Good Evening, 

Welcome back to the Keystone Labor Report. I hope everyone was able to enjoy their holidays, because 2026 started with a bang, literally. 

President Donald Trump started the new year by kidnapping Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, and his wife, under the guise of a narco terrorism charge, so Americans can profit off the country’s oil reserves. 

Popular Information, a newsletter by Judd Legum, reports that Paul Singer, a billionaire hedge fund manager and Trump donor, may potentially win big on Maduro’s ouster, because his company owns Citgo, a US-owned subsidiary of Venezuela’s state oil company. 

Democrats across Pennsylvania—with the exception of Democratic US Sen. John Fetterman—have denounced Trump’s half-baked attempt at nation building and the potential for a destabilizing conflict over Venezuela’s oil and natural resources. 

The Dropkick Murphys, Irish punk-rock legends out of Boston and one of my favorite bands, sang it best about how working class people will always pay the consequences for a rich man’s war in their hit Workers Song: 

“And when the sky darkens and the prospect is war

Who’s given a gun and then pushed to the fore

And expected to die for the land of our birth

Though we’ve never owned one lousy handful of earth.”

(Bill Clark / Roll Call via Getty)

Nineteen states, including New Jersey, raised their minimum wages on New Year’s Day, but Pennsylvania’s wage remained a paltry $7.25 for the past 16 years.

House Democrats have passed legislation to raise the minimum wage—albeit in very precise, laser-like technocratic approaches—over the previous two legislative sessions, with Senate Republicans stonewalling any progress. 

Pennsylvania currently has the lowest minimum wage out of any of its neighboring states, but Democrats are hoping to change that by flipping the Pennsylvania Senate this November. 

“I’m fighting to raise it, and Pennsylvania House Democrats have passed our plan — but Senate Republicans are holding our Commonwealth back. With just three Republican-held seats blocking our progress, let’s work together to flip the Senate in 2026 — and finally raise the minimum wage here in Pennsylvania,” Gov. Josh Shapiro said in a statement. 

(Sean Kitchen / The Keystone)

Now that the 2026 gubernatorial election is about to get underway with Shapiro launching his reelection campaign later this week, I think I’d give some unsolicited campaign advice to his opponent. 

It’s probably not a wise idea to describe the state that you are looking to campaign across and operate as “mediocre.”

Pennsylvania State Treasurer Stacy Garrity, who was endorsed by the Republican Party to challenge Shapiro, was given a softball interview on the Sinclair owned CBS 21 last week, and she whiffed when she called Pennsylvania a “mediocre” state two times in the span of 15 seconds.