Tom VanKirk leads a board with power over a vast amount of money. The Pennsylvania Opioid Misuse and Addiction Abatement Trust is responsible for ensuring counties and other local governments appropriately spend hundreds of millions of dollars expected to come their way from settlements with opioid companies. That money is intended to help Pennsylvania respond to a crisis that kills thousands of people annually in the state.

When VanKirk and his fellow board members first met publicly in late March, he told the audience they intended “to be as transparent as possible.” But before that public meeting, the trust had met in secret for months. Board members selected a bank to administer the funds, discussed how counties are allowed to spend money, and waived a requirement for counties to file spending reports with the trust this year, according to recently released meeting minutes. The minutes appear to show board members cast votes on issues at least six separate times in those meetings.

All of that and more was done outside of the public view — even though the court order creating the trust requires it to operate under Pennsylvania’s Sunshine Act. That law, with limited exceptions, requires official actions and deliberations by a quorum of members of public agencies to take place at public meetings.

And while the trust members began holding public meetings in late March, they continue to operate in ways that are less transparent than what is standard practice for school boards, municipal leaders, and even several independent state boards. The trust and its administrators have also withheld documents — including ones related to hiring outside entities — from the public for weeks and months after votes.

NEW YORK, May 30 (Reuters) - Bankrupt OxyContin maker Purdue Pharma can shield its owners, members of the wealthy Sackler family, from opioid lawsuits in exchange for a $6 billion contribution to the company's broader bankruptcy settlement, a U.S. appeals court ruled on Tuesday.

The New York-based 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said that U.S. bankruptcy law allows legal protections for non-bankrupt parties, like the Sacklers, in extraordinary circumstances. Purdue has sought to use its bankruptcy case to resolve thousands of lawsuits, many filed by state and local governments, alleging that OxyContin helped kickstart an opioid epidemic that caused more than 500,000 U.S. overdose deaths over two decades.

Purdue has pleaded guilty to charges related to its opioid marketing, while its owners have expressed regret but denied wrongdoing. The Sackler family members have agreed to contribute up to $6 billion to a trust that will be used to pay the claims of states, victims of addiction, hospitals and others who have sued Purdue over its misleading marketing of OxyContin. In exchange, the Sacklers will receive broad legal protection from lawsuits related to the opioid crisis.

Grit has been a common theme throughout Rocky Bleier’s life. Whether it was recovering from gunfire and grenade wounds he suffered during the Vietnam War, running through gaps in the Steelers’ offensive line, or speaking to the younger generation, Bleier has always put his best foot forward.

A list of Bleier’s life achievements include the Purple Heart, the Bronze Star, four Super Bowl rings and being one half of the Steelers’ 1976 backfield, forming the second ball-carrier duo to rush for 1,000 yards in the same season – though, if you ask Bleier, he’ll say he and Franco Harris were the first.

On Sept. 14, Bleier, who served in the United States Army, will add another achievement to his name as the ninth recipient of the Semper Fidelis Award at the Marine Corps Scholarship Foundation Steel City Awards Dinner at the Fairmont Hotel Downtown Pittsburgh.

“It’s a great honor to receive the Semper Fi award from the military because I know what [Semper Fidelis, latin for ‘always faithful’] means to the Marine Corps,” Bleier told the Post-Gazette. While Bleier is honored to be on the receiving end of the award, the impact of the ceremony is the greater triumph to him.

All of the proceeds raised from the sold sponsorships and tickets will go toward the Marine Corps Scholarship Foundation, which provides scholarships to the children of Marine Corps and Navy veterans. The fund was originally started in 1962 but has ballooned into the country’s largest and oldest military need-based scholarship program. Since its inception, the Marine Corps Scholarship Foundation has handed out more than 50,000 scholarships worth $185 million. The Steel City event alone has raised $3 million in the 10 years of its existence.

ALTOONA, Pa. — Some may call it fate, some luck, others even coincidence. But when Daniel Moringiello found his blood brother after roughly 60 years of wondering and searching, he knew exactly what it was: divine intervention.

Born James Joseph Morrison, Mr. Moringiello was adopted from the now-closed Angel Guardian Home in Brooklyn, N.Y., in 1952 at just 7 months old. He was brought into a New York Italian home by, according to Mr. Moringiello, some of the “greatest parents you could ask for.” They were up front with Mr. Moringiello from the beginning about him being adopted, and he always wondered what happened with his birth parents to make them decide to give him up.

“I was content with the parents I had,” Mr. Moringiello said, but “it was always there in the back of your mind: Who were they?”

Mr. Moringiello and his wife, Cynthia, lived in New York until he retired in 2005. The couple decided to move to Blair County — namely Hollidaysburg — due to their love for the Horseshoe Curve. That is a local tourist attraction, a curving railroad track build to get trains over the Allegheny Mountains.

A car belonging to Steelers quarterback Kenny Pickett was stolen this week and later recovered by police — along with Pickett's Steelers playbook. Post-Gazette news partner KDKA-TV reported Friday that Pickett's 2023 Hyundai Genesis was stolen from the Bowser Chevrolet lot in Monroeville while he was inside doing some promotional work.

Christopher Carter, of Murrysville, was charged with receiving stolen property, unauthorized use of a vehicle and theft, KDKA reported.According to a criminal complaint, police were called to Bowser about 4 p.m. Wednesday for a reported car theft -- it turned out to be Pickett's.

The complaint said employees saw a man, later identified as Carter, "walking around in the showroom at the dealership for a while before taking the vehicle," KDKA said. The complaint says the man was seen on surveillance stealing the car after he was spotted arriving at the dealership in his own vehicle. Police tracked his vehicle to his home in Murrysville, where the stolen vehicle was found, KDKA reported.

The Steelers confirmed to KDKA-TV that Pickett's playbook was in the car but it had been recovered.

On the heels of another victory by progressives in Allegheny County, 34 state representatives have officially formed the Pennsylvania Progressive Caucus in the State House.

“For too long, political corruption and corporate interests have obstructed progress in Harrisburg, resulting in the Pennsylvania General Assembly being one of the least productive legislatures in the United States,” the leadership group said in a press release. “While this lack of progress harms almost everyone in our Commonwealth, our most marginalized communities are hit the hardest.

“As members of the Pennsylvania Progressive Caucus, we will be wielding our collective power as lawmakers to change this status quo by fighting for policies that prioritize working people over corporate interests, fight economic and social inequality, advance civil liberties, and ensure justice in every aspect of the lives of Pennsylvanians. We are dedicated to building an economy that prioritizes people over profit.”

The Caucus elected state Reps. Emily Kinkead (D-Allegheny), Elizabeth Fiedler (D-Philadelphia), Rick Krajewski (D-Philadelphia), Izzy Smith-Wade-El (D-Lancaster) and Chris Rabb (D-Philadelphia) to its five-person leadership board.

Federal authorities have indicted the founders of Par Funding, the Philadelphia-based cash-advance company at the center of an alleged $500 million financial fraud. In a 63-count indictment prosecutors charged founder Joseph LaForte and his wife, Lisa McElhone, with counts including conspiracy, wire fraud, securities fraud, tax evasion, obstruction of justice and perjury.

Also indicted with them were LaForte’s brother, Joseph, who was charged earlier this year for attacking a lawyer involved in the case and Par Funding’s chief financial officer, Joseph Cole Barleta. The indictment comes after an SEC lawsuit and an investigation that has already produced two guilty pleas — one from Par Funding’s managing partners, Perry Abbonizio, and another from Renato “Gino” Gioe, an enforcer for the company.

Broadly, the criminal activity alleged resembles the conduct detailed by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission in a civil fraud lawsuit filed in 2020. In that case, a federal judge in Florida ordered the defendants to pay more than $200 million. LaForte, McElhone, and Cole Barletta have appealed.

From its offices in Old City, prosecutors say, the company raised more than half a billion dollars between 2016 and 2021 by making “materially false and fraudulent” statements to investors about the safety of their money, and the true identity of Par Funding’s top management, while they lent it out to small businesses across the country on terms that, if fully paid, would have cost several times what they borrowed. In fact, many of the loans were uncollectible, according to the government. Prosecutors say LaForte and the others also kept investors in the dark about who was running Par Funding day to day.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Before Pennsylvania Sen. John Fetterman checked himself in to the hospital for clinical depression in February, he walked the halls of the Senate stone-faced and dressed in formal suits. These days, he’s back to wearing the hoodies and gym shorts he was known for before he became a senator.

Male senators are expected to wear a jacket and tie on the Senate floor, but Fetterman has a workaround. He votes from the doorway of the Democratic cloakroom or the side entrance, making sure his “yay” or “nay” is recorded before ducking back out. In between votes this past week, Fetterman’s hoodie stayed on for a news conference with four Democratic colleagues in suits, the 6-foot-8 Fetterman towering over his colleagues.

People close to Fetterman say his relaxed, comfortable style is a sign that the senator is making a robust recovery after six weeks of inpatient treatment at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center, where his clinical depression was treated with medication and he was fitted for hearing aids for hearing loss that had made it harder for him to communicate. His hospitalization came less than a year after he had a stroke during his Senate campaign that he has said nearly killed him, and from which he continues to recover.

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Senators do occasionally vote in casual clothing — Republican Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas, for example, is known for sometimes arriving in gym clothes. But Fetterman’s regular attire is redefining fashion in the stuffy Senate. He’s turning heads on a daily basis as he walks the halls in his signature baggy Carhartt sweatshirts and saggy gym shorts, his hulking figure surrounded by much more formally dressed Washington types buzzing around the Capitol.