This week’s biggest Winners & Losers

Pennsylvania Adjutant General Mark Schindler makes the list for his decades of service to the commonwealth. After spending nearly 40 years with the Pennsylvania National Guard, Schindler will be retiring from the National Guard and the Department of Military and Veterans Affairs on Oct. 1. The outgoing adjutant general received praise from Gov. Josh Shapiro, who said he served with “extraordinary honor and integrity.”

Thirteen commonwealth schools were distinguished this week as National Blue Ribbon Schools, the U.S. Department of Education's honor for institutions that achieve either academic excellence or notable progress in closing student achievement gaps. Among the mostly public institutions that will now fly the Blue Ribbon School flag are Philadelphia's Central High School, the nation's second-oldest public high school, as well as schools in the Harrisburg and Pittsburgh metro areas.

This week, thousands of young athletes across the commonwealth got an extra reason to wave flags: Girls flag football was officially sanctioned as a sport by the Pennsylvania Interscholastic Athletic Association beginning in 2025-2026. The PIAA became the 13th state association to sanction the sport – a milestone achieved with significant support from the Philadelphia Eagles and the Pittsburgh Steelers, who have collaborated to grow flag football at the grassroots level.

We hope the attorney general had one question for the perps: “Where’s the beef?” AG Michelle Henry announced charges against three men caught stealing thousands of dollars worth of beef from a tractor-trailer in Philadelphia. Whether you want to call them Beef Bandits or the Beef Thiefs, rest assured that the culprits of the hefty heist will be grilled by investigators for answers. 

The University of Pennsylvania law professor embroiled in controversy has been sanctioned and suspended for a year at half-pay, with benefits intact, after she invited a white nationalist to speak to her class. Wax will also face a public reprimand issued by university leadership, the loss of her named chair and summer pay, and a requirement to note in her public appearances that she is not speaking for or as a member of Penn.

Lawsuits around mail-in ballot rules in Pennsylvania are ongoing as November gets closer, and they threaten to cause confusion across the state. In Montgomery County, the Republican National Committee filed a lawsuit to temporarily stop the county from distributing mail ballots. Meanwhile, the Commonwealth Court recently upheld a Washington County judge’s order that required county officials to notify voters whose ballots are rejected due to errors.