Hits and Misses
HIT: Voters have long complained about the cozy relationship between lawmakers and lobbyists, and it has traditionally been excessively comfortable in Harrisburg. So comfy, in fact, that lobbyists long enjoyed the use of a room at the back of the Pennsylvania House of Representatives where they could relax, print out copies of legislation, watch the body’s proceedings unfold on television and even send messages to representatives through a page. But those days are gone. The room was recently shut down, eliminating what the Associated Press described as “an anachronism.” This was overdue. As House Clerk David Reddecliff told the AP, “I don’t think that in 2019 the taxpayers should be providing a copier, a computer, a TV, a room and a person in the form of a page to do your bidding.”
MISS: Alliance of American Football, we barely knew ye. Since the old American Football League was absorbed into the National Football League way back in 1969, there have been several efforts to launch new pro football leagues. All have failed, most in very short order. But perhaps not as short as the AAF, which has decided to suspend operations after only eight weeks of games. The AAF made it clear, by its statements and the fact that it was playing a late winter-early spring schedule, that it wasn’t interested in direct competition with the NFL. It made no difference. The NFL and college football are money-printing behemoths, but there’s little appetite for more, lesser football among the American viewing public. And with college football serving as a reliable conduit for talent to the pro league, the NFL has no need for another “feeder system.” There’s yet another league poised to start operations next year. Someone should tell them not to bother.
MISS: Country singer Lionel Cartwright, former Congressman Tim Murphy and no small number of residents of Southwestern Pennsylvania and West Virginia’s western panhandle are alumni of Wheeling Jesuit University, and they can’t be happy with what’s happening at their alma mater. The school has been reeling under the strain of financial woes, and has announced the elimination of all but 11 of its 30 academic programs. Officials say the cuts will allow the university to operate through the 2019-20 academic year, but faculty and staff will be losing their jobs. All liberal arts, philosophy and theology programs are getting the ax. The remaining programs will include vocationally oriented areas like nursing, criminal justice and physical therapy. This might be necessary for the university’s immediate survival, but it has grievously narrowed the academic options of students who live in the Wheeling area and beyond.
HIT: Committing a crime while a public employee or holding public office has long meant forfeiting your public pension, and now the list of crimes that would result in losing that pension has expanded due to a law that was signed last month by Gov. Tom Wolf. Along with crimes related to the office an individual is holding, a pension could now be lost as a result of committing a state or federal crime that results in a five-year prison sentence or longer. It also would be lost at the point when an individual is found guilty or pleads guilty, rather than waiting until a sentence is handed down. This makes sense – if you are found guilty of a crime, you shouldn’t collect a pension up until the minute you reach the jailhouse door.