Toll assortment on the Pennsylvania Turnpike is the main target of a number of payments on the statehouse.
Two Senate payments are touted to replace and enhance the Pennsylvania Turnpike Fee’s technique of accumulating and reporting on tolls.
Sponsored by Sen. Marty Flynn, D-Lackawanna, the invoice would direct the Turnpike Fee to simply accept cost apps as legitimate strategies of toll cost. At the moment, E-ZPass and Toll By Plate are used for funds.
The Turnpike Fee could be licensed to simply accept Money App, PayPal, Venmo, and Zelle as legitimate types of cost for tolls. E-ZPass and Toll By Plate would stay as cost choices.
Flynn stated the extra cost choices are wanted to counter frustrations of turnpike customers with the Toll By Plate billing technique.
He defined in a memo to legislators {that a} buyer’s first Toll By Plate bill is generated 30 days after the journey date. The cost due date is 20 following the bill era and mail date.
“This sluggish course of undoubtedly contributes to the Turnpike Fee’s low assortment charges,” Flynn wrote.
He provides that the invoice, SB1053, would enable for “nearly instantaneous cost” of tolls. Particularly, invoices may very well be despatched to buyer’s cell phones to permit them to pay by one of many cell cost apps.
“We have to begin excited about the methods folks pay for issues now, and can be paying for issues sooner or later, and get with the occasions.”
A second invoice from Flynn would require the Turnpike Fee to submit an annual report back to the Pennsylvania Basic Meeting.
SB1051 specifies that the report element the tolls that went collected and uncollected throughout the prior fiscal 12 months.
“We have to begin holding the Turnpike Fee extra accountable,” Flynn wrote in a press launch. “If they start reporting to us as a substitute of solely reporting to themselves, perhaps they’ll take the lots of of thousands and thousands of {dollars} in misplaced income extra critically.”
Each payments have superior from committee and await additional consideration on the Senate ground.
The legislative pursuits are in response to a March 2020 furlough of turnpike workers due to coronavirus issues. Instead of fare collectors, the turnpike converted to cashless toll assortment.
Lower than three months after the furlough, the Pennsylvania Turnpike Fee voted to completely get rid of 492 positions. Many of the workers have been fare collectors.
At the moment, Fee CEO Mark Compton advised the Senate Labor and Trade and Transportation committees there have been three components within the resolution: the impression that the pandemic has had on the fee’s visitors and income; the well being and security of shoppers and workers; and the operational challenges in a post-COVID-19 world.
The turnpike reported a lack of greater than $104 million from uncollected tolls throughout the fiscal 12 months.
A associated pursuit is meant to reduce income loss on the Pennsylvania Turnpike.
Rep. Manuel Guzman, D-Berks, has highlighted a report from the Related Press that exhibits about 11 million journeys with out tolls occurred on the Pennsylvania Turnpike in 2020.
“Experiences have proven that just about half of the motorists touring on the turnpike with out an E-ZPass account handed by means of tolling services with out being charged, making it clear that the fee was not adequately ready to roll out an all-electronic tolling mannequin,” Guzman stated in a November 2021 memo to Home lawmakers.
Guzman is behind a invoice to convey again in-person toll assortment throughout peak intervals.
“By providing each in-person toll assortment and digital tolling, the PTC will be capable to enhance its digital system throughout occasions when much less turnpike visitors is anticipated and put an finish to inadequate income manufacturing.”
HB2080 would set up a hybrid system that will convey again tollbooth staff throughout the street’s busiest hours.
The invoice is within the Home Transportation Committee. LL
Electors take a group photo after the end of proceedings. Pennsylvania’s electors cast their votes for President-elect Donald Trump and Vice President-elect JD Vance in the chambers of the state House of Representatives at the Capitol in Harrisburg, Pa.
December 17, 2024.
Dan Gleiter | dgleiter@pennlive.comDan Gleiter | dgleiter@pennlive.com
Penn Medicine researchers Katalin Karikó Ph.D., and Dr. Drew Weisman Ph.D., won the 2023 Nobel Prize in Medicine for their work on mRNA technology that contributed to the COVID-19 vaccine research.
Patents typically last about 20 years. The university holds at least four patents for its mRNA technology across the United States and Europe.
Researcher Karikó, an adjunct professor at Penn Medicine for 36 years, worked as a senior vice president for BioNTech between November 2013 and October 2022, according to her LinkedIn profile. She is considered an external consultant for the company as of Jan. 2, according to its website.
The COVID-19 vaccine, also known as Comirnaty, generated about $5 billion in sales in 2024.
As part of the deal, pharmaceutical giant Pfizer is expected to chip in $170 million for the Penn royalties and $364 million towards the NIH royalties owed.
As a company, BioNTech generated about $3.9 billion in revenue during 2023, down from $17.7 billion in 2022. BioNTech estimated 2024 revenue to be between $2.7 billion and $3.3 billion.
The university licensed its mRNA patents to several companies between April 2010 and August 2020, including Epicentre Technologies Corp., mRNA Biotherapeutics Inc. and Cellscript.
In 2017, BioNTech sublicensed the university mRNA technology from Cellscript and expects to keep developing more pharmaceutical medications, such as cancer treatments and flu vaccines, using the university patented technology.
Licensing revenue at the University of Pennsylvania has been a substantial revenue stream for the Philadelphia institution since the COVID-19 pandemic began.
In fiscal 2021, the university collected $300 million in license revenue. In fiscal years 2022 and 2023, the university garnered $1 billion each year. During fiscal year 2024, it reported $466 million in licensing revenue.
In May 2024, Penn Medicine researchers developed an mRNA vaccine for the H5N1 avian flu, leveraging prior COVID-19 vaccine research. The research was funded by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, National Institutes of Health and the Department of Health and Human Services.
The Duke University Human Vaccine Institute was awarded $7 million from the federal health agencies to conduct clinical trials in early 2025.
But for the commercialization of such research, the university relies on pharmaceutical manufacturers to license such patents and take the drug to market.
It was not immediately clear which companies, if any, have licensed the experimental avian flu technology.
Jan. 2 (UPI) — A Pennsylvania man has been indicted on charges of attempting to support the foreign terrorist organization Hezbollah, the Justice Department reported Thursday.
Jack Danaher Molloy, 24, a former resident of Pittsburgh, attempted to provide material support and resources to the terrorist group from August 2024 through December 2024, in Lebanon, Syria, the Western District of Pennsylvania, and elsewhere, the Justice Department said in a statement.
Molloy undertook these actions “knowing that the organization was a designated terrorist organization and that the organization had engaged in and was engaging in terrorist activity and terrorism, ” a release from the Justice Department said in a criminal complaint.
Molloy, a citizen of both the United States and Ireland, previously served on active duty status in the U.S Army, traveled to Lebanon in August 2024 and attempted to join Hezbollah but was told by “multiple individuals that the time was not right, and that he needed to take other steps before he could join the terrorist organization,” the Justice Department release said.
Molloy continued to try to join Hezbollah while living in Upper St. Clair, Pa. and allegedly continued to communicate with members of the organization online and in Lebanon. He also expressed his hatred toward, and promoted violence against, Jewish people,” documents show.
“Molloy’s alleged animus toward Jews was also evidenced by multiple images and videos on his electronic devices and the usernames he chose for his social media and email accounts, including the username “KIKEKILLER313″ on the social media platform X. In one alleged WhatsApp exchange with a family member, Molloy agreed that his ‘master plan was to join Hezbollah and kill Jews,’” Justice Department documents show.
He is also alleged to have visited a website that showed the possible incarceration location of Robert Bowers, the man who carried out the 2018 Pittsburgh Tree of Life Synagogue shooting during which he murdered 11 Jewish worshippers. It is thought that Molloy was a Bowers sympathizer.
The indictment also says Molloy lied to FBI investigators at the Pittsburgh International Airport in October, 2024 about his contact with members of Hezbollah. He said had no current or future plans to become involved with the organization and that he had no business in, nor was he meeting with anyone, in Syria.
“These statements and representations were false because Molloy knew at that time that (1) he did have current and future plans to become involved with Hizballah and (2) Molloy travelled to Syria in furtherance of his attempts to join Hezbollah, and while in Syria, set up a meeting with an individual there,” the Justice Department release said.
Molloy faces up to 28 years in prison and a $250,000 fine if convicted on the material support and false statement charges.
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