La Salle University Officially Opens Learning Commons at the Connelly Library
(Philadelphia) April 4, 2019 – La Salle University (“La Salle” or the “University”) today held a ribbon cutting ceremony to officially open its new Learning Commons at the Connelly Library, capping off an extensive renovation process to update the existing Connelly...
Democratic senators commemorate Martin Luther King Jr. by turning attention to Pa. poverty
Three days after Martin Luther King Jr. delivered a speech to more than 10,000 gathered at the corner of 40th and Lancaster Avenues on Aug. 3, 1965, the civil rights legend signed the historic Voting Rights Act. On Thursday, 51 years after King was assassinated in...
Haywood Lauds State Treasurer Torsella’s Retirement Security Report
PHILADELPHIA, Pennsylvania, March 28 — The Pennsylvania Senate Democrats issued the following news release on behalf of Pennsylvania State Sen. Art Haywood, D-Montgomery/Philadelphia: State Sen. Art Haywood (D-Montgomery/Philadelphia) yesterday applauded the...
Pa. needs auto-IRA plans to boost retirement savings: Treasurer Torsella
Pennsylvania may be the next state to propose automatic-savings plans for workers, according to the treasurer, Joseph Torsella. Large numbers of Pennsylvanians are unprepared for retirement, and insufficient savings will affect their own lives and the state budget,...
New women’s pro basketball team to play in Chestnut Hill
By Brendan Sample With the introduction of the Philadelphia Reign of the Women’s Basketball Development Association, the City of Philadelphia will welcome its first professional women’s basketball team in more than 20 years. The team was officially introduced at a...
Package of bills co-sponsored by Sen. Judy Schwank aims to help farmers markets
HARRISBURG, PA — Senate Democrats are sponsoring a three-bill legislative package designed to provide additional tax credits to farmers, encourage the use of locally sourced food and expand farmers markets. The prime sponsors of the package are state Sen. Judy Schwank...
Senate Democrats push three-part bill to aid farmers
Senate Democrats have announced that they are sponsoring a three-bill legislative package designed to provide additional tax credits to farmers, encourage the use of locally sourced food and expand farmers’ markets. State Sen. Vincent J. Hughes...
First blood tests in Bucks, Montco show above-average contamination after tainted water
By Laura McCrystal and Justine McDaniel
Residents in Bucks and Montgomery Counties who participated in a blood-testing program because their drinking water was contaminated by chemicals on nearby military bases have a dramatically higher presence of some chemicals in their blood than the general U.S. population — in the case of one chemical, five times more than the typical American.
Haywood Calls for Raising the Minimum Wage
Stacy M. Brown | Tribune Harrisburg Correspondent
Raising the minimum wage in Pennsylvania would go a long way in the fight against poverty, particularly in Philadelphia where the poverty rate is the highest of any big city in the United States, state Sen. Art Haywood said Tuesday during a news conference at the Capitol Rotunda in Harrisburg.
Let’s reduce poverty in Philadelphia
The Philadelphia Tribune
The first step toward a solution is admitting there is a problem.
We have a serious problem with poverty in our city.
New office buildings and gentrified neighborhoods tell only part of the story of what is happening in our city.
Raising minimum wage will cut poverty
By Senator Art Haywood | The Philadelphia Tribune
I read the “Broke in Philly” feature in the Sunday Philadelphia Tribune. I agree that fair funding of Philadelphia schools is a priority for lawmakers. We are aware that about 275,000 adults in Philadelphia have incomes below the poverty level. About 136,000 hardworking Philadelphians work in poverty-pay jobs earning less than $10.10 per hour, according to the Keystone Research Center.
Danger at the faucet
The Blade | Editorials
As 50,000 students returned to Detroit Public Schools earlier this month, they found themselves without running water. Tests had found elevated levels of lead in the schools’ drinking water.
“I am turning off all drinking water in our schools until a deeper and broad analysis can be conducted to determine the long-term solutions,” Superintendent Nikolai Vitti told the Detroit community.
Legislative Report for September 10, 2018
Have you “friended” a pocket park lately?
September 7, 2018 | By Philadelphia Sun Staff
The Mt. Airy Business Improvement District is proud to announce a third pocket park was installed recently on Germantown Avenue — at the intersection of Pelham and Germantown avenues, transforming yet another vacant corner into an asset that draws people to the commercial corridor to shop, do business, and dine.
Wolf urges legislature to support workplace protections against sexual harassment and discrimination
TheProgressNews.com | September 6, 2018 HARRISBURG — Gov. Tom Wolf on Thursday renewed his call for passage of a package of reforms he announced in April that will strengthen protections against sexual harassment and discrimination for employees, provide new legal...
Haywood: New Law Prompts Testing for Lead in Drinking Water in Schools
WLRI
On July 18, 2018 Sen. Art Haywood (D-Philadelphia/Montgomery) said that provisions in the recently enacted School Code will prompt school districts to test for lead in drinking water in Pennsylvania schools.
“A 2014 study by the state Department of Health found that 18 communities across Pennsylvania have children who have tested positive for increased levels of lead,” Haywood said. “We must do what we can to reduce exposure to lead and ensure that school facilities do not have lead in drinking water.”
Starting this year, Pa. schools must test lead in drinking water, or explain why not
WHHY | BY SARA HOOVER
Many thought lead in drinking water was a problem of the past — until the water contamination crisis in Flint, Michigan, a few years back.
And then a U.S. Government Accountability Office survey polled school districts across the country on testing for lead in drinking water in 2017. Fewer than half of those surveyed did testing; of those that did, more than a third found elevated levels.
