News & Brews June 2, 2025
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In Pa., Trump announced higher steel tariffs
Holding a rally Friday at the U.S. Steel Irvin Works in West Mifflin to celebrate the U.S. Steel/Nippon Steel deal, President Trump promised to increase tariffs on imported steel to 50%. The Wall Street Journal Editorial Board expressed disappointment at the move, writing the tariffs “will raise costs for steel consumers including auto-makers and machinery manufacturers and could boomerang.” Meanwhile, Trump offered a few more details on the Nippon/U.S. Steel merger, many of the specifics of which have been vague. The Tribune Review notes that among them are: “$2.2 billion to ‘increase steel production in the Mon Valley,’ $200 million for a research and development center in collaboration with Carnegie Mellon University and $7 billion for facilities in Alabama, Arkansas, Minnesota and Indiana.”
States, including Pa., look to future data centers
The AP reports, “The explosive growth of the data centers needed to power America’s fast-rising demand for artificial intelligence and cloud computing platforms has spurred states to dangle incentives in hopes of landing an economic bonanza, but it’s also eliciting pushback from lawmakers and communities.” Pennsylvania, specifically “is viewed as an up-and-coming data center destination, but there is also a sense that … [we are] missing out on billions of dollars in investment that’s landing in other states.” And per GOP state Rep. Eric Nelson (Westmoreland County), to blame is “a bureaucratic process that won’t open its doors.”
Leaked school district docs show teacher suspended for inappropriate conduct
The Inquirer has a story on a Lower Merion School District data breach, in which “‘highly sensitive’ documents were inadvertently published online.” But the real outrage should be that one of the leaked memos “refers to an investigation of an elementary school teacher. A mother had accused him of ‘predatory behavior’ toward her son. Police and Montgomery County child welfare officials declined to charge the teacher with any inappropriate conduct, but the teacher was suspended without pay briefly for violating the school district’s adult/student boundaries policy ‘on several occasions,’ according to the memo.” Were parents informed of the threat to their children? Is this teacher back in the classroom? How many other such instances are union-run school districts hiding?
What’s happened since Ohio legalized recreational marijuana?
Neighboring Ohio legalized recreational marijuana in late 2023, with sales beginning in August of last year. Since then, the industry has “sold 81,900 pounds of marijuana for nearly $540 million via nearly 7.5 million individual transactions,” the Post-Gazette reports. However, “reviews of how things have gone … are decidedly mixed.” For example, “The number of accidental poisonings reported to Ohio Poison Centers for all age groups has increased 20-fold from baseline levels prior to the introduction of retail medical marijuana in early 2019,” according to medical personnel from Ohio’s children’s hospitals. And “younger children [are] suffering the most….In 2024 … nearly 500 children under 6 years old were seen in emergency rooms after ingesting a THC-based product.”
Former Penn president was paid >$2M the year she resigned
Former UPenn president Liz Magill resigned in 2023 after being unable to say that calling for the genocide of Jews violates campus policies. But she still got paid big bucks for that year. The Inquirer reports that Penn’s tax form, which was made public this past Friday, show she received $1.48 million in base pay, along with a $725,000 bonus. And although she resigned as the university’s president, she still teaches at Penn Carey Law School.