Harrisburg

HARRISBURG — Every four months, the detritus of post-9/11 America arrives by the tractor-trailer load at a warehouse here, to be sorted, priced, and sold to the highest bidder. On this particular day, the delivery from LaGuardia, Kennedy, and Newark airports landed rather indelicately, the back of the trailer cracked open like a piñata to reveal broken boxes and heaps of stuff scattered over the truck bed. One worker admired a Pete Rose model Louisville Slugger baseball bat before putting it in the bin on the skid loader.

SHRINKING the state Legislature? That's an idea whose time came long ago. Philadelphia is covered by a total of 35 state reps and senators, yet only 17 City Council members. Take the state population, 11 million, divide by 203 state reps and 50 state senators. That's one legislator for each 43,000 residents. Now take the city population of 1.5 million and divide by 16 council members. You get about 94,000. Why not eliminate 15-20 folks from the Harrisburg trough and turn that money back to us in the city?

The Harrisburg Senators eliminated Trenton from the Eastern League playoffs last night with a 5-2 victory over the visiting Thunder. Jason McCommon outdueled Jared Fernandez as Harrisburg took the best-of-five series by three games to one to win the Southern Division championship. The Senators will face the Portland Sea Dogs for the league championship in a best-of-five series that starts tonight in Harrisburg. Portland won the Northern Division title last night with a 7-3 victory over visiting Binghamton in the fifth game of their series.

At the Liquor Control Board building in Harrisburg, employees on the second floor figure ways to sell more alcohol, while on the sixth floor, others design programs to prevent irresponsible consumption. Government can't promote alcohol, while at the same time urging folks to guard against its evils. It's hypocritical and counterproductive. It sends a mixed message. And it sends the wrong message. Privatizing the state system will correct this nonsensical situation. It will allow the private sector, under intense regulation, to sell alcohol, while allowing government to focus exclusively on protecting the public through enforcement and education.

A four-run sixth led the Senators to a 5-2 win over the Phillies and starting pitcher Darrell Goedhart last night. Rick Hirtensteiner's RBI triple and a two-base error by Reading first baseman Ron Lockett on a grounder by Derrick White were the key blows in the Harrisburg sixth. Tim Laker also had an RBI hit to rout Goedhart, who failed to win for the third straight start. Sam Taylor broke an 0-for-19 slump with an RBI double in the third that gave the Phillies a 1-0 lead.

HARRISBURG - Gov. Corbett is warning of a takeover of financially troubled Harrisburg if city leaders do not produce a recovery plan. Mayor Linda Thompson spoke to reporters Friday to relay Corbett's comments from her meeting with him earlier in the day as she lobbied the City Council to approve her recovery plan. Corbett, a Republican, took the same position in a Tuesday letter to the Democratic mayor, the Patriot-News of Harrisburg reported. "If there is no approved plan at this point, then the city is likely to become mired in litigation and financial chaos," Corbett told Thompson in the letter.

Overbrook Golf Club's Stu Ingraham used just 33 strokes on the back nine yesterday en route to a winning score of 4-under-par 68 in the Philadelphia PGA's Izod Club Classic in Harrisburg. Pennsylvania Amateur. Overbrook's Christopher Lange and Merion's Craig Cochran each posted a 2-under 70 and shared the first-round lead. Pennsylvania Senior Amateur. Merion Golf Club's Jarrett Kling and Michael Sanger were among the leaders after the first round with a 72 and a 74, respectively.

Wendell Magee homered and drove in three runs and Ryan Nye pitched six strong innings in his Eastern League debut as Reading beat Harrisburg, 7-1, last night. Nye (1-0) allowed just three hits over six innings, striking out five, as the Phillies improved to 3-1. Magee drove in a first-inning run with an infield single and a third-inning run with a ground ball. He hit a solo homer, his second homer of the year, in the fifth. Reading took a 3-0 lead in the first off Scott Forster (0-1)

With all the uncertainty surrounding Mayor Nutter's effort to reform the city's property tax system, another variable entered the picture Wednesday — one that could potentially upend the administration's plans. State Sen. Larry Farnese (D., Phila.) said Wednesday he would seek to amend a bill in the General Assembly — Senate Bill 1303 — that is essential to Nutter's Actual Valuation Initiative (AVI). Without the bill, which would give the city the necessary authority to change the millage, or property tax rate, the city likely could not proceed with AVI — and Nutter officials admit they have no"Plan B. " Farnese said he supports AVI and is not trying to stop the process in its tracks.

HARRISBURG - He is being picketed almost daily by demonstrators in Philadelphia and Pittsburgh - a tin man without a heart, they call him. His Facebook page teems with complaints from angry Pennsylvanians. And his poll numbers have started to sag. Enough, say top political advisers, supporters, and fund-raisers to Gov. Corbett. Though they have anxiously watched for months as Corbett has fielded political hits on everything from policy to personality, they are now encouraging the governor to shake things up in hopes of shaking off what they think is turning into a growing image problem.

A financial storm is coming, and SEPTA's umbrella just broke. The SEPTA board Thursday dug deep into its rainy-day fund in adopting a $1.28 billion operating budget for the next 12 months. That left the transit agency without enough reserves to cover an anticipated $38 million deficit starting the middle of next year and much bigger deficits every year after that. SEPTA officials say they're still hopeful that Gov. Corbett and state lawmakers will ride to the rescue, with a long-awaited boost in state aid for transit and highways.

Relax, Philadelphia! Gov. Corbett's got this. Sure, those dire headlines and the protests in the street might lead you to think city schools are careering down a seemingly endless fiscal mine shaft. But thanks to an update this week on Corbett's Twitter feed, we now know otherwise: "the number one priority in the #pabudget is education. " The most remarkable thing about this statement is that, technically, it's true. Corbett's otherwise parsimonious budget does include a minuscule increase in K-12 funding (higher ed, not so much)

HARRISBURG — Every four months, the detritus of post-9/11 America arrives by the tractor-trailer load at a warehouse here, to be sorted, priced, and sold to the highest bidder. On this particular day, the delivery from LaGuardia, Kennedy, and Newark airports landed rather indelicately, the back of the trailer cracked open like a piñata to reveal broken boxes and heaps of stuff scattered over the truck bed. One worker admired a Pete Rose model Louisville Slugger baseball bat before putting it in the bin on the skid loader.

HARRISBURG — At least five House lawmakers — Democrats and Republicans, from Philadelphia to Pittsburgh — lost their seats Tuesday in head-turning upsets in what would usually be predictable legislative primary races. Among those who fought down to the wire to hold on to their seats was House Speaker Sam Smith (R., Jefferson), who withstood a challenge by an anti-incumbent conservative by a whisper-thin margin. Longtime House Transportation chairman Rep. Rick Geist (R., Blair)

Taking their long-running battle to the U.S. Supreme Court on Wednesday, Arizona and the federal government are set to square off over the state's bitterly disputed 2010 law designed to crack down on illegal immigration. Among the law's most contested provisions are expanded powers for local police to demand proof of the immigration status of anyone they stop, and to arrest, without a warrant, those they suspect of being here illegally. Advocates for immigrants say such powers invite discriminatory racial profiling based on skin color and foreign accents.

HARRISBURG - Tuesday's primary will be like no other election Rep. Bill DeWeese has experienced in his lengthy career in the state House. Even as voters in his southwestern Pennsylvania district punch the button next to his name, the former longtime House Democratic leader will be 180 miles away in Harrisburg, where he is scheduled to be sentenced for his conviction on five felony counts in a corruption case. Because that will trigger a constitutional ban on felons serving as lawmakers, DeWeese has said he will resign - before sentencing - from the 50th District seat he has held for 35 years.

  HARRISBURG - Come Tuesday, State Rep. Bill DeWeese will be twice judged: once by criminal court, and once by constituents back home. In an improbable twist of fate, the onetime Democratic powerhouse is to be sentenced that day in a Harrisburg courtroom for stealing from taxpayers - and at the same time, will be running in his party's primary to represent his rural southwestern Pennsylvania district for two more years. He is running unopposed. Even in the corruption-caked annals of Pennsylvania politics, this rare confluence of events could produce an even rarer result: a jailed DeWeese on the fall ballot in a race his supporters think he could win. Is his candidacy a slap at the jury in his case, an offshoot of the wide-ranging Bonusgate investigation?