Guilty plea in Iraq scheme
A Philadelphia man awaits sentencing after he pleaded guilty yesterday in federal court to bribery and conspiracy to win contracts with the military for Iraq operations.
Prosecutors said Justin Lee, 33, gave about $1.2 million worth of spa visits, cash, plane tickets and other valuables to officials in return for preferential treatment.
Federal authorities say four military contracting officials have pleaded guilty. Lee's father, George H. Lee Jr., is still at large. The elder Lee is the former chairman of Lee Dynamics International; his son is the former president.
Rebuilding PHA legal team
Barbara Adams, a former general counsel for the state of Pennsylvania, will lead the rebuilding of the beleaguered Philadelphia Housing Authority's in-house legal team.
Adams, who worked for nearly six years under former Gov. Ed Rendell, will work to reduce the amount PHA spends on outside legal work. She will also serve as the agency's ethics officer.
Gas report going to Corbett
Gov. Corbett will receive a report approved yesterday by his commission on Pennsylvania's booming natural-gas industry that recommends a range of ways the state can help the industry find new customers, as well as a requirement that the industry help government pay for the cost to regulate it and fix the damage it causes to the environment.
The 30-member Marcellus Shale Advisory Commission also approved a recommendation that state law be changed to subject the gas reservoir to "pooling" - a provision on the books in some states that can be used to force holdout landowners to lease their below-ground gas rights under certain conditions.
The commission members, mostly Corbett officials and industry advocates, spent a five-hour meeting debating and approving 96 recommendations that will go to Corbett, a pro-business Republican who has welcomed the industry as rescuing the state's economy while it is trying to bounce back from the recession.
Penn State tuition hike
Penn State University students face another tuition hike, although a smaller one than many of them had feared, as the school grapples with a $68 million cut in state aid.
University president Graham Spanier presented the Board of Trustees yesterday with a proposal to increase tuition by 4.9 percent for in-state freshmen and sophomores enrolled at the main campus in State College. That represents a $700 annual increase to about $15,100.
Tuition would rise 3.5 percent, or about $900, for out-of-state freshmen and sophomores attending the main campus to about $27,200 a year. Tuition at satellite campuses would rise 2.9 percent for both in-state and out-of-state students.
Haverford prez stepping down
Haverford College president Stephen Emerson is stepping down to return to teaching.
- Staff and wire report
