Politics Election category, Page 32
Paper ballots now an Election Day option for Westmoreland voters
Westmoreland County voters in November will be given the option to use paper ballots on Election Day. Republican Commissioners Sean Kertes and Doug Chew on Tuesday, acting as the county’s Election Board, authorized an optional shift to paper ballots while also saying voters can still use the touch-screen voting machine...
National money starts flowing into critical Pa. Supreme Court retention races
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. Sign up for our free newsletters. HARRISBURG — A national political group is spending tens of thousands of dollars to urge voters to reject new...
Who else appears to be in the Jeffrey Epstein 50th birthday book?
Donald Trump isn’t the only U.S. president to appear in a collection of birthday messages that were sent to Jeffrey Epstein. An entry attributed to former President Bill Clinton is among some 50 greetings that appear in a 50th birthday book compiled for Epstein in 2003, years before the disgraced...
At Philly event, Pa. Supreme Court justices ask for 10 more years amid GOP campaign to oust them
Three Pennsylvania Supreme Court justices dismissed suggestions that their decisions were political as they made their case for retention Monday in Philadelphia. In a rare public speaking event Justices Kevin Dougherty, David Wecht, and Christine Donohue spoke about their work over the last 10 years on the state Supreme Court...
Sen. John Thune says Senate will change the rules to push through Trump’s blocked nominees
WASHINGTON — Senate Majority Leader John Thune says Republicans are ready to change the chamber’s rules to allow quick confirmations of dozens of President Donald Trump’s executive branch nominees and will move to speed up votes after months of Democratic delays. Opening the Senate on Monday, Thune said Democrats’ obstruction...
Democrats seek to capitalize on climbing energy bills
WASHINGTON — As electricity prices outpace inflation, members of Congress and the administration have constituents’ bills on their mind, with Democrats hoping they will help them make the case against Trump administration policies. Last week, the House passed the fiscal 2026 Energy-Water appropriations bill in a 214-213 vote. The bill...
PRT weighs whether to use money for transit projects to plug budget hole
Pittsburgh Regional Transit said Monday it hasn’t decided whether it will request permission from the state to temporarily shift money intended for capital improvements to help cover operating expenses. Gov. Josh Shapiro’s administration approved a request from the Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority to use up to $394 million earmarked for...
Shapiro approves $394M funding shift to prevent SEPTA cuts
Gov. Josh Shapiro’s administration has approved a request from the Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority to use up to $394 million earmarked for capital improvements to help the deficit-plagued transit agency cover operating costs. Shapiro’s office said in a news release Monday that the move would prevent service cuts at the...
SEPTA could get a major cash infusion to reverse cuts without legislative approval
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. Sign up for our free newsletters. HARRISBURG — SEPTA has asked the Shapiro administration to tap hundreds of millions of dollars set aside for critical...
Pa. Dems select former Auditor General Eugene DePasquale as party chair
Pennsylvania Democrats have elected a new leader after a staggering set of losses in the 2024 elections. Eugene DePasquale, the state’s former auditor general, ran in a special election to replace state Sen. Sharif Street, who represents part of Philadelphia County. Street held the position for five years but resigned...
What to know about the trial of the man accused of trying to assassinate Trump in Florida
FORT PIERCE, Fla. — A federal trial is scheduled to begin Monday for a man charged with trying to assassinate Donald Trump as he played golf in Florida in September 2024. Jury selection is expected to take three days, with attorneys questioning three sets of 60 prospective jurors. They’re trying...
Postal traffic to U.S. sank 80% after Trump administration ended exemption on low-value parcels
Postal traffic into the United States plunged by more than 80% after the Trump administration ended a tariff exemption for low-cost imports, the United Nations postal agency said Saturday. The Universal Postal Union says it has started rolling out new measures that can help postal operators around the world calculate...
Biden chooses Delaware for his presidential library as his team turns to raising money for it
WASHINGTON — Former President Joe Biden has decided to build his presidential library in Delaware and has tapped a group of former aides, friends and political allies to begin the heavy lift of fundraising and finding a site for the museum and archive. The Joe and Jill Biden Foundation this...
Takeaways from RFK Jr.’s contentious hearing before Senate lawmakers
WASHINGTON — A contentious three-hour hearing between U.S. senators and Robert Kennedy Jr. devolved into multiple screaming matches on Thursday as the nation’s health secretary fended off accusations about sweeping changes he’s made to vaccines, health care policy and leadership. The oversight hearing in the Senate Finance Committee was a...
Fox News thrives 2 years after court settlement, but 2020 election coverage fight goes on
NEW YORK — Twice recently, the people who run Fox News were reminded of their biggest nightmare. The conservative network Newsmax’s $67 million settlement with Dominion Voting Systems over false claims after the 2020 election recalled Fox’s own $787.5 million deal with the same company more than two years ago....
Operation Warp Speed was one of Trump’s biggest achievements. Then came RFK Jr. and vaccine skeptics
WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump launched Operation Warp Speed in the throes of the covid-19 pandemic, an effort he has credited with saving tens of millions of lives. During a Cabinet meeting last week, he likened it to “one of the greatest achievements ever.” Sitting at the table as a...
Trump administration ditches Biden-era plan to make airlines pay compensation for flight disruptions
The Trump administration said Thursday it is abandoning a Biden-era plan that sought to require airlines to compensate stranded passengers with cash, lodging and meals for flight cancellations or changes caused by a carrier. The proposed rule would have aligned U.S. policy more closely with European airline consumer protections. It...
White House pans Shapiro for questioning National Guard deployments
The White House dismissed Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro’s opposition to President Trump potentially deploying National Guard troops to Philadelphia to fight crime, touting the results of the deployments elsewhere. “Another wannabe presidential candidate is desperate to get into the news cycle by attacking the president’s highly successful operations to drive...
Republicans move to lift drilling and mining restrictions in Western states
BILLINGS, Mont. — Republican lawmakers in Congress are clearing the way for President Donald Trump’s plans to expand mining and drilling on public lands by moving to eliminate energy development limits in several Western states. House Republicans on Wednesday night repealed land management plans adopted in the closing days of...
Kennedy tries to defend covid-19 vaccine stance in raucous Senate hearingVideo
WASHINGTON — U.S. Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., facing pointed bipartisan questioning at a rancorous three-hour Senate committee hearing on Thursday, tried to defend his efforts to pull back covid-19 vaccine recommendations and explain the turmoil he has created at federal health agencies. Kennedy said the fired CDC director...
Trump to host top tech CEOs except Elon Musk at a White House dinner
WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump will host a high-powered list of tech CEOs for a dinner at the White House on Thursday night. The guest list is set to include Microsoft cofounder Bill Gates, Apple CEO Tim Cook, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg and a dozen other executives from the biggest...
C-SPAN announces deal for its service to be carried on YouTube TV, Hulu
NEW YORK — C-SPAN said Wednesday that it had reached a deal to have its three channels air on YouTube TV and Hulu’s live television feed, ending a dispute that had led to a revenue squeeze for the public affairs network in the cord-cutting era. The network said the streaming...
Left and right joining forces to ban lawmakers from trading stock
WASHINGTON — An unusual alliance emerged in the House on Wednesday as lawmakers who agree on little else rallied support for a bill that would prohibit members of Congress and their families from owning and trading individual stocks. The group included darlings of the far right, the left, moderates and...
Shapiro says Pa. prepared should Trump decide to send National Guard to Philadelphia
Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro said the state has been preparing for the possibility that President Donald Trump could deploy the National Guard to Philadelphia ever since the White House sent troops to Los Angeles in June — a move that a federal judge ruled Tuesday was illegal. “Ever since the...
Fetterman, McCormick call on Pa. universities to combat antisemitism
Pennsylvania’s two U.S. senators are calling on five of the state’s universities, including the University of Pittsburgh, to ensure that Jewish organizations on their campuses are “equipped to protect the students they serve.” U.S. Sens. John Fetterman, D-Braddock, and Dave McCormick, R-Pittsburgh, said their request comes on the heels of...
