Pennsylvania category, Page 7
Shapiro says Pa. prepared should Trump decide to send National Guard to Philadelphia
Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro said the state has been preparing for the possibility that President Donald Trump could deploy the National Guard to Philadelphia ever since the White House sent troops to Los Angeles in June — a move that a federal judge ruled Tuesday was illegal. “Ever since the...
No prescription? No problem: Pa. clears a barrier to covid vaccines
Pennsylvanians seeking a covid-19 shot from their pharmacist no longer need a prescription after the state Board of Pharmacy changed its policies Wednesday. The change takes effect immediately, according to the Pennsylvania Department of State. Those interested in getting the vaccine should contact their pharmacies about availability “while pharmacies work...
Fetterman, McCormick call on Pa. universities to combat antisemitism
Pennsylvania’s two U.S. senators are calling on five of the state’s universities, including the University of Pittsburgh, to ensure that Jewish organizations on their campuses are “equipped to protect the students they serve.” U.S. Sens. John Fetterman, D-Braddock, and Dave McCormick, R-Pittsburgh, said their request comes on the heels of...
Pa. won’t take part in the national rush to redraw congressional maps
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. Sign up for our free newsletters. HARRISBURG — Despite a growing number of states exploring unusual, mid-decade redraws of congressional lines for political reasons, Pennsylvania...
Woman who drove through crowd at Kipona asked bystanders for directions moments beforeVideo
A woman who drove through barricades and crashed into a crowd on Monday at Harrisburg’s Kipona festival asked bystanders for directions just moments before. Chanda Porter-Lewis was standing on the street corner with her aunt when the woman police identified as Elizabeth Bohrer, 37, of York Haven, stopped near them...
Lost boy wandering elevated monorail line in Hersheypark is saved by another parkgoerVideo
HERSHEY — A lost boy wandering a monorail line high above the crowd at Hersheypark was rescued by a park visitor who climbed onto a building and jumped onto the rails. The child was reported missing at about 5:05 p.m. Saturday after he became separated from his parents, according to...
State Public Utility Commission releases annual scorecard on power company outages
Pennsylvania’s power grid is faltering more than ever. The state saw 71 significant power outages last year, the Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission said in its annual reliability report, pushing a decades-long trend of rising service disruptions to new heights. About 2.9 million customers faced outages, which was the highest number...
Pa. Dems celebrate Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce’s engagement — then ask for donations
What do Taylor Swift, Travis Kelce and the Pennsylvania Supreme Court have in common? Not much. But that isn’t stopping the Pennsylvania Democratic Party from trying to capitalize on the celebrity engagement of Swift and Kelce, announced Tuesday, to solicit campaign donations. “We’re sure you’ve already heard the news, but...
Pennsylvania election denier who has distorted voter data appointed to Homeland Security election integrity role
NEW YORK — A conservative election researcher whose faulty findings on voter data were cited by President Donald Trump as he tried to overturn his 2020 election loss has been appointed to an election integrity role at the Department of Homeland Security. Pennsylvania activist Heather Honey is now serving as...
Pennsylvania must stop throwing out mail ballots over date errors, court rules
HARRISBURG — A federal appeals court on Tuesday ruled that it is unconstitutional for the presidential battleground state of Pennsylvania to throw out mail-in ballots simply because the voter didn’t write an accurate date on the return envelope. The unanimous decision by the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ordered...
U.S. Rep. Summer Lee denied access to ICE detention center at Moshannon
U.S. Rep. Summer Lee, a Swissvale Democrat, on Monday became the latest Congressional Democrat denied entry at a federal immigration detention center. Lee on Monday was denied access to Moshannon Valley Processing Center, the largest immigration detention center in the northeast. She had traveled to the Clearfield County detention center...
No funding deal in sight as transit cuts take effect in Philadelphia region
Many commuters and students in the Philadelphia region woke earlier than usual Monday and scrambled to avoid being late as they navigated newly imposed service cuts by the Southeastern Pennsylvania Transit Authority. It remains unknown how long the pain might continue in Pennsylvania’s southeastern corner, as lawmakers remain apart on...
Philadelphia’s mass transit cuts foreshadow possible similar moves by other agencies across U.S.
HARRISBURG — Commuters and students in Philadelphia woke up earlier on Monday and scrambled to avoid being late as they navigated service reductions that the region’s public transit agency has called more drastic than any undertaken by a major transit agency in the United States. The cuts that took effect...
Southeastern Pa.’s massive transit cuts are here, and it’s ‘bad on so many levels’
SEPTA, the Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority, warned us for two years. Some people stopped listening because impoverishment has been the perpetual soundtrack of the transit system, and salvation always seemed to arrive at the last minute. Not this time. Massive cuts in SEPTA service began early morning Sunday. For the...
A President’s House architect is ready to ‘fight’ the Trump administration’s potential exhibit removal next month
PHILADELPHIA — When Troy C. Leonard, who worked on designing the President’s House almost two decades ago, first found out exhibits at the site are at risk under the Trump administration, he said, he was crushed. “I was devastated that the exhibit that we had worked so hard on and...
Pa. rebuffs federal request for voter rolls containing personal data
This article is made possible through Spotlight PA’s collaboration with Votebeat, a nonpartisan news organization covering local election administration and voting. Sign up for Votebeat’s free newsletters here. Pennsylvania told the U.S. Justice Department that it will not give federal officials a version of the state’s voter rolls that contains...
Debate swirls around Trump’s call to end unrestricted mail-in voting
Nearly one in five Pennsylvanians who voted for Donald Trump in last year’s presidential election cast their ballots by mail, and the GOP spent millions to promote mail-in voting in the run-up to the election. Now, President Trump says he wants to end the practice of allowing people to vote...
Villanova says report of campus shooter was a ‘cruel hoax’
VILLANOVA — A report of a shooter on Villanova University’s campus that sparked panic among students and drew a heavy police presence was a “cruel hoax,” the school’s president said Thursday. Earlier in the afternoon, students had received a text from the Villanova alert system that told them to lock...
Oklahoma to screen would-be teachers from N.Y., Calif. to keep ‘leftist propaganda’ out of schools
For now, Pennsylvanians looking to land a teaching job in Oklahoma won’t have to take a test designed to weed out “woke indoctrinators” seeking classroom work in the conservative Sooner State. Oklahoma soon will begin administering what Ryan Walters, the state’s elected superintendent of public instruction, calls the “America First”...
When the ground gives way, homeowners are often left with the bill. Pa. lawmakers propose safety net
A version of this story first appeared in Talk of the Town — a daily newsletter from the State College regional bureau of Spotlight PA, an independent, nonpartisan newsroom dedicated to investigative and public-service journalism for Pennsylvania. Sign up at spotlightpa.org/newsletters/talkofthetown. BELLEFONTE — When landslides and sinkholes damage Pennsylvania houses,...
Pennsylvania Office of Attorney General recovering from cyber incident
The Pennsylvania Office of Attorney General announced Monday that, following the cyber incident last week, access is being restored to employee email accounts. Outages affected the website and disabled office email accounts and landline phones. The website was rebooted early Wednesday afternoon but still had outages on the home improvement...
Republican Stacy Garrity seeks to challenge Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro’s reelection bid
HARRISBURG — Stacy Garrity, Pennsylvania’s two-term elected state treasurer, said Monday that she will seek the Republican nomination to challenge Democratic Gov. Josh Shapiro ‘s reelection bid, setting up what could be a contest between a low-profile officeholder and a potential White House contender in 2028. Garrity said in a...
Pa. Senate leaders look to skill games tax as transit funding debate continues
The highest-ranking Republican in the state Senate described the looming service cuts and fare hikes at Pennsylvania’s largest transit agency as a “manufactured crisis” that doesn’t need to happen. “This is (the Southeastern Pennsylvania Transit Authority) wanting exactly what they want and holding everyone hostage,” said Senate President Pro Tempore...
Penn State suspends fraternity accused of hazing, abuse
Officials at Penn State University announced they have suspended a fraternity following an investigation into accusations of hazing and abuse. The Lambda Lambda chapter of Phi Beta Sigma will be suspended for four years, effective Aug. 4, according to a press release from the school. During that time, the chapter...
GOP plans to address budget impasse, transit shot down in Democratic-led House committees
A pair of committees in the Democrat-led state House on Wednesday shot down proposals from the GOP-controlled state Senate to end Pennsylvania’s budget impasse and address funding problems at the state’s transit agencies. Now, with the budget impasse standing at 44 days and Pennsylvania’s largest transit agency preparing to begin...
