Pennsylvania category, Page 31

A Pennsylvania appellate court on Friday said that the state Attorney General’s Office had the authority to settle claims against opioid manufacturers over the harms caused by the abuse of the medication. The Commonwealth Court ruling, against the district attorneys of Allegheny County and Philadelphia, wrote in their opinion that...

Already there are questions about the cost to cap tuition and fees for many state university students at $1,000 a semester and who would pay — not to mention bringing state universities and community colleges under one umbrella. There are regulatory, legal and logistical hurdles, all in a state whose...

Gov. Josh Shapiro on Friday will propose uniting Pennsylvania’s 10 state-owned universities and its 15 community colleges under a new governance structure to make higher education in the state more efficient and affordable. The move is part of a blueprint for reform that emerged from a working group Shapiro assembled...

A group of conservative Pennsylvania lawmakers have filed suit against President Joe Biden and Gov. Josh Shapiro over their use of executive authority in election matters. In the 33-page complaint filed in U.S. Middle District Court, the Pennsylvania Freedom Caucus asks the court to halt activities authorized through executive orders...

PHILADELPHIA — A congressional committee investigating the University of Pennsylvania’s handling of antisemitism sent a 14-page letter to the school’s board and interim president Wednesday, requesting a massive amount of information detailing the university’s response to antisemitic incidents on campus. Rep. Virginia Foxx, R.-N.C., chair of the House Committee on...

The owners of a Lancaster County farm accused of selling raw milk and raw milk products without the required permits and licenses can no longer manufacture, process, market, sell, or distribute their products after a county judge approved the state’s emergency motion Wednesday. A lawsuit — brought against Amos and...

UPPER DARBY — A Philadelphia-area woman has been charged with animal cruelty after police allege videos she posted show her torturing and killing animals while soliciting encouragement on social media. Anigar Monsee, 28, of Upper Darby, was charged with four felony counts of aggravated cruelty to animals — torture, according...

The union representing 700 state university employees who work in admissions and financial aid, residence life, career services and other student support has reached a tentative contract agreement with the State System of Higher Education. The pact involving members of the State College and University Professional Association (SCUPA) would span...

HARRISBURG — The Pennsylvania State Police is working to recover access to online records of how it handled evidence, state officials said, blaming the loss of the records on a mistake during routine server maintenance The same mistake also affected the State Employees Retirement System, which said online users temporarily...

For decades, the modest hillside campus embodied the State System of Higher Education’s promise to deliver a public university education wherever needed — in this case, a small satellite location in the heart of Pennsylvania’s oil region. Students attending what was then the Venango branch of Clarion University in Oil...

Spotlight PA is an independent, nonpartisan, and nonprofit newsroom producing investigative and public-service journalism that holds power to account and drives positive change in Pennsylvania. HARRISBURG — Thousands of records, including evidence logs from the Pennsylvania State Police’s crime labs, were accidentally deleted from state servers at the start of...

HARRISBURG — A Republican running for the U.S. Senate in Pennsylvania is escalating criticism of Democrats over the Israel-Hamas war and has traveled to the Israel-Gaza border to make the case that the Biden administration hasn’t backed Israel strongly enough since the Oct. 7 attack by Hamas. The criticism by...

PALMYRA — Three people died and three others were injured in an early morning fire at a home in east-central Pennsylvania on Sunday, authorities said. Officials in Lebanon County said crews were dispatched just after 1:30 a.m. to the home in North Londonderry Township near Palmyra. Three people were pronounced...

A teenager was shot in the head and killed Friday afternoon following an argument in the middle of a Philadelphia street, authorities announced. Police said the incident happened in the Northeast Philadelphia neighborhood of Frankford. The teen was arguing with another person just after 2 p.m. along the 4200 block...

Spotlight PA is an independent, nonpartisan, and nonprofit newsroom producing investigative and public-service journalism that holds power to account and drives positive change in Pennsylvania. HARRISBURG — Pennsylvania lawmakers have until the end of 2024 to reauthorize a key area of state law that protects low-income utility customers from sudden...

A man riding on the back of a garbage truck was killed this week when the driver backed into a tree in Centre County, state police at Rockview wrote in a crash report. Nathan Kerstetter, 38, of Milesburg, was hanging off the back of the truck about noon Wednesday when...

PHILADELPHIA — Young adults in Pennsylvania cannot be arrested for openly carrying guns in public during a declared state of emergency, at least while a court fight over the issue plays out, a federal appeals court ruled Thursday. The 3rd U.S. Circuit judges, in a 2-1 decision, relied on the...

The union representing 5,000 state university faculty across Pennsylvania has reached “an agreement in principle” with leaders of the State System of Higher Education, both parties confirmed Thursday. The agreement followed a full day and night of negotiating. It comes almost seven months after the existing agreement between the Association...

SCRANTON — Authorities have announced charges against a man in what they called an ambush-style shooting that critically wounded a police officer in northeastern Pennsylvania last week. Aiden Gabriel Deininger, 20, of Old Forge is charged in Lackawanna County with three counts of attempted homicide of law enforcement officers, criminal...

HARRISBURG — Democrats in majority control of the Pennsylvania House of Representatives advanced several gun control measures Wednesday, including one that would ban sales of automatic and semi-automatic guns, after years of standstill in the politically divided state government. The bills were passed by the Judiciary Committee on party lines...

Pennsylvania’s U.S. Sen. John Fetterman’s unconventional political career, along with his many personal battles, sounds like the stuff of Shakespeare. Now, it will be a book that the hoodie-wearing Democrat is planning to write, with the help of “Friday Night Lights” author Buzz Bissinger. All this is according to a...

Students in the inaugural class of Duquesne University’s medical college will learn the intricacies of human anatomy through the time-tested method of dissecting cadavers. But they also will slip on a high-tech headset with eyewear and instantly see before them a hologram of the human body. They can walk around...

A proposed bill that is drawing bipartisan support in the Pennsylvania Legislature would ban the misuse of artificial intelligence in political campaigns and establish fines for violations. State Rep. Tarik Khan, a Philadelphia Democrat, and several colleagues, including one GOP member, issued a co-sponsorship memo for their bill on Dec....