Pennsylvania category, Page 188
Pa. man accused of repeatedly punching female store clerk for telling him to wear face mask
A female convenience store clerk who reminded a customer about wearing a face mask ended up beaten and bloody after the customer attacked her while rambling about “martial law,” police say. As MontgomeryNew.com reports, it happened in Perkasie Borough, Bucks County, at the Olde Towne Convenience Store late last week....
Trump to make 2nd visit of year to Pennsylvania
President Donald Trump will visit the battleground state of Pennsylvania on Thursday to tour a distribution center of medical and surgical products for healthcare facilities, including personal protective equipment in the fight against the coronavirus. Trump’s visit is to a warehouse of Virginia-based Owens and Minor in suburban Allentown. The...
Long-term care residents, employees to be tested weekly for covid-19, Gov. Wolf says
All nursing home patients and employees will be tested for the coronavirus, Pennsylvania officials said Tuesday, and the facilities will be required to publicly report the number of covid-19 deaths, cases and tests. Secretary of Health Dr. Rachel Levine said how often the nursing homes test their patients and employees...
Pennsylvania reports 75 more deaths, 837 new coronavirus cases
State health officials reported more than 800 new coronavirus cases on Tuesday along with dozens more deaths as the statewide death toll surpassed 3,800. The 837 covid-19 cases reported between 12 a.m. Monday and 12 a.m. Tuesday brought the state’s running case count to 57,991. Statewide, there were 75 more...
PennDOT to renew driver’s licenses with old photos during pandemic
A lot of people don’t like their driver’s license photo and, for the time being, Pennsylvanians won’t have to worry about taking one. PennDOT announced Tuesday it will use existing photos on file for customers who renew their driver’s license and identification card. The move is designed to lower the...
Pennsylvania lawmakers’ spending on their own operations
HARRISBURG — The Associated Press combed through more than 6,000 pages of line items to get a clearer picture of how the Pennsylvania General Assembly spent taxpayer money on its own operations during the fiscal year that ended June 30. Highlights of the findings: • Total spending: The 253-member Legislature...
From frames to furniture to food, here’s how Pa. lawmakers spent millions of taxpayer dollars
HARRISBURG — It takes hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars a year for the Pennsylvania General Assembly to maintain one of the country’s largest legislative staffs, a small army that needs food, shelter, transportation, office supplies and modern electronics. An Associated Press review of invoices and more than 6,000 pages...
State says workers don’t have to report if business reopens illegally
Pennsylvania workers who refuse to report to any business that opens in violation of Gov. Tom Wolf’s orders will not lose their unemployment benefits, a state official said Monday. “If a business opens in defiance of the governor’s orders … those employees may stay home and not lose their benefits,”...
Pennsylvania schools planning to reopen in fall, says education secretary
The Pennsylvania Department of Education is planning to allow schools to return to the classroom in the fall but continues to prepare for a worst-case scenario. “It is fully our intent that we’re going to be at a place where we are going to reopen schools for the next academic...
Execution notice signed for convicted cop killer Eric Frein
Convicted cop killer Eric Frein has been scheduled for execution, the Pennsylvania Department of Corrections announced Monday. According to a release from the department, Secretary John Wetzel signed a Notice of Execution setting June 22, 2020 as the date of execution for Frein. A Notice of Execution was signed for...
Pennsylvania customs officials seize unapproved medication shipped from Hong Kong
U.S. Customs and Border Protection officials seized a shipment of 1,200 capsules of an unapproved medicine shipped from Hong Kong to Pennsylvania. Working out of the Port of Harrisburg, agents seized the Lingua Qingwen capsules en route to an address in Union County, in the central part of the state....
Pennsylvania reports 543 new coronavirus cases, 24 more deaths
State health officials reported hundreds of new coronavirus cases on Monday, pushing the state’s running case count above 57,000. The 543 new cases were reported between 12 a.m. Sunday and 12 a.m. Monday, and they bring the statewide total to 57,154 since the first cases were identified on March 6....
Penn State virtual commencement features messages from Joe Jonas, Lara Spencer, Trace McSorley
While the Penn State Class of 2020 was not able to hold their graduation on campus, they did get some virtual love from celebrities and high profile alumni. According to the university, a livestream of the ceremony Saturday had 92,000 views from 121 countries. The school awarded more than 15,000...
Pennsylvania reports 19 new covid-19 deaths; total coronavirus cases top 56K
Pennsylvania health officials reported 19 more covid-19 deaths Sunday, and 1,295 additional positive cases, bringing the statewide death total to 3,707 and positive case total to 56,611. People in all 67 counties have tested positive for the virus. More than 227,700 people have tested negative. Starting Friday, two dozen northern...
Pennsylvania reports 72 new covid-19 deaths; total coronavirus cases now top 55K
Pennsylvania reported 72 more deaths from covid-19 and more than 1,000 newly confirmed cases as of Saturday morning, pushing the statewide coronavirus case count above 55,000. Hospitals are treating 2,283 patients with the disease, and 482 of those patients are on ventilators. Another 20 patients are on extracorporeal membrane oxygenation,...
State lawmakers say there is pain ahead as coronavirus restrictions begin to ease
State lawmakers say the social and economic pain from the coronavirus shutdown is not over and that there are still many questions as Southwestern Pennsylvania prepares to move from red to yellow zone status Friday. Gov. Tom Wolf, who imposed statewide stay-at-home orders as covid-19 cases began cropping up in...
Wolf: More than 6K business owners granted waivers during covid-19 shutdown, nearly 13K denied
More than 6,000 Pennsylvania businesses received waivers to operate during the pandemic-spurred lockdown, or about 14% of those who applied for the exemption, data released Friday show. Among them were car washes, bike shops, furniture and appliance stores, lumberyards, sheet metal manufacturers, and toilet rental services. Also approved were bookkeepers,...
Locked-down stores, shoppers emerge in parts of Pennsylvania
People across a swath of Pennsylvania began opening stores Friday that had been shut down since March as some coronavirus restrictions were lifted, while residents began leaving their homes unfettered by a just-expired stay-at-home order that had been in place since April 1. Located in a primarily rural swath of...
Students eligible for free lunch to receive $370 in SNAP benefits to cover rest of school year
Students who are eligible to receive free or reduced-price meals at school can now be reimbursed for the meals they are no longer getting. The Wolf Administration announced a new program Thursday that will let students benefit from the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP). Students who are eligible through the...
Applications drop for student aid as pandemic raises questions about college enrollment
State officials say the covid-19 pandemic may be driving college decisions for students. Applications for Pennsylvania’s need-based grants for college costs are down by 31,000 — or about 8% — since mid-March compared to this time last year, officials with the Pennsylvania Higher Education Assistance Agency (PHEAA) said Thursday. The...
Wolf extends stay-at-home order for red zones to June 4, will reveal next yellow-phase areas Friday
Gov. Tom Wolf on Thursday night extended Pennsylvania’s stay-at-home order through June 4 for all counties deemed red zones, although which counties remain under that designation could change Friday. As of Thursday night, all of Southwestern Pennsylvania remains a red zone, where the strictest restrictions on people and businesses remain...
Unemployment benefits now available for self-employed Pennsylvanians
Self-employed Pennsylvanians who are out of work because of coronavirus can file for unemployment benefits now that the state’s Pandemic Unemployment Assistance system is fully operational, according to the Department of Labor and Industry. The department launched the first phase of the system last month, which allowed people to file...
Gov. Wolf signs order granting civil immunity to health care providers during covid-19 pandemic
Gov. Tom Wolf signed an executive order Wednesday that could shield health care workers from potential lawsuits while confronting the covid-19 pandemic. The order grants civil immunity to individual licensed, certified and registered health care workers acting in “good faith” across all types of state-defined health care facilities — among...
Senate bill would mandate safety protocols for Pennsylvania nursing homes
Long-term care facilities that have become the epicenter of Pennsylvania’s covid-19 fatalities would be subject to new safety protocols during emergency disaster declarations under a measure state Sen. Kim Ward is promoting. Pennsylvania has recorded 3,106 deaths from covid-19, with about two thirds of those coming from 495 nursing homes...
State police unable to hold memorial ceremony to mark 115th anniversaryVideo
State police take May 2 of each year to remember and honor troopers who have died in the line of duty with a ceremony in Hershey. Because of the covid-19 pandemic, an in-person ceremony wasn’t possible in 2020, the Pennsylvania State Police’s 115th anniversary. Instead, police officials created a tribute...
