Welcome to Capitol Notes, a smattering of bite-sized news nuggets happening under the green dome of your state Capitol, available only online.

DRIVING FORCE
Teen-agers soon could pay more for learner's permits to offset a proposed increase in state funding for driver education courses.

The goal is to ensure more young drivers learn the rules-of-the-road before getting behind the wheel, said Sen. Joe Conti, R-Bucks, and Rep. Raymond Bunt, R-Montgomery, who introduced the legislation this week.

"Without formal driver's education instruction, kids may learn bad [driving] habits from their parents and guardians," Mr. Conti said.

Some school districts have stopped offering driver's education courses because they cost too much, he said.

The state has not raised its driver's education subsidy since 1955 when it was set at $35 per student enrolled in driver education courses though their high schools. Now, Mr. Conti and Mr. Bunt want the state to provide $350 per student.

To do that, they propose increasing the fee for learner's permits, currently $5, to $50.

That would raise $5.45 million, enough to increase subsidies for drivers education programs that meet guidelines of the state Department of Education, Mr. Bunt said.

"It's an investment to help our children become more responsible drivers," he said.

The Pennsylvania Association for Safety Education and the American Driver Traffic Safety Education Association support the legislation.

A SENSITIVE SUBJECT
Most Capitol Notes are of the lighter variety of news, but this isn't one of them.

If a person is charged with first-degree murder and then claims he or she is mentally incapacitated or retarded, when should a determination of that condition be made -- before the person's trial starts or after the defendant is convicted?

Some House members tried to amend a bill this week making the determination pre-trial, but the majority of House members said such a move would unnecessarily delay legal proceedings. They urged that the defendant's mental state be assessed only after there is a conviction.

The tough-on-crime legislators won, as the pre-trial mental state assessment was defeated and the final bill, providing for post-trial assessment in first-degree murder cases, was approved 169 to 28. The measure, House Bill 698, now goes to the Senate.

PICK YOUR POISON
Whichever cocktail you choose, you'll have to consume it the old-fashioned way if the Senate concurs with the House's unanimous approval of a bill banning devices that allow imbibers to inhale their alcohol.

Known as "Alcohol Without Liquid," or AWOL machines, the devices mix vaporized alcohol with oxygen.

The devices are dangerous because they cause alcohol to be absorbed into the body much more quickly, said state Rep. Frank Dermody, D-Oakmont, who sponsored House Bill 2330. Read the bill here in .pdf format.

"These machines are likely to cause more alcohol toxicity than binge drinking, and the rapid rush of alcohol to the brain and bloodstream makes alcohol addiction more probable," Mr. Dermody said. "These devices are dangerous and I don't want them to be available in Pennsylvania."

Seventeen other states already have passed laws banning the devices.

BREATHE EASY
What would we do without Northumberland County? For one thing, those AWOL machines would be short one ingredient.

The county gets credit for the discovery of oxygen, according to a list of Pennsylvania "firsts" that state Sen. Michael O'Pake, R-Berks, distributes to visitors.

Actually, the gas was discovered in Wiltshire England in 1774, by Joseph Priestly, who later settled in Pennsylvania, according to the Bath Literary and Scientific Institution in Somerset, England.

Wonder what people breathed before that.

PITTSBURGH FIRSTS
The Steel City was home of the country's first all-motion-picture theater and its first radio station, KDKA, according to Mr. O'Pake's handout.

Philly, meanwhile was home to the first hospital, zoo, stock exchange, U.S. mint, university and National League baseball game.

WORKING HARD OR HARDLY WORKING?
Seen parked outside the Capitol on Commonwealth Avenue last week: a car with the license plate IWRK247.

Appropriate during a week of long debates over property tax reform.

Capitol Notes has another suggestion for vanity plates legislators might want to consider: PD4BYU.