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School funding, permitting at top of Pa. legislature’s 2024 agenda

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School funding, permitting at top of Pa. legislature’s 2024 agenda


The state Senate hasn’t acted on any of these bills — Majority Leader Joe Pittman (R., Indiana) said the Democrats’ minimum wage number, for one, was “unreasonable.”

The caucuses also split last session on a long-delayed constitutional amendment that would open a window for people to sue over sexual abuse they suffered as children. State House Democrats passed it, but state Senate Republicans countered that they would move the measure only if it were bundled with provisions to expand voter ID and make it easier for the legislature to reject executive branch regulations. Bradford said the effort continues to be a priority for his caucus.

A spokesperson for the state Senate said its leaders are primarily concerned with pushing bills in one area: permitting and regulatory reform.

Spokesperson Kate Flessner listed bills that the chamber has passed but which haven’t gotten state House consideration, including one that would require agencies to make public more information about the status of permits, one that would require legislative approval of more regulations, and one that would create a new automatic review process for many regulations.

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These measures, Flessner said, are intended to cut “government red tape to help grow family sustaining jobs.”

Lawmakers will return to Harrisburg in January for a constitutionally required meeting on the first Tuesday of the year, and will also convene in the Capitol rotunda — instead of in the state House chamber, to avoid construction — on the first Tuesday in February for the governor’s state of the state address.

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Pennsylvania

Bill to ensure access to contraception advances in Pennsylvania, aided by dozens of GOP House votes

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Bill to ensure access to contraception advances in Pennsylvania, aided by dozens of GOP House votes


Planned Parenthood PA Advocates executive director Signe Espinoza called the proposal “an enormous shift toward control over our bodies.”

“We must have control over if and when we decide to start our families, but Pennsylvania has for too long allowed loopholes, exemptions and oversights to stand between us and our autonomy,” Espinoza said in a statement.

Rep. Krueger said in an interview Monday that she also was concerned about Justice Clarence Thomas’ concurring opinion in the U.S. Supreme Court decision on abortion access two years ago. Thomas wrote that the Supreme Court “should reconsider all of this Court’s substantive due process precedents,” including cases that found married people have the right to obtain contraceptives, people can engage in private, consensual sex acts and the right to same-sex marriage.

A state law could help people obtain contraceptives if federal law changes, Krueger said.

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“We have seen that access to reproductive health care, including contraception, is coming down to a state’s rights issue,” Krueger said.

In other states, contraception has been a politically contentious issue. A review earlier this month by the Guttmacher Institute, which advocates for abortion access, found several states have proposed or enacted laws to reduce access to contraception this year.

KFF, a nonprofit that studies health care issues, said in May that 14 states have legal or constitutional protections for the right to contraception, with six states and Washington, D.C., enacting them since the high court’s decision on abortion in June 2022.



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Pa. woman who drowned after being swept over waterfall in Glacier National Park is ID’d

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Pa. woman who drowned after being swept over waterfall in Glacier National Park is ID’d


A 26-year-old Pennsylvania woman drowned after being swept over a waterfall on the east side of Glacier National Park in Montana, park officials said.

National Park Service officials on Tuesday identified the victim as Gillian Tones from North Apollo in western Pennsylvania’s Armstrong County. She was remembered as caring and kind, triblive.com reported.

Tones fell into the water above St. Mary Falls at around 5:20 p.m. Sunday. She was washed over the 35-foot (11-meter) tall waterfall and trapped under water for several minutes, the park said in a statement.

Bystanders pulled Tones from the water and administered CPR until emergency responders arrived. She was declared dead at 7 p.m., park officials said.

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The death is under investigation, and an autopsy was planned.

Her name was initially withheld until family members could be notified.

Drowning is one of the leading causes of death in Glacier National Park, according to the National Park Service.

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Conestoga Road Closing Weekdays For 2 Months In Radnor: PennDOT

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Conestoga Road Closing Weekdays For 2 Months In Radnor: PennDOT


RADNOR TOWNSHIP, PA — Conestoga Road in Radnor Township will have a weekday closure due to Aqua Pennsylvania work for about two months, PennDOT said.

According to PennDOT, a weekday closure is scheduled on Conestoga Road between Lowrys Lane and Glenbrook Avenue in Radnor.

The closure will be in place weekdays, 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. from Monday, July 1 to Friday, Aug. 30,

During the closure, drivers will be detoured, using Sproul Road/Route 320, Lancaster Avenue/U.S. 30, and County Line Road.

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Local access will be maintained up to the work zone.

Drivers are advised to allow extra time when traveling through or near the work area because backups and delays will occur.

All scheduled activities are weather dependent.



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