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Topics:
-Public confidence in our basic institutions. Do we still believe in banks? the military? big businesses?

-Drinking habits of Americans, and to paraphrase that old book, Men are from Beer, Women are from Wine.

-Which states have the highest/lowest rates of residents with health insurance?

-Which states have the happiest residents? And are Pennsylvania, New Jersey and Delaware happy states?

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Dog flu was first found several years ago in greyhounds in Florida, and has since spread to 30 states. Veterinarians say it’s highly contagious, and can cause dogs to die from subsequent pneumonia infection. Dogs have been getting sick from the H3N8 strain of influenza for several years, and a New Jersey company recently received approval to sell a vaccine. Terri Wasmoen is the senior director for biological research at Intervet, which developed the shot.

Wasmoen: The vaccine is designed to limit the amount of infection that the dog gets and how sick it gets. It won’t totally prevent the dog from getting infected, but the vaccine has been shown to prevent the pneumonia very well.

Michael Moyer is the head of shelter animal medicine at the University of Pennsylvania. He says he recommends the shot for dogs in settings with other dogs - such as boarding kennels or foster programs.

Moyer: From the Philadelphia perspective there’s certainly a lot of influenza that we’ve seen. And I think there’s legitimate concern for dogs in this area… What concerns me is the movement of dogs from one area to another, particularly with dog rescue and foster. We have dogs traveling from one area of the country to another every week.

Moyer says the cost of vaccinating more than 30,000 dogs will make it a challenge to have widespread immunization throughout the Philadelphia shelter system. Moyer says people cannot get canine flu from their pets.

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Mandatory overtime is allowed in community-wide emergencies, but the law protects nurses and others from discipline if they refuse to work regular overtime shifts.

Nurses unions pushed for the change because they say over-tired workers are vulnerable to more mistakes.

Aidan Altenor directs operations for the state hospital system, which includes several psychiatric facilities. He stepped up recruiting efforts and hired new nurses in recent months. Altenor doesn’t expect any problems complying with the new law.

Altenor: The majority of the overtime hours that are performed in the entire state hospital system are performed by staff on a voluntary basis and I don’t expect that to change.

Altenor says in the last fiscal year, just over five-percent of all overtime hours were mandatory.

The Service Employees International Union says excessive overtime puts patients at risk.

The Hospital and Healthsystem Association of Pennsylvania says most acute and speciality care hospitals do not use mandatory overtime on a regular basis. Paula Bussard leads the association’s regulatory division

Bussard: The data that the Department of Health has collected over the years has actually shown that the use of excessive overtime, or also known as mandatory overtime, that the use is more frequent in nursing homes and the state-owned psychiatric hospitals.

Care providers at Graterford Prison and Norristown State Hospital report that they’ve been forced to work overtime shifts in recent weeks.

Suzanne Dougherty is a nurse at Norristown State Hospital.

Dougherty: It seemed like whenever they were short on a shift, you know, they didn’t have enough workers to begin with and then they would call people to stay for another shift, and that happen pretty regularly until the mandatory bill was brought to light, and then they hired a lot of new nurses.

Dougherty says Norristown nurses work less overtime now, but she says until recently psychiatric aides were often forced to take overtime shifts.

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Act 129, passed last year, calls for a 1 percent reduction in energy use by 2011, and 3 percent by 2013. How utilities achieve those goals is up to them, but the Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission still needs to approve the plans.

PECO Spokeswoman Cathy Engel says the utility’s $342 million dollar plan includes incentives for customers to buy energy efficient appliances, along with an energy efficiency campaign aimed at using less energy. PECO needs to reduce its consumption by 1.2 billion kilowatt hours to reach the goal.

Engel: We feel confident that the products and programs that are in place as part of this filing will help us reach that overall energy reduction target of 1.2 billion kilowatt hours.

The PUC now has 120 days to either accept or reject PECO’s plan.

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On the first day of the fiscal year, a group of musicians banged out patriotic tunes in the Capitol rotunda on a collection of plastic pipes. The performance was notable because it had more action than the House of Representatives’ budget debate did.

The chamber adjourned at midday, despite protests from Republicans who wanted to discuss a spending plan. Minority Leader Sam Smith pointed out the House is lagging behind other government bodies in the budget debate.

Smith: The governor has proposed a budget in February. The Senate responded with a budget here a few months ago. But this House doesn’t have a budget that we have worked through. And that is really the point.

Majority Leader Todd Eachus said the session ended early so that Democratic lawmakers could review the two parties’ spending proposals line by line. He and other leaders met at Governor Rendell’s residence Monday and Tuesday nights. The next budget session is scheduled for early next week.

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More than 600 city residents will be able to gain skills in industries like construction, healthcare, social services and energy. One of the 19 programs chosen is Community College of Philadelphia, which got $360,000 dollars for a certificate program that includes medical billing, social service, and computer network administration.

Stephen Curtis is President of Community College.

Curtis: Losing a job can be one of the most difficult experiences any one can face. It can also be a time to explore new career plans or to enhance existing skill sets to obtain new employment. In tough economic times, education is the key.

The certificates earned by trainees can count toward college credit for an Associates Degree.

Part of the money will also be used toward training ex-offenders as telephone and cable installers.

The new panel replaces the former Fairmount Park Commission, which was dissolved after voters approved a merger between Fairmount Park and the City’s Recreation department last November.

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The move is the final step in changing how Fairmount Park was governed for the past 140 years. Responsibility for the Park now lies directly with the mayor, who appoints nine commissioners.

They will serve as advisors to the department on topics such as horticulture, architecture and land use management.

Some advocates of Fairmount Park worry that it will be subsumed by the Recreation Department, or that the land could be leased or sold. But Mayor Nutter says those fears are baseless.

Nutter: I’m a strong advocate for the park system, I’m a strong advocate for the recreation department, neither will overwhelm the other, its a combined department and it will provide heightened services for the city and the region.

Almost 200 people applied for spots on the Commission.

The budget that New Jersey Governor Jon Corzine signed into law on Monday raised taxes on cigarettes, liquor and wine. A new poll finds plenty of support for raising these so-called “sin taxes,” part of $1.2 billion dollars worth of new taxes for the already highly taxed residents of the Garden State.

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Fairleigh Dickinson University’s PublicMind poll shows 64 percent of New Jersey residents surveyed say increasing the taxes on wine and liquor is a good idea. Political science professor Peter Woolley is director of the poll. He says 56 percent of those questioned support the decision to limit property tax rebates to only senior citizens and those making less than $75,000.

Woolley: I think people are aware that savings have to be made and that nobody is really exempt from the need to do their share.

The poll shows 52 percent of those surveyed say it’s a good idea for state workers to be forced to take nine unpaid days off to help reduce government expenses.

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6 years ago Chef Shawn Harris began teaching teenagers in a juvenile detention center near Camden to cook, training them for jobs. Last year he began an after-school program for young people in the neighborhood. He noticed similarities.

Harris: Nobody has any work ethics anymore. Youth has no work ethic. It’s like they want everything, but not do anything for it.

There aren’t very many cooking jobs to be had in Camden, only about 30 percent of Chef Shawn’s students get placed after the 14-week program. He finds that students outside detention are more eager for work, because in jail you get soft.

Harris: You never starve in jail - they feed you. The whole reality you face in the world - you don’t have heat, there are no lights, your clothes sometimes are dirty, you don’t know where you’re next meal is coming from. You’re hungry to get something when you’re out.

Regardless of personal motivation - and against popular belief - it’s hard to get a kitchen job if you’ve got a criminal record. Industrial kitchens and restaurant chains are often run by corporations. Greg DeShields of the Temple University Hospitality Management School says their policies are ironclad: no jailbirds.

DeShields: Should there be a corporate mandate of a drug screening or that a person could not be convicted of a felony, it would limit a hotel or restaurant chain to make a hire, but an independent owner would have the prerogative to make a decision to give back to the community, or just to provide a person with an opportunity.

Many cooking schools will not train students with a record because they’re difficult to place into jobs afterwards.

At Philabundance Community Kitchen in North Philadelphia, Chef Linda Miles oversees students preparing chicken cacciatore.

Miles: get cutting boards, get a knife, we’re going to do some cuts.

This is a free, 12-week training program for low-income people. Some have a criminal past, most are on welfare, everyone is out of work. After 9 years as a loan clerk for a local bank, Martha Epps was laid off. She’s 58 years old, and she’s learning a new trade.

Epps: My math has horrible, they helped me bring that up. I’m learning life skills course, job training - I’ve learned so much.

Chef Linda says learning to quarter a chicken is only part of it.

Miles: The biggest challenge is having them work as a team. It seems as if they all want to learn individually. The most effective culinarian works as part of a team because it takes a team to make a meal.

During the first week of training the students never set foot in a kitchen. They learn how to conduct themselves professionally - to show up on time, to communicate with their bosses, to dress properly. Philabundance managers consult with employers who say they are not necessarily looking for someone who can flawlessly julliette a bell pepper, but who can show up to work on time, every time.

In some regards, people in these workforce culinary programs are better fit for local programs than students who come out of more prestigious cooking schools.

DeShields: You can cultivate that person to become an expeditor, possibly become a sous chef, and their aspiration can be within your organization…

This is Greg DeShields from Temple University.

DeShields: …but someone who comes out of a traditional school, just by their professional education they’re going to be geared to do something outside the scope of your organization.

DeShields says people coming off welfare or out of jail often require family and social support groups in their neighborhood, so are less likely to hop to Atlantic City or New York to work in the latest trendy restaurant.

Another crackdown on mortgage fraud in New Jersey has six people indicted in three separate cases.

Attorney General Anne Milgram says two of the accused are women who used information from loan applications to get more than a million dollars in unauthorized mortgages, lines of credit and credit cards.

Milgram: These are instances in which people are going to individuals who do business with small businesses and as mortgage brokers who they believe they can trust with their personal information and the answer very briefly is that they could not trust these people with the information and that they were then victims of identity theft.

Milgram says consumers should make sure their mortgage brokers are licensed. Her office has already filed three civil lawsuits against people and firms for allegedly trying to cash in on the mortgage crisis. Banks in Pennsylvania, New Jersey and New York were defrauded in the schemes.