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Harrisburg residents sounded off on Mayor Linda Thompson Thursday night for asking them to pay their real estate taxes and mortgages on time when she doesn’t do the same herself. About 150 people packed the Midtown Scholar Bookstore for the debt crisis forum organized by the community group Harrisburg Hope. “What’s the deal mayor? You’re defaulting on your loan when you say we shouldn’t default on our loans,” asked Michael L. Clouser, a resident of the city’s uptown section. “And you’re delinquent on your taxes. What’s going on?”

HARRISBURG, Pennsylvania (Reuters) - With the threat of a state-appointed receiver deciding how Harrisburg must deal with more than $300 million in debt, the city council and mayor did something on Monday they have not done in a long time: agree. The city, Pennsylvania's capital, filed for bankruptcy on October 12 in a desperate bid to resolve its debt crisis, setting up a showdown with the state over control of the city. The crisis centers on the struggles of the city of about 50,000 to pay roughly $300 million in debt incurred from an expensive revamp of its incinerator. Under...

Officials in Harrisburg have canceled the city’s annual holiday parade because organizers haven’t raised enough money. Last year, the cash-strapped capital started requiring special events to pay for themselves. Parks and recreation director Brenda Alton says not enough sponsors have ponied up to keep the floats afloat.

Harrisburg City Council answered the state’s takeover threat by voting to seek Chapter 9 municipal bankruptcy protection Tuesday night, essentially adding the courts and more turmoil to the fight over the capital city’s fate. The same majority who voted down the state-sponsored Act 47 plan and Mayor Linda Thompson’s followup fiscal-recovery plan voted 4-3 to hire Philadelphia-area lawyer Mark Schwartz to fight the takeover and then 4-3 to file for bankruptcy as soon as possible. ... "Wake up, Harrisburg. Wake up and look around,” Smith said. “I’m tired of being bent over and spanked in the corner. We should have...

Harrisburg Mayor Linda Thompson is warning that the city may run out of money unless a financial recovery plan is approved. Thompson told City Council on Tuesday night that the city must make a $3.3 million bond payment in mid-September. Without a plan in place, she said that would leave the city unable to pay its nearly 500 employees and provide basic services.

Examining a photo from the middle-of-the-night deed, you expect to spot beer cans. The gang of 20-somethings had just hoisted Lady Liberty onto her perch atop an old railroad pier in the middle of the Susquehanna River. Yet no beers were cracked until later. Now Stilp is marking the 25th anniversary of the statue, located on a stretch of river just north of Harrisburg. He arranged a commemorative stamp cancellation and a commemorative coin, and he’s conducting a contest for a song about the statue. “Of all the replicas across America, it’s one of the larger ones,” says Stilp, 61,...

To help Harrisburg out of its financial crisis, area Christian, Jewish and Muslim leaders have called for three days of fasting and praying for a more cooperative spirit among Harrisburg government leaders, the business community and residents. The voluntary event will start at midnight on Tuesday and run through 5 p.m. Friday. During that time, various churches and temples will be open to the public. Harrisburg Mayor Linda Thompson said she will participate in the event.

If all the brightest minds in Harrisburg’s government can’t solve the city’s financial problems, maybe God can. That seems to be the thinking in Pennsylvania’s capital city, where Mayor Linda Thompson and a host of other religious leaders are about to embark on a three-day fast and prayer campaign to cure the city’s daunting money woes. Maybe Greece should have thought of this. “Things that are above and beyond my control, I need God,” Thompson told WHTM TV, the region’s ABC news affiliate. “I depend on Him for guidance. Spiritual guidance. That’s why it’s really no struggle for me to...

My cousin Mike Allen's son, Sean, was killed in a single car accident yesterday near Harrisburg, PA. He is survived by his Dad, Mike and his brother Brian and his Mom. We were notified by his Aunt Liz and are requesting prayer for the repose of his soul and for the family, with particular attention to his brother, Brian.

Harrisburg Mayor Linda Thompson asked Pennsylvania to determine the city to be in municipal financial distress so it would qualify for help and oversight under the state’s Act 47 program. The city “stands on the precipice of full-blown financial crisis as a looming cash shortfall threatens its ability to pay vendors and meet payroll,” a statement from the mayor’s office said.

HARRISBURG, Pa.- Tension is mounting in Harrisburg, Pa., concerning the city's potential fall into bankruptcy, observers said.Dauphin County, which is a guarantor of Harrisburg bonds, has given permission to a bond trustee, TD Bank, to sue the city over $35 million it owes on bond payments for an incinerator project, the Central Pennsylvania Business Journal reported Thursday.The city has balked at making payments, missing one deadline on Aug. 15, and County Commission Chairman Jeff Haste called city officials in a note to Councilman Brad Koplinski, "a bunch of cowards."

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- Think Greece and Spain are drowning in debt? Look a little closer to home. Seven U.S. cities recently had their municipal bonds downgraded below investment grade. Their debt is now, junk, considered more worthless than that of the so-called PIIGS. "America's short-term budget crises, long-term growth perspectives and needs for austerity are similar [to Greece]," said Matt Fabian, managing director at Concord, Mass.-based consulting firm Municipal Market Advisors. Last quarter, Moody's Investor Services declared the debt issued by Harrisburg, Penn., and Woonsocket, R.I., to be junk, or below-investment grade. Meanwhile, Fitch Ratings currently has four other...

Thursday is the deadline for Harrisburg, Pa., to make a debt payment tied to a trash incinerator, and city officials aren’t optimistic. City Controller Daniel C. Miller said Wednesday it’s “very likely” that the city will miss the $637,500 payment ... The incinerator debt...threatens to send the city into Chapter 9 bankruptcy. The city is facing a $164 million budget gap... The city is also due to pay $4 million on its own debt and $1 million in payroll expenses Thursday, Miller told Dow Jones. The mayor of Harrisburg, Linda Thompson, hasn’t been receptive to the use of Chapter 9...

Just days after becoming controller of financially strapped Harrisburg, Pa., in January, Daniel Miller began uttering an obscure term that baffled most people who had never heard it and chilled those who had: Chapter 9. The seldom-used part of U.S. bankruptcy law gives municipalities protection from creditors while developing a plan to pay off debts. Created in the wake of the Great Depression, Chapter 9 is widely considered a last resort and filings under it are more taboo than other parts of bankruptcy code because of the resulting uncertainty for everyone from municipal employees to bondholders.

COAL TOWNSHIP - About a dozen Our Lady of Lourdes Regional High School students were suspended for a day for what school officials are calling "an act of disobedience and defiance" regarding the clothes they wore to a girls' basketball game earlier this month. The punishment has been met with outrage from some parents, who feel the discipline violates their children's freedom of speech and puts a stain on their conduct records. ... A group of Lourdes students reportedly dressed as farmers for a game at Tri-Valley Feb. 1... The student body was subsequently warned not to dress like that...

Harrisburg excludes debt payments from 2010 budget Sun Feb 14, 2010 2:42pm EST By Jon Hurdle PHILADELPHIA, Feb 14 (Reuters) - Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, moved a step closer to defaulting on a bond payment when its city council passed a 2010 budget that does not include $68 million in debt repayments on an incinerator. Without the debt provision in the $65 million budget, the state capital may miss a March 1 payment of $2.072 million, a rarity for a municipal bond issuer. Joyce Davis, a spokeswoman for Mayor Linda Thompson, confirmed the council's decision -- taken at a special session on...

It Begins: Cash Strapped Cities Begin To Crumble John Carney Feb. 4, 2010, 10:25 AM Our nascent economic recovery may come too late to save many American cities from bankruptcy, which in turn will deal heavy losses to municipal bond investors and the companies that insure munis. The latest fright comes from Harrisburg, the capital of Pennsylvania. The city is considering seeking bankruptcy protection—as well as tax hikes and asset sales—to address $68 million in debt service payments due this year. Harrisburg does not stand a chance at making its payments. The $68 million in debt service payments is four...

Harrisburg ELCA Congregation Gives Building to Coptic Orthodox Church HARRISBURG, Pa. (ELCA) -- An Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) congregation here is breathing new life into its church building by moving out and turning its facilities over to a congregation of another denomination. Following its worship service of carols and a celebration luncheon Dec. 27, Memorial Evangelical Lutheran Church gave its building as a gift to St. Mark Coptic Orthodox Church. This Sunday, Jan. 3, Memorial's members will worship at the James E. Morecraft Christian Education Building, owned by the congregation and directly across the street from the Memorial's...

An overflow crowd of more than 500 people gathered at the Elysburg Monastery Monday as the bishop of the Diocese of Harrisburg blessed the facility's reopened chapel. The most important people of the day, however - the 11 Discalced Carmelite nuns from Nebraska who moved into the Elysburg facility in April - were never seen by the public.... Following the 2 1/2-hour Mass, the bishop, the Most Rev. Kevin C. Rhoades, conducted the private "enclosure" ceremony. The diocese said he moved through the building, blessing each room, then locking the door to the sisters' portion of the monastery. While they...

Lawmakers pay themselves first But state workers must wait another week to get paid Thursday, August 06, 2009 By Tracie Mauriello, Post-Gazette Harrisburg Bureau HARRISBURG -- State workers will have to wait another week to be paid for days they have worked since July 1, but House Democratic lawmakers have checks in hand. They paid themselves first. Their paychecks were issued Tuesday as they voted on a $27.3 billion budget, which Gov. Ed Rendell yesterday chopped to $11 billion through line-items vetoes. He left intact funding for such items as public safety, state parks and employees' pay. Some 77,000 state...

Harrisburg City Council passes gun law by DAN MILLER, Of The Patriot-News Wednesday April 29, 2009, 10:23 PM Harrisburg City Council Wednesday by 7-0 vote passed legislation where gun owners upon learning that their firearm has been lost or stolen would have to tell police of this within 48 hours. Failure to do so could mean a fine of from $50 to $1,000 or up to 90 days in jail. Supporters say the proposal is to help police prevent a lost or stolen gun from being resold to be used in a crime. Joe Grace, executive director of CeaseFirePA, said...

PHILADELPHIA -- Vincent Fumo, once one of the most powerful figures in Pennsylvania politics, was convicted today of more than 130 counts of corruption for schemes that defrauded the state Senate and others of more than $3.5 million and allowed him to live a lavish lifestyle. The 65-year-old former state senator was found guilty of all 137 counts against him, which also included obstruction of justice for destroying e-mail evidence. The jury deliberated about the Philadelphia Democrat's fate for about six days after a five-month trial. Prosecutors are expected to seek a sentence of more than 10 years under federal...

<p>We had a great turnout at the Tea Party in Harrisburg, PA today. Does anyone else have pictures to share?</p> <p>OK, here are some. It has to be close to 1,000.</p> <p>Youtube VERY slow, upload is taking forever!</p>

I am slowly geting info on a Tea Party being held in Harrisburg, PA on Saturday March 7th. Does anyone else have additional information?

The wobbly video shows a group of adults mulling inside Chuck E. Cheese's restaurant in Susquehanna Twp. Suddenly it pans left and captures a fight breaking out. The 22-second clip, uploaded Sunday to YouTube, is the latest example of what police describe as a disturbing and bizarre crime trend: escalating violence among adults at a place designed for children's birthday parties. Susquehanna Township police have been called to the restaurant on Union Deposit Road 12 times in the past year for reports of disorderly conduct, assault and theft. Those calls have resulted in 13 arrests, including six women -- five...

(Harrisburg, PA)…Barry R. Herr, former treasurer of the Lower Susquehanna Synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, was sentenced today to serve 30 months in federal prison, two years of supervised release, and ordered to pay $799,998 in restitution. Herr, 62, of Lancaster, was arrested on March 13, 2008, and charged with thirty-six (36) counts of Criminal Use of a Communication Facility (electronic transfer of funds) and one (1) count of Theft by Deception in the amount of $1,004,732. Each charge is a felony of the third degree. The charges stem from months of investigation by the synod, the...

The Sen. Barack Obama campaign is under performing with women, especially older white ones. So, it released a list of female surrogates that will be his force on issues that are important to those women voters -- like equal pay. There also will soon be an ad released that will hit Sen. John McCain on the touchy issue of equal pay. According to McCain-Palin spokesman Brian Rogers, that is a problem for Barack Obama, since he is the one that pays his females staffers less than the men. Rogers points to Senate Records showing that women working in Sen. Obama's...

The intelligent question thrown out among strategists for both campaigns is, can John McCain really win Pennsylvania? Really win it, not pretend to go for it, as Republicans did in 2004, all the while closing the deal in Ohio when no one was looking. The last Republican presidential candidate to win Pennsylvania was George H.W. Bush, in 1988 -- a win preceded by two Reagans but followed by two Clintons, a Gore and a Kerry. The Kerry win was narrower than the others, however.

Rep. Jack Murtha’s (D-Johnstown) opponent in this year’s congressional race -- Lt. Col. William Russell, a decorated Iraq war veteran who was in the Pentagon on Sept. 11, 2001 -- has just released an ad titled “In Cold Blood.” So far, it is one of the most powerful campaign spots to hit the airwaves in the down- ballot races this cycle in the Keystone State.

Perhaps finding out what really is going on in Pennsylvania is for me to look no further than my own backyard, literally.

MANHEIM -- John McCain's last stop on a three-day swing across Pennsylvania provided clues as to how the Republican plans to beat Barack Obama in a battleground state the Democrat is favored to win.

Ridge said he was proud of how McCain has handled the crisis unfolding in Georgia. ...“He has kept a cool head, taken calls from Georgian president Mikhail Saakashvili -- and really behaved very presidential in his perspective of this crisis,” said Ridge as McCain shook hands with the crowd that gathered around him. “He has been to Georgia several times,” Ridge added. “He doesn’t need to look for it on a map.”

Bitter: the gift that keeps on giving TRIBUNE-REVIEW By Salena Zito John Brabender, a D.C.-based media strategist, put up the first "bitter" ad to be used in a congressional race -- for a Republican. "Barack Obama's statement about the small towns of Pennsylvania and the entire middle America for this cycle is the gift that you can use all year long," Brabender said. He said that you could say it is the gift that keeps on giving. Brabender's client Matt Shaner is in a tight Republican primary race to succeed retiring John Peterson in the biggest piece of congressional geography...

'100 Mayors For Hillary' Rally Turnout Under 20 Percent POSTED: 2:23 pm EDT April 15, 2008 UPDATED: 2:31 pm EDT April 15, 2008 HARRISBURG, Pa. -- Turnout at the "100 Mayors for Hillary" rally was a little under 20 percent. Only 19 mayors of Pennsylvania cities showed up for Tuesday's rally in the Rotunda of the Pennsylvania Capitol. Other mayors' names were listed on placards supporting Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton of New York for the Democratic presidential nomination. Harrisburg Mayor Stephen Reed spoke for the group against the backdrop of a banner touting the 100 mayors. He criticized Clinton's rival,...

God, guns and Obama TRIBUNE-REVIEW By: Salena Zito On Friday it was reveled that Sen. Barack Obama told wealthy San Franciscans last Sunday that small-town Pennsylvanians and Midwesterners "cling to guns or religion" because they are "bitter" about their economic status. By today in Muncie, Ind., Obama acknowledged that he "didn't say it as well as I should have."

Obama advance: 'Get me more white people' POLITICO Ben Smith From the account in Carnegie Mellon's paper, the Tartan, of a Michelle Obama event in Pittsburgh: While the crowd was indeed diverse, some students at the event questioned the practices of Mrs. Obama’s event coordinators, who handpicked the crowd sitting behind Mrs. Obama. The Tartan’s correspondents observed one event coordinator say to another, “Get me more white people, we need more white people.” To an Asian girl sitting in the back row, one coordinator said, “We’re moving you, sorry. It’s going to look so pretty, though.” “I didn’t know they...

Rendell-Casey, Round 2 By Salena Zito TRIBUNE-REVIEW Sunday, April 6, 2008 To win Pennsylvania, Barack Obama must pull off a "Missouri" -- that is, do what he did in the Show Me State: win a handful of heavily populated, liberal-centric counties and call it a day. Ironically, that is what Ed Rendell (a Hillary Clinton supporter) did to Bob Casey (an Obama supporter) in Pennsylvania's 2002 Democrat gubernatorial primary.

Super delegate Murtha endorses Clinton Posted March 18, 2008 8 :50 PM Congressman Jack Murtha, D-Johnstown, became the first super delegate to endorse Sen. Hillary Clinton since the Ohio and Texas primaries on March 4th.

Obama adds a little more cowbell TRIBUNE-REVIEW BY Salena Zito Bristling at charges that, so far, Barack Obama is running a less-than-spectacular race in Pennsylvania, the candidate's chief political strategist told reporters this afternoon that the campaign was going all out to win the Keystone State. "We are gong to contest vigorously in Pennsylvania," David Axelrod said. "We're going to be running a full campaign."

In the state, it's politics unusual for Clinton, Obama By Mike Wereschagin TRIBUNE-REVIEW Sunday, March 16, 2008 Patrons pack the bar at Rookie's Restaurant and Sports Pub in Allentown, but their conversations steer clear of the political battle being waged for their votes. Bartender Nick Goldsmith keeps an ear on what is said inside this Lehigh County joint. If one of the candidates' names comes up, he knows he might have to jump in and shut down an argument before it becomes a fight. Again. "I don't usually discourage it until it gets out of hand," says Goldsmith, 29. That's...

Pennsylvania 'absolutely critical' for Clinton campaign, aide says By Salena Zito and David M. Brown TRIBUNE-REVIEW Saturday, March 8, 2008 Winning the Pennsylvania primary on April 22 is "absolutely critical" to Hillary Clinton's hope of overtaking Barack Obama in the race for the Democratic presidential nomination, a top Clinton aide said Friday. Clinton will visit Pennsylvania on Monday and Tuesday, with campaign stops in Scranton, Harrisburg and Philadelphia. Former President Bill Clinton will be stumping for his wife on Tuesday in Pittsburgh, but the campaign did not immediately provide details about that visit. Asked whether Clinton must win Pennsylvania to...

TRIBUNE-REVIEW Pa. no longer on the horizon By: Salena Zito It's showtime, folks ... part II. Welcome to a smaller yet more critically important Super Tuesday. Today has become the focus for the Democrats in a political season that has seen the primary contest maps redrawn in a way no pundit could have ever predicted. In an interview last week, Democratic National Committee chair Howard Dean told the Tribune-Review that he never would have predicted that the primary season would have gone on this long. In fact, Dean said he thought it would have been decided before the first Super...

Ohio at heart of Clinton strategy By Salena Zito TRIBUNE-REVIEW Sunday, March 2, 2008 DAYTON, Ohio -- Retired trucker James Russell says Hillary Clinton is going to win this state's Democratic primary Tuesday because she has God and Ohio on her side. "We are her guardian angels," Russell, 67, said last week after Bill Clinton's speech at Stebbins High School in Riverside, a Dayton suburb. "I hate to spout off, but I think God will straighten this all out for her and she will win here and in November." Divine intervention might be what the Clinton

Obama gaining on Clinton in statewide poll By Brad Bumsted and David M. Brown TRIBUNE-REVIEW Thursday, February 21, 2008 HARRISBURG -- A surging Barack Obama has carved into Hillary Clinton's lead in Pennsylvania in the campaign for the Democratic presidential nomination. Clinton is leading Obama by 12 percentage points -- 44 percent to 32 percent -- in the run-up to the state's April 22 primary election, according to a Franklin & Marshall College Poll conducted for the Tribune-Review and other news outlets. The survey of 303 registered Democrats showed

Half of state's superdelegates back Clinton By Salena Zito TRIBUNE-REVIEW Tuesday, February 19, 2008 New York Sen. Hillary Clinton has gained commitments from half of Pennsylvania's so-called superdelegates to the Democratic National Convention. A Tribune-Review survey reveals Clinton has endorsements from 13 of the 26 superdelegates, a mix of top elected officials and party operatives. Illinois Sen. Barack Obama has two commitments, and 10 superdelegates are uncommitted. One superdelegate could not be reached. Three more will be selected by Pennsylvania party leaders. But none of the delegates must vote for their endorsed candidate, one expert cautioned.

Rep. Dan Moul is in his small, drab Harrisburg office talking about changing an outdated Capitol culture, and he's being himself. He mentions that there are "still a couple old dogs that have to go," and that's when he realizes he's being himself. He stops, breaks out laughing, and slaps his desk. "That's one statement that's going to get me in trouble," he says. But then, he seems to recognize truth behind the statement, and he settles back in his chair. "Am I lying?" After a year in office, the freshman Republican from Adams County's Conewago Township has proven to...

At 6:30 am on Saturday, December 22, while most were snug in bed, resting up for Christmas activities, veteran pro-lifer Ed Snell was arriving at Hillcrest Abortion Center, in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania.  He had come with two other activists to persuade women entering the clinic not to abort their pre-born children. The group customarily meets at the clinic and has saved many lives.  In fact, they have been so effective, that the clinic erected a 7-foot privacy fence to cut off all communication between the women and the pro-lifers.  However, their efforts were scuttled, when the activists began bringing ladders so...

Pennsylvania HB 1649 breezed through the PA House Health & Human Services Committee and the Rules Committee. As of Nov 8th, the bill now sits in the House Appropriations Committee. Action is needed to make sure this bill dies in committee! Call your State Representative, tell them that you oppose the bill and that it's too controversial of a topic to push through without hearings. Ask that they vote to send House Bill 1649 to the Environmental Resources and Energy Committee, where it can have balanced hearings. (No hearings have been held on the issue in nearly 20 years and...

HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) -- Halfway across the continent from where Buffalo Bill roamed and Custer made his last stand, the mayor of this debt-ridden city spent millions in public money on everything from six-shooters to covered wagons for a museum about cowboys, Indians and the Wild West. And he did it without telling the City Council, whose members felt as if they had been hit by the swinging doors of a frontier saloon when they found out from a reporter in 2003. On Saturday, the other dusty cowboy boot will drop when hundreds of the items go on the auction...

Inquirer Staff Writers Fed up with foot-dragging in Harrisburg over gun control, Philadelphia is now taking its case to court. City Councilman Darrell L. Clarke said last night that the city plans to file a lawsuit today in Philadelphia Common Pleas Court alleging that the General Assembly has failed in its duty to protect the residents of the city. "It is becoming increasingly clear to me that the General Assembly is unwilling or unable to act," Clarke said in a telephone interview last night. "We have no choice but to go to court." Straw purchases have proliferated dramatically because the...