September 8, 2023
A week after a convicted murderer turned himself into Spiderman and scaled the wall of Chester County prison, state and local police are still hunting him down near West Chester. We send our prayers to the first responders and their K-9 co-workers, one of whom got dehydrated in the intense heat, but is well on the road to recovery.
We send our congratulations this week to Lt. Gov. Austin Davis and his wife, Blayre, as they welcomed their first child into the world. Only 18 more years and she can vote for, or against, Daddy. It depends on how strict her father is!
The big news out of national politics this week is that nobody of note got indicted in Georgia, despite the fact that the election interference grand jury obviously wanted to indict pretty much everyone under the sun. District Attorney Fani Willis apparently decided discretion is the better part of valor.
The economy added 187,000 new jobs last month, once again beating the expectations of economists, just like it has pretty much every other month of the Biden regime. Are these people really that bad at their jobs? Is the labor market so tight that they can’t be fired for being wrong every month?
Millions more salaried workers will soon be eligible for overtime pay, thanks to a new Biden Department of Labor rule. We will see if the news cools off the labor market or if economists disagree, which means the job market is going to cool off. Bet on it.
Some 170,000 college graduates in Pennsylvania have availed themselves of President Biden’s new student loan repayment program that, as far as we can tell, consists of making your loan payments $0.00, or if you are really wealthy, like, 12 bucks a month.
President Biden was also in Pennsylvania this week because it was Labor Day, and it is now federal law that all sitting presidents MUST come to Pennsylvania and prattle on about how much they love organized labor. Cool. In the meantime, politicians of all stripes did their annual “ode to labor” social media posts before roughly half of them returned to what they normally do, which is vote against organized labor.
If you would like to be a State Police cadet, you no longer need have any college credits under your belt, after Governor Shapiro struck down that requirement. The move will undoubtedly be a boost to the State Police, who are not immune to worker shortages, just like everyone else.
Shapiro also unveiled a plan to make it easier for more small, diverse businesses to get into the procurement game in Pennsylvania. We bring this to your attention because our humble little group of heroes at Team Triad have a metric crap-ton of clients in the procurement business. Not to toot our own horn. Toot toot.
Shapiro also helped kick off National Recovery Month, so it seems like a good time to point out that this Commonwealth still has way too many folks who are in desperate need of help when it comes to addiction. So, check out the Department of Drug and Alcohol’s web site if you know someone who is struggling.
And to wrap up a busy week for Shapiro, he is also scrapping the public database of all state government e-mails, citing security concerns. Before anyone takes leave of their senses over the move, we need to keep in mind that state government is a very large enterprise, and all it takes is one misguided employee opening up that phishing e-mail promising that his or her Nigerian uncle died and left a $3 million inheritance, and WHAPPO! Chaos.
Also on the data front, lawmakers are kicking the tires on data privacy and how vendors use your personal data. We are big fans of this idea, because we are tired of being warned that our car warranty is about to expire.
Allegheny County Jail is reporting that 60 inmates have contracted COVID recently, heightening fears that the facility may need to be locked down. ACJ does NOT need this news, given the headlines it has generated as of late.
As fall looms larger in the windshield, we stumbled across the PA Eats web site, where they were previewing five Pennsylvania-made drinks to help enjoy the season. In addition to asking you to go check it out, we would like to shamelessly include our friends at Bald Birds Brewing. Grab yourself a Playoff Push pale ale and celebrate the Phillies wild-card run.
Triad PSA time! We all know someone personally impacted by heart disease (even some of our senior VPs that we will not mention.) We strive to be of service and support efforts that help everyone live stronger, healthier lives. This month, we are proud to participate in the upcoming American Heart Association’s Capital Region Heart Walk. The walk will be Thursday, Sept. 21, and kicks off at 6:30 p.m. from City Island. If you’d like to join #TeamTriad that night or help us raise funds, visit this link. (We are becoming a little competitive here. So, we’re looking to add a few more to our list!) If we can answer any questions about the event, contact our own Brandi Hunter-Davenport, and she’ll help you get connected. Together, we want to do everything we can to promote heart health.
Back to the nonsense! Our We Can’t Make This Up segment takes us to the skies. If you love some alt rock as much as we do, you may remember and even enjoy the band Airborne Toxic Event. So with that, we give you the heartwarming story of a simple man who enjoyed some fine airport cuisine and then had… well, an airborne toxic event for the AGES! When you read it, if you have not already, we bet your response will be much like ours was: shiiiiiiiiiiiiiiit!
That’s what passes for news around here as we careen into September and look back fondly on all the days of summer vacation we missed because a certain General Assembly we know didn’t… ah, not worth mentioning. Come back next week, or we will be infinitely less happy than we are today. From all of us at Team Triad, have a great weekend!