This week's biggest Winners & Losers

The Wolf of State Street got a win this week when members of the General Assembly voted unanimously to extend hundreds of waived and suspended regulations aimed at helping the state combat COVID-19. The waivers were issued by a range of state agencies under his jurisdiction since the onset of the pandemic and are designed to ease occupational licensing hurdles, bulk up health care staffing and allow government operations to run smoothly in the event of office closings. Lawmakers on both sides of the aisle clearly agreed with Wolf that the waivers needed to be extended in a rare moment of agreement in Harrisburg. Who said bipartisanship is dead?

What a week for animal-related news. Pittsburgh is slated to become the first city in the state to ban cat declawing after City Council unanimously passed Councilman Bobby Wilson’s legislation on the matter earlier this week. If enacted, veterinarians who perform the procedure would face a $500 fine. Wilson said the Steel City should set an example as a “humane city.” We give two paws up for the laws protecting claws.

State Rep. Bob Brooks truly has established himself as a man of the people, or more specifically, a man of the students. Brooks is partnering with a class at Burrell School District’s Charles A. Huston Middle School to write legislation that would require school boards to provide 30 minutes of “supervised, safe and unstructured” recess each day, as well as 30 minutes of lunch for K-12 students, according to the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review. The effort came as part of a campaign from students who felt a need for time to decompress and recharge during the school day. As one student said: “Recess gives me a break and when I’m done, I’m ready to learn.”

As head of PennEast Board of Managers – the body that oversaw the proposed development of a 116-mile natural gas pipeline in Pennsylvania and New Jersey – Anthony Cox had to reckon with some unfortunate news this week: PennEast is abandoning plans to develop the pipeline after failing to gain the necessary environmental permits in New Jersey. Unfortunately for Cox and PennEast officials, the pipeline is nothing but a pipedream at this point. Ba dum pshh.

This Bucks County gym owner joined the list of the 55 Pennsylvanians who have been arrested in relation to the Jan. 6 Capitol riots. Dawn Bancroft, who recorded herself at the Capitol saying she was looking for Nancy Pelosi “to shoot her in the friggin’ brain,” pleaded guilty this week to a misdemeanor which carries a maximum sentence of six months in prison. Pennsylvania trails only Florida and Texas in the number of Jan. 6 riot-related arrests, as if that’s something to be proud of.

Police work isn’t always like it’s portrayed in the movies, but sometimes it can be. William Lynn of Luzerne County pleaded guilty this week to soliciting murder after trying to hire a hitman to kill one informant and two detectives related to a previous criminal case of his. On top of that, the hitman he was attempting to hire was an undercover officer. He wound up digging an even bigger hole for himself.