This week’s biggest Winners & Losers

It’s the Summer of Sunday. Attorney General Dave Sunday has seemingly been everywhere this summer, announcing lawsuits against several social media companies and leading the takedown of an alleged cocaine-trafficking ring at Penn State. Sunday also revealed in late August that the commonwealth will receive up to $729 million under a settlement agreement with Meta, capping off a big month for the AG.

The founder of a North Philadelphia art studio is now an international peace award winner. Lily Yeh, founder of the Village of Arts and Humanities, will be awarded the Tokyo-based Goi Peace Prize for her work in the community over the last 40 years. Yeh will be the first artist to receive the honor for advancing peace and harmony – an award previously given to the likes of Bill Gates, Jane Goodall and Deepak Chopra.

Hanover is one of 25 finalists for Hallmark’s Merriest Christmas Towns Contest, with the winner receiving bragging rights and the opportunity to serve as a filming location for a Hallmark movie. Hanover’s entry highlights the borough’s annual Christmas in Hanover Festival, the community’s rich Christmas traditions and the people who make it possible. Don’t be a Scrooge; cast your vote by Sept. 4!

The Trump administration’s lawyer-turned-health chief needled Pennsylvania’s governor and irked its public health establishment with his unwanted commentary on the state’s measles outbreak – including spurious assertions about the MMR vaccine and its Pennsylvanian co-inventor, and the claim that Lancaster measles deaths were “fabricated” by the governor’s team.

School board members are entrusted with fiscal responsibility. But prosecutors say Jennifer Rivera, a Lower Merion School District board member, was anything but responsible when she embezzled $50,000 from the marketing firm where she works – using the cash for family vacations, apparel and to hire a videographer friend to film another friend’s son’s bar mitzvah.

A Pittsburgh-area man working on behalf of Steve Irwin – not that one – has been sentenced for submitting election petitions with fraudulent signatures. Kirk Rice of Cheswick faces between four and eight years in prison for the petition fraud. Rice, whose forged signatures included that of a federal judge, was paid $1,340 to gather signatures for Irwin’s congressional campaign in 2022 challenging Summer Lee. He now faces 15 counts of identity theft and forgery.