News & Brews August 19, 2025
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About Pa.’s rank as one of ‘best states’ to live in
You may have seen the recent news that Pennsylvania was ranked by WalletHub as one of the best states to live in. And hey, we all love Pennsylvania! But Gov. Shapiro claimed the ranking is “a direct result” of his administration’s “work to expand economic opportunity, create safer communities, ensure Pennsylvania children can chart their own course….” Well, let’s dig a little deeper. Among WalletHub’s metrics, which put Pa. in 10th place overall, we did rank 5th in quality of life (yay!) and 17th in education and health. But in affordability, we were a (very) mediocre 29th, while we were an abysmal 35th in our economy. But if Shapiro wants to say our low economic rank is all because of him, by all means he should go ahead! (Oh, and since Shapiro mentioned safer communities, a separate safety ranking late last year placed us at 28th.)
Op-Ed: ‘Shapiro’s shadow campaign’
The Commonwealth Foundation’s Erik Telford writes in RealClear Politics, “As speculation around his presidential ambitions swirls, make no mistake: Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro is already campaigning. And his national shadow campaign isn’t powered by donors – it’s bankrolled by taxpayers.” To be sure, Shapiro has a “massive war chest” in his gubernatorial re-election campaign fund; however, “election law bars him from using those funds for a federal campaign.” And, “While other potential 2028 contenders have launched leadership PACs to test the waters, Shapiro has taken a different path: weaponizing the machinery of state government to build his national brand.”
Dems hope to make gains in rural Pa.
The LNP reports that a Democrat group is looking to make inroads in Pennsylvania’s rural communities that have traditionally been Republican strongholds. The group, Rural Progress, is funded part by the Left’s behemoth dark money operation, Arabella Advisors. The story notes, “The Center for Rural Pennsylvania classifies 48 of the commonwealth’s 67 counties as rural, based on population density…. And despite the Harris campaign’s attempt to reach rural voters, Trump swept every rural county, except Centre County (home to Penn State University), in last year’s presidential race.”
Pa. AG’s office ‘recovering from cyber incident’
The Pittsburgh Tribune-Review reports that yesterday, the office of Pennsylvania Attorney General Dave Sunday announced that “following the cyber incident last week, access is being restored to employee email accounts.” Per a news release from the AG’s office yesterday, the incident “knocked offline the Office of Attorney General’s website and disabled office email accounts and land phone lines. The website — www.attorneygeneral.gov — was rebooted last week and is nearly fully functional.”
Shapiro sues Trump administration (again)
It must be tough being Gov. Josh Shapiro. He can’t broker a state budget deal here in Pennsylvania and is at risk of getting blamed if funding temporarily stops for schools and human services. What’s he to do? Well, he’s yet again suing the Trump administration, this time “over new funding caps on sustainable energy projects,”the progressive Pennsylvania Capital-Star reports. Shapiro joined 17 other state attorneys general, the DC attorney general, and Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear in the lawsuit, which you can see here.