PA Headlines 10/24/21
NEWPORT (PCTimes) – The Perry County Times is reporting… At least two school boards approved similar resolutions last week urging the state return decisions about masking in schools to “local control,” but also said they would continue to abide by the mask mandates Gov. Tom Wolf’s administration placed on districts at the beginning of the academic year. The Susquenita School Board and the Newport School Board approved resolutions on Oct. 12. Both resolutions use nearly identical wording, and admonish the state departments of Health, and Education for taking such decisions as face masks in school away from local boards.
In each case, the boards said it was a response to parents and community members who were opposed to the mask mandates. Those have been in place since spring 2020 to prevent the spread of COVID-19, the respiratory illness that became a global pandemic. “This is our response to the parents and community members who came out, who were concerned about the mask order,” Susquenita board Vice President Dr. Michael Jones said when introducing the resolution. “And we heard you, and we also agree that we would take a stance with you.”
The resolution contains 16 statements outlining how school boards and the state manage school matters, as well as the particulars of how the state changed its position about mask mandates. The districts said those changes took control out of the hands of local school boards and caused confusion. “Whereas, issuing the order on Aug. 31, 2021, with an effective date of Sept. 7, 2021, caused significant confusion and unnecessary hardship to the district at the start of the school year for students, parents, families, teachers, school employees, administrators, and the Board of School Directors,” Susquenita Superintendent Dr. Jon Fox read from the resolution.
The board did not elaborate what constituted “hardship” in the resolution, nor in the voting meeting. The boards did not say where they got the resolution, which is nearly word-for-word identical. The resolutions object to the “timing and manner” of the state’s mask mandates, according to the text, but goes on to say it is required to and will comply with such mandates until they are overruled by a court or rescinded. There is a pending court case in the issue of mask mandates and schools.
ROME (AP) – AP is reporting…. There’s an intriguing subplot to President Joe Biden’s upcoming meeting with Pope Francis. The world’s two most prominent Roman Catholics will be celebrating a shared outlook on church teaching and vital social issues even as Biden faces unwavering opposition from many U.S. Catholic bishops over his stances on abortion and LGBTQ rights. Less than three weeks after Biden’s visit to the Vatican on Friday, the American bishops will convene in Baltimore, with one of the agenda items inspired in part by conservatives who contend that Biden’s support for abortion rights should disqualify him from receiving Communion. Though any document that emerges is not expected to mention Biden by name, it’s possible there could be a clear message of rebuke. “This is way beyond embarrassing,” said Massimo Faggioli, a professor of historical theology at Villanova University who recently authored a book about Biden and Catholicism. “For some of the bishops, it’s an act of intimidation” toward Biden, Faggioli said. “And they have a pope who is protecting a Catholic president’s access to the sacraments — he’s had to send a signal from the Vatican saying, ‘We don’t think this is wise.’”
The pope upholds Catholic doctrine opposing abortion and same-sex marriage, but he has irked some conservative Catholics in the U.S. and elsewhere by emphasizing other issues that mesh with Biden’s priorities — protecting the environment, combating racial injustice and poverty, for example. The pope and Biden “see eye to eye on many issues,” Faggioli said. “But they both are really embattled, facing very strong headwinds … fighting against different kinds of ideologues.”
Biden is only the second Catholic president of the United States., after John F. Kennedy, and displays his faith openly, often wearing a rosary and attending Mass routinely. The devotion dates to childhood; he has expressed gratitude to the nuns who helped bolster his confidence while he struggled with stuttering as a schoolboy. “Wherever there were nuns, there was home,” he wrote in his 2007 memoir “Promises to Keep.” “My idea of self, of family, of community, of the wider world comes straight from my religion.” His faith was tested, but not weakened, after his wife and baby daughter were killed in a traffic accident in 1972.
PHILADELPHIA (Inquirer) – The Philadelphia Inquirer is reporting… The TV ad is no-holds-barred. It bluntly attacks a decision of the Democratic candidate for Pennsylvania Supreme Court. And on Saturday, the state Bar Association said the spot went too far. The ad says the Democratic contender, Superior Court Judge Maria McLaughlin, “chose to void the guilty plea of a drunk driver who admitted to killing a pregnant woman and her unborn child.”
What the ad doesn’t say is that McLaughlin hadn’t declared the defendant not guilty or thrown out the case. She had merely joined another judge in saying the man’s defense lawyer had bungled his job and that the defendant should be retried. The ad surfaced last week as the race for an open seat on the state Supreme Court took a negative turn in the late stages of the Nov. 2 election. Until then, both Republican Kevin Brobson and McLaughlin, a Democrat, had focused their advertising on positive, if tame, messages about their qualifications. That changed when Brobson, president judge of the statewide Commonwealth Court, launched his Oct. 18 attack ad.
On Saturday, the Bar Association said the ad crossed the line, violating standards of accuracy and integrity in campaign advertising that both campaigns agreed to follow as part of the bar’s candidate evaluation process. In its letter, a copy of which was obtained by The Inquirer, the bar’s Judicial Campaign Advertising Committee said it had directed Brobson’s campaign to “immediately withdraw” the ad. Alternatively, the Brobson campaign can issue a news release clarifying “those portions of the advertisement that the JCAC has found to be in violation of its Guidelines.”
Specifically, the letter says the ad violates the bar’s guidance that campaigns should “refrain from making statements that might be subject to misinterpretation or distortion” and “should not omit or obscure information necessary to prevent misinterpretation.” The Brobson campaign didn’t immediately return messages seeking comment Saturday evening. But in a statement to The Inquirer on Friday, the campaign said the ad is accurate and did not run afoul of Bar Association guidelines. The campaign added that the ad merely “points out our opponent’s record, which she has repeatedly invited voters to do.”
