Pennsylvania category, Page 215
1 dead, 5 wounded in shooting during rap video production in Philadelphia
PHILADELPHIA — One man was killed and five others were wounded in a shooting during a rap video production in Philadelphia. Police say unidentified gunmen opened fire as the victims were about to shoot the video on Sunday night. Police say a 21-year-old was shot in the head and died...
Police: Man shot, killed by officer outside Pa. hardware store
ROARING SPRING — State police are investigating the fatal shooting of a man by a local police officer outside a western Pennsylvania hardware store. Police in Blair County say several 911 callers reported a man acting strangely around a dollar store next to the hardware store in Roaring Spring at...
Legal cannabis could pose law enforcement challenges
Pennsylvania’s rules for marijuana possession used to be simple: Don’t possess marijuana. It’s still that straightforward for most people. But legal medical marijuana, as well as legal hemp, could pose challenges to police and investigators nationwide. So far, Pennsylvania’s legal cannabis options haven’t interfered with prosecuting cases of illegal marijuana...
Pennsylvania’s absentee ballot rules mean many arrive too late to be counted
PHILADELPHIA — Comparatively tight deadlines for absentee ballots mean Pennsylvania’s mail-in votes arrive too late to be counted far more often than the national average, a newspaper reported Friday. The Philadelphia Inquirer reported that 4.2% of the state’s absentee ballots got to voting offices after the deadline to be counted...
Hersheypark’s tallest, fastest coaster, Candymonium, coming in 2020Video
Another marquee roller coaster is coming to Pennsylvania. Following on the heels of the opening of Kennywood’s Steel Curtain roller coaster this month, Hersheypark announced Wednesday that Candymonium is coming next summer. Billed as the “World’s Sweetest Coaster,” Candymonium will open in summer 2020 as part of Hershey’s new Chocolatetown...
Schools that warned about lunch debt now accepting donation
A Pennsylvania school district that warned parents behind on their lunch bills that their children could end up in foster care, and then rejected a businessman’s offer to pay the overdue charges, is apologizing and says it wants to accept the donation after all. The Wyoming Valley West school board...
Pennsylvania high court declines to review Jerry Sandusky decision
HARRISBURG — Jerry Sandusky isn’t getting a fresh chance to argue in state court he should get a new trial, seven years after the former Penn State assistant football coach was convicted of molesting 10 boys. Pennsylvania’s Supreme Court on Wednesday turned down the 75-year-old’s request it review a Superior...
Rapper Meek Mill’s conviction thrown out, granted new trial
A Pennsylvania appeals court on Wednesday overturned rapper Meek Mill’s conviction in a drug and gun case that has kept the rapper on probation for a decade and made him a celebrity crusader for criminal justice reform. The unanimous three-judge opinion granted the rapper a new trial because of new...
CEO: Pennsylvania school board rejects offer to pay students’ late lunch bills
The president of a Pennsylvania school board whose district had warned parents behind on lunch bills that their children could end up in foster care has rejected a CEO’s offer to cover the cost, the businessman said Tuesday. Todd Carmichael, chief executive and co-founder of Philadelphia-based La Colombe Coffee, said...
DePasquale: Pennsylvania nursing home oversight improves, but aging population threatens progress
The state Department of Health’s oversight of the 700 nursing homes in Pennsylvania has improved since the 2016 performance review by the auditor general, according to a follow-up report released on Tuesday. But Auditor General Eugene DePasquale warned that progress is threatened by the looming gray tsunami of baby boomers...
Penn State Extension holding industrial hemp workshop for farmers
Capitalizing on the recent legalization of industrial hemp, Penn State Extension is holding a Hemp Research Field Day for interested farmers on Aug. 6. The second annual event, scheduled for 4:30-8:30 p.m., will be held at the Penn State Southeast Research & Extension Center in Manheim, Lancaster County. Cost is...
Mosquitoes test positive for West Nile virus in Pennsylvania
At least a couple mosquitoes in Allentown have West Nile virus, a state monitoring program determined in its latest round of tests. There have been no confirmed human cases of West Nile virus in Lehigh or Northampton Counties so far in 2019, but the Lehigh/Northampton County Mosquito Borne Disease Control...
Review urged after 3 Pennsylvania parolees charged in separate homicides
HARRISBURG — At least three men recently paroled from Pennsylvania prisons have been arrested in unrelated homicides over the past two months, leading to calls from prosecutors and corrections officers for a review of the state’s parole practices. The men were arrested within a couple days of one another this...
Lawmakers spend $10M annually on publicly funded messaging
HARRISBURG — Pennsylvania taxpayers are paying nearly $10 million annually for lawmakers to get their story out through a small army of spokespeople. LNP reported Monday on the vast message machine that often produces news releases, TV shows and other content with a partisan message. The newspaper says it calculated...
Pa. Game Commission: Wildlife feeding ban would help curb spreading of diseases
A proposal to expand the statewide ban on feeding big game is being considered by the Pennsylvania Game Commission. The commission is holding a series of meetings across the state in July and August to solicit public comment on the proposal, which would extend a ban on feeding bear and...
Reading mayor reverses course, will allow LGBTQ rainbow flag to fly
READING — The mayor of the eastern Pennsylvania city of Reading has reversed course and says he will allow the LGBTQ rainbow flag to fly over City Hall for the first time. Mayor Wally Scott last week called off a scheduled ceremony to raise the “pride flag,” calling it a...
The unlikely pairing of the professor and the lifer yields results for Pittsburgh Police
No question, they made for an odd couple. The college professor and the inmate serving life in prison for second-degree murder were indeed an unlikely pairing. It began in 2011 when Duquesne University professor Norman Conti met inmate Robert Wideman when he took a group of students into the now-shuttered...
Pa. parents told they could lose kids over unpaid school lunches
KINGSTON — A Pennsylvania school district is warning that children could end up in foster care if their parents do not pay overdue school lunch bills. The letters sent recently to about 1,000 parents in Wyoming Valley West School District have led to complaints from parents and a stern rebuke...
Penn State holds the line on tuition
It may be hot outside, but there’s a slight breeze blowing for thousands of Pennsylvania families awaiting tuition bills from Penn State. Trustees Thursday voted to freeze tuition at its main campus for an unprecedented second consecutive year . The vote called for holding base undergraduate tuition for Pennsylvania residents...
Pennsylvania homicide rates flare in July
When tempers flare as the mercury climbs, homicide rates in Pennsylvania do likewise. When the number crunchers at the Administrative Office of the Pennsylvania Courts began analyzing statistics for criminal homicide they found the highest percentage of those convicted of the offense between 2014 and 2018 — 11% — were...
Philadelphia moves to fire 13 officers over Facebook posts
PHILADELPHIA — The Philadelphia Police Department is suspending 13 police officers with an intent to fire them following an investigation into offensive and sometimes threatening Facebook posts. Seventy-two officers had been placed on administrative leave in June. The action came after a nonprofit group published the results of a two-year...
Three Mile Island’s 60-year shutdown: ‘More akin to a marathon than a sprint’
The Three Mile Island Unit 1 nuclear reactor shutdown, which is set to begin no later than Sept. 30, will take nearly 60 years and $1.2 billion to complete. The Nuclear Regulatory Commission is outlining Exelon Generation’s plans to decommission TMI Unit 1, whose closure was announced in May after...
Pa. State Police seize $11 million in illicit drugs during past 3 months
State troopers across Pennsylvania confiscated 84 pounds of heroin and nearly 33 pounds of fentanyl between April 1 and June 30, according to an announcement. The seizures were part of $11 million in illicit drugs that troopers got off the streets during the second quarter of 2019. The heroin was...
Robert Wideman begins new life in Pittsburgh halfway house after 44 years in prison
Last winter, after seven unsuccessful appeals to the Pennsylvania Board of Pardons, Robert Wideman had given up hope of ever leaving the state prison system that had been his home for more than four decades. On Wednesday, Wideman, who finally was released from prison last week after a final appeal...
‘All hands on deck’: Pennsylvania ramps up battle against the spotted lanternfly
Pennsylvania has allocated an additional $3 million in its budget toward the containment of the spotted lanternfly, bringing the total to more than $10 million to protect businesses and agriculture in the state. The funding was announced Tuesday at a joint press conference held by Gov. Tom Wolf, Agriculture Secretary...
