Pennsylvania category, Page 125
Wolf urges Senate to keep cocktails-to-go, some Pa. bar owners lukewarm
Gov. Tom Wolf is urging the Senate to pass a bill that would enable the cocktails-to-go law to remain in place. The bill would amend the state’s liquor code to allow bars, restaurants and hotels with liquor licenses to sell mixed drinks for off-premises consumption. Just over a year ago...
Wolf, Pa. Democrats again push for passage of LGBTQ discrimination protections
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 — As people around the country celebrate Pride month, Gov. Tom Wolf again called on the state’s Republican-led legislature to...
GOP’s major election overhaul advances in Pa. House as Democrats call it a ‘farce’
This article is made possible through Votebeat, a nonpartisan reporting project covering local election integrity and voting access. SpotlightPA 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. HARRISBURG — Pennsylvania Republicans in the state House advanced their...
Panel approves Pa. House GOP bill to ban employer vaccine mandates
HARRISBURG — A ban on employers mandating vaccines for their workers inched ahead in the state House on Tuesday with a committee vote supported by all Republicans and opposed by every Democrat. The main sponsor, Rep. Russ Diamond, R-Lebanon, called it “a very simple question of workers’ rights.” Diamond has...
Republicans aim again to block Gov. Wolf’s climate strategy
HARRISBURG — Republicans who control Pennsylvania’s Legislature are reprising a fight from last year, passing legislation Monday to require Gov. Tom Wolf to go through them if he wants to impose a price on greenhouse gas emissions from power plants. The bill passed 35-15 in the Senate, a veto-proof majority...
Pennsylvania’s gas-well revenue down as price, drilling drop
HARRISBURG — Pennsylvania’s counties and municipal governments will see the lowest level of annual fee revenue they get from Marcellus Shale gas wells, as drilling slowed and prices sank during the pandemic, the Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission said Monday. Impact fee revenue from Marcellus Shale wells sank to $146 million...
Pennsylvania Republicans eye referendums to get past vetoes
HARRISBURG — Republicans who control Pennsylvania’s Legislature are increasingly looking to take a different avenue to write laws, voter referendums, to get around Gov. Tom Wolf and make policy that the Democrat cannot block with his veto pen. On Friday, Republicans unveiled a proposed constitutional amendment to expand Pennsylvania’s existing...
York County judge declines to dismiss charges in body in freezer case
YORK — A Pennsylvania judge declined to dismiss some charges and suppress part of a statement by a woman accused of keeping her maternal grandmother’s remains in a freezer for a decade and a half and continuing to receive the dead woman’s Social Security checks for a portion of that...
Activists target top Republican in Pa. Senate as they push for gift ban
SpotlightPA 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. HARRISBURG — Using song and chant, a group of activists marched through the Capitol’s hallways Wednesday, even momentarily disrupting the Senate’s voting session, demanding that lawmakers pass legislation...
Personal data from Pa. contact tracing calls still online despite assurances it had been secured
SpotlightPA 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. HARRISBURG — Personal information collected during coronavirus contact tracing calls in Pennsylvania is still available online in a document accessible to anyone with a link, Spotlight PA has...
Erie Republican lawmaker eyes a run for Pa. governor — with a pitch that breaks from Trump
PHILADELPHIA — Republican state Sen. Dan Laughlin is moving toward a run for governor, presenting himself as a “center-right” conservative who can appeal to swing voters and avoid divisive cultural feuds — and drawing an implicit contrast with other Republicans trying to follow in the footsteps of former President Donald...
Wolf again vows to veto any bills that limit abortion access in Pa.
SpotlightPA 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. HARRISBURG — As Republican lawmakers advance bills to limit access to abortion in Pennsylvania, Gov. Tom Wolf has once again vowed to veto any such legislation that comes...
6 of 15 trustees of embattled Pa. pension fund call for removal of its top command
SpotlightPA 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. Six trustees for Pennsylvania’s largest pension fund have called for the full 15-member board to vote Friday to fire the $64 billion chief executive and top investment officer,...
Pa. Sen. Jim Brewster urges officials to pause vote on state university consolidations
A spokesman for the Pennsylvania State System of Higher Education says there are no plans to delay or postpone next month’s scheduled vote that could be one of the final steps in consolidating six state-owned universities into two institutions. System spokesman Cody Jones said Thursday that officials remain on target...
Pa. legislature ends coronavirus disaster declaration, keeps waivers
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 has voted to immediately end Gov. Tom Wolf’s coronavirus disaster declaration using a new power granted...
Pa. GOP proposes major election overhaul, including stricter voter ID and in-person early voting
This article is made possible through Votebeat, a nonpartisan reporting project covering local election integrity and voting access. This article is available for reprint under the terms of Votebeat’s republishing policy. Pennsylvania Republicans unveiled their first proposal for overhauling the state’s election system Thursday, with lawmakers in the state House...
Penn State ex-president reports to jail in Sandusky scandal
BELLEFONTE, Pa. — Former Penn State president Graham Spanier has reported to jail early to begin serving his sentence for child endangerment in a case stemming from the Jerry Sandusky child sexual abuse scandal. Spanier reported to Centre County Correctional Facility, several miles from the Penn State campus, on Monday...
Pennsylvania pension system sued over access to documents amid probe
HARRISBURG — A Pennsylvania state senator is suing Pennsylvania’s largest public pension system amid a federal investigation into aspects of the agency’s undertakings, saying agency officials have refused to share documents with her, even though she is a board member. The effort by state Sen. Katie Muth, D-Montgomery, is being...
Allegheny, Westmoreland see rapid drops in new covid cases
New covid-19 cases continued their rapid declines in Allegheny and Westmoreland counties. Allegheny County recorded 183 cases in the past week — including just 15 on Wednesday — for a seven-day daily average of 26. It hasn’t been that low since hitting 24 on June 24, 2020. For perspective, the...
Jobless in Pa. livid over new unemployment system errors as state declares victory
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. A long-delayed upgrade of Pennsylvania’s computer system for unemployment benefits made a glitch-filled debut Tuesday, frustrating some jobless workers and confirming...
Pa. House votes to end Wolf’s pandemic disaster declaration
HARRISBURG — Pennsylvania’s House of Representatives voted on party lines Tuesday to put an end to the governor’s pandemic disaster emergency declaration, less than a month after voters dramatically expanded lawmakers’ powers to control such declarations. The 113-90 vote sent the Republican-penned measure over to the Senate, where the GOP...
Pa. House sends local gun law pre-emption bill to state Senate
The Pennsylvania House of Representatives passed a bill Tuesday that would leave cities and towns that have tried to craft local gun control laws on the hook for all court costs associated with a successful court challenge to those ordinances. Carried by 112 of the 113 Republican votes and 12...
Pa. House advances ban on abortions over Down syndrome diagnoses
HARRISBURG — Republicans in the Pennsylvania House pushed through a bill Tuesday that would ban abortions that are prompted by a prenatal Down syndrome diagnosis, although the Democratic governor has vowed to veto it. State representatives voted 120-83 for legislation that the prime sponsor, Republican Rep. Kate Klunk of York...
With $10B to spend, advocates press Wolf, Pa. lawmakers to prioritize poor people
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 — As Gov. Tom Wolf and the Republican-led legislature begin the final month of budget negotiations, a coalition of groups...
Pennsylvania man accused of fatally stabbing woman, gambling with her money
Police had little to go on at first as they investigated the stabbing death of a Lackawanna County woman in March, but they announced on Monday that an arrest has been made. The Pennsylvania State Police say Jerry Koezeno of Mayfield has been charged in connection with the killing of...
