August 1, 2025
The July jobs report landed in Washington today, with an ominous sidekick of downward revisions riding shotgun. The July number clocked in at a lower-than-expected 73,000, while the May and June job gains were off by a mere 100,000 jobs EACH! Seriously, how is a mistake like that possible? That would be like getting a $3,000 estimate to remodel your kitchen and the final bill be $66,000.
As the calendar turns to August, it is our duty to inform you that the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania still has no state budget in place for the fiscal year that has already commenced. But you knew that already. What you might not know is that while the lack of a state budget wasn’t really a big deal for the past 60 days, it will be when those big yellow buses start trucking the wee ones back to school. That’s when the real pain starts, and judging by the relentless number of Kohl’s and Walmart back to school ads we are seeing, that day is close.
Pennsylvania’s 67 counties are already starting to get a little panicky about the lack of a deal. We ran across a story this week that pretty clearly illustrates how much the state has outsourced mental and behavioral health treatment to those counties for decades and then consistently failed to fund said services. Late budgets tend to throw kerosene on that already-burning dumpster fire.
The new owners of Three Mile Island (now known as the Crane Clean Energy Center) opened up the doors to the public this week to get their thoughts on the big restart, slated for 2027. Comments ranged from, “hey, cool, this is good for our region” to “we are all gonna die!” Wait until all of the “totally not out-of-state and not-at-all-well-organized” opposition starts…
Whether TMI/Crane ever produces megawatt one or not, this Commonwealth is so far behind the eight ball in new energy development that we can’t even see the pool table. Someday very soon, like before the end of the year, home energy prices are gonna spike and people are gonna be begging for new nuclear reactors to be built in their backyards.
Philadelphia, like most major cities, shut down a lot of streets to vehicle traffic during COVID and instead used them for open-air dining. That trend, we learned this week, ain’t going away and we are here for it. And by here for it, we mean figuratively, because your state capital city once shut down Second Street for two weeks for open-air dining, and once it saw how successful the move was, ditched the idea immediately.
A key GOP state senator this week came out in favor of raising the state minimum wage to eleven bones an hour, which is not exactly what we would call “foldin’ money,” but a start, nonetheless. The announcement was met with derision and disdain in the business community, which shows once again what you get for trying to be reasonable around here. Compromise?? How DARE you, sir! Off with his head!
Pittsburgh is positioning itself as the A.I. capital of the world, and people are starting to take notice. The city that built America has a surplus of great universities, low crime rates, low costs of living, a credible AA baseball team and more energy than you can shake an Iron City at. Up until a few years ago, AI in Pittsburgh meant someone saying, “Ay, I seen you dahn Giant Iggle yesterday!”
Speaking of the ‘Burgh, a report surfaced this week showing that the Veterans Administration has cut back on some services out there as they, in their own words, “push to improve operational efficiency.” Listen, Skippy, we have a small piece of advice. Trying to “DOGE-ify” the VA is NOT gonna go over very well, in Pittsburgh or anywhere else. Save money elsewhere.
Lots of folks have serious misconceptions about what lobbying/public affairs firms really do (the movie Thank You for Smoking did us NO favors.) But if you want an idea of what not to do as a lobbying firm, look no further than this abject disaster that was painstakingly chronicled by the New York Times recently. We got more and more nauseous with every paragraph. Three words: Trump Instant Pot.
If you do want to know what we do all day, or think you need to hire your own lobbying firm (c’mon, you know you wanna!), our own Roy Wells shared his thoughts recently with the Public Affairs Council. Check it out here!
In our Shameless Client Plug section, we start with Dr. Alaine Arnott of the National Liberty Museum, who shares why museums are still a fantastic place to bring people together and foster collaboration. Great work, Doctor!
Shameless Client Plug II goes out to our pal David Thornburgh, who last week joined with Michael Smerconish to demand that we open the primary ballot to the 1.4 million registered independents in PA!
Our We Can’t Make This Up segment takes us, tragically, right down the road to York County, where a truck overturned today, sending more than 1,000 pounds of hot dogs onto the pavement. Oh, the humanity. You may not be aware, but 1,000 pounds of hot dogs can have well over 10 pounds of beef in them, collectively. Easy, Oscar Mayer, it’s a damned joke!
That’s what passes for news around here as we cue up the Counting Crow’s album, August and Everything After, before eventually getting to Green Day’s Wake Me Up When September Ends, and finally, U2’s October. We hope we have a state budget before Axl Rose reminds us about the cold November Rain. From all your friends at Team Triad, have a great weekend!
