Pennsylvania category, Page 62
Pa. Fish and Boat Commission raises fishing license fees for 2nd straight year
Pennsylvania anglers can expect to pay more to fish next year, now that the Pennsylvania Fish and Boat Commission (PFBC) has voted to increase the costs of licenses for the second year in the row, after license prices had not changed since 2005. At its meeting Wednesday, the agency’s Board...
Lake Erie on its way to becoming national marine sanctuary
HARRISBURG — President Joe Biden’s administration took the first step Thursday toward designating the Pennsylvania-owned section of Lake Erie as the state’s first national marine sanctuary. A formal designation could take several years, and it wouldn’t change existing regulations around the use of the lake. The announcement sets up a...
Police say Pa. man killed neighbor’s cat with blow gun dart
A Jefferson County man is facing animal cruelty charges after police say he admitted to killing his neighbor’s cat with a blow gun dart. On May 5, police said they were called to a home along Elk Street in Punxsutawney after receiving a report of animal cruelty, according to reports...
2nd escaped inmate captured after breaking out of Philadelphia prison
PHILADELPHIA — A task force led by federal marshals recaptured the second of two inmates who escaped from a Pennsylvania prison earlier this month, a man who had been held on charges in four slayings, authorities said. Ameen Hurst, 18, was rearrested Wednesday morning in Philadelphia, according to Robert Clark,...
Proposed Pa. budget nearly quadruples funding for local government cooperation
This story was produced by the State College regional bureau of Spotlight PA, an independent, nonpartisan newsroom dedicated to investigative and public-service journalism for Pennsylvania. Sign up for our regional newsletter, Talk of the Town. A state program that incentivizes local governments in Pennsylvania to work together to provide public...
Democrats keep Pennsylvania House majority, positioning party to prevent limits on abortion rights
HARRISBURG — Democrats maintained their narrow Pennsylvania House majority Tuesday by winning a special election and along with it continued control over how the chamber will handle abortion, gun rights and election law legislation. Heather Boyd won a seat in the Philadelphia suburbs, beating Republican Katie Ford for a vacancy...
Democrat Cherelle Parker wins primary for Philadelphia mayor
Cherelle Parker, a Democrat with a long political history in Pennsylvania, won Philadelphia’s mayoral primary on Tuesday, likely setting her up as the city’s 100th mayor and the first woman to serve in the role. Parker, 50, who served for 10 years as a state representative for northwest Philadelphia before...
Lawmakers push for earlier presidential primary
The date of next year’s primary conflicts with a major religious holiday, and some state lawmakers have taken notice. The 2024 Pennsylvania primary is set for April 23. It conflicts with the Jewish holiday of Passover and takes place after many states already would have voted for a presidential nominee...
Philadelphia Inquirer hit by cyberattack causing newspaper’s largest disruption in decades
PHILADELPHIA — The Philadelphia Inquirer says a weekend cyberattack caused the biggest disruption to its operations in 27 years and prevented it from publishing its Sunday print edition. The attack was detected Saturday morning when employees found that the paper’s content-management system wasn’t working, the Inquirer reported on its website....
Pennsylvania’s mail-in voting law gets beaten up on GOP campaign trail
HARRISBURG, Pa. — Election integrity and Pennsylvania’s mail-in voting law are prominent subjects in the state’s Republican primary contest for an open state Supreme Court seat, as Donald Trump continues to baselessly claim that the 2020 election was stolen. This year, two GOP primary rivals for the state Supreme Court...
Biden endorses Democrat in special election with Pa. House control at stake
HARRISBURG, Pa. — A Democrat running for a vacant seat in the Pennsylvania House of Representatives received President Joe Biden’s endorsement Monday in a race likely to determine control of the legislative chamber, with implications for abortion rights, the 2024 presidential contest and Gov. Josh Shapiro’s agenda. Biden cited the...
Police: Philadelphia prison escape aided by man charged in deadly cheesesteak shop brawl
PHILADELPHIA — Authorities say two escaped prisoners in Philadelphia were helped by a fellow inmate who’s charged with murder in a brawl outside a famed Philadelphia cheesesteak shop. Police said late Friday afternoon that 35-year-old Jose Flores-Huerta has been arrested at the Philadelphia Industrial Correction Center and charged with felony...
Pa. deer hunter who mistakenly shot Centre County man in the head gets jail time
BELLEFONTE — A Centre County man who tried to shoot a deer on the crest of a hill but instead shot his older neighbor in the head lost his bid Friday to stay out of jail. Michael Lloyd, 41, of College Township was sentenced by Centre County President Judge Jonathan...
Authorities capture 1 of 2 inmates who escaped from Philadelphia prison
PHILADELPHIA — One of two inmates who escaped from a Philadelphia prison was captured while dressed as a woman, authorities said, and a U.S. Marshals Service fugitive task force focused Friday on tracking down the other escapee. Members of the task force were conducting surveillance in an area of North...
Fishermen caught cheating at Ohio tournament sentenced to 10-day jail terms, forfeit of $100k boat
Two fishermen, including a Mercer County resident, were sentenced Thursday for their roles in a cheating scandal last year at the Lake Erie Walleye Trail tournament in Cleveland. Chase Cominsky, 36, of Hermitage, and Jacob Runyan, 43, of Ashtabula, Ohio, were sentenced in Cuyahoga County Court of Common Pleas to...
Ready-to-drink cocktails could be coming to any place beer and wine are sold in Pa.
A state senator is once again trying to modernize Pennsylvania’s liquor system by expanding access to pre-packaged cocktails. The legislation would allow restaurants, bars, taverns, beer distributors, grocery and convenience stores that sell beer and wine to add these popular canned cocktails such as rum punch, pina coladas and margaritas...
Federal money won’t be enough to solve Pa.’s abandoned oil and gas well problem, advocates say
Spotlight PA is an independent, nonpartisan newsroom powered by The Philadelphia Inquirer in partnership with PennLive/The Patriot-News, TribLIVE/Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, and WITF Public Media. Sign up for our free newsletters. HARRISBURG — Cheryl Thomas first asked Pennsylvania officials to cap old oil wells on her land in 1988. Abandoned by the...
Pennsylvania GOP puts clout back on line in primary after losing ’22 Senate, governor races
HARRISBURG — Pennsylvania’s Republican Party is trying to learn from internal strife over last year’s failure to endorse in premier primary contests and, this year, it is putting its clout on the line by issuing endorsements ahead of Tuesday’s primary election. Republicans are now putting up big bucks to try...
Perimeter guards absent as 2 men escaped Philadelphia prison
PHILADELPHIA — There were no corrections officers assigned specifically to watch the housing unit of a Philadelphia prison when two inmates escaped Sunday night, and no armed perimeter guards were on duty as the men broke through the prison’s fence, a correctional officers union official told The Associated Press on...
Pennsylvania House battle hinges on Philadelphia suburbs
HARRISBURG, Pa. — Democrats who reclaimed the Pennsylvania House majority in November and clung to a one-seat margin by sweeping three special elections earlier this year face yet another contest for control of the chamber next week, when voters will fill a vacancy in the Philadelphia suburbs. At stake in...
Mistrial declared in the case of a Philly SWAT officer who pepper-sprayed protesters
PHILADELPHIA — A Philadelphia judge declared a mistrial Monday in the case of former city SWAT Officer Richard P. Nicoletti, who is facing criminal charges for pepper-spraying three demonstrators who sat in the middle of I-676 during the city’s racial justice protests in 2020. After deliberating for more than two...
3 ways Shapiro’s budget would change public health in Pennsylvania
Spotlight PA is an independent, nonpartisan newsroom powered by The Philadelphia Inquirer in partnership with PennLive/The Patriot-News, TribLIVE/Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, and WITF Public Media. Sign up for our free newsletters. HARRISBURG — When Josh Shapiro pitched his first budget as Pennsylvania’s governor during a nearly hour-and-a-half speech in March, the Democrat...
Proposal to update ailing Pa. rent, property tax rebate program would reverse decade of decline
Spotlight PA is an independent, nonpartisan newsroom powered by The Philadelphia Inquirer in partnership with PennLive/The Patriot-News, TribLIVE/Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, and WITF Public Media. Sign up for our free newsletters. HARRISBURG — The number of people getting help from a state program that offsets some housing costs for older and disabled...
13-year-old charged as adult with Pa. murder in sleepover shooting of friend
A 13-year-old has been charged with third-degree murder and involuntary manslaughter in the April 1 shooting death of his 12-year-old friend Kain Heiland. Nolan Grove, who is being charged as an adult, is also facing a felony charge of having a firearm without a license and multiple misdemeanor counts of...
Party affiliation can be misleading in some local Pa. elections
Spotlight PA is an independent, nonpartisan newsroom powered by The Philadelphia Inquirer in partnership with PennLive/The Patriot-News, TribLIVE/Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, and WITF Public Media. Sign up for our free newsletters. HARRISBURG — When Devon Taliaferro first ran for school board in Pittsburgh Public Schools, she filed as a Democrat. She’s a...
