Pennsylvania October 2022

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About me, mag & contact info

I m Lisa Vallone. I have been involved with politics & government since my pre-teen years. The majority of my involvement centered around my role as a consultant to help various Party Chairs learn how to run more effective campaigns based on issues as well as training candidates on how to communicate constructively with those in their district. This led me to running for office myself, winning and proudly becoming the voice of my constituents. All of my experience has led me to this platform as I believe it is time we all more extensively educate ourselves on what bills are being considered for law on the State and Federal level. Afterall, we Americans need more than broad stroke concepts with no real meat of the issue for us to digest. We value the efforts of those elected officials and candidates who reach out with Town meetings and other measures to let us know what they are doing or plan to do in office. And we believe they are in the majority. But, we must seek out every avenue to let our Representatives hear our voice so they can better represent us in government.

Based on my background in government, teaching and communications I believe in 3 pillars as the foundation for any discussion (1) Educate yourself, (2) Communicate with others, and (3) Reciprocate respectfully. If we follow these pillars - if we educate ourselves, let our voices be heard in an environment of mutual respect for those in office, those seeking office or those with differing opinions, then we can make a more perfect union.

A couple of notes . . . In this magazine I intentionally leave off the name/ Party affiliation of the person who introduced the bill as we are more than our Party we are Americans looking for responsible government that represents us. Too often when we hear legislation has been proposed by the opposite Party we close our ears or immediately discount it. I do not want that to happen. Only during my podcast will this information be revealed. Here is to the power of people to have the knowledge to know how hard their representatives work to represent them in government.

Email: KnowTheIssuesWithLisaVallone@gmail.com Podcast on Most Platforms: Know The Issues With Lisa Vallone Website: KnowTheIssues.com

trivia quiz?

1. Which Presidential candidate ran for office while in jail: a. Eugene V Debs b. Richard M Nixon

2. The first Native American Congressman was: a. Charles Brent Curtis b. Thomas Ellicott

3. Which President named the “White House” the “White House”? a. Theodore Roosevelt b. Barack Obama

4. In Presidential elections having a height advantage seems to help a candidate as the taller candidate usually wins a. true b. false

5. This Congressman is the only Congressman to have a #1 hit on the Billboards Hot 100 a. Joe Walsh b. Sono Bono

6. Two archrival Presidents died on the same day. Were they a. Adams and Jefferson b. Adams and Washington

7. Glover Cleveland’s first name was actually “Stephen” before he changed it. a. true b. false

Editorial - this is what I m talking about

So you have heard me say this a thousand times “Let your Representatives hear your voice so they can enact needed legislation”. Well that is exactly what one person did and below is the text from the Representative:

“I was contacted by a police officer in my district who informed me that there is a loophole in the laws we have enacted to protect law enforcement officers from coming into contact with saliva and other bodily fluids. Currently, the Crimes Code creates an offense if the law enforcement officer comes into contact with another person’s bodily fluid only if the person is committed to a correctional facility or is being transported to a correctional facility. The Crimes Code does not address the scenario where a person deliberately spits on an officer or causes the officer to come into contact with other bodily fluids where such an act is the primary offense.

I am reintroducing this legislation entitled Harassment of Law Enforcement Officer. This bill provides that if a person intentionally or knowingly causes the officer to come into contact with saliva or other bodily fluid by throwing, tossing, or spitting the bodily fluid, the person would commit a criminal offense. If the individual knew, should have known, or believed such fluid or material had been obtained from an individual who was infected by a communicable disease the offense is a felony of the third degree. In any other situation the offense is graded as a misdemeanor of the first degree.

I hope you will join me in co-sponsoring this legislation.”

All it took was one person to speak up and the legislation, if it has merit, will be crafted.

Cleveland Clinic, University of Colorado Hospital and Boston’s Brigham and Women’s Hospitals are just 3 of a host of hospitals denying organ transplants to patients who have not had the COVID vaccine. Congressional bill S3985 was introduced to prohibit denying an individual from donating or receive an organ because of their COVID-19 vaccination status. It would also prevent Medicare and Medicaid providers from denying services to individuals based on their COVID-19 vaccination status.

The bill is called the Give Life Act (Doss’s Bill,named after a “teenage Texan who was denied a kidney transplant because had had not been vaccinated against COVID-19.” Of note the same Senator who introduced this bill also introduced S3974 to end discrimination in Covid-19 treatments in determining eligibility for monoclonal antibody doses distributed by the Federal Government.

How do y want to be m

Email: KnowTheIssuesWithLisaV

Photo courtesy of Heidi Kaden

Should Patients be mandated to receive the COVID vaccine in order to receive or give an organ transplant?

What does and for other purposes

mean in the bills I read

If you have seen the title of a bill in Congress you may have noticed most say and for other purposes . For example, HR6549 reads To provide debt relief to developing countries with unsustainable levels of debt, and for other purposes. The phrase means all of the title could not fit so they shortened it. It should alert you to the fact that you should always read the entire bill to understand it completely. In this bill for example the and for other purposes includes such elements as standards for equitable burden sharing among all creditors with material claims on each participating debtor; robust debt disclosure; expanded eligibility criteria to include all countries with unsustainable levels of sovereign debt; standards for comprehensive creditor participation consistent with robust application of the policies of the International Monetary Funds relating to lending into arrears; and consistent enforcement and improvement of the policies of multilateral institutions relating to asset-based and revenue-based borrowing by participating debtors, and coordinated standards on restructuring collateralized debt. And that is just a small part of the and for other purposes . So it is important when discussing a bill take the time to read it all.

HR to address the misuse of opioids

by students and student athletes

According to the HHS.gov site in 2019, an estimated 10.1 million people aged 12 or older misused opioids in the past year. And according to the JAMA Network “prescription opioids were implicated in 6561 deaths (73.0%), and the mortality rate increased by 131.3%; methadone alone was implicated in 2358 (35.9%) prescription opioid deaths between 1999 and 2006”.

This is a serious and rapidly growing problem in the United States. This bill, if passed, would award grants, contracts, and cooperative agreements for planning, establishing, or administering programs to prevent and address the misuse of opioids, related drugs, and other drugs commonly used in pain management or injury recovery, as well as the co-use of one or more such drugs with other substances, by students and student athletes. Included in this bill would be the ability to carry out school-based programs and community-based programs, concerning the dangers and misuse and addiction of opioids and related drugs that are commonly used in pain management or injury recovery.

It would also allow for a method for engaging youth, high school, or collegiate athletic and recreation programs and associations concerning these dangers and provide for the training and educating of State and local officials, youth athletics organizers, school administrators and staff, teachers, athletic directors, athletic trainers, coaches, collegiate administrators, directors of campus recreation, and campus-based medical providers, on the signs of misuse of opioids and the options for treatment, including holistic and comprehensive pain management solutions, and prevention of such misuse.

Photo courtesy of Matteo Catanese

Is it possible for someone to pose no threat to another

The natural condition of mankind, according to Hobbes, is a state of war in which life is “solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short” because individuals are in a “war of all against all”

HB135 is a bill that stated “Individuals who pose no risk to society should be allowed an opportunity for parole. To that end, (the Representative) will be reintroducing legislation that would create a chance for those individuals after 25 or 35 years, dependent upon their conviction, and would extend retroactively to anyone currently serving an eligible sentence.

How do you feel about this bill? Want to be a guest on my podcast? Write knowtheissueswithlisavallone@gmail.com

Photo courtesy of Jonathan Rivera

Making the skys and property safe from sky candles

If you have never heard of “sky candles” they are devices that use a small open-flame object or other device to cause a paper or plastic balloon to inflate and rise. When my husband passed I had everyone light a sky candle and release it at the cemetery. Regrettably I did not think about the changing winds and where this device could land. As it so happened, one of the sky candles landed in a tree next to the chemical recycling plant and began to burn. Later I found out that my incident is not alone as many sky laterns have caused destruction after release including a sky lantern released in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, that ended up burning 800 acres.

HB 93 we follow the recommendation of the National Association of State Fire Marshals and adhere to the International Fire Code and ban the release of sky lanterns into Pennsylvania's airspace.

Photo courtesy of Vidar Nordli-Mathisen

Editorial: We are all perfectly imperfect

It wasn’t that long ago that a madman murdered millions of people because they did not fit into his “perfect race” theory. I would like to think we are better than that - that we value the imperfection in each of us . And yet it seems that many of us have not embrassed the idea of humanity as in Iceland nearly 100 percent of the women who learn their child may have Down syndrome choose abortion. In Demark that number is 98 percent and here in the United States we have a 67% rate of pregnancy termination if there is a chance the child will have Down Syndrome. And the countries I mentioned are not alone as I can go through the list of many major developed countries with similar statistics. And that is why I am proud of House bill 1500 which amends the Title 18 (Crimes and Offenses) of the Pennsylvania Consolidated Statutes to say that an abortion shall not be deemed a necessary abortion if any of the following apply: (i) The abortion is sought [solely] because of the sex of the unborn child or (ii) The abortion is sought because the unborn child receives a prenatal diagnosis of Down syndrome. And that anyone who intentionally violates this provision will have committed a crime and in the case of a physican can have his or her license revoked.

Regardless of your view on abortion can we all agree that its time we stop being madmen and realize the only super race is the human race - flaws and all - gender and all or gender and none. We should unite in this thought. I would like to know your opinion.

Write me at knowtheissueswithlisavallone@gmail.com

Protecting pet sales

HB 1299 5572. This bill is named “Victoria’s Law” after Victoriaa disabled German Shepherd who was rescued from a puppy mill after 10 years of breeding.

The legislation was crafted to prohibit the sale of commercially raised dogs, cats, and rabbits in pet stores across Pennsylvania unless the animals come from shelters and rescues

(a) Requirement.--An individual required to possess a Federal, State or local license to breed or broker dogs shall prominently include that individual's name or business name as registered with the licensing agency and each applicable Federal, State or local license number in the text of an advertisement offer for the sale of a dog through a newspaper, posting, the mail, an Internet website or another form of media.

(b) Penalty.--An individual who violates subsection (a) shall be subject to a civil penalty of $100 for each advertisement offer.

§ 5573. Sales by pet shops.

(a) Offense defined.--No pet shop may offer for sale a dog, cat or rabbit. Subsection (a) shall not be construed to prohibit a pet shop from providing space to an animal care facility or animal rescue organization if:

(1) the animal care facility or animal rescue organization offers dogs, cats or rabbits for adoption in accordance with the adoption procedures of section 902-A of the Dog Law; (2) the pet shop does not have an ownership interest in the animals offered; and

(3) the pet shop does not receive a fee for providing space for the adoption of an animal.

(c) Grading.--A violation of this section is a summary offense punishable by a fine of not less than $500 per animal offered for sale in violation of this section.

Answers to trivia quiz

1. Which President . . .:

a. Socialist candidate Eugene V Debs was in federal prison when he ran for office and although he lost he still received 900,000 votes (3.4% of the vote)

2. First Native American Congressman . . . .

a. Charles Brent Curtis starting in 1893. (Native American on his mother’s side) He was also the 1st and only Native American VP, having been on the winning ticket with Hoover. Interestingly enough Native Americans were not given the right to vote until the Snyder Act of 1924.

3. Which President named it the “White House” . . .

a. Theodore Roosevelt officially named it the White House. Prior to him taking office, the White House had different names including the “President’s Palace,” which sounded a bit like a throwback to England’s royalty, the “President’s House” and the “Executive Mansion.”

4. Taller candidate . . .

a. true. In the thirty-one presidential elections between 1900 and 2020, twenty-one of the 31 winning candidates have been taller than their opponents. In the JFK-Nixon televised debate voters are said to have thought JFK won the debate due to not only has tanned and relaxed look but also because of his height advantage.

5. This Congressman is the only Congressman to have a #1 hit on the Billboards Hot 100 b. Sonny Bono holds that title with his hit “I got you Babe” which stayed at #1 for 3 weeks.

6. Two archrival Presidents died on the same day. Were they a. Adams and Jefferson. The feud between these two Presidents is said to have begun over a disagreement regarding the Declaration of Independence. Adams thought the day to celebrate should be July 2nd as that is when the actual vote for Independence took place. Jefferson however argued that July 4th should be the date to celebrate as that is when the Declaration of Independence was adopted. Jefferson won that argument. Oddly enough both Presidents died on July 4, 1826 - 50 years after the adoption of the Declaration.

7. Grover Cleveland’s 1st name was actually Stephen. . . a. True. Does Stephen Cleveland have the same ring to you?

SB62 - protecting employees at non-

secure youth shelters

“Non-secure youth shelters play a critical role in managing a child’s welfare by providing a range of services for dependent children, as well as young people who are under the jurisdiction of the delinquency system. Unfortunately (at the time this bill was introduced), Pennsylvania law does not allow a young person who becomes violent with shelter employees to be charged with aggravated assault unless that child is already in the delinquency system. There is an exhaustive list of individuals who are protected from assault under 18 Pa. C.S. §2702(c), including teachers, police officers, members of the General Assembly, the Governor, correctional facility employees, and others.”

How do you feel about this legislation?