Governor Wolf Orders Commonwealth Flags at Half-Staff to Honor Representative Mike Reese

Harrisburg, Pa. – In honor of Pennsylvania State Representative Mike Reese, who passed away on Saturday, January 2, Governor Tom Wolf ordered the commonwealth flag on all commonwealth facilities, public buildings and grounds fly at half-staff immediately.

“I extend my heartfelt condolences on the passing of Representative Mike Reese,” Governor Wolf said. “Our thoughts are with Mike’s family, colleagues and constituents. Mike was a good man and a strong leader, and the people of western Pennsylvania have lost a dedicated advocate.”

Rep. Mike Reese represented the 59th Legislative District from 2009 to 2021 in the Pennsylvania House of Representatives.

The commonwealth flag has flown at half-staff since Wednesday, March 11, 2020, in honor of the victims of the COVID-19 pandemic and should continue to fly at half-staff until further notice. The United States flag has flown at half-staff since Thursday, December 31, 2020 in honor of former Governor Dick Thornburgh, and should remain at half-staff until the date of former Governor Thornburgh’s interment.

All Pennsylvanians are invited to participate in this tribute.

Official: GOP Pennsylvania House member dies
HARRISBURG (AP) — A top lawmaker says a state GOP House member who was elected to serve as the Pennsylvania House Republican Caucus chairman in the 2020-21 session has died. Rep. Kerry Benninghoff, the House Majority Leader, says Rep. Mike Reese, R-Westmoreland/Somerset, “died peacefully with his family by his side” Saturday afternoon at a Greensburg hospital “following an apparent brain aneurysm.” Reese was 42. He was first elected to the state House in 2008. He said early last month he was quarantining after testing positive for COVID-19.

MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — Prosecutors in the case against the four Minneapolis police officers charged in the death of George Floyd requested that the trial delayed by three months. Prosecutors cited the COVID-19 pandemic and the amount of time needed before enough people are vaccinated and health risks are sufficiently diminished. The trial has been scheduled for March 8 for the now-fired police officers charged in the death of Floyd on May 25 while he was forcibly detained on a south Minneapolis street corner. Prosecutors want to delay the trial until June 7.

PHILADELPHIA (AP) — Police say six people were arrested after a group vandalized several federal buildings in Philadelphia’s Center City on New Year’s Eve. Police said officers spotted about 50 people, all dressed in black, at about 8:30 p.m. Thursday at the historic U.S. Customs House, where windows were smashed. Three arrests were made there and three were made later. Anti-police and anti-prison graffiti was then scrawled on the Federal Detention Center and on a nearby sheriff’s van and several windows were broken. Chief Inspector Mike Cram told reporters that officers recovered what he called “numerous Molotov cocktails and some other devices which haven’t been identified.”

REHOBOTH BEACH, Del. (AP) — President-elect Joe Biden’s choice to be treasury secretary, Janet Yellen, collected more than $7 million in speaking fees in 2019 and 2020 from major financial firms and tech giants including Citi, Goldman Sachs and Google. That’s according to financial disclosure forms as part of her nomination. Yellen’s was one of three financial disclosures filed by Biden transition officials that were made public on Thursday by the Office of Government Ethics. Yellen listed firms and banks where she had received speaking fees and said she intended to “seek written authorization” from ethics officials to “participate personally and substantially” in matters involving them.

HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) — A law firm’s state-commissioned investigation into a troubled veterans home in the Philadelphia suburbs says myriad problems and mistakes helped the coronavirus sweep through it this spring. State data shows at least 42 residents of the 292-bed Southeastern Veterans’ Center have died of the virus, the most among the six state-run veterans homes. A lawyer for two former top administrators says they were fired last week. He says they were scapegoated and the report fails to note that the home’s problems occurred as nursing homes around the country struggled to cope with the pandemic.

HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) — Pennsylvania’s governor is letting additional restrictions that were imposed almost three weeks ago to combat the pandemic expire as expected on Monday morning. Democratic Gov. Tom Wolf on Wednesday announced the end of the temporary measures during an early afternoon news conference. Wolf as of Dec. 12 temporarily halted school sports and other extracurricular activities, closed gyms, theaters and casinos, and banned indoor dining at restaurants in response to the worsening pandemic. Other pandemic mitigation restrictions remain in place.

BUTLER, Pa. (AP) — Authorities say a child was killed when a fast-moving fire roared through a western Pennsylvania home. The child’s two siblings and their father were injured in the blaze in Butler, which broke out around noon Thursday. Their names and further details on their injuries were not disclosed. The child who died was found on the second floor of the home. The children’s mother was at work when the fire occurred, and no one else was in the home at the time. The cause of the fire remains under investigation.