FOLSOM, March 8 – State Rep. Leanne Krueger, D-Delaware, will host a virtual session on Medicare cost sharing at 1 p.m. March 19. The workshop is being presented with Delaware County Senior Community Services’ APPRISE program and Friendship Circle Senior Center. The presentations will be made through Zoom and Facebook Live. An APPRISE counselor will share information on programs to help pay for Medicare premiums. “Medicare can seem overwhelming, but APPRISE counselors are trained to answer questions and help make the process easier. I’m happy to help bring this program to community members,” Krueger said. Registration is required. Those interested can sign up online at this link or call Krueger’s office at 610-534-6880 for more information. An additional session, Medicare 101, will be held in May. Read more

HARRISBURG, March 5 – As new minority chair of the House Children and Youth Committee, state Rep. Pam DeLissio participated in the first Children and Youth Committee meeting of the 2021-22 legislative session. There are many members new to the committee and it was helpful to have the initial meeting focus on an overview of the child welfare system, commented DeLissio, D-Montgomery/Phila. For example, Pennsylvania is one of only 11 ­states that operates in a decentralized manner as each of Pennsylvania’s 67 counties operates its own child and youth agency with oversight from the state. Presenters included staff from the Department of Human Services and stakeholders representing associations that promote child welfare and related policy ensuring the health and well-being of children, youth, and their families. Information was presented on the importance of the ChildLine hotline (800-932-0313) in providing citizens a 24/7 resource to report suspected child abuse or neglect. The need for additional support for child caseworkers, integral to making the system work, was discussed. “These caseworkers experience much stress in carrying out their duties and we need to ensure that the paperwork aspect of their jobs is not redundant or duplicative, but necessary to assess the needs of the children and their families when they need it the most,” DeLissio said. The courts play a critical role in the child welfare system and the Court Improvement Read more

HARRISBURG, March 4 – The House State Government Committee today heard about the vast protections put in place to ensure fraud-free elections in Pennsylvania and other states, according to the committee’s Democratic Chair Margo Davidson, D-Delaware. In its fourth of 14 planned hearings on the settled 2020 election, the committee took testimony from Ohio Secretary of State Frank LaRose and representatives from the Electronic Registration Information Center, Lycoming County’s election board and the Department of State on voter registration. Davidson said the testimony revealed the great protections in Pennsylvania’s registration system and the detailed processes for keeping voter registration lists current. “Ballot access is the single most American ideal Pennsylvania can provide to its citizens, yet the Republican majority has spent decades trying to prevent it from happening,” Davidson said. “New registration tools were put in place in 2019 and for the first time in a long time, people had more options and breathing room to exercise their constitutional right. But it worked so well that the GOP now wants to take it back.” She said questions from her Republican colleagues focused less on registration and more on obscure circumstances, like birth dates that don’t match up because of court orders protecting a voter’s identity, such as with protection from abuse orders. She said that if Republicans did Read more

Pa. state Rep. Joe Webster addressed the rising cost of living and the stagnant minimum wage by pointing out, "Instead of talking about workers, we talk about jobs. Instead of protecting wages, we protect tax rates on major corporations." Read more

In her new capacity as leader of Pennsylvania’s House Democratic Caucus, McClinton has named Philadelphia labor leader Esteban Vera Jr. to SEPTA’s governing board. He is the first Latino to serve on the board. Read more

Current state law allows libraries to use isolated sales – fewer than seven days each year – of used books without paying sales tax as a means of generating additional revenue. Ciresi’s legislation would expand that to allow libraries to sell used books for supplemental income without paying sales tax throughout the year. Read more

Zabel hosts housing forum online Read more

The system in which Pennsylvania pays charter schools for special education is broken. For every special education student who leaves a traditional public school to attend a charter school, their home district is required to reimburse that charter school based on an illogical average cost to educate special education students. Read more

Pa. state Rep. Joe Webster is joining teachers, parents, athletes, and many others to celebrate Read Across America day with a book called "Snake Alley Band." Read more

“The financial commitment outlined at today’s news conference falls in line with legislation I’ve been pushing since the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic, legislation that would provide, has provided and will continue to provide desperately needed help to restaurants and local businesses struggling for the better part of a year,” Ciresi said. Read more