News & Brews September 3, 2024
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Harris campaign banning Post-Gazette reporters from events
Here’s some news you won’t read everywhere. The Harris-Walz campaign has banned reporters and photographers from the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette (Pa.’s second largest news organization) from attending its events that are open to the media (for example, the VP announcement, the DNC, and “all future events where they have the ability to control access.” The reason? A small percentage of unionized workers at the P-G are on strike. “The journalists’ strike is unusual because it has gone on so long — nearly two years, making it the longest ongoing strike in America — but also because it has only ever attracted the support of a small minority of the bargaining unit. Due to abstentions and exclusions from the ballot, only about one-third of union members voted to authorize the strike. At this moment, about one-quarter of the original union remains on the line.” Yet, in a bow to unions, the Harris camp is banning the press. Sounds rather anti-democratic….
‘Counterfeit’ ads suggest Eagles endorse Harris
You can mess with a lot of things in Philly. But don’t mess with the Eagles. Ads recently popped up around the city suggesting that the Eagles are endorsing VP Kamala Harris for President. But the team was quick to confirm that the ads were neither created nor authorized by the Eagles. “We are aware counterfeit political ads are being circulated and are working with our advertising partner to have them removed,” the team said in a statement. We’re waiting for the Left to begin loudly denouncing this disinformation … still waiting … and waiting….
A look at Pa.’s undecided voters
The Inquirer studies the approximately 3% of Pa. voters who remain undecided in this year’s presidential race and who could determine whether the commonwealth votes for Trump or Harris. “Undecided voters … tend to be less engaged, or frustrated with both parties…. And with a little more than two months until the election, a lot of them are just not paying attention yet.” Who are these voters? “[G]enerally,” the story says, they “are more likely to be registered unaffiliated with a party. About three-quarters of them were independent voters in the Emerson College Pennsylvania poll. The remainder was split between the two major parties. In the Emerson poll, undecided voters skewed slightly toward having supported Trump in 2020, and they tended to be younger than the state’s overall average population.”
NJ hopes to lure Sixers
As debate continues over a proposed new arena for the Sixers in Philly, our neighbors across the river are eyeing a chance to poach the team. ROI-NJ reports that the New Jersey Economic Development Authority has sent a letter to the Sixers’ owners, outlining a “privately-led multibillion-dollar facility built on state-owned land north of [the] Ben Franklin Bridge [on the Jersey side] that would have residential, commercial and retail components — making it eligible for two Aspire tax credits of up to $400M each.” The story continues, “The letter marks an escalation of a push by the state to bring the NBA team from Philadelphia to New Jersey…. The Sixers, which moved their corporate headquarters and training facility to Camden in 2016, have struggled for more than five years to gain approval from the city of Philadelphia to build a new arena in the city.”
2024 Schooling in America Survey
EdChoice recently released its 12th annual Schooling in America Survey, which “offers an in-depth look at the opinions and trends shaping K–12 education in America.” In addition to asking “recurring questions regarding the direction of K–12 education, parents’ satisfaction with their children’s schooling experience, and feelings towards educational choice policies,” the survey has also included “new questions … each year that gauge parents’ opinions on more timely issues pertaining to K–12 education.” For example, “technologies in schools and the classroom, accountability and transparency, and awareness of educational choice policies.”