Treating drug addiction is two-fold: one part is law enforcement reducing the supply and another is getting addicts the help they need to recover.
Such is what legislators heard during a House Republican Policy Committee on Thursday as Pennsylvania continues to deal with an opioid crisis that outpaces the rest of the country.
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Pennsylvania higher education is crucial, costly and confusing.
So said state policymakers during a recent meeting with a trio of college leaders invited to share thoughts about the high cost of a degree and how the vision for higher education should look.
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As Pennsylvania’s divide over education funding continues, House Republicans once again championed their plan to give scholarships to students in low-performing schools to enroll elsewhere.
The House Republican Policy Committee met Tuesday in Philadelphia to hear testimony from education professionals, private school students, and parents on how families would benefit from Lifeline Scholarships, which has been controversial with Democrats who worry about diverting funding from public schools.
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In Delaware County on Monday, law-enforcement experts asked Pennsylvania GOP state lawmakers to consider a variety of responses to the state’s crime epidemic… and to one left-wing official’s lack of urgency about it.
Speakers suggested various ideas like increased resources for detention facilities and youth courts. Over the course of the hearing, numerous testifiers complained that the leniency of Philadelphia District Attorney Larry Krasner (D) remains a major hindrance to public safety in the City of Brotherly Love and nearby communities.
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Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro’s opposition to Norfolk Southern Corp.’s handling of its East Palestine, Ohio train derailment contrasts strongly with his initial satisfaction with the controlled vent and burn of the rail vehicle’s toxic cargo.
The 53-car train with some cars carrying vinyl chloride derailed on February 3 in the village of about 5,000 residents one-quarter mile west of Beaver County in Pennsylvania. According to the National Transportation Safety Board, the train went off the rail as a result of a defective axle.
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Legislators in Pennsylvania traditionally spend off-session weeks in their districts, but this time the “work” of constituent relations itself seems contested in the narrowly divided House.
In one corner, Republicans protest loud and often that House Speaker Mark Rozzi, D-Temple, and the rest of his party won’t show up for work. After all, they argue, it was his decision to adjourn session until the last day of February, marking nearly two months without any legislative action – or even operating rules – at all.
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John Toomey, flanked by other relatives of slain Philadelphians as well as state lawmakers at the Pennsylvania Capitol Building in Harrisburg on Tuesday, tearfully discussed the fate that befell his 15-year-old son Sean. Many who gathered near him showed similar anguish as they listened.
Toomey and dozens of his fellow bereaved Philadelphians convened at the legislative building’s front lobby to condemn the performance of District Attorney Larry Krasner (D) since he became the city’s top prosecutor in 2018.
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Republican members of the Pennsylvania House of Representatives on Monday circulated a memorandum seeking cosponsors for articles of impeachment for Philadelphia District Attorney Larry Krasner (D).
Reps. Josh Kail (R-Monaca), Torren Ecker (R-Abbottstown) and Tim O’Neal (R-Washington) wrote in their message to House colleagues that impeachment is a severe option that they would only initiate in the face of a prosecutor’s clear “dereliction of duty.” They charged Krasner with a “willful refusal to enforce Pennsylvania’s criminal laws” in Philadelphia.
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