Breaking News

PA News

Trump ally in Pa. raises 2020 election audit plan

HARRISBURG (AP) — Following in the footsteps of Arizona’s Senate Republicans, Pennsylvania’s Republican-controlled Senate is considering an investigation into how last year’s presidential election was conducted, a quest fueled by former President Donald Trump’s baseless claims that fraud was behind his loss in the battleground state. Any Senate-issued subpoenas for an Arizona-style “election audit” will face strident opposition from Democrats, legal questions and almost certainly challenges in Pennsylvania’s courts, as battles over election laws rage through swing ...

Wolf vetoes ban on ‘vaccine passports’

HARRISBURG (AP) — A Republican-crafted bill to ban so-called COVID-19 “vaccine passports” in some cases and to restrict the health secretary’s actions during health emergencies was vetoed Thursday by Pennsylvania’s Democratic governor. The measure split both legislative chambers along party lines last month, and Gov. Tom Wolf had previously said he would veto the proposal. With millions of Pennsylvanians still unvaccinated, many seemingly intent on remaining so, legislative Republicans wanted to prevent what they view as stigmatizing policies that require proof of ...

Conservative high court upholds voting restrictions

WASHINGTON (AP) — Flexing its new strength, the Supreme Court’s conservative majority on Thursday cut back on a landmark voting rights law in a decision likely to help Republican states fight challenges to voting restrictions they’ve put in place following last year’s elections. The court’s 6-3 ruling upheld voting limits in Arizona that a lower court had found discriminatory under the federal Voting Rights Act. It was the high court’s second major decision in eight years that civil rights groups and liberal dissenting justices say weakened the Civil Rights-era law that was ...

Cosby freed from prison

PHILADELPHIA (AP) — Pennsylvania’s highest court threw out Bill Cosby’s sexual assault conviction and released him from prison Wednesday in a stunning reversal of fortune for the comedian once known as “America’s Dad,” ruling that the prosecutor who brought the case was bound by his predecessor’s agreement not to charge Cosby. Cosby, 83, flashed the V-for-victory sign to a helicopter overhead as he trudged into his suburban Philadelphia home after serving nearly three years of a three- to 10-year sentence for drugging and violating Temple University sports administrator ...

Wolf vetoes GOP bill with voter ID, election changes

HARRISBURG (AP) — Pennsylvania’s Democratic governor vetoed a Republican-crafted elections bill Wednesday, a proposal that would have mandated voter identification in all elections and made a host of other changes to election law. Gov. Tom Wolf said outside his Capitol offices that he considers the measure a voter suppression effort. “I think voter suppression is absolutely the wrong thing to do,” Wolf said, adding that he would welcome a narrower bill that would give counties more time to start counting ballots and to provide more money to help them run elections. The ...

PennDOT centers closed for holiday

HARRISBURG — All driver license and photo centers, including the Riverfront Office Center in Harrisburg, will be closed Saturday, July 3, through Monday, July 5, in observance of Independence Day. Customers may still obtain a variety of driver and vehicle products and services, including all forms, publications and driver training manuals, online through PennDOT’s Driver and Vehicle Services website, www.dmv.pa.gov. Driver and vehicle online services include driver’s license, photo ID and vehicle registration renewals; driver-history services; changes of address; driver ...