Carnival of updates

A million stories today that are incremental updates of stories we've mentioned here over the last week or so...

• The federal government appears to have snubbed Pennsylvania on its request to do good things with Valley Forge Park, and/or didn't read Rendell's letter about the matter at all.
  
  
• As a follow-up to the story about Wal-Mart, the state Welfare office has agreed to release a report on all employed workers on Medicaid, presumably so that coverage practices can be compared across employers.
  
  
• The animal rights activists on trial in New Jersey were found guilty of using their website to induce threats and harrassment against biotech employees and their families, in a long-term campaign against a particular company.
  
  
• Possibly related to the continuing PA-NJ pissing match over dredging in the Delaware River, Rendell has just zapped the pawns, calling for roll-back of some recent pay-raises for Port Authority employees. Meantime, as the bistate Authority continues not to meet, its credit rating is being downgraded... nice.
  
  
• The State Supreme Court gave local counties the go-ahead to replace their voting systems with modern (handicap-accessible) ones as required by federal law, without waiting for voter approval.
  
  
• The Gaming Review Board has relented in the face of public outcry, and will allow more time for impact reports to be released and public testimony to be arranged, before making its final decisions.
  
  
• As Philadelphia's Mayor Street and his office scheme over housing bureau reorganizations, current employees are unsurprisingly nervous about their fates, especially upon being told that they have to resign and reapply, rather than being reassigned.
  
  
• The Daily News's Gar Josephs notes that the rumored possibility of Kate Michelman's running for Santorum's Senate seat would be Casey's worst nightmare -- he might get past the progressives in the primary only to face opponents on both right and left in November.
  
  There's also a bit in this column about an inter-party agreement not to use the pay raise against encumbents. Anybody who accepts their party's endorsement/money has to leave that issue behind. Amazing.