Pennsylvania category, Page 233
Friday’s $2.4 million Cash 5 jackpot is largest in game’s history
Friday’s Cash 5 jackpot of $2.4 million is the largest top prize offered in the game’s nearly 27 year history. “It’s very exciting that the Cash 5 jackpot has set a new all-time record,” Pennsylvania Lottery Executive Director Drew Svitko said in a statement. Cash 5 is the Pennsylvania Lottery’s...
Attorney General warns of twist to social security number phone scam
Scammers pretending to be with government agencies are calling people and telling them that their Social Security number has been compromised or suspended, and threatening to arrest them if they don’t make an immediate payment, Attorney General Josh Shapiro warned. The scam differs from traditional Social Security scams, where scammers...
Bloodied man walks into Pennsylvania hospital, says he killed boyfriend
MANHEIM — Authorities say a man covered in blood walked into a Pennsylvania hospital and told staffers there he had just fatally stabbed his boyfriend. Manheim Township police say 30-year-old Matthew Van Zandt is charged with homicide in the death of 31-year-old Ian Shannon, whose body was found Wednesday in...
Pa. Lottery machines spent most of the day down due to outage
HARRISBURG, Pa. — Lottery officials say many machines around Pennsylvania had been offline for most of the day due to a service outage. Department of Revenue spokesman Jeffrey Johnson said the outage Friday was due to connectivity issues with Verizon’s cellular service at some terminals throughout the state. It only...
Gov. Wolf orders review of Glen Mills over abuse allegations
PHILADELPHIA — Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf has ordered a review of complaints against the oldest reform school in the country as a result of a newspaper investigation detailed decades of alleged abuse and cover-ups at the campus. Lawmakers and children’s advocates on Wednesday called for the state to launch an...
Grants up to $20,000 available for programs that discourage unsafe drinking
There isn’t much time left to apply for grants of up to $20,000 to discourage and reduce underage and dangerous drinking. The Pennsylvania Liquor Control Board on Thursday sent out a reminder that applications for the grants are due by noon March 15. The PLCB awarded about $1 million in...
Flat Medicaid rates concern Pennsylvania nursing homes
A group that represents about 500 nursing home operators across Pennsylvania expressed concerns about Gov. Tom Wolf’s proposed budget for next fiscal year, saying flat funding threatens the state’s rapidly aging population. The Medicaid reimbursement rate for Pennsylvania nursing home residents has increased less than $9 a day since July...
Philadelphia transit police strike over working conditions
PHILADELPHIA — Police officers for the Philadelphia region’s main transit system went on strike Wednesday, citing poor working conditions for the 178 officers that patrol stations. Members of the Fraternal Order of Transit Police Lodge 109 walked off the job for the Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority when they said a...
State bans dispensaries from joining Pennsylvania Cannabis Festival
SCRANTON — The Pennsylvania Department of Health has banned dispensaries from participating in one of the state’s largest cannabis festivals. A spokesperson for the department tells The Philadelphia Inquirer they issued the ban last week because the Pennsylvania Cannabis Festival in Scranton is not a “medically focused event.” Festival organizer...
Lehigh University bans hard liquor from on-campus housing
BETHLEHEM — Lehigh University in Pennsylvania has announced a ban on hard liquor from on-campus housing as part of a crackdown on fraternities and sororities. University officials announced the ban Tuesday as part of its 10-point “plan for Greek excellence.” Other points on the plan include requiring live-in graduate assistants...
State police issue 2K citations to commercial drivers during storms
Pennsylvania State Police issued 2,065 citations and 295 written warnings to commercial vehicle drivers who ignored emergency traffic restrictions on several major roadways during three recent winter storms. State troopers also responded to 31 crashes involving commercial vehicles on roads where restrictions on such vehicles and a reduced speed limit...
First cub seen on new Game Commission bear webcam
It didn’t take long for the new Pennsylvania Game Commission webcam to show one bear cub tucked under momma bear Tuesday evening. There are more cubs, but just how many, the game commission isn’t sure. In most of the webcam views, the mother black bear has had her back to...
Fossilized dinosaur tracks discovered at Valley Forge park
VALLEY FORGE — The national park on the site where George Washington and the struggling Continental Army endured a tough winter during the American Revolution boasts a new feature that’s a couple of hundred million years old — dozens of fossilized dinosaur footprints discovered on rocks used to pave a...
Pennsylvania joins lawsuit over Trump’s abortion ‘gag rule’
HARRISBURG, Pa. — Pennsylvania is joining 19 other states in a lawsuit challenging the Trump administration’s move to restrict taxpayer-funded family planning clinics from referring women for abortions. Attorney General Josh Shapiro joined the lawsuit filed Tuesday in an Oregon federal court challenging what critics call the “gag rule.” Shapiro,...
TSA agents find non-working grenade launcher in luggage
ALLENTOWN, Pa. — A Florida man’s plans to bring a military rocket-propelled grenade launcher back home were shot down after security screeners at a Pennsylvania airport spotted the non-functioning weapon in his checked bag. The Transportation Security Administration says the unassembled parts of the launcher and a replica grenade were...
Pennsylvania added almost 4,000 marijuana jobs last year, study finds
Pennsylvania added nearly 4,000 legal marijuana-related jobs in 2018, according to a study done by cannabis information website Leafly. It’s not easy to track the number of people employed by the marijuana industry. State and federal agencies do not track these numbers, according to Leafly’s study. The study estimates job...
Live Bear cam debuts in Pennsylvania
The Pennsylvania Game Commission flipped the switch Monday on a new live web cam in a bear den under a porch in Monroe County. In the den are a sow and an undetermined number of cubs. The agency can’t confirm how many cubs are in the den as the cam...
Discoverer Blog bypasses Latrobe as Pennsylvania’s best small town
Move over Latrobe. The Westmoreland County city that was rated as one of the 50 most charming cities in the nation last month by the Travel Channel was looked over as the best small community in Pennsylvania by an online website. A writer for the Denver-based Discoverer Blog selected New...
Toomey bill to limit Trump’s tariff power gaining support
A bipartisan Senate bill that seeks to rein in President Trump’s authority to impose tariffs is gaining momentum. The bill, originally sponsored by U.S. Sens. Pat Toomey, R-Allentown and Mark Warner, D-Va., would require the president to get congressional approval to impose tariffs based on national security. In recent weeks...
Warrant: Hotel guests heard fight before Pa. jeweler found dead in New Orleans
NEW ORLEANS — A preliminary hearing has been set for a woman accused in the stabbing death of a Pennsylvania jeweler at a hotel in New Orleans’ main tourist district. Megan Hall will appear in court on March 14. The 25-year-old was arraigned on second-degree murder charges on Monday in...
Man gets life in murder of man killed in front of daughter
ALLENTOWN — A Pennsylvania man has been convicted of fatally shooting another man during a home invasion robbery as the victim’s young daughter looked on. A Lehigh County jury found Waldemar Rivera guilty of murder, burglary, robbery and conspiracy in the August 2017 slaying of 39-year-old Jermaine Taylor. The 22-year-old...
Cocaine, meth on rise in Pennsylvania’s early warning areas
HARRISBURG — Methamphetamine and cocaine use are on the rise in Pennsylvania while prescription drug and heroin deaths are leveling off in some areas, data that appears to reflect nationwide trends. Jennifer Smith, secretary for Pennsylvania’s Department of Drug and Alcohol Programs, told a state Senate committee Monday that the...
State auctioning off 2 bottles of rare Scotch whisky
A rare bottle of Scotch whisky being auctioned by the Pennsylvania Liquor Control Board was distilled just a few years after the end of World War II and spent the next 52 years aging. The Macallan 1949 Single Malt Scotch was bottled in 2002 and is now available for sale...
Pennsylvania ranks in the middle of the pack in jobs growth
Branding experts, seeking a new slogan for the Keystone State might try: “Pennsylvania — firmly in the middle of the pack.” Citing an analysis of federal jobs reports, Governing magazine reported Monday that Pennsylvania ranked 27th in the nation in jobs growth last year. The state posted an ambitious 1.2...
17-year cicadas are coming already? Here’s why
If cicadas emerge from the ground only once every 17 years, why do they seem to show up so often? There are actually 15 separate broods of cicadas in the United States — five of which include Pennsylvania as part of their territory. Related story: Cicadas will swarm Southwestern Pa....
