News & Brews September 12, 2025
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Remembering Charlie Kirk
Our President and CEO, Matt Brouillette, released the following statement on the assassination of Charlie Kirk:
“I am still pretty numb from the news. When we witness something as horrific as the assassination of Charlie Kirk yesterday, even the most eloquent words fall far short of adequacy.
“Charlie was a man of faith. A man of courage. A man of principle. He believed deeply in the centrality of civil discourse to a healthy society. And he shared his ideals with persuasion, passion, and most importantly, genuine respect for others.
“Victor Hugo famously said, ‘Nothing … is so powerful as an idea whose time has come.’ Charlie Kirk believed in the idea of conservatism. While he was mostly associated with being a MAGA leader, his traditional values and principles were those that have always undergirded America’s ideals—faith, family, the dignity of every person.
“Charlie welcomed debate—indeed, he pursued it. And he upheld a level of respect and decorum that is sorely missing in today’s political discourse.
“While he has passed, the things he championed will continue onward because the transcendent truths he believed in cannot be ended by the bullet of an assassin.
“We mourn for Charlie’s family, we pray for their comfort, and we honor his memory.”
$6M for repairs at gov’s mansion, but details missing
Spotlight PA reports, “The Shapiro administration has spent more than $6 million in public dollars over the past four months to fix extensive damage to the governor’s stately residence following a brazen, middle-of-the-night arson attack.” However, “Despite using taxpayer money, state officials are shielding information about nearly a quarter of those expenses — including who was paid and exactly what the money was spent on.” Spotlight PA has requested multiple records via Right-to-Know request, but the administration has stonewalled on some requests, including “an inventory of all items destroyed in the fire.”
Pittsburgh Transit makes funding request similar to SEPTA
A week after SEPTA asked the Shapiro administration to approve a one-time use of the transit agency’s state capital assistance funding to pay for operations, Pittsburgh Regional Transit (PRT) has a somewhat similar request. The Tribune Review reports that PRT “wants to use $107 million set aside for critical maintenance and repairs to stave off service cuts and fare hikes.” Yesterday, PRT “asked Gov. Josh Shapiro and the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation if it can pull from a pot of money dedicated to transit infrastructure work across the state. State lawmakers, embroiled in a debate on how to best fund public transit, play no role in deciding whether to shift the funds.”
IFO: Pa. job gains revised downward by half
We’ve heard a lot about national job numbers, but Pennsylvania’s Independent Fiscal Office (IFO) highlighted Pennsylvania-specific data. The quarterly data for March 2025 shows a year-over-year job creation in Pennsylvania of 33,000 jobs, which is 37,000 (53%) less than the monthly data previously released by the Bureau of Labor Statistics. “The underlying details show large downward revisions for retail trade (-5,100), professional business services (-7,400), healthcare (-6,300), social assistance (-5,400), food service (-4,100) and non-profits (-7,100).”
Philly on track to close schools
The Inquirer reports that the School District of Philadelphia has released the data that will guide its decisions on which schools should be closed, along with information on the decision-making process. “[W]hile some buildings are significantly overcrowded — 15% of all schools, by the district’s count, mostly in the Northeast — 23% of the district’s buildings are considered severely underutilized and another swath are moderately utilized.” Indeed, the district has seats for 186,736 students but currently has just 118,337 students across more than 300 buildings.