PA Headlines
HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) — AP is reporting…Republicans and Democrats are feuding over whether Pennsylvania’s roughly $40 billion budget package negotiated behind closed doors and passed within hours of becoming public includes money for the state auditor general to begin auditing election results. The idea to create an election-auditing bureau under the independently elected auditor general gained currency in the Republican-controlled Legislature amid former President Donald Trump’s baseless conspiracy theories about Democrats stealing the November election.
House Speaker Bryan Cutler, R-Lancaster, maintains that budget legislation carries $3.1 million for Auditor General Tim DeFoor, a Republican, to create a bureau of election audits with broad authority to subpoena materials and review votes counted, ballots, ballot envelopes, election machine logs, pre-election machine tests and more. Gov. Tom Wolf and his fellow Democrats in the Legislature say there was no agreement to fund an election-auditing bureau in budget legislation on Wolf’s desk, and there is nothing in the legislation requiring funding for it.
Wolf’s office said Tuesday the subject of election-audit funding was raised during negotiations and the administration continually objected. The fight over Pennsylvania’s election law comes as Trump supporters have pushed for audits and reviews of ballots in other political battlegrounds, spurred on by Trump’s baseless claims about election fraud. Separate election legislation that authorizes the auditor general to begin auditing elections was written unilaterally and passed by Republican lawmakers and is headed for a veto by Wolf. Every Democratic lawmaker, except for one, voted against it.
PHILADELPHIA (AP) — AP is reporting…A Pennsylvania woman accused of filming an attack on — and allegedly yelling for the attackers to mace — a New York Times photographer during the Jan. 6 riot at the U.S. Capitol was arrested Monday. Sandra “Sandy” Pomeroy Weyer, of Mechanicsburg, Pennsylvania, outside of Harrisburg, is facing charges of violently entering a restricted building, disrupting government proceedings and engaging in disorderly or threatening conduct while inside the Capitol. Court records did not list an attorney for Weyer, who is scheduled to make her first appearance Thursday in federal court via video conference.
According to court documents unsealed Monday in Weyer’s case, several witnesses contacted the FBI to report that Weyer had posted live video inside the Capitol on her Facebook profile. Facebook removed the videos but several were recovered by investigators. FBI investigators say Weyer, who was wearing a red sweatshirt, can be seen on a landing filming with her cellphone as four or five men confront a female New York Times photographer taking photos. Investigators say the photographer told them the men demanded to know who she worked for and when she didn’t answer, they reached into her vest and took her press credentials.
The photographer told investigators in an interview that the men became agitated when they saw she worked for the New York Times, pushed her down and took one of her cameras. She chased them and was pushed down again. Investigators say Weyer can be heard screaming that the photographer was a traitor, to “get her out” and to “mace her.” Agents also recovered a handful of conversations between Weyer and other Facebook users saying she had been inside the Capitol, that she hadn’t seen rioters and characterizing the group as patriots, and saying that “she did what needed to be done.”
HARRISBURG – The Pennsylvania Capital-Star is reporting…A Republican congressman from central Pennsylvania is facing mounting backlash over remarks he made during a speech to conservative activists where he compared Democrats to Nazis, and urged his audience to “go fight them.” “Our country and our constitution is under attack,” U.S. Rep. Scott Perry, R-10th District, a member of the ultra-conservative Freedom Caucus told an audience at the annual Pennsylvania Leadership Conference earlier this month.
“It’s not the loyal opposition, it’s just the opposition,” Perry said, referring to congressional Democrats. “They want to destroy the country that you grew up in. They want to destroy the country the Founders made. You know in your heart that’s the answer.”
Countering imaginary critics countering that not all Democrats shared such goals, Perry drew an analogy to Nazi Germany, in which all Germans may not have belonged to the Nazi Party, but “what happened across Germany? That’s what’s important. What were the policies? What was the leadership? That’s what we have to focus on.” Schumer is seen at a news conference at the U.S. Capitol in Washington on April 28, 2021 (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite). Later in the speech, Perry, in an awkward analogy, appeared to compare woke companies to the spread of fascism in Germany.
“It wasn’t the government in Germany that took people’s rights away immediately, it was fascism,” Perry said. “Fascism took it away because the government put its heavy hand on the companies and the companies did the government’s work.” “… we support big business, but not if it’s anti-America,” Perry continued, “not if it’s anti-American. And we shouldn’t be afraid to say it.” Perry’s remarks netted him a rebuke from the Cumberland County Democratic Committee, the large suburban Harrisburg county that anchors Perry’s swing district.
“As an elected official, Scott Perry is tasked with representing ALL 257,848 Cumberland County residents and not just those registered voters who cast a ballot for him on November 3, 2020. Instead of showing leadership to unite neighbors, Perry’s divisive rhetoric deepens the partisan divide amongst his constituency,” the county party said in a statement it released Monday.
STATE COLLEGE, Pa. (WHTM) — WHTM is reporting…Penn State has just opened a new nature area that is perfect for a day trip. The Pollinator and Bird Garden is the newest addition to the Arboretum at Penn State. Visitors can stroll around three acres of gardens, designed to attract native birds and pollinating insects. Plus, bees will have their own man-made hives.
Several dead trees were planted to give owls and hawks a familiar home. Walking around, visitors will also see ponds, benches, walking trails and flowers — lots of them. “There are over 143,000 plants in the new garden. And we actually had volunteers help us install almost all those plants. So, over the course of the construction project, we had over 600 volunteers,” Shari Edelson, director of operations, said. The arboretum is just down the road from Beaver Stadium. It is open from dusk to dawn, seven days a week and it is absolutely free.
