Pennsylvania category, Page 9

HARRISBURG — Pennsylvania Treasurer Stacy Garrity is seriously considering a run for governor in 2026, as the GOP race to challenge Gov. Josh Shapiro heats up. Garrity, who replaced Shapiro as Pennsylvania’s top vote-getter in history when she won reelection last year, has been a leading prospect for Republican insiders...

The Pennsylvania House of Representatives has again passed a bill that would give a cost-of-living raise to roughly 59,000 retired teachers and state employees whose pension benefits have been held flat since 2002. The issue is one of the many idiosyncrasies of the State Employees Retirement System (SERS) and the...

HARRISBURG — A magistrate judge in Pennsylvania accused of shooting and wounding her ex-boyfriend in the head as he slept was convicted Wednesday of attempted homicide and aggravated assault charges. Sonya McKnight was taken away in handcuffs after the trial judge rejected a defense request that she be released. She...

House Democrats have their eyes on four Pennsylvania congressional districts in 2026 — two they hope to regain and two they’ve been trying to win for years. The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee told The Inquirer it is focusing its midterm attention on longtime U.S. Reps. Brian Fitzpatrick of Bucks County...

In late March, a four-year-old in Erie County was diagnosed with measles, a highly contagious and incurable disease that, in rare cases, can cause brain damage and death. The child, who the county did not identify to the Capital-Star, had attended day care at Creative Learning Childcare in Erie, where...

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. Counties across Pennsylvania are taking millions of dollars in Social Security benefits owed to kids in foster care, a practice some child advocates equate to...

PHILADELPHIA — It was quiet at the Bristol SEPTA station the day after three family members were killed after being struck by an Amtrak train Thursday evening, with passengers calmly boarding cars heading toward Philadelphia and the Bucks County community mourning the deaths. There were no obvious signs of 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 — The Shapiro administration last year stopped collecting information on why older adults in Pennsylvania die during open abuse and neglect investigations, and no...

KING OF PRUSSIA — A 70-year-old man who plays in an area senior hardball league popped into Victus Sports this week because he needed bats for the new season. Plus he just had to take some cuts with baseball’s latest fad and see for himself if there really was some...

PHILADELPHIA — A federal lawsuit filed Tuesday in Pennsylvania accuses billionaire Elon Musk and the political action committee he started of failing to pay a suburban Philadelphia man more than $20,000 for getting people to sign a petition in favor of free speech and gun rights. The lawsuit seeking class-action...

HARRISBURG — Election boards in Pennsylvania’s 67 counties may not invalidate mail-in ballots simply because they lack accurate, handwritten dates on their exterior return envelopes, a federal judge ruled Monday. The decision by U.S. District Judge Susan Paradise Baxter, the latest in a long-running legal dispute over what is a...

The Pennsylvania Senate passed a bill Monday requiring prosecutors in the commonwealth to notify U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement if they believe a defendant is not a U.S. citizen, with critics voicing concern that the measure would entangle local law enforcement in some of the Trump administration’s recent excesses. The...

Twenty staffers at a suburban Philadelphia charter school are facing charges related to the alleged physical abuse of students using painful, unapproved techniques to restrain and punish youths in a program meant to help them deal with emotional issues, authorities announced Monday. Delaware County District Attorney Jack Stollsteimer said the...

HARRISBURG — All Pennsylvania municipalities would be allowed to install red light cameras aimed at making intersections safer under a proposal that could be introduced as soon as this summer. At the moment, just Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, and a handful of other places in the commonwealth are allowed to use them....

HARRISBURG — Pennsylvania’s lax campaign finance laws allow powerful interests to pour unlimited dollars into politicians’ campaign accounts with few restrictions. Campaign checks help donors or their lobbyists gain access to top elected officials who set the policy agenda in the Capitol, those versed in the way power works in...

MANHEIM — Democrat James Andrew Malone narrowly won a special election for a Pennsylvania state Senate seat in Republican-leaning suburbs and farming communities, scoring an upset in a district that a Democrat hasn’t represented in the chamber for 136 years. Malone’s victory over Republican Josh Parsons in Tuesday night’s election...

It has been nearly two decades since the workplace mockumentary “The Office” first set an episode inside a Chili’s, where Michael Scott handed out Dundie awards to his ever-tolerant employees, including trophies for the whitest sneakers and for stinking up the bathroom. Over nine seasons, “The Office” regularly name-dropped real...

Pennsylvanians flocked to the Lehigh Valley Driver License Center outside Allentown on Monday — to acquire a Real ID — as part of a dedicated day to acquiring the new identification cards. Starting on May 7, anyone 18 years of age or older will need a Real ID or another...

The Capets family of Murrysville has a positive relationship with bamboo, a grass native to the Asian continent that grows tall and spreads quickly. They’ve been using it for more than a decade to screen their front yard from nearby traffic on Sardis Road. And it works well, forming a...

Allentown officials announced charges Monday against a city employee, alleging that she made a false police report and tampered with evidence after reporting she found a noose on her desk in January. LaTarsha Brown, who works for the city’s community and economic development department, faces charges of making false reports,...

A fire chief in Berks County has been arrested and suspended after police said he dropped his three-month-old daughter and fractured her skull. Falls Township Fire Chief Brian Salt, 36, was charged with endangering the welfare of a child and aggravated assault after police said he admitted to intentionally letting...

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 — Power plant operators, gambling magnates, charter school backers, and trade unions are among the interests that gave almost $18 million to Pennsylvania’s top...

WASHINGTON — The Trump administration has suspended approximately $175 million in federal funding for the University of Pennsylvania over the participation of a transgender athlete in its swimming program, the White House said Wednesday. The Ivy League school has been facing an Education Department investigation focusing on in its swimming...

MOUNT COBB — Bagpipers returning from a St. Patrick’s Day parade were taken to hospitals after their charter bus crashed into a tractor-trailer, officials said. The bus was exiting westbound Interstate 84 in northeastern Pennsylvania shortly before 6:30 p.m. Sunday when it ran into the tractor-trailer, which had no one...

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 — Pro-cannabis interests spent at least $1.6 million lobbying the Pennsylvania legislature in 2024 as lawmakers weighed a legalization scheme that could see major...