Page 12 The Public Record • October 13, 2011
Denny O’Brien: A House Favorite! (Cont. From Page 6) years, he has proposed a number of bills requiring mandatory school and health care funding for patients. In addition, he worked with Gov. Ed Rendell to organize a Bureau of Autism Services within the State’s Office of Developmental Programs. O’Brien became the Speaker of the House following deals between Republicans and Democrats.
Despite a one-seat Democratic majority, the Democratic leader, Bill DeWeese, was unable to gather the votes necessary to win back the Speakership due to some dissatisfaction within his own caucus because of his handling of matters as leader, and notably due to the decision by one member in his caucus to vote for John Perzel, the incumbent Speaker. DeWeese nominated
O’Brien, in a surprise move. O’Brien went on to defeat Perzel 105-97. O’Brien was the first minority-party Speaker in the Pennsylvania House of Representatives. O’Brien defeated what was described as an “underground write-in campaign” in the 2008 Democratic primary election. With no Democrat on the ballot, a write-in candidate emerged in an attempt to secure a position on the
November ballot as a Democrat. O’Brien organized his own campaign and defeated his opponent 1,372-416 meaning that O’Brien was listed on both parties’ ballots in the general election. Upon the election of 2008, the Democrats saw the opportunity to put their own in the Speaker’s office. State Rep. Keith McCall of Carbon Co. was elected Speaker with O’Brien opting out of the
race. He was named the minority chairman of the House Committee on Children & Youth. In addition to those responsibilities, O’Brien is working with the Dept. of Public Welfare to ensure implementation of Act 62 (mandating autism insurance in Pennsylvania), which he wrote and passed while he was the Speaker. O’Brien easily went back to his old role as a behind-the-scenes player in the Pennsylvania General Assembly, where he continues his representation of the 169th Dist. O’Brien announced his intention to run for one of the minority seats on Philadel-
phia’s City Council in 2011. He, attorney David Oh and incumbent Frank Rizzo were considered the clear favorites among the Republican contenders. On May 17, 2011, in spite of not being supported by any of the party organizations, O’Brien won one of the five GOP nominations for the City Council’s at-Large seats, with 17.32% of the vote. Oh won 18.50% of the vote, good for first among the field of candidates, while Rizzo was soundly defeated, coming in seventh out of nine candidates running — a result some have attributed to his involvement in DROP, the Deferred Retirement Option Plan.
Untermeyer: Calling For Common Sense UT O B A ASK ULL OUR F R A 30 YE TEE AN GUAR
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not the citizens of this city. “It’s just common sense.” Untermeyer believes he has the full support of the Republican Party in this city and looks to continue getting good responses from Democrat voters. “This is especially so,” he commented, “when I discuss ways to create jobs such as giving employers a 20% tax credit for every new job they create and for which they hire, with the credit going for two years.” He says it is a commonsense way to give “a jump start to the local economy.” He wants people to know he will earn the title of the one Council Member with common sense.
VA Breaches Personnel Files EMER GEN REPA CY I 24 HO RS UR A DAY S
12260 Townsend Road
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(Cont. From Page 6) City’s two airports and PGW. He intends to continue, if elected, the campaign he launched when running as DA: to return bail bondsmen. “Now the City is owed over a billion dollars forfeited by law violators who failed to show up for their court hearings. It’s easy to see why we are magnet for those with a criminal bent. If they get caught, they post only 10% of the bail set and,when they get out, continue on their crime spree or flee town.” He says bringing back the bail-bondsman system will place the onus of collecting bail on private individuals and
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Dan Sickman, one of Philadelphia's top veteran advocates reports the Science Applications International Corp. acknowledged a data breach involving personally identifiable and protected health information impacting an estimated 4.9 million military clinic and hospital patients. The information was contained on backup tapes from an electronic health care record used in the military health system to capture patient data from 1992 through Sep. 7,
2011, and may include Social Security numbers, addresses and phone numbers, and some personal health data such as clinical notes, laboratory tests and prescriptions. There are no financial data, such as credit card or bank account information, on the backup tapes. The risk of harm to patients is judged to be low despite the data involved, since retrieving the data on the tapes would require knowledge of, and access to, specific hardware and software.