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

He’s no longer in PA, but Darrell Jones, the county Guiliani chairperson in Greenville, S.C., once held elected office here. From “Social issues dog Guiliani,” by Michael M. Phillips (10/22)

Gov. Rendell’s attention to hospital acquired infections is not mentioned in “Putting superbugs on the defensive,” by Theo Francis (10/23) but the thought is. A few quotes:

Nineteen states have adopted laws in recent years requiring hospitals to report overall infection rates publicly, with more likely to follow suit. And on Thursday, nearly two dozen federal lawmakers, headed by Pennsylvania Rep. Tim Murphy, proposed legislation requiring nationwide public reporting.

So far, just four states have published infection rates for individual hospitals, and only one state, Pennsylvania, breaks out different types of infections.

Later

Pennsylvania provides multiple reports on different kinds of infections, and lets consumers look up infection-related mortality, length-of-stay and cost data for several kinds of infections. A web site from Consumers Union, www.stophospitalinfections.org, has links to reports from each state, including Florida, according to Lisa McGiffert, director of the Stop Hospital Infections Campaign.

Two other tidbits from the article are that the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center has cut the incidence of MSRA rates in half since 2001, and that the state still soon require hospitals to test high risk patients for MRSA.


PA Businesses

Brief mentions: Confluence Technologies, Inc. of Pittsburgh (10/22)
Black Box Corp. of Pittsburgh (10/24)
Penn Treaty American Corp of Allentown (10/24)

Other PA

Last week there was a series of stories on a potential scandal involving the food purchased for and provided to troops in the Middle East. According to “Kuwait firm tied to food suit,” by Glenn R. Simpson (10/22):

The lawsuit, filed in federal court in Philadelphia by an Iowa businesswoman, alleged collusion “to overcharge the U.S. government by millions of dollars.”

Jeannette South-Paul of the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine is quoted in “Treating diabetes and understanding culture,” (10/23)

One place we are not, and do not want to be, is in the list of states with the highest mortgage delinquency rates. “Lenders curb new mortgages in weaker areas,” by Ruth Simon (10/23) has a chart with the top 17 states and Pennsylvania is not on it. Yippee!

In related news, according to “With buyers sidelined, home prices slide,” by James R. Hagerty (10/25), Philadelphia is included in a chart of housing indicators in 28 major real-estate markets. Of those 28 markets, only 5 had lower loan payment overdue percentages. On the other hand, our employment outlook is listed as “weak.” The article mentions that condo developers are offering enticements to prospective buyers, such as paying their condo fees for a year.

Pennsylvania is one of the states listed as starting programs to teach girls relationship skills in “Fashion bullies attack – in middle school,” by Vanessa O’Connell (10/25)

From “Marketers use trickery to evade no-call lists,” by Jennifer Levitz and Kelly Greene (10/26), Pennsylvania is listed as one of the states whose attorneys general have taken legal action against such marketers, charging them with “falsely suggesting endorsements by the government or AARP.”

Other Interesting Tidbits

Nuttin’