This week’s biggest Winners & Losers

Pennsylvania’s outgoing attorney general has lined up a new gig. Gov. Josh Shapiro recently appointed Attorney General Michelle Henry – who chose not to run for a full term after replacing Shapiro as AG in 2023 – to serve as the state’s next inspector general. In her new role, Henry will investigate fraud, waste, abuse and misconduct in state executive agencies. Henry will take office on Jan. 21, 2025.

The Nittany Lions scored a double win this week when they defeated the Louisville Cardinals to secure the NCAA Division I volleyball title, 3-1 – and Penn State’s coach, Katie Schumacher-Cawley, became the first woman to helm a championship team since the tournament began in 1981. The Lions’ first such title in a decade was also a personal triumph for Schumacher-Cawley, herself part of the winning 1999 Penn State squad: Her team secured Sunday’s victory after she battled breast cancer this season.

The state’s many passionate anti-hazing advocates celebrated this week when President Joe Biden signed a long-awaited bill to curb hazing on college campuses nationwide. Jim and Evelyn Piazza, the parents of Tim Piazza – a Penn State sophomore who died following a 2017 fraternity hazing incident – have been among the highest-profile champions of the Stop Campus Hazing Act, which passed both chambers of Congress with bipartisan support this past fall.

The end of the year is proving to be a difficult time for the gridiron greats at both ends of the state. The Pittsburgh Steelers and Philadelphia Eagles each suffered significant losses this past week. Each also has quarterback questions and a slim chance of getting home-field advantage through the playoffs. And it’s a particularly rough week for former Eagle Wendell Smallwood, who pleaded guilty in federal court to helping defraud COVID-19 relief programs and the Internal Revenue Service out of more than $200,000.

A report from Spotlight PA found that Pennsylvania lawmakers enacted 217 laws in the 2023-24 legislative session – among the lowest number of bills enacted over the last three decades. The only terms with fewer bills signed into law were the 1999-00, 2007-08 and 2009-10 legislative sessions, according to the report. However, House Majority Leader Matt Bradford told the outlet that a better way to measure legislative success would be to examine “the impact on regular people in Pennsylvania” that the new laws have.

The self-proclaimed “Angel of Lancaster” isn’t living up to the spirit of the season. Angelo Carrion was sentenced last week to seven years of probation and nine months of house arrest for exploiting dozens of Spanish-speaking residents by giving them the answers to PennDOT’s driver’s license test. Carrion is now prohibited from being employed by a government entity in the commonwealth following revelations that he accepted cash payments in exchange for assisting applicants or omitting required data while working as a driver’s license examiner assistant.