PA Department of Aging Changes Leaders

On October 10, 2008, a Press Release issued by the Pennsylvania Governor's Office, entitled "Governor Rendell Announces Resignation of Secretary of Aging Nora Dowd Eisenhower", indicated that her resignation will become effective October 31, 2008, for her "to return to the private sector."

The Press Release quoted the comments of Governor Edward G. Rendell:

• “Nora has been a strong, outspoken advocate for our state’s 2.5 million older adults, working hard to improve the level and quality of services offered to seniors across Pennsylvania,” said Governor Rendell.

• “Nora helped to spearhead our administration’s historic 2003 expansion of the PACE/PACENET prescription assistance programs and led the 2006 effort to coordinate the programs with Medicare Part D. Her efforts have resulted in enhancements to PACE and PACENET while saving more than $700 million. She leaves with 120,000 additional older adults enrolled in PACE/PACENET, bringing total enrollment to 430,000.”

Secretary of Aging Nora Dowd Eisenhower was also quoted in the Press Release:

• “The opportunity to serve older people and their families with my colleagues at the Department of Aging is the best job I ever had,” said Dowd Eisenhower.
  

• “I am confident that our accomplishments will continue to strengthen the state’s aging service network for many years to come.”

The Press Release noted the Secretary's efforts and accomplishments during her tenure:

• Working "to ensure that the state’s growing population of older consumers will be able to receive long-term living services in the setting they want the most – at home in their own communities."

• Advocating "for increased opportunities for older people to give back to the communities they want to remain in for as long as possible."

• Promoting "intergenerational civic engagement and volunteer opportunities focused on meeting the needs of others as a path for older Pennsylvanians to retain their health and vitality."

• Initiating "a groundbreaking program to help doctors choose the most clinically appropriate medications for PACE/PACENET enrollees."

• Enhancing "the Department of Aging’s outreach to underserved populations."

• Initiating "comprehensive efforts to prepare the state’s 52 Area Agencies on Aging for the unique demands of serving members of the Baby Boomer generation."

Nora Dowd Eisenhower and her staff have accomplished much. She can be proud of a job well done.

On that same date, October 10, 2008, another Press Release revealed her successor: "Governor Rendell Appoints John Michael Hall to Serve as Acting Secretary of Aging."

Mr. Hall previously served as the head of Pennsylvania’s Office of Long Term Living, which operates under the departments of Aging and Public Welfare.

The Press Release identified Mr. Hall as "a nationally renowned expert in long term care."

[He was] recruited by Governor Rendell to develop innovations to reduce reliance on nursing facilities, and to make Pennsylvania a national leader in home and community based services to support seniors and people with disabilities to live independently, and have control over their services.

The Press Release highlighted Mr. Hall's accomplishments to date, which portend the direction that the Department of Aging will continue into the future:

• Helped to pass Act 56, establishing assisted living as a licensed service in Pennsylvania. He is currently overseeing the effort to complete the regulatory process so that Pennsylvanians can take full advantage of this growing long term living service, and know what they are purchasing.

• Spearheaded ongoing effort to build a system to integrate the Medicare and Medicaid payment systems to improve care for older citizens

• Successfully promoted Pennsylvania’s unprecedented effort to equalize funding increases across all systems of long term living, including community and facility-based care.

• Oversaw development of a highly successful nursing home transition program, moving nearly 2,500 people since March 2007. Pennsylvania is a national leader in providing support to people who wish to relocate to the community from nursing homes.

• Established a first-of-its-kind training institute for assuring highly qualified staff working in the long term living system.

• Created a quality assurance bureau to assure efficient and effective use of tax dollars which support Pennsylvanians with disabilities and seniors.

• [Expanded] home and community based services by growing the program approximately 10 percent since he began.

Mr. Hall is a lawyer by training (Washington University School of Law - St. Louis), and also by experience, "having worked at Vermont Legal Aid Inc. from 1982 to 1996, serving as state ombudsman, and director of the Elderly Law Unit."

We wish him well as he continues the challenging, important work of the Pennsylvania Department of Aging.

"Professional Felicity" of Lawyers

The Eighth Annual Goldberg Lecture Series will be held on Thursday, October 16, 2008, with Arthur T. Donato, Esq., of Media, PA, presenting on two topics -- "Can Justice Be Found in the USA Patriot Act?" and "The Key to Professional Felicity."

According to Merriam-Webster's online dictionary, "felicity" is a term that derives from the 14th Century, and means:

• 1 a: the quality or state of being happy; especially : great happiness (felicity)
• 1 b: an instance of happiness
• 2: something that causes happiness
• 3: a pleasing manner or quality especially in art or language (felicity with words)
• 4: an apt expression

Early in 2008, the Christian Science Monitor published two articles about happiness -- "Actually, happiness isn't within" (01/07/08) by Eric Weiner, and "Yes, you can be happy at work" (01/22/08) by Alexander Kjerulf.

Mr. Weiner writes that "some cultures are simply better at producing happy citizens than others."

The self-help industry has it wrong. Social scientists studying happiness (or subjective well-being, to use the academic term) have found that external factors – quality of government, social interactions and, to an extent, money – determine our happiness more than anything else.

In other words, happiness does not reside inside of you. Happiness is out there. * * *

Among other factors, he links happiness to trust:

Trust of others is another prerequisite for a happy nation, and that is a troubling fact for fans of American happiness.

In 1960, 58 percent of Americans felt most people could be trusted. By the 1990s, only 35 percent held that view.

Indeed, given our economic and military muscle, the US occupies a modest spot on the atlas of bliss. We are not as happy as we are wealthy. * * *

Mr. Kjerulf notes that "[t]he concept of happiness at work is alien to most American workplaces [but it] doesn't have to be that way." He considers the different approaches of most employers in America versus those in Europe, and then advises:

Make no mistake: Happiness at work is on the march. It just seems that many Americans are stuck a little harder in the "work is unpleasant – that's why we get paid to do it" mentality.

So my advice to American managers and employees is this: Make happiness at work your top priority. It will make work more fun, it will make you happier in life, and it will make you more successful.

Blogger Arnie Herz noted these articles, and applied these principles to lawyers in his posting, "The ongoing inquiry into lawyer happiness" (01/24/08), which contained many useful links.

As Sue Shellenbarger (pdf) writes in an article on Lawyers Opening Up About Depression, studies have found that about “19% of lawyers suffer depression at any given time, compared with 6.7% of the population as a whole.”

While some might question the exact correlation between career stresses and depression, it seems that it’s well accepted that the “practice of law, with constant conflict and billing pressures, can take a toll.” * * *

The basic orientation or mindset of lawyers itself can present a problem, according to Martin E. P. Seligman, Ph.D., Professor of Psychology at the University of Pennsylvania, Director of the Positive Psychology Network, and a former President of the American Psychological Association, who wrote an article, "Why Are Lawyers So Unhappy?"

He wrote that "Positive Psychology sees three principal causes of the demoralization among lawyers."

• First is pessimism, defined not in the colloquial sense (seeing the glass as half empty) but rather as the pessimistic explanatory style. * * *

• A second psychological factor that demoralizes lawyers, particularly junior ones, is low decision latitude in high-stress situations. Decision latitude refers to the number of choices one has – or, as it turns out, the choices one believes one has – on the job. * * *

• The deepest of all the psychological factors making lawyers unhappy is that American law is becoming increasingly a win-loss game. * * * American law has similarly migrated from being a practice in which good counsel about justice and fairness was the primary good to being a big business in which billable hours, take-no-prisoners victories, and the bottom line are now the principle ends. * * * [Emphasis added.]
  

In his authored handout for the second presentation, entitled "Even Happiness Isn't Enough -- The Key to Professional Felicity", Mr. Donato returns to the professional oath that each attorney swore upon bar admission for guidance in practice by individuals.

The presentations will begin at 3:00 pm and last until 5:00 pm at the Crowne Plaza Hotel, at 23 South Second Street, Harrisburg, PA.

The Goldberg Lecture Series in Law was established in 2000 in memory of Harrisburg lawyers Arthur L. Goldberg and Harry B. Goldberg. The annual presentation is sponsored by the Dauphin County Bar Foundation, with the assistance of the Dauphin County Bar Association, 213 North Front Street, Harrisburg, PA 17101. The law firm Goldberg Katzman, P.C. also supports the Goldberg Lecture Series.

Past annual presentations have featured topics of: effective trial court advocacy (2001); wrongful imprisonment (2002); presentation of the complex civil case (2003); the USA Patriot Act (2004); the role of an independent judiciary (2005); practical alternative dispute resolution (2006), and roles & functions of the Pennsylvania Attorney General's Office (2007).

Pursuant to Pennsylvania's Mandatory Continuing Legal Education Rules for Lawyers, this program will provide two hours of substantive credit for all participants who attend the entire session. Attendees for the second hour of presentations will receive "ethics" CLE credit. There will be no fee for the session.

To make an attendance reservation, click the graphic above for contact information.

Update: 10/15/08:

For another view about the happiness of lawyers in practice, see: "Va. Law’s Class of 1990: Happy in their Careers, but Less So in BigLaw" (10/15/08) posted on the American Bar Association Journal's Law News Now by Debra Cassens Weiss:

Reports of unhappy lawyers tell of problems with depression, alcoholism, divorce and suicide. But the reports appear to be exaggerated, if the Virginia School of Law’s 1990 graduating class is any guide.

A study finds the group is largely contented with their careers and their lives, albeit less so if they work for big law firms. The study (PDF) found 81 percent of grads responding to a 2007 survey were satisfied with their decision to become a lawyer, and 86 percent were satisfied with their lives more broadly.

Both men and women reported similar levels of satisfaction. * * *

Juveniles Can Aid Elders Through Courts

On October 11, 2008, the Patriot-News (Harrisburg, PA) published an article entitled "Juvenile offenders' community service helps senior citizens" by Matt Miller, who reported about "the free help the teens in the community service program of Cumberland County's juvenile probation office were providing" to senior citizens.

Supervised personal services provided directly to senior citizens who have needs, by juvenile offenders ordered into a community service program, continues an evolutionary approach seeking a "win-win" solution to rehabilitation.

On October 31, 2006, a Press Release entitled "Governor Rendell Praises Changes in Juvenile Justice System" had celebrated the tenth anniversary of a reorientation in Pennsylvania's criminal justice system that instead "places priority on repairing harm done to victims" rather than punishment, as to juvenile offenders.

The face of juvenile justice is changing in Pennsylvania, Governor Edward G. Rendell said.

Today, other states are following the commonwealth’s lead as young offenders are paying restitution to victims and contributing hundreds of thousands of hours of community service in a system that is as concerned about victims as it about rehabilitating the young who have committed a crime, the Governor added.

“For the first time in history, the juvenile system places balanced attention on community protection, redeeming youth and restoring victims,” Governor Rendell said. “It is a system no longer shrouded in secrecy.” * * *

That reorientation was proposed in 1996 by the Pennsylvania Juvenile Court Judges' Commission, a committed group created by the Legislature in 1959 that remains active in devising, monitoring, and expanding affirmative programs to rehabilitate juvenile offenders.

The old system, while well-meaning, focused primarily on the offender’s supervision and rehabilitation. Victims were mostly observers, not participants.

The Juvenile Court Judges’ Commission, which proposed the changes and played a pivotal role in their passage, has worked with juvenile court judges, juvenile probation officers, prosecutors, defense attorneys and victim advocates to help them understand and carry out the new mission of the juvenile system.

It has been an evolving process. * * *

A subsequent Press Statement, dated February, 2007, entitled "Juvenile offenders and communities across the state benefit from innovative community service programs", highlighted how, "[a]s part of their rehabilitation program, juvenile offenders have the opportunity to use their skills and talents to help their community."

Every county in the state gives youth offenders the opportunity to work in their community on different projects, such as building houses for Habitat for Humanity, planting trees at a local park, or helping at a local food bank.

Community service, which is part of their rehabilitation, helps juvenile offenders by making them feel proud of the work they are doing and the community in which they live. For example, in Dauphin County, juvenile offenders helped build a new park in their community; in Berks County, teen offenders helped to plant flowers and vegetables at a local park.

Not only do youth find community service rewarding, but local authorities and community members are also seeing the difference this program is making in the lives of teenagers. * * *

JCJC remains at the forefront of this rehabilitative movement that required juvenile offenders to perform helpful services and offers a positive community experience.

For example, its "2008 Conference on Juvenile Justice", as co-sponsored by the Pennsylvania Council of Chief Juvenile Probation Officers and the Juvenile Court Section of the Pennsylvania Conference of State Trial Judges, will present discussions consistent with the theme "Competency and Career Development for Delinquent Youth: Creating New Expectations" on November 5-7 (Wed-Fri), 2008, in Harrisburg, PA.

The general nature of community service by juvenile offenders is well-explained in a description posted on the Franklin County (PA) website for its program, established in 1992:

Community Service is an integral part of the juvenile dispositions and most juveniles referred to this office are assigned community service as a condition of their probation supervision.

All community service projects are done at locations that benefit the community and/or nonprofit agencies. Community service youth participate in the Adopt-A-Highway program, community clean-up days, and help maintain County owned property.

Additionally, the community service youth work at local fire departments, police departments, hospitals, schools, soup kitchens, and animal shelters. * * *

See also: Westmoreland County, PA's "Community Service Work Program" and its six listed examples of work sites.

The guidelines for such programs, to be followed by trial judges and juvenile probation departments, are set forth in JCJC's "Standards Governing the Assignment of Community Service in Juvenile Delinquency Cases", found in 37 PA. Code, Ch. 200, published 06/02/07 at 37 Pa.B. 2517.

However, in searching the excellent website of the JCJC under the terms "senior", "elder", "aged", "retired", and "older", I find no references whatsoever to that class of individuals. One could conclude that no such programs or studies link the service of juvenile offenders to the needs of individual senior citizens.

So that is why the recent news article attracted my attention. It reported how, in Cumberland County, PA, juvenile offenders are assigned, as their community service requirement, to assist elderly residents in meeting their pressing personal needs.

Maylie McGlaughlin stood on the porch of her Camp Hill home and watched a bunch of one-time troublemakers tidy up her yard.

The 85-year-old widow was grateful for the free help the teens in the community service program of Cumberland County's juvenile probation office were providing.

Health problems prevent her from doing the chores herself, she said. "Just vacuuming the floor is exhausting for me," McGlaughlin said. "These kids have done my yard work. They took out my air conditioner. In the winter they've shoveled snow for me. "They're all so willing, and they're polite," she said.

They're sweating to atone for past misdeeds.* * *

So, it can be done; and such community services should be expanded to benefit senior citizens.

I suggest that the Pennsylvania Department of Aging work with the JCJC to devise programs that would benefit senior centers, and also individual homebound senior citizens, which would teach the youth about caregiving at a basic level.

With proper supervision, such programs could further expand JCJC's mission, and also fill a growing need in this Commonwealth.

I further suggest that each participant should be required to watch "The Ultimate Gift" movie to peek at the lifelong benefits that could be realized by the youths while interacting with the seniors.

"Any process you are going through will get tougher before it gets easier.
That's what makes learning a gift. Even though pain is your teacher."

-- Character Red Stevens in The Ultimate Gift

Senior Services Vetted & Arrayed

On October 2, 2008, a Press Release entitled "SeniorChecked Tackles Crimes Against Seniors With New Technology", as posted on MarketWatch, announced SeniorChecked, a new commercial service based in Bethesda, Maryland, to be provided initially in the Washington, D.C. area.

It is "designed to take the guesswork out of selecting a trustworthy service provider for vulnerable seniors."

The Web-based tool provides independent and unbiased third party review of companies and employees who serve senior citizens in their homes in order to combat the rise in elder abuse, financial exploitation and crimes against seniors.

See the same Press Release as posted on PRWeb.

This new online service promotes itself as a means "to combat the rise in elder abuse, financial exploitation and crimes against seniors * * * [that] takes in about $100 billion a year." However, the service more resembles a business rating system supported by fees from the rated providers.

The service aims to vet and verify businesses that serve senior citizens, and then post the reviews or ratings publicly on its website.

Companies voluntarily submit applications to be SeniorChecked and are required to have employees with senior contact undergo thorough local and national background checks.

Companies are reviewed in four areas: Licensing, Insurance/Crime bond, Financial, and Criminal/Lawsuits. * * *

Reports about providers will be free for consumers to access online, but the listed providers bearing a rating must pay an annual fee.

This is not the only service of its kind; and we can expect more.

CaregiverList, another private service, promotes the Caregiverlist’s Standards of Quality for Senior Home Care Agencies, which are based upon a "Senior Home Care Agency Checklist":

There are no national licensure requirements for non-medical Senior Home Care Agencies.

Caregiverlist requires participating Senior Home Care Agencies to meet a Checklist of standards which industry professionals view as necessary requirements for safety and consistency in care [which include:]

• Business license and necessary state licensure (if required by the state where the agency is located)
• Caregivers are “Employees” (this means the Agency is responsible for paying all employee payroll taxes, as required by law: Unemployment Insurance tax, Social Security tax, Medicare tax and State and Federal with-holdings)
• Worker’s Compensation Insurance
• Professional Liability Insurance
• Fidelity Bond Insurance (this is sometimes referred to as “theft” insurance)
• Active Management of the Caregiver through a direct Supervisor or Manager
• Plan of Care
• Criminal Background Check performed on all Employees
• Training for Caregivers
• 24-Hour On-Call Service
• Satisfactory Caregiverlist Survey Results

Another private online service is CareGrade, which offers users an opportunity to "[f]ind unbiased information on Home Health Care, Assisted Living, Care Managers and more. . ." operating in each state, including Pennsylvania.

Specifically the senior providers graded by this service include:

• Home Health Care
• Hospice
• Assisted Living
• Medical Equipment
• Adult Day Care
• Elder Law Attorney
• Care Manager
• Scooters
• Nursing Home
• Physical Therapy & Rehabilitation
• Emergency Response System

In Pennsylvania, a more localized service began operation in January, 2008 under the name TodaysSeniorResource, according to an article in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette entitled "Web site a source for senior citizens" (03/19/08) by Virginia Linn.

[A] new Web site -- TodaysSeniorResource.com -- went online to provide an independent, one-stop shop for information for seniors -- whether it's looking for special transportation or how to create a living will or the availability of $40 coupons to help pay for converter boxes for their TVs when analog signals switch to digital early next year.

Ms. [Cheryl] Nemanic of Plum [, PA] said it took her about a year to pull all the information together, which covers senior and caregiver resources in Allegheny, Beaver, Butler, Westmoreland and Washington counties. * * *

Although there are other Web sites in the region that provide information for seniors, most are run by specific companies or programs that focus on their own services. * * *

This Western Pennsylvania website does not provide screening or rating of vendors or providers, and listing is open to all senior-related services.

Businesses or programs have the option of paying a fee to get a more prominent listing on the site, but the aim is to simply help cover the cost of operating the site, not to tarnish the site's integrity.

"Hopefully, it will not take away from the fact that everybody is or can be listed," she said. * * *

It is good that such online services increasingly provide information targeted to the needs of seniors. Data is the base of the pyramid that leads ultimately to action.

However, in this sensitive area of senior services, more than one reference source should be consulted to assemble an accurate, unbiased, current portrayal of a provider's character and capabilities.

CMS Empowers "Personal Assistant Services" in Medicaid

On September 29, 2008, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services issued a Press Release entitled "CMS Issues Final Rule to Empower Medicaid Beneficiaries to Direct Personal Assistance Services."

The final rule, published on October 3, 2008, provides guidance to states that want to administer self-directed personal assistance services through individual State Plans, as described in the Press Release:

A final rule that would allow more Medicaid beneficiaries to be in charge of their own personal assistance services, including personal care services, instead of having those services directed by an agency, was announced today by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS).

The rule, on display today [09/29/08] at the Federal Register, guides states who wish to allow Medicaid beneficiaries who need help with the activities of daily living to hire, direct, train or fire their own personal care workers. Beneficiaries could even hire qualified family members who may already be familiar with the individual’s needs to perform personal assistance (not medical) services. * * *

The referenced final rule was published in the Federal Register on October 3, 2008 (Vol. 73, No. 193, pp. 57853-57886). See: Medicaid Program; Self-Directed Personal Assistance Services Program State Plan Option (Cash and Counseling); Final Rule.

The press release quoted Kerry Weems, CMS acting administrator: “As health care is not simply an economic transaction, this plan represents a fundamental shift that restores a person’s ability to improve their overall health by taking greater control of his or her own decisions.”

The Press Release announced the possibilities for "self-directed personal assistance services" funded by Medicaid if a state would opt to join that program for its qualifying recipients:

If a state adopts a self-directed personal assistance services state plan option, beneficiaries could receive a cash allowance to hire their own workers to help with such activities as bathing, preparing meals, household chores and other related services that help a person to live independently. Allotments could also be used to purchase items that help foster independence such as a wheelchair ramp or microwave oven. The beneficiaries also have the option to have their cash benefit allotment managed for them.

The rule would put into place a provision of the Deficit Reduction Act of 2005 that allows states to elect a state plan option to provide care in ways that previously required waivers of existing Medicaid laws. Such waivers are subject to certain budgetary requirements and are temporary in nature. * * *

What would be required from a state opting into this program?

Before a state could request this change to its state plan, it must have an existing personal care services benefit, or be operating a home or community-based services waiver program.

Enrollment in this new state plan option is voluntary and the state must also provide traditional agency-delivered services if the beneficiary wishes to discontinue self-directed care.

States choosing this option must have necessary quality assurances and other safeguards in place to assure the health and welfare of participants. States must also furnish sufficient information, training, counseling and assistance to participants in order to help them effectively manage their budgets and their personal assistance services. * * *

Will Pennsylvania opt in? That will be up to the Pennsylvania Department of Public Welfare in its State Plan submission to CMS. DPW has been receptive to development of such innovative, cost-saving programs in the past few years. See: Workshop Presentation, Medicaid Rehab Option (2005, 68 slides).

The CMS rule on self-directed personal assistance services will become effective on November 3, 2008.

"General" Tom Corbett at Harrisburg Rotary

Pennsylvania's Attorney General, Tom Corbett, spoke on Monday, October 6, 2008, at the Rotary Club of Harrisburg regarding the mission of the PA Attorney General's Office, the breadth of its jurisdiction & operations, some recent enforcement actions, and longer-term challenges he perceives for Pennsylvania.

He spoke not only as the present, previously-appointed Attorney General (known by the approximate 200 attorneys in that office simply as "The General"), but also as a candidate for election to that office in the November, 2008 general election.

One of his two opponents for that office, John Morganelli, candidate for PA Attorney General, will speak to that same Rotary Club on Monday, October 27, 2008, at noon. For information regarding the three contenders, see the PA Attorney General Voter Information webpage maintained by the Pennsylvania League of Women Voters.

As a Rotarian, I delivered the invocation for the meeting, and then sat next to Tom Corbett as he spoke. (I took the photo above from my seat.)

Mr. Corbett spoke from prepared remarks, and then answered questions from Rotarians. He outlined the expansive duties & operations of the PA AG's Office, one of 57 such chief governmental legal offices in the country, in both states and U.S. territories. I was impressed by his presence, his knowledge, his candor, his discretion, and his perceptions about future challenges to the citizens of this Commonwealth.

Before the meeting began, I complimented him on the PA Attorney General's website, which has won awards. The PA AG's website, with its email feed, regular news updates, creative presentations, and thoughtful organization of information, other online resources, and interactive fill-in forms, remains a model online presentation of complex information.

I wondered how he locked down the domain name, "attorneygeneral.gov", which is simple & generic. Likely it would be a much sought-after web address, I thought.

"My son reserved that in 2006," he responded with a smile.

"Good foresight," I replied.

Tom Corbet had good foresight, too (also in 2006), in creating the PA AG's Elder Abuse Task Force, and then in creating a Senior Crime Prevention University, both of which he mentioned in his remarks to the Rotarians.

Press releases posted on that website highlight recent activities of the AG's Office in matters that affect Pennsylvania's senior population:

• October 6, 2008 -- "Attorney General Corbett warns consumers about recent surge in 'easy money' lottery, sweepstakes and work-at-home scams" -- "Attorney General Tom Corbett is warning Pennsylvania consumers to be wary of various financial scams, including bogus international lottery and sweepstakes prizes, along with deceptive work-at-home and job-related schemes." * * *

• October 3, 2008 -- "Attorney General Corbett announces settlement in "Black & Gold Bash" charities case; nearly $270,000 to fund full consumer refunds" -- "Attorney General Tom Corbett today announced a consumer settlement that will pay nearly $270,000 to more than 2,100 southwestern Pennsylvania consumers who purchased raffle tickets to the "Black and Gold Bash," a 2006 Pittsburgh area event that was supposed to benefit a cancer charity." * * *

• September 16, 2008 -- "Consumer Advisory: Attorney General Corbett cautions Pittsburgh area seniors about telephone scam involving bogus pleas to help family members" -- Attorney General Tom Corbett warned Pennsylvania consumers to be wary of a new type of aggressive financial scam involving scam artists who pretend to be family members supposedly involved in a traffic accident in Canada." * * *

• Sept. 11, 2008 -- "Attorney General Corbett announces $2.3 million consumer protection judgment in Pittsburgh area real estate and mortgage fraud case" -- "Attorney General Tom Corbett today announced a court-ordered judgment totaling more than $2.3 million in a consumer protection lawsuit that was filed against a Pittsburgh area man accused of orchestrating a multi-million dollar mortgage and real estate scheme in Allegheny, Beaver and Butler counties." * * *

• September 9, 2008 -- "Attorney General Corbett announces arrest of Lehigh County insurance agent in $676,000 senior financial fraud case" -- "Attorney General Tom Corbett today announced that agents from the Attorney General's Insurance Fraud Section and Elder Abuse Unit have arrested a Lehigh County insurance agent accused of stealing more than $676,000 from senior victims stretching across eastern and central Pennsylvania." * * *

This is an important elected office in Pennsylvania. The holder commands great power while exercising proscribed duties that affect every Pennsylvanian.

Selection of the PA AG should be taken seriously by voters. To foster a knowledgeable examination, the candidates will debate soon, according to "Pa. attorney general candidates set debate dates" (09/22/2008) posted by Penn Live:

The major-party candidates for Pennsylvania attorney general have agreed to a pair of televised debates in the days leading up to the Nov. 4 election, they said Monday.

The plan for back-to-back debates that will be aired on Nov. 2 and Nov. 3 was confirmed by incumbent Republican Tom Corbett's campaign and Democratic challenger John Morganelli, the Northampton County district attorney.

Both debates will be taped in late October.

The first debate, sponsored by the Pennsylvania League of Women Voters, will be held in the studios of WPVI-TV in Philadelphia. The second debate will be at the studios of WFMZ-TV in Allentown.

Libertarian Party candidate Marakay Rogers, a York lawyer, said she intends to take part in the Philadelphia debate but that she had no information about the Allentown debate.

Need it be said? Vote on Tuesday, November 4, 2008.

Update: 11/05/08:

On November 4, 2008, Tom Corbett won re-election as Pennsylvania's Attorney General, according to an Associated Press article posted by the Pennsylvania Law Weekly entitled "Corbett wins re-election as Pa. attorney general" (11/05/08).

Pennsylvania Attorney General Tom Corbett held off a challenger to return as the state's top law enforcement officer * * *.

Corbett, a Republican, built his first-term record around an ongoing investigation into alleged corruption in the state General Assembly and vigorous prosecution of Internet sex predators, drug dealers and scam artists who prey on senior citizens.

"It was validation that this is what (voters) wanted us to do, validation that they believe in us," Corbett said. "Republicans and Democrats and Independents voted for that."

Northampton County District Attorney John Morganelli was unable to break through and become the first Democrat in state history to win election as attorney general even though he was helped by a wave of new Democratic voter registrations.

With 99 percent of precincts reporting, Corbett had 52 percent of the vote and Morganelli 46 percent.* * *

Corbett, 59, is a former federal prosecutor for western Pennsylvania who is often mentioned as one of the GOP's best potential candidates for governor in the 2010 election.

He said he will answer the question of a possible gubernatorial candidacy "somewhere down the road," noting that he still has work to do on the legislative corruption investigation which, he said, will yield more arrests. * * *

As to Corbett's focus on financial elder abuse, an article published in the Patriot News (Harrisburg, PA), entitled "Corbett will focus on bonus investigation, gun control" (11/07/08) by Charles Thompson, noted:

Corbett also said he wants to expand consumer education efforts to help protect senior citizens and others from scam artists.

He said scams could be more common as the economy slows. * * *