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BETHESDA, Md. , Dec. 11, 2024 /PRNewswire/ -- AGNC Investment Corp. (Nasdaq: AGNC) announced today that its Board of Directors has declared a cash dividend of $0.12 per share of common stock for December 2024 . The dividend is payable on January 10, 2025 to common stockholders of record as of December 31, 2024 . For further information or questions, please contact Investor Relations at (301) 968-9300 or IR@AGNC.com . Javascript is required for you to be able to read premium content. Please enable it in your browser settings.HARRISBURG — Pennsylvania’s 2023-24 Legislative Session closed Dec. 1 and the next session, while officially underway, doesn’t fully begin until lawmakers are sworn into office Jan. 7. Looking back, members of the state House and Senate introduced 3,862 bills and 924 resolutions across the two-year session. There were 77 bills adopted into law in 2023 and 162 adopted in 2024. The combined total of 239 was far fewer than the previous six legislative sessions. There hasn’t been a lower total since 2009-10 when 226 bills advanced into law — the last time the Pennsylvania General Assembly had a partisan divide. Democrats controlled the House while Republicans led the Senate. Gov. Josh Shapiro, a Democrat, often cites the challenge of advancing legislation with a split government. That dynamic won’t change in 2025-26. Though there are 20 new members joining the legislature — 16 in the House, four in the Senate — the respective parties defended their majorities. Republicans have a 28-22 advantage in the Senate while Democrats maintained a 102-101 margin in the House. What follows is a look back at the outcome of legislation proposed last session by area lawmakers. Aaron Bernstine — 8th Legislative District Rep. Aaron Bernstine will formally begin his fifth term in the Pennsylvania House of Representatives when members are sworn into office on Jan. 7, 2025. He ran unopposed in both the primary and general elections. Bernstine, a Republican, represented Pennsylvania’s 8th Legislative District — parts of Lawrence and Butler counties — since redistricting took hold in 2023. Prior to that, he represented what had been the former 10th District. He held three committee assignments along with a subcommittee appointment during the 2023-24 Legislative Session: Commerce, Finance and Gaming Oversight committees and a subcommittee on Housing Finance. Across the two-year session, Bernstine sponsored 154 bills and resolutions. He was the prime sponsor of two bills. One sought to allow state licensure for nurses educated at a school with national accreditation in addition to the current requirement that institutions hold regional accreditation. The other was a reintroduction of a bill from a prior session, “Markie’s Law,” that seeks to delay parole for state inmates convicted of certain offenses while incarcerated — 12 months for escape attempts, smuggling contraband or retaliation or intimidation of a witness; 24 months for a violent offense. Neither bill gained traction at the committee level. Bernstine is among the members of the conservative Pennsylvania Freedom Caucus. One bill that he announced but ultimately didn’t introduce would have sought to reclassify drag performances as “adult-oriented business” — a bill unlikely to advance given the current dynamics of the General Assembly. He voted against both budgets in the 2023-24 session, criticizing Gov. Josh Shapiro for submitting a “liberal wish list.” “His plan is a copy-paste version of the Bidenomics that are destroying our economy. From Philadelphia mass transit bailouts to doubling the minimum wage, Gov. Shapiro wants Pennsylvania to be just like California, which is where his campaign donations originate,” Bernstine said after the governor made his 2024 budget proposal. Bernstine attempted to trim more than 1% from this year’s $47.6 billion budget through a floor amendment, and he tried the same to enact school choice. He attended President-elect Donald Trump’s rally in Butler where an assassination attempt was made, and he stood up for local police and first responders amid criticism of event security and the immediate response after a bullet grazed Trump’s ear. Marla Brown — 9th Legislative District The 2025-26 session will be the second in the Pennsylvania House for Republican Rep. Marla Brown. She was re-elected to represent the 9th Legislative District, which covers a portion of Lawrence County, after running unopposed in both the primary and general elections. Brown’s first session saw appointments to four committees — Aging & Older Adult Services, Commerce, Finance and Health. She also chaired subcommittees on Care & Services and Local Business. She sponsored 83 bills and resolutions. On 14 bills and three resolutions, she was the primary sponsor, however, none made it into law. In fact, as a member of the House’s political minority, just one received committee consideration. Brown introduced one of at least three proposals to open primary elections to all voters, allowing those not registered with a recognized party, namely Democrat or Republican, to choose which ticket they’d vote on. Pennsylvania is one of nine states with closed primaries and is home to more than 1.46 million independent voters, nearly 16% of its entire electorate. Brown believed the change would help elevate moderate candidates across the political spectrum and improve governance in an era of hyper-partisanship. Open primary proposals aren’t novel but in a rarity, they actually garnered enough support to advance out of the House State Government Committee but were ignored before receiving consideration on the chamber floor. “This is a bipartisan issue, in my opinion, on which we should easily meet in the middle of the road. We’ve got to find common ground in the House if we’re going to be able to represent this state in the best way,” Brown said after introducing her bill. Brown’s other bill proposals ranged from mandating that social media companies report suspected drug sales to the creation of a targeted grant program for nurses to repay student loans amid workforce struggles. Brown sought to require felony charges for threats made against schools and mandate a prison sentence for the conviction of delivering fentanyl. She also pursued operator-friendly reforms within Pennsylvania’s cosmetology law. Brown voted against both budgets enacted during her tenure, so far, and she opposed cost of living adjustments for former state employees who retired before 2001. She hosted policy hearings in her district on drug addiction and transportation issues, supported a package of bills to provide tax relief to working families, and joined other legislators in calling on the Pennsylvania Interscholastic Athletic Association to revise its maligned broadcast policy. She did not, however, vote in favor of a study authorized by the House to look into PIAA’s finances, broadcast agreements and more. Michele Brooks — 50th Senatorial District The start of the 2025-26 Legislative Session marks the midway point of Republican Sen. Michele Brooks’ third term in office. Her district, the 50th, includes Crawford, Mercer and most of Lawrence counties. Her current four-year term expires in 2026. In 2023-24, Brooks served as majority chair of the Senate Health & Human Services Committee and vice chair of the Finance Committee. Her other committee assignments were Agriculture and Rural Affairs, Communications & Technology, Education, Rules & Executive Nominations and Veterans Affairs & Emergency Preparedness. She sponsored 248 bills and resolutions last session including 60 bills and eight resolutions as a prime sponsor. The focus of the bills she introduced included eliminating inheritance taxes on siblings and other relatives, enacting consumer protections, the creation of a lost dog registry, extending the statute of limitations for the crime of drug delivery resulting in death, including sales taxes in advertised retail prices, addressing Lyme disease and expansive efforts to serve firefighters and EMS providers. Among the bevy of bills of which she was a prime sponsor, six became law and four others advanced to the House. The rest remained in the Senate. Motorcycles will be included in Pennsylvania’s Automobile Lemon Law after a Brooks bill became Act No. 151 of 2024, extending protections for manufacturer defects to a new class of vehicle. Senate Bill 500 , a bipartisan bill known as Owen’s Law, became Act 32 of 2023. It allows for medical prescriptions through Medicaid of donor milk for children younger than 12 months. Brooks was successful in expanding Pennsylvania’s Safe Haven Law. Act 134 of 2024 adds urgent care centers to designated locations where parents may safely surrender newborns if they feel unfit to care for the child. She also secured an amendment to Pennsylvania’s Public School Code through Act 55 of 2024 which will allow professionals in skilled occupations to more easily receive state certification to teach at career and technical schools. Her bill was amended as part of budget negotiations to include numerous negotiated updates to the code beyond her original intent. Act 66 of 2023, born out of Brooks’ Senate Bill 941, eases eligibility and qualifications to become a drug treatment counselor and increases counselors’ patient caseload capacity during an opioid epidemic, defined as 1,000-plus opioid overdose deaths in three consecutive years. Pennsylvania schools must notify parents and guardians in writing whenever ticks are removed from students under Act 120 of 2024. Schools must provide information on the symptoms of Lyme disease, and must preserve the tick for parents or guardians to either send into a state lab for analysis or allow the school to do so. Results are confidential. Elder Vogel — 47th Senatorial District Republican Sen. Elder Vogel returns to the Pennsylvania Senate for the 2025-26 Legislative Session after being re-elected to represent the 47th Senatorial District. Vogel defeated Democrat Kate Lennen in the general election, garnering nearly 64% of the vote and earning a fifth four-year term. He ran unopposed in the primary. The 47th Senatorial District consists of most of Beaver County and parts of Lawrence and Butler counties. In the 2023-24 session, Vogel served as majority chair of the Senate Agriculture & Rural Affairs Committee and vice chair of the Appropriations Committee. He also was appointed to the Banking & Insurance, Environmental Resources & Energy and Transportation committees. He sponsored 286 bills and resolutions last session, including nine bills as a prime sponsor. Three of the bills became law while the other six didn’t pass out of the Senate. Vogel worked for eight years to advance a bill guaranteeing insurance coverage for telemedicine services. After watching his proposals defeated through the years — be it through inaction, lack of House support, a veto by former Gov. Tom Wolf — Vogel’s Telemedicine Act was adopted in 2024 and signed into law by Gov. Josh Shapiro. Act 42 of 2024 assures patients that any medically necessary service they’d receive in person that’s covered by their insurance plan would also be covered if administered remotely through telemedicine. That coverage includes Medicaid and CHIP, the Children’s Health Insurance Program. His proposal to establish the Sexual Assault Emergency Services Act became Act 59 of 2023. It expands Sexual Assault Nurse Examiner programs at hospitals, using telehealth through the existing Penn State University SAFE-T Program to connect victims with specialized nurses to ensure through and timely care in cases of sexual assault. Another bill from Vogel became Act 18 of 2023, authorizing the first increases in dog license fees in nearly 30 years and for kennel fees, 60 years. The modest increases are intended to help improve dog law enforcement in the commonwealth. Vogel was a prime co-sponsor of two bipartisan proposals with Sen. Judith Schwank, D-Berks, that were developed to aid dairy farmers. One bill sought to help Pennsylvania dairy farmers enroll in the federal dairy margin coverage program while the other would allow the Pennsylvania Milk Marketing Board to collect and distribute over-order premiums collected on Class I fluid milk in Pennsylvania. Each bill was voted out of committee but gained no further momentum. He co-sponsored another bill with Sen. Wayne Langerholc, R-Cambria/Clearfield/Centre, that would mandate a prison term of 20 to 40 years for anyone convicted of providing fentanyl or related synthetic opioids to minors. The measure received no consideration in the Senate. Vogel’s other proposals last session sought to create a statewide stroke registry, boost funding for the Pennsylvania Housing and Rehabilitation Enhancement Fund that aids senior citizens, low- and moderate-income families and persons with disabilities, and create licensing for professional music therapists. He also was active in promoting on-farm conservation efforts, raising awareness of food insecurity and promoting food drives as well as advocating for legislation to mitigate crop damage by deer, enhance trespass penalties related to hunting and add a seat to the Pennsylvania Game Commission Board.Port Neches-Groves vs. South Oak Cliff: Live updates, score of Texas UIL 5A Division II regional final | Sporting News
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Youngkin also said his budget package will include an additional $50 million for development of business-ready sites. He said the $50 million investment in fiscal year 2026, which begins July 1 will build upon the $282 million Youngkin previously committed to development of business sites around the state. The administration said the schools proposal would bring the total amount allocated for school construction in this two-year span to $700 million, and the total amount allocated in the state since Youngkin took office in January 2022 to nearly $2 billion. Youngkin said the $290 million proposal would support critical public school construction projects by expanding competitive grant opportunities for school divisions in high-need areas and addressing urgent infrastructure needs, ensuring safe and conducive learning environments for K-12 students. “Over the last three years, we have invested historic amounts in our education system, including our public school facilities,” Youngkin said in a statement. “Our record economic growth and the resulting surplus allows us to make this critical investment to ensure every Virginia student has access to high-quality school facilities that support academic success.” More than half of all school buildings in Virginia are more than 50 years old, according to a 2021 report from state’s Commission on School Construction and Modernization. It would cost $25 billion to replace or rebuild all of those schools, according to the legislative commission. Virginia Education Association President Carol Bauer said the governor’s one-time funding proposal “doesn’t even keep pace with the annual growth of our backlog, let alone make meaningful progress in reducing it.” She cited the $25 billion estimate from the state in 2021, referring to it as a backlog. She also noted the increase from the last time the state collected inventory on school buildings in 2013 and estimated an $18 billion need to replace aging buildings. “Without significant action, this backlog has likely been growing by approximately $1 billion annually, driven by rising construction costs and years of underinvestment,” Bauer said in a statement. “While the governor’s announced $290 million investment in school construction grants represents a gesture toward addressing our infrastructure challenges, it falls staggeringly short of meeting the scale of the crisis,” Bauer said. She called on legislators to reject the proposed investment as insufficient and work to develop a sustainable long-term plan to reduce the backlog. This year Youngkin vetoed legislation that would have let localities impose a 1% sales tax for school construction and modernization projects if voters approved it in a local referendum. The bill passed the Senate on a 27-13 vote and passed the House on a 68-28 vote. In his veto statement , the governor said the proposal could result in a nearly $1.5 billion a year tax increase on Virginians and “any proposal that increases the cost of living and the cost of business is not a policy we should pursue.” About one-quarter of Richmond schools were built or renovated in the past 25 years, compared with nearly three-quarters of schools in neighboring Henrico and Chesterfield counties, according to the 2021 study. The Richmond school division released a report last week that says the division needs $43.7 million in the next 18 months for immediate repairs to dozens of school buildings that have fallen into disrepair and pose safety concerns. Richmond Public Schools Superintendent Jason Kamras said the division is excited to see the investment and knows the benefit it brings to public schools around the commonwealth. “In a state where more than half of our buildings are at least half a century old, this is exactly the type of support that local divisions need and deeply appreciate,” Kamras said in a statement. “Over the last two years, state investment has enabled RPS to rebuild a school after a fire , install walls and doors in two open-plan elementary schools, replacing a crumbling exterior wall at a high school, plan a full window replacement at our alternative secondary school, and begin planning for a new, modern (career and technical education) school.”
What did you Google in 2024? From the elections to Copa América, here's what search trends showDallas Cowboys star guard Zack Martin is doubtful for Sunday's game against the Washington Commanders due to ankle and shoulder injuries. Martin didn't practice at all this week. He also physically struggled during Monday night's loss to the Houston Texas. Martin, who turned 34 on Wednesday, has started all 162 games played in 11 seasons with the Cowboys. He's a nine-time Pro Bowl selection and a seven-time first-team All-Pro. Tight end Jake Ferguson (concussion) and safety Markquese Bell (shoulder) have been ruled out. Neither player practiced this week after being hurt against the Texans. Cornerback DaRon Bland (foot) practiced in full this week and will make his season debut. He was injured in August. Star wideout CeeDee Lamb (back/foot) was a full practice participant on Friday and is good to go. Cornerback Trevon Diggs (groin/knee) and receiver Brandin Cooks (knee) are among six players listed as questionable. The others are offensive tackle Chuma Edoga (toe), guard Tyler Smith (ankle/knee), defensive end Marshawn Kneeland (knee) and linebacker Nick Vigil (foot). --Field Level MediaRural areas experience the brunt of healthcare system deficiencies. Are there solutions?