Good Friday Morning, Fellow Seekers.
If you're like us, the chances are pretty good that, even at this early hour, you're already looking forward to the long holiday weekend ahead. If you're even in the office this morning, perhaps you're sporting a Hawaiian shirt and listening to your favorite tunes. If you're at home, we hope that there's a Mimosa or a Bloody Mary on the table next to you.

With warmer climes on our mind, we'll dispense with the usual formalities and just dive right into an utterly indispensable digest of the stories making news this 25th day of May 2012. Here we go:

Putting Human Faces ...
... to the public cost of cutting social service programs, there's this outstanding story from the York Daily Record revealing that more than 100 children in a YWCA-run childcare program will lose services for a week in response to cutbacks in funding. If you're a working parent, then you know how hard it can be to find childcare for a day, let alone a week. Now imagine that you don't have the flexibility to get out of work to look after your brood.

Ten Months Of Work ...
... has resulted in the state's first more or less comprehensive list of existing Marcellus shale natural gas wells, the Post-Gazette reports this morning.
The catalog of drilling sites was put together by researchers at the Carnegie Museum of Natural History's Powdermill Nature Reserve, the newspaper reported.

The Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission ...
... ripped gas utility UGI Corp. on Thursday for taking a "passive approach" to replacing aging infrastructure and customers will face soaring rate increases and increased safety threats if the company doesn't develop stronger short- and long-term replacement plans.
At a session Thursday, a PUC commissioner issued a statement along with the report, saying he was "astonished" that the PUC had to recommend stronger replacement plans two years after it met with the company on the topic, our Mothership colleagues Tim Darragh and Scott Kraus report this morning.
The company's pipeline replacement plan, combined with the ongoing investigation into the explosion of an 83-year-old gas pipeline in February 2011 that killed five Allentown residents, led two Lehigh Valley state senators later Thursday to urge the PUC to take matters into its own hands.
In a joint statement, Sens. Pat Browne, R-Lehigh, and Lisa Boscola, D-Northampton, asked the PUC to "order UGI to either develop a shorter replacement schedule for replacing cast iron and bare steel on their own or … order a specific replacement schedule for UGI."

Here's The Official Word From The Front Office:
Pittsburgh lawyer Bill Ward, who's served as Gov. Tom Corbett's chief of staff for an occasionally rocky 16 months will leave the administration to become a judge on the Allegheny County Court of Common Pleas.

The administration confirmed Ward's nomination to the bench in a statement issued this afternoon, saying that "in addition to fulfilling a longstanding career goal to serve in a judicial post, the change reunites Ward with his wife and family in Pittsburgh."

“For as long as I’ve known Bill, it’s been his dream to be a judge,” Corbett said. “I’m happy to help make that dream happen, both for Bill and for the citizens who will benefit from his knowledge and integrity.”

Ward, 60, a former aide to Corbett when he was attorney general, will stay on as a "special adviser" until he's confirmed by the state Senate.

“My current role in government has been both professionally challenging and personally rewarding,” Ward in the administration's statement. “A position serving on the bench in Allegheny County will allow me to be reunited with my family in Pittsburgh while continuing to serve the Commonwealth.”

Steve Aichele, the administration's current general counsel and husband to Secretary of State Carol Aichele, will take over as chief-of-staff on May 29, the administration said.

The Inquirer reported Ward's impending departure this morning. The story also noted that Corbett is set to meet next week with top tier advisers over how to salvage his public image.

Good Thursday Morning, Fellow Seekers.
Today is Thursday, May 24, 2012 and we're into the final leg before the long Memorial Day weekend. To help get your day started, here's the five things you need to know about what's happening in state government:

1. From the Capitol Ideas Civil Unrest Desk comes news that 25 people were arrested in demonstrations across the state against cuts in public education funding. Thousands of people took to the streets for actions in Philadelphia, Pittsburgh and Harrisburg, the Associated Press reports. The protests came just a day after a new report detailed the cuts in programs and personnel that school systems are undertaking in response to two years' worth of cuts in state support.

2. Pennsylvania could save tens of millions of dollars a year by reserving prison space for the most dangerous of criminals and by diverting lower-level offenders into other programs, according to a new report by the Council of State Governments. Pennsylvania is one of 16 states participating in CSG's Justice Reinvestment Initiative, which is designed to help states cut prison costs while preserving public safety. The Department of Corrections makes up the third-largest component of Pennsylvania's general fund budget.

3. Amid criticisms of his effectiveness and ability to wage political battles, Corbett administration chief-of-staff Bill Ward is apparently headed for the exits, the Associated Press reports.
Citing anonymous sources, the AP reports that Ward could be replaced by administration chief counsel Steve Aichele, a longtime confidant to Gov. Tom Corbett and the husband of PA Secretary of State Carol Aichele. In the meantime, Corbett is expected to meet next week with senior advisers and supporters over his sagging poll numbers and growing image problem, the Inquirer also reports.

Our First Crack At Storify ...
... thanks to our friend and colleague Emily Opilo of the York Daily Record for the heads-up on this social media platform.

Legislation Aimed At Protecting Student-Athletes ...
... from an affliction known as "sudden cardiac arrest syndrome" is on its way to Gov. Tom Corbett's desk.

The state House voted unanimously this afternoon to approve legislation sponsored by Rep. Mike Vereb, R-Montgomery, that would mandate training for coaches, trainers and athletic directors; educate parents and student-athletes about the syndrome; and require student-athletes exhibiting symptoms to be removed from the field and not returned to play until they're cleared by a medical professional.

The bill is modeled on a similar concussion-awareness measure that was signed into law last year. 

"This is the No. 1 killer of student-athletes," Vereb said during remarks on the House floor. "This bill is about awareness. It's about education. It's about saving lives."

Corbett is expected to sign the legislatioon, the suburban Philadelphia lawmaker said in a separate interview.

Cardiologist Matthew Martinez, the director of the Sports Cardiology Program at Lehigh Valley Health System in Allentown, said effective screening for these young athletes is key. Symptoms of what's technically known as "hypertrophic cardiomyopathy" can include shortness of breath and dizziness -- common side effects of regular athletic exertion.

The affliction accounts for a third of all deaths among those aged 25 and younger, Martinez said during a biref interview Wednesday. In the last two years, the affliction has accounted for at least three deaths in eastern Pennsylvania.

"This is definitely a step in the right direction," said Martinez, who consulted on the legislation. "We want to make sure there is an awareness that these are important people to take care of. The symptoms should not be ignored."

Social conservatives rallied in the Capitol this morning on behalf of legislation that they say would finally shut off the flow of public money to Planned Parenthood and other abortion-providers by making sure "legitimate" women's healthcare providers get first dibs on state funds.

"You don't have liberty and the pursuit of happiness without life," House State Government Committee Chairman Daryl Metcalfe, R-Butler, said today. "The Founding Fathers submitted to the understanding that we answer to God. God gives life and government should protect life."

Under Metcalfe's bill, the state Department of Health would be "directed to prioritize authorized family planning funding to health care entities that can best provide comprehensive health care to women."

Metcalfe argued that because Planned Parenthood primarily provides abortion services, it should not receive any taxpayer funding at all. It was not immediately clear this morning how much public money Planned Parenthood receives in Pennsylvania.

Pennsylvania law already forbids direct taxpayer subsidies for abortions. But Metcalfe and his supporters say Planned Parenthood and other abortion providers use the taxpayer money they receive for public relations, political efforts, along with a minimal amount of women's healthcare services, freeing up money for abortion services.

In a statement, Planned Parenthood's political wing branded Metcalfe's bill an "extreme proposal" that would cut off access to breast and cervical cancer screenings; HIV and AIDS testing and preventive health services, including birth control. About 120,000 Pennsylvanians would lose services if the bill became law, Planned Parenthood said.

About "95 percent of the healthcare Planned Parenthood provides in Pennsylvania is preventive," the statement reads, pointing to the 40,000 cervical cancer screenings and 44,000 breast exams it performed in 2011.

Metcalfe and his supporters pushed back against such claims, arguing that such services would not be cut off, but that funding would be redirected to healthcare providers who practice "whole " women's healthcare. Planned Parenthood performs about 32,000 abortions nationwide each year, 16,000 of which take place in Pennsylvania, they said.

"Reproductive health can only, and should only, embrace life," said Rep. Ryan Aument, R-Lancaster, one of several GOP legislators who spoke at the press conference in the Capitol Media Center.

Good Wednesday Morning, Fellow Seekers.
Back in the early 1990s, when grunge ruled the Earth and everyone, by law, was required to wear flannel, look moody and drink truly psychotic amounts of coffee while listening to the first Pearl Jam LP, we scored our first newspaper job for a salary somewhere in the middle teen-thousands.

After four years spent as a poverty-stricken college student, it seemed like serious money indeed. We had the rent covered. We had the car payment covered. And occasionally, there was some money left over for beer and pizza with our friends. There was also some cash in there for the second Pearl Jam LP, which is still the "difficult' sophomore one.

Viewed through the prism of 20 years, $17k seems like a pittance in retrospect. But at the time, it was an unimaginably large sum of money. But some sums are so unimaginably large that they simply beggar belief.

Take, for instance, the mind-boggling $3.87 billion that Pennsylvania owes the feds in borrowed unemployment benefits. Things are so bad, in fact, that the famously debt averse Corbett administration is considering floating a bond to cover the cost.

"This is akin to refinancing your house,” Pennsylvania Secretary of Labor Julia Hearthway tells the Inquirer this morning. “It’s the lowest interest rate we’re going to have for years to come.”

But that's not all: The state's unemployment trust fund is insolvent. It pays out more than it takes in, the Inky notes. And lawmakers are considering some fairly radical measures to get it back on sound footing. Among them is a measure that would reduce payouts by denying benefits to an estimated 48,000 people a year.

The state Senate could vote on the measure soon. If approved, it would affect about 10 percent of the 500,000 jobless Pennsylvanians who receive benefits, saving $276 million a year starting in January of next year, the Inky reports.

If we're doing our math correctly, that'd pay for about 1.7 million copies of the first Pearl Jam LP (or two for every jobless person). So now we're talking real money.

Of course, the lilting strains of Eddie Vedder won't put food on the table.

The rest of today's news starts, as ever, after the jump.

Former State Rep. Bill DeWeese's Time ...
... as a free man is over.
The former Greene County lawmaker is on his way back to state prison after a Dauphin County judge denied his request to remain free on bail while he pursues an appeal to his conviction on public corruption charges.

In an order issued Tuesday, Dauphin County Judge Todd Hoover ruled that "the legitimate interest in incarceration following conviction prevails" and that DeWeese is no longer entitled to a presumption of innocence, WHP-TV in Harrisburg reported.

DeWeese had been out of jail since Friday. He was sentenced April 24 to 2.5 to five years in prison for illegally using public resources for political purposes. He resigned his House seat at the same time.

DeWeese's attorney, Bill Costopoulous, tells the station that the southwestern Democrat will "self-report" to the Camp Hill state prison today.

If You're A Member Of Steelers Nation ...
... or even a casual football fan, the Capitol's the place to be this afternoon.

Gov. Tom Corbett and the state House and Senate are honoring retired Pittsburgh Steelers wide receiver Hines Ward today for his accomplishments both on and off the gridiron.

"He's someone who has represented what I think are the finest attributes of a team player," Corbett said during a lunch hour ceremony outside his Capitol offices. "He started his career in Pittsburgh and ended his career in Pittsburgh, which is something you don't see any more."

Ward,36, played 14 seasons for the Steelers before calling it a career at the end of the 2011-12 season. He earned three team MVP awards, was sent to four consecutive Pro Bowls and holds two Super Bowl rings. He was also named the MVP for Super Bowl 40.

Off the field, Ward's active in a number of charities in the Pittsburgh area. And during a brief Q&A, he said he plans to continue that work even though his playing days are over.

"The city of Pittsburgh has given so much to me." he said. "For me to give back to a city that has given so much to me is a must."

Just A Quick Aside Before Lunch:
Philly lawyers Ken Rothweiler and Nancy Winkler, both of the Pennsylvania Association for Justice (nee the Pennsylvania Trial Lawyers Association) swung through the Capitol press room this morning to let us know that they were personally distributing copies of the documentary "Hot Coffee" to all 253 members of the General Assembly.

The movie, if you haven't seen it (and, really, what are you waiting for?), is a documentary intended to explain how that famous McDonald's hot coffee case has been "[distorted by corporations] ... to promote tort reform," according to the movie's entry on the Internet Movie Database.

With last year's approval of a new law governing the way civil damages are apportioned in lawsuits and a bill that critics say would put new restrictions on where civil suits can be filed, Rothweiler says he thinks there's been "an assault on victims' rights" with the election of Gov. Tom Corbett and GOP control over the General Assembly.

Take a gander at the trailer for the movie, which came out in 2011. It's the documentary debut of filmmaker Susan Saldoff.

Here's more about the school funding report set to be released later today by the Pennsylvania Association of School Business Officials and the Pennsyvlania Association of School Administrators.

The third annual survey reveals "a rapid decline in school district financial conditions" that forces "districts to cut programs that directly affect student learning -- including kindergarten, core academic courses, tutoring programs and summer school," the report concludes.

Two hundred and eighty-one of the state's 500 school districts participated in the survey. More than half of districts anticipate financial distress within three years. A half-dozen say they're already broke, according to published reports this morning.

Citing the $900 million cut in state support they received in the FY 2011-12 state budget, the report says districts furloughed staff and left 14,000 positions unfilled across the state. Seventy percent of districts increased class sizes, 44 percent reduced elective courses, a third reduced or eliminated tutoring programs and 20 percent eliminated summer school programs.

In response to these criticisms, the Corbett administration has said it actually increased the state's basic education subsidy in its freshman budget and faulted districts for using a one-time only shot of federal stimulus money to balannce their books.

The administration's proposed spending plan for the fiscal year that starts July 1 eliminates the $100 million block grant program that districts use to fund all-day kindergarten and tutoring programs cited in the report. A budget approved by the Senate would add back $50 million to that account.

Moving into what they describe as a third year of reduced funding, more than six in 10 districts will increase class sizes; 58 percent will reduce elective courses; nearly half (49 percent) will delay new textbook purchases; more than a third (37 percent) will eliminate summer school programs and 46 percent will reduce or eliminate student field trips, the report shows.

On Monday, two House Republicans, Reps. Mike Vereb, R-Montgomerry, and Mario Scavello, R-Monroe, faulted districts for sitting on what they described as billions of dollars in cash reserves while undertaking such cuts and looking to homeowners for tax increases.

The full text of the report follows after the jump. It is officially embargoed until its 2:30 p.m. release. But the details were published in the Inquirer this morning, effectively negating the embargo. So we have decided not to participate in it.

Good Tuesday Morning, Fellow Seekers.
In case you missed it yesterday, the House Appropriations Committee got the next set of budget dominoes in line as it voted, along party lines, to send the $27.65 billion budget plan approved by the Senate to the House floor for a vote during the week of June 4.

Majority Republicans on the panel gave Democrats fits yesterday as they pushed through language capping spending at the Senate total, effectively blocking Democratic amendments to the proposed spending plan.

Democrats and other lawmakers will still be allowed to offer amendments during floor debate, but those will have to be revenue-neutral, meaning that any spending increase in one line item will have to be reduced somewhere else.

This, as you might imagine, frustrated the Democrats, who wanted to up spending on public schools and social welfare programs.

"We can do so much better for the people of Pennsylvania," Rep. Joe Markosek of Allegheny County, the committee's ranking Democrat said, as debate wrapped up around 6 p.m. "This is a budget that hurts people when it does not need to. There is money on the table."

In a reminder that lawmakers are a long way from seeing a finished budget, Rep. Thomas Killion, R-Delaware, told his colleagues that the budget that came out of committee this evening wasn't the final product.

"We're talking like this is the final budget," he said. "This is not the final vote. It's moving the process forward. We'll have plenty of time to debate all these line items."

The rest of today's news starts, as ever, after the jump.

The House Appropriations Committee Has Just Voted ...
... along party lines to send the $27.65 billion budget approved by the Senate two weeks ago  to the House floor for a vote sometime during the week of June 4.

The 21-14 vote came after more than 2.5 hours of rancorous partisan debate in which the panel's Democratic minority unsuccessfully tried to offer a series of amendments to the spending plan.

Much of the debate focused on Democrats' outrage over a procedural motion by Republicans to effectively make the Senate budget the cap on what lawmakers can spend for the fiscal year that starts July 1.

Democrats were repeatedly rebuffed in efforts to include additional spending in the budget plan. The panel's chairman, Rep. William Adolph, R-Delaware, said lawmakers would be free to offer amendments on the floor as long as they increased spending in one place by reducing it somewhere else.

Democrats also repeatedly insisted that projections by the Legislature's own independent fiscal office showed that lawmakers had roughly $300 million in extra money to spend in the upcoming fiscal year.

"We can do so much better for the people of Pennsylvania," Rep. Joe Markosek of Allegheny County, the committee's ranking Democrat said, as debate wrapped up around 6 p.m. "This is a budget that hurts people when it does not need to. There is money on the table."

Adolph told Markosek and other Democrats that some line items, such as the accountability block grants that school districts use to pay for after-school tutoring and other programs would be addressed during floor debate "but they will only be addressed if they are revenue-neutral. I appreciate [Rep.} Markosek's passion, but we can only spend what we take in."

In a reminder that lawmakers are a long way from seeing a finished budget, Rep. Thomas Killion, R-Delaware, reminded his colleagues that the budget that came out of committee this evening wasn't the finished product.

"We're talking like this is the final budget," he said. "This is not the final vote. It's moving the process forward. We'll have plenty of time to debate all these line items."

For additional insight on the budget debate, see our post from earlier today covering Senate Appropriations Committtee Chairman Jake Corman's appearance before the Pennsylvania Press Club.

Pennsylvania's $1 Billion Investment ...
... in higher education yields a return to the taxpayers in the form of lower tuition for in-state students, access to higher education for lower-income students and it spurs economic development in host communities, a top Senate Republican whose district includes Penn State University said this afternoon.

Deep cuts to the four state-related universities and the 14 state-owned schools in the Pennsylvania State System of Higher Education would be "short-sighted," Senate Appropriations Committee Chairman Jake Corman, R-Centre, said during a speech to the Pennsylvania Press Club.

And with just about a month to go before the statutory deadline to approve a new state budget, Corman predicted that lawmakers would get a completed spending plan to Gov. Tom Corbett's desk by June 13.

"It's always good to have goals in life," Corman quipped to the crowd of business leaders, public officials and journalists at the Harrisburg Hilton.

The GOP-controlled Senate approved a $27.6 billion budget two weeks ago. That's $500 million more than the $27.14 billion spending plan introduced in February by Gov. Tom Corbett and about 2 percent more than current spending.

The majority-Republican House is set to introduce its own budget plan this week, possibly as early today, with a vote expected during the week of June 4, House Republican spokesman Steve Miskin said last week.

This comes from the folks at Stateline,org, an insanely useful resource on stuff that's happening in state governments across the country.

The graphic below is based on an actual study by Pew's Economic Mobility Project that examined Americans in their prime working years (between 1978 and 1997) and how they were faring 10 years later (between 1988 and 2007).

Pennsylvanians demonstrated better economic mobility based on two of three measures included in the study (absolute, upward and downward mobility).

You can read the full study here.

Public schools -- and how to pay for them. That's the topic of the morning as state lawmakers return to work this morning after a weeklong recess prompted by ... well ... we have no idea what it was prompted by. But no matter.

In a pair of events, lawmakers in the state House tried to take a whack at the lingering problem of how the state can best shoulder its constitutionally mandated share of paying for public education. The debate has been kicking around for a decade or more, and no one seems any closer to solving it.

The House Finance Committee got affairs rolling this morning with a public hearing on HB1776, Rep. Jim Cox's bill, which would gradually eliminate all local property taxes and replace them with a blend of a higher personal income tax, an expanded sales tax and some redirected casino revenues.

Elsewhere, lawmakers took on school districts and their multimillion-dollar reserve accounts. Lawmakers defended these criticisms, even as they acknowledged that the General Assembly is sitting on about $120 million of its own surplus cash (down from a high of more than $200 million six years ago).

But back to the Finance Committee:

Cox has christened his proposal "The Taxpayers' Declaration of Independence" (hence the clever bill number) and he spent part of this morning explaining it to the committee.

Even after he patiently explained to his colleagues that his bill wouldn't affect the actual formula that determines how much state aid districts receive, the Berks County Republican found himself answering questions about ... how his bill would affect the amount of state aid each district receives.

"These are the comments that prompted me to pull out a specific funding formula," Cox said, admirably not banging his head against the table in frustration. "In trying to craft a formula that would please all the members, it was just outside the scope of this legislation."

Good Monday Morning, Fellow Seekers.
As they begin the final push to approve the 2012-13 state budget this week, state lawmakers know at least two things: the parameters of how much they’ll likely be allowed to spend and where any spending increases are likely to come.

Just about everything else is, as always, open to debate.

On the first point: Gov. Tom Corbett has called his $27.14 billion budget proposal for the fiscal year that starts July 1 the “floor” for any negotiations. The ceiling, the Republican governor says, is a $27.65 billion spending plan approved by the Senate nearly two weeks ago.

The state House could throw down its own marker as soon as Tuesday providing – to further torture the home improvement metaphor – the wainscoting for the debate.

On the second point: House and Senate leaders agree on this much: Corbett’s proposed 20 percent cut to the 14 state-owned universities (including Kutztown and East Stroudsburg) and the 30 percent reduction to the four state-related universities go too deep.

A vote on the House’s version of the spending plan could come during the week of June 4, said Steve Miskin, spokesman for House Majority Leader Mike Turzai, R-Allegheny.

Capitol Ideas Intern Mike Macagnone reports:

 Lt. Governor Jim Cawley could change his tune on proposed budget cuts to programs affecting the

homeless -- considering the Legislature might soon put him out on the street.

The Post-Gazette reports:

"State Supreme Court Justice Joan Orie Melvin this morning informed the court that she will voluntarily recuse from all duties because nine criminal counts will be filed against her today.

According to a letter Justice Melvin's attorney submitted to Chief Justice Ronald D. Castille, she will surrender at 2 p.m. to receive the charges contained in the grand jury presentment.

"In order to avoid the appearance of impropriety and in accordance with precedent, Justice Orie Melvin is voluntarily recusing herself from all judicial duties pending resolution of the criminal charges," wrote William I. Arbuckle III, who has been representing the justice in a pending Judicial Conduct Board investigation.

Read the full story here.

Here's the text of two orders the state court system released this afternoon in the Orie Melvin matter.

Orie Order 1

Orie Order 2

Good Friday Morning, Fellow Seekers.
We start the penultimate weekend in May with the news that Gov. Tom Corbett's proposed budget takes the knife to Pennsylvania's independent fiscal watchdogs.

The next state Auditor General -- whoever he is -- would see the agency's budget cut by $2 million in the administration's $27.14 billion budget plan, the PAIndependent reports.

Current Auditor General Jack Wagner (who's leaving office at year's end) tells the online news outlet that he's seen his staff decrease from 755 to 600 people since 2005. Funding for the office reached an seven-year high of $54.4 million in 2008. It's set to drop to $42.3 million starting July 1. The Senate's budget flat-funds the office, the Indy reports.

"The auditor general is the fiscal watchdog of the taxpayers of Pennsylvania,” Wagner told the Indy." ... It’s critical that we get proper funding to perform our function, and our function is one of making sure transparency and accountability exists in all aspects of state government.”

The rest of today's news starts after the jump.