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Court breaths new life into gun laws challenge

HARRISBURG (AP) — People can sue to challenge a city’s gun restrictions even if they have not been charged with violating them, Pennsylvania’s highest court ruled Wednesday. A divided state Supreme Court said that Firearm Owners Against Crime and other plaintiffs have legal standing to take on the Harrisburg city gun ordinances. At issue are local laws with criminal penalties for discharging a gun outside a gun range, possessing guns in parks, failing to report lost or stolen guns within two days or unaccompanied children having firearms outside their homes. The majority ...

Pa. Senate moves to overhaul probation

HARRISBURG (AP) — Pennsylvania’s state Senate is again launching a bipartisan bill to overhaul how probation is handled, with a unanimous Judiciary Committee vote Tuesday. The bill limits the length of probation sentences and the circumstances under which someone on probation can be sent to jail. It passed the Senate unanimously last summer, but died without a vote in the state House of Representatives. Pennsylvania is among the states with the highest rates of people under community supervision, according to federal statistics. The case of rapper Meek Mill helped shine a ...

Charges reinstated in officer’s pepper spray use in protest

PHILADELPHIA (AP) — A judge has granted a prosecution request to reinstate charges against a former Philadelphia police officer seen on video lowering the face covering of at least one protester before dousing a group with pepper spray as they knelt on a city interstate during a demonstration in the summer of 2020. Common Pleas Court Judge Crystal Bryant-Powell reversed a decision by another judge to throw out charges against ex-SWAT officer Richard Paul Nicoletti, the Philadelphia Inquirer reported. Without explaining her ruling, she ordered Nicoletti held for trial on charges ...

Rape charge dropped against district attorney

State prosecutors dropped a rape charge against an elected district attorney in western Pennsylvania on Tuesday but added new felony charges of sexual assault and aggravated indecent assault. Somerset County District Attorney Jeffrey Lynn Thomas waived a preliminary hearing that had been scheduled for Tuesday. Thomas, 36, is accused of attacking a woman in her Windber home last month. Charges of indecent and simple assault and criminal trespassing remain pending, while a strangulation charge was changed from a misdemeanor to a felony. Charges of unlawful restraint and false ...

Bystander shot suspect in Pa. mall shooting

LANCASTER (AP) — An armed bystander intervened after gunfire broke out in a Pennsylvania mall over the weekend, shooting one of the participants, police said. Lancaster police said there was a physical altercation between two males who knew each other at the Park City Center shortly before 2:30 p.m. Sunday. Police said at least one, a 16-year-old Lancaster resident, was carrying a concealed weapon. Police said a struggle over the gun ensued, and other people joined in the altercation. The teenager fired, hitting one of the participants, and another person joined the struggle for ...

Biden taking social services, climate pitch to Pennsylvania

HARRISBURG (AP) — President Joe Biden will travel to Scranton on Wednesday, the White House said, as the Democrat works to rally support in Congress for a social services and climate change package that had been a 10-year, $3.5 trillion proposal. Biden’s visit to his birthplace in the key swing state of Pennsylvania comes just a week after first lady Jill Biden visited nearby Allentown. Biden said Friday he would prefer to cut the duration of programs in the package rather than eliminate some entirely, as Democrats aim to win support from moderate lawmakers by trimming the ...