State News

A Pennsylvania appeals court heard arguments Wednesday on whether the Wolf administration had the legal right to impose a mask mandate on K-12 schools and child care facilities to help prevent the spread of the coronavirus. Read more

HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) — The Democratic candidate for governor of Pennsylvania, state Attorney General Josh Shapiro, has just over $10 million on hand in his campaign account ahead of next year’s election, his campaign said Wednesday. Read more

HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) — Pennsylvania’s state Senate is again launching a bipartisan bill to overhaul how probation is handled, with a unanimous Judiciary Committee vote Tuesday. Read more

State prosecutors dropped a rape charge against an elected district attorney in western Pennsylvania on Tuesday but added new felony charges of sexual assault and aggravated indecent assault. Read more

LANCASTER, Pa. (AP) — Authorities say a Pennsylvania mall was evacuated after shots were fired, but no major injuries were immediately reported. Read more

PITTSBURGH (AP) — A pair of tornados have been confirmed in western Pennsylvania over the weekend, forecasters said. Read more

UPPER DARBY, Pa. (AP) — A woman was raped by a stranger on a commuter train in suburban Philadelphia in the presence of other riders who a police official said “should have done something.” Read more

HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) — An endorsement by former President Donald Trump in Pennsylvania’s hotly contested U.S. Senate race isn’t backing down rival Republicans, with one putting up millions for her campaign and another getting a seven-figure pledge from a donor. Read more

HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) — The former head of a county welfare agency in northeastern Pennsylvania pleaded guilty Thursday to endangering children by concealing abuse allegations to clear a backlog of cases. Read more

HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) — A judge on Thursday refused to seal records and proceedings in the ongoing custody battle involving Sean Parnell, a Republican candidate for U.S. Senate in Pennsylvania, or grant Parnell’s request to bar his wife from talking about past restraining orders she had sought against him. Read more

Pennsylvania Department of Transportation (PennDOT) Acting Executive Deputy Secretary Melissa Batula, Pennsylvania Emergency Management Agency (PEMA) Director Randy Padfield and Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission (PTC) COO Craig Shuey recently held a media briefing to outline the commonwealth’s plans for services in the coming winter season and discuss how the public can prepare. Read more

Launching his gubernatorial campaign Wednesday, Pennsylvania’s Democratic attorney general sought to tie the crowded Republican field to the Jan. 6 Capitol insurrection and former President Donald Trump’s efforts to overturn last year’s election. Read more

PITTSBURGH (AP) — The federal judge in the capital murder case against Robert Bowers in the 2018 Pittsburgh synagogue massacre told lawyers Wednesday she wants a list of pretrial motions and plans to reassess the status of the long-delayed case in January. Read more

CHICAGO (AP) — First lady Jill Biden wrapped up a visit to Illinois on Wednesday with a stop at a community college before heading to Pennsylvania during a three-state tour in honor of Hispanic Heritage Month. Read more

YORK, Pa. (AP) — Love was on the court docket when a man accused of murder in Pennsylvania made an unusual request of the judge who will preside over his trial. Read more

PITTSBURGH (AP) — Pittsburgh police officers who responded to the synagogue building during a shooting three years ago that killed 11 people told a judge Tuesday that defendant Robert Bowers made several references to killing Jews. Read more

HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) — Pennsylvania’s high-profile attorney general, Josh Shapiro, will formally announce his candidacy for governor on Wednesday, entering the 2022 race months after making his intentions known and effectively clearing the field of potential rivals for the Democratic nomination. Read more

WASHINGTON, Pa. (AP) — An appeals court has thrown out the life-without-parole sentence imposed on a western Pennsylvania woman in the murder of her newborn baby 17 years ago. Read more

HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) — Total enrollment at Pennsylvania’s 14 state-owned universities has declined to the lowest level in decades, according to data released Monday. Read more

PHILADELPHIA (AP) — A state court ruling will allow a plywood box to remain — for the moment — over a statue of Christopher Columbus that the city has been trying to remove from a south Philadelphia park since the explorer became a focus amid nationwide demonstrations against racial injustice. Read more

COLLIER TOWNSHIP, Pa. (AP) — A former neighbor of a U.S. Postal Service worker in Pennsylvania confessed to authorities that he fatally shot him because he believed the mail carrier previously poisoned him and his family with cyanide, a federal official said. Read more

WEST CHESTER, Pa. (AP) — A Pennsylvania woman charged last week in the slayings of her 87-year-old father and his girlfriend at his New Jersey Shore home says she is being “framed.” Read more

The Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission (PTC) is installing a large-scale fiber optic broadband network in the eastern part of its system to enhance its communications capacity. This network will increase bandwidth and boost connectivity between the agency’s administrative buildings and support automated tolling capabilities and other advanced telecommunications applications for improved customer safety and mobility. The 220-mile fiber optic network will extend broadband to underserved areas and generate non-toll revenue through a unique partnership with the private sector. Read more

KITTANNING, Pa. (AP) — A former Leechburg police chief arrested in a child predator sting has pleaded guilty to failing to properly register as a sex offender. Michael Diebold, 44, entered the plea Wednesday. He was charged with failing to provide accurate information when he registered as a sex offender. Read more

The Pennsylvania Department of Transportation (PennDOT) announced this week that visually impaired state residents can now use bioptic telescope lenses to obtain a learner’s permit and ultimately earn a driver’s license. Read more

HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) — The governors of four northeastern states agreed Thursday to share information about firearms purchases to help detect and investigate straw buyers and other gun crimes. Read more

SOMERSET, Pa. (AP) — Officials in a rural western Pennsylvania county say the elected prosecutor’s access to his office and the courthouse has been restricted after he was charged last month with violently raping a woman he knew through work. Read more

PITTSBURGH (AP) — The Pennsylvania Labor Relations Board has ruled that graduate assistants at the University of Pittsburgh fell short in a 2019 effort to unionize. Read more

The corporate developer of a multi-billion-dollar pipeline system that takes natural gas liquids from the Marcellus Shale gas field to an export terminal near Philadelphia was charged criminally on Tuesday after a grand jury concluded that it flouted Pennsylvania environmental laws and fouled waterways and residential water supplies across hundreds of miles. Read more

OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — Work at all of the Kellogg Company’s U.S. cereal plants came to a halt Tuesday as roughly 1,400 workers went on strike, but it wasn’t immediately clear how much the supply of Frosted Flakes or any of the company’s other iconic brands would be disrupted. Read more

HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) — A Pennsylvania Senate hearing designed to gather input from the Department of State about potential changes to election law was over quickly on Tuesday because the Wolf administration decided not to participate in person. Read more

The House of Representatives will be designating the week of Oct. 3-9 as National Newspaper Week in Pennsylvania. Read more

PHILADELPHIA (AP) — A nurse shot and killed a co-worker at a Philadelphia hospital early Monday before fleeing and being shot in a subsequent exchange of gunfire with police that wounded two officers, authorities said. Read more