Trump signs executive order on police reform
By JILL COLVIN, LISA MASCARO and ZEKE MILLER Associated Press
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump has signed an executive order on policing following weeks of national protests after the death of George Floyd. The order is aimed at encouraging best practices and tracking officers with excessive use of force complaints. In the Rose Garden, Trump stressed the need for higher standards and commiserated with mourning families, even as he hailed the vast majority of officers as selfless public servants and held his law-and-order line. The order comes as Senate Republicans prepare to unveil their own package of policing proposals after Democrats did the same.

Police: 3 gun down man in McKeesport
MCKEESPORT, Pa. (AP) — Authorities say three people ambushed and gunned down a man in McKeesport. Police say surveillance video shows 54-year-old George Brosey was walking up the stoop of an acquaintance at Crawford Village when he was approached by a male and shot late Monday night. Police say two other males standing nearby also opened fire. The victim died at the scene. Authorities do not know why the man was targeted. No arrests have been made.

 

Ex-House speaker, a gas industry ally, joins gas utility
HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) — A day after leaving his post as speaker of Pennsylvania’s House of Representatives, Mike Turzai has become general counsel for the Pittsburgh-based natural gas division of Essential Utilities Inc. The company made the announcement Tuesday. Turzai, a suburban Pittsburgh Republican, was an ally of Pennsylvania’s natural gas industry while in office. The Associated Press reported in January that Turzai had received an offer from the company before Turzai announced that he wasn’t running for re-election. In 2017, Turzai announced a run for governor, but dropped out. Turzai was speaker for five and-a-half years, and served as majority leader for four years before that.

Court ordered to look at state police social media policy
HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) — The Pennsylvania Supreme Court says a lower court should have privately reviewed a state police policy that guides troopers’ monitoring of social media before deciding it was OK to block public disclosure of the policy. Tuesday’s ruling came after Commonwealth Court rejected a request from the American Civil Liberties Union that state police disclose details of its policy for monitoring social media to investigate crimes and do employee background checks. The justices said the lower court should have privately examined the redacted portions of the social media monitoring policy before blocking public access. The case now goes back to Commonwealth Court.

Penn State ex-president argues conviction properly tossed
By MARK SCOLFORO Associated Press
HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) — A federal appeals court is considering whether a judge ruled properly last year when she overturned the child endangerment conviction of former Penn State president Graham Spanier. The appeals court on Tuesday focused on whether Spanier was wrongly convicted under a 2007 for how he handled a report from underlings about Jerry Sandusky showering naked and alone with a boy in 2001. Prosecutors want to overturn the lower court’s ruling, which gave them three months to retry Spanier. The three-judge panel of the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals didn’t indicate when it might rule.

Andrea Sears

HARRISBURG, Pa. — The U.S. Supreme Court has ruled that lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender workers are protected from employment discrimination by federal law. Monday’s 6-3 ruling found that firing an employee for being gay or transgender violates Title 7 of the 1964 Civil Rights Act.

According to Omar Gonzalez-Pagan, senior attorney with Lambda Legal, the decision, written by conservative Justice Neil Gorsuch, illustrates how the plain meaning of the law which bans discrimination based on sex clearly includes discrimination based on sexual orientation or transgender status.

“It is really one that is faithful to the text, a roadmap that we laid out for the courts over the years, and we’re ecstatic at this decision,” Gonzalez-Pagan said.

The dissenting justices, Clarence Thomas, Samuel Alito and Brett Kavanaugh, held that Title 7 only applies to discrimination based on gender, not sexual orientation or gender identity.

Gonzalez-Pagan said the ruling will have implications for how other laws are interpreted. That includes last Friday’s announcement by the Department of Health and Human Services that it will reverse a rule prohibiting discrimination against transgender people in health care.

“We have the backup of the Supreme Court for our argument that that rule is not rooted in the law,” he said. “And now it will be that much easier for us to get that rule overturned.”

Lambda Legal and the American Civil Liberties Union have announced they will be challenging the new HHS rule in court as soon as it is published, which is scheduled for this Friday.

Gonzalez-Pagan noted two of the plaintiffs in the lawsuits covered by the Supreme Court ruling – Donald Zarda, a gay man fired from a skydiving school, and Aimee Stephens, a transgender woman fired from a funeral home – died before Monday’s ruling was handed down.

“Justice delayed is justice denied,” he said. “But at least today their sacrifice will help protect many, many, many, many people from discrimination moving forward.”

The Trump administration had sided with the employers in the court cases.

Andrea Sears

HARRISBURG, Pa. — Voting-rights advocates say Pennsylvania has to start making changes now to make the voting process go more smoothly for the general election in November.

Fewer polling places, long lines and delayed or missing absentee ballots were just a few of the problems that plagued th primary election held in the middle of an ongoing public health crisis. Consolidation of polling places caused bottlenecks that led to confusion, long lines and hours of waiting to cast ballots, especially in some low-income and minority areas.

According to John Powers with the voting rights project at the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, state lawmakers need to take steps to give counties more flexibility to manage in-person voting.

“Authorize county boards of election to create vote centers,” Powers said. “Allow for curbside drop-off of ballots and give them the resources they need to make sure they don’t need to consolidate.”

Other recommendations include allowing absentee ballots mailed by election day to be counted up to seven days later and moving up the deadline for processing mail-in votes.

Powers said the Legislature also should take steps to give everyone access to the mail-in voting process.

“Sending absentee-ballot applications to all voters so that voters don’t have to go through the process of having to find absentee-ballot applications online or requesting absentee-ballot applications from election officials,” he said.

He added that county election boards also need additional funding to fully staff polling stations and provide personal protective equipment for workers and voters.

Powers stressed that November really isn’t that far away, and that the primary showed both the Legislature and county election officials need to take corrective actions immediately.

“We saw that waiting too long can result in officials being unprepared to deal with the circumstances that arose,” he said. “And we have to, unfortunately, expect the unexpected in these unique times.”

He encourages anyone who experienced problems with the primary or in preparing for the election in November to call the nonpartisan election protection hotline at 1-866-OURVOTE.