Last summer, Gov. Ed Rendell held state workers, daycare centers and others hostage in his budget battle with state lawmakers.

Earlier this past week, Rendell was holding money back from the University of Pittsburgh and other state-related schools until the Legislature passed a table games bill. But after learning that his actions would threaten federal funding to Pitt and the other schools, Rendell relented and released the funding. At the same time, however, he used his line-item veto to cut by 50 percent funding to the Children's Institute of Pittsburgh, the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia and a few other facilities.

On Friday, Rendell announced that he would lay off 1,000 state workers if the Legislature fails to pass a table games bill by Jan. 8.

Pennsylvanians are growing tired of both Rendell's threats and the still-unfinished budget battle.

Granted, this year's budget was extraordinarily challenging, given the impact of the national recession on state tax revenues here and elsewhere. But every other state in the nation finished its equally difficult budget negotiations before officials in Harrisburg.

And now, just a few months before work should begin for the 2010-11 budget, Rendell is making threats and state lawmakers are fighting over details of a bill to add table games to the state's casinos.

The governor and state lawmakers could hardly be less popular with the public. But it looks as though they are determined to set a new record low.

Howard Dean, former Democratic presidential candidate and chairman of the Democratic Party, has added his voice to those who say the ongoing health care debate has produced a deeply flawed bill that is a giveaway to corporate interests. Dean, a physician and former Vermont governor, says Senate Democrats should scrap the current bill and start over.Referring to the budget-busting costs associated with the lastest reform plan, Dean calls Senate Democrats' version of health care reform "a political disaster for Democrats — a ticking time bomb for years to come."The mandate forcing people to buy insurance from private companies is a bad idea says Dean, who views it as a "trillion-dollar giveaway to insurance companies."Dean warns "the American taxpayer is about to be fleeced in a situation that dwarfs even what happened at AIG."

With trends in medicine favoring outpatient clinics, Monday's opening of a new clinic by the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs is a smart move for the VA and for the 3,000 patients it is expected to serve in the Cranberry area.The 4,000-square-foot clinic in the Freedom Square shopping plaza is intended to be a "one-stop shop" for veterans health care, according to Dr. Ray Lanier, president of Valor Healthcare, which is operating the clinic under a contract with Department of Veterans Affairs.Valor runs 19 similar clinics for the VA in nine states.The new Cranberry clinic will offer veterans X-rays, laboratory work, primary care and behavioral health services.As Dick Hadley, chairman of the township supevisors, correctly noted "Keeping our veterans healthy is one way to help us repay our debt to them."

Too often, vandalism and thefts at cemeteries go unsolved and unpunished. But it's a different story for Pinewood Memorial Gardens, on Route 19 in Cranberry Township, where 36 bronze vases worth $9,000 were stolen in late October.The altertness and honesty of a Pittsburgh scrap dealer resulted in 33-year-old Christopher Russo, of Cranberry Twp., facing multiple criminal charges in connection with the theft.When the bronze vases, worth $250 each, were reported stolen, police notified area scrap dealers. Russo reportedly approached a scrap dealer in Pittsburgh's Strip District, saying he bought the vases at a "cemetery flea market."Properly suspicious, the scrap dealer asked a few more questions, refused the buy the vases, and then contacted police.Russo, who admitted to stealing the vases, told police he had used heroin in the past and more recently had a prescription for methadone.Cranberry police and the scrap dealer deserve credit for solving this crime. Any theft is troubling, but it's especially bothersome when the victim is a cemetery, a place deserving an extra measure of respect.