PA: AG says make Penn State comply with freedom of information law

By   /  July 26, 2012  /  Accountability, Education, Education Temp 4, Ethics, Events, Featured, Legislature, Open Records, Pennsylvania, Power Abuse, State Budgets, State Government, State Politics, Transparency, Transparency  /  No Comments

Penn State's "Old Main" administrative building. If the PA legislature follows Auditor General Jack Wagner's wishes, the embattled university will have to make public most of its internal documents.

By Jared Sichel | PA Independent
HARRISBURG — Pennsylvania’s top auditor has a message for Penn State — things must change.
Thursday, Auditor General Jack Wagner called on the Legislature to order the troubled university to comply with the state’s Right-to-Know law.
“I would hope that this would be a priority in September, and the General Assembly could deal [...]

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PA: Loophole allows nearly 100,000 noncitizens to vote

By   /  July 25, 2012  /  2012 General Election, Elections, Events, Featured, News, Pennsylvania, Politics & Elections, State Government, State Politics, Voter Registration  /  3 Comments

Nearly 100,000 noncitizens in PA hold an approved form of photo ID. Because of a loophole in the state's voter registration law, any of these 100,000 people intent on committing fraud would have an easy time doing so.

By Jared Sichel | PA Independent
HARRISBURG — Pennsylvania’s controversial voter ID law is beginning to look more like a piece of Swiss cheese.
As court hearings on the law begin Wednesday in Harrisburg, one glaring hole will remain even if the law is upheld — noncitizens can still easily vote.
A loophole in state law allows legal [...]

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PA: Keystone State has no plans to remove noncitizens from voter rolls

By   /  July 24, 2012  /  2012 General Election, Elections, Featured, News, Pennsylvania, Politics, Politics & Elections, State Government  /  No Comments

Pennsylvania election officials do not plan to seek access to a federal database that would help them identify illegal noncitizens, who have registered to vote.

By Jared Sichel | PA Independent
HARRISBURG — Pennsylvania will not be following Florida’s lead in identifying noncitizens on its voter registration rolls, even though the commonwealth’s law doesn’t do much to stop noncitizens from registering.
“We haven’t come across that as an issue,” said Pennsylvania Department of State spokesman Ron Ruman. “It hasn’t crossed our radar, [...]

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PA: Supreme Court ruling could be a pyrrhic victory for transparency advocates

By   /  July 18, 2012  /  Accountability, Business, Events, Featured, Judiciary, News, Open Records, Pennsylvania, State Government  /  No Comments

Pennsylvania Judicial Center in Harrisburg. A recent Supreme Court decision regarding the state's open records law may turn out to be more restrictive than initially thought.

By Jared Sichel | PA Independent
HARRISBURG — A major court victory for transparency advocates may turn out to be more limited than it initially appeared.
The Pennsylvania Supreme Court, in SWB Yankees LLC v. Gretchen Wintermantel and the Scranton Times Tribune, agreed with a Commonwealth Court ruling that the privately owned Scranton/Wilkes-Barre Yankees minor league baseball [...]

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PA: Penn State boosted pension payouts for Sandusky

By   /  July 13, 2012  /  Ethics, Events, Featured, Open Records, Pennsylvania, State Government, Transparency, Transparency  /  3 Comments

Former FBI Director Louis Freeh conducted the investigation at Penn State.

By Jared Sichel | PA Independent
HARRISBURG — The timing of Jerry Sandusky’s 1999 retirement from Penn State University appears to have been influenced not by discovery of his sex crimes but by a determination to help Sandusky take advantage of an early-retirement program that boosted his retirement benefits. (Watch a video on this story here)
Emails [...]

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