Category: Good Government On The March, History || By

You'd think that the day after Halloween wouldn't be a day to talk about sweet, sweet chocolate, but I can't resist linking to a story on CandyBlog (sponsored by McKeesport Candy Co.) about how the Clark Bar, "the signature item of one of the country's largest candy empires, started with a small operation run by young entrepreneur David L. Clark":

Mr. Clark entered the candy business in 1891 and spent a few years learning the trade before starting his own company, D.L. Clark Co., in 1886.

He manufactured candy in two back rooms of a small house with the help of a small staff. Within a few years, he made enough money to open a small factory in McKeesport.

D.L. Clark ended up on Pittsburgh's North Side. McKeesport did have several other candy companies, including Crown Chocolate, which survived until 1950 in a factory on Market Street. The same building was used as a warehouse by R&J Furniture Co. and currently by James Moving and Storage; I'm told by someone who stored a car in the basement until recently that several big vats in the basement still bore what looked like chocolate residue. (Ewww.)

Crown Chocolate became Thurman Candy, makers of "Tris Anne" chocolates, which were sold all up and down the East Coast by McKeesport-based G.C. Murphy Co. Thurman's moved to North Versailles Township in 1967 (coincidentally to the site of the old Vogue Terrace, mentioned here just a few days ago).

I'm not sure when it closed; the last trademark activity on file at the U.S. Patent Office is from 1975. One business directory shows a "Tris Anne Inc." chocolate company registered to 118 Wendel Road in Hempfield Township, near Adamsburg, but the company is defunct, according to the state Corporation Bureau.

Today, the McKeesport area's candy-making legacy is carried on by Dorothy's Candies --- a worthy company, though not on the manufacturing scale of Thurman's --- while McKeesport Candy is now among the largest and oldest candy wholesalers in the mid-Atlantic states.

. . .

Open Records? Open Mouth: I just received an email from my good friend Bill DeWeese (D-Pomposity), the state House Majority Leader, bragging about how he's fighting for stronger open-records laws.

As the "Laugh-Out-Loud Cats" say, "O, Rilly?"

The Washington Observer-Reporter and Uniontown Herald Standard cover DeWeese's home district. What say you, O-R?

As originally proposed by Rep. Tim Mahoney, D-Fayette, House Bill 443 was a good bill. It created the presumption of access to agency records but contained a list of exemptions for medical records, documents that would disclose ongoing police investigations and documents related to homeland security.

That was before the House State Government Committee got hold of it. The committee replaced Mahoney's bill with language that would close much of Pennsylvania government and rushed it through in less than a day. The amendment was not available to the public until hours before the committee met, and significant amendments were added without public input. The committee even suspended procedural rules to rush the bill through.

But what about the HS? Surely they have some kind words:

(More) than 50 amendments have been tacked on, causing the Pennsylvania Newspaper Association to withdraw its support for the House version sponsored by local state Rep. Timothy S. Mahoney (D-South Union).

Why the House State Government Committee would ladle on so many changes - including an exclusion for all e-mails and the ability for governments to deny requests deemed burdensome - is the subject for much speculation. We thought the House Speaker's Reform Commission had already thrashed out most of this stuff, given the huge fanfare that accompanied its high-profile work.

I can't remember ... is the House Democratic leadership trying to fool some of the people all of the time, or just all of the people some of the time?

. . .

Speaking of Open Records: Alert Reader Doug went to the Commonwealth's home page and clicked the link for the Pennsylvania Constitution.

The link returns a blank page, and Doug wants to know what happened.

Well, Doug, either Bill DeWeese has decided it doesn't fall under the state's Open Records Law, or he's taken it off-line to put in more loopholes.

(Good catch, Doug. Actually, I suspect the link was moved and someone forgot to add a redirect. You might remember Tube City Online had a few problems in that department a while ago. The state Constitution is available at the state Department of General Services website, though it's in PDF format.)