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Kamala Harris invigorates Democrats in swing state Pennsylvania

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Kamala Harris invigorates Democrats in swing state Pennsylvania


In the US state of Pennsylvania, the Democratic Party’s switch to Kamala Harris as its presumptive nominee for president has re-energized its campaign for the White House in a key battleground state, grassroots party activists say.

Kamala Harris invigorates Democrats in swing state Pennsylvania

“I believe we’re going to have a blue landslide,” said Bill Leiner, a volunteer with the Democratic presidential campaign in Allentown, a city of about 125,000 residents.

“People are energized,” he added.

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In an unprecedented development in modern US electoral history, President Joe Biden on Sunday announced he was dropping his bid for reelection, and endorsed Vice President Harris’s candidacy in the November poll.

In Allentown, 70-year-old Leiner said he wasted little time in amending his existing Biden/Harris sign to show his support for the vice president.

“The minute I heard Harris is going to be the person, I cut it off, and then kind of taped it up, and I got the first Harris sign in my town,” he said.

Leiner, who works as a nurse, is “optimistic” about the Democratic Party’s odds now that Harris is headlining the ticket.

“It has to be Kamala Harris because if we don’t pick Kamala Harris, we will lose,” he said.

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Leiner believes Harris has the right tools to take on Republican Party nominee Donald Trump, especially in light of Biden’s disastrous debate performance in June.

“She’s going to carve him up,” Leiner said.

A few yards away, in his garden shed, dozens of signs from previous election and social awareness campaigns pile up. – ‘Uncle Joe’ –

Unlike Leiner, some Allentown Democrats found the change in ticket harder to swallow.

Jimmy Spang Jr, a 66-year-old retired security officer, came to know Biden personally over the years, referring to him as “Uncle Joe.”

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“I’ve picked him up several times at the airport when he was a senator,” he told AFP. “I consider him a friend.”

Biden was born in Scranton, Pennsylvania, about 75 miles north of Allentown, earning him the nickname “Scranton Joe.”

“Joe is a good man,” Spang said, his throat tightening before he burst into tears.

“I’m upset… because this man did nothing wrong,” Spang continued. “He didn’t deserve how he was treated.”

Although “Uncle Joe” has bowed out of the race, Spang plans to continue to support the Democratic cause.

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One way he does so is by overseeing event security for the local Democratic Party chapter.

“If Joe supports Kamala, I will support Kamala,” he told AFP.

Spang said he is fearful of a second Trump presidency.

“If Trump wins, I think the country is in deep trouble because of the divisiveness the people that control his campaign,” he said.

Although both Democratic Party workers approached the change at the top of the ticket differently, they share the same pick for Harris’s running mate: Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro.

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The Democrat was elected in 2022 over a far-right candidate backed by Donald Trump, proving he can sway voters in the purple state.

A “Kamala and Josh” ticket is a “marriage made in heaven,” said Spang.

Even Democrats who are not actively involved in local outreach appear enthusiastic about the shift.

“With the news that came out yesterday, I’m very hopeful and excited,” said J. Marc Rittle, the executive director of New Bethany, a nonprofit that assists residents facing economic and social hardship.

“I’m personally for Harris… I really believe that a Harris administration will get us far,” he said.

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This article was generated from an automated news agency feed without modifications to text.



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Pennsylvania

Suspect arrested for shooting near basketball court in Elkins Park, Pa.

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Suspect arrested for shooting near basketball court in Elkins Park, Pa.


ABINGTON TWP., Pa. (WPVI) — Police have arrested a suspect who they say fired shots at a vehicle near a crowded basketball court in Montgomery County.

Jamell Whitmore, 18, of King of Prussia, Pennsylvania, was arrested on Thursday.

The shooting happened on March 22 near a basketball court on the 300 block of Cadwalader Avenue in Elkins Park, Pennsylvania.

Shooting near Elkins Park basketball courts sends stray bullet into home

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Police said multiple callers reported hearing gunfire around 8:15 p.m. and witnessed a large group of people run from the area behind the McKinley Firehouse.

As a vehicle drove by, one of the men in the group, identified by police as Whitmore, ran off to the parking lot to retrieve a gun and began firing multiple shots towards the vehicle.

Police say it’s unclear if the vehicle was hit, but one of the bullets struck a nearby home.

No one in the home was injured.

Police said no innocent bystanders or those involved in the shooting were injured.

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The motive for the shooting remains unknown.

Copyright © 2026 WPVI-TV. All Rights Reserved.



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Pennsylvania-born indie rockers Tigers Jaw return with new album release

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Pennsylvania-born indie rockers Tigers Jaw return with new album release


The chorus for the song “Primary Colors” was something Walsh wrote years ago, with the song’s outro originally being used as a verse.

“And something just wasn’t quite clicking, and everything that I tried felt kind of forced,” Walsh said. “We were all just like, ‘Yeah, there’s something here, but it’s not quite doing what I think it has the potential to do.’”

The band then started toying with the dynamics between the verses and the chorus.

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“It just unlocked something for me in the idea where I was like, ‘Wow, this kind of quiet, loud, quiet, loud format really works well with this song,’” Walsh said. “So yeah, it just transformed it instantly into an idea that felt a lot stronger.”

The album was recorded with Grammy-winning producer Will Yip, a relationship still budding from their 2014 album, “Charmer.” Collins said the new album’s sound is “as true as we could be to playing the record live.”

“I wasn’t as tied to the tones that have classically been Tigers Jaw because I think at this point, I’ve just come to this realization that no matter what, if we’re making it, it is Tigers Jaw,” Collins said.

The new album has a “palpable energy” that shares the same spirit as their earlier records, Walsh said. And while “tastes evolve,” the band followed “what feels good.”

“This is the best representation of the band at the time, and it’s almost like a snapshot of us as artists, as people, as a creative entity over this time in our career,” he said.

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“Lost On You” is out now through Hopeless Records and is available on vinyl, CD and various streaming platforms.

“Lost On You” was released on March 27, 2026, through Hopeless Records. The album is available on vinyl, CD and various streaming platforms.

On April 16, Tigers Jaw will perform at Union Transfer at 8 p.m. They will be supported by Hot Flash Heat Wave and Creeks, the solo project of Balance and Composure vocalist and guitarist Jon Simmons, who is from Doylestown, Pennsylvania.





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Pennsylvania court upends mandatory use of life-without-parole for second-degree murder

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Pennsylvania court upends mandatory use of life-without-parole for second-degree murder


What to Know

  • Pennsylvania’s Supreme Court says the state cannot automatically give life without parole for felony murder without weighing each defendant’s culpability in the killing.
  • The high court on Thursday ordered a new sentencing hearing for Derek Lee over a second-degree conviction, but paused it for four months to give state lawmakers time to consider legislation in response.
  • Pennsylvania law has made people liable for second-degree murder if they participated in an eligible felony that led to death. Life with no possibility of parole has been the only possible sentence.
  • The court says the current rule treats a lookout the same as the person who kills.

Pennsylvania’s high court on Thursday overturned the use of automatic life sentences without parole for people convicted of second-degree murder, saying it violates the state’s constitutional ban on cruel punishment when imposed without a closer look at the defendant’s specific role and culpability.

The court majority ordered resentencing in the case of Derek Lee, convicted of a 2014 killing in Pittsburgh, but the decision also has implications for others among the roughly 1,000 other inmates currently serving similar second-degree murder sentences.

The court’s order was put on hold for four months to give the General Assembly time to “consider appropriate remedial measures.” In a footnote, the justices said they were ruling on Lee’s sentence and not addressing “questions of retroactivity.”

Prison reform groups hailed it as a landmark decision, while the Allegheny County district attorney’s office said it will follow the court’s order.

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Pennsylvania law has made people liable for second-degree murder if they participated in an eligible felony that led to death, and life without parole has been the only possible sentence.

“The mandatory penalty scheme of life without parole for all offenders convicted of second degree murder fails to assess individual culpability regarding the intent to kill, and mandates the same punishment regardless of that culpability,” wrote Chief Justice Debra Todd in the lead opinion. She characterized it as not distinguishing “between the lookout, and the killer who pulls the trigger.”

The state high court’s decision comes after years of advocacy to undo mandatory life without parole sentences both in Pennsylvania and nationally. Nazgol Ghandnoosh of the Washington-based Sentencing Project said she counts 11 states and the federal system as having such laws for that kind of crime, sometimes called felony murder. Several states — California, Colorado and Minnesota — have moved away from that sentencing framework in recent years, she said.

Justice Kevin Dougherty noted in a separate opinion that unlike those convicted of first-degree murder, defendants serving life without parole for second-degree murder have “never been found by a judge or jury to have harbored the specific intent to kill” and may not have had “any involvement whatsoever with the actual killing. He or she does not even have to expect or foresee that a life may be taken.”

Lee’s lawyers had wanted the court to rule that life without parole sentences are unconstitutional for all second-degree murder convictions in Pennsylvania, said Quinn Cozzens, a staff attorney for the Abolitionist Law Center, which helped represent Lee. Instead, the court ruled that trial judges must examine the individual circumstances of a defendant’s case to decide which sentence is most appropriate, including the potential of life without parole.

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The state’s public defenders’ association said the ruling will generate new post-conviction litigation and require them to do more investigation as well as develop “strategic litigation” to get the decision to apply retroactively.

A jury convicted Lee of second-degree murder but acquitted him of first-degree murder in 44-year-old Leonard Butler’s shooting death. Butler was shot in a struggle over a gun with Lee’s codefendant, Paul Durham.

Prosecutors argued it should be up to state lawmakers and the executive branch to address the policy issues surrounding second-degree murder sentences. Todd wrote that while the district attorney’s office “acknowledges that there may be persuasive arguments why a non-slayer should not be held to the same degree of culpability as the slayer, it stresses that these are policy decisions for the General Assembly.”

Cozzens urged lawmakers to “address this constitutional violation, given that the court granted them the opportunity to do so.”

Rep. Tim Briggs, a suburban Philadelphia Democrat who chairs the state House Judiciary Committee, said he planned to engage with Senate Republicans on potential legislation in response.

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Briggs said he wanted to have decision apply retroactively, to give people serving life “for being the getaway driver” to “have the opportunity to have their facts looked at again.”

“I think inaction leaves a lot of this up to the courts to decide. I don’t feel comfortable doing that,” Briggs said. “We have a policymaking role here.”

Justice Sallie Mundy wrote that Lee “willingly participated in an armed home invasion and robbery, and purposefully engaged in assaultive behavior in the form of tasing and pistol-whipping the victim.” She said Lee and Durham “arguably kidnapped the victims by forcing them into the basement” and it will be up to the county judge to decide if Lee’s life-without-parole sentence is appropriate.

Todd’s opinion, citing an advocacy group, said 73% of those convicted of felony murder in Pennsylvania were 25 or younger when the killing occurred and almost 70% are Black people.

Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro also responded to the ruling on X.

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