Free Republic

With the state and country’s COVID-19 surge worsening, Pennsylvania Secretary of Health Dr. Rachel Levine on Tuesday said four new “targeted and strategic” state orders will begin Friday in an attempt to lower the number of new cases and prevent the health care system from becoming overwhelmed. The four new orders are: ● Masks must be worn whenever a person is away from home. That includes outdoors if a person cannot be socially distant — 6 feet away — from other people. But the order applies in every situation indoors, whether a person can stay socially distant or not, and...

President Donald Trump is holding a campaign rally at Harrisburg International Airport Saturday evening, but people were lined up hours before. The rally will be held at a hangar near the main terminal of the Lower Swatara Township airport. Doors open at 4 p.m., and the president is slated to arrive at 7 p.m. People were standing in long lines Saturday morning.

Trump is set to hold another rally at 7 p.m. Saturday at the Harrisburg International Airport, despite Wolf’s public pleas for the president not to endanger Pennsylvanians. The governor said he sent a letter to the president earlier this month asking that he abide by public health guidance in visits to the commonwealth. Wolf called Trump’s insistence on holding Saturday’s event “gravely concerning.” “No matter what party you support, all Americans should be very concerned that the President has put headlines and publicity above the health and safety of our families and communities," said Wolf, a Democrat. “It is dangerous...

HARRISBURG, Pennsylvania -- Gov. Tom Wolf will go through with a veto of a bill that would give school districts the sole ability to make decisions on sports, including whether and how many spectators to allow, he said Monday. The Wolf administration's gathering limits of 25 people indoors and 250 people outdoors apply to youth sports, but legislation that cleared the state House and Senate would empower schools to make their own rules about the number of spectators permitted at games. Some families have chafed at the statewide limits, saying attendance could safely be expanded while still allowing for adequate...

President Donald Trump is returning to central Pennsylvania. The president is slated to appear at Harrisburg International Airport in Lower Swatara Township on Sat., Sept. 26. The event is slated to take place at 7 p.m. A release from the Trump campaign bills it as a “Great American Comeback Event.” Both Trump and Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden, the former vice president, have made several visits to the Keystone State in recent months. Biden visited Harrisburg and Lancaster on Labor Day, speaking to union members and vowing to be an ally to unions in the White House. Both Trump and...

A teenage boy who was shot and killed Saturday afternoon in Harrisburg was fleeing, naked, from a registered sex offender who is now facing criminal homicide charges, a witness said Sunday morning. “He was pleading for his life,” Tracy Burton recalled. She and several of her neighbors witnessed the slaying Saturday, and as police continue to investigate, neighbors are left wondering just how this happened in their otherwise quiet neighborhood. Orlando P. Duarte, 45, of Harrisburg, is facing charges of criminal homicide and prohibited possession of a firearm. The shooting happened around 1 p.m near 18th and Forster streets. Police...

The HBG Flea, a monthly “curated pop-up market,” has announced that it will hold its first event since March, a limited event on Saturday that will require face masks and encourage social distancing. “We’re excited to be back - this is like our family and we miss the vendors and community a lot,” Mary Imgrund and Meghan Weaver, co-founders of The HBG Flea said in an e-mail. The show’s organizers also announced via its Facebook page earlier this week that in an attempt to be more inclusive, people of color from here on out will be able to get a...

Harrisburg’s finance director has been suspended after a neighbor snapped a photo of him gardening in the nude and called police to complain. Bruce Weber is suspended pending the outcome of a police investigation. The neighbor, ShaVonne Moon, posted a photo Friday on Facebook of her naked neighbor, bent over, pulling weeds in his backyard garden on Boas Street . She complained on her social media post that she’s “sick of it,” and had to keep her young sons away from her home’s windows and backyard to avoid seeing the naked man outside. Weber confirmed Sunday that it was him...

Gov. Tom Wolf (D) on Friday defended his decision to violate social distancing guidelines — and his state’s own orders — by attending a Black Lives Matter protest in Harrisburg but admitted that it was “inconsistent” for him to do so, particularly after threatening business owners. “That was inconsistent, I acknowledge that,” Wolf said during Friday’s press conference in response to a sharp critique from Pennsylvania Rep. Fred Keller (R-PA), who highlighted the hypocrisy of the governor:

In describing the events that led to violence and a standoff between police in riot gear and protesters on Saturday, Harrisburg Mayor Eric Papenfuse and Harrisburg Police Commissioner Thomas Carter said they believe the cause was an influx of people who were not residents of the city. The protest, which began at noon and continued into the evening, was held in the wake of the death of George Floyd, who was killed in police custody in Minneapolis. Papenfuse said the protest was peaceful during the first few hours of the event. However, after many of the original protesters left, a...

Pennsylvania State Police on Saturday responded to a call to assist Harrisburg Police in responding to protests in Harrisburg that had turned violent. In an email to PennLive, Trooper Brent Miller, the spokesman for state police, said: “Local departments have requested the assistance of the Pennsylvania State Police. Troopers are currently responding to the Harrisburg Area to assist.” Reports of multiple other local law enforcement departments had been received. Saturday’s Black Lives Matter rally in Harrisburg, which had gathered in protest of the George Floyd death in police custody, began peacefully around noon but a few hours later, deteriorated into...

A rally in Harrisburg protesting the death of George Floyd at the hands of Minneapolis police turned violent as protesters clashed with police. A PennLive photographer on the scene reported that protesters had surrounded a police car along Front and Forester streets and were chanting obscenities at officers. Police in riot gear reportedly arrived and responded by shooting pepper spray into the crowd.

Dauphin County will not yet move into the yellow phase of Gov. Tom Wolf’s coronavirus reopening plan, even if neighboring counties like Cumberland and York are among the 12 new ones that are allowed to do so next Friday. Dauphin County Commissioners Jeff Haste and Mike Pries responded to the news with frustration, with Haste calling it “political payback.” Here is everything we know as to why Dauphin is stuck in the red phase, otherwise known as the complete stay at home order. Who is moving to yellow next week? The twelve counties are: Adams, Beaver, Carbon, Columbia, Cumberland, Juniata,...

Thread with running coverage, pictures and video of the protest underway at the PA State Capitol in Harrisburg.

No one has tested positive for the new coronavirus in Pennsylvania, but the state’s health secretary said Wednesday preparations are underway to deal with the “very serious health issue.” “Since the start of this outbreak, we’ve taken a proactive approach to prepare and carefully monitor the health and safety of Pennsylvanians that were returning from China,” Department of Health Secretary Rachel Levine said at a Capitol press conference. “It is critical now that we be prepared for the possibility of community spread of COVID-19.” There are more than 80,000 confirmed cases of COVID-19 worldwide, according to the World Health Organization....

HARRISBURG — The Roman Catholic Diocese of Harrisburg filed for bankruptcy Wednesday, becoming the first diocese in the state to seek protection from financial claims in the aftermath of a 2018 grand jury report that revealed decades of sexual abuse and cover-up by the church’s top leaders. And, said a lawyer for the diocese, it’s not likely to be the last. Citing the fallout from that probe and recent court decisions that opened new avenues for some victims with time-barred claims to sue, attorney Matt Haverstick said Harrisburg, like each of the state’s eight other Catholic dioceses, faces the prospect...

A self-described progressive activist, who helped found an advocacy group in Pittsburgh that supports autistic people, is mounting a challenge against longtime incumbent state Rep. Harry Readshaw. Jessica Benham, 28, of the South Side Slopes, is bidding for the Democratic nomination in the 36th legislative district, shaping her candidacy after the campaigns of a number of progressive women who have toppled longtime Democratic incumbents in the past two years. Her campaign is framing the race that way, too, and in a recent email, used the secondary headline to proclaim “Progressive Benham to challenge conservative incumbent Harry Readshaw.” “In some ways,...

READING, Pa. — Pennsylvania overhauled its child sexual abuse laws Tuesday more than a year after a grand jury report showed the cover-up of hundreds of cases of abuse in most of Pennsylvania’s Roman Catholic dioceses over the last seven decades. The central bill signed by Gov. Tom Wolf gives future victims of child sex abuse more time to file lawsuits and to end time limits for police to file criminal charges. The grand jury report spurred several states to change their laws and other states to begin similar investigations.

The bell in the Independence Hall tower rang at 9 a.m., and Mark Sanford took a deep breath. He grabbed a giant check for “one trillion dollars,” stood next to a tiny wooden lectern, and asked me if I was ready for him to kick off a news conference announcing his bid to challenge President Donald Trump in the 2020 Republican primary. It didn’t really feel like a news conference. I was the only reporter there. And when it began, the only others around besides his two aides were a family 30 yards away with a selfie stick and a...

Natural gas developers in Pennsylvania are hoping a recent water quality report by the Susquehanna River Basin Commission could squelch plans for a fracking ban that’s currently being considered by the neighboring Delaware River Basin Commission. The SRBC’s Remote Water Quality Monitoring Network report, which was released last month, revealed that water quality scores at 14 of the 16 stations in the basin were in the “good” or “excellent” categories According to a fact sheet from the Susquehanna commission, the monitoring stations are located in areas where active drilling takes place, as well as areas free of development, in order...