Keystone Corruption: A Pennsylvania Insider's View of a State Gone Wrong. Questo articolo non è disponibile.Keystone Corruption: A Pennsylvania Insider's View of a State Gone Wrong

In the years 2007 through 2012, prosecutors have charged 37 public officials with ties to the Capitol with public corruption. These included ex-lawmakers, sitting legislators, legislative aides and a Supreme Court Justice. The common theme was using state money as if it were their own.Keystone Corruption: A Pennsylvania Insider's View of a State Gone Wrong traces the cyclical nature of political corruption in Pennsylvania over the last decade. The author, Brad Bumsted, had a front-row seat during the unprecedented scandals of 2007-2012 when he was a reporter at the Gannett News Service and the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review. In this intriguing saga of power and scandal, Bumsted profiles some of Pennsylvania's most famous political thieves with first-hand accounts, interviews, and public testimony.He watched the prosecutions of various lawmakers for the theft of $14 million in tax money, and he provides insightful analysis of cases involving Pennsylvania's most colorful characters, including Al Benedict, Ernie Preate, Frank Gigliotti, and the three Orie sisters — Jane, Janine and state Supreme Court Justice Joan Orie Melvin. The author also does not ignore the sometimes unfortunate consequences caused by such widespread political corruption. In one case, prosecutors went too far and wrongly charged a Republican staffer and ruined his life. There's no simple solution to stopping it. The crimes against the taxpayers will continue as long people turn their heads to abuse, legal graft and thievery.And the taxpayers keep losing.

Brad Bumsted is an award-winning Harrisburg reporter for the Pittsburgh-Tribune Review. He is the co-author, with William C. Costopoulos, of Murder Is the Charge: The True Story of Mayor Charlie Robertson and the York, Pennsylvania, Riots (2004). He lives with his wife, Gail, in New Cumberland