ACLU Legal Director Vic Walczak with plaintiffs Melissa Gass and Ashley Bennett.
Katie Meyer / WITF
Probationers want medical marijuana, the ACLU is on their side
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Emily Previti/PA Post
Katie Meyer / WITF
ACLU Legal Director Vic Walczak with plaintiffs Melissa Gass and Ashley Bennett.
When my editor mentioned Pennsylvanians Against Gerrymandering to me not too long ago, I said I’d never heard of the group over the roughly two years I’ve covered the issue in Pa. Apparently, most people following redistricting here also weren’t familiar, reporters from The Intercept found. They looked into the fledgling group, which has been praised by observers based outside the commonwealth, and produced this story about who funds it and its ties to “lobbyists … previously involved in precisely the kind of gerrymandering the group is supposed to stand against.” -Emily Previti, Newsletter Producer/Reporter
In the courts
Katie Meyer / WITF
ACLU Legal Director Vic Walczak with plaintiffs Melissa Gass and Ashley Bennett. (Katie Meyer / WITF)
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Should people under court-supervised probabion have the right to use marijuana for medical purposes? The ACLU of Pennsylvania thinks so, and is suing Lebanon County to prove its point. “Judges may not agree with the medical marijuana law. They may not support anybody using marijuana. But they must follow the law,” state ACLU Legal Director Vic Walczak said. “The medical marijuana law makes no exceptions for people on probation.” The suit isn’t just about Lebanon County, as half-a-dozen other Pa. counties have the same policy. Read Capitol Bureau Chief Katie Meyer’s story here.
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The state Supreme Court says county judges must disclose more information about how they fill vacant public offices. The court’s recent ruling concluded a five-year fight by The Williamsburg Sun-Gazette to get the list of applicants to succeed former Lycoming County Commissioner Jeff Wheeland. Wheeland left office after winning a seat in the legislature; county judges then picked his replacement via a “private process”, reports the newspaper in its story about the saga.
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A judge from a relatively remote part of northwestern Pennsylvania will handle the resentencing of former Penn State assistant football coach Jerry Sandusky, whose 45-year sentence is getting another look because an appeals court concluded that mandatory minimums had been inappropriately applied the first time around. Judge Maureen Skerda is the president judge of the Warren-Forrest Court of Common Pleas. Skerda replaces Jefferson County Judge John Foradora, who recused himself at the behest of the state Attorne
Best of the rest
Reid R. Frazier / StateImpact Pennsylvania
Alison Cobb asks a question at a PA Department of Health forum on the state’s Washington County cancer study. (Reid Frazier / StateImpactPA)
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Families of people diagnosed with a rare type of cancer in a single, relatively small school district are continuing to press state health officials to investigate further after initial research determined the cases didn’t amount to a cancer cluster. They tried to make their case — including contending that three cases weren’t included in the count — at a public hearing in Canonsburg, Washington County, Monday night, organized by the state Department of Health. Reid Frazier attended and wrote about it for StateImpact Pennsylvania.
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A Susquehanna Polling and Research poll, conducted in partnership with central Pa.’s FOX43, finds a majority of Pennsylvanians now support the impeachment inquiry. It’s close, though: 51 percent say they think the probe has merit, while 46 percent say it’s a charade. Read FOX43’s writeup here, or click to see the survey topline here.
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Speaking of impeachment, many House Republicans, including Pa. Reps. Fred Keller and Scott Perry, say the impeachment inquiry is illigetimate and unfair because the full House of Representatives hasn’t voted to authorize it. PA Post‘s Russ Walker looks into their argument in this news analysis.
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Pennsylvanians won’t have to re-up their “do not call” registration every five years anymore so long as they don’t change their phone number. The change takes effect in two months under a new law that also bans robocalls on holidays, according to this Associated Press report. This is the link to the legislation.
