News & Brews February 3, 2025
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Shapiro to deliver budget address tomorrow
Tomorrow, Gov. Josh Shapiro is scheduled to deliver his third state budget address. And somehow, the AP thinks he’s simultaneously going to try to spend more money and be frugal. That’s kind of like saying a drunken sailor wants to drink more while being more sober. The story explains that Shapiro’s address is “expected to seek substantially more aid for the poorest public schools, emphasize frugality and press the politically fraught topics of bailing out public transit and legalizing marijuana.” Remember, pouring billions more into the public school bureaucracy hasn’t delivered improved learning. But you know what has? School choice.
Pa. state rep. elected DNC vice chair
You’d think after Democrats’ bruising losses in November—when voters resoundingly rejected far-left progressive, defund-the-police, woke ideology—that the Democrat establishment would do some serious soul searching about its out-of-touch values. Well, you’d be wrong. Instead, the Democratic National Committee’s recent leadership elections devolved into the perfect display of why Democrats lost. For example, as Fox News explained, “amid the hours-long vote and gathering of Democrats …. former DNC chief Harrison announced that the elections must be gender-balanced, including when a non-binary candidate is in the running.” In the end, the Dems’ new leadership includes, among others, left-wing activist David Hogg and progressive Pa. Democrat State Rep. Malcolm Kenyatta (Philadelphia) as two of three vice chairs.
Pa. voter turnout hit 30-year high in 2024
CNHI reports, “Of the 9,175,133 voters registered in the commonwealth, 77.1% cast ballots in the Nov. 5 election.” This was “a full point higher than the 2020 presidential election, 7 points higher than 2016, and is the highest since 1992 when 82.8% of the electorate turned out to vote.” On top of that, voter registration in Pa. is also at an all-time high, with “approximately 3.2 million more voters registered compared to 1992.”
Philly faces recovery from plane crash
In the aftermath of Friday’s horrific crash of a medevac jet in Philly, which killed at least 7 people and wounded nearly two dozen more, city, state, and federal officials are facing the task of not only investigating but also rebuilding. The Inquirer reports, “City officials … [are] offering damage assessments to businesses, providing mental health supports to those traumatized by what they saw, and planning a town hall event for Wednesday evening.” Additionally, officials are “studying everything from the scope of the tragedy to the effect on the city’s bottom line and whether officials have the resources they need to rebuild.”
Big developments in cold case with Shapiro ties
Back in December, I shared a story on the 2011 death of Ellen Greenberg, whose death was initially ruled a homicide but then explicably changed to suicide. Over the years, many have raised questions about how Gov. Josh Shapiro handled the case when he was attorney general, as his office stood by the suicide ruling despite the fact that Greenberg had 20 knife wounds and nearly a dozen bruises. On Friday, a judge “cleared the way for Ellen’s parents to take three city officials to trial over allegations they covered up, what lawyers say, was Ellen’s murder.” Then, in a stunning development, one of those officials—the Philly medical examiner in Greenberg’s case—did an about face and said the death was not a suicide.