Pennsylvania category, Page 136
Ticks present concern about Lyme disease as weather warms
As the weather warms and people once again take to the outdoors, state officials are reminding residents that in addition to health and safety protocols for covid-19, there is also one of the state’s most persistent pests to consider: the black-legged tick, the primary vector for Lyme disease in Pennsylvania....
More than 100,000 educators in Pa. vaccinated through state initiative
More than 100,000 educators have been vaccinated through a Pennsylvania initiative using the Johnson & Johnson vaccine, state officials announced Tuesday. A total of 102,161 school teachers and staff have gotten the vaccine since the initiative got started across Pennsylvania. “Vaccinating more than 100,000 teachers and staff in less than...
Allegheny County, Pennsylvania see covid hospitalizations go up again
While progress had been made for covid hospitalizations in the past month, numbers appear to be going up again. Hospitalizations in the state and Allegheny County have been generally increasing over the past week, while Westmoreland County’s numbers tell a different story, according to state Department of Health data. Hospitalizations...
Pa. House passes bill to loosen rules on substitute teachers
Legislation to provide more flexibility when it comes to finding substitute teachers to staff classrooms won unanimous approval on Monday from the Pennsylvania House of Representatives. The legislation, sponsored by Rep. Barb Gleim, R-Cumberland County, now goes to the Senate for consideration. It aims to help ease the problem districts...
Ballot questions should be clear, but 2 written by Wolf administration don’t pass test, critics say
Spotlight PA is an independent, nonpartisan newsroom powered by The Philadelphia Inquirer in partnership with PennLive/The Patriot-News, TribLIVE/Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, and WITF Public Media. A version of this story originally appeared in our free weekly newsletter. HARRISBURG — Amending the Pennsylvania Constitution is a lengthy process that ends at the ballot...
Pa. updates mask guidance for fully vaccinated residents
The Pennsylvania Department of Health has amended its mask mandate, updating guidance for fully vaccinated residents to fall in line with federal guidelines, officials said Monday. A previous state order went into effect that loosened mask restrictions in certain circumstances. “The vaccines that are currently available across the state and...
Pa. Senate GOP won’t fast-track child sex abuse lawsuit ‘window’
HARRISBURG — Majority Republicans in the state Senate announced Monday they will not employ a rarely used emergency process to amend the Pennsylvania Constitution to give victims of child sexual abuse a two-year window in which to file civil lawsuits. Senate Majority Leader Kim Ward issued a statement that said...
3 injured when chair detaches from ski lift at Poconos resort
Three people were injured Sunday when the chair they were riding in fell off a ski lift line at Camelback Resort in Monroe County and crashed to the ground, officials said. The people fell about 15 feet near the top of the mountain and were taken away by a St....
Pennsylvania closing in on 1 million covid cases as numbers continue to creep upward
New cases of the coronavirus continue to see a week-over-week increase at state and county levels in Pennsylvania, according to numbers released Monday by the Department of Health. There were 3,920 new cases of covid-19 recorded in the state over the past two days, the Department of Health reported Monday....
Rivals take aim at Pa. state Sen. Doug Mastriano’s WWI research
HARRISBURG — The World War I exploits of Sgt. Alvin C. York netted Gary Cooper a best actor Academy Award and Pennsylvania state Sen. Doug Mastriano a degree, a book deal — and academic backlash. Mastriano had a deep interest in York long before he led anti-mask protests last year,...
Election Code proposals trigger debate in Harrisburg as hearings progress
State lawmakers are weighing sweeping changes to Pennsylvania’s election laws as candidates cautiously test the waters for a 2022 mid-term election that could once again put the state in the bull’s-eye of the national debate over election reform. In Pennsylvania, where unsuccessful court challenges to the 2020 presidential election continued...
A huge spike in Medicaid enrollment in Pa. shows how devastating the coronavirus has been
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 — There are many ways to measure the pain being felt by people in Cumberland County. More families in the...
Police say gunfire at illegal large gathering in Philadelphia kills 1, wounds 5
PHILADELPHIA — Gunfire at an illegal large gathering in north Philadelphia killed one person and wounded five others while sending scores of people fleeing, authorities said. The gunfire erupted at about 3:45 a.m. Saturday inside and outside of a rental hall adjacent to Hot Pot Cuisine in the Nicetown neighborhood,...
Covid cases spiking rapidly in Pennsylvania and Allegheny, Westmoreland counties
The latest covid-19 spike that health officials have been warning about appears to have arrived in Pennsylvania. On Saturday, the state posted 4,213 new covid cases, the highest single-day tally since Feb. 7 (4,717). Over the past week, the seven-day average of new cases (2,888) has risen more than 16%....
Story of Wally Triplett, 1st Black football player to start for Penn State, to be made into movieVideo
It was a moment every high school football player dreams about. It was the mid-1940s, and Wally Triplett had just opened a letter from the University of Miami. The school was offering him a scholarship to play football for the Hurricanes. Triplett was ecstatic. His joy quickly evaporated when he...
Pa. expiration date for license to carry firearms extended again
Pennsylvania gun owners received another extension on license-to-carry permits, the sixth extension Gov. Tom Wolf has issued since the covid-19 pandemic began. The previous extension, issued late last year, was set to expire at the end of the month. Wolf has issued extensions every few months for a year now...
You’ll need more cash to play Pa. Lottery’s Cash 5
It will take double the cash to play Cash 5, the Pennsylvania Lottery’s longest-running jackpot game. The base ticket price will jump from $1 to $2, and Cash 5 will offer a revised game with a chance to win more prizes, the Pennsylvania Lottery announced. The changes will begin with...
Bucks County prosecutor demoted for DoorDash moonlighting during work
A top aide to a district attorney in suburban Philadelphia has been demoted because he was caught moonlighting for DoorDash during work hours. Bucks County District Attorney Matt Weintraub announced the punishment Thursday against prosecutor Gregg Shore, who was demoted from the office’s first assistant district attorney to being a...
Lou Barletta to decide soon on whether to run for Pa. governor
HARRISBURG — Lou Barletta, the former congressman who unsuccessfully challenged U.S. Sen. Bob Casey in 2018, said Friday that he will make a decision in the next few weeks on whether to seek the Republican nomination for governor of Pennsylvania in 2022. Barletta began considering a run late last year,...
Covid cases jump in Allegheny, Westmoreland, Pennsylvania
More covid cases were reported Friday in Allegheny County than at any point in the past 10 days, according to the most recent health department data. An additional 346 cases were announced Friday, bumping the county’s seven-day average up to 262. That’s the highest level for that metric since March...
Report: Pennsylvania casino revenues down slightly in FebruaryVideo
Following a strong start to the year, Pennsylvania casinos last month saw a slight drop in gambling revenue as they work to recoup from the economic impacts of the covid-19 pandemic. In February, revenues posted by casinos across the state came in at $301.9 million, a decrease of $2.36 million,...
Levine pressed for answers on Pa.’s missing nursing home data as confirmation advances
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 — Former Pennsylvania Health Secretary Rachel Levine is under pressure from U.S. House Republicans to provide more details about the...
USPS agents found no evidence of backdated Erie ballots, report says
HARRISBURG — U.S. Postal Service investigators did not find evidence of any backdated presidential election ballots in the post office in Erie, according to a report summarizing the investigation into claims by a postal worker that spurred calls from Republicans for a federal probe. The presidential battleground of Pennsylvania was...
Pa. vaccine provider map gets face-lift, officials still aim for May 1 open eligibilityVideo
The Pennsylvania Department of Health appears to be inching toward a more centralized system for finding and making covid-19 vaccine appointments as officials work to make a map of providers more accessible and more interactive. Health officials touted the updates to the map, which right now is the sole place...
Penn State announces in-person commencement plans
Penn State officials say the university will host in-person commencement ceremonies at University Park and at its other campuses across the state. The state’s largest university cited increasing vaccination rates and a relaxation in state guidelines in its decision to move forward with a more traditional graduation for the class...
