josh shapiro Gov

beat mastriano 2022

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mma

Laura Loomer calls CEO John Hope Bryant “uppity” and a “DEI hire”

firebomb on sabbath

04/18/25

2. ### Trump ally Laura Loomer blames Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro for arson attack on his home

04/18/25

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https://www.realclearenergy.org/articles/2022/12/06/the_false_assumptions_behind_climate_regulations_in_pennsylvania_868702.html

the False Assumptions Behind Climate Regulations in Pennsylvania

By Kevin Mooney

December 06, 2022

While they were in the majority, Pennsylvania House Republicans spent their political capital to advance American energy independence, free speech rights, and scientific integrity.

Unlike too many their counterparts in Washington D.C., they were not cowed by hostile press coverage or well-funded pressure groups that have a stake in undermining sound science. Most recently, for instance, the House Environmental Resources and Energy Committee held a hearing this fall exploring the benefits of fossil fuels and pitfalls of “emergency declarations” advanced in the name of climate change.

Since Gov. Tom Wolf, the state’s outgoing Democratic governor, first announced back in October 2019 that he was taking executive action to combat climate change, Republican leaders have held a series of hearings calling attention to scientific data that debunks climate alarmism. They have also worked in partnership with Pennsylvania Democrats representing the energy sector to prevent Wolf from circumventing the state legislature along the way toward imposing carbon taxes.

In April, the Pennsylvania Senate fell just one vote shy of the requisite two-thirds majority needed to override Wolf’s veto of a concurrent resolution from the full General Assembly that would prevent the commonwealth from joining the multi-state climate change compact. Three Senate Democrats joined with Republicans in the override attempt. At issue, is the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative, commonly known as RGGI, a “cap and trade” regulatoryscheme operating under the guise of climate change that is designed to curtail carbon dioxide emissions throughout the 11 participating New England and Mid-Atlantic states.  Government regulators in the RGGI states require electric power plants with a capacity of at least 25 megawatts to purchase carbon allowances at quarterly auctions whenever utilities surpass the greenhouse gas initiative’s predetermined cap on Co2 emissions. Speculators have latitude to resell allowances at higher prices. The auction process, which has been in motion since 2009, is where carbon taxes enter the equation. State Rep. Jim Struzzi, a Republican in Indiana County,explains why.

“RGGI is a tax,” Struzzi said in an interview. “It taxes the carbon dioxide emissions that come from plants anytime they are generating electricity and so basically it punishes these companies for being successful by creating the electricity we need for reliable energy in those cold winter months and hot summer months. If these companies are going to stay in business someone is going to have to pay these costs; and it’s going to be the factories, it’s going to be the consumers, and it’s going to affect everyone.”

Struzzi is the lead sponsor of legislation that would prohibit the governor from joining RGGI and imposing carbon taxes without legislative approval. Wolf vetoed an earlier version of the bill, which seven of his own Democrats co-sponsored on the House side. Wolf is not exactly an outlier among climate change activists in government who are actively working to circumvent the democratic process.

In his testimony before the Pennsylvania House, Marc Morano, the editor and publisher of the Climate Depot website, told lawmakers that he sees a certain parallel between climate change initiatives the COVID-19 lockdowns at all levels of government impacting businesses and schools across the country.

“The Biden administration believes that when democracy fails to achieve its climate goals, it's time to bypass democracy and Congress and follow the COVID model. Climate activists havelusted after the COVID lockdowns as the model for climate lockdowns,” Morano said. “The plan is to declare a 'climate emergency,' toss out elected representatives and follow China's one-party rule model by implementing energy restrictions through the bureaucracy. They don't need no stinkin' democracy. Throughout history, emergency declarations have been used and abused to crush freedom. For those who loved howunelected officials ruled our lives under COVID lockdowns, prepare for the attempts to make climate and energy lockdowns permanent.”

During the same hearing, Kevin Dayaratna, a statistician and data scientist with The Heritage Foundation, presented testimony focusing attention on the “Social Cost of Carbon,” or SCC, which federal regulators define as “economic damages per metric ton of carbon dioxide emissions.” The Biden administration is using the SCC in various climate models to determine the long-term impact of CO2, Dayaratna said. However, these models are based on assumptions that may not square with reality, the Heritage analyst warned. These assumptions tend, for example, to overlook the environmental benefits of Co2 emissions such as the “greening of the planet” that occurred between 1982 and 2009, Dayaratna said. At the same time, the models omit the deleterious effect of regulations that restrict Co2 emissions, he observed.Dayaratna cited figures from the Heritage Foundation that point to a severe economic fallout to U.S. that could result from rejoining the U.N.’s Paris Climate Agreement. By 2040, the U.S. could experience an average employment shortfall of more than 1.2 million lost jobs, loss of income of more than $87,000 for a family of four, and up to a 30% increase in household electricity expenditure, with an aggregate $7 trillion loss in GDP, Dayaratna said.

In Pennsylvania, the state-level outlook is every bit as bleak. The Commonwealth Foundation, a free-market group based in Harrisburg, has just published an analysis  that finds RGGI’s “carbon tax regime” could lead to a 114% hike in electricity bills. Although Wolf had Pennsylvania join RGGI this year, the state has not participated in the most recent auctions since Wolf’s executive actions are the subject of legal challenges. Industry and labor groups have filed suit challenging the governor’s ability to act unilaterally on climate change policy as have state senators who have raised questions about the separation of powers. As a solution, the Commonwealth Foundation has proposed passing a constitutional amendment to allow the General Assembly “to disapprove regulations as a check on an agency’s power to restrict energy development in the state.”

Josh Shapiro, the incoming Democratic governor, expressed misgivings about Wolf’s approach toward RGGI while on the campaign trail. Since being elected, he hasn’t made any firm commitments about the state’s future participation. A constitutional amendment offers him a way out.

With his party poised to take a slim majority in the House next year, Shapiro will still need to contend with labor constituents and House Democrats residing in energy producing regions who are opposed to RGGI. Meanwhile, the scientific and economic rationale for the climate change initiative continues to unravel. Gregory Wrightstone, a geologist, and executive director of the Co2 Coalition, has repeatedly informed Pennsylvania House members thatCo2 is a “miracle molecule” that greatly benefits humanity and deserves greater appreciation.

“Critics of fossil fuels routinely exaggerate, and sometimes outright fabricate, their negative effects while ignoring altogether their enormous benefits,” Wrightstone said during his latest testimony before the Pennsylvania House.

“Coal and oil fueled the Industrial Revolution, which gave us unprecedented prosperity and health. Together with natural gas, they promise to raise billions of people in developing countries from poverty and deprivation. Modern economies cannot long survive without fossil fuels. In short, we love CO2 and so should you.”

In a victory forfree speech, climate skeptics have found expression before the Pennsylvania legislature like they have in few other public venues. In a potential victory for American energy, these same skeptics have also exposed the faulty assumptions underpinning costly regulations while alsocalling attention to unconstitutional executive actions.

Kevin Mooney is an investigative reporter with both the Commonwealth Foundation and the Heritage Foundation.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Josh_Shapiro

Joshua David Shapiro (born June 20, 1973) is an American politician and lawyer currently serving as the Attorney General of Pennsylvania. He previously served in the Pennsylvania House of Representatives and as chairman of the Montgomery County Board of Commissioners. He is a member of the Democratic Party.

Contents

• :{1:(style="display:table-cell;padding-left:0px;padding-right:0.5em"):}::{Early life and education:(style="display:table-cell"):}:
• :{2:(style="display:table-cell;padding-left:0px;padding-right:0.5em"):}::{Early career:(style="display:table-cell"):}:
  • :{2.1:(style="display:table-cell;padding-left:0px;padding-right:0.5em"):}::{Capitol Hill:(style="display:table-cell"):}:
  • :{2.2:(style="display:table-cell;padding-left:0px;padding-right:0.5em"):}::{Pennsylvania House of Representatives:(style="display:table-cell"):}:
  • :{2.3:(style="display:table-cell;padding-left:0px;padding-right:0.5em"):}::{County commissioner:(style="display:table-cell"):}:
• :{3:(style="display:table-cell;padding-left:0px;padding-right:0.5em"):}::{Pennsylvania Attorney General:(style="display:table-cell"):}:
• :{4:(style="display:table-cell;padding-left:0px;padding-right:0.5em"):}::{References:(style="display:table-cell"):}:
• :{5:(style="display:table-cell;padding-left:0px;padding-right:0.5em"):}::{External links:(style="display:table-cell"):}:

Early life and education

Shapiro was born on June 20, 1973, in Kansas City, Missouri^[2] and was raised in Montgomery County, Pennsylvania. He attended Jack M. Barrack Hebrew Academy in Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania for high school.^[3] He attended the University of Rochester, and in 1992 he became the first freshman to win election as the student body president of the University of Rochester.^[4] He graduated magna cum laude in 1995.^[5] While working on Capitol Hill during the day, he also enrolled in law school as an evening student and earned a J.D. degree from Georgetown University Law Center in 2002.^[6]

Shapiro lives with his wife Lori and their four children in Abington, Pennsylvania.^[5] Shapiro is an observant Conservative Jew who keeps Kosher.^[7]

Early career

Capitol Hill

After graduating college, Shapiro moved to Washington D.C. He started as legislative assistant to Senator Carl Levin, then served as a senior adviser to Congressman Peter Deutsch and Senator Robert Torricelli.^[8] From 1999-2003, he worked as Chief of Staff to Congressman Joe Hoeffel.^[9]

Pennsylvania House of Representatives

In 2004, Shapiro ran for the Pennsylvania House of Representatives in the 153rd district.^[8] He won election by a margin of nine points over the Republican nominee, former Congressman Jon D. Fox.^[7] He won re-election in 2006, 2008, and 2010.

Following the 2006 elections, Democrats controlled the Pennsylvania State House with a one-seat advantage over Republicans, but the party was unable to unite behind a candidate for Speaker of the House. Shapiro helped to broker a deal that resulted in the election of moderate Republican Dennis O’Brien as Speaker of the House. O'Brien subsequently named Shapiro as Deputy Speaker of the House.^[10]

County commissioner

Shapiro won election to the Montgomery County Board of Commissioners in 2011; the election marked the first time in history that the Republican Party lost control of the Montgomery County Board of Commissioners.^[11] Shapiro became chairman of the board of commissioners, initially serving alongside Democrat Leslie Richards and Republican Bruce Castor.^[4] During his tenure, the board of commissioners implemented zero-based budgeting and shifted county pension investments from hedge funds to index funds.^[11] Democrats retained a majority on the board of commissioners in the 2015 election, as Shapiro and his running mate, Val Arkoosh, both won election.^[12]

In April 2015, Governor Tom Wolf named Shapiro Chairof the Pennsylvania Commission on Crime and Delinquency.^{[citation needed]}

Pennsylvania Attorney General

Further information: 2016 Pennsylvania Attorney General election

Shapiro announced his intention to run for Pennsylvania Attorney General in January 2016.^[13] He had never previously served as a prosecutor, but he was a member of the state bar and worked with the law firm Stradley Ronon.^[14]

Shapiro campaigned on his promise to restore the office's integrity following the resignation of Kathleen Kane, and he also promised to work to combat the opioid epidemic^[10] and gun violence. His campaign was supported by President Barack Obama and presidential candidate Hillary Clinton, and billionaire businessman Michael Bloomberg was among the largest donors to Shapiro's campaign.^[15] He won the Democratic primary for attorney general in April 2016, defeating Stephen Zappala and John Morganelli with 47% of the vote.^[16] In November 2016, Shapiro won election as attorney general, defeating Republican nominee John Rafferty Jr. with 51.3% of the vote.^[17]

Upon taking office, Shapiro joined with several other state attorneys general in opposing President Donald Trump's travel ban,^[18] and he also filed a lawsuit to block the implementation of a rule that would have made it easier for employers to deny health insurance coverage of contraceptives.^[19] He also joined a lawsuit against ITT Technical Institute, a for-profit educational institute, that resulted in a $168 million settlement (with about $5 million of that settlement going to Pennsylvania students).^[20] In 2018, he reached an agreement with federal officials to prevent the distribution of blueprints for 3D printed firearms.^[21] In 2019, he came out in support of the legalization of marijuana for recreational use by adults, joining Governor Wolf and other leading Pennsylvania Democrats.^[22]

In 2016, shortly before Shapiro took office, the Pennsylvania Attorney General's office began an investigation of allegations of sexual abuse by the Catholic Church. Shapiro chose to move forward with the investigation, and, in August 2018, he released the results of an extensive grand jury report. The report alleged the sexual abuse of more than 1,000 children at the hands of over 300 priests.^[6] His report prompted similar investigations in other states, an inquiry by the federal government, and proposed legislation to change the statute of limitations in Pennsylvania.^{[citation needed]}

In May 2019, it was reported that Shapiro and State Senator Jay Costa had directed paid communications staffers to edit their Wikipedia pages with positive material.^[23][24]

References

1. ^ "SESSION OF 2005 - 189TH OF THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY - No. 1" (PDF). Legislative Journal. Pennsylvania House of Representatives. January 4, 2005.
2. ^ "Joshua D. Shapiro". Pennsylvania House of Representatives.
3. ^ Cohen, Jason (February 17, 2016). "Josh Shapiro ready for next phase of career". Pittsburgh Jewish Chronicle.
4. ^ :{Jump up to::(style="user-select:none;top:-99999px;clip:rect(1px, 1px, 1px, 1px);overflow:hidden;position:absolute !important;padding:0px !important;border:0px !important;height:1px !important;width:1px !important"):}:^a ^b(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Josh_Shapiro#cite_ref-jrouth_4-1) Routh, Julian (February 25, 2019). ":{':(style="padding-left:0.2em"):}:He's got the courage of his convictions:' Attorney General Josh Shapiro embraces high-level battles". Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.
5. ^ :{Jump up to::(style="user-select:none;top:-99999px;clip:rect(1px, 1px, 1px, 1px);overflow:hidden;position:absolute !important;padding:0px !important;border:0px !important;height:1px !important;width:1px !important"):}:^a ^b(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Josh_Shapiro#cite_ref-officialbio_5-1) "The Office". Pennsylvania Office of Attorney General. Retrieved 2019-03-13.
6. ^ :{Jump up to::(style="user-select:none;top:-99999px;clip:rect(1px, 1px, 1px, 1px);overflow:hidden;position:absolute !important;padding:0px !important;border:0px !important;height:1px !important;width:1px !important"):}:^a ^b(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Josh_Shapiro#cite_ref-edias_6-1) Dias, Elizabeth (August 27, 2018). "Meet Josh Shapiro, the Man Behind the Bombshell Investigation of Clergy Sexual Abuse". New York Times.
7. ^ :{Jump up to::(style="user-select:none;top:-99999px;clip:rect(1px, 1px, 1px, 1px);overflow:hidden;position:absolute !important;padding:0px !important;border:0px !important;height:1px !important;width:1px !important"):}:^a ^b(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Josh_Shapiro#cite_ref-cleaninghouse_7-1) "Politics: Cleaning House". Philadelphia Magazine. November 20, 2007.
8. ^ :{Jump up to::(style="user-select:none;top:-99999px;clip:rect(1px, 1px, 1px, 1px);overflow:hidden;position:absolute !important;padding:0px !important;border:0px !important;height:1px !important;width:1px !important"):}:^a ^b(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Josh_Shapiro#cite_ref-crisci_8-1) "Short Bios of New House & Senate Members" (PDF). Crisci Associates. January 7, 2005.
9. ^ "About Josh Shapiro | Josh Shapiro, Chairman, Board of Commissioners, Montgomery County, PA". 2012-07-22. Archived from the original on 2012-07-22. Retrieved 2019-03-13.
10. ^ :{Jump up to::(style="user-select:none;top:-99999px;clip:rect(1px, 1px, 1px, 1px);overflow:hidden;position:absolute !important;padding:0px !important;border:0px !important;height:1px !important;width:1px !important"):}:^a ^b(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Josh_Shapiro#cite_ref-phall_10-1) Hall, Peter. "Pennsylvania's new attorney general hopes to restore confidence in the office". themorningcall.com. Retrieved 2019-03-13.
11. ^ :{Jump up to::(style="user-select:none;top:-99999px;clip:rect(1px, 1px, 1px, 1px);overflow:hidden;position:absolute !important;padding:0px !important;border:0px !important;height:1px !important;width:1px !important"):}:^a ^b(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Josh_Shapiro#cite_ref-jblumgart_11-1) Blumgart, Jake (April 20, 2016). "Is Josh Shapiro the Guy to Clean Up Kathleen Kane's Scandal-Ravaged Office?". Philadelphia Magazine.
12. ^ Foti, Kaitlyn (November 4, 2015). "Soul searching for Republicans after Democrat sweep in Montgomery County". Times Herald.
13. ^ Field, Nick (January 12, 2016). "Shapiro Officially Announces AG Campaign". PoliticsPA. Retrieved January 12, 2016.
14. ^ Orso, Anna (October 25, 2016). "Josh Shapiro vs. John Rafferty: What to know about the PA Attorney General race". BillyPenn.
15. ^ Orso, Anna. "Josh Shapiro wins PA Attorney General race". Billy Penn. Spirited Media. Retrieved November 21, 2016.
16. ^ Addy, Jason (April 26, 2016). "Shapiro Wins Dem AG Nomination". PoliticsPA. Retrieved May 21, 2016.
17. ^ Times, New York (November 21, 2016). "Pennsylvania Attorney General Results: Josh Shapiro Wins". Retrieved November 25, 2016.
18. ^ Burns, Alexander (February 6, 2017). "How Attorneys General Became Democrats' Bulwark Against Trump". New York Times.
19. ^ Pear, Robert (December 15, 2017). "Court Temporarily Blocks Trump Order Against Contraceptive Coverage". New York Times.
20. ^ Murrell, David (October 1, 2019). "Attorney General Josh Shapiro Is Hosting a Philly Town Hall on Student Debt". Philly Mag.
21. ^ Hsu, Tiffany; Feuer, Alan (July 30, 2018). "A Rush to Block Downloadable Plans for 3-D Printed Guns". New York Times.
22. ^ "Pennsylvania Attorney General Josh Shapiro Backs Legalizing Marijuana". CBS Philly. September 27, 2019.
23. ^ BOARD, THE LNP EDITORIAL. "Public employees shouldn't be tasked with writing glowing entries for elected officials' Wikipedia pages [opinion]". LancasterOnline. Retrieved 2020-04-24.
24. ^ Writers, CARTER WALKER and JUNIOR GONZALEZ | Staff. "Wikipedia flags Pa. Attorney General Josh Shapiro over glowing, staff-written bio". LancasterOnline. Retrieved 2020-04-24.

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Josh Shapiro.

• Attorney General Josh Shapiro official website
• Campaign website
• Appearances on C-SPAN

• Profile at Vote Smart
• Follow the Money - Josh Shapiro
  • 2006 2004 campaign contributions

Categories: 

• 1973 births
• 21st-century American politicians
• County commissioners in Pennsylvania
• Georgetown University Law Center alumni
• Jewish American state legislators in Pennsylvania
• Lawyers from Kansas City, Missouri
• Living people
• Members of the Pennsylvania House of Representatives
• Montgomery County Commissioners (Pennsylvania)
• Pennsylvania Attorneys General
• Pennsylvania Democrats
• People from Abington Township, Montgomery County, Pennsylvania
• Politicians from Kansas City, Missouri
• 2012 United States presidential electors
• University of Rochester alumni
• Jack M. Barrack Hebrew Academy alumni

https://www.alternet.org/2020/10/usps-still-hasnt-reversed-election-mail-slowdown-despite-multiple-court-orders-attorneys-general/

igor salon

U.S. Postal Service (USPS) is still not processing election mail at the rate it did prior to Postmaster General Louis DeJoy's controversial changes, reigniting concerns that mail-in ballots in certain states may not arrive before voting deadlines, according to states who sued the agency over a reported mail slowdown.

Pennsylvania Attorney General Josh Shapiro,who is leading a multi-state coalition in a lawsuit challenging the USPS' "illegal" changes, claimed in a Monday federal court filing that the agency's performance was down more than 5% since DeJoy implemented the changes in July and continued "to be lower than at any point in 2020," according to Bloomberg News.

Multiple federal courts issued orders blocking DeJoy's changes in response to lawsuits from Shapiro and other attorneys general, but the filing alleged that some USPS divisions had not complied with the orders. One division has a compliance rate as low as 85%, and others have not reported performance metrics, the filing said. The USPS has still barely increased late and extra trips as required by the orders, it added.

"Despite being subject to multiple injunctions, defendants have not improved their service performance," Shapiro said, asking the court to appoint an independent monitor to ensure the agency complies with the courts.

Though DeJoy, a top donor to President Donald Trump and the Republican Party, has disputed Democrats who criticized him for instituting changes like limiting overtime and removing high-speed mail sorting machines, a new USPS inspector general report faulted the changes ordered by the new postmaster general for reduced performance.

"No analysis of the service impacts of these various changes was conducted, and documentation and guidance to the field for these strategies was very limited and almost exclusively oral," the report says. "The resulting confusion and inconsistency in operations at postal facilities compounded the significant negative service impacts across the country."

The report added that the changes "individually may not have been significant," but "launching all of these efforts at once, in addition to the changes instituted by the postmaster general, had a significant impact on the Postal Service."

The USPS Board of Governors disputed the report, arguing that the changes were not disruptive and "similar to efforts that the Postal Service pursued over the last several years."

Rep. Carolyn Maloney, D-N.Y., who chairs the House Oversight and Reform Committee, and Committee of Oversight and Reform, said in a statement that the IG report confirmed that "Postmaster General Louis DeJoy's sweeping changes — which were hastily implemented without analyzing their potential impact — caused serious delays across the country."

Maloney added that the report undermined DeJoy's testimony to the committee denying that he was aware of the changes, "calling into question whether the postmaster general is continuing to mislead Congress and the American people to this day."

USPS data shows that mail disruptions have been particularly pronounced in key swing states, according to The Washington Post. In 17 postal districts across 10 swing states, on-time first-class mail arrival rates are just 83.9%, or about 7.8% lower than in January and 2% lower than the national average since the changes were implemented. More than 15% of first-class mail in those districts arrives later than the USPS' one- to three-day delivery window.

This has sparked alarm in states like Georgia, Michigan and Wisconsin, where ballots will be rejected if they arrive after Election Day. In Detroit, for example, only 71% of mail arrived on time in October versus 92.2% in January.

Some major cities in North Carolina have also experienced 10% drops in on-time arrival rates, while "timeliness also varied widely in postal districts in Pennsylvania and Florida," according to the report.

USPS spokesman David Partenheimer told the outlet that the agency had maintained its performance levels despite mail levels surging amid an unprecedented rise in mail voting.

"The Postal Service is fully committed and actively working to handle the increase in election mail volume across the country over the next two weeks," he said, adding that workers had been told to use "extraordinary measures" to speed up deliveries like special pickups, extra trips and Sunday deliveries.

But some postal workers told the outlet that the "ballot-handling directives from higher-ups have been chaotic." Workers in Michigan claimed that they were instructed to focus on package delivery over mail ballot collection. Workers in Pennsylvania plan to handstamp ballot envelopes to avoid them getting caught up in overwhelmed processing plants.

"In the current state of the world, there is nothing a voter could do to work around problems in the post office," J. Remy Green, an attorney representing a group of voters who sued the USPS, told The Post. "I think, at the end of the day, the damage that has been done here —it's not just service performance and quantifiable damage. It is a kind of psychic damage to the confidence of voters and confidence in the vote."

Lawmakers who tried to gain access to see how the USPS is handling mail at large facilities have been blocked by the agency, according to the Wall Street Journal.

Rep. Bill Pascrell, D-N.J., said he and two other lawmakers were blocked from entering a large mail processing facility in his state despite previously touring the facility "without incident or objection." He added that he was told he could not enter nonpublic areas of the facility within 45 days of the election over concerns that doing so would violate the Hatch Act, which bars federal employees like postal workers from engaging in political activity. Rep. Jared Huffman, D-Calif., said he was blocked due to Hatch Act concerns, as well.

"These are phony-baloney excuses," Pascrell told the outlet. "It's not like I'm trying to get into Area 51 or something."

Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, D-Fla., said she was also blocked from touring a facility in Florida prior to the 45-day window in early September. Schultz said she was told that the agency would require her to take a "bogus training course" to gain access.

The agency also faces a lawsuit from a union representing postal police officers after the agency issued an order ending daily patrols aimed at preventing robbery of mail collection boxes and vehicles, according to the Journal.

Officers say the move has "left letter carriers without escorts on unsafe routes" and raised concerns that thieves may target mail ballots, according to the report.

The union filed a lawsuit asking a federal court to block the order to "ensure the integrity of the mail" but the litigation is still pending.

"If I was going to undermine public trust in the mail, one of the first things I would do is pull postal police off the street," Frank Albergo, the president of the Postal Police Officers Association, told The Journal.

If the USPS did not intend to undermine election mail security, "then why not wait until after the election to neuter the postal police?" Jim Bjork, a business agent for the union, asked.

pENNSYLVANIA ATTORNEY GENERAL JOSH SHAPIRO WILL SUPPORT REPEAL OF CONTROVERSIAL LAW STRIPPING LARRY KRASNER OF AUTHORITY

Akela Lacy

July 12 2019, 1:18 p.m.

PENNSYLVANIA ATTORNEY GENERAL Josh Shapiro on Friday said he would support a repeal of a controversial law that stripped Philadelphia District Attorney Larry Krasner of the sole authority to prosecute certain firearms violations in his home county.

Shapiro’s new stance on the bill, which was reported by The Intercept on Monday, came in response to protesters at the annual Netroots Nation conference in Philadelphia. During a panel with Democratic Attorneys General Kathy Jennings of Delaware and Keith Ellison of Minnesota, organizers from the Coalition to Abolish Death by Incarceration and Reclaim Philadelphia took over a microphone and interrupted Shapiro’s introductory remarks. “The people of Philadelphia demand your attention right now,” an organizer with Reclaim Philadelphia told Shapiro.

Activists pressed Shapiro on whether he’d support the progressive momentum Krasner’s office had brought to the district attorney’s office, if he’d support second chances for people sentenced to life without parole, his support for the death penalty, and why he’s stymied efforts to open additional safe injection sites in the city.

Their most pressing concern, though, was whether he’d commit to not using Pennsylvania’s newly passed HB 1614, which gave the attorney general’s office concurrent jurisdiction to prosecute certain firearms violations in Philadelphia County — and no other county in the state. The law allows the attorney general’s office to cut Krasner out of the prosecutorial process, something Shapiro said he would not do after facing criticism over the measure’s passage.

“I didn’t ask for it, nor did I advocate for it,” Shapiro told the activists, pointing to his office’s collaboration with the Krasner’s office on the Philadelphia gun violence task force. “I will not change how that works. The Philadelphia District Attorney’s office will continue to prosecute those cases,” he said. “I didn’t ask for this law, I don’t want this law.”