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Tag: pennsylvania

  • Teen, 15, arrested in shooting at amusement park that hurt 3

    Teen, 15, arrested in shooting at amusement park that hurt 3

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    WEST MIFFLIN, Pa. — A 15-year-old has been arrested in last month’s shooting at a western Pennsylvania amusement park that wounded three people, including two teenagers.

    Allegheny County and West Mifflin police said last week that the teenager is being charged as an adult with aggravated assault, reckless endangering and firearms crimes in the Sept. 24 gunfire at Kennywood Park on the opening night of the park’s Phantom Fall Fest.

    Park officials said the late Saturday night shooting followed an altercation between two groups of teenagers near the Musik Express ride at the park in West Mifflin, southeast of Pittsburgh. A 39-year-old man and two 15-year-old boys were taken to hospitals with leg wounds, authorities said.

    Investigators said last week that evidence recovered at the scene indicated that there were two guns fired, one of them by the teenager arrested. He himself was also grazed on the thigh by a bullet, and authorities are searching for a second suspect, which Christopher Kearns, the county police superintendent, said is “most likely” a juvenile.

    Kennywood closed for the day after the shooting and announced new security measures including more police, more security along perimeter fences, limits on bag sizes and masks covering faces and requiring adult chaperones for all juveniles at all times during the Fall Fest, scheduled to run until mid-October.

    Kearns said it remains unclear how the weapons got into the park, and investigators are still looking at the possibility that the weapons were tossed over the park fence or carried by someone jumping the fence. Officials said they are cutting down trees along the perimeter fence to improve visibility and installing new floodlights and security cameras to completely cover the fence line. They also vowed to “significantly” increase security patrols.

    Authorities said they believe the gunfire stemmed from a feud between two groups of teenagers that has led to scores of shootings in several Mon Valley communities. Victor Joseph, county police assistant superintendent, cited 55 calls for shots fired in Duquesne and Homestead, the communities of the rival groups.

    “We all know that this is a serious problem,” Joseph said. “The people who live in these communities know how serious it is. People who have lost loved ones due to gun violence and incarceration know how devastating it is.”

    ———

    This story has been corrected to show the dateline is West Mifflin, Pa., not Ohio.

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  • Bobbing for apples: Inflation, labor shortages could put future of U.S. orchards in jeopardy

    Bobbing for apples: Inflation, labor shortages could put future of U.S. orchards in jeopardy

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    Apples are the center of many autumn traditions, like trips to the orchard or the farmers’ market and making pies. But for the people who grow them, and those of us who love the fall fruit, this year’s harvest comes with a unique set of challenges, including inflation and labor shortages.

    Barron Shaw runs a family farm and apple orchard in York County, Pennsylvania, which got its start in 1841. He told CBS News that he’s facing challenges unlike anything he’s seen before.

    “Inflation makes it very stressful,” he said. “I mean the fuel prices, the energy costs, the electricity prices … all of it is going up.”

    Inflation is squeezing industries of all sorts, but the apple industry is seeing a perfect storm down the supply chain that is hitting growers hard.

    An Apple Harvest As Production Forecast To Increase
    Gala apples on a tree at an orchard in Britton, Michigan, U.S., on Monday, Sept. 13, 2021.

    Emily Elconin/Blooomberg


    “You don’t go into this business unless you’ve got a lot of faith; a lot of faith in God, a lot of faith in the family members around you,” Shaw said. “You know, that’s what keeps me going.”

    Unlike other items in the produce aisle that benefit from automated farming practices, apples are picked by hand and require intensive and specialized labor to harvest.

    Shaw said his orchard just cannot find domestic workers for the intensely physical job. The industry relies heavily on international migrant workers using H-2A visas, whose wages are set by the federal government and vary state by state.

    Shaw saw the wage for H-2A workers increase 10% from last year, up to $15.78 an hour. Across the U.S., H-2A wages have been going up 5-10% a year.

    “We just have to pay what the government tells us,” he said. “Completely out of our control.”

    The U.S. Apple Industry Association estimates total labor costs have spiked 30% this year. Apples, on average, also cost 6% more this year.

    An Apple Harvest As Production Forecast To Increase
    An worker picks Gala apples from a tree at an orchard in Britton, Michigan, U.S., on Monday, Sept. 13, 2021.

    Emily Elconin/Blooomberg


    Most apple farmers said they aren’t seeing more money in their pockets, though, despite the cost increase.

    In Montgomery County, Maryland, public schools won’t be able to serve a fresh seasonal apple for lunch for the first year ever. County officials said local apples cost three times as much this fall, and they’ll have to stick with cheaper, prepackaged slices instead.

    To weather the economic storm, farmers like Shaw are trying to entice people to buy from the orchard itself — cutting out the middlemen.

    The orchards can offer you a lower price and get a bigger profit if you pick apples directly off the trees than off a grocery store shelf.

    Shaw said for some orchards, that could be the tipping point.

    “These businesses really are not sustainable unless they’re profitable, and because there’s no reason for the next generation to do this if they can’t make a living, can’t make a retirement doing it,” he said. (double-check quote)

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  • The most important Senate race in the country | CNN Politics

    The most important Senate race in the country | CNN Politics

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    CNN
     — 

    The Senate playing field has narrowed in recent weeks, with both parties focusing heavily on Georgia, Nevada and Pennsylvania as the three races most likely to decide which party has the majority come January 2023.

    Picking which race is most critical of those three is a tough task. But for my money, it’s in Pennsylvania, where Lt. Gov. John Fetterman and Dr. Mehmet Oz are competing for the seat being vacated by retiring GOP Sen. Pat Toomey.

    Why do I see Pennsylvania as the first among equals? A few reasons:

    1) Pennsylvania could well be the biggest battleground of the 2024 presidential race – especially if Joe Biden and Donald Trump run again.

    2) Oz is a candidate directly out of Trumpworld’s central casting. A longtime TV doctor and celebrity, he won the primary thanks to an endorsement from the former President. Now the question becomes whether Oz’s style of conservatism can sell in a general election.

    3) Fetterman is an unapologetic liberal. Rather than hedge those positions or hide them in a general election, he’s leaned into them. That’s a blueprint liberals have long argued can be successful, even in a swing state like Pennsylvania. Fetterman’s candidacy is a test case for that theory.

    4) Both national parties are heavily invested in this race – testing messaging for the inevitable fight to come in 2024.

    What’s clear about the race is that Fetterman led by mid-to-high single digits for much of the spring and summer as Oz was battered in a primary that he narrowly won – and struggled to united Republicans even after he became the nominee.

    But of late – thanks to a coordinated attack on Fetterman’s record on crime and lingering questions about his health following a stroke he suffered in the spring – Oz has crept back.

    The Cook Political Report with Amy Walter, a nonpartisan campaign tipsheet, shifted its rating of the race to “lean Democrat” roughly six weeks ago. But on Tuesday, the rating moved back to “toss up.”

    Senate editor Jessica Taylor explained:

    “In conversations with several GOP strategists and lawmakers – who a month and a half ago had begun to put the Keystone State in the loss column – this has emerged as a margin-of-error race that they once again see winnable. Republicans and Democrats alike admit the race has tightened and that Pennsylvania could be the tipping point state for the Senate majority.”

    So, with exactly five weeks left in this campaign, we have a tie (or something close to it) in a critical swing state between two candidates who represent drastically different visions of what the future of the country should look like.

    That seems pretty important to me.

    The Point: The fight for Senate control now seems very likely to come down to just a handful of races that are nip and tuck right now. And none is more important than Pennsylvania.

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  • The 10 Senate seats most likely to flip in 2022 | CNN Politics

    The 10 Senate seats most likely to flip in 2022 | CNN Politics

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    CNN
     — 

    The race for the Senate is in the eye of the beholder less than six weeks from Election Day, with ads about abortion, crime and inflation dominating the airwaves in key states as campaigns test the theory of the 2022 election.

    The cycle started out as a referendum on President Joe Biden – an easy target for Republicans, who need a net gain of just one seat to flip the evenly divided chamber. Then the US Supreme Court’s late June decision overturning Roe v. Wade gave Democrats the opportunity to paint a contrast as Republicans struggled to explain their support for an abortion ruling that the majority of the country opposes. Former President Donald Trump’s omnipresence in the headlines gave Democrats another foil.

    But the optimism some Democrats felt toward the end of the summer, on the heels of Biden’s legislative wins and the galvanizing high court decision, has been tempered slightly by the much anticipated tightening of some key races as political advertising ramps up on TV and voters tune in after Labor Day.

    Republicans, who have midterm history on their side as the party out of the White House, have hammered Biden and Democrats for supporting policies they argue exacerbate inflation. Biden’s approval rating stands at 41% with 54% disapproving in the latest CNN Poll of Polls, which tracks the average of recent surveys. And with some prices inching back up after a brief hiatus, the economy and inflation – which Americans across the country identify as their top concern in multiple polls – are likely to play a crucial role in deciding voters’ preferences.

    But there’s been a steady increase in ads about crime too as the GOP returns to a familiar criticism, depicting Democrats as weak on public safety. Cops have been ubiquitous in TV ads this cycle – candidates from both sides of the aisle have found law enforcement officers to testify on camera to their pro-police credentials. Democratic ads also feature women talking about the threat of a national abortion ban should the Senate fall into GOP hands, while Republicans have spent comparatively less trying to portray Democrats as the extremists on the topic.

    While the issue sets have fluctuated, the Senate map hasn’t changed. Republicans’ top pickup opportunities have always been Nevada, Georgia, Arizona and New Hampshire – all states that Biden carried in 2020. In two of those states, however, the GOP has significant problems, although the states themselves keep the races competitive. Arizona nominee Blake Masters is now without the support of the party’s major super PAC, which thinks its money can be better spent elsewhere, including in New Hampshire, where retired Army Brig. Gen. Don Bolduc is far from the nominee the national GOP had wanted. But this is the time of year when poor fundraising can really become evident since TV ad rates favor candidates and a super PAC gets much less bang for its buck.

    The race for Senate control may come down to three states: Georgia, Nevada and Pennsylvania, all of which are rated as “Toss-up” races by Inside Elections with Nathan L. Gonzales. As Republicans look to flip the Senate, which Minority Leader Mitch McConnell has called a “50-50 proposition,” they’re trying to pick up the first two and hold on to the latter.

    Senate Democrats’ path to holding their majority lies with defending their incumbents. Picking off a GOP-held seat like Pennsylvania – still the most likely to flip in CNN’s ranking – would help mitigate any losses. Wisconsin, where GOP Sen. Ron Johnson is vying for a third term, looks like Democrats’ next best pickup opportunity, but that race drops in the rankings this month as Republican attacks take a toll on the Democratic nominee in the polls.

    These rankings are based on CNN’s reporting, fundraising and advertising data, and polling, as well as historical data about how states and candidates have performed. It will be updated one more time before Election Day.

    Incumbent: Republican Pat Toomey (retiring)

    Sarah Silbiger/Pool/Getty Images

    The most consistent thing about CNN’s rankings, dating back to 2021, has been Pennsylvania’s spot in first place. But the race to replace retiring GOP Sen. Pat Toomey has tightened since the primaries in May, when Republican Mehmet Oz emerged badly bruised from a nasty intraparty contest. In a CNN Poll of Polls average of recent surveys in the state, Democrat John Fetterman, the state lieutenant governor, had the support of 50% of likely voters to Oz’s 45%. (The Poll of Polls is an average of the four most recent nonpartisan surveys of likely voters that meet CNN’s standards.) Fetterman is still overperforming Biden, who narrowly carried Pennsylvania in 2020. Fetterman’s favorability ratings are also consistently higher than Oz’s.

    One potential trouble spot for the Democrat: More voters in a late September Franklin and Marshall College Poll viewed Oz has having policies that would improve voters’ economic circumstances, with the economy and inflation remaining the top concern for voters across a range of surveys. But nearly five months after the primary, the celebrity surgeon still seems to have residual issues with his base. A higher percentage of Democrats were backing Fetterman than Republicans were backing Oz in a recent Fox News survey, for example, with much of that attributable to lower support from GOP women than men. Fetterman supporters were also much more enthusiastic about their candidate than Oz supporters.

    Republicans have been hammering Fetterman on crime, specifically his tenure on the state Board of Pardons: An ad from the Senate Leadership Fund features a Bucks County sheriff saying, “Protect your family. Don’t vote Fetterman.” But the lieutenant governor is also using sheriffs on camera to defend his record. And with suburban voters being a crucial demographic, Democratic advertising is also leaning into abortion, like this Senate Majority PAC ad that features a female doctor as narrator and plays Oz’s comments from during the primary about abortion being “murder.” Oz’s campaign has said that he supports exceptions for “the life of the mother, rape and incest” and that “he’d want to make sure that the federal government is not involved in interfering with the state’s decisions on the topic.”

    Incumbent: Democrat Catherine Cortez Masto

    02 democrat immigration legislation 0717

    CNN

    Republicans have four main pickup opportunities – and right now, Democratic Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto’s seat looks like one of their best shots. Biden carried Nevada by a slightly larger margin than two of those other GOP-targeted states, but the Silver State’s large transient population adds a degree of uncertainty to this contest.

    Republicans have tried to tie the first-term senator to Washington spending and inflation, which may be particularly resonant in a place where average gas prices are now back up to over $5 a gallon. Democrats are zeroing in on abortion rights and raising the threat that a GOP-controlled Senate could pass a national abortion ban. Former state Attorney General Adam Laxalt – the rare GOP nominee to have united McConnell and Trump early on – called the 1973 Roe v. Wade ruling a “joke” before the Supreme Court overturned the decision in June. Democrats have been all too happy to use that comment against him, but Laxalt has tried to get around those attacks by saying he does not support a national ban and pointing out that the right to an abortion is settled law in Nevada.

    Incumbent: Democrat Raphael Warnock

    Sen Raphael Warnock 10 senate seats

    Megan Varner/Getty Images

    The closer we get to Election Day, the more we need to talk about the Georgia Senate race going over the wire. If neither candidate receives a majority of the vote in November, the contest will go to a December runoff. There was no clear leader in a recent Marist poll that had Democratic Sen. Raphael Warnock, who’s running for a full six-year term, and Republican challenger Herschel Walker both under 50% among those who say they definitely plan to vote.

    Warnock’s edge from earlier this cycle has narrowed, which bumps this seat up one spot on the rankings. The good news for Warnock is that he’s still overperforming Biden’s approval numbers in a state that the President flipped in 2020 by less than 12,000 votes. And so far, he seems to be keeping the Senate race closer than the gubernatorial contest, for which several polls have shown GOP Gov. Brian Kemp ahead. Warnock’s trying to project a bipartisan image that he thinks will help him hold on in what had until recently been a reliably red state. Standing waist-deep in peanuts in one recent ad, he touts his work with Alabama GOP Sen. Tommy Tuberville to “eliminate the regulations,” never mentioning his own party. But Republicans have continued to try to tie the senator to his party – specifically for voting for measures in Washington that they claim have exacerbated inflation.

    Democrats are hoping that enough Georgians won’t see voting for Walker as an option – even if they do back Kemp. Democrats have amped up their attacks on domestic violence allegations against the former football star and unflattering headlines about his business record. And all eyes will be on the mid-October debate to see how Walker, who has a history of making controversial and illogical comments, handles himself onstage against the more polished incumbent.

    Incumbent: Republican Ron Johnson

    Sen Ron Johnson 10 senate seats

    Leigh VogelPool/Getty Images

    Sen. Ron Johnson is the only Republican running for reelection in a state Biden won in 2020 – in fact, he broke his own term limits pledge to run a third time, saying he believed America was “in peril.” And although Johnson has had low approval numbers for much of the cycle, Democrats have underestimated him before. This contest moves down one spot on the ranking as Johnson’s race against Democratic Lt. Gov. Mandela Barnes has tightened, putting the senator in a better position.

    Barnes skated through the August primary after his biggest opponents dropped out of the race, but as the nominee, he’s faced an onslaught of attacks, especially on crime, using against him his past words about ending cash bail and redirecting some funding from police budgets to social services. Barnes has attempted to answer those attacks in his ads, like this one featuring a retired police sergeant who says he knows “Mandela doesn’t want to defund the police.”

    A Marquette University Law School poll from early September showed no clear leader, with Johnson at 49% and Barnes at 48% among likely voters, which is a tightening from the 7-point edge Barnes enjoyed in the same poll’s August survey. Notably, independents were breaking slightly for Johnson after significantly favoring Barnes in the August survey. The effect of the GOP’s anti-Barnes advertising can likely be seen in the increasing percentage of registered voters in a late September Fox News survey who view the Democrat as “too extreme,” putting him on parity with Johnson on that question. Johnson supporters are also much more enthusiastic about their candidate.

    Incumbent: Democrat Mark Kelly

    Mark Kelly AZ 1103

    Courtney Pedroza/Getty Images

    Democratic Sen. Mark Kelly, who’s running for a full six-year term after winning a 2020 special election, is still one of the most vulnerable Senate incumbents in a state that has only recently grown competitive on the federal level. But Republican nominee Blake Masters is nowhere close to rivaling Kelly in fundraising, and major GOP outside firepower is now gone. After canceling its September TV reservations in Arizona to redirect money to Ohio, the Senate Leadership Fund has cut its October spending too.

    Other conservative groups are spending for Masters but still have work to do to hurt Kelly, a well-funded incumbent with a strong personal brand. Kelly led Masters 51% to 41% among registered voters in a September Marist poll, although that gap narrowed among those who said they definitely plan to vote. A Fox survey from a little later in the month similarly showed Kelly with a 5-point edge among those certain to vote, just within the margin of error.

    Masters has attempted to moderate his abortion position since winning his August primary, buoyed by a Trump endorsement, but Kelly has continued to attack him on the issue. And a recent court decision allowing the enforcement of a 1901 state ban on nearly all abortions has given Democrats extra fodder to paint Republicans as a threat to women’s reproductive rights.

    Incumbent: Republican Richard Burr (retiring)

    Sen Richard Burr 10 senate seats

    Demetrius Freeman/Pool/Getty Images

    North Carolina slides up one spot on the rankings, trading places with New Hampshire. The open-seat race to replace retiring GOP Sen. Richard Burr hasn’t generated as much national buzz as other states given that Democrats haven’t won a Senate seat in the state since 2008.

    But it has remained a tight contest with Democrat Cheri Beasley, who is bidding to become the state’s first Black senator, facing off against GOP Rep. Ted Budd, for whom Trump recently campaigned. Beasley lost reelection as state Supreme Court chief justice by only about 400 votes in 2020 when Trump narrowly carried the Tar Heel state. But Democrats hope that she’ll be able to boost turnout among rural Black voters who might not otherwise vote during a midterm election and that more moderate Republicans and independents will see Budd as too extreme. One of Beasley’s recent spots features a series of mostly White, gray-haired retired judges in suits endorsing her as “someone different” while attacking Budd as being a typical politician out for himself.

    Budd is leaning into current inflation woes, specifically going after Biden in some ads that feature half-empty shopping carts, without even mentioning Beasley. Senate Leadership Fund is doing the work of trying to tie the Democrat to Washington – one recent spot almost makes her look like the incumbent in the race, superimposing her photo over an image of the US Capitol and displaying her face next to Biden’s. Both SLF and Budd are also targeting Beasley over her support for Democrats’ recently enacted health care, tax and climate bill. “Liberal politician Cheri Beasley is coming for you – and your wallet,” the narrator from one SLF ad intones, before later adding, “Beasley’s gonna knock on your door with an army of new IRS agents.” (The new law increases funding for the IRS, including for audits. But Democrats and the Trump-appointed IRS commissioner have said the intention is to go after wealthy tax cheats, not the middle class.)

    Incumbent: Democrat Maggie Hassan

    Sen Maggie Hassan 10 senate seats

    Erin Scott/Getty Images

    A lot has been made of GOP candidate quality this cycle. But there are few states where the difference between the nominee Republicans have and the one they’d hoped to have has altered these rankings quite as much as New Hampshire.

    Retired Army Brig. Gen. Don Bolduc, who lost a 2020 GOP bid for the state’s other Senate seat, won last month’s Republican primary to take on first-term Democratic Sen. Maggie Hassan. The problem for him, though, is that he doesn’t have much money to wage that fight. Bolduc had raised a total of $579,000 through August 24 compared with Hassan’s $31.4 million. Senate Leadership Fund is on air in New Hampshire to boost the GOP nominee – attacking Hassan for voting with Biden and her support of her party’s health care, tax and climate package. But because super PACs get much less favorable TV advertising rates than candidates, those millions won’t go anywhere near as far as Hassan’s dollars will.

    A year ago, Republicans were still optimistic that Gov. Chris Sununu would run for Senate, giving them a popular abortion rights-supporting nominee in a state that’s trended blue in recent federal elections. Bolduc told WMUR after his primary win that he’d vote against a national abortion ban. But ads from Hassan and Senate Majority PAC have seized on his suggestion in the same interview that the senator should “get over” the abortion issue. Republicans recognize that abortion is a salient factor in a state Biden carried by 7 points, but they also argue that the election – as Bolduc said to WMUR – will be about the economy and that Hassan is an unpopular and out-of-touch incumbent.

    Hassan led Bolduc 49% to 41% among likely voters in a Granite State Poll conducted by the University of New Hampshire Survey Center. The incumbent has consolidated Democratic support, but only 83% of Republicans said they were with Bolduc, the survey found. Still, some of those Republicans, like those who said they were undecided, could come home to the GOP nominee as the general election gets closer, which means Bolduc has room to grow. He’ll need more than just Republicans to break his way, however, which is one reason he quickly pivoted on the key issue of whether the 2020 election was stolen days after he won the primary.

    Incumbent: Republican Rob Portman (retiring)

    Sen Rob Portman 10 senate seats

    TING SHEN/AFP/POOL/Getty Images

    Ohio – a state that twice voted for Trump by 8 points – isn’t supposed to be on this list at No. 8, above Florida, which backed the former President by much narrower margins. But it’s at No. 8 for the second month in a row. Republican nominee J.D. Vance’s poor fundraising has forced Senate Leadership Fund to redirect millions from other races to Ohio to shore him up and attack Rep. Tim Ryan, the Democratic nominee who had the airwaves to himself all summer. The 10-term congressman has been working to distance himself from his party in most of his ads, frequently mentioning that he “voted with Trump on trade” and criticizing the “defund the police” movement. Vance is finally on the air, trying to poke some holes in Ryan’s image.

    But polling still shows a tight race with no clear leader. Ryan had an edge with independents in a recent Siena College/Spectrum News poll, which also showed that Vance – Trump’s pick for the nomination – has more work to do to consolidate GOP support after an ugly May primary. Assuming he makes up that support and late undecided voters break his way, Vance will likely hold the advantage in the end given the Buckeye State’s solidifying red lean.

    Incumbent: Republican Marco Rubio

    Sen Marco Rubio 10 senate seats

    DREW ANGERER/AFP/POOL/Getty Images

    Democrats face an uphill battle against GOP Sen. Marco Rubio in an increasingly red-trending state, which Trump carried by about 3 points in 2020 – nearly tripling his margin from four years earlier.

    Democratic Rep. Val Demings, who easily won the party’s nomination in August, is a strong candidate who has even outraised the GOP incumbent, but not by enough to seriously jeopardize his advantage. She’s leaning into her background as the former Orlando police chief – it features prominently in her advertising, in which she repeatedly rejects the idea of defunding the police. Still, Rubio has tried to tie her to the “radical left” in Washington to undercut her own law enforcement background.

    Incumbent: Democrat Michael Bennet

    Sen Michael Bennett 10 senate seats

    DEMETRIUS FREEMAN/AFP/POOL/Getty Images

    Democratic Sen. Michael Bennet is no stranger to tough races. In 2016, he only won reelection by 6 points against an underfunded GOP challenger whom the national party had abandoned. Given GOP fundraising challenges in some of their top races, the party hasn’t had the resources to seriously invest in the Centennial State this year.

    But in his bid for a third full term, Bennet is up against a stronger challenger in businessman Joe O’Dea, who told CNN he disagreed with the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade. His wife and daughter star in his ads as he tries to cut a more moderate profile and vows not to vote the party line in Washington.

    Bennet, however, is attacking O’Dea for voting for a failed 2020 state ballot measure to ban abortion after 22 weeks of pregnancy and arguing that whatever O’Dea says about supporting abortion rights, he’d give McConnell “the majority he needs” to pass a national abortion ban.

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  • FACT FOCUS: Gaping holes in the claim of 2K ballot ‘mules’

    FACT FOCUS: Gaping holes in the claim of 2K ballot ‘mules’

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    A film debuting in over 270 theaters across the United States this week uses a flawed analysis of cellphone location data and ballot drop box surveillance footage to cast doubt on the results of the 2020 presidential election nearly 18 months after it ended.

    Praised by former President Donald Trump as exposing “great election fraud,” the movie, called “2000 Mules,” paints an ominous picture suggesting Democrat-aligned ballot “mules” were supposedly paid to illegally collect and drop off ballots in Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin.

    But that’s based on faulty assumptions, anonymous accounts and improper analysis of cellphone location data, which is not precise enough to confirm that somebody deposited a ballot into a drop box, according to experts.

    The movie was produced by conservative filmmaker Dinesh D’Souza and uses research from the Texas-based nonprofit True the Vote, which has spent months lobbying states to use its findings to change voting laws. Neither responded to a request for comment.

    Here’s a closer look at the facts.

    CLAIM: At least 2,000 “mules” were paid to illegally collect ballots and deliver them to drop boxes in key swing states ahead of the 2020 presidential election.

    THE FACTS: True the Vote didn’t prove this. The finding is based on false assumptions about the precision of cellphone tracking data and the reasons that someone might drop off multiple ballots, according to experts.

    “Ballot harvesting” is a pejorative term for dropping off completed ballots for people besides yourself. The practice is legal in several states but largely illegal in the states True the Vote focused on, with some exceptions for family, household members and people with disabilities.

    True the Vote has said it found some 2,000 ballot harvesters by purchasing $2 million worth of anonymized cellphone geolocation data — the “pings” that track a person’s location based on app activity — in various swing counties across five states. Then, by drawing a virtual boundary around a county’s ballot drop boxes and various unnamed nonprofits, it identified cellphones that repeatedly went near both ahead of the 2020 election.

    If a cellphone went near a drop box more than 10 times and a nonprofit more than five times from Oct. 1 to Election Day, True the Vote assumed its owner was a “mule” — its name for someone engaged in an illegal ballot collection scheme in cahoots with a nonprofit.

    The group’s claims of a paid ballot harvesting scheme are supported in the film only by one unidentified whistleblower said to be from San Luis, Arizona, who said she saw people picking up what she “assumed” to be payments for ballot collection. The film contains no evidence of such payments in other states in 2020.

    Plus, experts say cellphone location data, even at its most advanced, can only reliably track a smartphone within a few meters — not close enough to know whether someone actually dropped off a ballot or just walked or drove nearby.

    “You could use cellular evidence to say this person was in that area, but to say they were at the ballot box, you’re stretching it a lot,” said Aaron Striegel, a professor of computer science and engineering at the University of Notre Dame. “There’s always a pretty healthy amount of uncertainty that comes with this.”

    What’s more, ballot drop boxes are often intentionally placed in busy areas, such as college campuses, libraries, government buildings and apartment complexes — increasing the likelihood that innocent citizens got caught in the group’s dragnet, Striegel said.

    Similarly, there are plenty of legitimate reasons why someone might be visiting both a nonprofit’s office and one of those busy areas. Delivery drivers, postal workers, cab drivers, poll workers and elected officials all have legitimate reasons to cross paths with numerous drop boxes or nonprofits in a given day.

    True the Vote has said it filtered out people whose “pattern of life” before the election season included frequenting nonprofit and drop box locations. But that strategy wouldn’t filter out election workers who spend more time at drop boxes during the election season, cab drivers whose daily paths don’t follow a pattern, or people whose routines recently changed.

    In some states, in an attempt to bolster its claims, True the Vote also highlighted drop box surveillance footage that showed voters depositing multiple ballots into the boxes. However, there was no way to tell whether those voters were the same people as the ones whose cellphones were anonymously tracked.

    A video of a voter dropping off a stack of ballots at a drop box is not itself proof of any wrongdoing, since most states have legal exceptions that let people drop off ballots on behalf of family members and household members.

    For example, Larry Campbell, a voter in Michigan who was not featured in the film, told The Associated Press he legally dropped off six ballots in a local drop box in 2020 — one for himself, his wife, and his four adult children. And in Georgia, Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger’s office investigated one of the surveillance videos circulated by True the Vote and said it found the man was dropping off ballots for himself and his family.

    ___

    CLAIM: In Philadelphia alone, True the Vote identified 1,155 “mules” who illegally collected and dropped off ballots for money.

    THE FACTS: No, it didn’t. The group hasn’t offered any evidence of any sort of paid ballot harvesting scheme in Philadelphia. And True the Vote did not get surveillance footage of drop boxes in Philadelphia, so the group based this claim solely on cellphone location data, its researcher Gregg Phillips said in March in testimony to Pennsylvania state senators.

    Pennsylvania state Sen. Sharif Street, who was there for the group’s testimony in March, told the AP he was confident he was counted as several of the group’s 1,155 anonymous “mules,” even though he didn’t deposit anything into a drop box in that time period.

    Street said he based his assessment on the fact that he carries a cellphone, a watch with a cellular connection, a tablet with a cellular connection and a mobile hotspot — four devices whose locations can be tracked by private companies. He also said he typically travels with a staffer who carries two devices, bringing the total on his person to six.

    During the 2020 election season, Street said, he brought those devices on trips to nonprofit offices and drop box rallies. He also drove by one drop box up to seven or eight times a day when traveling between his two political offices.

    “I did no ballot stuffing, but over the course of time, I literally probably account for hundreds and hundreds of their unique visits, even though I’m a single actor in a single vehicle moving back and forth in my ordinary course of business,” Street said.

    City election commission spokesman Nick Custodio said the allegations matched others that had been debunked or disproven after the 2020 election.

    “The Trump campaign and others filed an unprecedented litany of cases challenging Philadelphia’s election with dubious and unsubstantiated allegations of fraud, all of which were quickly and resoundingly rejected by both state and federal courts,” Custodio said.

    ___

    CLAIM: Some of the “mules” True the Vote identified in Georgia were also geolocated at violent antifa riots in Atlanta in the summer of 2020, showing they were violent far left actors.

    THE FACTS: Setting aside the fact that the film doesn’t prove these individuals were collecting ballots at all, it also can’t prove their political affiliations.

    The anonymized data True the Vote tracked doesn’t explain why someone might have been present at a protest demanding justice for Black deaths at the hands of police officers. The individuals who were tracked there could have been violent rioters, but they also could have been peaceful protesters, police or firefighters responding to the protests, or business owners in the area.

    ___

    CLAIM: Alleged ballot harvesters were captured on surveillance video wearing gloves because they didn’t want to leave their fingerprints on the ballots.

    THE FACTS: This is pure speculation. It ignores far more likely reasons for glove-wearing in the fall and winter of 2020 — cold weather or COVID-19.

    True the Vote’s researcher claimed in the movie that voters in Georgia started wearing gloves to prevent their fingerprints from touching ballot envelopes after two women in Yuma, Arizona, were indicted on Dec. 23, 2020 for alleged ballot harvesting in that state’s primary election. But the Arizona indictment didn’t mention anything about fingerprints.

    Voting in Georgia’s Jan. 5, 2021, Senate runoff election occurred during some of the coldest weeks of the year in the state, and when COVID-19 was surging.

    In fact, the AP in 2020 documented multipleexamples of COVID-cautious voters wearing latex gloves and other personal protective equipment to vote.

    In a similarly speculative allegation, the film claims its supposed “mules” took photographs of ballots before they dropped them into drop boxes in order to get paid. But across the U.S., voters frequently take photos of their ballot envelopes before submitting them.

    ___

    CLAIM: If it weren’t for this ballot collection scheme, former President Donald Trump would have had enough votes to win the 2020 election.

    THE FACTS: This alleged scheme has not been proven, nor do these researchers have any way of knowing whether any ballots that were collected contained votes for Trump or for Biden.

    There’s no evidence a massive ballot harvesting scheme dumped a large amount of votes for one candidate into drop boxes, and if there were, it would likely be caught quickly, according to Derek Muller, a law professor at the University of Iowa.

    “Once you get just a few people involved, people start to reveal the scheme because it unravels pretty quickly,” he said.

    Absentee ballots are also verified by signature and tracked closely, often with an option for voters themselves to see where their ballot is at any given time. That process safeguards against anyone who tries to illegally cast extra ballots, according to Barry Burden, a University of Wisconsin-Madison political science professor and the director of the Elections Research Project.

    “It seems impossible in that system for a nefarious actor to dump lots of ballots that were never requested by voters and were never issued by election officials,” Burden said.

    ___

    This is part of AP’s effort to address widely shared misinformation, including work with outside companies and organizations to add factual context to misleading content that is circulating online. Learn more about fact-checking at AP.

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  • Granny Drives Wrong Way on Interstate

    Granny Drives Wrong Way on Interstate

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    Granny Drives Wrong Way on Interstate – CBS News


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    State police in Pennsylvania are searching for an elderly woman last seen driving the wrong-way on Interstate 95 near Philadelphia. The driver caused at least four accidents and backed up traffic for miles. Manuel Gallegus reports.

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  • WAMC Gives Back During June Fund Drive

    WAMC Gives Back During June Fund Drive

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    Press Release
    –

    Jun 9, 2022


    ALBANY, N.Y., June 9, 2022 (Newswire.com)
    –
    WAMC/Northeast Public Radio completed its June Fund Drive on June 9, 2022, raising over $1,000,000 to support the station’s award-winning news and cultural programming thanks to the generosity of listeners contributing during 12 hours over four days of on-air fundraising and also to the Locked Box. This drive marks the second of three this year.

    Taking precautions for the health and safety of volunteers and staff, WAMC has continued to delay returning to its traditional Fund Drive. Instead, the Locked Box and Fund Drive were completed with the help of a few volunteers and the WAMC staff, who fielded calls and online donations.

    WAMC was honored to partner with The Food Pantries For The Capital District and Janitronics to help feed hundreds of families this summer through the drive. 

    WAMC President and CEO Alan Chartock says, “Even in our most challenging times, including COVID and political disruption, WAMC’s listeners have come through to keep this station going. This is an incredible family, and I couldn’t be more proud. I’m forever grateful for the support once again.”

    Ray Graf, newscaster and Vox Pop host, adds: “These are tough economic times; it’s difficult for many to even put food on the table. Add to that a world that is still picking up the pieces of a pandemic and still the WAMC family is there to help. It amazes me.”

    WAMC is a listener-supported station that relies on contributions to stay alive. Its Fund Drives primarily occur three times a year: February, June, and October. Each drive has a $1 million goal to support the general operations of WAMC/Northeast Public Radio.

    If you’re interested in finding out more about their Fund Drives, or to donate or volunteer, please contact Amber Sickles at 1-800-323-9262 ext. 133.

    WAMC/Northeast Public Radio is a non-commercial, public radio station and nonprofit organization that presents award-winning news and cultural programming 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. WAMC’s listening area reaches parts of seven states, including New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Vermont, Massachusetts, Connecticut, and New Hampshire; as well as parts of Canada. With over 400,000 monthly listeners, WAMC ranks among the most-listened-to public radio stations in the United States. WAMC is a member of National Public Radio and an affiliate of Public Radio International. For more information on WAMC, please visit www.wamc.org or call 518.465.5233.

    WAMC-FM 90.3 FM, Albany, NY; WAMC 1400 AM, Albany, NY; WAMK 90.9 FM, Kingston, NY; WOSR 91.7 FM, Middletown, NY; WCEL 91.9 FM, Plattsburgh, NY; WCAN 93.3 FM, Canajoharie, NY; WANC 103.9 FM, Ticonderoga, NY; WRUN 90.3 FM, Remsen-Utica, NY; WAMQ 105.1 FM, Great Barrington, MA; WANZ 90.1 FM, Stamford, NY; WANR 88.5 FM, Brewster, NY; WQQQ 103.3FM Sharon, CT; 103.9 FM Beacon, NY; 97.3 FM, Cooperstown, NY; 106.3 FM Dover Plains, NY; 96.5 FM Ellenville, NY; 102.1 FM Highland, NY; 97.1 FM Hudson, NY; 88.7 FM Lake Placid, NY; 106.3 FM Middletown, NY; 90.9 FM Milford, PA; 107.7 FM Newburgh, NY; 90.1 FM Oneonta, NY; 99.3 FM Oneonta, NY; 95.9 FM Peekskill, NY; 93.1 FM Rensselaer-Troy, NY; 92.9 FM Scotia, NY, 107.1 FM Warwick, NY, and online at www.wamc.org, www.facebook.com/wamcradio, www.instagram.com/wamcradio, and www.twitter.com/wamcradio.

    Source: WAMC Northeast Public Radio

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  • A. Benjamin Mannes Appointed to Lou Barletta’s Public Safety Advisory Board

    A. Benjamin Mannes Appointed to Lou Barletta’s Public Safety Advisory Board

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    Subject matter expert brings a unique perspective in criminal justice reform, compliance, and national best practices to the Barletta team.

    Press Release
    –

    Oct 6, 2021


    PHILADELPHIA, October 6, 2021 (Newswire.com)
    –
    In September, A. Benjamin Mannes, a subject matter expert in compliance and public safety, was appointed to Gubernatorial candidate Lou Barletta’s Public Safety Advisory Board.

    Mannes, who served in both federal and municipal law enforcement before leading investigations for North America’s largest medical board, as well as in consulting and compliance roles, joins members of Pennsylvania’s law enforcement, corrections, and fire communities to advise Barletta.

    A regular columnist for the Philadelphia Weekly and Broad + Liberty, Mannes brings a risk-based perspective on criminal justice reform and applying national best practices to Pennsylvania’s public safety community.

    “Currently, violent crime is surging because of a misinterpretation of criminal justice reform, where local policies fail to disrupt cycles of criminality,” A. Benjamin Mannes said. “Congressman Barletta’s campaign asked me to join this accomplished board to apply my unique experience in criminal justice reform to assure that people who’ve made mistakes in the past can get a second chance — while assuring public safety for all communities.”

    Mannes also seeks to apply best practices throughout the United States. “Throughout America, states have benchmarked best practices in training, working with courts, local law enforcement, and corrections to streamline processes,” Mannes continued. “This lowers pretrial incarceration and keeps law enforcement on the streets where they can protect citizens.”

    “It’s time to restore common sense to the Commonwealth,” said Barletta in a statement. “Our governor has a duty to protect his constituents. These trusted advisers will help me craft my policies to crack down on the lawlessness overrunning our Commonwealth and empower law enforcement and first responders to do their jobs effectively so they can keep us safe.”  

    “This isn’t political,” said Mannes. “Leaders should put safety over special interests and agendas. The fact that Lou Barletta has assembled a diverse group of criminal justice experts to listen and learn from this early in the campaign, speaks volumes about his ability to lead Pennsylvania.”

    About A. Benjamin Mannes: Ariel Benjamin Mannes, MA, CPP joined the public safety community with New York Police Departments while attending College. He then served as a federal officer assigned to the NY Terrorist Trials Operations Command before joining the DC Metropolitan Police, where he served through the 9/11 attacks and DC-area Sniper Task Force. He then served in external assignments with the federal government as an Intelligence Analyst and Inspector before being thrust into a legal battle over DC’s unlawful firearms prohibition in 2005. Following his 2007 reinstatement to the DC Police, Mannes served as a risk management consultant and expert witness; and was later appointed Director, Office of Investigations with the American Board of Internal Medicine from 2008-2017.

    Source: Lou Barletta’s Public Safety Advisory Board

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  • Tribute held in Shanksville, Pennsylvania for victims of United Flight 93

    Tribute held in Shanksville, Pennsylvania for victims of United Flight 93

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    Tribute held in Shanksville, Pennsylvania for victims of United Flight 93 – CBS News


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    United Flight 93 was the final hijacked plane on September 11, 2001. It was the only jetliner not to make its intended target, the U.S. Capitol Building. Passengers and crew on the flight, who learned of the other hijackings, attempted to rush the cockpit and retake control from the terrorists. Instead, it crashed in a field in rural Pennsylvania, killing everyone on board. Their heroism will be remembered Saturday at a memorial in Shanksville, Pennsylvania. Nikole Killion reports.

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  • Biden kicks off reelection bid with union rally in Philadelphia | CNN Politics

    Biden kicks off reelection bid with union rally in Philadelphia | CNN Politics

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    CNN
     — 

    President Joe Biden kicked off his reelection campaign Saturday at a union rally in his frequent haunt of Pennsylvania, the state that remains an intersection of his personal and political identities that he hopes can propel him to a second term.

    The first official rally of his final political campaign was a moment for Biden to underscore recent economic wins that undergird his argument for another four years in the White House.

    “Just think back. Remember what it was like when I came to office, we came into office. Remember the mess we inherited,” Biden told the audience in Philadelphia. “Now look at where we are today.”

    To a roaring crowd, who repeatedly cheered “four more years,” the president touted several accomplishments, including the bipartisan infrastructure law, a coronavirus relief package, a bipartisan semiconductor chip manufacturing law and the recently negotiated debt ceiling deal that helped avert a US default.

    Biden also criticized recent Republican tax proposals while describing what he called his middle-class vision for the American economy, referring to it several times as “Biden-omics.”

    Biden made only brief mention of Donald Trump, the current front-runner for the 2024 GOP presidential nomination, steering clear of the former president’s recent federal indictment and arraignment but hitting him on infrastructure.

    “Under my predecessor, infrastructure week became a punchline,” Biden said. “On my watch, we’re making infrastructure a decade headline.”

    First lady Jill Biden, who spoke shortly before her husband, highlighted the president’s optimism. Wearing a corsage to mark their 46th wedding anniversary Saturday, the first lady recalled how she met Biden following the death of his first wife and baby daughter in a tragic car accident that also injured his two sons.

    “What I love about Joe is that even though he has faced unimaginable tragedies, his optimism is undaunted,” Jill Biden said. “His strength is unshakeable.”

    She added that the president was “not done.”

    “He’s ready to finish the job,” she said. “He’s ready to win, and with your help, he will.”

    Though his economic wins were the centerpiece of Biden’s opening campaign event, polls show many voters give him poor marks for his handling of the economy, particularly as prices have soared post-pandemic. Recent figures have shown inflation easing, however, and fears of an imminent recession have faded.

    Biden has said more Americans will come to reward him for his economic stewardship once the benefits of some of his signature legislative achievements, including a new infrastructure law, begin taking hold.

    Labor groups that threw their backing behind Biden ahead of his speech include the AFL-CIO, which said it was the earliest point in a presidential election cycle it had ever endorsed a candidate.

    “There’s absolutely no question that Joe Biden is the most pro-union president in our lifetimes,” said AFL-CIO President Liz Shuler. “From bringing manufacturing jobs home to America to protecting our pensions and making historic investments in infrastructure, clean energy and education, we’ve never seen a president work so tirelessly to rebuild our economy from the bottom up and middle out.”

    Supporters cheer before Biden speaks at the Pennsylvania Convention Center.

    Biden, who made his first stop after announcing his reelection bid a legislative conference for North America’s Building Trades Unions in Washington, has long relied on union support for his political ambitions.

    “I’m more honored by your endorsement than you can imagine – coming this early, it’s going to make a gigantic difference in this campaign,” Biden said during Saturday’s event in Philadelphia, where he called himself “the most pro-union president in American history.”

    Not all unions have thrown their support behind Biden’s reelection bid. The powerful United Auto Workers said last month it was holding off on endorsing Biden, citing concerns over his policies that would encourage a transition to electric vehicles, according to a memo from the union.

    The UAW has more than 400,000 members, and Biden has touted its support in the past. Last year he called American autoworkers “the most skilled autoworkers in the world.” The group’s membership is mostly concentrated in Michigan, a presidential election battleground.

    Biden also rankled union members last year when he signed legislation that averted a nationwide rail strike – a step he said was necessary to prevent a stoppage of important freight movement.

    Biden’s campaign has leaned into his economic record, including releasing a 60-second ad titled “Backbone” last month. The spot struck a populist tone, mixing audio of the president speaking about “investing in places and people that have been forgotten” and a narrator ticking through the administration’s work to boost infrastructure and manufacturing in the country.

    “Joe Biden’s building an economy that leaves no city, no town, no American behind,” the narrator says.

    This story has been updated with additional information.

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  • Pennsylvania Sen. Bob Casey will run for reelection, boosting Democrats’ Senate outlook for 2024 | CNN Politics

    Pennsylvania Sen. Bob Casey will run for reelection, boosting Democrats’ Senate outlook for 2024 | CNN Politics

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    Washington
    CNN
     — 

    Sen. Bob Casey will run for reelection in 2024, the Pennsylvania Democrat announced Monday morning, providing good news for Democrats in a pivotal swing state.

    “Folks, I’m running for reelection,” Casey, 62, said in an announcement posted on Twitter. “There’s still more work to do to cut through the gridlock, stand up to powerful special interests and make the lives of hardworking Pennsylvanians easier. The map is back, and I’m not done yet.”

    Pennsylvania is one of several Senate battlegrounds where the party will be pressed to defend its slim majority. In 2022, the open seat Senate race in the Keystone State between Democrat John Fetterman, the eventual winner, and Republican Mehmet Oz was among the most expensive and competitive of the cycle.

    Casey is seeking his fourth term representing Pennsylvania in the Senate. The veteran Democrat had been noncommittal on his reelection plans up to this point, and in February he announced that he had undergone surgery for prostate cancer which “should not require further treatment,” according to his office.

    According to his latest FEC filings – which are set to be updated later this week – Casey had a little over $3 million in cash on hand stockpiled as of the end of 2022. Those funds and more will be critical in the upcoming contest, as Casey’s colleague, Fetterman, raised more than $76 million during his competitive 2022 race.

    Potential Republican challengers include David McCormick, a wealthy businessman who unsuccessfully ran against Oz in the state’s 2022 GOP Senate primary and who could pour millions from his personal fortune into another bid.

    McCormick has publicly expressed interest in the race, releasing a book and touring.

    “I’m thinking about it, obviously,” McCormick told CNN about a potential Senate run.

    And Doug Mastriano, the unsuccessful far-right nominee for governor in 2022, has also teased the possibility of running for Senate in 2024.

    “What do you do with a movement of 2.2 million?” Mastriano told Politico. “We’re keeping it alive.”

    Casey could stand to benefit from a competitive GOP primary with echoes of 2022, when a drawn out, bitter contest between McCormick and Oz helped Fetterman strengthen his position heading into the fall campaign.

    This story has been updated with additional developments.

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  • Exclusive: McConnell details GOP efforts to not ‘screw this up’ in 2024 Senate battle | CNN Politics

    Exclusive: McConnell details GOP efforts to not ‘screw this up’ in 2024 Senate battle | CNN Politics

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    CNN
     — 

    Senate GOP Leader Mitch McConnell should be brimming with confidence.

    Republicans are in the driver’s seat to take the Senate majority: with 23 seats held by Democrats, compared to just 11 for Republicans. There are likely just two GOP incumbents whose seats Democrats may try to flip – and both are in Republican terrain – while three Democrats hail from states that former President Donald Trump easily won in 2020.

    The Kentucky Republican just scored a prized recruit in West Virginia and expects two other top candidates to jump into races in Montana and Pennsylvania. And after tangling last cycle with Florida Sen. Rick Scott, his last chairman of the Senate GOP’s campaign arm, he is now in line over strategy and tactics with the committee’s new chairman, Montana Sen. Steve Daines.

    But in an exclusive interview with CNN, McConnell made clear he knows full well that things can quickly go south. So he’s been working behind the scenes for months to find his preferred candidates in key races – including during his recent recovery from a concussion and a broken rib – in an attempt to prevent a repeat of 2022: When a highly favorable GOP landscape turned into a Republican collapse at the polls and a 51-49 Senate Democratic majority.

    “No, no – I’m not,” McConnell said with a chuckle when asked if he were confident they’d take back the majority next year. “I just spent 10 minutes explaining to you how we could screw this up, and we’re working very hard to not let that happen. Let’s put it that way.”

    In the interview, McConnell gave his most revealing assessment in months of the field forming in the battle for the Senate. He said that his main focus for now is on flipping four states: Montana, West Virginia, Ohio and Pennsylvania. He said Republicans are still assessing two swing states with Democratic incumbents: Wisconsin, where the GOP is searching for a top-tier candidate, and Nevada, where he expects to likely wait until after next year’s primary to decide whether to invest resources there.

    And in what is emerging as the most complicated state of the cycle – Arizona – McConnell said there’s a “high likelihood” that Republican leaders would wait and see first who wins the GOP primary next year before deciding whether to engage there at all. Plus he doesn’t see any chance that Sen. Kyrsten Sinema – who became an independent and left the Democratic Party last December but is still weighing a reelection bid – will join his conference.

    “I think that decision was made when she ended up continuing to caucus with the Democrats,” McConnell said when asked if trying to get Sinema to flip to the GOP was a live discussion. “We would love to have had her, but we didn’t land her.”

    While he knows the presidential race could scramble the map, he believes a potential Trump nomination could bolster Republican chances in three key Senate battlegrounds. But above all else, McConnell is making clear that his outside group, the Senate Leadership Fund, along with the National Republican Senatorial Committee, are prepared to take a much heavier hand in contested Republican primaries than the past cycle, a move that could escalate their intraparty feuding but one the GOP leader sees as essential to avoiding the pitfalls from 2022.

    “We don’t have an ideological litmus test,” McConnell said flatly. “We want to win in November.”

    “We’ll be involved in any primary where that seems to be necessary to get a high-quality candidate, and we’ll be involved in every general election where we have a legitimate shot of winning – regardless of the philosophy of the nominee,” the Kentucky Republican said.

    But McConnell and Republican leaders are treading carefully in deciding which primary races to engage in, since trying to tip the scales could generate backlash from the conservative base and help far-right candidates – something GOP leaders learned in past election cycles, like the tea party wave of 2010.

    In the 2022 cycle, Republicans also seemed to have the wind in their sails. With inflation running rampant and President Joe Biden’s poll numbers taking a nosedive, Republicans had several paths to the majority.

    But Democratic incumbents hung onto their seats as they campaigned on issues like abortion rights and took advantage of Trump’s late emergence on the campaign trail, while several GOP candidates who won messy primaries turned out to be weak general-election candidates. McConnell’s allies worked in the Missouri and Alabama primaries to defeat GOP candidates they viewed as problematic but largely steered clear of a number of other contested primaries.

    Part of the issue: Trump hand-selected candidates in key races, bolstering their chances in primaries even though they were vulnerable in general elections.

    “In other places where we did not get involved in the primaries it was because we were convinced we could not prevail, and would spend a lot of money that we would need later,” McConnell said, reflecting on 2022.

    Plus, in the last cycle, Scott’s NRSC made the strategic decision to steer clear of primaries, arguing they would let the voters choose their candidates without a heavy hand from Washington. (Scott and his allies later blamed McConnell for hurting their candidates by not embracing an election-year agenda.)

    This time around, the Daines-led NRSC is heavily involved in candidate recruiting and vetting and has already signaled its support for certain GOP candidates in Indiana and West Virginia, aligning its efforts with McConnell’s.

    “I think it’s important to go into this cycle understanding once again how hard it is to beat the incumbents, no incumbent lost last year,” McConnell told CNN on Friday. “Having said that, if you were looking for a good map, this is a good map.”

    But he later added: “We do have the possibility of screwing this up and that gets back to candidate recruitment. I think that we lost Georgia, Arizona and New Hampshire because we didn’t have competitive candidates (last cycle). And Steve Daines and I are in exactly the same place – that starts with candidate quality.”

    McConnell, who has faced incessant attacks from Trump after he blamed the former president for being “practically and morally responsible” for the 2021 Capitol attack, is not publicly letting on any concerns about the possibility that Trump could be on the top of the GOP ticket again.

    As Daines has already backed Trump for president, McConnell didn’t answer directly when asked if he’d be comfortable with him as the party’s 2024 presidential nominee.

    “Look, I’m going to support the nominee of our party for president, no matter who that may be,” he said.

    McConnell believes that Trump at the top of the ticket could help in some key states with Senate races.

    “Whether you are a Trump fan or a Trump opponent, I can’t imagine Trump if he’s the nominee not doing well in West Virginia, Montana and Ohio,” McConnell said.

    Left unmentioned: Wisconsin, Michigan, Nevada, Arizona and Pennsylvania, all of which Trump lost in 2020 but are key parts of the Senate map in 2024.

    “I didn’t mention Wisconsin; I think clearly you’d have to have an outstanding candidate. And I think there are some other places where with the right candidate, we might be able to compete – in Nevada, Arizona,” McConnell said. “But as of right now the day that you and I are talking, I think we know that we are going to compete in four places heavily, and that would be, Montana, West Virginia, Ohio and Pennsylvania.”

    Yet each of those have their own challenges for the GOP.

    Then-Republican Senatorial candidate David McCormick and his wife Dina Powell McCormick heads to vote at his polling location on the campus of Chatham University on May 17, 2022 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

    In Pennsylvania, McConnell and the NRSC have their eyes on David McCormick, the hedge fund executive who barely lost his primary last cycle to Mehmet Oz, the Trump-backed TV doctor who later fell short in the general election to Democrat John Fetterman.

    While McCormick is widely expected to run for the seat occupied by Democratic Sen. Bob Casey, he could face a complicated primary if the controversial candidate, Doug Mastriano, runs as well. Mastriano, who won the Trump endorsement in the 2022 gubernatorial primary and later lost by double digits in the fall, is weighing a run for Senate. But McConnell and the NRSC are expected to go all-out for McCormick, whom the GOP leader called a “high-quality candidate.”

    Asked if he were concerned about a potential Mastriano bid, McConnell said: “I think everybody is entitled to run. I’m confident the vast majority of people who met Dave McCormick are going to be fine with him.”

    While the GOP field in Ohio to take on Democratic Sen. Sherrod Brown is expected to be crowded and has yet to fully form, top Republicans are signaling they’d be comfortable with several of them as their nominee. But that’s not necessarily the case in Montana or West Virginia.

    In Montana, Rep. Matt Rosendale, a member of the hard-right House Freedom Caucus who lost to Democratic Sen. Jon Tester in 2018, is considering another run against him in 2024, though Rosendale posted a low fundraising number last quarter. But Senate GOP leaders are looking at some other prospective candidates, including state attorney general Austin Knudsen and, in particular, businessman Tim Sheehy, whom McConnell met with in recent weeks.

    Asked if he were concerned about a Rosendale candidacy, McConnell said: “Yeah, I don’t have anything further to say about Montana. We’re going to compete in Montana and win in November.”

    And in West Virginia, McConnell and top Republicans landed Gov. Jim Justice in the battle for the seat occupied by Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin, who has yet to decide whether to run again. But Justice is already facing a primary challenge against Rep. Alex Mooney, who is backed by the political arm of the anti-tax group, the Club for Growth.

    McConnell didn’t express any concerns about Mooney’s candidacy but said that they wouldn’t hesitate to help Justice.

    “What we do know about West Virginia is it’s very, very red, and we have an extremely popular incumbent governor who’s announced for the Senate. And we’re going to go all out to win it,” McConnell said.

    Former Arizona Republican gubernatorial candidate Kari Lake speaks during the annual Conservative Political Action Conference at Gaylord National Resort & Convention Center on March 4 in National Harbor, Maryland.

    McConnell pointedly declined to discuss any concerns about other controversial candidates who may emerge this cycle, including Kari Lake, who is weighing a US Senate run in Arizona after losing her bid for governor last year and then later claimed the election was stolen. Blake Masters, who lost his bid to unseat Democratic Sen. Mark Kelly, is also among the candidates considering another run.

    Asked about Lake and other prospective GOP candidates who deny the 2020 election results, McConnell wouldn’t weigh in directly.

    “What I care about in November is winning and having an ‘R’ by your name, and I think it is way too early to start assessing various candidacies that may or may not materialize,” McConnell said.

    McConnell also indicated they may want to until after the primary to decide if Nevada is worth pouring their money into, even as GOP sources say that national Republicans are recruiting military veteran Sam Brown, who fell short in the Senate GOP primary last cycle.

    The GOP leader is signaling he has little concern about the races of two GOP incumbents – Scott in Florida and Ted Cruz of Texas, even as Cruz is facing a Democratic recruit, Rep. Colin Allred who is poised to raise big sums of money.

    “Both of them are very skilled,” McConnell said of Cruz and Scott, characterizing Democratic efforts to beat them as “really long shots.” Democrats, he argued, “don’t have much hope there. I don’t think they have any opportunities for offense” in 2024, he said.

    How long the 81-year-old McConnell – the longest-serving Senate party leader in history – plans to keep his job is a lingering question as well, especially in the aftermath of his recent fall that sent him to the hospital for concussion treatment. After Scott failed to knock him off from his post after the 2022 midterms, McConnell said, “I’m not going anywhere.” And he told CNN last fall that he would “certainly” complete his term, which ends in January 2027.

    Asked on Friday if he still plans to serve his full term or run for leader again, McConnell let out a laugh and didn’t want to engage on it.

    “I thought this was not an interview about my future,” he said. “I thought it was an interview about the 2024 Senate elections.”

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  • CNN projects Republican Carolyn Carluccio will advance to fall Pennsylvania Supreme Court race against Democrat Daniel McCaffery | CNN Politics

    CNN projects Republican Carolyn Carluccio will advance to fall Pennsylvania Supreme Court race against Democrat Daniel McCaffery | CNN Politics

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    CNN
     — 

    Republican voters in Pennsylvania made a candidate supported by the GOP establishment their nominee for an open state Supreme Court seat, rejecting another Republican contender more closely aligned with former President Donald Trump’s wing of the party.

    CNN projected the victory of Montgomery County Court of Common Pleas Judge Carolyn Carluccio in Tuesday’s primary, which marks a rebound for the more traditional elements of the GOP in this presidential battleground state. She will defeat Commonwealth Court Judge Patricia McCullough, who briefly halted the certification of the state’s election results in 2020, and had the backing of a key Trump ally, Republican state Sen. Doug Mastriano in this election.

    Mastriano had pushed the falsehood in his failed 2022 bid for governor that election fraud led to Trump’s 2020 loss in the state. Last year, the Trump-endorsed Mastriano bested the Republican field to win his party’s nomination in the governor’s race, only to suffer a double-digit defeat to Democrat Josh Shapiro in the general election.

    Carluccio now will face Democrat Superior Court Judge Daniel McCaffery in the fall.

    The Republican and Democratic nominees are vying for an open seat on Pennsylvania’s high court, following the death of former Chief Justice Max Baer, a Democrat, last year.

    The outcome of November’s election will not tip the partisan balance on the high court, where Democrats currently hold a 4-2 majority on the seven-member body, but it could narrow the gap and start to lay the foundation for a shift in power in future election cycles, experts say.

    “It could create a situation where, very shortly, the partisan balance on this court could be up for grabs,” said Douglas Keith, who researches judicial elections at the liberal-leaning Brennan Center for Justice at New York University’s law school.

    State supreme courts are the final arbiters on key issues, ranging from election ground rules to abortion policies. The Pennsylvania Supreme Court has upheld the state’s no-excuse mail voting law, and last year selected the state’s congressional map, breaking an impasse between the then-Republican controlled legislature and the state’s Democratic governor.

    Justices on Pennsylvania’s Supreme Court serve 10-year terms. After the first election, they run in so-called retention elections without opponents.

    Much of the attention in the Pennsylvania contest centered on the GOP primary between Carluccio and McCullough, who halted certification of the 2020 results – including Joe Biden’s victory in the state – in a ruling that was swiftly overturned by the state Supreme Court.

    McCullough, who lost a 2021 bid for the Supreme Court, calls herself “a strict constitutionalist judge,” and touted her rulings against pandemic restrictions and the state’s mail-in voting law in the campaign.

    But Carluccio had the backing of the state Republican Party and a national GOP group that’s active in judicial elections, the Republican State Leadership Committee’s Judicial Fairness Initiative, which has weighed in with $600,000 in advertising to boost Carluccio.

    In a statement to CNN this week, Carluccio said she would leave “personal and political opinions at the door and look at each case without bias and only determine the constitutionality of what’s before me.”

    Carluccio said she hasn’t questioned the outcome of any election, but she said she is concerned by what she called the “conflicting, and sometimes unclear,” decisions on the state’s mail-in voting law in recent years by the state Supreme Court.

    In 2019, the state legislatures passed a no-excuse mail-in voting law, known as Act 77, with bipartisan support. But it has become the target of criticism from some Republicans after it was employed in the contentious 2020 election that saw Biden flip the state. The high court has weighed in on aspects of the law multiple times. In 2020, for instance, the court ruled that ballots in two counties with missing dates on the outside of the ballot return envelope could be counted. In the 2022 election, however, the court ordered that mail ballots with missing or improper dates on the return envelopes should be kept out of the count and deadlocked on the underlying legal questions.

    “Our election laws must be applied consistently across all counties, regardless of the election year,” Carluccio said in her statement. “And, when part of our electorate has concerns about the integrity of our elections, rather than dismiss their concerns, the response should be bold transparency in the administration of our elections.”

    The modest spending in the under-the-radar Pennsylvania high court race stood sharp contrast to the record-setting spending that candidates and outside groups plowed into a Wisconsin Supreme Court election last month that, in the end, flipped control of that state’s high court to liberals. (A Kantar Media/CMAG analysis for the Brennan Center found that the ad spending for the Wisconsin high court seat hit $28.8 million as of early April, and some estimates put the likely final tally of all spending in that election even higher.)

    In an interview ahead of Tuesday’s election, Penn State political scientist Michael Nelson said the GOP primary represented a “good opportunity to get a sense of where the energy in the party is, what segment of the party is able to get their people to go on the polls on a random Tuesday in May when there hasn’t been wall-to-wall television advertising.”

    “Given that the Mastriano wing of the Republican Party was so dominant in the elections last fall, it will be interesting to see whether they can keep up that momentum or whether the standard-issue conservative wing of the party is able to rebound,” he added.

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  • ATF: Fifth in Population, Thirty-Third in Size, But Can Pennsylvania Really Be the Worst State for Student Loans?

    ATF: Fifth in Population, Thirty-Third in Size, But Can Pennsylvania Really Be the Worst State for Student Loans?

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    Press Release
    –


    updated: Nov 22, 2018


    ROHNERT PARK, Calif., November 22, 2018 (Newswire.com)
    –
     With 50 states in our country, of course one of them is going to rank the worst in a few categories. The worst may depend on who is asked, and those that live in the mentioned state may have a slightly biased opinion. Ameritech Financial, a document preparation service company that works with struggling student loan borrowers, say “the worst” will always change based on what angle is being looked at. But an editorial piece written by a Pennsylvania local goes on about why Pennsylvania is the worst state when it comes to student loan problems.

    “Every state has problems on some level, and that includes how colleges and funding interact with college attendees. States with larger populations are going to have more problems because it’s hard to get more cohesive work done when there are many parts,” said Tom Knickerbocker, executive vice president of Ameritech Financial.

    Every state has problems on some level, and that includes how colleges and funding interact with college attendees. States with larger populations are going to have more problems because it’s hard to get more cohesive work done when there are many parts.

    Tom Knickerbocker, Executive Vice President of Ameritech Financial

    The average graduate in Pennsylvania has about $36,000 in student loans. With a student loan amount matching the average salary, that’s a heavy burden to bear. Having the kind of loan amount to repay heavily limits how much that borrower can participate in the economy. Not being able to save up, buy a house, a new car or afford replacements of much truly limits not just the local and national economy but the borrowers’ quality of life. The editorial went on to place much of the blame on state officials, saying the continual cutting and freezing of state funding for colleges resulted in shifting the financial responsibility onto students and parents. Auditor General Eugene DePasquale has acknowledged that there is a problem with funding, but is worried about colleges taking the received funding and spending it on flashy attractions to encourage students to attend rather than working on funding a quality education for students.

    The student loan debt crisis that the country is currently facing is going to take many groups working together and a fair amount of time. But borrowers currently struggling in the face of repayment don’t have time to wait for things to get better. Ameritech Financial may be able to help qualified student loan borrowers better their situation by helping them apply for federal income-driven repayment programs. These programs can potentially lower monthly payments and get a borrower on track for student loan forgiveness after 20-25 years of being in the program. “We believe student loan repayment shouldn’t have to be a struggle. That’s why we’re so dedicated to helping our clients and being a student loan advocate,” said Knickerbocker.

    About Ameritech Financial

    Ameritech Financial is a private company located in Rohnert Park, California. Ameritech Financial has already helped thousands of consumers with financial analysis and student loan document preparation to apply for federal student loan repayment programs offered through the Department of Education.

    Each Ameritech Financial telephone representative has received the Certified Student Loan Professional certification through the International Association of Professional Debt Arbitrators (IAPDA).

    Ameritech Financial prides itself on its exceptional customer service.

    Ameritech Financial Newsroom

    Contact

    To learn more about Ameritech Financial, please contact:

    Ameritech Financial
    5789 State Farm Drive #265
    ​Rohnert Park, CA 94928
    1-800-792-8621
    ​media@ameritechfinancial.com

    Source: Ameritech Financial

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  • Kentucky Chamber Named 2017 State Chamber of the Year; Council of State Chambers Elects Officers and Directors

    Kentucky Chamber Named 2017 State Chamber of the Year; Council of State Chambers Elects Officers and Directors

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    Press Release
    –


    updated: Sep 1, 2017


    ALEXANDRIA, Va., September 1, 2017 (Newswire.com)
    –
     The Council of State Chambers announced today that the Kentucky Chamber of Commerce has been named the 2017 “State Chamber of the Year.” The purpose of the annual State Chamber of the Year award is to bring attention to innovative initiatives and best practices that advance state chambers’ mission and work and to provide deserved recognition to state chambers and their leaders who have distinguished themselves by providing exceptional services and results for their members.

    Chamber President and CEO Dave Adkisson accepted the award on behalf of the Kentucky Chamber. “This is great recognition for our organization, our 60-member board of directors made up of the top business leaders of Kentucky and our staff of 30 professionals at our headquarters in Frankfort. Our slogan is ‘Uniting Business, Advancing Kentucky.’ Our team is passionate and works hard every day to create progress for our Commonwealth.”

    The Kentucky Chamber was recognized during the 94th Annual Meeting of the Council of State Chambers. Also recognized for outstanding achievement were the:

    About the State Chamber of the Year Award

    The judges, who themselves are seasoned state chamber of commerce leaders, evaluated applicants in six different areas of achievement:

    • Public Policy — Shaping public policy through original research, surveys, communications, lobbying, member engagement, public engagement, and/or other means to achieve positive results for the business community.
    • Political Engagement — Advancing causes of critical importance to the business community directly or through affiliated entities (e.g., a PAC) with regard to issues, candidates, and other electoral activities.
    • Membership and Development — Measurable success in growing membership and other financial resources to support the mission of the organization.
    • Organizational Development — Development of the state chamber organization through the innovative use of technology, the enhancement of its facilities, the professional development of its staff, the work of associated entities such as its foundation, the creation of internal efficiency, etc.
    • Communications Program — Development of innovative and effective communications programming or communications products that have produced a significant impact on the organization, the chamber membership, and/ or the state the chamber serves.
    • Member Services — Development and provision of exceptional member services through offering educational programs, member discount programs, major events or member products that have addressed a particular need for chamber members, and/or produced significant revenue for the chamber.

    The Council of State Chambers also elected Officers and Directors at its annual meeting. Fred Morgan, President & CEO of the State Chamber of Oklahoma, was elected as Chair of the Board of Directors; Mark Wilson, President & CEO of the Florida Chamber, was elected as Vice Chair; and Chris Clark, President & CEO of the Georgia Chamber of Commerce was elected Treasurer & Secretary. Kevin Brinegar, President & CEO of the Indiana Chamber of Commerce, will serve as Immediate Past Chair. Members elected to serve as Directors for 2017-18 are:

    • Rich Studley (Michigan Chamber)
    • Heather Briccett (Business Council of New York State)
    • Dan Mehan (Missouri Chamber)
    • Andy Peterson (Greater North Dakota Chamber)
    • Gene Barr (Georgia Chamber)
    • Sherry Menor-McNamara (Chamber of Commerce Hawaii)
    • Rob Engstrom, ex officio (U.S. Chamber)
    • Scott Waller, ex officio (Mississippi Chamber)

    About the Council of State Chambers

    Founded in 1924, the Council of State Chambers is the national organization for state chamber CEOs and their executive leadership. The purpose of the Council of State Chambers is to promote cooperation among state chambers of commerce, strengthen existing state chambers, and promote the state chamber of commerce movement throughout the country.

    Source: Council of State Chambers (COSC)

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  • In PA, School Districts and Intermediate Units Work Together to Meet Chapter 339 and Future Index Goals Using a Cloud Based Platform

    In PA, School Districts and Intermediate Units Work Together to Meet Chapter 339 and Future Index Goals Using a Cloud Based Platform

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    Over 900 teachers are using the platform and collaborating. Chapter 339 and Future Index gets a boost.

    Press Release
    –


    updated: Aug 22, 2017


    HARRISBURG, Pa., August 22, 2017 (Newswire.com)
    –
     Over 900 Pennsylvania and New Jersey teachers have already TEAMed up to collaborate to reduce behavior issues in the classroom that slow down student progress in schools. It’s a newly released cloud platform that contains decades of proven activities, lessons and activities to not only meet mandates but invigorate and remind teachers why they entered the profession.

    PA Intermediate Units and TEAMology is offering a $59 webinar. Teachers will learn how to use the platform for building problem-solving skills, conflict management, resilience, leadership and aiding in career development. The webinar includes use of the platform for one year. It meets PD credits at all levels and can be scheduled here.

    For administrators, it helps get a jump start on Chapter 339 and the Future Ready Index mandates that take effect in the fall of 2018.

    Dr. Sue Kanigsberg, Asst. Director of Educational Services

    Dr. Sue Kanigsberg, Asst. Director of Educational Services of Lincoln Intermediate Unit has thoroughly reviewed the materials on the platform. “Now that students and teachers in Pennsylvania’s third through eighth grades will spend 20 percent less time on statewide testing, TEAMology will help teachers do more of what they entered teaching to do in the first place — focus on kids rather than tests. For administrators, it helps get a jump start on Chapter 339 and the Future Ready Index mandates that take effect in the fall of 2018.” Jo Beth McKee, Curriculum Specialist for Intermediate One, “Project TEAM is a great asset to our after-school programming. It is both teacher and student friendly. We’ve seen almost immediate results, and it’s fun!”

    About TEAMology: TEAMology is a culmination of decades of research and side-by-side teaching with the most renowned experts in SEL. The material is based on six relatable characters and the foundations of a house called Project TEAM that teachers and students use to emulate best strong skills and relate them to future Ready Indexes such as career exploration practices. Click here for more information and research. www.teamology.team

    About Intermediate Units: Intermediate Units were established in 1971 to serve the school districts in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. They are led by an executive director and governed by boards of directors composed of school board members from member school districts. Intermediate Units serve several needs for Districts, from Professional Development, mandated programs and progressive methods to build students as viable contributors to higher ed and communities.

    Media Contact and other Information: Bob Fiori, rfiori@teamology.team, 610-476-0702

    Source: TEAMology, LLC

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  • North Carolina Chamber Named “State Chamber of the Year”

    North Carolina Chamber Named “State Chamber of the Year”

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    Press Release
    –

    Oct 11, 2016


    ALEXANDRIA, VA, October 11, 2016 (Newswire.com)
    –
    ​​​​The Council of State Chambers announced today that the North Carolina Chamber has been named “State Chamber of the Year.” The purpose of the State Chamber of the Year award is to bring attention to innovative initiatives and best practices that advance state chambers’ mission and work and to provide deserved recognition to state chambers and their leaders who have distinguished themselves by providing exceptional services and results for their members.

    Kevin Brinegar, Chair of the Council of State Chambers and President & CEO of the Indiana Chamber of Commerce, lauded the North Carolina Chamber for its outstanding achievement. “The North Carolina Chamber is a most deserving recipient of our inaugural State Chamber of the Year award. Our hope is that this award will raise the bar for us all as we work to advance our states as desirable places to live, work and invest.”

    “To have our chamber be named as a finalist and be in the company of the best chambers in the country is both humbling and gratifying,” said Lew Ebert, President & CEO of the North Carolina Chamber. “The Council of State Chambers has been a critical platform for us to share and learn best practices, and the association provides similar opportunities for all state chambers.”

    The North Carolina Chamber was recognized during the 93rd Annual Meeting of the Council of State Chambers, which was held last week in Austin, Texas. Also recognized were the:

    About the State Chamber of the Year Award

    The judges, who themselves are seasoned state chamber of commerce leaders, evaluated applicants in six different areas of achievement:

    • Public Policy—Shaping public policy through original research, surveys, communications, lobbying, member engagement, public engagement, and/or other means to achieve positive results for the business community.
    • Political Engagement—Advancing causes of critical importance to the business community directly or through affiliated entities (e.g., a PAC) with regard to issues, candidates, and other electoral activities.
    • Membership and Development—Measurable success in growing membership and other financial resources to support the mission of the organization.
    • Organizational Development—Development of the state chamber organization through the innovative use of technology, the enhancement of its facilities, the professional development of its staff, the work of associated entities such as its foundation, the creation of internal efficiency, etc.
    • Communications Program—Development of innovative and effective communications programming or communications products that have produced a significant impact on the organization, the chamber membership, and/ or the state the chamber serves.
    • Member Services—Development and provision of exceptional member services through offering educational programs, member discount programs, major events or member products that have addressed a particular need for chamber members, and/or produced significant revenue for the chamber.

    About the Council of State Chambers

    Founded in 1924, the Council of State Chambers is the national organization for state chamber CEOs and their executive leadership. The purpose of the Council of State Chambers is to promote cooperation among state chambers of commerce, strengthen existing state chambers, and promote the state chamber of commerce movement throughout the country.

    Source: Council of State Chambers (COSC)

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  • George Martorano Has Been Added as a Featured Speaker to the TEDxPenn at the University of PA

    George Martorano Has Been Added as a Featured Speaker to the TEDxPenn at the University of PA

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    George Martorano, self-taught prolific writer, poet, educator, and mentor is appearing as a featured speaker tomorrow, April 10, during the TEDxPenn event hosted at the University of Pennsylvania. Martorano, who was recently released from prison after serving a ridiculous 32-year sentence for a non-violent offense without a chance for parole, endured one of the saddest tragedies ever handed down in the American justice system. https://www.ted.com/tedx/events/17048 – Event is open to the public.

    Press Release
    –

    Apr 9, 2016


    Philadelphia, PA, April 9, 2016 (Newswire.com)
    –
    TEDxPenn announced today that Philadelphia native, George Martorano has been added as a featured speaker to the list of some of the brightest, most inspiring and engaging business leaders, professionals, students and alumni, who are reshaping some of today’s thought-provoking ideas and newest possibilities, bringing eureka moments that pioneer our society.

    Martorano, who was recently released from prison, intends on sharing his inspiring message of hope, even where there was none.

    “No matter what you are going through in life, there is always hope, never surrender, never give up”.

    George Martorano, Speaker

    While serving time as an exemplary prisoner, Martorano helped prevent a plane hijacking of prisoners. During his incarceration, he graduated over 8000 student prisoners in lifestyle change classes. 2016 is a very important year especially as a prelude to an election year, where our justice system needs to be addressed in campaign topics.  Today, Martorano remains focused on spreading his message of hope and introducing successful re-entry programs for non-violent offenders.

    Martorano is a writer/author with published works online who looks forward to penning his fascinating life story to be played out on the big screen one day. From LaFamilia, to the godson of Angelo Bruno to the stiffest penalty ever handed down to a non-violent offender to a writer, teacher, coach & humanitarian.   

    About TEDxPenn – The program is designed to help communities, organizations and individuals to spark conversation and connection through local TED-like experiences. 

    About George Martorano – George Martorano @ Writer. When sentenced to life in prison without parole, George Martorano did not give up. He graduated over 8,000 inmates during his 27 years in prison and taught them how to start a business.

    Why you should listen – George Martorano is a self-taught prolific writer, poet, educator, and mentor. While in prison, he taught inmates yoga, prevented the hijacking of an aircraft by inmates, started a creative writing course, authored 31 books, pioneered a prison course called Release Preparation: Starting a Business for Under $1,000, among others. Thus, George became a role model and a positive influence in the Federal Bureau of Prisons.

    Released in October 2015 under the Department of Justice’s Compassionate Release program, George is the longest incarcerated non-violent offender. He has been featured in Philly Mag and Salem News and is now sought out to be featured by the United Nations. He resides in Philadelphia and continues to write and inspire others.

    For all interviews, appearances, speaking engagements and business dealings please contact TPD Marketing at 888.859.8824.

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