Skill Game Terminals

State Sen. Marty Flynn, a Democrat, and Sharon Soltis Sparano, a Republican, spoke at a candidate forum Wednesday at Wilkes University. Both want to represent the 22nd Senate District.

Gov. Josh Shapiro and state health secretary Dr. Debra Bogen officially launched the Nurse Shortage Assistance Program in Honesdale on Tuesday. It's a $5 million investment made possible by the state budget. The program provides matching state funds to hospitals to attract nursing staff with student loan repayment assistance.

The machines’ fate was decided after Harrisburg missed a Tuesday deadline to provide a legal framework for the slot-machine-like cabinets, once the state Supreme Court ruled that the law as currently written did not permit them.

The makers of skill games say they hope state lawmakers agree to regulate the machines by mid-October - bar and store owners will have to remove the machines soon if Harrisburg fails to act.

Union Pacific’s Big Boy 4014 locomotive arrived in Northeast Pennsylvania over the weekend, and Monday began public viewing days in Scranton for one of the most powerful steam engines ever built. Officials estimate that 30,000 people stopped by the Steamtown National Historic Site for the first day.

The Democratic governor proposes a lot more money for public school education and mass transit and limiting cybercharter school reimbursements.