Leaders from all four caucuses said this week the independent fiscal office remains a priority heading into the fall.

The order is an effort to speed up the dispute resolution between the developer, Donald W. Pulver of Conshohocken, and state officials who are attempting to strip him of his original no-bid agreement to build the structure.

The grant, which Mr. Harkins worked to obtain for GE's Erie-based operation, was to be used for the funding of a new crane as part of its efforts to become a major player in the development of wind propelled drive trains for windmill energy.

Mr. Sestak, currently a member of Congress representing Pennsylvania's 7th district, attempted to secure a $350,000 earmark for the Thomas Paine Foundation for a wind energy turbine project.   The funds were to go to Drew Devitt, the sole officer of the Thomas Paine Foundation.

The lawyer for one of the defendants said the move is unusual given the circumstances of the case, but the Attorney General's office maintains the decision was made for the sake of efficiency.

Speaking at the state Capitol on Wednesday afternoon, Mr. Onorato said he would not consider raising income taxes, sales taxes or gasoline taxes on Pennsylvanians.  He said the next governor will need to focus on cutting spending rather than new revenues, but refused to fully rule out increases to smaller taxes - including the state's litany of license and user fees.

Carl Stevenson, an independent candidate running for a seat in the state House of Representatives, was ordered off the ballot by the court last week when a challenge to his nominating petition found 97 of his submitted signatures to be illegal because they were collected by a petition circulator who lived outside the district where Mr. Stevenson was running for office.

In 2009, Pennsylvania paid out more in unemployment benefits than all but two other states and had one of the ten highest unemployment insurance fraud rates in the nation, according to statistics released by the federal Department of Labor this month.

The campaign of Republican U.S. Senate candidate Pat Toomey attacked Mr. Sestak on Monday after an article in Sunday's The Morning Call (Allentown, Penn.) newspaper exposed Mr. Sestak's request for a $350,000 earmark to benefit a for-profit alternative energy company.

General Electric (GE) will get the funds to help pay for a crane at its Erie facility to aid in its efforts to become a major player in the development of wind propelled drive trains for windmill energy.

The school and Erie County Medical Examiner Lyell Cook say the death was a suicide, but the school and its campus police have refused to release any information or discuss the investigation of the case. Mr. McHugh, 18 at the time of his death, was a freshman at the school.

Fred Gushin, managing director of Spectrum Gaming Group, a New Jersey based gambling consulting firm, wrote a 2004 report which Pennsylvania used as a "blueprint" when slot machines were legalized the same year.  However, when the state Gaming Control Board was formed in December 2004, they were given an edited version of the report, which included several key changes, including provisions for who would conduct background checks on gaming license applicants.

The Pennsylvania Builders Association (PBA) had challenged the new requirement - a part of the state's updated 2009 Uniform Construction Code - claiming the law was approved in an unconstitutional manner because it did not come from the General Assembly.