Journalists Roundtable: January 23, 2020

PA House Speaker Mike Turzai announced he would not seek re-election, fueling speculation about his future plans and who might succeed him in leading the House, and whether policies supported by Turzai – opposition to a natural gas severance tax, support for stricter abortion laws among them – would have as strong a champion. The […]

Journalists Roundtable: January 16, 2020

The House was in session this week, and passed a bill calling for a moratorium on the closure of two state centers for persons with intellectual disabilities. Also, the House amended and passed a bill that would make the use of hand-held cell phones a secondary offenses, meaning another violation would have to occur first […]

Journalists Roundtable: December 19, 2019

The final week of session of 2019 feature passage of criminal justice legislation, and passage of a bill placing a moratorium on the closure of two state centers for persons with disabilities. A press conference on ghost guns – guns parts that can be assembled into a working firearm without a serial number, and without […]

Journalists Roundtable: November 7, 2019

The 2019 Municipal General Election was held Nov. 5. One Superior Court judge candidate from each party prevailed capturing two open seats on the appellate court, all four judges facing statewide retention will serve 10 more years on their courts, but the post-election focus was shifts in suburban Philadelphia counties to Democratic control (Bucks, Chester, […]

Nov. 7: Journalists Roundtable: Thursday at 7 p.m.

The 2019 Municipal General Election was held Nov. 5 with statewide judicial candidates, judicial retention elections, countywide and local races all up for election. To discuss statewide and local elections are: Dennis Owens, Anchor, ABC27 News & This Week Pennsylvania; John Micek Editor-In-Chief with the Pennsylvania Capital-Star; and Marc Levy with the Associated Press. Our […]

Journalists Roundtable: October 31, 2019

Journalists Roundtable visited the Scranton Times-Tribune this week. Seven mayoral candidates are on the Nov. 5 municipal general election ballot, including five independents, two of whom switched party affiliation from Democratic to Independent. They are running in a special election to become the next mayor of Scranton to fill the two years remaining on the […]

Journalists Roundtable: October 24, 2019

Reporting this week by Spotlight PA and The Caucus detailed how campaign funds are spent for dinners, trips and bar tabs by some of the General Assembly’s most powerful politicians, and in some cases by legislative employees using campaign credit cards. An Election Code bill to expand voting options was amended after the story broke […]

Journalists Roundtable: September 26, 2019

The House and Senate were in session this week, with both chambers either voting on or holding hearings on gun rights and mental health legislation. The House Judiciary Committee voted out a couple bills, but did not address the extreme risk protection order (ERPO) proposal. The House debated and narrowly passed a bill creating the […]

Journalists Roundtable: September 19, 2019

House members were back in Harrisburg this week, and a number of press conferences and committee hearings made the news, ranging from charter schools, gun laws, economic development, redistricting and election laws, and Sunday hunting. Also, a state senator resigned this week after being arrested due to allegations he had child pornography on his cell […]

Journalists Roundtable: June 20, 2019

The General Assembly has 10 days until the budget deadline, and many of the pieces of the budget puzzle are being put in place with a goal to enact the budget next week. Tom Wolf vetoed a proposal to expand the Educational Improvement Tax Credit program by $100 million to $210 million. The program reimburses […]