This week’s biggest Winners & Losers

Several communities from across the commonwealth are in the running for USA Today’s Readers’ Choice honor for best small town in the Northeast – and will face off against popular destinations like Bar Harbor, Maine and Cape May, New Jersey in the coming weeks. The communities of Gettysburg, Jim Thorpe, Ohiopyle, Sewickley and Wellsboro are all in the mix – though we can’t resist pointing out that Pennsylvania’s only true town is nowhere to be found.

With a slew of high-profile endorsements – and the recent withdrawal of a potential Democratic primary challenger – state Sen. Nikil Saval is on course to win a second term representing the first senatorial district in Philadelphia. Saval has picked up endorsements during his reelection campaign from Gov. Josh Shapiro and U.S. Sens. John Fetterman and Bernie Sanders. But those endorsements may have no needle to move, as Allen King III,  who planned to challenge Saval in the Democratic primary, was removed from the ballot after the validity of his campaign documents and residency were questioned – an objection King himself said had merit. 

Franklin County state senator and former Republican gubernatorial candidate Doug Mastriano will not be investigated for his role in trying to overturn the 2020 election results. State Sen. Art Haywood, who filed a complaint with the Senate Ethics Committee earlier last year, confirmed this week that his complaint against Mastriano – a Donald Trump ally who was on the U.S. Capitol grounds during the Jan. 6, 2021 insurrection – will not be taken up by the Senate’s bipartisan ethics panel. 

Susquehanna International Group co-founder and billionaire political donor Jeffrey Yass – whose firm has a 15% stake in ByteDance, the China-based parent company of the social media app TikTok – made headlines this week after the U.S. House passed a bill aimed at forcing ByteDance to sell the app. The bill would ban the app in the U.S. if ByteDance doesn’t sell or divest, and comes amid bipartisan concerns about the app’s national security implications. NBC News reported that Yass’ personal ByteDance share is 7% and worth approximately $21 billion, so it’s safe to say he has more at stake here than just losing an app on his phone.

A federal judge has ordered a temporary takeover of six nursing home facilities in western Pennsylvania owned by Bonamour Health Group LLC after a court complaint accused the company of breaching its agreement on a $30.5 million loan agreement, according to WTAE. Bonamour Health reportedly failed to make payments on the loan; as a result, the court appointed Michael Flanagan as a temporary receiver.

The former police chief in Greensburg is expected to plead guilty in federal court in connection with a drug investigation. Shawn Denning was arrested in January 2023 by federal investigators on charges related to methamphetamine and cocaine distribution. An order signed Thursday by a federal judge indicates that Denning, who joined the Greensburg police force in 2008 and was appointed chief in 2022, will be waiving an indictment at an April 16 hearing and plead guilty.