HARRISBURG — Tickets to Gov.-elect Josh Shapiro’s inauguration ceremony and celebration sold out within 48 hours and now efforts are underway to make more available to accommodate people on the waiting lists for those events.

“We are humbled by the incredibly high level of excitement and interest in Governor-elect Shapiro’s swearing-in from all across the commonwealth,” said Manuel Bonder, a spokesman for the Shapiro and Lt. Gov.-elect Austin Davis’ inaugural committee.

Mr. Bonder said in total, thousands of Pennsylvanians will be able to attend the inaugural activities for the state’s 48th governor and his lieutenant.

Tickets to the inauguration ceremonies for both Mr. Shapiro and Mr. Davis are free. The committee held the ticket price for the evening celebration at $50 to keep it affordable, while sponsorship packages costing as much as $150,000 were sold to help underwrite the costs of the day’s events.

Both Mr. Shapiro and Mr. Davis will participate in Days of Service activities in the lead-up to their inaugurations with the first happening on Saturday in Pittsburgh, followed by one in Philadelphia on Sunday and then as part of Harrisburg’s Central Pennsylvania MLK Day of Service on Monday.

The Pennsylvania Farm Show is back in a big way.

On Saturday’s opening day, visitors flocked to the Pennsylvania Farm Show Complex & Expo Center in Harrisburg for milkshakes, sheep judging and high school rodeo. By mid-morning, the facility’s main parking lot was full and by the afternoon a few of the auxiliary lots had closed, a barometer of the brisk attendance.

Inside, it was crowded as visitors navigated hallways and choke points to various attractions.

“We’re back in full force,” said Russell Redding, the state secretary of agriculture. “It has all the dynamics of the 2020 show." Mr. Redding said he could gauge the crowd size by the number of students and families watching the animal judging in the arenas.

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It was a striking contrast to the past two years. The Farm Show was held virtually in 2021, and while last year’s show was in person, attendance was down due to the COVID-19 pandemic. This year’s Farm Show runs through Jan. 14 with the theme “Rooted in Progress.”

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While the Farm Show is partly tradition with standbys such as animal judging, apple pie judging and cooking demonstrations, new exhibits always add to the mix. This year, baby goat snuggling by Steinmetz Family Farm in the New Holland Large Arena appears to be the hot attraction. It costs $5.

Years after launching a campaign for Congress in Pennsylvania, police sergeant Ted Waga III was thrust into a scandal over a series of tweets from his account with homophobic slurs and calls for “modern day crusades” against Muslims.

The “people of the world are getting fed up” and “will/are going on the offensive” against them, one tweet said.

The Pennsylvania resident who served in the Baltimore County police in Maryland quickly drew the ire of advocacy groups and his own police force, which launched an inquiry into the tirades in 2019. The county government’s top executive called the messages “hateful,” while local civil rights groups said they were “blatantly racist” and demanded that he apologize and be disciplined.

By the next year, Mr. Waga was no longer on the force, but his long stint as a police officer made him an ideal recruit for one of the best known far-right militia groups in the nation: the Oath Keepers.

HARRISBURG — A surprising pick for speaker of the Pennsylvania House has some lawmakers and good-government groups hopeful the chamber might finally adopt less partisan rules.

At the beginning of each two-year session, lawmakers pass rules that govern the state House and Senate. Those rules can dictate how committees are organized, who can call a vote on bills, and even mandate lawmakers to publicly share expenses.

The rules rarely change, and when they do, the edits are written in private by the majority party, sometimes with input from the minority party and sometimes without it. Then rank-and-file lawmakers are given the rules hours before a vote takes place, leaving little time to read them, let alone understand their impact.

The state Senate passed its rules on Tuesday, maintaining a status quo that gives the majority party — in this case, Republicans — much of the power.

But in the state House, where the partisan split is razor-thin, there’s hope that new Speaker Mark Rozzi of Berks County will be open to adopting meaningful change.

Newly sworn-in Pennsylvania U.S. Sen. John Fetterman on Friday announced over a dozen staff hires, including a communications director and senior advisers. Many of his selections worked on his Senate campaign last year and others have experience working for other U.S. senators.

“I’m proud of the talented staff we’re assembling throughout Pennsylvania and in Washington,” Mr. Fetterman said in a news release. “This team is already hitting the ground running to work for the people of Pennsylvania.”

The new hires follow the previously announced hires of Adam Jentleson as chief of staff, Joe Pierce as state director and Tré Easton as legislative director.

If you see a flock of turkeys, the Pennsylvania Game Commission wants to know where.

The commission is asking people to report flocks sighted between Jan. 1and March 15 by using a website to report the date, location and the type of land where the birds were seen — public, private or unknown. To report a flock sighting, fill out a survey online at www.pgc.pa.gov.

The commission wants to trap the turkeys to gather information for ongoing projects. The birds will be released after receiving leg bands.

The commission said its crews will visit the sites reported to determine “the potential to trap turkeys.

“Turkeys will not be moved; they’ll simply be leg banded and released on site,” according to the Game Commission. “In four Wildlife Management Units, some also will be outfitted with GPS transmitters, then released back on site to be monitored over time.”

The commission said in a news release that trapping turkeys in winter is part of its ongoing population monitoring and a large-scale turkey study.

U.S. Sen. Bob Casey was diagnosed with prostate cancer in December, but the Pennsylvania Democrat says he has “an excellent prognosis.”

In a statement released Thursday morning, the 62-year-old said he will undergo surgery “in the coming months” and is expected to make a full recovery. His doctors believe surgery by itself will be enough, without follow-up treatments such as radiation or chemotherapy, according to his office.

“While this news came as a shock, I can report that I have an excellent prognosis, as well as the benefit of exceptional medical care and the unwavering support of my family,” Mr. Casey said in the statement. “In the coming months I will undergo surgery, after which I am expected to make a full recovery.

“I am confident that my recommended course of treatment will allow me to continue my service in the 118th Congress with minimal disruption, and I look forward to the work ahead.”

Mr. Casey is now among the 13% of American men who develop prostate cancer at some point, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Advanced age and a family history of prostate increase the odds of developing the disease.

About 2% to 3% of men in the U.S. die from the disease, but most patients survive because prostate cancers tend to grow slowly or not at all, the CDC has noted. Ninety-six percent of those diagnosed from 2012 to 2018 had not died from the disease five years later, CDC data show. An estimated 3.2 million men nationwide were living with prostate cancer as of 2019, according to the National Cancer Institute.

Al Schmidt, a Republican who famously stood up to former President Donald Trump’s claims of election fraud in 2020 while receiving death threats, has been nominated to be Pennsylvania’s top election official.

Gov.-elect Josh Shapiro, a Democrat, said in a news release that he selected Schmidt to lead the Pennsylvania Department of State because he was “an integral part of the effort to protect our democracy and stop Pennsylvanians’ votes from being thrown out” after the 2020 election. Schmidt served as a city commissioner overseeing elections in Philadelphia for 10 years.

“Al Schmidt has a proven track record of defending our democracy, protecting voting rights, and standing up to extremism — even in the face of grave threats — and I am proud to nominate him to be Pennsylvania’s next Secretary of the Commonwealth,” Shapiro said in the news release.

In an interview late Wednesday with Votebeat and Spotlight PA, Schmidt said his priorities included improving voter registration processes as well as the way votes are cast and counted, positions that align with those Shapiro outlined on the campaign trail.

HARRISBURG – Newly elected House Speaker Mark Rozzi, D-Berks, emerged as a surprise pick to lead the chamber Tuesday, but he’s been far from obscure – serving as the most most vocal and impassioned champion for providing a window for adult survivors of childhood sex abuse to sue organizations like the Catholic Church that covered up for predators.

Mr. Rozzi, who has publicly spoken about the fact that he was a victim of abuse by a priest, sponsored legislation to ask voters whether to amend the Constitution to open a window for lawsuits by abuse survivors. That bill, which first passed the General Assembly in 2021, was co-sponsored by Rep. Jim Gregory, R-Blair, who nominated Mr. Rozzi as a candidate to become speaker.

Mr. Gregory and Sen. Lisa Baker, R-Luzerne, have both already circulated cosponsor memos indicating that they are introducing legislation intended to get the proposed Constitutional amendment to open a window for lawsuits by abuse survivors before voters.

Mr. Rozzi also sponsored House Bill 962 (Act 87 of 2019), which abolished Pennsylvania’s criminal statute of limitations on childhood sexual abuse and extends the timeline victims have to file civil action against their abusers; extends civil statute of limitations for victims age 18-24 until the age of 30; extends the criminal statute of limitations for criminal proceedings for victims age 18-24 for 20 years; and provides counseling services for victims of sexual assault via the Crime Victims Compensation fund through the Pennsylvania Commission on Crime and Delinquency.

Mr. Rozzi said he will not caucus with the Democrats as speaker and said he intends to be the state’s first independent speaker. House Republican Leader Bryan Cutler, R-Lancaster, said that because of that, the party composition in the chamber will be 101-101 even if Democrats win the seats vacated by the death of Rep. Tony DeLuca and the resignations of Rep. Summer Lee and Rep. Austin Davis.