Pennsylvania
DOJ settlement will bring new protections for people with opioid use disorder in Pa. courts
This story originally appeared on Spotlight PA.
A recent settlement between the U.S. Department of Justice and the Pennsylvania court system offers new protections to people who county courts allegedly barred from taking medications for opioid use disorder.
The agreement follows the DOJ alleging the system forced some people under court supervision into a lose-lose scenario: Give up medication prescribed by a doctor or risk going to jail.
Advocates celebrated the settlement, which requires that three county court systems adopt an anti-discrimination policy for substance use disorder medications and that statewide court administrators encourage all other county court systems to do the same.
While still denying the claims, officials overseeing Pennsylvania’s court system agreed to pay $100,000 total to individuals allegedly harmed by the restrictions. Statewide court administrators must also provide training to all judges handling criminal matters and report on which counties agree to adopt the anti-discrimination policy.
“This case makes it clear that those practices are illegal, they’re dangerous, and they need to stop,” Sally Friedman, an attorney with the advocacy group the Legal Action Center, told Spotlight PA. “And I think other courts around the country are going to pay attention.”
Sonya Mosey is one of the people whose complaint prompted the Justice Department lawsuit. In a previous Spotlight PA story, she described how an opioid use disorder medication ban in Jefferson County in 2018 led her to fear she would relapse and die.
After she learned of the settlement, she cried on the way to work.
“It was a relief,” she said. “But it was also … a sense of like all this time and we finally got somewhere.”
The Department of Justice lawsuit named as defendants the entire state court system, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court, and four individual county courts.
The agreement requires three of those county court systems — Blair, Jefferson, and Northumberland — to adopt an agreed upon nondiscrimination policy for medications for opioid use disorder.
The two sides agreed for the state Supreme Court to be dismissed from the case. The Pennsylvania Supreme Court’s administrative arm agreed to take a number of actions to implement the settlement.
What did the two sides say about the settlement?
Throughout the case, the two sides have offered differing interpretations of the scope of the alleged violations.
Stacey Witalec, a spokesperson for the administrative arm of the Pennsylvania Supreme Court, said in a statement that the DOJ claimed violations of the Americans with Disabilities Act were committed by “a few local treatment courts” and that the federal agency “found no systemic” violations.
That description contrasted with how the Department of Justice described the case in earlier legal filings. The agency identified six unnamed individuals who it says were harmed in four counties, and it listed seven other counties that it alleged have or recently had administrative policies restricting the use of opioid use disorder medication.
Those 11 county courts have tens of thousands of people under supervision, many for drug law violations, and there is “thus a high likelihood” that Pennsylvania courts harmed others with opioid use disorder, the Justice Department alleged in a legal filing last September.
The agreement will “alleviate the burden of the ongoing litigation on the courts, who continue to deny the DOJ’s claims,” said Witalec. Under the state constitution, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court has “general supervisory and administrative authority” over the lower courts in the state system.
Witalec called Pennsylvania’s court system a national leader for offering effective treatment and rehabilitation opportunities. She said courts here “reiterate their continuing and steadfast commitment to our treatment courts and to providing full access to the justice system and fair and evenhanded treatment to all citizens, including those with disabilities.”
In a news release, the DOJ emphasized the $100,000 compensation the court system agreed to pay, policy changes and recommendations, and training required under the settlement.
“People with opioid use disorder caught up in the criminal justice system should be supported in seeking treatments that can help them attain recovery,” said Kristen Clarke, assistant attorney general of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division.
LANCASTER COUNTY, Pa. (WHP) — Pennsylvania State Police is investigating an incident in Salisbury Township on Saturday.
Lancaster County dispatch confirmed that troopers were called to the 4900 block of Strasburg Road for an incident that was reported around 11 a.m.
Fire and EMS was called to the area but have since been cleared, dispatch said.
This is a developing story. CBS 21 is working to learn more.
Pennsylvania
What’s old is new again in Pennsylvania as the Penguins and Flyers renew a long-simmering rivalry
PITTSBURGH, Pa. — Sidney Crosby would not take the bait, even though the smile on his face and the gleam in his eye hinted that maybe the Pittsburgh Penguins captain kind of wanted to.
Told that Philadelphia Flyers coach Rick Tocchet – an assistant with the Penguins when Pittsburgh won back-to-back Stanley Cups in 2016 and 2017 – knew his current team was going to have to “get after” Crosby and longtime running mates Evgeni Malkin and Kris Letang when the cross-state rivals open their first-round series on Saturday night, Crosby just grinned.
“I mean, to be expected, what else can you expect me to say?” the 38-year-old future Hall of Famer said with a small laugh. “We’re all out there competing. We all are after the same thing. That’s how it works.”
Technically, that’s how it always seems to work whenever the Flyers and Penguins get together, regardless of circumstance. Things only figure to be ramped up considerably during the eighth – and perhaps most unlikely – playoff meeting between two teams separated by 300 miles geographically and considerably more in terms of postseason success.
The three Cups that Crosby has won during his 21-year career are one more than the Flyers have in the franchise’s nearly six-decade history, and yes some are still keeping track of Philadelphia’s long nuclear winter since its last championships.
The chances of either club being the last one standing when NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman hands the Cup to the victors in early June are slim. Oddsmakers put the resurgent Penguins in the middle of the pack to win it all, while the Flyers – who needed a 14-4-1 sprint to the finish to return to the postseason for the first time since 2020 – are among the longest shots in the 16-team field.
Not that any of that will matter when the puck is dropped and the venom that has long defined the contentious relationship between the clubs bubbles back up to the surface.
That venom on Philadelphia’s side has long been targeted at Crosby, who has beaten the Flyers three times in four playoff meetings, with the one loss coming during a frantic six-game series in 2012. Almost all the faces from those teams are gone.
Except, of course, for perhaps the most important one. Crosby, the only player in NHL history to average a point a game in 21 straight years, remains a threat and highly motivated by the return to the playoffs following a three-year absence.
“We have a ton of respect for Sid,” Tocchet said. “He’s an unbelievable person and player. But we’ve got to get him in the ditches right? We’ve got to make it hard on him.”
A long-awaited debut
Rasmus Ristolainen’s agonizing wait to feel the vibe of playoff hockey is over.
The Flyers defenseman will make the first postseason appearance of his 13-year, 820-game career when he hops over the boards at PPG Paints Arena on Saturday night.
Ristolainen’s wait before his playoff debut is the third-longest in NHL history. The 31-year-old even played in the Olympics before a postseason game. He won a bronze medal in February while playing for Team Finland at the 2026 Milan Cortina Games.
“Just really excited to play meaningful games this time of year,” said Ristolainen, who played in just 44 games this season while battling elbow injuries. “It’s been a really, really fun last month or so.”
Skinner or Silovs?
First-year Pittsburgh coach Dan Muse has flip-flopped between goaltenders Stuart Skinner and Arturs Silovs since the Penguins acquired Skinner in a trade with Edmonton in December.
Whether that will continue in the postseason is anybody’s guess. Skinner has a decided advantage over Silovs in playoff experience, having backstopped Edmonton to consecutive Cup appearances in 2024 and 2025.
Yet Muse has kept his thoughts close to the vest, and statistically speaking, Silovs and Skinner posted nearly identical numbers, none of them particularly great. Silovs finished the year with a .887 save percentage and a 3.07 goals against average while Skinner had a slightly worse save percentage (.885) and a slightly better goals against (2.99).
“We’re looking at all factors,” Muse said. “As I’ve said multiple times, I think both guys have been great for us. Both guys are a big part of why we’re here today preparing for Game 1.”
What’s old is new again
Philadelphia forward Sean Couturier has played for the Flyers for so long that he was actually teammates with his boss, general manager Danny Briere.
Couturier was once a key cog during a previous rebuilding phase in Philadelphia, back when he was the eighth overall pick in the 2011 draft. Couturier made his debut that season and has largely remained a steady presence in the lineup – save for back injuries that cost him the 2022-2023 season – and is the only Flyer still around from the franchise’s last home playoff series victory against, yes, the Penguins in 2012.
Couturier, Travis Sanheim and Travis Konecny are the only three Flyers on the roster to have played in a home playoff game, back in 2018.
“We were for a lot of years kind of in the middle, competing hard,” said Courtier, who had 12 goals and 24 assists this season. “We had some good teams. Just always missing a little something to get to the next step. I think it was maybe time to take a step back and rebuild. I’m just glad with how everything’s gone, honestly.”
___
AP Sports Writer Dan Gelston in Philadelphia contributed to this report.
Copyright © 2026 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.
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