Diverse Erie, formerly known as the Erie County Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Commission, on Friday distributed $300,000 in federal grant money.
The organization restricted the money to individuals that are part of the “BIPOC community,” which includes black, indigenous and all people of color, indicating only whites were precluded from applying for the funds.
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Drexel University President John Fry said in a Saturday statement that harassment, intimidation and other antisocial behavior will not be tolerated following the formation of an anti-Israel encampment on the university’s campus.
An encampment was constructed on Saturday at the Philadelphia campus of Drexel. Those involved with the anti-Israel protest have reportedly claimed they intend to “keep it peaceful.”
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Voter registration reveals Republicans continue to gain ground in Pennsylvania, with Democrats losing a number of registered voters to the opposing party, a Monday report citing Pennsylvania Department of State data.
The Republican Party of Pennsylvania (PAGOP) between the end of March and May 13, gained 10,152 new registered voters, according to Politics PA.
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Independent pharmacies took center stage earlier this month in support of a bipartisan bill that would rein in the “shadowy middlemen” who control contracts between their businesses and drug companies.
State Reps. Jessica Benham, D-Carrick, and Abby Major, R-Ford City, held a press conference with Dave Cippel, president and head pharmacist of Klingensmith Drugstores, at their Ford City location on May 10 to promote the legislation.
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While the City of Philadelphia cleared the homeless encampment from Kensington Avenue on May 6, a report published Friday indicates those who previously lived there have relocated to side streets.
A Philadelphia media notice posted to the social media platform X confirms the city cleared the encampment, however the city also discouraged media from covering the process in a bid to “protect the privacy” of those being relocated.
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Data from Pennsylvania’s April primary election shows more than 16,000 Democrats in Philadelphia chose to write in a candidate rather than vote for President Joe Biden. Of those who wrote in a name, 416 cast their Democratic primary vote for former President Donald Trump.
Primary election data from Philadelphia, provided by the City Commissioners Office and first reported by NBC Philadelphia, reveals that 16,216 Democrats in the city cast a write-in vote for the April 23 primary election.
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The political campaign of Republican U.S. Senate nominee Dave McCormick on Thursday seized on a report indicating Senator Bob Casey (D-PA) misled voters about visiting every Pennsylvania county annually.
Casey claimed during a May 3 WCHE Morning Show appearance that he visits every county in Pennsylvania each year, with the Democrat reportedly declaring, “But the best way for me to deal with that is to stay engaged, to go to every county every year, basically, which is what I’ve done for years now.”
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The Pennsylvania National Guard confirmed on Wednesday the 26th Infantry Division of the 56th Stryker Brigade Combat Team is preparing to train soldiers from Ukraine at a military base in Germany.
A news article by the Pennsylvania Guard confirmed soldiers are “preparing for mobilization to the Joint Multinational Training Center to train the Armed Forces of Ukraine” on combat tactics in the German state Bavaria.
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Republican U.S. Senate nominee Dave McCormick on Tuesday announced a plan to “shake up” Washington, D.C. that will include relocating the Department of Energy (DOE) to Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
McCormick on Tuesday stressed his two decades of experience in the private sector in an editorial published by Real Clear Pennsylvania. He confirmed his plans to achieve permanent change in Washington include moving federal agencies away from the capital.
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Governor Josh Shapiro introduced updates on May 8 to his administration’s code of conduct that prohibits “scandalous or disgraceful” acts from state employees, a Tuesday Spotlight PA report revealed.
The report noted that Shapiro quietly signed an executive order that changed his administration’s code of conduct for all state employees amid intense public debate over the conflict between Israel and Hamas in Gaza.
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Silent panic alarms may become the next line of defense for schools in Pennsylvania.
A bipartisan plan introduced in the Senate on Monday would mandate installing devices in buildings to speed up law enforcement response during an emergency. Five other states have implemented similar legislation, dubbed “Alyssa’s Law.”
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A judge has struck down a New York county’s ban on transgender athletes from participating in female sports, saying the county executive exceeded his authority by issuing the directive.
The ruling by state Supreme Court Judge Francis Ricigliano overturns an executive order signed by Nassau County Chief Executive Bruce Blakeman in February that requires any sports team seeking to use a county facility to provide information on “the biological sex at birth of the team members/participants.”
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Voter registration reveals Republicans continue to gain ground in Pennsylvania, with Democrats losing a number of registered voters to the opposing party, a Monday report citing Pennsylvania Department of State data.
The Republican Party of Pennsylvania (PAGOP) between the end of March and May 13, gained 10,152 new registered voters, according to Politics PA.
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A new report reveals two Democratic state senators in Pennsylvania reported receiving Super Bowl tickets as gifts from a Lackawanna County insurance executive who regularly donates to Republicans but appears to have recently donated to independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy.
Citing public disclosures by Pennsylvania State Senators Marty Flynn (D-Lackawanna) and Jimmy Dillon (D-Philadelphia), Spotlight PA reported the senators attended the Super Bowl in 2023 with tickets furnished by Charles Volpe, the president of Excalibur Insurance Management Service.
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After police from the University of Pennsylvania and the city of Philadelphia “disbanded” Penn’s pro-Hamas encampment Friday morning, assorted faculty and students later gathered at the city’s famous LOVE Statue to express their grief.
The Daily Pennsylvanian reports “several speakers and audience members” broke down in tears while describing scuffles with law enforcement.
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Video surfaced on Friday of U.S. Senator Bob Casey (D-PA) declaring in a political event that it will be “impossible” to lower prices that have increased since President Joe Biden entered the White House.
“I’m not proposing that we’re going to be able to bring these prices down. That’s impossible,” Casey acknowledged in a video posted by Donald Trump Jr. to the social media platform X.
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The union representing University of Connecticut police is pushing back on claims officers injured pro-Palestinian protesters when they broke up an encampment last month and arrested more than two dozen people.
The Connecticut Police & Fire Union, which represents UConn police, said the claims about the April 30 encounter made by another union in a letter to school leaders was an “unconscionable attack” on the officers who were just “doing their jobs” by shutting down the “unauthorized” encampment on school grounds.
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The University of Pennsylvania confirmed on Friday it called the Philadelphia Police Department to disperse the anti-Israel encampment constructed on its campus, declaring it a threat to public safety for students.
Signed by Interim President Larry Jameson, Provost John Jackson, and Senior Executive Vice President Craig Carnaroli, the letter highlighted threats posed by the encampment to normal university operations, including commencement for graduating students.
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Dave McCormick, Pennsylvania’s Republican nominee for U.S. Senate, estimated there are about 500 protesters who remain at at the anti-Israel encampment constructed at the University of Pennsylvania on Wednesday.
McCormick made the remarks following his visit to the Penn campus last week, telling The Clay Travis and Buck Sexton Show what he witnessed was a “disgrace” and a “travesty.”
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Both U.S. Senate nominee Dave McCormick and incumbent Senator Bob Casey (D-PA) released campaign ads on Thursday, with the Republican challenger calling his opponent “dangerous” and Casey highlighting his ties to steel workers.
The campaign advertisements dropped after three recent polls showed McCormick just four points behind Casey, placing the candidates in a statistical tie.
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Two polls of Pennsylvania voters released on Wednesday showed former President Donald Trump defeating President Joe Biden. They also showed a statistical tie in the race between U.S. Senator Bob Casey (D-PA) and his Republican challenger Dave McCormick.
The Muhlenberg College poll released Wednesday found Trump has the support of 44 percent of Pennsylvania voters, giving him a four-point lead over Biden at 41 percent.
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University of Pennsylvania protesters supporting the anti-Israel encampment constructed at the university declared the university’s administration “nefarious” as well as “antagonistic and ableist” on Monday ahead of a third meeting between organizers and the university administrators.
In a social media post directed at the university, issued jointly by Penn student protest groups Up Against the Occupation and Drexel Palestine Coalition, made the claims about the university following an update on the institution’s anti-Israel encampment by Interim President Larry Johnson.
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The Republican National Committee (RNC) and Republican Party of Pennsylvania (PAGOP) have filed to intervene in a Butler County lawsuit brought by two voters who want to enable the curing of mail-in ballots returned to election officials without a security sleeve.
The lawsuit was brought by two Pennsylvania voters who submitted mail-in ballots without the required security sleeve. According to their lawsuit, the voters apparently later sought to cure their ballots, but were instead allowed to cast provisional ballots that were ultimately not counted. They filed suit against the Butler County Board of Elections on April 29.
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Xylazine, an animal tranquilizer expanding into the illicit drug market, will soon face more restrictions as Pennsylvania tries to combat overdoses and the social ills of drug abuse.
A bill championed by Rep. Carl Metzgar, R-Somerset, would make xylazine possession a felony offense while allowing it for veterinary purposes.
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Governor Josh Shapiro authorized more than 100 flights on the private airplane owned by the State of Pennsylvania in 2023, exceeding the controversial amount of air travel by his predecessor, a Spotlight Pennsylvania report revealed on Tuesday.
The state-owned Beechcraft King Air 350i, which generally sells for between $4.3 million and $6.7 million, was used for 113 separate trips in 2023. According to Spotlight Pennsylvania, the flight time amounted to more than 200 hours and cost the state’s taxpayers $410,000.
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The Dave McCormick for U.S. Senate campaign released a Friday statement castigating U.S. Senator Bob Casey (D-PA) for his failure to condemn the antisemitic encampment at the University of Pennsylvania, deriding the Democrat for engaging a children’s television character on social media rather than condemn the anti-Israel protests.
McCormick’s campaign explained their challenge to Casey in response to “Casey’s continued silence on the antisemitic encampments rocking college campuses across Pennsylvania and the country.”
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Pennsylvania remains one of a few states where poll workers don’t process ballots before Election Day.
Supporters of pre-canvassing, as it’s called, believe giving counties more time to open envelopes and prepare ballots for counting will deliver faster results.
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The Pennsylvania Game Commission looks ahead with a new executive director, but recent turmoil has legislators even more skeptical of the agency’s competence.
The commission has its sights set on tightening up policies and working more with the legislature, but critics want deeper changes.
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State Senator Doug Mastriano on Thursday introduced legislation that would strip state funding from Pennsylvania colleges and universities that become a “safe harbor” for antisemitism in the months since the October 7 attack by Hamas against Israel.
Mastriano introduced SB 1185 in response to the “pro-Hamas and anti-Israel protests and encampments” his office noted “recently took root at the University of Pennsylvania, University of Pittsburgh and other Pennsylvania colleges and universities that benefit from tax dollars.”
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Connecticut will end the fiscal year with a record surplus, according to a new report, which is fueling calls by progressive Democrats to roll back the state’s spending controls.
The consensus revenue forecast, released by the Office of Policy and Management and Office of Fiscal Analysis on Monday, shows the state is likely to close out the fiscal year more than $645 million above initial budget projections. That’s a roughly $1 billion surplus through 2026, according to the report.
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Following his visit to the anti-Israel encampment constructed at the University of Pennsylvania, Republican U.S. Senate candidate Dave McCormick told The Pennsylvania Daily Star Thursday that he will urge senators to “revisit” federal support and tax breaks afforded to top schools if Pennsylvanians send him to Washington, D.C. in November.
McCormick noted that Pennsylvania taxpayers subsidize many schools that boast anti-Israel encampments, either through federal funding or the “huge benefit” of an “enormous endowments” that remain tax exempt.
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State Senator Amanda Cappelletti (D-Philadelphia) claimed as part of a Monday push to create a federal law to enshrine abortion access that 80 Pennsylvania abortion clinics have closed “in a relatively short period of time” since the overturning of Roe v. Wade.
Cappelletti made the remarks to the Pennsylvania Capital-Star, and additionally claimed abortion access has fallen in the commonwealth since the landmark decision by the U.S. Supreme Court.
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Pennsylvania State Senator Doug Mastriano (R-Franklin County) said that establishment Republicans need to come together during this election cycle to support and elect grassroots candidates and former President Donald Trump to office.
Mastriano, who recently detailed his personal experience of betrayal by establishment Republican organizations during his 2022 gubernatorial campaign, said “it’s going to take a lot of effort, energy, and unity” to elect strong Republicans into office this November—especially in the toss up state of Pennsylvania.
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Pennsylvania may soon join the list of states banning employers from pulling job applicants’ credit scores during the hiring process.
The House Labor and Industry Committee recently approved House Bill 2207, which would outlaw the practice in most circumstances – except for jobs in finance or those subject to specific mandates by federal or local law.
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State Senator Doug Mastriano (R-Gettysburg) detailed a series of alleged betrayals by the Republican Party of Pennsylvania (PAGOP), the Republican Governors Association (RGA) and top Republicans in the Keystone State during his 2022 gubernatorial campaign during a Monday appearance on Outside the Beltway with host John Fredericks.
Mastriano told Fredericks that former Pennsylvania Speaker of the House Bryan Cutler (R-Harrisburg), a former PAGOP chair and former Republican Governors Association chair Senator Pete Ricketts (R-NE) either withheld support or acted against his gubernatorial campaign.
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As inflation persists, Pennsylvania voters are rejecting increased government spending, according to new polling data released by the Commonwealth Foundation.
Inflation and the rising cost of living remain Pennsylvanians’ chief concerns. With more than two-thirds of voters saying that high prices are eating away at their standard of living, it’s no wonder that a plurality reports their family is worse off than two years ago.
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Pennsylvania-based radio host John Fredericks confirmed he is “strongly considering” a campaign for the Chair of the Pennsylvania delegation to the Republican National Convention (RNC) after a Friday appearance on War Room with Stephen K. Bannon, the former Trump presidential aide who now hosts of the popular War Room program.
Fredericks confirmed to The Pennsylvania Daily Star, “I’m only considering a run for Delegation Chairman due to the outpouring of support I’ve gotten and the number of people that have asked me to run.” He added, “I am going to the convention for one purpose, and that is to make sure that President Trump’s agenda is executed to precision.”
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Partisan divides remain for Pennsylvania’s energy future, but the state’s electric grid keeps posting drops in emissions.
PJM, the 13-state grid that stretches from Illinois to North Carolina, noted a trend that’s continued for two decades: dramatic declines in pollutants.
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Michigan’s top business group says “we can’t get” to the 100% clean energy standard by 2040 without nuclear energy.
The Michigan Chamber of Commerce, Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, bipartisan lawmakers and organized labor support restarting the 800-megawatt Palisades nuclear plant on Lake Michigan’s Eastern shore, expected to return online in 2025.
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Local issues loom large in the attorney general race as candidate Jared Solomon praised Philadelphia Mayor Cherelle Parker and lambasted Philadelphia District Attorney Larry Krasner and the dysfunction within the Philadelphia Sheriff’s Office.
Pennsylvania voters will decide competitive primaries for attorney general. Five Democrats are running. The Republican race is two.
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Connecticut House Bill 2570, which proposes increasing the threshold for felony unemployment insurance fraud from $500 to $2000, advanced from the Joint Judiciary Committee on Apr. 5 by a vote of 24-13. The Joint Labor and Public Employees Committee approved the bill with a vote of 8-4 on Mar. 7. The bill is now pending consideration before the full Connecticut House.
Under current law, a fraudulent payment, benefit, or contribution is a class A misdemeanor if it amounts to $500 or less or a class D felony if it amounts to more than $500. The bill increases these thresholds to $2,000 or less for a class A misdemeanor and more than $2,000 for a class D felony.
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State agencies across the commonwealth gather data on jobs, employment, and the economy — but they struggle to share it, hamstringing how useful it is.
Legislators have taken notice and are looking to compel some digital cooperation.
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Tens of thousands of Connecticut state workers could be getting a bump in their paychecks with lawmakers advancing a proposal to give them a 2.5% across-the-board pay raise.
A proposal approved by the Legislature’s Appropriations Committee on Friday would authorize a 2.5% wage increase for an estimated 46,000 state employees that was hammered out in negotiations earlier this year by Gov. Ned Lamont’s administration and the State Employees Bargaining Agent Coalition, which represents unionized workers.
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As the public awaits more details of Gov. Josh Shapiro’s higher education reform plans, Republican legislators offer some ideas of their own.
During a Wednesday press conference, a gaggle of House and Senate leaders pushed for the creation of a grant program that offers scholarships to students who commit to stay in Pennsylvania. They also want to launch a similar deal for out-of-state students to get in-state tuition if they put down roots in the commonwealth.
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Connecticut has never had a “faithless” elector who refused to certify the results of a presidential election, but some state lawmakers argue there needs to be a law preventing it.
A legislative proposal, which recently cleared a key committee, would nullify the electoral vote of a so-called “faithless” presidential elector in Connecticut who fails to cast their ballot for the candidates that the elector ran on the official ballot.
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The reopening of a three-mile section of Route 611 through the Delaware Water Gap – shut down since December 2022 due to rockslides – has been complicated by a combination of nature and red tape.
In the meantime, area residents pay tolls multiple times a day along a detour that crosses into New Jersey and business owners struggle to keep their doors open.
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Pennsylvania’s orphan oil and gas well problem has gotten much attention in recent months.
So too has the commonwealth’s legacy of hazardous mine lands. Now, the federal government is sending hundreds of millions of dollars to deal with them.
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New legal documents filed recently in an ongoing union corruption case in Pennsylvania say officials funneled $1.8 million into a trust fund that’s yet to be recovered and then destroyed evidence of its existence.
The lawsuit, filed in 2020 by The Fairness Center on behalf of three workers at a state prison in Huntingdon, accused the treasurer of the local chapter of the Pennsylvania State Corrections Officers Association of misappropriating $20,000 between 2009 and 2018.
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An Illinois lawsuit has led Colorado Attorney General Phil Weiser and attorneys general from 11 other states and the District of Columbia to notify gunmaker Glock to preserve 37 years of documentation regarding its handguns.
Earlier this month, the city of Chicago filed a lawsuit against Glock alleging the company failed to change the design of a pistol. Chicago claims Glock knew a do-it-yourself “switch” could make the handguns a “machine gun” and resulted in a “proliferation of illegal machine guns.”
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A polarized America, increasingly dissatisfied with the current political duopoly and lack of choices, might open doors wide enough for third parties and independents to wield greater influence in elections.
Stepping into that space and gaining momentum is the Forward Party.
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