News & Brews July 7, 2025
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Pa. pols react to ‘One Big Beautiful Bill’
Last week, President Trump signed his ‘One Big Beautiful Bill’ into law, and reaction from Pennsylvania’s elected officials broke down largely on party lines. Democrats predicted mass devastation, while Republicans largely loved the bill. One exception was Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick, the sole Pa. Republican to vote against it.
‘Cesspool’ of antisemitism in Philly public schools
The Washington Free Beacon reports on parents’ alarm over blatant antisemitism in the Philadelphia School District—coupled with a lack of responsiveness by Gov. Josh Shapiro’s administration. The story notes that district “officials have publicly defended terrorism, called for the release of convicted cop killers, claimed Israel is an ‘apartheid theocracy,’ and denounced the United States as a ‘criminal Amerikan empire.’” Yet, while parents met with Shapiro’s staffers several times in 2023 and 2024, his office has since stopped responding.
Philly strike persists as trash piles up
Well, Pennsylvania once again made the editorial pages of the Wall Street Journal for all the wrong reasons. This time, it was Philadelphia’s massive trash pileup that greeted July 4th visitors to the city, courtesy of the union that went on strike last week. Now, as the strike stretches into its seventh day, the union is setting up a fundraiser to ask you, the taxpayer, to donate to its strike fund—so it can continue letting trash pile up.
Pa. home of would-be Trump assassin: 1 year later
The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette visited Bethel Park, Pennsylvania, where Thomas Matthew Crooks—who attempted to assassinate President Trump last year—grew up. “Nearly a year after the shooting” about an hour away in Butler, folks in Bethel Park struggle to “explain how one of their own wound up on the roof of a building 50 miles away, shooting into a crowd gathered to cheer on a presidential candidate.”
Infamous ‘midnight pay raise’ turns 20
Twenty years ago, Pennsylvanians awoke to learn that in the dead of night and without any public debate, state lawmakers had voted themselves a pay raise of up to 34%. Backlash was severe and long-lasting. Not only did public anger cost state Supreme Court Justice Russel Nigro his retention election that year, but dozens of state lawmakers also lost their seats the following year.