Pennsylvania
These UPenn Students Got Arrested Over a Homecoming Protest
![These UPenn Students Got Arrested Over a Homecoming Protest](https://assets.teenvogue.com/photos/645e9c904ab4be656468a5b3/16:9/w_1280,c_limit/GettyImages-1244171313.jpg)
Rasheda Alexander, an activist who moved out of homelessness into the UC Townhomes 15 years ago, details the myriad changes that have taken place in the area during her time there, emphasizing Penn’s role in replacing community spaces with institutional buildings. This list includes the Charles R. Drew Elementary School, which her daughter attended, located where the Penn Presbyterian Medical Center now stands. Says Alexander, “To see high schools and early-childhood centers be removed from our community, and the University of Penn buying them up to make parking lots to make student living, to make science centers and things of that nature, it was very disheartening.”
The ongoing activism by residents in the Save the UC Townhomes Coalition and Fossil Free Penn students have aided in securing meetings between residents and high-ranking Penn administrators, such as senior executive vice president Craig Carnaroli, Alexander adds.
Another outcome of the protests has been an array of disciplinary consequences. After grad student and Fossil Free Penn coordinator Ari Bortman participated in an August protest led by UC Townhomes residents who disrupted Penn’s convocation ceremony for incoming freshmen, he received an email threatening “disciplinary probation for the fall 2022 semester”; ultimately, Bortman was able to negotiate and avoid disciplinary consequences.
Bortman and senior Emma Glasser were also threatened with disciplinary consequences in April 2022, related to the group’s first encampment attempt. At 2 a.m. on the first night of the encampment, they say, they were awoken by a group of administrators and Penn Police shining flashlights into their tents, with the administrators telling them that the encampment wasn’t safe; they say they were then asked for IDs.
Though the students received emails informing them that their action was possibly in violation of university guidelines, they managed to avoid disciplinary action. “It was clear that what we were doing was really pushing them the wrong way,” Glasser says. “And to us, that was a sign that what we were doing was along the right direction.”
After homecoming, however, there were legal and university-specific consequences. The arrested students were subject to court-mandated community service stemming from the arrests and have been subject to a disciplinary probation period for the spring 2023 semester. Additionally, the Penn Band has imposed a yearlong suspension on Mahmud and Francis for their participation in the homecoming protest.
“I’m a first-generation, low-income student, so I can’t really afford to play an instrument other than this,” Mahmud says. “I feel like I got one strike, and that was the one strike I had.” The whole experience has made Mahmud feel less connected to the part of the Penn student body that doesn’t support Fossil Free Penn’s actions and says she sometimes feels a “target on [her] back” walking to class.
For these activists, belonging to an Ivy League institution that has contributed to gentrification while also fighting that institution can be an intimidating experience. Ultimately, tho, it’s necessary. “I can only reconcile being part of the university by leveraging all of that power that we gain, to try and create this change,” Bortman says. “Because if we can change the way that Penn operates, the way that Penn interacts with the world and the West Philadelphia community, that will have an immense impact on so many lives.”
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Pennsylvania
Bill to ensure access to contraception advances in Pennsylvania, aided by dozens of GOP House votes
![Bill to ensure access to contraception advances in Pennsylvania, aided by dozens of GOP House votes](https://whyy.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/05/04-27-2023-k-paynter-downtown-harrisburg-pa-captial-building-dome-weather-vane-4.jpg)
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.
“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.
Pennsylvania
Pa. woman who drowned after being swept over waterfall in Glacier National Park is ID’d
![Pa. woman who drowned after being swept over waterfall in Glacier National Park is ID’d](https://www.lehighvalleylive.com/resizer/v2/ENNPVT7HEBAILPOJTGZWNTBSLM.jpg?auth=ae6ee71154605f3d0d14626ee27547b52589449aff7199c62704aa067d22f7ab&width=1280&quality=90)
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.
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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Pennsylvania
Conestoga Road Closing Weekdays For 2 Months In Radnor: PennDOT
![Conestoga Road Closing Weekdays For 2 Months In Radnor: PennDOT](https://patch.com/img/cdn20/users/22896833/20240625/103022/styles/patch_image/public/roadclosed___25103005562.jpg)
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.
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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