Over-caffeinated and over-stimulated. Gonna be on the radio tonight. See below for details on how to listen in.
Let’s dive into the political pool:
The buzz at the Nest today is about Gov. Ed Rendell’s announcement regarding emergency actions to try and heal an ailing economic situation in Pennsylvania. Rendell announced at a presser how he would start spending money now on adult health care, mortgage assistance and welfare programs, saying the state’s economy has progressively grown more dire for the last year. Employers have dumped 75,000 jobs, driving the unemployment rate from 4.7 percent to 7 percent.
Basically, Rendell’s not willing to wait for federal stimulus funds worth billions to start flowing into the state.
It’s not clear right now just how much the governor wants to spend or where the money’s coming from. And we’re awaiting word on how the legislature is going to react. More in tomorrow’s Intell.
Looking around elsewhere:
*Democratic state Rep. Dan Frankel is pushing for legislation that would ban discrimination against gays, lesbians and transgendered people. Pittsburgh Post Gazette story by Tom Barnes is here.
*U.S. Rep. Joe Pitts simply does not like President Barack Obama overturning the Bush-era policy on limiting federal funding for stem cell research.
From Pitts’ news release today:
“The President’s executive order comes as a mistake at a time when we have made such great progress in ethical, non-life destroying stem cell research. Many people want to pose this debate as one of moral conscience in opposition to science, but the two do not need to be in conflict. In fact, science has made it possible to treat patients with stem cells that do not require the destruction of human embryos—indeed this is the only research that has lead to the actual treatment of patients.
“Without this ban in place, taxpayer dollars will now go toward research and experimentation that requires the harvesting and destruction of human embryos that may never result in the successful treatment of patients.
“I am disappointed that President Obama has chosen to force American taxpayers to fund research that destroys human life against the objections of their conscience. This comes just days after he overturned regulations that protect healthcare workers from being forced to perform procedures that violate their conscience. For a President that spoke of uniting the nation, these are very divisive actions.”
*Pitts’ Republican colleague in Congress, U.S. Sen. Arlen Specter, says the economy is on the brink of a depression but there’s still hope, according to this Associated Press story.
*Break out the radio antenna. I’m on 1210 AM WPHT tonight with Dom Giordano to talk about the upcoming Bill Ayers appearance at Millersville University. I’ll be there at about 8:30 p.m.
If you don’t have an old-fashion radio but are connected to our fabulous digital world, listen to it streamed live by clicking here.
