U.S. Sen. Bob Casey, D-Pa., has introduced a bill to create federal grants to hire guidance counselors for secondary schools with dropout rates of 40 percent or higher.

The legislation would instruct the Department of Education to start a demonstration program authorizing $6 million a year for four years to help the schools hire the counselors. The first five schools chosen to participate would each be located in a different state. At least 10 schools would participate in the demo project.

American public secondary schools have an average counselor-to-student ratio of one to 476. Mr. Casey said his legislation would help benefiting schools to achieve ratios of one to 250, as recommended by the American Counseling Association.  read more »

He’ll be 80 during his next campaign.

Two weeks after finishing a grueling, three- month regimen of chemotherapy treatments, U.S. Sen. Arlen Specter said today that his prognosis for recovery from Hodgkin’s disease is “excellent.”

The Philadelphia Republican, who has served longer than any senator from Pennsylvania in Senate history, said he fully intends to seek election to a sixth term in 2010.

A Pennsylvania lobbyist and close friend of former Republican U.S. Rep. Curt Weldon tossed her BlackBerry into an Arby’s trashcan and tried to get rid of subpoenaed documents to throw the FBI off her trail, according to federal prosecutors.

It didn’t work.

Cecelia Grimes was charged yesterday with destroying evidence in the influence-peddling investigation of Weldon that became public in October 2006, ending his 20-year reign as Delaware County’s congressman and crushing his dreams of becoming chairman of the powerful House Armed Services Committee.

Can softball make Congress a nicer place and maybe help end gridlock?

That’s the pitch, so to speak, according to U.S. Sens. Arlen Specter, R-Pa., and Bob Casey, D-Pa., who joined their staffs Tuesday evening for a softball game whose tradition dates to the early ’70s.  read more »

Under investigation by the Justice Department, former U.S. Rep. Curt Weldon has transferred all of his campaign money to a fund he established for his legal defense.

Weldon, a Republican who represented Delaware County for 10 terms, transferred roughly $80,000 over several months from the Weldon Victory Committee to the Weldon Legal Expense Trust, according to federal election records. Weldon closed the campaign fund May 22. Federal Election Commission rules allow campaign funds to be used for legal defense work if it is related to a person’s activities as a candidate or officeholder.  read more »

There’s a spat brewing on Capitol Hill today, but not of the traditional partisan variety. This one’s between Rep. Joe Sestak and Reps. Allyson Schwartz and Patrick Murphy — suburban Philadelphia Democrats — over Willow Grove Naval Air Station.

The lawmakers are at odds over a measure offered by Schwartz, 13th District, and Murphy, 8th, that would bar the base from being used as a civilian airport, a ban long sought by a group of vocal residents.

Sen. Arlen Specter announced yesterday that the Hodgkin’s disease that he fought and beat in 2005, has returned.

The recurrence was diagnosed based on a routine follow-up PET (Position Emissions Tomography) scan that showed small lymph nodes in his chest and abodmen. A biopsy of one of the nodes was positive for recurrence of Hodgkin’s, a disease of the lymph system.

“I was surprised by the PET scan findings because I have been feeling so good,” Specter said in a statement. “I consider this just another bump on the road to a successful recovery from Hodgkin’s, from which I’ve been symptom free for 3 years.”