Category: Uncategorized

The House Education Committee voted to require sexual abuse awareness to be taught in the school health curriculum for students in grades K-8, reports State Rep. Jim Cox (R-129). The focus of House Bill 2318 is not the perpetrator, but the prevention of child exploitation through awareness, he said. 

House Bill 2318 seeks to arm children with information that will help them to avoid victimization, compel them to come forward if they are victimized, and help to prevent others from falling victim to abuse. 

Cox said that one in four girls and one in seven boys are sexually abused before they reach the age of 18, and many are unaware of what happened or unsure of how to communicate the abuse.

The Springfield (Pa) Zoning Board of Adjustment, Sept. 27, voted 3-1 to not a allow the distinctive six-bedroom home at 575 W. Springfield Road to be used as an office by Cellucci Foran Insurance Inc.

Pennsylvania Commonwealth Court Judge Robert Simpson, at the request of the State Supreme Court, has ruled on Pennsylvania’s Photo Voter ID law  saying that state election officials are preliminarily enjoined from  requiring that a registered elector must apply for a PennDOT 

The House Judiciary Committee voted last week to send several public safety measures to the full House for consideration, reports State Rep. Jim Cox (R-129). 

The bills include: 

• House Bill 2249, which makes it a crime for an individual who engages in online impersonation to create a web page or send an email or other electronic message by using the name or identifying information of another person, with the intent to harm, defraud, intimidate or deceive, without the person’s content.
• House Bill 2507, which would enhance sentencing for criminal activity related to criminal street gangs. Specific circumstances would trigger the enhancement, such as committing a crime of violence like drug trafficking or assault, where the offense was knowingly committed at the direction of a criminal street gang or if a person encouraged another to participate in the offense with a criminal street gang.
• Senate Bill 775, which would expand the state’s DNA database by requiring that a DNA sample be obtained from an individual within five days of arrest for a felony sex offense and other specified offense.

If Fed Ex and UPS were to merge, would they call it Fed UP? ?

Hat tip Cathy Craddock

Lawmakers unveiled bipartisan legislation this week to encourage investment in Pennsylvania’s high-tech industries, promote entrepreneurship and create jobs, reports State Rep. Jim Cox (R-129).

Known as the Innovate Pennsylvania Program, House Bill 2633 establishes a program to raise funds for investment in the high-tech sector through the Ben Franklin Technology Development Authority (BFTDA) and the Commonwealth Life Science Greenhouses. 

Why worry about selling to the market when you can sell to a politician? 

The program will provide funding for investments  by auctioning off deferred insurance premium tax credits at a reduced rate to insurance companies that pay tax in the Commonwealth. 

Why don’t they do that to give a tax cut to the citizens? Or pay off some of our crushing debt which would lower the tax-funded interest payments? Or just forget all that and cut the insurance tax which will cut insurance rates for those in this state?

The capital will then be used to make investments in Pennsylvania-based, high-growth, technology-oriented businesses through life science business incubators and the BFTDA that oversees the regional Ben Franklin Partners. 

IOW, it will give money to people who know politicians. 

Neighboring states of New York, Ohio, New Jersey and Maryland already have programs to encourage investment in high-tech industries.

And look how they are booming. Pennsylvania might actually be doing the best of this particularly sorry lot. Thank you, frackers.

Courtesy of Carol Klein

The Mass for Religious Liberty will be said all over Pennsylvania on the night before the November election. It will be a prayer for our nation’s return to its founding principle that we are endowed with unalienable rights by our Creator and that government exists to protect those rights, not violate them.

 The power of the Mass for Religious Liberty is that it will originate from the faithful, and reach out to the clergy. It seeks to petition God, our Creator, to guide our nation through a time of turmoil and confusion, toward a return to its place as a beacon of freedom to the world.

 Please plan on being a part of the Mass for Religious Liberty by finding the location in your county, and bringing fellow parishioners to unite in prayer on November 5. To learn more, or to sign up, visit http://www.pacatholics.net

County host churches are being designated now, and they will appear on the website, as they are finalized. 

Archbishop Charles J. Chaput will make a presentation on faithful citizenship, 4 p.m., Saturday, Oct. 13 in the gym of Saint Elizabeth Church, 100 Fellowship Road, Chester Springs, Pa. 19425.

Mona Eltahawy, an Egyptian-born Muslim “journalist” living in New York City was arrested after vandalizing a subway poster implying that opponents of Israel were savages bent on destroying civilization. 

Commonwealth Foundation is reporting that charter schools are far outperforming traditional schools in Pennsylvania’s cities. It noted that of Philadelphia’s 250 traditional schools only 33 — 13 percent — achieved the “adequate yearly progress” standard, which was reached by 43 of the 81 charter schools — 53 percent — in the city.