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Ballard Spahr billing invoices for turnpike privitization legal work |
Gov. Ed Rendell awards his former law firm
PA turnpike privatization legal work
Ballard Spahr lawyers bill state up to $637 per hour
PA Treasurer's Office approves payments to treasurer's husband, Ken Jarin
Pennsylvania Gov. Ed Rendell has awarded his former law firm an extremely lucrative contract to act as special counsel in the proposed privatization of the Pennsylvania Turnpike, and related matters, including the proposed change of Interstate 80 into a toll road.
Lawyers at Ballard Spahr have charged the state at an hourly rate of up to $637.50 an hour for the legal work. Some of these charges were incurred even before a contract was in place. Gov. Rendell's turnpike privatization proposal meanwhile has stalled politically. Posted 3-10-08 Read more >>
Report:
Grand jury indicts PA Majority Leader DeWeese and others
Gov. Ed Rendell investigated for alleged corrupt practices
Prosecutors grill Rendell's state police driver
A grand jury in Pennsylvania has reportedly indicted state Rep. Bill DeWeese, the Majority Leader of the Pennsylvania General Assembly. DeWeese is the highest-ranking Democrat in the Pennsylvania legislature. Also reportedly indicted are DeWeese's former lieutenant and majority whip, Mike Veon, and several others.
Majority Leader DeWeese's reported indictment, on the surface, could involve any of several long-simmering scandals, including bonuses paid to legislative staffers who allegedly performed political work.
But what began as an investigation into legislative bonuses and other hijinks has blossomed into a wide-ranging grand jury inquiry into corrupt practices throughout Pennsylvania state government.
Gov. Ed Rendell and staff members are also under investigation.
Prosecutors in the last several weeks have grilled Gov. Rendell's state police driver about the governor's associations and whereabouts, and other matters. Posted July 2, 2008. Read more >>
A top Pennsylvania state government security contractor arrested on prostitution charges may have violated the terms of his state security contracts by allegedly attempting to consort with a prostitute, state records show.
State contract records obtained by yardbird.com document that Wantz's firm, the Schaad Detective Agency, of York, PA, has received millions of dollars in Pennsylvania state contracts over the past decade.
It also turns out that concerned officials and citizens have been seeking an investigation of Wantz for years. So why was nothing done? Posted December 19, 2007. Read more >>
New
train
coming?
Wantz PDF Downloads:
Russell Wantz police arrest documents (640k)
Russell Wantz/Schaad Detective Agency PA state contracts (4,800k)
Related Russell Wantz articles:
Pennsylvania State Police launch investigation into PA Turnpike security provider
PA Turnpike security contractor seeks federal injunction to ban Luna book
Wantz dropped from PA House hearing on private investigators
The secret,
well-mannered minuet
In matters of their own business, the two political parties never miss their turn, their bow, their cooperative wink.
Hell to pay:
Patronage in crisis
A history of political patronage in the United States
The people, their land,
and their roadA history of the Pennsylvania turnpike
It's time for the Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission
to hit the roadThe Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission is an obsolete and out-of-touch political patronage graveyard that should be abolished. The toll road itself should be responsibly leased to private enterprise.
The proceeds of the lease should serve as a down payment for a modern, high-speed rail system running between Philadelphia, Harrisburg, State College and Pittsburgh. In this way we can leverage a great nineteenth century failure, and a popular twentieth century success, into a revolutionary twenty-first century transportation system for our commonwealth.
The history of the Pennsylvania Turnpike is deeply entwined with the history of Pennsylvania.
