John Perzel was in handcuffs for his arraigment / Image credit Scott Detrow

Former Pennsylvania House Speaker John Perzel turned himself in this morning in Harrisburg to face charges in a legislative corruption case. Perzel is one of 10 people connected to the House Republican caucus charged in a probe into the alleged misuse of public resources and workers for campaign purposes.

PA State Rep John Perzel (right) with the crime fighting dog (left)

(updated: Grand Jury report links below)

Former state House Speaker John Perzel is among 10 people connected to the House Republican caucus who are being charged in a new phase of a legislative corruption probe.

Attorney General Tom Corbett says Perzel, a Philadelphia Republican, his former chief of staff Brian Preski and former House GOP counsel Brett Feese are among those charged with misuse of public resources and employees for campaign purposes.

Corbett: “Perzel developed a scheme, or a cover story, that the databases and programs were for constituent services, and would be available to all House Republican members and their staff. In reality, Perzel was able to use the data and software programs for his own campaigns, and for the campaign arm of the caucus, the House Republican campaign committee.”

Perzel served as House Speaker from April 2003 until Nov. 2006. He was first elected to the Assembly in 1978 and continues in that position representing District 172 in Northeast Philadelphia.

Corbett announced the latest charges in the ongoing grand jury investigation at a Thursday news conference at his Harrisburg office.

Grand Jury report detailing the charges.

Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

Others charged:

Former Republican State Rep. Brett Feese

Brian Preski, Perzel’s former chief of staff

Paul Towhey, Perzel’s current chief of staff Paul Towhey

Samual Stokes, Perzel’s brother-in-law

John Zimmerman, Perzel legislative aide

Don McClintock, Perzel his campaign aide

Jill Seaman, Feese legislative aide

Elmer Bowman, Feese legislative aide

Eric Ruth, former GOP information technology deputy director

So, What do you think?

Is Perzel the kind of guy who would do something like this?

Is politics playing a role in the investigation?

If you were Perzel, How would you handle this?

Ahmed Awa is a popular region in Iraq for hiking / Image credit Jamie Wilmore and Tyler Wagner

A senior Iranian prosecutor says the three Americans detained in July were involved in espionage. It’s not known whether formal charges have been filed in the Iranian courts, but it does suggest that the government is planning to put them on trial.

The three include Josh Fattal, an Elkins Park, PA native, who most recently was living in Oregon. On July 31 the trio called a friend to report that they had accidentally strayed into Iran and were surrounded by Iranian border guards.  Since that time the three have been detained in Iran.

The area the three Americans were hiking

Yesterday U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton made a plea for the three Americans to be released. “We believe strongly that there is no evidence to support any charge whatsoever.” Last Thursday, Nov 5, She met with the families of the three detained hikers Shane Bauer, Sarah Shourd and Josh Fatta.

Here’s her public comments she made to reporters about that meeting. The transcript comes from the U.S. Secretary of State’s website.

Hillary Rodham Clinton
Secretary of State

Treaty Room

Washington, DC

November 5, 2009

QUESTION: Madame Secretary, I wanted to ask you for updates on two issues that have to do with Iran. The first one is the hikers with whose families you just met today. If you can tell us what you heard, what you told them, and what’s the course from here.

And the second on the negotiations in the P-5+1 group, you say, on one hand, that you want to work this out diplomatically, you want to keep negotiating; but on the other hand, you are saying that the proposal as it is, it’s not up for discussion. So what is to negotiate, and how do you reconcile those two things? And perhaps the minister would like to comment on the Iran question, too.
Thank you.
SECRETARY CLINTON: Well, first let me say that earlier today I met with the families of the three American hikers who are detained in Iran. These three young people are obviously not only on the minds of their family members but on the minds of all of us. It was an emotional meeting, and I described to the families everything that we are doing. I was impressed by their strength and fortitude and their commitment. They are determined, as we are, to see these young people return home.
As a mother, my heart went out to all of them. I cannot imagine what it would feel like to know that your child was imprisoned for now a hundred days with very little contact between you and them. I told them we were doing everything we possibly could to get Shane and Joshua and Sarah home, and we are exploring every angle. Obviously, I would hope that the Government of Iran would free them on a humanitarian and compassionate basis as soon as possible and return them home to their families.
On the second issue, we have a unified position that we have presented to the Iranians. That position is clear. It was agreed to originally in principle by the Iranians. There were, of course, questions that they were asking about the details that stood behind the agreement, which both the IAEA and our experts have been answering. But the terms of the agreement, the heart of the agreement, is not and will not be altered. And that is why we continue to call on the Iranian Government to go ahead and accept this agreement and begin to implement it, which we think is in the best interests of the Iranians as well as the rest of the world.
And finally, the point to make is that this offer has been made in good faith. We have worked hard to make sure that there was no misunderstanding about the offer. And we continue to hope that the Iranians will accept it, but our patience is not unlimited.

The strike began last Tuesday, Nov 3 at 3:00 a.m. The union has been working without a contract since March. One of the union’s biggest gripes was that its pension fund being underfunded. We’ll have to see what’s in the new contract that will help address this. SEPTA wanted the workers to contribute more into the pension fund, but the union pushed back saying that it was management’s fault that the retirement fund was so low.

TWU members went on strike on Tuesday halting bus, trolley and subway service in Philadelphia. The SEPTA board and the union members were scheduled to vote on the tentative deal this afternoon.

But it appears the union wants something better. Now, SEPTA has to decide whether to accept the union’s latest demands.

Click below to listen. Fast foward to the -37:00 on the player’s counter to hear Governor Rendell

But KYW’s Mike Dunn reports that a source of his within the union doubts that it’ll be accepted.

A source close to negotiations tells KYW Newradio that the union does NOT see this latest revised offer from Septa as an improvement over the earlier one. It has not been formally rejected, and the source says the new offer is still being looked at. But, the source says, at first glance it does not seem any better than the last proposal.

Feel free to tell us what you think of transit strike.

Do you support the union or management on this one?

The man who The New York Times said stole the show during the first gubernatorial debate in New Jersey has conceded.

Pre-election polls showed Independent gubernatorial candidate Chris Daggett attracting up to 20% of the voters. But when it finally came down to the election booth many of his supporters abandoned him in what was believed to be a tight race between Democrat Governor Jon Corzine and Republican Christopher Christie.

In the end, with two-thirds of the state’s precincts reporting results, Daggett attracted about 5 percent of the vote. He made his concession speech shortly before 10 p.m.

Daggett’s initial popularity surpirsed many political observers in the Garden State. He even won the endorsement of the state’s most influential newspaper.

Senator/Councilwoman and Mayor-elect Dana Redd

Dana Redd will be the next Mayor of Camden. She is a dual officer holder serving as both a Camden City Council member and a State Senator. The state has since ended the practice but politicians who held two offices before February 1, 2008 are allowed to finish their terms. Redd, a Democrat, will replace Mayor Gwendolyn Faison who did not seek re-election.

Camden is a distressed city. It is one of the state’s poorest communities and has a high crime rate. As a result, the State of New Jersey began a supervisory role over Camden since 2002.  State control of Camden is set to expire in 2012.

Name Party Votes Vote % Redd, Dana Dem 4,737 84% Cordero, Angel Ind 555 10% Feliz, Roberto Ind 220 4% Parker, Mujiba Ind 148 3%