Pennsylvania category, Page 72
How anxiety came to dominate the big business of medical marijuana cards in Pa.
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. When Lehigh Valley doctor Charles Harris started approving patients for medical marijuana a few years ago, most of them were dealing...
Shapiro administration orders 2,300 state employees to return to the office
Gov. Josh Shapiro is ordering many state employees to return to the office. Here are the details: What’s new: About 2,300 state government employees, many of whom had been working a hybrid schedule allowing them to work remotely, will now be reporting to the office at least three days a...
Why the Pa. Game Commission voted to keep opening day for firearms deer season in place
The Pennsylvania Game Commission’s Board of Commissioners have given preliminary approval to the 2023-24 hunting seasons and dates, including a firearms deer season that opens on the Saturday after Thanksgiving. The board took the action at its meeting last week. While some hunters had been urging the agency to return...
GOP declares victory in conservative state Senate district
HARRISBURG — Republicans are declaring victory in a special election for a vacant state Senate seat in a heavily Republican district in northern Pennsylvania. The Republican candidate, state Rep. Lynda Schlegel Culver, led Democrat Patricia Lawton by a more than two-to-one margin in preliminary returns from Tuesday’s special election. Once...
Why a Pa. school district decided to arm its officers with semiautomatic rifles
This story first appeared in Talk of the Town, a weekly newsletter by Spotlight PA’s State College regional bureau featuring the most important news and happenings in north-central Pennsylvania. Sign up for free here. ALTOONA — At least two school districts in Pennsylvania now allow their police officers to store...
Pa. takes over troubled mortgage relief program from contractor after complaints, backlogs
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 — In an abrupt change, Pennsylvania’s struggling mortgage relief program will no longer work with the private company originally hired...
Skull found on Pa. riverbank in 1986 ID’d as missing NJ man
MORRISVILLE, Pa. — Authorities say a skull found on banks of the Delaware River in Pennsylvania more than 3 1/2 decades ago has been identified as that of a man long believed slain in New Jersey along with his girlfriend, whose body had been found in the river on the...
‘Father of Peeps’ marshmallow candies Bob Born dies at 98
Ira “Bob” Born, a candy company executive known as the “Father of Peeps” for mechanizing the process to make marshmallow chicks, has died. He was 98. Just Born Quality Confections, the 100-year-old family-owned company Born led for much of his life, said Monday that he had died peacefully on Sunday....
18 neglected animals, guns, drugs seized from Pa. family’s home: DA
Investigators searching a Lancaster County family’s home last week discovered 18 pets without proper medical care or shelter, as well as thousands of grams of marijuana and 13 guns. Austin, Jordan, Scott and Heide Breland are facing animal neglect, drug and gun charges after the Jan. 13 search of their...
Lawmakers appeal ruling on legality of impeaching Philly DA
HARRISBURG — Republican state lawmakers on Thursday filed an appeal with the Pennsylvania Supreme Court, hoping to preserve elements of their impeachment case against an elected progressive Philadelphia prosecutor. The appeal asks the state’s highest court to review last month’s decision regarding the legality of the Legislature’s impeachment and trial...
Doug Mastriano wants to classify drag shows like strip clubs and adult bookstores
A prom for LGBTQ youth in Doylestown sponsored by a state senator is drawing online attacks — and inspiring legislation from former GOP gubernatorial nominee State Sen. Doug Mastriano. The Rainbow Room, a Planned Parenthood-sponsored LGBTQ youth center that’s been serving Bucks County teens for more than 20 years, hosted...
Graham Spanier’s on-campus book event at Penn State canceled because of wintry weather
A scheduled on-campus appearance by former Penn State President Graham Spanier was canceled Wednesday after the university canceled classes and some school activities because of wintry weather. Spanier had planned to promote his book, “In the Lion’s Den: The Penn State Scandal and a Rush to Judgment,” in an appearance...
State gives green light for new Bally’s mini-casino near Penn State University
The developer of a planned Bally’s mini-casino near Penn State University has been awarded a Category 4 slot machine license by the Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board. SC Gaming OpCo LLC was awarded the license to construct a Category 4 casino in College Township, Centre County. The casino will be located...
Pennsylvania passes ‘forever chemicals’ drinking water limit
HARRISBURG — Pennsylvania has enacted a statewide drinking water limit on two forms of highly toxic chemicals, nicknamed “forever chemicals.” The rule, published earlier this month in the official register of state government agency actions, sets a limit of 14 parts per trillion for perfluorooctanoic acid and 18 parts per...
Bedford County man charged with threatening to blow up courthouse and eat sheriff
Authorities said a Schellsburg man is behind bars with a million-dollar bail after threatening to kill the Bedford County Sheriff by blowing up the Bedford County Courthouse, according to reports from WTAJ and 6WJAC. State police said 39-year-old Luke Bartholow has been charged with misdemeanor bomb threats: threatening the placement...
Bipartisan Senate bill would change how Pa. charges children as adults
A bipartisan trio of state Senate lawmakers want to change the circumstances under which children can be charged as adults by requiring judicial review before juvenile cases can be moved to adult court. Sen. Camera Bartolotta, R-Westmoreland, joined by Sens. Vincent Hughes and Anthony Williams, both Philadelphia Democrats, began seeking...
Former Penn State President Graham Spanier to promote his book on Sandusky scandal in campus appearance
In the prologue to his memoir, Graham Spanier summed up his life as Penn State University president until his world came crashing down around him in November 2011. “I was all in,” he said. “And it should be no secret that I miss my job.” Not that he’s become a...
PSU President Neeli Bendapudi: ‘What is good for Penn State is good for Pennsylvania’Video
HARRISBURG — With a new governor and newly-seated Legislature to hear it, Penn State President Neeli Bendapudi made a pitch for more state aid for Penn State, in particular, and higher education generally in remarks Monday before the Pennsylvania Press Club. Now seven months into her tenure as president and...
Refusal to release inaugural donors exposes gap in Pennsylvania law
HARRISBURG — The refusal thus far of Gov. Josh Shapiro to disclose who paid for his glitzy inaugural bash has exposed the gap in state law that lets governors in Pennsylvania escape the kind of transparency that is sometimes required elsewhere. Presidential inaugural committees are required by federal law to...
The senator’s spouse: Gisele Fetterman finds new role, larger platform for change
Gisele Fetterman loves that people talk about the way she dresses. It has nothing to do with vanity and all to do with advocacy. In November, while accompanying husband, newly elected member of the U.S. Senate John Fetterman, she sent social media abuzz when she wore a $12 thrifted dress...
Pa. Gov. Josh Shapiro loosens his predecessor’s notoriously strict gift ban for top officials
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 — Top officials for Pennsylvania’s governor are now allowed to accept an occasional free lunch while on duty. In one...
State trooper charged with oppression after gun-involved road rage incident
A State Police trooper has been suspended without pay and charged with official oppression after an off-duty road rage incident, according to news sources across the state. David Levy, 36, was charged after an incident on Dec. 28 that resulted in him firing a gun and pulling over a family,...
Unemployment rate in Pennsylvania hits record low of 3.9%, but Duquesne prof says that comes with a caveat
Pennsylvania’s unemployment rate fell to a record low in December, dropping below 4% for the first time since record-keeping began, according to figures released Friday. Payrolls and the workforce grew but remain below pre-pandemic record levels. The rate fell one-tenth of a percentage point to 3.9% from November’s rate, the state...
Settlement sets up education fund in Pa. school abuse case
PHILADELPHIA — A $3 million settlement will establish a fund for former students as part of a lawsuit alleging abuse and deprivation of education at a now-shuttered Pennsylvania juvenile justice facility. Former Glen Mills Schools students could receive both cash payments for those who experienced or witnessed abuse and funds...
Pa. Gov. Josh Shapiro fills executive staff with loyal allies, political veterans
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 — Newly minted Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro is stocking his executive staff of advisers, mediators, and policy experts with political...
