Pennsylvania category, Page 206
Pa. bill limiting gifts to public officials moves in Legislature
HARRISBURG — A legislative committee voted Tuesday to advance new limits on gifts to Pennsylvania public officials, including an outright prohibition on taking cash, although the proposal includes numerous exceptions. The House State Government Committee unanimously approved an annual limit on the cash value of gifts and hospitality that public...
Prosecutors: Sean Kratz spared the death penalty in grisly slayings on Pennsylvania farmVideo
PHILADELPHIA — In a surprise move Monday, Bucks County prosecutors decided not to pursue the death penalty against Sean Kratz in the violent murders of three young men on a remote Solebury township farm. Kratz will instead face a mandatory sentence of life in prison for his first-degree murder conviction...
Philadelphia man convicted in deaths of 3 men gets life in prison
DOYLESTOWN — A man convicted in the slayings of three young men found buried at a suburban Philadelphia farm was sentenced to life in prison after authorities dropped their pursuit of the death penalty. A Bucks County judge sentenced 22-year-old Sean Kratz to life in prison without parole Monday, three...
Pennsylvania agrees to upgrade inmates’ death row conditions
HARRISBURG — Pennsylvania’s prison agency agreed to improve death row conditions under a settlement announced Monday of a federal lawsuit that called the inmates’ living standards degrading and inhumane. Lawyers for the inmates who sued said the agreement provides people on death row with at least 42½ hours a week...
13 prison employees suspended in Pennsylvania inmate death
HARRISBURG — Thirteen employees at a Pennsylvania state prison have been suspended without pay while the agency investigates the death of an inmate last week. Tyrone Briggs, 29, died Nov. 11 after an inmate-on-inmate assault that day inside the State Correctional Institution-Mahanoy in Frackville, Schuylkill County, the Corrections Department said...
Penn State soon to unveil national report on Greek life; 55 colleges included
STATE COLLEGE, Pa. — Pennsylvania State University said it will soon release the first national score card on fraternities and sororities, highlighting the good, such as public service hours and the bad, such as hazing and sexual misconduct violations. But many schools will be absent from the list. The university...
Report: Pennsylvania performance contributed to record natural gas growth in 2018
Largely because of growth in Pennsylvania and Ohio, U.S. natural gas production reached a new record in 2018 and saw the largest increase since 1930, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration. Pennsylvania had the largest year-over-year production increase for dry natural gas in 2018, increasing by 2 billion cubic...
Teacher suspended after shooting comment posted online
HARRISBURG — Officials have suspended a middle school teacher in Harrisburg while authorities investigate if the teacher told his class that he wished he could shoot a person to have quiet in his class. Harrisburg School District chief operating officer Chris Celmer posted a letter to parents and staff on...
HUD: Homeless veteran numbers drop this year in Pennsylvania
Veteran homelessness in Pennsylvania dropped by nearly 13% in 2019, according to the annual Homeless Assessment Report by U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. Those numbers mirror the national trend, which HUD officials say continues to decline. “In Pennsylvania, we’ve made great strides over the years in our efforts...
Dauphin County resists Pennsylvania’s push for new voting machines
HARRISBURG — A Pennsylvania county is signaling that it won’t go along with Gov. Tom Wolf’s insistence that counties buy new voting systems as a security measure in 2020’s election, when the state is expected to be a premier presidential battleground. Dauphin County Commissioner Mike Pries said Wednesday that he’s...
People keep stealing hemp, thinking it’s weed
UPPER MAKEFIELD — People see the serrated leaves and the fuzzy buds from afar, but it’s the familiar smell wafting over the field that seals the deal. They pack a not-so-brilliant idea into their heads and scramble to yank the hardy plants right from the soil. Back home, they light...
FBI investigating Gov. Tom Wolf’s administration over Mariner East pipeline permits
HARRISBURG — The FBI has begun a corruption investigation into how Gov. Tom Wolf’s administration came to issue permits for construction on a multibillion-dollar pipeline project to carry highly volatile natural gas liquids across Pennsylvania, The Associated Press has learned. FBI agents have interviewed current or former state employees in...
Girl, 14, charged in beating death of Philadelphia animal rescuer
PHILADELPHIA — Authorities say a 14-year-old girl has been charged with murder in the beating death of a well-known animal rescuer in his northeast Philadelphia home. Court documents indicate that the teenager is also charged with robbery, evidence-tampering and other counts in the Nov. 4 death of 59-year-old Albert Chernoff...
High risk dams pose upstream danger for many Pennsylvanians
HARRISBURG — Pennsylvanians living downstream may not often think about what could happen if something goes wrong with one of the state’s many dams, but threats to life and property are scattered along the state’s 86,000 miles of streams and rivers. “Our infrastructure in Pennsylvania is old — we’re an...
Cambria County teacher apologizes to parents for Trump assignment
GALLITZIN — School officials in Pennsylvania have apologized to parents after students received a homework assignment involving President Donald Trump. WJAC-TV reports the assignment sent home from a teacher at Penn Cambria Middle School in Cambria County had some parents upset on Wednesday. The assignment had asked students to pretend...
Walmart sells beer, wine in state for 1st time; Westmoreland sales coming
Walmart is now selling beer and wine in Pennsylvania. On Thursday, the retail giant celebrated the grand opening of a former McDonald’s-turned-beer and wine cafe inside the Walmart Supercenter in Uniontown, the first of several planned statewide. Officials announced at the event that Walmart recently purchased five more restaurant liquor...
Pennsylvania tax revenues for 1st quarter at 6.1% above pre-recession peak
At least we’re not Ohio. A new report by the Pew Charitable Trusts that looks at state tax revenues at the end of the first quarter of 2019 found they were up 13 percent across the nation since their pre-recession peak in 2008. “The results mean that states collectively had...
Lake-effect snow could bring up to 7 inches to northwest Pennsylvania
A portion of northwest Pennsylvania could get its first taste of winter in the form of lake-effect snow. National Weather Service has issued a winter weather advisory for Erie and Crawford counties from 4 p.m. Thursday to 4 p.m. Friday. A cold front moving through the state is expected to...
Crash leaves thousands of tortillas on a Pennsylvania road
MINERSVILLE — Police say 40,000 pounds of tortillas littered a Pennsylvania road when a tractor trailer hit another truck and then a car before toppling over. WNEP-TV reports that the Wednesday crash occurred near Minersville on Route 901 when one truck hauling the tortillas took a curve too fast and...
November marks peak for deer collisions. Some tips on preventing crashesVideo
Fall is mating season for deer, which means they are out and about. Unfortunately for drivers that means they are out and about and can be on roads, making for potential driving hazards. According to AAA, November and December are the most common months for motor vehicle collisions with deer...
Pa. man found guilty of fatally stabbing girlfriend faces life term
MILLCREEK — A man accused of fatally stabbing his girlfriend amid an impending breakup has been convicted of murder. James Gilbert was also convicted Wednesday of aggravated assault, reckless endangerment and possession of an instrument of crime by a jury that deliberated for about 90 minutes. The murder count carries...
Jerry Sandusky’s resentencing on child sex abuse conviction delayed
BELLEFONTE — Former Penn State assistant football coach Jerry Sandusky’s resentencing on a 45-count child sexual abuse conviction is being delayed another two weeks. Judge Maureen Skerda on Thursday pushed the hearing back to 1 p.m. Friday, Nov. 22, at the county courthouse in Bellefonte. Skerda acted after Sandusky’s defense...
Over 2 million pounds of chicken recalled in 7 states, including Pa.
More than two million pounds of chicken in seven states was recalled because it might have been contaminated by metal, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture Food Safety and Inspection Service. None of the affected chicken was sold in stores. It was sold directly to institutions like schools, jails...
Democrats sweep through suburban Philadelphia counties
HARRISBURG — Democrats completed an electoral sweep of Philadelphia’s four suburban counties in Pennsylvania, long a bastion of Republican control and a critical bellwether for statewide candidates. Democrats won control in Delaware and Chester counties in the election Tuesday for the first time going back to the Civil War and...
Congress approves Toomey-led bill expanding animal cruelty law
WASHINGTON — Congress has passed a bill making certain types of animal cruelty a federal felony. The bill would expand a 2010 law that made creation or distribution of so-called “animal crushing” videos illegal. The new bill would make the underlying acts of cruelty a federal crime. The Senate unanimously...
