State briefs
Jury to hear case ERIE, Pa. (AP) – A former state prison worker who claims he was fired when he blew the whistle on wasteful spending by his former boss will have his case heard by a jury.
Clifford Van Tassel was fired from the State Correctional Institution-Cambridge Springs in 2002.
Van Tassel sued, claiming he was fired because he reported that the prison’s superintendent at the time, Marilyn Brooks, misspent state funds on unnecessary improvements to her home, which is owned by the prison system. Brooks has said she fired Van Tassel for addressing her in racially derogatory terms. Brooks is black.
The state Auditor General’s office looked into the allegations and later determined that nearly $20,000 of $53,000 in renovations weren’t properly approved. Among other things, Brooks had a $1,300 rolling tub and 10 telephones installed in the house.
Brooks now works at the state prison in Albion. State prison officials, and the Attorney General’s Office, which is defending her, both declined to comment on the lawsuit.
U.S. District Judge Sean McLaughlin ruled last week that Van Tassel’s suit has enough merit to go to trial, but no date has been set.
Testing continues
PITTSBURGH (AP) – More than eight years after Pittsburgh began spending more than $2 million to outfit its police patrol cars with laptop computers, only one in five cars has one.
The city is still testing some new Panasonic laptops, but there is no money to install them in about 100 cruisers. The city is hopeful it can use some future federal Homeland Security funds to update the cars.
The city started testing computers in 1996 and by 2000, the city spent $2 million to equip its 147 police cruisers. But those laptops were pulled from police vehicles by July 2001, because the company that supplied them, Paradigm4 of Fairfield, Conn., went bankrupt. Without the company’s software and technical support, the $4,600 computers were worthless.
The new Panasonic computers will cost about $3,500 each.
Competitor contested
BEAVER, Pa. (AP) – An Indianapolis firm that wants to build a $240 million harness racing track and gambling complex in Beaver County says its main competitor for the state’s last racetrack license is more than a day late – and several million dollars short.
Centaur Inc. wants to build its track and casino along Route 51 in Beaver County.
That project is competing with a $175 million project in Lawrence County proposed by Ambrosia Enterprises of New Castle.
Ambrosia’s president, Carmen Shick is appealing a ruling by the state Harness Racing Commission, which set a Dec. 28 deadline for both groups to prove they had the financial backing to build.
Centaur officials say they submitted proof by then, but that Shick’s group didn’t. The harness racing license is important because whoever gets it is almost certain to get a license to install slot machines on the site, too.
Shick said he has the financing to build, but changed financial backers last month, after the deadline. Centaur said any new package Shick presents should be ignored by the state.
Shick is still appealing the decision to impose the Dec. 28 deadline.
Proposal questioned
PITTSBURGH (AP) – The Pittsburgh school board wants to replace outgoing superintendent John Thompson with his second-in-command, the schools’ chief academic officer, Andy King.
But some in the community are concerned because King was arrested six years ago on an open lewdness charge for allegedly having sex with a homeless woman in his vehicle. Prosecutors later dismissed that charge. King, 53, pleaded guilty to a charge of disorderly conduct and was fined $350.
King has worked for the district for 31 years.
The board has already voted to buy out Thompson’s contract, which was to have run through June 30, for about $97,000. But that deal could still be adjusted to include a settlement of legal claims that Thompson still has pending against the school district.
King’s supporters say he is a natural choice for the job because he runs the district in Thompson’s absence anyway.
AP-ES-02-07-05 1051EST