I would've liked to have been in the room when this happened:
http://www.centredaily.com/...
Gov. Tom Corbett met this week with a special prosecutor assigned to review his investigation of the Jerry Sandusky child sexual abuse case, a spokeswoman for the governor said Friday.
The Associated Press first reported the meeting Friday, and the governor’s communications director, Lynn Lawson, later confirmed it to the Centre Daily Times.
Lawson said she could provide no other details about the meeting.
Pennsylvania Attorney General Kathleen Kane ordered the review of her predecessors’ investigation of the Sandusky case after taking office in 2013.
She appointed former federal prosecutor H. Geoffrey Moulton Jr. to probe the reason it took three years to investigate and charge Sandusky, a question that was a focal point of her campaign for attorney general, which resulted in a landslide victory in 2012.
A spokesperson for the attorney general also declined to comment on the interview. - Centre Daily Times, 5/30/14
Here's a little more info:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/...
The Sandusky criminal investigation began while Corbett was serving as attorney general and continued through 2010, the year Corbett made his run for governor. Sandusky was arrested in November 2011, a year after Corbett's election.
The governor has cited the successful prosecution of Sandusky as proof that the state investigation was effective and strongly denied suggestions that he didn't want the investigation to become public while he was campaigning for governor.
He said early on he would likely meet with Moulton, but he suggested Kane's probe was politically motivated.
"Anybody can come in and sit down and Monday morning quarterback decisions, OK? But for a true investigation, there has to be some criminal act. I know I didn't commit any criminal act. None, zero," he said in late 2012.
Sandusky was convicted of 45 counts of child sexual abuse of 10 boys and is serving a 30- to 60-year state prison sentence. - Huffington Post, 5/30/14
More below the fold.
Now here's a little more info:
http://www.poconorecord.com/...
During testimony at Sandusky's criminal trial in June 2012, an investigator with the attorney general's office, Anthony Sassano, said the case began in late 2008 when a state trooper interviewed a young man from Lock Haven who was one of Sandusky's victims.
Sassano said the case was turned over to state prosecutors in early 2009, after the local prosecutor raised a conflict of interest, and a grand jury began to take testimony that summer. An anonymous tip to the district attorney in the State College area alerted investigators that former assistant coach Mike McQueary may have information in the matter and Sandusky was put under surveillance, Sassano said.
"It was a daunting task to try to get others to come forward," Sassano said on the stand, noting the nature of the abuse the victims suffered.
Investigators obtained lists of boys who participated in events through a charity for children that Sandusky founded, identified boys in photos from Sandusky's autobiography "Touched" and searched his home and a storage facility at Penn State, Sassano said.
The Patriot-News reported on the existence of the grand jury investigation at the end of March 2011. About seven months later, the attorney general's office filed criminal molestation charges against Sandusky and charged athletic director Tim Curley and vice president Gary Schultz with perjury and other offenses for an alleged criminal cover-up. Similar charges were filed later against former Penn State president Graham Spanier. - Pocono Record, 5/30/14
Adam B posted a great diary nearly two years ago where conservative columnist, Chris Freind, wrote a scathing piece grilling Corbett on how he handled this case. This particular section of Freind's piece nails it on why Corbett may have mishandled this case for political gain:
http://www.delcotimes.com/...
Based on a decade's worth of evidence of Sandusky's predatory activities, why did it take the Attorney General's Office three years to arrest him? I fully understand that it takes time to conduct an investigation, but as numerous prosecutors have stated, you could have arrested him quickly and continued building the case.
Tragically, it is probable that Sandusky continued to molest victims during your epic investigation, as predators do not stop preying unless forced to do so. Had he been arrested early, (standard procedure in many cases with a lot less evidence), Sandusky would have had to post bail, had restrictions placed upon him, and, most important, been under an ultra-intense media and community spotlight - every minute of every day until his trial.
In short, children would finally have been safe. And contrary to your assessment, this would have created a much more favorable environment for additional witnesses to come forward, knowing their bigger-than-life demon could hurt them no more. Arresting Sandusky quickly would have in no way jeopardized the strength of the case.
One of two things seems to be true, as there is no third option. Either A) you were an incompetent attorney general, which virtually no one believes, or B) the investigation was deliberately understaffed and drawn out because you did not wish to be the gubernatorial candidate who took down fabled Penn State - with its massive and intensely loyal alumni network - and the beloved Joe Paterno. Since doing so would have presented difficult campaign challenges, many are asking if politics was placed above children's safety. - Chris Freind, Delco Daily Times, 7/16/12
Here's a little history on Corbett and Sandusky case:
http://www.nytimes.com/...
Raised in blue-collar Shaler, Pa., a town of 28,000 where a high school football game is a major event, Mr. Corbett spent most of his career as a prosecutor. A Roman Catholic, he was struck early on in the Penn State investigation by the similarities between the university’s failure to report allegations of sexual abuse involving Mr. Sandusky and the church’s failure to report pedophile priests, according to several people who work with him.
The Penn State case also had echoes of a prosecution Mr. Corbett had led as a young assistant district attorney. Mr. Sandusky is alleged to have used a foundation he created for disadvantaged children, called the Second Mile, to prey upon young boys. In the case earlier in Mr. Corbett’s career, he prosecuted a serial pedophile who ran a club for troubled children called the Children of the Wind.
In 2004, Mr. Corbett was elected attorney general, and quickly created a special unit to investigate child predators. He privately cited the Children of the Wind victims as the reason, saying he remained haunted by victims in the case, Mr. Harley recalled.
Once he became the state’s top prosecutor, Mr. Corbett did not shy from politically difficult cases, beginning a corruption inquiry that uncovered misuse of state funds on a grand scale by Democrats and Republicans.
“People would say that’s just politics as usual,” said John Brabender, a friend of the governor and a national Republican media consultant. “But that bothered Tom, because in his mind it was illegal, and there aren’t degrees of illegal.”
So when the Penn State case landed in Mr. Corbett’s lap in 2009, he did not hesitate, colleagues say, pressing forward on the investigation even as he ran for governor. Clinton County high school officials had reported charges to the local district attorney that Mr. Sandusky had molested a boy there, but, citing a conflict of interest, the prosecutor passed it on to the attorney general’s office to investigate.
“Here, he had a wildly popular football coach and a program which in Pennsylvania was revered, and this case lands in his office and without flinching he went down that path,” David Urban, a prominent Pennsylvania Republican lobbyist who was once former Senator Arlen Specter’s chief of staff, said of Mr. Corbett.
The more the attorney general’s office investigated, the more victims it found.
“At first, the sensitivity was, ‘Oh, my God, is this really happening?’ ” said Mr. Noonan, who at the time was Mr. Corbett’s chief investigator. Mr. Noonan said the thinking soon evolved into disbelief at the university’s lack of action. “We talked about how this would be a real shock to people, and how shocking it was to us,” he said.
When Mr. Corbett was elected governor in 2010, “he found it very difficult to let go of the case,” Mr. Noonan said. The only people he could talk to about it were the few people he had brought with him from the attorney general’s office; grand jury secrecy laws barred him from discussing it with outsiders, including university trustees he had appointed.
From the outside, the governor’s main interest in Penn State appeared to be budgetary: he and Mr. Spanier were at odds over deep cuts made to the state’s higher education budget. - New York Times, 11/10/11
Voters remain convinced that Corbett did delay the case for political gain to win over the support of the Penn State Alumni Association which has powerful ties in the state of Pennsylvania. At the time of the 2010 election, Corbett, who is not a Penn State Alum, was going up against Penn State Alum, Allegheny County Executive Dan Onarato (D. PA). This has been a factor that has greatly hurt Corbett's polling numbers:
http://www.nytimes.com/...
Mr. Corbett, who was elected in 2010, has flatly rejected the suggestion that he delayed the case.
But polls show that a majority of Pennsylvania voters are critical of his handling of the investigation, and Ms. Kane’s inquiry is likely to cast a shadow over his bid for a second term in 2014.
Ms. Kane was elected by the largest margin of any candidate on the state ballot last November — even President Obama — and said she had no interest in challenging Mr. Corbett for governor in two years. But other members of her party acknowledged that there is a risk if her investigation becomes seen as a vendetta.
“Clearly, this is a very delicate issue on the political side,” said Jay Costa, the Democratic minority leader in the State Senate. “If she creates an atmosphere that this is a witch hunt or whatever and she has already reached a conclusion, that’s not good.”
Mr. Corbett, 63, recently returned to the Penn State matter, an unhealed wound for many Pennsylvanians even after the conviction last year of the former coach, Jerry Sandusky, for molesting 10 boys. In early January, the governor brought a lawsuit to lift the stiff penalties imposed on Penn State by the National Collegiate Athletic Association as a result of the episode.
The suit seeks to rescind a $60 million fine, a four-year ban on postseason football games and the forfeit of 112 Penn State football victories over a dozen years. It was filed six months after Mr. Corbett called on Pennsylvanians to accept the punishment, and it was widely viewed as calculated to win support from the legions of alumni who bleed Penn State blue and white.
Many Pennsylvania newspaper editorial boards concluded that the action was transparently political.
Mr. Corbett’s approval ratings are historically low for a first-term governor of his state. “I don’t think there’s any doubt” that Mr. Corbett’s handling of the case is “a contributing factor in his poor job performance” in polls, said G. Terry Madonna, who directs the Franklin & Marshall College Poll. “Do I think it’s an issue that will play out? The answer is yes.” - New York Times, 1/31/13
Attorney General Kathleen Kane (D. PA) won more votes than President Obama and Senator Bob Casey (D. PA) in 2012 because of her campaign platform to investigate Corbett's involvement in delaying the case. She has been delivering on this promise and her electoral win served as a precursor to Corbett's fate in 2014.
Of course this isn't the only bad press Corbett has received this week. Corbett has been getting some major backlash over this:
http://www.delcotimes.com/...
Critics of the natural-gas industry are renewing their opposition to Gov. Tom Corbett’s executive order allowing drilling deep below the surface of Pennsylvania’s state forests and parks.
Advocates from a half-dozen environmentalist groups - including state Rep. Greg Vitali, D-166, of Hzaverford, charged at a Capitol news conference Thursday that the expanded drilling will interfere with recreational activities and increase the risk of environmental harm on nearly 2.5 million acres of public lands. - Delco Daily Times, 5/29/14
Here's a little more info:
http://www.centredaily.com/...
The order issued Friday by the Republican governor allows leases for gas extraction through horizontal wells drilled from adjacent, privately owned lands or from areas previously leased for drilling in the state forest.
It bars drilling-related construction that would disturb the surface of the public lands.
The initial leases are expected to generate $75 million for the state budget for the year that starts July 1. - AP, 5/29/14
And action is being taken:
http://citizensvoice.com/...
As a state court considers a request to block a new round of drilling in the forests and state parks a former Rendell cabinet secretary testified Wednesday about his concerns with Marcellus Shale drilling in the state forests during 2009-10.
“It created a situation where the state forests were being looked upon as a cash cow,” said John Quigley, a former secretary of the Department of Conservation and Natural Resources and one-time Hazleton mayor, about a requirement to lease forest land to drillers to generate revenue for the state budget.
DCNR officials wanted to pause after an initial Marcellus Shale lease in 2008, but were rebuffed by former Gov. Ed Rendell dealing with a recession-caused budget crisis, Quigley said.
Rendell finally issued a moratorium in 2010 on additional drilling in state forest land that lasted until Friday.
Gov. Tom Corbett issued an executive order then allowing for new drilling in state forests and in state parks that doesn’t disturb the land surface to reach underground state-owned gas deposits. Not allowed will be drilling that involves well pads, roads and pipelines, Corbett said.
Corbett said lease payments from the new drilling can generate an estimated $75 million for the next state budget.
The hearing in Commonwealth Court focuses on a request by an environmental group for an injunction to block Corbett’s plan as well as diverting royalty revenue from the conservation-oriented Oil and Gas Fund to operate DCNR. - Citizens Voice, 5/29/14
And while we are on this issue, Corbett is still making himself look out of touch with Pennsylvanians:
http://www.mcall.com/...
If his opponent's call for an extraction tax on natural gas in Pennsylvania is putting any pressure on Republican Gov. Tom Corbett, he wasn't showing it Wednesday.
Appearing at Lehigh Country Club for a taping of the locally aired "Business Matters" TV talk show, Corbett said he continues to oppose placing a severance tax on natural gas drillers because it will keep the state competitive with other natural gas-producing states such as Texas.
"You want to grow this industry; this is a very small industry still, although it has grown quite a bit," Corbett said. "The valuable asset besides natural gas is something to get to the natural gas. That is the drill rig and they are very, very limited."
If Pennsylvania's drilling environment becomes less favorable, some of those rigs may leave, slowing growth in the natural gas and related industries, he said.
Corbett said drillers and related industries have paid $2 billion in other taxes to the state since 2008 and that holding the line on a severance tax will help grow the business.
"I believe God gave us an opportunity to make up for maybe the past for environmental violations we had from industries year ago, but also to develop industry here in Pennsylvania, not just in the natural gas industry but in manufacturing," Corbett said.
After the event, the governor said he will oppose any effort to include such a tax in the state's upcoming budget — even to close a revenue gap estimated at $569 million by June 30, the end of the state's fiscal year.
"I can't imagine there is anything that could be presented to me that would cause me to change that, when we know that we are on the right track," Corbett said.
His poll numbers in the doldrums, Corbett is gearing up for a general election fight against Tom Wolf, who handily won the Democratic primary last week. Wolf has proposed a 5 percent severance tax on natural gas extraction to help fund education, infrastructure and environmental protection.
"Republicans and Democrats alike support a reasonable extraction tax along with a majority of Pennsylvanians," said Wolf spokesman Jeff Sheridan. "The revenue generated from an extraction tax will help fund top priorities, and Gov. Corbett continues to demonstrate how out of touch he is by refusing to make oil and gas companies pay up." - The Morning Call, 5/28/14
The RGA has been trying to paint Corbett as a success when it comes to energy and promote his lies about the extraction tax costing jobs:
http://www.politicspa.com/...
The Republican Governors Association has crafted a new web ad for Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Corbett that defends his “pro-energy” position.
The two-and-a-half minute spot focuses on the jobs that can be created by Pennsylvania’s natural gas industry. As an example, the commercial highlights NuWeld, Inc., a small welding business based in Williamsport, PA.
“It all comes back to energy because you need energy to have manufacturing,” Corbett states near the end of the video. “We’re going to be able to reindustrialize Pennsylvania because of our natural gas and because of our coal.”
Although 58.2% of Pennsylvanians support a extraction tax according to a recent Robert Morris poll, the RGA ad argues that such a tax would destroy jobs. - PoliticsPA, 5/29/14
The extraction tax would also help solve this problem:
http://www.newsworks.org/...
By refusing to adopt a budget that would gut schools to the point of "empty shells," the School Reform Commission clearly intended Thursday evening to send an urgent message to the people in City Hall and Harrisburg who provide the district its funding.
One of those is Charles Zogby, the state's budget secretary. In a local appearance Friday, Zogby acknowledged the district's dire financial straits, but said the district's woes are but one of many issues that the governor has to weigh this budget season.
Gov. Corbett and the state legislature have to approve a budget before the end of June. In the meantime, Zogby said that "there's a lot of fluidity," and that "all options are on the table." He said finding more money for schools is going to be extremely difficult given the state's own budget gap, which hovers between $1.3 and $1.5 billion dollars.
The state's revenue collections have fallen well short of expectations.
"Everybody's strapped for cash, including our families that continue to struggle," said Zogby. "So the governor has to take that into account as well as he goes about his decision making."
Of the SRC's five member body, three of the current members were appointed by Gov. Corbett: Chairman Bill Green, Feather O. Houstoun, and Farah Jimenez.
"When they call, we listen," said Zogby. "There's an ongoing dialogue. They're very good advocates for the district, and sharing with us the challenges they face."
Education advocates have called for a number of revenue generating options including a statewide severance tax on Marcellus shale drilling, accepting federal help to expand Medicaid, and raising taxes on state businesses. - Newsworks, 5/30/14
But the education funding problem is Corbett's own making:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/...
How do you wreck a public school system?
There are plenty of ways, but right now let’s just focus on one district, the state-run Philadelphia School District, which has been starved for funding by the administration of Republican Gov. Tom Corbett and has been a guinea pig for corporate school reform, with widespread school closures and rapid charter expansion in the past decade.
Things are so bad on the financial front that district officials created a $2.4 billion budget for the next school year with available resources and then urged the state-created School Reform Commission on Thursday night not to pass it. The Notebook, an independent Web site that covers Philadelphia education, said Superintendent William Hite warned that the budget was not “educationally sound or economically prudent for the city or the state.” The Notebook said:
“Running schools this way for another year is unsustainable and does an extreme disservice to our students and our families,” Hite said, his voice betraying his simmering frustration. - Washington Post, 5/30/14
And this will be a big issues come November:
http://citypaper.net/...
Pennsylvania Working Families plans to deliver 40,000 petition signatures this morning to Philadelphia City Council asking them to place a question on November's ballot demanding that the state abolish the School Reform Commission.
The measure would add a section to the Philadelphia Home Rule Charter charging that "the state's takeover of our schools through the School Reform Commission has weakened the voices of parents and community" and "call[ing] upon the Pennsylvania General Assembly and the Governor to abolish the School Reform Commission and return local control of Philadelphia's schools."
City Council can propose a Charter amendment to appear on the ballot by a two-thirds vote, or by only a majority if a petition signed by at least 20,000 registered voters is submitted—but still only if Council chooses to do so.
The ballot measure would not abolish the SRC. Committee of Seventy Policy Director Ellen Kaplan points out that by statute the SRC can only be abolished by the state Secretary of Education on the recommendation of a majority of the SRC's five members. Contrary to the petition's language, the legislature would not play a direct role—unless they voted to change the state takeover law.
"It may turn out that the ballot question, if passed, would have more symbolic importance as expressing the views of Philadelphia voters than any actual impact at the time of passage," says Kaplan.
That symbolism could have political consequence. Democratic gubernatorial candidate Tom Wolf has called for the state-controlled SRC's abolition, and education advocates would likely use an anti-SRC ballot initiative to drive Democratic voters to the polls in November. In other states, labor-allied Working Families Parties back Democrats who support progressive civil rights, economic justice and environmental policies. Pennsylvania Working Families has not yet launched a party. It could very well do so soon.
If Wolf does defeat Corbett, and wants to follow through on his call to abolish the SRC, he will have to convince the legislature (currently under Republican control) or current SRC members to do so. Otherwise, he will have to wait until current members' terms expire (or convince them to resign) and then nominate three members of his own (subject to Senate confirmation). Gubernatorial nominees serve five-year terms, and Corbett nominees Bill Green (SRC Chair) and Farah Jimenez were confirmed February of this year; Feather Houston was confirmed in December 2011. - Philadelphia Citypaper, 5/28/14
And Corbett keeps on pushing this:
http://www.wfmz.com/...
Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Corbett is backing legislation to replace the state's public pension system with a less costly hybrid system. A spokesman said Wednesday that Corbett was pleased by the Public Employee Retirement Commission's vote to accept analyses of the proposal by actuaries representing the state's two largest public-employee employment systems, Corbett and the commission. Corbett, whose attempts at pension reform last year failed to garner a legislative majority, has worked with the bill's sponsors behind the scenes for months.
The complex plan would apply to newly hired state and school employees starting next year. It would combine the traditional defined-benefit plan with a 401(k)-style defined contribution plan. Current employees would not be affected. - WFMZ-TV, 5/28/14
But with Corbett's bleak outlook when it comes to his re-election prospects, it's highly doubtful he can get a plan passed:
http://www.politicspa.com/...
An article recently published by national polling website FiveThirtyEight found that while most states are unlikely to find a new party taking over the Governor’s chair in 2014, Pennsylvania was ranked as the most likely to see a switch in the state’s highest office.
Dating back to the early months of 2013, the security of incumbent Pennsylvania Governor Tom Corbett began to appear unstable. In the past year, Gov. Corbett’s approval ratings have continued to drop and as a result, he has received the title of “most vulnerable governor” from national prognosticators.
Author Harry Enten is asserting that Tom Wolf is not merely leading Corbett, but actually went so far as to declare that Wolf is “crushing” Corbett in the early polls. His analysis indicates that at the present moment the Democratic nominee has an 89% chance of winning the election. - Politics PA, 5/30/14
By the way, Freind is all about Corbett's opponent, Tom Wolf (D. PA) and breaks down how Wolf will win:
http://www.ydr.com/...
The problem Corbett faces is how to cut into Wolf's sizable lead. He must attack to close the gap, but has only three avenues:
1.) Wolf's an out-of-touch millionaire.
Problem: Wolf drives a modest Jeep and sent his children to public school. He talks in a down-to-earth manner, and his ads portray him as a generous, hands-on businessman who understands the issues facing Pennsylvanians.
Result: Voters, including Republicans, will support Wolf since many believe the state needs to be run more efficiently — like a business.
2.) He is a "tax and spender" from his days as secretary of revenue under Ed Rendell.
Problem: This attack has already backfired, as even the most casual voter realized that Corbett's attack ads making that claim were ludicrous. Revenue secretaries don't set policy and cannot be blamed for taxes enacted by the governor and Legislature.
Result: The revenue secretary issue will shift focus, as Wolf will hammer Corbett that his revenue secretary spearheaded the effort to outsource the Pennsylvania Lottery to a foreign firm — enough to scare the bejesus out of damn near every senior citizen. And you don't need to play the lottery to determine the winner on that issue.
3.) Wolf's business.
Problem: Wolf's primary opponents already attacked him on aspects of his business, yet Wolf's poll numbers climbed. Attacking a successful business is difficult, especially when, as in Corbett's case, the attacker is a lifelong politician who never created a job. How Wolf financed something, what pension fund invested in his company, or where the business is chartered are entirely too complicated to explain in a 30-second ad.
Result: Wolf's stock goes up.
Wolf's victory showed that Democrats put aside heart and voted with their brains, sensing that Wolf was clearly their best hope to beat the nation's most vulnerable governor. They smelled blood in the water, and took no chances, making Wolf victorious in all 67 counties. He won't repeat that in the general, but may well win more than 57 percent of the vote.
If the Democrats vote en masse to rally behind Wolf and Republicans sit it out, viewing the outcome as inevitable, it will be the Democrats' night. It is important to note two things:
A.) Roughly 10 percent of Republicans deliberately chose to not vote for Corbett in the primary, despite no opposition. That's not a good sign for the GOP.
B.) Ticket splitting is quickly becoming obsolete. Independents and swing voters may switch party allegiances from election to election, but are increasingly voting straight ticket. Given that the state Senate is on the verge of going Democratic for the first time in decades, look for GOP candidates to shun Tom Corbett while hoping that Tom Wolf's bite won't be lethal.
For 2014 at least, this Tom Wolf looks to have the right stuff. - York Daily Record, 5/30/14
And Republicans keep on pushing this attack on Wolf:
http://blog.pennlive.com/...
On a new website, the statewide GOP accuses Wolf of trying to raise taxes while serving as Revenue Secretary under former Gov. Ed Rendell.
They also take aim at his support for the federal healthcare law and a severance tax on Marcellus shale natural gas drillers.
The GOP also breathlessly charges that (and these are their words not ours):
"When Tom Wolf served as Revenue Secretary our tax burden was the highest ever, and Wolf tried to raise taxes even higher.
Tom Wolf is an extreme tax-and-spend liberal with a history of supporting income and sales tax increases!
Tom Wolf supports ObamaCare—one of the largest tax increases in American history!
Tom Wolf supports massive new energy taxes—including a state-level cap-and-trade tax."
The latter of the two charges are correct: Wolf does support a severance tax (and legislative Republicans are now considering one to balance the 2014-15 state budget).
And he has proposed boosting the base rate of the state's 3.07 percent income tax. But he's also proposed a "universal exemption" that would result in some of the poorest Pennsylvania's paying no income tax at all.
As far as the Revenue Secretary thing goes, that's already been debunked.
As an administration official, Wolf had no power to raise taxes, only to implement those passed by the Legislature. Thus, his desire to raise taxes is akin to our desire for another cheeseburger when we have no money. It ain't happening.
That includes a state income tax hike proposed by Rendell and passed when the state House and Senate were under Republican control in 2003. And Wolf wasn't even Revenue Secretary at the time. - The Patriot-News, 5/27/14
So yeah, Corbett has a big uphill battle ahead of him and the GOP will do anything between now and November to try and defeat Wolf. Wolf is a successful businessman who cares about those who work for him. He's from central PA which will play to his advantage, especially with Corbett's abysmal primary vote numbers in Centre County. It's important we are prepared for anything. Click here if you would like to donate and get involved with Wolf's campaign:
http://www.wolfforpa.com/