News Articles

BY HEATHER LONG

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Calvin Tillman’s message is simple: The Barnett Shale gas drilling brought a lot of wealth and jobs to his area, but it’s also brought bad air and water.

“If I could do it all over again, I would probably do what New York’s doing, and I would frankly just slow things down quite a bit and think about things and make sure that everything was done in a responsible, respectful, and safe manner,” he told a packed audience in New York that included several state legislators.

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BY TOM INFIELD

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Democrat Joe Hoeffel, a Montgomery County commissioner, agreed "the pension was made too lucrative."

But he pointed out that state employees and teachers have faithfully been paying their share of costs, while government employers have not.

"School boards and the state have not done their part," he said.

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Read the full article on The Philadelphia Inquirer.

BY JOHN MICEK

Pennsylvania has no Plan B if the federal government shoots down its latest application to turn Interstate 80 into a toll road, punching a $450 million hole in the transportation budget.

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Road and bridge repairs wouldn't screech to a halt but would slow significantly, PennDOT spokesman Rich Kirpatrick said. That includes the state's effort to cut its backlog of ''structurally deficient'' bridges, those in most dire need of repair. There's no list yet of affected projects. ''It's hundreds of projects,'' Kirkpatrick said.

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BY RANDYSHANNON

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The gas drillers have taken a fall back position: if they are going to have to pay a tax, then they want more concessions from the state to give them a free hand in conducting their operations on the ground. In this Beaver County Times article from Feb. 12th (http://tinyurl.com/yap6azf ) the spokeswoman from the Marcellus Shale Coalition threatens to “move resources to shale formations in other states” if Pennsylvania does not make concessions.