News & Brews February 28, 2025
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Josh Shapiro’s ‘other’ taxpayer-funded plane
For years, PennDOT has been required to post flight logs of the agency’s state plane, where the public can view the flight history, cost of flights, and who was on board, among other things. This transparency measure lets us see when Gov. Shapiro and other state officials have used the plane and how much taxpayers are paying to fly them around. But it turns out there’s another secret plane Shapiro’s been using and hiding from the public’s view: the State Police plane, for which public flight logs are not required. “But under recent questioning by state lawmakers,” Spotlight PA reports, “officials for the first time disclosed that Shapiro uses the agency’s aircraft.” After being found out, Shapiro’s office said it would begin posting info on this plane’s use. State Sen. Scott Martin (Berks & Lancaster counties) said it well: “Taxpayers deserve to know when their money that is supposed to be dedicated to the State Police to meet public safety needs is diverted to accommodate non-emergency travel for the convenience of the governor.”
The AP’s Left-wing funding
We’ve often pointed out the bias of the mainstream news media, and the AP is no exception. While claiming nonpartisanship, the AP has strategically used wording that leans left while often publishing stories embracing a Left-wing narrative. Well, a new op-ed in the Wall Street Journal highlights some of the Left-wing funders behind the media behemoth. A disclosure attached to a recently published AP investigation read, “The Associated Press receives financial assistance from the Omidyar Network.” Pierre Omidyar is the billionaire founder of eBay. “Federal election records show he gave $1 million in March 2024 to the ACLU Voter Education Fund and $450,000 in 2016 to political-action committees opposing the Trump-Pence ticket.” He also has previously funded far-Left media outlets. So while we will often share AP stories covering Pennsylvania, we are keenly aware that the outlet is hardly as ideologically free as it wants us to believe.
How Pa.’s prevailing wage law could limit broadband expansion
For year, state lawmakers have been talking about broadband expansion in Pennsylvania. But one potential roadblock is “how broadband and fiber-optic cable workers are classified within Pennsylvania’s prevailing wage rates for the construction industry.” As the Center Square explains, “All employers must pay, at a minimum, the prevailing wage to workers on public construction projects that cost more than $25,000.” But, “fiber-optic cable workers are currently classified as electric line workers … for prevailing wage purposes. A fiber-optic cable worker can earn approximately $55 per hour in the private sector, while electric linemen can be paid hourly prevailing wage rates exceeding $90 due in part to the potential danger of working with high-voltage lines installed on poles.” The Pa. Department of Labor & Industry can change this classification, a point noted at a budget hearing earlier this week. (For more on how prevailing wage increases public construction costs, click here.)
Interview with John Fetterman
Love him or not (or somewhere in between), Democrat U.S. Sen. John Fetterman has developed a reputation as his own person. He’s outraged the pro-Hamas wing of his party by his unflinching support for Israel. Yet, he remains far-Left when it comes to social issues. He’s been willing to meet with Trump and has encouraged his party not to freak out at everything the president says, but he’s hardly the president’s fan on some issues. Fetterman recently spoke with City & State PA about his priorities and his approach to finding solutions.
New GOP chair talks priorities, mail-in voting, and more
Recently elected PA Republican Party Chair Sen. Greg Rothman spoke with the progressive Pennsylvania Capital-Star about “his goals for the Pennsylvania Republican Party by the next presidential election, endorsing candidates, mail-in voting … thoughts on Elon Musk’s role in Trump’s administration, and more.”