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JUDGING BY ELECTION DAY, WOMEN IN LAW HAVE COME A LONG WAY IN PA.

For nearly two decades women have graduated from U.S. law schools in roughly the same numbers as men. Yet they have not risen through the ranks of the profession in the same proportion. According to a survey by the National Association of Women Lawyers, for example, women comprise just 16 percent of the equity partners in the nation's largest law firms, 15 percent of those firms' management committees and 6 percent of their managing partners.

On election day in Pennsylvania, it was obvious that voters share none of the big law firms' reticence about advancing women to the highest levels of the court system.

Voters in Lackawanna County elected Margaret Bisignani Moyle to a new judgeship, while voters in Luzerne County elected Tina Polachek Gartley to one of two open seats.

In western Pennsylvania, two counties elected their first women judges. Fayette County District Attorney Nancy Vernon won a judicial seat, as did attorney Linda Fleming in Cambria County.

Statewide, Republican candidates swept the decided appellate court races, but their party affiliation might not have been as significant as their gender. Women won or are ahead in six of the seven races.

Judge Joan Orie Melvin of the Superior Court won an open Supreme Court seat. Attorney Patricia McCullough won a seat on the Commonwealth Court. Allegheny County Judge Judy Olson, Chester County Judge Paula Ott and Tioga County attorney Sallie Mundy won Superior Court seats. For the fourth open seat on the Superior Court, Anne Lazarus of Philadelphia is ahead in a statewide recount required when the margin of victory is less than one-half of 1 percent of votes cast.

Election of so many women judges is a certain sign of social progress. It remains to be seen whether the trend bounces back into the halls of the nation's most powerful law firms.

-The (Scranton) Times-Tribune

TO COPE WITH STATE BUDGET SHORTFALLS, OFFICIALS URGED TO RAID THE LIQUOR CABINET

We have long believed that problems associated with alcohol consumption were not influenced by having Pennsylvania in control of liquor and wine sales.

It turns out allowing the private sector to handle alcohol sales is not associated with increased alcohol consumption or with increased traffic fatalities involving drivers under the influence.

That is the conclusion of a recently released Commonwealth Foundation report comparing states with different levels of controls and privatization from 1970 to 2006.

In fact, the study by the Harrisburg-based group shows states that recently got out of the liquor business experienced a significant decline in per-capita alcohol consumption. That would be welcome news in Pennsylvania where we rank No. 34 in per capita consumption among the 48 states in the study.

The data also showed that states without controls experience significantly lower DUI-related fatality rates than states with liquor controls. As for underage drinking, we rank No. 22 among the surveyed states, and the study stated privatization is not a factor.

The Pennsylvania Liquor Control Board was launched in 1933 to coincide with the repeal of Prohibition. The first board was organized just four days before liquor sales became legal again. The PLCB is an anachronism that now involves the control of liquor while at the same time the need to increase sales.

A 2007 study by The Reason Foundation estimated that the sale of the state liquor stores would bring in an estimated $1.7 billion. That is in addition to $353 million annually from sales and liquor taxes. There also would be an expected increase in sales that are now going to stores in neighboring states. As we all know, Pennsylvania needs the money.

That was painfully clear through the entire budget debacle this year, and on Monday, Nov. 2, the state Department of Revenue said collections already are down $160 million from what had been expected. Right now the state's plan is quite literally to hope the economy rebounds.

To make matters worse, the state is facing a pension funding crisis involving taxpayer-funded defined benefit plans for legislators, judges, school employees and various state employees.

To keep the public pension systems solvent, the state expects its $524 million share of pension costs this year to jump to at least $1 billion in 2010-11, $3 billion the following year and $4 billion the year after that, according to the Senate Appropriations Committee. School districts will see their pension contributions increase from a little under 5 percent now to up to 30 percent.

Our legislators need to act. As the Commonwealth Foundation study said so well: "Evidence from 48 states over time shows no link between market controls and these social goals.

Divestiture of Pennsylvania's state liquor stores would represent a financial windfall to the state, while posing no threat to public safety, as it would not result in the social ills many opponents of privatization fear."

It is no longer 1933. It is time for the state to get out of the liquor control business.

-The (Harrisburg) Patriot-News

PATRONAGE AND PAY-TO-PLAY MAY BE TAKING TOLL ON TURNPIKE COMMISSION

The Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission is widely considered to be the last bastion of pay-to-play politics and patronage in Pennsylvania.

Just what that means exactly could be revealed in two separate investigations - one by the FBI and one by a statewide grand jury.

The FBI is said to be looking into alleged corruption in connection with a $170 million, six-lane widening of the turnpike in the Valley Forge area.

The FBI apparently is investigating whether project managers, in exchange for kickbacks, looked the other way as contractors delivered defective concrete and faulty drainage pipes and took other shortcuts.

On Thursday, Oct. 22, FBI agents reportedly carted off computers and other materials from turnpike offices in Harrisburg.

Meanwhile, a statewide grand jury from Pittsburgh is asking questions about patronage, campaign donations and contracts in connection with the Turnpike Commission.

For years, the Commission has had the reputation as a patronage haven - a characterization that the agency does not necessarily discourage.

The Commission, like a lot of state agencies, admits to hiring relatives or people recommended to them by politicians - so long as the applicants were qualified.

Turnpike chief executive Joe Brimmeier, for example, got his son, Joseph Jr., a job as assistant maintenance manager. The younger Brimmeier climbed the ranks to the post of assistant director of regional operations.

Brimmeier also had a job created for one cousin (who was later fired because he didn't show up) and had another cousin hired as a plumber. A nephew was hired as a communications field technician.

Brimmeier also found a job in the agency for the daughter of a Lawrence County Democratic official.

"I've never denied that when a job applicant comes to me and has a reference from a politician, I follow it up," says Brimmeier. "If I find that he or she is a good person and can do the job, I'll hire them. I'm not ashamed of anything I've done."

He says the same when the applicants are members of his own family.

The Commission's profile has been raised recently - and not in a good way.

The Commission was mentioned repeatedly in testimony during the federal corruption trial of former state Sen. Vincent Fumo, a Philadelphia Democrat. Fumo was convicted on 137 corruption charges in March and sentenced to 55 months in prison.

In March, Gov. Ed Rendell ousted commission chairman Mitchell Rubin, citing trial testimony that Rubin accepted $150,000 in taxpayer-paid work that apparently was never done. (Rubin has not been charged with any wrongdoing.) Over a five-year period, Rubin reportedly charged $72,000 in expenses to the Commission, including reimbursement for meals at five-star restaurants.

Also, Fumo arranged for an associate, Michael Palermo, to receive $120,000 a year from the turnpike for a consulting job, for which there were no reports. (On Tuesday, Oct. 20, Palermo pleaded guilty to conspiracy to defraud the Senate of $287,000 for a no-show Senate job from 2004-2008.)

Republican state Sen. Jane Orie would put an end to patronage and pay-to-play by eliminating the five-member Turnpike Commission and its nearly 500 nonunion employees, from administrators to secretaries. She would put the 530-mile system of toll roads under the state Department of Transportation. PennDOT already covers some 40,000 miles of state-owned roads.

Orie's proposal has merit, but the Legislature should hold off until the two investigations run their course.

When all the wrongdoing has been exposed, then Orie or some other legislator can offer comprehensive solutions.

-Lancaster New Era