Former AG to head Allegheny courtsPITTSBURGH — Pennsylvania’s second-largest Common Pleas Court system has a new administrative boss.Former state attorney general and federal prosecutor Linda Kelly has been appointed to be Allegheny County’s district court administrator.Kelly spent 30 years in the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Pittsburgh including serving as First Assistant and acting U.S. Attorney on two occasions. She then served as state attorney general from 2011 to 2013, finishing the term of Tom Corbett after he was elected governor.Kelly will earn $140,000 annually. She was appointed by President Judge Jeffrey Manning.

Pa. agrees to settle federal lawsuitHARRISBURG — Pennsylvania is agreeing to settle a federal lawsuit accusing the state of violating the rights of mentally ill defendants by subjecting them to long waits in jail or restrictive hospital units.On Tuesday, the state Department of Human Services and plaintiffs’ lawyers said they’ll submit a proposed settlement to U.S. District Judge Sylvia Rambo. The settlement is to be submitted today, and neither side is making details public yet.The lawsuit, filed last October, says Pennsylvania’s year-plus wait times are the nation’s longest.It said the state subjects mentally ill defendants, including some accused of petty crimes, to long waits in jail before determining whether they can be rehabilitated to stand trial. It says others wait in restrictive state hospital units, sometimes for years, after they are deemed unable to stand trial.

Online video visits only bring in $14,000GREENSBURG — Online video visits with inmates at a Western Pennsylvania jail aren’t generating nearly as much revenue as county officials hoped.Westmoreland County generated about $14,000 from the visits last year — about $86,000 less than projected.The jail announced in 2014 it was paying $92,000 to have Renovo Software of Edina, Minn., install Web cameras and computers at the jail about 30 miles east of Pittsburgh. The service went fully online last year.The county is charging $15 per video visit, with nearly $13 of that going to the county’s general fund. But last year, the jail averaged just 89 video visits a month, though that number spiked to 139 in December, likely due to the holidays.Computer experts are trying to devise a mobile app to increase video visits.