Pennsylvania - BlogFlock

‘Doing Nothing Is Not An Option,’ Says Fitzpatrick On GOP Affordability Agenda - PoliticsPA

2025-12-08T00:57:49.000Z

Pennsylvania Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick is carving out a lane that is seeing him butt heads with GOP leaders.

The Bucks County Republican told CNN’s Manu Raju during an appearance on “Inside Politics Sunday” that members of his party need to extend expiring health care subsidies as the midterm elections approach.

“If you don’t have a better plan, then get on board with ours,” said Fitzpatrick. “But doing nothing is not an option.”

Fitzpatrick, who carried PA-01 by 12 points in a district that was won by Kamala Harris in 2024, is putting forward legislation to extend the enhanced Affordable Care Act subsidies due to expire at the end of the year. That puts him at odds with most Republicans in the chamber.

“Affordability is such a crisis in this country right now,” he said, explaining that for low- and middle-income constituents, “a significant increase in their premiums is not an option.”

Back in 2017, he voted against the GOP push to repeal the Affordable Care Act because he found the replacement “insufficient.” Eight years later, Fitzpatrick says Republicans “still have not been able to put together an articulable plan that’s going to work for everyday Americans.”

During the interview, Fitzpatrick also showed that he is not in line with his party’s leaders, as he wishes to find a health care compromise, defend Ukraine, and not rubber-stamp major pieces of President Donald Trump’s agenda.

The five-term congressman does not feel that Republicans are focusing enough on the affordability issue and cost-of-living concerns.

“Every bill we bring to the floor should be focused on lowering the cost of living for people who need it most,” he said, criticizing recent legislative efforts related to condemning socialism and regulating compensation for college athletes.

“Why are we focusing on that? That’s not what our constituents care about,” Fitzpatrick continued.

He hinted that Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) may not want the speaker’s gavel in the next Congress, should the House remain in GOP control.

“I am not sure Mike wants the job next Congress, but that’s a question for him.”

Fitzpatrick and Johnson entered Congress as classmates in 2017, when Fitzpatrick recalls his colleague “led the bipartisan charge for civility.”

“I personally like him. Do I agree with every decision he makes? Absolutely not. I never agree with every decision every speaker’s made,” he said.”

Fitzpatrick faces a challenge from Bucks County Democratic commissioner Bob Harvie in what is perceived as one of the Keystone State’s purplest districts.

“I’m a pretty independent-minded person,” he said, underscoring his willingness to break with his party on major votes, like Republican leadership’s push to pass Trump’s sweeping domestic policy agenda ahead of the president’s self-imposed July 4 deadline.

“I got a lot of heat for it, both back home and from the White House and from some of my colleagues here, but I politely reminded them that I don’t answer to any person or any party in Washington, DC. My bosses are back home,” he said.

As for whether those cuts may cost Republicans the majority, Fitzpatrick said, “everyone’s going to answer for their votes,” noting the more popular tax cuts that came alongside the tightening of access to Medicaid and other government programs.

“You’ve got to have a tough spine and thick skin, and the easiest way to navigate times like that is to never lose focus on who your bosses are,” he said.

AI Is the Next Frontier for Far-Right Extremists to Spread Propaganda, Incite Violence, and Recruit New Followers - Bucks County Beacon

2025-12-07T13:52:19.000Z

Written by Michelle Lynn Kahn, University of Richmond

How can society police the global spread of online far-right extremism while still protecting free speech? That’s a question policymakers and watchdog organizations confronted as early as the 1980s and ’90s – and it hasn’t gone away.

Decades before artificial intelligence, Telegram and white nationalist Nick Fuentes’ livestreams, far-right extremists embraced the early days of home computing and the internet. These new technologies offered them a bastion of free speech and a global platform. They could share propaganda, spew hatred, incite violence and gain international followers like never before.

Before the digital era, far-right extremists radicalized each other primarily using print propaganda. They wrote their own newsletters and reprinted far-right tracts such as Adolf Hitler’s “Mein Kampf” and American neo-Nazi William Pierce’s “The Turner Diaries,” a dystopian work of fiction describing a race war. Then, they mailed this propaganda to supporters at home and abroad.

INTERVIEW: Former FBI Agent Who Once Infiltrated Neo-Nazi Groups and Militias Explains Why Law Enforcement Fails to Take Far-Right Extremism Seriously

I’m a historian who studies neo-Nazis and far-right extremism. As my research shows, most of the neo-Nazi propaganda confiscated in Germany from the 1970s through the 1990s came from the United States. American neo-Nazis exploited their free speech under the First Amendment to bypass German censorship laws. German neo-Nazis then picked up this print propaganda and distributed it throughout the country.

This strategy wasn’t foolproof, however. Print propaganda could get lost in the mail or be confiscated, especially when crossing into Germany. Producing and shipping it was also expensive and time-consuming, and far-right organizations were chronically understaffed and strapped for cash.

Going digital

Computers, which entered the mass market in 1977, promised to help resolve these problems. In 1981, Matt Koehl, head of the National Socialist White People’s Party in the United States, solicited donations to “Help the Party Enter The Computer Age.” The American neo-Nazi Harold Covington begged for a printer, scanner and “serious PC” that could run WordPerfect word processing software. “Our multifarious enemies already possess this technology,” he noted, referring to Jews and government officials.

Soon, far-right extremists figured out how to connect their computers to one another. They did so by using online bulletin board systems, or BBSes, a precursor to the internet. A BBS was hosted on a personal computer, and other computers could dial in to the BBS using a modem and a terminal software program, allowing users to exchange messages, documents and software.

After personal computers became commonplace but before the internet, people connected online via bulletin board systems. Blake Patterson/Flickr, CC BY

With BBSes, anyone interested in accessing far-right propaganda could simply turn on their computer and dial in to an organization’s advertised phone number. Once connected, they could read the organization’s public posts, exchange messages and upload and download files.

The first far-right bulletin board system, the Aryan Nations Liberty Net, was established in 1984 by Louis Beam, a high-ranking member of the Ku Klux Klan and Aryan Nations. Beam explained: “Imagine, if you can, a single computer to which all leaders and strategists of the patriotic movement are connected. Imagine further that any patriot in the country is able to tap into this computer at will in order to reap the benefit of all accumulative knowledge and wisdom of the leaders. ‘Someday,’ you may say? How about today?”

INTERVIEW: The History of Fascism and Anti-Fascism in America, with Bill Mullen and Christopher Vials

Then came violent neo-Nazi computer games. Neo-Nazis in the United States and elsewhere could upload and download these games via bulletin board systems, copy them onto disks and distribute them widely, especially to schoolchildren.

In the German computer game KZ Manager, players role-played as a commandant in a Nazi concentration camp that murdered Jews, Sinti and Roma, and Turkish immigrants. An early 1990s poll revealed that 39% of Austrian high schoolers knew of such games and 22% had seen them.

Arrival of the web

By the mid-1990s, with the introduction of the more user-friendly World Wide Web, bulletin boards fell out of favor. The first major racial hate website on the internet, Stormfront, was founded in 1995 by the American white supremacist Don Black. The civil rights organization Southern Poverty Law Center found that almost 100 murders were linked to Stormfront.

By 2000, the German government had discovered, and banned, over 300 German websites with right-wing content – a tenfold increase within just four years.

In response, American white supremacists again exploited their free speech rights to bypass German censorship bans. They gave international far-right extremists the opportunity to host their websites safely and anonymously on unregulated American servers – a strategy that continues today.

Up next: AI

The next frontier for far-right extremists is AI. They are using AI tools to create targeted propaganda, manipulate images, audio and videos, and evade detection. The far-right social network Gab created a Hitler chatbot that users can talk to.

AI chatbots are also adopting the far-right views of social media users. Grok, the chatbot on Elon Musk’s X, recently called itself “MechaHitler,” spewed antisemitic hate speech and denied the Holocaust.

Countering extremism

Combating online hate is a global imperative. It requires comprehensive international cooperation among governments, nongovernmental organizations, watchdog organizations, communities and tech corporations.

Far-right extremists have long pioneered innovative ways to exploit technological progress and free speech. Efforts to counter this radicalization are challenged to stay one step ahead of the far right’s technological advances.

Michelle Lynn Kahn is Associate Professor of History at University of Richmond.

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

Meet 2 Berks County women who want to bring fresh produce to a local food bank - Spotlight PA

2025-12-06T14:45:00.000Z

This article originally appeared in Good Day, Berks — Spotlight PA’s free daily newsletter for Berks County and your daily dose of Berks County essentials. Sign up here.

This week’s Community Spotlight honorees are Alexis Henry and Valerie Sayler, friends who recently initiated an online food drive with the goal of donating funds for fresh fruits and vegetables to Helping Harvest.

This conversation, which took place by email, has been edited for length and style.

Good Day, Berks: Where do you live?

Valerie Sayler: Sinking Spring.

Alexis Henry: West Reading.

Tell us a little about your family.

Val lives with her husband, Geoff, and their two children, Clara and Cash.

Alexis grew up with her parents and brother, Jack, surrounded by a large, extended Irish family that included her grandparents and dozens of aunts, uncles, and cousins.

Tell us about your work and what you like about it.

Alexis, who is a professional recruiter, began volunteering for a food bank as a student at West Chester University. She enjoyed the work and recently restarted her efforts with Helping Harvest.

Val works for Fisher & Paykel, a luxury appliance manufacturer. She enjoys some travel with her job and finds her work with customers to be rewarding.

What motivated you to start the #GiveHealthy food collection?

Alexis: The idea came to us during the SNAP shutdown. We were struggling with the idea that food was starting to feel like a luxury item. There were so many people who relied on benefits they weren’t getting, and we wanted to help. We chose the #GiveHealthy site because it’s easy to navigate and they’ll deliver the food directly to Helping Harvest, a local organization that does great work but right now needs some extra support.

Tell us about a challenge you faced.

Both women were laid off from jobs earlier this year as part of larger downsizing efforts, creating a great deal of anxiety and stress. For Val, the experience ultimately led her to better understand her inner strength and resiliency. Alexis turned to volunteering with Helping Harvest as a way to balance her time during the layoff period and found that she thoroughly enjoyed the experience.

Alexis: [Volunteering] was a wonderful way to not only use my newfound free time but also felt good to be able to give back during a time when there was so much need.

What is your favorite place to eat in Berks County?

Alexis: Taqueria Comālli in West Reading. They make the best guacamole.

Val: Giuliana’s in Spring Township.

Where in Berks would you take a visitor?

Val treasures the grounds of the Reading Museum, citing the property’s trails, mature trees, stream, and historic buildings.

Alexis would escort a visitor (accompanied by her dog, Murphy) on a tour of West Reading to experience the parkland and excellent restaurants.

Who in your life has had a great influence on you?

Val cited her mother, Lynn, saying, “She shows me every day what it means to take care of family and the people around you.”

Alexis cited her family, saying, “They have always loved and supported me, and they’ve made me who I am today.”

You can learn more about Alexis and Val’s #GiveHealthy food drive, which extends through Dec. 15, here.

This positive news for Berks County is made possible thanks to a generous grant from the United Way of Berks County, which is celebrating 100 years of service to the community. Learn more here | Become a supporter of Spotlight PA here.

Bucks County Punk Rock Flea Market and Burlesque After Party Arrive in Doylestown on Sunday - Bucks County Beacon

2025-12-06T03:42:40.000Z

Rivot Magazine and D20 Burlesque are hosting Bucks County’s first ever Punk Rock Flea Market on Sunday. The market will have over 35 vendors selling records, clothing, art, jewelry, up-cycled goods, goth decor, and more from 12 to 6 p.m. in the basement of Hops/Scotch bar in Doylestown. After a day of shopping, the punk rock festivities continue with live music and burlesque in the evening for those 18 years old and up.

Punk rock flea markets have popped up around the area in Philadelphia and New Jersey. The alternative markets feature art, clothing, crafts, music, and live tattooing. Anja Keister, founder of D20 Burlesque, and James Lamb, founder of Rivot Magazine, organized Bucks County’s first punk rock flea market in an effort to promote accessible, human art.

Keister, an event producer, moved back to the area after living in England and New York and was looking for punk rock flea markets to sell her art. Keister noticed surrounding areas hosted punk rock flea markets and realized she could create her own for Bucks. Siren Records connected her with Lamb and the two began planning the flea market in late October-early November.

The sponsors, Siren Records and The Tiny Couch – Music for a Cause and Community, have been instrumental in spreading the word about the event to the community.

Photo of James Lamb, owner of Rivot Magazine.

Lamb’s connections as local business owner of Evolution Candy in Doylestown helped secure the venue and Keister’s social media work brought in vendors. Keister said she, as a queer woman herself, was focused on finding an inclusive group of vendors.

“I feel like in the punk rock, in the alternative, in the goth world, it can often be very exclusionary of women, of people of color, of disabled people,” said Keister. “So I specifically was putting out a call to try to get that kind of representation.”

She said they made sure to find vendors creating unique crafts and goods often not found at an art market. Keister emphasized looking for vendors selling handmade crafts and excluding AI art and mass-produced 3D-printed products.

“It all had to kind of be like originals, and it had to speak to something alternative, outside of, kind of like the mainstream stuff,” Keister said.

READ: Rivot Magazine Provides Bucks County a Much-needed Print Music and News Publication With a Punk Rock Ethos

The flea market will have booths for local progressive organizations, including Planned Parenthood, The Rainbow Room, Yardley Indivisible, Bucks Stands Up, and BuxMontgomery Democratic Socialists.

The flea market is open to all and is free to enter with a suggested $5 donation or two cans of food donation. The donations go toward the Bucks County Housing Group’s Doylestown Food Bank.

Lamb and Keister first agreed the flea market would double as a charity when they started planning around the time the federal shutdown impacted SNAP benefits for Bucks County recipients.

Anja Keister photographed by Atticus Media .

“My ethos of punk is, you care for the community,” she said. “You help lift up the people who are trodden down.”

In an effort to make art and artisan crafts accessible to the community, vendors at the flea market are selling their goods under $10, on a sliding scale, or implementing a “pay what you can” method.

“I’m just really excited that in this time where a lot of people are feeling that financial strain, that we can also set up an art market that could be very accessible to people who may be financially struggling, or, you know, youth who want to come and buy some Christmas presents or buy stuff for themselves,” said Keister.

The after party will take place in the basement at Hops/Scotch in Doylestown. Keister and Ophelia Gin will put on unique burlesque performances. Local band Cattail Bloom will perform at 6 p.m. and later The Bacarrudas take the stage at 7 p.m.

Keister said the punk rock flea market is hoping to return for future events while expanding to bigger spaces, adding live tattooing to the vendor list, and bringing in food vendors.

“It’s not set in stone or anything like that, but we are hoping to do several next year with the hopes of having them be outside ones where we could have more space as well,” she said.

Trump’s Pardon of Honduran Ex-President Who Conspired to Traffic Over 400 Tons of Cocaine Into US Exposes ‘War on Drugs’ Myth - Bucks County Beacon

2025-12-05T17:13:18.000Z

If Juan Orlando Hernández was a poor fisherman accused without evidence of transporting illegal drugs by boat, the Trump administration might blow him and his crew up without a trial. But because Hernández is a former president of Honduras who shares Trump’s right-wing politics, he received a presidential pardon Tuesday and was released from a New York prison, despite having been convicted in 2024 of conspiring to traffic over 400 tons of cocaine into the U.S. and taking millions in bribe money from cartels.

Meanwhile, the unilateral strikes against alleged “narco-terrorists” like the one that murdered a Colombian fisherman off the coast of Venezuela on Sept. 15 have extrajudicially killed over 80 people since Sept. 2. And now, Congress is investigating Pete Hegseth and an entire chain of command for potential war crimes.

The hypocrisy of Trump’s pardon makes perfectly clear the deadly farce that is the administration’s “War on Drugs.”

But while Hernández walking free so suddenly was a shock to many Hondurans, it deserves more scrutiny for a U.S.-based audience who might not know the extent of the violence and repression he was responsible for while turning Honduras into a “narco state.”

As early as 2015, Hondurans mobilized en masse and called for Hernandez’s removal from office.

FILE – In this July 3, 2015,file photo, protesters march to the Presidential House to demand the resignation of Honduras’ President Juan Orlando Hernandez, in Tegucigalpa, Honduras. For months, tens of thousands of Hondurans have taken to the streets to demonstrate against official corruption, and especially the social security scandal, which has left thousands of people without access to medical care in a country with an already limited health care. (AP Photo/Fernando Antonio, File)

At the time, the United States backed Hernández against mass protests, upholding him as our biggest ally in the region while hundreds of thousands marched with torches in cities across the country denouncing both money stolen from public institutions and political authoritarianism. “Fuera JOH!” (Get out, JOH!, Juan Orlando Hernandez’s initials) became the battle cry of a generation tired of a narco-state regime that also ushered in one of the most dangerous periods for environmentalists, land defenders, and journalists. In 2017, Hernández subverted the Constitution to run for a second term. When he declared victory despite accusations of fraud and the OAS calling for a repeat election, Trump’s State Department was quick to accept his Presidency. The country yet again erupted in pro-democracy demonstrations; this time violently repressed by State forces. To say that Hernández’s extradition and conviction in the U.S. were long awaited is an understatement, although some were weary of justice coming from a foreign power like the U.S.

Hernández was found guilty on March 8, 2024, of three counts of drug trafficking and weapons conspiracy. Prior to that, in 2019, his brother, Juan Antonio “Tony” Hernández Alvaro, was sentenced to life in a New York prison, convicted of distributing 185 tons of cocaine and engaging in illegal arms trafficking.

Protestors signs and images victims of Honduran drug traffickers outside Federal court, Wednesday, June 26, 2024, in New York. Former Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernandez is scheduled for sentencing after being convicted in New York of conspiring with drug traffickers, his military and police to enable tons of cocaine to reach the United States. (AP Photo/John Minchillo)

Tony Hernández was not just a bought out Congressman with political influence; he was a leader in illicit rings. According to U.S. Attorney Audrey Strauss, the ex-Honduran president’s brother was “involved in all stages of the trafficking through Honduras of multi-ton loads of cocaine destined for the U.S. Hernández bribed law enforcement officials to protect drug shipments, arranged for heavily armed security for cocaine shipments, and brokered large bribes from major drug traffickers to powerful political figures, including the former and current presidents of Honduras. Hernández was complicit in at least two murders.”

President Hernández denied all knowledge of his brother’s activities before his term ended and the U.S. called for his extradition.

So, why would the U.S. government engage in such vicious attacks against civilians in the name of blocking drug trafficking while releasing one of the most known, convicted drug traffickers in the Western Hemisphere?

The answer lies in age-old geopolitics and what the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace’s Sarah Chayes calls the “kleptocratic operation system” — a profit-seeking network in Honduras linking transnational capital, national politicians, organized crime, and US military assistance.

Juan Orlando Hernández, in addition to enforcing many neoliberal economic policies and privatizing state services, was instrumental in ushering in a libertarian experiment in creating private jurisdictions led by investors called ZEDEs, a pet project supported by some of Trump’s closest tech/crypto mogul supporters and strategists.

Investors had waited for Hernandez to secure a second term to take the leap on this politically risky project that had previously been ruled unconstitutional by the Supreme Court in a prior iteration. Indeed, the first of these jurisdictions, the Próspera ZEDE, was authorized behind closed doors soon after Hernández claimed victory in the 2017 elections. Even though the ZEDE jurisdictions have since been ruled unconstitutional by the current Supreme Court and repealed in law by the Honduran Congress, some US and foreign investors still hoped a return to National Party rule would help to re-legislate the techno-libertarian dreamscapes.

In this context, Trump inserted himself into Honduras’s 2025 elections at the last minute, first encouraging Hondurans to vote for the National Party candidate Nasry Asfura on social media, and going so far as to threaten to cut off aid to the country if Asfura did not win. On Sunday, Hondurans voted, leaving Asfura and Salvador Nasrala neck and neck. When Nasrala inched ahead, Trump took to social media once again, accusing the Elections Board of “trying to change” the outcome, and threatening that “there would be hell to pay” if they did.

Trump’s election interference has been repugnant and flagrant, but it is not surprising. The contradiction in U.S. foreign policy itself is predictable: prop up a friendly right-wing party and politician in Honduras while threatening to militarily attack the government of Venezuela for allegedly committing the same crimes. However, the predictability doesn’t minimize the incredible harm that Hernandez’s pardon and Trump’s brazen electoral meddling could have on the region, both in normalizing unfettered 21st century U.S. intervention in Latin America and in launching Honduras back into what historian Dana Frank has called its “long, night” of narco-oligarchic control.

Privacy concerns linger in reproductive health care despite HIPAA lawsuit’s dismissal - Pennsylvania Capital-Star

2025-12-05T17:00:40.000Z

A Biden-era protection for reproductive and gender affirming health care information was upended by a federal judge in Texas in June. Despite several lawsuits, key privacy rules for medical records remain, but some experts say they aren’t sufficient. (Photo by Dave Whitney / Getty Images)

The four lawsuits at the center of a Republican-led effort to ensure law enforcement can access reproductive health records are now mostly resolved, after attorneys for Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton agreed last week to dismiss the last remaining suit challenging the legality of a foundational health privacy rule.

Paxton filed the lawsuit in September 2024 arguing that Democratic President Joe Biden’s administration illegally created a rule under the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act barring certain reproductive health care information from being disclosed if a procedure such as abortion was obtained in a state where it is legal.

The federal HIPAA law is meant to protect patient information generally, especially when that information travels between providers. It contains exceptions for information that can be disclosed to investigators, who can subpoena records from other states.

Ashley Kurzweil, senior policy analyst for reproductive health and rights at the National Partnership for Women & Families, said the dual threat that Paxton’s lawsuit presented was alarming on a much wider scale than just reproductive health care, so it is a relief that the case is dismissed. Overturning key privacy protections from 2000 that formed the basis of the Biden-era rule could have thrown the entire health care system into chaos, she said.

“We are thrilled that the 2000 privacy rule is still in effect. It is hugely important that it is still in place,” Kurzweil said. “However, (it) provides insufficient safeguards for reproductive health care information when it comes to the broader landscape of increased criminalization risk that people are facing.”

The 2024 rule specifically relating to reproductive and gender-affirming health care information was nullified in June by U.S. District Judge Matthew Kacsmaryk. His ruling came in a Texas-based case filed by a clinician in a small town who said the rule created a conflict with her responsibility to report child abuse, because she considers abortion and gender-affirming health care to be child abuse.

Without those 2024 protections, doctors can choose whether to report patients to law enforcement, Kurzeil said, and some might also be discouraged from offering reproductive health care altogether to minimize legal risks.

States Newsroom reported more than 400 people were charged with pregnancy-related crimes in the two years after the U.S. Supreme Court’s Dobbs decision, according to data from the nonprofit Pregnancy Justice.

One of those people was Brittany Watts, an Ohio woman who went to the hospital with miscarriage complications and waited for hours without receiving help. After miscarrying at home and returning to the hospital, staff called the police, accusing her of abuse of a corpse. A grand jury declined to indict her, and Watts is now suing the hospital.

In nine of the 400 cases, pregnant people were accused of researching or attempting to obtain an abortion.

Advocacy group dropped effort to appeal Texas ruling

The case before Kacsmaryk is the only one of the four that resulted in a ruling. Although it was filed in the last few months of the Biden administration, the bulk of the case was litigated under Republican President Donald Trump’s Department of Justice.

Repealing the rule was a directive in Project 2025, the conservative blueprint published by the Heritage Foundation. Several prominent anti-abortion organizations were part of the panel that drafted Project 2025, and many of the people involved in writing the 900-page document now work for the Trump administration.

Democracy Forward, a nonprofit legal organization, represented Doctors for America and the cities of Columbus, Ohio, and Madison, Wisconsin, in an attempt to intervene in the case because they did not expect the government to defend the rule. If they were allowed to intervene, they could appeal Kacsmaryk’s opinion striking down the rule regardless of the Trump administration’s decision.

Their attempts were denied by Kacsmaryk, and while the organization did initially appeal that decision, the attorneys dropped the effort in September, saying in a court filing that “the resources of the parties and the courts would be best conserved by dismissing this appeal.”

In a statement to States Newsroom, a spokesperson for Democracy Forward said they will continue to pursue every tool available to defend reproductive rights from political interference and anti-abortion extremists.

The other two cases are in Missouri and Tennessee, where Republican attorneys general also challenged the 2024 reproductive health care-specific rule. The Missouri case was dismissed in September, because Kacsmaryk’s decision had a nationwide effect, and the Tennessee attorney general asked the court to dismiss their case for the same reason. The judge in that case has not yet granted the motion.

Shield laws help, but federal backstop would address more situations

Texas and Louisiana have recently launched investigations into out-of-state doctors who, through telehealth, prescribed and mailed abortion medication to patients in their states where abortion is outlawed.

Texas officials have repeatedly investigated and attempted to prosecute people for either leaving the state to seek abortion care or for prescribing abortion medication from a different state. At the end of October, a New York judge dismissed a civil case brought by Paxton seeking $100,000 in damages from a provider the AG said prescribed abortion pills to a woman in the Dallas area, according to The Texas Tribune. Officials in Louisiana attempted to extradite the same New York doctor on criminal charges related to an abortion medication prescription for a pregnant minor. That case was also rejected.

Those attempts were some of the first that tested shield laws implemented by 18 states, including New York. Four others have executive orders from Democratic governors saying they won’t comply with extradition requests for investigations into reproductive health care.

Texas has also passed a law allowing people to seek at least $100,000 in damages if someone they impregnated or someone they’re related to received abortion pills by mail from another state. That law took effect Thursday, Dec. 4.

Kurzweil said those shield laws are a vital help to patients seeking care, but the addition of a federal protective rule would be ideal.

“The two in tandem would be much more fulsome and would address gaps that come up,” she said.

This story was originally produced by News From The States, which is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network which includes Pennsylvania Capital-Star, and is supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity.

Critics, former staffers mull future of Fetterman’s Senate seat - Spotlight PA

2025-12-05T15:47:01.000Z

This article is made possible through Spotlight PA’s partnership with NOTUS, a nonpartisan news organization that covers government and politics with the fresh eyes of early career journalists and the expertise of veteran reporters.

Progressives are already plotting a primary challenge to Sen. John Fetterman when he’s up for reelection in 2028. But whether Fetterman’s around to be primaried at all is another question.

The freshman senator seems to be leaving all doors open, insiders told NOTUS: reelection, retirement and even a long-shot run for president. Some think he’s likely to leave the Senate, which they say he doesn’t seem to enjoy much.

“I don’t think he’s running,” one former Fetterman staffer told NOTUS. “He didn’t like the job, he missed home, and now is a pariah within the party. I think he wants no part of being in D.C.”

When NOTUS asked Fetterman whether he’ll run for reelection, he replied: “It’s 2025.”

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When NOTUS asked if he’d be interested in running for president, Fetterman replied: “It’s 2025.”

Then, on a walk back from voting, Fetterman stopped and quipped again to NOTUS, “It’s 2025,” adding a satirical thumbs up. (Later, while in the backseat of a car, Fetterman rolled down his window and again said, “It’s 2025.”)

In a later response to a request for comment detailing this story, Fetterman said in a statement: “Accept the mystery. 2028 is gonna be crazy.” He also included a GIF from the 2009 movie “A Serious Man” of a character saying, “Accept the mystery.”

It’s the latest political question mark for a politician who’s confounded his Democratic peers in and outside of the Capitol. When running against GOP nominee Mehmet Oz, a former daytime television host, in 2022, Fetterman was cast as a progressive martyr. His uniform of basketball shorts and a hoodie branded him as an everyman’s politician. He openly warned voters that he wouldn’t be like other Democratic moderates, such as former Sen. Joe Manchin (who ultimately became an independent).

But since coming to Congress, Fetterman has hugged the centrist line, at least by modern standards. Fetterman voted with Republicans throughout the shutdown fight, crossed party lines to confirm some of President Donald Trump’s Cabinet nominees and broke with some Democrats in his staunch support of Israel’s strikes on Gaza.

That record has drawn ire — and possible challengers. Right now, these primary challenges are essentially theoretical. Nobody has declared a run against the senator, though the Pennsylvania Working Families Party said it will support a primary challenger to Fetterman in 2028. But there is speculation around a number of Pennsylvania political figures who could step up, whether it’s a primary challenge or an open field.

Democrats who could launch bids for the seat include Reps. Brendan Boyle and Chris Deluzio. Boyle criticized Fetterman’s visit to Mar-a-Lago in January and called the senator “Trump’s favorite Democrat” in October. He told NOTUS he’s open to running for Fetterman’s seat.

“Appropriately so, I am entirely focused on my own reelection in 2026 and Democrats winning back the House in 2026,” Boyle said. “But after 2026, I don’t rule anything in or out.”

Other Pennsylvania Democrats, including Philadelphia-area Reps. Mary Gay Scanlon and Madeleine Dean, also told NOTUS they wouldn’t rule out a potential run for Senate.

“That’s so exciting,” Scanlon said of the idea that she is considered a possible candidate. “But I’m always just looking at the problems in front of me. I’m not going to speculate about anything that far out.”

Though Dean said there was “no way” she would launch a challenge against Fetterman, she clarified her calculus would “absolutely” change if the senator chose not to run for reelection.

“We’ll see what happens,” she said.

Former Rep. Conor Lamb, who lost to Fetterman in the 2022 primary, has also been floated as a potential contender. Lamb has been speaking at town hall meetings across the state, but has not made any clear indication about whether he will run.

J.J. Balaban, a Democratic ad maker in Pennsylvania, told NOTUS that he thinks it’s likely Fetterman still isn’t sure himself whether he’ll run for reelection. But the senator sure isn’t acting like a future candidate, he argued.

Fetterman’s third-quarter FEC filings show his lowest fundraising total since he first announced his candidacy in 2021. His campaign raised less than $330,000 from July to the end of September. By comparison, Senator Dave McCormick, Fetterman’s Republican counterpart, raised more than $890,000 during that period. He is not up for reelection until 2030.

Fetterman also experienced significant health challenges throughout his time in the Senate. The senator suffered a near-fatal stroke while campaigning for his seat in 2022, was hospitalized for severe depression in 2023 and fell due to a heart health condition last month.

“He has given the very distinct impression that he does not enjoy doing the job on top of obviously significant health challenges,” Balaban said. “You put those two things together, and it’s not clear that we’re going to be talking about a primary challenge as opposed to an open seat. He is not acting like someone who is particularly interested in running for reelection.”

T.J. Rooney, former chairman of the Pennsylvania Democratic Party, echoed the idea that a 2028 run seems unlikely for Fetterman. Rooney said Fetterman has never fit the mold of a “typical” politician in the state.

“He’s an enigma in Pennsylvania politics,” Rooney said. “Politics in most states is fraternal, and whether you’re a Republican or Democrat matters not; what matters is you’re part of the fraternity, and he’s never been.”

There are, of course, other routes the senator could choose.

A person familiar with Fetterman’s thinking told NOTUS that the senator discussed potentially running for president as early as 2023. Still, that person said none of Fetterman’s three obvious options — reelection, retirement or running for president — would surprise them, and said they don’t believe Fetterman particularly enjoys the job.

While You’re Here: If you learned something from this report, pay it forward and become a member of Spotlight PA so someone else can in the future.

A second former Fetterman staffer also told NOTUS Fetterman had hinted at potentially running for president, but didn’t seem to suspect the senator would actually run, given how often he criticizes the party. As for a primary challenge, this person suggested, the senator’s biggest vulnerabilities aren’t due to criticism from the left, but rather because he’s “simply not doing the job.”

Fetterman has drawn criticism for missing votes while in office, especially on Mondays. He is not particularly engaged in legislative maneuvering and does not typically attend Senate Democratic Caucus lunches. Because he does not abide by the Senate dress code, he often cannot actually go into the Senate chamber.

But Fetterman’s shown no signs of switching parties, and as the senator adamantly pointed out, 2028 is a long while away.

Still, the second former Fetterman staffer was among those who didn’t think the senator would run for reelection, similarly suggesting they don’t believe he is happy in the role.

“He’s a lame duck,” this person said. “And deep down, I think he knows it.”

Fetterman was asked on Newsmax on Wednesday whether he likes his job.

“Do I like my job? Is that the question?” Fetterman said. “Yeah, I mean, it’s a supreme –– it’s an honor, absolutely.”

With homelessness rising, new federal rules could benefit states that take tougher approaches - Pennsylvania Capital-Star

2025-12-05T15:41:49.000Z

A homeless man sits in his tent in Washington, D.C., this summer. New rules from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development will sharply restrict how $3 billion in homelessness aid will be spent, allowing no more than 30% of federal grants to be used for permanent housing. (Photo by Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)

As the housing shortage pushes more Americans into homelessness for the first time, the Trump administration wants to focus federal housing aid on mental health treatment and enforcement against street homelessness, rather than on finding people permanent homes as quickly as possible.

The administration’s new plan to tie federal housing aid to work requirements and drug treatment could be a boon to states such as Alabama, Florida and Wyoming that already are pursuing that strategy. But for many other states — and nonprofit providers across the country — the rules represent a sudden pivot from past expectations. In California, the new federal funding priorities face a direct conflict with state law.

Under new rules announced last month, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development will place new restrictions on $3 billion in homelessness aid, allowing no more than 30% of federal grants to be used for permanent housing. That approach, known as Housing First, prioritizes getting people into safe, stable housing ahead of other treatment and enforcement, and had been a key focus for the federal government’s Continuum of Care Program for homelessness.

Now, HUD’s new rules — a shift to Treatment First policies — could result in a major reprioritization of who gets funding and for what purpose. Backlash from many nonprofits and homelessness service providers across the country has been swift, and 20 states and Washington, D.C., have filed suit to stop the rules, arguing they violate federal law. Several cities and counties across the country also have joined a lawsuit against the department.

While service providers point to success stories from permanent supportive housing, the Trump administration points to rising homelessness — and a perception of violent crime — as a reason to shift funding away from the long-standing approach.

But Martha Are, CEO of the Homeless Services Network of Central Florida, said the Trump administration is putting the onus on nonprofits and service providers to fix a homelessness crisis that is propelled by a lack of housing that people can afford.

“If homelessness numbers go up, some assume the homeless-response system doesn’t work. But the real driver is the housing market, not the interventions,” Are said. “HUD is penalizing communities for following the rules they set in previous years. I’ve never seen them say, ‘You complied with our guidance, and now you lose points for it.’”

Easy transition for some states

An analysis of publicly available federal data by the National Alliance to End Homelessness found that 88% of federal Continuum of Care dollars flow to permanent supportive housing and rapid rehousing, the models with the strongest evidence of reducing chronic homelessness. The new HUD rules would force cuts large enough to cause roughly 170,000 people to lose that housing, according to the advocacy group’s projections.

But a handful of Continuum of Care programs already devote far less to permanent housing. According to the National Alliance to End Homelessness, that includes that includes certain county or state programs in Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Tennessee, West Virginia and Wyoming.

These programs operate closer to HUD’s new funding requirements and are unlikely to face major disruption. Some even may become more competitive for federal funding, especially in states where policymakers have already adopted enforcement-heavy approaches to homelessness.

Such states — including Florida, Georgia, Missouri, Tennessee and Texas — may be better positioned under HUD’s new grant-funding criteria, which prioritize jurisdictions that criminalize public camping, expand law enforcement involvement or restrict low-barrier shelters, which may have more flexible policies than traditional shelters.

Since the U.S. Supreme Court’s City of Grants Pass v. Johnson ruling in June 2024 allowing localities to ban outdoor camping even if there is no homeless shelter space available, roughly 150 cities in 32 states have passed or strengthened such ordinances.

The annual point-in-time count of people sleeping outside reported that homelessness reached an all-time high in 2024, the most recent data available from HUD. The count, taken during the last 10 days of January 2024, found that 771,480 people were experiencing homelessness, an 18% increase over the previous year and the largest one-year jump in the history of the count.

HUD told Stateline the administration is shifting its approach to emphasize “long-term self-sufficiency and recovery” rather than the number of housing units funded or filled.

The agency rejected advocates’ claims that the new rules will increase homelessness, arguing instead that “failed” Housing First policies have contributed to rising numbers. HUD said it hopes communities will convert many permanent supportive housing programs into transitional housing with stronger requirements around addiction and mental-health services.

Skepticism about Housing First

The impact of these cuts won’t be evenly distributed.

Some areas with the deepest investments in the Housing First approach — including Cleveland, Ohio; Los Angeles; and New York City — stand to lose thousands of units that currently serve older adults, those leaving domestic violence situations, people with disabilities, veterans and families.

Those in favor of HUD’s funding shift argue that long-standing as it may be, Housing First has failed to reduce homelessness.

HUD’s annual counts show national homelessness rising for most of the past decade, and the nonpartisan Congressional Research Service notes that while Housing First stabilizes individuals, it has not reduced the number of people experiencing homelessness.

A 2021 Harvard University study found that while most people in permanent supportive housing remained housed in the first year, retention dropped sharply over time — with only about 12% still housed after 10 years.

Conservative think tanks such as the Cicero Institute, American Enterprise Institute and the Manhattan Institute suggest that Housing First undervalues mental health and substance use treatment. They point to Oregon’s homelessness struggles after drug decriminalization as evidence that voluntary services alone cannot stabilize the most vulnerable residents.

They further argue that permanent housing grants crowd out shelter, detox and transitional programs, and that many nonprofits defending the model are financially invested in maintaining the status quo.

At a moment when tight housing markets are pushing record numbers of people into first-time homelessness, local providers, who stand to lose grants, warn that HUD’s policy reversal will function more like a mass eviction than a funding shift — sending tens of thousands of people back into shelters, onto waiting lists, or directly onto the streets.

Losing trust in the system

In Orlando, Florida, many residents are experiencing homelessness for the first time. Shelters are full and a recent law in Florida allows police to arrest people for sleeping outdoors.

Are, of the Homeless Services Network of Central Florida, said the proposed HUD changes would eliminate more than 500 permanent housing subsidies that her organization offers in the Orlando area alone.

For providers, these subsidies cover the rent for units where people already live. If HUD defunds them, tenants would lose support, landlords would stop receiving payments and people would be evicted unless local governments backfill the funds, she said. And most local governments can’t afford to, she added.

Central Florida has built a system that uses data to focus on high-need individuals and keep them housed — in long-term rental units paired with voluntary support services — at a lower cost than mandated hospitalizations or treatment, Are said. HUD’s abrupt policy reversal would unravel years of progress and leave communities with “no place to put people.”

“Our permanent supportive housing costs about one-twentieth of what inpatient institutional programs cost in this region, and the outcomes are far better,” she said.

Nashville, Tennessee, had expected stable homelessness funding until HUD overhauled the rules “out of [the] blue” and at a time when it would be hard for providers to plan for sudden changes, said Wally Dietz, legal director for the Metropolitan Government of Nashville and Davidson County.

When Congress approved a two-year cycle for fiscal years 2024 and 2025, localities were told they wouldn’t have to reapply for money, he said. That changed this fall.

“Nashville was given 60 days, spanning Thanksgiving and Christmas, to rewrite and resubmit its entire homelessness funding application, which is something the city typically prepares for a full year,” Dietz said.

If the changes to Nashville’s funding go through, not only will people lose their housing, he said, but a 20-year infrastructure will crumble and the164 landlords who partnered with the city will lose faith once rent aid stops flowing.

“Once evicted, people will not reengage with the system, and trust will be impossible to rebuild,” Dietz said.

Nashville is among a handful of localities, including Boston, San Francisco and Tucson, Arizona, that filed a joint lawsuit Monday to block the rule changes, accusing HUD of bypassing Congress. The suit, whose plaintiffs also include the National Alliance to End Homelessness and the National Low Income Housing Coalition, was filed in U.S. District Court in Rhode Island.

“If the administration wants to overhaul homelessness policy, it has to go through Congress,” Dietz said. “That gives cities time to prepare, to testify, to budget. But we didn’t get that chance.”

Stateline reporter Robbie Sequeira can be reached at rsequeira@stateline.org.

This story was originally produced by Stateline, which is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network which includes Pennsylvania Capital-Star, and is supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity.

Trump Intensifies Use of ‘Race-Baiting’ Anti-Immigrant Language by Calling People from Somalia ‘Garbage’ - Bucks County Beacon

2025-12-05T13:24:30.000Z

He said it four times in seven seconds: Somali immigrants in the United States are “garbage.”

It was no mistake. In fact, President Donald Trump’s rhetorical attacks on immigrants have been building since he said Mexico was sending “rapists” across the border during his presidential campaign announcement a decade ago. He’s also echoed rhetoric once used by Adolf Hitler and called the 54 nations of Africa “s—-hole countries.” But with one flourish closing a two-hour Cabinet meeting Tuesday, Trump amped up his anti-immigrant rhetoric even further and ditched any claim that his administration was only seeking to remove people in the U.S. illegally.

“We don’t want ‘em in our country,” Trump said five times of the nation’s 260,000 people of Somali descent. “Let ’em go back to where they came from and fix it.” The assembled Cabinet members cheered and applauded. Vice President JD Vance could be seen pumping a fist. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, sitting to the president’s immediate left, told Trump on-camera, “Well said.”

The two-minute finale offered a riveting display in a nation that prides itself as being founded and enriched by immigrants, alongside an ugly history of enslaving millions of them and limiting who can come in. Trump’s U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement raids and deportations have reignited an age-old debate — and widened the nation’s divisions — over who can be an American, with Trump telling tens of thousands of American citizens, among others, that he doesn’t want them by virtue of their family origin.

“What he has done is brought this type of language more into the everyday conversation, more into the main,” said Carl Bon Tempo, a State University of New York at Albany history professor. “He’s, in a way, legitimated this type of language that, for many Americans for a long time, was seen as outside the bounds.”

A question that cuts to the core of American identity

FILE – A woman and a child hold hands as they walk down a street in the predominantly Somali neighborhood of Cedar-Riverside in Minneapolis on Thursday, May 12, 2022. (AP Photo/Jessie Wardarski, File)

Some Americans have long felt that people from certain parts of the world can never really blend in. That outsider-averse sentiment has manifested during difficult periods, such as anti-Chinese fear-mongering in the late 19th century and the imprisonment of some 120,000 Japanese Americans during World War II.

Trump, reelected with more than 77 million votes last year, has launched a whole-of-government drive to limit immigration. His order to end birthright citizenship — declaring that children born to parents who are in the United States illegally or temporarily are not American citizens despite the 14th Amendment — is being considered by the Supreme Court. He has largely frozen the country’s asylum system and drastically reduced the number of refugees it is allowed to admit. And his administration this week halted immigration applications for migrants from 19 travel-ban nations.

Immigration remains a signature issue for Trump, and he has slightly higher marks on it than on his overall job approval. According to a November AP-NORC poll, roughly 4 in 10 adults — 42% — approved of how the president is handling the issue, down from about half who approved in March. And Trump has pushed his agenda with near-daily crackdowns. On Wednesday, federal agents launched an immigration sweep in New Orleans,

There are some clues that Trump uses stronger anti-immigration rhetoric than many members of his own party. A study of 200,000 speeches in Congress and 5,000 presidential communications related to immigration between 1880 and 2020 found that the “most influential” words on the subject were terms like “enforce,” “terrorism” and “policy” from 1973 through Trump’s first presidential term.

The authors wrote in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences that Trump is “the first president in modern American history to express sentiment toward immigration that is more negative than the average member of his own party.” And that was before he called thousands of Somalis in the U.S. “garbage.”

READ: The Brutality Is the Message: The Trump Administration and ICE’s Violence Against Immigrants and Their Advocates

The U.S. president, embattled over other developments during the Cabinet meeting and discussions between Russian President Vladimir Putin and U.S. envoys, opted for harsh talk in his jam-packed closing.

Somali Americans, he said, “come from hell” and “contribute nothing.” They do “nothing but bitch” and “their country stinks.” Then Trump turned to a familiar target. Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., an outspoken and frequent Trump critic, “is garbage,” he said. “Her friends are garbage.”

His remarks on Somalia drew shock and condemnation from Minneapolis to Mogadishu.

“My view of the U.S. and living there has changed dramatically. I never thought a president, especially in his second term, would speak so harshly,” Ibrahim Hassan Hajji, a resident of Somalia’s capital city, told The Associated Press. “Because of this, I have no plans to travel to the U.S.”

Omar called Trump’s “obsession” with her and Somali-Americans “creepy and unhealthy.”

“We are not, and I am not, someone to be intimidated,” she said, “and we are not gonna be scapegoated.”

Trump’s influence on these issues is potent

But from the highest pulpit in the world’s biggest economy, Trump has had an undeniable influence on how people regard immigrants.

“Trump specializes in pushing the boundaries of what others have done before,” said César Cuauhtémoc García Hernández, a civil rights law professor at Ohio State University. “He is far from the first politician to embrace race-baiting xenophobia. But as president of the United States, he has more impact than most.” Domestically, Trump has “remarkable loyalty” among Republicans, he added. “Internationally, he embodies an aspiration for like-minded politicians and intellectuals.”

In Britain, attitudes toward migrants have hardened in the decade since Brexit, a vote driven in part by hostility toward immigrants from Eastern Europe. Nigel Farage, leader of the hard-right Reform U.K. party, has called unauthorized migration an “invasion” and warned of looming civil disorder.

France’s Marine Le Pen and her father built their political empire on anti-immigrant language decades before Trump entered politics. But the National Rally party has softened its rhetoric to win broader support. Le Pen often casts the issue as an administrative or policy matter.

READ: Trump Sets 7,500 Annual Limit for Refugees Entering United States. It’ll Be Mostly White Afrikaners From South Africa

In fact, what Trump said about people from Somalia would likely be illegal in France if uttered by anyone other than a head of state, because public insults based on a group’s national origin, ethnicity, race or religion are illegal under the country’s hate speech laws. But French law grants heads of state immunity.

One lawyer expressed concerns that Trump’s words will encourage other heads of state to use similar hate speech targeting people as groups.

“Comments saying that a population stinks — coming from a foreign head of state, a top world military and economic power — that’s never happened before,” said Paris lawyer Arié Alimi, who has worked on hate speech cases. “So here we are really crossing a very, very, very important threshold in terms of expressing racist … comments.”

But the “America first” president said he isn’t worried about others think of his increasingly polarizing rhetoric on immigration.

“I hear somebody say, ‘Oh, that’s not politically correct,’” Trump said, winding up his summation Tuesday. “I don’t care. I don’t want them.”

12/5 Playbook: Trump Coming to NEPA - PoliticsPA

2025-12-05T13:01:14.000Z

TGIF. Cold start to the weekend.

In Today’s PoliticsPA Playbook. Trump to Visit NEPA to Talk About Economy. Fetterman Leaving All 2028 Doors Open. PA-03 Forum Kicks Off 2026 Campaign Season. Deer Spray-Painted With ‘Pet’ Wandering in Lebanon County.

Your Morning Pick-Me-Up. Friday I’m In Love. The Cure

PA Weather
Swissvale | Increasing Clouds, 35
Gettysburg | Cloudy, 32
East Stroudsburg | Increasing Clouds, 27

Voices of Reason. House Appropriations Chair Rep. Jordan Harris and Senate Appropriations Chair Sen. Scott Martin talk with host Steve Ulrich for a candid, bipartisan look at Pennsylvania’s budget battles. Together, they dig into the state’s fiscal outlook, the pressures shaping this year’s negotiations, and why passing a budget has become more challenging than ever.

The Pennsylvania Society. The calendar of events for Dec. 11-13 can be found here.

What We’re Hearing. Rep. Rob Bresnahan, Jr. will welcome Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services Administrator Dr. Mehmet Oz to Scranton for a healthcare roundtable with local stakeholders and officials this morning.

The PoliticsPA Playbook is compiled by Steve Ulrich. To read in your browser, click here. Was this email forwarded to you? Subscribe for free.

Top Story

1. Trump to Visit NEPA On Tuesday to Talk About The Economy

“President Donald Trump will visit Northeast Pennsylvania on Tuesday for the first time since his election last year, a White House official confirmed Thursday.

The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, had no details on where or what time the president will speak.

Trump will talk about his administration’s progress in improving the American economy, the official said.” | WVIA

Elsewhere

Education Secretary Defends Agency Effort To ‘Move Education Back To States’ In Harrisburg Visit. “Linda McMahon defended her department’s downsizing efforts, which have included mass layoffs and the outsourcing of major functions, but said the Trump administration has no plans to fully dismantle the 45-year-old agency.” | PennLive

New Records Reveal Details On The $1M In Taxpayer-Funded Security Upgrades At Gov. Josh Shapiro’s Private Residence. “Publicly-funded upgrades to an elected official’s private home or other assets are rare. That is because the state has strict ethics rules that broadly prohibit public officials from personally benefiting from their positions.” | Spotlight PA

Mackenzie Among Bipartisan House Group Proposing Health Care Plan. “U.S. Rep. Ryan Mackenzie is among a group of 35 House members proposing a menu of options for lawmakers to consider as they deal with the issue of rising health insurance premiums if tax breaks expire at year’s end. They’re calling for a vote by Dec. 18 in both chambers of Congress, ahead of the expiration.” | LehighValleyNews

McCormick Says Pennsylvania Can Lead AI Boom: ‘I Think Our State Is Uniquely Blessed’. “The role of technology in America’s future has been a passionate subject for U.S. Sen. Dave McCormick, who has written a book about it and has been advocating for Pennsylvania to be at the forefront of the growing tech industry.” | Allentown Morning Call

State

2. Fetterman Leaving All 2028 Doors Open as Progressives Plot Primary Challenge

“Progressives are already plotting a primary challenge to Sen. John Fetterman when he’s up for reelection in 2028. But whether Fetterman’s around to be primaried at all is another question.

Elsewhere

Uri Monson Steps Aside as Secretary of Budget; Reber Named As Replacement. “The Secretary of the Budget for the state has announced he is stepping down to assume the position as the Executive Director of the Pennsylvania Public School Employees’ Retirement System, commonly referred to as PSERS.” | PoliticsPA

PA Medicaid To Stop Paying For Use Of Ozempic-Type Meds To Cover Weight Loss Next Month. “Beginning in January, Medicaid will no longer pay for adults to take the drugs for obesity only, but coverage will continue for diabetes and other conditions.” | WESA

Pennsylvania’s Unique System Of Electing Poll Workers Comes With Downsides. “Ties, vacancies, and alleged fraud have convinced some officials change is needed.” | Votebeat

Around The Commonwealth

3. 2026 Primary Season Kicks Off Early With PA-03 Candidates’ Forum

“Five Democratic candidates running to replace retiring Congressman Dwight Evans in Pennsylvania’s Third Congressional District gathered in Philadelphia’s Chestnut Hill neighborhood on Thursday evening for an unusually early high-profile kickoff to campaign season.

State Rep. Morgan Cephas, Dr. David Oxman, state Rep. Chris Rabb, Dr. Ala Stanford and state Sen. Sharif Street participated in the forum hosted by the 9th Ward Democratic Committee” | City & State

Elsewhere

Meet The Billionaire Pushing Taxpayer-Funded School Vouchers. “How Jeff Yass, one of the richest people on the planet, uses politics to press his pet issue: school choice.” | Washington Post

FIFA World Cup: Philadelphia To Learn Group Stage Matchups This Weekend. “The World Cup draw has finally arrived. We’ll find out who plays who in the opening round of the tournament taking place at Philadelphia’s Lincoln Financial Field and across the U.S., Canada and Mexico. The drawing is set for noon at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C.” | Axios Philadelphia

Former Montco Employee Sues County, Alleges It Violated ADA, Committed ‘Fraud’ And Hid ‘Financial Mismanagement’. “A former Montgomery County employee is suing the county for allegedly not accommodating his disabilities. Anthony Olivieri, the former chief information officer, is also claiming that county officials “engaged in fraud, waste, wrongdoing and/or financial mismanagement concealment.”” | WHYY

Lake Seeks Democratic Nomination In 22nd Senatorial District. “Jeffrey Lake made what he called “a pivotal decision” to run for the Pennsylvania Senate because he said he believes that the hardworking people of the community deserve full transparency and real accountability from their leaders.” | Wilkes-Barre Times Leader

Editorial

4. What Do You Think?

Why Democrats Won the Shutdown | Neera Tanden
We’re in an Era of Political Violence | Peggy Noonan
The President Who Never Grew Up | Jonathan Martin
Judgment Day or Payday? Pennsylvanians Weigh the AI Revolution | Athan Koutsiouroumbas
Doing the Opposite — The Republican Party, George Costanza, and Donald Trump | Stew Bolno

1 Thing

5. Deer With “Pet” Spray-Painted On Its Sides Found in Lebanon County

“A deer with the word “pet” spray-painted on its sides in bright orange letters was found wandering around a community in Lebanon County, Pennsylvania.

The Cornwall Borough Police Department said in a Facebook post that a “very friendly” antlerless male deer walked up to a business in West Cornwall Township on Saturday. Both sides of the deer’s body were marked with “pet” in fluorescent orange paint.

Police said the deer didn’t seem to be afraid of people, and he acted like he wanted the officer to pet him. He didn’t even run away when the officer turned on the cruiser’s sirens. Instead, “Mr. Deer” hung around for about 45 minutes until he went on his way.” | CBS News

Thanks for starting your weekend with us.
Make it a great one. See you Monday.

Utility regulators vote to investigate Pa. American Water’s proposed rate increase - Pennsylvania Capital-Star

2025-12-05T12:26:51.000Z

(Photo by New Jersey Monitor).

Pennsylvania regulators will investigate a proposed rate increase by the state’s largest water and wastewater utility. The potential move could increase bills for some customers by more than 40%.

Pennsylvania American Water Co. (PAWC) filed the rate request last month, citing $1.2 billion in ongoing system improvements. The publicly traded company serves about 2.4 million people in 37 counties.

The state Public Utility Commission (PUC) voted unanimously Thursday to refer the proposal to its Office of Administrative Law Judge for investigation and recommendations on possible decisions.

The office’s process will include public hearings to gather testimony from concerned consumers and other interested parties, the PUC said in a statement. The commission will announce dates, times and locations for the hearings.

Every morning get our top stories right in your inbox. Subscribe to the Pennsylvania Capital-Star's Morning Guide now.

The utility’s proposal includes an increase of $168.7 million in total operating revenue. For a typical consumer (based on 3,263 gallons a month), the rate increase would translate into higher bills between $2.73 and $27.77 a month, depending on location. That’s between 9.8% and 41.1%, according to the PUC.

Sewer bills would jump as much as $26.29 or 54% each month if the increase is approved, the PUC said.

PAWC said in a statement when it filed the rate request that the additional revenue would support its plans to modernize and strengthen the water systems it operates throughout the commonwealth. The plans include replacement of 117 miles of aging water mains and 32 miles of sewer mains, removing and replacing lead service lines and addressing other contaminants, such as polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) in drinking water.

PFAS are a type of manmade chemical used widely for nonstick cookware, stain-resistant carpets, and waterproof clothing because of their oil, water and heat resistant properties. Known as “forever chemicals,” they were also used in firefighting foam, which caused ground water contamination near military installations and firefighter training facilities.

In addition to the rate increase, Pennsylvania American Water has also proposed a bill adjustment that would calculate sewer fees based on wintertime water use, when outdoor hoses and sprinklers are used less. It also requested permission to start a pilot program to support low-income renters in buildings without separate meters for apartments, who are not eligible for utility assistance, PAWC said.

Reading risks deep cuts without tax hike, administration says - Spotlight PA

2025-12-05T12:00:00.000Z

READING — Monday may be the last chance for residents to give their opinions about the City of Reading proposed 2026 budget. City Council currently is scheduled to vote on the 9% property tax increase after discussing around $1 million in cuts this week.

A home valued at $100,000 would see a $163 property tax increase under the proposal, and the city would generate an estimated $1.8 million to help cover the growing structural deficit, Finance Director Jamar Kelly told Spotlight PA this week. The mayor’s administration presented a different millage rate in October that reflected a 6% tax increase, but did not include the mils dedicated to the shade tree and library funds.

City Council members and the elected auditor have discussed lowering the increase because of the back-to-back hikes at the county level in 2024 and 2025. The mayor’s administration argues the current proposal is already the lowest reasonable request given the growing deficit without instituting citywide staff reductions, and possible service cuts.

“Nine percent is just a down payment on this growing structural deficit,” Kelly said at a city council committee meeting Wednesday. He continued that he believed another 9% raise would be reasonable in about two years.

Kelly said that he would “definitely have to ask for at least 25% next year” if the 9% increase did not pass. He and Managing Director Jack Gombach said the only way to avoid it would be “mass layoffs.”

Approximately 70% of the budget is tied into personnel costs (salary, healthcare, pensions, extra benefits), which will only grow as new union contracts negotiate raises and healthcare prices go up.

The city could consider cutting vacant positions, but the majority of open roles are in the police and fire departments. Cutting five of the 27 open police patrol positions would save the city approximately $1 million annually, Kelly estimated. However, the administration is trying to recruit for those positions, not cut them, Gombach said.

Council President Donna Reed suggested delaying a final vote on the budget until Dec. 15, but the decision was not made.

The council went over some cost cutting measures Wednesday, potentially eliminating around $1 million in expenses ranging from the upgrade of certain public works vehicles and postponing a scheduled $350,000 demolition. Councilors are also considering cutting management level raises — which are outside union jurisdiction — from 3.5% to 3%. The final decisions on those cuts will come Monday

The mayor’s administration agreed at the beginning of the meeting to rescind requests for new employee positions, including a deputy managing director, fire training lieutenant, and downtown activities coordinator.

The city ran a $1.9 million deficit in 2024 and expects similar, or larger, in 2025 and 2026 depending on the amount of earned income and real estate taxes collected. Gombach said the goal is to avoid returning to state-declared financial distress.

City Council is scheduled to hear public opinion and vote on the budget Dec. 8, though councilors may choose to delay the vote to Dec. 15. Council members may still propose new amendments to the budget beyond the changes accepted Wednesday.

Pennsylvania’s unique system of electing poll workers comes with downsides - Pennsylvania Capital-Star

2025-12-05T11:03:15.000Z

Voters leave a polling location at West Chester University in West Chester, Pa. on Election Day on Nov. 5, 2024. (Photo by Kriston Jae Bethel for Votebeat)

This article was originally published by Votebeat, a nonprofit news organization covering local election administration and voting access.

For this November’s election, no candidate was listed on the ballot for judge of elections in Scranton’s Ward 6, Precinct 1. So the poll worker on duty allegedly wrote her own name on the ballots.

According to the Lackawanna County district attorney, Kathie Sico, who was serving as the precinct’s judge of elections that day, decided to write herself in for the position on the ballots before handing them to voters.

Sico — who has been charged with multiple violations of election law, including felony fraud by election officials and interference with elections — “stated that she knows it looks like voter fraud, but she has had so much going on the past couple weeks with her medical condition that she didn’t even think,” a detective with the county wrote in a criminal affidavit, according to WVIA.

Outright fraud by an elected poll worker, such as Sico is accused of, is rare. But the case highlights one of many issues that have arisen from Pennsylvania’s unique system of selecting the people who run voting locations — and some argue it’s time for change.

Unlike most states, which use some variation of an appointment-based system, Pennsylvania elects its poll workers. Each polling place has at least five workers, including three who are elected: the judge of elections, a minority inspector, and a majority inspector. There are over 9,000 voting precincts in the state, meaning the state needs to elect more than 27,000 workers.

Election workers review a mail-in ballot with an incorrect signature at Chester County’s central scanning location in West Chester, Pennsylvania, prior to the start of Election Day on Nov. 5, 2024. In Pennsylvania, voters elect poll workers, but there often aren’t enough candidates. (Kriston Jae Bethel for Votebeat)

Pennsylvania is the only state that still elects poll workers

Pennsylvania has been electing poll workers since 1799. And according to data from the U.S. Election Assistance Commission, it’s the only state in the country that still directly elects the workers who run voting precincts. The other longtime holdout, Rhode Island, did away with the practice in 2009.

Former Rhode Island state Rep. Michael Marcello, a Democrat who wrote the bill that ended those elections, told Votebeat and Spotlight PA in May that the goal was to prevent these positions from being politicized. But his co-sponsor, former Democratic state Rep. Scott Pollard, recalled a more practical reason: It was tough to find people to run for the positions, especially when they needed to fill out paperwork to appear on the ballot.

The same is true in Pennsylvania. This year, thousands of poll worker positions went without named candidates on the ballot.

“There’s something about the emotional hurdle of having to be on the ballot,” said Sean Drasher, election director for Lebanon County. “They don’t want to be seen as a politician.”

In Allegheny County, which needs nearly 4,000 judges and inspectors to staff its precincts, only 439 candidates for those offices were on the ballot this fall.

But not having your name on the ballot is not much of a barrier to being elected to the positions, as even a single write-in vote can be enough to win. In Lebanon County, write-in candidates won roughly half of the judge positions this year, along with about 70% of the inspector positions.

However, write-ins can create problems of their own.

Because it is possible to win with just a single vote, these races frequently result in ties that election officials have to spend time and money resolving through a process called the “casting of lots” — essentially a game of chance equivalent to a coin flip.

More than 200 poll worker races tied in Westmoreland County this year, and in Lancaster County, election director Christa Miller estimated that 95% of the ties the county dealt with this year were for poll workers.

If no one wins through the election, the county appoints people to fill the vacant spots.

Poll workers process ballots at City Hall on November 05, 2024, in Janesville, Wisconsin. (Photo by Spencer Platt/Getty Images)

The downsides of electing poll workers

Drasher has a unique and personal connection to the elected poll workers system. His first job in election administration was as a poll worker, a position he won through a tied write-in election. He got the job when his daughter pulled the winning marble during the casting of lots.

“So I have a soft spot for it,” he said. “But now that I’m sitting in the chair, there are some big downsides to it just from an (operations) point of view.”

Drasher said that, on paper, the idea of having an elected judge along with two inspectors who — ideally — come from different political parties makes sense. If operating properly, it would ensure a bipartisan group of poll workers selected by members of their own community.

But in practice, the system fails to meet that standard, both because so many positions go without candidates and because the way the law is written is possible for both inspectors to come from the same party.

Under Pennsylvania law, the inspector candidate with the most votes becomes the majority inspector, and the candidate with the second-most votes becomes the minority inspector. In theory, since each political party can nominate only one candidate in the primary, this should produce inspectors from different parties. But with the ease of winning through write-in votes, it is not uncommon for the “minority” inspector to simply be a second member of the other inspector’s party.

The system can also produce winners who don’t want the job. Election officials say many people have their names written in by friends as a joke. Drasher said that can be OK if the unwitting electee is someone who will take the job seriously, but it often results in positions becoming vacant (winners can decline the job if they don’t want it) or experienced appointed poll workers getting pushed out.

“I hate to see it go, but I have to admit that if something came up, if the legislature said, ‘Hey, do you want to change it?’ I would lean toward changing it to become more in line with the way the other states do it,” he said.

That change could be on the horizon. Earlier this year, state Sen. Lisa Boscola (D., Northampton) said she would be introducing a bill to move to an appointment-based system.

In an interview this week, she said the current system is outdated and, “sadly,” at times laughable.

She said her bill, which hasn’t yet been introduced, will simply move the process from an election to an appointment by the county board of elections.

“It’s antiquated,” she said. “Us being the last state, that should say enough.”

Carter Walker is a reporter for Votebeat in partnership with Spotlight PA. Contact Carter at cwalker@votebeat.org. Votebeat is a nonprofit news organization covering local election integrity and voting access. Sign up for their newsletters here.

Pa. court lifts suspension for York County judge after federal prosecutors drop indictment - Pennsylvania Capital-Star

2025-12-05T10:07:39.000Z

The Ronald Regan Federal Courthouse Building in Harrisburg. Source: Wikimedia Commons.

A York County judge who was accused of stealing unemployment benefits during the COVID-19 pandemic will be able to return to the bench after the federal indictment against him was dismissed.

The state Court of Judicial Discipline, which hears and decides ethical misconduct charges against Pennsylvania judges, lifted an order suspending Judge Steven Stambaugh on Thursday.

He was suspended without pay in October 2024 after a federal grand jury returned a 31-count indictment against him alleging wire fraud, mail fraud, witness tampering and related offenses.

Stambaugh entered a pretrial diversion agreement with federal prosecutors last month, which allows him to avoid a trial or a guilty plea, according to court records. Under the agreement, he will serve a period of supervised release, which is similar to probation.

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U.S. District Judge Malachy E. Mannion dismissed the indictment Wednesday at the request of federal prosecutors. It was dismissed with prejudice, meaning that prosecutors cannot refile the charges.

It’s unclear from court records why the U.S. Attorney’s Office agreed to the dismissal. Stambaugh’s lawyers argued last summer that the indictment should be dismissed because prosecutors withheld evidence that raised serious questions about the credibility of a key witness. Mannion denied that request, the York Daily Record reported.

The indictment accused Stambaugh of using fraudulent unemployment claims to pay employees of his York personal injury law firm, Stambaugh Law. According to the indictment, Stambaugh allegedly filed and instructed his employees to file unemployment claims to collect unemployment compensation payments even though they were still employed.

The claims, during the spring of 2020, included $600-a-week Federal Pandemic Unemployment Compensation payments in addition to the weekly benefit the state pays those who are unemployed and unable to find work.

Stambaugh was also accused of pressuring an employee to lie in testimony before the grand jury and seeking a meeting with the witness to ensure they were “on the same page.”

His trial was scheduled to begin Wednesday in Harrisburg.

Meet a Mayor: The secret gifts of Pa.’s ‘Christmas City’ - Spotlight PA

2025-12-05T10:00:00.000Z

BETHLEHEM — Christmas and industrial history aren’t all this Lehigh Valley city has to offer.

For J. William Reynolds, a lifelong resident of the city of 75,000 and its mayor since 2022, Bethlehem stands out — and thrives — because of its togetherness.

Yes, the holidays are a big thing here — it’s had the self-adopted name of Christmas City for some time, and been the setting for a Hallmark movie titled (of course) Miracle in Bethlehem, PA. And the world-famous Bethlehem Steel Corporation called the city home for nearly a century and a half, as it fortified the United States’ skyscrapers, bridges, and warships.

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But Bethlehem has layers, its mayor insists. As part of our “Meet a Mayor” Q&A series, Reynolds, a former teacher and City Council member, spoke with PA Local about the commonwealth’s seventh-largest city, which has experienced lots of growth and change since its christening on Christmas Eve, 1741.

This interview has been condensed and edited for length and clarity.

PA Local: Can you describe Bethlehem in three words?

Reynolds: Community, family, and opportunity.

What was it about Bethlehem that made you want to lead it?

I think growing up here, one of the things you realize about our community is that it truly is a community. When you look at our institutions, when you look at our schools, our churches, our business groups … we’re a city that’s been built for 300 years on this idea that we’re stronger together. You just find a lot of people in Bethlehem that are very optimistic, very positive, and want to make a difference in the world. I don’t think you find that everywhere. And I thought there were a lot of opportunities for our city moving forward, and that’s why I wanted to be mayor.

Bethlehem is known as the Christmas City. Could you explain why that is, and how Bethlehem keeps up that reputation to this day?

We were founded by the Moravians, which is a sect of Protestantism, almost 300 years ago in 1741. And obviously with our name, we have kind of inherited this tradition of Christmas. But we have very much tried to expand that in 2025 to this idea of, the holiday season is about community. It’s about the idea that like the best of us is when we’re spending time together, when we’re celebrating together.

So absolutely, there is an economic benefit to be branded as the Christmas City. But more than that, it’s really a reminder during these months in November and December about what our community is about all 12 months of the year. And that’s the idea of working together to create joy and understanding that community is really at the center of what makes a place the place you want to live.

How are November and December in Bethlehem different from any other months?

We have a lot of holiday traditions … but there’s just a certain charm that we have that makes people want to come to Bethlehem, makes people want to shop in Bethlehem — but also just take in what those what those concepts are that we think of in the holiday season, which is that we want to spend time with family, with friends, and just think about how grateful we are.

What do you wish people who aren’t from Bethlehem, or maybe haven’t been here before, knew about it?

We are much more than just this kind of post-industrial city. Last couple years — I think probably four or five years in a row now — we’re in the top 100 places to live. We have this very blossoming economy. We have this incredible demand to want to locate here, to want to start a business here. And I think when people think about Bethlehem, they have this idea about what Bethlehem was in Bethlehem Steel. And that’s a rich part of our heritage, but in 2025, we're much more diverse than that, we’re more inclusive than that idea of just being an old steel town.

If you had to pick just one, what would you say is your favorite local holiday tradition?

It would probably be coming to the tree lighting — especially now that my wife and I have a two-year-old. So we’ve been able to add that to our tradition list.

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What is a fun fact most people don’t know about Bethlehem?

I would say probably people often associate us with the Moravians, which is the church, but the majority of people in the city are not Moravians. So there are a few Moravian churches, but the majority of the city is not of the Moravian faith.

What’s your favorite Bethlehem hidden gem?

I don’t know how hidden this is, but it’s definitely to go for a run in the City of Bethlehem. It’s one of the things that I like to do the most, is run through the neighborhoods — run in the South Side, run in the North Side, and just take in all of our different neighborhoods.

Let’s say, hypothetically, I’m a first time visitor, and I’ve only got two hours to spend in Bethlehem. Where would you recommend that I go? What’s my itinerary?

You might want to start here and get this great view of South Bethlehem and just kind of see what’s at the center of the city. [Editor’s note: This interview was conducted at Payrow Plaza, where City Hall and the public library are located.] But if you got two hours, I’d probably go one of two places. I’d either go to South Bethlehem and walk along the Greenway, which is an old rail trail that we’ve turned into just this amazing connector on the South Side, or I would go and I would walk through our downtown here on the North Side. We’re a [UNESCO] World Heritage Site now — we were the 26th World Heritage Site in the United States — so, I probably would just take a walk down Main Street to get an idea of some of our history.

Is there a particular Pennsylvania city, borough, or township you think we should feature in future “Meet a Mayor” installments? Let us know.

New records reveal details on the $1M in taxpayer-funded security upgrades at Gov. Josh Shapiro’s private residence - Spotlight PA

2025-12-05T10:00:00.000Z

HARRISBURG — New records obtained by Spotlight PA show Pennsylvania is planning to spend just shy of $1.1 million in public dollars for security upgrades to Gov. Josh Shapiro’s private family home in the Philadelphia suburbs, including $311,000 for a new security system and nearly $290,000 for landscaping and other groundskeeping.

The upgrades, the Shapiro administration has said, were recommended by Pennsylvania State Police after a middle-of-the-night arson attack earlier this year on the state-owned mansion for the governor some 100 miles away in Harrisburg. Shapiro and his family were asleep inside at the time, but no one was injured.

As work to repair the millions of dollars in fire damage at the mansion was ongoing, State Police also began quietly paying for security upgrades to Shapiro’s house in Montgomery County — a fact that was only disclosed by the administration in a letter in late October to a handful of top state lawmakers.

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Publicly-funded upgrades to an elected official’s private home or other assets are rare. That is because the state has strict ethics rules that broadly prohibit public officials from personally benefiting from their positions.

Shapiro’s office has stressed that the upgrades were recommended by law enforcement for the governor’s personal safety. Administration officials have also said that before carrying out any of the security improvements at the governor’s family home, the governor consulted with the State Ethics Commission to ensure there was no improper financial gain. Shapiro, like former governors, splits his time between living in the state-owned mansion when in Harrisburg, and his private home.

In early October, the commission issued an opinion saying that the security upgrades — which the governor’s office did not detail or even broadly describe to the commission when asking for guidance — did not constitute a personal benefit, given the governor’s position in state government and the circumstances that necessitated the work.

Using the state’s Right-to-Know Law, Spotlight PA requested invoices, purchase orders, and other financial records detailing the security upgrades.

The records, provided by State Police, show that the upgrades are expected to cost just over $1,075,000. They also provide the first details of what taxpayer dollars are paying for at the governor’s private home.

The documents also confirm that some of the contractors began billing for work at the governor’s house as early as mid-August, or about two months before the ethics commission issued its opinion.

A spokesman for the governor did not respond to questions about the timing of the upgrades.

One company, Facility Optimization Solutions, billed State Police $7,560.11 for licensing and development fees on Aug. 13, according to the invoice.

That invoice, however, estimated the total job order would cost $138,717.60, and noted that it is for “Governor’s Home Security System and Fencing Install.” The dates of service are listed from Aug. 13 through the end of this month.

Spotlight PA has learned from two sources with knowledge of the purchase that though the state bought the fencing — which was nonrefundable — it did not end up being installed at the Shapiros’ house. It is not clear why, or whether the fencing can be repurposed.

Another company, I.B. Able, expects to charge State Police $598,527.12 for multiple items and services, according to a copy of the purchase order. The order was issued late last month, but lists its effective date as Aug. 12.

The company’s work includes $311,230.50 for a security system, $44,026.91 for electrical work to install the system, and $107,073.75 for engineering and design fees.

A third contractor, Lobar Associates, turned in a purchase order for $446,686.18 for work and services it will provide between mid-August and the end of this year.

That includes $12,207.15 for general construction; $81,043.84 for tree trimming; $17,968.50 for trenching to install the security system; and $288,736 for landscaping and maintenance involving the exterior grounds.

It also includes $2,327.71 for “door work,” $4,832.95 for light pole bases, and $5,430.66 for placing boulders around the home. There is also an $18,390.43 charge for an item that is redacted in the records State Police officials provided. When turning over the records, State Police officials said they removed information that could jeopardize public safety or cause a “substantial and demonstrable risk of physical harm to or the personal security of an individual” or building.

Those officials have also said some of those costs are not finalized and might change. As a result, it is not yet possible to calculate the final price tag.

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One state lawmaker, however, has said the administration owes the public a more robust explanation.

Sen. Jarrett Coleman (R., Lehigh), who chairs the chamber’s Intergovernmental Operations Committee, has threatened to subpoena the administration as early as next week for detailed financial and other records about the security upgrades at the Montgomery County house.

His committee had been set to vote on the subpoenas late last month, but pulled back at the 11th hour.

The senator said at the time he would give the administration until Thursday of this week to provide the requested records, which also include emails, texts, and other written communications about how the decision was made to use public money for the upgrades. A spokesperson for the governor at the time called the threat of subpoenas a “partisan stunt.”

In a statement late Thursday, Coleman’s office said it had received some information, but the senator called it “woefully inadequate.”

“I was very clear about the information being requested, when I expected it by, and what the next steps would look like if it wasn’t provided,” Coleman said.

Shapiro Budget Secretary Uri Monson stepping down to lead PSERS - Pennsylvania Capital-Star

2025-12-04T23:47:31.000Z

Uri Monson will serve as Gov.-elect Josh Shapiro's budget secretary.

State Budget Secretary Uri Monson is leaving Gov. Josh Shapiro’s cabinet to serve as executive director of the Pennsylvania School Employees Retirement System (PSERS).

Monson, who is a longtime associate of Shapiro, will bring broad experience in public finance to the agency, which manages nearly $80 billion in investments for the pensions of more than 500,000 teachers, school staff and retirees, PSERS said in a statement.

“We chose Uri Monson as our next executive director because of his extensive public sector financial experience, which is well-suited to guide PSERS in the years ahead,” Board Chair Richard Vague said.

The PSERS board selected Monson after a nationwide search to succeed interim Executive Director Ben Cotton after former Executive Director Terrill Sanchez retired in June.

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Monson said he is honored to be selected and have the board’s trust to lead PSERS.

“I have spent my career managing public finances with care and accountability, and I look forward to working with the board, staff and stakeholders to ensure the system continues to deliver on its promise of retirement security for Pennsylvania’s public school employees,” Monson said

Monson earns about $211,000 as budget secretary. Sanchez earned $317,000 before his retirement.

Shapiro will appoint Zachary Reber, who currently serves as deputy secretary for fiscal policy and program coordination, to become budget secretary, the governor’s office said. The PSERS board is expected to finalize its selection of Monson at its Dec. 12 meeting.

Gov. Josh Shapiro sings bills at the 2025-2026 budget signing ceremony on Nov. 12, 2025 (Photo by Ian Karbal/Pennsylvania Capital-Star)

Shapiro’s office highlighted Monson’s work with the Budget Office through three budget cycles during which Shapiro’s team negotiated with Republicans in the divided legislature to fund cash strapped public transit agencies, school vouchers and other policy goals, amid a process that extended beyond the deadline each year.

Monson presided over the debut of the commonwealth’s first ever debt management plan, which clarified guidelines for debt authorization and repayment. He also oversaw a bond refinancing that will save taxpayers $193 million, according to the governor’s office.

Before joining Shapiro’s administration, Monson served as deputy superintendent and as chief financial officer for the School District of Philadelphia. Before that, he was CFO for Montgomery County, where Shapiro once served as commissioner.

Shapiro said Monson helped him as he inherited a deficit as commissioner. Together, they balanced the county’s budget, returned it to financial stability and restored the county’s bond rating to AAA status, the highest available.

Monson also served as assistant budget director for Philadelphia where he was responsible for policy analysis for the finance director and Mayor Ed Rendell’s cabinet.

A graduate of Columbia University, Monson holds a bachelor’s degree in political science and a masters degree in public policy from Columbia’s School of International and Public Affairs. Monson also earned a bachelor’s degree in Midrash from the Jewish Theological Seminary of America.

Reber has worked for the state for nearly a decade, serving in multiple senior roles in the governor’s office and the Department of Community and Economic Development. As a deputy secretary in the budget office, Reber manages coordination with the governor’s office and plays a key role in shaping the commonwealth’s annual budget, Shapiro’s office said.

Monson Steps Aside as Secretary of Budget; Reber Named As Replacement - PoliticsPA

2025-12-04T22:52:12.000Z

After more than 230 days after assisting Gov. Josh Shapiro put together a budget proposal for the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, Uri Monson has seen enough.

The Secretary of the Budget for the state has announced he is stepping down to assume the position as the Executive Director of the Pennsylvania Public School Employees’ Retirement System, commonly referred to as PSERS.

Zachary Reber, Deputy Secretary for Fiscal Policy and Program Coordination in the Office of the Budget, will be appointed to fill the role upon the conclusion of Monson’s service on December 12. PSERS’ Board of Trustees is expected to finalize Monson’s appointment at its December 12 meeting.

“Pennsylvania taxpayers are fortunate to have dedicated public servants like Uri and Zach carefully managing the Commonwealth’s budgetary and fiscal health. Uri has demonstrated exceptional financial leadership and integrity throughout his career, and as Secretary of the Budget, he instituted new policies that helped the Commonwealth receive its highest bond rating in more than a decade, saving taxpayers hundreds of millions of dollars. He has been a critical part of our team, and I know he will guide PSERS with the long-term interests of its members at the forefront,” said Shapiro.

“Zach has been a key leader in the Budget Office for years — he understands the Commonwealth’s fiscal landscape inside and out, and I have full confidence he will excel as our next Budget Secretary.”

The PSERS Board selected Monson after a nationwide search. He will lead a staff of 350 and succeed Interim Executive Director Ben Cotton, following the retirement of former Executive Director Terrill Sanchez in June.

Monson, who was appointed in January 2023, has led the Commonwealth’s finances with a focus on long-term fiscal responsibility and strategic growth. Under Monson’s leadership, Pennsylvania released its first-ever debt management policy, providing clear guidance on debt authorizations and repayment, and completed bond refinancing that will save taxpayers $193 million over the next decade. During his tenure, the Commonwealth has received its highest credit ratings in more than a decade, with Moody’s, Fitch, and S&P all affirming Pennsylvania’s positive outlook.

Just yesterday, Monson officially opened a newly modernized Office of the Budget workspaces at Forum Place. The 2025-26 budget invested more than $15 million in the Space Optimization & Utilization Project (SOUP), a statewide effort to reduce leased space, improve workplace quality, and deliver significant long-term savings.

Reber has served the Commonwealth for more than a decade in various leadership roles. His work includes serving as Special Advisor to multiple Budget Secretaries; Executive Director of the Keystone Economic Development and Workforce Command Center; Deputy Secretary of Policy and Planning in the Governor’s Office; and multiple senior roles at the Department of Community and Economic Development. He began his Commonwealth service at the Department of Revenue in 2012.

A graduate of Alvernia University, Reber earned a bachelor’s degree with a major in political science and a minor in history, graduating summa cum laude from the Honors Program. He resides in Schuylkill County with his wife and two daughters, and he is also a fourth-generation farmer who operates a family farm with his two brothers.

U.S. work authorizations for legal immigrants slashed from 5 years to 18 months - Pennsylvania Capital-Star

2025-12-04T22:47:33.000Z

Farm workers harvesting yellow bell peppers near Gilroy, California. (Nnehring/Getty Images)

WASHINGTON — The Trump administration Thursday announced new restrictions for immigrants, reducing the work authorization periods from five years to 18 months, the latest crackdown on legal immigration.

The new policy follows the shooting of two West Virginia National Guard members by an Afghan national granted asylum earlier this year.

The shift will not only affect hundreds of thousands of immigrants, but the shortened period for work authorization could create massive backlogs at the agency responsible for processing legal immigration requests, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services.

“Reducing the maximum validity period for employment authorization will ensure that those seeking to work in the United States do not threaten public safety or promote harmful anti-American ideologies,” USCIS Director Joseph Edlow said in a statement.

“After the attack on National Guard service members in our nation’s capital by an alien who was admitted into this country by the previous administration, it’s even more clear that USCIS must conduct frequent vetting of aliens,” he continued.

Immigrants affected by the new changes include refugees; those granted asylum; those with a withholding of removal; those with pending applications for asylum or withholding of removal; those adjusting their status, for example by gaining a green card; and those who fall under the Nicaraguan Adjustment and Central American Relief Act of 1997.

That act applies to certain Nicaraguans, Cubans, Salvadorans, Guatemalans, nationals of former Soviet bloc countries and their dependents who in the 1990s had applied for asylum and were systematically denied.

Additionally, USCIS fees for applying for permits and other paperwork increased as a result of the massive tax and spending passage that Republicans passed over the summer and President Donald Trump signed into law. For initial employment authorization, fees are now $550 and $275 to renew.

Following the shooting, U.S. Army Spc. Sarah Beckstrom, 20, died. A second guard member, U.S. Air Force Staff Sgt. Andrew Wolfe, 24, remains critically wounded but hospitalized in stable condition.

In response, the Trump administration has ramped up its crackdown on legal immigration and highlighted the need for its mass deportation campaign. The suspect, Rahmanullah Lakanwal, pleaded not guilty to several charges in court on Tuesday.

This week, all immigration applications from 19 countries listed on Trump’s “high-risk” countries or travel ban from earlier this year, were paused — a move that freezes processing for green card holders and citizenship applications.

Pa. lawmakers received their annual raise. Rank and file members now make $113,000 - Pennsylvania Capital-Star

2025-12-04T22:34:45.000Z

The Pennsylvania Capitol in downtown Harrisburg on Dec. 2, 2025. (Photo by Tim Lambert/Pennsylvania Capital-Star)

An automatic cost of living adjustment bumped state lawmakers’ salaries to $113,000 per year, for rank and file members.

According to the National Conference of State Legislatures, Pennsylvania legislators are among the highest paid in the country. The average pay for a state lawmaker nationally is $47,904, but that includes part-time legislatures.

The commonwealth’s legislature is full-time, convening in Harrisburg throughout the year. This year, there were 75 scheduled session days for House members, with three more on the calendar for later this month. The Senate met for 51 days, and has two more scheduled for before the year ends.

The raises are doled out automatically each year based on consumer price metrics. Legislation enacting the cost-of-living raises was enacted in 1995 and, as it stands, the pay bumps do not require a vote by lawmakers. Though some would like to change the practice.

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In a now-infamous episode, lawmakers voted on a raise for themselves in 2005, during a 2 a.m. session. Legislators would have received raises of between 16% and 34%, depending on their position. However, the law was ultimately repealed. There was significant backlash from the public, and it resulted in a tidal wave of resignations and reelection losses.

A number of bills have been introduced over the years that would get rid of the automatic raise, including several this year. One introduced this session is sponsored by Rep. Stephanie Borowicz (R-Clinton).

Another introduced by Sen. Lisa Baker (R-Luzerne) in January would allow lawmakers to refuse their cost-of-living wage.

Rep. Jeremy Shaffer (R-Allegheny) introduced a bill that would suspend automatic pay raises for legislators, the governor and the lieutenant governor any year that a budget is not passed by the constitutional deadline.

This year’s budget, which was due on June 30, was passed on Nov. 12.

“I think it’s completely unacceptable that it’s become the norm that our budget is late,” Shaffer said. “There needs to be some consequences”

A hallway in the Pennsylvania Capitol building in Harrisburg on October 14, 2025. (Photo by Jessica Kourkounis for the Pennsylvania Capital-Star)

Shaffer, who was elected on a reform platform that included support for term limits, also opposes the automatic raises more broadly. Moreover, he would like to see the legislature changed a full-time one to a part-time.

As it stands, state lawmakers have a handful of session days scheduled every month, and often spend the rest of their time performing constituent outreach. Generally, a part-time legislature meets for one fixed block of time, spending weeks or months in the capital each year, to pass a budget and any new policies. The pay, too, is reflective of a part-time job, and many lawmakers hold other jobs.

“It helps people stay more focused,” Shaffer said. “And it helps when they return to their districts, they have a regular job and have to interact with their community more.”

One lawmaker, Rep. Perry Stambaugh (R-Perry), introduced a resolution directing the Legislative Budget and Finance Committee to conduct a study on the possibility of such a change. Shaffer was a co-sponsor.

“In the private industry, pay is tied to performance, and right now there’s no such linkage for the state legislature,” Shaffer added. “Tying pay raises to actually delivering a budget on time seems like a very simple first step to try to tie pay to performance.”