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Allegheny County government workers face vaccine mandate

PITTSBURGH (AP) — Allegheny County government employees will be required to submit proof of COVID-19 vaccination by Dec. 1 or face termination under a policy announced Wednesday by the western Pennsylvania county’s top elected official. About 5,000 employees are subject to the new mandate, of whom more than 75% are already vaccinated. The rest will need to get the single-shot Johnson & Johnson vaccine or their second dose of the Moderna or Pfizer vaccines on or before Dec. 1 to be considered in compliance, officials said. Government workers who remain unvaccinated and who do not ...

First-degree murder in woman’s slaying outside train station

NORRISTOWN (AP) — A man has been convicted of first-degree murder in the stabbing death of an ex-girlfriend in the parking lot of a suburban Philadelphia train station last year. Jurors in Montgomery County deliberated for about 2 1/2 hours Wednesday before convicting 19-year-old Gilbert Newton III of the first-degree charge in the slaying of 18-year-old Morgan McCaffery. He faces a mandatory term of life in prison without possibility of parole. Abington Township police reported finding McCaffery’s body near her running car in the Meadowbrook Train Station parking lot in July ...

Pa. eyes $500M from feds for cleaning plan

HARRISBURG (AP) — A state Senate committee in Pennsylvania approved legislation Tuesday to use federal coronavirus relief aid to revive a long-running program designed to help clean up waterways, fix up parks and preserve open space. The bill, approved 10-1, would inject the Growing Greener program with $500 million from the American Rescue Plan Act signed by President Joe Biden in March. The bill still requires approval from the full Senate and House before it could go to the desk of Gov. Tom Wolf. The money likely would have to come out of the $2.4 billion in money left over ...

Measure on youth sports masking clears House

HARRISBURG (AP) — Legislation that cleared a House committee on Monday would give Pennsylvania school districts the authority to decide whether student-athletes must wear masks while playing, as GOP lawmakers continue looking at a more aggressive move against the governor’s universal mask mandate in schools. The Republican-controlled House State Government Committee approved the sports masking measure 15-10 along party lines. It would give “exclusive authority” to schools, recreational clubs, community leagues and similar groups to set masking policy for youth athletes, though ...

GOP aims to make election changes in state’s constitution

HARRISBURG (AP) — Republican lawmakers in Pennsylvania on Monday unveiled sweeping changes to the conduct of elections through a proposed constitutional amendment, the latest turn in a partisan power struggle over elections in the wake of former President Donald Trump’s baseless claims that last year’s presidential contest was rigged against him. The Republican-penned measure passed the House State Government Committee on party lines, 15-10. One provision would substantially toughen Pennsylvania’s existing identification requirements for a registered voter to cast a ballot, ...

State presses Philadelphia agency over elder abuse and neglect

HARRISBURG (AP) — Gov. Tom Wolf’s administration became so concerned about how three cases of neglect or abuse of older people were handled in Philadelphia that it is ordering improvements at an agency there, but officials are refusing to disclose what happened to those three people, or whether they are alive. The Aug. 6 letter by Wolf’s Department of Aging secretary, Robert Torres, came weeks after staff at the state agency began raising alarms, including that caseworkers’ caseloads were above the limit in state law. Torres’ letter went to the president of the Philadelphia ...