Shutdown

Pennsylvania’s chief fiscal watchdog on Tuesday criticized a state program under which businesses could seek permission to operate during Gov. Tom Wolf’s pandemic shutdown, saying waivers were granted inconsistently and with little transparency and comparing the process to a “Keystone Kops routine." 

Gov. Tom Wolf attacked local elected officials making plans to reopen in defiance of his shutdown orders as cowards deserting the pandemic battlefield, threatening Monday to block aid to rebellious Pennsylvania counties in an escalating political fight over his administration's handling of the coronavirus.

Thirteen more western counties, comprising nearly 2.7 million residents and much of the Pittsburgh metropolitan area, can shed Gov. Tom Wolf's most restrictive pandemic orders on movement and businesses next week, joining much of northern Pennsylvania that began emerging Friday.

As swaths of Pennsylvania prepare for a limited reopening Friday, some fed-up business owners are jumping the gun and have resumed serving customers in defiance of Gov. Tom Wolf’s shutdown order.

The federal government's partial shutdown is in effect due to lawmakers’ inability to agree on—among other things—extending DACA, the program that protects young immigrants in the country illegally.