Pennsylvanians serving in the military may soon see their credentials as first responders preserved while deployed.
House Bill 404, introduced by Rep. Dane Watro, R-Hazleton, would expand the commonwealth’s policy of using military experience to fulfill licensing and certification rules for EMTs. The bill would exempt those serving from continuing education or in-service training requirements.
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The disbarment trial of Donald Trump’s former attorney and constitutional legal scholar, John Eastman, wrapped up its seventh week on Friday, with more testimony from Kari Lake’s attorney Kurt Olsen, and Eastman resuming the stand briefly at the end. Olsen discussed several laws he said he believes were violated by state election officials in Wisconsin, Georgia, Michigan, and Pennsylvania.
Olsen began testifying about a Motion for Leave to File a Bill of Complaint that he and Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton filed with the U.S. Supreme Court, asking to stop Georgia, Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin from certifying their 2020 election results due to multiple violations of state law and constitutional problems. One of the reasons he said he brought the complaint was that signature verification was halted in the 2020 election in Detroit.
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The Perkiomen Valley School District in Pennsylvania recently passed a policy that mandates kids use the bathroom associated with their biological sex after students staged a walkout in protest of the school board for originally rejecting the proposal.
The school board originally voted against the policy titled “Policy 720” in a 4-5 vote. However, the vote changed earlier this week after board member Don Fountain voted to approve the policy instead.
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After last week’s disorderly, hostile debate, some fun and games on the presidential campaign trail may have been just what the doctor ordered.
Multi-millionaire businessman and GOP presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy rolled out Vektoberfest Thursday evening in suburban Des Moines, bringing Iowans “family-friendly fun” mixed with a serious campaign speech dredging the depths of America’s soul-sucking void.
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The state House has overwhelmingly rejected a joint proposal to move the primary election date and implement sweeping voting changes that frustrated lawmakers on both sides of the aisle.
The chamber struck down Senate Bill 224 by a vote of 177-26. In total, all 101 Republicans and 76 Democrats, including House Speaker Joanna McClinton of Philadelphia, disapproved.
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A group of Yale doctors and other healthcare researchers recently published a small study that stated there is “anti-Asian racism” in medical school programs and concluded that Asian students are “invisible.”
However, the researchers who conducted the study rejected the idea that a small sample size and biased sampling methods made the study inapplicable.
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Former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley jumped to second place behind former President Donald Trump in the first-in-the-nation primary state of New Hampshire, according to a Wednesday poll.
Haley garnered 19% support among likely Republican primary voters in the state, following Trump’s lead at 49%, according to a Suffolk University/Boston Globe/USA Today survey. Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis came in third with 10% ahead of former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie at 6%, and South Carolina Sen. Tim Scott and conservative businessman Vivek Ramaswamy both garnered 4% support.
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The disbarment trial of Trump’s former attorney and constitutional legal scholar John Eastman entered into its seventh week on Tuesday, with two of Eastman’s witnesses returning to the witness stand for cross-examination. Physicist John Droz discussed the reports he oversaw on election anomalies in the 2020 election, and retired Department of Defense analyst Ray Blehar revealed that despite the huge increases in votes for Joe Biden compared to Hillary Clinton in 2016, Biden got fewer votes than she did in Philadelphia.
The proceedings began with a discussion of whether Eastman’s witnesses would be allowed to testify about the vote spikes report, which revealed large net dumps of votes solely for Joe Biden on election night. Both Droz and Blehar worked on the report, but the Democrat donating California Bar Disciplinary Judge Yvette Roland has refused to allow them to testify about it or allow it into evidence, mainly asserting that it’s because she hasn’t designated them as expert witnesses. She said last week that the report would likely be allowed into evidence this week since a forthcoming witness for Eastman, statistician Stan Young, has been designated an expert witness, but she and the California bar’s attorney Duncan Carling started discussing how even he would probably not be enough to allow it into evidence.
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Lawmakers and Gov. Josh Shapiro find themselves at odds once again over the amount the administration deposited into the state’s Rainy Day Fund.
The Office of the Budget said Thursday it transferred $411.6 million into the savings account, or about 10% of the $4.1 billion revenue surplus left over on June 30 – the end of the prior fiscal year.
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New York Judge Arthur Engoron, a registered Democrat, granted summary judgment against Donald Trump last week in a case alleging real estate fraud by the former president. Not waiting for the trial to begin, where evidence would be produced, experts would testify, and discovery would conclude, Engoron revoked the licenses for Trump’s key properties, including Trump Tower and the Trump International Hotel, and set up a fast timeline to dissolve the Trump Organization and its connected entities. Engoron said Trump and his associates inflated the values of his properties, but several legal experts disagreed.
Viva Frei, a lawyer who hosts a show with fellow lawyer Robert Barnes called Sidebar, broke down his assessment of the case with Barnes in an 18-minute video on Monday. “It would seem that the REAL fraud is coming from the Court and from the corrupt Attorney General,” he said. “A breakdown of the absurdity coming out of New York from last night’s stream.”
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Asserting the current crowded GOP presidential primary debate stage is too cluttered, the campaign for Republican presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy is asking the Republican National Committee to trim the number of contestants for the next debate in November.
Ben Yoho, CEO of the Ohio businessman’s presidential campaign, proposed revised criteria for candidates to make next month’s debate stage in Miami.
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Connecticut is one of the last states in the nation to hold a presidential primary, but that would change under a proposal awaiting action by Gov. Ned Lamont.
A proposal approved by the state Legislature last week during a special session would change the presidential primary date to the first Tuesday in April, which in the next nominating cycle would be April 2. Under the current law, the primary is held on the last Tuesday, which would be April 30. Lamont, who backs the move, is expected to sign the bill into law.
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The sixth week of the disbarment trial of Donald Trump’s former attorney and constitutional legal scholar, John Eastman, wrapped up Friday with testimony by two witnesses from Eastman’s team. Attorney Kurt Olsen, who is representing Kari Lake in her election challenge, testified first. Next, Ray Blehar, a retired Department of Defense analyst, testified, discussing his findings that 280,000 to 300,000 votes in Pennsylvania were “vote laundered” through the electronic tabulating machines.
Olsen began his testimony explaining why he decided to become involved in an election lawsuit over the 2020 election. He said, “I believed that something was not right.” He listed what concerned him: video clips of poll workers not allowed to watch tabulation, the controversy in Michigan’s Antrim County, results that didn’t make sense such as the stopping of counting ballots overnight in key counties, and “clear violations of law.”
Pennsylvania state police applications spiked over the last month after the governor axed the agency’s college credit requirement.
Nearly half of the 1,200 candidates were not eligible before the Aug. 28 announcement. Overall, interest has surged – in the previous half-year hiring period, the agency had received 1,745 applications.
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For more than a decade, policymakers in Harrisburg – and the circle of education influencers that they attract – have struggled to define equity for public school students.
Now, with a court mandate baring down, the state must reimagine the free and fair public education system promised in its Constitution – the guarantee envisioned by revolutionary elected officials like Thaddeus Stevens, whose influence still looms large in the halls of the Capitol.
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Connecticut will spend $25 million to replace its aging voting machines ahead of the 2024 presidential election.
Gov. Ned Lamont said the State Bond Commission will vote at its Oct. 6 meeting to approve the borrowing to purchase new ballot-counting tabulators for use in elections and primaries statewide. He said the current voting machines are over 17 years old and approaching the end of their useful life.
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Physicist and auditor John Droz testified all day Thursday in the ongoing disbarment trial of Donald Trump’s former attorney and constitutional scholar, John Eastman. California Disciplinary Court Judge Yvette Roland, who contributed to Democrats while on the bench, spent a large portion of the day successfully attempting to keep Droz’s investigative reports into the 2020 election and his testimony from being admitted into evidence. Some of his testimony that was struck from the record afterward discussed a report that attorney Jesse Binnall delivered to Congress, laying out what he found as 130,000 incidents of voter fraud in Nevada’s 2020 election.
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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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Wednesday evening’s chaotic GOP presidential primary debate at times felt more like an episode of “Jersey Shore” than a showcase of the best and brightest minds in conservative politics.
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The Pennsylvania Treasury’s “dramatic” revenue gains may soon come to an end, according to a recent independent analysis.
Before 2019, investing unused state funds netted the treasury between $8 million to $72 million in revenue. As an analysis from the Independent Fiscal Office noted, revenue was only $9 million in fiscal year 2020-21.
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Connecticut lawmakers are calling for an investigation and changes in state election laws following allegations of absentee ballot fraud in a mayoral election.
Following the Sept. 12 primary, John Gomes, a Democrat who challenged incumbent Bridgeport Mayor Joe Ganim, released video footage showing a woman depositing absentee ballots into a dropbox a week before the election. Gomes lost to Ganim by 251 mail-in or absentee votes despite beating him at the polls, according to the election results.
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The governor’s administration says the state should encourage the responsible use of artificial intelligence throughout its agencies, rather than turn a blind eye to its capabilities.
Thus, a new executive order was born, Gov. Josh Shapiro said, which represents “the most comprehensive” action taken at the state level to incorporate AI programs.
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If Wednesday’s second GOP presidential primary debate proves to be anything like the first, we’re in for a night of political punches and maybe a rhetorical gang fight or two as the candidates look to score points in another Trump-less bout.
With former President Donald Trump skipping the debate at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley, CA, top tier candidates like Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, Ohio entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy, and former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley will try to tell those watching why they’re a better option than the race’s far and away frontrunner — and the rest of the crowded field of Republican candidates.
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Although the launch of online hunting license sales started off rocky this year, the agency responsible says they have taken steps to improve the process.
Pennsylvania Game Commission Executive Director Bryan Burhans acknowledged issues with rollout on June 26, but said he expected the process to be smoother in the future during a recent Senate Game and Fisheries Committee hearing.
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Wages will rise for hundreds of thousands of low-skilled workers in Connecticut next year under a 2019 law that pegs the state’s minimum wage to the federal employment index.
Beginning Jan. 1, Connecticut’s wage floor will rise from $15.00 per hour to $15.69 per hour as a result of the state’s first-ever economic indicator adjustment.
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A recent poll showing President Joe Biden ahead of Donald Trump in a 2024 rematch if the former president is convicted of the indictments he’s facing was conducted by the pollster working with Florida Governor Ron DeSantis’ super PAC.
As in other polls connected to the DeSantis camp, the latest survey does not include basic topline and demographic information.
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A former Yale student who was acquitted of rape in 2018, and later kicked out of the college, can sue his accuser for defamation over statements the accuser made during a school hearing, the Connecticut Supreme Court ruled in June, according to the New York Post.
Saifullah Khan sued Yale in 2019 for $110 million, and has been attempting to bring his accuser into the lawsuit, according to the Post. The Connecticut Supreme Court ruled ruled that he can sue the accuser, and that she shouldn’t received “qualified immunity,” which prevents people from being sued over statements in judicial cases, from her testimony that Khan raped her in 2015.
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Thanks to an agreement between Norfolk Southern and Amtrak — and a $200 million investment from the commonwealth — western Pennsylvania will have more passenger rail coming through Pittsburgh.
On Friday, Gov. Josh Shapiro announced a passenger rail expansion for Amtrak’s New York City-Harrisburg-Pittsburgh service, going from once daily to twice daily.
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Declaring that it’s time for Washington to start working for Americans and not the other way around, GOP presidential candidate Nikki Haley laid out her economic “Freedom Plan in a speech Friday in New Hampshire.
The former South Carolina governor and United Nations ambassador is proposing a litany of middle-class tax cuts, regulatory relief and “third rail” entitlement reforms in a proposal she asserts will check communist China aggression through American prosperity.
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State grants issued this week will help counties feed some of the 1.5 million residents facing food insecurity every day.
On Tuesday, Gov. Josh Shapiro announced that $1.6 million will go to 40 food banks, pantries, shelters, and soup kitchens to make emergency meals easier to get in 26 counties.
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Wages will rise for hundreds of thousands of low-skilled workers in Connecticut next year under a 2019 law that pegs the state’s minimum wage to the federal employment index.
Beginning Jan. 1, Connecticut’s wage floor will rise from $15.00 per hour to $15.69 per hour as a result of the state’s first-ever economic indicator adjustment.
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A push to reform the oversight of Pennsylvania’s half-dozen homes for veterans would create an advisory board to improve care and watch over the dwellings.
Senate Bill 933 would give a 15-member Veterans Home Advisory Board the responsibility to provide input on quality of care concerns for the more than 1,300 Pennsylvania veterans living in the six homes across the state.
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A Democratic candidate has won a special election for a seat in the Pennsylvania House of Representatives, retaining the party’s one-seat majority in the chamber.
Lindsay Powell is a Democratic political aide who previously served as an aide to Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries. On Tuesday, she won a special election to Pennsylvania’s state House District 21, which covers the suburbs of Pittsburgh, by a margin of 29% over Republican candidate Erin Authenreith according to results published by the Pennsylvania Department of State, which gives Democrats 102 seats to the Republicans’ 101.
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The campaign for North Dakota Governor and Republican presidential candidate Doug Burgum said it’s rolling out a “cutting-edge voter contact surge” that will target more “persuadable” voters.
Will it be enough to move the needle for a long-shot candidate on the outside looking in to next week’s second GOP presidential debate?
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Democratic Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro announced Tuesday that he will implement “automatic voter registration” ahead of the 2024 election.
The governor rolled out his plan on National Voter Registration Day to “streamline” the voter registration process, which he argues will “save taxpayers time and money,” according to an announcement video. Shapiro’s plan will automatically enroll Pennsylvanians in the voting system, unless the individual opts out, when receiving an identification card or driver’s license at the Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV).
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State lawmakers must act soon before a trio of authorizations expire for traffic cameras that capture drivers violating traffic laws.
Provisions will soon kick in that would put an end to speed cameras in active work zones; camera-equipped school buses that ticket drivers who fail to yield to a stop sign; and speed cameras along Philadelphia’s Roosevelt Boulevard — one of the commonwealth’s most dangerous roads.
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Pennsylvania could become a national leader in innovation — if the support is there and state leaders embrace reform.
“Innovation matters so much to economic performance, yet the state’s innovation drift is resulting in a broader economic drift,” Brookings Metro Senior Fellow Mark Muro told legislators Friday at a Senate Majority Policy Committee hearing on innovation. “We’re really challenging the state to, above all, commit to innovation…the state needs to try harder on this front. We think you could win — if you actually tried harder.”
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After a raucous public comment period, Philadelphia City Council moved to ban supervised injection sites for narcotics across most of the city.
Council voted 13-1 vote on Bill #230410 to ban any site that “that provides space for any person to inject, ingest, inhale, or otherwise introduce into the person’s body an unprescribed controlled substance” in all but West Philadelphia’s District 3.
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The cost of health insurance plans offered through Connecticut’s Affordable Care Act Exchange will increase next year by nearly double digits, state insurance regulators said.
The Connecticut Insurance Department has approved a 9.4% proposed rate increase for health insurers for plans available on and off Access Health CT, the state’s health insurance exchange.
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The Democratic Party has succumbed to the “siren of control,” according to a letter Robert F. Kennedy Jr. penned to the Democratic National Committee ahead of its controversial meeting that was expected to decide delegate procedures for the 2024 primary elections.
The Kennedy family scion running for the Democratic Party presidential nomination, spares no feelings in calling out the party of his famous father and uncle for losing its way.
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U.S. Senator and Republican presidential hopeful Tim Scott is unveiling his “Build, Don’t Borrow” economic plan as he prepares for another campaign trip to Iowa.
Scott says his proposal targets runaway government spending, while cutting taxes, expanding jobs and “unleashing American manufacturing and energy production” with his Made in America agenda.
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Mountains of legal briefs and hours of political debate have been generated by the debate over whether the 14th Amendment will keep former President Donald Trump off the New Hampshire ballot in the First in the Nation primary. But for Secretary of State David Scanlan, the issue was resolved with a single sentence.
Trump is on the ballot because New Hampshire state law says so.
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Pennsylvania’s finances have improved in recent years, with Moody’s Investor Services announcing it has revised the state’s financial outlook from “stable” to “positive.”
The financial services company noted the commonwealth’s “recently improved financial position and above-average long-term liabilities dominated by its unfunded pension burden.”
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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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If elected president, political outsider Vivek Ramaswamy vows to cut 1 million jobs from a behemoth federal government workforce.
And the GOP presidential candidate’s plan to rein in the administrative state is driving the left and the mainstream media insane.
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The online shopping industry, and the multi-billion dollar logistics and distribution network at its core, depend on Pennsylvania’s roads, land and workers for its warehouses.
And yet, environmental groups say that zoning ordinances for these facilities fall short, leaving the state’s land, air and water vulnerable to destruction.
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Republican Presidential hopeful Vivek Ramaswamy on Wednesday will lay out his plan to break the grip of power held by the administrative state.
“There is an unconstitutional, fourth branch of government that is choking American democracy, and it is called the administrative state,” Ramaswamy asserts in an advance copy of a white paper speech provided to The Star News Network by the Ohio entrepreneur’s campaign.
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Podiatrists may soon prescribe medical marijuana in Pennsylvania, that is if the Legislature takes the advice of the state’s advisory panel.
The Medical Marijuana Advisory Board voted this week in favor of a recommendation to add podiatrists to a list of more than 1,800 medical providers that includes among others psychiatrists, primary care physicians, specialists, anesthesiologists, and oncologists.
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The group responsible for the nationwide overturning of affirmative action has dropped its lawsuit challenging the race-based admissions policies of Yale University.
According to Politico, Students for Fair Admissions (SFA) came to an agreement with the Ivy League school in which they would voluntarily drop their lawsuit, in exchange for Yale making several changes to its admissions policies prior to the Fall 2023 undergraduate application season.
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Former President Donald Trump is dominating the field of Republican presidential hopefuls in the Hawkeye State, according to an Iowa State University/Civiqs poll released Friday.
The poll dropped a day before Trump and GOP presidential nominee rivals, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis and Ohio entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy, are slated to appear at the Cy-Hawk showdown, the much-anticipated annual college football game between the Iowa State Cyclones and the Iowa Hawkeyes in Ames.
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