Pennsylvania category, Page 174

Pennsylvania hemp farmers saw a lot less green than they were hoping for in 2019. A sudden glut of supply and lack of infrastructure caused national hemp prices to plummet throughout the year. “We had a bunch of people who threw hemp in the ground and expected at the end...

Last year marked the first full year of legal sports betting in the United States, and Pennsylvania was one of just three states to take in more than $1 billion in wagers in 2019, according to the American Gaming Association. Pennsylvania was one of the first states to launch legal...

HARRISBURG — The Pennsylvania Attorney General’s Office sued electronic cigarette manufacturer Juul Labs Inc. on Monday over how its products are marketed and sold to teenagers. The agency is seeking an injunction from Philadelphia courts to halt Juul’s e-cigarette sales in Pennsylvania or force it to dramatically change business practices....

PHILADELPHIA — A man accused of beating his girlfriend to death and calling an Uber to take her to a hospital was charged with murder, according to police records. Police said Nicholas Forman buckled 22-year-old Sabrina Harooni’s injured body into an Uber on Monday and had the driver take them...

LEOLA — An accidental discharge of a gun at a Pennsylvania church on Sunday morning injured two people, church officials said. Officials said the firearm “was accidentally discharged” inside the security office at Worship Center in Upper Leacock Township at about 10 a.m. Sunday. LNP newspaper reported. One of the...

HARRISBURG — Gov . Tom Wolf’s proposal to start a major new scholarship program for students at Pennsylvania’s state-owned universities caused a stir over his idea to divert the money from a sacred cow, but it also spotlit an uncomfortable truth about Pennsylvania’s ragged performance on higher education funding. By...

PHILADELPHIA — President Donald Trump turned a Philadelphia fourth grader into a poster child for the school-choice movement Tuesday when he told the nation thousands of students were “trapped in failing government schools” and announced that she was finally getting a scholarship to attend the school of her choice. But...

Pennsylvania state agencies are declaring war on litter. On Wednesday, the agencies released the results of the first statewide study on litter — the cost of cleaning it up, public attitudes toward litter — and announced the formation of a working group to shift Pennsylvania’s strategy from cleanup to prevention....

That Punxsutawney Phil really brings people together, and in big numbers. This year’s Groundhog Day celebration in Punxsutawney had attendance that exceeded 40,000, according to PennLive citing estimates from the Punxsutawney Groundhog Club. According to PennLive, the previous Groundhog Day attendance record was 35,000 in 1997, with average attendance coming...

HARRISBURG — Vice President Mike Pence is making a swing through Pennsylvania on Wednesday to tout the Trump administration’s support for funding tuition for private school students and, on the campaign side, to make an appeal to women voters. He will be with U.S. Education Secretary Betsy DeVos and senior...

PHILADELPHIA — A street shooting in Philadelphia left three men wounded early Wednesday, including one who was hospitalized in critical condition. Police officers responding to numerous reports of shots fired found the three victims around 12:30 a.m. Two people were seen running from the scene, but police said it was...

U.S. Sen. Pat Toomey credited President Donald Trump with setting “an optimistic and ambitious agenda for the future” in Tuesday night’s State of the Union speech, which cited goals such as eradicating the AIDS epidemic, curing childhood cancer and planting the first flag on Mars. Toomey, a Lehigh Valley Republican,...

HARRISBURG — A woman sentenced to 10 months in jail for a $109.63 theft, despite needing surgery to treat what her family says is advanced uterine and cervical cancer, is being transferred to a Pennsylvania state prison, her lawyer said Monday. Ashley Menser’s family is asking the sentencing judge to...

HARRISBURG — Republican Sen. Pat Toomey of Pennsylvania said Tuesday he will vote to acquit President Donald Trump on two impeachment charges, maintaining that the president didn’t commit an impeachable offense and that removing Trump would cause “societal upheaval.” Toomey sided with nearly all of his fellow Republicans in advance...

HARRISBURG — Highlights of Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf’s spending plan for the 2020-21 budget year that starts July 1: THE BIG PICTURE — Increases spending through the state’s main bank account to $36.1 billion. Including nearly $600 million for the current fiscal year, Wolf is seeking authorization for another $2.6...

HARRISBURG — Wildlife authorities say Pennsylvania hunters killed 4,653 black bears last year, setting a new record. The Pennsylvania Game Commission said Monday the total is far above last year’s total of 3,153, which was the 11th highest total recorded but was also the lowest in almost a dozen years....

WILKES-BARRE — A woman has pleaded guilty to soliciting the homicide of her stepfather nearly five years ago in northeastern Pennsylvania. Twenty-five-year-old Kendra Dias entered the plea Monday as her trial was about to open. Under a plea agreement, Luzerne County prosecutors withdrew a conspiracy count and are to recommend...

Did Gritty physically assault a 13-year-old boy in November? No, said Philadelphia police Monday. A news release stated that the actions of the person wearing the Flyers’ mascot costume that night did not constitute physical assault. The investigation is no longer active. The person wearing the mascot costume has not...

The heat is on — and it’s getting hotter for election officials across Pennsylvania as the April 28 presidential primary approaches. A new state election law that allows, among other things, no-excuse mail-in balloting 50 days before an election, coupled with the introduction of new voting machines in 22 counties,...

HARRISBURG, Pa. — Gov. Tom Wolf’s sixth budget proposal to the Republican-controlled Legislature will come out Tuesday, and the Democrat is expected to seek more for public schools and emphasize the urgency of addressing student-loan debt and cleaning up lead and asbestos in schools. Many details of the plan, which...

HARRISBURG — Gov. Tom Wolf’s administration is on the brink of making Pennsylvania one of a handful of states to expand eligibility for overtime pay beyond federal thresholds, winning a final vote Friday from a state regulatory board. The Independent Regulatory Review Commission voted 3-2 to approve a regulation that...

Students at three Pennsylvania schools were told to stay home Thursday amid concerns over lead and asbestos contamination, as Pennsylvania State Police investigate what former district officials did to address problems with tainted water. One day after Gov. Tom Wolf unveiled a $1.1 billion plan to help Pennsylvania’s public schools...