Pennsylvania category, Page 113
Former director of child welfare agency pleads guilty in backlog case
HARRISBURG — The former head of a county welfare agency in northeastern Pennsylvania pleaded guilty Thursday to endangering children by concealing abuse allegations to clear a backlog of cases. Joanne Van Saun, who resigned as Luzerne County’s director of the Department of Children and Youth Services in Luzerne County after...
Pennsylvania Western University name adopted for merged state campuses
The great wait is over for stakeholders at California, Clarion and Edinboro universities. Officials with the Pennsylvania State System of Higher Education made it official Thursday: the merged university that will include the three campuses will be known as Pennsylvania Western University, or PennWest for short, beginning July 2022. As...
Penn State will now mandate covid-19 vaccine for University Park employees
All of Penn State’s faculty and staff at University Park are now required to be fully vaccinated for covid-19 by Dec. 8, in order to be compliant with an executive order issued last month, the university announced late Tuesday. Although President Joe Biden’s order requiring vaccination for all federal employees...
Attorney General Josh Shapiro launches bid for Pa. governor
Pennsylvania Attorney General Josh Shapiro officially launched his bid for governor on Wednesday — mostly a formality after months of speculation that he’d seek the state’s highest office. Shapiro, a Democrat from Montgomery County, kicked off his campaign by releasing a two-minute video Wednesday morning that included endorsements from Pittsburgh...
Pa. lawmakers spend millions of tax dollars on private lawyers but often don’t reveal why
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 Pennsylvania legislature spent nearly $10 million during the last two years on private lawyers but routinely shielded the...
FBI raids home of Philly Proud Boys’ vice president to get info about Capitol attack
PHILADELPHIA — The FBI raided the home of the vice president of the Proud Boys’ Philadelphia chapter on Friday, seizing his computer, phone and other electronics to gather information on the Jan. 6 attack at the U.S. Capitol, his lawyer said Monday. Aaron Whallon Wolkind, 37, woke up around 4...
Pa. state universities enrollment drops to lowest point since 1986
Enrollment declined 5.4% across Pennsylvania’s 14 state-owned universities this fall, slipping to 88,651 — a low not seen in 35 years. Officials were anticipating a slight decline in enrollment, but nothing prepared them for the totals the universities reported after three weeks of classes. Enrollment has not been this low...
GOP wants personal voter data to root out fraud, but Pa. already uses a more secure system
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 — Pennsylvania has spent nearly half a million dollars over the past six years to find and remove outdated registrations...
Pa. attorney general Josh Shapiro jumps into ’22 governor’s race
Pennsylvania’s high-profile attorney general, Josh Shapiro, will formally announce his candidacy for governor on Wednesday, entering the 2022 race months after making his intentions known and effectively clearing the field of potential rivals for the Democratic nomination. Shapiro, a familiar presence on cable TV news who has spent nearly two...
Officials: Breakthrough covid cases increase, but vaccinations remain effective against severe illness, death
State health officials on Friday released new data that sheds some light on the frequency of covid-19 breakthrough cases as well as the related rates of hospitalization and death, though a lack of demographic data means some key questions about such cases remain unanswered. Over the past month, 135,098 people...
Many Pa. school districts are passing up free coronavirus testing even after a rise in cases
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 — Even after covid-19 cases rose among children and district leaders worked to contain outbreaks among students, Pennsylvania schools have...
AG Shapiro: Florida father and son targeted elderly in ‘distraction’ thefts in Western Pa.
A father and son from Florida were arrested this week for committing multiple “distraction-style” burglaries throughout Western Pennsylvania, including in Butler, Indiana and Westmoreland counties, Attorney General Josh Shapiro announced. Steve Nichols, 53, and Archie Marino, 34, both of Fort Lauderdale, were indicted by a statewide investigating grand jury this...
Pa. beer and wine producers get $2M in grants from PLCB
Pennsylvania’s liquor industry has had to deal with several economic challenges during the pandemic. Gov. Tom Wolf this week had some good news for beer and wine makers, announcing the Pennsylvania Liquor Control Board approved nearly $2 million in grants to increase production of beer and wine made in the...
Man charged with killing hospital co-worker, wounding Philadelphia policeVideo
PHILADELPHIA — A man faced murder and other charges Tuesday in the shooting death of a colleague at the Philadelphia hospital where they both worked and the subsequent wounding of two officers in an exchange of gunfire near a school. Stacey Hayes, 55, was charged with murder, attempted criminal homicide,...
State charges Mariner East II gas pipeline owner with 48 environmental crimes
The owner of the Mariner East II natural gas pipeline has paid the state about $20 million in fines over the past four years after being cited for a series of environmental violations. Now, Energy Transfer L.P. is accused by a statewide investigating grand jury of committing 48 environmental crimes...
Police: Head-on crash between SUV, pickup kills 3 in Crawford County
CAMBRIDGE SPRINGS — The Pennsylvania State Police identified three people who died Sunday in a head-on collision in Crawford County. The victims were identified as Kenneth Anderson, 54, of Titusville, who was driving an SUV; Joshua Hanes, 21, of Springboro, who was driving a pickup truck; and Katrina Wiler, 21,...
Pennsylvania House OKs bill to make more pandemic data publicly available
HARRISBURG — A proposal to expand public access to reports about covid-19 and other diseases passed the Pennsylvania House of Representatives on Monday after Republicans argued it would help people decide how to react to pandemics and other outbreaks. The House voted on party lines, 113-87, to amend the Disease...
Pa. school pension fund leaders seek to gag board members over leaks to media
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 — Upset at leaks about a federal investigation of the PSERS pension fund, leaders of the beleaguered plan’s board have...
Penn State professors will protest university’s covid policies in a unique way this week
More than 50 Penn State professors — mostly from University Park — will protest several university-related covid policies this week by holding a “Teach-Out(side),” where classes will be moved to the safer outdoors and away from their usual locations. The protest, organized by the faculty-based group Coalition for a Just...
Nurse fatally shoots co-worker at Philadelphia hospital
PHILADELPHIA — A nurse at a Philadelphia hospital fatally shot his co-worker early Monday morning, fled the scene and was shot in a gunfight with police that wounded two officers, authorities said. The 55-year-old nurse was wearing scrubs when he shot his co-worker on the ninth floor of Thomas Jefferson...
Eligible for a covid-19 booster? Here’s how to get one in Pa.
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. Anywhere from one to two million Pennsylvania adults are now eligible for a covid-19 booster, and state officials say it should...
Embattled Pa. teacher pension fund subpoenaed by SEC over ‘compensation and gifts’ to staff
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 U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission has widened the federal scrutiny of Pennsylvania’s mammoth public school pension plan, demanding...
Police report says Pa. governor candidate was sideswiped in fatal crash
HARRISBURG — A candidate for governor driving on the Pennsylvania Turnpike was sideswiped by a motorcyclist in a July nighttime crash that left the motorcyclist dead and the candidate traveling another 5 miles with the motorcycle lodged on his car, according to a new police report. The Pennsylvania State Police...
Deadline passes in GOP’s Pennsylvania election ‘investigation’ subpoena
HARRISBURG — The deadline passed Friday for Gov. Tom Wolf’s administration to comply with a subpoena from a Republican-controlled state Senate committee pursuing what the GOP calls a “forensic investigation” of last year’s presidential election, as a state court sorted through three legal challenges. Wolf’s administration and Senate Republicans remained...
Pa. officials calling thousands in effort to address bus driver shortage
Pennsylvania officials are searching statewide for school bus drivers as the driver shortage plaguing the nation continues to hit close to home. PennDOT is reaching out to about 375,000 people across the state who have commercial driver’s licenses to highlight the need for bus drivers and the process for obtaining...
