Category Archives: Pennsylvania

Summer Lee wins Pennsylvania primary in victory for progressives

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The significant victory for the ‘Squad’ member comes amid concerns of pro-Israel funding targeting pro-ceasefire candidates

Summer Lee, a Pennsylvania congresswoman, easily beat back a primary challenge on Tuesday, delivering progressives one of their most significant victories yet of this election cycle as they brace for a wave of pro-Israel funding targeting pro-ceasefire candidates.

The Associated Press called the 12th district Democratic primary at 9.21pm, roughly an hour and an half after Pennsylvania polls closed at 8pm ET.

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Biden and Trump clinch Pennsylvania primaries shortly after polls close

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State’s voters still had options in presidential contests, with tallies to provide window into how state will swing in November

Joe Biden and Donald Trump both won their primaries in Pennsylvania shortly after polls closed.

Pennsylvanians had gone to the polls on Tuesday to cast ballots in the state’s primary races – the results provide a window into where voters in the crucial battleground stand roughly six months out from the general election.

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World’s oldest living conjoined twins die in Pennsylvania, aged 62

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Lori and George Schappell were joined at the skull with separate bodies and lived on their own since the age of 24

The world’s oldest living conjoined twins have died at the age of 62 in their native Pennsylvania.

Lori and George Schappell died on 7 April at the hospital of the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia, according to an obituary. A cause of death was not disclosed.

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Philadelphia shooting suspect will face charges in Pennsylvania and New Jersey

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The gunman is suspected of killing his stepmother, his sister, and the mother of his children before being arrested in New Jersey

The suspect involved in the fatal shootings of three people outside a Philadelphia-area suburb on Saturday morning has been arrested and will face charges in Pennsylvania and New Jersey, authorities said on Sunday.

According to authorities, 26-year-old Andre Gordon was found near a house in Trenton, New Jersey, after carrying out two separate shootings. Police had surrounded the home for hours in the belief that he was there, but Gordon apparently slipped out before the police cordon went up. He was arrested at around 5 pm, unarmed, when he was spotted walking down a street a few blocks away, police said.

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Pennsylvania case challenging ban on Medicaid abortions back in court

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Supreme court rules lower court must hear case arguing decades-old law barring coverage for procedure should be overturned

Pennsylvania’s supreme court ruled on Monday that a lower court must hear a case challenging a ban on the use of government-funded healthcare to pay for abortions, raising hopes among reproductive rights advocates for an expansion of abortion access in the state and the establishment of a constitutional right to the procedure.

The case, brought by abortion providers in the state, challenged a decades-old state law barring Medicaid from covering abortions, arguing that it should be overturned because it violates the broader rights guaranteed by the state constitution’s Equal Rights Amendment.

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Five people killed by tractor trailer on snowy interstate in Pennsylvania

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Victims had got out of minivan that lost control and another vehicle in Lackawanna county before being struck

Five people were struck and killed by a tractor trailer on Interstate 81 in snowy north-eastern Pennsylvania after they had left their vehicles following another crash, state police said on Wednesday.

A minivan had lost control and hit a median on the northbound interstate in Lackawanna county at about 5.30pm on Tuesday. Four people got out of the van as well as a person who had been following them in a separate car, police said. All were hit by the passing tractor trailer.

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States to award anti-abortion centers roughly $250m in post-Roe surge

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At least 16 states will fund largely unregulated facilities that try to convince people to continue their pregnancies

In the months since the US supreme court overturned Roe v Wade, at least 16 states have agreed to funnel more than $250m in taxpayer dollars towards anti-abortion facilities and programs that try to convince people to continue their pregnancies.

Much of that money is set to go to anti-abortion counseling centers, or crisis pregnancy centers, according to data provided by the Guttmacher Institute and Equity Forward, organizations that support abortion rights. It has been paid out throughout 2023 and will stretch into 2025.

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Animal shelter in Pennsylvania empty for first time in 47 years

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Just in time for Christmas, Adams county SPCA adopts out 598 animals and reunites 125 with their owners

An animal shelter in Pennsylvania reached a milestone this Christmas season, celebrating one of the rare moments where less is more.

The Adams county SPCA, which houses dogs, cats and other homeless, abandoned or lost animals, was empty for the first time in 47 years, according to a Facebook post from the shelter, reported by CNN.

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US man formerly on death row freed after murder charges dismissed

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Noel Montalvo was in Pennsylvania prison for 20 years for murders that he blamed on his brother who died in prison

A man formerly on death row has been released from prison following dismissal of murder charges in a double slaying a quarter-century ago that he blamed on his brother, who died in prison while appealing his own death sentence in the case.

Noel Montalvo, who turned 59 on Tuesday, was freed on Monday night after York county, Pennsylvania, prosecutors dismissed charges of first-degree murder, conspiracy and burglary shortly before a retrial was to begin. He pleaded guilty to an evidence tampering charge for which the judge sentenced him to a year of probation.

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‘Gut punch’ US north-eastern storm leaves at least six people dead

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Deadly winter storm leaves hundreds of thousands without power and deposits flooding and freezing temperatures in its wake

At least six people were killed and hundreds of thousands were left without power as a deadly winter storm swept across the north-eastern US on Monday, depositing flooding and freezing temperatures in its wake.

Two of the deaths were in Maine in separate cases involving fallen trees, authorities said. Other deaths were reported in Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, South Carolina and New York.

Associated Press contributed reporting

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Senator John Fetterman vows to block ‘outrageous’ $14.9bn US Steel sale

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Former mayor of Pennsylvania town of Braddock has long advocated for rights of US steel workers

The US senator John Fetterman has vowed to block the multibillion-dollar sale of US Steel to the Japanese company Nippon Steel, calling the potential deal “outrageous”.

The former mayor of the south-west Pennsylvania town of Braddock, which is home to a major US Steel plant, Fetterman has long advocated for the rights of American steel workers and positioned himself as a pro-union Democrat.

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Nippon Steel to acquire Pittsburgh-based US Steel for $14.1bn

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All-cash deal will see company keep name and headquarters in Pittsburgh, where it was founded in 1901

US Steel, the Pittsburgh steel producer that was once the world’s largest company and played a key role in the nation’s industrialization, is being acquired by Nippon Steel in an all-cash deal valued at approximately $14.1bn.

The price tag for US Steel is nearly double what was offered just four months ago by rival Cleveland Cliffs. US Steel, which rejected that offer, confirmed the offering price from Nippon early on Monday.

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Former Pennsylvania mayor imprisoned for shooting at Pokémon Go players

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Ida Reams served as mayor of Osceola Mills from 2013 to 2021 and was intoxicated when she confronted the two men

The former two-term mayor of a Pennsylvania town has been ordered to serve up to a year in jail for shooting a gun at – and threatening to kill – two players of the popular mobile game Pokémon Go.

Ida Reams, who served as mayor of Osceola Mills from 2013 to 2021, was intoxicated when she confronted the two male players of the augmented reality game in the parking lot of a food bank in the town in March last year.

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US schools grapple with shortage of a lunchtime staple: milk cartons

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Agricultural department says multiple states will be affected, forcing a brainstorm of backup plans

The tiny, half-pint cartons of milk served with millions of school lunches nationwide may soon be scarce in some cafeterias, with districts across the country scrambling to find alternatives.

The problem is not a shortage of milk itself, but the cardboard cartons used to package and serve it, according to dairy industry suppliers and state officials.

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Pittsburgh in ‘extreme embrace’ with fossil fuel lobbyists, research finds

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Several of the city’s governmental, environmental and cultural institutions share lobbyists with fossil fuel companies

Dozens of governmental, educational, cultural and environmental organizations across the city of Pittsburgh have hired lobbying firms who work with planet-heating fossil fuel companies, new research shows.

The Pennsylvania city has almost entirely divested its pension funds from fossil fuels and plans to dramatically cut its planet-heating pollution. Yet in 2023, it employed lobbyists who also worked for ExxonMobil and seven other fossil fuel companies.

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Chunk of change: four charged with stealing millions of US dimes from truck

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Defendants allegedly left coins scattered across parking lot after breaking into truck and taking 10-cent pieces worth $234,500

Robberies in the US are a dime a dozen, but one in particular had investigators perplexed. Now, more details about a scandal involving the theft of dimes by the million, worth hundreds of thousands of dollars, have been released by federal authorities.

A newly unsealed indictment charges that on the evening of 13 April, four Philadelphia men made off with $234,500 – made up of more than 2m dimes – after breaking into a tractor-trailer carrying the coins. The truck driver, who had pulled into a parking lot to sleep at the time of the heist, had picked up the dimes from the US Mint and was headed to Miami. There was $750,000 worth of dimes in the truck before the robbery – a shipment that weighed about six tons and cost a pretty penny.

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Mummified US man finally given proper burial after 128 years on display

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James Murphy, nicknamed ‘Stoneman Willie’ because of hard skin from experimental embalming, has been ‘gawked at long enough’

The mummified remains of a petty thief nicknamed Stoneman Willie have been laid to rest in Pennsylvania, concluding a fascinating and somewhat macabre episode stretching back 128 years.

Willie, whose real name was revealed to be James Murphy at his burial in Reading, 60 miles north-west of Philadelphia, on Saturday. He was embalmed shortly after his death in 1895 by a mortician experimenting with new preservation techniques.

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Peruvian man arrested for making more than 150 bomb threats to US schools

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Suspect, arrested in Peru, allegedly threatened schools after failing to ‘sextort’ nude photos from schoolchildren

A Peruvian man was arrested in Peru for sending more than 150 fake bomb threats to US schools, airports and a synagogue.

Eddie Manuel Núñez Santos, 33, was arrested by Peruvian officials on Tuesday in Lima, according to a press release from the justice department.

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JoAnne A Epps, acting president of Temple University, dies aged 72

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Epps, who died suddenly Tuesday, previously was the law school dean and provost

JoAnne A Epps, the acting president of Temple University, died Tuesday shortly after becoming ill on stage during a memorial service, officials said, describing her loss as a gut punch and struggling through emotion as they recalled her nearly four decades of service.

Epps was attending a memorial service at the university for Charles L Blockson, a curator of a collection of African American artifacts, when she suffered what a doctor speaking at a news conference described as a “sudden episode”.

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Pennsylvania fugitive driving stolen van as he continues to elude capture

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Danelo Cavalcante who escaped prison over a week ago has slipped out of the search area and changed his appearance, police say

Authorities say an escaped murderer who has eluded capture since breaking out of a south-eastern Pennsylvania prison a week and a half ago has apparently slipped out of the search area, changed his appearance and is now being sought in a stolen vehicle.

Pennsylvania state police said in a statement on Sunday that Danelo Souza Cavalcante was seen overnight near Phoenixville in northern Chester county, more than 20 miles (32km) north-east of the area that until now has been the focus of the search.

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