.edu and .gov helps PR
Sure a link from .edu and .gov will help PR, but it's no different than having a link from other sites that carries the same PR as those .edu and .gov sites...

Integrating Wordpress with PHPLD
This is one method to integrate Wordpress with PHPLD. It does require that you have separate templates for PHPLD and wordpress. It basically runs separately but still gives you the nice SEO friendly URL !!

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