Pennsylvania category, Page 97

For the second month in a row, Pennsylvania’s unemployment rate has dropped two-tenths of a percentage point. The state’s unemployment rate for October was down to 6% according to the PA Department of Labor & Industry’s preliminary employment situation report released Friday. It’s the eighth consecutive month the state’s unemployment...

Food providers at state parks across Pennsylvania are switching to compostable, paper, wooden or plant fiber alternatives for packaging and consumption, according to Department of Conservation and Natural Resources officials. It’s part of an effort to reduce the amount of waste and plastics that are associated with concessions. New contracts...

With winter on its way, PennDOT is advising motorists to slow down, increase their following distance and avoid distractions while driving. Last winter in Pennsylvania, preliminary data show that there were 301 crashes resulting in four fatalities and 143 injuries on snowy, slushy or ice-covered roadways where aggressive-driving behaviors such...

BELVIDERE, N.J. — Authorities used DNA to finally identify the body of a 1991 homicide victim in New Jersey known by her tattoo as “Tiger Lady.” However, her death and killer remain unknown. Warren County Prosecutor James Pfeiffer on Friday announced the victim is Wendy Louise Baker of Coatesville, Pennsylvania....

Autopsy results for the Penn State student found dead last week are expected to be completed in about six weeks, the Centre County Coroner’s Office wrote this week. Justine Gross’ death was “an isolated incident,” county Coroner Scott Sayers wrote. State College police investigators believe her death was accidental, the...

ALTOONA — A jail guard was shot and killed at a Pennsylvania courthouse by what appears to be friendly fire during a struggle with an inmate who had grabbed her weapon, and authorities said Thursday they were investigating how it happened. The inmate had been taken from the Blair County...

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. In Pennsylvania, elected district attorneys determine whether or not to charge officers who kill or use force against civilians. There is...

The top two executives at Pennsylvania’s largest public pension system will leave their jobs, under resolutions approved by the system’s board Thursday, amid two federal investigations and calls by board members for their resignations over lackluster investment returns. Under the resolutions, executive director Glen Grell and chief investment officer Jim...

PHILADELPHIA — Federal health authorities on Wednesday confirmed the discovery of some frozen vials labeled “Smallpox” in a freezer at a facility in Pennsylvania that conducts vaccine research. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said the vials “were incidentally discovered by a laboratory worker” who was cleaning out the...

HARRISBURG — Inflation is driving up consumer prices and will drive a big salary increase for Pennsylvania state lawmakers, judges and top executive branch officials in 2022. For many of these positions, it’s the biggest increase in three decades. Salaries across the board will rise 5.6%, a figure tied by...

HARRISBURG — District administrators overreached when they permanently expelled a 17-year-old high school student for sending Snapchat messages after school hours that referred to another student as a potential school shooter, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court ruled Wednesday. The justices said such communications must be analyzed in context and the primary...

State officials are encouraging people to stock up on opioid overdose reversal drug naloxone as overdose deaths climb locally and nationally. The coronavirus pandemic upended a lot of progress officials statewide had made on reducing the number of drug overdoses, said Jen Smith, secretary of the Pennsylvania Department of Drug...

A Philadelphia council member convicted along with a prominent labor leader in a federal public corruption case says he plans to wait until his scheduled sentencing in February before resigning from his office. The Philadelphia Inquirer reported that Council member Bobby Henon said in an interview Tuesday that he intended...

Anyone who ever wanted tickets to a massively popular concert is familiar with the scenario: Tickets go on sale, and immediately giant blocks of them are snapped up in the first few minutes. Before the Pennsylvania Liquor Control Board instituted its limited-­release lotteries in 2015, the same thing happened to...

HARRISBURG — A plan to add tolls on nine bridges suffered a setback Tuesday when the Pennsylvania state House passed a bill to void the proposal, although the legislation requires one more Senate vote and faces opposition from Democratic Gov. Tom Wolf. The tolling plan would pay for the bridges’...

The school mask mandate in Pennsylvania will end on Dec. 4 unless the state Supreme Court grants a stay to Gov. Tom Wolf’s administration. On Tuesday, the Pennsylvania Commonwealth Court granted a motion to lift a stay of its order from last week that found the acting secretary of health...

PHILADELPHIA — A powerful Philadelphia labor leader and a city council member were found guilty of conspiracy charges Monday in a corruption trial. Prosecutors said John “Johnny Doc” Dougherty kept Bobby Henon, a union electrician-turned-Philadelphia City Council member, on the payroll to help his union keep a tight grip on...

BEAR CREEK TOWNSHIP — Personal electronic devices helped lead rescuers to a father and daughter who survived a plane crash in Pennsylvania, authorities said. According to state police, the aircraft had taken off from the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton International Airport on Sunday night when it went down in a wooded area of...

PHILADELPHIA — The CDC’s color-coded vaccination map showed Pennsylvania had hit an impressive milestone this week: 95% of adults had gotten at least one dose of a covid-19 vaccine. Hours later, Gov. Tom Wolf touted the figure at a news conference. The staggering number would put Pennsylvania ahead of every...

A citizens group that solicited public input to create “People’s Maps” to guide officials in drawing new legislative districts for the Pennsylvania General Assembly will make a final pitch on Monday. Carol Kuniholm, executive director of Fair Maps Pennsylvania, will make her pitch for the House and Senate maps, created...

State agriculture officials have had it with Japanese barberry. After considering it previously in 2018, Pennsylvania officials have added the invasive shrub to their list of noxious weeds, and merchants will not be permitted to sell it by the fall of 2023. The shrub is popular with landscapers. Unfortunately, it...

ATLANTIC CITY, N.J. — A Pennsylvania woman is suing the manufacturer of a popular online slots game, claiming it wrongly refused to pay her a $100,000 jackpot due to “a bug” in the product. New Jersey regulators revealed Friday that 14 gamblers have filed the same complaint against the company,...

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 lawmakers and other elected officials have for years been able to pocket almost anything sent their way by...

Gov. Tom Wolf’s administration announced last week that it was prepared to lift the school mask mandate by Jan. 17. Why then, after the Commonwealth Court ruled Wednesday that Acting Health Secretary Alison Beam didn’t have the authority to issue the order in the first place, would the administration even...