State police say a man is in custody following a major law enforcement response in Butler County yesterday. Troopers were initially called around 1:20 a.m. to look into gunfire at the Woodlands development off of Route 528 in Connoquenessing Township. Authorities report a man, now identified as Jeffrey Ford Junior, refused to come out of a home and surrender for a number of hours. He was eventually arrested by the PSP Special Emergency Response Team. No serious injuries were reported.
Pennsylvania Treasurer Stacy Garrity announced that nearly $274 million om unclaimed property in fiscal year 2023-2024. According to a news release, unclaimed property includes things like bank accounts, uncashed checks, forgotten stock and insurance policies among others. Tangible property like abandoned safe deposit boxes can also be part of the unclaimed items. In total, there’s more than $4.5 billion in unclaimed property, according to the Treasury Department. You can find out if you have any unclaimed property through the treasury’s website.
Democrats in the Pennsylvania House are now back in the majority. The 101-to-101 tie for power was broken when new Democratic state Representative Lindsay Powell was sworn in Monday. Her addition gives Democrats a one-member majority in the chamber as the party now holds 102 seats. The chamber had been deadlocked since a member resigned over the summer break to run for another office.
Legislation is being considered that would create a new financing option for organizations that install charging stations for electric vehicles. A divided state House panel earlier this week passed a bill that would include EV charging infrastructure in the Commercial Property Assessment Clean Energy program, known as C-PACE. House Bill 1474 would expand the program to include EV chargers and related infrastructure. The bill was approved on a 14-11 party-line vote by the House Environmental Resources and Energy Committee.
State Police in Mercer County report an 84 year old woman from Greenville has been the recent victim of a phone scam. The woman told police that she believed she was helping a family member get out of prison. Police said the woman was scammed out of 12 hundred dollars. The are no suspects or leads in the investigation.
Governor Shapiro is seemingly still noncommittal on whether the state should join the RGGI. The Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative is a group of 12 eastern states that impose a price and declining cap on carbon dioxide emissions from power plants. The most recent meeting of a task force on the issue had not been able to come to a conclusion. The issue remains hung up in state courts due to actions from former governor Tom Wolfe. But Governor Shapiro has not said whether he would carry out the consortium’s carbon pricing policy should it survive the legal challenge. If Pennsylvania were to join, it would be the first major fossil fuel state to adopt carbon pricing over power plant emissions.
The House Game and Fisheries committee has moved forward with a measure that would fund wildlife rehabilitators. House Bill 1522 was approved in committee Monday and would give those groups the chance to apply for grants from the state, based on the number of wild animals that are under their care. Some hunting groups are opposed to the idea because the legislation would be paid for with grants using money diverted from the state Game Fund, which comes from hunter’s license fees.
Pittsburgh officials are hoping that archers take at least 30 deer during a culling pilot program that is underway at Frick and Riverview parks. City representatives say the hunters were able to eliminate four deer on the first day of the initiative, last Saturday. City leaders have said the hunting is necessary to reduce deer numbers in the areas, as the overpopulation is destroying plant life and causing other issues. Bow hunters will be in the parks looking for deer on most Saturdays through December 9th.