This week’s biggest Winners & Losers

A win for the press out in Pittsburgh: A deal is in place to relaunch the Pittsburgh City Paper under new ownership, restoring the outlet’s online content and monthly print issues. City Paper was closed on Dec. 31 by Block Communications Inc. after 34 years of operation, but a move by the nonprofit LocalMatters allows Pierogi Press LLC, which operates City Paper, to come back.

A famous Villanova alum will be making an appearance in the nation’s 250th birthday celebrations – and he goes by the name Leo. Pope Leo XIV, born Robert F. Prevost, will be awarded the National Constitution Center’s Liberty Medal on July 3 and will deliver live remarks from the Vatican that will be seen at Independence Mall. Visitors will be able to hear the first pope from the United States – the 1977 Villanova grad – on the eve of the country’s semiquincentennial.

Republicans were able to hold onto two seats in the Pennsylvania House of Representatives this week, winning special elections in the 79th and 193rd House districts. In the 79th House District, Andrea Verobish will fill a seat vacated by former state Rep. Lou Schmitt, while Catherine Wallen, who worked as a district director for former state Rep. Torren Ecker, will succeed Ecker in the 193rd House District after he left the state House to serve as a judge on the Adams County Court of Common Pleas.

It’s only mid-March, but Northwest Pennsylvania’s vaunted maple trees may already be tapped out. According to concerned Erie-area producers, this winter’s volatile temperatures – including numerous unseasonably warm days – have sapped the flow of sap, curtailing the season by cuing trees to dry up when they should be cranking out the source of syrup.

Does professional development really merit a two-week African safari on the taxpayers’ dime? That's what Montgomery County taxpayers are asking after it was revealed that the county’s Intermediate Unit – which provides school support services – spent some $40,000 on professional-development travel across three continents in as many years, according to expense reports obtained by the Philadelphia Inquirer. School officials’ publicly funded trips to Singapore, South Korea and Central Europe, in addition to Africa, prompted questions from I.U. board members – and justifications from the officials, who claim to have followed protocols.

All Voting is Local, a nonpartisan group that works to expand voting access, recently released a watchlist of the nation’s “Top 10 Most Dangerous Election Deniers” – a list that included Heather Honey, the Trump administration’s deputy assistant secretary for election integrity at the Department of Homeland Security, holding down the No. 4 position. Honey, a Pennsylvania resident, is notorious for her self-described efforts at election integrity research that produced a number of demonstrably false findings. Lancaster County Commissioner Josh Parsons came in at No. 6 on the list, which features individuals who “have taken steps that could alter election outcomes.” In a statement, the organization’s Pennsylvania state director, Deborah Hinchey, said Parsons’ “extreme efforts to eliminate drop boxes and restrict vote-by-mail show the risk he can pose to voting access.”