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Upper Valley Eye Bank sets meeting for Thursday

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Happy birthday to Nathan Joseph Zegarski!

<p>HARRISBURG &#8212; Gov. Tom Wolf said Wednesday he would have no choice but to remove Kathleen Kane as Pennsylvania&#8217;s attorney general if the state Senate votes for it, but backed away from the statement hours later and said he was still considering his options.</p><p>In an interview with Harrisburg radio station WITF, Wolf said if a two-thirds Senate majority invokes an obscure constitutional provision to remove fellow Democrat Kane from her elected office, &#8220;my understanding is that my role would be to do their bidding.&#8221;</p><p>But at an unrelated news conference later in the day, the governor said the statement was &#8220;a poor choice of words&#8221; and that he was still &#8220;grappling&#8221; with what the constitution means.</p><p>&#8220;This is new territory. This is unprecedented,&#8221; he said. &#8220;I will do my best to implement &#8230; what I&#8217;m supposed to be doing under the provisions of the constitution.&#8221;</p><p>A special Senate panel voted 5-2 last week to recommend that the full Senate launch a formal process to remove Kane, who continues to run her office with a suspended law license while awaiting trial on criminal charges that she leaked confidential investigative information and lied under oath about it.</p><p>Kane, who in 2012 became the first Democrat and first woman elected as Pennsylvania attorney general, professes her innocence and has vowed to fight any attempt by the Senate to remove her as unconstitutional.</p><p>Kane&#8217;s spokesman, Chuck Ardo, said Wednesday that if the Senate approves Kane&#8217;s ouster, the governor should consider the gravity of such a move.</p><p>&#8220;We would certainly expect the governor to be thoughtful and thorough in determining whether this is an appropriate course of action,&#8221; Ardo said. &#8220;This is a historic moment. We&#8217;re talking about removing an elected attorney general from office.&#8221;</p><p>Within hours after the special Senate committee recommended action against Kane, she announced she would appoint a team of prosecutors to scour emails on her office&#8217;s servers for pornographic and other objectionable content shared among judges, prosecutors and others. On Tuesday, she named former Maryland Attorney General Doug Gansler to head a team of Washington-based lawyers in that probe.</p><p>Wolf was among the first elected officials to call on Kane to step down voluntarily after Montgomery County prosecutors charged her in August with offenses including perjury and obstruction. The charges stemmed from an alleged political payback scheme that involved leaking secret grand jury information to the Philadelphia Daily News to make it appear that two former state prosecutors had fumbled a corruption investigation. She then allegedly lied about it under oath.</p><p>In September, the state Supreme Court voted unanimously to indefinitely suspend Kane&#8217;s law license. That order took effect in October.</p><p>&#8220;I&#8217;m not sure how she defends herself against the charges that have been brought against her and continues to function as the top law enforcement officer in Pennsylvania,&#8221; Wolf said Wednesday.</p><style>
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<div class="neFile"><img class="neImage" src="https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/12/web1_Kane_August_2015_toned.jpg">
<div class="neCaption">Kane </div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo0>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/12/web1_Kane_August_2015_toned.jpg</photo0><caption0>Kane </caption0><photoCredit0></photoCredit0></div><div class="neFile"><img class="neImage" src="https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/12/web1_Wolf.jpg">
<div class="neCaption">Wolf </div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo1>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/12/web1_Wolf.jpg</photo1><caption1>Wolf </caption1><photoCredit1></photoCredit1></div></div>
<div class="metaInfo"><bylineMeta><p>By Peter Jackson</p><p>Associated Press</p></bylineMeta></div>

Wolf backs off statement on ousting Kane