Group challenges House prayersHARRISBURG — A group of people who don’t believe in God are challenging the way prayers are handled before sessions of the Pennsylvania House of Representatives.The lawsuit filed Thursday in Harrisburg federal court says nonbelievers are treated like a disfavored minority who can be discriminated against, and that House officials denied their requests to make an opening invocation.Five people and three organizations are suing House Speaker Mike Turzai, the parliamentarian and five lawmakers.The plaintiffs also claim they’ve been pressured by House security officers to stand during prayers. The lawsuit says House policy violates their constitutional rights.They want a judge to order House officials to allow them to give an invocation and to prevent anyone from forcing them to stand during the prayer.

Charges of not making report are droppedALIQUIPPA — A judge dismissed all charges against a school board member and a substitute teacher accused of not properly relaying a report that an older student had sex with a 12-year-old girl in a Western Pennsylvania school district.Aliquippa School Board member Aileen Gilbert and substitute teacher Ahna Anderson were charged in June and cleared at a preliminary hearing Thursday. Officials say two students showed the substitute cellphone video of the sex act and Gilbert saw it because she worked on a program to address sexual behavior by students.But defense attorneys say the grainy video didn’t clearly show the participants, and that Anderson reported the video within 24 hours to a supervisor despite being unsure who was depicted. Prosecutors argued that was insufficient under the mandatory reporting law.

Nurse faces more chargesWILKES-BARRE — A hospice nurse already charged with stealing a dying cancer patient’s pain medication is now also charged with conspiring to make methamphetamine with a man she lives with.Andrea Gosiewski, 39, was charged Thursday with conspiring with Jeffrey Arnott, 50, to make the powerful stimulant in the Ashley home they shared. Both remained in the Luzerne County jailed Friday.The nurse was charged after police found her unconscious in a vehicle outside a drugstore Monday with a bag of liquid hydromorphone and a used syringe.