Feb 16, 2024 3 min read

HIT: On Wednesday, Gov. Josh Shapiro stopped in Mt. Lebanon to talk about how the proposed budget he unveiled last week would help small businesses. At Empire Music on Washington Road, he said that a new program, Main Street Matters, would boost commercial corridors in communities around the commonwealth by providing funding for facades, sidewalk and infrastructure upgrades and more. Thriving commercial districts make communities better places to live, attract more residents and more business activity, and the governor held up Mt. Lebanon as an example. “If we want to attract new businesses to Pennsylvania, support entrepreneurs and employees and give folks the opportunity to build generational wealth, then we’ve got to make sure our communities have healthy, vibrant Main Streets lined with shops and small businesses, just like the one here in Lebo.” It remains to be seen, of course, whether the entire $25 million for Main Street Matters will be included in the 2024-25 budget once the process moves through the Legislature, but Shapiro made a strong case that it would be money well spent.

MISS: For the last week, the reelection campaign of President Biden has been buffeted by questions about his age and fitness following the release of a special counsel report that characterized him as an “elderly man with a poor memory.” At the same time Biden is trying to brush off questions about his advanced years, a story in Politico ended up inadvertently casting a spotlight on it. The website reported that Biden has come up with a nickname for Donald Trump, and it is “Donald Herbert Hoover Trump.” It’s meant to highlight the fact that fewer people were employed at the end of Trump’s presidency than at the beginning, just like Hoover when his Depression-era presidency came to an end in 1933. It’s not likely, though, that Biden’s nickname will have much bite – you would have to be about 100 to have even the faintest memory of the Hoover administration, and not many people would immediately associate him with the Depression. Surveys have found that most Americans can only name about eight U.S. presidents. For a Trump nickname, Biden had better go back to the drawing board.

MISS: The American Jewish Committee has released its annual report on the state of antisemitism in the United States and its findings should be sobering to anyone of any faith. Carried out in the immediate aftermath of the war between Israel and Hamas, the report states that 63% of American Jews feel less secure being in the country than they did a year ago, a 41% increase over 12 months. Also, almost half of those surveyed say they have changed their behavior at least once over the last year because of concerns about antisemitism and about 25% say they have been the target of antisemitism, particularly those aged 18 to 29. The report finds that about 90% of American Jews and 75% of all Americans think antisemitism is a problem in the United States. Ted Deutch, the CEO of the American Jewish Committee, told NPR, “In a country where freedom of religion is of paramount importance, to find ourselves in a situation where nearly half of all people are afraid, that should be unacceptable to everybody.”