Pennsylvania

Biden campaign holding State of the Union watch parties across Pennsylvania in a few unexpected places • Pennsylvania Capital-Star

Published

2 years ago

March 6, 2024

Biden campaign holding State of the Union watch parties across Pennsylvania in a few unexpected places • Pennsylvania Capital-Star

President Joe Biden’s reelection campaign will host watch parties for the State of the Union address in locations across Pennsylvania on Thursday, part of a broader national outreach to galvanize voters.

“On Thursday night, voters throughout Pennsylvania will get the chance to hear directly from President Biden on his vision for the future as well as the historic achievements from his first term, from creating millions of good-paying union jobs to lowering costs and capping cost of insulin at $35,” Nikki Lu, the campaign’s Pennsylvania campaign manager, said in a statement. “In contrast, Donald Trump is a threat to our freedoms, our economy, and our democracy and the stakes of this election could not be higher. That’s the message we’re bringing to voters in every corner of the commonwealth.”

And while there are events in blue cities like Philadelphia and Pittsburgh, there are also watch parties scheduled in areas of the commonwealth where Biden wasn’t victorious in his 2020 presidential run — but which the campaign is targeting ahead of a November rematch with presumptive GOP nominee Donald Trump.

“The Biden campaign has not only made it clear that Pennsylvania is a priority, but there is no part of the state that is being taken for granted,” said Stella Sexton, Vice Chair of Lancaster County Democrats. Trump won Lancaster County in the 2020 general election, taking 57.17% of the vote to Biden’s 41.34%.

“Here in Lancaster County we are committed to making sure voters know this is a choice between a President who has delivered on lowering costs, creating jobs, and combating gun violence in his first term, versus Donald Trump, a MAGA radical who wants to tank the economy, attack reproductive rights, and threaten our democracy,” Sexton added.

Lancaster has potential to flip blue in November if early signs are any indication; the county had the fifth-highest number of signatures on nominating petitions for Biden to appear on the 2024 ballot, at 1,300 signatures. That’s just behind the usual Democratic stronghold counties of Allegheny, Montgomery, Chester and Bucks — all of which Biden carried in 2020.

The campaign said attendees at the parties will have opportunities to volunteer for the reelection campaign and participate in more traditional organizing efforts like phone banks and door-knocking to reach out to potential voters, or relational organizing where people mobilize their personal networks of friends and family to get involved.

Biden and Trump both racked up wins across the board in most of the states voting in Super Tuesday primary elections. The Biden campaign has its first post-SOTU event scheduled Friday in Philadelphia, with details still to be announced.

A look at some of the county watch party locations and how each county voted in 2020:

Adams: Trump won 66.37% to Biden’s 32.20% in 2020,
Cambria: Trump 68.13%, Biden 30.79%;
Crawford: Trump 67.99%, Biden 30.77%
Cumberland: Trump 54.53%, Biden 43.96%
Union: Trump 61.43%, Biden 37.16%
Westmoreland: Trump 63.62%, Biden 35.24%
York: Trump 61.53%, Biden 36.95%

Other watch parties in counties where Biden won in 2020 — although not always in landslide victories — include:

Delaware: Biden beat Trump 62.95% to 36.15%
Lackawanna: Biden 53.71%, Trump 45.35%
Montgomery: Biden 62.63%, Trump 36.35%
Philadelphia: Biden 81.44%, Trump 17.90%

Bucknell Democrats are holding a SOTU watch party, and Montour Democrats, a county where Trump won in 2020 59.81% to 38.59%, is holding a virtual watch party. The New Americans & Ethnic Coordinating Caucus is also holding a watch party on Thursday.

Six watch parties are scheduled in Allegheny County — an area where Biden has yet to campaign in 2024 but where he beat Trump 59.61% to 39.23% in 2020. They include events hosted by Pittsburgh City Democrats, Allegheny County Democrats, the Steel City Stonewall Democrats, Pittsburgh college students, West Hills Women and an event in Mt. Lebanon.

Source link

Pennsylvania

Pa. data centers: How lawmakers are responding, from electricity and water use to tax breaks

Published

58 minutes ago

April 7, 2026

Press Room

Pa. data centers: How lawmakers are responding, from electricity and water use to tax breaks

What data centers think of Matzie’s bill

The Data Center Coalition is watching bills like Matzie’s closely. The coalition represents companies including Amazon Web Services, Google, Microsoft, Anthropic, CoreWeave and OpenAI.

Dan Diorio, vice president of state policy with the group, said the coalition is open to special utility rates for large electricity users that force these customers to pay for any grid upgrades their operations require while insulating other ratepayers from these costs. But the group opposes bills like Matzie’s that apply specifically to data centers, rather than to all electricity users over a certain size.

“If it’s a transmission line or if it’s a substation, if it’s a generating asset, of course, data centers should pay for that and will pay for that,” Diorio said.

But “no specific end user should be singled out for disparate treatment,” he said.

The coalition also opposes mandating data centers to curtail energy use during times of peak demand or bring their own new, clean power, preferring instead incentives that reward data centers for voluntarily doing so, Diorio said.

“Things like having to take interruptible service … you could see projects move across to a different state line where they didn’t have that requirement, while doing nothing to solve the ultimate shortfall within [the regional grid],” he said.

Pennsylvania lobbying records show the Data Center Coalition spent $19,632 on lobbying at the state level on the topic of “energy, information technology and utilities” during the last three months of 2025.

“Pennsylvania is a very strong, growing and important market for the data center industry,” Diorio said. “We understand concerns, and we want to be an engaged stakeholder to address those concerns, but also keep the state strong for development. And I think we can do that — I think we can find a good middle ground.”

Source link

Pennsylvania

Parents charged after toddler injured by wolf at Pennsylvania zoo

Published

13 hours ago

April 6, 2026

Press Room

Parents charged after toddler injured by wolf at Pennsylvania zoo – CBS News

Watch CBS News

The parents of a 17-month-old child are facing endangerment charges after the toddler stuck his hand under the fence of a wolf enclosure at a Pennsylvania zoo. Tom Hanson reports.

Source link

Pennsylvania

2 Pennsylvania firefighters killed in vehicle collision during a search for a missing woman

Published

1 day ago

April 6, 2026

Press Room

2 Pennsylvania firefighters killed in vehicle collision during a search for a missing woman

RICHMOND TOWNSHIP, Pa. — Two firefighters traveling in a utility vehicle along a Pennsylvania road during a search for a missing woman were killed in a head-on crash with a car, officials said.

The two members of the Walnuttown Fire Company died after the crash with a Toyota Camry at about 6 p.m. Saturday, roughly 45 miles (72 kilometers) northwest of Philadelphia. Fire Chief Jeff Buck and Assistant Fire Chief Robert Shick Jr. were heading north when they were struck by a sedan heading south on Route 222, according to the Berks County Coroner.

NBC Philadelphia reported that the utility vehicle was riding on the shoulder of Route 222 when the Camry swerved off of the road. Police told the station that a male and a female who were in the Camry when it crashed fled and were later arrested.

Video from the crash scene shows the utility vehicle on its side.

No further details about the arrest or the search for the missing woman were immediately available Sunday.

A call and an email seeking information were made to the Fleetwood Police Department.

Autopsies on the firefighters, both residents of Fleetwood, were scheduled for Monday.

“At this time we would like to send our thoughts and prayers” to the Shick and Buck families, the Walnuttown Fire Company said in a Facebook post. “Rest easy chiefs, we got it from here.”

Source link