Should the state separate COVID-19 nursing home cases when calculating which counties can begin to reopen businesses and return to normal? Bucks County officials say yes, and they think they’ve got the numbers to prove it. Gov. Tom Wolf has laid out a plan for reopening Pennsylvania’s economy based in part on infection rates in […]

In their report card on the performance of America’s governors handling the coronavirus crisis, a free-market group founded by veterans of the Reagan administration gave Pennsylvania’s Tom Wolf an ‘F.’ The other three governors who got an F and “put their states in most economic peril” are Phil Murphy of New Jersey,  Ralph Northam of Virginia, […]

On this edition of the Delaware Valley Journal podcast, legendary Democratic strategist Bob Shrum talks about Pennsylvania’s role in presidential politics. Shrum is a veteran of eight presidential campaigns and is the Director of the Center for the Political Future and the Carmen H. and Louis Warschaw Chair in Practical Politics at the University of […]

A State Senate committee on Thursday authorized the issuing of subpoenas to force Gov. Tom’s Wolf’s administration to hand over documents as part of an investigation into the selective distribution of waivers to businesses during the coronavirus shutdown. The Republican-controlled Senate Veteran Affairs & Emergency Preparedness Committee took the rarely seen step of authorizing subpoenas […]

Republican state senators asked the auditor general to “immediately begin an audit of the Department of Community and Economic Development” (DCED) over how it has handled the waiver process for businesses hoping to stay open during the coronavirus crisis. “We ask that this audit be expedited to shine a light on the process that they […]

Is Gov. Tom Wolf picking winners and losers in Pennsylvania’s coronavirus economy? That’s what a pair of Delaware Valley legislators want to know, and they’ve launched separate investigations to find out. Since Wolf issued his emergency order on March 19 forcing all “non-essential” businesses to close, his administration has received numerous requests for waivers from […]

The largest nursing home association in Pennsylvania says it would be a mistake for the commonwealth to follow in the footsteps of New York and force facilities to accept COVID-19 infected patients. “States are increasingly turning to nursing homes to relieve the burden on hospitals and take in COVID-19 patients considered stable enough to be […]

Pennsylvania U.S. Sen. Pat Toomey (R) said he believes the commonwealth’s economy should reopen from the coronavirus shutdown quicker than planned, but he included a crucial caveat for the Delaware Valley area. “I think we need to remember the reason we closed the economy in the first place, because that’s an absolutely stunning and unprecedented […]

Delaware County is the only county of the five in southeastern Pennsylvania that does not have an “established department of health.” It is not alone, as only six counties of the 67 in the Keystone State that have a public health department. To this six, add four municipal health departments (Allentown, Bethlehem, Wilkes-Barre, and York). […]