Pennsylvania category, Page 193
Pennsylvania prisons ratcheting up efforts to combat covid-19 outbreaks
A second inmate tested positive for covid-19 at a state prison located just outside of Philadelphia Tuesday night, Pennsylvania Secretary of Corrections John Wetzel announced Wednesday. Four prison staffers also have tested positive for the virus, he said. Citing Department of Health privacy concerns, Wetzel declined to say where those...
Gov. Wolf orders all of Pennsylvania to stay at home
An expanded stay-at-home order now means that all Pennsylvanians must stay home unless they absolutely must go out, a move that state officials made in an effort to stanch the spread of the coronavirus. Gov. Tom Wolf’s order — which he doubled to include all 67 counties — came the...
Pa. addiction hot line getting fewer calls after liquor stores shut down
State drug and alcohol officials braced for a deluge of alcohol-related phone calls when Pennsylvania two weeks ago closed all state-run wine and liquor stores. “We were concerned that it could be a very big deal,” said Jennifer Smith, secretary of the Pennsylvania Department of Drug and Alcohol Programs. So...
Fine Wine & Good Spirits losing $6.5 million a day, restarts online sales
Record sales on the eve of Gov. Tom Wolf’s temporary closure of state-run wine and liquor stores won’t be enough to offset growing losses — which threaten to end a two-decade streak of new revenue highs, a Tribune-Review analysis shows. Fine Wine & Good Spirits stores shuttered two weeks ago,...
Pennsylvania adds 962 new coronavirus cases as deaths rise to 74
Pennsylvania saw a spike of nearly 1,000 new coronavirus cases Wednesday, and another 11 people have died, according to state officials. From midnight Tuesday to midnight Wednesday, 962 new covid-19 cases were reported statewide, bringing the total to 5,805, according to the Department of Health. Deaths now total 74, including...
State police no longer sending troopers to some calls because of coronavirus outbreak
State Police Commissioner Col. Robert Evanchick Wednesday announced a temporary change in the way troopers respond to select nonemergency incidents. Evanchick said with the goal of limiting in-person contact and mitigating the spread of covid-19 , the department has identified certain types of calls that may be resolved with limited...
Sen. Kim Ward seeks state law change to provide covid-19 info to first responders
A Westmoreland County lawmaker wants to amend state law to require the Pennsylvania Department of Health to release the general location of covid-19 cases to first responders. State Sen. Kim Ward, R-Hempfield, is seeking co-sponsors for an amendment to require state health officials to release information about coronavirus cases by...
Judge orders release of 13 immigrants in Pa., saying ICE not protecting them from coronavirus
PHILADELPHIA — A federal judge in Harrisburg ordered the immediate release Tuesday of 13 immigrants from detention centers across Pennsylvania, saying authorities have not taken adequate measures to protect them from the threat of a coronavirus outbreak behind bars. The group, from countries across the globe, are all being all...
Johnstown police say coughing led to parking lot assault, shots fired
JOHNSTOWN —A confrontation that apparently began over coughing in a convenience store parking lot resulted in gunfire, Johnstown police said in court documents released Tuesday. Two men were charged with aggravated assault. The police affidavit used to support charges against Guillermo Diaz Alvarez said the other defendant, William Suaro, said...
Pa. reports 14 more deaths, 756 new coronavirus cases
Fourteen more people have died from the coronavirus in Pennsylvania, and the state added more than 750 new cases over the course of a day, state officials said Tuesday. Across the state, 63 people have died since the first case of covid-19 was reported on March 6. The total number...
Sen. Jim Brewster wants to exempt stimulus checks from state, local taxes
Stimulus checks, already exempt from federal taxes, would be exempt from state and local taxes as well under legislation state Sen. Jim Brewster, D-McKeesport, expects to introduce Tuesday. Under the recently passed $2.2 trillion federal stimulus bill, individuals earning up to $75,000 a year will receive a $1,200 check sometime...
5 shot at Philadelphia party; toddler, girl critically hurt
PHILADELPHIA — A shooting outside a Philadelphia home where a family party was being held left five people wounded, authorities said, including a toddler and a teenage girl who were critically injured. The shooting occurred shortly before 10 p.m. Monday, when a gunman opened fire on a crowd of people...
Spate of gun violence kills at least 5 in Philadelphia
PHILADELPHA — Gunfire killed at least five people and wounded others in recent days in Philadelphia, including a man found shot to death on a transit train, authorities said. A 33-year-old man died minutes after he was shot in the face and neck while sitting in his vehicle in north...
More than 844,000 unemployment claims filed in Pa. in 2 weeks
Pennsylvania has seen 844,684 new unemployment claims since March 15, state Department of Labor and Industry Secretary Jerry Oleksiak said Monday. “That eclipses anything we’ve experienced for a weekly total, and maybe even a yearly total,” Oleksiak said. That number is up from about 650,000 claims reported Thursday for a...
Gov. Wolf closes Pa. schools and businesses indefinitely, extends stay-at-home order
Gov. Tom Wolf extended school and business closures indefinitely and also extended the stay-at-home order in place for some Pennsylvania counties until at least April 30. “Until now, I’ve been saying ‘another two weeks, another two weeks,’ ” Wolf said during a virtual news conference Monday. “Now I’m going to...
Pa. state prisons under quarantine following inmate covid-19 diagnosis
Inmates in Pennsylvania’s 25 state prisons were quarantined to their cells following the first diagnosis of covid-19 in an inmate at State Correctional Institution at Phoenix, located near Philadelphia. Department of Corrections Secretary John Wetzel announced the quarantine at 10 p.m. Sunday. It is the latest move to contain and...
Police seize liquor in Erie in probe of illegal sales
Pennsylvania State Police liquor enforcement officers seized 59 bottles of liquor during a search on Saturday afternoon of an east Erie residence in a probe of possible illegal alcohol sales. A 24-year-old man accused of offering the bottles for sale on social media will face criminal charges in the incident,...
Pa. sees 10 more deaths, 693 new coronavirus cases as total tops 4,000
Ten more people have died from the coronavirus in Pennsylvania, and the state added nearly 700 new cases of the virus between Sunday and Monday, state health officials said. Deaths in the state now total 48, and 693 new cases bring the statewide total to 4,087. It’s the largest one-day...
Philadelphia train passenger fatally shot during apparent robbery
PHILADELPHIA — A man riding on a train in Philadelphia was shot and killed early Monday during an apparent robbery, authorities said. The shooting occurred around 12:50 a.m. on a westbound elevated Market-Frankford line train near the Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority station at Kensington and Allegheny avenues. The 41-year-old victim...
Wolf administration lays off about 2,500 state employees amid coronavirus outbreakVideo
HARRISBURG — The Wolf administration has laid off about 2,500 part-time and seasonal employees and interns as the financial fallout from the coronavirus deepens, straining Pennsylvania’s cash flow, Spotlight PA has learned. The affected workers, which include temporary clerical staff and employees who help out in departments across state government...
With an eye on ICU beds, Pa. hospitals prep for surge in coronavirus patients
As coronavirus cases continue to grow, hospitals across the state are doing what they can to prepare for a surge of critical patients that officials fear could overwhelm the health care system. More than half of Pennsylvania’s 67 counties, however, have fewer than 20 intensive care beds, according to data...
Gov. Wolf orders Beaver, Centre, Washington County residents to stay home
HARRISBURG — Gov. Tom Wolf has extended his order for residents to stay at home in most circumstances to almost one-third of Pennsylvania’s counties amid an increase in coronavirus cases and a dozen more deaths that brought the total to 34 for the outbreak. The governor on Saturday extended the...
For Pennsylvania’s Amish, the coronavirus and the call for social distancing are a challenge
The Amish do their best to keep outside troubles from entering their daily lives. That’s not so easy when the trouble is an invisible virus spreading across the globe. People familiar with the Amish community in Pennsylvania say many are taking the coronavirus and subsequent business closures and calls for...
Pennsylvania reports 12 more deaths, 533 new cases of coronavirus
Twelve more people in Pennsylvania have died from covid-19, increasing the statewide coronavirus death toll to 34, state health officials said Saturday. Confirmed cases now are present in at least 56 of the state’s 67 counties, Health Secretary Dr. Rachel Levine said. “We are seeing this virus rear its ugly...
Gov. Wolf vetoes petrochemical plant tax break bill
Gov. Tom Wolf on Friday followed through on his threat to veto a bill to provide potentially hundreds of millions of dollars in tax breaks for petrochemical plants that use natural gas extracted in Pennsylvania. In his veto message, Wolf said he could support awarding an incentive like the one...
