Panel Considers Booting A.G. Kane
Pennsylvania Attorney General Kathleen Kane speaks with members of the media after her arrangement before a district judge, Thursday, Oct. 1, 2015, in Collegeville, Pa. Prosecutors added a new perjury count and other criminal charges Thursday against Kane, saying they found a signed document that contradicts her claims she never agreed to maintain secrecy of a grand jury investigation in 2009, before she took office. The Montgomery County district attorney charged her with felony perjury and two misdemeanors — false swearing and obstruction — based on a signed secrecy oath she signed shortly after taking office in early 2013. AP Photo/Matt Rourke)
Good morning Philadelphia, and happy National American Beer Day. Here’s what you need to know today.
The Pennsylvania Senate has appointed a panel to consider booting troubled A.G. Kathleen Kane from office.
Kane’s law license was suspended last week while she faces criminal charges on accusations she leaked secret grand jury information for political gain. The new Senate panel “ will be tightly focused on whether that change in Kane’s status significantly impairs her ability to carry out her personal duties or the function of the Attorney General’s office,” PennLive reports. A preliminary report is due within 30 days.
Mayor Nutter wants to know if L&I’s inspectors are actually, you know, inspecting.
An Inquirer report on Sunday found that L&I “failed to properly inspect more than 80 percent of private demolitions over the last nine months.” Nutter said Monday the allegations will be investigated — and that officials will be held accountable if proven true. “We must get to the bottom of it to find out whether or not inspections were conducted,” he said.
Comcast announced its quarterly earnings today. Guess what? The company made a lot of money again.
The earnings report went out at 7 a.m., showing that the company made $18.7 billion in revenue during the quarter — up from $16.8 billion a year ago. Earnings per share were down, though, from 99 to 80 cents per share. A big driver of revenue? Universal Studios, which this year became the first studio to have three different films hit $1 billion at the box office.
Gov. Tom Wolf might be holding out for tax increases in the state budget — but Democrats in the Legislature are moving on.
Senate Minority Leader Jay Costa said Monday that Wolf’s tax quest is unlikely to succeed — Republicans won’t vote for tax hikes, so it’s time to look for new approaches. “I mean, there’s this very great reluctance to want to do anything in the area of broad-based taxes. And I think we’ll likely be there,” he said, according to KYW. “We recognize that. We probably won’t be doing broad-based taxes in the end.”
Pennsylvania law students are finding it more difficult to pass the bar these days.
The Legal Intelligencer reports that the passage rate for the state bar exam was the lowest its been since 2003. “Of the 1,555 applicants who took the exam for the first time, almost 78.3 percent passed,” the Intelligencer reports. The passage rate has usually been above 80 percent, but has been declining nationally. Penn Law students had the highest pass rate, at 94 percent.
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