Pennsylvania category, Page 103

HARRISBURG — Democratic Gov. Tom Wolf on Monday withdrew his nominee to be Pennsylvania’s top elections official, accusing state Senate Republicans of turning the confirmation process into a partisan charade. Wolf said Republican leaders were seeking a “record number” of hearings to confirm his acting secretary of state, Veronica Degraffenreid,...

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 public could soon know for the first time how many patients use medical marijuana to treat opioid use...

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 — Regulatory waivers established last year to help hospitals and health-care workers fight covid-19 will expire this month, and those...

Pennsylvania Corrections Secretary John Wetzel, who has overseen the state’s prison system for a decade, is leaving the post for the private sector, Gov. Tom Wolf’s administration said Monday. Wolf said he has tapped George Little to serve as acting corrections secretary. Little has served as executive deputy secretary of...

Vibrant fall foliage — even overachieving colors — can be expected this year in Pennsylvania, although the peak of the leaf-peeping season could be a week later than normal, according to the annual fall forecast from Accuweather. In Pennsylvania, the northern mid-Atlantic, southern New England and the Ohio Valley, “rainfall...

HARRISBURG — Bill McSwain, top federal prosecutor in Philadelphia under former President Donald Trump, will run for governor, he announced Monday, joining a crowded Republican field that may still yet get bigger. McSwain’s announcement was not a surprise. He had written to Trump in July, seeking the former president’s endorsement...

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 — Just before the start of the holiday weekend, the top Republican in the state Senate sued Democratic Gov. Tom...

A pair of U.S. senators say the Biden administration must do more to provide families with easily accessible information on covid-19 vaccination rates among nursing home staff and residents. Senators Ron Wyden, D-Ore., Senate Finance chair, and Pennsylvania’s Bob Casey, D-Scranton, who chairs the Senate Committee on Aging, want the...

Some Pennsylvania physicians are offering stock doctor’s notes for use by parents wishing to have their children exempted from wearing masks in school, according to state health officials who say they have referred the matter for possible disciplinary action. A statewide, universal mask mandate for Pennsylvania schools went into effect...

Former Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Ridge made his first public appearance since he suffered a stroke earlier this year, speaking about the 20th anniversary of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. On Thursday morning, Ridge released a statement and a short video filmed in Erie, his hometown. Ridge, 76, suffered a stroke...

A Penn State professor is facing misdemeanor charges — and has been put on administrative leave pending an investigation — after allegedly assaulting a counter-protesting student during an Aug. 27 pro-vaccine rally. According to the criminal complaint, W. Oliver Baker — a 36-year-old assistant professor of English and African American...

HARRISBURG — An apparent loophole in Pennsylvania’s mask mandate for schools is making it easier for some students to go to class without having to cover their faces, even as state education regulators sought to make an example of one openly defiant school board. The state health secretary’s order requiring...

HARRISBURG — Republicans in Pennsylvania’s state Senate held their first hearing Thursday in what they call a “forensic investigation” into last year’s presidential election, an underwhelming affair that Democrats nevertheless say is an extension of a national campaign to attack voting rights following former President Donald Trump’s loss. Republicans maintain...

HARRISBURG — The academic press that published a Pennsylvania state senator’s book about World War I hero Sgt. Alvin York has asked him to review a list of factual errors and sourcing issues in the book and the press’ director said Tuesday it plans to publish a corrected version early...

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. Pat Loughney was sleep-deprived and panicked as he dug a partially eaten bar of medicated soap from his wife’s mouth in...

The Republican leader of the state Senate and a group of parents — some of which are from the Butler Area School District — filed a lawsuit Friday seeking to overturn the Wolf administration’s new mask mandate for Pennsylvania schools. Gov. Tom Wolf’s spokesperson dismissed what she called the GOP’s...

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 state Department of Labor and Industry will pay out more than $19 million in refunds after it overcharged...

Don’t make the same mistake twice, GOP. U.S. Sen. Pat Toomey, a Pennsylvania conservative who is retiring next year, said that Republicans must not back Donald Trump as the Republican presidential nominee in 2024 because of his “completely unacceptable” effort to overturn his loss to President Joe Biden. “After what...

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 — Pennsylvania abortion-rights advocates and their opponents agreed Wednesday that the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision to let a Texas law...

HARRISBURG — Fourteen Republican lawmakers have filed a new lawsuit challenging Pennsylvania’s mail-in voting law, calling it unconstitutional and asking for it to be thrown out. The legal challenge was filed just before midnight Tuesday in the state Commonwealth Court. It is the latest attempt by Republicans to invalidate the...

Hotel Bethlehem has been named the best historic hotel in the country by USA Today as part of its 10Best Readers’ Choice Awards. The historic hotel — which is nearing its 100th anniversary — was the only hotel in Pennsylvania to be nominated as part of the awards. In 2019,...

The centerpiece of Gov. Tom Wolf’s plan to fight climate change was confronting its last regulatory hurdle Wednesday, in a bid to make Pennsylvania the first major fossil fuel state to adopt a carbon pricing policy. The plan to impose a price on carbon dioxide emissions from fossil fuel-fired power...