News & Brews September 10, 2021
Get News & Brews in your inbox each day: Subscribe here!
Election hearings begin
Yesterday, the Senate Intergovernmental Operations Committee held its first hearing looking into election processes in 2020 and 2021. Committee Chair Cris Dush began by making it clear the hearing was not about overturning the 2020 election, saying, “That horse is out of the barn.” Democrats quickly tried to round up the horse and shove it back into the barn. So, that’s where we are.
Lawmakers ask Wolf admin for more COVID data
On Wednesday, Senate President Pro Tempore Jake Corman, House Speaker Bryan Cutler, Senate Health and Human Services Chair Michele Brooks, and House Health Committee Chair Kathy Rapp, penned a letter to Gov. Wolf and Acting Secretary of Health Alison Beam, asking them to provide more detailed COVID data, including cases among children 18 and under and cases by vaccination status. Gov. Wolf responded with a letter of his own, asking members to provide data on how they’re encouraging vaccinations. Notably, the lawmakers are asking Wolf for the data that’s supposedly driving his administration’s mandates. Wolf is asking lawmakers to prove they’re doing what he wants them to do.
Wolf praises Biden’s latest vaccine mandate
From saying in February that “vaccination is a personal health decision,” (time stamp 3:13 here), Gov. Wolf has done an about-face and yesterday praised President Biden’s sweeping mandate to force 100 million Americans to get vaccinated (or tested weekly for some) as a condition of keeping their jobs. Get ready. At this rate, it’s only a matter of (short) time before Wolf expands his own vaccine mandate here in PA.
Remembering 9/11 in PA
The Pittsburgh Tribune-Review looks at how local teachers are relying both on the Flight 93 Memorial in Shanksville and their own personal memories to teach about the events of 20 years ago to a generation of students who weren’t yet born on that Tuesday morning when the world changed.
Wishing Sen. Browne a speedy recovery
We extend our wishes for a full and speedy recovery to Sen. Pat Browne (Lehigh County), who was injured in a motorcycle accident and is currently undergoing rehab in Colorado, where the accident occurred.