Pennsylvania category, Page 208
Court ponders discipline against Penn State case prosecutor Frank Fina
HARRISBURG — A lawyer for the agency that investigates misconduct by Pennsylvania lawyers says a yearlong law license suspension is justified against one of the primary prosecutors in Jerry Sandusky’s 2012 child molestation trial. Amelia Kittredge with the Office of Disciplinary Counsel argued Wednesday in favor of the punishment against...
Good Samaritan killed, 2 others injured at crash scene
LYNN, Pa. — Pennsylvania state police say a good Samaritan who stopped to help people involved in a traffic accident was killed and two others were hurt when they were struck by a passing vehicle. The crash on Route 309 in Lynn was reported around 5:30 p.m. Tuesday. A car...
Penn State ranks close to worst in affordability for low-income students
Penn State ranks close to worst in affordability for low-income students among top public universities, according to a new report by the Institute for Higher Education Policy. Flagship universities like Penn State’s University Park campus are known around the country for having large research budgets and many resources for both...
Arrest made in shooting death of Pa. man found dead in trunk
CHAMBERSBURG — Authorities have made an arrest in the shooting death of a man whose body was found in the trunk of his car. Justin Hockenberry will face counts of criminal homicide, abuse of a corpse, tampering with evidence and drug possession. It’s not known if he’s retained an attorney....
Recalled Breakstone’s cottage cheese may contain plastic, metal pieces
Kraft Heinz Foods has recalled 9,500 cases of its Breakstone’s cottage cheese because the product might contain pieces of red plastic and metal. The company said it issued the voluntary recall after a consumer reported finding a piece of red plastic in a container of the cottage cheese. According to...
Pennsylvania lawmaker John Yudichak switches from Democrat to independent
HARRISBURG — A moderate Democrat in Pennsylvania’s state Senate from an area that shifted decisively to support Donald Trump in 2016’s presidential election is switching his registration to become an independent and said Tuesday that he will caucus with the Republican majority. In a news conference in his Capitol office,...
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...
