Newspaper: Legislative pickpockets strike again

The Pittsburgh Tribune-Review on revelations that Legislative staffers were granted hefty pay raises despite a salary freeze:

Think the recidivist pickpockets in Harrisburg learned their lesson with the pay-jacking of five years ago or the continuing investigation into allegations of legislative corruption?

Think again.

Two months before the state House Democratic Caucus enacted a salary freeze that supposedly began on Jan. 1, two staffers were given handsome raises.

Paul Parsells was given a raise of $18,642. He's the chief of staff to House Speaker Keith McCall, D-Carbon. That's a 14 percent increase, boosting his salary to $150,000.

And Reizdan Moore, the House parliamentarian, received a raise of $3,926. That boosted his salary to $158,470. Mr. Moore later played an integral role in denying The Patriot-News of Harrisburg, the newspaper that first reported the pay hikes, access to what clearly is public information.

Read the full editorial at the newspaper's Web site.