Republican candidate for Connecticut governor Bob Stefanowski pledged last week to cease collection of the hundreds of licensing and regulatory fees small businesses and entrepreneurs are forced to pay prior to their repeal by the next legislature.
“Now I know everybody’s gonna jump up and down, you can’t do that, OK,” Stefanowski said Tuesday, according to CT Mirror. “I’m going to tell [the tax commissioner] to do it.”
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Susquehanna University in Pennsylvania released its Fall 2022 COVID-19 vaccination protocol, stating that returning students must be fully vaccinated prior to arriving on campus.
“Students are required to be fully vaccinated prior to arriving to campus, unless approved with an exemption,” the Susquehanna University Plan for Fall 2022 reads.
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As Pennsylvania higher education institutions face a shortage of students, their former students will disproportionately benefit from student loan forgiveness.
A research brief from the Independent Fiscal Office estimates that almost 2 million Pennsylvania borrowers hold $69 billion student loan debt, and $21 billion would be forgiven. Another $1.8 billion would be forgiven through the expansion of the income-driven repayment program.
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A Connecticut plan to use federal funding to expand broadband access in the state has gained federal approval.
The Connecticut Broadband Infrastructure Program, Gov. Ned Lamont said, will use $42.9 million in American Rescue Plan Act funding to expand service to underserved areas in the state and was approved by the U.S. Department of the Treasury. Broadband will be expanded, or improved, in 10,000 households and businesses.
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Advocates say a bipartisan effort to seal criminal records for low-level felonies would give more people second chances and boost the Pennsylvania economy.
The House Judiciary Committee held a hearing on Wednesday to discuss House Bill 1826, which would expand the Clean Slate Act by automatically sealing some low-level felonies.
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Pennsylvania Republican legislators seeking solutions to the crime and violence in Philadelphia that have spilt into other communities across the Keystone State denounced city District Attorney Larry Krasner this weekend for suing to escape their oversight.
GOP General Assembly members, who allege Krasner has demonstrated a “willful refusal to enforce Pennsylvania’s criminal laws,” have made clear they want to impeach the far-left prosecutor and introduced a resolution to that effect months ago. They however almost certainly lack the two-thirds of Senate votes to do so.
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A new report questions the narrative of a “teacher shortage” in Pennsylvania, pointing out significant declines in student enrollments even as public school employment has risen.
“Since 2000, Pennsylvania public school enrollment has dropped 6.6% (120,000 fewer students); but public schools have added 20,000 more employees (8.7% growth), including nearly 40% growth among administrators,” the Commonwealth Foundation noted in its Back to School Education Trends report.
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A new report shows that Connecticut’s law enforcement agencies use force 1% of the time.
The Institute of Municipal and Regional Policy used police use of force from across the state in its report. Kenneth Barone, associate director of the Institute for Municipal and Regional Policy, told The Center Square that the report was a challenge as it is the first of its kind and only the second state-wide analysis of use of force in the nation.
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The Republican National Committee announced Friday that it is leading a lawsuit against Pennsylvania over ballot curing in the 2022 elections.
The other plaintiffs are the National Republican Senatorial Committee, National Republican Congressional Committee, Pennsylvania GOP and several state voters.
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Pennsylvania Republican Senate candidate Mehmet Oz’s campaign on Thursday excoriated his opponent, Democratic Lieutenant Governor John Fetterman, for bringing on two convicted murderers as campaign staffers.
The celebrity surgeon and the National Republican Senate Committee cited Federal Election Commission filings indicating the lieutenant governor’s campaign employs Lee and Dennis Horton, who were both convicted of second-degree murder in 1993, having been found to have aided Robert Leaf in a theft-related killing of a man before fleeing the scene.
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In an extraordinary legal strike two months before mid-term elections, the Republican nominee for Pennsylvania governor on Thursday sued House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and the Democrat-run Jan. 6 committee in federal court, alleging it failed to follow its own rules and does not have the legal authority to compel him to testify.
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Assistant Principal Jeremy Boland of Cos Cob Elementary School is on leave in the wake of a Project Veritas (PV) undercover video that recorded his claims of how he ensures his school does not hire Catholics or conservatives in order to guarantee “subtle” leftwing indoctrination of children.
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Pennsylvania Democrat Senate nominee John Fetterman says he won’t debate GOP nominee Dr. Mehmet Oz citing his stroke recovery and calling the planned event a “farce.”
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Pennsylvania authorities contentiously combined voter registration and mail-in ballot applications into one document this month, according to The Philadelphia Inquirer, the latest in a series of disputed election-related policies.
The state’s Department of State issued an updated form Aug. 19 allowing citizens to register to vote and request a mail-in ballot, which had previously required multiple forms, The Federalist reported. Pennsylvania Deputy Secretary for Elections and Commissions Jonathan Marks said this was intended “to simplify the process,” but many county elections officials argued the change occurred without warning and demonstrated a continuing lack of respect for them, according to the Inquirer.
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Project Veritas released its latest exposé in which an assistant principal in a Cos Cob, Connecticut elementary school shares with an undercover reporter his strategies to ensure he never hires “Catholics” or “conservatives” to guarantee the children in his school are exposed to “subtle” leftwing indoctrination.
This first video of Project Veritas’ (PV) newly launched Education Series reveals how Jeremy Boland, assistant principal at Cos Cob Elementary School, part of Greenwich Public Schools, ensures he maintains a staff of primarily young, leftwing teachers who will introduce the children to “subtle” indoctrination of principles that align with the current Democrat Party.
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Joe Biden’s “Inflation Reduction Act,” which seeks to “gaslight Americans into thinking it is something that it is not,” will allow Biden and Senator Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) “to tax middle-class American families, to the tune of $10.6 billion in new taxes,” wrote Connecticut Republican candidate for the U.S. Senate Leora Levy in an op-ed Sunday at the Hartford Courant.
Levy, who emerged the victor in the Connecticut GOP primary race to unseat career Democrat Blumenthal, put Biden’s signature legislation into perspective.
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Two state legislators with districts just northeast of violence-plagued Philadelphia announced this week they plan to introduce legislation mandating prison time for anyone convicted of keeping a firearm illegally in the Keystone State.
Representatives Frank Farry (R-Langhorne) and Kathleen “K.C.” Tomlinson (R-Bensalem) propose sentences of under two years for a first breach of gun-possession restrictions. Recidivists, however, would incur longer terms.
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According to the Pennsylvania Department of Education, 37.3 percent of students in grades 3 through 11 met the grade-level “proficient” standard for mathematics in statewide testing for the 2022 school year. Only 55 percent measured up in literature/language arts and 63.7 in science.
To put these results in perspective, just two years earlier, 45.4 percent performed at grade level in math, while 62.4 met the standard in literature and 66.4 did so in science.
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A viral video of Yale University’s Pediatric Gender Program Director has started a firestorm on social media after the Director revealed that children as young as three years-old are being treated with gender medical intervention.
In the video, Dr. Christy Olezeski, current Director of the program, reveals that the program “works with gender-expansive individuals 3 to 25 and their families,” and aims to “help individuals who are questioning their gender identity or who identify as transgender or non-binary.”
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Pennsylvania has some of the highest rates of drug overdoses in the nation, and a program to distribute anti-overdose medication has hit a new milestone.
The Wolf administration announced that its mail-based naloxone program has filled 10,000 requests for naloxone, which helps reverse overdoses.
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Gov. Tom Wolf recently announced $80,058 in funding for Advance Central PA through the Pennsylvania Manufacturing PA Training-to-Career Program (MTTC).
The funds will be used to create five professional videos for students interested in enter a manufacturing career, a press release from the governor’s office said. The films are to create awareness for students about Career and Technology Education (CTE) programs. They will help students prepare, as well as educate guidance counselors and educators about how to show the ways CTE prepares students.
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Two Pennsylvania state legislators on Friday proposed a law to facilitate compensation for those who the commonwealth imprisons based on wrongful convictions.
Representatives Frank Ryan (R-Palmyra) and Regina Young (D-Philadelphia) plan to introduce the legislation to bring Keystone State policy into line with 38 other states that indemnify exonerated people.
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The U.S. Department of Agriculture is sending $740,000 to Pennsylvania for “critical infrastructure to combat climate change” – but most of the money will go toward repaving parking lots.
The USDA Rural Development program provides taxpayer money for all sorts of programs, from infrastructure to health care to environmental and economic concerns in the rural parts of America. In fiscal year 2022, it provided almost $1.5 billion for local projects.
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The effect of inflation on Pennsylvania’s agricultural sector has been to exacerbate already-existing problems, driving up costs and squeezing business owners.
Since March, the monthly consumer price index in Pennsylvania has averaged 8.4%. Large amounts of federal spending, along with the Russian invasion of Ukraine, have meant rising prices from raw materials to food and consumer goods.
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In the Pennsylvania economy today, employers struggle with finding enough workers, rising prices, and enough affordable housing for their workers.
Rising prices, employee and supply shortages, wage surcharges, and “escalating energy prices” puts “a strain on our survival,” said David Crouse, owner of 3C’s family restaurant in the Pottsville area.
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Pennsylvania’s House Republican Policy Committee on Thursday heard testimony from several small-business executives Thursday suggesting that unemployment compensation (UC) taxes among other issues pose major impediments to economic growth in the Keystone State.
As The Pennsylvania Daily Star reported this week, Pennsylvania has lagged behind other states in terms of making up economic ground lost during the COVID-19 pandemic. In July 2022, about 6.17 million Pennsylvanians held jobs, a 2.8-percent rise over the same month one year prior. National employment meanwhile increased 3.7 percent during that time.
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A national trend of criticism aimed at district attorneys in major cities has sparked a feud in Philadelphia between the DA and state Republicans.
In August, a House committee investigating Philadelphia District Attorney Larry Krasner issued a subpoena to his office. Krasner told the Philadelphia Inquirer that he will not comply and called the investigation “illegal” and “anti-democratic.”
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A program that provides taxpayer funding for qualifying Connecticut students to attend community college has been extended.
PACT provides funding to students to cover the difference between state and federal grants, community college tuition and mandatory fees, and, for the first time, allows part-time students taking six or more credits to qualify for the program.
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As unionized public-school staffers protest the School District of Philadelphia’s failure to assent to the union’s salary and training terms, threatening to strike at the beginning of the school year, school-choice advocates are reminding parents of alternatives.
Bus drivers, custodians, maintenance staff and other workers represented by the Services Employees International Union (SEIU) Local 32BJ have authorized a strike that could compromise the resumption of schooling that is scheduled for next Monday. Pro-strike workers insist they are underpaid, noting that cleaners make roughly $16,000 per year at the low end. At the high end, construction inspectors make approximately $70,000.
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The Biden Department of Education is investigating a complaint made by the parent of a Farmington, Connecticut middle school student who claims school administrators failed to protect her “nonbinary” child from bullying.
According to a report Sunday at the Hartford Courant, Melissa Combs, mother of Miles (fictitious name), an eighth grade student at Irving A. Robbins Middle School (IAR), who identifies as ‘nonbinary,’” filed a “19,000-word, 54-page complaint” with the U.S. Education Department’s Office for Civil Rights (OCR).
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A report released Monday by Pennsylvania’s Independent Fiscal Office (IFO) shows that new Keystone-State employment opportunities fell in June, marking a three-month overall decline.
Examining numbers from the federal Department of Labor, the IFO found that around 393,000 new jobs opened in June. Although that number exceeds the 281,000-per-month average for job openings that preceded COVID-19 in 2020, it continues a downward slope that began after new employment offerings reached 514,000 in March.
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A grant program from the U.S. Department of Agriculture will send $20 million to Pennsylvania to restore streams in central Pennsylvania and preserve farmland.
The funding is part of a $200 million initiative, the Regional Conservation Partnership Program, “to address on-farm, watershed, and regional natural resource concerns.” The RCPP was created by the 2014 Farm Bill and has sent out almost 600 awards.
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Pennsylvania’s Commonwealth Court on Friday ordered three counties that declined to count undated absentee ballots to count them.
Republican Commonwealth Court President Judge Renee Cohn Jubelirer issued the ruling affecting Berks, Fayette and Lancaster counties. Last month, Acting Secretary of State Leigh Chapman (D) sued the three jurisdictions to compel them to include votes delivered in undated envelopes in their May 17 primary results.
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Connecticut’s gaming revenue continues to grow and evolve since the heaviest pandemic-induced shutdowns impacted the income source two years ago.
A five-year analysis of the state’s gaming-derived revenues, gleaned from data via the state Department of Consumer Protection, shows how COVID-19 intermittently impacted the bottom line during the heaviest lockdowns before regaining momentum.
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Pennsylvania’s latest budget deal increased spending, and a good chunk favored private businesses, according to critics.
A new analysis from the Commonwealth Foundation says the budget carried $1.3 billion in corporate welfare spending.
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In an audit for the Central Bucks Regional Police Pension Plan, the auditor general criticized officials for inconsistent and authorized pension benefits. Pension plans are governed by Act 205 and Act 600 in state law, which sets regulations and guidelines on allowable pension benefits.
However, the latest collective bargaining agreement between police officers and the regional police commission “granted a length of service increment in excess of the plan’s governing document,” the report noted.
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Governor Ron DeSantis (R-FL) came to Pittsburgh this weekend to argue that his success governing Florida needs to be replicated in Pennsylvania and that state Sen. Doug Mastriano (R-PA-Gettysburg) is the man to do it.
The Adams County lawmaker is running against Democratic state Attorney General Josh Shapiro, someone who Mastriano and DeSantis believe will intensify the liberal governance the Keystone State has underwent during Tom Wolf’s eight-year administration.
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A recent report reveals that many Connecticut residents living with disabilities are unable to afford basic necessities.
The United Way of Central and Northeastern Connecticut released a study that shows 48% of disabled residents in the state are living in ALICE (Asset Limited, Income Constrained, Employed) or poverty-level conditions and struggle to afford basic housing, child care, health care, and transportation.
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Former President Donald Trump will hold a rally on Saturday, Sept. 3, in Pennsylvania to support the campaigns of Doug Mastriano for governor and Dr. Mehmet Oz for Senate.
The rally will take place in Wilkes-Barre and Trump will deliver his remarks at 7:00 p.m.
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The Cook Political Report this week changed its description of the Pennsylvania Senate race from “toss up” to “lean Democrat,” signaling trouble for Republican candidate Mehmet Oz, even as Democrat John Fetterman struggles with his return to the campaign trail.
Cook’s shifting outlook on the Senate contest is partly a response to figures on the FiveThirtyEight data-analysis website showing that Oz, a celebrity doctor, trails Fetterman, the lieutenant governor, by an average of 11.5 percentage points.
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Governor Ron DeSantis (R-FL) is coming through western Pennsylvania and eastern Ohio on Friday, August 19, to speak at two rallies, one for Pennsylvania gubernatorial candidate Doug Mastriano and the other for Ohio Senate candidate J.D. Vance.
The conservative activist organization Turning Point Action is hosting the events. In a statement, turning Point founder and president Charlie Kirk expressed his gladness to facilitate the rallies and his hope that DeSantis’s endorsement will “unite conservatives” around Mastriano and Vance.
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Pennsylvania has a new law that bans “scholarship displacement,” a practice where universities reduce financial aid to students when they receive an outside scholarship.
University officials said they already do not displace outside scholarships unless required to do so by law. However, critics do not believe them.
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Connecticut is implementing a new training program that is designed to give workers the skills necessary to fill jobs in high-priority occupations.
CareerConneCT, a $70 million program, backed by American Rescue Plan Act funds, will operate 19 various job training programs, Gov. Ned Lamont said. The training programs are aimed at giving workers affected by the COVID-19 pandemic short-term training to get them the credentials needed to work in various sectors of the workforce in higher quality jobs that are in demand.
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State Rep. Chris Quinn (R-PA-Media) this week testified before legislative colleagues in favor of his bill to open Pennsylvania primaries to voters who choose not to affiliate with a political party.
About 1.2 million voters in Pennsylvania decline to register as members of either major party and over 740,000 consider themselves nonpartisan or independent. Quinn said he finds it troubling that current law requires many taxpayers to fund GOP and Democratic primaries while excluding those independents from participation in nominating elections.
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Connecticut State Police law enforcement officers grappled with 150 drug equipment violations in 2020, according to the National Incident-Based Reporting System (NIBRS).
This equals 12 per month in 2020.
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Rep. Elizabeth Fiedler (D-PA-Philadelphia) proposed two bills to promote abortion in the Keystone state: an abortion training program and a bill to require insurers to cover abortion without cost sharing.
In a memorandum seeking cosponsors for her training measure, the democratic socialist representative from south Philadelphia indicated the legislation would bestow funding on the state Department of Health to provide medical professionals with up-to-date abortion instruction.
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A psychologist at Boston Children’s Hospital’s Gender Multispecialty Service (GeMS) states in a video titled “Caring for Young Transgender Kids” that many children know they are transgender “as early as seemingly from the womb.”
“A good portion of children do know as early as seemingly from the womb,” says Kerry McGregor, PsyD in a Boston Children’s Hospital video from May 2021. “And they will usually express their gender identity as very young children, some as soon as they can talk. They may say phrases such as ‘I’m a girl,’ or ‘I’m a boy,’ or ‘I’m going to be a woman,’ ‘I’m going to be a mom.’”
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Philadelphia City Councilman Allan Domb (D-At Large) announced this week he will leave his seat Tuesday as he considers a potential 2023 mayoral campaign.
The luxury real-estate executive submitted his letter of resignation to Council President Darrell Clarke (D-5) on Monday. Therein, he celebrated what he considered his successes while on the city’s legislative board, including wage and corporate tax reduction, fiscal waste mitigation and increased public-education funding. Yet, he lamented, the City of Brotherly Love has further strides to make particularly concerning public safety.
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Connecticut GOP U.S. Senate candidate Leora Levy observed Senator Richard Blumenthal’s (D-CT) mockery of Americans expressing concern over Joe Biden’s creation of 87,000 new IRS Agents in his legislation that will increase taxes on middle-income Americans and will do nothing to reduce inflation.
“I think the IRS is going to target the highest income Americans,” Blumenthal minimized concern over the Inflation Reduction Act on CNN’s State of the Union recently. “As the saying goes, that’s where the money is. That’s where they’re going to look to collect. The idea that there’s going to be this army of IRS agents defending descending on the average American is just preposterous.”
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Three Midwestern states scored best in the nation in analysis of laws restricting speech about government. Wisconsin, Michigan, and Iowa outranked every other state by wide margins.
That’s the conclusion of a report issued by the Institute for Free Speech, a national nonprofit research facility that focuses on First Amendment rights. Wisconsin’s score of 86% out of a possible 100% was followed by Michigan (77%) and Iowa (75%).
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