A major change in public records requirements for some of Pennsylvania’s best-known universities is working through the General Assembly.
Yet, while expansive, it would leave the public with less information about higher education than is available in other states.
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Pending the signature of Gov. Tom Wolf, Pennsylvania will be the 22nd state to join an EMS compact making it easier for emergency workers to practice across state lines.
The agreement standardizes privilege to practice rules, validates licenses in a national registry, and grants emergency medical workers the ability to work across state lines on a short-term basis. By aligning rules and standards, Pennsylvania poses fewer barriers to out-of-state workers who may relocate to the commonwealth.
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Pennsylvania’s Commonwealth Court on Thursday ruled to stop a tolling plan that would have affected nine bridges throughout the state.
In November 2020, the state Department of Transportation’s (PennDOT) Public-Private Transportation Partnership Board voted to open the door to tolling bridges on Interstate 78, Interstate 79, Interstate 80, Interstate 81, and Interstate 83 to fund their repair or replacement. Cumberland County, Bridgeville Borough, South Fayette Township and Collier Township eventually sued Gov. Tom Wolf’s (D) administration to prevent the state from establishing the collection booths.
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A Pennsylvania Senate bill to allow a voter to act as a poll watcher outside of his or her own county passed the state House of Representatives this week, though Gov. Tom Wolf (D) said he will veto it.
Sponsored by Sen. Doug Mastriano (R-Gettysburg), the “Poll Watcher Empowerment Act” received the support of every Republican and no Democratic representative. When it passed the Senate earlier this month, every Republican voted for it and every Democrat voted against it except for Sen. Lisa Boscola (D-Bethlehem).
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Days after several Pennsylvania Senate Democrats proposed legislation to codify the recently overturned Roe v. Wade decision, one senator is spearheading a more expansive measure to enshrine abortion and various sexual rights in the Pennsylvania Constitution.
State Sen. Steve Santarsiero (D-Doylestown) issued a memorandum to colleagues on Tuesday asking them to cosponsor his amendment. It would codify not only the 1973 Roe ruling that forbade states from prohibiting abortion but also the 2015 Obergefell v. Hodges decision disallowing bans on gay marriage. Other “privacy”-related rights Santarsiero wishes to write into the state Constitution include those identified in the 1965 Griswold v. Connecticut ruling, which disallowed contraception bans, and in the 2003 Lawrence v. Texas decision, which barred sodomy laws.
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On Monday, Laura Shanafelter joined lawmakers at the Harrisburg Capitol’s East Wing Rotunda to urge passage of legislation named after her late son to strengthen sentences for fentanyl dealers.
Called “Tyler’s Law,” the measure sponsored by state Sen. Doug Mastriano (R-Gettysburg) would impose a mandatory minimum sentence of 25 years on any fentanyl pusher who facilitated a sale resulting in someone’s death. The senator has lamented that these dealers often get sentences of only a few years in cases when investigation even occurs.
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Pennsylvania’s economy will have modest real economic growth but also a dip in tax revenues in the next fiscal year as one-time boosts fade away, according to the latest revenue estimates from the Independent Fiscal Office.
The estimate for fiscal year 2022-23 does not assume a recession will hit, but does assume inflation will still be a problem, which cuts away at real gains in areas such as wages and salaries.
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Shortly after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned the 1973 Roe v. Wade decision on Friday, Pennsylvania Senate Democrats proposed codifying abortion rights by state statute.
Sen. Katie Muth (D-Royersford) circulated a memorandum asking Senate colleagues to cosponsor the legislation that would keep the practice legal in Pennsylvania. So far, Sens. Amanda Cappelletti (D-Norristown), Lindsey Williams (D-Pittsburgh), Maria Collett (D-North Wales), Judith Schwank (D-Reading), Christine Tartaglione (D-Philadelphia) and Carolyn Comitta (D-West Chester) have signed onto the measure.
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The Pennsylvania General Assembly has moved another step closer in creating a scholarship program for students in underperforming schools to transfer elsewhere.
HB2169, narrowly passed in the House in April, would grant a $6,800 Lifeline Scholarship to students in the bottom 15% of the lowest-performing schools and allow them to use the money on tuition, tutoring, and other educational expenses.
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The future of abortion in Pennsylvania is an open question, as current state law protects it but both parties would like to change the law.
The U.S. Supreme Court on Friday overturned Roe v. Wade, the 1973 decision that legalized abortion nationwide.
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A Pennsylvania Senate panel this week passed a measure sponsored by Sen. Doug Mastriano (R-Gettysburg) to strengthen the commonwealth’s tracking of overdoses.
All Republican and Democratic members of the Senate Veterans Affairs and Emergency Preparedness Committee supported the bill. It awaits consideration of the state House of Representatives.
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Pennsylvania’s House State Government Committee on Wednesday passed a Senate bill to move the state’s presidential primary date and another measure to allow out-of-county poll watchers.
The first of the two bills was sponsored by Sen. John Gordner (R-Bloomsburg) and passed his chamber unanimously last December. And yet only two of the House panel’s 10 Democrats, Kristine Howard (D-Malvern) and Ben Sanchez (D-Abington), backed the legislation during Wednesday’s vote.
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John Fetterman, the Democratic nominee to represent Pennsylvania in the U.S. Senate, was endorsed by the Pennsylvania State Education Association (PSEA) and the National Education Association (NEA).
The top teachers’ union backed the Democrat, saying he is “exactly the kind of leader” they need in the nation’s capital.
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Comparing urban areas across America, Philadelphia and Pittsburgh have struggled to recover since the pandemic, showing lackluster economic performance with job levels still below pre-pandemic times.
That performance puts Pennsylvania’s two biggest cities about average in America, according to an analysis from the Brookings Institution on urban economic recovery since COVID-19.
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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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Philadelphia has one of the worst city tax burdens in America, and voters aren’t pleased. It will also be a struggle for city leaders to find a politically popular solution.
A poll from the Pew Charitable Trusts found that Philadelphians have become more opposed to taxes, but an anti-tax revolt isn’t brewing in the city either.
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A bill to create a performance-based funding incentive for three public universities passed the Pennsylvania House Education Committee on Monday, with all 15 Republicans supportive and all 10 Democrats opposed.
Beginning in Fiscal Year 2023-24, the bill would apply to Pennsylvania State University, Temple University and the University of Pittsburgh, three of Pennsylvania’s four state-related universities. (The fourth, Lincoln University, is a historically black institution that relies primarily on commonwealth funding.)
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State Sen. David Argall (R-PA-Mahanoy City) last week proposed a rule that Pennsylvania’s statewide elected officials must disclose urgent medical conditions to the governor and legislative leaders.
He indirectly mentioned the most recent example of a statewide elected official who apparently neglected to disclose a life-threatening condition: Lt. Gov. John Fetterman (D). Now a candidate for the U.S. Senate to replace the retiring Republican Pat Toomey, Fetterman suffered a stroke four days before the May 17 primary.
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A new law in Pennsylvania makes it easier for foreign nurses to get certified in the state, expanding the potential pool of health-care workers as the state confronts a nursing shortage.
Act 22 updates nursing license requirements by allowing the State Board of Nursing to approve graduates of international nursing programs to sit for the registered nursing examination. So long as the education they received outside the United States meets the state board’s standards, graduates can get licensed much quicker than before.
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The attorney general’s office has charged eight Philadelphia municipal workers, alleging they claimed more than $300,000 in pandemic-related unemployment funds.
Thanks to a referral from Philadelphia’s Office of Inspector General, the eight were found to have received payments from the Pandemic Unemployment Assistance program while still on city payroll. Each worker received between $20,000 and $60,000 in PUA benefits.
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The pandemic has not been kind to Pennsylvania higher education: Its colleges have seen a 6.4% enrollment drop for freshmen since spring 2020.
The data, from the National Student Clearinghouse Research Center, is a reminder that Pennsylvania’s shrinking population of college-aged youth has made it harder for colleges to fill seats. The two-year decline means that 22,738 fewer students are on campuses now.
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Pennsylvania state Sen. Doug Mastriano (R-Gettysburg) on Thursday announced he will soon introduce legislation to strengthen penalties for fentanyl pushers whose sales result in deadly overdoses.
The senator is naming his measure “Tyler’s Law” after Tyler Shanafelter, an 18-year-old constituent who bought what he believed was Percocet but turned out to have acquired a fentanyl-laced product. The young man fatally overdosed.
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Republicans very recently used to dominate the locale composing much of Pennsylvania’s Fifth Congressional District. Geographically overlapping with much of the erstwhile Seventh District (nixed four years ago by the state Supreme Court), the Delaware-County-based territory had Republican Pat Meehan as its U.S. representative from 2011 to 2018. Before Meehan’s predecessor Joe Sestak (D) won the seat for two two-year terms, GOP Congressman Curt Weldon held it for two decades.
The district today is, well, different: Republicans’ old stronghold of Delaware County has flipped Democratic (though the GOP still fares well in some municipalities). And anyone waging a general-election campaign against Democratic Congresswoman Mary Gay Scanlon must also make inroads in south Philadelphia, Lower Merion, Upper Merion, Narberth, Bridgeport and Norristown — all places where “blue” voters have long outnumbered “red” ones.
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Pennsylvania’s above-estimate tax revenues have been a boon for its public education system – per-pupil spending hit an all-time high, according to an analysis from the Commonwealth Foundation.
In 2020-21, school district spending per student reached $19,900, new data from the Pennsylvania Department of Education noted.
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State Senator Doug Mastriano (R-Gettysburg) asked colleagues Tuesday to co-sponsor a bill he plans to introduce to let teachers carry guns in Pennsylvania schools.
Under the proposal, teachers who hold concealed carry permits may be armed on school property provided they complete “a rigorous firearms course from a certified instructor.” Similar measures are now in effect in 28 states.
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Since the pandemic hit and government relief attempted to ease the pain of economic shutdowns, concerns of taxpayer money being wasted or fraudulently obtained has been a pressing issue.
In Pennsylvania, the state may see a special prosecutor appointed to focus on cases related to unemployment fraud.
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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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Pennsylvania’s Senate voted 30-20 last week to approve legislation banning biological males from competing in females’ school and college sports programs.
Sens. Judy Ward (R-Hollidaysburg) and Kristin Phillips-Hill (R-Jacobus) offered the measure so that female athletes need not compete against males who, they noted, have “distinct and meaningful physical advantages over women” including greater height, bone density, heart size and lung size.
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While Pennsylvania’s Republican-controlled General Assembly has been at odds with Democratic Gov. Tom Wolf on spending and budget priorities, both parties have shown bipartisan cooperation for billions in energy-related federal funds.
Pennsylvania’s congressional delegation, along with Wolf, issued a letter lending their support for a hydrogen hub in the state that would “modernize our industrial and manufacturing base with less carbon intensive forms of energy,” according to the letter.
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College 529 savings plans are a common way to offer families tax breaks for higher education, but their benefits get heavily concentrated among the well-off.
The plans also may not be the best way to save money for the future, due to their high management fees.
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Pennsylvania’s House of Representatives Liquor Control Committee this week passed legislation to privatize liquor sales.
While the Republican-run General Assembly passed and Gov. Tom Wolf (D) signed a 2016 measure allowing grocery stores to sell wine and liberalizing some other alcoholic-beverage regulations, the Keystone State remains among the most tightly controlled in terms of liquor distribution. The commonwealth owns 600 “Fine Wine & Good Spirits” stores which have sole permission to sell both wine and hard liquor; only Utah’s system is equally monopolistic.
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Former Pennsylvania Congressman Michael “Ozzie” Myers pleaded guilty this week to an election-fraud scheme that spanned the 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017 and 2018 elections.
Federal prosecutor Jennifer Arbittier Williams announced that the 79-year-old ex-representative admitted to “conspiracy to deprive voters of civil rights, bribery, obstruction of justice, falsification of voting records and conspiring to illegally vote in a federal election.” He arranged to have ballots stuffed on behalf of Democratic candidates in two divisions of Philadelphia’s 39th Ward which is located in South Philadelphia East.
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Recent state audits have called attention to some Pennsylvania school districts’ lackadaisical controls that have made auditing how tens of millions of dollars were spent impossible.
The audits do not suggest any illegal activity, but poor compliance measures can hide how taxpayer dollars are being wasted or improperly spent.
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Pennsylvania’s state Senate passed legislation this week that would permit a Pennsylvania voter to serve as a poll watcher in an election precinct outside of his or her county.
Current law lets candidates and parties appoint poll watchers — volunteers who are often party committee members — to election precincts only in those watchers’ respective counties. State guidance allows these appointees to “make good-faith challenges” to an elector’s residence, identity or voting eligibility.
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Kathy Barnette, a Republican former U.S. Senate candidate from Pennsylvania, hinted on Monday at possibly supporting primary winner Mehmet Oz, something she previously refused to do.
An Army Reserve veteran, political commentator and former adjunct finance professor who lives in Huntingdon Valley — a Montgomery County town neighboring Bryn Athyn where Oz lives — Barnette earlier balked at voting for the celebrity surgeon. On Primary Election Day, May 17, the eventual third-place finisher declared she had “no intentions of supporting globalists,” referring to Oz and fellow top-tier candidate Dave McCormick.
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Pennsylvania Lt. Gov. John Fetterman (D), a candidate for U.S. Senate, released a statement Friday indicating serious unaddressed health problems preceded the stroke he suffered in the days leading up to the May 17 primary.
Fetterman called the heart clot which caused the stroke “preventable,” as he recalled he should have heeded medical advice following a visit to University of Pittsburgh Medical Center East in 2017. He went to the hospital to have this then-swollen feet examined. After assessing Fetterman’s foot condition and vital signs cardiologist Ramesh R. Chandra diagnosed him with an irregular heartbeat, atrial fibrillation (which means the heart’s upper chambers beat inconsistently with the lower chambers) and a decreased heart pump.
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Gun violence erupted in one of Philadelphia’s most celebrated neighborhoods for nightlife on Saturday night, just a day after nine separate shootings in the City of Brotherly Love reportedly injured at least eight people and killed a pregnant woman.
Three are dead and 11 injured in multiple shootings on South Street around 11:30 pm despite a heavy police presence on the perfect weather evening, the Philadelphia Inquirer reported. The dead were identified as Kristopher Minners, 22; Alexis Quinn, 27; and Gregory “Japan” Jackson, 34.
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Fentanyl dominates Pennsylvania and has surpassed heroin as the major opioid in the commonwealth, posing greater health risks to those who use it and creating a bigger problem for law enforcement.
That’s according to a new report from the Pennsylvania attorney general’s office warning the public of rising overdose deaths and the threat opioids pose to public health.
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Pennsylvania GOP Senate candidate and hedge fund CEO David McCormick on Friday conceded the race to his Trump-backed opponent, reality star Dr. Mehmet Oz.
McCormick on Friday announced that he had called Oz to concede the race after it became clear he would lose the extremely tight race, per the Associated Press. The race is still going through an automatic recount.
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A new survey released Thursday by the Commonwealth Foundation (CF), a Harrisburg-based think tank, suggests Pennsylvanians broadly support free-market reforms the institute urges policymakers to embrace.
CF publicized its Better Pennsylvania 2023 Plan, a list of 23 such recommendations, in conjunction with the poll. Executive vice president Jennifer Stefano said the foundation plans to distribute the agenda to state lawmakers and candidates for public office. She believes the ideas’ implementation will “restore hope to our citizens across the commonwealth and set us on a better path that allows all Pennsylvanians to flourish.”
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A far-left gun control group based in Arizona Thursday endorsed Pennsylvania’s Lieutenant Governor, who is also the state’s Democrat nominee for Governor in this year’s election.
“For years, @JohnFetterman has been a powerful voice for Pennsylvanians who have lost their lives to gun violence, and I have no doubt that he will continue this fight in the Senate. I am proud to back Lt. Gov. Fetterman in his bid for US Senate,” Gabrielle Giffords said in a Thursday tweet.
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State Rep. Eric Nelson (R-Greensburg) on Wednesday announced a proposal to redirect $580 million previously allotted to three major Pennsylvania universities to a college voucher program.
Under the representative’s measure, students from households with up to $100,000 in annual earnings would receive yearly grants of as much as $8,000 per year for higher education. Those from households earning between $100,000 and $250,000 would get vouchers of $4,000. These payments would be managed via an expansion of the Pennsylvania State System of Higher Education (PASSHE), an agency Nelson said has demonstrated an ability to efficiently oversee Pennsylvania students’ financial assistance.
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Attorneys for Senate candidate Dave McCormick on Monday found themselves in the atypical position of arguing in Commonwealth Court alongside Pennsylvania’s Democratic Secretary of State about which ballots to count.
The Republican and former hedge-fund executive is challenging the vote-counting standard that has determined the gap of 922 votes between him and his leading primary opponent, celebrity surgeon Mehmet Oz.
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A bill proposed last week by state Rep. Tim Briggs (D-PA-King of Prussia) would bar civilians from buying or possessing body armor in Pennsylvania.
His legislation follows efforts on the federal level and in other states to prohibit civilians from acquiring protective shields. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) called for a body-armor ban in 2019 after a mass shooting in Dayton, OH. The New York State Assembly has considered enacting state-level restrictions over the last few sessions, but a bill to do so has stalled.
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Pennsylvania state Rep. Greg Rothman (R-Camp Hill) last week announced he intends to introduce a measure allowing courts to impose the death penalty for killings based on their taking place in some settings including schools.
Currently, a convict can receive a death sentence in the Keystone State if a court finds he or she committed a murder to which at least one of 18 statutorily defined “aggravating circumstances” and no “mitigating circumstances” apply. Aggravating circumstances include the victim having served as a police officer or other first responder, the defendant having committed the killing for hire or the killer having held the victim hostage. Mitigating circumstances include the perpetrator having no prior criminal history or the killer having committed his or her crime under “extreme duress.”
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In a setback for public-sector unions, a consent order could upend Pennsylvania’s fair share fee laws, which require non-union workers to pay a fee similar to union dues.
The consent order, issued on May 23 by the Court of Common Pleas of Lancaster County, declared the state’s fair share fee law unconstitutional under the U.S. Supreme Court’s 2018 decision in Janus v. American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees.
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The owner of a Pennsylvania drug and alcohol treatment facility has pleaded guilty to a Medicaid fraud case that netted his organization $12 million over three years in an illegal kickback scheme.
The attorney general’s office announced the plea of Dr. Lloyd Reid, the owner of Southwest Nu-Stop Philadelphia Inc., which came about from a joint investigation of the office’s Medicaid Fraud Control Section and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
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Republicans in Pennsylvania’s House of Representatives this week defeated Democrats’ attempt to pass legislation prohibiting the sale of what they term “assault weapons.”
The bill was introduced last year by then-state Rep. Ed Gainey (D-Pittsburgh) who left his seat earlier this year to become mayor of Pittsburgh. It never received a vote of the House Judiciary Committee, so Democrats moved to suspend House floor rules and record a vote of the full chamber. The legislation failed by a vote of 111 to 87.
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A day after the school shooting in Uvalde, TX, Pennsylvania Democrats are calling for more stringent gun control in the state, with state Sen. Art Haywood (D-Abington) proposing eligibility licenses for firearm purchases.
Pennsylvania already administers licenses to carry firearms in Pennsylvania, for which any person who is at least 21 years old and has a clean record may apply.
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Pennsylvania’s teacher shortage is spurring action in the General Assembly to pass reforms and simplify its certification process for educators.
A proposed bill, SB224, would assist out-of-state teachers’ certification to teach in Pennsylvania. So long as a teacher completed a state-approved teaching program elsewhere, they would be eligible for a comparable certification in Pennsylvania. It would provide for reciprocity with other states, making it easier for teachers who move to Pennsylvania to start teaching.
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