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10-man Botafogo wins its first Copa Libertadores titleWomen will for the first time make up a majority of state legislators in Colorado and New Mexico next year, but at least 13 states saw losses in female representation after the November election, according to a count released Thursday by the Rutgers Center for American Women and Politics. While women will fill a record number of state legislative seats in 2025, the overall uptick will be slight, filling just over third of legislative seats. Races in some states are still being called. "We certainly would like to see a faster rate of change and more significant increases in each election cycle to get us to a place where parity in state legislatures is less novel and more normal," said Kelly Dittmar, director of research at the CAWP, which is a unit of the Eagleton Institute of Politics at Rutgers University. As of Wednesday, at least 2,450 women will serve in state legislatures, representing 33.2% of the seats nationwide. The previous record was set in 2024 with 2,431 women, according to the CAWP. The number of Republican women, at least 851, will break the previous record of 815 state lawmakers set in 2024. "But still, Republican women are very underrepresented compared to Democratic women," Debbie Walsh, director of the CAWP, said. From left, House Maj. Whip Reena Szczepanski, D-Santa Fe, Rep. D. Wonda Johnson, D-Church Rock and Rep. Cristina Parajon, D-Albuquerque, talk July 18 before the start of a special session, in Santa Fe, N.M. By the most recent count, 19 states will have increased the number of women in their state legislatures, according to the CAWP. The most notable increases were in New Mexico and Colorado, where women will for the first time make up a majority of lawmakers. In New Mexico, voters sent an 11 additional women to the chambers. Colorado previously attained gender parity in 2023 and is set to tip over to a slight female majority in the upcoming year. The states follow Nevada, which was the first in the country to see a female majority in the legislature following elections in 2018. Next year, women will make up almost 62% of state lawmakers in Nevada, far exceeding parity. Women in California's Senate will make up the chamber's majority for the first time in 2025 as well. Women also made notable gains in South Dakota, increasing its number by at least nine. Four of South Carolina's Sister Senators, from left, Sen. Margie Bright Matthews, D-Walterboro, Sen. Mia McLeod, I-Columbia, Sen. Katrina Shealy, R-Lexington, and Sen. Penry Gustafson, R-Camden, stand in front of the Senate on June 26 with their John F. Kennedy Profile in Courage award in Columbia, S.C. At least thirteen states emerged from the election with fewer female lawmakers than before, with the most significant loss occurring in South Carolina. This year, the only three Republican women in the South Carolina Senate lost their primaries after they stopped a total abortion ban from passing. Next year, only two women, who are Democrats, will be in the 46-member Senate. No other state in the country will have fewer women in its upper chamber, according to the CAWP. Women make up 55% of the state's registered voters. Half the members in the GOP dominated state were elected in 2012 or before, so it will likely be the 2040s before any Republican woman elected in the future can rise to leadership or a committee chairmanship in the chamber, which doles out leadership positions based on seniority. A net loss of five women in the legislature means they will make up only about 13% of South Carolina's lawmakers, making the state the second lowest in the country for female representation. Only West Virginia has a smaller proportion of women in the legislature. West Virginia stands to lose one more women from its legislative ranks, furthering its representation problem in the legislature where women will make up just 11% of lawmakers. Many women, lawmakers and experts say that women's voices are needed in discussions on policy, especially at a time when state government is at its most powerful in decades. Walsh, director of the CAWP, said the new changes expected from the Trump administration will turn even more policy and regulation to the states. The experiences and perspectives women offer will be increasingly needed, she said, especially on topics related to reproductive rights, healthcare, education and childcare. "The states may have to pick up where the federal government may, in fact, be walking away," Walsh said. "And so who serves in those institutions is more important now than ever." November 7, 2024: Trump Victory Stay up-to-date on the latest in local and national government and political topics with our newsletter.Wolf Carbon withdraws Iowa pipeline request
Amon-Ra St. Brown to Miss Thanksgiving Game Against Bears Due to Injury(TNS) — The Scranton Fire Department’s newest tool is about to take flight. The department purchased three drones — technically classified as unmanned aerial vehicles, or UAVs — over the summer for just under $20,000, and received them about a month and a half ago, Fire Chief John Judge said. The Fire Department’s fire inspectors, a captain and its emergency management specialist are training to pilot the drones and take certification tests through the Federal Aviation Administration, he said. Judge anticipates most of them having their certification by the end of the year. The Fire Department joins the Scranton Police Department in adding drones to its tool kit. City police received their first drone in 2016 as a donation from Pennsylvania Paper & Supply Co. Judge envisions using the drones to inspect hazardous buildings, at fires, HAZMAT incidents, Nay Aug Gorge and during floods. He pointed to the usefulness of a drone to gather intelligence during emergencies like the large brush fire this week on Montage Mountain. “That’s really what it’s about — being able to gather some more data for us to be able to make informed decisions while we’re putting our strategies and tactics together, whether it’s an incident that we’re on or whether we’re pre-planning something,” Judge said. “The drones just give us a unique and different view of the landscape we might be working in.” The Fire Department spent several years researching drones and talking to other departments that already use them, Judge said. One decision was to figure out whether to get one expensive drone with “all the bells and whistles on it” or to instead buy multiple, less-expensive drones for redundancy and different applications, Judge said. The department ultimately decided to get three DJI Mavic 3T Enterprise drones. DJI advertises its Mavic 3T drones as having both wide angle and zoom cameras, including 56x zoom, as well as a thermal imaging camera. The thermal imaging cameras will allow firefighters to see hot spots coming through the roof during large building fires — something that’s especially useful if they are unable to safely access certain sections of a building due to damage, he said. “This UAV is going to keep our personnel and staff, hopefully, out of harm’s way when we’re just trying to do some reconnaissance and be able to get some information to make some informed decisions while we’re developing our strategies and our tactics,” Judge said. With city firefighters often dispatched to Nay Aug Gorge during the summer as people illegally dive into the churning waters, Judge said the drones will allow them to search the shorelines more easily rather than sending first responders over the rough terrain. In addition to giving firefighters the ability to develop a quicker operational picture, Judge said the drones and their detailed cameras also will help city engineers and code enforcement officials to assess the aftermath of a fire by showing them areas of damaged buildings that could be otherwise inaccessible. “Now you have a drone that’s not in harm’s way rather than putting city engineers or code enforcement officials or fire inspectors in harm’s way,” he said. Overall, the drones will give fire officials information to make decisions rather than guessing or relying on past experience, Judge said, explaining the Fire Department’s goal is to mitigate incidents quickly in order to limit the loss of life and property. “Anytime you’re able to do that, that’s going to affect the health and safety of our emergency responders,” he said. “Just as importantly, it’s going to affect our ability to hopefully save lives or identify people that are in peril and then mitigate that incident quicker.” Like Judge, Mayor Paige Gebhardt Cognetti pointed to the utility of drones during emergencies, both as a way of getting eyes on a situation right away and in its aftermath. For example, if there’s a flood, the city could use the drones and the footage they record to more quickly and accurately survey damage and apply for emergency funds, she said. “So, huge range of uses, from the very immediate life-saving uses to getting funds for the city in the case of the aftermath of emergencies,” she said. “It shows Chief Judge and Deputy Chief (Dan) Hallowich’s continued modernization of the department and forward thinking.” With both the police and fire departments using drones, Cognetti said it shows that Scranton is using technology to save lives and save money. “Saving lives is always the primary goal, but making sure that we are efficient with taxpayer dollars and utilizing the latest technology within our budget is important to our administration,” she said. “You see from the investments we’ve made that our chiefs in the Fire Department and the Police Department are focused on that.” ©
Smart Textile Market: Surge to $20.61B by 2031, 28.4% CAGRIt’s almost time for Spotify Wrapped. When can you expect your 2024 recap?
