Pennsylvania category, Page 14
Pennsylvania school shooting was planned for Columbine anniversary
STATE COLLEGE — A Pennsylvania man remained jailed on Sunday after being accused by authorities of planning a mass school shooting for later this month that would have coincided with the anniversary of the Columbine High School massacre. Police allege Braeden Phillips, 20, had planned to commit a mass shooting...
Suspect arrested in arson at Pennsylvania governor’s residenceVideo
HARRISBURG — A man was arrested on felony charges of setting an early morning fire Sunday that badly damaged the Pennsylvania governor’s mansion in Harrisburg and forced Gov. Josh Shapiro, his family and guests to flee. Cody Balmer, 38, of Harrisburg faces felony charges of criminal attempted homicide, aggravated arson,...
Emails between Pa. lawmakers, lobbyists will remain hidden from public after court ruling
Spotlight PA is an independent, nonpartisan, and nonprofit newsroom producing investigative and public-service journalism that holds power to account and drives positive change in Pennsylvania. HARRISBURG — Emails and other communications between Pennsylvania lawmakers and the lobbyists who try to influence them will remain hidden from the public, an appellate...
Sen. Dave McCormick joins Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick in calling for term limits for members of Congress
WASHINGTON — U.S. Sen. Dave McCormick has joined forces with U.S. Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick in calling for changes to the Constitution to impose term limits on members of Congress — a concept that continues to be an off-and-on debate on Capitol Hill. McCormick’s resolution, introduced Thursday, proposes capping term limits...
Hunting clubs ask Pa. Supreme Court to ban warrantless searches by game officials
In the summer of 2013, a state wildlife officer confronted a member of the Pitch Pine Hunting Club, accusing him of feeding bears outside a house on the club’s property. Wildlife Officer Mark Gritzer told club member Jon Mikesell that he had been watching Mikesell and his guests for several...
Pa. state police equip 3,000 troopers with body cameras in bid to improve ‘public trust’
More than 3,000 Pennsylvania State Police patrol troopers are now equipped with body-worn cameras to record interactions with the public, the agency said Thursday. State police said the effort, which started in the summer of 2023, was completed weeks ahead of schedule and covers patrol troopers at all 89 stations...
At a little known Rolls-Royce museum in Pennsylvania farm country, volunteers dote over iconic cars
MECHANICSBURG — Mike Fowler had been faintly aware that a museum of Rolls-Royce and Bentley vehicles existed near his boyhood home in the suburbs of Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, but the car enthusiast didn’t expect the experience he got when he started volunteering there. Fowler had oil on his hands within a...
Pennsylvania Treasurer Stacy Garrity seriously eyeing run for governor as the GOP race for 2026 heats up
HARRISBURG — Pennsylvania Treasurer Stacy Garrity is seriously considering a run for governor in 2026, as the GOP race to challenge Gov. Josh Shapiro heats up. Garrity, who replaced Shapiro as Pennsylvania’s top vote-getter in history when she won reelection last year, has been a leading prospect for Republican insiders...
Pa. House passes pension increase for oldest retired teachers, state government workers
The Pennsylvania House of Representatives has again passed a bill that would give a cost-of-living raise to roughly 59,000 retired teachers and state employees whose pension benefits have been held flat since 2002. The issue is one of the many idiosyncrasies of the State Employees Retirement System (SERS) and the...
Pennsylvania judge convicted of shooting, wounding ex-boyfriend as he slept
HARRISBURG — A magistrate judge in Pennsylvania accused of shooting and wounding her ex-boyfriend in the head as he slept was convicted Wednesday of attempted homicide and aggravated assault charges. Sonya McKnight was taken away in handcuffs after the trial judge rejected a defense request that she be released. She...
Democrats already planning for 2026 and think they can flip these 4 Pa. congressional seats
House Democrats have their eyes on four Pennsylvania congressional districts in 2026 — two they hope to regain and two they’ve been trying to win for years. The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee told The Inquirer it is focusing its midterm attention on longtime U.S. Reps. Brian Fitzpatrick of Bucks County...
Measles cases up in Pa. and some counties lag behind school vaccination targets
In late March, a four-year-old in Erie County was diagnosed with measles, a highly contagious and incurable disease that, in rare cases, can cause brain damage and death. The child, who the county did not identify to the Capital-Star, had attended day care at Creative Learning Childcare in Erie, where...
Foster care agencies in Pa. took millions owed to kids in their care, often keeping them in the dark
Spotlight PA is an independent, nonpartisan, and nonprofit newsroom producing investigative and public-service journalism that holds power to account and drives positive change in Pennsylvania. Counties across Pennsylvania are taking millions of dollars in Social Security benefits owed to kids in foster care, a practice some child advocates equate to...
‘Kind’ father, 2 sons fatally struck by Amtrak train in Bucks County
PHILADELPHIA — It was quiet at the Bristol SEPTA station the day after three family members were killed after being struck by an Amtrak train Thursday evening, with passengers calmly boarding cars heading toward Philadelphia and the Bucks County community mourning the deaths. There were no obvious signs of the...
Records reveal Shapiro admin stopped tracking why older adults die during abuse, neglect investigations
Spotlight PA is an independent, nonpartisan, and nonprofit newsroom producing investigative and public-service journalism that holds power to account and drives positive change in Pennsylvania. HARRISBURG — The Shapiro administration last year stopped collecting information on why older adults in Pennsylvania die during open abuse and neglect investigations, and no...
Demand for viral ‘torpedo’ baseball bats has sent a Pennsylvania factory into overdrive
KING OF PRUSSIA — A 70-year-old man who plays in an area senior hardball league popped into Victus Sports this week because he needed bats for the new season. Plus he just had to take some cuts with baseball’s latest fad and see for himself if there really was some...
Lawsuit claims Elon Musk failed to make promised payments over 2024 petition signatures
PHILADELPHIA — A federal lawsuit filed Tuesday in Pennsylvania accuses billionaire Elon Musk and the political action committee he started of failing to pay a suburban Philadelphia man more than $20,000 for getting people to sign a petition in favor of free speech and gun rights. The lawsuit seeking class-action...
Pennsylvania mail-in ballots don’t need accurate envelope dates, federal judge rules
HARRISBURG — Election boards in Pennsylvania’s 67 counties may not invalidate mail-in ballots simply because they lack accurate, handwritten dates on their exterior return envelopes, a federal judge ruled Monday. The decision by U.S. District Judge Susan Paradise Baxter, the latest in a long-running legal dispute over what is a...
Pa. Senate passes bill requiring prosecutors to report noncitizens to ICE
The Pennsylvania Senate passed a bill Monday requiring prosecutors in the commonwealth to notify U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement if they believe a defendant is not a U.S. citizen, with critics voicing concern that the measure would entangle local law enforcement in some of the Trump administration’s recent excesses. The...
20 staffers accused of abusing students or not reporting it at Pennsylvania charter school
Twenty staffers at a suburban Philadelphia charter school are facing charges related to the alleged physical abuse of students using painful, unapproved techniques to restrain and punish youths in a program meant to help them deal with emotional issues, authorities announced Monday. Delaware County District Attorney Jack Stollsteimer said the...
Adoption of red light cameras slow in Pa. even though they save lives
HARRISBURG — All Pennsylvania municipalities would be allowed to install red light cameras aimed at making intersections safer under a proposal that could be introduced as soon as this summer. At the moment, just Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, and a handful of other places in the commonwealth are allowed to use them....
4 ways Pa. could fix its campaign finance laws to reduce the power of money in politics
HARRISBURG — Pennsylvania’s lax campaign finance laws allow powerful interests to pour unlimited dollars into politicians’ campaign accounts with few restrictions. Campaign checks help donors or their lobbyists gain access to top elected officials who set the policy agenda in the Capitol, those versed in the way power works in...
Democrats take hope from upset win in GOP-leaning Pa. state Senate district
MANHEIM — Democrat James Andrew Malone narrowly won a special election for a Pennsylvania state Senate seat in Republican-leaning suburbs and farming communities, scoring an upset in a district that a Democrat hasn’t represented in the chamber for 136 years. Malone’s victory over Republican Josh Parsons in Tuesday night’s election...
A new Chili’s near Scranton will be a throwback to ‘The Office,’ ‘awesome blossom’ and all
It has been nearly two decades since the workplace mockumentary “The Office” first set an episode inside a Chili’s, where Michael Scott handed out Dundie awards to his ever-tolerant employees, including trophies for the whitest sneakers and for stinking up the bathroom. Over nine seasons, “The Office” regularly name-dropped real...
Driver’s license center in Pa. draws crowd as Real ID deadline approaches
Pennsylvanians flocked to the Lehigh Valley Driver License Center outside Allentown on Monday — to acquire a Real ID — as part of a dedicated day to acquiring the new identification cards. Starting on May 7, anyone 18 years of age or older will need a Real ID or another...
