News & Brews July 19, 2024
Get News & Brews in your inbox each day: Subscribe here!
At RNC, Trump recounts rally shooting
During his speech last night at the Republican National Convention, former President Trump spent 15 minutes describing in detail the attempted assassination last Saturday in Pa. that saw Trump slightly injured, took the life of a firefighter, and critically wounded two others. POLITICO provided a full transcript of this portion of Trump’s speech.
Poll: Trump leads Biden in 7 swing states, including Pa.
A poll conducted after last week’s assassination attempt shows former President Trump leading President Biden in seven swing states, including Pennsylvania, as well as nationally. The Hill reports, “The Emerson College poll, sponsored by Democrats for the Next Generation and published Thursday, found 46 percent of registered voters say they support Trump, compared to 42 percent who chose Biden and 12 percent that are undecided.” Further, “since March, Trump has gained 1 point in Georgia, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin and two points in Arizona. He has lost one point in Michigan.” In Pa., Trump now leads Biden by five percentage points.
Shapiro still sticking with Biden
Even as some media are reporting that it’s not a matter of “if” President Biden will exit the race but rather a matter of “when,” Gov. Shapiro has not joined the calls for Biden to step down. Instead, yesterday, he echoed his support for the president, saying, “I’ve made clear where I stand on the presidential race. It’s the president’s decision to make. He’s made it.” Meanwhile, PennLive questions if Shapiro could “get a new job” as a vice presidential nominee if Biden leaves the race.
Pa. DOS makes change to mail-in ballots
Spotlight PA reports that the Pa. Department of State has directed counties to “preprint ballot return envelopes with the full, four-digit year in the date field, leaving voters to fill in just the month and day alongside their signature.” The move comes as an effort to “eliminate the chance of ballots being rejected this November because of voters failing to write in the year completely.”
Here’s how new school code changes ed funding
CNHI News explains how the new school code, which governs how education dollars in Pa. are spent, will change for the upcoming fiscal year. “Primarily,” the story notes, “the school code modifies Pennsylvania’s Fair Funding Formula to incorporate three-year averages of Census data rather than data collected and reported by individual school districts.” The code also cuts funding for cyber charter schools, which the story says is a “savings” but is actually a cut for students exercising school choice.