Pennsylvania category, Page 79
Dismissal of DUI case against ex-attorney general Kathleen Kane sought
SCRANTON — The attorney for Pennsylvania’s former top law enforcement officer is arguing that a drunken-driving case against her should be dismissed because prosecutors did not present sufficient evidence. The (Scranton) Times-Tribune reports that defense attorney Jason Mattioli also seeks to bar prosecutors from presenting results of a field sobriety...
Where governor candidates Mastriano, Shapiro stand on rural health care, broadband and agriculture
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. Sign up for our free newsletters. HARRISBURG — People who live in rural Pennsylvania face unique barriers to health care, broadband, and economic opportunities. About 3.4 million...
Jail officials across Pa. sound alarm as mental health crisis puts people at risk, survey finds
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. Sign up for our free newsletters. County jails across Pennsylvania lack the resources to address a growing mental health crisis, putting some of the most vulnerable incarcerated...
Most outside spending on Pa. governor’s race has one aim: to defeat Doug Mastriano
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. Sign up for our free newsletters. HARRISBURG — In the nationally watched race for Pennsylvania governor, Democrat Josh Shapiro has outspent Republican rival Doug Mastriano by tens...
Justice Kagan at UPenn: ‘Time will tell’ if court finds common ground
WASHINGTON — Justice Elena Kagan on Friday waded into the issue of divisiveness on the Supreme Court, saying that “time will tell” whether the court can get back to “finding common ground” after a term in which its six conservatives and three liberals split over contentious issues like abortion and...
Pa. Supreme Court rejects appeal seeking parole eligibility for 2nd-degree murder on jurisdictional grounds
The Pennsylvania Supreme Court said this week that a challenge to the constitutionality of sentencing people to a mandatory life-without-parole prison term for second-degree murder must be handled through individual appellate proceedings, not Commonwealth Court. Six people serving life without parole for what is known as felony murder — the...
Biden stumps for Pa.’s Fetterman, says ‘world is looking’
PHILADELPHIA — President Joe Biden said Thursday that the “rest of the world is looking” to see who holds control of Congress after the upcoming midterm elections, warning that Republican victories would jeopardize the nation’s standing abroad as he tried to deliver a boost to Pennsylvania Democrat John Fetterman’s campaign...
Dr. Oz made reputation as a surgeon, a fortune as a salesman
HARRISBURG — Dr. Mehmet Oz rolled onstage inside of an inflatable orb, put on a hydrating face mask and proceeded to pitch a new line of skin care products to a convention of supplement distributors at Salt Lake City’s Vivint Arena in 2018. The crowd roared in applause. The celebrity...
Prison escapee accused of sending threatening letter, powder
SCRANTON — Federal prosecutors have accused a Pennsylvania prison escapee of sending a letter with threats to kill President Biden and the chairman of the Jan. 6 committee, among others, and containing a white powder with an allusion to anthrax. Robert Maverick Vargo, 25, of Berwick is charged with making...
Police: 3-year-old shoots baby in the face in Lancaster County home
Police have confirmed that a 3-year-old child fatally shot an infant in the head on Tuesday night. Lancaster Bureau of Police said the shooting was reported around 7 p.m., at a home on Woodward Street. A baby had been shot in the face and was unable to be saved by...
Breast cancer screening bills pass Pa. Senate that would remove cost as a deterrent
HARRISBURG — Legislation aimed at helping Pennsylvanians detect breast cancer earlier and remove cost as a barrier to women having breast cancer screenings advanced in the state Senate on Wednesday. The two bills that accomplish these goals now move to the House of Representatives for consideration although the two-year legislative...
How well a death in Pennsylvania will be investigated depends largely on where someone dies
This story was produced by the State College regional bureau of Spotlight PA, an independent, nonpartisan newsroom dedicated to investigative and public-service journalism for Pennsylvania. Sign up for our regional newsletter, Talk of the Town. STATE COLLEGE — In one Pennsylvania county, the coroner’s office relies on an autopsy facility...
Report: Pa. priest carjacked while unloading wheelchair
A priest and his passenger were carjacked in the Kensington neighborhood of Philadelphia on Sunday, according to a story from CBS Philadelphia. The incident happened along the 2100 block East Somerset Street at around 8:45 p.m., the news station reported. According to police, four men approached the priest while he...
Fetterman’s doctor says he’s recovering well from stroke
John Fetterman, the Democratic nominee for Senate in Pennsylvania, released a doctor’s note Wednesday saying he is recovering well from a May stroke as he vies for an open seat in a bare-knuckle campaign against Republican rival Dr. Mehmet Oz, who has questioned Fetterman’s fitness to serve. Five months after...
Philly has spent $205 million on salaries for injured police since 2017. An audit found little is done to prevent fraud
For nearly two decades, top city officials have argued that a generous but loosely-controlled state disability benefit meant for injured Philadelphia police officers has been an easy target for abuse. But an audit of police spending, released Tuesday by City Controller Rebecca Rhynhart, has found that the cost to taxpayers...
Woman who faked her kidnapping and went to Disney now faces fraud charges
PHILADELPHIA — A former Pennsylvania woman who made national headlines more than a decade ago by falsely claiming she had been kidnapped when she had actually gone to Walt Disney World is facing new charges in an alleged attempt to steal from an employer. Federal authorities have charged 51-year-old Bonnie...
Bulldozer crushes 81-year-old man to death in Lancaster County
An 81-year-old tree worker was pronounced dead after a bulldozer ran him over Monday in Lancaster County, authorities said. Walter Shirk of Ephrata was working in a wooded area of a West Cocalico Township farm when he was killed around 3:15 p.m., according to the Lancaster County Coroner’s Office. Ephrata...
GOP goes to court again over Pennsylvania mail-in ballots
HARRISBURG — The state and national Republican parties are suing anew in Pennsylvania in an effort to block some mail-in ballots — those lacking the voter’s handwritten date on the return envelope — from being counted in November, when voters will elect a new governor and U.S. senator. The GOP’s...
Police: Campaign signs in Bucks County found booby-trapped with razor blades
NEWTOWN — Political signs in southeastern Pennsylvania have been found booby-trapped with razor blades, which resulted in sliced fingers for one resident, police said. Upper Makefield Township police said Sunday that a campaign sign for Democratic gubernatorial candidate Josh Shapiro was placed without permission on someone’s property, and while trying...
Pa. Election Day 2022: A complete guide to the Nov. 8 election
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. Sign up for our free newsletters. HARRISBURG — On Nov. 8, Pennsylvanians will make their way to polling places to decide the governor’s race and U.S. Senate...
Abortion providers focus on expanding telehealth, medication access as they await outcome of Pa. governor’s race
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. Sign up for our free newsletters. HARRISBURG — When Melissa Reed became CEO of Planned Parenthood Keystone in 2016, she had one goal: to expand access to...
Families of 11 people killed in 1985 MOVE bombing never considered their deaths accidental; now Pa. officially agrees with them
PHILADELPHIA — After nearly four decades, Philadelphia has acknowledged that it was no accident when six adults and five children died in the MOVE bombing. The Medical Examiner’s Office classified as “accidental” the deaths resulting from the city’s 1985 bombing of a West Philadelphia neighborhood where MOVE, a Black liberation...
Fetterman addresses criticism over need for closed captioning during his stroke recovery
Democratic U.S. Senate candidate John Fetterman on Wednesday addressed recent criticism he has received for needing to use closed captioning during interviews after he suffered a stroke in May. During a Facebook Live interview with editorial members of PennLive, Fetterman said he has always been upfront about needing closed captioning...
Penn State professor among MacArthur’s 2022 ‘genius grant’ winners
A specialist in plastic waste management, artists, musicians, computer scientists, and a poet-ornithologist who advocates for Black people in nature are among this year’s 25 winners of the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation’s prestigious fellowships known as “genius grants” that honor discipline-bending and society-changing people whose work offers...
State officials: Bigfoot isn’t lurking in Pennsylvania parks and forests; fake flyers reported
Bigfoot or no Bigfoot, the state and a local paranormal researcher are not amused by fake flyers warning state park and forest visitors about the presence of the unconfirmed, yet hugely popular, hairy hominid creature. Because the fake flyers appear to use official state letterhead, the state doesn’t want the...
