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Corrections officer dead in Blair County shooting

A Blair County corrections officer was killed Wednesday afternoon when a male inmate disarmed her during a struggle at the Central Court building, at 615 Fourth St. Rhonda Jean Russell, 47, of Altoona, was pronounced dead at UPMC Altoona, according to state police, who were called in to investigate the incident. According to state police, a known suspect, who was a prisoner at the Blair County Jail, was at Central Court for court proceedings when he allegedly disarmed Russell of her firearm and a struggle ensued. A law enforcement officer within the court building responded to the ...

Top 2 Pennsylvania school pension system executives to be out of jobs

HARRISBURG (AP) — The top two executives at Pennsylvania’s largest public pension system will leave their jobs under resolutions approved by the system’s board Thursday, amid two federal investigations into the agency and calls by board members for their resignations over lackluster investment returns. Their departures come after a protracted fight to get the $62 billion Public School Employees’ Retirement System — which manages one of the nation’s biggest public pension funds — to divest its pricier investments in things like private equity firms. Under the ...

State officials, lawmakers and judges get big 2022 pay raise

HARRISBURG (AP) — Inflation is driving up consumer prices and will drive a big salary increase for Pennsylvania state lawmakers, judges and top executive branch officials in 2022. For many of these positions, it’s the biggest increase in three decades. Salaries across the board will rise 5.6%, a figure tied by state law to the year-over-year change in the consumer price index published last week by the U.S. Department of Labor for mid-Atlantic urban areas. It is the largest year-over-year increase since 1991, according to the department’s Bureau of Labor Statistics. The ...

Court sides with expelled student over memes deemed as threat

HARRISBURG (AP) — District administrators overreached when they permanently expelled a 17-year-old high school student for sending Snapchat messages after school hours that referred to another student as a potential school shooter, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court ruled Wednesday. The justices said such communications must be analyzed in context and the primary focus should be the speaker’s intent. The Manheim Township School District high school junior, identified as J.S. in court records, was suspended and then expelled over a series of messages sent to a friend in April 2018. ...

Lawmakers attempt to toughen DUI penalty

HARRISBURG (AP) — The state House of Representatives on Wednesday approved legislation aiming to increase penalties for motorists who have multiple DUI convictions to end what critics have called Pennsylvania’s “revolving door” for the most serious drunk drivers. The bill passed 168-32, and goes to the state Senate for consideration there. The Senate passed a similar bill in 2020, but it died in the House. Under the House bill, penalties would rise for those who receive multiple driving-under-the-influence convictions with higher blood-alcohol content levels. The bill was ...

Mask mandate must expire Dec. 4, judge rules in twist

HARRISBURG (AP) — A Pennsylvania judge on Tuesday said an order that requires masks inside K-12 schools and child care facilities to contain the coronavirus must expire Dec. 4, although that is unlikely to be the final legal development in the case. The ruling by Commonwealth Court Judge Christine Fizzano Cannon comes a week after her court threw out the statewide mask mandate, and it lifts the automatic suspension of that decision granted when Gov. Tom Wolf’s administration appealed to the state Supreme Court. Cannon’s ruling, in theory, gives time for the state Supreme Court ...