With the November midterm elections approaching, environmental and community advocates gathered at the Capitol Rotunda in Harrisburg Tuesday to protest the impacts of hyperscale artificial intelligence data centers and urge their fellow Pennsylvanians to become more civically engaged. The ...
HARRISBURG — Pennsylvania will spend nearly 40% of its $50.8 billion budget on education this year. The size of that obligation, and its impact on children, teenagers, and college students across the commonwealth, make it an enormous part of annual spending talks. Unsurprisingly, it’s a prominent issue in the 2026 race for governor. Incumbent Democrat Josh Shapiro has spent his governorship threading a needle on education. He has backed big spending increases, particularly for the commonwealth’s most inadequately funded public school districts. At the same time, he’s supported ...
The Pennsylvania state House on Monday approved a pair of bills creating stiffer penalties for shops caught selling electronic cigarettes to minors and banning the sale of synthetic kratom. House Bill 1434 would hike the fine for a first offense for selling nicotine vapes to underage customers to $5,000 from $100-$500. Under existing law, the fine increases for each subsequent offense, with retailers facing a penalty of $5,000 only after they’ve been caught three times illegally selling vapes to underage consumers. The legislation is “about accountability,” Rep. Amen Brown, ...
HOLLIDAYSBURG — Blair County court administration presented its proposed operating budget of about $1.1 million to county commissioners during Tuesday afternoon’s budget meeting. The amount would cover everything from pay for court-appointed attorneys to Zoom licenses. President Judge Wade A. Kagarise told commissioners Amy Webster and Laura Burke that the 2027 budget would give the county a good idea as to what to expect from court administration’s budget line items in the future as “this year and next year are the first two years we’ve had five judges” in nearly a ...
John Rivello, superintendent of the State Correctional Institution at Huntingdon, reported that inmate Geraldo J. Maldonado Jr., 43, was found unresponsive in his cell on Monday. Prison staff and medical personnel immediately responded to the scene and provided life-saving measures. EMS arrived at the facility and advanced life support measures were continued as he was transferred to Penn Highlands Hospital, where he passed away at 1:44 a.m. Maldonado was serving a 24- to 52-year sentence for rape of a child following a Lancaster County conviction. In accordance with state policy, ...
Gov. Josh Shapiro backs a bill that would open Pennsylvania’s primary elections to unaffiliated voters. House Bill 280, authored by state Rep. Jared Solomon, D-Philadelphia, passed the state House by a 115-88 vote on Tuesday. “I support it,” Shapiro told The Center Square in an interview on Saturday. Only registered Democrats and registered Republicans can vote for candidates who are running in their respective party’s primaries, under Pennsylvania’s current laws. Shapiro previously signaled his support for open primaries, telling The Center Square in May that he “made ...
