Anne's Arts & Activities Blog

I obviously missed this story during the two weeks I was back and forth from Erie, but I felt it was important to post it here in case anyone else missed it, too. ~~ Anne HARRISBURG – Auditor General Jack Wagner has called on the General Assembly and the state the Department of Health to step up the state’s role in regulating the tattoo parlor industry in Pennsylvania because of potential health risks to the general public, including Hepatitis C. Wagner said that requiring Pennsylvania’s more than 750 known tattoo parlors and artists to obtain a state license would protect public health while helping state officials monitor one of the fastest-growing segments of the local economy. "We license cosmetologists, hair salons and nail salons; it’s time we join the growing number of states that also regulate tattoo parlors,” Wagner said. “If we do not, the potential health risk to Pennsylvanians increases with every needle puncture.” Read the news release here . The news leader of...

HARRISBURG – Auditor General Jack Wagner today called for increased investment in Pennsylvania's crumbling roads and bridges, saying that new spending would improve public safety and the state's economic competitiveness while creating thousands of new jobs for out-of-work Pennsylvanians. "Americans are tired of having their hard-earned dollars being spent to build roads and bridges in Afghanistan and Iraq while the bridges in their neighborhood are posted with weight restrictions,” Wagner said. “I urge the General Assembly to stop debating issues that the public cares little about and focus on those that they do -- like infrastructure and jobs.” Wagner noted that two recent independent surveys rated Pennsylvania's bridges as the worst in the nation and the commonwealth's roads as the eighth-worst. According to Gov. Corbett's Transportation Advisory Commission, Pennsylvania has 5,205 bridges that are rated structurally deficient, and it has 8,452 miles of highwa...

Auditor General Jack Wagner said today that Pennsylvania could save $50 million in the upcoming fiscal year, and $350 million over four years if the state better utilized alternative-sentencing programs and implemented other reforms. “With Pennsylvania facing its greatest budget crisis since the Great Depression, we must look for sustainable savings in every nook and cranny of state government, and that includes the criminal-justice system, which is one of the three biggest drivers of increased spending over the past decade,” Wagner said. In 2009, Pennsylvania had the fastest-growing prison population in the nation, adding 2,122 inmates. Florida was second, adding 1,527. On WESB’s LiveLine today, Senator Joe Scarnati said the state’s prisons have too many people in them who would be better off in drug or alcohol rehabilitation programs or mental health facilities. He said getting those inmates to where they should be would save a significant amount of money. Graphic from th...

HARRISBURG – Auditor General Jack Wagner today recommended that Gov. Corbett and the General Assembly use incoming tobacco settlement dollars as intended to provide adultBasic health insurance to Pennsylvanians who don’t qualify for Medicaid. He said that $1.34 billion in tobacco settlement funds have already been quietly diverted from the uses originally intended by the Tobacco Settlement Act of 2001. More than 40,000 Pennsylvanians lost the state-subsidized health coverage Feb. 28 when the state shuttered the program for enrollees who couldn’t afford private health insurance but earned too much to qualify for Medicaid. An additional 500,000 Pennsylvanians were on a waiting list for the program when it was shut down. In a special report issued at a press conference today, Wagner noted that the $1.34 billion in diverted funds represents 30 percent of the Tobacco Settlement Fund payments received since 1999. The diversions, which include $432 million to the general fund for unspecified ...

Sculptures by a famous artist, an almost 800-year-old Turkish gold ring, and a Civil War-era rifle are among the more than 1,800 historic artifacts that the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission cannot locate and are considered missing, Auditor General Jack Wagner said. Based on the physical inventories of 11 collections conducted by the commission between 1998 and 2009, Wagner’s auditors found that 1,588 artifacts were considered missing. In addition, auditors sampled 1,473 artifacts from the nine collections at the State Museum and the Railroad Museum of Pennsylvania, and found that 295 artifacts (20 percent) could not be located and are considered missing. “These missing artifacts are pieces of Pennsylvania history that are likely lost forever, either through mishandling or theft,” Wagner said at a news conference at the museum. http://www.auditorgen.state.pa.us/Department/Press/WagnerSaysMuseumCommNotProtectingHistory.html

HARRISBURG, Pa., June 22, 2010 – Auditor General Jack Wagner said today that the state’s Megan’s Law website has improved in recent years but it still has significant problems with accuracy and usefulness. In a special report released today, Wagner gave the state’s Megan’s Law website an overall grade of C-, with marks of C- for offender photographs, B for information provided, D for search functions, and D- for features and tools. The advocacy group Parents for Megan’s Law gave Pennsylvania’s Megan’s Law a grade of D four years ago when it issued report cards for every state. “Our conclusion is that the Pennsylvania Megan’s Law website does not make the grade in providing the public with useful, accurate and easily accessible information,” Wagner said. “The website must be improved.” The special report follows up on a special performance audit of Megan’s Law that Wagner conducted in 2006. That audit faulted the website for failing to provide the public such basic information as up-to...

State Representative Sam Rohrer will formally announce his decision to run for governor during a statewide webcast at 6:30 this evening. The Berks County Republican will join Attorney General Tom Corbett and Congressman Jim Gerlach in seeking the GOP nomination. Democrats who have announced their candidacies are Auditor General Jack Wagner, Allegheny County Executive Dan Onorato, former Congressman and Montgomery County Commissioner Joe Hoeffel, Philadelphia businessman Tom Knox and Scranton Mayor Chris Doherty. Live updates will be posted at http://samrohrer.org Rohrer was in Bradford in August of 2007 for a House Game and Fisheries Committee hearing on deer management.

Another person plans to officially launch his campaign for Pennsylvania governor today. Scranton Mayor Chris Doherty is scheduled make the announcement at noon, making him the fifth Democrat to throw his hat into the ring. The others are state Auditor General Jack Wagner, Allegheny County Executive Dan Onorato, Montgomery County Commissioner Joe Hoeffel and Philadelphia businessman Tom Knox. On the Republican side, state Attorney General Tom Corbett and Congressman Jim Gerlach have announced that they're running.

Former Governor Tom Ridge endorsed Republican Tom Corbett’s campaign for governor. Read more at PoliticsPA.com . Retired US Congressman John Peterson has endorsed Jim Gerlach for governor. Peterson says Gerlach "shares our rural values" and has experience in creating jobs and capping state spending. Read more at Gerlach's Web site . The Democratic side is more crowded and includes state Auditor General Jack Wagner, Allegheny County Executive Dan Onorato, Philadelphia businessman Tom Knox, former Congressman Joe Hoeffel and Scranton Mayor Chris Doherty.

A state audit has revealed that many Pennsylvania welfare caseworkers could not prove cash reimbursements to welfare recipients looking for work were justified. Auditor General Jack Wagner said today that mismanagement in the Department of Public Welfare program created an environment for potential fraud and abuse that could cost taxpayers tens of millions of dollars. Wagner says auditors examined more than 3,000 payments and found insufficient paperwork to justify 45 percent of them. For the complete report, go HERE .

HARRISBURG, Pa., April 29, 2009-- Auditor General Jack Wagner said today that the Pennsylvania Liquor Control Board did not violate state law but that it did exercise poor judgment in awarding a $173,820 employee training contract to the husband of a PLCB regional manager, creating the appearance of a conflict of interest. “In awarding a contract to the spouse of one of its regional managers, the PLCB should have anticipated the reasonable public questioning that would result over a potential conflict of interest, regardless of whether that conflict was an actual conflict or the appearance of a conflict,” Wagner said. Because of the appearance of a potential conflict and other red flags, such as the wide disparity in cost proposals submitted by prospective vendors, the PLCB should have seriously reconsidered its decision to award the contract at all and done the training in house, or rejected all proposals and started over, Wagner said. The Department of the Auditor General conduct...

State Auditor General Jack Wagner is getting involved in the hullabaloo over a $173,000 contract to teach state liquor store employees how to be more polite to customers. The contract went to a Pittsburgh firm called Solutions 21, whose president is married to a regional manager of the Pennsylvania Liquor Control Board. Wagner said today hhe will conduct a thorough review to ensure that the contract was properly awarded.