News & Brews July 18, 2025
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No budget, and no transparency on negotiations
WESA reports that with the state budget now more than two weeks late (almost three!), “with the exception of perhaps a dozen people or fewer in a state of 13 million — almost no one can say what it currently includes. That goes for most of the lawmakers themselves, who are shut out of closed-door negotiations but will be expected to approve a $50 billion plan with little time to study it.” Per one Harrisburg insider, “The state House and Senate combined have 253 members. But there may be only about 10 of them ‘who know what’s going on and that are actually inside that [budget negotiating] room.’”
How Pa. ranks in public corruption convictionsPa.
The Cato Institute looked at data from the U.S. Department of Justice on public corruption convictions in the country’s 94 federal judicial districts. Where do Pennsylvania’s districts stand? Well, Pennsylvania’s Eastern District ranks 26th; our Middle District is 33rd; and our Western District comes in at 69th. The district with the fewest convictions is New Hampshire, while coming in with the most public corruption convictions is (drum roll….) the District of Columbia.
The business of protesting Trump
PennLive reports that more than two thousand people turned out yesterday for an anti-Trump protest in Harrisburg, one of more than a thousand protests planned nationwide. But are these really grassroots protestors? That’s the question after earlier this week, NewsNation broke the story that Adam Swart, CEO of Crowds on Demand (which provides protesters for events—seriously) was offered a $20 million contract to deliver protesters for yesterday’s demonstrations, but he turned the offer down. “I’m rejecting it not because I don’t want to take the business, but because frankly, this is going to be ineffective; it’s going to make us all look bad.” Kind of makes you wonder.
Are data centers ‘next big thing’ for natural gas?
The Post-Gazette reports that 20 years after the “Marcellus Miracle,” the natural gas industry is revving up for the data center boom. “The projected power appetite of data centers has energized the natural gas industry…. The power needed for AI, a subset of data centers, is the most staggering.” And according to Peoples Natural Gas CEO Mike Huwar, “It’s no secret that the vast natural gas resources within the Marcellus and Utica shale formations present an opportunity of robust and lower-cost power generation … across Pennsylvania.”
GOP is polling whether Dugan can beat Krasner
Democrat Patrick Dugan may have lost the Democrat primary for Philly District Attorney to incumbent Larry Krasner, but Philly Republicans are currently polling city voters on whether they might vote for Dugan in November if he runs as a Republican. The Inquirer reports, “The digital poll … asks in part: ‘If the election for Philadelphia District Attorney were held today, for whom would you vote: Larry Krasner, the Democrat; or Pat Dugan, a Democrat running on the Republican ticket?’” Dugan, who previously said he wouldn’t accept the GOP nomination, still won enough GOP write-in votes to become the party’s nominee.