News & Brews August 27, 2025
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Whistleblower says Shapiro admin retaliated against him
Spotlight PA reports, “A high-level Pennsylvania Department of Aging staffer claims the agency is retaliating against him for being a whistleblower and raising alarms about the state’s failures in protecting older adults from abuse and neglect. He’s now notified top Shapiro administration officials that he intends to sue.” The whistleblower, Richard Llewellyn, claims “department brass thwarted his efforts to assist investigations by outside agencies,” and he “alleges that top department officials purposely suppressed or manipulated data to shield problems when responding to public records requests.”
U.S. Rep. accuses Shapiro of mismanaging SNAP
Republican U.S. Rep. Glenn “GT” Thompson, Chair of the House Agriculture Committee, sent a letter to Gov. Josh Shapiro suggesting he “re-examine” his “budget priorities” and “dramatically shift the systemic mismanagement of Pennsylvania’s SNAP program.” POLITICO reports that Pa. and other states “will soon face millions of dollars in new costs if they can’t curtail their higher payment error rates.” And Thompson points out in his letter that “Pennsylvania’s 11 percent error payment rate lands it in the top third of the worst-performing states — meaning it erroneously paid out more than $450 million in benefits from the federally funded program.”
Another mail-in ballot ruling
Ok, friends. I’m going to admit it: I’m having trouble keeping track of all these mail-in ballot cases. But ABC reports that in yet another ruling, the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals “ruled that it is unconstitutional for … Pennsylvania to throw out mail-in ballots simply because the voter didn’t write an accurate date on the return envelope.” The decision “marks the latest instance in at least a half-dozen cases where a court has instructed Pennsylvania to stop rejecting such ballots.” But (and this is a big “but”) “higher courts have always reinstated the requirement.” Here’s a brilliant idea. How about we follow the law, which requires dates, and if we don’t like the law, we change it via the legislative process? Genius, I know! Please hold your applause.
One factor may help Dems in ‘26 but not in ‘28
POLITICO has an interview with Democrat analyst Doug Sosnik on how education now trumps demographics as an indicator of voting patterns. While this may help Democrats in the 2026 mid-terms, as college-educated voters are higher-propensity voters in non-presidential years, it won’t give Dems the same boost in 2028.
‘Revealing’ poll results from SWPA
The RealClearPolitics Institute of News & Information partnered with Emerson Polling to survey 1,500 residents from southwestern Pennsylvania. What did the poll reveal about trust in American institutions? In media? In local vs. national government? And much more? Click here to find out.