State News

In the first big challenge to the proposed $26 billion national opioid settlement, the Philadelphia district attorney on Thursday sued Pennsylvania’s attorney general over the deal, saying the city stands to get only a pittance to cope with an epidemic that is killing more than 1,000 people a year. Read more

HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) — A truck driver who killed three people on an interstate outside Harrisburg can’t be sentenced to three consecutive prison terms for leaving the scene of the crash he caused while driving drunk, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court ruled Thursday. Read more

PITTSBURGH (AP) — A former medical assistant at the Allegheny County Jail is facing charges of institutional sexual assault and indecent assault after three female inmates filed complaints about the man. Shiquille Desesso was arrested Thursday and was awaiting arraignment, Allegheny County Police said. Online court information showed the 29-year-old Desesso initially declined a public defender, but no other attorney information was available on the court website. An inmate reported the inappropriate conduct to jail employees who contacted Internal Affairs on May 26, county police said. Read more

HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) — A Democratic state representative from just outside Philadelphia issued a statement saying she’s resigning after being charged Thursday with theft and other offenses over her expense reimbursements. Read more

PHILADELPHIA (AP) — A Hong Kong pro-democracy activist and a Saudi women’s rights activist will be presented the Liberty Medal later this year. Read more

HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) — Gov. Tom Wolf’s administration on Wednesday said it wants to require nursing homes to boost staffing levels, announcing the first in what officials describe as a series of updates to outdated long-term care regulations that have been in place for more than 20 years. Read more

HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) — The backlog of people in Pennsylvania waiting for a decision on whether they can receive unemployment compensation benefits has ballooned following the introduction of a new online portal for the system, advocates for the unemployed say. Read more

HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) — Pennsylvania’s top election official has decertified the voting machines of a sparsely populated county that disclosed that it had agreed to requests by local Republican lawmakers and allowed a software firm to inspect the machines as part of an “audit” after the 2020 election. Read more

HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) — Pennsylvania’s high court on Wednesday dealt a blow to victims of child sexual abuse, throwing out a lawsuit by a woman whose lower court legal victory had given hope to others with similarly outdated claims who’d sued in the wake of a landmark report that documented decades of child molestation within the Catholic church in Pennsylvania. Read more

HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) — The Pennsylvania Department of Health can’t allow applicants seeking to grow or dispense medical marijuana to redact their own applications under the state’s public information law, regardless of the burden it places on the department, the state’s highest court affirmed Wednesday. Read more

HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) — Pennsylvania smashed its record for gambling revenue, state regulators said Monday, reporting nearly $3.9 billion in the last fiscal year as every category of wagering showed growth in one of the nation’s largest casino and gambling states. Read more

TAYLOR, Pa. (AP) — A man died after he was struck by lightning while playing golf last week in northeastern Pennsylvania, authorities said. Read more

HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) — Former President Donald Trump’s false claims of a stolen election have been debunked by the courts, his own Justice Department and scores of recounts. Read more

HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) — Democrat John Fetterman is showing his early fundraising prowess in the crowded stakes for Pennsylvania’s open U.S. Senate seat ahead of next year’s election. Read more

GREENVILLE, N.C. (AP) — A Pennsylvania woman was arrested in North Carolina after investigators said she posed as a member of the military and scammed a person out of more than $7,000, a sheriff’s office said Friday. Read more

HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) — Another Pennsylvania county targeted for an Arizona-style “forensic investigation” of the 2020 presidential election being pushed by former President Donald Trump is raising strong objections to a sweeping demand for access to its voting equipment and records. Read more

HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) — A federal freeze on most evictions enacted last year is scheduled to expire July 31, after the Biden administration extended the date by a month. Read more

HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) — Penn State will impose its first tuition increase for incoming in-state undergraduate students since the 2017-18 school year, under a plan approved by trustees on Thursday. Read more

HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) — One of three counties targeted by a Pennsylvania state lawmaker for an Arizona-style “forensic investigation” of the state’s 2020 presidential election sought by former President Donald Trump will not allow third-party access to its voting machines. Read more

CARLISLE, Pa. (AP) — The disinterred remains of nine Native American children who died more than a century ago while attending a government-run school in Pennsylvania were headed home to Rosebud Sioux tribal lands in South Dakota on Wednesday after a ceremony returning them to relatives. Read more

PITTSBURGH (AP) — The attorney for a woman charged with homicide and kidnapping in the 2019 death of a toddler in western Pennsylvania is asking a judge to bar prosecutors from using video showing her talking to a police officer who was searching for the missing child. Read more

HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) — Six of Pennsylvania’s 14 state-owned universities will be consolidated into two new institutions under a unanimous vote Wednesday by the State System of Higher Education’s governing board. Read more

BEAVER FALLS, Pa. (AP) — Two people were killed and three others injured in a shooting outside a public housing complex in western Pennsylvania, authorities said. Read more

PHILADELPHIA (AP) — Parts of Pennsylvania and New Jersey on Tuesday were facing another round of rain one day after they were swamped by a series of storms that the National Weather Service said caused a rare flash flood emergency. Read more

HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) — Legislative leaders on the five-person group redrawing state lawmakers’ district lines based on census data heard Tuesday how the delay in the release of updated population figures may require them to move more quickly than anticipated. Read more

HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) — The centerpiece of Gov. Tom Wolf’s plan to fight climate change took another step Tuesday toward the final regulatory threshold to impose a price on carbon dioxide emissions from fossil fuel-fired power plants in Pennsylvania. Read more

HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) — The top federal prosecutor in Philadelphia appointed by Donald Trump has written to the former president to seek his endorsement in a crowded Republican primary race to run for governor in next year’s election. Read more

HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) — With just a year and a half left in office, Gov. Tom Wolf’s primary focus will be convincing the Republican-controlled Legislature to modernize how state aid is distributed to Pennsylvania’s public schools — a shift that could carry a price tag of $1 billion. Read more

PITTSBURGH (AP) — A Pittsburgh museum has returned to public view a 19th-century diorama that shows lions attacking a camel and its human rider, about a year after covering it up in response to complaints about how the courier was depicted. Read more

HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) — President Joe Biden will speak in Philadelphia on Tuesday to discuss voting rights, the White House announced — a visit that comes as fights over the 2020 presidential election and election laws roil state and U.S. capitols. Read more

HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) — Gov. Tom Wolf on Thursday said it is a “disgrace to democracy” that a Republican state lawmaker is trying to launch what he calls a “forensic investigation” of Pennsylvania’s 2020 presidential election, similar to what is happening in Arizona. Read more

HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) — Pennsylvania would receive $225 million to fight the opioid-addiction epidemic from a new agreement with OxyContin maker Purdue Pharma, the state attorney general’s office said Thursday. Read more

HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) — A Pennsylvania state lawmaker and ardent supporter of former President Donald Trump is launching a “forensic investigation” of the state’s 2020 presidential election, demanding cooperation from counties and mimicking a widely criticized partisan effort in Arizona. Read more

HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) — Carla Sands, former President Donald Trump’s ambassador to Denmark, announced Tuesday that she will join the crowded Republican primary field for Pennsylvania’s open U.S. Senate seat. Read more

HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) — The head of a county child welfare agency in northeastern Pennsylvania was charged Tuesday with ordering workers to falsely close files on allegations of child abuse and neglect in response to public reports of a significant backlog of cases. Read more

ARDMORE, Pa. (AP) — A volunteer firefighter died at a hospital after battling a fire in suburban Philadelphia over the weekend, officials said. Read more

HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) — Following in the footsteps of Arizona’s Senate Republicans, Pennsylvania’s Republican-controlled Senate is considering an investigation into how last year’s presidential election was conducted, a quest fueled by former President Donald Trump’s baseless claims that fraud was behind his loss in the battleground state. Read more

HANOVER, Pa. (AP) — Authorities say a swimmer drowned at a Pennsylvania lake over the weekend. Read more