Contract follow-up

SENATE GOP URGE RENDELL TO INCLUDE GRANTS IN CONTRACTS DATABASE
By Kari L. Andren
Capitolwire
HARRISBURG (July 23) — The state Department of Community and Economic Development has posted more than 400 grants and contracts on the Department of Treasury’s new contract database as required by the state’s new Right-to-Know Law.
But as of Wednesday only a few dozen [...]

Environmental round up

Capitolwire: Environmental laws a presence in latest batch of signed bills
By Kari L. Andren
Capitolwire
HARRISBURG (July 21) — Within the bevy of legislation Gov. Ed Rendell signed into law in the weeks following the state budget agreement were several environmental measures.
The four bills do everything from studying Pennsylvania’s greenhouse gas emissions to joining a regional Great [...]

Post-budget round up

Capitolwire: Bills on fire-safe cigarettes, newborn screenings among those signed by governor.
By Kari L. Andren
Capitolwire
HARRISBURG (July 21) — Gov. Ed Rendell signed more than 80 bills into law as part of the annual flood of legislation passed in the weeks after the state budget.
Since June 27, the governor stamped his mark of approval on everything [...]

Pedal power part of energy initiative

Capitol Spokesmen
 Thursday, July 10, 2008
BY KARI ANDREN, For The Patriot-News
Keith Wagner has had his share of work-related inju ries: broken wrist, frac tured toe, torn rotator cuff.
He’s not a stunt man or a daredevil. He’s a Capitol Police bicycle patrolman.
Wagner, who has been a bike officer since 1995, said the broken bones from bicycle mishaps [...]

You’ll have to keep puffing…

Rendell signs bill for safer cigarettes 
Tuesday, July 08, 2008
BY KARI ANDREN, For The Patriot-News
Cigarettes sold in Pennsylvania must be “fire-safe” starting Jan. 1 under a bill that Gov. Ed Rendell signed into law Friday.
The law requires cigarettes to be made with layers of slow-burning paper that extinguish unless continuously smoked. It does not apply to [...]

Massage Therapy story #4

Therapists see licensing bill as aid to profession
Monday, July 07, 2008
BY KARI ANDREN, For The Patriot-News
Jennifer Callahan is tired of the bad rap her profession as a massage therapist sometimes gets. She’s ecstatic at the possibility of having the word “licensed” added to her job title.
Callahan, a nationally certified massage therapist in Hampden Twp., said [...]

Budget Analysis

I didn’t have a story published in today’s Patriot-News, but I think my pal from the Morning Call had a great analysis of this year’s somewhat odd budget process.  Check it out…

Is the state opening back door for the budget?
Air of secrecy smacks of 2005 pay raise for lawmakers.
By John L. Micek | Call Harrisburg [...]

A late night indeed

State budget remains unresolved
By John L. Micek and Kari Andren of the Morning Call
HARRISBURG — As state lawmakers and the Rendell administration worked through the night Sunday on the state budget, one senior negotiator said the two sides hoped to reach a ”handshake agreement” soon.
A top Republican Senate aide said the two sides are working [...]

Saturday’s state of the budget

State’s budget is not about the economy of time
By John L. Micek and Kari Andren
Morning Call– June 29, 2008
For the sixth year in a row, Pennsylvania will not have an on-time state budget.
But Rendell administration negotiators remained cautiously optimistic Saturday that they could still avert unpaid furloughs for tens of thousands of state employees — [...]

Rendell’s going, but the hometown gov’s not

Since I don’t have my own story to post today, here’s one that links my current venture with my future one. While Pennsylvania Gov. Ed Rendell is in Chicago with a bunch of other Democratic governors to discuss economics with presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Sen. Barack Obama, Illinois’ own governor will not attend. [...]