Winners & Losers
This week’s biggest Winners & Losers
Who’s up and who’s down this week?
City & State
Winners & Losers could almost write itself during an election week. We saw literal victories and losses in several marquee races around the commonwealth. But we don’t take the easy way out – we also wanted to highlight happenings in the Keystone State that weren’t ballot-reliant to better provide our readers with the wacky and weird stories of the week – whether they like it or not.
So without further ado, here are this week’s winners and losers!
House Dems -
With Heather Boyd’s victory in a special election for House District 163 this week, Democrats will retain their slim, one-seat majority in the state House – for the time being. The win by Boyd ensures that Democrats will remain in charge of determining the agenda and direction of the House, which Democrats put a lot of money into winning this cycle. For now, it paid off, but brace yourselves – more special elections could be coming.
Joe Stabilito -
Joe Stabilito, wrestling coach and longtime advocate for girls’ wrestling, said Wednesday was a “great day” after the PIAA Board of Directors voted unanimously to approve the sport in interscholastic sports statewide. The commonwealth joins 37 other states in giving the green light to girls’ wrestling. Stabilito and fellow coach and sport advocate Chris Atkinson worked over the last few years to bring awareness to girls’ wrestling, resulting in 111 schools across the state offering it as a team sport.
GOP school board candidates in Lancaster County -
It was a good week to be a Republican school board candidate in Lancaster County. According to reporting from LNP, GOP candidates with party endorsements in the Warwick School District, Manheim Township School District, Hempfield School District and Elizabethtown Area School District – with the exception of one candidate – all won their respective races, giving them momentum heading into what is sure to be a politically divisive battle for the boards this November.
Cryptoscam Victims -
When catfish and cryptocurrency collide, it usually ends in calamity. Two Pennsylvanians recently fell victim to cryptocurrency scams that totaled half a million dollars in losses. One Forest County man lost $50,000 from a Bitcoin ATM machine after a scammer got the funds transferred to their account through a phishing QR code. A Philadelphia woman was done even dirtier, losing $450,000 after meeting a con artist on a dating app who convinced her to invest more and more money in a fake cryptocurrency investment platform.
Ernest Pressley -
A Philadelphia man has been sentenced to five consecutive life sentences for murdering five people from 2016 to 2018 – and attempting to kill another. Ernest Pressley was sentenced this week by United States District Judge Eduardo C. Robreno, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania. Four of the murders were in exchange for money, and Pressley has been charged with one count of conspiracy to commit murder-for-hire – as well as four other related charges.
Hossein Dehnavifard -
You would think a flight from Pittsburgh to Philadelphia would be quick. Passengers on a flight last week experienced quite the opposite after Hossein Dehnavifard – a disgruntled traveler – reportedly made a bomb threat after missing the boarding time and being denied entry to the plane. Dehnavifard was charged with making terroristic threats, but about two dozen of his friends and family went to the Allegheny County Courthouse to say English isn’t his first language and that it was a misunderstanding.