Lawmakers, workers plan to keep pushing for PA to raise the minimum wage

July 29, 2026

State Sen. Christine Tartaglione (D-Philadelphia) rises at the end of every legislative session with one message for lawmakers. “It’s been 7,309 days since Pennsylvania last raised the minimum wage,” she said at the end of the session on July 12, immediately after the legislature passed this year’s budget without a wage increase. “This year marked 20 years — 20 years — since Pennsylvania last raised its minimum wage,” Tartaglione told the chamber. “Twenty years of rising rent, rising grocery bills, rising utility costs, rising healthcare expenses. Twenty years in ...

More broadband money poised to flow into Pa. as Trump admin agrees to restore grant program

July 29, 2026

HARRISBURG — A broadband grant program that the Trump administration abruptly canceled last year can be restored without language that allowed race to be used as a factor in awarding funding, a federal judge has ruled. In a case challenging the program’s termination, U.S. District Judge John Bates agreed with federal officials that the underlying law is unconstitutional, because it allowed grants to be awarded based on “explicit racial classification.” But he also said the program was “perfectly capable” of functioning without this element. “Common sense,” Bates ...

Democrat’s TV ad targets data centers in drive to oust GOP from swing PA House seat

July 29, 2026

HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) — Democrat Paige Cognetti is taking a shot at artificial intelligence data centers in her challenge to freshman Republican Rep. Rob Bresnahan, saying “we are not for sale” in a new TV ad in a swing Pennsylvania congressional district where communities are fighting data center projects. The race between Cognetti, the mayor of Scranton, and Bresnahan is considered one of the Democratic Party’s best opportunities to pick up a seat in the November election in its bid to take control of the U.S. House and block President Donald Trump’s agenda. Cognetti is ...

‘A good neighbor’: Renovo community shows support for Kishbaugh family at annual festival

July 28, 2026

RENOVO — It was a morning of education and an afternoon of music and friendship as The Greater Renovo Area Heritage Park combined their annual Heritage Days with a Good Neighbor Festival in hopes of raising money and lifting the spirits of a great friend to Heritage Park. The highlight ...

Flemington Boro advances senior housing project

July 28, 2026

FLEMINGTON — Flemington Borough Council handled a number of items at its recent meeting, including the conditional approval for the next phase of a proposed senior housing expansion. Council unanimously granted conditional approval for both the subdivision and land development plans associated with the proposed Flemington Manor senior housing expansion. The project would add a new 46-unit senior housing building adjacent to the existing Susquehannock Heights complex. Engineer Chad Schaffer, of Stahl Shaffer Engineering, presented updated plans, explaining the development would ...

Pa. budget provides support for nursing homes, but work remains

July 28, 2026

Providers caring for the commonwealth’s fastest-growing population got a little relief in Pennsylvania’s latest spending plan, securing guaranteed minimum funding for nursing homes. “I would say the General Assembly and the governor heard us loud and clear and I believe they ...