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COMMENTARY
Republican gubernatorial nominee Doug Mastriano with his wife Rebbie at a campaign rally Thursday, 9/15/22 in suburban Philadelphia (Capital-Star photo by Peter Hall).

Pa. voters didn’t buy what Doug Mastriano was selling | Opinion

BY: - November 15, 2022

By Steve Catanese Doug Mastriano’s gubernatorial campaign died just as it was birthed – sad, deeply cynical, misguided, and incoherent. Lonely. It had a soul, to be sure. But this soul was as fertile as scorched earth, the fruit it bore tasting as bitter as one could expect from such soil. Its candidate nothing more […]

Work search requirements, digital hearings advance as lawmakers tinker with Pa. unemployment

BY: - May 11, 2021

The House Labor and Industry Committee did not advance legislation addressing the pandemic’s impact on unemployment from late March 2020 until January 2021, according to legislative records. But since the new year, the committee has advanced three bills. 

Pa. unemployment system to undergo long sought upgrade in June, though concerns linger

BY: - April 10, 2021

The department is already training hundreds of new customer service staff and interviewers to help claimants with their benefits.

More staff needed to end Pa. unemployment delays, L&I head tells lawmakers

BY: - March 2, 2021

The demand for their help won’t be disappearing soon. Officials say about 500,000 of the jobs lost from during the pandemic appear permanent.

Workers to Pa. lawmakers: Take risks to keep us safe and paid during COVID — and after

BY: - July 27, 2020

The hearing, in front of the House Democratic Policy Committee, comes months after COVID-19 shuttered businesses and locked down the state. 

COVID-19 outbreak in Pa.: What’s open and what’s closed

BY: - May 19, 2020

This story will be updated with the latest COVID-related re-openings. Last update: Thursday, Dec. 17, 2020. Update: Last week, Gov. Tom Wolf issued a three-week restrictions, prohibiting indoor dining at bars and restaurants, closing gyms and entertainment venues, and limiting retail shopping to 50 percent capacity as the state’s healthcare system struggles to keep up the […]

As cases grow, human service workers say they can’t use COVID-19 leave offered to other state employees

BY: - April 2, 2020

“The rules apply to everyone except the [county assistance officers], that’s what I’m gathering,” a state official familiar with their situation said.

Philly caseworkers take leave, DHS closes offices after COVID-19 diagnoses

BY: - March 27, 2020

This story was updated at 1:26 pm with additional information on the Elmwood office and 2:52 pm with additional information. Workers at two state Department of Human Services offices in Philadelphia who were ordered to report to work by Gov. Tom Wolf’s administration left their posts unmanned after learning of at least four COVID-19 cases […]

Sent back to work, state human service workers say their offices aren’t prepared for the coronavirus

BY: - March 23, 2020

Workers sent back to work included employees working in four southeast counties that Wolf had previously shut down over coronavirus concerns, according to internal emails viewed by the Capital-Star.

State, union officials fear economic fallout from closure of centers serving Pennsylvanians with intellectual disabilities

BY: - August 16, 2019

The two state centers, White Haven in Luzerne County and Polk in Venango, will be gradually shut down over the next three years.

Backed by high-powered law firm, Pa. state worker files class action suit to demand union dues refund

BY: - August 13, 2019

The Pennsylvania suit seeks back agency fees, or monthly payments, that all employees in a workplace were required to pay to the shop’s union, even if the individual was not a union member. These fees are typically less than full dues. 

Union opposition to post-Janus proposal divides Republican caucus in Pa. House

BY: - April 19, 2019

A bill that targets state unions and should be an easy sell to GOP lawmakers in the House has instead been stopped by a debate over how much to push a powerful interest group that has dug in its heels.