In the news

WORLD

LONDON – It’s a tradition that dates back to the Middle Ages – allowing Britain’s non-elected elite to hold political power – but lawmakers voted Wednesday to pursue radical reform of the House of Lords with a plan for a wholly elected second chamber stripped of dukes and earls.

House of Commons leader Jack Straw said a panel of lawmakers would draft proposed new laws to implement the change, which is potentially one of the most significant constitutional reforms in British history.

“The House of Commons has broken the deadlock,” Straw said. “It is a dramatic result in the history of the British Parliament.”

However, a draft bill will not appear before October, and any law authorizing the radical change would need to clear a number of significant hurdles – including a further vote in the Commons and intense scrutiny in the Lords.

Straw downplayed expectations of swift action, saying the vote was a clear indication of the preference of lawmakers, but not a binding resolution.

Lawmakers in the Commons voted 337-224 in favor of electing all members of the upper chamber – a move which would bring it in line with similar institutions such as the U.S. Senate and chambers in Australia, Japan and Brazil.

NATION

CROSS RIVER, N.Y. – One of the three high school girls suspended for including the word “vagina” in a school reading of “The Vagina Monologues” was told Wednesday her punishment had been postponed.

Hannah Levinson, 16, was to serve a day of in-school suspension at John Jay High in Cross River on Wednesday, staying out of her classes and having lunch with only a guard for company.

But Levinson said that soon after she arrived, Assistant Principal Lisa Kor told her the punishment would be postponed at least until after a Board of Education meeting on Tuesday.

Calls to the principal and the district superintendent were not immediately returned.

“I really hope they’re reconsidering their position,” Levinson said. “We still think we did the right thing.”

She and fellow honor students Megan Reback and Elan Stahl, all 16-year-old juniors, read an excerpt from Eve Ensler’s play at a Friday night event sponsored by the school literary magazine. School officials had warned them not to include the word “vagina,” but they did, and each received a day’s suspension.

STATE&LOCAL

FAIRFAX – A component of state transportation legislation that would shift responsibility for planning and building secondary roads to northern Virginia localities is a “nonstarter,” Gov. Tim Kaine said after meeting with regional leaders Wednesday.

A Republican lawmaker who helped develop the legislation said the problem could be fixed.

Kaine’s closed-door meeting in Fairfax was the first in a series of visits the Democratic governor is making around the state as he prepares to make sweeping amendments to the transportation package passed by the Republican-dominated General Assembly.

Kaine said officials strenuously objected to the provisions about secondary roads and told him they want some of the burden for raising revenues shifted to the state. The package currently relies on jurisdictions in northern Virginia and Hampton Roads to levy special taxes and fees that would generate an estimated $400 million for the fast-growing Washington, D.C. suburbs and about half that amount for southeastern Virginia.

“There’s a desire for the state to own some portion of this problem,” Kaine told reporters afterward.

Kaine refused to give any details about his planned changes but said getting regional leaders on board is crucial because the regional components are “the heart of the new money in this bill.”