News & Brews July 17, 2025
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Philly hasn’t held up agreement to reexamine Ellen Greenberg’s death
I’ve shared stories before on the 2011 death of Ellen Greenberg, whose death with 20 stab wounds was initially ruled a homicide but then inexplicably changed to suicide. Questions surrounding the case have reached all the way to then-Attorney General Josh Shapiro’s office, which sat on the case only to do nothing. Now, the Inquirer reports, “As part of a February settlement, the City of Philadelphia agreed to pay Joshua and Sandra Greenberg $650,000 and conduct ‘an expeditious’ reexamination of their daughter Ellen’s … death…. The Greenbergs received the monetary portion of their settlement … but they have gotten no word on the medical examiner’s reexamination of their daughter’s case, where it stands, or if it has even begun.”
U.S. Reps aim to move energy office to western Pa.
This week, Democrat Congressman Chris Deluzio and Republican Congressmen John Joyce and Guy Reschenthaler introduced bipartisan legislation that would move the Department of Energy’s Office of Fossil Energy and Carbon Management to Pittsburgh by the close of next year. Senators John Fetterman and Dave McCormick introduced similar legislation in the Senate last month. The Tribune-Review reports, “The … office oversees the development of unconventional oil and gas resources — think fracking — as well as the government’s strategic reserves of crude and heating oil. It also houses the National Energy Technology Laboratory, which already operates out of South Park Township.”
In NEPA, Vance talks OBBB
Vice President JD Vance visited West Pittston (Luzerne County) yesterday to promote President Trump’s recently enacted One Big Beautiful Bill. WNEP reports that at an event at Don’s Machine Shop, Vance touched on topics including no tax on overtime work as well as Trump’s tariffs.
Group sues over property tax assessment process
The Mon Valley Unemployment Committee has sued Pennsylvania, alleging “the state’s property tax assessment process is unconstitutional, harming low- income homeowners who are typically overassessed.” Named as defendants in the lawsuit are the commonwealth, Gov. Josh Shapiro, and Attorney General Dave Sunday. The Tribune-Review reports that the lawsuit “seeks to have the statutes declared unconstitutional, as well as an injunction requiring Pennsylvania’s counties to assess their properties in accordance with the law.”
Notice the many attorney billboards in Philly?
The Inquirer considers some reasons behind many (many) personal injury attorney billboards in Philadelphia. Per a 2023 review, on I-95 between the Philly airport and Tacony-Palmyra Bridge, 20% of billboards were for lawyers. What’s more, “In fiscal year 2021, SEPTA generated just less than $400,000 in advertising from law firms. The agency projected that number to be $1.6 million in its 2025 budget…..” The story notes, “Curt Schroder, the executive director of the Pennsylvania Coalition for Civil Justice Reform, sees the billboards as creating a more-litigious society…. Attorneys ‘dangle the possibility of riches in front of people,’ … luring people who wouldn’t otherwise call a lawyer.”