A measure to amend the constitution in Pennsylvania and let each political party's gubernatorial nominee choose who will serve under them as lieutenant governor cleared a first hurdle Tuesday.

The Republican-controlled Senate voted 46 to 2 for a constitutional amendment that would end the current practice, in which the governor and lieutenant governor run separately for their party's nominations. It passed the Republican-controlled House 130-67 in December, with most Democrats against it.

Voters could get a chance to set term limits for Allegheny County councilors, while also freeing them up to run for other elected positions. Council’s Government Reform Committee will weigh both possibilities when it discusses two proposed ballot questions on Wednesday.

Gov. Tom Wolf will have at least a couple million dollars to spend in this year's legislative elections to help his fellow Democrats pick up seats and aid his push for priorities that stalled in Pennsylvania's Republican-controlled Legislature.

A campaign spokeswoman told The Associated Press on Tuesday that Wolf's campaign had $2.2 million heading into 2020 to help elect Democrats to the state Legislature.

A Democrat has announced his bid to unseat U.S. Rep. Guy Reschenthaler, a task many party leaders in the district were unsure who would take on until now. Democrat Bill Marx, of Delmont, announced his campaign in the 14th District Monday.

Companies that help Pennsylvanians living with intellectual disabilities failed to report two deaths and thousands of other “critical incidents” in 2015 and 2016, according to an audit by a federal inspector general. The same audit concluded that state officials failed to ensure those companies followed the rules.

Allegheny County, the city of Pittsburgh and the University of Pittsburgh's Institute for Cyber Law, Policy and Security are teaming up to address bias in the region's automated decision making tools. The 22-person Pittsburgh Task Force on Public Algorithms was announced Wednesday, and is charged with forming guidelines and best practices for municipal algorithms.

A monument honoring voting rights for African American men and women will soon be built on Pennsylvania's Capitol grounds.

A group of alumni met with University of Pittsburgh administrators Tuesday to amplify demands students have made for years: divest the university’s endowment from fossil fuels.

Five of the country’s 50 most economically segregated neighboring school districts are located in Western Pennsylvania.

Update: The flush and boil advisory has been lifted as of Wednesday, January 22. PWSA advises residents who have not run their water in recent days to flush their taps for at least one minute before using water for cooking or drinking.

The Pittsburgh Water and Sewer Authority has issued a flush and boil advisory for the Crafton Heights, Elliott, Esplen, Ridgemont, and Westwood neighborhoods.

The Downtown branch of the Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh is among the busiest in the system, averaging more than 1,000 visitors a day. That’s not surprising, considering that the Golden Triangle hosts tens of thousands of workers daily. Now, upward trends in Downtown housing have pushed the branch past the capacity of the space on Smithfield Street it’s occupied since 2004.

The Trump administration announced it’s finalizing a rollback of a major Obama Era rule that clarified which waterways can be regulated by the Clean Water Act.

The Pennsylvania Supreme Court has ruled to uphold a legal principle that allows drillers to drain oil and natural gas from outside their property lines.

The court overturned a 2018 decision by the lower Superior Court on Wednesday that said the “rule of capture" does not cover hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, a method of extracting natural gas from underground rock.

A Pittsburgh-area school district planned to resume classes Tuesday, one day after they were cancelled following a potential threat of violence received over the weekend.

A college senior who aspired to be a research psychologist was struck and killed by a bus in Pittsburgh over the weekend, authorities said.

Barbara Como, 20, of Chester Springs was struck by the Port Authority bus in the Oakland neighborhood of Pittsburgh shortly after noon Saturday, the Allegheny County medical examiner's office said. She was taken to UPMC Presbyterian, where she was pronounced dead.

The 2020 Pennsylvania Farm Show kicks off this weekend.