This week’s biggest Winners & Losers

It’s been a long time coming, but Dauphin County’s most notorious driver, Commissioner George Hartwick, is finally on the right side of our list this week. The county greenlit Hartwick’s return to work, which followed his completion of a 28-day stint in alcohol rehab after the latest instance of him crashing his official vehicle – at last count, he’d crashed the county car four times – and was charged with DUI (the charge is still pending). While the Board of Commissioners restored most of Hartwick’s duties this week, they wisely transferred oversight of human services and drug and alcohol services to someone else.

After more than a week of trash-riddled roads and sidewalks, the City of Philadelphia reached a tentative deal with the municipal workers’ union. In what was arguably her toughest political challenge yet, Mayor Cherelle Parker and her administration wound up getting AFSCME District Council 33 to agree to a contract much closer to her original pitch – even if it came after her administration sought an injunction to force the sanitation workers back on the job. 

GOP state Sen. Lisa Baker is winning this week after Gov. Josh Shapiro signed into law her legislation that she says will strengthen how Protection from Abuse orders are served in the state. The new law, Act 23 of 2025, will now reimburse state and local police for serving PFA orders, and will “ensure that orders are served promptly and properly,” according to Baker. The bill passed unanimously in both the state House and the state Senate.

The troubled West Reading-based health system, which has struggled to stabilize its finances in recent years, plans to eliminate about 50 positions. The announcement drew anger from Tower’s unionized nurses, who have argued for increased staffing to relieve strain and maintain standards at the system’s four hospitals. Tower recently appointed Michael Stern as its new CEO to continue the financial turnaround spearheaded by his predecessor, Sue Perrotty.

A Vermont activist who calls himself the “Angry Gay Grandpa” will have to pay approximately $17,000 in restitution after a sticky situation in the Pennsylvania Capitol. The man, James Lantz, pleaded guilty to criminal charges related to disrupting a session of the Pennsylvania Senate last year, per CBS 21. Lantz reportedly super-glued his hand to a railing in April 2024 while shouting at former GOP state Sen. Ryan Aument in an effort to bring attention to the deaths by suicide of five transgender children in Lancaster County.

No free shopping spree here. A Pittsburgh man is charged with more than 200 counts of felony identity theft after authorities said he made $100,000 in unauthorized credit card purchases at area Lowe’s and Giant Eagle stores, then sold the merchandise. The Hill District resident, Cornelius Tucker, used his Facebook page and CashApp to sell the ill-gotten merchandise.