News & Brews August 5, 2026
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DOJ targets Medicaid fraud in Pa.
All of us have likely worked some long days but never more than 24 hours in a 24-hour period. Yet, one alleged Medicaid fraudster claims to have provided care for more than 24 hours in one single day. And this fraudster did this more than 1,100 times. This is just one example of fraud announced at a press conference yesterday by the U.S. Department of Justice. At the presser, which you can watch here, DOJ also “announced a major investment in combatting Medicaid fraud through a significant expansion of the Division’s Northeast Health Care Fraud Strike Force to Philadelphia.”
Giving to get? Questions surround Lancaster donation
Pennon Organization is a Harrisburg-based non-profit that operates the media outlet WITF. Documents obtained by Broad + Liberty suggest “that a $30 million charitable grant from the Steinman Foundation to Pennon Organization required the nonprofit to maintain conditions that … were costing Pennon $3 to $4 million annually in above-market payments — [paid] to a printing company owned by the same family that made the grant.” If proven true, this would mean “that donors who gave to support public broadcasting, and Pennsylvania taxpayers whose dollars fund WITF, were effectively subsidizing a private, for-profit business controlled by Pennon’s largest donor at rates millions of dollars above what the open market would bear.”
Tracking new money per school district
Spotlight PA has a searchable database showing how much money each Pa. school district is receiving in so-called “adequacy” funding in this year’s state budget. Of course, we’d rather see a database of how many kids have the opportunity to attend schools that actually meet their educational needs, but that’s not a priority for Gov. Shapiro and many lawmakers. So instead we have a database of dollars going to an unaccountable, union-run bureaucracy that gets more money each year regardless of how big it fails.
Major election night victory evades progressives
POLITICO reports that in yesterday’s primary elections, “Progressives didn’t get the earthquake they expected. Moderates are relishing in their stronger than expected showing.” This is particularly true in swing-state Michigan’s Democrat Senate primary, where antisemitic socialist Abdul El-Sayed predicted a strong victory over moderate Haley Stevens, but as of this writing, the race remains too close to call. The lack of a progressive wave is “igniting fresh questions about the potency of the movement” beyond safe progressive bastions.
Few races will determine trifecta v. no trifecta
As Democrats aim for a state government trifecta this election—control of the House, Senate, and governor’s office—WHYY reminds us that “relatively few genuinely competitive districts” will determine the outcome. “Ultimately, control of both chambers will likely hinge on fewer than two dozen races across the state, including several in suburban Philadelphia and southeastern Pennsylvania.” Democrats haven’t held the Senate for decades, and if they gain a trifecta, it “would be a whole new world from a policy standpoint.” (More accurately, a whole new dystopia.)
