PA in the WSJ

This is a list of articles regarding Pennsylvania in this week's Wall Street Journal. Chances are I missed something, but these are the articles that caught my eye.

It should be noted that I routinely do not read the editorials in the WSJ. So any discussions of the state, its elected officials, businesses, or citizens, in editorials will not be mentioned here.

PA Politicians

A mention the governor could probably do without, here is the opening of “What makes Norman Hsu run?” by Ianthe Jeanne Dugan, Jonathan Cheng, and Brody Mullins (9/08):

At a New York restaurant overlooking Central Park in April 2006, the governor of Pennsylvania sat down to dinner with about a dozen Democratic supporters. The 10-course meal in a private room at Per Se, including dishes like Nova Scotia Lobster Tail “Cuite Sous Vide,” cost about $18,000 says a diner who was there.

Later in the article it is noted that Hsu received an advanced degree from the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School in 1981.

PA Businesses

“At American Eagle, buyers outweigh the seller,” by Nicolas Brulliard focuses on the Pittsburgh-based company (9/05)

Brief mentions: PQ Corp of Valley Forge (9/04)

Other PA

Philadelphia and Houston are the cities highlighted in “New way to count listeners shakes up radio,” by Sarah McBride (9/06). One tidbit:

Another insights is the role that appealing to employed people – who tend to listen to a lot of radio while commuting or on the job – can play in boosting a station’s ratings. In Philadelphia and Houston, where men make up a majority of the work force, rock stations are ranked higher than they were using the diary system.

Jeffrey Zaslow writes an excellent article, “Avoiding kids: How men cope with being cast as predators,” on 9/06, has this paragraph:

The result of all this hyper-carefulness, however, is that men often feel like untouchables. In Cochranville, Pa., Ray Simpson, a bus driver, says that he used to have 30 kids stop at his house on Halloween. But after his divorce, with people knowing he was a man living alone, he had zero visitors. “I felt like crying at the end of the evening,” he says.

Also in the 9/06 issue, an article on Peter Jackson, “A Visit with Peter Jackson at Weta, his wonder factory,” by Joe Morgenstern mentions that this fall Jackson will be shooting The Lovely Bones in Pennsylvania.


Other Interesting Tidbits

From “GOP faces cloudy days ahead,” by Jackie Calmes (9/05) we find this paragraph:

The reasons include the Iraq war, conservatives’ emphasis on social issues such as gay marriage, abortion and stem-cell research, and a party-led backlash against illegal immigrants that has left many Hispanic and Asian-American citizens feeling unwelcome. The upshot is that Republicans face structural problems that stem from generational, demographic and societal changes and aren’t easily overcome without changing fundamental party positions.