Pennsylvania category, Page 36

Base salaries for lawmakers will soon top $106,000 a year, establishing Pennsylvania again as the third highest paid state legislature in the nation. The 3.5% pay raise starting Dec. 1, pushes yearly salaries to $106,422 — or $8.869 a month — up from the $102,844 received last December when lawmakers’...

HARRISBURG — Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro said Monday that his list of unfinished business for the state Legislature includes passing a private school voucher program, increasing the minimum wage and approving bills to curb gun violence. Shapiro also said he wants lawmakers to lift limits that prevent adult victims of...

PHILADELPHIA — The Lehigh Valley school district that tried to ban an after-school Satan Club from meeting on its property this year has agreed to pay $200,000 to cover attorney fees. The school also will give the club the same access to school facilities as “comparable groups.” In the settlement...

A woman who said Bill Cosby sexually assaulted her when she was a young comedy writer more than 50 years ago filed a lawsuit against the actor Thursday under a soon-to-expire New York law that gave victims of sexual abuse a one-year window for claims that would otherwise be barred...

A former state employee will receive nearly $200,000 Friday as part of a previous settlement of sexual harassment claims she made against a former cabinet member in Gov. Josh Shapiro’s administration. According to the Pennsylvania Department of Treasury, it has received requests for a total of $295,000 in payments related...

A celebrity of sorts will be honored at The National Dog Show — a Pennsylvania State Police dog who helped in the high-profile search and arrest of an armed escaped murderer near Philadelphia. Rom was heavily involved in the search for Danelo Cavalcante, who was captured Sept. 13 after a...

HARRISBURG — Several leading Pennsylvania universities that receive millions of dollars in state aid must publicly disclose more records about their finances, employment and operations, under legislation signed Thursday by Gov. Josh Shapiro. Shapiro, a Democrat, signed the bill a day after it passed the Senate unanimously. For years, lawmakers...

A ban on pelvic, prostate and similar exams on unconscious patients who haven’t given permission needs only the signature of Gov. Josh Shapiro to become law. The state House and Senate unanimously approved the law, according to a news release from state Rep. Elizabeth Fiedler, D-Philadelphia, the author of one...

HARRISBURG — A bill seeking to protect those who travel to Pennsylvania to get abortions by barring public officials from cooperating with authorities in other states that criminalize the practice advanced Wednesday through the Democratic-controlled House of Representatives. The legislation passed 117-86. It now goes to the GOP-controlled state Senate,...

HARRISBURG — Pennsylvania’s Legislature on Wednesday approved hundreds of millions of dollars for universities after a fight that has dragged on five months into the fiscal year, although the politically divided body continued to feud over elements of school funding. Legislation to send just over $600 million to several higher...

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 — The candidates for Pennsylvania Supreme Court and their allies spent at least $22 million to influence the race’s outcome, with much of that...

A federal court has ruled that a Pennsylvania community’s resolution prohibiting the display of an American flag with a thin blue line on all township property is unconstitutional. The ruling about the flag that’s also used as part of the police union’s logo came down Monday. The dispute in Springfield...

HARRISBURG — Democrats who control the state House of Representatives on Tuesday advanced an estimated $1.8 billion boost to the pensions of Pennsylvania state government and public school retirees, while some Republicans said taxpayers will unfairly shoulder the financial burden. The legislation passed 140-63, with every Democrat supporting it. It...

A Democratic-led state House committee on Tuesday advanced two more firearms safety bills despite fresh indications that gun reform remains largely intractable along partisan lines. The measures — requiring secure gun storage around children and imposing parental liability — are the latest pitched in the Democratic-majority House this session. Two...

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. HOUSERVILLE — Pennsylvania leads the nation in Lyme disease cases, and the continued development of forested areas increases people’s risk of being bitten by the...

A convicted murderer who escaped from a southeastern Pennsylvania prison earlier this year and eluded a massive two-week search before he was recaptured is now facing new theft, burglary and other charges in connection with alleged crimes committed while he was on the run. Danilo Cavalcante, 34, convicted of the...

International enrollment at colleges nationwide has rebounded to almost pre-pandemic levels, with last year’s 12% enrollment jump representing the biggest annual increase in four-plus decades, a new report shows. The report released Monday by the New York-based nonprofit Institute of International Education puts the U.S. head count at about 1.06...

Cherelle Parker, a Democrat who has held office at the state and local level after first becoming involved in politics as a teenager, was elected Tuesday as Philadelphia’s 100th mayor, becoming the first woman to hold the post. Parker, 51, emerged from a crowded field of Democrats in the May...

HARRISBURG — Democrat Dan McCaffery won an open seat on Pennsylvania’s Supreme Court in Tuesday’s general election, preserving a strong Democratic majority on a panel that has produced several critical election-related rulings in the presidential battleground state. The seven-member bench, which will be made up five Democrats and two Republicans,...

A voting machine company’s clerical error caused votes in an eastern Pennsylvania county to appear to be flipped on a ballot question that asked whether a pair of incumbent state appeals judges should be retained, officials said Tuesday. Voters were asked to decide whether Pennsylvania Superior Court Judges Jack Panella...

Public school teachers in Pennsylvania will soon be allowed to wear jewelry or clothing bearing a religious emblem or symbol while on the job. Gov. Josh Shapiro signed a bill Monday that repeals a section of the state’s school code from 1949 that penalized a teacher for such religious displays...

PHILADELPHIA — Longtime former Philadelphia labor leader John “Johnny Doc” Dougherty is on trial on embezzlement charges, accused of having stolen from the union he led for nearly three decades. Dougherty and others are accused of having embezzled more than $650,000 from Local 98 of the International Brotherhood of Electrical...

There are phone calls home to mom that college students never want to make. And then there’s the one placed early Saturday by Point Park University sophomore Aidan McFarlane, 19, barefoot, barely awake and frantic, as he realized his battery-powered electric scooter was ablaze in his studio apartment. Billowing smoke...

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. STATE COLLEGE — Nick Rizzio wanted to know why Penn State was sending fewer crime alerts. He had anecdotes. He had emails. He had theories....