Breaking News

PA News

Pennsylvania public sector worker rights rated low in new report

(The Center Square) – Pennsylvania received low marks in a new assessment of state public-sector worker rights, while two bills the report identifies as potential reforms have remained in committee for more than a year. The state was one of 15 receiving a D in the latest edition of The Battle for Worker Freedom: Grading State Public Sector Labor Laws recently released by the Commonwealth Foundation. The report examines the sway of government unions across the 50 state legislatures and grades them based on how well it protects public workers’ rights over union executives’ ...

McCormick calls for doubling NIH budget within five years

(The Center Square) – Arguing that the U.S. is “underinvesting in discovery,” U.S. Sen. Dave McCormick, R-Pa., is calling for changes to the National Institutes of Health, or NIH, which include increased investments from the federal government. “Rather than cut NIH by nearly 40 percent, as the Office of Management and Budget proposed last year, we should double its $48 billion budget within five years,” McCormick wrote in a Washington Post op-ed published on Wednesday. “These are big numbers, but if they yield discoveries that trim the nation’s $5.3 trillion health bill ...

Battleground congressional candidates in Pa. talk Flock cameras

(The Center Square) – The ongoing debate around Flock cameras and other automated license plate reading systems, or ALPRs, is garnering attention from elected officials and candidates up and down the ballot. And it’s a topic not solely falling along partisan lines. “I would welcome bipartisan legislation to ban these across the state,” Gov. Josh Shapiro, a Democrat, said in response to a question from The Center Square late last month. “This is not something I support.” “This is not something in the public interest,” he continued. “I think law enforcement needs to ...

Moshannon detention center contract extended

CLEARFIELD — The Clearfield County Board of Commissioners voted 2-1 on Tuesday to approve a six-month contract extension for the operation of Moshannon Valley Processing Center. Commissioners Tim Winters and John Sobel voted in favor of the extension, and Commissioner Dave Glass voted against. “We shouldn’t be in the middle of it,” Glass said in opposition to the contract. “I don’t want to even tangentially support this. I think there’s a better way.” Sobel and Winters said that rejecting the contract would’ve negatively impacted the Philipsburg-Osceola Area School ...

Most Pa. lawmakers back Trump-signed sanctions on Russia and Iran

(The Center Square) – A majority of Pennsylvania lawmakers signed onto legislation that authorizes and expands statutory sanctions, tariffs, and prohibitions on Russia, while also extending existing sanctions on Iran. “For more than four years, the people of Ukraine have stared down Russian aggression and have done what seemed impossible: they have survived. They have stood their ground,” said U.S. Rep. Chrissy Houlahan, D-6th District. “And, with our support, they will outlast this brutal invasion.” Last week, the U.S. House passed H.R. 5334, the “Lindsey O. Graham ...

The 2026 races that could decide control of the Pa. House and Senate

HARRISBURG — Control of the Pennsylvania General Assembly is on the ballot in 2026, and a handful of seats will likely decide who has the power to help set policy in the Keystone State. Republicans have held the state Senate almost continuously for 45 years and hope to keep it that way come November. Democrats see a path to take the upper chamber while maintaining the narrow state House majority they won in 2022. The biggest battlegrounds include perennial targets where strong incumbents have hung on in districts trending away from their parties; hotly contested open seats in purple ...