This week’s biggest Winners & Losers

2026 is poised to be a prodigious year for Pennsylvania. The National Football League announced on May 22 that the Steel City will host the NFL Draft in 2026, a long-awaited reveal for Terrible Towel touters. The major event in Pittsburgh is one of several slated to come to the commonwealth in that semiquincentennial year, with Philadelphia set to host FIFA World Cup matches and the MLB All-Star Game in 2026.

The Pennsylvania State System of Higher Education Board of Governors unanimously chose Jon Anderson, the current provost and vice president for academic affairs at Southern Utah University, as the next president of Pennsylvania Western University. Anderson will be tasked with overseeing PennWest’s three campuses and will succeed outgoing interim President R. Lorraine Bernotsky, according to the state system.

A quartet of GOP congressional candidates from across the state got a boost from U.S. House Speaker Mike Johnson, who visited the commonwealth to stump for incumbent U.S. Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick and GOP challengers Rob Bresnahan, Rob Mercuri and Ryan Mackenzie. The visit – just the latest from the nation’s top-ranking Republican officials – shows just how important Pennsylvania will be this fall.

The commonwealth is notorious for its rough roadways, but what about the cost of driving on them? According to LendingTree, Pennsylvania drivers pay some of the highest tolls in the country, with the Pennsylvania Turnpike coming in as the most expensive toll road per mile. On top of that, the bridge connecting the turnpike to New Jersey comes in at the highest interstate fee toll – but let’s blame the Garden State drivers for that one. 

The legal saga surrounding the former Somerset County District Attorney continued in May, with Jeffrey Thomas pleading no contest in a domestic violence case regarding an assault of his wife in 2021. Attorney General Michelle Henry announced on May 21 the plea to the misdemeanor simple assault. Thomas was sentenced to two years of probation, which he’ll serve concurrently to the prison term he is currently serving regarding the sexual assault of a Windber woman.

After getting sentenced to death last year for committing the 2018 massacre at the Tree of Life synagogue in Pittsburgh, the gunman, Robert Bowers, was denied a new trial after alleging that prosecutors failed to prove that he sought to obstruct the religious freedom of victims. U.S. District Judge Robert Colville denied the request, calling Bowers’ attorneys’ arguments “entirely baseless,” according to the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review.