At the request of a handful of residents Pittsburgh City Council held a public hearing to discuss the case for reparations to black Pittsburgh residents Wednesday afternoon.

For the hearing’s first speaker and founder of the New African Independence Party Khalil Raheem, reparations means using a formal apology, policy changes, or even cash to address the barrier’s created by systemic racism.

The Wolf Administration Thursday announced the final details of a proposal that would bump overtime pay for almost 400,000 workers in the state, despite the objections of many state business leaders.

The proposal, first introduced in January of last year, must still go before the Independent Regulatory Review Commission for scrutiny. But as proposed it would raise the upper limit for those workers who must be paid overtime from $455 per week to $875 per week, representing $45,500 annually.

A new powerful oversight committee is scheduled to meet publicly for the first time next week to release its findings on a lobbying disclosure law enacted last year.

 

The House Government Oversight Committee will hold a public hearing on Monday, Oct. 21 on their investigation into Act 2 of 2018, legislation that strengthened reporting requirements and increased penalties for those lobbying state government officials.

Philadelphia City Council jumped into the electronic cigarettes debate through legislation introduced Thursday, which will limit sales of flavored and e-cigs with high concentrations of nicotine salts to adult-only stores requiring customers to verify their age of 18 or older.
 
The bill comes one day after Mayor Jim Kenney (D) and Health Commissioner Dr. Thomas Farley announced the pursuit of new regulations. There have been increased reports locally and nationally of people injured and dying from using electronic tobacco products.

Pennsylvania State System of Higher Education officials have been clear that many moves in the first year of chancellor Dan Greenstein’s term have been about winning back the trust of the General Assembly, with an eye towards boosting dwindling state support.

It appears that PASSHE is looking to cash in their chips and ask for a one-time infusion of cash to help support the system’s reorganization efforts, something lawmakers told The PLS Reporter they could tentatively support.