This week’s biggest Winners & Losers

State workers just signed on for a new contract that includes their highest pay raise in years. Members of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees’ Council 13, representing about 27,000 state employees – nearly half of all workers under the governor’s jurisdiction – ratified a proposed four-year contract with Gov. Josh Shapiro’s office this week. The new contract contains pay raises exceeding 22% over the next four years for employees not already at the top of their longevity-based salary scales, bringing the average worker’s salary to $60,658.

Harrisburg City Council candidate Lamont Jones is standing tall after efforts to remove him from the ballot failed. According to The Burg, plaintiffs Katherine Knapp and Sherron Roy attempted to have Jones taken off the ballot due to 20-year-old criminal convictions, but a judge on the Dauphin County Court of Common Pleas ruled that Jones should remain on the general election ballot.

This court ruling was a name-changer. A Court of Common Pleas Judge in Butler County granted the legal name change for Jordan Hilliard, a transgender man, this week in a case brought by the Transgender Legal Defense & Education Fund. The case challenged the commonwealth's ban on legal name changes for people with felony convictions, with the ruling coming nearly a decade after Hilliard originally filed his name change.

Even outside of the athletic’s arena, Penn Staters likely aren’t in Happy Valley right now based on one latest Big Ten Conference ranking. According to federal data, Penn State’s gender pay gap is among the worst compared to other Big Ten public schools. The school is facing at least one allegation of wage discrimination, according to Spotlight PA, with female instructional staff earning on average about 80% of what their male colleagues make.

York County’s Paul O’Neill has been charged with ethnic intimidation, stalking and other crimes for allegedly participating in a harassment campaign against the Slavic Baptist Church of Harrisburg. According to Fox 43, church officials called the police after O’Neill left a Google review calling the church “parasitic” and encouraging members of the church to “kill each other” while making a reference to the war in Ukraine. O’Neill also reportedly made shooting gestures toward children attending a vacation bible school at the church, according to reports.

Mechanicsburg developer Lowell Gates was arrested this week for allegedly assaulting law enforcement officers during the Jan. 6, 2021 riot at the U.S. Capitol building. According to the FBI, videos show that Gates assaulted officers with a flagpole, using the pole in a “spear-like motion to lunge at the officers.” Gates has been charged with two felonies: assaulting, resisting, or impeding certain officers using a dangerous weapon and obstruction of law enforcement during civil disorder.