Pennsylvania category, Page 84
Fetterman says Biden should decriminalize marijuana ahead of Pittsburgh visit
Democratic U.S. Senate candidate John Fetterman has called on President Joe Biden to reclassify marijuana before Biden visits Pittsburgh on Monday. Fetterman, a long-time champion of recreational marijuana, also said he would like for Biden to decriminalize the drug at the federal level. “It’s long past time that we finally...
Pa.’s unreliable lobbyist disclosure website is getting a user-friendly upgrade
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 — An initiative to improve the online system that lobbyists use to disclose which organizations have hired them and how...
Pa. hunting seasons for smallest, largest game birds to start Sept. 1
Pennsylvania’s 2022-23 hunting seasons will get underway Thursday with the openings days for birds that rank among the smallest and largest game birds, respectively: the mourning dove and the Canada goose. The mourning dove weighs in a bit heavier than 4 ounces, while an adult male Canada goose can tip...
Josh Shapiro breaks with Democrats on covid policies in governor’s race
HARRISBURG — As attorney general, Josh Shapiro went to court repeatedly to defend Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf’s administration against legal challenges to his pandemic-era mandates and shutdowns. Now, as he’s running to succeed Wolf as governor, Shapiro says he is against some of the same covid-19 containment measures that his...
Surprise: Pa. borrowers may end up paying state taxes on forgiven student loans
Residents of Pennsylvania, New York, Virginia and 10 other states could end up with a surprise tax hit of hundreds of dollars next year on forgiven student loans. President Joe Biden’s announcement that the government would forgive some student debt for individuals earning less than $125,000 was welcome news to...
Gov. Wolf proposes $2K checks for some Pa. residents to help fight inflation
Gov. Tom Wolf and Democrats are hoping to help low- to middle-income Pennsylvanians as inflation has still led to increased costs of gas, groceries, and other goods over the last two years. Wolf visited Sharpsburg on Monday to campaign for his program to provide Pennsylvanians who make $80,000 or less...
The Philadelphia Police Department is short 1,300 officers. Here’s why the situation is about to get worse
The Philadelphia Police Department has faced a critical shortage of officers for months — one that’s all but certain to get worse as hundreds more cops plan to leave. With the police force already operating about 20% below its target staffing level, more than 800 officers and civilian employees have...
Doug Mastriano wore Confederate Army uniform in Army War College faculty photo
PHILADELPHIA — State Sen. Doug Mastriano, the Republican nominee for governor in Pennsylvania, appeared during his time on the faculty of the Army War College in an official photograph while wearing a Civil War Confederate Army uniform. That photograph, first reported Friday night by Reuters, was recently removed from the...
USDA scattering rabies vaccines for wildlife in Pennsylvania, 12 other states
The U.S. Department of Agriculture has begun scattering millions of packets of oral rabies vaccine from helicopters and planes over 13 states from Maine to Alabama. The major aim is to keep raccoons from spreading their strain of the deadly virus to states where it hasn’t been found or isn’t...
Mehmet Oz pounces on John Fetterman for not committing to debates: ‘Come talk to us’
Republican U.S. Senate candidate Dr. Mehmet Oz’s campaign has seized on Democratic opponent John Fetterman’s silence on debates to continue attacking Fetterman for supposedly hiding from voters. Oz has agreed to five debates, including one scheduled in less than two weeks, but Fetterman, who suffered a stroke on May 13...
Pennsylvania court loosens rules on where malpractice cases can be filed
HARRISBURG — Pennsylvania’s highest court on Thursday reversed its own two-decade-old rule that required medical malpractice cases to be filed in the county where the alleged harm occurred, a win for civil plaintiffs and the lawyers who represent them but a potentially costly change for health care providers. The decision...
Your license plate frame is enough for police in Pa. to pull you over, court rules
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 — Thousands of drivers in Pennsylvania could now be at greater risk of getting pulled over by police — all...
Pennsylvania’s poll worker recruitment effort drew 1,100 last week
HARRISBURG — Pennsylvania elections officials said Wednesday that a push last week to recruit new poll workers produced more than 1,100 applicants, including at least one in 58 of 67 counties. The effort tied to Help America Vote Day, organized by the U.S. Election Assistance Commission, brought in the most...
Man fired shots at Pa. Walmart because someone laughed at him, police say
A Harrisburg man said he started firing a gun inside a busy Dauphin County Walmart on Sunday evening because his pride was hurt, court documents said. Luis D. Jose, 27, shot a man around 5:17 p.m. in the electronics section of the Walmart in Swatara Township, police said. As shots...
Nursing homes in Lower Burrell, North Huntingdon among 24 statewide set to strike
Employees of nursing homes in Lower Burrell and North Huntingdon are among those at 24 long-term care facilities in the state who voted to strike, claiming unfair labor practices and a lack of accountability, according to union officials. Four of the nursing homes are owned by Comprehensive Healthcare, which operates...
Freezing state officials’ pay this year ‘is the right thing to do,’ Pa. lawmaker says
Pennsylvania’s rank-and-file lawmakers could see their salaries rise above $100,000 in December, but some members are seeking legislation to freeze or eliminate the automatic pay raises they receive. House State Government Committee Chairman Seth Grove, R-York County, said he supports a pay freeze to ensure — at least this year...
Commonwealth Court orders Pa.’s health department to release information on medical marijuana program
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 — A panel of Commonwealth Court judges has ordered the Wolf administration to reveal how many medical marijuana patients have...
Social media posts draw attention to Pa. election races, but will they affect the outcomes?
Democratic U.S. Senate candidate John Fetterman has repeatedly taken to social media to mock his Republican rival, Dr. Mehmet Oz, during this year’s campaign — using celebrity cameo videos to call out Oz for moving from New Jersey to run, memes to criticize his vast wealth and even Oz’s own...
Demolition of shuttered Philadelphia church begins after long battle
Demolition of a shuttered 19th-century church in Philadelphia has begun following a yearslong battle by some neighbors to save the crumbling structure. Crews last week surrounded the 140-year-old St. Laurentius Church in the Fishtown neighborhood with scaffolding, fencing and barricades. Neighbors gathered Wednesday to get their final look, taking pictures...
3 Pennsylvania counties ordered to count mail-in votes
A Pennsylvania judge has ordered three Republican-controlled counties to add about 800 contested mail-in ballots to the results of the May election, ruling in a legal dispute that stalled statewide certification of the primary results for governor and U.S. Senate. The Republican judge sided Friday with the Democratic governor in...
Reports: GOP cuts ad spending in Pennsylvania, as Fetterman launches ad targeting D.C. insiders
A major funding arm for Republican U.S. Senate candidates has slashed ad spending in several battleground states, including Pennsylvania, according to multiple reports. At the same time, Democratic Senate candidate John Fetterman has released several proposals and launched a related ad blaming inflation on wealthy insiders and lobbyists in Washington,...
Man bought body parts on Facebook, central Pennsylvania police say
A Pennsylvania man has been charged with abuse of a corpse, receiving stolen property and other charges after police say he allegedly tried to buy stolen human remains from an Arkansas woman for possible resale on Facebook. A spokeswoman for the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences in Little Rock...
Pa. lawmakers weigh bills that would allow independents to vote on primary candidates
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 — Former elected officials and government experts told a panel of state lawmakers that Pennsylvania’s primary system should be opened...
Pa. lawmakers are set to get huge raises next year
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 — Fiscal responsibility is an axiom in Harrisburg, but nearly none of Pennsylvania’s 253 state lawmakers seem to mind when...
Kids-for-cash judges ordered to pay more than $200M
Two former Pennsylvania judges who orchestrated a scheme to send children to for-profit jails in exchange for kickbacks were ordered to pay more than $200 million to hundreds of people they victimized in one of the worst judicial scandals in U.S. history. U.S. District Judge Christopher Conner awarded $106 million...
