Latest Pennsylvania News
HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) — A bill to let patients who suffer from a list of ailments obtain marijuana for therapeutic purposes is closer to becoming law after passing the Pennsylvania House of Representatives by a comfortable margin. The House voted 149 to 43 Wednesday for a proposal that would set standards for growers, dispensaries and physicians.
Patients could take the drug in pill, oil or liquid form, but wouldn’t be able to obtain marijuana they could smoke. Supporters say it’s a way to help relieve suffering of sick people. Opponents argue the Legislature shouldn’t be approving a drug that’s illegal under federal law. It still needs final approval in the Senate, which passed a similar approach last year. Democratic Gov. Tom Wolf has urged passage of legalized medical marijuana.
HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) — The Pennsylvania State Police commissioner is requesting an outside investigation into misconduct as the agency probes possible cheating by cadets. Commissioner Tyree Blocker said Wednesday that he requested an investigation by the Office of Inspector General. He says he has confidence in an internal state police investigation.
But he cites “the broad nature of recent allegations reported in the press” as the need for the outside investigation. The agency says dozens of cadets have left the academy in connection with the investigation. Blocker has given few details about it since disclosing it Feb. 4, including what kind of cheating was suspected. Cadets are subject to a battery of written tests during the nearly seven months of training.
HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) — The Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission has approved an increase in the speed limit from 65 mph to 70 mph along most of the toll road. The commission vote Tuesday followed an 18-month study of the increase, which is expected to go into effect in the spring. The maximum speed in areas that have a 65 mph limit now will become 70 mph. Areas posted at 55 mph will remain the same.
Turnpike spokesman Carl DeFebo says the two speed limits will allow for more consistency for drivers. A test on a 100-mile stretch between Morgantown and Blue Mountain found that there wasn’t a noticeable increase in the actual average speed of vehicles, and there was a decrease in traffic accidents despite an increase in traffic.
HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) — Supporters of failed presidential candidate Marco Rubio are ending a court challenge seeking to knock Republican presidential rival John Kasich off Pennsylvania’s primary ballot. A withdrawal petition was filed Wednesday. The decision comes a day after Rubio lost his home state of Florida and suspended his campaign. In February, Pennsylvania’s secretary of state had accepted Kasich’s candidate paperwork to get on Pennsylvania’s April 26 ballot.
But the court challenge had questioned whether Kasich’s campaign collected enough valid voter signatures. The Kasich campaign’s lawyer had agreed that Kasich’s paperwork was eight valid signatures short of the 2,000 required, but he maintained that the challenge was invalid because it was filed after the deadline. Commonwealth Court judges hadn’t ruled yet on whether the court challenge was valid.
HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) — Democratic Gov. Tom Wolf is threatening to veto Republican spending legislation that could arrive on his desk by day’s end. In a statement Wednesday, Wolf said Republican lawmakers are passing “another irresponsible and unbalanced” budget bill that doesn’t fund schools or fix an approximately $2 billion projected deficit. His statement came shortly after the Republican-controlled Senate passed the $6 billion spending bill, 31-18, with just one Democrat supporting it.
Approval in the GOP-controlled House was expected within hours. Republicans say it’s designed to resolve a partisan budget fight that’s left schools, hospitals and universities warning of closures or layoffs two-thirds into the state government’s fiscal year. Wolf is proposing a $2.7 billion tax increase to wipe out the deficit and boost school spending. Republican leaders say they’re committed to avoiding a tax increase.
HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) — Republican Sen. Pat Toomey of Pennsylvania is reiterating that he believes President Barack Obama shouldn’t fill the seat of the late Justice Antonin Scalia. Toomey’s statement Wednesday came after Obama nominated federal appeals court Judge Merrick Garland to the Supreme Court. Toomey is running for re-election to his swing-state seat. His stance drew a swift attack by Democrat Katie McGinty, who’s running in the party’s four-way primary.
McGinty’s campaign says it’s airing a TV ad starting Wednesday in which McGinty accuses Toomey of obstructionism and trying to create a court that’s an extension of “Republican partisan politics.” Toomey says he’d consider Garland’s nomination, if he’s nominated by Obama’s successor. But he says it’s “wise” to let voters pick a new president.
PITTSBURGH (AP) — The first donor breast milk bank in the western Pennsylvania region is opening in Pittsburgh and will be the only one supplying hospitals throughout the state. The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reports that an open house and ribbon-cutting ceremony are scheduled Wednesday at the Three Rivers Mothers’ Milk Bank on Penn Avenue in the city’s Strip District.
The nonprofit’s mission is to provide the donated milk to the “sickest of the sick” babies kept in neonatal intensive care units in Pennsylvania and West Virginia. Founder Denise O’Connor says the milk bank is “progressing nicely” and currently has between 80 and 100 donors. Following expected certification this spring by the Human Milk Banking Association of North America, the facility will be among 25 active milk banks in the U.S. and Canada.
(Copyright 2016 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.)
