This week’s biggest Winners & Losers

If there’s one thing that’s improving in Pennsylvania, it’s the permitting process. The Pittsburgh Business Times reported that the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection hailed an 88% reduction in its backlog of permits encompassing a wide swath of the commonwealth’s business life. With a federal focus on government efficiency, experts say states should look at the Keystone State as a model for permitting reform.

Don’t tell Cherelle Parker – the Philadelphia mayor has famously mandated butts in municipal seats five days a week, and urged other employers to follow suit – but the consumer finance website WalletHub recently ranked Pennsylvania #7 among U.S. states for remote work. With New Jersey ranking 5th and Delaware in the top spot, Delaware Valley residents have a strong case for Zooming rather than commuting. The survey took into account factors including internet cost and availability, percentage of workers with the ability to telecommute and average home size.

Christopher Fiorentino, the current interim chancellor of Pennsylvania’s state-owned university system, will remain in his role in a permanent capacity after the Pennsylvania State System of Higher Education board of governors selected him as PASSHE’s sixth chancellor following a national search. The selection of Fiorentino, who previously served as the president of West Chester University from 2017 to 2024, means that the state system will be run by someone with more than 40 years of experience at a PASSHE institution. 

Stock market gyrations have been driving the news cycle for more than a week, thanks to Trump’s tariff turmoil; now, two members of Pennsylvania’s congressional delegation are in the spotlight due to their stock trading activity. OpenSecrets reported that Democratic U.S. Rep. Dwight Evans ​​”violated a federal conflicts-of-interest and insider trading law” by failing to disclose sales of Amazon and Tesla stock. Republican U.S. Rep. Rob Bresnahan, meanwhile, was the subject of a New York Times piece that said the first-term member of Congress “has emerged as one of the most active stock traders in the freshman class” – this despite his active campaigning in favor of legislation seeking to ban stock trading by members of Congress, including repeatedly slamming his Democratic opponent, then-U.S. Rep. Matt Cartwright, for not doing so while in office.

We’ve heard of taking the law into one’s own hands … but we don’t expect it from a judge. When Dauphin County Magisterial Judge Sonya McKnight’s boyfriend rendered a negative verdict on their year-old relationship, McKnight responded by shooting him in the head as he slept – and when he improbably woke up, realizing he’d traded one headache for another, she tried to convince him he’d shot himself. A Cumberland County jury convicted her of attempted murder and aggravated assault.

The Southeast’s transit system fiscal cliff is closer in the mirror than it appears. SEPTA unveiled 45% service cuts in its latest budget proposal amid the agency’s financial struggles, with the plan pitching the removal of five regional rail lines and 56 bus routes. The time is now for lawmakers to step up if they want to save their SEPTA riders from massive cuts – and price hikes.