Local News
A challenge from the right: Murphy sets sights on Specter's Senate seat
HERMITAGE — A Hermitage man is setting his sights on the seat of U.S. Sen. Arlen Specter in the 2010 Republican primary.
Larry G. Murphy, 45, formerly of Philadelphia, announced his candidacy last week. It will be Murphy’s second attempt to unseat the longtime Pennsylvania senator. His last was in 1998.
While Murphy said Specter is practically unbeatable in the November elections, it’s the primary where he’s weak. “That’s where you have to take Arlen out, because he’s off message with mainstream Republicans.”
Murphy cited Specter’s vote for the stimulus package. He was among three Republicans to vote in favor of the $787 billion initiative that many conservatives criticized as a spending bill.
Specter has defended his stimulus vote, saying he did so reluctantly but in hopes of preventing even worse economic damage down the road.
Murphy said he’s more in tune with the core Republican messages like fiscal responsibility and opposition to abortion and public subsidies.
He lays blame for the economic situation with speculators and bad business practices on one hand, and the Federal Reserve and congressional fiscal policy on the other.
Critical of bailouts, Murphy said businesses need to succeed or fail on their own merits. “They have to make it on their own. It has to be the law of Darwinism in the business community.”
“We can no longer prop up failing businesses and keep them afloat.”
He also said he is to Specter’s right on abortion. “We truly have to look at the pro-life issue. Arlen tends not to do that. We can no longer support mothers killing their children. This is not an issue of choice, as they call it.”
He favors welfare reforms that end the drop-off of public subsidies when low-income people marry.
“I think it takes two parents to raise a child,” Murphy said. He said the government often influences a rise in single-parent families by cutting off subsidies to those who marry.
He said some families may even be in the position of having to break up to survive. “I’m not about removing public subsidies from people who really need them. I am about modifying those to encourage the family unit.” As a family unit, he said people will move forward financially much faster.
Murphy also supports education reform, such as a national teacher certification to improve the mobility of teachers from state to state. He would also regulate the number of substitute teachers a school system can hire over full-time teachers.
“Children lose out when they have different substitutes everyday,” Murphy said. School districts use the tactic to save money on benefits.
He said he’d also look into programs to encourage parents to be more involved in education.
Murphy acknowledged Specter has a lot of name recognition, but said that is what he’s counting on. “They know what he’s done,” Murphy said.
“We respect his service, but he’s out of touch with our message. And he’s been there for some time. So now it’s time to thank him for his service and watch him move on,” Murphy said.
Murphy lives in Hermitage now but was born and raised in the Philadelphia and Pottsville areas. Many of his political contacts are still in those areas, but he said he’s building a network of friends and supporters in Western Pennsylvania.
Retired from the United States Air Force, Murphy owns a communications business. His last job with the military was reviewing the files of prisoners kept in the Guantanamo Bay detention camp, he said.
He said the plan right now is to raise enough money that potential backers know he’s a serious candidate.
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Court nixes ruling man is sexually violent predator
State Superior Court has denied a local judge’s request to issue a precedential opinion in a rape case.
Mercer County Common Pleas Court Judge John C. Reed had ruled that Chad S. Thompson, 24, formerly of Stoneboro, is a sexually violent predator, but Superior Court said in a 2-1 decision July 8 that an expert’s testimony was insufficient to back that declaration.
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Stacey wants to continue fight over razed home
Raymond Stacey has requests pending in three courts as he presses his long-running attempt to prosecute the city of Hermitage and those he believes are responsible for illegally demolishing his parents’ house.
U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit, Philadelphia, on April 29 quashed an appeal because Stacey did not file his argument brief and appendix of supporting documents.
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Burglars strike while residents sleep
Several Shenango Valley residents’ homes were broken into overnight Tuesday and Wednesday while they slept.
Two burglaries in Sharon involved people entering open windows.
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Commissioners formally move to raise sewer fees
Hermitage commissioners introduced an ordinance Wednesday to increase sanitary user fees.
Residents tapped into the Hermitage Municipal Authority lines now pay $95 a quarter. That rate will bump up to $105 a quarter on Jan. 1, under the proposed rate hike.
Two more hikes on Jan. 1, 2012, and Jan. 1, 2013, will result in the rates increasing 50 percent from the current fee. -
Water is on at Forrest Brooke
Water service has been restored at Forrest Brooke Manufactured Home Community after well problems left the 165-unit complex dry Tuesday.
A boil and conserve water advisory has been issued by the DEP and will remain in place until tests confirm the water is safe to drink, Forrest Brooke’s manager Pete Havens said.
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Storm damages trees, wires
Thunderstorms ripped through parts of Mercer and neighboring counties Wednesday night, downing trees and wires and keeping rescue workers on their toes.
A Mercer County 911 dispatcher shortly after 8 p.m. said they were busy with calls across the northern part of the county. He said there had been a few reports of trees falling on homes.
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City leaders open to talks
Sharon officials aren’t opposed to sitting down with their counterparts in Farrell to revisit the idea of combining the two struggling cities.
“It never costs a penny to talk and there’s no (idea) that’s not worth looking at,” Sharon councilman Ed Palanski said. “I think it would be foolish to oppose looking at the idea.”
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Murphy’s Law doesn’t faze regional planners
A complicated, two-day public meeting blitz in 32 counties ran headlong into Murphy’s Law in Mercer County on Tuesday.
The group Power of 32 are looking to re-write the regional map and create a grand, 15-year strategic economic plan for the 32 counties in four states that make up the Ohio River basin and greater Pittsburgh area.
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Forrest Brooke copes with water outage
Residents of Forrest Brooke Mobile Home Community in Jefferson and Lackawannock Townships woke up Tuesday morning to find they didn’t have any water.
Managers of the park could not be reached for comment, but residents said they were told they won’t get water service back for at least another month.
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City facing bleak financial reality
LaVon Saternow has been Farrell’s city manager since 1992. Shortly after she took the job, Sharon Steel, the city’s economic engine, officially closed down.
Since, the city has struggled to remain solvent and Mrs. Saternow said it is facing its worst financial crisis in her tenure.
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Court nixes ruling man is sexually violent predator
