The Community Development Corporation of Butler County has been successful over the years by adjusting to changing conditions and by being aggressive in working to achieve its goals.

More evidence of those positive traits was apparent during the CDC's end-of-year mixer on Nov. 14. At that event, the private, nonprofit economic development organization unveiled the main goals contained in its 2012-14 strategic plan. It also previewed its new website, www.butlercountycdc.com, which is scheduled to be up and running by December.

“Economic development is changing, and it's changing rapidly,” said CDC executive director Ken Raybuck during the mixer.

He stressed that the CDC must look beyond land and buildings as a means for better partnering with businesses.

A couple of the main objectives in the new plan are to recruit new companies by identifying emerging industries and growth opportunities and help identify and support existing businesses' needs.

The CDC has achieved many successes over the past decade and a half. The mixer offered proof that it is poised to achieve more, despite the uncertain Western Pennsylvania and national economies.

Everyone concerned about the course of economic development in this county should feel a sense of optimism in the CDC's determination to build upon what it already has been able to accomplish.

State College District Judge Leslie A. Dutchcot should have recused herself immediately from the case of former Penn State assistant football coach Jerry Sandusky, who is charged with sexually abusing a number of young boys.After all, Dutchcot and her husband donated between $500 and $999 to the charity founded by Sandusky for at-risk children, The Second Mile, which, along with the former coach, is at the center of the sex-abuse allegations.In addition, the district judge has been a volunteer for the Second Mile, according to annual reports and her website, prior to that entry having been removed from the website.Considering what smacks as conflict of interest, Dutchcot was wrong in arraigning Sandusky. More eye-opening is the fact that she then set bail at $100,000 unsecured, meaning that he did not have to post collateral to be freed.In a show of more-responsible judgment, the Administrative Office of Pennsylvania Courts announced assignment of a new judge to preside over Sandusky's preliminary hearing on 40 criminal counts on Dec. 7. He is Senior District Judge Robert E. Scott of Westmoreland County.Responsible public officials abstain from voting on any issues with which they have any ties, even ties that are remote. Dutchcot's donation and other ties with The Second Mile dictated that she should have severed herself from any contact with the Sandusky case.The Administrative Office of Pennsylvania Courts should examine closely her decision not to immediately recuse herself — and also should consider possible punishment.The sex-abuse case is bad enough without the judiciary raising questions about its motivations for not being tougher on Sandusky from the get-go.

Failed solar panel maker Solyndra hase been in the news recently because of the $535 million in Energy Department loan guarantees it received — and its recent bankruptcy. The scandal has been politicized, with Republicans blasting the Obama administration for poor oversight of the loan program. It's also been revealed that a key investor in Solyndra was also a major campaign fundraiser for Obama.There's more disturbing news about Solyndra, and again it appears to involve politics. Republican investigators in Congress have released e-mails revealing that Solyndra was prepared to announce its closure and bankruptcy in late October of 2010, but was asked by White House officials to delay that announcement until early November, after the election.The earlier scandal about the federal government picking winners and losers within an industry is a legitimate concern. Finding that a key investor was also a big campaign contributor is also disturbing.The latest revelation, that the timing of the sure-to-be-controversial announcement of bankruptcy was delayed, at the request of the White House, until after an election, will keep the scandal alive.Government support for clean energy is already controversial with many people. Evidence that it's also political will damage efforts to promote renewable energy in the United States, harming the very interests that the Obama administration aimed to support with the Solyndra loan deal.

Gov. Tom Corbett has joined the governors of Colorado, Oklahom and Wyoming in pressing U.S. automakers to produce natural gas-fueled cars. With natural gas production booming in Pennsylvania and elsewhere, it’s important to build demand for the clean-burning fuel.State and city governments create some demand by converting municipal buses and other vehicles to run on natural gas.Today, only Honda sells a natural gas-powered car in the U.S. market. But other automakers, including the Big Three, produce natural gas or bi-fuel cars (which run on compressed natural gas or gasoline), for international markets. Bringing those cars to the U.S. would help keep the natural gas boom growing here by providing demand to match the growing supply.Pennsylvania is poised to be at the center of the natural gas business — and it’s good that Corbett is focused on demand as well as supply issues.