Author

A 3-decade veteran of the news business, John L. Micek is the Pennsylvania Capital-Star's Editor-in-Chief. An award-winning political reporter, Micek’s career has taken him from small town meetings and Chicago City Hall to Congress and the Pennsylvania Capitol. His weekly column on U.S. politics is syndicated to 800 newspapers nationwide by Cagle Syndicate. He also contributes commentary and analysis to broadcast outlets in the U.S., Canada and the U.K. Micek’s first novel, “Ordinary Angels,” was released in 2019 by Sunbury Press.
On the 50th anniversary of the Stonewall Riots, iconic Philly journalist Mark Segal looks back — and forward
By: John L. Micek - May 20, 2019
Pa. shouldn't be the state, the founder of the Philadelphia Gay News said Monday, "where you can get married, but be refused the honeymoon suite."
With Trump headed for Pa., Toomey says China tariffs are ‘absolutely painful’ but ‘could be worth the price’ | Monday Morning Coffee
By: John L. Micek - May 20, 2019
Worried about a key state, Pennsylvanians will be seeing a lot of Trump in 2020.
An anti-abortion group sent Jewish lawmakers Holocaust imagery to protest their vote on a ban bill
By: John L. Micek - May 17, 2019
By Friday afternoon, the group had apologized. But some weren't buying it.
Pa. advocates line up against Trump’s predatory changes to payday lending rules | Friday Morning Coffee
By: John L. Micek - May 17, 2019
Pa. is ahead of the curve on this one.
Wolf’s approval rating reaches its highest point in new Quinnipiac poll
By: John L. Micek - May 16, 2019
Gov. Tom Wolf’s popularity with Pennsylvania voters is at its highest point, as the Democrat gets ready to embark on his fifth year of budget negotiations with the Republican-controlled General Assembly. A clear majority of state voters, 54 percent, approved of Wolf’s job performance, according to a Quinnipiac University poll released Thursday. Not quite a […]
Pennsylvania voters would pick Joe Biden over Trump, all other Democrats, new Quinnipiac University poll finds
By: John L. Micek - May 16, 2019
Get ready for a deluge of polls.
U.S. Rep. Mary Gay Scanlon, House Dems will hold a public reading of the Mueller Report | Thursday Morning Coffee
By: John L. Micek - May 16, 2019
Sure, it's not Shakespeare in the Park, but ...
These Pa. schoolkids wanted people to skip using plastic straws for a day. They got a crash course in politics instead
By: John L. Micek - May 16, 2019
Some suburban Philly fourth graders had a plan to help the environment. It didn't take long for things to go to (Eastern) hellbender.
House Republicans again call on Rep. Brian Sims to apologize for harassing Planned Parenthood protesters
By: John L. Micek - May 15, 2019
Republican leaders in the state House on Wednesday issued a sternly worded rebuke of state Rep. Brian Sims, D-Philadelphia, demanding he fully apologize for separate incidents in which he harassed protesters outside a Planned Parenthood clinic in Philadelphia, saying his actions “are a reflection on all of us, regardless of party affiliation.” Sims, who was […]
How the House’s Democratic women owned the debate over Down syndrome abortion ban | Wednesday Morning Coffee
By: John L. Micek - May 15, 2019
Sometimes there's wisdom in knowing when to cede the floor
Pa. Attorney General Shapiro sues Purdue Pharma for ‘deceptive’ tactics selling OxyContin
By: John L. Micek - May 14, 2019
Pennsylvania Attorney General Josh Shapiro took the fight against opioid abuse to one of the nation’s biggest pharmaceutical manufacturers Tuesday, charging that Purdue Pharma, the company that makes OxyContin, conducted a “relentless campaign of deception” that led to the deaths of 26,300 Pennsylvanians in less than a decade. The multimillion-dollar lawsuit, filed in Commonwealth Court, […]
Activists mark 65th anniversary of landmark school desegregation case: ‘There’s always more we can do’
By: John L. Micek - May 14, 2019
This Friday, May 17, marks 65 years since the U.S. Supreme Court handed down its historic decision in Brown v. Board of Education, finally desegregating America’s public schools. In the two generations since then, America has made great progress, but “there’s always something more we can do.” That’s the message activists at a weekly “Tuesdays […]