Last year, Americans received nearly 30 billion scam robocalls and text messages. Now, leaders in Pennsylvania are taking a new approach to try to crack down on them.

“It’s not just certain audiences that are targeted in this space. It’s really everybody,” said Kate Sullivan, CEO of Better Business Bureau of Western Pennsylvania. “Robocalling is just faster and more aggressive than it’s ever been,” Sullivan said.

The prevalence, exacerbated by artificial intelligence, is why 49 attorneys general across the country sent a letter to the Federal Communications Commission to strengthen its rules to prevent scammers from accessing legitimate phone numbers.

“You have individuals that will purchase maybe 100,000 different phone numbers,” Pennsylvania Attorney General Dave Sunday said. “Those numbers will land somewhere where you have a nefarious actor who will use those numbers to do the robocalls.”

Sunday is part of the Anti-Robocall Task Force, along with West Virginia Attorney General JB McCuskey. Last year, the coalition sent warning letters to major phone service providers to stop allowing illegal robocalls to reach consumers. Now they’re building on this by going directly to the FCC.

“The consumer matters, and we want to make sure that our constituents, the consumers that are in our states’ voices, are being heard at the highest level as loudly as they can be,” McCuskey said.

Sunday said they want to put more onus on companies to not sell these numbers, and if they do, to have documentation that can be provided to law enforcement so they can trace back and hold the scammers accountable.

KDKA-TV reached out to the FCC for comment. A spokesperson said in part that they “welcome this input from state leaders.” They also mentioned, “The Commission proposed expanding certification and disclosure requirements to all providers that receive telephone numbering resources… to stop scammers from exploiting gaps in the system.”

“Getting ahead of it and more protections for the consumers, I think, does have quite a bit of value,” Sullivan said.

As for what you can do, the BBB and AGs said it’s better to let a robocall go to voicemail. If you decline it, that indicates you’re a real person and may get more calls. Also, make sure to report robocalls to the BBB or the Federal Trade Commission.

New data is shedding light on the state of Connecticut’s economy and labor force.

On this episode of the CBIA BizCast, CBIA Foundation director Dustin Nord joins host Amanda Marlow to talk about new Connecticut Department of Labor data that highlights the mismatch between increased job openings and a shrinking labor force.

Connecticut job openings jumped 2.6% in May to 87,356—however, since May 2025, 37,700 people have left Connecticut’s labor force.

Nord breaks down some of the reasons for this mismatch and what needs to be done to address Connecticut’s economic challenges.

He also shares insights into a U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis report showing Connecticut’s economy expanded 1.8% in the first quarter of 2026.

Episode Highlights:

• Job Openings vs. Workforce Shortage
• Unemployment Trends
• GDP Growth Amid Labor Challenges
• Affordability and Long-Term Competitiveness

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The allegations against Platner could constitute gross sexual assault, a felony crime in Maine law used to prosecute rape, according to a Maine criminal defense lawyer.

The recent sexual assault allegations against Graham Platner aren’t just the political flashpoint that forced a rising populist Democrat to suspend a major Senate campaign. They also potentially amount to criminal conduct.

Jenny Racicot, 41, had been casually dating Platner for about two years when he came to the home where she was staying in 2021 and sexually assaulted her, while she repeatedly told him to stop, according to allegations she made in interviews with Politico and CNN.

Those allegations could constitute gross sexual assault, a felony crime in Maine law used to prosecute rape, according to William T. Bly, a Maine criminal defense lawyer. However, he said Racicot, who didn’t report the incident to law enforcement in 2021, would need to decide now that she wants to report it.

“If you take a look at the statutes, you can see all the different ways it could be charged, but it is gross sexual assault,” Bly said.

“A lot of it’s going to come down to victim credibility and what, if any, corroborating evidence can they get?” Bly added.

Racicot said the assault took place in the village of Marlboro, which is in Maine’s Hancock County.

In a lengthy email to USA TODAY, Hancock County District Attorney Bob Granger said his office cannot comment on whether any criminal investigation exists, noting that Maine law criminalizes unlawfully disseminating information from an investigative record.

Granger added that his office wouldn’t ordinarily open an investigation unless a victim makes a formal sexual assault complaint to law enforcement for the area where the crime happened, and that victims of sexual assaults may be reluctant to move forward criminally for “a number of valid reasons,” including “horrendous emotional and psychological pain.”

However, Granger said his office takes formal complaints seriously.

“If a victim exercises the courage to come forward to law enforcement with credible allegations, we owe it to both them and the general public to carefully examine those claims,” he said.

Shannon Moss, a spokesperson for Maine’s Department of Public Safety, told USA TODAY in an email that the Maine State Police haven’t received or investigated any criminal complaints involving Platner. USA TODAY also left a voice message at the Hancock County Sheriff’s Office seeking information on any complaints.

USA TODAY was unable to reach Racicot for comment.

Ryan Barto, the communications director for Platner’s campaign, didn’t respond to a request for comment, but Platner has previously denied that he sexually assaulted anyone.

“This is all false. The things that have been claimed did not happen. It’s not real,” Platner said in a video posted to Instagram July 8, in which he didn’t address the specifics of Racicot’s account, but said her allegations were surfacing in the media in an effort to get his name off the ballot.

“Accusations are supposed to be the beginning of things, not the end,” he said.

Here’s a look at what kinds of charges could be in play if a complaint were lodged and prosecutors chose to move forward, what penalties they could involve, and what a defense might look like:

Prosecuting rape in Maine

Gross sexual assault, Maine’s central felony rape statute, can be prosecuted in many different forms, depending on the nature of the allegations. For instance, if a defendant compelled another person to engage in a sex act, the person could face a “Class A” assault felony charge, Maine’s most serious class of gross sexual assault.

Other forms of sexual assault in Maine, such as getting someone to engage in a sex act by threat or being criminally negligent about whether the other person consented, amount to lower-class felonies.

Racicot alleged that Platner was heavily intoxicated when he entered her home uninvited and ignored her repeated pleas for him to stop. She told Politico she cut off contact after telling him the incident was not consensual.

If prosecutors were considering gross sexual assault charges against Platner, the time that has passed since the alleged assault wouldn’t prohibit them from moving forward. Maine allows prosecutors to bring gross sexual assault felony charges anytime within 20 years of the offense.

What kind of penalties could Platner face if charged and convicted?

Defendants convicted of the most serious form of gross sexual assault – Class A felonies – can be imprisoned for up to 30 years. Class B and Class C gross sexual felonies allow judges to sentence a defendant to up to 10 years and five years in prison, respectively.

Maximum penalties often don’t reflect the actual penalties defendants receive from a judge. In Maine, judges take various factors into account when determining the appropriate sentence, such as defendants’ age, the nature of the underlying crime, their criminal history, and evidence that reflects on their character.

“It’s not just the classification of the crime, but what are the details that come out,” Bly said. “There’s so many different things to look at.”

What kinds of defenses could Platner raise?

Bly said Platner’s potential defense, if he were to face charges, would be driven by details in the case that may currently be largely unknown.

Still, one potential line of defense is already clear: Platner has suggested that the timing of Racicot’s account is intentional. The allegations emerging just days before a July 13 deadline to remove him as Maine’s Democratic Senate nominee, Platner said, indicate they were politically motivated.

“This was the last week to try to get me off of the ballot. And that’s why this is occurring,” Platner said in his July 8 Instagram video message.

“I’m sure a defense would be that this was politically motivated, the person had a personal issue and an ax to grind,” Bly said.

Racicot told Politico she didn’t go public earlier in part because she believes in Platner’s platform.

“One of the reasons I didn’t come forward sooner was the huge moral conflict that I had between supporting his politics, but not supporting him as a person,” she said.

With all the years gone by, there might also be a lack of physical evidence for prosecutors to present in court, and questions from the defense not just about an accuser’s motive, but her memory.

“The longer in time someone waits to bring allegations, especially when they’re already adults when they occurred, tends to weigh against, I think, the credibility potentially of the alleged victim,” Bly said.

Still, corroboration could persuade prosecutors they have a strong enough case, Bly said. They may be able to point to accounts from people Racicot spoke with after the alleged crime occurred.

CNN spoke with two people who said that Racicot previously disclosed that Platner sexually assaulted her. She spoke with a then-boyfriend in 2023 and a close friend in late August of 2025, around the time Platner launched his campaign. The former boyfriend said Racicot disclosed Platner’s identity to him after Platner launched his campaign. The friend said Racicot initially referred to her assailant as an “oysterman,” but later shared that it was Platner.

According to Platner’s campaign website, he started working on his friend’s small oyster farm in 2018 and eventually took over the oyster farm.