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Lawyers, guns and money

  • Emily Previti/PA Post
The team known informally as the

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The team known informally as the "environmental strike force," in 1974. Front row, left to right: Elissa Parker; Barb Brandon; Pat McGinley; Bill Eichbaum; Jack Krill; Betsy McCoubrey; Tom Burke; Dennis Coyne; Dennis Strain. Second row, left to right: Eric Pearson; Paul Burroughs; Maxine Woelfling; Bill Oberdorfer; John Carroll; Karin Carter; Tom Oravetz; Bob Shusterman; Fran Dubrowski; Dennis Harnish; Ward Kelsey. Back row, left to right: Gene Dice; Tim Weston; Doug Blazey; Doug White (behind Blazey); Drew Dorfman; Dick Ehmann; Terry Bossert; Bob Yuhnke; Jim Rochow; Ralph Kates; Mike Alushin.

Neshaminy School District can keep its high school mascot in name only, under an order from the Pennsylvania Human Relations Commission. The PHRC says the school must stop using “any and all logos and imagery … that negatively stereotype Native Americans,” The Philadelphia Inquirer reports. Monday’s decision comes after years of controversy over school officials’ resistance to dropping the “Redskins” moniker, despite student complaints culminating in the 2013 lawsuit that led to the PHRC’s involvement. -Emily Previti, PA Post Reporter

Enviro law pioneers, a gun hearing, and raises for legislators

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The team known informally as the “environmental strike force,” in 1974. Front row, left to right: Elissa Parker; Barb Brandon; Pat McGinley; Bill Eichbaum; Jack Krill; Betsy McCoubrey; Tom Burke; Dennis Coyne; Dennis Strain. Second row, left to right: Eric Pearson; Paul Burroughs; Maxine Woelfling; Bill Oberdorfer; John Carroll; Karin Carter; Tom Oravetz; Bob Shusterman; Fran Dubrowski; Dennis Harnish; Ward Kelsey. Back row, left to right: Gene Dice; Tim Weston; Doug Blazey; Doug White (behind Blazey); Drew Dorfman; Dick Ehmann; Terry Bossert; Bob Yuhnke; Jim Rochow; Ralph Kates; Mike Alushin.

  • Nearly half a century after Pennsylvania’s first crop of state government environmental attorneys laid the foundation for enforcement, some of them are eyeing ways to lend an informal assist to regulators working with ever-dwindling resources. Former StateImpact Pennsylvania reporter Marie Cusick profiles Pa.’s “environmental strike force,” as the group was informally known, in this freelance piece.

  • State laws requiring defendants in contested protection from abuse cases to surrender their firearms took effect last spring. But there are notable limitations on enforcement and measuring impact. That was one of the main takeaways from a public hearing in State College Monday, one of five meant to inform the work for the state’s Special Council on Gun Violence. PA Post’s Ed Mahon, who has been following the issue, was there. His story is here.

  • State lawmakers will get a 1.9 percent raise next year, Marc Levy reports for The Associated Press. Marc notes Pa.’s legislative salaries rank third nationally: an average base of $90,300, not including per diems and pension and other benefits. Read more here.

  • LNP reporter Alex Geli found the state has paid out more than $1.3 million in retirement benefits to nine Lancaster County educators who lost their teaching licenses over serious allegations — including, in some cases, convictions for child pornography possession and sexual assault. The full investigation is here.

Best of the rest

Susan Walsh / AP Photo

First Lady Melania Trump poses with the 2019 White House Christmas tree as it is delivered to the White House in Washington, Monday, Nov. 25, 2019. The Douglas fir is approximately 23 feet tall and was grown by Larry Snyder, third from left, at Mahantongo Valley Farms in Pennsylvania. (Susan Walsh / AP Photo)


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Episode 53: Legislative avalanche