News
Poll: Phillies Win PA Pennant Race
The Phillies top the Pirates 51 – 22 in a new survey of Pennsylvania baseball fans. It’s Quinnipiac’s first ever Pennsylvania Pennant Race poll. “The Phillies are playing .600 ball, compared to the Pirates .500, and Pennsylvania fans are lined up with the winner,” says pollster Tim Malloy. It’s no surprise that fans in the […]
Milk Marketing Board Maintains Current Dairy Price
The Pennsylvania Milk Marketing Board has acted on a request from the Pennsylvania Farm Bureau to maintain its current over-order premium price for Class I milk. The board agreed to keep the price at $2.15 per hundredweight for the six months beginning July 1. In addition, the board will keep its current premium price add […]
Money From Higher Education Agency Will Boost State Grants
Pennsylvania’s state grant program is getting a shot in the arm from the agency that administers it. The Pennsylvania Higher Education Assistance Agency has approved a $50 million public service contribution to the program. Along with the expected state appropriation, that’s raising the anticipated maximum state grant from $3,541 to $4,309 for the 2011-12 academic […]
Testifiers: PA Needs RX Drug Monitoring Program
Prescription drug abuse is an epidemic in Pennsylvania, according to State Rep. Gene DiGirolamo (R-Bucks). In efforts to rein in the problem, the chairman of the House Human Services Committee has introduced legislation to create a Pharmaceutical Accountability Monitoring System to give doctors and pharmacists the ability to monitor people they suspect of doctor shopping […]
Pennsylvania House Votes to Give PA Lottery a Financial Check Up
The Pennsylvania Lottery will be getting a financial check up. The state House of Representatives has adopted a resolution that directs the Legislative Budget and Finance Committee to prepare a report on lottery sales forecasts, in both the short and long term. Representative Martin Causer (R-Cameron/McKean/Potter), the sponsor of the resolution, says the last financial […]
Lawmakers Strike Unemployment Compensation Deal
The compromise ensures that some 45,000 unemployed Pennsylvanians won’t lose their extended federal benefits next week. It will also save the unemployment compensation system about $114-million dollars a year. “It is the most extensive unemployment compensation reform package that we have seen – it’s the only unemployment compensation reform package we’ve seen – in ten […]
PLCB Holds the Line on Prices Again
The Pennsylvania Liquor Control Board will hold the line on prices this summer. The board has rejected more than 400 price increases requested by its suppliers. Chairman Patrick J. Stapleton says it was just not a good time to raise prices on consumers, who have already been facing higher prices at the supermarket and gas pump. […]
New Impact Fee Legislation Introduced In Pennsylvania House
While state House Democrats have been pushing for a broader Marcellus Shale tax, Republican Marguerite Quinn of Bucks County has introduced impact fee legislation that has bipartisan co-sponsorship. She says House Bill 1700 would not direct any money into the general fund. Half of the fee would be divided between counties and municipalities that host […]
Bath Salts Ban Heads to Governor’s Desk
Bath salts are dangerous – even deadly – yet legal. The bath salts that state lawmakers are targeting aren’t what you bought mom for her birthday. These are synthetic stimulants created to mimic the effects of cocaine and methamphetamine. “They have a lot of psychotic effects and hallucinations and things like that,” says State Senator […]
Biomass Project Will Benefit Western PA
The USDA is targeting 5,344 acres in northeast Ohio and northwest Pennsylvania for a new Biomass Crop Assistance Program (BCAP) project. US Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack says they will incentivize to grow “giant miscanthus,” which is a hybrid grass that can grow 13-feet tall. “The land that will be used to grow this crop will […]