Via John Micek:

The AP reports this morning that appeals officers for the state House and Senate think that Magnifying-glass Pennsylvania's new Right-to-Know Law does not give the public the right to review correspondence between lawmakers and lobbyists.

On Tuesday, the two chambers rejected the AP's request for communications last year between registered lobbyists and the four floor leaders: Sen. Dominic Pileggi, R-Delaware; Sen. Bob Mellow, D-Lackawanna; Rep. Bill DeWeese, D-Greene; and Rep. Sam Smith, R-Jefferson.

The caucuses denied the requests last month. The AP then appealed to House Parliamentarian Reizdan Moore and Senate Secretary Mark Corrigan, the designated House and Senate appeals officers.

Moore and Corrigan both found that lobbyist communications are not covered by the law's definitions of the types of "legislative records" that the public can get.

One of the problems here, at least as I see it, is that the appeals officers have a vested interest in the privacy of the House and Senate. We need independent appeals officials who aren't beholden to House and Senate leadership.

With Pennsylvania's unemployment compensation fund plummeting by almost $400 million in six weeks, the Rendell administration said yesterday that it would seek federal help before the fund becomes insolvent, as early as next month.

The fund's balance, just under $1 billion at the end of December, slid to $602 million in early February as unemployment claims rose and contributions through payroll taxes decreased.

The unemployment rate in Pennsylvania has climbed to 6.7 percent from 4.9 percent a year ago. The state Department of Labor and Industry has processed an average of 46,000 initial claims a week since Jan. 1, a 52 percent increase over last year.

Sandi Vito, acting secretary of labor and industry, told the Senate Appropriations Committee yesterday that the state might request about $250 million from the federal government, but that the amount was not firm.

Many questions about U.S. objectives in Afghanistan need to be answered before more American troops are sent there, U.S. Sen. Bob Casey Jr. said Monday.

Casey, in an interview with The Associated Press, said that both military and nonmilitary goals, including an exit strategy and humanitarian aid, should be fully scrutinized by Congress before more soldiers are mobilized. President Barack Obama this month announced the deployment of 17,000 additional U.S. forces.

''I don't think the administration can just say we need 17,000 and we're going to send them without a discussion of what's the rationale for it, how those troops will be used and what's the goal,'' the Pennsylvania Democrat said.

State Senate Republicans on Monday had harsh words for Gov. Ed Rendell's budget makers, questioning whether his spending plans could create an even bigger problem than the one he's already facing, resulting in ''disaster.''

Rendell's top budget and revenue aides appeared in front of the Appropriations Committee on the first day of what will be four weeks of hearings to study the state's finances amid a massive projected shortfall.

Former State Sen. Vincent J. Fumo was assailed yesterday by a federal prosecutor as a glutton, a liar, and a thief with a "royalty complex" who obliterated the line between public service and his own enrichment.

"The corruption in this case, ladies and gentlemen, is as astonishing as it was pervasive," Assistant U.S. Attorney Robert A. Zauzmer told the U.S. District Court jury in his closing argument in Fumo's fraud and obstruction-of-justice trial.

He told jurors that the trial had provided them with a unique view of "Fumo World."

"The most important work in Fumo World was taking care of Mr. Fumo," said Zauzmer, who called it "a place of its own - far away from the ordinary reality, and apart from the ordinary laws."

The Lehigh Valley area's U.S. House members secured $11.4 million in spending projects in 2008 for clients of the PMA Group, an embattled lobbying firm under investigation for possible illegal campaign contributions.

The "earmarks," compiled by the government watchdog Taxpayers for Common Sense, came as the five members -- Democrats Patrick Murphy, Allyson Schwartz, Tim Holden and Paul Kanjorski and Republican Jim Gerlach -- collected a combined $90,000 from the firm's political action committee and its employees and their family members in the 2007-2008 election cycle, according to the Center for Responsive Politics.

They weren't alone. The firm, whose offices were raided by the FBI last year and plans to cease operations in March, according to reports, gave $3.3 million to House members through its PAC and contributions from employees and their family members between 2001 and 2008, Congressional Quarterly reported Thursday.

A lawyer who told then-state Sen. Vince Fumo he could continue the "normal course of district office business" after a nonprofit organization that he founded was served with a grand-jury subpoena in April 2004 said under cross-examination yesterday that did not mean Fumo could delete e-mails.

The advice was in a February 2006 letter the lawyer, Robert Scandone, gave to Fumo's then-defense lawyer, Richard A. Sprague, who was preparing Fumo's defense.

The Pennsylvania legislature has burned through $5.8 million in taxpayer money so far on legal fees and other expenses stemming from an investigation into staff bonuses and potential misuse of public resources.

The total was calculated yesterday after House Democrats disclosed that their costs had reached $2.6 million. They would not release the information without a formal Right-to-Know Law request, which the Associated Press submitted Jan. 9.

Senate Republicans have spent $1.4 million, House Republicans $1.8 million, and Senate Democrats just $5,000. Senate Democrats also distributed the smallest amount in bonuses.

"On a personal level, I'm just kind of disgusted that the actions of a few have cost taxpayers so much," said House Majority Leader Todd Eachus (D., Luzerne). "Clearly the number is large."

THE ECONOMIC gloom that's settled over the city is concealing the opportunities right in front of our eyes.

As Philadelphia's economic outlook worsens, the city has focused on cutting programs, services and personnel. Fiscal prudence and tough funding choices are required to prevent a monumental financial collapse.

But lost in the extensive coverage of the city budget crisis are two major economic development opportunities that haven't been capitalized on - our casinos. In the worsening national economy, the time is now to place our bets on two projects that will create hundreds of family-sustaining jobs and reinvigorate our local economy.

It's been more than two years since the SugarHouse and Foxwoods casinos were picked by the Gaming Control Board, yet neither has begun construction.

Former State Sen. Vincent J. Fumo yesterday admitted that he stepped up his computer security after news broke that the FBI was investigating him - and that his staff continued to destroy e-mails even after prosecutors blanketed his allies and his network of nonprofits with subpoenas.

Enduring a fifth day on the stand in his federal corruption trial, Fumo insisted that he believed that deleting documents was lawful because no subpoena had been served on him directly.

Fumo leveled an accusation of his own yesterday, telling jurors that he had been targeted by the U.S. Justice Department under a Republican president because "I was the most prominent Democrat in Pennsylvania."

Wonder what Governor Rendell thinks of that...

Pennsylvania's two major public-sector pension plans on Tuesday told state lawmakers that together their investments lost more than $28 billion in value last year.

Officials who oversee the separate funds for state workers and public school employees also warned that a sharp increase in taxpayer subsidies looms because stock market losses will make a long-anticipated 2012 rate spike much steeper than recently projected.

The two funds' percentage losses on investments were similar. The value of State Employees' Retirement System investments dropped 28.6 percent in 2008, while Public School Employees' Retirement System investments fell 29.7 percent.

The city of Pittsburgh missed out on getting money from a coalition of nonprofit institutions last year, and will get less in the future than it did under a three-year pact that ended in 2007, officials said yesterday.

That means the Pittsburgh Public Service Fund joins state government on the list of recession victims that are shorting the city, which has a healthy bank balance but expects precarious budgets starting next year.

The fund, which has included around 100 medical, educational, charitable and cultural institutions, volunteered nearly $14 million to the city for the years 2005 through 2007 under a unique agreement aimed at helping the city recover from near-bankruptcy. The final payments came in last year, but were meant to satisfy the fund's pledge for 2007.

Months ago, the fund sent the city a draft agreement that would govern another three years of payments, said the Rev. Ron Lengwin, spokesman for the Catholic Diocese of Pittsburgh and for the fund. If it had been signed last year, the city could have gotten payments, he said.

"We had reason to believe that everyone was OK with that draft," he said. "We're waiting for them to sign the agreement."

With the reputation of his young administration on the line, Mayor Nutter is shelving what critics view as a go-it-alone governing style for a more transparent approach that harks back to his promise of "a new day, a new way."

At least that is the image his administration is trying to convey after complaints in the fall about how Nutter handled Philadelphia's first $1 billion deficit, and as he tries to claw out of a second budget hole of the same magnitude.

A handful of his advisers had sat for 30 consecutive days in a 14th-floor conference room of the Municipal Services Building, making decisions, before announcing plans in November to close library branches, swimming pools, and fire companies.

The public backlash was fierce.

From the Post-Gazette:

Campaign money raised for local elections sometimes gets spent in unusual places -- like Europe.

Allegheny County Executive Dan Onorato and Pittsburgh Mayor Luke Ravenstahl each spent money meant for electioneering on trips to Europe last winter, according to campaign finance reports filed this month. Both traveled with their wives, and tapped the money provided by supporters to cover costs not picked up by organizations that paid for official parts of the trip.

The $1,033 spent on European travel by Mr. Onorato's campaign, and the $1,911 by Mr. Ravenstahl's political committee, were the farthest-flung expenditures reported from a year that saw many local officials deciding how to use campaign funds to go to events like the Democratic National Convention. The disclosures also come on the heels of Mr. Ravenstahl's and Mr. Onorato's use of campaign money to go to Super Bowl XLIII in Tampa.

U.S. Sen. Arlen Specter paid another $17,178 in legal fees to Blank Rome last quarter in connection with a Federal Election Commission audit of his 2004 campaign.

That brings his total legal bill to above $100,000 as the campaign negotiates a settlement over the audit the FEC completed last year. Chances are Specter's campaign is in for a hefty fine.

From Scott Kraus at the Morning Call:

The answer, according to the Senate's Democratic Policy Committee, is $258.8 million. That's a lot of weatherstripping.

The Senate Democratic Policy Committee has produced a pretty detailed analysis of just what Pennsylvanians can expect from the $787 billion stimulus bill, officially called the American Recovery and Investment Act of 2009.

Click thru to the Pennsylvania Avenue blog for more details...

Hi everybody,

First, I want to reassure you that everything is OK here at Keystone Politics. Like all upgrades, this one has had a few hiccups. I'll be working over the next few days to work through all the bugs.

As you know, KP is a very small operation, financed by me and the tiny bits of ad revenue that help pay our server bills, and run by a wonderful volunteer staff. That said, we're lacking a bit in the technical department. And I'm dead tired, so I'm going to grab a few hours of sleep and pick this up again in the morning.

--Greg