News & Brews January 23, 2024

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PA GOP backs Dave Sunday for attorney general

Yesterday, the Pennsylvania Republican Party endorsed York County District Attorney Dave Sunday for state attorney general, backing Sunday over fellow Republicans Rep. Craig Williams (Delaware County), who did not participate in the process, and Kat Copeland. The Inquirer reports that Williams “withdrew from the GOP endorsement process and decided to run without the party’s nod,” saying the party’s decision to endorse early was an attempt to shut him out. Copeland, meanwhile, ended her campaign after the vote, having previously said she would not challenge the party’s endorsed candidate.

Pa. gov’t accidentally deleted thousands of records

PennLive reports, “Human error caused the loss of thousands of records from at least two state agencies stored on the state’s computer system servers. Some of the data from the Pennsylvania State Police and State Employee’ Retirement System has yet to be recovered, Shapiro Administration officials have confirmed.” The incident reportedly occurred on January 3 and involved 77 computer system servers. “The data that was lost affecting the state police was an application used to manage and log evidence submissions…. The impact on the state employees’ pension system involved the login that members use to access their pension information.” Both agencies claim that no critical data was lost.

Report: Pa. among ‘worst states to start a business’

A report from WalletHub ranks Pennsylvania among the worst 10 states in which to start a business. We rank 43rd, to be exact. “The Keystone State received particularly dismal grades under the ‘Business Environment’ category, for which it received the 44th overall ranking,” PennLive reports. The other broad categories considered were “access to resources” and “business costs.”

Pro-abortion activists seek to change Pa. Constitution 

Some Democrat lawmakers, backed by pro-abortion advocates, are aiming for a constitutional amendment in Pa. codifying a “fundamental right” to an abortion. Among supposed barriers cited, one attorney with a pro-abortion group objected to rules about the sizes of elevators in abortion clinics. This attorney may not realize there are also rules about the sizes of elevators in hospitals. Legislation proposed by Democrats would repeal elevator rules as well as other health and safety standards designed to protect women at abortion clinics in Pa. This after more than half of the state’s abortion clinics failed at least one state health inspection last year.

Trump coming to Pa. next month

Former President Trump is scheduled to be in Harrisburg on February 9 to keynote the NRA Presidential Forum at the NRA’s Great American Outdoor Show. PennLive reports that the show “is billed as the world’s largest outdoors show with 1,000 exhibitors. In 2023, 200,000 visitors attended the event, the NRA said.”

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