News & Brews April 28, 2026
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Pa. welfare fraud crisis ‘spirals out of control’
The Foundation for Government Accountability reports that last year in Pennsylvania, “welfare fraud jumped by an alarming 165 percent … giving Pennsylvania the fourth-highest fraud rate in the nation. According to a 2021–2025 analysis of FBI National Incident-Based Reporting System (NIBRS) data for welfare fraud, Pennsylvania had a rate of 4.55 cases per 100,000 residents, nearly three times the national average.” The consequences could be severe. “Under new federal law, if a state’s Medicaid eligibility error rate exceeds three percent, the federal government stops matching any spending above that threshold.” This means “taxpayers in the Keystone State are on track to pay hundreds of millions of dollars to the federal government.”
DOS balks at transparency on voter system update
Spotlight PA reports that Pennsylvania has spent $1.4 million so far (of a $10.6 million contract) updating its voter registration system, but the Department of State refuses to provide details on the progress of the project. Specifically, DOS “has declined to share the project’s specific timeline, monthly progress reports, or reports of any issues that may have arisen so far.” The agency claims “these records reflect internal deliberations of the agency and releasing them could pose a security risk.” But during the last update project—which was cancelled midway through—DOS gave detailed info. Kind of makes you wonder what they’re hiding.
Op-Ed: Dems target school choice
Commonwealth Foundation Senior Fellow Guy Ciarrocchi writes in RealClear Pennsylvania that amid the growing popularity of school choice among parents and families, teachers unions (and the Democrat lawmakers they control) are going after Pennsylvania’s highly popular tax credit scholarship programs. Unable to repeal them outright, “their new strategy is to lower the amount of money that donors may give – so less students would be helped.” These unions and the lawmakers they fund claim it’s about accountability, but that claim rings hollow. Ciarrocchi concludes, “If the teachers union and their legislative pawns want to have a discussion about accountability in education, start by looking in the mirror.”
Former Pa. govs say gov’s safety should be priority
Yesterday, Gov. Shapiro’s office released a statement from all five living former Pennsylvania governors saying “combatting political violence and keeping our elected officials safe should always be nonpartisan and a priority … we ask the state’s current leaders and legislators to make the safety and security of the Governor and his family a priority.” The statement seems to take aim at Treasurer Stacy Garrity who said that without legislative action, her office cannot use taxpayer dollars to fund security upgrades to Gov. Shapiro’s private residence. Garrity, of course, agrees partisanship should stay out of safety. She added, “In that same narrative, we can take threats seriously and support security without disregarding the legal boundaries that govern how public funds are spent.”
Small Pa. town is ground zero for data centers
The Washington Post has a long-form story focusing on Archbald, Pennsylvania, a town of 7,000 in Lackawanna County, where “developers plan to build six … sprawling campuses … to power the demand for artificial intelligence, eventually covering about 14 percent of the town’s land. Those campuses would include 51 data warehouses — each about the size of a Walmart Supercenter.” But residents are none too happy about it “and have launched one of the most contentious grassroots campaigns in local history” against the data centers.