More than 4,000 mail ballot applications have been challenged across 14 Pennsylvania counties, leaving election officials to decide eligibility during hearings that will extend well past Election Day.

President Joe Biden kicked up a political dust storm this week with his comments about Donald Trump's supporters and “garbage."

Protesters often create awkward moments for presidential candidates.

Investigations into potential fraud related to voter registration applications in three Pennsylvania counties have become fodder for online misinformation, including from Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump.

Pennsylvania’s State Capitol could be a crucial venue if the upcoming election leads to worsening political divisions in the most pivotal of swing states.

Officials in a Pennsylvania county say an investigation is underway after election workers identified about 2,500 voter registration forms that may be fraudulent.

Pennsylvania’s highest court has ruled people whose mail ballots are rejected for not following technical procedures in state law can cast provisional ballots.

A federal judge is turning down third-party candidate Cornel West’s request to be put on Pennsylvania’s presidential ballot.

Pennsylvania voters could have their mail-in ballots thrown out if they do not write accurate dates on envelopes they use to return them under a state Supreme Court ruling.

Federal transportation officials are providing $5 billion to replace or improve aging bridges in 16 states.

Pennsylvania state representatives have approved a bill requiring that consumers be notified when artificial intelligence is used to generate content.

Democratic U.S. Sen. Bob Casey and Republican David McCormick will be the only names on ballots for the office in Pennsylvania’s April primary after a ruling by the state’s highest court.

Pennsylvania’s high court is taking a case to decide whether some automatic life sentences for those convicted of murder violate constitutional protections for defendants.

More than 100 people protesting the Pennsylvania state government’s investments in Israel were taken into custody in the Capitol Rotunda in Harrisburg.

The Pennsylvania state courts agency says some of its online systems are disabled after its website was hit by a cyberattack, but the attack didn't appear to compromise any data.

A vacant commercial property near downtown on Houston’s east side has become a magnet for crime. The building on Harrisburg near 65th Street has been continually damaged by thieves, vandals and members of Houston’s homeless population.

The National Park Service is retracting a proposal to take down a statue of William Penn at a Philadelphia historical site as part of a renovation that touched off a torrent of criticism over the legacy of the man who founded the province of Pennsylvania.

Pennsylvania’s highest court is deliberating whether the Legislature can proceed with its impeachment trial against Philadelphia’s elected progressive prosecutor.

Pennsylvania’s newly minted state House speaker is moving to make his major policy goal regarding victims of child sexual abuse to be the chamber’s urgent priority.

A Democrat who promised to govern as an independent was elected speaker of the narrowly divided Pennsylvania House of Representatives on Tuesday on the strength of every Democrat and more than a dozen GOP votes.

Pennsylvania Gov.-elect Josh Shapiro is beginning the transition to his new job, pledging to work constructively with lawmakers and pledging to remain as attorney general until he takes office as governor in January.

TV icon Oprah Winfrey is endorsing Democrat John Fetterman in Pennsylvania’s hotly contested Senate race and rejecting Republican Dr. Mehmet Oz. Winfrey helped launch Oz to stardom nearly two decades ago when she brought the heart surgeon on her popular daytime talk show as a regular guest.

Millions of people are celebrating Hispanic Heritage. Houston’s East End has a lot of history when it comes to Hispanic culture and traditions.

Pennsylvania’s Republican nominee for governor is suing the congressional committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol, contesting its legal ability to force him to answer questions about it.

Pennsylvania GOP gubernatorial nominee Doug Mastriano posed in a Confederate uniform for a faculty photo at the Army War College, three years before he retired from the U.S. Army.

In a victory for Democrats, the Supreme Court has turned away efforts from Republicans in North Carolina and Pennsylvania to block state court-ordered congressional districting plans.

Next week, nearly a year since the George Floyd killing, Pennsylvania voters will decide whether to make greater anti-discrimination protections explicit in the state constitution.

Many Americans reacted with jubilation but also with deep awareness of the progress left to be made after a jury convicted former Minneapolis Police Officer Derek Chauvin of murder in the killing of George Floyd.

Small groups of right-wing protesters — some of them carrying rifles — gathered outside heavily fortified statehouses around the country Sunday, outnumbered by National Guard troops and police brought in to prevent a repeat of the violence that erupted at the U.S. Capitol. In the past few days, some extremists had warned others against falling into what they called a law enforcement trap. Some 25,000 National Guard troops from around the country are expected to arrive in the city in the coming days. More than a third of governors had called out the National Guard to help protect their capitols and assist local law enforcement. "The state Capitol has become a fortress,” said Oregon Senate President Peter Courtney, a Democrat.

(AP Photo/Elise Amendola)NEW YORK – The latest developments on the winter storm moving across the Northeast (all times local):3:30 p.m. Heavy snow has been falling for a couple hours in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, where forecasters said a six-decade-old record for a December snowfall could be broken. Gina Raimondo’s office said Wednesday that all indoor and outdoor sites booked through the state’s testing website will be shuttered on Thursday. A winter storm warning has been issued for Providence and Kent counties from 7 p.m. Wednesday through 1 p.m. Thursday. Meanwhile, New Jersey is poised to restrict commercial traffic from some highways because of the impending snow storm.

Tom Wolf has tested positive for COVID-19 and is isolating at home. “I have no symptoms and am feeling well,” Wolf said in a statement. “I am following CDC and Department of Health guidelines.”Wolf’s spouse, Frances Wolf, has been tested but has not received the result, Wolf said. Wolf is one of several governors who have tested positive for the virus that causes COVID-19, including the governors of Oklahoma, Missouri, Virginia, Nevada and Colorado. Wolf, who is 72, said he continues to work remotely.

Meanwhile, a Republican lawmaker who attended Wednesday's public meeting in Gettysburg with Mastriano, Sen. Judy Ward, revealed that she also has tested positive. The public meeting was held, despite state Department of Health and internal Senate pandemic directives limiting gatherings. The AP learned of the White House test results from a person with direct knowledge of the meeting. Mastriano's White House trip followed the hours-long meeting in a Gettysburg hotel, which was held at Mastriano’s request and where few people wore masks. It is not clear how state Senate Republican leaders, who have remained silent about the matter, have responded internally to a potential outbreak stemming from that meeting.

Biden beat Trump by more than 80,000 votes in Pennsylvania, a state Trump had won in 2016. The week-old lawsuit, led by Republican U.S. Rep. Mike Kelly of northwestern Pennsylvania, had challenged the state's mail-in voting law as unconstitutional. Tom Wolf, a Democrat, had certified Biden as the winner of the presidential election in Pennsylvania. Wolf quickly appealed McCullough's decision to the state Supreme Court, saying there was no “conceivable justification” for it. On Friday, a federal appeals court in Philadelphia roundly rejected the Trump campaign’s latest effort to challenge the state’s election results.

All rights reserved)HARRISBURG, Pa. – Democrat Joe Biden was certified Tuesday as winner of the presidential election in Pennsylvania, culminating three weeks of vote counting and a string of failed legal challenges by President Donald Trump. Tom Wolf first disclosed in a tweet that the Department of State had certified the vote count for president and vice president. Wolf sent a “certificate of ascertainment” to the national archivist Washington with the slate of electors who support President-elect Biden and Vice President-elect Kamala Harris. Patton Mills said she was gratified that Pennsylvania was “the state that made it possible” for Biden to win. The Pennsylvania results show Biden and Harris with 3.46 million votes, Trump and Vice President Mike Pence with 3.38 million, and Libertarian Jo Jorgensen with 79,000.

HARRISBURG, Pa. – Pennsylvania’s lieutenant governor, Democrat John Fetterman, may have gotten under somebody’s skin. A provision slipped into lame-duck budget legislation Friday would ban flags not approved by lawmakers from flying at the state Capitol — such as the pro-marijuana legalization and LGBTQ- and transgender-rights flags that Fetterman hangs from his second-floor outdoor balcony that overlooks the building's broad front steps. In an interview, the irreverent Fetterman said he hadn't known about the provision until told by a reporter Friday. Fetterman's marijuana flag flies year-round, while he flies LGBTQ- and transgender-rights flags during Pride Month in June. I didn't know we had that division in the state police,” Fetterman said.

People demonstrate outside the Pennsylvania State Capitol, Friday, Nov. 6, 2020, in Harrisburg, Pa., as vote counting continues following Tuesday's election. (AP Photo/Julio Cortez)Protesters crying foul over closely watched vote counts rallied outside tabulation centers in Phoenix and Detroit Friday, responding to President Donald Trump's baseless claims of widespread fraud in the race for the White House. Roughly 200 Trump supporters gathered for a third straight day Friday in front of the elections center in downtown Phoenix, where hundreds of workers are still processing and counting ballots. In Detroit, dozens of Trump supporters returned Friday to the streets outside Detroit’s convention center, where election workers have counted ballots. In Atlanta, roughly 100 chanting Trump supporters gathered outside State Farm Arena Thursday as votes were being counted.

HARRISBURG, Pa. – A newly released prison mug shot shows Bill Cosby smiling with a disposable mask hanging off his face. The Pennsylvania Department of Corrections recently updated Cosby’s mug shot, something routinely done to document changes to inmates' appearance as they age. Cosby's new photo was taken Sept. 4. It was accompanied by text that said: “This photo was taken by his publicist, Andrew Wyatt, during his first virtual video conference call with Mr. Cosby last week. An appeals court had upheld his conviction, but the Pennsylvania Supreme Court agreed this year to review two key issues in the case.

HARRISBURG, Pa. – The Pennsylvania Supreme Court will hear Bill Cosby's appeal of his felony sex assault conviction on Dec. 1. A lower appeals court had upheld his conviction, but the state's high court agreed this year to review two key issues in the case. The high court will also consider whether the jury should have heard evidence that Cosby had given quaaludes to women in the past. Dozens of women have come forward over the years to accuse Cosby of sexual assault, and the trial judge deemed him a sexually violent predator. The Associated Press does not typically identify people who say they are sexual assault victims without their permission, which Constand has granted.

HARRISBURG, Pa. – The Pennsylvania Supreme Court dealt a blow Thursday to Republicans in the legal fight over the deadline for mailed ballots in the presidential battleground state. Republicans are now likely to ask the U.S. Supreme Court to block the ruling. The divided court last week granted the Democratic Party’s request to order an extension of Pennsylvania’s Election Day deadline to count mailed ballots. Republicans opposed changing the deadline, as well as counting ballots without legible postmarks to prove they were mailed before polls closed. They say the ruling violates federal law that sets Election Day as the first Tuesday in November and exceeded the court’s constitutional authority.

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. Democrats so far have been far more likely than Republicans to request mail-in ballots in Pennsylvania and the rest of the country. “Remember, you must place the ballot in the secrecy envelope first for your vote to count,” the ad's male narrator says. Former Kentucky Secretary of State Trey Grayson said naked ballots are just one of the ways people can “mess up” their absentee or mail-in ballot. ... Then you put that secrecy envelope inside the big envelope."

HOUSTON – A recovery effort has ended after a fisherman’s body was found in Brays Bayou. The man went missing Tuesday afternoon, Houston police said. Police said a man, in his 30s, was fishing with a friend on the bayou when he either lost his footing or jumped into the water as he tried to fix a fishing line. Police said when the man went in the water, he never resurfaced. U.S. Coast Guard assisted Houston police in the search by helicopter and boat.

The Supreme Court has since the late 1990s heard several cases involving demonstration-free zones, called buffer zones, outside abortion clinics. Most recently, in 2014, the justices unanimously struck down a law that created a 35-foot protest-free zone outside Massachusetts abortion clinics. Anti-abortion activists told the Supreme Court that Chicago's ordinance violates their free speech rights and that the high court's decision from 2000 should be reconsidered. A trial court previously dismissed the lawsuit and an appeals court upheld that decision. As a result of the decision, the justices also on Thursday ordered lower courts to revisit cases involving Indiana abortion laws previously blocked by courts.

In the latest annual report on clerical sex abuse, dioceses and other Catholic entities reported paying out $281.6 million during the year for costs related to allegations, including payments for cases reported in previous years. There has been a huge overall surge in allegations over the past three years as dioceses faced unprecedented pressure to address the decades-old problem of clergy sex abuse. It is the 17th abuse report issued since 2002, when the U.S. bishops established and adopted a comprehensive set of procedures to address sex abuse allegations. Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, which advocates for survivors of clergy sex abuse, expressed concern about a section of the report indicating that only 60% of parishes nationwide were performing safety audits on their own. Every single sitting attorney general should be investigating cases of clergy abuse in their state, identifying enablers and removing them from power, and ensuring that hidden abusers are made known to their communities.