News & Brews April 14, 2025
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Arsonist sets fire to the governor’s mansion
Gov. Josh Shapiro and First Lady Lori Shapiro were evacuated, thankfully unharmed, from the governor’s mansion early Sunday morning after an arsonist set fire to the residence. Police arrested a suspect yesterday. PennLive reports that police believe the suspect crossed an iron barrier and then “evaded security personnel who had been alerted of an intruder .… and broke into the exhibit and event hall.” The incident has raised questions about security at the residence. Per CNN, the suspect will be charged “with attempted murder, terrorism, aggravated arson and aggravated assault against an enumerated person.” The Inquirer reports that the suspect, 38-year-old Cody Balmer, “told investigators he hated Shapiro” and intended him harm. Additionally, “Balmer started the fires on the first night of Passover. State Police said Sunday that ‘all avenues’ were being explored as for Balmer’s motive, including potential hate crimes.”
Pa. swing voters patient but confused on tariffs
Axios reports that a recent Pennsylvania focus group with 13 Biden-to-Trump voters revealed most of them “stuck by President Trump through … [the recent ] drama over tariffs and the stock market, but say he must better explain his strategy and how long Americans should prepare for pain.” Specifically, “Just two of these 13 Biden-to-Trump voters said Trump has made a good case for tariffs since he returned to the White House; 11 said he hasn’t articulated enough or that they aren’t sure of the end game.” You can watch videos from the focus group here.
Western Pa. no longer has competitive U.S. House seat?
The Post-Gazette reports, “For the last two years, the 17th Congressional District contest was Western Pennsylvania’s only competitive House race. Not any more.” It’s not that others have joined the list. It’s that this seat, now held by Rep. Chris Deluzio, is no longer on either party’s radar as a hotly contested one. “Both the Cook Political Report and Inside Elections recently rated Mr. Deluzio, now in his second term, as a strong favorite for re-election.” Further, “The House Republicans’ campaign arm left him off the list of Democratic incumbents they plan to target next year, and the House Democratic campaign committee said he doesn’t need the extra support the party gives to those in danger of losing their seats.”
Op-Ed: Pa. transportation policy is ‘tangled mess’
As SEPTA begs for a bailout, Lincoln Institute Chairman and CEO Lowman Henry writes in the Pottstown Mercury that transportation policy in the commonwealth is far from efficient. “Funding for the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation is a patchwork quilt of unrelated revenue streams.” he writes. “Toll dollars are looted from the Pennsylvania Turnpike to fund PennDOT and mass transportation. Public transit systems themselves are rife with labor union excess and inefficiency.” Further, “The transit agencies are presenting a false scenario to Harrisburg policymakers. They posit the only choices are to give them more state taxpayer dollars, or there will be steep cuts in routes coupled with fare increases. It is possible, even likely, that demographic changes have made some routes unnecessary. And, it is fair to ask the users of the systems to shoulder more of the cost associated with the services they utilize.”
How Pa.’s U.S. House members voted last week
As the U.S. House voted last week on issues ranging from election integrity to federal spending, PennLive gives a rundown of how Pa.’s congressional delegation voted (along with some left-skewing opinions of some of the legislation). In short, the votes “broke along partisan lines, except in one case.” That case was a resolution canceling a Biden-era cap on overdraft fees. “Every Republican member of the Pennsylvania delegation voted for all the bills except for freshman Lehigh Valley Rep. Ryan Mackenzie, who voted against the overdraft resolution. Democrats in the delegation opposed all the legislation.”