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Gov. Cheesesteak came to town Tuesday on what I’ll call his “Legacy Tour,” pushing his last great agenda: Reform Harrisburg.
Maybe it was the brick walls and modest marble columns, or the wood floor crafted from thousands of slats not much bigger than Popsicle sticks.
For nearly seven hours Tuesday, the room at Best Western East Mountain Inn lacked an elusive ingredient. Something was missing as I sat through the second day of local hearings aimed at figuring out how our juvenile courts were hijacked by corrupt judges for years.
Eighth-grader Susan Mendegro stood so petite that an older student had to slip a box behind the podium for her to reach the microphone as she addressed the crowd in the Northwest Area Junior/Senior High School auditorium.
I know the big news is that the juvenile justice hearings are in town, and there’s a lot to write about regarding the questioning and testimony. But tomorrow is Veterans Day and, personally, I can think of little else that deserves more notice right now.
Tomorrow, the Inquisition comes to town.
All is not write in the world.
Wyoming Valley West School District voters in region 6 (Kingston) face a conundrum today, the result of a state law that lets school board candidates run on both party tickets. It is an object lesson on how the election system can defeat itself with a little help from voter apathy and inertia.
On Wednesday, Plunder Dome seemed to go into reruns, as our two scariest characters of the Halloween season, disgraced judges Mark “Shameless” Ciavarella and Michael “Cocky” Conahan, again insisted that they are immune from civil lawsuits no matter how heinous their actions on the bench were.
Our Tuesday editorial suggested a string of moves local school boards could make to restore trust amid the expanding corruption probe, and to avoid problems in the future (even if your board is untouched by allegations). All the ideas involved greater public access to district dealings, with emphasis on the power of the Internet: Post information – lots of it – on the district Web site for public scrutiny.
In determining Luzerne County officials could not be added to lawsuits regarding the judicial corruption scandal, U.S. District Court judge Richard Caputo meticulously parsed the duties and authority for all the parties in question.
How could two judges accused of accepting millions for actions that led to increased incarceration of juveniles be immune from a lawsuit?
In two sweeping rulings encompassing multiple parties on both sides of the legal fence in four cases, a federal judge Friday dramatically reshaped the landscape of civil suits filed in the juvenile justice corruption scandal.
Attorney Jack Dean Calld Judge Richard Caputo's ruling in civil suits regarding the juvenile justice scandal a "well reasoned, detailed opinion on why (Luzerne) County is not liable" for actions of two disgraced county judges. "The judges are state actors," Dean said.
Touted by the state as “showing sustained academic achievement,” 35 local schools in 12 districts received Keystone Achievement Awards on Thursday.
Wilkes University President Joseph “Tim” Gilmour’s compensation has risen faster and higher than any other local president of the area’s five private institutions, soaring by 78 percent since his first year in 2001-02.
WILKES-BARRE – In a complicated bookkeeping error, the Wilkes-Barre Area School District miscounted “nonresident students,” which led to the district getting $51,933 more from the state than it should have, according to a state audit.
The percentage of school-age children living in poverty in Luzerne County has increased in every district since 1999, according to new U.S. Census estimates, with the biggest increase in Hanover Area, where it rose from 19.3 percent to 24.4 percent.
KINGSTON –The Luzerne Intermediate Unit welcomed Evelyn Evans as the new representative for Hanover Area School District, replacing longtime representative Pete Halesey, at Wednesday’s monthly meeting, and formally swore in Hal Bloss as executive director, replacing Michael Ostrowski, who retired after nine years.
Judaism faces a potentially sweeping transition as it shifts and shrinks in the Wyoming Valley. Congregations once too large for their synagogues are becoming too small to afford the daily upkeep of those same buildings. Talk of consolidation is taken seriously.
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