Pennsylvania category, Page 7

More than 40,000 Pennsylvanians are set to receive letters this week indicating they’ll be receiving money because of unclaimed property, state Treasurer Stacy Garrity announced Wednesday. Unclaimed property can include dormant bank accounts, uncashed checks, forgotten stocks, insurance policies, tangible property like the contents of abandoned safe deposit boxes and...

HARRISBURG — Pennsylvania’s state Senate on Tuesday approved a bill to ban transgender athletes from competing in women’s and girls’ sports at the collegiate and K-12 levels, although the Republican-penned bill is unlikely to get a vote in the state’s Democratic-controlled House of Representatives. The bill passed, 32-18, with five...

HARRISBURG — A barrier described as an “anti-climb fence” is in the works for the Pennsylvania governor’s official residence, the state police chief said Tuesday, less than a month after a late-night intruder jumped the existing fence, broke into the home and started a damaging fire. Col. Christopher Paris’ letter...

Spotlight PA is an independent, nonpartisan, and nonprofit newsroom producing investigative and public-service journalism that holds power to account and drives positive change in Pennsylvania. HARRISBURG — Democrats in the Pennsylvania House have advanced a bill that would permit the sale of recreational cannabis to adults at state-run stores, an...

The candidates below are in statewide contested races. Because a number of candidates have cross-filed, they are listed in alphabetical order by first name rather than in ballot order. If a race is not listed, it was not contested. Judge of the Commonwealth Court (10-year, vote for 1) Josh Prince...

This article is made possible through Spotlight PA’s collaboration with Votebeat, a nonpartisan news organization covering local election administration and voting. HARRISBURG — For two decades, disputes over voter identification have sunk attempts to rewrite Pennsylvania’s badly outdated election law. But in recent years, prominent Democrats have offered tentative support...

HARRISBURG — A consultant paid to review security at the official residence of Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro after it was firebombed by a late-night intruder said Friday that his team’s findings will not be made public. Retired state police Col. Jeffrey Miller said in a statement that the “sensitive nature”...

Spotlight PA is an independent, nonpartisan, and nonprofit newsroom producing investigative and public-service journalism that holds power to account and drives positive change in Pennsylvania. HARRISBURG — Pennsylvania State Police officials should at least make public how a brazen arson attack on the governor’s residence occurred, and whether there were...

The Penn State faculty senate passed a positional report this week opposing the closure of commonwealth campuses and asked the university administration to pause the decision until an impact assessment can be conducted. Faculty senators have not shied away from expressing their concerns about closing campuses and how even before...

Two days after its wide release, “Death County, PA” has risen to the top spot of Apple’s ranking for top ‘Podcast Series.’ The six-part series is based on a years-long investigation of a series of suspicious deaths at the Dauphin County Prison since 2019 by Pennlive reporter Josh Vaughn. Vaughn...

A Philadelphia judge’s role in a cheesesteak shop owned by his wife has prompted a panel to allege he’s violated the state’s ethics rules. The Pennsylvania Judicial Conduct Board filed a complaint this week against Common Pleas Judge Scott DiClaudio over Shay’s Steaks, a high-end cheesesteak restaurant that opened more...

YORK — An officer killed while responding to a Pennsylvania hospital siege was struck by a shotgun blast fired by police that also hit an armed man holding hostages, a prosecutor disclosed at a news conference Wednesday. The attacker and West York Patrolman Andrew W. Duarte were killed in the...

Spotlight PA is an independent, nonpartisan, and nonprofit newsroom producing investigative and public-service journalism that holds power to account and drives positive change in Pennsylvania. HARRISBURG — A surge of taxpayer money approved last year to help students in Pennsylvania’s poorest schools is being used by dozens of districts to...

Prosecutors are telling a judge not to bother dropping some of the charges related to a Pennsylvania state case against Luigi Mangione. Mangione, 26, is accused of killing UnitedHealth CEO Brian Thompson outside a New York City hotel last December. The filing, submitted by the Blair County District Attorney’s Office,...

HARRISBURG — Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents have in recent days deported the breastfeeding Cuban-born mother of a 1-year-old girl, separating them indefinitely, and in another case a 2-year-old girl who is a U.S. citizen along with her Honduran-born mother, their lawyers say. Both cases raise questions about who is...

PHILADELPHIA — Cody Balmer was begging to go to jail. Less than an hour after police say he set fire to Gov. Josh Shapiro’s mansion in the early morning of April 13, he called 911 to say he was ready to “confess to everything” he had done. “He needs to...

The man who police say firebombed the Pennsylvania Governor’s Residence using two Heineken bottles filled with gasoline has been moved to a state prison known for providing intensive psychiatric treatment to incarcerated people. Cody Balmer, 38, was moved Thursday morning to SCI Waymart in Wayne County, according to Pennsylvania Department...

Pennsylvania Senator John Fetterman said President Donald Trump should forget about engaging in talks with Iran and pursue military strikes against the country’s nuclear facilities instead. In an interview Wednesday with the Washington Free Beacon, Fetterman made it clear he preferred the U.S. pursue force over diplomacy when it came...

This story first appeared in How We Care, a weekly newsletter by Spotlight PA featuring original reporting and perspectives on how we care for one another at all stages of life. Pennsylvania health officials are facing down a potential $500 million loss of federal funding, but are tight-lipped about which...

Federal regulators approved a deal between Gov. Josh Shapiro and PJM Interconnection to limit some electricity price hikes. PJM is a regional transmission organization, which works to secure generation capacity for utility companies within its 13-state network. It holds annual auctions in which the lowest bidder earns the right —...

Gov. Josh Shapiro recounted the arson attack that burned through his Harrisburg home earlier this month, penning a guest essay published Wednesday in the New York Times. A state trooper alerted Shapiro and his wife, Lori, of the fire just after 2 a.m. April 13. They escaped without injury from...

Swaths of Allegheny National Forest in northwestern Pennsylvania could be on the chopping block as the federal government moves to increase logging in national forests across the country, a move environmental advocates say could leave lasting harm. In a memo released this month, U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins put...

HARRISBURG — The U.S. Justice Department has withdrawn its lawsuit that accused a heavily Hispanic city in Pennsylvania of illegally diluting the political power of its growing Hispanic population. U.S. District Judge Karoline Mehalchick in Scranton approved the dismissal of the case against Hazleton on Tuesday, a day after the...

HARRISBURG — Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro reopened the governor’s official residence to the public Tuesday for an Easter egg hunt barely a week after an alleged arsonist’s fire tore through one of its wings and said he will begin sleeping there again soon. “I’m not going to live in fear,”...

Presidents of nearly 200 U.S. colleges and universities, including a dozen in Pennsylvania, have co-signed a letter condemning what they called “unprecedented government overreach and political interference” by the federal government. Carnegie Mellon University President Farnam Jahanian was the lone co-signer from a Southwestern Pennsylvania institution. A Carnegie Mellon spokeswoman...