This week’s biggest Winners & Losers

The state known for hosting the Little League World Series has a champion of its own. Johnstown’s softball team, representing the mid-Atlantic region, recorded four consecutive shutout wins on their way to winning the Little League Softball World Series. The victory marks the first LLSWS title for a team from Pennsylvania since 1978. 

Acting Pennsylvania Education Secretary Carrie Rowe got one step closer to receiving full Senate confirmation this week after the state Senate Education Committee voted unanimously to advance her nomination. Rowe, a former teacher, principal and superintendent, is now one vote away from shedding the “acting” title and serving in a permanent capacity.

Thousands of Native American artifacts – including human remains and sacred funerary objects – are being returned to their communities of origin by the State Museum of Pennsylvania, which has displayed them for years. Spokespeople for the museum said its storied Native American exhibit is being dismantled and the objects repatriated to tribes in accordance with a 1990s federal statute. 

Despite some action in the Pennsylvania Senate, the state is still waiting on a 2025-26 budget, with Democrats and Republicans remaining at odds over mass transit funding and overall spending levels. Senate Republicans advanced a $47.6 billion spending plan based on 2024-25 spending levels, as well as a transit funding bill that Gov. Josh Shapiro said was “not a serious, long-term proposal that can pass both chambers.” Both plans were rejected by House Democrats, who said the Senate “failed to do their job.”

Is it a coincidence that the Commonwealth Charter Academy, Pennsylvania’s largest cyber school, has abruptly stopped releasing detailed financial information – just as state legislators are considering legislation that would more heavily regulate the sector and mandate greater transparency? All we know is that for now, those looking for hard numbers from the school – including high-six-figure bank transfers, per PennLive – will have to file records requests, a policy school officials are justifying in the name of cybersecurity.

Tree huggers beware: Thousands of beech trees are under siege in the Wissahickon Valley Park area, succumbing to a relatively new and dreaded beech leaf disease that was first found near Philly in 2022. That’s just the top of the canopy, too. The same beech trees face a separate bark disease, woody invasive vines and pests like the emerald ash borer. Forest experts say the blights, while not new, are combining to put immense stress on the trees.