NewsElection 2020
Rule changes in swing states like Pennsylvania mean more votes will count, results may take longer
By Miles Parks/NPR
Money tracker: How much Trump and Biden have raised in the 2020 election
By Sean McMinn, Alyson Hurt and Ruth Talbot/NPR
Health
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Charlotte Fu
School attendance in the COVID era: What counts as ‘present’?
The emerging questions for educators and parents are: What is the best way to measure whether students are participating in learning? And who will be held responsible for a student who doesn’t participate? The student? Their caregiver? The school?By Anya Kamenetz/NPR -
Stacy Kranitz
‘Desperation and fear’ for millions with Congress deadlocked over pandemic assistance
An NPR poll finds 19% of Americans say they are having “serious problems” paying their rent or mortgage, and 11% have fallen behind. Latino and African American households are twice as likely to be behind as white families.By Chris Arnold/NPR -
Ted S. Warren
The coronavirus vaccine-distribution planning that wasn’t
Philadelphia is no longer part of a pilot program to help develop the nation’s coronavirus vaccine distribution plan.By Nina Feldman/WHYY -
Eman Mohammed
How Pennsylvania’s COVID-19 alert apps work
The hope is these apps will help with contact tracing, which up until now has relied on locating people who come into contact with someone else who tests positive for the virus.By Alan Yu/WHYY -
Dan Nott
Pa.’s failure to mandate quicker death reporting before the coronavirus fueled wild data fluctuations, mistrust
An investigation found state health officials abandoned their urgency in implementing a faster process, leaving them ill-prepared to accurately report death data when the pandemic arrived.
By Sara Simon/Spotlight PA, Ryan Briggs/WHYY and Nina Feldman/WHYY
Regional & State News
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Anthony Orozco
Berks district attorney: police justified in shooting Reading woman
Investigators say police used reasonable force in firing 16 shots at Roxanne Moore, critically wounding her.
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Nate Smallwood
Outside the focus of major parties, Black Pittsburghers vow to get out the vote
But a tightly contested 2020 election in Pennsylvania could be decided at least in part by people outside the suburbs. This includes Pittsburgh’s Black residents, 22 percent of the city’s population.
By Steve Inskeep, Simone Popperl, and Ryan Benk/NPR -
Poll shows fewer than one third of Pennsylvania Republican voters will trust mail-in ballot results
The finding adds to concerns that the president and some Republicans are laying the groundwork to challenge the legitimacy of the election. -
BILL O’DRISCOLL / 90.5 WESA
Commission votes to remove Columbus statue, but its fate remains uncertain
Pittsburgh’s Art Commission voted unanimously today to remove the statue of Christopher Columbus that has stood in Schenley Park for generations.
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Kimberly Paynter/WHYY
Philly prepares for protests after Breonna Taylor grand jury decision
According to social media posts, there are at least two protests planned for Wednesday night — one for 6 p.m. at 6th and Market streets and another at 7 p.m. at City Hall.
Politics & Policy
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Gene J. Puskar
Democrats in Pennsylvania scramble to limit number of ‘naked ballots’
The so-called naked ballots have become a huge concern for Democrats in the state since the Pennsylvania Supreme Court ruled last week that ballots had to be rejected if not enclosed in the proper secrecy envelope.
By Marc Levy and Nicholas Riccardi/The Associated Press -
Poll shows fewer than one third of Pennsylvania Republican voters will trust mail-in ballot results
The finding adds to concerns that the president and some Republicans are laying the groundwork to challenge the legitimacy of the election. -
Tom Downing
House approves restaurant capacity bill Wolf says he’ll veto
Lawmakers voted 145 to 56 in favor of the bill, which would end a requirement that customers buy food when they purchase alcohol and would allow people to be served drinks at bars.
National & World News
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Marcio Jose Sanchez
Jobless claims across the country at 870,000 as fraud and backlogs cloud data
The number of unemployment claims coincides with evidence that some newly laid-off Americans are facing delays in receiving unemployment benefits as state agencies intensify efforts to combat fraudulent applications and clear their pipelines of a backlog of jobless claims.
By Christopher Rugaber and Mary Claire Dale/The Associated Press -
J. Scott Applewhite
Records: Mail delivery lags behind targets as election nears
Data obtained by The Associated Press shows postal districts across the country are missing by wide margins the agency’s own goals for on-time delivery, raising the possibility that scores of mailed ballots could miss deadlines for reaching local election offices if voters wait too long.
By Anthony Izaguirre and Pia Deshpande/The Associated Press -
John Minchillo
2 Louisville police officers shot after charges in Breonna Taylor case spark protests
The officers were fired on after responding to a separate “shots fired call” at about 8:30 p.m. ET, Chief Robert Schroeder said in a brief press conference Wednesday evening.By Vanessa Romo/NPR
Energy & environment
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Rachel McDevitt
What do you want elected officials to do about climate change?
Polls show about 70% of Pennsylvanians want the legislature to do more to address climate change. StateImpact wants to know what type of action voters are looking for.
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Reid R. Frazier
Trump’s energy secretary questions mainstream science on human impacts of climate change
Scientists says human impacts are clearBy Reid Frazier -
Marie Cusick
More spills at Lebanon County Mariner East pipeline drill site earn Sunoco more violations
DEP recently ordered re-route of line in Chester County for similar problemsBy Jon Hurdle -
Reid R. Frazier
In the Ohio River Valley, with the pandemic’s help, the petrochemical boom is on hold
“It just kind of changed the game for all industries, including this one,” said a spokesman for a company that wants to build an ethane cracker. “And so they have had to put off their announcement of a decision.”
By Reid Frazier -
John Locher
Haze spreads across U.S. as wildfires continue to tear through the West
In Oregon and Washington, 28 large fires are burning across 1.5 million acres. But the Bureau of Land Management noted that growth has slowed for a number of the major fires. The large Beachie Creek Fire east of Salem, Ore., had recorded no new growth in the previous day.
By Laura Wamsley/NPR
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Lucy Perkins
Smart Talk Thursday: Why doesn’t the non-voter vote?; Surprise medical bills
Non-voters were broken down into the apathetic, the obstructed, the incapable and the conditional non-voter
By Scott LaMar -
Gene J. Puskar
Smart Talk Wednesday: Restaurant/bars want restrictions loosened
By Scott LaMar -
Min Xian
Smart Talk Tuesday: Dem Congressional candidate Eugene DePasquale; Green Treasurer candidate Tim Runkle
Smart Talk continues conversations with candidatesBy Scott LaMar