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Peter Hall

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Philadelphia
As seen in: Iowa City Press-Citizen, Pennsylvania Capital-Star, MSN, MSN Canada, MSN Singapore, MSN UK, Wikimedia Commons, HuffPost, The Independent (UK), Yahoo News, Yahoo News Australia, Yahoo Singapore and
Covers:  gangs, class actions, judiciary, gun crime, personal injury, legal profession, sexual abuse, bankruptcy, legal issues, civil rights, first amendment, open records
Doesn't Cover: law, firms
Senior reporter for@PennCapitalStar. I cover the Pennsylvania House of Representatives and state government. Follow me @petehallpa.bsky.social
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Does the mail seem slow? You're not imagining it

Does the mail seem slow? You're not imagining it

The Morning Call — Elaine Caruso looks forward to getting letters and packages from her children, but lately, they've been taking longer to arrive by U.S. mail. Letters from Caruso's kids in New Jersey that used to take two or three days to arrive at her Kresgeville home now take four or five.
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Monitor your credit, police advise, as pandemic unemployment fraud pops up in the Lehigh Valley

Monitor your credit, police advise, as pandemic unemployment fraud pops up in the Lehigh Valley

The Morning Call — A surge in unemployment benefits fraud across the country has arrived in the Lehigh Valley, with checks for as much as $10,000 turning up in some mailboxes. Police and state officials advise people whose identities were stolen to monitor credit and bank accounts.
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Firing bad cops is harder in Pennsylvania because of a law that ties the courts' hands

Firing bad cops is harder in Pennsylvania because of a law that ties the courts' hands

The Morning Call — Pennsylvania courts have little power to change arbitrators' decisions that put problem police officers back on the force, but a bill to reform binding arbitration for uniformed public employees is in the works. The state's arbitration law, Act 11, makes it nearly impossible for the courts to change a decision that puts a keeps a bad cop on the job.
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Coronavirus recovery stories: Lehigh Valley residents talk about COVID-19 experiences ranging fro...

Coronavirus recovery stories: Lehigh Valley residents talk about COVID-19 experiences ranging fro...

The Morning Call — Coronavirus recovery stories from Lehigh Valley residents. Their symptoms ranged from mild, a lost sense of smell, to critical -- fever, pneumonia and a medically induced coma. They are among the vast majority who survive COVID-19 and their stories put a face to the pandemic.
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After 8 days on a ventilator, Bethlehem man who had coronavirus talks about his recovery

After 8 days on a ventilator, Bethlehem man who had coronavirus talks about his recovery

The Morning Call — BETHLEHEM - The eight days Chris McMillan spent connected to a breathing machine fighting the coronavirus are a murky void. After 10 days isolated in his Bethlehem basement with an unrelenting fever, McMillan could hear a crackling sound in his chest and knew it was time to go to the hospital.
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On the verge of homelessness, one man's story highlights limited options for low-income seniors

On the verge of homelessness, one man's story highlights limited options for low-income seniors

The Morning Call — When Benjamin Cross was evicted from the rundown motel room he had called home for nearly seven years, his friends couldn't bear the thought of him becoming homeless. "You can't put an 80-year-old man that has a walker out on the street during the day and into a shelter at night," said Kathy Burns.
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Being a whistleblower is risky business, making some rich and ruining others, as Lehigh Valley ca...

Being a whistleblower is risky business, making some rich and ruining others, as Lehigh Valley ca...

The Morning Call — Whistleblowers trying to expose fraud have received lucrative payouts such as the one given to the Lehigh Valley man who blew the whistle on Olympus. But such outcomes are rare, even in major cases like the one that exposed medical test company Theranos as a sham.
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Symptoms of financial stress surfaced before Coordinated Health's sale announcement

Symptoms of financial stress surfaced before Coordinated Health's sale announcement

The Morning Call — Had Coordinated Health gone for a checkup in the past year, the doctor may have diagnosed financial headaches and mounting stress, aggravated by a $12.5 million settlement with the Justice Department and a pile of unpaid bills. To cure its ills, the private, for-profit orthopedic network now must swallow a bitter pill.
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'There's such an allure here for you.' Court records reveal the stories of Pennsylvania immigrant...

'There's such an allure here for you.' Court records reveal the stories of Pennsylvania immigrant...

The Morning Call — The Trump administration has increased prosecutions of people who illegally reenter the United States, sending them to jail before ultimately deporting them. But many keep trying, including a Reading man who raised three children here, another Reading man who hasn't committed a crime since the 1990s and a Bucks County man whose employer called him 'incredibly hard-working.'
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'They're just looking for the American dream,' says Pennsylvania woman whose immigrant husband wa...

'They're just looking for the American dream,' says Pennsylvania woman whose immigrant husband wa...

The Morning Call — Azalea Soto's husband has deep roots in the United States: For nearly 25 years, he toiled as a laborer in the mushroom country of Chester County, where the couple raised a growing family that knows no other home.
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Connection between Allentown corruption case and one brewing in Scranton

Connection between Allentown corruption case and one brewing in Scranton

The Morning Call — Former Scranton Mayor Bill Courtright, who resigned Monday and pleaded guilty to public corruption charges Tuesday, took a bribe from Northeast Revenue, the same firm that contributed to ex-Allentown Mayor Ed Pawlowski's campaign as he and other city officials took steps to ensure it won a city tax collection contract.
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In Allentown case, state Supreme Court says police can't search suspects just because they're arm...

In Allentown case, state Supreme Court says police can't search suspects just because they're arm...

The Morning Call — In a decision throwing out the conviction of Michael J. Hicks of Allentown, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court on Friday overturned a longstanding legal doctrine allowing police to stop and search a suspect solely for carrying a concealed weapon.The court ruled a police officer's knowledge that a person is carrying a gun no longer constitutes reasonable suspicion to detain and investigate whether they're licensed to do so.
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Paralyzed Whitehall man's lawsuit against constables who shot at him highlights loopholes in law

Paralyzed Whitehall man's lawsuit against constables who shot at him highlights loopholes in law

The Morning Call — Four years ago Kevin McCullers was shot and paralyzed by a Pennsylvania constable serving warrants for unpaid parking tickets. Today he's homeless and waiting for the outcome of a lawsuit that may hold no one else but the constable responsible.
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Jim Thorpe dispute centers on law designed to prevent plunder

Jim Thorpe dispute centers on law designed to prevent plunder

The Allentown Lehigh Valley Morning Call — It was a sweat lodge ceremony in Texas where Jim Thorpe reached out to his grandson through a medicine man. The shaman told John Thorpe his grandfather's spirit was content in the Pennsylvania town where his body has lain for six decades. "Grandpa made contact with him and told him that he was at peace and wanted no more upset connected to him," John Thorpe said. That was nearly three years ago - shortly after Jim Thorpe's son filed a lawsuit against the borough of Jim Thorpe seeking the return of his father's remains to tribal lands in his native Oklahoma.
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Sex accusations against ex-Scout leaders revealed

Sex accusations against ex-Scout leaders revealed

The Allentown Lehigh Valley Morning Call — In 1974, a Boy Scout accused a Catasauqua scoutmaster of sexually abusing him on trips to Lake Wallenpaupack and at the scoutmaster's home. Within hours of a complaint by the 14-year-old boy's mother, senior Scout officials interviewed the boy and stripped Scoutmaster Larry Kisthart of his duties, according to court documents. "I was asked to leave, and it was supposed to be kept confidential at that point," Kisthart said in a phone interview last week.
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Allentown bishop, four others knew of 35 allegedly abusive priests

Allentown bishop, four others knew of 35 allegedly abusive priests

The Allentown Lehigh Valley Morning Call — Nearly two decades ago, Allentown Bishop Edward Cullen was one of two or three high-ranking clergy present when the head of the Philadelphia Archdiocese ordered the shredding of a list of 35 priests suspected of sexually abusing children, according to a recent court filing in Philadelphia. A copy of that list and a 1994 memo recording Cardinal Anthony Bevilacqua's instructions to destroy it has turned up in the case of Monsignor William Lynn, a former archdiocesan official charged with endangering the welfare of children and conspiracy for allegedly enabling priests to molest children.
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Lehigh Valley pair face gun charges linked to NY subway shooting

Lehigh Valley pair face gun charges linked to NY subway shooting

The Allentown Lehigh Valley Morning Call — The handgun used by a mentally ill Allentown man to shoot police on a New York subway was bought in Whitehall by a couple accused by authorities of lying on official paperwork about the sale. Peter Jourdan, who struggled with schizophrenia and drifted between Allentown and Brooklyn, opened fire with a 9 mm Taurus handgun when officers approached after seeing him move between cars on a Manhattan-bound train. Jourdan, 37, was killed in the Jan. 3 shooting that left two police officers wounded.
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How Allentown school officials responded to Central Elementary sex allegations

How Allentown school officials responded to Central Elementary sex allegations

The Allentown Lehigh Valley Morning Call — A late winter snowstorm threw Allentown's Central Elementary School into a state of chaos, forcing an early closing the day Junior Doe IV was sexually assaulted. The 6-year-old boy's teacher, distracted by the early dismissal, broke from the usual practice of group bathroom breaks and allowed him to go alone to a basement restroom near the school's detention area. His attacker, a 12-year-old boy already under suspicion of molesting two other boys, had been pulled out of class after an altercation with another student. The older boy, identified in court papers as F.H., was waiting in detention for his mother to pick him up.
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Crocodile Rock faces music industry lawsuit for alleged copyright violations

Crocodile Rock faces music industry lawsuit for alleged copyright violations

The Allentown Lehigh Valley Morning Call — Allentown's embattled Crocodile Rock Café faces legal action from the music industry for allegedly violating artists' and publishers' copyrights by playing music without a license. The lawsuit in federal court claims the nightclub hosted live musical performances and played recorded music after its license from Broadcast Music Inc. expired in March 2011 and that efforts to get the owner and managers of the club to renew the license were unsuccessful. BMI claims Crocodile Rock played five songs without a license, which the agency says violated copyright law and deprived performers and publishers of payment for their work.
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Consumers claim Anheuser-Busch waters down beer

Consumers claim Anheuser-Busch waters down beer

The Allentown Lehigh Valley Morning Call — Some people buy Budweiser for the subtle beechwood aging; others may have an affinity for the Clydesdales. Thomas and Gerald Greenberg buy the King of Beers for its 5 percent alcohol content, and they claim in a federal lawsuit that Budweiser maker Anheuser-Busch isn't giving them what they pay for. The Montgomery County brothers say Anheuser-Busch InBev NV routinely adds water to its products, which include Bud Light and Michelob, leading to alcohol contents well below what is promised on the labels.
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Firing bad cops is harder in Pennsylvania because of a law that ties the courts' hands

Firing bad cops is harder in Pennsylvania because of a law that ties the courts' hands

The Morning Call — Pennsylvania courts have little power to change arbitrators' decisions that put problem police officers back on the force, but a bill to reform binding arbitration for uniformed public employees is in the works. The state's arbitration law, Act 11, makes it nearly impossible for the courts to change a decision that puts a keeps a bad cop on the job.
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In Montgomery County a Memorial Day coronavirus controversy over American flags

In Montgomery County a Memorial Day coronavirus controversy over American flags

The Morning Call — With four close relatives who served in the armed forces buried in the Pennsburg cemetery near her home, Diane Stevens couldn't bear the thought of Memorial Day passing without the Stars and Stripes flying at their graves.
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