Pennsylvania category, Page 218
Pa. cash welfare program ends, court rejects injunction request
HARRISBURG — A state program that provided $205 a month in cash payments to poor or disabled Pennsylvanians has ended. The program known as general assistance ceased Thursday under a month-old law, while state Commonwealth Court rejected an injunction request that would have kept it operating during a legal challenge....
Settlement to allow Midwest gas to flow to Pittsburgh, beyond through Laurel Pipeline
Parties to a three-year dispute over the Laurel Pipeline say American consumers will be the winners when bi-directional service begins in October. The Laurel Pipeline, operated by Houston-based Buckeye Partners LP, carries petroleum from Philadelphia refineries to central and Western Pennsylvania. But since 2016, Buckeye has sought to reverse the...
Philadelphia officials declare health emergency over Hepatitis A outbreak
Philadelphia health officials have declared an emergency over an outbreak of Hepatitis A in the city that has affected 154 people since January, and are calling for health providers to increase vaccinations to combat the liver disease. Hepatitis A is caused by a virus that spreads through oral contact with...
7 Philadelphia officers resign over offensive Facebook posts
PHILADELPHIA — The Philadelphia Police Department says seven officers have resigned in the last two weeks following an investigation into offensive and sometimes threatening Facebook posts. Last month, the department suspended 13 officers with an intent to fire them after a nonprofit group published the results of a two-year review...
PennDOT to roll out gender-neutral driver’s license option
Pennsylvanians who prefer not to be identified as male or female will soon have a gender-neutral option on their state-issued driver’s licenses. The Daily Item of Sunbury reported PennDOT expects to have the new procedure in place by the middle of next year. It will let motorists use “X” as...
Ex-Attorney General Kathleen Kane released from jail
EAGLEVILLE — A former Pennsylvania attorney general who served about eight months in jail for leaking grand jury material and lying about it was released Wednesday. Kathleen Kane left the Montgomery County Correctional Facility in the Philadelphia suburbs about 8:20 a.m. When asked by a reporter how she felt, Kane...
Ex-Attorney General Kathleen Kane set for release from jail
A former Pennsylvania attorney general will be released from a county jail after serving about eight months for leaking grand jury material and lying about it, the warden said Tuesday. Montgomery County Correctional Facility Warden Julio Algarin said Kathleen Kane shaved about two months off her minimum sentence by serving...
Pennsylvania dad dies after saving drowning 11-year-old son
ATLANTIC CITY, N.J. — Authorities say a Pennsylvania father died while rescuing his son who was struggling in rip currents while swimming in the ocean off Atlantic City. Emergency responders went to the beach around 9:30 a.m. Monday for a report of a child drowning. Before they arrived, the 59-year-old...
Penn State files federal trademark lawsuit against Florida brewing company
Beer and sports generally go hand-in-hand, but now the combination has Penn State and a Florida man’s business entangled in a federal lawsuit. The university accused Sport Beer Brewing Company of exploiting its “Penn State” and “Nittany Lions” trademarks to “blatantly trade off of Penn State’s goodwill and reputation,” according...
Gov. Wolf: 200K Pennsylvanians jeopardized by Trump’s food stamps move
HARRISBURG — Gov. Tom Wolf is warning that food stamp benefits for about 200,000 people are jeopardized by a Trump administration move to stop allowing states to exceed federal income eligibility thresholds. Wolf said Monday that such a change would primarily affect the elderly, the disabled and lower-income families. He...
Penn State Extension holding industrial hemp workshop for farmers
Capitalizing on the recent legalization of industrial hemp, Penn State Extension is holding a Hemp Research Field Day for interested farmers Aug. 6. The second annual event, scheduled for 4:30-8:30 p.m., will be held at the Penn State Southeast Research & Extension Center in Manheim, Lancaster County. Cost is $10,...
Pennsylvania teen wins $3 million as Fortnite world champ
NEW YORK — All those hours playing video games have paid off for a 16-year-old. Kyle Giersdorf of Pottsgrove racked up the most points and won $3 million as the first Fortnite World Cup solo champion. The competition took place Sunday at Arthur Ashe Stadium in New York. Giersdorf says...
1 dead, 5 wounded in shooting during rap video production in Philadelphia
PHILADELPHIA — One man was killed and five others were wounded in a shooting during a rap video production in Philadelphia. Police say unidentified gunmen opened fire as the victims were about to shoot the video on Sunday night. Police say a 21-year-old was shot in the head and died...
Police: Man shot, killed by officer outside Pa. hardware store
ROARING SPRING — State police are investigating the fatal shooting of a man by a local police officer outside a western Pennsylvania hardware store. Police in Blair County say several 911 callers reported a man acting strangely around a dollar store next to the hardware store in Roaring Spring at...
Legal cannabis could pose law enforcement challenges
Pennsylvania’s rules for marijuana possession used to be simple: Don’t possess marijuana. It’s still that straightforward for most people. But legal medical marijuana, as well as legal hemp, could pose challenges to police and investigators nationwide. So far, Pennsylvania’s legal cannabis options haven’t interfered with prosecuting cases of illegal marijuana...
Pennsylvania’s absentee ballot rules mean many arrive too late to be counted
PHILADELPHIA — Comparatively tight deadlines for absentee ballots mean Pennsylvania’s mail-in votes arrive too late to be counted far more often than the national average, a newspaper reported Friday. The Philadelphia Inquirer reported that 4.2% of the state’s absentee ballots got to voting offices after the deadline to be counted...
Hersheypark’s tallest, fastest coaster, Candymonium, coming in 2020Video
Another marquee roller coaster is coming to Pennsylvania. Following on the heels of the opening of Kennywood’s Steel Curtain roller coaster this month, Hersheypark announced Wednesday that Candymonium is coming next summer. Billed as the “World’s Sweetest Coaster,” Candymonium will open in summer 2020 as part of Hershey’s new Chocolatetown...
Schools that warned about lunch debt now accepting donation
A Pennsylvania school district that warned parents behind on their lunch bills that their children could end up in foster care, and then rejected a businessman’s offer to pay the overdue charges, is apologizing and says it wants to accept the donation after all. The Wyoming Valley West school board...
Pennsylvania high court declines to review Jerry Sandusky decision
HARRISBURG — Jerry Sandusky isn’t getting a fresh chance to argue in state court he should get a new trial, seven years after the former Penn State assistant football coach was convicted of molesting 10 boys. Pennsylvania’s Supreme Court on Wednesday turned down the 75-year-old’s request it review a Superior...
Rapper Meek Mill’s conviction thrown out, granted new trial
A Pennsylvania appeals court on Wednesday overturned rapper Meek Mill’s conviction in a drug and gun case that has kept the rapper on probation for a decade and made him a celebrity crusader for criminal justice reform. The unanimous three-judge opinion granted the rapper a new trial because of new...
CEO: Pennsylvania school board rejects offer to pay students’ late lunch bills
The president of a Pennsylvania school board whose district had warned parents behind on lunch bills that their children could end up in foster care has rejected a CEO’s offer to cover the cost, the businessman said Tuesday. Todd Carmichael, chief executive and co-founder of Philadelphia-based La Colombe Coffee, said...
DePasquale: Pennsylvania nursing home oversight improves, but aging population threatens progress
The state Department of Health’s oversight of the 700 nursing homes in Pennsylvania has improved since the 2016 performance review by the auditor general, according to a follow-up report released on Tuesday. But Auditor General Eugene DePasquale warned that progress is threatened by the looming gray tsunami of baby boomers...
Penn State Extension holding industrial hemp workshop for farmers
Capitalizing on the recent legalization of industrial hemp, Penn State Extension is holding a Hemp Research Field Day for interested farmers on Aug. 6. The second annual event, scheduled for 4:30-8:30 p.m., will be held at the Penn State Southeast Research & Extension Center in Manheim, Lancaster County. Cost is...
Mosquitoes test positive for West Nile virus in Pennsylvania
At least a couple mosquitoes in Allentown have West Nile virus, a state monitoring program determined in its latest round of tests. There have been no confirmed human cases of West Nile virus in Lehigh or Northampton Counties so far in 2019, but the Lehigh/Northampton County Mosquito Borne Disease Control...
Review urged after 3 Pennsylvania parolees charged in separate homicides
HARRISBURG — At least three men recently paroled from Pennsylvania prisons have been arrested in unrelated homicides over the past two months, leading to calls from prosecutors and corrections officers for a review of the state’s parole practices. The men were arrested within a couple days of one another this...
