PHILADELPHIA — The Philadelphia School District has begun issuing thousands of layoff notices to teachers and other employees, but a judge has ordered the district to rescind some of them.

The district said Monday that 3,024 notices were being issued, including 1,523 to teachers, in order to help close a $629 million budget gap.

The Philadelphia Federation of Teachers went to Common Pleas Court asking for a temporary restraining order blocking the teacher layoffs. The union said any layoffs must be done according to seniority and include teachers at the worst-performing schools dubbed “promise academies.”

Superintendent Arlene Ackerman said teachers at those schools would not be laid off in order to minimize disruptions at struggling schools. Judge Idee Fox issued the order blocking the 1,523 teacher layoffs pending a June 14 hearing.

HARRISBURG — A Commonwealth Court panel is weighing an open-records case that would force the Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission to turn over details of employee use of the E-ZPass electronic toll system.The Patriot-News of Harrisburg had requested the records under open-records rules. The commission initially denied the request but a state office ruled in December the records could be released with personal information redacted.A Turnpike lawyer argued before the three-judge panel on Monday that special records are not kept and information about employee travel should be exempt.The Patriot-News contends the Turnpike must have a way of knowing not to charge employees' accounts. A former Turnpike official said last year that Turnpike workers get free access to the highway for business or personal use.

ERIE — A man has received a reduced sentence for his testimony against the alleged mastermind of a bank robbery plot that ended with a pizza delivery driver being killed by a bomb strapped to his neck.The Erie Times-News reports 57-year-old Kenneth Barnes must still serve about 20 years in prison despite Monday's agreement on a reduced sentence.Barnes had pleaded guilty and been sentenced to 45 years in prison for the August 2003 plot to rob an Erie-area bank that ended in the death of 46-year-old Brian Wells.Barnes testified that Marjorie Diehl-Armstrong hatched the scheme because she wanted money to hire a hit man to kill her father. Diehl-Armstrong was convicted of bank robbery and other charges in November. She has appealed.

ALLENTOWN — Officials in Allentown have opted not to appeal a judge’s ruling overturning its local ban on the use of hand-held cellphones by drivers.Mayor Ed Pawlowski tells The Morning Call of Allentown that there was no guarantee the city would prevail and an appeal would be costly.A failed appeal could have also resulted in a statewide precedent that would have affected similar bans elsewhere.