David Spett

HARRISBURG (Oct. 21) – Four parolees represented by law professors at the University of Pennsylvania and Widener sued Gov. Ed Rendell Tuesday, alleging that the parole moratorium he announced in September and partially lifted Monday night is unlawful.

“What we’re alleging is that he’s got no authority to even tell the parole board what to do, or to tell the Department of Corrections not to release people,” said David Rudovsky, a senior fellow at Penn’s law school.

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DERRY TWP. (Oct. 20) – In a packed municipal building Monday night, the major-party candidates for state Senate in the 15th district, Sen. Jeffrey Piccola, R-Dauphin, and Judy Hirsh, held a wide-ranging debate, criticizing each other for negative campaigning.

“I want to make sure that when I get into office, someone can’t send out mail that is so misleading and false,” Hirsh said, holding up a Piccola mailer that said, “Judy’s friends pull the strings.” Hirsh called the mailer “unconscionable.”

The advertisement connects Hirsh to the 12 Democrats implicated in the Bonusgate probe. It also criticizes them and other Democrats for stalling reform efforts and for supporting a 50 percent pension raise for legislators, a measure Piccola supported as well.

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HARRISBURG (Oct. 17) – The state Republican Party is suing the Department of State and ACORN, a community rights group leading a massive voter registration drive, because “we’re not confident we can trust the results of this election,” Rob Gleason, the Republican State Committee chairman, said Friday.

The lawsuit, filed in Commonwealth Court, seeks an injunction forcing the state to improve its database of voter registrants, known as SURE, which Gleason said is unreliable and faulty, preventing counties from verifying new applicants; to take extra measures to require that first-time voters present identification before voting, a rule Gleason said some counties and polling places do not enforce; and to increase the amount of provisional ballots available at polling places.

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HARRISBURG (Oct. 16) – The state’s parole moratorium could end as early as next week for nonviolent offenders, Gov. Ed Rendell announced Thursday morning.

With overcrowded prisons and the need to cut spending in response to projected revenue shortfalls, the only obstacle keeping the moratorium in place, Rendell said, is the lack of a definition for the term “nonviolent offender.”

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HARRISBURG (Oct. 15) – John Morganelli, the Democratic candidate for state Attorney General, is not just making false accusations when he says Tom Corbett is handling the “Bonusgate” probe in a partisan manner, a Corbett campaign official said Wednesday.

Morganelli, the Northampton County district attorney, is actually guilty of biased behavior himself, Brian Nutt, Corbett’s campaign manager, said.

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HARRISBURG (Oct. 15) – John Morganelli, the Democratic candidate for state attorney general, called incumbent Republican Tom Corbett a hypocrite Wednesday morning.

Morganelli accused Corbett of delaying charges against Republicans in the “Bonusgate” probe until after the election while refusing to delay recent preliminary hearings of Democrats who were charged in July.

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