Testimony starts today in the second corruption trial of Mike Veon, a former Democratic state representative – this time, he’s batting back charges he sent public dollars to his nonprofit.  The Tribune-Review has sartorial notes and one deadpan check of lawyerly grandstanding:

"He is holding up like Nelson Mandela, like any political prisoner," said Joel Sansone of Pittsburgh, one of [Veon’s] lawyers. Mandela spent 27 years in a South African prison for opposing apartheid.

Sansone and co-counsel Dan Raynak of Phoenix make such claims because Veon, a top-ranking Democrat, was convicted at the hands of a Republican prosecutor running for governor in 2010: Tom Corbett. They do not mention nine Republicans who Corbett prosecuted when he was attorney general. Former House Speaker John Perzel, R-Philadelphia, pleaded guilty to felonies and another top GOP House leader, Brett Feese of Lycoming County, was convicted in November by a jury for conspiring to use tax money for campaigns.

The Inquirer reports on a bill that has some city officials up in arms.  The measure would discourage cities from passing gun control laws by requiring they pay damages to bodies that challenge those laws in court.  The National Rifle Association supports the measure, which the Inquirer reports passed out of a House committee last week without hearings:

Supporters of the measure say the local ordinances violate existing state preemption law, which bars localities from enacting their own firearms laws.

"I don't care what the court thinks, the court overstepped its bounds," said Rep. Daryl Metcalfe (R., Butler), the bill's lead sponsor. "Municipalities should not be allowed to represent the people by violating the law."

On the other hand, said Philadelphia District Attorney Seth Williams, local governments should not be penalized for trying to find ways to control gun violence.

"Subjecting them to heavy monetary damages when resources are already scarce is unnecessary," Williams said.

John Baer writes on the silliness that was, is, and ever shall be: symbolic House resolutions – in this case, the “Year of the Bible” measure, and the state representatives who voted for it and then asked for absolution some days later.