Pennsylvania in Focus

(The Center Square) - For months, the looming threat of higher insurance premiums has hung over the commonwealth, while at the federal level, affordable health care access has been at the heart of the debate causing the government shutdown. Congress is rapidly running out of time to come to an agreement extending Affordable Care Act tax credits before the Nov. 1 open enrollment period begins. Tuesday, the Pennsylvania Insurance Department formally announced the 2026 rates for those who purchase insurance through the ACA from the state’s marketplace, Pennie, if nothing changes over the next two weeks.

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(The Center Square) – The man accused of firebombing the Pennsylvania governor’s mansion in Harrisburg pleaded guilty to attempted murder, aggravated arson and terrorism on Tuesday. Cody Balmer also accepted blame for 22 counts of arson – one for each person asleep in the residence that night, including children ranging from 8 to 16 years old – and has been sentenced to 25-50 years in prison, according to District Attorney Fran Chardo. He will be 63 before becoming eligible for parole.

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(The Center Square) – The commonwealth’s divided government means “getting stuff done,” as Democratic Gov. Josh Shapiro likes to say, doesn’t come easily. If it did, according to Republicans in the state, the commonwealth might become the “California of the East.” “If we weren’t here, knowing that he wants to be the Democratic nominee for president, just imagine the progressive policies he’d support,” said Kim Ward, the highest-ranking Republican in the state Senate, during an interview with The Center Square. “We are the stopgap.”

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(The Center Square) – There was a lot of talk at the state Capitol on Wednesday about a frustrating milestone: 100 days without a spending plan and no deal in sight. Instead, the Democrat majority House of Representatives marked up the Republican majority Senate’s stopgap budget, passed in its chamber two months ago, by $2.7 billion. Leaders say it’s the least that can be done after the Senate sent them a “copy and paste” plan of last year’s budget that would not cover the natural rise in annual program costs, such as those seen with Medicaid.

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(The Center Square) – Domestic shale production in the Appalachian Basin may offer the easiest path toward protecting the nation’s energy supply and resisting reliance on geopolitical foes, says U.S. Secretary of the Interior Doug Burgum. The Trump administration official was recently in Pennsylvania to deliver a keynote address emphasizing the critical role the domestic shale industry plays, both nationally and around the world. Speaking before energy executives and stakeholders, Burgum made the case that America’s energy policy is vital not only to the country’s prosperity but also to national security and global peace. 

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(The Center Square) - After a heated floor debate, the final bill in a series of proposed gun control measures failed in the Pennsylvania House of Representatives on Wednesday. The legislation would have served to ban “machine gun conversion devices” also known as “switches” or “glock switches,” which allow standard pistols to fire over a thousand rounds per minute. Debate on the topic brought a wide variety of viewpoints from both sides of the House, some measured and some emotional.

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(The Center Square) - Advocates taking aim at the wide array of “forever chemicals,” or PFAS, found in common personal care and household products spoke before the House Consumer Protection, Utilities and Technology committee Tuesday. Experts testified about the dangers to human health and child development posed by products from makeup to baby clothes that contain the chemicals. Experts noted that the risks are especially great for young children whose bodies are still developing.

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(The Center Square) - Gov. Josh Shapiro’s Lightning Plan promises to combine his commitment to win investments in the artificial intelligence sector with a focus on improving permitting processes that has been successful in many wings of the state bureaucracy. House legislators have turned that vision into a bill that promises to develop a central authority for large projects called the Reliable Energy Siting and Electric Transition, or RESET, Board. One group of doctors wrote an open letter to the governor opposing the bill.

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(The Center Square) – Pennsylvania’s emergency savings account, contrary to its colloquial name of “Rainy Day Fund,” is for anything but. Instead, state law reserves the $7 billion pot for economic downturns or unexpected revenue shortfalls, and can’t be tapped without a two-thirds vote from the legislature. Neither condition appears to have been met for Gov. Josh Shapiro’s proposed $51.5 billion spending plan, according to the Commonwealth Foundation. In a letter to Treasurer Stacy Garrity and leaders of the House and Senate, the fiscally conservative nonprofit argued that “the commonwealth’s economic environment has been well known and understood for months.” 

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(The Center Square) - A nationwide increase in political violence almost certainly isn’t what Josh Shapiro hoped would set the tone during his first term in office as Pennsylvania’s governor. Yet, as he’s navigated through an attempted presidential assassination, a manhunt for Luigi Mangione that gripped the country, and the firebombing of his own residence in Harrisburg, he’s become a national spokesperson for civility. Invited to speak at the Eradicate Hate Global Summit in Pittsburgh on Tuesday, Shapiro called once more for leaders to act and speak with “moral clarity.” 

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