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✅ GOP Poll. The Tarrance Group from Alexandria, Va. surveyed 404 likely voters in Pennsylvania’s 7th Congressional District and found former President Donald Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris separated by two percentage points with a margin of +/-4.9.

Trump received 48 percent support, while Harris polled at 46 percent in the survey co-commissioned by the National Republican Campaign Committee and GOP candidate Rep. Ryan Mackenzie (R-Lehigh). [Read more]

Top Story

1. nearly everything on wall street tumbles over worries the u.s. is headed for an economic slowdown

“Nearly everything on Wall Street is tumbling Monday as fear about a slowing U.S. economy worsens and sets off another sell-off for financial markets around the world.

The S&P 500 was down by 2.4% in midday trading and on track for its worst day since 2022. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was reeling by 864 points, or 2.2%, as of 11:40 a.m. Eastern time, and the Nasdaq composite slid 2.7%.

The drops were just the latest in a global sell-off that began last week. Japan’s Nikkei 225 helped start Monday by plunging 12.4% for its worst day since the Black Monday crash of 1987.” (AP)

State

2. Harris, fracking and shapiro: dem campaign looks for pennsylvania breakthrough

“Vice President Kamala Harris’ decision to reverse her support for a fracking ban is doing little to ease concerns among the fossil fuel industry and its workers — and cheerleaders for Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro see an opening.

Some Democratic Party allies fear Harris’ flip on fracking has still left her particularly vulnerable in Pennsylvania. What Harris needs now, the party’s boosters say, is someone like Shapiro — who has carved a middle ground in the country’s No. 2 natural gas-producing state — in the vice presidential slot.” (Politico)

Elections

3. handwritten dates on mail ballots don’t serve meaningful purpose, attorneys tell commonwealth court

“The date that voters are required to write on their mail ballot envelope serves no real purpose and should be disregarded as a basis for accepting those ballots, lawyers argued Thursday in a pivotal case that could substantially change the rules for voting by mail in Pennsylvania. Republican lawyers, however, defended the law, saying the date could be useful in checking for vote fraud.

The state’s Commonwealth Court heard arguments in a case brought by the American Civil Liberties Union of Pennsylvania and the Public Interest Law Center, on behalf of voting-rights groups, that seeks to end enforcement of the requirement in state law that voters write the date they complete their mail ballot on the return envelope.” (SpotlightPA)

Editorial

4. What’s On Your Mind

• Pennsylvania’s energy past could be its energy future. (Rep. Tom Mehaffie)
• This should be our response to Donald Trump’s comments that ‘you won’t have to vote anymore’. (Jonathan Zimmerman)
• Ensuring the future of Social Security and Medicare for Northeast Pennsylvania. (Rob Bresnahan)
• Shapiro need not apologize for a prescient op-ed he wrote 31 years ago. (David Suissa)
• It’s Kamala Time (Edie Sadek)

1 Olympics Thing

5. pa native and penn state alumnus joe kovacs wins silver medal at olympics

“Joe Kovacs, a Pennsylvania native and Penn State graduate, won the silver medal in shot put on Day 8 at the Olympic Games.

Kovacs battled back from fourth place, making the medal-clinching throw on his final attempt. That was after a brief rain shower made the throwing surface slick, resulting in a couple throwers slipping and falling.

Despite the conditions, Kovacs went for broke and launched the shot 22.15 meters to win silver.” (WGAL)

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