Pennsylvania News – Jobber Wiki

Biden Will Seek Medicare Changes, up Tax Rate in New Budget

7Mar

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Biden Will Seek Medicare Changes, up Tax Rate in New Budget

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden wants to increase taxes to boost funding for Medicare and expand the program’s ability to negotiate lower costs for prescription drugs, according to advance details on his budget proposal that will be released later this week.The Democratic president outlined his plan in a guest essay in The New York Times on Tuesday, writing that “Medicare is more than a government program. It’s the rock-solid guarantee that Americans have counted on to be there for them when they retire.”Biden is scheduled to release his budget proposal on Thursday in Philadelphia. Pushing the proposal through Congress will likely be difficult, with Republicans in control of the House and Democrats with only a slim majority in the Senate.The Medicare tax rate would rise from 3.8% ...

30 News Groups Ask Idaho Supreme Court to Reject Gag Order

7Feb

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30 News Groups Ask Idaho Supreme Court to Reject Gag Order

BOISE, Idaho (AP) — Thirty news organizations have asked the Idaho Supreme Court to overturn a gag order in a case against a man accused of stabbing four University of Idaho students to death.The challenge, filed Monday evening, comes just a few days after an attorney representing the family of one of the victims filed an opposition to the gag order in state court, saying it is overly broad and places an undue burden on the families.Bryan Kohberger, 28, is charged with four counts of first-degree murder and burglary in connection with the stabbing deaths in Moscow, Idaho. Prosecutors have yet to reveal if they intend to seek the death penalty.The bodies of Madison Mogen, Kaylee Goncalves, Xana Kernodle and Ethan Chapin were found on Nov. 13, 2022, at a rental home across the street from...

Order Aims to Reduce Wait Times for Professional Licensing

31Jan

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Order Aims to Reduce Wait Times for Professional Licensing

HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) — Gov. Josh Shapiro has signed an executive order aimed at reducing long wait times for professional applicants seeking to enter their fields in Pennsylvania.Under the order signed Tuesday, state agencies will be held to firm timelines to review license applications or repay applicants for the costs of fees. The measure is aimed at getting frontline workers like teachers and nurses into the field faster and lowering barriers for small business owners such as barbers and cosmetologists.“Pennsylvania, like many other states, is facing a critical labor shortage among frontline workers, from nurses to teachers,” the Democratic governor said during a news conference. “At a time when we need every qualified nurse and hospital worker on the job, we cannot have nurses kept ...

Hearing, Document Release Likely in Idaho Slayings Case

5Jan

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Hearing, Document Release Likely in Idaho Slayings Case

BOISE, Idaho (AP) — The man accused in the November slayings of four University of Idaho students is back in Idaho, where he’s charged with four counts of first-degree murder and felony burglary, and could make his first court appearance as early as Thursday.Bryan Kohberger's return to the state also means sealed documents that could answer key questions in the closely watched case will soon be released publicly.Kohberger, a 28-year-old doctoral student at Washington State University, was flown by Pennsylvania State Police to a small regional airport near the Idaho border and handed over to local authorities Wednesday evening. Uniformed law enforcement officers were waiting on the tarmac for the plane to land, and then escorted the handcuffed Kohberger to a caravan of five vehicles for ...

Officer Killed, 2nd Wounded in Pennsylvania; Suspect Sought

2Jan

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Officer Killed, 2nd Wounded in Pennsylvania; Suspect Sought

BRACKENRIDGE, Pa. (AP) — Authorities in Pennsylvania are looking for a gunman they say shot and killed a police officer and wounded another during a foot pursuit near Pittsburgh on Sunday.The shootings happened in separate incidents just blocks apart in Brackenridge, an Allegheny County town northeast of Pittsburgh. The gunman carjacked a vehicle after the shootings Sunday afternoon and is considered “extremely dangerous,” assistant police Superintendent Victor Joseph told a news briefing reported by WTAE-TV.Officers from multiple law enforcement agencies were looking for a suspect identified as Aaron Lamont Swan, 28, of the nearby city of Duquesne. Police spokesman Christopher Kearns told reporters that Swan had been sought for a parole violation involving a weapons charge.The officers...

Exodus of Incumbents Brings Change to State Legislatures

6Nov

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Exodus of Incumbents Brings Change to State Legislatures

By DAVID A. LIEB, Associated PressMore than one-quarter of state lawmakers whose seats are up for election across the U.S. are guaranteed to be gone from office next year — a statistic certain to grow when the votes are counted from the November general election.A combination of retirements, term limits, redistricting changes and primary defeats — especially among Republicans facing conservative challengers — already has driven turnover in state capitols to its highest rate in more than a decade.More incumbents will lose Tuesday, as voters decide nearly 6,300 state legislative races in 46 states.“There are going to be a lot of new faces in legislative chambers across the country," said Ben Williams, principal for the elections and redistricting program at the National Conference of Stat...

WVa Group Begins Monkeypox Education Efforts in Appalachia

31Oct

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WVa Group Begins Monkeypox Education Efforts in Appalachia

By JOHN RABY, Associated PressCHARLESTON, W.Va. (AP) — A West Virginia nonprofit group said Monday it has been awarded $100,000 in grants for monkeypox vaccination and education efforts among LGTBQ individuals in 13 Appalachian states.The Community Education Group received $50,000 grants each from Gilead Sciences and ViiV Healthcare to develop and distribute materials, offer grants and hold meetings aimed at reducing cultural stigmas and barriers related to the virus, the group said in a statement.CEG will create and distribute monkeypox digital resource guides to more than 300 Appalachian health departments, along with rural healthcare associations and LGBTQ groups.CEG also will accept applications for mini-grants from organizations in Alabama, Georgia, Kentucky, Maryland, Mississippi,...

Biden Nominates 7 for US Attorney, Judge and Marshal Slots

14Oct

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Biden Nominates 7 for US Attorney, Judge and Marshal Slots

By MICHAEL BALSAMO and JAKE BLEIBERG, Associated PressWASHINGTON (AP) — The Biden administrating is putting forth seven new Justice Department and judicial nominations covering three U.S. attorney's offices in Texas and other senior posts. One is a prosecutor who vowed to seek the death penalty for a man who killed nearly two dozen people in a racist attack at a Walmart.The nominations, announced by the White House on Friday, include three nominees to become U.S. marshals in Ohio, Pennsylvania and Utah, along with a nomination of a longtime prosecutor to become a federal judge in Mississippi.Among the nominations is that of Jaime Esparza, who had served as district attorney for El Paso County, Texas, from 1993 to 2020, to be the U.S. attorney for the Western District of Texas. As distri...

Pennsylvania Spending $45M to Establish 3 New State Parks

27Sep

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Pennsylvania Spending $45M to Establish 3 New State Parks

By MARK SCOLFORO, Associated PressHARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) — Pennsylvania is spending $45 million to add new state parks at a nature preserve in Tunkhannock, on Big Elk Creek in the Philadelphia suburbs and along the Susquehanna River near Wrightsville, officials were set to announce Tuesday.The additions to the state's 121-park system will be an existing nearly 700-acre nature preserve on the Vosburg Neck in Wyoming County, a 1,700-acre tract in Chester County and some 1,100 acres in York County.The expansion was funded in the state budget that passed in July. They are the first new state parks in Pennsylvania since 2005, not counting Washington Crossing in Bucks County, which was transferred from the state Historical and Museum Commission.The Vosburg Neck property, known as the Howland Pr...

Judge to Decide if Pennsylvania Sufficiently Funds Education

26Jul

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Judge to Decide if Pennsylvania Sufficiently Funds Education

By MARK SCOLFORO, Associated PressHARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) — A decision about whether Pennsylvania's method of funding public education meets the state constitutional requirement that lawmakers provide “a thorough and efficient system” was left in the hands of a state judge Tuesday when argument wrapped up in the long-running case.Commonwealth Court Judge Renee Cohn Jubelirer did not indicate when she will rule but said lawyers have left her with a massive record to review.The case could result in substantial changes, as the plaintiffs are challenging whether the amounts and method of distribution of the annual education subsidies issued by the General Assembly comport with the Pennsylvania Constitution.The defendants, Republican leaders in the state House and Senate, argue that funding has...