News & Brews December 10, 2025
Get News & Brews in your inbox each day: Subscribe here!
Senate committee subpoenas info on Shapiro’s security upgrades
Yesterday, the Pa. Senate Intergovernmental Operations Committee issued two subpoenas seeking information on “the unprecedented expenditure of $1 million on Gov. Josh Shapiro’s private residence.” One subpoena, directed to the Pa. State Police, requests 1) A copy of the May 2025 Independent Security Assessment of the governor’s residences; 2) Contracts, invoices and communications related to construction and security work at the governor’s private home and a neighboring property; and 3) Body camera footage from State Police officers on the properties between Sept. 20 and Nov. 19, 2025. The other, directed to Abington Township, where Shapiro’s private residence is, requests 1) Permits, applications and zoning hearing transcripts related to work at the governor’s personal property, and 2) Communication records related to work undertaken at the property. The deadline for providing the subpoenaed information is Friday, January 16.
Trump visits Pa. to talk inflation
President Trump came to Mt. Airy Casino Resort in Monroe County last evening to deliver a speech on inflation. WVIA reports that more than 2,000 people attended the event, where the president “said he has cut inflation, taxes, gasoline prices, egg prices and the cost of Thanksgiving, increased wages and eliminated illegal immigration. The stock market has hit record highs 51 times, he said…. The event clearly demonstrated the importance the White House places on promoting Trump’s work on the economy ahead of the mid-term congressional elections next year.” Meanwhile, Gov. Shapiro, who couldn’t get a state budget done for more than four months, blasted Trump.
About 2.7 million state letters were never mailed
The scope of “mail-gate” is becoming apparent after news recently came out that mail from state agencies was never delivered. The Inquirer reports that “approximately 2.7 million pieces of state agency mail never reached Pennsylvania residents … affecting outgoing correspondence from the state Department of Human Services and the Department of Transportation.” For a month—from November 3 through December 3—the “mail was never presorted and delivered by the vendor to the U.S. Postal Service, resulting in a backlog of millions of unsent state communications.” The Shapiro administration didn’t notice the failure for a month, and a spokesperson for Shapiro declined to comment.
HBG mayor pitches 25% pay raise for herself
PennLive reports that a proposed 25%—or $20,000—pay raise for Harrisburg Mayor Wanda Williams “faces … scrutiny.” Williams proposed the pay raise for herself, “which would put her salary at $100,000 for the next four years.” The administration “said the last time the mayor got a raise was 20 years ago.” Plus, mayors of Bethlehem, Easton, Allentown, Lancaster, Reading, Erie and Lebanon all make more than Williams. “But at least four of these cities have bigger populations compared to Harrisburg.” When asked how the administration came up with the requested raise amount, the city solicitor said, “basically it was just picking a number.”
‘The drug turning Philly into Zombieland’
The Dispatch recently ran a story about “the country’s most notorious open-air drug market.” None other than Philadelphia’s Kensington Avenue. “For years the street ran on heroin; then gangs started putting fentanyl, or ‘fetty’, in the dope. Then came the animal tranquilizer xylazine, known locally simply as ‘tranq’. Now, there is something new: medetomidine.” This new arrival “delivers a shorter, more powerful high than the varieties of dope that preceded it, and the crash is faster and more brutal. By some estimates, it is 200 times stronger than xylazine.”