Welcome to Capitol Notes, a collection of lighter news events happening under the green dome of your state Capitol here in Shangri-La on the Susquehanna.

AN HONOR FOR THE DOME

The state Capitol, which in October marked its 100th birthday, has received the honor of being officially designated as a national historic landmark.

The National Park Service and the U.S. Department of the Interior conferred the designation this week.

There are about 80,000 places and buildings listed on the National Register of Historic Places, but only 3 percent, or 2,400 of them, are also designated as national historic landmarks, meaning they are considered to have historic significance for everyone in America.

The current Capitol building, which opened in 1906 with an appearance by President Theodore Roosevelt, replaced a former brick building that burned down in the late 1800s.

The Capitol's most visible feature, its stately green dome, rises 272 feet to its highest spot and was modeled on St. Peter's Basilica in Rome.

DON'T EVEN ASK HIM TO SWITCH PARTIES

With the Democrats holding onto a slim, 102-101 margin of victory in the state House, there has been speculation that the House speaker in the just-ended term, Rep. John Perzel, R-Philadelphia, will try to persuade one Democratic legislator to switch parties so that GOP will regain a 102-101 margin and Mr. Perzel can remain speaker in the new term that starts Jan. 2.

No names have been mentioned, at least publicly, of Democrats who might commit the unthinkable and defect to the GOP.

But one of the newly elected Democrats from Philadelphia, Rep.-elect Michael O'Brien, issued a press release anyway, reaffirming that he's not going anywhere.

The release mentioned "speculation among some news reporters'' that Mr. O'Brien might switch parties, throwing control to the Republicans.

But Mr. O'Brien insisted, "I am a Democrat. I ran as a Democrat and was elected by the people of the 175th Legislative District as a Democrat. I look forward to serving under Democratic House Speaker Bill DeWeese (for) the 2007-08 legislative session. I cannot and will not be swayed by any member of the House Republican caucus to switch parties in their desperate attempt to maintain their grip on power.''

So take that, you Republicans who are seeking a defector.

HE'S NO MOSES

Speaking of House Democrats, the departing whip, Rep. Mike Veon of Beaver Falls, has been called a lot of things in his 22 years in the House, but Capitol Notes is betting he's never been compared to the Old Testament prophet Moses.

Until now.

The Beaver County Times quoted David Patti, president of Pennsylvanians for Effective Government, a pro-business group, talking about Mr. Veon' leading role in helping Democrats take control of the House 102-101 in the Nov. 7 election. Alas, Mr. Veon lost his bid for re-election, which offset the pickup of 10 seats controlled by Republicans.

According to the Bible, Moses died just before the Israelites entered the promised land.

So Mr. Patti opined, "Mike Veon is the Moses of his caucus. He got to see the promised land of Democratic control, but he doesn't get to go in.''

HE'S ONLY NO. 3 BUT THAT'S NOT BAD

Harrisburg Mayor Stephen Reed is in his seventh four-year term in office, the longest serving current mayor in Pennsylvania. He won another form of recognition this week, coming in third in the World Mayor 2006 online poll conducted by a group called City Mayors.

Mr. Reed's third-place finish was the best of any American mayor in the history of the poll, which only dates to 2004. San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom came in fifth last year, and Denver Mayor John Hickenlooper came in ninth this year.

The winner this year was John So, mayor of Melbourne, Australia, and No. 2 was Job Cohen, mayor of Amsterdam in The Netherlands. Mr. So got 16,000 votes online, Mr. Cohen got 11,000 and Mr. Reed got 7,000.

Mr. Reed is credited with improving nightlife in Downtown Harrisburg by promoting growth of restaurants, hotels and taverns; with bringing a minor league baseball team to City Island, in the middle of the Susquehanna River; for opening a Civil War museum in the city and other improvements.

For more information on the poll, go to www.worldmayor.com.

PARDON ME WHILE I FAINT

News is often defined as something unusual, something that doesn't happen very often, the "man bites dog'' sort of thing.

Well, under that definition, this is real news.

A state senator has sent letters to the two Capitol Notes reporters thanking them "for your service to the citizens of the commonwealth.''

Say what?

"Your dedication to reporting on the undertakings, happenings and accomplishments of the General Assembly and the events in and around the Capitol is appreciated,'' said Sen. Gibson Armstrong, R-Lancaster, the new chairman of the Senate Appropriations Committee.

"It is a demanding job, requiring your pen to always be at the ready.''

Relations between the Capitol press corps and many legislators have been strained, to say the least, ever since the middle-of-the-night pay raise of July 7, 2005. That vote, later rescinded, led to the downfall in May of the Senate's two former leaders, Sens. Robert Jubelirer and David Brightbill.

So it was with considerable surprise that Capitol Notes got Sen. Armstrong's letter. It's always a good idea to know the Appropriations Committee boss, for he has a lot to say about how state money is spent.

WHO WANTS TO BE A MILLIONAIRE?

The Pennsylvania Lottery has sold more than half of the 625,000 available Millionaire Raffle tickets for its Dec. 30 drawing.

Sales began Nov. 21 and will continue until 5 p.m. Dec. 30 or until all tickets are sold.

Five top prizes of $1 million will be awarded along with five $100,000 prizes and 750 prizes of $1,000.

Odds of winning a million bucks? One in 125,000.

State's odds of hauling in a whole lot more than that to spend on programs for the elderly? Guaranteed.

At 20 bucks a ticket, the state will take in $12.5 million and award half of that in prizes.

For more information, visit www.palottery.com.