Pennsylvania category, Page 3
Thousands of city workers go on strike in Philadelphia, affecting trash pickup, pools and 911 calls
PHILADELPHIA — Striking city workers waved signs at traffic near Philadelphia City Hall and formed picket lines outside libraries, city offices and other workplaces as nearly 10,000 blue-collar workers walked off the job Tuesday Seeking better pay and benefits, District Council 33 of the American Federation of State, County and...
U.S. Rep. Dwight Evans of Philadelphia says he won’t run for reelection
HARRISBURG — U.S. Rep. Dwight Evans said Monday that he will not seek reelection to his Philadelphia seat, capping a career in public office that stretches back 45 years. Evans, a Democrat, said in a statement that he decided that “the time is right” to retire after his term is...
Pa. lawmakers to miss budget deadline, but don’t expect lengthy impasse
Pennsylvania’s state government is expected to start the new fiscal year Tuesday without a spending plan in place. That’s not unusual. The state budget has been adopted by the statutory June 30 deadline just eight times in the past 21 years. Legislative leaders say they are confident this budget impasse...
‘We’d love to have you here’: Pa. chamber courts NYC employers after Mamdani’s win
Progressive Zohran Mamdani’s upset win in New York City’s Democratic mayoral primary has caused a stir among some in the city’s business establishment. It’s also spurred the leader of a Pennsylvania business group to try to take a bite of the Big Apple’s outsize share of the global economy and...
Conor Lamb steps up as Democrats try to figure out what to do about John Fetterman
ENOLA — Democratic Sen. John Fetterman of Pennsylvania isn’t even up for reelection until 2028, but already a one-time primary foe, former U.S. Rep. Conor Lamb, is crisscrossing Pennsylvania and social media, looking and sounding like he’s preparing to challenge Fetterman again. At town hall after town hall across Pennsylvania,...
Pa. Senate approves bill to repeal Sunday hunting ban
A bill to fully repeal Pennsylvania’s ban on Sunday hunting passed the state Senate on Thursday. The proposal, House Bill 1431, gained approval June 11 in the state House of Representatives. However, a provision to allow the use of natural deer urine as an attractant was amended in the Senate...
Study: ‘Forever chemicals’ detected in 65% of sampled private wells, 18% had levels beyond standards
A team of researchers from Penn State University found that 18% of sampled private wells in the state had levels of PFAS that was higher than drinking water standards. Penn State announced the research findings Wednesday, and the study will be in the July issue of the Journal of Environmental...
Marie Scott, incarcerated more than a half-century for murder, has life sentence commuted by Gov. Shapiro
PHILADELPHIA — Marie Scott, 71, who has spent more than half a century in prison for murder after she and her then-boyfriend robbed a gas station store and he killed the cashier, will be eligible for parole after Gov. Josh Shapiro approved the commutation of her life sentence. Last month,...
New Pennsylvania license plates available to order
Pennsylvania’s new license plate design is now available for order, Gov. Josh Shapiro announced Tuesday. Sports teams mascots across the state showed off their very own versions of the new plates in a promotional video released online. Shapiro initially unveiled the new “Let Freedom Ring” license plate and state welcome...
Police say pipe bomb found at home of Pa. man arrested for having loaded gun at No Kings rally
A man who brought a fully loaded gun, several magazines, knives and more to a No Kings rally in West Chester over the weekend also had a pipe bomb in his home, police said. Police said Kevin Krebs, 31, of Malvern was walking along the 100 block of North High...
Paid family leave: Potential blessing for Pa. workers, challenge for employers
Meagan Paul of Lower Burrell would have loved to have had a paid leave program when her son, Sullivan, was born and she was working. “I didn’t have it. … You feel like you are committing a crime by taking 12 weeks of unpaid leave,” Paul said during a recent...
‘It’s a scary time in politics,’ state Sen. Kim Ward says following Minnesota shootings
Pennsylvania Senate President Pro Tempore Kim Ward spent part of her Saturday afternoon installing more security cameras around her Hempfield home. Another act of political violence inspired the home project. And yet, in today’s turbulent political climate, Ward says no amount of home security will be able to put her...
Talks in Pennsylvania are at crunch time over a budget, legalizing marijuana and taxing skill games
HARRISBURG — Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro and state lawmakers are getting down to crunch time, with big questions still outstanding about how to balance the Democrat’s spending request. A push is also on to make Pennsylvania the 25th state to legalize marijuana for adult use, raise the minimum wage and...
Pa. man brought loaded pistol, bayonet, pepper spray to ‘No Kings’ protest, police say
PHILADELPHIA — A Malvern man was arrested on firearms charges for bringing a loaded handgun and a bayonet to a “No Kings” protest in West Chester on Saturday, police said. Kevin Krebs, 31, was charged with carrying a Sig Sauer P320 without a concealed-carry permit, according to the affidavit of...
Low-income Pennsylvanians could lose access to weight-loss drugs as Harrisburg searches for savings
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 — Low-income Pennsylvanians could lose access to medical coverage for popular weight-loss drugs like Ozempic and Wegovy as state lawmakers search for savings in...
Gov. Josh Shapiro touts Pennsylvania as nation’s golf capital during U.S. Open visit
Gov. Josh Shapiro called the state of Pennsylvania the “golf capital of the United States” during a visit Friday to the Oakmont Country Club for the U.S. Open. The Keystone State has hosted the most United States Golf Association championships compared to any other state — at 95 as of...
Truck driver convicted in the fatal shooting of an Amish woman in her Crawford County home
MEADVILLE — A jury convicted a 53-year-old truck driver Thursday of shooting to death a pregnant Amish woman inside her rural Pennsylvania home early last year. Shawn Christopher Cranston was charged a few weeks after Rebekah Byler, 23, was found dead in the living room of her rural Spartansburg home....
Sens. Fetterman, McCormick team up on bill to bring federal energy office to Pittsburgh
U.S. Sens. John Fetterman and Dave McCormick have introduced bipartisan legislation to move a Department of Energy office to Pennsylvania. The bill would move the department’s Office of Fossil Energy and Carbon Management (FECM) from Washington, D.C., to Pittsburgh. In a joint statement, McCormick said it makes sense for the...
Pennsylvania House passes bill to end Sunday hunting ban
Opening up more Sundays to hunting in Pennsylvania is one step closer to reality. The state House of Representatives on Wednesday passed House Bill 1431 that would completely lift the prohibition on Sunday hunting. The 131-72 vote sends the proposal to the state Senate for consideration on the way toward...
Foresters: Spread of beech tree leaf disease ‘concerning’
Pennsylvania naturalists are keeping an eye on a disease that has been killing beech trees in the eastern U.S. for more than a decade, but has begun spreading more rapidly in the past three years. Beech leaf disease is believed to be caused by a particular type of nematode, which...
Key Pa. senator says bipartisan energy bills on hold until contested climate program settled
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 — A group of bills aimed at boosting electricity production and regulating clean energy has rare, bipartisan support in Pennsylvania’s divided legislature. But a...
Fetterman: Dems lose ‘moral high ground’ when they don’t condemn protest violence, vandalism
U.S. Sen. John Fetterman slammed fellow Democrats who have not condemned incidents of violence and vandalism that have marred protests in Los Angeles over the Trump administration’s immigration raids there. “I unapologetically stand for free speech, peaceful demonstrations and immigration — but this is not that,” Fetterman, D-Braddock, said in...
Pennsylvania House advances bills to let child sexual abuse victims sue despite time limits
HARRISBURG — Proposals that would let survivors of childhood sexual abuse file lawsuits in Pennsylvania beyond the state’s current statute of limitations passed the state House on Monday, the latest development in a yearslong lobbying campaign. One of the two bills is a common piece of legislation that now heads...
Amazon to spend $20B on data centers in Pennsylvania, including one next to nuclear power plant
HARRISBURG — Amazon said Monday that it will spend $20 billion on two data center complexes in Pennsylvania, including one it is building alongside a nuclear power plant that has drawn federal scrutiny over an arrangement to essentially plug right into the power plant. Kevin Miller, vice president of global...
Feds move to drop Sheetz discrimination case as Trump targets key civil rights tool
Federal authorities are moving to drop a racial discrimination lawsuit against the Sheetz convenience store chain, part of a broader effort by President Donald Trump’s administration to halt the use of a key tool for enforcing the country’s civil rights laws. The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, which enforces workplace anti-discrimination...
