PA Headlines | Aug. 11 | The governor’s race heats up, with a campaign plot twist

The governor's race heats up with a campaign plot twist, and a new state program is designed to help local police solve cold cases. Welcome to the Morning Agenda, WITF's Daily News Podcast, where the only agenda is you. Good morning. It's Tuesday, August 11th. I'm Karen Hendricks, and I'm honored to be your host. Thanks for listening to the Morning Agenda's fact-based journalism. It's been one year. since public media's federal funding was revoked. Thanks to our community, we're still here for you and looking toward the future. Join the thousands of members who are building a stronger WITF. Go to WITF.org slash give now and thank you. Now for our daily trip around the region's top stories, let's get started. Pennsylvania's gubernatorial election is heating up with both campaigns releasing attack ads over the last week. My colleague Haley O'Brien reports one is a traditional TV commercial and the other is an unconventional miniseries. Stacey Garrity's campaign released the first episode of Twilight Justice, a digital miniseries that is fictional but uses real investigations and crimes to suggest that Governor Josh Shapiro is corrupt. I expose terrible lies. I unmask the corrupt. And I make it available for all to see. John Braybender is Scarity's political consultant. He also produced media for President Donald Trump's 2024 campaign. Instead of us just trying to feed a single ad over and over again. We're trying to wake people up, give them an opportunity to be informed voters, but do it in a way that's both entertaining and interesting. Braybender says new episodes will drop every couple of weeks until Election Day. Meanwhile, the Josh Shapiro campaign's new TV ad says Garrity is, quote, all MAGA all the time. And Trump endorsed Garrity for a third time in a social media video this week. That was Haley O'Brien. New funding in the 26-27 state budget is creating a program to help local police departments solve cold cases, homicides, and other violent crimes. $2.5 million will go to the violent incident clearance and technological investigative methods or victim program. Lieutenant Governor Austin Davis, state legislators, and local advocates spoke in in Philadelphia recently to highlight the investment. Davis says the clearance rates on homicides is improving, but there's still work to do. Statewide violent crime is down 16% since the governor and I took office, but we can't truly celebrate.

while so many in this city are still mourning, still grieving, and still waiting for justice. Davis says he hopes the grants will help departments solve cold cases and bring closure to families. Adera Combs is the executive director of Philadelphia's office of victim advocate. She says closure and even just being listened to. helps families. While funding alone absolutely cannot heal pain of losing a loved one, it can provide law enforcement with additional tools and resources can see you as pursuing justice. Combs says the program's bipartisan support shows commitment to making the state safer, and now that victim program could also support data programs to track crime trends. Now that there's a new state budget in place, grants are heading to local communities for redevelopment projects. My colleague Ed Arc highlights some of the improvements planned. The Redevelopment Assistance Capital Program allocates state-funded capital grants for economic, civic, cultural, recreational, and historical improvement projects. Among the grants, $3 million to provide stage improvements in permanent concert seating at Hollywood Casino at Penn National Racecourse in Dauphin County. In Adams County, $2 million for site preparation and infrastructure improvements for the Pennsylvania Ag Discovery Center, and over $1.9 million for United Lutheran Seminary. to transform the refectory into a year-round public dining and events venue while preserving a historic landmark. And in Lancaster County, Mountjoy Township has received a $1 million grant for improvements to its municipal complex. That was Ed Ark, and one additional project to highlight in Berks County, Alvernia University, is set to receive $750,000 to renovate a building in downtown Reading into a community-based health clinic. Spooky season is coming this fall. My colleague Katie Knoll reports haunted attraction operators now need to submit safety plans before hiring performers under the age of 18. Operators need to comply with all provisions of the Child Labor Act and other protections when employing young performers or volunteers. This means obtaining any required work permits and providing breaks. Starting May 1st, haunted attractions need to submit a safety plan and receive approval before applying for performance permits. They need to describe how they plan to protect the health, safety, and welfare of child performers. Policies should address workplace hazards, training, background checks, and reporting procedures. Anyone violating the Child Labor Act could face criminal penalties or fines up to $5,000.

Governor Josh Shapiro's administration says parents should ask their children about their work experiences to make sure they're safe and treated fairly. That was Katie Knoll. And now a few more stories to put on your radar. The State Transportation Commission has adopted a new 12-year plan to spend over $90 billion to improve Pennsylvania's transportation infrastructure. This plan includes $16.9 billion for state highways and bridges, $12.9 billion for public transit, $67 million for multimodal projects, $240 million for rail freight, and $54 million. for aviation. Penn Dot is welcoming public comment on plans to rehab Harrisburg's Market Street Bridge. The bridge connects the city to LeMoyne and Wormleysburg and crosses City Island. An open house is set for next Monday evening, August 17th, from 6 to 8 at the Harrisburg City Government Center. Those plans are available on PennDOT's website. They call for upgrades to the historic arch and the construction of a new superstructure for the western bridge, the sidewalk will be removed and replaced by a 14-foot pathway on a new utility bridge. The eastern span of the Market Street Bridge was built in 1928. The State Department of Health will again provide free potassium iodide tablets to Pennsylvaniaans who live, learn, or work within 10 miles of the state's active nuclear power plants. The distribution is part of the Commonwealth's preparedness efforts in the unlikely event of a radiological emergency. Distribution events will take place in communities within range of the Peach Bottom Atomic Power Station, August 13th. That's this Thursday. The tablets are also available by calling the Department of Health at 1877 PA Health. Two utilities, which serve much of central PA, recently released their latest quarterly earnings. UGI reports it lost $133 million during the third quarter of its fiscal year. The natural gas provider says it had a loss of 62 cents per share. UGI posted revenue of $1.33 billion in the period. Meantime, PPL reports.

earnings of $230 million between April and June of this year, which amounts to profits of 30 cents per share. Total revenue for the quarter came to $2.1 billion for PPL, just short of Wall Street expectations. And that does it for The Morning Agenda, a daily news podcast from WITF, where the only agenda is you. The Morning Agenda is available anywhere you find your favorite podcasts. And if you don't already, subscribe, we invite you to hit subscribe so you can stay in the know on news that affects you right here in Central PA. I'm your host, Karen Hendricks. Thanks so much for listening. Have a great day ahead. Be well, and we will talk again tomorrow.