New retail! Apartments! A transit center! It's all coming to East Liberty! And the

Empires may rise and fall, mountains may crumble into the sea ... but local TV news will always be there to report on allegedly excessive spending on the local inmate population.

I've been sort of bemused at how much attention state Sen. Daylin Leach is getting for his latest marijuana-legalization bill. By his own admission, it's unlikely to go anywhere, and yet reporters have been eating it up like it's a cure for the munchies. So it falls to the conservative news site PA Independent to cast cold bongwater on the whole thing.

Gov. Tom Corbett gives with one hand and takes away with the other. Corbett plans to fund statewide transportation projects with a hike in gasoline taxes ... but he also wants to offset that with a reduction in a retail tax -- whose proceeds benefit local municipalities.

A new poll from Mercyhurst College shows -- again -- a majority of Pennsylvania voters support the most widely discussed gun-control measures, including universal background checks and limiting magazine capacity to 10 rounds. Much of the poll breaks out responses according to gun ownership, and the results are what you'd expect. Gun owners less enthusiastic about almost any measure other than posting more armed guards around.