Judge removes five Pa. school board members in response to masking opponents’ petition
PHILADELPHIA — A Chester County, Pennsylvania, judge has ordered the removal of five of the nine West Chester school board members, granting a petition from residents opposed to masking requirements.
In an order Tuesday, Judge William Mahon said the five members — Sue Tiernan, Joyce Chester, Kate Shaw, Karen Herrmann and Daryl Durnell — were removed after failing to respond to the February petition.
The petition was filed by Beth Ann Rosica, a West Chester parent who has opposed district pandemic measures and who is executive director of Back to School PA, the pro-school reopening political action committee backed by a Bucks County donor who poured hundreds of thousands of dollars into school board races across the state in November.
One of the five members ordered to be removed, Chester, a Democrat, won reelection in November with 5,400 votes, or 63% of the vote in her region, compared to 3,100 votes for her Republican challenger.
Similar petitions are pending against board members in four other Chester County school districts, including Downingtown, Great Valley, Tredyffrin/Easttown and Coatesville, Rosica said.
—The Philadelphia Inquirer
Retirement savings bill passes House as Senate deliberates
WASHINGTON — The House passed a bipartisan package aimed at growing Americans’ retirement savings Tuesday evening, sending it to the Senate with broad bipartisan backing.
The bill passed on a 415-5 vote, with just a handful of Republicans voting against it. Ahead of the vote, the Ways and Means Committee added changes to expand and simplify an incentive for low-income savers, incorporate pieces of a similar measure from House Education and Labor Committee leaders and shift effective dates later to account for the year that’s gone by since its introduction.
“In this bill, we take serious steps to address the savings gap,” Rep. Kevin Brady of Texas, the ranking Republican on the Ways and Means Committee, said during a call with reporters. He put forward the legislation with panel Chairman Richard E. Neal, D-Mass.
Brady said it would serve as a “smart, meaningful next step” following a 2019 retirement savings law. That package made changes including raising the age when Americans must start taking money out of their retirement accounts to 72; requiring employers to offer part-time workers access to 401(k) plans; removing barriers for businesses to band together to offer retirement plans in order to cut costs; and allowing annuity options in retirement plans, which are essentially insurance contracts that pay out regularly during retirement.
—CQ-Roll Call
Great white shark killed bodyboarder off California coast
LOS ANGELES — Tomas Abraham Butterfield headed into the Pacific Ocean with his wetsuit, fins and a bodyboard around 10 a.m. Christmas Eve. He was visiting his mother in Morro Bay last Christmas. The waters were turbulent at the spot known to locals as "the Pit" just north of Morro Rock, but Butterfield was an avid outdoor enthusiast.
Less than 45 minutes later, a surfer spotted Butterfield's body floating in the water. He was 42.
Investigators determined that a shark bit Butterfield on multiple parts of his body, according to a San Luis Obispo County coroner's report released March 16. The California Department of Fish and Wildlife would later confirm through DNA samples that it was an approximately 16-foot great white shark. Butterfield was bitten on his head, right shoulder and the right side of his chest, according to the autopsy report that was first reported by the San Luis Obispo Tribune earlier this week after a public records request.
Butterfield died within minutes of the attack, according to pathologist Dr. Joye Carter's findings. His official death was listed as "complications of multiple penetrating blunt force trauma injuries."
—Los Angeles Times
Breakaway Georgian region of South Ossetia to vote on joining Russia
MOSCOW — The region of South Ossetia, which broke away from Georgia, wants to vote on a possible integration into the Russian Federation.
The ruler of the region in the South Caucasus, Anatoly Bibilov, said on Russian state television on Wednesday that a referendum would be necessary for such a step. However, this would not be "very difficult" to organize.
Bibilov also said, "I believe that unification with Russia is our strategic goal."
Russia had recognized South Ossetia as an independent state in 2008 after a war on Georgia — just like the region of Abkhazia — and stationed thousands of soldiers in the region.
South Ossetia's parliamentary leader, Alan Tadtayev, told the Russian state news agency TASS that the referendum should be held "in the near future."
Russia launched a war of aggression against neighboring Ukraine on Feb. 24, justifying it among other things with an alleged "liberation" of the eastern Ukrainian separatist regions of Donetsk and Luhansk.
—dpa
