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PENNSYLVANIA Latinos are drawing the line on state redistricting processes. The organizations LatinoLines and LatinoJustice say they'll appeal a decision last month by a U.S. district judge denying a special statewide election that had been requested after last November's election used decades-old district lines. "Pennsylvania is still operating under 2001 redistricting lines," said Nancy Trasande, senior legal counsel for LatinoJustice. "The 2012 election occurred under old lines [which is]

The New Jersey Education Law Center has gone to court to try to reverse state Education Commissioner Chris Cerf's decision to approve the KIPP Cooper Norcross Academy Renaissance school in Camden. In a filing in Superior Court on behalf of some city residents and regional organizations, the law center, which represents students in failing school districts, says the KIPP application does not follow the law with regard to three of its five proposed schools. In March, Cerf signed off on an agreement between the Camden Board of Education and the nonprofit to build five partly private, partly public schools in the city.

For the first time, the American Urological Association is discouraging many men from having prostate cancer screening, and encouraging those who do to consider the harms as well as benefits. In guidelines issued Friday, the association recommends against routine PSA testing for men before age 40 or after age 70, men of any age with a life expectancy of less than a decade, or average-risk men ages 40 to 54. Men 55 to 69, and younger men who are at high risk because of their race or family history, should go through "shared decision making" with their doctors to weigh the pros and cons of screening, and their individual values, the guidelines say. The advice puts the urologists' group - traditionally fervent defenders of the PSA test - more in step with the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force.

HARRISBURG - Gov. Corbett's push to liberalize Pennsylvania's beer, wine and liquor laws drew broad criticism from anti-addiction groups during a Senate committee hearing yesterday. The hearing in front of the Senate Law and Justice Committee was the first for senators on the subject as Corbett applies heavy pressure to get a bill to his desk by June 30, when the Legislature wraps up business for the summer. "We have issues in this commonwealth considerably more important than how convenient or inconvenient it is to buy a bottle of vodka," said David Bender of the anti-addiction group Compass Mark.

Hunters love to shoot them and birders love to watch them, but both groups understand that they can save the bobwhite quail only by working together. The groups came together for a three-day conference to talk about preserving the scarce and secretive game bird and identify other areas of common interest, ranging from fighting invasive species and maintaining healthy forests to managing New Jersey's growing population of black bears. The Conserve Wildlife Foundation of New Jersey and the New Jersey State Federation of Sportsmen's Clubs held their first joint conference from Friday through Sunday with a view to identifying common interests and fostering cooperation.

Jones Group, the clothing, shoes and accessories maker that owns chains including Nine West and Easy Spirit, said Wednesday that it is closing 170 U.S. stores and slashing jobs as part of a plan to improve profitability. A spokeswoman for New York-based Jones Group, which has its financial offices in Bristol, said that 8 percent of the company's 10,000 jobs will be cut, or about 800 U.S. positions. The company, which also sells its products through department stores, has had stagnant sales, and it posted a loss last year.

BOY, THE Flyers have used a lot of defenseman this year. Or have they? Did you see the six guys they had to use against the Bruins on Tuesday night? Kurtis Foster, Andreas Lilja, Luke Schenn, Erik Gustafsson, Brandon Manning and Oliver Lauridsen. Only Foster and Schenn were with the team on Opening Night. Just as remarkable is that the group played reasonably well in the 5-2 win. Heck, Lauridsen even got credit for the winning goal after his innocent dump-in was fumbled into the net with help from Boston's Zdeno Chara, who (by the way)

The injured suspect in the Boston Marathon bombings has told interrogators that he and his brother were driven by hard-line Islamist views and anger over the U.S. wars in Afghanistan and Iraq but had no ties to foreign militant groups, U.S. officials said Tuesday. The statements made by Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, 19, from his hospital bed provide what authorities described as the clearest indication yet of the brothers' apparent motivation in carrying out an attack that killed three people and wounded more than 260 on April 15. The information gleaned by a special team of FBI interrogators before charges were filed against Tsarnaev on Monday appears to be consistent with the direction of a broader investigation that has not uncovered any links to terrorist networks abroad, officials said.

TACARIGUA, Venezuela - The razor-close vote to replace late Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez has sparked what opposition leaders and human-rights groups say is a government crackdown on public employees who either didn't back Chavez's handpicked successor or failed to show sufficient support for the ruling party. The April 14 election had revealed a major shift in public support away from the Chavez program as problems such as food shortages, soaring inflation and crime, as well as the absence of the late leader's famous charm, led hundreds of thousands of Venezuelans to back the opposition for the first time since Chavez took power 14 years ago. It was an ominous start for successor Nicolas Maduro's government, which is struggling to write the second chapter of the country's socialist transformation amid deepening economic problems and widening divisions in a bureaucracy and public that once solidly backed Chavez.

WASHINGTON - The Supreme Court seemed conflicted Monday on the question of whether the federal government can force groups that receive funding for overseas anti-HIV/AIDS programs to adopt its views against prostitution and sex trafficking. And Chief Justice John Roberts pointed out the quandary, asking the first question to each of the lawyers arguing the case. Deputy Solicitor General Sri Srinivasan said that Congress decided to renounce prostitution and sex trafficking because they contribute to the spread of diseases.