News & Brews February 23, 2024
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Soros to become largest shareholder of parent company of Pa. radio stations
I’m filing this one under the “Interesting / Keep an eye on” category. Liberal billionaire George Soros is set to become the largest shareholder of Audacy, which owns multiple Pa. radio stations including conservative talk radio 1210 WPHT and KYW NewsRadio 1060, both in Philly, and KDKA in Pittsburgh. The Inquirer reports, “Soros’ investment fund has acquired about $415 million of Audacy’s senior debt, roughly 40%, which would make it the single largest shareholder of the company when it emerges from bankruptcy, according to court filings.”
Pa. Supreme Court ends efforts to subpoena 2020 election info
Bringing to a close a multi-year case, the Pa. Supreme Court on Wednesday ended efforts, begun in 2021 by some Republican state lawmakers, to subpoena election info related to the 2020 election. The AP reports, “The court, in a brief order, dismissed three appeals in the case, vacated a lower court order and said the subpoena became ‘unenforceable’ when the state Legislature’s two-year session ended in 2022.”
Johnny Doc’s former assistant sentenced, but avoids prison
Yesterday, former IBEW 98 leader John “Johnny Doc” Dougherty’s former assistant, Niko Rodriguez, was sentenced in the union embezzlement case and was the first among those sentenced thus far to avoid prison. Instead, Rodriguez was sentenced to three years’ probation. The Inquirer reports that Rodriguez has “agreed to pay back more than $13,000 to Local 98 of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers for personal charges he racked up for himself, Dougherty and members of Dougherty’s family between 2014 and 2015.” Rodriguez was just 24 at the time, and his defense attorney said Dougherty had been “like a second father” to him for several years.
PLCB still targeting businesses for violating Wolf’s COVID orders
During former Gov. Wolf’s draconian COVID shutdown orders, some businesses that violated the orders to survive faced consequences. Well, the Pennsylvania Liquor Control Board apparently holds a grudge and is trying to further sanction liquor-serving establishments who, as one former PLCB board member put it, already “paid their dues.” Check out the story at Reason.com.
Watch today’s budget hearings
The House Appropriations Committee will hear from the Department of Corrections, Probation, and Parole at 10:00 a.m. (watch here) and from the Pennsylvania Housing Finance Authority at 1:00 p.m. (watch here).