News & Brews December 8, 2025
Get News & Brews in your inbox each day: Subscribe here!
You’ve got (no) mail?
Well this is a fine kettle of fish. The Inquirer reports that “an unknown amount of mail from Pennsylvania state agencies to residents has gone undelivered” after an “unidentified vendor that pre-sorts state agency mail before delivering it to the U.S. Postal Service” failed to deliver. Lots of questions remain, including “why the vendor failed to send the state’s mail, where the mail was located when it was not in the state’s possession, how long the mail went unsent, and how the failure was not identified sooner.” But, “The unsent mail could prove to be a major headache for Shapiro’s administration, depending on the magnitude of the issue and which state communications were not delivered to residents.”
McCormick: How to have school choice for all
Writing in the Philadelphia Inquirer, U.S. Sen. Dave McCormick urges Gov. Josh Shapiro to opt into the new federal school choice tax credit program included in the recently passed Working Families Tax Cut Act. McCormick writes that while school choice is already available to “those who can afford it,” this program “will provide low- and middle-class families with the same opportunity.” He concludes, “The choice is clear. Pennsylvania families have been offered a door to a better education for their children. Will the governor and our leaders in Harrisburg open it?”
SEPTA strike averted
Over the thanksgiving holiday, I was chatting with a childhood friend of my husband who has spent the last 20-plus years consulting with rail systems across the country. While he said that many are bad in how they’re run and few are actually good, SEPTA, he offered, is the worst. Well, SEPTA workers appeared to be approaching a strike over the weekend. But the strike was averted and negotiations are continuing, for now. The sticking point, the Inquirer explains, is “the union’s push for an increase in pensions and SEPTA’s proposal for union members to pay a greater share of the cost of their healthcare coverage.”
What Pennsylvanians think about data centers, AI
An Emerson College poll sponsored by RealClear Pennsylvania reveals that 48% of Pennsylvanians “think Artificial Intelligence will have more of a negative impact on the economy, while 25% think it will have a more positive impact. Similarly, 46% think it will have a negative impact on the environment, and 21% a positive impact.” Meanwhile, “Thirty-eight percent of Pennsylvanians support data centers being built in Pennsylvania, 35% oppose, while 27% are neutral or have no opinion.”
Average gas prices drop below $3 — but not in Pa.
ABC27 reports that for the first time since 2021, the national average price per gallon for regular gas dropped below $3.00, hitting $2.99 to be exact. Specifically, “In 32 states, the average cost for a gallon of regular gas sits below $3.” The lowest average is in Oklahoma at $2.40, followed by Texas at $2.53. But in Pa.? No such luck. Our average was $3.20.
More details on Trump’s Pa. visit
President Trump is scheduled to appear at Mount Airy Casino Resort in Paradise Township in Monroe County tomorrow evening at 6:00 “to talk about his administration’s progress in improving the American economy,” WVIA reports. The location isn’t an accident, as it’s “in a politically sensitive region of a critical swing state. [GOP U.S. Rep. Rob] Bresnahan’s 8th District seat is expected to be one of the nation’s most closely watched House races in 2026 as Democrats look to eliminate Republicans’ narrow majority and reclaim control of the chamber.”