This week’s biggest Winners & Losers

Mayoral candidates in Philly have emphasized needing to build a broad coalition of supporters. Cherelle Parker made a constructive step in that direction this week, earning the endorsement of the Building and Construction Trades Council. Organized labor will play a critical role in the race, making the endorsement a keystone of Parker’s campaign.

You can question the methods of House Speaker Mark Rozzi and Democrats – who cut off debate in the House this week in an effort to push a long-delayed constitutional amendment and bill for sex abuse survivors – but you can’t deny their effectiveness. During a special House session led by Rozzi, Democrats muscled though a statutory bill and amendment that would give victims a two-year window to file civil suits against their abusers, bringing Rozzi one step closer to advancing one of his biggest policy priorities.

Pennsylvania’s new attorney general is keeping busy. Attorney General Michelle Henry announced two fentanyl seizures in Pittsburgh this week, which resulted in the office taking 962 bricks of fentanyl off the street. The AG’s office also announced that, in conjunction with local officials, it took down a gun trafficking operation in Philadelphia – arresting eight people who are accused of straw purchasing firearms and then reselling them. Just another week at work for the AG.

Alan Shaw is facing the heat, and it’s not the steam from a Norfolk Southern train. Instead, state and federal officials are piling on the railroad executive over the Feb. 3 derailment of a train containing toxic chemicals near the Pennsylvania-Ohio border. In the latest turn of events, U.S. regulators are making Norfolk Southern pay for the cleanup, and if they don’t, they’ll have to pay triple the damages, per WGAL.

Two Philadelphians are facing legal troubles and it’s not related to a sports team riot. Michael Dickinson and Rachel Myers were sentenced last week for charges related to storming the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. Dickinson, a 31-year-old screen printer from South Philadelphia, admitted to throwing an empty coffee tumbler and a bucket filled with an unknown liquid at officers seeking to subdue violent protesters.

One Allegheny County man must have thought he was a character in “Grand Theft Auto” when he pulled this stunt. Bernard Washington, of the Borough of Coraopolis, pleaded guilty in federal court this week to stealing 24 cars from Hertz car rental at the Pittsburgh International Airport. According to court records, Washington stole the vehicles while he was a contractor and sent at least three across state lines. It looks like his stolen rental car enterprise will have to pump the brakes.