Pennsylvania Replaced Prison Mail With Photocopies. Inmates and Their Families Are Heartbroken

Ever since his daughter first learned to use a pen, Joseph Onzik has looked forward to her letters. He reads them from a cell in a state prison in Pennsylvania, where he’s been locked up for about five years, since she was three. “I ask her to write me as much as possible,” he says. It “has advanced from scribble to cursive writing like magic as the time passes by.” Sometimes she calls to let him know what color pen she’ll use for the next one: “At eight years old, it is quite hard for her to keep a secret about the little things in life.”

Firestorm after police tase unarmed black man in Pennsylvania

Video showing a white police officer in Lancaster, Pennsylvania tasing an unarmed black man has gone viral on social media, drawing condemnation from critics who say it is just the latest case of unprovoked police abuse against people of color.

Police claim that the African American man, Sean Williams was not following their orders at the time of the incident, but bystander video appears to tell a different story.

Pennsylvania Keeps All Death-Row Inmates in Solitary Confinement. The ACLU Calls That Unconstitutional

The 156 death row inmates in Pennsylvania state prisons go to sleep every night the same way they wake up: in an 8-by-12 foot cell illuminated by artificial light around the clock. On weekdays, they are allowed out of their cells for a maximum of two hours to exercise in a small, enclosed space. They leave their cells thrice a week to take showers and are occasionally allowed to go to the law library. Every once in a while, a death-sentenced prisoner gets a visit with clergy or a family member – without being able to touch them. On weekends, they cannot leave their cells at all. For most of their lives, they sit alone in a suffocating cage the size of a parking space.

How a Small Town Is Standing Up to Fracking

On October 24th, 2012, several agents from Pennsylvania General Energy, an oil-and-gas exploration company, met privately with local officials from the rural western Pennsylvania community of Grant Township. Fracking was booming in Pennsylvania, and PGE had been trucking tens of thousands of gallons of fracking wastewater to faraway injection wells in Ohio. Developing an injection well somewhere in Pennsylvania could save the company around $2 million a year, and Grant Township, a swath of woods and hayfields slightly larger than Manhattan and populated by a mere 741 people, seemed like an especially good spot.

Children given lifelong ban on talking about fracking

Two young children in Pennsylvania were banned from talking about fracking for the rest of their lives under a gag order imposed under a settlement reached by their parents with a leading oil and gas company.

The sweeping gag order was imposed under a $750,000 settlement between the Hallowich family and Range Resources Corp, a leading oil and gas driller. It provoked outrage on Monday among environmental campaigners and free speech advocates.

Inside the Fight to Frack Pennsylvania Township

Gene Meyers asked everyone to join him in prayer a few minutes before the Feb. 11 public hearing in Penn Township.

"Please, God, give us all the strength and knowledge to make the proper decision for this township," said Meyers, a 57-year-old township resident who recently retired after 30 years of construction work, which included laying pipeline for Marcellus Shale gas.

Most of the 50 or so people there, including suit-clad drilling representatives, bowed their heads. A collective "amen" hummed across the room.

Black Trans Woman Attacked, Killed By Group Of Men In Pennsylvania

A transgender woman in Pennsylvania was attacked by a group of men before being fatally shot Tuesday morning, authorities say.

Kiesha Jenkins, 22, was shot in the back around 2:30 a.m. in the North Philadelphia, a spokeswoman for the Philadelphia Police Department confirmed.

"She was known to the LGBTQ community as a transgender individual," the spokeswoman said.

Pennsylvania Blames Woman For Her Own Rape

Pennsylvania Attorney General Kathleen Kane (D) is distancing herself from her office's response to a former state employee who was raped, saying she does not agree with the assertion that the woman herself is partly to blame for the atrocious crime.

A former state prison clerk filed a federal lawsuit against the state, saying she was brutally raped at work in July 2013 by an inmate with a history of sexual assault, among other crimes. The assault reportedly lasted 27 minutes, and for weeks, her eyes were still red from broken blood vessels.

Kids For Cash: Inside One of the Nation’s Most Shocking Juvenile Justice Scandals

Today a special on "kids for cash," the shocking story of how thousands of children in Pennsylvania were jailed by two corrupt judges who received $2.6 million in kickbacks from the builders and owners of private prison facilities. We hear from two of the youth: Charlie Balasavage was sent to juvenile detention after his parents unknowingly bought him a stolen scooter. Hillary Transue was detained for creating a MySpace page mocking her assistant high school principal. They were both 14 years old and were sentenced by the same judge, Judge Mark Ciavarella, who is now in jail himself — serving a 28-year sentence. Balasavage and Transue are featured in the new documentary, “Kids For Cash,” by filmmaker Robert May, who also joins us. In addition, we speak to two mothers: Sandy Fonzo, whose son Ed Kenzakoski committed suicide after being imprisoned for years by Judge Ciavarella, and Hillary’s mother, Laurene Transue. Putting their stories into context of the larger scandal is attorney Robert Schwartz, executive director of the Juvenile Law Center. The story is still developing; in October, the private juvenile-detention companies in the scandal settled a civil lawsuit for $2.5 million.

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Source: democracynow.org
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Pennsylvania School Tries To Kick Out Two Students After Their Families Became Homeless

As if their lives hadn’t been thrown into enough turmoil when their house was foreclosed on and their family became homeless, two Pennsylvania students learned last Monday that they were no longer welcome at the school they had attended their entire lives because the campground they were living in was located just outside of town.

The two students, one eighth-grader and one twelfth-grader whose names are withheld because they are minors, have lived in a camper with their parents in eastern Pennsylvania since losing their home to foreclosure in 2011. The campground where they were able to find refuge is located just outside the school district’s boundaries.

Pennsylvania's New Environmental Chief Doesn't Think Climate Change Is A Big Deal

Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Corbett's (R) nominee to head the state's Department of Environmental Protection says he doesn't believe that climate change is all that bad.

Christopher Abruzzo, Corbett's pick for DEP secretary, testified at a hearing of the state Senate Environmental Resources and Energy Committee on Wednesday, where he was asked about climate change, StateImpact Pennsylvania reports.

Fracking Study: Gas Production In Pennsylvania May Be Polluting Creek With Radioactive Waste

Fracking may be contaminating a Pennsylvania river with radioactive waste, a Duke University study to be published this week shows.

Scientists found elevated levels of radioactivity in river water at a site where treated fracking wastewater from oil and gas production sites in western Pennsylvania’s Marcellus shale is released into a creek.

The natural gas-rich Marcellus shale is seeing a drilling boom, part of a nationwide rush to use hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, techniques to extract shale gas and oil. Studies have shown that energy production, including the waste water associated with fracking — a method of injecting chemicals, sand and water deep underground to crack rock formations to release oil and natural gas — may release significant fugitive methane emissions, helping to drive climate change.

This Guy Is Single-Handedly Destroying Pennsylvania's Gay-Marriage Ban

Gay marriages are illegal in Pennsylvania. But if you go to D. Bruce Hanes, you can get one anyway.

Hanes is an Army veteran and Democratic county clerk in Montgomery County, outside Philadelphia. In July, he started issuing marriage licenses to same-sex couples. Pennsylvanians Loreen Bloodgood and Alicia Terrizzi, 17-year partners who are the mothers of two sons, were first in line.

Pennsylvania Voter ID Law Barred From Enforcement In November Election By Judge

HARRISBURG, Pa. — A state judge issued an order Friday that is expected to block enforcement of Pennsylvania's strict voter-identification law in the Nov. 5 general election.

Local poll workers can ask voters to show IDs if they have them and distribute written material about the law, but they may not tell voters at the polls that photo IDs could be required in future elections, Commonwealth Court Judge Bernard McGinley said.

"There is no value in inaccurate information, and the court does not deem inaccurate information `educational.' It is not a matter of confusion – it is a matter of accuracy," McGinley wrote.

Guns Allowed In Some Pennsylvania State Schools Amid Review

KUTZTOWN, Pa. -- Students on some of Pennsylvania's college campuses might be carrying more than books.

At least five Pennsylvania state-owned universities are now allowing guns on campus after the state's lawyers concluded that an outright ban on weapons was likely unconstitutional.

Pennsylvania Voting Machine Switches Vote From Barack Obama To Mitt Romney

A Pennsylvania voting machine was taken out of service on Election Day 2012 after it was filmed switching a vote for President Barack Obama to one for his Republican challenger, Mitt Romney, NBC News has confirmed.

Mother Jones reported that the machine was recalibrated and returned to service.

"There was a single complaint, so they recalibrated the machine, did a test run, and put it back online. We've had no complaints since then," Mathew Keeler, a spokesman for the Pennsylvania Department of State, told Mother Jones.

Fracking Pollution Sickens Pennsylvania Families, Environmental Group Says

The McIntyres of Butler County, Pa., no longer drink the water piped into their home. They no longer brush their teeth with it, shower or do laundry with it.

"We use water for nothing other than flushing the commode," said Janet McIntyre, after describing her family's wide-ranging health problems -- from projectile vomiting to skin rashes -- that she attributed to the water.

Daryl Metcalfe, GOP Lawmaker: If People Are Too 'Lazy' To Get Voter ID, Pennsylvania Can't Fix That

Daryl Metcalfe, a Pennsylvania state House member who originally sponsored the state's voter ID law that is currently in legal limbo, said on a local radio station Wednesday morning that the state shouldn't be responsible for people who are too "lazy" to obtain the needed ID.

"Ultimately, the burden isn't on the state to make sure every individual does what they need to get their ID card. I mean, individuals have certain responsibilities in securing their ID," the Republican lawmaker told Pittsburgh radio station KDKA, in a clip circulated by the Pennsylvania Democratic Party. "They have to present the documents needed. The state doesn't have that burden. I think the individual does, and ultimately it's a great travesty of justice to violate the rights of millions to have their legally cast vote protected for the special interests of a few individuals that are too lazy to get out there and get done what they have to to get their ID card."

In Controversial Death Row Case, Pennsylvania Prepares to Execute Man Who Killed His Sexual Abusers

Advocates for child victims of sexual abuse are calling on Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Corbett to grant clemency to Terrance "Terry" Williams, who is scheduled to be executed on October 3. In 1986, Williams was convicted of killing Amos Norwood. What the jury in that case did not know is that Norwood had sexually abused Williams and had allegedly violently raped him the night before. Furthermore, Williams had suffered years of physical and sexual abuse by older males. Most recently, evidence has emerged that prosecutors tried to make robbery seem like the motive for the murder, even though Williams’ co-defendant knew about the sexual abuse. A hearing on this part of the case is set to take place today in Philadelphia. Now, as Williams’ execution is set to take place in less than a month, five of the jurors in his case have since come forward to say they believe life without parole would have been the appropriate sentence because they did not know all the facts.

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Source: Democracy Now!
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Pennsylvania Voter ID Decision: Judge Refuses To Grant Injunction To Halt Law

HARRISBURG, Pa. — A tough new voter identification law championed by Republicans can take effect in Pennsylvania for November's presidential election, a judge ruled Wednesday, despite a torrent of criticism that it will suppress votes among President Barack Obama's supporters and make it harder for the elderly, disabled, poor and young adults to vote.

Commonwealth Court Judge Robert Simpson said he would not grant an injunction that would have halted the law, which requires each voter to show a valid photo ID. Opponents are expected to file an appeal within a day or two to the state Supreme Court as the Nov. 6 election looms.