News & Brews December 19, 2024
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Democrat state rep. to run for county executive
Fresh off his re-election win in an uncontested race, Democrat state Rep. Josh Siegel (Lehigh County) has decided there’s another office he would rather hold: County Executive. Siegal announced his campaign Tuesday at a local union headquarters. And among the things he wants to do, per LehighValleyNews, is “push the Lehigh County District Attorney’s Office to open a division to prosecute employers who violate local labor laws.” (That’s political speak for ‘side with unions to criminalize businesses’).
The ghost of budgets past
Back in 2016, former Gov. Wolf and lawmakers passed an unbalanced state budget. As the Commonwealth Foundation explained at the time, among the tricks they wanted to use to plug the hole was “a $200 million loan from the Pennsylvania Professional Liability Joint Underwriting Association (JUA) a government-chartered non-profit that provides medical professional liability insurance.” This attempt to draw money from JUA continued for a few years. In 2017, JUA sued, “asking a federal judge to block the Pennsylvania government’s demand for $200 million from its reserves and a threat to shut it down if it does not hand over the cash.” As the AP explained, JUA kept winning in court, with a judge “ruling the association was a private entity and its surplus is private property that can’t be taken without fair compensation.” But now, a federal appeals court has reversed this lower court’s rulings. The AP reports, “The 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled Monday against the Pennsylvania Professional Liability Joint Underwriting Association, saying state government created the insurer, imbued it with its power and held the only interest in it.” (This latest ruling is likely closer to the truth than the earlier ones.) It’s unclear yet if the JUA will challenge the ruling. Gov. Shapiro’s office, meanwhile, not surprisingly had no comment. By the way, the moral of the story is: Don’t pass unbalanced budgets.
Is Fetterman ‘selling out’ to GOP? Some say yes, some no
U.S. Sen. John Fetterman is making waves among his party members again. But this time, it’s partly because he’s telling them to stop going apoplectic over Trump’s victory, saying, “If you freak out on everything, you lose any kind of relevance.” PennLive looks at how folks are reacting to Fetterman’s non-freak-out approach, even as some Washington Democrats “work harder on plotting resistance than engaging with Trump.”
UPenn named in ‘price-fixing cartel’ lawsuit
The University of Pennsylvania is among 17 “elite universities facing a lawsuit accusing them of forming a ‘price-fixing cartel’ to avoid paying financial aid,” the Inquirer reports. “The lawsuit accused Penn and 16 other private universities of colluding to reduce the amount of financial aid provided to students.” And, “lawyers say Penn and the other schools give preference to applicants from wealthy families while claiming to be need-blind.” Penn is denying the allegations.
Casey bids the U.S. Senate farewell
Yesterday, outgoing Democrat U.S. Sen. Bob Casey delivered his farewell speech to his U.S. Senate colleagues, calling his time in the Senate “an honor of a lifetime.” Describing (possibly unintentionally) one of the main reasons he lost, Casey said, “It’s much more difficult to raise a family and provide long-term stability than it used to be. Pennsylvanians used to be able to work one job – often without a college degree – and provide for their families for decades.” He also continued his theme of criticizing corporations and “the wealthiest Americans.” With his defeat, Casey will be out of public office for the first time in 28 years.