Pennsylvania category, Page 128
Visitation resumes at 5 Pa. state prison facilities
The state Department of Corrections will slowly start phasing in-person visitation back in at five facilities, including SCI-Laurel Highlands, officials said this week. The decision to allow in-person visits at any particular facility is based upon vaccination rates, the percentage of cases among those incarcerated, and the amount of the...
More than 50% of Pennsylvania adults fully vaccinated for covid
Pennsylvania passed a milestone with more than 50% of adults considered fully vaccinated against covid-19. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, there are 5,088,210 million adults — those 18 and older — who are considered fully vaccinated. That’s 50.1% of the adult population. Pennsylvania’s mask mandate can...
Pennsylvania casinos top $400 million for 2nd consecutive month
For the second consecutive month, revenue streams at Pennsylvania casinos topped $400 million, according to a report from the Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board. Combined gambling revenues totaled more than $404.1 million in April. That’s up significantly from the $46.1 million seen in April 2020, when non-life-sustaining businesses were forced to...
Sen. Doug Mastriano: Trump ‘asked me’ to run for Pa. governor
HARRISBURG — A Republican state senator who has talked of possibly running for governor of Pennsylvania in 2022 said Wednesday that former President Donald Trump asked him to run and promised to campaign for him. Sen. Doug Mastriano, R-Franklin, said he met with Trump on Monday in New York and,...
Diocese of Erie pays $16.6M to sexual abuse survivors
The Diocese of Erie has paid out $16.6 million to a total of 134 survivors of sexual abuse committed by clergy or laypersons of the diocese. The announcement came Tuesday as the diocese said administrators hired to oversee its independent survivors’ reparation program have completed their work and closed out...
Pa. voters backed curtailing Gov. Tom Wolf’s emergency powers in a win for Republican lawmakers
Spotlight PA is an independent, non-partisan newsroom powered by The Philadelphia Inquirer in partnership with PennLive/The Patriot-News, TribLIVE/Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, and WITF Public Media. Sign up for our free newsletters. HARRISBURG — Pennsylvania voters have approved two ballot questions that would curtail the governor’s emergency powers, a victory for Republican lawmakers...
Voters back bid to ban race discrimination in Pennsylvania constitution
HARRISBURG — Pennsylvania voters are backing a proposal to amend the state constitution to outlaw discrimination based on race and ethnicity, a question added to Tuesday’s primary ballot amid worries over whether federal judges appointed by former President Donald Trump will roll back civil rights protections. The proposal had about...
Polling places run out of ballots in Pennsylvania primary
Pennsylvania election officials ran out of ballots in several counties on Tuesday amid higher-than-expected turnout for an off-year primary in which voters had a chance to weigh in on the governor’s emergency powers. York, Delaware and a few other counties ran short, but election officials said voters were able to...
Allegheny County covid case average lowest since Halloween
Both the state and Allegheny County on Tuesday saw covid-19 statistics drop to levels not seen since the fall. Locally and at the commonwealth level, case averages are back to where they were late last year. Cases Allegheny County saw its seven-day average of covid-19 cases drop to lows not...
Penn State to ditch ‘male-specific’ student titles like freshmen
Students at Penn State may soon be saying goodbye to the term “sophomore slump” and hello to “second-year slump.” According to a report in Penn State’s student newspaper The Daily Collegian, Penn State’s Faculty Senate voted to remove gendered and binary terms from Penn State course and program descriptions. As...
Sparse voter turnout for Pennsylvania primary election; votes start being countedVideo
Voter turnout for Pennsylvania’s primary Tuesday was sparse compared to November’s election, but officials say it was bolstered by mail-in voting and statewide ballot questions drawing out third-party voters. Results are slowing coming in for Allegheny County and Westmoreland County races. In Allegheny County, voters requested 124,813 mail-in ballots —...
Spotted lanternfly eggs are now hatching across much of Pennsylvania
Homeowners across a large swath of Pennsylvania are reporting sightings of spotted lanternflies hatching from egg masses. “Egg-hatching season is here, and that has some people on edge,” said Emelie Swackhamer, a horticulture educator with Penn State Extension. She added that the pest now has been reported in 34 Pennsylvania...
Former Rep. Lou Barletta changes the calculus on Pa. GOP gubernatorial primaryVideo
Former congressman Lou Barletta, the failed 2018 U.S. Senate candidate and frequent Donald Trump surrogate at campaign events last year, changed the calculus for Pennsylvania’s 2022 GOP gubernatorial primary with his official campaign announcement Monday. Barletta, 65, a four-term congressmen who sprang to national prominence 15 years ago as the...
Gov. Wolf should apologize for implying cops are ‘racist murderers,’ head of Pa. state troopers association says
Pennsylvania State Troopers Association President David Kennedy is demanding that Gov. Tom Wolf apologize for promoting what Kennedy insisted is “a false narrative that police are racist murderers.” What Kennedy targeted in a statement released Monday were Wolf’s comments in a letter sent to state employees Friday regarding the declaration...
Pennsylvania’s largest teachers union in favor of in-person return
HARRISBURG — The president of Pennsylvania’s largest teachers union expressed support Monday for in-person instruction in the fall, calling it a “top priority” now that many teachers have been vaccinated and older children have become eligible for the covid-19 shot. “As more students are vaccinated over the summer, we believe...
‘So I raped you.’ Facebook message renews fight for justice for Gettysburg College grad
MOORESTOWN, New Jersey — Shannon Keeler was enjoying a weekend getaway with her boyfriend last year when she checked her Facebook messages for the first time in ages. A name popped up that stopped her cold. “So I raped you,” the person said in a burst of unread messages sent...
Nittany Lion Shrine, Penn State sign to close for 1 month for renovations
Penn State visitors hoping to snag a photo with the iconic Nittany Lion Shrine or the sign/stone wall near Beaver Stadium will need a backup plan for at least a month this summer. Both the Lion Shrine and the sign, which welcomes visitors with the words “Pennsylvania State University,” will...
Pennsylvania’s covid report dips under 1,000 for 1st time in over 7 months
It hasn’t happened since Oct. 5. That’s the last time Pennsylvania’s daily covid report showed fewer than 1,000 new cases. On Monday, the Pennsylvania Department of Health added just 872 new cases. It’s been 225 days since the state posted such a low number — adding 672 on Oct. 5....
Republican Lou Barletta to run for Pennsylvania governor
HARRISBURG — Lou Barletta, the Republican Party’s Donald Trump-endorsed nominee for U.S. Senate in 2018, is running for governor of Pennsylvania. Barletta, 65, becomes the most prominent figure to enter a 2022 governor’s race that Republicans have won every time in the past half-century when there is an outgoing Democratic...
Gun malfunction kills 1 at Pa. shooting range
One man is dead and another man has been injured after a handgun malfunction Saturday at a shooting range in Lackawanna County. Robert Hamm, 61, of Berwick handed his handgun to another man to shoot at the State Game Lands Shooting Range in Archbald, WNEP is reporting. The other man...
Police probing deaths of man, woman in Central Pennsylvania home
HARRISBURG — Authorities are investigating the deaths of a man and woman whose bodies were found in a Pennsylvania home. Swatara Township police said officers were called to the home just before midnight Friday on “a report of a domestic incident.” Officers who forced their way into the home found...
Allegheny County surpasses 100,000 covid-19 cases, half-million residents fully vaccinated
Allegheny has become the second county in Pennsylvania to surpass 100,000 cases of coronavirus. In its covid-19 report released Saturday, the Allegheny County Health Department reported 186 new cases of the virus. That brings the county’s total since the pandemic began to 100,039. Only Philadelphia, with 146,238 cases, has more....
Covid cases continue to drop across Pennsylvania as more get vaccinated
Reported cases of covid-19 and related deaths and hospitalizations continued their downward trend in Pennsylvania as the number of vaccinated residents marched upward. Pennsylvania on Friday added 1,643 cases of covid-19, pulling the seven-day case average down to 1,892, the 14th consecutive drop for the average, according to data from...
Senate bill would let residents donate to breast cancer research when renewing driver’s licensesVideo
When state Senate Majority Leader Kim Ward revealed this week that she’d been diagnosed with stage-one breast cancer late last year, she hoped she could use her position to help women both prevent and battle the disease. Her colleagues helped take a step in that direction, unanimously passing a bill...
Pennsylvania voters to decide racial equity amendment
HARRISBURG — Protests over George Floyd’s killing at the hands of Minneapolis police were raging across the country last June when a Democratic lawmaker took to the floor of the Pennsylvania Senate to argue for greater protections against racial discrimination. Next week, nearly a year after Floyd’s death, voters will...
