Pennsylvania category, Page 15
Lawsuit claims Elon Musk failed to make promised payments over 2024 petition signatures
PHILADELPHIA — A federal lawsuit filed Tuesday in Pennsylvania accuses billionaire Elon Musk and the political action committee he started of failing to pay a suburban Philadelphia man more than $20,000 for getting people to sign a petition in favor of free speech and gun rights. The lawsuit seeking class-action...
Pennsylvania mail-in ballots don’t need accurate envelope dates, federal judge rules
HARRISBURG — Election boards in Pennsylvania’s 67 counties may not invalidate mail-in ballots simply because they lack accurate, handwritten dates on their exterior return envelopes, a federal judge ruled Monday. The decision by U.S. District Judge Susan Paradise Baxter, the latest in a long-running legal dispute over what is a...
Pa. Senate passes bill requiring prosecutors to report noncitizens to ICE
The Pennsylvania Senate passed a bill Monday requiring prosecutors in the commonwealth to notify U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement if they believe a defendant is not a U.S. citizen, with critics voicing concern that the measure would entangle local law enforcement in some of the Trump administration’s recent excesses. The...
20 staffers accused of abusing students or not reporting it at Pennsylvania charter school
Twenty staffers at a suburban Philadelphia charter school are facing charges related to the alleged physical abuse of students using painful, unapproved techniques to restrain and punish youths in a program meant to help them deal with emotional issues, authorities announced Monday. Delaware County District Attorney Jack Stollsteimer said the...
Adoption of red light cameras slow in Pa. even though they save lives
HARRISBURG — All Pennsylvania municipalities would be allowed to install red light cameras aimed at making intersections safer under a proposal that could be introduced as soon as this summer. At the moment, just Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, and a handful of other places in the commonwealth are allowed to use them....
4 ways Pa. could fix its campaign finance laws to reduce the power of money in politics
HARRISBURG — Pennsylvania’s lax campaign finance laws allow powerful interests to pour unlimited dollars into politicians’ campaign accounts with few restrictions. Campaign checks help donors or their lobbyists gain access to top elected officials who set the policy agenda in the Capitol, those versed in the way power works in...
Democrats take hope from upset win in GOP-leaning Pa. state Senate district
MANHEIM — Democrat James Andrew Malone narrowly won a special election for a Pennsylvania state Senate seat in Republican-leaning suburbs and farming communities, scoring an upset in a district that a Democrat hasn’t represented in the chamber for 136 years. Malone’s victory over Republican Josh Parsons in Tuesday night’s election...
A new Chili’s near Scranton will be a throwback to ‘The Office,’ ‘awesome blossom’ and all
It has been nearly two decades since the workplace mockumentary “The Office” first set an episode inside a Chili’s, where Michael Scott handed out Dundie awards to his ever-tolerant employees, including trophies for the whitest sneakers and for stinking up the bathroom. Over nine seasons, “The Office” regularly name-dropped real...
Driver’s license center in Pa. draws crowd as Real ID deadline approaches
Pennsylvanians flocked to the Lehigh Valley Driver License Center outside Allentown on Monday — to acquire a Real ID — as part of a dedicated day to acquiring the new identification cards. Starting on May 7, anyone 18 years of age or older will need a Real ID or another...
Aggressive plants effective to some, a nuisance to others as growing season begins
The Capets family of Murrysville has a positive relationship with bamboo, a grass native to the Asian continent that grows tall and spreads quickly. They’ve been using it for more than a decade to screen their front yard from nearby traffic on Sardis Road. And it works well, forming a...
Allentown employee planted noose on her desk, faces false report charges, police say
Allentown officials announced charges Monday against a city employee, alleging that she made a false police report and tampered with evidence after reporting she found a noose on her desk in January. LaTarsha Brown, who works for the city’s community and economic development department, faces charges of making false reports,...
Police: Berks County fire chief arrested after dropping 3-month-old, fracturing her skull
A fire chief in Berks County has been arrested and suspended after police said he dropped his three-month-old daughter and fractured her skull. Falls Township Fire Chief Brian Salt, 36, was charged with endangering the welfare of a child and aggravated assault after police said he admitted to intentionally letting...
Powerful interests poured $18M into top Pa. lawmakers’ campaign coffers
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 — Power plant operators, gambling magnates, charter school backers, and trade unions are among the interests that gave almost $18 million to Pennsylvania’s top...
Trump administration suspends $175 million in federal funding for Penn over transgender swimmer
WASHINGTON — The Trump administration has suspended approximately $175 million in federal funding for the University of Pennsylvania over the participation of a transgender athlete in its swimming program, the White House said Wednesday. The Ivy League school has been facing an Education Department investigation focusing on in its swimming...
Bus carrying bagpipers from St. Patrick’s Day parade crashes into truck in Lackawanna County
MOUNT COBB — Bagpipers returning from a St. Patrick’s Day parade were taken to hospitals after their charter bus crashed into a tractor-trailer, officials said. The bus was exiting westbound Interstate 84 in northeastern Pennsylvania shortly before 6:30 p.m. Sunday when it ran into the tractor-trailer, which had no one...
Medical cannabis companies are spending big to have a say in Pa.’s legal weed future
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 — Pro-cannabis interests spent at least $1.6 million lobbying the Pennsylvania legislature in 2024 as lawmakers weighed a legalization scheme that could see major...
Pa. Gov. Josh Shapiro says Chuck Schumer should have used ‘leverage’ in government shutdown fightVideo
Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro said Democrats in Washington should have been more strategic in trying to extract concessions from the Republican-led Congress on the government funding bill that passed last week, weighing in on a debate that divided his party over its response to President Donald Trump’s agenda. Senate Minority...
Pennsylvania ‘Box Demon’ identified from Ring doorbell footage
The mysterious, creepy “Box Demon” spotted on Ring doorbell footage in York County has been identified, police said. On Tuesday, a woman called the Northern York County Regional Police Department to report a suspicious person — who showed up unannounced at her home and proclaimed to be the “Box Demon”...
Measles case detected in eastern Pennsylvania
Pennsylvania’s first measles case of 2025 has been reported in Montgomery County — outside of Philadelphia. The Montgomery County Department of Health and Human Services Office of Public Health said March 2 that it was investigating a confirmed case of measles in an unvaccinated child in the county. As of...
New Pa. bill would relieve debt from childbirth, other medical care
This story first appeared in How We Care, a weekly newsletter by Spotlight PA featuring original reporting and perspectives on how we care for one another at all stages of life. Medical debt harms people in different ways. It can lead them to seek payday loans, take money out of...
Pennsylvania Rep. Scott Perry co-sponsors bill to abolish Federal Reserve
A bill in the U.S. House to repeal the 112-year-old Federal Reserve Act and abolish the nation’s central bank has attracted several co-sponsors, including York County Republican Rep. Scott Perry. Kentucky GOP Rep. Thomas Massie introduced the bill on March 5 and Perry is one of 10 co-sponsors, all Republicans,...
$30K in counterfeit Estee Lauder, Sharpie markers headed to Pa. seized by customs agents
U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers seized nearly $30,000 in counterfeit cosmetics and Sharpie markers headed to addresses in the Lehigh Valley and Berks County over the past month. The agency said in a news release Tuesday that four shipments of counterfeit objects valued at roughly $28,550, had been seized...
3 victims of Pennsylvania plane crash were taken to a burn unit for treatment, hospital saysVideo
LITITZ — Three of the five people injured in a single-engine plane crash in central Pennsylvania over the weekend were sent from a Lancaster hospital to a burn center for treatment, authorities said Monday. Two patients were flown to the Lehigh Valley Health Network’s burn center and a third was...
A single-engine plane crashes near a Pennsylvania airport and all 5 aboard are taken to hospitalsVideo
A single-engine airplane carrying five people crashed and burst into flames Sunday in the parking lot of a retirement community near a small airport in suburban Pennsylvania, and everyone on board survived, officials and witnesses said. The fiery crash happened around 3 p.m. just south of Lancaster Airport in Manheim...
Facing competition from Big Tech, states dangle incentives and loosen laws to attract power plants
HARRISBURG — Facing projections of spiking energy demand, U.S. states are pressing for ways to build new power plants faster as policymakers increasingly worry about protecting their residents and economies from rising electric bills, power outages and other consequences of falling behind Big Tech in a race for electricity. Some...
