Connect with us

Pennsylvania

Pa. Gov. Shapiro looks to legalize — and tax — marijuana to balance state budget

Published

on

Pa. Gov. Shapiro looks to legalize — and tax — marijuana to balance state budget


However, some Republicans have started showing an interest in legalization suggesting that the state may be even closer to joining its neighboring states. Republican State Senator Dan Laughlin of Erie joined Philly Democrat Sharif Street to introduce a bill for legalization last year.

Still, there are competing perspectives on how exactly it might be implemented. Some legislators have advocated for state-owned cannabis shops similar to Fine Wine and Good Spirits stores. Laughlin and Street proposed a bill to create a board that would approve sellers and otherwise regulate the industry.

The governor did not specify a preference, only insisting it should include language on social equity.

“I ask you to come together and send to my desk a bill that legalizes adult-use cannabis and expunges the records of people who have been convicted for nonviolent possession of small amounts of marijuana,” he said. “A bill that sets reasonable regulations, protects public safety, and gives communities that suffered from the criminalization of cannabis an opportunity to succeed.”

Advertisement

That approach bothers some Republicans who say that the budget process isn’t an appropriate venue to debate the issue and the governor shouldn’t budget based on tax revenue from an illegal industry.

“If he wants something done, he needs to lead on it,” said Republican Senate Majority Leader Joe Pittman. “He can’t throw an idea out there, which he did last year and say, ‘let the legislature figure it out, I’ll sign it. Then I’ll go do press conferences all over the state.’ He has to lead on something. What is his priority? What will he do to get some of this stuff across the finish line?”

Although legalization appears to have gained some steam, it’s not clear proponents have the votes with some legislators concerned about the fact it continues to be criminalized by the federal government.

“Remember, it’s still a schedule one narcotic. It’s still an all cash industry. This is not something that we need to look to to balance budgets,” said House Republican leader Rep. Jesse Topper. “I believe that it is an impediment to members from both sides of the aisle throughout the building.”

A majority of Pennsylvanians support legalization, according to a recent poll. Meredith Buettner Schneider, executive director of the Pennsylvania Cannabis Coalition, argued that the state is ripe to establish a marijuana industry.

Advertisement

“Pennsylvania is uniquely positioned to experience the economic benefits of cannabis legalization swiftly because of its robust existing cannabis infrastructure,” she said in a statement. “With 32 active grower/processors, almost 200 dispensaries and more than 25,000 employees, the current medical marijuana industry is ready to deliver safe, regulated cannabis on day-one while generating revenue for the Commonwealth immediately.”



Source link

Pennsylvania

Multiple Reports Of Fireball Sighting In Eastern PA Skies

Published

on

Multiple Reports Of Fireball Sighting In Eastern PA Skies


Multiple people in the Philadelphia region reported seeing a fireball in the sky Tuesday.

The American Meteor Society listed the event in its meteor sighting database, saying it had received nearly 150 reports from across the region, including in Eastern Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Delaware, and Connecticut about the fireball.

According to the database, reports of the fireball came in from Doylestown, Lansdale, Willow Grove, King of Prussia and more.

Nick Brucato of Whiting shared video of it in The Pine Barrens group on Facebook and with Patch. “Took this video as fast as I could today in Whiting at 2:34 PM. Heard the loud boom minutes later,” he said.

Advertisement

“We were out on our deck and my wife saw it,” a Waretown resident said on the Tri-County Scanner News post. “She said it was bright white ball and then it broke apart into several pieces and then it was gone. Then the sonic boom hit!”

A meteor is the flash of moving light that becomes visible when a meteoroid — a chunk of an asteroid or a comet — hits the Earth’s atmosphere, according to the American Meteor Society.

In mid-March another meteor was the likely cause of a large boom that was felt over parts of Pennsylvania and northeastern Ohio.

The National Weather Service in Pittsburgh said it received reports from numerous people across Western Pennsylvania of the tremendous noise and a fireball in the sky on March 17.

A weather service employee caught the cause of the boom and the weather service posted it. MORE: Meteor Causes Tremendous Boom Over Parts Of PA

Advertisement

With reporting by Karen Wall





Source link

Continue Reading

Pennsylvania

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

Published

on

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.

Advertisement

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.”

Advertisement



Source link

Continue Reading

Pennsylvania

Parents charged after toddler injured by wolf at Pennsylvania zoo

Published

on

Parents charged after toddler injured by wolf at Pennsylvania zoo




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

Advertisement













Advertisement




























Advertisement

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.

Advertisement

Advertisement

Advertisement

Advertisement

Advertisement

Advertisement

Advertisement

Advertisement

Advertisement

Advertisement

Advertisement

Advertisement

Advertisement

Advertisement



Source link

Advertisement
Continue Reading
Advertisement

Trending