Pennsylvania
CAPITOL ROUNDUP: Keep Pennsylvania Beautiful invites public to help ‘Pick Up PA’
More than 3.2 million pounds of litter/trash picked up in 2024 by 77,000 volunteers
WILKES-BARRE — As part of the Shapiro Administration’s commitment to maintaining the Commonwealth’s natural resources and enhancing tourism, Pennsylvanians are invited to register for the 2025 Pick Up Pennsylvania litter cleanup initiative.
A collaborative effort among the Pennsylvania Departments of Transportation (PennDOT) and Environmental Protection (DEP) and Keep Pennsylvania Beautiful, Pick Up Pennsylvania offers civic-minded volunteers an opportunity to help keep their communities clean and free from litter.
Litter can pollute streams and rivers with microplastics, degrading water quality and harming the fish, birds and wildlife that depend on healthy streams and rivers to thrive.
Pick Up PA, an annual volunteer effort to clean up Pennsylvania roads, parks, streams and communities, represents Governor Shapiro’s commitment to protecting Pennsylvania’s cherished natural resources.
Earlier this year the Shapiro Administration announced more than $15 million in funding to conserve and protect waterways and watersheds, reclaim abandoned mine sites, and plug abandoned wells.
In 2024, more than 77,000 volunteers participated in Pick Up Pennsylvania. Over 3.2 million pounds of litter and trash were picked up, 4.5 million pounds of materials recycled, and more than 14,000 trees, flowers and other greens were planted.
Also in 2024, PennDOT’s Adopt-A-Highway program hosted nearly 23,000 volunteers belonging to 4,600 groups and supported the collection of more than 39,000 bags of trash from PA roadways.
“Last fiscal year, PennDOT spent $18 million picking up litter along the 40,000 miles of state-owned roadways. The Shapiro Administration has made protecting the Commonwealth’s environment a key focus, and we’re proud to continue that work,” said PennDOT Secretary Mike Carroll. “The thousands of Pennsylvanians who volunteer their time to keeping litter out of our roads, parks and waterways are a key component to keeping PA beautiful, and there is always more work to be done.”
Shannon Reiter, president of Keep Pennsylvania Beautiful, said, “As we drive along the highways and back roads of Pennsylvania, it’s easy to see the impact of litter. Litter affects our quality of life, the natural environment, and economic development in communities across the state.”
Information about the state’s infrastructure and results the department is delivering for Pennsylvanians can be found at www.penndot.pa.gov/results.
Rep. Meuser co-sponsors legislation to stop radical district court judges
U.S. Rep. Dan Meuser, R-Dallas, this week co-sponsored H.R. 1526 — the No Rogue Rulings Act (NORRA) of 2025 — to prohibit district court judges from issuing nationwide injunctions that he said reach far beyond their jurisdiction.
The bill comes in response to U.S. District Judge James Boasberg’s emergency order attempting to block the deportation of Venezuelan nationals, under the Alien Enemies Act, who are suspected members of the violent Tren de Aragua gang.
Rep. Meuser said this law gives the President power to detain, relocate, or deport non-citizens from countries that the U.S. is at war with. The Tren de Aragua gang is a designated Foreign Terrorist Organization, and the Trump Administration has determined they are “conducting irregular warfare and undertaking hostile actions against the United States.”
Despite this, Rep. Meuser said Judge Boasberg’s ruling has put such deportations of gang members on hold nationwide until April 12.
There are currently 94 District Courts across the United States, each of which serves a small and specific geographic region. However, District Court judges currently have the ability to issue nationwide injunctions. Many have argued that this ability has led to what is often referred to as “judge shopping.” Rep. Meuser said this is a legal strategy where plaintiffs file lawsuits in specific jurisdictions because they believe a particular judge is more likely to rule in their favor.
Republicans argue this practice is being utilized to halt many aspects of President Trump’s agenda as the majority of lawsuits against the administration have been filed in courts with historically liberal judges.
Rep. Meuser said the No Rogue Rulings Act seeks to curb “judge shopping” by limiting a district court judge’s ability to issue rulings that apply throughout the country. Higher courts in the federal system would still maintain this ability.
“Since President Trump was sworn in, unelected activist judges have repeatedly attempted to block his agenda through nationwide injunctions,” Rep. Meuser said. “These rulings often come from a single district judge and are the result of judge shopping — where plaintiffs seek out a favorable court to impose their will nationwide. The No Rogue Rulings Act is a straightforward legislative solution that restores proper judicial restraint and ensures that policy decisions are made by elected representatives, not individual judges. This legislation is about reinforcing the rule of law and keeping our courts focused on interpreting the law — not making it.”
H.R. 1526 will be considered on the House floor this upcoming week.
State reminds SNAP recipients to change EBT card PINs
The Department of Human Services (DHS) and the Office of State Inspector General (OSIG) today are reminding Pennsylvanians who receive Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits to change their EBT card PINs ahead of their monthly SNAP benefit distribution.
“DHS Secretary Dr. Val Arkoosh said, “Do not become a victim of this crime. Make sure you change your PIN every month, and when you swipe your EBT card at a card reader, please make sure a skimming device is not attached.”
• By Phone: DHS’ EBT Recipient Hotline is available at 1-888-EBT-PENN (1-888-328-7366) and is open 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
• Online: Users can change their PIN online through DHS’ EBT contractor, Conduent, via their Connect EBT website.
Pennsylvanians are urged to take an extra look before swiping their card at a point-of-sale machine to ensure there is no skimming attachment.
Reach Bill O’Boyle at 570-991-6118 or on Twitter @TLBillOBoyle.
When someone calls 911, they expect an ambulance to arrive quickly. But across Pennsylvania, that expectation is increasingly at risk as more emergency medical services agencies shut down due to financial strain.
According to Plum EMS Director of Operations Brian Maloney, every time an ambulance responds to a call, it costs the agency about $850 just to get out the door.
“Over the past 20 years, we’ve been in crisis,” Maloney said, “but now we are literally falling apart.”
The problem isn’t just the high cost, it’s the lack of reimbursement. In some cases, with commercial insurance companies, they will send payment directly to the patient instead of the EMS provider, and that money doesn’t always make it back to the agency.
“In my community, 38 percent of those checks were kept by the patient,” Maloney said. “In three years, Plum EMS, which is a small organization, lost a quarter of a million dollars.”
Pennsylvania has lost 52 EMS agencies in just the last two years. The risk for more is always there.
State Rep. Jill Cooper, R-Westmoreland County, is leading a bipartisan effort to change that. Her proposal, House Bill 1152, would require commercial insurance companies to directly reimburse EMS agencies for 911 calls they respond to.
“I feel an obligation to the seniors and people in my district,” Cooper said. “When they call and expect an ambulance in 8 to 10 minutes, they should get one, in order to save their life.”
EMS services in Pennsylvania do not receive tax dollars for operations, so timely reimbursement is vital. Maloney told Channel 11 that no agency wants to have to go after a patient to get a bill paid.
Supporters of the bill said it would only increase insurance premiums by around $10 but could make a major difference in keeping EMS agencies open.
“It’s causing EMS companies to go out of business,” Maloney said. “Just getting an ambulance ready to go costs money, and they’re losing it every time they respond. This bill is one step toward solving that problem.”
House Bill 1152 has nearly 50 cosponsors and is currently in committee, awaiting a vote.
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‘Less savings’ without federal tax credits
The 2022 Inflation Reduction Act allowed tax-exempt entities, like local governments and schools, to utilize clean energy tax credits for the first time. These credits offer reimbursement payments to schools that cover 30% or more of the costs of a solar project.
The Upper Darby School District expected these federal tax credits to cover over $2 million of the total $9 million cost of its six solar projects.
But the timelines set out in the House bill would likely be difficult, if not impossible for the district to meet, because the district needs to vet and choose contractors, get approval from the school board, acquire supplies through the contractors and wait until schools are closed during the summer to begin construction, officials said. Districts also need approval from utilities to connect the projects to the local grid.
The soonest the Upper Darby School District could start to build its solar projects would be next summer, officials said.
Without the federal tax credits, the solar projects would eat up most of the district’s yearly capital budget at a time when federal funding for operational costs is uncertain, McGarry said. This could mean sacrificing crucial facilities projects, such as replacing windows, renovating old bathrooms and upgrading security systems, he said.
“We can’t afford to do that,” McGarry said.
The Upper Darby School District is not alone. The William Penn School District would not be able to complete a Solar for Schools project planned for Park Lane Elementary School without the federal tax credit, said district Chief of Operations Darnell Deans.
“As our district is under-resourced and we are still advocating for our appropriate level of funding, our district will not be able to proceed with this project without the tax credit,” Deans wrote in an email.
Pennsylvania state Rep. Elizabeth Fiedler, who sponsored the Solar for Schools legislation, said she’s confident the projects will still save schools money, even if the schools are not able to use the federal tax credits.
“Obviously, if the federal IRA incentives for renewable energy are cut, that would mean less savings for schools,” she wrote in a statement.
When awarding the state grants, the Pennsylvania Department of Community and Economic Development believed the schools could complete the projects without the federal tax credits, said spokesperson Justin Backover.
Still, Shannon Crooker, Pennsylvania director at the nonprofit renewable energy advocacy organization Generation180, worries these slimmer savings would force many districts to abandon the projects.
“We’re at risk of losing a lot of great investment,” she said.
PENNSYLVANIA – It appears Florida’s “Gottahava Wawa” more than the Delaware Valley these days!
By the numbers:
Wawa has 1,121 locations in 12 states, along with the District of Columbia, according to data released by ScrapeHero.
It seems like the local staple keeps popping up on every corner, with 293 stores in New Jersey, another 263 in Pennsylvania, and just 50 in Delaware.
However, Florida now boasts the highest number with a whopping 304 locations, which is 27 percent of all Wawa stores in the U.S.
Has the “Sunshine State” officially taken over as the new “Wawa Capital?”
The backstory:
The first Wawa Food Market opened in Folsom, Pennsylvania, in 1969, followed by stores in Delaware and New Jersey by 1969.
It became a convenience store staple, supplying everything from hoagies and coffee to gas across the entire Delaware Valley.
Florida didn’t get its first location until 2012, but Wawa has been expanding across the state ever since.
The Source: Information from this article was sourced from ScrapeHero and Wawa.
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