Pennsylvania category, Page 230
Pennsylvania reform school to lay off about 250 amid abuse allegations
PHILADELPHIA — The oldest reform school in the country has announced plans to lay off about 250 staff members at the Pennsylvania campus amid multiple state probes into allegations of child abuse. Glen Mills Schools spokeswoman Aimee Tysarczyk said the school and its board of managers made what she called...
Lawmakers, rapper Meek Mill urge Pa. probation law changes
PHILADELPHIA — State lawmakers, criminal justice reform advocates and rapper Meek Mill joined forces Tuesday to push for an overhaul of Pennsylvania’s probation system. House Democratic Whip Jordan Harris said at an event in downtown Philadelphia that he will soon introduce a bill designed to put fewer people on parole...
Police: Customer chokes Giant Food Store cashier over smashed potato chips
A Giant Food Store customer angry that a cashier was apparently being careless with his snack chips confronted and choked the man, police allege. Bradley Bower, 55, of New Cumberland, will be arraigned on a charge of simple assault at the time of his preliminary hearing, which is set for...
Another report calls state levies on Pennsylvania Turnpike unsustainable
A coalition of transportation agencies Monday issued the latest alert on a looming transportation crisis, driven in part by the law that ordered the Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission to send $450 million a year to PennDOT. The Southeast Partnership for Mobility, which includes the Southeastern Pennsylvania Transit Authority (SEPTA), the Pennsylvania...
Pitt names new president for Bradford-Titusville campuses
The University of Pittsburgh went halfway around the world to find a new president for its Bradford and Titusville campuses. Pitt officials Monday announced Catherine Koverola, inaugural provost and senior advisor at the African Leadership University in Mauritius, Africa has been named president of its Bradford and Titusville campuses, effective...
Study finds Pennsylvania women lose more than $10k a year through gender wage gap
When President John F. Kennedy signed the Equal Pay Act in 1963, the average American woman earned 63 cents for every dollar earned by men. More than five decades later, a new analysis found Pennsylvania women still earn less than men for doing the same work, with the disparity equaling...
Child welfare agencies scrutinized after teen’s brutal death
HARRISBURG, Pa. — Pennsylvania officials are scheduled to release a report on how child welfare agencies handled the case of a teenager who endured years of abuse before her 2016 rape and murder. Sara Packer pleaded guilty to first-degree murder and was sentenced Friday to life without parole for plotting...
If convicted, Robert Bowers could face death penalty — but not necessarily executionVideo
Robert Bowers could become the only person from Western Pennsylvania on federal death row if he is convicted and sentenced to death for the mass shooting inside a Squirrel Hill synagogue last year. But with an attorney known for sparing the most notorious killers from the execution chamber, added to...
Elected to serve: ‘Peacekeepers’ look for more work and to save the state constable system
There’s never a dull day for Adam Kujawa. Whether it’s talking to people in Pittsburgh neighborhoods or navigating the back roads of Fayette and Westmoreland counties, the Mt. Pleasant constable loves it all. “It’s basically a day-to-day adventure,” he said. He dons his vest with an embroidered patch identifying him...
Vestige of the past, Pennsylvania House’s ‘lobbyist room’ vanishes
HARRISBURG — It happened without any warning: The “lobbyist room” at the back of Pennsylvania’s House of Representatives chamber was closed and is now off limits to lobbyists. For decades, lobbyists could sit there in a handful of comfortable chairs, watch floor proceedings on TV, print out copies of legislation...
‘Evil attracts evil’: Judge gives Pa. mom life in teen murder
DOYLESTOWN, Pa. — A woman who plotted the rape, torture and murder of her own teenage daughter pleaded guilty on Friday and was sentenced to life in prison for a crime so barbaric that prosecutors and the judge strained for superlatives to describe it. One day after her co-conspirator boyfriend...
‘Filthadelphia’ tries to shed nickname
PHILADELPHIA — The City of Brotherly Love was once revolutionary when it came to clean streets, gutters and sidewalks. Benjamin Franklin launched one of America’s first street sweeping programs here in the late 1750s. In 1952, the city tied with Memphis, Tennessee, as the nation’s cleanest. Those distinctions are long...
Tax credit proposed to help young Pennsylvania farmers acquire land
The Pennsylvania Farm Bureau, the state’s largest farm organization, is backing legislation that would provide a tax credit as an incentive for selling or leasing land to a beginning farmer. While in Harrisburg for its state legislative conference this week, the bureau urged support of the incentive as set forth...
Pa. man gets death for teen’s rape, murder, dismemberment
DOYLESTOWN, Pa. — A man who killed and dismembered his girlfriend’s 14-year-old daughter as part of a rape-murder fantasy he shared with the teenager’s mother was sentenced to death Thursday. Jacob Sullivan, 46, had pleaded guilty to first-degree murder and related charges for killing Grace Packer in 2016. After deliberating...
2,000 at Temple University get shots amid mumps outbreak
PHILADELPHIA — More than 2,000 students and staffers at Temple University took advantage of free vaccine booster shots Wednesday as the number of mumps cases at the school topped 100. Philadelphia health officials said 2,285 people were given shots during the first of two clinics offering the MMR vaccine. The...
Pa. woman admits giving birth at work, leaving baby in toilet
LANCASTER, Pa. — A Pennsylvania woman who gave birth in a restroom at her work and left the baby boy partially submerged in the toilet has pleaded guilty to felony child endangerment. Emmanuella Osei entered her plea during a court hearing Tuesday. The 23-year-old Reading woman faces up to 10...
State Rep. Metcalfe to host meeting with climate change skeptic
State Rep. Daryl Metcalfe (R-Butler), chairman of the House Environmental Resources and Energy Committee, will host an informational meeting at the state capitol Wednesday featuring a presentation from geologist and climate-change skeptic Gregory Wrightstone. Wrightstone is the author of “Inconvenient Facts, The science that Al Gore doesn’t want you to...
3 Philadelphia dental clinics closed because of infection risk
PHILADELPHIA — Three dental offices in Philadelphia have been closed for what city health officials say was improper reprocessing and sterilization of dental equipment, along with lapses in injection safety practices. Patients of the Trieu Family Dental Clinics are also urged to get tested for HIV, hepatitis B and C,...
Pennsylvania students to rally for free tuition
State officials pushing proposals to reduce student debt and offer free tuition at public colleges and universities in Pennsylvania are scheduled to rally Wednesday morning in Harrisburg. A spokesman for Sen. Vincent Hughes, D-Philadelphia, said Hughes is expecting hundreds of students from Pennsylvania’s 14-state-owned universities to join lawmakers, university faculty...
Westmoreland, Pa. watch ‘historic’ $270M settlement in Oklahoma opioid lawsuit
The potential impact of a $270 million settlement announced Tuesday between a drug manufacturer and the state of Oklahoma remains to be seen when it comes to dozens of similar lawsuits filed in Pennsylvania, including one by Westmoreland County officials in 2017. But experts said it could be a model...
New online program seeks to interest girls in cybersecruity
Pennsylvania is among 27 states participating in a new effort to bridge the gender gap in cyber security. The free online program, Girls Go CyberStart, seeks to engage girls in grades 9-12 in the world of cybersecurity, where women make up 20 percent of the workforce in a growing industry,...
Pa. Democrats, Muslim lawmaker decry opening prayer as divisive
HARRISBURG — The first female Muslim member of the Pennsylvania House of Representatives said Tuesday she was offended by a colleague’s decision to open a voting session with a prayer a day earlier that “at the name of Jesus every knee will bow.” Democratic Rep. Movita Johnson-Harrell of Philadelphia said...
Proposed Pa. gun registry bill given ‘no chance’ of passage
A proposed bill that would require most guns to be registered in Pennsylvania is given little chance of moving forward by politicos in the state. It also is, not unsurprisingly, opposed by gun rights groups and those who represent Western Pennsylvania in the state Legislature. “It’s not registration for public...
Erie Diocese agrees to $2 million settlement with abuse victim
The Erie Catholic Diocese will pay $2 million to settle claims with a man who said he was sexually abused by former priest and convicted pedophile David L. Poulson. The abuse occurred when Poulson was serving at St. Michael’s Church in Fryburg, Pa., from 2002-10 and St. Anthony of Padua...
Dish soap spill closes eastbound Turnpike in Chester County
An extended closure of the Pennsylvania Turnpike between Downington and Valley Forge is expected Tuesday after a truck crash spilled dish soap on the highway in Chester County. The eastbound lanes are closed between exits 312, Downington, and 326, Valley Forge, because of the crash involving the truck and a...
