HARRISBURG — A Pennsylvania state senator who is charging a nearly $5,000 trip to taxpayers to see how Colorado is dealing with marijuana's legalization says it's home to a high-tech, high-paid industry and isn't a state full of “stoners.”

Sen. Daylin Leach of Montgomery County wrote an editorial this week about his three-day trip last weekend with three staff aides.

Leach is perhaps the Pennsylvania Legislature's foremost proponent of legalizing marijuana.

Sen. Mike Folmer of Lebanon County traveled to Colorado for a three-day trip with a staff aide two months ago. A spokesman said they paid their own way. Folmer supports a narrower legalization of a marijuana extract for medical purposes.

A bill co-sponsored by Leach and Folmer awaits a Senate vote. House GOP leaders and Gov. Tom Corbett oppose it.

HARRISBURG — Funding to ensure that Philadelphia city leaders will allow the city's schools to open on time in September was thrown deeper into doubt Thursday after Republican House majority leaders canceled a planned voting session next week amid intra-GOP fights.The move drew a sharp response from Philadelphia Mayor Michael Nutter, who said the city's schools will not open as scheduled Sept. 8 because House Republicans “will not come back and do their job for one day.”The GOP-controlled House had been expected to return to Harrisburg on Monday to act on a bill that would authorize Philadelphia to raise money from a new cigarette sales tax for its deficit-plagued school district.