News & Brews April 28, 2025
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911 dispatcher failed to follow policy when arson suspect called
Last week, we share that the alleged arsonist who set fire to the governor’s mansion tried to get arrested three times before succeeding. Now, PennLive reports, “The 911 dispatcher who took the call from the suspected firebomber of the Governor’s Residence within an hour of the attack should have escalated the call, but didn’t, Dauphin County officials admitted.” The story continues, “The caller identified himself as Cody Balmer, named Gov. Josh Shapiro, and mentioned Shapiro had a ‘banquet hall to clean up’ and said he would ‘confess to everything that I’d done.’” But the dispatcher did not ask any follow-up questions or escalate the call “up the chain of command,” nor was an attempt made to track Balmer’s phone location after he hung up.
Op-Ed: Shapiro’s price cap could hike electricity bills
Recently, Gov. Josh Shapiro embarked on a media celebration after the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) approved a plan submitted by PJM Interconnection “to restrict [electricity] prices for two years.” But as Commonwealth Foundation Senior Fellow Gordon Tomb explains, the plan could actually “lead to higher customer bills and a greater risk of blackouts, according to America’s Power, a trade organization of coal-fired power plants.” Simply put: “The negotiated price cap does not save money; it only limits cost increases. … In other words, Shapiro’s intervention will likely prolong the period of rising prices. If the governor continues his war on reliability with carbon taxes and enhanced subsidies for unreliable energy sources, the gap between demand and supply will increase prices even further.”
Pa. joins multi-state poker compact
CNHI reports, “Pennsylvania’s online gaming presence expanded … with its acceptance into a multi-state poker market allowing Keystone State players to compete against others in Delaware, Michigan, New Jersey and Nevada.” The move “will expand the collective player pool by more than 50%,” per the Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board. Meanwhile, the Delaware Valley Journal reports that according to a new WalletHub study, Pennsylvania has the fourth highest gambling addiction in the country.
School choice battle continues in Pa.
Well over a dozen states now have universal school choice programs, but Pennsylvania is not one of them. American Federation for Children Director of State Advocacy Marc LeBlond recently wrote that a school choice proposal that’s been “several years running” in Pa. could save a private school in Hazleton, which is “home to some of the lowest income and most academically desperate citizens in the Commonwealth.” Yet, Gov. Shapiro, who voiced support for the program, subsequently vetoed it. Separately, the Commonwealth Foundation’s Guy Ciarrocchi explained how a case currently before the U.S. Supreme Court underscores the need for school choice. Amid it all, Pa. Republican lawmakers have introduced a new universal school choice program that “appears to borrow best practices from successful school choice programs in other states.”And an educational freedom battle that’s been brewing for years in Pa. “could come to a head this year.”
What the heck’s up with the Post-Gazette op-ed page?
We know the mainstream media has fallen off the deep end. And we also know opinion pages are not the “news” pages so in theory don’t reflect the opinion of the paper. Blah blah blah. But a couple recent op-eds published by the Post-Gazette have definitely jumped the shark. Last week, the P-G ran a piece by a regular columnist saying that requiring proof of citizenship to vote is the same as killing Jewish worshippers in a synagogue. Offensive to say the least. And over the weekend, the P-G ran another piece calling for a “civic uprising” against the president and saying “Democrats in Congress must establish a shadow cabinet.” Even worse, the author of this latter piece is the Academic Director of the Center for International Legal Education at the University of Pittsburgh School of Law. No wonder America’s trust in media is at a 50-year low. Perhaps the public’s trust of government-funded law schools should plunge equally low.