Politics & Government

A state agency has said it’s willing to let Pennsylvania’s capitol keep its uncommonly high taxes through 2020—the latest development in a battle between the city and state over how it’ll pay its bills after losing its “distressed municipality” status.

The city, however, is hoping it gets to keep its special taxing authority permanently.

The new tax option comes in the latest version of Harrisburg’s Act 47 exit plan, delivered by the state Department of Community and Economic Development.

Ordinarily, you wouldn’t expect the chair of the Democratic National Committee to be so excited after seeing his party lose a closely watched special election. 

After a year of campaigning and months of legislative debate, it’s likely too late for state lawmakers to pass a constitutional amendment overhauling Pennsylvania’s redistricting process before the next map-redrawing gets underway in 2021.

So now, reform advocates are exploring alternative options.

Critics of the map-drawing methods for congressional and state legislative districts have spent months insisting state lawmakers have too much power over the process—and saying that leads to political gerrymandering and incumbent protection.  

There's a border crisis in Pennsylvania. The radical left is surging in New Jersey. And Nancy Pelosi is a threat to New York.

Republican candidates in the nation's premier midterm battlegrounds have embraced a central message in their fight to maintain the House majority this fall — and it has little to do with the surging economy or the sweeping tax cuts that the GOP celebrated as a once-in-a-generation achievement just eight months ago.

U.S. Senator Bob Casey was in suburban Pittsburgh Wednesday morning to advocate for protecting health care coverage for people with pre-existing conditions. Casey was joined by health care providers and patients with pre-existing conditions at the Squirrel Hill Health Center in Brentwood, Pa.

The Pennsylvania Republican Party wants an investigation into a promotion by Fayette County Democrats at the recent county fair to get people to register as Democrats or change party affiliation.

The GOP says the offer of Pittsburgh Steelers memorabilia and a one-night stay at a western Pennsylvania resort violated the state Elections Code .

Pennsylvania’s junior U.S. senator is going toe to toe with President Donald Trump on tariffs.

Republican Pat Toomey, a staunch free trade advocate, held a roundtable discussion in Harrisburg on Tuesday to hear a range of business owners and advocates speak on how the President’s recent spate of tariffs and ensuing trade wars have impacted them.

In an effort to shift his U.S. Senate campaign into a higher gear, Congressman Lou Barletta is in Pittsburgh Tuesday and Wednesday, with a bus sojourn his campaign calls the “Red, White and Lou” tour. And as he sought to raise his profile just three months from the election, he answered questions from 90.5 WESA about the campaign, Donald Trump's economic policies, and his ties to a controversial Trump ally.

Republican U.S. Senate candidate Lou Barletta is on a bus tour across the commonwealth with his golden retriever, Reilly.

The Luzerne County congressman is hoping it turns the tide of his disappointing fundraising numbers.

As of their most recent campaign filings from late June, Barletta has about $1.5 million on-hand, while opponent Bob Casey has nearly $10 million.

The Republican gubernatorial nominee is updating his rhetoric on climate change.

Midterm elections under a revamped congressional district map are certain to help transform Pennsylvania's delegation to Congress this fall. The governor and a U.S. senator, both Democrats, will learn in three months whether voters think they deserve another term. And the status of Republican majorities in both chambers of the Legislature, large margins by historical measures, hangs in the balance.

The United States is on pace to add about 2.6 million jobs this year under President Donald Trump's watch. Yet the bulk of the hiring has occurred in bastions of Democratic voters rather than in the Republican counties that put Trump in the White House.

On average for the year-ended this May, 58.5 percent of the job gains were in counties that backed Democrat Hillary Clinton in 2016, according to an Associated Press analysis of monthly government jobs data by county.

With three months until midterm elections, Republican Congressman and U.S. Senate hopeful Lou Barletta has found himself trailing his incumbent opponent—both in polls and in dollars.

Now, the Luzerne County representative is leaning into one resource he can count on: the support of President Donald Trump.

On Thursday night, Trump rolled through northeast Pennsylvania to lend his voice to the cause.

President Donald Trump is crediting his tariffs with persuading U.S. Steel to open a half dozen new plants. That's not so.

Trump at a rally in Wilkes-Barre Thursday night said: "U.S. Steel is opening up seven plants." On Tuesday, he told supporters in Florida: "U.S. Steel just announced that they're building six new steel mills."

President Donald Trump is renewing his campaign against the media, claiming at a Pennsylvania rally that the media is the "fake, fake disgusting news" and casting journalists as his true political opponent.

President Donald Trump will visit Northeastern Pennsylvania Thursday, set to speak to an audience in Luzerne County, which helped deliver the state to Trump in 2016.

A day before his appearance, Republicans in the small, working-class community of Wilkes-Barre said their support of the president has not wavered over the last 18 months.

Trump will be stumping for former Hazletown mayor and current U.S. Rep. Lou Barletta, who is trying to unseat U.S. Sen. Bob Casey in the November election.

In a conference call with labor leaders on Thursday, U.S. Senator Bob Casey decried President Donald Trump’s Supreme Court nominee, judge Brett Kavanaugh, as part of an effort "to turn over the third branch of government to the corporate right."

City Council voted to approve UPMC’s $400 million plan to expand Mercy Hospital this week -- but one activist plans to continue the fight against Daniel Lavelle, the city councilor who brokered a deal with the health care giant.

The Green Party is running candidates for Pennsylvania governor and lieutenant governor and U.S. Senate in the fall election.

A Democratic state representative is circulating a proposal that has prompted some concern from domestic violence advocates.

Representative Kevin Haggerty’s measure would require drug and alcohol tests for certain people who file for Protection from Abuse orders.

U.S. Senator Pat Toomey answered questions and listened to comments from Pennsylvanians in a tele town hall event on Tuesday, the second he's held in as many weeks.

A state commission is trying to figure out how to cut costs in Pennsylvania’s two largest, heavily-indebted pension funds.

Depending on what numbers you use, the State Employees’ Retirement System and Public School Employees’ Retirement System have between about $66 and $89 billion in unfunded liabilities.

Basically, the money needed to pay thousands of pensions isn’t there.

That’s nothing new. But what is new is a commission of lawmakers and state officials who are working to come up with a plan to pay down the debt.

As Pennsylvania’s U.S. Senate race heats up, incumbent Democrat Bob Casey features a Republican in his new ad, while the GOP candidate, U.S. Rep. Lou Barletta, plans to play to his base this week, hosting a rally with President Donald Trump.

Casey’s been a vocal opponent of Trump, joining an airport protest of his immigration policies and refusing to support his Supreme Court pick before the nominee was announced.

But Casey’s new campaign ad is an appeal to the center.

In a three-way contest this weekend, Lori Mizgorski narrowly won the Republican nomination to replace Hal English, for whom she has served as chief of staff, in state House District 30. 

She will face Democrat Betsy Monroe Nov. 6 in the district, which includes North Hills suburbs like Shaler, Richland, O'Hara and Hampton.

The Republican Committee of Allegheny County announced the result in a Sunday statement that quoted county party chair D. Raja calling Mizgorski "a superbly qualified candidate who will do an incredible job." 

Ahead of the legislature’s return to Harrisburg this fall, Representative Todd Stephens is spending his summer trying to get fellow conservatives on board with a modest gun control proposal.

The Montgomery County Republican introduced his extreme risk protection, or “red flag” bill in February, in the wake of a mass school shooting in Florida.

Five states have similar laws in effect, and Stephens said around thirty more are considering them.

The version in Pennsylvania’s statehouse hasn’t moved much since its introduction.

The politics of abortion could be especially prominent this fall as Democratic Gov. Tom Wolf and Republican Scott Wagner hit the final stretch of Pennsylvania's gubernatorial campaign.

The Libertarian Party of Pennsylvania's nominee for U.S. Senate is filing signatures to get on November's election ballot against Democratic U.S. Sen. Bob Casey and his Republican challenger Lou Barletta.

Dale Kerns said his campaign filed roughly 11,000 voter signatures Friday, more than double the legal threshold. The deadline is next Wednesday.

Kerns is a 34-year-old electrical construction project manager from Delaware County making his first bid for statewide office.

U.S. Rep. Scott Perry of Pennsylvania is being criticized by his Democratic opponent in this fall's election after Perry became one of 11 House Republicans to introduce articles of impeachment against Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein.

Rosenstein is the Department of Justice official who oversees special counsel Robert Mueller's investigation of Russian election interference and possible ties to the Trump campaign.

The city of Pittsburgh issued new rules for protesters late Thursday afternoon – releasing a new policy that seeks to limit protests  that have shut off area streets since the police shooting of Antwon Rose last month.

After meeting with Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh Thursday morning, U.S. Senator Pat Toomey said Kavanaugh has the “character, intellect, and experience to be a great Supreme Court Justice."

Speaking with reporters after what he called "a delightful conversation," with Kavanaugh, Toomey said he will enthusiastically support Donald Trump's pick for the court.