First Read PA – Jan. 10, 2024

WEATHER: Philadelphia: overcast and windy, high of 53; Harrisburg: overcast and windy, high of 47; Pittsburgh: overcast and windy, high of 38.

FROM CITY & STATE:

* The City of Brotherly Love has had its statue squabbles over the years. Wanting a more positive outlook toward the city’s statuary, City & State took the liberty of coming up with several fitting alternatives everyone can agree on.

* Gov. Josh Shapiro announced yesterday that his administration is partnering with OpenAI on a new pilot program that will give state employees access to OpenAI tools with enhanced security features, making Pennsylvania the first state to partner with OpenAI in the process.

* Our partners at Technical.ly have five things to know about Ramanan Raghavendran, the University of Pennsylvania’s new board chair who cofounded investment firm Amasia.

NEW THIS MORNING:

* In the commonwealth’s school funding dilemma, there’s a little-known mechanism that pits the western half of the state against the east – which will likely remain untouched as Gov. Josh Shapiro and state lawmakers work this year to develop a new funding formula, The Philadelphia Inquirer reports. 

* Pennsylvania’s poorest districts won’t receive $100 million in new money to help fill vacancies and reduce funding deficits after lawmakers diverted those dollars to school construction projects, Spotlight PA reports.

* The family of Eric Harrison, the Macy’s security guard who was fatally stabbed at the Center City Macy’s last month, is suing the department store, claiming the lack of security and safety measures led to his death, the Inquirer reports. 

* Buchanan Ingersoll & Rooney is one of five powerful lobbying firms named in a recent report by environmental research organization F-Minus that found that Pittsburgh is entangled in an “extreme embrace” of fossil fuel lobbyists, the Inquirer reports. 

* Shapiro is announcing today that Excelitas Technologies Corp, a manufacturer of light-technology products, will relocate its headquarters from Waltham, Massachusetts to the Strip District during the next four years, WESA reports. 

* President Joe Biden will visit Allentown on Friday, the White House announced yesterday, for his second visit to Pennsylvania of 2024, the Pennsylvania Capital-Star reports. 

* Dave McCormick presided over a 400-plus person reduction at Bridgewater, despite the company receiving a $52 million subsidy package from Connecticut’s Department of Economic and Community Development in 2016, HuffPost reports. 

* Federal investigators have seized more than $400,000 from a retired state police corporal who, until recently, served as compliance director for Pace-O-Matic, the maker of skill games at the center of a legal quandary over whether they are gambling devices, the Penn Capital-Star reports. 

* More than 600 students received a hands-on civics lesson Monday at North Penn High School’s mock presidential nominating convention, and the results were anything but conventional, the Reporter Online reports. 

* The Lancaster County District Attorney’s Office has dropped trespassing charges against two teachers union employees who were arrested after they set up an information table at the Lancaster campus of HACC last summer, WITF reports. 

EDITORIAL PAGES:

* The Pittsburgh Tribune-Review writes that the Astrobotic launch is the next step for a space program in Pittsburgh. 

* The Penn Capital-Star has an op-ed from Gwen Shapiro, a student at Lower Merion High School, who writes that Pennsylvania must prohibit local school funding because simply increasing state funding without redistributing revenue will not make the system equitable. 

NATIONAL POLITICS:

* St. Paul is believed to be among the largest cities in the country to have the distinction of having an all-female City Council. But the firsts do not stop there: It’s also the youngest and most racially diverse council in the city’s history, The New York Times reports. 

* A co-defendant in the Georgia election-interference case against former president Donald Trump has asked a judge to disqualify the entire prosecution team from the case, The Washington Post reports.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY: To former U.S. Rep. Bill Shuster …  Want to wish someone a happy birthday in our newsletter? Email their name, job title and upcoming birthday to editor@cityandstatepa.com.

TODAY’S SKED:

9 a.m. – The House and Senate Agriculture & Rural Affairs Committees hold a joint informational hearing on five years of the Pennsylvania Farm Bill, Monongahela Room, PA Farm Show, 2300 N. Cameron St., Harrisburg. 

12 p.m. – Gov. Josh Shapiro will speak at the PA Farm Show's Elected Officials Luncheon, along with US Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack and Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture Secretary Russell Redding, PA Preferred Banquet Hall, PA Farm Show Complex, Harrisburg. 

KICKER: 

“A root problem is that funding is grossly inadequate and pitting school districts against each other has been Harrisburg’s way of ensuring that they don’t have to do anything.” – Susan Spicka, the executive director of Education Voters of Pennsylvania, via the Inquirer