Pa. tax collections show modest gainsHARRISBURG — Pennsylvania’s Revenue Department says year-to-date tax collections totaled $13.4 billion at the end of December — the midpoint of the state’s fiscal year.The figures released Monday are slightly more than the $13.3 billion taxpayers had paid at the same point last year.Officials say collections of most major lines showed modest increases in December from a year earlier, including the sales tax and personal income tax and the personal income tax. Corporate and realty transfer tax revenues were down for the month compared to last year’s figures.

Patient sues over mold outbreakPITTSBURGH — A lung transplant patient sued a Pittsburgh hospital for negligence on Monday after he contracted a fungal infection in his lungs during a mold outbreak that’s been linked to the deaths of three other transplant patients.Che DuVall and his wife, Karen, are suing UPMC Presbyterian in Allegheny County Court.The couple’s attorneys contend that UPMC recklessly housed DuVall in a room that made him more susceptible to a mold infection. DuVall underwent a double lung transplant Aug. 1.He was diagnosed with the fungal infection a month later and had to have parts of his new lungs removed. He remains in the hospital.UPMC has maintained that the deaths cannot be directly attributed to mold because transplant patients are at risk of picking up infections that otherwise healthy people routinely fight off.