State Senate approves two interim judicial nominees

HARRISBURG - The state Senate yesterday approved Gov. Rendell's interim nominees to the Supreme Court and the lower Superior Court. Voters will elect successors in November.

Philadelphia Judge James J. Fitzgerald III will fill an opening on the state Supreme Court, replacing Justice Sandra Schultz Newman, who resigned in December. Fitzgerald has been a Philadelphia Common Pleas judge and was appointed in 2002 by the state Supreme Court to be an administrative judge in the Philadelphia court's trial division.

Robert C. Daniels, a lawyer from Villanova, will fill a vacant seat on the state Superior Court created when Judge Joseph A. Del Sole resigned in September.

Daniels has been in private practice with the law firm of Sprague & Sprague and is past chairman of the Disciplinary Board of the state Supreme Court.

Maj. Gen. Jessica Wright received approval to continue to lead the 19,000-member guard. A 31-year veteran of the guard, she was first nominated in November 2003 to replace Maj. Gen. William B. Lynch, who retired. - AP