Pennsylvania category, Page 126
GOP voting law bill clears state House amid Wolf veto threat
HARRISBURG — A Republican rewrite of Pennsylvania election law that would mandate voter IDs, alter registration and ballot counting deadlines and give conservatives auditing procedures they have clamored for passed the state House on Tuesday despite the Democratic governor’s veto threat. The lengthy and complex bill, crafted after 10 committee...
‘Serious racial disparities’ in Pennsylvania juvenile court
Pennsylvania locks up far too many first-time and low-level youth offenders, with Black youth in particular disproportionately yanked from their homes and prosecuted as adults, according to a task force that made recommendations to reform the state’s juvenile justice system. “Serious racial disparities pervade Pennsylvania’s juvenile justice system,” the bipartisan...
How a Pennsylvania lawmaker billed taxpayers $1.8 million in expenses
Over the next year, The Caucus and Spotlight PA will examine and make public specific areas of spending by the legislature as part of their ongoing efforts to follow the money and track taxpayer dollars. HARRISBURG — The legislature was on break. Policymaking in the Capitol had ground to a...
PHEAA trims workforce by 37 positions through early retirement offer
Some 37 employees at the state’s student financial aid agency have been approved to call it a career by accepting an early retirement offer. This is expected to produce an annual savings for the Pennsylvania Higher Education Assistance Agency of $5.1 million, according to agency spokesman Keith New. The agency’s...
Key Pennsylvania state senator backs Arizona-style election audit
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 — The Pennsylvania state senator in charge of a key election committee is backing an audit of the November presidential...
Pa. lawmakers threaten university funding over statute of limitations deadlock
A pair of state lawmakers who sponsored a bill to give adult survivors of child sexual abuse the right to sue their assailants beyond the statute of limitations say they will block state appropriations for Pennsylvania’s public research universities if Senate Majority Leader Kim Ward continues to stall a vote...
3 killed, 8 wounded in 9 shootings as the toll of Philadelphia’s bloody year grows
PHILADELPHIA — Three people were killed and eight others were wounded in nine shootings across the city Thursday, according to Philadelphia police, continuing a bloody year on pace to break records. The violence included a potential road rage killing in West Philadelphia, and it continued to push the city’s homicide...
Covid-19 still a threat in nursing homes
Covid-19 is still a threat in Pennsylvania nursing homes even as vaccination rates climb and the number of new infections decline, acting Pennsylvania Secretary of Health Alison Beam said this week. Although state officials designated nursing home residents and health care workers a top priority for vaccination when the first...
Money, power, scandal: The Public School Employees’ Retirement System saga, explained
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. Pennsylvania’s largest pension fund is at the center of an equally large scandal, complete with an FBI investigation, a lawsuit, boardroom...
Democrats waiting for Conor Lamb as Pa.’s 2022 Senate race takes shape
PHILADELPHIA — When U.S. Rep. Chrissy Houlahan decided she wouldn’t run for Pennsylvania’s U.S. Senate seat, moderate Democrats lost one of their big hopes for next year’s critical election. But they haven’t freaked out. That’s because in Democratic political circles, there’s widespread belief that U.S. Rep. Conor Lamb, a Mt....
Gov. Wolf calls GOP’s election bill ‘driven by fringe conspiracy theories’ as Republican lawmakers crash eventVideo
PHILADELPHIA — The battle to shape public opinion over Pennsylvania Republicans’ proposed election overhaul intensified Thursday, as Gov. Tom Wolf called it an attack on voting rights and GOP lawmakers crashed a news conference in the Philadelphia suburbs to demand he negotiate. Democrats have blasted the proposal as the latest...
Fired Pa. contractor seeks to secure contact tracing data after learning personal info still online
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 — The company responsible for administering Pennsylvania’s contact tracing program has called on current and former employees to help it...
Pa. Senate passes bill to legalize cocktails-to-go, sends to House with modifications
Cocktails-to-go are one step closer to becoming a permanent part of Pennsylvania’s bar, restaurant and hotel scene. On Wednesday, the Senate passed legislation to make permanent the sale of mixed drinks-to-go by restaurant or hotel licensees for off-premises consumption. Originally, cocktails-to-go was a temporary measure allowed during the covid-19 disaster...
Aide says former Homeland Security head, Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Ridge had stroke
HARRISBURG — Former U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge suffered a stroke Wednesday at his home in suburban Washington, D.C., a longtime aide to the former Pennsylvania governor said. Ridge was taken by ambulance from the home in Bethesda, Md., to a hospital for treatment, Ridge spokesman Steve Aaron said....
What is PSERS? A look inside the pension fund being investigated by the FBI
You’d be forgiven if the phrase “pension scandal” makes your eyes glaze over. Try this, instead: $40 billion. That’s roughly — and this number is always a moving target — the amount Pennsylvania taxpayers are on the hook for. This figure, the “unfunded liability,” represents the difference between the amount...
CDC: Nearly 100% of Pennsylvania’s 65+ residents have at least 1 covid shot
Just about every Pennsylvanian 65 and older is now at least partially vaccinated for covid-19, according to the latest covid vaccination data from the Center for Disease Control and Prevention. As of Wednesday morning, the CDC’s covid vaccine tracker shows 2,393,193 of the state’s 65+ population have at least one...
Wolf urges Senate to keep cocktails-to-go, some Pa. bar owners lukewarm
Gov. Tom Wolf is urging the Senate to pass a bill that would enable the cocktails-to-go law to remain in place. The bill would amend the state’s liquor code to allow bars, restaurants and hotels with liquor licenses to sell mixed drinks for off-premises consumption. Just over a year ago...
Wolf, Pa. Democrats again push for passage of LGBTQ discrimination protections
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 — As people around the country celebrate Pride month, Gov. Tom Wolf again called on the state’s Republican-led legislature to...
GOP’s major election overhaul advances in Pa. House as Democrats call it a ‘farce’
This article is made possible through Votebeat, a nonpartisan reporting project covering local election integrity and voting access. SpotlightPA 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. HARRISBURG — Pennsylvania Republicans in the state House advanced their...
Panel approves Pa. House GOP bill to ban employer vaccine mandates
HARRISBURG — A ban on employers mandating vaccines for their workers inched ahead in the state House on Tuesday with a committee vote supported by all Republicans and opposed by every Democrat. The main sponsor, Rep. Russ Diamond, R-Lebanon, called it “a very simple question of workers’ rights.” Diamond has...
Republicans aim again to block Gov. Wolf’s climate strategy
HARRISBURG — Republicans who control Pennsylvania’s Legislature are reprising a fight from last year, passing legislation Monday to require Gov. Tom Wolf to go through them if he wants to impose a price on greenhouse gas emissions from power plants. The bill passed 35-15 in the Senate, a veto-proof majority...
Pennsylvania’s gas-well revenue down as price, drilling drop
HARRISBURG — Pennsylvania’s counties and municipal governments will see the lowest level of annual fee revenue they get from Marcellus Shale gas wells, as drilling slowed and prices sank during the pandemic, the Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission said Monday. Impact fee revenue from Marcellus Shale wells sank to $146 million...
Pennsylvania Republicans eye referendums to get past vetoes
HARRISBURG — Republicans who control Pennsylvania’s Legislature are increasingly looking to take a different avenue to write laws, voter referendums, to get around Gov. Tom Wolf and make policy that the Democrat cannot block with his veto pen. On Friday, Republicans unveiled a proposed constitutional amendment to expand Pennsylvania’s existing...
York County judge declines to dismiss charges in body in freezer case
YORK — A Pennsylvania judge declined to dismiss some charges and suppress part of a statement by a woman accused of keeping her maternal grandmother’s remains in a freezer for a decade and a half and continuing to receive the dead woman’s Social Security checks for a portion of that...
Activists target top Republican in Pa. Senate as they push for gift ban
SpotlightPA 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. HARRISBURG — Using song and chant, a group of activists marched through the Capitol’s hallways Wednesday, even momentarily disrupting the Senate’s voting session, demanding that lawmakers pass legislation...
