Pennsylvania category, Page 48

Pennsylvanians who own electric vehicles may soon be required to pay an annual fee to help pay for road and bridge improvements. The Senate Transportation Committee on Wednesday approved a bipartisan-backed bill by a 13-1 vote that would charge owners of non-commercial passenger electric vehicles a $290 fee annually —...

HARRISBURG — A proposal to allocate $100 million in federal funds to pay for adult mental health programs easily passed the Pennsylvania House of Representatives on Wednesday, a plan built on the recommendations of a state commission charged with issuing suggestions for coordinated care. The bill passed 173-30 and was...

HARRISBURG — The Pennsylvania House of Representatives on Monday overwhelmingly approved a bill to increase the state’s property tax and rent subsidy for seniors and people with disabilities, plus raise the income eligibility cap to expand the program. The bill passed 194-9 and goes on to the state Senate. This...

Monday’s petition by the United Steelworkers for a state-supervised election to unionize thousands of University of Pittsburgh staff is rooted in years of preparation, said Jesse Dubin, a program evaluator in Pitt’s school of pharmacy. Though the path to a vote could be complex and prolonged staff will benefit from...

HARRISBURG — Child sexual abuse survivors pressed Pennsylvania lawmakers Monday to move ahead with opening a two-year window for them to file otherwise outdated lawsuits over their claims, but a partisan fight in the Legislature kept the proposal bottled up with no resolution in sight. Amid the stalemate, survivors renewed...

A 67-year-old man was killed and a 1-year-old child was hospitalized Sunday night as a result of a crash on Interstate 70 in Washington County. The Pennsylvania State Police reported the incident happened around 10:50 p.m. along the eastbound lanes of I-70 in Washington. According to a state police report,...

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 — June is budget negotiation month in Pennsylvania, when state lawmakers decide how to direct billions of tax dollars and...

PHILADELPHIA — A state trooper shot and killed a man whose vehicle struck two troopers as law enforcement tried to get control of an illegal early morning street racing gathering on a Philadelphia interstate, state police said Sunday. State police say troopers were called to I-95 in the Penn’s Landing...

Western Pennsylvania’s U.S. Sen. John Fetterman and U.S. Rep. Summer Lee were among lawmakers in Washington to vote against the debt ceiling and budget cuts package after weeks of tense negotiations. The compromise package negotiated between President Biden and House Speaker Kevin McCarthy restricts spending for the next two years,...

Pennsylvania’s Democratic U.S. senators split their votes on the debt ceiling bill Thursday night, with Sen. Bob Casey voting for it and Sen. John Fetterman opposing it. “Last night, I voted for legislation to prevent the nation from defaulting on its debt and to stop extreme MAGA Republicans from gutting...

LEBANON — Relatives of two young boys killed by gunfire as they played with kittens in the backyard of their Pennsylvania home were mourning them Thursday as authorities announced two men were charged with their slayings. Brothers Jesus and Sebastian Perez-Salome, ages 8 and 9, and a third victim were...

HARRISBURG — Eugene DePasquale, Pennsylvania’s former two-term auditor general, said Thursday that he will run for state attorney general in the 2024 election. DePasquale is the first candidate to announce for the state’s top law enforcement office and he is unlikely to be the only Democrat to seek the party’s...

LEBANON — A shooting outside an eastern Pennsylvania home killed three people, two of them children aged 8 and 9, and wounded another person, authorities said. Chief Bret Fisher of the Lebanon police department said officers responded to a city residence shortly after 10 p.m. Tuesday after a report of...

Two people were hospitalized Wednesday afternoon after a small plane crashed into a utility truck on a Pennsylvania Turnpike exit ramp in Fairview Township. The single-engine aircraft hit the truck around 2:35 p.m., according to Ted Czech with York County’s emergency management office. The truck is believed to have been...

HARRISBURG — Teachers are leaving their jobs at an accelerating rate in Pennsylvania, amid fears of a nationwide exodus of burned-out teachers and a collapse in enrollment in recruitment programs that is making teachers increasingly difficult to replace. A new analysis by Penn State’s Center for Education Evaluation and Policy...

The Pennsylvania Game Commission released a springtime alert Tuesday, urging the public to avoid young wildlife. The release informed Pennsylvanians that during the spring it’s possible to encounter young wildlife that appear to be alone. According to the Game Commission’s wildlife management director, Matthew Schnupp, many people attempt to assist...

A Pennsylvania restaurant owner who screamed death threats directed at then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi while storming the U.S. Capitol was sentenced on Tuesday to more than two years in prison. Pauline Bauer was near Pelosi’s office suite on Jan. 6, 2021, when she yelled at police officers to bring out...

Aspiring Pennsylvania teachers are due to soon be trained in “culturally relevant” education, under a new state standard requiring teacher preparation programs to incorporate instruction in the subject. The standard, which was adopted last year and also applies to professional development programs, comes as education officials have voiced concern about...

The Pennsylvania Game Commission announced Friday that it has captured and euthanized the bear that attacked two small children in Luzerne County. A bear reportedly attacked the children — a 14-month-old and a 5-year-old — while they played in the driveway of their Wright Township home near Mountain Top on...

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 — Across Pennsylvania, unplugged oil and gas wells spew a powerful greenhouse gas into the atmosphere and contaminate soil and...

HARRISBURG, Pa. — A college baseball player died after he was struck in the face when a makeshift dugout he was helping to dismantle collapsed on him this week. Angel Mercado, 19, was a middle infielder who had just completed his freshman season at Division II Central Penn College. He...

HARRISBURG — A hard-right Pennsylvania state lawmaker said Thursday night that he will not challenge Democratic Sen. Bob Casey, leaving the GOP field wide open as Republican Party officials try to recruit a strong candidate in the moderate battleground state to help capture a Senate majority in 2024. Doug Mastriano,...

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. Black and Hispanic drivers were slightly more likely to face discretionary searches during traffic stops in Pennsylvania last year, according to...

Young students could soon be without chocolate- and strawberry-flavored milks as an option at school cafeterias, if a federal proposal is approved, and some Pennsylvania officials are cautioning against the potential change. The U.S. Department of Agriculture recently proposed banning flavored milk as a cafeteria option for elementary and middle...

HARRISBURG — Justices on Pennsylvania’s Supreme Court indicated Wednesday that they are likely to have split opinions on whether a governor has the right to force power plant owners to pay for their planet-warming greenhouse gas emissions, or whether he first needs approval from a Legislature that refuses to go...