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Pandora Charms for bracelets HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) — While a consultant wraps up a study into the pros and cons of privatizing Pennsylvania's state-controlled liquor and wine business, the current proprietor said Tuesday that its financial condition has never looked better. The Pennsylvania Liquor Control Board said sales at state stores for the year that ended Thursday set a record at nearly $2 billion — a 4 percent increase from last year — and generated a record $496 million in profit and tax revenue for the state treasury to help finance other state services. "Never in the history of this agency has the PLCB delivered such strong returns," said board chairman P.J.

Pandora Charms Online Stapleton, who attributed the growth to efforts in recent years to "run the PLCB more like a business." The board's statement drew flak from a Harrisburg-based conservative group that advocates for the privatization of liquor and wine sales. The Commonwealth Foundation called the notion of government running a business for profit "un-American." "It's time government stopped acting like privatization and just started acting to privatize," foundation spokesman Jay Ostrich said. One of the board's strongest allies in the fight for its survival is the largest state-store employee union. Pandora Earrings

Leaders of Local 1776 of the United Food and Commercial Workers argue that private owners could not match the performance of the more than 600 state stores in collecting state taxes, enforcing the drinking age or offering a broad selection of products at competitive prices. Advocates of privatization, who include Republican Gov. Tom Corbett, say the state stands to receive a sizable financial windfall from the sale of liquor licenses and that the government should not be in the liquor and wine business in the first place. Estimates of how much money is at stake have ranged as high as $2 billion, but no up-to-date, independent analysis is available. Earlier this year, Corbett directed Public Financial Management Inc., a national firm that has a contract with the state budget office, to appraise the value of the licenses and the logistics of privatization. Its report is due later this month. Pandora Earrings Silver

BOWLING GREEN, Va. (AP) — A driver for a discount interstate bus service was set to appear in a Virginia court Wednesday on charges stemming from a May crash on Interstate 95 that killed four passengers and injured dozens more. Kin Yiu Cheung, 37, of New York City is charged with four felony counts of involuntary manslaughter in the fatal crash about 30 miles north of Richmond. Court records show Cheung admitted to police that he fell asleep at the wheel when the Sky Express bus bound for New York swerved off the highway, hit an embankment and overturned with 60 people aboard. If convicted, Cheung faces up to 10 years in prison for each felony count, one for each of the women killed in the crash.

Pandora Necklace SilverCheung, who is being held without bond at Pamunkey Regional Jail, also is charged with misdemeanor reckless driving. A grand jury in Caroline County also was expected to hear the felony charges Wednesday. Attorneys for Cheung have called the May 31 wreck a "tragic accident." Virginia State Police have identified those killed in the crash as Karen Blyden-Decastro, 46, of Cambria Heights, N.Y.; Sie Giok Giang, 63, of Philadelphia; Josefa Torres, 78, of Jamaica, N.Y.; and Denny Estefany Martinez, 25, of Jersey City, N.J. Transportation Department officials were in the process of shutting down the company at the time of the crash, but had given the Charlotte, N.C.-based company an extra 10 days to appeal an unsatisfactory safety rating. Pandora Necklace

A timeline released by the department indicated that without the extension, Sky Express would have stopped operations the weekend before the crash. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood has directed the department to stop extending appeals periods for operators found to be unsafe. Following the crash, federal officials shut down the bus line and then issued a cease-and-desist order against the company after finding it was trying to sell tickets under different names. Sky Express is part of an industry of inexpensive buses that travel the East Coast offering cheap fares, convenient routes and, in some cases, free wireless Internet. The industry is in the fifth year of a boom, but a string of deadly accidents also has prompted calls for tougher federal regulation. pandora packages

According to Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration records, Sky Express buses have been involved in four crashes with an injury or fatality — it didn't specify which — during the two-year period that ended May 20. The company also has been cited for 46 violations of drivers being fatigued over that same time, ranking it worse than 86 percent of commercial motor carriers.