This week’s biggest Winners & Losers

In a shocking upset, Pennsylvania Democrats flipped another state House seat after Democrat Brandon Dukes defeated Republican Scott Timko in a special election to replace former state Rep. Stephenie Scialabba in the 12th House District. Dukes won the seat – which, believe it or not, was once held by archconservative state Rep. Daryl Metcalfe – by a margin of 88 votes, giving Democrats a two-seat advantage in the chamber. 

U.S. presidents aren’t the only ones forcing their way into historical expansions of executive power. In Harrisburg, Gov. Josh Shapiro has far outpaced any of his recent predecessors in bypassing the legislative process to accomplish his priorities – averaging more than eight executive orders annually, including 22 issued during his first year in office. Contrast that with the 37 orders former Gov. Tom Wolf issued during his two terms in office – or former Gov. Tom Ridge’s nine orders in nearly seven years.

Most people have trouble visualizing 5 million square feet. They have an easier time imagining the kind of electricity such an establishment might require and the noise it might generate – key reasons why Upper Merion Township denied a proposal for a 5-million-square-foot, five-site King of Prussia data center complex. The denial followed months of grassroots opposition and testy wrangling between developer Brian O’Neill and township officials – and marks a highly visible development in the societal pushback against data centers, which power the AI economy but are broadly unpopular.

The owners of a South Philadelphia hotel once described as the “tower of terror” because of bedbugs, fossilized vomit and blood spatters have been accused of operating a $100 million Ponzi scheme. According to The Philadelphia Inquirer, the Department of Justice has accused Pankaj Sheth and Rajan Sheth of using understaffed and underfunded hotels to obtain millions of dollars in government-backed loans, though the father-son duo says the family business is legitimate and has led to improvements at their hotels. 

A former state House candidate in Lawrence County has been accused of possessing child sex abuse material. Justin Byers, who unsuccessfully ran for the 9th House District seat and a New Castle school board seat, is facing the allegations after police seized two phones and two laptops from his home. Byers is currently banned from all property owned by the New Castle Area School District.

A complaint filed by a watchdog group alleges conservative activist Scott Presler and his political action committee may have violated state campaign finance law by not disclosing sources of revenue or detailed expenditures. The D.C.-based Public Citizen says Presler’s organization, Early Vote Action – while registered with the Federal Election Commission – has never registered as a political action committee or submitted reports in Pennsylvania.