Rolling Gov’t Shutdowns In Pa.?

With a budget crisis looming — this phrase is not as popular as I expected, by the way — the Pennsylvania state government has a novel idea to save money: Rolling shutdowns of state government!

Rendell spokesman Chuck Ardo: “It’s a matter of responding to the fiscal crisis as we need to. We are not announcing any rolling furloughs at this point; we’re just making preparations in case we need to do so.”

Ardo says those rolling furloughs might mean shutting down most state government operations for a day or two per month, or it could mean closing different state agencies on different days.

I have no real opinion on this, unless they start targeting the liquor stores. If that happens, there will be a battle.

Amid Budget Crunch, Pa. Considering ”Rolling Shutdowns” of State Government [KYW 1060]
Photo by Dwight Evans’ mayoral campaign (really!) used under a Creative Commons license

State Rep. Mark Cohen Is The Angel Of Life

I touched on this earlier today, but let’s go back to John Baer’s column on State Rep. Mark B. Cohen in today’s Daily News.

Cohen has been a representative for 32 years, is the third highest-ranking Democrat and loves his stipends: $46K in per diems, $28K for books and magazines. (And he didn’t even review AOL For Dummies for us!) But, he defends his record and says he’s proud of pushing organ donor awareness in the 1990s:

“All over the country, people live longer lives because of me,” Cohen says.

Strangely, Cohen did not mention “humility” as one of his accomplishments while in office.

John Baer | Rep. Cohen: Unopposed, unrestrained, unapologetic [Daily News]
Earlier today: Abridged ‘Daily News’ Columnists