Pennsylvania category, Page 132
Key GOP lawmaker eyes photo ID, signature matching as Pa. considers voting changes
This article is made possible through Votebeat, a nonpartisan reporting project covering local election integrity and voting access. This article is available for reprint under the terms of Votebeat’s republishing policy. HARRISBURG — Local officials charged with implementing any changes lawmakers might make to Pennsylvania’s Election Code are begging Democrats...
Medical marijuana program in Pa. celebrates 5-year anniversary
Diana Briggs remembers the days when her son Ryan suffered through 400 seizures a day. She believes the legalization of medical marijuana — five years ago — in Pennsylvania changed his life. Ryan, who went through a medical emergency at birth 21 years ago, is now a special-needs adult with...
Trio of Pa. bills addresses gaps in drug rehabilitation process
Pennsylvania legislators unanimously passed several bills Tuesday aimed at ensuring that friends and family of people struggling with addiction issues are kept “in the loop,” so to speak. House Bill 944, written by State Reps. Mark Longietti, D-Mercer, and Eric Nelson, R-Westmoreland, would require in-patient rehabilitation facilities to notify a...
Pa. highway deaths rose in 2020 despite less traffic
Statewide traffic deaths increased in 2020 from the record low set in 2019 despite a 20% decrease in traffic, according to the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation. PennDOT reported 1,129 highway fatalities in 2020, up 79 from the 1,059 recorded in 2019. That 6.6% increase is similar to the national estimate...
Pennsylvania, Westmoreland County see most reported covid deaths in months
Months-long highs for covid deaths were reported Tuesday in Pennsylvania and Westmoreland County. The additional covid deaths also continued a trend that has been going on at the state and county level for two and three months, respectively. Deaths Pennsylvania on Tuesday reported the most additional covid deaths since late...
4 referendums to appear on primary ballots in May; all registered voters eligible
All 8.8 million of Pennsylvania’s registered voters will be able to cast ballots on May 18, when four referendums will appear, including three that seek the change the state’s constitution. The deadline to register to vote in the primary is May 3. Voters will have until 5 p.m. May 11...
Pa. pensions board votes to raise rates for 94K school employees
HARRISBURG — The board of Pennsylvania’s largest public pension system on Monday night voted to raise contribution rates for tens of thousands of public school employees after a mistake in a calculation of the fund’s long-term investment performance was revealed last month. The board of the $64 billion Public School...
Lou Barletta, eyeing a run for governor, starts raising money
HARRISBURG — Lou Barletta, the Trump-backing former congressman and immigration hawk who unsuccessfully ran for U.S. Senate, has taken a step toward possibly running for governor of Pennsylvania in 2022 and begun a political action committee to raise money. Barletta told The Associated Press a month ago that he was...
Supreme Court rejects lingering Pa. 2020 election challenge case
WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court on Monday said it will not hear a case out of Pennsylvania related to the 2020 election, a dispute that had lingered while similar election challenges had already been rejected by the justices. The high court directed a lower court to dismiss the case as...
Pennsylvania posts lowest 2-day covid case report since March 23
The state’s latest covid-19 new case report, issued Monday, has not been this low since the fourth week of March. The Pennsylvania Department of Health reported Monday a single-day new case total of 1,914 — the first below 2,000 since March 22. When combined with Sunday’s single-day report of 3,761...
Gov. Wolf receives covid vaccine shot
Gov. Tom Wolf received his first dose of covid vaccine Monday morning, about a week after Pennsylvania opened eligibility to all residents. “I was happy to wait until every Pennsylvanian who wants a vaccine was eligible to get my own, and I was really pleased to get my first dose...
74-year-old man dies while skydiving in Monroe County
A 74-year-old man was killed in a skydiving accident in Monroe County on Sunday morning. Ed Harney, of Paramus, N.J., was found dead in a wooded area in Smithfield Township, near East Stroudsburg, WNEP is reporting. According to reports, Harney’s parachute opened, but it got separated from him during his...
Sunbury woman convicted of lying to police in child death case
SUNBURY — A central Pennsylvania jury has convicted a woman of lying to investigators in the 2019 beating death of a 3-year-old girl in which her son faces charges. The (Sunbury) Daily Item reports that 51-year-old Christy Willis of Sunbury proclaimed “I am innocent” while being led out of the...
Board member sues powerful Hershey School, claims he’s being denied financial records
This article was produced in partnership with Spotlight PA, of which the Tribune-Review/TribLIVE is a partner, and The Philadelphia Inquirer, which is a member of the ProPublica Local Reporting Network. Sign up for Spotlight PA’s free newsletters here. For over a year, lawyer Bob Heist, then-chairman of the Milton Hershey...
Covid cases continue slow increase as over 40% of Pa. has at least 1 vaccine dose
For the fifth straight day, Pennsylvania has posted a new daily covid case number above 5,000 — something it has not done since mid-January. The state’s seven-day case average rose to 4,949, with a total of 34,642 cases during that seven-day span. The last time the state’s seven-day case average...
Black leaders in Harrisburg fear consequences of a Derek Chauvin acquittal: ‘This is an important verdict’
For many, the Derek Chauvin murder trial is about bad policing and police overreach. For legions of Black men, however, the trial of the former Minneapolis police officer is fraught with the hard-earned battles over racial justice and civil rights that have defined their experience and that of countless of...
Pennsylvania sounds alarm on vaccine hesitancy
A growing number of unfilled appointments and low uptake among nursing home workers are early signs that vaccine hesitancy is becoming an issue in Pennsylvania, prompting state officials to sound the alarm Friday and urge residents to get their covid-19 shots as quickly as possible. After months of demand outstripping...
Pennsylvania casinos top $400M in March, shatter monthly revenue record
Monthly casino revenues in Pennsylvania for the first time topped $400 million in March, according to figures released by the state Gaming Control Board. Combined gambling revenues totaled more than $403 million, up significantly from the $154 million in revenues seen in March 2020, when non-life-sustaining businesses were forced to...
Pennsylvania sees rising covid cases, deaths, hospitalizations
Pennsylvania on Friday reported 5,650 new cases of covid-19, raising the seven-day average to 4,916, the highest average since early February. There have been 1,098,502 cases recorded since the pandemic began, according to data from the state Department of Health. The state added 56 new covid-related deaths, the second most...
Pa. officials extend Johnson & Johnson vaccine pause
Pennsylvania vaccine providers will not administer Johnson & Johnson vaccine until at least April 24, state officials said Thursday, extending the distribution pause by four days. Federal regulators had recommended a pause in the single-shot vaccine Tuesday, after six women reportedly experienced blood clots and low platelet counts in the...
Covid hospitalizations continue to be a concern in Allegheny, Westmoreland
A day after a data dump by a lab in Allegheny County led to more than 1,300 additional covid cases being reported, the county saw 403 cases on Thursday. The abnormally high number of cases Wednesday was attributed to GS Lab’s delayed return of data to the state and county....
Pa. courts warn of phone scam seeking money by threatening to list people as sex offenders
The Administrative Office of Pennsylvania Courts in Harrisburg is warning state residents of a new phone scam in which callers threaten to place victims on the state’s sexual offender registry if they don’t immediately forward unpaid court fines or fees. “We wanted to get the word out there as soon...
Unaccompanied children from border arrive in Pennsylvania
HARRISBURG — About 150 unaccompanied children found at the southern border of the U.S. have arrived in northwestern Pennsylvania and will be housed at a dormitory at the Pennsylvania International Academy. The children landed Tuesday night at Erie International Airport and were screened by a physician, dentist and nurse, the...
Lab’s 3-month data delay leads to abnormally high daily covid total in Allegheny County
On paper, Allegheny County on Wednesday recorded its second-highest total of newly reported coronavirus cases since the pandemic began, according to state Department of Health data. In reality, the county’s daily new case total was largely in line with what it has reported since the region emerged from the winter...
Pennsylvania’s shrinking delegation will mean hard decisions
HARRISBURG — There may be nothing more nerve-wracking for a member of Congress than redistricting, when the once-a-decade redrawing of district boundaries injects a dose of uncertainty into their political careers. In Pennsylvania, redrawing the districts to correspond with population shifts identified by the 2020 census will have a particularly...
