Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf is again urging the Republican-controlled General Assembly to increase the commonwealth’s minimum wage, claiming anything under $15 an hour isn’t enough to support a family.
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Dozens of individuals have reported issues with Pennsylvania’s unemployment system, as repeated mishaps have caused delays in payments.
The technical issues created by the website and the agency’s failure to provide payments have caused individuals to have limited or no income during the holiday season.
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Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf (D) this week vetoed legislation that would have directed school districts to publish their curricula online.
State Rep. Andrew Lewis (R-Harrisburg) sponsored the bill to provide a “standardized, simple and user-friendly” means for residents to review the general lesson plans and the titles of textbooks to which children in their districts are subject. New or revised plans would have had to appear online within 30 days of their approval. The representative has observed that many parents have publicly voiced frustration about their inability to ascertain their kids’ curricula ahead of time, with some speaking to him directly about the issue.
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The Pennsylvania congresswoman who was the victim of a Wednesday carjacking has a long history of advocating for far-left “criminal justice reform” policies.
“I’m coming right now from a hearing on criminal justice reform and what we can do to address some of these issues of mass incarceration, which have, you know, plagued our society and overtaxed our prisons over the last couple decades,” Rep. Mary Gay Scanlon (D-PA-05) said in March of 2020.
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Pennsylvania state Rep. David Zimmerman (R-East Earl) this week proposed a measure enabling prosecution of those who kill or injure an unborn child while committing a non-homicidal crime against the mother.
Current law only allows murder charges for killing an unborn human when the perpetrator is also charged with murdering that child’s mother. Criminal acts against an expecting mother causing a pre-born child’s death that Zimmerman’s legislation would cover include assault, fatal drug delivery and reckless endangerment, according to a memorandum to Pennsylvania House members.
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Two former Greenfield Township wastewater treatment plant employees were found guilty of multiple Clean Water Act violations and wire fraud.
The father-son duo, Bruce Evans, Sr., and Bruce Evans, Jr., routinely failed to follow guidelines imposed by the environmental law and restrictions imposed in a permit issued by the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection (PADEP) and the United States Environmental Protections Agency (EPA).
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Pennsylvania state Reps. Dan Miller (D-Mt. Lebanon) and Jordan Harris (D-Philadelphia) are preparing to introduce legislation that would mitigate several features of the commonwealth’s criminal-justice system for minors.
The two Democrats would limit juvenile probation to one year for misdemeanors and to 1.5 years for felonies, stop levying nearly any juvenile court fees or fines and raise the age at which children are subject to juvenile court to 13. Under their proposal, criminal prosecution would not be an option for anyone under the age of 10.
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Of the three companies producing COVID vaccines in the U.S., only one—Pfizer Inc.—has yet gained full FDA approval, and at least some Pfizer vaccines currently being administered in Pennsylvania come from inventory that predates that approval.
On Aug. 23, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved a Pfizer shot to prevent severe COVID-19 cases. Like Johnson & Johnson and Moderna, Pfizer had been a manufacturing vaccine to fight the coronavirus under federal emergency-use authorization (EUA). The injection produced by Pfizer under EUA is known as Pfizer BioNTech and the company’s post-FDA approval vaccine is called Comirnaty (pronounced kuh-MUR-nit-ee).
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After years of Pennsylvania Democrats excoriating Republicans for gerrymandering, the 2021 Legislative Reapportionment Commission’s state-level redistricting proposals are drawing ire from members of both parties.
Republicans have broadly opposed the preliminary redistricting plan for the Pennsylvania House of Representatives and at least one Senate Democrat, Lisa Boscola (Bethlehem), is incensed about changes to her chamber’s map.
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Pennsylvania Governor Tom Wolf on Friday signed a bill to address the statewide shortage of substitute teachers since the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic.
House Bill 412, sponsored by Rep. Barb Gleim (R-Cumberland), will reduce certain restrictions that dictate a person’s eligibility to serve in the position.
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The University of Pittsburgh Medical Center (UMPC) announced on Friday that the hospital will establish an in-house staffing agency to solve its nursing shortage.
Dubbed “UPMC Travel Staffing,” the new program will allow the hospital system to move nurses among different locations in order to fill the staffing needs of each hospital.
According to a press release from the medical center, nurses who join the new agency will be allowed to work in the system’s medical facilities in Pennsylvania, New York, and Maryland.
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Members of the Pennsylvania Senate on Wednesday passed legislation that will alter the state’s current probation system.
Senate Bill 913, sponsored by Senator Lisa Baker (R-Luzerne), would provide an opportunity for some inmates to secure early release from probation and aims to encourage fewer individuals to return to prison.
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The Pennsylvania General Assembly has sent a disapproval resolution to Gov. Tom Wolf, rejecting his efforts to enroll the state in the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative, but vote totals show there aren’t enough opposing lawmakers to override a veto.
The House approved Senate Concurrent Regulatory Review Resolution 1, 130-70, on Wednesday. The vote total is just short of two-thirds of the chamber’s 203 members necessary to override a veto.
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A set of amendments to the Pennsylvania Constitution, including a voter-identification requirement, passed the state House of Representatives this week on nearly party-line votes.
To become part of the state Constitution, the proposed amendments must pass in two consecutive sessions of the Pennsylvania General Assembly and must gain approval by a majority of voters in an election. State House members voted on these measures as amendments to a Senate bill that would let gubernatorial candidates select their own running mates, whereas current law lets Pennsylvanians vote to elect nominees for lieutenant governor.
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By a nearly party-line vote of 14 to 11, the Pennsylvania House State Government Committee voted Wednesday to advance a largely citizen-created map for congressional redistricting.
Lehigh County resident Amanda Holt submitted the map in its original form. The slightly modified version of the plan received the support of all committee Republicans except Rep. Ryan Mackenzie (R-Macungie) and no Democrats.
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Republican legislation to stop private organizations from donating selectively to Pennsylvania localities’ election activities passed the state House of Representatives along party lines yesterday.
State Reps. Eric Nelson (R-Greensburg), Clint Owlett (R-Wellsboro) and James Struzzi (R-Indiana) offered the bill after revelations that the Center for Tech and Civic Life (CTCL) issued grants to counties last year, with much more money reaching Democrat-heavy areas. Facebook Chief Executive Officer Mark Zuckerberg and his wife Priscilla Chan contributed $350 million to CTCL in 2020. Former Obama Foundation Fellow Tiana Epps-Johnson serves as the organization’s executive director.
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Stephen K. Bannon welcomed Pennsylvania’s President Pro Tempore and Gubernatorial candidate, Jake Corman on Monday’s War Room: Pandemic to discuss his latest school mask mandate victory, restoring election integrity, and his commitment to do so. Bannon: Pennsylvania Senate. A key figure back in the three November movement. Remember he was one of the leaders that sent a letter to the Senate that day to say hey, we’ve had some discrepancies. We need some time to think through how these electors were certified. It’s Senator Jake Corman. Senator, you had a massive victory last week. We tried to get you on but I know you were traveling. School mask mandates struck down by Pennsylvania supreme court. Walk us through how you blew up the Wolf administration in Pennsylvania about this. This is a huge victory for parents and a bigger victory for our school children, Senator Corman. Corman: Yeah, thanks, Steve. Great to be with you as always. A great victory for the people of Pennsylvania. The people of Pennsylvania made a historic vote back in May to limit the governor’s powers during these emergency times because he unilaterally governed here for over a year. The people of Pennsylvania rejected…
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Pennsylvania Democratic lawmakers failed to pass a series of amendments Monday to weaken a state House bill that would restrict the ability of private third parties to fund election administration.
State Rep. Eric Nelson (R-Greensburg) is sponsoring the bill largely in reaction to the role that the Center for Tech and Civic Life (CTCL) played in election operations in numerous Pennsylvania counties last year. Grants bestowed by CTCL in 2020, which mostly aided Democrat-leaning counties, were funded significantly by Facebook Chief Executive Officer Mark Zuckerberg.
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Pennsylvania state Rep. Jim Struzzi is trying to expand a law that provides for firefighters and police who are injured on the job to cover other types of public servants.
The Pennsylvania Heart and Lung Act of 1935 allows police officers and paid firefighters medical and wage benefits if they are temporarily disabled because of an injury on the job.
The Enforcement Officer Disability Benefits Law of 1954 was passed to provide police, park guards, and paid (but not volunteer) firefighters full income replacement when injured in the line of duty.
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For decades, many of us in northeastern Pennsylvania have talked about knocking the rust off our regional economy and creating not only new jobs but also new industries.
Diversifying the economic portfolio of northeastern Pennsylvania means creating an ecosystem for entrepreneurs that helps small businesses prosper in our downtowns through partnerships with the region’s great institutions of higher education – partnerships like the Invent Penn State launchbox at Penn State Hazleton and the Idea Hub at the Wilkes-Barre Innovation Center.
Creating a strong regional economy also means investing in the economic assets – like Pennsylvania natural gas – that enable us to compete for good manufacturing jobs. Affordable, Pennsylvania-produced natural gas is a foundational component of our national economy, fueling America’s manufacturing plants, farms, hospitals, schools, and homes. The Keystone State’s natural gas powers our energy economy and produces thousands of family-sustaining jobs, ranging from the scientist in the laboratory to the union laborer on the pipeline.
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On Monday’s Outside the Beltway with John Fredericks on Real America’s Voice News, Fredericks talks with Pennsylvania Gubernatorial America first candidate Lou Barletta to explain why he’s the best choice for governor of Pennsylvania and the importance of election integrity. Fredericks: Joining me now, one of our best friends. We call them F.O.J. Friend of John. Not many people have that moniker, but certainly, Lou Barletta does. Lou Barletta is the Former Mayor of Hazelton, Pennsylvania. Long history. The Mayor of Hazelton, Pennsylvania, made his name by stopping illegal immigrants from coming in and destroying his town, ran for Congress, became a member of Congress fighting illegal immigration in the House of Representatives. Then he ran for the U.S. Senate got totally screwed by everybody three ways to Wednesday. Lost that race. But now he’s back and running for governor of Pennsylvania. And there’s a bunch of people in there, including Jake the Snake and others. So it’s a big field. But Lou Barletta is with us now. Lou, I’m really excited about the fact you’re in this race. It’s going to be fun because my wife, Anne, and I were just as you know, we’re just in the…
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Former Pennsylvania State Sen. Bruce Marks, who worked alongside John Eastman as an attorney for Donald Trump’s 2020 campaign, is speaking out against a left-leaning organization’s call for the California bar to investigate Eastman.
In an interview with The Pennsylvania Daily Star, Marks averred that Eastman was “completely right and completely wrong” in authoring memoranda on Vice President Mike Pence’s prospective role in certifying the 2020 Electoral College count. Marks said Eastman had a right to advise Trump and make his advice known to Pence, though the former lawmaker differed strongly with Eastman’s assertions about whether Pence could take action for a Trump win while presiding over the Senate’s count of electoral votes on Jan. 6, 2021.
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A Pennsylvania lawmaker wants to increase penalties for porch pirates amid a surge in thefts of packages left for delivery.
“With the ongoing pandemic, online purchases have skyrocketed,” Rep. Wendi Thomas, R-Bucks, said.
Data shows criminals are taking notice.
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Video recordings emerged on Friday capturing conversations between Delaware County, Pennsylvania election workers about obscuring “derogatory” information regarding the November 3, 2020 election.
The footage was secretly recorded by whistleblower Regina Miller and is among numerous recordings serving as evidence in litigation alleging multiple violations of election law as well as Pennsylvania’s “Right to Know” statute. Plaintiffs Gregory Stenstrom, Leah Hoopes and Ruth Morin filed the lawsuit in Delaware County Court in November.
The suit maintains that former Secretary of State Kathy Boockvar, Delaware County, the county’s Board of Elections, and numerous election officials conspired to dispose of voting records to conceal election-law violations. Four counts made in the litigation assert that public officials destroyed evidence, breaching state civil law regarding fraud and failing to adequately answer a right-to-know request filed by a third-party attorney in May.
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While children in Pennsylvania will soon be allowed to return to school without masks, children in Tennessee will not.
Over a 24-hour period, Pennsylvania’s highest court and a federal judge in Tennessee came to opposite conclusions about whether mask mandates should be legal.
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When Joe Biden kicked off his presidential campaign in April 2019 at the Teamsters Local 249 union hall in Pittsburgh, he declared himself a “union man,” sounding a theme that he repeated during his more than 25 campaign visits to the state. When Election Day came, however, Biden lost the union vote in Pennsylvania, winning instead with the support of moderate, suburban voters – especially women – who bristled at Donald Trump’s penchant for pandemonium.
Now, after nearly a year of Biden’s presidency, Democrats’ long-standing, intimate relationship with unions has reached a crossroads in the Keystone State and elsewhere. Recent scandals, moreover, are earning the party a reputation for instability and even untrustworthiness – potentially relieving the GOP of its “chaotic” label.
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A shortage of Santas this holiday season prompted a Pennsylvania state representative to propose a tax credit for those who suit up, as well as the businesses that employ Old Saint Nick.
Rep. Jonathan Fritz, R-Susquehanna, posted a memoranda on the House website this week seeking co-sponsors for legislation he said is aimed at the revelation recently highlighted in media reports.
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The Pennsylvania House State Government Committee has unveiled a preliminary map for new congressional districts, selected from one of 19 submitted by the public.
Rep. Seth Grove, R-York, chair of the State Government Committee, said a map submitted by Lehigh County resident Amanda Holt was selected because it was crafted without political influence, met constitutional standards and limited splits of townships and municipalities, among other factors.
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Two Pennsylvania counties use the same lenient bail-calculation system that is used in Milwaukee County, WI and that is now being scrutinized in the wake of the Nov. 21 Waukesha Christmas-parade massacre.
Suspect Darrell E. Brooks Jr. faces homicide charges for killing six people at the holiday celebration with his car. Earlier that month, prosecutors handling a case of physical abuse and vehicular assault regarding Brooks asked a court to set bail bond for the defendant at a mere $1,000, to which the court agreed.
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A Pennsylvania government watchdog group is highlighting how the incestuous relationship between local government entities and lobbyists is costing taxpayers millions of dollars. The Commonwealth Foundation also is supporting legislation designed to put an end to the practice.
The Commonwealth Foundation issued a report Monday that reveals Pennsylvania taxpayers paid at least $42 million in lobbying expenses between 2007 and 2020 to advocate for more government spending, though the actual cost is likely substantially more.
The foundation sent public information requests to 1,518 government entities to collect data on taxpayer-funded lobbying, which involves boroughs, cities, counties, school districts and state agencies that hire lobbyists or pay dues to associations to lobby other areas of government.
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Gov. Tom Wolf has vetoed legislation that would have allowed residents to carry a concealed firearm without a license, claiming the measure would exacerbate gun violence in the commonwealth.
“This legislation removes the requirement that an individual obtain a license, and with it, the ability of law enforcement to conduct a background investigation,” Wolf said. “Removal of the licensing background investigation will hinder the ability of law enforcement to prevent individuals who should not be able to carry a firearm concealed from doing so.
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Republican Al Schmidt, who is the only GOP member with a seat on Philadelphia’s election board, announced on Tuesday that he will resign from his position.
Schmidt, who has received harsh criticism from former President Donald Trump, is accepting a position as president and CEO of The Committee of Seventy.
The commissioner will step down in the middle of his third term.
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The former Republican congressman running for governor of Pennsylvania told The Star News Network drove him to run for governor after watching families and businesses suffer under Gov. Thomas W. Wolf and his pandemic policies.
“Actually, watching how Governor Wolf mismanaged the pandemic,” said Louis J. “Lou” Barletta, who left his House seat to challenge Democratic Sen. Robert P. Casey Jr., in 2018. Wolf is term-limited and cannot run for a third term.
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Legislation authored by Senate Appropriations Committee Chair Pat Browne, R-Lehigh, to bring transparency and efficiency to Pennsylvania’s campaign finance reporting system was approved by the state Senate.
Under Senate Bill 140, all candidates for office and political action committees will be required to file with the secretary of the commonwealth by utilizing the Pennsylvania Department of State’s online filing system to provide campaign finance reports.
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A lawsuit alleging multiple violations of federal and state election laws as well as Pennsylvania’s “Right to Know” statute was filed in Pennsylvania Wednesday night, according to sources familiar with the litigation.
In early 2021, a whistleblower working for the Delaware County Bureau of Elections began inquiring why it was apparent to her that multiple documents pertaining to the Nov. 3, 2020 elections were being destroyed in the southeastern Pennsylvania county, the sources said. The name of the whistleblower has not yet been made public.
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Pennsylvania Republicans want to create a new Bureau of Election Audits to conduct result-confirming audits of every election, as well as performance audits of elections operations, systems and processes at least every five years.
House Speaker Bryan Cutler, R-Lancaster, laid out the legislation during a hearing in the General Assembly’s State Government Committee this week, arguing the current system of allowing county election offices to audit themselves is not sufficient.
Local election officials “must be held to a standard of accountability,” Cutler said.
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The Editorial Board of the University of Pittsburgh student paper recently published an article calling to get rid of the gifted program in surrounding schools.
“The gifted program segregates students — sometimes based on IQ tests conducted at an early age. The program is deeply flawed, encourages students to unnecessarily compete against each other academically and often ends up leaving behind students of color. It is time for Pittsburgh to follow New York’s example and eliminate the gifted program from local school districts,” claims the piece.
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Legislative Republicans excoriated Gov. Tom Wolf for “playing favorites” after a report concluded his administration helped only Democratic counties secure $21 million in private grants ahead of the 2020 election.
Broad + Liberty reported the Pennsylvania Department of State and various left-wing groups worked together to funnel private grant funding to Democratic-leaning counties without offering the same assistance to Republican-leaning counties.
“This latest report indicates the administration and the Department of State played favorites when they connected certain counties to large sums of grant funding while ignoring other counties,” Rep. Seth Grove, R-York, said. “Not only did this create unequal access to voters, but it also essentially disenfranchised voters in counties that did not receive equal funding.”
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A Pennsylvania Satanic organization was able to convince a school district to alter its dress code to remove a ban on clothes that were “satanic in nature,” local news station WPVI-TV reported.
Joseph Rose, the founder of Satanic Delco, told WPVI-TV that the children of Satanists enrolled within the Rose Tree Media School District, which is near Philadelphia, made him aware of the dress code.
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A new report reveals that multiple private grants tied to the Big Tech giant Facebook overwhelmingly backed Democratic candidates and counties in the state of Pennsylvania in 2020, as reported by the New York Post.
The report by the publication Broad + Liberty (BL) reveals that one such grant, the Center for Tech and Civic Life (CTCL), spent more money on turning out registered voters in Democrat-majority counties than Republican-majority counties. In addition to the increased push for voter turnout, these counties were given a jumpstart on this grant and information on how to apply by state officials.
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Two Pennsylvania state senators said recently they want to hold social media companies accountable for religious or political censorship.
Sens. Doug Mastriano, R-Gettysburg, and Scott Hutchinson, R-Oil City, said their Senate Bill 604, also called the Social Media Accountability Act, would create a private right of action to allow residents to sue social media companies like Facebook, Youtube and Twitter for banning or censoring their account due to sharing religious or political beliefs on the platform.
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Pennsylvania lawmakers plan to introduce a measure banning private organizations from funding election administration in the Keystone State.
The bill’s sponsors, state Sens. Lisa Baker (R-Dallas) and Kristin Phillips-Hill (R-Jacobus) have cited the role that the Center for Tech and Civic Life (CTCL) played in election operations in Philadelphia and other Democratic-leaning counties in 2020. CTCL has been funded significantly by Facebook Chief Executive Officer Mark Zuckerberg.
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Democratic Rep. Mike Doyle of Pennsylvania announced his retirement Monday after 14 terms in the House, becoming the latest Democrat to retire just over a year from the midterms.
Doyle represents Pittsburgh and is the dean of Pennsylvania’s congressional delegation. His decision comes as Democrats seek to defend their 220-212 House majority and they struggle to pass President Joe Biden’s domestic agenda despite their control of both chambers.
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The Pennsylvania House of Representatives approved a measure this week that would require schools to post curriculum online.
Prime sponsor Rep. Andrew Lewis, R-Harrisburg, said it’s only an extension of what some districts already do – and gives parents access to what their kids are learning without having to visit a school building in person.
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Students at Point Park University are petitioning administrators to remove Logan Dubil, their conservative classmate from the school, after the undergraduate student appeared in media criticizing the university’s “Misgendering, Pronoun Misuse, and Deadnaming Policy.”
The Change.org petition, created by “Max,” currently has 396 signatures.
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State Rep. Kevin Boyle, D-Philadelphia, was arrested late Friday by city law enforcement on charges accusing him of harassment and violating a protection from abuse order.
Court documents show the 41-year-old lawmaker was arraigned in the early hours of Saturday morning. A trial date is set for Tuesday.
The news comes just days after Spotlight PA reported that House Democratic leadership stripped Boyle of his committee chairmanship and limited his access to the state capitol building.
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A number of Pennsylvania educators said Thursday the Department of Health hands down COVID-19 mitigation orders and doesn’t back them up when it comes to enforcement, leaving schools in a difficult spot.
Michael Bromirski, superintendent of Hempfield School District in Lancaster County, told the Senate Education Committee that since pandemic mitigation rules lifted earlier this summer, school districts no longer handle quarantine orders for students exposed to the virus after the department told them it’s the state’s responsibility – and authority – to do so.
Except, parents rarely receive such instructions, generating confusion and frustration.
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The University of Pennsylvania named its women’s studies center the “Center for Research in Feminist, Queer, and Transgender Studies” — removing a tribute to a prominent suffragette in the process.
According to Melissa Sanchez, an English and comparative literature professor who will lead the center, Penn decided to rename the Alice Paul Center — home to the Ivy League university’s gender studies department — in order to signal “commitment” to LGBTQ “intellectual and political movements.”
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Pennsylvania Attorney General Josh Shapiro challenged a Republican-led election subpoena on Thursday, saying that it “goes too far” and violates the constitutionally protected privacy of up to 9 million residents.
“By trying to pry into everyone’s drivers license numbers and social security numbers they have gone too far,” he said. “Today we say enough is enough. What they are doing is against the law and we intend to win.”
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Pennsylvania Senate Democrats filed a legal challenge in Commonwealth Court against what they call an “overreaching” subpoena of election records containing personal information for nearly 7 million voters.
The lawsuit filed late Friday alleges Republican members of the Senate Intergovernmental Operations Committee – including Chairman Cris Dush, R-Wellsboro and President Pro Tempore Jake Corman, R-Bellefonte – broke the law when they issued a subpoena against the Department of State seeking the name, address, date of birth, driver’s license number and partial social security number of each and every resident that voted by mail or in person during the last two elections.
In a joint statement, the Democratic members of the committee – including Minority Leader Jay Costa, D-Pittsburgh; Minority Chairman Tony Williams, D-Philadelphia; Sen. Vince Hughes, D-Philadelphia; and Sen. Steve Santarsiero, D-Lower Makefield – said the consequences of the subpoena “are dire” and leave the personal information of residents in the hands of an “undisclosed third party vendor with no prescribed limits or protection.”
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