Officials under fire

• Emily Previti/PA Post
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  Emily is a reporter for WITF who’s been covering voting and elections since July 2019 as part of her former role with statehouse accountability news organization PA Post. She was the senior reporter for statewide public media collaboration Keystone Crossroads. Previously, she covered city hall for PennLive/The Patriot-News (Harrisburg, Pa.), was a watchdog and city hall reporter at The Press of Atlantic City and reported for the Northwest Herald. She is a graduate of the University of Pennsylvania.
  
  See other articles by Emily Previti for WITF.

 Matt Rourke / The Associated Press

Former East Pittsburgh police officer Michael Rosfeld, charged with homicide in the shooting death of Antwon Rose II, arrives at the Dauphin County Courthouse in Harrisburg, Pa., Tuesday, March 12, 2019.

From The Context, PA Post’s weekday email newsletter:

Accountability

Matt Rourke / The Associated Press

Former East Pittsburgh police officer Michael Rosfeld, charged with homicide in the shooting death of Antwon Rose II, arrives at the Dauphin County Courthouse in Harrisburg. The jury was selected in the capital city and will stay in a hotel during the trial in Pittsburgh.

• A jury heard opening arguments in the homicide trial of Michael Rosfeld, a former East Pittsburgh police officer accused of killing Antwon Rose II, an unarmed teen. Prosecutors asked: What did Rosfeld know when he fired? The defense countered: Look at the bigger picture of what happened that night last June.

• Pennsylvania State Police are being sued by the family of Greg Longenecker, who was crushed to death by a bulldozer driven by troopers. They were pursuing Longenecker through the forest to arrest him for growing 10 marijuana plants on state game lands in Penn Township, Berks County. More details on the lawsuit are here.

• Former state Rep. Brian Ellis, R-Butler, resigned amid accusations he sexually assaulted a woman while she was incapacitated. The Associated Press has more details in this story.

Best of the rest

Emily Previti / Keystone Crossroads

A view of Shamokin.

• Shamokin voters will decide this spring whether to study home rule in the Northumberland County city. Doing so lets municipalities “write their own constitution,” WITF’s Rachel McDevitt reports. The move also could be key to keeping budgets balanced and exiting Act 47; home rule has been cited as critical to full financial recovery in other communities, including Plymouth Township, Luzerne County.

• A recent study by two University of Pennsylvania professors found results were mixed from the closing of 30 Philadelphia schools several years ago. Avi Wolfman-Arent breaks down their findings for this Keystone Crossroads post.

• More than 50 Pa. municipalities have passed their own non-discrimination orders for sexual orientation, gender identity or both. The history behind those local laws is the focus of “The Long Road to LGBTQ+ Equality in Pennsylvania” exhibit at the Pennsylvania State Museum in downtown Harrisburg. Ed Mahon covered the grand opening for this PA Post story.