David Spett

HARRISBURG (Oct. 14) – A Republican-backed bill to allow health care workers and institutions not to provide any service they oppose on moral or religious grounds is either “absolutely imperative” or “unnecessary and potentially harmful to the health of patients,” depending on whom you ask.

At a Senate Public Health and Welfare Committee hearing Tuesday morning, anti-abortion rights and pro-civil liberties advocates offered divergent views of Senate Bill 1255, the Conscientious Objection Act, sponsored by Sen. John Eichelberger, R-Blair.

CLICK HERE for more (subscription required).

HARRISBURG (Oct. 13) – The number of Pennsylvanians with health insurance from an employer is decreasing at a much faster rate than the national average, according to a study released Monday by the Economic Policy Institute and Pennsylvania Budget and Policy Center, two left-leaning think tanks.

More than 550,000 Pennsylvanians under 65, or about 7.1 percent of those who receive health insurance from an employer, stopped receiving that coverage between 2000-01 and 2006-07, the most recent data available, the study indicated.

CLICK HERE for more (subscription required).

HARRISBURG (Oct. 10) – Nora Dowd Eisenhower of Philadelphia announced her resignation as secretary of the state Department of Aging Friday afternoon. Her resignation takes effect at the end of the month.

Dowd Eisenhower has been in the position since just after Gov. Ed Rendell took office in 2003. According to a press release from Rendell’s office, Dowd Eisenhower is leaving to pursue work in the private sector.

CLICK HERE for more (subscription required).

HARRISBURG (Oct. 9) – Amid this week’s Bonusgate hearings and the wrangling over rate caps, health insurance, nurses’ overtime and other hot-button issues, three bipartisan bills passing the House and Senate and receiving the governor’s signature with less fanfare will regulate the massage therapy industry, improve air quality and transform procedures for local disaster relief.

CLICK HERE for more (subscription required).

HARRISBURG (Oct. 8 ) – The House and Senate passed an amended energy bill Wednesday afternoon that will change the way electric utilities buy power and impose new energy conservation regulations. Gov. Ed Rendell has pledged to sign the measure.

“We have put a tremendous amount of time into making this bill good for ratepayers and good for Pennsylvania, but our job is not finished,” said Sen. Lisa Boscola, D-Northampton.

The unfinished work she mentioned deals with electric rate caps, which are set to be phased out in 2010 and 2011. As recently as Tuesday evening, Boscola and other senators were trying to introduce amendments to the bill, House Bill 2200, that would either continue the rate caps or phase them out more gradually.

CLICK HERE for more (subscription required).

HARRISBURG (Oct. 8 ) – House Majority Leader Bill DeWeese, D-Greene, shot back at his former chief of staff, Michael Manzo, late Wednesday afternoon, calling Manzo’s remarks “absolutely false” just hours after Manzo testified in court that DeWeese knew Democratic legislative staff received illegal taxpayer-funded bonuses for conducting campaign work.

“He [Manzo] has lied to his wife, he’s lied to his girlfriend, he’s lied to investigators, he’s lied to me,” DeWeese said. “His motives are suspect and his opinions are just not credible.”

CLICK HERE for more (subscription required).