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State temporarily shutters rural aging agency

HARRISBURG — The Pennsylvania Department of Aging has taken the unprecedented step of temporarily decommissioning one of the state’s 52 county agencies that protect older adults from abuse and neglect after uncovering “serious performance issues” there. For the next 180 days, Potter County’s older adults will be served by a neighboring aging agency as the state determines how to proceed. Options include putting the agency on an improvement plan or shuttering it permanently. Though state officials did not provide details on the problems they discovered, they said they were ...

The ground has shifted under interest rates

For two years, there was only one question about the Federal Reserve: when do they cut? This week, that question quietly died. On Wednesday, the Fed held its benchmark rate at 3.50%–3.75% for the fifth consecutive meeting. That part was expected. What wasn’t: three regional Fed presidents – Cleveland’s Beth Hammack, Minneapolis’s Neel Kashkari, and Dallas’s Lorie Logan – voted against the hold. Not because they wanted to cut. Because they wanted to hike, right now. It’s the first time since 2016 that three officials dissented in the same direction, and that direction ...

Khanna proposes data center bill

As debate continues to rage about the role lawmakers should play in regulating artificial intelligence and data centers, a pair of progressive Democrats offered their thoughts on what the federal government should do. “We’re going to be unleashing a Data Center Bill of Rights,” said U.S. Rep. Ro Khanna, a Democrat representing California’s 17th District. “You should not be able to put a data center into a place if the community is opposed to it.” “The community should have the ability to say no,” he continued. Khanna’s comments were made on Tuesday in ...

Death penalty sentence in 2004 murder vacated

Federal District Judge Joy Flowers Conti in an order issued Wednesday vacated the death sentence imposed on a former Altoona man for the February 2004 murder of his then-girlfriend. Andre Staton, 63, will now be sentenced to life in prison without parole. Staton is presently incarcerated in ...

President is ‘losing faith’ in Iran

During the 13th cabinet meeting of President Donald Trump’s second term, the president indicated he expects more back-and-forth strikes with Iran as he tells reporters he is “losing faith” in the Islamic Republic. The president expressed frustration with the Iranian regime, adding that ...

Request for stay on second-degree murder ruling denied

The state Supreme Court on Friday afternoon denied the Allegheny County district attorney’s request to extend a stay on a ruling that declared unconstitutional language in the state’s second-degree murder sentencing framework, setting the stage for a legislative fight and many county murder case reviews. The action came eight days after Allegheny DA Stephen Zappala filed a petition seeking an extension of the original 120-day stay on the ruling, issued four months earlier. The majority of the justices on Friday denied the request, but two - Kevin Dougherty and Sallie Updyke Mundy - ...