Tag: pennsylvania

Shapiro’s AI Chatbot Plan Opens the Door to ID-Gated, Surveilled Conversations

Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro is suing Character Technologies for letting its AI chatbot impersonate a psychiatrist.

Shapiro then proposed ideas that would require a digital ID to use an AI companion bot, force companies to surveil every conversation children have with chatbots, and automatically report flagged messages to authorities.

The proposals first appeared in Shapiro’s February 2026 budget address. The May 5 lawsuit press release recycles them for a second round of coverage, using a real legal action as a vehicle for something far broader.

We obtained a copy of the lawsuit for you here.

Shapiro wants to “require age verification and parental consent to utilize AI companion bots.” Age verification that can’t be bypassed by typing a fake birthday means government-issued ID uploads, facial scans, credit card checks, or third-party identity services. There is no version of enforceable age verification that doesn’t harvest and store sensitive personal data. The proposal would turn chatbot access into an identity-checked activity, requiring you to prove who you are with documents before a bot will talk to you.

This mirrors Senator Josh Hawley’s federal GUARD Act, which the Senate Judiciary Committee advanced 22-0 on April 30. The GUARD Act explicitly states that a “reasonable age verification measure” cannot be a checkbox or a self-entered birth date. What it can be is a government ID, a biometric scan, or a financial record tied to your legal name.

Shapiro’s proposal doesn’t spell out its methods yet but if the goal is real enforcement rather than theater, it lands in the same place. Between Harrisburg and Washington, showing papers to chat is becoming a bipartisan consensus.

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US Senate Candidate From PA Threatens To Kill Trump, Congressman’s Daughter: Affidavit

A Pennsylvania man who recently launched a campaign for U.S. Senate is accused of leaving a series of violent voicemails threatening President Donald Trump and a member of Congress’s family, according to unsealed federal court documents on Friday, May 1.

Raymond Eugene Chandler III, of Wilkinsburg, was arrested and charged after a federal investigation into repeated threats made over voicemail, authorities said.

Chandler is charged with influencing, impeding, or retaliating against a federal official by threatening a family member and by threat, according to the affidavit.

The criminal complaint, unsealed in U.S. District Court for the Western District of Pennsylvania, alleges Chandler left multiple messages targeting an unnamed member of Congress and President Trump between April 2025 and April 2026.

In one voicemail on April 18, 2026, Chandler allegedly described a graphic scenario in which the congressman and his daughter would be attacked, saying they would be “pull[ed]… out of your house” and have their “throat… slit,” according to the affidavit.

Days later, on April 29, 2026, Chandler allegedly left another message urging the lawmaker to assassinate President Trump, telling them to “walk into the Oval Office with a gun in your hand… put it to the President’s head… and… pull the trigger,” the affidavit states.

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In Pennsylvania The Effort To Hide The Truth About A Stolen Election Just Failed – Now We Get To Find Out What They Were So Desperate To Hide

Heather Honey runs an organization called Verity Vote in Pennsylvania. She is a walking encyclopedia of information on how elections are actually run in this country. In the aftermath of the 2020 election in Pennsylvania, Heather began to hear some very disturbing things. Put simply, she began to acquire information that in counties around the state, more votes had been counted than the number of voters who voted.

I’m not a math whiz, but I think we all understand that this is a big problem. Those two numbers – the number of people who voted and the number of votes cast – have to be the same.

They weren’t.

Heather decided to dig in. As part of that effort, she contacted Lycoming County in northeast Pennsylvania and asked to review the CVR for the county. CVRs are spreadsheet-like digital records (raw data reports) generated by tabulator machines after ballots are scanned. They show how each ballot was interpreted (e.g., vote counts per candidate/race from each tabulator), without linking to individual voters. Access to this information is routine and typically granted informally.

The county told Heather to submit a formal right-to-know request. She did so.

The Office of the Secretary of State in Harrisburg intervened. How precisely that office was even advised of the request remains a little unclear. In any event, in response to what should have been a routine request for public information, the bureaucracy swung into action. The Secretary of State generated an opinion. The CVR for Lycoming County would not be made available. No CVR’s would be made available for any jurisdiction in Pennsylvania. Ever.

Nothing to see here. Move along.

Heather did not move along. She filed suit, and every time a lower court ruled against her, she appealed until her case reached the Pennsylvania Supreme Court.

On April 28, 2026 that court ruled in favor of Heather and other petitioners who had joined her action. The court unanimously reversed the Commonwealth Court and held that Cast Vote Records (CVRs) from the 2020 election are public records subject to disclosure under the Pennsylvania Election Code.

“The Supreme Court ruled that the cast vote records are spreadsheets of raw data pulled from the cast ballots. They are not the physical ballots contained in the ballot box.” Therefore, they are public records, the justices concluded: “This interpretation does not destroy the secrecy of the vote any more than a tally of all votes from a specific election.”

The significance of this decision can hardly be exaggerated. In the aftermath of the 2020 election, significant evidence emerged of huge issues with the tabulation of that vote in Pennsylvania. These were surfaced in a report prepared at the time.

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PA Supreme Court Ruling – Election Cast Vote Records (CVR) Must Be Made Public – VerityVote & Plaintiffs Win

In 2021, Heather Honey from VerityVote asked Lycoming County, PA, for their 2020 election Cast Vote Records. She was denied. Over five years, they have battled with the county Office of Open Records and three different court jurisdictions. Yesterday, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court ruled that CVR files must be made publicly available. The CVR file is essentially a receipt of everything the tabulator machine scanned. The full opinion is here.

A short recap: Each election ballot is fed into a tabulator machine, which counts the voter’s intent by scanning. Election jurisdictions have several tabulators at counting locations. Each tabulator keeps an internal record of how many ballots it processed and other key data.  This includes timestamps, precinct info, and other data like the number of bubbles it counted for President DEM, President REP, Senate1 DEM, Senate1 REP, Senate2 DEM, and so on. The CVR record serves a similar purpose to cash register close-out slips used by stores.

Typically, data from the tabulators flows to the county’s EMS server (Election Management System). From there, it goes to the State system and then onto Edison Research, which merges all the U.S data. Edison then provides it to the National Election Pool of news organizations. This group broadcasts the election results we see on TV. CVR files are the farthest upstream source of voting data. They can prove spikes in voting for a specific candidate, when they happened, and from which tabulators. They can prove if results were manipulated downstream, in the systems mentioned above.

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NJ recreational marijuana could put PA buyers in legal trouble

Recreational marijuana is legal in 24 states and Washington D.C., but Pennsylvania has yet to approve its use

But while it is readily accessible nearby, especially in Bucks County with easy borders to New Jersey, a short trip over the bridge to purchase fun weed could still get you a long prison term and may force you to forfeit your gun rights and face fines.

The law allows for drug trafficking charges up to $250,000 under the federal Controlled Substances Act, since it still classifies marijuana as a “Schedule I” narcotic as dangerous as heroin.

While there’s been a shift in the public’s attitude toward marijuana, penalties for possessing it have not eased with the federal government or with Pennsylvania.

Here’s what you should know if you buy New Jersey recreational weed, but live in Bucks County.

Can I buy recreational marijuana in New Jersey if I’m from Pennsylvania?

Yes. Since 2022, when NJ legalized recreational marijuana, any shop will sell it to you. Five shops this news organization visited this spring said they have no idea how many out-of-state buyers they have, and take a don’t ask-don’t tell attitude.

“Our busiest days are Fridays when everyone’s coming home from work, (after 5 p.m.) and Sunday’s right before Eagles games,” said a Willingboro shop employee, who asked that his name not be published.

Do NJ weed shops require identification?

The shops we visited require a current driver’s license or government issued ID to enter. In New Jersey, you must be 21 to use recreational marijuana. Your ID is digitally scanned and, if you’re purchasing medical marijuana, it’s sent to Trenton, the state capital where the the Cannabis Regulatory Commission controls sales.

Is there a record of my purchase?

Yes. For medical marijuana, time, date and what you bought is recorded and retained for four years, but not for recreational cannabis, according to the state website, and those records are kept for four years. Weed shops aren’t permitted to copy your ID or retain record of your purchase “beyond what is required for the completion of that single financial transaction.” If you put your name on a mailing list for customer programs, that’s considered voluntary and can be subject to review by the authorities.

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Marjorie Taylor Greene Suggests Butler Assassination Attempt Was a Hoax

Former Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) shared a post that suggested the assassination attempt on President Donald Trump’s life in Butler, Pennsylvania, was a hoax.

In her post, Greene responded to the original post, questioning why Trump “of all people” was not “leading the charge” to find out the truth about shooter Thomas Matthew Crooks. On July 13, 2024, Trump was shot by a “bullet that pierced the upper part” of his right ear, after Crooks opened fire from the rooftop of a nearby building.

“Extremely important post worth the read and consideration,” Greene wrote. “Corey Comperatore’s family deserves to know the truth about Matthew Crooks and what happened in Butler on July 13, 2024.”

“President Trump, of all people, should be leading the charge,” Greene added. “Why isn’t he? That’s the question.”

The post, which Greene shared, came from someone who described herself as “a long time Trump supporter,” and a national delegate. The lady, Trisha Hope, described hearing Trump speak at the Republican National Convention, and how Trump stated that people had been asking him to tell them “what happened.” At the time, Trump stated that he would tell them what happened, adding that they would “never hear it” from him “a second time because it’s too painful to tell.”

“At the convention of course there was massive concern for President Trump the consensus was it was divine intervention that saved Trump and we were all incredibly grateful,” Hope wrote. “On the night Trump spoke, he had the ear patch on and many in the crowd did also. As Trump begin to speak, he started with this: ‘So many people have asked me what happened. Tell us what happened, please. And therefore, I will tell you exactly what happened, and you’ll never hear it from me a second time, because it’s actually too painful to tell.’”

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Judicial Watch Obtains FBI Records that Reveal Would-Be Trump Assassin Thomas Crooks Involved in Altercation Before Shooting

Conservative watchdog group Judicial Watch on Friday released FBI records that reveal would-be Trump assassin Thomas Crooks was involved in an altercation before the shooting.

Thomas Crooks was able to climb on the roof of the AGR building, put President Trump in his scope from an elevated position, and fire his weapon at Trump.

A countersniper killed Crooks.

President Trump was shot in the ear, and firefighter Corey Comperatore was fatally shot.

According to the newly-released FBI documents, Crooks made “hateful comments” directed at Trump before he climbed on the roof of the AGR building and shot Trump.

Judicial Watch announced today that it forced the release of 27 heavily redacted pages from the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) through a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit that show that would-be Trump assassin Thomas Crooks was reportedly involved in an altercation with a group of people and making “hateful comments” directed at President Trump at the Butler, PA, rally site before the July 13, 2024, assassination attempt.

A July 17 FD-302 investigative report states that a woman who attended the Trump rally was interviewed by the FBI and reported that Crooks “had an altercation with a group of people in the area [where the woman was standing] prior to the shooting.” The witness continued that “she observed Crooks climbing the building a short time after the interaction.”

The report shows that another rally attendee interviewed by agents said he also heard the altercation involving Crooks at the rally. The report states, “[Redacted] reported just before Donald Trump came on the stage, CROOKS was making ‘hateful’ comments toward Trump. [Redacted] wasn’t sure if Crooks was filming the event or speaking with someone on his cell phone.”

A July 17 FD-302 investigative report shows that a woman contacted the National Threat Operations Center (NTOC) to report that she had attended the Trump rally in Butler and that she had seen a “suspicious individual” at the rally who was acting “very nervous” in the parking lot and she took a picture of the license plate of his Hyundai vehicle.

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Disgraced Former Democrat Mayor and Pride Leader ARRESTED AGAIN in Texas on New Child Sex Crime Charges – Three More Victims Step Forward After Initial Grooming Scandal

Former Gettysburg Borough Mayor Chad-Alan Carr, a Democrat who proudly led the local LGBTQ Pride organization, has been arrested AGAIN in Texas on horrifying new child sex crime charges.

As The Gateway Pundit reported back in March, this radical left-wing activist abruptly resigned as mayor after less than three months in office, citing some vague “personal legal matter.”

Days later, Pennsylvania authorities arrested him on initial felony charges for allegedly grooming and sexually exploiting a minor he met through his community theater work.

Carr, who also served as president of Gettysburg Pride, was the face of pushing LGBTQ events in the historic Pennsylvania town.

According to court documents, Carr allegedly groomed a 16-year-old boy he met through high school musical productions in Gettysburg around 2011-2013.

The victim, now an adult, reported that Carr solicited explicit photos, engaged in video sex acts via Skype, and shared his own nude images while pressuring the teen for more.

Carr reportedly described the interactions as “late-night talks.”

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Pennsylvania Sec. Al Schmidt Uncovers Hundreds of Non-Citizens on Voter Rolls in Addition to Another 11,000 Previously Flagged

Pennsylvania Secretary of the Commonwealth Al Schmidt (R) has confirmed that hundreds of non-citizens were found registered to vote, and in some cases casting ballots, in the Keystone State.

The revelation comes on top of a much larger pool of 11,198 voters who were previously flagged for eligibility concerns, triggering renewed scrutiny over how such discrepancies were allowed to persist in a critical swing state.

According to Spotlight PA, Schmidt’s own investigation as former Philadelphia City Commissioner uncovered a disastrous PennDOT motor-voter glitch that let 168 non-citizens in Philly register through the automatic system (required by federal law but botched beyond belief), plus another 52 registered by other shady means. These non-citizens didn’t just sit on the rolls, they cast a total of 227 votes across multiple elections!

And that’s just Philadelphia. Statewide, back in 2018, officials sent confirmation letters to 11,198 voters flagged as potential non-citizens after matching driver’s license data with immigration records.

Some were removed, but the state still admits they don’t have an exact count of how many illegals slipped through. This scandal traces back to the mid-1990s, meaning generations of non-citizens have been diluting the votes of real American citizens in the Keystone State!

Despite this, Schmidt has stopped short of embracing what many Americans see as very real and growing threats—particularly when it comes to noncitizen voting. Instead, he continues to emphasize a so-called “balance” between election security and voter access.

“I’ve always heard my whole life, even though I grew up in Western Pennsylvania, about concerns about voter fraud and voting irregularities in Philadelphia elections,” Schmidt told Votebeat and Spotlight PA in a recent interview. “So I wanted to be able to sort out fact from fiction.”

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PA Dem Commissioner Charged With Dozens of Felony Drug Offenses

A local elected official in Pennsylvania is facing extensive felony drug charges following an investigation that authorities say uncovered evidence of repeated narcotics transactions over a nearly two-year period.

Zachary Borghi, a Democratic commissioner in Lehigh County, was arrested and arraigned in late March in connection with the case. He remains in custody at the Lehigh County Jail after failing to post $500,000 bail.

Prosecutors allege that Borghi faces a wide range of charges, including 89 counts of criminal use of a communication facility, 14 counts related to the delivery of cocaine, and an additional count involving the delivery of psilocybin mushrooms. The charges stem from what investigators describe as a detailed review of digital communications spanning from November 2023 through August 2025.

According to the Lehigh County District Attorney’s Office, the case was built in part through forensic analysis of Borghi’s cellphone and Apple iCloud data. Authorities say the records include text messages that appear to show arrangements for drug transactions taking place across multiple locations, including his home, a relative’s residence, government offices, and other sites within the region.

Among the more serious allegations, prosecutors claim that Borghi conducted or facilitated drug-related communications during official public events. These include a Lehigh County Board of Commissioners meeting and a “Peace and Justice Symposium” held at Northampton Community College. Investigators say they were able to match timestamps from text messages with video recordings of public meetings, strengthening the case.

Lehigh County District Attorney Gavin Holihan said the investigation initially identified Borghi through a broader grand jury probe before additional evidence led to the current charges.

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