News & Brews March 17, 2025
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Fact-checking Shapiro’s Bill Maher appearance
Appearing on HBO’s Real Time with Bill Maher on Friday night, Gov. Josh Shapiro practiced his presidential stump speech while (of course) refusing to admit he plans to run for president in 2028. But what he did say on several issues was misleading to say the least. For example, in the Overtime segment, responding to a question on the potential closure of the Department of Education, Shapiro said, “I want every child of God to have the freedom to chart their own course, the opportunity to succeed.” We’ve heard this before. Yet, Shapiro blocked this very opportunity when he vetoed Lifeline Scholarships. He also said he believes in supporting “American people not American institutions.” Yet he sides with teachers’ unions at every turn in propping up the failed education bureaucracy rather than supporting Pennsylvania families. And he pretended to be fiscally responsible by touting his ‘zero-based budgeting’ as Montgomery County Commissioner. Yet as governor, he proposed an astounding $51.5 billion budget that is the polar opposite of zero-based budgeting.
The spending behind the recreational marijuana push
Groups pushing for the legalization of recreational marijuana in Pennsylvania spent at least $1.6 million on lobbying in 2024, reports Spotlight PA. “The majority of the spending, over $800,000, came from cannabis companies that operate across the country… While disclosure forms show how much lobbyists spent, they do not detail which lawmakers or pieces of legislation were targeted, nor do they describe in detail how lobbyists spent the money.” Of course, while $1.6 million may sound like a lot at first, to put this in context, from 2007 to 2022, government unions—who fight to keep kids trapped in crummy schools—spent nearly $100 million in membership dues on political activity and lobbying in Pennsylvania, plus another $70 million in PAC spending.
AG Sunday heads to DC to talk border security, immigration
On Friday, ten attorneys general, including Pa. Attorney General Dave Sunday, met with President Trump and U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi on the topic of Keeping America Safe. Ahead of the meeting, several of the AGs, including Sunday, participated in a press conference (watch here) where they discussed partnering with the current administration “to decrease violent crime and drug trafficking.” Sunday focused on the fentanyl crisis in particular in relation to working with the federal Justice Department. “Fentanyl has torn families apart, impacted our economy, and impacted public safety,” he said. “If our communities aren’t safe, literally nothing else matters, but you cannot achieve maximum public safety and keep families safe if you’re by yourself.”
Pa. Board of Ed rejects accreditation application over religion
The left-wing LNP reports, “The Pennsylvania Board of Education on Thursday unanimously rejected an application from a Christian organization seeking to become an official accreditation agency for private schools in the commonwealth.” The rejection of the Association of Christian Schools International (ACSI), which already accredits 2,200 schools across the country, appears to be based only on ACSI’s beliefs surrounding sexual orientation and gender identity. ACSI’s attorney, Randall Wenger of the Independence Law Center, said, “Unfortunately, there are some groups that would want to derail ACSI’s application to be recognized as an accrediting agency, not because of the quality of the work that they do, or the completeness of the application, but solely because of its religious beliefs.”
How COVID changed how Pa. does business
Five years after former Gov. Wolf shut down Pennsylvania, City & State PA spoke with Khine Zaw Arthur, president and CEO of the Asian American Chamber of Commerce of Greater Philadelphia; Eric Goldstein, president and CEO of King of Prussia District; Alex Halper, senior vice president of government affairs for the PA Chamber; and Joe Massaro, president and CEO of the Pennsylvania Restaurant & Lodging Association about how COVID—both the pandemic itself and government’s response to it—altered Pennsylvania’s business landscape.