PSoTD

Talk 2 Action has an interesting post about how little some of the Dover School District board members knew about Intelligent Design before approving it for curriculum. The blog is right. It was negligence by the Board. There's still one member on the Board that voted for ID: Heather Geesey. She wasn't up for election when the rest of them were voted out.

From Earthtimes.org:

Members of the electric utility industry testified recently at a Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission hearing to promote time-of-use pricing.

The commission is considering charging customers based on when they use electricity. During times when energy use is heavier, prices will be higher, The Patriot-News reported. The utilities already pay higher rates to suppliers during times of peak use.

Customers pay a flat rate that accounts for both peak and off-peak use. Proponents of time-of-use pricing say it will make customers more aware of how much electricity they are using and create more energy-efficient consumers.

Though the new pricing scheme may promote energy conservation the charges are highly varied and may create major lifestyle changes for customers, said Steve Carrico, a utility consultant and witness at the PUC hearing last week.

Ed Rendell's administration is giving money to a brewery. Where's your dough?

Draw an illustration showing the prevention or impacts of stormwater runoff pollution in the environment and you could win a prize!

And no, you don't have to draw Binky.

And so today, I declare the Pennsylvania Cable Network blog experiment failed, at least as far as I'm concerned. Two posts in two months does not a blog make.

Renewing your driver's license has never been easier. Good work with the online service.

Congratulations, Pennsylvania, we had the 4th highest amount of lobbying spending reported in 2005 in the nation. And that's even with the Pennsylvania total presenting an incomplete picture of lobbying in General Assembly. Lobbyists reported to the Senate that they spent nearly $125 million, including salaries and fees, or almost 11 percent of the nationwide total.

After this result leading to a Republican being elected as State House Speaker even though the Democrats held a thin majority, it probably is time for the people of Pennsylvania's 50th House Legislative District to find somebody new. It's pretty embarrassing that he lost this internal election - he even had himself listed as Speaker designate on the Democratic Caucus Web Site. He's served 30 years in the State House. He's been Speaker before. But it's pretty obvious he'll never be Speaker again at this point.

And so, the Democrats of the 50th District have to look at DeWeese as completely damaged goods at this point. He barely beat his Republican challenger in November. I suspect Robert Danko, his challenger in the Democratic Primary, is strongly considering a rematch in '08. He should. It looks like it's about time for DeWeese to think about his next career stop - quite possibly as lobbyist.

Especially at the state legislature level, this is the gang that can't shoot straight.

Two months after their surprising pickup of eight seats in the state House of Representatives, Democrats go into Tuesday's vote for speaker with a fragile majority that may not give them much more influence over the chamber than they had during 12 years in the minority.

The recent announcement by Rep. Thomas R. Caltagirone, D-Berks, that he is supporting Philadelphia Republican John Perzel for another term as speaker may ruin many of his colleagues' dreams of running committees and finally giving their own agendas an airing.

Democratic gains in November left them with a 102-101 lead, and they had planned to assume the reins of power at the start of the coming two-year session. But the speaker sets the House's voting agenda and moves bills into committees, making it the most powerful job in the chamber.

Pennsylvania's Republican voters cleared out some of their dead wood in the primary of 2006. Pennsylvania's Democratic voters ought to do the state a favor and do the same in the primaries of 2008, starting with Caltagirone and DeWeese. They both stink as public servants.