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Senate advances bills addressing traffic deaths, commercial driver safety

HARRISBURG — The Pennsylvania Senate has approved a package of bills sponsored by Judy Ward that would increase penalties for certain fatal traffic crashes and tighten oversight of commercial driver training and licensing requirements. One proposal, Senate Bill 1286, would increase penalties for causing an unintentional death in a traffic accident. The bill would establish an ungraded misdemeanor punishable by a fine of up to $2,500 and a driver’s license suspension of up to two years. The measure, known as the “Kyle Costello and Glenn Compton Law,” is named after two ...

Bill to restrict state funding for transgender care for minors advances

HARRISBURG — Legislation that would prohibit Pennsylvania Medicaid and Children’s Health Insurance Program funding from being used for certain gender-transition-related medical care for minors has advanced out of committee with bipartisan support, according to the bill’s sponsors. Chris Gebhard and Cris Dush announced Tuesday that Senate Bill 1321 was approved by the Senate Banking and Insurance Committee. The proposal would align Pennsylvania policy with recent guidance issued by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services regarding federal reimbursement standards for ...

More Pa. voters are registering as independents, but barriers stop lawmakers from following

HARRISBURG — In February, Lehigh County Commissioner Ron Beitler made a decision that he described as a “political suicide” — he left the GOP and chose not to affiliate with any political party. There was no single inciting incident. Beitler has always considered himself to be politically fluid, he told Spotlight PA. While Lehigh County leans Democratic — 44% of voters are registered Democrats and 36% are registered Republicans — Beitler describes his district as “pretty Republican.” He ultimately decided that going independent would help him better communicate with ...

Who owns Reading’s blighted homes? The answer is often unclear.

READING — One week into 2026, a 125-year-old Poplar Street rowhome collapsed, temporarily displacing four people in a house next door. The result in the months since: a hole where the home once stood and around $100,000 in emergency demolition costs the city is unlikely to recover anytime soon. The building’s owner has a Staten Island mailing address and owns multiple buildings in the county, including two on the city’s certified list of blighted properties. Officials say the owner is difficult to contact, and Spotlight PA did not receive a response from the person when ...

Pa. sues AI company over medical chatbots

HARRISBURG (AP) — Pennsylvania has sued an artificial intelligence chatbot maker, saying its chatbots illegally hold themselves out as doctors and are deceiving the system’s users into thinking they are getting medical advice from a licensed professional. The lawsuit, filed Friday, asks the statewide Commonwealth Court to order Character Technologies Inc., the company behind Character.AI, to stop its chatbots “from engaging in the unlawful practice of medicine and surgery.” The lawsuit could raise the question as to whether artificial intelligence can be accused of practicing ...

More Pennsylvania voters are registering as independents

HARRISBURG — In February, Lehigh County Commissioner Ron Beitler made a decision that he described as a “political suicide” — he left the GOP and chose not to affiliate with any political party. There was no single inciting incident. Beitler has always considered himself to be politically fluid, he told Spotlight PA. While Lehigh County leans Democratic — 44% of voters are registered Democrats and 36% are registered Republicans — Beitler describes his district as “pretty Republican.” He ultimately decided that going independent would help him better communicate with ...