Pennsylvania category, Page 211
Aging, thin pipe likely cause of Philadelphia refinery fire
PHILADELPHIA — An aging, failed elbow pipe appears to be the initial cause of a June 21 fire and subsequent explosions that injured five people at the largest oil refinery on the East Coast, federal investigators said Wednesday. The U.S. Chemical and Safety Hazard Investigation Board released a preliminary factual...
2 shot while sitting in car, drive themselves to hospital
PHILADELPHIA — Authorities say two people who were shot and wounded while sitting in their car in Philadelphia were able to drive themselves to a hospital. But it’s not yet known what sparked the shooting, which occurred shortly after 2 a.m. Wednesday. The two victims, a man and a woman,...
Pennsylvania accepting applications for environmental project awards
The state is accepting applications for the 2020 Governor’s Awards for Environmental Excellence from those who participated or led an environmental stewardship project, as well as all schools, nonprofits, businesses, farms, and government agencies. People or organizations that conducted an environmental project may also be nominated. Applications for the 2020...
Governor says Pennsylvania will keep accepting refugees
Pennsylvania’s governor is telling President Donald Trump he won’t be using state authority granted last month to refuse to accept refugees. Democratic Gov. Tom Wolf on Tuesday wrote Trump and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo to say his state will continue to welcome those facing persecution and danger, including people...
Pennsylvania exceeds national rate of rising STD cases
The number of sexually transmitted diseases climbed again last year in the United States, with Pennsylvania’s rate of increase exceeding the national average. It was the fifth consecutive year that gonorrhea, chlamydia and syphilis cases went up, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s annual surveillance report. The...
Fish, game commissions warn of spoof license websites
With hunting season ramping up, state Fish and Boat Commission and Game Commission officials are warning anglers and hunters about online scams related to buying a license. Both commissions have received reports of consumers purchasing “licenses” through third-party websites not connected to the state. “Even though consumers didn’t suspect the...
Pennsylvania expanding tax to more out-of-state corporations
Pennsylvania will start collecting corporate income taxes from companies that don’t have offices, employees or property in the state, making it one of the last states to target such companies. Pennsylvania announced the change starting in the 2020 tax year through a tax bulletin published Sept. 30. It cites a...
Is your food safe? New app shows you Pa. restaurant inspections
Want to know whether the restaurant you’re visiting has had any recent inspection violations? There’s an app for that. The EatSafePA mobile app recently launched by the Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture allows restaurant patrons to access inspection reports by restaurant name, nearby establishments or ZIP code. The free app, available...
Philadelphia Police: Woman killed 2 children, man then shot herself
PHILADELPHIA — Philadelphia police say a woman shot and killed her two girls and their father before turning the gun on herself. Police found the man dead with a gunshot wound to the head in a rowhome in the city’s Tacony section just before 10 p.m. Monday. The girls were...
Landscaper killed when mower slides into Pa. creek, overturns
Authorities say the co-owner of a landscaping company died when his mower slid into a creek and overturned while he was working at a retirement community in Lebanon County, Pennsylvania. Cornwall police say 66-year-old Ralph Schreiber was cutting grass with a zero-turn mower when the accident occurred Saturday at the...
6 victims at hospital as a result of shooting in Philadelphia
PHILADELPHIA — Police say six people ranging in ages from 14 to 27 have been hit by gunfire in a shooting in north Philadelphia. A Philadelphia police news release says six victims were taken to Temple University Hospital after 911 calls of a shooting came in at about 5:24 p.m....
Mack Truck workers in Pa., 2 other states to strike
MACUNGIE — The union representing thousands of workers at Mack Truck plants in Pennsylvania and elsewhere has announced plans to go on strike this weekend. The United Automobile Workers Union Local 677 said on its website that the Mack Truck council voted Thursday night to begin a walkout at 11:59...
Pennsylvania hospitals struggle under demand for mental health beds
More than 300 Pennsylvanians a day were hospitalized for mental illness in 2018, leaving mental health professionals in many instances struggling to find beds for them in a system plagued by limited resources. The numbers, detailed in a new report by the Pennsylvania Health Care Cost Containment Council, found the...
Federal agency underwrites grants to struggling coal communities
Pennsylvania communities harmed by downturns in the coal industry will reap $8 million in grants from the Appalachian Regional Commission to bump up local economic initiatives. The grants from the federal agency will go toward projects in 10 counties, including four in Western Pennsylvania. “These projects will enable affected regions...
Study: Climate change could make dozens of bird species extinct in Pennsylvania
Pennsylvania’s state bird, the ruffed grouse, could go extinct in the state along with dozens of other bird species because of climate change, according to a National Audubon Society study released Thursday. It’s more bad bird news. Last month, the journal Science reported the loss of 3 billion birds since...
ACLU, League of Women Voters challenge Marsy’s Law question
Opponents of the Marsy’s Law amendment filed a last-minute lawsuit in Commonwealth Court on Thursday challenging the constitutionality of the question on the November ballot which asks voters to approve or reject amending the state constitution to include a crime victims rights amendment. The question would establish more than a...
U.S. Navy to build ship named for Harrisburg
HARRISBURG — Trump administration officials say the U.S. Navy will name a ship that has yet to be built after the city of Harrisburg. The naming of the future USS Harrisburg was announced Thursday in the Capitol Rotunda, at an event that included federal, state and local officials. The $800...
Police: Drexel student raped in off-campus apartment
PHILADELPHIA — Philadelphia police are searching for a suspect who they say raped a Drexel University student in an off-campus apartment. Police say the attack took place just before 1 p.m. Wednesday in the apartment on Winter Street. Authorities have not said how the man got into the apartment. Students...
Sen. Iovino wants to restore arrest rights to sworn school police
A new law that stripped school police officers of the authority to make arrests and issue detention and citation orders may be on its way out the door. The law, intended to enhance school security, passed earlier this year and accidentally stripped school police officers of powers they have had...
Enrollment declines continue at Pennsylvania State System universities
Enrollment at Pennsylvania’s 14 state-owned universities continued an overall slide this fall for the ninth consecutive year. A new census taken on the 15th day of class at the Pennsylvania State System of Higher Education universities showed an enrollment decline of 2.6% between 2018 and 2019. Overall, enrollment has fallen...
U.S. Supreme Court again rejects former Pa. judge’s appeal
WILKES-BARRE — The U.S. Supreme Court has once again declined to take up the case of a former northeastern Pennsylvania judge convicted in what prosecutors said were juveniles wrongly sent to a detention center. The denial Monday by the nation’s highest court was the second for 69-year-old former Luzerne County...
Crawford County man charged with killing stepmother, brother
MEADVILLE — A man has been charged with criminal homicide in the shooting deaths of his stepmother and his brother in northwestern Pennsylvania. Twenty-one-year-old Jack Turner, who was arraigned Monday in Crawford County, also faces charges in the alleged theft of the adult victim’s car and the robbery of a...
Pa. hospital: 3 infants dead after bacterial infection
DANVILLE — A Pennsylvania hospital says it is transferring some infants following a bacterial infection in its neonatal intensive care unit that affected eight newborns, three of whom have died. Geisinger Medical Center in Danville, about 70 miles north of Harrisburg, said Monday that four of the babies have recovered...
Report: Amount of Marcellus, Utica natural gas higher than in 2011
The amount of recoverable natural gas in the Marcellus and Utica shale formations in the Appalachian Basin is significantly greater than previously thought, according to a new estimate by the U.S. Geological Survey. The USGS said in its latest assessment that the shale formations, both of which cover Western Pennsylvania,...
Shippensburg Univeristy cancels classes as police seek students suspected in fatal shooting
SHIPPENSBURG — Shippensburg University, saying it was acting out of “an abundance of caution,” canceled classes beginning at 2 p.m. Monday after police said they were looking for two university students in connection with a fatal shooting Sunday night. State police identified Quentin Eric Furlow, 20, and Steve Wilson, 20,...
