This week’s biggest Winners & Losers

After more than a decade of effort, state Sen. Rosemary Brown finally saw her distracted driving ban reach the finish line this week. Brown’s legislation, which is now Act 18 of 2024, makes using a mobile device a summary offense, which carries a $50 fine. The law is named in memory of Paul Miller Jr., who died in a 2010 motor vehicle accident involving a distracted driver.

There was a bit of a Red Scare in the state Capitol this week when Republican state Rep. Stephanie Borowicz spoke in opposition to a bill that would establish a $3 million grant program to make menstrual hygiene products more accessible in schools. Borowicz took issue with Democrats using the term “menstruating people,” and said the legislation would, perhaps perilously, lead to an expansion of government. “The second aspect of this bill is that it is just another step by the governor and Democrats to have government provide everything for you, which leads to communism,” Borowicz said. “A government big enough to give you everything you want is a government big enough to take everything away.” The bill passed the House despite some GOP opposition, and the whole ordeal even sparked national attention and a meme or two.

Less than two years after he quit his job as a librarian for being told to enforce a policy limiting students’ access to library books, Matthew Good won a national award for that exact decision. Good was recently awarded the 2024 John Phillip Immroth Memorial Award by the Intellectual Freedom Round Table of the American Library Association, a committee focused on promoting and facilitating discussion on library intellectual freedom. Good, who left Donegal Junior High School in 2022 after 14 years with the district, is now an instructional technology librarian at Ursinus College. 

There’s been a lot of activity around the anticipated closure of Philadelphia’s University of the Arts after the university announced it would close on June 7. According to The Philadelphia Inquirer, the institution cited a $40 million financial crisis, and since the announcement was made, University of the Arts President Kerry Walk has resigned, more than 20 employees have sued the school and Temple University is now pondering a potential merger to save the school. Philadelphia City Council is also expected to hold hearings and investigate the closure.

Democrats in the state House railed against their Republican counterparts this week after some GOP lawmakers reportedly left the House floor as U.S. Capitol police officers were being recognized for defending the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. The exit by some GOP lawmakers drew a response from both Democratic lawmakers and Sgt. Aquilino Gonell, one of the two officers being recognized. In a post on X following his trip to Harrisburg, Gonell criticized Republican lawmakers for leaving. “The @PAHouseGOP like many elected officials I helped protect and defend at the U.S. Capitol, have abandoned the truth/sided with those who attacked us, the police, while at the same time saying they support the police and the rule of law. I’m not buying your bridges.”

The motorcyclist who made himself go viral for smashing a woman's windshield and assaulting her near Philadelphia City Hall has been sentenced to up to four years in prison. Cody Heron, who jumped on Nikki Bullock’s car and head-butted her during an incident caught on video last October, pleaded guilty in February to charges of aggravated assault and weapons offenses. He’s now been sentenced to serve one to four years in state prison, with five years of probation after his release.