. 8 when he wore the anti-abortion shirt and was told to turn it inside out.

“Public schools certainly need to be educated about the First Amendment,” said David Cortman, an attorney with the Alliance Defense Fund, who is representing Boyer. “As the Supreme Court has held for years, students do not shed their First Amendment rights at the schoolhouse gate, and this includes Christian students.”

Boyer’s lawsuit seeks to have the district’s policies struck down and to remove any references to disciplinary action from this incident on his son’s record. He also is seeking damages such as court costs and attorneys’ fees.

Crista DeGregorio, spokeswoman for the school district, said the district and its solicitor had no comment on the case.

Under the agreement, approved by Judge Christopher C. Conner, the district may still enforce policies that restrict student expression if it will cause a substantial disruption, is lewd or encourages the use of illegal drugs or alcohol, according to the court order.

According to the lawsuit, E.B. wore the T-shirt with no disruption and no problems on the day of President Barack Obama’s national education address to students until his fifth-period teacher sent him to the principal’s office.

He was ordered to turn the shirt inside out because it might offend other students, the lawsuit states.

The suit alleges that the district’s policies regarding student expression and dress and grooming are unconstitutional and that the censorship of religious and political speech violates the First and 14th amendments to the Constitution.

Cortman said E.B. made the T-shirt himself and that it was his idea to wear it to school, not his parents’. He said the student wrote a persuasive paper last year on why he believes abortion is wrong, so this T-shirt was not the first time he was expressing his anti-abortion views in school.

He said they were seeking an agreement to allow the student to wear the T-shirt while it is still a timely debate.

Read the story online here.

The t-shirt in question.

West Shore School District unfairly censored T-shirt, father’s lawsuit says

By KARI ANDREN, The Patriot-News

October 06, 2009

On the day President Barack Obama was to address students nationwide, a Crossroads Middle School student donned an anti-abortion T-shirt to protest Obama’s proposed overhaul of the nation’s health care system.

The student wore the T-shirt, which read “Abortion is not Healthcare,” with no disruption and no problems until his fifth-period teacher sent him to the principal’s office. He was ordered to turn the shirt inside out because it might offend other students, according to a lawsuit filed Monday.

William Boyer, the student’s father, filed the lawsuit against the West Shore School District in U.S. Middle District Court. Boyer, of New Cumberland, alleges that his son, E.B., was unfairly censored by school officials Sept. 8 when they made him turn his shirt inside out.

Neither district officials nor their solicitor wanted to comment on the lawsuit because they had not seen it, said Rob Cox, an attorney with Eastburn & Gray, the law firm that represents the school district.

Valerie Burch, a staff attorney with the Pennsylvania chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union, said the student’s T-shirt represented political speech, the most protected form of speech, even inside schools.

Boyer’s suit claims the district’s policies regarding student expression, dress and grooming are unconstitutional and that the censorship of religious and political speech violates the First and 14th amendments to the Constitution.

The district’s dress-and-grooming policy prohibits clothing “which creates a hostile educational environment or evidences discriminatory bias or animus” or displays “inappropriate words.”

Boyer is seeking to have the district’s policies struck down and to remove any references to disciplinary action from this incident on his son’s record. He also is seeking damages such as court costs and attorneys’ fees.

In an unrelated case this week, the Palmerton Area School District in Carbon County agreed to clear the disciplinary records of 20 students who wore T-shirts protesting the district’s dress code. The ACLU said the district infringed on the free-speech rights of students who wore T-shirts emblazoned with “Property of PHS.“

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Also see my story published in USA Today.