News & Brews August 29, 2024
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FBI: Would-be Trump assassin saw ‘target of opportunity’
A senior FBI official said yesterday that the gunman who shot former President Trump at a rally in Butler, Pa. last month saw the event as a “target of opportunity.” The AP reports that per the FBI, the gunman “searched online for events of both Trump and President Joe Biden.” And, “The FBI analysis of his [the gunman’s] online search history reveals a ‘sustained, detailed effort to plan an attack on some event, meaning he looked at any number of events or targets,’ Kevin Rojek, the special agent in charge of the FBI’s Pittsburgh field office, told reporters.” That said, investigators say they still don’t have a motive for the attack, which took the life of rally attendee Corey Comperatore.
Pa. Auditor General finds improper Medicaid payments
A report released yesterday by Auditor General Tim DeFoor found that the state “Department of Human Services allowed $7 million in improper ‘spread pricing’ in the Medicaid program in 2022,” the AP reports. “Spread pricing is the difference between the amount a pharmacy benefit manager reimburses a pharmacy for a prescription and what it charges the health plan.” Spread pricing for Medicaid was banned in Pa. four years ago. For its part, the state “said the money paid by pharmacies to pharmacy benefit managers did not constitute spread pricing … but instead constituted ‘transmission fees’ that have been allowed but are being eliminated next year.” See House GOP lawmakers’ response to the report here.
‘Would the party of real freedom standup?’
Our president and CEO, Matt Brouillette, writes in RealClear Pennsylvania that for all their talk of “real freedom,” Democrats are actually the party of coercion. From blocking children from leaving terrible government-run, union-controlled schools to shutting down family-owned businesses during COVID while letting big box retailers stay open to forcing workers into unions against their will, “The Left’s ‘real freedom,’” Matt writes, “looks an awful lot like tyranny.”
Video: Pa. revenue outlook
Pa. Independent Fiscal Office Director Matthew Knittel spoke with PCNTV on the state’s revenue outlook, the difference between the budget surplus and the Rainy Day fund, what the recently enacted state budget means for the budget deficit (Hint: it will be a big deficit), and more. Watch the interview here.
Pa. ammo plant helping Ukraine ups production
The AP reports that the Scranton Army Ammunitions Plant, which “makes a key artillery shell in Ukraine’s fight against Russia has managed to boost production by 50% to meet surging demand, with more capacity set to come on line.” The plant, which employs approximately 300 people, “cuts and forges 2,000-pound (907-kilogram) bars of steel into 155 mm howitzer rounds that are then shipped to Iowa to be packed with explosives and fitted with fuses. From there, many of them make their way to the fight in Ukraine, where they are highly sought.”