As President Joe Biden’s administration wants 50% of all new vehicle sales to be electric by 2030, some states are pushing bills to subsidize the industry.
In an analysis of state legislatures by The Center Square staff, actions so far this year in multiple states offer recognition to the emergence of the industry – whether trying to make up tax revenue shortfalls or simply boosting the move away from gas and diesel automobiles.
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Environmental, social and governance (ESG) investment standards are a hot topic among Republican lawmakers across the U.S. who see it as a political move to force a progressive agenda.
Democrats, on the other hand, see it as a smart investing strategy.
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Voters in Philadelphia ranked crime as a top concern heading into the May primary election.
Democrats, who have a strong majority in the city, even chose former City Councilwoman Cherelle Parker, who campaigned on public safety.
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A 174-page report released by the Office of the Attorney General (OAG) in August 2021, made public before voters reelected Attorney General Ken Paxton to a third term in November 2022, disproved claims presented by Democratically-aligned counsel hired by the House General Investigating Committee (GIC).
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Several states have already banned or are considering banning foreign ownership of farmland from U.S. adversaries such as China, a trend that has its recent roots in North Dakota.
Chinese food manufacturer Fufeng Group purchased 370 acres of land for a corn milling plant in Grand Forks in November 2021.
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U.S. House Speaker Kevin McCarthy said Wednesday that the White House must agree to spending cuts as part of a debt deal.
“You have to spend less than you did last year,” McCarthy said at a news conference. “That’s not that difficult to do, but in Washington, somehow, that is a problem.”
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Border Patrol agents working in the busiest sector along the northern border are apprehending record numbers of foreign nationals attempting to enter the U.S. illegally from Canada.
In the first seven months of fiscal 2023, Border Patrol agents apprehended and encountered more illegal foreign nationals crossing a 295-mile stretch of the Canada-U.S. border than the previous four fiscal years (FYs 2019-2022) combined, Swanton Sector Border Patrol Chief Robert Garcia said.
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Data scientists from the Pandemic Response Accountability Committee identified nearly $38 million in potentially improper or fraudulent pandemic loans were obtained using Social Security Numbers of dead people.
The loans were made through both the COVID-19 Economic Injury Disaster Loan program and Paycheck Protection Program.
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Regardless of a slowdown in the rise of inflation, Americans report that higher prices are causing financial hardship, a new poll indicates.
Gallup released the poll data Thursday, which found that 61% of those surveyed say price hikes have caused financial hardship, up from 49% in January of last year. That 61% figure is a high point for Americans since Gallup began tracking the data in 2021, when inflation was growing faster.
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A Michigan bill seeking statewide allowance for some former public employees to pay income taxes on pensions has been introduced by state Rep. Kathy Schmaltz, R-Jackson.
House Bill 4578, if passed, would exempt pensions of Michigan Department of Corrections retirees from the state income tax. Michigan allows retired police, firefighters, and county jail corrections officers to fully deduct their pensions from the Michigan income tax.
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While Pennsylvania will receive more than $2 billion from a number of opioid-related settlements, the total amount will be less than what officials initially hoped.
During the latest meeting of the Pennsylvania Opioid Misuse and Addiction Abatement Trust on Thursday, Trust Chairman Thomas VanKirk noted that the “Wave 2” settlement money will be at least $200 million less than previously anticipated.
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The number of people illegally entering the U.S. solely through the southern border in the first four months of this year is greater than the population of Delaware, the home state of the president, and the populations of five other states.
So far this year, at least 1,047,528, people have been apprehended or reported evading capture, according to data analyzed by The Center Square. The total is greater than the estimated populations of Delaware (1,031,985), South Dakota (923,484), North Dakota (780,588), Alaska (732,294), Vermont (647,156) and Wyoming (583,279).
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Career and technical education attracts bipartisan support in Pennsylvania, but that doesn’t mean funding flows freely and problems are quickly resolved.
While student interest is high, at least in some parts of the state, finding qualified teachers and offering enough classrooms can hold back expansion.
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A former FBI agent testified before Congress Thursday saying that the FBI manipulated data to make domestic terrorism linked to Jan. 6 seem like a nationwide phenomenon instead of an isolated incident.
The revelation came as part of a hearing held by the House Select Subcommittee on the Weaponization of the Federal Government where FBI whistleblowers testified before lawmakers about abuse and politicization of the FBI. They also testified about backlash they received, even losing their jobs as retaliation for refusing to toe the narrative established by FBI leadership.
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Twenty-four Republican governors have responded to Texas Gov. Greg Abbott’s call for help to secure its border with Mexico.
“The federal government’s response handling the expiration of Title 42 has represented a complete failure of the Biden Administration,” the governors said in a joint statement, referring to the end of the public health authority, Title 42, which expired at midnight on May 11.
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Americans’ views of the housing market have plunged as interest rates continue to rise because of government-fueled inflation.
Gallup released new polling data showing that only 21% of Americans say now is a good time to buy a house, down 9 percentage points from the previous year. This year and last year during the Biden administration are the only times that fewer than half of Americans said it was a good time to buy a house since Gallup began asking in 1978.
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An Afghan national on the federal Terrorist Screening Dataset (TSDS) was apprehended attempting to enter the U.S. illegally near the Otay Mesa Port of Entry in San Diego, California.
The TSDS is the federal government’s database that includes sensitive information about terrorist identities. It originated as a consolidated terrorist watch list “to house information on known or suspected terrorists (KSTs) but has evolved over the last decade to include additional individuals who represent a potential threat to the United States, including known affiliates of watch listed individuals,” CBP states.
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The U.S. government faces a significant risk of not being able to pay its bills in the coming weeks without an increase to the debt limit, the Congressional Budget Office said Friday.
The warning comes as Democrats and Republicans remain far apart on negotiations over the debit limit. The debt ceiling is the maximum amount of debt the U.S. Department of the Treasury can issue.
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A bipartisan group will try again to pass a bill to help teachers and first-responders buy homes in the communities they serve.
U.S. Sens. Jon Ossoff, D-Ga.; Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio; and Marco Rubio, R-Fla., reintroduced the Homes for Every Local Protector Educator and Responder (HELPER) Act. The bill would create a first-time homebuyer loan program under the Federal Housing Administration for teachers and first responders who have served at least four years.
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“Products may be marketed as free range, wild caught, or graded by quality (prime, choice, select, and beyond). The pork products at issue here, too, sometimes come with “antibiotic-free” and “crate-free” labels…Much of this product differentiation reflects consumer demand, informed by individual taste, health, or moral considerations. Informed by similar concerns, States (and their predecessors) have long enacted laws aimed at protecting animal welfare.”
This is the opinion of the Supreme Court of the United States in Thursday’s ruling which upheld a California law banning the sale of pork products in California that didn’t meet the state’s requirements.
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Ambulance services could see their reimbursement rates go up, making the financial crisis for some EMS services less dire.
Currently, reimbursements aren’t enough to cover the average cost of sending an ambulance for an emergency call.
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Twenty-five of the nation’s 26 Republican governors have asked the Biden administration to shelve its intent to expand Title IX protections to transgender athletes.
The letter, led by the signature of Mississippi Gov. Tate Reeves, says the U.S. Department of Education’s proposed regulation should be withdrawn pending litigation that could be addressed by the U.S. Supreme Court.
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Four-day workweeks may boost Pennsylvania’s recruitment and retention of young workers – or at least some lawmakers would like to find out.
A new proposal offered in the House creates a pilot program for interested employers to transition their staff to a 32-hour weekly schedule – without a reduction in pay or benefits. In turn, qualifying employers would receive a tax credit.
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Florida Attorney General Ashley Moody sued the Biden administration Thursday over its plan to release foreign nationals en masse into U.S. border communities.
“Before Title 42 expires at midnight, the Biden administration must explain to a federal judge why a new immigration policy does not violate a court order,” Moody said after the lawsuit was filed.
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A Republican lawmaker wants to prohibit the U.S. Department of Defense from using taxpayer funds for drag queen shows and other adult cabaret performances.
U.S. Sen. Steve Daines, R-Mont., introduced legislation to stop the department from using taxpayer funds or taxpayer-funded facilities to host such performances. The bill comes after the U.S. Navy said it had one of its sailors, a drag performer and social media influencer, serve as a Digital Ambassador for military recruitment.
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While billion-dollar economic development incentives are heavily expanding across the country, the agencies in charge of handing out those incentives claim to create or retain 625,000 jobs in their most recent fiscal years, according to a new report.
The Center for Economic Accountability tallied up the jobs claimed as part of incentive packages in the 50 states and Washington, D.C. and found job total would be less than 5% of the 15 million to 17 million jobs naturally created in the United States economy each year.
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Instead of U.S. Border Patrol agents apprehending, detaining and deporting people who’ve illegally entered the U.S., they will be implementing a plan decided on last year to release them en masse into local border communities.
The public health authority Title 42, which has given Border Patrol agents an additional tool to deport certain individuals, was slated to end last May. On May 20, 2022, the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Louisiana enjoined the repeal of Title 42 in a case filed by 24 states, issuing a nationwide injunction.
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Gov. Josh Shapiro visited Erie recently to highlight his plan to grow the state’s property tax and rent rebate program for the first time in nearly two decades.
It’s the most recent stop in an unofficial statewide budget tour touting many of the administration’s key spending proposals meant to build the workforce and, by extension, a bank account flush enough to keep Pennsylvania from falling off a “demographic cliff.”
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For the first two months of 2023, production of crude oil in the U.S. neared pre-COVID levels, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration.
The production of crude oil in the U.S. in January and February was the most since March 2020 when the pandemic hit.
The U.S. produced 12.54 million barrels of crude oil per day in January and 12.48 million barrels per day in February. That represented the highest levels since 12.80 million barrels per day in March 2020.
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Americans are worried about the safety of their money in the banking system after multiple banks have collapsed in recent weeks, according to a new poll.
Gallup released the survey data, which showed that 19% are “very” worried about the safety of their money in banks and another 29% are “moderately” worried.
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The latest in a series of new Biden administration rule changes that charge higher fees to certain home buyers with good credit and lower fees for buyers with worse credit went into effect this week despite pushback from Republicans and many financial experts.
A group of U.S. House and Senate Republicans as well as state officials were unable to stop the rule, which a Biden administration official confirmed went into effect as planned Monday.
A coalition of Senate Republicans recently sent a letter to Sandra Thompson, director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency, the latest in several policy changes from the group. The agency implemented the rule change this week.
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A revenue analysis estimates that Gov. Josh Shapiro’s budget proposal for adult-use cannabis could bring in more than $250 million annually — but legalization advocates aren’t so enthusiastic.
The concern is not about legalizing and regulating marijuana. Instead, it’s a worry that Pennsylvania will repeat the mistakes of high-tax states that have failed to move people from the illegal market into a regulated one.
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Onerous rules that restrict new housing and make it impossible to build starter houses or small apartment buildings drive up prices and push homeownership further out of reach, experts told Senate Republicans on Wednesday.
As Pennsylvania faces a housing shortage, a return to abundance may require state-level zoning reforms – and limits on local control, they say.
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Nationwide, electronic benefits transfer fraud is estimated to cost taxpayers up to $4.7 billion annually, according to the Government Accountability Office.
In 2022, the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program distributed over $113.7 billion to nearly 22 million households.
The federal government entrusts states to reduce fraud in safety net programs. In March, the U.S. Department of Agriculture told all 50 states to plan to fight EBT skimmer fraud, which happens when bad actors install a card reader on top of a legitimate point of sale at a retail store.
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A new federal rule that would charge higher fees to home buyers with good credit to help subsidize those with poor credit goes into effect Monday.
The Federal Housing Finance Agency announced in January it would increase Loan-Level Price Adjustment fees for mortgage borrowers with higher credit scores to help keep fees lower for those with worse credit.
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In keeping with the governor’s strategy to incentivize residents to pursue work in critically short-staffed essential services, the Pennsylvania State Police has focused its efforts on recruiting more women into the force.
In a meeting with the Pennsylvania State Police Academy in Hershey, First Lady Lori Shapiro stressed the importance of a more diverse police force.
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President Joe Biden announced earlier this week that he is running for president, but the latest polling data shows he is much less popular than when he first took over the White House.
Gallup released the survey data, which put Biden’s approval rating at 37%, the lowest point since he became president.
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In a letter to FBI Director Chris Wray, congressional members on the U.S. Select Committee on the Chinese Community Party expressed concerns about the FBI potentially not knowing about Chinese “police stations” operating in the U.S. They also asked Wray to provide information about the FBI’s efforts to investigate Chinese transnational repression in America.
The committee received a classified briefing on March 30 after requesting information on Feb. 24. However, the briefing didn’t answer their questions, prompting them to formally ask 12 questions they want answered in writing. They also expect to have another classified briefing once they receive additional information.
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The Department of Drug and Alcohol Programs announced a major milestone in its push against opioid overdose deaths: More than 1.3 million doses of naloxone, an overdose-reversal drug, have been sent out to first responders.
The program to provide naloxone to first responders has been active since 2017; almost 500,000 doses have been provided in the last two years.
The result has been more than 24,000 opioid overdose reversals, according to a press release.
“Naloxone saves lives. That is why access to and distribution of this opioid overdose reversal medication is so critical,” DDAP Acting Secretary Dr. Latika Davis-Jones said. “We are proud to work with our state and local partners every day to keep Pennsylvanians alive and decrease the chances of a fatal overdose. The Shapiro Administration is committed to making naloxone readily available.”
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A closer look at the months leading up to the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank, the second-largest bank collapse in history, shows that regulators saw the warning signs since last year but did not step in.
SVB’s collapse sent shockwaves through the markets, destabilized the economy, and raised fears of a domino effect of other banks. Seemingly backing those fears, other banks have recently collapsed as well.
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The U.S. economy is growing at a slower pace, newly released economic data shows.
The Bureau of Economic Analysis released Gross Domestic Product Data Thursday that showed the size of the U.S. economy increased by 1.1% in the first quarter of 2023, more slowly than the previous quarter.
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President Joe Biden announced early Tuesday that he is running for reelection.
“Every generation has a moment where they have had to stand up for democracy. To stand up for their fundamental freedoms,” Biden wrote on Twitter in his announcement. “I believe this is ours. That’s why I’m running for reelection as President of the United States. Join us. Let’s finish the job.”
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The graphic novel Gender Queer by Maia Kobabe was the most challenged book of 2022, according to an annual list of the most controversial books as assessed by the American Library Association.
The list was published Monday during the start of National Library Week. The American Library Association said 2022 was a record year for books “targeted for censorship.” There were 2,571 unique titles challenged, of which 58 percent were in school libraries, classroom libraries or school curricula.
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State officials previewed a 10-year master aging plan to lawmakers this week as Pennsylvania nears a looming demographics cliff.
Estimates suggest that 25% of residents will be over the age of 64 by 2030, making Pennsylvania one of the oldest states in the country. Declining birth rates, college unaffordability, and sluggish economic development – all reinforced by pandemic interruptions – strengthen the trend, The Center Square previously reported.
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American agricultural workers could soon receive financial compensation when their livestock gets killed by a wolf that advocates are hoping to increase in population.
Lawmakers introduced the Wolf and Livestock Fairness Act to Congress on April 18. The bill would provide financial compensation to farmers whose livestock are harmed by the endangered Mexican Grey Wolf species. The one clause; don’t kill the wolf.
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Advocates say medication-assisted treatment best prevents overdoses, but awareness and support still lag.
The situation means residents dealing with substance abuse disorders can’t access a “crucial” tool for recovery, said Fred Way, founder and executive director of the Pennsylvania Alliance of Recovery Residences.
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A group of liberal Democrats reintroduced the Green New Deal Thursday, the controversial environmental legislation that experts say would spike energy costs in the U.S. and cost taxpayers tens of trillions of dollars.
Advocates, though, argue the changes are needed to prevent worsening climate change and get ahead of an inevitable renewable energy transition.
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Pennsylvania gaming revenue surpassed $500 million for the first time since the state legalized forms of gambling outside of horse racing.
Gamblers wagered $724 million on sports betting in March, a 1% increase compared to last year and almost 21% more than in February. Online casinos, meanwhile, set a new record of $182 million in revenue for March, a 27% increase from last year.
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Virginia Sen. Tim Kaine and 22 of his colleagues have introduced legislation in the U.S. Senate to ban members of Congress from stock trading.
The legislation, Ending Trading and Holdings in Congressional Stocks Act, or ETHICS Act for short, would prohibit members of Congress, their spouses and dependent children from owning or trading securities, commodities or futures.
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House Republicans voted Thursday to pass the “Protection of Women and Girls in Sports Act,” the latest salvo in the ongoing battle over transgender athletes.
The legislation would ban schools that receive federal funding, which is nearly all schools, from allowing biological males to compete in sports designated for women and girls.
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