News & Brews April 29, 2026
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‘ICE out’ hurt human trafficking investigations
In their radical zeal to defund, denigrate, and demolish Immigrations and Customs Enforcement, it turns out Leftists didn’t bother to think through the consequences. The Inquirer (probably reluctantly) reports that after Lehigh County ‘evicted ICE,’ human trafficking investigations suffered. Per County District Attorney Gavin Holihan, “It’s extraordinarily hard to prosecute on a local level because we don’t prosecute the victims, the people who are being trafficked. We have to go after the higher-level people, and as local prosecutors and local law enforcement, it’s almost impossible.” And guess who helps? Homeland Security Investigations, which is a division of ICE. Gee, what brilliant idea will Democrats have next?
Pa. Supreme Court: ‘cast vote’ records are public
The state Supreme Court unanimously ruled yesterday “that spreadsheets of raw data associated with every ballot are public records, providing access to the ‘cast vote records’ that had been requested by an election researcher hired by the Trump Administration last year,” ABC27 reports. The ruling comes after a Williamsport elections worker had denied a request for the records, “saying that would amount to letting [the requester] review the contents of a ballot box, one vote at a time.” In its ruling, the court said, “This case is about how to satisfy the voting public that our elections are safe, secure, and accurate. And, at the same time, it is about how we preserve the guarantee of our State Constitution that a vote, once cast, will remain secret.”
Security work at Shapiro’s home ‘prompts new oversight’
Spotlight PA reports that state Sen. Jarrett Coleman (Lehigh & Bucks counties) plans to propose legislation that “would create a panel with seven voting members … who would review and approve contracts, purchases and related expenditures … for ‘executive protection activities conducted on an emergency basis’ at the governor’s official residence” and would “oversee any emergency expenditures on private property should the mansion become temporarily uninhabitable.” The proposal comes amid questions surrounding security upgrades made to Gov. Shapiro’s private residence. Coleman has “criticized the Shapiro administration, saying that its ‘needless secrecy and failure to collaborate fully with the General Assembly’ have led to ‘ongoing issues about statutory authority, procurement methods and cost, compliance with the State Ethics Act, and use of official resources to enforce private matters.’”
Pa. House advances school cell phone ban
The Center Square reports that the House Education Committee yesterday passed “a bill which—with many exceptions—would prohibit student cell phone use during the school day.” The legislation is different from that previously passed by the Senate. Per lawmakers, the amended bill gives “a clear, consistent statewide standard prohibiting cell phone use during the school day, while still allowing school districts the flexibility to implement policies in a way that works best for their communities.” If the bill passes the full House, it would need to return to the Senate for concurrence.
Q&A with Attorney General Dave Sunday
City & State PA spoke with Pennsylvania Attorney General Dave Sunday about how his “office is approaching new challenges posed by artificial intelligence and social media, and what Pennsylvanians can do to better protect themselves.” Sunday said, “The starting point … is looking at how we can work with tech companies and AI producers to get them to put the guardrails up before the crash happens.” He added, “We cannot use our children as guinea pigs in a race to be trillion-dollar companies…. Innovation and technology are not mutually exclusive from protecting children. We can do both, and we must do both.”