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Jesse White

Wednesday, April 24, 2013

Social Media Privacy Protection Act Moving Forward in State House

Password-protected access could give employers information they could never ask about otherwise under federal law, such as whether you are pregnant or ill, state Rep. Jesse White, D-Cecil said.

The rapid change of technology creates problems never anticipated by all levels of government, which are often slow to adapt. If someone had suggested ten years ago a need to consider how Facebook and Twitter impacted our daily lives, people would have considered them crazy, mainly because Facebook and Twitter hadn’t even been invented yet. As technology advances and social media makes the world a smaller and in many ways more intimate place, we have to consider what the appropriate lines should be for protecting personal privacy as it relates to the workplace. Just how much should your employer really be allowed to know about you so long as it doesn’t impact your job performance? Personally, I believe your employer or prospective employer…

Friday, April 19, 2013

Ask the Attorney: Getting a Protection from Abuse Order

Q: I am stuck in an abusive situation and I have had enough. How can I take action to protect myself, and hold my abuser accountable?

Depending on your circumstances, you may be able to seek a Protection from Abuse Order, or PFA, from the local courts.  A PFA, which is also commonly referred to as a restraining order, makes it a criminally punishable offense for an abuser to continue their abuse, harass or even contact you. It puts an abuser on notice that there will be serious consequences if they do not stay away from you. A court’s decision to issue a PFA depends on the relationship of the alleged abuser to the victim, and on the nature of the alleged abuse. The law is designed to protect children and victims who suffer abuse at the hands of people who are, or once were close to them.  Thus, spouses, ex-spouses, family members, current or past romantic partners, or …

Thursday, April 18, 2013

Payday Lending is Just a Really Bad Idea

The U.S. Department of Defense conducted a comprehensive report on payday lending and concluded the average borrower pays back $864 for a $339 loan.

During the course of each two-year session of the Pennsylvania state Legislature, more than 2,000 different bills will be drafted and introduced, but only a handful will ever see any formal legislative action. The system is set up to make it extremely difficult to get a bill all the way through the process and signed into law. In theory, bad bills never make it very far and only the good bills survive. Unfortunately, every once in a while a really bad bill works slips through the cracks before anyone realizes what happened. One of the best examples out there would be the push to legalize “payday loans” in Pennsylvania. A bill to legalize this practice passed the House last year (I voted ‘no’) and died in the Senate, but will likely be …

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Amanda Gillooly

8:31 am on Monday, April 22, 2013

Mr. Ellipses - yes sir it was. Deleted! Thank you for bringing it to my attention!   more ›

Wednesday, April 17, 2013

White: DEP Ignored Open Records Request Regarding Range Resources' Worstell Impoundment

The state lawmaker blasted the DEP, while state Sen. Tim Solobay said he met with the department and it is doing what it can to ensure companies in the Marcellus Shale industry, as well as all industries, 'not only do it right, but safely.'

It's been more than a week since state Rep. Jesse White made a formal state Right to Know request for information associated with the Range Resources waste water impoundment in Cecil Township. And the Democratic lawmaker from Cecil said Tuesday afternoon that he has yet to get a response from the state agency. White made a request for permits and other documents associated with the site after news surfaced that there was a 30-gallon leak from a storage tank located near the impoundment on Swihart Road. The Right to Know law stipulates that a public agency has five business days to respond to requests. If an agency does not respond in that time period, the request is deemed denied. The five-day period was over as of the end of the business …

Jamie Jones

8:24 pm on Friday, April 19, 2013

I am of the opinion that if you want to leave comments, you should put your name where your mouth is. Somebody call the waaambulance for Chartiers Resident.   more ›

Tuesday, April 16, 2013

Bill Protecting Social Media Users Heads to Full House For Vote

The bill will prohibit employers from requiring social media users to reveal usernames and passwords.

A bill that would prohibit employers from requiring social media users to reveal usernames and passwords as a condition of employment was reported out of the House Labor and Industry Committee today. House Bill 1130, also known as the Social Media Privacy Protection Act, was introduced by state Rep. Jesse White, D-Cecil, and approved 25-0. It is now headed to the full House of Representatives for consideration. White said he introduced the legislation after the practice made national headlines last year, when a state corrections officer in Maryland complained that the Department of Public Safety & Correctional Services sought his password to search personal Facebook posts during a re-certification interview. As a result, Maryland became …

Saturday, April 13, 2013

Local State Representative to Introduce Bill Banning Marcellus Shale Wastewater Impoundments

State Rep. Jesse White, D-Cecil, is seeking co-sponsors for the bill to will introduce.

One local lawmaker wants the state to ban Marcellus Shale wastewater impoundments—or frac ponds—and began seeking co-sponsors Friday for a bill he intends to introduce on the matter. "Wastewater impoundments are NOT an industry best practice, as per the industry itself. The new Center for Sustainable Shale Development, which includes industry partners Shell, Chevron, CONSOL and EQT, recently identified eliminating wastewater impoundments as one of their performance standards," state Rep. Jesse White, D-Cecil, wrote in a memor to colleagues on Friday. "Unfortunately, less reputable operators will not be bound by these standards and will continue to dump this hazardous material in this highly dangerous manner. Wastewater impoundments are …

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Amanda Gillooly

10:19 pm on Monday, April 15, 2013

Come on - let's keep it on topic, please.   more ›

Wednesday, April 10, 2013

White Named Humane Society ‘Representative of the Year’

The representative accepted the award on Tuesday.

State Rep. Jesse White on Tuesday accepted the Humane Society of the United States’ award for “Humane Representative of the Year” for 2012. The award is given out annually to select state legislators across the United States who pursue meaningful legislation and awareness efforts related to animal issues. Sarah Speed, state director of the Pennsylvania chapter of the Humane Society, presented the award to White at a ceremony at the state Capitol. Speed said White was given the award because of his local and legislative work on issues related to animal shelters. "We are thrilled to present Representative Jesse White with our Humane Representative of the Year award for 2012 in recognition of his efforts to increase shelter adoptions,” Speed …

Dawn

11:21 pm on Thursday, April 11, 2013

Great job and congrats! Keep helping to save our 4 legged babies!!! When is the PetExpo? I def want to make it this year!   more ›

Monday, April 8, 2013

White Files Right-to-Know Request with DEP Regarding Range Resources Impoundment in Cecil

'This isn’t a witch hunt; Cecil Township and its residents simply deserve to find out what’s happening in their own backyards without any lies, word games or industry spin,' the lawmaker said.

State Rep. Jesse White filed a right-to-know request with the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection on Friday in an effort to ascertain the circumstances leading to a natural gas drilling impoundment’s reclassification from a freshwater impoundment to a hazardous waste site. It also was reported last week that in September, DEP officials and representatives from Range Resources discussed the impoundment, and a possible leak there, in a private meeting. According to the same report, Cecil Township supervisors and residents were never made aware of the meeting or the reclassification of the impoundment, located off Swihart Road. "Questions need answered about the Worstell Impoundment, and fast," said White, DCecil. "Why was …

Ed Vicheck

1:39 pm on Wednesday, April 10, 2013

The only information I have to go off of about the Cornerstone care case is what I have read in the articles on the Patch, in the OR, PG, and other print media. But it was amazing how Range attacked Jesse White, when he said nothing about Hydraulic Fracturing being a definite cause to the problem. The only thing I took away from those articles was the owners and Mr. White wanted answers and since…   more ›

Friday, April 5, 2013

Ask the Attorney: Marital Annulment

Q: How can I get my marriage annulled, and how is that different from a divorce?

Whereas divorce is the procedure for ending a valid marriage, an annulment ends a marriage that is legally invalid.  In Pennsylvania, marriages must meet certain requirements to be legal. For example, neither spouse may already be married to another person at the time of marriage, spouses cannot be closely related to one another, and each spouse must have the mental ability to consent to marry. When such requirements are not satisfied, the resulting marriage may eventually be subject to an annulment. Pennsylvania law divides invalid marriages into two categories: void marriages, and voidable marriages.  Void marriages are invalid from the start, and the law treats them as if they never existed at all. By contrast, the law recognizes …

Wednesday, April 3, 2013

Representin'

Ten Policy Points You Need to Know About

Did you know for example that Mental Health First Aid USA estimates that approximately 7 percent of police contact involves a mentally ill person and 10 percent to 15 percent of incarcerated individuals are mentally ill.

Often times when debating or discussing politics and policy, facts are tossed aside in favor of more emotional arguments. Even worse, when one side of a legitimate but spirited debate falters, it has somehow become acceptable to either refuse to accept the facts as accurate. Others strive to find flaws in an effort to have two wrongs make a right. By way of experimentation, here are ten totally unrelated facts about issues we deal with in Pennsylvania government. Let’s see what happens… 1. Mental Health First Aid USA estimates that approximately 7 percent of police contact involves a mentally ill person and 10 percent to 15 percent of incarcerated individuals are mentally ill. 2. A 90-minute incident on a typical interstate results in $120…

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