• Pennsylvania Couple Win Pumpkin ‘Grower of the Year’ Title

    Pennsylvania Couple Win Pumpkin ‘Grower of the Year’ Title

    Dave and Carol Stelts, giant pumpkin growers from Western Pennsylvania, have been awarded the highly-coveted “Grower of the Year” title at this year’s Ohio Valley Giant Pumpkin Growers Weigh-off, writes Jason Nark for The Philadelphia Inquirer.  The couple’s three pumpkins weighed in at a whopping 7,729 pounds. Their largest pumpkin weighed in at 2731.5 pounds,…

  • Tarot Reader Sues to End Pennsylvania’s Ban on Fortune Telling

    Tarot Reader Sues to End Pennsylvania’s Ban on Fortune Telling

    Beck Lawrence, owner of The Serpent’s Key Shoppe & Sanctuary in Hanover, is hoping to end Pennsylvania’s 163-year ban on fortune telling on cards, writes Sara Stewart for Spotlight PA. A state law from 1861 qualifies such activities as misdemeanors punishable by up to two years in prison. The law was updated in 1939 and…

  • Pennsylvania Turnpike Subsidizing State Public Transit, and Drivers Are Ones Paying For It

    Pennsylvania Turnpike Subsidizing State Public Transit, and Drivers Are Ones Paying For It

    The tolls drivers pay to Pennsylvania Turnpike are also repaying the loans of the state’s past spending on public transportation and state highways and bridges that are not related to America’s First Superhighway, writes Thomas Fitzgerald for The Philadelphia Inquirer. In the last 16 years, the Turnpike Commission has given $8 billion to Pennsylvania Department…

  • Microsoft Deal Could Bring Three Mile Island Reactor Back Online

    Microsoft Deal Could Bring Three Mile Island Reactor Back Online

    After closing five years ago due to financial troubles, the nuclear reactor at the Three Mile Island plant in central Pennsylvania could restart under a new Microsoft deal, writes Andrew Seidman for The Philadelphia Inquirer. The owner of the plant, Baltimore-based Constellation Energy, has signed a 20-year agreement with Microsoft under which the software giant…

  • Pennsylvania Sanctions Girls’ Flag Football as High School Sport

    Pennsylvania Sanctions Girls’ Flag Football as High School Sport

    Girls’ flag football is now a PIAA-sanctioned high school sport, writes Gabriela Carroll for The Philadelphia Inquirer. The sport recorded a meteoric rise from an emerging activity to being sanctioned as an official high school sport in Pennsylvania following several years of advocacy by the Philadelphia Eagles and community organizations, as well as local girls’…

  • New Alcohol Law Allows Pennsylvanians to Buy Canned Cocktails, Hard Seltzers at Grocery Stores and Gas Stations

    New Alcohol Law Allows Pennsylvanians to Buy Canned Cocktails, Hard Seltzers at Grocery Stores and Gas Stations

    Thanks to Pennsylvania’s newest alcohol law, canned cocktails and hard seltzers are now available to buy at grocery stores and gas stations statewide, according to a staff report from FOX 29 Philadelphia. Up until this Monday, ready-to-drink cocktails were only available to purchase in Pennsylvania liquor stores. The bipartisan legislation was signed into law by…

  • Pennsylvania Is Nation’s Second-ranked Destination for Out-of-state Freshman College Students

    Pennsylvania Is Nation’s Second-ranked Destination for Out-of-state Freshman College Students

    Pennsylvania ranked in second place among the top destinations for freshman out-of-state college students in the nation, according to a new survey by a Harrisburg-based education trade group, writes Stephen Williams for the WHYY. The Association of Independent Colleges and Universities of Pennsylvania survey found  – based on reporting from the U.S. Department of Education…

  • Pennsylvania Will Have Longer Happy Hours Thanks to New Liquor Rules

    Pennsylvania Will Have Longer Happy Hours Thanks to New Liquor Rules

    Starting September 13, Pennsylvania will have longer happy hours under new state rules that will allow drinking establishments to increase their discounting from 14 to 24 hours per week, writes Michael Klein for The Philadelphia Inquirer. The new rule and several others were overwhelmingly supported in the legislature and are an indicator of the loosening…

  • Wawa’s First Store in Central Pennsylvania Set to Open in September

    Wawa’s First Store in Central Pennsylvania Set to Open in September

    Wawa’s first central PA store, solidly in Sheetz territory, is set to open Sept. 19 along West Harrisburg Pike in Lower Swatara Township near Middletown Dauphin County, reports WGAL. Wawa will also introduce its community partnerships and celebrate local heroes through “Hoagies for Heroes” initiative. “We are excited to open our first store in Central…

  • VP Nominee Tim Walz Gets Caught Up in Wawa/Sheetz Debate

    VP Nominee Tim Walz Gets Caught Up in Wawa/Sheetz Debate

    Pennsylvania’s decades-long Sheetz or Wawa debate has latched on to Democratic Vice President nominee Tim Walz, writes Bill Shannon for YourErie. Walz, current governor of Minnesota, was having breakfast Monday with Pennsylvania delegates when the question came up about which convenience store is better, according to Delaware Online. Walz admitted stopping at a Sheetz while…

  • PLCB’s Latest ‘Limited-Release Lottery’ Includes 1,252 Bottles of Rare Whiskeys

    PLCB’s Latest ‘Limited-Release Lottery’ Includes 1,252 Bottles of Rare Whiskeys

    Pennsylvania Liquor Control Board’s rare whiskey lottery offers spirit aficionados the chance to buy a $7,499.99 bottle of bourbon, writes Stephanie Farr for The Philadelphia Inquirer.  State liquor license holders as well as residents 21 and over can enter the PLBC’s latest “Limited-Release Lottery” through 5 PM Friday. The lottery includes 1,252 bottles of nine…

  • Lackawanna College & Peirce College Announce Intent to Merge, Creating PA’s Largest Private, Nonprofit Open Enrollment Institution

    Lackawanna College & Peirce College Announce Intent to Merge, Creating PA’s Largest Private, Nonprofit Open Enrollment Institution

    Lackawanna College and Peirce College announced on Aug. 13 that they intend to merge, based on the shared belief that both institutions are better and stronger together and aptly positioned to help more residents of Pennsylvania transform their lives. Pending the required approvals, Peirce will merge into Lackawanna, becoming a singular institution under the Lackawanna…

  • The Pennsylvania Turnpike Comes to Collect on Unpaid Tolls

    The Pennsylvania Turnpike Comes to Collect on Unpaid Tolls

    The PA Turnpike Commission is looking to collect on unpaid toll bills, reports Alyshia Hercules of MSN. Last fiscal year, the Pennsylvania Turnpike, which dissects through Montgomery County, grossed $1.755 billion in total toll revenue. Of that, 6 percent is unpaid by drivers. According to the commission, most of these unpaid tolls come from the…

  • GK Elite Designs and Outfits the U.S. Women’s Gymnastics Team for Paris Olympics

    GK Elite Designs and Outfits the U.S. Women’s Gymnastics Team for Paris Olympics

    GK Elite, a company located right above Chester County in Reading, is responsible for outfitting the U.S. women’s gymnastics team for the 2024 Paris Olympics, reports Christie Ileto for 6ABC.  GK Elite has been making gymnastics leotards and apparel for decades, but this is the first time they have unveiled the leotards before the competition.…

  • Lori Shapiro Steps into Spotlight as Potential Second Lady

    Lori Shapiro Steps into Spotlight as Potential Second Lady

    Pennsylvania first lady Lori Shapiro, who served as an analyst in the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy during the Clinton administration, may have the chance to return to D.C. in a new role, writes Fallon Roth for The Philadelphia Inquirer. Her husband, Gov. Josh Shapiro, is considered a top contender for Vice…

  • Open Road Tolls Coming to Pennsylvania Turnpike in January

    Open Road Tolls Coming to Pennsylvania Turnpike in January

    Those familiar toll booths on the Pennsylvania Turnpike are going away and that means drivers will be able to pay tolls without slowing down or hitting backed up traffic at toll plazas, writes Evan Jones for The Morning Call. The plazas are being replaced starting Jan. 5 in the eastern part of Pennsylvania with an…

  • Gov. Josh Shapiro Not Confirming Whether He Is in Running for VP Nomination

    Gov. Josh Shapiro Not Confirming Whether He Is in Running for VP Nomination

    Gov. Josh Shapiro, who is being touted as the best candidate for the Vice President nomination by top Pennsylvania Democrats, neither confirmed nor denied he is in the running for the position in his first comments regarding the issue, write Gillian McGoldrick and Julia Terruso for The Philadelphia Inquirer. Shapiro, a former attorney general and…

  • Wawa, Sheetz Collision Coming When Central PA Store Opens

    Wawa, Sheetz Collision Coming When Central PA Store Opens

    Wawa is working on opening its first Dauphin County store in Middletown, Central Pennsylvania, part of a vanguard of 40 Wawa locations planned in that region by 2030. “We see Harrisburg up to State College, and I’ll say everything between and around it,” said Wawa President Brian Schaller. Though Wawa has not given a specific…