Winners & Losers
This week’s biggest Winners & Losers
Who’s up and who’s down this week?
City & State
The 120 miles between Harrisburg and Washington, D.C. felt shorter than usual this week, with Gov. Josh Shapiro waging legal battles on two fronts against the Trump administration, both on behalf of vulnerable Pennsylvanians. Shapiro joined 24 other states and the District of Columbia in suing the federal government to block its pending suspension of the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, which feeds 2 million commonwealth residents – and is slated to halt on Nov. 1 due to the federal shutdown. The governor also filed a brief supporting the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia in its legal battle against the Trump administration, which has subpoenaed the hospital for private records of pediatric transgender patients.
Keep reading for more winners and losers!
Pittsburgh pizzaioli -
Move over, New Haven and Naples: Pittsburgh may be on the cusp of global pizza domination, thanks to local teens who swept the top two prizes in the Young Pizza Maker of the Year Award division at this year’s International Pizza Expo in Columbus, Ohio. David Hansen, a 17-year-old second-generation pizzaiolo at Caliente Pizza & Drafthouse in Pittsburgh, won for a pie garnished with pink peppercorn crème, smoked rosemary ham, burrata, black rosemary truffle honey and chives. The runner-up was Luca Lunardi, also 17, of Pittsburgh’s Slice on Broadway.
Pleasant Valley Elementary School -
The name speaks for itself. Pleasant Valley Elementary School, located in McMurray in Washington County, was ranked the best public elementary school in the commonwealth in a new list released by U.S. News & World Report. The Peters Township elementary school, with a 17:1 student-teacher ratio, was the highest-ranked elementary school in Pennsylvania in both math and reading proficiency.
Dave Sunday -
The busts have been big as the fentanyl business is booming. Attorney General Dave Sunday announced that state law enforcement had seized over 50 million doses of fentanyl as of September – more than what the state seized in all of 2024. This comes after a drug bust in the Kensington neighborhood of Philadelphia made national headlines, with 33 members of a drug trafficking organization charged in a 41-count indictment.
Pittsburgh dieters -
When you think skinny, you don’t think cows – as some Pittsburgh-area dieters found out recently, when it transpired that clients at Renu Medical and Weight Loss had been improperly injected with a drug intended to treat the cystic ovaries of cows in heat. Clinic owner Nicole Millen, who is not a licensed health professional of any kind, faces federal charges for substituting the bovine drug for what was advertised as a diet-friendly human pregnancy hormone (itself not approved for weight loss).
Harrisburg -
The City of Harrisburg has had a rough couple of weeks. PennLive found that the city missed its own deadline to deliver close to $8 million in affordable housing grants – with at least four grant awardees saying they have yet to receive the grant agreements that guarantee their funding. On top of that, Mayor Wanda Williams was fined $912.70 after the State Ethics Commission found she used her mayoral authority to get a city-owned dumpster for personal use. Talk about a dumpster fire.
Kane Community Living Centers -
Seven employees at Allegheny County-run nursing homes are currently under suspension after two of the seven workers were arrested for theft of county funds. According to CBS Pittsburgh, the growing corruption investigation into Kane Community Living Centers began when one employee reported 196 hours of “tractor time” – hours allocated for cutting grass – but surveillance cameras showed that the employee never worked those hours. You know what they say: Mow money, mow problems.