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Public safety Last year was a bad one for motorcyclists, with a new estimate showing that 5,010 bikers were killed in crashes nationwide, the worst death toll in seven years.
In Pennsylvania, 179 motorcyclists were killed in crashes in 2015, according to data from the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation [PennDOT].
Since Pennsylvania repealed its mandatory helmet law in 2003, PennDOT reports 2,567 motorcyclists have died in crashes.
A $305 billion highway bill approved by Congress and signed by President Obama last week includes several provisions aggressively sought by the trucking industry that, critics say, will undermine traffic safety.
VIDEO The state defied an Office of Open Records ruling and took the matter to court to conceal the names of doctors prescribing to kids confined in its six correctional facilities.
The Pennsylvania Department of Human Services insisted the physicians who care for and prescribe to the state’s most chronic or violent youth offenders would be endangered if their names were made public.
VIDEO Pennsylvania is lagging when it comes to tracking the powerful psychiatric medications kids get in the state’s youth correctional facilities.
While other states have reformed the way they control and track such medications so that it is done systemwide, the Pennsylvania Department of Human Services follows only the total amount paid for the drugs prescribed in its six facilities on a systemic basis.
There are 514 “juvenile lifers” in Pennsylvania who could be affected by a recent U.S. Supreme Court ruling.
VIDEO Thousands of at-risk kids lived in six state-operated youth development centers and forestry camps from 2007 through 2013. Within the razor wire — or dense tree lines in forestry camps — psychiatric medications are flowing, despite the potential consequences to the developing brains and bodies of kids.
How diverse is Pittsburgh, really? We built a map to find out.
We also sent reporters across the city to talk to Pittsburgh residents about diversity in their communities.
Statewide reforms to improve protections and justice for older Pennsylvanians are in the works.
A state Supreme Court committee is examining the proposed expansion of a rule that allows the courts to preserve testimony of victims who might not be available to testify if a case languishes in the system.
Dee’s liver is scarred, but just a bit too healthy for her insurance to foot the bill for the new medications that cure hepatitis C more than 90 percent of the time.
The Butler County resident, who suspects she got the virus getting a tattoo, was recently told by her doctor to come back in a year.
John, a retired small-business owner from Washington County who was given blood in the early 1990s, was also denied the antivirals. Now, as he watches a friend grow weak from liver cancer, he fears he’s glimpsing his future.
UPDATE: The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services issued a final decision on the coverage of speech-generating devices on July 29. The new policy redefines “speech” to include email, text and phone communication. The federal agency threatened to take the capabilities away last year.
