News & Brews September 30, 2025
Get News & Brews in your inbox each day: Subscribe here!
Can state budget impasses be avoided?
As Pennsylvania’s state budget impasse drags (and drags) on, the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review reports that several lawmakers are hoping to find ways to address, prevent, or at least disincentivize future ones. One proposal “would suspend paychecks for the governor, lieutenant governor and members of the House and Senate during impasses.” Another “would suspend automatic pay raises for the same officials during impasses.” Another would “enable the state treasury to continue making appropriations amounting to 85% of the prior fiscal year’s spending,” in the event of an impasse. And still another would move Pennsylvania “to a biennial (two-year) budget instead of an annual one.”
Pa. high court issues another mail-in ballot ruling
On Friday, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court ruled 4-3 that “county election officials are required to accurately report when voters’ mail-in ballots have been set aside because of disqualifying errors and allow their votes to be counted on provisional ballots,” the progressive Capital-Star reports. The ruling “stems from a decision by the Washington County Board of Elections days before the 2024 primary to rescind a policy of notifying voters about disqualifying errors on their ballot declarations such as missing signatures or dates. The policy allowed voters to correct errors, request a fresh mail-in ballot or vote provisionally at their polling places on Election Day.” Justices Kevin Brobson, Sallie Mundy, and David Wecht dissented.
Fetterman again says he’s not switching parties
Despite months (years?) of talk surrounding whether Democratic U.S. Sen. John Fetterman plans to switch parties, he again emphasized that he does not. The statement came during an interview over the weekend with Fox Business Network. While Fetterman again said he disagrees with members of his party who seek to demonize Trump and other Republicans as “Nazis or fascists,” he has no plans to leave the party. (Isn’t it odd that simply thinking you shouldn’t call Republicans fascists is now sometimes seen as being out of step with the Democrat Party?)
Pa. Supreme Court to consider Philly’s gun rule
The progressive Pennsylvania Capital-Star reports that Pennsylvania’s state Supreme Court is “reexamin[ing] a state law that treats firearm owners in … [Philadelphia] differently than in other parts of the commonwealth. To carry a gun in Philadelphia, a person must have a concealed carry license, regardless of whether they carry it openly or not. That’s not a requirement in the state’s 66 other counties, where it’s legal to carry a gun without a permit as long as it’s plainly visible.” The case reached the high court due to conflicting rulings in Superior Court.
Preliminary findings in U.S. Steel explosion released
Yesterday, federal investigators released preliminary findings of the investigation into the August 11 explosion at the Clarion Coke Works. The explosion killed two workers and injured several others. The Tribune-Review reports that “the explosion occurred during maintenance involving a gas isolation valve in the basement of the Battery 13/14 transfer area at the facility. U.S. Steel employees and MPW Industrial Services personnel were working to close and reopen the valve…. Employees then tried to flush the valve seat with water, and a gas monitor alarm was triggered…. Employees were directed to evacuate, and the explosion occurred less than a minute after that order, at 10:47 a.m.” A final report of findings is yet to come.