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Pennsylvania Tag

Rep. Tim Murphy (R-PA) has received praise and endorsements from pro-life and pro-family groups since he came into Congress in 2003. But Murphy announced he will not seek re-election after texts leaked between him and the woman he was having an affair with revealed that he urged her to have an abortion during a pregnancy scare.

Elections officials in Philadelphia discovered that a glitch allowed hundreds of illegal voters to cast ballots in the last decade. From Philly.com:
Commissioner Al Schmidt blamed that on what he said was a PennDot glitch that enabled legal permanent residents to register to vote at kiosks when they applied or renewed for driver’s licenses or registrations.

The Catholic nuns of the Adorers of the Blood of Christ in West Hempfield, PA, have built an open air chapel on their land as a last effort to stop a company from building a natural gas pipeline on their property. From Philly.com:
A federal judge agreed this month that the pipeline’s parent company, Williams Partners, can condemn a portion of the order’s property for an easement. A hearing in U.S. District Court of the Eastern District in Reading is scheduled for Monday morning.

The local Philadelphia theater company Lightning Rod Special has announced a new play it will debut in August...a musical comedy about abortion. From Philadelphia Magazine:
The abortion musical has its roots at the Pig Iron School for Advanced Performance Training, where [co-creator Alice] Yorke and the co-creators studied. Yorke says it was there that she developed a character of an “irate gun-toting fetus running around and shouting about how it would kill anyone who tried to hurt it.”

On Wednesday afternoon, MLB umpire John Tumpane witnessed a woman climb off the side of the Roberto Clemente Bridge in Pittsburgh, PA, and knew something just wasn't right. He explained to the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette that others around him couldn't tell him what was going on and that's when he decided to do something. He confronted the woman and asked her "what was going on" She told him she "just wanted to get a better look of the city from this side." Tumpane knew that wasn't the case. He continued to the Post-Gazette:

We ned some good news, don't you think? Cancer patient Josh Katrick won free pizza for a year from Mario's Pizza in Northampton, PA. However, he told manager Frank Grigoli he wanted to donate the prize elsewhere:
"I've been getting so much from family, friends, people I don't even know well, the last few months," Josh says. "Getting so much love and support, I just wanted to give back to people that could use it more than I could." Josh wrote Mario's back and asked if he could give his free pizza to someone else.

Former Philadelphia Rep. Chaka Fattah has received 10 years in prison for racketeering, fraud, and money-laundering after his conviction on June 22. A jury found Fattah guilty "on 22 counts related to misspending federal grant money and for schemes linked to an illegal $1 million loan he received from a friend to help fund a failed 2007 mayoral campaign in the city."

U.S. District Judge Paul Diamond was not impressed by Jill Stein's request for a statewide, presidential ballot recount. Monday morning, Judge Diamond denied failed Green Party presidential candidate Jill Stein's recount request. From the wires:
A federal judge on Monday issued a stinging rejection of a Green Party-backed request to recount paper ballots in Pennsylvania's presidential election, won by Republican Donald Trump, and scan some counties' election systems for signs of hacking.

On Saturday night it was announced that the Green Party had dropped its recount efforts in Pennsylvania. CBS News in Pittsburgh reported:
Green Party Drops Statewide Pennsylvania Recount Green Party-backed voters dropped a court case Saturday night that had sought to force a statewide recount of Pennsylvania’s Nov. 8 presidential election, won by Republican Donald Trump, in what Green Party presidential candidate Jill Stein had framed as an effort to explore whether voting machines and systems had been hacked and the election result manipulated.

The world has truly gone mad. A Philly city attorney was busted after surveillance footage was used to identify him as a vandal. His tag read "F*** Trump". Though it's impressive that he perpetrated the act of vandalism while sipping wine, adorned in khakis, a blazer, and what looks to be a very nice scarf. For now, the man still has his job:
A city attorney involved in an anti-Donald Trump vandalism incident, caught on camera, made a "dumb mistake," and remains in his job for now Mayor Kenney said Thursday.

Failed Green Party presidential candidate Jill Stein is making more headlines now than during the election cycle. Earlier today, Stein requested a recount in over 100 Pennsylvania precincts. Politico reports:
Legal papers filed in Commonwealth Court by a lawyer for Stein’s campaign contend the Nov. 8 election was “illegal” and the results inaccurate based on research suggesting there might have been irregularities with electronic voting machines, among other evidence. ... "The Stein recount effort is mobilizing concerned voters across Pennsylvania to request recounts in their precincts," Stein campaign manager David Cobb said in a statement. "Additionally, the campaign filed a legal petition in state court today on behalf of 100 Pennsylvania voters to protect their right to substantively contest the election in Pennsylvania beyond the recounts being filed by voters at the precinct level. This petition will allow the campaign to pursue a full statewide recount in Pennsylvania if precinct-level recounts uncover any irregularities or tampering.”

Imagine that a Republican state attorney general had been forced to resign after being convicted of perjury and obstruction of justice. Now imagine how the story would have been played on MSNBC. Fair to assume that the word "Republican" would have featured in the story's first sentence? But in a stand-alone segment on today's Hardball on the forced resignation of Kathleen Kane, the Pennsylvania AG who was convicted on nine charges, host Chris Matthews failed to ever mention, and the screen graphics never revealed, that Kane is a Democrat. Kane had illegally leaked secret grand jury documents to harm a rival prosecutor, then lied about it under oath.

Nicolle Wallace nailed it: "voters are so smart! And whenever we scratch our heads here in New York City or anywhere along the Acela corridor, you really just have to get out for a day or an hour and talk to people. They see everything." Wallace was reacting to clips from a focus group of working-class Pennsylvania voters aired on today's Morning Joe. Trump boosters and critics alike offered fresh, authentic, insightful takes on the candidate. As something of a political junkie, I found myself feeling envious of the clear and uncluttered way they cut to the heart of things. Have a look: if your faith in your fellow Americans has at times been flagging, these folks will restore it.

The left is celebrating the passage of a new tax on soda and sugary drinks in Philadelphia. It's the second tax of its kind, the first was in Berkeley, California. This victory will only embolden proponents. CNN reports:
Philadelphia passes a soda tax In a final vote of 13-4, the Philadelphia City Council on Thursday passed a 1.5-cents-per-ounce tax on sugar-added and artificially sweetened soft drinks. That would add 18 cents to the cost of a can of soda, $1.08 for a six-pack or $1.02 for a two-liter bottle.