Pennsylvania State Capitol. Photo: Zack Frank/Shutterstock.com

Following is a listing of executive, legislative and electoral action from the week of May 20. The state House of Representatives was in session at press time. The Pennsylvania Senate was in recess, with senators were scheduled to return to session June 3.

Special Elections

Three special elections were held May 22, alongside the statewide judicial and municipal primaries, and they brought each house of the General Assembly up to full strength.

Republicans won all three of the races, which were held in staunchly GOP districts.

In the 33rd Senate District, Doug Mastriano, a retired U.S. Army colonel from Franklin County, defeated Democrat Sarah Hammond, the director of community development for Spring Grove Borough in York County, by 70% to 30%.

Mastriano is set to replace former Sen. Rich Alloway, 50, who retired Feb. 28 and said he wanted to focus on his law practice.

In the 41st Senate District, which is based in Indiana County, Joe Pittman, who was an aide to former Sen. Don White, R-Indiana, defeated Democrat Susan Boser, a professor at Indiana University of Pennsylvania, by 66% to 34%.

White, 69, retired from his seat Feb. 28.

With two wins, Republicans are set to control the Pennsylvania Senate by a 28-22 margin. In the 11th House District, which is based in Butler County, Marci Mustello, an aide to U.S. Rep. Mike Kelly, R-Pennsylvania, defeated Democrat Sam Doctor, a steelworker, by 57% to 43%.

Mustello is set to replace former state Rep. Brian Ellis, R-Butler, who resigned in the wake of a formal complaint accusing him of sexual assault.

Mustello's win means that, once she is sworn into office, the GOP will control the state House of Representatives with 110 seats to the Democrats' 93.

All three districts were carried by President Donald Trump in 2016 with at least 66% of the vote.

Opioid Addiction

Gov. Tom Wolf and Lt. Gov. John Fetterman on May 22 took part in naloxone training and provided an update on fighting the opioid epidemic.

Expanding the availability of and competency in administering naloxone, an overdose-reversal medication, is one prong of the Wolf administration's actions under the opioid public health emergency it first announced in January 2018.

“Curbing the opioid epidemic is one of my highest priorities because this crisis continues to have such an immensely detrimental effect on every Pennsylvanian,” Wolf said. “We know that opioid use disorder is a disease and people suffering from this disease deserve to be rescued and connected to high-quality treatment toward recovery. We cannot get people into treatment if they are dead. By training people to properly use naloxone, we can all do our part in this crisis.”

AmeriHealth Caritas, a Medicaid managed care organization, sponsored the training, the latest in a series of the company's efforts to combat the opioid epidemic. The rollout included a series of overdose reversal trainings in the Capitol. Prevention Point in Philadelphia led the training.

Foreign Obligations

Auditor General Eugene DePasquale on May 22 asked Pennsylvania's congressional delegation to join the effort to persuade Peru to honor its debt to retirement systems that purchased that country's Agrarian Reform Bonds. The government of Peru stopped making payments on the bonds years ago, according to a statement from the auditor general's office.

“U.S. retirement systems that purchased Peru's Agrarian Reform Bonds are owed billions of dollars,” DePasquale said. “Peru's continuing refusal to honor its bond debt threatens the retirement security of hundreds of thousands of retirees in Pennsylvania and in other states.”

DePasquale said at least eight employee pension plans that more than 290,000 Pennsylvanians rely on for financial security invested in Peruvian bonds decades ago. These investments provide for the retirement security of municipal and trade union workers.

For-Profit Education

Attorney General Josh Shapiro announced May 22 that eligible former students of the American Beauty Academy Lancaster have 60 days to make claims for restitution necessitated by the school's abrupt closure in 2015.

The cosmetology and barber school told students there would be an extended Thanksgiving holiday break, but instead closed its doors permanently, according to a statement from the Attorney General's Office. The decision was made by school owners and operators after it was denied Title IV funds from the Obama administration.

Some students have said they paid for but did not receive instruction.

The school's corporate owner has entered into an assurance of voluntary compliance, according to the AG's statement, and have agreed not to engage in educational pursuits in Pennsylvania in the future.