Pennsylvania category, Page 197
State-owned universities offering enhanced retirement program
More than 200 faculty members across Pennsylvania’s 14 state-owned universities have signed on to a retirement incentive program, meeting the threshold required for the plan to go into effect, according to university officials. The incentive was laid out in January as a way to pare the number of employees at...
Pennsylvania Supreme Court to review child sex abuse time limits decision
HARRISBURG — A mid-level appeals court decision issued last summer that allowed some victims of childhood sexual abuse a way to pursue lawsuits despite time limits will be reviewed by the Pennsylvania Supreme Court, the justices announced Monday. The high court granted a request to hear the case that was...
Study: Methane emissions from burping dairy cows can be reduced
For scientists studying climate change, belching cows are no laughing matter. Penn State researchers say they have found a way to reduce methane emissions from burping dairy cows, which constitutes 5% of the greenhouse gases generated in the United States. The research team, led by Alexander Hristov, Penn State distinguished...
Trump to make first visit of 2020 to Pennsylvania
HARRISBURG — President Donald Trump is making his first visit this year to the presidential battleground state of Pennsylvania, in a town hall-style event hosted by Fox News in Scranton on Thursday. The one-hour event will be at the Scranton Cultural Center. The location is important for this year’s presidential...
DA: Bucks County man shot, wounded by police during standoff dies
DOYLESTOWN — A man shot and wounded by police during a standoff near Philadelphia last month has died, authorities said. The Bucks County district attorney’s office said Thomas Edward Zeller, 61, was pronounced dead Sunday afternoon at Abington Hospital-Jefferson Health. The Montgomery County coroner’s office was scheduled to do an...
Wilkes-Barre native reportedly contracts coronavirus on cruise ship in Japan
A Wilkes-Barre native is on life support in Japan after contracting the coronavirus while on vacation, according to WNEP, an ABC affiliate in Luzerne County. Dan Fisher, who graduated from Coughlin High School in 1975, was on vacation in Japan earlier this month when he fell ill, Fisher’s childhood friend,...
Ex-Pennsylvania lawmaker pleads guilty in child porn case
LEBANON — A former Pennsylvania state lawmaker charged last fall with possession of child pornography pleaded guilty Thursday. Mike Folmer entered a guilty plea in Lebanon County Court to three counts of possessing child porn and one count of criminal use of a communications facility for having items on his...
Pa. health department outlines plans for possible virus spread
HARRISBURG — A customized update to pandemic flu plans should be completed in the coming days for the COVID-19 virus, the Pennsylvania health secretary said Wednesday, although the state has yet to identify a case of infection. Dr. Rachel Levine said at a Capitol news conference that monitoring and testing...
Report: Pa. natural gas production grew in 2019 but at lower rate
Total natural gas production in Pennsylvania grew by 7.6% in the fourth quarter of 2019 compared to the same period in 2018 — the lowest growth rate in more than two years, a report by the Pennsylvania Independent Fiscal Office said. Pennsylvania remains the second-highest natural gas producing state after...
Pennsylvania couple awaiting adopted child get $20,000 gift on ‘Ellen’
A Philadelphia-area couple already expecting one life-changing moment received a second one this week, courtesy of TV talk-show host Ellen DeGeneres. Doug and Nick Roberts, of Media, are in the midst of an adoption process. They are also huge fans of the actress Kristen Bell. Somehow, DeGeneres heard about their...
U.S. judge says Philly injection site plan doesn’t violate drug lawVideo
PHILADELPHIA — A federal judge in Philadelphia issued a final ruling Tuesday that paves the way for a nonprofit group to open a supervised injection site to combat the city’s opioid epidemic. U.S. District Judge Gerald McHugh found that the Safehouse group’s plan doesn’t violate federal drug laws because the...
UnitedHealthcare tackles homelessness as a root cause of poor health
PHILADELPHIA — Purvis Wright’s health, and life, were spiraling out of control. Wright went to the hospital in July 2018 after a spate of blackouts and throwing up blood. “It was all downhill,” Wright said this month. “I wound up with my eight or nine different sicknesses all at once.”...
Penn State students raise more than $11 million in annual dance marathonVideo
STATE COLLEGE — Hundreds of Penn State students have raised almost $11.7 million dollars for pediatric cancer patients in the annual 46-hour dance marathon known as Thon. The $11,696,942.38 total was announced Sunday afternoon at the conclusion of the Penn State Interfraternity Council/Panhellenic Dance Marathon, billed as the world’s largest...
Lawsuit against Pa. Lt. Gov. Fetterman still looms over Twitter fallout
The back-and-forth between Pennsylvania Lt. Gov. John Fetterman and the Harrisburg attorney retained to represent two men claiming Fetterman violated their First Amendment rights when he blocked them on Twitter has continued offline. Jason Lindemuth, of Harrisburg, and Sean Guay, of Hummelstown, were unblocked one day before a deadline attorney...
Casey, Toomey toe party lines as presidential election looms in Pennsylvania — a critical swing stateVideo
Pennsylvania’s U.S. senators Bob Casey, a Democrat from Scranton, and Pat Toomey, the Lehigh Valley Republican, were among the more muted voices throughout acrimonious impeachment proceedings against President Trump. But with no political races of their own this year, their voices are growing as they line up along party positions...
Penn State says it has settled all claims with the family of Joe Paterno
STATE COLLEGE, Pa. — Following eight years of rocky relations in the wake of the Jerry Sandusky child sex abuse scandal, Pennsylvania State University has made peace with the family of Joe Paterno. The head of Penn State’s board of trustees announced Friday that the school had resolved all outstanding...
Pa. approves marijuana suppliers for research institutions
Four new companies have been approved to grow marijuana for research purposes, teaming up with medical schools to learn more about cannabis. State law allows for eight clinical registrants — entities which grow, process and dispense marijuana for research institutions. “This research is essential to providing physicians with more evidence-based...
Bankruptcy judge wades in to Harrisburg diocese’s finances
HARRISBURG — A federal judge on Friday began the process of figuring out how the Harrisburg Roman Catholic Diocese will remain functioning and able to pay its bills while its 2-day-old bankruptcy filing inches ahead. Chief Bankruptcy Judge Henry Van Eck heard from lawyers for the diocese and the bankruptcy...
2 charged in fatal shooting near Philadelphia Catholic school
PHILADELPHIA — Two people have been arrested in connection with a street shooting near a Catholic school in Philadelphia that left a woman dead and three men wounded, authorities said. The suspects — identified only as an adult and a juvenile — were charged late Thursday with murder, six counts...
Census Bureau finds Pa. divorce rates declined over the last decade
Maybe those branding experts had it right when they attempted to adopt the “Pennsylvania is for lovers” slogan a few years back. Or, at least it is a land of lasting love. No less authority than the U.S. Census Bureau — that fountain of all things numerical across America —...
Berks County man accused of killing his dog with ax for refusing to go outside
A wife called cops on her husband after state police say he threw the family’s dog against the wall and then killed it with an ax, after the Chihuahua mix refused to go outside. As WFMZ-69 News reports, Joshua Leneweaver, 41, of Earl Township, Berks County, was jailed Monday evening...
Another Catholic diocese seeks bankruptcy after abuse deals
HARRISBURG — The Roman Catholic Diocese of Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, filed for bankruptcy Wednesday, six months after disclosing it had paid millions of dollars to people sexually abused as children by its clerics. The diocese joins at least 20 others across the United States in seeking protection from creditors through the...
Jerry Sandusky prosecutor and former Penn State lawyer disciplined
HARRISBURG — A lawyer who led the child molestation investigation and prosecution of former Penn State assistant football coach Jerry Sandusky lost his law license for a year Wednesday over his handling of a grand jury witness in the case, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court ruled. The justices issued a 5-1...
Pa. mail carrier sues U.S. Postal Service over Sunday work shifts
LANCASTER, Pa. — A former Pennsylvania mail carrier says the U.S. Postal Service violated his rights by requiring him to work Sundays. Gerald Groff, who says he is an evangelical Christian, filed a lawsuit Friday against the federal agency, claiming he was let go from his position after refusing to...
Sen. Casey launches campaign for sweeping child welfare reformsVideo
Pennsylvania senior Sen. Bob Casey, D-Scranton, is making it clear he’s in it for the long run. Two years into his third term, Casey, 59, is barnstorming the Keystone State to promote an ambitious package of child welfare proposals that even he concedes may take years to bring to fruition....
