All of this is to say: If you are a public official in Pennsylvania, there's always money in the banana stand if you want to score a cool experience:
www.spotlightpa.org/news/2024/12...

And Shapiro isn't alone! Plenty of Pennsylvania lawmakers get plenty of lil treats. We've also covered this extensively @spotlightpa.org Take some free foreign trips in 2024:
www.spotlightpa.org/news/2025/05...

As for campaign funds, those can come from almost anywhere under Pennsylvania's lax laws which don't limit the size of donations nor how campaign dollars have been spent. You can get a taste of that fundraising in this project I did earlier this year:
www.spotlightpa.org/news/2025/03...

It MAY be money from Shapiro's inauguration -- he transferred $750,000 from the nonprofit which aid for the shindig to Team PA. We only know 15% of the donors to his inaugural, which raised $5.4 million.
www.spotlightpa.org/news/2025/08...

Shapiro operates under a gift ban. But these two events show the loopholes. For instance, when Team PA pays, it uses the Pennsylvania Growth Partnership, an opaque fund the nonprofit manages. We have no idea who is funding it.
www.spotlightpa.org/news/2024/05...

Modern record for an impasse is ten months in 2015. Though folks familiar with both say this one feels worse.

Governing is hard

Both chambers were already scheduled to return next week as of today. The state budget is 133 days late, and closed door talks, which restarted in earnest two weeks ago, have yet to bear fruit.
www.spotlightpa.org/news/2025/10...

So if ya wanna join the club and get a good mix of scooplets, observations, jokes n'at, sign up here:
www.spotlightpa.org/newsletters/...

(And this was what I had the week before, which is looking pretty good if I do say so myself!)