LOWER BUCKS COUNTY, PA — As the PA State Budget impasse continues, Lower Bucks County Democratic lawmakers have sent a message to their GOP colleagues to make a deal.
State Sen. Steve Santarsiero held a press conference late last week with fellow Democrats, calling for an end to the impasse, which is nearing 120 days since the June 30 state budget deadline.
State Senator Steve Santarsiero believes managing cell phone use is needed to help mitigate the impacts on Pennsylvania students.
He hosted a panel Thursday night at Bucks County Community College to engage the community in a discussion about the benefits of cell phone-free schools.
Alongside Santarsiero, Bucks County Commissioner Diane Ellis Marseglia; Kirstin McGowan, Parent and Advocate with Wait Until 8th; Christie Besack, Central Bucks West High School Psychology teacher, and Kassandra Castillo, Bucks County Community College student, covered the impacts of cell phone use on students, the benefits of cell phone bans, and different policies regarding cell phone use.
(TNS) — The state Senate is poised to move forward on legislation to restrict cellphones in K-12 schools, although the specifics of the policy — whether an outright ban, or something less stringent — are still being worked out.
At a hearing held by the Senate Education Committee Tuesday, the majority of those who testified supported some type of statewide rule restricting student phone use, although details on the restrictions are expected to be left up to school districts.
Harrisburg, Pa. — Citing the steep decline in youth mental health and academic performance during the past decade, Sens. Devlin Robinson (R-37), Vince Hughes (D-7), and Steve Santarsiero (D-10) announced yesterday the introduction of bipartisan legislation requiring Pennsylvania schools to adopt policies prohibiting student cellphone use during the school day.
Each individual school district will be responsible for crafting a policy that works best for their community.
BUCKINGHAM TOWNSHIP, PA – State Senator Steve Santarsiero (D-10) and State Rep. Tim Brennan (D-29) are teaming up to host an Electronics Recycling event on Saturday, Oct. 4 in Central Bucks County.
The event will take place from 10 a.m. to noon at Central Bucks East High School, 2804 Holicong Road, Doylestown. Residents are encouraged to bring small appliances, printers, computers, laptops, VCRs, mics, wires and random metal items for recycling.
State Sen. Steve Santarsiero, a Democrat, will host the event Thursday, Sept. 25, at 7:30 p.m. in the Zlock Auditorium at the Bucks County Community College’s Newtown Township campus.
The event will feature a panel to share information and resources regarding the impact of smartphones and other mobile devices on students in school and the potential benefits of banning their use during school hours.
ABC/Disney’s craven decision to cancel Jimmy Kimmel should worry all Americans.
The fact that yet another corporation has caved under pressure from the Trump Administration is concerning enough. That the pressure was in direct response to Mr. Kimmel voicing his opinion about the motives of the man who killed Charlie Kirk is what is truly dangerous about this situation. Brendan Carr, the MAGA chair of the FCC — the agency with regulatory authority over the network — threatened ABC, unless it acted against the comedian.
State Senator Steve Santarsiero (D-10) hosted state Department of Transportation officials on a road tour around the 10th Senate District, announcing planned roadway repair projects, highlighting needed improvements, and applauding work that has recently been completed.
The road tour covered an expansive portion of the district, with six stops and dozens of roads featured along the route. In conjunction with the road tour, Senator Santarsiero has shared an inventory of roads in the 10th Senate District with specific requests for repair. The list is compiled on a rolling basis, and regularly shared with PennDOT, and includes submissions from constituents and municipalities.
Local Democratic lawmakers called the Republican State Senate transit bill, which failed to pass a Thursday night vote, a “Band-Aid” for SEPTA funding that didn’t offer a sustainable long-term solution during a press conference hosted by State Sen. Steve Santarsiero at the Yardley Train Station on Thursday.
Alongside Santarsiero, State Reps. Perry Warren, Tina Davis, Brian Munroe, Jim Prokopiak and Bucks County Commissioner Bob Harvie spoke about the impact SEPTA’s service cuts will have on their constituents.
BUCKS COUNTY, PA — Gov. Josh Shapiro appeared in Falls Township late last week to help launch the new high-tech Amazon data center.
State Sen. Steve Santarsiero joined Shapiro Thursday at the site of the new data center at the North Point Keystone Trade Center on the former US Steel property.
LOWER BUCKS COUNTY — State Sen. Steve Santarsiero is taking it to the streets.
The senator will host PennDOT representatives as he takes his annual road tour on Thursday around the 10th Senate District, which includes parts of Lower Bucks County.
BUCKS COUNTY, PA — State Senator Steve Santarsiero (D-10) will be hitting the road with officials with the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation (PennDOT) during a summer road tour on Thursday through the 10th Senatorial District, which stretches from Buckingham south to Tullytown.
The road tour will include several stops to discuss high-priority repairs and improvements, beginning in the morning in Lower Bucks County and concluding with stops in Central Bucks County in the afternoon.
BUCKINGHAM TOWNSHIP, PA — Buckingham Township has been awarded a $2 million grant from the Pennsylvania Infrastructure Investment Authority (Pennvest) to build a new PFAS remediation system at the Hearthstone water treatment facility.
The project will include the construction of a new building to house the system, whose management will be tied into the main control system that provides combined treatment for the affected water wells. Pennvest also approved a low-interest $615,089 loan to the township for the project.
NEWTOWN TOWNSHIP, PA — Two new pedestrian safety signals are officially in operation at Sycamore Street and Silo Drive and at the mid-block crossing at Tara Boulevard and Newtown-Yardley Road.
State Senator Steve Santarsiero and State Rep. Perry Warren were joined by Newtown Township Supervisors Dennis Fisher and John Mack on Monday to inaugurate the safety improvements, which include pedestrian activation controls, rapid flashing beacon lights to warn motorists that people are in the crosswalk, and improved signage.
BUCKS COUNTY, PA — State Senator Steve Santarsiero (D-10) and State Rep. Perry Warren (D-31) are partnering with PA CareerLink in Bucks County to host a mobile assistance event for job seekers on Wednesday, July 30 at the Bucks County Community College Newtown Campus.
PA CareerLink is part of the Pennsylvania Department of Labor & Industry’s initiative to transform the landscape of how job seekers find family sustaining jobs and how employers find the skilled candidates that they need. The Workforce on Wheels Bus is unique to the Bucks County CareerLink office, serving as a mobile PA CareerLink bringing job search resources to job seekers across the county.
A project to expand Bucks County’s only domestic violence shelter got a $6.11 million boost in state funding.
The funding comes from the Pennsylvania Department of Community and Economic Development (DCED) HOME Investment Partnerships American Rescue Plan Non-Congregate Shelter Program, said a press release from State Sen. Steve Santarsiero’s office Tuesday.
The funds would go to Bucks County and A Woman’s Place.
State officials told Upper Makefield residents Tuesday that new testing near a pipeline leak showing “elevated” levels of certain toxic chemicals is surprising and needs to be investigated.
Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection officials made these comments during a town hall meeting about the Sunoco pipeline leak discovered in January under a neighborhood near Washington Crossing. Sunoco and its parent company Energy Transfer’s efforts so far to determine how big the fuel leak is and where the fuel is currently sitting are not good enough, DEP officials said, and if the pipeline company doesn’t sufficiently define the leak, the state will consider additional enforcement action.
WILKES-BARRE — A bipartisan group of state lawmakers from the Flood Insurance Premium Assistance Task Force on Tuesday announced the advancement of legislation that would give Pennsylvania home buyers information regarding flood risks when purchasing residential property.
The four legislators are Sen. Lisa Baker, R-Lehman Township; Sen. Steve Santarsiero, D-Bucks; Rep. Perry Warren, D-Bucks; and David Zimmerman, R-Berks/Lancaster.
House Bill 1704 — introduced by Warren and Zimmerman and approved unanimously by the House Insurance Committee — would require home sellers to disclose critical flood-related information to prospective buyers.
BUCKS COUNTY, PA — Amazon’s decision to choose Bucks County as one of two places in Pennsylvania to build a high-tech data center is being applauded by local lawmakers.
State Rep. Jim Prokopiak and State Sen. Steve Santarsiero celebrated the announcement that Falls Township has been selected as one of the first sites for Amazon Web Services’ multi-billion-dollar expansion of high-tech data center campuses across Pennsylvania.
BUCKS COUNTY, PA — The Pennsylvania Housing Finance Agency has announced more than $2.8 million in grants for multiple Bucks County projects under the Pennsylvania Housing Affordability and Rehabilitation Enhancement program.
The announcement was made by State Senator Steve Santarsiero, who said the following organizations in the 10th Senatorial District will be receiving funding under the program:
Thirty-five years ago, I was a young law student at Penn working at a student-run clinic for food stamp recipients at Community Legal Services’ offices at 52nd and Chestnut Streets in West Philadelphia. It was there that I met my wife, Ronni, who was a fellow student volunteer, and it was there that I spent my first summer in law school handling the claims of people who had been wrongly denied benefits. By the time I graduated, I was the student supervisor of the clinic, having represented scores of clients, all of whom were able to get their food stamps restored.
The Bucks County Beacon recently published what purported to be a news story on the passage of Senate Bill 780, a piece of legislation that addresses homeless encampments. I say purported, because in the second paragraph of the piece, its author abruptly veers from reporting to editorializing by alleging that state lawmakers were “joining in” on the cruel treatment of homeless people. The piece then goes on to present only the side of those people and organizations that are opposed to the bill. In fact, the reporter made no attempt to contact my office, or as far as I know, the offices of any of the other state senators who voted for the legislation let alone any organizations that might support it.
A lot has changed since 2004.
In that year, some enterprising Harvard students launched TheFacebook,
Yahoo.com was the most visited website and a ninth grade student named Taylor Alison Swift was looking for a record deal.
BUCKS COUNTY, PA — Two Bucks County lawmakers have sent a letter to the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection urging them to bring an enforcement action against Sunoco/Energy Transfer to compel the remediation of contaminated wells near the Twin-Oaks-Newark pipeline leak in Upper Makefield.
The letter, authored by State Senator Steve Santarsiero and State Rep. Perry Warren, accuses Sunoco/Energy Transfer of not taking its responsibility to remediate the leak seriously and putting residents and the environment at continued risk for long-term damage.
NEWTOWN TOWNSHIP, PA — State Senator Steve Santarsiero is teaming up with State Rep. Perry Warren and the Pennsylvania Department of Banking & Securities to bring “Scam Jam” to Newtown Township on Friday, May 2.
The event, taking place from 10 a.m. to noon at the Newtown Township building, will include sessions on how to avoid identity theft and popular scams, when to report identity theft and scams to police, fraud bingo, cyber security, and how and why to freeze your credit report.
