Pennsylvania

A minor earthquake hit Central Pennsylvania Wednesday night. The U.S. Geological Survey reports the quake, with a preliminary magnitude of 3.4, struck at around 8:31 p.m. The epicenter was located in Juniata county, Pa., about 11 miles south/southwest of Mifflintown. Reports of mild shaking came in to the U.S.G.S website from Altoona to Lancaster, and from State College to Hagerstown, Md.

A new report released on Monday by the Center for Rural Pennsylvania says the Federal Communications Commission overstates broadband internet availability and access across Pennsylvania.

Tuesday, May 28, 9:50 p.m.
The National Weather Service says a tornado has been confirmed in eastern Pennsylvania where homes have been damaged but there were no immediate reports of injuries.
Meteorologist Jonathan O'Brien says a damage assessment team will be sent to the area Wednesday to determine the strength of the twister that struck Tuesday.

PHILADELPHIA (AP) — Weather officials say Pennsylvania has already recorded the average number of tornados for a year.
Meteorologist Sarah Johnson of the National Weather Service office in Mount Holly, New Jersey says 16 tornadoes that have had preliminary confirmation in the commonwealth so far this year.
Severe weather is more common in June and into July, but Johnson cautions that that is by no means a hard and fast rule. For example, a large outbreak of severe weather was recorded Oct. 2 of last year across the commonwealth, she said.

A few months ago, Daniel Klein bought two flags to hang on a chainlink fence outside his home in rural Wyoming County.

They say “Trump 2020: No More Bulls---.”

Some people driving along wooded Route 29 stop to take pictures. Some blow their horns.

“I don’t know whether they’re throwing me the bird or saying, ‘Good job,’ but I don’t care,” Klein said.

John Hecker pointed out the window of the truck as it passed oak, maple and birch trees in the Pennsylvania Wilds.

Up ahead was a fork in the road.

The state has approved $40 million in grants for school districts to improve safety.

Over a dozen school districts in Central Pennsylvania received grants, including the Altoona Area School District, the Keystone Central School District and the Smethport Area School District. None of Centre County’s school district was awarded a competitive grant.

These competitive grants are in addition to $25,000 that most districts received last year.

Third highest in the nation.

That’s how Pennsylvania ranks in the price of attending a public university according to the most recent report from College Board, with an the average cost of $14,770 for in-state tuition and fees in the 2018-19 academic year.

HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) — Fresh from a victory in Pennsylvania last fall, anti-gun violence advocates are turning their attention to legislation to empower family members or police to seek the immediate, if temporary, seizure of someone's firearms.
Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense in America went to the state Capitol on Monday to press the case for the bill, sometimes called a "red flag" bill in other states.
Under it, someone who is deemed to represent a danger of suicide or a serious threat to another person could be the subject of an "extreme risk protection order."

As a nationwide ban took effect this week, gun owners must immediately destroy or turn over their bump stocks after President Trump pushed the Justice Department to classify the controversial gun add-on as a type of illegal machine gun.

The gun accessory attaches to the butt of a semi-automatic rifle, allowing the weapon to reload and fire more rapidly.

The device became a focal point in the country's debate about gun violence in the months after law enforcement officials said a shooter used one to kill 58 people in Las Vegas in October 2017.

(Harrisburg) -- The state House swore in its first-ever Muslim woman on Monday.

Movita Johnson-Harrell won her Philadelphia seat in a special election earlier this month. A mother and grandmother, she arrived in Harrisburg with 55 guests, more than half of whom she said were fellow Muslims.

But she said her first day in office was marred by an "offensive" invocation before her induction.

Calling for respect and unity that he said will lead to common ground, Democratic presidential candidate Beto O’Rourke visited Penn State University Park on Tuesday and spoke to a crowd of hundreds about how he wants to serve the country.

The former congressman from El Paso, Texas, is the first declared presidential candidate for the 2020 race to host a public event in Pennsylvania. Coming from previous stops in critical swing states like Iowa, Wisconsin and Michigan, O’Rourke said his “grassroots road trip” is really important to him.

HARRISBURG (AP) — Gov. Tom Wolf rolled out a second-term proposal Wednesday to vault Pennsylvania's minimum wage to one of the highest in the nation after similar first-term proposals by the Democrat fell flat in the Republican-controlled Legislature.
Wolf wants to take the hourly minimum to $12 this year, putting Pennsylvania in line with the highest state minimum wages, according to federal data. Pennsylvania also would join a handful of states by eliminating its tipped wage minimum, now $2.83, under legislation being introduced with Wolf's support.

HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) — Former U.S. Sen. Harris Wofford of Pennsylvania, a civil rights activist who staged an upset Senate win in 1991, has died. He was 92.
Wofford died late Monday night of complications from a fall in his Washington, D.C., apartment, his son, Daniel Wofford, said.
Wofford had joined the Senate in 1991, appointed to fill the Senate vacancy created by the death of Republican John Heinz. He then pulled off a surprise victory in a special election to complete the Senate term. But Wofford lost his 1994 bid for a full term.

A group representing rural Pennsylvanians says expanding high speed broadband internet access in the state needs to be a priority this year, but acknowledges funding for infrastructure upgrades continues to be a challenge.

The most recent federal spending bill passed in March 2018 included a $600 million boost to efforts to improve high-speed internet access.

PHILADELPHIA (AP) — Over the past four months, Roman Catholic dioceses across the U.S. have released the names of more than 1,000 priests and others accused of sexually abusing children in an unprecedented public reckoning spurred at least in part by a shocking grand jury investigation in Pennsylvania, an Associated Press review has found.

HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) — Gov. Tom Wolf, who introduced himself at his first inauguration as an unconventional governor and then unveiled an ambitious blueprint to transform Pennsylvania's tax structure, is returning for a second term with big plans, although with perhaps a more sober view of what is possible.
Wolf, a Democrat, faced huge Republican legislative majorities throughout his first term, and will again face substantial Republican majorities as he hopes to nail down second-term achievements, including on stalled first-term priorities.

HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) — The legal consequences for repeatedly driving under the influence in Pennsylvania have become much more severe under a new law that just took effect.
Legislation passed in October by the General Assembly and signed by Gov. Tom Wolf established the state's first felony for DUI.
It applies when someone has been charged with a third offense in a decade with at least twice the legal limit for alcohol, or any fourth-time offender. Pennsylvania law sets the legal limit for driving at 0.08 percent.

HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) — For the Pennsylvania Senate, the election didn't necessarily end at 8:00 p.m. on November 6.
The chamber's Republican majority is questioning the residency qualifications of a newly elected Democrat who flipped a Republican-held Pittsburgh-area seat by a mere 793 votes, injecting tension into a normally quiet December between legislative sessions.

Statewide research from Pennsylvania State University finds that there’s a severe lack of connectivity to high-speed broadband internet for much of Pennsylvania. The preliminary results of the study suggest that the problem is far worse than experts initially estimated.

Using data self-reported from internet providers, the Federal Communications Commission estimates about 800,000 Pennsylvanians lack access to broadband, which is about six percent of the state’s population.

HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) — Gov. Tom Wolf's administration is settling a vote-counting lawsuit stemming from the 2016 presidential election, in part by affirming a commitment it made previously to push Pennsylvania's counties to buy voting systems that leave a verifiable paper trail by 2020.
Paperwork filed Thursday in federal court in Philadelphia caps a lawsuit that Green Party presidential candidate Jill Stein filed in 2016 as she sought recounts in Wisconsin, Pennsylvania and Michigan.

When a new legislative session starts in January, embattled lieutenant governor Mike Stack, who lost the Democratic primary, is exiting the Capitol.

Stack's also leaving his state-provided residence. But his replacement, John Fetterman, isn't moving in.

That decision might save the commonwealth a little money. But what's even more important to the new lieutenant governor is how it looks politically.

Former state Attorney General Kathleen Kane is likely headed to jail soon.

More than two years ago, Kane was convicted of leaking secret grand jury information and lying about it.

She's been free on bail since then. But now Pennsylvania's Supreme Court has rejected her appeal, and she's out of legal options.

The Montgomery County District Attorney's office has indicated it will ask a judge to revoke Kane's bail on Tuesday.

She'll either be told to report to jail immediately, or will have a date set.

Pennsylvania’s Department of Corrections has agreed to treat the state’s nearly 5,000 inmates with hepatitis C over the next three years as part of a federal court settlement expected to be finalized soon.

Advocates for prisoners have filed suits in about a dozen states as prisons have denied drugs to inmates in need because costs of the hepatitis C medication would strain limited prison budgets.

Witness to Innocence, a national anti-death penalty organization based in Philadelphia, staged an event in the city Thursday calling for Pennsylvania to abolish the death penalty.

Led by exonerated death row inmates, WTI uses the first-hand experiences of the wrongly convicted to push for an end to executions in the U.S. — calling the death penalty the biggest problem in a “fatally flawed” criminal justice system.

Voter turnout was up in every county in Pennsylvania this year compared to the last midterm election in 2014.

Statewide, it jumped from 43 percent in 2014 to 58 percent, according to our analysis of Department of State data.

Preliminary ballot counts suggested as much, but the state only just released data this week making it official.

Twenty-four-year-old Samantha Valley is a familiar face to staff at Dauphin County's Case Management Unit, where she meets regularly with her caseworker.

A majority of voters casting midterm election ballots in Pennsylvania said the country is headed in the wrong direction, according to a wide-ranging survey of the American electorate.
As voters cast ballots for governor, U.S. Senate and members of Congress in Tuesday's elections, AP VoteCast found that 41 percent of Pennsylvania voters said the country is on the right track, compared with 57 percent who said the country is headed in the wrong direction.