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Video: Bipartisan lunch with lawmakers: Making elections work better in PA

Building on a series of bipartisan dialogues, join BFA Pennsylvania for the first in our series of “Lunch with Lawmakers” which bring together different perspectives at the intersection of business and politics.

Two of the Pennsylvania House’s most knowledgeable members discuss needed reforms to the way the state conducts its elections. The 2023–24 legislative session in Harrisburg will consider a range of proposals aimed at changing how citizens vote and how election officials tally and report the results. With a new governor, secretary of state, and House speaker governing as an Independent, changes are certain. To shed light on these developments, State Representatives Jared Solomon (D - 202) and Jesse Topper (R - 78) will discuss issues such as voter ID, pre-canvassing absentee ballots, protecting election workers, standardizing the procedures counties use to run elections, clarifying the rules concerning mail-in ballots, and ensuring election integrity.


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Presidential powers: Corporate abuses big concern after SCOTUS move

An oil production operation is shown in North Dakota. With the U.S. Supreme Court granting more presidential powers to the executive branch, environmental groups warned key agencies will have a harder time going after polluters.

(Adobe Stock)

Presidential powers: Corporate abuses big concern after SCOTUS move

A U.S. Supreme Court opinion issued last month expands presidential power over independent federal agencies, prompting warnings from environmental advocates about potential implications for states such as North Dakota.

The court’s conservative majority said President Donald Trump had the authority to fire a former Federal Trade Commission member without cause. Legal observers countered the opinion nullifies longstanding precedent involving the role of Congress in insulating certain federal agency officials from direct presidential control.

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Energy Costs Decide Power — Voters Demand Relief
selective focus photography of light bulb
Photo by ameenfahmy on Unsplash

Energy Costs Decide Power — Voters Demand Relief

Politics, for all its stagecraft and saccharine homilies, is not about "service" or "community" or any of the other treacly euphemisms politicians recite like Gregorian chants. Politics, as Christopher Hitchens might have acidly reminded us, is about power.

The taking of it.

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Composer uses music to connect Latino heritage and environmental justice

Cover Photo: Chris Oquist in Black and White.

Chris Oquist

Composer uses music to connect Latino heritage and environmental justice

CHICAGO — Climate change is often measured through scientific reports and statistics. For Chicago-based composer Chris Oquist, it is something audiences can hear.

On Saturday, Oquist performed “Derivas Liminares” as part of the Chicago Art Department’s fourth annual Contra Corriente Festival. The performance benefited the Pilsen Environmental Rights and Reform Organization (PERRO), a nonprofit that advocates for environmental protections in Pilsen, one of Chicago’s largest Latino neighborhoods. Oquist’s performance was one of several events held during the festival, which centers on environmental and racial justice.

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