Pennsylvania category, Page 147
Pa. state Sen. Dave Arnold dies from brain cancer at age 49
Pennsylvania Sen. Dave Arnold died Sunday at home with his wife and daughter by his side, ending a 15-month battle with brain cancer. Arnold was 49 years old. He took the oath of office last January to represent the 48th senatorial district, which covers all of Lebanon County and parts...
Pandemic exposes weakness in Pa. counties without health departments, like Westmoreland
When Kim Ward was sworn in as a Westmoreland County commissioner in 2008, one of her first questions was: Who oversees the county’s health department? The former respiratory therapist was stunned to learn there wasn’t one. Westmoreland, like 61 of Pennsylvania’s 67 counties, leaves the issue of public health to...
Pennsylvania reports 7,166 coronavirus cases, 231 deaths
Pennsylvania on Saturday reported 7,166 new coronavirus cases, as hospitalizations and case counts are trending down in the Keystone State. The new data bring the total cases to 761,777. That’s a jump of nearly 48,500 cases from this time last week. The week before, the weekly increase was 56,000. Officials...
$2.2 billion to be allocated to school districts, charter schools across Pennsylvania
Additional federal money is being allocated to school districts across the state to help with the impact of the coronavirus pandemic. Gov. Tom Wolf on Friday said he is dedicating $2.2 billion in federal stimulus funds to K-12 school districts and charter schools. The money can be used to support...
Westmoreland County Democrats flock to the GOP in week of D.C. riot, bucking Pa. trend
Nowhere else in Pennsylvania saw more Democratic voters switch their party allegiances to Republican than in Westmoreland County during the first week of January. From Jan. 4 through Jan. 11, there were 189 registered Democrats who became members of the GOP, according to figures from the Pennsylvania Department of State....
Giant Eagle, Rite Aid tapped as covid vaccine providers
Giant Eagle pharmacies will be part of the effort to get more covid-19 vaccine to the public as more and more doses become available, Pennsylvania health officials announced this week. TopCo Associates, which runs Giant Eagle’s pharmacies, was tapped by the Department of Health, along with Rite Aid, to provide...
Pennsylvania reports 6,047 new covid cases, 215 deaths
Pennsylvania on Friday reported a slightly lower 6,047 additional cases of covid-19 compared to the previous three days, which were each above 7,000. After seeing two days in January that added more than 10,000 cases each, the state has had daily case reports below 8,000 for six consecutive days, according...
No specific threats in Pa., but police in Harrisburg bolster security
Pennsylvania Capitol Police and state police said Thursday there are no specific threats against the Capitol Complex in Harrisburg, though the departments say they are prepared should rumors of attacks come to fruition. “We have no specific intelligence relative to the Capitol Complex,” state police Lt. Col. Scott Price said...
Temporary waiver will allow qualified pharmacists to order, administer covid vaccines
Referring to pharmacies as “critical public health partners” in Pennsylvania’s plan to increase access to covid-19 vaccines, Gov. Tom Wolf approved a temporary waiver to allow state-licensed pharmacists to order and administer the shots once the vaccine is widely available. “Many Pennsylvanians will go to their local pharmacy for vaccination,”...
Gov. Wolf: Pa. will soon unveil plans to vaccinate older people
Pennsylvania health officials next week will detail their plans to vaccinate older people, Gov. Tom Wolf said. “We should have something specific next week,” he said regarding plans to vaccinate the 65+ demographic. Allegheny County health officials said Wednesday that people 75 and older may have to wait longer to...
More than $45 million worth of illegal drugs seized by Pa. troopers in 2020
More than $45 million worth of illicit drugs was taken off the streets by state troopers in 2020, according to police. That was about $2 million more than the total in 2019, when troopers confiscated more than $43 million in prohibited drugs statewide. In 2020, troopers seized more than 300...
Pennsylvania Capitol closing; more security being added
HARRISBURG — Gov. Tom Wolf on Thursday ordered the Pennsylvania Capitol closed for two days next week around the swearing-in of three statewide officials and the inauguration of President-elect Joe Biden. The complex is already closed to the general public because of the coronavirus pandemic, and most Capitol employees under...
Charges: Retired Pa. firefighter threw extinguisher at Capitol Police
PHILADELPHIA — A retired Pennsylvania firefighter was arrested Thursday on federal charges that he threw a fire extinguisher that hit three Capitol Police officers during the violent siege on the Capitol last week. Robert Sanford, who retired last March from the Chester Fire Department, was arrested on charges that include...
Pennsylvania records 313 additional covid deaths, 7,175 more cases
Pennsylvania’s Department of Health on Thursday reported 313 additional covid deaths and 7,175 cases. With the day’s report, there have been 2,764 deaths counted this month, though not all the deaths occurred this month. Of the deaths counted this month 1,201 are from January, 1,547 from December, 12 are from...
Pennsylvania firearms background checks shatter record in 4th quarter 2020
Word that Pennsylvania State Police saw a record surge in firearm license background checks in 2020 didn’t surprise Mark Boerio, owner of Latrobe’s Army Navy & Indoor Pistol Range. Business soared last year — and has continued into 2021, he said. “It’s the same everywhere,” Boerio said. “First you had...
Powerball, Mega Millions jackpots grow after no big winnersVideo
Billions of dollars are up for grabs this week as jackpots for Mega Millions and the Powerball lotteries continued to grow after players did not win the top prize for months. In all, nearly $1.4 billion is available: A $750 million jackpot is expected in Friday’s Mega Millions drawing, and...
Prosecutors ask judge to order that Graham Spanier report to jail
HARRISBURG — Pennsylvania prosecutors want a judge to order former Penn State president Graham Spanier to begin serving a county jail sentence for endangering children by the way he responded to a complaint that Jerry Sandusky had attacked a boy on campus. The attorney general’s office wrote in a Monday...
Fiscal constraints force Pa. to scale back program to help nursing homes battling covid
A shortage of federal funding has caused Pennsylvania to scale back a critical program for assisting long-term care facilities battling covid-19, officials said Wednesday. State officials introduced a new program called Regional Congregate Care Assistance Teams, or RCATs, to support long-term care facilities. It replaces the state’s Regional Response Health...
Pennsylvania covid hospitalizations drop almost 10% in week
The number of patients hospitalized for covid-19 in Pennsylvania has dropped almost 10 percent since last Wednesday. Pennsylvania’s Department of Health reported 5,069 covid-19 patients on Wednesday, a decline of 544 from last Wednesday’s 5,613. The state has 6,004 ventilators, with 1,912 in use, including 645 by covid-19 patients. There...
Pa. GOP proposal to elect judges by zone advances by single vote
HARRISBURG — A legislative panel on Wednesday narrowly approved a proposal to amend the Pennsylvania Constitution to elect state appeals court judges by zone, a movement largely motivated by Republicans’ anger over recent rulings from the Democratic-majority state Supreme Court. The House Judiciary vote was 13-12, with two GOP members...
Pennsylvania officials give update on vaccine distribution
Nearly 17,000 Pennsylvania residents were vaccinated for covid-19 since Monday, Health Secretary Rachel Levine said Tuesday afternoon. That puts the statewide total at 311,477 total doses administered across the state. Pennsylvania officials provided an update on the state’s progress vaccinating members of Phase 1A in the federal guidelines, which includes...
New Pa. websites promote restaurants and show violators of covid measures
New interactive dashboards announced Tuesday by state officials allow users to find open Pennsylvania restaurants, which are offering takeout and those accused of violating covid-19 mitigation measures. The Covid Inspection Dashboard allows users to search restaurants by name, county, city or ZIP code. The dashboard lists whether any violations have...
Pa. State Police try to identify racial disparities in policing
The Pennsylvania State Police said Tuesday the department has embarked on a data collection program designed to identify patterns of racial/ethnic disparities in policing. Troopers statewide have begun documenting additional information during traffic stops, regardless of whether the encounter results in a citation or written warning. The contact data includes...
Pa. sets record for 7-day covid death total
With 227 additional covid deaths reported Tuesday in the state, Pennsylvania has set a record. The newly reported coronavirus-related deaths bring the seven-day death total to 1,534, a record for that statistic, according to the Pennsylvania Department of Health. Of the newly reported deaths, 143 are from January, 82 are...
Susan Wild, congresswoman in viral photo from Capitol floor, shares harrowing tale of escaping attackVideo
Susan Wild woke up around 7 on Wednesday morning in her Washington, D.C., apartment. The Democratic congresswoman representing Pennsylvania’s 7th District had a busy day ahead of her — Congress was set to certify the results of the 2020 election. The final step in the election process is usually a...
