Attorney General Corbett announces arrest of Allegheny & Beaver County pharmacists in $1 million prescription drug fraud case

By THE OFFICE OF ATTORNEY GENERAL TOM CORBETT

HARRISBURG — Attorney General Tom Corbett today announced that agents from the Attorney General’s Medicaid Fraud and Insurance Fraud Sections have filed criminal charges against two pharmacists accused of conspiring to fabricate insurance claims for nearly $1 million worth of prescription drugs that were never given to patients.

Corbett identified the defendants as William M. Sadowski, 43, 102 Schorr Drive, McKees Rocks, Allegheny County and Eric J.…

RUMOR MILL: Arlen Specter edition

WARNING: NOTHING YOU READ HERE HAS BEEN VETTED, FACT-CHECKED, OR IN ANY OTHER WAY RESPONSIBLY REPORTED. BUT PEOPLE ARE SAYING IT, SO IT MUST BE TRUE. RIGHT?

-Did you hear? Gov. Rendell extorted a spot on the Supreme Court for his wife in exchange for supporting Arlen Specter as a Democrat.

-Did you hear? Joe Torsella’s just been sitting in the race on behalf of Specter, keeping the primary field warm for him. He’s probably…

Everyone calm down (You too, Chris Matthews)

On Hardball tonight, Chris Matthews—remember, that guy who almost ran for Senate himself?—was talking about Arlen Specter’s switch to the Democrats, and for a moment, he seemed to be calling the race… 18 months before Election Day.

“Didn’t he just win reelection today?” Matthews asked Michael Smerconish.

Look, I know everyone’s been freaking out. Me, I haven’t stopped thinking about this since the second it broke.

But let’s get some perspective here. It’s fine to…

Biden’s relentless courtship of Specter

In Pennsylvania, Gov. Ed Rendell is getting all the credit for convincing Senator Arlen Specter to switch parties. But Vice President Joe Biden was so determined to turn the moderate Republican,

A primary preview? Sestak hits Specter

Congressman Joe Sestak (D-7) said Tuesday night he still hadn’t made up his mind about a Senate run. But in a series of attack lines about Arlen Specter, he offered a peek at the kind of message he could use against the newly-Democratic Senator in a primary.

In comments on MSNBC’s The Ed Show, he echoed the criticism that Specter was choosing political opportunism over principle. But he also sought to blame Specter for the…

Sanchez to DeMint: ‘What the hell does that mean?’

The phrase “deeply disappointing” has been peppered throughout many of the Republican statements about Arlen Specter’s defection. But many other Republicans still seem in denial that this could be anything but bad for the party’s appeal in the long term.

CNN’s Rick Sanchez had one of the deniers on earlier in U.S. Senator Jim DeMint (R-S.C.). When DeMint denied that Specter’s departure shows the GOP tent shrinking—”the biggest tent of all is the tent of…

Specter the survivor had no choice

Arlen Specter’s decision to switch to the Democratic Party caught official Washington by surprise today. To me, the timing was a surprise, but not the decision.

Specter really had no option— not if he wanted to continue serving in the U.S. Senate. He approval rating among Republican voters was at an all-time low. In former Congressman Pat Toomey, he faced a formidable conservative opponent. If he ran in 2010 as a Republican, the odds were…

A Specter of news: A daily round-up

What a day. In case you missed anything, pa2010.com compiles the biggest news of the day.

pa href="http://www.pa2010.com/2009/04/dem-party-chairman-to-specter-welcome/" onclick="javascript:_gaq.push(['_trackEvent','outbound-article','http://www.pa2010.com']);return TrackClick("http%3A%2F%2Fwww.pa2010.com%2F2009%2F04%2Fdem-party-chairman-to-specter-welcome%2F','Dem+party+chairman+welcomes+Specter')" target="_blank"Dem party chairman welcomes Specter/a/p
pa href="http://www.pa2010.com/2009/04/shaprio-out-of-senate-race/" onclick="javascript:_gaq.push(['_trackEvent','outbound-article','http://www.pa2010.com']);return TrackClick("http%3A%2F%2Fwww.pa2010.com%2F2009%2F04%2Fshaprio-out-of-senate-race%2F','Shapiro+out+of+Senate+race')" target="_blank">Shapiro out of Senate race

pa href="http://www.pa2010.com/2009/04/specter-blames-club-for-growth-for-gops-demise-says-there-should-be-a-party-rebellion/" onclick="javascript:_gaq.push(['_trackEvent','outbound-article','http://www.pa2010.com']);return TrackClick("http%3A%2F%2Fwww.pa2010.com%2F2009%2F04%2Fspecter-blames-club-for-growth-for-gops-demise-says-there-should-be-a-party-rebellion%2F','Specter+blames+Club+for+Growth+for+GOP%22s+demise')" target="_blank"Specter blames Club for Growth for GOP’s demise/a/p
pa href="http://www.pa2010.com/2009/04/torsella-nothing-changes/" onclick="javascript:_gaq.push(['_trackEvent','outbound-article','http://www.pa2010.com']);return TrackClick("http%3A%2F%2Fwww.pa2010.com%2F2009%2F04%2Ftorsella-nothing-changes%2F','Torsella%3A+Nothing+changes')" target="_blank">Torsella: Nothing changes

pa href="http://www.pa2010.com/2009/04/specter-im-not-pure-enough-for-them/" onclick="javascript:_gaq.push(['_trackEvent','outbound-article','http://www.pa2010.com']);return TrackClick("http%3A%2F%2Fwww.pa2010.com%2F2009%2F04%2Fspecter-im-not-pure-enough-for-them%2F','Specter%3A+I%22m+not+pure+enough+for+them')" target="_blank"Specter: I’m not pure enough for them/a/p
pa href="http://www.pa2010.com/2009/04/the-top-5-questions-raised-by-specters-decision/" onclick="javascript:_gaq.push(['_trackEvent','outbound-article','http://www.pa2010.com']);return TrackClick("http%3A%2F%2Fwww.pa2010.com%2F2009%2F04%2Fthe-top-5-questions-raised-by-specters-decision%2F','The+Top-5+questions+raised+by+Specter%22s+decision')" target="_blank">The Top-5 questions raised by Specter’s decision

Oxman downplays importance of Rendell’s support

Neil Oxman, the longtime political strategist who has been close to Gov. Ed Rendell for years, is now in the awkward position of having to say that his old boss actually doesn’t matter much.

Oxman is working for Democrat Joe Torsella, who now has to face newly-Democratic Senator Arlen Specter in next year’s primary. Torsella had been seen as Rendell’s favored candidate, but now most assume he’ll back Specter.

In an interview with Politico, Oxman…

The top-5 questions raised by Specter’s decision

Senator Arlen Specter’s surprising decision to run for reelection next year as a Democrat has shifted the political landscape dramatically, from the top of ballots to the botton.

pa2010.com poses five questions that his decision brings up. In the coming weeks, we hope to answer them in full.

1. Will Gov. Ed Rendell and the Democrats clear the primary field for Specter.

In just the first few hours after Specter made his announcement, this question…