Tom Fontaine

Beaver County’s tiny Shippingport, home to about 150 people, is positioned to become a center of Western Pennsylvania’s energy and AI boom. At the turn of the decade, that would have seemed unimaginable. The former coal-fired Bruce Mansfield Power Plant had recently closed, and plans were in the works to

Pennsylvanians receiving Social Security retirement benefits could see their monthly payments go down by an average of $519 if the trust fund that helps the government make payments dries up, according to a report released Wednesday. “The Social Security Trustees now project that the retirement trust fund will be exhausted

Maya MacGuineas has been calling for Social Security reform for decades, warning policymakers and everyday Americans that retirement benefits would be slashed if Congress didn’t act to shore up the program’s finances. Her warnings haven’t been abstract. For years, MacGuineas and the organization she leads, the Washington-based Committee for a

The Pennsylvania Senate shot down a bill Wednesday to create a board to oversee the state’s medical marijuana program and regulate hemp-derived products like vapes and gummies that have become ubiquitous at gas stations, convenience stores and smoke shops. The bill, sponsored by state Sen. Dan Laughlin, R-Erie, failed in

Legislative leaders in Harrisburg say they don’t expect a repeat of last year’s tortured budget process, when an impasse dragged on for 135 days and delayed billions of dollars in state funding to schools, counties and nonprofits. “I believe there is a shared desire to complete this on time or

Fixing Social Security crisis ‘is not going to be pleasant,’ Pa. congressman says

Eliminating Social Security payroll tax cap would keep program solvent, U.S. senators say

U.S. Sen. Dave McCormick has invited a who’s who list of leaders in the defense, technology, finance and government sectors to Pennsylvania next week to discuss the state’s prominent role in our national defense and opportunities to expand that role. “The world is changing radically and, in the case of

U.S. Sen. John Fetterman joined more than a dozen Democrats in reintroducing a bill that would legalize marijuana and pave the way for nonviolent marijuana-related offenses to be expunged from criminal records. “I’ve always been very pro-weed,” Fetterman said Tuesday in a news release. Claiming he has a “very libertarian

On the eve of a court-imposed Friday deadline for the Legislature to reform the state’s felony murder statute, the House narrowly passed a bill to update the controversial law. But because the bill differs substantially from the one passed by the Republican-controlled Senate in June, the Legislature will still not