Pennsylvania category, Page 121
Pennsylvania defends new, no-bid deal for contact tracing
HARRISBURG — Pennsylvania health officials on Wednesday defended their decision to award another no-bid deal for covid-19 contact tracing after a serious data breach involving the state’s previous vendor, calling it an urgent priority with cases rising and schools preparing to reopen for fall. The Department of Health awarded a...
Pa. Republicans will reintroduce vetoed election bill now that Gov. Tom Wolf says he’s open to voter ID changes
PHILADELPHIA — Pennsylvania Republicans plan to reintroduce their election overhaul legislation — which Democratic Gov. Tom Wolf vetoed last month — now that Wolf has changed his public position to say he’s open to new voter ID requirements. Wolf had said that changes to the state’s voter ID rules were...
Pennsylvania decertifies Fulton County’s voting system after ‘audit’
HARRISBURG — Pennsylvania’s top election official has decertified the voting machines of a small southern county that disclosed that it had agreed to requests by local Republican lawmakers and allowed a software firm to inspect the machines as part of an “audit” after the 2020 election. The action by Acting...
Pa. Supreme Court deals blow to outdated claims of child sexual abuse
HARRISBURG — Pennsylvania’s high court on Wednesday dealt a blow to victims of child sexual abuse who had hoped to revive their otherwise outdated claims, throwing out a lawsuit by a woman whose lower court legal victory had given hope to similarly situated victims who sued in the wake of...
Medical experts not alarmed by recent rise in Pa. covid casesVideo
The number of new covid-19 cases is increasing in Pennsylvania, but the uptick — fueled by the highly contagious delta variant — is not yet cause for alarm among experts in the Pittsburgh region. In the past week, there have been 2,930 new cases of the virus reported by the...
Troopers shoot, kill Harrisburg gunman who fired toward them
HARRISBURG — Pennsylvania state police shot and killed an armed man Tuesday morning near Harrisburg when he allegedly fired into two occupied homes and toward troopers who were called to the scene, an agency spokeswoman said. The police agency said 34-year-old Mitchell James Shuller of Harrisburg ignored demands to drop...
Pa. requested $340 million in emergency contracts in 2020 with little oversight
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 — Lawmakers this week will probe whether state agencies had too much leeway in securing emergency contracts during the pandemic,...
Pennsylvania election audit gets GOP campaign trail embrace
HARRISBURG — Former President Donald Trump’s false claims of a stolen election have been debunked by the courts, his own Justice Department and scores of recounts. But in the battleground state of Pennsylvania, where Trump lost by 80,000 votes eight months ago, they’re finding new signs of life. A Republican...
Tribe claims remains of kids who died at assimilation school in Pennsylvania
The remains of nine Native American children who died more than a century ago while attending a government-run school in Pennsylvania meant to assimilate them into white culture have been returned to their South Dakota tribe for burial on its reservation. The Rosebud Sioux planned to rebury the remains during...
Philadelphia backyard chickens are surging despite city law
A cooped-up flock of law-breaking Philadelphians continued to grow in number and prosper during the pandemic. Thousands of chickens are being raised citywide, according to one estimate, despite a 2004 ordinance designed to eliminate the practice. This particular urban farming trend is becoming more popular, as penned-up residents look to...
Pennsylvania jobless rate down slightly, payrolls up in June
HARRISBURG — Pennsylvania’s unemployment rate and labor force shrank slightly in June as payrolls crept up, according to state figures released Friday. Pennsylvania’s unemployment rate dropped one-tenth of a percentage point to 6.9% from May’s adjusted rate, the state Department of Labor and Industry said. May’s initial rate had been...
Wolf admin sat on 2017 probe of unemployment error but denies ‘cover-up’
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’s top labor official said Thursday there was never an attempt within her department to deliberately conceal an error...
Another Pa. county raises objection to lawmaker’s election audit
HARRISBURG — Another Pennsylvania county targeted for an Arizona-style “forensic investigation” of the 2020 presidential election being pushed by former President Donald Trump is raising strong objections to a sweeping demand for access to its voting equipment and records. York County’s three commissioners — two Republican and one Democrat —...
‘I felt disrespected,’ Harrisburg woman who ran over and killed her boyfriend with her minivan tells jury
A Harrisburg woman testified Tuesday afternoon that she “felt disrespected” when she ran over and killed her boyfriend with her minivan at a busy city intersection nearly two years ago. “I was upset, frustrated. I felt disrespected and ignored,” Dolly Hendrickes said during the second day of her Dauphin County...
Team USA gymnasts will wear leotards by Pa. company — one features 7,600 Swarovski crystals
A Pennsylvania company has made sportswear for U.S. Olympic athletes before. But this is the first time that GK Elite of Reading will be outfitting American Olympic gymnasts. “Although GK has been the manufacturer of previous Olympic Games garments, this will mark the first time that GK Elite’s branding will...
Pennsylvania’s 2022 U.S. Senate race: What we know so far
Spotlight PA is an independent, non-partisan 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. One of Pennsylvania’s two U.S. Senate seats is up for grabs in 2022 as two-term Republican incumbent Pat Toomey prepares to...
Critical race theory: What it is, what it isn’t, and what it means for education in Pennsylvania
Critical race theory is not being taught in Pennsylvania public schools, educators say. As with most national flashpoint topics, critical race theory is gaining traction in Pennsylvania. The hot-button issue is pitting progressively minded educators and lawmakers against conservative stakeholders — from parents, voters, to politicians — determined to keep...
Harrisburg is best place to live in Pennsylvania, says U.S. News
Harrisburg is one of the best places to live in the United States, according to U.S. News and World Report, but you might be surprised at what major cities it bested. ” 150 Best Places to Live in the U.S. in 2021-2022 ″ is a list compiled each year by...
Indigenous children’s remains turned over from Army cemetery
CARLISLE — The disinterred remains of nine Native American children who died more than a century ago while attending a government-run school in Pennsylvania were headed home Wednesday to Rosebud Sioux tribal lands in South Dakota after a ceremony returning them to relatives. The handoff at a graveyard on the...
Tioga County won’t offer up voting machines to election audit
HARRISBURG — One of three counties targeted by a Pennsylvania state lawmaker for an Arizona-style “forensic investigation” of the state’s 2020 presidential election sought by former President Donald Trump will not allow third-party access to its voting machines. The three commissioners in rural Republican-controlled Tioga County announced the decision Tuesday,...
Gov. Wolf’s power-plant carbon-pricing plan nears finish line
HARRISBURG — The centerpiece of Gov. Tom Wolf’s plan to fight climate change took another step Tuesday toward the final regulatory threshold to impose a price on carbon dioxide emissions from fossil fuel-fired power plants in Pennsylvania. The Environmental Quality Board, composed primarily of Wolf appointees, approved the plan 15-4...
Governor hopeful told Trump he was waved off Pa. election investigations. Bill Barr says that’s not true
PHILADELPHIA — Former Attorney General Bill Barr on Tuesday sharply denied that he ordered the top federal prosecutor in Philadelphia at the time not to investigate allegations of 2020 election fraud, and said Bill McSwain is only leveling that accusation to curry favor with former President Donald Trump in his...
Wolf administration refuses to release details on multimillion-dollar unemployment mistake
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 — Democratic Gov. Tom Wolf’s administration is refusing to provide details on the scope and timeline of an internal investigation...
Top Pa. judge called charging Bill Cosby ‘reprehensible.’ Now the prosecutor is firing back
PHILADELPHIA — The Pennsylvania Supreme Court’s controversial decision to overturn Bill Cosby’s sex assault conviction has sparked a rare public war of words between the court’s chief justice and Montgomery County prosecutors. In an interview Sunday with Harrisburg’s WHTM-TV, Chief Justice Max Baer justified the ruling that freed Cosby earlier...
Pa. House GOP commits to public meetings, vows ‘most transparent’ congressional redistricting process ever
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 — A key Pennsylvania lawmaker committed Monday to transparency measures aimed at making the decennial redrawing of the state’s congressional...
