Latest Pennsylvania News
PITTSBURGH (AP) — Uber is asking Pennsylvania utility regulators to reconsider the $11.4 million fine they issued against the ride-hailing company. The Public Utility Commission fined San Francisco-based Uber in April for operating in the state for six months in 2014 without the required approval. The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reports Uber’s appeal says the fine amount is unreasonable, considering the lack of evidence that its services did harm.
The company contends it successfully filled a void in transportation infrastructure. The company wants the fine recalculated using the number of days it violated state authority, not the number of trips it provided. The appeal didn’t offer an alternative fine amount. However, Uber has previously expressed willingness to settle for $399,000. The commission has since granted Uber and its competitor, Lyft, temporary operating licenses.
HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) — Attorney General Kathleen Kane’s longest-serving press secretary is leaving after handling what he called “an unfolding series of crises that were just never-ending.” Chuck Ardo said Tuesday is to be his last day, after signing on last April as a $10,000-a-month contract employee. Ardo was Kane’s eighth spokesman since she took office in 2013.
The 69-year-old Ardo served through Kane getting charged criminally, seeing her law license suspended by the state Supreme Court and fending off a Senate attempt to order her removal. She also threatened the release of thousands of pornographic emails found on the office’s servers, kept on an aide convicted of criminal contempt and promoted another despite human resources officers recommending his firing partly over sexual harassment policy violations. Ardo previously served former Gov. Ed Rendell as press secretary.
