News

Lawmakers Want to Upgrade General Assembly’s Web Site

Do you visit the General Assembly’s web site to look up bills or get information on your senator or representative?    Over the past five years, upgrades to the site have increased public access to the legislative process. Now, lawmakers want to know how they can improve the user experience. Senate Majority Leader Dominic Pileggi says […]

Putting the Showmanship in the PA Farm Show…

Friday is chock-full of dairy judging at the 96th Pennsylvania Farm Show.  While the state’s youth make it look easy to Farm Show visitors, dairy showmanship is actually hard work.  “They can be stubborn at times, but usually just by making some noises or getting their attention… they’ll usually go,” Stephanie Stahl of Somerset County […]

What’s Old is New Again at the Farm Show

They first started pitching horseshoes at the Pennsylvania Farm Show in 1931.  Harold Clippinger of Cumberland County was tough to beat in the 1950s.  Clippinger got his start on his grandfather’s farm when he was just six years old.  “When they replaced the shoes on [the horses], then we took them, put stakes in the […]

Task Force on Child Protection Prepares to Start Work

Ten members have been appointed to a task force that will review Pennsylvania’s child protection laws and procedures for reporting abuse.   David Heckler, the Bucks County District Attorney, will chair the Task Force on Child Protection. The panel has been charged with reviewing the laws, practices, processes and procedures relating to Pennsylvania’s response to child […]

Ewe Gotta See this Farm Show Favorite

Farm Show crowds watched in amazement as teams of six sheared a sheep, spun its fleece into yarn and wove that yarn into a 78-inch shawl.  It all happens under a two and a half hour time limit.  “It’s the main stressor, especially when things start going wrong,” Jamie Rode of the Fort Freeland Flickers […]

LCB Approves Price Increases on More Than 300 Items

The Pennsylvania Liquor Control Board has approved requests from suppliers for higher prices.  That means the 18 month moratorium on price increases at state stores, due to the economic downturn,  is coming to an end.  The Liquor Control Board voted to approve higher prices on 313 items requested by suppliers of those brands.  CEO Joe […]

Inside the Farm Show’s Sale of Champions

The Grand Champion Junior Beef Steer fetched $10,500 at the Farm Show’s annual Sale of Champions.  Lindsay Upperman of Franklin County raised the two year old steer since birth.  She first noticed something special in ‘Stetson’ when he was just six months old.  “I just saw that he might actually have a little bit more, […]

Apiary Products Create Farm Show Buzz

Producing honey is hard work for both the people and the bees, according to Charlie Vorisek of Crawford County, Vice President of the Pennsylvania State Beekeepers Association.  “One pound of honey is representative of about two million flowers,” Vorisek says.  Beekeepers use a special machine to extract the honey from the wooden frames where bees […]

The Battle for Bragging Rights at the Farm Show

Farm Show week in Harrisburg is about more than world famous milk shakes and baked potatoes – it’s about blue ribbons.  Awards are earned for everything from hay to heifers.  Kendra Brown of Lebanon County showed “Diamond,” the grand champion shorthorn female.  “What’s really cool about winning this is that her mom won too,” Brown […]

Pennsylvania Farm Show Butter Sculpture Honors Fairs & 4-H

    Every year, it marks the unofficial kickoff of the Pennsylvania Farm Show, and during the 8-day celebration of agriculture, it remains a centerpiece of the activities at the Farm Show Complex. As any loyal Pennsylvanian knows, it is known simply as “The Butter Sculpture.”     State officials have unveiled this year’s creation, a work of […]