Legislation Would Gut Kayden’s Law –We posted reports a few hours ago that powerful persons in the legal community were seeking to gut Kayden’s Law which was signed into existence April 15 and took effect Aug. 13.
Kayden’s Law is named for seven-year-old Kayden Mancuso who was murdered by her father in 2018 during a visitation. It mandates courts to consider a parent’s history of violence when deciding custody.
Why would anyone want to have propensity to violence and abuse not be a prime, if not the prime, reason in deciding custody?
Who could even think of this?
A mercenary attorney seeking to maintain an avenue to making a buck? A child abuser?
Certainly no decent person.
Nor, did we think, a legislator concerned about his standing with his constituency.
We were wrong.
House Bill 2018 has been introduced in the Pennsylvania Legislature and it guts Kayden’s Law.
Prime sponsor is Montgomery County Democrat Liz Hanbidge who represents the 61st District.
It passed the House Judiciary Committee, Sept. 25. All Democrats voted for it and all Republicans voted no.
Why don’t these Democrats care about the safety of children? Why don’t they give a law that’s been in effect for only about six weeks a chance to work?
Feel free to try and answer these questions in the comments.
Is Kayden’s Law In Danger? –– Kayden’s Law was signed by Pennsylvania’s governor, April 15, and took effect and mandates courts to consider a parent’s history of violence when deciding custody.
It’s named for seven-year-old Kayden Mancuso who was murdered by her father in 2018 during a visitation.
We find it puzzling that a history of violence had not been a prime consideration in custody matters in Pennsylvania, and that a law was even needed.
Yes, the old law required it to be listed but there was never a requirement to act.
We are hearing that there are attempts to gut Kayden’s Law. Those behind the subversion are reportedly being made by powerful figures in our legal system — notably in Montgomery County.
And this is despite the obvious will of the legislature, not to mention common sense.
Policy Cutting Parents Out Of Sex Identity Conversations Passes In Penn Delco –The Penn Delco School Board, last night, Nov. 20, passed policy that will let parents be cut from conversations regarding sexual confusion their child might be having.
The policy also gives boys access to girls’ private spaces.
A standing-room crowd of 50 saw the policy pass by consent in the district’s Service Center on Dutton Mill Road. This means they don’t have to say their ayes or nays before the crowd.
In public comments prior to passing, Lisa Esler of Aston, a former school director, asked that it be tabled.
Kathi Culp noted the issue was ripping apart the community and asked why the board was so eager to pass it. She noted that there is no student in the district to whom it would apply
“Why are we rushing it?” she asked.
Jaci Farra noted the policy violates numerous aspects of the state and federal constitutions including the U.S. Constitution’s First Amendment and the Equal Protection Clause. She also said the policy violates several laws which are written based on objective biological definitions of sex, rather than arbitrary feelings.
She noted what the board did renders Title IX meaningless.
Ms. Farra further noted that the board in their haste rejected a meeting with a lawyer versed in educational policy development despite the lawyer having guided the Pennridge School District‘s successful and community-accepted sex-based bathroom policy.
All the women received loud applause.
After it passed, Joe Dychala of Aston took the podium and ripped the board for what it did. He ended up in a heated shouting match with school board President Leon Armour who ordered him away from the mike well before Dychala’s allotted time. Dychala finished saying his piece, however, and then some.
Mrs. Esler returned and said the board should be ashamed of itself for the rather cowardly way it instituted the controversial policy. She noted that the district’s cost per pupil is $20,000 per year and asked that the board give parents wishing to find an alternative school $10,000, which resulted in condescending sneers from the board.
Ms. Farra returned and said the new policy gives the Superintendent a dangerous degree of authority.
“Giving the administration this much power gives the board members the chance to wash their hands (of unpopular decisions),” she noted.
Brian Devane (sp) noted that he graduated from Sun Valley not that long ago. He said that school boards’ histories of adopting fads has led to tragic ends, some of which he personally witnessed. Devane said that in his school days ADHD was the fashion. Many of his friends were diagnosed with it and prescribed Adderall.
He said that he has attended many funerals for these friends.
Joe DiPietro of Aston said that he joined the Marines after high school rather than attend college. He expressed concern — which is not unwarranted — for the dangers the females students will face under this new policy.
“If something happens to my daughter you are going to see this face again and it’s not going to be cool, calm and collected,” he said.
Phil Falcone (sp) said he might be the oldest person in the room
“If what you guys did, you did 40 or 50 years ago, there would have been people outside with straitjackets,” he said.
Not one person spoke in defense of the policy.
The board, all Republicans, ran uncontested two weeks ago as they won on the Democrat ticket in the primary. Cross-filing is allowed in school board races.
We suspect most Penn Delco residents were rather surprised they would vote for such a policy. Here, for instance, is a story concerning Armour we carried three years ago.
The meeting started with Superintendent George Steinhoff saying district kindergartners will now be bussed and that Democrat State Sen. John Kane (9th District) is completely on board with his dream of cutting funds for cyber charter schools.
Well, that would end one escape for parents fearing for their daughter’s safety.
A standing room only crowd at the Penn Delco Service Center on Dutton Mill Road. Their opposition was unanimous to the transgender policy that was passed.
Policy Cutting Parents Out Of Sex Identity Conversations Passes In Penn Delco
Amendments Would Limit Abortion Funding, Extend Statute Of Limitation For Child Abusers, Other Things
By Bob Small
Recently the local Town Talk newspaper carried a full pager to inform citizens about the status of two proposed amendments to the Pennsylvania Constitution. We should explain that if these two resolutions are approved for a second time during the 2023-4 Legislative session, then they will graduate to ballot questions. The resolutions are 2021-2 and 2022-1. One might want to ask the various State Representative and State Senate Candidates for their stance on these issues in order to consider that for your decision on voting.
Resolution 2021-2 basically extends the statute of limitations on child sexual abuse by two years. Institutions which have a historic history of sheltering child abusers may try to sidetrack this bill.
Whether there should even be a statue of limitations in these cases, which if not murder, are a form of soul murder, is another question entirely.
There are four separate issues on Resolution 2022-1.
Firstly, “This constitution does not grant the right to taxpayer-funded abortion or any other right to abortion”. Obviously, this would be the most contentious issue of all those mentioned.
The second issue would be that the gubernatorial candidates who win the primary –assuming they mean the two major party candidates — will choose the lieutenant governor running mate. This would eliminate the current system, where the lieutenant governor candidates have their own primary. The current system has helped to generate many candidates with many voices.
The third issue is a discussion of voter ID for both in-person and mail-in ballots. The question of what qualifies as valid Voter ID would need to be clarified.
Lastly, and I’ll just quote here:
The General Assembly shall by statue provide for the auditing of elections and election results by the Auditor General. In years when the Auditor General stands for election to any office, an Independent Auditor shall conduct the audit.
Again, we would want our elected officials to “vote with their conscience” on these issues.
Amendments Would Limit Abortion Funding, Extend Statute Of Limitation For Child Abusers, Other Things
Let us start by agreeing that transexuals, whether female-to-male or male-to-female, remain human beings and should retain the rights of all human beings. Not a radical concept, one would think.
However, all human beings, as children say many times “need to go bathroom”. Here is where the controversy begins, both here and internationally. The British and other controversies be covered later.
According to 34 Pa Code section 41.21: “The entrances of all retiring rooms for women shall be clearly marked. Men are not permitted to use or frequent a retiring room assigned to women …
This seems fairly clear-cut, except for this question: where does a male-to-female transexual fit in, especially one who is pre-op?
Well, we now have PA Senate Bill 613 and PA House Bill 613, which, it is to be hoped, will clear this up. While they don’t specifically use the term “bathroom”, both of these bills discuss “facilities” and “privilege”. The term “facilities” has been interpreted elsewhere to include restrooms; indeed, what else would it mean?
This information comes from PAfamily.org, which opposes men at any stage of transition entering women’s’ rest rooms.
It has occurred to me that I might be standing next to a female-to-male in the next stall, but I wouldn’t expect any problem, nor would I even know.
At any rate, this situation never seems to be addressed, probably because there’s not a power imbalance between men and other men.
Another observer to whom I was referred said, “The point is, these men were able to gain access to these spaces because of the idea that a man becomes a woman the instant he says, “I’m a woman”.
Regarding male-to-female transexuals, another viewpoint states that “We want the exact same thing that most of the other women want”. I urge you to read this article.
The following quotes are from people whom I know well, who want to remain anonymous, so fiery is the topic:
From a Springfield conservative on HB 300:
“Its proponents want to assign protections enjoyed by people with immutable characteristics (such as race, color, sex, national origin, handicap, or disability) to people with changeable behaviors and mental states”.
This seemed to be the best summation I ever heard of the conservative view.
A transexual friend now living in Vermont merely asks me to imagine having to avoid using bathrooms in public, due to fear of choosing the “wrong” one.
I just have to find one marked “men”. My life is simple by comparison.
House Slipped Vote Fraud Preventions Slipped Into Lame Senate Amendment In Pennsylvania— The Pennsylvania Senate passed, April 27, SB 106 which was to be an amendment to the state Constitution that would merely end separate elections for candidates for governor and lieutenant governor and have them run on a single ballot. It would be an unnecessary and insignificant change as to how we are governed but the inside-baseball types thought it neat.
Anyway, on Dec. 15, just before the session ended, the State House overwhelmingly approved it but with additions. These included:
— A 21-day limit on emergency declarations by the governor.
— A requirement to present “valid identification prior to voting, regardless of voting method”
— The auditing of elections, including the administration of elections, certification of election machines, the accuracy of the list of registered voters, the administration of voter registration and election results.
The bill is now back in the Senate where it sits.
Constitutional amendments in Pennsylvania require approval of the same wording in consecutive sessions of the legislature, and then approval by the voters via a ballot question.
Don’t expect them to happen anytime soon, but this shows that while there may be corrupt deep staters in the Republican Party, there are good guys too.
House Slipped Vote Fraud Preventions In Lame Senate Amendment In Pennsylvania
Voter ID Downside II — Probably more than 99 percent of our readers are strong proponents of photo voter ID and we recently carried a column by Bob Small that swims against that tide.
We are certainly not against a requirement to show a photo before voting, but we have become far less fanatical about it.
If the precinct workers are honest the rule is not needed and if the precinct workers are otherwise the rule is not going to matter.
The concern we have is that Pennsylvania patriots are ignoring far more crucial matters regarding election integrity with their zeal for photo identification, namely state-wide certification of poll watchers and transparent election machinery and software.
Long-standing Pennsylvania law restricts poll watchers to the county in which they reside. What is wrong with state-wide certification for them? Why shouldn’t an appropriately certified Philadelphia Democrat be allowed to make sure things are copacetic in the voting in Franklin County? And vice-versa, of course. Only a racist can oppose such a thing.
Regarding transparent election machinery, the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania — which appears to be better described as the Supreme Court of Soros– has blocked an audit of Fulton County voting machines.
The State Legislature wanted it. Fulton County wanted it. Commonwealth Court was OK with it. Why block it?
Well, the Democrat Party opposed it as did Dominion Voting Systems, the supplier of the machinery.
But why would they oppose it? All an audit would show was that the system was honest and the results were fair, right? RIGHT?
It shouldn’t need to be said but voting transparency should always take precedence over the secrets of corporations.
Anyone who thinks otherwise is a white supremacist, and likely a homophobic misogynist who hates Mexicans.
Which gets us to a rather interesting thing going on in Pennsylvania legislature and might be the buried lead.
Anyway, in December, just before the session ended the State House added to the bill:
— A 21-day limit on emergency declarations by the governor.
— A requirement to present “valid identification prior to voting, regardless of voting method”
— The auditing of elections, including the administration of elections, certification of election machines, the accuracy of the list of registered voters, the administration of voter registration and election results.
The bill is now back in the Senate where it sits. The amendments require approval of the same wording in consecutive sessions of the legislature, and then approval by the voters via a ballot question.
Don’t expect them to happen anytime soon, but this does show that while there may be corrupt deep staters in the Republican Party, there are good guys too.
HB 162 was passed by the Pennsylvania Legislature, and signed into law as Act 50 on June 30 by the Gov. Tom Wolf. The Small Wireless Facilities Deployment Act was passed with only three dissenting votes and little notice. The idea is to accelerate 5G infrastructure in Pennsylvania
We all, of course, want the modern world of 5G and any route to this sounds like it must be harmless. Well, yes and no. First, we learned of this item at the July Swarthmore Borough Council Meeting. We learned that the mini-towers required for 5G could be planted on the grass strips that many of us have between sidewalk and street.
This is property we had thought was owned by the homeowners and, we assumed, was part of what we pay taxes for We assumed we had control of what goes on on these strips. Guess not.
Now, according to State Senator Tim Kearney (D-26 and a former fine Mayor of Swarthmore) there are but sevem exceptions whereas a municipality can “refuse the installation of small cells.” None of these 7 exemptions apply to these street strips already having a planting of any kind of tree, neither fruit trees or saplings, or… These would probably have to go, though that’s a small price for progress, one supposes.
The apple harvest we had this year may be our last.
There’s an exception for Historical Markers, but this would not necessarily apply to, say, Swarthmore’s Historically Black Neighborhood. Each case like this might have to be brought up individually. How this might effect Swarthmore College is still unclear.
We have also been told that all these initial requests will be coming to your town by the end of the†month.
According to Legiscan.com, the only three nays, in the State House, were Democrat Kevin J. Boyle, and Republicans Carl Walker Metzgar, and Brett R. Miller, none of whom mentioned it on their websites. Boyle, who participated in some forums I organized, did not respond as to his reasons to vote against this bill. No one in the Pennsylvania Senate opposed it.
RTM Plans New School, Residents Should Plan For New Pain — This gentle warning has been passed to us that you are about to be again robbed by the Rose Tree Media School District.
Pennsylvanians would save a lot, and we mean a lot, more money if education funding followed students and not systems. If we learned anything from the pandemic it’s that Pennsylvania schools are way fat.
More importantly, though, education would be greatly enhanced and parents would be greatly empowered.
Your little boy is being taught he should be a little girl? Fire the fools and find a new school.
If vouchers are too radical for you, rescinding the prevailing wage law would save 20 percent of the cost of this looming boondoggle. Just sayin.
Anyway here is how the heist is starting:
I want to provide you with an update on the progress towards our new elementary school. We understand how critical selecting the location for our new elementary school is — a decision we do not take lightly. Over the last several months, our Project Oversight Committee (POC) and Core Design Group (CDG) for the new elementary school has been working extremely hard to reach this point. We are very excited and proud to announce the location of our new elementary school in Edgmont Township!
Prior to this decision, the POC and District administration completed several decision worksheets, narratives, and a full site comparison analysis including anticipated costs, facilitation sessions, and several conversations with the School Board and local city and municipal regulatory agencies. Understanding the locations of new developments and our existing students within each elementary’s school’s boundaries, the team sought to minimize impact and costs when selecting the new site. In addition, key priority drivers for this decision included:
Location, size, and cost of the property
Site attributes including accessibility, entry points, utilities, drainage, soils, environmental integration, etc.
Transportation impacts: time spent on the bus for students, the number of buses needed, staff impacts, etc.
Timeline to develop property
Other unique attributes such as a redistricting plan, community goals, housing developments, and logical locations
Over 23 sites were vetted as potential options during the last two years. Sites in Middletown Township and Edgmont Township were shortlisted, but ultimately the property in Edgmont Township was selected and the sale finalized for the new facility. Local, community schools have been a keystone of our District for many years, and the selection of the current site reflects our ongoing commitment for neighborhood schools.
Currently, we are working on finishing the Schematic Design Phase of the project. We invite you to join us next Tuesday, June 29 from 6:30 p.m. – 7:30 p.m. for a Public Presentation that will outline the work and progress completed so far. This will include a 30-minute presentation and a 30-minute Q&A section. You can attend either in-person at the Penncrest High School Auditorium or virtually via Microsoft Teams. The link to join the meeting virtually will be posted at 6:00 p.m., 30 minutes prior to the start of the meeting, on our Room to Learn Room to Grow website, our District’s website, and social media.
I encourage you to visit RoomtoLearnRoomtoGrow.org/pre-design-phase for ongoing updates to our progress. We’re very excited to provide our students with room to learn and room to grow!
Regards,
Dr. Eleanor DiMarino-Linnen
RTM Plans New School, Residents Should Plan For New Pain
Jenn O’Mara Birthday Greeting –– A few days ago was my birthday, and in the evening I got a call from my state rep Jenn O’Mara wishing me a happy one. At first I thought it was a robo but as the conversation continued I realized it was live.
Thank you, Jenn O’Mara
I was impressed. Granted, if my birthday was in June and this was an off-year election perhaps I wouldn’t have been so honored but I was still impressed.
So thank you Jenn, you made my night. I will be voting straight R, Nov. 3, which means for Bob Smythe in Pennsylvania’s 165th House District but what you did was very nice and you seem like a nice person.
If you want to get my vote push for ending prevailing wage. It would have made the cost of Springfield’s new white elephant high school about 20 percent less. Single parents, newlyweds with diabetic kids and the elderly are paying for it you know, and the extra money doesn’t help the trades unless you happen to be the one running the union.
Don’t sweat it though. I doubt Smythe will try to end it either.
