Pennsylvania | featured news

Students at Shippensburg University in central Pennsylvania can get the "morning-after" pill by sliding $25 into a vending machine installed at the request of the student government.

As a small town comes to grips with a 32-year-old murder, the talk isn't just about a borough councilman being held without bond in a local jail. The long-forgotten murder of 23-year-old Catherine Walsh has also brought back memories of a man who may have been unjustly accused, as residents ponder the difference between reputation and true character.

With less than a week to go before Iowa caucuses, former Pennsylvania senator's strategy of traveling widely in the state appears to be paying dividends, as he shows up in polls as a top-tier candidate.

A central Pennsylvania college says former Penn State coach Jerry Sandusky was denied a volunteer coaching position last year because a background check revealed a high school was investigating him on sex abuse allegations later detailed by a grand jury.

A man wanted in an investigation of shots fired near the White House was arrested Wednesday in Pennsylvania, a day after agents discovered two bullets had struck the executive mansion while President Barack Obama was away, the U.S. Secret Service said. The Secret Service said it discovered Tuesday that the two bullets had hit the White House, one of them apparently cracking a window on the level of the president's living quarters, while Obama and his wife Michelle were on a trip to California and Hawaii. The president has since traveled on to Australia, his second stop on a nine-day tour of the Asia-Pacific region.

Former heavyweight boxing champion Joe Frazier died Monday, after he was diagnosed with liver cancer, his family said in a statement. Frazier was 67. "We The Family of ... Smokin' Joe Frazier, regret to inform you of his passing," the statement said. "He transitioned from this life as 'One of God's Men,' on the eve of November 7, 2011 at his home in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania."

At least 2.3 million people across the Northeast found themselves without electricity after an unusual autumn storm dumped record amounts of snow. More than 2.3 million customers from Pennsylvania through New England had no electricity, according to reports, as the region was lashed by surprisingly high winds and snowdrifts. In Manhattan, tree branches snapped under the weight of wet snow, piling up along 5th Avenue and toppling across and obstructing the walkways of Central Park.

Pennsylvania’s financially distressed capital city is seeking Chapter 9 bankruptcy, citing overwhelming debt, but Harrisburg’s mayor and top city lawyer said the filing signed by a City Council member was not legal. The petition docketed by U.S. Middle District bankruptcy court Wednesday listed about $458 million in creditors and claims, and said the city faced “imminent jeopardy” from six pending legal actions by creditors related to a debt-saddled trash incinerator.

A man stopped to pray while robbing a woman in a wheelchair and apologized to her before he left her home with her money, police in western Pennsylvania said.

From North Carolina to Pennsylvania, Hurricane Irene appeared to have fallen short of the doomsday predictions. But with rivers still rising, and roads impassable because of high water and fallen trees, it could be days before the full extent of the damage is known. More than 4.5 million homes and businesses along the coast lost power, and at least 14 deaths were blamed on the storm.