This week’s biggest Winners & Losers

For many, having your home declared the nation’s ugliest wouldn’t be cause for celebration. But upon hearing her Upper Darby house won the eye-catching title – for the sixth season of HGTV’s “Ugliest House in America” – Justine Mays declared the honor “awesome,” adding, “I’m really happy.” And who wouldn’t be? The prize was a $150,000 renovation that replaced the original manse’s toilet-adorned foyer and whiskey-bottle-studded walls with a Barbie-pink scheme (the kitschy spirit remained in wallpaper featuring flamingos and, in the bathroom, Mona Lisa blowing pink bubbles).

A new statue in Philadelphia will honor a civil rights trailblazer not far from where former Mayor Frank Rizzo’s statue was before its removal. The statue will honor Sadie Alexander, who, in 1921, became the first African American to earn a Ph.D. in economics from the University of Pennsylvania. Following that, Alexander became the first Black woman to graduate from Penn’s law school and to be admitted to the Pennsylvania Bar. Her legacy, already set in stone, will be graced with a bronze likeness outside the city’s municipal services building.

Several Pennsylvania hospitals received high marks from U.S. News & World Report, showcasing the commonwealth’s primacy as a healthcare hub. Twenty-eight Pennsylvania hospitals made the national list, with the Hospitals of the University of Pennsylvania-Penn Presbyterian in Philadelphia taking the top spot in the state.

Pennsylvania Attorney General Dave Sunday announced criminal charges against the Canonsburg-based energy company Equitrans this week after a Cambria County gas well owned and operated by the company leaked natural gas into the atmosphere for 14 days in 2022. Following a grand jury investigation, the AG’s office announced 14 criminal charges against Equitrans. Sunday, in a statement, said Equitrans’ failure to maintain the gas well went beyond negligence, adding that the company demonstrated “a reckless disregard for neighboring communities.”

He served his Philadelphia district as a ward leader and his faith community as a deacon, but Willie Jordan had more worldly motives: He pleaded guilty this week to pocketing $140,000 in a scheme that involved issuing himself 83 fraudulent checks from his church. Jordan’s legal income came from directing operations for state Sen. Vince Hughes, but he also funneled $85,000 of 44th Ward funds to pay for everything from airline tickets to furniture. He faces up to 40 years in prison – and has been involuntarily retired from public service.

Who says budget deadlines don’t matter? Pennsylvania’s budget secretary is warning schools, counties, and health and human service providers that roughly $2.5 billion in state payments could be delayed as a result of the ongoing budget impasse in Harrisburg, per a report from Spotlight PA. Fears of delayed payments are becoming an annual occurrence in Pennsylvania – a state that has struggled to pass on-time budgets in recent years – and students and patients could be the ones to bear the brunt of the impasse’s impacts.