Media Mentions

Last month, Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro withdrew from the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative, or RGGI (pronounced “Reggie”), a cap-and-trade program that establishes a regional limit on carbon emissions from power plants located in the Northeast. Here’s how...

HARRISBURG — Two Pennsylvania state senators want to make it illegal in the commonwealth for law enforcement, including federal agents, to wear masks and refuse to self-identify amid contentious operations and citizen protests over federal immigration enforcement....

Federal immigration agents should have to show their faces while conducting raids and detaining people in Pennsylvania, argue two state senators who have offered up legislation to “unmask these authorities. Across the nation this year, agents with U.S. Immigrations...

November is National Hunger and Homelessness month and Democratic State Senator Nikil Saval and State Rep. Ismail Smith-Wade-El introduced sweeping legislation to protect the unhoused and their property from harassment by local and regional governments across the...

State and city public officials hosted a town hall Thursday to address transit funding, or the lack thereof, included in Pennsylvania’s budget, which was approved last week after a stalemate that lasted more than four months. State Sen. Nikil Saval, D-Philadelphia,...

SEPTA’s 21.5% increase in transit fares and service cuts fell hardest on disadvantaged Philadelphians this year, showing an urgent need to make the city’s Zero Fare program permanent, City Councilmember Nicolas O’Rourke argues. He touted his proposal to dedicate 0.5%...

HARRISBURG – Citing the need for permanent solutions to PA’s ongoing housing crisis, Lancaster County Rep. Ismail Smith-Wade-El and Philadelphia County Sen. Nikil Saval are introducing The Shelter First Act – legislation to prevent the criminalization of homelessness...

Pennsylvania lawmakers introduced a bill that would bar municipalities from penalizing people for sleeping outdoors unless adequate indoor shelter is available. State Sen. Nikil Saval and Rep. Ismail Smith-Wade-El, both Democrats, said the proposed Shelter First Act...

Harrisburg Republicans and energy-sector workers are taking a post-budget victory lap, celebrating Pennsylvania’s withdrawal from the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative. Participation in the multi-state program, which was initiated by former Gov. Tom Wolf, would have...

SEPTA riders have experienced a multitude of crises this year, from service cuts to severe Regional Rail disruptions. On Thursday evening, two of Philadelphia’s more progressive politicians – City Council member Nicolas O’Rourke and state Sen. Nikil Saval – and the...

HARRISBURG, Pa. (WHTM) – Democratic lawmakers in both chambers of the Pennsylvania State Capitol are pushing for legislation that would decriminalize homelessness. “We are experiencing, right now, one of the most severe crises of housing and homelessness that this...

Lawmakers and housing advocates in Pennsylvania are calling on the commonwealth to take a more compassionate response to homelessness on the heels of a monumental ruling that allows local government to ban outdoor sleeping even if there are no shelter beds available....

HARRISBURG – The School District of Lancaster has identified 800 students who are experiencing homelessness so far this school year. Last November, the district said 692 students were homeless, a number that climbed to 970 by the end of the 2024-25 school year....

(The Center Square) - Just as homelessness rates across the country reached record highs, the impact of a June 2024 U.S. Supreme Court ruling cleared the way for a town in Oregon to criminalize sleeping in public. Introducing bills in both chambers, progressive...

Pennsylvania lawmakers are set to introduce the Shelter First Act, which aims to prevent the criminalization of homelessness by requiring municipalities to provide indoor spaces for those experiencing homelessness before enforcing laws against living outside.

Pennsylvania lawmakers are set to introduce the Shelter First Act, which aims to prevent the criminalization of homelessness by requiring municipalities to provide indoor spaces for those experiencing homelessness before enforcing laws against living outside.

HARRISBURG, Pa. — Pennsylvania lawmakers on Tuesday introduced companion bills designed to prevent municipalities from criminalizing homelessness unless adequate shelter is available. The Shelter First Act comes months after the U.S. Supreme Court’s 2024 Grants Pass...

PHILADELPHIA, PA — Pennsylvania lawmakers and clean-energy advocates gathered this past week atop a Northeast Philadelphia warehouse to spotlight a rapidly emerging opportunity in the state’s renewable-energy landscape: large-scale rooftop solar on industrial...

HARRISBURG — In a Wednesday whirlwind of massive bills, rapid votes and an all-smiles signing ceremony, the state’s elected leaders adopted a $50.1 billion budget for a fiscal year that was already 135 days old. The flurry of public actions on major issues and big...

HARRISBURG — Gov. Josh Shapiro and Democratic leaders are considering a budget deal that would pull Pennsylvania out of an interstate program that charges power plant operators for releasing carbon into the atmosphere, according to a source with knowledge of...

PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — Graduate students at the University of Pennsylvania are preparing to strike. The GETUP-UAW student union representing graduate student teaching and research assistants announced it will take a strike authorization vote, after it said...

Graduate Employees Together — University of Pennsylvania hosted a press conference on Monday with local elected officials to formally announce its strike authorization vote. The Nov. 3 event was the latest effort by GET-UP to rally graduate workers across the...

(The Center Square) - A coalition of lawmakers from both chambers of the Pennsylvania General Assembly joined activists at the Capitol Wednesday to demand billionaires pay more taxes. With the slogan, “Tax billionaires, fund PA,” the group spoke in support of a...

State Sens. Christine Tartaglione and Nikil Saval announced the introduction of Senate Bill 1054, legislation that would require all high schools in Pennsylvania to maintain opioid antagonists, such as naloxone or Narcan, onsite and to follow procedures developed by...

A bill introduced last week in the Pennsylvania Senate would require all high schools in the state to have opioid reversal drugs on hand. Under the measure, school personnel would volunteer to complete training on the use of naloxone, which goes by brand names...

All Pennsylvania high schools would be required to stock naloxone, the opioid-reversing drug, if a bill proposed in Harrisburg on Wednesday becomes law. State Sens. Christine Tartaglione and Nikil Saval, both Philadelphia Democrats, introduced legislation that would...

All Pennsylvania high schools would be required to keep naloxone, the opioid-reversing drug, on hand under new legislation introduced Wednesday in Harrisburg. The bill, sponsored by State Senators Christine Tartaglione and Nikil Saval of Philadelphia, would apply to...

HARRISBURG, Pa. (WHP) — Two Pennsylvania state lawmakers are getting ready to propose a bill they say will decriminalize homelessness in the Commonwealth. Lancaster County Representative Ismail Smith-Wade-El is teaming up with Philadelphia State Senator Nikil Saval....

Graduate Employees Together — University of Pennsylvania staged an informational picket on Wednesday to demand fair contracts and organize union members in preparation for a potential strike. The Oct. 8 demonstration attracted over 500 workers in support of the...

Local politicians circulated a memo on Friday proposing legislation to block Penn from signing the White House’s preferential funding compact. Penn was one of nine schools approached on Wednesday with the agreement, which would require the University to adhere to...

Lieutenant Colonel George E. Hardy, one of the last surviving members of the Tuskegee Airmen, passed away on Sept. 25 in Sarasota. He was 100 years old. Hardy was born in Philadelphia on June 8, 1925. While growing up in the City of Brotherly Love, he was exposed to...

(The Center Square) - With no budget and no viable long-term transit solutions in sight, the Senate recessed till Oct. 20 on Wednesday. Majority Leader Sen. Joe Pittman, R-Indiana, issued a statement, however, saying that the Philadelphia mass transit band-aid...

Are Democrats in the throes of a leadership crisis and what can younger voters and activists do about it? On September 10, two young progressives will issue a local call to action aimed at combating the social injustice and harmful inequities resulting from the Trump...

South Philly chef Phila Lorn received awards from local legislators after he earned the prestigious 2025 James Beard Award for Emerging Chef. The award is bestowed to only one chef a year “who displays exceptional talent, character and leadership ability, and who is...