Winners & Losers
This week’s biggest Winners & Losers
Who’s up and who’s down this week?
City & State
He chased women with Casanova, was thrown out of 1770s Venice for gambling and “seditious verses,” and then exiled from Vienna when his operas fell from favor; starting over in the New World, he introduced Italian opera to New York audiences and the Italian department to Columbia University. So it was with great delight that Pennsylvanians learned from The New York Times this week that the great Lorenzo Da Ponte, Mozart’s famed librettist of classics like “Don Giovanni,” spent time as a small-town grocer in Sunbury, where – like so many New Yorkers seeking affordability – he had settled during a nadir in his colorful life of perpetual reinvention. Despite his considerable losses gambling and elsewhere, Da Ponte’s legacy some 200 years later – and, as the Times chronicles, his progeny’s devotion to it – is undeniably a win for the ages.
Keep reading for more winners and losers!
Vaccine transparency -
Unlike the previous generation, today’s parents have to worry about outbreaks of measles. But they won’t have to worry about vaccine rates at their children's schools: They’ll know, thanks to Pennsylvania’s new online database, which launches just as the state is suffering from a historic jump in measles cases. While knowledge is power, the data is sobering, with a growing number of commonwealth classrooms showing vaccination rates below the herd immunity threshold for measles, mumps and rubella – including more than one-third of Allegheny County kindergartens.
Pittsburgh Amtrak riders -
Yinzers will have another shot at the last train home. Amtrak announced a second Pennsylvanian route between Pittsburgh and New York City will be added later this year. The route – which runs from the Steel City to the Big Apple via Harrisburg and Philadelphia – had some of the lowest delays of any Amtrak train service.
Pennsylvania Fraudbusters -
State and federal officials announced a massive takedown of 19 Pennsylvania-based fraudsters this week, whom they say participated in home healthcare schemes that amounted to over $4 million in fraudulent Medicare and Medicaid claims. The cases involve one supposed home healthcare aide who claimed to provide services while she was incarcerated; another billed for home healthcare services while vacationing in Miami. Department of Health and Human Services Inspector General T. March Bell said the large amount of fraud cases “underscores the need to confront Medicaid and Medicare fraud head on.”
University of Valley Forge -
Yet another Philadelphia-area college is closing its doors. This time it’s the University of Valley Forge, an 87-year-old Christian institution in Phoenixville that will shutter at the end of the summer term after failing to meet accreditation standards. The school had long struggled financially, with enrollment falling by nearly half – from just under 900 to fewer than 600 – over the past decade.
Nick Miccarelli -
Nick Miccarelli is back in the news. The disgraced former state representative – who left the General Assembly in 2018 amid allegations of abuse from multiple women – is now facing felony charges of child endangerment after a DUI arrest on the Pennsylvania Turnpike last fall, according to The Philadelphia Inquirer. The report states that Miccarelli, who currently leads DELGO Community Transit, was pulled over after driving erratically. His blood alcohol content was found to be twice the legal limit, and he reportedly had benzodiazepines in his system, all while his two children were in the backseat without proper booster seats.
ICE in PA -
Even the small towns in Pennsylvania are pushing back against ICE. Springdale, a borough near Pittsburgh, has residents demanding answers after its police force agreed to work with ICE in 2025 – and their police chief was found to have faced civil and criminal complaints in the past. Over in Central Pennsylvania, in the town of Mount Holly Springs, borough police reached an agreement with ICE that turned the town into a “speed trap.” Mount Holly Springs Police say they’ve turned over 32 arrestees to ICE, while residents say they now live in a climate of fear.