Pennsylvania Capital-Star

02/12/2024

Pittsburgh Post-Gazette journalists walked off the job in an unfair labor practice strike in October 2022. It’s now the longest ongoing strike in the country, according to the International Communications Workers of America..

But enough employees kept working to keep the paper publishing. The strike has created — and in some ways deepened — bitter divisions among the Post-Gazette’s journalists, many of whom have worked alongside each other for years. It also laid bare years of turmoil within the union itself, that included the ouster of its longtime leader over sexual misconduct allegations.

So trust in the union leadership was already low when the strike vote occurred, and a successful resolution was far from certain. Now, with a new administration in the White House come January, the strike’s future has become even more uncertain. https://penncapital-star.com/labor/the-strike-at-the-pittsburgh-post-gazette-is-now-the-longest-in-the-nation-and-its-not-over/

01/11/2024

Bucks County is in the spotlight right now as confusion over mail ballots ended up part of a Trump court case this week.

And experts are worried about the speed at which misinformation is spreading as the election looms.

Conservative activist Scott Presler was at the county administration building in Doylestown on Thursday and told the Capital-Star he had a "peaceful and stern warning: Anyone who cheats, we will catch you. We will find those people who are doing anything illegal.”

https://penncapital-star.com/election-2024/pennsylvania-bucks-county-mail-ballots-mess-sparks-misinformation-concerns-presler-boockvar-ahead-of-the-election/

27/10/2024

A new fight in the ongoing battle over voting in Bucks County erupted Saturday, after elections officials cut off the line of people at the main county election office who were still waiting to cast their mail ballots in person.

More than 60 people were standing in line and more were arriving at noon on Saturday when county elections officials came out and said they were cutting off the line at about 40 people, and some people wouldn’t make it inside. The office was scheduled to be open until 2 p.m. and officials had determined that was how many people they could help in the two hours that remained.

“That’s not fair!” people at the end of the line shouted. “I’m in line. I should be able to vote!”

Some called local news organizations. Some called the police. And some called the Bucks County Republican Committee. They all stayed in line.

https://penncapital-star.com/election-2024/confusion-at-pennsylvania-bucks-county-election-office-leads-to-long-lines-frustrated-voters/

20/10/2024

Former President Donald Trump, the GOP nominee for president, has a busy schedule of events in Pennsylvania this weekend that kicked off Saturday evening with a rally in Latrobe where he approvingly described the anatomy of the late golfer Arnold Palmer.

“This is a guy that was all man,” Trump said of Palmer, “when he took showers with the other pros, they came out of there they said, ‘oh my God, that’s unbelievable.’”

On Sunday, Trump visited a McDonald’s restaurant in Bucks County, where he donned an apron and worked the drive-thru for about 20 minutes.

https://penncapital-star.com/election-2024/trump-weekend-pennsylvania-arnold-palmer-latrobe-mcdonalds-steelers-elon-musk/

12/10/2024

Speaker of the House Mike Johnson attended a Mechanicsburg fundraiser for U.S. Rep. Scott Perry (R-10th District) Friday as the former Freedom Caucus chair faces what may be his toughest reelection challenge since taking office in 2013.

https://penncapital-star.com/campaigns-elections/u-s-house-speaker-stumps-for-perry-as-he-slips-in-polls/

09/10/2024

Republicans are struggling to recruit and elect women to Congress, lagging behind Democrats in ensuring women, who make up half the population, have a strong voice in the halls of power, experts on women in politics said Tuesday.

“This year’s data shows clearly that Republican women are falling behind in candidacies, nominations and even primary contest success,” Debbie Walsh, director of the Center for American Women and Politics at Rutgers University in New Jersey, said on a call with reporters.

Democratic women, on the other hand, “are not only outperforming their male counterparts, but are also reaching near parity with Democratic men in nominations and office holding.”
https://penncapital-star.com/government-politics/republican-women-falling-behind-when-it-comes-to-running-for-congress-experts-say/

07/10/2024

Convicted in 2007 of second degree murder for a crime in which he contends he was also a victim, John Alexander is serving a life sentence in state prison without the possibility of parole.

On Tuesday, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court will hear arguments in a case that offers a slim hope of freedom for 40-year-old John Alexander and more than 1,100 other people serving life sentences for killings they didn’t commit or intend.

Lawyers for former Allegheny County resident Derek Lee have been working to persuade the court to find that life in prison without parole for second degree murder is an impermissible cruel punishment under the Pennsylvania Constitution. Lee, 36, is serving life for a murder committed by his accomplice in a 2014 robbery.

A crucial part of the Supreme Court’s decision, if it finds the punishment to be unconstitutional, is whether it should apply to free people who have already been sentenced to life without parole, said Philadelphia attorney Teri Himebaugh, who is working to reopen John Alexander’s case.

“Until we know what they’re going to do, we don’t know whether Mr. Alexander has a basis for that,” Himebaugh said. “If they find it doesn’t apply retroactively, there’s not a lot we can do about it, and we’re going to have to continue reviewing other types of new evidence.”

https://penncapital-star.com/civil-rights-social-justice/felony-murder-appeal-before-pennsylvania-supreme-court-on-tuesday-offers-a-slim-hope-for-lifers/

28/09/2024

Wallnau’s “Courage Tour” is billed as a “celebration of Jesus Christ’s courage and triumph,” but, with stops in seven key swing states, its goal is to tap the voting power of suburban Christians to reelect former President Donald Trump.

https://penncapital-star.com/election-2024/who-is-lance-wallnau-and-why-is-j-d-vance-joining-his-courage-tour-in-pennsylvania/

23/09/2024

It’s been a wild few months in the presidential race: President Joe Biden dropped out and Vice President Kamala Harris captured the Democratic nomination. Former President Donald Trump survived an assassination attempt in Pennsylvania and was targeted again at his golf club in West Palm Beach, Florida.

Despite the historic lead-up to Election Day, the race has now settled into familiar territory: Much like 2020’s contest, top political strategists on both sides of the aisle expect control of the White House could come down to just a few thousand votes in a handful of battleground states.

Much like 2020’s contest, control of the White House could come down to just a few thousand votes in a handful of battleground states.

23/09/2024

James Gregory Jr., a Ph.D. candidate at the University of Oklahoma, is being sued by Pennsylvania state Sen. Doug Mastriano, (R-Franklin), for defamation after Gregory criticized Mastriano’s academic research and raised concerns about its integrity.

Mastriano sued Gregory and nearly two dozen other defendants in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Oklahoma in May, but the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression, or FIRE, filed a motion to dismiss the lawsuit on Thursday. The organization, which advocates for free speech and free thought rights, is representing Gregory.

“The First Amendment means all Americans have the right to criticize public officials, no matter how angry that criticism makes them,” said Greg Greubel, FIRE senior attorney, in a statement. “Politicians should be concerned about legislating for the people, not suing critics when their feelings get hurt.”

https://penncapital-star.com/government-politics/mastriano-sues-oklahoma-historian-for-defamation-claims-free-speech-violations/

21/09/2024

Sen. Bob Casey and opponent Dave McCormick both pledged to try to help the 300 workers of Corelle Brands. But time may be running out

There has been glass manufacturing in Charleroi for more than 100 years, but that may end this year if the Corelle Brands plant closes down, affecting 300 workers.

08/09/2024

immigrant rights advocates are calling for the closure of the privately run Moshannon Valley Processing Center

More than half of the people held at Moshannon Valley Processing Center experienced or witnessed mistreatment.

04/08/2024

Eleven Pennsylvania school districts got $14 million in extra funding in the latest budget.

Some Republicans say it’s a dirty deal. Some Democrats say they were only protecting them from Republican cuts.

03/08/2024

Pennsylvania’s Marc Fogel wasn’t part of the Russian prisoner swap, but his family keeps pushing

Fogel, a teacher, was detained in Russia in 2021, for possession of ma*****na that had been prescribed for his chronic back pain. In 2022 he was sentenced to serve 14 years hard labor in a Russian penal colony.

When his sister Anne Fogel and her family started hearing late Wednesday that American prisoners in Russia were being moved, they immediately reached out to as many members of Congress as they could, to plead, yet again, for her brother’s release.

It was not to be.

“He learned this … you can imagine, he’s in a Russian prison. He learns this over Russian television that they’re releasing these Americans,” Fogel said in an interview with the Capital-Star on Friday. “And he is … he’s undone.”

https://penncapital-star.com/government-politics/pennsylvanias-marc-fogel-wasnt-part-of-russian-prisoner-swap-but-his-family-keeps-pushing/

22/07/2024

“Who better to turn the page in American history after 250 years,” state Rep. Joanna McClinton, who is the first woman and the first woman of color to serve as Speaker of the House in Pennsylvania, told the Capital-Star on Sunday. Asked how Harris could secure the swing votes in battleground states like Pennsylvania, McClinton said, “The best thing she can do is choose Governor Josh Shapiro to be her running mate.”

https://penncapital-star.com/election-2024/pennsylvania-democrats-line-up-behind-kamala-harris-with-some-endorsing-josh-shapiro-as-vp/

20/07/2024

President Joe Biden’s reelection campaign on Friday launched a new ad focused on how state bans on abortion are affecting Black maternal health.

Titled “Access,” the spot airing in the Atlanta, Raleigh, Charlotte, Philly, Pittsburgh, Detroit and Milwaukee media markets highlights Shawana Moore, a women’s health nurse practitioner from Atlanta, who speaks about the “fear and uncertainty” among patients and health care providers in the aftermath of the Dobbs decision that overturned Roe v. Wade.

The ad is timed near the two-year anniversary of an abortion ban in Georgia. It’s part of the Biden campaign’s $50 million paid media program for July.

“I think there’s fear and uncertainty,” Moore says in the ad. “Within the United States, there’s a maternal health crisis that disproportionately impacts women of color.”

01/07/2024

It’s been more than 50 years since passenger trains ferried travelers from Scranton to New York City, and many in Northeast Pennsylvania had given up hope that a rail line would ever return. But funding from the 2021 bipartisan infrastructure law may finally bring back passenger trains to run between the Electric City and the Big Apple.

https://penncapital-star.com/transportation-infrastructure/back-on-track-scranton-may-finally-see-the-return-of-a-passenger-rail-line-to-nyc/

26/06/2024

President Joe Biden will pardon U.S. military veterans who were discharged or convicted under military law for consensual same-sex relations, the administration announced Wednesday.

Biden said in a statement Wednesday that he is “righting an historic wrong by using my clemency authority to pardon many former service members who were convicted simply for being themselves.”

https://penncapital-star.com/lgbt-issues/biden-to-pardon-vets-discharged-for-same-sex-relationships/